"I don't think that it's a bad sign that he fell asleep," Carola Arkin responded to Martha's unspoken question when Clark closed his eyes and his head leaned to the side against the supporting pillows. "Nobody knows whether the brain adds or sheds memories during sleep, and right now, either would be good for him."
Jonathan nodded. "Seems reasonable," but the word sounded ridiculous as he said it. There was nothing reasonable about this situation. Not one damn thing.
"What *did* this to him?" Pete demanded. Arkin sighed like a man contemplating an ugly task.
"Maybe out there," Lex interjected before the astronomer could answer, still looking steadily at Clark with hooded eyes.
"Definitely," Arkin answered and Jonathan had to fight the urge to protest. Leaving Clark in that room seemed like abandoning him or walking away before a necessary chore was completed. But then, Arkin knew a lot more about what had happened than he did, and he reluctantly followed, catching up with Martha just outside the doorway and putting an arm around her shoulders.
In the oblique lighting, the tears in her eyes made them look like they were lying at the bottom of a pond, distant and blurred. "We'll get through this," he said, using the same words he'd used to reassure Lex. Maybe if he said it enough, he'd be able to believe it.
***
*running so fast I couldn't believe I could still see things but I did then it wasn't something in my head*
*no no not what they think I am I used to be*
*small small very small shh they won't find me here who is it*
*so empty so so empty like space is I was able to reach out and take a handful of stars to hold but now I can't any more*
*blood through my veins like worms slowly slowly slowly dragging down and through and back*
*if I could move just an arm if I had my strength back for just a second then then*
*red and cracking like leaves and boots*
*last one out last thing left alive nothing worth saving no nothing all cracking and red and wet*
***
Carola shot a glance at her brother. Jonathan didn't even have an inkling what it meant but whatever message passed seemed clear enough to them. Head high and gaze fixed at the opposite wall, she spoke in a voice that was soft but had nothing gentle to it.
"All of the people who bought and sold him kept notes, which passed along with him. The notes increased his value, you see. If it weren't for that, we'd know even less."
"Bought and sold?" The thought of Clark, of his son, trading hands like somebody's old car froze him.
This time, she turned to look at him. "Yes. The irony is that the first person who...imprisoned him had no idea that he was anything extraordinary, at least not in the beginning. When he realized what Al, excuse me, Clark, was, he had enough unscrupulous contacts that he was able to sell him for a small fortune. There were eight transactions. Some of them treated him as a kind of exotic pet, a curiosity, and sold him again or gave him away when the novelty wore off. But the worst and last was the longest. They tried to clone him, imagining the price that some would pay for a group of even five or six. Indestructible, immensely powerful...We should be thankful that the results were failures. But during the process, they found that as long as a few cells were left, any organ they removed from Clark would regenerate in a matter of days. The real value was that they made perfect transplants."
Martha's hand as it gripped his was ice and Pete looked nauseated. He didn't even want to turn to see how Lex was reacting. Carola continued, her voice even softer, the consonants even more precise. "When introduced into various animals, they found that his organs immediately reprogrammed the host's immune system, so to speak. Introduced changes that made it recognize the new organ as its own. No rejection and the substitution was better than the original, worked better, less susceptible to disease. It didn't take them long at all to find the process was the same in humans. The only hitch was that they had to clean them very thoroughly as his equivalent of white blood cells could bring down the host's immune system in a matter of hours."
She cleared her throat and continued. "There was quite a market. Not only to replace diseased or malfunctioning organs, but replace normal ones with something that wouldn't fail. The only parts that didn't work were his heart and corneas. They weren't convinced that the risk of extracting his heart was worth it and his corneas were too differently constructed. Everything else..." She raised her hands in a kind of shrug. "Fair game."
Arkin continued after her pause. Jonathan thanked God that the words seemed to have lost synchronization with time, that it took longer to understand them. It made the story just bearable enough. "They were able to make it very efficient as they had more practice, you see. For example, they found that anesthesia slowed the regeneration process. And that cutting his vocal cords every few days was more practical than gagging him, since they sometimes had to take the gag out and then he would try to protest his treatment. Or he'd simply scream."
