Authors note: Sorry for the long delay. I couldn't think of anything to write but eventually I just made myself sit and do it. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews, they really made my day!

One year later

-Lex's point of view-

He was starting to go insane.

Well, more insane than he had been before this whole fiasco had occurred. The fiasco that was very much not Clark Kent.

One would think that the person impersonating Clark would have done a bit more research before delving into body snatching. It made Lex furious at himself that it had taken him six months to notice the differences.

Now they were all too apparent.

The new Clark was suave and very much in love with Lana; they'd been dating for a year now. He ditched Chloe, saying that she was like an annoying mosquito, always delving into things that she shouldn't be delving into. Which was true, but it didn't used to bother Clark. Chloe was probably too close to figuring out the truth about pseudo-Clark. There were the little things too of course. Not as much flannel, saying things that Clark would never say.

And no one was noticing. Yeah, Clark had graduated so Martha and Jonathon didn't see him as much but to not realize that their son was an imposter? It was absolutely ridiculous. If Lex had any hair when this began it would most certainly be gone now because of the many idiotic people that Lex had to put up with.

Sometimes he thought about shouting it to the world, or at least telling the Kents. But then he remembered. Fake -Clark had all of Clark's strengths and none of his weaknesses.

If only he could find where Clark was.

It was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth, and the inside of the earth for that matter, because Lex had checked there too.

"Mr. Luthor? Clark Kent is here to see you. Should I send him in?" Ah, yet another thing that was not Clark-like. Asking the damn butler to come and see him.

"Clark knows that he is always welcome in the mansion. Make sure to tell him that when you send him in," Lex answered. Thirty more seconds of blessed freedom from the monstrosity. Hopefully all it'll want is money and then Lex could send it on its way.

"Hey Lex! How's it going?" The thing had the audacity to smile at him as it invaded his personal space.

"The usual, trying to avoid Smallville's meteor freak of the week. How's the job at the Planet? Lois Lane giving you trouble?" Lois Lane, Lex's own personal form of revenge. It was nice knowing the higher ups at the Planet. It allowed for certain arrangements to be made.

"Lane…yeah that's actually what I want to ask you about. I was wondering if you could do me a favor? I want a new partner. Lois is completely and utterly crazy and it's really not working for me. I figured you knew someone at the Planet and could fix that for me?"

Here come the puppy dog eyes. Yep. There they were. These next few months were going to be fun.

"I'm sorry but I have no interest in newspapers. They're a dying breed. I never had any use for them anyways. I'm sure if you stick it out you'll get promoted out the bullpen."

"Come on Lex, you can't honestly expect me to believe that you know no one that works at the Planet?"

"On the contrary Clark. I know many people who work there but none of them have any say in who works with who. Now, if you like someone to bring you coffee I'm sure Jimmy Olsen would be happy to oblige."

The anger would come next, wait for it…

"God Lex, is everything a joke to you? I thought you were my friend." Replica-Clark shouted as it stalked out the door.

Yeah, Lex thought, he was Clark's friend. Which was why when he found Clark, he would get Clark a new partner.

And finding Clark was going to happen a whole lot sooner than he had previously thought. Pseudo-Clark had given him a brilliant flash of inspiration.

Lex knew who had taken Clark.

-Clark's point of view-

It was cold, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was too weak to break the restraints holding him to the lab table. Too weak to do anything but lie there like a pathetic little rag doll.

They had cut off his hand today.

Wanted to see if it would grow back. They put his wrist in one of those airlock containers that somehow kept the poison from flowing through his veins into his stump. Told him that if his hand did grow back and he tried to escape the container was rigged to an alarm that would set off a release of kryptonite.

His hand grew back.

It was absolutely amazing. Lex told him to try and escape. That maybe he could get through the door before the alarm was triggered.

Clark didn't try. His hand felt too good.

Which was a weird and totally stupid reason for not escaping but it was heaven.

No pain.

No pain at all. Just blissful airlock perfectness. No remembrance of the hand having been chopped off.

Besides, Lex was just the brave part of his mind. The part that made him a better person. Charging off to do stupid things. He didn't want to those things anymore.

Just wanted to lay back and concentrate on the fact that his hand was in heaven while the rest of his body was in hell.

But then the meteor rock that was in the rest of his system flowed into his hand and his little piece of silver lining disappeared.

That was okay though because maybe they'd chop off his foot tomorrow, or his entire arm.

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