Part 7
"You seem to know me, but I don't know you," Clark said. "Let me guess, you're with the old fossil and the junior sidekick over there."
"If you mean your father and your best friend, then yes, I am."
"He's not my father, " Clark said getting an evil scowl on his face. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to meet my father."
"Maybe not, but he's the only father you've got. A lot of people don't even have that."
"Spare me the bleeding heart rap," Clark said stepping closer. "I was just a pack mule to keep his farm going."
"Sure, that's why he spent time with you going fishing and playing catch and your mother held you when you cried and made you your favorite foods," Thomas replied circling around and keeping his distance from Clark.
"Alright," interrupted Jonathan, "I think that's about enough."
Jonathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal box. Suddenly he screamed and dropped it to the ground where it lay glowing red and smoking slightly from the fresh weld along its seam.
"You really are a one trick pony, aren't you old man?" Clark said with a sneer on his face. "Did you really think that I was stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice?"
"No," Thomas said, "he was just hoping to God he could get his son back any way he could."
Clark whirled around on Thomas and said hotly, "I told you, I'm not his son!"
"Then why did you run away when you hurt him and Martha. It couldn't have been because you cared could it?"
"I didn't run, I left. I wanted to finally be free. To be happy. No more orders from him and no more orders from that stupid voice in my head. I wanted to finally be my own man. Do what I want to do when I want to do it."
"You want to be free? You want to be happy?" Thomas asked. "Well, first you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and lose the attitude. You're still a slave. If you want to be free then lose the ring." Thomas added pointing to Clark's hand. "Until you can do that you're just so much talk controlled by a lifeless piece of rock."
"I'm not a slave to the ring!" Clark shouted. "It just brings out the real me without all of the guilt baggage attached."
"If you were truly free you wouldn't need the ring to get rid of the guilt. You'd own your responsibilities and deal with them."
"You don't know what you're talking about. You have no idea of the pain I've dealt with in my life."
"Pain can either break you or make you unbreakable, Clark. You decide. That ring only keeps it at bay temporarily. "
The two had been circling each other slowly, almost unconsciously. Clark suddenly blurred forward and grabbed Thomas. Thomas instantly tried to shift and use Clark's strength and momentum against him, but found he couldn't move the teen.
"Saigo," Clark said indicating the unconscious Asian, "got me with that a couple of times when we first met. No more." He picked Thomas up and threw him against a table several feet away. Thomas tucked and rolled as he landed and came up in a crouch.
"Not such a tough guy now are you?" Clark asked walking toward him.
"We both know there's no way I can beat you Clark. It's not even a contest. It's just some cruel game the school bully plays. Is that what your "freedom" has made you? A bully? Someone who doesn't take what he wants because he wants it, but because he enjoys hurting others because they are smaller and weaker? Then maybe you're right and your "father" would be proud."
Clark growled and crossed the room in a nanosecond slamming into Thomas and sending him backwards into the far wall.
"Shut up!" Clark screamed. "You don't know what it feels like to be me and have to be in control every single minute of my life. Every. Single. Minute! I could kill you just by looking at you. I could snap someone in half if I'm just a bit distracted one day."
"No, you're right," Thomas said climbing to his feet, "I don't have any idea what that is like. No one does. No one on this entire planet knows what you have to go through and for that I'm sorry. But it doesn't give you an excuse to hurt others or do what you want damning the consequences. There's a right and a wrong in the universe, Clark, and the difference isn't that hard to tell."
"What do you truly want out of life, Clark?" Thomas continued. "And before you answer that answer another one first because it might make that first one a bit clearer. What if anything in life do you feel is worth dying for?"
Beginning to walk forward toward Clark he added, "And one last one. If you had the power to do anything what would you do?"
Clark stared into Thomas' eyes and felt the anger begin to drain out of him to be replaced by shame. "Stop people like me," he whispered.
"You're the only one with that power, Clark. So, stop."
Jonathan walked up to Clark's side and laying his hand on Clark's shoulder said, "Let me take that ring, son."
