Disclaimer: I don't own "Smallville"

Chapter 14: Zero

On a bright, but nippy day, Sarah and Brianna were racing across the street as usual to Smallville High School to meet with Clark, Chloe, and Pete. Allison left early because she promised to help Lana get ready for the Talon's Grand Opening to a coffee shop. Dodging cheerleaders and football players in the halls, they found the gang walking out of their last class, and on their way upstairs either to the Torch room or Clark's locker.

"There is nothing like 50 minutes of Mr. Austin's English Class that works up an appetite," Clark commented before he turned to the kids. "Hey guys,"

"Hey Clark," the girls chorused.

"There's nothing like having a six page student biography due on Monday to help me lose mine," sighed Pete.

"What?" asked Chloe grinning. "The biography part or the fact that our student subjects were randomly assigned?"

"Pete's convinced that the drawing was fixed," Clark grinned to the girls as they walked upstairs.

"Wait," Brianna stopped the crowd smiling. "Don't tell me. He thinks there are a lot of cute girls in the class, and he got stuck with a loser,"

Pete scowled at the sixth grader, as she laughed a bit. But in truth, she was right.

"There are a dozen ladies in our class," he explained. "Each worthy of lengthy interrogation. I get stuck with Stan Gibson?"

Chloe laughed as Clark knitted his eyebrows.

"The manager of the student store?" he asked.

Sarah and Brianna started laughing with Chloe. You had to admit, getting stuck with that kind of student was priceless.

"Well," Clark shrugged. "I hear he's very--"

"Efficient?" suggested Chloe.

"Very funny," said Pete. "I'm about to learn more about the art of selling 'Go Crow' pennants than any human should have to endure,"

"Well, we'll think of you everytime we buy something school-spirity Pete," Brianna teased.

"Knock it off. Just wait till you get into your freshman year,"

"Oooh. I'm so scared,"

Chloe laughed at Brianna's criticism and continued to keep it that way on their way up. Pete noticed it, and grinned. She was hiding something good.

"You haven't stopped smiling since we left," he remarked. "Who's your victim?"

"The illustrious Mr. Kent himself," Chloe grinned happily.

"Me?" asked Clark, confused.

Pete started laughing with Sarah and Brianna. Clark glared at them playfully.

"I take it back," Pete said, still laughing. "Chloe's the one with the challenge,"

"Yeah," Sarah agreed. "Good luck Chloe,"

"Excuse me?" asked Clark to his sister and best friend

"No offense Clark," Pete apologized. "But digging up six pages of interesting on you is gonna require some serious excavation,"

"I do stuff!"

"Yes," Chloe piped up. "And I'm sure that once I depoly my journalistic skills on you, I'll unearth a skeleton or two,"

"You know, Chloe, this is a class project, not a corruption scandal,"

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Relax Clark," she winked. "It's not like you have anything to hide, right?"

Clark got the hint from his sister, that he had to be careful with his ailities with Chloe looking into his life.

"Come on," Brianna nudged him in the arm, smiling. "Who'd you get?"

Clark smiled as he reached into his shirt pocket. Sarah knew that look. She groaned.

"Don't tell me," she said. "Lana Lang,"

"Maybe Pete was right," Brianna grinned at Clark. "The drawing was rigged,"

"What'd I tell you?" asked Pete, rejoicing his victory that he was right. "I assume you'll started your paper ASAP?"

"It's all gonna work out," Clark explained it to them. "I'm helping Lana over at the Talon getting ready for the gran opening,"

"Oh that's nice," Chloe said sarcastically. "The surrogate boyfriend does the heavy lifting while Whtiney works at his dad's store,"

"On that note..."

Clark grabbed Sarah's arm, and were about turn sharply around the corner that led to his locker, but not before Chloe stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "When are you gonna sit down and do my interview?"

"Right," Clark shifted his eyes. "Uh...I'll be around. Let's go Sarah,"

"Bye Bri!" Sarah said as Clark pulled her away from her friend.

Chloe was dumbstruck, and looked at Pete and Brianna.

"Did he just blow me off?" she asked.

Pete sighed, but he knew Clark was always like this.

"One step forward, two steps back," he said. "Come on,"

Allison was at the Talon wiping the old glass with Windex and paper towels as hard as she could. She had gotten permission to leave school early out of community service. Plus, Whitney asked her if she could help Lana with the grand opening by doing little things around the old movie theatre. So far she was having a fun...minus the part where the occasional droplet of water landed on her head. Apparently, they had sprunk a leak, and that made Lana more nervous than ever.

"You promised me everything would be ready in time," she said to the contractor.

"That was before the plumbing started leaking," the contractor explained. "It hasn't been replaced in years,"

"How long will that take?"

"Well..."the contractor rubbed the back of his neck. "I can't really give you a straight answer, not until I crawl up there,"

Lana sighed. Just what she needed.

"You resurrect the past, you get the problems with it," the contractor simply said.

