“What in God’s name have you done to yourself?” his father asked, staring at his head. “Tell me, wasn’t this all enough for you? Did you really have to shave your head just to shock me?”

“It’s nice to know you’ve still got your sense of humor about this,” Lex smiled, looking down as he went back to typing.

“Oh I’m nearly blind with rage, Lex. I just thought I’d get the most obvious thing out of the way first. Now what the hell, have you done to my lab?” he demanded.

“I think it’s fairly obvious what I’m doing,” he said savoring it. He glanced up, smiling at his father. “I’ve quit. This is my letter of resignation.”

His father went red in the face and his lips twitched. “Lex, I expected…,” he started, but floundered, apparently rendered inarticulate with fury. “There are limits to…,” he tried again.

“You expected me to act like a Luthor?” Lex supplied. “That there are limits to what a tidy little uprising entails? You still don’t understand: this isn’t just another little power play between you and me, this is it. I’m not just quitting the company, I quitting you.”

Lionel stared at him, his face hardening into a mask. Lex returned his gaze through the glass steadily, not faltering. Then abruptly his father smirked, shaking his head. “So you’re ready to be your own man now, is that it?” he mused. “I remember when I made that choice.” He glanced at the broken, smoking door to the lab and smiled. “The smoke in the air lends a bit of familiarity to the situation,” he said to himself. “We’re more alike than either of us care to admit.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s not important,” his father told him. “Oh, stop being a child and come out of there,” he demanded. “Either admit you lost and walk out like a man or stay in there and sulk. I can always have you dragged out of there.” He glanced significantly at the soldiers surrounding them.

“Where did you find them by the way? They’re not your normal goon squad?” Lex asked to buy time. He lowered his eyes and started to type quickly as his father answered.

“The LuthorCorps are useful, but certain jobs require a level of finesse and secrecy they lack. I find them useful from time to…” his voice trialed off as he turned back. “What are you doing? Stop that. Stop that right now.”

Lex ignored him and kept typing. Impatiently, Lionel signaled to one of the soldiers. Immediately, he lowered his weapon and went over to one of the consoles still left on and began to type. “It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do, Lex. Whatever little gambit you’ve got left, it won’t change anything. I’ve won.”

“Have you now?” Lex asked, still typing.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Tell me, have you found Clark and his brother yet?”

“Who?”

“You know who I’m talking about.” Lex spared a moment to give him a quick grin. “I’ve made some interesting new friends in the last few days. I think you’d like them. I can imagine one’s dying to meet you.”

His father stared at him, a muscle in his jaw twitching rapidly. “Are you saying you found- You found him?”

“I did more than find him,” Lex smiled.

There was a sudden commotion outside the door that made them all turn. As they watched a group of soldiers appeared, dragging two girls behind them. Lex felt his heart lurch as he saw who it was. He glanced back at Tina and saw her staring back, horrified.

“Sir!” Lana yelled out frantically, struggling with the soldiers holding her. “Sir! Lex is behind all this. He’s joined with the alien! I saw them together!”

“Yes, yes that’s become very clear,” Lionel said evenly, looking from her to Chloe. “Where did you find her?”

“She was with them, they had a base on the outskirts of town in the badlands,” Lana started, nodding at Chloe, but Lionel cut her off.

“No, I wasn’t talking to you, dear.”

“She was driving up to the base with the other one,” one of the soldiers answered. He shook Lana roughly. “This one tried to use the other as a hostage. She claims to be ‘Corps, but you said to take anyone prisoner, so…”

“She is,” Lionel told him slowly, turning briefly to look back at Lex, “but why don’t we keep her out of the way for now,” he said slowly, staring at her.

“Sir! Mr. Luthor!” Lana pleaded. “Please, I came to find you! Let me help you!”

“Just let me handle this, Lana!” he commanded her. She stared at him, her mouth open in disbelief. “I am going to figure this out,” he said, turning his back on her and facing Lex. “Starting with who exactly I can trust. Lex, listen to me. Come out of there right now. This is your last warning.”

Lex ignored him, staring past him at Chloe. She was avoiding his eyes though, staring down at the floor. He could see the fresh bruises on her jaw and wondered what had happened back at the base. But there was no time for that now. He looked back down and went back to work.

“Dammit!” his father screamed outside the walls. He smacked his fist against the glass, fuming. “What is he doing in there?” he barked back at the soldier working on the console.

