AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is in Lex's POV, and he's been a villain for quite a while, people. Also, I took a few liberties with his meteor-freak regenerative properties. Meaning, his self-healing abilities keep him looking-- and feeling-- young. I've tweaked it so they progressed as he got older. We'll say that he stopped aging somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties.
DISCLAIMER: Pffft. Right. And Bush is a liberal.
Balance
by Kari Anna
There are times when I think of who Superman is.
I know.
I've known for a long time. My father took that away from me during my stay at Belle Reve, but neither he nor anyone else could keep it from me.
When, exactly, I remembered is impossible to tell. The memory came back slowly, so slowly. A dream or nightmare here and there. A dreamer's knowledge that Clark had been there, had come back for me. He couldn't leave me there.
At first, I didn't believe.
But then it wasn't just dreams. Eventually, if I thought hard enough, I could vaguely recall little details. The look of determination in his eyes, even as his voice shook with the fear that we'd be caught, and he'd be put in Belle Reve too. Or worse.
And then all the memories were there. There was no crash, except for my own when I remembered the look of stark terror-- and worse, harsh pain bared in his eyes when I called him a freak. But... I hadn't been right, in my head, because of the drugs I had been forced to take. Drugs that make a sane man crazy. And in my unbalanced mind, I had felt a sort of kinship, deeper than any I had ever had. Because I knew what it was like to be a freak. To have everyone back away from you, terrified.
It's a humorous thing, how much fear an unusual healing rate can inspire. Such a harmless ability; but perhaps not. Yet it was, during my Excellior days.
I've chosen to abuse it, to warp it and twist it until something good and wonderful and harmless is indeed a threat and a horror.
Because Namaan needs Segeith.
And sometimes, I think of my healing power, and Clark's, and I know eventually the light and the dark will balance each other in a new way. Eventually the two heads will acknowledge that they are joined at the core, and Namaan and Segeith will live in peace.
But until then, I will be content to hold off his darkness by letting him stop mine.
I am patient.