Author's Note: A little longer chapter this time around. Hopefully, it'll be worth it;).


The elevators dinged open.

In the laboratory down the hall from the elevators, Hope Taya heard the distinctive ding of the elevators. She stopped what she was doing, and looked back at the open door. Just as Luthor had directed, the door was open. It was an invitation for O'Neill to come in.

Rows of bright halogen lights overhead gave the lab ample lighting, but cluttered machinery in the lab itself still masked the light—exuded mystery. Uncertainty.

Hope straightened her ruffled uniform and slid back against the inside wall, just out of sight of someone entering the lab.


The doors opened too slowly. I pushed them open and bolted down the hall. The first open door, on my right. Yeah, that must be it. White halogen light flooded from inside, lighting a small cube of space in the otherwise darkened, labyrinthine hallway. Slow down, Allen. This isn't the home field. Deep breath. Okay. Walk. I stopped for a moment, tapped my fingers nervously against my pants leg, and rounded the corner.

And there he was.

In a huddled mass on the cold concrete floor in front of me. Jesse. Jesus, he looks terrible. His shirt was torn, mutilated…bloody. Someone beat the hell out of him. He lay on his side, one arm tucked under his beaten corpus, the other sprawled outwards on the floor; the lifeless fingers—each one bent at unnatural angles, as if they'd been broken individually—lay motionless on the cold floor, surrounded by small droplets of blood. Someone really beat the hell out of him.

I knelt at Jesse's side, but was apprehensive to touch him or try moving him. If he had a broken rib, moving him could puncture a lung and kill him in a matter of minutes.

The next best thing. "Jesse," I said quietly, like a mother trying to rouse a kid for school in the morning. "Jess…can you hear me?"

He groaned softly, painfully. His eyes, already shut, squinted more as I repeated his name. Dried blood encircled his mouth and dotted his face.

"Can you hear me, Jesse?"

"No…." he muttered weakly.

"It's me, Jess….It's Allen."

"Other…side…"

"Who did this to you, Jesse?"

"Everything…looks different…"

"What, Jesse? What looks different?"

"On…the other…side…"

"He can't hear you, Allen."

I pivoted on my knee to see Hope standing behind me. "Hope. What happened to him?"

"Doctor's orders," she said cryptically, her face emotionless.

"Orders?" I asked bluntly. "Whose."

Silence. She was probably sworn to silence.

"Answer me!"

"He brought it upon himself," Hope said. Goddamn it, she's not helping me. My friend is injured, probably dead by now, and Hope's up here feeding me riddles.

"Brought what?"

More silence. And in watching the grim expressionless countenance of Hope Taya…it came to me.

"Luthor did this. He did it….all because Jesse was…"

A smile creeping across her face, Hope waved her hand in encouragement. "Go on."

"Because he was gay," I said slowly, remorsefully. Like I should have fucking seen it coming. Why the hell didn't I?
"He was dangerous, Allen," Hope said grimly.

"Don't patronize me," I said, standing. "Superman was right."

"Wrong," a voice from beyond Hope said. "Superman is wrong, and so is your friend."

Lex.

"Was it really that much of an issue, Lex? That you had to kidnap him and beat the shit out of him?"

"You couldn't understand," Luthor said narrowly. "He was a threat."

"To who!" I blurted incredulously. "What, were you afraid he was gonna make untoward advances on you? Or was it jealousy, maybe some preconceived notion that you wanted to be a noble crusader?"

"Shut up!" Luthor barked. "You don't understand because you haven't got the ability to."

Silence. I stood, and slid my hands sheepishly into my pockets. He had never yelled at me before. It was…an interesting turn of events.

"Lex," I said pleadingly. "I want to believe that there's something to this than what it looks like. Right now, it's just…a hate crime." I felt a tear well up in my eye socket. "Just…tell me there's more to it than you wanting to string him up on a fencepost."

Luthor regarded me coldly for a moment, then started pacing. He walked in a broad circle around me, and as he spoke, he inspected the cluttered machinery which populated the laboratory.

"My life is motivated by control, Allen," Lex said as he walked. He held one hand in a tight up-drawn fist at his waist, the other nestled in his pocket. He looked above him, at the high ceiling of the laboratory. "Control over my empire, control over my life—"

"Control over other people," I interjected. Luthor stopped and narrowed his gaze at me for a moment.

"I've spoken to Superman, Lex. He…verified those names."

Luthor disregarded it and started pacing again, inspecting his fingernails idly as he went. "That's unfortunate," he said after a measure pause.

"Unfortunate that I know the truth?"

"Unfortunate that you would blindly accept the failing ideology of a cringing alien man-god."

"He was telling the truth," I insisted. My fists coiled up tightly at my sides.

"Was he?" Luthor asked, raising a questioning eyebrow and regarding me for a moment. "Are any of us?"

"You're dodging the subject." I pressed. He started pacing again. He walked past Hope, exchanged a silent dubious glance. Much in the same way that chimps had learned to communicate with each other through body language, I guessed that Hope and Mercy had become…exceptionally good at reading Luthor. Shiver.

"Sooner or later you're going to have to learn that the world does not exist solely in black and white, Allen. There are shades of gray. Truth is variable. Prerogative…is everything."

"What about him?" I asked pointing to Jesse's beaten corpus on the floor. "Is he variable?"

"He is not damaged. Nothing a night in the E.R. won't fix."

