He hadn't been out in the sun much from his constant lockup and he felt it was affecting his tests. Not much but enough to register. General Lane knew it too. He frowned when he couldn't pick up quite as many tons as last week.

That's why it wasn't all that unexpected when the general told him one morning. "Got a surprise for you, Kal-El."

He winced. He didn't trust General Lane's surprises.

"You're going to get some fresh air and sunshine daily from now on."

He was surprised as that didn't sound so bad for once. Though he wasn't done yet. He motioned for someone standing in the hall to come into the room.

"This is Private Luthor." he said, introducing the soldier.

He didn't look much older than himself but old enough to be wielding a carbine, and he didn't look as if he liked him one little bit.

"Think of him as your best friend because you're going to be spending a lot of time together, your Siamese twin because you won't be able to make a move without him being there, but mostly think of him as the man capable of ending your life if you try anything funny. See this isn't any normal carbine. We went back to Smallville and found more meteorites. We have quite the load now, and we fashioned some of them into bullets that are capable of piercing your skin."

A lump formed in his throat, and it felt as if he couldn't breathe. Did that mean he was never going to get the chance to leave now? A bullet was so much more deadly than dying from prolonged exposure.

The sun was nearly blinding after three weeks of not seeing it at all, but it felt so good on his skin like an old friend as he soaked up its energizing golden rays.

"See these stones?" Private Luthor asked.

"Yeah." He wasn't altogether sure what part of the country this base was located in as he was informed as little as possible, but the ground was hard and rocky, a farmer's nightmare.

"They want all the rocks out of the field. You're the man to do it."

"So the army's using me for labor now?"

"You should be happy to serve the planet in any way you're asked. You shouldn't even be here. The least you can do is make yourself useful."

Why did they act like he'd made a decision to come here? He hadn't asked for his home planet to be destroyed, and he'd had no say in where his parents had sent his ship.

"Get moving before I decide to shoot you just for the fun of it."

He didn't know whether he meant the threat or not, but he sure didn't want to test him. He certainly looked serious enough.

"You don't look much like an alien. Are you a shape-shifter?"

Such prejudice in that statement. It wasn't what he said as he'd probably be curious too in his place but how he said it. "How is an alien supposed to look?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it that you don't look different. It's like you're trying to deceive us."

"Well, I'm not. This is how I look."

"Just don't like it," he muttered.

As the sun rose higher, Private Luthor got hot in his army uniform and frequently had to wipe the moisture away on his forehead and take a swig of water. The private watched him adding to the growing rock pile and shook his head in disgust. "You're not even breaking a sweat."

He sighed. It was hard not to feel frustrated when the man kept blaming him for things beyond his control like his biology. "We're going to be spending a lot of time together it seems. Can't we just be friends?"

"Friends? With you? That's laughable. You're not one of us."

He'd had nightmares about this kind of rejection. It was why he'd never told Lana the truth about where he'd come from though he'd been tempted to at times. And now he was living it every single day. The way they looked at him as if he was mud to scrape off their shoes, he'd be lying if he said it didn't hurt.

Lois walked by the other side of the fence, her backpack slung over her shoulder as she came home from school. She saw him and waved. He waved back, a slight move of his fingers so as not to draw attention to himself, but Private Luthor saw it. "Does she know what you are?"

His stomach twisted at the thought, and he couldn't answer.

"That's the general's daughter. You'd be well-advised not to encourage her. He's very protective of his daughters, and he wouldn't want alien scum like you associating with them."

He tried to tell himself that she wouldn't be like her father or like Private Luthor. She would remain the same caring person even in face of learning about his true origins, but he wasn't sure at all.