Note: Wow. Been a LONG time. Some stuff came up and I didn't really feel like or have the time to update. I hope to wrap this story up swiftly, yet properly and effectively. Thanks for holding out. PS: This chapter begins right after the conclusion of "Trespass" in season 6.

CH10 The Ever-Fading Line

Kent Farm, immediately after CH9

Clark's phone began to ring. It had not been but a few hours after Lex had come to the barn to invite Clark to his wedding to see what he had lost. He could not bring himself to sleep after this encounter, so he decided to the closest thing to fun on the farm, chores. Thanks to his Kryptonian abilities, he does not require as much sleep as the average human, so one less night would not hurt him. As he finished ramming another fence pole into the ground, he answered the phone wondering who would be calling him this late. The screen read "Chloe," of course.

"What's up Chloe?" Clark asked. Probably some super big emergency with peril that the world cannot wait to throw at me Clark thought sarcastically to himself.

"Spike's gone after his parents' killer and I get the feeling it's not going to be a very long conversation," she blurted out, knowing that every second counts when dealing with a guy who can break the speed of sound.

Why do I have to be right? Clark reactively pondered. "Where's he headed? And how did he find out where this guy is?" Clark responded quickly.

"Long story short, I screwed up and let it out. The guy's name is Bryce Corren, member of the 13 Gang and probably hanging out in Suicide Slums near Harbour. I have reason to believe that our favorite boy billionaire has been hiring these guys for odd jobs for a while, so the gang's probably located near to a LuthorCorp building. I think I better call the police Clark. Spike's going to require some serious incentive to abandon his search for this guy."

"No Chloe. No police. He can seriously hurt people if he wants to and trying to stop him only gives him more will to fight. The cops'll be out of their league." Clark knew that he was no expert on psychology or on Spike's psyche in particular, but with his past encounters, he knew a little bit about desperation and super-criminals.

"Do you think we should call in help from your League?" Chloe asked referring to the recently formed Justice League, which Clark had an open-ended membership in.

"No. I can take care of this myself. Last time was more difficult because I didn't want to hurt him too much, but he's out of excuses now. I'll call you when I get him."

"Wait, Clark," Chloe blurted out hoping to get him before he sped off.

"What?" he asked impatiently.

"This man killed his father. I think we all remember what you almost did to Lionel when you thought he killed your dad. He's angry and confused, but not evil. Keep that in mind."

With the conclusion of Chloe's statement, Clark sped himself away towards Metropolis, ready for whatever may come. Clark had been keeping in mind what Chloe said, but what separated Spike and himself was that Clark did not make it an obsession of his to hunt down his father's "killer." He figured out that murder and revenge are never the solution to anything. Spike was still in the process of figuring this out, if he was ever going to figure this out. There is an ever-fading line between justice and revenge, sometimes both sides almost seeming to coincide, but never truly merging. Spike has been straddling this line long enough and it was time to see what he truly wanted, to make himself feel better briefly by murdering, or making right a wrong. In not too much time, he was going to find out.

Clark was reaching the Harbour Avenue intersection when he began formulating a plan in his head. He had encountered the 13 Gang once before when one of its members mugged his mom and stole his father's watch, where he eventually met up with the Angel of Vengeance. She had shown Clark where they traditionally hung out, so that would be the most likely place to start. In another couple of seconds, Clark found himself walking down a dark secluded area of the slums with rapists, murderers, thugs for hire, and every possible scum of the earth one could think of. If not for his superhuman abilities, it would be unlikely that he would make it out unscathed. Clark made sure to stay out of eyesight of the gang as he neared a large group of members, circled around a bonfire. It was not that cold of a night to need a fire, but what can be expected of insane criminals. Clark was approximately thirty feet from the fire, still unnoticed by any of the gang, when he took notice of one man that everybody seemed to regard with fear and respect. It was easier than expected to find the head of this group. With a great inhalation, Clark let out a large gust of wind towards the fire, which was extinguished in seconds. In the moment's confusion in pure darkness, Clark initiated his super speed. As fast as he could, which was fast, he grabbed the assumed head of the gang and carried him to a far away ally. The ally of Clark's choice was also in pure dark and did not allow the head of the gang to see Clark's face as he turned off his speed. Before the man could understand what had happened or how he had appeared somewhere else, Clark grabbed the man by his collar and hoisted him a few inches above the ground.

