“Ugh,” Clark said as he slowly floated back to consciousness. Everything hurt. His head was ringing so loudly that it drowned out any other sound. His vision was blurry and he feared that permanent damage had been done to his eyes. What would he do if he were to be blind now? He tried to move and his ribs exploded in pain as he tried to draw a deeper breath. His limbs refused to cooperate and lay unmoving, like dead things.
He closed his eyes and drifted away again before a sound jarred him back to the world around him. He creaked open his eyes again, noting with relief that he could actually see now. Dimly, he was aware that some of the buzzing haze of agony in his head had tapered off, though not completely. In the back of his mind, even as disoriented and aching as he was, he was aware some time had passed, though he had no idea how long that might have been. A stab of pain lanced through his head and he gingerly reached up to cradle it with his hands.
“Oh, my head. What…what happened?”
“You passed out,” Lex said neutrally, looking down on him.
“You don’t say,” Clark quipped back sarcastically as he weakly pulled himself up to sit. “You opened that box and…” His eyes widened as the memory flashed back to him. The box had opened. The stone had been exposed. And he had felt the flaming fingers of death wrap around his entire body. “It was that stone!” He worriedly scooted back away from Lex’s desk as best he could, but he still felt like all his limbs had turned to jelly.
“It appears so,” Lex confirmed coolly. “And how do you feel now?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Not sure?” Lex asked with a mocking frown.
“I…uh…” Clark stammered.
He didn’t want to admit how much the stone had injured him. Lex was brilliant about using people’s weaknesses against them. But he also knew how shrewd Lex was. If he didn’t admit everything, Lex would find out and punish him. Perhaps even experiment with that stone some more to figure out its exact effects on Clark’s body.
“Come now, Clark,” Lex cajoled. “Lying to me will get you nowhere.”
He swallowed hard before answering. “I feel…weak. Like…like something inside me is missing. I...think my powers are…gone.”
“I see,” was all Lex said. Then, a few seconds later, “Can you stand?”
“I…maybe,” Clark said uncertainly. He attempted to stand up and found it just barely within the realm of his abilities. He held on to the back of his chair to steady himself.
Lex eyed him with a steely look. “Go,” he finally said, dismissing Clark. “We’ll discuss your failure today at another time. I have pressing matters to attend to.”
Clark nodded once, eager to be out of the room, away from Lex’s ire and away from that deadly green rock. Carefully, he made his way back out of the office, taking it easy on his still sore and drained body. The walk back to his quarters seemed to take forever, but every step away from that accursed box was a relief to him. By then, he was feeling mildly stronger, so he stripped out of his assassin’s garb, cleaned the dried blood of the innocent boy from his hidden blade, set the entire bracer aside, showered as quickly as his body allowed him to, and dressed in fresh, clean clothing.
He lay down on his bed, stretched out on his back to his full length, and folded his hands beneath his head. He stared up at the ceiling for a long time, thinking about the strange green rock Lex had taken from that box. He needed to know more about it since it appeared to pose a deadly, poisonous threat to him. But Lex had said no one knew anything about it. Still, Clark knew his life could depend on learning what he could about it. Like why had it affected him, and not Lex or Nigel? Why had the stone seemed to glow? Where had it been found? Was it something from Earth, or did it come from somewhere else? Would it kill him, if he was exposed to it for too long? Would he ever get his powers back, or had the stone sapped them away forever?
Clark turned these questions over and over in his mind until he finally fell asleep. Even though he had no answers for any of them, it did accomplish at least one important goal. It kept his mind far too busy for him to brood over the innocent life he’d taken that night.
***
Weeks went by. Though Lex gave Clark hell about the botched hit on Bruce Wayne at first, gradually, he went silent on the matter. Clark was relieved beyond words. The less he heard about the job, the better, as far as he was concerned. The boy’s death still weighed heavily on his mind. He tried not to think about it, tried not to question why one stranger’s death should bother him more than all the other strangers he’d killed without a thought over the years. What he really wanted to focus on was that odd green rock Lex had, but Lex claimed he knew nothing much about it, and Clark was forced to remain in the dark, though it haunted him to know that something might have the potential to kill him.
