Nightmare Log with Kon

[capable_of]

Dated October 31st

While on the way to the compound, Lex gets stuck in a nightmare of of his future. Kon unknowingly joins him and they only find a way to escape when they're dueling images of Clark Kent turn on each other.


Lex had spent the better part of the day getting ready for the Halloween party that night. He'd spent the better part of a week trying to think of something for him and Anatoly to be dressed as and it had been a pleasant surprise when Anatoly had come up with something himself. So, Lex had been gathering pieces to make costumes to turn them into Alexander the Great and Hephaiston for the night, a small secret smile on his face the entire time at how well Anatoly knew him.

He'd seen the random clouds of fog all over and chalked it up to the island getting in the mood of the holiday, while deftly avoiding them. Remembering the odd monsters from last year, Lex had wanted to avoid any weird encounters. But at the moment, he was lost in thought, caught up in his costuming plans as he walked so he didn't notice he'd walked right into the middle of one until he almost tripped over something right in the middle of his path. Stumbling, it took a moment for Lex to regain his balance and he shot an annoyed look over his shoulder at whatever had tripped him.

But the annoyed look turned to one of horror as he saw that he'd tripped over the bloody body of Jonathan Kent. Lex rushed to the man's side to check his pulse, his breathing, anything to show that Clark's father was still alive. He gave a small frustrated shout when he realized the man was dead, already his carefree plans of costumes and Halloween turning to revenge. Jonathan may not have liked Lex but he was a good man and didn't deserve this. Lex stood up and looked around, hoping for any clue as to who had done this. But instead of clues to the identity of the murderer, he saw more bodies. A beaten Pete, a bloody Chloe, a breathless Lana. His mother was hanging from a tree by her neck, his brother Julian cold and blue at her feet. Even Lucas was there, or at least what remained him was. He stared with wide eyes at the death all around him, more and more recognizable bodies appearing by the second.

He checked every few bodies, hoping with increasing despair that he might find one alive. In the back of his mind, it occurred to him that this could be one of the island's tricks...but what purpose did it serve to show him all of this?

Lex was near hysterical when he realized he heard labored breathing off it his right. He spun on his heels and saw Martha Kent, her body covered in bloody wounds and gashes but still having the strength to sit up. But what stole Lex's breath away was the body she held cradled in her lap. The dead body of Clark Kent, his veins dark green, almost black against his pale dead skin. Lex forgot all about the island in that moment as he stumbled over to their side, falling to his knees beside them. "Martha..." He gasped out, "What happened?"

Martha gave a small wail of despair before glaring at Lex with more hatred then he thought it was possible for her to possess. "You happened. You did all of this! You destroy everything you touch! We gave you a chance and look what you did with it!" She was screaming by the end, rocking her dead son in her lap.

"What?" His voice could come out only in a whisper, his throat choked in disbelief. "Martha...Mrs. Kent, no! I'd never do this, I'd never hurt Clark!" Anyone else, there was the remote possibility by Clark, his family and his friends? Never.

But that didn't sway the grieving mother, his voice was raspy as she coughed from the pain of her own injuries. "You got what you always wanted. You wanted to be great. How does it feel to be a great murdered and monster?"

Lex shook his head to deny this when a hand landed on his shoulder and the hated voice of his father came from above him. "My, what a marry mess you've made Lex. You've joined the family tradition, destroying utterly and completely anything that gets in your way. I'm proud of you." He didn't want to look up at the knowing smirk that was no doubt gracing his father's features so instead he looked down. Looked down to see that his clothes had changed to the white suit the clothes box still insisted on trying to give him. Around him were all the instruments needs to cause the destruction he'd seen around him. But it wasn't the bloody knives or the smoking guns that disturbed him most. That honor lay with the ring on his finger, set with a bright, glowing green stone, that in his mind he knew was what he'd used to kill Clark, strangling him with his own two hands. The memories started to flood in then, of how he'd personally killed each and each body scattered around him.

