Smallville
Zod
Circus for a Psycho-Skillet
Monster-Skillet
Note:This is like chapter 5.1 and next chapter is more like 5.2 since it's all one, but it was too long. Also, if you read the last chapter before I extended the ending with them shopping, you might or also might not want to look, totally up to you.
Pain pulsed with every single beat of her heart, gathering and strengthening in her skull like oil ready to flow violently to the surface after a drill was put to work. Her arms hurt and her chest particularly throbbed. Whatever free space there was in her head was taken up by cotton and clouds. It was impossible to think but she knew she had to, except someone was already moving, moving all around her. Her back connected with something that should not have any give, but it crumbled at the impact of her body anyway, though it was not enough to keep the impact from jarring her further. Her head bounced forward helplessly and her spine tingled unpleasantly.
Somewhere along some line her vision had gone black like the feed to a computer monitor having a connection cut. She distantly wondered if she had gone blind again and hoped not, because once had been hard enough to deal with. Her parents weren't around very much anymore so she would have to adjust on her own to the loss of a sense and she did not know it she could.
Her body hit the concrete wall again, and then a third time before the pain simply stopped.
When she turned her head, it was to face the open skyline of Kansas as seen from her place at the barn door. She blinked a few times, wondering what had brought her here, but then she supposed she remembered. It was morning and the animals needed tending. In a flash, she fed the cattle and filled the trough before she returned to the bar to start on the horses. They were well used to her speedy exits and entrances and they were content to ignore that, which was why it surprised her when one of the horses rared about half way, kicking his front feet uncharacteristically. Normally the horses were so calm, but she paused a moment when what she assumed were clouds temporarily blotted a shadow over the windows.
The horses tossed their heads and stamped their feet; the cows in the field got louder; Shelby pranced in place and barked like it would make whatever it was go away. There was a thickened quality to the air, something similar to the way it felt before a particularly violent storm, it was something they did not like and she thought she might not either. It sent chills up her spine and made her wish she had stayed in bed with the blankets pulled up. Shelby edged closer to her legs and she pat his head to reassure them both.
With her senses so on edge it was no wonder she heard it, heard the familiar, distressed and possibly pained voice. Lex screamed again and she was racing full speed toward it before she actually knew her feet had moved, her body reacting before her mind was able to process, but she was glad at least part of her knew what to do. Something was happening to Lex and she was desperate to put an end to it, a desperation that boiled her blood and made her bones vibrate. Instinct told her to be wary of the day and whether it was human instinct or a more foreign sense, it worsened the closer she got to the sound of his shouts. Passing his abandoned car in the middle of nowhere was confirmation she really had no need of.
Jumping into the clearing, she finally saw him, a jumbled, tattered mess from his run through dry branches. The dead yellow grass made his pale skin and dark coat stand a stark reality. He looked wild and out of control, clutching at his head and spinning in place, still yelling. At first she only stared, hypnotized by the un-Luthorian spectacle but a particularly loud yell brought her back to herself.
"Lex!" She called, running forward, human speed through the tangled and dead overgrowth of the open field.
Both his hands shot up, warning her off, "Stay there!" And she did stop, not wanting to agitate him more than he already was.
"What's happening?" she prompted, "What's wrong? What are you doing out here?"
"I don't know!" The admission might as well have been dragged from him as displeased as he seemed, though he was calmer.
The world became very loud in an instant, explosions of dirt and dust shot high into the air around Lex and she raced toward him, desperate to protect him. Except she was not getting very close very fast and the explosions just kept coming and it made no sense that she wasn't getting to him until the dirt settled. Only then did she notice someone was holding her back and Lex was just staring rather bewildered.
Clair hardly took the time to look back and see the unfortunately familiar visage of the Brain-Interactive-Construct. She was not precisely baffled to see him again since he was a lot like a bad penny you could not get rid of and she knew he had been in Lex's lab even if she had not gotten there in time to see him. Times like these she wished she knew how to improve her strength, but she struggled to pry his arms from around her waist, digging her heels into the ground to push forward toward her target, elbowing Fine in the nose. He took the blow without much response other than to shake his head clear, probably re-calibrating something she shook loose.
He lifted her off her feet then and she kicked wildly until he brought her down hard once again, making a bit of a dent in the ground where they stood. She shrieked in rage and struggled harder but he held her firmly on her knees, securing her arms behind her back. Lex watched like he was viewing the Lunar Landing for the first time; he probably never expected to see anyone control her.
"Get away from her!" Lex shouted viciously, angrily like he hoped to pose a threat though the desperate undertone indicated he knew better.
"Lex," she called as a counter, wanting to keep the AI's attention, "get out of here now!" She punctuated it by throwing her head back and connecting it with Fine's face.
He retaliated by twisting her arms that much farther behind her back, nearly snapping them both, but she refused to cry out, "He can't leave. He was compelled to come here."
"What is that supposed to mean?" She hissed over her shoulder.
The answer never came, or perhaps the shadow was the answer, effectively distracting her when it fell over Lex. An unexplained wind picked up around the clearing and she saw fear flashing in his eyes as he looked for the source. There was nothing but a shadow to the human eye... but Clair focused, spotting the disturbing triangular shape of the very ship they had all been searching for. It hovered innocently but she knew with sickening clarity that Fine would not have brought it without reason.
"What are you doing?" Clair demanded as she shoved her feet into the ground and forced him to let her stand.
"I'm preparing him." Fine informed her composedly.
She might have asked but she thought it was more pressing to keep Lex from forgetting what he needed to do, "Lex, run! Get out of here, I don't care what you have to do, just leave!" And she twisted her body, ignoring the sickening pops of both her shoulders, gritting her teeth against the pain and slamming her whole body into Fine, knocking him backward several feet.
