The days passed slowly. Lex had attended a few smaller meetings with his father; Clark had been sent on one of Lionel's treasure hunts but was relieved to see there were no people on the list this time. The remainder of the week was spent sitting in their room discussing school, Clark wondered what Lana, Chloe and his mom were doing, Lex entertained Clark with history facts and they thought a lot about what they were going to do first when they were finally free. Clark's first thing on his list was to go see Lana while Lex's top priority was a trip to his lawyers to file for a divorce yet again.
They were sitting on the bed in a deep discussion about Alexander the Great when the door flew open and Lionel strode in followed closely by Jonathon, shutting the door behind them.
"Dad!" Clark jumped up and started towards him excited to see his father for the first time in over a week.
"Hello Clark." Jonathon's tone was less than warm. The bite in the words stopped Clark in his tracks.
"Dad?" Clark's voice turned to one of concern.
"Lionel here has been filling me in on your reluctance to cooperate with his requests." Jonathon informed as he methodically crossed the room towards Clark.
"What? Dad?"
"Mr. Kent, are you alright?" Lex asked as he watched Jonathon's somewhat robotic posture.
"You know something Lex?" Jonathon asked turning his attention to Lex. "I never did like you. I still don't like you. The fact that you are here with my son irks me to no end. I don't believe that you deserve my son's friendship." He crossed in front of the bed and shoved Lex hard. Lex stumbled backwards knocking the side table and lamp over.
"Dad!" Clark sped between them.
Lex stood behind him watching Jonathon over Clark's shoulder. "It's okay Clark."
"Dad, what's gotten into you?"
Jonathon leered at his son as he slowly withdrew a remote from his pocket and pressed the button. Clark responded to the initiation of the restraints immediately. He hunched over clutching the collar at his throat and gasping in pain.
"Clark!" Lex shouted stepping forward and grabbing his friend to help support his weight.
"Back off Lex! This is between me and my son." Jonathon warned as he grabbed Clark and slammed him up against the wall.
"You aren't so tough without your powers, are you?" Jonathon shouted into Clark's face as he pulled him forward and slammed him into the wall for the second time.
"Dad." Clark wheezed through the pain.
"Seems to me that I have been on the receiving end of our anger more than once Clark. Do you remember throwing me into the door of my truck outside your school?" Jonathon grabbed Clark by the hair and pulled him so he was standing up straight looking his father square in the eyes.
"Well do you?" He shoved Clark into the wall one more time for emphasis.
"You know I think I am going to enjoy our new status quo." He continued, fingering the collar on Clark's neck.
Suddenly he dropped the volume of his voice sounding calm again. "Now son, as your father I am telling you to do as Mr. Luthor asks, and I am only telling you once."
"Dad! What the hell did you do?" Lex screamed at his dad as he gestured towards Jonathon and Clark.
"I didn't do anything. I simply appealed to Jonathon's good senses and he has found his way into my favor. Isn't that right Jonathon?"
"Yeah, that's right." Jonathon tossed Clark to the ground and returned to Lionel's side.
"Lex, you and Clark are going to be moving to your new home shortly." Lionel smiled.
"And where would that be exactly?" Lex's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Jonathon lunged forward and punched Lex in the gut. He grabbed Lex by the collar and pulled him up to whisper in his ear, "You are in need of learning a manner or two Lex. Starting today you won't speak to your father with anything other than respect. Am I making myself clear?"
Lex coughed and nodded his head in the affirmative.
"Well son, Sam may be gone but it seems I have found myself a replacement for his position." Lionel sounded way to smug for Lex's liking as he fought to right his posture.
"What do you want Dad?" Lex asked trying to speak in a tone that wouldn't earn him another winding.
"Jonathon here was just filling me in on Clark's interest in the caves." Lionel started.
"Dad!" Clark cried out in surprise.
"Hmm, yes Clark. Your father has told me all your deep dark secrets. It seems your abilities weren't the only thing you have been hiding from the rest of the world."
Lionel looked between Lex and Clark, pleased at what he was seeing. Lex stared at Clark unsure of whether or not to feel slighted that during their last weeks discussions Clark had never disclosed any information about his relationship with the caves to him.
"Ahh Lex, yet another secret surrounded by lies from your so called friend. One whom, I might add, you have gone to great lengths to protect."
"Lex-" Clark started in explanation but Lex interrupted him.
"I know what you're playing at dad and it won't work. Clark is just like anyone else in that he deserves to have some parts of his life that he can keep to himself. Your feeble attempt to play us off each other hasn't worked to date and it won't work now."