Unable to help himself, Lex put his head in his bloody hands and started to scream.

Kon was pretty sure he had a date with Wallace. Except that was impossible because if it was a date, he would have said no. Still, Wallace had sought him out or maybe they'd just bumped into each other and Wallace had talked about the Halloween party and suggested he go. Had asked him if he wanted to go. It wasn't a date. It couldn't be a date. And yet it felt very much like a date, up to and including the twisting in his stomach that was just like the first date nerves he'd had with Cassie until he'd been sucked into the future.

That was what distracted him. He was distracted when he was putting the finishing touches on his costume. He was distracted when he was headed home in order to get the earring that Jack had made. He was distracted up to the very point in which he ran head-first into some sort of cloud.

He turned around, but instead of seeing the island behind him, what he saw was Smallville. His stomach clenched. Was he home? Hadn't he and Cassie just been talking about this? If he was home... He turned around again and there in front of him was the Kent farm.

He took his time walking to the farm. If he had his powers again...he wasn't sure he wanted to see what happened if he didn't have his powers. If he was back and just as human as he had been on the island. Finally, he reached the door. It opened easily and he walked in. He followed the scent of one of Ma Kent's fresh-baked pies into the kitchen. Around the table was his family. Ma and Pa, Clark and Lois, Tim, Bart, Cassie, Cissie. They were all there, but... But there was no extra seat.

"Ma?" He put his arm on her shoulder, but she didn't react. His stomach dropped.

"Hey, Clark, I know I was gone for a little while, but I'm back now. Can I get a seat?"

No answer and he started being able to taste his heartbeat. That steady thump-thump that was getting faster by the second when he tried, in turn, to get each part of the group to answer him.

"Relax, Superboy," he finally said to himself. "Maybe they just can't hear you."

"Maybe they just don't care," Clark answered and Kon's head jerked up.

"What?"

Clark smiled and it was a cold smile. Sort of like the one he'd seen on his own face in the future all that time ago.

"We don't want you here. We decided it was better when you were gone."

Kon took one step back and then two and then a third until he finally had hs back pressed against the wall. He came back and they didn't want him? Not even Bart or Tim? But they were his best friends. They were a team. They were always supposed to be a team. That's just the way it was. Hadn't he come back from the dead, so Bart said, and come back to them? And now…

"Clark..."

He ran outside - it did seem like he had his powers after all - and ran as far and as fast as he could. It wasn't until he stopped that he realized there'd been someone who had chased him. He didn't have to turn to know who it was.

"You'll never be more than a copy. An imitation." Clark's voice was hard. "And a dirty imitation at that. I hear you've been palling around with Lex Luthor."

"It's not like that," Kon said quickly. "The one on the island, he was good."

"He'll never be anything but evil. Just. Like. You."

He whirled around to face Clark. Sometime in the journey, he'd stripped out of the reporter suit and into Superman. "I'm not evil!"

"Yes. You are. Isn't that your worst nightmare?"

There was something about the words. Something about the words that rang familiar. Hadn't he heard those from Clark before?

"Say that again?"

"It's your worst nightmare."

Hadn't he... Hawaii. Hawaii and Captain Marvel Jr. There'd been that thing and the dream and the alien.

"So stupid. You, not me. We've done this before." Kon closed his eyes, confident now. "I can just wake up."

He gave it a minute and then opened his eyes, expecting to be back on the island or maybe back in the Tower in the future. Except that Clark was still there. Clark wasn't supposed to be there. He was supposed to be gone. This was all a dream, right?

"Looks like you're not as smart as you like to think," Clark said smugly.

"This can't be real." The sick feeling in his stomach said otherwise. It said that it was definitely real.

"Yes, it..." They were both interrupted by a very familiar scream. Lex. "Don't go after him."

Another scream. "I have to. And you have no right to tell me what to do." He turned and raced after the voice, ignoring the wind on his heels that meant that Clark was following him. He had to find Lex.

