Exodus – Twenty-Third Chapter
Rory lay on the ground, slowly coming back to her senses. She coughed and sat up, Clark rolling off her as she looked at the devastation around her.

"Clark, wake up," she said quickly, shaking him. She barely registered that she was covered in ash and dirt, as was he.

He woke up, pushing a plank of wood out of his way and coughing. Rory pulled herself to her feet, steadying herself before helping Clark up too.

Rory finally took a good look at Clark and gasped. His shirt was shredded, the sleeves were almost non-existent. His face and hair were smeared with dirt.

Clark realised what was wrong and gave a wobbly smile. "Yeah, you don't look so good yourself, sis."

Rory laughed shakily. Looking down at herself, she realised that he was right. There were little cuts and bruises all over her, but Clark had saved her from the worst of the explosion.

She smiled at him gratefully and said, "Thanks, Clark."

"For what?"

"Saving me."

Rory walked over to the stairs, the only recognisable feature left in the ruin. She tried to go up them at her usual pace, but got dizzy and tripped at the top, putting out her arms to catch herself.

"You okay?" Clark asked her, coming up beside her.

She looked up, about to reassure him, but found herself unable to speak.

"Rory?" Clark was concerned now.

She pointed.

Clark followed her finger, looking out to see a red truck upside down in a field near the barn.

Jonathan's truck.

Without a word, the twins supersped towards it.

Smallville Hospital, not long after
Jonathan gazed into the hospital room in which his wife lay unconscious. Three different doctors were caring for her.

"How is she?" Clark asked softly, coming up behind him.

"Doctors don't know yet," Jonathan said, also quiet. There was a pause, then Jonathan said bluntly, "What did you do, Clark?"

"We stole Lionel's kryptonite key," Rory said. Jonathan hadn't realised she was there until that point.

"I stole Lionel's kryptonite key," Clark corrected.

Rory nodded and said, "Then I put it in the ship."

Jonathan walked away from the window to stand behind them. "And why did you do that?" he asked, trying to remain calm.

"Dad, I lied about the voice," Clark confessed, turning towards him. Jonathan didn't look at them, and Clark went on desperately, "It did come back. It told us we had to leave by noon."

"We didn't have a choice, Dad," Rory said urgently. "We had to destroy the ship."

Jonathan swallowed, holding back tears. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"We knew you wouldn't agree with what we did," Rory said, the pleading in her voice asking for his forgiveness.

"Dad, we didn't want it to take us away from you," Clark tried feebly.

"I'm so sorry," Rory whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

Jonathan turned to them angrily, and said heatedly, "Your actions have consequences, both of you. Didn't your mother and I ever teach you that?"

"Yes, but-"

"There's no time for excuses, Clark. It's too late. You two didn't think this thing through. You had no idea what was going to happen, and now..." he glanced through the window, the continued, "Now your mother is lying in a hospital bed."

"Mr. Kent?"

Jonathan turned away from his speechless children to see a doctor standing behind them. He composed himself enough to ask, "Doctor, how is my wife?"

The doctor smiled. "She has a mild concussion, but she'll be fine."

"And how is our baby?" Jonathan asked slowly.

The doctor's smile faded. He said gravely, "I'm sorry."

Jonathan stood motionless as the doctor walked away. He felt as though his world was crashing down around him, and the worst part was that his children, his own children, had been the cause.

"Dad..." Clark said, so many emotions in his voice not one of them was identifiable.

Jonathan shook his head blindly and walked into Martha's room, slamming the door behind him.

Rory and Clark stayed where they were, shaken.

The crater where the storm cellar used to be, not long after
Clark and Rory stood in the middle of the hole that used to be their storm cellar, shell shocked. Neither of them had spoken since their father had slammed that door behind him, effectively telling them he didn't want them.

"Clark, what happened?"

They still didn't move.

"It looks like a bomb went off, Rory."

Rory swallowed and walked away, running her hand over the wreckage all around them.

"Where are your parents?" Lana asked, coming down the stairs.

"Hospital," Clark replied quietly. "They're fine," he reassured her mechanically. "My mom lost the baby."

"The baby?" Lana took a step closer.

"This is all my fault, Lana," Rory said, her voice almost inaudible. "I did this."

"How could you do this?" Lana asked, puzzlement written on her face.

"The same way I always do," Rory said emotionally, turning to face her best friend. "I bring pain and suffering into everyone's lives."

"Rory, that's not true," Lana said gently.

"She's right, Rors, it's not," Clark said stonily. Lana smiled, and Clark continued, "It's my fault, too."

