Lois' hands shook as she watched Clark lead Metallo away from the Daily Planet. Even from the ground, her trained reporter's eye caught how that sickly green light seemed to affect him more than before. The radiation was worse - something about it felt different, more potent. And she knew exactly what it was doing to him now.
"Lane!" Perry's voice barely registered. "Get inside until the all-clear!"
She couldn't move. Two nights ago, she would have been worried about Clark Kent, her clumsy partner who always disappeared during Superman stories. Now she knew the truth - both of those men, both pieces of her heart, were flying into danger. And the look he'd given her before leaving...
Her phone was in her hand before she consciously decided to call. The number was muscle memory at this point - the one she always dialed when her world stopped making sense.
"¿Mija?" Eleanor Lane's voice carried warmth even through the phone's tinny speaker. "Isn't it the middle of your workday?"
"Mamá..." Lois's voice cracked slightly. Around her, people were still evacuating, but she barely noticed. "I need... I just need to hear your voice right now."
There was a slight pause as Eleanor registered her daughter's tone. "What happened, mi amor? Are you safe?"
"I'm fine, I just..." Lois watched another flash of green light illuminate distant buildings. Her free hand clenched into a fist. "Clark told me something. Something big. And now he's... I can't..."
She couldn't finish. How could she explain that the man she loved was currently fighting a cybernetic soldier powered by radiation from his dead homeworld? That every blast of that sickly light was hurting him in ways she was only beginning to understand?
"Ah." Eleanor's voice softened with understanding. "The kind of something that changes everything?"
"Yes." Lois found herself moving toward her car, needing to be somewhere private. "No. I don't know. It's not... he didn't cheat or lie exactly. He just... he's been keeping this huge part of himself hidden. For good reasons!" She added quickly. "Really good reasons. But..."
"But it still hurts to know he wasn't sharing all of himself," Eleanor finished gently. "Even if you understand why."
Lois slumped against her steering wheel, the tears she'd been holding back since that night finally spilling over. "I thought I knew him, Mamá. I thought... God, I've been falling in love with him for months. Both sides of him, without even knowing."
"Both sides?"
"Just... different parts of who he is." Lois wiped her eyes roughly. "The person everyone sees versus who he really is underneath. And now I know it's all him, all real, but I can't stop feeling like an idiot for not seeing it sooner."
Another explosion lit up the skyline. Lois's hand tightened on her phone as she imagined what that green light was doing to him.
"Mi amor," Eleanor's voice carried years of hard-earned wisdom. "Do you remember when your father first came home from the war? How different he seemed?"
"That's not the same thing-"
"No? A good man carrying weight no one else could see? Having to hide parts of himself to protect the people he loved?" Eleanor paused meaningfully. "Having to trust someone enough to finally let them see all of him?"
Lois's breath caught. She remembered those early days after Sam Lane's first deployment - how her strong, confident father had seemed somehow smaller. How he'd jump at loud noises but pretend everything was fine. How it had taken months before he'd let his family see how much he was struggling.
"Your father didn't tell us everything at first," Eleanor continued softly. "Not because he didn't trust us, but because he needed time to trust himself. To believe we could handle knowing what he'd been through, what he'd had to do."
"Clark's not..." Lois stopped herself. Because in some ways, he was carrying exactly that kind of weight. The responsibility of powers that could reshape and break worlds. The constant need to hide, to pretend, to be less than he was.
"The night he finally told me," she said quietly, "he made dinner. My favorite pasta, wine from that little place near work. He was so nervous, Mamá. His hands were shaking when he took off his..." She caught herself. "When he finally told me the truth."
"Because he was afraid of losing you," Eleanor said simply. "Sometimes the people who carry the heaviest burdens are the most afraid of sharing them. They're so used to being strong for everyone else, they forget how to let others be strong for them."
Another explosion, closer this time. Lois's reporter instincts tracked the fight's direction, but her heart was somewhere else entirely - remembering how vulnerable Clark had looked in that moment. How his voice had shaken when he'd said he needed her to know all of him.
