Must Be Dreaming Part 22!
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Title: Must Be Dreaming
Series/WIP: Sequel to So Much Dreaming
Pairing: Clex!
Rating: NC-17!
Summary: After being abducted by aliens and discovering that Jonathan Kent is alive, Lex must come to grips with his shifting relationship with Clark and an unexpected pregnancy.
Spoilers: Through S5, after Cyborg.
Warnings: mpreg, character death
Chapter One ♥ Chapter Two ♥ Chapter Three ♥ Chapter Four ♥ Chapter 5.1 ♥ Chapter 5.2 ♥ Chapter Six ♥ Chapter Seven ♥ Chapter Eight ♥ Chapter Nine ♥ Chapter Ten ♥ Chapter Eleven ♥ Chapter Twelve ♥ Chapter Thirteen ♥ Chapter Fourteen ♥ Chapter Fifteen ♥ Chapter Sixteen ♥ Chapter Seventeen ♥ Part Eighteen ♥ Part Nineteen ♥ Part Twenty ♥ Part Twenty-One
Part Twenty-Two
The sunlight streamed into the bedroom, spilling brightness over the two sleeping figures curled together in the bed. Wincing at the sudden light in his eyes, Lex blinked a few times. He looked around himself before rising and turning to see Clark sleeping beside him. As the resident farmboy, Lex thought with amusement, Clark should have been the early riser.
He dropped a kiss against Clark’s hair, which earned him a soft grunt from his tired boyfriend, and he then slipped out of bed quietly. He knew he’d woken for a reason, and he was relatively sure that he wasn’t dreaming, so he headed for the nursery.
Even though the nursery had been set up for quite some time, and Lia had the protective bracelet, letting her sleep in the nursery away from them had not been an easy sell. She’d only been in there for a night or two. When Lex reached the room, he saw Lia in her crib, looking up with amazement at the twinkling stars and moons mobile above her.
Lex leaned in with a smile and pulled her into his arms. “Good morning, darling,” he whispered.
She pressed her face against his chest and started to push her nose against it, which made Lex laugh a little before heading over to prepare her bottle.
“One thing I can’t do for you. Sorry about that.” Lex tested the bottle against his wrist, then sat with her in the rocking chair and began to feed her. “I’m starting to wonder. Do you have Aunt Lena’s ability? Or could it be something else? How do you wake me up when you want food, without a word of complaint?”
Lia just stared at him with her enormous and preternaturally green eyes and sucked on her bottle. Martha had commented that Clark’s eyes had been brighter when they’d first found him, and so Lex figured hers might change as well. Right now, it would be no surprise to anyone that she was half alien.
After feeding and burping her, Lex tossed the dirty towel as well as Lia’s nighty and his shirt in the hamper, grateful that he had help to do the laundry for him, which wasn’t something he’d considered before. Once Lia was snuggly dressed, Lex carried her back to the bedroom to get a shirt for himself and laid her on the bed with her still sleeping father while he went to pull something out to wear.
Lia gave a little squeal when Clark mumbled in his sleep. He woke abruptly and looked around the room with wild eyes and hair sticking up.
“It’s not a monster. Just your daughter.” Lex went back over to the bed and climbed in, moving Lia carefully. “Go back to bed.”
“Oh.” Clark blinked. “Hey there. Was she crying? I could’ve-”
“She was just hungry.” Lex reached over to comb Clark’s hair with his fingers. “Do you have anything that has to get done over the break?”
Clark yawned. “Nope. I got my papers finished and turned in. And I can’t register for next semester until after the break.”
“Good.” Lex looked down at Lia. “He’s all ours, pumpkin.”
***
A year ago, Clark wouldn’t have believed this Kent Thanksgiving was happening. The reclusive Kents had never thrown a Christmas party until Jonathan had decided to run for senate, Clark’s birthdays had always been sincere but small, and Thanksgiving had always, always been just the three of them around the table together at the farmhouse.
This year there were a dozen people at their close family Thanksgiving. Martha had insisted on going over to the mansion so that they all could be a part of the festivities. Then there were Clark and Lex, and their new little Lia, and then his sister Lena and her adoptees Maddie and Ruji. Ghost was watching the game with Jonathan, who had borrowed him momentarily from Martha’s apron strings. Mercy was there with Chloe, who had brought her father and Lois, who had breezed back into town from somewhere. Clark had missed that detail because he’d been watching Lex rubbing his eyes sleepily.
“Feels like I haven’t seen you guys in years!” Lois put her hands on her hips and looked Lex up and down. “You’ve really lost some weight. I mean, really.”
Lex just glared at her and turned his head toward the hallway anxiously. Clark put his arm around Lex’s shoulders.
“No, I... I’ll be right back.” Lex wiggled out of Clark’s grasp and slipped away.
“I swear, that guy’s lactating,” Lois muttered. “So when did you dump the pink princess for the pudgy purple prince?”
“That’s none of your business,” Clark snapped. He hesitated to follow after Lex. Everything was probably fine. Lactating, Lex was not, but he could usually guess what Lia wanted sooner than Clark could.
Sure enough, he heard a wail a second later.
“All I’m saying is that you don’t jump the train to Gaytown from your high school sweetheart. Especially when the mayor of Gaytown is a butterball.”
Clark looked back and pursed his lips. “There’s nothing wrong with Lex. We didn’t ask for your approval.”
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Smallville. I’m just sayin’.” Lois turned her head toward where Chloe was setting the table. Mercy was behind her, teasing and pinching and generally disrupting to the best of her ability. “I left for a little while, and suddenly everyone is gay... Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“There was nothing sudden about me and Lex.” Clark put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes in the direction that Lex had gone. Sure enough, he was cuddling Lia in his arms and singing to her softly.
“You didn’t seem all about Lex at the prom,” Lois pointed out.
Clark shrugged. “I was trying not to dance with Chloe and lead her on.”
He met Lois’ eye briefly, lifted his chin, then headed into the hallway himself. Entering the downstairs nursery quietly, so not to disturb Lia, Clark watched Lex cuddling their baby girl in the rocking chair. Lex needed to sleep more, but he looked at peace when he was with Lia.
“Can I hold her?”
Lex looked up and raised a brow. “She’s yours, too. You don’t have to ask permission.”
“I know.” Clark knelt down and took the tiny baby from Lex. She was in a lavender nightie with Lex’s bracelet around her upper arm. It still made Clark nervous that Lex was unprotected. He couldn’t argue with Lex on this one, though. Lex would never forgive himself if anything happened to their daughter. And honestly, neither would Clark.
Lia grumped a little once she was in Clark’s arms.
“Aw, complainy. You just wish you were still snuggly inside Lex. I’m warm, though. Promise.” Clark supported her with one big arm and rubbed her nose. After a moment, she quieted and looked up at him with her eerily bright eyes. “I should get little alien antennas for her.”
Lex looked up at Clark with a smile. “She should be proud of her heritage.”
“Yeah.” Clark’s fingers moved over her bright red hair. “Both sides of it.”
“I don’t know about that.”
Clark broke his gaze on their daughter and watched as Lex rubbed his light eyebrows. “Your side has you and Lena. I don’t care about the rest. Believe me, knowing about the history of my family doesn’t make me unequivocally proud of Kryptonian heritage.”
“You have a-” Lex covered a big yawn. “-point.”
“How about you catch a nap before we sit down for dinner?”
“We have company,” Lex protested.
“We have Lois making intrusive commentary and the rest of the family who know you’ve been staying up nights with this new pumpkin of ours. Even Gabe knows the deal.” Clark reached over for Lex. “C’mon. I’ll get some alone time with Lia, and you’ll be rested for dinner.”
Lex reluctantly took Clark’s hand, and within a few moments, he was curled up on the sofa, and Clark was singing to Lia and playing with her contentedly.
***
“I didn’t think I’d be cutting the bird this year,” Jonathan said. He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone thought I would be anywhere but the ground.”
The table was long, but they crowded together, family, friends, and Domovoi and Romi, who Martha had worked with in the kitchen and demanded come to dinner with them.
“Who the hell knows who would’ve been around this table, where we’d all be,” he mused. “As far as I can figure... the Kents have been cut off for far too long. Afraid of what was to come. And we can’t guess where we’d be if things hadn’t turned out this way, but I s’pose we can guess that we do have a lot to be thankful for. Clark is back in school and going to pass his first semester. We have Lex in the family now, which should’ve happened years ago, if we all weren’t so terrified of what we knew was inevitable.”
Lex dipped his head and smiled. Lia shook her soft stuffed bunny and cooed up at Lex.
“We’re lucky to have you, and we’re lucky for you and Clark to have worked things out. And we’re all so, so lucky for Lia.”
Martha touched Jonathan’s arm.
“I don’t know who we’d all be sitting next to, if we weren’t together today.”
Mercy slipped her fingers through Chloe’s and met her eye.
“But it could never be this good.”
Clark kissed Lex’s neck and held him close as Jonathan carved up the turkey for everyone. Gabe stood to pass the turkey around, pausing to be charmed by Lia and pat his own daughter on the back of her neck and give her a squeeze.
Lex had never had a Thanksgiving like this. In truth, he sort of had a problem with the holiday and the values of imperialism it celebrated... but he would do it for his budding family. He would do it every damn year, if it meant keeping this family.
***
Lex woke up.
Lia had her moments when she fussed and seemed almost inconsolable, but generally, she was a happy baby. One of Lex’s fears in being a parent had been that he might be like his father... or his mother. Neither option was great. But Lia wasn’t colicky like Julian. She wasn’t unhealthy either, although she’d been born early, as Lex had been.
So usually when Lex woke, it was because Lia was lonely or hungry, or wet. But this didn’t feel the same. This felt like an unexplained tightness in his chest, like fear. Lex looked around him but remembered quickly that Clark was out doing a sweep of Suicide Slums, and Lena was out with Maddie and Ruji. He had just been reading to pass the time before they got home. Lex hurried to the nursery without another thought.