"Lex Luthor is going to be by later," Lana explained. "He's going to need numbers, and a timetable, and a better explanation than that,"

Lana went away for a while to check on some more things, when Allison noticed she was out of paper towels, and was going to go out to Whitney's store to get some, since they only brought one roll. But she accidently bumped into someone and gasped in fright. It was a man somewhere around his mid-20's with short dark blonde hair.

"Sorry," Allison winced. "We're not open yet,"

"It's about the assistant manager position," the man smiled. "I know I'm late, but If I could get an application..."

"Yeah, sure hang on...LANA!"

Lana, wondering what Allison wanted, came out the back door and saw the man as Allison went to get the broom.

"This guy needs an application for the assistant manager position," she explained.

"Oh sure," Lana smiled as she went behind the counter, and got one.

"Great," the man walked forward to greet her. "I really appreciate this, Miss uh..."

"Lang. And just to warn you, my aunt's not taking anymore interviews until next week,"

"Well, that's all right. I happen to have all the time in the world," The man stuck out his hand. "I'm Jude Royce,"

Lana smiled, and shook the man's hand politely. As the Mr. Royce filled out his application, he spoke.

"So..." he said. "I understand that Lex Luthor has a stake in this project,"

"Yeah," Lana confirmed that. "He's one of the owners,"

"Do you know him?" asked Allison as she swept the floor.

Royce chuckled, and smiled at the twelve year old.

"A lifetime ago in Metropolis," he explained.

"Must've been interesting," Lana smirked

"...Well let's just say there's a reason he's in Smallville,"

Allison furrowed her eyebrows. Of course Lex had a reason for eing in Smallville. Everyone has a reason for eing in Smallville...she just didn't know what that reason was.

"You know my advice?" Jude asked. "Stay away from him. When Lex gets involved things usually turn out badly,"

Clark and Sarah were walking down the steet in town. The street lights were coming on, because lately it had been cold and grey, but they were doing all right. It had been a long day, and Sarah was just walking with Clark on the way to the Talon, and then she and Allison would go to the Kents house and study for a history test. So far, it had been a pretty normal day. But you all know what happens in Smallville. Not a day goes by without being totally and utterly weird. Here was the weird part: When she and Clark turned the corner to go to the Talon, they spotted Lex talking to and African American man. He looked like he was from Metropolis, and a bit anxious. After Lex waved him off, the guy went off, and Lex came up to the kids with the usual friendly look.

"Hey Lex," Sarah smiled.

"Hey," Lex returned.

"Who was that?" asked Clark, referring to the man before.

"Nobody,"

Clark and Sarah looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Lex into the Talon, where they found Lana and Allison looking a bit freaked out.

"I hear we sprung a leak," Lex smiled.

Lana said nothing, but nodded, looking around the place. Allison said nothing too. She just stopped sweeping, and was hastily getting her bookag ready.

"Is everything all right?" Clark asked, concerned.

"Just a little weirded out," Lana admitted.

"Relax," Lex comforted her. "It's just a leak,"

"No, no, no," Allison spoke. "Not the leak. A friend of yours came by, and applied for the assistant manager position. He told us to stay away from you,"

Lex chuckled. He seemed to hear a lot of that advice from different people.

"What was his name?" he asked.

Allison stopped zipping up her school bag, and went over to the counter where the man had left his application form.

"Jude Royce," she said handing the application to Lex.

Lex stared at the application for quite some time. His expression didn't change, although the younger kids in the room could tell that he was growing a it freaked out.

"What is it Lex?" asked Sarah softly.

"When did he leave?" Lex asked Lana.

"Just before you came in," Lana explained.

Without one word, Lex left the Talon in a hurry. Clark looked at Lana and Allison confused. They just shrugged. Rushing out of there, Sarah and Allison followed Clark outside to catch up with Lex.

"Lex," Clark started. "Who's Jude Royce?"

"Trust me Clark," Lex crumpled the application as he walked to his car. "I have no idea who Lana and Allison met today, but it couldn't have been him,"

The kids looked around, as if trying to look for the guy or anything unusual. Lex noticed this and grinned as he opened his car door.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I'm not,"

The kids all shrugged and turned to leave as Lex turned on the engine. But once he did, some real hip club music lared out of his stereo. Everyone who was walking down the sidewalks heard it, and the kids turned back. Lex tried to turn off the music, but couldn't. Clark shouted at Lex over the music as Sarah and Allison covered their ears.

"What's going on?" Clark yelled as Lex rolled open a window.

"I don't know!" he exclaimed.

Immedietly, Clark knew what to do. Focusing, he used his X-Ray vision on the car stereo. Underneath the dashboard was a CD player hooked up to the speakers. It's what people turn to when they don't have CD players in their car stereo.

"Feel under the dash!" Clark suggested loudly.

Lex did as he suggested, and ripped out a CD player from underneath, it's wires sticking out. The music immedietly stopped, and everyone sighed.

"Looks like someone decided to get creative while I was inside," Lex commented.

"What were the screams?" asked Clark, referring to the music.

