Hey guys. I hope you've all been anticipating this chapter. I kind of left you with a pretty good cliff hanger last time. I'm picking up right where I left off…so enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

The pain coursed through Clark's veins. He could not hear Chloe screaming, and when he opened his eyes he could not see what was around him. There was a loud ringing noise in his ears that pierced his mind, making it impossible to pull together a logical thought. All that he knew was the pain and the weakness. He felt as if a huge hand was on his back and it was pushing him to the floor.

He knew that he was dying.

"Professor Hamilton!" Chloe screamed. "You have to stop! You're killing him!"

She continued to look on in horror as the professor stepped into the corridor outside the mansion's study. In his hand was a meteor rock at least two feet in diameter. It was pulsing with the green glow that was characteristic of the rocks, and the pulsing grew faster as he got closer to Clark.

"That's what I have in mind, Ms. Sullivan," Hamilton said. "Young Mr. Luthor has been a thorn in my side for long enough. Imagine coming back here after he tried to kill his own father this morning."

"This isn't Lucas!" Chloe said. "This is Clark Kent! He's the one that escaped from you this morning!"

"What?" Hamilton said. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Chloe said. "I'm the one he came for."

Hamilton looked at her and stared in amazement. He obviously had not noticed her blonde hair until now. "Fascinating," he said.

"I don't have time for this," Chloe said. She rushed the professor head on and crashed into him. He fell into the door leading to the study and it opened, causing him to sprawl out across the floor. "Get rid of that thing!"

He nodded and scurried for a safe in the wall of the study. He opened it and shoved the rock inside. He closed it and came back into the corridor. Chloe was kneeling beside Clark, stroking his hair.

"Is he alive?" Hamilton asked.

"You tell me," Chloe said. "You're supposed to be the Kryptonian expert!"

"Of course," Hamilton said. "Help me get him into the cellar. I'll wire him in."

They grabbed Clark's arms and dragged him to a small elevator around the corner. The professor normally used it to take heavy machines down into his lab. Chloe looked at Clark as the tiny car slowly made its way down one story. He was still gray, but she could no longer see his veins through his skin. She held a finger under his nostrils and sighed in relief. She could just barely feel a hint of air coming from them.

"He's breathing," she said with a smile. "He's still alive."

"Thank goodness," Hamilton said.

The elevator came to a halt and they dragged him out of it. Hamilton pulled a small remote from his pocket and pressed it. Instantly, lights began to flick on throughout the cellar. Chloe looked around in astonishment. It looked exactly like a mad scientist's laboratory. There were all sorts of computers and jars full of many colored liquids. On the other side of the room she could see a device that looked a lot like the projector that had sent her here.

"Is that your projector?" Chloe asked.

"What?" the professor asked as he pulled Clark into a chair that looked a lot like one that could be found in a dentist's office. "Oh! Yes, it is. But it's only a prototype. I built that one when I first started experimenting with the meteor rocks. It's very unstable. If I were to use it, it would probably destroy itself."

Chloe looked back at Clark. He was lying motionless on the chair. She watched as the professor pulled straps across his arms and legs. Then he began to attach electrodes onto his head. He unbuttoned his shirt and put more of them on his chest. After several minutes of this, he switched on a computer and sat down to look at the data on the screen.

"Oh, dear," he said.

"What is it?" Chloe asked.

"Well, I looked at this data when Clark was here this morning," Hamilton said. "At that time I could see that the radiation from the meteor rock had corrupted his DNA. But his exposure to more rocks throughout the course of the day seems to have put a large amount of his cells in a dormant state."

"So," Chloe said. "He's completely lost his powers?"

"I'm not sure if he has the energy to get out of that chair," Hamilton said.

"He said something about a serum," she said. Hamilton looked at her in alarm.

"Serum?" he asked. "What do you know about the serum?"

"Nothing," Chloe said. "But obviously you do."

"There are only two people alive that know about the serum," Hamilton said. "Mr. Luthor and myself."

"Mr. Luthor is the one that sent him here," Chloe said. "He wants Clark to stop Lucas from causing anymore destruction."

"I see," Hamilton said. "And do you have any way of proving that, Ms. Sullivan?"

"Sure," Chloe said. "Why don't you call up Lionel at Smallville Medical? He's lying in a hospital bed after his son tried to kill him. Oh, and by the way, Clark got into a fight with Lucas just down the hall from his room. There's a chance that he could be dead. But I'm sure that he won't mind taking your call."

