Okay, I have to add this chapter because I realised after doing the others that this one ties up a nitpick later on. So yeah.
By the way, this is a reallllly long chapter, and I couldn't be bothered breaking it up. Deal with it! :o)
Relic – Thirty-Third Chapter
Clark and Rory stared at the old, yellowing newspaper. Lana had just told them about her great-aunt Louise, who had supposedly been murdered by her husband Dexter.
Dexter claimed, however, that he didn't murder his wife or the strange blonde woman found dead next to her. His story was that a drifter had murdered both of them.
There were three pictures in the article. One was of Louise, who looked just like Lana. One was a picture of the strange blonde woman, who looked just like Rory. And the last was a police sketch of the drifter, who looked just like Clark.
"What happened to this guy, this drifter?" Clark asked Lana, looking away from the paper. There was only one photo of the blonde woman, and it showed her dead. Her resemblance to Rory was making him feel nervous and sick.
"They never caught him," Lana answered. "Dexter said that people assumed he made the story up to cover his tracks."
Clark turned to face her, handing Rory the newspaper. "But you believe him."
"Well, why would he lie to me?" Lana asked rhetorically. "It's not like he's gonna get the last 40 years of his life back."
"Lana, convicted murderers spend half their day trying to convince people they're innocent," Clark said sceptically.
Rory was reading the article. "Lana," she tried to get her friend's attention. "Lana, it says here that the blonde girl was a stranger in town too, and that the first time she was seen was when she was with the drifter."
"So?" Lana asked.
"Well, the way this is written it sounds like they knew each other," Rory explained, looking back down at the newspaper. "Why would the drifter kill someone he knew?"
Lana bit her lip, unsure.
"But, Clark," Rory went on, changing arguments, "this drifter looks just like you, and the blonde woman's body was actually found. Several people had seen them together. So unless somebody has the power to predict the future-"
"Then there's a good chance that he was real," Lana finished. "He could have been your grandfather. Even your father. Maybe they were your parents or grandparents, maybe, and her death was an accident?"
"That's impossible," Clark said, sure but upset.
"Why?" Lana asked. "You two must have come from somewhere. It's not like you just fell out of the sky."
Clark and Rory flinched. Rory stared down at the newspaper and noticed something strange:
Both the drifter and the poor, dead stranger wore medallions around their necks.
Kawatche Caves
"I think Lana's right," Rory said, her voice echoing through the caves. She, Clark and Jonathan shone their flashlights all over the walls, looking for one of the drawings. "It is Jor-El."
"From 1961?" Jonathan asked sceptically.
"These cave walls say that Kryptonians have been here before," Clark pointed out. "Why not our father?"
"Clark, Rory," Jonathan said, almost exasperated. "Don't you think you're trying just a little bit too hard to make a connection here?"
"Dad, they were wearing identical medallions," Rory reminded him. "The same symbol on them is Kryptonian."
"Okay," Jonathan allowed. "Let's just say it was Jor-El. From what I know about him, it's not that hard to believe that he could kill someone."
"Yeah," Rory tolerated his idea, "maybe Jor-El did kill them. But he knew the woman. That means she was most likely Kryptonian, and from what we know he was only condescending to humans."
"Why would he kill a fellow Kryptonian and someone who was probably his friend?" Clark finished her theory.
Jonathan sighed and was about to keep arguing when Rory saw what they were looking for.
"Clark!"
She jumped effortlessly onto a little ledge to get a better look at the painting. It matched the symbol on the medallions exactly.
"I knew we'd seen it down here," she said excitedly.
Clark joined her on the ledge and reached out to touch it in synchronisation with her. They contacted it at the same time and the symbol began to move, opening up a hole in the wall.
Clark and Rory glanced at each other before reaching into it in unison. A bright golden light shone from it and they were assaulted with a series of sharp images going too fast to comprehend.
A woman's red lips. A ring with a capital T. Clark and Lana – no, Louise and Jor-El, kissing passionately. A man attacking another man outside the barn. The Talon's marquee saying 'Natalie Wood' and finally a gun firing.
The twins returned to the present, disoriented. They pulled their hands out of the hole and stumbled off the ledge on to the ground.
