Invincible

[Costanza]

She smiled up at Clark, surprised at how amazing it was to see him again like this, even knowing this wasn’t real.

Aww, so cute

Awesome update! I really wonder why Clark collapsed too... Thank you again for writing this!

[Buziel0809]

Awesome stuff. You really kept the suspense throughout that whole chapter. I think I know what happened to Clark, but anyways, I can't wait to read what happens next.

[Firesong]

Thanks Costanza and Buziel!

Just so everyone knows, I'm working on an update and I'll try to get it uploaded by Halloween. But then I won't update, like, at all in November. Cause I'm doing NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and basically all my free time will be spent on that. So I figured I should warn you in advance...

[tessmerceryoubamf]

Can't wait for the update. Anyway, good luck with the NaNoWriMo.

[Firesong]

Updating!

I have to say, I'm not all that happy with this chapter. It took a while to write even though it's a lot shorter than the last one and I'm not sure I like how it came out. It's like it didn't want to be written. If this is how NaNoWriMo is going to go, then I'm in trouble.


7.

.....

All this time I can’t believe I couldn’t see,
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me.
Wake me up inside,
Wake me up inside,
Call my name and save me from the dark.

.....

As Clark blinked his eyes open, it took a moment for the world to swim back into focus. The first thing he saw was Lois hovered over him, looking worried. Clark winced as the faint ringing in his ears started again as he stood up.

“Clark? Are you okay?”

“I think so,” he managed. That stupid ringing was mostly gone, at least.

“Clark, what happened?” Oliver asked, walking across the room to Clark and Lois.

“I’m not exactly sure... how long was I unconscious?”

Lois and Oliver glanced at each other. “About... five minutes, maybe?” Lois responded.

“Yeah, I think,” confirmed Oliver. “It wasn’t that long, but you were out cold the whole time.”

“What happened???”

Lois’s voice had almost gone up an octave by now and Clark could tell how worried she was. He didn’t blame her; this kind of stuff wasn’t supposed to happen to normal people, let alone Kryptonians. Even he didn’t really know what had caused it. But he was starting to get an idea, as the memories of a couple things started fading back into his mind.

“I’m okay, Lois. And I think it had something to do with Kryptonian technology.”

“Huh?”

“Sshh, Oliver! Don’t interrupt him!”

“After I got back to Watchtower I started hearing this ringing. It was faint, but it wouldn’t go away. I didn’t say anything cause I didn’t want to worry you. It got worse and then I guess I just... blacked out. It sounded like when Jor-El called me using that key. I think it was connected to the fortress somehow, like one of those crystals. And I think I might know where it came from, and I think I know where Tess is.”

“What?!?”

“I’ll explain later, Lois. I’ll be right back.”

Clark could tell they were both confused, but if he was right he didn’t want to waste any more time. He took a deep breath and flashed into superspeed, following the sound of the crystal.

He knew that even when he returned he wouldn’t be able to explain how he knew where to find Tess. Even if he could, he wasn’t sure that he would. He’d have to ask Jor-el at some point; maybe since it was related to Kryptonian technology his father would be able to tell him how it worked. All he knew was that somehow, she reached out to him, and he heard her. When he was unconscious, he felt her fear and her cry for help.

.....
Tess blinked open her eyes.

“...Clark?”

I’m still alive. …Again.

Clark was standing over her, looking relieved.

“Where’s Lex?” she asked.

“He was gone by the time I got here. I found you hooked up to that machine,” he replied, gesturing to the wires and crystals behind her head. As he reached out a hand to help her to her feet, everything came rushing back into her head.

Her eyes widened. “Clark, I’m so sorry,” she breathed. She looked away, back at the crystals. Maybe if she’d just managed to resist the pain then Lex wouldn’t have managed to get his memories back. This was all her fault...

“What?” he asked his voice surprised and a little concerned.

“I wiped Lex’s memories to protect you,” she replied quietly, still looking away. “But he brought me back and found the answer to retrieving his memories. I tried to resist, Clark, but he knows who you are again. I tried to stop him...”

...I failed...

“Tess, what do you mean he brought you back?”

Tess sighed. “He... he killed me.”

“He what?!?” Clark stepped in front of her, making her look up finally. “But, how did he bring you back?” he asked in disbelief.

“He said something about alien crystals. I think he used Kryptonian technology. At least the Kryptonite appears to be gone...”

As she looked around the room, she realized that almost all the technology had been taken out of the lab. Including the device he’d been planning to use to bring back his memories.

