Clark, Emmeline, and Chloe all sat near Chloe's desk at the Planet, logging in overtime in a desperate attempt to find Brainiac and save Lana from his control.

"I'm sorry, Clark," Chloe helplessly apologized. "I've traveled halfway around the world via satellite. There's no trace of Kara and Brainiac."

"I can't let Lana sit in that asylum in pain," Clark said. "The only way to help her is to find Brainiac."

"I've tapped every radar screen known to mankind. I mean, there's no bogey or blip unaccounted for. It's like they just flew off the map."

"What about Brainiac's power sources? Check the electrical grid for any power surges again."

Chloe quickly typed some keys and pulled up a map of the country with various blinking dots. She turned her head when she heard multiple police sirens outside the window.

"Stay focused, Chloe."

"Busy night out there."

Jimmy and Lois rushed into the room, and every other person in the basement office hurried to put their coats on and get out.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked her cousin.

"Someone at LuthorCorp just jumped out their office window," Lois told her. "Rumor has it, it was Lionel Luthor."

Emmeline and Chloe shared a stunned look and quickly grabbed their jackets and headed for the door.

"Clark?" Chloe said when she saw Clark still staring at the map on her computer. "Let's go."

With a resigned sigh, Clark followed after them.

The three of them rushed up the stairs and out the front doors of the Planet then ran down the sidewalk to the huge LuthorCorp building next door.

There on the front steps rested a bloodied body covered by a yellow forensic sheet.

They watched from behind the police barricade as a detective lifted up the sheet so that Lex could positively identify the body. Sure enough, the body underneath was Lionel Luthor's.

Lex and Clark made eye contact, and Clark slowly followed him down the sidewalk with the barricade continuing to separate them. He tried to see if there was anything left of the friend he used to have that he knew was still inside him, but the glimmer of it was harder to find than it ever had been.

"Not that I wanna speak ill of the dead, but Lionel Luthor left a lot of damage in his wake, Clark," Chloe said softly. "Remember, he locked you in a kryptonite box?"

Clark started to lead them all back to the Planet. "Lionel did a lot of things, Chloe, but he'd never commit suicide."

"I don't know about that, Clark. He was beyond disturbed when he came to the Daily Planet today."

"He wasn't doing so hot when he came to see me at the clinic earlier either," Emmeline put in. "And that right there should be a red flag because he would never come to me unless something was seriously up."

"It doesn't mean he'd take his own life," Clark insisted. "He was pretty rattled the last time I saw him too. He was desperate to give me something, a locket."

"What does a locket have to do with Lionel Luthor falling 40 stories from his office window?" Chloe asked.

While Clark snuck into Lionel's office to see if he could find anything that explained how he'd died, Emmeline and Chloe returned to the Planet.

"This is so surreal," Emmeline said softly. "I didn't much care for the guy, but this…"

"I know," Chloe muttered as she sat down. She opened up her desk and then pulled out a small envelope with a Kryptonian symbol on it.

"What's that?"

"I'm not sure."

Something fell out of the envelope and when Chloe picked it up, they saw that it was a very fancy golden key.

"That 'V'," Emmeline noticed. "Isn't that the symbol for Veritas?"

"Yeah, I think you're right."

Through the glass double doors on their right, Emmeline could see Lex coming down the stairs. "Chloe."

Chloe quickly put the key back into her desk and closed it then hurried over and ran the envelope through the shredder. She turned to her right and there stood Lex with a terrifying and threatening aura completely surrounding him. "Lex. I'm so sorry about your father."

Lex smiled a little. "Thank you, Chloe. He visited you here tonight." He looked over at Emmeline. "Actually, word has it that he visited your place of employment too."

Emmeline wanted the ground to swallow her whole or for literally anything to happen so she could get out of this room. She had never been able to get comfortable around Lex since the beginning and with the person he had become in the last few years, her feelings of discomfort were even worse now.

