Clark knew that he was busted, but decided to make a play for more time to heal. His only chance to get out of this was to make everything take as much time as it possibly could.

"Of course I'm here for the slaves. Everyone fighting in the arena is here for the slaves."

"No, I mean, I know why your really here." The owner explained, just slightly exasperated by having to explain himself.

"Of course you know why I'm here, I just told you. I'm here for the slaves." Clark said in a tone that implied that this was very obvious.

The owner sighed at this, obviously exasperated. "No, I mean I know that you're here to take them back home."

"Of course I'll take them home with me, it's not like they would do me any good if I left them here." Clark said. By now this was almost getting to be amusing. He was tying the Ish-nith in mental knots. Obviously, The Owner was somewhat lacking in the brains department.

The Owner had the same thought about Clark. Why couldn't this stupid Kryptonian get what he was trying to say? He decided to try again.

"Listen to me. I know that you're actually trying to get them away from me because you care for them. I know that you're here to take them home with you because you care for them." The Owner was beginning to lose his temper by now.

Clark was actually beginning to have a little fun. It was hard to keep from smiling at all the quick comebacks he was throwing out. He almost sounded like Chloe.

"What's not to care for? I mean, have you seen the two of them? Sure I'm going to take them home …" Clark was interrupted before he could continue. In a way, he was glad. He hated talking about the girls like that, even if it was pretend and he was actually trying to save their lives. He had barely stopped from blushing after he said the second comment but he was able to force it back, knowing that it could give him away. He hated to think of how hard it would be to hold back a blush after saying some of the things he had been planning to say before he was interrupted.

"Stop it! That's not what I …" This time it was The Owner who was interrupted. A comm. unit beeped from the wall, located about seven feet in front of Clark.

"What is it now!" The Owner yelled at the comm. unit.

"Sir, we have the information that you requested."

The Owner visibly calmed down when he heard this.

"All right, I'll be right there." He said into the comm. unit. Turning around he addressed Clark. "I'll be back in a few minutes and then we'll continue this … discussion."

With that The Owner turned and walked out of the room. Clark was relived by the break. It meant a lot more time for him to heal up. He already felt slightly stronger than most humans, but it wasn't nearly enough to really try anything, at least, not yet.

The Owner walked for several minutes before coming to a room that held several people. As he walked in one of them came up to him and reported.

"I did as you asked and tried to trace his movements. He didn't come on broad in a ship. I checked and double checked every single passenger on every ship that's come on board in the last two weeks and he wasn't on any of them. When I alerted several others to try and track him from Krypton to here, they told me that there haven't been any ships seen leaving Krypton for nearly twenty years. He couldn't have come from Krypton unless they've developed some kind of new cloaking device that can fool our scanners. In that case, it's possible that he could have used the cloaking device to sneak into this ship and has it waiting somewhere."

"Well then, get to it. I want that ship found even if it takes every crew member we have."

"There is one other option. He could be an imposter. He might not even be Kryptonian. He could have snuck on board some how and then fooled the spectral scanner into thinking that he was Kryptonian."

"He has to be Kryptonian. I won't allow any other outcome. Too much money rests on him being a Kryptonian. He MUST be Kryptonian. Find his ship and find it soon," The owner roared as he stormed out of the room.

As The Owner walked back to the room he decided it was time to play his trump card. Then the Kryptonian would cooperate and show them his ship and its cloaking technology. He would make billions selling that technology, far more than he could ever have dreamed of by simply forcing the Kryptonian to fight in the arena. Not that he wouldn't use him that way anyway once he was done showing them how his ship worked. Waste not, want not. You could never have enough money.

The Owner made a detour to another room and ordered the two guards there to bring the slaves and follow him. Several minutes later they all arrived at the room that contained Clark. The Owner walked in and the guards and slaves followed.

