Calling – Twenty-First Chapter
The morning of Clark and Rory's birthday
Clark came down the stairs, smiling. He entered the kitchen, where Rory and Martha were having breakfast.

"Hey! Happy birthday," Martha said, smiling.

"Good morning, Mom, Rory," Clark said happily.

"How was your birthday party?" Rory asked mischievously.

"You told Lana?" Clark asked her. "And, actually, she's your best friend. How come she never tried to celebrate your birthday with you?"

"I told her that I didn't want to have a party or anything 'cause I didn't know when my real birthday was," Rory replied.

"She knows we're not too big on birthdays," Martha explained, "but she wanted to do something special for you."

"Thanks."

"I feel bad that we never had parties when you were little," Martha said apologetically, looking at both of them. "We were just so nervous."

"It's okay Mom," said Rory, understanding.

"I know, but what kind of mother denies her children birthday parties?" Martha asked, sadness in her voice. "It's a huge part of childhood."

"Tell you what, Mom," Clark said, an idea forming in his mind. "All the mistakes you made with us, you can fix with the baby."

"You wouldn't want to scar the little one too, would you?" Rory added, smiling.

Martha laughed and said, "Thanks a lot."

Rory, having finished teasing her mother, turned her attention back to Clark. "So, Clark."

"So, Rory."

She grinned, enjoying the playful sibling banter. "How was last night?"

"Are you prying?" Clark asked light-heartedly, also grinning.

Rory pretended to pout and said, "Fine, don't tell me."

"Hi, guys. Look what the cat dragged in," Jonathan said, stepping through the door with Lex just behind him.

"Hey, Lex," Rory called to him cheerfully.

"Hi, Rory."

"Have you had breakfast?" Martha asked him in her motherly way.

"Uh, thanks, but I can't stay," Lex told her.

Rory noticed that he seemed to be a little nervous. She thought about taking a look into his thoughts, then decided against it. She liked to give her friends their privacy.

"I just wanted to ask you two a favour," Lex continued. "I know we've had our differences, so this might sound strange, but it would mean a lot to me." He took a deep breath and went on. "It's customary for the bride and groom to sit with their parents at the rehearsal dinner so... since mine won't be there, I was wondering, if the two of you would mind stepping in?"

Jonathan and Martha smiled at each other, a little surprised. Clark and Rory looked at them both expectantly, waiting for the affirmative they knew was coming.

"Lex, we would be honoured," Jonathan answered, looking at the young man. Rory smiled happily.

"Great," Lex said, his face breaking into a relieved smile. "Uh, that just leaves one open seat at the table. It's in between you two, Clark and Rory. Any suggestions?"

Clark smiled.

Kent Farm, later that day
Jonathan climbed off his tractor to continue his conversation with Dr. Helen Bryce, Lex's future wife and the only person outside of the Kent family and Pete who knew Clark and Rory's secret.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Helen," he said, jumping the last foot or so. "Did the thieves take anything important?"

Helen cut straight to the chase. "The vial of blood I took from Clark."

Jonathan was shocked. In a trying-to-remain-calm voice, he said, "Please tell me why you would even still have that."

"I thought I might need it someday in case he got sick again, or if Rory got sick I'd have something to compare results to," Helen tried to explain. "It wasn't labelled, there was no way anyone could have connected it to Clark."

"Then why would anyone want to steal it?" Jonathan asked in concern.

Helen shrugged and told him, "Looks like someone just broke open the refrigerator and took whatever was inside. The police think it may have been junkies looking for drugs." She paused, doubt and suspicion lacing her voice. "Or someone who wanted to make it look that way."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that you think I staged this?" Jonathan asked, disbelieving.

"You and I are the only ones who knew about Clark's blood," Helen said bluntly.

"Rory knew. She was there too, remember?" Jonathan reminded her. A thought occurred to him, and it was his turn to be suspicious. "You never told anyone else?"

"Of course not," Helen said, angry that he didn't trust her – forgetting, of course, that only a few seconds ago she had not trusted him.

"Not even the man you're about to marry?" Jonathan asked heatedly.

There was a pause.

"Mr. Kent, Lex is not the man you think he is," Helen finally said.

"Considering the fact that you are about to spend the rest of your life with that man and what you know about my family?" Jonathan stopped and glared at her. "You had better be right."

A little later on in the day, Dr. Walden's padded cell
Rory stared up at the symbols burnt into the ceiling. Next to her, Clark was looking up too, while Lex simply watched the twins. What he didn't know – well, know for sure – was that Rory and Clark knew instantly that they were Kryptonian symbols.

Lex looked up for a moment, then back at them. Rory looked at him, realizing that he had something important to say.