Instead of getting answers, Clark was forced to prowl around Lex Tower in frustration. At first, his powers were gone, taking a couple of days to return in full. After that, Clark was a little nervous to even attempt to fly around the city, lest he somehow come across more of that weird rock and drop from the sky like a boulder.
“Clark?” Lex called out to him one evening, as a wicked snowstorm laid siege to the city, blanketing everything in frigid white, and driving even the most daring of people indoors.
Clark looked up from the book he was reading as he lay stretched out on the couch. “Yeah?”
“Come to my study, would you? I’ve had that rock tested. You remember? The one that weakened you?”
Clark perked up, shutting the book and placing it next to him on the couch cushions. “Yeah?” he repeated, this time with interest.
“I thought you might like to know what the results were,” Lex offered.
“Absolutely. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. It…it was terrifying.”
“I can imagine,” Lex said, the barest patina of sympathy in his voice. Then he turned and walked toward his study.
Clark scrambled off the couch and followed his brother.
“Sit,” Lex offered, sweeping his hand toward the chair where Clark usually sat when reporting on how a job went.
Clark sat uneasily, eyeing the lead box on the side table next to Lex’s chair. He waited for Lex to sit, but his brother remained standing, looking into the flames burning in the hearth.
“As you may have guessed by now,” Lex began, not turning away from the fire’s warmth and light, “that was no ordinary gem.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Clark allowed.
“In fact,” Lex continued, as though Clark hadn’t spoken, “it wasn’t a gem at all. It turns out, it was something not from this planet. From what my people at Lex Labs can tell, it’s a meteorite.”
“So…it’s a space rock?” Clark asked, arching an eyebrow.
Lex nodded and circled his chair, as if lost in thought. “In crude terms, yes. But it’s not like any meteorite that’s ever been found. For one, it’s not made of metals, but is, instead, stone. It’s also highly radioactive. But it seems to have no effect on humans at all. So far, you’re the only one it’s negatively affected.”
“Lucky me,” Clark said, sarcasm dripping heavily from his tongue.
“The makeup of the rock is all wrong,” Lex went on, gesturing vaguely, but expansively. “Their best guess is that it’s didn’t come from one of the normal meteors that pass through our atmosphere on occasion. They believe it could be from somewhere else.” He paced to the fireplace and looked into the cold, dead hearth. “Perhaps a dead world, from outside our solar system. They theorize that some alien planet may have been impacted by another, larger body of rock. Or perhaps it exploded for some reason. Perhaps it was a moon that collided with another. In any case, pieces of that world made their way here, to Earth, to get trapped in our gravitational pull.”
Clark swallowed down a lump of unease. “Okay,” he said, picturing pieces of green space rock hurtling through the universe to come down to Earth to wreak havoc on his life.
“Personally, I believe it may have been from your planet of origin,” Lex said coolly, looking back over his shoulder at Clark. “It would explain why it affects only you, at any rate.”
“Krypton,” Clark breathed, remembering the story he’d been told, of alien parents who’d shipped off an unwanted son to survive on his own on Earth.
Lex simply nodded as he turned back to fully face him again. “I’ve named the stone Kryptonite, for that reason. A piece of a far-off world come crashing down to Earth.” He started to move again, his movements quick and almost excited.
Clark should have questioned what had his brother so worked up. He should have been suspicious of Lex’s almost giddy excitement. But his mind was in another place.
He wasn’t sure how to react to the news about the stone. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be feeling. On the one hand, it was a piece of the world he’d been born on, a tangible piece of his origins, a piece of his history, perhaps holding on to secrets and answers to all the questions he’d ever had about the planet that had given him life. On the other hand, he couldn’t get near the rock without it poisoning him. He’d never be able to get close enough to study it, not without it being locked away from his touch.
Lex eyed him questioningly. “What?” he asked after a moment, still on the move, still circling in an almost predatory way. “I know that look. Something’s on your mind.”
“It’s just…a lot to take in. I finally have a piece of my origins and I can’t even get near it without it killing me,” Clark replied, his heart heavy.