"No!" Thomas said forcefully. "It'll always be an escape route unless he deals with it now. If he truly wants to stop like he says then he needs to be the one to do it. He needs to take the ring off himself."
Thomas stepped in front of Clark and simply reached out his hand palm up.
Clark met his eyes for a long moment and the two seemed to communicate silently. Finally he grabbed the ring and slid it off of his finger. He held it in front of his face for a moment looking at the stone and then dropped it into Thomas' outstretched hand.
Almost immediately Thomas could see the change come over Clark as his eyes took on a look of surprise and he stumbled losing his balance and would have fallen if not for Jonathan. Clark began to cry and Jonathan held him tightly to his chest repeating over and over again, "It'll be all right. Your home now."
"How touching," said a voice from behind them.
Thomas spun around and was confronted by a couple of older men who had entered the room. One of them was tall, muscular, with graying, blond hair and an expensive suit. He held a gun pointed straight at Thomas.
"Morgan Edge, I presume," Thomas said.
"You have me at a disadvantage," Edge replied.
"Yeah," Thomas replied, "that happens a lot."
Edge got a slight smile on his lips at that. "You have guts, kid. Stupid as hell, but guts. I take it from the Waltons moment we're witnessing here that our junior enforcer has had a crisis of conscience. I can't allow that you know."
"Not a lot you can do about it," Thomas said matter of factly.
"I can kill you all," Edge replied conversationally.
"You could try," Thomas replied his voice growing eerily cold along with his eyes.
Edge hesitated for a moment at the change in Thomas' manner and pulled the trigger a half second after he had originally intended. This was all Thomas needed to move to one side and throw the heavy glass ashtray that he had palmed from one of the tables that hadn't been knocked over.
The ashtray took Edge full in the forehead snapping his head back and causing him to loose his grip on his gun and almost on his consciousness as he stumbled backwards. The other men went for their guns in that instant only to have them forcibly removed from their hands and themselves hurtled backwards into the walls by an unseen force. When everything came to a stop Clark stood alone in the middle of the room in front of Thomas.
He turned to Thomas and said, "Thank you. I don't know if you realize exactly how much you did for me, but thank you."
"Your very welcome, Clark," Thomas replied.
"You took an awful chance though. I could have hurt you pretty badly."
"I didn't take any chances, Clark," Thomas said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thin metal case like the one Jonathan had earlier. He handed the case to Clark. "I've met your parents. If they raised you I knew you would do the right thing."
********************************
That evening the Kents were together as a family for the first time in several weeks. There was a lot of laughing and crying and lecturing involved, but after awhile things settled down and everyone began to turn in for bed. Clark and Thomas sat together in Clark's "fortress" in the barn talking.
"But you had the Kryptonite. Why didn't you just stop me when you had the chance?"
"It would have been a temporary fix at best Clark. You had to stop yourself, or you probably wouldn't have come home even on your own. You weren't under the influence of the Red Kryptonite when you decided to leave after all."
"No, just a whole lot of stupidity and self pity," Clark said glumly.
"Hey," a voice from the stairs said, "if you weren't those things you wouldn't be a teenager."
Clark and Thomas turned to see Pete and Lana standing there.
"I think I should turn in now, Clark. I have to start back to New York in the morning."
As he passed Pete he addressed him while nodding toward Lana and Clark, "I bet you probably have a lot of things you need to take care of tomorrow too, don't you, Pete?"
"Yeah," Pete said laughing, "I'll be going in just a few minutes."
When Thomas had left Pete turned to Clark. "I did just want to stop for a minute, Clark, and remind you that if you needed to talk later you know I'm always there."
"Thanks, Pete, I appreciate that, but I think that Lana and I are long overdue for a rather involved conversation right now."
"Say no more, buddy. I'll catch you tomorrow."
A strangled gasp of breath made both turn around. Standing near the loft's window was Eric holding Lana from behind with his hand wrapped around her throat.
