-- Chapter 8 -- Preservation of the Charade --
The Eradicator released Lex Luthor and moved back away from the small group of people in front of her. Her Kryptonian, tall and dark-haired, at least he looked healthy if a little odd in those clothes. "I have searched years. There is so much to say. I am known as the Eradicator, but I will answer to any designation you choose to give me." She dropped to her knees and continued staring up at Clark. "Ask me anything. I can tell you everything."
Clark didn't have a clue what to say. There was a dark-haired beauty begging him on her knees to ask her questions. "What's going on?" Clark turned to his parents and a very ragged looking Lex. "Are you guys okay?"
"I'm peachy," Lex said. He was cradling his right arm protectively. "That psychopath is just doing her best to kill me. I'm calling the police." Lex pulled out his cell phone and started dialing.
Jonathan nodded to Clark. "You're mother and I are fine."
"She is not his mother," the Eradicator said. "To answer your question, what is going on, I have come for you, to take you home."
"Watch out," Lex said, tilting his cell phone away from his face. "She started along a similar line with me before she attacked."
Martha hardly heard Lex's warning. The woman kneeling in from of Clark, couldn't they see it, the resemblance. She could be Clark's sister. They had the same black curling hair and strong bones. Martha tried not to panic.
I have come for you, to take you home. Martha used to have nightmares about that phrase. She'd sit on her porch watching Clark play around the barnyard, chasing the chickens she used to keep. Most of the time she was filled with joy watching her son. Sometimes her rational mind would step in, and the part of her that didn't believe things worked out so perfectly would assert itself. No one would send a little baby to another world alone. Someone was going to come for him to fix the mistake that had stranded him on their world. Someone was going to come and take Clark away. It had been years since she had had that nightmare, but all the old fears came bubbling up in her. She just wanted to grab Clark by the arm and run.
"I'll be careful, Lex," Clark said. He turned back to the woman. She seemed sort of pathetic kneeling there. For the second time that day, Clark found himself dealing with a highly confused woman. "Look, this is my home. These are my adopted parents. Is there someone we can call for you?"
"Besides the police?" the Eradicator said. She stared hard at Lex and rose gracefully to her feet. This was not an acceptable progression. "You don't have any idea who I am. You have to know that you're different. I have come for you from your real home. You are the last of them, my master. For you I would do almost anything. Would you like to know what I won't do?"
Clark took a step back and shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just an ordinary guy." The lie came easily to his lips, but it didn't stop the fear growing in him. Clark had a sinking suspicion that this woman, Eradicator, whoever she was, might be from wherever he was supposed to be from, not Kansas, not Earth...
The Eradicator smiled and cocked her head to the side, a very Chloe gesture. Of course that's where she learned it. "I'll tell you what I won't do, whether you want to hear it or not. I won't kill you, and I won't let you stay here. You've languished in this squalor long enough. Wasting away on this planet is beneath you." She pulled out a blue crystal, much like the one sitting in a little lead box in the Kent's kitchen. "I'll leave this for you. Take some time to remember, to get used to the idea of what is happening. It isn't my intent to harm you or anyone. I will return, soon. We'll talk again." She placed the rock at Clark's feet and took a step back. "Don't make me search for you. I won't be so kind to those people I must use to find you the second time." .
The Eradicator moved with a speed Clark had never actually seen, he'd always been a part of it. She didn't run though, this woman flew away into the night. Clark shut his eyes rather than look at the blue rock glowing at his feet. He wouldn't fall into the trap the crystal represented again. Whatever that woman was, she didn't get to dictate his life to him. "What the Heck is going on?" Clark said.
Jonathan leaned close to Martha so Lex couldn't hear. "Get the lead box from the kitchen. We don't need a repeat performance from this afternoon." Jonathan took a deep breath and tried not make the comparison his mind kept running through, that woman could move as fast as Clark. Who the Hell was she?
Martha nodded and headed for the house at a run. Damn appearances, let Lex think whatever he wanted. That thing was after her son.
"Clark?" Jonathan said. "You okay there?" Why now? Why in this moment did their whole lives have to be balancing on a knife's edge, with Lex Luthor to watch. He couldn't really ask what he wanted to. He couldn't be afraid about whether an alien just dropped by to reclaim his son. Instead he had to play this as normal as possible.
"I'm fine, a little confused," Clark said. He still didn't dare open his eyes. It was all he could do not to snatch up the crystal as it was. It was singing to him, begging him to just reach out a hand. NO. Now would be a bad time to zone out. Lex would not understand.
