Earth.

Home.

If the plan succeeded, Clark would get to go back. His heart swelled at the thought. What would his friends and family think after he'd been gone for over a year? His mom must have been terrified when he disappeared, but after so long would she think him lost or dead?

He had to wonder how Chloe was doing as well. He doubted that she'd ever stop investigating the bizarreness of Smallville, and hopefully she could do so safely with Oliver's help. Even so, Clark hoped that they'd be careful, guns were useless against some of the problems that affected his hometown and fancy arrows weren't that much better either.

Clark was getting ahead of himself. It would be better to imagine how they were doing after he defeated the phantom. Getting back to Earth was just the first step, the second was containing his doppelganger, preferably right upon arrival.

Based on his and Arthur's sleep schedule in the cavern, Clark thought it was morning. His body was so drained of sunlight that he couldn't even look through the rock or hear any morning birdsong from above to check.

After breakfast, Clark waited for the phantom to arrive. It was maybe half an hour later when the double appeared in front of them in an instant.

"So Clark, any progress?" he asked.

"Yes, I've gotten Jor-El to agree to take us back to Earth."

The phantom stared at him for a few seconds, suspicious. Clark could almost feel the enhanced vision probing him and he resisted the urge to squirm. When the phantom was finished, he gave Clark a pleased smile. "You've really done it. Good, so how is it going to work?"

Clark held up the crystal. "It needs to charge. Leave it in the sun for about ten hours and it'll be able to bring us back home."

"Really, ten hours?"

"Yeah."

"You're not planning to give it more juice than it actually needs to try and pull something on me, are you?"

"If I did, would I tell you?"

The phantom shrugged. "Fine, I'll charge it, but you'll work with what I give it. No more."

"Okay."

"Now hand it over." The phantom extended his hand.

Clark gave him the crystal. The double's eyes widened slightly when it didn't knock him away as it usually did. He held it up to his face and studied it. Then he gave Clark a final glance. "See you tonight."

The next moment he was gone.

\\\\\

The phantom returned about an hour after the time when Clark and Arthur usually slept. It was longer than Clark had expected, and definitely longer than the ten hours needed to charge the crystal.

"That took a while. Were you busy?" Clark asked him when he finally appeared.

"No, just patiently waiting for the sun to set. Now that it has, I know you two are going to miss this cozy little home, but it's time to leave. Follow me." The phantom headed to the stairs, choosing to hover rather than walk up them.

Clark and Arthur ascended the stairs behind him. When they reached the mouth of the cave, a breeze hit them, full of forest scents. It was soothing, and Clark hadn't noticed how cramped the cavern had felt until he saw the sparkling night sky above him.

However, he became guarded at the sight of the three people waiting outside. Torchwick, Neo, and Mercury.

"What are they doing here?" Clark asked.

"I promised them that they'd get a trip to Earth too. Their prospects on Remnant are not good if I'm not here to keep Cinder off their backs. Oh, and they're also ready to make sure you don't try anything before the three of us make the first test run to Earth."

"The three of us? Who besides you and me is going?"

"The kid." The phantom pointed at Arthur. At Clark's expression he chuckled. "I'm not dumb enough to try this without insurance, Clark. There's a chance you would send the two of us to the Phantom Zone to trap me, but there's no way you'd risk an unwilling innocent there to die too."

Clark looked to Arthur. The phantom was right, but at least Clark hadn't considered a plan like that. No, if he succeeded, the crucial moment would be on Earth.

"Earth?" The young boy asked. "You mean, like, the ground? Where are we going?"

"You'll see soon," Clark said.

They walked out onto the grass and came to a stop about thirty feet away from the cave.

"So before we start, I'm going to show you something," the phantom said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gray piece of metal. "That's lead, can you guess what's in there?"

"Kryptonite."

"That's right. It's all that I have left." The phantom tore it open, revealing a grape-sized pellet. He let out a gasp, almost as if he were in pain, but then the kryptonite's light faded and then became a clear, inert rock. He smiled. "I'm sure there will be more on Earth. Now, how are we going to do this?"

