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Title: Unnamed (aka Tiny Ficlet @ ksite)
Author: smlvlchk
Summary: Clark struggles through a mental torment between knowing what he could have if he let his friends in on his secret and what it would cost him if he didn't, not to mention the danger his friends would be in once they knew his secret.  Will Lana still accept him for who he is if she finds out? Will Chloe?

Prologue:
Clark left her standing there, alone and wondering why he did it. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, and it was far from being the last. He just left spontaneously for the hundredth time since they had become friends. It didn’t really surprise her, she should really actually be used to it by now, but something inside sad something was just not right. She wasn’t a journalist, like Chloe, or a best friend to him, like Pete, but she could be suspicious when she needed to.

When something wasn’t right, it didn’t take a brainiac to figure it out. It was common sense for the residents of Smallville and for most people living anywhere. When a new meteor mutant dipped out of the shadows everyone knew about it and was on the look out. It was something the civilians had grown accustomed to and lived by.

But with Clark it was another matter. She had asked him flat out if he was infected by the meteor rocks, after he so miraculously came to her rescue when Van had her captive. He said, and she still remembered his exact words, “I wish it were that easy, but I wasn’t affected by the meteor rocks.” I wish it were that easy played over and over in her mind.

****
Clark: I wish it were that easy, but I wasn’t affected by the meteor rocks
*awkward silence*
I have to get back to work
Lana: What I don’t understand, Clark, is that you’ll walk in front of bullets for me, but you won’t let me know what’s going on inside. If you don’t let the people in who love you, then your always going to be alone. I can’t believe you’d want to live like that.
*hesitating* Clark: I don’t think I really have a choice
Lana *looking him in the eye*: You always have a choice
****

And that was it, the entire conversation ended with her just telling him that he had a choice to live by his will and that he was choosing this path, not her. She was in love with him, he knew that, she had told him numerous times. She thought he was in love with her, but the way he so quickly brushed her aside telling her he was protecting her made her feel like her world had been taken away. Clark had made himself the center of her life for a long time and now he was just walking away from what, she figured, he had set out to do.

She was more than willing to take that step with Clark, he had convinced her it was possible and he pushed it, although very passively as he had a way of doing things. She was determined not to let him do this to her again.

While she stood there, watching Clark walk away from her she knew she couldn’t let him go. They had just had a conversation that would leave him embarrassed, he professed his love for her, and her for him, but he said it would never work. And instead of her saying something and leaving, she said something and he left. Now regretting her words a tear rolled down her cheek as Clark sulked off.

He turned the corner and she couldn’t contain her emotion any longer, she ran after him and in a matter of seconds reached the corner to which he had entered an alley. She stopped in her tracks. He wasn’t there, he was nowhere. There was no a hint of him ever being there. She whipped around and around, her glances darting from corner to corner, from alley to alley, from shop to shop. No Clark.

“Clark!” She yelled. “CLARK!” It was no use, he wasn’t there.

Chapter One
Clark sulked away and turned the corner. Once around the corner he sped things up. He removed the flower from his coat pocket which he had intended to give to Lana, but after she had said those things to him, he thought he’d better go with plan B. He slipped the note he had previously written from his back pocket and when faster than top speed back around the corner and stopped by her car.

Surprisingly, the car door was unlocked so he gently opened it and placed the note under the flower on the passengers seat of her car. He closed the door again and stepped away. Then he heard his name.

Lana was in the alley screaming for him. What was she doing that for? Then he remembered that was the direction he had went when he left her so abruptly right before. He had gotten into the bad habit of doing that a long time ago.

He could tell from a distance that she was crying. That made him wish he could just run over to her, pick her up in his arms and wipe away her tears and all the pain he had caused. After his summer in Metropolis, he knew he had pushed her too far. It was so much more complicated than that.

Trying to correct the problem this time would be a harder, and perhaps slower, process. He knew that it would take time for both of them . But soon, very soon he hoped, he would be able to let Lana in for good.

Snapping out of his trance, he noticed that Lana was heading towards her car. Double checking the rose, he sped off without her catching him.

He had just taken a huge risk. Lana was already confused about his mysterious disappearance from the alley, and now she was going to wonder how the rose got there. It would just keep her thinking until he had the courage to tell her. Not only that, if anyone had seen him disappear from the side of Lana’s car…well…you know how it goes.

For some reason, Clark didn’t go home. It didn’t feel right. So he kept running. Coming to a stop, he realized where he was.

He was standing in front of the entrance to the caves, where the secrets of his past, present and future lay. Lionel had long since abandoned it, with his machinery that is.

Clark walked and through the narrow walls of the cave. It was pitch black except for a little light shining overhead from the fading sun. The darkness didn’t bother Clark, he could see fairly well with his enhanced vision.

As he usually did, Clark started by looking at the signs around the keyhole. Nothing had changed and he breathed a sigh of relief. He looked all around. Up and over , way down low. All the usual figures were in their places. Some were even starting to make sense.

Like the figure that looked like a two headed dragon. Clark figured that it meant the two sides of himself. The side with the blue head meant Clark as his normal self, and the red head meant the red kryptonite enhanced version of himself.

His eye caught something to the left of the two headed figure. It was fairly big and placed lower to the ground, more at his head level, right above his eyes. It was about as big as his head and Clark began to wonder why he had never seen it before. It held the shape of an octagon, like the key to the ship, and around it a specific symbol was on every edge. In the center of the octagon was the symbol Clark’s biological father, Jor-El, had imbedded onto his chest.

The symbol at the very top meant invulnerability. That was something he had very early on in life. Going clockwise he tried to decipher them. Strength, speed, transparency, heat, sound, light and flight were the symbols on the other sides. That was very strange. It was like it was listing his powers in sequence, then stopped. He had invulnerability, strength, speed, transparency (which in the kryptonian language meant everything as transparency, rather than himself, giving the obvious solution of his x-ray vision), and heat (vision). What were sound, light and flight?

Studying it harder he realized that the order given around the octagon was the exact sequence in which he gained his abilities, and looking at it closer, he saw that all of the symbols up to “heat” were in a brighter color than the rest. This was the symbol that predicted the coming of his powers! It had to mean that sound was next in line for his abilities.

Reaching up, he touched it and brushed his fingers over the symbol. He was confused as to why he hadn’t seen it before, but he was also a little giddy at knowing what was coming ahead. The symbol for sound meant ability to hear things beyond ordinary, like an extreme version of hearing capabilities. That was next.

Light, in the sense of the symbol, meant a passing through darkness with illumination. Either that meant he would be like a firefly, or he’d be able to turn on a lamp inside of him.

Flight. Flight could only mean one thing.

Flying.

****

Lana stood in the alley alone and tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was more confused right now than she was sad. She had just told Clark off, practically, and he had just disappeared. It was totally a Clark thing to do, but it angered her because of what she didn’t know. And what was worse she didn’t know what she didn’t know.

Lana walked back out on the street and looked around one last time. She sighed and walked over to her car. Plopping herself onto the seat she drowned herself in her sorrow. Then she noticed something red out of the corner of her eye on the passengers seat. It was a rose. A single red rose with a note laying underneath the head. The note read:

Lana-
I’m very sorry for the pain I’ve caused. I hope that one day I will be able to make it up to you. I hope that one day I’ll be able to explain everything. And then I hope that one day you will be able to forgive me for what I have had to explain.
Yours Truly,
Clark Kent

Lana read the note over and over, soaking in every word of it. Clark didn’t make sense to her at all. He was the man of mystery. It gave her feelings of hurt, anger, frustration and confusion all at once. At no time while reading that letter did she feel a single one of those emotions by themselves.

Knowing she had to go home, for it was getting dark and Chloe would probably call the police within the next thirty minutes, Lana started her car and drove away. She drove home and sat in her car for several moments trying to regain her composure.

She replayed the conversation she and Clark had in her head.

****
Lana: Why won’t you let me in?
Clark: You won’t like what you see. I’m not the right guy for you. No matter how much I want to be.
Lana: Clark, I think you’re right for me, isn’t that enough?
Clark: I’ve hurt you too many times for you to think that. How are you even friends with me anymore? *lets out the hint of a smirk, but it faded quickly*
Lana: Because you’re there for me when I need you. That’s what friends do, no matter how many times they’ve been let down. Besides, you have saved my life about a hundred times, I’m kinda in debt to you.
Clark: So this friendship is an obligation?
Lana: No! Clark, that’s not what I meant. There are still meteor infected people around, I feel safe when your around.
Clark: So I’m a bodyguard?
Lana *getting frustrated*: No, you just always seem to be around when I need help, you give me a reason to stick around you. You save me because you like me, you wouldn’t keep showing up if you didn’t. I was mad at you when Van had me, remember? You still came and saved me.
Clark: I do care about you. More than you’d ever know. But I’m so complicated and I know that hurting you is inevitable because of that complication. With more of the meteor infected people it’ll just be worse.
Lana *showing signs of annoyance*: You care about me but you can’t tell me why you keep hurting me. That makes a lot of sense. *narrowing eyes* This would be so much easier if the meteor shower never happened.
Clark: *eyes saddening* I have to go.
****

Why would the meteor shower make him sad? It always seemed like he took offense to anything anybody ever said about the shower. If anyone should be mad it was herself, he parents were killed! What happened to Clark?

She thought about that. She didn’t know. He had never told her anything about his parents, or his origins, although he had said he was on the verge of finding out where he was from. It was while sitting in the Talon that he had asked to share a secret, the first one she didn’t have to pry out, and he told her that he was close to finding out where he was from and his parents were freaking out.

Maybe his parents had been killed by the meteor shower and he had been abandoned, leaving Jonathan and Martha to adopt him. Maybe that was why he was so secretive about it. But it really seemed strange that he would lead all his friends on to think that he didn’t know about his real birth parents if he really did. Many adopted kids didn’t know their real parents, it wouldn’t be surprising if Clark didn’t either.

Since she didn’t know, and he wouldn’t tell her, she could do nothing but wonder. Thinking long and hard about everything Clark had done while she had known him, she could not determine whether he had ever told her about his family, origins or the strange phenomena that generally happen around him.

The only thing that really mattered to her, and that she wished that she could get through his head, was that she cared about him and that she was grateful for his friendship. She had never meant to make it sound like she was taking their friendship for granted, but it seemed to come out that way. She just wanted him to know that she didn’t care where he was from or who his parents were or even why he had so many secrets. She just wanted to know him, but he wouldn’t let her.

Looking over at the passenger’s seat she glanced at the rose and held it up in her hands. She breathed in the soft scent of the rose and another tear rolled down her cheek. He was very romantic and clever at some points, like in giving her the rose, but other times he was so irrational, like in Metropolis.

Metropolis. Now that was something that really had her confused. Clark was acting so strange while he was there. It reminded her of the Clark that had been very assertive when he came into the Talon such a long time ago and had kissed her with that kind of urgency. He felt the connection between the two circumstances. The kiss he had given her in the Talon resembled the one in the night club in Metropolis, although both were unique.

Clark had a way of bringing out an emotion in Lana that she could only describe when he kissed her. When he had kissed her in the Talon, when he had kissed her in his loft on his birthday night, when he kissed her after Lex’s rehearsal dinner. When he had kissed her on their picnic, and when he had kissed her in Metropolis. They all had a unique quality about them and they made her feel at home. Now he wouldn’t let her make him feel at home.

The funny thing about it all was how it seemed that Clark was holding back from something he desperately wanted. Lana knew that Clark wanted their relationship to work out so bad, but he wouldn’t do it because, well, because he was Clark.

Finally deciding it was time to go inside, she carefully picked up the card from the seat, as if it were made of glass, and stuck it in her purse. Then she opened the door and carried the rose in her hand. She was prepared for Chloe to see her with the rose. She was prepared to make everyone know she wasn’t giving up on Clark.

Chapter Two
Lana walked inside and found Chloe and Pete studying at the kitchen table. Well really Pete was sitting and Chloe was walking around waving her hands around. They both stopped and stared at her as she walked in. Chloe dropped her hands in embarrassment and Pete smiled.

“Oh, hi Lana,” Chloe raised an eyebrow, “something we need to know?”

Lana sort of nodded her head and took a step forward. “Just that I’m not giving up on Clark. I’m hoping that if I just stick in there he’ll come around.”

Chloe smirked, “Well, that makes one of us.” She let out a little laugh to let Lana know she was kidding.

Lana tried to smile but only a small lift of the corner of her mouth was all she could muster. “Yeah. I’ve got homework.” She smiled awkwardly and headed for the stairs.

Chloe, when Lana was out of sit shrugged and started to continue raving at Pete when he held up his hand. “Hey, Chlo. Chill for a sec, eh?” He ran up the stairs after Lana. Chloe, left wondering what just happened, sat down in a chair and began to look over some notes.

Lana had shut her door, so Pete knocked. “Hey Lana. It’s Pete, can I come in?” Lana came to the door and opened it. “Yeah, come in.”

Pete walked in and looked around. It was a typical girl’s room, nothing special, but there were a bunch of pictures of her and Clark on her dresser. He looked at Lana, who had plopped herself on her bed. Not feeling comfortable enough to sit, Pete stood in the middle of the room.

Lana smiled at him. She knew he and Clark were best buds, they had been since they were real little. It felt good to have him in her room, in the sense they had the same, but different, connection to Clark. “This is the first time you’ve ever been in my room.”

Pete chuckled, “Yeah. I haven’t even been in Chloe’s room.” Lana laughed. Pete continued, “You got a lot of pictures of you and Clark.” He walked over to the dresser and picked one up. It was a picture of her and Clark in front of his tractor. Martha had caught them by surprise while they were talking and got the picture. It was so funny Lana had demanded a copy.

Lana sighed, “Yeah, when he isn’t there it’s nice to have a memory to go back on.” She kicked one leg up and sat on it and dangled the other one over the side of the bed.

Pete set down the photo and looked back up at Lana. “You’re doing the right thing, you know.”

Lana looked at him curiously, “I am? I thought I just kept pushing him away further.”

Pete shrugged, “It may seem that way now, but it’ll turn around.” He paused and walked over to where she had laid her jacket over her chair. She had set the rose on top of it, Pete picked it up and twirled it around. “This from him?” She nodded.

She asked him a question, “Did Clark’s parents die in the meteor shower?”

Pete looked up, not so sure how to answer he replied, “Uh, sort of.”

Lana made a weird face, “How can it be a ‘sort of’?”

Pete laughed, “You have to ask him. It’s more of a sensitive issue to him.”

“Is that why he won’t let me in?” Lana asked cautiously.

Pete made a notion of sort of, once again, but started along a different path. “Clark has this problem. He feels that the closer he gets to someone, the more he is going to hurt them.”

Lana lifted an eyebrow, “Really? I haven’t noticed.” She smirked a little.

Pete grinned, “Yeah, he does a pretty good job of hiding it.” They both laughed, Pete stopped and put on a more serious face, “All I mean is, next to his parents, you are the number one person Clark cares about. He always has. Remember the first time you guys had a “date”? He always said that he kicked himself for disappearing on you, because you are the last one he wants to hurt. The truth is, it comes with the territory. Clark can’t, well rather won’t, let people in because of the fear of hurting someone. Especially you.”

“But I want him to know I’m okay with that. If that is what I have to do to be with him then I’ll do it. But this is so hard. I can’t go on knowing that he has feelings for me, but won’t let me in,” she paused and looked him in the eyes, “I just want to be in his life, but he’s making it hard to be his friend.”

Pete nodded understandingly, “I know exactly what you mean. About a year or two ago, that’s where I was. Believe me, it was hard to break him in. But finally I told him that if he wanted our friendship to continue he’d have to start being more honest with me.” He laughed to himself, “I got what I asked for.”

Lana’s eyes narrowed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Pete shrugged, “It totally wasn’t what I was expecting, when he told me, I freaked out and wouldn’t talk to him for a long time. But if you go about it the way I did, it probably won’t work and then you’ve lost him for good.” He stepped forward, “Do you want my advice?”

She nodded, “If it’ll help things.”

Pete stared at her dead cold in the eyes, “If and when he tells you, because I know he will if he cares like I think he does, keep an incredibly open mind. Do not say a thing until you have processed the entire statement through, it may take a couple minutes, but Clark will understand. He’d rather you say nothing than the wrong thing, and that you’d probably regret.”

****
Clark raced home, fuller than full speed and arrived home in seconds. He burst through the door and his parents jumped from their seat on the couch. They had almost fallen asleep, but jumped up when Clark made his graceful entrance.

“Clark! Where have you been?” Martha looked worried, but had the voice behind it that said, I know I don’t need to be worried but it’s a part of the job.

Clark didn’t know whether to be giddy, nervous, confused or just plain freaked. “I uh…I got into a heated discussion with Lana. Then I was feeling a drag to go to the caves, so I went.”

Jonathan stepped forward, “And I suppose something happened down there and that’s why you just tore the door off it’s hinges.”

Clark looked behind him, the door was hanging crookedly from it’s hinges. He blushed, “Yes. I found something that I have never noticed while I’ve been down there before.” He put his hands out in front of him to make the shape of the octagon he had seen, “There was this octagon, about as big as my head. In the middle of it was the sign of my ancestors, you know, the one Jor-El had burned onto my chest. Then around it, on every side, was a symbol. Each of the symbols represented one of my powers, until I got halfway around.”

Martha and Jonathan just stood there and stared at him. “Okay…” Jonathan said, sort of telling him to continue.

Clark continued, “There were eight symbols; invulnerability, strength, speed, transparency, heat, sound, light and flight. That’s what they mean in English, but when you translate them into kryptonian they sort of mean more.” He paused to catch his breath. “Transparency, the first one I didn’t understand right away, means my x-ray vision. Heat, my heat vision of course. And then continuing around, sound means the ability to hear things beyond ordinary, like an extreme version of hearing capabilities. Then light means something like illumination, like a flashlight. The last one, flight, obviously, means to fly.”

Martha sat down, it was too much for her to absorb. “That’s crazy,” she said, just over her breath and loud enough for the other two to hear.

Jonathan asked, “Is that all?”

Clark shook his head, “No. The one’s up to heat were brighter in color than the last three, like those were the one’s I already had. I think the wall tells me when I’m going to get my next power.” He looked at his parents and they were lost in their thoughts.

Jonathan finally spoke up, “Well, I’m not sure whether that’s a relief or another obstacle.” He clamped a hand down on Clark’s shoulder. “Tell you what, we’ll go look at it first thing in the morning. But right now,” he looked down at Martha, “I need some major sleep.”

Clark nodded, “Good idea.”

Chapter Three

Clark and Jonathan arrived at the caves early the next morning. Two farm men would have considered it late, but anyone else would have thought they were crazy. Clark led the way through the maze of cave walls and they quickly reached the familiar roomy space in the center of the cave.

Jonathan stopped and shone his flashlight around, it was interesting to him to just look around at the different symbols. It was crazy to realize that Clark’s ancestors had put them here.

Clark stopped in front of the symbol he had come across last night. He let the light of his flashlight examine it carefully.

Jonathan walked up behind Clark. “Is this it Clark?”

Clark nodded, “Yeah.” He put his finger up to it and he traced the shape of the octagon with his finger. “This is the exact shape of the key, only two or three times bigger. This is the sign of my ancestors,” Clark said, moving his finger to the center of the octagon where the sign was.

“So you’re saying that the symbols up to heat are lit up?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes,” he pointed to the heat sign. “I’ve already gained these abilities, and heat was the last one. The next one is sound.”

Jonathan put his hand up to the marking, if it were to be activated when someone touched it, Clark would have already experienced it. So Jonathan knew it was safe. “Have you figured out what it really means?”

Clark shook his head, “I don’t know. It means extreme hearing capabilities, but I don’t understand how that’s a power.”

“We didn’t understand any of your other abilities right away either,” his dad said, “I don’t suppose this would be any different.”

“But it would be a little more relaxing if I knew what was coming,” Clark gritted.

Jonathan turned his son around to face him, “Clark, we have gotten through a lot more dangerous abilities of yours before. Speed, strength, heat…if hearing is any worse, I’d be surprised.” He looked at Clark, and Clark sort of loosened up. “Besides, when it comes, you’ll be more mentally prepared.”

Clark looked up again at the wall. “Maybe I’ll just stay down here until it lights up,” he said dryly.

Jonathan laughed, “Oh no you won’t. Your mother probably has breakfast sitting on the table. We’re going home.”

Clark took one last look at the wall and reluctantly followed his dad.

As they left, the symbol at which they had just been observing lit up. All the different symbols lit up and started rotating around the octagon and shining their different colored lights onto the cave wall opposite of them. They stopped rotating and only a small blue light stayed lit, it was the symbol of sound. The marking of Clark’s ancestors joined with the blue light and together they exploded into a bright burst of colors. And then there was nothing.

****
Lana awoke with a start. She immediately remembered that she was supposed to work this morning. She jumped out of bed and caroused for some clothes. She hurriedly took them into the bathroom with her and took a shower.

Coming out of the shower, Lana began to feel panicky. She was nervous and stressed out and the rushing was only making it worse. She mentally tried to calm herself down. Taking a few deep breaths, she walked back into her room and dried her hair.

She began to hurry again when she went downstairs to quickly get something to eat. She tried breathing and counting to ten and it helped her calm down again slightly. Chloe was still in bed, Lana guessed she would be too if she didn’t have to work on a Saturday morning either. Glancing at the clock, Lana decided she would grab a bite at the Talon instead.

She walked back up the stairs and into her room. She double checked her make up and looked around her room. She felt safe in here. When she left, things could happen that she couldn’t control and she could be hurt. But in here she was able to do whatever she wanted. If she had a choice, she would have stayed in here all day.

Lana got in her car and slowly backed out of the driveway. She would take things slow and hopefully stay calmer.

While she was driving she began to think about the conversation she and Pete had last night. The advice he had given her was almost scary, but reassuring. Any suspicions she had about Clark were pretty much confirmed in the conversation. Clark’s parents had sort of died in the meteor shower. How that was possible, Lana did not know.

The advice was peculiar. He had said to keep an incredibly open mind and not to say anything until she had completely processed the entire thing. Lana didn’t know what kind of information was that deep that she couldn’t respond immediately. But no matter what she thought, she was going to use Pete’s advice, because, after all, he knew Clark better than anyone else.

Lana arrived at the Talon with minutes to spare. She got out, feeling much calmer and walked in through the back door where she usually did. Nobody was in the main room so she punched in her time card and walked into the back.

There were five girls back there already, drinking coffee and talking amongst themselves. Lana slipped on an apron and tied it behind her waist. One girl walked up to her, her name was Jenna.

“Lana! We’re out of milk, would you like me to run and get some? The shipment doesn’t come in until tomorrow,” Jenna asked.

Lana smiled and nodded, “Yes, that would be great. Take ten dollars from the register and buy three gallons. I’ll tell Lex.” The girl smiled at her and walked through the swinging doors.

The rest of the girls had stood up now and were walking through the doors each one saying their “hellos” and “good mornings” to Lana. She smiled and wondered why she was always the last one there.

She followed them out and went to unlock the front door. Soon a steady stream of customers found their way inside as usual on Saturday mornings. Lana walked behind the counter and made a new pot of coffee.

Without even realizing what she was making, Lana started a familiar drink. From the last pot, she poured the remainder into a cup. She squirted some vanilla and caramel into the cup and stirred it. Finally, on top she added a little whipped cream. After she took a sip she realized what she had made.

It was the drink she always made for Clark in the mornings. Ever since she could remember, Clark had asked her to custom make him this kind of coffee. He claimed it gave him superpowers, which she had never witnessed, but made her mornings a little livelier. Wondering whether she should dump it out, she quickly downed it before she could think anymore. Too much of Clark is better than nothing.

“Thirsty?” asked a familiar voice.

She turned around licking her lips, it was Lex. She smiled reluctantly, “Yeah, I didn’t have breakfast. Oh, I sent a girl to the store to get more milk, we ran out yesterday. The shipment comes in tomorrow, I thought we’d need more by that time.”

Lex nodded understandingly, “Do you need me to add more to the next order?”

Lana shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, this has never happened before. It has been an incredibly busy week.” They both looked around. The Talon had only been open for fifteen minutes and almost all the tables were full.

“Makes sense,” he rested his hand on the counter. “So, uh, where’s Clark? Isn’t he usually in here ordering the drink you just made?”

Lana blushed, “Clark and I…uh…well I guess it was more me, I sort of offended him last night. I don’t think I’m the first one he wants to see today.”

“That’s hard to believe,” Lex teased, and Lana glanced away from brief embarrassment. “You two haven’t, er, hit bottom have you.”

Lana averted her eyes and looked off to one side. Lex had a way of making you look him in the eye when you spoke, so it was hard for her to stop looking at him. “He says that it isn’t the right thing to do, but I’m not going to give up.”

“Good for you,” Lex said sincerely. “Clark needs someone to keep him on his toes, like he does for us. Ever notice how Clark is so…so…Clarky?”