“That makes sense,” Clark said. “I found you because of that crystal.” He gestured to the machine behind her. “It came from the Fortress. I could sense it.”

She took a deep breath. “Clark, I’m sorry. He tried to see into my memories to find how to reverse the neurotoxin I used. If I’d been able to resist he wouldn’t have been able –”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Tess. You did everything you could, and you were incredibly brave. I’m just glad I found you.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and for the first time in a while she felt a bit more hopeful. She just wasn’t sure that she deserved it...

“Come on, let’s get back to Watchtower,” he said walked toward the lab entrance. “Lex must have wiped all his files from any computers he actually left here, and the team is worried about you.”

Tess gazed after him for a bit before following. When she needed him the most, he was there. She’d already risked everything to protect him. He was the one person she’d fought for.

And now that she realized how much he really meant to her, there was nothing she could do about it.

He was in love with someone else, and that was how things were meant to be.
.....

So, like I said earlier, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month is when you try to write a 50,000-word story in, well, a month. So for the rest of November I will be working on a totally non-Smallville-related story. Which means I will have no chance to update this at all. Hopefully NaNo will get me to start getting in the habit of writing more frequently, but in any case I'll try to start working on this again in early December, which means there will probably be another update in the middle of that month. So, I apologize in advance for the extremely long wait.

When I do update again, I'm skipping ahead a few months~ This was sort of dealing with the aftermath of the finale, and now I can get into the main plot. Also, the reason he could sense where she was through the crystal will actually be explained later in the story. Probably with a visit to Jor-el, giver of convenient information and annoying speeches. But yes, it will be explained.

Thanks for reading and commenting, and once again I'm sorry there'll be a long wait after this.

[tessmerceryoubamf]

aww that was heartbreaking..thanks a lot for writing this chapter.

[mercyredhair]

OMG! You took a long time! and now you won't update until December! D: This is awful.
and talking about the chapter... I liked it! the explanation about Clark's collapse was really good and credible. Well, at least i believed it. lol.

Good luck in NaNoWriMo (Y)

[Buziel0809]

Great update, feel sorry for Tess. Good luck in with the National Novel Writing Month. Why couldn't they just make it the National Novel Writing Week instead?! LOL!

[Costanza]

I forgot to check this thread for ages Hope the National Novel Writing Month went well!
I love the last update! Poor Tess though... Can't wait for the next update

[tessmerceryoubamf]

Been waiting for a month tbh Hope you still update this fic..and everything went well with your nanowrimo

[Firesong]

I'm really sorry, everyone. I've been insanely busy with school stuff in early December and then the holidays happened and I was gone for a while, and then the mafia games started again on k-site. I am currently working on the next chapter; for the first part I didn't need to plan too much cause I was still dealing with fixing things after the finale, but this required a lot of planning ahead of time. I've got a ton of the story figured out now, though, so it's just a matter of finishing writing things.
As for NaNo, it kinda failed, lol. Mostly due to, ironically, English homework. And I still haven't gotten myself into the habit of writing more frequently, as evidenced by the fact that this wasn't updated in December But I'll do my best to update within a week or so from now.

[tessmerceryoubamf]

I'd be looking forward to your next update. :')

[Firesong]

Hi everyone. An update! Yay! Sorry again for the huge wait between chapters. I obviously can't promise anything but I'll really try to have quicker updates.
I also apologize in advance for the lack of Tess in this chapter, but there's some stuff that had to happen first. Also sorry for the excess of Clois-y stuff and too much Cat Grant.

8.

.....

And we are,
All that we are,
Holding on,
Until we fall apart.

.....

.:Six months later:.
“Hi Clark!”

…Oh no. Not now. Please not now…

Clark sighed inwardly and spun around in his chair to face Cat Grant, as bubbly and patriotic and annoying as ever.

“Hey, Cat,” he replied, keeping his voice light despite the fact that he really didn’t want to deal with this interruption right now. It wasn’t her fault… well, mostly. And she was supporting the Blur now. Or, at this point, ‘Superman,’ he corrected himself. Though sometimes her support didn’t exactly feel like much of an improvement.

Now that he and Lois had been moved to an actual office, rather than the desk they’d been working at since Clark joined the Daily Planet, he’d hoped that he’d at least be able to avoid some of the more common annoyances that came with working in the most crowded room of the newspaper. The constant presence of the one person who, while well-intentioned, could drive anyone insane after five minutes, for example.

Carrying a pink clipboard and a pen Clark was fairly sure was “Hello Kitty” themed, Cat bounced into his office. “I was wondering if you could help me with my new article. It’s about—“

“Superman?”

