A/N: It's good to be back! This story is fully outlined at 52 chapters. However, that does not include the epilogue, which may be very long.
Chapter 41 - Lab Work
It was good to be out of hiding.
Lex used the week of Thanksgiving to move from the mansion in Smallville to the penthouse in Metropolis. He spent the work week managing LuthorCorp from there. But every Monday morning, he took a helicopter down to Smallville to check in with his labs.
Without the interference of his weaker side, Lex was able to expand his projects. On some level, he found it ironic. His weakness thought of itself as good, but it frequently objected to the projects that would save the most lives.
"You're not convincing me with that corporate utilitarian spiel," it insisted. "The ends don't always justify the means. Jonathan Kent knows that. It's what separates him from Lionel Luthor."
So far, Lex hadn't worked out a way to completely get rid of his weakness. It was suppressed enough that he couldn't feel what it was feeling, but it could still speak from time to time. He would have put one of his lab groups on the project of getting rid of it all together, if he had been willing to risk anyone finding out about his condition. Which he wasn't. The best thing he had managed to do was ignore it.
"I'll get through to you," it promised, every day. "The Kents love you. All of you."
It was distracting, to say the least. The worst part was that Lex was convinced it actually believed what it was saying.
He did his best to focus on the matters at hand. Mondays could be the best day of the week, if his projects were progressing. He kept his project more or less separated from each other, to be on the safe side. Having any one scientist know too much necessitated a lot of firings if he lost trust that they could hold up their end of the NDA's. He didn't need another Criton incident.
Milton Fine had been the one person he had entrusted with just about everything, overseeing all projects in his absence. Losing him was a big loss, but Lex wasn't worried that Fine would expose any of the more legally questionable activities of his research teams. He had had no moral qualms, nor did he consider Lex to be a threat in the form of competition. For all Lex knew, he might come back after having time to think things over. Lex would have to think of a way to use that to his own advantage.
His first stop was to the biomedical engineering lab. Lia Teng was still in charge; she was one of the very few left from his original team.
She looked up from her microscope when he walked in. "Just a minute, Mr. Luthor."
"Of course."
She walked around to a couple of the other scientists, giving instructions, and then she followed him out, leading him to another room. "We've made very little progress on the heart condition you asked us to study. To be honest, sir, you didn't give us much to work with. If there's any chance of procuring another sample of mutated cardiac tissue —"
"There's not."
"Clark would give them to you if you asked," his weakness said.
No. That door was closed. On one level, his weakness wasn't wrong, if he could convince Clark of what he was doing. Clark would happily make another donation. But he knew he couldn't convince him. And he didn't have any more leverage to hold over Clark's head.
"I think you underestimate him."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Teng," Lex said, with finality.
She gave him an unamused look. "In that case, what you're asking for is highly risky. If the cells you gave us die, we will have nothing to work with."
"Well then. See to it that they don't." He knew she wouldn't like that, but he also doubted the cells could die. Not that he believed Clark to be immortal, but he was certain someone would have to try to kill them intentionally. "And keep them away—"
"From the meteor rocks. Yes, we understand."
He nodded. "What have you found so far?"
"Well, against all odds, that hunch of yours seems to be entirely accurate. But it won't be as simple as performing a transplant. The heart cells you've given us produce a compound that may be promising in healing the damaged cells, but it would be very difficult to test without a sample from the patient."
"I understand. Continue with the computational models."
"Yes, sir."
"And the other projects?"
"More promising." They reached the other lab room, which was filled with incubators with various samples, mostly plants. "We're beginning new tests to replicate the results of your father's Lazarus experiments, moving from plant cells to animal tissues."
He walked from one glass case to the next, inspecting each one. "And the plants are still thriving?"
"They're better than ever, sir. Animal cells have been the challenge so far."
"It's not natural," his weakness whispered in his ear. "You're playing God. It's going to catch up with you."
"Keep up the good work, Dr. Teng. But remember, that heart condition is first priority."
"Yes, sir."
That was why he had kept her on staff. She didn't question his motives, she didn't reiterate the impossibility of what he was asking for—she just obeyed.
He checked in with the human experimentation lab next. Dr. Fine had spent most of his time here; Lex hadn't replaced him yet, so he would be monitoring these patients via video feed on the days he couldn't be here.
