CHAPTER 2: Welcome Home
The Talon was packed to capacity with people. Clark was amazed that so many had come out to welcome him back. He had known he would be missed, but he never realized how many people from school, even the whole town, had actually cared.
Of course, what, or rather who, amazed him most was Lana, who at the moment was comfortably snuggled against him at one of the booths. She decided that there was no way in hell she was going to be working tonight. Tonight was for Clark, and he most certainly had her full attention.
Clark stroked her dark hair and she nuzzled his neck. Clark was still reeling from the fact that after all those years of praying and waiting, he and Lana had finally revealed how they truly felt about one another. He still had yet to reveal the whole truth to her about what had happened, but she didn't press him. Lana realized that the ordeal Clark had gone through had sent a major shock to his psyche, and she certainly didn't want to make it any worse.
Clark looked around the room and spotted Pete Ross. He smiled and nodded to his old friend, and Pete broke into a broad grin. "Hey, Clark!" he exclaimed happily, extending his arm for a handshake. "I missed you, man. Place wasn't the same without you."
"Thanks, Pete, that really means a great deal to me," Clark replied.
"You want to talk?" Pete asked.
As though in response, Lana tightened her arms around Clark. He chuckled and said, "I think Lana isn't quite ready to let me go yet. Maybe tomorrow, Pete."
"Sure, no problem, man," Pete said. "Have fun, you two." He turned and walked away.
Clark turned to Lana and said, "I think someone is becoming a bit possessive, don't you think?"
"Do you mind?" Lana purred in his ear.
Clark shook his head. "Not in the slightest," he answered.
"That's good," she said, shifting to sit in his lap, "because I intend to keep you for a long, long time." She pressed her lips against his for a searing kiss.
Clark's hands moved up Lana's back. He knew he was close to losing control, especially considering all the months of separation. "Lana..." he gasped breathlessly. "There are people here, you know."
"I...don't...care," she replied, each word punctuated by a kiss. "I have been through the worst two months of my life, Clark. Not only have I survived, but I got back the person dearest to my heart as a bonus. I love you, Clark, and I don't care if the whole world knows how much."
"Would it be so horrible for us to skip out on the rest of this for some privacy, in that case?" Clark asked. He knew that they were pushing it, but he couldn't ignore the very much human emotions raging through him.
"Hmmm..." Lana pondered. In answer, she gave Clark another passionate kiss. "Your place or mine?" she whispered.
"How about our place?" Clark countered with a smile.
****
Meanwhile across town, Lionel Luthor sat in the study of the mansion sipping brandy. The place had become very quiet since Lex had vanished, and though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, the pain of his son's apparent death had saddened him. Despite all their arguments, Lionel had always had respect, if not love, for his oldest son.
The sudden turning of the doorknob made Lionel start, but he regained his composure as he turned toward the door. However, he was quite surprised when he saw the person entering the study. "Lucas...?"
"Hello, Father," said Lucas Luthor, smirking slightly. "So good to see you again."
"Son, what are you doing here?" Lionel asked. "You know you shouldn't let anyone see you."
"Why not?" Lucas asked. "With Lex gone, I am your sole heir, after all. That's why I'm here."
Lionel sighed. "What do you want, Lucas? You certainly didn't come here just to catch up and play happy family."
"Very quick, Father," Lucas commented. "I want the 20% of the LuthorCorp stock you set aside for Lex."
"What?" Lionel questioned.
"That was supposed to be Lex's inheritance from you, wasn't it? With him dead, that should put it in my name," Lucas explained.
"No, there's more to it," Lionel said, turning to face him. "You want me to publicly recognize you as my son."
"Yes," Lucas hissed. "I'm tired of being the bastard of the Luthor family. I want what's mine."
Lionel nodded and said, "I suppose you're all I have left now...son. I'll make the announcement at Lex's funeral."
"Thank you, Father, for seeing it my way," Lucas said as he exited the study. As he closed the door behind him, he grinned and said, "Phase two complete."
****
Clark blinked open sleepy eyes and grinned at the warm body resting on top of his. Lana looked almost angelic in her sleep, so much so that Clark was hesitant to even move for fear of waking her up. He sighed as he thought back to the events of last night. The two lovers had sneaked back to Clark's loft to get blankets and pillows, and then made love under their tree. Thankfully, it was a spot no casual observer would notice and someplace no one would be unless they had a reason for going there.
Clark was broken from his musings as Lana stirred on top of him. As she opened her eyes, she smiled as she took in her boyfriend's face. "Morning," she said, leaning down for a kiss.
"Morning," he replied. "Lana, I don't know about you, but I thought last night was perfect." He idly ran a hand through her hair.
