Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville.

Lana was the last one to show up, which was ironic as she was the only one who lived close enough to walk. Pete and Chloe must have been hanging out because they showed up together and Lex was the very first to arrive which really didn't surprise him in the slightest.

"Okay, care to explain why you invited us to your barn?" Chloe inquired. "I mean, the five of us don't really hang out together as a group. Ever."

Pete kept stealthily glaring at Lex whenever he thought Clark wasn't looking but, with his senses, of course he'd notice. Lex for his part seemed a little wary of Pete as well but given that very recently Pete had just tried to kill Lex – even if he couldn't remember it – that was hardly a surprise.

"I have an announcement to make," Clark explained. It was ridiculous. He'd already made his decision to tell and had already known that even if there was an initial negative reaction that they'd be fine with what he had to tell them. Still, he just didn't want to actually say the words. That was why he had decided to tell all four of them at once, even though that would make it more complicated and Pete couldn't stand Lex. This way he'd only have to say it once.

"An announcement?" Pete repeated. "You sound like the principle."

"As you may or may not be aware, I have a secret," Clark informed them.

"You do?" Lana asked him, sounding surprised.

"Really?" Lex asked, clearly far less surprised.

"This is off the record, right?" Chloe asked rhetorically.

"Now, you are the four people that I trust more than anyone except my parents and so I've decided to tell you my secret," Clark explained. "Unfortunately, my secret is rather huge and life-changing. Once you know, you can never un-know. I want you to be absolutely sure that you can handle it before I tell you."

"Why are you looking at me?" Pete demanded suspiciously.

"No reason," Clark said innocently.

"Wouldn't it be kind of hard to tell if we can handle whatever it is before we know what it is?" Lana inquired. "I mean, say that Whitney said he had a huge secret and I thought I could handle it but it wasn't something handle-able like him planning on, I don't know, join the military or something but he was secretly a serial killer."

"I do wonder what it says about you that someone has a secret and you immediately think 'serial killer'," Lex told her, shaking his head.

"That wasn't the first thing I thought of!" Lana claimed. "That was just the first example of a secret that I wouldn't be able to handle. For the record, Clark, if you are a serial killer then I don't think I could handle that but I do think that you should go to the police and seek help."

"Thanks Lana," Clark said dryly. "Should I ever decide to lose my mind and start murdering people, I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Preferably before you actually kill anyone," Lana added.

"Clark, is there your way of telling us that you're gay?" Chloe asked seriously.

Clark choked. "What? Of course not." He cast a panicked glance at Lana. "Seriously, seriously not gay. Could not be less gay."

"It's okay, I believe you," Lana assured him.

"If you're going to go around telling people that you've known for far less time than me your secret then I absolutely want to know it, too," Pete said stubbornly.

"So…what?" Clark asked. "Everybody wants to know?"

The four of them nodded.

"Alright. Last night I somehow ended up in my future body," Clark explained.

"Like a reverse Peggy Sue," Lex said, nodding.

"I've never actually seen that movie but sure," Clark said, shrugging.

"I have," Lana told him. "It's really cute. There's this woman named Peggy Sue who goes to her high school reunion and somehow ends up reliving a few days from her senior year of high school."

"I guess it would be a reverse Peggy Sue then," Clark agreed. "Since I was living in Metropolis and Lex was the only other person I felt that I could trust living there, I went to him with my problem and he helped me get home."

"So…your secret is that you had an experience that may or may not have just been a dream and it only took place last night?" Chloe asked skeptically. "I'm pretty sure that there was something…off about you before then."

"There is," Clark confirmed. "It's just that Lex proved that he was trustworthy and knew my secret and he assured me that you three were as well."

"So you're only telling us because you already know that we can be trusted," Lex realized. "You aren't willing to take a leap of faith but you've been provided with proof now."

"It…sounds kind of bad when you put it that way but according to the future you and I ended up telling you all eventually anyway. It just wasn't quite this soon," Clark said defensively.

"Do I at least find out before Lex does?" Pete demanded.

Clark managed a grin at that. "Yes, Pete. If I didn't decide to tell you all now, you would have been the first to know."

"Well that's alright then," Pete said, mollified.

"You haven't actually told us anything yet," Chloe pointed out.

"We can see right here and now if it was a dream or not," Clark declared. "Chloe, in my dream you had a cousin named Lois Lane. Now, I've never heard of her so you'll have to tell me if this is true."

"I do," Chloe admitted. "And I really don't think I've ever mentioned her to you."

"Well, there you have it. Does anybody have any guesses?" Clark asked, trying to pretend that he wasn't totally stalling.

"Well, since you're asking and thus probably won't bite my head off…meteor mutant," Chloe said firmly.

