Smallville had been plagued with small earthquakes all afternoon and no one, not even seismologists, could figure out why.
Chloe and Emmeline quickly met up and drove over to the Kent farm when neither of them could get in contact with Clark or Lana.
"I've left you like 10 messages," Chloe said urgently as she burst inside, interrupting the two of them kissing.
"We've-we've been, um…busy," Clark told her with an awkward but pleased smile.
"Oh, that's nice. While you two have been 'busy', we've been practicing cardiac arrest. Are you okay?"
"Better than ever," Lana answered. "Why?"
"I don't know. Only because there have been constant seismic tremors all around Smallville since 2:00."
Clark and Lana shared an awkward look.
"That was probably us," Clark said sheepishly.
Chloe's brow furrowed. "What do mini earthquakes have to do with you guys?"
That was when Chloe and Emmeline realized that Lana was only wearing one of Clark's flannel shirts.
"Oh."
Emmeline's face reddened and she considered just walking right out the door to get out of this situation and pretend it never happened.
Chloe looked at Lana. "I thought you said you couldn't…"
"Yeah, we normally can't," Lana answered quietly.
"You guys talk about this?" Clark asked, mortified.
"What? It's just Chloe and Em," she told him as she went over to the fridge to put the orange juice away.
"Awkward," Chloe said.
When Lana tried to open the fridge, the handle snapped off in her hand.
"Whoa, someone's been eating their Wheaties."
Lana turned around with a look of embarrassment. "Um, I'll go get a screwdriver."
The moment she was gone, Chloe put her purse on the counter and zeroed in on Clark. "Okay, we need a little explain-o."
"There was kryptonite and lightning," Clark explained. "And it happened so fast, it's not really clear. I mean, the transfer wasn't complete. I still have my powers. But now Lana does too."
"Clark, been here, done this, and it doesn't end well. Hey, the last human you souped up became a Psych 101 case study."
"Yeah, but Lana's different. We know her. It's not gonna happen."
"Okay, Eric Summers was just a geek who collected rocks and then ended up in an asylum. And I hate to bring this up, but when your dad took your powers…"
"…his heart failed."
"So whatever extracurricular benefits this could have, they don't outweigh what could happen to Lana."
"Can you guys keep an eye on her for me?"
"Don't worry about it, Clark. We won't let Lana out of our sight."
No one knew it, but all of this talk worried the absolute daylight out of Emmeline. She had been showing signs of having Clark's powers too. Had she and Clark come in contact with kryptonite and electricity somehow and some of his powers had transferred to her just like they had to Lana? It wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. And it would honestly make her feel a lot better if that was the case because then at least she knew there would be a way to get rid of them.
Should she say something to Chloe and Clark while they were on this subject? Would they be as worried about her as they were about Lana if they knew?
She decided now wasn't the best time. They should all be focusing on Lana who had only had Clark's powers for a few hours. Emmeline had been showing signs of powers for a few months, and as annoying and inconvenient as they were, she knew that she would be fine if she waited just a little bit longer.
But what if something bad happened to her because of all this, just like Eric Summers or Clark's dad?
"I so needed this girls' night out," Chloe smiled as she picked up their drinks from the Talon counter.
"You don't have to cover," Lana said. "Clark asked you guys to babysit me."
"No. No, he didn't."
Lana pointed to her ear. "Super-hearing."
"Right."
Emmeline's brush with that ability had been so crippling that she'd had a migraine for a full day. Whatever her feelings about possibly having these abilities, she was admittedly a little jealous that Lana already had a handle on hers.
Chloe sat them all down at one of the tables. "Look, Lana, um…I don't want to ruin your super-high or anything, but you just…have to watch yourself."
"Chloe, I wish you could know how this feels. It's like you can do anything. Like nothing can hurt you. Like you're untouchable. I've been given a gift. I can break into any locked door, slip into any room unnoticed, eavesdrop on any conversation."
It worried Emmeline that Lana's mind immediately went to the secret-exposing side of her new powers rather than the life-saving one.
"So what? You're passing on the circus so you can go and join the KGB?"
"You're always after the hard-to-get articles. You can't tell me that you wouldn't use these powers if you had them."
Emmeline's possible abilities had only shown themselves once each, and the idea of having them at all terrified her. If she was able to use them all the time rather than intermittently, would she feel that same kind of invulnerability and power as Lana? What would she do with them? How would they affect her?
