**WARNING: THE CHAPTER ENTITLED “CONSEQUENCES” AND ALL THE CONTENT THERIN IS INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY, AS IT CONTAINS INSTANCES OF HEAVY VIOLENCE WITH DEPICTIONS OF BLOOD, DEATH, AND PTSD INDUCED VIOLENT BEHAVIOR.**
Consequences
Just having extraordinary abilities was only the tip of the iceberg that weighed so heavily on the shoulders of young Clark Kent. Ever since he had really come to understand how different he was, he’d felt the constant pressure of possibly being found out by his friends, or worse, his enemies. Granted, for an 18 year old on the verge of completing high school, his only real enemy was the ever-so-popular Whitney Fordman. Not that Clark had a real reason to dislike Whitney (except for having Clark strung up in a corn field…). He was really just in the way of Lana.
Ah, Lana… Young, beautiful, and incredibly intelligent. At least, that’s how Clark saw her. The only girl for him, she was always at the forefront of his mind, and when he caught a glimpse of her that fateful day outside of the Talon, he couldn’t help but stare…
“Oof!”
Having been completely distracted, Clark had run right into the stiffly squared shoulders of his arch-nemesis: Whitney.
“Watch it, Kent!” Whitney growled.
“Sorry,” Clark told him, but he didn’t really mean it.
“If you’re going to apologize, it should be for staring at my girlfriend.”
“St-staring,” Clark stammered. He was very much put-off by Whitney’s brazen declaration. “I wasn’t… We’re just friends, Whitney.”
“I’m not blind, Clark. You lost your shot with her, remember? So back the hell off. Let’s not forget,” Whitney leaned in close. “I know your secret. All your secrets, Clark. And nothing, nothing you’ve done for me gives you the right to interfere with our relationship, so stay away if you’d like to keep that charming farm boy face in one piece.”
Whitney brushed angrily past a befuddled and suddenly quite angry Clark, and for just a moment the young man had to choke back the urge to put the quarterback in his place. After all, the words of his friend Lex Luthor came to mind… “A boyfriend is an obstacle, Clark, nothing more.”
Maybe the time was coming when Clark wouldn’t so easily brush off the brazen hostility from Lana’s boy toy. Maybe Lex was even right and Whitney just needed some… convincing.
Clark shuddered. He knew better. His father, Jonathan, had taught him better than that. Still, he’d found it more difficult lately to push back the desire to use his powers for his own gain. Much of that he credited to the events that had led to Whitney’s return to Smallville after two years of military service, one of which had been spent overseas. For nearly three months of that time, Whitney had been missing. Eager to ease Lana’s pain, Clark had choked down his own pride and set out to search for the lost soldier. He’d found him, half dead in a prison camp near the outskirts of Poso, Sulawesi. Whitney had been captured by a terrorist group, and Clark had taken more than a few bullets during the rescue. That encounter, really, is what had changed the would-be hero to his core. There had just been so many people trying to hurt the two of them as they made their escape…
“Something on your mind?” Lex’s voice pulled Clark from the darkness of that particular memory. He shivered as he greeted his friend with a fake smile.
“Not really,” he replied. “Why?”
Lex shrugged.
“Maybe it’s because you had that same far-off look I have myself when I become too immersed in the demons of my past.” Lex smiled sadly, and Clark grimaced.
“I guess I just have a lot on my mind lately,” he confessed.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with the startling return of the quarterback, now would it? I found his comeback to be… miraculous, wouldn’t you agree?” Lex gave Clark the familiar keen look that nearly pierced the carefully crafted facade of normalcy he tried to hide behind. Lex, it seemed, could see right through Clark’s armor, and it made him very uncomfortable.
“I wouldn’t say miraculous,” Clark squirmed. “Irritating, maybe,” he added under his breath with some surprise at having voiced the thought aloud.
“Well, embracing the darkness a little, are we, Clark?” Lex teased. “Careful,” he added. “If not for my father’s persuasiveness, I’d have the juvi record to prove just how far away from the light those ideas can take you.”