"I think it says 'the day is coming'," Lex told them. Of course, they already knew that, but the siblings were good at acting – it came from keeping such a big secret.

"You learned how to read the symbols," Clark said, making his voice sound approving.

"No," Lex said, "just an educated guess." Clark and Rory looked confused, and Lex elaborated, "That's what Walden kept saying before he escaped."

Clark looked up again. "I wonder how he wrote it," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

Lex answered anyway. "Apparently he's developed the ability to emit some kind of energy from his hands. I think it maybe has something to do with whatever happened to him in the cave that day."

Rory continued to watch Lex. Lately she had begun to realize that Lex always had ulterior motives, always had a secret reason for doing things.

"Why are you telling us all of this?" she asked. Asking straight out was the easiest way of bringing this ulterior motive to the forefront of his mind.

Sure enough...

Well, I really just want to know if you know the language, which I'm absolutely positive you do, no matter how hard you try to hide it. But if I tell you that, I'll lose the only real friends I've ever had, except Duncan, but that's different.

This thought took only a split second for Lex to think, and another microsecond for Rory to process it, before Lex said casually, "You two did find him. I was just wondering if you could shed any more light on the situation."

Rory was frowning, trying to remember if Lex had ever mentioned this 'Duncan'. She couldn't remember.

Shoving it to the back of her mind, she rejoined the conversation just as Clark said, "We've already told you everything we know."

Lex didn't acknowledge the comment, instead remarking, "These symbols. They look just like the one on your barn."

"Lex, we told you. We don't know how to read the language," Rory told him, remembering the first part of his thoughts.

"I believe you, Rory," he assured her.

"Then what are we doing here?" she pushed, half wanting him to tell her everything.

Lex shrugged a little. "I thought, based on our mutual interest in the caves, we could solve this mystery together."

"I'm sorry, Lex," Clark said. "But we're as mystified as you are."

"Exactly," agreed Rory.

Lex simply looked at them.

Kent farm, same day
"I don't get it," Jonathan said to Martha, Clark and Rory as he finished feeding the cows. "First refined kryptonite, and now the caves. What does Luthor want, anyway?"

"I don't know, but I think we have a bigger problem," Clark told him.

"Dr. Walden can read the Krypton language," Rory explained to their parents. "He wrote it on the ceiling at the hospital."

"Do you think he's figured out your secret?" Martha asked, concerned.

"I'm not sure, but there's something else going on in that cave," Rory said darkly.

"The symbols have changed," Clark clarified for his confused parents.

Jonathan and Martha exchanged worried looks.

"What does it say now?" he asked, prepared for the worst.

Clark and Rory conferred silently for a moment over who should tell them.

"It says, 'The day is coming when the last children shall begin their quest to rule the third planet,'" Clark quoted sadly.

Martha didn't know what to say. She'd had no idea that this was the destiny Jor-El wanted for his children.

Jonathan, on the other hand, remembered what the spaceship's most recent message had been.

"Clark –" he began, ready to squash their worries.

"Don't you see?" Rory asked almost desperately, fear in her eyes. "We're the last children."

The rehearsal dinner, night
Rory stood with Lana and a few of her not-very-close friends from school, not really contributing anything to their conversation as she looked around the room. Her parents were talking to Clark on the other side of the room, while Helen spoke to some women not far away.

Watching Clark again, she saw him look over at her. Glancing at Lana, she saw that Lana was watching Clark also.

When Rory looked back at her brother, however, he had looked away. She watched him for a few more seconds, then he turned his gaze back to Lana.

Rory rolled her eyes. Lovestruck fools, she thought. Why can't they just be happy with one another?

Hearing a nearby door open, she watched as Lex entered. He went straight over to Helen, and murmured something in her ear.

From where Rory was standing, she could see everything. Being as bored as she was, Rory decided to listen in as well, using her mind-reading powers.

"...have you been?" Helen asked him, smiling.

"Business crisis," Lex replied. "Don't worry, I'm all yours now. I just need a quick moment with the best man."

Rory stopped listening in and brushed Lana's arm with her hand gently. "I've gotta go talk to Clark and my parents, okay?" she murmured.

Lana nodded, and Rory walked over to her family, beating Lex by a few seconds.

"Hello, Mrs. Kent," Lex said to Martha, kissing her on the cheek. He smiled at Rory and said, "You both look lovely."

"Thank you, Lex," Rory said, smiling back at him.

"Everything is beautiful," Martha added.

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Kent," Lex said, acting a little formal.

"Hello, Lex," Jonathan said, shaking his hand.

"Hey," Lex replied, smiling at him. "Do you mind if I have a word with your children?"

"No, go right ahead," Jonathan said kindly.

Clark, Lex and Rory stepped away from Jonathan and Martha. Rory noticed that Lex looked a little worried.