Clark was feeling pretty good. According to Jor-el it had been almost twenty five minutes since he'd been bitten. Unfortunately, both Clark and Jor-el had slightly underestimated both the amount of venom Clark had received and the difficulty his body would have getting rid of it. It would likely take another twenty or twenty five minutes for Clark to be back to his old self again. Right now he would estimate himself as being around twenty percent of normal. He hoped to get to at least fifty percent before anything happened or he would be in serious trouble.

Clark looked up as The Owner walked back into the room. Crud. He was hoping for a little longer break before having to spar with him some more. Not that he didn't enjoy it a little, but he knew that sooner or later something would snap and things would get very serious, very quickly.

Clark's heart dropped to the center of his stomach when he saw the girls being forced into the room by two guards. He almost broke cover right there and then, but he remembered that he was playing incapacitated. He watched as the girls were pushed across the room to stand in a corner to the front and right of Clark. He turned his head and followed them as they were told to stand still or they would be severely punished. Clark caught Chloe's eyes and signaled her with a small nod to do what they said.

Chloe silently relayed the message to Lana while all eyes were drawn to Clark as The Owner walked up to him and began to speak.

"For the last time, I know exactly what your doing here, Kryptonian. I may not know why these two slaves are so important to you but I know that they are. You will do as I say or I will kill them."

"What do you want me to do, exactly?" Clark asked, knowing that it was time to give up the act. Now he was simply trying his best to stall for time.

"I want you to show me to your ship and de-cloak it. Then I want you to show me exactly how the cloak and any other technology in the ship that catches my fancy works! Then you will fight for me in the arena until you die. When you aren't in the arena you will kill any enemies of mine that I tell you to, and when you aren't doing that you will be my bodyguard. If you do not do these things these slaves will die slow and horrible deaths. Do you understand?" The Owner asked.

"Yes." Clark said in a grudging voice.

"And will you do as I say?"

"Yes." Clark said once again.

"Good, now take us to your ship. We will bring along the slaves. If you lie to me or disobey me, we will kill them right in front of you and force you to watch." The Owner said.

Clark felt anger surge through him at The Owner's words but repressed it knowing that it could make him do something foolish if he let it consume him. Clark stood up slowly, pretending to not be very steady on his feet yet. As two guards came to help him he waved them off. He wanted to do this by himself. The trip would go slower if he could walk by himself and pretend to have to go slowly, stumbling every now and then. Clark led them out the door, stopping to ask for directions back to the arena's entrance.

Chloe watched as Clark got up slowly and unsteadily. She immediately knew what was wrong with him. She had watched the reruns of the last fight carefully and saw the mosquito looking fighter bite him. He had fallen to the floor right after that and hadn't looked very steady on his feet when he walked to the Trough. She had been very worried at first, but figured that he would be all right when the fight wasn't immediately canceled.

Apparently she had been wrong. He looked weak and unsteady on his feet. He stumbled twice going down the hall from the room to the entrance to the arena. Chloe was now almost as worried for him as she was before. His living this long was a good sign, but even if he didn't die from the bite, The Owner might very well kill him. Chloe knew that Clark hadn't flown a ship here, so she also knew that sooner or later he would have to tell them the truth and then The Owner would probably kill him.

Clark continued to lead them around the ship, stopping once to 'catch his breath'. He tried to take them the long way to the hanger because he said that he had to retrace his steps exactly but the Owner intervened and forced him to go the short way. After a short ride on a lift they were there.

Clark looked around the large hanger and then slowly moved towards an empty section of it. Stopping, he announced that he would have to retrace his steps in the hanger to be able to tell exactly where it was. The Owner was frustrated at this, but eventually acquiesced.

Clark faked retracing his steps, trying to buy a few more seconds before he would have to go into action. He wasn't up to fighting people with exotic alien weaponry just yet. He knew that he would have to provide a distraction and then run off with the girls as fast as he could, hoping that the guards were slow in figuring out what happened. He would need all the time he could get.

TBC