"I love him," she whispered, the words carrying a different weight now. "Both parts of him. All of him. Even the parts that terrify me. Is that crazy?"
Eleanor's laugh was warm. "Mi amor, that's what real love is. Seeing someone completely - their strength and their weakness, their light and their shadows - and choosing them anyway."
"But what if I'm not strong enough?" The question that had been haunting her since that night finally spilled out. "What if I can't handle what it means to love someone who... who has to carry so much?"
"Lois Elena Lane." Her mother's voice carried that particular tone that meant business. "You have never backed down from anything in your life. Not when that bully was picking on Lucy in third grade. Not when your father said journalism was too dangerous. Not when that corrupt senator tried to intimidate you."
"This is different-"
"Yes, it is. Because this time it's about love. Real love, the kind that changes you." Eleanor's voice softened again. "The kind worth fighting for, even when it's scary. Especially when it's scary."
A particularly bright flash made Lois flinch. She could see helicopters circling, no doubt capturing footage of Superman fighting Metallo. But all she could think about was Clark's face when he'd told her he loved her - both as himself and as the hero she'd been writing about for months.
"He's in danger right now," she said quietly. "And I can't... I don't know how to..."
"To watch someone you love risk themselves for others?" Eleanor finished. "¿Crees que fue fácil para mí? Watching your father deploy over and over? Knowing each time might be the last?" Her voice caught slightly. "Love means accepting that the person you chose might have a calling bigger than just loving you."
"But how do you handle it?" Lois pressed her forehead against the cool glass of her car window. "The waiting, the not knowing..."
"You remember why you fell in love with them in the first place," Eleanor said simply. "Not despite their dedication to others, but because of it. A good heart doesn't stop being good just because loving it is sometimes painful."
Lois closed her eyes, remembering all the little moments that had made her fall for Clark Kent. His quiet strength when facing down corrupt officials. His gentle way with frightened sources. How he'd always make time to help Jimmy with his photography or listen to Cat's relationship drama. And all the while, he'd been carrying the weight of a dead world's hopes, using powers that could reshape planets to simply make people's lives better in small ways.
"He's the best man I've ever known," she said softly. "Even before I knew... everything. He just genuinely wants to help people. Not for glory or recognition, but because it's right."
"Mm." Eleanor's hum carried knowing warmth. "Sounds like someone else I know. A certain reporter who risks everything to expose truth and protect the vulnerable?"
Despite everything, Lois felt herself smile slightly. "That's different."
"Is it? You both fight for what's right, just in different ways." Eleanor paused. "Maybe that's why he finally trusted you with his truth. Because he saw in you the same dedication to helping others that he carries."
The sounds of battle were moving away from the Planet now, but Lois's heart still raced every time she caught a flash of that sickly green light. She remembered how Clark had looked the morning after his first fight with Metallo - pale and shaking, trying to hide how much pain he was in.
"I'm scared, Mamá," she admitted quietly. "Not of him or what he can do. I'm scared of losing him. Of watching him risk himself over and over and not being able to do anything to help."
"Mi amor." Eleanor's voice was impossibly gentle. "You're already helping. By seeing him - really seeing him, all of him - and choosing to stay. Do you know how rare that is? To find someone who looks at all our truths and loves us anyway?"
"But what if I'm not enough?" The question that had been haunting her came out barely above a whisper. "What if loving him means watching him sacrifice himself for others over and over until one day he doesn't come back?"
"That's not a what-if, mija. That's what loving a hero means." Eleanor's voice carried the weight of experience. "Your father taught me that. Every time he deployed, every time he chose duty over safety... it wasn't about me being enough. It was about accepting that I fell in love with someone whose heart was big enough to risk everything for others."
Lois watched another flash of green light illuminate distant buildings. She thought about Clark making her coffee every morning, kissing her forehead when he thought she was sleeping, bringing her favorite takeout after long stakeouts. The same hands that could lift buildings somehow always knowing exactly how gentle to be with her.
