AN: Enjoy and Review =)
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Lex wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he threw furious punches at a durable punching bag in the exercise room that Essex had sat up for him to recover in. The bald billionaire still couldn't believe how fast his body had went from feeling broken and battered, to feeling like he was in the best shape of his life. There were no physical signs of his prior injuries and he felt a strength and vigor of life surge through him that he had never experienced before. As he took another swing at the rocking punching bag, his eye caught the clock on the wall and he noted with a proud grin that he had been working out non stop for three hours. His current endurance was more impressive in that moment then it had ever been in his entire life, and t he best part was that the doctor planned to make him even more stronger and invincible. He just had to make sure that his body was strong enough to handle the pending transformation.
He was preparing to give the weight bench across the room a work out, when the soft of a soft buzz shrieked through the atmosphere, letting him know that someone was entering the room. Looking over his shoulder, he smirked as Sinister walked in carrying a silver tray filled with needles and sharp looking medical instruments.
"How are you feeling today, Alexander?" Nathaniel Essex asked gruffly as he began to place tabs on Lex's chest hooking him to some machine that would monitor his vitals.
"I feel amazing. In fact I was thinking about getting some fresh air and head out for a little while," he suggested cheerfully as he grabbed the crispy white t-shirt of his bed before slipping it over his sweat drenched body once the doctor's test had been complete.
"And just where do you think you are going?" he asked smirking as he inserted an needle into Lex's arm and began to withdraw blood.
"I have some personal things to take care of. It shouldn't take more then a few hours," he paused before smirking deviously, "Or maybe it will."
While exercising, Lex had managed to release some of the excess of testosterone that he had built up inside of him, but he felt he needed something more. He needed a woman.
During the rough days he had spent undergoing massive surgery and a painful healing process, there had been one thing that had kept him going. It was his constant thoughts of a beautiful woman. His lips nearly twitched into a fond smile as he thought about the raven haired angel with eyes that could melt even the most coldest of hearts. While not a lot of things manage to slip through the walls of stone that surrounded his heart, he could admit that Lana Lang had been the one of a very few that had managed to break through.
For a small moment in time he had truly believed that she may have loved him to, or had been learning to, but that all changed when he had betrayed her by manipulating her pregnancy. After Lana had learned what he had done, all the warmth and compassion that she had carried in her beautiful eyes had disappeared forever and had been replaced with a look of hate and disgust. She saw him as a monster who was far undeserving of any sort of redemption, and while he had learned to cover up the massive hole she had left in his heart when she had left him, he still carried a soft spot for her.
He wished he could see her again, if only for a moment. He wondered if Lana saw the new and powerful man he had become, would she be impressed? Even if there was the possibility that he would never lay claim to her heart again, he didn't mind settling for laying claim to her bed. He remembered how it felt to make love to her and inhaled sharply as memories began to flood over him. Her innocence that was conveyed through her angelic like smile to the world definitely wasn't mirrored in her feisty passionate love making between his fine silk sheets. It gave him perverse pleasure to know that while Clark Kent had been morally superior to him, he had been screwing the one woman that Clark had ultimately desired. The very thought caused his manhood to twitch slightly in the light grey sweat pants he was wearing.
Sinister took notice of the physical reaction that Lex Luthor was having and smirked slightly amused. It was expected and not too surprising that the billionaire was eager to scratch a particular itch due to all the pinned up energy he had, but Nathaniel knew for the sake of the mission, his scratching would have to wait. They were slightly behind schedule as it was, and if everything was going to go off without a hitch tomorrow night, Lex needed to leave behind all distractions, and focus on the task at hand.
"Your carnal urges are going to have to wait until tomorrow night, Lex. If you want to be at your maximum potential, there are some sacrifices that are required of you," Sinister reminded.
Lex gritted his teeth in deep frustration. He felt as if he was going to explode at any given minute, but he begrudgingly realized that the doctor had a point. His physical urges could wait until after their plan was carried out.
"Well at least humor me with what you have planned. I couldn't help but notice that you have been quite secretive for the past few days. What's going to be our next our next course of action?" he asked curiously.
"As you may already know, there is a major charity function that is taking place tomorrow night at Bell Reeve. Given the nature of what the institution holds there, I plan on taking my fair share of the fittest and the most powerful of the patients inside the meteor infected institute. Once I manage to get their individual DNA, I will enlist the more powerful ones to serve in my army, and those that are weak and who tries to refuse will be discarded ," Sinister informed darkly.
