Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville and I'm not affiliated with it.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I hope you like this chapter
Chapter 12
Lex Luthor was standing in the caves with his cell phone. Turning it on, he dialed the sheriff's office. It rang a few times, and someone picked up.
"Sheriff Adams' office, what's seems to be the problem?"
"I'd like to report a kidnapping." Lex said. "The person is Lana Lang from Smallville. She was outside the Kawatche caves about twenty minutes ago when I was on the phone with her. Her cell phone went dead and I tracked it to the caves. That's where I am now."
"What did you say your name was?"
"Lex Luthor. I believed the person holding her is Whitney Fordman."
"Do you know where she is being held, or why this person would want to kidnap her?" asked the person.
"I have no idea where she is, but Whitney used to be her old boyfriend. He seemed to be in a fragile mental state when he attacked her at my house a few nights ago."
"So she was attacked." The woman said, clicking a keyboard in the background. "Any other helpful information you could give about the victim or the kidnapper?"
"No. That's all I know."
"Okay. We are in the process of dispatching a unit to investigate."
"Thank you." Lex said, and shut his phone.
With that, he decided to stay inside awhile and examine the extent of the damage.
Clark, Chloe, Pete, Martha, and Jonathon now stood at the place their vehicles were parked.
"What do we need to get?" asked Chloe. "Or was that a famous Clark excuse for having to leave?"
"No. I heard Lana yelling at Whitney. It was coming from that direction." Clark told her, as he pointed in a specific direction behind him. "And I need to get red kryptonite so I can face Whitney."
"It's at the Torch." Chloe said. "Want me to drive back and get it?"
"No, it'll take too much time for you to walk to your vehicle and then drive. I'm going to have to run there." Clark stated, and immediately started to speed away.
Chloe noticed him running.
"Clark! Get the hell back here!" She yelled, but noted that Clark didn't slow down.
Something clicked in her head and she began to chase after him. She just couldn't let him run into this situation on his own, especially since Clark's solo act would either mean a solid beating from Whitney, or the presence of Kal-el around Lana Lang. She couldn't let either happen. Her brain told her that it was impossible to catch up but regardless she felt her feet start to move, and she began to run as fast as she could. Clark kept getting farther in the distance, but she continued to run anyway. She darted around trees, over fallen logs, and across small streams, but never took her eye off of Clark. It was then she realized that she was actually keeping up.
"Oh god," she thought. "It looks like Clark was right."
Now that she realized that she could rival Clark's speed, everything began to come easier. She realized that she just had to go faster and began to use the strength that had been granted her to push against the soft ground, letting her cover more area with each leap and bound. The wind began to flow past her face so fast it made her wonder if she should've been getting a windburn. But it was working. She came closer, and closer, and closer to Clark until she was close enough to grab his arm, and then she slammed her foot down into the moss to stop them both. Unfortunately for Chloe, this resulted in them flipping over and consequently rolling through the dirt until they hit a rather solid tree.
Clark looked up at Chloe with complete and utter disbelief.
Chloe returned the look, with a quip, as per usual.
"Slow down there speedy, you're not doing this solo. Honestly I don't understand how you survived all of these years just rushing into fights. We need a plan." Chloe stated, pressing her index finger into the center of Clark's chest.
Clark shook his head, realizing that he would have to eat his earlier words. Then he began to chuckle.
"That was a rather creative way of stopping." He joked.
"Well how do you propose I do it?" Chloe shot back, slightly miffed.
"Not that way." Clark said, beginning to laugh again.
Chloe stood up and brushed the dirt off of her. She noticed that her shoe was still covered with muck.
"Just reduce speed until you're at a comfortable pace that you think you can stop at." Clark told her. "Geez, you had to stop running somehow when you were a kid, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I didn't exactly have to worry about going sixty miles an hour speeds!" Chloe protested.
Clark stood up and began to brush himself off. He again shook his head.
"Well since you're here, you may as well come with me."
"That was the plan." Chloe stated. "But should we take some green kryptonite too? You know, in case the red starts to affect you."
"I think Whitney is made of enough of that." Clark told her.
"Clark, it's the only way to stop you when you're around red kryptonite." Chloe protested. "I don't think you should gamble with how much of it there's going to be."