Clark glanced at his friend.
“So you’ve been…”
“Jealous?” Lex asked. “Of course. Who hasn’t? The key that I’ve learned is to be smarter than your opponent. If you act on impulse, you end up looking like the bad guy, and your adversary wins. Even if you kick his ass.”
Clark rolled the idea around for a bit.
“So if you were me, and Whitney was your… opponent, what would you do?”
“Well, I’d find his weakness and exploit it.”
Clark scoffed.
“He’s a war hero now,” he grumbled. “He doesn’t have a weakness.”
“Clark, that is his weakness. Too often our greatest strengths can be used against us. It’s pretty clear to anyone watching from the outside that Whitney leveraged his pain to worm his way back into Lana’s heart, even after she dumped him. She doesn’t really want to be with him.”
“So you’re saying I should… go after his reputation? That seems a little dark.”
Lex shrugged.
“You can’t shy away from getting your hands dirty forever, Clark.”
Clark grimaced at the remark, a telling sign that Lex was sure to have noticed. Thankfully, his friend didn’t press. Instead, he put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
“You graduate next week,” Lex reminded him. “The quarterback and Lana make their escape from Smallville shortly after. If you wait until then… You’ll likely lose your opportunity forever.”
Clark’s face became scrunched with consternation. Lex was right, though not about getting his hand dirty. That had already happened and wasn’t something he could ever change. But he was right about Whitney. In just five days, Lana would be gone forever if he didn’t act fast.
“Thanks, Lex,” he cleared his throat. “You’re a good friend.”
“Always here if you need anything, Clark.” Lex smiled as they parted ways, with the wealthy Luthor headed for his Porsche and Clark to the doors of the Talon.
His heart was pounding as he moved toward the counter, behind which Lana stood, looking as incredible as ever. A hundred different speeches rushed through his mind, but when he finally made it over to her, all he could do was smile awkwardly.
“Hi, Clark,” Lana smiled sheepishly. “Did you, uh… Can I get you something?”
“Yes,” he replied. “No… I, can we talk?” He stammered. “In private.”
Her brow furrowed, but she dipped her head.
“Sure,” she waved him forward and he followed her through the door behind the counter until they’d moved through the kitchen and into the stockroom.
“What is it?” she asked after a moment of tense silence.
“Don’t go away with Whitney!” Clark blurted and cringed simultaneously. “What I mean is, I don’t want to lose you.”
Lana sighed and placed her hands on her hips.
“You have had so many chances, Clark.” Her tone was harsh. “How could you do this now? Whitney and I start our lives together in Metropolis in less than a week!”
“I know,” Clark told her apologetically. “I’m sorry, I just… I couldn’t let you leave without telling you how I really feel.”
“Clark…” Lana sighed. “We both know you’ve always held back, kept things from me. After Whitney came back… You shut down completely, even after I reached out to you. Why would it be any different now?”
“I… It…” Clark was reeling. Everything in him wanted to blurt out his secret, to whisk Lana away and show her everything, but he just… Couldn’t.
“That’s what I thought,” Lana scoffed. “You know, at least with Whitney I know where I stand.” She brushed past him but paused before leaving. “At least he isn’t a coward like you.” The words stung, and Clark could tell that she almost regretted saying them as her lips parted slightly while her eyes widened. But the show of weakness quickly vanished and she turned on her heels and was gone.
Clark grunted and slammed his fist against the steel plated door of the stock room exit. The deep indent of his fingers seemed almost to glare at him, and with a sudden girding up of his own resolve, he went after her.
“Lana, wait!” He called out as he emerged behind the counter, but he found himself face to face with Whitney, instead.
