SmallvilleX Evolution: Death, Rebirth and Something In-between

Summary: A possible glimpse of what lies to come for the Clark Kent of my SmallvilleX: Evolution Universe.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I am Uatu. Most beings simply refer to me as the Watcher. Like all members of my race my solemn duty is to watch and record all events of importance in the universe but never to interfere.

I was assigned to watch the planet Earth. One day it also became my responsibility to watch over the Last Son of Krypton on the day his ship travelled from that far away and doomed world and landed on this one.

And so I watched him grow from a child to a man and into one of the Universe's greatest heroes.

I watched him overcome all obstacles thrown in his way with the one guiding principle for his actions. That his powers were to be used to help protect the innocent.

And so he did until the day he met that fated end for his life.

However ends are often simply new beginnings.

Allow me to give you a glimpse of that which has yet to come...

Death...

There was a shadow seen in the dust. The heroes of Earth, battered, bruised, some severely injured tense themselves awaiting whoever or whatever is about to emerge.

The battle against the creature known as Doomsday had already tested them like none before. It was the antithesis of life.

In an attempt to save them, the world, to change a dreadful future he had glimpsed before when he was but a young man, Superman alone had taken the final fight to the monstrosity and in the process unleashed the true depth of his power.

It had been both awe inspiring and terrifying to behold.

Now the fight was seemingly over. The sounds of battle gone. Who had won?

The dust parts and a figure staggers forward, his blue costume torn, his red cape long since torn off and lost. His face, his body where it can be seen, is a mass of bruises and cuts and worse. Injuries that even on him are quite fatal as the battle has utterly drained the reserves of energy his body normally stores. He gave it everything and there is nothing left to heal his body with.

He takes one step more before collapsing to the ground.

The heroes rush to surround him as the hero of a nation turns the man over. "Easy son," he says.

"Cap," the man's voice speaks, croaky and weak.

"Just rest, Superman. You'll be fine," Captain America tries to assure the still relatively young man even if he dreads it is a lie.

"Is...is everyone alright?" Superman asks, his voice weak.

"Yes. Thanks to you," Cap assures him.

Superman manages a small smile. "Good. That's...that's all that...matters..." he says and they are his final words as his eyes close and he breathes for the last time.

And arguably the world's greatest hero dies.

The blinding flash of white light is the last thing Superman sees. A light beckoning him to the great beyond.

But it is not what he thinks. Nor will it take him where he thinks. A great tear in reality, whose cause is from a time yet to be reached, is right now making the impossible, possible, where Superman will be in two places once, both alive and dead at the same time...

Something In-between...

It's all falling apart. The Scarlet Witch had tried to create a world where everyone would be happy. Even for her that was impossible.

And now the strain of holding the altered reality together is breaking a mind that was not very secure to begin with.

Wanda tried. She tried so hard. To be good. To be a hero. Just like Clark.

Then he died.

Then the heroes of the world went to war with each other rendering Clark's sacrifice meaningless.

And all the time Wanda watched on in grief and despair and no-one noticed. No-one saw her mind cracking under the stress. A mind that has always been fragile. From seeing her mother die as a child to being abandoned by her father.

The foundations were weak and would soon give way completely.

She watches on now as her father and his forces battle a group of heroes, led by Wolverine, who remember. Remember the other world...and they want to restore it?

Why?

It wasn't a nice world.

Why would they want it back?

Clark was dead in that world.

But in her world, her perfect world, he was alive.

And he was hers.

Her husband, her lover, the father of her children.

It was all so beautiful and wonderful Wanda had wept with joy when she woke up in this world of her own making and saw all she has managed to do.

And now...

Now...

Clark knew.

His memories of the other world had been restored and the look in his eyes the last time Wanda saw him...

Goddess that will haunt her forever.

It's all ruined.

Ruined!

Anger swells up inside her.

"STOP!" she screams and the whole world shudders around the battling foes who stop and stare. She seethes with anger and hot, angry tears roll down her face. "I gave you everything," she whispers angrily. "I gave you all everything you ever wanted!" she yells at them. "I gave you the mutant dominated world you desired father. And us together as a family," she tells him.

She turns to the others and speaks them down one by one. "I gave you, Logan, your memories back," she points out to the feral mutant who seems to be the leader of this rebellion.

"Peter," she addresses Spider-Man. "Is it not enough?" she asks. "Your Uncle alive. A beautiful wife...a son! Is it not enough?!" she screams.

