March 17th, 1989

Metropolis, New York

Luthor Manor

Alexander "Lex" Luthor moans and groans in pain, as the agony of inflicting memories of five decades worth, assaults his nine-year-old body and mind. When he and his scientist came up with this scheme, to send him back to the past, they had known he would feel excruciating pain. He was sending a little over fifty years worth of memories to his child self and his soul (so to speak) which would merge with his younger self, there is bound to be pain felt. Lex has experienced his fair share of agonizing pain in his lifetime, but he has never endured the sensation of what feels like his body being flayed with fire from the inside out and what feels like electric barbed wire piercing his mind. The small nine-year-old body shakes as his temperature rises with his ailment.

In this one particular moment, Lex is sure he is going to die. His experience with various types of pain in his long life does not quite match up to what he is feeling now. Lex shoves his face into his pillow as another tremor of pain courses through his body. It makes him shake violently, his curly red locks of hair, something he hasn't had in years, are drenched with sweat that cling to his face and neck. A high pitched cry of pure agony releases from his hoarse throat from previous cries of pain. The sound is only partly muffled by the pillow that lays beneath his head.

Lex's hands curl into fist, gripping the blanket tightly as tears from the pain slide down the sides of his temple and flushed cheeks. Another short scream escapes as gentle hands turn Lex over. "I'm sorry my love," a distressed and worried voice reaches through the haze of shooting pains that inflict Lex. A cool press of a washcloth dabs at the child's brow, creating a momentary reprieve from the misery he is inflicted with.

"Something - - - wrong - - - doctor."

"Temperature - - - burning - - - lowered."

"Started - - - won't - - - pain."

Words from the blurry figures standing over Lex filter in and out of his mind. His fever only makes him feel like he is even hotter, and it makes his stomach twirl with nausea. Lex's head turns to the side as he vomits what little is in his stomach. The iron taste of blood clogs his throat and mouth as his body shakes once again.

Panicked voices raise in alarm at the sight of Lex vomiting up blood. It is a blur of time passing before there is a rush of movement occurring as Emergency Medical Technicians run into the room, having been let in by the Luthor's family butler. There are loud noises as Lionel and Lillian begin to demand answers while the EMT's quickly set to work on saving their son.

Arlene "Lee" Luthor, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Lionel and Lillian Luthor, watches in horror as her baby brother fights to keep breathing. She was coming to say goodbye to him that night, when she found him in a state of convulsions. It was she who screamed for Lionel and Luthor, who came running into the room to find their son seizing and screaming from pain.

Lex's vision tunnels as the feeling of numbness overcomes him. His eyes roll to the back of his eyes as he collapses back on the bed. His body seizes, shaking the nine-year-old's body and causing everyone to lunge forward in an attempt to keep him from falling off the bed and harming himself. The conscious Luthor's can only watch in horror as Lex loses consciousness, much to their fright.

March 21st, 1989

Metropolis General Hospital

Metropolis, New York

There is someone gently humming when Lex awakes to the beeping of a heart monitor. Bright blue eyes flutter open and squint against the bright light that consumes the room. He groans and squeezes his eyes shut again. He feels like he had a run in with Superman. The days following those encounters are always memorable. He also feels like he did after coming down from a weekend long bender of drugs, sex, and booze when he was a teenager. Now those times were as memorable as encounters with Superman.

"Thank god you're awake!" A feminine voice whispers happily. Arlene Luthor is well aware that any loud noises or bright lights will hurt her younger brother. "I'll turn the lights down," she whispers as she stands up from a chair and walks across the room, reaching for the light switch.

Lex carefully opens his eyes again, once the voice of his hospital visitor, sits back down again. Bright blue eyes connected with bluish grey eyes that hold a glistening film of tears. Strawberry blonde hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, showcasing creamy pale skin that is unblemished by acne or scars.

It has been a very long time since Lex has seen this particular face. In his now former alternate timeline, the last time he saw his older sister Arlene, he was the exact age he is now. She had left in the middle of the night when he was nine-years-old. There had been no note or letter. There had been no goodbye. One night she had disappeared and never tried to get in contact with him or their parents again. It had been a sore spot for him for years, and he had acted like he didn't have an older sister. No one ever spoke of Arlene Luthor, and now he is faced with her again.

"Lee, what's wrong?" Lex asks with concern, slipping into the moniker he gave her when he was a child. From the memories he has of his older sister, she was never opportunistic or advantageous, much to their parents' frustration. She was empathetic, benevolent, and charitable. She was nothing like what a Luthor is supposed to be. Perhaps, that is why he had liked Clark so much. Subconsciously, his desire to be near someone who is so unlike the money hungry fiends he's been surrounded by his whole life, made him desire friendship, and perhaps something more , with Clark.