"Rory," Jonathan said, anxious. "Clark. Are you okay?"
They didn't answer him, just opened their hands. The two medallions sat there, looking exactly as the pictures depicted them.
"What are they?" Jonathan asked, awestruck.
Neither Clark nor Rory answered him. Instead they looked back up at the drawing.
Main Street
"Those images we saw must have been from the past," Clark told Pete. Rory nodded in agreement.
"Clark, you guys really need to lay off the light night television," Pete laughed, sceptical.
"Pete, we're not kidding," Rory said seriously. "There were all these flashes, but they went so fast we couldn't really see any of them."
A couple of people walked past the three of them, separating the twins from Pete.
"Excuse me," murmured one of them.
Clark and Rory stepped out of the way. Clark rested his arm on a mailbox and Rory put her hand on it, leaning.
There was a flash of white behind her eyes and suddenly Rory was walking down Main Street. She tried to stop and gawk at her surroundings, but her body was no longer under her control.
She realised, as the body-that-wasn't-hers looked around, that she was in 1961. The cars around were all from the 1950's and the people all wore clothing that belong in the early 60's.
Her body paused in front of a shop window to look at her reflection. Rory saw herself, but dressed in a pretty 60's style dress. Her hair was long and thick as it had been before Metropolis, but it was also curly.
She felt her full lips curve into a smile. She turned back to the street, tossing her hair over her shoulder. Again, she wasn't controlling her actions, and her nervous habits had changed.
Looking around once more, she saw the Talon. Its marquee read Splendor in the Grass, Natalie Wood.
A familiar face came out of the Talon. It was Lana, dressed in 1960's clothing with a 60's bob. She was reading a magazine.
Louise, Rory realised. Thinking of something else, she reached out for Clark. He was nowhere to be found.
A man ran up to Louise. Rory leaned on the mailbox she would touch over 4 decades in the future and watched the drama unfold.
The man pointed a gun at Louise as Rory watched calmly.
"Give it over!" he yelled, gesturing to her purse.
"Get away from me!" Louise cried, shrinking away from him.
The man pushed her to the ground, waving the gun at her.
"Give me the money!" the man continued to yell.
Rory saw a man run across the street. He blurred a little, and Rory realised that they must be Kryptonian. She felt herself stiffen and stand up straight.
The Kryptonian grabbed the mugger and threw him into a lamppost as the police pulled up. He turned to Louise and helped her on to her feet.
Rory saw his face and felt a grin spread across her face. It was Clark! Actually, it was Jor-El. But if she was seeing everything from the stranger's point of view, Clark was probably watching from Jor-El's point of view.
A man got out of the police car and grabbed the mugger. Rory tilted her head to the side and could suddenly hear everything the people on the other side of the street were saying.
"My hero," said Louise, awestruck.
"You don't strike me as someone who usually needs saving," Jor-El replied.
"Thank you," Louise whispered, her eyes not leaving his face.
"Did you see that?" the mugger asked the policeman. "He could have killed me!"
"Tell it to the judge," the policeman replied rudely.
"Thank you," Louise said to Jor-El, smiling sweetly. "I'm Louise."
"You can call me Joe," he responded, smiling in return.
Rory felt herself roll her eyes. Evidently, she and the stranger had more than just looks in common. It also looked to be the same with Clark and Jor-El; both of them were in love with Lana.
"Well, Joe," Louise interrupted her thoughts, "You're the most excitement we've had all year."
The policeman walked back over to the pair, interrupting them.
"Well, I guess we owe you our gratitude," he said to 'Joe'. "Hi, I'm Sheriff Billy Tate."
They shook hands and Sheriff Tate remarked, "That's some reflexes you got there."
"They kinda surprised me too," Joe replied.
"I haven't seen you around Smallville before," Tate said, sounding friendly still.
"I'm just passing through on my way home," Joe told him.
"Lucky you," Louise said, her eyes shining.
"Forgive Louise," the Sheriff said kindly. "She's got stars in her eyes. Always has."
Joe looked at Louise and said quietly, "There's nothing wrong with that."
