Trinity

Her breath caught.

The impact had caused a ripple through the land like a stone being dropped into a still pond. However, the earth did not have the fluidity of liquid and where the ripples would have been smoothed out in water, there were great rips through the soil and grass radiating in all directions. The force of it had uprooted trees, magnificent specimens that now lay across the ground, crushing their leaves beneath their weight. Lamp posts that were still standing managed to do so by strained cables while others had not been so lucky, threw sparks of electricity in all directions.

The scene looked like the aftermath of a great battle when the war cry was done and all that was left was to pick up the bodies of the fallen. Except on this field there was only two combatants and she could see them not in the landscape of destruction before her. A passerby might be forgiven for thinking he had stumbled into the scene of some ancient battle. The group of women who stood on the fissured section of walkway that ran through Hayes Park, seemed like they had stepped out of from the pages of a history book. Clad in Grecian armour over their clothes, they carried lances, swords and bows, wearing helmets and breast plates.

"Do you think he is still alive?" Philipus inquired of her queen as the distant sounds of sirens approached.

"I pray he is," Hippolyta answered because inwardly, she didn't know if there were enough of them to stop the beast if the man of steel were dead. "We must find him sisters," Hippolyta told her entourage. "Diana would wish us to aid him."

As she spoke her daughter's name, Hippolyta's stoic features wavered slightly and Philipus knew the worry that Queen kept carefully concealed from her Amazon sister. Diana was the first child born to Amazons and while she was loved by all of them, she was loved no greater than by her mother, the Queen. The little Princess had given them hope when their existence had become barren and while there were other children brought to Themiscyra since, Diana was the first and always the most cherished.

"I'm sure Diana is fine, my Queen," Philipus rested a hand on her monarch's shoulder.

Hippolyta threw a sidelong glance at her general and squeezed her hand in gratitude. "She is our champion," Hippolyta answered bravely, "she will do what must be done."

Suddenly the ground beneath them rumbled slightly and Hippolyta's hand instinctively went for her sword as the rumbling drew closer, over the rise of small hill in front of them. "Stay behind him," she ordered the others as she hurried forward.

"My Queen!" Philipus called out after her, not liking this at all.

Hippolyta crossed over the torn, green lawn, careful to avoid sots of earth that had been torn out due to the abrupt landing of Metropolis' champion and his enemy. The clumps of soil had begun to shudder as she approach the crest of the hill and saw something large getting to his feet.

Ixion was on his hands and knees, shaking his massive head to clear away the disorientation from his fall to earth. At her approach, his head tilted sharply in her direction and she took a step back as she saw his meaty fists clench, pushing himself off the ground. "Amazon..."

"Ixion," Hippolyta declared. "I see the War God had let you off your leash or is this just a temporary reprieve? I imagine that once he is done with you, he'll return you to your wheel in Tartarus."

"NEVER!" He growled and smashed both fists against the ground, causing a shockwave so violent that Hippolyta lost her balance, struggling to stay on her feet. "I will grind your bones into pulp and feed it to the dogs when I am done with you Amazon, just as I have done to the Patriarch world's champion."

With that, he came rushing at her, his massive bulk moving with more speed than she gave him credit. However, this was not the first beast she had faced. For three thousand years, she and her sister had kept Doom's Door sealed, fighting whatever madness that sought to escape it dark confines. Running forward, she somersaulted over the beast, using his own frame to her advantage, landing on his shoulder. Plunging her sword down, the Amazon blade designed to harm creatures of Tartarus sunk in deep.

Ixion howled in agony, grabbing Hippolta like he was snatching a rag doll and flung her away. "I will rip you to pieces whore!"

"Archers!" Philipus barked as a phalanx of arrows flew from the taut bows of the Amazons who had taken up position in pursuit of their queen. The arrows rain down on the beast as Philipus went to Hippolyta's aid, her heart pounding fast at the the how violently the queen had been cast aside.

"Your highness!" Philipus skidded to her knees, finding Hippolyta lying face down in the dirt, unmoving.

