The Artifact

Title: The Artifact

Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made.

Pairing: Clex, Lexionel

Warning: AU, Incest, Slash

Spoilers: Sort of Lineage, but my own very, very AU take on it.

Summary: Clark tells Lex his secrets as a wedding gift before Lex marries Helen. True feelings are revealed, but Clark's blood is tested and shows that he's human and a Luthor. Then a mysterious artifact is found and Lionel is killed and Lex is suspected. Did Lex kill Lionel to protect Clark? Or was it the other way around? Or did something else altogether happen?

CHAPTER FOUR: THE PAINTING

Two months before Lionel Luthor’s death …

Lionel strode across the room, filling Lex’s study with his trademarked tightly reigned energy. The older Luthor’s eyes raked over them. Lex stiffened in his seat for just a moment, his hand loosened from where it was fisted in Clark’s hair and slipped down to the armrest. Clark wanted to protest at the loss of Lex’s touch even as he cringed at having Lionel see them in this private moment.

“So, Father, to what do we owe the … honor … of your presence this evening?” Lex asked archly.

Lionel stood a foot away from the desk, facing them. He held his leather driving gloves in one hand, which he suddenly slapped against his thigh. Clark flinched at the sound. Lex’s hand was suddenly on his arm, gently stroking, calming.

“Saving you from something you’ll … claim … to regret,” Lionel said.

“What the hell are you talking about, Father?” Lex’s voice was sharper than Clark had ever heard it.

“I’ve discovered something,” Lionel said softly, his eyes glittering with some unnamed emotion as they suddenly riveted on Lex. “Something you both need to see. Perhaps its fate that I found you here like this. Spares me a second … unveiling … at least.”

“Well, show us or get out. Preferably the latter, actually,” Lex said, his fingers curling tighter around Clark’s forearm.

Lionel’s eyes narrowed and a cold smile crossed his lips.

“Ah, Lex, I know that you have grown used to speaking your mind with me these days. Not showing the appropriate … deference … to me as your father. And I have allowed it. However, I will allow you this one last slip tonight … but no longer,” Lionel said as he fingered the supple leather between his fingers.

Clark saw Lex swallow hard and there were small stress lines that suddenly appeared at the side of his mouth.

“Really? And what has changed so radically that I should show you … fatherly … deference?”

“Why don’t you both come and see,” Lionel said, turned on his heel and walked swiftly to the doorway. There he paused, his head turned slightly to the side as he added, “Now, Lex.”

He then disappeared into the darkness of the hallway beyond, swallowed up by it.

Clark growled low in his throat and leapt up to his feet ready to race after Lionel. “I hate him! How can he speak to you like that? He has no right!”

Lex could never physically stop Clark from doing anything, yet his hand on Clark’s arm froze the boy in place, stopped him from chasing after Lionel and making sure that the elder Luthor could never look at Lex like that again, talk to Lex like he owned him, like Lex just had to obey … or else. Clark stared into the darkness where Lionel had gone.

“Don’t, Clark.”

“But I can--”

“I won’t have you do anything that could make you … less … than you are. And doing violence to him though appealing at first … he’s just not worth it.”

Clark’s gaze jerked back to Lex. The older boy looked so tired like he was weighted down with lead. All the fight just drained out of Clark even as his anger grew. Lionel did not have the right to breathe the same air as Lex let alone make him look so … so pained.

“You mean you aren’t worth it. But you are, Lex. You’re worth … everything … to me,” Clark said.

“It’s not that, Clark. Not exactly,” Lex said and rubbed his temples like one of his migraines was coming on.

Clark could feel Lex drawing into himself, closing Clark out, and he refused to let Lex do that this time. So he leaned forward to steal a kiss.

Lex didn’t react at first to Clark’s lips on his, but suddenly he was threading his hands through the back of Clark’s hair and pressing their mouths together, devouring Clark. The younger boy whimpered softly under the onslaught. Lex’s lips felt like hot silk. His tongue darted in and out of Clark’s mouth, tasting and tickling almost at the same time. Clark moaned when Lex broke the kiss and drew back with a cat-like satisfied smile on his face.

Clark shook himself out of the kiss-induced fog. He knew that Lex had kissed him like that because the older man wanted to, but also to distract him from Lionel. However Clark didn’t give up that easy. He was going to protect Lex from his father whether he wanted it or not. What good were his powers if he couldn’t use them to take care of the ones he loved?

“I’d do anything to keep you safe,” Clark said.

“And I would do the same for you. But Lionel’s too dangerous. And you’re too precious to risk. Let me handle my father,” Lex said as he stood, smoothing down the front of his shirt. “C’mon, the sooner we see whatever it is he has to show us the sooner he’ll leave.”

As Lex tugged him out of the study, Clark wondered what it was that Lionel was so keen to show them. He just couldn’t imagine that anything the elder Luthor wanted to share so badly could be good.

Lionel was waiting for them in the foyer. He was standing before a cloth covered canvas, which was taller than he was by several feet and just as wide. It was leaning up against the wall opposite the double front doors. It looked almost as if it belonged there. Clark felt something in him twist with apprehension. He scanned the room for Kryptonite, but there wasn’t anything.