"I assume it's someone's twisted idea of a joke...And a successful one. We've managed to draw a crowd,"

The kids looked behind them, and half the people on the street were looking at Lex with disapproving looks. It was if as they were saying "That Lex Luthor...thinks he can do whatever he wants. Doesn't even care about the citizens of Smallville. Just like his father!" but we all know that's not true. Clark grew even more worried aout this.

"Lex..." he started.

"Clark," Lex interrupted as he started his car again. "This really doesn't concern you,"

After they had witnessed the whole musical trick in Lex's car, Clark took both of the girls back to the farm, so they could study. They walked into the kitchen door, and Clark called for his parents as Sarah and Allison went to go get a soda from out of the fridge.

"Hello, anybody home?" Clark called.

From behind them, they heard Jonathon from the kitchen table.

"Hey," he called up. "Pull up a microphone, son,"

The kids turned around to find the Kents and Chloe at the kitchen table, with a tape recorder. Mr. and Mrs. Kent looked a bit nervous, but they were still calm.

"Hi Chloe," he said walking over. "What's going on?"

"Since I couldn't find you all day," Chloe started. "I decided to start my biographical inquiry at the beginning. And unlike a certain so-called friend of mine, your parents gracefully agreed to be interviewed,"

"Chloe's been asking us some very interesting questions, Clark," Mrs. Kent smiled uneasily.

Despite her journalistic skills, Chloe didn't seem to notice that Martha wasn't comfortable with the interview about her son's life.

"Thank you," she said. "Um, now we just have a few more to go, so...We were talking about the early days. Now, what was involved in adopting Clark?"

Jonathon tried to piece the words together on that question, as Sarah and Allison sat on top of the kitchen counter with their snack.

"Well it was..." he said. "It was just like any normal adoption, I guess,"

"Okay, well..." Chloe said. "Can you take me through the process? Did it take weeks or months? Did you guys use a lawyer, or did you go through an agent..."

Suddenly, there was a small click sound. The tape recorder had run out of tape.

"Shoot," Chloe exclaimed. "I'm out of tape. That's okay. I've got some extra C-90's in my car. I'll be right back,"

Chloe quickly went out of the room, so she could be back quicker. Once she was out the door, Martha spoke.

"Chloe's researching your life for a school project?" she asked in diselief.

"When did that happen?" asked Jonathon.

"We just got the assignment today," Clark explained. "I didn't know she was gonna go Mike Wallace on me,"

"Look son, we don't mind talking about you, but if she starts asking questions about the adoption..."

"What about the adoption?" asked Sarah from the kitchen

The Kent parents looked up at their daughter. Now that she thought of it, Sarah never heard any coversations in the house about Clark's adoption. Except for the bit about finding him in the middle of a cornfield during the meteor shower oh! And the spaceship, let's not forget that. Clark looked at his parents.

"Is there something I should know?" he asked.

"Well," Jonathon started. "Of course, we had to make up a story, but it's a little more complicated than that,"

"Let's just say," Martha put it in a better way. "It's a suject we would rather not have anyone explore,"

"Sorry," Chloe had just came back in. "Am I interrupting?...Oh Clark! Now that you're finally spinning in my orbit, I have a couple of pertinents for you too,"

Clark immedietly wanted to get out. Luckily, he had a very good excuse...and he didn't even have to make it up.

"Actually, this is just a pit stop for me," he explained. "I'm on my way to meet up with Lana to work on my paper,"

"Oh...um..." Chloe started. "You know, Clark, not to strike a paranoid note, but are you avoiding me?"

Clark grinned.

"Tomorrow," he said as he started walking out. "I promise,"

As Clark walked out of the kitchen from the back door, Chloe sat back down from across the Kents.

"OK," she said. "This isn't an official question, and I don't want you guys to take it the wrong way, but...has your son always been this strange?"

Sarah grinned at that.

"Stranger than she thinks," she whispered to Allison as they walked into the living room

That night, Brianna had just finished a project she was working on, and decided to go into town to get an ice cream. As she rode her bike down the sidewalk, she couldn't help but smile. In a few days, Lana was opening a new coffee house, and she promised that she would order lots of hot chocolate for her, Allison, and Sarah to drink, and donuts no less! Plus, they were all going to be low prices. Now she didn't have to pay over three dollars for a small cup of hot chocolate. After she had ordered a triple scooped vanilla and chocolate ice cream, she spotted Lana and Clark walking down the sidewalk across the street from her. She caught up to them.

"Hey guys," she greeted.

"Hey Brianna," Lana smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting an ice cream," Brianna licked the towering ice cream.

"What was the special?" Clark asked playfully. "Leaning Tower of Sprinkles and Vanilla?"

Brianna scowled at Clark as he sort of laughed at his own joke. Suddenly, a familiar car drove up in front of the Talon. Out came Lex, calm as ever.

"Lex, what are you doing here?" Lana asked.

"Contracter called," Lex explained. "Said he had an estimate, wanted me to meet him here,"

The kids looked at each other, and all agreed that they would go inside the old movie theatre. The lights were off, so she stood with Clark as Lex turned on the light. But not expecting to see the contracter guy on the floor, trying to get up. Clark rushed over to him, as the others followed.