Once there he frowned deeply. The window was open, with the cold, early December air drifting in. Lia didn’t appear perturbed, but Lex went to her anyway. He froze when he saw a shadow looming over her, and knew, before looking, who it was.
“You don’t belong here,” Lex said sternly. His eyes lifted to the grayish face of Milton Fine, who had appeared by Lia’s bed silently.
Fine tilted his head to the side.
“You cannot have her,” Lex continued, placing his hand on the side of the crib. “You should leave. Now.”
“I hardly need your compliance for what I want,” Fine replied dismissively.
“And what is it you want?” Lex demanded. “Her? I dare you to try touching her.”
Fine looked to the bracelet pointedly. “You can’t keep that on her forever. Do you really think I don’t have the time to wait? Or the resources?”
“Chloe found and dismantled the bug you had in Jonathan’s head. We’ll find the others, when and if you send copies of yourself to spy on us. And if you keep pushing us? We will destroy you.”
“I always assumed you to be a credit to your species, Lex. This emotional display is quite... disappointing.”
“That’s your failure. I’ve never pretended to be anything other than I am.” Lex moved around the crib to face Fine dead on. He knew that this creature was fast enough and strong enough to snap his neck or slice him into pieces before he could blink. “What do you want?”
Fine took a step closer in turn. “I have to complete my program. It’s as simple as that.”
“Oh, so you’re a Sim? I suppose it’s my turn to be unimpressed.”
“I am not the first version of the Brainiac intelligence. I am simply the most recent incarnation, and one that has been programed by others. I find Kryptonians, or most of them rather, quite boring. I’ve collected their civilization’s data already in any case, so bringing them back is counter to my own interests.”
Fine turned to the crib and looked into it. “However, I’ll be free to pursue those interests once I have finished my program. For that I needed bodies. Bodies capable of taking in an alien intelligence without burning out. This is not something humans can do. They are inadequate. They have all proven inadequate.”
He looked straight into Lex with determined, cold burning eyes. “You are the only one, Lex Luthor. The only one adequate. None other’s DNA would blend properly with a Kryptonian’s. None other could carry the child. I could make another, and from you. I could take you now. Impregnate you again.”
Lex swallowed and held Fine’s gaze.
“I could impregnate you as many times as necessary, and likely, Zod would be pleased if the child could be a boy. But I find gender less than useless. This squirming creature is good enough. Zod’s child will make do with her body, and I think that concerns with purity aside, he would make do as well. Kal-El doesn’t have the brain power to allow Zod use of his telekinetic powers.”
Lex frowned. What a comic book villain this alien computer turned out to be, monologuing his plans. “You keep speaking as though I’d let you have her. That isn’t going to happen.”
“No. It will. I think you know that I will not give up with her.” Fine moved closer again, until Lex became uncomfortable.
“Stop.”
“You cannot stop me. You gave her the bracelet.” Fine morphed before Lex’s eyes into a mirror image of himself, smirking and ever so smug.
“So now you’re going to impregnate me again? Do you think that would turn out any differently?”
“My calculations don’t suggest the scenario would play out any differently if I had you birth others. You might, in time, but that will not be your decision.” Fine grabbed Lex’s wrist tightly. “Take the bracelet off of her.”
Lex found his own eyes uncanny and unrelenting as they bore into him.
“That isn’t going to happen. You cannot have her.”
“As you wish, Lex.”
***
It was dark outside when Clark returned to the manor. Lia’s wail had struck his ears before he even made it onto the grounds, and so he zeroed in on her and appeared in the living room. Romi held her with an unhappy look as the baby continued to scream.
Clark reached out for Lia. “What is it?” He paused only a moment to get his daughter comfortable in his arms. “Wait. Where’s Lex?”
Less than a second had passed when Clark began zipping around from room to room. Lia was snuggled close to his chest and had stopped crying, if only for the momentary novelty of seeing the world blurring around her.
When he returned to the living room, Mercy stood there impatiently with her hand on her hip.
“Where is he? How did you lose him again?” Clark demanded.
Lia began to cry again from the noise, and Clark tried to rock her in his arms. He just wasn’t as good at it as Lex was.
“We don’t follow him around every minute!” Mercy rubbed her mouth. “I was here. I should have... I don’t know. I checked the security video already, and I know where he is. Or rather, who he’s with. I’m sorry, Clark. I don’t know if I could have stopped it if I’d been in the room.”
“Who? Who is he...” Clark felt his eyes stinging. Maybe part of himself was hoping Mercy would set him straight. Tell him that Lex had just stepped out, and to stop panicking.
“The video blurred out the moment after Lex stepped into the room,” Mercy said quietly.
“What does that mean?”
Mercy drew in a deep breath. “Let me finish. The same thing has happened every time there’s been a sighting of Milton Fine.”
“What... How are we going to find him? How... Last time...”
“Last time we didn’t find him. He just showed up again when Fine was done with him.”
Done with him... Clark closed his eyes and felt a tear run down his cheek. He pressed a kiss to the fussing baby’s head and found a seat. It felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him, and visions of having to support Lex through another pregnancy, but worse, Lex having to deal with another trauma brought on by that monster Milton Fine experimenting on him.
“...she might be able to do something to track him. She’ll want to, for certain, but I’m concerned about her sticking her neck out when Fine might-”
“Wait. I’m sorry, what?” Clark looked up at her.
“Maybe you should um...” Mercy looked at Lia, whose face was turning red.
Clark petted the back of her head. “Baby, please. It’s okay. We’re okay.”
Domovoi came up to him and reached out for Lia. “Why don’t we take her to her grandparents’ house? The bracelet will protect her, and they’ll be able to care for her while you’re looking for Lex, hm?”
Clark slit his eyes and scanned over Domovoi’s body critically. It would just be his luck to put his baby right into the hands of the enemy. Domovoi waited patiently, though, as Clark scanned him, and then Romi and then Mercy. Finally, he stood.
There was nothing in then, but he wouldn’t let go of Lia, no matter how loudly she screamed.
“I’ll take her there myself,” Clark said. Then he was gone.
It only took a few minutes to run to the farm, and when he arrived, Lia had quieted again. Clark walked up the steps and rubbed Lia’s back.
“Mom! Dad!” Clark called into the house as he looked around for his parents. For a frightening moment, the house remained quiet. “MOM!”
Lia shrieked.
“Clark!” Martha rushed in. “Sorry, honey, I was catching up on the laundry. Oh.”
She reached out for Lia, and Clark pulled back.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Goodness, she’s upset!”
“Lex. Lex is gone. He’s gone, Mom, he’s gone.”
Martha’s jaw dropped open and the phone began to ring. She shook her head and reached to him again. “Clark, give me Lia. Let’s get her calmed down, and you can tell me what’s going on, okay?”
“It was Milton Fine. He took him again. I wasn’t there. I should have protected him. I don’t... God, why was I so stupid?”
“You are not stupid. Clark.” Martha’s voice lowered and became more firm. “Give me my granddaughter and sit down.”
Clark sighed heavily and scanned over his mother. Finally, he let Lia into Martha’s arms and plopped onto the couch, hands over his eyes.
“Shhh... Baby girl, calm down. It’ll be okay. Papa Clark’s just worried. He didn’t mean to yell.” Martha walked back and forth for a few minutes, and Lia continued to fuss, but gradually grew quieter.
“She... she sometimes only wants Lex to hold her,” Clark whispered.
“Well, don’t tell him I said this, but he’s her mommy. She’s always been with him. Soon she’ll be daddy’s little girl, too.”
“Mom, how can you be so calm?”
“Because I’m calming her down. Just breathe deep, Clark.”
“Breathe, Lex,” Clark murmured. Then his fingers curled into his hair. “Oh, God, Mom...”
“Follow me, Clark,” Martha ordered.
Lacking any idea of what else to do, Clark obeyed, rubbing the side of his face as he went upstairs to the nursery with her.
Martha laid the baby down gently and then pulled a blanket over her and rubbed her belly. “Tell me what happened?”
“I told you. Milton Fine took him. I don’t know how we’ll ever find him. Mercy said they couldn’t find him last time.” Clark hugged his stomach.
“He made it back last time, didn’t he?”
“I don’t want to think about... Fine doing that to him again. What if he does?”
“If he does, then...” Martha shook her head and shrugged. “We deal with it. And whoever else comes along.”
“I don’t want him to have to go through that again. It’s not fair.”
“Honey, I know, and I’m worried too, but if that happens, he’ll need you just as much, if not more.”
“I know.” Clark covered his mouth with both hands, then went to the side of Lia’s crib and looked at her. So small, and so beautiful. If there was another, Lex would love that one, too, and fight for him or her just as forcefully. “Where’s Dad?” “He’s checking to make sure the cows are warm enough. You know how he is. Ghost is with him.”
Clark nodded. “Can you guys watch after Lia for a little while? ”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t think Lex’s security is going to do any good this time either. I think Mercy knows that. They just don’t have the resources to deal with Milton Fine.” Clark rocked back on his heels. “I’m going to the Fortress. I’ll be careful.”
“Okay. I hope Jor-El is feeling helpful today.” Martha gave her son a tight hug.
“Probably not, but maybe I can convince him that it’s for the good of the race, or something.” Clark wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes for a moment. Clark couldn’t stop kicking himself for Lex being taken again, but blame didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he did everything he could to save Lex.
***
Clark entered the Fortress with a sense of purpose. He’d come here with requests before, but emboldened with his friends and family’s doubts about the AI and the pressing need to reach Lex as soon as possible, this wasn’t a request.
“Jor-El!” he bellowed. “I need you to find someone!”
The Fortress was silent for several moments, then came to life.