They shared another quiet moment in which the world seemed to disappear. Rory sighed and leaned on the mailbox again.
Yet another man drove up and got out of his car quickly. "Louise?" he asked nervously.
Louise looked away from Joe, annoyance passing over her face.
"Everything all right?" the new man asked.
"You go on home, Louise," the Sheriff smiled at her. "I know how Dex hates to miss his bridge game. I'll drop by and get your statement."
So this was Dexter, Lana's great-uncle. He didn't look like he could kill a mosquito that was biting him, let alone two women.
"See you around," Louise said to Joe, sounding unhappy. She walked to the car slowly, looking back at him once before getting into the car. She stared at him as her husband drove off.
"I appreciate your help," Tate said genuinely to Joe. He walked back to his police car and drove away also.
Joe stared after Louise. Rory took that opportunity to cross the street, circling around behind him.
She put her hands over his eyes and trilled cheerfully, "Guess who?"
Joe grabbed her arms and spun to face her, a huge grin spreading over his face as he recognised her.
"Kara!" he laughed, hugging her tightly. He pulled away just as fast, frowning now. "What are you doing here?"
"I snuck out, little brother," she said, grinning back at him. "After all, I knew you'd be lonely down here."
"But what about the wedding?" he asked.
She waved a hand dismissively. "I'm sure Gar-On will survive without me for a few days. More to the point, the wedding isn't for months."
Joe smiled at her and said, "I'm glad you're here, Kara."
"And I'm glad to be here," she smiled right back. "Besides, the clothes here are so pretty. And the people are so friendly. As you've already realised," she poked him in the shoulder. "Louise, was it?"
"Oh, be quiet," he scolded.
She smiled up at him and there was another flash of bright white light.
"Clark, Rory, what's going on?" Pete asked them.
"It's like we were back in '61," Rory told him breathlessly, disoriented. "I was down there where Kara was." She pointed down the street.
"And I was right here where Joe was," Clark said.
"Kara? Joe?" Pete asked in disbelief.
"They're the names of the drifter and his sister," Rory explained. "Pete, do you remember when we were in the cave and got all those flashes?"
Clark took his medallion out of his pocket and examined it. "You think the medallions downloaded us with their memories, you with Kara's and me with Joe's."
"And when we touch something they touched or something that belonged to them, it triggers a flash," Rory finished. "Yeah."
"Right," Pete said sceptically.
"Louise was here too," Clark said, remembering as he walked around. "The drifter, he saved her."
"While his sister watched from across the road," Rory recalled.
"Well, of course they did!" Pete laughed at his friends. "Back here in the twenty-first century, we call that a daydream."
"There has to be a way-"
"-to figure out if what we saw was real," Clark finished unconsciously for Rory.
"You guys are really creepy when you do that, you know that?" Pete asked.
The Torch
"Since when can you take police records out of City Hall?" Clark asked Chloe. Rory blew the dust off the old book.
"Since I caught the clerk and his girlfriend playing cops and robbers while on the job," Chloe grinned.
They all laughed.
"Well, the robbery should be around June 1961," Rory said, opening the book. "That's when the movie was playing at the Talon."
"Okay, I don't mean to give you the third degree, but how do you guys know all of these-"
Clark interrupted her. "Chloe, we told you it was just a hunch that the drifter and his sister were there."
"Yeah, but the robbery outside the Talon with the Natalie Wood movie playing?" Chloe asked. "That's a little more detailed than your average hunch. Besides, how do you know that they were brother and sister?"
"Well, as curator of the Wall of Weird, just go with us on this one," Rory smiled.
Rory sat at the desk as Chloe said, "Okay."
Rory continued flipping through the book until she found the right pages. Chloe and Clark leant over her as she said, "There's some pages missing, all from the day of Louise's murder."
"Someone gets a D in subtlety," Chloe said sardonically.
Rory turned a page and said excitedly, "Here, the robbery."
"You see our heroic drifter or his sister anywhere?" Chloe asked.
"No, but look at the name of the robber," Clark said and pointed.
"Lachlan Luthor," Rory read.
"That's Lex's grandfather," Chloe said.
Rory and Clark looked at their friend suspiciously.