At the sound of a familiar voice, the Queen came to life, shaking her head to clear it as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees. "I am still here Philipus," she said weakly, turning her head to the bellowing cry of Ixion as he fought off the arrows being shot at him. "Though for how long I am uncertain."

"Is it Ixion? The prisoner of the wheel?" Philipus asked as the monster tore the arrows from his flesh, momentarily distracted by far from defeated.

"It is," she nodded, strands of dark hair falling over her face as she saw the titan rage, despite her Amazon sisters trying their best to gain some advantage and failing. "And without the help of a god," Hippolyta said to Philipus, "I fear we will not be enough to stop him."

******

"You should not be here," Menalippe protested as Lois stepped on to the ruined landscape of Hayes Park, ignoring the devastation around her to find ground zero of this catastrophe. "Ares knows what you are to your Superman, if Ixion sees you here, there will be no stopping him from killing you."

Lois ignored the shudder of fear that ran through her at that statement and didn't stop her advance across the torn greenery. Ever since she understood that tremor was caused by Clark, Lois had been able to entertain no other thought. Damn near fighting her way out of the hospital and to some degree, Menalippe as well, Lois had grabbed the first cab that was brave enough to be on the street on a day like this and ordered him to Hayes Park. When he had rambled something about it being too dangerous and something going down in the area, Lois had responded by emptying all the cash she had in her purse into his front seat, ending any further argument.

Less than ten minutes later, the cab had deposited them as close to Hayes Park as it could get. Police was directing traffic away from the scene, people were hurrying out of the part, trying to avoid the rampage of the monster that had left a trail of destruction through downtown Metropolis until Superman had come and borne it away. Until something happened that brought their saviour crashing down to Earth.

As she ran into the park, managing to avoid the police barricades that cordoned the area from the public, Lois thought of all the times that she had fallen. Clark had always been there to catch her. Always. But who caught him when he fell? No one. The world saw their Superman as invulnerable but Lois had held him in her arms when he was broken and bleeding. She knew that he could feel pain, that his flesh would sustain wounds. He was as mortal as she and all she could think of while she was running through the ripped up ground of the park, that he was lying somewhere dying.

Alone.

"I don't care," she snapped to Menalippe when Lois paused long enough to take off her heels that were leaving unnoticeable divots across the fissured lawns. "He's hurt, I know it."

Closing in on the scene of the impact, Lois saw Menalippe staring in the near by distance at the arrows flying through the air, like a flare telling them where Ixion was.

"My sisters are there," Menalippe declared, recognising the voices emanating from the combat taking place not far away. The ground was shaking from Ixion's massive hulk doing battle. Even now, she and Lois could see the beast standing tall over the trees and bushes. "Lois, we should go before the beast sees you."

"No," Lois shook her head, refusing to entertain the notion despite needing to crush the sharp stab of fear that lanced through her at the sight of creature fighting the Amazons. Even though she could not see Hippolyta or her sisters from here, Lois was able to catch a glimpse of the titan. He stood nearly as tall as some of the large trees that hadn't been uprooted by the impact and was so very close, she was certain he could see them both. However, fear of the monster was nothing in comparison to her fears for Clark. That alone forced her to stay the course.

"I'm not going anywhere until I find Cl...Superman," she corrected herself and turned away from the battle, forging ahead to the source of this disaster.

Jogging ahead, Lois forced herself to move faster, ignoring the dirt and debris under her bare feet as she scrambled over upended trees and went around park benches. Hayes Park had become one big obstacle course but Lois let nothing stop her. She was still weak from the apple Eris had tried to poison her with but Lois was driven by her fierce desire to find Clark, no matter what.

She had to find him. She just had to.

Fighting her way through the leafy branches of a felled cypress tress, Lois emerged on the other side fo the crushed foliage to find herself at the edge of the massive crater which marked the epicenter of the destruction that had torn Hayes Park apart. She had little time to survey the scene as the soil beneath her gave way and the next thing Lois knew, she was tumbling down its conclave side, a ball of dirt, flaying limbs and rapidly disintegrating three hundred dollar suit.

"Lois!" Menalippe called after her in alarm as the Amazon watched in dismay as her her charge rolled down the side of the enormous ditch and hurried down after her.