Clark looked a bit hurt at Chloe's suggestion.
"Well, you're going to be there, right?" Clark said, with a small smile, "If you go, I won't have to worry about it."
Chloe's better judgment left her as soon as she saw Clark's smile. She couldn't help but give in.
"Alright, no green kryptonite." She agreed.
"So what do we do now?" Martha asked. "It's not like we can chase after Clark or Chloe."
Pete gave a shrug. "I don't know. But something I do know is that someone has to go after Whitney, and this time it can't be Clark. Well, alone anyway."
Jonathon nodded, acknowledging Pete's comment.
"We can go." Martha said.
"No. I don't think that Clark would want you to." Pete said. The last thing Clark would want to happen was an injury to his parents.
Martha sighed, knowing that yet again she would have to have faith that God would bring her son home safe to her.
"I don't know how long Clark's going to be." Pete said silently. "But somebody has to help Lana. By the time they get back, it could be too late."
Clark and Chloe suddenly appeared into view, with Chloe apparently heading directly for the group.
"Chloe, no!" Clark yelled, and began to run at her to head her off.
"Clark, I can't stop!" the Chloe blur yelled and continued on direct course with Martha and Jonathon.
With the attention diverted, Pete ran off into the woods, albeit without super-speed, in the direction that Clark had said Lana's voice had come from.
Meanwhile, Clark speeded at Chloe from the side, hoping to God that this wouldn't hurt her, and tackled her to the ground. They rolled together in super speed for a few seconds, and eventually began rolling like normal. When they stopped, Clark ended up on top of Chloe, who was holding a slightly open lead box in her right hand. She saw the red begin to climb up Clark's hand, and before she could do anything he knocked it out of Chloe's reach, and leaned in for a kiss.
"Crap," thought Chloe, and reached for the box. She leaned to her right more and more, at the same time fighting off Clark's sudden lack of inhibition and obvious attraction to her. Lucky for her, her newfound speed had come in handy and she grabbed the kryptonite, put it in the lead casing, and shut the casing just in time.
Immediately Clark's face panicked. He stood up, and quickly helped Chloe up, and over to his mom and dad. His face had turned a crimson shade of red. He quickly took the attention off him by asking Chloe a question: "So, what do we do next?"
"I don't know. You tell me, super boy." Chloe piped up to break the awkward silence.
"Hey, where's Pete?" Clark pointed out.
"Oh no! He must've left during the commotion." Martha realized.
Clark's face turned white. "Pete's not nearly prepared to take on Whitney." He said. His gaze dropped to the ground and he sighed. He remembered being that lovesick over Lana not too long ago. Unfortunately, that also meant he knew exactly what Pete had been thinking when he left, and it wasn't good.
Chloe put her hand on Clark's shoulder as if to hold him back, so he wouldn't take off like last time.
"Regardless, we still need a plan." Chloe stressed. "Who else is going with us?"
"Just us." Clark stated. "Mom, Dad, you should get home, out of the way of this. I don't want you to be hurt."
Jonathon and Martha knew they had to let Chloe and Clark handle this, as much as they wanted to help.
"Be careful," Martha said, hugging Clark, and running her hands though his hair. After kissing him on the forehead, she stood back and looked at Clark, who now blushed at her affection. Who had ever imagined that her son would help others with his gift? She was proud of him, and she would go home and bake, clean up the house, and do some chores, to wait for him to come home to her, so she could be even more proud of him.
"Alright, let's go." Clark stated. "Mom, Dad, we'll meet you back home."
Clark focused in on the sound of Lana's voice again. She sounded quieter, which scared Clark. He wondered if they had taken too long.
"She's in this direction," he said, motioning to Chloe.
Suddenly he stopped. "It sounds like there's someone breathing nearby, and it's not my parents."
Chloe turned around to look, and her eyes began to hurt. It was like everything was going out of focus, but yet a bluish-blackish color. Chloe saw the outline of a tree and a skeleton behind it. She let out a yell, and fell on her butt.
"Chloe, what's wrong?" Clark asked, although Chloe saw nothing but a skeleton in front of her.
She blinked and as soon as it came, it was gone. Clark's face reappeared in front of her.
