I woke up in a white room.

Now if that wasn't creepy enough, there was nothing in the room. Just me and the chair I was strapped into. There was a large window on the wall adjacent from where I sat but it was opaque to me, I couldn't see anyone inside. But I had a sneaking suspicion they could all see me.

All my previous binds were gone as was the duct tape. My costume was gone too, I realized. I was dressed in a white almost hospital-wear looking thing. This meant the little beeper that I had to alert Bruce was gone, and I had no way of telling him I was in trouble.

Then I realized something more important: I was out of my costume…who the hell undressed me? It better have been a god damn woman or there would be hell to pay whenever I got out of there.

Where ever there was.

Luthor entered. Another man in a long white lab coat entered behind him, wheeling a tray along with him. He closed the door tightly behind them and the two made their way over to me.

"Good morning, Bella," Luthor said cordially.

I narrowed my eyes at him and said nothing.

"So I guess you're wondering why and where you are?" he continued as the guy in the lab coat behind him busied himself with clinking things upon his tray.

Still, I said nothing. I stared up at him and jerked absentmindedly at the straps that bound my wrists and ankles to the chair. Luthor started pacing and he folded his arms behind his back, as if he was about to address the people of the world with some important speech. Oh what I wouldn't have given to shove that electrocuting tool up his pompous ass.

"I sent people to ask you first, politely, if you would take part in my experiments. You refused, so naturally I had to take action. Bella, you're here in my secret, remote laboratory, if you will. I won't keep you long, just long enough to conduct some experiments. "

He cast a look at me. I was still silent, but my jaw had tightened. He cleared his throat and continued.

"You see, after a few years of studying you, your powers and your background, I believe that I can harness your power. It's simple science, your powers; it's just a matter of conducting experiments and testing things. Like last night, the electricity –that was a result of myresearch. A guess proven to be right.

Your powers are interesting, Bella. Obviously very useful in any situation, as I'm sure you've had figured out for years and years. For you, drugs, money, and the occasional good deed along with Superman."

He grinned and his dark eyes flashed. He knew he was picking at brittle bones. But I kept my poker face, refusing to give him the satisfaction of angering me.

"But just imagine for a moment how much your powers could do if put in the hands of someone with so much more power. The government perhaps? Just think of the control that would give America over all our enemy countries. War, money, oil, secrets, tactics –everything would be at our fingertips. Or…rather, your fingertips if you ever agreed to adding to the cause…"

"Never," I hissed quickly.

He held up a hand.

"I guessed as much. This is why you're here, most unfortunately, against your own will. I compromised that if I couldn't have you personally, I would have to find a way to harness your power and recreate it so I can use it myself."

He strode over to me and gently brushed my cheek.

"Can you see how powerful I will be if I can do that? People will pay me millions for my secret. This is revolutionary!"

"This is illegal," I snarled before jerking my head away.

Luthor shrugged gently and straightened the collar of his suit, "As a majority of things I do are."

The guy in the lab coat cleared his throat.

"Mr.Luthor, sir, I'm ready."

Luthor beamed and held out a hand, gesturing to me.

"She's all yours."

I narrowed my eyes murderously as the guy neared me and I pulled against my restraints. He looked wary as he went around behind me, but Luthor ignored my fury. He went on talking as if we were discussing politics over a cup of tea.

"First things first, Bella. We need to get rid of anything that will be a hindrance to the scientists conducting the experiments."

I eyed him carefully. I didn't like where his tone was going. What did he mean by that? And then I heard it.

Snip.

With a cry I wrenched my head forward, away from the guy in the lab coat. I pressed my face into my knees, trying to get as far away from him as I could.

"Oh be reasonable Bella, its only hair," Luthor said in a scolding voice.

I writhed around, trying to make it impossible for the guy to get the scissors anywhere near my hair again. I didn't know how much he'd just gotten off, but I was determined to not let him get anymore. My hair was…me. It was as much a part of me as my arms and my legs were.

I squirmed more, shaking my head wildly so my hair spun out from me like a skirt. Luthor came forward then and shoved my head back. His hand tightened around my throat and he held me there no matter how hard I protested against him. I gagged. The more I fought the harder it was to breathe, his hand constricted against my neck.

"Stay. Still."

And there it was again. I could feel the guy's rough hands through my hair.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

I could do nothing but swear at them both. I swore like crazy, using every word I knew about six times in one sentence and insulted the two of them like there was no tomorrow. It didn't feel as good as I thought it would, and my weary, wheezing rasps finally died away and I was met again by the snipping sounds of the scissors in my hair. My head felt lighter already, and from the corner of my eye I could see blackberry colored locks littering the white floor.

"I never knew you had such a vocabulary, Bella," Luthor chuckled, "I guess that's what the gang life does to you."

If my feet hadn't been strapped to the chair legs I would have neutered him. I didn't speak to him and just closed my eyes, swallowing with a bit of difficulty at the pressure Luthor's palm was exerting on my windpipe. I tried to think of something happy to take my mind off what was happening.

Bruce's lips were the first thing that came to my head. Pathetic, right? Kidnapped, about to be experimented on, and all I could think of was shoving my tongue down Bruce Wayne's throat. That's just great.

But I went with it. And there I was, standing at the door in the kitchen, feeling his warmth advance over my smaller body. His shadow encased me in a swirl of cologne and his lips crashed smoothly against mine –pure glass that was molded to lock together perfectly with my mouth. Our faces fit together too, skin brushing skin in just the right places, jaws perfectly aligned.