Lionel laughed as he stretched his arm out placing a hand on Jonathon's chest stopping his advancement to correct Lex's manners again.
"I hope you two are feeling up to taking a little drive." Lionel turned to walk out the door and stopped briefly outside it to give the guards directions to take the boys down to the vehicle.
Jonathon followed Lionel out the door not displaying any interest in his son's cries.
The guards entered the room just as Lex grabbed for his jacket and slipped it on.
"Lex."
"Yes Clark." Lex sighed suspecting what Clark was going to say next.
"I didn't tell you about the caves." Clark noted.
"Yeah, I got that Clark." Lex replied sounding very tired.
"Do you have anything else that you would like to tell me before my father throws it in my face, along with everything else you've kept from me during our friendship?"
"No." Clark answered sheepishly.
"Good, let's move past it then." Lex suggested as he walked towards the waiting guards.
"Lex?"
"Yeah."
"What's gotten into my dad?"
"My father, Clark. My father's got into your dad's head and somehow turned him against you."
"Us." Clark corrected.
"No Clark, you. I'm not naïve enough to believe that your father's dislike for me is a result of my father's influence."
Clark didn't disagree as he braced himself for the door to be opened.
----------------------------------
The ride to the caves was a somewhat chaotic one at the beginning of the trip. Lex was disappointed to see Sarah sitting in the back of the limo when they climbed into the back. Now he was spending the good part of his energy avoiding her advances. He shook his head in disgust at her audacity and lack of shame to be carrying on in front of Jonathon and his father. His efforts to slap her hand away from his crotch earned him a backhand from Jonathon who seemed to revel in being given any opportunity to keep Lex in line.
Clark sat staring at his father; trying to get some indication that Jonathon was playing the part while waiting for an opportunity to help them escape. So far he had not seen any such indication. He watched his father closely, he seemed completely dissociated from the situation. Clark flinched a few times when Jonathon had hit Lex excessively hard but didn't try to stop him after the first time he had tried to intervene and was rewarded with his father pressing the button to his collar.
Lionel too was sick of the battle going on in the confines of the vehicle and made it perfectly clear that the next person that interrupted the silence would pay dearly. Since his threat, the ride had settled into a quiet one. Everyone seemed to be lost in there own thoughts as they drove through the countryside.
They arrived and immediately headed down to the main cave. Once there Lionel cleared his throat, wordlessly giving Jonathon the direction to commence what they came for.
Jonathon crossed the cave floor and grabbed Clark by the jacket, roughly shoving him towards the keyhole in the wall.
"Well?" He pointed to the wall.
"Dad?" Clark pleaded.
Jonathon pressed the octagonal key into his son's hand, "Open it!"
"No."
"Don't push your luck Clark. Do it!" Jonathon pulled a handgun out of his jacket and aimed it at Lex, his warning quite clear.
"Why?"
"Why, why," Jonathon repeated, "I'll tell you why Clark. Lionel and I need to have a word with your biological father, that's why."
He continued explaining when he saw the obvious confusion on Clark's face. "Lionel has a business proposition for Jor-El. You won't follow in his Kryptonian foot steps without some incentive so we are here to offer him that incentive." Jonathon paused briefly smiling over to Lionel, " at a price of course. Now open the portal son."
"No Dad. I won't!" Clark defied his father and in super speed he had covered the distance between them. Lionel saw what was happening and pressed the button on his remote. Clark continued the struggle for the gun against the pain of the kryptonite.
"Lex!" Clark called out.
Lex sprang into action grabbing the box out of his pocket. In his haste he fumbled with the box and it fell to the cave floor.
Lex dove for the box before his father could react. He was securing his grip on one of the syringes when the sound of a bullet resonated through the cave. He turned to see what had happened but redirected his attention beside him when he heard Sarah gasp as she crumple to the floor.
It took a moment for him to realize exactly what had happened.
In Clark's struggle with his father for the gun, it had been discharged and the bullet had found its mark. It had hit Sarah square in the chest and she now lay lifeless beside him.
His father was watching Sarah and before Lionel could press the button that would leave Clark unconscious, Lex charged him knocking the remote from his hand.
He struggled briefly with his father for dominance in the fighting posture until he was finally on top of Lionel. Lex wasted no time driving the needle into the side of his father's neck. Lionel screamed in pain and shock before the drug took affect and he passed out.
Lionel's shout momentarily drew Jonathon's attention from the struggle he was currently having with Clark. The distraction was just what Clark needed to get the upper hand in the struggle. He grabbed a nearby rock and swung it at his father's head. The rock connected and Jonathon too fell motionless on the floor at Clark's feet.