How could her training have done so much for her confidence only for her to still feel like that scared little girl when she saw him? Had she even changed at all in the last two years? Or was she destined to remain weak like this for the rest of her life, powers or not?

"Only for a couple minutes," she said quietly, avoiding eye contact. "He didn't even come inside."

"He really wasn't himself at either places but especially when I saw him," Chloe said, taking the focus off Emmeline and putting it back onto her. Lex didn't need to know that Emmeline had seen Lionel here with her.

Lex looked at Chloe again. "I fear in his deluded state of mind, my father disposed of some valuable family heirlooms. Did he give you anything?"

Chloe picked up some files from her desk and went to the other side of the room. "Other than the feeling that something was definitely off? No. I mean, he was only here for a few minutes, and then to be honest, I got scared, so, I—"

"Have you checked your desk?"

Chloe turned around and though she tried to, she couldn't meet his eyes. "He didn't give me anything, Lex. I swear, he just came here to talk."

Looking at her directly, Lex popped open the drawer of Chloe's desk. Then he rummaged around for a second before picking up the fancy key. "This was my father's."

"I've never seen it before."

"Why were you hiding it from me?"

"Lex, if I knew it was yours, I wouldn't keep it from you."

"Why would he even give it to you?" Lex held the key up right in front of her face. "Do you know what this key is for?"

"Lex, Lionel wasn't in his right mind when he was here. I don't know why he left that."

"You're fired."

Emmeline gasped softly, but to Chloe's credit, she didn't even flinch.

Two people from Lex's team, a man and woman, walked into the room.

"Escort Miss Sullivan and Miss Brooks from the building," Lex ordered.

"Aren't you going to give me a second to clear out my private things?" Chloe demanded as she grabbed her jacket.

The man roughly grabbed one of hers and Emmeline's arms and practically dragged them towards the door.

"Your personal items will be boxed up and sent to your home."

"Lex, your name may be on the building, but that's my personal stuff. I have rights! If anything is missing, Lex, I swear, you won't hear the end of it!"

And with that, Chloe and Emmeline were forcibly kicked out of the Daily Planet.

Chloe received several voicemails that Jimmy had a photo proving that Lionel's death wasn't a suicide and that he'd sent the encrypted picture to the computers at the Isis Foundation. So that's where Chloe and Emmeline went. At this point, they didn't have anywhere else to go.

Not long after they got there, Clark came in through the door.

"Hey," Chloe said.

"Hey. Jimmy and Lois here?"

"Not yet, but Jimmy's message said he already sent the file, so I was about to get started."

"I got a message that Lionel left for me in his vault. Chloe, I think I know why he was killed. He was trying to protect me."

Chloe sighed and headed to the computers. "Lionel did say something terrible was coming."

"There's something on Earth that can be used to control me."

"Control you? As in, 'Do my bidding', like some sort of puppet? I mean, what could possibly pull your strings?"

"It's not kryptonite, is it?" Emmeline asked. "That pain is bad enough to make you do anything." When she realized that it sounded like she was speaking from experience, she quickly added, "At least I'm assuming considering how I've seen you react to it and the fact that it can kill you."

"I don't think so," Clark answered. "I think it's something that might completely overtake me, mind and body. And whatever it is, it takes two keys to unlock."

Chloe turned to look at him. "Clark, when Em and I went back to the Daily Planet tonight…there was a key in my desk. Lionel left it there for you."

"Where is it?"

"Lex took it. I was trying to hide it from him, but then…he fired me." At Clark's surprised and regretful face, she continued, "Which is fine because I wanted to get out of that black hole anyway, but…besides, we don't have time to talk about my 9-to-5 right now. So you think that that mystery man was after the locket?"

"I don't think our mystery man is much of a mystery at all. Considering that Lex went to the Daily Planet tonight, the same night that his father died…and fired you over that key. How long 'til we get an ID on this picture?"

"Jimmy wasn't kidding when he said there isn't a lot of photo in this photograph. I mean, it's gonna take me at least a couple of hours."

