As Heike lunged at him with her epee, he suddenly heard footsteps entering the Luthor ancestral home. As he felt her blade at his throat, he turned his head to see Lex standing in the doorway, covered in mud. He motioned to Heike to indicate that the match was over.
"Lex, what happened to you?" he asked, with concern in his voice, as he removed his fencing mask to reveal the face of Lex Luthor's best friend, Pete Ross.
"Bumped into an old acquaintance, Pete," replied Lex distantly. "Don't suppose you know him? Long black coat, white face, disturbed black hair."
"What did he do to you?"
"It doesn't matter. Do you know him?"
"But look at the state of you ..." and at that point Pete's comment were interrupted by Lex grabbing hold of his arm and placing a hand over his mouth.
"Please don't make me repeat myself, Pete," Lex requested, as he removed his hand from Pete's mouth.
Pete was stunned. He'd never seen Lex like this before in all the time he'd known him. "That's Edward ... Edward Kent ... Goes to Smallville High. What did he do to you?"
"Saved my life," replied Lex, relaxing his grip on Pete's arm. "I'm going to repay him."
And with that, Lex let go of Pete's arm and started to walk away, leaving Pete Ross standing there confused.
"By the way," Lex said, turning around just as he was on the verge of leaving the room, "I've decided to start fencing lessons, so Heike's going to be all mine from now on."
As Lex went through the door, and headed towards one of the many bathrooms to clean up, Pete stood there even more confused. How could Lex take fencing lessons? He was afraid of blades of all kinds - he'd hired Heike to try and get over his phobia but had failed to turn up for even his first lesson. He wasn't even sure why Lex still kept her around.
As Heike left the building, Pete Ross sat down, switched on the Smallville news and was greeted with the sight of Lex's Porsche being hoisted out of the river.
Chloe was sitting in The Torch's office, with Whitney attached to her face, when her phone went off. It was her friend Pete Ross, who she didn't really consider a friend at all. In fact she wasn't even sure if she actually had any real friends - all of her many friendships in Smallville High she'd initiated purely in the hope of finding a story somewhere that didn't involve either football or crop circles. How she wished that she lived in Gotham City. There never appeared to be a dull moment there, or so Vicki Vale's articles in Gotham High's school newspaper The Crusader would have her believe.
"Thanks, Pete, sounds like a front page," she said as she closed her cell phone, pushed Whitney away, and looked at the local newsfeeds on her laptop.
"Sorry, Whitney. Duty calls. It looks like I've got my main headline. Can you come back in thirty?"
"Sure, Chloe," moaned Whitney resignedly. "What's the big story? Another crop circle?"
"No, it's Edward Kent. He saved Lex Luthor's life after Lex drove off a bridge. Who'd have thought it - Kai saved Lex."
Whitney just nodded, pretending to understand what Chloe was saying. It was no doubt some highfalutin literary reference intended to make him look dumb. "Well, see you, Chloe."
Chloe waved to him, as she concentrated on her laptop.
Thirty minutes later Whitney wandered back into The Torch's office. It was his turn to be Chloe's big story again.
"Hey, Whit, all finished. What do you want to do?"
A smile came to his face, and then some long-haired guy pushed him aside.
"My name's Lex Luthor, Miss Sullivan. I've got a story for you."
Whitney pushed himself up to Lex. "Hey, Chloe. Want me to deal with this creep? We need a scarecrow for this year."
"No, it's OK. You better leave us. Don't worry, I can handle Comic Book Guy. See you tonight, OK?"
Whitney nodded, and then left the room.
" So, Lex ... Lex ..."
"Sorry, Miss Sullivan. My mind was on other things."
"Call me, Chloe. So, what have you got?"
And then Lex told her his tale. It started off with the tale of his first encounter with Edward. A tale he'd told numerous times to numerous therapists, but they'd all been searching for hidden meanings when there were none to be found. And then he moved on to his recent encounter with Edward.
Chloe listened intently, unable to believe what she was hearing. Finally the tale was over and she just had one thing to say:
"Thanks, Lex. Leave it with me. I'll see what I can do."
"You don't believe a word, I've said, do you, Chloe?"
"Well, I realize that Eddie always keeps his hands in his pockets, but that's because he got his hands caught in a mechanical corn picker as a child. Anyone round here can tell you that. This Eddie Krueger story of yours seems, and I say this with all due respect, totally bananas. Are you sure that the doctors shouldn't check your brain after that accident of yours?"
"I'd advise you to take me seriously, Miss Sullivan"
"Hey, listen, Lex. It doesn't matter how much you try to act cool like Fonzie, you still remind me of Richie."
Lex got up, without a word, and headed towards the door.
"Hey, wait a minute, Lex. I didn't mean that," shouted Chloe.
Lex stopped, and turned to face Chloe.
"I meant Ralph Malph."
A fuming Lex walked out of The Torch's office, cursing his red hair. And then there was Chloe Sullivan ... ever since the accident, Lex had thought he was a changed man, but maybe he was only fooling himself - maybe it was a case of The Emperor's New Clothes and Chloe had seen what he hadn't seen, that he was really naked all along. No, he could not allow himself these thoughts, he needed to do something to prove to himself that he was no longer the frightened child he once was. But first there was a small matter of vengeance.
Chloe Sullivan sat back in her chair, looking at the endless headlines about football and crop circles on her Door Of Snore. And then she looked back to the local newsfeed on her laptop and saw Smallville's latest crop circle. Of course they weren't just circles, they were works of art, but this one caught Chloe's attention more than any other. It was her face carved into the field.
Suddenly, Lex's tale didn't seem so ridiculous after all and the crop circles no longer seemed so boring. It was the worst-kept secret in Smallville High that Edward Kent had a crush on her, and if he really did have scissors for hands, as Lex claimed, then she'd just found her biggest story.
Within seconds she was phoning Pete Ross to ask him for Lex's cell phone number.
Chloe arrived at the restaurant to find Lex sitting there.
"Hi, Lex. Sorry I was so beastly to you earlier, it's just been one of those days."
"That's all right, Chloe. I hope Whitney's not too upset about our meeting."
"Don't know. Don't care. He wasn't answering his phone. Probably stuck in a field somewhere. Stupid football practice."
Lex smiled and poured Chloe a glass of wine. "His loss is my gain."
Before this night, Chloe had always thought of Lex, when she'd thought of him at all, as some nerdy comic book geek, but as the night wore on, and he shared with her stories about his life, both hilarious and heart-breaking, she began to see something in him she'd never seen before. However, this still didn't prepare her for what Lex suggested at the end of the meal, but Lex was a hard man to refuse.
Late that night, in the Luthor ancestral home, Lex sat down on a chair, while Chloe ran her hands through his hair. Then she turned away to switch the radio on, and then, still intoxicated from the wine, started dancing around in front of him.
"It's been a long time since I did anything like this," he admitted.
"Don't worry, Lex, I'll be gentle with you."
As Stealer's Wheel started playing on the radio, Chloe picked up the razor and held it next to Lex's head.
"Are you sure, Lex?"
"I'm sure."
As the red locks of hair fell to the ground, Lex remembered that day back in the cornfield, and old fears threatened to re-emerge ... but they didn't. He was stronger now, stronger than ever. And soon he wasn't even noticing the blade touching his skin, but rather looking at Chloe, and the look on her face - as if she'd just unwrapped a parcel and found the greatest present in the world inside. As his hand reached out to Chloe's body, he thought of Whitney, stuck out in that field, tied up with an S painted on his chest. Just as helpless as the "scarecrow" who'd watched his plight all those years ago. Revenge was fun, and it was about to get better.