The Portal

by a-delacroix

Complete Clark & Chloe and Lex & Lana are stranded in Rome. Ancient barbaric Rome. Unexpected secrets are revealed as they struggle to survive and find their way home. Very AU.

30. Portal Chapter 30

The Portal

Author: a_delacroix@hotmail.com

Chapter 30

Lana tried not to hyperventilate. It was not like this was the first time she had been bound and gagged. Hell, it wasn't even the first time this month. Why was it she seemed to attract all of the meteor freaks who had the urge to procreate? Not that meteor freaks or procreation were involved this time, although at the moment she could only wish they were. With meteor freaks it was usually one against the whole gang: Clark, Pete, Chloe, her, and sometimes Lex or Clark's parents, which left the advantage with them.

But this time there was no Pete or Clark's parents. And Chloe was bound beside her. That just left Lex and Clark in a strange, hostile environment to find and save them. Finally learning a little about Clark's 'secret' helped, but this time it wasn't a lone meteor freak they were up against. No, when the dozen men marched in and surrounded them while she and Chloe sat chatting about her future with Lex, she knew this time things were different.

The dozen men had walked in and without a word cut down the two young slave girls. Coldly, like it was an everyday occurrence and, for all she knew, here it was. Oh, she had seen a few dead bodies in the past year and then there had been that row of crucified men along the road, but she had been talking to these girls only minutes earlier and now they were DEAD.

Afterwards, when the men pulled out the gags and the ropes to bind them, Chloe told her not to resist. Apparently, Chloe felt twelve men armed with swords were too long of odds for them to try anything. Lana had to wonder if Chloe would have acquiesced so quietly if she had been alone. With her ability to instantly heal, the only reason Chloe would have backed down so quickly was to protect her and hope for better odds in the future. Lana hoped Chloe had made the right decision, because the situation seemed to be getting steadily worse.

They had been quickly marched out of the imperial palace and forced into waiting enclosed sedan chairs, chairs with carefully drawn blinds preventing them from determining their destination. The journey would have been a lot easier if she and Chloe had at least been together, even if they hadn't been able to talk. But, no, they had been forced into separate chairs and Lana had been left alone with her imagination.

She tried to imagine why they had been taken and what would happen to them. But her thoughts keep coming back to her biggest fear, what if she never saw Lex again? Why, when she was so often in danger back in Smallville, had she so rarely worried about Whitney, yet here, now, thoughts of losing Lex were tearing her apart inside? Was this what true love felt like?

The ride lasted about fifteen minutes. Lana tried to keep her fears under control, but a few tears got away. Unfortunately, the cosmetics available didn't have the almost magical waterproof properties of the modern era. When the door of the sedan chair opened and she was lifted out, several dark streaks extended down her face from the corners of her eyes.

However thoughts of her makeup were quickly banished when the destination became obvious. The chairs had been carried directly into the building and down several flights of stairs. When her eyes adjusted to the low torch light, she saw they had been taken to a dark, gloomy, despair-inducing dungeon. In the distance the screams of other people being tortured could clearly be heard. As their gags were being removed, Lana knew the gags no longer mattered; any screams here would be expected and ignored.

With the gags removed, next came the bonds. Although this was less pleasant as the ropes were merely exchanged for iron chains attached to a wall. Short chains attached very high, leaving their arms extended above their heads.

It wasn't until they were securely bound that most of the men involved with their abduction trooped out of the room. Lana realized whoever had arranged their kidnapping wasn't taking any chances and must be aware of Chloe's story about being the God, Aphrodite. It was also apparent all of the men involved so far were just underlings.

As Lana stared out with horrified fascination at the contents of the room, Chloe finally spoke up in English. "Lana, are you okay?"

Lana heard the words, but she couldn't pull her attention away from the forge in opposite corner filled with torturer's implements just starting to glow an incandescent orange. Implements you saw in horror movies. Implements only ever waved around on-screen in a threatening manner, but always used off-screen. But here, now, if they were used, it would be real and not some movie special effect.

Chloe called out again, "Lana Lang, look at me right now!"

Lana's gaze jerked away from the torturer's equipment and turned to Chloe. Chloe could read the fear in her face and was hard pressed to come up with an appropriate, reassuring response. She couldn't just say, 'Don't worry, I have been through much tighter spots before.' While certainly true, it was only through her special 'gifts' that she had survived many of those incidents. And she had lost friends and loved ones on several of those occasions. Still, this time Clark was out there somewhere. It was just necessary for them to survive long enough to give him time to find them. Chloe wished they hadn't been tied up like this so she could at least hold Lana's hand.

"Lana, I am sure Lex and Clark know we are gone by now and they will be looking for us. We just need to hang in there until they find us."

"Even if they can find us, what can just the two of them do against all of these troops?"

Chloe thought back to how Clark had disarmed the thirty men on horseback in the meadow outside of Narbo in a matter of seconds and again all of Venta's troops in the Forum this very morning. And his story about stacking the pickup trucks way back at homecoming. She knew once Clark discovered where they were, nothing she had seen here would stop him. She had intended to let Clark fill in Lana about his story, but she decided she better tell Lana a little more now to calm her. "Lana, Clark is a lot stronger than he let on with his little display throwing the spear back at the Circus Maximus. You know how we have been playing at being Gods? Well, for Clark it might as well be true. Once he knows where we are, he can take out everyone we have encountered in just a few seconds. Just a few seconds. We just need to keep it together until then."

Chloe could see the fear in Lana's eyes drop a little. She was about to continue, to keep Lana focused on her voice rather than their surroundings, when she was interrupted by loud, slow clapping.

Following the sound, Chloe looked off to her left. An alcove opened up in the wall on that side, probably leading to another entrance to this room. After a couple more loud claps Patricus Gasparus Venta stepped through the doorway. Although 'stooped through the doorway' would be more accurate as that particular entrance was not designed for someone who stood six foot six.

Venta walked up to where Chloe hung chained to the wall, not stopping until he stood three feet in front of her, forcing her to tilt her head back to look him in the eyes.

"Coelia Doinysia Flavius, we meet again," Began Venta in Latin. Then he switched to English. "Or should I call you Chloe?"

Chloe tried to give a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, but it was less than completely successful with her hands tied above her head. "If you like, Chloe Sullivan is just as much my real name as Coelia. Which do you prefer, Patricus Gasparus Venta or Sven Torsnes?"

"Touché," said Venta with a mock salute. "I am a little curious how you found out my real name."

Chloe was more than happy to oblige him, the longer they talked, the more time Clark and Lex had to find them. "Oh, I had a little chat with Tony Campinello outside Narbo last week. He was most informative with a sword held to his belly. I learned all kinds of fascinating things about Professor Carey and his dealings with the Mafia. And his little operation here in Rome. Imagine my surprise; all these years I thought he was just Tiberius' court jester, when in reality he had all these delusions of grandeur. But then, that has been the case with most of the time travelers I have encountered, they all think they are so much smarter, being from the future and all, until reality bites them in the ass.

"I will admit to being more surprised when Tony mentioned your connection to the Professor. In all the years I have known you; you have always done such a good job coming across as the typical barbarian jerk." Chloe could see the anger starting to rise in his eyes and knew she needed to change the tenor of her comments if she was going to maximize her stall. "You really should consider a future in the theater. Or maybe a past in the theater. I know this little theater troupe back in 1734 B.C. in that great city, Babylon, which really could have benefited from someone with your natural gifts. They always had a dream of doing this play about the ditch digger and the princess, but could never find the right male lead. But with your obvious theatrical gifts, I am sure you could pull it off. And you know, if you willingly join that troupe, you might even survive knowing me."

A little of the anger disappeared from his eyes and was replaced with a hint of humor. "No, you are the one with the obvious gift for theater. What is it, five or six years I have known you? And I never suspected you were also from the future."

"Oh, no reason for you to suspect, because I wasn't from the future," answered Chloe.

"What game are you playing? I have it on good authority that you are Chloe Sullivan from the future."

"Well, I guess your good authority is less than good. I am Chloe Sullivan from the 21st Century, but Coelia Doinysia Flavius is not. She was a happy little Roman just trying to enjoy life and stay out of trouble."

"If you are trying to convince me you and her are not the same person, it is not going to work. I have seen you and talked to you enough times over the past few years to know you are Coelia."

