"What were you thinking?"

Clark was fast deciding that waking up to voices talking was not the way to go. And these voices didn't sound particularly happy, either.

"You don't control his life!"

No, definitely not happy. What were Chloe and Lex fighting about this time?

"You don't control Clark either!"

Heh, him. Yeah, that was right.

"I don't try to control him."

"No? He wouldn't have left this mansion otherwise. Look, I don't give a shit what you think. I'm not going to let him kill himself because while you may not have a brand, he does. You are not the only one who cares about him, Chloe!"

Lex's voice sounded incredibly threatening, and Clark just couldn't believe that that tone was out of concern for him. Did Lex really care that much? Did Chloe?

"You can't lock him up."

"Well, thanks to you he's going to have even less freedom now."

"What, you're actually going to lock him up?"

"No, but because of you insisting that he join you for a walk, and because of his evasion of the guards, they've decided to push Lana's proposal through."

There was silence for a moment, and Clark desperately struggled to understand what Lex had just said. Was he marked for death now?

"You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Clark still hadn't opened his eyes, but he was fairly sure Lex probably wasn't smiling. This didn't seem like something Lex would smile at.

"You can stop it?"

"Oh, now you want me to stop him from getting killed. It would have been so much easier if the bill hadn't been passed in the first place!"

"I didn't know what was at stake!"

"You've made this your life, Chloe!" Lex's voice exploded. "You're basically a career terrorist, or, as I'm sure you'd rather be called, freedom fighter. You should know by now that something is always at stake. You should know that if I tell him to do something I've probably got a damn good reason for it, even if I don't share it with you."

"He's the one who knows you, not me." Her voice was like cold steel, and Clark shivered. "He knows the games you play, even if you don't usually play them with him. You can't expect me to understand your games."

"Your life depends on reading people. If you can't figure out something that simple about me then you're really in the wrong business."

"This isn't a business, Lex. This is something we fight for because we believe in it. It's something that we believe in enough to put our lives on the line for. It's something you obviously don't understand, or perhaps you're just too cowardly to stand up and do the right thing. Was that really why you joined the aliens? Because you were too afraid to join the resistance?"

Clark shifted a little on the bed. His shoulder ached and he thought he could feel some sort of brace on his ankle.

"No, Chloe, I wasn't scared. I just knew it would fail." Lex's voice paused for a moment, and when he spoke again his tone was calmer. " This isn't getting up anywhere, so why don't you just tell me what you thinking."

"What do you mean?"

"Why would you risk everything just so you could go for a walk?"

"I didn't think we were risking much. I don't even know how they found us."

Lex's laugh sounded cold. "Clark's pride has a way of getting him in precarious situations." He paused and then said, "Didn't he tell you that at the front of every building there is a scanner that scans the bodies of people for the brand which he has?"

There was no reply for at least three seconds. Then the emotionless, "No," could be heard.

"I didn't think so," Lex said sharply. "He's ashamed."

"We didn't go in any buildings."

"Did you go near any of the outdoor stalls?"

"Yes," she said softly. "I wanted to go shopping. I dragged him along with me."

Lex's sigh was loud and exasperated. "Was your shopping worth his life?"

"No," she replied softly.

"Then perhaps you should listen to me next time. I'm only trying to protect him."

"I don't trust you." Her tone sounded so cynical. Clark could almost envision her glare.

"I know, but he does. Shouldn't that be enough for you?"

"It's the only reason I'm putting up with any of this."

Clark heard the sharp click of heels on the floor, and a moment later the door slammed shut. Chloe must have been in a really bad mood, he decided. Perhaps staying asleep would be good. After all, he knew Lex was going to go up one side of him and down the other. Still, it was no use to prolong the inevitable.

He forced his eyes open. Lex was watching him. When he saw Clark open his eyes he smiled softly. "I thought you might have been waking up."

Clark tried to move a little and pain flashed through his shoulder. "Ahh," he muttered. Giving Lex a sheepish smile he said, "Guess I should have stayed asleep."

"What where you thinking?" Lex asked bluntly, not pulling any punches.

"I said 'no' at first."

"But she kept begging and whining and you gave in, am I right?"

Clark looked at him with something that was cross between sheepishness and shame. "More or less."

Lex's gaze remained hard, despite Clark's best attempts to melt it a little. "You could have been killed." Apparently Lex was going to be very tunnel visioned on this particular issue.

"I wasn't."

"No, and Alexander Hamilton wasn't killed the first time he fought in a duel either. There are only so many times that you can cheat fate, Clark. Stop trying."

