Pete kicked the hospital doors open and strode in, his shotgun half-way raised. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” he called out to the startled doctors, nurses, and patients waiting. “Can I have your attention? Anyone who’s not wearing a stethoscope or has something serious; it’s time to head on home. Hospital’s closed.” Behind him, the doors swung open again as his people swarmed in, wounded, tired, and supporting each other.

“Hey, what are you-“ someone started to rise up in protest, but Pete pushed him back down with the but of his gun.

“You want to stay healthy?” he asked. “Well, find somewhere else to be.” The people in the waiting room got the message; in minutes people were leaving the hospital in droves, fighting those who were trying to get in.

“Watch it!” Lex snapped as someone shoved him in their rush to get out. Chloe stumbled, supporting him, and helped him hobble inside. “Pete, make sure we’ve got this place locked down,” Lex called out. “Get some doctors for whoever needs them.”

“That would be everybody,” Chloe said tiredly, helping him into one of the chairs in the waiting room. Lex nodded wearily, wiping sweat off his face.

“Get the critical ones taken care of first, everyone else can wait. We need to seal this place up.”

“Expecting trouble?” Pete asked.

“We blew up my father’s lab and trashed his company, not to mention I just dumped enough secrets to fill three seasons worth of X-Files on the internet. I doubt anyone’s going to be happy with any of us,” he deadpanned.

“Yeah, but who’s left?” Chloe asked. “I mean, we took care of LuthorCorp, right?”

Pete and Lex shared a quick nervous look. “There’s a lot more to LuthorCorp than just Smallville,” Lex explained. “They could still be trouble.”

“And aside from them, the police spring to mind,” Pete said quickly. “I doubt Ethan’s going to feel great about us blowing up his biggest contributor.” He turned to Lex. “I’ll take care of everything. Chloe, can you take him up to a room – “

“I can wait,” Lex protested, but Pete overrode him.

“ – and tie him down to the bed if you have to! I’ll send a doctor up in a minute,” he glanced back at them, “even if it’s a gunpoint.” He stalked away towards the hospital staff, shouting out orders to them.

“What is this place?” Joseph asked. He was standing alone in the middle of the floor, staring around with obvious disgust. The doctors and staff, still shocked by the sudden invasion of their building, backed up as he glared at them. He wrinkled his nose. “It smells like a lab. I hate labs.”

“It’s a hospital, a little different,” Tina explained. She was being helped onto a gurney by two others. “We’re trying to help you, trust us.” He looked at her and nodded reluctantly.

Chloe watched him intently. All through the ride to the base, while everyone else had been tying off bandages and shouting into radios, he had stayed silent, sitting in the back of one of the stolen vans. Being around so many people had seemed to unnerve him slightly; even now she could see how he kept his distance from the commotion in the waiting room. It wasn’t hard for him; people seemed to naturally avoid him, what with his bloodstained clothing and wild look. He stalked around the waiting room, snarling if anyone came too close to him. Chloe felt the cold of the meteor gun pressed against her spine. She had grabbed it on the spur of the moment, but now she didn’t know quite what she had been planning to do with it. She knew what Lana had told her, and though she couldn’t be sure it was true, something in her said it was. Joseph had killed her father, and he’d helped them escape. What was she going to do?

Suddenly, Joseph wrinkled his nose and turned around sharply, staring down one of the halls. Without another word, he started down it. Lex caught him leaving and signaled to Chloe. “Follow him, don’t let him… do anything,” he said quickly.

“Me, why me?” Chloe asked, staring at him.

“Chloe! Now!” Lex snapped at her, wincing and holding his leg.

“Fine,” she said angrily. She hurried down the hallway Joseph had disappeared down a few moments ago. More than a few people were running past her in the opposite way, proof enough that he’d gone down here. “Sure, send me after him,” she grumbled to herself. “Why not? You and Clark get along fine, hey, go tag after his clone. His psychotic, scary looking, murderous-“ she stopped abruptly. She wasn’t ready to finish that, not even to think it. She reached behind her and touched the butt of the gun lightly, but then pulled her hand back.

“Not yet,” she told herself. “Not yet.” She pulled her shirt down lower as she looked around. “Now where is he?” she grumbled. As if on cue, she heard a loud crash from down the end of the hallway. A soda can rolled loudly into view and struck the opposite wall. Chloe raised her eyebrows and hurried towards it, turning the corner quickly.

