Author's note: Sorry for the delayed update, but I had exams. The parts of the text that are both in italics and underlined are Lana's thoughts.

Part 6

Extreme Measures

"Lana…Lana…" a voice whispered and she heard it as if it was coming from somewhere very far away. A blinding light shone high above her. Something flew toward it and the voice it contained within it. But that something wasn't her. It had been something else. Or someone else? Then she blinked and she saw a white ceiling and her lips were moving, but she wasn't the one speaking the words coming off them.

"I was so scared." Liar. "In the darkness, Clark, you were my only light." Ha. "The only thing that's kept me alive so long was the hope you'd rescue me." My god, who was this girl and how could she make up such pretty lies? "What I told you…it's still valid. I love you." Clark, get away. The door's lock closed with an empty sound. He was staring in her eyes, didn't hear it. Clark, don't close your eyes. Clark, don't kiss her. Too late. She smiled. She had him. He took her kiss, took her lips…Sure, ignore the knocking, ignore the green light that passes from her lips to yours. It's killing you. She hates you because you've ruined everything. Four centuries of well planned omnipotence and you destroyed it all. She wants you dead. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. Now you feel it. He broke away stumbling just as the door was forced open. Chloe stood in the doorway, looking at him funny. Where have you been, Clark Kent? her eyes seemed to ask. Then he was gone, jumped out through the window. How did you survive that fall, Clark? Maybe you didn't. The thing is Chloe doesn't seem shocked or surprised or worried. Somehow, she knows you're all right. Then she turned toward her. That's what surprised her. The body was awake. Without Lana Lang in it. She asked her: where did he go? She simply told her he had to go. And that was it. Then he showed up. Ran toward the bed. Put his hands on her face.

"You're awake," he whispered. No. In the back, Chloe looked like she was feeling awkward, like she had interrupted two long lost lovers finding themselves. She made a quick exit. Fade out. Lana Lang, where are you? Where am I? Lana Lang, answer me, damn it!

She startled awake. In her hands, she still had the wedding pictures. Another day gone by. Another strange dream. The same desire for everything to go away. To turn the clock back two years. This time though, the harsh reality sank in faster than it had before and it didn't feel as surreal and impossible anymore.

"Hey, you're awake," Chloe popped her head out from the kitchen.

"Did I oversleep?" she asked searching for a clock somewhere in the room.

"You don't exactly have anywhere you need to be," she pointed out and gestured toward a pile of newspapers on the table. "I went out and got them fresh off the press."

"It's noon?" Lana asked staring incredulous at a watch she had finally come across.

"Yeah, Isobel was a late sleeper. Mostly because of all those late nights on the town…Your metabolism's probably grown a habit out of it," she said.

"Then tomorrow, I'm waking up at 8. See if I can kick the habit," Lana said determined. "I'd like to get rid of as much of the damage Isobel's done as I can."

"It's funny," she chuckled. "You know how many reporters managed to run their stories just because Mrs. Luthor was sleeping when the papers hit the streets? Sure, there'd be hell to pay afterwards, but just that awesome feeling you managed to get something passed her…"

"It's that what happened with the Lang Pharmaceuticals expose?" Lana caught on.

"Oh, yeah, it was such a rush. Perry and me kept it under the wraps until the last second. We felt like we were the CIA or the FBI. Ever tried printing a magazine at 5 AM by candle light?" she laughed. "It was crazy, but we pulled it off. And the look on her face when she saw it…it was worth it."

"Talking about newspapers. Aren't you going to get in trouble for missing from work?" she asked.

"I went by the office this morning. They think I'm working on some huge story. Undercover. Very hush-hush," she chuckled. "They're used to it. I disappear for three days and when I get back, wam, I got a Pulitzer award winning article on my hands."

"Good," she smiled. "I'd rather have you here with me. Makes me feel…saner."

"That's what I'm here for," she said and then asked after a moment: "About the damage Isobel's done and how much of it you can fix…have you thought about what you're going to do about Lex?"

"Do about him?" she asked confused. She didn't understand what she meant by it.

"Are you going to divorce him?" she made herself more clear.

"Divorce him?" she repeated. For some reason that very idea seemed so far fetched from everything she had thought about until then. She thought it was strange. Sounded like the most natural thing after all. The first big step into undoing Isobel's actions. So why did her stomach clench just at the thought?

"You can't do it, can you?" she smirked as she headed back in the kitchen. "I was afraid of this," she yelled. "Remember what I said about things that can get imprinted through repetition because of the whole possession thing?"