Lex frowned confused.
"Why go through all that trouble? I mean I have plenty of meteor infected subjects in my lab. Why don't you just use them?" he asked.
Sinister inhaled sharply. Obviously Lex had no idea of what had taken place earlier that afternoon. Usually Lex would find some time during the day to watch the news on the small T.V lab, but ever since the Kryptonite had accelerate his healing process, Luthor had taken refuge in the exercise room, obsessively training hard to make his body physically superior to Clark Kent's.
Nathaniel sighed heavily.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is something that you need to know," he started slowly.
Lex could tell by the expression on Sinister's face that he was about to hear some bad news.
"What is it? What happened?" he asked curtly.
All three of your warehouses were completely destroyed," he said reluctantly.
Lex narrowed his eyes evenly.
"What do you mean destroyed?" he asked slowly.
"Apparently, someone took the liberty of blowing up all of your warehouses. According to the investigation, the only thing that managed to get out before the explosions were the meteor infected test subject. The Director of Bell Reeve has confirmed that his institution had taken them all in as patients," he informed.
Nathaniel Essex expected this piece of news to enraged the billionaire, but he was surprised when Lex simply smirked appearing completely unfazed.
"This does not upset you that all you research and experiments are gone?" he asked surprised.
Lex shrugged casually.
"No, why should it?" he asked innocently.
When he saw the baffled look on Essex's face, Lex sighed exasperated before explaining his reasoning.
"Doctor, I don't compliment people very often, but let me just say that my ability to stand here in feeling stronger then I have felt in my life is a testimony to your genius work. Those warehouses mean little to me now as I stand on the brink of being a very powerful and invincible man. You are far beyond being advance in your research. The only thing you need is the meteor infected and I'm trusting that you already factored that into your plan for tomorrow night. I know that Clark was behind the demise of my warehouses and while he costed me a few millions of dollars, he did do me a favor by saving me the manpower and the time of having to do it myself," he said casually.
Nathaniel opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, the other man had turned his focus towards the weight machine. Watching Lex head back into his exercise routine, Nathaniel sighed heavily. Staring down at the invitation to the charity event at Bell Reeve in his hand, he knew that tomorrow night his plan had to be flawless if he was going to achieve what he sat out to achieve. He needed access to the most powerful meteor infected in order for his ultimate genetic project to be complete. Realizing that there was a lot more work to be done, he shot one last glance at Lex before heading back to his lab to finish preparation for tomorrow evening.
It was late into the evening when Chloe and Ororo finally made their way back to the Kent's residence. As Chloe shut off the engine to the car, Ororo couldn't help but sigh . She was exhausted from the activities of the day, but she knew that she couldn't rest until she came up with another plan on how to go about finding the whereabouts of Lex Luthor. The more time that she spend pondering over how much time had past since Lex had gone missing, the more worried she became. The weather witch knew that by now they should have picked up some trace of whether or not he was alive, but lately all they had been able to do was repeatedly come up empty handed.
As she climbed out of the vehicle with Chloe, she began to think that maybe Clark asking her to come back to Kansas was a mistake. So far she hadn't done a thing to get them any closer to learning what had become of the dangerous billionaire then when she had first arrived in Smallville. There wasn't anything that she wanted more then to keep Clark safe, but she was beginning to doubt her ability to do such a thing. As she slowly became lost in her thoughts, she didn't noticed the blonde observing her concerned. Ever since Chloe had revealed the fate of the warehouses to Ororo, she the white haired woman had been more withdrawn and quiet then usual. Chloe wasn't a mind reader, but her grim expression said it all and the fact that the Ororo was currently blaming herself for her mission failing made Chloe squirm with guilt. The entire ride back to Smallville, Chloe had been internally agonizing over her decision to the fact that she knew Lex was alive a secret from the others. While she knew that she was only doing what she had to do to protect Clark, that excuse did little to nothing to ease her conscience.
As the two women made their way towards the house, Chloe tried attempting an conversation with the other woman in order to silence her overwhelming guilt.
"You've been pretty quiet on the entire ride back from Metropolis. Is everything ok?" Chloe asked gently.
Ororo tried forcing a smile but failed miserably.
"I just cannot help but think that I could be doing more to find Lex. If he slips through my fingers and we lose all traces of him, there will not be anything any of us can do to protect Clark. I know he asked me to help him, but I feel…I feel as if I am failing him," she said quietly.
"If it wasn't for you and your team, we wouldn't have uncovered as much information as we have," Chloe tried weakly.