“I am well aware of what has occurred, my son. But there is more at risk than the life of your mate.”
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you that we need to find him, and we need to find him now!”
“You will not find him before Brainiac has completed his changes. You must return and confront him. He will not be the Lex Luthor you once knew. You must kill him, if you wish to save the world from what he will become.”
“What?” Clark felt his insides turn to ice water. “I’m not going to kill him!”
The crystals at the main console moved and a long, wicked looking knife appeared.
“I’m not going to kill him! Are you insane?”
“If you do not, you will condemn the human race to near extinction and slavery to the few who remain. When Zod rises, as he will if you allow his Vessel Lex Luthor to live, this is what he will do to the humans you hold so dear.”
“You are the Ice Lionel. I’m not going to commit murder! I’m not a sociopath, and Lex is the man I love. There has to be another way. Find another way!”
Clark could hear his heart pounding as the Fortress responded with silence once again.
Finally, Jor-El spoke: “If that is the case, you must bring the Vessel here, to me. It would also be best if you brought the child. If the Brainiac computer intends to use Lex Luthor as a Vessel, he will want to use the child as well.”
“How could he use our baby?”
“He might well use the child as a Vessel for Zod’s son.”
Clark hand covered his mouth and a sudden pain gripped his stomach. Then, “B-but our baby is a girl.”
“Not ideal, but not insurmountable.”
Pushing the fingers of both hands through his hair, Clark took a few deep breaths and imagined he heard Lex’s deep, calm voice telling him to breathe, just breathe. Clark could lose all of them. As much as he hated Jor-El, as much as Jor-El had failed him in so many ways, and as Chloe has suggested, was probably a corrupted program... He had to do something to save them from being body-snatched by Kryptonians.
“You said he’d be changed. How?”
“Brainiac will alter him to bring out the Kryptonian powers. Zod will want those when he conquers the world.”
“Okay. I’ll be back.”
Clark took the knife and sped off toward home.
***
Chloe paced back and forth with her hands in her back pockets. The feel of a gun resting against her side, even one that didn’t shoot bullets exactly, was more than a little anxiety-making, as was the concept of trying to protect Clark’s daughter, should Fine make an appearance. Mercy was on her way in the chopper, but until then, Chloe was the closest.
“Thank you for coming by.” Martha set out a plate of cookies. “Oh, I should check on Lia.” Martha had been checking on Lia every five minutes.
Jonathan leaned over to the plate, picked up a cookie, and then handed it to Ghost, who sniffed it and then curled up on the couch and took a nibble.
“How’s school?”
“Um, not bad. But finals are in a week. So. That’s kind of... stressful.” Chloe tilted her head to the side. “Although not comparatively.”
“Yep. That gun work?”
“Well. Lex created it. That’s a point in its favor. It’s just a prototype, though. Point against.” Chloe ran her fingers over the gun. “I’ve also never fired something this big.”
“You shoot?”
“My Uncle Sam taught me how, and I’ve been training a little with Mercy. I’m not... an expert with weaponry or a master of Kung Fu. Hopefully aim won’t be an issue. Actually.” Chloe sat on the arm of the sofa and got a cookie for herself. “While I’m hoping, I’ll just hope Lex comes back safe and sound and that Fine disappears and is never seen from again.”
“You’re not kidding.” Jonathan scratched the back of his head and hugged Ghost’s shoulders. The quiet boy looked up at Chloe with a frown.
The three of them jumped when there was a shriek from the other room. Chloe pulled her gun, leapt up, and ran upstairs.
“Mrs. Kent!”
Martha stood back against the wall with Lia in her arms. By the window was Milton Fine.
“It would be best if you just took the bracelet off that child and gave her to me. Then you can get Lex back. He and Clark will forgive you, eventually, and they can make another,” Fine drawled.
Chloe trained the gun on him. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“What is that?” Fine raised a brow.
“It’s this neat gun. Lex made it. It’ll disrupt your program inside the form you’ve taken and turn you into goo,” Chloe shot back.
“Unfortunate he didn’t have it on him a few hours ago. I remember you.” Fine stepped forward. “You turned me off.”
“Well, I’ve never been a Covergirl, so. Back off, Fine. I’ll protect the Kents with whatever I’ve got.”
“What are you?” His eyes narrowed, and he watched her curiously.
“Stop!” Her fingers twitched on the gun and she licked her lips. If it worked, she wanted him close enough not to miss.
“No.” Fine lifted his hand, which morphed into a tendril and shot forward.
Chloe pulled the trigger and a ray of light burst out and hit Fine directly in the chest. He turned black and for a moment, seemed to go mushy around the edges.
“Mrs. Kent, get out of here. He can’t get near you and the baby while she’s wearing the bracelet, but we need to get Mr. Kent and Ghost out of here, too,” Chloe said.
Before Martha could answer, Fine reformed and knocked the gun out of Chloe’s hand.
“That’s clever. Lex is my favorite human, by far.” Fine flashed a thin smile, then plunged his tendril into Chloe’s forehead.
“Oh my God!”
Martha’s scream echoed in her ears as Chloe felt her body go cold. It seemed like code was streaming across her field of vision. Then an overwhelming pink light blinded her, and she fell backward.
She couldn’t move for some time, and she could hear the sound of the gun firing. When she was able to see again, Jonathan was holding Lia, and Martha was by the window with the gun in hand.
“Ugh.” Chloe tried to sit up and felt Ghost’s small hand on her back. “Big help I was.”
“Don’t threaten Ma Kent’s grandbaby,” Jonathan teased.
Martha cast a glance back at them. “Chloe, are you okay? I’ve never seen anything like that. That pink light enveloped you both.”
“I’m... not sure. Maybe it had something to do with my powers?” Chloe pushed herself to her feet. “Let’s not tell Mercy about that little fall, hm? She hardly wants me on missions at all.”
“We’ve got your back,” Jonathan said. “Why don’t we all go downstairs.”
“I’m... exhausted.” Chloe shook her head. She’d been tired lately, but now it seemed like she could hardly keep her head up. “And I guess I need more combat training.”
By the time they’d gotten down the stairs and huddled around the couch, the front door burst open and Martha whipped the gun up.
“Whoa!” Clark held his hands up. “That’s... a big gun, mom.”
“Clark! You startled me.”
“Obviously.” Clark came over to the couch and caressed Lia’s hair.
“How was Jor-El?” Jonathan asked.
“He was himself. He wanted me to kill Lex, but he said that we could bring Lex and Lia up there, and he’d could do something about what Brainiac, that’s Milton Fine, has done to Lex.”
“Wait.” Chloe had been about to doze off. “Jor-El still wants you to bring them up there? Clark, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“He said that Brainiac is going to mess with Lex’s DNA or something and give him Kryptonian powers so they can put Zod in him,” Clark explained. “And he’ll try to use Lia for Zod’s son.”
“Oh, Clark.” Martha let the gun hang from her limp arm and shook her head. “What can we do?”
“I came back to take Lia up there. When Lex gets back, I’ll have to get him there somehow. Otherwise he’ll be taken over.” Clark crossed his arms. “I don’t like Jor-El either, Chloe, but I have to protect Lex.”
“I think you outta talk to Lex before you take his daughter up to the Arctic,” Jonathan said.
“Do you think you can keep her safe until then?” Clark shifted his posture for a moment, then shook his head. “Maybe I should find Lex first...”
“The gun seems to work,” Martha pointed out. “It’ll keep Fine away from her, and us, until you can talk to Lex.”
Clark sighed. “Okay. I’ll be back soon.”
***
Listening for Lex’s heartbeat, Clark zipped through the town. If Lex was had returned, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him, but if he was still in the spaceship... Clark didn’t know what he would do.
With his ears peaked, the boom in Riley Field sounded cacophonous. Clark hit the ground with his hands over his ears. It was then that he recognized the familiar heartbeat. Lex was back.
He ran towards the field, but then the heartbeat moved. Clark stopped in the middle of the cornstalks, listening. Lex was moving. Clark zipped off again after Lex, trying to follow wherever he was headed, but Lex was as fast as he was and traveling ahead of him. First Lex shot off towards Metropolis, and when Clark thought he might catch him, Lex turned around and headed back to Smallville.
“Slow down!” Clark said in exasperation. He spotted Lex as he zipped past him and tried to grab for Lex’s waist.
That was when he realized that Lex was faster than he was, somehow. Clark shook his head, caught his breath, and resumed the chase.
Seconds later he stopped again in front of the farmhouse, where Lex was already inside.
“Lex!” Clark bounded up the steps and into the house once again.
Lex turned to Clark, his eyes wide and wild. “Tell your father to give me my daughter!”
“Lex, just... hold on. I need to get you to the Fortress.” Clark held up his hands.
“I’m not going to the Fortress.”
“Lex, we have to.” Clark frowned and pressed his lips together. “I have to take you both up there to protect you.”
Lex pursed his lips and spread his hands. “I don’t need protection from anyone. And I don’t need a vacay up in the Arctic where another dangerous alien can mess around with my insides. I’m taking my daughter.”
“I’ll make you go, if I have to.” Clark stepped forward and shot a look at his mother, hoping she’d realize they needed to get out of there.
“What is that for?” Lex eyed at the knife tucked into Clark’s jeans.
“Jor-El gave it to me-”
“To make me go? Has he brainwashed you?”
“No, Lex, just calm down-” “I can’t calm down! I can hear everyone on the goddamn planet! My entire body is vibrating! And aliens want to use my daughter as fodder for their invasion! And you want to help them!”
“No!” Clark’s hands seemed to be frozen in front of him. “I don’t! Please, Lex, listen!”
“No.”
Lex blurred past him, and Clark sighed. He looked to his parents. “Keep an eye on her.”
“Clark?” Chloe looked up at him almost apologetically. “He took the knife.”
