Chapter 32
Augur
Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Smallville
Clark yawned, blinking at the moonlight as he pulled up beside the house. It had been a week since the Fright Knight had been in Smallville, and once more a grainy picture of his cousin had been on the front page of the Smallville Ledger. It was Clark's birthday, well, the day that his parents had chosen as his birthday when they were making up the papers. But in a lot of ways, it really was his birthday. It was the day his parents had adopted him all those years ago; the day he had been given a family on Earth and the anniversary of the day he had been accepted into humanity as one of them. He may have Kryptonian roots, but Earth was the only life he had known, and it was Jonathan and Martha Kent who had given him that.
He had wanted a quiet day. He'd needed a quiet day. His dad was gone, and this was the first time he'd had a birthday without him. It was... hard. Harder than he'd imagined. For years his dad had always been there; up with the crows and working in the barn. And then he'd come in and have breakfast together as a family. But this year he'd woken to a silent house, no sound of his dad in the barn or his mom in the kitchen. And... it was what he had wanted. He didn't want to be reminded of what he had lost, what he had caused. His continued life was at the cost of his dad's, and he didn't want to celebrate his birthday when it was his dad who had always been the one to make it special.
Clark sighed, opening the truck door and grabbing the bag of groceries off the passenger's seat. The paper bag tucked into his arms he headed back towards the front door, idly noting that the lights were off. Probably his mom had gone to bed early, and Danny rarely bothered with lights when he was moving about at night. He checked his watch, it was barely past seven but that meant little when his mom had been working in the gardens all day.
"Mom?" Clark called, pushing the screen door open. There was no answer, so Clark presumed his mom must have headed upstairs for the night. Inwardly sighing he pulled the door closed and flicked on the light.
"Happy birthday Clark!" Three people shouted at once, and Clark blinked as he looked through the living room and towards the kitchen. Somehow while he was out the room had been transformed, a huge 'Happy Birthday Clark!' banner stretched through the archway in vivid blue and red, and red and yellow balloons were floating off to the side. Bands of streamers criss-crossed along the roof, and a small smattering of decorative red blue and yellow packages sat on the island counter.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart." He heard his mom say as she crossed the room and pulled him into a hug. A bright smile sparkled in her eyes as she looked up at him "We got you, didn't we?" Clark blinked, looking between his mom and the three people still standing in the kitchen. He sent his cousin a beseeching gaze, only to be met with a defiantly cheeky smirk.
"Surprise." Danny mouthed as Chloe loped across the living room to catch his arm.
"Look." Chloe beamed, pulling him into the kitchen. "And Lois even made her world-famous rum cake for you."
"From scratch." Lois emphasised as Chloe presented the cake. It was... well it looked like half the cake had collapsed in on itself and it was coated in a thick layer of bright blue icing. But the candles on the top burned cheerfully all the same, and the red hand-piped 'Happy Birthday Clark' was all somehow very Lois.
"Wow," He commented, raising an eyebrow. "I never would have guessed."
"You should have seen the first two." Chloe added with a strained smile as she offloaded the cake into his arms.
Never to be deterred, Lois grinned as she took the cake away and set it aside. "Ah come on, presents before cake." Clark found himself bustled over to the table, which had been covered in a small array of presents.
Lois smiled as she leaned over, pulling out a thin gold-wrapped present. "Open it." She encouraged, nudging him in the shoulder. Clark obliged, tearing the paper away to reveal a thin, leather bound diary. It was simple, a brown spine holding together two black covers. But she'd had his name embossed in gold into the bottom right hand corner.
"Wow." Clark said, unsure of what to make of the gift as he looked over at her.
"Not that you're the 'dear diary' type," Lois acknowledged, "but since you keep everything to yourself I...I thought it might help." Clark smiled, touched at the small gesture. It was not something he would have expected, coming from Lois, and the sentimentality was heart warming in a way he couldn't quite understand.
"Danny next." Chloe commanded, and Danny shifted a blue box over towards him. It was probably the biggest thing on the table, and instead of wrapping it Danny had just stuck a yellow bow to the top of the box. Curious Clark lifted the lid, and smiled at what he saw. Danny had managed to find a piston for his dad's motorbike; not only that but he'd dug up the pins, the bearings and what looked like a complete gasket kit.
Danny simply shrugged. "I figured it would mean more to you if you worked on the bike yourself." He responded blandly, but the glittering in his eyes said far more. Clark was grateful; the bike had been his dad's and he had spent months working with it just because it was a tangible reminder of the man his dad had been. It was getting old, and the parts for the engine were getting both hard and expensive to find, and Clark had been worrying that another part of his dad was going to be taken away from him. Clark didn't know if Danny knew exactly what he'd given him, but he felt a genuine smile pull to his lips as he settled the lid back on the box until he could go through everything later.
Chloe beamed, and her tone was light as she nudged his arm. "And since I'm on an intern budget, I figured I could just comp you a couple of those IOU's that you owe me."
Clark snickered, shaking his head fondly at his blonde friend. "Thank you." He replied, looking at the table. His eyes creased as he noticed a white envelope, leaned against a yellow bag. "That's Dad's handwriting." He murmured, almost scared to reach out and take it.
"I found it in his desk." His mom replied, sending a gentle smile at him as she handed the envelope over. The flap was just tucked in, his dad never sealed the envelope, and Clark carefully slid the card out.
It was blue, a simple scene of a lake in the hills on the front. At the top of the card it read 'For you, son, with so much love and pride', but just that little scene meant so much more. It was summers in the fields, casting a fishing line out because his dad had given it to him, new. It was days out at the lake in a tiny boat, coming home laughing when they didn't catch anything. It was his dad's warm smile as he turned around, laughing with him as he talked about anything and everything, as a six year old child on a day out with his dad.
The message inside was simple, conveying his dad's pride and love. But the two blue tickets that brushed his fingers said so much more. "Two tickets to the Wolverines game in Milwaukee." Clark commented, and if his inner emotional turmoil showed in his voice, they all stayed silent. "Right behind home plate."
"Yeah," His mom smiled, laying a comforting hand on his arm as he slid the tickets back inside the card. "Your dad and his baseball. There was no one in the world he'd rather watch a game with." Clark smiled, seeing the longing hidden deep in his mom's eyes. But the two little blue tickets stabbed at his still healing heart in a way he wasn't quite ready for.
The rest of the party passed in a blur. Danny, Chloe, Lois and his mom all smiling and laughing together and Clark was eventually able to join in. Danny ultimately pulled out a second cake and ended up teasing him into kissing Lois – on the cheek, thankyou – when the knife came out dirty. It was fun, and Clark found that what had looked to be a miserable day ended up being alright. But still, every so often his eyes would flicker back to the white envelope, and his gut would clench for just a moment until he turned away.
It was hours later, after the party had been packed away and Lois and Chloe had both headed home for the evening. But Clark found himself walking the steady path towards the cemetery. It was dark; thick clouds had rolled in earlier in the evening and the scent of threatening rain hung in the air. He'd come alone, seeking... something between solace and closure from the man who had raised him.
"Thanks for the tickets, Dad." He murmured, placing the two thin slips of paper on the top of the grey tombstone. "I just wish that you were here to go with me." He sighed, fingers brushing slowly across the cool marbled surface. A twig broke, and Clark spun around, noting a figure in the shadowed darkness of the gravestone. Around him it started drizzling, a fine mist of rain clouding his vision. But there could be no mistaking the soft tan jacket, and Clark's heart leapt as he saw his dad standing there in the rainy mist.
