Chapter Twenty-Four - The Unbelievable Truth

Chloe Sullivan looked at Lex skeptically. "But how can I trust you?"

"You can't," said Lex truthfully. "Don't worry about it, Chloe. It's best if you don't believe me. It's just that I've been so long in this body … I just had to tell somebody … tell you. I could never risk telling you back in my time, otherwise Lex would have heard with that super-hearing of mine, would have killed you." He started to walk away, his head slumped, waiting for Chloe to call him back. To his surprise she didn't. Still, some deceptions took time.

Suddenly he felt a searing pain and, clutching at his chest, fell to his knees. As he tried to ignore the pain he heard footsteps running towards him, and then heard Chloe Sullivan's voice. "Clark! Are you alright?"

Breathing hard, he turned his head towards her, struggling to focus. "Never felt better."

He loved it when a plan came together.


"You rang?" asked Lex, as he walked into Zod and Ursa's room. Zod was sleeping, while Ursa was sat up, a smile on her face.

"Just checking that it was still working," explained Ursa. "Besides, I couldn't sleep. I was hoping you could help."

"In what way?" asked Lex.

Ursa, leaned over to her black outfit beside the bed and pulled a piece of paper out of one of its many concealed pockets. "Here's a list."

Lex took the piece of paper from her and looked at it. It was a list of everybody on the Tardis, apart from Ursa. "And what precisely do you want me to do with this list?" he asked.

"Well, Lex, I just won't be able to rest easy until everybody on this list is dead. Unfortunately people, including you, don't seem happy when I take matters into my own hands, so I thought I'd delegate."

"You want me to kill all of these people?" asked Lex.

"You catch on fast," said Ursa. "One a day will suffice. I don't think that's too much to ask."

"And Zod's first?"

"Well, with his name he's always hated that he ended up last on lists," explained Ursa.

"But I thought you loved him. He's the father of your unborn child."

"Call it a lover's tiff," replied Ursa. "So are you going to kill everybody, or will I have to get that green rock out and persuade Clark to do it?"

Lex frowned. So Ursa had his lump of kryptonite - he'd just assumed that the thieves in Sin City had taken it. Lex started compiling his own mental list that consisted solely of the name Ursa. He looked again at the last name on Ursa's list. "I can't help noticing that my name comes last," observed Lex.

"Well, I really can't see how it would work if your name appeared any earlier," replied Ursa, not understanding Lex's problem.

"So, I end up killing myself?"

"Of course," replied Ursa. "You must have realized that your days were numbered the moment you met me. Although if you really don't want to kill yourself, I'm quite prepared to help out."

"Looks like I'm living on borrowed time then," said Lex, starting to leave the room.

"Night, Lex. Sweet dreams," said Ursa, as she rested her head back on her pillow. She looked over at Zod, taking up far too much of the bed. Still that wouldn't be a problem tomorrow night, although Ursa couldn't help wondering if her solution had been a tad extreme.


Lex walked back into the console room, his face pale.

"Clark, are you okay?" asked Chloe.

"Please, call me Lex," he requested. "Clark might be listening. And no, Chloe, I'm not okay."

"It's Ursa, isn't it? What does she want you to do?"

"I can't tell you," replied Lex.

"Know the feeling," said Chloe. "She came to visit me earlier but I can't tell anybody about it either." She suddenly noticed the music still playing in the background. "This is crazy, my life's turning into the Wizard Of Oz. Earlier I was in a world of black and white, and now I'm in a world of color, being threatened by a wicked witch in black."

"Maybe you can find the Emerald City?" suggested Lex.

"I don't need a city of emeralds," replied Chloe, "just one green rock."

Her mention of the green rock reminded Lex of Ursa, and also of something Chloe had once said to her. "Remember what you said to her yesterday?" asked Lex. "About killing her in her sleep?"

"Yeah," replied Chloe. "If I only had the nerve."

"I shouldn't tell you this," said Lex, "but I'm Clark. I've been on this Tardis before and I remember what happens."

"So what happens?"

"I can't tell you," said Lex. "If you really needed to know it your future self would have told you."

Chloe thought about her future self's words. There wasn't anything she said, but there was one thing she didn't say.

"I asked her about mental illness," said Chloe aloud. "She wouldn't say anything."

Lex was just going to tell her that she killed Ursa, but was quite content to wait patiently while Chloe leapt to the wrong conclusion. "I go insane, don't I? I go insane and kill Ursa."

"Can't say," replied Lex, turning his face away from her, hiding his smile.

"Please, Clark, tell me," she begged, turning Lex's now-distraught face back towards her. "Please be honest with me."

"I could never lie to you, Chloe," said Lex, a tear coming to his eye. "That's right. That's what happens. That's the reason that I'm trapped in Lex's body."

Chloe looked at Lex in confusion. "Lex did this to you because I killed Ursa."

Lex smiled at her. "No, I asked Lex to swap bodies. Sure my old body could do anything, but it couldn't do what I needed it to do most, couldn't do what Lex's many research laboratories finally managed to do. It couldn't cure you."

Chloe looked at Lex aghast. "You sacrificed all your powers for me?"

Lex nodded. "And the worst thing was that I could never tell you until now."

He took her in his arms and whispered into her ear. "But you were worth it."

And indeed, despite all his lies, Chloe Sullivan was worth it, for she was the first step in Lex's plan to destroy Clark Kent.