When Devils Speak the Truth chapter 11
Title: When Devils Speak the Truth
Fandom: Smallville
Guest Characters: Johnny, Ben and Susan from Fantastic Four; Sheppard, Lorne and McKay from Stargate Atlantis; Mystique, Pyro and Iceman from X-Men (movieverse).
Characters: As many of them as possible, from as many other fandoms as I can manage and still keep track.
Genre: Future Fic, AU, slash, whumpage abounds
Pairings: Clark/Oliver, Clark/Johnny Storm
Rating: R - that means adults only people, you have been informed
Warnings: MM Slash, death, torture, genocide, apocalyptic themes, sex, sacrifice,
persecution, religious stupidity.
Summary: Clark refuses his destiny and is thrust into the future, a future where he never became the hero he was meant to be. He must survive on an Earth that is dying and face friends and loved ones who can no longer be trusted. Reuniting with Oliver tests the bond they once thought unbreakable and Clark must decide what being a hero actually means.
Links to: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
Chapter Eleven: The Sun Burns Brightest on a Sea of White
Clark sat in the outer chamber, not yet ready to enter the fortress proper. The last time he was here he had believed that his life as Kal’El was at an end. Then he had been thrust into this future, a world where even best friends could become enemies and gentle people religious fanatics. This was not his world. Oliver was fatally wounded, Johnny on his way to save the world with his life and sooner or later Lex’s troops would find them and the battle would start all over again.
“Clark,” Lana’s voice whispered as she placed a gloved hand upon his shoulder and sat down next to him.
He leaned into her, feeling beneath her robe the familiar slim body that he knew so well. She was warm but it was not heat he needed, although he had removed his armour the cool air did not bother him. The warmth she gave was more about comfort than physical need. How many times had he provided comfort for Lana and now the situation was reversed?
“You knew?” he murmured.
Lana knew what he meant and sighed as she answered. “I knew some of what would happen, but not about Oliver.”
“How have you coped all these years Lana? Knowing what future was in store for your friends, for the people you love?”
Her hood was pulled back and Clark turned to see tears glistening in her eyes. Eyes that were surrounded by ruin.
“I distanced myself, gave in to this persona and become the Seer… unknowable and untouchable; only Oliver really still saw me as Lana.”
Wiping his own tears away Clark stood and faced the doors. “What happens now? I did as you predicted, I let myself be guided by the devil - even if it was through Chloe; and I let Johnny sacrifice himself…is it enough?”
“I do not know Clark. The world will either live or die; and humanity will face hard choices…much as they have ever done.”
Clark walked towards the doors and placed a hand on one before turning back.
“Ollie’s going to die isn’t he?”
“Yes.” She said it without hesitation and for that he thanked her. The last thing Clark needed right now was any more lies or deception.
He opened the doors and walked through.
CKCKCKCKCK
Inside was the main atrium of what was once his fortress of solitude in the artic. It was still in the artic but three hundred feet of ice was above their heads now, the structure easily able to cope with the weight. Over the years Oliver and his team had added a more human touch; doors, heated rooms and lighting. Clark had not bothered to ask when they found it or how.
Before the main console McKay was touching various crystals with his scanner and mumbling to himself. His ever present guardians Sheppard and Lorne stood by the wall while Susan Storm and Ben Grimm whispered quietly behind one of the pillars.
Iceman and Pyro were the only ones that looked at Clark when he entered and by their expressions Clark’s heart almost crumbled. Their eyes were full of sorrow and that could only mean…Clark looked to the other side and there was Oliver. He was in a bed and had tubes running in and out of his chest and a monitor by the side. An oxygen mask was clasped over his mouth but his eyes flickered open when Clark took his hand.
“Don’t try and speak,” said Clark softly. Oliver’s mouth moved but he was unable to form words, his eyes spoke for him and Clark kissed his forehead and smoothed his hair.
A doctor was on the other side of the bed and checked a few readouts before smiling softy at Clark. He spoke in a Scottish accent and his own eyes revealed his fatigue. “I have stabilised him as much as is possible lad, but the damage is too much - I’m afraid his time is short.”
Nodding a thankyou Clark leaned in so his and Oliver’s faces were almost touching. Ollie’s breathing was coming in short gasps and his eyes spoke of pain and knowledge that he was dying.
“I thought by giving up my destiny we would have a life together,” whispered Clark. “Instead my life was stolen and yours is lost.”
Oliver reached up and removed the mask. “Not your fault,” he gasped. “Never stopped loving you - never will.” The short words drained him and his eyes rolled; the monitor started beeping ominously.