“I’m not sure,” he said back, slowly. “He’s got me locked out of most of the systems. All I can tell is that he’s accessing massive amounts of data from the archives, but it doesn’t look like it’s anything technical. I don’t know what to make of it,” he admitted, flustered.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Can you shut him down from here?”

“The only way to do that would be to crash the main computer.”

“That would cost us billions,” Lionel muttered, staring at Lex.

“It might be the only way.”

He stared off into space for a moment and then nodded. “Not yet though. See if you can hack through. Let’s save that for a last resort.”

“I really think you have more important things to worry about right now,” Lex said over the intercom. He kept working as he talked, buying as much time as he could.

“More of your friends then? How did you arrange all this? Where did you find him?”

“That’s only one question you should be asking: Where is he now?”

Lionel stared at him, furious, and then snapped a look at another of the soldiers. “We don’t know, sir,” the unlucky man admitted, quailing under Lionel’s gaze. “The second target has been sighted near the east entrance, but there’s been no report about the first one.”

“Find him then!” he snapped.

“I can do it! Let me go!” Lana burst out, straining against the men holding her. “Please! Let me help you!”

“She wasn’t to go back to him so badly, why don’t you let her?” Lex goaded his father. “I know he wants to see her, she’s part of the reason he came here after all.”

Lana blanched. “Shut up! I don’t, not like…”

“What do you mean?” Lionel asked Lex slowly, studying Lana.

“He’s came here for her. He wanted to save her from all this. Of course, she wasn’t the only one, but he wanted to save her first. He’s in love with her. Don’t ask me why. We know how Lana feels of course. Hell, you’ve paid good money to make her feel that way. She’s obsessed with him. But obsessions a tricky thing, you just never can tell where it’s going to point.”

“I would never! No, don’t listen to him!” Lana screamed. “Please, sir, you have to believe me. I would never!”

“What do you mean by ‘not the only one’?” Lionel asked.

“Who’s the only one left?” Lex answered. He glanced up to see the blood drain out of his father’s face. “He wants his whole family back. Brother, girlfriend, and mother.”

Lionel snapped around, his red hair bright against his chalk-white face. “Find him now! Find him!”

Clark stared at the door in front of him and hefted Hamilton slightly. “This is it, isn’t it?” he asked quickly. Hamilton groaned and hardly moved his head, he’d been fading in and out of consciousness for a while now, and with each spell gradually getting longer. It didn’t matter now though, Clark thought. He stared up at the door, it had to be the right one. He could just feel it was someway.

Slowly, he put Hamilton down by the side of the hallway and approached the door. He touched it almost reverently, feeling the heavy, cold metal underneath his fingertips. ‘Lab 2’ was stenciled onto it in bright red letters. He let his fingers find their way into the seam in the middle of the doorway, and then with a grunt and scream of protesting metal, he pushed them both back. There was another door a few feet beyond that one though, and this time he couldn’t see a seam.

“Dammit,” he breathed out, searching around for something, anything. It was useless though, his x-ray vision couldn’t penetrate the metal and there was nothing to grab onto, it could have been just another wall with how it joined the floor.

“This is it,” he reminded himself quietly. “Don’t screw up.” He bent down and with a sudden motion, punched his hands into the floor. He felt around in the rubble, trying to find the edge of the door. He dug his fingers in deeper, pushing them through cement and steel with little effort. Then finally, he felt his fingers curl around the edge. Grimacing, he set his feet and began to pull.

In the back of his mind, he guessed that it was the same type of door as the one outside his brother’s cell. Breaking through it had been almost more than both of them could bear, and now he didn’t have his brother with him. He was alone. The door didn’t even lift an inch as he strained against it. His back burned with every second, his arms quivering uncontrollably. Somewhere, he could feel legs far off, sinking into the ground as he pushed.

I can’t do this, part of him cried out. I’m not strong enough.

You have to, another part shouted. You don’t have a choice. You could fail before, but now it’s for her. You can’t fail her.

“I… won’t!” he grunted out, his arms now pieces of lead. He thought he could hear groaning metal, faint and far off, but it was drowned out by his heart beat, thundering in his ears. “I can!” he cried out, trying to stand up, his eyes screwed shut so tightly he could see stars behind them. He opened his mouth again but all that came out was a primal scream as he threw his arms upward. There was a crash that even he could hear over his thundering heart and then he sagged to the floor, completely spent.

