Chloe stared up at her, feeling the barrel of the gun pressed against her forehead. Lana stared back at her with utterly calm eyes. Her hair was a grimy mess and a bloody smear covered half her face. She was wearing a bloodstained LuthorCorps uniform. She looked as if she had clawed her way out of the wreckage of the labs, and Chloe realized that she probably had. “Where is she?” Lana asked again.

“Lana,” Pete groaned, still holding his leg from where she had shot him. He was bleeding badly. Lana glanced back and him and stood up quickly. She walked over to him and trained the gun down on him. Chloe struggled to stand up, to move, to do anything, but she couldn’t seem to move a muscle. Lana bent down and pulled out his gun, tossing it down the hallway so it slid out of sight. Then she stepped over to the two men Pete had brought with him and kicked their guns away as well. No one was in any condition to stop her.

Lana walked back to Chloe and trained her gun back down on her. “Where’s the Oracle?” she asked. “Tell me or she dies. Tell me right now.”

“No,” Chloe started to moan, but Lana fired suddenly. Chloe froze up, staring up at the smoking gun aimed down at her. Then she turned her head slowly and saw the hole in the floor a few inches from her head.

“I don’t want to hear a single thing that doesn’t sound like a direction,” Lana stated, still staring at Pete. “Now one last time…”

The doors at the side of the lobby exploded inward, ripping off their hinges. Chloe’s head whipped around to see Joseph standing in the doorway, his one eye fixed madly on Lana. “You!” he snarled at her.

“The Dog’s got sharp ears,” Lana muttered. She didn’t move her gun from Chloe’s head, not even when Joseph threw himself towards her. Chloe closed her eyes, bracing for the shot that was sure to come, but nothing happened. She pried them open to see Joseph on his knees a few feet from Lana, shaking wildly. He tried to rise to his feet, the veins standing out on the sides of his neck as he struggled, but he fell back over, writhing. Lana stared over at him. “Still not very smart though.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out a hunk of green rock about the size of an apple. She held it tightly in one fist and stared down at him. He writhed on the floor, trying to inch away from her and the meteor rock. Lana raised her gun and started to fire. Her face didn’t even change as she pumped round after round into him. He screamed and convulsed on the ground as she emptied her gun into him. Chloe struggled up to her knees, screaming for her to stop, but Lana kept going until the gun clicked empty. She tossed it aside and walked back to her bag, pulling out a fresh one. Joseph twitched on the floor behind her.

Chloe yelled suddenly as Lana grabbed her and pulled her up. She pushed her roughly towards Pete and let her fall down next to him. “Don’t,” he gritted out between his teeth. “Don’t do it.”

“Tell me and I won’t,” Lana said simply.

Pete stared up at her and then he nodded in defeat. “3rd floor Basement,” he grunted. “We hid her there.”

“Thank you. Now pick him up,” she said to Chloe.

“You said…” Pete rasped out.

“I said I wouldn’t kill her. And I won’t… yet,” she corrected. Then without even looking she raised her gun to the front of the lobby and started to fire. Chloe spun around as she saw her Uncle’s soldiers falling back from the doorway, seeking cover. “Stun grenade was too loud, I guess,” she heard Lana mutter as she stopped firing. Then she glanced down at Chloe. “Pick him up, now,” she said sternly.

Chloe was on her feet in a few seconds. Her legs shook under her like a new born calf’s but she was standing. Carrying Pete was going to be another matter entirely, she realized. She grabbed his jacket and tried to lift him, but fell down on top of him in a heap. He hissed and clutched his bleeding leg as her arm bumped it. She heard Lana mutter something behind her in irritation and then she felt herself being picked up bodily and shoved towards the elevator at the back of the room. Lana, though barely taller than herself, seemed as strong as an ox. She hit the door and slumped over onto it, trying to keep herself up. A few moments later, Pete hit the wall right beside her. Lana dropped the meteor rock into the black bag and then swung it over her shoulder. She then pressed the down button with the barrel. The doors opened and Chloe stumbled inside. Lana threw Pete in callously and then stepped inside herself.

Through the open door, Chloe could see Joseph struggling to rise. Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw that he wasn’t dead. The radiation might have weakened him, but not enough for the bullets to have penetrated his skin. Still, it was a near thing. She could see numerous red bruises on his chest, evidence of where she had shot him. Thin lines of blood ran down from some of them. He pulled himself up to his knees, staring at them.

