The Just Destiny of Fools: Chapter 2
[book cover by imera]
The Just Destiny of Fools
Summary: Smallville AU. Marcus is captivated by a visiting Luthor Corp. executive and her talk of Destiny. But is her not being a Luthor enough reason to trust her? And is Esca pulling Marcus way from or pushing him towards her?
Pairings: Marcus / Esca, Marcus / Tess. If you squint hard: Marcus / Placidus (aka Sid) and Esca / Liathan in their pasts.
Spoilers: Smallville seasons 4 - 10.
Word Count: 27.1 k.
Rating: Teen or PG-13.
Notes
Starts at Smallville season 4 where they are high school seniors and goes from there. The Seal Prince, I’ve given him the name Liathan from the book. As for Placidus, I renamed him Sid to sound more contemporary and modern.
[Warnings:]
Warnings
Rated for disability, ableism, kidnappings, dub-con and non-con sexual battery, D / s dynamics, sub drops, discussions of rape, self harm.
Tess x Marcus: No sex but psychologically D / s.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the ever loving sistermine for being the ever patient beta reader through many drafts, and imera for the beautiful cover.
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Chapter 2
A few days pass, each with increasing normalcy. By the end of the evening after he and Clark bumped into each other, Marcus’s legs have regained all feeling and by the morning, he is up and walking and the physician agrees that Marcus can check out, but not before pleading with them to be as aware as they can be about anything that might be amiss. Still, despite the doctor’s nagging, Marcus leaves the hospital in the afternoon with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step
But the morning after, a police car pulls up to the house’ driveway and Mr. Aquila - still in pajamas and bathrobe and house slippers, and with hair uncombed and wild - greets the police with questions.
“Have you found them?”
“Mr. Aquila sir, we found Esca . . . on a road and naked and shot with a tranquilizer. My partner called for an ambulance and is with him right now.”
At the site, Esca is wrapped in a blanket, arguing with EMTs.
“I’m fine! I’m not going to the hospital!”
“But you were found naked on the road! Anything could’ve happened.”
“And that’s for me to know and not you until I say so! I’ll go when I decide to go!”
“I’ll take him home,” Mr. Aquila cuts in.
“But sir . . .”
“He wants to go home, I’ll take him home. If he decides he needs hospital care, then I’ll be the first to bring him.”
“Um, okay sir. But you can expect the police back there soon to question him.”
Once in the car, Esca is hyper, recalling the previous night’s events.
“I woke up because Procyon was whimpering and you know how he can sleep through a tornado. I went into Marcus’s room and they were already loading him into an SUV. So I ran. I wolfed out but then they shot me with something!”
“It’s okay. Just tell the police what you saw, don’t mention wolfing out, and hopefully they can find him soon.”
“I dunno.” Esca looks out the car window. “The SUV didn’t have tags. And I didn’t hear Marcus struggling. I think they were pros. Why would professional kidnappers target Marcus?”
“I . . .” Mr. Aquila’s eyes begin to gloss over but do not spill; however his hands tremble on the steering wheel. “I don’t know.”
Still looking out the window, Esca begins to plot. Round up Sid, Liathan and Cottia. Sid and Liathan to approach Chloe while he and Cottia look around the house and neighborhood for tracks older than a day.
❀
When Marcus wakes, he is in the center of a dimly lit room - well, dimly lit by a single lightbulb above. The door is metal, with a small barred window. The walls are made of concrete, with inlaid meteor rock and Marcus swears that even his smallest movements towards them make them glow brighter in concert with the pain in his legs from being closer to them.
So this is what Luthor Corp. does with all that meteor rock, Marcus thinks to himself.
Marcus already feels exposed being dead center in the room and that’s before he realizes he’s been stripped down to his underwear - there’s nothing but mere threads between him and the meteor rocks, and whoever will enter the room.
Marcus can’t tell how much time passes but eventually someone does.
Long before they even approach, Marcus can begin to feel pain slightly grow in his legs. Yet he can also feel his face wanting to chin up and his back straighten. He also feels lighter and, somehow, shielded and guarded. Even with the distance between him and the approaching person, each step they take closer brightens the meteor rocks which intensify Marcus’s pain; each step closer is another threat to overwhelm Marcus.
A woman - soft black leather gloves; vibrant red hair; tailored black suit; tailored purple silk shirt; polished black leather shoes; and tall posture from self-confidence, definitely not the other way around. Anyone who had no clue for Lionel or Lex Luthor could easily assume her to be the CEO of Luthor Corp.