Chloe shook her head and smiled. "You are not getting it. As they will say up in the 21st century, you need to start thinking outside the box. Okay, yes I am Chloe Sullivan. And yes I am Coelia. Those are just two of my hundreds of names down through history. Would you like a few more? In 569 B.C., I lived in India and my name was Vajrayana Gautama and my son Siddhartha would one day be known as Buddha. In 1504 B.C., I was Pharaoh Hatshepsut, one of only three female rulers during the Golden Age of Egypt. In 4312 B.C., I was C'kalku, high Priestess of Sumer. In 5184 B.C., I was the renowned Mage Muarisah in Ur. In 7478 B.C., I was the Supreme Ruler Sliviuh of Atlantis. In 10304 B.C., I was the Goddess Fah of the Empire of Lemuria. Oh, and of course we mustn't forget Aphrodite of Greece."

As usual, Lana was enchanted to learn more about Chloe's past. This was the most she had ever said about the times in her life when she had been in positions of absolute power. Lana momentarily forgot their peril and jumped into the conversation.

"So, Chloe, was it while you were the Goddess Fah that your face was carved on the Sphinx?"

Chloe turned her head towards Lana and nodded vigorously. "Yeah. God, I had some good times as Fah. You know, I'm thinking after we find the Professor and gain control of the time machine, we should do a little side trip to Lemuria before returning to Smallville. It would be a great place for a vacation as it is much more luxurious than this Roman era and I could show you how the Sphinx looked before 10,000 years of abuse."

"That would be so cool," answered Lana. She got this thoughtful look on her face before continuing. "Ahh, Chloe, have you thought about using the time machine to go back and visit your parents? I mean your real parents, not Gabe, back before the nanobots destroyed that world?"

Surprisingly, Chloe realized, she hadn't thought of using the time machine for that purpose. After 17,000 years her memories of events before she received her nanobot enhancement were mostly long forgotten. And after receiving her 'bots and their gift of perfect memory, the first few months were so filled with terror, death, and darkness, she tried to never access them. At this point she could barely remember her parent's faces and couldn't even remember the names of her friends from her sixteenth birthday party, which had occurred just three days before that world came crashing down. Suddenly, she felt this incredibly pang in her heart to go back and see the long forgotten world of her birth. But could she go back for a visit without trying to prevent its destruction? And if she did go back and prevent its destruction, what would happen to this whole future? Would everyone cease to exist? She would definitely have to do some research into time paradox theory and perform some smaller, practical experiments before attempting anything on such a grand scale.

As Chloe was about to respond to Lana's question, Venta interrupted and tried to regain control of the situation. "What the fuck are you talking about? Nanobots destroying the world? Gods and rulers down through time?"

Lana looked at the confused expression on Venta's face and remembered times when she felt the same way. She wasn't sure that enlightening him was prudent, but the name of the game at the moment was 'stall for time'. Once Lex and Clark got here, they could then decide how to proceed.

"Sven, I am from the 21st Century like you, so perhaps it would be easier if I explain. Chloe and Clark are among the last survivors of a long forgotten civilization from before the dawn of time. A very high tech civilization. You know the old saying, 'Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic?' Oh, you must understand that since you have been living in a place were simple things like cigarette lighters or flashlights would be considered magic. Anyway they are from a civilization that was, before it was destroyed, as far advanced over the 21st Century as the 21st Century is over this current Roman era. A civilization so advanced even their bodies have been enhanced with almost god-like abilities.

"So what happens if you effectively live forever and occasionally get bored? You take over and rule the world for a while. You must understand that. I mean from what I have heard, that's why you're here, isn't it? To take over the Roman Empire? So you must understand."

Venta listened to Lana's explanation, but then shook his head. Even if he was in ancient Rome through the use of a time machine, the whole 'Coelia living forever and being from some long lost ancient civilization' story was too much to believe.

"If you are from the 21st Century, how did you end up in the Roman Empire now?" Venta asked, still directing his attention at Lana. She was at least attempting to make sense rather than talking in riddles like Coelia.

Lana frowned at this question. If Venta didn't know the answer, it meant he hadn't been in contact with the Professor. Did it mean the Professor hadn't arrived in Rome yet, or hadn't Rome ever been the Professor's destination? Shit, were they in this whole mess with Venta for nothing?

Lana glanced at Chloe and saw a similar frown on her face also. She must be having the same thought. If the Professor wasn't coming to Rome, where had he gone? However, they could worry about the Professor later, now they needed to focus on getting out of the current situation.

"Chloe, Clark, and I were on a high school field trip to Metropolis University to check out the campus and attend some career orientation classes. While we were having lunch at the student union, we ran into Lex, who invited us on a tour of some physic projects LuthorCorp was sponsoring."

"Are you saying the 'Lex' with you is Lex Luthor?" asked Venta.

Lana gave a small nod. "Yeah, Lex is a good friend of Clark's. Well, ours. Lex is my business partner in a coffee shop back in Smallville."

"Oh, I think he is more than just a good 'friend' of some of us present," said Chloe.

Lana felt herself starting to blush a little. Even though Venta was holding them hostage, he was still from their time and this felt like the first time she was admitting in public to her relationship with Lex.

"Okay, so Lex is my boyfriend. Anyway, after the three of us did a tour of the physics building we returned to the lab where Lex was meeting with Professor Carey. When we got there the two of them were in the middle of a shouting match. Well, the Professor was shouting while Lex was being mostly Lex with the cold, intense stare and just a slightly raised voice to be heard over the Professor's ranting.

"Things got a little incoherent after that, but when it was all over the Professor had pulled me through the Portal and then left me tied and bound in those secret rooms behind the little Greek temple in the canyon near Tolosa. Lex, Clark, and Chloe followed us through the portal to rescue me. So here we are. And as long as we were here, Chloe volunteered to give us a little tour of Rome before we head back home to Smallville.

"Of course, we didn't expect to be kidnapped along the way. Would you care to explain exactly why you grabbed us?"

Chloe, who was still mainly thinking about using the time machine to visit her parents, forced her attention back to the situation at hand and expanded on Lana's question. "Also, how did you find out we are from the future? You didn't seem to know it this morning when you and your troops confronted us in the forum."

Venta was still grappling with how he had seemed to have lost control of the situation. Here he was with two young girls chained to the wall, completely within his power. Every other time he had been a similar situation, the prisoners would be groveling in fear, begging for mercy. But these two were going on about gods, people living forever, worlds being destroyed, dating Lex Luthor, and asking him questions as if they were equals. Venta had always been a man of action. Sports, fighting, killing, those were the things he was good at, not these verbal games.

Trying to regain control, he growled out in his most menacing tone. "Aren't you afraid? I can kill you at my slightest whim."

Lana looked at him. "Of course, I am afraid. However after the past year I have learned to keep functioning even when I am scared out of my wits. If you think being lost in the cruel, hard Roman Empire is scary, you should try going to high school in Smallville. Would you like to hear about Greg Arkin, a fellow student who became part bug and after kidnapping me, wrapped me in a cocoon so he could mate with me?"

"Or," stuck in Chloe, "How about Sean Kelvin, the football jock? After he fell into Crater Lake, he could only stay warm by sucking all of a person's body heat, like some weird heat vampire. It was very scary when he came after me."

"Oh come on Chloe, Sean wasn't nearly as scary as the cop at the amusement park. Remember? He was the one who wanted to make his reputation by solving the big crime and ended up almost killing both of us?"

"Lana, at least he only tried to shoot you. It was me he buried alive. And I always hate when that happens."

"Okay I will concede that time it was really you who were in the scariest, life threatening peril. I mean he only pointed the gun at me for a few seconds while you were locked in that coffin for hours. Still, absolutely the scariest person we have gone up against in the past year had to have been Tina Greer."

Chloe inclined her head in agreement. "Okay, I agree. Tina was the scariest with her ability to shape-shift into anyone she wanted. Of course I still don't understand why she wanted to be you. I mean, everyone knows blondes have more fun. Actually, I feel somewhat slighted that she didn't want to be me."

"If I had known how you felt, I would have gladly told her and you could have had the fun with her out in the cemetery. I mean at least the time you got buried alive you were alone. When I woke up in the coffin, it was pitch black and I was sharing it with a moldy old rotting skeleton. Talk about scary."

Finally Lana turned back to Venta with a little grimace. "See, our lives have been just one scary moment after another and we haven't even mentioned the encounters with Earl or Sasha or Justin. After a while, you just learn to cope."

