Author's note: Originally, I used a demon from the DC comics in this one, but I changed my mind on that, and decided to use the name of a demon from season 1 of Supernatural instead. It was similar and made more sense, so if you've read this chapter before, then you will probably notice the change.

Chapter 9

Unwelcome Guests

When Gary Watts failed to return to the carnival grounds the night before, Roger Nixon made a run for it, and just in time too. Not long after making his escape, Sheriff Ethan Miller and a couple of his deputies showed up to check out the place. Right away, they found evidence of Chloe's claims and reached the conclusion that he was preparing to kidnap Lana as well.

After leaving town, the crooked journalist headed twenty miles south and got onto I-70, before making a beeline eastward towards Metropolis. He was about fifteen miles west of Lawrence when he looked down at his gas gauge and discovered that he was almost empty.

"Son of a bitch," Roger mumbled.

Then he pulled off at the next exit and stopped at a gas station that shared the building with a fast-food restaurant. Since it was late at night, the place was mostly empty, but there were a couple drivers pumping their gas when Roger pulled in. After parking his car beside the pump and filling up the tank, he headed inside to pay for the gas and grabbed a bottle of water for himself while he was at it.

While he waited for the two people ahead of him to finish up by the front counter, a Kansas Highway Patrol Officer pulled up behind Roger's car and illuminated his license plate with the patrol car's headlights. Roger glanced out at the pumps through one of the building's storefront windows, and he started to panic when he saw the trooper get out of his vehicle.

After the first of the two customers ahead of Roger went back outside, the guy directly ahead of him stepped up to the counter and proceeded to buy one of almost every lottery ticket in the store. Anxious to get out of dodge before the trooper saw him, Roger started tapping the bottom of his water bottle against the palm of his hand.

Feeling frustrated, Roger grumbled under his breath, "Just freaking buy em all, why don't ya?"

The guy that was still paying for his gas and lottery tickets, a middle-aged man with gray sideburns, glanced back with a sneer. "In a hurry, are ya, pal?"

Roger forced a smile at the older man. "No, take your time."

The other customer turned back towards the cashier, and then Roger hurried off to find a bathroom he could hide in. He found one near the back of the gas station and quickly slipped inside, just as the Kansas State Trooper entered the building through the entryway door beside the service counter.

After the door shut behind him, Roger started to pace back and forth nervously while he gripped his water bottle tightly in both hands. "Think Roger! There has to be a way out of this. Think!"

While Roger tried to come up with a plan, the ceiling lights in the bathroom started to flicker, which caused him to stop pacing and look up. He furrowed his brow in confusion, as the lights continued to blink on and off, and he assumed that this was a maintenance problem, rather than something supernatural.

"What the hell?" Roger asked himself, just before the lights went out completely, and then he screamed, "What the hell?! What's going on in here?!"

For about ten seconds or so, the entire bathroom was filled with blackness, but when the lights came back on, Roger turned around and was surprised to see that the Kansas State Trooper was in the bathroom with him. Startled, he dropped his water bottle and backed up against one of the stall doors with a frightened yelp.

The officer was a tall, muscular, blonde-haired guy with a buzzcut, and he grinned at Roger in a way that was very unsettling before he asked, "Are you Roger Nixon?"

"I-I, uh, I," Roger stammered. "I-I-I'm not-"

The state trooper started laughing when he saw the terror on Roger's face, and his deep voice was so loud that it echoed deafeningly off the tile walls in the bathroom. "Don't worry, Nixon. I'm not here to hurt you or arrest you."

Still shaking at the knees, Roger stammered, "Y-you… You're not?"

The trooper chuckled. "No."

Suddenly, to Roger's horror, the state trooper's eyes turned black, revealing that he was in fact not even human. "Your eyes! What's wrong with them?"

The demon possessing the trooper completely ignored the question as it continued to stare at Roger with that terrifying grin on its face. "I can help you, but there's something I need from you first."

"Wh-what do you want?" Roger asked.

"Your body," said the demon, before tipping the trooper's head back and smoking out of his mouth.

Roger screamed when the smoke blasted out of the officer's mouth, allowing the demon to fly straight inside and take over his body. Once it had possessed him, the state trooper swooned and nearly fell over, before seemingly coming out of a daze and putting his hand over his forehead.

Feeling quite disorientated, the trooper blinked his eyes a couple times, and a puzzled look appeared on his face as he lowered his hand and stared into Roger's black eyes. "What the hell happened?"

"I took you for a ride," the demon answered. "That's what happened."

Then the trooper furrowed his brow at Roger. "Wait a minute… You're Roger Nixon! I'm gonna have to take you in."

As he reached for the sidearm that was holstered on his belt, the demon possessing Roger laughed. "Is that so?"

Keeping his hand on the gun, the trooper said, "Turn around and put your hands on the back of your head. You have the right to remain silent!"