It no longer mattered if Lex saw what she was capable of, she just needed to stop whatever was happening. Her shoulders popped back into place on their own and it was unpleasant, but not as much as the pain like lava running through her side and out through some of her ribs. She did not scream, though she might have if she had been able to draw a breath, but Lex howled her name in the most desperate sound she ever heard from his lips. The taste of copper flooded her mouth and she knew what it meant. Fine withdrew his elongated, sharpened sword of a finger from her body with a wet sound that made her feel ill. Some other time, from someone other than Milton Fine, she might have been fascinated by the way the metal shrank and faded back into what seemed to be a perfectly normal hand.
There was already blood running down the length of her leg, pooling in the rolls of her jeans and in her boot. The wound was quite deep, from just above her hip all the way up into her ribs, so she thought that might be why it soaked her clothing in red. Blood was so hard to get out in the wash and she was annoyed that she might have to throw away a perfectly good set of clothing. She did not really try to stop the flow of blood down her side, not wanting to touch it for some reason. Being stabbed or shot was not a thing she felt she would ever get used to.
Normally her knees were steady things she could put her trust in but they gave out and it almost felt like betrayal. Fine caught her up in his arms, cradling her almost kindly, bloodying his suit, if it actually was a suit and not an illusion, of course. "Shhh... nothing you can't recover form." He soothed, though she did not think she was making noise, but she must have been making a little. Either way she did not want to be soothed by him, it rankled her on a deep level. And why did he care if she recovered?
"Clair!" Lex was screaming, really screaming her name and he started running, trying to get to her.
A blue swirling beam of light shot down, illumination the underbelly of the ship as the light engulfed Lex, making him shout in pain once again.
"No!" She shrieked, terrified as she watched, struggling anew to move forward, not feeling the pain, listening to the mechanical drone of the engines. The light flashed brighter, yellow-orange igniting around the outline of the ship and over the ground. Then the ship was gone in a steak of motion even she could not follow. She screamed again, scrambling and clawing to get to the remaining glow, seeking to follow, and she almost didn't notice when she was free to run into the formation as it glowed and extinguished. Gone. Everything but the symbol on the ground was gone. She knew instantly what the mark in the ground meant but she wished very much that she never learned it.
Fine stood in place stoically, though he was still partly colored in her blood, seeming interested in her reaction. "Bring him back!" She yelled, more desperate and frightened than angry. She would do anything to get him back safely, "This has nothing to do with him! It's our fight, not his!" And all the screaming was making her lightheaded, or maybe it was the blood loss.
The morning sun flowed into her, like a friend that knew it could help. She was already healing. That too felt like betrayal when Lex was gone.
"I'm afraid you're wrong. It's his fight now too because he became involved with you. I chose him for many reasons, prominently your connection."
Clair raced back to him, colliding with him at full speed. He caught her, skidding backward, leaving deep marks in the ground, but he used her own momentum to vault her over his head and throw her into the trees. She crashed through at least a dozen before she fell to the ground. The broken trees fell around and on top of her, forcing her to shove them all away before she could stand again. She shook away the pain - the wound would heal soon enough - focusing very hard on everything but the burning and spinning, and pushed back into the clearing to renew the confrontation but he had vanished.
In blind panic she raced in nearly every directing at once, looking for the ship, looking for Fine, anything, but it was too late. She never felt so slow. Eventually she found herself headed to Chloe in a daze.
They couldn't take him too, they couldn't. She already lost so many people to them - and it felt like more, would have been more had she not turned back time- she hardly had anyone left, they couldn't take him too! She hated her people! They snatched and twisted every good moment, every shred of happiness from her life without fail.
Clair blinked, suddenly seeing white in a square shape and all around it indistinguishable gray. The white hurt to look at when everything else seemed so dark. She wanted to look away but he felt too tired and her body felt trapped. She was confused, disoriented and rather frightened. Something very wrong was going on and the last thing she knew she had been doing was looking for Lex.
There were voices, unfamiliar whispering, and the sound made her ears hurt and her head pound inside her skull. Everything hurt so very much. It must have been meteor rock. She tried to turn over, to crawl away from wherever it was, but a foot planted itself roughly on her ribs to hold her still. She hurt all over and she felt the added weight was simply too much. It only took one blow to the side of her head to send her into unconsciousness.
Three Weeks Earlier
The moment Lex walked into the room he was both on the defensive and offensive. It never was a good sign when his father wanted to talk. They were not exactly the healthy sort of family that dropped by for anything friendly. Though he had no hand in it, Clair had managed to single handedly take down most of Apex, so his father was likely in a poor mood. That was not even mentioning the extensive digging Lex had been doing into the recent discovery of Dr. Swan's death that was oddly surrounded by very unique links to both old and new deaths; the Queen's and even the Teage's, along with the woman that had been found on his property. If his father was waiting for him to give up any information on either topic, he had another thing coming.
"My helicopter's waiting, Dad. What's so important?"
Lionel was already after the bottles, seeming a bit agitated and that was even less encouraging than when he looked perfectly relaxed, "Obviously something you've got cooking in Honduras. Although I doubt it's the banana daiquiris. You've been racking up quite a lot of frequent flier miles, son." He always said 'son' like an insult.
"Challenging upper management often leads to a bout of unemployment." Lex warned easily, pretending to be distracted by the file in his hands.
Lionel seemed to find that amusing and than made it very tempting to strike the man. "The welfare of your workers is the least of my concerns. You're involved with Milton Fine. I know that he's been smuggling some of the deadliest viruses in the world into this country with your help."
Someone on staff was going to be looking for new employ when he found the person or person's feeding his father information, "Well, don't worry, Dad. We're not gonna put them in any Halloween candy."