Venta just shook his head; these were the most talkative prisoners he had ever encountered. No matter what he said, they headed off on some bizarre tangent. After this morning's run-in at the forum, he had intended to steer clear of Coelia for a while until he had a better understanding of what was going on. But then the old scholar, Cyrus, had shown up at the Praetorian Camp looking for him and he had learned that Coelia and her friends were fellow travelers from the future. It didn't immediately explain how they had accomplished the feats that had transpired this morning, but he immediately knew there must be a scientific explanation. And if a scientific explanation existed, then they weren't gods, just ordinary people who had humiliated him in front of the cream of Roman society. Just as he couldn't let Coelia's original slight of running from his marriage proposal go unpunished, he couldn't let his public humiliation go unpunished, if he wished to retain and expand his position here in Rome.

But now, if the girls were to be believed, there were all kinds of new complexities to be considered. After smacking his fist into the wall between the two girls in frustration, he decided to get Cyrus. Since he had been around these people for almost a week, perhaps he could help shed some light on this situation.

"Cyrus," bellowed Venta. "Get your ass in here!"

From the same entrance Venta had used, Cyrus slowly entered the room. The look on his face made it clear he didn't want to be there.

"Cyrus? My Cyrus?" asked Chloe when she saw who he was.

As he shuffled up to her with his head bowed, she racked her brain to come up with an explanation as to why the old scholar would be here. Certainly, since she had first met him back in Genua he had never once in her presence mentioned knowing Venta.

"Cyrus, what are you doing here?" asked Chloe.

Before Cyrus could respond, Venta brusquely interrupted. "He is working for me now. Cyrus, what the fuck have these women been talking about?"

Cyrus looked at Chloe with an apologetic stare and then said in English with a thickly accented voice. "I am sorry, Chloe. After overhearing a conversation between Lana and Clark during our Latin lesson yesterday, I found out that Venta was another traveler like you. Since it was apparent you were adversaries, I thought Venta would offer a reward in return for learning about you. I never considered he would kidnap you."

"What reward were you looking for that you felt you couldn't get from me? I was paying you very well for your services and would have paid a handsome bonus in the end."

"I want to travel to the future. Ever since the boat ride up the Tiber where you started talking about the future and people being able to live forever, I have thought of little else."

"People don't live forever in the future, you fool," said Venta. "Everyone grows old and dies, just like here. There may be many things that will seem like magic to someone from this time, but there are many, many horrors, too."

"Cyrus, I think you didn't follow the whole conversation." Chloe paused to shake her head before continuing. "Everyone doesn't live forever in our future. We were saying that at the rate at which our science or magic or whatever you want to call it is advancing, living forever should be possible in thirty more years."

Cyrus shrugged. "If I made it to your future, it is possible I would make it the necessary thirty years, I am only 42."

Lana's eyes boggled for a moment. If she had been asked, she would have pegged his age at 62, not 42. People really did age faster in these times. Of course, she thought, it probably came down to bad oral hygiene. At least, many of the people she had met here made the average British citizen, by comparison, look like they had teeth straight from the mouth of a high paid movie star.

"Well, you should have come to me about your wish to go to the future. I always try to take care of the people who are loyal to me. But now that you have thrown your lot in with Venta, I think you are ultimately going to wish you hadn't chosen the losing side."

From what Venta said earlier in his presence, Cyrus knew he was going to execute her. And Chloe was obviously smart enough to know that, too. Yet he had watched her face as she spoke the words and there was no sense of false bravado. No, if he was forced to describe the expression on her face, it was mainly a look of pity, like she really knew Venta and anyone with him would be the real losers and she already regretted his loss. My god, thought Cyrus, did I really chose the wrong side in this situation? He thought back to some of the earlier conversations he had overheard between Chloe and her friends, conversations about her being ancient, as in thousands of years old. If she had survived thousands of years, how difficult was she to kill?

Cyrus' decision to seek out Venta might have been different, if he had waited a few more hours to act. He had left Chloe's estate at almost exactly the same time as Chloe and Clark were putting on their little display in the forum of their god-like abilities. When the rumors of the events were at their most hot and heavy, Cyrus had been caught up in the bureaucracy of the Praetorian Camp trying to arrange an audience with Venta. Therefore he never heard of those events, which would have corroborated the half-understood comments about Chloe's unique abilities.

As Cyrus stood there lost in thought, Venta grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. As Venta's powerful hand felt like it would break his very bones, Cyrus suddenly realized his usefulness and perhaps his life would be at an end when Venta was finished with the girls.

"I will only ask you one last time, what can you tell me about what these girls have been talking about?"

"Not much," stammered Cyrus reverting back to Latin in his shock and dismay. "Mostly I overheard bits and pieces about their lives up in the future, but surely you already know more about those times than I ever will."

"And what about Coelia's story about having lived many lives before?"

"There were some comments about her being, let me think, . . . about her being over 17,000 years old, but I have no evidence to support whether those remarks are true or false."

"Bah," said Venta flinging Cyrus half across the room. "You are of no use to me."

After sliding to a halt in an unused corner of the room, Cyrus rolled over and slowly sat up. When he looked back towards Venta, he was glad to see Venta's full attention had returned to the girls. Cyrus huddled in the corner, quietly waiting for an opportunity to escape the room unnoticed.

But the opportunity was not soon in coming. Venta hadn't even restarted his questioning of the girls when a commotion outside the main entrance to the room drew everyone's attention. For an instant Chloe thought it must be Clark, but then realized it was far too quiet and calm to be him. No, when Clark arrived she knew it would be more like a bomb going off. Or perhaps not, at the other extreme, they might find themselves one second chained to the wall and the next, free and magically transported to safety outside the building. But this didn't seem to be either.

The commotion got nearer and it became apparent the sound was men snapping to attention. Suddenly the men stationed just outside the open entrance to the room also stiffened and then Drusilla, the emperor's sister, swept into the room. Even Chloe with her long experience had to admit to her ability to make the entrance into the dungeon/torture room seem like a regal entrance to a grand ball where Drusilla was the guest of honor.

Everyone in the room bowed in respect and even Cyrus was forced to climb back to his feet. Drusilla ignored the attention with royal indifference and moved straight over to Venta. He swept her into his arms for a slow, languid kiss.

As they broke apart, Drusilla looked over to where Chloe and Lana hung against the wall. "Have you found out the answer yet?" she asked in Latin.

"No, we got a little sidetracked. Things don't seem quite as simple as I expected," answered Venta with a hint of respect in his tone.

Chloe wasn't yet certain of the relationship between these two and how best to use it to her advantage. Perhaps it was best to start with Venta with whom she had a little experience. Speaking in English with her most snide tone, Chloe tested the waters. "Well, Patricus, I see when you couldn't get me; you had to settle for the second string."

Venta glared at her, but didn't immediately respond.

Drusilla looked from Chloe to Venta and back before walking over to Chloe. She reached her hand up as though to caress Chloe's face and then slowly slid her fingers up into her hair. Abruptly, she tightened her grip and slammed Chloe's head back into the wall.

"When my dear, sweet brother, Caligula, returned from the forum this morning all excited about meeting two gods straight from Olympus, I didn't know what to think. He is so prone to delusions and fantasies, the poor dear. I was really surprised when several other, much more reliable sources started describing the same events. Of course, I am not naive like Caligula and his gaggle of so-called advisors believing in old superstitions like the Gods are actually real. So I wasn't surprised when Patricus informed me, just before Caligula and I headed over to the Circus, that you were really more visitors from the future.

"Patricus, here, let me in on his secret six months ago, but other than his uncanny ability, like Antonius Carius, to foretell things before they happen, he has never been able to prove the truth of his story. Now, you show up and could only do the things you have done through the use of," and here she carefully sounded out the English word, "tech-now-low-gee. You will now explain how we can use these methods to help in our efforts to seize control of the empire."

Chloe looked for a moment into Drusilla's disconcertingly mismatched eyes and then glanced over at Venta. Stalling for time to come up with a plan to sow a little dissension in their ranks, Chloe said in Latin so Drusilla could follow along. "A real little firebrand you have hooked up with Sven. You should be real careful or you may find yourself reliving that classic Poul Anderson story."

For about the fourth or fifth time in the past hour Venta found himself wondering what in the hell Coelia was talking about. Her responses seemed barely coherent or totally unrelated to the situation at hand.

This time it was Drusilla who took the bait. "Who is this Poul Anderson?"