As he knelt there and screamed out his pain and frustration, Lex felt his father pat him on the shoulder. "Now now, isn't this what you've always wanted? Haven't you always felt you'd do anything to earn my pride and love?" Lex's head came up and he finally looked up at his father standing over him, unable to squash the small hope that maybe he had earned his father's love finally.

But if there was one thing he had learned from the Kent's its what real love looked like and Lionel expression was an obscene mockery. Lex pushed himself to his feet and scrambled away from Lionel, ignoring the blood covering his clothes. "You!" He said, pointing at his still smirking father. "You did this!"

"No Lex...You did." Came the disjointed bu familiar voice from behind him. Lex spun around to see Clark standing to face him. Clark, who still looked just as dead as he had before with dark green veins and pale skin, but now with eyes open and full of hatred. "I think I'd remember the face of my murderer. Some best friend huh?"

Lex could only stare in horror at the creature with Clark's face in front of him so he failed to notice Kon approaching.

Okay, so Kon was pissed. He came to a half next to Lex and just stared at the dead Clark. The dead younger Clark to compare with the very much alive Superman almost breathing down his neck. Wonderful. Could this day get any worse.

"This is what you leave me for? Him? Pathetic."

Kon flinched and didn't turn around to face Superman. "I don't know. He accepted you a hell of a lot more quickly than you did."

"Shouldn't that make you consider why?"

Out of all the people to follow him back and it had to be Clark. Couldn't it be maybe Tim or something? At least that he could handle.

Finally noticing he wasn't alone, if dead bodies didn't count, Lex's gaze moved quickly from Dead Clark to Superman to Kon. His brain was still processing the memories of murder and mayhem so even his intelligence was failing him. "Kon? What's going on?"

Dead Clark sneered. "It's showing you what I would have become if I hadn't met you."

"SHUT UP!" Lex shouted at the dead face of his best friend, not wanting to hear this anymore. Instead, he took a step back towards Kon.

"Are you kidding?" Kon asked the dead version of Clark. "He's in my world, too, and a whole lot worse than yours. How do you think I even came to be?" This Clark? This younger Clark he had no problems talking back to. "So whatever you problem is, you can't blame it on him."

He moved until he was pressed side-by-side with Lex. Superman moved next to his younger and deader counterpart and he shuddered.

"I think it's a dream," he answered quickly. "The last time he...he..."

"The last time I told you that you were worthless? Is that what you were trying to say?" A sneer appeared on the elder Clark's face and it just looked wrong.

It was relief to have Kon by his side, as the prospect of facing both of these Clarks in his current state was not something Lex thought he could handle.

"Don't you dare call him that!" Lex said to the pompous ass in blue. "Dream or not, no one talks to my son that way. Nice to see you parenting by my father's rules Clark." He couldn't call him Superman, it just didn't feel right.

Glaring at the two of them, Lex spoke to Kon. "You were saying? A dream? I was on my way to the Compound, where were you?" Dead Clark started to say something and Lex held up his hand. "Don't say it. Whatever it is, don't say it. I've had enough from you."

Kon's eyebrows went up and a little of the chill he'd been feeling melted when he heard Lex's words. Supervillain he might be in some universes, but this one was actually pretty decent.

"Yeah. I was around the Compound finishing up my costume."

He looked between the two Clarks. One looked like the one who had been on the island, the one who had never liked him. The other... Well, he hadn't like Kon either, had he? Not at first. At first he'd only been the clone he'd never wanted. He'd been more Ma and Pa Kent's son than he'd been Clark's...anything.

Lex reached out and put a hand on Kon's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go figure out what's going on somewhere without out so much hot air." He was barely keeping it together and he wanted out of this crazy place.

But as he turned away, Dead Clark grabbed his arm and turned him back. "Oh no. You're not allowed to run away again. You have to take responsibility for what you've done this time, not being a slippery Luthor and getting off!"

