-- Chapter 10 -- Ultimatum --
The sun spilled through the Kent's thin cotton curtains and over their bed. Between the sun and the little bronzed alarm clock rattling for all it was worth, Jonathan and Martha were out of bed quickly. Jonathan smiled at his wife and gestured for her to take the first turn in the bathroom. He'd never say it, but she looked rough, tired. She'd probably slept as little as he had.
"Go ahead, Jon. I want to peek in on Clark," Martha said. "I know I'm being a mother hen, just go." Martha shooed Jonathan toward the bathroom and slipped into her bathrobe. When Clark first came to them, she would start her day like this. She just couldn't believe he was going to be there in his bed. "Clark, rise and shine." Martha poked her head around the corner and it felt like her heart stopped. The bed wasn't slept in. Clark wasn't there.
Don't panic. There wasn't any reason to panic. Clark must have spent the night in the barn loft. No need to call out to Jonathan. She'd just run out there and check. Clark knew better than this. Martha took the stairs two at a time. This wasn't the time to panic. Where were her blessed boots? Martha started across the kitchen. She must have left them in the... The lead box was open on her table. Why was the box open? Two steps and she was gazing down into a half-empty lead box. One stone, why was there only one stone? "Jonathan!!"
Clark blinked against the sun and yawned. The corn stalks were waving in the breeze, alternately shading and exposing him. What was he doing sleeping in the corn? Clark sat up and stretched. Well he seemed to have slept well. Sometimes he couldn't make himself sleep at night. He just wasn't tired. Clark looked down at the blue rock in his hand and everything came rushing back. The Eradicator, the Kryptonium, it felt like a thousand pounds came crashing down on his shoulders. "Oh no." The sun was up, which meant his parents likely were as well. They probably hadn't noticed he wasn't in bed yet though.
"Clark?!"
Maybe they had noticed. "Hey, I'm here," Clark called. He shoved the piece of Kryptonium in his pocket.
On the porch, Martha sagged against her somewhat soggy husband at the sound of Clark's voice. "Okay, I overreacted," she whispered.
Jonathan squeezed Martha tight and Kissed her on the head. "I overreacted too. We really have to stop panicking. Clark is handling everything just fine. I'm sure there's a very good reason he spent the night outside with one of those rocks."
Clark came trotting up to the porch with a tentative smile plastered on his face. His hair was mussed into an unruly fan around his face, and there were corn leaves clinging to his clothes. "Morning."
All Martha's fear rolled together and flashed into motherly anger. "What do you have to say for yourself? You scared me and your father to death." Clark started to answer, but his mother shook her head at him. "Where is the rock? Why did you get it out?"
Clark dropped his eyes. He couldn't look at his parents and he definitely couldn't tell them about what happened in the corn. "The Eradicator came back last night and paid me a visit."
"What happened, son?" Jonathan said. "Are you okay?"
I saw my other parents and found out a little bit about what I am. "I'm fine, promise." Clark fished into his pocket and pulled out the stone. "See, I tamed the Kryptonium."
"The what?" Martha asked.
"Enough," the Eradicator said. She concluded her latest review of Chloe Sullivan's memories and compared them against her own perceptions of Kal-El. Different courses of action, plans, which would remove Kal-El from Earth, flashed through her mind. The straightforward tact, a physical confrontation, was too dangerous. Harming Kal-El in a permanent way was not an option. Likewise, she discarded the idea of using Kryptonite to restrain her Master. Coercion didn't need to be directly harmful to him. There was a planet full of delicate humans, creatures that held value in his eyes.
The Eradicator's sensors flashed to black. For a moment it seemed that she would cease to function... one millionth of a second then she was operating relatively normally again. She had made the decision to kill without directive from anyone. Her central processor should have disengaged permanently - another flaw. The Eradicator grinned, heady with emotion she was never supposed to feel. It was almost like being alive.
A little wire-bound notebook and a half-chewed pencil decorated the starched white hospital sheets over Chloe's legs. Loose bubbly handwriting filled the page in front of her, chronicling what she could remember of her attack in the woods.
Chloe nibbled at her thumbnail and wracked her brain for more information. She managed to get lost then there was a woman. Chloe couldn't remember good details about her though. She had thought she was pretty, dark-haired. That hadn't been weird though. She was speaking French? Not French, she wasn't speaking English. And then?
A sharp pain shot through Chloe's head and she draped her arm across her eyes. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she remember what happened? It was all just too bizarre, even for Smallville. "Chloe Sullivan" was in a "psych ward", and the doctors seemed to think she needed another day of observation. It made her wonder how disoriented she'd been when Clark brought her in. Had she been dangling from the ceiling?
At least Clark had been there to bring her in. She wasn't waking up on the street somewhere confused about how she got there. Memories of Metropolis, homeless people, the lost and the insane, floated in Chloe's mind. It was definitely better to be waking up confused in the hospital. "I want to know what happened."