"The night he told me," she said softly, "he said every moment we've had was real. That even though he was hiding part of himself, his feelings were always genuine."
"And what do you believe?"
"I believe him." The certainty in her voice surprised her. "Everything that matters - his kindness, his integrity, the way he looks at me like I'm something precious - that's all real. The rest is just... details."
"Pretty big details," Eleanor noted with gentle humor.
"Yeah." Lois laughed despite herself. "Pretty huge, earth-shattering details. But they don't change who he is in his heart. And that's the part I fell in love with."
"So what are you really afraid of, mi amor?"
Lois was quiet for a long moment, watching distant flashes of combat paint the sky in sickly green. "That loving him means accepting I might lose him. That every time he flies off to help someone, it might be the last time I see him."
"Yes." Eleanor's simple acknowledgment carried years of understanding. "That's exactly what it means. Just like loving your father meant accepting that every deployment might be his last. But mija, that's true of any love. We never know how long we have with the people who matter most."
"This is a little different than normal relationship risks, Mamá."
"Is it? Love is always a risk. Opening your heart to someone always means being vulnerable to loss." Eleanor's voice softened. "The question isn't whether loving him might hurt someday. It's whether having him in your life, even with all the fear and uncertainty, is worth it."
Lois thought about Clark's face when he'd finally shared his secret - that mix of terror and hope as he'd let her see all of him. How even with powers that could reshape worlds, he'd looked at her like she held his heart in her hands.
"He is," she said quietly. "Worth it, I mean. Even with everything else, even with all the complications... he's worth it."
"Then perhaps that's your answer." Eleanor's smile was audible. "Love isn't about being enough or being perfect. It's about choosing someone every day, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard."
Another explosion lit up the sky, but this time Lois felt something shift inside her. The fear was still there, but alongside it was something stronger - determination. The same fire that made her chase down corruption and fight for truth, now focused on protecting what she and Clark had found together.
"I should go," she said reluctantly. "There's... a lot happening at work right now."
"Of course." Eleanor's voice carried knowing warmth. "Just remember, mi amor - sometimes the bravest thing we can do is let ourselves love someone completely, even when it scares us."
"Gracias, Mamá." Lois wiped her eyes, squaring her shoulders. "For everything."
"Always, mija. Call me later?"
"Promise."
After hanging up, Lois sat in her car for a long moment.
A sharp tap on her window made Lois jump. King Faraday stood outside her car, his expression carrying the kind of urgent calm that made her reporter's instincts tingle. Not the usual government agent swagger - this was something else.
"Miss Lane." His voice was muffled through the glass. "We need to move. Now."
She rolled down her window just enough to speak, years of investigative work having taught her caution. "Why do I get the feeling you're not really here about corporate espionage?"
A ghost of a smile touched his face. "Because you're as good as your reputation." His eyes scanned the parking garage with practiced efficiency. "But right now, we need to get you somewhere secure. Corbin's neural patterns are degrading faster than anticipated."
"You're not DEO," Lois said, pieces clicking into place. "Or ARGUS. The way you move, the way you analyze threats..." She studied his carefully neutral expression. "Who do you really work for?"
Instead of answering, Faraday pulled back his jacket slightly, revealing a badge she'd only seen in highly classified documents - ones that had mysteriously disappeared from government servers after she'd tried to verify them.
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," she breathed. "SHIELD. Clark and I suspected, but..." She caught herself. "You're here about Superman."
"Among other things." Faraday's tone shifted slightly - less bureaucrat, more field agent. "The mineral's affecting Corbin's programming in ways we didn't anticipate. His obsession with Superman is bleeding into other targets. Including you."
Lois's heart jumped, but she kept her voice steady. "Because of my articles?"
"Because you're the only reporter who consistently gets Superman exclusives." Faraday's eyes never stopped scanning their surroundings. "Corbin's been analyzing patterns, looking for pressure points. And your connection to Superman, whatever it might be, makes you a potential target."
The irony of that statement might have made her laugh if the situation weren't so serious. Her connection to Superman - if they only knew.