"Dad?" he asked, barely daring to believe that it was true.
"Listen, I'm sorry I couldn't be at your birthday party to see the kind of man you're becoming." His dad said; an edge of pride in his voice as he spoke.
"Dad, everything I am is because of you." Clark admitted, stepping closer to the figure of his father.
"Not everything." The man replied, suddenly on his other side. "See there can be no more lessons. You're gonna have to do this on your own. I can't help you anymore. You're gonna have to stop him."
Clark frowned, confused by his dad's words. "Stop who?"
"He's much worse than we imagined." His dad continued, despite Clark's interruption. "So many people...So many people are gonna die."
"I don't understand, Dad?" Clark pressed, eyebrows creased in confusion as he looked to his dad. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about Lionel Luthor." The man replied bluntly, and Clark's blood chilled. He knew that Lionel was up to something. With men like him, secrecy always came at a cost.
"What is he doing?" Clark demanded, needing to know.
"He's gonna do something terrible." His dad replied, suddenly further away than he had been.
Clark frowned, needing his dad's advice, needing the man who had truly loved him as a son. "Tell me, Dad, what am I supposed to do?"
His dad frowned, and a look of almost sympathy flickered in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Clark. But to save this world you've gotta kill Lionel Luthor." Clark stilled, not believing what his dad had just said. "Goodbye, son." The man whispered, and then he was gone, his wraithlike voice an echo on the wind.
"Dad?" Clark called, spinning around as he hoped to find the slightest trace of his dad. But there was nothing. And Clark didn't know what to think. Blood pounded in his ears, emotions bubbling and boiling as he tried to figure out what to think. Confusion, fear, anger and hollow bitterness cycled through him. "Dad, wait." He murmured sadly, looking once more around the graveyard as he stood in the intensifying rain.
He stood there for ten minutes, a lonely vigil at his dad's gravestone as he hoped for any sign that the apparition would come back. He didn't know what to think. His dad hadn't looked like a ghost, not in Danny's sense. But this was Smallville, and ghosts didn't always look the same here, especially when kryptonite came into play. Clark sighed, shaking his head as he made his way back towards his home.
The night was long, and Clark could barely sleep as he heard the rain pattering against the windows. No matter what he did his mind wouldn't rest. He'd been so close to his dad, almost close enough to touch him, but he hadn't been able to. And his last words... Clark didn't know what to think. He was angry at Lionel, and worried about what the depraved man intended to do about his secret. But killing him...
Clark rolled over, pounding at his pillow as he tried to force it into something resembling comfortable. The idea of killing a man, even one as amoral as Lionel, was not something he could fathom. And no matter how many times he recalled what his dad had said he couldn't get over that. He had always been raised to believe that his powers did not make him a god. He could never believe that he had the right to cast judgement, and he could never support actually taking anyone's life. But on the other hand he had been raised to do what was right. And in this case it seemed very possible that the right thing to do was to kill Lionel and act towards the greater good.
The grey pre-dawn light pierced his room as he was settling in to sleep. And when he got out of bed he still felt uneasy. Quietly he made his way down to the kitchen, flicking on the kettle as he went. Neither his mom nor Danny was awake, but Clark wasn't quite sure he was ready to talk to them. Near the kitchen was the small pile of presents he'd been given the night before, but the thought of dealing with them wasn't something he was prepared for in the wake of what he'd just been told.
He made a pot of coffee, leaving it on the bench where his mom would notice it when she came downstairs. She was staying at home today, one of the few times she had a chance to catch up on some of the work around the farmhouse. Usually Danny and Clark were able to manage it all between them, but there were some things that his mom just preferred to do by herself. So Clark headed out to the barn, planning on getting a couple of jobs done before his mom came out.
"You're up early." His mom's voice interrupted him half an hour later. She was wearing his dad's jacket, the worn material hanging loosely around her shoulders like a protective blanket.
"Couldn't sleep." He replied, setting aside the welding he had been working on. He sighed, unsure of where to start. "I went to visit Dad last night."
"Clark..." His mom began, but Clark cut her off.
"I know, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I needed to see them." He paused, meeting his mom firmly in the eyes. "He was there mom, really there. And I spoke to him. He said... he said I needed to kill Lionel before he destroys everything."
"Clark," His mom replied sadly, laying her hand on his arm. "Grief can play tricks on the mind."
Clark pulled his arm away, shaking his head. "Mom, I know what I saw. It was Dad. His spirit, his ghost, whatever you wanna call it."
"Sweetheart," his mom consoled, "I see your dad all the time. Every morning when I wake up I feel him beside me. But it's not him. And it's not his ghost. It's my mind wanting it so badly I think he's really there. Right now you're really angry with Lionel and maybe you want someone to say it's okay to get back at him."
"Mom, this isn't the first time I've seen Dad." Clark confessed, and noting her questioning look he rushed the explanation. "It's a long story, but Lana was in trouble. I tried to save her and had some sort of near-death experience. I saw Dad. He was the one who told me Lionel knew my secret. That wasn't my imagination. What if this wasn't either?"
"But Danny..." His mom suggested, but Clark was already shaking his head.
"Danny knows his kind of ghost, but that's not what I saw when Dad first warned me about Lionel. And Danny... he saw something similar then too."
"If that's true," His mom murmured "if it really was your father..."
"Then what Lionel's up to is a lot worse than just knowing my secret." Clark finished, noting the flicker of genuine fear in his mom's eyes.
"It would have to be, for your father to suggest taking someone's life." His mom concluded, and Clark couldn't think of anything more to say. His dad wanted him to kill, his dad, the man who raised him. And Clark still didn't know the right thing to do. He felt torn, and he didn't know who to talk to. He wasn't sure how much help his cousin would be in this case; for all the good he did in the world, the boy often only saw things in terms of protecting people. And Clark wasn't sure what side of the line Danny would fall on.
Clark sighed, leaning against the heavy barn door as he watched his mom move off towards the orchard. He was stuck, unsure of how to proceed. Should he sacrifice his own values for the greater good? Kill Lionel to save everyone else from the harm he could wreak? Or should he stand by the values he had been raised by, absolving himself of a murderous act and turning a blind eye to the damage Lionel could cause? Clark shook his head, and as a raven mop of hair peeked out from the house before racing towards the school bus, he couldn't help but think that maybe talking to Danny could at least help Clark confirm the validity of his thinking.
Line Break
Chloe stared disbelievingly at her dark haired friend. Clark had called earlier in the day to say that he and Danny were coming by after school. But she couldn't believe what her oldest friend had just said.
"Okay, Clark," Chloe commented, leading the two boys down the stairs. "I am the president of Ghost Believers Anonymous. But your dad Hamleting you?"
"Chloe, I know how it sounds." Clark replied, a knowing look in his eye.
"And you," Chloe said, walking backwards a few steps as she swung around to face Danny. "What do you think?"
"I don't know." Danny confessed. "I mean... I watched Uncle Jon move on, saw him... he went into the light." Danny paused, his blue eyes glimmering. "But I know I saw Sam, saw everyone. And ghosts can't go there, we just end. Plus, you know, there's the Smallville factor." Danny shrugged. "I'm on the same page as you."
Chloe sighed and sat heavily into her desk chair, flicking the computer monitor back on. "Alright, Hand me a cloak and call me Horatio."
"Great." Clark said, leaning over the desk. "Now what could be so bad that my Dad would want Lionel Luthor dead to stop it?"
