You can find the
Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois[/i] TOC here.
Part 25 Epilogue[i]Meanwhile, in early 1997, in an alternative dimension…
H. G. Wells stood to the side of the front entrance to the Daily Planet, hoping not to bump into anyone who might remember him from when he and Lois had been stuck in this dimension by Tempus a year before. Well, nobody but Clark Kent himself. Wells still wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say to Clark.
He had told the man he would research what had happened to
his Lois by traveling back in time to the 1993 Congo. He had found her all right, but she wasn’t what he or Clark expected; she was nothing like the Lois who this Clark had fallen in love with when she made him Superman. Plus, she was dead, very much dead. He gulped. Wells was not looking forward to that part of the conversation.
He unfolded the newspaper he had brought with him from that new dimension that after months of exploration he had discovered, the one without a Superman and, more importantly, without a Clark Kent. Below the fold, the headline announced “Lois Lane Dead in an Apparent Accident”. The article went on to report that Lois had been undercover at the Luthor House for the Mentally Unstable on an assignment regarding the treatment of the mentally ill. Wells’ own research, which he had done by going back in time to the previous day, concluded that the woman had indeed been institutionalized for mental problems.
According to the Daily Planet scuttlebutt, Lois had experienced a change in personality several days earlier after a confrontation with Patrick Sullivan, who had tried to kill her in some kind of ritual. That event was well known to Herb. Apparently, Lois had shown up at work the next day, talking to a man named Clark, whom only she could see or hear. At times, she would be talking to someone and all of a sudden go into a trancelike state where she could neither communicate nor be communicated with. After these spells, Lois would come to as if nothing had happened or, on occasion, be so disoriented she would claim events that hadn’t happened, had actually occurred.
Cat Grant had blamed it on pent up sexual frustration. Wally had said it was par for the course with Lane. Paulson had diagnosed post-traumatic stress. Perry White had said that Lois had just needed some rest and would be back after a few days of self-exploration. Only Jimmy had seemed really worried, especially after Lois had attacked Dr. Arianna Carlin, but he trusted the Chief’s judgment.
Without Perry at the helm of the Daily Planet, the man’s disappearance was a side-bar to Lois’ death announcement, some junior reporter or photographer must have given them another account of Lois’ actions. James Olsen had always been a good friend.
Wells tucked the newspaper back under his arm, wondering once more what he would tell Clark. They couldn’t bring the Lois Lane of this dimension forward in time. No, that wouldn’t do at all. Perhaps this other Lois would be the solution Clark craved, at least, for a little while. Wells had no idea how he would broach the idea with the man, since it was a course of last resort. He pulled out his pocket watch and wondered again where Clark could be. As he tucked his watch back into his vest pocket, said man walked out the front doors of the Daily Planet.
“Mr. Kent!” Herb said, just loud enough for the man’s super hearing to pick up.
The Man of Steel’s mind was obviously elsewhere. He carried a box in his arms and continued down the street as if he hadn’t heard him.
“Clark?” Wells said again, louder.
Clark stopped and turned around, his brow furrowed. Upon catching sight of Wells, his drawn face beamed with hope. “Mr. Wells!” he said. “You are a sight for sore eyes. Tell me your news.” He must have not wanted to have a conversation where they were, because he glanced around before quickly picking Wells up and zooming into the air.
Soon, the two men stepped off of the time machine and onto Clark’s roof. A short flight later, they walked into his apartment from the balcony. There were boxes sprinkled around the living room as if he had been packing.
Wells looked around in dismay. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
Clark shrugged, and then inquired with hopeful enthusiasm, “Back in time, I hope, or to the Congo? Did you find her?”
“Clark, let’s have a cup of tea. Tell me what’s new with you since we last spoke,” Wells suggested.
“Of course. I’m sorry,” apologized Clark, dropping his box of stuff next to his couch. “I know I shouldn’t have flown you like that, but there was a tabloid photographer across the street. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted overheard.”
