Chapter 18 – Fallout.
A/N- I had hoped to finish this story with this chapter, but I think an Epilogue will wrap things up nicely. (next chapter) Thank you soooo much for your reviews, comments and encouragement. Although I'm clearly running off the beaten paths of SV and MX and recreating their histories, I hope this chapter answers more questions than creates them, although, I tend to always leave a thread or two hanging, just in case.... ; )
***************
All was silent in the Tribunal's chambers. An ever-present plume of smoke and dust drifted over the remains of the ceiling that had collapsed into the Tribunal Chamber. A feeble ray of sunlight, captured by a window on the floor above, cast its sickly beam like a searchlight on the scene of devastation.
A bedraggled, dusty, bald-headed young man wearing a wrinkled tan Oxford shirt and grey dress slacks clambered slowly over the pile of rubble. Shoulders rounded with mental and physical weariness, Lex Luthor slowly and carefully stepped through the mountain of beams, shattered plaster and broken glass that had nearly claimed his life, meticulously retracing his steps. "Ah, there you are," Lex thought. He had almost stepped over the crushed remnants of the metal chairs that he and Adam had earlier been restrained in; the place where he had last seen Queu. A fifteen foot 12 by 8 metal girder now lay over the place where the four of them had momentarily huddled for protection. The chairs would not have held the weight of the ceiling off them had they stayed. Lex raised his eyebrows and whistled softly as he sat down on a shattered marble block as if to have a heart to heart conversation with an old friend. He pensively toyed with his phone.
He thought of his last glimpse of Queu, his chief of Research, how the older man's grey hair formed a disheveled mane around his creased face. He could still see the old chap, hazel eyes sparkling with childish fascination at his transparent hands, oblivious to the danger above him. Thinking further back, he remembered the look of acknowledgment that the Prosecutor had shot at him at the moment he had recognized him as the face under Queu's mask. Lex couldn't deny that Adam was right, but if he wasn't, there would be 2 more bodies under that rubble. Lex wearily rubbed his temple with the phone he held in his right hand. His index finger pressed two of the keys together and they made a soft harmonic beep.
"OUCH!" Lex hissed quietly as a sharp projection from his phone suddenly stung the soft flesh it contacted beyond his right eye. Lex gingerly dropped the phone into his other hand and examined it. He could see no sharp edges. Lex gently pressed around the injured area near his right temple. The wound was minute. Already the pain had subsided. Lex shrugged off his annoyance and toyed absently with the row of buttons that Queu had shown him when he first gave him the phone. A miniature CD slid into view. Lex stared at it fascinated, then unobtrusively dropped the one inch disk into his change-pocket. On a whim, Lex dialed Queu's laboratory speed dial number on the number pad and filled with anticipation placed the receiver in his ear.
********************
Lionel Luthor and Adam Kane casually sat in adjacent chairs in the Tribunal's spectator galley, looking out over the ruins, watching Lex as they waited for Adam's team to return.
"Well Adam, that went well, didn't it?" Lionel commented. "I did receive your encoded message through Lex of all people, but never expected a personal visit from you! Did he recognize you?"
The dark-haired scientist raised his shaggy eyebrows and allowed himself a smile as he stretched his lanky frame. "No." Adam answered. "I thought there was a sign of recognition when he first saw me at the mansion, but it turns out that Helen is an avid collector of my literary works. Any recognition was attributed to having looked at the books or the bibliography on the back."
Lionel stroked his trimmed beard with his thumb and index finger and studied Adam. "I never told Lex about the operation you performed on him after Julian died. As you can see, your operation did stabilize his mind from his psychotic break. A couple years later though, when we visited Smallville, Lex got caught in a meteor shower. He lost his hair but his immunity and intellect has been off the scale ever since. Lex is extremely intelligent and compassionate, charismatic, compulsive, has a knack for the stock market and horrible luck with women, just like you."
