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Chapter 16

When Clark got up the next morning, all he could feel was dread. Dread of going to school after all that had happened yesterday. Dread of answering the questions he just knew were going to show up that day, and most of all, dread of the sun spots. As he pulled on his shirt he glanced at the clock. It was too late for him to eat if he hoped to catch the bus. Grabbing his red and black flannel jacket he ran downstairs and was faced with an empty kitchen.

"Mom? Dad?" he yelled. "Chloe? Lana? Mr. Sullivan? Where is everyone?"

Walking over to the door he headed out to do his chores and look for everyone, when he heard someone sing out. He looked in the family room and sure enough, everyone but Lana and Gabe were there.

"Clark, we were having a family meeting." Martha said. "Don't worry about the bus. Gabe said that he'd drive you to school."

"We were thinking that being cautious is a good idea today, but you can't shirk school because of what happened. Go, but if anything happens – and I mean anything – call us and we'll come and get you." Jonathon said.

"What about the rumors?" Clark asked. "What about the things I said and did?"

"Just ignore what they say about you, Clark. Pretend that there's nothing to know." Chloe offered.

Clark just shook his head and then he and Chloe left to go with Gabe, who was waiting in the driveway.

Jonathon looked at Martha. "I'm heading out to do the chores, and then I'm going to look for Pete." He said.

Martha knew better than to argue. "I have to stay home in case Clark calls, so good luck." She said.

Clark received many odd looks when he entered school, some because of his actions, others because of the things he said, and most of all because of the rumors that were circling about him. His hearing was sensitive today and all he could hear swimming through his head was conversations of people in the hallway. Someone's watch went off and he immediately put his hands on his ears. The noise felt like it was going to shatter his skull. He knelt down, with Chloe behind him, asking him what was wrong. He looked at her lips moving but no sound came out. In fact, all sound stopped for a fraction of a second, and then everything came flooding back in.

"Is it true that he's a meteor freak?"

Beep!

"Look at him now. What's wrong with him?"

Beep!

"I heard he tipped over a table in the library yesterday with one hand."

Beep!

"Melissa says she thinks he really is an alien…"

Beep!

"Nancy says he kissed her yesterday and said some really weird stuff."

Beep!

"Clark, are you okay?"

Beep!

"Clark, speak to me."

"Ah!" He yelled, frustrated. Now everyone was really staring at him. Closing his eyes he focused on one sound – Chloe's voice. Then his hearing went back to normal – well as normal as his hearing was. Looking up at the crowd he said, "Earaches," as if to explain what happened. He grabbed his book bag and headed toward his locker as quick as he could without looking suspicious. One of the jocks purposely ran into him as he was putting in the combination. He just ignored it. He didn't want to draw any more unwanted attention to himself. Then three jocks stood around him. One shoved him up against the locker. "That was my Nancy that you flirted with yesterday." He said.

"I don't want any trouble." Clark said.

The jock mocked him. "Did you hear that guys? He doesn't want any trouble. Well he should have thought about that before he kissed my girl." Then he slammed Clark against the locker again as if to emphasize his point.

Clark took a deep breath. "I'm really not in the mood this morning so back off." He said.

The jock let him slide back down his locker. "What are you going to do, tip a table over on me, Kent?" With that, he laughed.

Chloe ran up behind Clark. "Don't do anything stupid." She whispered.

"I'll go you one better than tip a table over if you keep it up. Now leave me alone." He said, angry. With that, he finished putting in the combination lock. However, when he went to open up his locker, he found it jammed. Giving it a tug, the door came off in his hand. He looked at the door, surprised, then at the jocks.

The one who had been picking on him, Dave, got a look of pure terror on his face. "S-sorry for bothering you K-Kent." He blurted. With that, he turned to leave quickly. The two guys with him glanced strangely at Clark and turned to leave.

Then the principal came out into the hallway. "What's the commotion about?" he asked before noticing the door in Clark's hand.