"He is a great teller of stories from our era much like Plato was a great storyteller in his day. One of his classic stories, 'The High Crusade' was about time travelers. In that story, men from the future brought a group of warriors from the past up into the future. Now in the future, after centuries without serious challenges, men had lost their courage, honor, and their drive to win. Anyway, after many trials and tribulations, the men from the past ended up as the rulers over the whole world of the future." Not quite the original story which was about an alien space faring empire not men from the future, but 'close enough' thought Chloe, judging Venta wasn't a big fiction reader who might uncover her little twist.

Drusilla was momentarily distracted with the subtle flattery as Chloe's comment played to her vanity. From the time she had spent with Venta and Carius, she had not been overly impressed by these men from the future. Carius did have some skill in the Philosophies, but she found him seriously lacking in some of the most basic practical senses. And Venta was bigger, stronger, and better in bed than anyone she had ever met from her own era, but when it came to the brains department he didn't even seem to be in her own league. It certainly hadn't taken her long to have him twisted around her little finger.

Chloe could see from the light in Drusilla's eyes that her comment had had its intended effect. With a couple of moments to think and triggered by her thoughts of the time paradox involved with saving her original world, Chloe had a suitably complicated game plan ready. Hopefully, this would be one more time where, by pouring the bullshit on so fast and so deep, the opponent would completely lose track of her original goal. Namely, in this instance, to stall for time until the guys found them.

"So, Drusilla, it must be nice to have such a tall, lean body. When I am four months pregnant, it is always much more obvious."

Drusilla looked at Chloe and then glanced over at Venta. "How did you know I am pregnant? It has not yet been announced."

"Hello? From the future, remember? Of course, I know a small detail like that. It is too sad about the child though."

"What about the child?" demanded Drusilla, tightening her grip on Chloe's hair.

"You mean Patricus didn't tell you?" said Chloe with a perfectly feigned look of surprise on her face.

"Tell me what?" demanded Drusilla, although this time it seemed to be addressed more towards Venta than Chloe.

Venta stood there without responding. He seemed to be turning a little pale under the flickering torchlight, although Chloe wasn't yet certain whether it was from anger or fear.

When several more seconds passed without a response from Venta, Drusilla turned her attention back to Chloe. "What happens to my baby?"

"Well," and here Chloe took an educated guess, "With Patricus being the father and all, it seems like he should be the one to tell you."

"No," shouted Drusilla slamming Chloe's head into the wall again as she started to get a more frantic expression on her face. "I am asking you!"

"Okay, okay," said Chloe looking more hurt and scared than she really was. "Four months from now Caligula will find out he is not the father. He has always deeply adored and loved you. The truth will rip away his meager hold on sanity. He goes into a wild, manic rage and personally cuts the fetus from your body."

Chloe gave a small shrug. "As I said, too bad about the baby. But the more I see of you, the less your death seems like a big loss to anyone."

Drusilla had a stunned look on her face. Not many people were told that four months in the future they would be dead by their own brother's hand. For almost a minute she stared blankly into Chloe's face.

Finally, she turned to Venta and said in barely a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?" Then her expression hardened as she took the next logical step. "Was my death part of your plan all along?"

Venta shook his head. "No, no, no. Can't you see? She is trying to mess with our heads. Once we take control of the empire all of that changes. The history where you die doesn't have to happen. That's why I never told you. No reason to upset you over something that isn't going to happen."

Chloe could see Drusilla starting to calm a little, which wasn't to her advantage. She still didn't know how much longer it would take Clark to find them and she needed to keep them talking.

"But it is going to happen," said Chloe calmly. "It has always happened and always will happen. It is THE history."

"No," shouted Venta. "We will change things."

"This may not be the most opportune time, but," and here Chloe straightened and adopted the most formal pose possible with her hands chained above her head and Drusilla still gripping her hair. "Sven Torsnes, you are hereby formally charged with violations of section five, paragraph 37, subparagraph j of the Unified Time Codes of 2338 for use of an unlicensed time device for purposes of changing the past. If found guilty, the minimum penalty is 25 years hard labor at the penal colony on the Jovian moon, Europa, and mandatory behavior modification."

Drusilla, Venta, and even Lana just stared at her. Drusilla was the most lost since she had no idea what Chloe was talking about. Lana was a close second since her Latin wasn't quite good enough to follow the many obscure terms Chloe had used. Venta had followed most of the words, but their meaning was so unexpected and stunning he just stood there for a minute with his mouth gaping open.

A mumbled 'what?' was the only sound that came out of his mouth.

Chloe adopted the expression of a parent explaining something in simple, easy terms for a young child. "Seriously, you didn't think the Professor has the only time device in all of history? As technology advances, more and more methods of time travel will be discovered. As more and more time travel occurred, history kept changing, and usually not for the better. Eventually, in 2338, a major ripple in time nearly caused the end of mankind and as a result all use of time devices in both the present and the past is brought under the jurisdiction of the newly created Temporal Enforcement Bureau. Eventually, TEB agents are permanently stationed at all critical 'transient field nexi'. My base of operations is Smallville, Kansas, circa 1999-2006 A.D., one of the most active time travel locations in the first half of the 21st century. It may appear to be simple coincidence that I happened upon Professor Carey's device, but it is one of my key assignments."

Chloe's long address gave Venta time to regain a little of his composure. "Even if you are who you say you are, you are the one chained to the wall, not me. Make all of the threats you want, they won't make any difference."

Chloe shook her head. "It was not a threat, rather a warning. The penalty for killing a TEB agent is a lot more severe than the penalty for misuse of a time device."

"If I kill you, then who is going to stop me?" asked Venta.

"Oh, my partner Clark will probably get you. If not, the bureau will just loop-back another agent to try again. Most likely, it will be me."

"How can it be you, if I kill you?"

"Certainly, you have heard of cloning? I mean you have already met my clone who was based here for the past six years. With 24th century technology, my mind is continuously being backed up to a central storage location at TEB Headquarters via a miniature implanted time device. Death is usually extremely painful, so I try to avoid it as much as possible, but if it happens, my memories are merely loaded into another body."

Venta started to feel like he was losing touch with reality. What was true anymore? Who was Coelia and what was her real story? He still had no explanation for the things he had seen in the forum or even a wild guess at how they could be accomplished with 21st Century technology. Was Coelia really a survivor from a long lost ancient civilization? Or was she a special agent from the distant future? Or was she something else entirely?

Venta suddenly wished he had never heard of Professor Carey and his Portal device. He longed to return to his simple life as a member of the Norwegian Special Forces Commando Group. Back before the day he came across Professor Carey huddled in a snowdrift in the secret training facility outside Narvik. A day which in the 'uptime' future was only three months ago, but in Venta's personal timeline was now over eight years in the past.

The Professor had been performing the first secret test of the device's newly discovered ability to open a portal without a fixed receiving station. If it worked, it would open a whole new exciting range of applications including, based on some casual comments his most brilliant grad student had made, the possibility of time travel. But before attempting time travel, the Professor had been cautious enough to try traveling across the world first without traveling in time. If something went wrong and he ended up stranded, he could always hop a jet home. It wouldn't be so simple if he was stranded 500 or 1000 years in the past.

It had been a good thing he had tried something simple first. The portal was supposed to open on the outskirts of Bergen, Norway where he hoped to have a surprise lunch with his old friend, Doctor Professor Olav Amundsen. However the portal had actually opened almost five hundred miles further north, in a barren Nordic wasteland. And the return portal which had been automatically scheduled to open two hours later, never materialized within view of the Professor. If Sven Torsnes hadn't been out on a cross-country skiing training exercise and found him, the Professor would have been dead soon after dark.

If Venta knew everything then that he knew now, he might have left the Professor to his fate in that snowdrift. But he hadn't known and had allowed himself to be sucked into the Professor's crazy time travel world. Of course, Venta had to admit, it hadn't been all bad up until the return of Coelia into his life today. He had more power and authority here in ancient Rome then he could ever dream of in modern, socialist Norway.

Perhaps he should have insisted their time travel destination had been northern Europe around the year 1000 A.D., a time when the Vikings had controlled a land area almost the equal of the earlier Roman Empire. Venta had braved the North Sea several times in recreations of classic long ships and had found the adventure invigorating. Vikings. When men were men and the world didn't revolve around all of the court intrigue like here in Rome. But the Professor had insisted more opportunities for plunder existed in Rome. Venta wasn't certain if it was the Professor's real reason, or if he was merely afraid of the cold after the little incident in Norway.

Venta realized his mind was wandering and it was necessary to focus on the situation at hand. Coelia still hadn't explained how the events of this morning had been accomplished. And Drusilla was going to need some serious attention after the revelation of her upcoming death, if the original timeline remained intact.