Hamilton sighed. "It seems that you have me between a rock and a hard place," he said. "Very well. I think that without the serum, Mr. Kent will most likely die. And the worst thing that the serum can do is kill him."

He went to a small control panel and punched in a series of characters. After a moment, Chloe heard a hissing noise. She saw ten small panels open up in the floor. Then, small compartments about the size of a telephone booth rose out of the floor where the panels had been. Inside each of these compartments was a man that looked exactly like Clark. They were all lifeless. Their bodies were limp and their eyes were closed.

"Clones," Chloe said.

"Indeed," Hamilton said. "At one time we had dreamed of an army of men that looked exactly like Lucas and embodied all of his abilities. No nation in the world would be able to compete with an army of supermen."

"And there's no price that they wouldn't pay to have one," Chloe added. "This sounds just like a Luthor plot. He's been taking Lucas' blood since he was a child?"

"Well," Hamilton said. "It only took a small amount to do create the clones. But we've had to continue collecting in order to perfect the serum." He walked around the booths that held the clones and opened up a small locker. Inside was a vial of purple colored liquid. "This is what I've spent the last twenty years trying to perfect. Even more so than the projector that my counterpart sent you here with. This is the nectar that could turn an ordinary man into a superman."

"What is it?" Chloe asked.

"It's based on the physiology of Lucas' blood," Hamilton said. "I studied the reaction that the cells have to the radiation from our sun, and I was able to duplicate it. If I inject a normal man with this liquid, it will give him the abilities that Lucas and Clark have naturally. But the effect is temporary. After two or three days that man will lose his powers and will have to be reinjected."

"But Clark isn't a normal man," Chloe said. "He's a Kryptonian."

"Normally, I wouldn't think that the serum would have any effect on him at all," Hamilton said. "However, in his present state, it could give his cells a boost and help them to begin using their pent up solar energy. I know that it will rid him of the harmful meteor radiation that's corrupted his DNA. So, it should at least save his life. Unless it kills him."

"What?" Chloe said.

"Well," Hamilton said. "I've never actually used this on a Kryptonian before."

Chloe glared at him. This bumbling idiot of a scientist had already messed things up in two worlds. He sent her here, and then his counterpart had poisoned Clark even more than he already had been. She looked at the vial in his hand. She could see that there was not going to be any other choice.

"Do it," she said.

"Yes," Hamilton said. "I'm going to. It's his only chance."

Hamilton inserted a syringe into the serum and extracted as much of it as it would hold. Then he sat down on a stool next to Clark and prepared to inject him. Chloe almost expected the needle to break on his skin, but it did not. It slipped through him just as if he were human. She knew that it was probably because he was so weak. He probably would not be invulnerable to anything in the state that he was in right now. She could see now that Kryptonite was not Clark's only weakness. It appeared that he could be drained of his abilities like a battery and then he could be killed just like anyone else.

Hamilton plunged the liquid into Clark's veins and pulled the syringe back out. He stood up and backed away from him. They waited for nearly five minutes, but nothing appeared to be happening.

"Is it working?" Chloe asked.

Hamilton looked at the display on his computer monitor. "His pulse is very fast," he said. "But his respiration has not yet changed. His blood pressure is off of the charts, but it isn't that different from the tests that I've performed on Lucas."

At that moment Clark's entire body seized. He went rigid all over and Chloe could see veins popping out in his neck and on his forehead. He opened his mouth and gritted his teeth. His eyes opened and bulged as if they were about to come out of his head.

"What's happening to him?" Chloe asked.

The numbers on the computer monitor were changing rapidly. Chloe did not know what they meant, but they were going up and down faster than she could follow.

"I don't know," Hamilton said.

Then, Clark's arms and legs exploded from the restraints and he shot straight up into the air. He hit the ceiling and then came crashing back down, cracking the concrete of the cellar floor. He appeared to go into a seizure for a few seconds and then he collapsed.

"Clark?" Chloe said. She ran to him and knelt down at his side. She turned him over so that he was lying on his back. "Clark? Are you okay?"

Clark opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Chloe? What happened?"

"How do you feel?" Chloe asked. "Are you still weak?"

Clark sat up and shook his head. He held his hands up in front of his face. Then he made a fist and punched the floor beside him. More of the concrete fractured. He smiled.

"I've got a splitting headache," he said. "But other than that, I'd say I'm fine."

"Professor Hamilton gave you the serum," Chloe said. "It looks like it worked."

Clark stood up and turned to face Hamilton. "Thank you, Professor."

"Good," Hamilton said with a smile. "Now I can begin to find a way to get you two back to your own dimension."