Adam considered Lionel's assessment and smiled gently. "I think I should be flattered at that profile, Lionel. We were young and idealistic back then. Perhaps I was too eager to fulfill your request to implant your son with my own DNA sequence for intellectual capacity. It made sense at the time, given the child's condition and the resources at the time. I was glad to give him my genetic platform so he could obtain some semblance of mental stability." Adam looked back at Lex then back at Lionel. "It's funny you should mention similarities between Lex and me. Emma had mentioned that during her Psionic episodes she got confused between Lex's and my identities. She was unable to distinguish the difference between Lex and me, said that we kept merging with each other, as if we were the same person, yet uniquely different. It gave her a headache. At the time we attributed this to her head injury." Adam's eyes brightened with excitement. "So, there must be a physiological tag that Psionics use once inside the matrix of a human mind to identify their subject. So that must mean that Psionic ability resides or is based within a physiological matrix!"
Lionel placed a hand on Adam's arm. Now, now Adam. Let's not go rushing off to the lab with your newest inspiration." He shook his head, grinning. "You haven't changed at all."
Adam calmed himself. "While I don't think Lex would have developed New Mutant powers like my other patients who received the animal and molecular and atomic injections, who knows what exposure to the meteor did to enhance my operation." Adam looked back at Lex and his gaze softened. "Working closely with Lex the past couple days, I've observed that he is a steady, intelligent, compassionate man. I couldn't want a better son, Lionel. You must be proud."
*****************
"...at the sound of the beep please leave your name, number and your last message."
A lump formed at the back of Lex's throat at the familiar sound of Queu's clipped voice. He had changed the passcode as he had expected. Clearing his voice resolutely, Lex answered, "Lex, 3, your last message." There was a click as the voice recognition system activated a second message. Lex listened intently. He knew that the message would not repeat itself.
"Lex, if you are listening to this then you have most likely seen me killed. I applaud your native cynicism and audacity to try to call a dead man at home. It grieves me that I will not be reporting in for work tomorrow. I have appreciated your acceptance and sponsorship of me despite the disapproval of both your father and fiancé. I hope that the work I have done for you serves you well. You have a great destiny ahead of you. By your side, I would have seen to it that you succeeded in attaining that destiny, but now all I can offer you is my legacy - I have left you all of the technology that you have witnessed during the last few days.
"Trust no one, Lex. Your life and sanity depends on it. Your greatest enemies will be within your own family and your own circle of friends. Among my parting gifts to you, I have prepared an injection of nanoprobes and built them into the phone that you are holding. They are programmed to build within the human body a Psionic shield, among other things." Lex thoughtfully rubbed his right temple as he continued to listen. "As you know Lex, Dr. Adam Kane has created among his army of New Mutants a species that can invade and influence the human mind called Psionics." Lex nodded. "I have devised a simple defense that repels such an invasion and have successfully tested it on myself. Should you desire to make use of it, you need only press the zero and one button together while keeping the phone in contact with your skin." Lex stared ahead thoughtfully. Was Queu using him as a lab experiment? Queu's voice dropped in pitch so that Lex recognized the voice of the Prosecutor, Mason Eckhart. "Trust no one, Lex Luthor. You know who I am now. In time, you will discover my legacy to you...."
"I know you're still alive, Queu. Will I ever see you again?" Lex said softly, hoping for his chief of Research to answer.
"...you never know, Sir." Queu's voice replied next to him. Lex nearly jumped out of his skin, he stood up and looked around apprehensively. There was no one in sight except for his father and Adam across the way. All was silent except for their quiet conversation that Lex discovered he could hear perfectly well from where he was now standing. Looking about him, he noticed that the room they were in formed a perfect parabola. When he stood up, he was in perfect alignment with the sounds within the building's perfect curve. Glancing down at his feet, he saw were remnants of the interactive holographic array that had been built into the ceiling. Some of the lights were still blinking. Lex examined the panel thoughtfully then picked up what looked like a small circuit board that seemed to have its own power source, and put it in the pocket opposite the one that held the mysterious CD. Lex stooped back down on the rubble pile to where he couldn't hear the conversation across the room, knowing that if he couldn't hear Adam and his dad, they couldn't hear him. Lex then made a special call to his cleanup crew.
*******************
Lionel glanced quickly across the amphitheatre at Lex and noted that he standing, examining a tile-shaped piece of debris.
Lionel gazed at Adam with a hint of bitterness in his smile. "Compassion is not a Luthor trait, Adam. Lex's compassion has been his weakness and he must establish control over it. I've worked for years on this. At least now, he is finally beginning to push back. So many years, Adam."