“No,” Lana said sarcastically, and déjà vu struck her, “please inform me.”

Lex laughed. He glanced off to his side and right as he did Clark entered. He quickly looked back at Lana. “Well, I see you have a busy day, I’ll let you get back to work.” He smiled and walked away.

Lana turned back to the coffee. It was alright so she went over to the oven where she kept Martha Kent’s pie’s. She found out that if she kept them at the right temperature in the oven overnight, it would keep them fresh. She also found out that an alarming amount of people ordered pie for breakfast.

She grabbed two mitts for her hands and opened the oven door. She took one of the pie’s out and it began to slip off her hands. It would have burned the flesh right off her arm if Clark wouldn’t have grabbed it. He set in on the rack beside the oven with his bare hands.

Lana grabbed his hand, “Clark!” She examined it. Not the slightest hint of a burn. She looked up at him with a look of shock and confusion. She was shocked that he wasn’t burned and confused as to why he was there.

Clark looked down at her, “Hi.”

“I didn’t think you’d come this morning,” Lana said, almost as smooth as her breathing.

“I didn’t think I would either. But I needed to say I’m sorry,” he said. Lana tried to say something but Clark kept going, “I know that probably doesn’t mean anything. I use it for everything.” He looked into her eyes, “But I mean it every time. Hurting you is inevitable for me, and I hate it. But this time there was really no reason for me to be upset.”

“Clark,” Lana said, “if anyone needs to be sorry, it’s me. I offended you in some way. I’m sorry.”

Clark, being stubborn, shook his head, “No, I shouldn’t have taken offense to that. You were just giving your point of view.”

“Clark,” Lana hesitated before asking her question, “did your parents die in the meteor shower? Is that why you took offense to my comment?”

Narrowing his eyes, but not at Lana, Clark tried to figure out a good answer. “Sort of,” he decided on. Lana laughed a little and Clark lifted an eyebrow, “Why is that funny?”

“That’s the same thing Pete told me,” Lana said, and then realizing what she had said, added, “he was studying with Chloe last night when I got home. He came up to talk to me and I just asked him. Clark, if your parents died, why didn’t you ever tell me? I thought you didn’t know who you’re biological parents were.”

Knowing this had to come some time, Clark tried to explain, “They died before the meteor shower, I didn’t know who they were, I’ve never met them, I don’t remember who they are. But I didn’t know that they had “died” until a little while ago.

Lana looked a little confused. “So you didn’t know that your parents were dead until a while ago and they died in the meteor shower?”

Clark nodded, “Yeah, pretty much.” Then all of a sudden he heard a million voices screaming into his head. He put his hands over his ears and it sort of quieted down, but not much. He winced with pain as the voices were hurting his eardrums and groaned a little bit. There were hundred of voices that were talking to him. Some were talking on the phone, some were in the Talon and some were miles away. He heard the two women coming in talking about their plans for redecorating their living rooms, he heard a man yelling at a friend outside somewhere, he heard a young girl talking on the telephone with her dad.
It started to subside and Clark took his hands away from his ears.

Lana was staring at him, “Clark, are you alright?”

Clark’s eyes darted around, “Did you hear that?”

Lana lifted an eyebrow, “Hear what?”

Clark started to back away, “I have to go.” He quickly hurried out of the Talon. Lex watched him pass as he sat sipping his coffee. He had observed the entire conversation, although he could hear them, they had been holding hands.

Lana just stood there, realizing that once again Clark had left her alone and confused.

Chapter Four

Clark raced home, at first just a fast jog because of the crowds in downtown Smallville, but once beyond the outskirts of town he blasted home.

About halfway home he stopped because the voices came back. There were less this time, he guessed because he was out in the country. He could still hear people talking on telephones and men discussing the weather with their neighbors. He could have sworn he heard his parents, talking about planting a new flower bed.

He started up again, the voices still not subsiding, but by the time he reached home they were gone. He blew into the yard and stopped abruptly in front of his parents.

Jonathan and Martha spun around only to see Clark standing in front of them with an alarmed look on his face. Martha rushed over to him, “Clark! Whats wrong?”

Clark shook his head, “I don’t know. All of a sudden I heard a million voices in my head and it felt like someone had put speakers on either side of me and cranked them up.”

Jonathan stepped closer to his son, “Do you think this is it? This is the sound thing the symbol predicted>”

Clark nodded, “Yeah, I think so. But I don’t understand. Why are there a million voices in my head?” He winced in pain once more as they started up again. This time he heard their neighbor, Joseph, talking about the expensive car coming down the road. He heard the radio in a car that was playing Nickleback. He heard more people on the telephone and he could have sworn he heard Lana taking orders.

His parents could do nothing but stand and watch. They didn’t know what they could do, and more importantly, didn’t know if there was anything they could do.

As the voices faded, Clark looked up. “I think Lex is coming, he’s going to wonder how I got here so fast.” With that he was gone and his parents just shook their head.

Sure enough, a couple minutes later Lex drove in. He got out and walked over to them. “Mr. and Mrs. Kent, has Clark been home yet?” He had a concerned look on his face.

Jonathan and Martha looked at each other. Martha asked, “Is something wrong?”

Lex scratched his head. “It was really weird, he and Lana were talking and then he suddenly gripped his head like he had a headache. Then he ran out of the Talon. I just thought you might want to know. He seemed alarmed.”

Jonathan walked over to Lex, “Thanks Lex. We’ll go find him. He’s been having some of those lately.”

He and Lex walked back to his car. “Lana asked me to come tell you,” Lex said, “she was worried about him. I am too. If he needs a doctor, let me know, I’ll help.”

Then a strange thing happened. Jonathan put out his hand, “Thank you Lex.” Lex looked at his hand and shook it, smiled said good bye and drove away.

When Lex was out of site, Jonathan turned back to Martha, who was standing with Clark. He walked over to them and joined in their conversation. “Was that a sign of friendship I just saw dad?” Clark asked with a smirk. Jonathan shrugged, “You wanted me to try and accept him for who he is, so I’m trying.”

Martha looked up at Clark and put her prying smile on, “So you went to go talk to Lana? I thought you two were in a fight.”

Clark’s cheeks reddened and he answered, “I uh…I went to apologize.”

Jonathan made a confused face on, “For what?” Martha nodded in agreement.

Clark sighed, “Last night when we were talking, she said that everything would be so much easier if the meteor shower never happened. I made the mistake of letting it get to me and I took offense. I told her I had to go, and then I split, I was just frustrated.” He looked at his parents, “I guess it just hurts more coming from her.”

Martha’s look changed to sympathy, “Oh Clark, there’s no way for anyone to know, you can’t control that.”

“I know, I know. But I just wish I could tell her why. She asked me today if my parents died in the meteor shower,” he said, his parents looked at him curiously. “I told her sort of. I told her that they had died before the meteor shower and that’s why I was adopted. I just wish I could tell her more.”

Jonathan asked, “Can you trust her?” Clark gave him a look and he elaborated, “If you think you can trust her, like you trust Pete, it’s okay. Just don’t get carried away and tell everyone.” He smiled.

Martha gave him a really prying look, “You really love her don’t you?”

Clark nodded, “I was waiting for this for so long, and now it’s like I can’t stop hurting her. If I could tell her, I could stop hurting her, but I don’t know if she’d ever talk to me again. I know she has feelings for me, but can she have feelings for an alien?”

****
Lana finished her shift at the Talon. It had been four hours since Clark had stopped by and rushed out. She had asked Lex to go check on him, and she had gotten a call that Clark hadn’t been home yet. She knew Clark could take care of himself, but she prayed that he hadn’t run off again. Whatever he was talking about, the noise he heard, was very strange and it seemed like he would have gone home. Maybe he just wasn’t there yet.

After putting away her apron and punching her time card again, she walked out to her car. Getting in, she didn’t know where she wanted to go. It was one o’clock in the afternoon. She didn’t really have any homework, and she was really curious about Clark, so she decided to go see if he was home.

She pulled out of her parking space and drove down the road. She passed Chloe in her bug and waved. Chloe saw her and gave her a quizzical look, but waved back. It took her a good ten minutes to get the Kent farm. Once there she got out of her car and looked around. She could smell something good coming from the house and decided that was a good place to start.

She walked up to the door and knocked. She heard Martha’s voice yell “come in” from the kitchen. Lana opened the door and Martha met her halfway. “Oh Lana! What a surprise.” Martha smiled at her.

Lana smiled back, “Hi Mrs. Kent. Uh, do you know where Clark is?” She tried not to look around.

Martha nodded, “I think he’s reading in his room. Do you want to go up or have me call him down?” Martha motioned towards the stairway.

“I’ll go up, if that’s okay,” Lana said cautiously. “Of course dear,” Martha said. Lana made her way upstairs, she didn’t think she had ever been in Clark’s room. They always talked in his loft. She approached the door that had a sign that read “Clark’s Room” and knocked. Then she heard a rumble and some shoving, then Clark appeared at the door.

“Oh hey! I was hoping it wasn’t my mom,” he said in a good tone. “Uh, did you want to come in?” Lana nodded and he opened the door wider. Lana looked around, it was really an incredible room. He had a computer, with a flying through space screen saver, books and magazines were scattered across the floor and CD’s were stacked high on his dresser and desk. Clark watched her look around, “This is the first time you’ve ever been in here huh?”

Lana nodded, “Yeah. It’s very homey, you give it your special Clark touch. What were you reading?” Lana asked, she saw the book opened on Clark’s bed, which, unlike the rest of his room, was neat and tidy.

“Uh, it’s a mystery novel. It’s a little boring, I already figured out who done it.” Lana laughed, she kind of motioned if it was okay that she sit on his bed and he nodded. “Thanks for coming by this morning. I didn’t really deserve your apology.”

Clark looked surprised, “I know I use it a lot, but I really am. You don’t deserve me doing those things to you.” He looked down at her from his standing position.

Lana shook her head, “Clark, these kind of circumstances could happen to us in a different way even if the meteor shower had never happened. You like to help people and because of that you tend to disappear a lot. I understand, even if it does hurt.” She stood up again. “I said the wrong things last night. I didn’t mean at all that I just use you for a bodyguard, or that I’m obligated to you as a friend. It came out wrong and I didn’t mean it how it sounded.”

He nodded, “I don’t get things out the way I usually want them either. I guess I was just a little uneasy the entire night.”

“Clark, the only reason I was saying the things I did, was because I need you to get it through your head that it bothers me when you don’t tell me things,” she walked over to him and put her hand in his. He took it, a little reluctantly and looked at it. She continued, “I’m in love with you, I know you have feelings for me. I want to know you, but you’ve making it hard to even be your friend lately.”

Clark put his other hand on top of hers that was holding his. “I know, and I hate it. I’m in love with you too, but I feel that you have these feelings towards the meteor shower that would make our relationship impossible.”

That brought up another thought for Lana. They were silent for a couple moments before Lana brought it up. She looked at up him with question in her eyes. “Clark, if your parents were killed by the meteor shower, why were you offended when I said everything would be better if it never happened. I didn’t really mean that, it was just something that came out because of everything that was happening.”

Now it was Clark’s turn to sit down. “Can you keep an open mind?” Lana nodded. “Because if the meteor shower hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here.”

Lana smiled and sat down next to him, “Clark that’s very sweet. So if the meteor shower hadn’t happened then you wouldn’t have been adopted by the Kents. There are a huge amount of scenarios that could happen though, you can’t rest on…”

“That’s not what I mean,” Clark interrupted. “If the meteor shower hadn’t happened, I would have never gotten to earth.” He looked Lana in the eyes, “Lana, the meteor shower brought me here, it put me on earth.”

Chapter Five

Lana stared at him. Was he joking? She could only tell by his face that he was as serious as he had ever been. She was about to ask for the punch line when Pete’s voice popped into her head. Keep an incredibly open mind when he tells you. Think everything through before you say a thing, he’d rather you say nothing than something you will regret.

She looked into his eyes. Her heart was pounding so hard she though Clark could hear it. For a couple moments, she could feel no emotion. There were no thoughts running through her head. She didn’t even know what to start thinking about.

Finally, she said, “Care to elaborate?” She didn’t want to say anything stupid, and until she got the bigger picture, she wouldn’t say anything.

Clark stood up. “I’ve always been able to do these weird things,” he said and started to pace. She looked at him funny and he felt he needed to explain it. He looked around and picked up a book. “Open it up and stop at a random page.”

She flipped through it and stopped, “Okay?”

He concentrated hard and looked through the book at the page she opened to and began reading, “Pythagorean theorem, a squared plus b squared equals c squared. Page one hundred and ninety two.” It was his math book. Lana looked up at him in shock. “That kind of weird thing,” he said, “I can see right through the book.” He looked around and spotted a candle, “Watch the candle.” She looked over at it, and then looked back at him, watching him concentrate on the candle. A fiery orange beam came out of his eyes and lit the candle.

She let out a little shriek. “Oh my God,” Lana said.

“I’ve been looking for other people with the same kind of abilities as me for years. But no one has all the ones I have.” He bent down to the dresser and lifted it from the bottom with his right hand, it balanced and Lana looked back and forth from him to the dresser. He set it down. “About a year ago, maybe two now, my dad told me why no one else has my abilities.”

Lana stood up, “Because…”

“Because,” Clark began, he looked down at his hands. “They found me in the corn field during the meteor shower next to my ship.”

Lana stared at him open mouthed and clearly dumbfounded. She still hadn’t processed the whole thing through so she didn’t say anything.

Clark, getting a little nervous but very thankful that she hadn’t lashed out, tried to explain himself. “My parents were so afraid that someone might find out about me and take me away to some lab that they practically isolated themselves and me while I was growing up. When I learned that I needed to keep my abilities a secret, I was allowed to go to school. I met Pete and we became best friends. When I told him, he freaked out on me and wouldn’t talk to me. I figured if that was how bad he reacted, I would get a worse action out of someone who was directly affected by the meteor shower, and by me. Our relationship was getting to the point were I had been dreaming of for years, I was afraid I guess.”

Lana had to sit down again. She began to process everything through. She understood everything Clark told her and it made sense. “Do you know why you were...uh…brought to earth?” She said awkwardly.

Clark shrugged, “I think my home was in danger and my father sent me here because the planet was going to explode. I learned out to read my own language a little while ago and discovered that I was the last son and that earth was to protect me. I also found out that my destiny was to rule the world, but I tried to refuse to do that. That’s when I ran away.”

Lana looked up at him with wide eyes, “You ran away because you were supposed to rule the world?”

Clark nodded sheepishly, “My biological father communicated to me through my ship. I blew the ship up. Remember when our cellar looked like a bomb went off? That was me blowing up my ship. My father told me that if I didn’t do as he said I would hurt everyone who was important to me, so I ran away. I had already hurt my mom and I feared that I would hurt you next, which I did anyway.”

“If I would have known why you were always doing those things,” Lana said, “it wouldn’t of hurt so much.”

Clark groaned, “I know, but I didn’t know if I wanted to take that risk. I had two options, not tell you and hurt you, which I did. Or tell you and you never talk to me again, which was what I suspected because I felt that it was an unforgivable thing. I mean, the meteor shower killed your parents.”

Lana stood up again and walked over to him, “It killed yours too, in a different way.”

Clark looked at her suspiciously, “Why aren’t you freaking out?”

Sighing, and then asking herself the same question she began to say something, then stopped. She finally figured out what to say, “Last night Pete told me to process everything you tell me through before I said anything or I would end up saying something I’d regret, like he did.”

“Pete told you?” Clark asked shocked.

“No, no, no,” Lana said shaking her head. “He came up and talked to me when I came home last night, I was crying and he was just making sure I was alright. But that isn’t the point, sorry.” She took a deep breath and then continued, “I think the reason I’m not freaking out is…well, I don’t think your really any different. Sure, you’re an alien, that is crazy and I still can’t really comprehend what that really means.” She knew it would hit her when she least expected it. “I fell in love with Clark Kent, and now I just want to fall in love with all of you.”

Clark shook his head, “Are you serious? Your not going to lash out at me or anything? Accuse me of causing any of these meteor freak problems?” He was really surprised and not really sure how to react.

“Clark,” Lana said as she took his hands, “it wasn’t your fault, your parents sent you here, you didn’t control the ship to land here or one of your meteors to hit my parents. We can’t change the past, but we can influence the future.”

He pulled her in close, “Maybe we were meant to be together after all.” He slowly bent down and his lips were just inches away when Lana breathed out, “Thank you for letting me in.” And then neither of them could say a thing, they just experienced each other.

Lana began to feel weak, it was the same feeling she got whenever Clark kissed her. He always had a way of making all her biggest fears, present or past, be swept away when he wrapped his arms around her. She possessively placed her hands on the back of his neck and combed through his hair with her fingers.

Reluctantly parting, Lana laid her head against his chest and felt the warmth of his body and the even beating of his heart. He told her, she kept an open mind and amazingly she had accepted it. If she wanted the truth, she had gotten it.

Like Pete had said, it hit her like nothing she had expected. An alien? It was crazy, but he was just as human as Whitney had been, maybe even more so. Clark was the kind of guy that was everything society need wrapped up in the six-foot frame of the boy that held her in his arms.

“I have to warn you though,” Clark said, “you may run into circumstances that would put you into trouble. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Well,” Lana answered, “sometimes you just have to take risks.”

Clark smiled, remembering their conversation in the past. “What if the risk is too big to take?”

Lana smirked, “Then you might miss out on something really amazing.”

Chapter Six
Clark and Lana finally parted, after a couple interruptions from Clark’s ears and moments where they could do nothing but laugh. Clark felt that it was strange that Lana thought it was funny, he thought so too now, but he was amazed that she hadn’t freaked out. If Lana would have told him that, he would’ve reacted the same way he did when his own dad told him in the first place.

Trying to see if he could control his new power the same way he could when he used his heat vision or x-ray vision, Clark concentrated hard on trying to hear what his parents were saying in the barn.

It wasn’t working. He closed his eyes and put all his concentration on his ears. All at one time, another million voices yelled into his head. He covered them, the concentrating works but he had to concentrate on more specific things.

He tried to think about something else. The first thing that popped into his mind was chocolate cake, so he concentrated hard about eating a delicious piece of chocolate cake. He could taste his mother’s famous cake, the rich creamy chocolate on top and the delectable soft bread underneath made his mouth water. Soon the voices were gone. He laughed to himself, now he was hungry.

He concentrated again, this time on his parents. He closed his eyes again and thought about hearing his parents. Suddenly, as if they were both speaking into his ears, he could hear them talking.

His mother was talking, “Look at how funny Clark looks. Do you think he’s trying to learn how to control his new power?” Then his father answered her, “Probably. Look at how hard he shuts his eyes, that clamp could squeeze the milk out of a cow!” He’d heard enough. Super speeding over to where they were standing, he stood silently behind them.

“Where did he go?” Martha asked.

Clark cleared his throat, “I look funny, do I?” Martha jumped and turned around. Then she blushed, realizing that he was talking about what they had just been discussing.

Jonathan turned around too and looked at Clark. “Did you make it work, son?”

Clark nodded, “Yeah, I think I did. The first time I tried, I only concentrated on my ears, which made all those million voices come back into my head.” He laughed, “I realized that I needed to narrow down my victims.”

Martha slapped him on the arm, “Oh we’re victims now are we? I guess we aren’t safe here anymore, Jonathan, we won’t be able to talk about Clark behind his back anymore.” Martha winked at them. “Come on farm hands, time for lunch.”

Clark sighed, “See that? I gain yet another power and I am still a farm hand.”

Jonathan laughed, “It’s more than I’ll ever be.”

They heard Martha yell from the porch, “I heard that!” They both laughed, Jonathan said, “I guess you’re not the only one with super powers.” He slapped Clark on the back and Clark grinned. They walked inside together.

****
Lana drove away from the Kent farm with a confused but giddy feeling inside. She didn’t understand why she took the news of Clark so rationally, not that she was disappointed with what happened, it just didn’t seem like her.

When Clark told her that the meteor shower brought him to earth she was half expecting him to throw out a punch line. Pete’s advice really helped her, he knew, obviously, and he knew, obviously, what he was talking about. If she hadn’t kept her mouth shut she really would have said something she would have regretted.

What made everything a whole lot easier was the fact that Clark’s parents were killed, however indirectly, by the meteor shower. It made everything seem a lot easier.

But an alien! That was craziness. Lana laughed aloud. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, it was just…an alien? So surreal, and yet so incredibly unsurprising. Compared to all the meteor freaks, Clark’s alienship was a step up. He had a reason for being the way he was; the other meteor-infected people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He had lied to her the entire time though, when she had asked him in the past about being bulletproof.

But yet, he didn’t. He never said, “No Lana, I’m not bulletproof.” He had merely said, “I wish it were that easy, but I wasn’t affected by the meteor rocks.” Which was true 100%. He had just kept the slightest bit of information back that gave away his super human abilities.

She had no reason to be upset with him. She understood completely why he hadn’t told her, which was very strange to her. Lana knew she was understanding to many people in many cases, but this quickly and to something that would inevitably change the course of her life shocked her.

But yet, it didn’t. After all, it was Clark. Mystery man Clark. He had so many secrets and they had just begun to show themselves. When it came to Clark, anything was possible.

That’s what made it so exciting. Clark had opened up and she really got a look at who he really was. She didn’t know if it scared her or made her more anxious to hear more. They hadn’t talked as much as they could have in the hour she was over, but they had gotten through a small list of Clark’s powers, including his x-ray vision, heat vision and incredible strength. It would be interesting to find out what other powers he had.

Powers. Now that was surreal. Powers. It just wasn’t natural to say. It wasn’t something you’d consider about anyone, although with Clark it seemed more than natural now that she thought about it. It was the only way to explain his sudden appearances, or disappearances in most cases, like the one last night.

That was how he had gotten the rose in her car, and the note. He had said that he planned on telling her and then planned on apologizing for what he had to tell her. Now he didn’t have to apologize, there was nothing to apologize for.

The tornado made sense, however he had done it. It was just explained because of Clark. Every time Clark had saved her made sense now. All beginning with Tina Greer back two years ago and then Van just a week or two ago.

But what was his weakness? He had to have one, everyone does. But if he’s invulnerable, according to Van and which she did not doubt now, it wasn’t going to be by shooting him, lighting him on fire or hitting him over the head with a baseball bat. Well, she didn’t really care, she wasn’t planning on killing him anytime soon, or anytime at all.

The most important thing to Lana right now was that Clark actually decided to follow his heart, and opened up to someone he thought was going to be hurt by what he said. In a strange way it made Lana feel isolated. Like she and Pete were the only ones of his friends that knew, it suddenly made her feel afraid. What if she was not able to keep it a secret? What if someone tried to pry the information out of her? She shook the thought off. Hopefully no one was that interested to come after his friends for the information.

Snapping back to reality, Lana remembered she was driving. She had been driving to the Talon, but at the last minute changed and decided to go home. Perhaps she could get a little studying done for her science test on Monday, and maybe later, Clark could help her.

She drove into the driveway and noticed an unfamiliar car parked on the street outside the Sullivan house. Maybe Mr. Sullivan had a business meeting, it was possible, he did work for LuthorCorp.

Lana walked in through the garage door and into the kitchen. She set her purse on the chair in the entry, still feeling a little giddy, and slipped off her jacket. Laying it over her purse and starting for the stair case she stopped dead in her tracks when a cold eerie voice summoned her name.

Her hands were strapped behind her back and a voice off to the side said, “Nice of you to join us Ms. Lang.”

Chapter Seven

Lana struggled under the firm hands that held their grip behind her back. She stopped and looked towards the voice, it was Lionel Luthor. She gasped and felt herself unable to move, what was he doing here?

Then looking behind him, she saw an unconscious Chloe slumped in a chair and strapped in with a thick rope. Lionel saw her looking at Chloe and chuckled. “Ah, you’ve noticed our first captive.” He shuffled his feet and almost waddled in his own Luthor style. He made his way to Lana, almost cautiously, but with ease and without a hint of any intimidation, if there was such a word in his vocabulary.

“Ms. Sullivan was a little tired, it took a long time for you to get home,” he rubbed his chin. “Where were you, Ms. Lang?” He lifted is eyebrows and squinted his eyes, his fingers still resting on his chin.

Lana gave him an evil look, “Why does it matter? What are you doing here? What do you want?” She was so confused, she had met the man maybe once in her entire life and suddenly he held her captive in he own room.

Lionel chuckled again, louder this time and Lana noticed Chloe stirring in her chair. “Why Ms. Lang, aren’t you even going to offer me a cup of coffee? That is you job isn’t it?”

He was mocking her, which made her even more angry. “I don’t know what you want, but you have no right coming into this house and mocking me.” She sneered at him, he could obtain his information in his own rich and devious way, but she wasn’t going to tell him anything. She didn’t even know what he wanted.

