Ok, this chapter should answer a lot of questions as to what happened and as to where everyone is. Like I said on the last update, it's long to make up for the short one the day before. Enjoy!
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He felt strange. There was really no other word for it. At the start of everything, he'd been running with Pete, Chloe, Lois, and Lana. They'd hidden out in abandoned warehouses, in the woods, in homes of those who were only pretending to be loyal-but he hadn't felt anything like he was feeling now.
The mattress curved into his back and was both supportive and soft. The pillow that his head was settled on had to be some type of feather pillow and it was so deliciously wonderful against his cheek that he had the desire to rub up against it like a cat. The blankets were warm and soft, curling around him like a comforting embrace. Everything was perfect. His own bed hadn't even been this nice. In fact, the last time he'd felt something like this was the last time he'd stayed overnight at Lex's house.
Lex.
He remembered.
Bed suddenly became less of a good thing. With a soft moan he opened his eyes and began to try to roll over. Nearly immediately a strong but gentle hand was pressed against his chest, keeping him from getting up.
"You were an absolute mess, you know."
Clark raised his eyes to Lex's face. "Yeah?" It was really, honestly, all he could think to say.
Lex smiled softly, but Clark could see the pure steel behind that look, as well as apprehension and worry. "Yeah. You've had a bath, the lice are out of your hair, and the internal bleeding has stopped. You nearly gave me a heart attack when you coughed up blood in my car."
Clark smiled a little, despite how he was really feeling. "Because of me or the car?"
Lex smiled back, but his smile was tired. "You, Clark, always you." There was a small pause before Lex continued by saying, "You're going to have to tell me how you ended up like that, you know."
Clark's eyes immediately darkened and his mouth went to a thin line. "I don't have to tell you anything," he hissed, pulling Lex's hand off his chest.
"You're not leaving this room until you do." Lex didn't look angry, but there was certainly no room for argument in his demeanor. In fact, he almost looked mildly amused, as if Clark were a rebellious child.
"No!" Clark pushed himself up, and in a flash Lex was over him, pinning his wrists to the bed. His face a mask of tranquility, he said in a firm voice, "You are going to talk to me."
Clark struggled to wrench his wrists from Lex's grip. "Get off me!"
Lex sat on the bed beside him, still holding his wrists down. "No," he said simply. "You are going to tell me what happened. I don't care about your pride."
Clark frowned. Lex knew him far too well. Or maybe he was just that easy to read.
"I don't owe you a thing."
"Yes, you do. You'd be dead by now if it wasn't for me."
Clark stopped struggling. He hated it when his erstwhile friend made sense. "Why did you save me?"
"Because I regretted letting you leave like I did. I always regretted it and when I happened to find you in that...situation, it felt like it was my fault that you were there at all."
Clark's jaw dropped. "You still feel responsible for me! Damn it, Lex, you haven't seen me since I was seventeen!" he exclaimed incredulously.
"Friends are always responsible for friends. And I wasn't at all responsible to let a headstrong seventeen year old run off into a world where he could get himself killed, no matter how mature you were."
"We're not friends! I am not your responsibility!" Clark yelled, trying to pull away from Lex again.
In a display of strength that was uncommon for Lex since he preferred more underhanded and less physical tactics, he hauled Clark out of bed and slammed him up against the wall. The breath was knocked from Clark's lungs and he was unable to move as Lex pinned him there. Apparently without his strength he was pretty defenseless.
"The decision to not be friends was a decision you made because I chose to comply with an alien regime instead of dieing on the side of a road after having been someone's toy for a night. I don't give a shit about what you think at the moment about my morals. Taking this option has saved me and, whether you like it or not, it's saved you as well."
Clark glared daggers at him and tried to pull away. This time Lex let him go. The moment he was released, Clark headed for the door. A turn of the knob revealed that it was locked.
"What the-!"
"I already told you that you aren't leaving this room until I find out what I want to know. I think I've got some things you might want to know as well."
Clark stepped away from the door. "And then?"
"I'll open the door."
"But you're not going to let me leave again, are you?"
Lex smiled softly. "You'd be dead within a few days. You would never make it out of this city."
Clark raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that? I've done a pretty good job of surviving for the last five years."
