INT. LEXCORP PLANT - LABORATORY
A tittle of drool dribbles out the side of Lex's mouth and streaks back toward his ear, his head slumped back. Unconscious, Lex sits bound to a cold steel chair, the thick interweaved threads of the industrial rope digging into the bare sides of his chest, his shirt having been removed. Mercy sits a few feet to his left and similarly torpid, bound to a chair of her own. Unlike Lex, her clothing ensemble seems relatively intact.
Doctor Victor Fries kneels down next to Lex, swabbing his arm with some alcohol and cotton. Quickly jabbing the sterilized area with a small syringe, Fries takes a small sample of blood from Lex's arm.
Satisfied with the sample, Fries stands up and walks over to a sterile table with some lab equipment on it, including a high-tech microscope. He takes a sample of Lex's blood from the syringe and investigates it under the microscope.
LEX
Your life is over. you know that.
Fries doesn't even bother to look up.
VICTOR FRIES Apologies, my well-off friend, but I've long since accepted my kismet.
Lex's eyes shake in his skull, still suffering the affects of Fries' assault.
LEX
What the hell did you do to me?
VICTOR FRIES
Forgive me, once again, but I must question the logic in asking such a question. What is done is done. It is not dependent on your knowing it.
LEX
I want to know!
Fries looks up from the microscope, taking a long, slow, breath. He seems tired.
VICTOR FRIES
I promised to work to cure your body of its malady, and so I fulfilled that promise.
Fries motions to the microscope.
VICTOR FRIES
Your blood work checks out. You are. healed, Lex Luthor.
LEX
::confused:: I. I don't understand. What are you talking about?
VICTOR FRIES
I injected you with the serum your father's company developed.
LEX
No!
VICTOR FRIES I regret my actions, but time has left me with an ever dwindling number of choices with each passing moment. I knew you would object.
LEX
You're damn right I object! You had no right to do that!
Lex wrenches his body in the chair, more out of anger than an attempt to escape the bindings.
VICTOR FRIES
I am a Doctor. My duty is to do everything in my power to heal my patients.
LEX
I sign your paychecks! Your duty was to do whatever the hell I told you to do!
VICTOR FRIES
And so it is a great comfort to me that your judicious mind will take solace in your unremitting proclivity to expelling your father's hand from atop your head. You neither accepted nor gave in to his despotic will. It was simply out of your hands.
LEX
Is that supposed to make me feel better?
VICTOR FRIES
I'm a medical physician, not a psychiatrist.
LEX
When I'm done with you, you won't be either. You'll never practice medicine again!
VICTOR FRIES
After today, I won't have too. thanks to you.
Fries stands up and walks across the room to where the large chamber has come to life, the hum of power flowing through it reverberating throughout the lab. Almost affectionately, he lays his hand against the tank, closing his eyes and smiling lightly.
VICTOR FRIES
.Thanks to this; the Static Life Chamber. I must thank you, Lex Luthor. I owe you everything. Without you, this would not have been possible.
LEX
You used me. You used me to get it built.
VICTOR FRIES
Another one of many actions that I do regret. I simply had no other choice.
LEX
So, are you going to tell me what it really does, then?
VICTOR FRIES
Oh, it's exactly what I told you it was; an actual life sustaining chamber. Anyone inside is held in perfect suspended animation, virtually frozen in time.
LEX
I don't understand.
VICTOR FRIES What's there to understand?
LEX
The plan the whole time was to put me into the chamber, to buy you the time you needed to discover the cure on your own.
VICTOR FRIES
Precisely.
LEX
Then why inject me with my father's serum? If it works, why kidnap me and initiate a plant lockdown?
VICTOR FRIES
Because. the chamber itself is the easy part. It's just a bevy of mechanical parts and nuts and bolts. It's a containment unit. The Static Life molecule is what makes it all work, and it takes time to create. It took over a year just to synthesize enough molecules to fill this single tank. If I only had more time, perhaps. but time is something I am simply not afforded much of these days.
Lex looks at Fries like a little boy staring at a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.
VICTOR FRIES
You must believe me. I want you to understand.
He honestly does.
VICTOR FRIES
If I had had the time necessary to synthesize more molecules, enough for a second chamber.
LEX
A second chamber?
VICTOR FRIES
If I had only had the time, I would have built another, but your condition was worsening far too quickly. You didn't have that long and.
He stops himself and turns away. He can't even look at Lex.
VICTOR FRIES
. neither does she.
Fries mouths the words with such and anguish, such a concentrated pain, the puzzle completes itself.
LEX
Your wife?
VICTOR FRIES
::nods:: My Nora.
Fries lays his hand over his heart as if holding an open wound shut to keep himself from bleeding to death.
VICTOR FRIES
When she was initially diagnosed, she was only given a year to live, two at most. I have spent every conscious moment, since then, working to keep my wife with me, by my side.
Victor turns back around, standing tall, defiant.