“Um, not really…”

“Oh.” Clark had to admit he was a little surprised. Cat and Lois were basically in a war over the reports of Superman saves around the globe; a war that Lois was easily winning. Maybe Cat had finally given up? …No, it’s Cat. That would be too good to be true.

“Actually, Miss Mercer assigned me to a story about boring archaeological dig. Which I was kinda mad about at first, but then I realized that with the whole Isis incident maybe it would actually be interesting. And I found something really weird, Clark.”

For the first time Clark began to wonder if maybe she was actually on to something. “Okay, what did you find?”

Cat glanced around the room, her eyes narrowed, before replying in a loud, supposedly conspiratorial whisper. “First, where’s Lois?”

Clark shrugged, thinking he probably should have realized this was going to happen. “I don’t know… I think she went to get coffee.”

“Okay. Now. Before I tell you anything, I have a verbal contract I want you to promise to uphold.”

Clark raised his eyebrows. This was new… torn between the desire to laugh or roll his eyes, Clark instead simply smiled and replied, “What is it?”

“I want you to promise not to bring Lois into this story. It’s big and I’m not letting her steal all the glory this time. If you agree to this I will hold you to your word and unceremoniously exclude you from the story if I feel you have betrayed this contract.”

“Um… okay?” Cat hadn’t said he couldn’t tell Lois what he was working on, in general… and if it was actually something important, he needed to know.

“Great!” Cat’s voice was suddenly back to being bright and happy again, as if nothing happened. Clark resisted the urge to sigh.

Sometimes working with her is really confusing…

“Okay. So. Look at this.”

Cat brandished a piece of paper at him. Taking it, he had expected to see something a bit more interesting than a few ancient drawings, but… there really didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. “Uh… Cat? What am I supposed to be seeing here?”

Cat sighed impatiently. “These five artifacts are all from different sites all around the world. China, Egypt, Mexico, Greece, and Hawaii. And they all have the same symbol.” She reached across the paper to point it out, a stylized sun with eight triangles as rays, with a strange diamond shape in the center. “And this stuff is all, like, ancient. And it’s being discovered all at the same time, and that symbol’s on something at every site.”

Clark’s first thought was to wonder if it was Kryptonian. The angles were similar, and the overall look seemed like it could belong on his home planet. But if it was Kryptonian… wouldn’t he know what it meant? Frowning, he studied the paper more closely. Now that Cat had pointed it out, he could see the symbol on almost every artifact in the pictures. “How is this possible?” he asked. “If these are from completely separate civilizations… the symbol’s too distinctive for this to be a coincidence.”

Cat beamed. “See? I knew it was important! You know what I think?”

He glanced up at her, apprehensive as to what her theory might be.

She glanced from side to side, then leaned over to whisper, “Aliens.”

…Oh great.

“I think that we were visited by aliens a really long time ago and they caused this. I don’t know why they’re all being discovered right now, but I intend to find out!” She grinned triumphantly, leaving Clark to try to figure out how to react.

I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but there’s actually a chance she’s right.

It wasn’t like the Kryptonians never left symbols and things in Earth’s past. The whole situation with the stones of power, years ago, was proof of that. It this wasn’t Kryptonian, maybe it was something similar.

For now, though, he needed to be able to find out more. On his own. He smiled, then kept his voice calm as he spoke. “Cat, don’t you think there’s probably a more obvious explanation than aliens?”

Her eyes narrowed in disapproval. “Like what?”

“It could be some kind of hoax. People trying to mess with—“

“Hmph. I should have known this is how you’d react. Clark, I think I’ve actually found evidence that aliens visited our planet!” Cat looked at Clark in amazement that, apparently, he wasn’t as upset by this ‘news’ as she was. “We have to expose them! And I want you to help.”

Clark sighed. “Cat, I’ll help you out with the story, but I honestly doubt that it’s—“

“Great!” Cat squeaked in happiness and bounced back toward the door. “Remember- don’t tell Lois.” She left, closing the door behind her.

Clark sighed, taking off his glasses and staring up at the ceiling. How the heck do I get myself into these situations?

Figuring he’d try to do some research at Watchtower later, to figure out where the symbols might have come from (and to throw Cat off the trail), Clark turned back to his desk. There hadn’t been a police report in about ten minutes, and he figured something would probably happen soon that he’d need to go fix. Not focusing his hearing on the hallway outside, he jumped in surprise when the door opened.

