“Fourteen ago, my father was nothing more than a moderately successful businessman,” Lex started quietly. His voice was bitter and sardonic, but Clark could hear the tight control in it. For a moment, he could forget about how different Lex looked, and remember his friend, who was never one to reveal what he was really feeling.
“My father had companies all over the country, contracts world-wide, and politicians in his pocket,” Lex listed casually, “but he was nothing special yet. There were worse than him. All that changed the day he arrived in Smallville to buy up the land for his newest factory.”
Lex had lead Pete, Clark, Chloe, and Whitney into an unoccupied room at the side of the factory that seemed to have been converted into a command center. Street maps and blueprints were scattered over a desk in the center of the room. Lex had chosen a spot at the head of the table, his hands folded on the desk, speaking slowly and clearly to them. Whitney was hunched over the desk, staring blankly into one of the plans as he listened, while Chloe sat backwards in an old office chair, hanging over the back. Pete was leaning against the wall, watching them. Clark stood alone, staring at Lex as he went on.
“My father had his eye on an old factory on the outskirts of town,” Lex said, glancing at Pete. “Maybe you remember it?”
“How could I forget?” he breathed out. “Ross Cream Corn. God, I don’t think that place had made a profit in twenty years, but my dad still wasn’t going to sell it.”
“Not that day at least,” Lex shrugged. “My father brought me along for the deal. I think he wanted to impress upon me just how he worked. All I remember though was being bored,” he laughed. “I wandered out into the fields by the factory and came across-“
“A Smallville Scarecrow,” Clark finished quietly. He remembered hearing this before. Lex stared at Clark in astonishment.
“The football team still does that,” Chloe spoke up, “but nowadays they don’t wait for a game, they just do it whenever they’re bored.”
“How do you know about that?” Lex asked.
“Because you told me two years ago,” he said. Lex blinked, his eyes widening. “Go on,” Clark told him. “That was when the meteor shower started.”
“Yes…” Lex recovered slowly. “I heard them first. It was a whistling sound, like something you’d expect to hear in a cartoon. The sound just kept getting louder, becoming a roar. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until the first of the meteors broke through the clouds overhead. It flew past the factory and crashed about a quarter mile away. I think I was too frightened to run away, I just stared at where it had landed until I realized that I was still hearing that roaring sound. Then one after another, more started to fall, till it looked like the entire sky was bleeding.” Pete and Whitney nodded silently, each of them caught up in their own memories of that day.
“I probably would’ve just waited there to die until something happened to shake me up,” Lex smirked. “I was too terrified to run. Then a meteor came hurtling through the air straight overhead. I think it would’ve passed right over me, but before it could reach the field, it collided in mid-air with another fragment. The explosion was… louder than anything I’d ever heard. Bits and pieces were scattered from the explosion, reigning down all over the field. One of them struck the ‘Scarecrow’ as you called him, and turned him into a torch. When he started screaming, I ran off. I can still hear him sometimes,” he said and passed a hand over his face wearily.
“When I ran out of the fields, everyone had left the factory by then, trying to find some shelter I imagine. But not my father,” he said quietly. His voice lost its bitter tone and he seemed generally puzzled. “Out of nowhere, he picked me up and carried me inside that same factory we’d come here to buy and we waited, clutching each other. I don’t think I’d ever been more terrified in my life. I doubt he felt any different. But I remember he held me close and tried to comfort me.” He let out a breath, eyebrows knotted together in confusion for a moment. Then he shook his head and continued in that same bitter, sardonic tone. “He tried I think. He kept mumbling something over and over again, but I don’t remember what it was now. Still, it was the closest he ever got to being a real father to me. I think it says something that it took an almost biblical event to make him act like a father, no matter how briefly.”
“So your dad wasn’t father of the year,” Chloe said quietly. “This is news? I mean, we know who he is, somehow I doubt anyone was thinking he’d act any different to family.”
“Just a little proof that I’ve got as much, or more, reason to hate my father as much as anyone else here,” Lex told her. He looked around the room, his gaze lingering on Pete. “I want everyone here to know where my loyalties are.” Pete looked at him and didn’t say anything.