Trust Lex to bring history into everything. Still, Clark knew he was right. It had been a lot easier to cheat fate when he'd had super powers.

"I wasn't trying to cheat anything!"

He sounded whiny, even to himself. Lex was definitely going to win this one...

"I told you not to leave this mansion."

"Look, I'm sorry," he said tiredly, running a hand through his own hair. Trying not to jostle himself too much, he scooted up against the headboard. His shoulder hurt when he moved, and upon a closer look he saw that his arm was in a sling.

"Sorry's not good enough," Lex hissed back, but his voice sounded so tired. "The bill got passed," he finally said after a few moments of silence. Clark had been wondering when that would have come up. "You're officially marked for death."

Clark swallowed heavily. "How-?" He didn't know how to ask what he was supposed to do now. The words just weren't being forthcoming.

"How are you supposed to deal with this?" Lex finished for him. Clark figured that was close enough and nodded. "You're not leaving the mansion again, that's for sure. I'm also going to fake your death."

"Lana will never buy that."

"Doesn't matter if she does or not, as long as the regime does."

"How are you going to do it?" Lex was really too good at that sort of thing, and Clark wasn't sure that he really wanted to know. Still, he knew it was something that he had to ask.

Lex sighed and sat down on the bed, his anger beginning to fade. "I'll use a double."

"Already dead?"

"Don't ask me those questions," Lex said softly.

Clark narrowed his eyes slightly as something he'd thought he'd long ago lost clenched painfully in his chest. He'd...killed people. He shouldn't be feeling this, should he?

"You can't kill for me, Lex," he rebuked him softly.

Lex's eyes never left his face as he said softly, "I have before."

Clark swallowed, feeling a little sick and suddenly very dizzy. He knew about Nixon, knew that that incident had been more to protect his secret than anything, but it was still hard to accept. It was something he tried desperately not to think about.

"No again, though," he said after a little while. "Please."

Lex only looked at him and stood up. Clark didn't know whether that was a 'yes' or a 'no', but he found it easier not to ask and just be...idealistic.

"Try to get some more rest," Lex told him. "You're so shot up on painkillers right now that it's a wonder you're even awake."

Since he mentioned it, Clark had to admit that he did feel pretty sleepy. He allowed himself to settle back into the pillows as Lex left the room, the click of the door shutting and Lex's footsteps going down the hall both being heard. A few minutes later he drifted off.

-----------------------------

It was the screams that woke him. Terrible, blood-curdling screams of pure terror and raw pain. It was like what he'd heard when he'd been branded.

Before he knew what he was doing he shot up out of bed and hobbled over to the door, the let he'd fallen on still hurting him a little. The screams really weren't that loud, but after what he'd been through just that noise sent his heart to beating ten times too fast. His shoulder throbbed with the jostle of his gate, and only the sound of the screams kept him going.

He made his way down the halls, still following the noise. It was getting louder and he realized that whatever was happening was going on in the square in front of Lex's house. He had no idea why Lex had built his house on one of the most public areas, right near where the markets were, but he had. Or maybe the aliens had told him to build it there. Clark didn't know, and at this point he really didn't care.

When Clark reached the front of the mansion and looked out the large second floor window he was aghast with what he saw.

He imagined it was what the French Revolution must have been like. There were so many prisoners, all of them panicked and many screaming. They were all being dragged towards the center of the square where there was a huge bonfire.

It may have been completely dark out, and Clark was thankful for that considering he was standing in a window which would have been in plain sight during the day, but the bonfire lit up the square so well that Clark could see the fear in the people's faces. It was terribly sickening.

The aliens were systematically eliminating the prisoners, but not before checking their backs. Clark squinted and realized they were checking for the brand-the one on his back.

He was among those condemned.

The aliens were mercilessly cutting the people down and then throwing them into the fire. Clark thought it was a miracle that they were at least killing them first, but he didn't' think it was really out of mercy. His stomach clenched brutally when he saw a young woman—perhaps in her late teens—dragged forward and killed.

So much death.

So much destruction.

He heard himself make a soft, primal cry before sinking to the floor. His finger tips on the hand of his good arm grasped the hard wood of the windowsill and held him up just far enough that he could see. "No, no," he heard himself mutter.

He could smell burning flesh, and he wondered if that was really from the fires or simply from the memory of what it had smelled like in the camps. It was sickening in a way Clark hadn't known existed.

He clambered to his knees and clung to the windowsill firmly. It was a terribly nauseating scene, but he couldn't look away. There was something about it that made him watch. Maybe it was the fact that he knew that by all rights that should have been his death.