“Marcus Aquila?” Without taking off her gloves, she holds her right hand out. “Tess Mercer. You can call me Tess.”
“Yeah that’s me.” Marcus keeps his eyes on her but doesn’t move. “And what’s your position at Luthor Corp., Ms. Mercer?”
“You have no reason to assume Luthor Corp.”
“Who else systematically collects meteor rocks? I’m lame, not blind.”
“Smart cookie.”
Tess takes off her gloves, and drops them onto the bed next to Marcus’s right hand all the while keeping focused on him and letting only the slightest twist peek out from one of the corners of her lips. She shouldn’t take satisfaction in Marcus trying to sink deeper into the bed away from her, but how could she not? And how could she not sit on the cot as close to him as possible without even a single thread of her clothes touching him.
“I hope to count on your cooperation. You want to go to home don’t you? I know I’d love to go home to my family - ”
“Liar.” Marcus stares her in the eye. A split second downward turn of the corners of her lips and the widening and glossing over of her eyes would be imperceptible to most people - but only most people. “You fear your family.”
“Feared, past tense.” Tess stays in her position. “That’s very good for someone who I assume has no special training. Naturally talented lie detectors disproportionately come from abusive backgrounds - survival depends on being able to read the abusers’ moods accurately. But what about you? Raised with loving parents and a loving uncle? But I suppose an empath with physical manifestations of said ability would have a need to determine if someone’s touch means the difference between pain in pleasure vs pure pain.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“As in nothing . . . yet.”
“No really. This has nothing to do with you. You just happened to be in close proximity to a subject my employer is interested in. He’ll be asking you about that encounter when he gets here.”
“Please.” Marcus rolls his eyes. “Nothing happened to me . . .”
“Nothing happened to you . . . except . . .” Ms. Mercer coaxes more out of Marcus.
“Clark.”
“Who’s Clark?”
“You have to promise me nothing will happen to him.”
“That’s not my decision to make.”
“At least promise me you’ll meet him first.”
“I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to - ”
“No. You’ll just seduce me into it.”
“Quite perceptive. Now, tell me who’s Clark.”
“Local high school football hero. There. There’s nothing else to say.”
“Nothing? My employer doesn’t take an interest in mundane things - or people - especially not for years. There’s nothing ordinary about Clark. And I distinctly heard him say you must know that. And you should know why.”
“Your boss hangs around high school kids. That’s creepy. And you obviously went through my medical records too if you know how my empathy works. That, too, is creepy.”
“You’re an empath. Clark is extraordinary. You’re a smart cookie; you do the math.”
“The way you’re doing the math because your boss, Lex Luthor, has told you some things but not everything. Well. Be prepared to be disappointed. I felt nothing.”
“Well, that’s different. You’ve always felt something.”
“How much do you know? How far back did you go?”
“To the beginning. The very beginning. It’s your story. Do you want to tell it?”
Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and he flinches back, or he tries to move backwards into the bed. But she stops just shy of of his skin and follows the curves of his profile, tracing an invisible shield over it.
“What is there to talk about?” Marcus stares at her hand just millimeters above his skin, the hand that could touch him with just the slightest wrong move by either of them. Keeping still, he continues, “Football practice just ended. I told my parents that I would take a ride to the Homecoming Game with Esca and his parents.”
“And where was Esca?”
“Running.” A tear falls. “Running away. And I was running after him.”
“And you never found him. He found you only after you’d been hit by a meteor.”
Marcus nods.
“And that’s when it started. When he found you and he tried to bring you out of the pile of meteor rocks. The pain in your legs started there.” The hand that Tess traced starting at Marcus’s head and down to his chest is now at his heart, lingering there, hovering over. “You thought you wanted to know Esca and then Esca touched you . . .”
“No.” Marcus’s voice cracks as he pleads. “No. Please. It’s not my secret to reveal. Please.”
“No it isn’t. But anyone can read between the lines if they look.” And with that, Tess nods Marcus to go on.
“It hurt so bad. It hurt so bad, I just wanted the pain somewhere else, anywhere else. I got it down to my legs.”
“ ‘It.’ ” Tess simply says as she tilt her head. “The notes said, ‘felt as if being split open from the inside.’ Was it a curse that the male doctor who wrote that note about pain below the waist didn’t ask anymore questions at that?”
“Dunno.” Marcus shrugs.