“Doctor,” hissed Clark. The doctor rushed in and checked Oliver’s vitals but shook his head sadly.
“Oliver,” sobbed Clark. “Ollie, don’t leave me, not now…please?”
The beeping became a monotone as it flat-lined and Oliver released a final breath.
Wrapping his arms around the still figure Clark put his lips near Oliver’s ear.
“I love you,” he croaked. “You were everything I ever wanted.” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out this reality. He wanted to open them and see that this was all a cruel trick; that Jor’El was playing more mind games.
A voice behind him shattered even that slim hope.
“I always knew I’d have the final word.”
Clark spun around and hissed out the hateful name.
“Lex!”
CKCKCKCKCK
Lex Luthor stalked before him and Clark could barely contain his rage. All of this was because of Lex; his mother’s death, the world collapsing into chaos and Oliver dying. He collected all his strength and superspeed towards Lex. As was always the case when he moved so quickly the rest of the world slowed down. The armed soldiers with weapons trained on Clark’s friends were like statues, a drop of water falling from the roof seemed suspended in mid-air and his super-hearing could detect the muted slow thump of various heartbeats - everything slowed down… except Lex.
As Clark sped up to the man he laughed and snapped up his arm - on it was a gold ring with an embedded green crystal that started glowing as Clark got closer. He collapsed within a hand’s breadth of Lex and writhed on the floor; he had been sickened by Kryptonite before but not so quickly from such a small amount.
Lex continued to laugh and in a blur was next to Clark’s ear. “Enriched kryptonite Clark - if I were to scratch you with this you would die in seconds…but I think I’ll have some fun first.” He stood up and kicked out, his foot catching Clark in the hip and sending him flying across the room and smashing into a pillar of crystals. Clark cried in pain, his hip felt like it was dislocated and he could feel a crystal had sliced into his side. In an instant Lex had appeared above him and using only one hand lifted Clark by the neck until he was struggling for breath and his feet dangled in the air. Lex brought their faces close. The man had barely aged, only a few lines marred his hairless head and except for a scar above his right ear Clark would say this was the same Lex from his own time.
His grip was like iron and he didn’t even seem strained by holding Clark off the ground.
“All of your strengths,” sneered Lex, his lips only centimetres from Clark’s. “None of your weaknesses.”
He threw Clark again and this time he flew twice as far and skidded across the floor to come to a stop at the foot of Oliver’s bed.
Lex stalked slowly across the room, lecturing as he walked. “All these years I waited the return of the great Kal’El, the one who would defeat me - and here he is, defeated and broken… even your mother put up more of a fight before I snapped her neck like a twig.”
“Bastard!” yelled Clark and tried to stand but pain from his hip lanced through him and he collapsed back down, his face against the floor. That is when he saw, behind Lex and out of sight of the soldiers an odd crystal formation that he had never seen in the fortress before. It was about human height and had a bluish hue and looked more like a tree trunk than a crystal pillar. Just before Lex’s body blocked his sight a yellow eye appeared in the crystal and winked at him.
Mystique!
A leg whipped out and struck his injured hip, sending pain so fierce the world seemed to tilt at an angle and Clark couldn’t even scream as the breath in his lungs felt like cement.
“I have waited and planned and scoured the globe for you Clark, and all I had to do was wait - you were always so predictable, I knew you would end up here… you and this pathetic band of freaks.” Lex reached out and clasped Clark by the shoulders, once again lifting him off the floor. “It is fitting that you will all die here together, the last of the impure, the unwanted and the tainted.”
Clark glared at the glowing ring, inches away it seemed even painful to look at. How could Lex have all his powers and not be affected by kryptonite? It had happened before, with other aliens and some kryptonite infected people, but never had he thought Lex would find a way to become super-human - not without some serious side-effects.
None of his weaknesses? Maybe not but everyone had an Achilles heel, a way to be brought down - and there is no way Lex would have created a mechanism of great power without some way to stop it - just in case someone else used it.
Mystique had slid closer to the soldiers, whatever Clark did he had to do soon. He was still looking at the ring as an idea came to him - he knew what normal kryptonite did to him; his blood almost boiled when in contact.
Reaching behind Clark felt the crystal that was still wedged into his side and gritting his teeth pushed his palm into it, slicing open his skin. He felt the blood rushing out and smiled at Lex. “I always thought Lex, that we had something special,” he gasped. Lex looked momentarily confused, probably wondering what he was up to. “A connection,” continued Clark, “That was once unbreakable.” He brought his injured hand around and clasped it over Lex’s ring hand.
“Turns out,” said Clark, as Lex’s face went from smug superiority to discomfort. “I was right - the same blood runs though our veins.”
