The New Circle Chapter 21: Family, a Smallville + Secret Circle Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Secret Circle

SPOILERS for Secret Circle Series Finale.

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It was gone.

As her lips moved against his, Chloe could feel the spell evaporating into nothingness, finally pulling her lips from his, the sound of their parting shocking in the silence as she stared down at his handsome face. Already the burning was disappearing, his skin returning to its healthy sheen, his eyes still glazed over and yet color slowly returning to them as well.

Confusion filled Chloe as she stared down at him, easing him off of her lap and back down on the ground, managing to escape his hold when he reached out for her.

"Who are you?" he asked, sitting up, narrowing his eyes on her, obviously trying to focus on her and yet unable to, the blindness still strong. "It's you, isn't it?"

Unnerve fueled her confusion as she backed away and quickly pushed out of the room, finding the others around her in various stages of recuperation.

"What the hell happened?" Principal Kwan didn't seem to see her as he and a teacher hurried back towards the lounge.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's stopped!" the teacher declared as they pushed into the teachers' lounge, having come back for the guy.

Bringing her hands to her mouth, Chloe slipped through the throng of students, all confused and dazed, whispering in confusion about what could have happened. People were getting phone calls from their family. Apparently this wasn't an isolated incident. People all over town had been affected by whatever this was and that made Chloe sick to her stomach because that meant that whoever had cast this was powerful and she had a feeling that she knew who it'd been. But why would John do this? It didn't make any sense. She refused to believe he was behind any of it. No. She needed to talk to him as soon as possible.

Pushing through the throng, Chloe finally made it to the infirmary, managing to stick her head inside in time to see her Circle coming towards her, completely subdued, pale and obviously shocked by what had happened to them. Relief filled her as Chloe pushed passed some students leaving and stopped once she reached them, eyes wide as she eyed them. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah." Lana nodded, voice croaking as she watched Tina storm out before returning her attention to her friends. "But what was that?"

"It felt like I was burning from the inside out," Whitney wheezed, rubbing his chest.

"Talk about heartburn," Greg agreed, wincing.

"What was that?" Clark wanted to know, leaning against the door. "And why weren't you and Pete affected?"

"I think it was a spell... but it didn't seem to target a specific group." Chloe hugged herself. "Maybe some witch tried a power too strong for him or her and it got out of control?"

"That's terrifying," Pete whispered. "Who here could have power like that?"

"I'm fine," a familiar voice declared behind her and it was all she could do to not turn around and watch as the man she'd kissed walked past her, flanked on either side by Principle Kwan and Mr. Watson, heading towards the bed Lex Luthor was seated on the edge of, a hand on his head.

"Well, they've been properly introduced to everything Smallville, huh?" Greg smart mouthed. "They'll be out of this town by this evening."

"No," Lex responded to whatever Principal Kwan said, standing. "Jason and I will continue the tour of the school."

"We'll be sending the kids home for the rest of the day until we can figure out exactly what happened here," Principal Kwan declared.

"I'll be too busy to come here again," Lex stated in a near threat.

Principal Kwan cleared his throat, looking around before his eyes rested on Chloe. "Miss Sullivan!" She straightened immediately, eyes widening. "Why don't you show Mr. Luthor and Mr. Teague around while we evacuate the school?"

It would peeve her that he was having her give a tour while everyone else evacuated if it wasn't for the fact that this was exactly what she wanted – a way to get Lex Luthor to herself and get an interview out of him.

"Okay." Chloe nodded, noticing the way Lex eyed Lana, specifically her long, dark brown hair. "I'm Chloe Sullivan," she introduced herself, a little annoyed when he only gave her a little look before returning his attention to Lana.

"Jason Teague." The other guy, the one she'd kissed, was eyeing her oddly, gaze going between her and Lana before returning to her as he held his hand out.

Reaching out, Chloe hesitated before placing her hand in his and shaking it, feeling a jolt spark between them (thankfully not visibly), pulling her hand away with a little gasp.