"Maybe it has something to do with him knowing, you know where you really came from." Chloe replied, briefly looking up at him.
"He's sat on it for too long." Danny commented.
"I still think it's probably a part of it," Clark denied. "But there's gotta be something more."
"Well, if Lionel is hatching some sort of an evil scheme it would explain why he's been sitting on your secret." Chloe added, looking up from the monitor and between the two boys. Clark's face was deep set in concentration, but Danny's was carefully neutral.
"Maybe something's already in motion."Clark barrelled on, ignorant of Danny's mask. "Chloe, someone tried to blackmail my mom with security footage of me using my abilities."
"What?" Chloe demanded, blinking in shock.
Clark sent her a dark look. "Guess which billionaire came to the rescue."
"All right, say this ghost of your dad's is right." Chloe prompted when Danny remained pointedly silent. "And then we go and dig through Lionel's closet and we find a smoking gun. Then what?"
"Depends what it was." Clark shrugged.
"Would it?" Danny interrupted, finally breaking his silence. "Is there really anything out there that would make Clark Kent kill someone?"
Clark visibly slumped. "I don't know." He confessed. Chloe saw the silent conversation passing between the two boys, the shake of a head and a brief concession on Danny's part. Neither of them spoke a word, but Chloe could see that there was a deep significance in those small gestures which she couldn't fathom. It finished in a silent acknowledgement before Danny looked back to her.
"We need to find out what he's planning." He said firmly, and there was no need to argue.
Chloe grinned, cracking her knuckled. "Then we have some digging to do." She commented, looking between the two with a sly look. "Either of you up for breaking into a top security office?"
Danny grinned at her, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. "Breaking into the security of a high class, potentially unstable billionaire? Sounds like fun." And Chloe couldn't help the small smile that crept its way onto her lips at the keen look in his eyes. Chloe finished up her work quickly, shuffling a couple of jobs back into the 'to do' pile and then the three of them were off.
Of course, it was slightly more difficult than just walking in; LuthorCorp Plaza had apparently installed some anti-ghost tech, so Danny wasn't able to just phase them inside; something which the boy was particularly disappointed about. He was, however, able to help them sneak past security invisibly, and escort them up into Lionel's office without trouble.
Clark forced the door open, pushing his thumb through the lock mechanism to get them inside. Chloe forced herself not to worry about it; Clark had been breaking into buildings the same way for years. But she did frown as Clark barged across the room and over to the desk.
"Wait, Clark," She hissed, eyes searching the room warily. "The alarm."
"Taken care of." Danny replied, eyes momentarily flaring green. Chloe nodded once and headed over to the computer, readying herself for a bit of hacking. Her fingers tapped against the keyboard for a minute before Danny's hand brushed against the back of the screen. "Can you get in?" He asked, carefully, and Chloe responded with a determined nod.
"I cloned the transponder from Lionel's key port so we could override the digital cipher." She replied, before frowning. "I need a night life." She commented, more to herself than anything else.
Danny grinned at her. "Don't we all?" He replied before he moved to stand behind her shoulder. "How long do you think you'll need?"
"If I knew exactly what I was looking for..." Chloe trailed, shrugging. The truth was it was a mammoth task. They weren't looking for a needle in a haystack, but a needle in a needle stack. And no doubt everything informative would be encrypted.
"Let's look for anything my dad might be warning me about." Clark suggested, coming to stand by her other shoulder.
"Okay, it might take a minute." Chloe pointed out. "I can't exactly search for a file called 'My evil scheme.' Clark, Have you thought about the fact that if Lionel knows your secret he might have told..."
"Lex doesn't know." Danny denied adamantly. "Hang on, I'm gonna help." And then the presence behind her shoulder was gone. She saw a flash as his hand brushed against the screen, but then he was gone. But she instantly saw that the computer was doing more work, sifting through data and somehow responding better to her commands.
"Danny's right." Clark commented, as though it was perfectly normal for a boy to turn himself into some supped up piece of digitised programming. Idly Chloe wondered about the mechanics of that, but the Danny programme was shifting through thousands of files faster than Chloe could hack them. "Knowledge is power. Lionel would never level the playing field."
"Well, I guess this is one of those rare times when we have to put our faith in the Luthor family dysfunction." The computer froze for a moment and the file she had been about to open suddenly shut off. "Locked out." She complained, disheartened.
"Check his calendar." Clark suggested, and before Chloe could even touch the mouse pad the calendar was open. It seemed Danny was able to hear them from inside the computer's programming.
"Leon Rowland?" Chloe frowned, blinking in recognition as a meeting highlighted itself on the screen.
"Who's that?" Clark replied, leaning over her to peer at the screen.
Chloe's eyes creased, staring at the entry in the calendar. "It looks like Lionel has an interview scheduled tomorrow with the Inqisitor's top reporter regarding something called 'The Weapon.'"
A popup appeared in the bottom of the screen, highlighting an appointment two hours later in Virginia. "Then at the Pentagon." Clark stated, and Chloe sent him a concerned glance.
"Looks like the mysterious weapon is the hot topic this week." Chloe commented, her eyes creased in concern as she gazed at the screen. The words 'Lionel Luthor' and 'Weapon' together were deeply unsettling. Chloe knew that Lionel was ruthless, and it didn't matter who or what got in his way. Unless you were one of the key players in his games, you were just cannon fodder. And Chloe knew all too well what it felt like being put in that position by LuthorCorp's founder.
"Maybe it's not so mysterious." Clark mused, sending Chloe's thoughts directly into a nose dive.
"Wait, you think that you might be the weapon Lionel's talking about?" She asked, spinning around on the chair to stare at him with widened eyes. She would have said more, but it fit. Lionel's silence would have allowed him to get all the pawns set up, and now it seemed likely that the depraved man was going to manipulate Clark into whatever he had planned. It was just like what Vlad Masters had done with Danny, but they were still stuck in the middle of his plot, and Chloe couldn't see what he had planned or how to counter it.
A popup appeared on screen, informing Chloe to 'insert removable media'. Chloe didn't care to get her hopes up, but dutifully inserted a blank flash drive all the same. "I hope you know what you're doing, Danny." She commented, frowning worriedly at the screen. The download took a full minute, and then Danny phased back out of the computer, flash drive firmly in hand.
"I don't have your hacking skills, Chloe." He commented, "But he won't know we were there." Danny turned his attention back to Clark. "I'd need to do a full decrypt, but the files on here seemed to be the most correlated with you, or at least the family."
Chloe took the device out of Danny's hands, watching as he angrily rubbed at his temple. "Headache?" She asked, eliciting a half-smile from the dark haired boy.
"Data overload." Danny admitted. "I used to do that with Tuck, sometimes we'd have hacking races, but Lionel's firewalls are a bit more... I don't know, they're more painful. Anyway, we gotta get out of here soon, security'll be on their way up since I knocked out the video feed for the top floors." Chloe nodded in understanding, grabbing his proffered arm.
In an instant all three of them were back inside the vacant filing room in the Planet's basement. Chloe bit her lip, seeing the pained look in Danny's eyes. By now she knew why Danny usually refrained from using his powers on Clark; it had a tendency to give him a painful migraine thanks to the differences in their physiology. But Danny waved her on, and at Clark's still worried insistence she pulled out the flash drive. The decrypt was in her hands now, and she only hoped that between the three of them they could stop Lionel before his scheming came to fruition.