“What?” Clark glanced down. He blinked three times, then his knees almost buckled.
“Clark!” Martha rushed to his side.
“I have to go save Lex.” He didn’t look back before rushing after Lex once more.
***
Clark didn’t catch up to Lex again until he was back at Riley Field. Lex stood clad in his lavender sweater and soft navy slacks in the middle of the field, where all the corn had been flattened against the ground. His cheeks were red, and he was breathing heavily as he stared at the knife.
“Have you read the words on this knife, Clark? They’re in an alien language, but I can read them.”
“God, you’re scaring me. Please put that away. We’re in a field. You have that knife!” Clark could hardly belief how terrified his voice sounded. It sounded like a little boy.
“You’re determined to deliver me to him. And if you don’t, Brainiac will. He has to, I think. His programming is corrupted, and he can’t stop until this is completed. He’s the AI version of OCD. I almost feel sorry for him, even after all he’s done.” Lex sucked in his lower lip, then jerked his head up when Clark tried to move closer.
“Lex, you’re not yourself.” Clark couldn’t keep the tears from spilling onto his cheeks. “Please, give me the knife. Please. Please, Lex.”
“You can’t kill me, Clark.”
“I don’t want to kill you! I’m just scared that... that you’re going to...”
“I’m going to end this. You’re going to have faith that I know things that everyone else doesn’t.” Lex let out a tight laugh. “I need this to be over.”
“No!” Clark rushed at Lex and then boggled as Lex shot into the air. “You can FLY? How... I can’t fly!”
“You can fly.” Lex’s smile was so sad. His fingers grasped the knife handle, and he reached for Clark with the other hand. “Why don’t you fly with me?”
Clark jumped in place and landed heavily on the ground. He leapt into the air higher, only to have Lex shoot higher into the sky.
“Get down here, you jackass! And let me help you!”
“You can’t help me. Not like you think you can. I need you to take out Brainiac. This version, anyway. I don’t know if it’s possible to stop him completely, but we have to shut down this program once and for all, and then he’ll never help Zod again. I can guarantee that. He communicates between copies, and there are many copies.”
“Get down here, dammit! I’m not going to be a single father!”
“You’re not going to be a father at all if you don’t listen to me!” Lex roared down at him. “Now get off your ass and fly!”
At a total loss, Clark stared up at Lex. Lex flattened his lips in a way that Clark recognized very well.
“Stop being annoyed at me.” Clark stomped his foot.
“You’re stronger than me. I’m faster than you. And I can move things with telekineses, which apparently includes myself. There are differences, but we don’t need the Shining or Speed Racer here. I need your raw power. You’ve been here for nineteen years, and that means something when you’re powered by the sun. You’ve had a much better chance to accrue energy. Brainiac’s easy to find. He just as far as you can fly and still be in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Clark pinched the bridge of his nose.
“It’s all about a reasonable area of transmission.”
“Milton Fine has scrambled your brains. You’re talking crazy, Lex. Can’t you see that?”
When Clark looked up, Lex’s mouth was still flat, and now he was sucking in his cheeks. This was the look that had come just before throwing vases when Lex had still been pregnant.
“This is over. If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to come up here and do it.”
There was a sound like a jet as Lex disappeared into the sky.
“God damn... Lex!” Clark jumped into the air again and fell just as hard as before. His heart might leap out of his chest any moment. He took a running jump and flung himself into the air, trying to will his body upward, trying to remember those few times when he’d hovered.
He fell. He tried again, and again. And then...
He just kept going up and up. At the rate it had taken him to catch Lex on the ground, he figured he was already too late, but to his surprise, Lex was still there, in the clouds, waiting for him. When Lex saw Clark coming after him, he positioned the knife at his chest.
Clark slammed into Lex and fought with him for the knife. If he could just get it out of Lex’s hand, let it drop to the ground...
The two of them swirled around each other mid-air as they grappled for the knife.
“Just let it go, Lex!”
“No! You don’t understand... how much this means!”
“Just come with me!”
Lex wrenched the knife out of Clark’s hand and kicked him in the chest. Still ungainly in the air, Clark flailed backward for a moment, and in that moment...
Lex plunged the knife between his ribs.
Clark tried moving toward Lex but didn’t know how. He paddled forward awkwardly like a swimmer as Lex sank and sank and sank. Losing his balance, Clark flipped over in the air and as he was looking up, he realized he could see a black spaceship above them.
Then he just let himself fall. He had to get back to Lex.
The ground dented around Clark as he landed, dirt flying into the air. Lex was only a few feet away, and Clark jumped out of the hole he’d made and rushed to Lex’s side.
“You idiot! God, Lex, you idiot! Why?” Clark scooped Lex into his arms.
There was so much blood. So much blood, and Lex. Lex was just so pale and growing colder in Clark’s arms. God, there was blood everywhere. Lex’s lavender shirt was now soaked and dark.
“Lex, wake up. God, please wake up. I won’t take you to Jor-El. I’ll- I’ll do something. I’ll... Wake up!!” Clark screamed. He shook with anger as he cradled Lex’s head with one hand.
“End it. Please,” Lex rasped. “And... don’t be sad. Just, have faith. Okay?”
“How? Lex! Oh, God. I can get you to a hospital. We’ll...” Clark scanned inside Lex and chocked as he saw the knife right through his heart, pulsing and glowing like a surrogate heartbeat. Lex’s face was now almost translucent. Clark wanted to rip the knife from his chest, but that would only kill Lex faster. “You can’t leave me! Please don’t leave!”
“Not going...” Lex gasped for air and moved his arm upward weakly.
Clark leaned down so that Lex could touch his face. “I love you. I’ve... I know I say it all the time, but I do. I love you. I... I don’t know if I can go on without you, Lex. I need you.”
“You go. Stop Brainiac. Stop... Zod...”
“Please don’t leave!” Clark cried, pressing his forehead against Lex and getting his tears all over him.
Lex said nothing back, and his hand fell away from Clark’s face. Clark couldn’t let him go. He just sat there, curled over Lex’s body and sobbed like a child.
***
It was dawn. Clark had been crying steadily through the night. Then he stood away from Lex’s body, and shot into the sky.
Still terrible at flying, Clark swerved back and forth in the air, but he kept going until he saw the black ship again. He sped up. Faster and faster, until he slammed into the ship.
The metal was hard and cold, and they were so high up that the air was thin, but it didn’t seem to matter to Clark. Somehow breathing didn’t seem to be a necessity. Punch after punch, Clark was able to put a good dent in the ship, and when Fine came out, hovering in the air, Clark lunged at him.
“Ugh, Kryptonians,” Fine groaned.
He spoke more, but Clark couldn’t hear what he had to say. He kept attacking until Fine slipped away and shot off in the other direction. Clark only hovered in the air for a moment. He went back to the ship and tore it apart piece by piece. When he got to the heart of the ship, he snapped the heavy disk in half and watched with satisfaction as the light went out, then he pulverized the pieces in his hands until it was all dust.
***
Clark’s second touchdown of the day was just a little more graceful than the first. He walked over to Lex’s body and picked it up, then pressed a kiss to Lex’s cold head. He had no more tears, but he didn’t think he had any wits left, either. Now he understood what Lex had said before, about not being able to live through the passing of his partner. Clark felt like he was dead already. If it weren’t for Lia...
Clark stood with Lex in his arms and began walking. It was early in the morning, and cold, Clark noticed, and no one else was out. It was lucky, since Lex had a glowing, pulsing knife sticking out of him, and they were both caked in now dried blood.
There was no knowing what to do. Nothing to do next. Clark reached the river and laid Lex beside it. He took a moment to kiss Lex’s icy lips, then pulled that damned knife from his chest and set it aside.
With determination, Clark took Lex’s clothes off and began to wash him in the water from the river. Once Lex was clean, Clark did the same for himself, then lay by Lex and put his head on Lex’s shoulder and his hand over Lex’s belly. He made himself very still, realizing how hard it was going to be to ever get up again.
***
It had never been so hard to wake up. It was freezing, and there were no blankets.
Lex curled around the warm body next to him. Then his eyes opened to a yelping sound.
“Lex?! Oh! Oh! You’re alive!” Clark gulped in air and wrapped his arms around Lex so tightly that it hurt.
“My... my chest hurts.”
“What... AHHHHH!!!” Clark screamed. Literally screamed. Then jumped up. Then grabbed Lex again and kissed all over his face. “Of course your chest hurts! You impaled yourself on an alien knife!”
“It... I told you before...” Lex coughed weakly. “I know I’m going to live at least into Lia’s toddlerhood. Oh. It hurts.” Lex curled over. “And it’s cold. Why am I naked?”
“Because you killed yourself, and I lost my fucking mind!”
Lex looked at Clark and tried to focus. It was easier now, without all of that power running through his body. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you drop the f-bomb before.”
“I’m a boyscout, y’know.” Clark pulled Lex’s head to his chest and sobbed once. “I can’t believe you’re awake. You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t explain better before. That knife. It pulled the energy out of me. Read the front of it. They can’t use me as a Vessel now.” Lex shuddered. “Please tell me... you didn’t take Lia to the Fortress. Please tell me you took out Brainiac’s ship.”
“I didn’t. And I did. What’s going on with the Fortress?”
“Zod is there. Well, not him, but part of his intelligence. I think maybe if Brainiac could open the Phantom Zone himself, he would have done it.”
Clark shook his head. “No, he can’t. The last time he tried to bring out Zod, he made me take him to the Fortress. You’re right.”
“Dunno if Zod will still be in the Fortress with the ship destroyed. Dunno how to get him out, either, if he’s lingering there.” Lex pressed himself into Clark’s warmth. “Can I be right with blankets, or something? Please?”
“Yes. Oh, yes.” Clark laughed softly and clung to Lex as though the world might slip away. “But only if you promise never to do anything like that again!”