Jason's green gaze narrowed slightly at her in fascination.

Lex's hand reached out between them, breaking the connection. "Pardon my manners, I am Lex Luthor."

Chloe stared at the hand before reaching out carefully and putting hers in his, a little relieved when there wasn't any sort of reaction, giving him a little smile as she shook it. "Nice to meet you Mr. Luthor, my father works for yours. He's the manager of the Luthorcorp Facility."

Lex's eyes widened marginally, his attention now fixed on her. "Gabe. Yes. I met him this morning. He seems quite pleasant and thoroughly competent."

She was sure that was a compliment.

"Do you want us to stay with you, Chlo?" Clark asked, eyeing Lex and Jason very uneasily.

"Yeah, it won't be a problem for us." Pete frowned, joining Lana's side and placing an arm around her shoulders, narrowing his dark gaze on Lex.

"Don't be ridiculous." Whitney rolled his eyes as he shrugged on his Crows Jersey, reaching out his hand to Lex. "Whitney Fordman, I'll be the one showing you to the football field and the locker rooms." He shook both Lex and Jason's hands before turning to the others. "See you later."

Greg snorted in amusement before motioning his goodbye and leaving wordlessly.

Clark and Pete looked less sure about this, but with one last goodbye, walked Lana out, seeming better knowing that Chloe wouldn't be left alone with these strangers.

"So." Chloe turned to the men, giving them a little smile as they began to walk. "Follow after me, gentlemen, and try to ignore the fact that people are piling out of here quicker than passengers of the Titanic."

Whitney rolled his eyes, dropping behind them, almost as if he wanted to keep an eye on Lex and Jason.

"On your right you'll see Mr. Marsh's Chemistry lab, which was completely refurnished after the freak accident of '09, in which one Mr. Bradley Cooper – and no, he looks nothing like the actor – added some chemicals wrong and left the whole class not only purple, but they also lost all their body hair and Melissa Smith spent a whole week convinced that gnomes were following her everywhere trying to feed her rubies and emeralds but never diamonds because she wasn't worth diamonds."

Lex and Jason peered into the now immaculate room, amusement in their eyes.

"To your left you'll see the janitor's closet, where many a hormone-filled hookup has been caught by the janitor himself... Though why a small, crowded, damp and dirty smelling place like that would illicit smooches is beyond me." She turned up her nose, shaking her head and shivered at the thought of being trapped in that closet, the thought terrifying. "Talking about illicit smooches, in this room over here Mr. Hunt and Mrs. Roper were caught by yours truly in flagrante delicto. It was quite a shock because, up until that moment, I thought Mr. Hunt was having a thing with Mr. Marsh from Chemistry… which I found out later he was…but that's a different story and a different classroom." She doubted that Principal Kwan had this in mind when he'd told her to finish the tour, but the man had put his funding over her safety and so she truly didn't care. "In this classroom over here, if you take in a deep breath, you can still catch a whiff of the dung bomb that Mitch Matheson set off to let Mr. Gregory know exactly what he thought of that F in Biology."

There was the sound of a choked snort of laughter.

Egged on, Chloe motioned to the next door, pushing it open as her tell-all tour continued. "In this room, groundbreaking history was truly made in Smallville High." She nodded solemnly, clasping her hands in front of her, seeing the amusement on Whitney's face. The Quarterback obviously knew what she was talking about. "In here, my refined gentlemen, the first ever Smallville High porn video was shot."

Lex nearly tripped.

Jason's eyes widened. "No way."

"Yes way. All the way… if you get what I mean." She gave a deliberately ridiculous wink. "It's all on spankwire, just google "Jerry and Colby: The Detention". Made them overnight internet stars."

"Don't bother trying to find it, it got banned." Whitney echoed from the back of the group. "People found out they were underaged during the time of the filming and had the site take it down."

"That's a pity. They had such passion for their art," Chloe replied with as straight a face as she could, shaking her head as she led the men out of what was dubbed The Porn Room… and was the only room in the whole school that the teachers were banned from using during detention. "Over here, in this bright and cheery corner, Kyle Frank's pig gave birth."