"Me too, Clark," she agreed. "You know, I'm sure that are friends would agree on one thing about this."
"What's that?" Clark asked with an amused smile.
She giggled. "It's about time," she said.
Clark chuckled and wrapped her arms around her. "Speaking of friends," he said, "I didn't notice Lex at the party last night."
Lana sat up and looked at Clark with astonishment. "You mean, you're parents didn't tell you?" she asked.
"Tell me what? What happened?" Clark asked anxiously. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.
"Clark...Lex was in a plane crash," Lana said, looking at the ground. "It was the day you left. He and Helen were on their way to the Bahamas for their honeymoon. There weren't enough parachutes, and Helen said that Lex gave her his so that she'd be able to live." Tears were trickling down Lana's cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Clark. I guess your parents thought it would be too much to handle right away."
Clark pulled Lana to him and buried his face against her neck. "Are they sure he's dead?" Clark asked in a muffled voice. "Did they ever find a body?"
"No," Lana admitted, "but they searched there up until a couple of days ago before calling it quits." She sighed. "The funeral service is in two days."
Clark pulled back, tears in his eyes. "I'll need you there, Lana. I need you to help me get through this." He sniffed. "Lex was my best friend, Lana. He was my best friend, and I wasn't there...I wasn't there..." Clark broke down and fell into Lana's arms.
"Shhhh," Lana said. "I'll be there for you, Clark. I promise."
****
Helen sat her bedroom at the mansion, holding a picture of Lex and herself and looking at it with intense sadness. "I'm so sorry, Lex," she said. "I shouldn't have let it come to this. I should have done something."
"And make your family suffer?" Lucas snarled as he entered the room without so much as a hello. "I don't think so."
"What do you want?" Helen growled, turning back to the picture.
"I just want to make sure you understand our arrangement," Lucas said. "Once the will is read and you officially inherit the LexCorp stock, you will sign it over to me. If you don't, or if you tell Lionel what I'm planning, I'll make sure you never see your family again. Do we understand each other?"
Helen nodded, but added, "This isn't over, Lucas, not by a long shot."
Lucas grinned and said, "I'm afraid it is."
****
Clark stood up in his loft, looking out at the sunset. He had been standing there a long time, reflecting on all the good times and adventures he and Lex had shared together, and how suddenly, Lex had been snuffed out, without any kind of warning.
"Clark?" Jonathan said as he walked up the steps. "Are you hungry, son?"
"No thanks, Dad," Clark said without turning around.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jonathan asked as he came to stand next to him. Clark shook his head. "Well, if you need to talk, I'm here son," he continued, patting him on the shoulder.
As he turned to leave, Clark said, "Dad, wait." Jonathan stopped and turned back toward him. "There is something else I wanted to talk to you about."
"What's on your mind, Clark?" Jonathan asked.
Clark took a deep breath and said, "I want to tell Lana the truth...about me, about who I really am."
"Clark, you know how much trouble Pete had in handling this," Jonathan reminded him. "Are you sure you want to give Lana that kind of burden?"
"She deserves to know, Dad," Clark said, facing him. "If I'm going to make this relationship work, there can't be any secrets between the two of us. I know she already suspects; she remembers seeing me in the twister." Clark sighed. "I just can't keep lying to her, Dad. I have to tell her."
Jonathan sighed. He'd had a feeling this was coming, had felt it two months ago when Clark and Lana had first gotten together. He nodded and said, "Alright, Clark. If you want to tell her, I won't stop you."
Clark pulled his father to him. "Thanks, Dad," he said. "I knew you'd understand."
****
"Lana, you're glowing," Chloe said in a slightly mocking voice.
Lana looked up and smiled at Chloe as the blonde haired girl came to sit next to her on the porch swing. "So what if I am?" Lana countered.
"Well, the only cause I can think of for that would be really great s..." Chloe was cut off as Lana clamped her hand over Chloe's mouth. Chloe deftly removed her hand and continued, "With a certain farm boy we both know."
"Ok, ok," Lana conceded, holding her hands up in surrender.
"So, if you don't mind me asking...how was it?" Chloe asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Hmmm...absolutely perfect," Lana said dreamily. Then she remembered who she was talking to. "Look, Chloe..."
"Lana, it's ok," Chloe said quickly. "I've had a summer to think about all this, and now that Clark is back, I'm going to make an effort to get along with the two of you."
"Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that," said a masculine voice.
Chloe and Lana turned to see Clark coming up to the front steps of the house. "Hi," Lana said. "Um, how much of the conversation did you just hear?"
"Just what Chloe said," Clark answered, "and I appreciate that very much, Chloe. I didn't want there to be any bad feelings between us. Why, did I miss something important?"