"Lionel, it was either perform the operation or to have your only child committed to an asylum. It was a risk." Adam reminded his old friend.
Lionel sighed deeply and nodded. "Perhaps if Lex had died, instead of Julian.... Do you have any time altering New Mutants?"
Lex's eyes widened and he froze where he stood, grinding his teeth together to keep in the howl of rage that had been threatening to escape for years.
Adam glanced askance at the long-haired man sitting next to him. "Don't ask questions that you don't want to know the answer to, old friend," he said evasively.
"It's called tough love, Adam. We fathers have to exercise it on stubborn sons." Lionel added with a certain edge in his tone.
The two men sat in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts.
"It certainly could have been worse, Lionel." Adam said. "I'd have to say that we have met all but one of our goals."
"Eckhart." Lionel stated matter of factly, watching Adam's face darken in response. Lionel continued. "I was wondering about him, Adam. Did it seem to you that he was trying to defend my son, while trying to sentence me to death?" Lionel's expression was curious and thoughtful as he played with the perverse, intriguing idea. From his audio vantage point Lex looked down and smirked wryly at his father's comment.
"I fear that he may have contaminated your son, Lionel."
"What do you mean?"
"Eckhart's last appearance was a hologram." Adam hesitated.
"Yes, pray continue." Lionel answered, masking his impatience.
"And so was Mr. Queu's last appearance in this room. The holograms both had the same mark on them, the same originator." Adam leaned toward Lionel intently. "And Queu was not a hologram before they hauled me out of the cell. Lionel, I believe that Lex's Chief of Research was Eckhart himself!"
Lex turned his back on the two men, staring ahead thoughtfully. He had figured that out too. He wondered what Adam and his father would have in store for him now that he was deemed 'contaminated'.
Lionel's gaze was fierce. "Are you sure about this, Adam?" He asked in a calm reasoning tone that belied the intensity in his eyes. Adam nodded, his coal black eyes were shadows on his tense, lined face.
"So where is he now?" Lionel asked pointedly.
Adam shrugged. "That man has more escapes than Houdini." Across the room, Lex turned his back so they wouldn't see him smile.
"Do you think that phone he gave Lex might give us any clues?" Lionel asked.
"Perhaps." Adam replied somberly. "There's no telling with Eckhart."
"Do you think he's with the Dominion?" Lionel asked.
Adam shook his head. "I have contacts there. Eckhart undoubtedly has a sponsor with one of the other Entities or Factions."
"Such as?" Lionel asked. Adam looked quickly at his old friend in time to see an unmistakable glint in the other's brown eyes. Adam allowed himself a ghost of a smile.
"Certainly not our Alliance, Lionel. I've heard rumors that there is a high-tech faction called the Guardian, which if it exists, I have yet to substantiate."
Halfway across the massive arena, Lex stared into the rubble without seeing it as he considered the additional clues that he was overhearing. 'Of course," he thought. "Queu had joked more than once about being my 'illegal guardian.' I wouldn't be surprised if Adam is on the right trail." He absently rubbed at his right temple to ease a vague tingling feeling.
Adam watched Lionel's expression carefully. He seemed to be mulling over a thought, then he met Adam's gaze.
"Adam, we'll need to alter his memories for his protection, of course. Make it so that whatever his relationship was with this Mr. Queu or Eckhart, that thinking of him leaves a sense of uneasiness and mistrust. Can you arrange that?" Lionel's dark eyes glinted maliciously. "Or perhaps he can be programmed to track Eckhart down and put him out of the picture. Lex is certainly capable, since he is so much like yourself, in terms of both genius and resources." Adam glanced to the side as if looking for someone then the two men lapsed back into thoughtful silence.
Lex frowned as he tossed the tile back into the rubble and looked directly across the room at Adam with a hint of anger marring his usually calm demeanor. Lex then started picking his way off the heap of debris. "Alter my memory?" Lex thought angrily as he strode toward the place where his father and Adam sat.