Epilogue coming soon.
Title: Must Be Dreaming
Series/WIP: Sequel to So Much Dreaming
Pairing: Clex!
Rating: NC-17!
Summary: After being abducted by aliens and discovering that Jonathan Kent is alive, Lex must come to grips with his shifting relationship with Clark and an unexpected pregnancy.
Spoilers: Through S5, after Cyborg.
Warnings: mpreg, character death
Chapter One ♥ Chapter Two ♥ Chapter Three ♥ Chapter Four ♥ Chapter 5.1 ♥ Chapter 5.2 ♥ Chapter Six ♥ Chapter Seven ♥ Chapter Eight ♥ Chapter Nine ♥ Chapter Ten ♥ Chapter Eleven ♥ Chapter Twelve ♥ Chapter Thirteen ♥ Chapter Fourteen ♥ Chapter Fifteen ♥ Chapter Sixteen ♥ Chapter Seventeen ♥ Part Eighteen ♥ Part Nineteen ♥ Part Twenty ♥ Part Twenty-One
Part Twenty-Two
The sunlight streamed into the bedroom, spilling brightness over the two sleeping figures curled together in the bed. Wincing at the sudden light in his eyes, Lex blinked a few times. He looked around himself before rising and turning to see Clark sleeping beside him. As the resident farmboy, Lex thought with amusement, Clark should have been the early riser.
He dropped a kiss against Clark’s hair, which earned him a soft grunt from his tired boyfriend, and he then slipped out of bed quietly. He knew he’d woken for a reason, and he was relatively sure that he wasn’t dreaming, so he headed for the nursery.
Even though the nursery had been set up for quite some time, and Lia had the protective bracelet, letting her sleep in the nursery away from them had not been an easy sell. She’d only been in there for a night or two. When Lex reached the room, he saw Lia in her crib, looking up with amazement at the twinkling stars and moons mobile above her.
Lex leaned in with a smile and pulled her into his arms. “Good morning, darling,” he whispered.
She pressed her face against his chest and started to push her nose against it, which made Lex laugh a little before heading over to prepare her bottle.
“One thing I can’t do for you. Sorry about that.” Lex tested the bottle against his wrist, then sat with her in the rocking chair and began to feed her. “I’m starting to wonder. Do you have Aunt Lena’s ability? Or could it be something else? How do you wake me up when you want food, without a word of complaint?”
Lia just stared at him with her enormous and preternaturally green eyes and sucked on her bottle. Martha had commented that Clark’s eyes had been brighter when they’d first found him, and so Lex figured hers might change as well. Right now, it would be no surprise to anyone that she was half alien.
After feeding and burping her, Lex tossed the dirty towel as well as Lia’s nighty and his shirt in the hamper, grateful that he had help to do the laundry for him, which wasn’t something he’d considered before. Once Lia was snuggly dressed, Lex carried her back to the bedroom to get a shirt for himself and laid her on the bed with her still sleeping father while he went to pull something out to wear.
Lia gave a little squeal when Clark mumbled in his sleep. He woke abruptly and looked around the room with wild eyes and hair sticking up.
“It’s not a monster. Just your daughter.” Lex went back over to the bed and climbed in, moving Lia carefully. “Go back to bed.”
“Oh.” Clark blinked. “Hey there. Was she crying? I could’ve-”
“She was just hungry.” Lex reached over to comb Clark’s hair with his fingers. “Do you have anything that has to get done over the break?”
Clark yawned. “Nope. I got my papers finished and turned in. And I can’t register for next semester until after the break.”
“Good.” Lex looked down at Lia. “He’s all ours, pumpkin.”
***
A year ago, Clark wouldn’t have believed this Kent Thanksgiving was happening. The reclusive Kents had never thrown a Christmas party until Jonathan had decided to run for senate, Clark’s birthdays had always been sincere but small, and Thanksgiving had always, always been just the three of them around the table together at the farmhouse.
This year there were a dozen people at their close family Thanksgiving. Martha had insisted on going over to the mansion so that they all could be a part of the festivities. Then there were Clark and Lex, and their new little Lia, and then his sister Lena and her adoptees Maddie and Ruji. Ghost was watching the game with Jonathan, who had borrowed him momentarily from Martha’s apron strings. Mercy was there with Chloe, who had brought her father and Lois, who had breezed back into town from somewhere. Clark had missed that detail because he’d been watching Lex rubbing his eyes sleepily.
“Feels like I haven’t seen you guys in years!” Lois put her hands on her hips and looked Lex up and down. “You’ve really lost some weight. I mean, really.”
Lex just glared at her and turned his head toward the hallway anxiously. Clark put his arm around Lex’s shoulders.
“No, I... I’ll be right back.” Lex wiggled out of Clark’s grasp and slipped away.
“I swear, that guy’s lactating,” Lois muttered. “So when did you dump the pink princess for the pudgy purple prince?”
“That’s none of your business,” Clark snapped. He hesitated to follow after Lex. Everything was probably fine. Lactating, Lex was not, but he could usually guess what Lia wanted sooner than Clark could.
Sure enough, he heard a wail a second later.
“All I’m saying is that you don’t jump the train to Gaytown from your high school sweetheart. Especially when the mayor of Gaytown is a butterball.”
Clark looked back and pursed his lips. “There’s nothing wrong with Lex. We didn’t ask for your approval.”
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Smallville. I’m just sayin’.” Lois turned her head toward where Chloe was setting the table. Mercy was behind her, teasing and pinching and generally disrupting to the best of her ability. “I left for a little while, and suddenly everyone is gay... Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“There was nothing sudden about me and Lex.” Clark put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes in the direction that Lex had gone. Sure enough, he was cuddling Lia in his arms and singing to her softly.
“You didn’t seem all about Lex at the prom,” Lois pointed out.
Clark shrugged. “I was trying not to dance with Chloe and lead her on.”
He met Lois’ eye briefly, lifted his chin, then headed into the hallway himself. Entering the downstairs nursery quietly, so not to disturb Lia, Clark watched Lex cuddling their baby girl in the rocking chair. Lex needed to sleep more, but he looked at peace when he was with Lia.
“Can I hold her?”
Lex looked up and raised a brow. “She’s yours, too. You don’t have to ask permission.”
“I know.” Clark knelt down and took the tiny baby from Lex. She was in a lavender nightie with Lex’s bracelet around her upper arm. It still made Clark nervous that Lex was unprotected. He couldn’t argue with Lex on this one, though. Lex would never forgive himself if anything happened to their daughter. And honestly, neither would Clark.
Lia grumped a little once she was in Clark’s arms.
“Aw, complainy. You just wish you were still snuggly inside Lex. I’m warm, though. Promise.” Clark supported her with one big arm and rubbed her nose. After a moment, she quieted and looked up at him with her eerily bright eyes. “I should get little alien antennas for her.”
Lex looked up at Clark with a smile. “She should be proud of her heritage.”
“Yeah.” Clark’s fingers moved over her bright red hair. “Both sides of it.”
“I don’t know about that.”
Clark broke his gaze on their daughter and watched as Lex rubbed his light eyebrows. “Your side has you and Lena. I don’t care about the rest. Believe me, knowing about the history of my family doesn’t make me unequivocally proud of Kryptonian heritage.”
“You have a-” Lex covered a big yawn. “-point.”
“How about you catch a nap before we sit down for dinner?”
“We have company,” Lex protested.
“We have Lois making intrusive commentary and the rest of the family who know you’ve been staying up nights with this new pumpkin of ours. Even Gabe knows the deal.” Clark reached over for Lex. “C’mon. I’ll get some alone time with Lia, and you’ll be rested for dinner.”
Lex reluctantly took Clark’s hand, and within a few moments, he was curled up on the sofa, and Clark was singing to Lia and playing with her contentedly.
***
“I didn’t think I’d be cutting the bird this year,” Jonathan said. He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone thought I would be anywhere but the ground.”
The table was long, but they crowded together, family, friends, and Domovoi and Romi, who Martha had worked with in the kitchen and demanded come to dinner with them.
“Who the hell knows who would’ve been around this table, where we’d all be,” he mused. “As far as I can figure... the Kents have been cut off for far too long. Afraid of what was to come. And we can’t guess where we’d be if things hadn’t turned out this way, but I s’pose we can guess that we do have a lot to be thankful for. Clark is back in school and going to pass his first semester. We have Lex in the family now, which should’ve happened years ago, if we all weren’t so terrified of what we knew was inevitable.”
Lex dipped his head and smiled. Lia shook her soft stuffed bunny and cooed up at Lex.
“We’re lucky to have you, and we’re lucky for you and Clark to have worked things out. And we’re all so, so lucky for Lia.”
Martha touched Jonathan’s arm.
“I don’t know who we’d all be sitting next to, if we weren’t together today.”
Mercy slipped her fingers through Chloe’s and met her eye.
“But it could never be this good.”
Clark kissed Lex’s neck and held him close as Jonathan carved up the turkey for everyone. Gabe stood to pass the turkey around, pausing to be charmed by Lia and pat his own daughter on the back of her neck and give her a squeeze.
Lex had never had a Thanksgiving like this. In truth, he sort of had a problem with the holiday and the values of imperialism it celebrated... but he would do it for his budding family. He would do it every damn year, if it meant keeping this family.
***
Lex woke up.
Lia had her moments when she fussed and seemed almost inconsolable, but generally, she was a happy baby. One of Lex’s fears in being a parent had been that he might be like his father... or his mother. Neither option was great. But Lia wasn’t colicky like Julian. She wasn’t unhealthy either, although she’d been born early, as Lex had been.
So usually when Lex woke, it was because Lia was lonely or hungry, or wet. But this didn’t feel the same. This felt like an unexplained tightness in his chest, like fear. Lex looked around him but remembered quickly that Clark was out doing a sweep of Suicide Slums, and Lena was out with Maddie and Ruji. He had just been reading to pass the time before they got home. Lex hurried to the nursery without another thought.