Lionel acted as if he was really so far above such dealings, as if he was so worried about the greater good of mankind, "You're extremely nonchalant for a man whose collection of microorganisms could wipe out more than half of this country."
"It's under control." Lex assured as he tried to go about his own business, wanting to leave.
"Your business partner's a man who seems able to appear at opposite ends of the Earth simultaneously. How much control do you have over him?"
Well, that was a topic of interest Lex had been rather concerned over when he noticed it, but he had that handled too, in fact, he had it more than handled, he had counter measures in place. Working with the enemy proved very helpful so long as you knew you were being played. "Your intel is impressive, but incomplete."
Lionel turned away from amiable into worriedly commanding. "Shut the operation down, Lex. Shut it down now. Wherever you're incubating these viruses, you need to destroy them. Milton Fine embodies a threat greater than you appear to realize."
Oh, right, because he would never understand that an alien threat was dangerous. He would never understand that he needed to be several steps ahead of Fine to ensure the survival of humanity, that was way above his head, but not his father's. "You taught me. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." He knew more about the threat than his father, even if Lionel was a member of some secret society where most of the other members had died. Whatever the society hid, they obviously never trusted Lionel any more than anyone else if he did not have control over whatever item they supposedly kept. Soon, Lex would gain what his father had not, and he would find a way to get ride of the threats and also make sure no one every used it on Kara-El. He would save the world just like he swore he would when Clair was shot.
"This is one enemy you don't know. Not knowing who you're in bed with can make for a very uncomfortable awakening."
"Well, I'll present that nugget to the board when they ask why I'm late." He headed for the door with determination.
"Lex," His father actually began to follow, a slight softer tone to his voice, "I know you don't believe me, but I'm trying to protect you. Getting involved with these things is dangerous! Not one of them is safe! You can't let yourself be lulled into false security. Even the ones that seem innocent can turn on you, turn very dangerous given the right conditions."
"What exactly are you trying to tell me?" Lex did not turn to face him, afraid of what his face might betray. He did not like the way he said 'things' like it could be people or objects, so ambiguous.
"Just what I've been trying to say this whole time. You are getting in over your head and Fine will make sure you drown. Getting involved with one of them, it's not good for your health, it's more dangerous than you know."
Lex did turn around then, "One of them?" That could mean so many things, and his mind produced at least ten potentials in the span of two blinks.
"You need to lock down everything to do with that project." He held his hand out, something cupped in his palm, "But I know my son, so I suggest you start carrying this with you. If you feel threatened, you might want to open it."
Lex took the pocket watch reflexively, opening it with a confused frown, "Meteor rock?" Glass was on both sides, one side the watch and the other side housing a full, glittering group of stones.
"It's the only thing I can give you, the only thing that might help you." Lionel walked away then, leaving Lex more than slightly confused.
He eyed the structure and etched designs; well made, elegant, and shockingly to his taste, which he never expected from his father. Something made him wonder if it was not some backhanded effort to get even with Jonathan for the watch the Kent's gave him, or perhaps to outdo the other man. Lionel always had seemed a twisted sort of jealous of any connection that might be familial. He well remembered his father's lecture about gods and men, though he had fortunately never found himself tied to a rock yet; ironically, Lionel had been the one tied to a rock, and even in the moment he had been frantically working at the knots, the irony had not been lost on him because his mind always recalled things it should leave alone.
He rubbed his thumb over the etched smoothness of metal still warm from his father's heat. The watch was heavy too. Was it lead lined? He really had no idea what this was supposed to mean but he slipped it into his pocket anyway.
A little while later, when he tried to use it against Fine, they glowed bright and florescent green, but they did not save him. Milton Fine seemed fascinated, but he was not dissuaded in the least, though it sounded like the ones that made him would have been. Lex really had to ponder that, along with everything else he had learned. He also very much wanted to know how his father even knew the rocks might hurt non-robotic visitors.
Stars twinkled brightly in the sky overhead, and for a moment it felt like a memory, but she shook the feeling away as she moved purposefully forward. It all looked real but felt fake. The stars could twinkle happily because they had no idea the carnage that could be wrought if she failed to do whatever it was she ended up deciding to cows in the field lowed contentedly and it might have caused her to forget how different the night was from the normal nights on the farm.
While she had searched for Lex everywhere she could think of, she never even considered that he would go to her home. A chill ran up her spine as she moved toward the barn, and not from cold. There was a frigged feeling of dread settled in her chest and she feared what she was about to find, especially since she had no idea what she really planned to do with her predicament. Everyone had an opinion once they found out someone was facing a problem, without fail, and the case at hand was no exception. The consensus of mostly unwanted advice forced down her throat seemed to think it should be an easy choice: one for many. She had done that a time before and she almost did not come back to herself, and wouldn't have without Lex; would she actually come back from this choice when it would be his life she was taking?
It was so easy for everyone to tell her to sacrifice Lex. Lionel - which sickened her most of all- and her parents, even Chloe to some degree once the virus took over the city. Chloe was the one person that knew the seedy details about the last time she made a choice for a sacrifice. The morbidly amusing if not fully sad aspect was that not even one of them knew she loved him, not the extent, at depressing still was how unsure she was that it would have changed how they saw the situation, or even that the information might simply cement their steady insistence.
Neither she nor Lex wanted anyone to know about the alteration in their relationship. They were careful not to really give anything away to the public eye and careful to keep their secrets; secrets were an art they were both very well versed in. They both had ample reasons to play the cards close. There might never be a time - no, there would never be a time - when either of them felt safe to lay bare their souls to the world. They would always be secretive creatures in their very base nature. That only meant that each time well meaning advice was proffered, they were unknowingly telling her to murder the man she loved.