Whitney snorted, seeing Lex and Jason's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "I think I have a picture of that on my phone."

"And now over here, gentlemen, you've stumbled into the heart and soul of this otherwise godless institution." She opened the door to the Torch and motioned the men inside, following in after Whitney. "Welcome to the Torch." The blonde sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "It might look very underwhelming at this moment, but that's thanks to some crack addict who thought it funny to come in here and trash the place when he couldn't find any money."

Or, well, that was the story they were going with.

Jason went to the taped up remains of the window.

Lex gazed around room before zeroing on the Wall of Weird, walking towards it with his hands in his pockets as he began to read the articles of the weird happenings that went on around Smallville. "Jason, come look at this."

Jason turned from the window and joined Lex at his side, eyeing the articles before sending Chloe a little look over his shoulder. "A hobby of yours?"

She cleared her throat, sharing a look with Whitney. "You could call the unexplained something like a fascination of mine."

"Fascination," Jason echoed, eyes on the articles once more.

Lex eyed an article in particular. "There was a freak meteor shower?"

"Ah yes, years back." Chloe nodded, coming closer and standing between the men, eyeing the article with the picture of a young, crying Lana Lang. "Most of the meteor ended up buried underground in the now defunct Heller Mine, but many of the pieces that'd broken off before impact destroyed a lot of Smallville. Killed many people as well." She eyed the picture of a crying Lana, the girl having lost both her parents in one day, right before her eyes. "The old people say that it was an omen of the dark things that were happening in Smallville at the time and that the reason why no one was warned about the meteor was because it didn't actually come from space."

"Is that so?" Lex turned his blue gaze on her curiously. "If it didn't come from space, where exactly did they think it came from?"

She shrugged. "There are many different conflicting versions to that story." The blonde moved from between them to sit on her seat. "All I know is that up to today NASA can't explain where that meteor came from or how they couldn't see it coming from miles away, nor do they have any record of it smashing through our atmosphere."

The men were silent, sharing looks.

"Gentlemen!" Whitney suddenly pushed away from the door. "Enough of Nerddom." He motioned to the door. "I'll show you where the warriors of the school..."

"...walk around in jock straps and high five each other every couple of seconds before giving each other manly slaps on the bum." Chloe rolled her eyes.

Whitney made a face at her. "Have you been peeking in on us?"

She grinned brightly at him. "You've caught me."

"I'd like to talk to you more about this-" Lex turned to Chloe, motioning to the articles.

"The Wall of Weird?" Chloe asked curiously.

"Yes." He nodded. "We will have to schedule an appointment to just sit down and talk."

Chloe's eyes widened. "Sure." This would be a good way to weasel an interview out of the guy! "Let me write down my number and you can call me whenever to set it up." Going to the desk, she wrote down her number on a post-it before holding it out to Lex, who reached for it and gazed down at the number.

"Thank you. Expect a call from me within the week." Placing the note in his pocket, Lex turned to Whitney. "Lead the way. Jason's probably dying to see the football field."

Whitney turned towards the other guy. "Do you play?"

"He was our school's star Quarterback. The coach cried when he graduated." Lex grinned, obviously teasing his friend. "What was it that they used to call you?"

"I don't remember," Jason replied serenely. "And if you do, I'll remember what you used to be called."

"We truly are old men, getting Alzheimers." Lex chuckled wryly as he turned to Whitney. "Please, lead the way."

Whitney nodded, motioning for them all to follow, his blue gaze meeting Chloe's and motioning for her to join.

She blinked and nodded, pushing off from the desk and hurrying after them, this time the one in the back as Whitney led them through the school talking about the Crows and their winning streak. Chloe took this opportunity to look at them from behind. They were both incredibly good looking men and she couldn't help but wonder exactly what the real reason they were here at the high school was.