Adam sat silently for several moments, looking every now and then at Lionel, who waited like a vulture for him to speak. "It's not that easy, Lionel." Adam finally answered. "Think of the repercussions. The human mind can be programmed by various therapies: drugs, shock, force, constant persuasive influence-"
"Not if your subject is unwilling." Lex stood behind them, arms folded, his mouth set in a firm line, his blue eyes filled with reproach. "Really, Adam. And I was just beginning to think you a decent sort of person despite your ties to my father."
Lionel turned around and raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Lex, we weren't expecting you to eavesdrop on our conversation."
Lex stared accusingly at his father without saying a word. Adam's eyes acknowledged someone behind Lex. Lex whirled around and found Emma staring at him warily, her expressive grey eyes were fully black.
"Emma," Lex said persuasively, raising his hands in front of him. "You don't have to do this." The Telempath didn't reply but fixed her unnerving coal black eyes on Lex's blue-gray ones. After a moment, Emma's eyes widened with alarm and she broke contact. Lex watched the red-head inquisitively as she sighed shakily, stepped back and shot a look of appeal at Adam.
"Are you all right, Emma?" Lex asked gently, reaching out to take her hand.
Emma breathed deeply and closed her eyes. She waved Lex away. "I'm fine, thank you," she told him, trying not to offend him. Emma looked past Lex and noticed that Lionel was studying her with great interest. She looked up at Adam, who had stepped next to her.
Emma smiled unconvincingly. "I just had another 'episode' Adam," she said softly.
Adam gave her shoulders a little squeeze. "It was barely noticed," he replied softly. "Lex?"
Lex Luthor looked inquiringly at Adam. "Is there a problem?" He asked.
"I'm sorry about Mr. Queu. I'm sure he was a valued employee." Adam replied, watching his expression.
Lex's countenance remained calm, his eyes clear as he pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Yes," the bald man replied contemplatively then shrugged. "I'm sure I will miss him."
"Give me your phone, Lex," Lionel said suddenly.
Lex rubbed at the persistent tingling in his right temple then obediently reached into his pocket. "Sure. No problem." He replied, pulling the phone out of his pocket. He handed it to his father without emotion. Lionel looked at the phone, then at his son with a poorly concealed look of triumph.
A/N- I had hoped to finish this story with this chapter, but I think an Epilogue will wrap things up nicely. (next chapter) Thank you soooo much for your reviews, comments and encouragement. Although I'm clearly running off the beaten paths of SV and MX and recreating their histories, I hope this chapter answers more questions than creates them, although, I tend to always leave a thread or two hanging, just in case.... ; )
***************
All was silent in the Tribunal's chambers. An ever-present plume of smoke and dust drifted over the remains of the ceiling that had collapsed into the Tribunal Chamber. A feeble ray of sunlight, captured by a window on the floor above, cast its sickly beam like a searchlight on the scene of devastation.
A bedraggled, dusty, bald-headed young man wearing a wrinkled tan Oxford shirt and grey dress slacks clambered slowly over the pile of rubble. Shoulders rounded with mental and physical weariness, Lex Luthor slowly and carefully stepped through the mountain of beams, shattered plaster and broken glass that had nearly claimed his life, meticulously retracing his steps. "Ah, there you are," Lex thought. He had almost stepped over the crushed remnants of the metal chairs that he and Adam had earlier been restrained in; the place where he had last seen Queu. A fifteen foot 12 by 8 metal girder now lay over the place where the four of them had momentarily huddled for protection. The chairs would not have held the weight of the ceiling off them had they stayed. Lex raised his eyebrows and whistled softly as he sat down on a shattered marble block as if to have a heart to heart conversation with an old friend. He pensively toyed with his phone.
He thought of his last glimpse of Queu, his chief of Research, how the older man's grey hair formed a disheveled mane around his creased face. He could still see the old chap, hazel eyes sparkling with childish fascination at his transparent hands, oblivious to the danger above him. Thinking further back, he remembered the look of acknowledgment that the Prosecutor had shot at him at the moment he had recognized him as the face under Queu's mask. Lex couldn't deny that Adam was right, but if he wasn't, there would be 2 more bodies under that rubble. Lex wearily rubbed his temple with the phone he held in his right hand. His index finger pressed two of the keys together and they made a soft harmonic beep.