Steam started rising from their hands as Clark’s blood reacted to the enhanced kryptonite and boiled away, like acid on Lex’s skin it cut through and mixed with Lex’s blood, causing a chain reaction. Clark snatched his hand back, his blood cooling almost immediately but Lex could not escape the reaction, the ring was stuck on his hand and his blood now infected with Clark’s. The veins on his hand started popping as the blood boiled and the gases expanded; the ring glowed like a small sun and Lex fell back to the floor, screaming in agony.
Across the floor Mystique reassumed human form and attacked the soldiers, her fluid fighting style incapacitating them in seconds and allowing the team to take action. Clark couldn’t see it all but they split up and as Ben, Iceman and Pyro left the room screams could be heard from the outer chamber, not theirs.
Clark felt his strength returning and as his injuries healed he looked back at Lex. The ring’s crystal had been exhausted and hung now on nothing but bone and sinew as Lex continued to scream. His flesh up to the wrist had melted away leaving bone and shrivelled skin. Clark waked up and lifted Lex by his shirt front, the lack of resistance told Clark all he needed to know - whatever power Lex had owned had been contained within the ring. It had been a gamble but Clark had guessed that somehow Lex’s ring transformed the Kryptonian radiation to enhance his strength and speed, luckily it hadn’t made him invulnerable. Lex’s boast that he had all Clark’s strengths had been bluff - such a Luthor thing to do.
Staring into Lex’s eyes Clark had so much he wanted to say; so much anger to vent and pain to inflict. All he saw in Lex’s depths though was madness. What use was there in tearing Lex apart, much as he wanted to? He threw Lex to the side and checked that all the team were fine. McKay was back at the console and waved Clark over.
“While I would like to take the time to say thankyou it seems we’re almost out of it,” said the scientist rapidly.
“What?” said Clark. “Are you telling me it didn’t work, that Johnny sacrificed himself for nothing?”
“Precisely the opposite,” said McKay exasperatedly. “It did work, or at least if the fluctuations we detected mean anything, look.” He touched a crystal and an image appeared in the air above the console, it showed the sun from space, a function either McKay had worked out or he was relaying it from a satellite. The sun was quite dim and then suddenly flashed, then dimmed then flashed again. The flashes got longer and longer.
“If my calculations are correct, and they always are.”
A coughed “bullshit” from Sheppard earned a sharp glare from McKay but he continued. “The flares are like an engine starting up after being cold for a long time, but eventually the sun will ignite and return to its former glory, not before however it gives off a massive energy pulse - and that’s why we’re almost out of time.”
He was speaking so rapidly Clark had to take a moment to try and understand where he was going with this. “So what, the Earth’s going to get fired or something, didn’t you know this might happen?”
“Well of course I knew it would happen, genius here.” McKay puffed and adjusted a few crystals before pulling out a very familiar crystal from his jacket.
“Hey that’s mine,” said Clark and went to grab it.
Snatching it back McKay grinned gleefully. “Well actually it’s been mine for the last decade but you can have it in,” he checked his watch. “About one minute.”
Clark gave up asking and just glared.
McKay smiled in triumph. “The pulse will not destroy our planet, our electro-magnetic field will protect us but it will be quite the light show - imagine aurora borealis spread across the entire of North America…and that is why we, or more precisely you, have little time.”
“You mean?”
“Yes,” said McKay and handed him the crystal. “You’re going back.”
Clark remembered Oliver mentioning the same thing. “You knew this could be done, Ollie knew?”
“Yes,” answered McKay soberly. “Oliver and I worked on it for years, the calculations are precise and it should work.”
“Should?”
“Never time-travelled before,” said McKay and an expression of concern came over his face. “That is assuming you got here by time-travel in the first place, everybody assumes you did but what if you were just stuck in the computer interface all this time, and just spewed out.”
“Wha-?”
“Oh don’t worry,” hushed McKay. “There’s a very low probability it was that, and if it was you’ll never know.”
“Why?”
“Because your molecules will be spread across the solar system instead of going back to your own time.”
McKay checked his watch and swore. “Quick, ten seconds.”
“Wait!” shouted Clark. “If I go back, can I change all this, will this never happen?”
McKay shrugged. “Maybe, maybe you’ll create an alternate timeline - or maybe the same thing will happen, now quickly, five, four - put the crystal in now!”
Clark did so and held his breath, waiting for the inevitable pain.
“Two.”
“One.”
Light enveloped him and McKay and Sheppard, and the entire fortress of solitude faded into blinding white light.
To be concluded in Chapter 12: Rise of the Kryptonian Son
AshtakRa Masterfile (other stories by AshtakRa)