Ororo smiled faintly, but her expression showed that she was entirely convinced with the former reporter's statement.
"Yes, I know, but I cannot help but feel that we should have learned something critical by this point. I feel that there is something missing that I am not seeing," she said softly as frustration began to slowly creep into her voice.
Chloe shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling a great sense of discomfort as she noticed the despair and disappointment etched in the beautiful black woman's face. She wanted nothing more then to be honest with Ororo, but she was afraid. She knew once she revealed what she had done, there would be a lot of people who would be angry and betrayed and she knew that while she had hid what she had known to protect Clark, the others wouldn't see it that way. She swallowed deeply wondering how she managed to get herself tangled in such a mess.
Stopping outside of the door, Chloe inhaled sharply before turning towards the weather witch. She couldn't keep this up anymore. In the beginning she thought she could do everything in her power to find Lex, but seeing Ororo's strong reaction the warehouses being destroyed caused her to second guess herself. She knew that while her intentions had been good, she had bitten off more then she could chew and while she had been dreading this moment, she knew that it was time to come clean and confess to both Ororo and Clark what she had done.
"Ororo, there is something that I need to tell you," the blonde started quietly, but she was interrupted when the two women heard angry voices arguing coming from inside.
Before she could finish her sentence, Clark came walking out of kitchen door with his eyes and face darkened with anger. All the blood drained from her face as she stared at her best friend who was starring at her with a look that she had never seen in his eyes. He was filled with rage. Pure rage. She realized that he had finally learned what she had done. A part of her was relieved that the secret was out and she no longer had to lie anymore, but the other apart was scared and worried what her deception may have done to their close friendship. She opened her mouth to speak, but instantly stopped when Clark's piercing glare fell on her.
"How could you do it, Chloe?" he asked quietly.
Clark was visibly shaking with anger as he glared coldly at Chloe. There was an intense look of fury etched deep in his cold chilling expression that caused Ororo to take a step back feeling slightly frightened.
"Clark wait," Chloe pleaded desperately, but before she could say anything further, she blinked and he had disappeared.
Ororo watched the exchanged between Clark and Chloe with a baffled expression on her face. She was suddenly getting a feeling that something horrible had taken place and before she had the chance to get an explanation from Chloe, Oliver stormed out of the farm house. Spotting the two women, he quickly approached them with a somber look on his handsome face.
"They know, Chloe. They found out that we lied about everything."
"I-I don't understand," she tried but Oliver cut her off impatiently.
"It's over, Chloe. Kitty found out what you were up to and when she confronted everyone about this, I decided to come clean, and I did my best to do damage control. When Clark found out that we knew about Lex being alive this whole time, he was a bit upset," he said stiffly.
Chloe felt the blood drain from her face as she shifted uncomfortably under the weather witch's chilling glare.
"I wanted to tell you," she cried desperately.
"Is this true?" Ororo asked stunned.
"Ororo, if you give me one minute, I can explain everything. I swear," she tried, as her bottom lip trembled dangerously.
"What is there to explain, Chloe? Not only did you lie, you went behind not only my back, but Clark's back and kept something from us that you had no right keeping," the weather witch snapped irate.
Chloe felt tears wet the corner of her eyes as she immediately felt ashamed.
Ororo shook her head feeling betrayal, anger, and the strongest emotion...hurt. She couldn't believe that three of the people she felt that she could completely trust, would do something like this. Not only had they lied to her face and risked the mission, they had jeopardized Clark's safety by working against her.
Chloe shook her head while blinking back tears of regret.
"It wasn't like that, Ororo. All I ever wanted to do was protect Clark, and I'm sorry that Oliver and Anna had to be dragged into this. It was never their idea, nor their motive to deceive you," Chloe said quietly.
"Anna knew that Lex was alive?" Ororo asked shocked.
Chloe nodded tearfully.
"She wanted to tell you, but I convinced her that keeping it from you was the only was the only . She hated the fact that she had to deceive you," Chloe tried defending Anna's behavior, but Ororo wasn't listening. She was angry. Very angry.
Ororo had been stunned to find out that Chloe and Oliver had kept this a secret, but to know that Anna had been involved was completely shocking. This was the last straw. She finally had enough of Anna's antics and it was time to deal with the other woman once and for all.
As the tension in the atmosphere continued to escalated, Oliver swallowed deeply, silently wishing he was anywhere else in the world then being in that moment. He knew that despite Chloe being the main reason they were in the mess they were in in the first place, he owed it to her to continue stand behind her and defend her.