"Is everything all right?" she asked him.

"Dr. Walden paid me a visit," Lex said straight out. He figured there was no point in dancing around the subject.

Rory gasped a little and Lex assured her quickly, "No one was hurt. He's on his way back to the hospital."

"Well, that's good news," Clark said quietly. He'd been subdued and quiet most of the day, refusing to talk to Rory about it. Now that she thought about it, really thought about it, he'd only become subdued after talking to Lana, and gone quiet after talking to Chloe.

"He was ranting about you." Lex brought her out of her thoughts. "Both of you."

"What'd he say?" Rory asked, although she had a very good idea of what it was.

"That the writing on the cave wall says..." Lex hesitated, obviously thinking it sounded crazy.

Or pretending he does, Rory thought suspiciously.

"...you are going to rule the world."

"We're gonna rule the world?" Rory repeated disbelievingly. She laughed, even though her stomach had sunk at the words, and continued, "He's obviously nuts."

Lex nodded and smiled, just as good an actor as she was an actress. "Of course he is. Unfortunately, my father was there."

Rory's stomach sank even further.

"He heard the whole thing."

"But he didn't believe him, did he?" Rory asked, trying to hide her fear from Lex.

"He quoted one of his favourite Elizabethan poets. 'Twixt truth and madness lies but a sliver of a stream.'" Lex looked at her steadily, not noticing her fear. "He's not gonna just let this drop. I thought I'd warn you."

"Thanks, Lex," Rory smiled at him.

He smiled back.

--TIME LAPSE--

Still the rehearsal dinner
Clark rose to his feet, tapping his glass to get everyone's attention.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Clark called. The room quieted as he began.

"I think Lex picked me to be the best man because he knew how... comfortable I was speaking in front of people."

There was polite laughter.

"I've been looking through every book from Socrates to Shakespeare, trying to find someone who could put into words the way Lex and Helen feel about each other," Clark told his audience.

"But what I realized is, there are no words for it. And when you have it you trust it, and you believe in it." He looked at Lana, and Rory saw the spark that passed between them.

"Take a chance on it. And you're willing to sacrifice anything to keep it no matter what the cost."

Clark picked up his glass.

"To Helen and Lex."

Everybody murmured his words, repeating them as glasses clinked together all over the room and Lex and Helen kissed.

Rory stood and clinked her glass with Clark's, laughing softly. Lex stood also and hugged Clark.

"That was a good speech," he told him, grinning.

"Thanks," Clark replied, smiling also.

The happiness of the moment was punctured by an all-too-familiar high pitched noise. Rory covered her ears, wincing in pain.

She vaguely heard Lex ask in concern, "Are you two all right?"

"Yeah, we just, uh, gotta get some air," she heard Clark tell him.

She turned and made her way blindly towards where she thought the lobby was.

"Rory, Rory, what's wrong?" she heard a familiar voice asking her.

The noise stopped, and Rory shook her head to clear it.

"It's the key," she heard herself say, as though she was a long way away.

"There's something wrong at home," Clark said at almost the same time.

Rory shook her head again and was herself again. "We gotta go."

She supersped away, hearing Clark just behind her. They arrived in the loft seconds later, Rory still wearing her pretty dress and Clark his suit.

"Rory," Clark said, noticing how long her dress was, "Something big is going on, and I don't know how that dress can handle it."

She glanced down and nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

Reaching down, she used her powers to make the bottom part of the dress disappear, so that instead of reaching the floor, it only came to her mid-thighs.

"Much better," she said decisively.

While she had been preoccupied with her dress, Clark had tried to find the toolbox.

"Clark?"

"Not here," he said, shaking his head. "Maybe-"

"I came looking for you."

Their heads whipped towards the voice, which of course belonged to Dr. Walden.

He held up the key. "And I found the proof. You are the ones."

"Dr. Walden, listen to me," Rory said calmly. "You need help."

"No," he replied, just as calmly – only because he was insane, not because he was trying. "You both need to die."

He shot a burst of energy out of his hand. It hit Clark in the chest and sent him flying through the wall of the barn.

Dr. Walden turned to look at Rory, his eyes dead. He raised his hand and sent a burst of energy at her.

Rory greeted it with a shield of her own blue energy. Straining to focus on her forcefield, she cried with both her mind and her voice, "Clark, help!"

Clark ran back in, taking in the scene in a second. He used his heat vision on Dr. Walden's arm, making him lose concentration.

I've got a plan, he said quickly. Come on!

They ran outside, Rory panting, and turned to see Dr. Walden following them.

Follow my lead, Clark told Rory.

"Dr. Walden," he pleaded, backing away.

