Smallville: A New Beginning
Season 1, Episode 1: Rebirth
The ground was far away from him, as he went higher. Smallville began to look like a picture, it was large enough for him to grab. His hair waved in the wind as he went higher and higher. He loved this experience. He knew now he would have to land. He paced himself and stretched his legs straight down, he landed and as if it were a trampoline, thrust himself upward back toward the sky. As he shot back up he could see the horizon perfectly. He saw Metropolis in the distance. The purple sky being mixed with an orange light, the clouds changing color as the sun began to set. Conner loved doing this during the sunset. Watching the skies from the skies was the most beautiful thing ever. In the drama that was his existence, this was his only sense of peace. As the ground came closer he repeated ricocheting of the grass covered fields of the farm. He came closer to home, the Kent Farm. Which began to become larger and larger.
"Not this again" He said to himself.
Suddenly, he found himself on the hay covered wooden floor, with wooden beams and pieces of the barn roof next to him. He fell through the barn roof. Quite the way to ruin a beautiful view of the sky. Martha walked in, cheerfully.
"I remember when this happened to Clark when he was 15." She said with a smile
"Just decided to keep the Krypto-Kent tradition." Conner chuckled.
Martha hugged him, and he hugged her. Conner had no real family, considering he wasn't "real". He was a clone. A handful of people made him feel other wise. Clark made it abundantly clear they were brothers, Tess raised him like a mom, and Martha was like his sweet grandmother. Atleast he loved her like one. He loved his family. He loved Tess, whom he hadn't seen in 3 months. Where was she?
"Tommorow's your first day at Smallville High."
"That's great…
"What's wrong?" She looked at him with the understanding eyes. It was hard for Clark to lie when she made that face, and it was hard for him too.
"It's just, how am I going to fit in? I was born last year, I've never been to school. I've never met anyone my age. And how do I hide my powers?"
"You'll adapt, just like Clark had to. It's not easy though. But Clark always had me, and Jonathan. Now you have me, and maybe if we, tell you enough about him, you'll know Jonathan too."
"I know he loved Clark."
"And he would have loved you."
"I hope, I'm still half Lex."
"….You know, back before you lost you're memory, I made a speech. And in that speech I made sure it was clear, we aren't born to hate, we're taught to. You were taught to be a hero, not a murderer."
"I hope those lessons sink in."
"They will….they have."
She walked out and waved goodbye. Conner had his greatest change ahead of him.
Lex Luthor sat in his penthouse office in LexCorp Plaza. He grabbed a photo album from his desk. It was covered in fine red Italian leather. The title "Luthor Family Legacy" was written in gold lettering. Inside was a letter. It takes a true Luthor to make a letter look expensive. A purple silk like texture. It had a gold stamp with the Luthor family crest. On the front in gold script read
To the heir of the Luthor dynasty. Lex
Lex carefully pealed the stamp and opened the letter. He read it's contents.
"To my son, Lex. No matter how willing I may seem to bring about indefinite turmoil about
Your success, this does not excuse the fact that my inner Hades has been affected by
Aphrodite." – Your father, Lionel Luthor.
Lex began to flip through it. He saw pictures of himself, young, so much anger on his face, grief and sadness. He saw Lionel, who presented himself in a way that was could almost be the true personification of power and class. He saw himself as a teen. He also saw a picture of his mother, Lillian. She was beautiful. He hoped he loved her. He saw a picture of his brother, Lucas with him and his father. It was obvious by the photo Lionel loved Lex more than the other Luthors. He also saw a picture of a small baby, withRequiescat in pace, Julian. Julian was just a baby, did he really die? Did he last long at all? Lex, closed the book and sat thinking. He looked around his desk, and saw a small red button. He pushed it. One of the walls slid back, and revealed another room. He looked at it, and hesitantly walked through. He looked at the objects. Hair strands, blood vials and liquid meteor rock. The hairstrands all had labels under them.