Clark pushed his arm forward with the crystal in his hand facing up. "Just touch the crystal."

"Hey kid, you first," the phantom said.

Arthur placed a hand on the crystal and Clark's double laid his hand on top.

"I'm going to talk to Jor-El," Clark said. He closed his eyes and entered the mindset necessary for using the crystal.

'Jor-El, it's time to go to Earth.'

'No, son. It is time for you to remember.'

Clark gasped as new memories appeared in his mind. Then he realized that they weren't new memories, but old memories which were being returned. His eyes snapped open as blue-white light flashed in front of him and he recalled the true plan.

The phantom was encased in crystal. His arm stretched out towards Clark, only inches from him and the double's face was twisted in rage. Since he'd been in contact with Arthur, the boy was covered in the crystal as well. He was still looking at Clark with his uncertain expression, the crystal had grown around them too quickly for him to react, fast enough that the phantom had barely been able to move.

Just as Jor-El had said, they would be immersed in the crystal, unaware of their surroundings until Clark broke them free.

Strength returned to Clark's body, and his senses achieved a range and breadth far beyond any human's.

Yet it was still only a fraction of what he was accustomed to. Something had gone wrong, the plan had been for him to recover his full power. A quick reading of the crystal told Clark that the phantom hadn't charged it for the full ten hours, as expected, but Jor-El had thought there had been more than enough energy for Clark to return to something like full strength. What had changed the equation was the phantom's lunge, which left too little energy for Clark.

Clark turned to face the three, who looked on in shock. He sent some power into his eyes to make them glow, which took a lot more effort than usual. "Surrender."

"Alright alright, we give up!" Torchwick spoke first and raised his arms. After a moment, the other two followed his lead.

Clark considered briefly which one of them was the most dangerous. Torchwick and Neo he felt like he could handle even in his weakened state, but he'd never seen Mercury fight. Clark made his decision and rushed forward, and even though he was pushing his speed near his current limit shock registered on their faces.

Mercury didn't move fast enough to dodge, but his aura did activate. Clark punched him into the ground, and the hit kicked up some dirt. Mercury's aura flickered from the damage.

Clark frowned, he'd meant to take away all of his aura with that strike. He quickly punched down to try again when a cane came at him from his side. Normally it would have bounced off with no effect, but this time it knocked his head a few inches to the right. That delayed Clark enough for Mercury to kick him, but Clark managed to block the blows.

Mercury jumped back. "H-he's weak right now, we can beat him!"

Neo's blade was the next attack, but Clark smacked it aside. It sank further into his skin than he would have liked, but there was barely any pain and the edge didn't draw blood.

Clark took some quick steps back. The three of them grouped together, looking at him warily. "I might not be at my best, but I can still beat the three of you," he said.

Torchwick answered by shooting at him. The shot might have been difficult to dodge at point-blank range, but at this distance Clark turned aside and avoided it easily.

Mercury also fired at him, his legs apparently containing wind Dust which released blasts of colored air at Clark with each kick. Clark dashed aside to dodge them, at which point Neo swooped in from above with a slash from her umbrella sword. He met her partway through her attack and landed a hit on her arm. However, she twisted in a way that seemed to partially deflect the blow and leave her with a decent level of aura.

At that point Torchwick fired another round, which Clark ducked under. Mercury moved in with a twirling kick. Clark blocked it with a forearm, then without missing a beat Mercury spun on his feet to launch a barrage of kicks. Clark let his strikes land so that he could reach out and grab Mercury. However, a split-second before his hand made contact, the Mercury before him was replaced by something that didn't breathe, have a heartbeat, or sounded at all like a human. He then ignored the illusion and threw a fist at the real Mercury, who was being pulled back by Neo, both of them hidden to normal eyes.

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Her umbrella folded out and his hand tore a hole in the metal-reinforced fabric. There was a brief tug from Neo, but there was no way Clark would lose a contest of strength even in this state. She abandoned her weapon. He threw it to the ground and stomped on it hard, bending it out of shape and ruining the blade.

"Hit and run tactics, Mercury. That's the only way we're going to beat him," Torchwick said.

