Chapter Text
It was an average day at the Kent farm. At least as average as it could be with Lois Lane living there. The aforementioned teenager had just arrived back from school with the mysterious, yet charming, farm boy trailing behind her. As per their usual dynamic, they were bickering about the smallest thing they could find.
“I’m just saying Smallville, in an average world, a bear would always win against a crocodile” Lois jabs, walking to the fridge and nodding a quick greeting at Martha who was in the midst of cooking their dinner. “And you are definitely a crocodile.” She grabs the orange juice and a glass and starts pouring while flashing Clark a sarcastic smirk which he would never admit made his heart flutter.
“On land maybe, but in water a Crocodile would definitely win. And what does that make you the bear?” He shoots back, narrowing his eyes, “Lois, I thought you had more self-confidence than that”
The front door opens as Lois lobs an apple at Clarks head, which he catches easily, Jonathan scoffs as he removes his gloves, kissing Martha on the head. “Have you two still not managed to find common ground, it’s been months”
“Maybe when pigs fly” Clark mutters to himself as he takes a bite of his apple. Lois shoots him another look before taking the opportunity to ignore him, bringing Martha and Jonathan into discussion about their days.
Clark bends down when Shelby patters over to him and he starts petting her, smiling to himself. That dog always knows how to brighten his day, no matter what. The sight was one of domestic bliss. Until there was a crash, and a hiss of pain.
Clark felt the effects of whatever had just inserted into his shoulder immediately. He fell to his knees and groaned in agony. The dog starts growling at the door and through the roaring in his ears he hears his mother and father yell. Jonathan runs to him, sliding to his knees and putting his hand on his shoulder. Martha grabs onto Lois to stop her from running to him too and looks around to see where the shot had come from.
Clark reaches up and pulls what seems to be a kryptonite fuelled electrode out of his shoulder, wincing as he displays it in his palm, he and his father look at it in horror. Then there was another crash, a sharp pain in his other shoulder, a sharp pain in his lower back.
The front door crashed open, and Jonathan raised to his feet, preparing to protect his family, but he was outnumbered. About 50 operatives in dark clothing swarmed into the building, restraining the Kents and Lois and continuing to fire shots into Clark as he still knelt there, straining against the kryptonite pulsing in his body.
“Enough” One of them yells, pulling off his mask. It was a man, in his mid-30s, he looked at Clark with such disgust it made him shiver. “I don’t want to kill it just yet”.
Jonathan immediately made to protest but was quickly silenced by a punch in the jaw. “Stop! Don’t hurt them!” Clark manages to hiss through the pain. His body was throbbing, and he glared at the man.
Slowly, the assailant walked up to him. He glared at him for a few seconds, then swiftly drew his knee to the boy’s head, rendering him unconscious immediately. Clark unceremoniously fell to the floor, his head ricocheting off the hard ground. A cut oozed from his head and tears welled in his parent’s eyes.
“Pack the subject in the cage and bring these three along. They’ve seen too much, and at least they might be able to keep it in line” He commands, shoving Clarks body with his foot like it was a pest on the floor.
“That ‘it’ is called Clark, now I don’t know what you think you’re doing lady, but my father is a five-star general and he won’t stand for such-“ Lois’s rant was cut off as the man slaps her in the face. Martha lets out a horrified noise.
“Hey! Who the hell do you think you are” Jonathan growls out, still fighting against the men restraining him.
“Your bridge between life and death, Mr Kent. Now I suggest you co-operate, otherwise all three of you won’t be coming along and you’ll be following that thing into a grave”. He hisses, and Mr Kent snaps his mouth shut. They watch Clark get dragged out of the house and shortly after they are manoeuvred into a van, following behind him.
--
“Clark”
Slowly, his senses start to come back to him, he can hear someone calling his name and feel something cold against his cheek. He opens eyes and sees that the ground is bright, as if lit from underneath. He groans as he tries to roll over and feels a shooting pain throughout his body.
Not healed then.
“That’s it, son, come back to us”
Clark whips his head up and sees his father, his mother, and Lois tied to chairs outside what seems to be the cage he is locked in. He slowly brings himself up to stand and scans them for any injuries. His father has a bruise blossoming on his jaw, and Lois has a cut on her lip and a bruise on her cheekbone. His mother’s hair is messy, as if someone had pulled at it. A swell of anger rushes through him.
He walks up to the edge of the cage and reaches out to the bars. He winces when the bars turn green, and kryptonite radiation starts to ooze into his skin. Clark grunts and takes a step back.
“Stay in the centre of your cell” A voice booms from a speaker above his head. He whirls his head round, looking for the source.