“Anyway,” Lex went on after a moment, “when the meteor shower was over, my father found a ride to the hospital. Neither one of us was seriously injured, but I think we were both in shock. The hospital was overcrowded, as you can imagine; the dead and injured lying everywhere with more coming in every minute. But my father was still my father, and managed to get a room for me and a doctor to look at us both. He was just finishing examining me when an aide of my father’s ran into the room.”
His face tightened together into an expression that was almost, but not quite a grin. “I’m not sure how he found us in all that chaos, but he did. He said he had incredible news,” he laughed.
“Aliens had landed,” Chloe said dryly.
“How?” Pete asked. “I mean, aliens don’t come down regularly come down with meteor showers, you know?”
“It is a little unbelievable,” Whitney said quietly.
In spite of himself, Clark laughed a little. They all looked at him and he felt himself going red. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s just I’ve spent most of my life thinking the same thing.”
“Why Smallville?” Lex asked suddenly. Clark looked at him and shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know. It’s where the ship was programmed to land.”
“But why? Who programmed it?”
Clark spread his hands helplessly. “I wish I knew,” he said truthfully. “My parents maybe, who knows. Whoever did it only left me a ship and bunch of questions.”
Lex sprang up from his seat, going pale. His hands pressed down tensely on the table top. “You have a ship? A functional ship?”
“Yes,” Clark said slowly.
“Take me to it. The ship we recovered was broken, useless. We could never even get part of it open to examine it. If yours is functional, we could learn so much…”
“Or your father could learn so much,” Chloe pointed out.
Lex stared at her and then sank back down into his seat. “She’s right, of course,” he said quietly. “I could never take a look at it without him finding out. It’s just…” he trailed off. “An actual alien piece of technology… My father built an empire on a fried piece of scrap; you can imagine what I could do with a functioning one.” He paused again and then smiled bitterly. “Sorry about that, that must have been the Luthor in me talking.” Pete eyed him warily for a moment and then looked back at Clark.
“How many of you are there?” Whitney spoke up. “I mean, is this like an invasion or something?”
Clark stared at him strangely. “A what?” he almost laughed.
“Look at it from our perspective,” Pete told him, not amused.
“No, it’s not an invasion,” Clark assured them, his smile quickly dying. “I don’t know of any others like me. I don’t even know why I was sent here. My ship is functioning sure, but lets just say that its owner’s manual isn’t exactly written in English.” He stared at them, suddenly feeling all the loneliness and isolation he’d experienced growing up different. The fear of using his powers, the fear of being found out and taken away from his parents. “I don’t remember anything about where I come from,” he said quietly. “Who knows, maybe I was sent here to invade, but that doesn’t matter. This is my home now, Smallville. I was raised here,” he said, and Lex looked up sharply, “I’m not looking to destroy it.”
“When did your ship land?” Lex asked him intently.
“Fourteen years ago, the day of the meteor shower.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Lex sat back, stunned. “There were two ships?”
“No, there was just one, mine.” He stared around at them, and then went on quickly, trying to get through it as quickly as possible. “My ship landed during the meteor shower. I have to guess there was some connection between the two, but there’s no way of knowing. My parents, the Kents, found me in a field near the ship. They’d never had a child of their own, so they decided to take me in. They adopted me, raised me as their own, and tried to give me as much of a normal life as they could. It wasn’t easy keeping my powers a secret, but we’ve managed pretty well. Only one other person knows so far.” He shrugged a bit and glanced at Pete. “That would be you.” Pete jumped, his eyes wide.
“That’s not what happened,” Lex choked out suddenly. He glared at Clark, swallowing. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” Clark shook his head. “It all happened, I remember it, but for some reason, none of it’s the same here. And I don’t know why!” he said, getting agitated. He turned around, staring at the wall for a moment. Then he turned back to them, shaking his head. “Yesterday, I was walking home from school and… something happened. I was pulled here, and I don’t know anything about the why or the how. It all happened so quickly. One minute I was in the middle of a storm and the next, here I am. Sun is shining, lakes are where I don’t remember them, and Luthorcorp has taken over.”