"That's a good attitude to have, Ms. Sullivan," a man said from her doorway. He extended a hand to her and smiled.
Brown sports coat but not fancy, middle aged with blond hair, maybe a reporter, Chloe speculated, definitely not a doctor. After shaking hands, Chloe shrugged. "So how can I help you?"
"Detective Gadwall with the Smallville PD," He said. "I read over the statements from last night."
Chloe shook her head. "I know every one of the Smallville detectives, all three of them. You aren't one of them."
"I just transferred in. Jefferson and his family moved to Metropolis to be closer to his wife's job. The commute was killing her," Gadwall said.
Chloe gnawed on her lip. It was true, Jefferson had been trying to land a spot on the Metropolis PD for some time, and she hadn't actually seen him in weeks. "Can I see your badge?"
The man cringed. "Actually, this is pretty embarrassing, but they haven't given me a badge yet. I have the number though, and you can call the station if it would make you feel better."
Chloe debated momentarily, but shrugged. He looked honest anyway. "That'll be okay. How can I help you?"
"First off, I'm not actually on your case. I was assigned to the Kent case from last night," Gadwall said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little note pad.
"Kent case?" Chloe thought her heart was going to beat out of her chest. What had happened with the Kents? She could barely remember Clark by her bedside, holding her hand like a dutiful friend. Had something happened to him after leaving the hospital?
"I really didn't mean to scare you there. Everybody's fine. There was a disturbance over at the farm last night. A woman, description pretty close to what you gave us, made some wild threats at the Kent-boy, Clark. Nothing came of it really. Lex Luthor was out there and got himself a bit bruised up." Gadwall shrugged. "I guess I thought there might be a connection, all things considered: two disturbances in one night with similar perpetrators and in such a small town too."
"Sounds like a connection to me," Chloe said. Her reporter instincts kicked into gear and she actually smiled. "So what kind of information you got?"
After all the nonstop excitement, maybe it wasn't surprising that Clark missed the bus. He wasted entirely too much time explaining the mechanics behind the Kryptonium, well what he understood of the mechanics behind the Kryptonium. His parents didn't want to believe it was a reference tool, a library. Well they had reason to be worried, didn't they? He hadn't told them the truth about what had caused him to open the safely sealed lead box. They didn't know he'd taken the risk to see a couple formerly faceless people that weren't supposed to mean anything to him.
Dad had wanted him to stay close to home, but Clark had resisted. Skipping school was totally unappealing at the moment. He couldn't stand the thought of staying home and keeping up the lie. He'd had to claim three tests to get them to let him out the door. Why did he feel so guilty? He lied by omission every day of his life. He ought to be used to it.
"Not again." Technically he should probably be getting used to running into the figure blocking his path too. Clark came to a skidding stop in front of the Eradicator. She was smiling, and she dropped to her knees in front of him.
"It's time to leave, Kal-El," she said. "Come with me now."
Clark cringed and thanked his lucky stars that this encounter was happening en route to school instead of in homeroom. "Sorry, I'm not going anywhere." The Kryptonium had told him that the Eradicator wasn't supposed to be able to act without directions, so technically he should be able to tell her what to do. "My name is Clark. I want you to stop harassing me and my friends. Just, shut yourself off or whatever you do."
"That would not be in the best interest of Krypton. You can't stay here, Kal-El. I have the means to force you," the Eradicator said. "Must I force you?"
"Are you saying you're stronger than me? I thought you weren't going to hurt me?" Clark said. How strong was she? Would he be able to take her down?
"I won't ever hurt you." The Eradicator rose and caressed Clark's face. "I will eliminate the aboriginals you've become so attached to. Which should I start with? Chloe, Lana, Lex, Pete...or maybe your surrogate parents?"
It was a supreme act of will that stopped Clark from trying to knock this machine's head off. He wasn't allowed to get mad, never strike out in anger. He might hurt someone or at the very least expose the secret he was always hiding. Technically he hadn't broken that rule since kindergarten. "I won't let you hurt anyone." She was just a machine. He could hurt a machine. Clark threw an unbridled punch putting all his fear and disgust behind it.
"You can't stop me. You're too young, too weak." The Eradicator caught his fist and bent his arm backwards cruelly until the tendons strained and Clark dropped to his knees. "Will you come, or must I begin eliminating them?"
I can't stop her. She's too strong. I can't. Clark could see them, his parents, his friends at this insane machine's mercy. How did she know who those people were? How could she know who his closest friends and family were? "Please, no."
"Will you come?" The Eradicator betrayed no regret, remorse, or mercy with her monotone request. "Decide."
"Time, give me some time to think," Clark pleaded. It hurt, she was hurting him and he couldn't get away. Too strong... There had to be a way to fight her. He just needed enough time to figure it out.
"I gave you time to think and adjust, 7.63 hours to be exact. It is time to come or face the consequences."
"A day, give me one day," Clark hissed.
What matter a day? The Eradicator released his hand and nodded. "One rotation of this planet, then you will come."