Lana was rummaging through the bag, apparently ignoring him. She pulled out two gray canisters about the size of soda cans. She leaned over and pressed the floor button with one finger and then leaned back, staring out at Joseph coolly. As the doors started to close, she suddenly knocked the two cans together in a swift motion, making their tops spark and flare ominously, and then she tossed them through the narrow gap. The doors closed and the elevator lurched as it started to move down. Then the elevator gave another sudden shake and they heard a muffled explosion above them.

“What was that?” Pete rasped from the floor. He had one hand over his leg, trying to keep from bleeding to death.

“Napalm,” Lana said offhand.

“We thought you were dead,” he said.

“I thought I was too. It took me hours to dig my way out of the labs. Then I went scrounging around. You all left a lot of things lying around that you shouldn’t have.”

“How did you find us?”

She gave a little laugh. “Wasn’t hard; just followed the helicopters.”

“What do you want?” Chloe asked, staring up at her wildly.

The look on Lana’s face as she glanced at her was truly frightening. It was a strained and desperate sort of grin. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “I’m going home.”

“General, we’ve got gunfire inside!” one of the captains shouted to him. General Lane spun around, staring towards the hospital. The outside windows were mostly darkened, but he could see flashes of light inside the lobby. He felt a cold chill as he realized that Chloe had just gone in there.

“General, what should we do?”

The answer was out of his mouth before he could think about it. “Storm the building! I want this over now!”

Joseph was on fire, but he barely noticed. He pulled himself up, feeling something grinding in his chest. He coughed and hacked up a wad of blood into the fire. His shirt fell off of him, brunt to cinders, but the constricting jeans they’d given him seemed to be fine. For some reason, they weren’t burning, but he couldn’t have cared less about that. He’d learned a lot of words listening to Chloe and to the TV last night, and he was using them all.

Lana, she was here. That was all he needed to know. She was here and he wasn’t going to rest until he had her neck in his hands. He stalked through the fiery lobby towards the elevator doors, ignoring the fire and the pain in the chest. He grabbed the doors and tore them apart. He could see the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft.

- Clark, it’s time. –

Clark floated in a sea of darkness, half-listening to the voice that called to him. He felt so weak and alone, so cold.

- It’s time. They’re all here and waiting for you. Both of them need you right now. You must wake up. –

Suddenly the darkness was gone and he was floating in blinding, pure light. His body seemed to soak it in and he could feel his strength flow back into him.

-This is all I can spare you. You have to get up and go to them now. There isn’t much time. They need you. Only you can save them. –

Clark opened his eyes slowly and stared into the light. “Mother,” he said slowly. Then he opened them further and saw that he was staring into a lamp hanging over him. He lay there for a moment, looking at his surroundings. He had been in the Smallville Medical Center enough times to realize where he was, but how he had gotten there seemed like a blur to him. He remembered running with his mother, and hitting, something. He passed his hand over his eyes, thinking. Turning his head, he saw an empty hospital bed across from, and then it all came rushing back. “Mom,” he said again, but more urgently. He sat up in a rush and noticed for the first time that people were talking in the next room.

“What the hell is going on down there?” Lex’s voice came through the partially closed door clearly. “Where did Joseph go and why am I hearing gunfire?”

“Lex, the soldiers! They’re coming towards us!” Sarah’s voice cried out.

Soldiers? Gunfire? Clark climbed out of bed and took a few steps towards the door. His legs were a little shaky, but with each step he felt his strength returning. Whatever his mother had given him was working. He pushed the door open slowly.

The hallway outside was in an uproar. He could see people, mostly the group that followed Pete and Lex, were rushing everywhere. A few doctors and nurses were pressed up against the wall as well, their eyes panicked. Lex was in the middle of it, trying to establish some sort of control. Clark had a minor shock as he saw that Lex had shaved his head at some point. For a moment, he almost believed that he was home. Then he saw Tina right beside him.

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“I thought we had two hours?” Sarah demanded. “What happened?”

“They must have heard the gunfire too.” Suddenly the fire alarms went off loudly and everyone stared upwards. “What the hell is going on down there?”

“Clark,” Tina said suddenly, noticing him standing in the doorway. Lex and Sarah looked over at him, a little surprised.

“What’s going on?” he asked, staring at everyone. “Where’s Joseph? And my mother?”

“I’d like to know as well,” Lex told him. He pointed towards the stairway door, lying askew on one of its hinges. “Joseph was up here a few seconds ago, when all of a sudden he tore off without saying a word.”