Wells sat down at the dining table and waited while Clark busied himself with making the tea. He tried to work out what precisely he was going to tell Clark. What he knew for certain was that it wouldn’t be the complete truth.
“Please, Mr. Wells, the anticipation is killing me. Please, tell me about
my Lois. When I didn’t hear from you for months, I feared the worst,” Clark said, setting the teapot and mugs on the table. He stood next to Wells, unable to sit down with nervous energy.
“Months? Oh, dear. When is it?” Wells asked, flustered. Had he messed up the date? That wasn’t like him. He liked to pop in and out of time at precisely the right time. It was that whole trip to the Congo and his explorations of the other dimensions after that, which had ruined his sense of timing. It had taken him months to find another solution to Clark’s dilemma. He was confident that if there was a dimension without a Lois, there must also be a dimension without a Clark. He felt as exhausted as Clark appeared. Wells hadn’t wanted to return to the man empty handed.
“February 1997,” Clark reminded him. “You left back in November of last year to look for my Lois, after we returned from the other dimension, the other Lois and Clark.”
“Terribly, sorry,” Wells apologized, taking a deep breath. “Yes, I have news,” he said, hoping that the tone of his words would convey that his news was not good. “Clark, please, sit down.”
Clark’s expression fell as he sat down and started pouring the tea. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is, my boy. I’m sorry.” Wells was glad that, at least, this news was over.
The man sighed, his shoulders falling and a wince crossing his face. He looked over to his windows and for a moment Wells thought Clark was listening to a call for help, but then he realized Clark was probably thinking about the other Lois, the one happily married, in Wells’ own dimension, to the other Clark.
“But dead isn’t dead when we have a time machine,” Clark said, his eyes wide with expectation. “We could always go back and save her, right, Mr. Wells?”
This time it was Wells’ turn to sigh. “I think it’s about time you call me Herb, Clark,” he suggested before he began to describe the details of Lois’ death to the young man, at least the details worth hearing, as well as the consequences of saving this Clark’s Lois from death. “And so you see, Clark, if we save her and leave her in the past, your whole future and that of the other Lois and Clark would surely change.”
“Then we shall have to bring her into the future,” Clark said with a determined nod.
Wells took another look around Clark’s apartment and the partially packed boxes. “Perhaps it would be a good time to tell me about this.” He didn’t think it was possible for the man to appear more dejected but Clark accomplished it.
“Superman has taken over my life,” the Man of Steel admitted sadly. “Everyone expects me to be on duty twenty-four, seven. I’ve had to give up being Clark Kent.” He looked around his apartment fondly with sorrow. “I can no longer have a private life. I tried, but they, the tabloid press, won’t leave me alone. I can’t talk to a woman, any woman, without her image and some false romantic story being splashed across the pages of a rag. Anyway, no one compares to Lois. Since meeting her, I can’t look at another woman that way. It’s like there’s her and only her.” He looked down to his hands, wrapped around his mug of tea.
“The press tracked down Lana and hounded her until she had to go into hiding,” Clark went on. “She’s had death threats from Superman fans who blame her for breaking my heart, even though that isn’t the story I told the world when they asked about the end of our engagement. Some criminals kidnapped her back in October, before you asked me to help with John Doe. They tried to use her to get me to do their bidding. Luckily, they weren’t real professionals, and I was able to rescue her easily, but that was the final straw. She sued me for revealing this side of myself to the world without telling her, my fiancée, first. She’s right, of course. I never took into account how this would negatively affect her life, if the news that Clark Kent is Superman ever made it out.”
Wells watched as the man’s demeanor changed as he told his story. His back rounded forward as if he had the weight of the world pressing down upon his shoulders.
