When Sakura reenters her bedroom, it is to see that Kal isn't any better than he was when she left. If anything he looks worse. Her clone hovers over him using her chakra to try and figure out what is wrong with him. Sakura and her clone exchange glances and Sakura can see the fear that is written on her face.

"How is he?" Sakura asks as she shoves her prisoner to his knees. She hears him grunt but deems it irrelevant.

Her clone gives the answer that she is expecting. "Not good. Do you know what's happening?" Sakura shakes her head negatively.

"Switch with me. Cut off his dick if he tries to escape." Her clone arches a brow but otherwise doesn't argue. "Fuck him with it?" The clone comes over to Sakura and holds out a hand for the kunai that Sakura left embedded in a throat at the bottom of her stairs. Sakura nearly smacks herself for leaving it behind—not that she needs it, but a weapon in hand will make her threats more terrifying to a person who knows nothing about chakra. Sakura improvises and uses an insignificant genjutsu to make him think she passed a weapon to her clone.

"Sure, if you want."

The man whimpers. Sakura would have smiled if she hadn't been so worried about Kal. She moves to his side and lets her face hover of his.

"Kal." Sakura lightly taps his cheek. "Kal, baby, open your eyes. I need to know how to help you." He remains unresponsive. Fear clutches her heart, and that makes her reckless. Sakura smacks him harder. "Kal, don't you dare leave me here alone!" His eyes flutter and then open. He stares at her for a moment, and Sakura doesn't see recognition in his eyes. She reaches out and grips his arm tightly. With him in the state that he is in it should have hurt and she doesn't care if it does. She will do anything to get a response out of him. She is deathly afraid that she is perilously close to losing him. She can't lose Kal. What would she do without him?

The answer to that question comes to Sakura's mind with clarity. She can't live in this world without Kal. He is the only thing that makes it bearable. It is odd, but she is certain that his insanity helps her keep a small grasp on her own.

"The threat is eliminated Kal. Now tell me how to help you!"

Kal's eyes flutter close, and Sakura raises her hand ready to smack the shit out of him again. But he opens them before she can. "Kryptonite."

"Kryptonite? Where is it? What do I do with it? Tell me. I'll get it."

Kal's body begins to shudder, and her prisoner begins to laugh. Her clone hisses in a very unladylike fashion and grabs his hair and yanks it back. "I've got a million and one ways in my mind that I can torture you. Some I learned from my people, most I've learned from yours. Would you like to see a few or all of them?" Her clone doesn't get a response, so she yanks his hair harder. "I can see each strand of your hair." She says in a musing tone. "Shall I start by pulling them out one by one? Or would you prefer a more traditional method of torture like toenail removal? I'm not a big fan of feet, but I'm not opposed to starting there." Sakura's clone isolates a strand of hair and yanks it out causing the man to cry out. "Whichever you prefer."

"What do you want?" He asks fearfully.

Sakura's clone growls, "I want to know what's hurting my husband and how to make it stop." For good measure, she pulls out five strands of hair in rapid succession.

Sakura calls out, "Hair is too gentle. Move to the toes. Make it hurt."

Her clone shrugs, "You're the boss."

"Kal, I swear to you if you leave me I won't stop until I've dragged you back from hell and made you suffer for it. What is Kryptonite?"

And then Sakura pauses and starts using her common sense.

Malachite

Tanzanite

Kyanite

Kryptonite

There is no other explanation. They are all stones. The only stones she has seen recently…

Sakura releases Kal and snaps both fingers as the truth dawns on her. Kryptonite is the glowing green rocks that their home invaders brandished. They waved them as if they are weapons…because that's what they are. Sakura glances around. There are none in the room. How can those tiny little stones affect him from so far away? And then Sakura has two unfortunate realizations.

When she captured her prisoner, he still had the Kryptonite in his hand. She has brought it into the room with them.

There is more Kryptonite downstairs with the two men she killed.

There has to be Kryptonite somewhere else that she hasn't yet seen.

Sakura gestures at her clone. "Knock him unconscious and take the stone in his hands." The man starts to struggle, but Sakura's clone has taken him out before he can put up too much of a fight. "Now, go downstairs. There should be two more with the bodies I left down there. Get them and take them as far away as you can."

"No." Kal says, "Wait."

Sakura turns her head and looks at her husband. Her eyes soften. "You should rest."

"Closet. Top shelf. Box."

Sakura hesitates for a moment before she moves away from Kal and to the closet. She has noticed the heavy box there. She doesn't know what it is for and when she wanted to get rid of it since it is taking up space Kal refused. Sakura grabs the box and opens it, knowing it is empty. She has looked inside of it a time or two before.

"Put them inside," Kal says and struggles to sit up, but Sakura places a palm on his chest and holds him down. Her clone comes, grabs the box, and follows Kal's instructions. The second her clone leaves the room Kal starts to look a little better. Sakura then begins to scour the place for the remaining Kryptonite.

She knows no one has entered their bedroom without them knowing. She set traps just for such an occasion. Thankfully she is an early riser and never has to say anything to Kal about her actions. Although she knows that as soon they make it through this she is going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Sakura's clone comes back and has the stones locked in Kal's box. He looks even better than before, but he isn't out of the woods.

"I can't find anymore, but I know it's here," Sakura tells her clone.

"You checked the entire room? Bathroom included?"

Sakura nods her head. "Yes."

"Then there's only one place it could be." Both Sakura and her clone turn their heads simultaneously and look at the window. If it isn't inside, then logic dictates that it is outside.