Kon's hand clamped around Clark's wrist. "Let him go." It was a simple choice. Clark could let Lex go or Kon would make him. Would make both of them if the other Clark decided to pitch in and lend a hand. Getting out was sounding better and better.

His Clark turned to the zombie version. "What do you care about him, anyway? He doesn't become anything important. Small fish, big pond."

Lex tried tugging out from Dead Clark's grip, pretending he didn't flinch at Superman's remarks, but Clark wasn't letting go and in fact held on to him while he turned to Superman. "He killed me and everyone around us." His free hand indicated all the dead and mutilated bodies laying around him. "I think that earns me a little revenge."

The elder Clark looked over at Lex. "You had to deal with this whining for how long? No wonder you turned evil."

Kon didn't grin, but he did consider the two of them.

"What makes you any different?" he asked.

In all honestly, Lex didn't know what to say to that. He could mention that Clark had always been too wrapped in his own angst to really care what happened to Lex, unless it threatened him directly, but he really wanted Dead Clark to let him go so that probably wasn't the wisest thing to say.

So he stayed quiet as Dead Clark smirked at Superman. "Yeah, what makes you different then me other then a love for spandex and a dead beat kid with your worst enemy?"

While the two were involved, Kon grabbed Lex's hand and started moving slowly away. His Clark didn't notice them, wrapped up as he was with insulting the younger Clark. He at least had to hand it to his nightmare. He did pick the right battle for that one.

"Hey, I never asked for a kid. He just showed up. And at least I'm doing something. What did you get? Dead. What happened, you couldn't fight back against a mere human?"

Mere? Kon had to wonder just what was in his subconscious.

Thankfully, when Kon grabbed his hand, the Dead Clark let Lex go to give his full attention to Superman. He was perfectly content to let Kon lead him away from the two dueling clones as he tried to not listen to what the younger Clark said. Of course, he heard it anyway.

"I trusted him and this is what happened."

Lex shivered at the dark tone and implication. This couldn't be what would happen if Clark had trusted him back in Smallville, it just couldn't. He had to believe that earning Clark's trust was a good thing, a good thing that would keep him on the light path. He was glad Kon was leading him as he got lost again in his thoughts.

Kon squeezed Lex's hand hard. He needed the man here and not listening to whatever the two were talking about. To help, he hurried them away, lifting Lex a little off the ground with his TTK to help. As soon as they were out of range, he slowed to a stop and set Lex back down. He needed to think. Just how were they going to get out of this.

"This was a cloud, right? So then...what if the cloud ends somewhere?"

At the squeeze, Lex perked up slightly, coming back from his morbid thoughts and gave Kon a small smile of thanks, not even noticing his feet had left the ground. "Hmmm?" Not sure what Kon was talking about at first. He'd seen the random mists on the island but he didn't think he'd walked through on, had he? He frowned. "I don't remember walking into one but I that sounds logical. And like something the island would do."

Then Lex glanced over his shoulder to see the two Clarks still arguing. "We better find that end before they notice we're gone."

"Where did you walk into one?" Wasn't the easy answer that you walked back to wherever you had come in? He glanced back at where Lex was looking. "Don't tell me. Back there, right?" Well, if it was back there, they could head back to the farm and that should be mostly free of people. Or at least Clark and other-Clark. They'd still have to deal with Tim and everyone.

With a heavy sigh, Lex nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. I didn't get far before I found Clark." He thought about it for a moment, since he could tell Kon wasn't eager to return to wherever he had come from. "It's a cloud. I can't imagine it matters where we walked in. It has to end somewhere. Besides...it's better then going back there." This time, it was Lex who grabbed Kon's hand, eager to get out of there. "It's worth a shot." And he led the way, away from the still dueling Clarks.

"Right. Well. We can try where I came in." And that meant going to the farm. Kon took a breath. He wasn't sure he was ready to go that way, but if it meant getting them out, he was more than willing to try.