Lex nodded. "I would have to agree with Chloe. I can understand why you wouldn't tell us since most of the meteor mutants we've encountered have turned violent but we know you're not like that."

Pete rolled his eyes. "Not more about the meteors!"

"You…think that meteors can mutate people?" Lana asked uncertainly, no doubt concerned about her necklace.

"The evidence is piling up," Chloe replied. "All the people we run into who get strange powers were all here during the meteor shower and it's the only explanation I've come up with for why this seems to be a uniquely Smallville phenomenon."

"Do you think that I might have some sort of mutation? I mean, I was really close to the meteors and I wore one around my neck for ages," Lana said worriedly.

Chloe shrugged. "I haven't seen any evidence of it so far but meteor mutation seems to mostly happen after puberty and during times of stress. Aside from the almost supernatural ability to make people love you, I'm not sure I could see anything that could be a power."

Lana nodded but still looked a little concerned.

"You're right about the meteors and wrong about me," Clark told her. "The meteors are apparently called Kryptonite in the future because they are pieces of the planet Krypton."

"How could parts of a planet have been a meteor shower here?" Lana inquired.

Clark winced. "Krypton…kind of blew up. But before it did, Jor-El and his wife Lara sent their baby son away from the planet to protect him."

It clicked with Lex first. "You."

"Me," Clark agreed softly. "I'm told my Kryptonian name is Kal-El but…I'd really rather not be called that."

There was a silence as the four attempted to digest all of this.

"Does this mean that I hit you with my car?" Lex asked finally.

Clark hid a smile. Future Lex had warned him that that would probably be his first reaction.

"Yes, Lex," Clark replied, knowing just how important his admission was but not really understanding why. "You did hit me with your car. If I were a normal person, we'd both be dead."

"Well I'm not one to begrudge a man who saved my life his…eccentricities," Lex declared.

"Dude, I can't believe you've been an alien all this time and you never told me!" Pete complained. "I told you all of my secrets!"

"In my defense, I think being an alien is a bit bigger of a deal than that one time in second grade when-" Clark started to say.

"Okay, you know what, you might be right," Pete hastily interrupted him.

"And besides, my parents never actually told me that I was an alien until the day that Lex ran me over," Clark continued. "They said they were worried that I would let it slip when I was younger. Who knows if they would have ever gotten around to telling me if Lex hadn't thoughtfully forced the issue?"

"I do what I can," Lex said dryly. "I wonder if that plays any part in your father not liking me..."

"Actually, I found out that it's not so much you he doesn't like as your father," Clark explained.

"I already knew that," Lex replied.

"But I don't think you're aware of just why he hates your father so much," Clark told him.

Lex blinked. "You mean the fact that he's him isn't enough?"

"The day of the meteor shower, my parents apparently drove by your father right after they found me and my spaceship. They stopped to help him and took you both to the hospital. If it's worth anything, apparently he was very upset. Your father promised to repay my parents somehow and my parents were forced to cash in that favor when it came to getting me legally – sort of – adopted," Clark revealed.

"I'll just bet he was," Lex murmured.

"That doesn't really sound like a motive to hate Mr. Luthor," Chloe said slowly. "Far from it, in fact. You'd think they'd be grateful. Or does your dad just not want to have to think about the fact he had to break the law to do this?"

"It's more…" Clark sighed and glanced Pete's way. "Apparently even this debt repayment had strings attached and Mr. Luthor threatened to alert the government about the fraudulent certificate if my father didn't convince Pete's dad to sell the factory. If Mr. Luthor did that then not only would my parents have lost me but I probably would have ended up in a lab somewhere."

Nervously, he waited for Pete's reaction.

"So basically what your saying is that this all can be traced back to Lex?" Pete asked, glowering at Lex.

"If you want to be completely unreasonable and blame the small child in a coma, by all means," Lex countered.

"Wouldn't it be more my fault since if it hadn't been for my parents' need to protect me then Lex's father wouldn't have had any leverage to use on my dad?" Clark asked.

Pete sighed. "Clark, there's never any point in blaming anything on you. Ever. It can even be your fault and there's still no point."

"What do you mean?" Clark asked, bewildered.

"You literally blame everything bad that has ever happened to anyone you know on yourself," Pete pointed out. "Tell me you don't blame yourself for the meteor shower."

"I don't," Clark said triumphantly. "…Anymore."

"Anymore?" Lana asked, frowning. "What do you mean? Why would that be your fault?"

"Since it was the pieces of my planet that came raining down on Smallville and I arrived with them I blamed myself ever since I found out," Clark explained. "Lex didn't think that that made any sense and took the time to convince me otherwise."