Line Break
Danny sighed, idly flipping through the pages of his alchemist's book as he attempted to tire himself out. He was mostly recovered from the crippling sickness he'd experienced a week ago, but was still on doctor's orders (well, his aunt and an irate Ember's orders) to take it easy. As soon as he felt well enough he'd opened a portal to the Zone and gone to visit Ember, but she'd pretty much taken one look at him and sent him home. Of course she hadn't exactly been rude about it, in her own way. But being kicked out of the zone for 'being irresponsible with your powers and abusing your core and you'll get no sympathy from me' hadn't exactly been comforting.
He had hoped to be able to help Chloe with deciphering Lionel's files, but after hacking Lionel's computer from the inside, plus teleporting Clark, his head was slightly too fuzzy to be able to read the intricate coding. It was a useful skill, and he knew that, and it had been easier this time than ever before, probably something to do with his new electrokinetic powers. But his strength had never been in technology. He knew enough to get around, and being able to overshadow the system made it easier to understand, but the numbers and the different coding went over his head unless he knew what he was looking for. So Danny flopped back, staring at the ceiling for a few bleary minutes as he recovered his mental strength.
The phone rang downstairs and, knowing that neither his aunt nor his cousin was home he headed downstairs to get it. "Kent residence, Danny speaking."
"Daniel." Danny frowned as he recognised the voice of Lionel Luthor. He personally hadn't had much to do with the elder Luthor, but the stance between him and Clark were precarious at best. "Is Martha home?"
"No." Danny replied cautiously. "She's out at the moment. I can take a message if you want."
There was a slight pause on the other side of the phone. "Actually I'm looking for Clark. I know things are... strained at the moment, and understandably he does not want to risk trusting me."
"You haven't really given him a reason to." Danny commented, a slight accusing note in his voice.
"I know." Lionel conceded, but Danny wasn't sure if it was genuine or a placating move from the same play-book that Vlad read. "But something is going on that he needs to know about."
"What?" Danny pressed.
"Daniel, please." The man replied. "This is a matter you should not concern yourself with. Can you convey the message, it is vitally important that I talk with Clark." And with that the phone cut off, preventing Danny from pressing the matter further. He sighed, setting the phone back on the cradle and running a hand through his hair. He still didn't know what Lionel wanted with Clark, and even though Clark feared being manipulated into Lionel's weapon, Danny still had his doubts. For now he had warded Clark off of going about bandying a pitchfork, but that didn't mean he wasn't still suspicious of Lionel's motivations.
Danny wrote a quick note on the book by the phone, saying that Lionel had called and that he wanted to talk to Clark. Hopefully his aunt would find it first and they could try to figure out the best course of action before Clark got any more involved. If Clark found out that Lionel may be onto them, his cousin might just take matters into his own hands. Danny was well aware that it wouldn't take much to set Clark off, much like his own relationship with Vlad before his family had died. It was a high-stakes game the two were playing; Lionel knew about Clark's powers, but no one but Lionel himself knew exactly how much of Clark's secret he knew.
Danny shook his head, heading back up the stairs and into his bedroom. There wasn't really any homework to do; he'd finished his finals and now they were just waiting for the results to come in. Instead he picked up the leather-bound book, leafing idly through the pages. There was far more in there than just the four gems, but that was the most prominent work in the book. Danny sighed, looking up from the thick book and out the doorway of his room. His eyes frowned in sudden confusion. Something was wrong; he could virtually taste it in the air. His eyes widened as he heard voices downstairs, the first was his aunt, who had just gotten into the house, but for some reason the second voice sounded like his uncle.
Danny's eyebrows creased in concern as he moved cautiously towards the top of the stairs. Jonathan had been dead for months, passed over to the other side which even ghosts couldn't know. He was tempted to barrel down there and confront whoever it was, but there was no pull on his core. He squashed down his overzealous impulse, realising that more would be gained from figuring out 'Jonathan's' end game than confronting him right away. So Danny settled himself on the top step, listening in on the conversation between his aunt and the man who supposedly was his deceased uncle.
"How long, Martha?" Jonathan's voice asked, but there was a sinister darkness in his voice that had never been there in life.
"What?" His aunt replied, her voice confused and almost hurt.
"How long have you had feelings for Lionel Luthor?" Jonathan demanded, and Danny frowned. He knew that his aunt was seeing generally more of the elder billionaire since his uncle's death, but there had never been any indication that her feelings for him were anything other than platonic.
He could practically see his aunt shaking her head as she issued a denial. "It's not like that."
"I want you to be happy, sweetheart." Jonathan's voice responded, and he almost sounded betrayed. "I've always just...just wanted you to be happy. But not with him." And there it was; the heated twang in his voice that proved that this man couldn't be his uncle. For all that Jonathan Kent had been easily angered; he would never hurt those close to him. Not the way he was accusing Aunt Martha,
"Jonathan." His aunt responded, her voice laced with the subtle edge of hurt that his uncle would never have inspired in her. "You know you're the only man I've ever loved. It's been so hard without you. Your voice, your touch. I miss you so much." Hearing that, Danny wanted desperately to go down and comfort her, to help get rid of the brokenness in her voice. But he couldn't, not if he wanted to figure out what was going on.
"I miss you too, sweetheart." Jonathan's voice responded, almost too quickly.
"Why did you have to leave me?" Danny's aunt asked in the barest whisper.
There was a slight pause, a heartbeat, before Jonathan responded. "I'm sorry, Martha. I didn't have any choice." Jonathan paused, his voice edged with dark warning. "And soon, neither will a lot of other innocent people."
"Are you talking about Lionel?" His aunt asked, and Danny edged down a step, feeling that he was getting closer to an answer about their visitor. "What is it? What is he doing?"
"He's going to drown you all in your own blood." Jonathan bluntly responded. "Just like he did me."
"Like he did you?" His aunt pressed, her earlier pain turned into confusion. "What...?"
"Martha, I'm sorry." The man interrupted. "But, you've got to tell Clark there is no other choice. Lionel Luthor has to die."
"Jonathan?" His aunt asked, her voice confused in a suddenly silent room.
"He has to." Jonathan's voice whispered; a bare echo in the night. But Danny frowned, following a strange sort of energy as it moved out of the house and paused on the porch. There was a brief surge, and his eyes widened as he realised exactly what he was facing. The man had been masquerading in his uncle's form, but there was no mistaking that energy signature. Danny phased out of the house, coming to stand opposite the intruder with his arms crossed, staring unintimidated at the man's back.
"Brainiac." Danny commented coldly, allowing icy anger to enter his voice.
"Daniel." The man commented as his form settled, returning to his average height brunette form. Danny froze for the barest instant, hearing an inflection in the man's voice that sounded all too much like Vlad when he knew something that Danny didn't. But he didn't let on, he couldn't afford to. For some reason Brainiac wanted Lionel Luthor dead, and it was highly unlikely it was because he was feeling vengeful over a bad business deal.
"I've been watching you." Brainiac commented, stalking around Danny predatorily. "Kal-El's pet Doberman; protective to a fault but hopelessly limited." Danny snarled, his eyes flashing green in warning, but Brainiac was having none of it. "Now, now, Daniel, growl as much as you want but it won't make any difference."
"I beat you last time." Danny spat, lunging to the right in time to land a punch on the synthetic man's jaw, but a moment later he was slammed heavily back against the ground, a heavy wrist clasped firmly around his neck.