"Are you okay?" Clark asked as he helped the contracter up.

"Yeah," the contracter nodded. "I came in the back door and some guy jumped me, and forced me to let him in, then bashed me over the head,"

Brianna now noticed that the contracters head was bleeding.

"Did you see his face?" she asked.

"No," The contracter shook his head.

"Look,"

Everyone turned to see a blue and dark blue gift ox on the counter. Lana grew nervous.

"That wasn't there when I locked up," she said. "I'll go call the police,"

Lana went to the back room to go to the phone, when Clark took a closer look at the strange gift on the counter. At which time, he noticed an envelope stuck underneath the dark blue ribbon adressed to Lex in callgripher writing.

"Lex," he said. "Your name's on it,"

Lex looked up from looking around for any other signs that the Talon was broken into, and saw that the gift was indeed adressed to him. Walking slowly to it, he opened the envelope. But no card was in it. Inside, was a slip of paper with the same colors as the gift.

"Zero consequences," Lex said reading the paper.

Brianna stayed close to Clark as Lex opened the gift. It seemed forever for him to open it, but when he did, the teenagers wish he hadn't opened it. Inside was a hand, it's wrist still trickling with blood around the edges, and a diamond ring with the letter "K" on its cold dead finger.

About an hour later, Brianna was lying her head on Lana's lap as the police questioned everyone. She and Lana had already been questioned about what happened earlier, so she was just waiting for her dad to come pick her up. Clark sat down eside them as Lana stroked Brianna's head.

"How you holding up?" he asked her softly.

"I was fine," Lana said. "Until it showed up,"

"Yeah," Clark winced. "Stupid question,"

"What kind of sick person would do a thing like that?" asked Brianna tired.

"I don't know," Clark shrugged. "But I've never seen Lex so freaked out before,"

"Join the club," Lana commented. "That guy warned me and Allison. He said everything Lex touches turns out badly. How much do we really know about him and his past?"

After Lex was questioned throughly by a deputy, he came up to the kids.

"I want you to know how truly sorry I am about this," he said. "I promise this won't affect the grand opening,"

"We're going to be infamous before we even open the doors," Lana said as she got Brianna to sit up. "Clark, can you wait with Bri until her dad comes?"

"Yeah," Clark said softly as he let Brianna lie down on his lap.

As Lana walked away, Lex sat down where she had been sitting and faced Clark.

"Do you know who he is?" Clark asked. "The guy in the...you know..."

"Max Kasich," Lex nodded. "And yes, I knew him a long time ago in Metropolis,"

"You have any idea who might've done this to him?" asked Brianna.

"Not at all,"

"...What about your old friend Jude Royce?" Clark asked, remembering Lana and Allison's encounter with him.

Lex sort of smiled a bit.

"I doubt it could have been him Clark," he said.

"Why?" Clark asked.

"...Because he's been dead for three years,"

The next day, after school was over, Brianna Allison and Sarah were in the Jr. Torch room typing up their latest articles. Brianna was typing the story about the hand. After she told Sarah and Allison abut it, they kept making jokes and hand gestures about the moving hand from "The Adams Family". Brianna thought it was very annoying because they did it all day. Suddenly, they heard a knock on their open door, and looked up to find Chloe, which was odd, because she rarely visited their Jr. Torch office.

"How are my favorite journalists?" she skipped into the room.

"...Fine," Allison shifted her eyes.

"Sarah..." Chloe said in a sing song voice. "What's your favorite candy?"

Sarah knitted her eyebrows.

"Gummi bears," she said. "Why?"

"Because..." Chloe took out a bag of gummi bears. "This will be all yours if you give me at least one thing about Clark for my report,"

Sarah sighed.

"Chloe," she groaned. "I'm not the one to be asked that. It's Clark,"

"Come on Sarah," Chloe pleaded. "I've only known him since the 8th grade. You've known him your whole life. Just one little thing, and I'll skid out of here. Please?"

"Well...he hates peas. Now cough up the gummi's,"

Chloe dropped the bag of candy and dashed out of there. Brianna raised an eyebrow.

"Does Clark really hate peas?" she asked.

"Hey," Sarah shrugged. "I may know his deep dark secrets, but I don't know what he eats. All I know is I like gummi bears,"

Brianna shook her head at that, but continued writing the article down. Suddenly, the printer started printing something up. She rolled herself in her chair to it, and looked at it. It was an old article that said "Death at Club Zero".

"Sarah," she held the article. "Where'd you find this?"

"I called the Metropolis Inquisitor and asked the editor in chief if he knew anything about a Jude Royce," Sarah explained as she got up. "This was the only thing that came up,"

"You mean that guy Lana and I met yesterday?" asked Allison looking up from her computer. "What about him?"

"Ali," Brianna said. "Didn't I tell you? The man's been dead for three years,"

Obviously, Allison did not hear that bit. She grabbed the paper out of Brianna's hands.

"What?" she exclaimed softly.

