No one quite guessed what Conner is gonna say, but one got close. Couldn't find a quote or phrase for this chapter, but hopefully this one is pretty easy to understand. Enjoy! The plot thickens!

10 - Gilded Cage and Golden Chains

When they finally zetaed Connor out of his prison, he was curled up in a ball, eyes on his knees. Lex would have found it quite cute and sad if the young man didn't flash a burning glare at him a second later. "About time. Where's the bathroom?!"

The room he was beamed into was something like a luxury apartment, the living room to be precise. Red solar lamps were everywhere and he could see a green kryptonite glow around certain exits. Their door handles were made from the rock too. Leaving would be extremely painful.

Other than the exits being poison and lighting imitating a red sun to remove his powers, the place was relatively nice. Soft couches, big screen TV, every game station available, and several off shoot hallways besides the ones clearly showing him the way out of there.

"In a moment," Lex started, raising a hand. "First I thought I'd congratulate you on-"

Connor grabbed the man's lapels and started a near choke hold on the man. "Where's the freakin'-!"

Pain shot up through his arms, coming from the now glowing bracelets he was conned into wearing. His hands lost strength and he fell to the floor, gasping for breath. The pain was unbearable!

"I'd advise not doing that again." Luthor fiddled with something in his pocket and the pain ebbed away once more. "In fact, I insist. As I don't approve of spanking at your physical age, I thought this would be the best form of discipline for you."

"What... What did you... do... to me..." The pain was easing away, but he still hurt. The bracelets were working wonderfully on him.

"Nothing." The man looked on the boy pityingly. "Those bracelets are made of artificial kryptonite. I can control the radiation levels at a flick of a finger, but you can as well. If you approach those doors over there, the radiation will steadily increase. The doors themselves also are a deterrent, as those stones are real and constant. The doors are also electrified. Your biosignature cannot pass through them without twice the voltage of a Taser running through your body. In your weakened state, I sincerely doubt you'll get far.

"I pray all these deterrents are only temporary, but that's up to you son." Lex sat on the couch next to the recovering boy. It wasn't that easy. The man kept looking at him as if he was sorry. "You have to choose to stay here. It's for your own good."

"So you say," Conner growled, pushing himself into a sitting position. His new clothes consisted of grey sweatpants and LexCorp souvenir t-shirt, something easily grabbed and forced on him while he was unconscious. His clothes being gone, and the tracer in his shirt with it, did not improve his mood in the slightest.

"So I know. I've provided you with everything a boy your age could want here. This... is your new home." He waved around the room and to hallways further off. "You can go wherever you want so long as you remember the boundaries. Other than staying here, I only have a few rules, and a few promises.

"One is to respect your elders," a smirk came to his face, "especially me. You won't be isolated forever son; I intend to introduce you to several people of influence eventually, but first to particular people who... will be helping us as well.

"Another is to curb your violent tendencies. Don't break anything merely to get my attention. Yes I could buy you whatever you want, but it does make a mess of things and I don't think any of my assistants will like cleaning up after one of your tantrums.

"And last of all is to listen to me." He looked seriously into the Kryptonian's eyes, trying to convey something. "I really am doing this for your own good. I'm doing everything I can to make this world a better place."

"In your image," Conner spat out, glaring at him. He wasn't buying any of it.

The man shrugged. "Is it wrong to try and shape the world to my own ideals? You would be surprised how many have this goal over the course of human history. Victors are the ones who write it. In time, people will see me as a hero and Superman as a tyrant."

"No they won't!" He jerked to his feet, enraged. How dare he even consider making the League the bad guys. They were heroes! They saved lives! This guy threatened Robin and blew up some other guy just to prove he was serious! "They aren't going to blindly believe you!"

Lex sighed heavily. "They'll believe what they see. In time. All I ask is that you listen and consider what I and others have to say. It may save your life."

"What?"

The megalomaniac got to his feet. "If you obey me, you'll live in the lap of luxury and will even learn to enjoy it. There's quite a lot here for you to do. If you need a tutor or playmate, we'll work towards it. I promise, there will be no psychics here and I will not be putting you in a pod for safe keeping. You're your own man, and I will not be doing any more damage to you... Unless it is necessary."

He gestured to the bracelets, the one thing Conner wished he could shove down this man's throat. "Anything you want will be brought in here, including blue skies when we get the simulation room kinks figured out. I will be here as often as I can, and I've cleared my schedule for a while to work on certain projects in this building so you can get used to your new home."

"New home?" The clone was ready to rip the man's head off. "I already have a home! I have friends and a family! And a life! I chose who I'd be a long time ago! You can't keep me here like a pet!"

"You're not a pet, you're my son," Lex tried to reason with him, but it wasn't working.

"I am not your son!" His voice became louder and louder as he pushed out the only belief that kept him going since he learned the truth about his creation. "The only reason you made me was to be a weapon to kill Superman! You don't care squat about me!"

"I care enough to remove you from those who'd let you die!"

That struck the clone into silence. What?

Luthor wasn't about to explain quite yet what that meant, but it gave him the last word in this argument. He strode past the teen and towards the forbidding doors that would keep him there. "Take the evening to settle in. A full wardrobe is next to the bedroom and one bathroom is the first door down that hallway. There's pizza in the oven keeping warm for tonight, but the diet changes tomorrow. Be up by eight so we can start tests by nine."

"Tests?" Connor turned to watch him walk away, still gaping at him. "What are you talking about? What do you mean-"

"We'll discuss it when we have more data."

"What do you mean I'm going to die?!" He tried to get close to him, to stop him from leaving without answering his questions. "Dammit Luthor! What are you-!"

The bracelets went off again, though not as strongly as before. They just stopped him from actually grabbing the man. He did warn him of the proximity effects from the door and the bands. Lex looked back at him once as he pulled open the door to a normally lit hallway to disappear. "Language. Eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed at a decent hour. You'll want to be rested for tomorrow. Goodnight son."

"Luthor!" He tried to shout back but the man was already gone. Frustrated, Conner took a few steps back, lessening the pain in his body, then threw a punch into the wall. The damage to the wall was minor, but his hand never felt this kind of pain before. While in this place and with those bracelets on, he was as human as the next guy. And he really didn't like it.

He cradled his hand, looking from it to the door. To think, the one thing that made him unique, the one part of him the bad guys wanted to exploit last year, was also what was keeping him back now. His Kryptonian blood was killing him here, keeping him trapped. Right then, he was just human.

Grimacing, he went back into the room and started hunting down the bathroom and the possible medkit within. He sure needed it now, and probably often if he couldn't find a way out of there and back to the League. He was not going to go down easily.

A/N: apparently I have an obsession with bathroom breaks. =P If someone had me cooped up for almost an entire day, I'd want to know where the bathroom was immediately. So Lex has set some ground rules but not a lot. Conner's angry (duh) but there's something going on he doesn't know about. The reason why Lex did everything will become clear by the end of the week.

In other news, in case you didn't hear yesterday, they're putting out a Damian movie! It's coming out late spring/early summer titled Son of Batman. A trailer's on youtube. enjoy!