“We settled out of court. I have no personal money anymore,” Clark scoffed as if he found his own words funny, as if they had meant that he had ever had any money. “You’re lucky you stopped by today. I haven’t worked for the Daily Planet in over a month now. I finally had a chance to stop by and pick up my stuff from my desk.” He nodded to the box he had set next to the couch. “I’m moving out of this apartment officially at the end of the month. The Superman Foundation has moved into offices at the top of one of the skyscrapers in town with a superhero discount. I guess the owner expects some kind of extra security having our offices there.” He sighed with a slight shake of his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s disappointed though; more than likely he’ll see more break-ins. I access the offices through the roof entrance. I have an apartment adjacent to the Superman Foundation offices, where I’ve been living; it’s no home, but at least it’s private. Between the paparazzi, criminals, and űber-fans, this apartment has been broken into almost weekly since Tempus outted me.” Clark glanced around his old apartment again. “I haven’t really lived here for months.”
“What happened to your job at the Daily Planet?” Herb asked as guilt tugged at his gut. It was his fault that Tempus had bothered this young man in the first place.
“I haven’t been able cover any stories but my own… you know, ‘Superman to the rescue’ stories. Anytime I went to a press conference, the focus of the conference would shift to me and I found questions being hurled at me. You do that to a politician a couple of times and egos get bruised; they refused to talk to me any more... at least, Clark Kent, reporter. Superman, they always have time for. Mayor White graciously always offered me an exclusive prior to any press conference he held, so that I wouldn’t have to attend. Eventually, others took notice, and when press releases and press conferences were issued they would include requests that Clark Kent not be assigned to the story. I was a distraction to their message. As a reporter, I was blacklisted from many of the major stories.”
“Oh, I see,” Herb said, taking a sip of his tea. Perhaps convincing this Clark against bringing his Lois into this future wouldn’t be as difficult as he imagined.
“I don’t blame Mr. Olsen or the paper, really I don’t,” Clark was quick to reassure Wells. “It’s more my fault than theirs; Mr. Olsen had bent over backward to try to accommodate me. With my office phone ringing more with people asking for Superman’s assistance than leads, I spent more of my time out of the office helping people than in the office writing about them. I felt bad taking a paycheck for the little I actually wrote. Mr. Olsen insisted, said I was good for the paper, but he was just being kind. I was just as much of a distraction there as everywhere, I guess. As I told Lois – that other Clark’s Lois – it’s easier to be Superman than it is to be Clark Kent.”
“Clark, what do you imagine your life or, for that matter, her life will be like if you bring your Lois into the present?”
A smile lit up the hero’s face and, for the first time, Wells saw a reflection of the Superman he had seen when the man had visited his dimension several months earlier, but then it faded. “She would be alive,” Clark said. “That will be enough for me.”
Wells raised an eyebrow. “Will it?” Clark shot him a severe expression, and the time-traveler hurried on to explain, “Lois will have jumped forward almost five years in her life. Life as she had known it will be gone. She’ll have no knowledge of current events. Her mentor, Perry White, is now gone from the Daily Planet. She’ll have no place to live and no family she can turn to… She’ll be adrift here, Clark. She’s a woman used to knowing everything, and she’ll be reduced to asking for help with every little thing in this age of technology. She’ll possibly need to partner up with someone just to write basic Metro stories.”
“Lois and Clark are partners,” Clark suggested with some hope.
“But you just told me that you aren’t a reporter anymore,” Wells reminded him gently. An idea flashed like an exploding photographer’s bulb in his mind.
Clark nodded. “Right.”
“Do you miss it? The thrill of the hunt? The pressure of deadlines? The scramble to be there first?” Herb inquired.
“As Superman I still have thrills, deadlines, and races to be there first,” Clark stated. He went quiet for minute, before admitting, “I miss it with every fiber of my being. I miss the respect my skills as a journalist had gotten me, the way I could spin a story, for being able to inspire people to action without the use of my abilities. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I can do as Superman, but it’s just that: what I can do. Superman really isn’t who I am.”