Arlene frowns and reaches out with a slim pale hand. She grabs his left hand in her right hand and holds it for a long quiet moment. "You really scared me Lex," she murmurs in a tremulous tone of voice. "I went to check on you three nights ago and I found you burning up and delirious."

Lex nearly frowns at her response. He has a suspicion that those handful of days ago, was when Arlene originally left. However, when he came back to the past and his body became ill from the merging, Arlene stayed rather than still leave.

But will she truly stay? Or will she leave once I'm better? He wonders with curiosity.

"Are you still going to try and leave again Lee, once I'm better?" He asks his older sister. Lex figures, rather than beating around the bush, he'll straight out ask her. She is ten years his senior and was another motherly figure, when their own mother is too consumed with her own work. With their own parents constantly working, they rarely have time for their two children.

"How did you -?" Arlene pauses and shakes her head. She should have known that Lex would have figured it out. He is a genius after all. "I was going to, but David left me behind, even after I told him what had happened to you, he didn't care."

Lex didn't feel much pity that she didn't actually go with a low life like David. While Lex never saw his sister again, it doesn't mean that he wasn't aware of where his sister lived. How she lived in poverty with her two children, left behind by the lowlife she had abandoned her family for. Lex never felt the need to reach out to her. Considering she left their family for a reason.

Now however, he can take advantage of his sister staying here and use her to assist him in his plans, and so he gently squeezes Arlene's hand in his. While he knows his father will never make Arlene heir to Luthor Corp, Lex can still utilize his sister in an effort to begin building what he needs, if he wants to save Earth from the alien invasion and being overrun by demons.

Lex came back to this particular time, and at this particular age, because he counted on it being around when Arlene was supposed to leave. With seeing him ill and close to dying, it has made her concern and love rise up. She will remain here to watch over him, because she knows their parents can't be trusted to do so. If Lex can use Arlene's loyalty and affection for him, he'd have someone completely faithful and trustworthy to work for him, until he can do it himself.

There is nothing better than the knowledge that he will be outsmarting and outclassing his father again. The idea of leaving his father furious and frustrated, unable to figure out who is behind these great jumps in technological leaps, among other things, makes a wicked smirk want to curl across his lips.

"You still have me," he finally says with a smile that hides the adult he is inside. "I'll always be there for you Lee," Lex adds as he squeezes Arlene's hand again.

Arlene squeezes his hand in turn and smiles sweetly, and with a hint of sadness, at her baby brother. "I'll always be there for you too Lex," she replies.

It is a sad thing to realize that the siblings only truly had each other to depend on.

August 23rd, 1989

Sunnydale, California

Sunnydale Park

Lex swings silently on the swingset; his head is tipped backwards as he enjoys the rush of the wind blowing through his thick locks of auburn hair. Forward and backwards his legs swing as he enjoys the break that his tutor has given him. Everything was so easy for him, including the additional tutoring classes he has been given by his parents. His eidetic memory helps him retain information easily and leaves him feeling bored. With his level intellect rating at an astonishing 7th level intellect, making him the smartest person in the world, with testers saying his intellect will likely grow even more by time he reaches adulthood. Lex didn't remark on how he purposefully ensured that he didn't do as well as he could have. It wouldn't do to appear too smart, not yet anyways. Just with his intellect as it is, his parents jumped at the opportunity to give Lex any tutor they could get their hands on.

He is afterall the Heir to the Luthor family businesses.

Lex sighs as he continues to swing and enjoy having hair again, although it isn't going to last, since in a little less than a month and a few weeks, he will be going to Smallville where the Meteor Shower will be. He is going to enjoy it while he can. The last three months, he has taken a little adjusting to get used to all the availability of food, clothes, and other various things that people take for granted. He has begun to look into ways that this second chance will let him change his Destiny to fit his needs. Lex will save the World of course, but that doesn't mean he won't use this chance to his advantage.

Arlene sits beneath a large oak tree, on a blanket with a book in her lap, as she reads quietly. While it appears she is completely engrossed by the book, her eyes continuously glance up to check on Lex as he swings. It brings a smile to her lips at seeing her brother enjoying something as mundane as swinging. Never did her younger brother get the chance to enjoy free time the way that a child should.

Lex is always being pushed by their parents to be better and greater. It all began when he was walking and talking earlier than most toddlers. Then he started reading books for people twice his age and his parents had been thrilled. She isn't jealous of the attention that Lex has to endure. While she is smart, she isn't the genius her brother is, and so that leaves her with more leniency. Unlike Lex, who already is expected to be the best and act a particular way. The nineteen-year-old sighs and watches as another small redheaded girl steps up to the swings her brother is on.

