Kyle paced outside the convenience store. "How hard can it be to just pull a tape out of the recorder?" he grumbled to himself. "You just push a button and the tape pops out."

"Uh, sir" Kyle turned around at the nervous voice. "There seems to be a problem with the machine, we can't get the tape out. There is a timer on it and we can't remove it until the time is up."

"Never had this problem with Jake." Kyle mumbled underneath his breath. Kyle had gotten used to quickly overcoming any technical problems like this since Jake was on his team. He couldn't think like that now. Jake had gone rogue and he had to bring him in before he hurt anyone.

"When is that?" Kyle was quickly getting exasperated.

"In 4 hours."

Kyle let out a deep breath trying to remain calm before pulling out a picture of Diane. "Do you recognize this person? She would have been here early this morning."

"I just got here sir. Al was here this morning."

"Where's Al?"

"He's inside. He's just about to get off shift."

"Can I please speak to him before he leaves?"

"Sure."

After pacing for another few moments, Kyle got to talk to Al. "Do you recognize this person?"

Al adjusted his glasses and studied the picture for a moment before responding, "Yeah, I remember her. She came in early this morning. She got a cup of coffee and I think some snacks."

"Okay." Kyle was finally beginning to make some progress. "Do you know which way she went?"

"Sorry, I had other customers come in right after her. I didn't notice."

"Okay, thanks for your help."

Kyle walked back over to his car pinching the bridge of his nose. He flipped open his cell phone.

"What do you have?"

"Not very much at all. She was here, but it's all I have for right now."

"Let me know when you get something. We'll see if we can find out anything from this end."

---------

Diane pulled up to the building. She had been sent to an old timey looking movie theater? This couldn't be right. But, then again she had been told to go to the Talon and that was clearly what this placed was called. Diane got out of her car and stretched. She hadn't realized how sore she was from riding so much until that moment. She felt a little better after doing so, if she had been the type to go and get a massage, she felt like she could use one now.

Diane walked up to the door, opening it and cautiously looking around. It wasn't a movie theater after all, but looked like some type of café. Then she spotted a young blonde waving furiously in her direction. She saw her mouth "Yes, you." Diane was surprised just how noisy it was with only a few people in there.

Diane walked over to the table taking a seat across from the perky blonde. Chloe extended her hand "I'm Chloe, Clark's friend."

"I'm Diane" she smiled nervously. "How did you know it was me?"

"The bewildered look on your face." Chloe smiled.

"Was it that bad?"

"Don't worry about it." Chloe said. "The place is a little unusual. It's not everyday you see a theater turned Egyptian themed café. I'm used to it"

"You're from here?"

"Not originally. But, yeah I've been here a while." Chloe answered. "I'm guessing you're not."

"No. This is my first time here or even Kansas for that matter."

"You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Clark's newest friend and resident of his farm would you? I think his name is Jake." Chloe saw the instant recognition in Diane's eyes and something else as well sadness, anxiousness, she wasn't quite sure.

"What would make you think that?"

"Clark has had two different people who aren't from around here end up at his farm in a matter of days. Just makes you think the two events are connected." Chloe said. "That and I saw the look in your eye when I said his name."

"What look?"

Chloe smiled genuinely and lowered her voice a degree as she spoke. "I'm not trying to expose him or you. I just want to help. I know about keeping secrets and doing so to protect people. I've also seen things that you wouldn't believe even if I told you.

If what Clark said is true, and I'd have no reason to believe otherwise, then I would say you have a very special friend."

Chloe gave Diane a moment to absorb what she had just said before continuing. "So, are the two of you just friends?"

Diane knew she shouldn't be talking about this. She had opened up too quickly to Clark, now that she looked back on it. Maybe it was the stress of the trip that made her immediately open up to these people; maybe she was losing her mind. If she stopped to think what Lou would do to her when she found her, she would have to say she had lost her mind. But, she had to help Jake. That was all that mattered and these people seemed to want the same thing as well. "Yeah, we're just friends."

There was that look again. It then hit Chloe why it seemed familiar to her. She was looking at a mirror of herself a few years ago. "Let me guess what Jake is like. Really nice, slightly goofy and has no idea what is right in front of his face."

Diane thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, I think that describes him pretty well. How did you guess? Have you met him?"

"Just briefly" Chloe answered. "Let's just say I know someone very similar to him."

"So, what's going on –if you don't mind me asking?" Chloe asked her reporter mode was beginning to kick in.

"Jake's sick and not himself right now." Diane thought that answer would be okay and not give too much away.

"You came out to try and help him," Chloe added knowingly thinking of her own similar experience.

"Yeah"

Chloe cell phone rang breaking into the conversation. "Hello?"

"I've found Jake."

"Great. Where is he? Is he with you now?"

"He ran into the Old Foundry."

