Twist of Fate
Chapter 2: Convergence
Clark picked up his pace, trying to catch up with Alicia as she walked towards the front doors of Smallville High. The events of the day before swirled in his mind. There was someone out there who knew his secret. Someone who actually understood what it was like to be as different as he was. And she had shared her own secret to save him.
"Alicia, hold on!" he called out.
Alicia looked back. When she saw Clark's face, a feeling of warmth filled her chest and a small smile began to form on her lips.
As he caught up with her Clark continued, "With all the excitement yesterday I didn't get a chance to thank you."
"Oh, it was my pleasure," she said, grinning. "It's actually kind of a relief to share my abilities with someone."
In an attempt at levity Clark joked, "Is that what it takes to be friends with you?"
Suddenly Alicia's smile vanished, and Clark knew he had just shot himself in the foot once again. 'What is it with my stupid mouth when it comes to this girl?' he thought to himself.
To his surprise, Alicia's smile returned at half mast as she tried to roll with his comment by saying, "I guess I deserved that… I'm not really as stuck up as everyone thinks."
Clark feigned surprise at the revelation that many people at school thought she was a snob. Alicia could sense that he was just being nice for her sake and decided to put all the pretenses aside.
With a serious look she turned to him and said, "What, you think I don't know what people say about me?"
"It doesn't bother you, huh?" he asked.
"I don't know, I'm always afraid that if I get too close to people, they'll find out about me, realize I'm a freak," she mentioned with a brief flash of sadness in her eyes.
"I just figure it's better to be alone, even if people think I'm a snob," Alicia finished with resignation in her voice.
Clark's heart went out to her. He knew all too well the sense of isolation that resulted from having abilities like theirs. He wanted her to feel as if her abilities were a gift and something that he accepted… something she didn't need to be ashamed of.
As they continued to walk side by side he inquired, "You don't mind if I ask… have you always been able to…"
"No," she interjected, "it was the meteor shower. One minute I was swinging on the swing set, next thing I knew I was in the middle of a corn field."
"Do you know how it happened?" he pressed on.
"Sort of," Alicia continued, "once I was old enough to realize I was different, I did some research and…"
As they were about to enter the school building, Clark held open one of the doors for her.
"Thank you," she smiled and quickly lost her train of thought as she stared into Clark's eyes. Suddenly her insecurity took hold of her.
"Um," she stammered, "I don't know… there's a complicated explanation about quantum physics. You'd probably be bored."
She couldn't believe that someone like Clark was actually interested in who she was, even the part of her that wasn't normal. She didn't want to push her luck by bothering him with what most people considered science fiction mumbo jumbo. But Clark wasn't most people.
"No," he encouraged her with an attentive smile, "try me."
"Basically," she answered not wanting to disappoint an eager-looking Clark, "the meteor shower affected my body and allowed me to control my molecules in such a way that I can teleport myself-"
"-and anything you touch," Clark finished for her, remembering what she did in the elevator.
"Anything I touch that I want to take with me, yes."
Alicia just couldn't stop smiling. She feared that she looked like an absolute gawking fool in front of him. Ironically, Clark thought the same thing about himself.
In an attempt to deflect the attention on her expression she asked, "What about you, was it meteor exposure too?"
Clark hesitated. It wasn't quite the right time to reveal that he was an intergalactic refugee, but he really didn't want to lie either. So he didn't lie… at least not technically.
"Everything's pretty much connected to the meteor shower, right?" he wryly admitted.
Alicia smiled and responded, "Right," believing that hers and Clark's abilities shared the same origin.
They continued to smile at each other, happy with the knowledge that they understood and connected with each other in a way that no one else could. For a few moments, they were the only people that existed in each other's minds in the otherwise crowded hallway. Then the school bell rang, knocking them out of their reverie. Alicia began to step backwards away from Clark to get to her classes.
"I just can't believe that you're like me," she beamed at him.
"I mean not exactly like me," she added in a futile attempt to find the right words.
"But just," she stuttered as Clark encouraged her to finish with a smile of his own, "like me, you know?"
"Yeah, I do," he beamed back.
Totally disarmed by his smile, Alicia awkwardly waved to Clark as she said "Bye" and turned to head towards her class.