"I need to get some things from my apartment," she said, already planning what to grab. "Clothes, laptop, notes-"
"Already have a team en route." Faraday stepped back so she could exit her car. "They'll secure the perimeter while you pack. But we need to move quickly - Corbin's radiation signature is getting harder to track."
Lois grabbed her purse, mind racing. "The mineral's not just powering him anymore, is it? It's changing him somehow."
"What makes you say that?"
"His behavior patterns, his speech, the way he moves..." She fell into step beside Faraday as they headed for his vehicle. "It's like watching someone lose their humanity piece by piece. And that light in his chest - it's different now. Stronger."
Faraday's slight nod confirmed her suspicions. "The radiation's evolved beyond our initial models. It's not just affecting his cybernetics - it's rewriting his basic operating protocols. The John Corbin who served his country? He's almost gone."
They reached a black SUV that screamed 'government vehicle' to anyone who knew what to look for. But the tech she glimpsed inside was like nothing she'd seen before - displays showing energy readings that shouldn't exist, tracking systems that seemed to ignore conventional physics.
"You've been monitoring him since before Metropolis," she realized as they pulled out of the garage. "That's why you approached Clark and me - you needed to understand what LuthorCorp had created."
"What they'd unleashed," Faraday corrected grimly. "Corbin was just the prototype. They're playing with forces they barely understand, trying to create weapons that can challenge beings like Superman."
"But why come to me now?" Lois pressed. "If you've been watching this whole time..."
"Because Corbin's targeting algorithms are evolving." Faraday took a corner with practiced precision. "The radiation isn't just making him stronger - it's changing how he thinks. And his focus keeps coming back to you. Something about your connection to Superman..."
He glanced at her. "Want to tell me why that might be?"
"I write the truth," Lois said carefully - the same answer Clark always gave, though it carried different weight now. "About someone who chooses to help despite having no obligation to do so."
"That's what you tell everyone." Faraday's tone suggested he knew there was more. "But there's something else, isn't there? Something about Clark Kent's Superman exclusives, about how you two always seem to be where the action is..."
Lois's heart raced, but she kept her expression neutral. "We're good reporters. We follow the stories that matter."
"The stories that matter." Faraday's slight smile suggested he was enjoying this verbal sparring. "Like a decorated soldier turned into a walking weapon? Or an alien who chooses to protect a world that isn't his?"
They pulled up to Lois's apartment building where three more black SUVs were already waiting. Agents moved with quiet efficiency, establishing a perimeter while maintaining low profiles that wouldn't alarm her neighbors.
"You're not just here to protect me," Lois said as they rode the elevator up. "SHIELD wants Superman."
"SHIELD wants to understand him," Faraday corrected. "Just like we want to understand what LuthorCorp's really doing with that mineral. The world's changing, Miss Lane. New players emerging with powers that rewrite the rules. Someone needs to help maintain balance."
"And you think Superman needs balancing?"
"I think Superman needs allies." The elevator opened and Faraday did another security sweep before letting her exit. "People who understand what he's really trying to do. Who can help him protect this world without compromising what makes him choose to help in the first place."
Two agents were already at her door - a man and woman who moved with the same precise efficiency as Faraday. Their weapons weren't standard government issue, though Lois couldn't quite identify the technology.
"Clear," the woman reported. "No signs of surveillance or tampering."
"Ten minutes," Faraday told Lois. "Pack what you need. We'll maintain watch."
Inside her apartment, Lois moved on autopilot - grabbing clothes, toiletries, her backup laptop. But her mind was racing. SHIELD had been watching longer than she'd realized, gathering intel not just on Metallo but on Superman himself. And now they were protecting her, claiming Corbin might target her connection to Superman...
The photo frame felt heavy in Lois's hands as she carefully wrapped it in her softest sweater. It was such a simple moment - her and Clark at the fair, cotton candy stuck to her nose while he laughed. Before she knew about his powers, before she understood why the sunset caught his eyes in impossible ways when they flew.