Jor-El knew and he did not care. The moment he told her she would have to kill whatever person it was that had been chosen, she could tell by the tone in his voice that he knew what he was asking of her. Her people were such a cold race, she realized, just like their planet. They had such a limited capacity for feelings, or maybe they just smothered them until they shriveled and died. She wished she had never known what her own, fully Kryptonian side was like because she wanted to see no possible connection in herself with something so barren.
It was almost worse that Lex decided to come to the barn because that was where her Kryptonian dagger was hiding. It was like he was tempting the forces of their fate with that act. She highly doubted he knew about the dagger or that it would be in her barn, though, he might know that she would hide anything of great importance in the loft. It was more her space than her own room was.
After some hesitation she made herself walk through the threshold and under the old roof of the barn. She was accosted by the normally calming smell of hay and aged wood, but now it felt like committing treasonous acts against the Kent ancestors to bring her alien battles to such an earth centered place. The barn had been through an awfully lot and undergone so many repairs, but it was still standing like an old soldier. She felt a bit proud of it for that and she hoped it would last through yet another trial of its craftsmanship soon to be in play.
Lex stepped out of the shadows slowly, or rather, prowled was more accurate to what he did, "So, I'm guessing you've heard the news from my father. I know you visited him at the hospital."
He looked dangerous, like a weapon still sheathed, but ready. Perhaps he was angry about her going to his father, not that she had wanted to, but she could understand Lex's point of view. There was so much animosity between the two men that she could never understand. Even her relationship with Jor-El seemed less strained. Really, she could not disagree with Lex on any of his opinions of his father. The man implied his own son was just the sort of choice an evil, world destroying, tyrant would inhabit. That rubbed her very much the wrong way and it resulted in a bit of a shouting match at the hospital.
Lionel was neither of her father figures regardless of how he saw things, and she informed him of that as well, and that she could speak to him however she wished. Lionel did not have to like her opinion but he did need to stop tossing insults at his own child. Part of her, a very small part, was a little sorry Lana's ghost turned out to be Fine, and thus everything she said was a lie.
She really was not surprised Jor-El picked Lionel as his oracle. Neither of them were at all rational in many regards and they were incapable of staying objective, and sometimes incapable of normal human emotion.
She studied him, trying to match his pace, but she was a bit annoyed with him for the summons, "After the way you vanished, it was so touching that you came right over to tell me you were safe." Not that she had not been more than busy with Fine and his computer virus mayhem, but he really could have called before his not so subtle throwing of the gauntlet.
He chuckled darkly, "Well, I thought it would be best if I got a few other things done first." Looking her over up and down, he nodded, "Though you are looking much better than when I left."
"Again, I'm touched by how quickly you came to check in with me. It's thoughtful how worried you were." She wanted to be happy to see him but she just couldn't yet with all that was hanging over them. His attitude was not helping.
Without a word, he walked up to her, brazenly running one hand over her side, the side that should have been injured, which she allowed. She only pulled back when curious fingers slid under her shirt to seek out what was not to be found. There was no scare or remaining sign of injury save the very slight, nagging feeling of what might have been a bruise even if there was no actual discoloration. His fingers had been warm, almost scorching, when they were normally always just a little chilled. She realized after he was already away that she must have looked particularly spooked, like a deer, because satisfaction flashed predatory in his eyes. He wanted to unsettle her, maybe even hurt her, as if in recompense for either something she had done recently or all the lies over the years. Finally he had her, proof positive, and she could do nothing save call him delusional to change it.
"I knew there was something different about you." He confessed, almost sheepishly. The admission made cold chills rung up her arms and into her chest even as he stepped back a pace, a backwards toe to heel so he never shifted his eyes from her, smugly amused. "But I'm not quite normal either anymore. What did you decide, by the way, Clair? Are you gonna kill me?"
Heart falling to her shoes she did little but gape at him. How had he found out about that? Lionel? Not Chloe. Unless he was hanging around at just the right times to overhear something. Maybe he had come to tell her he was alright after all, or to see if she was. Clair was not accustomed to worrying about someone with her abilities overhearing things. That would explain the anger if he had, at least partly. The other part... she feared what the other change had been. "I don't know what you mean."
"Oh, come on, Clair. I know you love this! It proves you right! All your lectures have finally come to fruition. Since that day on the bridge you've always seen yourself as my savior. The one thing that would pull me off the dark path I'd started." Lex looked a little manic and Clair fought not to flinch because he was right about the latter half. "See, that's why you cling to the idea that there's still some good in me. You don't wanna face the fact that you might have failed."
Clair blinked a few times at the sudden sting in her eyes, "There is good in you." She reached for him, but he casually leaned just out of her immediate range, so she dropped her hand, hurt on a very deep level she would never admit.
He smiled, wide and shark like, "I let you think so but really, I'm just the person my father always knew I'd be, raised me to be. A monster. I let you play savior because it's fun to watch you flounder. I can't believe you've fallen for it for so long."
Now that both hurt and angered her, "Maybe I can't believe someone would have so little willpower." She shot back.
"It's hard to compete with the willpower it takes to kill one of your best friends." Lex lowered his voice to an intimate whisper, taunting and callous, "Your almost lover." He was close now, right in her space and she hardly noticed he was edging in after he already pulled away, "How did you know I was gonna come back like this? And who is Zod?"
She opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. It might be time to distract him a little, talk him down before things went south, because she had the nagging sensation that she was running out of time, "Lex, you're in danger. Do you really think Fine just gave you those powers without wanting something substantial in return? He cares nothing about human life, nothing for anything but his own goals."