"Keep working on it."

Clark zoomed out of the room, and Emmeline guessed he was heading to Lex's to try to retrieve the key he'd taken.

"Since I'm not going to be of any use here, I think the both of us could use some coffee. So I'm going to go down the street and grab some. Maybe get some takeout while I'm at it."

"Sounds good, thanks," Chloe answered, her eyes on the computer screen.

Once outside, Emmeline took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She had so many emotions zooming through her brain that she wanted to punch a wall but couldn't because she might bring the building down. How did Clark possibly manage to deal with his emotions when he had such power inside him? She had always known he saw his powers as a burden sometimes, but she hadn't truly realized how difficult it must've been for him all this time.

Chloe was going to be a while, so she took her time walking down the street and going to some shops to try to clear her head and bring her down from the emotional high.

For the thousandth time, she thought about how she needed to tell Clark about her father and what was going on with her. But the idea of it was terrifying. Not only would that make everything that much more real, but sharing something like that with him would change their relationship forever, and maybe not for the better.

But she couldn't keep this a secret from him forever. Eventually, he was either going to put the pieces together himself or catch her in the act since she'd used her powers several times now both by accident and on purpose. She would really prefer that he hear her say the words first before seeing her in action.

For someone who was a psychology major, Emmeline realized just how terrible she was at following her own studies. Not only had she been in fierce denial about her having powers for the longest time, now she was putting off a conversation that should've happened months ago because she was scared of what might happen. If she had been her own psychologist, she would've silently been quite frustrated at her patient's poor choices throughout the last year. She wondered how many other psychologists never actually followed their own advice…

It was a little over an hour later when Emmeline realized that she'd been gone long enough for Chloe to probably start worrying and that she also probably needed coffee and food now. She quickly paid for some drinks, burgers, and fries and headed back to the Foundation.

"Hey, Clark," she said as she came up to the building at the same time as him. "French fry?"

Clark took the offered food from her hand. "Thanks."

"Greasy food makes things just a little bit better."

The two of them rode up the elevator to the top floor and headed down the hall to the Foundation's office.

"Chloe?" Clark called. He hesitated when he saw the door open and entered slowly. "Chloe? Chloe, you in here?"

When they went over to the computers, they saw Chloe sprawled on the ground, groaning and rubbing her head.

Emmeline quickly put the food and drinks down on the table and rushed over to her.

"Chloe, what happened?" Clark asked frantically, helping her up off the ground. "You okay?"

"Somebody hit me," Chloe groaned. She looked up at the computers which were fuzzy and grainy. "They destroyed the picture. But you were right, Clark. I saw the picture. It was Lex."

"You mean…Lex pushed Lionel out the window?" Emmeline asked in disbelief. "He didn't fall?"

Clark didn't look surprised. "When I went to see Lex, I found Lionel's locket. But without that photograph, we can't prove anything."

"What about the key?" Chloe asked.

"I x-rayed the entire mansion. It's nowhere to be found." Clark looked around the room. "What happened to Jimmy and Lois? Where are they?"

"I don't know, and I'm worried. The last I heard, they were leaving the Daily Planet. If whoever attacked me followed the photo from there to here—"

"—he may have stopped Jimmy and Lois from leaving the building. I gotta go."

"Clark, if Lex has both of those keys, not only will he discover your secret, but he'll have total and complete power over you. Now that's not just your worst nightmare, it's everyone else's too. Be careful."

Clark nodded and zoomed out of the room again.

Clark secretly rescued Jimmy and Lois who had been locked inside a freezer by the person who had knocked Chloe out and erased the picture. Jimmy and Lois had later told the three of them that Lois had been shot by one of Lex's assistants, Gina, who had then proceeded to lock them in the freezer with the intention of coming back to free them after she'd destroyed the picture. Since she'd never returned, she'd either changed her mind and decided to let them freeze to death, she'd never intended to free them to begin with, or something had happened to her. Emmeline guessed that Gina either actually cared about Lex's wellbeing or had been paid off by him. The latter was more likely. Either way, she had disappeared since that night.