"You're not going to beat me regardless," Clark spoke up. "I'm still willing to accept surrender."

"And then what?" The thief spat out. "You'll give us up to Ironwood or Vale? After what we've done, there's no way we're not going on the chopping block."

"There might be hope for you if you agree to share what you know about Salem's and Cinder's plans. I can talk to Ironwood or Vale and get a better chance for you." Clark's offer didn't have much of an effect on Torchwick or Neo, but there was a trace of hesitation in Mercury's eyes.

Torchwick noticed it too. "Hey! You can't seriously be thinking about this. Even if he did get some sort of deal for us, imagine what would happen if he gets out." The thief pointed at the crystal containing the phantom. "You want to get your head ripped off? And don't forget Cinder's still out there, we'd have to trust that Clarkie with the heart of gold here is willing and able to protect us from her twenty-four-seven. If we can't get Trav out, then your best chance is still with us."

Neo looked on warily, her muscles tense and ready to pounce if Mercury moved against them.

Mercury sighed and raised his arms in a stance against Clark. "Yeah, I get it."

"Too bad, you've made a mistake." Faintly visible beams of light shot out of Clark's eyes and burned Torchwick's hand. He screamed and dropped his cane. Fortunately, the burn didn't seem too severe, in Clark's weakened condition it was difficult to estimate how much heat would come out. The amount of effort he'd used would have normally cut Torchwick's hand off.

Clark barreled towards them in another rush of speed. They managed to swerve aside a few feet and avoid him, but he hadn't been aiming towards any of them. He caught Torchwick's cane before it hit the ground. Then he turned around and faced them.

Against any of them alone, it would have been an easy victory for Clark. Even with the three of them now, Clark still felt sure he could win, but that depended on how long the fight dragged on. It was certainly possible that they could wear him down to the point where they could injure and kill him.

However, after disarming the two of them and wielding a weapon which would extend his reach, Clark was a lot more confident. He twirled the cane around experimentally. It was pretty hefty, definitely capable of hurting people with aura.

"Damn it. Neo!" Torchwick's shout sent his partner running forward. The other two followed her.

Neo favored kicks like Mercury, especially now that she had lost her weapon. However, she was a lot more slippery. Mercury did his best to dodge too, desperate to avoid another powerful strike from Clark, but it was clear that he was more comfortable with a less evasive fighting style. Torchwick threw some punches too, although he was certainly the least capable unarmed fighter among them.

Clark didn't stay in one place long enough for the three of them to gang up on him. He could watch for and handle the attacks from two at once with some effort, not to mention that their blows didn't really even hurt. Even so, when he didn't know how much his durability drained his powers, it seemed better to dodge and block than to tank attacks from all three of them.

The optimal moment came when Neo shot by with a flying kick and Torchwick punched at Clark. A swing of the cane into the back of Torchwick's head sent him sprawling forwards with a yelp of pain right into Mercury.

Over the course of the fight, Clark had noticed that Torchwick and Neo worked well together. They communicated to each other and often timed their attacks together. Mercury was a different story, he usually didn't get in their way, but he fought as a separate unit from the pair. It had only taken a nudge to get him and the thief to collide.

Clark heard Neo's gasp and her approaching footfalls. With a sidelong glance he swung the cane at her, forcing her back in helpless anger as he headed towards the dazed duo.

Mercury saw him first. "Shit! Get off me!" He shoved Torchwick aside and tried to move away, but Clark's foot connected with the side of his torso. Mercury was thrown into a tree, which burst into splinters and with a deep thud he hit one behind it.

Mercury's aura winked out and his breathing and heartrate switched to the telltale rhythm of the unconscious. For a stunned moment, Torchwick and Neo stared at him.

The rest of the fight was a breeze. Neo tried another illusion for Torchwick to get a second to recover, but Clark ignored it and just switched to attacking her. There was a brief flash of surprise as she wasn't used to fighting those with enhanced senses.