Lex sat on the bed and looked at him seriously. "Yeah? And tell me how many times you snuck in somewhere by passing as a loyalist."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Lex smiled again, shaking his head slowly as he did so. "Perks of being in the inner circle, Clark. All those places you snuck into-they had a scanner that scanned the bodies of the people. Ever wonder why a person would suddenly be descended upon by alien security and dragged away? It was because they had what's on your shoulder now and the scanners picked up on it."
Clark's heart plummeted. His face must have clearly shown his horror because Lex said, "Didn't know that, huh? Maybe you aren't as self-sufficient as you thought. Maybe I was right when I said to you five years ago that you couldn't win."
Clark narrowed his eyes and advanced on Lex, his very blood boiling with anger. "You haven't seen me in five years! You don't know what I've done! You don't know the person I've become!"
"It hasn't been five years since I've seen you, Clark," Lex explained patiently, his face passive and slightly indulgent. Clark hated it. He was not fifteen, and he didn't appreciate being treated like he was. Lex obviously knew this, but he continued talking anyway. "I saw you in Chicago."
Clark stopped his advance. "What?"
"I was there, but I think you knew that, though I also think you were pretty sure you stayed out of my sight. I had orders to shoot any rebel on sight. I had a clear shot at you; I was barely fifty feet away. If I'd obeyed the regime that you so obviously loathe and think that I so blatantly love, you'd be in a mass grave right now--if I'd loaded the gun with meteor rock bullets, that is."
Clark felt like the air had fled his lungs and it certainly wasn't keen on coming back. "Why didn't you do it?" It was a sure blow to his ego, because he'd thought that he'd been so careful and discreet. But then again, Lex knew his habits. For someone like Lex it wouldn't really have been that hard to get that close to Clark.
Lex motioned to the bed. "Sit down," he commanded gently. Clark complied, though his face hosted a scowl while he did so. "Good," Lex said approvingly.
"Why didn't you shoot me?" Clark asked again.
"I think you know the answer to that, Clark."
"I want to hear it from you."
"Because it's you. I couldn't ever shoot you."
"But you can keep me locked in your house?" he spat, shifting away from Lex on the bed.
Lex didn't make any attempt to stop him. "I'm not going to keep you locked in my house. But I can't let you walk out into all that again. I won't let you die out of pride."
"How do you plan to stop me?" he asked flippantly. "Because besides by physical force you won't be able to make me stay."
"I'll have your word."
"My word!" he asked, unbelieving at first. Lex couldn't be serious. "I'll never give you that!"
Lex looked at him sadly. "I'm not your enemy."
Clark glared at him hatefully. "Yes, you are. You helped this world become what it is."
"I'm your friend, Clark, and I want to help you."
"I don't need your help. What I need is to get out and find Chloe, and Pete, and-never mind." He felt his voice getting choked up. None of his friends were probably even alive anymore.
"And I can help you."
"I don't want your help!"
"But you desperately need it."
"I DON'T!" His anger, pain, and frustration boiled over. He could feel his face reddening.
Lex's face turned to a mask of fury again. "Yes, you do!" he shouted, grabbing Clark and flipping him on his back. Not even bothering with the buttons, he ripped Clark's shirt off and shoved him roughly onto his chest. "That right there," he shouted, pointing to the brand on Clark's back, while still holding him down, "tells me differently!"
Clark yanked against Lex's hold. "Don't touch that!"
Lex shoved him into the bed, but Clark could feel the older man's anger abating. "Are you ashamed, Clark?" he asked quietly. "Are you ashamed to have it?" Fingers brushed the brand quickly and then were gone. A moment later Lex stopped holding him to the bed.
Clark sat up and scowled at Lex. "You don't have any right to be doing this."
Lex sighed and ran a hand over his head. "Will you put your stupid pride aside for just a moment! Look at this with logic! You can't even get into a grocery store with that on your shoulder."
"Then get me a skin graft and let me leave," he muttered.
"And just where would I get the resources to do that, Clark? I can't even pay off the doctors who know how to give a skin graft, because the regime pays them more to turn in the person bribing them than I could to keep them quiet. I can bribe most of the professions in this new world, but doctors aren't on the list."
"Damn it," Clark swore softly.
"You've got to talk to me, Clark. I'm only trying to help." Lex's voice turned soft and comforting, almost like a verbal caress. When Lex had wanted something from a fifteen year old Clark that had been the voice he'd always used. When he'd wanted to explain something crucial to him, but didn't want him to get upset, that voice was used also. In the currant case, it was being used in both applications.