Sakura makes it to the window first and raises it. A screen is blocking her from sticking her head out, so she pushes it, so it falls to the ground and pokes her head out. She feels her clone on her left-hand side.

Sakura easily finds Kryptonite attached to a piece of the window that she can't see from the inside. Her clone finds another on the opposite side. They grab both pieces and lock it in the box as Kal has instructed.

Both Sakura and her clone turn and look at Kal who sits up and looks in their direction. Sakura assures her clone. "I think he'll be ok." Sakura's clone looks down at the body on the floor.

"What about him?"

"A gift for our husband," Sakura replies. Her clone smiles and Sakura dispells it before she turns to face her husband who has risen to his feet. He still looks weak, and Sakura clutches her hands together and stares at him worriedly.

Kal strides Sakura's way, and Sakura stands tall sure that he is about to question her but he looks her over and pulls her into his arms and holds her tightly. "Are you injured? Do I need to seek assistance?"

Sakura blinks wondering where the question comes from and then realizes that he must see the blood that stains her clothes.

"I'm uninjured Kal. Don't worry about me." Kal squeezes her tighter as if to say 'nonsense.' But Sakura pulls away to get her own confirmation and looks into his blue eyes. "But you're ok?"

Kal doesn't answer. Instead, he brushes by her and looks at the man who lay at their feet.

"He did this?"

"Yes."

"Alone?"

"There are two more downstairs. I suspect there were more, but I—"

Kal cut her off. "Are they alive?"

Sakura shakes her head. "No."

Kal looks at her then as if seeing her for the first time. "You killed them."

Sakura thinks about denying it, but a surge of fresh rage rushes through her when she thinks about what they could have done to Kal and she can't. "Yes." She spits out. "And if I could, I would do it again and again, but slower because it would be more satisfying."

Kal chuckles. "Sakura-El, I think you've been keeping secrets from your Lord and Master."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I've been keeping secrets from my husband, yes. Lord and Master? I don't think I have one of those. Besides, I'm not the only one keeping secrets Mr. I Have A Deathly Allergy to a Rock." Kal gives her a roguish grin and then pointedly ignores her latter statement.

"That's not what I recall from our wedding reception."

Sakura scowls. "You're never letting that go, are you?"

"Of course not. You spoke the truth."

The El household is distracted from their banter when they hear a moan. Sets of blue and green eyes focus on the body of the man in their midst. The man sits up and looks around confused as to where he is. He figures it out fairly quickly when he sees Kal-El standing above his body. He screams, but Kal-El merely kneels until he is at eye level with the man and waits patiently.

Sakura isn't as patient as Kal. The noise is getting on her nerves, so she moves closer with the intent to stop it by cutting his vocal cords, but Kal's hand darts out and prevents her from touching him. He grabs her other hand and turns them both palm up before kissing the inside of each.

"There is no need for you to dirty your pretty hands on this trash. Besides, I believe you said this is a gift for me." She did say that so she slowly lowers her hands.

"Kal, don't kill him in the bedroom. I don't want a mess." Or rather a bigger mess. She is certain the downstairs is a nightmare. She hadn't wanted to turn on any lights to see just how bad it was. The screaming gets worse. They both ignore it.

"Do you trust me?"

Sakura opens her mouth to reply immediately with a 'yes, ' but something in his visage makes her pause. Kal is more shaken by her ability to kill without remorse than she realizes. Or maybe he is bothered by the fact that she hasn't trusted him with her secret. However, the more likely cause was that she had been in danger and he had been unable to protect her, and it is killing him.

"Kal, I do trust you. I just…I would do anything for you."

"All you need to do is stay with me. The rest I want you to leave to me."

Sakura easily discerns what he is saying. He doesn't want her to kill. She can't promise him that. Sakura slowly shakes her head. Because of the path Kal has chosen to walk down, he needs a woman by his side who isn't afraid to do what needs to be done. He needs her abilities and her full support. She can't pretend to be some pretty princess at his side and not use her skills to their advantage. That isn't her. That isn't the woman she wants to be.

"If they come for you again…"

"Sakura," Kal says firmly, but Sakura ignores him.

"No. I won't compromise on this Kal. No one gets to kill you but me. If you die, it will be by my hand because you've gone so far that even I can't overlook it. I won't stand by idly and let anyone get to you. If you can't fight your battles I'll fight them for you and damn it I won't lose. I will not lose you Kal. I will not lose us. You are my husband. We are a unit. We stand together. We fall together. If you can't accept that, you shouldn't have married me because this is the way it's going to be. And you, Kal-El, are stuck with me because I don't care what you say or what you do I will never leave you behind. I will never abandon you. That is my nindo. So don't you dare ask it of me."

Kal is silent a long moment before he rises to his feet, the hysterical man temporarily forgotten.

"Alright. It will be as you wish. If I die, it will be by your hand and no other. I will live for you." Kal turns his head and looks at the intruder. "But he will die for us."

Sakura doesn't disagree.

That isn't the way it happened. Clark realizes. He also knows somehow that she is leaving out a lot of details and yet she hasn't lied. Or if she has, she doesn't have any discernable indications that she has done so.

"It wasn't until I had almost lost him that I realized how much he had come to mean to me. Have you ever watched someone you loved die?"

Clark's voice broke as he says, "My father."

"Then you know. You know what's it's like to feel helpless and-"

She breaks off and falls silent. Clark watches as she curls into herself on the sofa. Her whole body trembles violently. Clark jumps to his feet without a thought and takes her into his arms and holds her tightly as she wails, "I never told him I loved him until the day he died!"