"Ow!" Brianna sucked her finger. "Watch it! You almost gave me a paper cut,"

"Oh, suck it up...This is...That can't be right. The guy looked pretty much alive to me...unless he's a ghost. Think the meteor rocks had something to do with this?"

"He was killed in Metropolis, not Smallville," Sarah said. "And I don't know if the facts are true in this. This is the Metropolis Inquisitor. It's a spin-off of the National Enquirer,"

"So you're saying Jude might not be dead,"

"Possibly. I was gonna call the detective in charge of the case, but couldn't,"

"Couldn't get a hold of him?" asked Brianna.

"Couldn't as in 'The detective in charge, Sam Phelan, is dead',"

Allison bulged her eyes.

"That maniac who got your dad arrested and almost dropped a 2 ton generator on you and Clark?" she asked in disbelief.

"Pfft. Glad he's gone," Brianna scoffed. "...Wait a minute. Do you guys know what this means?"

"What?" asked Allison and Sarah in unison.

"It means that whatever the Inquisitor published, isn't exactly what happened! Phelan was known for covering things up. Murders, bank robberies, the whole she-bang. Maybe Jude really wasn't killed,"

"So you're saying that Lex could be lying?" asked Sarah.

"I'm saying that...argh...Look, just so we can clear things up, here's what we're gonna do. Allison you write down the witnesses from that night, and find out their backround,"

"The guy was killed in a popular Metropolis club," Allison exclaimed. "That's gotta be at least 200 witnesses,"

"The important witnesses. I'm gonna call the coroner's office in Metropolis and see if I can get Jude Royce's autopsy report. Sarah, try and get the official story from Lex,"

"Why me?" asked Sarah.

"You're the one who helped save him. You know him better than we do,"

After she finished her article, Sarah met with Clark outside the school, ready to go home. Only problem was, he was looking very put out.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she stepped down from the steps.

"My life," Clark grumbled. "Sorry. How was your day?"

"Interesting. You know that hand you guys found last night, and the what's-his-name guy?"

"Jude Royce?"

"Yeah, that guy. Well, I called the Metropolis Inquistor, and this is what we found,"

Pulling it out of her backpack, Sarah pulled out the article. Clark read it as she continued to speak.

"At first it was looking up Max Kasich, the guy who's hand was in the box," Sarah started. "The official story was that he was in a place called Club Zero. It was popular in Metropolis. See, what happened was that Royce was shot and killed in front of his fiance named Amanda Rothman and..."

"Sarah," Clark said. "Lex isn't in this,"

"I know,"

Clark furrowed his eyebrows.

"You know?" he asked. "Don't you find it weird that he's not in here?"

"Did you read the third paragraph to know why?" Sarah asked.

Clark continued reading, and sighed.

"Sam Phelan," he said. "No wonder,"

"Brianna and Allison are doing some investigating. You wanna go to Lex's and see what we can find out?"

"You were reading my mind,"

After making sure nobody was around, Clark and Sarah sped out of there to Lex's mansion. Asking the office if he was avaliable, the security gaurd told him he was in his gym, throwing a few punches at a punching bag or something like it. So on the way there, they talked about their day and everything. But when they reached the door they heard voices from inside.

"Tell me..." said a threatening voice. "What really happened,"

Suddenly, there was a gun being cocked, and the Kent kids realized that their billionaire friend was in trouble. Clark opened the door, running into the room, with his little sister behind him.

"Lex!" they both shouted.

But when they had found Lex, they had noticed that he was all by himself. It was strange.One minute the guy was there, and then the next he just vanished.

"Lex are you all right?" Sarah asked concerned.

"What are you doing here?" Lex asked, exhausted as he walked to the other side to sit down.

"Your office told us you were here," Clark explained as he stood in front of Lex. "We thought we heard someone else,"

"No. I'm all by myself,"

Sarah nodded.

"Hey," she started taking the article out of Clark's hands. "I looked up Max Kasich. We know what happened at Club Zero. That he shot and killed Jude Royce. Everyone else fits into this except you...What's going on?"

Lex sighed as he took a sip from his water bottle.

"Please Sarah," he said to the twelve year old. "Four our friendship, I'm asking you to stay out of this. Some secrets are better left alone,"

After making sure Lex was still all right, the Kent kids supersped home when the sun was setting. They were behind on there chores, and cringed a bit when they found their dad feeding the goats, of which Sarah was supposed to do.

"Clark! Sarah!" he shouted to them. "Come on kids. The cows aren't gonna feed themselves,"

Sarah dropped her backpack, and helped her dad lock the gate so the animals wouldn't get out. Jonathon noticed a look on Clark's face.

"What?" he asked. "You have a late night?"

"I was helping Lana," Clark explained. "To her credit, she's not gonna let the whole body part incident delay the opening of the Talon,"

"Well, that's what happens when you get into business with somebody like Lex Luthor,"

"Well, dad," Sarah said as she opened the next gate. "If it wasn't for Lex, the Talon would be a parking garage,"

"Sport," Jonathon sighed. "He casts a very, very long shadow. I just want to make sure that none of you kids get hurt. That's all,"

"The past is in the past," Clark commented as he locked the second gate. "The best we can do is look to the future,"

Jonathon chuckled.