And even though Clark wasn't fifteen anymore, it was a sound he'd very much missed. It was like a balm; it made him feel safe. For the first time that day, he lifted his eyes up to willingly look at Lex. "There's nothing you can do."
Lex reached forward and gently took Clark by the arms, holding him still. Despite the size difference, Clark had always felt smaller and most definitely not in control whenever Lex had done that. This time was no difference. "How'd you end up in that market?" Lex asked, his voice never changing and his eyes never leaving Clark's face.
Clark hesitated for a moment, but Lex's fingers squeezed his arm gently and somehow he knew that was reassurance. "I-I got caught."
Lex nodded slightly and got up off the bed to get a chair. When he returned with it, he sat it down in front of Clark and then settled himself in it. "How did you get caught?"
Clark blinked a few times. The truth was that he didn't really know. He'd just heard the sounds, known the imminent threat, and had made the only decision he had left to make. "I-Chloe, Pete, and I-we were underground. It was a good hiding place. I don't know how they found it. Chloe, Pete, Lana, and I had been living there. Lana was out on business; I don't know what happened to her."
Lex faced twisted into something that might have been described as anger. Clark looked at him in confusion. What did Lex have to possibly be mad at him for in that statement?
Lex seemed to sense his thoughts. "I'm not angry with you, Clark. It's just-it's all starting to make more sense," he said with a deep sigh. "Why didn't you fight back? In fact, how did you even get hurt?"
Clark flinched. Lex had never actually come out and told him that he knew of his powers, but the folder that Lex had given him when he'd walked in on Jason mugging him in the barn in his senior year--it had told Clark that Lex knew pretty much everything. But Lex still hadn't asked.
"Injection," he muttered. "They're as strong as I was. They'd have snapped my neck in fear the second they saw I didn't bruise or bleed-even they're not invulnerable. It wasn't like I could have fought them all off. And with strength equal to mind they could have killed me."
Lex nodded understandably. "Where did you get the serum for the injection? I assume it had meteor rock in it?"
Clark nodded. Lex really did know everything, or at least was incredibly quick on the uptake. "I-I got the stuff from Lana. We had to work to make it, but we got it eventually."
Lex's jaw clenched and he exhaled deeply. His face was a picture of frustration and hidden anger. "Did you inject yourself?"
He shook his head. "Pete did it for me."
Lex nodded understandingly. "Where was Lana?"
Clark shrugged. "Don't know. She'd left a few hours before."
"Bitch," he muttered softly.
Clark blinked a few times. That was certainly not what he'd expected. He'd always though Lex had liked Lana. "What?"
"If she'd had her way you'd be dead now." Lex's face was hard as stone, and he looked furious but in the contained way that he always did.
Clark's jaw dropped. "Don't talk about her like that! She hid out with us for years. She was part of everything in Chicago! She-"
"-Is living quite comfortably in a mansion in Denver, Colorado: The city you were just sold in."
Clark could have sworn that his heart had ceased to beat. "You're lying to me," he whispered.
"Am I, Clark?" he asked, his voice tired. "Do you really believe that?" Lex placed his face in his hands and sighed again. "Or is that what you want to believe?"
"Lex, what? Why would she-she-no!"
"She believed in your cause, but she wasn't cut out to fight for something that important. She was tempted by the wealth and luxury that she could gain by turning you all in."
"Like you?" Clark always had been good at irrationally lashing out at people when he was hurting. By this point Lex knew that and didn't take it too seriously-but it still obviously hurt.
"I would never turn you in," he said, exhaustion evident in his voice.
"And why should I believe she would? Because if she turned me in she turned in Chloe, who was her best friend, and Pete, who was her boyfriend."
"A person can crack, Clark. She probably decided that what she'd gain was worth what she'd loose. With the money she's got now she can buy two new best friends as well as a new boyfriend."
"I-you're serious," he breathed. Devastation was spreading through every bit of his body. For nearly five years he'd hidden out with Lana. Five years that they'd sat together talking, discussing when times had been better and how they'd become better again. Besides Chloe, she'd been his biggest confident. How long had she been planning the betrayal of her friends? How long had see been planning her Judas kiss that was priced at a lot higher than thirty pieces of silver?
