2.

Lex fought the urge to yell, to scream, to throw something against the wall. The girl down in Level 0 was Chloe Sullivan. Chloe Sullivan was an orphan his father had adopted illegally from a shelter for children whose parents had both died. Chloe Sullivan was a 17 year old girl whose life had been stripped away at the young age of 6 years old when his father had decided he was bored and wanted to see what would happen if he kept a little girl locked away in a cage.

Lex flipped through an endless sheaf of papers that were incredibly classified. So classified in fact that they were almost hidden from him. Not even the two doctors that had the top level security clearance to go down to Level 0 had copies of these documents. On his fathers orders they would email them to him directly on a secure connection and then destroy any evidence of the project.

But his father hadn't just done all those things and left it at that, not that that wasn't bad enough. His father had had more in mind than just observation on a young girl. She'd been bought, bribed for, stolen away from her childhood for a reason.

And that was evidence enough of the fact that Lionel Luthor had not been sane. He'd been ill in the head, Lex was sure. Because his father had taken a little girl away from the only thing she knew.

Innocence.

And what he'd given her in return. She'd been conditioned. She knew what it was to starve, he stared down at the documents in his hands with disgust. At one point in time she'd gone longer than a week without food or human contact. She'd been shy as a child in an orphanage, only having been there for nearly two weeks before Lionel had found her and snatched her away, and because of the loneliness, he noted as he flipped through pages and pages of computer print outs and his father's handwritten notes, she had never really learned to speak. Didn't really know the first steps of communication. Never learned to read or write, never learned to do anything really but protect herself, and not even that when it came to his father.

The weekly regimine chart of hers starting from when she was just 10 years old showed the beatings she could take. Scribbled documentation of how many whippings, how long before she'd start to cry, how long she'd start to sob, and finally how long before she'd start to plead.

Each chart showed that she'd been conditioned to detach herself from her surroundings at the drop of a hat. The last few charts showed only that she hadn't showed any weaknesses after 20 lashings, but what made his stomach churn even more than it already was, was that underneath that, with a small star beside it, in his father's own slanted writing was Pet shows true potential.

Lex stood up from his desk abruptly, pushing away from the papers scattered all over it. Pushing away from the rage, the agony, the indescribable need to do something, anything. He took calming breaths as he fought the urge to shudder and cry for the child lost. For the innocent youth forced to live in a cage. Instead he curled his hands into fists of rage and with determined strides, left his office to take care of a few things. First and foremost, to free Chloe Sullivan.

He was sure he'd made it to the steel doors of Level 0 with record time, and still he couldn't get anyone mulling around to open the door.

"Are you telling me there are only two people in this whole building who have access keys to this door, and they aren't even here for the day nor are they reachable by phone?"

Marsha, a resident nurse who frequently worked with the 'pets' backed up a little as her boss' words were forced out through gritted teeth.

She allowed herself a laugh, trying to cover up the nervousness behind it. "Well, it is a holiday, Mr. Luthor."

Lex took a step forward and as she started retreating he followed, allowing her to trap herself between a concrete wall and him. He kept a professional distance but didn't bother to mask the disgust on his face. "There is a person down there and I'm not moving until I can get in there. Where do they keep the spare key?"

Marsha gulped, trying to wet her dry throat so her words didn't sound like a croak coming out. It didn't work. "There isn't one." She said hoarsely.

Lex bared his teeth at her. "Then call security and have them come prepared with whatever they might need to break open this door."

Marsha couldn't even glance away at the lethal look in his eyes. "Like what?" She whispered.

"A crow bar, explosives, I don't care how they do it, I want this door opened."

Marsha swallowed convulsively as she made her way to the nurses station and rang for the security team. She may have been hired under Lionel's watchful eye, but he'd never come across as threatening as Lex did. He'd been smarmy and flirty and most of the time very creepy, but she'd never seen the elder Luthor look so determined as she did the younger one at that moment.

Ten minutes and three huge security men later, the door was open and the second one was being worked on. Metal scraping against metal, the grunting as men worked open the latched door.

"You're going to have to replace these. I don't think they're ever going to correctly lock again." One security man said absently to Lex.

To which Lex responded, "We're not locking it ever again. As of tomorrow this level will no longer exist." He planned on scheduling the finest contracters in Metropolis this afternoon to pay them handsomely if they could get this entire level concreted in. He couldn't stand the thought of anyone ever going back down there again. Not after he got Chloe out of there.