Lex proved he could change the subject too. "I used to think you had this strong inner core. You were so virtuous." He reached out, making her blink rapidly when his fingers caressed under her eye and down her cheek softly before he retracted it. "And yet you lie all the time. To me, to all the people who cared about you. Even when you tell some secrets, it's never everything, never all of you! You hold back, keep people at a distance, people who would die to protect you. What kind of sick person would do that?"
That, once again, hit a nerve. And she could not help noticing the past tense. "If you thought this friendship was so doomed then why did you fight to keep it?"
"Because I wanted everything you had! The family and the inconspicuous life. Maybe I wanted to corrupt you, and, well, I also seem to remember someone coming crawling into my study telling me she wanted it all back. It's lonely when no one trusts you, isn't it? When people hold back or stay away because they know they can't trust you? But they have good reason in your case." He paused tapping his thigh with his fingers, "What was it Lana said to you? How being around you was dangerous?"
Lex turned, walking casually and slowly up the steps to the loft. He seemed relaxed but she knew him well enough to see a hidden agenda lurking under the surface even if she did not know what he was thinking. There was rage and hurt bubbling up in him and she did not know what to do about it. Her hands were shaking from nerves or from surfacing anger, she could no longer tell, but the shaking was spreading.
Clair wanted to lash out so badly but she gathered herself back together with some effort, following his progress, "You're not yourself."
"Or maybe I finally am." He trailed to the desk and walked his fingers over the wood, inviting her eyes to follow.
When she saw the dagger perched near the edge where it had not been when she left, a gasp escaped her in a whoosh of horror. Papers she had hidden were on the desk as well, open for viewing. He did know her too well. She needed to stop hiding things in the loft, or at least stop putting things in the desk where they were so easy to find by anyone that knew where she spent much of her time.
"I'm going to take a wild guess based on the markings on the blade, that this blade is special. Something meant for a purpose? Like killing off a human altered to be... whatever you are? Or is this more like that knife found in the caves? It has some special property to it? I might believe that, but it's so distinct that I would have remembered seeing you with it at some point over our friendship. Thus, I conclude you don't get your abilities from it, but it is special." He turned, eyes intense and dark, "Have I been a fool? All this time? Have you always been with them, parading around as one of us only to destroy us one by one? Starting with the ones that have the misfortune to love you? We mortals unworthy to touch a visitor from the sky? Was it always a ploy, the sweet, innocent, caring facade?"
Now her whole body was trembling and it refused to stop, and she could not find her voice around a closed throat, so she shook her head frantically.
"Are we mortals part of some war? Forced to play games bigger than we have capacity to fight? Are we sport for all of you to play with like pieces on a chess block? Some more important, more valuable than others, but all expendable?" The knife found its way into his hand and he looked away from her at last to study it intently.
"No, you don't understand!" She choked out, fighting to breathe and speak.
"And how long has Chloe been in on your secrets? Or well, some of them, because you never tell anyone everything. Does she know you're the biggest freak her wall has ever known?" He did not look away from his study of the blade but she knew he was watching her from the corner of his eye.
Clair had never had a panic attack before but she thought she might be nearing one. Her chest was like a brick, lungs not working, head spinning, heart pumping too fast. This was her nightmares come to life. "Lex-"
"How long were you planning to hide what you are? Forever? Never planning to tell me?" His eyes flashed when he looked into her face, "You didn't trust me, not once, in all this time! What did I have to do to earn your trust? What is enough for you?"
"I do trust you!" She was beseeching him with her desperate tone and eyes.
"No, you never have! Not with more than a few pieces and crumbs." He was on her, eyes wide, gripping the back of her head in one hand, knife still clutched in his other.
"I trust you, I love you!" Her hands gripped at his coat, her body leaning into his, trying to offer trust. She wished she had told him everything rather than moving slowly, breaking her way into telling him.
Lex looked like she had struck him and his grip tightened. "Don't say that!" He screamed, gripping her hand, forcing the crystal handle into her palm, curling his fingers around hers to hold it there. She did not understand why he put it there and he almost did not seem to know either, but then he also did. "Just do what you need to. Get it over with." His words were calmer and resigned. "I can't look at you anymore."
Clair shook her head, jerking at his hold, trying to distance herself from the knife even though he struggled to keep it in her hand in response. "I'm not like them!" she screamed, "I'm not like them! I don't want to do this! I won't kill you! I won't kill anyone! Just because I was born Kryptonian doesn't make me like them! It's my choice what I become! They can't control me!"
"What if they could?" He asked, fingers still wrapped over the top of hers, calm and frantic at the same time, "What if you had no choice?"
"There is always a choice! We aren't our fathers!"
"We're both monsters! It is our destiny to fight! It was the plan all along, before we ever met! It's literally written on the walls!" And they were struggling again, running into things, twisting and spinning without direction. "I don't want to be the one that wins! You have to survive! Maybe you were right not to trust me, I'm the evil one! I'm your enemy, I was born to be! Anything else is a lie, and now we are equals, you have no advantage!"
Lex was trying to force her hand, she understood now. She thought he didn't quite know what to do with himself, hadn't known what he planned to do when she came to the barn, but he knew his future was bleak with some entity hanging over his head. Maybe he supposed he could save her if he let things happen the way everyone seemed to think they should. He had heard enough to know something about Zod and he knew the old legend, so he added up the odds with what he knew.
They ended up on the floor, a tangle of limbs, Lex unresistant beneath her.
Her lip trembled and tears welled in her eyes as she gazed down at him, not really even holding the knife to his throat. Lex's expression softened and he reached up to wipe a spilling tear away.