"It just came off." Chloe covered.

Brushing it off as another normal high school incident, the principal made a mental note to call the manufacturer about a defect and gave Clark a temporary locker.

Recess time, Clark and Chloe were sitting outside on one of the benches. Neither one felt like eating, especially since health class was next.

Then a swanky silver car with rising doors, akin to a race car, came rolling up the parking lot. The power windows rolled down to reveal a bald, attractive young man wearing shades. He had one hand carefully placed on the wheel while the other rested on the side. "Clark, can I speak to you?" He asked. His smile looked like that of a lion that had caught its prey and confidence flowed from him.

Clark looked up and saw Lex.

"Tell him you'll talk to him another time." Chloe said.

Clark shook his head and began to walk over to the car. When he reached it, Lex took off his shades. His eyes glistened with knowledge.

"I have something to discuss with you, but not now. Drop by after class." He said, and waving goodbye, he was gone before Clark even had the chance to ask him, "Like what?"

The bell rang and Chloe and Clark headed for class. As soon as he walked in, the picture that Chloe had drawn was staring him in the face again. He sat down and tried to ignore it. There was an empty spot where Pete should be. Clark felt a twinge of guilt. He should be out looking for Pete, not sitting here. He couldn't leave now, though, so he sat back in his desk and tried not to worry, as hard as that was.

Jonathon had found Pete. The problem was that Pete was headed directly for Lex's mansion, and that was bad news indeed.

He had found out the night that Clark was almost kidnapped, that the rocks, for some reason, didn't affect Martha and him. Therefore he had searched for a piece of green kryptonite before he left so he would have it if he absolutely needed to use it. He chased Pete to Lex's gate and then hid from sight. Looking in, he realized that Lex wasn't at home. Pete seemed to realize this too, and broke the handle on the front door, letting himself in. An alarm went off, but Pete smashed the controls. Then he hid inside the house. Jonathon stayed outside to warn Lex.

Inside, Pete noticed a tape case lying out on Lex's desk. The label of the case was blurred, and Pete couldn't pick it out. He checked inside, but there was no tape. Glancing around for a VCR, he noticed one in the corner and walked over, pressing the eject button. It spat out a tape which was labeled in red permanent marker. Pete read the covering. It said "Security tape/Kawatche Caves." His first reaction was to break it, but before he could do that he had a thought. Then he put it in its case and pocketed it, in case he needed it to blackmail Clark. After all, there were more ways to convince Clark to do something than red kryptonite, although that was the most fun. Hearing a car pull into the driveway he quietly stood to the side of the doorframe and waited for Lex to enter.

Outside, Jonathon walked up to the car that had just pulled into the driveway. As much as he hated Lex, he didn't want him killed.

"Lex, you can't go inside." He said.

"Mr. Kent. What a surprise. Why not?" Lex asked.

"Pete is not stable right now and he's inside your house, waiting for you." Jonathon said, beginning to use the excuse he had thought up to tell Lex. "We think he's been affected by the nicodemus flower again."

Lex got out of the car. "Look, Mr. Kent. Don't think I don't appreciate the warning, but I'm not going to believe any more of these lies you and Clark have been feeding me. You don't think I was smart enough to figure it out? The meteor shower, Clark, all the people he's saved, yesterday's events, and now this. It's not hard to put the pieces together." He began. "And don't you ever talk to me like I'm the pinnacle of deceit anymore, not after all the lies you and Clark have told me. What really is wrong with Pete? I will know if you're lying."

Jonathon looked at Lex, shocked. "I came here to warn you about Pete." He said. "What's wrong with him is none of your business. You know, I was actually starting to believe Clark. I thought that you might actually be different from Lionel. I guess not."

Pete, hearing the commotion and tired of waiting, walked outside.

"Lex, you've done nothing but ruin our lives. Why did you even come to Smallville anyway? Today I'm going to do something about it. Something I've wanted to do for a long time."