The door opened with a whoosh once the latch was broken and Lex stared out into darkness. The security men seemed to back away one by one as they stared into the dark room. Lex, however, walked to the opening and found the switch on the wall, flicking it up to turn on the lights, he started his descent into the dim cavernous room below.

To right the wrongs of his father once again.

Chloe laughed as she ran from room to room, her big sisters chasing her. It was the first time she'd felt this free since the police had informed her baby sitter that there had been an accident. Chloe had walked out of her bedroom, rubbing her sleepy eyes, to the sound of hysterical sobbing. She had paused in the doorway between the hall and kitchen, to stare at the huge men in the room, surrounding Laura as she wept into her hands.

"Laura?" Chloe's sleepy voice was rough and one of her hands was stil rubbing at the corner of her eye. The other was full of downy fur and trailing down by her side.

Her sitter looked up from her hands and sobbed her name, then fell to her knees on the cheap linoleum floor, holding her arms out for Chloe to run into them.

Chloe didn't run.

She didn't understand.

She stared at Laura, then at the two police men in their pretty blue informs. One of them was staring back at her, the other looking anywhere but at her.

Chloe had only been 6. But she knew. She'd felt that bone deep unsettling that subconsciously alerts you to important things going on around you. She hadn't understood the ache in her stomach then, but she did now. Just as she hadn't understood why the fine blonde hairs on the back of her neck had raised at the low rumble of Lionel Luthor's calculated voice.

But she remembered running into him.

Chloe took the corner too fast, just keeping out of reach of her big sisters grasp. She heard Sophie calling out behind her, telling her to watch her step, to be careful. But Chloe was running high on the giggles as she flung herself around the banister and into a masculine thigh.

Lionel grabbed the little girl by her shoulder, holding her at arms length as he bent down to inspect her. "Why hello, little one."

Chloe was instantly reminded of the Big Bad Wolf. Lionel stared down into the big green eyes of the precocious blonde. Instantly surrounded by a kind of awe and wonder at such resilience.

Chloe grinned despite the hairs on the back of her neck standing at attention and moved out from under the tall man's hand. She then arched a playful eyebrow at him before saying, "Well hello, big guy."

Lionel stared down at her for a moment before he threw his head back and roared with laughter. Oh, she had spirit this one.

"Mr. Luthor."

Lionel turned around as the orhpanage's caregiver poked her head out of her office.

Lionel smiled as he looked down at the little blonde who was blinking up at him owlishly.

Chloe gasped and then giggled before she used her tiny hands to tug on his pant leg.

When he leaned down far enough she whispered to him, "You're not really a bad guy, are you?"

She'd heard all the other children talking about him, her oldest sister Esme especially. They'd all had horror stories about what he did, who he was.

Lionel's eyes widened in surprise before he let out a startled laugh. He pulled back away from her and set his palm on the top of her blonde head before leaning back down towards her and whispering into her ear, "To some people, I am. Are you a bad little girl?"

Her eyes filled with tears and a tiny choked sob worked its way up from her throat. She put her small hand on his cheek and tilted his face to hers. Lionel locked eyes with the small girl and immediately felt the tears well up behind his eyes. He could feel the softening of his heart. A heart that had been hardened for far too long.

Chloe blinked rapidly, trying to get the tears to go away. Until finally she was composed enough to meet his eyes with hers in focus. "Sometimes I think I am."

Lionel frowned and asked in the same hushed tone she'd answered him in, "Why's that?"

Chloe looked away from a moment, something Lionel would have understood as a calculating pause, before she answered with a sad smile, "God taked away my mommy and daddy. I think he doesn't like me."

Lionel's eyes turned so sad, he didn't even bother to hide it, just ran his hand over her head, ruffling her tiny angelic curls. He hadn't cried since his wife had died, hadn't softened since then, either. Until now.

They hadn't realized that they'd had an audience that day. Hadn't noticed Miss Molly, known as Nanna to all the children in her care, watching them with a fisted hand in front of her parted lips.

Chloe looked up at the sound of a throat clearing. Her eyes blurred with memories of a father she'd wanted so badly. A father she'd loved with every part of her being. A father she'd killed for.