In his most intimidating voice, which to Clark's dismay was not as fearsome as he intended, he began his interrogation. "Bryce Corren is a member of your gang and in hiding, where is he?" Not to Clark's surprise, the unnamed man did not answer and was still in shock over what had just transpired. One thing that Clark could tell was that the man was scared, which was all Clark needed. "Where is he?" Clark pressed the question as he also pressed the man up against the wall in an attempt to bring the man into the present and out of his shock.

"I, I uh, don't know what you're talking about man," was the man's response as he began to accept what had just happened. Clark noticed as the man reached for his gun from inside his jacket, and Clark pushed even harder, causing the man to squeal in pain and stopping him from trying to grab his firearm. Despite this man's strong front and power of fear, he was buckling under Clark's strength and intimidation. Ironically, Clark was recalling and recreating his persona as Kal in Metropolis, except without the RedK this time, in order to effectively get this man to answer.

"I don't know for sure man, I'm not that high up," the man finally answered after his arm started to burn from Clark's iron grip. "All I heard is that he's hanging out in some fancy-ass LuthorCorp building near Toledo." Clark contracted his grip on the man's arm to make sure he was not lying. A small tear of pain trickled down from the man's eye as he added, "Honest man. I don't care about protecting that guy. You can have him." Clark released his grasp on the man as he crumpled to the ground.

This had gone far faster and better than Clark had intended. It was fortunate that he found a guy who had nothing to lose by ratting out Corren. Clark could hear with his enhance hearing that the rest of this guy's gang were beginning to notice that he was missing, so Clark decided to head out of the alleyway at a normal pace until he reached the end, where he sped up once more. Clark was confident that the man had not seen his face, considering that the alley was pitch black and Clark himself could barely see the man. With this new information, Clark traced all of Harbour until he reached its intersection with Toledo. As Clark looked around, it was not difficult to notice the building that the man had been referring to. LuthorCorp had always liked to show people how much it had and owned, but Clark was thankful for this this day as he noticed a large plaque in front of an apartment complex thanking LuthorCorp for its financing.

It was then that Clark heard a scream of terror from above. Clark looked up and saw a man dangling from the rooftop of the apartment, apparently being held up by the neck. He had found the right place, just a little too late. It took him about two seconds to scale the apartment stairs and reached the rooftop, where he saw exactly what he expected to see, Spike holding out a man over street by the throat. Clark could have attempted to speed his way up to Spike and grab a hold of Corren before he was dropped, but in their past encounters, Spike seemed to show extremely enhanced reflexes when it came to Clark's speeding around. It was possible that Spike would notice Clark coming, which would not be good for him or Corren. Making the wise decision, Clark slowed himself to a halt, about ten feet away from Spike and his victim. It seemed that Spike and Corren had not been in this situation long, but that was irrelevant at this point. As Clark walked closer, Spike become aware of Clark's presence and turned his head to acknowledge Clark.

"I figured you would show up to save the day," Spike yelled to Clark over the pounding thunder in the sky. "No matter what happens here, tell Chloe I'm sorry, for everything," Spike told Clark. Both of these men were looking each other in the eye for the first time in a while considering how Spike had been forced to be isolated in Chloe's apartment for the past few weeks.

"I see we have an unwanted visitor," Corren chimed in in a hoarse voice, obviously having difficulty speaking with his throat being crushed at the moment. Clark had never met or heard of this man until recently, but the cold and dark voice was all that he needed to see what kind of person he was. From what Clark could see, Corren was holding himself up by grasping on to Spike's arm, and was completely at his mercy. Were anything to make Spike let go of Corren, it would be impossible for him to grab hold of anything before he splattered on the ground.

"Come on Spike, we've been through this," Clark yelled back in an empowered, but friendly tone. It was important for Clark not to upset Spike, but still show authority. "You know that killing him is not going to make things right."

Spike turned his head and attention to Corren. "It's not about right and wrong anymore Clark." Spike was beginning to sound like a child trying to explain himself to his parents. In this case, it was the child who had the power and control of the situation. "It's about making sure this thing doesn't hurt anymore, at any cost."

"That's not our decision to make," Clark retorted.