"You're going to kill me. Is that what you're going to do, Pete? And then you'll end up in jail and get the death penalty. Is it really worth it?" Lex asked.

Pete didn't answer, but zoomed over and picked Lex up. He then slung him at the car. Before he could hit though, Jonathon zoomed in front of the car and caught Lex. Mentally berating himself but knowing that he did the right thing, Jonathon let Lex down and hauled the green rock out its lead box in his pocket. Pete flinched and dropped to the ground. Not wanting to hurt the boy any more than he was, Jonathon asked Lex to check Pete's pockets for anything. Having seen Pete yesterday, Lex guessed to check his jacket pocket. He found a piece of red meteor rock in it and took it out, putting the rock inside the box he carried in his pocket. After Jonathon put the green rock away, Pete returned to normal and stood up.

"I feel weird." He said. "I need to apologize to Clark and Chloe! I have to get to school."

"I'd wait until school was over." Jonathon said.

"Do you mind if I wait at your house, Mr. Kent?"

"No, it's not a problem."

Lex glanced at the object sticking out of Pete's pocket. He walked up to Pete and pulled it out. "What are you doing with this?" he asked angrily.

"I might ask you the same question." Pete remarked. "You never gave up investigating Clark did you?"

But Luthors never back down. "You had no right to snoop in my house and take this." Lex practically yelled.

Then Pete quickly grabbed the movie and broke it in half. "You'll never see what's on it again." He said, knowing full well what the tape had on it. "And don't try to tell anyone what was on it. No one will believe you."

Lex's gaze rested on the broken tape. It was the only proof he had of anything. Taking it back, he quickly listed in his head people who could fix, or copy broken tapes.

Jonathon and Pete turned to leave. Jonathon stared menacingly at Lex. "Stay away from my family." He said. Then he and Pete walked off the premises.

It was lunchtime at school and Clark was sitting at his normal table with Chloe and Lana. So far the day hadn't been too bad, save for the morning incident. Clark was still nervous, though. He was afraid that people were going to figure it out. Chloe stood up. "I'll be back. Just heading to the bathroom for a sec." she said. She went into a subtle jog out of the cafeteria which turned into a zoom just as she reached the cafeteria door.

"Oh no!" she thought. "I can't do this! Not now!"

She was lucky. The speed had stopped just before anyone saw her. She sighed from relief and continued on her way.

Luckily, the rest of the day passed without incident. However, on his way to Lana's jeep after school Clark bumped into Melissa.

"The whole school knows that you're a meteor freak." Melissa said. "And if they don't, the rest will know by morning."

"But I'm not!" Clark protested. "I don't know why you think I am!"

"Do you call tipping over a long heavy oak table with one hand normal? The events of geology class yesterday…is that normal?"

Clark sighed. "I'm allergic to the meteor rocks. It's just an allergy. And the table is light. Any jock could lift it."

Melissa looked curiously at Clark. "Don't deny it. You're a freak, and eventually you're going to go crazy. You belong in Belle Reve, with the rest of them." She spat.

Suddenly Clark felt a burning in his eyes. Squinting, he replied, "Believe what you want, Melissa," and walked away.

While walking along the parking lot towards Lana, who was sitting in her vehicle (she was giving Chloe and him a ride) the burning became increasingly intense. Realizing he had to let it out, he looked at the pavement. It was better than setting something on fire. With that, the pavement began to melt, while Melissa watched in amazement from her vantage point.

Lana and Chloe had been waiting in the jeep, but Lana turned off the ignition and ran over to Clark. "Are you okay?" she asked, those being the first words she had said to Clark since the incident.

"Fine. Never been better." Clark lied, hurt that it took something like this for Lana to talk to him.

Then the heat vision stopped as soon as it started and Clark and Lana ran and got in the jeep.

She drove to Lex's first because Clark had told her that Lex wanted to see him. Clark walked into the mansion until he reached the room with Lex's pool table. Lex was honing his pool skills when they came in.

