"You know, most normal people would run from Kansas to Massachusetts," Bart Allen complained from the back seat of Zatanna's Mini Cooper.
"Please," Zatanna replied. "Most normal people don't have super-powers."
"Hey hey, normality lies in the eyes of the beholder," Bart shot back as he shoved a few Pringles in his mouth, munching on them with zeal.
Lana rolled her eyes as she reached back and took the can of Pringles out of Bart's hand. "How long have you had your powers, Bart?"
Bart shrugged. "Not too long, really. A while. But I learned how to use them pretty fast. Wasn't too hard, I mean. You get struck by lightening, the next day you're at P.E. and your body suddenly shifts into overdrive, it kinda strikes you that, hey, you've got powers. Cool."
"It was that easy for you? You just…took it and accepted it?"
"How could I not? I mean, I wasn't gonna wait for lightening to strike twice, you know? Who knows what would've happened then."
"He makes a good point," Zatanna said. "If Bart had hit by lightening, anything could have happened to him. He might have lost his powers. He might have died. He might have been fast enough to time travel, even. All we can say for sure is that – given the fact that Bart survived – it was in his destiny to inherit his powers."
"I'm really starting to hate that word," Lana pointed out. "Everywhere I go, someone's spoken about destiny. If this Kent Nelson guy says anything about destiny, I swear I'm going to -"
"Bring a bug back to life?" Zatanna joked.
"Funny," Lana replied, a smirk crossing her beautiful features. "Really funny. But you guys know what I mean."
"Yeah, we do," Bart replied, reaching out and plucking the can of Pringles from Lana's hand.
"So," Lana said, changing the subject. "Clark said he was going to meet us there, right?"
"Yeah," Bart replied. "He'll meet us there tomorrow, I think."
Lana nodded. "And we should be there by then?"
"Yep," Zatanna nodded. We're all intangible to everything except our own belongings, so we can pretty much go really, really fast, and it's no big problem."
"How long did it take you to come up with the idea for that?" Lana asked.
"Not too long. I have to refresh it every fifteen minutes, though. It seems to be getting stronger, so maybe that's a good thing."
"For us and your abilities."
"Pretty much."
Silence prevailed in the car for a few moments until Bart, who could never really be quiet for more than that, suddenly piped up again. "So, seriously Zee, why are we taking the car?"
Zatanna was quiet for a moment, considering Bart's question, when she realized that she didn't really know why they were using her car. It was an impulsive thing, maybe? Or maybe she just wanted some feeling of normalcy. Cars were normal right? That's what she'd tried to point out to Bart just a few minutes earlier.
The sorceress smirked to herself and let out a sigh. Why was she lying to herself? She knew why she was taking the car in the first place. Why even deny it?
Zatanna was scared. That was the truth of it. She wasn't sure she wanted to face whatever it was that they would learn once they got to Salem. Enough had happened in the past couple of months to make Zatanna realize that she was really unsure as to how much she really wanted to learn about what was going on with Lana. Granted, she was in it because Lana was her friend, and she wanted to be there for her, but beyond that…did she really want to know what it was exactly that was going on with Lana?
Yeah, yeah she did. In spite of her fears, in spite of the fact that Lana could very well turn out to be a hell-goddess remade (and Zatanna desperately prayed that this wasn't the case), Zatanna wanted to be involved with whatever was going on.
After all, if Lana did turn out to be some huge force of evil, who else was more powerful enough to stop her than Zatanna?
"So many others," she whispered to herself dejectedly.
"What?" Lana asked. "So many others what?"
"Oh, nothing," Zatanna replied. "Just, I think I need a cherry Zesti cola or something."
"Check it out," Bart said, pointing to a sign for Burrito Ole just off the freeway. "Supposedly Mexican fast food. What say we make a pit stop?"
"That works," Zatanna said, taking the exit, glad to delay their inevitable trip by even a few minutes.
"So, I'm glad you agreed to this," Alicia Baker said to Clark as the two teenagers sat down on a bench beside the ice rink later that day. The young couple had spent the last hour ice-skating, Clark doing so very uncomfortably. Alicia had helped him, of course, holding his hands as they skated around.
Clark couldn't deny that there was definite sparkage between him and Alicia, a lot more sparkage, in fact, than there was between him and Lana. He could feel it, and it wasn't only his super powers talking. There was something real there, some huge. But it was something that he would have to deny himself.
It'd be wrong to pursue this.
"I am too," Clark replied truthfully, pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind and just enjoying the now. "This is…well…"
"Pleasant?" Alicia shyly suggested.
"That would be an understatement."
"Oh," Alicia said, smiling sweetly. She looked into her cup of hot chocolate for a second and then looked back up at Clark. Clark noticed that Alicia's hot chocolate was no longer hot and so, after a few furtive glances around him, shot two beams of his heat vision into her cup until it was piping hot again. "Thank you."
Clark gave his head a slight nod. "Not a problem. So…this would have been us, then, huh?"
"What could have been," Alicia agreed. She was silent for a moment as she stared into his blue-green eyes, trying to search his soul, trying to find some spark of something to give her hope that, maybe one day down the line, Clark would take her to be his.
What made it painful was that she found that spark, and instinctively knew that no matter how whole-heartedly she loved him, she and he were never meant to be. There would always be one obstacle or another that would work its way into separating them.
Alicia smiled wistfully as she whispered, "Let's go for a drive, Clark."
"A drive?"
Alicia nodded. "Anywhere. Somewhere. Let's go to California, or Las Vegas. Just you and me."