"No, no, nothing important," Chloe said with a slight giggle. "I'll leave you two alone." As she turned around to go inside, neither Clark nor Lana noticed the dark look that passed over her face.
****
"Hi," Lana said again, leaning up to kiss Clark.
"Hi," Clark replied with a smile. "Um, I was wondering if we could talk."
"Sure," Lana said with a quizzical look on her face, leading him to sit down on the porch swing. "What's up?"
Clark took a deep breath. "I don't even know where to begin," he said. "I guess the first thing is that you were right."
"About what?" she asked.
"You did see me in the twister like you thought," Clark said in a low voice.
Lana looked away and down at her feet. "So, you did rescue me..."
"Yes," Clark continued, "and it wasn't the only time, either." He paused, trying to organize his thoughts. "Lana, I..." He trailed off.
"Clark," Lana said, looking up at him and taking his hands in hers, "whatever it is, you can tell me."
"It's just...I don't want anything to keep us apart now that we're together," Clark said softly. Seeing the encouraging look on Lana's face, he said, "Lana...I wasn't born on Earth."
Lana's eyes widened. "What?" she gasped.
"I'm not human," he continued. "I was born on a planet called Krypton. I didn't even know until the beginning of freshman year. I just thought I was different." He paused for breath. "My parents, my real parents, sent me here because Krypton's sun was on the verge of a supernova, and they barely got me off the planet in time. I don't know how long it took to get here, but I do know when the ship arrived...October 1989."
"The meteor shower..." Lana breathed.
"Yes," Clark affirmed. "When Krypton exploded, fragments of the planet scattered in every direction, and some of them ended up hurtling toward Earth at about the same speed and time as the ship." Clark paused, knowing his next words would be difficult. "For the longest time, I thought that I had been the cause for the meteor shower, and that made me inadvertently responsible for your parents' death."
"No, Clark," Lana interrupted. "It wasn't your fault. The meteors would have hit Earth even if your parents hadn't sent you here."
"You don't know how relieved it makes me feel to hear you say that, Lana," Clark said. "Anyway, my parents found me out in the field where the ship crashed, and they made arrangements to make sure that my adoption into the Kent family was legal. Actually...the circumstances surrounding that are why my dad hates Lionel Luthor so much. He forced my father to convince some of the other landowners to sell to him, or else he'd see to it that the truth about how my parents found me would come out."
"Does he know that...?" Lana started.
"No, just that I was out in the field, and thank God, he doesn't," Clark said. "Anyway, as the years went on, it became clear that although I look human, I am definitely not. I have powers, Lana, special powers. I can move so fast that you could blink and not see me move. I'm so strong that I can lift the tractor over my head without breaking a sweat. I can see through anything except lead with a sort of x-ray vision. I can even shoot heat from my eyes."
"So, you did start that fire at the Talon," Lana said with a slightly reproachful look.
"I didn't have control over it yet," Clark explained sheepishly. "In fact, it was thinking about you that triggered it initially until I had full control."
Lana blushed. "Hmmm...I'd assume that you weren't thinking innocent thoughts about me."
"Um, yeah, that would be one way of looking at it," Clark said with a slight smile. "I have other powers, too. Under most circumstances, I'm virtually invincible. Not even bullets can pierce my skin."
"Wow," Lana said in amazement.
"I do have weaknesses, though," Clark continued. "I refer to the meteor rocks as kryptonite, by the way. Green kryptonite drains me of my strength and makes me vulnerable. Red kryptonite affects me mentally, basically making me apathetic, and almost...evil."
"Clark...that time I saw you and Chloe in the Talon..." Lana started.
"Pete had slipped a piece of red kryptonite in my pocket," Clark explained. "It wasn't me that day. It just happened that once my shirt was off, the kryptonite wasn't in close enough proximity anymore to affect me." Lana nodded in acceptance. "Lana...the explosion in the storm cellar...I told you that was my fault." Clark took a deep breath as the guilt started to surface. "It happened because I tried to destroy the ship."
"Why would you do that?" Lana asked curiously.
"My real father had left an imprint of his personality in the ship, along with a message. The message said that I was destined to rule the Earth. My father spoke to me and he said that I had to leave Smallville, and if I didn't, then the ones I loved would suffer." Clark reached for Lana's hands again. "I didn't want to leave you, or my parents behind. I thought that destroying the ship would sever the connection, and I'd be free. I was wrong. Because I did it all on my own, my mother miscarried. If I'd told them what I was doing, they wouldn't have been there when the explosion came. I did that Lana. I killed my unborn brother..." Clark broke down in grief.
Lana held him close and rubbed his back. "Have your parents forgiven you?" she asked. When Clark nodded, she continued, "That's all that matters, then. If they think you did nothing wrong, then it isn't your fault. It's your real father's fault."