“I thought I told you to stay away from my girlfriend, Kent!” Whitney’s fist was flying as the words left his lips, and Clark’s lightning reflexes allowed him to watch as if in slow-motion. He weighed all the options in a moments time, but when he saw Lana watching from the front door of the Talon, he smirked internally and decided to let the blow connect and send him reeling backwards. Except… It really did send him reeling. In fact, it hurt quite a lot, much to Clark’s own surprise. The quarterback was on him before he could really register the meteor rock clutched between Whitney’s fingers. Blow after blow connected, each one more agonizing then the last, and Clark barely noticed when Whitney was pulled back by Lana herself. He blinked through hazy, blood filled eyes as the ferocious man let the rock fall as he turned to grab his girlfriend by the neck with both hands
“No…” Clark mumbled as he struggled to his feet. Whitney was bashing Lana’s head against the counter, over and over, and in a panic, Clark grabbed a paring knife from the counter and fell toward the quarterback. The blade went in right where Whitney’s spine met his shoulder blades, and with a gasp that sent blood spurting from his open mouth, Whitney’s grip on Lana loosened and he thudded to the floor.
The weakened and battered Clark barely managed to catch Lana as she started to fall. Her eyes were wide, her neck crushed; she was soaked in her own blood, which had started to pool beneath her still form.
“Lana?” Clark muttered. His confusion and agony was overwhelming. “No, no no no, no….” He began to weep as that hunk of green rock beside them on the floor continued to pulse almost mockingly….
Laid to Rest
Rain; tragically poetic. Shakesperean, some might call it as it fell through grim clouds that matched the wretched and heavy mood of the graveyard. As that coffin was slowly lowered into the wet earth, Clark’s hand tightened slightly around Chloe’s fingers, and she glanced up at him with tears in her eyes.
The whole of Smallville had ventured out to pay their respects to Lana Lang, it seemed. She had become quite beloved by all after her daring partnership with Lex that had saved and revived the Talon. Hardly a soul hadn’t found refuge in that humble establishment at least one time or another over the two years that Lana had run the place, and her fierce but kind spirit had been something of an anchor for the small town.
Clark could hardly breathe. He felt as though his whole world had been crushed in the blink of an eye. Everything he had ever done, all the decisions, all the secrets, the lies… He knew that they had led him to this moment. How could he keep himself locked away from those he cared about and still hope to protect them? Lana… She was gone, and it was his fault. With a final glance to the coffin, he pulled away from Chloe and walked through the rain and out of the place of death that he was sure would haunt him for the rest of his days.
“Clark…” Chloe started to go after him, but Lex grabbed her arm.
“Don’t, Chloe,” he told her. “Leave him be.”
“I, I can’t,” she stammered through hazy eyes. With a sniffle, she wiped her nose with the back of one hand. “He’s just so broken… Losing Lana, I mean, she was everything to him. He might… he might leave again.”
Lex swallowed the knot in his throat.
“I don’t want to lose Clark any more than you do, but this… he has to come to terms with it on his own. We all do.”
Chloe nodded as Lex squeezed her shoulder. Everything in her wanted so desperately to chase after Clark, hold him, comfort him… But she knew that she was never the one he had leaned on in times of crisis. That person was Lana, and now she’d been taken from him. And Whitney… What could Clark be thinking, after having killed him? Surely Clark hadn’t meant for Whitney to die in that moment, but what could he have done differently? One thing Chloe knew for certain: Clark may not have realized it, but he needed her now more than ever, and she wasn’t about to let him down.
Moving Forward
What does one do after enduring such a tragedy? The platitudes people tend to dish out are about as useless as washing an overflowed toilet with rags pulled right from the sewage tank. Seemed like the right thing at the time, but ultimately meaningless and only serving to deepen the heart of the problem. At least, that’s the disgusting metaphor that came to Clark’s mind as he mucked out the stall that had housed Tyson, the horse that Lana and Whitney had shared. Nell had taken Tyson back a few weeks after the funeral, even though Clark had argued rather vehemently. Tyson had been his last connection to Lana, and with that gone… He found her memory fading, even though the pain of her absence haunted him every moment.
