Chapter 39
"I'm so worried Jonathon," Martha Kent said to her husband in their farmhouse living room. "Lana's been gone for over a week."
"Clark's been doing his best, but if she doesn't want to be found she probably won't be found," Jonathon said. "All we can do now is hope."
Just then the front door opened and a weary and depressed Clark came in.
"Any luck?" Martha asked hopefully.
Clark shook his head and sighed. "I can't find her at all," Clark replied. "She's probably the one that's been robbing ATM's lately, but I've got no idea where she is. I can't figure out a pattern."
He flopped down in a chair and rubbed his forehead as he tried to wrack his brain for answer, but nothing was coming to him.
"I wish things hadn't gotten so bad with Chloe," Clark said sadly. "She would have been so much help with this."
"Maybe Lex can help," Jonathon suggested. "I'm surprised he hasn't come by yet."
"So am I," Clark agreed. "But I think we all know that Lex can't be completely trusted. He always seems to have some ulterior motive behind everything he does."
"But he can help us find her," Martha said. "We should try and get him to help."
"No," Clark disagreed. "Lana's under the influence of the red kryptonite ring. If we get other people involved there's a good chance that they'll learn her secret. We can't risk exposing her."
"Well what do you want to do?" Jonathon asked. "You can just keep searching by yourself. Besides how will you be able to take her home?"
"I'm going back to Metropolis tomorrow," Clark said. "If I don't find her then we can get Lex involved. But if I do, we'll try and get her back between us."
Jonathon Kent nodded and patted Clark on the shoulder, "Thank you Clark," he said. "You've been a big help around here. You're like the son I always wanted."
Clark winced slightly at the comment, but he quickly shook the thoughts that came with it out of his head.
"I need to be alone to think," Clark said.
He got up and left the house.
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Clark was sitting cross-legged on the floor up in the empty apartment above the Talon staring at a picture of Lana he had stuck on the wall. He had cleared a lot of the junk out of the apartment and it was now almost completely bare.
"So you found her," someone said behind him.
Clark got up to his knees and turned around to see Pete standing in the doorway.
"Pete, how do you know?" Clark asked.
"Educated guess," Pete said pointing at a stack of papers sitting on the kitchen counter. "I read through them. Have you told Jonathon and Martha?"
"No," Clark replied. "How could I? When I found she punched me and sent me 3 blocks away. She doesn't want to come home."
"Clark you know that's not true," Pete said. "That's just the red kryptonite. It messes with her mind."
"Those feelings have to come from somewhere Pete," Clark said.
"Clark, you can't just let her go on like this," Pete said. "I know you love her man, and the Clark I know wouldn't let Lana ruin her life."
Clark turned away from Pete and sat back down and stared at the picture of Lana. There was a long silence between Clark and Pete broken only occasionally by a sniff from Clark. It took Pete a minute for him to realize that his best friend was crying.
"Clark what's wrong?" Pete asked.
"It's just, it's that, I don't know Pete," Clark stammered not sure himself what was wrong. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how we can get her home."
Pete thought for a minute and then he had an idea.
"Clark, I've got a plan." Pete said. "Tomorrow you're gonna take me to Metropolis."
Clark turned around to face Pete wiping the tears off of his cheeks and looked up at Pete who had a confident look on his face. For the first time in a long time, Clark finally smiled.
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Lana got back to her apartment and shut the door behind her. She'd just returned from robbing a convenience store. The store clerk had shot her twice in the chest with a double barrel shot gun with no effect other than ripping her clothes. Lana tossed aside the ski mask she had worn for the heist. Suddenly she dropped to the ground clutching her chest and groaning in agony. Beneath her blouse the symbol that the ship had scarred onto her glowed. Lana felt her fingers slipping towards the ring.
No, Lana thought to herself, I can't take it off. I don't want to remember.
But Lana had no choice, she couldn't fight it. She slipped the ring off and all the memories came flooding back. Memories of Smallville, memories that she wanted to get away from. Lana sat with her back resting against the door breathing heavily.
I won't cry, Lana said to herself.
Lana had regained control of her body now. She once again slid the red kryptonite ring onto her finger. She felt the rush as the veins in her arm pulsed red and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then there was a knock on the door.
Who could that be? Lana wondered. The police?
Whoever it was they'd be sorry that they came here. She stood up and opened the door getting ready to deal with whoever was on the otherside, most likely with violence. But when she opened the door to see Clark standing there her emotions slipped up.
"Clark, why are you…" Lana stammered.
"Lana you have to come home," Clark said. "I can't let you stay here and ruin your life."
"Clark I told you to stay away from me," Lana said regaining her composure. "You should have listened."
Before Clark could react Lana drove a fist into his gut. Clark went sailing over the banister, across the alley and through the wall on the other side.
"Lana, if you're not going to listen then maybe you'll listen to me," Pete said stepping out from behind the door.
Lana turned to deal with Pete, but Pete had a surprise for her. Her opened a box containing a piece of green kryptonite. Lana fell to the ground.
"Pete, why?" Lana croaked.
"It was the only way," Pete said.
Pete grabbed her hand and pulled the red kryptonite ring off. Lana tried to resist but the Kryptonite made her too weak to do much but slow Pete down by a few seconds as he pried her fingers apart easily.
As soon as the ring was off Lana's eyes flashed red and she looked at Pete with a thankful expression. Pete snapped the lid of the box closed protecting Lana from the kryptonite. Clark came speeding up finally.
"Pete, Clark," Lana said looking up at them from the ground. "Thank you so much."
"Hey what are friends for?" Clark asked rhetorically.
Lana felt her chest, "It's gone," she remarked.
"What is?" Pete inquired.
"The mark," Lana replied. "It's gone."
"Does this mean you can come back to Smallville?" Clark asked.
Lana nodded, "I don't see why not," she answered.
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Please Read Over:
Lana is home. It happened a lot quicker for one simple reason, Jonathon had no need to make a deal with Jor-El, which means the Covenant won't happen. Or will it? If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times. The only way to find out is to keep on reading.
Check out the C2 group Lana Fans Unite! There are some good stories in there
Just another one of the usual reminders that if you want to talk to me about the story or Smallville in general. Go on IRC to the otherside servers, irc. (Port 7000), irc. (Port 7000), or irc. (Port 6667), then go to channel #smallville. Hope to see some people there; we've got a diverse culture of Americans, Brits and Canadians in there on a regular basis and it'd be nice to diversify that further. If you're having problems getting on send me a message and I'll do what I can to help. And if that doesn't work for you, look for the Smallville Revised Forum. I hope to see you in one of the two places.