Early in the morning, Chloe and Emmeline walked up the steps to Clark's loft. A silver octagonal cylinder rested on his desk which he must've found from Lionel's office.

"Long night," Chloe said. "It's good to see the sun again."

Clark sighed and leaned back in his seat. "It's too bad Lionel's not here to see it."

"Lex closed the funeral to any and all guests. In other words, Lex is the only one invited."

"Lionel deserves better."

"At least we know how Lionel truly felt about you. I mean, he thought of you as his second son."

"Another person who treated me like a son and died because of it."

"Clark—"

"Jor-El died getting me on that ship. My dad died of a heart attack from the powers he took on protecting me. And now Lionel's been murdered for protecting my secret."

Emmeline had been so scared about how having powers was going to affect her that she had not yet considered how this was going to affect everyone around her too. Were her dad and Hannah going to be in danger because of her? Would something happen to Clark if she told him about everything? Could she live with herself if any of them died protecting her? How was she going to shoulder all of this?

"They did die for you, Clark," Chloe said firmly. "But ultimately, they died for all of us. There was a reason those men were in your life. Each of them added something to the man that you are today."

"How can Lex have done it? How does a son….murder his own father?"

"Total absence of love. Some say that's the definition of evil. You have to get those keys away from Lex, Clark, before he kills anyone else."

"He's not gonna have the chance. I won't let him."

Emmeline knocked on Hannah's hotel room door shortly after she'd left Clark's loft.

"You look exhausted," Hannah told her concerned. "Are you okay?"

"It's…been a really long night."

"Come in, tell me what's going on."

The two of them sat down at the small table as they had several times since Hannah had come to Smallville. Emmeline explained everything that had happened in the last twelve hours, including Lionel's death and the true cause of it, what could be hidden that Lex was about to get his hands on, and how Chloe had been fired from what had initially been her dream job.

"When Lex's men were kicking us out of the Daily Planet," Emmeline said softly, "I was so angry about everything that I wanted to rip them apart. And I knew that if I tried, I could've. What…what kind of person thinks like that?"

Hannah softly touched her hand. "A human person. Emmeline, I know how concerned you've been about these powers and how they were going to affect you. But the restraint that you have shown these last several months has been incredible. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for you. I wish there was a way for me to make it all easier. Which brings me to something I'd like to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Now I want you to be completely honest with me. Don't tell me what you think I want to hear or what you think the 'right' answer is."

"Okay."

"I've been thinking about moving to Smallville. Permanently. You know, so I can be here for you whenever you need me and can pay rent on an apartment instead of paying for a hotel room daily. But if you would rather that I stay in New York for right now, that is totally okay too. I'm willing to do whatever you're comfortable with."

"Hannah, you have a whole life in New York. You have a job and friends and everything. I'm not about to ask you to give all of that up and move halfway across the country just for me."

"You are my daughter. I may have a few roots in New York but nothing deep enough to keep me away if you want me here."

Emmeline sighed heavily and fiddled with her hands. "You're the only one who knows what's happening to me right now. And to be perfectly honest…I've been dreading the moment that you would have to go back. Because I don't know how I'm going to get through all of this without you."

Hannah smiled gently. "So…"

"So…I'd like for you to stay."

"Well…that's settled then. I've already looked up some affordable apartments here, so I just have to go through the process of actually getting one now. I'll take a quick trip back to New York to pack everything up and come back as soon as I can."

"You can stay at my place if you need to, until you find somewhere."

"I appreciate the offer, Emmeline, but we're still taking this one step at a time, right? Moving in with you, even for a few days, might be skipping a few."

Emmeline was secretly relieved because having Hannah actually living with her would be a completely different story than meeting up every day. "All right. Let me know if I can do anything to help though."

"You've done more than enough. You have no idea how happy I am that you're letting me back in."