“And Lois? You would have to convince her to come with you, to come forward in time, possibly kidnap her and bring her here against her will to accomplish it. Is that what you really want to do? Otherwise you chance the whole world finding out about Superman and time-travel back in 1993, and inadvertently changing the future you hope to save by bringing her forward in time. Perhaps you would persuade her by telling her about her unavoidable death, but why would she believe you? Lois is a skeptical reporter by nature. It’s possible that Lois would write about her journey once she arrived here. If you had to kidnap her to save her, would you be willing to leave her alone, if she wished it? After the treatment your ex-girlfriend had with the press, would you be willing to cut off all contact with Lois for her safety? She doesn’t know you, Clark; you are a stranger to her. She may choose to live her life without any interaction with you. Would you be able to watch her love, and possibly marry, another man? So, I ask again, will her being alive here in 1997 be enough for you? Or will it cause you more pain than not?”
“Well, if you’re going to put it like that...” Clark chuckled for a moment before exhaling and standing up. “But what else can I do? I can’t leave her dead if there is any way to save her. I need her. I don’t know how much longer I can go on being this… this… shell of a man. My life is empty, and no amount of photo ops for charities and peace summits will fill it. I’ve always wanted what every man wants: a wife, a family, a home, stability. I feel like, in one foul swoop, Tempus erased my future.” Clark’s hands were in fists as he paced his living room in barely controlled frustration.
Wells turned to face him. “I truly am sorry, my boy,” he apologized with a frown.
Clark knocked the apology out of the air. “It’s not your fault.”
“Oh, but it is,” Wells corrected him. “I am the one who brought Tempus back from the future in the first place.” An expression of disbelief splashed across Clark’s features as the time-traveler launched into the tale of what had happened during his first journey into the future. “So, Clark, I’ve spent, off and on, the last…” Wells looked up to the ceiling in thought. “… almost eighteen years, trying to fix that one error…” He sighed. “… trying to keep Utopia as I had first seen it alive.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Clark tried to excuse his behavior.
“No, I didn’t know. I never thought how this one event would change history and that was my biggest failing. This is why I try not to alter history too much by my interference, but sometimes…” He glanced over at the younger man. “Sometimes interference can be a good thing.”
Clark nodded. “Like when we go back in time to save my Lois’ life.”
No, that hadn’t been what Wells had meant at all. He needed to get Clark’s mind off of his Lois and on to other possibilities. “Clark, how would you like to go on a holiday?”
The hero laughed. It wasn’t a laugh of joy, though. It was laughter at being caught by surprise, with a melancholy edge to it. “I would like that very much, but that’s impossible, Herb.”
Wells grinned with a wink. “I
do dislike that word, Clark, as I find nothing is impossible. What I propose is that for…” He tossed up a hand and grabbed a number out of the air. “… three months, you come visit this new dimension I’ve discovered, where there is a Lois Lane in need of a hero.”
Clark’s brow furrowed, and he shook his head as if the suggestion was preposterous. “What? How? Huh? What about the Superman from her dimension?”
“From what I can ascertain, the Clark Kent – or shall I call him, the Kal-El – from this new dimension, didn’t survive the crash of his spaceship in 1966,” Wells explained.
The younger man’s jaw dropped open in shock, dismay, and then, as Wells’ words continued to filter through his mind, curiosity. “So, there’s no Superman? No Clark Kent?”
“No,” the older man reassured him. “None whatsoever.”
“Yet, there’s a Lois Lane?” Clark asked.
Wells nodded.
Clark seemed suspicious of older man’s motives. “Why should I rescue this Lois instead of my own? Why should we chance changing her timeline more than altering my own?”
“Because without a Superman, nearly the entire population of her world was destroyed, roughly a year or two ago. Altering the future of this dimension cannot do anything but good.”
“You want me to travel to this new dimension and stop this cataclysmic event from happening?” Clark pondered. “How is this a vacation again?”
Wells chuckled. “No, my boy, I meant a vacation from your dimension, your responsibilities here, being Superman all day, every day. I thought you’d like to travel back, say four years ago, and recreate your arrival into Metropolis, only this time, you would be free.”
“Free? How?” Clark seemed perplexed.
Wells would have to spell it out for him.