Helen Bryce Luthor Lana Lang Luthor Lillian Luthor Lionel Luthor Jullian Luthor Tess Mercer
The last one stood out to Lex. His earliest memory was of a dead woman infront of him. When he checked her I.D., her name was Tess Mercer. He had the hair of the woman he killed. Nothing was more sickening. Suddenly he caught a headache. His memories began to flash by him. He saw his childhood, he saw Lionel abusing him. He remembered the cornfields when the meteors came. He remembered Lana, and Tess. His last memory was him in a crystal palace with a tall man in red and blue. He saw this man before. The guardian of Metropolis. But what was his real name? He needed to know. He wanted to know. He figured if anyone knew, it would be Tess, whom he told everything too. He took the vial of her blood and her hair.
Conner walked the halls of Smallville high. He walked by the numerous pictures of Alumni. He stood in front of two shiny gold trophies. Clark and Jonathan's. The title Kent Dynasty was placed above it. As he stood in front of it multiple students and teachers walked by.
"Good morning Mr. Kent"
"Good morning Mr. Kent"
"Good morning Mr. Kent"
They all said as they passed. Two students in particular walked up to him.
"Hello, Kent. I'm Zoe…this is Clayton."
"Hey."
"Yes, so anyway, as you may know you're older brother worked with Chloe Sullivan on the Torch in High School and we were wondering if you wanted to follow in Clark Kent's footsteps?" Zoe asked
"Umm…I don't.."
"Think about it Kent." Zoe interrupted.
This was disturbing to him. Conner had just entered Smallville High, and all ready people set his future for him. Everything he did was supposed to make him as great as Clark Kent, and to an extent, Jonathan.
Conner continued to walk down the hall and was approached by a tall, gray haired man.
"Kent! I'm Coach Quigley, I coached your brother during his senior year."
"Hello coach."
"Kent as you know, your family has a history of being extremely good at the sport of football. I need to see if you gained that gene. Come to practice next week and we'll test your skill. Am I clear?"
"Yes sir, Coach."
Coach Quigley left Conner in the halls by himself. Conner walked into the Torch editing room. He starred inside, and saw a large blank wall.
"That's where the wall of the weird was." Clayton said
"Wall of the weird?" Conner asked
"I know you've heard of it. You've probably met Chloe before, Clark's best friend. She posted articles of weird events and strange mutants here."
"Mutants?"
"Yeah…the Mutants, the ones who touched the meteor rock and got powers."
"There are a lot of them?"
"Too many to handle, when the Blur lived in Smallville he used to save us from them."
"Really?"
"Yeah, most of the time the mutants go crazy for some reason. No one knows why."
Conner walked backwards out of the door and bumped into one of the teachers. He made all of his books fall, and the both scrambled to lift them up.
"Sorry…my bad" Conner apologized
"No worries, it was a simple accident, understandable. Who are you?"
"I'm Conner Kent."
"Prof. Arnold Kuau."
The two shook hands.
"I just moved to Smallville from Hawaii, to investigate the meteors. For funding I got a job here as you're new earth science professor."
"Oh….ok"
As the two got up from the floor, a large man came in a suit. Principle Reynolds.
"Kuau, my office. Now!"
"Yes, Principle Reynolds."
The two men walked into his office.
"This cannot, be good" Clayton said as he walked out of the room.
"No kidding" Conner said as he began to focus in on his super hearing
[…no longer needed. Thank you, Mr. Kuau, but I cannot afford to endanger the safety of my students on your behalf]
[Please Mr. Reynolds, I just need one more week.]
[I'm sorry, but your experiments are going too far. I need you out of here by tommorow]
[…fine!] Dr. Kuau screamed sharply.
As Kuau came out of the office, he looked more fierce than ever. He slowly slipped off his glasses, and walked passed Conner angrily.
"I think he just got fired" Clayton said
"I think so too." Conner replied
Lex walked inside the charred remains of Cadmus Labs. The lab was destroyed, the glass chambers broken. He walked down the long lab. He walked up to a large machine.
"You know we used to use that for clones" A familiar voice said to him.