End - Part 7
"You seem to know me, but I don't know you," Clark said. "Let me guess, you're with the old fossil and the junior sidekick over there."
"If you mean your father and your best friend, then yes, I am."
"He's not my father, " Clark said getting an evil scowl on his face. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to meet my father."
"Maybe not, but he's the only father you've got. A lot of people don't even have that."
"Spare me the bleeding heart rap," Clark said stepping closer. "I was just a pack mule to keep his farm going."
"Sure, that's why he spent time with you going fishing and playing catch and your mother held you when you cried and made you your favorite foods," Thomas replied circling around and keeping his distance from Clark.
"Alright," interrupted Jonathan, "I think that's about enough."
Jonathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal box. Suddenly he screamed and dropped it to the ground where it lay glowing red and smoking slightly from the fresh weld along its seam.
"You really are a one trick pony, aren't you old man?" Clark said with a sneer on his face. "Did you really think that I was stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice?"
"No," Thomas said, "he was just hoping to God he could get his son back any way he could."
Clark whirled around on Thomas and said hotly, "I told you, I'm not his son!"
"Then why did you run away when you hurt him and Martha. It couldn't have been because you cared could it?"
"I didn't run, I left. I wanted to finally be free. To be happy. No more orders from him and no more orders from that stupid voice in my head. I wanted to finally be my own man. Do what I want to do when I want to do it."
"You want to be free? You want to be happy?" Thomas asked. "Well, first you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and lose the attitude. You're still a slave. If you want to be free then lose the ring." Thomas added pointing to Clark's hand. "Until you can do that you're just so much talk controlled by a lifeless piece of rock."
"I'm not a slave to the ring!" Clark shouted. "It just brings out the real me without all of the guilt baggage attached."
"If you were truly free you wouldn't need the ring to get rid of the guilt. You'd own your responsibilities and deal with them."
"You don't know what you're talking about. You have no idea of the pain I've dealt with in my life."
"Pain can either break you or make you unbreakable, Clark. You decide. That ring only keeps it at bay temporarily. "
The two had been circling each other slowly, almost unconsciously. Clark suddenly blurred forward and grabbed Thomas. Thomas instantly tried to shift and use Clark's strength and momentum against him, but found he couldn't move the teen.
"Saigo," Clark said indicating the unconscious Asian, "got me with that a couple of times when we first met. No more." He picked Thomas up and threw him against a table several feet away. Thomas tucked and rolled as he landed and came up in a crouch.
"Not such a tough guy now are you?" Clark asked walking toward him.
"We both know there's no way I can beat you Clark. It's not even a contest. It's just some cruel game the school bully plays. Is that what your "freedom" has made you? A bully? Someone who doesn't take what he wants because he wants it, but because he enjoys hurting others because they are smaller and weaker? Then maybe you're right and your "father" would be proud."
Clark growled and crossed the room in a nanosecond slamming into Thomas and sending him backwards into the far wall.
"Shut up!" Clark screamed. "You don't know what it feels like to be me and have to be in control every single minute of my life. Every. Single. Minute! I could kill you just by looking at you. I could snap someone in half if I'm just a bit distracted one day."
"No, you're right," Thomas said climbing to his feet, "I don't have any idea what that is like. No one does. No one on this entire planet knows what you have to go through and for that I'm sorry. But it doesn't give you an excuse to hurt others or do what you want damning the consequences. There's a right and a wrong in the universe, Clark, and the difference isn't that hard to tell."
"What do you truly want out of life, Clark?" Thomas continued. "And before you answer that answer another one first because it might make that first one a bit clearer. What if anything in life do you feel is worth dying for?"
Beginning to walk forward toward Clark he added, "And one last one. If you had the power to do anything what would you do?"
Clark stared into Thomas' eyes and felt the anger begin to drain out of him to be replaced by shame. "Stop people like me," he whispered.
"You're the only one with that power, Clark. So, stop."
Jonathan walked up to Clark's side and laying his hand on Clark's shoulder said, "Let me take that ring, son."