Destiny. Maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe he was right and the legend had been about Naman, Segeeth, and Zod's shadow from the start. Maybe Zod was the reason he would turn against her. She knew what he was thinking, knew his behavior had been born from real hurt and his foolish idea that he could force her hand and stop their destiny from destroying them both. He was a fool.
So she killed Lex? That was supposed to stop it? For how long? Until Fine came up with a new plan, and only til then. Jor-El even said it would stop at nothing. This was stalling and nothing more. She was supposed to murder the man she loved just to stall? No.
"You have it all wrong." The tears welled up so thick in her eyes that they just began to fall, splattering onto his face and neck. "Don't you understand? I can't live in a world without you. You gone, Lex, would be the same as death."
"We don't have options." He told her, cupping her face between both hands, wiping the steady drips of water away with his thumbs. "You should never have gotten close to me. It would have been easier for both of us if we never cared."
There was the distinct sound of something moving too fast, something disrupting the human world, and she looked up to see the AI arrive on the ground level. Fine eyed them as if in disinterest. "Do it, Clair." He said coldly, relaxed in the face of a situation where all his work could be lost. But he knew the truth when no one else did, he knew she loved the young Luthor. "Let's see if you're really your father's daughter."
Clair never hated him as much as she did in that moment. She wanted him gone forever, never to come back and destroy anything or anyone else. He needed to die and it seemed the most logical thing in the world when she remembered the feel of the blade in her hand. Her fingered curled, she jumped to her feet, drawing back and letting the blade sail. The point sunk deep into his chest, diving into his body all the way to the clear hilt.
Everything shifted in that moment. The air changed, the direction of the wind shifted, the world tilted the wrong way, and Fine looked too pleased for an entity that had been stabbed. Light was suddenly flowing and something twisted inside her. There had been enough times in her life that she had made exactly the wrong choice and she had learned the feeling, and she felt it now. Somehow she had miscalculated astronomically, or Fine had read her perfectly and manipulated her without her ever knowing. It was likely the latter. No one knew her like that particular enemy. Maybe he knew Jor-El just as well. She would never knowingly open a portal.
She felt bilious, "What have I done?"
Milton Fine had both arms spread to the side as if to welcome a dear friend even as he shook under an unknown force. "You've opened the portal for Zod." At least he was honest and told her plainly just how catastrophically she had slipped.
Lex moved beside her, then in front of her, like he wanted to shield her, but they both knew it was much too late. She tried to pull him away from danger but the red light was like a living force, pushing her from her goal. Blinding red was everywhere and she shielded her eyes, thinking it might be best if she never opened them again.
When the red hues of light faded she could do nothing but stare; stare at the scorched dirt where Fine had been and studying the way the man before her took breath. She wanted to cling to the hope that something had gone wrong for once, in her favor, and the transfer had failed. Tentatively she called his name, unable to stop herself even though she had no desire to hear what she feared would be the answer.
At the sound of her voice her turned, and she knew with a sickening certainty. There was a way Lex moved, powerful, but understated and graceful, but innately Lexian in form. This man moved like one of the guards Lex used to have, all power and training, like he lived and breathed his job, a ridged sort of grace that let everyone know he was ready to kill on a moments notice. Still, she wanted to believe it was a lie brought on by hysteria.
He looked at her, examining her with a clinical eye as he prowled toward her, and it was all wrong. He came near and then went just a little further, up a step on the ledge to elevate him and force her to tip her head to hold his gaze. Not Lex, her brain screamed, but still she stayed rooted in place.
When he reached for her, too quickly, fingers more like talons ready to claw than caress her cheek, she instinctively flinched away. Again, it was all wrong. Lex never reached for her that way. At least the stranger did hesitate at her reaction, pulling back the impulsive hand he had extended. He never broke contact with her eyes, though his seemed a bit darker now. She felt sick, so sick.
"You have your father's eyes." He told her smoothly, without preamble, like it was the most natural thing to tell her.
For the impact of the words, even though she already knew the truth, it might as well have been a blow, sharp and painful.
"Hello, Kara-El." And there was almost a smile, but not really. The name rolled more smoothly off his tongue than it did anyone else, like it was one natural word run seamlessly together on Lex's tongue, almost with an accent, but it still wasn't Lex.
God, he knew her name! The other two knew her name but not her face, he seemed to know both. She might actually be sick. She wanted to be sick but she didn't know how that would work. Clair blinked quickly a few times to abate the sudden sting in her eyes. Very slightly, her knees wavered but she hoped she hid it well. Still, words tumbled out of her hopefully, determined to know, like maybe she could still fix this, "Where is Lex?"
"Lex is dead." He informed her of it like he might have told her the cafeteria was out of chocolate pie.
Something in her hardened, perhaps her backbone, because she wanted to rage and claw his eyes out - though she would never hurt Lex's body - but she squared her shoulders instead. She would never give him the satisfaction of knowing that upset her. He would never know how her chest ached fiercely to listen to those words coming from foreignly familiar lips. He could never know. She would not let him. Besides, that was what they always said, but this was Lex and he would be in there somewhere, ready to come out once she got rid of Zod. She would focus and she would get them through it!
"Why are you here?"
"For the same reason as anyone who'd been imprisoned like a beast." He was decidedly calm, maybe even reasonable, not the frothing monster she expected, but there was a daggers edge hidden just under the surface of his words and she could do nothing but wait to see it. "Revenge." And there it was, though he still seemed calm, nearly amused.
They stared one another down a moment longer before he turned to examine his surroundings, like he was bored of their stalemate. He might actually be interested in what he saw if it was his first time seeing it all. In a human jail there was little to do or see so he might have been reveling in the moment.