Carola leaned forward. "We think that's why he's so unresponsive. You see, the body and brain are constantly adjusting their operations based on one another's directions and responses. With speech, for example, if each time he tried to speak he was unsuccessful, his brain would eventually stop the attempts. Much the same with physical movements. If he tried to move but couldn't, or the attempt resulted in pain, his brain would stop suggesting physical movement as a possibility, stop sending the impulses to the motor nerves."
"So you're saying they used his organs? Pulling them out and selling them and when he grew new ones, pulling those out, too?" Pete's outraged voice hadn't sounded so uncontrolled since adolescence and Jonathan saw Martha put a hand on his arm.
Carola's lips moved into a tight, venomous smile. "It's some consolation to know that the man behind it died in a car accident. Massive organ failure before the ambulance even arrived." She became impassive and controlled again as she continued. "His widow took one look at Clark and what had been done to him and came to William. We've done what we can for him since then but it's been very little. His response to you, Mrs. Kent, is more than we've been able to accomplish in two years." She looked around the room. "If he has a hope, it's through you."
***
*dark and quiet and cool still but the walls are covered with things that scare me now is that why*
*what happened what happened it wasn't supposed to everything said once it was written everywhere I could see but then it all burnt up from the inside and now nothing's safe*
*please do you know how to forget is it something you can pick up and wrap around what hurts like a bandage*
*the wind is here again but it never sits down like it should never sits down and rests I wonder if it can't if everything it carries tears it and makes it want to stop*
*can't light the fire in the fireplace with the screen there it melts and falls and sighs because there's nothing more of it*
*try to dive to the bottom but the water is too thick nothing can pass through it*
*black holes black holes are stars that have collapsed on themselves and wait wait I know it that have collapsed on themselves and become so dense that not even light can escape it tries to go by but the hole swallows it*
*what happens then*
AN: Sorry, the chapters are all quotes from Macbeth.
The organs bit just seemed to jump out of the pages of the Clone Wars in the comic and land in here, so I let it. But this won't make any copyright owners want to sue me, right?
Jonathan nodded. "Seems reasonable," but the word sounded ridiculous as he said it. There was nothing reasonable about this situation. Not one damn thing.
"What *did* this to him?" Pete demanded. Arkin sighed like a man contemplating an ugly task.
"Maybe out there," Lex interjected before the astronomer could answer, still looking steadily at Clark with hooded eyes.
"Definitely," Arkin answered and Jonathan had to fight the urge to protest. Leaving Clark in that room seemed like abandoning him or walking away before a necessary chore was completed. But then, Arkin knew a lot more about what had happened than he did, and he reluctantly followed, catching up with Martha just outside the doorway and putting an arm around her shoulders.
In the oblique lighting, the tears in her eyes made them look like they were lying at the bottom of a pond, distant and blurred. "We'll get through this," he said, using the same words he'd used to reassure Lex. Maybe if he said it enough, he'd be able to believe it.
***
*running so fast I couldn't believe I could still see things but I did then it wasn't something in my head*
*no no not what they think I am I used to be*
*small small very small shh they won't find me here who is it*
*so empty so so empty like space is I was able to reach out and take a handful of stars to hold but now I can't any more*
*blood through my veins like worms slowly slowly slowly dragging down and through and back*
*if I could move just an arm if I had my strength back for just a second then then*
*red and cracking like leaves and boots*
*last one out last thing left alive nothing worth saving no nothing all cracking and red and wet*
***
Carola shot a glance at her brother. Jonathan didn't even have an inkling what it meant but whatever message passed seemed clear enough to them. Head high and gaze fixed at the opposite wall, she spoke in a voice that was soft but had nothing gentle to it.
"All of the people who bought and sold him kept notes, which passed along with him. The notes increased his value, you see. If it weren't for that, we'd know even less."
"Bought and sold?" The thought of Clark, of his son, trading hands like somebody's old car froze him.