"Chloe…what?" Clark repeated, now with his hands on her shoulders.
"Skeletons!" Chloe said. "You were a skeleton, there was a skeleton behind that tree…and…"
Clark turned and squinted, scanning the area. He could see no concealed skeleton around, so he assumed that whoever it was must've left.
"Chloe, it's ok. It's x-ray vision. I'll teach you how to use it when we get home, but right now we have to go find Lana and Pete, ok?"
Chloe meekly nodded, and stood up, again brushing off her butt. She took in a deep breath and then looked at Clark.
"Alright, I'm ready." She said.
Clark took her hand and both speeded away.
Lex heard voices outside. Following the sound he saw Clark, Chloe and Clark's parents standing around. He could only pick out small bits of their conversation because he was a little far from their group. Suddenly, Chloe began to look in his direction and heave a scream. Lex, not wanting to be discovered eavesdropping, even though he hadn't tried it, crept to another area and waited behind another tree, being careful not to make any noise. Then he saw Clark turn around and squint, as if he was scanning the area. That really freaked him out. However, Clark seemed not to notice him, so he remained where he was. Then, Lex saw something he never thought he'd ever see. Leaving the Kents behind, Chloe and Clark disappeared, as though they weren't even there at all.
"Did they just teleport?" Lex thought. "Or did they move faster than the eye can see?"
Lex remembered Chloe telling him about how Clark missed the bus yet made it to school before her. Lex's mind raced. "Enhanced speed would explain that, but so would teleportation." He mouthed. "And how could Chloe be able to do it? Certainly she couldn't do what Clark could…could she?"
Lex thought about it for a minute, weighing the options in his mind.
"Right now it looks like teleportation," he reasoned, "since Chloe can do it too. They were holding hands, so Clark must've used an aura to help her teleport with him."
To Lex this was great food for thought. It was too big to let slide. "I think it's time to reopen Clark's file," he thought.
Chloe and Clark stopped in front of a run down cabin. Clark supposed that Lana was now gagged because he couldn't hear anything. Then, looking at the cabin with his x-ray vision he noticed that it had an underground level that was a bomb shelter, with a pathway jutting out from it, leading to where, Clark didn't know.
"Dammit!" he said. "There's a bomb shelter underneath the place, but I can't see through it because it's made of lead."
"We can't just go in there blind!" Chloe said.
"We'll have to," Clark said.
In the underground pathway…
"Mmph! Mmph!" Lana mumbled. There wasn't much that she could say with a gag on her mouth. Here she was, being carried like a lump of potatoes over Whitney's back. All the way here, until he had gagged her, Lana had tried to find out why Whitney had changed so drastically. However, he refused to tell her. His sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Shut up Lana. You don't want me to have to hurt you do you?" Whitney said.
Lana's eyes went wide. Knowing what Whitney could do, she didn't really want to piss him off. Looking down at the ground, Lana stopped trying to talk. She couldn't believe the situation she was in. The first person she had trusted with all her heart was kidnapping her and threatening her. "I sure know how to pick 'em." She thought. This was a double hit, since she had been kidnapped directly after finding out exactly what Clark had been hiding from her all these years. "Not from Earth…" She thought. "How did I not put two and two together?" Either way, she had lots of time to dwell on it. She doubted anyone even knew where she was, and no one would probably know until she was missing for a while.
"I'm not just going to give up." She thought, and with a sudden surge of courage she began to wriggle a lot. Whitney's irises turned an eerie green again, but Lana wouldn't let that discourage her. She continued to wriggle until Whitney dropped her to the floor. The fall hurt but giving up wasn't an option, so she shuffled on the floor, scanning the wall for a loose, jagged piece that could cut her bonds.
Clark heard the shuffling noise that Lana was making. "She's definitely down here," he whispered. Bracing himself to run ahead and stop Whitney, he was held back by Chloe.
"Clark…" Chloe said, in a warning tone. This had been the third time she'd held him back.
Suddenly the tunnel became very cold.
"Is it just me or is it freezing here?" Chloe whispered.
Clark put his hand up to his mouth. It almost froze solid. "Oh crap." He thought.
Chloe quickly realized the reason it was cold from Clark's sudden outburst.
