The Artifact

THE ARTIFACT

By Raythe

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. No money made.

PAIRING: Clark x Lex; Lionel x Lex

WARNINGS: Slash/Incest/AU

RATING: M

HINTS AND WARNINGS: Sorry about the long wait for an update. Do not worry about this piece not being finished. It will be! It’ll be a long one, too. It’s just that I am working on Forbidden, my Star Wars piece, and that is taking more of my time right now. But do not despair this piece is talking to me as well.

Hope you like this newest installment. Please let me know what you think. I appreciate each and every comment I get!

Hugs,

Raythe

CHAPTER SIX: BECOMING A LUTHOR

Clark’s POV

Clark watched Lex’s still figure for long moments, forgetting his own panic in the face of his best friend’s pain. Lex never trusted people easily. He always believed that they were going to betray him. Clark had been trying for so long to make Lex see that this wasn’t always the case. But then there would be someone like Helen, who Lex cared for, and who betrayed him, and all Clark’s words of trust and humanity’s goodness would sound hollow in his own ears.

Clark was beginning to believe that perhaps he couldn’t talk about other people’s motives in regards to the Luthor heir, but only his own. He would never betray Lex. The only lies he ever told Lex were to protect him. But that was supposed to change tonight and considering the false accusation that he was Lex’s brother, that change had come none too soon.

Clark’s hands twitched at his sides. He longed to reach out and wrap his arms around Lex’s slim, muscular body. He knew that Lex would be stiff at first against him, resisting the comfort he was offering, but then the older boy would relax all at once as if he were conceding defeat. Before he could think better of it, wonder if it were wise with Lionel just upstairs, and with the ridiculous, impossible, absolutely-could-not-be-true claim that Lex was his brother hanging over them, Clark was up and moving. He pulled Lex’s back flush against his chest and buried his head between Lex’s neck and shoulder. Lex tensed as Clark knew he would, but the older boy allowed the embrace and after a long moment covered Clark’s enveloping arms with his own.

“I’m sorry,” Clark said, his voice muffled as he mashed himself against the softness of Lex’s neck and shirt.

“About what?” Lex asked, tilting his head almost imperceptibly to allow Clark closer to him.

Clark swallowed. “Helen.”

“But why? She was the one who violated her duty of confidentiality to you—”

“She hurt you,” Clark cut Lex off.

Clark wanted Helen out of Lex’s life, but not like this. Clark admitted to himself that he was jealous of her and he was horrified that she had taken his blood and tested it without his consent, even though somehow, miraculously, she had come up with an utterly wrong result; wrong species even, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. But in the end he didn’t want Lex’s worldview to darken even more that it already had and Helen’s betrayal could do just that.

“I guess there won’t be any more worries about her taking up our time together,” Lex said, bitterness lacing his voice.

Clark swung Lex around to face him, gripping his shoulders. The other boy’s sardonic smirk was belied by the wounded look in his eyes, but somehow Clark didn’t see it fast enough to stop the words from spilling from his mouth, “Until the next suitable woman comes along, right? And you have to end our friendship for my sake again. I won’t allow it, damnit! Surely this shows that they aren’t good for you. These women. You need me and only me!”

“There must always be a next woman, Clark, for heirs, remember? And there must be another now. Especially now. Especially if …” Lex broke off and gave a sharp laugh, his eyes flickering away from Clark’s.

“Especially if I’m your brother, right, Lex?” Clark asked and tightened his grip on Lex’s shoulders, drawing off when he realized that Lex must be feeling some pain even if he wasn’t showing it. “But I’m not your brother. I could never be your brother.”

Lex’s eyes flashed and jaw clenched. He pulled away from Clark and began to pace the hallway.

“And why not, Clark? Why couldn’t you be my brother? You’re adopted and the blood tests showed … well, I’ll confirm what they showed.” He then added under his breath, “It would just be so typical, that the person I want more than anything in the universe would be taken from me like this.”

Lex froze in front of the canvas of their doppelgangers.

“Even this damn painting suggests that … that we’re … we’re related,” Lex said almost helplessly.

“But it’s impossible!”

Lex spun around to face him. “You keep saying that, but without any explanation! Just because you don’t want it to be true doesn’t mean it isn’t!”

Clark opened his mouth then closed it only to open it again. Why couldn’t he get the words out about his alien heritage? He had practiced what he’d say. But they weren’t coming. His eyes actually pricked with tears as he fought to tell Lex the truth. It was like he had been programmed for so long to keep it inside that it was impossible to tell. Lex must have seen how he was struggling, because the older boy’s expression softened and he crossed to Clark, framing his face with his strong and agile hands.