“Hey Clark,” said Lois, putting a cup of coffee on her desk. Then she sighed and grabbed Clark’s glasses off his keyboard, brandishing them in front of her. “Seriously? What if I’d been somebody else?”

“I only took them off for a second…”

“Yes, and you didn’t hear me coming, did you? You have to be more careful. Now that you’re in the public’s sight more as Superman, we have to make sure your cover stays secret!”

“I know.” Clark smiled and stood up to face her. “I know you’re only trying to protect me, Lois. I’ll try to be more careful.”

She smiled back at him, her annoyance quickly evaporating. “Any news on Lex? Sorry, I got into work late; I didn’t have a chance to check anything.”

“It’s confirmed that he’s taken back LuthorCorp and Oliver managed to figure out how to separate his company again. So now the Daily Planet is technically under Queen Industries, which means we won’t be stuck with Lex as editor again.”

Lois grinned. “Thank god; I knew the deal had almost been finalized, but it’s nice to have it confirmed. And Tess is working with Oliver at Queen Industries now, right?”

“Yeah. I just hope… well, I wish we knew what Lex was planning.”

“Hopefully getting his company back will keep him busy for a while. So… was that Cat who just left here?”

Clark laughed. “Yep. And before you ask, no, she wasn’t trying to steal one of your articles. Actually, she had something that could be fairly important. And, um, she says if I tell you, she won’t let me in on the rest of the story. Honestly, Lois, this could be a new threat and although I couldn’t care less about the actual story part, I do think we need to know what’s going on. It might be related to Krypton.”

Lois sat down on the other side of the desk, one eyebrow raised. “Seriously? You think Hello Kitty found something of worldwide importance?”

“…Maybe?”

She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Well, as much as I doubt that, I’ll stay out of it. I have too much on my plate already. Did you hear about that bat guy from Gotham? He supposedly showed up in Metropolis the other day and I’ve got to leave in a few minutes for an interview with someone who allegedly saw him.”

“There do seem to be a lot more heroes around these days,” Clark replied, smiling.

“Well,” said Lois, walking around the desk to face him, “you’re kind of an inspiration, you know?”

She leaned up to kiss him, her lips lingering on his for a few heartbeats before she pulled away.

Heading for the door, she turned back to say, “Before I leave, I’ll let Tess know you’re working on whatever Cat’s story is.”

“I can tell her. I don’t want you to be late.”

Lois rolled her eyes again. “Seriously, Clark? You haven’t noticed how she’s been avoiding you like the plague? It’ll be easier if I stop at her office on the way to the interview.”

“She’s not avoiding me. Why would she? We’re all just busy with work and, well, the hero stuff.”

The computer beeped and they both turned to read the blinking message, a police report of a fire on the outskirts of Metropolis. Clark sighed and shrugged apologetically. Lois smiled. “Go on, Superman. Go save the world.”

In a flash of red and blue he was gone.

.....
Lois walked through the bullpen toward the exit of the Daily Planet.

Great. I actually am going to be late.

Then it got even worse when some delivery guy stopped her with a package. Of course. And she certainly didn’t have time to go back to her office to put it down. Sighing, she glared at the guy until he left and ripped open the package, thankful that it was at least some kind of letter instead of something big or bulky or impossible to carry around.

“…Huh?”

The message read, ‘The truth that you seek is closer than you think. Meet me on the Daily Planet roof and you will find what you are looking for. There’s a sun over the horizon that no one sees. You don’t know what’s coming. –X’

Lois frowned, scanning the letter again. Maybe interviews could wait. After a moment of hesitation, she walked to the elevators.

.....
Clark supersped around the abandoned lab, making sure no trace of the fire remained. The building hadn’t been occupied when the fire broke out, thankfully, and when he arrived he discovered that it had been a LuthorCorp lab. Before he could leave, however, a single screen blinked on in the center of the room.

Warily, he walked forward as a message began to appear.

I KNOW YOU’RE HERE, SUPERMAN.

Clark’s eyes widened.

What’s going on?

IF I WERE YOU, I’D GO TO THE ROOF OF THE LUTHORCORP BUILDING. THERE’S A BOMB. YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES.

Without hesitating, Clark sped out of the building and flew back toward the center of the city. Trap or not, he couldn’t risk so many lives. There was no point in notifying Oliver or the others; there was no time. He could deal with this on his own.

[tessmerceryoubamf]

asdfghslks an update!! i wonder why tess is avoiding clark..

[Buziel0809]

asdfghslks an update!! i wonder why tess is avoiding clark..

Me too!! Thanks for the update!