Chloe had been incredible. Constantly there for him to lean on, he found himself trusting her more and more, despite her past history with Lionel Luther. She seemed to truly regret having allied herself with such a monster, and she showed it nearly every day. After graduation, she decided to stay in Smallville to work at the Smallville Ledger, giving up her dream of being a star reporter for the Daily Planet. Clark had urged her to go anyway and pursue her dreams. She’d let slip that that had never really been her dream…
“You’ve wanted to work at the Daily Planet since we were kids,” Clark had told her. “Why would you give that up after how hard you’ve worked? Smallville… This isn’t the place for you, Chloe. You’re so much better than a small town paper.”
Chloe smiled from behind her computer at the Torch, the hard drive of which she was stripping clean for the final time.
“Sure, I’ve made more than my fair share of breakaway stories over the years, Clark but… If I’ve learned one thing from working with a certain nefarious Luther, it’s that those goals are ultimately worthless. People are what matter, even if that means sacrificing some silly professional career.”
“It’s not silly,” Clark argued. “What is this, are you scared? Not up for the challenge?”
The words were more forceful than he’d intended, but she didn’t shy back.
“Excuse me, but since when have I ever backed down from a challenge? That’s not the reason.”
“Then what is?” Clark asked.
“It… I…” She stammered and bit her lip as she looked into his stoic features. For a moment, she couldn’t help but feel like the silly, lovestruck teeny bopper that had fallen for Clark’s charms when they’d first met. She loved and hated the feeling, and for all of her reservations, she decided to take a chance.
“It’s you, Clark,” She told him finally. “I want to stay in Smallville for you, ok?” With her emotions rising way more rapidly than she was comfortable with, she tried to brush past him, but he grabbed her arm. The strength in that grip made her feel… woozy.
“Chloe,” Clark said. Suddenly they were very close… Probably too close. She could smell the familiar scents of his farm on that way outdated flannel shirt. “You shouldn’t stay for me. It… It’s not worth it. I’m not worth it…”
Her heart broke for him. For all the mystery and intrigue, the rippling muscles, she could tell that nearly all his confidence had been shattered and laid to rest with the cold corpse of the girl he had loved so fiercely. He had always seemed so sure of himself before, so strong, and the show of weakness struck something in her. She knew that it was her chance, so she leaned up and in while she pulled his head down. Their lips connected and it was like lightning surged through her body. They kissed for barely a second, but for her, it could have been an eternity.
“Don’t count yourself out, Clark,” she told him after she’d swallowed the lump in her throat. “I haven’t.”
“You’ve always been there for me,” Clark told her. “Always… even when it must have hurt you.”
“I mean, yeah,” she admitted. They’d each pulled away from the other just slightly. “It was torture, seeing how you would look at Lana and hoping… wishing you could see me that way, just once. But Clark…” her voice cracked. “I feel so guilty, because there’s a part of me that’s actually relieved.” She was talking fast… Too fast, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. “Because there’s a part of me that can’t help but think that I finally have a chance now that the girl next door is gone… But she’s gone, and I can’t even imagine what it must be like for you, because all I can think is how empty life would be if I didn’t have you and…” She choked and inhaled deeply. “I’m so… I have to go!” She rushed past him and left a befuddled Clark Kent behind, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do now.
Revelations
“I just feel lost, Lex,” Clark told his friend. He pushed his right arm forward, and the cue ball clacked as it struck it’s target and the number six solid was knocked cleanly into a corner pocket. “I mean… For so long I held out hope for Lana, you know? And now…”
“Now that she’s gone, you’ve lost your sense of purpose.” Lex finished the thought for him, with perfect accuracy, as he nearly always did.
“Sometimes I could swear you know what I’m thinking,” Clark told him.
“That’s because you’re like a brother to me, Clark.” Lex smiled. “I’ve never lost what you have but… I know the strength it takes to press on in the absence of someone you love. I greatly admire that about you.”
“Thanks, but… Lex, I’m not really that strong.” Lex remained quiet as he listened carefully and waited. “See it… it’s my fault that she… She’s dead because of me.”
Lex’s face was quizzical.
“Now how can that be true?” he asked. “You didn’t grab her, bash her head against the counter…”
Clark squirmed as that final image of her broken body flashed through his mind.
“You didn’t crush the throat of the woman you were supposed to protect with your bare hands. Whitney did that, and as I recall, you killed him for it.”