Dr. Walden blasted Clark with the energy beam again, raising him high in the air.

"Dr. Walden, no!" Rory yelled.

She focused her power into a beam of energy similar to his, fear making her work fast. She used it to blast his arm, like Clark had done just before.

It worked again – Dr. Walden hit the ground, both beams of energy dissipating into the air.

Clark fell to the ground next to her. Rory pulled him to his feet, Dr. Walden getting up shakily also.

"Doctor, you're making a mistake," Clark said, his voice rough with pain.

"No, I'm not," he said, trembling. "I'm doing this for mankind."

As he raised his hand, both Rory and Clark reacted instantly, superspeeding away.

Dr. Walden tried to follow them with the energy beam. Rory had a sudden flash of inspiration and ran in front of a propane tank.

She supersped away, running faster than she ever had before as the tank exploded. The blast caught her, lifting her into the air.

Clark caught her, and she grinned happily at him.

"Thanks, Clark."

"You're welcome."

They turned to look at the explosion, but neither could see Dr. Walden.

"You know, that was pretty stupid," Clark said conversationally.

"I thought it was a pretty damn good plan, actually," Rory replied. He put her down, keeping an arm wrapped around her waist.

"You could have at least gotten me to do it," Clark said. "The explosion wouldn't have hurt me if I hadn't been able to get away fast enough. If you hadn't been able to run that fast…"

"But I could. And I got away, and I'm not hurt," Rory told him, understanding how afraid he must have been. "So, no harm done."

"Except to Dr. Walden." Clark's voice was barely a whisper, but Rory heard him.

"He was insane, Clark. The world is better off without him."

"Yeah, I guess so," Clark said, sounding unconvinced.

The fire from the explosion had died down enough for them to walk over to Dr. Walden – or what remained of him, anyway.

Dr. Walden's body was burnt so badly it was completely black and shriveled.

Rory turned her head into Clark's shoulder, unable to look at what she had done.

"Forget what I said before." Her voice was muffled. "No one deserves that."

He hugged her, unable to look away.

Even later that night, Kent kitchen
Clark stared at the octagonal key he held in his hand. Rory sat in the chair next to him, still in her dress, and Martha and Jonathan stood on the other side of the bench.

"I had to pry it from his hand," Clark said.

"It was horrible," Rory said, shuddering.

"It wasn't your fault, Rory," Martha said sympathetically. "The man tried to kill you. He was delusional."

"Even the sheriff said so, Rors," Jonathan agreed. "Walden was responsible for his own death."

"What if he was right, though?" Rory asked the question that had been bothering her ever since they had opened the spaceship. "What if we are some sort of threat to mankind?"

"I'll never believe that," Martha declared. "And neither should you."

"Then what does it mean?" Rory argued. "The day is coming when we'll begin our quest to rule?"

"We don't know, Rory," Jonathan said gently. "But when and if that day does come, your mother and I know that you will both do the right thing."

Rory looked at the key in Clark's hand.

Even even later that night (I know, it goes forever) Kent barn
Clark watched the door Lana had just disappeared through, grinning happily.

"Have fun?"

He turned to see Rory grinning also behind him.

"Please tell me you didn't see that," he said, groaning slightly.

"Nope. I just saw her leaving, and you two kissing," Rory replied lightly, still smiling.

"That's what I was talking about," he said.

"Oh. Really? I had no idea," Rory said mischievously.

Their conversation was interrupted by a man's deep voice.

"Kal-El, Kara. It is time."

They looked at each other, shocked.

"Did you-" Rory began.

Clark nodded, and they turned. Walking outside, their gaze was instantly drawn to the storm cellar. There was golden light shining through the cracks in the door.

"Kal-El, Kara, it is time," the voice repeated.

The twins walked towards the door, standing outside it side by side for a moment.

Clark reached down and opened it. They both squinted against the golden light, before walking down the stairs.

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N The apology you are no doubt looking for is in the next part of this A/N. Anyway, a quick legend:
Italics mean thoughts.
"Italics" in speech marks means thought and speech.
And Rory can use raw power inside her to manipulate molecular structure, creating the forcefield and the beam of energy, as well as changing her dress.
A link to what I think of as her dress (except in either red or purple. I couldn't decide.) Oh, and take out the spaces: www. edressme. com /n8113. html
Next chapter will be Exodus, of course.

APOLOGY:
I am so sorry for not updating in forever and ever and ever. (aka about 6 weeks.) First, I went away about three times, I lost my USB stick which has the only full copy of this story on it, so I couldn't write, people kept coming over, I got distracted, I got writer's block… the list goes on. But, I'm still sorry, and I promise the next update will come faster. Thank you!

All questions and constructive criticism is welcome.
Xx.maddy-sparx.xX