"Who's here?" Lex turned around to see a peculiar figure. Himself. "…Who are you?"
"I'm you Lex. Or at least your conscious. I'm the memories you have, fighting to be remembered."
"What happened, why can't I remember anything."
"Nuero-toxin. A Lex Luthor exclusive"
"…What happened?"
"You…we're a fool. We killed our own sister, when all she wanted to do was save us. She ,made you forget me, your memories, but you know what, shouldn't such a valiant act of sacrifice, be remembered. She loved you Lex, least you could do is remember her."
"…who was she?"
"The woman, who's hair you hold in your hand."
"…Well, if that's true I could.."
"Clone her, like you did for all those you loved. But first, I know you have a question that has been lingering in you. And you know what it is."
"The man in red and blue."
"…He's the savior, the traveler, Kal-El of Krypton, the one you call Superman."
Superman. The guardian of Metropolis. The owner of the skies. A god among men. Superman was everything Lex wanted to be. Trustworthy, confident, worshipped, powerful. Good. But Lex knew otherwise, he could never be good. All he knows is evil. All he remembered was the fierce feeling of evil, sadness and betrayal he had the first day of his new life.
"I need to know everything"
"And you will, Lex. But my guidance will be needed…that's the thing about the Neuro-Toxin, we can only remember what we truly desire to, and for some reason, we don't desire to know the identity of the Man of Steel. Though we once knew it."
"Why won't you tell me?"
"That's the problem, we have to want it, and the fact is, we truly don't want it, the burden of knowing the secret. It once brought you pain, death….Lex, we have a second chance, and we want to make the most of it, we want to be free. But we both know why we came here Lex."
"Tess…"
"Lutessa…she was our sister Lex. Lutessa Lena Luthor."
"And I…hold another chance for her in my hands."
"Yes, we do, Lex. Undo the evil you did, turn her death, into life."
Lex slipped the hair into a canister and stuck it into the large metal machine. The other Lex grabbed his shoulder, and suddenly he knew what to do. He began operating the machinery like a pro. The cloning process had begun.
Principle Reynolds walked outside on the campus for Smallville High. The clean grass covered fields surrounding him gave quite the sight for relieving stress. He walked towards his car, and put his key in the door. As it opened he sat in the comfortable cloth seats. He laid back and put the key into the ignition. The car started, he looked backward as he began to back out of the parking space. He looked forward again as he prepared to drive off, but he saw a shine in his mirror, it moved by fast. He saw the same flash again, this time airborn. Suddenly he saw it aim for his car. It was a peculiar sight. It appeared to be a man, a shining man. The man lifted up his car, and began to fly upward.
"Oh my god!" Reynolds shouted as his car lifted higher and higher.
The figure continued to fly higher until it came to a stop, Principle Reynolds had certainly never been this high in his car. You could see all of Smallville from that sight.
[….my god] Conner heard from the distant cornfields of the Kent Farm. He began to run toward Smallville High.
The silvery man through the car back toward the ground. Principle Reynolds couldn't breathe. His heart began to pound fast, then faster, and faster. He was beginning to suffer from a heart attack. His car prepared to hit the ground, and he closed his eyes and bowed his head in defeat. He prepared for impact. His car stopped. He looked forward, and he was starring at the ground. Someone was holding him up! He couldn't see who it was. Conner, slowly let the car down, and looked in the distance toward the silver man, who began to flee. Conner leaped after him. The silver figure began to fly faster, and Conner trailed him with his super-leaps. As he almost grabbed him, the man turned around and punched him. Conner began to fall toward the ground
"You over grown metal son of a…" Conner shot heat vision from his eyes in a bullet like fashion. The heat vision hit the silver figure as he began to descend. He now began to fall. Conner hit the ground and formed a crater.
"Great…first day of high school, and I already have an enemy"
Lex starred at the tiny baby that lay in the glass covered pool. It had an oxygen tub around it's mouth and it's eyes were open. It fidgeted in the cylinder.
"We didn't grow up with her, but we always knew"
"That she was our sister."