Jonathan could see how tightly Clark's hands were curled into fists and that his eyes were squeezed shut. You're fighting it aren't you. That bloody rock wants you to pick it up. Well you fight it. I'll keep your audience distracted. Jonathan hoped his firm pat on Clark's back conveyed some of the encouragement he wanted to say. "Lex, are you okay? That girl looked like she was about to rip your arm clean off." Jonathan moved away from his son and tried to block Lex's view.
Lex could hear the dispatcher from 911 chattering in his ear, but he closed the phone. "Mr. Kent, I'm fine. I've got the bruise of the century, but I don't think anything's broken." Something was wrong here. Clark was not acting much like himself. The kid was overprotective to a fault. Why was he just standing over there not moving? Not to mention, Mrs. Kent was running around like an overexcited chicken. Lex tried to make his way past Mr. Kent to check on Clark, but Jonathan wouldn't get out of his path. This was ridiculous.
"You should really sit down and relax, Lex. You're hurt," Jonathan said.
Martha came out the back door still running. The metal box was mashed under her arm and she came to a skidding stop next to Clark. She snatched the blue rock up and sealed it with its twin. Clark sagged visibly. Martha came shakily to her feet and touched her son tentatively. "You're okay, we'll get through this, whatever it is," Martha whispered. "Now get over there and check on Lex before he tackles your father to find out what's wrong with you."
"Right." Time to put a bright face on it. Time to make everything look normal. "Lex, did she hurt you?" Clark joined Lex and his father. He couldn't let the panic building in him show. That girl wasn't an alien. She just couldn't be. Why would they leave him for over ten years and come back?
Lex felt a familiar prickling and the hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. Instincts honed over years of living with Lionel Luthor, were singing. He was being lied to. "Like I just told your dad, I'm fine," Lex said. "You're going to have to be careful though. That girl is insane and she's fixated on you. Extreme strength and the ability to fly can't exactly be considered good attributes in a stalker. And while we're on the topic of the lovely 'Eradicator', the police should be here shortly." The Kents were hiding something. Suspicions that he'd been fighting since Clark first fished him out of the river, flooded back. What are you really Clark Kent? Are you another meteor-mutant? You handle it better than most if you are. "Are you okay, Clark? You seem a little..."
Clark forced himself to smile. "She freaked me out. Unlike you, I've never had my very own stalker."
Stop, Lex commanded himself. He was such an ass sometimes. Clark was Clark. He didn't deserve the suspicion Lex couldn't seem to completely shake. Everyone wasn't a liar. The Kents wouldn't know how to lie. "I wonder if the police will believe the stalker 'flew' away?"
Jonathan coughed and shook his head. "I'm not particularly interested in being committed."
"Then we're agreed," Lex said. "Stalkers don't fly. They run away."
Clark nodded and looked off into the night where the Eradicator had disappeared. Smallville was the land of the weird and unexplained. Just because she flew didn't make her an extraterrestrial.
The Eradicator watched from a distance as the police came and went. She listened to the carefully worded explanations of what happened. She listened and she learned. Leaving her Kryptonian for a short time hadn't been simply to help him adjust. It was also an opportunity for her to study him. When she understood whom he had become, she would know how best to save him from this place.
Jonathan dropped heavily onto the living room sofa next to his wife and massaged his temples. Martha had the lead box carrying the blue stone secure in her lap with her hands folded over it protectively. "I thought Lex Luthor was going to stay all night," Jonathan said.
"He couldn't exactly leave until the police let him," Clark said. "I don't think he suspects anything's up. He thinks she..."
"The Eradicator," Martha interjected. That name was so in sync with her perception of what the crazy woman was trying to do that Martha had embraced it immediately. The Eradicator wanted to destroy her family. It wanted to take her child.
"Right, the Eradicator, Lex thinks she's a psycho. He's probably right too. Why would anyone come for me after all this time?" Clark waited for his parents to agree with him. He needed them to agree. "It's just a freaky coincidence."
Martha nodded but there were tears in her eyes. "Did you see how fast she was. It was just like you Clark."
"She flew. I don't fly," Clark said. I'm scared Clark wanted to scream. Can't you just tell me that she isn't who she says she is. Lie for God's sake.
"Maybe you can. A month ago would you have been looking through walls?" Jonathan said. "We have to take this very seriously."
"Just wait, she didn't claim to be like Clark," Martha said. "She said that he was the last of her creators."
"What are you saying? You think she's for real?" Clark asked.
"I'm afraid that she is what she says," Martha whispered. She came to her feet and wrapped her boy in a hug. She squeezed as tight as she could. "I don't want to lose you."
"You never could," Clark whispered. "It doesn't matter who she is."