"But this isn't last time." Brainiac replied levelly, his brown eyes cold in the evening light. "Last time you were acting under the guise of being human, and I still needed Kal-El's trust. This time Kal-El's opinion of me matters very little and you, boy, you are barely even an obstacle in my path." The brown-haired man eased up, withdrawing his hand and standing up. Danny gasped, taking in a deep breath and rubbing his neck painfully as he staggered to his feet.
"I'll admit your disguise is very convincing." Brainiac commented, turning his back on Danny as though they were simply engaged in casual conversation.
"Better than yours, Brainiac." Danny spat venomously.
"It's a pity," Brainiac continued, as though Danny's antagonism meant nothing. "That your species is so... weak. For all your powers, you can do nothing outside of your own obsessions, isn't that right, spirit?" The man snapped around in a movement too fast for Danny to defend against, and his fist clasped hard around his throat. Danny bit back a scream as the fingernails sharpened, twin pin pricks stabbing into his flesh and drawing blood.
"Curious." The man commented, withdrawing bloodstained fingertips as Danny fell heavily to his knees. Danny gulped, noting that whatever Brainiac had done... he wasn't recovering normally. "You have been very thorough in your façade to be able to blend with humans so thoroughly. However, I believe I have you at a distinct disadvantage."
"What, you think you've got me all figured out and now I'll just do whatever you say to keep it secret?" Danny spat, but was met by Brainiac's coolly calculating glare.
"No, I know you'll follow my orders because if you don't you can watch as your aunt burns." The brown eyed man dictated. But Danny didn't miss the way those eyes flared red, the same shade of cherry that Clark's eyes turned when he was using his seat vision. Normally he'd confidently say he could block it, but with the way he was bleeding he didn't like his chances.
Danny hung his head submissively, waiting for Brainiac to make his next move. "That's a good spirit." The man mocked, patting his head twice before catching his cheeks with a cold hand. "You have demonstrated that you have knowledge of Krypton." He stated. "And thus you have some use to me."
Brainiac knelt down so that their eyes met, his artificial brown meeting with Danny's blue. "Logically I acknowledge that you must be a spirit of our world, and you probably were slain in the Fall; no spirit of this world would know of our heritage, nor could interact with Kal-El the way you do." Brainiac paused, his head cocked ever so slightly to the side as those brown eyes bored into his. "To be perfectly candid I do not care about your heritage; as soon as you became a spirit you became subject to their laws."
Brainiac did... something. Danny felt another metallic prick digging into his chest, in the area near where both his heart and his core resided. And suddenly he couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Black dots danced on the edge of his vision, and all he could understand of the world was the sound of the man's voice. "The funny thing about your species is that none of you physically exist. You are all just energy, harnessed to a single ideal. But that energy is easily taken and manipulated, and even more easily contained."
Danny felt something move, or was it him? And then the world lurched and he felt like he was dissolving... no, breaking down. It felt similar to being sucked inside a thermos, the way the energy merged with him, reducing him to a bare consciousness. But it was painful, so, so painful, and he was still fully aware of the voice even if he didn't know where he was.
"You have served Kal-El loyally, spirit, but I can't let you interfere with my plans." Brainiac's voice echoed around him. "You will remain here as I cleanse the Earth in preparation. The vassal of Jor-El must be destroyed and you will only impede that. However you are still of use to me, and in time you will be released; your own obsession makes you the perfect soldier in the coming war."
And then he was gone, Brainiac's missing voice leaving a void in this prison. Danny's awareness thinned and it felt like he was drowning in a sea of painful oblivion. His conscious drifted, eddying in and out like the tidal pull of the sea. Occasionally he was aware enough to note the similarities to his parent's Thermos and this confinement. They were both similar in that he could not feel himself, not in a physical sense. And there was no real sensory input. Like being confined inside the Thermos, he felt an endless nothingness that would be only too easy to surrender himself to.
Unlike the inside of the Thermos, he was highly aware of potent energy seeping through his prison. It was heavy and oppressive, and this energy rent through him with a destructive edge that felt like Vlad's Plasmius Maximus. The pain kept him aware, or at least aware enough that he could keep track of himself. So instead of surrendering to the oblivion he thought, focusing the only aspect of himself that he could currently control on the single task of keeping himself conscious.
He thought of his first lessons with Clockwork, about his amazement when the elder ghost had instructed him about the nature of the Zone and how it worked in synergy with the real world.
He thought about his astonishment to find out that there were in fact other worlds, planets with thriving life forms which had come and gone, some contributing to the Zone's populace as the planets became connected with the Zone.
He thought of what he had learned about the ghost wars, stretching back across millennia and spilling out into the Real World.
He thought about Krypton, about how they were the first planet to truly develop technology which could contain ghosts, about the creation of an extra dimension within the Zone for the prisoners, and about how the Zone itself had cried out during the Fall of Krypton.
He thought about his cousin, about how Brainiac was manipulating him and attempting to pervert Jonathan Kent's intentions.
And as he thought something in his mind solidified, focusing itself around a single idea. He knew that Clark needed help, needed to be stopped before he did something which would destroy himself. And that thought grew, his consciousness straining against the bounds of his prison as he threw his mental body against the constraints of his cage.
With a mental grin he shifted gears, feeling for a weakness in his prison. It was different to his parents' tech, and Danny could feel that there was the slightest deviation in however this confinement was made. So he mentally flexed; shifting through hundreds of memories, thousands of scenarios both learned and experienced, until his mind settled on one single memory. It seemed that one of his darkest days could just hold the key to his salvation.
Line Break
Clark shook his head, sighing as he walked through the glass doors leading into the Daily Planet. His mind was still reeling; not only had he seen his dad's ghost – and he was calling him that since he couldn't think of a better description – but his mom had seen him too. Jonathan Kent had appeared in their living room the previous night and had given his mom the same warning. More than that, it seemed like Lionel had been somehow involved in his dad's death.
That thought made Clark's blood boil. All these months he'd been playing their friend, pretending to take care of his mom and acting as the white knight for the family. And all this time he'd been responsible for his dad's death. He didn't know how, but the inference was enough. Clark felt he was justified in his anger, as though it wasn't enough for the man to have taken his dad from him, he then saw fit to pretend to be a hero to his mom. And to top it all off, he now had Clark's secret, hanging like the sword of Damocles over his head.
He would have first gone to Danny first, but the boy was missing. Of course, given the regularity of his disappearances lately Clark wasn't worried. It was likely some other ghost related thing, and no doubt he'd show up soon as Phantom with a smile on his face wondering what it was that had them all so worried. It was an annoying habit, but to be honest it was nothing more than they'd expected all those months ago when they'd taken the boy in. It was just comforting to know that Danny was probably safe wherever he was, if he wasn't they'd probably know since the only fights that really threatened him tended to end up as breaking news.
Clark sighed, his hand wrapped around a small piece of paper that was burning a hole in his pocket. He'd found the note on the table next to the phone, scrawled in Danny's hand and saying that Lionel had called, wanting to talk to Clark. Somehow Clark wasn't surprised. It made a sick sort of sense that his dad would only be able to give his warning just as Lionel started moving in. Seeing that note there, seeing it and knowing what it meant, had left him infuriated. But if he was going to confront Lionel he at least wanted to know what he was planning.
He shook his head, pushing through the door to the bullpen and proceeding over to Chloe's desk. She'd been working all day on the flash drive, but judging by the small frown pressed on her lips she wasn't much luck.
"How're you going?" Clark asked, making the blonde jump slightly as she was interrupted from her work.
"Not well on the flash drive, I think Danny might have better luck. All I can really tell you is that the IP address they come from isn't originally Lionel's." Chloe answered, her face lit by the blue light of the computer monitor.
