Chapter 21 – The Shadow in the Basement

Lex awoke to a horrible headache and a dark room. Waiting for his eyes to focus, he felt around and knew he was locked in a safe in the mansion's basement. Just then, he noticed that the door was opening. Squinting because of the sudden light, he could see two figures standing in front of him.

"So, what do you think we should do with him?" Lex breathed harder in shock and fear as he saw the other version of himself and his father. His father – the man that could end his life and Chloe's. Chloe.

"We can't kill him – we don't know what it would do to you, son?" Lionel laid his hand on the other Lex's shoulder as they both grinned at each other in agreement. "We can leave him for the time being."

Lex tried to back up to the shelves in the closet as the two moved toward him. "You know – that Chloe is … annoying… and gone."

"What?!"

"Don't worry son, she's just out of your life – we don't have time for trivial high school students and we'll take care of her soon enough. We're actually more concerned about all the damage that you have done. Putting the Kents in charge of our financial future – what were you thinking? Besides, there are a few unfinished projects that I didn't quite get covered before you locked me up. Then we'll worry about cleaning up your mess." Lex pulled away as his father tried to touch his face, hurting the back of his head yet again by hitting the wall. "Son, it's for the best."

"Don't you touch her," Lex forced out through the ever increasing tears. Slumping against the wall, he could only whisper, "Chloe."

"Son, if you had just let things go then you wouldn't have put yourself in this position – it's amazing the amount of bad choices your heart has made – now your alter ego here, " Lionel continued as he grabbed that Lex's shoulder and smiled, "has no heart and has made no false moves since you've been out of commission."

"No one is going to believe that you are me. Chloe's probably already onto you."

"Really," the alter ego Lex walked over and grabbed Lex's chin, "that's why she cleaned out her closet and left the mansion. And I'm pretty sure that your so-called friends are going to finally believe that you are your father's son." Standing up, he smiled at Lex as he nodded and started crying. Turning to look at Lex, he responded to the tears, "And that is EXACTLY why you're in here and not running the business anymore."

Lex looked up and grimaced at the prospect of what his father had created as his father and his double laid down something for him to eat and drink. "What if I refuse and kill us both? "

"There are ways," his double responded as the door closed in front of him. He could barely hear voices as the lights went out again in the closet and in the crack under the metal door.

Chapter 22 – Not My Lex

"I told you something was going to happen – it was inevitable." Lois continued her rant of Lex to the pain of Chloe until Clark put his hand on Lois and gave her the look to shut up.

"Look," Chloe whimpered as she held her arm coming out of the emergency room. "I know Lex and I know that he is sometimes aggressive but he has NEVER yelled at me and wouldn't dare lay a hand on me. That's not him – I don't care what you say."

Clark assisted her into Lois' car and then leaned over to her, "I'm going to go check things out." He tried to reassure Chloe that he would be careful and watched as Lois pulled out of the parking space. Knocking on the window, he pleaded to Lois, "Go easy on her."

Lois and Chloe drove in silence back to the farm where Jonathon and Martha were waiting to help her out. They all sat around the kitchen table as Chloe recounted the actual events that day through her tears.

"That's not him. I love Lex, but not that version of him. That monster may be part him, but that's not what he's really like." She stood up and started up the stairs. "And I'm going to find out what happened."

"Chloe, I think you should just stay out of it – I think there's more going on than we know about." Jonathon and Martha shook their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, there is and that's my point. That's not my Lex and I want to know where mine is." Chloe continued upstairs as the three sat at the table in silence.

"LEX! We have to talk." Clark barged into the mansion's library where Lex was typing away at his computer. Walking over, he pushed the screen down on Lex's fingers and waited for an acknowledgement.

"After all this time, still no call ahead." Lex slid his fingers out from under the computer screen and rubbed them. Leaning back in his chair, he looked at Clark, "I guess that my ex-fiancee ran to you for support."

"Your ex? She didn't even know – what is up with you?"

Lex stood up and started toward the bar, "Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm fine – just very busy so if you could leave – I might get something done." Walking back with a drink in his hand, he hit the panic button on the side of the desk. Clark watched as he saw the security entered the room and took him by the arms. "Show him out."

"We're not done." Clark looked at him and turned.

"You're right. But not today." Clark shot a look of shock back at Lex as he noticed that Lex was smiling at him. Shoved out of the mansion door, he stood on the steps and waited – listened and looked for any other clues. Chloe may be right as he spotted a figure he had seen before.

"Well, what did you find out?" Chloe ran out the door to see what Clark had to say.

"Chloe, I think you're right – that's not Lex." Chloe smiled as she knew she was right. Lois and Jonathon had since walked up to see what was going on. Chloe rushed back into the house to pursue the chance her Lex was still alive and waiting for her. Seeing Lois follow her, he stopped his father. "Dad, I think we have a bigger problem. I x-rayed the mansion and there's a figure in a basement room filled with computers and other equipment that looks a lot like Lionel Luthor."

Jonathon took a deep breath, "Are you positive?"

"Pretty sure – I need another closer look around – I know you don't want me to, but no one else is going to get in there except for me – if Lex is still alive and this is really a split personality, Chloe's Lex is in that mansion somewhere." Jonathon knew he couldn't keep Clark from investigating it. He just shook his head as Clark walked back in the house.

"Just be careful."

Entering the garage, Lex smiled at his father in approval. "I see that everything is in order. Shall we be going?" Lionel followed Lex into the darkened limo and looked over at his 'new' son.

"You really think that this project will work?" Lex closed the file folder he was going through.

"Dad, with you involved – it'll work – I mean you are the genius behind it. You just brought me in to help you and I thank you for that." Lex smiled back at his father as he continued reading through the paperwork.

'Current Acquisitions for 33.1,' Lex read as he flipped pages with multiple faces and names from Chloe's files over the past three years. He halfway laughed to himself, maybe I should have kept her around – she was a great source.

Clark watched as the limo pulled away from the mansion, and he could see two bodies laughing and toasting each other, knowing that it had to be the alternate Lex and Lionel in the car. Moving around to the side of the house, he was stopped by a guard.

"I was just looking for Lex." The guard took him by the arm and started him back up the walkway.

"He threw you out earlier today – that should be a sign that you're not allowed back here." Walking him past the gates, Clark grimaced as the guard closed the gate.

"Look, have you not talked to Lex today – he's not himself – that's not the real Lex Luthor." Clark continued pleading with the guard as the guard headed back up the hill toward the house. "COME ON, HELP ME OUT HERE." Clark finally gave up when he saw the front door of the mansion close.

Clark returned to the farm and waited for Lois and Chloe to return from the plant where the explosion occurred. After begging the guards at the plant, Chloe convinced them that she had been there during the actual attack and wanted to check out what really happened.

"Chloe, look at this." Chloe took the piece of cloth from Lois's and felt it. It had a strange black residue on it. "I found it over here in the corner." Chloe stood and recounted the position that she and Lex had been standing in.

Oh God.

"Chlo, what is it?" Chloe grabbed Lois' hand and raced out to the car. Getting in the car, she heard as Chloe called her research affiliate. "Where do you want to go?" Chloe wrote on a small pad, Met U. and then the mansion.