"What did you want to discuss?" Clark asked, getting directly to the point.

"You lied to me again, Clark. Even when you opened up a little and told me you were affected by the meteors, it was a lie."

"No, that was true." Clark said.

Lex slammed his fist down on the pool table. "Don't lie to me!" he yelled. "You're not affected by the meteors, because you came with them. Didn't you?"

Clark felt a large lump in his throat. He swallowed. "Who told you that?" he asked.

"I figured it out. Even if I had believed your meteor freak story I would've noticed sooner or later that each meteor freak only had one 'ability' as you call it, that they could use. It's obvious that you have many. I've taken your disrespect for too long, Clark, and I'm sick of it. If you had come to me with this and told me, I would've put all of my resources toward protecting you: keeping you safe, but you had to lie to me from day one."

Clark remembered the dream he had where Lex learned his secret. The same thing was happening. "Lex, it wasn't my fault. I wanted to tell you, I really did, but Dad wouldn't let me tell anyone."

"Especially not me, the son of Lionel Luthor." Lex said bitterly. "You couldn't make your own decision? You certainly did when you told Pete."

"How did you know about that?" Clark asked.

"Call it intuition. You also made the decision when you told Chloe. Your parents didn't have a say in either."

"Lex, why is it such a big deal? I didn't know how you'd react." Clark said meekly.

Clark felt his heat vision start to flare up again and murmured a small, "Can we discuss this later?"

"You're not going anywhere until you explain to me the exact truth."

"I thought you knew already." Clark said, trying to hold back the heat.

"I do. But I'd like to hear it from you. I'd like you hear you be honest for once." Lex told him.

"I have to leave." Clark stated firmly.

Lex walked up to Clark and put his hand on Clark's shoulder. "If you leave now, you're throwing away our friendship. That is, if it ever was a friendship." Lex stated.

It was now too late for Clark to get out of the mansion. "Lex, get a piece of metal or something." Clark said.

"What for?" he asked. Then he saw the blinds in his office begin to light on fire.

"Just get it!" Clark yelled.

Lex ran to get something metal and at the same time grabbed the fire extinguisher. When he returned the flames had almost engulfed the entire window. He gave the metal to Clark, who now looked at it instead of the blinds and Lex put out the fire. When Lex turned around, Clark was looking around okay and he was holding a red hot piece of metal. Clark sighed, and using his breath, he froze the metal so it wouldn't burn anything when he set it down. He set it on the desk and it broke.

Lex glanced at Clark. "I guess that's how my car exploded."

"Yeah, it is. But I wasn't myself when I did it. Lex, I'll admit it, but just promise me that you're not going to do anything rash, like send me to a lab or anything."

"I won't, Clark. I thought you knew that by now."

Clark started to say something, and stopped. "Okay Lex. Have it your way. I have been lying to you. I'm not a meteor freak, I'm an alien, and I can do certain things because of it."

"Was that so hard?" Lex asked.

"How did you find out?" Clark asked.

Lex averted his eyes.

"Come on. I was just honest with you, now be honest with me. How did you know?"

Lex held up the broken security tape. "The security cameras in the caves. I found out all about you, Jor-el and Lara."

"Lex!"

"Clark, it wasn't my idea to put new concealed cameras in the caves."

"Well it sure as hell was your idea to watch the tapes! Lex, I thought I could trust you." Clark yelled.

"Join the club." Lex said sarcastically.

Clark's glare made Lex rethink his earlier plan to repair the tape. He took one look at the broken piece of plastic VHS cassette on his desk, and then threw it in the garbage. He didn't need it anymore anyway.

"Clark," he said, returning to his normally calm demeanor, "You can trust me. I'm not going to call my father nor am I going to call a laboratory to come and get you. I don't care that you are what you are. I was just angry that you lied to me. Now, if it's not too much could I ask you to explain why my wall just caught fire?"

