The Conquering Hero

This terrific cover was made by lilwitchy. Thank you, hon! *kiss*

The Conquering Hero
by Suz suzvoy@tesco.net

Disclaimer - DC and WB own them, yadda yadda.

AU, futurefic, angst, Clex implied. PG. Many thanks to my smoochie. *smoooooch*

If Crusade (where Clark fights Kal) had gone differently...

Summary: In the battle between Kal and Clark, Clark lost.

Feedback would rock.

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Lex watches Martha watch what used to be her son.

Her voice is low, the tone familiar and loving, as if she really is talking to Clark. She knows; Martha understands by now that the creature inside that room isn't her son, but it's easy enough to pretend for the short time she's here.

Kal has always looked exactly like Clark.

Standing in the far corner, Lex gives her the illusion of privacy as she tells Kal about the farm and Smallville. She talks about Lana's marriage to Jason, Chloe's graduation at Met U, and the letters that still come from Pete every week even though he knows Clark's not alive anymore.

Martha doesn't cry as she reads out the latest letter, and quite frankly Pete's life sounds as dull as Lex always envisioned it would be away from the strangeness of Smallville.

Folding the letter into her purse, Martha stands and presses her hand against the reinforced glass of the solitary window. It's the closest Lex will ever let her get. Risking letting her into the room is one of the few things he wouldn't do for her - Clark would've been upset if Lex ever let anything happen to her.

Telling Kal that she loves him, she lingers for a few more moments until she pulls away and moves towards the exit. She has to know Lex will intercept her before she reaches the door. He always does.

Pausing as expected, she turns and smiles at him genuinely. "Thank you, Lex. You're a good boy."

He's absolutely sure she means it; that she'll still mean it twenty years from now. "It was nothing."

Scrunching her face up and shaking her head with something that might be sanity, she leans forward to press a kiss to his right cheek. "I brought you a pie. It's in the kitchen."

There's a rhythm, a routine to these visits and Lex has yet to tire of them. He'll always be here when she leaves, and later on he'll warm up whatever she's left in the kitchen and eat it while pretending to listen to whichever piece of enlightenment Dad has left on his answering machine today.

They never speak of Jonathan.

"Thank you," Lex says, and then Martha leaves because she always does.

As the door clicks shut Lex turns to face Kal, studying him through the glass as he moves closer. Reaching the entrance to Kal's room, Lex swipes his card, enters a code, and uses his thumbprint for identification. Stepping inside the room, he waits until the door locks behind him before heading forward.

The walls throbbing obscenely with green light, Lex moves until he's by Kal. Slowly walking around the table, he looks down at the thing strapped to it.

Kal will know what's coming next as surely as he knows that his very survival depends on the man studying every inch of him. They have their own rituals, too.

"Who am I?" Lex asks.

"Lex," Kal rasps immediately, no longer the defiant, insistent creature he once was. Pain is very effective at erasing arrogance.

"Who are you?" Lex continues, circling the table.

"Kal." The voice is weak, but sure. Knowing.

"Why are you here?" Green and dark and light and pain, all of it swirling as he surveys the alien on the table.

"Because I killed him."

That used to be harder to say. Stopping at the end of the table, Lex rests his hands either side of Kal's legs, leaning forward as he holds his gaze. "Why will you *always* be here?"

The hesitation never, ever, changes. Sometimes Kal looks away. "I took him away from you."

Sometimes Lex forgets. Sometimes he moves closer and reaches out a hand to brush away the hair from Kal's face, thinking it's someone else. Sometimes he has to catch himself and draw back before he makes contact, ashamed for even showing that amount of weakness to the alien.

Today isn't one of those days.

"Goodnight, Kal," Lex says without fondness, leaving the same way he came in. Not looking back as he walks away, he continues his role by heading for the kitchen, to investigate whichever flavour pie Martha has brought for him today.

One day, he knows, Kal will kill him.

Today, he lifts up the lid and inhales the scent of cherry pie.

~FINIS