"Didn't you deal with that earlier?" Chloe asked.
"Well, uh, I thought that I'd be ok for now…" he said sheepishly.
"You thought wrong Clark, although this may be useful if it lasts a while. Maybe we can freeze Whitney long enough to get the you-know-what near him." Chloe whispered.
"I just have one question. Why are we sneaking up on Whitney? We could probably take him easily." Clark asked.
"Need I remind you of the graveyard again, Clark? Or do you want a repeat of that?" Chloe whispered sarcastically.
"I guess not." He replied, defeated.
"Who's there?" someone ahead whispered.
Clark thought it sounded familiar, very familiar.
"Pete?" he asked.
"Clark?" Pete responded, walking back toward Clark and Chloe."Chloe?"
Clark looked relieved. That was one less person they had to look for.
"What were you thinking, running off like that? You could've been killed!" Clark whispered frantically.
"You're the one who ran off, man!" Pete whispered back.
"Wait a minute. Pete, how did you get here so fast?" Chloe inquired. "There's no way you had time to run here before us."
"I guess I just got so scared for Lana that I just didn't think and ran here. Come to think of it, I was going pretty fast." Pete whispered.
"Okay so that's three of us with speed." Chloe said. "So how did you stop?"
"Stop?" Pete questioned, remembering the rather large hole he had left in the cabin's wall. "I take it that you guys didn't see the hole."
Clark and Chloe looked at each other. "What hole?"
"The one in the wall." Pete stated.
"How did make a hole in the wall and yet not realize that you had super speed?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow.
Pete sighed. He didn't really know. All that had been on his mind was Lana. He noticed Clark glancing at him in empathetically.
"Love does strange things, Chloe." Clark said.
Suddenly, a voice was heard. "Lana, I told you to stop squirming! Now give it up before I'm forced to hurt you. Believe me, I don't want to, but I will if I have to."
Immediately the three reacted, speeding farther up the tunnel where Whitney was.
Chloe saw Whitney reach for Lana and immediately she gave him a mean right hook before collapsing due to the radiation pouring off him.
Whitney looked at Chloe, confused. "How can you do what Clark can?"
Chloe gathered strength and stood. "Because." She said.
Whitney flung Chloe into the wall. Dazed, but not hurt, Chloe began to stand.
Clark ran toward Chloe, though not close enough to Whitney to get hurt by the green kryptonite. After helping her up, he began to head for Whitney, and both teens erupted into a blur of punches and swings.
Chloe looked in Clark's direction. "Remember your secret weapon. Just take a deep breath and let it out on Whitney." she yelled.
"What the heck is she talking about?" Whitney thought, but he didn't really have time to react. He wasn't expecting Clark's next move. Although it hadn't worked like Chloe planned.
Clark sneezed, and the hallway turned into a storm of ice and snow. When it cooled, Whitney was completely immobile, and Clark couldn't even feel any adverse effects from the kryptonite.
"Great!" Chloe squealed. In all the excitement, she had been untying Lana.
Lana stood up and looked at Clark. Clark looked back.
"How did you do that, Clark?" Lana asked suspiciously.
"Err…magic trick?" Clark began.
"Side effect from the meteor rock we ran into outside?" Chloe tried.
"Fell into Crater Lake?" Pete offered.
Lana put her head up and sighed.
"Clark, I know how you did it." She said.
Clark looked at her funny.
"Then why did you ask?"
"Because I wanted to give you one last chance." Lana told him.
"One last chance to what?" he asked.
"To tell me the truth, Clark."
Chloe, Pete, and Clark all looked at each other.
"What truth?" they all said at the same time.
Lana now looked downright angry. Not only was Clark hiding something, but her two other best friends were hiding it too.
"That you're an alien perhaps, or has that slipped your mind already?"
"Who told you that?" Clark asked.
"I was outside the caves, Clark. I'm not stupid. You're Kal-el from Krypton and your parents are Jor-el and Lara, right? Wait, no, don't even answer that. I already know what you're going to say." Lana spat. "But before I leave, I just have one question. Why did you lie to me for so long? Did you truly believe that I was so selfish as to hate you for who you really were?"
Clark had no answer for that.