Having decided talking with Coelia was never going to lead to an answer, Venta turned towards forge to retrieve one of the implements. Perhaps a little torture of Coelia and her friend would convince her to start telling him what he wanted to know. Causing pain had frequently worked well for him in the past.

Before reaching the forge, a man came staggering into the room. A man in the remains of a Praetorian's uniform. A man who looked like he had been run over by a truck. A man, who under several thick layers of dirt and grime, Venta recognized. Centurion Tobias Aloysius Wido, a man whose squad had guard duty at Praetorian Camp tonight. One of Venta's most trusted men, handpicked to handle Ares, or Clark as Venta now also knew him.

"Tobias. What happened?"

"That man or god or whatever, Ares showed up." answered Wido has he staggered over to a nearby table. Slumping onto the bench, he shakily reached for a wine jug.

Venta felt his concern growing. Wido was the most calm, level-headed man in his command. If he was this shaken by his encounter, what could have happened?

"Did you take care of him as I instructed?"

Wido slowly shook his head and looked into Venta's eyes. "No, he took care of us."

"What do you mean us?"

"I mean us, the Praetorians. The entire camp is on fire and in ruins. Most of the south wall is destroyed."

Venta noticed the remaining five guards in the room were starting to share uneasy glances. He had to be careful or he would have a panic on his hands. Speaking quietly, calmly, he said. "Start at the beginning. What exactly happened?"

Wido seemed to pull himself together a little. After another pull on the wine jug, he began.

"Ares showed up at the South Gate about 45 minutes ago, just like you predicted. As you instructed, I had 30 archers standing by. Ares was bellowing for us to open the gate and return the girls to him." Here Wido paused to look at Chloe and Lana chained to the wall. "All thirty archers fired on him simultaneously at point blank range. And nothing. The arrows just bounced off of him. All it seemed to do was to enrage him further. He gave us an ultimatum to open the door in one minute before stalking off into the relative darkness of the Field of Mars."

Wido paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Nothing happened for several minutes when suddenly there was a mighty crashing sound out on the field. The Old Soldier's Memorial Obelisk, which has stood in that field as long as I can remember, was tipping towards the ground. It was difficult to see in the dark, but it looked like its pedestal had collapsed. I was standing on the wall watching the obelisk when it suddenly stopped just short of the ground. Stopped falling and started turning until it was pointed at the gate. It wasn't until it turned that I could see him, Ares, standing there holding it aloft. That great massive pylon and one man had it hoisted up from the ground."

Venta felt like his knees were suddenly going to buckle. He had walked past that giant granite pillar almost every day for the past eight years. If this man or whatever could lift its incredible weight, he was in an entirely different league than merely tossing Coelia several hundred feet into the air had demonstrated. Softly, in a whisper he never meant to be heard, he said, "Shit."

Wido looked at him with his haunted eyes. "Shit is right. But it gets worse. After Ares had it pointed towards the gate, he tossed it at least 500 feet. When it hit, the reinforced gate just plain exploded. What happened next is hard to describe. I had tried to stay focused on the man while the obelisk was doing its destructive thing. For a couple of seconds after the impact he stood there watching and then he blurred and vanished. That's when bad things started happening within the Camp.

"First of all, the other three gates out of the Camp are now all blocked from the inside. Two or three buildings were destroyed near each gate and the remains piled in front of the gate. We have people working on it, but it will be at least noon before we will have enough of the debris removed to open them.

"Second, every single door in the Camp seems to have been destroyed. I only took time for a quick inspection, but every secret room, compartment, and underground chamber was torn open. And this all happened in a matter of a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes.

"When he didn't find you or the girls, frankly he got a little pissed." At this point Wido put forth a weak grin. "You know the portico on the front of your residence? I am afraid its not there anymore. All sixteen of the columns are now out in the center of the Field of Mars. Some of them are standing there impaled halfway into the ground. Others are shattered into small pieces."

"Is that all?" asked Venta.

"Unfortunately, no, after ripping apart the Camp, Ares returned to the ruins of the Obelisk's pedestal and started hurling blocks at the South Wall. Actually, it was these blocks that did the worst damage to the Camp. He was throwing them so hard they were punching straight through the outer wall and continuing on to do substantial damage inside. The worst was the numerous fires started by overturned torches and cooking fires. Much of the interior was still burning when I left."

Wido paused, straightened, and looked Venta in the eye. "Sir, as he stood there throwing the blocks, Ares was screaming that if the girls weren't returned to him, he would destroy all of Rome. I believe his exact words were 'It will be like Rome has descended straight into Hades'. And from what I saw, he can do it, if he chooses. In all of my years of service with the Legions and with the Praetorians, I have never experienced anything like this night."

Taking a deep breath, Wido concluded. "Sir, I have to strongly recommend you return the girls. I don't want to see Rome destroyed and I am sure you don't either."

Venta nodded slowly. "Thanks for the report, Tobias. Go get some rest, I will take it from here."

Wido slowly climbed to his feet, gave an abbreviated salute, and headed for the door.

Venta watched him slowly limp away before turning back to Drusilla and the girls.

Chloe also found herself staring at the Centurion's retreating form. Even she had been stunned by his description of the events at the Praetorian Camp. She well remembered the giant obelisk which stood on the Field of Mars. Her 'bot network quickly processed the dimensions from her earlier memories, recalled the density of red granite, and provided her with a weight estimate of one hundred twenty one tons plus or minus three tons. Two hundred forty two thousand pounds. My God, what were Clark's limits?

However it wouldn't matter how strong Clark was, thought Chloe, if he didn't get here in time. Focusing back on Venta, Chloe said. "You don't want to piss Clark off. Whether you want to believe in the Greek Gods or not, Clark has most of the same abilities as the legends. If you kill us, Clark will never rest until he finds you, even if he has to spend thousands of years searching through time."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth and she saw the expression on Venta's face, Chloe realized she had said the wrong thing.

"All of history is a pretty big place to hide," responded Venta. "Drusilla, if we learn the secret of Clark's gifts, we can use the time machine to move to some other time and easily take control there. And if we are gone, then Caligula can't kill our unborn child. All of the men who know of this location are loyal to me. I think we have time to question these girls, wrap things up, and be well on our way towards the time machine before Clark finds out."

Drusilla stepped away from Chloe and gave a slow nod of her head. "Yes. Let's get out of here; life in Rome has definitely lost its luster."

Pointing to Chloe, she continued. "But no more idle chit-chat with that one. She is closer to having the true tongue of a serpent than anyone I have ever met."

"You will get no argument from me there," agreed Venta as he reached down into the forge for a glowing implement of torture. "I think a more traditional form of questioning is now appropriate."

Drusilla smiled, showing no signs of squeamishness about inflicting pain and bodily harm.

Chloe knew her abilities to stall were about to run out. She had kept them talking for over an hour and a half, but she was almost out of time and ideas.

"Patricus, would you be interested in a ransom?"

"Not really."

"I have thirty two tons of gold stashed within one day's ride of Rome."

Venta shrugged. "It would be way too much bother to move all that gold to the Portal machine. Besides, if I have Clark's abilities, I can easily get gold myself."

Then Venta quickly reached out and forced the orange-hot poker against Chloe's upper arm.

Chloe quickly had to make a decision. Appear to be immune to the pain and allow her body to quickly repair any damage. Or look like it was hurting her. She decided she had to take the second course. If Venta thought his torture was having no effect on her, he might move on to Lana. She needed to keep his attention focused on herself as long as physically possible.

She let part of the pain penetrate to have a realistic response. Perhaps more than she had intended as she felt her scream begin.

Finally, after 4.6 seconds by her internal clock, Venta removed the poker from her arm. Her scream slowly reduced to a quiet sob. The wound was three inches long and almost half an inch deep, all burnt black in the center and blistering around the edges. Her repair 'bots were swarming into action to quickly repair the damage. It took almost more attention than she could afford to spare, limiting their action to internal repairs while leaving the surface appearance of the wound unchanged.

Slowly, with tears running down her face, she looked up into Venta's eyes. "The answer to your question won't do you any good."

"Try me," said Venta.

Saying Clark was an alien wouldn't help in this situation. Particularly saying he was an alien and that she had no idea how his gifts worked. So she had to go with a variation of her own story. A story she could at least explain.

"Clark's gifts are all based on nanotechnology." Chloe paused to grimace and pant for a few seconds. "Do you understand nanotechnology?"

