Reverse

"You can't be serious," Chloe said, glaring at him. "You just got yourself out of trouble. Remember? Creepy clone uncle? Sun being blocked out forever? Powerless with the blue K?"

Clark narrowed his eyes at her and glanced at his right hand where the ring had been stuck until after he'd managed to banish whatever his not-quite-uncle was. "Yeah, while it's been a busy twenty-four hours, I think I can remember that though."

She sighed and touched his arm. "Clark, you just finished dealing with, no offense, one crazy Kryptonian. Do you really want to go deal with Jor-El?"

"Kara's missing. I...I know that whatever I did to bring back the sun got rid of Zor-El." She quirked her brow at him and he sighed. Sometimes Chloe asked questions he didn't have real answers for. Okay, he did have answers for them, but they didn't sound human or even all that rational. "I...well I can feel it."

She frowned. "You're psychic?"

"If I were, I'd play the lottery more," he huffed. "No, I just...I dunno. It's hard to explain but it's like a family thing? I guess. Like if Lois were just gone somewhere or Lucy, poofed forever, wouldn't you know it?"

"Lois, yeah. I'd like to think that if something really bad had happened I'd feel it, but we're not exactly psychic twins or anything. It'd be a hope and a feeling. You're talking something tangible. You can feel Zor-El's gone, can't you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but Lara and Kara aren't . I don't know where they are, but I know there on Earth and if Kara has had six hours to find me and hasn't yet? Then she's hurt pretty badly."

"Because she could be back here in under thirty seconds from Australia."

"Or Siberia or Patagonia, wherever," he added, falling into sync with her and slouching at sofa in the Talon apartment. He was glad Lois was off on "assignment," which Chloe was pretty sure meant off screwing Grant. He didn't have the energy to come up with a lie if she just barged in on them. "She's hurt, Chloe. She's my family and I know what came out of the crystal isn't Lara exactly."

"I hope it's more stable than Zor-El," she snapped.

"She's not gonna hurt me. I don't think she knew the ring was rigged, Chlo. I really don't."

Chloe glared at him. "It was convenient, Clark. You can't just think a little bit that your clone-mommy wasn't playing for team Zor-El?"

"She was played. Kara and Lara were played and now they're out there somewhere alone and unable to get here because if they could , with our speed they would be here."

"I'm not harshing your family."

He snorted. "You're not?"

"Zor-El part two was a sociopath that just attempted genocide. I think I'm allowed not to like him or his evil ass, especially after her thrashed you."

"I know, but Lara and Kara were tricked, Chloe, and they're my family. I mean even if Kara and I suck at trusting each other-"

"Understatement."

"Even if we suck at trusting each other," he corrected, moving on. "And even if this Lara is a replica of the real one...she's still family. She's still my bloodline, do you get that?"

She nodded and touched his shoulder. "I know and I know that having them here changes everything for you, believe me I do."

"Are you jealous?"

She blinked but didn't move her hand. "No, Clark, I'm actually not. Martha might be if you just show up at Christmas dinner with a new mom, but I'm not."

Clark winced at that. If he found Lara, he had fuck all idea how to explain her existence to his mom. He hadn't replaced his mom, exactly, she was just so busy in D.C. now and had a life and a duty that didn't include adopted alien sons who were followed around by clusterfucks.

And death.

Mom could have a life now without him, after he'd cost her her chance for a real kid and a dad. In his head, it made a lot of sense to go and spend time now instead if he could find them with Lara and Kara. They were like him. This was their stupid intergalactic bullshit and intrigue too. They'd been involved in it since before even Clark had been born. Mom...she was released from duty, really had been since he'd gotten his father killed.

"Mom...she'll understand. I'll explain it when I save them."

"Clark, don't go."

"Jor-El knows where they are. He always knows. He's an asshole but he's also pretty much omniscient."

"And if they're injured? If they're spread to Timbuktu? Don't you think that Jor-El, the all powerful, freaking did it?"

"He probably did to Kara for her part in all this but not Lara. Like, I do get it, she's not theLara exactly but it doesn't matter. This isn't the Jor-El."

"Your family is so confusing."

"I know," he said, sighing. "Any incarnation of Jor-El would help any incarnation of Lara. Iremember that part. It's the only memory I actually have of my real birth parents, not clones or evil computers or anything else. I remember that they loved me and they loved each other. I don't care how fucked up the AI is, it's not going to leave Lara to rot, okay? If I can at least find my mom then the two of us can work on tracking Kara from there with or without the AI's help."

Chloe's eyes were wide, scared. She wasn't as good an actress as she thought she was. "Clark, if you go, it'll hurt you. You know it does. When have you ever asked it for a favor when there wasn't a price? When?"

"I-"

"It took your dad's life. You said it branded you like an animal, and I know it has to be why you were a vegetable for Lois when she first ever came to Smallville. If it can do all those things and usually as lessons, what will it do when it's actively mad at you for almost getting the sun wiped out."

"I didn't mean-"

She grabbed his hands and hers were soft and warm in his. Delicate too. "Of course you didn't. But you disobeyed him and the Fortress was compromised because of it by someone Jor-El hated. Clark, it let you walk out of there once. Don't go back."