"Dad! Dad!" Clark ran to his father's side inspecting the damage he had caused with the rock. Blood was trickling down Jonathon's cheek from the gash on his temple but other than that his breathing and pulse seemed to be fine.
"Lex!" Clark called across the room to Lex who was standing over his own father with the empty syringe still gripped in his hand. Clark looked over and saw Sarah lying in a pool of her own blood.
"Lex!" Clark repeated.
Lex picked up the remote by his father's side and turned his attention to Clark. The look in his eyes was one of intense focus.
Lex crossed the cave floor with all the intensity of a predator hunting his prey.
"Lex." Clark began to become somewhat uncomfortable with the look he was seeing on his friends face.
"You know something Clark." Lex started as he continued towards Clark. "I thought that we had an open friendship, you and I." Now he stood over Clark. "Seems I was wrong. I was thinking on the drive over here, just how am I supposed to believe anything you tell me from here on out?"
"Lex, I wanted to tell you. Really I did."
"Did you? Funny. We had nothing but time over the last week for you to tell me the truth about these caves and you never did."
He paused searching Clark's face for some insight into his thoughts. The fear Lex saw on Clark's face exhilarated him. Maybe his father was right. Maybe ultimate control over Clark would lead him to the power he was searching for. With Clark under his control he could rule the world. He would have something no one else had…an alien to do his bidding.
Lex pressed the button on the remote and reached down to grab Clark by the hair, hauling him to his feet.
"Oww, Lex you're hurting me." Clark whined.
"Am I Clark? Am I hurting you more than you hurt me by lying to me all these years?"
Lex shoved Clark back in front of the keyhole in the cave wall. "Open it!"
"Lex! Why? No!"
"Why, Clark? Because you belong to me now and I am telling you to, that's why."
"I belong to- What?" Clark stuttered.
"Does the meteor rock make you hard of hearing to Clark. You belong to me. I control you and your powers now. If you don't want everyone you love to suffer then you will do as I tell you. You are going to help me to rule the world Clark. Now. Open. It!"
"Lex? Lex?" The softness in the voice was hazy but it slowly brought Lex back to reality. He turned to see his friend standing beside him with deep concern etched in his features. Lex realized that he had been imagining the last few moments. He was still standing over his father with the empty syringe in his hand.
Clark put his hand on Lex's shoulder as Lex shook himself completely out of his thoughts. "Clark?"
"Are you okay Lex?"
"Yeah. I think so." He crinkled his eyebrows, "I was just lost in thought."
"Sarah is dead." Clark informed. "Lex the serum-, how are we going to find out what your father did to my dad."
"What was your dad talking about Clark? Your biological father?"
"My real father died when I was a kid. They sent me here to live. The caves act as a connection with him, or his spirit or something like his spirit. It's difficult to explain really."
"Could he help your dad?" Lex asked.
"He could. I don't know if he will or not though. The two of them aren't really on the best of terms."
"But he sent you here to live with your parents so he must need your father to some extent."
"That's true, I guess." Clark agreed shrugging his shoulders.
Tentatively he stepped forward and placed the key in the keyhole. Immediately there was a blinding light that flashed past the boys and encircled the entire cave.
"Yes my son, what is it you have come for?" Jor-El's voice boomed through the cave.
Lex stood staring in awe at the light surrounding them.
"I need your help!" Clark shouted into the light.
"What is it that you require?"
"My Dad needs my help. He has been drugged or brainwashed or something. I need your help to bring him out of it."
"Jonathon Kent has undergone hypnosis." Jor-El informed, "In order for the programming of the brain to be reversed he needs to hear a certain key word or phrase spoken by the person whose control he is under."
"Lex," Clark looked to his friend in panic, "You already used the drug, what if your father doesn't remember the word."
Lex looked at his father's still unconscious form lying on the cave floor.
"The word he must speak is 'Julian'" Jor-El continued.
"Son, the so called friend that you speak to has a place of great significance in your life." He continued to speak as if Lex were not in the room. "You would be wise to harbor your secrets from him. His friendship will remain true but his actions will grow to speak louder than his friendship for you."
Clark looked over to Lex in confusion. "What are you talking about? Lex is my friend!" He shouted into the light over the noises surrounding him.
"You will learn the part he will play in your life with time son." And with those final words the light flashed quickly and disappeared.