"Clark Kent you listen to me!" Chloe voice became suddenly stern. "Don't you move until…" Chloe's phone call was suddenly disconnected. He had hung up on her. She knew what he was going to do. "Hard headed, stubborn." Chloe fumed at her phone.

"What's going on?"

"Come on. We got go. He found Jake."

-----------

Clark stood outside of the old metal fence that barely stood up around part of the perimeter of the old Foundry. Of all the places that Jake could end up, he wound up here. Maybe he could talk to Jake and get him to listen to him quickly before anything happened to him. He couldn't back out now. His dad hadn't worried about what would happen to himself when he came after Clark. Jake needed help and Clark couldn't just walk away. Clark pulled the vial out of his pocket and looked at it momentarily before stepping forward.

Jake paced inside of the old building. He didn't know what to do. Diane had betrayed him, experimented on him, lied to him, and now followed him. He didn't even know how she did that. She probably had more people following her. She was probably just the scout. She would be sent to find him first and then the rest of them would move in later.

He had to think. He couldn't think, his mind was too jumbled up right now. He didn't know what was going on. Everyone he trusted was turning on him. Even his new friend – or at least he had thought he was his friend had turned on him as well. Diane had turned Clark against him. He had believed her as well at first, before he found out who she really was.

Clark walked through the entrance to the Foundry. "Jake!" Clark paused glancing around at the now gleaming green rocks that were strewn about. "Jake! I just want to talk." Clark tried to X-ray the inside of the structure but between the effects of the rocks and the areas of lead he wasn't able to see anything. He walked a little further. "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to help. I know what you feel like now."

Jake inched closer to where he saw Clark but still out of his line of sight. "How could he know I feel?"

Clark leaned against a metal support beam; his breathing was beginning to get heavy. "I know you feel betrayed and alone and feel like you can't trust anyone. But, you can."

"How would you know?" Jake appeared right behind Clark.

Clark turned to face Jake while still leaning on the beam for support. "Because I've been there. When I ran away from home I did some bad things and I didn't think anyone cared about me anymore." Clark paused to try and catch his breath. "I wasn't myself and if anyone tried to help me or tried to talk to me about it I just shut them out."

"This is not the same." Jake yelled. "You were not kidnapped and experimented on. How could you betray me like that? I trusted you and you betrayed me."

Clark slid down the pole unable to hold up his own weight anymore. "I told you the truth about me. Why would I trust you with that and then turn around and give you up?"

Jake turned away momentarily trying to figure out what Clark had said. When he turned back he noticed a syringe sticking out from Clark's hand. He also noticed how weak Clark looked. "Clark? Clark what's wrong?"

"Rocks" Clark choked out as he glanced over to his right. Jake looked in the same direction and it seemed as if some nearby rocks were actually glowing. "Okay. What do I need to do?"

"Outside" Clark managed to say slowly. Jake was about to ask, "Can you walk, but that seemed an obvious no." Jake didn't know if he could actually just sling him over his shoulder either. He settled for a combination of the two. He grabbed one of Clark's arms and slung it around his shoulder and grabbed the back of his waistband and picked him up off of the ground picking up the vial also that had slipped from Clark's hand. He began to half carry; half walk Clark out of the old building.

He dragged Clark outside of the Foundry to a nearby tree setting him gently next to it. Jake was actually winded and had to catch his breath before saying anything. "Hey, just what are they feeding you on that farm?"

Jake noticed that Clark's color seemed to be returning as he got a small smile. "Corn."

The two of them turned as a small Volkswagon came flying up the dirt road between the two of them. Chloe shot out of the car over to where Clark was resting under the tree, squatting down next to him. "Are you okay?"

Clark gave her the biggest smile he could muster. "Yeah, thanks to Jake."

Chloe stood up and quickly hugged Jake. "Thank you, again."

Chloe then stepped aside and looked over at Diane, who had quietly stayed back at the car unsure of what to do, before looking back at Jake. "You two need to talk."

Jake walked over to the car. Diane started in before anything else could happen. "Jake I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth the first time I saw you. You looked so scared and lonely and I was just afraid if I told you the truth you would run away and I couldn't handle that. I miss my best friend."

"I'm not him."

"That's okay."

Jake opened his hand revealing the vial. "So, this will make me better?"

Diane nodded her head, unable to say anything else.

"Okay." Jake handed the vial over to Diane who took it quickly before Jake could change his mind. This has just got to work. She thought to herself before injecting the serum.

Diane waited for a moment to see what reaction if any it was going to have. At first it didn't seem to do anything and then Jake swayed slightly and fell toward the car. Diane quickly reached for his arm. "I'm here I've got you."

Jake got a blank look on his face for a moment and seemed to just stare at her. "Who are you?"

"Oh, no" Diane began to go pale when she saw that familiar mischievous smile and Jake began to laugh slightly. "I'm sorry."

"That was not funny." Diane slapped at him lightly.