"Do you?" Clark finally said.
"Do I what?"
"…hate me for who - what - I am." Clark said softly.
Lana looked conflicted for a moment, and then regained her composure and started to walk away. "Thanks for saving my life." She said on the way out.
"Lana, wait!" Clark said.
She slowly stopped and turned toward Clark, letting her arms glide to the folded position they were in before. Although her anger was evident, Lana's eyes pleaded with Clark to let her go. Let her go before the hurt from all those years of his lies, from learning that she was the last to know, took over, and tears came forth.
"Lana, I…" Clark began.
"You what, Clark?" Lana said, small beads of water beginning to creep down her face.
"I'm sorry." He said, hanging his head.
"It's not good enough." She said.
Clark took a deep breath. Chloe prayed that Clark didn't say what she thought he was going to say.
"Lana, there's a couple of reasons I didn't tell you, but if you stay long enough, once we take care of Whitney I promise I'll explain them to you." Clark offered.
"Oh thank god." Chloe thought, as her fear of losing Clark to Lana again receded.
Lana looked at the ground, and eventually back into Clark's eyes. She wiped away her stray tears and again folded her arms uncomfortably. She didn't say anything, but didn't move either, so Clark assumed she had accepted his offer.
Whitney was frozen inside the ice block, with Lana and Clark standing in front of him talking. "Lana," he thought. "I wish you could see how much I love you."
Whitney began to drift back in his thoughts to his and Lana's alone time when they were going out. He thought about her warm smile, and her kisses. Eventually Whitney began to feel as though he had a headache coming on.
"Now what brought that on?" he wondered.
It became so intense that he had to hold his head. Suddenly his eyes began to burn and Whitney opened them to see the ice starting to melt around him. Whitney blinked, and his eyes went back to normal. He knew what this power was, and what an ideal time to get it. The ice was melted and he was ready to get back at Clark.
Chloe, hell bent on avoiding high tension moments, and not content to gaze at Lana, as Pete was, impatiently glanced around. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a lot of movement from the now ice depleted Whitney, and the gaping hole in the ice block. Realizing that he was thawed she reacted quickly and opened the lead box. Immediately, both Pete and Clark got a red tint to their eyes, and Whitney fell to his knees.
"No, don't kill him." Lana said, seeing how much pain Whitney was in, and feeling at least some compassion for him. After all, he had been her boyfriend.
"We might have to, so he doesn't hurt anyone ever again." Chloe told her.
"Oh I see how it is. Too bad I was blind all those years." Clark said. "You couldn't love me for me, but even though Whitney changed you still love him. Well that's just fine. I shouldn't have taken so long to realize that Chloe was the one I should've spent my time with."
Lana looked piercingly at Clark. "You're not the only one who was blind. Pete has been better to me than you've ever been."
Even in his current state, Clark's eyes betrayed the hurt that Lana's comment caused.
"Yeah, so what? You want me to feel sorry about that? I don't care. But you know what? You don't deserve Pete." Clark yelled.
"Help might be nice sometime soon!" Chloe yelled over the ruckus.
Whitney was starting to get used to the nauseating pain, and was beginning to stand up.
"I'm sick you ordering us around! Who the hell do you think you are anyway, Chloe?" Pete snapped. "It's always good old dependable Pete. Dump on him when something goes on with you and Clark, treat him like garbage though he's never been anything but behind you your whole life."
Chloe looked at Pete, shocked. She couldn't believe that he had even said what he did.
"If I had my way I wouldn't be in this dump of a town anyway. I'd have a future, as a racer. All that Smallville's been doing is holding me back." Pete continued.
Clark looked over. "Yeah, you're right. What's Smallville ever done for us?"
"What the heck is wrong with them?" Lana asked, helping Chloe restrain Whitney.
"This rock makes them express their emotions freely and act on their impulses." Chloe said, while tying Whitney's hands together.
"How come it doesn't affect you? I know that you were given the same abilities as Clark, whatever they are."
"Because that's the way it happened."
Although it seemed as though Whitney had given in, somehow he mustered up enough strength to move.
"Whoa!" Chloe yelled. "He's trying to escape."
But in their present state, Clark and Pete didn't seem to care. They were too bent on figuring out where to go when they left Smallville.