Then the demon lifted one of his hands and the moment it did so, the state trooper gasped and clutched at his chest. Deep inside his body, the muscles tightened around his heart and lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and he started to become disoriented once more, just like he had been when the demon first switched bodies.

Taking a few steps back, the trooper stumbled and nearly fell, before he gasped, "What… are you?"

Ignoring the officer's question, the demon just stood there and watched as the trooper lost his balance and landed on his side on the floor tiles. Then it slipped past the fallen cop and hurried up towards the front counter, where it pretended to panic and did its best to impersonate Roger. The customer that bought all the lottery tickets was long gone, and the salesclerk was alone behind the counter.

"The trooper needs help!" the demon cried. "I think he's having a heart attack! Hurry up and call nine one one!"

Frightened by the urgency in Roger's voice, the clerk behind the cash register immediately pressed the panic button just below the register, right before the demon turned away and hurried out of the building.

"Hey, wait!" the salesclerk cried. "Wait!"

The demon ignored him as it returned to Roger's car and got in. Without even caring about the dying trooper or the unpaid gas bill, the demon stuck the key in the ignition and fired it up.

As soon as the motor rumbled to life, the demon looked at its new meat suit in the rearview mirror and smiled. "Don't worry, boss. Now that we know why Nicodemus was so interested in Freakville, we get to have it all to ourselves!"

Then the demon pulled away from the pump and headed for the entrance ramp to get onto the westbound side of the freeway. Since it had no interest in going to Metropolis (which is where Roger had been planning to sell information about Clark to Lionel Luthor), it headed back towards Smallville.

The next morning, Lex was sitting on one of the couches by the fireplace in the library and he had the Smallville funeral home director on the phone. He was in the process of arranging a memorial service for Pamela, and he wanted to know how long it would take for her body to arrive from the morgue.

After the funeral home director filled him in, Lex said, "Thank you for everything. Name your price and I'll have the check on your desk this afternoon."

Once everything was settled, Lex hung up his phone, but then the double doors to the library opened and Roger Nixon stepped inside, which caused him to jump up off the couch.

Suddenly furious that Roger had returned to the mansion after everything that happened, Lex cried, "What the hell are you doing here, Roger?!"

Roger smirked at him. "I came to have a drink, but I get the feeling I'm not welcome here anymore."

Lex tossed his flip phone down onto the glass coffee table beside him and scoffed. "Then I'm sure I don't need to tell you to get the hell out of my house."

Roger put the tips of his fingers together and took a couple steps back. "I take it you've heard the nasty rumor that's been spread around about me."

"What rumor?" Lex asked. "The one about you hiring Deputy Watts to kidnap Chloe Sullivan? Can't say I have."

Roger chuckled when he heard the sarcasm in Lex's voice. "It isn't true. I swear."

Lex took a menacing step towards Roger and narrowed his eyes at the slimeball. "Give me one good reason why I should believe you."

Roger stared back at him in silence, which caused Lex to shake his head and smile, before reaching down to retrieve his phone from the table. "That's a very compelling argument you've got there. Maybe I oughta give Sheriff Miller a call and have him escort you out of here."

Lex flipped his phone open and started to dial the number for the sheriff's station, but then Roger finally broke the silence. "Believe me or don't believe me, I really don't care. I only came to tell you that I'm dropping the investigation on Clark Kent."

Lex stopped dialing the phone number and glanced up at Roger. "You were supposed to drop the investigation a long time ago. I told you the Kents were off limits!"

"I know," Roger sneered. "But I thought I was onto something, and it turned out I was wrong. Clark's a normal seventeen-year-old kid, just like you said, aside from his habit of saving lives, that is."

"I guess it's settled then," Lex said, right before he slipped the phone into one of his pants pockets. "You can let yourself out. I'll even give you a head start before I call the Sheriff."

Pretending to be offended, Roger asked, "Why the hostility, Lex? I thought we were pals."

Lex looked at him like he was an idiot but said nothing. Then Roger shrugged. "I understand. I betrayed your trust and spied on your friends for nothing. For that, I am truly sorry."

Not believing a single word that came out of the journalist's mouth, Lex smirked at him. "Good-bye, Roger."

Roger started walking away, but just as he was about to leave the library, he turned back. "By the way, what did you find during your field survey?"

Lex turned away and looked up at the stained-glass windows behind his desk with a sigh. "What came down that day was just a meteor. Nothing more."

"Good to know." Roger said before heading out into the hallway and returning to his car out front.

What Lex didn't realize, however, was that Roger Nixon was no longer in control of his own body. After the demon that possessed him pulled up to the gate in Nixon's car, Darius looked back at him with black eyes and an evil grin before letting him out. Then Roger's demon said farewell to the possessed guard, before heading out to see Stephen Hamilton.