VICTOR FRIES My wife, my Nora, was diagnosed with McGregor's Syndrome six years ago.
Fries again diverts his eyes.
VICTOR FRIES But as hard as I have worked, every moment of every day, there came a time when I realized. she was leaving me.
A sense of dismay is quickly, very suddenly, replaced by an intense rage.
VICTOR FRIES
. No, she was being taken from me! And there was not a damn thing I could do about it! Time is a savage, ravenous, enemy. It eats away at us despite any and all efforts. It is the disease of all our lives that no man can ever cure. until now.
Fries looks back at the chamber.
VICTOR FRIES
I knew I would not have enough time to save her, to find the cure. but given more time. Think of how modern medicine has advanced in the past ten years, in the past five years. A cure will be found, in time, and now, because of this chamber my Nora will have all the time the world needs.
MERCY GRAVES
All that time won't do you any good after I finish putting my boot through your ugly face.
Lex and Victor are both surprised to see Mercy awake. She looks genuinely angry.
VICTOR FRIES
My lovely young lady, if I cared even the smallest of modicums about my fate, I would not be standing before you here today. My wife is all that matters to me.
MERCY GRAVES
Sentimental idiot.
VICTOR FRIES
Perhaps, to you, to someone who has never felt love like I have. Even before I met her, I knew I loved her. She was there with me, wherever I went, like a second shadow to me. It was my faith that she was out there, somewhere, looking for me as I searched for her, that affected my every decision in life because I knew that when I did finally come to know her, I wanted to stand before her the best man that I could be. That is what she deserved. That is what my Nora deserved. I owed it to her then to be every bit the man that I could be and nothing has changed since then. For her love, I owe her everything that I am. I owe her my life.
Fries finishes his speech and looks back at the chamber.
VICTOR FRIES
That is why it doesn't matter what happens to me. Once the chamber is fully activated with Nora inside, and her condition is stable, I will release you and surrender myself to the authorities.
Fries looks over at Mercy with a renewed determination in his stance and expression.
VICTOR FRIES
. but my Nora will live.
LEX
You're forgetting one thing, Fries. It's my chamber. Once you surrender yourself, what's to prevent me from just shutting it down?
VICTOR FRIES
I have been given certain assurances that the chamber's power supply will be maintained.
LEX
What kind of assurances?
LIONEL
The best kind.
Lionel Luthor steps out from behind the Static Life Chamber, a fiendish grin etched into his face.
Lex's jaw clenches.
A tittle of drool dribbles out the side of Lex's mouth and streaks back toward his ear, his head slumped back. Unconscious, Lex sits bound to a cold steel chair, the thick interweaved threads of the industrial rope digging into the bare sides of his chest, his shirt having been removed. Mercy sits a few feet to his left and similarly torpid, bound to a chair of her own. Unlike Lex, her clothing ensemble seems relatively intact.
Doctor Victor Fries kneels down next to Lex, swabbing his arm with some alcohol and cotton. Quickly jabbing the sterilized area with a small syringe, Fries takes a small sample of blood from Lex's arm.
Satisfied with the sample, Fries stands up and walks over to a sterile table with some lab equipment on it, including a high-tech microscope. He takes a sample of Lex's blood from the syringe and investigates it under the microscope.
LEX
Your life is over. you know that.
Fries doesn't even bother to look up.
VICTOR FRIES Apologies, my well-off friend, but I've long since accepted my kismet.
Lex's eyes shake in his skull, still suffering the affects of Fries' assault.
LEX
What the hell did you do to me?
VICTOR FRIES
Forgive me, once again, but I must question the logic in asking such a question. What is done is done. It is not dependent on your knowing it.
LEX
I want to know!
Fries looks up from the microscope, taking a long, slow, breath. He seems tired.
VICTOR FRIES
I promised to work to cure your body of its malady, and so I fulfilled that promise.
Fries motions to the microscope.
VICTOR FRIES
Your blood work checks out. You are. healed, Lex Luthor.
LEX
::confused:: I. I don't understand. What are you talking about?
VICTOR FRIES
I injected you with the serum your father's company developed.
LEX
No!
VICTOR FRIES I regret my actions, but time has left me with an ever dwindling number of choices with each passing moment. I knew you would object.
LEX
You're damn right I object! You had no right to do that!
Lex wrenches his body in the chair, more out of anger than an attempt to escape the bindings.
VICTOR FRIES
I am a Doctor. My duty is to do everything in my power to heal my patients.
LEX
I sign your paychecks! Your duty was to do whatever the hell I told you to do!
VICTOR FRIES
And so it is a great comfort to me that your judicious mind will take solace in your unremitting proclivity to expelling your father's hand from atop your head. You neither accepted nor gave in to his despotic will. It was simply out of your hands.
LEX
Is that supposed to make me feel better?
VICTOR FRIES
I'm a medical physician, not a psychiatrist.