It was, objectively, the most ominous sector of the lab. Most of his patients had come from Belle Reeve. They had been locked up, there, too, which settled any moral uncertainty in his mind about keeping the people in prison cells, if he had had any.
"And that's why you keep them secret. Because you think this is entirely acceptable." The voice dripped with sarcasm. "They're not yours to experiment with, and you're not helping them."
Lex didn't look too closely at the people behind bars he walked through. It was much easier to observe them over video feeds; that seemed to offend his weakness less, also. He did a count in his head, though. 18 subjects, right now. 16 had been meteor mutants; one had been affected by meteors once, but didn't seem to show any effects anymore, other than a certain bloodthirstiness; one still believed she was an alien, Clark's cousin, though the tests told a mixed story. All of them were doing as well or better here, compared to Belle Reve. They should be thanking him.
He pick it up the applications for the lab supervision position to review back at the office, then progressed to the next lab. His next stop was to a team of combined mechanical and biomedical engineers, who worked on kryptonite related technology. He had managed to get one of the scientists from Somerholt institute, Lawrence Garner, on his side, for the right price. He also suspected he had said some of the right words; they had some areas of research interest in common.
After checking in with the weapons development team, which was the least academically interesting to him, although the most lucrative department, he went to speak with Dr. Garner. Dr. Garner didn't look up from his beakers as Lex came in. "Finishing up the prototype you asked for," he said.
"When will it be ready for testing?"
"It's ready, just needs to be synthesized."
"And you're sure you can calibrate to the correct time frame?"
"That's what the testing is for. But accounting for the results of the last few tests—"
"I had flashbacks of entirely random moments, Dr. Garner. I would not consider that a success."
"We believe we've managed to triangulate. Your mind will also gravitate toward significant moments, so assuming whatever it is you're trying to remember is significant…"
"Significant, but repressed."
"All accounted for in the most recent model. I believe this will be the one."
"How soon?"
"Tomorrow."
Lex nodded. "I'll be here."
Lex could feel Dr. Garner's eyes watching him as he left the lab. Dr. Garner was not one who by nature could hold back his questions. But Lex had made it a condition of working together.
"Because you don't want to talk to your employees about Julian."
"Do you blame me?" Lex whispered under his breath, walking through the hallway.
"You could talk to your family."
"Be honest. This is the one project you wish you had thought of."
The voice didn't say anything.
He had to drive to the very last lab; it wasn't in the same set of buildings. It was one he had never spoken to anyone about who was involved with any of his other projects. He had made sure Clark didn't find out. Even Dr. Fine didn't know about it.
Clark's ship had been destroyed, before Lex even knew it existed. It was a shame. Lex doubted Clark was dangerous in and of himself, but it would have been nice to know the details surrounding his transport to earth. Why had he been sent? Had he come alone, truly? Minerals from their world tended to make humans go insane; that didn't bode well about their intentions.
Lex suspected his ship had held data about this. Based on how the Kents had described the ship's destruction, though, there was no way to recover those materials.
But he had found another ship. It had touched down shortly after he woke up from his coma, and he had been the first to get to it. If it came from the same planet as Clark, he might at least be able to get some information.
Of course, the data was in accessible to him. But he had had a team of computer technicians on it for weeks.
It was only last week that they had managed to decipher any of the data they were able to pick up. Only the week before that they were able to even ask us anything. But judging by the grin on Dr. Long's face when Lex came into the office space, they had made more progress than expected.
"You're going to like this, Mr. Luthor."
"Oh, yeah?"
"This wasn't the only ship."
The fact that Lex rarely showed any emotion on his face saved him the trouble of having to pretend to look surprised. "Really."
"There was a network connecting them all. I can get you access to the data from any of them."
"What if they were destroyed?"
"If that's the case, there are back ups stored within the ship."
"Any chance you could get me data from a particular ship?"
"Do you have one in mind?" Dr. Long clearly didn't have to pretend to be surprised.
"I have reason to believe a ship touched down on the day of the meteor shower."
"It would make sense. Given what we're seeing in the data…"
"How long will it take to search?"
"No more than a few days."
Lex nodded. "Get to it," he said, and he left them to their work.