“Deep in your heart . . .” The heart which Marcus feels beat slower yet stronger betrays the coolness in Ms. Mercer’s voice. “You know there was no justice for Esca - from the doctor who did not see any duty to the law to Coach Beppo dying randomly in a car crash.”
“Does it matter how? He’s dead. No one has to worry about him anymore.” Marcus tilts his head. “Why? What would you do?”
“Pray that I never meet anyone who gives me reason to bash his face in and obliterate his identity from the face of the earth.” Ms. Mercer presses her hand a hair closer to Marcus’s heart. “You feel it with all your heart; this is the justice Beppo deserved.”
Marcus takes his sight off Ms. Mercer’s face and glances down to her hand above yet promising to press against his heart. Making eye contact with her again, he nods resolutely. “Yes. Yes it is.”
“Fate kills off the insignificant. Destiny deals the great ones.” Tess lifts her hand away from Marcus’s heart. “Fate killed Beppo as the little coward he was. But it should have been Esca’s destiny to kill him. Or . . . yours?”
“No. Esca’s.”
“And what would you do for Esca? What would you do to give him the life he wants?”
“Anything.”
Tess nodes and presses against Marcus’s heart.
“No!” Marcus gasps. She already knew how his being an empath works. She already knew Esca’s secret past. What she wanted was someone - something - with which to hold Marcus.
❀
Another Sunday at The Torch but Chloe beams that at least the next issue was going out just in time for tomorrow’s homeroom. She’s just about to enter her car when its door is slammed shut by someone behind her.
“Sid!” And behind him was a very threatening looking, “Liathan!”
“Chloe . . .” Sid and Liathan say in unison.
“Tell me what you know about Marcus.” Sid gets to the point.
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“What do you know about Marcus?”
Chloe lets out a long deep breath and her eyes narrow.
“See. That look on your face? It tells me you know how my abilities work. But I want to hear it from you. So. Tell me. And what do you know about Marcus?”
Chloe looks away before she answers, “Empath. Your emotions correlate to the pain he feels in his legs. No one knows why. Me neither, it’s a really weird power to have.”
“What else do you know about him?”
“He and Esca like each other. As in they’re boyfriends into each other. And that’s it.”
Then she faces Sid again to rant at him. “You know what? I had nothing to do with his kidnapping. Nothing.”
“No. Actually. You did. Cottia always said that if you know about me or Marcus, you’re be a danger to us. And you know what - ”
“I have done nothing - ”
“Except you did! If you spent even a single second thinking about Marcus and Esca, you’d know that they’d been spending most nights together. The one night they didn’t and what happens?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that?”
“Except how did the kidnappers know Esca was no longer in Marcus’s room!? Esca didn’t turn on any lights as he left and all the bedroom curtains were drawn.”
“And,” Liathan cuts in. “The only way to know was through my and Esca’s instant messenger logs because we IM’d each other once he was alone. And who would knows to hack computers like that? Hm?”
“Well, I’m sorry.” Chloe gives Liathan a shove with her palm. “I’m good with security so whoever did this was a pro.”
“Fine,” says Sid. “Then you’re going to use your hacking-into-Luthor-Corp skills to help us find Marcus. And that’s how you’ll prove you’re sorry.”
“No way! Luthors are dangerous. I’m not putting myself in any more danger than I have to!”
“Then damn you, Chloe.” Sid shoves his pointed finger at Chloe. “Damn you to hell because your very existence - all your snooping and intel gathering, all without consent or even reasonable suspicion - is a danger to us. Your spying on Esca and Marcus got Marcus kidnapped. And if you had any decency, then you’d at least want to right that wrong.”
“But,” Liathan smirks. “If you don’t, then we can always tell Clark all the spying you’ve been up to if you don’t help us. And, believe us when we say: We will undeniably name your name.”
“Damn you! Fine! I’ll help you! But damn you!”
“Lastly,” Sid says. “What do you know about me?”
Chloe faces Sid again and rolls her eyes. “I know it works by you asking questions. They have to answer you with the truth. And it has something to do with you being unhappy with your parents having affairs. Are you so starved for attention you have to ask about yourself?”
“Actually. No. I’m the control.”
“What?”
“No one can tell a truth they do not know, only a truth they believe.”
“What?”
“How much what you believe about me is true might correlate to how much what you believe about Marcus is true.”
“What? No way. What I know is true.”