Chloe had to be feeling the same kind of internal dilemma thanks to her own meteor ability cropping up. But at least it appeared that she only had one rather than several. Not that that made it any easier.
"Yeah, but you're not a reporter," Chloe said.
"I may not be…but I do have a story to tell."
"What's churning in that head of yours, Lana?"
Clark walked into the Emergency Room at Smallville Medical Center and found Lois, Chloe, and Emmeline sitting in the waiting room. Lois held a bandage against her shoulder.
"Hey," Clark said.
"Hey, word of advice there, Smallville," Lois answered in obvious pain. "Don't forget flowers on Valentine's Day."
"Lana did this to you?"
"Yeah, no offense, but your girlfriend has issues. Not to mention an Amazonian left hook."
"She must be juiced with meteor rock," Chloe said as she stood up to give Clark a knowing look that silently told him to go with her on the cover story.
"Can you remind me again why I decided to move to the mutant capital of the world?"
"Can we just put a moratorium on that word, please?"
"Sorry, Miss P.C. Barometer. I'm just hoping that Lana's only temporarily a member of the socially challenged."
"She did this all over a story?" Clark asked.
Lois nodded. "On Lex. I mean, I've heard of vengeful, but the look in Lana's eyes…made Medea look like Mother Hubbard."
"Lex said that Lana broke into his safe. But he didn't exactly let me in on what she found."
"It was some project named Scion, and as soon as I'm bondo'd back together, I'm gonna find out what it is."
"Do you know which way she was headed?"
"Sorry, my face was polishing the hardwood floors."
"Miss Lane, the doctor will see you now," a nurse called.
"Yeah, see you." Lois got up from her chair and went back to one of the exam rooms.
Clark turned to Chloe and Emmeline. "Lana would never hurt Lois intentionally. As long as she has these powers, she's growing more aggressive. We have to find her."
Emmeline had been frustrated with Chloe for her insatiable desire to rid herself of her possible meteor-infected abilities even when it put her at risk, but now she truly understood why. After seeing and hearing the way Lana reacted to having Clark's powers, Emmeline was extremely worried that if they developed any further with her, she might also hurt someone unintentionally on a power-high. If there was a way to get rid of her growing abilities before that happened, she would also take it in a heartbeat.
It also made much more sense why Chloe was always so reluctant to talk to anyone about it. How could she find the courage to tell Clark and Chloe about what was happening to her after all that Lana had done because of those same powers?
Clark quickly headed over to Chloe's desk at the Daily Planet where Emmeline was sitting with her laptop trying to help. "Guys, Lana didn't pick up. Any headway on the location of Scion?"
"Nada," Chloe answered. "I mean, it's possible that Lex has finally learned to cover his tracks."
"Or what if, for once, Lex doesn't have anything to hide?"
Chloe looked at him like he was crazy. "Yeah, maybe when I hit 5'10' and Prince Harry sweeps me off my feet. Clark, Lex hasn't changed."
"What if having these powers is amplifying Lana's true feelings? Maybe this is all in her head."
"Clark, are you pushing this theory because you really want to believe in Lex's metamorphosis or because you're already trying to exonerate Lana?"
"…Do you know what it feels like to wonder if someone close to you…isn't who you think?"
"Did you really just ask us that question?"
"Well…look, I haven't been willing to admit it…but ever since Lana came back, she's been different. There's something darker about her. Lex said that she's hiding things from me. Have you heard of this Isis Foundation?"
Chloe and Emmeline looked at each other.
"Clark, I think there's something you need to see," Chloe told him.
She and Emmeline took Clark to the office that housed the Isis Foundation where they'd been just a week ago.
"How long has being Lana doing this?" Clark asked.
"She started the foundation a few months ago," Chloe answered.
"Months?"
"She was trying to help people who were victimized by LuthorCorp and their experiments."
"And she asked me to run some of the counseling sessions as part of my practicum once those get off the ground," Emmeline said. "After everything that happened between us, I was glad of the olive branch."
"Why didn't she tell me about this?" Clark demanded.
"She thought you'd say it was too dangerous," Chloe told him as they went into the back office.
"She was right."
"Look, Clark, maybe she doesn't want you to make a big deal out of it. Maybe she wants to help people on her own terms."
Clark stared intently at the bookshelf on the right wall. Then he went up to it and pried it open to reveal a secret room with computers and monitors that all showed various rooms in Lex's mansion.
"Or she's secretly spying on Lex and she doesn't want us to know how totally depraved she is."
"Tell me you guys didn't know anything about this."