“Where am I?” He yells out, eyes scouring every inch of the cell. “What is this?” He asks to himself, before his eyes settle on a camera in the corner of his cell. He squints his eyes and takes a step forward and then glances to the side. On the far end of whatever warehouse they were in was a two-way mirror, clearly where the man was watching him from.
Suddenly the bright lights on the floor glowed green, and Clark fell to the floor as the radiation increased. Pain flowed through his body, and he writhed.
“Clark!” He hears his onlookers call out but he’s too overwhelmed to respond. As quick as it started it ended and he recovered quickly, jumping to his feet and glaring at the two-way mirror.
He paces keeping his eyes trained on the screen.
“Come out here” He yells, “Come out here and face me!”
The lack of response infuriates him more. He takes a step back despite the proximity to the green bars making him sicker and prepares himself.
“Clark, don’t” Jonathan warns but Clark doesn’t listen. He charges at the wall and immediately ricochets off with a cry of pain. He lays there and the floor changes to green again, increasing the radiation in the cell.
“Stop it!” Martha cries out, “Please stop it, you’re killing him!”
“You’ve just experienced a 20% increase in charge from the meteor rock lining your cell” The voice booms from the speakers again. “You do it again; I’ll ramp it up 50%. You try it for three, I’m guessing 100% will kill you.”
“No!” Jonathan exclaims, pulling at the ties holding him hostage against the chair.
Clark is writhing on the ground, panting, face pulled in agony. He lets out a groan as the radiation increases again. His father immediately stops pulling at his ties and watches in horror as his son shrinks into himself, close to screaming.
“And may I remind our guests in the room that their behaviour is also being watched.” The voice speaks out.
Martha is sobbing now, watching helplessly as her baby boy is tortured.
Lois was silently watching. She doesn’t understand why the meteor rock is hurting Clark, doesn’t understand why this man is so determined to cause him pain, but she does know that every second that goes on her heart is breaking more and more.
--
Eventually, the radiation stops, and Clark is laying on the floor of his cell breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling. He definitely is a sight for sore eyes. He has two cuts, one on his cheek and one on his chin, bleeding and dripping down onto his neck. He’s pouring with sweat, but he’s alive.
“Clark?” Lois speaks timidly, almost afraid to disturb him. Afraid his torture would start again. He slowly turns his head to the side, and his eyes meet hers.
‘He looks like death’, she thinks, and her eyebrows draw up in concern. Despite his pain he manages a small smile. “Guess the crocodile is weaker, huh?”
She lets out a laugh that sounds more like a sob, “No, I think the crocodile is being proven to be the strongest.” He smiles a bit wider, and glances at his mom and dad.
“I’m sorry you’ve all been dragged into this” He chokes out, “I’ll figure out a way to get you out”.
“Oh baby, there’s nowhere we’d rather be right now than here with you, we’ll get out of here with you I promise” Martha tries to reassure him, but her attempts grow futile when the radiation kicks up again and he lets out a groan of agony. His body tenses and his hips lift up as if trying to create distance between him and the floor would help.
“Oh, Jonathan what do we do” Martha turns her head desperately to her husband, who’s staring at his son with an expression of hopelessness.
“I- I don’t know honey, I don’t know how they found out about him. I don’t know who these people are” He hissed, shutting his eyes when he couldn’t bear to see his baby boy in pain any longer.
“What do you mean found out about him? Found out what?” Lois asks, “Something to do with why he’s allergic to the meteor rock?”
Mr and Mrs Kent glanced her, and then shared a glance with themselves, it seems as though they were having an internal debate as to whether they should be honest with her.
“Look, I get it you’re protective, but like it or not I’m here right now and I’ll get answers either from that psycho up there of from you” She prods, she needed answers. If she knew what was going on she might be able to help Clark.
“I’ll tell you when we get out” Clark groans out, rolling onto his front and attempting to stand. “He’s listening” He whispers out to her, and she finally understands. They know his weakness, but they don’t know if they know the full extent of his secret, and the Kents aren’t willing to risk that yet.
She nods her head and the radiation stops, Clark lets out a sigh of relief and slowly pushes himself to his feet again. Wincing when it pulls at the wounds scattered across his body. He looks at the three of them in their chairs, he could tell they were worried. He didn’t want them to see him like this, he hated it. Feeling weak and useless. He glances at the cut on Lois’s lip again and he feels rage surge through him.
“Let them go!” He yells at the security camera in his cell, “Let them go and I won’t fight, I’ll take anything you throw at me!”
“Oh, I don’t think so” A knock sounds from behind him and he turns to see the man from before, holding a gun and tapping it against the cell. Clark immediately tenses, eyeing the man warily.
“You’re not getting out you know,” He claims as he paces around the outskirts of the cell. “I helped build this cage.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I’ve seen a lot of terrible things in your town. How could a place like Smallville be filled with such death and destruction?” His calm voice was chilling, and Clark was ashamed by the fear he felt. He held himself higher.