"Oh, come on," Chloe sighed in exasperation. "I had a 3 megabyte file on Lex. I know his favourite cereal."
"Really?" Rory brightened. "What is it?"
Clark glared at her and she looked away, her smile shrinking as she bit her lip.
"Maybe he knows something?" Chloe continued speculatively.
"Well, you're gonna have to find out," Clark told her. "We gotta meet Lana, Nell found some of Louise's things in the attic."
"Clark, this is where I'm gonna have to bail," Chloe said, looking upset. "The last time I researched the Luthors it almost got Lex killed."
"Please, Chloe," Rory asked her. "You're going to have to deal with him sooner or later."
The twins left the Torch, leaving Chloe standing there with an indecisive look on her face.
The Loft
"Finally," Rory rolled her eyes as Clark came up the steps to join her and Lana. "You took your time."
"Hey," Lana said, smiling at him.
"Hi," Clark replied. "Listen, Lana, I'm sorry I was so defensive this morning."
"You don't have to apologise," Lana told him sweetly. "I kinda dumped a lot on you at once."
"I guess when you're adopted, you dream about where you came from and what your birth parents were like," Clark tried to explain.
"Your biggest hope is that they were good people, or better yet rich," Rory joked.
"And the biggest nightmare is that they were criminals," Clark finished.
"But I really don't think the drifter killed them," Rory said. "After all, the blonde was his sister. Why would he have killed her?"
"How do you know-" Lana stopped herself, remembering all the strange things about her friends. "Never mind."
Rory was looking through the box of Louise's things again as she said disappointedly, "There's not much here."
"I'm sure we'll find something," Lana said hopefully.
Clark pulled out several pictures and started looking through them, while Rory pulled out a piece of paper and began to read it.
"It's a love letter," Rory realised. "It must be from Dexter." She continued reading and said, a little uncomfortable, "Wow. Who knew he could be so, uh, passionate?"
Clark leaned over and began to read as well, lifting his eyebrows.
At the bottom of the letter was a cursive letter J, the only signature.
"Only an initial?" Lana asked, confused. Dexter didn't have an initial J or a nickname.
Rory put the letter back into the box as Lana watched uneasily. She saw a glint of something in there and pulled out a pearl necklace.
She turned to Clark and asked, "Could you?"
Lana turned away again and pulled her hair out of the way so he could clasp the necklace.
There was another sudden flash of white light and Rory found herself in the Kawatche caves, wearing a different dress in a similar 60's style as the last one.
She wandered through the caves, wondering what Clark was doing.
"Who are you?"
Rory-as-Kara turned to see a young Native American man standing there. "I could ask you the same thing," she replied.
"I asked first," he said, scowling.
"My name is Kara," she told him. "Your turn."
"I'm Jacob Willowbrook," he said shortly. "What are you doing down here?"
She turned away from him, looking over the paintings. "Trying to learn about those of my people who have visited your planet."
She looked over her shoulder at him, a charming and mischievous grin on her face. His eyes widened and he stared at her with a sort of hunger.
"You can't be," he whispered, awestruck.
Kara pointed to a symbol nearby and said, "This one describes the legend of Naman, his sister Shumam and their enemy Segeeth."
"You could have learnt that from any member of the Kawatche tribe," he said cuttingly.
"Really?" she asked. "How did I get down here, then?"
"That's a good point," he allowed unwillingly. "I've been looking for the cave entrance ever since I was fourteen."
"How did you come in through the roof?" Kara asked in surprise. "You're not invulnerable, are you?"
He stared at her in shock now. "You came in through the roof?"
"Of course I did," she replied casually.
Jacob looked up at the ceiling and said, stunned, "But it's hundreds of feet up!"
She waved a hand dismissively. "Your legends don't talk about our invulnerability?"
"No," he said, staring at her once again. "They talk about Naman, who will have the strength of ten men and be able to shoot fire from his eyes, and Shumam, who will be faster than the fastest animal alive and be able to heal injuries with a touch."
She looked at him quickly. "Heal?"
"That's the legend," he said. "Why?"
"Because I thought-" she paused. "My brother and I, we have strength, and speed, and fire-eyes, but we can't heal."