The demon possessing Roger pulled into the driveway in front of Stephen Hamilton's old barn. There was a car sitting out in front of the house, so it was obvious that the scientist was still there, but the evil spirit was surprised that he hadn't completely relocated to Metropolis just yet.

Inside of the barn, Stephen was setting up his altar to summon a demon. A dark cloth was draped over the top and the white symbol of Nicodemus was sewn into it. He started dropping ingredients into a bowl at the very same moment that Roger forced his way inside, which startled him, and he turned around with a terrified yell.

Stephen tried to hide what he was doing with his arms, but it didn't take a genius to realize that he was messing with something dangerous. "Nixon! What the hell are you doing out here?!"

Still pretending to be Roger, the demon stroked his chin and pointed at Stephen's project. "I came to discuss Lex's field survey, but… I can see you're busy."

"Yes, very!" Stephen cried. "Now get the hell out of here!"

Finding it far too difficult to maintain a straight face, the demon laughed. "I see you've made a lot of preparations! Thanks for saving me the trouble."

Stephen didn't seem to understand, so the demon put his fingertips together and showed him his black eyes. "You were trying to summon Nicodemus again, correct?"

Stephen went from being confused, to angry almost immediately. "Where the hell is he?!"

The demon chuckled. "That's exactly where he went. The Winchesters and their friends exorcized him."

"Like the priest in the settlement?" Stephen asked.

The demon grinned at him. "Yes. My name's Tom, and Nicodemus is an old friend of mine."

"Tom?" Stephen asked, sounding confused. "That's it? Just... Tom?"

Ignoring the question, Tom chuckled. "If you could tell me what you and Lex found in that field, it would be very helpful."

Fearing what might happen if he continued stalling, Stephen told him about the octagonal disk that he sent to Cadmus Labs for analysis. "It had some strange symbols on it that I couldn't read. I tried to decipher them, but they're not from any language on this Earth."

Tom smirked and turned his head slightly. "Interesting. Can you describe these symbols for me?"

Stephen described them with as much detail as he could remember, and something in the demon's eyes told him that they sounded familiar to him.

Stephen pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You know where they're from! Tell me!"

Tom held up his hand and used his telekinesis to pin Stephen against a nearby wooden post. "I don't know exactly where they're from, but I've heard of them. Long ago, before Nicodemus started playing around with his flowers in the Morley Settlement, the local natives in the area were under threat from a very ancient and powerful demon. Rumor has it, the hunter that came to stop it was from a different world. Some of my kind believe he was an angel. Others aren't so sure."

"What do you think he was?" Stephen groaned, as he struggled against the demon's power.

"The symbols on the disk aren't from Heaven," Tom explained. "And angels don't use octagonal disks."

Then the demon finally withdrew his hand, allowing Stephen to go free, and then the angry scientist said, "That's not what I asked, you black-eyed bastard."

"It's the answer you're going to get! I need to see the disk. When you're done analyzing it, bring it to me."

"But I can't!" Stephen protested.

Tom sneered at him. "Because of Lex?"

"Because of Jonathan Kent's nephew, Dean!"

Tom laughed and Stephen became even more furious. "Don't laugh at me, you son of a bitch!"

The demon chuckled. "You're afraid of Dean Winchester, but yet… You were going to summon Nicodemus anyway? How much more dangerous would it be for you to work with me?"

"I don't know!" Stephen cried. "All I know is, if Dean finds out that I'm working with demons, he's gonna come after me! And since I'm sure Clark Kent is a hunter too, he won't be coming alone."

"Clark is much more than that, Doctor," Tom said. "If Nixon is right about him, then there's a chance he's not even from this world."

Stephen raised his eyebrows and blinked his eyes in surprise. "Wait, are you saying that kid is an alien?"

"If a ship really did come down during the meteor shower, then it's probably his," the demon explained. "For now, I need you to keep this to yourself."

Stephen nodded. "I will, don't worry."

Then Tom grinned at him. "For your own good, you'd better. If you utter a single word about this to anyone other than me, I'll skin you alive and make you eat your own flesh."

Stephen was terrified because he knew that demons wouldn't hesitate to put their threats into action, so he agreed to the terms. Once the analysis results came back for the metal alloy the disk was made of, the scientist planned to lie to Lex about its origins and bring it back to the barn.

"After you bring me the disk, we'll summon Nicodemus," Tom said. "Do you have everything you need?"

Stephen shook his head. "I'm missing a couple of ingredients. These things aren't easy to track down."

"Don't worry about that," Tom said with a chuckle. "Give me a list and I'll bring the ingredients to you."

Even though Stephen was still skeptical about the possibility of Clark being an alien, he knew that Tom had no reason to lie about it. For the time being, he agreed to go along with the demon's plan, until they could summon Nicodemus. After that, their plan was to find Clark's ship, and based on everything Roger knew about the Kents, Tom was fairly certain that it was hidden somewhere on their farm.