"You don't get it do you Clark." Spike's concentration and eyes had not left Corren, even as he spoke to Clark. "I could have been normal. I had a family that cared about me, an ally who was teaching me to control my abilities. I could have been an average Joe working an average job with an average life, and a loving family-"

"Yeah, real loving," Corren interrupted. "You should have heard what they said before I killed them, begging me to kill you instead of them. Telling me that you're the freak and don't belong on this earth. What a loving fam that is-" Spike clenched the man's throat even harder cutting him off. Clark could see the color draining from Corren's face as his breathing was cut off.

"Spike! This is not who you are. Chloe and I have seen the good in you, the potential for good. You just need to put this to rest and move on." This was beginning to seem more and more hopeless and the argument went on. Spike was intent on killing Corren and Clark would have no choice but to take that as Spike's admitting what side he is on. "There's a line Spike between justice and revenge Spike, you need to decide what it is you want." Clark took another slow step closer to Spike, but Spike just took a step back. To Clark and Corren, it appeared as though Spike was standing on an invisible bridge, but Clark knew that it was just Spike's ability keeping him afloat.

"Before you say it Clark," Spike began, "I know that killing him will make me like him, but what if I am. Maybe it's who I'm supposed to be-"

"I don't believe that and neither do you," Clark interrupted.

Spike turned his head to Clark and spoke ominously, "We'll see." With that, Spike's grip on Corren let loose and Corren began a plummet towards the ground. In an instant, Clark began to speed back to the stairs, down the stairs, into the front of the building and wait for Corren to come down. Spike had obviously made his choice and taken his stand on the side of revenge, but Clark knew that he had given him all the chances that he could. I'll deal with Spike later Clark noted. As Corren came down, Clark could hear his inhuman scream as he thought he fell to his death. It was unfortunate, but Clark could not deny that he almost, but not quite, felt sorry for Corren falling to what he thought would be he his death. That would be enough to drive somebody crazy if they survived, which he would make sure Corren would. As Corren was almost in Clark's grasp, he all of a sudden began slowing down to a halt in mid-air. Clark took a moment to take this is and then he noticed the source of this phenomenon. It was Spike suspending Corren in the air. He had decided not to let Corrent die in the end. Clark became overwhelmed with relief at these turn of events, but all he could think of was good man Spike.

As Spike slowly descended, Clark could hear the frantic pleading of Corren. "I'll tell, I'll tell. I swear I'll tell everything and give you whatever the hell you want. Please." Clark did not understand what this meant but he could see Spike's reaction was enthusiastic.

"I promise you, I will finish the job if you back out," Spike added to Corren as he dropped him to a three foot fall to the earth. Corren began to back away from Spike in fear and shear terror. He did not even notice or acknowledge that Clark had gone from the roof to here in virtually no time at all.

Clark heard whaling sirens coming around the corner and he looked to Spike to try to get an answer to what had just happened. As Spike walked by him, Clark followed, feeling comfortable that Spike was no longer a danger. As soon as they rounded the corner of Toledo, out of sight of the police vehicles, Spike inquired, "You didn't really think I was going to kill him, did you.?" Clark looked blankly into Spike's eyes, indicating that he did believe that Spike would have. "When I got there, I gave him an ultimatum that he could either testify against Lex or eat pavement from two hundred feet. He started talking about how I wasn't going to kill him and how I didn't have the guts for it." Clark was having a difficult time believing this, considering that this is what anybody would have said if they were trying to defend what they did. "I had to make him believe that I would do it, so I had to put on a pretty good show."

"That was pretty good acting for somebody who had no intention of killing him," Clark commented, asserting that he was still doubtful that Spike had never intended to kill him.

"Come on man, as much as I may not want to admit it, a little bit of you and Chloe has rubbed off on me over the past couple months." Spike stopped walking and turned towards Clark, emphasizing what he was about to say. "Honestly. You were right from the beginning, being on this side of the line is better. You don't have to worry about me Clark. Once Corren testifies against Lex and we put him away for good, I'll know that my parents have gotten justice and I will lower myself to a happy life consisting of a minimum wage job and no excitement." He shrugged, asking Clark if this sounded reasonable. To make sure that they were cool, Spike put out his hand, to which Clark shook it without a moment's hesitation.

As the two heroes walked away back to the city of Smallville, Clark inquired, "How'd you learn to act so well."

"I was in Peter Pan in a junior high play growing up."

"Really? You Peter?"

"Nana actually," Spike responded.

to be continued...