“Tisk,” Lionel lowered his hands and stuck them in his pockets, “you can see who obviously has the upper hand here, Ms. Lang, so I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.” He walked closer to her, “I’ll make this short and quick…”

He was interrupted by Chloe who began struggling under the ropes that bound her. “Leave her out of this! She never did anything to you! She doesn’t know anymore than I do.” She wouldn’t look at Lana so she dared to look at Lionel. Big mistake.

Lionel changed directions and went over to Chloe, “Ah, Ms. Sullivan. We have your roommate her with us today. Isn’t that nice! She will make everything a lot easier.”

Chloe looked at him in the eye, “You can’t do this. This is inhuman. You are a lunatic! You…” she didn’t finish before Lionel slapped her in the face. Chloe moaned and lowered her head. Lana shrieked and started struggling again.

Slamming her heel onto the top of the foot of the man who hand her in his grip, she started her defense moves Lex had taught her. The man let out a little yell and she jerked one arm out of his grasp and shoved her elbow into his nose and then into his groin. He doubled over with a moments pain and she spun around and dropped kicked him. He rolled over on the floor. She started to run for the phone when another man jumped out of nowhere and got her in his grasp, this one was firmer than the last one.

“Ah ah ah, I’m not finished with you yet,” Lionel said, still standing by Chloe. “That was very impressive, did Lex teach you that?” He laughed to himself.

The man who now had Lana in his grip pushed her and sat her down in a chair across from Chloe, then tied a rope around her as well. Lionel now had them both on either side of him.

Lionel looked down at Chloe, “Does she know?”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “Of course not. Wait! You aren’t going to tell her….” She started to struggle again, but it was no use. The roped bound her tightly to the chair. She gave up and slumped back into the chair, closing her eyes she waited for her bitter fate.

Lionel seemed very amused, not that he enjoyed torturing the two young women, but he loved having people in the palm of his hand. “Your friend here was nice enough to help me dig up information on an, er, individual,” he looked at Lana, and she could do nothing but look back at him. “Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the results I have received. With Ms. Sullivan being an avid reporter, it seemed only likely that she would be the best one for the job, however, I realize that when it comes to this individual, I need someone closer to the source.”

Lana’s eyes widened. Her heart fell clear to the bottom of her toes as she realized who Lionel was referring to, or at least she thought she did. “And who is this individual?” She tried to pretend not to know, or at least give the hint she wasn’t catching on.

“Oh I’m sure you know him,” Lionel cast an evil smile over Lana, “it’s your mystery man, Clark Kent.”

Lana gasped, praying it wasn’t true. She looked at Chloe with hurt written all over her face. Chloe averted her eyes and looked at her lap, she couldn’t believe this was happening. “Chloe…” Lana breathed, it was in-between talking to herself and whispering. She hadn’t intended on continuing, it was meant for sheer acknowledgment, on Chloe’s behalf, of Lana’s disappointment and utter betrayal.

Lionel lifted an eyebrow, “Oh good, you know him.” He smiled that devious smile of his.

Lana grimaced, “Of course I know him, you jerk, he’s my boyfriend!” Then, as the words slipped off her tongue, Lana realized she may have gotten herself into something she could not handle. This would be what she was trying to put off thinking about in her car, she was going to have to keep Clark’s secret in front of Lionel Luthor.

“Oh,” Lionel pouted at Lana’s reference to him as a jerk, “I’m sure you can do better than that. I viewed you as more an original type. Well, we don’t have time for childish games. I’m going to ask you a few questions and you’ll answer them, easy as that, and we’ll let you go.” He crossed his arms and stood with his back to Chloe and his breath baring down on Lana.

She sneered at him, “I don’t know anything, and if I did I wouldn’t tell you anything.”

Lionel nodded his head, and his mane he called his hair shook behind his head. “We’ll see.”

****
Clark ate up his lunch and excused himself up to his room, he wanted to finish his book. He already had everything figured out the mystery, one of the disadvantages of his abilities, but it was still very well written. He sat down on his bed and leaned against the wall with his back propped up by his pillows.

He tried to read, but for some reason he couldn’t. His mind kept wandering and he couldn’t stay focused. So many things had happened today and it was intriguing to think that it had all actually happened. He still couldn’t believe that he had told Lana his secrets AND she didn’t freak out. He was curious, but in every other way he was totally excited. His number one fear of Lana never talking to him again didn’t come true, they had totally contradicted everything Clark had figured in the first place.

Lana was a part of his life again, and every fiber in his body was pulsating with a giddiness he had never experienced before. It was overwhelming. He hoped Lana felt the same way.

His thoughts drifted back to his new power. A hearing capability above that of natural sounds was interesting, he had never even considered that he would get a power that involved sound. It was kind of cool though, he could see and hear what was going on in a different now, instead of just seeing. It was definitely cool.

Since he had nothing else to do, Clark practiced with his new ability. He thought about his parents in the kitchen. It didn’t work. He tried harder, focusing on his ears this time.

A million voices popped into his head again. “Shoot!” Clark muttered. He quickly thought about chocolate cake again and the voices disappeared. Mental note, Clark told himself, don’t just focus on my ears. He laughed to himself, then tried again, incorporating all areas of thought. His parents voices spoke into his ears, almost, at first, like he was changing a radio station, but then it was clear and he could hear them.

They were talking about watching a movie, and then Martha suggested making popcorn. Nothing they said was abnormal for a Saturday night for them. Popcorn, coffee and a movie was their usual routine. He stopped listening, they were boring so he decided to listen to someone else.

He decided to listen for Lana, hoping this didn’t count as invading privacy, just checking up on his girlfriend. He concentrated on Lana and his ears, hoping that he wouldn’t hear her whole neighborhood at the same. Slowly he began to hear her voice faintly. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but he could hear other voices with her.

Finally, he began to make out what they were saying. “Of course I know him, you jerk! He’s my boyfriend!” she said. Then another voice, a male one, answered her, “Tsk, I’m sure you can do better than that. I viewed you as more an original type. Well, we don’t have time for childish games. I’m going to ask you a few questions and you’ll answer them, easy as that, and we’ll let you go.” It was Lionel Luthor! What was he doing with Lana?

Clark jumped up and he could still hear the voices as he ran downstairs. His parents watched him super speed out the front door. Shrugging, they went back to their movie.

“I don’t know anything, and if I did I wouldn’t tell you anything,” Lana was saying. He stopped listening and just started running. Lionel had her captive, trying to pry information out of her about himself. He couldn’t believe that someone was already after her, then again, Dr. Hamilton had Pete quickly after Pete found out.

Before he knew it he was standing outside of the Sullivan house. He used his x-ray vision and saw Lionel standing in the middle of the living room with Lana tied to a chair on one side, and another girl on his other. Looking harder, he could tell it was Chloe. What was Lionel doing to them?

He was about to go bursting through the wall when he decided that would be a little obvious. He went through a list of possibilities in his head. He thought the best way was to pretend that he had no idea what was going on and to go up and ring the doorbell. That way he could interrupt the pow wow and possibly stop any further intervention.

He hurried up the steps, took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

Chapter Eight

Lionel spun around in surprise when he heard the doorbell. He was not expecting an interruption of this kind to actually happen, then again, they were teenage girls. He motioned for his body guard, Bruce, to answer the door.

From outside the door, the girls heard Clark yell in, “Lana? Chloe? Are you home? “ And the girls gasped but Lionel cast them a deadly glare so they dared not say anything. He pounded on the door and Bruce finally opened it up.

“Yeah?” grunted Bruce.

Clark tried to be surprised by the appearance of the unknown man, “Uh, who are you?” They sized each other up. Clark was taller and broader by a long shot, but Bruce had the air of confidence about him no matter what his size.

Bruce started at Clark coldly, “I should ask you the same thing.” He tried to push Clark away from the door, but Clark wasn’t phased.

Bruce also tried to shut the door but Clark stuck his hand on it and Bruce could no longer budge it. “What I mean,” Clark retorted, “is what are you doing here?”

Bruce let go of the door and crossed his arms, blocking the path into the house. “Business meeting, satisfied?” He glared at Clark.

Clark stepped onto the floor of the house and pushed him aside, “No.” Bruce lashed out at him and threw a punch, Clark ducked and he sailed over his back. Standing up straight, Clark rolled the man off of him. He looked in the direction of the living room and saw Lionel Luthor standing in the center of the room. Then he looked at the girls on either side of him and his eyes grew red with furry.

Lionel was shocked. Shocked that it was Clark and shocked that there was someone in the room that posed a serious threat, or so he thought. Being as shocked as he was, he did not show it. Rather he put on his famous fake smile and nodded at Clark. “We were just leaving,” he said. Then before passing Clark he looked back at the girls and mouthed, This isn’t over. He nodded at Clark again and motioned for “his men” to “move out”.

One by one, six men, all about Clark’s size, followed Lionel from their various points in the room, each of them staring coldly at Clark as they passed.

Clark ran over to Chloe and untied her rope. She stood up and hugged him. “Oh Clark! Thank you!” She looked up at him with her heart in the wrong place, her feet, but her whole face read a thankfulness that was indescribable. She let go of him and ran up to her room, they heard her door shut.

Clark turned to Lana who was looking at him with a gratefulness similar to Chloe’s, but also one that Clark could tell something was wrong. He untied her and she too stood up and hugged him. Planting a kiss on his cheek she asked, “How did you know?”

He took Lana’s hand and led her to the couch. He sat down and she fit herself nicely into the groove of his arms. “Remember those headaches I was getting?” she nodded, remembering his moaning. “I figured out that I’m getting a new ability, the headaches were caused from millions of voices in my head. I could hear everyone talking within ten miles.”

She looked up at him shock, but genuinely intrigued. “What is it?”

He continued, “I can hear anyone for ten miles. I guess it’s some kind of hearing power. I’m still confused about it and it doesn’t always work the way I want it to, but I can use it effectively. I was practicing on you when you and Lionel were talking and so I ran over here. You had just said, ‘ Of course I know him, you jerk, he’s my boyfriend!’”

She blushed and her eyes widened, “You ran over here in thirty seconds? That’s incredible.” She looked up at him. “Thank you,” she whispered. She lowered her head again and laid her head on his chest. “Can you hear Chloe?”

He shrugged, “I’ll try.” He concentrated hard and soon the sound of Chloe’s muffled cry came into his head. She was crying and ripping something, muttering to herself in a low tone that Clark couldn’t detect but could swear that she said ‘stupid’. “She’s crying,” he said finally.

Not very surprised, Lana didn’t say anything. She still couldn’t believe that Chloe had done what she did. It was shocking, coming from Lana’s point of view anyway. When Clark left she would go talk to her, it had been a little while since they’d had a heart to heart girl talk.

Clark pulled her closer and Lana could hear the steady rhythm of his heart. Leaning her head backwards, she gazed into his eyes. She felt so safe in his arms. They were so muscular and she felt as if his arms were made to hold her. He lowered his head and their lips met. He put his hand on the back of her head and brushed his fingers through her hair. Lana rested her hand on his stomach and felt around, it was firm but Lana could feel nothing but his presence on her lips.

Slowly they pulled apart and laughed a little. It still felt strange to both of them, but they were thoroughly enjoying each other. It was a moment like that that they shared that they would remember every time they did it. They both felt the effect of the kiss and shuddered with the giddiness they had both experienced all afternoon.

“I suppose I should go now, huh?” Clark said sadly.

Lana sighed, “Not that I want you to, but I think I need to go talk to Chloe.” She stood up and he followed her to the door. His hand was still interlocked in hers.
At the door they stopped. Clark put his hand on Lana’s face and she grasped it in her own, he bent down one more time, this time he had to go a lot further, and put his mouth on hers. She kissed him back and they pulled away reluctantly. He opened the door and she held it open.

“See you tomorrow?” he asked.

Lana smiled, “If you’re up to it.” She giggled, and then she was alone. Clark had run off. Now this was something she would have to get used to. Shutting the door and locking it behind her, she headed upstairs to Chloe’s room.

She knocked softly on the door. Very quietly, Chloe opened the door. Peeking through the crack was a reddened and moist face staring sadly back at Lana. Lana looked at Chloe with little sympathy, “Do you want to talk?”

Chloe nodded, somewhat reluctantly, and opened the door wider. Lana walked in and saw Kleenexes strewn about and hundreds of papers torn up scattered across her bed. Chloe blushed a little and brushed the papers off her bed. She sat down and leaned against the backboard of her bed. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks.

“I suppose…” Chloe began, she whipped out a Kleenex and blew her nose. “I suppose you want to know the whole story.”

Lana nodded, “Well, uh yeah. I mean, Lionel Luthor was holding you captive in your own home, not to mention me. It would be a little nice to know why.” She kept her gaze soft, but she could not help but show a sense of betrayal.

Sniffling and wiping her nose, Chloe started. “Lionel hired me to do a ‘full investigative profile’ on Clark.” Lana’s eyes widened and started to say something, but Chloe shook her head. “It’s stupid. It started stupid and it’s still stupid.” She sighed and tried to control the tears. “Do you want it from the beginning?”

Lana nodded and walked over from her position leaning against the door and sat on the end of Chloe’s bed.

Chloe told her everything. From the moment she and Clark decided they’d be better off as friends to their current situation.

“I was so…so angry that Clark couldn’t be honest with me,” Chloe said, “that I reacted irrationally. After Clark wouldn’t tell me about you two, I drove to the Luthor mansion and accepted his proposal. It still confused me, why he wanted to know everything about Clark, but then again I have my own suspicions as do you.” She paused to catch her breath.

Lana, knowing the feeling Chloe had, asked, “What were you expecting to find?”

Chloe closed her eyes and kind of shook her head. “See, that’s the thing. At first I didn’t expect to find anything. I told myself that I already knew everything about Clark from that report I did few years ago, which was all that I found. During the summer, when I found Clark, I began to start regretting it. I stopped trying to find anything and I became suspicious of Lionel, which I should have from the beginning, but my stupid compulsion to write for the Daily Planet inhibited me from my better judgement.” She hesitated, “I didn’t find anything that would be of any interest to Lionel, or to anyone that is, it was just useless information and it meant nothing. I found nothing.”

Lana stared at her, now with sympathy. The girl was caught between friend and obligation and the worse of the two had her down. She understood the pain Clark had put her through, but still couldn’t believe she gave in.

“That surprised me,” Chloe continued, “finding nothing, that is. I mean, everyone has something on them. You were homecoming queen freshman year! Get my point? It was bugging me so much that I had to decide what was more important; Clark’s friendship or my dream. I finally decided that Clark’s friendship meant more and I tried to resign, I turned in my last article for the Daily Planet.”

Lana lifted her eyebrows, “What do you mean tried?”

Chloe sighed, “He threatened to fire my dad if I resigned, and then said that we would enjoy a ‘long and fruitful partnership”. That was his way of saying no one double crosses a Luthor.”

Lana gasped, “He threatened to fire your dad if you quit? How low can you go? That’s horrible! Now you’re stuck in this position?”

“Yes,” Chloe nodded, “he came here to see if he could find any work I had done outside of my research for him. Then he heard you drive up and whacked me across the face when I tried to scream. I woke up when you were being held by that man.”

So this is what it meant to keep a secret, Lana thought. She understood Clark’s hesitancy to confront her with his information, it was big. Lionel Luthor held two seventeen-year old girls hostage in their own home for information about something he was not sure about. He could afford it too, his reputation was bad enough as it was. This wasn’t going to spark any unusual media interest if it got out.

“So what do we do now?” Lana asked.

Chloe shrugged, “Wait for his next strike.” Then she added, “And pray that Clark will be there.”

Chapter Nine

“Okay, how about this,” Pete asked with a smile on his face, “I throw it up in the air, you jump and catch it and then jump again from over there and slam dunk!” Pete pointed to the wooden fence that surrounded the property.

They were playing basketball, uh rather Clark was playing and Pete was testing the length of Clark’s abilities.

Clark laughed and shook his head. “You are crazy Pete,” he sighed, “if you really want to.” Pete got all excited at Clark’s agreement and threw the basketball sky high. He guessed the football skills came in handy when he wasn’t playing football.

Clark jumped and caught the ball before it reached it’s climax and landed with a thud. He twirled around and jumped once again towards the hoop slamming the basketball into the net. He landed with another loud thud. The rim on the backboard was springing wildly up and down and the entire structure was shaking.

Pete laughed and walked over to Clark. “No matter how many times you do that, it still makes me cringe!” he slapped Clark’s hand and laughed again, “That is so cool!”

Now it was Clark’s turn to laugh, as long as it made his friend happy he was okay with it.

“Your right it is,” said a voice behind them. Lana came riding her horse up behind the two boys, smiling wide.

Pete looked at Clark in horror, she had just seen him do something that would give away his secret and he was just standing there acting like nothing happened. “Clark man!” He whispered, “What’re you going to do now?”

Clark laughed and looked back at Lana, “Hey Lana! What’s new?”

She stopped her horse and got off, “You mean besides the fact I just found out my boyfriend is an alien? Not much.” She smiled again.

Pete didn’t know whether to laugh or be totally confused, “You told…she knows…dude!” He laughed, “You told her! I knew you would!” He slapped Clark on the back.

Lana strung her horse up and walked over to the boys, Clark still held the basketball. “You know Clark, I still haven’t seen the length of your abilities. Care to fill me in?”

Pete and Clark shared a look and smiled broadly. There was so much he could show her in so many ways. “Oh Pete, where do we begin?” They laughed and pretended to ponder. Pete snatched the basketball from Clark and spun around and shot a basket.

Before you could blink, Clark ran at full speed, caught the ball out of the air and was standing in the place where he had been in the beginning. Lana was debating between a smile and pure awestruck stare, “That was amazing!”

Clark smiled and looked at the ground, “Yeah, well it’s not that great when you have to hide it all the time.”

“I bet,” Lana said. “Anything else? Can you fly?”

Pete and Clark both laughed. Pete shook his head, “With Clark’s height freight I don’t think flight is in the game plan.” He looked at Clark, who had stopped laughing. “Yo, Clark, what is it?”

Clark bounced the basketball and stared off into space. “You know, I think it is.” He looked at Lana and then at Pete, “I think I’m going to be able to fly. Sooner than I’d like.”

Pete and Lana stared at him. Pete started laughing again, but stopped when he realized Clark was serious. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I was in the caves the other day,” he glanced at Lana, “right after I left talking to you.” Lana cringed at the memory, she had totally downsized Clark that night. “When I was looking around I saw a symbol that I’d never seen before, it meant…”

Lana interrupted abruptly, “Whoa! Do you mean you can read the symbols in the cave? Are they from your ancestors?” She walked closer and stared up at him in amazement.

Clark grinned slightly, “Yeah, I suppose they are. I was “downloaded” with information on how to read them a while back.” Pete was having a great time watching his buddy try to explain how it happened.

“How?” Lana asked.

“There’s this key, it was meant for my ship,” Clark started, Lana was very interested and every one of her facial features begged him to continue. “But it also fit in the cave wall. I started having dreams that I put it in the wall, so I finally went and did it. It knocked me out and when I woke up, Lex was shaking me and I was suddenly able to read them all.” Lana’s eyes widened, but she was smiling.

Pete said, “Okay, okay. She’s filled in. So what did you see in the cave?”

Clark continued, “Well, it predicted all of my powers in the exact sequence that I’ve been getting them. It even predicted my latest one, the hearing deal.”

Pete took a turn at being clueless. “What hearing thing?” Lana already knew, and Pete could tell from the look on her face that it was interesting.

“I’m now able to hear things from miles away. All I have to do is concentrate on the person and I’ll be able to hear them,” Clark explained. Pete nodded, letting Clark know he understood. “So, the abilities I already have appear in the symbols that are brighter on the big symbol. The ones that are duller, I suspect, are the ones that I have yet to get.”

Lana lifted an eyebrow, “And what are those?”

Clark shifted his weight and used his hands to try and explain, “There’s only two left. The next one means illumination, when you translate it. But if you take it literally it means something like a flashlight. I have no idea what that means, but I didn’t really know what any of the other one’s were either.” He stopped, and grew a little nervous. “The last one is flight. And I don’t have to interpret that one for you.”

Lana gasped and Pete’s mouth hung opened. “So you’re…you’re going to be able to fly?” Lana asked. Well obviously, she thought to herself, he just told you that. No way, she thought, that…that is crazy.

Clark chuckled, “My dad always said we’d reach unmarked territory when I started to defy the law of gravity. I just never thought it would actually happen.”

Pete, sensing the awkward silence, grabbed for the basketball. Clark was quick and saw him coming out of the corner of his eye and swiftly moved the ball out of his reach. He spun around and from five hundred feet away shot a perfect basket. SWISH!

Pete groaned, “That is not fair!”

Lana laughed, “That really is incredible Clark.” She smiled and shook her head, still in amazement.

Pete retrieved the basketball and hustled back to the little circle. “Now we have a problem,” he said, with a sly grin on his face.

Clark looked at him with an blank look, “What’s that?”

Pete sort of smiled sort of just lifted the corner of his mouth. “There’s now only one person in our little ‘clique’ that doesn’t know.”

Clark pressed his lips together and looked down. Muttering, he said, “Chloe.” He looked back up, “I totally forgot about that. It just seems like the whole world knows now.” He stole a look at Lana, who looked a little defensive. He caught himself, “Not…that…you’d tell anyone, just that you are someone else I’ve told and it seems like I…” he slapped himself, he was digging himself into a deeper hole.

Lana laughed, “It’s okay Clark, I think I know what you mean.”

“Do you think I should tell her?” Clark asked, not really directing his question at either of them.

Pete started to nod, but Lana spoke up first, “I don’t think that’s a real good idea, Clark.” The two boys looked at her funny. She continued, trying to explain without giving Chloe’s secret away because she knew that Chloe would have to tell Clark on her own. “I just think that Chloe, being a reporter and all, should…you know…you should just be careful what you tell her. You don’t know what she’s going to do with that information.”

Clark stared at Lana firmly, “Is she up to something?”

Lana shook her head, “No, no. That’s not what I meant. I just…well, just be careful what you tell her.”

Curiously, Clark pressed for more information. He did not know what Lana was getting at, but for some reason he felt that it had to do with last night. “Does this have anything to do with last night?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What happened last night?” Pete asked, now the one feeling uninformed.

Lana sighed, “Last night, I come home from Clark’s and I find Lionel Luthor holding Chloe hostage. He had me bound to a chair and was trying to get information out of me about Clark!” She looked up at Clark with sympathy, “I now, officially, know what it really means to keep a secret. I can’t believe you’ve been able to do this as long as you have.”

“It hasn’t been easy,” Clark shrugged, “at all. Especially when it could hurt the people closest to you.” He tried not to look at Lana when he said it.

“Clark, it didn’t hurt me. It stung a little because I knew that you’d been keeping something important like this away from me, but I understand now.” She took his hand and gripped it firmly.

He squeezed back, “I know, I just can’t help feeling guilty.”

Pete stared at them a little uncomfortably. He tried to change the subject. “So last night, Lionel was holding you hostage because he wanted information on Clark. So what? We know that Lex has already investigated you, maybe he’s just interested in you because Lex is, or was, or whatever he feels now.”

Clark nodded and shrugged, “It didn’t seem like he knew anything, judging from what I did hear, he was trying to get the littlest bit of information out of Chloe as he possibly could. And Lana.”

Lana nodded, “I don’t think he knows anything, but he has gone long lengths to try and get it out of Chloe. But she doesn’t know anything so I don’t understand why he wants her.”

“Because, Chloe and Clark are good friends,” Pete suggested. ”He must figure that if he gets Chloe, Clark won’t be far behind. He is the hero type, you know, tends to be around right when you need him.” Pete chuckled to himself.

“Heh, you’re telling me,” Lana smirked. “Do you think you should listen for Chloe? Make sure she’s alright?” Lana asked Clark.

Clark scrunched up his face, “Isn’t that kind of invading privacy? Shouldn’t we just go see if she’s alright? I mean, I don’t want to violate anyone…”

“She could be in trouble Clark,” Pete interrupted, “if you don’t hear her screaming, just stop listening.” He thought it was a fairly good idea, what could it hurt?

Reluctantly, Clark agreed. Lana and Pete watched him as his face grew very intent and determined. He began to listen and he started to make faces at what he heard.

“What is it Clark?” Lana asked, concerned.

Clark’s eyes grew wide, “Lionel kidnapped her! He’s holding her hostage waiting for me to come save her! I gotta go!”

“Clark, man! That’s what they want…” Pete’s voice trailed off as he realized he was talking to Clark’s dust. He sighed.

Lana smirked and lifted an eyebrow, “Does he do this a lot?” Pete nodded and sort of cringed. “I guess it’ll take a couple more times to get used to it.”

“Hmph,” Pete spat, “I’m still not used to it.”

Chapter Ten

Lionel Luthor towered over Chloe; he was actually a very tall man when you looked at him from the floor. Chloe was lying on a cold cement floor in the middle of a cubical room lined with metal. Her wrists and ankles were bound with a thick rope and, believe it or not, there was a cement block tied it the ropes binding her ankles.