Clark continued to grin as he watched Alicia's form walk into the crowd.
After his secrets had effectively sabotaged his attempted relationship with Lana, Clark had begun to believe that he was meant to be alone. Although he loved Lana with all his heart, he was always afraid that his powers and origins would create an overwhelming burden that would continually put her in danger. Not to mention the possibility that Lana wouldn't accept him at all if she found out just how different he was. But now, he had finally found someone who truly understood what it was like to be different and to have to hide it from the world. Perhaps there was hope for him after all.
Adam burned with pain. His body was deteriorating fast. If he didn't get a dose of serum soon, he would die. Adam had actually been pronounced dead several months prior due to a rare liver disease. However, an experimental serum developed by Luthorcorp had brought him back to life by regenerating the tissue in his liver… temporarily. In order to keep himself alive, Adam needed frequent doses of the serum.
He sat in the dark room strapped down to an examination chair, wondering if anyone would come for him at all. Just as he thought he would be left to die, the room's white fluorescent lights began to flicker to life. The eerie white glow outlined the dark silhouette of a trim, long-haired man. Adam knew exactly who that silhouette belonged to.
Lionel Luthor emerged out of the shadows and leisurely strode towards Adam. He began to speak in a relaxed yet cutting tone.
"Adam, why did I send you to Smallville, hmm?"
Lionel loomed over him and continued, "To become the best friend of Lana Lang. To find out everything that she knew about Clark Kent, wasn't that it? But instead, you have alienated her completely."
With all the pain in his body, Adam could only manage to mutter weakly, "Please, help me."
"Mr. Nash," Lionel responded, using Adam's real name from a previous life, "I normally don't give second chances to abject failures such as yourself."
"But luckily for you," he resumed nonchalantly, "I need someone with certain special characteristics and abilities for my next task. As far as characteristics are concerned, I need someone with no record of ever having existed."
"And, since you technically no longer exist," Lionel leered wickedly as he held up a vial of green liquid to Adam's face, "then all you need are some new… abilities."
Chloe strode into the Torch office, coffee mug in hand. There were few things she loved more than the smell and taste of fresh coffee in the morning. She was so enraptured by the intoxicating fumes of her morning beverage that she almost didn't notice Lana sitting transfixed in front of one of the Torch's computer terminals. Chloe stopped at her desk, which was about ten feet to the right of where Lana was sitting. She absently ran a hand through her flippy golden hair, wondering what her roommate was doing in the Torch office so early.
Lana continued to stare intently at the computer screen, small wrinkles forming on her forehead. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that it didn't seem like she even realized she was no longer alone in the office.
Chloe noticed Lana's obliviousness to her surroundings and her lips began to curl up into a mischievous grin. She quietly reached into her green messenger bag and pulled out her constant companion for the past week, a mini squirt gun. Chloe kept the gun out of Lana's line of sight until she stepped in range. She began to raise the gun to take aim.
All of a sudden Lana quickly spun her head to face Chloe, her piercing hazel eyes focused on Chloe's surprised bright green ones. Previously too distracted and amused by Lana's seemingly oblivious state, Chloe had failed to notice that Lana had her own squirt gun concealed in her left hand. A hand that had been blocked from Chloe's vision the entire time.
'That sneaky little wench,' Chloe thought, 'she knew I was here all along!'
In what seemed like slow motion, the two friends pointed their squirt guns at each other and fired, simultaneously yelling, "Assassin!" Both girls were true to their mark and thoroughly doused their intended targets, shrieking the entire time.
"Okay, okay, enough!" yelled Lana through her laughter.
"Ohhh…I got you first!" shouted Chloe.
"What?" responded Lana, "You totally fell into my trap!"
"Too bad your trap had the reflexes of a drunken South American tree sloth!" snarked Chloe.
"Well, maybe we got each other at the same time," Lana conceded.
"Then which one of us is going to take home the grand prize for school-wide assassin?" Chloe lamented.
"I am," said a chuckling voice by the doorway.
"Pete!" yelled Chloe and Lana in unison.
"You should see the both of you right now," he said, bent over in laughter.