"No," Clark said. "I'm not ready for that yet. I've got to find Lucas. He's out of control and I think more people are going to get hurt if I don't stop him."

"But you may not be completely better, Mr. Kent," Hamilton said. "Lucas could still beat you. He's very powerful."

"I'll have to take my chances," Clark said. "I'm the only one that can fight him."

He turned toward the door that led up the stairs. Chloe moved in front of him.

"Clark," she said. "Please be careful. The Lois and Chloe of this world are already dead because I was stupid enough to tell Lucas that I knew his secret."

"None of this is your fault, Chloe," Clark said.

"I know that," Chloe replied. "But I don't think that I could live with myself if he did something to you, too."

"Chloe," Clark said. "You saved my life just now. If you hadn't been here I'd probably be dead right now. But I want you to know that nothing that happens to me will ever be your fault."

Chloe nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes with her hand. "Professor Hamilton has a prototype of the projector here in the cellar. I'm going to see if he can modify it to send us home."

"I'll come back here," Clark said. "I'll see you in a bit." As soon as he had said it, he disappeared and Chloe felt a gust of wind rush over her as he sped off at supersonic speeds.

"Ms. Sullivan," Hamilton said as he stepped forward. "I told you that the prototype is extremely unstable."

"That's why you're going to make it stable," Chloe said. "Let's get to work."

It was nine o'clock when Lucas reached the Talon. He had been all over town looking for the two alternates and had not yet seen a trace of them. He could hear the sirens in the distance as the police continued to look for him. He was pretty sure that people had seen him here or there since he had left the hospital. But of course he would always be long gone before anyone could catch up to him. Even they had to know that there was not anything that they would be able to do to him even if they found him. He smiled.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are," he said to himself. Where could they have gone? Then it came to him. He remembered what it was that the Kents were talking about when he had attacked Clark in the first place. They had said something about Hamilton having something that he needed. Hamilton was not at LuthorCorp anymore, and so there was only one other place that he could possibly be.

He shot off in a blur as he headed for the Luthor mansion.

Clark stopped in the center of the highway about a mile before he would have reached town. He could see something headed across the field beside the road. It was headed in the direction that he had just come. He called out to it.

"Lucas!" he yelled. The streak turned and headed for him. He expected it to stop, but it did not. Lucas hit him head on and sent him flying into the barbed wire fence behind him. He went through it, sending the wire snapping into the air. Two cows that had been grazing trotted away, groaning mournfully.

"I knew that you'd be out this way," Lucas said. "None of your friends came?"

Clark stood up and ran back to the highway. He shoved his fist into Lucas' stomach and then put his knee into his nose. Lucas soared high into the air and came crashing back down onto the asphalt.

"I don't need any help," he said.

Lucas stood up and wiped his nose. There was a little blood coming from it. "So, you really are my counterpart. Are you my equal?"

"Only in strength," Clark said. "But I'm way ahead of you in the other thing that we've struggled with."

Lucas leaped into the air and came down with a kick. Clark grabbed his foot and slung him back into the air. He came down thirty feet away and stumbled getting back up.

"What struggle is that?" he asked.

"The struggle of being human," Clark replied.

Lucas laughed as he casually walked back toward Clark. "Who needs to be human, Kal-El? Why be human when we could be gods? That's why Jor-El sent us here. Don't you realize that? He wanted us to rule this puny planet!"

"I decided a long time ago that Jor-El and I had different plans for my life," Clark said. "You were raised to conquer without caring. I was raised to respect the lives of others."

"That's probably a bigger weakness than meteor rocks," Lucas said. "You could really be something special."

"I plan to be something special," Clark said. "But I'm not going to step on the backs of others to get there. And I definitely won't kill anyone!"

"You're not going to stop me, Smallville," Lucas said.

"I won't kill you, Lucas," Clark replied.

"That's too bad," Lucas said. "Because, I plan to kill you."

Chloe and Professor Hamilton pulled the projector out of the corner that it had been resting in. It was very similar to the one that had sent her here. But the actual mechanism that fired the beam was a lot more crudely put together.

"What's the matter with it?" she asked.

"Well," Hamilton started as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "There was a glitch that caused the beam to become much too intense just before it fired. It destroyed the enhancer."

"What's the enhancer?" Chloe asked.

"That's the device that the beam fires into," Hamilton said. "It has a hole in it and the image from the other universe is projected inside of it."

Chloe remembered the device back at LuthorCorp. "Well, this is our best chance to get home. As long as Lionel Luthor is in the hospital, you're not going to be able to get into LuthorCorp to use the other machine unless we're able to sneak you in somehow. So, I need you to take another look at this thing and try to get it to work correctly."