Joseph had sniffed out the snack machines. He was standing in front of a smashed-in soda machine, turning one of the cans over in his hands, studying it. It seemed that when he couldn’t figure out how to work the machines, he’d simply put his fist through one of them. The offending machine sparked and spat out cans around his feet loudly. He turned the can over and tried to twist the entire top off in one quick motion. The can exploded, drenching him. Chloe bit back a laugh as he stood there, dumbfounded, dripping grape soda. He snarled and dropped the can, moving on to the next machine, a coffee dispenser. Joseph didn’t even stop to try and figure it out this time, he simply slammed his fist into the front, making it rock back against the wall and then fall back towards him. Chloe took a step forwards as she saw it topple onto him, but Joseph caught it with one hand and pushed it back. As the machine fell back into place he put his hands underneath the dispenser, waiting eagerly. Hot coffee shot out of the nozzle, spraying everywhere, dousing him again. Chloe did laugh this time as he stood there. She stopped laughing abruptly as he shoved the machine again, this time pushing it backwards through the wall.

“Do any of these damn things work?” he yelled at her as the dust cleared.

“Umm… You have to use money,” she told him frankly. He looked at her dumbly. “You know, money, coins?” She dug through her pockets and finally found some coins. “Quarters, nickels, that kind of thing?” He stared at them in her hand and then looked around, finally turning around back to the machines. He narrowed his eyes for a moment and then smashed his fist into it and ripped out the money box. He twisted it open with one movement, spilling coins out around his feet. “Yeah, that works too,” she admitted.

He bent down and picked up a few of the cans, setting them on a nearby table. Chloe stared at them, suddenly realizing how thirsty she was. She picked one up and opened it, draining it quickly. When she finished she was surprised to see Joseph staring at her.

“How did you do that?” he asked suspiciously.

“You pull the top up like this,” she showed him. He picked another can up and tried again. He got it open without drenching himself, except that he managed to rip up most of the top in the process. Ignoring the jagged metal, Joseph drank it down greedily and reached for another. Chloe watched him quietly.

“First soda?” she asked.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He nodded as he drained another. “Sweet,” he belched out finally. He glanced towards the snack machine. “What is all that in there? It doesn’t smell like food.”

“It’s not healthy, but it’s edible,” she replied. “Why? What are you used to eating?”

“Bread, vegetables, water.” He got up and went over to it, staring inside at the snacks. “Sometimes they give me fruit,” he added. He raised his fist again, but then paused and looked back at her, quizzically.

“Be my guest,” she sighed.

He smashed in another machine and came back with an armload of snacks. Tearing open a packet of candy with his teeth, he started to wolf them down, his eyes growing wide as he ate. “What is this?” he asked, almost in awe.

“Chocolate,” she supplied. “Much better than fruit, huh?” He was too busy eating to answer.

She watched him eat for a moment, and then looked around tiredly. Her eyes kept going out of focus and her back sung with pain every time she tried to move. She was going to be one huge bruise in the morning, she thought to herself, but at least she wasn’t hurt like Lex or Tina. She glanced at Joseph and saw the dried blood on his shoulder. “Does that hurt?” she asked.

“No,” he said in between bites, still tearing into the food.

“Fine, whatever,” she sighed.

“You can go now,” he told her brusquely.

Chloe blinked and fixed him with a stare. “Excuse me?”

“Leave. You make too much noise.”

“Fuck you, alright,” she snapped at him. He stopped eating and looked at her quizzically. “I’m not here because I want to be your nanny.” She snorted and walked to the end of the room, turning around again. “Nanny, pshh,” she grumbled. “You need a leash not a nanny.” She glanced at him again and saw him still staring at her with the same confused look. “What?” she snapped.

“What’s ‘fuck you’ mean?” he asked.

Chloe let her breath hiss between her teeth as she counted to ten in her mind. “You’ll pick it up,” she told him in a tight voice. He shrugged and went back to eating, ignoring her.

She toyed with the hem of her shirt for a moment, thinking. “Can we talk for a minute? Seriously?”

“You can talk,” he grunted in between bites.

“Yeah, but do you promise to listen?”

He grunted something that could have been either an affirmative or negative. Taking a deep breath, Chloe went on.

“What do you remember about the labs? What happened to you, I mean.”