"So we have nothing?" Clark pressed.
"Not exactly..." Chloe diffused, her lips pressed tight as she turned to face Clark. "Okay now before I tell you any of this, you have to promise you'll keep cool head and backburner those American Psycho instincts, okay?"
"Chloe, what is it?" He urged, trying and failing to keep his voice clear of the aggressive worry simmering just beneath the surface.
"I pulled up your dad's phone records." She said, pulling up a different page on the screen. "And unless Lionel was selling long-distance plans, he was desperate to get a hold of your dad. There are at least 20 calls logged in those last few weeks."
"My Dad said he died protecting my secret." Clark remarked, a frown pressing at his lips. "Maybe that's how he found out Lionel knew about me. When did the calls stop?"
"They didn't." Chloe stated, swivelling in her chair so she could face him. "Lionel talked to your dad an hour before he died."
Clark fought down the wave of anger that washed through him. "Think Lionel was just congratulating him?"
Chloe bit her lip. "Not unless he did it in person." She sighed, looking worriedly at him. "Lionel's cell call came through a tower in Jansen's Field. That's only a mile away from your house."
"Lionel was there?" Clark murmured, completely disbelievingly. "Lionel was there the night my dad died."
Clark saw red. Not only was the man involved in his dad's death, he was a direct part of it. And it had taken all these months for the truth to come to light. His blood boiled beneath his skin, demanding retribution. His hands fisted in his pockets, his right wrapping around a half-crushed piece of paper. Lionel had said he wanted to talk. And if that's what he wanted, then Clark was going to make sure he got exactly what he had asked for.
Line Break
Danny calmed himself, flexing his thoughts in the mental replication of breathing. Time was meaningless in this confinement, and already he had no idea if he'd been trapped for minutes or days. But he could feel something in himself changing. The difference between this Kryptonian technology and that of his parents was subtle, but present. And he could already tell exactly what he had to do in order to escape. Historically, forcing himself to learn a ghost power ahead of time had never worked out, but in this case he couldn't see a choice.
He hated resorting to this, hated what it signified, but the only way he was going to get out of this before he became Brainiac's pawn was if he resorted to something he had seen in his own dark alternate future. So Danny concentrated, setting aside moral concerns for a time when he could effectively deal with them. He remembered everything he'd seen about Dan, and aside from the Ghostly Wail, there was one other ability that had stuck with him. Dan had been able to turn himself into mist, and thus escape any physical attack. It wouldn't work on the Thermos, it both trapped and completely contained any spectre within its metallic cylindrical walls. But that was the difference between what his parents had made and what the Kryptonians had produced.
While both disrupted the ghost's energy flow and compressed it within the confines of a container, Danny could sense that the Kryptonian version had some small energy leaks. It was like the difference between a barred door to a prison cell and a padded room. Both were inescapable if you were too big, but a thin person could slip between the prison bars if they tried hard enough. And that's what Danny had to do; turn himself into a form where he could slip through the weak points in Brainiac's ghost capturing device.
It wasn't easy, and was probably made harder by the fact that he was still partially human. But he felt it when it happened. He had to completely forget everything that made him physical, like a more intensified version of intangibility. No, it was more than that, it was trapping himself in that strange state when he teleported, fixing on the instant between here and there where nothing tethered him to the world other than the vague strain of consciousness that held him in that instant. He felt the change, felt the moment that his prison could no longer contain him and he seeped out, like pooling mist across a winter field.
Finding himself free he took the barest instant to take stock of his surroundings, idly noting that he was somewhere in the southern hemisphere if the stars were anything to go by. But at the same time... everything had a distinctly surreal edge to it, making the world around him seem insubstantial. He could hear the echoic noise of animals, whispering on the wind. But he couldn't feel anything, and it was so much worse than simply being intangible because the world around him shifted like the rolling mist he knew he currently was.
That was the best way to describe it. If he said that he felt real, then everything around him was mist. And it was... enticing. There was a deep seated alluring quality to seeing the world like this, it felt as though nothing could hurt him, as though he could forget everything that caused him pain and still exist all the same. He breathed, feeling the rolling mists dissipate around and through him as he moved through parched land and skeletal trees.
Incorporeal as he was it was difficult to discern the passage of time, and his movements swiftly became lost in a bleary nothingness that swallowed him up. He noticed enough to realise that the environment around him had changed, that rolling hazy bushland had morphed into foggy cornfields. But as to how exactly he had gotten there, he couldn't say.
He did eventually find himself in a building that felt... familiar. In this weird misted state it was difficult to discern what anything was, but he could feel a familiar energy radiating out from inside the large building, powerful and intoxicating like the sun.
"Is this where it happened?" The sun like energy asked. 'Clark' his mind whispered, distantly noting the icy venom in the man's voice. "Is this where you met my father the night he died?"
"Yes." A second voice responded, but it took Danny far longer to place. And in this enticingly misty state it was hard to want to, not when compared to the bright sun that was his cousin. "Yes, it is." The voice continued, and Danny's mind eventually settled on the name 'Lionel'. "I had to talk to him. It was important."
"He found out, didn't he?" Clark's voice was accusing, and Danny felt something akin to a pull as the fog started to clear. "He found out about your plan to use me as a weapon."
"A weapon?" Lionel sounded dumbfounded. "No. Clark, no, it..."
Clark's voice cut off the elder man's defensive words. "What did you do to him?"
"Clark, I wanted to help him." Lionel murmured. "He needed an ally but he took it the wrong way."
"You killed my father!" Clark accused, and there it was. A more distinguishable pull as the fog surrounding him cleared more. He could now see them more clearly; two dark shadows pressed closely together, the black shadow pushed against the wall by the second, red shadow.
"No." Lionel's voice defended, sounding almost choked. "Clark."
"What happened Lionel, he wouldn't go along with your plan was that it?" Clark's voice spat. And though the mist was still too thick, Danny could almost see the fiery flash of his angry blue eyes as the red blur shoved the black one further into the wall. "You pushed him...You pushed him till his heart gave out."
Lionel gagged, his voice choked as though a hand was clasped around his neck. "Listen to me, Clark..."
"I will never be anyone's weapon." Clark hissed, and Danny's core yelled at him, demanding attention.
"You're not the weapon." Lionel gulped, his voice desperate for air. "Clark, it's not you."
"Lies." A third voice interrupted, and Danny gulped for air as his core started screeching. But he was lost, and he couldn't clear the mists even as he recognised his uncle's voice coming from Brainiac's malicious energy. "That's all he's gonna tell you, son. You're gonna have to kill him before he gets the chance."
"Listen to me, Clark." Lionel beseeched, his voice sounding feeble and weak.
Clark's aura picked up a murderous edge as he snarled in anger. "Shut up!"
"Do it, Clark." His uncle's voice demanded, disguising Brainiac's malevolent tones. "Do it!"
"You killed him." Clark emitted.
"Yes, he killed me." Jonathan's voice sounded, but the tone was one that his uncle could never use. "So go on, son. Avenge my death." There was a beat, and Danny's core screamed in time with an angry flare of Clark's aura. And just like that the world cleared, settling into the steady firmness of reality as the mists finally dissipated. Danny was in the barn, and dark shadows fell across the horrific tableau in the centre of the room.
Lionel was slumped to the floor, backed close against a wall on bended knees. Clark's hand was wrapped tightly against the man's neck, tendons tightened as the grip compressed, crushing against the man's throat. Over his cousin's shoulder stood 'Jonathan', egging him on like a twisted devil.