"A little, but perhaps you should clarify." Then Venta swept the still glowing implement close past her face. "But do hurry, you only have 30 seconds."

"Nanotechnology involves building the things you want starting from the atomic level and working your way up. By carefully controlling the location and orientation of each individual atom during the construction process, material strengths several orders of magnitude higher than anything found in nature can be achieved. Early 21st technology can create small quantities of carbon nanotubes with a strength one hundred times that of the best steel. And when Clark's body was created, several hundred years of nanotech expertise existed. Therefore it should come as no surprise that his skin and bones are about 300 times stronger and tougher than steel and at least a million times tougher than normal human skin.

"The technology used in his muscles is different, yet similar. Bottom- line, he is at least 10,000 times as strong as a normal man, as his little demonstration with the obelisk proves. His internal organs have also been enhanced with nanotechnology, although more along the lines of using nanobots to keep the human cells in peak performance rather than wholesale replacement of the organs.

"But, I don't see how this is going to do you any good. It takes a very high tech lab to rebuild a body in this manner, a high tech lab that can only exist in a very advanced civilization. Certainly, nothing like that exists here, or even up in the 21st Century."

Venta appeared to consider this for a few seconds. "Well, that answer doesn't do me any good. I guess you will have to try again." Saying that, he brought the poker down between her upheld arm and the side of her neck until it touched the bunched up folds of her green silk gown on top of her shoulder.

The poker quickly burned through the smoking, stinking cloth until it reached her skin and again proceeded to burn its way into her flesh. Again Chloe was forced almost against her will to scream.

This time it was almost ten seconds before Venta withdrew the agonizing device. As it lifted clear, the smoldering remains of the right shoulder of her gown burned through and the top portion of her gown slipped and fell away, leaving her naked to the waist.

Roughly Venta reached out and palmed one of her exposed breasts.

After a few seconds, Drusilla spoke up. "Quit screwing around and get back to business."

"Well, I thought Chloe might like a last few moments of pleasure with this, as I think it is going to be the next target for attention." Slowly, Venta removed his hand from her breast and used it to lift her chin. "Chloe, are you ready to tell me the truth, now?"

"I have already told you the truth. What benefit would there be for me to be lying?"

At this point Venta didn't really care what the truth was any longer; he was just getting into the torture. It was one of the reasons he had agreed to join the Professor in his little plan for the Roman Empire. Here he could indulge in so many activities he could only dream about in his old life.

But soon he would be forced to start all over in some other era and it was all Chloe and her friends' fault. Yes, he was going to enjoy slowly destroying her before he was forced to depart.

"Perhaps you would be more motivated, if I work on your friend for a while."

This was the moment Chloe had been dreading. She had seen that look in his eyes before, way too many times before, as other men slipped over the edge into madness. Venta was no longer looking for information, just revenge. And Lana was about to be caught in the middle.

Chloe watched as Venta made his way over to the forge for a fresh weapon. Normally, at times like this, she would allow her mind to retreat into her memories and leave control of her body to the 'bots. They could combat the damage just as effectively without her active attention and she could lock herself away, re-experiencing some happy times from her past.

But Lana didn't have that luxury, and as she started to scream, Chloe forced herself to stay in this reality. Soon her blonde head was bowed and the tears running down Chloe's face had nothing to do with her wounds.

Come on, Clark, where are you?

-------------------------------------------------------

Clark nervously paced back and forth the length of magnificent entrance hall to Chloe's estate. It was several hours past dawn and the brilliant sunlight was beautifully illuminating the grand fresco of the naval battle that dominated the room. However Clark couldn't care less as he awaited word saying some source of Rogerus' had located the girls. Unlike Lex who seemed able to stand motionless for minutes at a time with his nose only inches away from the surface of the artwork, Clark couldn't stand still. At least twice an hour since they had returned, he would blur out and do a quick pass through the city hoping to find his own clue as to their location. But he never found anything and was always back in the entrance hall within ten seconds. It wouldn't do for him to be off somewhere else when the vital bit of information reached the estate, because he could feel in his gut that time was going to be critical.

It was difficult to tell time without a watch, particularly at night, but it must have been about 3 AM when Lex and Clark had returned to the estate. With all of the noisy activity on the Field of Mars, the horses they had 'borrowed' from the Imperial messengers had disappeared out into the night and they were forced to make their way on foot. Well, Clark had been on foot. He had such a sense of urgency he merely picked up Lex and set off at a brisk pace. Not true super-speed, but still a pace any Olympic sprinter could only dream of in envy.

Chloe's estate was barely a mile and a half from the Praetorian Camp. Even with his burden and what was for him a leisurely pace, it had taken less than three minutes to reach their destination. When they had arrived, Rogerus was, as usual, awaiting them on the front steps. The noise from the Camp on the bluff must have been sufficient to arouse the household, as even now the spreading fires were clearly visible in the distance. Or perhaps the answer to Rogerus' presence was simply he never slept.

In less than two minutes Lex had filled him in on the situation and Rogerus had disappeared back into the house to set things in motion.

Lex and Clark were left standing in the mostly dark, gloomy, almost foreboding entrance hall with nothing to do until Rogerus turned up a clue. The room had large floor-standing candelabra near both the front entrance and the rear exit into the main portion of the estate. Additionally, a smaller candelabra was burning on the small side table where an assortment of breads, fruits, cheese, wines and a decanter of water were set out.

Clark wandered over to the table and idly picked a few grapes from a bowl. Not because he was feeling any hunger, more to give his hands something to do. Lex joined him but for a minute merely stood there staring into the flickering flames of one of the candles.

Finally, Lex turned to Clark. "I know we should be focused on the girls, but at the moment there doesn't seem to be anything we can do in that regard." Lex shook his head the smallest amount as though steeling himself to ask a difficult question. "Clark, I have to know. How can you do those things? I mean this is so far beyond what I was expecting after the little demo at the Circus, I can't even begin to guess how it is possible."

Clark looked at Lex for a moment, really looked at him for the first time since the events outside the Praetorian Camp. Clark stared at his reddened face and the couple of painful looking blisters on his cheeks and wondered what had happened to him, not even realizing Lex had been caught in the first manifestation of his new, soon to be great, gift. Heat vision, his first ability which could directly affect things from a distance without moving his body.

Instead of responding to Lex's question, Clark asked, "My god, what happened to your face?"

Lex reached up and gingerly touched his blistered cheek. "You did. Don't you remember?"

Clark looked back with a growing expression of horror. "I did? I don't understand."

"Right at the end of things, when you were hurling blocks at the outer wall. I walked up to try and get you to stop. When you turned to me your irises were glowing red and it felt like I was standing in front of an incredibly powerful sunlamp. Your eyes returned to normal within ten seconds, but this was the result."

"I am so sorry, Lex. This has never happened before. I felt a burning sensation in my eyes at the time, but I thought it was just the anger and frustration from not finding the girls." Clark remembered how his x-ray vision had first appeared six months earlier. Suddenly, sporadically. Exactly what new power was he developing now? And why now? Why in the middle of this crisis? Was the crisis causing it to appear now? Clark shook his head in frustration and repeated again. "I'm sorry."

"What do you mean, it's never happened before?" asked Lex. He desperately wanted to push Clark for answers, but Clark obviously needed to ease into things at his own pace.

Clark sighed. "Until six months ago, I never had the x-ray vision either. Oh, I have always had the speed and strength to some extent, but not the x- ray vision. It spontaneously started to happen. It was several weeks before I was able to reliably control it. I guess this heat thing must be something similar."

Lex nodded as one of his surmises was confirmed. He thought from Clark's behavior in the hallway back at the imperial palace that Clark must be able to see through walls. "X-ray vision sounds pretty handy."

Clark shrugged. "It has been useful a few times like when I saw the arm inside the vault door at the Smallville Bank."

"What?"

"You remember the meteor rock tattoo boys, who could walk through walls?"

"Sure, Clark, it was that memory which first led me to think you might have the ability to see through walls. But what does that have to do with an arm inside the vault door?"

"Well, at the time I could hardly explain to anyone how I knew it was there, but knowing one of the men involved was missing an arm, made them a lot easier to identify." Clark tried a faint smile. "This new heat thing doesn't seem nearly as useful, unless I want to open an instant tanning salon when we get back home."

Lex snorted. "I think instant burning salon would be much more accurate. 'Come right in. SPF -3000. In 10 seconds we'll give you the same sunburn as 8 hours in the Sahara Desert Sun.' Sounds like you will make a lot of money, Clark."