"Lana, can you tie up his legs?" Chloe asked.
Lana sighed and nodded.
Meanwhile…in a helicopter above the cabin.
"Mr. Luthor, the tracking device says he's right under us, but I can't spot anyone on the ground below." The pilot said.
"He must be underground," thought Lionel.
"I believe there's an underground portion to that cabin. Land here. I know where he is." Lionel ordered the pilot.
"Yes, sir."
With that the helicopter landed. Lionel noticed it wasn't too far away from the small cabin. He was in the underground tunnel in a matter of seconds.
So far Lionel noticed that the injection he had taken had given him great speed and strength but yet he had no idea if it was helping his disease. He only knew that he felt a great deal better.
He began to run down the tunnel. Not realizing that Whitney wasn't the only one there, Lionel ran into the midst of the teens and their now captured Whitney.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Pete yelled.
Lionel immediately realized his mistake. He didn't anticipate that Chloe, Pete, and Clark would've found Whitney so soon. He hadn't given them enough credit.
Clark walked threateningly toward Lionel. "You're behind this!" he yelled.
"What are you going to do about it?" Lionel asked.
"Going to break your damn neck!" Clark said.
Even though that's what every single person in the tunnel desired to happen to Lionel, they knew that Clark breaking Lionel Luthor's neck would not be good thing. They all knew that Clark could never forgive himself later if he took a life while in this state. Chloe gave the red kryptonite to Lana and tried to restrain Clark.
Lionel, knowing that he would be fighting a losing battle, immediately turned walk away. His own words echoed through his ears when Clark spoke.
"Pathetic." Clark said, breaking free of Chloe's grip.
Immediately Lionel's temper flared. "You young impudent fool!" he said. "Pathetic is what you've limited yourself to. You could've used all that power you possess for greater purposes, but yet you decide to stay and play the part of a farm boy."
"Power you'd like to have. I can see right through you, Lionel. I know that you want it. The sad part is that you can want it for the rest of your life, but it'll still belong to me."
This comment pissed off Lionel, but he refused to show it.
Clark dashed at Lionel, but immediately felt nauseated when he came within arm's length of him. Lionel saw this as his opening and picked Clark up by the neck.
"To educate you, Mr. Kent, if you are observant at all you'll notice that I can do what you can, and so can Mr. Fordman."
Lionel looked over at the group.
"If either of you moves I promise he'll be dead to you." Lionel threatened. Then he spoke into a small microphone he had in his hand. "This is Lionel Luthor. I'm at point 2012 demanding backup."
Clark looked into Lionel's eyes. He could see the same green that was in Whitney's. Already he was beginning to feel weak. "Chloe, he's not lying. He has found a way to duplicate my abilities." Clark gasped.
Clark kicked and punched, each one tiring him out more, because of the kryptonite, but Lionel held him far enough away that it wasn't causing any hurt.
Suddenly Lionel threw Clark to the ground, Clark's body scraping along the jagged pieces of cement. Clark looked at the concrete he was lying on. It was saturated with his blood.
"My blood…" Clark thought, before realizing that he was bleeding profusely
Lionel began to grab Whitney and leave.
By this time Pete wasn't about to back down, and he began to run toward Lionel with a vengeance.
Lionel laughed in Pete's face, ducked Pete's punches and then used Pete's momentum to hurtle him into the wall. Although, it was too fast for the human eye, so all Lana could pick up was a blur.
Wanting to make sure he was rid of a potential threat, Lionel walked over to kick Pete around more. He noted that the teens must not have had this power for very long to be as inexperienced as they were. Although he hadn't had the power for very long, he was definitely more experienced in matters of combat.
Pete began to feel the same effects as Clark, and not being used to the pain, he immediately collapsed.
"Oh god. This is worse than we thought." Chloe said. Then she stood up and grabbed the red kryptonite. "Let's see how you like this!" she said, and thrust it into Lionel's face. After a series of what seemed like blurred punches, Chloe began to also feel weak because of the meteor effects, and her speed began to decrease. Lionel used this to his advantage and stopped her hand before it hit him, taking the rock and examining it.