Sure, Luthor might be trying to buy out the town more than it already was (the fertilizer employed around half the population of Smallville), but there was something else going on here. Any other normal person who had just experienced what these two had would have been shaken, to say the least. They were completely new to Smallville and its oddities and on their first day they'd been subjected to something incredibly weird and frightening for even Smallville standards... and they weren't even acting shaken. The two men had shaken it off ridiculously easily, Jason now talking to Whitney about the team's statistics and other things she just didn't follow.

Lex was silent, but it wasn't because he was bored. Chloe could recognize a fellow intellectual; could sense a familiar sharpness of mind, and knew that Lex was taking everything in like a sponge; the walls, the floors, the pictures, them. He'd slowed his pace just enough for him to be able to catch her out of the corner of his eyes (which wouldn't have been noticeable if she hadn't been watching for it), and he seemed to be sizing up Whitney as well.

Taking all of this into consideration, and also the way he had acted with the others, Chloe wondered exactly what Lex Luthor was really doing there. He'd seemed fascinated with Lana's hair for some reason, gazing at her eyes as if they held some mystery he needed to solve, and the glance he'd given the others proved that they interested him as well.

"Here we go." Whitney opened the door for the men and let them in, yelling inside. "Coach! Mr. Luthor is here!" He gripped Chloe's arm when she would have followed inside, letting the door swing closed between them as Coach could be heard greeting Lex and Jason. Whitney ushered Chloe away from the door, moving in the opposite direction, voice low. "Those two should have been running for the hills after what happened. I nearly am."

She nodded, keeping up with him.

"They make me uneasy," Whitney admitted as he gazed over his shoulder, obviously hating to do so when it meant showing some vulnerability. "The only reason I don't think they were behind whatever happened is because they were affected as well... but that could be the whole point."

"It wasn't them." Chloe shook her head, sure of it. "It was someone else. When I kissed him-"

"Wait, what?" Whitney turned to her, eyes narrowed. "Who did you kiss?"

Chloe stared up at him, worrying her bottom lip, belatedly realizing that Pete was the only one who knew about her kissing thing. "I might have forgotten to tell you something important."

Whitney narrowed his blues as his grip tightened on her arm. "Do you know those guys?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, and I don't want to talk about this here." She turned to fully face him. "Come home with me. Dad'll call to make sure I'm okay, he might even come in to check make sure I'm alright, but he has things he has to do, especially with his new boss here in Smallville." Her greens stared up at his blues. "Come home with me."

Whitney eyed her before sighing and nodding, loosening his grip on her arm until it fell limp at his side. "Okay. After you finish spilling your guts we can continue our search."

"I didn't think you'd come," Grant declared, smiling at her as she arrived with her bags.

"Neither did I," Diana whispered, pulling closer.

He stared deep into her eyes. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course I am. Are you sure about this?" she challenged back.

Grant smiled before grabbing her bags. "Let's go, the car's outside."

Diana followed, not even wanting to think about all that she was leaving behind. She just had to go, had to leave; couldn't stay in this place, not after everything that'd happened to her.

If she stayed she'd go insane.

Grant opened the trunk of his car, placing her things inside.

As Diana opened the car door she felt a tingling in her hand. The brunette frowned and looked down at her palm in the moonlight, eyes widening in horror when she saw the sign of Balcoin burnt into her palm just as it had once burned into that of John Blackwell.

"You okay?" Grant asked, closing the trunk.

Diana looked up and gave him a feeble smile as she opened the car door. "Of course... Let's just get out of here." And with that she slid into the car and closed the door, shoving her palm into her jacket, refusing to unclench her fist.

"How could you not tell me about this?" If Whitney hadn't already been seated, he would have collapsed, eyes wide as he stared at the girl.

"To be fair, I only just found out about my mother being the damned skinwalker who attacked me," Chloe muttered, sitting next to him on the sofa, feet folded underneath her.