“I… that, it was an accident,” Clark told him defensively.
“Of course it was.” Lex gave him that knowing look. “You acted defensively, and anyone in that situation would have done the same thing you did. So it seems to me that you did the best that you could. The quarterback took you by surprise, and as unfortunate as that is… It’s not your fault.”
“You don’t understand,” Clark argued. His face was tense, and he turned away. His right fist was clenched tightly around the pool stick. Too tightly, he realized, as he felt the wood begin to crack beneath his grip. He expected Lex to press or pry, but his friend remained quiet.
“Have you ever been dishonest with someone?” Clark asked, and Lex huffed.
“You don’t grow up as part of the Luthor family without amassing a veritable vault of secrets and lies, Clark.”
“How do you stop? The lies, I mean?” Clark still had his back to Lex as his mind reeled.
“Well, it’s rarely ever that simple, but if I’ve learned anything from you it’s that honesty has to start somewhere, even if it hurts.”
Snap! The stick in Clark’s hand suddenly shattered in his palm. Clark swallowed hard as he spun to face Lex, whose face was contorted with an all-too-familiar look of disturbed confusion and anger.
“That’s quite a grip, Clark… Solid hard rock maple, and yet you just broke it like it was a toothpick.”
A thousand explanations flooded Clark’s mind. He bounced from one to the other and wondered if this is what it felt for a deer caught in the headlights. Unlike the deer, he knew he had a choice, and subconsciously, he might have already made it. He’d known the pool cue was breaking, but he hadn’t relaxed his grip. Finally, he held up his hand and moved to the double doors of the room and pulled them shut before returning to stand just a few paces away from Lex.
“Hit me,” Clark told him, and Lex blinked.
“I, I’m not going to hit you, Clark.”
“I’m serious,” Clark told him. “Take the stick, and hit me before I lose my nerve.”
Lex hesitated for just a moment before he lifted his pool cue up over his shoulder and brought it down with full force against the arm that Clark was quick to stretch out in defense.
A shock was sent down Lex’s arm as the stick bounced off of Clark as if he’d been a steel beam. Lex groaned and let the cue fall to the floor with a clatter as he stared openly.
“Sorry,” Clark told him, “I didn’t think that all the way through but… Lex, you were right. You did hit me with your car, that day on the bridge.”
Clark’s face was flushed and his heart pounded as he looked into the impossible to read eyes of Lex Luthor.
“I’m not… I’m not normal, Lex, and I swear I’ve wanted to tell you a hundred times but…”
“But what, Clark? You thought your dad was right and you just couldn’t trust a Luthor?”
Clark grimaced.
“That’s not it, Lex, I… I couldn’t even tell Lana.”
“And look how that turned out.” The words were cold, and Clark flinched.
“Get out.” Lex’s jaw had tightened as he moved to lean against the edge of the pool table with both hands.
“Lex, please – “
“I said get out.”
Clark felt as though his world was crumbling. Terror flooded his heart and left him speechless before he ultimately turned and used his super speed to vanish.
Unexpected
“Mom!” Clark yelled for Martha Kent as he came to a stop just inside the kitchen doorway. “Mom!” He yelled again when she did not immediately answer.
“Clark, what is it?” She came running down the stairs with alarm at the frightful look on her son’s face.
“Mom, I… I think I’ve made a terrible mistake, I…”
“Clark slow down,” she told him. She grabbed his hands and pulled his chin down and forced him to meet her strong gaze. “Tell me what happened.”
“I…” Clark was reeling. “I told Lex… everything, or at least enough. He… he told me to leave, get out of the mansion and… mom, what if he turns against me? All that refined meteor rock, the investigations.. I always thought those were Lionel acting alone but what if, what if it wasn’t? What if he and Lex are working together?”
Martha took a deep breath and pulled away. She placed a hand to her forehead with the other on her hip and let her eyes close for a moment before she turned to Clark.
“Clark, you listen to me, son.” She told him. “Your father… He believed in Lex, there at the end. Now I know we’ve been hard on you. We pushed you to keep your abilities a secret from those around but… What if we were wrong?”