“’Fuck you’,” he said shortly, then smiled. “I get it now.”

“I’m being serious,” she almost growled at him.

“What do you want to know? I woke up, I watched the wall, I ate what they gave me, I tried to get out, they did their tests, I went back to sleep; that’s it.” He stopped eating for a moment and glanced at her. “Until Clark.”

“Yeah…” She hesitated. “How did you try and get out?”

He stopped again and let out a breath, his face becoming set. “Check the walls,” he said in a dull, robot-like voice. “Check for cracks and faults; weak points. Press on the corners, try and find a seam. Scan the floors and ceiling. Check the door; check the sensors. Watch everything. Listen to everything.” He said it almost like it was a mantra, and to him, it might have been just that, she realized. “Wait for your chance,” he finished, staring at her.

“Did you ever get your chance?” she asked. She put her hands behind her back, feeling the gun through her shirt. Her heart felt like it was thundering, ready to burst out of her chest.

“A few times,” he shrugged. “They always caught me though and threw me back in.”

Chloe’s throat was suddenly dry. She swallowed and asked hoarsely, “Did you ever kill anyone when you tried to get out?”

He smiled one-sidedly. “A few times. Something else Clark would be mad about.”

“Do you remember any of them?” Chloe started to say, but Joseph got up abruptly and left the room. She froze, her hand gripped around the butt, and then she scrambled to her feet and ran after him, pulling her shirt lower as she did. “Hey! Slow down! What is it?”

He ignored her and walked faster.

“Goddamn it!” she yelled. “You talk back when people talk to you! I know it’s a difficult concept, but try and pay attention! Now what’s going on?”

“Can’t you hear anything?” he asked irritably, spinning around.

“Not a pin dropping three counties over, sorry,” she snapped back.

“Well maybe if you didn’t make so much noise!” He spun around again and stalked down the hall, Chloe following after him.

“So what’d you hear? Did a bird shit on the roof? Someone drop something two states away? Did someone in China say something bad about your mother?!” she called out.

“What the hell is going on?” Pete asked, stepping out of nearby room.

“He started it,” Chloe said quickly.

“Are they all like this? Tell me they’re not all like this!” Joseph demanded from him. “Tell me at least some of them know how to shut up for two seconds!”

“What?” he asked, clearly confused.

“He heard something and he won’t tell me what,” she said.

Pete looked back at Joseph. “What’d you hear?”

“Clark’s back. He’s outside,” he said quickly. “Now tell her she’s not allowed to come near me anymore. She won’t listen to me.”

Chloe and Pete stared at him for a moment and then broke into a run for the front entrance. Still waiting to be treated by the shanghaied hospital staff, Lex and Tina looked up as they ran past. Just then, the main doors slammed open as a pair of figures stumbled in.

“Room for a couple more in here?” Sarah called out, hunched under the weight of the second person. She tilted to the side and started to tip over. “Little help! Now!” She fell forwards slowly, but suddenly came to a halt in mid-air. The person she was carrying had reached over in flash of motion and had grabbed hold of the doorframe, stopping both of them. Chloe and Pete stopped dead, their mouths open in amazement. They could see the way his fingers had sunk into the metal, making it bend like it was tinfoil. Then slowly, almost painfully, he pulled them both back up. Sarah stumbled away from him, panting for breath as he stood there, still clutching the doorframe. Then he looked over at them and smiled slightly.

“Clark!” Chloe yelled, forgetting about everything else. She dashed forwards, hardly believing her eyes. But there he was, his hair matted and his clothes torn. “Clark!” she said again as she ran into him, almost bowling him over as she hugged him.

“Ooh, easy,” Clark wheezed, hugging her back gingerly. “I’m okay.”

“Really?” she asked, blinking away tears.

“No, not really, but its close.” He smiled at her again, but she couldn’t help but see the bleeding cut on his forehead and the way his eyes were unfocused.

“Get a doctor, now!” Pete screamed back at everyone and then rushed up to Clark, trying to take his arm.

“No…” Clark protested, pushing him away with a little more force than he had probably meant to use. Pete stumbled back several feet, almost falling over. “Did everyone make it out?” Clark demanded in a wavering voice

Lex jumped towards him, keeping his weight off his broken leg. His face was drawn, but he looked determined. “Everyone but my father,” he said grimly. He hesitated and then added, “We haven’t found Lana either.”

