They didn't turn Clark over to the police for two reasons: one, he had the Metropolis police on his payroll as a Luthor, and two, the scientists could hypothesize, but they wanted to be sure the effects of blue kryptonite in the blood were lasting.
Lois had steered clear of the lab for the past week, but she could no longer contain her morbid curiosity though maybe the truer reason was she wanted to be sure she had done the right thing.
He was in a large cage with a bed in the middle of the lab. The steel bars practically mocking the man who could have been dubbed the Man of Steel before the serum treatment. His head was down in defeat or thought. Guilt settled in the pit of her stomach. She didn't say a word, and he didn't have superhearing anymore, but he seemed to sense her presence anyway.
"I didn't think you had the nerve to show your face around here," he said.
She went all the way in the room. "You may not believe this, but I am sorry it had to be this way."
"But not sorry enough to let me go," he said finally lifting his head to look at her. "Save your pity. How are things at LuthorMedia?"
"Tess has taken over. She makes you look like Mary Poppins. The woman is just plain psychotic."
She thought she saw a ghost of a smile at the description, but then it was gone again. "Being raised a Luthor tends to have that effect. Tell her not to get too comfortable. I'll be out of here in no time."
"So sure of that, are you? You will be handed over to be judged and how do you think they're going to look at your crimes without you being the threat you were?"
"I am sure of it because I have the best lawyers in the country."
"And you've tested that boast, I'm certain, but murder's a tough rap for anybody to beat, and you have multiple ones to your name. You know one thing you never really answered for my article is why. Why did you kill so many people?"
He shrugged as if it didn't mean anything, but his eyes told a different story that maybe the killings did matter to him just a little. "At first, I used red kryptonite, courtesy of my father. It removes any pangs of conscious and allows me to be a creature of pure impulse. I thrived off the adrenaline rush of it and didn't have to think about ethics or the emotions of myself or my victims at all."
"So you weren't in control?"
"Not at first, but eventually, I didn't need it. I saw what had to be done, and that was that. You get enough blood on your hands, and believe me, there was a time it was a daily affair, it doesn't feel right not to have killed anyone before lunch. It becomes routine."
Oliver interrupted. "Lois, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see how everything was going," she answered.
"Still here," Clark said snidely. "And your husband's still a self-righteous snot."
She rolled her eyes and ignored him. "I have to get to an interview. See you at home."
Oliver followed her out. He wasn't fooled for a minute. "You have nothing to feel guilty about," he told her in an attempt to soothe.
"Maybe not, but I feel it anyway. The way he used the fencing terms to describe what I did, it's like he lumped me into the same category as his father."
"You are definitely nothing like Lionel Luthor."
"Aren't I? I used deception, and I betrayed him, hurt him with the very kryptonite his dad used on him. And the thing is, Ollie, I'm not so sure he wasn't starting to see some merit, however small, in being on the side of right, but now, locking him up and robbing him of his ability to ever use his powers for good again, I don't know."
"He's manipulating you," Oliver surmised.
Her blood boiled that he thought her so easily led. "I make up my own mind, thank you. You know very few would debate whether forced sterilization was evil these days, and I'm wondering how something that is such a part of someone's biology is much different."
Oliver wasn't seeing her point of view, and he looked tired of trying as he said, "He's alive. You and he should both be grateful for that. If you'll excuse me, I didn't come here to discuss the virtues of taking powers away from people, specifically when they abused them. I have more important things to attend to."
The longer they were married, the more she saw what a poor match they truly were. "For better or for worse," she said to an empty hallway.