"He knew I was going to do that, Lana," Clark said, pulling away from Lana. "He manipulated me into doing that. That's why I left, because I didn't want to see anyone else get hurt. It turns out that my father hadn't intended on that happening at all."
"How do you know that?" Lana asked.
"The ship wasn't destroyed," Clark said. "It looked like it imploded, but I think what it really did was transport itself somewhere else. I followed the link to a huge crystal building in the Arctic, and I think now that the ship built it. My father spoke to me again. He said that my destiny was to be a symbol of hope and truth for the people of this planet, and in that context I would rule." Clark looked at Lana. "So, do you think I'm a freak?"
"Clark, I could never think of you like that," Lana said, leaning over to kiss him. "So, is there anything else?"
"Actually," Clark said with a slight smile, "there is one more thing." Clark stood up and led Lana down the steps in front of the house. "Hold on tight."
"Clark?" Lana questioned.
"Trust me," he said, still smiling. As she got a firm grip on him, Clark focused. A moment later, Clark levitated and they flew up into the air a comfortable speed.
"What the...YOU CAN FLY?!" Lana exclaimed incredulously.
"Surprise," Clark said with a huge grin. He swooped down, and Lana screamed with delight as the ground came rushing up to meet them before he leveled off again.
"THIS IS AWESOME!" she yelled.
"I thought you might enjoy it," he said, pleased.
"I love you!" she said.
"I love you, too," Clark replied. As he halted in the clear night sky, he kissed Lana passionately, content that his secret was safe with her.
****
Chloe couldn't believe what she had just overheard. She knew that Clark had his secrets, but man, she couldn't have imagined it would be that big!
As she thought about what she should do, she realized that the decision was harder than she thought. Chloe had agreed to help Lionel to get back at Clark, and this would be the ultimate revenge for doing that. However, she only wanted to get back at him, not hand him over to the world's scientists, or Lionel's, for that matter, on a silver platter. What was she going to do?
****
The turnout at the Luthor Estate for the will reading was fairly large, as it seemed many of the LexCorp employees were sincere in wishing their deceased boss a fond farewell. The funeral had been held in Metropolis. As promised, Lana had stayed by Clark's side the entire time, along with Jonathan and Martha. To Clark's shock, Lionel had enlisted the Pope himself to perform the blessings!
Clark joined his parents and Lana near the front of the large room. He saw Helen sitting a few rows up to the right. Unbeknownst to Clark, Lucas was in an anteroom waiting for his father to announce his presence immediately following the will reading.
Lionel stepped up to the podium. Although he had hoped that Lex had thought of giving him the LexCorp stock, he knew that he'd probably given it to Helen. He just hoped he could convince her to sell it to him. After all, what did she know of running a business?
"Thank you all for coming," Lionel began. "Lex had left his will on a video, so I'll just play the tape here." He pressed the play button on the VCR, and Lex's image appeared on the big projection screen at the front of the room.
"Hello, Father, and other guests," he began. "I made this tape to divide up my assets in the event of my untimely demise. I bequeath my half of the Talon to Lana Lang, as I'm sure she'll continue to do a good job of maintaining it in my absence." Lana felt tears pricking at her eyes, and Clark gave her hand a squeeze. "Now, as for LexCorp, Father, I know that you can't wait to destroy the company I worked so hard to build and assimilate it back into LuthorCorp, so I'm not going to give you the pleasure. I bequeath all of my LexCorp stock and half my fortune, in the amount of $500,000,000, to my one true friend, Clark Kent."
Clark's head snapped up in astonishment. "I know it seems like a burden, to own 51% of my company, Clark, but don't worry. The board of directors will handle all of the business end of things. I hope you and your parents make good use of the money. One thing I would like to add. If for any reason Clark is killed, the LexCorp stock will be divided evenly among my employees. Sorry, Dad. You lose." The image winked out.
Clark could scarcely breathe. Within the space of two minutes, Clark had gone from a simple farm boy to owning 51% of a billion-dollar business. Looking at his parents, he saw the same astonishment on their faces too.
Helen grinned. Lucas would find it rather difficult now to get his hands on the LexCorp stock since she was not the beneficiary.
Meanwhile in the anteroom, Lucas was fuming. There was no point in his father announcing him now. All the stock he so desperately wanted for himself was now untouchable. Well, Luthors didn't give up that easily. Lucas would do everything in his power to get the stock from Clark.
****
Somewhere in northern Mexico, a group of men were boarding a bus to the United States. "Hey, gringo!" an old bum called out to one of them. "You going to los Estados Unidos, eh?"
The bald young man turned to the bum. "Yes," said Lex Luthor as he boarded the bus.
TO BE CONTINUED...
