Smallville: Annual

Chapter 36

#/##/## - #:## ## - The Abyss of Life and Death

        Clark sat up.  He was as surprised as had ever been but was still very calm.  The same strange calm someone experiences when waking up from a terrible dream and then forgetting about it.  He looked around as he saw a vast green cornfield.  He stood up as he walked around taking in his surroundings.  The sky above glowed bluish-green, but brightly almost white.  

Why am I here? thought Clark as he then looked at his chest and saw a tear on his shirt where a bullet had ripped out.  But there was no wound.  He walked for a while hearing a growling noise coming from the cornfield when all of a sudden something large and white tackled him to the ground.

Whatever it was licked its face happily as Clark realized it wore a golden collar with the same Kryptonian symbol that Clark saw his ancestors wear.

"Krypto?!  Boy is that you?" said Clark.

The dog barked twice in an affirmation of his master's question. Clark then realized how pretty this place was and the possibility of it dawned.

"Am I dead?" he said aloud.

Clark wasn't expecting a reply but it came anyway from the sky above.

"No, my son.  But you are in the midst between life and death.  Your body sustained an awful amount of trauma but you still live."

        Clark then looked down at Krypto and continued to pat him around his head.  This time Clark could feel the warmth of the soft fur and breath.  Look upon his eyes which had so much love for his master.  Clark couldn't help but be happy, but he looked up and remembered Jor-El.

"If I'm not dead, then why am I not awake?"  Clark shouted.

"That choice is up to you my son.  That is why your friend is here.  To help show you the way back."

Clark looked down at Krypto as he knelt down and looked into his eyes.

"You're here to send me back boy?"

The dog's tongue stuck out happily and barked as Clark took it as an affirmative.

"What do you want me to do, boy?"

        Clark then saw Krypto run away for a moment and then much to his surprise he saw him fly above the cornfield as it headed towards what Clark could see was the sun.  It shined brightly than he had ever seen it shine before.  He then saw Krypto fly back to him as the dog continued wagging his tongue.

"You want me to fly with you into the sun?" Clark asked as Krypto continued looking happy as Clark realized how difficult it was going to be.

"I can't fly Jor-El!  You know that!"

"You can my son.  You are a Kryptonian and you can fly the same as anyone from your home-world. You have flown before given that time your Kryptonian personality was allowed to dominate many months ago.  Given that this is not a physical setting but the metaphysical, your mind is what matters.  All you have to do is believe that you can fly and it will happen."

"But that's the problem.  I don't believe I can fly.  Its too hard!"

"Believe in yourself, Kal-El.  Believe as a Kryptonian and not as a human."

        Even now though, Clark couldn't see himself as a Kryptonian.  He didn't want to be here, he wanted to be back home with his parents and with his friends.  He also believed the if he did leave he would stop seeing things as a human.  Like he did that terrible time he was forced by Jor-El to become his version of a true Kryptonian.  He loved his life on Earth and never wanted it to give up seeing it any differently.  

        But then he remembered his fight with Hardcastle and before that with the transmissions in which his Kryptonian ancestors lived proudly as Kryptonians but still proud of humanity.  Nam-An's love for Magnificent, Kora's vacation, Zam-El and Zyn-El's adventures and of course what Jor-El had tried to do for Krypton.  These were all good Kryptonians as good as anyone he loved on Krypton.  He wanted to be like them, but he saw them as strangers.

        Clark then knelt down as he rubbed Krypto behind his ears as he stood up and started to run across the field super-speeding and then super-jumping.  He then tried as hard as he could to hold himself up, but he fell back to the ground.

        Krypto caught up with him as Clark's face grimaced angrily at his shortcoming.  He tried to remember how exciting and invigorating it was when he flew that one time.  He just couldn't find it in him.

        Clark then looked around and realized it was going to be a long time before he was going to leave.  Maybe this is what it was like for people in comas.  Something that has them locked inside their minds forever because they are too weak to leave.  Hours and hours seemed to have elapsed until he heard a voice from above the cornfield.  

At first he it was Jor-El until he recognized the melody and the clarity of Diana's voice. 

"Kal-El.  I know you are fighting with all your might in whatever state your mind is in.  But I'm begging you my love.  Wake up.  If I know my father, he'll be able to at least send this prayer to you. Often is prayer seen as worthless.  But I know how powerful it truly is.  Calling upon no god for this prayer but only to you, Kal-El.  A man who I know is better than any god I've ever met.  I pray that you wake up.  I go to sleep now and hope that when the sun rises, so will you.  Goodnight Kal-El."

Clark couldn't believe he was hearing Diana in this place, but even more importantly that she wanted him so badly to wake up.  My love?  Ever since he saw her she had been nothing but a capable and ferocious warrior.  But then he remembered now how much she smiled at him.  How she seemed to flirt with him and how he flirted back. Her tears when he said he preferred death than destiny.  And of course their embraces.

She loves me?  Do I love her in the future that she comes from?  She is a wonderful person.  I have to admit, when she says my name I couldn't be happier.  For her I am a Kryptonian and a Kryptonian I am.

Clark remembered it all.  The transmissions from his ancestors and the last days of Krypton.  But more importantly he held on to his name, only he concentrated hard on the person who made him feel alive as she said it.

"Let's go boy!" Clark said to Krypto as the both ran across the cornfield.  Krypto outpaced his master as he jumped into the sky.  Clark followed as he clenched both fists and pointed them at the sun.  Krypto continued flying until he decided his master could continue without him returning to the cornfield as Clark Kent seeing himself finally as Kal-El of Krypton flew into the sun as he remembered the prayer spoken by Diana of Themiscyra.  He found it.  The joy.  The exhilaration.  He felt tears fall away from his face as he continued approaching the light.  But more importantly he remembered her. I'm coming home Diana.