“Free of previous romantic entanglements…” In other unspoken words, free from Lana. “Free to choose when, and in what manner, Superman would make his debut...” Instead of letting Tempus do that for him. “Free to have a secret identity similar to that other Clark does…” The freedom to be himself and still be a reporter. “And free to try your hand at wooing a Ms. Lane without worrying that her heart already belonged to another Mr. Kent.” Free to love a Lois without all the complications that came with bringing his Lois forward in time.
Clark sat down on his sofa as he considered Herb’s vacation plan. “Why three months? Should I fall in love with this new Lois, I wouldn’t be able to leave her after three months to return here.”
“I would hate to leave your dimension without a Superman,” explained Wells.
“It's a real world, not some virtual fantasy world, right?” Clark inquired.
“Of course,” Herb reassured him.
“Then should I go to this new universe and become its Superman, how would I be able to leave it without a hero, especially knowing that sometime in its future some cataclysmic event will destroy its population?”
Wells didn’t have an answer. “Well… uh… um…” For some reason, he hadn’t thought of that possibility.
“I would have to choose then, in which world I would want to live,” Clark continued, speaking more his thoughts than to Wells directly. “I may choose never to return to this dimension, if that new Lois falls in love with me. I wouldn’t be able to abandon her.”
Herb gulped. He hadn’t meant to leave this dimension without a Superman either. He had thought that if she had been exposed to a real Clark, her mental breakdown would be curtailed, and she would be available to save her world from the flood. “But, say, in three months time, you realize that you and this new Lois don’t suit, I’d hate for your initial choice to be a permanent one.”
Clark pressed his lips together and raised an eyebrow. “If we don’t suit?” Obviously, the likelihood of this happening seemed slim to none for the man. He seemed to have fallen in love with the idea of this new Lois at first mention of her and the freedom he would have in her dimension.
“Perhaps you need a bit of time to think over your decision. A week, shall we say? At that time, you can give me your answer,” Wells said, standing up.
Clark nodded. “Yes, early March, after my birthday celebrations. Perry is throwing me a big party, and I’d hate to disappoint him.” He picked up the empty mugs from the table. “I will give you my answer, then. Either I will move to this new dimension, or we’ll work on a plan to rescue my Lois from the past and bring her into the future.” A frown crossed his face as he sighed. “Or I’ll have to accept the fact that, in this one instance, there’s nothing Superman should do to stop fate.” He shook his head. “I just can’t see how that could ever be the correct decision.”
***
Metropolis – March 1997Clark knelt beside her grave. He came here often just to talk to her, even though he knew she couldn’t hear him.
Since meeting and falling in love with Lois Lane – that Lois Lane who was tossed into his dimension by Tempus – he realized that there could be no Superman without her… some version of her. Sure, he could rescue people, stop the bad guys, and breathe in and out, but without a Lois Lane he felt empty inside, unable to truly live. Without a Lois, there was only this façade; there was no Clark Kent, no one who truly understood him. Without her love and support, he didn’t know how long he could keep up this life.
It troubled him that he was being selfish, that he would change this new Lois’ destiny because
he needed her, that she wouldn’t get a choice in the matter… Not that she would choose the alternative.
True, he rescued people every day without this being a dilemma. He had even saved that
other Lois before without this being a problem. This time it felt different. His motivation felt different. Even though he knew he was saving her so that her current fate would change, he was also saving her in hope that she then would save him from heartache. That was the selfish part.
If she knew why he was rescuing her, would she resent him? Would she think that he felt she owed him something? Would he ever be able to convince her that he would be happy just having her in the world? Breathing in. Breathing out. Knowing she was safe, hopefully happy. He would not expect anything nor should he. He would love her. He didn’t require that she return his love.
Actually, it would probably be better for her if she didn’t. Friendship would be nice though, having her available to talk with, to laugh at his jokes, pathetic as they might be, to challenge him. With Lois Lane in his world – or in this case, him in her world – he would be a better man… a better Superman.
