Chapter Fifty-One - Glove Story

Lana Lang looked at a battered and bruised Clark Kent, holding her tenderly in his arms, and, despite all her efforts not to, gave out a mighty yawn.

"Sorry, Clark," she said, seeing the dejected look that suddenly appeared on his face, "it's just that I need some sleep. Just been to Heaven and back."

"But…" began Clark, who was then suddenly silenced by Lana's finger being placed over his lips.

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly, "I'll be ba-."

And with that she fell asleep in his arms.

"Doctor, is she okay?" asked a worried Clark, not taking his eyes off Lana.

The Doctor moved next to Lana and, by waving his sonic screwdriver over her, examined her. "She's fine, Clark. Just tired. Now let's get her back to the Tardis before this room becomes full of people checking out what that noise was."

"What was that noise anyway?" asked Rose Tyler, still confused about the large exploding sound she'd heard seconds earlier.

"Does it matter?" said Clark, carrying Lana through the Tardis' doorway. "All that matters now is that Lana's alive."

"Indeed," agreed General Zod, as he followed Clark into the Tardis.

"We can talk about it later," added Ursa, as she followed the others in, closing the door behind her.


Chloe Sullivan woke up in Lex Luthor's body. She was lying in a hospital bed and in front of her stood a short man, with brown hair and a moustache, looking at her. The man was wearing a surgeon's outfit.

"It's a miracle you're alive," he said.

Suddenly her memory returned, as she remembered Lex swapping bodies with her and then trying to kill her. This surgeon must have saved her.

"Thank … you," she said, struggling for breath.

"Don't thank me," he replied. "It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Anyway, if it's alright with you, I'd like to run some tests later."

"But I need to be going," said Chloe, suddenly realizing that she had no idea how long she'd been unconscious.

The surgeon looked at a chart. "I'm afraid that, in your state, you're not going anywhere, Mister …"

Chloe looked at the surgeon blankly.

"A name would be helpful," continued the surgeon gruffly. "The only thing we could find in your jacket was a notebook containing some crazy sci-fi story, but that belongs to a Chloe Sullivan. Is she some relation?"

Chloe decided that telling the surgeon she was Chloe Sullivan would land her back in the psych ward, and telling him that she was Lex Luthor would probably do the same. Best just to act confused.

"I … I can't remember anything."

"I guess we'll just have to make do with John Doe," responded the frowning surgeon. "Well, Mr. Doe, I'll be sending somebody around soon to redo a blood test - there seems to have been some mistake with the white blood cell count. In the meantime, I suggest you relax."

Chloe nodded as the surgeon left her room, and then turned her attention to the black jacket hanging from the coat stand in the corner of the room. She'd need that if she wanted to escape this place - she just hoped that it wasn't too late.


While Rose and The Doctor remained in the console room, the others took Lana to the Tardis' medical bay. Once they arrived there, Clark lay her down gently on one of the beds there and then, once that was done, took General Zod aside.

"I know what you did back there," said Clark, his bruises now almost healed.

Zod looked at Clark in silence, regretting his earlier actions. It looked like his plans to get Clark to trust him had now been destroyed.

"You figured that my blood would cure Lana, but you didn't want to get my hopes up once more," surmised Clark. "You heard my stupid comment about Krypton and saw it as a chance to test your theory."

Zod nodded. "That's right, son."

"But how did you get your powers back?" asked Clark.

"It was back in the caves," explained Jor-El. "The computer recognized me as Joe-El and restored my powers so that I'd be able to help you."

Clark smiled. "And Ursa?"

"I couldn't risk it - the effects it might have had on the baby … on you."

"Thank you, father… for everything," said Clark. "And about that Krypton remark I made … I'm sorry."

"Bygones," replied Zod as they returned to Lana's bedside.

As soon as Clark got back, Chloe (who was really Lex) turned to him. "Clark, I'm sorry … about wanting to switch off Lana."

"That's alright," replied Clark with a smile (with Lana alive again, he found it hard not to smile). "I can hardly hold that against you when I didn't even bother stopping the bullets that hit her."

"You didn't even bother?" exclaimed a horrified Chloe (who was still really Lex) in disbelief. "Someone you knew was going to die and you just stood back and let it happen?"

"It wasn't easy," replied Clark, as he felt his guilt resurfacing.