"What's this?" he asked. "Interesting, a red meteor rock." Taking note of how that rock had affected Clark and Whitney, Lionel pocketed it. It might prove useful to his research.
"No! Give that back!" Chloe exclaimed. But it was too late. Whitney was already beginning to stir.
He looked up. "Lana," he said, "You won't get away this time!"
Lionel looked at Whitney. "That's enough." He said. "Whitney, you'll come with me."
"I'll do no such thing."
"You'll come willingly or you'll become quite uncomfortable again. I hear that you and the red meteor rock don't get along very well." Lionel threatened. "As for you, Mr. Kent, I believe you're familiar with a certain green rock, and I don't think I'm reaching when I say that you don't enjoy its presence. Therefore, I think it would be in your best decision to come along."
In a matter of seconds, Lionel's backup team came marching into the tunnel.
Chloe stood up to stop Lionel from taking Clark, but she was still too weak from the kryptonite. Pete couldn't do much either, as he was out cold on the floor. And Lana, well, if Chloe and Pete couldn't do anything, the hope of Lana helping was pretty slim.
"Something's wrong, I know it" Martha said, when she stepped outside of the house.
She had been waiting for Clark for over an hour. Surely it didn't take that long to apprehend Whitney. "Or was it an hour?" she thought. "Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. But I was sure that it was about and hour ago that Jonathon and I, and Lex left the caves."
Jonathon looked at her. "Are you ok?"
"No. I'm not."
Lionel's men picked up Whitney, carefully holding the red rock near to him. Lionel realized that he would have to keep Clark weak so he decided to take Clark himself, grabbing Clark's collar and dragging him across the cement floor.
Clark yelled out in excruciating pain. He wasn't used to this. He watched as a trail of blood followed him down the tunnel – his blood.
Chloe looked on in disbelief. She stood up and ran at the group of men while Lana desperately tried to wake Pete.
She didn't get very far when she suddenly felt nauseated and began to fall to her knees. Looking up she noticed a rather generous chunk of kryptonite.
"You must've seriously underestimated me if you thought I'd come unprepared, Ms. Sullivan," Lionel said, stopping to look at her.
Chloe couldn't respond, except to claw at the guard in front of her, to which he kicked her into the wall.
She felt blood run down from her mouth. She could taste it, the salty ugly taste of blood on her tongue. The taste that was familiar to everyone on the planet but Clark. She looked down at the cracked nails on top of her now bleeding stubs of fingers.
"I wonder if my blood is even human anymore." Chloe thought, before drifting off into the darkness.
Clark's yell erupted into Martha's head, and immediately she looked to the left. Then Martha looked at Jonathon to see his reaction. He was looking to the left as well. This surprised her. She hadn't expected him to hear it.
"Is it just a figment of my imagination?" Martha asked.
"No." Jonathon said reluctantly. An understanding had started to form in his head about what was going on.
Another cry shot through Martha's head, this time she heard Clark pleading with Lionel not to bring him to a lab.
"Oh my god." Martha said, and before Jonathon could react, she shot off through the darkness, with nothing to guide her but motherly instinct.
Jonathon looked at the blur of his wife. "Damn those caves," he said, before he ran after her.
Lionel was almost outside when Martha ran into him.
"Leave my baby alone, you hear me?" Martha demanded.
"Martha?" Lionel said.
"You're damn right it's Martha. Now unhand my son, or I'll make sure you never forget who I am."
"Threats, Martha, could get a law suit on your head. Then you'd have to pay for a defense lawyer, and…oh my…the farm's bills wouldn't get paid, would they? Yes, that could result in very unfortunate circumstances on your part. So why don't you just let me through and we'll forget this whole thing ever happened."
This flamed Martha even more.
"You bastard!" she cried. She was damned if Clark was being taken from her, not by Lionel Luthor, not by anyone. He was still her baby and she would protect him from harm no matter what it took.
She noticed the blood trail on the floor, and Lionel's tight grip on Clark's wrist. It was then she decided that she'd had enough.
Martha ran at Lionel, swinging at him, kicking and lashing out. Lionel called out to his backup team to try and stop her but she just flung them away like they weighed nothing. For once, Lionel wondered if he had gone too far.
