This is where the story begins, kind of. I can't bear slow starts so if it seems rushed, I'm sorry. Enjoy!

Chapter 2 - Betrayal

At lunch Clark was supposed to help Chloe at the torch, but she hadn't turned up yet. He logged onto her computer anyway. He figured he would look over her proofs like he'd been doing since she first came to what she lovingly referred to as this 'leafy little hamlet'. She was a reporter down to the bone. Last week they had been given an assignment to write about a person's life. Of course she had been assigned to Clark and used all her reporter resources to dig up unwanted information about his illegitimate adoption. However when he expressed his discomfort she had agreed to drop it. The screen loaded up and he noticed a locked file entitled Clark. He contemplated whether or not to open it up, but his curiosity got the better of him. He could have gotten through the password anyway, by putting in random words at super speed, but Chloe being Chloe, he could guess what her password was. 'Daily Planet,' he entered in to the computer. The file came up and Clark first noticed various words 'united states charity' being one of them. She hadn't really given up at all. Clark stood up from the computer, disgusted, just as Chloe came in.

"Hey Clark. what's wrong?" she asked acknowledging the hurt look on his face.

"That," he told her, indicating towards the screen.

He stormed out of the room and Chloe, having seen the article on the screen could only watch him leave. The truth was Clark was more scared than hurt. He knew she was persistent but this was ridiculous. If she kept it up he'd be on the front page of every newspaper in the world. That wasn't the sort of thing he wanted from a friend.

* * * * *
*

Jacob sat at a desk in a dank old caravan at the side of a road, the wallpaper peeling. It creaked and moaned in the wind, suggesting the thing would break down if anyone tried to move it. He was carefully pouring liquid silver (that had an odd green tint to it) into a bullet mould and smoking a pipe. He was going to get justice for his sister even if it meant returning to jail. At first he had wanted to know the full story, but Lex had just made up some lies that made him sound like a hero. He was never going to get the truth. Then he had wanted him dead. Now he realised that death was too easy a price to pay. He was going to get rid of everyone close to him until Lex killed himself. Then he would feel what his sister had felt, the loneliness that had drove her to suicide. This was the only way. He had already done research into Lex's closest friends and found three that suited his purposes. There was of course his father Lionel, a boy named Clark whom had saved Lex's life on numerous occasions and sources told him, they had formed a close relationship, and Lana, a business partner that he'd recently acquired, and seeing the state of the place and the reasons Lex had agreed, he had come to the conclusion that he must care for her. He loaded the last bullet into a handgun that was now full and drove to the mansion.

* * * * * *

"I'm here to see Lex. I have some important information for him," said Jacob, into the intercom.

"I'm sorry Sir but you'll have to book an appointment, he's resting at this time," replied a charming young lady's voice.

He rolled his eyes and pounded the intercom in a fit of rage. He looked around carefully and found what he was looking for, the control panel. He looked down on it, and with no idea how to work the gate controls he shot it. Amazingly this worked and he walked up the drive to the mansion. This was it, his day of revenge. Once inside he set of a canister of sleeping gas, which put everyone on the first floor into a deep sleep.

* * * *
*

Lex lay on his bed, the curtains drawn, sipping his favourite brandy. Taste in brandy was, in fact, the only thing that his father and he had in common. He had received a call from him earlier. Not to see if he was okay, or be remotely worried about the murderer on the loose (although Lex very much doubted that he would come after him again), but to see if the Kent's where going to sue them or not for the damages done to their farm. It made him hate his father even more. He was never what a father should be and never did what a father should do. His bruised eyes were so sore that he could hardly see. If Clark hadn't discovered him, in the remains of the metropolitan nightclub. he didn't know where he'd be. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

"Who's there? Is that you Randolph?" he asked, referring of course, to his butler.

There was no reply and Lex started to get a bad feeling. The figure walked over to the window and opened the curtains. The sudden light caused him to cover his eyes. When they had adjusted, and he could see vaguely who it was, he gasped. It was Jacob.