"No, I can imagine," replied Chloe.

"Anyway, where's Lex?" asked Clark, trying to change the subject.

"I think … I think I killed him," said Chloe, turning her head away from Clark.

As Clark looked at Chloe aghast, and Ursa looked at Chloe with pride, Jimmy interrupted. "It wasn't her fault. Lex attacked her."

Clark's expression turned from amazement to horror as he looked at Chloe standing there in her torn clothes. "But Lex was me. I… I attacked Chloe."

"No, Clark," explained Chloe. "Lex was fooling us all. He was never you."

"But that mem-O-random he gave me…"

"Just a way to spy on you."

Clark nodded as things started to make some kind of sense. He'd always hated the way that the mem-O-random had probed his thoughts, recording his every move. He'd been glad to finally get rid of it (almost as glad, in fact, as the mem-O-random itself had been to finally get rid of Clark).

"So, is he dead?" asked Clark.

"I… I don't know," replied Chloe. "I saw some doctors dragging him into the hospital. Maybe they saved him… I hope they did."

"I'd come with you, Chloe, and find out," offered Clark, "but really I should stay here with Lana."

"You go with Chloe, Clark," said Zod. "She needs your help. Ursa and I will take good care of Lana."

"Well, if you're sure," said Clark.

Zod and Ursa smiled, and Chloe took his hand.

The old Chloe would have warned Clark not to trust Zod or Ursa under any circumstances, but this wasn't the old Chloe.

"Let's go, Clark," ordered Chloe. "Lana's in safe hands."

"Wait," yelled a panicked Jimmy, grabbing hold of the sleeve of Clark's torn jacket. "You can't just leave Lana here at the mercy of Zod and Ursa."

"Don't worry, Jimmy," said Clark dismissively. "You can trust them. They're my parents."

"Your parents," gasped Jimmy.

"Zod the father?" gasped Chloe. "Ursa the mummy?"

"That's right," said Clark with a smile, as he peeled Jimmy's fingers from off of his sleeve. "I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Don't worry, Jimmy, they're completely trustworthy."

"Well, if you're sure, CK," said a nervous Jimmy.

Clark nodded, and then he and Chloe left, leaving Jimmy and Lana alone with Zod and Ursa.

After Clark and Chloe had been gone for a while, Ursa turned to Jimmy, smiling at him the way a cat smiles at a mouse. "Don't worry, Jimmy, I'm not going to hurt Lana. As for you … well, I want to play a game with you."

Zod rolled his eyes. Ursa's games only ever had one winner.

"A game?" said Jimmy Olsen, afraid for his life.

Ursa nodded. "A guessing game, and I go first. Here goes … I spy with my little eye something beginning with the letter of the Kryptonian alphabet that was carved on Clark's chest."

General Zod, who'd been feeling sorry for Jimmy Olsen, suddenly realized that it was himself he should have been feeling sorry for. This was clearly all about his regaining his powers and not telling her about it, and when Ursa was mad with him there was only ever one sensible cause of action.

As Jimmy Olsen cursed his ignorance of the Kryptonian alphabet and looked around the room in vain for an answer, he suddenly felt a draft.

"Sorry, Jimmy, but the game's over," said Ursa. "I don't spy the something anymore."

And with that Ursa left the medical bay to search for the now-absent Zod.


Chloe Sullivan, trapped in Lex Luthor's body, slowly made her way across the room. Sweat was pouring down her face, she was struggling for breath and, on top of all that, there were the unpredictable, yet frequent, agonizing pains in her chest.

Finally she made it to the coat stand and reached for Lex's black jacket.

Although she was now doubtful that her new body had recovered enough to even make it out of the room, let alone back to the Tardis (always assuming that the Tardis had returned from 1961 Smallville by now), she put on the black jacket anyway. A small measure of relief came over her as she felt the bulge of her notebook still in the pocket - at least she hadn't lost her story - and then she felt something else in the inside pocket of her jacket. Opening the pocket, she felt some folded sheets of paper inside and so she pulled them out and started to unfold them.

Suddenly there was another pain in her chest, and she doubled over, dropping the papers, and her vision started to go hazy. Struggling to stay conscious, she grabbed hold of the coat stand for support and, after a few seconds, her eyes started to focus once more.