Once there he frowned deeply. The window was open, with the cold, early December air drifting in. Lia didn’t appear perturbed, but Lex went to her anyway. He froze when he saw a shadow looming over her, and knew, before looking, who it was.
“You don’t belong here,” Lex said sternly. His eyes lifted to the grayish face of Milton Fine, who had appeared by Lia’s bed silently.
Fine tilted his head to the side.
“You cannot have her,” Lex continued, placing his hand on the side of the crib. “You should leave. Now.”
“I hardly need your compliance for what I want,” Fine replied dismissively.
“And what is it you want?” Lex demanded. “Her? I dare you to try touching her.”
Fine looked to the bracelet pointedly. “You can’t keep that on her forever. Do you really think I don’t have the time to wait? Or the resources?”
“Chloe found and dismantled the bug you had in Jonathan’s head. We’ll find the others, when and if you send copies of yourself to spy on us. And if you keep pushing us? We will destroy you.”
“I always assumed you to be a credit to your species, Lex. This emotional display is quite... disappointing.”
“That’s your failure. I’ve never pretended to be anything other than I am.” Lex moved around the crib to face Fine dead on. He knew that this creature was fast enough and strong enough to snap his neck or slice him into pieces before he could blink. “What do you want?”
Fine took a step closer in turn. “I have to complete my program. It’s as simple as that.”
“Oh, so you’re a Sim? I suppose it’s my turn to be unimpressed.”
“I am not the first version of the Brainiac intelligence. I am simply the most recent incarnation, and one that has been programed by others. I find Kryptonians, or most of them rather, quite boring. I’ve collected their civilization’s data already in any case, so bringing them back is counter to my own interests.”
Fine turned to the crib and looked into it. “However, I’ll be free to pursue those interests once I have finished my program. For that I needed bodies. Bodies capable of taking in an alien intelligence without burning out. This is not something humans can do. They are inadequate. They have all proven inadequate.”
He looked straight into Lex with determined, cold burning eyes. “You are the only one, Lex Luthor. The only one adequate. None other’s DNA would blend properly with a Kryptonian’s. None other could carry the child. I could make another, and from you. I could take you now. Impregnate you again.”
Lex swallowed and held Fine’s gaze.
“I could impregnate you as many times as necessary, and likely, Zod would be pleased if the child could be a boy. But I find gender less than useless. This squirming creature is good enough. Zod’s child will make do with her body, and I think that concerns with purity aside, he would make do as well. Kal-El doesn’t have the brain power to allow Zod use of his telekinetic powers.”
Lex frowned. What a comic book villain this alien computer turned out to be, monologuing his plans. “You keep speaking as though I’d let you have her. That isn’t going to happen.”
“No. It will. I think you know that I will not give up with her.” Fine moved closer again, until Lex became uncomfortable.
“Stop.”
“You cannot stop me. You gave her the bracelet.” Fine morphed before Lex’s eyes into a mirror image of himself, smirking and ever so smug.
“So now you’re going to impregnate me again? Do you think that would turn out any differently?”
“My calculations don’t suggest the scenario would play out any differently if I had you birth others. You might, in time, but that will not be your decision.” Fine grabbed Lex’s wrist tightly. “Take the bracelet off of her.”
Lex found his own eyes uncanny and unrelenting as they bore into him.
“That isn’t going to happen. You cannot have her.”
“As you wish, Lex.”
***
It was dark outside when Clark returned to the manor. Lia’s wail had struck his ears before he even made it onto the grounds, and so he zeroed in on her and appeared in the living room. Romi held her with an unhappy look as the baby continued to scream.
Clark reached out for Lia. “What is it?” He paused only a moment to get his daughter comfortable in his arms. “Wait. Where’s Lex?”
Less than a second had passed when Clark began zipping around from room to room. Lia was snuggled close to his chest and had stopped crying, if only for the momentary novelty of seeing the world blurring around her.
When he returned to the living room, Mercy stood there impatiently with her hand on her hip.
“Where is he? How did you lose him again?” Clark demanded.
Lia began to cry again from the noise, and Clark tried to rock her in his arms. He just wasn’t as good at it as Lex was.
“We don’t follow him around every minute!” Mercy rubbed her mouth. “I was here. I should have... I don’t know. I checked the security video already, and I know where he is. Or rather, who he’s with. I’m sorry, Clark. I don’t know if I could have stopped it if I’d been in the room.”
“Who? Who is he...” Clark felt his eyes stinging. Maybe part of himself was hoping Mercy would set him straight. Tell him that Lex had just stepped out, and to stop panicking.
“The video blurred out the moment after Lex stepped into the room,” Mercy said quietly.
“What does that mean?”
Mercy drew in a deep breath. “Let me finish. The same thing has happened every time there’s been a sighting of Milton Fine.”
“What... How are we going to find him? How... Last time...”
“Last time we didn’t find him. He just showed up again when Fine was done with him.”
Done with him... Clark closed his eyes and felt a tear run down his cheek. He pressed a kiss to the fussing baby’s head and found a seat. It felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him, and visions of having to support Lex through another pregnancy, but worse, Lex having to deal with another trauma brought on by that monster Milton Fine experimenting on him.
“...she might be able to do something to track him. She’ll want to, for certain, but I’m concerned about her sticking her neck out when Fine might-”
“Wait. I’m sorry, what?” Clark looked up at her.
“Maybe you should um...” Mercy looked at Lia, whose face was turning red.
Clark petted the back of her head. “Baby, please. It’s okay. We’re okay.”
Domovoi came up to him and reached out for Lia. “Why don’t we take her to her grandparents’ house? The bracelet will protect her, and they’ll be able to care for her while you’re looking for Lex, hm?”
Clark slit his eyes and scanned over Domovoi’s body critically. It would just be his luck to put his baby right into the hands of the enemy. Domovoi waited patiently, though, as Clark scanned him, and then Romi and then Mercy. Finally, he stood.
There was nothing in then, but he wouldn’t let go of Lia, no matter how loudly she screamed.
“I’ll take her there myself,” Clark said. Then he was gone.
It only took a few minutes to run to the farm, and when he arrived, Lia had quieted again. Clark walked up the steps and rubbed Lia’s back.
“Mom! Dad!” Clark called into the house as he looked around for his parents. For a frightening moment, the house remained quiet. “MOM!”
Lia shrieked.
“Clark!” Martha rushed in. “Sorry, honey, I was catching up on the laundry. Oh.”
She reached out for Lia, and Clark pulled back.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Goodness, she’s upset!”
“Lex. Lex is gone. He’s gone, Mom, he’s gone.”
Martha’s jaw dropped open and the phone began to ring. She shook her head and reached to him again. “Clark, give me Lia. Let’s get her calmed down, and you can tell me what’s going on, okay?”
“It was Milton Fine. He took him again. I wasn’t there. I should have protected him. I don’t... God, why was I so stupid?”
“You are not stupid. Clark.” Martha’s voice lowered and became more firm. “Give me my granddaughter and sit down.”
Clark sighed heavily and scanned over his mother. Finally, he let Lia into Martha’s arms and plopped onto the couch, hands over his eyes.
“Shhh... Baby girl, calm down. It’ll be okay. Papa Clark’s just worried. He didn’t mean to yell.” Martha walked back and forth for a few minutes, and Lia continued to fuss, but gradually grew quieter.
“She... she sometimes only wants Lex to hold her,” Clark whispered.
“Well, don’t tell him I said this, but he’s her mommy. She’s always been with him. Soon she’ll be daddy’s little girl, too.”
“Mom, how can you be so calm?”
“Because I’m calming her down. Just breathe deep, Clark.”
“Breathe, Lex,” Clark murmured. Then his fingers curled into his hair. “Oh, God, Mom...”
“Follow me, Clark,” Martha ordered.
Lacking any idea of what else to do, Clark obeyed, rubbing the side of his face as he went upstairs to the nursery with her.
Martha laid the baby down gently and then pulled a blanket over her and rubbed her belly. “Tell me what happened?”
“I told you. Milton Fine took him. I don’t know how we’ll ever find him. Mercy said they couldn’t find him last time.” Clark hugged his stomach.
“He made it back last time, didn’t he?”
“I don’t want to think about... Fine doing that to him again. What if he does?”
“If he does, then...” Martha shook her head and shrugged. “We deal with it. And whoever else comes along.”
“I don’t want him to have to go through that again. It’s not fair.”
“Honey, I know, and I’m worried too, but if that happens, he’ll need you just as much, if not more.”
“I know.” Clark covered his mouth with both hands, then went to the side of Lia’s crib and looked at her. So small, and so beautiful. If there was another, Lex would love that one, too, and fight for him or her just as forcefully. “Where’s Dad?” “He’s checking to make sure the cows are warm enough. You know how he is. Ghost is with him.”
Clark nodded. “Can you guys watch after Lia for a little while? ”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t think Lex’s security is going to do any good this time either. I think Mercy knows that. They just don’t have the resources to deal with Milton Fine.” Clark rocked back on his heels. “I’m going to the Fortress. I’ll be careful.”
“Okay. I hope Jor-El is feeling helpful today.” Martha gave her son a tight hug.
“Probably not, but maybe I can convince him that it’s for the good of the race, or something.” Clark wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes for a moment. Clark couldn’t stop kicking himself for Lex being taken again, but blame didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he did everything he could to save Lex.
***
Clark entered the Fortress with a sense of purpose. He’d come here with requests before, but emboldened with his friends and family’s doubts about the AI and the pressing need to reach Lex as soon as possible, this wasn’t a request.
“Jor-El!” he bellowed. “I need you to find someone!”
The Fortress was silent for several moments, then came to life.