Lois came to a stop in a heap, coughing out the dust that choked her lungs and could do nothing for a few seconds but remain there in the dirt, on her hands and knees as she recovered her senses from her disorientated stated. However, it took only a glimpse of something red and blue to shock her back to clarity in record time.

"CLARK!" Lois near screamed and didn't care who heard her as she scrambled to feet and ran across the muddy ground to drop to her knees again at his side.

"Oh God Clark," she gasped, her lips quivering and her hands shaking as she took in the state he was in.

Clark Kent...Superman...was lying face down in the earth. His red cape was covered in mud and dirt. He looked so still that for a moment Lois feared the worse and that possibility nearly paralysed her with anguish. For a few seconds, she dared not even touch him out of dread that her worst fears were realised. However, Lois Lane was not about shirking away from the truth. No matter how much it might pain her to face it, she had to know for sure.

Reaching for him, Lois grabbed hold of him arm and rolled him onto her lap. Cradling his head in her arms, Lois tried to be strong for Clark as she stared into the face of the man she loved more than anything in the world. He seemed to pale, so vulnerable that Lois felt tears crisscrossing her dirt covered face. He was still breathing but barely.

"Smallville," she whispered unaware that not so long ago, he begged the exact same way when he sat at her bedside in the hospital. "You gotta wake up for me. You know, man of steel and everything? Can't be doing your image any good for you be slacking off like this when the big, crazy monster is terrorising the city, right?" She brushed the dirt from his cheek and blinked away the tears when he didn't stir at her touch. "Please Clark," she kissed his lips, "please wake up for me. I don't know how to exist without you."

Eyes travelling down his form, she felt her carefully crafted mask of strength begin to crumble when she sighted the blood wound beneath his ribs. As always, it chilled her to the core whenever she saw him wounded. Even more so ow that the world knew him as Superman. The wound looked deep and worse yet, possibly fatal. If she didn't know that it was utterly pointless, she might have considered taking him to the hospital but that would be no help to him.

What Clark needed was the sun and with the night above them, he had no chance of healing.

It doesn't matter, she told herself as she draped his arm over her shoulder. She was getting him help.

Menalippe finally reached her and as Lois saw her, let out of sight of gratitude for the woman's presence. "Menalippe! Help me!" Lois demanded as she tried to help Clark get back on his feet, "we've got to get him away from here. He's hurt badly!"

Menalippe did not need to see his injury to know that. The deathly pallor of his skin and his unconscious state was indication enough of his grave wound. Without argument, the Amazon took up the burden along with Superman's lover, dragging his arm over her shoulder to lift him from the dirt. "He will live Lois," Menalippe assured her, trying to keep up her hope for her love's survival. "Do not worry."

"But she should worry Amazon," Ixion's brittle voice sneered at them like a rumble of thunder from the sky. Both Lois and Menalippe eyes widened with horror as they saw the titan standing at the top of the crater staring down at them like some dark god about to smite them down.

Lois tried not to let her fear show as he stared directly at her, no doubt determining who she was to Clark. The sheer terror of him came up on her so suddenly she felt her heart clench so hard it almost hurt. Refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid, Lois turned her mind to doing what she did during all times of crisis, focus on the business at hand, no matter how futile it was.

Struggling to move faster, Lois was determined to get Clark as far away as she could even as the monster began to make his way into the crater, closing in on them. They were never going to make it out alive, she knew that as she saw Ixion approach and apart of her wanted to weep at the death that was coming, at the life she and Clark would never know together. However, sheer defiance kept her moving, refusing to believe that this was for nothing even if Clark was a dead weight in her arms.

If it was the last thing she did in this life, Lois Lane would not give up.

It amused Ixion that the two women were trying to escape with the wounded hero of the Patriarch's world. He felt a hint of admiration at their determination but it was fleeting. The war god had given him a duty and Ixion would carry it out to avoid being returned to the great wheel in Tartarus. Crossing the distance between them in two large strides, he prepared to deliver a killing blow when suddenly, the Amazon broke away and charged him in some ludicrous expression of courage. He swatted her aside with barely a thought as to where her fragile body went after she had flown out of his sight.

