Clark considered it lucky that he'd learned the basics of the alien's language when the war had first started. He may not have been fluent, but he would pass. That was definitely going to be a helpful skill when it came to breaking into the capitol.

There were hordes of guards around the capitol, and while that worried Clark, it did help him to blend in. Still, he couldn't get in without a card to scan. But, thankfully, his newly regained powers made that problem almost obsolete.

It was ridiculously easy to go around to the back of the building and to grab a guard from behind, bopping him over the head before he'd even really known what happened. Clark then took a piece of rope out of his pocket and bound him, leaving him in a crevice between buildings.

After that, he went back to the front gate and, using the card he'd stolen from the guard, easily let himself in. The yard was crowded with guards as well, and Clark wondered if everyone had congregated at this building for Lex's trial. After all, it would be the most important trial ever in the alien regime. Lex was that influential.

It also meant getting Lex out would be that much harder.

He slipped inside the actual building of the capitol and was quite surprised when no one even spared him a second look. He was very careful to make his step and gait match the stiff one of the aliens. Maybe he was a better actor than he'd thought.

As he approached the area he knew to be the prisons, he scanned through the walls, easily finding Lex. There were three guards outside his cell, and Clark knew that he could never take down three at once.

A diversion would be necessary.

Thankfully, he'd mastered that tactic years ago with his heat vision.

He walked into the prison area, once again using his card to get passed the scanners. Before he went down the hall to Lex's cell he'd have had to turn a corner, so he carefully crouched down behind the wall and waited.

Nothing happened to dissuade him, so he softly peeked around the corner and concentrated on the far wall. It burst into flames under his stare, much like the walls of the fire station had years ago when he'd broken out of that.

The gasps and yells of the aliens could be heard as they all turned to look at the wall in surprise. Clark watched, using his x-ray vision to see through the wall, as they all turned their backs on the area where he was hidden.

He took his opportunity.

Using his speed, he ran up behind them, hitting each on the head. He watched as they immediately crumpled to the floor. Clark grinned; apparently invincibility was helpful.

That having been done, he put the fire out with his hands. The aliens remained on the ground as if dead, and Clark couldn't help but wish they really were, while at the same time not being able to kill them himself.

As soon as they were down, he quickly scanned them for all mechanical equipment—anything they could use to call for help—and removed it all. Then he headed to the door of the cell that he knew to be Lex's and, taking the keys that he'd also found in the belt of one of the guards, began to unlock it.

He almost had to laugh when he saw Lex lying on a bed in the middle of a dingy cell. Only a small wooden table and a chair, as well as the bed, adorned the room. Lex glanced at him, but Clark assumed he only saw the outfit and didn't really look at his face, as he didn't pay him any heed.

"It's not exactly your mansion, but at least you've got a window," Clark said as means of greeting.

Lex's gaze quickly snapped back on him. "How the hell did you get in here?"

Clark couldn't suppress his laugh at the look on Lex's face. Shock wasn't a common Luthor expression.

"I knocked out a guard, stole a scanner card, and walked through the door. Then I created a diversion and knocked out three more. Now get up so we can leave before they wake up."

Lex slowly stood up, still looking at Clark as though he weren't sure he was really there. "Are any of the guards my size?"

"One of them is fairly close, so you can wear his clothing," Clark suggested, knowing that was what Lex had been thinking.

"Perfect," Lex muttered, leaving his cell and helping Clark drag the men into it. Lex then began to quickly strip the smallest man, as well as himself, putting on the man's clothing. "It's a bit big, but I'll pass, I think," he said upon inspection of himself.

"It's just to get out of the capitol, anyway."

"How do you have your powers back?" Lex asked as he took the key and locked the door to the cell. Clark looked through the walls with his x-ray vision to insure that no one was coming.

"A friend was holding out on me," Clark replied accusingly.

Lex only smirked in return. "That friend knew what was best for you in this case."

"You didn't have any right to do that," Clark shot back reproachfully. The smug look Lex gave him was enough to almost make him want to stick Lex back in his cell. "You let me get hurt."

"I stopped you from giving yourself a death sentence," he corrected him seriously, giving him a look commonly given to a unruly toddler. "You wouldn't have been able to handle having your powers back and not doing something. And in case you don't remember, Lana knows your secret. They could have killed you. This was easier and safer."

He hated it when Lex was right and had a valid point. But he so desperately wanted to wipe the knowing look off Lex's face; the look that said he knew all too clearly that Clark understood. He really, really hated that look.

"Are we leaving or not?" he finally asked.

"I think it would be best if we did," Lex replied. How Lex could seem to remain on control when his life was on the line was completely beyond Clark, but, then again, he supposed that this was Lex, and Lex had never really majored in normal.

They both started to walk down the hallway, mirroring the walk of the aliens right down to the way their steps hit the floor. Their boots clicked on the cement floors as the level gently began to rise, finally ending in the door Clark had come in.

Lex opened it, not seeming at all like a man who had just been saved for near-certain death. But then again, Clark supposed that a guard shouldn't look relieved, and Lex was a master at appearances.