“I am well aware of what has occurred, my son. But there is more at risk than the life of your mate.”
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you that we need to find him, and we need to find him now!”
“You will not find him before Brainiac has completed his changes. You must return and confront him. He will not be the Lex Luthor you once knew. You must kill him, if you wish to save the world from what he will become.”
“What?” Clark felt his insides turn to ice water. “I’m not going to kill him!”
The crystals at the main console moved and a long, wicked looking knife appeared.
“I’m not going to kill him! Are you insane?”
“If you do not, you will condemn the human race to near extinction and slavery to the few who remain. When Zod rises, as he will if you allow his Vessel Lex Luthor to live, this is what he will do to the humans you hold so dear.”
“You are the Ice Lionel. I’m not going to commit murder! I’m not a sociopath, and Lex is the man I love. There has to be another way. Find another way!”
Clark could hear his heart pounding as the Fortress responded with silence once again.
Finally, Jor-El spoke: “If that is the case, you must bring the Vessel here, to me. It would also be best if you brought the child. If the Brainiac computer intends to use Lex Luthor as a Vessel, he will want to use the child as well.”
“How could he use our baby?”
“He might well use the child as a Vessel for Zod’s son.”
Clark hand covered his mouth and a sudden pain gripped his stomach. Then, “B-but our baby is a girl.”
“Not ideal, but not insurmountable.”
Pushing the fingers of both hands through his hair, Clark took a few deep breaths and imagined he heard Lex’s deep, calm voice telling him to breathe, just breathe. Clark could lose all of them. As much as he hated Jor-El, as much as Jor-El had failed him in so many ways, and as Chloe has suggested, was probably a corrupted program... He had to do something to save them from being body-snatched by Kryptonians.
“You said he’d be changed. How?”
“Brainiac will alter him to bring out the Kryptonian powers. Zod will want those when he conquers the world.”
“Okay. I’ll be back.”
Clark took the knife and sped off toward home.
***
Chloe paced back and forth with her hands in her back pockets. The feel of a gun resting against her side, even one that didn’t shoot bullets exactly, was more than a little anxiety-making, as was the concept of trying to protect Clark’s daughter, should Fine make an appearance. Mercy was on her way in the chopper, but until then, Chloe was the closest.
“Thank you for coming by.” Martha set out a plate of cookies. “Oh, I should check on Lia.” Martha had been checking on Lia every five minutes.
Jonathan leaned over to the plate, picked up a cookie, and then handed it to Ghost, who sniffed it and then curled up on the couch and took a nibble.
“How’s school?”
“Um, not bad. But finals are in a week. So. That’s kind of... stressful.” Chloe tilted her head to the side. “Although not comparatively.”
“Yep. That gun work?”
“Well. Lex created it. That’s a point in its favor. It’s just a prototype, though. Point against.” Chloe ran her fingers over the gun. “I’ve also never fired something this big.”
“You shoot?”
“My Uncle Sam taught me how, and I’ve been training a little with Mercy. I’m not... an expert with weaponry or a master of Kung Fu. Hopefully aim won’t be an issue. Actually.” Chloe sat on the arm of the sofa and got a cookie for herself. “While I’m hoping, I’ll just hope Lex comes back safe and sound and that Fine disappears and is never seen from again.”
“You’re not kidding.” Jonathan scratched the back of his head and hugged Ghost’s shoulders. The quiet boy looked up at Chloe with a frown.
The three of them jumped when there was a shriek from the other room. Chloe pulled her gun, leapt up, and ran upstairs.
“Mrs. Kent!”
Martha stood back against the wall with Lia in her arms. By the window was Milton Fine.
“It would be best if you just took the bracelet off that child and gave her to me. Then you can get Lex back. He and Clark will forgive you, eventually, and they can make another,” Fine drawled.
Chloe trained the gun on him. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“What is that?” Fine raised a brow.
“It’s this neat gun. Lex made it. It’ll disrupt your program inside the form you’ve taken and turn you into goo,” Chloe shot back.
“Unfortunate he didn’t have it on him a few hours ago. I remember you.” Fine stepped forward. “You turned me off.”
“Well, I’ve never been a Covergirl, so. Back off, Fine. I’ll protect the Kents with whatever I’ve got.”
“What are you?” His eyes narrowed, and he watched her curiously.
“Stop!” Her fingers twitched on the gun and she licked her lips. If it worked, she wanted him close enough not to miss.
“No.” Fine lifted his hand, which morphed into a tendril and shot forward.
Chloe pulled the trigger and a ray of light burst out and hit Fine directly in the chest. He turned black and for a moment, seemed to go mushy around the edges.
“Mrs. Kent, get out of here. He can’t get near you and the baby while she’s wearing the bracelet, but we need to get Mr. Kent and Ghost out of here, too,” Chloe said.
Before Martha could answer, Fine reformed and knocked the gun out of Chloe’s hand.
“That’s clever. Lex is my favorite human, by far.” Fine flashed a thin smile, then plunged his tendril into Chloe’s forehead.
“Oh my God!”
Martha’s scream echoed in her ears as Chloe felt her body go cold. It seemed like code was streaming across her field of vision. Then an overwhelming pink light blinded her, and she fell backward.
She couldn’t move for some time, and she could hear the sound of the gun firing. When she was able to see again, Jonathan was holding Lia, and Martha was by the window with the gun in hand.
“Ugh.” Chloe tried to sit up and felt Ghost’s small hand on her back. “Big help I was.”
“Don’t threaten Ma Kent’s grandbaby,” Jonathan teased.
Martha cast a glance back at them. “Chloe, are you okay? I’ve never seen anything like that. That pink light enveloped you both.”
“I’m... not sure. Maybe it had something to do with my powers?” Chloe pushed herself to her feet. “Let’s not tell Mercy about that little fall, hm? She hardly wants me on missions at all.”
“We’ve got your back,” Jonathan said. “Why don’t we all go downstairs.”
“I’m... exhausted.” Chloe shook her head. She’d been tired lately, but now it seemed like she could hardly keep her head up. “And I guess I need more combat training.”
By the time they’d gotten down the stairs and huddled around the couch, the front door burst open and Martha whipped the gun up.
“Whoa!” Clark held his hands up. “That’s... a big gun, mom.”
“Clark! You startled me.”
“Obviously.” Clark came over to the couch and caressed Lia’s hair.
“How was Jor-El?” Jonathan asked.
“He was himself. He wanted me to kill Lex, but he said that we could bring Lex and Lia up there, and he’d could do something about what Brainiac, that’s Milton Fine, has done to Lex.”
“Wait.” Chloe had been about to doze off. “Jor-El still wants you to bring them up there? Clark, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“He said that Brainiac is going to mess with Lex’s DNA or something and give him Kryptonian powers so they can put Zod in him,” Clark explained. “And he’ll try to use Lia for Zod’s son.”
“Oh, Clark.” Martha let the gun hang from her limp arm and shook her head. “What can we do?”
“I came back to take Lia up there. When Lex gets back, I’ll have to get him there somehow. Otherwise he’ll be taken over.” Clark crossed his arms. “I don’t like Jor-El either, Chloe, but I have to protect Lex.”
“I think you outta talk to Lex before you take his daughter up to the Arctic,” Jonathan said.
“Do you think you can keep her safe until then?” Clark shifted his posture for a moment, then shook his head. “Maybe I should find Lex first...”
“The gun seems to work,” Martha pointed out. “It’ll keep Fine away from her, and us, until you can talk to Lex.”
Clark sighed. “Okay. I’ll be back soon.”
***
Listening for Lex’s heartbeat, Clark zipped through the town. If Lex was had returned, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him, but if he was still in the spaceship... Clark didn’t know what he would do.
With his ears peaked, the boom in Riley Field sounded cacophonous. Clark hit the ground with his hands over his ears. It was then that he recognized the familiar heartbeat. Lex was back.
He ran towards the field, but then the heartbeat moved. Clark stopped in the middle of the cornstalks, listening. Lex was moving. Clark zipped off again after Lex, trying to follow wherever he was headed, but Lex was as fast as he was and traveling ahead of him. First Lex shot off towards Metropolis, and when Clark thought he might catch him, Lex turned around and headed back to Smallville.
“Slow down!” Clark said in exasperation. He spotted Lex as he zipped past him and tried to grab for Lex’s waist.
That was when he realized that Lex was faster than he was, somehow. Clark shook his head, caught his breath, and resumed the chase.
Seconds later he stopped again in front of the farmhouse, where Lex was already inside.
“Lex!” Clark bounded up the steps and into the house once again.
Lex turned to Clark, his eyes wide and wild. “Tell your father to give me my daughter!”
“Lex, just... hold on. I need to get you to the Fortress.” Clark held up his hands.
“I’m not going to the Fortress.”
“Lex, we have to.” Clark frowned and pressed his lips together. “I have to take you both up there to protect you.”
Lex pursed his lips and spread his hands. “I don’t need protection from anyone. And I don’t need a vacay up in the Arctic where another dangerous alien can mess around with my insides. I’m taking my daughter.”
“I’ll make you go, if I have to.” Clark stepped forward and shot a look at his mother, hoping she’d realize they needed to get out of there.
“What is that for?” Lex eyed at the knife tucked into Clark’s jeans.
“Jor-El gave it to me-”
“To make me go? Has he brainwashed you?”
“No, Lex, just calm down-” “I can’t calm down! I can hear everyone on the goddamn planet! My entire body is vibrating! And aliens want to use my daughter as fodder for their invasion! And you want to help them!”
“No!” Clark’s hands seemed to be frozen in front of him. “I don’t! Please, Lex, listen!”
“No.”
Lex blurred past him, and Clark sighed. He looked to his parents. “Keep an eye on her.”
“Clark?” Chloe looked up at him almost apologetically. “He took the knife.”
“What?” Clark glanced down. He blinked three times, then his knees almost buckled.