Chloe felt an enormous sense of surrealism as she lay helplessly in the middle of the dark and cold, cement floor. A single light bulb dangled overhead casting a very non-luminous light upon the two figures looming over her. One, of course, was Lionel. The other Chloe was unsure of, but undoubtedly a side-kick. They were silently conversing and waiting for her to regain consciousness.

Replaying the scene in her head, Chloe still couldn’t believe it herself. She had driven to the Talon to get a coffee on her way home from church, and walking out of the building a man had grabbed her from behind and dragged her into an alley. It seemed like your typical abduction, but as paranormal as it seemed, that was how it happened. The man stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth and pulled out a needle, which he injected into her neck. Next thing she knew she was lying on a hard, cement floor like a rag doll.

“Ah, Ms. Sullivan. Good, you are awake.” Lionel stooped down to her level, resting one knee on the ground and his right hand on top of it. “I hope you are satisfied with your new quarters,” he cast an evil grin and Chloe winced, “until your ‘friend’ Clark finds you, you’re just about helpless.”

Chloe moaned, “I don’t know what you’re expecting to happen, Mr. Luthor, but you aren’t going to get away with this.” She thrashed her feet around, but the cement block barely moved an inch.

“The less you move, Ms. Sullivan, the less it will hurt. I advise you to concentrate on staying awake,” Lionel stood up and his grin disappeared. “It’s a shame you weren’t the reporter I thought you were, or we could really have had a prosperous relationship. I’m sure you will learn for next time,” Lionel stopped at the crude opening in the wall that some would call a door, “that is, if you get another chance.” He continued through the door, with his side kick close at his heals, and shut the door softly behind him.

Chloe groaned, the floor was really hard and it was making her left arm hurt from the weight of her body that was being pressed to the ground. She rolled to her back and laid there for a minute before she made an effort to sit up. She let out a slow and quiet moan as she twisted her hands around and forced them up to prop up her back. She was now leaning on her elbows. She carefully pressed her palms to the floor and pushed herself up to a sitting position.

She had to rest again to catch her breath, it was taking a lot of thinking to get to where she was. She had balanced herself in a position in which she could not fall over backwards, but could easily loose it if she tried to move her legs.

She looked around the cold, dark room. It was actually very clean, it only appeared to be a cellar. What it was exactly, Chloe was not sure of. She followed her eyes as they outlined the limits of the wall. It was a good fifty feet by fifty feet, and at least twelve feet high. She could see no hidden cameras, but then again when it came to Lionel Luthor, he could have cameras in the cement block.

Chloe still couldn’t believe why she was here. She didn’t know what to expect. She had no idea what Lionel was trying to get out of her and it seemed like he was just being paranoid. Whatever the case, she hoped someone, maybe even Clark, would find her soon. Clark seemed to have developed the hero quality and would no doubt, especially after last night, keep an eye on her.

She didn’t deserve Clark looking after her, she felt, and if she ever got out of here she would tell him everything and hope that he would forgive her. He was an understanding guy and should definitely know the meaning of secrecy and what it means to keep things from people. Hopefully he would keep an open mind while listening to her.

All Chloe could do now was try to stay awake. She hummed to herself and tried to start organizing the next issue of the Torch in her head. All there was left to do now was wait, because, that was what Lionel wanted.

Chapter Eleven

Clark ran as fast as he could, he wasn’t sure where he was going but he had an idea. He had heard Chloe utter a muffled groan and a man said, “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt.” It sounded like the same goon that was at their house the other night. The guy had continued to say, and Clark figured he was either talking on a cell phone or a walky talky, “Mr. Luthor, I have her. I’ll meet you in ten minutes.”

Clark didn’t know where they were meeting, but he hoped that he could get there soon enough to follow them, or at least pick up a trace. He did know, however, that it was a trap, for him, so he had to be a hundred times more careful.

He stopped in mid burst and, surprisingly, saw a man hauling Chloe into a limo in an alley. He watched from a distance and kept his identity a secret. He was hiding behind some cars across the street when they left. The car screeched and spun around heading right towards him. He ducked in-between cars and waited til they had passed.

Jumping out of his position he looked around carefully to see if anyone would see him. The coast was clear and he took off, trailing the limo at a safe distance. The limo either didn’t know where it was going or it was just trying to shake anyone that might be on their tail.

Finally, the limo pulled up in front of an old warehouse. An old wooden sign read “Property of LuthorCorp” and “No Tresspassing”. It was Lionel Luthor behind it after all.

The driver stepped out of the car and looked around. Walking to the door on his side, he opened it and the man he had encountered last night stepped out. He too looked around before reaching back in the car. He grabbed Chloe and slung her in his arms. Together, the driver and mystery man walking inside the door.

Clark concentrated on the walls and they were suddenly transparent, he found the door to which the men had just entered and saw them talking to a man at a desk. He fanned out and was able to see what the interior looked like, rather than just their skeletons.

This inside was like a high tech facility, equipped with all the latest up to date technology and the best looking factory Clark had ever seen. There were men and women in white coats carrying clipboards and walking importantly around.

Clark decided to see if he could use his x-ray vision and hearing at the same time. He started to concentrate on the building and soon he heard the voices of the men at the front desk.

“Chloe Sullivan,” the man who was carrying Chloe said.

The man at the desk flipped through some papers. “Yes, Mr. Luthor is waiting for you in D0216. Take the elevator down below ground and turn to your left…”

“Yea yea yea. Don’t say anything more, I don’t want anyone to hear,” the mad growled. The man at the desk nodded and turned back to his work.

Clark let his hearing go as the two men proceeded to the elevator. He stopped his x-ray vision and leaned against the wooden crates that were shielding him. He had to think of a plan and fast. There was no telling what Lionel would do to her, or with her. He needed to get in and out and fast.

The man at the desk said their destination was below ground, so maybe it was possible to access it from a sewer or pipeline. Clark walked around the back of the warehouse, cautiously looking out for security cameras. He stopped behind a garbage can and looked up, he saw a small camera in the wall and it was scanning the perimeter. He focused on it and melted it down.

He continued towards the back and saw a manhole. He walked up to it and bent down. To a normal person, it would have taken a lot more than the one finger Clark used to pick it up. He reached his pointer finger in the hole in the center and pulled up, it made a groaning sound, but gave in and came up. Clark jumped in and pulled the covering back over it slightly, so there was a little light in the tunnel.

The tunnel was surprisingly big. There was a good foot over Clark’s head and he could stretch out his arms and not touch the sides. He used his x-ray vision to look around. He saw the underground portion of the building and started heading in the general direction. He could see no figures, he guess it was because he was still too far away.

Eventually he came to a point where the tunnel kept going but he could also choose a path to his right. He scanned the tunnel again and saw figures now, he was really close to them. He chose the path to his right and came to a drop. Looking down he could see a trap door like opening in the wall of the tunnel, he jumped down and it ended up being right at his head level.

He looked through the opening using his x-ray vision and saw a figure laying on the ground with two men standing over it. There was two walls that separated him from the room, and so he needed to know for sure if it was Chloe. Softening his gaze, he could see that it really was Chloe laying on the floor, she was still unconscious. He softened his gaze again and looked for signs of danger on the other side of the wall he was about to climb through.

It was clear, so he opened it up and jumped. He clasped his hands on the rim of the opening and swung his legs under them, releasing as he made the entrance into the room. He landed with a thud and the door to the opening clanged shut behind him. A little startled, he glanced around for anyone.

The room was dark. Too bad I’m not a flashlight, Clark thought, chuckling to himself. He looked hard and made out the outline of a desk and a chair in front of him. There were no windows, but he did see a crack of light at the bottom of the wall. He walked over to it and felt it, it was a door. Concentrating, he looked through the wall, seeing the doorknob, he looked around. Not a soul in sight. Looking through the wall behind the wall he was in he could see Lionel and another man leaving the room that Chloe was in.

They left and walked towards a door. They walked inside and started rising in the air, Clark realized it was the elevator. Looking around one more time, he looked for security cameras. Cameras scoured the place, there was at least one at every corner.

Time for a major plan.

Chapter Twelve

Clark went into “super thought”, where he could go through a hundred different plans faster than you could think. He had three ultimate choices. He could, one, run as fast as he could through the winding hallways, bust open the door, grab Chloe and super speed back out the way he came, thus revealing his secret to her and any cameras that might be watching. He could, two, burn all the cameras down before they could see him and then just waltz right in and get Chloe out. Or he could, three, run straight through the wall and bust her out, thus once again revealing his secret to her. One and three sounded alike, but three was faster.

He had no idea what he wanted to do. But he decided that before he did anything, he would call Pete or Lana and tell them to send the Police over to this little shack. He crept to the back corner of the room and crouched down, in case anybody happened to walk in. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Pete’s cell. It rang once and Pete answered quickly, “Yo, Clark man, what’s happening?” he asked concerned.

Clark brought his voice down, “Call the police, tell them to get to an old warehouse of the corner of James Street in western Smallville. I don’t have the time to call, bye.” He hung up leaving Pete confused on the other line. It was stupid, he realized. He could have just called the police himself, but he had a suspicion that the place was wired with police transmissions and could detect if someone was calling the police from the building.

He started to get up again but he heard voices, and they were talking right behind the door. The doorknob turned and in walked a woman followed by a man about her own age. They were both within the age of forty and neither looked like they were up to any good.

Clark slouched back down into his previous position. He was guarded by a chair and a bookshelf, but the two adults had no intention of going over to where he was. They were talking softly at first, and the man finally stormed out, leaving them woman crying. She ended up following him out a minute later, leaving the lights on.

He could tell, now, what kind of room he was in. It was a dinky office, filled with books and cabinets. A desk, in the back middle of the room, had scattered papers all over it and a laptop on one corner. Then the sign on the desk caught his eye. Slowly he stood up, never taking his eyes off it. He couldn’t believe his eyes, at first he thought he was just making it up, or it was some kind of error. But no, he touched it and it stayed in its place.

It said, in white, bold capital letters, Chloe Sullivan.

****
Pete hung up from Clark quite amused, yet terrified. Lana was still with him, they had wondered up into Clark’s loft and sat around. Neither wanted to go home and so they thought it would be nice to go invade Clark’s privacy.

Lana looked worriedly up at him, “Pete! What is it?”

He started dialing again, “Clark said to call the police. Why he didn’t do it himself, I have no idea, but I’m going to call.” He quickly dialed 911.

“Hello, this is 911 emergency,” said a female voice.

“Yes,” Pete began, “I’m supposed to report a kidnapping in the location of an old warehouse down off of James Street. My friend believes this is where the victim was taken.”

Pete could hear the woman typing in the background, “Okay, sir. And do you know whom might have kidnapped the victim?”

“No, ma’am. But my friend went after her, he should be down there by now. Her name is Chloe Sullivan, she’s about five foot three and a hundred and thirty pounds. Yes. No, blonde.”

He was giving basic information about Chloe to the woman, Lana realized. How he knew so much about her, her weight and height and other personal information, surprised Lana. She thought guys were just oblivious to most of the things he had just said. When he hung up, he looked at her with concern. She asked curiously, “How do you know so much about her?”

Pete blushed, under his black skin, but Lana could tell that his face was visibly redder. “It’s…uh…what you do when you like someone.” He said, stuttering slightly.

Lana’s eyes widened, and then a smile spread across her face as she realized what he meant.

****
Chloe was starting to fall asleep. She kept shutting her eyes, and then seeing a vision of Lionel and snapping back awake again. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stay awake for much longer, there was something about the room that made her tired. It was cold, but the air was thick and it gripped at Chloe’s throat.

She started to feel like she recognized the room she was in. She could remember walking past such a place on her way to her office in the building Lionel had provided as a “secret headquarters”. He told her that she could come to the warehouse when she didn’t feel like working at home.

Surprisingly, to Chloe that is, Chloe took him up on his offer. She had visited the office several times, but never to work on Clark. The office was fairly small, but it was tidy and neat. Her desk was always a mess, but Lionel gave her a laptop on which she could work. The room was filled with books that Chloe would only dream of reading. Her favorite authors lined the shelves and she had spent numerous hours flipping through many of them.

It was a nice place to work, although there were no windows there were air vents that made the room less stuffy. Above her chair was a sewer opening, and whenever the wind blew hard enough, it would open the outlet ever so slightly and let in a bad stench. That was probably why Lionel had given it to her.

She hoped that whatever Clark did, if he did do anything, that he would not find her room before she had the chance to tell him about her job. It would ruin everything and Clark would never speak to her again. If he did find it, he might just leave and not come save her. What would be the point? He would think she didn’t want his help, or didn’t deserve it.

Before long, Chloe started to drift off into a semi-conscious sleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Clark slowly walked around the desk, numb with anxiety. He had no idea why Chloe would have a desk in one of Lionel Luthor’s off-site corporations. The building was a damn warehouse for God’s sake. What business could she possibly have here?

Without thinking, Clark sat down in the chair and stared at the papers on Chloe’s desk. Most of them were copies of her articles for the Daily Planet, or drafts of them. He saw a pile of notebooks on one side, the top one being labeled “Chloe’s Journal” and had a bunch of ugly guys on the front. Another one, which he could see only because it was jutting out underneath the pile, read FOTW. FOTW? What the hell did that mean?

He dared not open any drawers, but he was tempted to use his x-ray vision to look inside them. Something was nipping at his mind, telling him that this was not right. For obvious reasons of course: she was clearly working for Lionel Luthor and she was being held in the same building in which she worked by the man she worked for.

Finally he gave in. He looked in the top drawer of her desk and started at the top layer of papers and focused harder as he went down. He saw nothing really surprising, a few documents of meteor freaks and some research information for what he recognized as one of her latest articles. But as he got to the last group of papers in the top drawer, he was shocked to even glance at the heading of the document.

The heading read, “Under optional bondage and discretion requested by the employee, I Chloe Sullivan hereby sign to the understanding of the following:
1. Working for LuthorCorp provides me with the employment in the Daily Planet as well as the employment services of Mr. Lionel M. Luthor
2. My duration of servitude is under obligatory probation for the time period of six months after which I can resign if my interests are not met or I am discontent with the facilities or any of the items mention in clause B
And the list continued. Clark was shocked and confused at Chloe’s willingness to work for a man with his reputation. He looked further into the second drawer and found something that put his mind to work.

It was unbelievable, it was unmistakable. It was betrayal. Because there, in the second drawer of Chloe Sullivan’s desk, at an old abandoned warehouse in the middle of Nowheresville, was a request letter from Mr. Luthor himself for information concerning Clark. The letter asked for a complete investigative profile on Clark and any information that could be uncovered about his family. Underneath that letter was a pile of documents Chloe had obtained for presenting Lionel with the information she found on Clark. She had a notebook filled with documentaries on Clark, but nothing new or surprising, it was basically the report she handed in a year or two ago about him.

He sank back into the chair. Chloe had been investigating him for Lionel Luthor, his father’s archenemy, for the past…who knows how long…and she hadn’t told him. Well, obviously she wouldn’t tell him, but it seemed like their relationship was coming back together after last spring and the summer following. What went wrong? What had he done?

He almost didn’t want to admit to his conscious, which was telling him all the things he did do wrong with his relationship with Chloe. It was too much for him to absorb and he was beginning to feel a little nauseous. It stung, really deep, but he realized he must have stung Chloe pretty bad for her to do this to him.

He stood up and walked right for the door, he was going to go get her out. He wanted to apologize for everything he had done to hurt her, in return maybe she would tell him why she investigated him.

He opened the door, and to his unbelievable surprise, there stood Lionel Luthor with two of his goons.

****
Lana and Pete ran down the loft and into Pete’s small car. They wanted to go to the warehouse that Clark described, in hopes of catching up with the police and their ambush of the building. They wanted to know what happened, why Clark had called so urgently and who was behind it. All they knew was it was something to do with Chloe, which was who Clark was listening to before he left so, uh, quickly.

Pete roared the engine to life and he, embarrassingly, turned the music down that had blared through his speakers. Lana shook her head and couldn’t help but smile, Pete was a funny guy. They blew out of the Kent farm and were on their way to “James Street” in a remote part of Smallville, the boonies no less.

Lana smirked as she recalled the discussion that she and Pete had just had. He admitted to Lana that he liked Chloe. He said, ‘That’s what you do when you like someone’, which could mean a variety of things, but Lana felt that it meant what she thought it meant.

She really wanted to ask him about it, but she wasn’t sure if it was too “close to home” for him. Like it would spark some old unwanted memories.

Pete noticed Lana’s hesitancy to start a conversation. She kept opening her mouth to speak, but ended up deciding against it. He somehow knew she was thinking about his earlier statement in which he said that he liked Chloe. Nobody knew that besides Clark, and now her closest friend knew. “I know what you’re thinking about,” he stated bluntly, but not angrily.

Lana laughed, “Can you blame me?” Pete shook his head. “Why haven’t you ever told her?”

Pete shrugged, “She’s practically been in love with Clark ever since we knew each other, I guess it would be kind of awkward. Besides, she doesn’t like me that way anyway.”

Lana looked at him, “How do you know? Clark said he didn’t really think of Chloe in that way until he knew that she did. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot.”

“Yeah, maybe. But it could also come off like Clark’s and Chloe’s relationship did, practically no relationship. I’d rather have Chloe than no Chloe.” He sounded pretty convinced that it would never work out, but Lana was still curious.

“I’m sorry if I’m being pushy, Pete, but isn’t the point of the tried relationship between him and Chloe worth trying? I mean, if that never would have happened, Chloe might not have seen the loving side of Clark. As I recall, she and Clark did have a good time at the dance. You aren’t like Clark and won’t run off coming to save me during a good time with her, you can’t hurt her in the way Clark did.”

Pete lifted an eyebrow, “How do you know about that?”

Lana rolled her eyes, “Us girls have a heart to heart once in a while. Come on.” She grinned, and let it fade to a tiny condolence of raising her upper lip, “Wouldn’t it just be worth it? To experience it once?”

“You sound like my grandma,” Pete chuckled. Then he got serious, “Maybe. Maybe you’re right, but maybe…” his voice trailed off as he lost track of what he was going to say.

Lana smirked again, “As far as I know, Chloe’s available.” Pete rolled his eyes and shook his head.

They were driving along the country road when they heard police sirens behind them. Pete veered off the road to wait for the police to pass by, and then followed them. They pulled up in front of an old abandoned warehouse and over a dozen of armed gunmen paraded out of the eight police cars and surounded the building.

Pete parked and the two got out. They ran up to one of the policemen that wasn’t pointing at the building with a gun and asked him what was up.

“Some kid called in with the report of a kidnapping and said the victim was taken here. We found out it’s a building owned by LuthorCorp, sorry kids, that’s all I can tell you.” The man walked away.

Pete stared at Lana, “LuthorCorp owns this place?” He looked at the building, the outside was molding and many of the bricks had crumbled. “What does LuthorCorp want with Chloe?”

Lana stared at the building, “The question is what does Lionel Luthor want with Chloe Sullivan.” Pete looked at her curiously. “And that is something Chloe has to answer for herself.”

Chapter Fourteen

Clark stood in the doorway, completely frozen, yet not surprised. He knew, in the back of his sub-consciousness, he would encounter him. But it seemed so surreal, standing there and Lionel was staring down his throat. The men behind Lionel held machine gun-like weapons and stood in a stance that made Clark feel like he was in the Matrix.

Lionel folded his arms and did not smile. “Breaking and entering, Mr. Kent?”

“Afraid not,” Clark shot back, “just entering.” He brushed passed the three men in front of him and he started to run, although not at super speed.

Lionel called after him, “Good thing you had that cell phone handy, or you might’ve gotten away with this.” Clark stopped, his back still towards Lionel. The cell phone, of course. They probably had access to any call made out of the building whether it was a line inside or not. How could he have been so stupid? It didn’t matter anyway, he would get Chloe out without them hurting either one of them.

Clark turned slowly around and glared at Lionel. “What do you think you can do to me?” He was nervous, wondering what Chloe had told him, what Chloe knew and what information she had so willingly obtained and given to him. He wondered a million things, but had no time to process them.

Lionel grinned wickedly, “That’s what I intend to find out, Clark.” He turned his head slightly and nodded to the men behind him. The brought their guns up and aimed at Clark, cocking the rifle. “Or what I can’t do to you.”

Clark dropped to the floor as the men fired. A steady sound of bullets ricocheted off the wall that was now to the back of Clark. He scrambled to his feet and ran around the corner, barely feeling the few bullets that nipped at his chest and back. He doubted Lionel saw them, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

He whipped through the hallway, using his x-ray vision to see which “cell” held Chloe. He skidded to a stop when he saw the right one. He did not hesitate blowing the door right off it’s hinges and racing inside the room. It was dark and cold and he saw Chloe, startled, sit up and stared wide eyed at him.

“Hurry!” he whispered. “We don’t have much time!” He turned to leave.

“Clark! I can’t!” she pointed to the cement block that was tied to the rope that held her down. Clark quickly ran over to her in the middle of the room, taking the rope in both hands he pulled it apart without the least bit of a grunt. Chloe stared at him in shock. He picked up the cement block with one hand and threw it at the door, creating a bigger hole in the wall.

He picked her up and started to run. Chloe had to keep herself from screaming. She was absolutely terrified. She had just witnessed Clark doing something inhuman, and he was acting like she had seen him do it everyday.

Clark was running down a blank hallway, like all the ones in the lower level of the building, and they could hear footsteps racing behind them. Chloe looked behind them, uncovering her eyes for the first time and saw the men with the machine guns aiming at them.

“Clark!” she managed to whisper. “They’re going to shoot at us.”

When Clark heard that, he covered his arms around Chloe and engulfed her so that the bullets wouldn’t hit her. He couldn’t go into super-speed because he had no idea where he was going. The bullets were bouncing off his back in steady repetition and he could feel Chloe trembling in his arms. He was scared for her.

He reached the end of a hallway. He couldn’t go anywhere, it was a dead end! Why hadn’t he used his x-ray vision? Now they were stuck at the end of a hallway with absolutely no doors within a hundred feet. He looked through the wall, there was another room through there! But how could they get there.

Clark realized that the only way for them to get away from the men would be to go straight through the wall.

Chapter Fifteen

Clark pressed his mouth against Chloe’s ear and whispered, “I’m going through the wall! Cover your head with your hands!” She looked up at him horrified, but did as he said.

She was shocked that she obeyed him, but for some reason she had no doubt that he was going to get through the wall. She put her hands over the back of her neck.

Without even a running start, Clark bulldozed through the wall and sent shards of plaster and brick flying everywhere. With Chloe still in his arms, he turned around and concentrated on the walls and lit them on fire. The men stopped firing and started yelling and coughing at the flames that had suddenly appeared in front of them.

He set Chloe down and took her by the hand, together they ran around the room and to the door in the back where they slipped out to catch their breath. Or rather, Chloe to catch her breath, Clark was barely breathing hard at all.

“Clark!” Chloe managed to get out, “I am so sorry!” She threw her arms around him.

Looking down at her he smiled glumly, “Chloe, I want to hear all about it, and I have something to tell you too…but I don’t think this is the right time or place!” Just as he said that, the flames in the room were extinguished and the men came barreling towards them.

Once again, Clark picked Chloe up, but this time he went into super speed. He knew Lionel was nowhere around, his “personal bodyguards” probably had him a safe distance away from the building by now, maybe in a helicopter or something of the sort. Clark raced through the maze of hallways and came to a stop in the middle of no particular one. He looked around, amazed. There were tins of explosives all around him, there were some from carbon to gasoline, lined up against one wall.

He set Chloe down and looked behind them, he couldn’t see the men coming but he could hear them. They were closing in on them and Clark had to think fast. “Chloe!” I need you to run up these steps and get outside the building as fast as you can!” He pointed to the door to their left, then he used his x-ray vision to look upstairs to see who was around. There were just a few employees left in the building, they looked like they were evacuating.

“Clark! What about you?” Chloe looked worried and very uneasy having to take it all by herself.

“You need to trust me Chloe, for every single time I’ve let you down, this is something that you need to do. This will in no way make up for it, but it’s the beginning,” he looked at her right in the eyes and gave her the look that she had never been able to handle.

She finally averted her eyes and opened the door to the stairs. Looking back at him one last time, she saw the men racing down the hall and start firing at him again. This time she witnessed, close up, the bullets bouncing off his chest. He stood there calmly and looked at her, “Go! Hurry!”

She turned around and raced up the stairs, tears streaming down her cheeks. It took her no time to reach the next level and she burst through the door, running as fast as she could to the exit. The door flew open and she threw herself out of it, at the same time the building exploded.

Clark, meanwhile, concentrated on the explosives. It was the only way, to destroy the men who knew things about him and the evidence that was floating around it this building. One by one the explosives caught on fire, and soon enough they exploded, sending the men running after Clark flying into walls. Clark was taken aback by the explosion as well, he fell on his rear and scrambled for the stairs.