“I’m sorry, Clark. I’m lashing out at you when you’re the last person who deserves it,” Lex said his head lowering so that Clark couldn’t see his face. “I’ll perform the tests. Helen must have made some kind of mistake. I’ll need some more blood from you and then we’ll get this all sorted out.”

“I can show you something that’ll sort it out right now, Lex,” Clark said, his voice finding him suddenly.

Lex’s head jerked up. “What? What do you mean?”

Clark wet his lips even as his mouth went desert dry. “I don’t want you to be afraid by what I show you.”

Lex opened his mouth to speak then stopped and frowned. “Afraid? I could never be afraid of anything to do with you, Clark.”

Something eased in Clark’s chest. Lex was telling him that he would accept him no matter what. Clark only hoped that was as all-encompassing an acceptance as it sounded.

“Good. I’m glad. But I won’t hold you to that. Now I’m going to take us to the farm,” Clark said as he drew Lex against him again.

“Uh, Clark, shouldn’t we take one of the—” Lex finished speaking just as Clark dropped out of superspeed at the doors to the farm’s cellar. “—cars?” Lex legs wobbled as Clark gently released him. “What? What just happened? We’re … we’re at the farm?”

“Yes. Superspeed. It’s one of my gifts.” Clark ducked his head, not sure if he wanted to see Lex’s expression at that moment.

Lex’s head jerked this way and that as he took in all the familiar sights of the farm, including the lighted windows from the kitchen that shone out onto the porch. A shadow that passed in front of the curtains for a moment as Clark’s mother went to the sink. Clark was struck by the fact that life as normal was going on within the farm house while outside of it nothing was normal, maybe would never be normal again.

Lex ran a shaky hand over his forehead. “Superspeed? Right. Of course. The blurs on the cameras. That was you.”

Clark raised his head at the awe he heard in Lex’s voice. There was no disgust or fear in it. Just wonder. He felt brave enough to meet Lex’s gaze. The older boy was looking at him with undisguised delight. Lex walked towards Clark and cupped his cheek. His eyes were bright and wide. A true smile curled the corners of his lips upwards.

“There’s more that I can do,” Clark confessed, feeling an eagerness to tell everything now that Lex had been so accepting.

“I bet. Tell me or … show me … if you want to,” Lex amended.

Clark grinned. “Look at that pile of leaves on the pathway.”

Lex turned and looked as Clark used his heat vision to set them ablaze. Clark let them only burn for a moment, before he stamped the flames out. The older boy gave a soft whoop of amazement.

“Laser beams from your eyes?” Lex asked. “Of course! Those unexplained fires. That was you?

“Yeah. I had a hard time controlling that power forever. And … well, I’m really strong and can’t really be hurt. Except for by the Kryptonite.”

“Kryptonite?” Lex cocked his head to the side.

“The meteors.”

Lex looked confused at the fact that Clark had a special name for the meteors, but Clark would explain that soon enough.

“This is all amazing. But are your powers all that you wanted to show me? Because they don’t prove you aren’t my brother, Clark,” Lex said kindly, “They only prove that you’re a mutant like me, but with the choicest pick of the mutations. You’ve almost got all the super powers any comic book hero would need to be invincible.”

“Comic book hero? You’re such a geek, Lex,” Clark teased then dropped his head, unable to look at the older boy again. “But my powers aren’t what I brought you here to see.”

Lex put several fingers under Clark’s chin and tipped his head up. “What then?”

“I’m not a mutant, Lex. I’m the cause of the mutations,” Clark said.

“I can’t believe that, Clark. That’s not possible.”

Clark covered Lex’s mouth with two fingers to stop him from speaking. Lex’s lips were so soft that it made Clark want to kiss him or be kissed by him. But it seemed wrong to do so before Lex knew what Clark really was. Not his brother. Could never be his brother, because he was not human. He was alien. More alien than any Luthor could ever be.

“Let me show you,” Clark said softly and opened the doors to the cellar.

He switched on the light and the lone bulb that hung in the center of the cellar flickered on casting a circle of sickly yellow light on the cellar’s dirt floor. Clark gestured for Lex to go down first. As soon as both boys were at the bottom of the rickety cellar steps, Clark moved ahead of Lex to his tarp-covered space ship in the corner.

He didn’t think. Just twitched the cover aside, hoping that somehow the shock would be less if he did it quickly. He didn’t turn around and look at Lex. Instead he stared at his own distorted reflection in the ship’s shiny surface. But when Lex didn’t say anything for what seemed like ages, Clark had to turn around to face him. Had Lex fainted? Was he backing away in horror? Clark’s heart clenched as he spun around to face his best friend.

Lex’s expression was almost blank. His eyes slivery gray in the low light. “It’s a space ship, isn’t it?”

Clark nodded.

“Yours?” Lex’s voice continued on in that almost inflectionless way.

Clark nodded again. A tremor running through him as Lex just stared seemingly calmly at the ship then at him.