"Menalippe!" Lois cried out as she saw the woman flying across the space within the crater, coming to a hard landing near the foot of the slope leading out of it. Menalippe landed and did not move again and as Lois clutched Clark's arm, she didn't know if the woman was still breathing or not.

"Come on that you bastard!" She hissed, glaring at him in outrage. "Get it over with!"

"What will he do when I dash your brains against the earth I wonder?" Ixion laughed, amused by her feisty spirit. "Do you think he will weep or will he find another warm body to console himself with?"

Lois stared Ixion in the eye, holding her ground, her eyes burning with fury as her voice escaped her. "He'll kill you," she said venomously. "That's what he'll do. He'll kill you."

And even as she said it, Lois knew if Clark survived and she did not, that was surely what he would do.

"You are his love," the monster laughed derisively. "His guilt will tear him apart and I will have defeated him without needing to lift another finger against him."

Superman chose to lift his head at that moment.

He hurt. Even as he took breath, he could feel the raspy trail of dirt in his nostrils all the way to his lungs. While the foreign matter in his lungs did not little to harm him, in his weakened state, he felt it. The pain in his side was blinding, it radiated throughout his flesh, reminding him of his mortality but it was inconsequential next to the warmth of the woman trying her best to keep him on his feet, to keep alive even though she should have left him and saved herself.

But his Lois would not do that.

Her love for him was a power in itself and as much as the world relied on Superman to save it, Clark Kent relied on Lois Lane to keep him strong. Like now.

"You're right about that," Clark spoke through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain as his voice escaped him with a sinister note of menace that belied the fury behind his blue eyes, now almost black. This creature had come to his home, murdered innocent people, damn near killed him and now threatened Lois.

She was the line in the sand Ixion should not have crossed.

"You're not going to get the chance to lift a finger to do anything else against me," Clark spoke in a low voice as he stepped away from Lois, not looking at her as he faced Ixion for what was going to be the last time. His cape billowed around him as if his fury had become something tangible, arising from him as if it had no master.

Without uttering another word, Clark unleashed his fury, sweeping aside in one instant all the restraint he had forced himself to endure over the years for fear of the consequences. His heat vision blasted out of his eyes like an exploding furnace, hitting Ixion full in the face. The intense heat enveloped Ixion like he was bathed in lava, melting the monster's helmet around his skull. The titan staggered backwards screaming, as he tried to tear away the molten iron fused to his flesh. Ignoring Ixion's pain, Clark knew that what injury Ixion was enduring wasn't fatal.

"Clark," Lois gasped, her mouth agape with horror at what Ixion was enduring. "Oh my God, Clark." She didn't know whether to be horrified or vindicated. In the end, she was satisfied with throwing her arms around him and embracing him though she was mindful that he was still injured. For a brief moment, Ixion's screams, the near death they had both nearly experience all seemed very far away as she felt his strong arms, holding her.

"Lois," he took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, trying to imprint the taste of her lips on his brain. "I have to go," he glanced at Ixion. "I need to finish this. Bruce and Diana, they're out there fighting something worse than this thing."

"Clark you're hurt," she said glancing down at the wound. "You need help..." she stuttered.

"I know," he nodded, acknowledging his wounds but able to do little else because the fight was more than just Ixion rampaging through Metropolis. It was Ares, wanting to destroy the entire world with nuclear Armageddon, the only kind of masterpiece a god of war could aspire. "But I have to go."

Lois nodded, wiping her tears, kissing him back once more before she answered, "you go. Do what you have to. Be safe for me Smallville."

Clark nodded, "I love you Lane," he smiled at her.

"Don't you forget it Superman," Lois tried to smile back as she stepped away from him so that he could leave her to be the hero the world needed again.

Clark gave her one last look before he leapt into the air, a gust of wind blowing over her as he soared.

She watched him fly towards Ixion, watched him grab the mad titan still in the throes of agony, blinded and bellowing with fury and outrage, his massive arms flaying about, clawing at his face as he tried to recover from Clark's final assault upon him.

Lois watched the red and blue streak disappear into the night sky, taking the creature that had terrorized Metropolis with him.