“And I’m glad you get as little as you do. And you might want to check your ego. Just because you believe it doesn’t make it so.” Sid’s eyes narrow. “Now help us. And if you’re as sharp as you think you are, you’ll get more of the truth.”
❀
Still inside the holding cell, still with Tess beside him, Marcus still lies on the cot and stares at the ceiling as the pain subsides.
“Explain what you mean by ‘anything,’ ” Tess asks.
“Just what it means.”
“Anything to make him safe? Or . . . Anything to make him feel safe?”
“ ‘And’ anything to make him feel safe. No point in being safe if you don’t feel it right?”
“Can you really not imagine being safe and yet not feeling it? I’m sure Esca could help you with that.”
“You. Don’t talk about Esca.”
“Did I uncover a chasm between the two of you? Once upon a time, all you wanted was to know what he was going through. But knowing the physical pain isn’t the same as knowing the emotional toll, am I right?”
“I said don’t talk about Esca.”
“But I’m not. I’m talking about Esca and you.”
Then his skin begins to prickle and a pain begins to ache in his legs.
Beep! The sound pierces the room from Tess’s front pocket. And when she glances at the phone’s screen, she nods.
“Lex has just arrived and he’s outside.”
Marcus doesn’t respond to her. But as a few moments pass, the prickling and aching turn to pressure. What begins as a feeling of his body in a slight squeeze escalates in a few moments to an awful grip as if every inch of his body were pinched. And the feeling continues to intensify.
Oh no, Marcus thinks to himself. He’ll be here soon. And then what?
By the time Lex stands outside the door, the pain is crushing. But as the door opens and Lex steps in - immaculate grey suit with lavender shirt and dark grey gloves and the pain lightens. Marcus’s whole body lightens and his heart warms a little as Lex moves towards Tess and shakes her hand.
Nothing below the belt, Marcus notes to himself as he looks at Lex and Tess. Tess’s command of business through seductive interrogation is nothing different from what he has noticed all along. But Lex is different and Marcus sees how he smiles warmly at Tess. So? . . . It’s very platonic?
“Anything?” Lex asks Tess.
“Not on Clark Kent but he knows why he’s here. Also: He’s given up enough of his own secrets to have a place to start with him.”
Lex then turns to Marcus. “So you know what I want. Just tell me what you felt with Clark Kent.”
“You know, it’s creepy for an adult male to be so obsessed with a high school boy.”
“The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can go back to your family. You’d do anything for your family, wouldn’t you?”
And there, Marcus sees the relation between Lex and Tess as Lex tilts his head just so slightly to her behind him and it’s the smallest split of a second but it’s there - his warm smile for her.
“Sure,” Marcus answers. “Once I openly call them family, doing anything for them is the only logical step, isn’t it? Mr. Luthor? See, I’ve already explained my loyalties to Ms. Mercer. But if she can’t understand that concept, maybe you’re the one to explain that to her.”
“Marcus,” Tess begins her warning. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? I felt nothing from Clark therefore I have nothing to say.”
“You felt nothing from Clark Kent?” Lex asks, taking his gloves off. “You mean to tell me that you felt absolutely nothing at all?”
“Nothing.” Marcus glares at Lex, but pangs of regret begin to form as the squeezing pain returns.
If only Clark where here, Marcus thinks to himself as the pain intensifies. Just anything to not have to feel this.
“If only everyone were so lucky as you,” Lex says as he reaches for Marcus. On contact, Marcus struggles to breath as the crushing pain overwhelms him but not before his heart struggles to beat as a unit, its two halves beating independently of the other as if they had split.
Then blackness.
❀
“So, I’ve narrowed it down to three locations.” Chloe stares at a computer screen - zooming into a map with three red dots and a number of blue ones - avoiding Cottia, Esca, Sid and Liathan as much as she can. “Blue dots are suspicious but not as secluded as the red dots.”
“Narrow it down even more,” Cottia says.
“Hey. Just because you’re pissy that I ignored that letter to the editor that you wrote, doesn’t mean you get to boss me around to put my life in danger.”
“Correction: Just because you ignored the letter to the editor that I and four others wrote does mean we get to dictate terms to you especially when your bigotry gets one of us kidnapped. And how do you know which ones are secluded or not?”
“Unlike you, I did my own surveillance on these properties, because I wanted to,” Chloe says at Cottia as Cottia glares even harder. “I can guess that the Three Oaks facility is the most likely to be the one Marcus is in.”
“Because?”