"Your dad would never make you a murderer, Clark." Danny cried, rushing over to his cousin's side.
"Kill him!" 'Jonathan' demanded, his voice a cruel snarl.
"Listen to me, Clark." Lionel pleaded desperately. "Listen to me."
"Clark, I know this is very difficult for you," 'Jonathan' interjected. "But you have got to kill Lionel Luthor!"
"Don't give into him." Danny beseeched, desperately hoping to stop Clark from destroying himself this way. If he stepped in Lionel would be saved, but at the expense of Clark's identity. "Clark, don't forget everything your dad taught you to be." And then there was pain, coupled with the resounding splintering of wood as Brainiac threw him hard against the wooden loft staircase.
"Clark Kent, kill him now!" 'Jonathan's' voice demanded venomously. There was a beat, and then another. And Clark spun around, catching Brainiac around the neck and throwing him hard away. Beside him, Danny heard a second crash as the man landed barely two feet to his right.
'Jonathan' stood up, cracking his neck as splinters fell off his shoulders. "You know I asked you to do one simple thing. This is what I get. You're a tremendous disappointment to me, son."
"You're not my father." Clark replied, an eerie calmness washing over him.
"Oh, ho ho." 'Jonathan' mocked, striding through the barn with domineering confidence. The man and his cousin circling each other until the red back of Clark's jacket blocked Danny's view. "Well, it looks like I might have underestimated you, Kal-El." The man stopped, eyes flashing as he picked up the tractor. "Catch!"
The tractor sailed through the air, forcing Clark back until his back was pressed into Danny's shoulders. The metal screamed and warped around them, a dust of splinters leaping into the air as part of the loft was crushed. Clark tossed the broken tractor aside, waiting for the dust to clear. But before Danny could do anything Clark was gone, pressed against the other side of the barn as 'Jonathan' clawed at his neck. Clark gagged, and Danny's core screamed. But he felt ragged, and the same screaming in his core which would usually help him to overcome anything only served to cripple him. It felt like he was the one being choked, not his cousin.
"It would be so easy to snap your neck just like a twig" Brainiac commented in his uncle's voice, his voice a harsh whisper in the barn. "But I still need you."
"Who are you?" Clark gagged, blue eyes darkening as Danny watched the air being starved from his system.
"I'm the guy that's gonna help bring this world to its knees." Brainiac whispered harshly, the inflection of the man behind the mask coming through. Dark spots danced on the edge of Danny's vision, his ghostly obsession turning harshly against him as he struggled to move. He needed to save Clark, to stop Brainiac. But Clark swayed on his feet and his sunlit aura flickered. Danny gasped, desperate for air, for relief from the stabbing pain shooting through his core. But there was nothing he could do and it was destroying him.
"Don't touch me." His uncle's voice said, suddenly pleaded. And Danny watched through slitted eyes as Lionel Luthor approached the two aggressors. Lionel's eyes were the pale white of the blind and his hand was outstretched, wizened fingers reaching out to brush towards Brainiac's cheek. "Don't do it." The man beseeched. "Don't do..." Lionel's fingers made contact, and Brainiac froze. For a moment he shifted, morphing into the raw metallic material he was made from. But that melted away to leave the resemblance of 'Milton Fine'.
The man screamed, and there was a flash of white light as Brainiac disappeared, this copy of the construct completely destroyed. "What..? What just happened?" Lionel asked, blinking dazedly. And it was only then that Danny noted the secondary presence in the man's aura. It was weak, barely there, but it was very similar to the energy contained in the crystal consol in Clark's Fortress. Very similar to Jor-El's energy. 'The Vassal of Jor-El' Danny realised.
Danny blinked dazedly, the world swimming around him. And at this point he wasn't sure if it was because of the pain in his core or from desperately wanting to sink back into the untouchable mists. But Clark was talking, and Lionel was looking over at him with confusion. Danny shook his head, touching his fingers to his lips and drawing away a small amount of sticky blood. And suddenly Clark was by his side, helping Danny ground himself once more.
"You okay?" Clark asked, blue eyes creased in concern.
Danny nodded, his gaze fixed on Lionel Luthor as Clark helped him out from under the collapsed staircase. "I'll be fine." Danny heard himself say, sending a brief glance towards Clark before returning his eyes to Lionel. He knew the man was re-evaluating him, could see it in his eyes. The same thing had happened two years before, when he'd managed to talk Vlad into surrender at the College reunion.
"I believe..." The elder Luthor began, grey eyes flickering between Danny and his cousin. "That we have a lot to talk about."
Danny's head swam, and he felt the world roll around him as everything shifted towards those clouded mists. He felt unbalanced, and it took all his focus to make himself stay tangible. In a way it was like his earlier attempts at duplication, imprecise and unfocused because he wasn't ready to handle it yet. He heard, distantly, Lionel and Clark talking over his head, but he couldn't really make out what they were saying. He was loosely aware that they were moving, Clark's steady hand guiding him somewhere outside the barn.
The next thing he was aware of was bright light. And he blinked as he found himself in Lionel's LuthorCorp office. "I was fairly certain Milton Fine was a Kryptonian but I didn't realize that shape shifting was one of the Kryptonian's miraculous abilities." The elder man was saying, and Danny shook his head as he struggled to focus once more.
"It's not." Danny replied, finally feeling real enough to respond.
Lionel blinked and frowned at him before turning his attention back to Clark. "Then Fine's not a Kryptonian." He commented, his lips pursed in a worried frown. "It is important to all of us that we keep this from Lex."
"Fine was created by Kryptonians." Danny summarised, using the name that Lionel recognised.
"And he's already been destroyed twice."
"Twice?" Lionel pressed, clearly surprised. "Some sort of self-replicating entity, that's incredible."
Clark scoffed. "That's one word for it."
"He's a lot more than that." Danny added. "The Brain Interactive Construct; Brainiac for short. He's Kryptonian artificial intelligence, emphasis on the intelligence part. All the powers of a Kryptonian and the intellectual resources of all of Krypton and Earth, he's dangerous."
"But why was he so afraid of you?" Clark asked from beside him. "And how were you able to destroy him, just by touching him?"
"I... I'm not sure." The man responded hesitantly, sending Danny another inquiring glance before visibly biting back his questions. "But, I feel the answers could lie somewhere in here." The man walked over to a concealed safe, carefully twisting the lock mechanism. The door opened, revealing a room filled with journals, scraps of paper, coasters, anything and everything that could be written on. And it was all covered with Kryptonian glyphs.
"Where did you find all this?" Clark demanded, a dangerous edge in his voice.
Lionel frowned, moving back away from the safe and over towards his desk. "I didn't find it." He replied bluntly. "I wrote it. And whatever voice I'm channelling I believe that what I wrote is meant for you, Clark."
Danny frowned, picking up one of the journals. He sent a worried look towards his cousin, biting his lip and wondering exactly how much it was safe to say. Lionel now couldn't not know there was something different about him, but Danny wanted the billionaire to make his own inferences. Danny leafed idly through the pages of the book, an indecipherable mess of dark words and warnings. It was worrisome, more so with what he himself had just experienced at Brainiac's hand. His frown deepened as he paused on one page, instantly recognising the message. He could only hope that this dark foreshadowing was coincidence, the idle ramblings of a misled augur.