"Two minutes," Faraday called from the hall. His agents had taken up their positions - Rodriguez by the front door with her M4, Chen watching the street through the window, Wilson covering the hallway. They moved like people who'd done this a hundred times before, who knew exactly how to protect a target.
Lois was reaching for her laptop when the first tremor hit. Not an earthquake - something deliberate, like a fist punching through the world. The building shook hard enough to rattle her teeth, ancient bricks groaning in protest.
The wall didn't just break - it exploded. One second Lois was standing in her living room, the next she was choking on concrete dust as three layers of century-old architecture just disappeared. The blast knocked everyone sideways, scattering furniture like toys. Through the ringing in her ears, she heard something that made her blood run cold - laughter, but wrong, mechanical, like someone trying to remember what joy sounded like through steel vocal cords.
"I can hear your heartbeats," Metallo's voice cut through the chaos. "Such wonderful little drums, beating faster as fear sets in."
"Contact!" Chen snapped into action first, muscle memory taking over as she squeezed off three quick shots. The rounds just sparked off Metallo's chest as he stepped through the swirling debris cloud, his restored synthetic skin rippling like mercury in the dying sunlight.
Something changed in Chen's expression - not fear, but the kind of determination that came from knowing you were probably screwed but going down fighting anyway. She launched herself at him, combat training kicking in as she drove her fist toward his jaw in a strike that would have laid out a normal person. The crack when she connected probably broke every bone in her hand.
Metallo's head tilted, studying her like a curious child might study an ant. "Really?" He caught her next punch casually, synthetic skin parting to reveal chrome fingers that closed around her throat. "How... quaint."
Chen kicked and scratched as he lifted her off the ground, but she might as well have been fighting a statue. Her nails just scraped uselessly against his metal surface, leaving marks that disappeared as his synthetic skin flowed like water.
"Primitive weapons," he said, and there was nothing left of John Corbin in that voice. The cores in his chest pulsed in sick harmony - green, blue, and red light mixing together into something that hurt to look at. "How... disappointing."
He threw her through the hole he'd made like she weighed nothing. No scream, no impact sound - just silence as she vanished into the gathering dark.
Wilson lost it. The roar that tore from his throat was pure rage as he emptied his entire magazine at point-blank range. The bullets just pinged off Metallo's frame, each impact making the radiation pulse brighter like the cores were feeding on the energy.
Metallo turned to face him with terrible precision. "Your ammunition cannot harm me." Each word came out clipped, mechanical. "Such limited tools against what I've become."
Wilson's gun clicked empty. In the split second it took him to reach for a fresh magazine, Metallo crossed the distance between them faster than anything that size should move. Chrome fingers wrapped around Wilson's throat, lifting him like a child's doll.
"A soldier's weapons," Metallo observed, watching Wilson struggle with detached fascination. "Like I once used. Before they made me into something more. Something beyond human limitations."
The crack of Wilson's neck breaking echoed through the ruined apartment. He went limp, discarded like trash as Metallo turned toward Rodriguez.
She was already moving, trying to flank him. Her M4 chattered in controlled bursts as she shouted into her radio: "Agent Six to Command!" Her voice stayed steady even as Metallo lunged.
His fist caught her mid-movement, driving her into the floor hard enough to shatter hardwood planks. Blood started seeping into the ancient oak, but she was still alive - her pained groan seemed to fascinate the thing Corbin had become.
"Interesting," he tilted his head, studying her like a scientist with a specimen. "Your organic responses to damage... I had almost forgotten."
His foot came down on her outstretched hand. The sound of breaking bones mixed with her scream. Metallo just watched, analyzing her pain with cold machine logic.
"How fragile human bodies are," he said softly, pressing down harder as her struggles weakened. "Such delicate mechanisms. So easily broken."
Rodriguez's bloody fingers clawed toward her fallen weapon, each movement leaving fresh crimson trails on the floor. Through bloody lips, she managed to force out a single word: "Run..."
"Miss Lane." Faraday's voice cut through the horror.
He shoved Lois behind him, pistol rising to face the machine that had once been a man.