She was a tricky one. Even though Clark was much stronger than her, he wasn't that much faster and she knew how to take his blows so that they did the least amount of damage possible. She tried to turn strikes at her torso into oblique hits which spun her around. It took more hits to take her down than it should have, but eventually he unbalanced her with a strategic blast of diminished super-breath and drained her aura with a chop.

When he saw that, Torchwick bit his lip and fell to his knees. His heart throbbed in anger, but he kept his voice even and raised his hands. "Alright, I give up."

"You could have surrendered earlier and avoided all this, you know."

Torchwick hung his head low and didn't respond.

"Go into the cave." Clark pointed. Torchwick stood up and walked towards it. He paused when he passed by Neo's unconscious body. "You can take her in with you."

Torchwick carried her with a gentleness that surprised Clark and went into the cave. Clark went to Mercury, emptied his legs of Dust except what was needed to power it for a few hours, and carried him down.

"Stay in here until I come back in the morning," Clark ordered. Torchwick nodded.

When Clark left the cave, he dug into the rock and raised a boulder that he currently struggled to carry. He set it in front of the cave. It would be foolish to just trust the three of them to stay, after all.

"Hey! Hey!" Torchwick pounded against it from the other side. "If you're going to leave us here to die, say it to our faces!"

Clark made a few holes into the boulder so they could breathe. His heat vision softened parts of the rock so he could poke into them with Torchwick's cane. They were a few feet deep and only a bit over an inch across.

"Don't worry, Torchwick," Clark said. "You'll live."

When he finished with that, he threw the cane away. It was about three in the morning and several hours until sunrise.

At least, if Clark stayed still. Instead he ran to the east, and less than an hour later he was greeted by the warm yellow glow of the morning sun. Then it was only a matter of seconds before his true strength returned and he raced towards the noon. The sun climbed in the sky until it was directly above his head; he stretched out his arms and closed his eyes, bathing in the light's warmth.

\\\\\

It had been touch and go at times, but the truck taken from Brunswick Farms had powered on and brought its passengers all the way to Argus.

Ruby breathed out in relief when they were greeted by the gray stone wall of the port city, which was flanked by steep ridges that protected it from land-based Grimm. Once her scroll had a signal, notifications of missed calls and messages popped up. She ignored them and called Jaune. It only took two rings before he picked up.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted in joy at the screen. "Are you okay? How about everyone else?"

"We're all safe, Jaune," Ruby said. "The seven of us are about to enter Argus. It's been a rough few days and we'd like to rest after meeting up with everyone."

"Sure, I totally get it. Team JNPR's actually staying with my sister and her girlfriend right now, they've got a big house here that I think can fit you guys too. Here's the address." After a few seconds Ruby received a message with the address.

"Okay, we'll head there."

Jaune nodded, and then he creased his eyebrows together. "Hold on, seven of you? Who else is there besides your team, uncle, and Oscar?"

"One of the other passengers managed to survive. Actually, it turns out she can help me learn more about my eyes."

"Really? Wow, lucky us."

Uncle Qrow snorted. "That's one way of looking at it."

"By the way, where is everyone el-" Ruby stopped when wailing started in the background of Jaune's call. That got her scroll a lot of curious looks from the others.

"Sorry about that," Jaune said when it stopped a few seconds later. "That was my nephew. The rest of my team really likes taking care of him, and his moms appreciate the free babysitting a lot."

Jaune had a baby nephew? Huh, that was interesting. Although Ruby realized it shouldn't be that surprising considering how many sisters he had.

\\\\\

After regaining his power and charging up the crystal, Clark returned to the forest where Arthur and the phantom were trapped. He freed Arthur and then brought him back home to Higanbana safely.

Then he took the phantom and ran to uncharted territory where the Grimm ran rampant. When Clark felt he went deep enough, he started cutting down the approaching Manticores in the sky with his heat vision and knocked aside any Ursai or Beowolves attacking him on the ground. He dug a hole into the ground near a mountain which was an easily recognizable landmark and covered the phantom back up. The Grimm didn't pay any attention to the trapped phantom so there didn't seem to be any danger of them digging him up.