“I think it has something to do with you.” He accuses, stopping his pacing and looking at Clark straight on. The boy falters, the accusation stinging, hitting an insecurity he’s been dealing with for a very long time.
“Maybe you want to reconsider keeping me in this cage” He counters, “You work for the government?”
The man smirks.
“I was head security for 33.1, I’ve tracked down a lot of meteor freaks but you...” He looks Clark up and down and it sends shivers down his spine, “You’re in a category all to yourself”
Clark flinches slightly and flicks his eyes to Lois who looks the most scared he’s ever seen her. It’s the Luthor’s that are behind this, and they think he’s a meteor freak.
“The government wouldn’t know what to do with you” He turns away and walks up to a panel next to the cell, grabbing onto the lever. “But I do” He pushes the lever up and Clark immediately screams, his whole-body tensing fists clenching together, fingernails drawing blood from his palms.
“You’re killing him, stop it!” Jonathan yells through the protests of the other two women.
He pulls the lever back down and Clark falls to his knees; head bent to the floor.
“Enjoy your stay, freak” The man spits as he walks out of the warehouse and back to his hiding place.
Tears welled in Clarks eyes, and he started blinking rapidly to not let them fall. He ducks his head away so his parents and Lois can’t see how much that man’s words affected him.
All his life Clark has felt different, like some sort of freak of nature. Having to hide who he truly is in fear that he wouldn’t be accepted, or someone would take advantage of him. Over the past few years, he’s tried to use his powers for good, but he always seemed to do the wrong thing. People died because of him, got hurt because of him, maybe he really was a monster. He killed Lanas parents; all these people were affected by the meteors because he was sent here. Tears were rapidly streaming down his face now and he couldn’t stop them, he was so tired, and his body hurt. He wanted a hug. He was pathetic.
Clark lays his head on the floor and lets out a frustrated yell before swiftly moving into a standing position.
“Oh Clark” His mother sympathises, tears also streaming down her face.
“Don’t listen to him Clark, he doesn’t know you, he’s just trying to hurt you more, don’t let him” Jonathan pleads, trying to lean forward in his chair to be closer to his son.
Clark turns and faces the bars again, walking up the green hue, he raises his fist and starts slamming them against the bars over and over. It’s making him weaker, he can feel it, and his knuckles are growing bloody, but he doesn’t care.
“Clark stop it you’re hurting yourself” Lois protests, but he keeps going. Slamming his fists in hopes that something would break, but slowly he’s realising that the only thing breaking is him.
That’s when things go from bad to worse, when the charge of the meteor rock is increased and Clark falls to the ground with a scream. The thud of his body hitting the floor echoes through the warehouse and the other captors let out a terrified yell. This is the worst one yet, Clark is silently screaming, in so much pain he can’t even make a sound. His body is flailing trying to rid the kryptonite from his body but its no use. Lois looks at the panel and see’s that it’s at 100%.
“What are you doing? You said 100% would kill him, stop it!” She screams, tugging at the ropes on her wrists to no avail. The voice didn’t answer, and the radiation continued. Jonathan starts banging his seat against the floor in an attempt to break out, but it wasn’t working, nothing was working, and his son was dying in front of his eyes.
“It’s okay darling, we love you so much baby, we love you so much” His mother reassures him through sobs, Clark's pained, pleading eyes meet hers when they start to feel hot.
Suddenly heat bursts from his eyes and he redirects it upwards, it shoots through the glass around his cell, shattering it to pieces, he convulses as the heat exudes from his body.
As he thrashes around, the heat ends up destroying the panel, causing the radiation to stop. Even though the cause of his pain is gone, his body is still being used as a beacon. Another explosion sounds, the two-way mirror shattering into pieces before the heat finally stops.
Clark collapses, completely unconscious, the only sound being the heavy breathing of the witnesses, staring at him agape.
Jonathan makes quick use of his chair, slamming it against the floor, splintering the wood, and subsequently taking off his binds. He quickly unties Martha and Lois, before running to his boy.
“Clark?” He whispers, cradling his head and placing it in his lap. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sees him take a breath, though still unconscious.
The two others join him on the floor by his side, Martha threading her fingers through his hair and letting out a weep.
“Oh no you don’t” A voice sounds from above, and amongst the shattered glass is the security guard, holding a crossbow with a glowing green arrow. The three of them look on in horror, gripping onto Clark, but was quickly morphed into an expression of confusion when a bat hits the assailant over the head. Out of the shadow’s steps Lex Luthor, dishevelled and concerned. He gulps when he meets Mr Kents glare but nods his head.
“I’ll process that later,” the elder mutters, turning back to face Clark. “Let’s get him home.”