"I'm glad that I was able to help," Lex said sincerely.

"Chloe? Lana? You guys haven't really given me any reaction," Clark said worriedly.

"I…really don't know what to say," Lana admitted. "You were born on another planet, what does that even mean? You're still the same you that you've always been and me knowing that won't change anything. My parents were going to die whether you came down too or not and for what it's worth…I'm glad you did."

Clark blushed and felt a smile forming on his face. "Thanks, Lana. You have no idea how much that means to me."

"To be honest, I'm a little bummed that the biggest scoop I've ever gotten can't even be published," Chloe admitted.

Clark tensed at that. Chloe had always been a journalist at heart and she'd written all about Eric, for all that he loved the attention.

"Oh, don't give me that look," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're my friend, Clark. I'd never expose you. Although I am curious what being an alien actually means in practical terms. Are you just a human born on another planet or are there differences?"

"There are some differences," Clark admitted. "For one thing, I'm deathly allergic to Kryptonite and that's why I always tripped whenever I was around Lana."

"If that's what you choose to believe," Chloe said, clearly not accepting that answer.

"Krypton has a red sun and I get my powers from our yellow sun," Clark continued.

Pete started snickering. "I just realized that that makes you solar-powered!"

Clark rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. As of right now, I have super strength, super speed, near-invulnerability-"

"What do you mean 'near' invulnerability?" Lex interrupted.

"Well, I've been shot before but as long as no Kryptonite is around, I just get bruises," Clark explained. "I think that in the future they won't even do that much."

Still, Lex wasn't satisfied. "And how exactly did you happen to discover this?"

"It really doesn't matter," Clark said quickly.

Lex must have seen something in his face because he rubbed his forehead. "Clark, did I shoot you at some point? Possibly when Bob Rickman was influencing me?"

"Maybe?" Clark admitted. "A little? It really wasn't your fault."

"I could have killed you," Lex said flatly, refusing to let himself off the hook so easily.

"Yeah, you could have," Pete agreed, crossing his arms.

"If I were the type to be killed so easily I'd have been dead the first time we met," Clark said dismissively.

"Clark, I know you're trying to help but that doesn't make it better," Chloe informed him.

"It doesn't matter, okay?" Clark said, wishing he could have been more convincing. There was a reason he hadn't told Lex he had even shot at him even though he couldn't have admitted to being hit. "I also have X-Ray vision."

"X-Ray?" Lana repeated. "Like 'let me give you an X-Ray to see if you broke something'?"

Clark nodded. "Exactly like that."

"Whenever I go to the dentist and get X-Rays they put a lead apron on me," Lana mused. "Does lead block your X-Ray vision, too, or does it work differently?"

"I can't see through lead," Clark confirmed. "And Kryptonite can't affect me through lead, either."

"The reason people give you lead aprons is to keep you safe from the radiation," Chloe remarked. "Is your X-Ray vision safe for the people you see through?"

"I…don't know," Clark admitted. "I'm assuming so. I'm not actually firing radiation at anyone, just changing how I look at them."

"So is that it?" Lex inquired. "Super speed, super strength, the ability to take a bullet like a punch, and X-Ray vision?"

Clark nodded. "For now, yes, though in the future I apparently have the ability to fly, heat vision, and the ability to erase someone's memory with a kiss."

"You realize that you've probably had to use it on guys before, right? If you really needed them to forget something?" Pete said, trying to be serious.

Clark made a face. "I'm trying not to think about it."

"Must be some kiss," Chloe said wistfully. She coughed. "I mean, how does that even work?"

Clark shrugged. "I don't know. And I also don't want to know how I happened to discover that. It certainly must have made things awkward. And I hope I didn't erase too much…"

"So what do you do with these gifts in the future?" Lex asked before Clark could spend too much time angsting. "You don't strike me as the type to just ignore the problems around you. I mean, look how many times you've saved us already."

"In the future I…well, you know those Warrior Angel comics you like?" Clark inquired.

Lex nodded. "Yes but I didn't know that you did."

"Future you mentioned it," Clark explained, "when he was explaining our situation to me. There are apparently lots of real-life superheroes in the future and several of them formed a 'Justice League.' Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash…and me. Superman."

"I'm going to hope that you didn't come up with the name," Chloe said, whistling.

"Actually, Chloe, I was told that you did," Clark replied. "And I had all sorts of enemies with really bizarre names like 'Brainiac' and 'Mister Mxyzptlk' and 'Gog.' Lex said that there would have been more if he and I hadn't been pretending to be enemies."

The four of them exchanged a glance.

Finally, Lana said, "Perhaps you should tell us just a little bit more about this future of yours, Clark…"

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