The stairs were catching on fire and crumbling behind Clark as he ran up them. He couldn’t feel the heat, but his clothes were on fire. He reached the top just as the last of the stairs crumbled into ashes behind him. He blew the door off its hinges and ran through the building, knocking over desks and lab tables on his way through. Right before he reached the door to exit the building, which was open, the building exploded.

Flames shot through the roof of the warehouse and a thundering of explosives boomed behind him. The blast carried him out of the building and he was sent flying over the wooden crates he had hid behind just a half hour before. He crashed through the last row of boxes and saw blackness.

****
Clark regained consciousness to someone dragging his limp body along the grass upon which he had landed. His vision was blurred and could only vaguely make out the voices. They were friendly voices, and he recognized them, but he wasn’t able to respond.

Pete was dragging Clark to his car, Lana was helping, a little, and Chloe was limping behind. When the building exploded, a particle of the building collided into Chloe’s leg, now she had a huge gash on her right calf. Lana opened the door to the back of Pete’s car, and noticed Clark was helping Pete get him in.

Clark moaned and pushed his feet against the ground, he was heavy when he was limp. Pete hoisted him into the back seat and laid him down, he pulled out a pocket knife and cut Clark’s shirt open. He was taken back by what he saw. Tiny little pieces of meteor rock, barely bigger than a grain of sand, were gouged into his chest and arms.

Lana gasped and Chloe just stood their shocked. “Pete!” Lana whispered, “”is it the meteor rocks?”

Pete nodded, “Clark is deathly “allergic” to the meteor rocks. They could kill him if he’s exposed to them for too long.” He ran around to the drivers door, He needed to get Clark home fast, his parents would know what to do. “Lana and Chloe, I need you to stay here. Chloe needs to get to the hospital and we can’t have the police knowing that Clark was here.”

Lana nodded and took Chloe by the arm, together they walked over to the swarm of cops that were arresting many of the LuthorCorp employees. They were shocked to see that the police had Lionel Luthor in the back of one of their cars. The man stared at the two girls evilly and didn’t bother averting his eyes. Lana looked away, but Chloe stared right back at him as they passed. She was no longer afraid of him, although she didn’t think prison would do too much to him.

She hobbled quickly to catch up with Lana. “Lana?” Chloe asked, she hesitated before continuing. “Did you…did you know about Clark?”

Lana nodded sadly, “I found out like two days ago, the same day that Lionel had us under house arrest.” Chloe looked away glumly. “Chloe, did you tell him?

Chloe bent her head to one side and stared off into space. “No, but I think he knows. I think he was in my office.”

Lana lifted an eyebrow, “Your office?”

Sighing, Chloe nodded, “Lionel gave me an office here a while back, he told me that I could use it when I wanted to get away from everybody. Like the Torch isn’t enough. But basically, Clark told me he was sorry for all the times he’s hurt me and said that we have things to talk about. That’s when he shoved me out the door.”

Lana looked blank, no expression was clearly visible. Clark was still shocking to her and no matter what she said to Chloe, it would do no use because she herself was not absolutely sure of what Clark was capable of. The building exploded, Clark was in it, he’s alive, for the most part, and there was not a scratch on him; besides the imbedded meteor rock fragments and the ash on his face. That in itself was incredible. What made her think, though, was why the meteor rocks were there. They may have been in the building, but it was weird. Also, why was Clark deathly allergic to them? She’d never heard of anyone having a negative reaction to their radiation. The meteor freaks were one thing because they were mutants, but Clark wasn’t a mutant, he was an alien.

Lana was snapped back to reality when she overheard a police talking into his transistor. He was calling in for an ambulance and an investigation crew. “Base this is McMullen. We have a LuthorCorp situation down on James Street, seems the building exploded due to dangerous chemicals in the lower level of the building. Luthor also claims he had two crates full of refined meteor rocks that were behind the explosives, no doubt adding to the explosion. We need a team down here pronto…”

Chloe and Lana gasped as the policeman continued in his report to the base. “That makes sense now,” Lana mumbled. “He had meteor rocks down there, and that’s right where Clark lit the explosives.”

Chloe looked horrified at Lana. “Will they kill him?’’ Lana shook her head, “I don’t know, but I somehow think so.”

Suddenly, a policeman approached the girls and made them jump out of their shoes. “Sorry girls. Miss Sullivan, we’d like to ask you a few questions. Would you prefer to wait until the paramedics come?” The man looked sympathetically at Chloe’s leg, which was bleeding horribly and her shoe was almost soggy from the moisture of her blood. It was gross to look at and made Chloe want to hurl.

“Uh, no, officer. I can answer now if you’d like,” Chloe stuttered, she was wondering how he knew her name.

“Great,” the officer smiled, “please follow me ladies.”

Chapter Sixteen

Pete pushed down harder on the gas. He was halfway home and could care less about being pulled over. If he didn’t rush, Clark would die. He flew past neighboring farms and quickly approached the Kent farm. He screeched to a halt and heard Clark groan in the back.

Martha and Jonathan heard the screeching tires and ran out onto the porch and saw Pete jump out of the car and run around the passenger’s door. He opened it up and grabbed Clark under the arms. Jonathan ran fast down the steps and helped Pete carry Clark. He grabbed Clark’s legs and together they hauled him inside.

Martha was panicking and had to refrain from screaming. She ran inside before the men and ran cold water into a bowl and grabbed a washcloth from under the sink. The two men laid Clark on the kitchen floor, and déjà vu struck her. She looked on wide eyed as she noticed the meteor rocks imbedded into Clark’s chest.

“Pete! What happened?” Martha gasped.

Jonathan ran off to get tweezers and Pete checked Clark’s pulse. He wasn’t conscious any more. “He went to rescue Chloe from her abductors and blew up the building. I guess there must have been meteor rocks near the explosion because that would be the only way Clark could be exposed to them.”

Martha bent down and laid the cold washcloth on Clark’s forehead. Jonathan arrived back with the tweezers, “Is he conscious Pete?”

Pete shook his head, “No. But luckily, it doesn’t seem that the fragments are very deep in his skin.” He looked back down at Clark’s chest. The veins surrounding each one of the little pieces were turning a pale green, the skin was also tinted green. Clark’s face was drained of color and he made no movements.

Jonathan began to work on Clark. He looked carefully at the biggest one he could find, he tried to steady his hand, but it was shaking violently. He took a couple deep breaths and tried again, slowly lowering his hand down to Clark’s chest. He grabbed the piece with the tweezers and tried to pull it out. It wouldn’t move!

Without looking up, he moaned to Martha, “Dear? Do we have a magnifying glass or something?” He kept trying to pluck the fragment from Clark’s skin, it was somehow connected to the skin it. Martha rushed over to the junk drawer by the coffee pot. She frantically shuffled through the drawer and finally produced a magnifying glass.

She rushed it over to him and he took it with his free hand. He held it close to Clark’s skin and could see his problem. He had Clark’s skin with the fragment! He couldn’t rip Clark’s skin obviously, so he had to let it go and try not to get his skin with it. He tried once again, this time his hand was more steady. He carefully plucked them and set them in a bowl Martha had provided.

It took a good fifteen minutes to get every one off his chest, and even then Jonathan noticed some others in his arms and head. He’d finally removed them all and Martha rushed off with the bowl, as she had the time before when Van shot him with kryptonite bullets.

Clark hadn’t regained consciousness, but Jonathan was fairly convinced that it would take a little time. He clapped Pete on the shoulder, “Thank you Pete. You are really a good friend. You want to help me get Clark up to his room?”

Pete nodded, “Sure, Mr. Kent.” They both grabbed a different set of limbs and worked on hauling Clark upstairs.

****
Chloe and Lana rode in an ambulance to the hospital, and Chloe left Lana as a medical team rushed her away to work on her leg. Lana sat in the waiting room nervously. She knew Chloe would be alright, but she didn’t know about Clark.

After twenty minutes she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to call. She didn’t have her purse so she didn’t have her cell phone, but she dug in her pockets to find change. If she had fifty cents she could call the Kent house. She smiled as she felt some change jingle in one of her pockets, she pulled it out and she had exactly seventy two cents. She plucked out two quarters and headed over to a payphone.

Inserting the coins, she followed the directions and dialed “area-code first”! The phone rang and rang and finally an exasperated Mrs. Kent picked up. “Hello?”

“Hi Mrs. Kent! It’s Lana!” She didn’t feel happy in the least, but she tried to brighten up her voice.

Martha sighed, “Hello, Lana, dear. I’m sorry, I just am really jumpy right now.”

Lana let out a little laugh, “I know what you mean. Chloe and I are really worried about Clark, I’m at the hospital now with Chloe and I’m just waiting for them to let me in to see her. How is he?”

“Chloe’s in the hospital? Oh no! Clark has not regained consciousness yet, but we got….” Martha trailed off, she had almost told Lana what was in his skin.

Lana quickly tried to explain her knowledge, “Mrs. Kent, I know about Clark. He told me.”

She could hear Martha’s muffled surprised gasp. “Oh, well, uh…Jonathan pulled the meteor fragments out, but it hasn’t seemed to have any effect so far.”

Lana shut her eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Thanks Mrs. Kent. I um…” she swallowed to keep from crying, “I will try again later.”

“Get some rest, dear. Let us know about Chloe too, good bye,” Martha hung up.

Lana set the phone back on the receiver and leaned against it, resting her head on her hand that still clutched the phone. Tears streamed down her face, Clark might be dying, Chloe was in a hospital bed, and she was perfectly fine. It didn’t seem right.

Carefully, she let go of the receiver and stepped away from the phone. She sank into a chair and rested her elbows on her legs. A doctor stepped in front of her, “Ms. Lang?”

She looked up and saw the doctor. Brushing the tears from her eyes, she stood up to face him. “Yes, doctor?”

The doctor smiled, “You can see your friend Chloe now.” He sympathetically nodded towards the room and left her with a quick nod of respect.

Lana walked to the room he pointed to and saw through the glass the painful Chloe propped up against the headboard of her hospital bed. She opened the door and walked inside.

Chloe looked at her with sadness; she was ashamed that Lana was with her and not Clark when Clark deserved her presence. She dared ask about him, “How is Clark?”

Lana walked to the side of her bed and set her hand on the little rail that surrounded the head portion of the bed. “He uh…” Chloe could tell she had been crying, but she continued anyway. “He hasn’t regained consciousness yet.” The tears started trickling down her cheeks again.

Chloe put her hand on Lana’s and gripped it, it was awkward and the first time she had really ever done that sort of thing, but it felt right. She wanted to comfort Lana because it felt that, in a way, she was comforting Clark too. “It’s okay, he’ll come around. He’s Clark for God’s sake.”

Lana laughed a little and smiled, “Thanks Chloe. How are you?” She looked down at the bandage that covered the wound on her leg. A little blood trickled through the bandage, but other than that only a few bruises were visible around it.

Chloe rolled her eyes, “Couldn’t be better. Thanks to Clark, I avoided what could have been much worse.” She looked at her bandage, “The doctor said I need to use crutches for a week so that I don’t break the bone in my leg. The brick that hit me almost hit my bone, as long as I don’t walk on it, it shouldn’t get any worse.”

Lana nodded glumly, “When are they letting you come home?”

Chloe shrugged, “I don’t have to stay overnight, and they said I can go home when I want to, but my parent has to pick me up. They called my dad and he’s on his way over.” She looked up at Lana, “You can go see Clark if you want. I understand.”

Lana smiled and shook her head, “Thanks, Chloe, but I think Clark can wait a little while. I have to be here for my friend. We’ll go see him later tonight, together.”

Chloe smiled up at Lana, her heart was filled with a new sense of love that she didn’t think she’d ever experienced before. It was the love that she could only feel for someone who chose to stay with her friend rather than her boyfriend who was in a much worse condition. She liked it.

Chapter Seventeen

Martha sat at Clark’s side throughout the afternoon. She couldn’t bear to see him like this. His skin wasn’t changing color like it had when they removed the kryptonite bullet. He just lay there, pale green skin and all, and motionless. She had been sitting there for twenty minutes already.

Jonathan came up the stairs and leaned against the door frame. “He’ll come around, sweetheart.”

Martha did not take her eyes off of Clark, “What if…the more times he’s exposed….the worse it gets? What if he just doesn’t wake up sometime?” A tear began to roll down her cheek. They had longed for a child of their own for so long, then they found Clark…was he just going to quit on them now?

Jonathan came and put his hand on her shoulder. “No, dear, it’s not like that. I don’t think anyway. When he is no longer exposed to the red kryptonite, he goes back to his old self, so I don’t think that this is any different.” He rubbed her back with his hand.

Grabbing a Kleenex from the box beside her chair she wiped her eyes. She wanted to go shake Clark awake, but she knew that might make it worse. She could do nothing but sit there and stare at her son.

It was very strange, to Jonathan, as to why Clark hadn’t woken up yet. He wondered if he hadn’t removed all the fragments, but he was pretty sure he had. He walked over to the bed and knelt down beside it. Rolling down the covers he inspected Clark’s chest. He brushed his hand over the smooth skin, but couldn’t feel a thing. He next examined his face, brushing Clark’s hair out of the way to see his forehead. Still nothing.

Concerned, he looked over Clark’s arms. He could see no pieces that were visible on the skin. He brushed through Clark’s hair with his hand, hoping that maybe some meteor dust would fall out of his hair. He shook his hand in Clark’s hair and tried to really dust it off.

He stood back up and stared solemnly at Clark’s limp and motionless figure. It was so unnatural to see him like this.

They both heard a knock at the door, Jonathan motioned for his wife to stay and he bounded down the steps to get the door. Hoping it wasn’t the sheriff, he cautiously opened the door. There stood Lana and Chloe equipped with her crutches and everything.

Jonathan reluctantly smiled and opened the door wider, “Hello girls. Come in.” The girls walked in.

“Hi Mr. Kent. I hope this isn’t a bad time…” Lana said.

Jonathan shook his head, “Bad time for Clark, bad time for us, but not bad timing.” The girls looked at him weird and he realized that they did not know that Clark still hadn’t regained consciousness. “Come on,” he motioned for them to follow him.

The two girls looked at each other and then followed, Chloe hobbled up the stairs, clutching the railing in one hand and her crutches in the other. Jonathan turned back around to help out and lifted her up, not as smoothly as Clark had, but just as efficiently. Chloe was starting to wonder if the whole family was like that.

Martha turned and smiled glumly at the girls when they walked through the door. She had used a few more Kleenexes and almost seemed embarrassed by her appearance.

Lana walked worridley over to Clark’s side. She picked up his hand and grasped it with her own. “He’s not conscious?” She asked.

Jonathan and Chloe joined her by his side. “No, he hasn’t even started to change color yet.” Jonathan had not moved the covers over Clark’s chest after he was done, so the entirety of his chest was showing.

Lana moved her hand down and rubbed his chest with her hand. He was firm, no doubt about that. The muscles that poked out of his chest made him seem a lot bigger, if that was possible. He was a big guy, not in the sense that he was fat, but he had always been bigger than Whitney, he just always wore those big plaid shirts and you could never really see his figure.

Even though he was unconscious, she still felt safe standing next to him.

“Where’s Pete?” Chloe asked thoughtfully.

Jonathan shoved his hands in his pockets, which made both of the girls laugh because that’s exactly what Clark does. “What?” asked Jonathan.

Chloe shook her head, “Never mind, continue please.”

Jonathan shrugged and continued, “He went to the police station to find out about Lionel Luthor. He was telling us that was the building you were trapped in, we just wanted to make sure that they had him in custody. For your sake and Clark’s.”

Chloe nodded, “Mr. Kent, I am so sorry for dragging your son into this. I never knew…”

Martha stood up, “Chloe, dear, it’s not your fault. Clark just has the feeling he needs to save everyone. That was the reason he didn’t tell you two in the first place. He didn’t want to hurt you, yet he felt like he wouldn’t if he didn’t tell you. Does that make sense?”

Lana nodded, “When he told me, he got defensive and was trying to make it sound like everything that had happened around here was his fault. Including the death of my parents and everyone that had ever attacked me or Chloe. Or anyone for that matter.”

Jonathan looked hard at Lana, “And what did you say back to him?”

Lana rested her hands on her hips, “I told him that it wasn’t his fault. There was no way he could have controlled those meteors to hit certain people. Besides, the idea that sparked the conversation was the fact that he’d lost his real parents too, in a rather indirect way.”

Chloe became very confused, “Okay…what? Why would Clark want to control the meteor rocks?”

The three who had knowledge about Clark suddenly came to the realization that Chloe didn’t know about Clark, or the reason behind it that is. She had only witnessed Clark’s abnormal abilities.

Jonathan was about to speak when they heard a low moan from behind them. They all turned quickly and saw Clark’s eyes flutter and squint open. Martha rushed to his side, “Clark! Sweetie! Are you awake?”

Clark’s skin still wasn’t changing color. He managed to let out a low moan that they could make out the word. “S…socks,” he muttered.

Jonathan whipped the covers off of Clark and yanked off his socks. Falling out of the socks were two huge chunks of refined meteor rock, about as big as your pinky finger. They were enormous in comparison to the ones Jonathan had removed from Clark’s chest.

Lana and Chloe gasped in surprise and then looked back at Clark. His skin hue was back changing into his normal tan color. But something peculiar was happening.

The veins around the skin that had meteor rock imbedded into them turned white, and then they flashed towards the ceiling letting out a bright light. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone, and the veins turned a normal invisible color once again.

Lana and Chloe subconsciously took a step backwards, and stared at him. Martha and Jonathan helped prop Clark up against his headboard and stuck a pillow behind his back. Clark opened his eyes and immediately felt a surge of energy go through him. He was feeling better already.

The girls were both very happy to see his color change back to normal, it made them feel like they knew him, instead of the previous sick Clark that they were no used to whatsoever.

Jonathan and Martha shared a look, they both knew that Clark had a lot of explaining to do. Martha bent down and kissed Clark on the forehead.

“Ah mom! Not in front of people!” Clark groaned. Everybody laughed and Jonathan and Martha left, shutting the door behind them.

Chloe sat down in the chair Martha had been sitting in, exhausted from standing on her crutches. “Are you okay?” Clark asked her.

Chloe rolled her eyes, “I cannot believe you just asked me that. Look at you, you were just unconscious for, like, five hours, and all you care about is someone else.” She smiled and Clark hung his head, blushing slightly.

“I suppose I have a lot of explaining to do,” Clark sighed.

Chloe nodded her head furiously, “Yes, but first there’s something I have to tell you.”

Chapter Eighteen

Clark pushed himself up higher on the bed, Lana walked around and sat on his left side and Chloe stood up and jumped on one foot over to his right and sat down. She stared intensely at him.

Clark chuckled and averted his eyes slightly. “Uh…did you want to go first or do you want me to?”

Chloe shook her head, “Let me. I’m just trying to gather my thoughts.” She sat thoughtfully and knew that she would start crying if she just didn’t get it over with. “Okay. Clark, I know we’ve had our ups and downs, and lately we’ve been having our ups, which is why this is so hard to tell you.”

Lana stayed silent, she was really proud of Chloe for going through with this, but she wasn’t sure how Clark would react. Clark wasn’t confused, he knew about it because he’d seen the paper in her desk. But he wanted to hear her side of the story and have her be able to tell him willingly than his having to pry it out of her.

Chloe continued, “Remember the day before you left for Metropolis? And I came to the farm and asked you about what you wanted to tell me? You were so intent on whatever you were going to do that you didn’t tell me about you and Lana and I ended up blurting it out and saying ‘have a nice life’?”

Clark winced, for his failure to tell her and the painful rest of the day it had been. “Yes,” he said through clenched eyes.

Chloe got the message that she was bringing up some bad memories so she quickly went on. “Well, after I left your farm, I went straight to the Luthor mansion.” Clark raised an eyebrow. “Clark, Mr. Luthor offered me a job to spy on you in exchange for a position at the Daily Planet and a new computer system for the Torch.”

Clark stared at the quilt on his bed, “Yeah, I know.” He looked up at her through the corner of his eye. “I got into the building through your office…”

Now Chloe winced, “Oh no.”

Clark cut her off before she could continue. “Chloe, I understand why you did it. I’m a jerk, and it seems to come out only on those that I really care about.”

A tear trickled down Chloe’s face. “Clark, you’re not a jerk, you just have too much on your mind.” She grabbed the box of Kleenexes that Martha had been using and yanked one out. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she continued. “After today, I know why you are like you are. You want to help people, and with what you are capable of…I’m not surprised. I understand why you didn’t give us the whole truth… you wanted to just do what you had to do and not make a big scene about it.” She laughed, “I guess that solves the mystery that is Clark Kent.”

Clark smiled, half-heartedly. What she said made sense, but he didn’t want it to be that way. He didn’t want them to see him as just someone who was obsessed with saving people, he wanted to be their friend. He knew that he was, but it just seemed to him that he had let them down too many times. “I guess I just thought that if I didn’t tell you, I wouldn’t be able to hurt you. I mean, if I were to have told you from the beginning, I feel like more was to be expected of me. Since I didn’t tell you, I was able to clean up the mess I made in the first place. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

Chloe stared at him, he was always blaming himself for everything and she was sick of it. “Clark, it wasn’t your fault! Why do you keep blaming yourself for it?”

Lana tried not to smile, she knew this was serious but she couldn’t remember how many times she had said the exact same thing to herself.

Clark looked at Lana, noticed her smirk, before continuing, “Yes it was Chloe. The meteor shower was my fault.”

Chloe stared at him, blankly. She squinted her eyes and studied him, was he serious? “Huh?” she asked, stupidly.

“Twelve years ago…” Clark mocked, “the biggest and most devastating meteor shower hit Smallville. What the residents of the little victimized city did not know, was that the meteor shower was actually a cover for a small metallic space ship, carrying the soon-to-be Clark Kent.” He tried not to smile, but really, it was funny.

Chloe let out a little laugh, “Whoa.” She shook her head and shut her eyes. She opened them again and looked at Clark strangely, “So that means that…you’re a…” she couldn’t bring herself to say it. It was too surreal.

Lana finished for her, “An alien.” She smiled at Clark.

Clark chuckled, “Yeah. An alien.” Chloe still wasn’t processing everything through. Clark tried to get defensive, “Chloe! I thought you said that aliens would be a step up compared to humans!”

Chloe giggled, “I did say that, didn’t I? I guess I just never thought that you’d…I mean, I’ve told you before that most men are from mars, but you really are from some distant galaxy I’ve never heard of.”

“It’s called Krypton,” Clark smirked, “and the meteor rocks are called Kryptonite.”

Chloe and Lana stared at him. “You know what you’re home planet is called?” Lana asked shocked.

Clark nodded, “Yeah, remember the symbols in the cave? Those are from my ancestors, Lana you know that, but Chloe,” he smiled and looked at Chloe, “has yet to hear the length of my abilities.”

Chloe grinned, “The length? You’re bulletproof, can run really fast…there’s more?” She was getting excited.

“Pick up the candle, Chloe,” Lana said, pointing to the candle on the dresser beside Clark’s bed. Chloe reached and retrieved the candle.

“Okay? What, are you going to move it from my hands? Are you like Justin? Oh no!” Chloe clapped her hand over her mouth.

“No!” Clark laughed. “Just watch,” he stared intently at the candle and it lit on fire.

Chloe jumped and almost dropped it from her hands, but Clark was quick and snatched it from her before it could drop. Chloe stared at him like he was an alien, “Oh my God! Did you light that on fire with your mind?”

Clark laughed, “No, with my eyes.” He looked at Lana, “What next?”

Lana shrugged, “How about the card trick?” She was referring to their first official “non date” that they had almost two years ago. It had just popped into her head and she giggled at the memory, she understood it now.

Clark nodded and opened a drawer on his bed side table and took out a deck of playing cards. He shuffled quickly a couple times, “Tell me when to stop…” he started going through the deck and stopped when Chloe said so. “Ok, look at the card.” She did so and he looked through it, smiling he said, “Ace of spades.”

“Whoa…let me guess…x-ray vision?” Chloe lifted an eyebrow. Clark nodded and she freaked out. “This is so weird! I mean, it always seemed like you could do these things, but when I thought about it I was like, yeah right Chloe. And I would just dismiss it.” She smiled out of the corner of her mouth, still unbelieving what he was actually telling her.

Just then Pete burst through the door. Everybody sat upright at his entrance. He looked disappointed when he saw the girls sitting on either side of Clark, “Aw, come on man! You can’t have both of them! Don’t you want to share?” The girls giggled and Clark just smiled. “It’s nice to see you among the living, man. But I’m afraid I have bad news. Really bad news.”

Clark looked questionably at Pete, and the girls did the same, all wondering what could be so bad. “What is it Pete?” Chloe asked.

Pete looked a little frantic and glanced about, “Lionel Luthor got bailed out of jail.”