"OUCH!" Lex hissed quietly as a sharp projection from his phone suddenly stung the soft flesh it contacted beyond his right eye. Lex gingerly dropped the phone into his other hand and examined it. He could see no sharp edges. Lex gently pressed around the injured area near his right temple. The wound was minute. Already the pain had subsided. Lex shrugged off his annoyance and toyed absently with the row of buttons that Queu had shown him when he first gave him the phone. A miniature CD slid into view. Lex stared at it fascinated, then unobtrusively dropped the one inch disk into his change-pocket. On a whim, Lex dialed Queu's laboratory speed dial number on the number pad and filled with anticipation placed the receiver in his ear.
********************
Lionel Luthor and Adam Kane casually sat in adjacent chairs in the Tribunal's spectator galley, looking out over the ruins, watching Lex as they waited for Adam's team to return.
"Well Adam, that went well, didn't it?" Lionel commented. "I did receive your encoded message through Lex of all people, but never expected a personal visit from you! Did he recognize you?"
The dark-haired scientist raised his shaggy eyebrows and allowed himself a smile as he stretched his lanky frame. "No." Adam answered. "I thought there was a sign of recognition when he first saw me at the mansion, but it turns out that Helen is an avid collector of my literary works. Any recognition was attributed to having looked at the books or the bibliography on the back."
Lionel stroked his trimmed beard with his thumb and index finger and studied Adam. "I never told Lex about the operation you performed on him after Julian died. As you can see, your operation did stabilize his mind from his psychotic break. A couple years later though, when we visited Smallville, Lex got caught in a meteor shower. He lost his hair but his immunity and intellect has been off the scale ever since. Lex is extremely intelligent and compassionate, charismatic, compulsive, has a knack for the stock market and horrible luck with women, just like you."
Adam considered Lionel's assessment and smiled gently. "I think I should be flattered at that profile, Lionel. We were young and idealistic back then. Perhaps I was too eager to fulfill your request to implant your son with my own DNA sequence for intellectual capacity. It made sense at the time, given the child's condition and the resources at the time. I was glad to give him my genetic platform so he could obtain some semblance of mental stability." Adam looked back at Lex then back at Lionel. "It's funny you should mention similarities between Lex and me. Emma had mentioned that during her Psionic episodes she got confused between Lex's and my identities. She was unable to distinguish the difference between Lex and me, said that we kept merging with each other, as if we were the same person, yet uniquely different. It gave her a headache. At the time we attributed this to her head injury." Adam's eyes brightened with excitement. "So, there must be a physiological tag that Psionics use once inside the matrix of a human mind to identify their subject. So that must mean that Psionic ability resides or is based within a physiological matrix!"
Lionel placed a hand on Adam's arm. Now, now Adam. Let's not go rushing off to the lab with your newest inspiration." He shook his head, grinning. "You haven't changed at all."
Adam calmed himself. "While I don't think Lex would have developed New Mutant powers like my other patients who received the animal and molecular and atomic injections, who knows what exposure to the meteor did to enhance my operation." Adam looked back at Lex and his gaze softened. "Working closely with Lex the past couple days, I've observed that he is a steady, intelligent, compassionate man. I couldn't want a better son, Lionel. You must be proud."
*****************
"...at the sound of the beep please leave your name, number and your last message."
A lump formed at the back of Lex's throat at the familiar sound of Queu's clipped voice. He had changed the passcode as he had expected. Clearing his voice resolutely, Lex answered, "Lex, 3, your last message." There was a click as the voice recognition system activated a second message. Lex listened intently. He knew that the message would not repeat itself.
"Lex, if you are listening to this then you have most likely seen me killed. I applaud your native cynicism and audacity to try to call a dead man at home. It grieves me that I will not be reporting in for work tomorrow. I have appreciated your acceptance and sponsorship of me despite the disapproval of both your father and fiancé. I hope that the work I have done for you serves you well. You have a great destiny ahead of you. By your side, I would have seen to it that you succeeded in attaining that destiny, but now all I can offer you is my legacy - I have left you all of the technology that you have witnessed during the last few days.