“Lex, they’re coming!” Sarah called out in a panicked voice. She was peering out the window, her hands gripping the edge tightly. Clark stared past her, focusing his eyes to stare through the walls. He felt a jolt as he saw row upon row of soldiers advancing towards the building. Where had they come from?

“I don’t have time to explain about that,” Lex answered his unspoken question. “The only thing you need to know is that we need to keep them out!”

“That’s not going to be easy,” Tina said tonelessly. She was staring intensely at Clark, making him a little uncomfortable. Then he was distracted as he heard a rush of feet up the stairwell. He spun around, ready for anything, but he stopped as he saw a ragged pair of young boys stumble up. They were flushed and out of breath.

“Where’s Pete?” Lex turned on them. “What happened?”

“That Lana girl…” one of them gasped. “She’s here. She started shooting!”

Clark started as he heard, but not nearly as much as Tina. She seemed to twitch violently, her head snapping towards them. Lex was no less shocked. “Lana? How did she get in?”

“Don’t know…” the other one said. “She and Joseph were fighting downstairs and then she set the whole thing on fire!”

Lex stepped back, staggered. Tina was not nearly so stunned though. She rushed towards the stairway, her face tightly set. Clark came alive, grabbing her arm. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“Where do you think?” she snapped, staring back at him. He was a little stunned at the look in her eyes. She had seemed so unconcerned before, but her face was literally twitching with hate. He could see the skin shifting on her face. It was as if all her hate was threatening to boil up and out of her. “She’s mine!” she swore at him. “You owe me her.”

Clark looked at her and then knew what he had to do. Tina was much stronger than a normal person, but she wasn’t any faster. He pulled her back before she could react, and punched her hard in the gut. He could feel the air rush out of her as she sagged to her knees. He let go of her arm and turned towards Lex.

“I’m sorry about that, but I have to do this,” he said quietly. “I can’t let her fight like this.”

Lex rushed forwards, grabbing Tina. “What are you going to do?” he asked Clark, looking up at him.

“What I have to do to save them both,” he said heading towards the stairs.

Lex stared after him as he hurried downstairs. He hesitated, looking down at Tina. She was curled up on the floor, gasping and trying to breath. He snarled in frustration and then grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. Without his crutches, every step was agony, but he gritted his teeth and went on. Supporting her, he started towards the stairs.

The main lobby was an inferno by the time Clark entered. Only by staring around with his x-ray vision could he see anything through the smoke. He stepped through the fire unconcerned about the flames or intense temperature. He breathed a sigh of relief as he finished his sweep of the room, no one was there. But if they weren’t here, then where were they?

He spun around as he heard a pounding on the outside door. The soilders he’d seen before were trying to get in. At least the fire would keep them out for a while, he thought and turned back. Then he noticed the open elevator door and hurried towards it, staring down. He could see the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft. There was a gaping hole in the roof of the cab. Clark didn’t need to guess to know who had made it. He stepped into the shaft and fell towards the car below. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.

“Keep going!” Lana shouted at them, thrusting Pete and Chloe forwards. Chloe almost stumbled as she supported Pete. He was bleeding badly now and was starting to slip and out of consciousness. Lana didn’t seem to care however, she held a gun on them and walked behind them, shoving them forwards if they started to slow down.

They heard a crashing sound behind them and Lana spun around. Chloe stopped as well. “Joseph,” she muttered, looking back.

“He never learns,” Lana snarled and prodded her to move again. Chloe grunted and staggered forwards. The hallway they were following came to a T junction and she waited, breathing heavily.

“To the left,” Pete rasped, his face glistening with sweat. “It’s not far. There’s a door and then another door. Go through that…” Lana nodded and motioned them to go with the barrel of the gun. They hurried down the hall. Chloe tried to glance over her shoulder, hoping to see Joseph looming behind them, but there was nothing. She had to wonder how much good it would do when Lana had the meteor rock with her.

“This is it,” Lana suddenly said, and Chloe staggered to a stop as the hallway came to an end abruptly. She fell to her knees, gasping, as Lana rushed past her, dropping her bag on the ground. She tried the door a few times and then shouldered it roughly. Then she stepped back and raised her gun. Chloe scrambled away as Lana blew the handle off the door. “Not yet!” Lana said and Chloe winced as she felt herself yanked back by her hair. Lana had her hand wrapped around Chloe’s long blonde hair and used it to pull her to her feet. “Inside,” she said, shoving her in. Pete lay by the door, staring dully at them as they left him.