The sound of the key falling to the ground resonated through the caves in its place. In addition to the key falling from the cave wall, Clark's restraints also fell to his feet as if they were cut off in one smooth motion. Clark reached up and gently touched the place on his neck where the collar had resided for the better part of the last two weeks. He couldn't remember ever feeling such an overwhelming sense of freedom as he did now that the collar and cuffs were off of him.
"Clark, what the hell?" Lex stood staring at him in obvious bewilderment.
Their attention to each other was drawn to the other side of the cave as they heard Lionel begin to stir.
"Lex? Son, what's going on? What are we doing here?" Lionel looked around the cave perplexed.
Jonathon began to stir and Clark ran to his side.
"You little bastard!" Jonathon grimaced holding his temple with one hand and reaching for Clark with the other.
Lex saw the interact and immediately asked his dad, "Dad, I need you to tell me the name of my younger brother."
"Lex, you know perfectly well his name. I wouldn't expect that this is the time or the place to be discussing Julian. Now, as I was saying, what exactly are we doing here?"
The minute Julian's name was off Lionel's lips Jonathon stopped his attempt to grab Clark and his face went blank momentarily. He slowly shook his head as if clearing his thoughts and reached up touching his temple and looked at the blood that covered his hand when he brought it down.
"Clark?"
"It's okay dad, you're okay."
"What happened, how did we end up here?"
"That Jonathon, was my question also?" Lionel chimed in.
Jonathon's expression turned to one of anger as he saw Lionel. Jonathon recalled his last memories. He had spent them with Lionel in a room with a doctor of some sorts, but how did he get here?
"Dad,"
Jonathon looked up at Clark.
"I'll explain everything when we get home." He suggested softly.
"Home?" Jonathon repeated the word thinking it was too good to be true.
"Yes Dad, home." The smile on Clark's face was bright enough to fill the entire room.
"That sounds like a good idea son." Lionel addressed Lex again, "How about we head home and you can enlighten me on how it is that I ended up here with the three of you."
The four men headed out the door and into the light of the day.
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That night Clark was lying on the couch in the barn when Lex appeared.
"Everything okay with your dad Clark?" Lex asked as he hit the top stair of the loft.
Clark smiled over at Lex who was removing his hands from his pockets to sit on the couch next to him.
"Yeah. Boy, I've never seen my mom so happy to see us. They have been upstairs all day." Clark smiled. "And you? How did things pan out with your dad? Does he remember anything?"
"As far as I can tell no, he doesn't seem to remember anything." Lex looked sad as he stared at his clasped hands.
"Lex what's wrong?"
Lex cleared his throat softly.
"I've been thinking about what your umm, your biological father said in the caves Clark, about not trusting me."
"Yeah but Lex, I do trust you. You know my secret and you have been protecting it since you found out the truth."
"Clark," Lex interrupted his young friends rambling endorsement of his good nature. "I think he might be right to warn you."
"What? Lex you can't mean that?"
"I do Clark." He went on to explain, seeing the hurt on Clark's face. "When we were in the caves I could have easily stepped in where my father left off. With your powers I could conquer the world."
"Lex, what are you saying." Clark's tone became suspicious.
"What I am saying, Clark, is that no matter how hard I try to avoid it and deny it, I am ultimately my father's son. His blood runs through my veins, I have his drive and intense hunger for power. I don't trust myself not to abuse the knowledge that I have about you and your powers."
His hands were shaking slightly as he pulled the lead box out of his jacket pocket. He opened it up and Clark flinched expecting a pain that never came. He looked into the box and discovered a lead cylinder. He looked up at Lex.
"Clark I need you to know that this contains the amnesia serum that I used on my father." As he said the words he unscrewed the lead cylinder and slowly removed the syringe from the within.
Clark drew back in pain and surprise as he watched Lex roll up his own shirtsleeve and inject it into his arm.
Clark's pain stopped as Lex returned the syringe back to its case and closed the lid.
He looked over at Clark trying to mask his own fears and smiled. "Clark, I don't want to have that kind of power over you. You are right to keep your secrets from me. I'm just sorry I can't erase the last few weeks of memories for you as well."
Lex slumped into unconsciousness on the couch beside Clark as the serum started to take hold of his memories.
Clark stared at his friend with tears in his eyes. Lex had just given up the truth that he had been searching for since Clark had hit him that day on the bridge. Clark thought about Lex's last words as he continued to watch his friends labored breathing. He thought about the events of the last few weeks and his eyes filled again with sadness.
"It's okay Lex." He whispered as he reflected on how great it had felt to have Lex know the whole truth even if it was for a short time. The memories of the last few weeks would torment his dreams but it would be something, along with his powers, that he would have to carry the weight of alone.
The End
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