Clark stared at him, not saying anything. Chloe could hear how hard he was breathing in the silence. “Don’t make me choose like that again,” he said finally with great effort.

“I wish I could.”

“Hey, we’ve got another here,” Sarah shouted to them, wheeling in another gurney along with Jeremy, the young member of Pete’s group. Chloe pulled away, afraid she knew who was on it, but to her amazement, instead it was a woman, wearing a long white robe. Her skin was very pale next to her long, red hair. She lay on the gurney with her eyes closed, hardly seeming to move. Chloe gasped as she realized who it was, and then looked at Clark.

“You got her out,” she said in almost a whisper. He nodded weakly, staring at his mother.

“How is she?” Lex hopped over to her, cursing his leg under his breath. “Goddamn it, I thought we were going to find a doctor?” he yelled.

“She hasn’t woken up since we got out,” Clark wheezed.

Lex nodded quickly, still looking her over. “You ran all the way back to the junkyard with her?”

“No, we found them on the way here,” Sarah spoke up. “Well actually, he found our bumper is more like it.”

“You ran him over!?” Lex yelled at her, a vein popping out on his head.

“He came out of nowhere!” she protested. “He’s the one with super-speed, I’ve got an old SUV, what am I supposed to do? We’re lucky we didn’t roll right over him.”

“What were you doing out anyways?” Pete asked. “I thought I told you to stay in the base. And how did Lana get out?” Sarah hesitated, staring at him helplessly.

“Where’s Whitney?” Tina’s voice cut through the noise. She was standing at the front desk, clutching it to keep herself up. “Why isn’t he with you?”

Jeremy looked at her and swallowed, speaking up for the first time. “Uh, he’s in the van,” he stammered.

“Idiot,” Sarah snarled at him, glancing at Tina.

Tina stood there, blinking in confusion. “Why isn’t he coming in? What’s wrong with him?”

Sarah dropped her head and sighed. She leaned over and whispered something to Lex, but Chloe couldn’t hear what it was from where she stood. She saw Lex’s face tighten up, and then he nod silently and glanced back into the parking lot for a moment. Chloe looked back at Tina and saw her staring back at her, her eyes demanding an answer. Unable to say anything, Chloe had to turn her head away. It was Clark who broke the silence

“She killed him,” he whispered. Chloe spun around, horrified at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was looking outside, staring in that way she’d come to recognize as using his x-ray vision. “She killed him to get to me,” he said. He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. “Lana. Oh, Lana.”

Tina started to wail as she fell forward, clutching her sides. Pete dropped to his knees beside her, trying to comfort her, but she screamed over him, sobbing uncontrollably. Lex sighed and signaled for some people to take Clark’s mother up. They came forward and started to move the gurney as Lex hobbled after them.

They only got a few feet before the gurney stopped abruptly. Joseph stood in its path implacably, his hand resting lightly on the front of the gurney. “What is it?” Lex said nervously as Joseph stood there, staring down at her. Chloe reached out to touch Clark’s arm and warn him, but he had already noticed. He nodded to her and looked at his brother.

“Joseph?” he asked, his body shaking a little as he held himself up in the doorway.

“She’s human,” Joseph said finally. He lifted a lock of her hair up gently and let it fall through his hands. “She’s a human,” he repeated. He looked up at Clark slowly. “You lied to me.”

“No, I didn’t –“

“She’s a human! She can’t be our mother.”

“She is,” Clark insisted. “When I landed here, she found me, she would have found you too, but something happened. She is our mother though, she was supposed to be.”

“My mother is not a human!” Joseph stalked up to him, his fingers twitching ominously. For a moment, he looked like he was going to strike at Clark, but he stopped just short of him, as if held back by something. “That thing is not her! It can’t be!” he yelled. “Why did you lie to me?”

“She’s not a thing,” Chloe said, surprising herself with speaking up at all, but Joseph didn’t seem to even notice her. He stared at Clark, waiting for some kind of answer.

“I didn’t lie to you,” Clark told him weakly. He was swaying dangerously and his eyes were dim. “I didn’t… lie. She loves us… both…” he trailed off abruptly and sagged against the wall.

“Clark!” Chloe called out and rushed forwards as he slid down the wall to the floor. His eyes were open, but unseeing. He had passed out cold.

“Liar,” Joseph breathed out, standing over him. “Liar…”