"When I say run—"
"Your protective instincts are admirable," Metallo interrupted, radiation making the air shimmer around him. "But ultimately futile."
His backhand sent Faraday crashing through her bedroom door in an explosion of splintered wood. The agent hit the hall wall with a sickening thud, but Lois couldn't look away from what John Corbin had become.
Lois bolted for the apartment door. She'd almost reached it when something metallic whistled past her head, embedding in the wood with a heavy thunk. Rodriguez's combat knife, buried to the hilt inches from her face.
"Going somewhere?" Metallo's voice carried an almost playful cruelty. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" He stepped over Rodriguez's twitching form. "We're just getting to know each other."
The synthetic skin was completely gone now, leaving only chrome and cables gleaming in her apartment's lights. But it was his face that truly terrified her - that perfect metal skull with its too-precise movements, green light bleeding through seams in his frame.
"You should have seen him earlier," Metallo continued conversationally. "Your precious Clark, bleeding in the Arctic ice. All that power, all that strength..." His head tilted at that horrible mechanical angle. "And still so fragile when the right pressure is applied."
"Oh God, please," Lois's voice broke as she backed toward her kitchen, hands raised in desperate surrender. "John, you don't have to do this. Whatever's happening to you—we can help—"
"Help?" Metallo advanced with predatory grace. "Like the VA helped? Like those fancy prosthetics were supposed to help?" The cores in his chest pulsed brighter. "No one helps broken soldiers, Miss Lane. We're just weapons to be used and discarded."
"That's not true," she pleaded, bumping into the counter. Her trembling fingers found a knife. "You were a hero. You protected people. This isn't you—"
"You don't know what I am!" His mechanical roar made the remaining windows rattle. Then his voice shifted, becoming terrifyingly calm. "But I know exactly what you are. The connection to Superman. The way he watches you. Those little moments when Clark Kent forgets to pretend to be human..."
Behind him, Rodriguez was still fighting, each breath a wet gurgle as she clawed toward her gun.
"Please," Lois whispered, tears streaking down her face. "Why are you doing this?"
"Now I see everything so clearly. The patterns. The lies. The way humanity worships its alien god while men like Luthor play at being divine."
He moved closer, each step leaving impressions in her floor. "I will dismantle everything they built. Luthor will watch his empire crumble. His precious city burn. The man who thought he could play god with a soldier's life will learn what true power means."
"John, I'm begging you," Lois choked out. "This isn't you talking. It's the radiation—"
His chrome hand shot out, catching her throat. The metal was cold against her skin. "John Corbin died in a desert, abandoned by the country he served. What stands before you is evolution."
He lifted her easily off the ground. Through the hole in her wall, she could see the sun setting over Metropolis while Rodriguez's breathing finally stopped.
"You'll watch it all burn first," Metallo promised. "Luthor's empire. His city. Everything built on broken soldiers and stolen lives. Then Superman will learn what true loss means - watching everything he loves destroyed by the very power that kills him."
"Please," she gasped, spots dancing in her vision. "You were a good man once..."
"Good men die in forgotten wars," the words came out pure machine. "While gods play at being human, hiding behind glasses and press badges. I am beyond such pretense now."
His grip tightened. She thought about Clark - not Superman with his powers and cape, but her Clark. The farm boy who brought her coffee every morning, who kissed her forehead when he thought she was sleeping.
"You'll be the last," Metallo promised, cold chrome fingers pressing deeper. "After Luthor watches his empire burn. After Superman bleeds from power he thought was his alone. After everything they built falls..." The cores pulsed brighter. "Only then will I let you die, knowing you helped break a god's spirit."
The knife fell from nerveless fingers. She could feel consciousness starting to fade, the radiation making everything blur together. Through her broken wall, the setting sun painted her last moments in shades of gold.
With the last of her strength, she did the only thing she could. The only thing that mattered.
"Clark!"
The cry tore from her raw throat, carrying all her fear and love and desperate hope. Then darkness took her, Metallo's cold grip the last thing she felt as consciousness slipped away.