"Jor-El's not gonna kill me, Chloe. He doesn't like me any more than I like him but he needs me in one piece for 'training' some day. He's not gonna kill me."

"Define 'one piece.'"

"Huh?"

Chloe shook her head. "He can erase you. He did it before, right? That Kal-El stuff. There's a lot of ways to kill you without putting you in the ground, Clark."

"And Kara and Lara are out there somewhere, hurt, and they deserve for me help them. If Jor-El puts that fucking brand on me again or...you know about the black K. You can get some from Dr. Swann's estate if you had to. I hurt my family, Chloe. I'm the one who has to save them."

"Then we'll go togeher," she insisted hopping up and grabbing her coat. "I'm not letting you go to the Wonderful Wizard of Crazytown without me."

Clark sighed and stood up. Reaching out, he stroked the side of her cheek in a gesture probably more intimate than friends gave each other. That wasn't going to make her feel better. She'd see the gesture for what it was.

A goodbye, just in case Jor-El did go postal on him.

"You can't. You know how he feels about humans, and about you."

"Freezing me to death, the ass."

"Exactly, Chlo. You can't come. I'll be back in like an hour, okay? I'll go, get the info I need and I'll call you from the farm, alright? It's going to be alright."

She rolled her eyes and turned around toward her counter. "Let me just get my keys-"

He was in the Arctic before she finished her sentence.

No.

Clark shook his head and dug his hands deeper into the pockets of his red jacket. "I don't care what you want. I am telling you. Kara and Lara are lost. I don't know if you did it. I don't even care. I just want them back. Help me."

And I said no, my son, the AI replied.

Clark stilled, hating the way the AI's "speech" seeped into his mind, deep into his bones, almost overpowering him. "They're family."

Zor-El's traitor daughter and genetic creation are hardly family.

"It's Lara ."

It's an illusion that caused you to almost end the world with human sentimentality and attachments. Yes, my son, I've hidden them both but for your benefit.

"Benefit? The way you killed my real father."

I am your real father, but that was not my fault. The balance had to be paid. If memory serves, the wheel had not slated Jonathan Kent first.

"Lana," Clark replied, through gritted teeth.

Yes and how did that progress?

Was the AI gloating? Of course it had been more than happy to take his father instead of Lana's life, to eliminate the competition. Except it was never a contest. Jonathan Kent was Clark's dad. Always had been, always would be. The Fortress was merely the thing that killed him.

"I want Lara and Kara back. Help me find them. I...we can work together the three of us. Wouldn't three Kryptonians trying to help the world be better than one?"

Not when one's Zor-El's blood and one was made by his hand. They'd turn on you again.

"Lara didn't know!"

I deem it too dangerous. They are not your concern, Kal-El. In fact, with the phantoms gone and Kara's crystal destroyed, the only concern you should have is training.

"I need a few days then," he said. "I...I know I promised after everything was straightened out with Kara. I guess it is, isn't it?"

She is not dead, Kal-El, but she is not to be a factor in your life. Do not mistake me eliminating her from your immediate life and actually having gone and killed her. She lives. She merely has no memory of having been Kryptonian.

"You stripped her? Took her powers and her memories. Mom's too?"

He didn't think too hard on why it was easy to say that about a clone of a woman he'd never technically met. It probably didn't say good things about where he was in his relationship with his other mom.

Yes. They have a chance to live on Earth, to be safe from the dangers of the universe that seek you out for your abilities and heritage. It is optimum.

"They're all I have left of my family. Jor-El...I...please bring them back."

No and we shall start now.

"I have to fix things. I mean, the training could take a decade right?"

Usually.

"I have to tell Chloe and Lana. Hell, I have to find a place for Shelby to stay and I have to see my mom before I go for a decade. I owe them all that."

Humans and a dog do not merit your attention. We start now.

"No," Clark said, stepping towards the main control panel from where he could teleport himself home. "They're all the family I have left now that you've taken Lara and Kara. I have to at least say goodbye." He snorted. "Hell, I should even say something to Lois. She might need to know where to get a real cable repair guy."

And your attachments and emotions make you incredibly weak, Kal-El. It is unacceptable.

Clark shook his head and slid the key into its slot. "You always say the same things, Jor-El. Ilike being human. I like living with them. I love a few of them more than anything." He shrugged. "Hell, I even love Shelby like crazy, but I guess you'd not really understand the concept of a 'dog person.' I'm not cold like you."

You're impractical, rash, and emotional. Of course you're nothing like me or a real Kryptonian.

"You blew yourselves up," Clark reminded, cursing when nothing happened. "You blocked the signal?" Unfuckinbelievable. I'll be back in about twenty four hours after I take Shelby to D.C. Is it that big a difference?"

It's the principle. Human attachments are not your place .

"And yet that's what happens when you're raised human for a couple decades. You could train me for a decade or brainwash me or I don't know what, but I'd always care about my human side. I'd always want to be with them. I belong there. I mean...yeah, I don't fit perfectly, I know that. But I'm human too. The Kents gave me that. So all your bluster about it doesn't do much for me."