"What about this whole pink-mist kiss shit?" Whitney wanted to know, annoyed beyond belief. "Why would you tell Pete and not me? I am a part of your unofficial Circle, not him! He's a part of Nell's Circle! Because let's be honest here, that Circle is Nell's, not Lana's."

"Pete has been like a brother to me ever since I've known him." Chloe frowned at Whitney, the palms of her hands itching. "I needed someone to talk to. He could sense that something was wrong and he got it out of me. Also, they might be in a different Circle, but that doesn't make them the enemy."

"It is if Nell's in league with your psycho mom – no offense intended."

She sighed, leaning hard into the seat. "None taken."

Whitney groaned, feeling like a bully as he eyed her dejected state. "Look Chloe, I don't mean to be the bad guy, but we're outnumbered and we only have each other we can really trust at the moment. I'm trusting you a hundred percent – I told you about my dad and the coach – I need to know that this is a two way street."

Guilt passed over her features. "I didn't mean to make you feel like I didn't trust you."

Whitney turned to her. "Chloe, if we're going to do this as lone wolves, we need to be able to trust each other."

Chloe turned fully towards him as well, eyeing him. "There's something else... but I need you to swear never to reveal what I'm going to tell you."

He could see the severity, the fear in her eyes, and he nodded, scooting closer, holding his hand out towards her. When she just eyed it curiously he wiggled his hand around, prompting her to place her hand in his. "No, like this." The boy rearranged their hold on each other so that they were clasping the other's forearm instead, his blues catching her greens and keeping them. "By this blood oath I decree, brotherhood and fidelity. Should I renege on this decree, agony will forever accompany me."

Chloe's eyes were wide on him. "What are we doing?"

"We're vowing to each other that we're trustworthy, and proving how serious we are by naming our punishment should we ever betray the other," Whitney declared evenly. "Nell once told us that she and her Circle did similar vows to each other, which were broken after the circle was broken."

"But we're not a Circle," Chloe whispered.

He nodded slowly. "But we're the closest thing to a Circle that each other has."

And he was right.

So right.

Licking her lips, Chloe tightened her grip on his forearm, taking a deep breath. "With this blood oath I decree, sisterhood and fidelity. Should I renege on this decree, agony will forever accompany me."

Blues and greens stared deeply into each other as their magics jolted, the teens hissing as they held on tightly and rode out the pain in their joined hands, their palms and the flesh by their elbows feeling as if they'd been sliced and then cauterized with fire.

Finally, when the pain slowly died and faded away, the teens pulled their hands away, eyes widening as a six point star was burnt into the fleshy bit of their palm under their thumbs. A quick glance on their arm proved that there was a small vertical line on their elbow.

The blondes looked up at each other, blinking, before slowly leaning hard against the sofa as they just stared at each other.

"Does this make us a Circle?" Chloe asked softly.

Whitney shook his head. "A Circle is six."

"What's two?" The investigative reporter wanted to know.

He thought for a moment, before answering. "Something new."

Diana was running away with a guy she didn't know just to get away from the Circle and her dark magic. She obviously was too scared of what she could be, still blamed Cassie for everything, and even though the blonde had begged her to stay, had even suggested they rebind the Circle to keep them safer from these other Balcoins that John said were coming – Diana had shaken her head, refused, and left.

Cassie was now truly alone.

Her mother was dead, her grandmother was dead, her father was dead... and now her sister wanted nothing to do with her.

Melissa and Adam were showing an attraction to each other, Jake and Faye were hitting it off once again...Where did that leave Cassie?

Feeling a tingling in the palm of her hand, Cassie opened her closed fist and stared at her palm, numb with shock as the same symbol that was burned into her father's palm – the Balcoin symbol – now was burned into hers.

Pushing up from the seat, Cassie went towards the light and stared at the symbol. Flashes of it on John's palm, on the medallion and then on that cave wall with Chloe flashed before her eyes before she suddenly smiled softly. Almost as if in a trance, she raised her hand towards the fireplace, and even though there wasn't any wood in it, a huge fire erupted inside.