Chapter Nineteen

Lionel Luthor sat in the rear of a very long and expensive limousine. It wasn’t that it was peculiar to him or anything, but it was whom he was riding with that made him shudder.

He couldn’t believe that his plan had failed. He was supposed to have Clark in his possession right now, questioning him until his mouth fell off his face. What went wrong? That was simple, Clark wasn’t who everyone thought he was and now Lionel understood the depth of his secrets. The Kent family had always been very secretive, that was obvious, but it was what he had witnessed that put him over the edge.

The last time he saw Clark was him flying out of the building. No one else had noticed except for himself and his friends. He watched Clark sprint down the hallway when they first encountered, and then stop when he heard his reason for being found out. Lionel was sure that he was moving at an abnormal speed when he dropped to the ground and then took off around the corner. And Lionel was sure that he had seen bullets bounce right off of him, but he could not be sure.

He heard his men yelling at swearing as they ran after Clark, but for as many times as they had shot at him, he never heard Clark scream or drop or the men stop shooting. Either the men had really good aim, Clark was really quick at dodging bullets, or Clark was somehow able to deflect the bullets with his body. A bulletproof vest was not likely, but Lionel could not figure any other way.

When more of his security guards arrived to escort him away, telling him the police were on their way, they made the mistake of going out the back door. The police had already arrived and the took them into custody. Being arrested was the least of Lionel’s problems, but he couldn’t stand being put in the way of discovering his ultimate goal in life, uncovering the mystery that is Clark Kent.

“Luthor,” the man he was riding with said, “why are you so antsy? That is not a Luthor trait.”

Lionel rubbed the hair on his chin and looked straight ahead, “We need to take him down. We need to take him down now.”

“We will, Lionel, we will. But first things first. How are the arrangements coming for Lex?” the man asked, trying to spur on the conversation.

“Good, good.” Lionel said, frowning. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. He’s my own flesh and blood.”

The man chuckled, “Whatever it takes, right Luthor?”

Lionel nodded, “Whatever it takes.” Then he looked at the man, “Morgan, I want to go get him, we need to go now.”

Morgan Edge smiled, “Be patient. We will.”

Chapter Twenty

Without even thinking about it, every muscle it Clark’s body tensed and he turned a bright shade of red. He wasn’t embarrassed, but he felt anger and frustration flow through him.

The girls saw him get tense and his muscles bulked up. It was a little obvious that they were staring, especially since Clark didn’t have a t-shirt on. Clark didn’t even notice, he was lost in contemplation. But Pete noticed and retorted, “Clark, man! You’re making me look bad!” The girls giggled at the comment.

Clark didn’t respond. He jumped up out of bed and bounded over to his dresser. Practically ripping out a drawer, he tore through it and seemed to be looking for something. He started moving at super speed, why? He wasn’t exactly sure. It just sort of came out. He was nervous and it seemed to be the only way to not focus on it. He didn’t care about what his friends thought.

His three friends, though, stared at him as he moved at his high speed. Lana and Chloe were in awe and couldn’t exactly follow his movements, but Pete just stood there and shook his head.

Finally, Clark pulled out a box from the back of his closet and tore off the cover. He produced several sheets of crumpled iron, similar to the one he had used against Van. Again, out of the box he took duct tape. “Pete! Help me!” He gave him the duct tape and held the iron to his chest.

Pete took the duct tape and started taping the iron to his chest. “Clark? Why are you doing this?” He took another sheet and began to tape it to his back.

“Lionel must know my secret, and my weakness. And if he doesn’t, I’m not taking any chances. This is the only way to stop kryptonite from effecting me,” Clark stated.

Lana stood up, “Clark, you can’t cover your whole body with it.” She was worried and didn’t think that Clark should try to go out and find Lionel, because that was obviously what he was going to do.

“No, probably not. But I can prevent it from getting at the places where they would try to shoot me with kryptonite bullets. Like Van, if I would have had lead on it wouldn’t have hurt me,” Clark said rushed.

Lana looked at him hard, “Is that how Van hurt you? He made bullets made out of…uh…kryptonite?” Clark nodded, instantly remembering she didn’t know about that. Lana let out a nervous laugh, “I called the police because he said he’d killed you. He must have seen you fall…”

“So you called the police,” Clark smirked. “The sheriff came to our house and said they got a call I’d been murdered. I was already better by then. Wow, I thought you were mad at me still!” He was being a little sarcastic, but he could tell Lana was taking it more seriously. “Hey, I was just kidding.”

Lana nodded, “I know. But for once, I had actually thought that you’d died. No matter how mad I am at someone, and I wasn’t mad by the way, that would never change how I’d feel if they died. Especially you.” She looked up at him with pain in her eyes.

Pete and Chloe exchanged a look that told each other “let’s go hurl” and then looked away from the love scene.

Clark half-smiled, half-thought about smiling. “Well, I’m sorry if it scared you, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I’m used to bullets bouncing off me,” he smirked. Lana rolled her eyes and saw Clark looking behind her. She turns to see Chloe and Pete making gagging motions with their hands. She and Clark stared at them, both had their eyebrows raised.

Chloe and Pete realized they were being watched and tried to continue a normal conversation. “So, about the Torch!” Pete said, looking out of the corner of his eye at Clark and Lana.

“Ha ha ha,” Clark said sarcastically. He turned back to his closet and dug out a shirt, he carefully slipped it over the iron chest guards Pete had so crudely taped on his chest. “I have to go find him,” Clark headed for the door.

Pete jumped up and grabbed Clark’s arm. “Whoa, man. What do you think you’re going to do? Just find him and bring him to jail? You gotta think about this, he probably has a plan. You’ve got to be careful, no, you can’t do this!”

Clark pulled his arm from Pete’s grip, “I have to Pete! I can’t just let him roam free, I’d never be able to leave my house again.” He looked back at Lana and Chloe, they were standing side by side and looking on very concerned. “He’s like Perry White, he won’t stop until he’s satisfied. The only person who is in as much or more danger than me is Chloe, you need to stay here with her.”

Pete grabbed his coat, “She can stay here with Lana. I’m going with you.” Clark tried to refuse, it was too dangerous and he knew Pete could get hurt, but Pete held up his hand. It reminded Clark of his dad and he almost laughed, but held it in.

Shaking his head he said, “Alright. But you have to be careful.” Pete rolled his eyes.

“Oh boys?” Chloe said, hobbling over to her crutches. “Who’s going to watch over me? I’m a victim, remember?”

Clark and Pete looked at each other, then looked at Lana. “Yeah right,” Lana scoffed. “I may have taken self defense lessons, but I can not take on Luthor’s thugs.”

Then an idea popped into Clark’s head, “Lex.”

Chapter Twenty One
Lex Luthor walked around and sat in the chair behind his desk. He had a glass of brandy in one hand and a copy of the Torch in the other. Setting down his brandy, he flipped through the pages of the Torch slowly. He was very interested in Chloe Sullivan’s work, but he could not seem to stay on one page.

He set the newspaper down and picked up his wine. He took a long sip and set it back down, shaking his head as if to push the alcohol down his throat. He opened up his laptop that was sitting on his desk and signed on to the internet.

Surfing was a habit Lex had picked up recently. He never looked for anything in particular, but he kept an eye out on the mansion security system through it. He had just discovered that the security system was hooked up with the internet connection they had in their house, incredibly strange and Lex didn’t know whether to think it was real or another hoax of his father’s doing.

His father had been at the mansion a lot lately and it was actually starting to bug him. They had become “new found relatives” just a month or so ago, when Lex got rescued from the island. It was comforting to know that his father hadn’t tried to kill him, then again it angered him that Helen tried. But that was for another place and another time. Lex suspected his father was up to something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

His father had been at the warehouse on James Street a lot lately. Lex didn’t know what he was using the warehouse for exactly, but he dreaded the possibility of the infamous Level Three once again. He had heard brief comments about large shipments of the refined meteors being shipped to the warehouse and it bothered him. He wasn’t sure if his father knew what exactly he was getting into.

His father didn’t know what he was getting into, that’s why he had Chloe Sullivan, meteor research expert, working for him. Lex knew that Chloe had dug herself deeper than she could handle and that was why he offered to protect her. She had, in exchange, given him all the information she knew on his dad, which was huge. From the information he had gathered personally and the information he had received from Chloe, there was enough dirt on his father to get him the death penalty.

What was worse was that Lex had discovered that Lionel and Morgan Edge had been “partners in crime” when they were younger. They were practically best friends and would get into many of the big corporations together, robbing or burning up the place.

Lex wasn’t really worried about Morgan Edge, he was pretty sure he was dead, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Feeling bored, he logged off the internet and closed the laptop. He picked up his brandy and took another sip, setting it down, he tucked his hands behind his head and leaned back, closing his eyes. It felt good not to have any truly heavy burdens on him at the moment, no business obligations or personal discrepancies. He could spend the day relaxing.

Ha. He spoke too soon.

“Mr. Luthor!” Darius blew through the door of Lex’s private room.

Not startled, but upset that he was disturbed, Lex looked quizzically at Darius. If his security guard was busting through into his office, there had to be something wrong, obviously. “Darius? What is it?”

Darius looked nervously around, “There’s been an explosion at your father’s plant! It appears there were chemicals on the bottom floor of the warehouse, they were somehow ignited and the whole building went up in flames.”

Lex stood up, hastily and walked towards Darius. “And my father? Where’s my dad?” He wasn’t really concerned about the well being of his dad, he just wanted to know if his father had been in the building or not.

“He was arrested,” Darius said, looking into Lex’s eyes. The two men were around the same height, but Darius was a little taller. The black man continued, “He did not have a permit for using meteor rocks or the chemicals he had locked up in the basement, the officer called said that was a pretty big felony considering your dad.”

Lex lifted an eyebrow, “A pretty big felony, huh? Yeah, we’ll see. Where are they taking him?”

“To the Smallville Penitentiary,” Darius said, “he was put at bail of $100,000. The police said that the bigger the man, the bigger the bail.”

Lex couldn’t help but chuckle a little. The bigger the man the bigger the bail, now that sounded rehearsed. He grabbed Darius by his shirt collars, “What are you up to?” He slammed him against a wall and breathed down his neck.

Darius stood completely shocked under Lex’s grip, “Nothing! I just thought you’d want to know that his warehouse exploded! Your dad is in jail Lex!”

Lex loosened his grip and let Darius go. He rubbed his neck, his muscles seemed to spasm when he got angry. This time it was worse, the muscle seemed to feel like it wasn’t there at all. “Fine, thank you Darius.” Lex turned and walked slowly back to his desk.

“Are you alright, Mr. Luthor?” Darius asked cautiously.

Lex nodded, “Yes Darius.” He didn’t turn around when he said this, but his voice rang through the room, as if telling Darius he was no longer wanted.

Darius took the hint and quietly left the room, shutting the doors behind him.

Lex walked over to his array of couches and sank down into the longest one. He laid spread out on the couch. He felt so strange, like a million eyes were watching him and al from above. He opened his eyes abruptly, but saw nothing.

He squirmed, trying to get comfortable on the couch. He finally just sank into the cushions and drifted off to sleep.

He was almost asleep when he heard it. He shut his eyes tight and covered his ears with his hands. He groaned, it had come back again. Why? Why did he torture him so?

The tiny sound of a baby’s muffled cry echoed in his ears and he winced at the pain the little voice brought in his heart. The innocent voice crying out to him, yelling why Lex? Why did you kill me?

Rolling off the couch, Lex scrambled to the opposite couch and grabbed the baby off the seat cushion. He cradled the small infant in his arms and started to sing.

“Hush little baby don’t you cry, daddy’s going to sing you a lullaby,” Lex sang softly, almost inaudibly.

Through the security cameras, he had two innocent eyes watching him. His psychiatrist stared on as Lex rocked a wrapped blanket in his arms. She averted her eyes, what she was doing was too demoralizing to even bear. This is what she got, though, for working for the legendary Luthor family.

“I’m sorry Lex,” she whispered into the camera, “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Twenty-Two
“Lex?” Chloe asked nervously.

Clark nodded, “Yes, he’s got the best security system and most likely the best security guards. Why not? Is there something wrong?” Clark looked at Chloe suspiciously.

Chloe’s eyes widened, “Uh, no, it’s just that…wouldn’t I be safer here?” She knew that Lex wouldn’t be a good choice, his father was catching on to the information that he had obtained, and Chloe figured that was part of the reason that she had been kidnapped.

Pete looked frustrated, he agreed that Lex would be an ideal choice for Chloe’s guardian, but he sensed that something else was wrong, “Chloe, what is it?” He wasn’t going to pry, but if she would say anything that would give a hint of why she didn’t want to go there, they might be able to work from that.

Chloe bit her bottom lip. “Clark, I don’t think you’re the only one that Lionel is trying to get. Lex has information about his dad that could get him the death penalty. I think his dad is after him too.”

Her friends stared at her. “How do you know this Chloe?” Clark asked, concerned. If Chloe knew Lex had dirt on Lionel she must be in danger as well, only Lionel Luthor had that crooked of a mind.

Chloe sighed, “I was trying to get out of the contract I had with Lionel. I’ve been trying for weeks to resign, but he keeps blackmailing me. I finally had enough and I started looking for information on him that I could blackmail him with. I guess I underestimated the power of the Luthor family.” She hesitated before continuing, “Lex told me he’d protect me. But so far all he’s done was take the information I had on Lionel and nothing else, as you can tell. No one was at my house to rescue me, or at the warehouse, he didn’t keep up his end of the bargain.”

Clark narrowed his eyes, at no one in particular, but was deep in thought. “He must be going after Lex to get information on me, Lex researched me for a year. Remember that?” He looked at Pete and Pete nodded. “That, and he must be trying to erase all of the information Lex has on him. Lex could use that as a deadly weapon.”

“I found that Lionel ran with a tough crowd when he was younger, but he’s the only one still alive in the deadly duo that could offer any evidence to the courts,” Chloe said, “Morgan Edge is dead, which was his partner in crime.”

Clark stared at her, “Morgan Edge? The big crime boss in Metropolis?” The name had a terrible memory attached to it, and Clark seemed to shudder while saying it. Pete looked up at Clark knowingly, he knew all too well Clark’s tales of Morgan Edge.

Chloe lifted an eyebrow, “How did you know that he was a crime boss?” She was interested now.

“I…uh…well,” he stuttered. He wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that question, it was embarrassing, almost, to admit to committing all those crimes.

Lana put on the same look as Chloe, “Is there something we need to know?”

“Well, he uh…knows my secret,” Clark answered, looking at the floor.

Chloe and Lana looked shocked, and almost gasped. “How does he know?” Lana asked.

Clark’s face turned a couple deeper shades of red. “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter.” He tried to brush the question away.

Lana touched his arm, “Clark, no secrets. If you really want to bring down Lionel, we need to know everything.”

Clark sighed, “When I was in Metropolis for the summer I started pulling off solo bank robberies.” He looked at Chloe, “That’s how I could afford the apartment. Well one morning in my apartment, two men come in and start firing off machine guns at me while I’m sleeping. I wake up and throw them into a wall and then Morgan comes around the corner. He watched them shoot me and all the bullets bounce off me. He hired me to pull off a job on Lionel Luthor.” He got a little nervous and started itching the back of his head. “Lionel had a vile of blood in the safe in his office at LuthorCorp. We found out later that it was mine.”

Lana gasped and Chloe’s mouth hung open. “Wait, wait, wait,” Chloe said, raising her hand and then wiping her bangs out of her eye. “How did he get your blood in the first place?”

“Remember when my mom and I got sick?” Clark asked, both of the girls nodded, remembering all too well the horror of his sickness. “Well Helen Bryce took a sample of my blood to examine it, she never got rid of it and then sold it to Lionel Luthor, or so it seems.”

“Were you sure it was your blood?” Chloe asked. Clark nodded. “Wow! I read the newspaper articles on the ‘Mystery Thief’ all the time. He pulled, like, twenty jobs. That was you all along?”

Clark nodded reluctantly, “Yeah. Now I’m trying to put that behind me, you mind?” He said sarcastically. “Oh, by the way Chloe. I’m sorry about what happened in Metropolis, I know I said that before, but I am.”

Chloe nodded, “You weren’t yourself. How did your personality change so drastically?”

Clark knew there was another explanation coming on. “You know what green meteor rocks do to me, well red ones effect me too.”

Lana grinned, “Like the ones in the class rings?”

“Yeah, exactly. Well when I put on the ring, it effects me emotionally. I don’t really know how accurate it is when it comes to my real emotions and the feelings I have under the influence of red kryptonite. When I wear it I feel like I want to tell the whole world my secret, I take advantage of the things I wouldn’t otherwise. I had the ring on while I was there, so it made it harder for my parents to find me. I acted terrible towards my parents, I would taunt them and stuff like that. After taking it off, I felt so guilty.” He hated going back to those memories.

Lana and Chloe nodded understandingly. Then Pete broke the silence, “Sorry to ruin this Clark, Lana, Chloe bonding moment, but we need to get moving.”

Clark nodded his head, “Yeah. Okay, you two stay here and do not leave whatsoever unless we call. Okay?” He looked at the two girls hard.

The girls squirmed under Clark’s direct gaze and nodded. Clark and Pete turned to leave when Lana grabbed Clark’s sleeve and pulled him back. She got up on her tip toes and gave him a kiss on the lips. She pulled away and smirked, Clark turned red and tried not to smile. He and Pete left quickly.

Lana turned back around to see Chloe rolling her eyes at her. “What?” she asked innocently.

Chloe rolled her eyes again, “Did you have to do that?”

Lana shrugged, “Yeah, it was funny, wasn’t it?” She turned back into Clark’s room. “How about we do a little snooping?” She grinned and Chloe smiled back.

Chapter Twenty Three

Lana walked over to Clark’s dresser. He never cleaned up the mess he had torn up moving at his super fast speed looking for the lead thingy he put on his chest and back. She laughed and stuck some of the clothes back in the drawer.

Chloe hobbled to the bed and threw herself on top of it, pretending to be gasping for air. She pulled herself up and propped herself where Clark had once been. She watched Lana put the clothes back in the drawer. “Now he has his own maid. How nice. He can super speed through it, why bother.”

Lana smirked, “I dunno. It feels right I guess. It’s kinda fun too, I mean, looking through his stuff. A year ago I would have been like, yeah right. He has so many secrets, it’s not like his dresser would give them all away. It still seems like so long ago that we didn’t know.”

Grinning, Chloe replied, “It does feel like we’ve known forever, like in the back of our minds. It was really shocking, when he said that he was an alien, but then again, this is Smallville.”

Lana nodded, “When he told me, we were talking about how his parents and my parents both died in the meteor shower, even though his was more indirectly. It made the news a little softer. But I can’t believe how calm I was, I mean, he’s an alien!” She picked up a book that was laying on the floor by his closet and flipped through it.

“Yeah, that is really strange, I don’t know if I still understand the depth of that fact.” Chloe shook her head at the thought.

“I just don’t think about, and just focus on the fact that he’s back in my life,” Lana said, a little cautiously. She knew Chloe had some feelings left for Clark, but she had to state what she felt.

Chloe nodded, agreeing. Then changing the subject, “So what did you think about his explanation of Metropolis this summer?”

Lana’s eyes widened, “Well it makes a lot of sense! It didn’t seem like Clark, but it seemed familiar. I’m glad it wasn’t totally him.”

“It does make a lot of sense. When I visited him at his apartment, he didn’t have a care in the world. He referred to Smallville as ‘Hickville’. I was amused by that. But he yelled at me and told me to get out. I’ve never seen Clark with that much anger and assertion before.”

“I know,” Lana nodded, “He accused me of betraying him. I didn’t think he was capable of any accusations of that sort.”

Chloe sat up, no longer leaning on the bed. “It seems that way. But do you know the personality he reminded me of?” Lana looked at her, not really knowing what she was getting at. “Remember when you told me that Clark spontaneously stood up to the principle and told him that the new girl looked hot? Or when you two went out on a date and he left with another girl?”

Lana nodded slowly, the terrible memories coming back. But slowly a smile crept onto her face. “You know, you’re right. He was acting the same way. And that was right after he had bought his class ring! Weird, I can’t believe you made that connection.”

“Just a thought,” Chloe smiled and leaned back against the headboard. She watched Lana dig around in Clark’s stuff, it was pretty amusing to see her look at all the clothing and books he had lying around.

“Clark really likes Bob Marley,” Lana grinned as she held up five different cd’s, all Bob Marley. Chloe laughed and motioned with her hands for Lana to toss the cd’s to her. Lana did and then kept looking. “I wonder what Clark would say if he knew that we were looking through his stuff.”

“Hey!” Chloe retorted, “Leave me out of this! You’re the one snooping.”

Lana giggled, “He could probably hear us if he wanted to know what we were doing. You know he has a super hearing power? He can hear anyone anywhere by just concentrating on them, that’s how he found you.”

Chloe stared at her, “So we’re never safe? We never have any privacy?” Lana laughed and Chloe smiled, it was just plain strange.

Lana moved from his closet over to his computer. Moving the mouse, the screen went from a flying through space screen saver to a picture of the solar system. “Well, we know now why Clark’s so interested in astronomy,” Lana giggled. He wanted to know what was out there, and now he knew that he used to be. Weird.

“Hahaha, yeah,” Chloe thought that was clever. She was always wondering why Clark loved the stars so much, it was one of the most amazing features in the outside world, but it was still so mysterious.

Lana sat down in his desk chair and began opening up files. “Wow, he’s done a lot of research on people that have the same abilities as he does. I bet he’s looking for someone out there like him.” She felt for him, she had no idea what it would be like to be able to do all these amazing things and be the only one like that.

Chloe kept looking through the Bob Marley CD’s. She was just going to let Lana ramble, it wasn’t like her at all, but she thought it would be the best thing to do.

Lana left the computer and walked over to his bed side table. There on the table sat a single photograph of the Kent family, not even a year old. That made her think. “Hey, Chloe. Have you noticed that this is the only picture Clark has up in his entire room?”

Chloe looked up at Lana, who was holding the picture of the Kent family. Then she looked around and nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. That is the only one. What, doesn’t the boy own a camera?”

“We’ve taken a bunch of pictures together, I wonder what he does with them all.” Lana set the frame back down and got down on her knees. “Let’s see what Clark has under his bed.”

Chloe leaned over the edge to watch Lana dig under the bed. She pulled out a broken baseball bat and a baseball that had the outer layer ripped off, some socks and an old crusty banana peel. “Oooh! Gross!!” Chloe plugged her nose and Lana tossed it into the garbage can.

Reaching back under, Lana pulled out a box and wiped off the thin layer of dust that had gathered on its cover. She read it out loud, “My Keepsake Box.” Chloe rested her chin on the edge of the bed and could smell Clark’s scent flooding the sheets.

Lana opened the box and found two huge bulky envelopes inside with a bunch of pictures scattered around them. She took out one envelope and opened it up. There was an assortment of pictures, of all shapes and sizes stuffed inside. She took them out and noticed right away, for some reason, they were all of Clark and Chloe. She looked up at Chloe and handed them to her, “They’re all of you and him.”

Chloe took the pictures and sat up, once again leaning against the headboard. She looked carefully at each one and drifted back into the past. There were pictures from freshman year up to just recently, there were multiple pictures from the spring formal. That surprised her, she thought she’d been the only one who had enjoyed the night, perhaps she had been wrong about Clark.

Lana watched Chloe look intently at the pictures for a moment before turning back to the second envelope. Picking it up, she knew what was inside, she was almost nervous at the pictures Clark kept of them. She slowly opened the flap and took out the assortment of pictures.

The one on top made her melt. It was just a plain picture of them, but it was so perfect. Clark had his arm draped around her shoulder and had his perfect Kent smile on. She loved the pictures of just him and her, it made them seem so unique. She continued flipping through the rest of them, they were mainly just the tow of them but once in a while there was one with Chloe or Pete too.

All of a sudden Chloe blurted out, “I can’t believe he kept this picture! I told him to throw it away but he insisted. I’m so ugly in it! God, Clark, why’d you have to keep this?”

Lana snatched it away from her. It was a picture of her and Clark in their trick-or-treating outfits last year. Clark was a farmer, surprise surprise, and Chloe was a meteor rock. Lana busted out laughing. It was the funniest picture she had ever seen.

They both went back to reliving the old memories that were buried deep inside the box. They were both surprised that Clark had this many pictures of them, but were pleased with what they saw. Clark had a good heart, and that's why they loved him.

Chapter Twenty Four
Clark and Pete left the Kent farm and drove in Pete’s car to Lex’s mansion. They needed to make sure Lex was alright and see if he could give them any insight. They drove in silence the entire way there, neither had much to say.

Clark was still dumbstruck by the kiss Lana had given him. He didn’t know what it meant, or even if it meant anything. But he knew that it did mean that she didn’t care about what he really was. It was still just hitting him that Lana now knew that he was an alien, which seemed incredibly weird to him. She had kissed him right in front of Pete and Chloe, which didn’t seem like something she’d do at all.