"Then let me call an ambulance, Lex. Let him get some treatment, for the love of God…"

Luthor's brow furled in disapproval and he sighed dismissively. "He will be taken care of. He'll wake up in a LexCorp hospital tomorrow morning with his wounds healed and peace of mind."

I looked down at Jesse, who was beginning to stir. A shadow fell across his body, as Hope kneeled over my friend and held his arms down. She raised his head to waist-level as Mercy approached…with a slender syringe in her hand. I was too enraptured to look away, too concerned to try and stop them. What if they're giving him painkillers?

With a slight jab, Mercy rammed the syringe into Jesse's jugular. His jaw muscles tensed briefly as his body acclimatized to the needle, and he sunk back into Hope's arms. Mercy pulled the syringe back out, removed the needle from the plunger, and left the lab room. I watched her go, and then turned back to Lex.

"What did she do?"

"He was hurting. Now he isn't," Lex said idly, watching Hope lay Jesse carefully back down on the floor. Hope stood and looked at Luthor. "Call Orr," he said, and she promptly turned and left.

It was me, Luthor and Jesse.

"Why, Lex? Why are you doing this? Why the distractions…the lies…"

"You knew too much," he said cryptically.

"I had to. It was for…"

"You couldn't leave it alone, could you?" Luthor said. He was fast becoming agitated.

"I…wanted to get inside," I said quietly.

"Everything wasn't enough, was it?"

I knelt next to Jesse and lifted him in my arms, my eyes rolling over his body, inspecting him for injury.

"Please, Lex…don't hurt him…" I trailed off.

"Oh I won't hurt him anymore, Allen. He's served his purpose."

I stared at Jesses' lifeless face. "I...I know what you did. To those people. You used them. Destroyed their lives—"

"No, Allen," Lex said bluntly. I looked up at him in halfhearted confusion. "I was their life. They existed to serve me, and they were good at it. Most of them. Some of them went to the bitter end working for me."

"The ones that didn't….the ones that sold you out. You tore them apart…you took their lives…"

"As I could have with you," Lex said defensively. "The difference in academic." Silence. My brow creased in confusion as Lex continued. "I saw something useful—genuinely useful—in you. You could have been the heir to a legacy…"

"What about your daughter?"

" Lena can have the empire—she's welcome to it. But you…you could have carried the honor. The Luthor name. Written in stone for centuries to come. Men will marvel at it, women will fawn over it. It will be legendary. The hallmark of human civilization…"

Silence…I gathered my thoughts.

"The depths of human sacrifice and the pinnacle of achievement. The greatest namesake of our time…passed through the ages."

"And…I could have it all," I said quietly, ruefully.

"Yes." Luthor leaned closer to me and let his hand rest on my shoulder softly. It was…comforting.

"It is your prerogative. Your choice, Allen."

Silence. Interminable.

"The offer stands. Despite your erstwhile muckraking. Accept or reject," Lex said quietly.

He's done so much for me. I can't throw it away. It's a god-damned education. I need it. I need it. I…need something…bigger. I need meaning. I thought I'd found it at college. With Jesse. It was about to be taken from me. Again. He stole it from me.

Mom. Dad. Sara. You're all the same. You let this happen. No better than him. No better than Mister Lex Luthor. No right to rule. No duty to serve. Lies and smoke. What's the point? Why do what you're destined to lose. The result is disappointment. Heartbreak. Loss. Always.

Jesus Christ. Snap the hell out of this. Right now, goddamn it. This isn't you, and it never was. You were never this much of a pussy. You were never a quitter. That's not the kind of man you were raised to be, and it's not the kind of man you're going to become. You were never one to give up. Don't fold now. Don't roll over like a fucking dog.

This isn't you. It doesn't have to be…Where's the Allen O'Neill who actually had a spine? The reporters instinct that had you looking between the letters on a page to find a meaning within a meaning?

A thought. Random, and at the same time very well placed.

This is all an elaborate set-up. The recording to get Superman's attention. The phone call to Lex's office from the person claming to be Jesse. They must have known I was in his office. How could they have known?
Sophisticated spyware technology, Allen. Luthor's probably got twelve cameras on this little lab room right now. Surprised?
No…He could have just called me into town. Why did he have to bring Jesse into this?

"Why Jesse? He's never done anything to you."

"We are all paying the price for the misgivings of the lower rungs, Allen," Lex said. "You shouldn't have to. Under my wing, you will learn everything you need to about…the world. Life. Everything. The greatest resources of this realm at your fingertips. You will be in the province of greatness. The vessel with which to carry on the line…the power."

"No."

Silence. I looked at Luthor, who wore a disgusted grimace.

"You refused me once before…don't make the same mistake twice. Your current state of mind notwithstanding, you need this Allen. You know it's true. You need me."

I lowered my head. Luthor approached; the sound of his footsteps heavy on the bare concrete floor. I heard the fabric of his jacket rustle, and rotated my eyes up to see a gun barrel pointed at my forehead.

"Some men are born to greatness, Allen. Some have it thrust upon them."

I stared sickly at Lex. My shoulders slumped, felt heavy—dragged down the rest of my body. In my arms, Jesse's limp body was losing heat. My breathing slowed, and my head sunk. Luthor cocked the gun. The bullet slid into the chamber, awaiting its destination.

He's really going to do it.
I was wrong. God…how could I have been?
I never meant for this to happen. I only had the best intentions.
Superman…if you're out there…

"It will be your choice…how you will be remembered."


To Be Concluded!