"All right," he gave in. "You got me. Speaking of which, how's Chloe's paper coming along? And I assume that she's done with her interviews,"

"I'm not sure," Clark cringed.

"Uh...Clark," Sarah sort of winced at the mention of Chloe's paper. "If she mentions anything to you about peas...my bad. It was the first thing that came to mind,"

"And if she mentions anything about Metropolis United Charities?"

Jonathon stopped in his tracks. This comment was addressed to him. Sraah had a confused look on her face.

"I used to think perserverance was an admirable quality," Jonathon sighed.

"What's Metropolis United Charities?" asked Sarah.

"It's the adoption agency we used to have custody over your brother,"

"Since I learned the real truth, I hadn't thought about the adoption," Clark admitted. "Dad, Chloe told me the agency you used was only open six months, and I was the only kid adopted,"

"That's a good recipe for weirdness if I ever saw one," Sarah commented.

"Look kids," Jonathon started. "The process is a really tough one, even when you go through normal channels. With you Clark, it was just a little more complicated. That's all,"

"Is everything legal?" asked Clark.

"Yeah it's legal, it's just...Well, it required a higher level of access than your mother and I had,"

"What does that mean?"

"Let's just say that it's a very long road between what's sitting in our storm cellar and what's written on your borth certificate,"

Sarah's eyebrows went up. There was more to the story to Clark's adoption, and I'm very sorry to say that it would take a very long time to find the whole truth. But she put that at the back of her mind and started walking toward to the cow pasture. Suddenly, Jonathon put an arm across her to stop her.

"You hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?" Sarah asked back.

"...The whole herd's just over that rise. We ought to be hearing something,"

Suddenly getting worried, Jonathon and his kids raced up the hill and overlooked a gruesome sight. All the cows of their pasture were dead. Walking slowly around the cows, checking to see if some were alive (none were), Sarah felt a small spot of heat on her skin. She looked around, and saw black oil on the gound, it's hot steam rising in the air.

"Dad!" she shouted.

Clark and Jonathon looked up from checking a cow, and raced to where Sarah was. As she was waiting, she bent down next to the boiling goo. Where did this come from? She couldn't remember if and where her dad kept any oil supplies. Reaching out to it, she was suddenly pulled back.

"Get away from it, sweetheart," Jonathon grabbed her and pulled her away.

Sarah now realized where the goo had come from. A few feet away was a metal LuthorCorp barrel emitting a stream of boiling hot. A deadly chemical that had immedietly poisoned the cows.

An hour or so later, Allison was at the Kent Farm taking pictures of the dead cows, as the CEP took samples of the oil and examined a few of the deceased cows. Clark was with her, looking at the whole scence, while Sarah was with Martha and Jonathon supervising the examination.

"What do you think happened?" asked Allison as she took another shot. "Why would LuthorCorp dump their stuff here?"

Clark didn't answer as he saw Lex pull up in a LuthorCorp jeep. Allison noticed this as she watched him go toward Mr. and Mrs. Kent, and Sarah.

"I'm gonna go take shots from different angles," she said softly to Clark as she left.

Mr. Kent looked behind him and saw Lex coming. He turned back, putting his hands on Sarah's shoulders in front of him. None of the Kents looked at Lex when he started to speak.

"Mr and Mrs Kent," he said. "I have no idea how this could have happened...But I'll do everything in my power to find out. And I'll pay for your livestock of course,"

To that, Mr. Kent just scoffed.

"You think that's how you solve everything, don't you Lex?" he asked, rubbing it in. "You sprinle a little money on it and hope the problem goes away. Well, obviously some things are a little more difficult than that,"

After that, the Kents left, with Lex overlooking the dead cow scene. Sarah stayed behind and put a hand on his shoulder.Lex noticed this sign of comfort, and sort of smiled, but in a sad way.

"I didn't think it was possible to fall any further in your father's eyes," he remarked. "Obviously, I was wrong. You know I'd never intentionally allow something like this to happen,"

"Does this have anything to do with Club Zero?" asked Sarah.

"...I think so,"

Sarah nodded to this.

"You need to tell the authorities everything you know," she said turning to leave. "This isn't just about you anymore,"

The next morning, Sarah was eating her breakfast when Clark came into the kitchen. All morning he had been trying to get a hold of Lex, but with no luck.

"All right," he said to the secretary on the other end. "Well just tell him Clark Kent called. Thank you,"

"Who was that?" asked Martha as she came in the kitchen.

"I'm trying to reach Lex," Clark explained as he put away the phone. "He's not in the office, and he's not at the mansion and his cell phone goes straight to voicemail. Where's dad?"

"Still supervising the removal of the cows,"

"Lex said he'd pay for that," Sarah said as she cleared her dishes in the sink.