There was dead silence for a moment as Pete, Whitney, and Lex all stared at him. Then Chloe broke through it by saying, “Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too when this guy came out of nowhere and told me we were best friends even though I’d never seen him before in my life.”
“Did you believe him?” Pete asked weakly, looking from Clark to her.
“Would you at first?”
“What you’re describing sounds like parallel worlds,” Lex said slowly. He slumped back in his chair, looking blankly at the ceiling. Then he looked up sharply at Clark. “Can you prove it though?”
“When the soldiers came for me in the town,” Clark said, thinking, “it was because someone spotted me, right? Because I look just like the person you have locked up, the other me?”
Lex frowned. “There are some differences,” he said tersely.
“Ooh, the picture,” Chloe spoke up. “Show them the picture,” she said to him. “Worked with me.”
“A picture convinced you of all this?” Pete asked as Clark dug his wallet out.
“Well that and just after he showed me it the ‘Corps came out of nowhere and started shooting at us,” she remarked. Then her grin faded and she looked away. “And I know liars. Clark’s not.”
Clark held up the picture in his hands, half-listening to Chloe. It seemed so long ago that he’d gotten this, even though it only been the other day. They’d been in school and Lana had… He suddenly started as he realized that Lana was in the picture. She was part of LuthorCorps in this world; of course Lex would know her. He looked up from the photo and saw them all waiting for him. He hesitated and then finally handed it to Pete, figuring that he didn’t have any choice in it.
Pete took the photo and then almost dropped it as he got a look at it. “That’s me!” he said, jerking his head up to look at Clark. Clark nodded, but Pete didn’t see him, he was too engrossed in studying the picture. Whitney stood up, craning over Pete’s shoulder to see it. Lex remained seated, hardly taking his eyes off Clark.
“It’s funny,” Chloe said, looking at the picture. “I think I look better here than in the photo, but you don’t,” she told Pete. “Clark’s you looks like more fun.”
Pete flushed and leaned back in his seat. “I don’t have a lot of fun these days.”
Lex leaned forwards and picked the picture up at last. He studied it for a moment, his expression a mystery. Then he looked up at Clark and flicked the picture around so it faced him. “Who’s this girl?” he asked, tapping the photo.
“Lana Lang,” he said quietly.
Pete started, staring at the picture again. “I’ll be dammed,” he said quietly. “I didn’t even recognize her.”
“That’s probably because she’s smiling,” Lex said dryly to him. Then he looked back at Clark and tilted his head, regarding him again. “Is she a friend of yours?” he asked. Clark nodded glumly. “Are you close?” Lex asked in that same innocent tone. Clark sighed and nodded again. Lex seemed to consider this for a moment, and then he started to laugh. The photo slipped out of his fingers as he leaned back, practically holding his sides. He was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair.
“I don’t think it’s very funny,” Clark said testily.
“I don’t think I get the joke,” Chloe remarked as well, frowning at Lex.
Eventually, Lex managed to get himself under control. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, gasping for air. He smirked at Clark, wiping away tears in his eyes. “You know, I’m not one to believe in a God, but something with a sense of humor had to have planned this.” Clark looked away, his hand rubbing his shoulder where Lana had shot him. Lex caught the movement and smiled at it. “I see you two have already met.”
“So who is this girl already?” Chloe asked angrily. Then she seemed to catch herself and shrugged it off like it wasn’t important. “I mean, what’s the big joke?”
“In a minute,” Lex said, still smiling. “I think I should finish with my story first. Lana’s a part of it after all, and I think it’s something we all need to hear,” he said, his eyes on Clark. “Now where was I?”
“My ship just landed,” Clark told him. “What did you do with me… I mean, him.”
“Well to be completely honest, no one knew what you were at first,” Lex smiled. “This was 1987, it could’ve been the Russians for all we could guess. The only things we knew were that was a busted spaceship that had plowed a furrow ten feet below mainstreet and it had left one very shaken little passenger. Even looking at him didn’t give us any hints.” He pointed at Clark. “As you can see, they’re almost identical to us.”