He lay there unknowing, for a time, his breath heaving in and out, his arms and legs sending him distant messages of pain. Then slowly, things started to reassert themselves. He could see the ground in front of his eyes and feel the biting ache from his body. One of his arms was splayed out in front of him and he was dully shocked to see blood leaking out from underneath his fingertips.

Dully, he realized that he’d reached his limit, this was it. He’d always wondered if there was a point where even his body would give in, and now he’d reached it. But that didn’t matter, the door was open. Somehow, past the pain and ache from his arms and legs, he struggled to his feet, clinging to the sides of the doorway just to stay up. Grimacing, almost dizzy from the effort, he stumbled inside.

Clark fell as the walls disappeared around him. He stared around, surprised at what he saw. He had expected something similar to what he’d found outside his brother’s cell, rows of computers and machinery. Instead, the room was as empty and dark as a tomb, save for a single spot of light at the far end. The walls he’d been bracing himself against disappeared into darkness.

“Hello!” he called out, his voice echoing back to him. “Are you here?” He pushed himself back to his feet and stumbled forwards towards the light. It was so blinding that he had trouble distinguishing anything inside it. “Mom! Are you there?”

The light dimmed suddenly and Clark blinked, trying to focus his eyes. Then he stared upwards, his mouth hanging open.

It was a web, something like a web, hanging down from the blackness of the ceiling. The strands were a mix of metal fibers and wiring. Monitors, like trapped flies, were wired haphazardly into it, flashing mutely with random images of landscapes and people, some he recognized, some that he did not. Lights hung as well, flickering uncertainly. Two great strands were anchored to the floor and in between them hung a woman.

She hung forward, her long red hair hiding her face. She was wearing a long white gown that feel past her feet, making her seem to hover there, ghostlike. Clark drew closer, staring at her, almost horrified. He could see wires running into her skin, joining her to the web. He reached out and touched one, feeling the tiny strand in his fingers. She moved slightly, swaying in the web, and he jerked his hand back quickly.

“Mother?” he whispered.

The screens hanging in the web blinked off all at once. Then one clicked on, and Clark was shocked to see himself looking out of it. Then another turned on, and another, all of them showing Clark, or pieces of his life. He watched himself toddling through the farm or swinging from the tree as a child. There was himself a few years ago, hanging from the pole in the field, Lana’s necklace burning on his chest; there he was pulling Lex from the water; there he was learning how to control his heat vision.

He stared around, watching them all. “You’ve been watching me?” He turned back to her in awe.

She was staring back at him, her eyes shining with their own light. He hadn’t seen her raise her head, he had been so entranced in the screens. It was his mother’s face, but it was not in some way. There was something endless in it, like something great had left its mark on her. Her eyes held him tightly; he didn’t even seem to breathe. All of the monitors were now filled with the image of Clark’s face.

“I’ve been watching all of you,” she said quietly. Her voice was like a faint echo, shimmering as it faded away. “All of you, my sons.” The monitors were flashing with different scenes now, places and images Clark had never seen before. He saw himself, but in lives he’d never lived. He saw himself with different families, growing up in different parts of the world. He even thought he caught a glimpse of himself in the Luthor Mansion, eating with Lex and his father.

“What is all this?” he asked, staring at the different scenes.

“All of you,” she said warmly. She stared at the screens her face twisted with a kind of longing melancholy. “I watch them sometimes when it gets cold here. So cold and alone.”

“All of these are me? These are other versions?”

“Yes,” she said, still watching. “So many. There are so many,” she said faintly.

“Why me? Why did you choose me?” he asked.

She looked down at him slowly, her eyes glowing. “Yours was the closest. And the warmest. So many good memories, so much love. I knew you could do it. Only you could.”

“I’m here,” he promised. “I came. I’ll save you.”

“You don’t understand,” she said faintly. Her voice trailed off as she stared into the blackness around them. The light dimmed around them as her features went slack. Clark stared at her in confusion.

“What? What don’t I understand?” he asked, trying to get her attention. She remained comatose though and he swore, trying to figure out what to do. Hesitantly he touched one of the wires, trying to figure a way to get it out of her skin without hurting her. Suddenly her voice came back startling clear, making him freeze.

“He knows you’re here,” she said sharply, the light shining brighter around them. Clark was about to ask who, when there was a crackling hiss above them and a voice came out of what sounded like an intercom.

“Clark, is it? I think… I think it’s time we made a deal,” Lionel Luthor’s voice echoed back and forth in the darkness.