"Clark," Lana said disappointed. "You know that's not right."

"Yes, Lana, it is."

It was Clark's turn to get emotional as he said, "I – we've kept so much from you."

Lana hesitated, knowing that this wasn't a lie, and Rory went on for Clark in a rush, "If you knew the truth, you'd never talk to us again."

Lana was already shaking her head. "I don't believe that."

Clark's eyes filled with tears as he said, "I tried to cover up our past, and push it away. I – we couldn't." He began to pace aimlessly.

"He said if we didn't go, everyone we love would be hurt," Rory said, her voice choked and soft. "He was right."

Lana looked from one to the other, saying, "Guys, you're in shock. Neither of you are making any sense."

She walked over to Clark, who was closer, but he pushed her away.

"No, Lana. Stay away from me. Stay away before I hurt you too," Clark said, a single tear trickling down his cheek.

He ran up the stairs and away. Rory gave Lana one last despairing look before following him, leaving Lana to stand alone, confused and upset.

The Torch
Clark rummaged in the drawers of the Torch, pulling them out and checking their contents, then moving on when he realised it wasn't there.

Rory came in, saying in relief, "There you are, Clark. I couldn't find you after you ran away, and then you weren't answering me..." she trailed off as she realised what he was doing.

"Clark, I've been looking all over for you," said Pete, who had just entered. "I heard what happened, guys."

"What, are you here to tell me I screwed up in some major way?" Clark asked dispassionately, still pulling out drawers.

"No. Hey, listen, I'm sorry and I want to help," Pete said.

"It's too late for that, Pete," Clark said darkly. "No one can help me now."

Rory scowled. "Well, if you're beyond help, then so am I, Clark. What are you looking for?"

But she knew the answer. Not because she'd looked in his mind or anything like that, but because she knew him, knew how he was feeling.

Clark glanced up at her, and knew that she knew. But he answered anyway.

"I know Chloe kept one of those red kryptonite rings around here somewhere."

"Yeah, well, what do you want it for?" Pete asked. "You know what it does to you."

"Yeah. It makes me feel better," Clark said coldly.

"That's not the answer, Clark," Pete argued. Rory kept silent, looking for the solution.

"I saw Lana," Pete continued as Clark kept looking. "I heard what happened to your mom's baby."

Rory flinched. Pete said, almost angry with Clark, "You need to talk to your folks."

Clark finally turned to Pete, bursting out angrily, "We did talk to my folks, Pete! You should have seen the way Dad looked at us."

"It was like we were aliens," Rory said ironically.

"If I'd have just done what I should have done in the beginning, none of this would have happened," Clark cried.

He looked down at the floor and saw a little black ring box. He bent down to pick it up, but a hand snatched it out from under him.

Looking up, he saw that Rory now held it. She opened it, revealing one of the rings.

Playing with it, making the light strike its facets, she asked calmly, "Does it really make you feel better?"

Clark nodded.

"Then I'm not letting you put it on, Clark," she said briskly, watching his face fall. "Not unless you can get me something with this in it, too."

"Rory, don't do it!" Pete said loudly. They looked at him as he said, "Don't let him do it. When you put that ring on, you're not yourself."

Rory never looked away from him as she said steadily, "What if I don't want to be myself anymore, Pete?"

They walked out, Clark saying, "There's a souvenir shop that sells necklaces and stuff with meteor rocks in it. We get a red one..."

"Clark! Rory!" Pete called after them. Neither of them turned and he shook his head, discouraged.

Souvenir shop
A little bell tinkled as Rory walked into the shop. Glancing around, she spotted a girl standing behind the counter and made a bee-line for her.

"Hello, and welcome to the store! Can I help you?" she asked with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, actually. I heard you had jewellery that you make from the meteor rocks?" Rory said.

"Indeed we do. Would you like to see?"

"No!" Rory said loudly, then smiled sweetly. "No, I was looking for the red variety, actually. Do you have any... necklaces, say?"

"Sure."

The girl went into the back storeroom. Rory turned to survey the shop, tapping her toe impatiently on the floor.

Rory. Hurry up. If we want to leave Smallville before anyone notices, we're gonna have to go soon.

She looked out the window to see Clark standing there. His face was anxious, his stance eager, as he tapped his watch and widened his eyes at her.

She nodded reassuringly just as the salesgirl came back out.

"Here's a few varieties you might like."

The first was a simple silver chain with a large chunk of what Rory recognised as red kryptonite shaped like a love heart on the end.

"No, it's too... cliché. Garish," Rory dismissed it.

The second was similar, but instead of a love heart it was a teardrop.