Next was contacting Ironwood about the three in the cave. Clark's scroll had been destroyed, so he had to run to Atlas instead and find a way to contact the general there. It wasn't going to be as easy as buying a scroll and dialing his number. Clark's old scroll hadn't displayed Ironwood's contact information. It had only given him the option to call him.

Clark arrived in the snowy city and pinpointed the general's location with super-hearing and X-ray vision. He was in a meeting right now, talking to subordinates in the military. If Clark managed to get up onto the floating section of the city it would be simple enough for him to sneak in and talk to Ironwood when he was alone, but he would be seen if he jumped onto it from the ground. At least, if he jumped to it slowly enough to avoid destroying any buildings.

Clark thought about whether he would have a better chance at night and come back later after going to Haven. However, before he left, he heard the whine of metal being bent past its breaking point and the rush of air in a vehicle along with shouts of panic.

His eyes focused in on the source immediately, a smoking Bullhead approaching the city with a Grimm that looked like a four-legged pterosaur attached to it. It was attacking a passenger craft, biting and clawing, rather than one of the many military ones floating above. The pilots' windows were shattered and there were long tears in the vehicle's side.

An invisible burst of heat broke through the monster's skull, which was on the thinner side for a Grimm, scorching its brain. It fell away, dissolving into nothingness as it died, but the damage had been done. The Bullhead was going to crash into the slums below Atlas unless Clark stopped it.

He raced out and with impeccable aim he leaped up to meet the Bullhead with enough momentum to bring it to a stop before it hit any buildings. Then it would be a straight fall down to the ground.

However, that plan was derailed when a chunk of the craft fell off, inside of it were seats with several people still buckled in them. Clark grit his teeth as he watched it from slowed time, if it had just been a piece of metal he could have vaporized it before it hit anyone below. Super-breath might have helped if he were below them, but it would just knock them away and they'd still hit the ground at a fatal speed.

Subjective minutes passed by as Clark watched on, desperately trying to think of a solution. Then he realized that there was a simple answer, one that he'd finally understood deep in that cave as he'd learned how to use the crystal. He had to accept who he was and what he was.

Clark stretched out his hand and in mid-air he moved towards the people on the part of the Bullhead which tumbled and spun below him. The world froze as he flew towards them and caught the Bullhead section. He made sure they had a soft landing and in another burst of speed he rushed into the air and caught the Bullhead before it hit the ground.

Then, he carried it over to the nearest airfield, which was on the floating city of Atlas. Over the course of the next few minutes, he and the ruined aircraft went up and then gently drifted down to a landing pad.

It was in the first minute that someone first took a camera and zoomed in on Clark. He saw it on screens in the city and heard the military radio chatter and the news stations describing his flight in detail.

Even before he'd landed some people in the airfield had begun heading towards him. Most looked like airport personnel, although a few seemed to just be curious citizens with their scrolls pointing towards him.

Clark debated over whether he should stay to say something to them or not, but before he made up his mind the crystal shot up out of his pocket at a speed which almost took him by surprise. He reached out to grab it, but it sent him a wordless message which gave him pause.

The crystal was a guide. His role was to follow.

Clark pulled his hand back and obeyed the directions. The crystal flew up with blue light, him following a few feet from behind, and when it had reached above the clouds it stopped ascending and sped towards the north.

It was a relaxing trip, he wasn't used to travelling these distances without speeding up his perception. The clouds raced under him like a rippling sheet of white and from time to time he caught the ice through its gaps. The ice was a different white than the clouds, much more solid and even except when brief patches of rock flashed by.

The trip ended quickly when he didn't speed up his mind to match though. Only moments later the crystal came to an abrupt stop and then dove down into the ground. It had told him to keep his distance and watch rather than keep following though, so Clark hovered a few thousand feet away from where it had hit the ice.

He gasped as he saw what the crystal was doing. It grew, forming more and more crystal. Not as quickly as it had when capturing the phantom, but the more controlled and exact growth allowed a structure to emerge. More crystal climbed on top of the foundation lain down before them, and Clark soon realized what he was seeing.

The Fortress of Solitude, built on Remnant anew.