"Does that mean Isobel actually loved Lex?" she asked not really finding that theory plausible.

"In her own twisted, freakish way, yeah," Chloe returned to the room with a plate of food she handed Lana. "Unless of course…you have feelings for Lex."

"I…," she frowned. "It's strange. I can't seem to separate anything I feel from what Isobel felt. Or whatever she left inside me. Or this body feels…"

"Weird," she said and tried not to seem too worried. Her mind however instantly raced to the possibilities of what it could all mean: Isobel repossessing Lana, Lana becoming Isobel, Lana gaining all of Isobel's memories…"So does that mean you know how Isobel felt for Lex?"

"No as much. It's like the idea of not having him there is unconceivable. Like getting rid of him would be the last thing I'd think about. Separated. Living in different apartments. Different cities. Countries. But he has to be there…Does that make sense?" she asked and stared down at her plate.

"A little. Having someone around as much as Lex has been around you the last two years can leave a mark," she shrugged.

"Yeah, but he wasn't around me," she pointed out. "He was around Isobel and he was aware of that."

"How can I explain it? Say a woman goes into a coma not knowing she's pregnant. Let's say the doctors manage to keep the baby alive and bring him into the world. The baby's taken away. When the woman wakes up, she instinctually knows something's missing. See where I'm trying to get at?"

"Back to instincts then? What my body's gotten used to over two years?" she sighed. "Thank god she didn't start smoking."

"I also took the shards to the guys from LWM. They said there might be a chance to at least partially reconstruct the message. They were really friendly about it. And since Isobel isn't around to tell them not to, I think we might find out something about it in the next couple of days," she told her.

"When exactly did you wake up?" Lana asked with a smirk

"7 AM. Work habit," she shrugged. "I also heard some things about Lex. Rumor has it he's been drowning himself in work since his little visit here yesterday. He hasn't even left the Luthorcorp factories for dinner, breakfast or lunch. Thank god nothing got leaked to the media about your whereabouts!"

"He probably didn't tell anyone," she brushed it off.

In the industrial area, in the basement of Luthorcorp, Lex looked at the stack of files that had been brought to him and sighed.

"So it's true?" he asked the scientist that had brought them.

"Afraid so, Mr. Luthor. Down to the last syllable," the man told him nodding.

"How could this have happened without any of you realizing it?" he asked annoyed.

"She was smart about it. Split the work up so that individually none of us would think anything was out of the ordinary," he explained.

"How much time do we have left?" he asked rubbing his face tiredly.

"I'd say she could set it off anytime. But she's missing one vital ingredient," he pointed out looking over his shoulder at the tank Clark was kept inside.

"I want all her access keys overwritten. She doesn't get in with any excuse," he told him.

"But sir, didn't you say your wife's, uhm, double personality is acting up?" the scientist reminded him. "If her current personality is the non-aggressive one she probably has no idea what her worse half has been working on. So she'd have no reason to attempt to free the specimen."

"Not for Isobel's reasons," he closed his eyes. "Clark Kent was one of her closest friends. I'm sure she'll try to find him…"

"Are we talking about the other personality now, sir?" the scientist asked confused by now. When Lex Luthor had showed up in his lab with the crazy story of his wife having a split personality, he had thought he had finally lost it. When he had been handed the file containing Mrs. Luthor's secret plans, he didn't think it was so crazy anymore. But he had to admit to himself, he wished Lex Luthor had walked into any other lab but his.

"What are the odds of two personalities knowing the same information?" he ignored his question.

"Well, studies show that the made-up personality is usually conscious of there being a secondary persona and because of it can access the information the original…," he started explaining, but Lex interrupted him:

"So if the person's original psyche is aware of the existence of a secondary one, it's possible that the stocked information would become available to it too?" he asked on a worried tone.

"It's possible yes," he nodded.

"That'll be all for now," Lex told him with a weak smile and gestured for him to leave.

"Yes, sir," he left in a hurry.

"Christ," he muttered to himself when he was alone. So if possession worked like a double personality, then it was possible – very possible, too possible – that Lana would start remembering that had happened during the last two years…Isobel remembered everything concerning Lana's life so why wouldn't Lana remember everything about Isobel's life in her body?