“So this is what you wanted to show us, Father? A painting?” Lex cocked one eyebrow up.

“Its the paintings that originally resided in this foyer when the Castle was in Scotland. It had been damaged in a fire long ago. It was so soot-covered when I last saw it that it looked like a pure black square. I just got around to having it cleaned and returned from Scotland for the grand opening of the Luthor Wing of the Metropolis Museum,” Lionel explained.

Lex walked over to the tarp and was about to tug it off when Lionel caught his wrist. Lex tried to jerk his hand back, but Lionel held him fast. Clark was suddenly at Lex’s side. Lex’s disapproval stopped him from using his strength to wrench Lionel’s hand away at the last moment.

“Don’t you want us to see what’s under here?” Lex asked calmly, even as his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Isn’t that the point, Father?”

“In due time,” Lionel said and finally released Lex’s wrist. “I want to tell you some of its history first. So you understand the full … impact … of what you are about to see.”

Lex drew his hand up to his chest and rubbed at the skin that Lionel had touched. Clark whispered, “You okay?”

“Fine. Just let him have his fun,” Lex answered softly.

Lionel was watching their exchange through hooded eyes, a strange pleased smile on his face.

“What?” Clark suddenly asked Lionel. “What are you so happy about?”

“That you are protective of one another. I’m … glad … to see it.”

Lex gave Lionel a sharp look. “Father, are you feeling all right?”

“I’m fine, Lex. Why do you ask?”

“Because you’re always lecturing me that no one but family is trustworthy. What’s changed?”

Lionel gave a small chuckle and shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Want to let us in on the joke then?” Lex asked.

“Like I said, Lex, in due time.” Lionel began to pace from one end of the painting to the other then spun on his heel and retraced his path. “Now. This painting is of our Luthor ancestors. Lucian Luthor and his younger, half-brother, Christian. Or rather I should say, his bastard half-brother. Not that it mattered to Lucian. He insisted that Christian live with him and be treated as a full Luthor from the start. Even after Lucian married he … insisted … on Christian remaining with him and his wife and son in the ancestral home. Lucian said it was Christian’s home as much as his.”

“They were close then? ” Lex asked. “Like brothers should be.”

“It was rumored that they were … too close. Lucian’s wife, Alexa, was dreadfully jealous of Christian … naturally … or unnaturally as the case may be.”

Lex’s grey eyes went dark suddenly like pewter. “And?”

“She decided to do something about the … rival … for her husband’s affections.”

“What did she do to him?” Lex asked. “What did Alexa do to Christian?”

Clark shivered as he heard Christian’s name on Lex’s lips. It sounded … right … more right than his own name sounded when Lex said it. Clark felt a spurt of irrational jealousy.

“She killed him of course,” Lionel murmured.

Lex’s face twisted into a grimace. Clark swore that Kryptonite must be nearby as he felt almost violently ill for a moment.

“How?” Lex asked, his voice catching on the word.

Lionel shrugged. “Unknown. But how she died … well, that is known and quite the tale.” Lionel gave a grin at that, shark-like. “Lucian strangled her and … set her on fire.”

Clark made a pained noise. Though he could not feel the agony of a burn, he could imagine it. Lex looked terribly pale himself. Clark reached over and touched his shoulder. Lex leaned into him.

Lionel continued unphased. “The fire damaged this painting. Then … then Lucian killed himself. He bound his body to that of Christian’s corpse and leapt from a high cliff into the sea below. The only reason the Luthor line survived was through Lucian and Alexa’s child. He had been sent away to school the week before.”

“That’s … that’s awful. Dead? All but the child …” Clark whispered.

Lex turned his head to the side, sagging slightly against Clark as he said softly, “So Lucian got revenge on her …”

“Romantic nonsense! They were all dead. It was a complete … waste,” Lionel said, disdain coloring his words.

Lex’s head jerked around to face Lionel. “What should Lucian have done?”

“If you don’t know, Lex, then I haven’t raised you right at all,” Lionel sneered.

Clark’s hands fisted at his sides. Damn Lionel for berating Lex! Clark had no idea what Lionel thought that Lucian should have done to Alexa, but it was bound to be awful and Clark was glad that Lex hadn’t known the “right” answer. It showed he was his own man. Not his father’s clone.

“And what is the purpose of telling us this sordid story, Father?”

Lionel turned his back on them to face the painting. His voice became soft as he said, “When I first saw it … I thought someone was playing a joke on me. One they would regret. But I was able to both confirm the painting’s authenticity and … and the authenticity of what it was showing me.”

Lionel looked over his shoulder at them and that satisfied smile was back again. “This is a painting of Lucian and Christian. I think you may find it … illuminating.”

Clark shivered. Lex frowned. Then Lionel tugged off the cloth and the painting was revealed.

Clark heard Lex gasp, but the younger boy couldn’t say anything at all. His vocal chords were frozen. The painting was of two young men dressed in clothes of a century past.

Young men who could have been Clark and Lex’s twins.