"I think we're done, Mr. Luthor."

My reverie was ripped away from me. It stung as it receded, and I remembered where I was. I looked up at Luthor who was smiling at me. His hand retreated from my throat and I took a greedy breath in, happy to no longer have a hindrance for oxygen. Luthor fished out his cell phone and held it up to my face.

"Would you like to see my assistant's brilliant work?"

A small camera clicking sound came and then his loud, horrible laughter.

I should have closed my eyes. But I had to see.

"I think it suits you," he said with a smile and then turned the phone around to show me.

My hair hung like a ragged cloth to my jaw. One side was a little longer than the other and just grazed my cheekbone, while the other side brushed the very top bone of my jaw. An overlap hung in the front of my face where ragged cuts ran serrated across the side of my head. I could feel there wasn't any length in the back, they'd cut it as far as they could at the back of my skull.

I spun my head a bit over my shoulder and saw the heap of hair across the floor, lying there like some lush river of purple wine. I think I could have made like three dogs out of that pile. So long good buddy. Tears rose in my eyes. They bit at my nose and sent sharp pains across my sinuses. I fought them back and turned to Luthor, giving him a sneer.

"Guess you don't have to worry about loosing your hair anymore, you can just use some of mine," I hissed through my clenched teeth. My jaw was so tight that it hurt to even try and loosen it.

Luthor's face hardened but he didn't hit me like I knew his fist was begging him to.

"Ha ha," he said dryly, before another guy in a lab coat –who I hadn't even noticed come in- stepped up to Luthors side and flipped open a little case.

That thing. That thing that killed Caleb and Kyle, and pretty much fried the shit out of me the other night. Then, I started thinking –was it last night? How long had I been here? Had I been out that long? What time of day was it? My head swirled for a few moments before fear kicked in and sharpened my head crystal clear. Luthor was drawing the tool from the case.

Then a sharp pain drew down my shoulder blade. I let out a cry. It was more of surprise than it was of pain. I mean it hurt, but it just scared the stuffing out of me more than anything. I tried to crane my neck to see what the hell was going on.

I felt warm liquid seep down the bare skin of my back. The hospital-like garment I was dressed in had an open back. I hadn't paid much attention to the fact before now. Another slice of pain went down the other shoulder. I grunted with the pain. What were they doing?

"We're just going to do a quick little experiment to get the ball rolling," Luthor said, gesticulating with the zapping tool. It was as morbid as if he had been doing it with a bazooka.

More blood snaked its way down the hot skin of my back. I felt something press up against the two wounds that had been cut; something I assumed would collect the blood/skin that was being sampled.

"Okay, Mr. Luthor," said the guy behind me who was doing the freakin' slicey-dicey.

Luthor stepped forward and pressed the tool to my shoulder. And before I could even scream electricity was tearing through my body. I shook with the pain; every muscle in me was caught in a fit of spasms. My back arched as it had the night before, and my rampaging muscles chafed and tugged against the hard restraints of the chair. My hands clawed against the air as if I was trying to dig myself out of a grave. I drifted during the pain, separating from my body for a few blissful seconds of half-consciousness. But the pain would drag me back in again and I would be at its mercy.

Everything in me was too tight to scream. I heard strange animalistic sounds churning in the air over the harsh electric snaps of the tool, and then realized they were churning in my own throat. I gagged on bile that was trying to come up, swallowing it back down as my throat seemed to constrict. After a minute or two I was drenched in sweat. I could feel it pouring from my skin, rolling over my collarbones, collecting in the grooves of my hips, making my legs and arms slick as I thrashed. My new hair matted and clung uncomfortably to my face as sweat wormed its way down from my temples, where I could feel harsh veins protruding.

There was a point where I felt my body couldn't take anymore. In my blind pain I remember thinking I was going to die in just a few seconds. It was a chilling feeling, feeling the limit of my body –as if I'd ventured too far in woods where I wasn't supposed to be and had almost taken a step off the cliff.

But it was over. Right before I would have taken that step and would have been pushing daisies –it stopped.

I flopped back into the seat as my muscles died out and my head lolled against my chest that was rising and falling as hyperventilation set into my lungs. I couldn't get enough air no matter how hard I tried. My eyes stung with the salt of my sweat and I let them rise, probably blood shot with the blood vessels I'd popped, to Luthor who was nodding to someone behind me.

Someone shoved my body over in the seat and my limp figure willingly crashed into my own lap. There I moved my face to the side and threw up. I was just pissed that Luthor wasn't' standing any closer. I would have loved to get his expensive shoes covered in puke.

I barely even felt the second round of slices to my back. They were miniscule, minute…insignificant, compared to the pain of the electricity. Like a fly landing on my arm compared to a great white shark biting it clean off.

While I tried to calm my stomach and breathe normally again, the scientists took another blood/skin sample. I was too gone to even fathom what they were doing. I didn't care. I really didn't care. They could do anything they wanted to me as long as I never had to deal with that tool again. I heard the clicking sounds of the briefcase snapping back closed and whimpered to no one in relief.

Luthor reached forward and raised my head by placing two fingers under my chin. His face leveled with mine.

"Round one is over," he murmured darkly, as if it were supposed to be comforting, "You can go to sleep now."

And damn, I swore I'd never take an order from Lex Luthor…but that one was just too good to pass up. Right as the words left his lips the room started to spin. The warm coils of blood rolling down my back turned into the warm shower back at the manor, and the sweat drenching my body was the soft kiss of the steam from the heat. The comfort faded until I was completely numb, and my eyes dropped closed.