Her smile twisted slightly, and the fire grew in intensity.

"He's a Dabbler," Lex declared as they slid into his Jaguar, locking the doors behind them, the bald billionaire starting the engine. "He stunk of unnatural magic."

"I know," Jason agreed, putting on his seatbelt as Lex backed out of the parking space, scrunching up his face at the thought of Coach Arnold. "At one point I had to literally force myself to not cover my nose, his abuse of it is rotting him from the inside and it's sickening to smell."

"I'm surprised that no one else seems able to smell it." Lex admitted, exiting the parking lot and pulling out into the empty road. "But this could work in our favor if we are patient enough."

Jason sent Lex a sideways glance. "Is that so?"

"Yes." Lex stared ahead of him. "What did you think about them?"

"The Circle?" Jason didn't know why he was even asking, he knew what Lex was talking about. "She's here."

Lex turned to him, eyes wide. "It is the Lang girl then."

"I don't know, maybe." Jason looked away, uncomfortable.

Lex's eyes narrowed on him. "She has long dark hair, just like the girl in Crouch End."

"She does," Jason agreed. "But you dress up and disguise yourself in Crouch End."

That was true, and something Lex had been contemplating as well throughout the whole trip through the school. Jason usually didn't pick up on subtle possibilities like this and Lex had been certain that the guy would be sure it was Lana, but the fact that he wasn't...

Lex eyed him in silence before shifting gears. "What's on your mind, Jace?"

He let out a little breath. "She kissed me again."

"The Lang girl kissed you?" Lex tested the guy once more. "When?"

"I don't know if it was the Lang girl – it could be the blonde or someone else who isn't even a part of the Circle." Jason rubbed his arm. "All I know is that when I was on that floor, feeling like I was dying, she kissed me and she saved me. It felt like-"

"Yes?" Lex prompted when Jason fell silent.

"It felt like she was drawing the spell out of me and into herself, but it didn't affect her." Jason frowned.

Lex's gaze turned to the road. "Do you think she knows it was you at Crouch End?"

"Maybe she kisses anyone," Jason grumbled, looking away, a muscle jumping in his cheek. "She kissed you, didn't she?"

Lex's gaze went to his friend at the resentful tone, wondering if there wasn't some little bit of the enthrallment still in Jason. If it was... maybe... maybe he could use it to track down the Balcoin Firstborn.

Letting out a little breath, Lex pressed down on the gas.

They needed to get to the Manor and start planning their next move.

"Why are you freaking out on me like this?" Pete frowned at his parents, his father drinking a glass of wine and his mother smoking, both of those activities were the type his parents would usually reproach as completely unchristian. "What's going on?"

"You weren't affected by what happened today, were you?" His mother asked shakily, breathing out a cloud of smoke.

"No." Pete shook his head, eyes narrowed on them. "What's going on? You guys don't smoke or drink! You think it's-"

"It doesn't matter anymore." His father took another gulp of his wine. "We tried being good people, hoped that our actions would protect you, but today showed us what fools we were."

His mother sniffled.

"What are you talking about?" For the first time, fear began to fill Pete's soul as he stared at his parents, his palm burning slightly, the boy rubbing it against his pants leg.

"Honey, we need you to understand that we were trying to protect you by keeping you away from all of this," his mother whispered. "I didn't want you to have to pay because of what I did."

His father reached out and curled an arm around her shoulders.

"What did you do?" Pete wanted to know, rubbing his palm harder against his pant leg before finally raising his palm up to see if he'd gotten a bug bite or something for it was so itchy... and that was when he saw it... the symbol. "What the-?"

His father's glass smashed against the tiles.

"Oh no," his mother cried in terror. "We have to leave. Now. Before he comes!"

"What? Who?" Pete looked at them in confusion.

His mother shook, visibly terrified. "John Blackwell."

By the time she was finished telling Whitney everything, Chloe was tired, leaning hard against the sofa as she watched him try to digest it all.