"Honey, this isn't just about money. We don't know what kind of health threat this poses to us or our neighbors,"

"Well, we don't think it's Lex's fault," Clark explained, reaching into his backpack he left on the counter. "We think someone is trying to set him up because of what happened at the night club. Look,"

Clark gave his mother the article. She sighed.

"Until this is cleared," Marth started. "I don't..."

"Mom," Clark protested. "Lex has always been a good friend to me and Sarah,"

"I know that Clark. I'm usually the one that defends him, but there's some things in his past that are a little shady,"

"I thought in this family we don't look at the past," Sarah remembered.

"Sarah, I grew up in Metropolis. I know the Luthor world. It looks glamorous and fun, but the kids grow up too fast, and they can get into trouble. Whatever's happened to Lex is starting to affect you. Body parts in boxes and poisoned cows? This isn't normal,"

"What do you want us to do mom?" asked Clark. "Cut him out of our lives?"

"No. I just want you to cool it off for a while until we know what really happened. Your father and I just don't want you to see you two pulled into his problems,"

About an hour or so later, Brianna called Sarah and told her to meet her and Allison at Smallville's Sanctuary (Which is a red room they hang out in at Brianna's house). Last night, Brianna went with her dad to Metropolis, and while he was talking to a business associate, she asked to "go to the movies". Mr. Arkin seemed okay with this and let her. Instead, she went to the city mourge and asked the coroner for any autopsy reports on Jude Royce. Luckily he still had them. She came back with a triumphant look on her face. Allison spent the night researching Jude's "death" at Club Zero and found the prime witnesses.So there they sat with around a table with pictures scattered about of the witnesses.

"OK," Brianna said. "It was hard, but I got the autopsy reports,"

"Yeah," Allison remarked. "Who would give records on a dead guy to a twelve year old?"

Brianna glared but continued anyway.

"I don't know how to say this but," she started. "According to the reports Jude Royce is morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably dead!"

(A/N: I don't own that lyric from "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" from the Wizard of Oz)

Sarah and Allison raised an eyebrow each.

"Aren't you banned from listening to that song?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't stop me, now does it?" grinned Brianna.

"Apparently not,"

"But how can Jude be dead if he's found wandering around Smallville stalking Lex and sending dismembered hands in gift wrap?" asked Allison.

"I don't know,"

"Let's go straight to the source," Brianna started. "First of all, Lex. He's must be the primary reason why Jude is here,"

"Why is he here?" asked Allison.

"Revenge," Brianna pointed out. "The night of Jude's death, Lex took a young woman to Club Zero named Amanda Rothman. Jude's fiance. Apparently, Jude said he went away on business. He did, but not that kind of business,"

"He cheated on her?" exclaimed Allison and Sarah.

"Oh yeah,"

"Dang," Sarah leaned back in her chair. "This is like some messed up soap opera. My guess, Amanda told him the wedding was off, and Jude thought it was Lex's fault,"

"Affirmative," Brianna sort of grinned. "My guess is who was the one with the smoking gun,"

Allison grinned, and rubbed her hands togethor.

"This is where I come in," she said as she strolled over to the computer.

Brianna and Sarah looked at each other confused, but followed Allison to the computer nonetheless. On the screen, was a video footage of Club Zero dated somewhere in the year 1998 at the bottem.

"What is this?" asked Brianna.

"Old Security Log from the night Jude was shot," Allison explained.

"Where'd you get it?"

"Apparently Phelan made a grab for the footage and kept it in a secured file on his computer. I hacked in and saw this,"

As Allison said this, she typed in a few stuff, and pressed "Enter". Immedietly the footage started to show, but was in quick flashes because of the lights in the club. The next thing they saw was Jude lying on the ground...but that's not exactly what Sarah saw.

"Go back a bit," she ordered Allison.

Allison rewinded the footage and waited for Sarah's next order.

"Stop right there. Now zoom in on Amanda...I thought I saw something,"

Allison typed some more and they immedietly zoomed in on Amanda.

"Go into slow motion,"

"Where are you going with this Sarah?" asked Brianna.

"I saw Amanda pull something out of Kasitch's coat pocket during the commotion,"

"What?"

"She's right," Allison spoke up. "Look,"

The two girls looked over Allison's shoulder at the zoomed segment of the video. In Amanda's hand was a gun, just being pulled out of Kasich's pocket without him noticing.

"Whoa!" the girls said in unison

"She killed her own fiance?" Sarah asked in disbelief.

"Ex fiance," Allison corrected. "And I have to say, she had a motive,"

"What?"

"Jude was with other women, he stabbed Lex in the shoulder, and he lied about going out of town,"

Brianna furrowed her eyebrows.

"I remember someone saying something about Lex's knife wound a couple of weeks ago," she said. "Remember Kyle Tippet? This weird guy was helping him, and I heard him tell Lex it was easier to handle than that knife wound. I knew I heard Club Zero from somewhere!"

