A/N : I'm back - updating fast as requested. Thanx scifichick774, nana, Queen_Of_Tact and Merrie for the reviews and continued support - it means a lot. To the person who said my characters were OC (but did not have the guts to put a name to thier review!) both Lex and Chloe have had near death experiences which I think would cause them to have a bit of a change in character don't you? Plus Lex's father is dead - that's gonna effect a person's personality too, right? And then we have the fact that Lex and Chloe fell in love - that tends to have an effect on you too. I think I have given a reasonable explanation for the OCness of Lex and Chloe now so I think now would be a good time to get on with the story...

Disclaimer : As usual, these characters are not mine

"Why would you want to do this?" Chloe asked, immediately wishing she hadn't. Truly, she didn't care why he was doing it she just knew she loved him and she did not want him to do it.

"Why not?" Lex said honestly, "What difference does it make to anybody, whether I'm dead or alive?"

"It makes a difference to me Lex, don't you see that. It makes a difference to lots of people. What about Clark?" Chloe tried to make him see he was not alone, but he did not want to listen.

"Yeah, there's Clark, but he doesn't need me. All I'll end up doing is dragging him down. He's a decent human being, he deserves to stay that way, being friends with me is poisonous. I don't want him to end up being like me"

Tears ran down Chloe's face. She just didn't know what to say to him. She tried to pull herself together and stay calm, but it was far from an easy task.

"If Clark ended up being like you, that wouldn't be a bad thing - you're not a bad person, Lex" she tried to convince him, but so many people had told him he was the root of all the evil in Smallville and beyond, that he had started to believe it himself.

"Chloe, I thought I could be different, for a while I thought I was, but it turns out I'm no different from my father. I turned into him the day I murdered him!" Lex's voice was icy and hard in a way Chloe hadn't heard before, and did not want to hear again.

"Lionel's death wasn't murder, it was suicide!" she said, strongly, and Lex turned his gaze from the murky waters beneath him to the crystal clear eyes of the woman he loved.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked her.

"Your father, Lex, he brought you up to be like him. You were taught to be heartless and ruthless and that's the way you acted around your father. When he was under that pillar, begging for help you didn't save him because he had taught you that begging was weak and those who begged did not deserve help. He taught you to care for no-one but yourself and it back -fired, because you gave up caring for him. That's suicidal Lex, there's no other word for it" Chloe kept her eyes locked on his until he turned away. She was not going to give up on him even he was willing to give up on himself.

Lex thought about what she said. He had to admit it made sense, but if his father had taught him so well to be like him, then he still had no reason to live. He did'nt want to be a second incarnation of Lionel Luthor - he would rather die.

"If I'm like father, I still don't want to live, don't you see that. I wanted to be different and when it came to the crunch I failed" the tone in his voice, worried Chloe. He was still so close to the edge and she was still so far from convincing him not to jump. She had one idea left.

"You didn't fail Lex, you passed" she told him, "You only behaved like that around your father. He's gone now, and you can be your own person, you don't have to become him. Plus you can do two things that Lionel Luthor could never do"

Lex glanced back at her with an expression begging for an explanation.

"You admitted that you did wrong. You felt guilty about something, and your father was capable of that. He believed that what he did was always right, no matter who it hurt - that's inhuman" Chloe explained, hoping he was taking in what she was saying.

"What's the second thing?" Lex wanted to know. Tears came back to Chloe's eyes as she answered him.

"You learnt to love" she said, simply, and Lex knew it was true. He had fallen in love with Chloe and she was the only one thing in his life that he liked. Their love was the one light in his darkness, but was that light bright enough?

"I do love you, Chloe" he assured her, as tears came to his eyes too.

"Then why are you doing this to me?!" she screamed at him. Not only was she upset but she was angry too. She loved him so much and he said he loved her, but he was hurting her so much by doing this.

"Because you'll be better off without me" Lex told her as his tears continued too fall.

"No, I won't. Without you I don't think I want to go on either" she told him, bravely stepping up to the edge of the bridge, just meters from where Lex stood.

"What are you doing?!" he yelled to her, as she defiantly pulled herself over the side and balanced on the edge.

Chloe was petrified, she didn't want to die, but this was the only way she could make him see how much she loved him.

"If you're going, I'm going too"

A/N : Apologies for the major cliffhanger, but I will post the next (and final) chapter v. soon (and even sooner if I get loads of lovely reviews!)