“Clark!” Martha rushed to his side.
“I have to go save Lex.” He didn’t look back before rushing after Lex once more.
***
Clark didn’t catch up to Lex again until he was back at Riley Field. Lex stood clad in his lavender sweater and soft navy slacks in the middle of the field, where all the corn had been flattened against the ground. His cheeks were red, and he was breathing heavily as he stared at the knife.
“Have you read the words on this knife, Clark? They’re in an alien language, but I can read them.”
“God, you’re scaring me. Please put that away. We’re in a field. You have that knife!” Clark could hardly belief how terrified his voice sounded. It sounded like a little boy.
“You’re determined to deliver me to him. And if you don’t, Brainiac will. He has to, I think. His programming is corrupted, and he can’t stop until this is completed. He’s the AI version of OCD. I almost feel sorry for him, even after all he’s done.” Lex sucked in his lower lip, then jerked his head up when Clark tried to move closer.
“Lex, you’re not yourself.” Clark couldn’t keep the tears from spilling onto his cheeks. “Please, give me the knife. Please. Please, Lex.”
“You can’t kill me, Clark.”
“I don’t want to kill you! I’m just scared that... that you’re going to...”
“I’m going to end this. You’re going to have faith that I know things that everyone else doesn’t.” Lex let out a tight laugh. “I need this to be over.”
“No!” Clark rushed at Lex and then boggled as Lex shot into the air. “You can FLY? How... I can’t fly!”
“You can fly.” Lex’s smile was so sad. His fingers grasped the knife handle, and he reached for Clark with the other hand. “Why don’t you fly with me?”
Clark jumped in place and landed heavily on the ground. He leapt into the air higher, only to have Lex shoot higher into the sky.
“Get down here, you jackass! And let me help you!”
“You can’t help me. Not like you think you can. I need you to take out Brainiac. This version, anyway. I don’t know if it’s possible to stop him completely, but we have to shut down this program once and for all, and then he’ll never help Zod again. I can guarantee that. He communicates between copies, and there are many copies.”
“Get down here, dammit! I’m not going to be a single father!”
“You’re not going to be a father at all if you don’t listen to me!” Lex roared down at him. “Now get off your ass and fly!”
At a total loss, Clark stared up at Lex. Lex flattened his lips in a way that Clark recognized very well.
“Stop being annoyed at me.” Clark stomped his foot.
“You’re stronger than me. I’m faster than you. And I can move things with telekineses, which apparently includes myself. There are differences, but we don’t need the Shining or Speed Racer here. I need your raw power. You’ve been here for nineteen years, and that means something when you’re powered by the sun. You’ve had a much better chance to accrue energy. Brainiac’s easy to find. He just as far as you can fly and still be in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Clark pinched the bridge of his nose.
“It’s all about a reasonable area of transmission.”
“Milton Fine has scrambled your brains. You’re talking crazy, Lex. Can’t you see that?”
When Clark looked up, Lex’s mouth was still flat, and now he was sucking in his cheeks. This was the look that had come just before throwing vases when Lex had still been pregnant.
“This is over. If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to come up here and do it.”
There was a sound like a jet as Lex disappeared into the sky.
“God damn... Lex!” Clark jumped into the air again and fell just as hard as before. His heart might leap out of his chest any moment. He took a running jump and flung himself into the air, trying to will his body upward, trying to remember those few times when he’d hovered.
He fell. He tried again, and again. And then...
He just kept going up and up. At the rate it had taken him to catch Lex on the ground, he figured he was already too late, but to his surprise, Lex was still there, in the clouds, waiting for him. When Lex saw Clark coming after him, he positioned the knife at his chest.
Clark slammed into Lex and fought with him for the knife. If he could just get it out of Lex’s hand, let it drop to the ground...
The two of them swirled around each other mid-air as they grappled for the knife.
“Just let it go, Lex!”
“No! You don’t understand... how much this means!”
“Just come with me!”
Lex wrenched the knife out of Clark’s hand and kicked him in the chest. Still ungainly in the air, Clark flailed backward for a moment, and in that moment...
Lex plunged the knife between his ribs.
Clark tried moving toward Lex but didn’t know how. He paddled forward awkwardly like a swimmer as Lex sank and sank and sank. Losing his balance, Clark flipped over in the air and as he was looking up, he realized he could see a black spaceship above them.
Then he just let himself fall. He had to get back to Lex.
The ground dented around Clark as he landed, dirt flying into the air. Lex was only a few feet away, and Clark jumped out of the hole he’d made and rushed to Lex’s side.
“You idiot! God, Lex, you idiot! Why?” Clark scooped Lex into his arms.
There was so much blood. So much blood, and Lex. Lex was just so pale and growing colder in Clark’s arms. God, there was blood everywhere. Lex’s lavender shirt was now soaked and dark.
“Lex, wake up. God, please wake up. I won’t take you to Jor-El. I’ll- I’ll do something. I’ll... Wake up!!” Clark screamed. He shook with anger as he cradled Lex’s head with one hand.
“End it. Please,” Lex rasped. “And... don’t be sad. Just, have faith. Okay?”
“How? Lex! Oh, God. I can get you to a hospital. We’ll...” Clark scanned inside Lex and chocked as he saw the knife right through his heart, pulsing and glowing like a surrogate heartbeat. Lex’s face was now almost translucent. Clark wanted to rip the knife from his chest, but that would only kill Lex faster. “You can’t leave me! Please don’t leave!”
“Not going...” Lex gasped for air and moved his arm upward weakly.
Clark leaned down so that Lex could touch his face. “I love you. I’ve... I know I say it all the time, but I do. I love you. I... I don’t know if I can go on without you, Lex. I need you.”
“You go. Stop Brainiac. Stop... Zod...”
“Please don’t leave!” Clark cried, pressing his forehead against Lex and getting his tears all over him.
Lex said nothing back, and his hand fell away from Clark’s face. Clark couldn’t let him go. He just sat there, curled over Lex’s body and sobbed like a child.
***
It was dawn. Clark had been crying steadily through the night. Then he stood away from Lex’s body, and shot into the sky.
Still terrible at flying, Clark swerved back and forth in the air, but he kept going until he saw the black ship again. He sped up. Faster and faster, until he slammed into the ship.
The metal was hard and cold, and they were so high up that the air was thin, but it didn’t seem to matter to Clark. Somehow breathing didn’t seem to be a necessity. Punch after punch, Clark was able to put a good dent in the ship, and when Fine came out, hovering in the air, Clark lunged at him.
“Ugh, Kryptonians,” Fine groaned.
He spoke more, but Clark couldn’t hear what he had to say. He kept attacking until Fine slipped away and shot off in the other direction. Clark only hovered in the air for a moment. He went back to the ship and tore it apart piece by piece. When he got to the heart of the ship, he snapped the heavy disk in half and watched with satisfaction as the light went out, then he pulverized the pieces in his hands until it was all dust.
***
Clark’s second touchdown of the day was just a little more graceful than the first. He walked over to Lex’s body and picked it up, then pressed a kiss to Lex’s cold head. He had no more tears, but he didn’t think he had any wits left, either. Now he understood what Lex had said before, about not being able to live through the passing of his partner. Clark felt like he was dead already. If it weren’t for Lia...
Clark stood with Lex in his arms and began walking. It was early in the morning, and cold, Clark noticed, and no one else was out. It was lucky, since Lex had a glowing, pulsing knife sticking out of him, and they were both caked in now dried blood.
There was no knowing what to do. Nothing to do next. Clark reached the river and laid Lex beside it. He took a moment to kiss Lex’s icy lips, then pulled that damned knife from his chest and set it aside.
With determination, Clark took Lex’s clothes off and began to wash him in the water from the river. Once Lex was clean, Clark did the same for himself, then lay by Lex and put his head on Lex’s shoulder and his hand over Lex’s belly. He made himself very still, realizing how hard it was going to be to ever get up again.
***
It had never been so hard to wake up. It was freezing, and there were no blankets.
Lex curled around the warm body next to him. Then his eyes opened to a yelping sound.
“Lex?! Oh! Oh! You’re alive!” Clark gulped in air and wrapped his arms around Lex so tightly that it hurt.
“My... my chest hurts.”
“What... AHHHHH!!!” Clark screamed. Literally screamed. Then jumped up. Then grabbed Lex again and kissed all over his face. “Of course your chest hurts! You impaled yourself on an alien knife!”
“It... I told you before...” Lex coughed weakly. “I know I’m going to live at least into Lia’s toddlerhood. Oh. It hurts.” Lex curled over. “And it’s cold. Why am I naked?”
“Because you killed yourself, and I lost my fucking mind!”
Lex looked at Clark and tried to focus. It was easier now, without all of that power running through his body. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you drop the f-bomb before.”
“I’m a boyscout, y’know.” Clark pulled Lex’s head to his chest and sobbed once. “I can’t believe you’re awake. You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t explain better before. That knife. It pulled the energy out of me. Read the front of it. They can’t use me as a Vessel now.” Lex shuddered. “Please tell me... you didn’t take Lia to the Fortress. Please tell me you took out Brainiac’s ship.”
“I didn’t. And I did. What’s going on with the Fortress?”
“Zod is there. Well, not him, but part of his intelligence. I think maybe if Brainiac could open the Phantom Zone himself, he would have done it.”
Clark shook his head. “No, he can’t. The last time he tried to bring out Zod, he made me take him to the Fortress. You’re right.”
“Dunno if Zod will still be in the Fortress with the ship destroyed. Dunno how to get him out, either, if he’s lingering there.” Lex pressed himself into Clark’s warmth. “Can I be right with blankets, or something? Please?”
“Yes. Oh, yes.” Clark laughed softly and clung to Lex as though the world might slip away. “But only if you promise never to do anything like that again!”
Epilogue coming soon.