"No!" Thomas said forcefully. "It'll always be an escape route unless he deals with it now. If he truly wants to stop like he says then he needs to be the one to do it. He needs to take the ring off himself."
Thomas stepped in front of Clark and simply reached out his hand palm up.
Clark met his eyes for a long moment and the two seemed to communicate silently. Finally he grabbed the ring and slid it off of his finger. He held it in front of his face for a moment looking at the stone and then dropped it into Thomas' outstretched hand.
Almost immediately Thomas could see the change come over Clark as his eyes took on a look of surprise and he stumbled losing his balance and would have fallen if not for Jonathan. Clark began to cry and Jonathan held him tightly to his chest repeating over and over again, "It'll be all right. Your home now."
"How touching," said a voice from behind them.
Thomas spun around and was confronted by a couple of older men who had entered the room. One of them was tall, muscular, with graying, blond hair and an expensive suit. He held a gun pointed straight at Thomas.
"Morgan Edge, I presume," Thomas said.
"You have me at a disadvantage," Edge replied.
"Yeah," Thomas replied, "that happens a lot."
Edge got a slight smile on his lips at that. "You have guts, kid. Stupid as hell, but guts. I take it from the Waltons moment we're witnessing here that our junior enforcer has had a crisis of conscience. I can't allow that you know."
"Not a lot you can do about it," Thomas said matter of factly.
"I can kill you all," Edge replied conversationally.
"You could try," Thomas replied his voice growing eerily cold along with his eyes.
Edge hesitated for a moment at the change in Thomas' manner and pulled the trigger a half second after he had originally intended. This was all Thomas needed to move to one side and throw the heavy glass ashtray that he had palmed from one of the tables that hadn't been knocked over.
The ashtray took Edge full in the forehead snapping his head back and causing him to loose his grip on his gun and almost on his consciousness as he stumbled backwards. The other men went for their guns in that instant only to have them forcibly removed from their hands and themselves hurtled backwards into the walls by an unseen force. When everything came to a stop Clark stood alone in the middle of the room in front of Thomas.
He turned to Thomas and said, "Thank you. I don't know if you realize exactly how much you did for me, but thank you."
"Your very welcome, Clark," Thomas replied.
"You took an awful chance though. I could have hurt you pretty badly."
"I didn't take any chances, Clark," Thomas said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thin metal case like the one Jonathan had earlier. He handed the case to Clark. "I've met your parents. If they raised you I knew you would do the right thing."
********************************
That evening the Kents were together as a family for the first time in several weeks. There was a lot of laughing and crying and lecturing involved, but after awhile things settled down and everyone began to turn in for bed. Clark and Thomas sat together in Clark's "fortress" in the barn talking.
"But you had the Kryptonite. Why didn't you just stop me when you had the chance?"
"It would have been a temporary fix at best Clark. You had to stop yourself, or you probably wouldn't have come home even on your own. You weren't under the influence of the Red Kryptonite when you decided to leave after all."
"No, just a whole lot of stupidity and self pity," Clark said glumly.
"Hey," a voice from the stairs said, "if you weren't those things you wouldn't be a teenager."
Clark and Thomas turned to see Pete and Lana standing there.
"I think I should turn in now, Clark. I have to start back to New York in the morning."
As he passed Pete he addressed him while nodding toward Lana and Clark, "I bet you probably have a lot of things you need to take care of tomorrow too, don't you, Pete?"
"Yeah," Pete said laughing, "I'll be going in just a few minutes."
When Thomas had left Pete turned to Clark. "I did just want to stop for a minute, Clark, and remind you that if you needed to talk later you know I'm always there."
"Thanks, Pete, I appreciate that, but I think that Lana and I are long overdue for a rather involved conversation right now."
"Say no more, buddy. I'll catch you tomorrow."
A strangled gasp of breath made both turn around. Standing near the loft's window was Eric holding Lana from behind with his hand wrapped around her throat.
End - Part 7