"Yes and whether or not you wish to believe it, this little baby is your last chance at a family. Don't let og of your last chance."
The other Lex faded into the wind. Lex watched in amazement as the little baby began to sprout hair and grow older. Accelerated aging had been a problem before, but now he could control the ager where it would slow down. He set it to 14 years old, an age where raising her would feel right. He watched in amazement as the infant grew older, and her hair longer. She was about 5 years old by then.
"Just a little longer, Lena."
"I know this stuff is weird but according to what Clark has told me this is right up your alley"
"It is, I'll see what I can dig up on this situation."
"Thank you, Ms. Sullivan"
"Call me Chloe."
He hung up his cell phone, as he walked into Smallville High. The students were all quiet. An odd number of teachers in the hall. Zoe walked pass Conner as she headed toward her next class.
"Hey Zoe, what's going on?"
"Didn't you hear? Principle Reynolds is in the hospital, he suffered from a major heart attack and the ambulance found his car totaled in the parking lot. They say he may not survive, and get this, Mr. Kuau went MIA yesterday."
"Really?"
"Yeah, the cops said they found his clothes covered In blood, and his glasses cracked, I think we may have a killer on our hands."
"Principle Reynolds and Dr. Kuau….yesterday they had an argument…and if one is dead and the other hospitalized..there must be a connection, maybe an competitor of Kuau's"
"The way I see it you only have one choice, welcome to the Torch."
"Not today Zoe, maybe another time."
"Suit yourself"
As Conner walked into Dr. Kuau's classroom, he saw the silvery man again. The man turned to face him"
"You." Conner said
The man did not respond and instead flew toward him. He knocked Conner through the Classroom wall and Conner ended up in the hallway. A crowd started to gather. The silver man lifted up a desk and threw it at the crowd who quickly departed, and flew out of the window.
Lex carried the infant body into a capsule, and watched the tiny body with sadness.
"That's twice Lex, two clones died in one day, how are we supposed to clone her successfully?"
"That."The clone Lex pointed toward a vial of blood. "Use that on her, it will give her the chance at another life."
"Who's blood is this?"
"You'll learn soon enough."
Lex picked up the blood and began to mix it with the clones blood. A new clone was beginning to grow.
"What would her name be?"
"For now Lex, we should call her LNA 3"
After school ended, Conner walked outside to the front of the campus. He looked around at the crowded area, hoping to catch a glimpse of Clayton or Zoe, he saw no one. Except, Dr. Kuau.
"I thought he was dead…" Conner whispered to himself. He began to walk toward him. "Dr. Kuau…you were reported dead yesterday, how did you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm fine Conner."
"Yeah well, some freaky silver guy attacked Principle Reynolds yesterday, and they found your clothes covered in blood."
"Really?"
"Yeah, and I saw him in your room earlier today, that same silvery guy."
"Interesting…come with me."
Conner followed Dr. Kuau to the back of the campus.
"You see Conner, I saw when he throw you into the wall and you fell into the hallway, simple fact is, there should be know way you could walk away from that, I know one thing, and that is, you are one of those meteor freaks."
"What, no, I just landed safely"
"I came all the way from Hawaii, just to catch one of you, and that is exactly what I plan on doing."
"Even if I am one of those freaks, how do you plan on doing that?"
"Like this"
Dr. Kuau removed his glasses. Suddenly his clothes began to become covered in blood, and his skin changed texture and color, he became silvery and metallic.
"You see...aaah!...the reason my clothes were covered in blood…is because of all the metal squeezing out of the pores of my body, they can cause pain…to me, and who ever I attack"
He backhanded Conner who flew into the air. Kuau flew upward and tackled Conner, he spinned him around and threw him toward the ground. Conner fell into a patch of grass and caused a small crater.
"Your stronger than I thought, Conner."
"And there's a reason for that, now let me show you what I can do"
Conner ran toward the doctor and uppercutted him. The doctor flew back. He began to speed toward him and tackled him through a wall of the school.
"You are one of the freaks."
