Smallville Count Hospital: The battered Justice League stood around Clark's body lying on the hospital bed.

"For valor in the face of danger, we honor Clark Kent," said Oliver Queen, wearing a cast on his arm and on a pair of crutches but otherwise still alive. He placed a small medal on Clark's hospital shirt that had the letters JL on it and backed away as the team looked at their former member with respect before they turned to go.

"So what are you guys going to do now?" asked Chloe watching them leave as she still sat by Clark's bed.

"What we always do Pinky," said Impulse with a broken smile.

"Go save the world," Oliver finished. "Once we're back to fighting strength that is."

The rest of the team nodded as they winced from all the injuries they had sustained from Doomsday's assault.

"Don't be a stranger if you need my help," said Chloe with a slight smile. Oliver nodded.

"Will do Watchtower, will do," Ollie responded as the team left her behind. Chloe looked over Clark's body one last time as she tried to figure out what to say. After all she would be the only one to give him any kind of eulogy, albeit unheard, Martha had decided to keep his death a secret so no one would suspect that he was the one who had been fighting Doomsday earlier and because of the cover story they had already concocted would be hard to explain with this new development. But Chloe was having trouble coming up with the words to express how she felt.

"I guess the first thing I'll say is-," began Chloe when the sound of a door opening caught her attention.

"O-oh, h-hello," stuttered a man who was in a ratty old coat and had a cap in his hands almost as if in respect to Clark.

"Can I help you?" asked Chloe confused as to what this man could possibly be doing here. She reached for her can of pepperspray just in case.

"I-I-I h-heard th-that C-Clark K-Kent w-was h-here," said the man nervously wringing his cap in his hands. "H-he, he s-saved m-my l-life o-once."

Chloe was even more confused by this statement.

"W-what?" asked the man confused.

"How did you find out about this, it was never made public," Chloe said as her eyes narrowed at the man.

"Y-y-you'd be su-sur-surprised w-what you-you c-can l-l-learn i-in t-the u-underw-world," the man continued. "M-Miss…?"

"Sullivan," said Chloe. "Chloe Sullivan."

Realization seemed to dawn on the man's face. "O-oh, th-the re-reporter."

He offered her his hand with a tattered glove on it to shake her hand as Chloe reluctantly did so but was prepared for trouble. It never came as the shake finished and both stood there unsure as to what to do next.

"And your name is?" asked Chloe, ready to leave and look it up with her computer and the Daily Planet's remote database.

"Ma-ma-ma-Mat-ches Ma-ma-ma-Malone," responded the man. "C-c-could w-we h-have a m-moment a-alone?"

Chloe looked at Clark's body and then at the man who seemed to radiate only innocence.

"Fine," she agreed before warning. "But don't try anything or I will be back…faster than a speeding bullet."

"Y-yes m-ma'am!" said Matches Malone giving her a military salute. Chloe sighed and headed for the exit before surreptitiously hiding her tape recorder on a nearby tray when she was sure Matches attention was no longer on her. Then with that she was gone leaving him behind. But as soon as she did, a shift seemed to come over the man as casual innocence was replaced with calculating eyes as Matches straightened up, walked to her tape recorder, and shut it off before drawing the blinds, locking the door, and looking at the body on the hospital bed. Matches looked it over on all sides and then went through the patient's chart. It was as he was doing this that his head turned slightly as if he had heard an almost imperceptible noise as Matches eyes began looking at a darkened corner of the room through his periphery vision.

"You may as well show yourself Clark, I know this isn't you," said Matches with no hint of a stutter whatsoever in an almost completely different voice. Clark Kent appeared from the shadows with a smile.

"Nothing ever seems to get by you does it?" he asked with a grin. Matches shrugged.

"I've always been fascinated with the old noir detective stories," he said unapologetically. Clark laughed briefly at that before offering his hand.

"Hello Bruce, it's been awhile," said the Man of Steel. Matches Malone aka the 20 some odd year Bruce Wayne returned Clark's handshake.

"Yes it has been, hasn't it," the boy billionaire agreed. "But from what I can tell you've been keeping busy."

Clark shrugged. "Something always seems to come up."

Bruce nodded before pointing behind him. "So who's the 'stiff'?"

The Clark Kent on the bed morphed into the Martian Manhunter and stood up.

"You can leave us for now," said Clark to him. "Bruce and I just need to catch on some old times."

J'onn nodded and vanished through a nearby wall.

"Those Martians are capable of some handy tricks," Bruce noted. Clark nodded, not surprised with Bruce's deductive skills.

"So what brings you out from Gotham City?" asked Clark curious as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"They finally had the hearing for Joe Chill," said Bruce darkly.

"Ah," said Clark nodding, knowing all about the man who had murdered Bruce's parents. "How did that go?"

"Not well," said Bruce with an eerie air of calm about him. "He's dead."

Clark started at that before Bruce held up his hand to calm him.

"Not by me, mind you but…I certainly wanted to do it," he said as he put his hands into his pockets. Clark returned to the wall.

"So what happened?" asked Kal-El curious. Bruce shrugged.

"Well…someone put out a hit on him and then I went to go talk to that man angry for him having stolen my only outlet for revenge," continued the other person. "We had a chat, I learned some things that I had been denying for some time, and I traded a man for his coat and came right here when I heard what had happened."