"Hi," a voice says off to the side of the swingset. Bright blue eyes open and Lex turns his head towards the sound of the voice. A red haired girl, around the same age as Lex, with the color of her hair being nearly the same shade as his and bright olive green eyes, is standing beside the metal pole that keeps the swings up.

"Hello," Lex greets awkwardly after a moment of surprise. He has never been the most sociable child, even when he was an actual child, but now that he has a lifetime worth of memories, Lex generally tries to steer clear of children. He can play it off as being an eccentric genius, but it's harder when he has to try and react as a child, if he wants to play being a child. Lex mainly tries to spend most of his time around adults. At least then, the conversations are stimulating and he can act a little more mature.

Of course, he still had to interact with the children of his father's associates. Usually, he has to spend time with children like Oliver Queen, Jason Teague, and Patricia Swann. However, he knows that sooner, rather than later, Lionel's company will grow bigger and he'll be associating with the likes of Bruce Wayne, Warren Worthington III, Harry Osborn, Sophia Fawley, Imogen Prince, Charlotte Rhodes, Seraphina Bass, Liam Croft, Quinn van der Woodsen, Harper Waldorf, and Auden Gatsby. All children of millionaires and billionaires, people that Lex will ensure friendship or acquaintanceship of, if he desires to succeed on his mission to save Earth.

"My name is Willow. What's your name?" The girl, Willow, asks as she plops down on the swing beside him. Her eyes are wide and curious as she looks at the other boy. She has never seen him before at the elementary school.

"My name is Alexander, but everyone calls me Lex," he replies with a small smile. His grip on the chain of the swing tightens as he slides to a slow swaying. He wonders how this situation will turn out for him. In his alternate timeline, he never went to Sunnydale to visit his Uncle Anthony Harris or his wife Jessica, when his father went there to visit.

Ever since his near death, when he came back to this particular time, his father has been keeping a closer eye on him. It's almost like Lionel is actually concerned about him. Lex isn't entirely sure how he feels about that. He can only ever recall the constant strife that distanced Lionel and Lex from each other. The two Luthor men had constantly been at odds with one another.

Finally, after the constant fighting between them, Lex had murdered his father, after coming to the realization that his father went to Smallville for the Traveler, and that Lex was a casualty in his father's quest for more power. Discovering the Veritas society his father had been a part of, and learning about the Traveler theory, made that realization even clearer.

When Lex had been told what the Traveler theory said, about how it foretold of a being that would come to Earth and need protecting before he was able to save the planet from destruction, well it hadn't taken Lex very long to realize that the Traveler was and is Clark Kent. Not that Superman was able to actually keep the planet from destruction in the end. Clark and all the other so-called Superheroes were the very first casualties, when they tried to protect Earth, and they had failed. Now it was Lex who had to work on saving the planet from annihilation.

"It's nice to meet you." Willow cheerfully says with a smile.

Her voice pulls Lex from his brooding thoughts, making him shove them away so he could focus on the present. "It's a pleasure to meet you too," he replies politely. "I like your name. It's named after the willow tree, right?" Lex asks with a friendly smile. His bright cerulean eyes glimmer in the light of the sun. The sound of children laughing and screaming near the gym equipment surfaces through the air. Lex is curious to see where this new friendship will lead him. He has never really had a friend before. There's been acquaintances and people under his payroll, but the only friend he thought he had, wasn't truly a friend in the end.

"Thanks." Willow says with a pleased smile. "What do your parents do?" Willow questions with an inquisitive gleam in her eyes. She reminds Lex of himself. He too has always been curious and has a thirst for knowledge.

"My father is the CEO of LuthorCorp." Lex answers in response to her question. He is pretty sure this strangely friendly and cheerful redhead has no idea what LuthorCorp is. "He's the boss of his own company. He's always busy with meetings and paperwork," he explains to the young girl. "My mother is a scientist and works in Metropolis at Orphosis Industries. What do your parents do?"

"They're psychologists." Willow replies with a shrug. It's obvious to Lex that the child doesn't truly understand what that means exactly. "They're always working and travelling." There's a frown across her lips when she says this. Her expression crestfallen at the thought of not being able to spend more time with her parents. It's clear to Lex that Willow is much like him, when it comes to their parents preferring their jobs rather than their children. "So my grandma Rose lives with us and takes care of me," she explains.

Lex, when he was an actual nine year old, had been upset for a time, about not being able to spend time with his parents, until he was given a firm discussion from his parents about the importance of their work . His parents have always been far more concerned about their work, then spending time with him or his sister. He was soon going to be attending Excelsior Academy, when he turns eleven-years-old. Currently, Lex is tutored on various subjects that his parents deemed suitable for him to learn. Unfortunately, Lex already knows most of the subject matter, and has been utilizing his eidetic memory as a way to advance through the subjects.

