Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R for murder and character deaths
Summary: Lex has at last been pushed to committing the most hideous crime and doing the only thing he feels will ever allow Clark and himself to be happy in love together forever.
Warnings: Slash, Character Deaths, Murder
Word Count (excluding heading): 1,368
Disclaimer: Clark "Superman" Kent, Lex Luthor, any other characters mentioned within, kryptonite, and Smallville are & TM DC Comics and any other respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Lex lay, cradling his love in his arms and listening to his cries. He stung deeply inside the black abyss that hung heavily where his heart had once been with each cry that left Clark's pale lips. Tears streamed down his face as Clark first berated and then begged him, but he knew there was no other way.
Their entire lives had been building up to this moment. This was their fate, and it was written in the stars as surely as Napoleon and Marc Anthony had been destined to fail. Clark had been the one to do him in when they were younger, and he had pleaded, cried, and begged for him to rescue him from the darkness. His voice had fallen mutely upon ears that Clark had chosen to make deaf lest the world discover the love they had once shared and turn against him as they had Lex.
There was no other way, Lex reminded himself as Clark's breath grew ever more ragged. This was their destiny, a destiny that Clark could have saved them both from at one time, but that time was long passed now.
"Lex, please!" Clark croaked. "Don't . . . do . . . this!" He gasped once more for air to fill his burning lungs. "I . . . love . . . you!"
"I know," Lex assured him, his voice a soft, tormented whisper, "and I love you." His hands gently stroked his trembling body.
"But . . . then . . . why?" Clark's dying eyes searched his blue orbs for some sign of what had driven him to this. Of all the times they'd fought before, one of them had always ended up letting the other go until now.
"It's the only way . . . "
"No . . . "
"Yes." Another spasm shook Clark's body, and Lex held him tightly, more tears falling from his eyes like a never-ending ocean. If only Clark would have let him, he would have bought the ocean itself and sequestered them away on an island in the very center of it, but for all his adult life, Clark had refused to let his feelings show until now when he thought it the only way to save the world again. Let the world be damned! Lex raged inwardly. He had once tried every bit as hard as Clark to save the Earth, but Clark had fought him every step of the way -- fought him because the world told him that it had to be wrong, wicked, and evil if Lex Luthor was doing it. No longer would the world stand between them!
No longer would they be separated! Soon, they would be together in eternity, and then, without the world to dictate to him who he should love, what he should do, and how he should feel, his beloved Clark would finally be free to be his own man at long last. Maybe then he would act like he loved him again.
There was no doubt in Lex's mind that Clark still loved him. He saw it in his breath-takingly blue eyes every time he gazed into them, even if for only the tiniest of seconds. He felt it every time they touched, even if Clark was slinging him through a building and breaking every bone in his body at the time. But it was a love his sweet Clark would never allow himself.
They could never be happy here, Lex knew. They could live, if he let them, if he released Clark now and threw the kryptonite far away, but what was life without love but a miserable existence? Hell, if there should be a Devil sent to claim his soul, could be no worse, and at least Clark would be free again, free to exist as he chose and to love whom he chose with no more fear of persecution.
"It's the only way,' he whispered again, kissing Clark's thinning, trembling forehead. He could see every bone in his beloved's body and knew it would not be much longer. "I only wish there was an easier way."
"But . . . there . . . is . . . I . . . love . . . you . . . "
"I know, and I know you are as excruciatingly miserable without me as I am without you, my sweet darling, but I also know that when they look our way again, you'll claim the same old lies and keep us locked in this Hell you've created for us."
"No . . . I . . . won't . . . "
"You will, Clark. We both know it, beloved." Dying light flared in the blue eyes Lex loved so, eyes that had haunted his every dream since Clark had rescued him when they had been only boys, young souls far more innocent then who were barely beginning their lives. He'd had such hopes then, but Clark had killed every one of them. At last he had him in his arms, and this time he could not escape. This time they would be together, and happiness would finally be theirs to claim in the afterlife.
"You're . . . crazy," Clark accused, his voice barely able to be heard.
"Over you," Lex acknowledged, "for all eternity." He smiled sadly down at him as thrashing overtook Clark's weakened body again. "And that's exactly how long we'll be together. Didn't you wonder, my love," he asked, turning the blade he wielded slowly around in his hand, "why I had this fashioned instead of simply employing a mere rock? The kryptonite would serve the same purpose, regardless of shape or form."
The final throws of death were overtaking Clark now. He gazed at Lex with such pain and sorrow in his eyes that Lex's heart broke all over again. For a moment, he was about to call off the whole scheme, but he reminded himself yet again that this was the only way Clark would ever let them be happy and in love together. In Death, there would be no one left to prove anything to, and so at last they could be free and happy.
He held his love close to his heart as he cried and died, and when he was certain Clark had breathed his last, Lex raised his tear-filled eyes to the Heavens; whispered, "Forgive me," to Clark's spirit; and plunged the dagger home into his own heart.
Newspapers across the globe were emblazoned the next day with Superman's body being discovered in his arch-enemy's arms. Scientists quickly determined that Lex had used the same weapon to kill them both, but no matter how many experts were consulted, none had the answer to the question of why for they were geniuses of the mind and not of the heart and would never be able to comprehend that the power of love that had driven both hero and villain throughout their entire lives was also the very force that had brought about their deaths.
It was the poets and astronomers who finally solved the greatest mystery of the twenty-second century for on the night that followed the deaths of the world's most beloved hero and his greatest foe, two new stars appeared in the sky. A man with a glittering cape was held tenderly in the arms of another man, and a cluster of stars in the form of a heart with a sharp, crude-looking point connected their two chests.
Even then very few could believe that Lex Luthor had loved any one, least of all his greatest foe and the best, most honorable man who had ever lived, but certain lovers knew the truth when they held each other in forbidden embraces underneath that constellation: that it had been love that had marked every moment of their lives and finally culminated in their deaths. Those lovers swore never to let the same fate befall them, and so as men finally began to love more openly, happiness was at last granted, and every once in a while, if one looked closely enough, one could see the love shining in the eyes of the stars as their mouths moved together in eternal love.
The End
Author's Note: If you enjoyed this story, or any of my other writings, I hope you'll consider joining my friends and I at a brand new fan fic/art site we're creating called Ficcers Unite. We welcome all fandoms, pairings (slash and het), and even no pairings at all, and we'll also be RPing a world where Disney and Marvel comes together in one universe. Come on over and check us out at ficcersuniteDOTproboardsDOTcom today!