"Then that means you're not them," Jacob said confidently. "Besides, I saw no rain of fire to signal your arrival."
"True," she murmured. "Then they're not the present, but the future."
She paused at an empty wall. Kara focused her eyes and Rory started when she saw through the wall.
"There's a cavern behind here," Kara announced. She ran her hand over the wall and said, "I wonder what it's for?"
The now-familiar flash of white illuminated Rory's mind and she was back in her own body.
"Clark?" Lana asked, looking at him. She looked back at Rory and saw her acting the same way as her brother; dazed and disoriented.
Clark stood up and walked away from the couch. He turned back suddenly and said quickly, "I don't think that love letter's from her husband. I think it's from the drifter. They were in love."
The next day
"This is the barn where Louise was shot," Clark told Rory and Lana. He walked through the barn, touching all kinds of things – but no flash of white.
"Clark, it's been over forty years," Lana pointed out. "What do you expect to find here?"
Rory had told Clark all about her flashback last night after Lana left, and Clark had explained his in much less detail. Rory was glad about that, though.
Rory noticed a large object covered with a dirty brown tarp. She went over to it and pulled off the tarp revealing a dusty blue 50's style car.
"Clark!" she called over her shoulder. Clark joined her, looking at the car. In unison, they placed their hands on the car.
Another flash of white obscured her vision and then she was walking through the town. It was night.
Suddenly she heard voices coming from the nearby building. She drew back into the shadows and activated her superhearing to listen.
"Remember our deal," said a voice she recognised dimly. She just couldn't put a name to it...
"Yeah, yeah, I know," spat a rougher voice she also recognised vaguely. "Kill the drifter, kill his pretty little friend, leave Louise alive."
Rory-as-Kara backed away, turning and running at superspeed as her pulse quickened and her breath became shorter with fear.
She supersped through the night, looking for her brother desperately.
She stopped suddenly in the middle of a field. Realising that her superhearing would help, she activated it once again and listened.
Random snatches of conversation whirled through her ears. She heard Louise's voice and was just about to work out where it was coming from when someone yelled her name.
She supersped to that voice instead, running as fast as she could.
She stopped in front of Jacob who looked stunned. Evidently, she'd just appeared out of nowhere to him.
"Kara," he said quickly. "I think I know how you did that to the cave."
She kept looking around nervously. "Make it quick, we have to leave now."
"Telekinesis," Jacob said shortly. "There are records of Kryptonians who have lots of powers, not just the ones you and your brother have. One of these is telekinesis. In the legend of Numan and Shumam, they have completely different powers."
"Hurry up, Jacob, there's a man trying to kill me and my brother, and if he finds out about us-"
Jacob interrupted her. "They both have speed and strength, but apart from that it's all different, and each power for them goes with a power that the other has."
"So each power that Numan has is paired to one of Shumam's?" Kara asked, finding herself getting interested.
"Exactly. Healing goes with heat-vision, mind-reading with x-ray vision, element control with superhearing and telekinesis with invulnerability," he explained quickly.
"So I've got telekinesis now, couldn't you have just said that straight out?" she said in exasperation.
"Yes, you have telekinesis, but somehow it's been swapped for your invulnerability," Jacob said, sounding panicky.
Kara looked at him in shock. "How do you know-?"
He grabbed her arm and held it out in front of her. "There's a bruise on your arm," Jacob said. "One of those ones you don't even remember how you got, I bet. But there's a bruise, and that means-"
"That the man coming after us can hurt me," Rory-in-Kara said. Rory could feel her counterpart's fear. "I have to go, now."
"Wait," he caught her arm. "Let me come and help. I know this area, I know where Louise lives, I can get you there fast."
"I can run faster than a bullet, Jacob," she said icily.
"I just want one ride," Jacob admitted sheepishly. "I know it's selfish, but if I tell you where Louise lives, will you-"
"Done. Where?"
"A house just over there," he pointed.
Kara grabbed his arm and slung him onto her back. She ran, holding tightly to him so he didn't fall off.
They made it to the barn and she let him go. He staggered back a little as she ran into the barn, hearing voices inside.
