Chapter 15: Inner Turmoil Relived
Kal and Chloe reappear in a different part of Metropolis. The morning wind strikes coolness on Chloe's skin. Something's different though. Eeriness fills Kal, the familiar feeling of deja-vu hitting his system again. They stand in an abandoned part of Metropolis, but the surroundings are familiar to Kal. Even Chloe remembers this place… although vaguely. Her mind is a jumbled mess, but Kal stands still. She looks at him, and his face is completely white, almost as if he was about to faint. He holds his composure, and walks towards a closed iron door. He grabs the handle, but it's locked shut. With great ease, he rips the door off the hinges, and throws it into a neighboring pile of rusted metal. Kal walks into the darkness, followed by a reluctant Chloe.
Kal walks on in the darkness, and stops. Chloe, the darkness blinding her, runs into Kal. He grabs the handle of the door, and breaks it easily. Green laboratory lights shine eerily, and Kal walks down the hall.
"Kal… where are we?" Chloe asks.
"You don't remember Chloe? This is the place of evil… this is the same laboratory where Alicia was being tested on. The same place where she died…"
"You mean, this is the…"
"Yes Chloe… the secret Luthor-Corp laboratory. And now I'll have to relive this moment in my life again."
Kal continues walking, and they stop when Kal sees a sign ahead of him. The familiar black text screams in his heart, and his anger torrents through his blood vessels.
WEST WING: METEOR FREAK EXPERIMENTATION
Kal walks past the sign, his hands clench into fists. They crack as he clenches them, and Chloe squints her eyes from the sound. He walks deeper down the dark and desolate hallway, and stops when he sees a doctor. He stares at Kal in full horror, as he throws the doctor across the hall, cracking the pavement where he impacted. As if nothing happened, Kal continues his journey through hell, Chloe behind him. As they get closer to the evil experimentation lab, Kal and Chloe hears screams of men and women, unthinkable things could be happening. Kal feels that sense he used to get when he had to save everybody, but he pushes it back. That feeling is non existent now. Just like his old self. The screams, the maniacal screams of the demon-like scientists and doctors working on the meteor-enhanced people makes Kal walk faster towards the destination point. He passes by several cells, his face and body hidden beneath his new black and red cloak. His hood hides the face of sorrow, as he sees several people, trapped in their cells, and trapped deeper in their own minds, a cell they can never escape.
Kal turns a corner, and Chloe follows. The familiar hallway dooms in his mind, and his fists are clenched so much, his fingernails dig deep into his skin, his precious blood drips to the floor. Suddenly, the Luthor-Corp laboratory shakes from an explosion at the far end of the labs. Kal has no need to see what happened, for he knows that was him, his past self, destroying the Kryptonite doorknob. A site beholds Kal, as he walks past the green glowing pile of Kryptonite.
He runs past that, and turns another corner, stopping when he sees the atrocious lab. He sees Lionel, smiling slyly as he moves the green chunk of Kryptonite closer and closer to Alicia. She cries in agony, the pain of the Kryptonite slowly killing her, and her precious baby. She starts to cry, and feels the green radiation pulses poisoned blood through her system. She tries to scream, but the pain is too much. Kal's anger fills his brain; an unimaginable amount of rage encompasses him. Suddenly, he screams, his voice destroys all the glass windows around him. Lionel looks over in fear at the black clothed demon. Chloe hides behind the corner, holding her hands over her ears. Kal walks through the glass, and up to Lionel. He grabs Lionel's arm, and Lionel wrenches in pain. Kal is full of so much rage that the green Kryptonite has no effect on him. Lionel, who still can't see who is under the black hood, screams as he hears his arm snap, and he falls to his knees. Kal grabs the piece of Kryptonite, ant throws it out a window, and Alicia immediately feels better
The rage within Kal is so deep and disturbing; the entire world's chaos could not comprehend with it. As Kal stands there, holding Lionel by his neck, his arm broke, several thoughts run through his head. Lionel's look of terror on his face is enough to make Kal laugh, but he doesn't. The green Kryptonite burns in his other hand, but Kal ignores the pain. Inner Torment is worse than a radiated space rock. Kal throws the Kryptonite through the window, and can feel the familiar pulse of Alicia's heartbeat. Yet, there is another heartbeat… emanating from her abdomen. Alicia sighs relief, and Kal watches as her blood veins shrink to normal size, and her blood returns from being poisoned. Lionel notices movement behind Kal, and even through the intense pain, he smiles. Kal already knows who is behind him, and he lifts Lionel higher, and turns his hidden face behind him, to see his twin, Clark Kent, his clothes dirty, ripped, a look of shock on his face.
"You again? Who are you!"
Kal smiles, yet his face is still hidden, not only behind his hood, but also underneath his skin. He looks back at Lionel, and speaks to Clark.
"Watch out behind you, Mr. Kent. I expect there are people, certain meteor freaks, which are closing in on this place." Kal says, sighing at the end of his remark.
Lionel's eyes open wide, and Kal starts to laugh.
"Yes Lionel, I know you called in your reinforcements, but they will not save you. You caused so much pain, despair and destruction, all for your own personal needs. The world would be better without you Lionel, but killing you twice in my life does little difference. Too bad, I do love watching you bleed to death, even better to watch you die while you are punctured on an American flag."
"Why… are you doing this?" Lionel asks his voice hoarse from Kal's grip.
Just as he asked, Tim and Jeff appear behind Clark. The run in, but Clark grabs Jeff and throws him into a metallic sink. Tim starts to turn to his sand form, but before he can react, Kal shoots his heat vision at Tim, turning him temporarily into glass. He screams as he smells his own flesh cook in the heat, and Tim falls to the ground, the heat vision ultimately killing him. Jeff looks on in terror, and passes out from the pain and the loss of blood. Kal looks back at Lionel, and quickly snaps his neck, the crackling of his bones as Kal drops Lionel to the floor. Alicia breaks the cuffs holding her to the table, and quickly frees herself. She runs over to Clark, and Kal watches as she hugs him. Kal turns his back towards them, and walks out of the room, leaving Clark and Alicia alone.
As Kal exits the room, Chloe walks out of her hiding place, and stands in front of him.
"Did you fix it, Kal?"
"No. I'm beginning to think that maybe I won't find the right, exact time to fix all the horror that I caused."
Chloe rests her hand on Kal's shoulder, and he sighs again. The rippling effect of the time jump starts, but this time, instead of it being red, it glows a bright green and blue. Kal and Chloe look at each other in terror as Clark and Alicia walk out into the hall, just to see the cloaked stranger and a familiar looking petite blonde woman vanish in thin air.