Line Break
"So hell freezes over and no one even bothers to tell me?" Chloe's voice cut through the darkness of the Planet bullpen as Clark leaned heavily over her desk. It had been a horrendous night, and a cursory glance at his cousin's tired eyes said there was so much more to the story than even he knew.
Clark felt... drained. Once more Milton Fine had come into his life, but this time had been so much worse. He was still grieving for his father's loss, still desperately needing the guidance that his dad had once provided. And he'd fallen blindly for Fine's cruel trick. He didn't know what hurt more, what he'd almost done or the realisation that everything his 'dad' had told him had been a manipulative lie. And in the moment, when he'd had his hands around Lionel's neck, he hadn't been able to think.
His dad's voice had called for him to protect the greater good, while his cousin's had reminded him of the morality his dad had always taught him. Like the metaphorical devil and angel on his shoulders. But in that instant it had been hard to tell which voice was which. And he had doubted. If an evil act protected the good then was it good? Or, if by doing nothing in the name of the good caused evil, then was it an evil act in itself? His dad's voice warred against Danny's and he hadn't been willing to choose.
Danny himself had been very quiet, his eyes slipping unfocused and hazy with startling regularity. A hasty word, too quiet for any human to hear, had told Clark that it was a new power coming in. But the boy looked particularly unwell for using it. And it showed in more ways than one; Danny had been unable to weave one of his usual half-truths to distract Lionel from his secret. That in itself was far more telling than Danny behaving foggy headed like this.
But they'd all arrived in the Planet, despite the lateness of the evening. Fortuitously Chloe hadn't left yet, and was more than happy to commandeer their resources for research purposes. So the three of them had arrived and then immediately briefed her on all that had been revealed that evening. Well, with the blaring exception of where Danny came into it.
"Chloe, listen." Clark urged, interrupting the glare that his blonde friend sent towards the eldest Luthor. "Mr. Luthor has been writing these. Seems to be some sort of warning, but I can't decipher it."
"Well, Unfortunately my Kryptonian's rusty." Chloe commented sarcastically. "What about...?"
Lionel understood her glance, but shook his head dismissively. "I don't know what any of this means, Miss Sullivan. I am simply the oracle."
"And Danny?" Chloe prompted, glancing towards the boy who was currently sitting on the desk behind her.
"I just hope I'm wrong." The boy replied, his eyes shimmering with a glint of fear as they flickered towards Clark.
"And how do you actually know how to read Kryptonian?" Lionel asked, his patience finally wearing too thin. Clark was just amazed that it had lasted this long.
Danny shrugged. "Clark isn't the only remnant of Kryptonian heritage out there." The boy replied casually.
"So you are..." Lionel prompted, clearly waiting for explanation. It was interesting for Clark to note the difference between how Lionel treated Danny and how he treated him. No months of circling, just heading straight for an answer. Then again, it was clear that Danny wasn't thinking entirely clearly, and Lionel may be just utilising Danny's moment of weakness.
"Clark's cousin." Danny replied, his eyes flashing with the barest hint of challenge. But that gave nothing more away than what Lionel already knew, although the way he phrased it... Lionel could almost assume that that meant Danny was Kryptonian too.
Lionel shook his head, and seemed to recognise that Danny wasn't going to give him anything more. His face was neutral when Lionel turned back to meet Clark's eyes. "I believe the answers could be found with a visit to your Fortress." The grey haired man commented, returning to the problem at hand. It was clear that he wasn't finished with his interrogation of Danny, not by a long shot, but all of them recognised that there were more important things that needed dealing with first.
"Last time someone talked me into taking them to the Fortress it was a trick to release General Zod." Clark replied scathingly.
"Yeah, I have plans this weekend." Chloe added, arms crossed in irritation across her chest. "So if we could protect Smallville from the wrath of Krypton's deadliest villain; that would be great."
"Ancient hieroglyphics were deciphered by finding repeated..." Lionel suggested, and Chloe immediately picked up on his meaning.
"Repeated patterns." She finished. "Yeah, I know. So let me scan this and see if we got any." Chloe took the book and moved across to a flatbed scanner, copying each page onto her computer. Danny moved around beside her, running each page through some strange program almost as soon as it appeared on screen.
"Why would Fine wanna expose himself now?" Clark asked, venting his concerns to the room.
"He's afraid I'm going to help you." Lionel replied bluntly. "To stop what he and Lex are planning to do."
Clark frowned, sending a confused glance towards the elder billionaire. "Which is what?" He prompted.
Lionel sighed, and the slightest shake of his head told Clark that Lionel was much more worried than he was revealing to them. "From the details I've gathered, Fine has been helping Lex to develop a virus so lethal; it could bring humanity to the brink of extinction." The man explained, his jaw set in dark disappointment. "LuthorCorp scientists completed the project today."
"So the weapon isn't Clark, it's this virus." Chloe realised, lifting that weight off Clark's chest.
"Yes." Lionel replied.
Danny however, was shaking his head. "The plan's more detailed than that." He said, blue eyes frowning as he surveyed the screen. "I think the virus is just the first step." And his eyes met Clark's for the barest moment, heavy with significance. And Clark understood something.
"You mean he..." Clark began, realising that it wasn't him that Brainiac wanted as the weapon, but his cousin.
"Yeah." Danny replied darkly. But then he shrugged it off with a dorky smile. "Eh, it's not like it's the first time."
"You think that's what this pattern is trying to warn me against?" Clark pressed, his eyes flickering to the screen that Danny was still pouring over intently.
Danny was silent, eyes once more focused entirely on the screen. Instead it was Lionel who broke the silence. "I have a strong sense that this warning I have been entrusted to pass on is related to something far more terrible even than the virus."
"Do you have access to the lab?" Clark asked, eyes flicking back to Lionel as Chloe closed up the book.
"No, I don't know where it is." The elder billionaire replied.
"Well, we better hope we can find it before Brainiac completes his plans." Danny supplied, his eyes fixed on the screen as his face drew into a deep frown.
Chloe came to stand over his shoulder. "You finished the analysis?" She asked, her manicured hand resting gently on Danny's shoulder.
Danny gulped, his eyes briefly meeting hers before he looked over at Clark. "Yeah." He answered carefully. "It's predictable, but there's some words that show up more than most. Three symbols repeated thirty two times." The boy said, releasing a drawn breath. His blue eyes stayed fixed on Clarks as he turned the computer screen around.
Clark's eyes widened as he looked from the screen to Danny's drawn face. Both Chloe and Lionel tried to catch his gaze, but his eyes remained fixed on his cousin; the only other person in the world who could understand the true meaning of this warning.
"What's it say?" Chloe asked, her voice laced with curious concern as she glanced non-comprehendingly at the screen.
Clark frowned, finally tearing his eyes away from Danny's fearful bright blue ones. He released his breath slowly, calming himself as much as possible before he had to verbalise the warning that had so stunned his cousin. Three glyphs, dark black against the stark white of the screen; three words which sent a dark shiver down his spine. A minute had passed before he could bring himself to speak, and when he did his voice was heavy and dark.
Three words; so simple and so damning. "'Zod is coming.'"
AN; Seasons Greetings! Happy belated Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sorry for the late update, I've been... travelling. 16 hours by car to my mum's parent's house for Christmas day and then another 5 to my dad's parents' house for their anniversary. Plus spending time with the family... yeah.
It took forever to figure out what Danny was gonna give Clark for his birthday; I went through everything from a plaid shirt to a ghostly artefact to the Thermos before I settled on motorbike parts.
Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing, I really do love hearing from you and you have my deepest gratitude.
'Till next time,
Bluerose