"It's not fair. We should-" Louise was saying as Kara burst in.
"Joe!" she cried, panicky.
Jor-El spun to face her. "Kara? What-"
"We have to leave now," she interrupted. "There's a man coming to kill us."
Jacob stumbled into the barn behind her and said excitedly, "That was so much fun!"
They ignored him.
"What?" Louise asked, clutching at Joe. "Why?"
"It doesn't matter," Kara said quickly. "Jor-El, we have to leave."
"Jor-El?"
"Kara," Jor-El said, confused. "They can't hurt us, remember?"
"Something happened to me, and my invulnerability's been switched for-"
Something hit her in the back and she shuddered. Pain lanced through her and her eyes widened. Sound started to get fuzzy and she fell forwards. Jor-El caught her and turned her over, his face full of an unbearable sadness.
She stared up at her favourite brother and smiled weakly. Rory knew – she was dying. This was it.
Apparently, Kara knew too. "Tell everyone, I'm so sorry," she stuttered feebly.
"Kara, Kara, no, don't go, please don't go," Jor-El rambled meaninglessly, resorting to her name when he lost track.
"And I love them. Gar-On... Mother will be so disappointed," she murmured. "Goodbye, Jor-El."
She felt her head loll back and somehow rose outside of the now dead body.
Jor-El stared at his sister's lifeless body, pain, sadness and rage warring on his face. He touched her face gently, then slid his hand to the chains on her neck.
He pulled the two chains out of her shirt, examining them. One was the medallion, and the other was unfamiliar. It looked vaguely like the Kryptonian symbol for preservation.
Jor-El pulled the medallion off her neck, breaking the chain as he did so.
He put her body down gently and stood, staring at the killer murderously.
Rory recognised Lachlan Luthor. He'd obviously just been waiting for a good shot at Jor-El because as soon as he stood, Luthor began to fire at him, again and again.
None of the bullets did anything, of course.
Jacob crouched next to Kara's body, staring at her mournfully. Blood stained her white dress, but there was an almost peaceful look on her face.
Lachlan dropped the gun and ran out of the barn. Jor-El looked over at Louise to make sure she was all right and the blood drained from his face.
Louise slowly looked down at her shirt and saw a wound there, dripping blood on to her shirt.
"Joe?" she whispered as she too began to fall.
Jor-El was already crying from his sister's death. He turned and caught Louise just as her legs gave out.
"No, Louise," he said, tears falling down his face faster and faster. "I can't lose both of you. Don't leave me."
"I'll never leave," she whispered weakly. "I love you."
Her eyelids fluttered closed.
"Louise..." he murmured, crying harder. "No, no, Louise."
He hugged her tighter and then finally let her go.
Jacob stood behind him and said, "I'm sorry."
Jor-El swallowed. "I can't take Louise with me," he said, knowing it sounded insane. "She belongs here, on this planet. But Kara-"
Jacob shook his head. "They'll be looking for you. You have to go, now. I'll take care of Kara's body, and one day you can come back for it."
Jor-El stared at him, tears continuing to stream down his face. "Thank you," he said quietly. Then he ran out of the barn.
Rory could feel the flash of white beginning its approach, but just before it burst over her mind's eye, she saw Jacob run out the back door.
"Rory?" she heard Lana ask nervously. "Clark?"
Rory saw Clark holding his hand just centimetres from Lana's face.
"I know who killed them," they said in synchronisation.
Smallville High
"I don't mean to rain on your parade, guys," Chloe said sceptically as she walked down the hallway with Lana, Rory and Clark, "but Lachlan Luthor was in jail at the time of the murder."
"It was him," Rory insisted.
"We know it was him," Clark agreed.
"How?" Lana asked, frustrated. "You can't expect us to keep following these weird 'hunches' without telling us what's going on."
Clark stopped outside the door to the Torch and turned to face them. "It's crazy," he warned them.
"As in, completely and utterly nuts," Rory added.
"You passed crazy about four random clues ago," Chloe pointed out caustically.
Clark and Rory looked at one another. Rory shrugged and Clark said, "Ever since we read that newspaper article we've been having memories from 1961."