Jonathon arrived just as Martha had Lionel in a choke hold and was about to seriously injure him.
"Martha, don't!" Jonathon exclaimed.
"Why not, Jonathon? Why the hell not? The world would be better off if he were gone, and so would Clark." Martha said, with tears in her eyes.
"Because, as much as everyone hates him, or as much as he deserves to die, it's not your right. Leave that to those higher up than us. You can't kill a man for his sins, Martha. It's not your job, and it's not mine." Jonathon said.
Martha's chokehold tightened. Lionel was fighting back, but his power seemed to be diminishing. The injection, by this time, was wearing off. Jonathon walked over and put his hand on Martha's arm pushing it down, one hand on hers in an attempt to unravel her hand from Lionel's neck.
Eventually, her anger subsided, and Martha reluctantly let go. Lionel fell to the ground and immediately began to hold onto his neck.
"I…Jonathon…I'm sorry, I just don't know what came over me." Martha apologized.
Lionel, wanting to cut his losses, took what was left of his backup team and left with Whitney.
Martha went to stop him, but Jonathon held her back. "Let him go. He'll get what's coming to him."
Turning, Martha ran over to Clark, who was now rapidly healing, but still a little tired and weak from the large loss of blood.
"Oh, Clark, are you ok?" she asked, holding him tightly against her.
"Mom, how…did…you and Dad get here?" Clark asked.
Martha looked at Jonathon. Just how had she gotten there? She remembered having the impulse to save her son, and everything else was a blur.
"I…I don't know. It all happened so fast."
"Somehow, your mother and I have your abilities." Jonathon stated.
Clark looked up, dumbfounded. "The caves." He mouthed.
He managed to stand and walk over to his Dad, looking to see if a visible scar was present. Clark couldn't find one, until he noticed his dad's near open shirt, and the burnt skin underneath.
"Dad…?" Clark questioned. "What…why? Your scar…it's like mine."
Jonathon looked down. "I know. Clark, whatever is in that cave, it and I aren't on good terms." Jonathon said. "I know that now more than ever. I knew it since that light pierced through me. I could feel its hatred for me: its hatred for its only rival."
"Rival for what?"
"To be your father, Clark." Jonathon stated.
Clark didn't want to think about that. He had presumed the problem with the caves would be over now but it seemed as though that wasn't true.
Clark put it into the back of his mind for now and then realized that Chloe and the others were behind in the caves. Turning around he headed back, with his parents behind him. On the way, Clark saw Chloe lying unconscious against the wall.
"We'll take care of her, Clark. Go ahead and find Pete and Lana." Martha said, beginning to check Chloe for injuries.
When Clark arrived, Pete has just awoke. "Whoa. That was a rush." Pete joked, to lighten the mood. "Clark, man, what you have here is your own personal drug."
Clark glared at Pete.
"Hey, I was just kidding."
Then Pete and Clark again made note that Lana was there.
Lana looked at Pete. "Personal drug? What the heck are you talking about?"
"The red chunk of meteor rock." Clark said. He didn't care what she knew anymore.
Lana pictured back when Clark and Chloe were making out in the Talon. She remembered the red rock she had found on the floor in the booth where he had been.
"Oh god. You…and Chloe…the Talon…" She said aloud, and her face filled with hurt.
Clark wondered if he should feel guilty for reminding Lana about that particular incident.
In the meantime, Lana decided not to say anything about Lex and her partnership. Although she knew that Clark didn't act angry unless he was around that red rock she was kind of afraid of what he would do.
"I'm beginning to wonder if we should even call it a secret anymore, Pete." Clark sighed.
Pete sighed back. "The wrong person already found out."
Lana looked ahead blankly as Martha and Jonathon entered, carrying Chloe.
The truth of the matter was, Lana felt out of place standing around these now super-powered people that she thought she'd known so well. "Can we…get out of here?" she asked.
"Yeah. No problem." Clark said. "Which one of us do you want to carry you?"
"Why do I need to be carried?"
"You'll see." Clark said.
Then Pete volunteered. Lana nodded him an okay and he picked her up.
Then everyone headed back to the Kent farm, Clark leading the way, Martha following close behind, Pete carrying Lana, and Jonathon carrying Chloe.