He was also a little nervous about leaving them alone in his room. He wasn’t sure if they would look around or just sit and…do whatever girls do. He didn’t have anything to hide, so it wasn’t like they’d find drugs or anything embarrassing. He hoped they wouldn’t find the box under his bed, the one with all the pictures. He had kept all the pictures they had ever taken together. He knew that one day he might not have them in his life, he wanted to keep the memories.

He chuckled out loud when he thought about some of the pictures he had kept. Like the one from Halloween last year when he dressed up as a farmer and Chloe went as a meteor rock. He had to sit down to keep from falling over laughing so hard when he had first seen Chloe walk up to the door.

Pete looked at him funny, “That was random. What are you thinking about?”

Clark smiled and stared out the window, “Remember Chloe’s Halloween costume last year?” Pete smiled broadly and started laughing as well.

“That was one of a kind,” Pete shook his head. “But that’s our Chloe.”

They arrived at the gates of the mansion and hopped out of the car. They walked up to the gates and pressed the buzzer, Darius answered and opened it for them. They met him inside and brought him to Lex’s office.

“Lex, you have visitors,” Darius called out as he opened the doors to the room. Clark and Pete walked inside to see Lex huddled over his brandy table. He turned slightly and looked over his shoulder and watched the two boys enter the room.

Clark looked at Lex concerned, “Lex? Is everything okay?”

Lex stood up straight and downed the rest the rest of his brandy. He set it down and turned around. He looked horrible. His eyes were deep and black, his mouth was red and puffy and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “Yes, everything’s fine Clark. What did you expect?”

Clark took another step forward, then hesitated. “Well I was half expecting you to be the one who bailed your dad out of jail, considering you’re the only one with that kind of money.”

Lex stared hard at Clark, “My father was bailed out of jail?” He looked away and stared at the floor. It was then that Clark noticed the gun in his left hand.

Clark motioned at the gun, “What’s that for?”

Lex’s head shot up, he walked hastily towards Clark and jabbed his free hand at his chest. “You’re in on this….aren’t you?”

“Whoa! Lex! What are you talking about?” Clark put up his hands as a sign of peace.

Lex put his hand down and stepped back. “What are you doing here?”

Clark put his hands down too and glanced at Pete. Pete shrugged so Clark had to tell him. “Lex, we think you’re father is trying to get you. Chloe says you have information on him that could get him the death penalty. Is this true?”

Lex’s head bobbed up and down frantically. “I have all the evidence I need to bring my father down! And it’s all in that safe!” His hand shot towards his bookshelf, but he kept his eyes on Clark. “And no one can stop me!”

Clark was getting very concerned. Lex did not look well nor was he acting normal. He sensed something was up. “Lex, I’m not going to try to stop you, but you have to tell me what’s going on! Why are you acting like this?”

Lex turned and walked away from them. He walked to one of the big stained glass windows and leaned against it, resting his hands on the inner ledge. “It all started last night.” He sighed, and proceeded to tell the story.

***FLASHBACK***
Lex sat in his desk quietly sipping his brandy. He had no obligations for the evening and felt quite intent on relaxing tonight.

He hated the mansion. It was cold and dark and had the stupidest decorations. As soon as he brought his father down, he would change all this.

While sitting at his desk, something on the opposite side of the doors to his office caught his eye. There were figures in black clothing running down the hall, back and forth, on the opposite side. They passed every couple or so minutes, never stopping to look in or slowing down their pace.

Curiously, Lex stood up out of his chair and walked to the doors. A figure ran by just as he reached them, but did not look anywhere but the direction he was running. Quickly opening the doors, Lex peered down the hallway in the direction of the mystery man. There was nothing. He looked in the other direction. Still nothing.

Very suspicious, Lex closed the door and turned back into the room. Looking back by the desk, he saw the figures running again! But this time they were on the other side of the windows behind his desk. He rushed over to the window and looked cautiously outside. It was difficult to see through the stained glass, but he was managing to make out the figures.

All of a sudden, two shots rang out and he heard a grown man yell out. Then he heard a smack, which echoed through the walls of his room. Something had hit the walls right outside his window!

He started to run out his doors and through the dark empty hallways of the mansion. He reached the front door and bolted out, running still around the corner and to the outside window of his office. HE reached the point, and stopped in his tracks.

There, lying on the ground was a masked man, covered in blood. He was almost stuffed into the hedges that surrounded the mansion. Looking right above the man, Lex noticed that the walls above him were smeared with blood, and the outline of a man’s head took shape within the blood smeared brick.

Lex cried out, “Darius!!” He ran back around to the front door in time to see Darius come hastily out of the doors. “There’s been a murder!”

Darius pulled out his gun and said, “Show me!”

Lex lead the way around back to where the body was. But once again, he stopped in his tracks. There was nothing there. No blood, no body, no head outline in the brick. Nothing.

“Where is he sir?” Darius asked, darting his gaze around.

Lex, barely audible, replied mournfully, “He was right here! His body was laying in the hedges and there was blood smeared all over the wall!” He got down on his knees and pushed away rocks. Not a trace of blood was visible.

Darius lowered his gun. “Mr. Luthor, it’s late, and no time for jokes. You better get back inside sir.” He turned and started to walk away.

“I swear! I swear, it was right here!” Lex cried out frantically. “You gotta believe me!” Darius kept walking and Lex gripped the grass in his hands. He ripped out the dirt and threw it behind him. “It was right here!”

***End of Flashback***

Chapter Twenty Five

Clark and Pete looked at each other, not exactly sure how to respond, or even to process what Lex had just displayed in such detail to them.  IT didn't sound like a valid story, there were things about it that made the tale sound ridiculous.  But then again, Lex gave them no reason to doubt him.

Lex was still leaning on the sill and staring out into the blackness of the window.  He looked so UN-Lex standing there.  Clark had never seen him in such a state.  Even after Clark had pulled Lex out of his car in the river that one day so long ago, Lex had been strutting around like he owned the place.  Clark had never seen Lex so broken, so completely destroyed in himself.  Everything that Lex stood for, the symbolic figure of Smallville's maniac driver, rich brat and, dare I say it, helpful soul, a true contributor of the well being of Smallville, all seemed to be crushed under the loss of his consistent confidence.  The brokenness Lex displayed was heart breaking for Clark.

The silence in the room was deafening.  The quietness bounced off the walls and smacked the men in their eardrums.  The way the fire crackled and the utter nervousness that crept through every wooden panel in the room made each of individuals feel like the walls were closing in around them.

It was creepy, nerve-racking.  Pete was visibly shuddering underneath the warmth of his coat.

Lex finally turned around and walked slowly, yet not cautiously, over to Clark and Pete.  His eyes were full of remorse and his cheeks were slightly moist.  He stopped a good two feet in front of Clark, not saying a word and his face showed no sign of an intention to say anything.  He was obviously waiting for Clark's input, advice, thoughts, remarks, anything so that he could know what was going on inside the complex network of Clark's brain.

Clark studied Lex.  Somehow, maybe it was the friendship the two had developed over the years or just the presence of Lex's humanity (his eyes were other than confident, and his cheeks were flushed with a hint of tears), Clark knew he was telling the truth.

"I believe you," Clark said softly, but pointedly.

Pete jerked his head up from his gaze at his shoes and quickly glanced at Clark when the sound of his voice broke the silence in the room.  He was shocked, it was like Clark to believe in people when they said they were telling the truth, but this was so out there.  He looked back and forth between Lex and Clark and noticed that they were sharing a look.  This is what he got for trying to compete with Lex Luthor for a major spot in Clark's life.

Lex looked deep into Clark’s eyes, searching for weakness behind his statement.  He found none.  "Why?" It sounded more like a statement rather than a question.

Clark shifted his weight and averted his eyes, which was a terrible habit he had when he was asked a question.  It made it seem like he was lying or not being completely honest.   "Well, I think you're father's up to something.  And what I've seen and heard, you're father is capable of this type of thing.  It doesn't really surprise me.  You do have that information on him."

Lex straightened up and blinked his eyes a couple times. He reached a hand to the back of his neck and touched his spazing muscle.  Realizing finally, he asked, "Why do you think my father is up to something?"

"He had Chloe kidnapped," Clark started, watching Lex's eyes for a sign of interest.  There was a little and so he continued, "I went to go find her.  We were trying to escape when the building blew up."  He was telling the truth, just not the entire truth."

"So the explosion was real," Lex said, his eyes were strengthening.  He walked over to his brandy table.  "I thought it was just something my father had cooked up to try and make last night sound more impossible than it was, or a duplication, or something."  He poured himself a glass and dumped it down his throat.

Clark snorted, "Of course it was real.  Chloe could have died.  I thought that you were supposed to be looking out for her." 

Lex turned quickly around, "How did you know that?"

"She told me, before we came over here," Clark said slowly.

Lex nodded, "Alright.  I was keeping an eye on her, but perhaps my security personnel are working for my father as well.”  He looked around the huge room, “There’s no way to tell what my father has already or already knows.  I de-bugged this place once, I can’t believe I’d have to do it again.”

“Lex, if you’re father wanted you dead, he would succeed wouldn’t he?  What would he be trying to do this for?”  Clark asked thoughtfully.  “I do not doubt your story, it just doesn’t seem like the path your father would take.”

Shaking his head, Lex replied, “My father is capable of anything, he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.  This is not an abnormal path for my father, he’s done the same thing for Morgan Edge several times.”

At the sound of the name Morgan Edge, it seemed as if the very breath of the room was sucked out.  Silence fell over the men once again and Clark began to wonder if Lex knew something about Morgan Edge that he did not.  “Edge is dead, isn’t he?” Clark asked, somewhat casually.

Lex shrugged, “I honestly don’t know anymore.  There are some times when my father grieves over his death, but then I hear him talking on his cell phone, walking down the hall, and hear him mention the name.  Maybe I’m just hallucinating.”  His voice sort of trailed off at the end of the sentence.

“Do you think you are?”

Again Lex shrugged, “I don’t think so, but I’m starting to question my complete sanity sometimes.”  He smirked at that, to let Clark know he was kidding.  Then he totally changed the course of the conversation.  “So what did you come over here for?”

Clark nodded, “We were wondering if you had your father bailed out of jail, and if you did, where he was.  He tried to kill Chloe, and in the process almost killed me.  We want him back in jail, or at least under supervision of a higher authority.”

An understanding look crossed over Lex’s face.  “That’s right.  Well I’m afraid I can’t help you out.  I’m looking for him too, nobody knows where he went after he was bailed?”

“No,” Clark replied.

Lex nodded, “I’ll call around and see if he went into the office.”

“Thanks Lex,” Clark smiled, “we’re going to go look for him too.  Are you going to be safe here?”

“I hope so,” Lex answered, looking around, “I’m probably safer here than anywhere else.”

The men said their good-byes and Clark and Pete left through the front door again. 

Lex walked over to his safe, he was about to open it when he abruptly decided against it.  He turned around and pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number for the reception desk at LuthorCorp, hoping to see if his father ever came in.

****

As he walked to his safe and then turned around, a silent black figure dropped from the ceiling of the office onto the balcony right below.  He lowered himself upside down and carefully and quietly spun himself right side up.  He crept to the railing of the balcony and peered over, watching Lex pull out his cell and start dialing.

****

Lex put the phone up to his ear and heard the blank assuring ring.  He set his hand on his clear desk and looked down at it.  There was a single red dot that was visible on the back of his hand.  His first instinct thought it was blood, but he turned his hand over and the dot stayed.  He dropped his cell phone.

Chapter Twenty Six

Clark abruptly stopped in mid stride.  Pete stopped and turned around staring at him.  “Clark, what is it?”

“Do you hear that?” He looked like he was focusing on something that could only faintly be heard, his eyes were squinting and he had a hand behind his ear.

Pete listened harder, he could hear faint sounds of bullets echoing from inside the mansion.  “Yeah, it sounds like shots are being fired.”  He realized that this was actually coming from inside the mansion.

“Lex!” Clark said, just above a whisper.  “Pete!  I need you to go back and look after the girls!”  He started to run in the opposite direction of Pete.

“Clark! Wait!  It’s too dangerous for you!  Lionel knows your secret!” Pete tried not to shout, but made himself heard by Clark.

Clark turned and walked back towards Pete.  “But I’m probably the only one who can stop him.  If it’s to dangerous for me then its way too dangerous for you.”  He set his hands on Pete’s shoulders.  “We’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember, I don’t want to lose both of them.  I have to find Lex.  Please,” he pleaded, removing his hands, “go make sure the girls are alright.”

Pete reluctantly backed away and turned to his car.  “You’re making a bad decision Clark,” he mumbled.  But Clark was already gone.

Clark raced at top speed around the corner of the mansion and started scouring the field behind the huge building.  He saw nothing.  But then, behind him he heard a loud crash and whipped around in time to see Lex go flying out of a window on the second floor.  He hid himself behind a tree and watched.  A man dressed in black came to the window and started shooting after Lex, but Lex was too far away now to be in range of his little pistol.

Debating over whether he should go after Lex or the gunmen, Clark went into super thought.  He could jump up on the ledge of the window and…do what?  Light the guy on fire?  Strangle him?  Punch him?  Question him?  What would be the point in that?  But if he went after Lex he could protect him and ask him questions instead.  Lex would be the better choice, he wanted to make sure that he is alright.

Clark watched the man disappear from the window and Clark ran after Lex.  He would get in front of him and pretend like he didn’t know what was wrong.

He saw Lex still limping and running down a path through the woods at a very slow, yet productive, speed.  Clark raced ahead a good hundred feet to his side and got in front of him.  He stepped out into the path and Lex bumped into him, while he was looking back.

“Clark!” Lex panted, he bent over to catch his breath.

Clark grabbed Lex by the shoulders and stood him up.  “What happened?”  He saw that Lex had a gash over his left eye and blood was trickling down his cheek.

“Someone tried to kill me!”  He said, resting under Clark’s strong grip.  “I just barely escaped.  I think he got my leg though.”  He bent down again and pulled up his pant leg.  A large hole in his calf told Clark that he had barely escaped a deadly bullet.  It looked like a bullet had just skimmed the outer skin of his calf; blood was pouring out of it.

Clark was about to take off his shirt when he remembered his lead vest.  It wouldn’t cause a problem if Lex saw it, but if Lionel saw it then he would aim for the parts of his body that didn’t have the lead.  He really wasn’t scared about that, unless Lionel had some how found out about his weakness to meteor rocks, like Van had.  But he wasn’t sure if he wanted Lex to see him with it on either way.

“Lex, we have to get you to a hospital!” Clark said, not so calmly.

Lex shook his head violently.  “No!  Not a hospital!  These people are professionals, they won’t let a hospital stand in their way!”  He looked around frantically.  “I am going to hunt down my father!”  He started running again.

It was then that Clark noticed the direction that Lex was headed.  He was running for Metropolis.  Yeah right, Clark thought to himself, he’ll get there in three days.  “Lex, wait!”  Lex didn’t turn around so Clark ran up again and got in front of him.  “Lex, this is too dangerous!  If your father saw you he would kill you.”

Lex stopped and started breathing hard again.  “I know.  I might just have to take the risk.  I want to bring my father down.”

Clark put his hand on Lex’s chest when it looked like he was about to run again.  “It’d take you three days to get to Metropolis Lex, you can’t run there,” Clark was trying to convince Lex to take it slow.  He had, after all, almost gotten killed.  Maybe if he could convince him not to run there, he could buy time to find out where Lionel was himself, stopping him before he found Lex.

“Who said I was going to run?”  He dodged around Clark and ran another forty feet.  He stopped in front of a huge oak tree and looked back at Clark, smirking.  He reached up and pressed in a knob right above his head.  The bark of the lower part of the trunk folded up into the upper layer of the tree and a metal interior was revealed.  On the metal was a keypad in which Lex pressed a series of numbers.  The metal turned into a door and a swirling shape appeared, creating an opening to stair case leading under ground.

Lex motioned for Clark to follow him.  Cautiously, Clark followed, thinking it was way too surreal to be anything other than in a comic book.  It looked like the evil lair of Dark Angel’s arch enemy, but it was there, right in front of him.  Lex disappeared down the steps with Clark close at his heels.  When Clark had fully entered the interior of the tree trunk, he heard the doors swirl shut and the bark clamp down to the ground, hiding Lex’s underground…whatever it was.

At the bottom of the steps there was another door, this time no keypad.  Clark opened it up and stepped through the narrow doorframe.  The door clanged shut behind him and he stared into the vast limits of the underground cave.

The place was incredible.  Lights framed the large room, which extended to what seemed to be all the way back to the mansion, although it was quite clear it didn’t go that far.  However long it was, Clark knew it was smaller than it appeared to be.  What seemed to be lab equipment was stacked on the nearest wall and a desk covered with pictures and papers was to the side.  Down the room Clark could make out the outline of a small car, a motorcycle and a truck.

He walked down towards the three vehicles.  Lex emerged from a door on the side and joined him.  Clark laughed when he looked at the truck, “Isn’t this the truck you gave me?”

Lex nodded, grinning slightly, “Yes.  I didn’t know what else to do with it.”  Clark then noticed that Lex had wrapped up his leg with some gauze and a linen cloth.

“What is this place?” Clark asked, looking around.

Lex continued to walk over to the vehicles.  “This is my hang out spot.  I had it built when I first came to Smallville, but I haven’t used it much.  I brought down your truck and a motorcycle during the first month of my stay and I later bought this small car from an old couple down the road, under an unidentified name.  I’ve never used it, but I figured I would need to when I was trying to get away from my dad.”

Clark nodded understandingly, “You think you can get to Metropolis without your dad tracking you with this.  Do you really think it will work?”

Lex nodded, “It should, unless my father knows this place is down here.  As far as I know he doesn’t, but then again he knows that I have the information on him.”

Clark walked around the car and peered inside.  There was nothing Lexish about the car in any way.  It was old, for one, it was rusting on the bottom.  IT didn’t cost more than a hundred thousand dollars and it was a color other than silver or black.  It was a dark green shade, and it looked like it was very old.  Clark figured if anyone could pull it off, it would be Lex.

“Well?  What are you waiting for?” Clark asked.

Lex smiled, “I need someone to open the hatch.”  He handed Clark a set of keys, specifically holding a certain one.  “You mind?”

****

Pete drove back to the Kent farm.  It was really late now and he was sure the Kents would be in bed.  He didn’t really know if they knew they were gone in the first place.  He quietly drove up to the house and shut off the engine.  He saw Chloe and Lana look out of Clark’s window and wave.  He waved back and then crept to the door.

Lana met him there and opened it for him.  “Pete?” she said.  “Where’s Clark?”

Pete put a finger to his mouth and motioned towards the stairs.  They all moved quietly upstairs and shut the door to Clark’s room.  Chloe was still laying on the bed and Lana plopped down beside her. 

“He ran off, again.  He told me to come back here and keep an eye on you.  I think he’s really paranoid right now that they will come after Chloe, or all of us really, again.” Pete said, his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

Lana shook her head, “I can’t believe he’s doing this.  Doesn’t he know he could get killed?”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “This is Clark we’re talking about.”

Pete nodded, “Yes.  There’s not a huge chance of him dying, unless Lionel knows his weakness.”

“He doesn’t though.  Does he?” Lana asked.

Shrugging, Pete answered, “I’m not sure.  I don’t think so anyway.”

A silence hovered over the room, each individual lost in their own thoughts.  Lana wanted to go run and find Clark, but then she thought, what could she possibly do?  Chloe knew she would be of most help staying as far away from the incident as possible.  Pete wasn’t even thinking, he just couldn’t get Clark’s words to him out of his head.

He had told him right to his face that they were best friends.  Pete had thought they lost that when Lex came in to Clark’s life, but maybe he was wrong.  He didn’t want to lose Pete, which is what he said, and he needed to go help Lex.  Clark knew something, he must have, that Pete didn’t.  Some bigger sign of danger than was evident to the ear.

“What do we do now?” Lana asked.

Pete shook his head, “What is there to do?  All we can do is wait.”  

Chapter Twenty Seven

Clark watched Lex drive away in his little green car.  He had to laugh, the whole idea was completely strange.  An under ground cave?  Seriously.  But then again, considering it was Lex, nothing really surprised him at the moment.

Clark knew that wherever Lex was going, his father would be close behind.  It was just a matter of following Lex at a safe distance.  He would bust in after Lex and find out the real reason behind all this nonsense, because that’s what it was.  Nonsense.  It was the stupidest circumstance that Clark had ever been in.  The whole idea of Lionel kidnapping Chloe just so he could find out who Clark really was, was just absurd. 

He shut the hatch and walked back in to the center of the expanse that Lex called his “lair”.  It was really big, and Clark had to laugh looking around it.  Why Lex had it made rendered Clark thoughtless.  It was cool though.

Clark wasn’t exactly sure how to get out.  He probably shouldn’t go out the hatch, the way that Lex left, but that left the initial entrance to go out of.  Clark didn’t know if he would need a password to get out or not, but it was worth a shot.  Maybe he wouldn’t need a password to get out.

Sure enough, all Clark had to do was press a dinky little button and the door opened.  Well what do you know, Clark mumbled, its that easy.  He rolled his eyes and bounded up the stairs.  He heard the metal doors swirl shut behind him and the bark fold down out of the tree.

He looked around.  He knew where he was, he just didn’t know where to go.  He took off running back towards the mansion and stopped in his tracks when he arrived.  There, were Lex had jumped out of the window, shattering it to pieces, was a new window, that looked exactly the same and there was no sign that it had ever been broken.

He stared at it.  What the hell?  What was going on? 

He had to find Lex!  If this is what his father was capable of, Lex had a slim to none chance of getting to Metropolis alive.

He took off running.  He ran through the neighborhoods faster than he could even imagine, it was like, this time, that everything had really stopped.  Many times it felt like everything was moving in slow motion, but this time he felt as if everything had actually stopped.  It was incredible, and very exhilarating.

He ran down the main road leading to Metropolis.  He ran past the farm house and saw the light on in his room.  Good, he thought, they’re still there.  He saw Pete’s car too.  He kept running.  He passed cars that were slowly trudging along the empty road, no doubt drunkards that had just gotten thrown out of the bar.

He made it into the outskirts of Metropolis in no time.  He stopped at super speed when he reached the limits and started at a slow jog.  He looked around himself, the sights were all too familiar.  But it was creepy.  There were barely any cars on the roads, even though most of the restaurants and night clubs were still open.  He only heard music vibrating from the clubs, rather than hundreds of screaming partiers gathering outside of them.  It was weird.

He kept jogging and found his way to the enormous LuthorCorp Building.  He looked up the vast mirror like building, there was a single light on on about the fiftieth floor.  He looked around the empty parking lot.  A single car sat in the back of the lot, the way back of the lot.  It was Lex’s little green car.

He’s already here?  Clark pondered.  How could he be there already?  He had only waited about ten minutes before following him, it takes a normal three hour car ride to get to Metropolis, what was Lex doing here in thirty minutes, tops.

Not knowing the answer to that question, but knowing he had to get inside the building.  He ran to the doors.

Chapter Twenty Eight

A series of air vents flowed into each room in the LuthorCorp building, depositing the needed atmospheric temperature into the specific room.  In this case, the air vents were carrying a neutral temperature because outside the air was beautiful.  It was the first night that the air was not too hot or not too cold, it was perfect.  The wind was mellow and the moon cast a soft glow onto the different neighborhoods and shops in Metropolis.

The air vents though, the air vents are what we are interested in.  We are interested in these air vents because of the fact that they travel to each room in LuthorCorp, even the office on the fifty second floor, room 5255 B, the executive office of Lionel Luthor.

The maze of air vents was none too complicated for our hero and villain Lex Luthor.  Yes, he knew them all too well, traveling through them as a boy was most exhilarating, especially when he needed his inhaler. 

A trip through the air vents was always exciting.  He would catch employees making out in their offices, or making secretive phone calls while on duty.  Sometimes he would see his father talking with men who were going on secret missions, trying to find a missing employee with important information.  He also heard his father making secret pacts with men in black suits to kill off a number of people because they double-crossed him.  No one, and I mean no one, double crosses a Luthor.

Right?

Lex reflected back on his childhood memories of crawling through the air vents and scowled.  His boyish adventures were all too old for him to be thinking about at a time like this.  He reached back and patted the gun he had concealed in his pant leg.  He would need that.

The rush of adrenaline he had received from driving to LuthorCorp was incredible.  He had driven one hundred and thirty miles an hour in his dinky little green car the entire way to the outer limits of Metropolis.  It had barely taken him fifteen minutes.

Now, making his way to his destination, was even more breath taking than it would have been. 

He stopped when the vent came to a dead end and stood up, crunching himself together.  He squeezed his upper body and fit through the upward slope of the vent.  It had been quite a while since he had done this, he was a little surprised he still fit.  Jumping up, he gracefully pulled himself up and onto the next flight of ventilators and continued crawling.