"No, I'm much more than that." Conner and the doctor began to speed toward eachother. Conner ran while Kuau flew. As they got closer, Conner ducked, turned around, grabbed Kuau's feet and slammed him on the ground. Kuau turned on his back and kicked Conner upward. Conner flew up into the air, and as he began to fall, he threw his arms in front of him. He landed on Kuau like a torpedo. Kuau began to breathe heavy. Conner looked at his body. There were two first prints in his abdomen.
"You win kid." Kuau said as he passed out.
"He's Doctor Arnold Kuau, former museum curator, he came into contact with a mysterious silver serum from a meteor rock. He was a Hawaiian rights activist until the serum made him go crazy, and he became obsessed with mutation." Chloe told Conner over the phone.
"I was able to subdue him, I think he's going to Bell Reeve"
"Scratch that, I had a contact of mine transfer him to a high security prison known as Arkham, he's no longer Smallville's problem, Conner."
"Thanks Chloe."
He hung up his phone.
"So I guess your keeping with the tradition. Smallville High's hero, in more ways than one."
"I believe I'm obligated to keep the Kent name, remembered"
"Well so far, you're doing a good job. I remember Clark going to high school, me and Jonathan knew every day, he might need to save a life, or incapacitate someone" She said with a chuckle. "Clark…did not just become a hero when he went to Metropolis, and he didn't become one when he was named The Blur, he started in high school. Now it's your turn, and you've proven so far that you can be Smallville's hero, all you need is a little guidance."
"Well, I look forward to it. You know last week, when I first started and I walked past the trophy case, and saw Jonathan and Clark's name, I knew I had a legacy to uphold, and everyone wanted me to join their team, or club. I know I'm supposed to be the hero, but does Smallville need another Clark and Jonathan Kent?"
"You know Conner…having powers, doesn't mean you're obligated to be like the other heroes. Look at Clark and Oliver, so different, so unlike each other, yet they both carry the burden of being the hero. You don't need to be Clark, to be a hero. Be yourself Conner, the world is going to need that from you."
"Thanks, Ma."
The two embraced.
Lex opened the tank where the now teenage clone was being held. She sat up straight, and breathed heavily. He handed her a white hospital robe.
"Here, put this on." Lex said
She began to put the robe on.
"I know you have a lot of questions, I'm here to answer them." Lex said
The clone began to look around questionably, till she saw a reflection in the glass case. She saw a grown red-haired woman, who looked at her sadly, and nodded. The red-haired woman began to walk away and flashed a small smile. Suddenly the clone remembered, she remembered how to speak.
"Where…who am I?" She asked
"It's okay…your safe. Welcome back, Lena." Lex replied
He embraced Lena, who stood cautiously.
Author's Notes:
This episode takes place on September 8, 2011, exactly 4 months after Clark became Superman. As promised in the Smallville Season 10 episode Scion, Clark enrolled Conner to begin Smallville High in September. This episode also features the return of Zoe and Clayton, the current reporters for the Smallville Torch who Clark and Lois met during their High School reunion, back in the Season 10 episode Homecoming. This episode features Dr. Arnold Kuau as the villain Conner faces. Dr. Kuau is a Superboy villain knows as Silversword in the comics. His comic book form lacks the ability to change from a human form into a a metallic form, which was something I added in order to better fit the story, but of course it comes with a price. Also, the Other Lex featured in the story is written as a side affect to Tess dosing Lex Luthor with the Nuero-Toxin from Summerholt, as seen in Finale. Lex's line to the Tess Mercer clone "I know you have a lot of questions, I'm here to answer them" was taken from the Smallville episode Scion, which is what Lionel Luthor tells Conner, when he discovered that he was half-Luthor. Being that Lex has a great amount of will, Other Lex formed as a reminder of his past life, as he suppressed his memories. Also, Chloe returns as she converses with Conner over a phone call, Chloe who I believe would be able to fabricate Conner's school records in order for him to get accepted into High School. And the red haired woman the clone sees at the end of the episode is ofcourse, Tess Mercer, her genetic template.