Lex indicated Kon to lead the way, but despite the small voice of his father in his head, kept hold of Kon's hand. He needing something to ground him in this living nightmare so his thoughts didn't stray back to the massacre behind them.

As they walked, Lex began to recognize where they were going. "Kon...where did you..." But then a very familiar farmhouse came into view and Lex's eyes went wide. The Kent Farm. The place where he'd finally seen what love and family really were. It was almost appropriate that this place was part of this nightmare. For him at least. "Kon? Why is this where you came in?"

But maybe Lex didn't have to ask why because there was the family. There was pretty much everyone he cared about and, oh god, here came Tim. He set his shoulders and took in a sharp breath. It was already feeling like he'd been punched in the stomach.

"Tim."

"Kon."

They faced each other off and it was like they were the only two out here. His best friend, the one he'd told everything about, and there was a particular look of disgust half-remembered - or maybe half-imagined - from one particular day in his room. He'd hoped never to see that look again.

"I see you finally gave in to your other half."

"That's not fair," he said immediately. "You know he's different than the one here."

"Do I?" Tim was distant at the best of times. It was why Kon worked so hard to get close to him and to push him buttons so that he wouldn't be separate. This, though? This was downright cold.

"Yes."

"Then explain to me why you acted like him when you--"

Kon knew exactly where that was going and he knew Lex had seen enough of it to both know what Tim was talking about and wonder what else Kon might not have told him, which was all of the parts that didn't involve him. It was also enough to prove that it wasn't any sort of Tim that might have been from his home or even just the one who'd been on the island. Neither of them would do that.

"Enough." A smile crossed his features and he wasn't sure whether it was the Lex in him or maybe just the recent exposure to Wallace, but he added, "And quit acting like the jilted lover. It doesn't suit you." He took another breath and looked back at Lex before Tim could reply. "Ready?"

While watching the confrontation between Kon and the phantom of his best friend, Lex began to understand the answer to his question. Kon's family seeing him as a Luthor. He was just as cursed living in Lex's shadow as Lex was living in Lionel's.

He didn't say anything, just watching Kon and not meeting the gazes of the other people standing across from them. He hadn't enough accusations from Martha and Clark for the day. When Kon looked back, Lex nodded and led the way away from this place. When they were far enough to avoid eavesdropping, Lex said softly, "I'm sorry Kon."

Kon wondered for a minute why Lex was apologizing and then he replayed Tim's words. "No, it's not..." Whatever his nightmare was, it wasn't about Lex. Not really. It was about them all turning away from him. About them all hating him. "It's not you, I swear." He took a breath, closed his eyes, and took a few steps forward. The wind brushed past his face and he smelled something that made his eyes pop open. Salt and sun. He turned around quickly to make sure that Lex had followed him out.

Lex was about to reply when he sensed the difference too. He looked down and his clothes were back to normal. No blood or white to be seen. He took a deep breath, glad to be out of that nightmare. But he needed to continue, to clarify for Kon. "The Luthor shadow...it's not easy to live with. I know that from my father. I'd hoped any child of mind would be spared that. I know I'm not the Lex who technically is your father, but I'm still sorry."

"It's not...they were just saying that. I know they'd never actually believe it. Not when it would hurt me. And I guess that's the point. Not that we're close, but that they were using what they could to push me away from them." Like Tim had a little when he'd gotten together with Dick. Like Cassie had when she was with Chekov. Like Clark had at the very beginning.

He shook himself out of his musings and forced a smile on his face. "And now I have a party to get ready for."

Despite what Kon was saying, Lex still reached out and gripped his shoulder, then pulled him in for a hug. He hoped Kon knew he could come to him in those situations...but considering what Lex had tried to do to Anatoly earlier in the year he wouldn't be surprised if Kon didn't and it wouldn't do him any good to say it.

When he let go, Lex gave Kon a smile. "Go get ready for the party. Anatoly and I will see you there."

Kon nodded. "Definitely." Once he had a long breather and was able to sort his head out.