For several minutes nothing more was said. Finally, Lex spoke up. "You mentioned something about an explanation this afternoon before all of the craziness began. It looks like we have some time now and my understanding things may come in useful later on."

Clark nodded, knowing it was time. "Okay, Lex, but I am afraid you are going to be disappointed."

"How can I be disappointed? I mean the things I saw you do."

"Disappointed, because there won't be any simple, clean 'this neatly explains everything' answers. As far back as I can remember I have wanted a clear explanation, too. But so far I haven't found it."

Lex couldn't understand this hemming and hawing. "Clark just start at the beginning."

"Like everything else strange in Smallville, my story starts with the meteor shower." began Clark.

Lex tried to keep an open mind as he listened to Clark's story, but his brain immediately tried to jump to the conclusion Clark's story would just another meteor freak incident, albeit with more strange consequences than most.

"In the middle of the shower, my spaceship crashed into a cornfield along the road between Smallville and my parent's, well, adopted parent's farm."

"Spaceship? Did you really say spaceship?"

"Yeah, but before you start asking why no one noticed, it is very small, only about eight feet long and four feet wide. And no, I don't have any idea how you could pack a three-year-old child, food, air, fuel, and everything else into a vehicle that small. It has been in my parent's root cellar ever since. Since the day it, we, arrived, my parents have never been able to open it or decipher any of the symbols on the outer surface. Even I haven't been able to open it and you have seen how much force I can exert."

"So, you haven't come right out and said it, but are you telling me you have no idea where you are from?"

Clark nodded. "Yeah, now you can see why I said my answer would be so unsatisfying. Oh, I can tell you a lot about my abilities, though obviously not everything since even I didn't know about the heat thing until tonight. But for the more important questions like 'Where am I from?', 'Why do I have these abilities?', 'Why was I sent alone?', 'Where are my real parents?', 'Was Smallville the ship's real destination or was it just random?' and a million other questions, I don't have an answer. And believe me; I want the answers far more than you do."

Lex could hear the frustration in Clark's voice and knew Clark was telling him the truth. This wasn't some story to avoid telling Lex the whole story. Once he knew of Clark's abilities, there didn't seem much point in not telling the truth.

Lex suddenly understood why Clark had always been so careful to hide the truth in the past. If Lex's father or the government found out, they would put him in a cage and study him like a lab rat to learn his secrets and how to duplicate them.

Well, they would try to put him in a cage, but from what Lex had seen tonight, he couldn't imagine a cage that would hold Clark. At least any cage with bars, thought Lex starting to get a queasy feeling in his stomach. After knowing Clark for a year, the leverage to hold Clark seemed so simple: threaten his parents, or Chloe, or Lana, or even himself. At that moment, Lex vowed to himself to do everything in his power to help Clark protect his secret. And that meant protecting everyone who could be forced to reveal Clark's secret: Lana, Chloe, even Clark's parents. Would the sharing of Clark's secret make things easier between himself and Jonathan Kent?

As much as he saw the necessity of protecting Clark's secret, Lex also wanted to help his friend discover and understand his past. "Clark, you said there are symbols on the exterior of the ship. What have you done to try and decipher them?"

Clark turned and leaned back against the table. "I have tried to do some research on the web, but looking for symbols in an unknown language is very challenging. I mean you can't type the symbols into a search window and review the resulting hits. I have tried the usual keyword strings and Google's new image search tool, but I haven't found anything remotely close. But then if I am the first visitor to reach the earth from this other world, there is no reason I should find anything on the internet."

"Clark, I would like to help when we get home. With LuthorCorp's resources I can already think of several different ways to pursue this. One way would be to follow your current approach of looking for other examples of these symbols, but using people who are more experienced and who can devote their full time to it. Another way, if there are enough samples, is to use the approach of scholars who decipher long lost languages by looking for patterns. Of course, whatever approach we take, we will be extremely careful no one knows the source of symbols besides the four of us. And your parents.

"Speaking of the four of us, has Chloe seen these symbols? She, without a doubt, has been exposed to more languages and alphabets than anyone else on the planet. Hell, probably more than everyone currently alive combined. And with her stories of the computer processing abilities of her nanobot network, she might be your best bet at deciphering them."

Clark hadn't ever thought about trying Chloe's abilities to solve the mystery of the symbols. "I didn't let Chloe in on my secret until we were in the spa back in Tolosa, shortly after she told us about her own unique background. I mentioned the spaceship that day, but we got interrupted and then it never came up again. I hope you are right, maybe with Chloe's help we can find some clues as to who I am and why I have all of these abilities."

Clark suddenly stood up. "Lex, I can't just sit here, not knowing what is happening to the girls. I am going to take a quick swing through the city and see if I can find any clues. Or at least clear my head and burn off a little nervous energy. I'll be back in a few seconds."

Lex had barely started a nod of acknowledgement when Clark blurred and was gone back out into the darkness of the night.

While Clark was gone, Lex tried to make sense of what he had just learned. Clark was an alien. An alien. But not some gray or green unisex-looking creature with an oversized head. No, he looks perfectly human, except for being at least 1000 times stronger than anyone from earth. How was that combination possible? If Clark's race evolved on some world where the gravity was 1000 times that of the earth, what were the odds of them looking human? The logical answer was a number so tiny it was for all practical purposes, zero.

This seemed to lead to several possibilities. One, Clark's abilities were natural, but his appearance had been altered to pass for human. Two, his appearance was natural, but his abilities were artificially enhanced. This led to the question of how his abilities could be artificially enhanced.

Clark had arrived during the meteor shower. Many humans had been affected, from some perspectives you could say enhanced, from their encounters with the meteor rocks. For some this was the result of exposure over a period of years. For others it was the result of one brief, explosive encounter. Many of the abilities which resulted were almost hard to believe and this was after, at most, a 13 year exposure. What if a race was exposed to the meteor rocks continuously for many generations, perhaps hundreds or thousands of years? What if the changes were cumulative and reinforcing? If you extrapolated forward from some of the meteor freaks' abilities, could you eventually arrive at someone like Clark?

Then again, perhaps Clark's arrival was unrelated to the source of the meteor rocks. Oh, the meteor rocks might have hit his ship and diverted its course, but perhaps that was their only involvement. If so, how else to explain Clark's abilities? Unwittingly following the same train of logic Chloe had tried to use on Venta, Lex thought of Chloe's comment on the boat ride up the Tiber. If Chloe's nanobot technology was effectively a first generation prototype, what could a civilization achieve by the tenth, twentieth, or hundredth generation?

So Clark's abilities could be quasi-natural from long environmental exposure to meteor rocks over many generations, or artificial, perhaps the result of some highly advanced technology. That brought the question back to why was Clark on earth. Why was someone with almost god-like abilities here? Was it an accident, or on purpose? And if on purpose, was it for Clark's benefit, mankind's benefit, or someone else's benefit?

The possible permutations from the limited data now at Lex's disposal seemed almost too many to count. Lex was almost glad for the interruption of Clark's return fifteen seconds later. It felt like the method he found useful for complex problems at The Plant might be of benefit here. Let his subconscious think about the problem for a few hours and then write all of his various thoughts and ideas on Post-it notes to allow shuffling into various configurations. Of course, if he had time to work on the problem here, he would have to substitute scraps of parchment for the post-it notes.

The next few hours were spent mostly in silence. At first the silence was occasionally broken by a question from Lex about Clark's abilities or history. As the night wore on and gradually turned into morning, their thoughts turned more and more to the girls. Lex tried to get Clark's spirits up, and maybe even his own, by reminding him of all the times one or both of the girls had been in trouble over the past year and how Clark had always gotten there in time and how he would surely do so again. But as the hours went by their sense of foreboding grew. This time things felt different and most definitely worse.

Rogerus returned at regular intervals, but never had anything new to report. He frequently apologized that he unfortunately had few sources with the Praetorian Guards, if Lex and Clark's suspicions were true about Venta being behind things. Rogerus' contacts outside of Chloe's estate were mainly centered in the commercial and political sectors. The leaders of the Praetorians had always formed a small, tight circle which had been difficult to penetrate.

After waiting hours, which each felt like more than a day, the news they had been awaiting finally arrived, however it came from an unexpected source.

It was nearly nine in the morning when the guards stationed outside of the main entrance shouted for their attention. With his x-ray vision instantly engaged, before Clark had even exited the building, he had already spotted the man approaching up the main boulevard servicing Chloe's estate.