They walked by a few more guards as they exited the prison and moved into the nicer areas of the capitol. The richly furnished hallways with their fancy carpets and rare paintings hanging on the wall served for a startling contrast to the starkness of the prison.

"Comrades," a sharp voice called out from behind them in alien dialect. Clark froze, but Lex easily turned as if he faced his would-be executions every day.

"Comrade," he acknowledged in a perfect alien tongue. "How may I be of service to you?"

"Do you yet know who is to guard the chamber during the trial tomorrow?"

Clark swallowed as he watched the interaction. One slip, one mess up, and he and Lex could be dead. "I am unsure," Lex replied. "Perhaps the desk would know?"

The alien nodded curtly. "Perhaps. The Lang woman is pressing hard for a search for the spy. She is disbelieving of his death."

"Naturally," Lex replied with a nod. "I find it unlikely that he is dead as well."

"You do?" the alien returned, confusion creasing his brow line. Clark thought he very much resembled a troll.

"Certainly. Do you think someone as intelligent as Luthor would go through all of this trouble he's caused for himself to simply fail?"

Lex didn't just flirt with danger, Clark thought. No, he had to take it to dinner, bring it home, and have sex with it. And he was seriously beginning to think his friend was crazy—or just liked trying to raise Clark's blood pressure.

"Do you think he could defeat the regime?" the alien prompted, a look of slight mistrust coming into his eyes.

"Oh, certainly not," Lex answered as though he thought the question amusing. "The regime is supreme and unbeatable. Luthor simply wouldn't have allowed the man to die. There is still no doubt that he will be found. I am simply stating my reasons for not believing in the authenticity of his death."

Clark was seriously sure that Lex was trying very, very hard to kill him. Why couldn't he just escape without having to rub it in? Answer: because that wouldn't be like Lex, Clark thought with a mental sigh.

The alien visibly relaxed at Lex's words. "I am sure you are right. Anyhow, I must go inquire into who shall be guarding the trail."

Lex nodded curtly. "Good day, Comrade."

The man tipped his hat to Lex, as well as to Clark, before walking off down the hallway. Clark thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest. And when Lex just kept walking like nothing had happened he was sure he was in the Twilight Zone.

They made it to the front door with no more interruptions, for which Clark was very happy. Once there, they easily scanned their cards and exited the building. Once they got outside, Clark saw that the front yard was still very packed, and Clark could feel the heat from the bodies.

He and Lex started off into the crowd, bumping into a few people, but other than that, going without interruptions. Clark had never been happier to see a gate in his life. Once they reached the gate, Lex lazily raised his card and scanned it calmly, like he wasn't an escaping prisoner—like he wasn't the highest level prisoner in the place. But then, that was Lex, Clark decided again. He never did anything on a small scale. No, if he was going to be a prisoner then he was going to be the most important and famous one.

It was remarkably easy to walk down the street and away from the capitol. Once they'd turned a corner and were out of sight, Clark immediately let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"Could you maybe, I don't know, not talk with the people who are trying to condemn you to death?"

"Oh, Clark," Lex said with a shark-like smile. "Where's the fun in that?"

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

"Clark!" Chloe screeched as soon as they entered the door of the mansion. "Oh my gosh, don't ever do that again!" she shouted angrily. "And you," she reprimanded Lex threateningly, "don't ever put him in that position again."

Lex looked at her seriously. "I didn't put him in any position. I told you that you were only to show him that serum if it put his life in danger." The unspoken insinuation that it had been Chloe's fault hung in the air.

Clark hated it when people talked about him like he wasn't there. "I would have come after you with or without abilities. She probably saved my life, actually."

He saw the thankfulness at his statement in Chloe's eyes and the annoyance in Lex's. He wasn't exactly sure what Lex was annoyed at, but...

"You can't possibly be mad at me for not letting you die," he pointed out incredulously, running a hand through his dyed hair. He really wanted to go and wash the die out.

"I'm not mad that you didn't let me die," Lex told him. "I'm just mad that you put your life on the line to save me."

"You wouldn't have done that if it was me? In fact, you did do it for me. Just letting me stay here was a death sentence if anyone found out," Clark retorted seriously. Lex's logic was sometimes messed up like that, and it really annoyed him.

"That's different," he reproached Clark, his eyes blazing.

"How?" Clark asked. Lex couldn't possibly have really justified that in his own mind.

"You've got more to live for," he said, completely honestly, making eye contact with Clark.

"And you don't?" Clark asked softly.

Lex glanced over at Chloe. "You've got her." Chloe was watching the interaction with something akin to pity in her eyes.

"And if you died you don't think I'd be the teeniest bit sad? You've got just as much reason to stay alive as I do, Lex."

Lex rolled his eyes, all semblance of brutal honesty and willingness to spill his guts disappearing. "We need to talk," he said with a sigh, taking Clark's sleeve and pulling him towards the route to the upstairs bathroom.

Clark could only look back at Chloe who, as means of help, shrugged. And here he'd thought women were supposed to be better than guys at the emotional stuff.

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

"What are we going to do now?" Clark asked Lex as they strolled into his study.