Clark heard a sound behind him. Without turning his head from where it rested against Lois’ tombstone, above her empty grave, he knew H. G. Wells had arrived to take him on his journey.
“Are you sure about this, Clark?” H. G. Wells asked him and not for the first time.
“We’ve been over this, Herb. Lois needs me. Without my interfer… help, she won’t survive.” And without her neither would he. “I promised I would save her.”
“Lois is dead, Clark,” Wells reminded him. “The decision is yours and yours alone.”
Clark sighed.
“I know this was my idea, but now… I’m not sure,” Wells went on. “I hate leaving any dimension without a Superman.”
Clark nodded. He hated that too. “Isn’t that why you suggested this in the first place? So her world wouldn’t be without a Superman? If it doesn’t work, I can always return. At least, this new Lois will have a second chance at life.”
“I’ll come back in three months, Clark, in case you decide to return home.”
Clark took one last long look at the gravestone. He would miss her –
his Lois. He didn’t
want to leave her, but the other Lois
needed him. He closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind.
I will always love you, he told her, reassured her… reassured himself. He would never – could never forget her. This woman he had never met, never saved.
He stood up and picked up his suitcase. He glanced around this ‘world.’ He would miss this dimension. It was so different from the one where he was going. This was home. He sighed. “Let’s go,” he told H. G. Wells.
Clark was taking a huge risk. If this other Lois discovered his secret, she would have the power to destroy him. Unlike any bad guy he had met, this woman had that power over him. Should she choose to be, Lois could be more deadly to him than Kryptonite.
***End of Book 1***This story now travels back in time to 1993 in
Book Two: Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark[/i][/b] Also, please check out the short story
The Superman Effect for another one of your questions answered.
[b]Gratitude: I would like to thank my three Betas for all their hard work in helping me write this dark, often depressing when not funny, tale. Thank you IolantheAlias, Mrs. Luthor, and Lola Dane. Without your constant feedback and support, we might never have gotten onto the lighter and funnier Book 2.
Comments Disclaimer: Inspired by the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster as they were portrayed on the [i]Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series, developed by Deborah Joy LeVine. The characters do not belong to me; they belong to themselves (although Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the heirs to Siegel and Shuster might disagree). Many thanks to all the writers on the above-referenced show, especially Deborah Joy LeVine, Jack Weinstein, Lee Hutson, Bryce Zabel, Tony Blake, Paul Jackson, Dan Levine, Chris Ruppenthal, Grant Rosenberg, Robert Killebrew, Kathy McCormick, John McNamara, Eugenie Ross-Leming, Brad Buckner, Robert Singer, Dan Levine, Thania St. John, Bradley Moore, Paris Qualles, H. B Cobb, Gene Miller, Karen Kavner, and other scriptwriters from whom I quote directly from their scripts from Seasons 1 – 3. The story interweaved around their borrowed dialogue, and some plot points, is entirely my own.
Ben & Jerry’s is the name of an ice-cream company, manufactured in Vermont, and is known for their unique flavors and environmental causes.
Spider-Man and his Spidey-sense is a character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and owned by Marvel Comics.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a book by L. Frank Baum.
The Little House on the Prairie is a book by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Cat’s in the Cradle is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin.
Catch-22 is a book by Joseph Heller, published in 1961. The book was made into a
film in 1970, screenplay by Buck Henry, directed by Mike Nichols, and staring Alan Arkin.
The whole mental instution, Lois going insane section, was inspired by Joss Whedon’s
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Season 6 episode “Normal Again” written by Diego Gutierrez.
Here are a few links to YouTube videos based on the Buffy episode for anyone unfamiliar with it. (The two songs went well to my story as well.) The length of the clip is shown after the link:
Fanmade
Promo for the “Normal Again” episode. (0:53)
Another Fanmade
Promo (Multi-layered) (1:32) [More description, spookier. Really well done, I think]
A plot summary to the song:
Haunted by Kelly Clarkson (2:54)
A plot summary to the song:
Breathe No More by Evenescence. (4:09)