Clark breathed out heavily as he set his cup of cocoa on the table in front of him and Alicia. He opened his mouth to speak when Alicia interrupted him. "Don't, it's okay, I know. Same thing you said yesterday. Or whatever you tried to say anyway." Alicia paused for a moment, opened her mouth to say something and then reconsidered. Instead she opted for, "Umm…I think I should go home, now."
"Let me come with you," Clark said standing up. He helped Alicia up and took his and her ice skates to the front while she waited for him. He returned moments later with the deposit for the skates in his hands. "Let's go," he said, giving her his arm.
Clark and Alicia walked in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the cool, crisp breeze. They made small talk, just sharing small nothings of no consequence, but enjoying each other's company immensely.
When they took a turn that Clark was unfamiliar with, Clark turned to Alicia and asked her where they were going.
"A motel," she said. "When I got out, I went home, and Mom kind of refused to take me back in."
"What do you mean?"
"After the whole thing with Dad last year…I mean, you know how it is." Alicia said softly, avoiding Clark's gaze.
"Yeah, but you're not that girl anymore, Alicia. You had…issues…then. But they're gone. You're past all of that."
Alicia opened her mouth but then hesitated. She shot Clark a guilty look, and Clark caught on to it, immediately. "What is it, Alicia?"
She stopped in the middle of the road and turned to Clark, her eyes full of worry and guilt. "I don't know if I've honestly changed all that much," she said timidly.
"What do you mean?" Clark asked, placing his hands on Alicia's shoulders. Alicia flinched for a moment, uncertain about what to say or do next. She made up her mind in a moment, and reached into her pocket, producing something she'd gone to retrieve earlier that day.
"I…I made this for you," she said, holding up a silver necklace set with three small, red stones.
Clark's look softened. "Alicia…you didn't have to…"
Alicia breathed in and said, "Forget I didn't have to, Clark. I shouldn't have." Clark gave her a questioning look, to which Alicia replied, "it's red meteor rock."
"What!"
"I was going to put it on you, Clark. I was going to put it on you, so that you'd take risks, so that we could be together. But I'm not going to. I…I can't."
"How did you know about the red meteor rocks?"
"How could I not? I heard stories about how, when last time they were given out, people ended up doing the wacky. I figured that if I could get it on to you, then you'd…I don't know…fall for me? Accept me in your life? Run away with me? Marry me? I don't know what I was thinking then," she said, on the verge of tears. "But I can't give it to you. It'd be wrong on so many levels, and I know the outcome at the end wouldn't be good. But you need to know what I'm capable of."
Clark silently took the necklace from Alicia's fingers and smashed it in his hands. The stones crumpled into dust as though they were cookies being crumbled.
"I'm sorry, Clark."
"It's alright," Clark told her after a moment. He resumed walking and Alicia followed his lead, coming up next to him. "You told me in the end, right? You told me what you were planning to do, and you didn't go through with it. So, it's alright. No apologies."
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely," the Kryptonian flashed the girl a smile. It was then that he realized that, yeah, he'd always have special feelings for Lana. There would always be a soft corner for her in his heart. But he didn't love Lana the way he loved Alicia. Even now, with Lana knowing his secret and everything.
There couldn't be a worse time for this revelation.
Alicia nodded and wiped her tears away.
They reached her motel soon and Clark brought her to her room. "Are you sure you wanna stay here?" Clark asked, searching her eyes.
"Why not? It's not forever."
"Stay at my place."
"Right, because your parents will love having me around after last time." Alicia replied, opening the door. "I can't impose on you guys like that, Clark."
"Are you going to be okay staying her by yourself?"
"I'm a big girl, Clark. I can handle it. Besides, this is Smallville. What's the worst that could happen here?"
Clark pursed his lips and cocked his head, giving her a look that made Alicia her understand what he meant. "Right. Smallville. Meteor freaks here are as common as mental patients in Gotham City." Alicia said, letting out a tiny giggle. "And here I am, without my teleportation powers," she winked playfully at Clark. "Guess I'll have to make with the damseling tonight. Tell me, how do you like in shining armor?"
"Is that in invite in?" Clark asked, eyebrows raised and grinning wickedly.
"You tell me," she asked, looking him up and down for a moment. "Boy of, ahem, steel."
Clark blushed wildly. "Nothing's going to happen. We're just gonna sit and talk. I can't stay the whole night anyway. I have somewhere to be in the morning."
"Oh? And where might that be?"
"Salem, Massachusetts."
"And how do you plan on getting there?"
"Running."
"I have a faster way…" Alicia held up her wrist. "I'm not insane anymore." She said to Clark's look of chagrin.
Clark sighed. She hadn't shown any signs of insanity so far. And Alicia had come clean about her plans. Would it be so wrong to take off her bracelet? For all he knew, it could be killing her. "We'll see, Alicia. We'd better get inside, before anyone out of the ordinary decides to pop up. And hey, nothing naughty, okay?"
"Naughty? Me," Alicia asked coyly, stepping in to the room. She turned around and smiled suggestively. "Well? Are you coming?" She asked, stepping into the room.
Clark hesitated a moment before following Alicia into her room.
Writer's Note: Hey all! So, wow…this ran a little longer than my usual fare. Yeah, I realize I'm gonna piss you people off with this whole Clark/Alicia thing, but trust me, there's a reason for it. Oh, and Mark, I found this website with transcripts for all the Smallville episodes, so if you feel you're missing something, this may help? http:svs.esp.st/ You didn't miss much though. I basically paraphrased the whole conversation. -D Anyway guys, keep on r-and-ring, yeah? Elf Queen, hope this was fast enough for ya. -D Until my next post, people! Happy Valentine's Day!