Once she saw what was on the papers littering the floor, she began to wish that they hadn't. There, on each piece of paper, was a near-identical drawing - a rendition of Chloe Sullivan's face (her old face rather than the Lex Luthor one she was now sporting). On each of these pictures, her face was locked in a scream, with a single tear running down one of her cheeks and, at the bottom of the picture, a gloved hand wrapped around her throat.

And then the papers burst into flames and, before she knew what was happening, she'd been picked up and thrown against a wall. Her head aching, she looked across the room to see a stern-looking Clark Kent standing there, his eyes glowing red, and, next to him, smiling, the evil genius now calling himself Chloe Sullivan.

"Lex," said Clark, unable to believe the pictures he'd just seen and incinerated, "you've changed."

"Clark," she gasped. "I'm the real Chloe Sullivan."

Clark looked at her with contempt. "Just like you were me the last time I saw you. You must think I'm completely stupid, Lex."

She looked in shock at Clark. Partly through what he was saying to her, partly through the way he was saying it (not as a friend, but now as an enemy), but mainly because she noticed the tooth that he was now missing. Clark Kent's smile, one of the seven wonders of Chloe's world (along with coffee, Google and four other parts of Clark's anatomy) had been destroyed. "What happened to your smile?" she couldn't help but ask.

"It's the Alfred E. Neuman look," replied the other Chloe sarcastically. "Clark's auditioning to be the cover star of Plaid Magazine."

Clark ignored the other Chloe's comment, focusing instead on Lex. "Don't try and change the subject, Lex. How could you have done what you did to Chloe … draw those sick pictures … you're lucky that I don't…"

"Easy, tiger," said the other Chloe, placing a hand on his arm. "Just leave me alone with Lex for a while. You go back to Lana, Clark. She'll want you to be there when she wakes up."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," replied Chloe.

"Okay, but be careful," said Clark, heading towards the door. "If you need any help just shout."

"Thanks, Clark," said Chloe, and then closed the door behind Clark and turned to face the figure of Lex Luthor now lying on the floor. "So, Chloe, let's talk."

"I don't want to talk to you, Lex," said the real Chloe, struggling to push herself up off the floor.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Chloe," said an emotionless Lex, "but I feel I owe you an explanation."

"An explanation for those drawings of me," gasped Chloe, pausing to catch her breath, "or for why you tried to kill me?"

"Oh, those drawings," said Lex matter-of-factly. "That was just some image that had haunted my thoughts for a long time. It just wouldn't go away."

"So, that's why you wanted to kill me?"

Lex couldn't help but smile, although his minimalist smile didn't really suit Chloe Sullivan's face. "Oh, Chloe, I never wanted to kill you. Quite the opposite in fact. I just wanted to try and kill you."

"There's a difference?" she asked.

"Let me tell you a story, Miss Sullivan," he replied, sitting down on the hospital bed. "A story far more newsworthy than that tale in your notebook, yet just as unbelievable - my story."

Chloe looked at Lex, who was sitting there comfortably in her body while she was still, despite her best attempts, lying on the floor. "If you must."

"Did you ever wonder why I wore that one black glove? A glove that I'm, or , more precisely, you're, no longer wearing. "

Chloe looked at her latest set of hands. There was nothing remarkable about either of them. "Because you lost your other black glove?"

"Please, let's try and be serious, Miss Sullivan. No, that glove was, if you'll pardon the pun, a cover-up. Before that I'd worn a ring on that hand, a kryptonite ring, but over time the radiation in that ring destroyed my hand and so I started wearing that glove to cover it up.

"So this isn't your real hand?" Chloe said, inspecting her new hand more closely.

"No that's my real hand," replied Lex. "It just got better. But then I had to continue to wear the glove to hide the fact - I didn't want people knowing I was a freak."

"Great," said Chloe, managing finally to push herself up into a sitting position. "So you killed me because you knew I'd live through it. Fascinating demonstration. Now can I have my body back now, please?"

"Let me finish my story, Chloe. Don't you want to know the ending? It's a real tragedy."

"Carry on," said Chloe reluctantly.

"Well, the upshot of my body's regenerative powers is that it's immortal - nothing can harm it permanently now. But I don't want to be immortal, Chloe. I just want to be normal."

"Yeah, immortality's a real pain," responded Chloe sarcastically.