The man was still several hundred yards from where they stood, but he was obviously moving as fast as he could. Although by this point it was hardly faster than a walk. As soon as Clark recognized it was Cyrus, he dashed out from the covered portico and gingerly carried him back up to the entrance where Lex stood.

As Clark eased him back onto his feet, Cyrus labored to catch his breathe.

As soon as he could speak, Cyrus began to gasp out, "I'm . . . sorry. . . . . it is . . . all . . . my . . ahh . . fault."

Realizing he was rambling, Lex grabbed his shoulders and gave him a quick, brisk shake.

"Get to the point," said Lex, his voice almost a growl.

"Your . . . friends. Venta . . . has them. . . . Oh, it is . . all . . my fault."

"Where are they?" demanded Clark, his voice creeping dangerously close to its 'Ares, the God' mode. "Are they hurt?"

Cyrus' breathing was starting to come under control, but, alarmingly for Clark and Lex, tears were starting to stream down his face. "By the time I got clear, clear of the room where they were being tortured, they were both very, very seriously injured."

Lex's heart froze at these words. Chloe might be giving the appearance of being hurt, but for Lana it must be real. Then Cyrus continued and it became unimaginable worse.

"Venta has them at the Statilius Taurus Stadium. Their execution is the first event in today's games. I fear it is already too late."

Clark knew the stadium was to the south of the Palatine Hill, a little over three miles from where they now stood. As soon as the words were out of Cyrus' mouth, Clark's body seemed to shift into speed mode of its own volition. From his perspective, one second Cyrus was talking and the next he and all of the others were frozen in time.

Clark instantly grabbed Lex up in his arms and headed towards the stadium at his maximum possible speed. He knew bringing Lex was going to cost several extra milliseconds, but Lex deserved to be there, regardless of the outcome.

As Clark dodged around all the pedestrians frozen in time, he kept repeating over and over in his mind, 'It's not too late; I always make it in time. It's not too late; I always make it in time. It's not too late; I always make it in time. Please, let me be in time.'

The stunt with obelisk may have pushed his body up to a new higher level, or his extreme fear had his adrenaline way up, or perhaps it was some combination, but Clark ran like he had never run before. His old personal best of 14 seconds for the five miles from the farm to Smallville High was being broken today. No, not broken, utterly smashed into little pieces. From the time he started to move until he raced out onto the floor of the stadium, he had covered the three miles in exactly eighty six milliseconds.

As he raced across the stadium, he saw the thrown spear three inches from Lana's body. He could still reach the spear in time, but it didn't matter. Its three predecessors had already found their mark, two through the chest and one in abdomen. Lana sagged from the post, already dead.

Chloe was roped to the next column barely five feet away. At least five spears protruded from her equally lifeless body.

Clark's mad dash ground to a final halt barely ten feet in front of their bodies. As time sped back up until the roar of the crowd could be heard, Clark unceremoniously dropped Lex, his presence almost completely forgotten.

For a second Clark stood there numbly looking at the bodies, when suddenly his legs began to tremble. His mighty, powerful legs which mere hours earlier had easily hoisted that great, massive column, now didn't have the strength to even support his own weight.

As he slipped to his knees, the reality began to sink in. He had been too late, the girls were already dead. As he knelt there his rage and anger began to grow and grow. They were dead. Dead. DEAD.

Suddenly, he felt burning once more in his eyes, but this was nothing like what he had felt back on the Field of Mars. That had felt like little more than standing in the shower with his face right up against the nozzle and the water turned fully to hot. However this time it started at a level that felt like a blowtorch was aimed straight into his eyes and then it rapidly began to get even worse. In less than second it felt like his eye sockets were filled with molten lava and he would do anything, everything, to release the pressure.

A tiny corner of his brain was still barely functioning. It told him he needed to get away from the girls or he would incinerate their bodies to ashes. The thought he might cremate the bodies of the two girls he had loved, drove the anger and pain to an even higher level. Stumbling to his feet, he turned to the far side of the stadium and took a couple of steps before losing his little remaining control.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!" He roared out with unimaginable power. In an instant the shockwave ruptured the eardrums of everyone in front of him. Then the shockwave of his great shout rolled out across the grand city. Every glass object was destroyed as it passed. Even a few nearby, poorly constructed buildings collapsed before it was gone. Moving at the speed of sound it took fifteen seconds to cover the distance to Chloe's estate, which Clark had just accomplished in eighty six milliseconds. When it arrived, it still packed sufficient punch to shatter into a thousand pieces the large stained glass windows lining the solarium.

His mighty shout had done nothing to relieve the ever increasing pain in his eyes. Finally, with another uncontrollable bellow, his eyes let loose. The heat, the fire, the anger, it all roared out in an unstoppable flow.

The first thing it touched was the floor of the arena near the far north wall. Instantly, a three foot wide strip of sand turned into molten glass. As his gaze tracked across the floor, the stream of glass followed. Then his focus veered up onto the ten foot granite wall separating the floor from the stands. Without the infinite heat sink that the ground had provided, his heat vision immediately buried straight through the four foot thick granite blocks. Like the giant lasers in an old sci-fi movie, his heat vision seemed to punch straight through everything they touched.

For another second his gaze swept along the barrier wall. Fifteen feet from where it had first contacted the wall, it passed over the heavy iron gate barring off the animal pens. In an instant the iron bars where vaporized and the day's assortment of beasts for the games were suddenly free to enter the arena. A few lions were there as traditionally expected, but the majority of beasts were brown bears from the Teutoburg Forest in distant Germania. One hundred forty seven in all, imported for today's games in honor of the 25th anniversary of Augustus' great hunt after his magnificent victory over the Germanic tribes. One hundred forty seven bears free to roam the arena as soon as the heat of the entrance had a chance to cool.

And still Clark's heat vision poured forth with no sign of abating. As his uncontrolled gaze shifted up into the stands, large sections of the wooden structure burst into flames.

While Clark continued off on his path of incredible destruction, Lex slowly came to his senses. One second he had been listening to Cyrus make his fearsome pronouncement and a fraction of a second later he found himself sprawled on the stadium floor. Blinking his eyes to clear the dry burning sensation, Lex slowly sat up. This early in the day the stadium, which could hold over 20,000 people, was still less than half full. But the shock of going from the quiet of Chloe's estate to the instant roaring of the crowd was almost overwhelming.

Slowly, Lex got his bearings and realized he had just experienced some of Clark's abilities. Then the shock of Cyrus' words struck home and he quickly looked around. Almost directly behind him was where he found the girls, their bodies strapped to posts, numerous spears projecting from their bodies.

"Lana, Lana, Lana," he whispered. All he could think about was never having the chance to say good-bye. She had just left the imperial banquet for supposedly a few minutes, and now she was dead.

"No, no, no," he whispered as he slowly crawled to his knees. Still staring at the bodies, some small portion of his mind noticed that somewhere between last night and this morning the girls' silk gowns had been replaced with short gray slave tunics, tunics that were now soaked through with blood all down the front. Once his gaze moved passed the blood, he noticed the damage to Lana's body. The burns, the bruises, all over her exposed arms and legs. "No, no, no," he said again in a louder tone as he began to comprehend she hadn't just been quickly executed, but tortured for a long time first.

And a darkness began to creep into Lex's heart as he continued to gaze upon her body, the body he had learned to love during their time together here in this fucking Roman Empire. The body, the mind, and the spirit that had finally started to heal some of the wounds he had been carrying with him ever since the death of his mother. And now she was gone.

For several more seconds he stared up into her face. Lost in his memories, so oblivious to his surroundings, he never saw the spear that slammed into his left shoulder. The spear that drove him back down onto his back.

Numbly, Lex looked at his shoulder, at the blood welling up out of the wound. The wound was serious, but not immediately fatal. Well, not fatal back home, if he got promptly to a hospital. But here, now, it might mean the end.

Calmly, Lex turned his head and looked towards Clark. Clark, who might be the only one of them who would survive this day, looked at this moment to be totally out of control, lost in his torments. The heat thing that had briefly controlled him back at the Praetorian Camp was now completely out of control. The intensity and power of the effect was so great, Lex could follow Clark's gaze by merely watching the intervening air shimmer and roil. Suddenly, Lex was afraid Clark might physically survive this day, but would his mind be intact, if he found the rest of them all gone?

But Lex's concern for Clark faded and once more he turned his gaze towards the girls.

"Lana," he whispered, as his eyes started to tear up from his loss and pain.

"Lana."

To be continued.