TITLE: Elseworlds-Power

AUTHOR: William Rayne
EMAIL: knytmare@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY: Clark found, taken in and raised by the Luthors. Clark misinterprets his destiny due to Lionel's influence which allows Lillian to have more influence on Lex. The 'brothers' still end up bitter enemies, but who is the lesser evil?

SPOILERS: revised Premier and "Metamorphosis"

PAIRING: none
DISTRIBUTION: FanFiction.net, email me

DISCLAIMER someone else owns 'em, I'm just taking them out to play. Don't sue me, I have no money

FEEDBACK: Desired like none other.

NOTES AND NEWS: Thanks to Deia for helping me with story development and being a "über beta queen and grammar Nazi." As always: bold is stressed, italics for thoughts or voice-over, and underlines for sarcasm or disgust.  It occurred to me that if Lex is destined to become corrupt because of his father then how would Clark fair if he were found by Lionel. This AU is the story of Clark's rise as the anti-hero. I fade in and out of Lex's reflections in some of the chapters. This is a *huge* work in progress, so expect possible revisions. Sorry to those who read my "Crossroads" story, but I had trouble with the updater…hopefully I won't have future trouble. And is it just me or is the Author Alert notification email not coming to anyone else either?

Chapter 1

October 16, 1989

I remember it like it was yesterday, I suspect I'll remember until the end of my days. After all, it was the day that changed the fate of the Luthor family. I was flying with my father over the cornfields to Smallville.

"This has got to stop. Open your eyes, Lex," said an exasperated Lionel Luther above the constant thumping of the helicopter blades to a small boy with red hair that is more on the side of orange and very much resembling that of a carrot.

"I can't," Lex replied fearfully, shutting his eyes to the point his face scrunches up.

"Luthors are not afraid. We don't have that luxury. We're leaders," Lionel wearily replied. Seeing no change in Lex's attitude, he leaned closer and whispers, "You have a destiny, Lex. You're never gonna get anywhere with your eyes closed."

My father was there to make a deal, it's always about business with him. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever end up being like him. Guess I'll never know. Mother had convinced him to take me along on this business trip, Father refused at first but eventually he agreed.

I wandered out into the cornfields and heard a voice. Father would've disowned me if he had been there, I got scared and ran. Luthors never run, he would've said, Luthors never show fear…it's like blood in the water or something to that extent. Despite being a Luthor, I ran, I fell, and I panicked so much I took out my inhaler. When I looked up, before I could take a breath with the inhaler, I saw a boy crucified and then I saw fire in the sky. I ran again, something hit close by and the shockwave threw me through the air. That was  all I remembered until I found myself in a hospital bed.

****************************************************

Fire erupted at the plant as Lionel finished signing the last of the papers. Startled, he looked up. As the explosions registered, he looked around to find Lex…not where he left him.

Running through the fields, Lionel shouted for his son. As he yelled, he stoped, realizing that the cornfield has been completely flattened, barely noticing a spot where something plowed through the ground. He ran over the ruined stalks, to stop and stare at the destruction. Looking down, he saw a patch of Lex's hair. What in the… he thought as he picked it up, No, no, no, this can't be happening. He looked around and saw something.

"Lex…?" he croaked out as the instincts and memories of fatherhood rush back into his mind. Contrary to popular mythology, Lionel Luthor wasn't a vicious man, Ruthless? Yes, but when the future Lillian Luthor met him, he still had a heart. A heart he kept hidden from all others, but a heart none-the-less. Many people thought, including Lionel that if it weren't for Lillian, Lionel Luthor would've become a monster beyond the dreams of the most talented writers. Somehow, Lillian made him into a decent man…a man her father grudgingly approved of marrying. He had always thought of her as his heart, conscience and balance. She had opened a door for him to a world beyond the world he lived in where there was only competition, greed and survival.

Though he had always loathed children, the day Lillian told him she was pregnant was a joyous day for him. For three years of Lex's life, three years he'll never recall, Lionel Luthor was every bit the doting father and husband until he got a call from the family physician. Dropping the phone in shock, he could not believe what he had been told; his wife and son had tested positive for a rare tropical virus and he had to come in immediately for a check up. Finding nothing wrong with his health, Lionel became a man possessed in finding the cause of his family's illness. In his search, he learned from doctors that given the data on the unusual strain of the virus, they had a decade to live at the most before death of some other cause.

Within the year, Lionel found how it was contracted as well; a man who claims Lionel ruined his life when they were teens. The man vowed to destroy Lionel through those he loved and cherished. That man is still the conscious 'volunteer' to a number of painful experiments in a LuthorCorp subsidiary.

Lionel grew detached and callous, his way of coping with the eventuality of losing his family, and the only person in this world that saw him as a worthwhile human being. This is the man that Lex would have childhood memories of.

If Lex had been lucid for even a second, he would have seen the father that was and that Lex wished he could have had. Lionel pulled back the ruined corn covering Lex, lying huddled on the ground, shaking uncontrollably, with a few thin hairs still clinging to his head, but most of his hair had been striped away. His eyes were open, but he was far from lucid. The shock of this sight wars on Lionel's face. Six years of emotional detachment and repression fight against the instincts of a father. "Lex...?"

Just then he saw a hint of movement out of the corner of his eye. A small boy stared back at Lionel. He was naked, had dark hair, and did not appear traumatized by what happened. What the… he thought before he suddenly saw something embedded in the crater he had missed in his search for Lex. It was a roughly egg-shaped metal craft of some kind, buried in the dirt. My son may be dying still, but someone out there has seen fit to give me a new purpose in this life... He snapped out of his thoughts as Lex's shaking rattled the corn, bringing him back to the here and now.

Dropping his cell phone near the crater, he picked up Lex and took the boy's hand to lead him. Wrapping the naked child with his coat; he found a truck and rushed his son to the hospital. Using a payphone, he called LuthorCorp HQ and instructed them to track his cell phone and covertly retrieve an object near it. He'd want a full report from his research staff when he returned.