"It is for Clark. His body will, once he's reached his prime, never show signs of aging, but as for me - my body will just get older and older getting more and more decrepit - refusing to die, refusing to even be killed."

"That's a lot of speculation, Lex," said Chloe. "Sounds like one of my stories."

"It's not speculation. My future self told me."

"Your future self?" echoed an incredulous Chloe.

"Surely, Miss Sullivan, after our experiences with The Doctor, it's not inconceivable that one day in the far future I'll manage to unlock the secrets of time-travel."

"So how old was your future self?" asked Chloe.

"I don't know. He never said … but he looked older… weaker … than I've ever seen anybody ever look."

"He'd come to warn you?"

"No," Lex said, rising from the bed, "he'd come to gloat. But now I realize why, Miss Sullivan - that future self wasn't me … it was you. You're now trapped in the eternal prison of my body, whereas I get to be you for the rest of my life."

Chloe couldn't help but laugh, even though it hurt her to do so.

Lex looked across at her. "I'm glad you're so amused."

"Just remembering something I read on the internet," she said, a smile now on her face. "A shame we didn't get the season 4 DVD - if we did, you'd have known that the transference process isn't permanent. Ironically there's only one way to make it permanent, Lex, and … this is priceless … to do that, you'd have to kill me in my new indestructible body."

"There's another way," said Lex, with a smile, getting up off the bed.

"But the only other way is … if you die."

Lex turned away from Chloe and moved towards the door, while Chloe forced herself up off the floor.

"But that's what you want to do, isn't it, Lex?" she gasped, as what she believed to be the truth dawned on her. "You want to die. That's what you've wanted to do all along - that'll be how you first discovered your power."

Lex stopped in his tracks. "You can't really believe that."

"Is it so unbelievable? You'd lost your hair, your mother, your brother, you were stranded alone in a far-off land - surely you must have considered it. From what I've read of your teenage years, you appeared to have an appetite for self-destruction. Then you got to Smallville, maybe arranged an accident by a river, but Clark got in the way."

Lex turned towards Chloe, his face unreadable as she continued.

"That was the only time you were happy - the only time you flew - those few seconds of near-death down in the river's depths. And then you tried to recapture it, getting into all sorts of dangers, hiring the most inept security staff, but Clark kept saving you. No wonder you hate him so. And then there's the future - of course your suicidal, Lex - why else would you choose the most powerful being on the planet to be your enemy - is he the only one who could kill you?"

Lex walked up to Chloe. "At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Chloe Sullivan, you're out of your mind. The only self-destruction I have in mind is this." Chloe felt a fist hitting her face, followed by another one and another one, and then she was lying on the ground with Lex, in her body, standing over her, kicking her.

"Please understand, Chloe. This hurts me a lot more than it hurts you."


Lex stood by the sink, washing the blood off his hands, and saw Chloe Sullivan's face staring back at him. Pulling some lipstick from Chloe's handbag, he tilted his head slightly sideways and started to use the lipstick to trace around Chloe's face on the mirror. Then he added a tear rolling down one of her cheeks, and at the bottom he drew a gloved hand around her neck. Then he stepped back and looked at what he'd drawn - it looked like he'd finally gotten it right, captured the image that had haunted him all of these years, ever since he'd first seen it in that Warrior Angel comic book.

He'd recognized Chloe the moment that he'd seen her in the comic, a nameless character warning Warrior Angel about the dimension-crossing Ultra Woman, and, for her troubles, the character had been strangled by Ultra Woman.

Lex wasn't certain how that tied in with Chloe's survival in the future, but he knew that he'd do all in his power to stop that panel from happening. Either that or die in her place.

Meanwhile, Chloe Sullivan was safely trapped inside his body, thinking that he was just being a villain. Better that, than have her feel guilty about him playing the hero. Of course, nobody would know that Lex was being the hero, but that was the way he liked it - so much more noble than going away and writing stories about your exploits like Clark did.

All that remained was to return to the Tardis and leave the real Chloe Sullivan in this dimension - Lex would be amazed if the transference managed to reverse when he and Chloe were in different times and dimensions.


Chloe Sullivan felt pain all over her body (or, to be precise, Lex's), but she wasn't going to let him win. Ignoring the pain, she pushed herself up and started to crawl towards the door.

"I'm going to get my body back," she told herself, "if it's the last thing I do."