It's your fatal flaw. You care too much for them; you care too much about being one of them.

"I'm not human," Clark said tiredly. "I know that. I understand it. I don't accept it but I understand it. I think caring about them makes me better."

I think you are wrong.

"I know, and I guess I'll just freaking run home instead. Can't wait to spend ten years with you."

There was a pause and the Fortress darkened around him. Clark wondered if he'd finally gotten Jor-El to be quiet at least until he returned for training finally.

You misunderstand.

Clark stilled. When the AI started sounding more and more like a fortune cookie, things went south fast. "What?"

You are not worthy to train. You're not ready.

Thank god.

"Alright, I...next year maybe?" he fumbled, not really wanting to train ever but being a person of his word nevertheless.

You can never be ready until you learn to separate yourself from humans, until your truly understand you are not them.

"Oh believe me, I know," he replied. Not that he would ever voice it out loud to Jor-El, but he was damn well aware of how little he fit with humans and the transfer of his powers to Lana and some of their first activities after that just reinforced it.

I can make it clearer.

"No, really, I'll just come back in about a year. Everyone will be calmed down. I'll probably have used ISIS's computers to find Lara and Kara anyway. I, uh, should go." He turned to speed away and he found he couldn't move at all.

I shall eliminate all confusion and then you will come and be ready. Clark couldn't say anything to that. All he could do by then was scream at the pain assaulting him and then pass out.

Clark woke up in his own bed with Shelby curled at his feet. If the radio station blaring on his desk wasn't talking about another cold November morning in Kansas, giving the date of course, Clark would have thought he'd been dreaming all of it. But it was the morning after he'd gone back to the Fortress. Whatever Jor-El had done he must have sent Clark back to his own room right after.

Weird.

Clark hadn't expected to wake up at all, let alone to wake up in his own room. Lana wasn't there. She was legitimately spending time at Aunt Nell's, she'd even requested he call her to prove it. He wasn't sure they could repair anything after Lana's crime spree and near murder of him and Lex, not to mention Lois's hospitalization, but he'd at least done as she'd asked. They'd have to start building up trust somewhere, if they wanted to grow back together as a couple.

Still, it probably was a bad sign that he wasn't even that upset she wasn't beside him this morning.

Carefully, Clark sat up. He frowned and looked down at himself. Everything seemed the same. He felt as he always had and a quick blast of heat vision at a candle on Lana's bedside table, a bit of X-ray vision to see Shelby's skeleton, and a even a test of his strength on the metal spoon on his night stand (late night ice cream never put up), seemed to reassure him everything was as it should be.

You know.

If you were a Kryptonian.

"Huh," Clark said, sighing. "That's weird. Uh, not that I'm complaining, Shel," he said aloud. "But Jor-El's usually more creative with punishments. I mean apparently a lot of electrical or whatever energy is the gold standard now?"

His dog sat up and snorted.

"Right, food, of course," Clark said, casting a glance out the window. His alarm went off at five-thirty so he could do the early farm chores as the sun rose, just as his father had. He needed to move fast to get his own food and his dog's and be ready to go. Bleary-eyed, he stumbled into his bathroom and did the basics, including shaving (don't ask) and tooth brushing. He looked fine. No brands either.

Double huh. Maybe Jor-El was losing his touch.

Again, not something to complain about just disconcerting because this couldn't be the full punishment. It would make this the "nicest" one he'd ever had.

Shelby was barking and circling him by the time he spit out in the sink. Clark sighed and patted the ancient retriever's head. "Okay, buddy, I don't know why you get so excited. It's the same stuff it was yesterday and, shock, gonna be the same stuff tomorrow."

Shelby barked again and then whined.

Oh!

"Right, sorry, not thinking," Clark replied hurrying (human speed) down the stairs. "You want out?"

Shelby, slower than he had been but still spryly, finished his way down the kitchen stairs. He yipped again before scratching once, politely, at the back door. The sun was up by now and maybe Clark had let his mind wander a bit too much around flossing. Sighing, he reached for the door. "Thanks for waiting, boy."

Shelby snorted and ran out the open door. Clark started out after him, toward the paper on the bottom step and it must have really been marching on to six and he was behind like crazy. He got out from under the awning but felt it again, that pain, harsher than it had been the first time, reach through him. Clark screamed and fell to his knees on the steps, his hand still reaching out for the paper.

At first he couldn't process anything, just the pain, like being ripped apart anywhere the light touched. His right hand ached in a way that not even Kryptonite could approximate. Frowning, Clark looked down to see if there was green K near at all or any answer for the pain at all, a reason his right hand felt impossibly heavy.

What he saw, made him feel incredibly cold.

His arm, at least the part still shadowed by the porch's awning was normal, but somewhere near his wrist it changed, became like grey crystal and remained so over his hand. Swallowing, Clark concentrated on moving his fingers and was shocked when at least his right hand responded. It hurt like hell to move them under the light but he could.

It looked like...

...this was what had happened to the Phantom wasn't it? That the second he drew near the light that he crystallized, that it robbed him of his strength.

Except it was happening to Clark.

Jesus, what had Jor-El done now?