“The ship landed in town?” Clark asked weakly.
Lex smiled and nodded. “In front of close to twenty witnesses,” he said. “I think it was also in front of one of my father’s building, thought I’m not sure about that. It wasn’t exactly a text book landing. Anyway, my father claimed you’d landed on his property and confiscated you.” He laughed again. “You were Luthorcorp property from day one.” It was all Clark could to do to keep from retching. All his life he’d been afraid of being exposed, but here there’d been no chance for his ‘other’ self.
“Hold on,” Whitney spoke up suddenly. He stared at Lex and asked, “If there were that many witnesses, how come we’ve never heard about any of this. People would have talked.”
“Because when my father’s people took one look at what was left of that ship, and realized just how ‘foreign’ our visitor was, my father made very certain that there wouldn’t be any witnesses left to talk,” he said grimly. He leaned back, staring at the ceiling. “Ten of the witnesses had been injured that day, they all, sadly, succumbed to their minor bumps and bruises within a few weeks time. The town had already had a national catastrophe; who was going to notice a few extra corpses? Five of the witnesses worked for my father anyways, so he could easily arrange for them to be transferred to more secure locations, to be silenced or paid off later based on how corruptible they were. Seven people in town my father bought outright. Of course,” he said, “it didn’t matter if they took the money, within two years time, they had all mysteriously died.”
“That’s the Lionel Luthor I know,” Pete said savagely.
“You know an awful lot about this,” Clark remarked to Lex.
Lex waved the comment away. “I’ve had a life-time to study up on my father and his secrets. Besides, its interesting reading.”
Chloe seemed to be struggling to with something. “So he killed everyone who knew about it? I mean, everyone who was there to see it come down?”
“Not everyone,” Lex allowed. “There was one other witness he left alive, two if you count me.”
“But you’re his…”
“And what would he do if he knew what I was doing right now?” he asked her. “Some secrets are more important than blood in his eyes.” She blinked and sat back in her seat.
“Who’d he leave?” Pete asked.
“A girl,” Lex shrugged. “She was about four years old. I think he let her live because she was practically catatonic when they brought her in. She’d seen her own parents die during the meteor shower. It was a bit too much for her, she went into shock and the doctors weren’t very hopeful that she’d ever come out of it. Maybe my father spied a humanity story in her, but he did seem to take pity on her. She didn’t seem to have any relatives who wanted her, so he took her in, got her the best doctors he could find and slowly brought her back. Of course after that, my father did everything he could to shape her into a Luthor.” He laughed bitterly. “I think he’d already been convinced that I’d never be anything more than a disappointment to him by then. Lord knows I’d been trying.”
“Wait a minute,” Pete spoke up. “If he took her in, that would make her…”
“The esteemed head of LuthorCorps herself,” Lex laughed.
“Lana,” Clark said quietly. Now he really felt sick. He had to brace himself against the table just to keep himself upright. Lana had been raised by Lionel Luthor? It was impossible, but he’d seen her for himself just a few hours ago. “She hates me,” he said weakly.
“Yes,” Lex agreed, no longer smiling. Something like sympathy was on his face. “Her parents were killed in the meteor shower. Rather than help her deal with the loss, my father’s chosen to keep that hate alive, even stoking the fires from time to time. In his mind it makes her better warden.”
“Warden?” Pete asked. “She’s the one in charge of it, I mean, him?” he corrected himself, looking at Clark.
“Until recently,” he said, looking at Clark as well. “She’s in charge of something else now.”
“Hunting me down?” Clark demanded, staring up at him.
“No, that was just an accident. No one thought you’d come to the farm.”