"Trust no one, Lex. Your life and sanity depends on it. Your greatest enemies will be within your own family and your own circle of friends. Among my parting gifts to you, I have prepared an injection of nanoprobes and built them into the phone that you are holding. They are programmed to build within the human body a Psionic shield, among other things." Lex thoughtfully rubbed his right temple as he continued to listen. "As you know Lex, Dr. Adam Kane has created among his army of New Mutants a species that can invade and influence the human mind called Psionics." Lex nodded. "I have devised a simple defense that repels such an invasion and have successfully tested it on myself. Should you desire to make use of it, you need only press the zero and one button together while keeping the phone in contact with your skin." Lex stared ahead thoughtfully. Was Queu using him as a lab experiment? Queu's voice dropped in pitch so that Lex recognized the voice of the Prosecutor, Mason Eckhart. "Trust no one, Lex Luthor. You know who I am now. In time, you will discover my legacy to you...."
"I know you're still alive, Queu. Will I ever see you again?" Lex said softly, hoping for his chief of Research to answer.
"...you never know, Sir." Queu's voice replied next to him. Lex nearly jumped out of his skin, he stood up and looked around apprehensively. There was no one in sight except for his father and Adam across the way. All was silent except for their quiet conversation that Lex discovered he could hear perfectly well from where he was now standing. Looking about him, he noticed that the room they were in formed a perfect parabola. When he stood up, he was in perfect alignment with the sounds within the building's perfect curve. Glancing down at his feet, he saw were remnants of the interactive holographic array that had been built into the ceiling. Some of the lights were still blinking. Lex examined the panel thoughtfully then picked up what looked like a small circuit board that seemed to have its own power source, and put it in the pocket opposite the one that held the mysterious CD. Lex stooped back down on the rubble pile to where he couldn't hear the conversation across the room, knowing that if he couldn't hear Adam and his dad, they couldn't hear him. Lex then made a special call to his cleanup crew.
*******************
Lionel glanced quickly across the amphitheatre at Lex and noted that he standing, examining a tile-shaped piece of debris.
Lionel gazed at Adam with a hint of bitterness in his smile. "Compassion is not a Luthor trait, Adam. Lex's compassion has been his weakness and he must establish control over it. I've worked for years on this. At least now, he is finally beginning to push back. So many years, Adam."
"Lionel, it was either perform the operation or to have your only child committed to an asylum. It was a risk." Adam reminded his old friend.
Lionel sighed deeply and nodded. "Perhaps if Lex had died, instead of Julian.... Do you have any time altering New Mutants?"
Lex's eyes widened and he froze where he stood, grinding his teeth together to keep in the howl of rage that had been threatening to escape for years.
Adam glanced askance at the long-haired man sitting next to him. "Don't ask questions that you don't want to know the answer to, old friend," he said evasively.
"It's called tough love, Adam. We fathers have to exercise it on stubborn sons." Lionel added with a certain edge in his tone.
The two men sat in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts.
"It certainly could have been worse, Lionel." Adam said. "I'd have to say that we have met all but one of our goals."
"Eckhart." Lionel stated matter of factly, watching Adam's face darken in response. Lionel continued. "I was wondering about him, Adam. Did it seem to you that he was trying to defend my son, while trying to sentence me to death?" Lionel's expression was curious and thoughtful as he played with the perverse, intriguing idea. From his audio vantage point Lex looked down and smirked wryly at his father's comment.
"I fear that he may have contaminated your son, Lionel."
"What do you mean?"
"Eckhart's last appearance was a hologram." Adam hesitated.
"Yes, pray continue." Lionel answered, masking his impatience.
"And so was Mr. Queu's last appearance in this room. The holograms both had the same mark on them, the same originator." Adam leaned toward Lionel intently. "And Queu was not a hologram before they hauled me out of the cell. Lionel, I believe that Lex's Chief of Research was Eckhart himself!"
Lex turned his back on the two men, staring ahead thoughtfully. He had figured that out too. He wondered what Adam and his father would have in store for him now that he was deemed 'contaminated'.
Lionel's gaze was fierce. "Are you sure about this, Adam?" He asked in a calm reasoning tone that belied the intensity in his eyes. Adam nodded, his coal black eyes were shadows on his tense, lined face.
"So where is he now?" Lionel asked pointedly.