"Trust me, Clark, we had no idea that there was a La Femme Nikita lurking behind our little Florence Nightingale." Chloe went up to the computers. "I don't see anything about Scion in here."
Clark looked at the right screen. "What is this?"
"It's labeled 'Lex's mobile'. Do you think she's bugging him?"
"Can you rewind the track?"
Chloe worked her magic and they heard Lex's voice say, "Lana, what are you doing?"
There was the sound of glass shattering and Lex coughing, and then Lana's voice demanded, "Where's Scion?"
Lex's answer was hoarse and unclear so Chloe turned up the volume on his voice.
"Plant Number 4."
Clark was fortunately able to stop Lana from killing Lex at the location of Project Scion, which as it turned out was a project to track aliens. Which considering all that had happened in Smallville really wasn't all that surprising but nevertheless alarming. Then using some kryptonite and a powerful electric charge, Clark took away Lana's powers. She was now thankfully back to her normal human self.
Lana stepped into her secret room at the Isis Foundation to find that all of her monitors only showed black and white static.
Chloe and Emmeline stepped into back office behind her.
"I didn't realize Big Sister was watching," Chloe said.
"I guess Lex cut me off," Lana replied.
"It wasn't Lex."
Lana looked at her in shock. "After everything he's done, I have a right to protect myself."
"It would have been nice to know about the impressive operation you're running."
"I'm sorry that I lied. I didn't think that either of you would understand if you saw the whole picture."
"Well, it's in crystal-clear HD now. Isis seemed to make a lot of sense when I thought you were just out to help people. In textbook talk, Isis is the goddess of love and life and healing. She even marched to the ends of the earth to help jumpstart the man she loved. I want Clark to have that kind of loyalty in his life. But I'm just not sure it's from you."
"I would do anything for Clark."
"Even kill. What a lucky guy. What the textbook left out is that Isis is also the goddess of the Underworld. She's responsible for bringing the great god Ra to his knees."
"You believe that I would do that to Clark?"
"Not intentionally. But I realize now that you're capable of it. You should just know that we're not gonna let that happen."
Chloe started out towards the door.
Emmeline took a step towards Lana. "I've been passionate about a cause like this ever since I figured out what I wanted to do in my senior year of high school. And if that's what this continues to be, I'll stay and help. But if this ever becomes a front for anything less, I'll find another way. I told you my trust in you was shaky. Don't break it again."
She left the room, and then she and Chloe exited the building and began walking down the sidewalk back to their respective jobs.
"You've been pretty quiet throughout all of this," Chloe said. "You okay?"
"Not really."
Chloe made her stop. "Me neither, but I…there's more, isn't there? Em, if there was something going on with you, you would tell me, right?"
"…I would ask that you trust me to tell you when the time is right."
Emmeline stared at the kitchen table.
With a deep breath, she put her hands under it, closed her eyes, and tried to focus.
When she opened her eyes again, she was holding the table up to eye level without exerting hardly any effort.
Emmeline quickly put the table back onto the floor and backed away, putting both of her hands to her mouth. She couldn't deny this anymore. Something was happening to her, and if she didn't figure out what it was, she could end up exactly like Lana.
She quickly picked up her cell phone. "Hannah, we need to meet."
Hannah had gone back to New York shortly after Lana's supposed death. As expensive as it was to get a plane ticket and a hotel to go back and forth between New York and Kansas, she didn't complain. After everything she'd done to Emmeline, the very least she could do was come when asked.
Shortly after getting settled into her hotel room, she heard a knock on her door. When she opened it, Emmeline came inside.
"Hi, Emmeline, it's good to see you," she smiled as she sat down at the small table in the corner of the room.
Emmeline wasted no time in getting to the point. "Hannah, I need you to tell me about my dad."
Hannah pressed her lips together and sighed. "Emmeline—"
"You can't dodge the question anymore! I need to know now!"
"It's…complicated."
"I am doing things I shouldn't be able to do, and I don't know why!"
Her mother looked at her for a few seconds as if trying to process those words and then closed her eyes and turned her head away from her. "He said he fixed that," she said quietly.
"What?"
Hannah shook her head. "I must've rehearsed this conversation a thousand times. But never like this." She took a deep breath and finally looked up at her. "Your father…wasn't exactly from around here. And by here…I mean that…he wasn't from this…planet."
"You're telling me my dad was an alien?"
Hannah nodded.
"And…what was the name of this planet?"
With a heavy sigh, she answered, "Krypton."