"So you think this John Blackwell guy was behind today's attack?" Whitney frowned, apparently deciding to start on that point. "And that one of the reasons why you weren't affected was because he wouldn't want to hurt you?"

"It's one of my theories... but it doesn't make any sense." Chloe sighed, scratching her still itchy palms. "He didn't seem like a psycho person when he was here; he was nice, funny, a genuinely great guy who I trusted."

Whitney frowned. "Something might have happened to him. Maybe it was a distress call or a reactive spell or something?"

Chloe frowned, not having thought of that. "I'm supposed to send him something, but he hasn't told me where to send it yet."

"The thing he had you pick up from this nightclub you barely got out of alive?" It was obvious Whitney was still annoyed with her for having done that alone.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Well, what is it?" He wanted to know.

"I don't know." The blonde snorted. "I wasn't about to open the package."

"Why not?" the Quarterback challenged. "You risked your life for it. The least he owes you is letting you know what he put you in danger for."

Chloe worried her bottom lip in contemplation before giving a little growl as she scratched her palms harder, gaze lowering to them before widening. "Oh my god."

"What is it?" Whitney reached her for palms, and in the middle of each of them a huge symbol was burnt into her flesh. "Did this happen because of our blood oath?"

"No... I know this symbol," Chloe whispered, eyes wide as she closed her hands around Whitney's. "You need to come with me, now."

"John Blackwell is dead," Davis declared, staring at the computer screen at Lex and Jason, able to see their shock. "He was killed by his daughters, Cassie Blake and Diana Meade. Charles Meade also consumed the demons in Eben, killing him, and has been bound to catatonia with the demons inside of him. His mind and body are gone, now serving as a living, unmoving prison for them."

Lex drummed his fingers, eyeing them as he digested this, before finally speaking. "The spell today was cast by him I presume."

"That's what we're figuring." He nodded. "We also think the girls killed Daddy Dearest to stop him."

"Where are Tess and Oliver?" Lex finally seemed to notice their absence.

"Diana Meade left town with her boyfriend. They are tailing her to make sure we don't lose her," Davis replied. "The other girl, Cassie, is here so I've stayed behind to keep an eye on her."

Jason scratched at his eyebrow. "The Firstborn is here in Smallville."

Davis' eyes widened as he leaned forwards towards the screen. "You've confirmed this?"

"Yeah." Jason nodded. "We're still exactly not sure who it is, but she's definitely here."

Davis let out a little breath as he leaned back once more. "Now what?"

"Tess and Oliver should stay on the trail, and you stay there while Jason and I work on the Circle here," Lex declared. "I have a feeling this is only just beginning."

"What is this place?" Whitney whispered in shock, looking around him, flashlight skimming the many different drawings on the cave's walls.

"I don't know, but when I disappeared from the barrier I ended up down here," Chloe responded, hand in his, leading him through the winding passageways, seeming to know instinctively which veins to take and which turns to make, finally entering the chamber she'd fallen into. "Look. That big symbol over there ahead of us."

Whitney's flashlight shone on it, eyes widening. "It's the symbol on your palms."

"Yes," she whispered, tightening her grip on his hand. "It is."

"Do you know what it is?" he asked, unable to look away from it.

"I had a dream once here. It's all vague and I don't really remember much from it in detail, but this part stuck to me," Chloe murmured, unable to look away from the symbol either. "That's the symbol of Balcoin."

"What's a Balcoin?" Whitney asked the question she'd been asking herself for so long.

She whispered out the answer. "A family."

Raising both of her branded palms upwards towards the corresponding symbol, Chloe gasped as that other magic in her, the darker one, shot out and suddenly the symbol on the wall began to glow, an explosion of power erupting from it, lighting up all the other symbols and drawings on the wall, the cave lighting up as if there was electricity.

The two teens stood in the middle of the magnificent cavern, staring around them in awe.

"A family?" Whitney echoed, voice breathy.

"I think-" Chloe's gaze lowered to her branded palms, gulping hard. "My family."

TBC