"I wouldn't ever play with you on a subject such as this."
"I know." And Clark did. There were some things that he could never cease to trust Lex in, and if he was completely honest with himself, he knew that trusting him to not betray him was one of those things.
"What happened once you injected yourself with the serum and Lana left?"
"I, Lex-I don't know. We heard the noise outside, and we knew it was over. I took the serum and I passed out for I don't know how long. I woke up and Chloe was holding me and then I was holding her, and the door broke down, and they came in-.
"I don't know after that-I really don't. I kept trying to hold onto Chloe and someone was hitting me, but I wouldn't let go so they pried me off her and I don't know-there was so much pain. Someone was hitting me and I heard Chloe scream. Then there was this smell-there had been a few other people in the room next to us hiding out. A couple of them were really sick. But the smell was awful and I opened my eyes just a little bit, and they were burning the people who had been sick--I think they were dead before they burned them--damn, I hope they were. I got hit again so I shut my eyes. Pete was yelling too and then there was a grunt that sounded like him. Something hit me hard over the head and I blacked out. Next thing I know, I'm in a truck coughing up blood."
Lex's expression was hard to decipher. If Clark had to pin a word to it he'd have said it was almost...sad. "So you don't know where Pete and Chloe are?"
Clark shook his head. "I just woke up on the truck. I fought my way to the back and curled up there for the remainder of the journey which, as best as I could tell, lasted two days."
Lex shook his head. "Two days..."
"No food, no water. People died."
"And they didn't unload the bodies, did they? You were in a truck with dead bodies."
"I'm not the naive fourteen year old that you met on that bridge, Lex-not anymore, anyway."
Lex looked almost sick. His face had paled and Clark wondered if maybe after he'd had time to sit down and examine what had happened he'd feel sick too. "The brand?"
Clark shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."
Lex only nodded. "I can understand that. Besides, I know how it's done anyway; I've seen it done."
"You have...no idea," Clark whispered, but he wasn't mad, and Lex knew that. "I've got to find Chloe and Pete, Lex."
"We will."
"There's no 'we' in this."
"There is now, because I'm not letting you give yourself a death sentence."
"So I'd be a runaway. So what? I'd just be re-sold and since I'm not half-dead anymore, I'd probably just end up being a worker."
Lex looked at him in a way that could only be described as politely incredulous. "You're far too handsome to be 'just a worker'."
Clark blushed. It was a habit he'd never quite learned to control. "I can't stay here."
"Why not?"
It was a simple question, and Clark was hard-pressed to find an answer that Lex wouldn't be able to refute. Finally, after a few moments of thinking, he answered, "Because everything you've got here-it's been made from going along with them."
To Clark's surprise, Lex smiled. "Do you honestly think I'd ever really mindlessly follow anyone? I've got my own power plays. I have power, Clark." In a flash the Lex he'd known when he was fourteen had vanished and the much more ruthless Lex was there in his place. "You took the opposite path out of stubborn pride, instilled in you by your father, and because you were too pig-headed to see how setting just a little pride aside could help you to keep any at all, you lost everything. I found you lying on the ground, half-dead. Was that what you wanted?"
Clark stood up off the bed. "I don't think that very many people ever consciously say they want to lie in the dirt and die, Lex." His tone was flippant, but Lex had hit home. Both men knew it.
"And you still just can't bend a little. You know what happens to things that can't bend, Clark? They break."
Clark shivered. "I won't." He sounded as though he were whining, even to himself. Lex always had possessed a way of making him feel younger and older at the same time.
Lex's demanor shifted yet again. This time it was back to being soft and understanding. "You won't? Clark, I won't let you kill yourself."
"I'm not your responsibility, Lex. I'm twenty-one."
"Then stop acting like you're five. We're going to find Chloe and Pete, but you've got to let me help. You'll never find them otherwise."
Clark placed his hand over his mouth in a gesture of pure stress. "So what you're saying is that you want my word that I won't leave your house, and in return you'll help me find them?"
Lex nodded. "Yes. I'll find your friends for you, but you can't go looking for them. It's as good as a death sentence if you do."
Clark simply looked at him for a moment and then finally nodded. "Fine," he whispered.
A smile graced Lex's features. "Get some rest. I'll get you up when dinner's ready."
Clark slipped back under the covers and let him go. At that moment he'd never hated the fact that he kept his word more.