"Does Amanda have any other living relatives?" asked Sarah. "Maybe we can contact them and ask them a few questions, and see if we can find Amanda,"

"I've got a picture of her family," Allison said. "It was the only one I could find on 'Google',"

Sarah seemed to think it was a good start, so Allison got the picture, and gave it to them. Brianna looked over her friends shoulder and noticed something. Someone familiar was in the picture.

"Hey, isn't that the contracter from the Talon?" she asked.

Sarah looked closely at the picture and bulged her eyes.

"It is," she said softly. "But what does he have to..."

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Chloe and Clark.

"You guys, Lex is in trouble," Clark got to the point.

"How do you know?" asked Allison.

"No one's seen him for a while, and Jude was at the farm yesterday with the C.E.P," Chloe said.

"How'd you find out?" asked Brianna.

"Ali gave me her camera for the film to develop, and Clark found the picture,"

"We found his lisence plate and got his address," Clark said. "He lives in Metropolis and does not work for the C.E.P,"

"So you think Lex could be there?" asked Sarah.

"Hope so,"

"Then let's go!" Allison exclaimed running out of there.

While Chloe stayed with Brianna and Sarah, Allison went with Clark, and supersped to Metropolis, close to their destination. A few blocks away, people were gathering around a house that was bordered with police tape. Allison started to get worried. Were they too late? Jogging toward the house, they pushed their ways to the front, and saw police pulling out a gurney, with a blanket, telling everyone in the crowd that there was a dead body. But this was the juicy part. When Clark used his X-Ray vision to see who it was, he found the dead body with no hand.

"It's Kasitch," Clark said softly to Allison.

Allison sighed as she called over a cop.

"Excuse me," she started. "Did they find anyone else in there?"

The cop shook his head. Allison was a bit relieved. Lex could still be alive.

"Do you know where I could find Club Zero?" Clark asked.

"You're six months too late kid," the cop explained.

"What do you mean?"

"It closed down. It's an old warehouse on 78th and Main,"

Clark nodded, and took Allison by the hand and pulled themselves away from the crowd.

"If Lex is not in that house," Clark started. "Then he's got to be at Club Zero,"

Allison smirked.

"I like the way you're thinking," she said. "But you better hurry. Nobody's watching and we need to split over there,"

Clark knew it was a good moment to use his abilities, and super sped over to an old warehouse where the neon signs were dusty and broken, and old tables and chairs were out on the curb. Breaking the door open, the kids found Lex in a strait jacket falling from the second floor. Allison started screaming in fright at the sight of this, but you can always count on Clark. Superspeed across the club, he grabbed an old couch, and pushed it to where Lex would fall. When he was still falling, Clark supersped upstairs and pushed a man with a gun toward a beam. But it wasn't Jude. It was someone else. Allison realized it was the contractor from the Talon. So he was behind all this. After his little tricks, Clark came back to the door, and ran back to Lex with Allison trailing behind him, to make it look like they just got there.

"Lex!" shouted Clark.

"Get down!" Lex exclaimed. "There's a man with a gun up there!"

"Where?" asked Allison looking around, and stopped at the contractor. "You mean that guy? What happened?"

"...I have no idea. How'd you find me here?"

Clark and Allison smiled at each other as the unbuckled the strait jacket.

"With a little help from our friends," Clark explained.

That night, Sarah was walking up in the loft to get Clark. They were going to the Talon to celebrate the opening, and she already had an outfit. She was wearing a light pink sweater with a long black skirt...and the last thing she wanted was for Clark to be fashionably late.

"Come on Clark," she wined. "We're gonna be late,"

"Give me a few more minutes," Clark protested. "I'm trying to wrap this gift for Lana,"

Sarah rolled her eyes. That afternoon, after they had gotten Lex home, Clark found an old picture of the Talon when it was still a theatre. Striding over there, she grabbed the picture.

"Gimmie that," she said sitting down. "For someone who is quick at things, you sure are slow. Besides, from the looks of the gift wrapping, you definetly need more practice,"

Clark sighed but let his sister wrap the picture up.

"So how did the contractor fit into all of this?" asked Sarah as she cut some more gift wrap.

"He was Amanda Rothman's brother," Clark explained as he straightened his tie.

"What about Jude?"

"It wasn't Jude. It was actually a look-alike on parole,"

"Hmmm...makes sense. Who knew it was someone to be least expected?"

Clark shrugged.

"Done," said Sarah as she taped the wrap.

"Great," Clark took it from her. "Let's go,"

"Clark one more thing," Sarah said still going down the stairs.

"What?"

Sarah smirked.

"...You might need to get some shoes on first," she said

Clark looked down at his bare feet, and groaned grabbing his shoes and putting them on as they raced out to the truck.

(A/N: Next chapter, the long awaited "Nicodemus"! I know you guys have got to be excited about that. Review please! And tell me what your favorite quote is from "Superman Returns", that is if you've seen it. Here's mine!

"Wow, that's really something Lex," "Wait for it..." "...Wow that's really something Lex. It's freaking 'Gone With the Wind',"

"Listen. What do you hear?" "Nothing," "I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior. But everyday I hear people crying for one,"

I'll post up soon!)