"And you, Storm, look at you, Queen of a prosperous and peaceful Africa, fulfilling that balance you always desired between yourself and your status as a Goddess," she addresses the powerful wind-rider.

"You Emma, I gave you Scott just like you always wanted," she addresses the in another world White Queen.

"And you Scott...well frankly it baffles me what you want. You had Emma and children and weren't you happy? Or is it still Jean? Even in this world does your heart still ache for her? I couldn't undo that. The Phoenix is a force of nature, beyond even my control."

"And what about the things you took away, Wanda?" Scott asks her back, cutting her off from continuing, arguing on the point of the things Wanda tore apart as she reordered reality. "People, couples, pairings that no longer exist. Hmm, what about Kendall?" he asks about Logan and Storm's daughter in the other world, the real world. "She doesn't exist here because you tried to make Rogue happy and put her parents together," he points out, meaning in this world Logan and Mystique are lovers.

"You don't get it!" Wanda screams, quite clearly on the edge of completely losing it, her hands practically pulling her hair out as she tugs on it hard. "None of you do! Do you even begin to realise the infinite number of probabilities I had to change and rewrite to create this world?! And what thanks do I get? Nothing!" she spits in disgust. "All of you have squandered the beautiful gifts I gave you," she says practically insulted that they've thrown her gifts back in her face. "None more so than you father," she says, her voice low with rage and anger.

Magneto looked at his daughter, silent because he didn't know what to say about what she had done.

"I gave you everything, everything you always wanted and you still turn out to be an arrogant, selfish, manipulative, heartless bastard! You still turn out to be a sorry excuse for a father!" Wanda spits out at him.

"And none of the rest of you are any better!" she turns her fury on them all. "And now you've taken Clark away from me. You've destroyed my family! No more!" she screams in tearful anger. "No more gifts. No more forgiveness. No more generosity. What the Scarlet Witch giveth she can taketh away. You didn't want heaven! Then I'll give you hell!" she promises with a vindictiveness worthy of her father.

"No More!" she declares with final intent.

Emma, who has been desperately trying to puncture into the swirling madness and chaos of Wanda's mind, finally picks up her intent. "Oh no," she whispers in horror.

Scarlet energy forms around Wanda, wind whistles around, the very fabric of reality starts to shatter apart around her.

"Stop her! Someone stop her!" Emma calls out hysterically.

Wanda takes a breath and speaks the 3 words to curse them all. "No...more...mu..."

She is stopped just barely by a single finger touching her lips. Wanda looks up to find Clark standing there, having appeared from nowhere, his eyes not filled with the hate she expected but softness...love...

The raging storm within her calms.

Clark takes a breath. "Oh Wanda, what have we done to you?" he asks, full of sadness for what has transpired to allow Wanda to fall this far. "It's time to stop. Time to rest now," he tells her.

Wanda takes his finger away from her lips and hold the hand tightly within her own smaller one. "No, Clark. Our...our babies?!" she cries about their children.

"Are as beautiful as their mother but you're killing yourself, Wanda. Reality is trying to snap back constantly and you're the only thing holding this world together. You can't keep that strain up forever."

"That true Strange?" Logan asks the Master of Magic.

Steven nods. "Yes. This world she has created...it's incorrect and the universe is trying to snap it back to the way it should be. Only her might and willpower is keeping this reality intact," he relays and that's amazing if you consider it. A single woman holding all of reality together. "She has to let it go before she loses control completely because even the Vishanti can't predict what happens then," Steven advises with great importance of this fact.

Clark takes the broken woman into his arms. Two conflicting memories rattle around inside his head. The one where he called Wanda his sister...and then he died. And this one. Where she is his wife and mother of his children. He rubs her back as he feels her shaking. "Let go," he whispers. "You can't hold this world together, Wanda. I love our sons as much as you do but this reality can't be sustained. Deep down you know that. And in both worlds I know one thing. I trust that you will do the right thing."

Wanda sobs loudly, her face buried into Clark's chest and the fighting groups just watch in sadness and sympathy at seeing this broken woman.

"If I let it go you die," she sobs.

"Yep," Clark says matter of factly. "But that's ok too because I remember I died for a good reason. To save you all. There are worst ways to go. Just ask Logan," he quips.

Logan rolls his eyes at the jibe. Even now the kid can't stop making jokes.

Wanda actually manages a small laugh. She looks up at him. "I love you," she says. "I think I loved you in the other world too but I was too stupid to see it."

