Come Sail Away, Chapter 3

Clark/Chloe
Season 6
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
The music is "Come Sail Away," by Styx.

A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said
They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me...

Clark strained his superhearing as they walked through the darkness of the cornfield, but all he could hear was the light brush of the breeze through the corn, and the normal nighttime sounds of insects and frogs singing. If there was anyone out here, they apparently didn't possess a heartbeat.

Chloe didn't object to the fact that his arm was still wrapped around her. If anything, she pressed closer to him, and he inferred that she was a little creeped out, too. Maybe Shelby's protective reaction had worried her, or maybe she just didn't enjoy wandering through cornfields in the darkness. He had to admit it did feel kind of like being in a horror movie.

"Relax," he said softly, feeling the tension in her body. "No one's out here."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. No heartbeats anywhere."

She hesitated and looked up at him. In the darkness, he could barely see her, but the starlight glinted off her golden hair and illuminated her face so that it was a pale oval. He suddenly realized they were all alone, concealed from the world, and he suddenly wondered what it would be like to kiss her in the darkness.

His hand lifted, and he cupped her cheek, feeling the softness of her skin against his palm. She looked up into his eyes, and her lips parted, as if her mind was running along the very same paths.

He lowered his head, still looking into her eyes.

And then her head turned slightly. "Oh, my God," she whispered. "Clark. Look at that."

The absolute last thing he wanted to do was look away from her, but he followed her gaze and looked out into the cornfield.

Where before there had been nothing but darkness, there was now an eerie green glow.

His mouth fell open. He still couldn't hear a damn thing that shouldn't be here, but cornfields didn't ordinarily glow, in his experience. He turned toward it, his arm still around her, and took a step forward.

She dug in her heels. "Hold it, Clark. What if it's kryptonite?"

He frowned at the glow. "That'd have to be a hell of a lot of kryptonite, Chlo."

"Still. It glows like that sometime, especially when you get near it. Maybe that UFO was a meteor. That'd explain why it didn't glow till you walked this way."

He had to admit she had a point. But if there was much kryptonite nearby, he had a feeling he'd already be on the ground, writhing in pain.

"I'll go check it out," she said briskly, and tried to slip out of his restraining arm.

"Hold it." He grabbed her wrist, immobilizing her further. "No way. You are not going over there by yourself. Whatever it is, it could be dangerous. You could get hurt."

"But if it's kryptonite, you could get hurt."

He looked at her for a moment, seeing the concern for him on her features. It warmed him to know that someone was that worried about him. "I think I know a better way of checking it out," he said.

He thought about floating, and slowly rose up in the air, Chloe still in his arms.

"Hey," she objected, wiggling. "Didn't I say I wanted to wait on trying this?"

"Hold still. You don't want me to drop you, do you?"

She went very still and wrapped her arms around his neck. "No," she admitted. "I don't think I'd like that."

"Relax," he said, smiling a little at her reaction. "If we fall, I'll land on my feet. You won't be hurt, I promise."

She clung to him, and he tightened his arms around her. The fact that she trusted him so much warmed him still further. Or maybe it was just the pressure of her body against his. She felt so good he almost forgot why he was here.

He forced himself to focus, and they lifted slowly above the corn. He kept lifting higher until he saw the source of the green glow.

It startled him so much he almost fell back to earth.

"Wow," she said, her eyes alight. "It's a spaceship."

It was large and round, and perfectly silent. Green lights glowed around the edges, but otherwise there was no sign of life. It looked for all the world like a old science fiction magazine's illustration of a flying saucer.

Great, he thought grimly. There was a spaceship in the corn. On a farm where an alien lived. What were the odds of that being a coincidence?

Not so great, he figured.

"At least we know it's not kryptonite," he said, and focused on slowly lowering himself back to earth. Seconds later his feet hit the dirt, and she promptly let go of him and headed for the spaceship. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back.

"Excuse me. Why exactly are you walking in that direction?"

She looked at him as if he were crazy. "It's the story of a lifetime, Clark."

"It's a freaking spaceship, Chlo. And we don't know a thing about the people who are inside. All we know is it's apparently been cruising around the Earth, and now it just happens to be in my corn. I'm thinking they've been looking for me."

"Maybe they just want to talk."

"Maybe. Or maybe the people inside have a vendetta against the House of El and want to wipe it out. There seem to be a lot of people like that. My real father may have been a great hero of Krypton, but he seemed to have a talent for pissing people off."

"Because he built an unbreakable prison for evil criminals."

"Doesn't matter. For all we know, this is a shipful of criminals. Do not walk toward it. Let's just kind of back away, okay?"

"And do what? Hope they just fly away?"

"I'll cope with whatever comes out. I promise. But you need to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you alone," she said, sounding indignant.

Yeah, because one small Earth girl is going to be so much help in fending off aliens with superior technology. He kept the thought to himself, aware that it wouldn't endear him to Chloe. She was a fighter, but if whatever was in this spaceship had malevolent intentions, Chloe wasn't going to be able to do much to stop them.

Suddenly something shimmered in the air above them. Clark wrapped his arm around Chloe, yanking her hard against his chest, and stared up in shock as five figures-- two men and three women-- materialized above them. They were all wearing white robes, and they all had long hair, rippling down past their shoulders. They looked human enough, but their features were ethereally lovely, as if they'd been copied from a Renaissance painting.

"They look like angels," Chloe whispered.

He cocked his head, listening. They might look like angels, but his superhearing identified the telltale signs of mortals-- five heartbeats, and the sound of breathing. They were no more angels than he was.

They hung in the air, floating easily, as if gravity wasn't a concern for them. A stunningly beautiful woman with long, golden hair drifted forward.

"Hello, Kal-El," she said.

Startled at the sound of his Kryptonian name, Clark jerked, then stared up at her. "How do you know that name?"

"We've been searching this globe for you." She smiled down at him. "It's time to come home, Kal-El."

Read Chapter 4 here.