The room inside was stark and bare; it was evidently some kind of unused storage area. There was a door at the other end of the room though and it was that Lana was fixed on. She marched Chloe across the room and kicked in the other door.

They both stopped in the doorway. A wavering light bathed over them and the rest of the room, flickering and moving back and forth like it was dancing off water. A single gurney was positioned in the middle of the room and on it was the source of all the light. A woman was lying there on her back, with a white cloth draped over her. Her red hair spilled over the end of the gurney, trailing towards the floor.

Chloe took a hesitant step inside, but cried out as Lana jerked her back roughly. She could feel her eyes tear up as she jumped back. “Not you,” Lana hissed and pushed her down to the floor. She let go of her hair and took a step towards the Clark’s mother.

Lex staggered back from the heat of the flames as he pulled Tina down to the lobby. He lowered her to the floor and grabbed a fire extinguisher from the side wall. He pressed the trigger and started to fight the blaze, looking around for anyone. After a few moments he gave both up as useless. He stared around fruitlessly, and then through a gap in the smoke he saw the open elevator shaft. Gritting his teeth, Lex raised the can again and started to clear a path towards the elevator.

Lana stepped towards Clark’s mother, her hand stretched out tentatively. Suddenly the light that had been emanating from her flickered and vanished. There was a nervous moment as they waited, but nothing seemed to happen. Lana swallowed and moved her hand closer.

Suddenly they heard a door crash open behind them. Lana hesitated, her face torn, but then she spun around and grabbed Chloe again, pulling her to her feet. Chloe tried to struggle, but Lana shoved the barrel of the gun into her side and fixed her with a glare. She started towards the other room, pushing Chloe with her.

Chloe’s heart jumped as she saw Joseph standing in the door to the hallway, but then her elation started to die. He was gripping the sides of the doorway with both hands, apparently struggling to remain standing. His face was pale and flushed, but the hateful gaze he fixed Lana with was steady enough.

“I figured it was you,” Lana muttered, staring back at him. “We’ve done this enough times for you to know how it’s going to end. Back off now…”

“Something’s different this time,” Joseph told her. He glanced downwards and Chloe saw Lana’s bag lying at his feet where she had dropped it before. The meteor rock was glowing inside. She felt Lana stiffen as Joseph stepped over it and then kicked the bag backwards, sending it flying down the hallway. He straightened and his weakness seemed to leave him. As he took a step into the room, Lana took a step back.

“Come any closer and I’ll kill her!” Chloe felt the gun jam painfully into her side and she winced. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t fight back; Lana’s grip on her was too strong. She stared at Joseph as he stood there, seeming to consider things. He looked at Chloe and then at Lana. The look in his eye was impossible to discern. Chloe swallowed and waited.

Clark took it all in from down the hallway. Joseph was still standing there, thinking things over, but there was no way Clark could trust him to make the right decisions. There were too many lives at risk. “NO!” he called out, making them all stop. He walked out of the shadows, his eyes going from Joseph to Chloe and then finally to Lana. She stared back at him, her eyes wide and fearful. She had stared Joseph down without flinching, but something about Clark seemed to terrify her. Somewhere deep down, Clark thought he knew what it was, and that it was their only hope.

“Don’t interfere,” Joseph snarled at him. He didn’t take his eyes off Lana. “I can handle this.”

Clark ignored him and walked past his brother. Lana stiffened up and drew Chloe back, the gun ready. “Clark, what are you doing?” Chloe gasped out, Lana’s hand wrapped around her neck. Clark ignored her as well, looking only at Lana. He stared at her, feeling no anger, but rather disappointment and pity. He knew what she had done, and that there was no going back from that, but he still couldn’t hate her. The reason for it, he realized was simple enough. It was standing right behind him after all.

“What are you doing? Get out of the way.” Joseph said angrily. Clark heard him start forwards, and he turned, putting himself solidly in between the girls and his brother. Joseph stopped dead, his face full of surprise.

“Lana,” Clark said over his shoulder. “You can let Chloe go now. My mother’s waiting for you.” He could hear the twin gasps behind him. Then in the doorway, he saw Lex appear, carrying Tina. With foreboding he saw that she was conscious again.

“What?” Joseph said, his face still dumbly surprised.

“I won’t let you hurt her,” Clark said quietly. “I can’t.”

“NO!” Tina rasped out, her face anguished. “Don’t you know what she did?” Clark nodded slowly and she screamed. The skin on her face was practically boiling now, consumed with rage. “She killed Whitney! She killed him and I’ll kill her.” She shoved Lex aside and seemed to tense up, ready to hurl herself at him. “She deserves it.”

