CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Disclaimers in Chapter One
Lex devoured the stew as the four men stared at him. After he polished his third bowl, he extended it to the man that had been dishing out the food earlier in request for more. Completely shocked at the insatiable appetite of their captive, he scooped more stew into the bowl.
Five months of vegetation and fish intensified Lex's appetite for red meat. When the cook began to serve it, Lex had to contain himself from tackling him and taking the pot for himself.
Other than the weapons, his captors had been as gracious of hosts as they possibly could be. 'Lionel has certainly been upgrading his quality on minions,' Lex thought to himself.
Maybe his father had stopped investing in meteor-powered fiends. If Smallville only knew that Lionel Luthor had really planned for the town to be the testing ground for his experimental monsters of mass destruction, their intense hatred for the man would be an understatement.
Lex shook his head at the abomination his father had become. Since Lillian Luthor's death, Lionel was internally decaying. The man underestimated his own passion for his beloved wife, and it ate at him while he internalized the grief and despair from her passing.
When Julian, Lex's brother and Lionel's favorite, passed soon after, it became the catalyst for the emergence of Lionel's destructive yen. The reports about the meteor-induced mutations came around the same time as Julian's death, and it became the key for Lionel's vision to power.
Lex could do nothing but stand by and watch his father self-destruct. Something from which Chloe wanted very much to protect him, especially when he started to reflect the behavior himself through his own juvenile actions.
Lionel was beyond repair, Chloe would say to him. "But you have hope, Lex," she assured him. "You have your mother's light in you."
And Lex believed that wholeheartedly. Never would he be anything like his father. Ever.
The bearded man came down from the deck. When he saw Lex still eating, he gave out a loud laugh. "Hungry, weren't we?"
Lex continued to inhale the food, and when he was done, he wiped his mouth with his wrist and addressed his captor. "Who are you?" he asked, foregoing the subtlety.
"That's none of your business, Luthor," the bearded man replied. "Besides, we're on shore now. You're not my responsibility anymore."
"And whose exactly would it be?"
"Mine," said a voice behind the bearded man. Lex strained to see who the owner of the voice was, sensing its familiarity. And when the enormous man moved out of the way, Lex nearly dropped his bowl.
"Hello, Lex."