"Damn it, Clark," he heard Lex say softly from behind him. "Get away from the window."

He didn't listen, or maybe Lex's words just didn't sink into his consciousness. "I said get away from the window!" Lex yelled this time. "Now!"

That got through his consciousness and he slowly tore his eyes away from the scene before him. "Lex," he said softly.

"In the flesh, now get over here."

For some reason Lex wouldn't come out of the shadows of the hallway. Clark didn't know why at first until he realized Lex couldn't even be glimpsed pulling someone away from the window. Clark shouldn't even have been at the window in the first place. If he was seen it could get them both killed.

He made a move to stand, and Lex immediately motioned for him to stay down. He felt the insane urge to let out the laugher that was hysterically bubbling up inside of him. He wasn't thinking clearly at all.

Still, he moved towards Lex. He didn't protest when Lex pulled him to his feet and took his face in his hands. Clark wasn't sure what he was doing at first and he began to let his eyes drift shut.

"Eyes open," Lex ordered firmly.

Clark opened his eyes, because Lex really wasn't leaving that open for debate. "I'm locking your door next time," Lex announced, though Clark thought it was more to himself than to Clark. "You're going into shock. It's a small wonder after all you've seen." Ah, so that was why Lex had wanted to see his face and his eyes. He'd wanted to see if there were signs of shock in them, Clark realized.

"Smells-Smells like the camps," Clark said softly, not even really sure of what he was saying. He wished that his parents had been there to hold him—like his dad had done when the message in the ship had said he was sent to earth to conquer. He would have just liked them to hold him and maybe gently stroke his hair, like the time his mom had when she'd found him lying in the caves at the start of his senor year after Kal-el and the black kryptonite.

"I know," Lex said softly, letting one hand drop from Clark's face and go to his arm instead. "I know." Though Clark was distracted, he heard Lex mutter under his breath, "Where the hell is Chloe when I need her?"

Clark made a move to turn away from him and look back at the window, but Lex's one hand closed on a fistful of his hair. "Stay looking at me. Don't look outside." Clark didn't listen at first and tried to turn against Lex's grip. "I said don't look outside," he repeated sharply.

Clark listened that time and focused on Lex as Lex gently pulled him down the hall and, although his gate was that of a limp and painfully slow, they were making progress. The window disappeared from view and they moved down the hall a little further.

Clark felt strange. There was a part of him that knew he had to keep it together; that his life just might depend on it. But another part of his brain was so intent on focusing on flashbacks that he simply couldn't stop it.

Lex's eyes left his face for just a moment as he glanced at the door next to him. Seeming to make a quick decision, he pulled Clark through it, locking it behind them.

Clark was just sane enough at that point to notice that it was apparently a spare bedroom and, although it clearly hadn't been used in a while, it was workable. The bed was a canopy, and Clark found himself smiling at that, though, he wasn't quite sure why.

"Lie down," Lex commanded, and Clark immediately felt himself being lowered into the bed. "I don't want you to move from this spot." Lex's voice was so low, and there was absolutely no room for argument whatsoever. "Nod if you understand."

Clark understood and, really, he didn't think his legs could hold him anyway. He nodded and Lex smiled weakly.

At first Clark didn't understand what was going on. Then he heard Lex's footsteps leaving the room. At first his heart skipped a few beats, though, he wasn't sure why. It just seemed like it wasn't like Lex to leave when he was feeling so...strange.

The door opened again and Lex returned. Clark breathed a little easier and suddenly found himself wishing for Chloe. Chloe would be alright he reminded himself; she didn't have a brand. And, as much as Clark liked Lex, he wasn't someone he could curl up against and just hold onto. And Clark so desperately wanted that at the moment. As Lex settled down next to him he could feel a little bit of his hold on reality returning.

"I'm-I'm alright, Lex," he told his friend softly. "I just lost it there for a moment."

Lex hand had been moving towards him in the dark, and it paused at that statement. "I'm still giving you a sedative."

"No, you don't need to," he protested. He really wanted to be in control of his body at that point, although there was something intriguing about worriless slumber.

"I'll decide what I do and don't need to do, thanks," he said softly, tipping Clark's head to the side as he talked. "Stay still."

Clark found he was a little too tired to argue. Lex probably had a good reason for drugging him anyway.

"Where's Chloe?" Clark found himself mumbling.

"She's fine, Clark," Lex promised him.

Clark didn't even protest as the needle slid in his neck, and he only moaned a little as the drug was administered. "Shhh," he heard Lex say softly, accompanied by a soothing brush of his hair.

After that everything went black.