This time, she turned to look at him. "Yes. The irony is that the first person who...imprisoned him had no idea that he was anything extraordinary, at least not in the beginning. When he realized what Al, excuse me, Clark, was, he had enough unscrupulous contacts that he was able to sell him for a small fortune. There were eight transactions. Some of them treated him as a kind of exotic pet, a curiosity, and sold him again or gave him away when the novelty wore off. But the worst and last was the longest. They tried to clone him, imagining the price that some would pay for a group of even five or six. Indestructible, immensely powerful...We should be thankful that the results were failures. But during the process, they found that as long as a few cells were left, any organ they removed from Clark would regenerate in a matter of days. The real value was that they made perfect transplants."
Martha's hand as it gripped his was ice and Pete looked nauseated. He didn't even want to turn to see how Lex was reacting. Carola continued, her voice even softer, the consonants even more precise. "When introduced into various animals, they found that his organs immediately reprogrammed the host's immune system, so to speak. Introduced changes that made it recognize the new organ as its own. No rejection and the substitution was better than the original, worked better, less susceptible to disease. It didn't take them long at all to find the process was the same in humans. The only hitch was that they had to clean them very thoroughly as his equivalent of white blood cells could bring down the host's immune system in a matter of hours."
She cleared her throat and continued. "There was quite a market. Not only to replace diseased or malfunctioning organs, but replace normal ones with something that wouldn't fail. The only parts that didn't work were his heart and corneas. They weren't convinced that the risk of extracting his heart was worth it and his corneas were too differently constructed. Everything else..." She raised her hands in a kind of shrug. "Fair game."
Arkin continued after her pause. Jonathan thanked God that the words seemed to have lost synchronization with time, that it took longer to understand them. It made the story just bearable enough. "They were able to make it very efficient as they had more practice, you see. For example, they found that anesthesia slowed the regeneration process. And that cutting his vocal cords every few days was more practical than gagging him, since they sometimes had to take the gag out and then he would try to protest his treatment. Or he'd simply scream."
Carola leaned forward. "We think that's why he's so unresponsive. You see, the body and brain are constantly adjusting their operations based on one another's directions and responses. With speech, for example, if each time he tried to speak he was unsuccessful, his brain would eventually stop the attempts. Much the same with physical movements. If he tried to move but couldn't, or the attempt resulted in pain, his brain would stop suggesting physical movement as a possibility, stop sending the impulses to the motor nerves."
"So you're saying they used his organs? Pulling them out and selling them and when he grew new ones, pulling those out, too?" Pete's outraged voice hadn't sounded so uncontrolled since adolescence and Jonathan saw Martha put a hand on his arm.
Carola's lips moved into a tight, venomous smile. "It's some consolation to know that the man behind it died in a car accident. Massive organ failure before the ambulance even arrived." She became impassive and controlled again as she continued. "His widow took one look at Clark and what had been done to him and came to William. We've done what we can for him since then but it's been very little. His response to you, Mrs. Kent, is more than we've been able to accomplish in two years." She looked around the room. "If he has a hope, it's through you."
***
*dark and quiet and cool still but the walls are covered with things that scare me now is that why*
*what happened what happened it wasn't supposed to everything said once it was written everywhere I could see but then it all burnt up from the inside and now nothing's safe*
*please do you know how to forget is it something you can pick up and wrap around what hurts like a bandage*
*the wind is here again but it never sits down like it should never sits down and rests I wonder if it can't if everything it carries tears it and makes it want to stop*
*can't light the fire in the fireplace with the screen there it melts and falls and sighs because there's nothing more of it*
*try to dive to the bottom but the water is too thick nothing can pass through it*
*black holes black holes are stars that have collapsed on themselves and wait wait I know it that have collapsed on themselves and become so dense that not even light can escape it tries to go by but the hole swallows it*
*what happens then*
AN: Sorry, the chapters are all quotes from Macbeth.
The organs bit just seemed to jump out of the pages of the Clone Wars in the comic and land in here, so I let it. But this won't make any copyright owners want to sue me, right?