Lana and Chloe looked at each other, baffled. Clark raised his arms in an 'I-told-you-so' gesture and walked into the Torch.
"I just love saying I told you so," Rory said with a grin on her face as she followed him.
"What?" Lana asked Clark, still disbelieving.
"It's this really weird thing where I see the events through the eyes of the strange blonde, Kara," Rory explained. "And Clark sees them through the eyes of her brother, aka Joe the drifter."
"Well, maybe it's reincarnation?" Chloe suggested. "You know, past lives?"
Rory looked a little sceptical. "No, I don't think so."
"Or, uh, genetic memory," Chloe said thoughtfully. "Science has theorised that we store our ancestors' memories in our DNA."
Clark looked thoughtful at that.
Chloe turned her attention to her computer screen and said, surprised, "Wow, guys. Wherever your hunches are coming from, they're eerily accurate."
"What?" Rory walked around to stand next to her and look at the screen.
"I asked the Ledger to email me the newspaper's police blotter from the day that was missing in the logbook," Chloe explained.
Rory looked straight at one very important detail. "Lachlan was released from jail the day Louise was murdered." She looked up at Clark and said, "Well, we already knew that, Kara heard it."
"He only spent two nights in jail for armed robbery?" Lana asked incredulously.
Chloe walked over to the file cabinet as Clark said, "Yeah, and look at the name of the officer that released him."
"Billy Tate," Rory read, understanding.
Chloe handed Clark a picture and said, "More affectionately known as our honourable Mayor William Tate."
Mayor Tate's Office
"Dex and Louise were my best friends," Mayor Tate said sadly, staring at the picture Lana held. It depicted Dex and Louise on their wedding day, with Tate standing next to them. "Arresting him was the hardest thing I ever had to do."
He looked up at Lana and smiled reminiscently. "You bear a striking resemblance to your great-aunt," he told her. "Has anyone ever told you that?"
Lana shifted uneasily.
"Mayor Tate," Clark distracted him, "can you remember booking someone named Lachlan Luthor? He was released the same day Louise was killed."
Clark glanced at Rory, who nodded infinitesimally. She concentrated on him, filtering both the sound of his mind and the sound of his voice through her head.
"It's hard to keep track of all the arrests that I've made," his voice said nervously. His mind said, panicky, They can't possibly know anything. They definitely can't prove anything. Luthor is dead, the drifter's gone, his friend's dead... nobody knows except me.
Rory stopped concentrating. Tate sounded guilty enough to her. Now all they needed was proof, which, as he'd thought, would be very hard to find.
She wandered around the room, bored, soon noticing a shelf covered in certificates and trophies. She looked at it dispassionately until she saw the certificate proclaiming Tate mayor of Smallville.
His signature was on it. Rory had never seen it before, and it shocked her. The cursive letter 'T' that began his last name was identical to the initial at the bottom of Louise's love letter.
That's it, Rory realised. Until now, Tate had means but no motive. But if he was in love with Louise, then he planned to kill the drifter and frame Dex, effectively removing his two rivals.
"Careful with that, young lady," Tate said, making her jump. He put his hand on her shoulder and the flash of white obscured her vision.
She crouched over the hole that Clark had fallen through, discovering the caves. Glancing around, she jumped into it, falling gracefully through the earth.
She landed on the ground, absorbing the impact easily, and began to walk through the caves to the empty wall she had noticed the last time she was there.
A noise in the corner startled her and she whirled to face it. The boy from before, Jacob, struggled to his feet, his face red with anger.
"What are you doing here?" he asked angrily. "I don't care who you are, I told you not to come back!"
"There's something I have to do here," she told him. "Does anybody else know about these caves?"
"No," he said. "I only just found them, and I can't think of how to tell anyone."
"Good," she said decisively. "You can't tell anyone about them. I want you to protect them until the prophesised ones come."
"Numan and Shumam?" he asked.
"Not just your Numan and Shumam," she said mysteriously. "There is an ancient prophecy of my people I am about to write on this wall."
Jacob sighed crossly. "All ancient cultures have ancient prophecies. What is this, one of those action pictures they show at that coffee shop in town?"