"That's a question I should ask you. After all, you were the one with the master plan," he retorted as he settled himself in his chair, still watching Clark carefully.

The slight sarcasm in his voice was not lost on Clark. "Could you at least be a little thankful that you're not dead?" he asked, anger accentuating his voice as he settled in the chair across from the desk.

Lex sighed, and Clark saw his face immediately soften. "It's not that I'm not thankful for what you did. I just think you were a fool to do it."

Clark rolled his eyes. "We need a plan now, and I suspect that you have one." Lex always had a plan, even if it had been made up as the events were playing out.

"Well, I obviously can't stay here and that means that, by association, neither can you."

It was a fair point and one that Clark knew he needed to heed. Still, it wasn't like they exactly had a multitude of places to go. Clark had spent years hiding out and he'd still been caught in the end. "Where should we go?"

"I've got a lab," Lex reveled, his eyes going dark.

"And somehow I think that when we get there we aren't just going to sit around and twiddle our thumbs," Clark responded with a raised eyebrow. Thoughts were already forming in his head regarding what he could do with a lab, especially one as good as Lex's undoubtedly would be.

"I think," Lex said slowly, as if savoring every word, "it's time to fight back."

"What happened to submitting to the regime so that you could retain some power? What happened to choosing your battles?"

Lex's eyes darkened a shade as he gave Clark a very serious look. Clark couldn't help but be reminded of the time Lex had gone after Paul Hayden when he'd tried to hurt Helen. It was a look he definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of.

"I did choose my battles," Lex replied quietly. "And now I'm choosing this one."

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

Under the cover of darkness they'd slipped out of the mansion in a car reserved for the servants running errands to the market. Chloe doubled as the driver, as no one had really seen her enough to recognize her face. Clark had suggested that he drive, but Lex pointed out that the aliens he'd tossed into their cells might have been the observant kind that had looked at his face shape and not his eyes and hair and might have, therefore, recognized him.

Clark thought that was a long shot, especially considering he'd changed his hair color to blond before they'd left the mansion and had changed his eyes to a dark chocolate brown. Lex had also grabbed a wig and had put in contacts that changed his eyes green. Chloe had laughed at them both, but Clark had seen the concern in her eyes.

So she'd ended up driving, and he and Lex had hidden themselves in the compartment underneath the seats that Lex had specially designed. Unfortunately, there still wasn't that much room under the seats, so the compartment was rather small—and it was a four hour ride to the lab.

"You're lucky I'm not claustrophobic," Clark whispered, only half-jokingly. Lex really was lucky about that, because the space was tiny (About the size that the underside of the seats would be if the seats had been hollowed out.).

"I'd be even luckier if you had shorter legs. Will you get your knee out of my thigh!" he replied, aggravation clear, though it was obvious he wasn't angry at Clark.

"I told you that you should have had me drive. Chloe would have fit a lot better in here." He leaned back into the small pillows that they'd brought with them. Then, just for kicks, he used his x-ray vision to look up through the seats.

"What are you doing?" Lex asked after a moment.

"I'm x-raying up through the seat," he answered, only hesitating slightly. It had never been easy for him to admit to his powers, and old habits died hard.

"See anything interesting?" Lex inquired, shifting back against the wall of the compartment.

"No, I just wanted to see if it felt the same."

"Did it?"

"Yes." He wasn't sure if he liked the feeling of being able to see everything again. Sure, it came in handy, but sometimes...

"Did you ever think about what giving up your powers would entail? Or did you just hear the footsteps coming down into the bunker and panicked?"

"I'd thought about it for a while. I knew I wasn't going to let everyone die because of me. And if they'd found I was...unique, they would have."

He could remember that day so well, and it was memory that he sorely wished he was bereft of. The footsteps, the smells, the screams—he never wanted to hear any of it again, even in his dreams or memories.

"It was a good decision."

"I know you don't think I should have left in the first place," he acknowledged softly. "But it doesn't really matter now, does it? I mean, we're in the same situation despite what course we chose to get there."

"Except I have a lab that we can use to our benefit." The reproach in Lex's voice was obvious.

"And I've got abilities." It was a lame comeback, but Clark hated it when Lex got the best of him.

"Which you would have had anyway if you'd stayed and pretended to be loyal to the aliens."

Sometimes it was better to stay silent then to try to one-up Lex, because it seemed Lex had a nasty habit of usually winning when an argument was faulty. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself," he protested.

"You'd have found a way."

Clark wasn't so sure that he would have. He was a high-moraled person, and if he'd allowed others to die he wasn't sure he'd have been able to justify that. As it was he purposely didn't ask Lex who he'd let die. He knew that Lex probably had a trail of bodies, and that several of those bodies had Clark's name on them. Actually, not probably, Clark knew they did. It was easier not to ask.

The gentle rocking of the car as it skimmed over the ground, combined with the heat of the compartment began to make him drowsy. He might not really have been able to feel the heat like a normal person anymore, as in sweating, but he could still feel some of its effects; heat being one of those effects. Fairly soon these factors took their tolls, and Clark could feel himself dropping off.