"Your father banished me to an eternal hell." Zod mused, disconcertingly at ease, though she could see how even at ease his posture was ready, like so many coiled springs poised to unleash pain, "Trying to save a doomed race. And in the end, the only survivor of his pathetic crusade..." now there was some anger seeping in, it showed in his eyes as well when he turned back to her "was his daughter."
She could feel the venom and it made her instinctively want to back away, but she refused. The danger was rippling under the surface of him like it wanted out but refused to leave. Looking at him, one of her own race under the human shell, she could almost be amazed. It was somewhat tempting to let him tell her more but she knew she could not trust his word any more than she had been able to trust Fine's ramblings.
She had a mission anyway, now that she failed the first one, so she edged closer rather than fleeing, "Then this is between us. These people did nothing to harm you."
"No," he conceded a little darkly, "but you feel no pain greater than to see others in agony."
She lifted her chin automatically, perturbed, "You presume to know me?" That sounded like Lex.
The edges of his lips twitched up, "I know all that I could need to."
"You know nothing about me!" She was being combative and that might not be her best avenue.
"On the contrary. I know you had feelings for this human, which will help in the future. I know that you have a softness for all humans, but there are some you are particularly partial to." She hoped the color had not drained from her face the way she felt it had, but he looked so deeply into her eyes she doubted she hid . She could not handle this but she did not even have a choice.
"I won't let you destroy this planet like you did Krypton." She declares factually, leaving no room for argument, but of course he did anyway.
"You don't have a choice." And it's also a statement of fact. His eyes flicked over her face for the barest of seconds and she realized they were standing a bit too close, but backing away would look weak. "Unless you join me." And she almost missed his addendum, but not quite, though she couldn't believe his nerve.
"Join you? You just said you intended to destroy everything. What would there be to join?" Her own venom was starting to show with the curl of disgust in her upper lip. She looked him dead in the eye and spoke with conviction, "I'll never join you!"
Zod in Lex's body was quiet a moment, not looking angered nor surprised, but then he stepped behind her to look over the barn and it was a relief not to have been the one to move since she couldn't afford to tip her hand to her discomfort. There was a strained quiet that fell on them but she had no idea what to say that would suddenly make things better.
"Are you certain that is the wisest decision, Kara-El? I hope you realize that such a choice would be your end. The end of your freedom."
Is she certain? About never following him, absolutely, but anything else, not particularly. But he did not give her very long to think over an answer before he spun around and landed a sharp blow to the unprotected neck she so stupidly offered by not keeping her guard up. She gagged, unprepared, staggering. It hurt, making her vision black, and she stumbled in her attempt to move away. She stumbled right into him because she couldn't get her eyes to focus. She cried out before she could stop herself when his hand clamped on her uninjured side, pinching nerves she did not know she had. The world faded with humiliating speed as the pain got the best of her. She had not been prepared for Lex to hurt her.
There was water under her, filling up her mouth with it's dusty taste. Disoriented, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees. She must have been around a lot of water considering she could see herself in every puddle, various versions of herself wavering with the motion of the sheets of water.
"Just stay down." An overly familiar voice told her, so familiar she swore she must have been talking to herself, offering herself advice. Probably good advice.
The position Clair was next aware of was less than dignified, stretched uncomfortably over Lex's shoulder, held there by his grip on her legs. Her hair was in her face, swaying and getting into her eyes. The hot leather coat pressed into her cheek was uncomfortable, but it served to remind her the man carrying her was much less Lex than she would like. Her feet began to kick without thought and fingers clamped like a vice on a muscle in her calf, sending pain through the nerves in half her body. She cried out before she thought to clamp down on the weakness but she stilled completely in hopes of making it stop. Until now, she never knew her people had pressure points, she assumed it was a human deficiency since none of hers had ever been hit. It was very clear what fighting an opponent that knew a Kryptonian's biology was more of a challenge than she would have first supposed.
Within a moment she found herself tossed flat on her back, looking up at familiar beams and expensive woodwork, the leather sofa supporting her as... Zod marched toward Lex's desk. He began tapping at the keys of the laptop Fine had infected before he withdrew an obviously Kryptonian item from his pocket. Clair rolled into a sitting position, surprised but undeterred by the soreness in her neck.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she moved to her feet, wondering toward him but watching for any sign he might move quickly in her direction. When the device in his hand lit up and made noise when he touched it she realized in was a computer of some kind as well, or at least it was not a hunk of metal, whatever it was. It came alive for him, twirling in place as she watched, drawn closer from curiosity. The laptop came back to life, with some obvious alterations and the overhead lights flickered to life.
"It would take days if not weeks for the human's to restore their rudimentary systems of power." He looked into her slightly awed eyes and looked overly pleased with himself.
"Why did you bring it back?" Clair was nothing if not practical, and last she checked, there had been a reason Fine destroyed the technological systems of the city, so why would Zod undo all that?
"I needed to acquire information." He told her simply. They both watched as the computer flickered through various pages until it finally landed and zeroed in on what unfortunately looked a lot like the Pentagon. How did someone that had never visited the planet know where the human centers of power were? Unless it was all thanks to the AI? She hated that rotten walking computer.
"The black ship would have sent a pulse around the world, reshaping its crust." Zod informed her with a side-eyed look, "But you destroyed the Interactive Construct."
"Pity." She muttered under her breath.
He snatched up her wrist, holding it hard in his fingers until the bones shifted to accommodate, but she grit her teeth and held her expression neutral, "With the ships hard drive I will use military satellites to send the pulse."
"Why are you reshaping the crust?" She ground out.
"To start an empire, ruled by the bloodline of Zod. Resurrect Krypton and make it perfect."