Lex hummed in understanding. “It is unfortunate,” he said, in a way that made it sound like a blessing for himself. He stopped his aimless meandering and went, instead, to the box on the side table. He paused then and contemplated the lid for a moment. “And that’s why I’ve had this made up for you.”
He opened the lid and extracted a thick band of metal, a perfect circle with a hinge on one end to allow it to open. He held it before him, inspecting it with a critical eye. He took a step toward Clark, his eyes never leaving the shiny, polished silver surface.
“What is it?” Clark asked nervously standing. It took all his effort not to back away from his brother. But every cell of his body was screaming at him to do just that.
“Insurance,” Lex said with a twisted grin, closing the gap between himself and Clark.
Before Clark could register what was happening, Lex snapped the band of metal around Clark’s neck. From his pocket, he extracted a small remote, pressed a button, and, with a grin, locked the collar around Clark’s neck.
“Lex?” Clark asked, fighting down panic. “What is this?” He instinctively threw his hands up to the collar, ready to tear the metal away from his throat with his immense strength.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lex said with a deadly calm voice.
Clark immediately stopped moving, but kept his hands on the metal. “What did you do to me?” he demanded.
Lex stepped up and backhanded Clark across his mouth. It had to have hurt him, but Lex didn’t even flinch.
“Don’t you ever talk back to me again,” Lex ordered in a half yell, half growl.
The stress of the botched assassination, the terror of being faced with his own mortality from the Kryptonite, and the frustration of being cooped up indoors for the past few weeks gave Clark courage. He bristled at Lex’s rebuke and puffed himself out to his full height and size.
“Let’s not forget, brother, that I’m the one with the powers here. And I’m getting sick and tired of you treating me the way you do,” Clark said, taking a threatening step toward Lex.
Lex deftly stepped back, remaining calm and collected, frustrating Clark even more.
“No,” Lex said, “you are the one forgetting. I am the only reason you aren’t rotting in some prison for killing my parents! You don’t get to threaten me, ever.”
Clark tried to cool himself down and raked a hand through his hair. “Maybe it’s time we parted ways then, Lex. I can’t keep going like I am. Locked indoors. Sent on murder missions. Having these powers that I can only use to destroy people.” He sighed. “I know we talked about me getting a little more freedom. And I know, yes, I messed up at Wayne Manor. But maybe…” His voice trailed off, allowing Lex to fill in the rest himself.
Lex chuckled malevolently. “Don’t you understand, Clark? You will never be free.” He gestured to the collar around Clark’s neck. “That’s what this little beauty is. So long as you do what I want, the way I want it, when I want it, you’re safe. Displease me, like another Bruce Wayne debacle, and, well…”
He pressed a button on his remote and thin vents opened up all around the ring of the collar. Clark instantly felt the ravaging effects of Kryptonite, even before the vents were fully opened. He collapsed to the floor in abject agony. After a moment, Lex used the remote to close the vents again, ending the assault of pain.
“In case you haven’t guessed,” Lex said, squatting down beside Clark, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at him, “the entire core of this collar is made up of Kryptonite. Try to tear it off, you’ll expose the stone. Try to run…or fly…away, I’ll open the vents and leave them open. Better to have a dead brother than a living threat. Fail to complete an assignment, I open the vents. Try to mess with the remote, and the satellites it is synced to will open the vents. Only my biometrics are programmed into it. Not even your precious heat vision can be used on the remote without it triggering the failsafe.”
Lex let go of Clark’s chin and stood to his full height again. “From now on, you will wear a camera and a headset whenever you step foot outside this penthouse. Fail to do so, and I will open the vents and let the Kryptonite kill you. I will watch every moment and every action you take when you are on a mission. Do I make myself perfectly clear?” The words came out as violent hisses punctuated by heavy pauses, as though each word were a different statement altogether.
It was all Clark could do to nod. “Crystal clear,” he said through gritted teeth – partly from the residual pain in his body, but mostly from the anger and hatred that had welled up in his heart.
“Good. Now, rest up. Pretty soon I’ll have jobs for you to complete,” Lex said, turning his back and leaving Clark crumbled in a heap on the floor, like a pile of discarded laundry.
To be Continued…