"Well I know this sounds strange, but I can shoot fire from my eyes. Usually I can control it but today there are sun spots and its gone crazy."

"Fire from your eyes? Where have I heard that before?" Lex said, thinking. "The legend of Naman. Then that must mean…"

"Lex, no. I mean, you don't really believe in that, do you?"

"You're the legendary Naman. No wonder you were so interested in the caves."

"Well…yeah." Clark admitted.

"Then that means…I must be Segith." Lex supposed.

"Lex, it's only a legend." Clark said.

"They expect me to turn on you?" Lex asked rhetorically, almost breaking the pool stick that he had picked up.

"Lex, it doesn't say…"

"I heard about it, Clark. Segith and Naman are friends, and Segith betrays Naman. 'Together they will be the balance between good and evil.'" He said, angrily.

"Lex, we make our own destiny." Clark said.

"As long as you believe that, Clark, maybe we won't be doomed to kill each other." Lex said.

After pondering for a few minutes, Lex began to say something: "Anyway, Clark, this is still a lot of information to process, even for me. Give me a bit of time to digest it and come back tomorrow. Maybe then you can tell me a bit more."

Clark's worried look made him wonder if he had left out something. He realized that he had.

"You have my word that I won't tell my father. I do accept you, Clark. You know that, right?" Lex said.

Clark nodded.

Lex remembered another point he meant to bring up. "By the way, don't you think it's about time we had a clean up effort for those meteor rocks?"

"I think that's a great idea." Clark said, relaxing a bit. Then he remembered something. "Yesterday, when I trashed your car, it wasn't me. The red meteor rock that hurts Whitney, makes me act differently. I'm really sorry, and I know that doesn't bring back your expensive car, but…"

"Don't worry about it. I have more than enough money to get a new one. Besides, what's a damaged car among friends?"

With that, Clark left, relieved that Lex had accepted him yet worried about what his dad was going to say.

Lana and Chloe were talking in the jeep.

"I wonder what's taking him so long." Chloe said.

"I don't know, but I'm going in to check." Said Lana, as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the jeep. She walked right into Whitney. Instinct told her to run, so she did, yelling to Chloe.

"Lana, it's ok." Whitney said. "I'm okay now. I'm not going to hurt you or anything."

"I find that very hard to believe." She said.

Clark walked out of the mansion to find Whitney standing next to Lana. "Get away from her!" he yelled.

Clark and Whitney stood, looking at each other. Whitney raced over and grabbed Clark by the collar. Immediately Clark began to feel weak. Whitney began to lose his rationality again.

"I'll teach you to make time with my Lana." He said.

"I'm not making time with Lana." Clark said.

"You're a terrible liar, Kent."

"Whitney, listen to me. You need help." Clark began. "We need to get you to a doctor."

"No, Kent, we need to get you to a doctor, to expose you to the world. Then you can't ruin anyone else's life."

Worry became evident in Clark's eyes. That thought had hit home.

"You're the reason this town is messed up. If it wasn't for you everything would be fine. Lana and I would still be together, without you constantly trying to break us up."

"No, actually it's not my fault." Clark said, although he didn't completely believe that himself.

"Of course it is. Your parents sent you here to check out Earth for an invasion, didn't they Clark? I've got one question. Does Earth meet the standards?" Whitney shot, knowing that his comments would hurt Clark.

"Wherever you heard that false piece of information, I don't know but I guess that source didn't tell you that Krypton was destroyed and I'm the only one left." Clark shot back.

Whitney picked Clark up with one hand and started to punch him with the other. This continued until Clark's face began to bruise and bleed.

Chloe stood by helplessly, knowing that she, too, would collapse if she attempted to stop Whitney. However, Lana walked over to him and put her hand on his arm. "Whitney, put Clark down. Please." She pleaded.

Surprisingly, Whitney did as she said. He held his head with his hand and glanced up at Clark. "Sorry," he said. "I don't know what came over me. It's been happening since…"

"Since what?" Clark asked.