You know what you told her, did to her, that time you got split in two? Her laughter still rang in his ears as it had while they were lying in bed then. What did you really want to say – do – to her when she was infected by that flower? Come on, Lex…I'll let you do it now if you tell me…

Unfortunately for him, that implied a world of things he didn't want Lana to find out… All the dirty little things he had let her do to him. Asked her to do…In the office… At parties…At the mansion…At their engagement party with only a wall separating them from the Sullivans, the Kents and Smallville's finest. He hadn't felt guilt about any of them, because it had been Isobel…Isobel who was cocky and liked to play games – mind games were her favorites – she liked to dominate and with that body, Lex had let himself be dominated willingly. What if Lana found out what he had done to her after finding out about her affair with Sergio? What if she found out about his first mistress? What if she found out how Isobel had gotten Lang Pharmaceuticals? What she had promised him and then so cruelly denied him?

No, he had to stop it somehow… One option was to get Isobel back, but he didn't even want to consider that…Not now that Lana was back, like he had wished it so many times. A little part of him was conscious of the fact Lana would probably hate him once she would find out everything and then he would have nothing. Not even the body. Not even Isobel's soul and Lana's warm embrace…And even if by some miracle she wouldn't wind up hating him, all she would have to offer him would be her friendship. And that was even worse than hate. To be around her again, hear her, watch her, but never ever touch her again…he couldn't live with that idea. So in the end, if he had to choose between not having her at all and having what he had had for two years - Isobel and Lana's body – could he really deny himself her touch? After all, when they were making love – or that was what he had imagined they were doing anyway – it didn't matter that it was Isobel. To him, then, she was always Lana. His Lana. Lana in his arms. Isobel had always mocked him for it.

He wished he knew what was going on in her head. Isobel had always been very careful as to never reveal the true nature Lana's feelings for him at the time of the second meteor shower. It was the ace she kept up her sleeve. Like that, he would never attempt to bring back Lana. In their arguments though, she liked to use her name to hurt him. No wonder little Lana was so horrified by your potential intentions. You're a such a pervert. Wanting to fuck a highschool girl. What did it for you, Lex? Was it the cheerleading outfit?

He couldn't make a decision. Not yet. For now he had to take care of another problem. He had to make sure Isobel's plans wouldn't come through. And that implied he had to keep Lana away from Clark. As he checked his watch and headed for the door, he lied to himself that the solution he had found was the only viable one. He'd have to lock up Lana. And it didn't matter it was in his apartment either. It was for her own safety and the entire city's. Isobel's plans couldn't become a reality.

Back in Lana's apartment, Chloe was busy explaining the circumstances under which Luthorcorp had taken over the factories now belonging to Lang Pharmaceuticals, but Lana's mind was wondering elsewhere. She was thinking about her dream. It had seemed so real. Like she had been the witness of a parody she had been helpless to stop.

"Chloe, tell me exactly what happened when I woke up," she interrupted Chloe's explanations.

"Clark appeared out of nowhere. You woke up. He was gone," the reporter simply told her.

"Did you see him before he came into my room or after?" she asked.

"When he was in your room. He closed the door to make sure he wasn't going to be disturbed while he did whatever he did to wake you up. Lex freaked out when he saw it was closed, but while he went looking for a key, I used a little reporter ingenuity and opened the door. That's when I saw Clark," she explained.

"Did he look okay? Did you talk to him?" she went on.

"No, he kinda ran off. Jumped out the window actually," she said.

"And he survived the fall?" she seemed surprised.

"Yeah, somehow he did," she said chuckling. "Tell me, Lana, has it never really occurred to you that Clark was just…a little bit special?"

"Actually…," she started saying, but just as she did, there was a knock on the door. The two women shared a look.

"Who is it?" Chloe asked nearing the door carefully.

"It's Joe Stevens, the landlord," a man's muffled voice answered.

"I already paid the rent for three months," Lana whispered toward Chloe.

"What is it?" Chloe asked him.

"It's about the gas pipes. There was a leak in one of them. I'm having someone check the entire system to make sure there aren't more," he yelled. "We need to check your apartment too."

"Okay, but…," Chloe opened the door and a round sphere was thrown inside above her. "What the…" The sphere suddenly started to smoke. Someone pulled the door away from Chloe and closed it shut. She tried to open it, but the door seemed to have been closed with a key from the outside. The smoke filled the room, making her and Lana cough. "We have to get something to open it…" she told Lana as she searched the room for a heavy object.

"Get something…," Lana repeated and managed to take two steps away before collapsing on the floor.

"Lana…Lana…," Chloe tried to wake her up but her own eyes were slowly closing and she soon lost consciousness too.

End Part 6