“The Three Oaks one is where the longest running regional VP is; fifteen years is a long time.”
“Something's off,” Sid says. “Who’s running the Miller’s creek facility?”
“A . . . T. Mercer. But they’ve been with the company only one year and they’ve transferred over to that facility in the past month. I’m telling you, it doesn’t make sense to go there. Luthors don’t trust anyone, especially not someone who’s been with the company for such a short time.”
“And you’ve ruled out the Cornsilk Valley facility because?”
“You have all my surveillance photos and the building plans I got from City Hall so you can see for yourself. The structural upgrades there are only almost done, unlike the others which have been done for a while. So, that narrows it down to two. And I have a much better feeling for one over the other. Can I go now?”
“Yeah, sure.” Liathan opens the door.
“I still think we go after the Miller’s Creek facility,” Sid says once Chloe is gone. “Luthors don’t trust anyone but how does someone only a year older than Lex get to be a regional VP with only one year in the company? It’s kinda like, how does a 21 year old college screw-up get to manage a crap factory? They’re either really really good or family - or both.”
“Well, great,” says Liathan looking at blueprints on the screen. “The Miller’s Creek place has an underwater entrance. I can get myself and one other person in real quick. And Sid says being a selkie is useless in Kansas.”
Esca, too, looks over the blueprints. “And once I’m in, I’m fairly sure I can wolf out and scare people away.”
“Or get tranq’d like last time?” Sid asks.
“No. This time, no one even gets to think before I’ll be on them.”
❀
When Marcus comes to, the room is empty and the meteor rocks don’t glow any brighter than when he first woke up in this room. He breathes easily and his heart beats normally now and there’s no pain of any kind except for what he has already felt at the beginning of this imprisonment. But the barred window is blocked with a metal panel making it more difficult to hear anything going on outside.
Marcus lies as still as he can with his breathing as even and quiet as he can get it so the only sounds in the room are from the outside. And that’s when he hears them - footsteps on this level but faint with the distance between him and them. Their rhythm is slow and steady, like the drum corps at a football game beating out a menacing tension. Pain begins to tingle in his legs as the muscles in the rest of the body begin to feel tightly wound up, ready to spring.
Who are you? Marcus asks himself as each drawn out footstep drags along building pain and tension in Marcus’s body. If you don’t belong here, don’t be so tentative!
“Hey!”
Marcus hears a familiar teen girl’s voice once the footsteps arrive at the door and it’s - Chloe’s cousin.
“Hey! It’s me, Lois Lane. We met at the hospital. I’m gonna get you out - ”
“Lois?” asks another voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Clark?” Lois asks. “I asked about an SUV. What are you doing here?”
“I . . . um . . .” Clark mumbles. But to Marcus it sounds almost like the words “other place” and “ran here” got lost before they hid in Clark’s mouth.
Just then, a dripping wet Esca arrives, chased by two security guards. As they approach, Lois grabs one and exchanges punches with him before knocking him out. Meanwhile, Clark knocks out the other one into a wall.
“There’s another security watch station in this building, but it’s on the top floor. We need to get Marcus out now - ”
“I’m going to meet them,” Lois says as she moves towards the end of the hall. “I’m gonna try to stave them off, give you time to figure out that door.”
“Lois!” Clark moves after her. “Lois, wait!”
“My car’s parked by the south fence. I know which emergency staircase has views of it. If I see you at my car, I’ll meet you there!” And with that, Lois is gone, Clark with her.
“Marcus.” Esca eyes the door. “I’m getting you out.”
“Careful with the meteor rocks,” Marcus says. “They make my disability stronger.”
Esca lays his hand on the door handle. And with a sharp twist, breaks it off and the door opens. “Marcus!”
As Marcus lays on the cot almost naked, Esca feels his blood boil. How dare anyone do this to Marcus.
“Esca. Don’t. I can barely move with all these meteor rocks intensifying everything.”
“I’ll get you out.” Esca brings himself to support Marcus. But his support barely helps him as he collapses with every stray flash of Esca’s anger at whoever did this to Marcus.
“Come on!” Esca urges. He scans the room, mentally scanning the blueprints he’s studied all night when he feels Marcus support himself a little bit. “I know how to get us - ”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Tess stands in the door and blocks the two boys. “Are you Esca? Well, I’m not sorry but I can’t let you take Marcus.”
“You let us go or else,” Esca warns.