"Yeah, that would explain Simon," Clark makes a crack at the expense of Wanda's ex. Clark never liked him...though that could be because first time they met the man composed of ionic energy kicked Clark clean across New York. Wasn't a good first impression.

Wanda slaps him on the chest for that.

Clark grins...that goofy one. He brushes Wanda's hair back and lowers his head, kissing her sweetly. "I love you too," he says to her in utter truthfulness. "Now just close your eyes, fall asleep and let it all go," he tells her.

"Hold me?" she asks, sounding like a small child.

"Forever," he promises.

Wanda rests her head on his chest as Clark sings a sweet lullaby to her. Her breathing shallows as the strain and exhaustion of maintaining this world takes it toll and she soon falls into slumber.

"Is that it?" Spider-Man asks, looking around for...well the world to change.

Clark sighs. "Just give it a minute, Pete. It takes a few moments for the timelines to rearrange themselves."

"And then you'll be gone," Logan remarks.

"And then I'll be gone," Clark confirms. He then turns and shoots them all a severe glare. "And you lot...what did I die for again?" he asks them. "I die and you lot end up fighting amongst yourselves in some ridiculous superhero civil war," he chastises them. "I don't blame Wanda for this. I blame all of you. What has happened to Wanda doesn't just happen. There must have been warning signs for weeks, months but I guess you were all too busy knocking the seven bells of hell out of each other to notice."

"Uh, the world?" Kitty asks, pointing around them as it literally starts to fade away.

"It's starting. We don't have much time left," Dr Strange pronounces.

Clark realises he needs to get to his point quickly. "You were suppose to work together for a better world. Not fight each other. I died so you would all live, to prevent a terrible future I saw when I was a young man. In that future Doomsday killed...well a lot of you I'll go with."

The assembled heroes, the ones who remember the other world look...sheepish and uncomfortable because it's kind of a good point. What the hell are they doing?

"That's why you were so insistent on keeping us back," Logan finally works out about that fight. Clark had been so insistent on battling Doomsday alone. It hadn't made sense then but now it does.

Clark sighs and looks down at the woman in his arms. "I can't tell you to get along with each other but I do ask one favour if I still carry that much weight with you."

"Anything," Scott agrees to.

"Don't blame Wanda. Don't hate her. Help her," Clark pleads for them to do and in doing so shows why he was considered perhaps the greatest hero this world had ever seen.

"We promise, Clark," Ororo says, smiling softly. Oh, how they have missed him since he left them for the great beyond.

"Time to sleep now," Clark states as he plants one last loving kiss atop Wanda's head just before this world finishes unravelling, sending him back to his afterlife...of a sort.

Rebirth...

And thus time was torn asunder, everywhere, every when for it is a force that exists at every instance at every point in the universe.

And two things happened. At one moment a life was torn from this universe at the moment of his death and flung into a realm long forgotten. At another moment that life returned but it was not alone.

A great head of a giant creature and standing atop that head a warrior of vast power and skill. A warrior who does not know her origin or the impact she will have upon a universe long shorn of her kind. A tall, lean, powerful woman possessed of long red curly hair where the golden wings of a headdress shine brightly. A warrior in a golden armour...what there was of it. Armour that covered her breasts and lower arms and her legs up to the thigh and pants mostly obscured behind a large belt, designed to hold her fearsome weapon. A double ended sword of alien design. Surrounding her like a halo are multi-coloured ribbons, moving as if sentient by themselves.

This warrior is not happy and she speaks her unhappiness to the universe.

"I am an Angel from the Heavens and I will not be disrespected.

Whoever did this to me...

Whoever brought me here against my will...

My name is Angela.

I'm coming to end you."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're kinda melodramatic," a cheeky voice quips. A voice belonging to the other, a hero now resurrected from his brave sacrifice.

The fierce red-headed warrior and great hunter shoots the source of that voice a severe glare and from between grinding teeth mutters his name threateningly. "Kal-El..."

Author's Note: Is it the future of my SmallvilleX world? Possibly. It was just an idea I had for how Clark might return from the dead as well as drop in a version of House of M. A version that ends differently because of Clark. A fact I had Destiny tell Agatha Harkness in Year 2.1 if you'll recall. Time ripping apart comes from what happened at the end of Age of Ultron. And where did Clark go to when he died? Heven of course...just not quite the right one. A little idea I had ages ago and decided to finish writing while I'm on my break before I start Year 3. Hope you enjoyed it.