“Maybe she does, but I still won’t let you.”

“Why not?” Tina barked. “Why is she so special? She’s not who you think she is, Clark. None of us are.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “And that’s why I can’t let you do this.”

Tina shook her head in confusion and he saw her start to shift her weight forwards, ready to rush at him.

“Do you know why I never told you how I know you?” Clark snapped the question at her. She paused, staring at him, her fingers open hungrily. “It’s because the Tina Greer I knew is dead. She was a murderer and she chose in the end to die rather than except my help. I won’t let you go down that path. I can’t risk it. You could be happy here, you deserve this. I’m sorry about Whitney, but I won’t let you throw it all away for revenge.”

“Clark…” Lex said quietly, staring at him.

“This is stupid,” Joseph growled. He took a step forwards, staring behind Clark. “You can’t stop both of us.”

“I can if I have to,” Clark said plainly to him.

Tina was trembling, her hands closed into fists. Her face was flickering between doubt and rage. Clark stared her down, waiting. “Tina,” Pete’s voice came from the doorway. She turned slightly, looking back at him. He was propping himself up in the entry to the room, one hand pressed against his leg. He looked weak, but determined. “Tina, Whitney never thought you were a monster. I know he didn’t. Don’t make yourself into one.”

Tina stared at him dumbly, the skin on her face starting to come to a halt. Slowly she turned back to look at Lana. She started to shake, some battle waging within her. Tears were pouring out of her eyes and her hands shook violently. Clark remained where he was though, and did not look away. At last, she seemed to crumble in on herself and she fell to the floor, sobbing.

“No!” Joseph snarled, his face dark with rage. The air in front of his eye was shimmering as he stared his brother down. “I won’t let you do this! I won’t let you!”

“I can’t let you,” Clark replied. They faced each other, so different now. Joseph’s face was mottled with rage and hate, while Clark’s was calmly set. It seemed almost impossible that they were brothers, but they were. Clark could never forget that. If not for some trick of the weather, or of God, or of fate, it might have been him standing there. If it not for a mother’s love, he might never have been standing here.

With a strangled, animal cry, something in Joseph seemed to snap and he threw himself at Clark. Almost at the same moment, Clark sprang forwards. They collided in mid-air with a deafening impact.

Lana had dropped Chloe at the first sign of Joseph’s attack. She pushed the girl down and ran back inside the other room as fast as she could. Clark’s mother was still lying there sedately, as still as a corpse. Lana stared at her desperately and then looked back towards the door. She could feel the room shaking from the struggle just outside it. Then she stiffened as she felt a hand close around her wrist. She turned back and looked into a pair of eyes that seemed to extend into infinity.

It was not a fight in any sense of the word. It was too primal for that. Joseph seemed too enraged to think of throwing a punch and Clark would not hit his brother. Instead each clasped the other by the throat, trying to make them submit. They stumbled forwards and backwards, shoving themselves through walls as they struggled.

It was not just physical either; memories and emotions flickered from one to the other across the bridge they had formed. All the pain that they had ever experienced in their lifetime was flickering between them. They both screamed as countless needles and knives pierced their skin and writhed as the meteor rocks’ radiation burned them. There was heartache and loneliness, despair, and grief, all the darker feelings they’d ever had. They screamed together in mental and physical agony.

Through the pain, Clark felt Joseph’s fingers start to slip. His grip was definitely loosening. Joseph tried to let go and get away, but Clark grabbed his arms and held on. As they both writhed in pain, Clark started to understand something. He could bear the pain far better than Joseph because he had something else to hold onto. He had his family and his friends, here and back home. He could feel them in his head, warm and comforting. Joseph didn’t have that. For him, those memories were frighteningly unfamiliar and alien. He had had nothing like that in his life, and without that, Clark thought, he really had nothing.

Clark let go of his arms and Joseph collapsed to the floor. He was trembling violently, and when he raised his head, Clark was a little surprised to see tears coming from his eye. “How can you bear it?” he asked, his voice quavering.

He looked at him wearily. “Because I don’t just have pain to remember. Maybe you’ll understand that someday.” Joseph stared at him and then seemed to sob. He curled up in a ball and stayed there, shaking. Clark looked at him pityingly and then turned towards the door. Chloe was on the floor, breathing heavily and watching him with awed eyes. He continued past her to stand in the doorway.

His mother lay quietly in the room before him. She was alone; there was no sign of Lana.