“Why?” Clark gripped the side of the table, the wood starting to splinter around his fingers. “Why is my parent’s farm so important?” Lex didn’t answer, just sat there staring at him blankly. Chloe climbed out of her seat and backed away quickly. Whitney stared at Clark, unable to move. “Why!?” Clark shouted at Lex. “What are you hiding from me?” In rage, he picked up the table and threw it against the wall, shattering it into pieces. Pete jumped forward, as if to subdue him, but then seemed to realize just how pointless trying that would be. Whitney fell of his chair, scrambling away from Clark. Only Lex seemed to be unconcerned. He returned Clark’s enraged look with a cool one.
“I lied to you before,” he finally remarked. He picked a splinter of wood from his pants and tossed it aside, unhurried. “I lied when I said that my father’s business was built on you and your ship. In truth, it’s been built on her,” he said, catching Clark’s eye as he emphasized the last word.
“The day of the meteor shower, there was an accident. That sounds redundant, but you have to realize the scale of this; all the people who died, all the destruction, better that, better ten times than that, against that accident.” He shook his head forcefully. “It should’ve never happened. No one should be given that much power,” he swore.
Clark stared at him, his anger falling away and leaving only a cold sense of dread in him. “What happened?”
“A couple was driving home from town the day when the meteor shower caught them,” he told Clark slowly. “They were trapped on the road, no shelter in sight. They tried to make it to safety, but a fragment smashed down near their car. The shockwave destroyed the car, killed the man, and crippled the woman. If that had been all it had done to her, it would have been a mercy. Search parties eventually found her and she was taken to the triage center set up at the hospital. The same hospital my father and I were at. Her body was twisted, she was raving; doctors thought it was from the pain. It wasn’t until someone actually bothered to listen to her that they realized they were wrong. Well, partly wrong,” he allowed. “It wasn’t physical pain, it was mental.”
“Her mind was… being overwhelmed by everything happening around her. She could literally feel all the hurt and death of everyone in that hospital. What’s more she could feel everyone else outside of that.” He shuddered for a moment and then went on. “It wasn’t telepathy; it was more like all the walls in the world had fallen away for her. She could see everything, everyone. You could tell her a name, and she could tell you what that person had for breakfast this morning, every morning since the day they were born. It was like she was omniscient. She could even tell you what someone was going to do with a frightening degree of accuracy.”
“That’s impossible,” Pete said, going pale. “No body can do that. It would have to make her like… God or something.”
“A church of which my father would be the first member,” Lex smirked. The grin never touched his eyes though. He had a haunted look to him. “We’ve tested her abilities, trying to find some limit to them. So many tests… So far,” he paused and said, “there doesn’t seem to be any. Nothing is hidden from her. Nothing.”
Pete sat back, swallowing forcefully. “She knows about us then,” he breathed out. “My God, she knows about everything; me and you, this place, all of us,” he said, glancing around the room.
“Yes she does,” Lex told him. “If my father ever asked her,” he snapped his fingers suddenly, “it would be over just like that.” He laughed weakly. “Now you can see the sword I’ve lived under for the last year.”
“What happened to her?” Chloe asked Lex in a whisper, her eyes on Clark. He could only stand there, staring blankly ahead, a tiny part of him listening to Lex, the rest of his mind was shuddering back in sick horror. He remembered the voice in his head, the hands that had cradled him so gently on the farm, the warmth that had seemed so, so familiar.
“My father took her out of the hospital and built a lab to hold her, and you,” he added, nodding at Clark. “He calls her his Oracle,” he said bitterly. “His own private crystal ball. That’s how my father became so powerful. With the kind of information she can give him, there’s no limit to what he can do. He could rule this world if he wanted. Perhaps he already does.”
“Why are you telling us this now?” Pete asked, still shaken.
“I kept you in the dark because frankly, ignorance is bliss. There’s nothing we could’ve done about her anyways. She’s too well guarded.” He looked at Clark for a moment, and his expression saddened momentarily. “And besides, listening to your story, it seems clear to me that it was just an accident that made her. Something was supposed to land near her and husband that day, but it wasn’t supposed to be a meteor rock.”
Clark looked up at him blankly. The warmth, the familiarity in that touch. How could he have forgotten?
“The woman,” Lex said, “the Oracle, her name was Martha Kent.”