“And this is why you can’t be my brother … because you’re not human. You’re an alien,” Lex said softly.

Clark gave one quick jerky nod.

Lex suddenly gave a strangled, hysterical laugh. The older boy covered his mouth as if to stuff the laughter back in, but his shoulders jerked as it tried to force its way out of him. Suddenly, instead of laughter, a sob broke out, almost like a wail and Lex turned away and towards the wall. He clutched at the wall boards, his fingers going white as he dug his fingers into the soft wood.

Clark’s heart was trip hammering in his chest as his friend seemed to be losing his mind. Clark had expected disgust, fear, even rage at all the lies he had told Lex over the years. But not this bone-deep despair. Even though he feared Lex would scream for him, the alien thing he was, to get away, Clark had to go to him. Had to help him if he could.

“Lex … are you … are you okay? I mean I know you’re not. But please … I know it’s a shock. I didn’t know until you hit me with your car and then … then … my parents … I mean they aren’t my parents, but they found me and raised me and … they told me after I put my hand in the thresher and it didn’t hurt me that I was an alien. Oh, God, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, so sorry I lied, but please … please tell me you’re okay!” Clark babbled as he gently petted Lex’s back.

Lex took in huge, deep breaths as he tried to control his breathing and the silent shaking laughter mixed with sobbing stopped and his shoulders slumped. Slowly, after about five minutes, Lex turned to face Clark. Although the sobbing and the laughter were completely extinguished as if they had never been and Lex’s iron control was in place again, Lex’s eyes looked bleak, almost haunted. He reached up and cradled Clark’s face again. One of his thumbs running down Clark’s cheekbone. Was he trying to see if Clark still felt human? Or if there was an alien physiology beneath that thin layer of skin that could be felt? Clark experienced waves of disgust for himself. Who knew what was hiding inside of him, in his blood and organs? He shuddered.

“Its so strange,” Lex began, his voice scrapped raw.

“What? Me?” Clark fought the urge to turn into the soft caress, because he wasn’t sure what was happening here or what Lex wanted or felt.

“No, not in the way you’re thinking I mean it,” Lex said as he did that little mind-reading trick he sometimes could pull off with Clark. Another brush of his thumb along the delicate orbit of Clark’s eye and the boy shivered with the gentleness of the touch. “You’re extraordinary. Wonderful. Strange in all the best ways. But I wasn’t exactly referring to you.”

“What … what were you referring to, Lex?” Clark asked, feeling almost hypnotized by the other boy’s gentle touches.

“Just that I’ve always wanted to know if there was life on other planets. I’ve always believed that the greatest thing we could ever know was that we are not alone,” Lex said.

Clark’s heart rose slightly. “But if that’s true then … then why did you … react like that?”

Lex gave him the saddest, softest smile. “Because telling me that you are an alien, proving that we are not alone in this universe, is the one thing … the only thing … you could have told me that would ensure that no matter what we found out about your true parentage that we could never dispute Lionel’s claim and … and that you could never be mine.”

Clark’s head reared back, his eyes wide with confusion and shock. “What? But why? I don’t understand! Lex, this ship proves that I can’t be your brother and that I’m not his son! So I can be yours! I can!”

Lex shook his head slowly. “You’re right that the ship may prove you aren’t my brother, but Lionel can never know about the ship. He can never know, not even guess, that you aren’t human, Clark, because …”

Clark’s mouth opened and stayed there as suddenly realization hit. “Because … because if he knew that I was an alien he’d …”

Again that sickly smile appeared that Lex only wore when Lionel was talked about. “He’d do terrible things to you without a moment’s thought.”

Clark trembled. His whole body went hot then cold and sweat broke out all over. Clark sank to the ground and Lex followed him down, helping him get there softly instead of in a heavy heap. Every horrible nightmarish thought he’d ever had about being caught and dissected and tortured to find out what he was made of flew through his mind. Lionel Luthor would have almost unlimited resources and no ethical compunctions to slow him down in teasing out of Clark every secret his body and mind held.

Lex continued, his voice steady, his eyes despairing, “So you see, Clark, if we dispute Helen’s analysis, Lionel will demand more tests and … whatever trick of fate allowed her to test your blood and have the results come out seeming human … seeming Luthor … we cannot risk everything on such luck occurring again. If there is anything in your blood to show your true heritage then … well, we just can’t risk it.”

Clark buried his head against Lex’s chest, so grateful when not only was he not pushed away, but was held close. His hair gently stroked and the warmth of Lex’s breath on his scalp.

“What do we do, Lex?”

Lex paused in his stroking to place a kiss on Clark’s head. It was tender and soft and loving though sad as well as if Lex was mourning, too.

“You have to become my brother, Clark. You have to become a Luthor.”