“Dad never trusted Lex, he always said that we could never trust a Luthor – “
“I know what he said, Clark!” Martha snapped. “I know… But your father wasn’t always right about people. If he had, he… Maybe he would still be with us.”
“Dad would’ve killed me for telling Lex…”
“Lex is a good man, you know that. He’s your friend, and he always has been. You have to trust that he can come to terms with this, Clark.”
Clark grimaced, and the panic was all too evident on his face.
“But mom… what if he doesn’t? I… I’ve already lost Lana, I don’t want to lose anyone else because of these cursed abilities!”
“You aren’t going to lose anyone else, sweetheart.” Martha gently took Clark’s face in her hands. “You are strong enough for this, this family is strong enough to face it, and we will, together.”
Just then a familiar vroom echoed through the house, quickly followed by the screeching of tires across the dirt driveway outside. Clark and Martha looked out of the kitchen window to see Lex stepping out of his Porsche.
“Be strong Clark but… be careful,” his mother warned. Clark nodded, took a deep breath and stepped outside.
“Before you say anything, Clark,” Lex told him as he approached, “I’d like to show you something.” When he’d come to within a few steps of the farm boy, he slid his hand into his coat and pulled out a small dagger contained by an odd looking sheath.
“Is that…”
“Lead.” Lex told him definitively. Without another word, he pulled the blade from its scabbard to reveal a green, pulsing glow. Clark felt his blood immediately begin to boil beneath his skin, and his strength faded to weakness as he clutched his stomach; the frantic voice of his mother rang out faintly from behind him right before he fell to his knees.
“Lex, please… Don’t,” he begged.
“Don’t what, Clark? Kill you?” Lex brought the weapon closer as he came to stoop down beside his would-be friend. “Because that’s exactly what this blade was designed to do. But you see, Clark, I didn’t make it. My father did, though he never told me why such a weapon was necessary. I wanted so desperately to chalk it up to his eccentric behavior, his obsession with all things related to the meteor shower. Now, I see it’s true purpose…” Lex’s eyes flashed, and suddenly the pain vanished and Clark’s strength returned. He looked up to find the dagger with hilt outstretched toward him, the blade having once again been contained by the lead liner.
“Now, it’s yours, Clark.” Lex’s arm was outstretched, and Clark took it and allowed his friend to pull him to his feet.
“You… Lex, I – “
“Did you really think I could kill my best friend?” Lex asked him. “Clark… I’ve spent my entire life running from my father’s shadow, desperate to avoid becoming the special kind of monster he’s fought so hard to turn me into. As furious as I was to find out the truth about you I… I couldn’t hold it against you. In the end, you came to me yourself, Clark, and that took guts I could only dream of having.”
“You aren’t your father, Lex,” Clark assured him. He took the weapon and stared at it for a moment.
“I trust you’ll know what to do with something like that?” Lex asked him, and Clark smirked right before he pulled his arm back and sent the object flying up and away into the sky at lightning speed.
“Now that… Is truly remarkable.” Lex eyed Clark with a fresh sense of wonder.
“Get away from him!” Martha suddenly shrieked, and Clark turned as Lex lifted his hands defensively.
“Mom!” Clark yelled when he saw the loaded shotgun in her hands. “It’s ok, he… He didn’t hurt me.”
“Oh, Clark I…” She slowly lowered the rifle.
“My apologies, Mrs Kent.” Lex told her. “I didn’t mean to alarm, I just… I had to see it for myself. I gave the weapon to Clark, and he, well he already disposed of it.”
Martha eyed him warily for a moment.
“So you… you’re ok, sweetheart?” She asked Clark.
“I think I will be,” Clark smiled as he turned to his friend, and the two clutched one another in a tight embrace.
“You’re my brother, Lex,” Clark told him, and he felt Lex grab him even tighter.
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Clark.” Lex pulled back and let one hand come to rest on Clark’s shoulder, and the two exchanged a relieved smile.
D.M. Kurtz 