"How-" Clair caught herself before she finished considering she very nearly said; 'how stupid are you'. So she revised it into something far more diplomatic, "How is that going to help you? Everything on earth will die under Kryptonian conditions, leaving no food, no sustainable resources. What exactly would be left to rule over? With Fine gone, you already lost most of your technology and there is no planet to replenish your supply. Our people are dead and even if I 'join' you, that leaves you ruling a grand total of one. A lifeless planet is useless to any ruler!" His eyes were flint but she persisted, afraid the opportunity to reason with him would be lost if she waited, "And why kill everything off? No plants and no animals means no food. No humans means not having a people to rule, leaving you to sit on a worthless throne in a second dead planet."
"Might makes right, only the strong survive. The strongest will endure even the harshest of change, leaving me with only the best."
"And if nothing survives that sudden of a planetary shift you are left here to starve, king of nothing."
He smiled, predatory but amused, "And what are you suggesting I do instead? Leave everything as it is?"
"It might not be what you're used to, but you might try it and find out you like it. I've lived here and I've done just fine. There are already places on earth similar to our planet but they are uninhabited, proving that a planetary shift like that would destroy all life in existence. Unless you have some kind of kit that instantly grows everything new and ready to function, you might think about slowing down. You could at least plan ahead."
These evil, planetary types never did think very far ahead, too intent on regaining everything they thought they had been deprived of. Damn the consequences and full speed ahead. Idiots, the lot of her people. All those technological advances must have slowed their actual brain power. They prided themselves so much on being above everything but they could not see a foot in front of them.
"You are assuming I cannot control the details of the alterations. Do you think I cannot select and preserve some aspects of my choice."
"I doubt you can control enough of it for it to matter in the long run. Changing the entire ecosystem is going to have massive consequences, not only to earth but to other planets near us. Earth isn't Krypton! If you change anything, alter it, the planet won't survive. The sun and the moon hold things in balance and if you change the planet, those too will change." She was determined to get his brain working. "Something like this is as good as dooming us both. We can't just hop to another planet every time one dies, the options will run out very fast. At least on this planet you have great powers thanks to the yellow sun, and on others you would be no different from any other inhabitant."
"You really are so like your father. Always taking up a cause." He leaned into her and it seemed unpleasantly intimate, but his hold on her wrist gentled, "If you are obedient, vowing loyalty to me, I could save those humans you hold most dear while the rest perish around us, languishing at our feet. You could be at my side rather than at my feet as Krypton is reborn."
This absolute idiot! Did not listen to a word she said! And what kind of disturbing offer was he making? Saving some humans while the rest died around her offered a very unpleasant mental picture. Though, if he would take a list of those she would save, she would make it a very long list indeed. Any and every human she had ever known the name of. Actually, she would even include her old enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and having someone end the world sort of seemed like the thing to make that happen.
Honestly, as far as evil offers went, Alexander's had been far more appealing. Still, she was no fool. "And if you let them live, what would they be? Your slaves?"
"They would belong to you, as a gift."
Because that was romantic. She had the distinct feeling her was trying to woo her.
She could hear her father's skeptical voice screaming in her ear about gifts from a Luthor, "And what is the price for a gift like that?"
"I believe the Brain-Interactive-Construct decided on this body because of your connection to it. Bonding with unwilling partners is far more difficult, so a familiar face would greatly ease the process."
Bonding? Like chemical bonding? Glue you to my side kind of bonding? Those were far more appealing options than a few others that might have something to do with alien courtship options. He said unwilling partners were more difficult, but obviously not impossible. Why did that sound decidedly like something she never wanted to think about? She hated her race! She also hated how little fundamental knowledge she had about them.
"You will be more at ease with this body as my vessel. We are the last of our race and your are my only equal, thus a logical choice for re-population and rebirth of our race."
Oh, she was right, she never wanted to hear any of that. She really hated that AI.
The horror must have shown plainly on her face because he gave her a very patient look and let her go when she backed against the built in bookcases. "Our people are different from humans but I will teach you all you need to know. You are free to ask me any questions you wish. You were so young when Jor-El sent you away that I know you remember very little. I can teach you our customs and our ways. There will be time for you to learn now, with me."
"I have to feed the cows." She announced suddenly, because it had been the only thing that came to mind as far as excuses to leave, and she was really quite intent to do so.
When she tried to rush past him, he grabbed her arm, speaking calmly into her ear, "I know of your feelings of this human. His feelings for you were also very strong. I could taste them when I consumed his essence. If it helps you adjust, I will allow you to call me by his name for a time."
How terribly accommodating, letting her talk to Lex's body and make believe. The offer made her feel that much more numb because she had been trying so hard to fix in her mind that his face might be the face of the man she loved, the voice the same, but he was now Zod. Her feelings were buried under every defense she could muster, under every shield, because she might fall over dead from emotional anguish otherwise. But if he had consumed him, did that mean Lex was in there somewhere, running through Zod's proverbial veins? She dared not hope for reality might be too crushing.
"I need to feed the cows... and the horses." She reiterated more urgently as she pulled away, and this time he let her leave.
She left at the speed of light, very intent on getting to Jor-El for any potential advice he might have to offer. He might not be pleased with her for disobeying but a common enemy did wonders for getting past a grudge. She also considered finding Bart and AC because she could really, really use a little help! Not to mention she very badly needed to find out where her parents were, and Lois, since she had been with them. Checking on Chloe was also added to the list. There were so many people and so little time! Jor-El first, then the rest, she needed to make a check list.
Note: I know I said I wouldn't retell but I admit that I stole a lot from the Zod episode, so much stealing, because I loved the episode and I felt like some stuff needed to stay. I'm sorry for my actions! (And I decided Lionel rather than Lana would have been how Lex learned a bit about kryptonite. Clair would take a long time to get around to telling him about that stuff and for once the man could try to help his kid)