"Since my last mission. There was some sort of bomb, and I remember the blacking out after the blast killed my teammates. Next thing I knew I was in the hospital with Lionel standing over me. I couldn't remember much – I had amnesia – but Lionel told me he'd take care of me until I healed. After that, I have blanks in my memory, but there's one thing I remember well. I have nightmares about it. They put me in a tank of green liquid, and shot electricity through the tank. Then everything went cloudy and I knew I had to get back. Somehow that all got contorted when I thought about Lana and you, and my jealousy took me over. When Lana told me there was someone else, my mind snapped and I became worse. It was only when Lionel said he was going to use me as a lab rat did I snap out of it."

"You mean…"

Whitney smiled a meek smile. "I plead temporary insanity." He said. "I don't know what happened back there but it's in my memories somewhere and I intend to draw it out. So do you mind telling me who it is you're with now?"

Clark looked warningly at Lana.

"I'm with Pete now, Whitney." Lana said.

Whitney looked disappointed. "Just promise me one thing okay? Promise me that you'll always be my friend."

She hugged him. "I will, Whitney, I promise."

Clark was a little jealous at the fact that Lana accepted Whitney easily, but still avoided him.

Clark glanced at Whitney and asked him, "Why did you tell Lex about me yesterday?"

"You were acting like such a jerk, I felt bad for Lex."

"But that was none of your business!" Clark exclaimed.

"It became my business when Lex saved my life. I owed him one."

"I got to give it to you, Kent. I knew you were hiding something, but I never knew it was that big. I also never realized that I'd end up a big part of it. Kind of ironic, isn't it? I thought I had to compete with you. Then Lionel ended up using me to try and create another you."

Clark went to put a hand on Whitney's shoulder to show support, but then pulled back because of the green radiation.

"It's ok. It was a shock at first, but I'm fine with it now. It's not easy though, is it? Having these…whatever you call them."

"I just call them abilities." Clark said. "And how did you find out everything?"

"I heard you guys talking about it in the tunnel." Whitney said. "Not to mention Lionel's fascination with it. That was all he talked about when he experimented on me. I guess he figured I'd never escape."

By now, Chloe had come over, realizing that Whitney must've been harmless.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Whitney's alright." Lana said. "And I've never been much of an investigative reporter but if Lionel knows all that Whitney says he does about Clark, you can guarantee that he's filed it and saved it in a database somewhere. We're going to have to sneak into Lionel's office and delete those files."

Clark was surprised at Lana's sudden loyalty to him.

"Whoa. Since when does Lionel know?" Chloe asked.

"I think he just found out recently," Whitney told the group, "Because it seemed as though he was excited about it, like he would be with a new breakthrough."

"We're going to have to plan this well and sneak in. Chloe, how are your hacking skills?" Clark said.

"A bit rusty, but good."

Lana nodded. So did Whitney and Clark.

"So it's set. Lionel will never know what hit him." Clark said. "Before we go, let's figure out if there's anything else we need to do as well, and maybe get Lex in on this."

"Good idea." Whitney agreed.

"Well, we were headed back to the house, Whitney, and seeing as this misunderstanding is cleared up, would you like to come?" Lana asked.

"There's just one problem with that." Clark said. He held out his hand and his veins began bulging. "I can't be around him."

"That could be a problem." Lana thought aloud. "Well let him come for now. We'll figure out something, I'm sure."

Clark, still a little hurt by Lana's immediate acceptance of Whitney, let the group know that he'd run home.

"I wouldn't last two minutes in the jeep around Whitney." Clark said as an excuse.

Chloe, not wanting Clark to go alone, decided that she, too, was going to run with Clark. "I'll see you guys at the farm." She said to Lana and Whitney.

With that Clark and Chloe left, and Lana and Whitney drove away in the jeep.

Next: Clark and Pete reconcile, and Clark tells Jonathon about the day's events (ouch)