Thanatos

Chapter Six

As soon as she spoke, she let go of Jonathan with one hand, then raised it to his chest as her hand began to glow like before and began to drain his life from his body, eliciting a cry of pain from his lips, which only continued to grow the longer she continued to hold him in her grasp. However, after a few moments she swiftly released him all together, allowing his body to collapse down to the floor unconscious, then backed away from him slowly as she stared at the man on the ground before her with a different kind of yearning than she had felt toward the others she had killed since these newfound powers had been granted to her. Theresa knelt down over him and continued stare at his slackened features as she gently reached out about to touch his face, her hand still radiating green, when all of a sudden she was interrupted as she looked up in surprise.

A younger man ran into the barn with surprising speed and when he saw the scene before him he cried out, "Dad! No, leave him alone!"

Theresa backed away fearfully as Clark ran over to his father and began to check him over as he pulled him into his arms and when he raised his head to look toward the woman, he found that she was already gone. Clark looked all around, but gave up and went back to trying to rouse his father as gently as he could until he finally began to come around, though very weak and still in pain from whatever the strange woman had done to him.

Clark spoke again worryingly asking, "Dad, what happened? Are you alright?"

"I… I'm not… aagh!" Jonathan fought to get out until his pain flared again for a brief second. "Clark, I'm fi… fine."

"No you're not," his son replied angrily as he struggled to lift himself off the ground with Clark's help. "If I hadn't have come home when I did… Dad, she could have killed you. Mom and I would have thought you had another heart attack. Was that Tom's wife? What did she want with you?"

His father was finally all the way back on his feet and together they slowly made their way back into their house, as Jonathan answered calmly, "Yeah, that was her. She's been effected somehow by the meteor rocks. She said that she was looking for her husband and wanting me to help her. What I don't understand is how did she know to come here to look for me? She knew I helped him after the accident, asked me if he told me that he had killed her or if I had felt sympathy for him. It was strange, the way that she looked at me just before she threw me through the air and grabbed ahold of me like I was a ragdoll."

Clark helped him sit down on their couch and sat beside him and then responded sadly, "I think I might know how she knew to come looking for you. When I was in town I ran into Lois and Mom at the Talon. Lois was talking about how she had overheard one of the deputies speaking with Sheriff Adams about the accident site, how they definitely suspect it was something more after they had found something suspicious, though Lois didn't actually hear them say what it was, but it must have been the shoe that I saw. She said that she heard them mention that you had been the one to pick him up and take care of him after the accident. While Lois was there, she said that she had seen a strange woman also listening intently to their conversation. It had to have been Tom's wife. That must be how she knew to come here to see you. Dad, do you have any idea what she was trying to do to you?"

"I don't know, son," Jonathan replied as he placed his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes, still feeling pain from whatever it was she had done. "I've only ever felt that kind of agony back from when Jor-El… Never mind. The point is, I thought she was going to kill me, until she suddenly stopped and released me just before I fell unconscious. But the worst thing was, I could feel her inside my mind, reading my thoughts. God only knows what she saw… what she learned, especially about you."

"Don't worry about me, Dad," Clark quickly answered with assurance. "I can take care of myself."

Jonathan finally looked over at him as he placed his hand down firmly on his son's shoulder, then smiled and responded, "I know you can. I can't help, but worry. By the way, why did you come home? I thought you were in town trying to find our mystery couple?"

Clark stood and then replied, "I was, but I was on my way to Lex's in order to look around without getting caught by him, until I felt a strange sense that something was wrong here at home. I just felt like I needed to get back here right away. It's a good thing that I did. If I hadn't have listened to my instinct…"

"If you hadn't have listened to your instinct, then who knows what would have happened," his father interrupted before he could finish that train of thought. "As I said, this woman stopped herself from killing me like she planned on doing. I don't know why, but she did. At least now you know what this woman looks like. You should go and see if you can't find her. I'll be alright, Clark."

"That might be a little difficult," Clark answered nervously. "I think she has speed like me too, or I might have just been so focused on you that I didn't realize how long it really was before I looked up to see if she was still standing there. She seemed to have disappeared so quickly. However the kryptonite infected her, her powers are strong and she'll only continue to grow stronger the longer she's allowed to do whatever it is she's doing."

It was then that suddenly Jonathan remembered something and looked up at his son as he said, "It was strange, I could feel her inside my mind, but as her connection to me grew, I could see one word from her mind too; a word that I've never heard of or seen before. It may not even be from around here."

Clark quickly asked, "What was it?"

"Thanatos," he responded resolutely.

Back again at Lex's mansion …

Tom was had finished speaking with Lex about the business he had come to see the younger man about and together the two of them started talking of days past over a glass of Napoleonic brandy Lex had shipped in from France some time ago. Their conversation lasted into the evening and the Luthor's guest stood as he was about to leave after having been told of a safe house for him to drive to, when all of a sudden, all of the lights went out throughout the castle, all except for the light shining through the room from the fire in the fireplace.

"Lex, what's going on?" Tom asked as they both stood and looked around the room apprehensively. "Did you forget to pay the electric bill for this place or something?"

Lex replied coolly, "Do I look like the kind of guy who forgets to pay my bills? There's no storm outside. I have no idea what's…"

It was then that someone spoke from the entryway of Lex's study saying, "There's no power outage. I simply shorted out your electricity throughout this beautiful home of yours, Mr. Luthor."

"Theresa, is that… is that you?" Tom asked fearfully. "But how…?"

"How is she here now?" she asked coldly. "You mean, how is she here after you killed her? It's complicated. I don't exactly know myself, but the important thing is, I am here and I am not the woman you brutally murdered by bashing her head over and over again with a rock and then buried in the earth last night."

Lex slowly moved forward, stepped between the woman and her husband, then spoke as he stated calmly, "Theresa, I'm Lex Luthor. Do you remember me? Or my father, Lionel, do you remember him?"

The woman suddenly tossed Lex across the room as she had done to the other man on the Kent Farm, knocking him back into the far wall as he was knocked out cold, then continued moving toward Tom as she answered, "I am not Theresa anymore. I am Thana and I am here to avenge what you did to your wife."

"My ex-wife, soon to be ex-wife, I mean," Tom responded as he tried to run away from her, only to be pulled back from behind as she grabbed a hold of him, turned him around to face her, and shoved him hard against the wall behind him too, holding him high above her with one hand. "Please, Theresa! Please, don't kill me! I beg of you!"

"Did you not hear her beg for you to help her?" Thana shouted again, with even more anger in her voice. "Did she not beg you to stop before you killed her? You did not show her mercy and so I shall not grant you mercy, you sniveling coward!"

Thana then laid her hand upon his chest, a bright green glow completely surrounding them both as she released her power as it coursed heavily through the man that was Theresa's husband, causing Tom to scream out in pain for several minutes as she slowly killed him, creating as much agony for him as she could until his life force was finally drained completely from his body. Lex awoke just in time to see his family's old friend suffer and die, then watched as the woman carelessly dropped his lifeless body to the floor and walk out of the room, having forgotten that Lex was even there.