"Well I guess that explains this," said Clark pulling out a copy of the Daily Planet with the headline: 'Heir to the Wayne Fortune Vanishes Without a Trace'. "I must say I'm touched that the first thing you decided was to check up on me."

"Let's just say if someone managed to take you out well…it wouldn't be good," said Bruce slightly annoyed at Clark's comment before finally taking a seat on Clark's abandoned hospital bed. "And so I had to know for sure what had actually happened to you."

"Yeah Doomsday was a real barn burner. J'onn somehow managed to resuscitate me but for a few moments I was actually dead," said the Kryptonian shivering. "I don't know how I pulled through, but it finally provided me with an opportunity that I'd been looking for, for quite awhile."

"So what are you going to do?" asked the human curious.

"Leave," answered Clark simply. "When I was gone after the bomb hit my mom came up with some story about how I'd gone traveling abroad. It actually sounds like a good idea."

Bruce nodded before confessing. "I actually intend to do the same."

"Really?" said Clark, his interest piqued. "We should go together."

Bruce eyed him like he was mad. "A team up? Maybe someday but not today."

"You're missing out," Clark insisted. "You and me together, think of the possibilities. We could open our own farm with you handling the business aspect of it and me the growing."

Bruce chuckled at that, the first time he'd laughed in quite awhile.

"Well I suppose with you being an alien and all you could make our own crop circles and they'd actually be genuine," Bruce admitted as Clark looked mildly shocked that Bruce actually cracked a joke.

"At any rate, I think we're looking for two different things out there," responded the Gothamite with a tinge of regret.

"And what are you looking for out there?" asked Clark calmly. Bruce looked up at him with dark eyes.

"The worst that humanity has to offer," he responded. "I want to know and understand how the criminal mind works and how to stop it. I seek...The means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful."

Clark nodded with a hint of regret. "You're right we are looking for different things. I'm looking for the best that humanity has to offer. I'm going to be looking for truth and justice wherever I go and help those who so desperately need it."

Silence filled the air at that.

"I wish I was more like you," Bruce confessed.

"Funny," said Clark. "I was about to say the same thing. I wish I was more like you."

"You can't mean that," said Bruce shaking his head dismissively. "You see the best in humanity, what's bad about that?"

"Yeah but that's all I see," Clark admitted. "I can't see the darker parts of humanity because I have so much hope that people will change and that I shouldn't interfere with them and their chance to change. But some people just don't and I can't bring myself to stop them when it needs to be done."

"You mean Lex Luthor," Bruce figured. Clark nodded.

"I should've stopped him a long time ago but I just can't bring myself to do it," Clark confessed. "And every time he does something I know that it's inevitably my fault. So I'm going away to try and find where the proper balance lies between doing what I think is right and doing what is right."

"As will I," answered Bruce calmly. "As will I. But…do you think it's cruel to them all to make them think you're dead?"

"That's a bit rich coming from you," said Clark waving the newspaper again. Bruce shrugged.

"Aside from Alfred and Rachel, I doubt anyone will care what happens to me," said Bruce, Clark having met both during a brief adventure the two had had some time ago. "I have few friends Clark, that's just how it is with me."

"Well if you ever need anything don't hesitate to ask," said Clark. "If you can ever reach me that is."

"I will," Bruce promised. "And by all means hold the same true of me as well."

"You know there's actually something you can do for me right now," Clark admitted and he told Bruce what it was.

Later: Chloe noticed the blinds were pulled down and hurried into the room and found an empty bed and an open window. She quickly lunged for her tape recorder but found it had been shut off and the tape rewound to the beginning. Still looking around, her eyes fell on a note that was on the bed.

"Watch the Skies," said Chloe reading the note as below it, Clark's S logo and a strange black logo that looked like a bat appeared. She looked up at the open window and walked towards it when her eyes spotted the newspaper sitting on the nearby chair. She picked it up and read the headline before realization dawned on her and she walked to the window and looked out into the daytime sky as wind lightly breezed against it as a smile crossed her face.

"Guess some things are best left unsaid," she said before she turned around and left the room.

Airport: Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne were standing by an airplane that had passengers boarding it from the airfield.

"4800, 4900, 5000," said Bruce counting off hundred dollar bills as he handed them to Clark before adding wryly. "Hopefully that'll get you through at least partway through your trip."

"Bruce I can't take your money," Clark said uneasy. "You'll need as much of it as you can get on your trip."

"No, no," Bruce insisted. "I'm not living the rich life anymore. In order to understand the criminal element I must become as desperate as they are. Only then will I truly be able to learn how they think and operate."

"Alright," said Clark not wanting to get into an argument as he pocketed the money and shifted his backpack on his shoulder.

"I'll see you around," Clark decided as his parting statement as he offered his hand once more.

"Yeah you too," Bruce agreed as both shook hands once more. And then Superman and Batman parted ways as one took to the sky and one headed for the open doors of the airplane.

A/N: No this isn't a copout of an ending, I always had this ending in my mind even if the rest of the story didn't occur like my original plot outline did. The story was supposed to go, Justice League fights Doomsday first, then Clark, then he 'dies' in Metropolis, and finally meets up with Bruce. But whatever it's done with, that's all that matters. Hope you enjoyed it.