"Better."

Rory slid it to the side, into what she already considered the maybe pile.

The third was still on a simple silver chain, but it didn't have a chunk of red kryptonite on it. Instead, it had a delicate-looking flower-frame made of red kryptonite as a pendant. Rory picked it up, noting how the lack of petals made it seem much more graceful and pretty.

"I'll take this one," she decided.

Less than a minute later, she left the shop. Showing it to Clark, she said, "See, isn't it pretty?"

"Very," he replied shortly. "Do you want to put them on now?"

"Why not?"

"On the count of three. One, two-"

"Wait, wait. Are we going on three, or after three?"

"What?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Is it gonna be one two three, or one two three go."

"The first one, okay? One, two, three!"

Clark slipped the ring onto his middle finger as Rory put the necklace around her neck, flicking the catch open and closed at superspeed.

Rory closed her eyes, inhaling in surprise at how... free she felt.

"Why didn't you ever tell me red K felt like this, Clark?" she asked playfully. Suddenly everything felt completely different – like a game, but completely and deadly serious. A game that she and her brother would win.

Clark grinned at her and said, "Shall we?"

"I thought reading minds was my power, brother dearest," she replied, smiling back devilishly.

They supersped away, never minding their audience – no one was watching anyway.

Kent Farm
Clark walked out to the motorcycle on which his sister was currently leaning.

"Finally," she said, stretching it out. "You took forever."

He looked her over. "You're gonna wear that?"

She was wearing long dark jeans, black boots that came up to her knees, a deep red shirt that matched the red kryptonite in her new necklace and a long black coat over the top, plus a pair of black sunglasses.

"What?" she shrugged. "I like black. It's awesome. Besides, the black sunglasses thing makes me look all FBI."

"Clark, where are you going?"

Clark walked over to a bale of hay, grabbing his leather jacket. "Away from here."

"The Clark Kent I know wouldn't run away from his problems," Lana said, walking towards him.

Clark put the jacket on and walked back towards the motorcycle. "The Clark Kent you know is a lie."

Rory yawned. "Should I give you two some privacy?" she said casually.

"It's not like you could, Rors."

"Still."

Rory pulled out an iPod, sticking the headphones in her ears and starting to listen to the music.

Lana looked back to Clark from this strange display. "Why won't you let me in?" she asked plaintively.

"Because, Lana, you won't like what you see," he replied, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Lana came up beside him and grabbed his arm, turning him to face her.

"I am not giving up on you," she said passionately, her voice and face steely.

"No one can save me," he said softly. "Not even you."

"Your parents need you," Lana said, starting to cry.

Rory sang softly under her breath.

"I need you," Lana whispered, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Clark looked away painfully.

"Rory needs me more."

Lana pulled his face back to hers. "I love you, Clark," she breathed.

A remnant of the real Clark came back to the surface at these words.

"I love you too... more than you will ever know," Clark replied softly. "That's why I have to leave."

He glanced at the motorcycle and Rory. For a moment, he considered asking her to come with him.

But, firstly there wasn't any room on the bike, and secondly, he had Rory. He didn't need anyone so long as he had his sister with him.

"Smallville's your home," Lana said persuasively.

Clark shook his head and put on the sunglasses.

"Not anymore."

Rory pulled the headphones out of her ears, stashing the iPod in her pocket as Clark climbed onto the bike. She climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Clark started the bike and drove away, leaving Lana in the middle of the dirt road, crying.

Clark and Rory sped down the road, the same expression of fierce determination on their faces.

"You will obey me, my children."

The twins ignored the voice. In fact, Clark floored the motorcycle in response, making it go as fast as it could.

They were going to leave their past behind and make a new life for themselves, in a place that was big enough that they couldn't be found easily, but was close enough to home that no one would suspect they were staying there – so long as they didn't draw attention to themselves.

Metropolis.

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N Alright, I'm leaving on Thursday, which is the day after tomorrow, and I won't be back for a while. But I hope you like this chapter, cause I do. Oh, before I forget.

Question 2: Who is your favourite character on Smallville and why? If you watch Supernatural, your favourite character from it too. If you don't watch Supernatural, you should – it's a great show.

Something else... yeah, writing red kryptonite Rory is FUN. Seriously, I'm gonna find a way to put more red K Clark-and-Rory, cause it just rocks. In case you were wondering, the reason Clark keeps talking just about himself to Jonathan is because he doesn't want him to blame Rory, so he's trying to take all the blame himself if that makes sense.

Thanks for reading!
Xx.maddy-sparx.xX