As he walked towards them he chortled, "It looks like a wet t-shirt contest during spring br-"
Before he could finish, Pete noticed that Chloe and Lana were looking straight at him with narrowed eyes and extremely perturbed looks on their faces. Without taking their eyes off him, they raised their squirt guns and pulled the triggers.
Like a man that just found out he had stepped on a landmine, Pete resignedly uttered, "Crap," as the water splattered all over his outfit.
Lana and Chloe burst into uncontrollable laughter, leaving Pete looking completely dejected. Without a word, Pete raised his hands up in surrender, turned about face, and walked straight out the door towards the boys' restroom. This sent the girls literally to the floor, clutching their sides as if they were going to burst.
As their laughter subsided, Chloe glanced at the computer screen Lana had been ogling so intensely when she had walked in. It displayed the family trees of the Kawatche Indian tribe that was native to their part of Kansas. Chloe's natural curiosity was piqued.
"What's this?" asked Chloe.
"Oh," Lana answered, "that's part of the genealogy project I have for history class. We're supposed to trace as many branches of our family tree as far back as possible."
"So," Chloe deduced, "I take it that you have some Kawatche Indian ancestors?"
"Actually, yes," replied Lana with a sense of reverent excitement, "I just found out that one of my great great grandmothers was full-blooded Kawatche."
"Wow," Chloe joked, "I guess that takes your being a Smallville local to a whole different level."
In response, Lana just smirked and stuck her tongue out at Chloe while crossing her eyes. Shocked by Lana's uncharacteristically un-ladylike behavior, the girls started cracking up all over again.
How hard could a physics lab project be? For Alicia Baker, a self-proclaimed science geek, it shouldn't have been hard at all. But her aptitude for science suddenly deserted her whenever thoughts of a plaid-wearing farm boy entered her mind. She stared blankly at the set-up on her lab station. In her present state, a sea otter with a rock could have managed a better display of physics knowledge. Just as she was about to curse Clark for turning her into the poster child for remedial science, she caught sight of a red plaid shirt walking into the physics lab.
As soon as Clark caught sight of her, his face burst into a barely-contained smile. Alicia consciously reminded herself to maintain her composure and not accidentally kill her newfound crush with a physics lab implement.
"Alicia," he called out as he approached, "I've been looking all over for you."
"Yeah," she joked, "you figured teleporting girl… physics lab. Makes sense, pretty good deduction."
She then gave him a teasing look and said, "But I should warn you Clark, I'm not always that easy to pin down."
Clark gulped, unwilling to believe that perhaps the most beautiful girl in the school not named Lana Lang was actually flirting with him.
"So I've seen," he nervously replied, followed by a momentary silence.
Summoning all his remaining courage he continued, "But since I've been this lucky I was just wondering if you would like to get together… you know, for the econ test."
Seeing her opportunity she asked, "Are you asking me out on a date?"
"A Date? No," he answered without thinking.
Suddenly realizing his mistake, he stuttered, "not that I wouldn't, but uhh…"
Sensing that Clark was too nervous to take the first step, Alicia decided to take matters into her own hands.
"Clark," she smiled while closing the distance between them, "would you like to go out on a date with me?"
Clark answered her question with the most brilliant smile she had ever seen.
Lana wandered the halls looking for Clark. She needed to warn him about Adam. In an ironic twist, she saw that her entanglement with Adam might have actually given her the opportunity she needed to start rebuilding her relationship with Clark. At that thought, she felt her heart lighten and a new spring entered her step. Her raised spirits were only reinforced as she saw Clark walking out of the physics lab, grinning ear to ear. She remembered when Clark used to give her that very smile everyday.
Clark was so caught up in his planned date with Alicia that Lana was virtually on top of him before he noticed her.
With a playful smile she quipped, "Did you just win the lotto?"
Taken completely off guard by her sudden appearance in front of him he stammered, "Wh-what?"
"It's just that I haven't seen you smile like that in a long time," Lana replied with a nostalgic tone in her voice.
Clark's smile dropped as he was abruptly reminded of just how far apart he and Lana had drifted from each other. Regretting what he had lost, he wished there were some way to go back to the time before his secrets had completely obliterated their relationship.
Sensing the sudden change in him, Lana quickly interjected. "I uh… I don't want to spoil your mood, but I wanted to tell you something about Adam."