Kara smiled. "The prophecy states that one day, the Eight Kryptonians will come to this planet to fight the forces of darkness and restore peace to the universe. Numan and Shumam are just two of them."
"So what does that have to do with me protecting these caves?" Jacob inquired, still angry.
"I'm going to write the prophecy on this wall," she explained. "I'm also going to leave an indent just here," she traced an octagon in the middle, "which will allow them to harness their culture and, eventually, reach the cavern beyond."
"So you want me to stop people getting in until they get here," Jacob realised. "I don't know if I can do that."
"All you have to do is make sure nobody knows they're here," Kara told him.
Jacob hesitated for a long moment. Rory felt Kara wait patiently, almost as if she knew he would accept.
"All right," Jacob gave in. "I'll help you."
"Thank you."
"So how do you plan to carve this on to the wall?" he asked.
She showed him her hand. Her nails were long and perfectly oval. "My nails are incredibly strong and hard," she explained. "I'm going to scratch it into the wall, and I'm going to do it at superspeed so I get it done fast."
Jacob grinned with all the enthusiasm of a teenage boy.
Rory was also excited. This explained everything! Although the prophecy thing was strange... why hadn't Jor-El told them about it?
Kara began her work, moving in a blur. She wasn't as fast as Rory, but she was still faster than the average jet plane.
Finally she finished, stepping away from the wall and smiling in satisfaction.
"Wow," Jacob said, impressed. "And that says the prophecy?"
Kara shook her head. "Not the way the symbols are currently aligned. It's just nonsense at the moment. But if you realign them using the key meant to go in the indent, then it will."
Jacob nodded. His reply was drowned out by the sound of rocks groaning as they shifted.
Jacob looked at the entrance he'd come through, shocked. Kara held her hand to her head and blinked a few times, disoriented.
Blue energy burst from her, striking the roof just outside the entrance. Rocks crashed to the ground, sealing them in.
"What the hell did you do?" Jacob yelled, his voice echoing off the walls.
"I don't know!" she yelled back. "I've got no idea what that was!"
Jacob closed his eyes and said calmly, "How did you get in."
"There's a hole, up there," she pointed. "I jumped."
"Well, if you get us out of here, I'll try and work out what just happened," he said.
She walked over to him, grabbed him by the hand and positioned them both under the hole.
"Hold on," she said. She put her arms around him, under his arms, and flew.
White obscured Rory's vision and she returned to the office.
"I'm sorry," she said shakily. She turned to face Tate and said, smiling, "We should really go..."
"Yeah, that's a-a good idea," Clark managed.
They almost ran out and Lana followed them, confused.
The next vision took place when Clark touched their grandfather's old gun.
Rory watched as Jacob snuck into the morgue and took Kara's body. The other, strange medallion was still on her neck.
He put her into an ancient, beat-up truck and drove far outside Smallville.
He stopped in a clearing Rory recognised. If she'd really been there, all the blood would have drained from her face.
She'd first met Sam, in Clark's dream, in this clearing.
Memories rushed over her and she gasped.
The moment disappeared and she watched as Jacob dug a large hole. He lowered Kara's body into it and covered it up once again.
Then he left.
The final vision Clark had, Rory saw nothing. She'd already seen everything to do with her storyline, everything that would help her.
Clark came up with a plan to force Tate to confess to his crime.
He would dress up as Joe and Rory as Kara. Then, they would appear as 'ghosts' to him and tell him that they would haunt him until he confessed.
Rory even thought to cover the old dress she wore with a red, blood-like substance.
The plan worked perfectly. Tate was put in jail and Dexter was freed. There was only one more thing Rory wanted to do.
She drove the truck out to the clearing. Hugging herself tightly as she got out, she walked over to where Jacob had buried Kara.
Rory wished for a moment she'd brought Clark, or that she could suddenly develop x-ray vision.
But telekinesis will work just as well, she mused.
Concentrating, she shifted the dirt to the sides, looking for the body of her aunt.
She dug deep into the earth, far deeper than Jacob had put the body.
But there was absolutely nothing there.
A/N Gasp! What is this? It probably won't get discussed for a very very long time... but still. :o)