Adam shrugged. "That man has more escapes than Houdini." Across the room, Lex turned his back so they wouldn't see him smile.
"Do you think that phone he gave Lex might give us any clues?" Lionel asked.
"Perhaps." Adam replied somberly. "There's no telling with Eckhart."
"Do you think he's with the Dominion?" Lionel asked.
Adam shook his head. "I have contacts there. Eckhart undoubtedly has a sponsor with one of the other Entities or Factions."
"Such as?" Lionel asked. Adam looked quickly at his old friend in time to see an unmistakable glint in the other's brown eyes. Adam allowed himself a ghost of a smile.
"Certainly not our Alliance, Lionel. I've heard rumors that there is a high-tech faction called the Guardian, which if it exists, I have yet to substantiate."
Halfway across the massive arena, Lex stared into the rubble without seeing it as he considered the additional clues that he was overhearing. 'Of course," he thought. "Queu had joked more than once about being my 'illegal guardian.' I wouldn't be surprised if Adam is on the right trail." He absently rubbed at his right temple to ease a vague tingling feeling.
Adam watched Lionel's expression carefully. He seemed to be mulling over a thought, then he met Adam's gaze.
"Adam, we'll need to alter his memories for his protection, of course. Make it so that whatever his relationship was with this Mr. Queu or Eckhart, that thinking of him leaves a sense of uneasiness and mistrust. Can you arrange that?" Lionel's dark eyes glinted maliciously. "Or perhaps he can be programmed to track Eckhart down and put him out of the picture. Lex is certainly capable, since he is so much like yourself, in terms of both genius and resources." Adam glanced to the side as if looking for someone then the two men lapsed back into thoughtful silence.
Lex frowned as he tossed the tile back into the rubble and looked directly across the room at Adam with a hint of anger marring his usually calm demeanor. Lex then started picking his way off the heap of debris. "Alter my memory?" Lex thought angrily as he strode toward the place where his father and Adam sat.
Adam sat silently for several moments, looking every now and then at Lionel, who waited like a vulture for him to speak. "It's not that easy, Lionel." Adam finally answered. "Think of the repercussions. The human mind can be programmed by various therapies: drugs, shock, force, constant persuasive influence-"
"Not if your subject is unwilling." Lex stood behind them, arms folded, his mouth set in a firm line, his blue eyes filled with reproach. "Really, Adam. And I was just beginning to think you a decent sort of person despite your ties to my father."
Lionel turned around and raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Lex, we weren't expecting you to eavesdrop on our conversation."
Lex stared accusingly at his father without saying a word. Adam's eyes acknowledged someone behind Lex. Lex whirled around and found Emma staring at him warily, her expressive grey eyes were fully black.
"Emma," Lex said persuasively, raising his hands in front of him. "You don't have to do this." The Telempath didn't reply but fixed her unnerving coal black eyes on Lex's blue-gray ones. After a moment, Emma's eyes widened with alarm and she broke contact. Lex watched the red-head inquisitively as she sighed shakily, stepped back and shot a look of appeal at Adam.
"Are you all right, Emma?" Lex asked gently, reaching out to take her hand.
Emma breathed deeply and closed her eyes. She waved Lex away. "I'm fine, thank you," she told him, trying not to offend him. Emma looked past Lex and noticed that Lionel was studying her with great interest. She looked up at Adam, who had stepped next to her.
Emma smiled unconvincingly. "I just had another 'episode' Adam," she said softly.
Adam gave her shoulders a little squeeze. "It was barely noticed," he replied softly. "Lex?"
Lex Luthor looked inquiringly at Adam. "Is there a problem?" He asked.
"I'm sorry about Mr. Queu. I'm sure he was a valued employee." Adam replied, watching his expression.
Lex's countenance remained calm, his eyes clear as he pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Yes," the bald man replied contemplatively then shrugged. "I'm sure I will miss him."
"Give me your phone, Lex," Lionel said suddenly.
Lex rubbed at the persistent tingling in his right temple then obediently reached into his pocket. "Sure. No problem." He replied, pulling the phone out of his pocket. He handed it to his father without emotion. Lionel looked at the phone, then at his son with a poorly concealed look of triumph.