"Where do you live?" Willow's next question snaps Lex from his thoughts.

"My sister and I are staying with my Aunt Jessica and Uncle Tony." Lex stops swinging and looks down at his lap. He picks at his pants in thought. It's harder than one thinks, trying to act younger than he is. Why did he think this was a good time to come back to? "We're supposed to stay here until the second week of January. Then my father's going to come take us back to Metropolis."

"At least you'll be able to spend time with me and my friend Jesse until then," the redhead says. Her attention is turned to the left where a brown haired and brown eyed boy is making his way over to the swing set. "Hi Jesse." Willow greets him with a wave and smile. "I want you to meet my new, other, best friend Lex. Lex, this is Jesse," she introduces as she looks between the two boys with a pleased smile.

Lex realizes at that moment, while looking between these strange and naive children, that they would never survive in his world. They were too open and friendly. They would be eaten alive should they ever have to deal with the people he did. The children he associates with are just beginning to learn the art of manipulation and blackmail, among other things, and that is the difference between these children. The children he is forced to interact with are already trying to make connections for later on in life.

Lex rather likes how refreshing it is to be around Willow and Jesse and not have to worry too much about ulterior motives they could have. That isn't to say he'll tell them any of his secrets or things that could be used against him. His two new friends won't have the chance to use anything against him. He's looking forward to having them in this lifetime.

"Hi." Jesse welcomes with a smile. He takes the swing on the right side of Lex, while Willow sits on Lex's left. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." Lex replies with a smile. "How long have you two been friends?" He questions curiously.

"We've been friends since school started." Jesse says with a smile. "She was in the corner crying because Cordelia Chase had broken her yellow crayon. I let her share mine, and that's when we became best friends," the other boy remarks. He slowly begins to swing, moving his legs slowly backwards then forwards.

"Does this Cordelia Chase still pick on you?" Lex questions Willow. It's rather obvious that once a bully, they generally remain a bully, until they get a rude awakening. So he honestly won't be surprised if this Cordelia Chase still bullies others.

"She's rich, so she picks on others who aren't." Willow explains with a frown. "She thinks she's better than everyone."

Lex frowns in consideration at the description of this Cordelia Chase. She definitely wasn't a person he would ever consider a friend, but that certainly didn't mean he wouldn't find some way to use her. He's sure he will have to put the brat in her place first. After all, he doesn't tolerate others hurting what he considers his . "She sounds like some people I know," he remarks with a casual wave of his hand.

Jesse sighs and shakes his head. "She's not that bad," he attempts to defend the girl he has a crush on.

Willow giggles at the brown haired boy. "You say that 'cause you like-like her," the girl says as she raises a hand, brushing the locks of red hair out of her eyes.

Lex looks between the two friends as they begin to bicker with each other. He feels rather out of place with the way they act with each other. He remembers watching how Clark interacted with his friends and it is much like how Willow and Jesse do now.

It is at this moment that Lex realizes what a friend is supposed to be like. The distrust that Lex had experienced with Clark and his family made it difficult to be friends with him. It didn't help that the Luthor name came with a stigma that was hard to shake off. This time will be different. This time, he's going to show another side of the Luthor's, and make them more receptive to him. With a determined expression crossing his face he comes to the decision that he will start working with Arlene to get the businesses he had in mind going and go buy casual clothes. Lex knows if he wants to change the stigma of the Luthor name, he best start it now, otherwise it will be too late by time he's in his teenage years.

Author Note: I do apologize for any grammatical errors, solecisms, or if Lex appears to be out of character. This chapter was honestly a little difficult to write, mainly in regards to trying to get a feel for Lex's character. I'm sure he'll be a little OOC at times, but it's to be expected. He did go through the world ending and being one of the last survivors of humanity. He's also a fusion of being one who followed his Destiny and now trying to be a Good person. He won't immediately stop seeing people as tools, being manipulative and obsessive when he desires knowledge, or selfish. Lex will definitely have to learn how to be Good, and he'll have help through friendships with Willow and Jesse, Bruce Wayne, and a few others. That's not to say he still won't be Lex, he just be greater than the sum of his parts.

Also, Lillian Luthor is a mix of her Smallville and Supergirl/Arrowverse character, so she will often be a conundrum, mainly because of her psychological issues.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Everything may seem like it's moving slow, it's because it is. Lex has been researching the word's current technological revolution, economic growth, militaristic power, etc. to see what exactly he will need to develop to ensure that the world will survive. Lex wants to advance the world, make it so no extraterrestrials think their world is so weak that they can conquer it. However, he wants to be the one that everyone turns to for the answers.

TheWeepingRaven