#and also Clark x Lex would complete the love triangle between Clark Lex Lana

[maraleestuff]

Smallville season 6 au where Lana and Lex getting engaged/ married is what drives Clark to move on beyond Smallville and start toward his journey to becoming Superman.

It’s not instant; he’s still in love with Lana, but he knows she won’t ever really be safe if she knows his secret. If not Lex, relentlessly obsessed, it could be Lionel, or anyone else desperate enough to control him. (And, deep down, Clark knows it’s never really worked with Lana. There are reasons he never felt he could truly be himself with her.)

But Clark dedicates himself to finding the rest of the Phantom Zone prisoners. Instead of swearing not to start his training until the prisoners are all found and dealt with, Clark splits his time between hunting the prisoners and training in the Fortress—because while he held his own against krypto-metas, intergalactic criminals are another beast entirely. At some point, Chloe drags him up for air to keep him from getting himself killed. (Dealing with heartbreak and a single-minded mission isn’t always a good thing.) Oliver drags him into working a mission with the nascent Justice League. (Proving a top dollar executive is embezzling funds or whatever isn’t the same as fighting aliens—but it does save jobs & livelihoods.)

Then comes the slightly altered season 6 finale. Lana fakes her death to escape Lionel’s threats, frames Lex; Clark fights Bizzaro, etc. (Clark hears about Lana’s “death” from Lionel, but after knowing that Lionel threatened Lana, he’s almost certain that Lionel witnessing Lana’s death isn’t a coincidence. And despite the rift with Lex, he doesn’t believe that Lex would have hurt Lana.)

Don’t get me wrong, I love Kara, but she wouldn’t come in yet (or until after Clark has established himself as Superman). Instead the new Season 7 would open with a tenuous alliance between Clark and Lex as they try to solve Lana’s “murder”, and Clark shifts his focus toward Metropolis, becoming a reporter for the Daily Planet, making secret saves in the shadows (whether becoming the Red-Blue Blur as a precursor to Superman or just skipping that step entirely).

And of course, we can’t forget about Veritas—and what Lionel might do to “protect” the Traveler who he can’t control….

(As an aside: in this au, Lionel was responsible for the whole fake pregnancy thing with Lex and Lana. Cause that felt cruel and extremely out of character even for “evil” Lex cause wtf was that anyway??)