At the mention of Adam's name, Clark's sprang into concerned attentiveness.
"What is it?" he asked.
"He's been keeping a journal about me… and you. And I don't know if it's because he's jealous or if he's obsessed about us… or if it's more about you."
"Well," he protectively offered, "I'll go talk to him."
Lana could see Clark starting to go into full-out protector mode. Adam was her problem and she needed to tell Clark that she had it under control.
"Clark," she reassured him, "no… I'm gonna have him evicted. I don't think he'll be bothering either of us anymore. I just wanted to give you a heads up."
Before she could finish her sentence, Lana noticed Alicia approaching Clark from behind, beaming at him the whole time.
She was stunned as she saw Alicia place her hand on Clark's shoulder and say, "See you at seven?"
When she saw Clark return Alicia's smile, Lana felt as if she had been stabbed in the gut.
In truth, Alicia felt a little threatened by Lana. She knew that Lana and Clark had dated briefly the year before and rumor had it that they still pined for each other. However, Lana had been nothing but nice to Alicia all year, and she felt bad about thinking of her as a rival.
So Alicia put on the most genuine smile she could and greeted her.
"Hey Lana," she said while walking by, trying to escape the situation as fast as possible.
For her part, Lana was too shell-shocked to provide a response. As she witnessed Clark and Alicia exchange affectionate glances once more from a distance, all she could do was look at Clark with a wounded expression. Although she felt that she had no right to him, Lana hoped that he hadn't already shut her out of his heart completely. She continued to look at him, searching for an explanation.
Clark noticed a flash of hurt in Lana's eyes. Some part of him felt guilty for going on a date with Alicia. That part of him still saw Lana as the girl of his dreams. After all, he believed that it was his fault that his and Lana's relationship didn't work out. He had done so much to hurt her. And now he had hurt her again. Not wanting to see Lana in pain anymore, Clark reflexively downplayed the nature of his date with Alicia.
"We're in the same econ class," he explained guiltily.
Just by looking in his eyes, Lana knew Clark wasn't being entirely truthful. Part of her truly felt glad to see him seemingly happy again. Yet an even bigger part of her felt like it was about to crumble to pieces. She needed to keep it together and not break down in front of him. She didn't want Clark to beat up on himself for reducing her to tears. Besides, she thought, who was she to spoil Clark's chance at happiness, even if it wasn't with her?
Lana put on the best smile for Clark she could muster in order to keep the tears at bay. She then quickly turned and dashed down the hall towards the parking lot, leaving Clark with a conflicted look on his face.
Lana didn't shed a single tear until she was inside her car. As she put her maroon Jeep Liberty into gear, she wanted to be as far away from anyone as possible. With tears streaming down her face, Lana headed for the outskirts of Smallville. In no time, she was surrounded by nothing but endless fields and farm land.
As she attempted to choke back her sobs, Lana decided to pull over to the side of the road. She stepped out of her SUV and took a deep breath to calm herself. That was when she finally noticed where she was standing. In her daze, she had somehow managed to drive herself to the site of the Kawatche caves.
She remembered that at this time last year, she learned that Whitney, her ex-boyfriend, had been killed while serving his tour of duty with the Marines. She had sought out Clark in the Kawatche caves for comfort. There, Clark promised her that he would never leave her. He had said he wasn't going anywhere. She wanted so badly to believe him then. The broken promise of that night seemed like an eternity ago.
Lana began walking towards the cave entrance. For some reason, she felt that coming to the caves would somehow bring Clark closer to her again. Perhaps she was just seeking some sense of familiarity or a memory of Clark to hold on to. Or perhaps there was something else calling to her. As she entered the cave, she looked at the drawings on the walls with awe. The ancient pictographs never ceased to amaze her.
One symbol in particular caught her attention. It looked like a circle with a vertical line attached to its right side. At the tip of the vertical line was a dot. Inside the circle was what appeared to be another symbol that looked like a figure eight. When she thought about it, the symbol resembled a lower case "d" that contained a number "8" inside it.
Lana felt an irresistible urge to touch the symbol. Unable to resist the magnetic pull any longer, she grazed the symbol with her fingertip. Almost as if in response to her touch, it
glowed to life. In an instant, she was engulfed by a flash of brilliant white light.