Hamilton nodded. "Since we're not trying to see into another world, we should be able to do this without the enhancer. However, I will have to find the correct world to send you to. That could take some time."

"Then let's get started," Chloe said.

"I'll need a blood sample," Hamilton said. Chloe looked at him in surprise. "I have to find the world that your DNA is encoded to. For that, I need to get a sample of your DNA."

Chloe sighed and rolled up her sleeve.

Lucas punched Clark in the jaw and sent him sliding down the highway. He got up and rushed forward, knocking Lucas off of his feet. He straddled him with his knees on the ground on either side of him. He began to punch him in the face continuously. Lucas' blood was covering his fists.

"You won't win, Kent!" Lucas said. He shoved his knees upward and sent Clark into the air. When he came down he landed on his head. Lucas stood up and spit blood on the ground. He had never bled this much in his life. "You've been using your powers against wussies for too long. You don't know how to give out a good old fashioned butt kicking."

Clark sat up. Lucas was speeding toward him again. He sent a blast of heat from his eyes and Lucas fell back. His shirt was on fire. He snatched it off and threw it to the side of the road. He returned the blast, but Clark zipped out of the way just in time to miss it.

He ran around Lucas and came back at him from the other side. He stopped and grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him to the ground. Then he stood over him and punched him again. He could tell that Lucas had been punched enough that he was getting dizzy.

"Give up, Lucas," Clark said. "I don't want to hurt you."

Alexander sped toward the mansion as fast as Lana's car would carry him. He had made a stop on the way. Beside him he now carried a small box made of lead. Inside of it was the chunk of meteor rock that they kept at the high school for studying. It was kept inside the box to protect anyone from being introduced to too much of its radiation. He figured that if Lucas had been beaten once by a rock as small as the one on Lana's necklace, then one the size of his fist should be enough to help Clark beat him for good.

He just had to keep it away from Clark.

The old highway that led to the mansion was dark. There were no street lights and there were no stripes on the road. But still he drove. He had his foot almost on the floor. He knew that Lucas would be able to run faster than a jet to get there, but he could only hope that he would get there first.

That was when he saw them. Clark and Lucas were in the center of the highway having a battle of epic proportions. Lucas hit Clark with a jab that sent him flying off of the highway. Then, Clark came back with a roundhouse kick the sent the other man into the air. Alexander slammed on the brakes and watched in amazement. Clark had obviously gotten his abilities back and they were evenly matched. No one would win if they kept fighting like this. This fight could go on forever.

Clark nailed Lucas in the chin and he went soaring into the air. Alexander only had a second to realize that he was headed right for him. He grabbed the box that contained the rock and leaped from the car. A second later, Lucas landed on the hood of the vehicle and his head went through the windshield. There was a loud crash and the windows exploded as the entire front of the car was crushed under the impact.

This was his chance. Alexander ran over to him and placed the box on his chest and opened the lid. The green light filled the area with its glow. Lucas jerked and then went rigid. He groaned. Alexander stepped back.

"Alex!" Clark said as he ran up behind him. "You shouldn't be here!" He had barely said the words before he was doubled over from the effects of the rock.

"Clark!" Alexander said. "Get back!" He rushed to Clark and pulled him far enough away that he was able to regain himself.

"What are you doing?" Clark asked.

"It's a meteor rock," Alexander said. "I'm helping you."

"I promised Lionel that I wouldn't kill him," Clark said.

"Then don't kill him," Alexander replied. "I'll do it. You'd better get to the mansion and get out of here."

Clark looked at him. He could see that he was trying to help. Then he looked at Lucas, dying on the hood of Lana's car. He could leave him there and go home, knowing that Lucas would never hurt anyone again. Or he could risk his own life and save him.

"Go, Clark," Alexander said, trying to take the burden from his shoulders. "I'll handle everything here."

Clark nodded and turned back to the mansion. Alexander could not see him after he hit full speed.

End of chapter twelve

I started to keep the chapter going, but I really thought that this would make a good cliff hanger. I'll get the next chapter up in a day or two. Hope you guys are still enjoying it. I really liked writing the battle between Clark and Lucas. I hope it comes off the same as it did in my head.

A quick note. There will probably only be about three chapters left in this story. Maybe four. But I really think that this episode is coming to an end. But as you can tell from the title, I have plans for a sequel that will bring back a couple of our friends from the mirror universe.

Thanks for reading.

Kal-El2k7