"Anna can explain her part to you w hen she is ready. What Chloe did may have been deceitful, but she did it for all the right reasons. She didn't want to dirty your hands or Clarks," he explained patiently.
"That is not an excuse .Excuse me," Ororo said evenly as she brushed past Chloe and Clark and headed into the living room where Kitty, Logan, Remy, Anna and Oliver were dwelling in.
"Give me the room," she ordered stiffly as she locked her steely gaze on the brunette who was doing everything possible to avoid making eye contact with her.
Kitty quickly scrambled from the room with nervous and uncomfortable expressions on her face, but Logan and Remy remained.
"Listen, Stormy, Remy knows y' angry, but perhaps you should take a moment to calm down," he started.
Ororo glared at her fiancé in disbelief. She couldn't believe that he was foolish enough to stand between her and Anna. Despite her anger, she clenched her teeth tightly together and forced herself to remain calm.
"Stay out of this Remy. This is between me and a soon to be ex member of this team," she warned dangerously.
"Ororo, please," Anna tried desperately.
"Be quiet," she thundered causing the other woman to stop mid sentence, "I will let you know when I am ready to deal with you."
"Ah think Ah at least deserve the chance to explain myself," Anna started.
Ororo scoffed rudely.
"Whatever you have to say does not matter, Anna. We both know that I have always had mixed feelings about you, but against my better judgment I put my feelings aside so that we could work together and perhaps become friends. Obviously, I was wrong," she said evenly.
Anna turned to walk out the room, but Ororo's next statement stopped her.
"I cannot believe that I trusted you for one second. How could you be such a manipulative and deceitful person?" Ororo hissed betrayed.
Anna blinked back hot tears of anger. Even though Anna knew that Ororo had every right to be angry with her, Anna didn't think it was fair that she was getting the majority of the blame. Especially when she wasn't the only one on the team that had betrayed the leader of the Xmen.
"Maybe you wouldn't lie to those closest t' y' but if we are bein' real honest here, Ah ain't the only person in this room that has been lying to you," she cried emotionally.
Ororo narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"What is that suppose to me?" she challenged the other woman with a dangerous look in her eye.
When she didn't answer, Ororo moved closer to her with a dangerous look in her blue eyes.
"Don't be coy, Anna. Tell me, who else have you turned against me on my team?" she demanded angrily.
Suddenly something inside of Anna snapped.
"First of all, it ain't exactly your team anymore, sugah'," Anna said stiffly.
"Excuse me?" Ororo asked in disbelief.
Logan quickly decided to intervene. He knew that Ororo was a woman who prided herself on self control, but at that moment she looked as if she wanted to bitch slap Anna, and even though he knew that the southern belle deserved nothing less, he couldn't let Ororo act on an impulse that she would come to regret later.
"Emma heard about what happened with the warehouses and after she learned that ...she thought the team needed new leadership. She gave your command to Lebeau," Logan informed gently.
Ororo's eyes clouded with anger.
"What about Anna? Emma is allowing her to stay despite the fact that her, Chloe and Oliver were the ones responsible for our mission failing in the first place?" she demanded in disbelief.
Logan nodded reluctantly.
"I will be the first to say that this situation is more then a little fucked up, and I don't agree with it. Kitty and I both are still willing to follow your lead. As far as I'm concerned, you are still the leader of this team and if Emma has anything to say about it, I'll handle her," he promised firmly.
Logan's loyalty made Ororo feel somewhat better, but not a whole lot. Trusting Logan and Kitty was something that was like second nature to her. She knew them both intimately and well enough to know that the last thing either one of them would do was betray her. Despite feeling comforted by this fact, she still couldn't push past the pain of feeling betrayed by Anna.
"Maybe Emma's right. Maybe I do not deserve to lead this team," she said quietly.
"Don't say that," Logan growled.
"If my own team mate can trust me enough to make an paramount decision, what business do I have leading anyone?" she asked grimly.
Before he could answer, she turned away from him sadly and faced Remy and Anna.
"Was all of this some orchestrated plan to get back at me for being with Remy? Are you really that petty?" Ororo asked softly.
Anna blanched taken back. She knew that she had messed up big time, but Ororo was taking things too far. She would have never dreamed that Ororo would take this so personal, and frankly she was offended and upset. After everything that happened, Anna tried to explain that she had lied to protect Clark, but it was almost as if Ororo rather attack her character, then see her point of view. While the brunette knew that she didn't have a leg to stand on to defend herself to Ororo, she wasn't prepared to sit by idly while Ororo made all sorts of vicious accusations.