Stopping suddenly, he reached his hand to the back of his neck and massaged the spazing muscle.  The spasms were getting much worse, and much more violent.  They had an angering effect on him and made him move faster and swifter.

He came to a two way split.  Looking down the option to his left, he studied the surroundings.  Then he looked to his right.  He needed to go right.  He squeezed through the connector and laid down flat on his belly.  He was approaching the open ventilator that emptied into his father’s executive office.  As he drew nearer he could hear voices.

****

“When do we move, Lionel?” Morgan Edge asked impatiently.

Lionel rubbed his chin and grimaced, “I told you.  If Lex’s psychiatrist doesn’t call by midnight, we will drive to the mansion to find him.”  He stood up from his relaxed position in his chair behind his desk and walked over to his tray of alcohol assortments.  “I thought you were the one telling me to be patient, Edge.”  He let a small smirk escape his lips.

Morgan sat back in the couch facing Lionel’s desk and rested his hands behind his head and chuckled.  “And what about our young Mr. Kent?”

Lionel poured a half cup of his specially made whiskey and lifted it to his eyes, swirling it around a looking inside the glass.  He walked over to Morgan and handed him the glass, “It shouldn’t be too hard to find him.  He’s probably at home, dining with his hearty parents.”  Morgan took the glass from Lionel and smiled wickedly up at him.  Lionel turned and walked back to the tray of alcohol, repeating the same procedure for himself.

Lifting their glasses in a half-hearted toast, both men took a sip.  Lionel walked over to the couch opposite Morgan and sat down, kicking his feet up on to the coffee table in front of him.

“When did you find out about the information Lex obtained?” Morgan asked wryly.

Lionel nodded, “When I discovered that one of my top associates was cross working between Lex and myself.  Imagine my surprise that Lex was paying him double to dig up the information on us.”

“What did you do?”

“Killed him.”

“I would expect no less.”

Lionel chuckled, “You shouldn’t.  It’s my job, people double cross me, I stab them in the back.  It’s how it works.”  He paused and appeared to be pondering.  “Now Lex, on the other hand, is a different case.  He has double crossed me, yet I don’t find that I should kill him.  Stab him in the back, so to speak.”

“So you’re doing this instead,” Morgan asked, sarcastically.

Lionel nodded, “Precisely.  I will have my son back, minus his short term memory.  Maybe you can kill your children, but I can’t kill my son.”

“You killed you parents,” Morgan pointed out.

“No, we killed my parents.”

“You mapped out the plan,” Morgan shot back.

“Yet you activated it.”  This was foolish, Lionel thought.  They were bickering back and forth like they were teenagers again.  But it was more Morgan’s fault that his parents died.

Nervously, Morgan slipped his meteor rock worry beads out of his pocket and began toying with them, wrapping around his fingers and untwisting it.  It was a habit he had developed recently.

“Why on God’s earth do you have those?” Lionel asked, a little annoyed.

Morgan smiled wryly, “It’s a little surprise I have for Clark.  He almost killed me, so it’s time for me to do the same.”

Lionel lifted an eyebrow.  “And you intended to strangle him with a chain of meteor rocks.  Very clever, Morgan.  I do say, it’s one of your best yet.”

Without smiling, Morgan replied, “And I suppose you have a more efficient way?”

Lionel laughed.  A laugh that sent his body upwards for the slightest moment, and then dropped back down, letting his entire body blow out air.  “Shoot the bastard.”

“Yes, I suppose we’ll see about that.”

“Oh no you won’t,” said a voice to the side of the men.  Both men sat straight up in their seats, startled and stared at the man standing before them. 

“Lex?” Morgan said, a little unbelieving.

****

Clark stopped at the door and leaned inwards, cupping his hands around his face so that he could look inside without a glare.  It was pitch black, he could barely see a thing.  He stepped back and concentrated, activating his x-ray vision.  He scoped the main lobby for signs of danger.  He saw several security cameras scanning the room, but other than that there were no people in the vicinity.

Cutting through the security cameras would be hard.  He decided to try and find another way.  He ran back out onto the curb of the parking lot.  He searched the rooms for the one with the light on, he spotted it and knew it was too high to jump.  He concentrated again and the walls suddenly became transparent.  He dug into the building with his eyes and saw the room that was illuminated.  There were two figures in the room, one was walking around and the other was relaxing on a chair, or something.

He softened his gaze and tried to make out who the figures were.  It was hard to tell from this distance, but he soon realized who they were.  The one walking around was Lionel himself.  The other man could be none other than Morgan Edge.

Morgan Edge?  Morgan Edge.  Morgan Edge?  There have been multiple times in Clark’s life when things out of the ordinary had happened; a cow had given birth to a litter of puppies, a teenager was able to mutate himself into two persons, but this was something that Clark would have thought virtually impossible.

How could he be alive?  It was dumbfounding.  He didn’t know where to even begin thinking, but he was there.  He was there, and he knew his secret.  He knew his secret and he knew his secret weakness.

Right before he let the image go, he noticed that there was something in the ceiling above the office.  There was a man in the vent, staring at the scene below him.  Clark looked harder.  It was Lex!

Lex was already above them.  He needed to get up there fast, there’s no telling what he would try to do.  Clark looked around and saw an air vent opened to the right side, probably how Lex had gotten in.  He super sped over to the opening and climbed inside.  It was small, and he had to squat down and duck at the same time.  He looked around, there was not much choice of where to go, so he just started moving.  He crawled a great distance before reaching a two way, in which he casually chose one, knowing at one point or another he would come to a room in which the air vent opened up to.

Sure enough, not a minute later did he come to a vent opening to a small office.  He lifted it up and slipped down through the hole.  He landed and looked around.  There were no security cameras, but the door appeared to be locked.  He started to wonder if there was an alarm system on the door.

He looked through the door and searched the door frame for wires that would be connecting a security system to the handle.  He couldn’t see anything, but there were things that his eyes still could not detect.

Just to be on the safe side, he used his heat vision and burned through the metal lock, singeing any potential security wires.

The doors squeaked and hung off their hinges, allowing Clark to step through the hole he had made and into the dark quiet hallway. 

Up.  He had to go up.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Clark raced through the hallways at super speed.  He would find a flight of stairs here and another one over there and fly up them.  He was already to the thirtieth floor. 

He came to a dead end and stopped, so he wouldn’t go flying out the glass window that was at the end of the hallway.  He looked around.  He didn’t want to be here, he wanted to be in the room with Lionel and Morgan. 

He turned around and concentrated on the ceiling above him, which became as glass like as the window he had almost flown through.  He searched the floors with his eyes, letting them run themselves through the maze of offices and hallways that made up the enormous building of LuthorCorp.

He finally found the room he wanted, and shocked himself at what he saw.  Lex was standing in the middle of the room holding a gun and waving it at the men.

Clark moved, ran to be exact.  He raced back down the halls, faster than before.  He found a flight of stairs that continued up for ten levels and then raced around and found another one that brought him up the next twelve.

He was now standing in the hallway that would lead him into the room.  He walked cautiously to the door and peered inside before continuing.  He could vaguely make out the figures of the three men, Lionel and Morgan were standing side by side and Lex was shaking his gun at them.

He couldn’t take it anymore.  He pushed the doors open and immediately felt weak.  There was kryptonite somewhere in the room.

“Ahhh…Clark!  Just the guy I wanted to see.”  He started to walk towards Clark, twirling the worry beads around his hand so that Clark knew what he had coming.  Lex blocked his path.

“Morgan, you move again and I’ll blow your head off!” Lex shouted.  He pointed his gun at Morgan’s head.

“Lex, son, you are very sick!” Lionel reasoned.  He didn’t know how much Lex had heard, but he was going to try to play it like he hadn’t heard a thing.  If he had been drugged enough, he could convince him he was crazy.

“Edge?  Why are you alive?” Clark moaned, still feeling the effects of the kryptonite.

Morgan chuckled, “There’s a lot money and a good friend can do for you.  You of all people should know that.”  He glanced from Lionel to Lex.

Lionel took advantage of Lex’s distraction.  “Lex, I don’t think we are your real enemies.  I think Clark is your enemy!  He has lied to you for years!  But us?  I am just trying to get you help, son.  I want my son back, the one who left for his honeymoon a sane man!”

Lex glared at his father, “Don’t turn this on Clark!  I am NOT insane!  You…you’re doing something to me!  I know it!  Just because I have that dirt on you!  I heard you two talking, I know everything.  How you were planning to kill Clark!”  He was shouting, and his father was wincing at the echoing in the room from Lex’s voice.

“Now, now Lex,” Morgan Edge said mockingly.  “You don’t know the first thing about Clark do you?”  He quickly threw the worry beads at Clark.  Clark scrambled to try and avoid them but they hit him on his leg and he stumbled, sliding into the far wall.  The beads broke and scattered around Clark, leaving him in the middle of the pile of beads.  He wasn’t too thrilled, this being his second time today that he was “under the influence” of kryptonite.

“What did you do to him?” Lex shouted.

Morgan chuckled, “Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It’s the meteor rocks, thy somehow make him…weak.”  He smirked and tipped his head up to look under his glasses.

Lionel looked on horrified, but nothing in his face would dare show it.  He remained calm, but inside his head was screaming.  In a way it made sense, but in another, it was totally absurd.

Lex stared at Morgan, “I should just kill you right now!  You killed my grandparents!  Why bother to wait for the police?  They already think I’m crazy.”  He started inching his way towards Morgan and Morgan started backing away, a little intimidated by the gun that was being pointed straight at his skull.

“Lex, put it down son,” Lionel said calmly, but firmly.

Lex waved the gun in front of his face, “Stay out of this or your next!”  He turned back to Morgan, who was diving into safety behind the chair.  Lex shot at him.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

They heard a loud groan, a curse and a heavy body hit the floor with great impact.  Lex kept the gun in both hands and circled around the chair and looked at the man lying on the ground.  Two bullets had hit him in the head, one just above the ear and one on the back side of his head, right under his hairline.  Blood was trickling down the man’s face, as he lay there staring up at the ceiling, clearly dead.  His eyes were wide open and his mouth was gaping with blood dripping out of a corner of his mouth.

Lex was breathing heavily and turned away.  He hated the man, but looking at a dead corpse gave even him the creeps.  He looked at his father, who was staring numbly at Morgan’s dead body, horror written all over his face.

He looked at Clark, who was bravely trying to push all the beads under the door.  Lex saw that his skin was all green and his veins were bulging with the same green like effect.  He didn’t know whether to help him or not, what was he doing exactly? 

Instead he turned back to his father who had all but a blank expression on his face.  He was visibly terrified.  He realized now that he had no idea of what his son was actually capable of.  “Son?” he asked, his mouth dry with anticipation.

Lex just looked at his father, not responding.  His hands had loosened their hold on the gun, but his gaze was still sharp and pounding into Lionel’s mind.

“Son, put the gun down!” Lionel said, loudly and a little hotly.

Lex looked behind him, at the couch and then back at his father.  “Shhh.  You’ll wake the baby,” he said softly.

“Lex!  Do you hear Julian?  Is it the baby son?” Lionel asked, truly concerned.

Lex raised the palm of his hand with the gun to his head and massaged his temple.  It looked like he was about to cry from pain, “You know I can’t stand it when he cries!”  he turned around and walked a couple steps away.  Then he heard his father move and whipped around pointing the gun at him, “DON’T MOVE!”

****

Clark finally succeeded in getting all of the beads under the door.  He immediately felt his strength returning and slowly pushed himself up from his drawn out position on the floor.  He grabbed the wall for support and horridly looked at the dead Morgan Edge laying on the ground behind the chair.  He was really dead this time.

He tried to replay the last several minutes back in his head, but he could not make sense of it.  Lex had almost no reason to shoot Morgan, yet he did.  This man had practically rose from the dead, was in on a plan to ruin Lex, and himself, and Lex had said in the past that he hated the man, for reasons Clark was unsure of.  If that was reason enough, Clark was now questioning Lex’s sanity.

Maybe that’s what he was going for.  If he could kill off Morgan that meant that there was one less person to receive the death penalty.  Would Lex really shoot his father?  If Lex hated Morgan that much, Clark couldn’t imagine the hatred welling up inside of Lex for his father. 

Not sure of what he should actually be doing, Clark started walking towards Lex and Lionel.  Lex had the gun pointed straight at his father’s head.  They had just been talking about Julian, Lex’s little brother that died when he was a child. 

“Lex,” Clark said softly, “we can do this rationally.”  He looked carefully at Lionel, who had pleading written all over his face.

Lionel nodded, “Lex, we can discuss this, come out with a compromise.”

Lex took a step backwards and broadened his eye range, Clark was still standing off to his back side and he wanted him in view too.  “No!  You are just trying to save yourself.  I know what you’re trying to do!” Lex shouted, his face was turning red with anger.

“Lex!” Clark tried to calm him down.  “What is he trying to do?”

Lex’s voice finally broke, and he couldn’t keep his confident front on anymore.  “Don’t you see Clark?  He’s trying to make me crazy to erase the information I have on him.  It’s the perfect plan.”

Lionel didn’t say anything.  No matter how deceitful he was, the evil businessman that he built his foundation on, he could not deny his son’s statement.  It was the first time that Lionel stood there, intimidated by his own son, and really felt sympathy for his son.  He realized now what he had actually done and this whole thing had gone way too far.  Lex was supposed to be drugged, taken to a mental hospital, simply brain washed, and then returned to his father so that they could continue on with their life.

Now Lionel stood there, looking into his son’s saddened and anger-filled eyes, knowing now that that wasn’t going to happen.  He knew that Lex was going to kill him, in cold blood.  He kept looking at his son, and noticed something extra in his son’s eyes.  Lex wasn’t all there.  There was a side of him that was taking over, a side of him that wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the drugs.  Lionel regretted this, knowing this was the last way he’d ever see his son, and his son would ever remember him.

Lex, too, noticed the look his father was giving him.  The look of defeat.  The look of surrender.  The look only a truly loving father could give his son.  He averted his eyes.  What he was about to do, he couldn’t look at his father.

“Lex, please,” Lionel pleaded.  Lex looked back at his father for the briefest moment.  “I’m sorry, son,” Lionel said softly.  For the first time, ever, he really meant it.

Clark watched helplessly.  For the first time, he had no idea of what he should be doing.  He realized this was something that Lex should handle on his own, even though he dreaded what he was about to do.  The silence in the room told each man that there was soon to be another death.

But is that what was really going to happen?

Lex was having a mental warfare.  His good side and his evil side were having hand to hand combat in the clockworks of his brain.  He felt at one point that he had kicked out the drugged suggestions, sending stimulants to his nervous system, telling him to pull the trigger.  But then a strong one would come and his whole body would shake. 

“It’s too late for that,” Lex said, through gritted teeth.  He pulled the trigger. 

Chapter Thirty Two

Clark awoke to his alarm clock, buzzing annoyingly in his ear.  He, including the rest of the people at his home, had forgotten that it was Monday, a school day.  He rolled over and slapped it off and rolled back over on his stomach to try and go back to sleep.  It was a little fun game his mother and he had “played” since he was old enough to know that it was stupid to get up earlier than he had to.

What he didn’t know was that his friends had stayed over night, and they were all up already and eating the delicious breakfast Martha had cooked for them.  Pancakes, eggs and bacon covered the plates of the three starving teenagers in the kitchen, leaving Clark to fall back asleep in his cozy, warm bed.

What was being debated in Martha’s mind was whether to keep Clark home, or to make him go to school.  Although he had been through probably the most traumatic experience of his life, she decided school would be better for him than staying home all afternoon in the pit of despair.

“Clark!  Come on!  Wake up!  I have breakfast made!” Martha called up the stairs.  She turned back to her guests and smiled, each of them giggling in return.  They knew that he didn’t know they were still there.

They could hear Clark groan and he shoved himself further under the covers.  Didn’t she know he had just been scarred for life?  He had witnessed two people get killed by one of his best friends and now his mother wanted him to get up and go to school?

Martha sighed and knew that she was going to have to go yank the covers off her son.  “I guess I’d better go up there,” she said.

Lana stood up, “Wait!  Can I do it?  I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to wake him up.”

Pete and Chloe snickered and Martha smiled, “Of course dear.  Just make sure he doesn’t hit you.”  Pete and Chloe were trying to contain their laughter so as not to give away their presence, then again, Clark had super hearing now, what could they do?

Lana smirked and headed up the steps.  She walked along the short corridor and came to the half closed door to Clark’s room and pushed it open cautiously with her hand.  She looked in side and saw Clark sprawled out on his bed with only his boxers on and the covers half on half off the bed.  His back was slowly raising and dipping and Lana could hear his rhythmic breathing, he had fallen back asleep.

She crept quietly towards the end of the bed and peered over his body, trying to see his face, but it was buried in the depths of his pillow.  She wondered whether she should lay beside him, jump on him, or go whisper in his ear.  Jumping on him might involve her getting hurt, so she crossed that off in her mind.  If she whispered in his ear, she might scare him half to death, which he did not need at this point in time.  She thought it would be most funny if she went and laid beside him.

She walked around the bed and made a scene of crawling on the bed and laying down.  She laid on her side and closed her eyes, hearing Clark’s breathing change, she woke him up.  She felt him flinch and come to the realization that she was laying beside him.

“When did you get here?” he asked groggily, a small smile forming on his lips.

Lana pretended to just wake up and she blinked her eyes open.  “Who? Me?” she asked innocently.

“Har har,” he said.  He turned over on his side and propped his head up with his hand.  He looked down at her with a smile, “So my mom passed up the opportunity to come wake me.  You know you’re intruding on a pretty long tradition.”

“Oh no,” Lana winced, “am I in trouble?”

Clark grinned, “I may be able to forgive you this once.”  He leaned down and kissed her, both of them laughing into each others mouths.  Her arm gave way and she fell back against the bed, Clark right down after her.  They laughed again and he pulled away, looking down at her.

Then they heard someone cough and some snickering and both sat up abruptly.  There, in the doorway, was Chloe, Pete and his mother.  Clark and Lana blushed.  “I see you got Clark up,” Chloe said, trying not to burst out into giggles.

Clark hopped out of bed and super sped into some clothes.  Two seconds later he was standing in the middle of the room, fully dressed.

“Not fair!” Chloe yelled.  “Mrs. Kent!  He’s cheating!” she said, looking at Martha.  Everybody laughed and they all headed downstairs for breakfast.

****

“So, Clark, do you want to carry all of us on your back to school today?” Chloe asked with a smirk.

“As fun as that would be,” Clark said, grinning, “no.”

Chloe tried to pout, but she couldn’t help laughing.  They were all going out to Pete’s car and going to try to all cram in to his little blue whatever it was.  Lana laughed, “The funny thing is, is he could actually do it.”  That got a chuckle from the group.

“You think you’re going to be okay today, man?” Pete asked, slapping Clark on the back.

Clark nodded, “I think so.  I’m just going to get through the day knowing that I’m going to go find out what happened tonight.”  His three friends nodded understandingly.  “Shot gun!” he yelled and zipped to the door.

“Not fair!” Chloe said repetitively, “you’re cheating again!”

****

Later that afternoon, Clark drove to the mansion to inquire about Lex. 

“Hello Mr. Kent,” Darius greeted him.  “What can I do for you today?”

Clark didn’t know whether he should smile or not, so he didn’t, this was serious.  “Hello, I’m wondering what happened to Lex,” he said, a little nervously.

He watched as Darius’ expression changed from a smile to a look of sorrow, fear and guilt.  “I’m sorry, Mr. Kent, Lex was taken by the police.  You’d have to go down to the police station to know what they did with him.”

Clark nodded, “Thank you, sir.”  The two shook hands and Clark left.

He walked back to the truck and got back inside.  He started up the engine and took one last look at the mansion.  For some reason he thought it would be the last time he’d see it in a long time.  Sadly, he pulled out of the driveway and started for the Metropolis Penitentiary.

****

Clark walked in the front door of the Metropolis Penitentiary and looked for a reception desk.  He saw it, secluded off in a far corner of the main room.  He saw the woman at the front desk look up and smile as he approached.  He gave her a friendly smile, but with half of his heart, he wasn’t feeling in the mood to smile right now.

“Hello sir, what can I do for you?” the woman who’s name tag read Cindy asked.

“I’m looking for Lex Luthor,” he said, peeking over the counter and at her stack of file sheets.  It was a habit that everyone had when in a jail, they didn’t know where else to look.

Cindy’s expression changed, as Darius’ had, from a pleasant smile to more of an annoyance look.  “Mr. Luthor is being kept in an asylum until further notice.  Do you want the address?”

****

Clark found the building with no trouble.  His stay in Metropolis had, sadly, made him very acquainted with all aspects of city life.  He parked the truck outside in the parking lot and hesitated before getting out.  He looked up the stone building.  It was blank and creepy, it gave him goose bumps just looking at the outside, he wondered what the inside would make him feel like.

Reluctantly, he got out of the car and walked towards the building.  Big silver, steal bubble letters made out the crude name of the building: Metropolis Asylum and Help Center.  He shuddered and walked inside.

The inside was silent.  There were a few doctors roaming the halls, but other than that there was no one, only a janitor mopping a hallway.  He looked around for yet another reception desk, there was none.  “Why am I not surprised?” he mumbled.

He started walking down the main hallway and saw that there were offices lined up along the walls in a strict form.  There was a door right across from another door and then five feet later there was the same thing.  He was curious and it made him a little uneasy.

“It’s so that the patients are in a stable environment,” said a voice behind him.  He twirled around to see a black woman, in her late forties, standing behind him.  “You were looking at the arrangement of doors, were you not?”

Clark nodded, “Yes, I was.”

“I’ve seen you around, but you probably don’t know me.  I am Lex’s psychiatrist, I’m in charge of him while he’s here,” she gave him a half smile, she too felt the way Clark did. 

She stuck out her hand and he shook it, saying, “Is he here?”

She frowned, “Yes, sadly.  The poor man.”  She began walking and beckoned Clark to follow her, he turned and walked with her.

“Was he being drugged?” Clark asked.

The woman nodded, “Yes, by his father.”

Clark looked at her suspiciously, “How do you know that?”

She stopped and looked up at him.  Very quietly she said, “You know how Lionel had that clever way of blackmailing you right when you wanted out?”  Clark nodded, he was all to acquainted with the methods of Lionel Luthor.  “Well that’s what happened to me.  He made me be in on this, drugging Lex I mean.  When he found out about the information Lex had on him he wanted him…well dead, initially.  But his son meant too much to him, surprisingly enough, and instead he was going to put him in here and, literally, brainwash him.”

Clark looked off into space, “Did you tell the police this?”

“Yes,” she nodded, “it was a lot easier because Lionel is dead.”

“So why is he in here?”

She began walking again and Clark followed her, “Well, Lex has had an instable mental condition even before the drugging began.  He would talk to his little brother, cradle him and sing.  It was a very disturbing sight.  Now, the medics say, they want to keep him in here to see if they can help him.”

Clark nodded, understandingly, but very disturbed.  “Will he remember anything?”

The woman shook her head, “When Lex leaves here he will have no short term memory.”

Clark stopped in his tracks.  There, before him, was the most disturbing thing he had ever seen in his life.  There was a one way window in front of him, showing the interior to a jail like cell, padded with white cushions and soft flooring.  Sitting against one wall, rocking back and forth in his seated position, was Lex.  He was looking away from the window and was wrapped up in a straight jacket and had nothing on his feet, barefooted.

The psychiatrist saw that this would be a good time to leave; she patted Clark on the shoulder and walked away.

Clark stared through the window numbly.  He slowly made his way closer, soaking in every detail of what was happening.  Lex was in a straight jacket and in an asylum for something he had no control over.  Clark was unsure if it was possible for a crazy man to control his symptoms, but he knew, and as the rest of the world would soon know, that his father had drugged him to hide his past, putting his own son in an asylum because he couldn’t handle the thought of the information getting out.  Now the whole world would realize the deceit that overpowered Lionel in his life, hindering him from truly living.  Now Lex would not be able to live either, would he?

He watched as Lex nimbly rolled on to his knees and pushed himself up into a standing position.  He stumbled across the soft padded floor and came to the window where Clark was standing.  Clark caught his breath and took a step back, realizing then that Lex couldn’t see him.  The window was a one way window, in which Clark could see Lex, but Lex could only see his own reflection.  He watched him check out the bruise on his head and the cut above his eye.  His face was drawn and pale and it looked as if the life had been sucked out of his very being.

Clark put his hand on the window, in front of Lex’s hunched head.  Lex couldn’t even stand up straight as he looked at himself in the mirror.

His psychiatrist watched Clark gaze sadly into the window.  She could see the sadness in his eyes from his own reflection in the window.  A tear rolled coarsely down her cheek and she looked away.  “I’m sorry Lex,” she whispered, and walked away.

THE END

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