LEX
When I'm done with you, you won't be either. You'll never practice medicine again!
VICTOR FRIES
After today, I won't have too. thanks to you.
Fries stands up and walks across the room to where the large chamber has come to life, the hum of power flowing through it reverberating throughout the lab. Almost affectionately, he lays his hand against the tank, closing his eyes and smiling lightly.
VICTOR FRIES
.Thanks to this; the Static Life Chamber. I must thank you, Lex Luthor. I owe you everything. Without you, this would not have been possible.
LEX
You used me. You used me to get it built.
VICTOR FRIES
Another one of many actions that I do regret. I simply had no other choice.
LEX
So, are you going to tell me what it really does, then?
VICTOR FRIES
Oh, it's exactly what I told you it was; an actual life sustaining chamber. Anyone inside is held in perfect suspended animation, virtually frozen in time.
LEX
I don't understand.
VICTOR FRIES What's there to understand?
LEX
The plan the whole time was to put me into the chamber, to buy you the time you needed to discover the cure on your own.
VICTOR FRIES
Precisely.
LEX
Then why inject me with my father's serum? If it works, why kidnap me and initiate a plant lockdown?
VICTOR FRIES
Because. the chamber itself is the easy part. It's just a bevy of mechanical parts and nuts and bolts. It's a containment unit. The Static Life molecule is what makes it all work, and it takes time to create. It took over a year just to synthesize enough molecules to fill this single tank. If I only had more time, perhaps. but time is something I am simply not afforded much of these days.
Lex looks at Fries like a little boy staring at a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.
VICTOR FRIES
You must believe me. I want you to understand.
He honestly does.
VICTOR FRIES
If I had had the time necessary to synthesize more molecules, enough for a second chamber.
LEX
A second chamber?
VICTOR FRIES
If I had only had the time, I would have built another, but your condition was worsening far too quickly. You didn't have that long and.
He stops himself and turns away. He can't even look at Lex.
VICTOR FRIES
. neither does she.
Fries mouths the words with such and anguish, such a concentrated pain, the puzzle completes itself.
LEX
Your wife?
VICTOR FRIES
::nods:: My Nora.
Fries lays his hand over his heart as if holding an open wound shut to keep himself from bleeding to death.
VICTOR FRIES
When she was initially diagnosed, she was only given a year to live, two at most. I have spent every conscious moment, since then, working to keep my wife with me, by my side.
Victor turns back around, standing tall, defiant.
VICTOR FRIES My wife, my Nora, was diagnosed with McGregor's Syndrome six years ago.
Fries again diverts his eyes.
VICTOR FRIES But as hard as I have worked, every moment of every day, there came a time when I realized. she was leaving me.
A sense of dismay is quickly, very suddenly, replaced by an intense rage.
VICTOR FRIES
. No, she was being taken from me! And there was not a damn thing I could do about it! Time is a savage, ravenous, enemy. It eats away at us despite any and all efforts. It is the disease of all our lives that no man can ever cure. until now.
Fries looks back at the chamber.
VICTOR FRIES
I knew I would not have enough time to save her, to find the cure. but given more time. Think of how modern medicine has advanced in the past ten years, in the past five years. A cure will be found, in time, and now, because of this chamber my Nora will have all the time the world needs.
MERCY GRAVES
All that time won't do you any good after I finish putting my boot through your ugly face.
Lex and Victor are both surprised to see Mercy awake. She looks genuinely angry.
VICTOR FRIES
My lovely young lady, if I cared even the smallest of modicums about my fate, I would not be standing before you here today. My wife is all that matters to me.
MERCY GRAVES
Sentimental idiot.
VICTOR FRIES
Perhaps, to you, to someone who has never felt love like I have. Even before I met her, I knew I loved her. She was there with me, wherever I went, like a second shadow to me. It was my faith that she was out there, somewhere, looking for me as I searched for her, that affected my every decision in life because I knew that when I did finally come to know her, I wanted to stand before her the best man that I could be. That is what she deserved. That is what my Nora deserved. I owed it to her then to be every bit the man that I could be and nothing has changed since then. For her love, I owe her everything that I am. I owe her my life.
Fries finishes his speech and looks back at the chamber.
VICTOR FRIES
That is why it doesn't matter what happens to me. Once the chamber is fully activated with Nora inside, and her condition is stable, I will release you and surrender myself to the authorities.
Fries looks over at Mercy with a renewed determination in his stance and expression.
VICTOR FRIES
. but my Nora will live.
LEX
You're forgetting one thing, Fries. It's my chamber. Once you surrender yourself, what's to prevent me from just shutting it down?
VICTOR FRIES
I have been given certain assurances that the chamber's power supply will be maintained.
LEX
What kind of assurances?
LIONEL
The best kind.
Lionel Luthor steps out from behind the Static Life Chamber, a fiendish grin etched into his face.
Lex's jaw clenches.