"To be honest, it wasn't like that at all Ororo. Do us both a favor and don't stand there pretend that you were ever my friend," she said curtly.
Ororo clenched her teeth trying to control the fury that was growing within her.
"You have some nerve, Anna. I have done everything in my power to be friendly towards you despite the fact that I always knew that you still harbored some feelings towards Remy," she snapped.
"If you were any kind of friend, you would have never had taken him from me in the first place," Anna exploded emotionally.
Ororo smiled bitterly.
"So finally, the truth comes out. This was what it was all about, "she spat viciously, "For the record, I did not take him away because he never belonged to you. You made that perfectly clear when you had left him to die in Antarctica."
Ororo's statement caused a stunned silence to fall over the room. Even Remy and Logan were shocked that something so harsh and vindictive had come out of the weather witch's mouth.
"How dare you?" Anna whispered thickly.
Ororo knew that what she had said had been nothing short of spiteful and cruel, and despite feeling a twinge of guilt, she was far too angry to apologize at that moment.
"I did not take him from you. He walked away on his own free will. You need to get over him leaving you. It w," she said scathingly before turning to walk away before she lost her temper.
"Yeah, and Remy almost walked out on you," Anna blurted out causing her to pause in her retreat.
The moment the words had escaped her lips, Ororo made eye contact and what she saw in her fiancé's eyes made her heart plummet to the pit of her stomach.
"Anna, stop. Dis ain't de time femme'," Remy warned hoarsely, but it was too late. The cat had been released from the bag.
"Is this true?" Ororo asked starring at Remy steadily, "You were willing to walk away from us despite everything that I had given up for us?"
"It was dat night we had dat horrible fight. During de nights I was gone, I was considering something that should have never crossed my mind," he started softly.
His admission made Ororo's heart skip a beat. She had a feeling that she was about to hear something devastating and despite her gut instincts, her face remained stoic as she continued to listen. Swallowing deeply, she forced herself to remain calm as she stared him straight in the eyes, searching for an answer.
"What is it you are you saying, Remy?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"If it wasn't for me, Remy would have disappeared out of your life and he would have never looked back," Anna finished softly for him.
Remy sighed heavily.
"I had a fleeting moment of doubt, but dat was back then. Remy loves y' mo' then anythin, and he wouldn't dream of goin' nowhere," he tried.
Ororo felt as if she was trapped in some horrible nightmare, and while she wished she was, she knew that the hellish situation was very much her current reality. Not only had three people she had thought she could trust betrayed her, she was stripped of her team and what was worse was that she had found out her relationship with Remy hadn't been as secure as she had once believed it to be. Shaking her head, she suddenly understood what had driven Clark to disappear from the house. She was suddenly feeling as if the room was closing in around her and she knew she had to get away so she could breathe properly and gather her thoughts. She was turning to walk out the house when she felt someone grab her hand.
Looking up, she felt her heart hardened as she stared into the desperate eyes of her lover. She could tell that he was preparing to deliver some profound well though out apology, but the truth of the matter was that she wasn't in the mind frame to listen to whatever it was he had to tell her. Snatching her hand out of his gentle grip, she glowered at him seething.
"Do not touch me," she warned dangerously.
"Stormy, please. Remy was a fool and he is very sorry. It was a stupid mistake that I made a long time ago. We can move past dis," he pleaded quietly.
She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
"There is not any way of moving pass this, Remy. I was just wasting my time with someone who never really loved me when I could have been with someone who would have. The only fool here is me. Obviously I have been a little too trusting," she said quietly before removing her engagement ring and placing it in the palm of his hand.
Ororo turned around and and came face to face with Logan and he wasn't surprised to find her beautiful aquatic blue eyes filled with tears and anguish. While he knew that Ororo was the mistress at controlling her emotions, he could see that the events of the evening had hurt her deeply to the core. The look of betrayal was etched so deeply into her face, that Logan felt his heart twist in his chest. He hated seeing her in any pain, and while he wanted to do everything he could to make things right, he knew that the only people who could do t hat were the objects of her disdain, and the other had left.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked his voice filled with concern.
"I am sorry, Logan. I just need to be alone right now. Excuse me, " she mumbled before flinging open the kitchen door and disappearing into the night leaving Clark and the feral man starring after worried.