“Or else what?” Tess shrugs. “Or else Marcus might not be the only one we’re interested in?”
“If you know all the reasons you have to be interested in me then you know exactly why you are in no position to negotiate for your life.”
“Why?” Tess smirks. “Because you’d make it look like a wolf attack? Well come on and attack me then. You know you want to. You’d never reveal yourself as a wolf to another person. But here I am now, offering you your chance to let out everything you’ve ever wanted to.”
“You should be careful about your intel.” Esca braces himself as Marcus begins to collapse. “Unreliable sources distort half truths into lies.”
“I do due diligence very thoroughly. Even if you can’t trust the source of your data, you can still trust the data as long as you trust yourself and your own instincts.”
Esca’s blood is boiling now, boiling three times as much as when he first laid eyes on Marcus and the meteor rocks in the walls are glowing brighter than he’s ever seen any of them glow and he eases Marcus back onto the cot before letting him go.
“You’re in no position to negotiate for your life. And you - ” Ms. Mercer turn her attention from Esca to Marcus and steps closer. “You’re in no position to negotiate for your freedom. But I can give it to you.”
“We’ll take nothing from a Luthor!” Esca glares at Tess.
“I am not a Luthor.”
“I don’t care that you believe you’re not a Luthor,” Marcus says. “You still are.”
“I don’t need to be a Luthor. How much have you planned for the redundancies in place? Even with all the cameras in this building already torched, I’ll still know where you are. Even if you already got through these two security guards and the other two in this building, would you get past the reinforcements on their way?”
Marcus and Esca exchange worried glances.
“But, I could let you out.”
“For what?” Marcus says.
“I - not Luthor Corp., not Lex Luthor - own 1,500 acres, land for you to do whatever you want.”
“No.”
“You’ll work for the land. Someday you’ll own it.”
“No. I know how you Luthors work.”
“You have choices. And they’re either stay here - ”
“You mean be a prisoner here.”
“Or leave and go.”
“Your land, your terms. That’s still not freedom. There’s no freedom in either choice.”
Marcus tries to stand up from the cot but Esca is the one supporting him completely. Despite Esca on the verge of collapsing under him, Marcus stares across into Tess’s eyes. “Clark Kent.”
“What about Clark Kent?”
“You do nothing to him until you meet him face-to-face.”
“You gotta give me a reason to.”
Once fully upright, Marcus stares down Ms. Mercer. “Do you want me in here or out there?”
Tess makes her way forward until she is standing over them and points a finger to Marcus’s face; she stops just millimeters from his skin.
“Fine,” Tess says. “I’ll do no harm to him until I meet him. But, I’ll go even further than that and you will owe me.”
And with that, Tess turns her back and leaves.
When she’s out of sight, Marcus and Esca break for it as fast as they can. But there are many similar rooms on this level and each room’s meteor rocks glow green as Marcus, with all his weight on Esca, passes by until -
At every door, a panel rises to seal off its window. And Marcus, with his weight still on Esca, can feel the pain there but lessening.
It should’t be that easy; that’s not how meteor rocks work, Marcus thinks to himself. And yet it is. Whatever those panels are made of, they’re blocking the effects of the meteor rocks and Marcus can support himself and he and Esca can finally run for it.
❀
Stars shine with the new moon as Esca and Marcus rush to the car. In near darkness , Marcus has trouble holding onto Esca’s hand as stones and twigs dig into his feet; branches and brush cut across his skin; Esca’s adrenaline rush makes his heart beat too fast. But Esca’s worry and panic mean a warm and pulsing ache in Marcus’s legs and as long as he has that - that pain that slows him down and grounds him; that pain that is the message in his body that he still has Esca - he can keep holding onto Esca and keep moving forward as Esca navigates them through the dark toward tiny glints of glass and metal and the growing waft of gasoline.
“They’re not here,” Marcus says.
“If they’re not here at the first sign of someone coming after us, do I go back in to get them or do we break into the car and drive off?” Esca asks as he turns on his cell.
“Clark is strong, I think?” Marcus isn’t so sure but he’d like to have more confidence in his hunches about Clark’s powers with the messages he sees Esca sending.
we have a car
luthor corp reinforcement security coming
get out asap
Marcus tilts his head so his ear is towards the building and he can make out some vague bickering between a teenage boy and girl.
“They’re fine, Lois. I saw them with my own eyes.”
“In near darkness? Are you sure?”
“You hear that?” Marcus asks Esca.
“It means we don’t have to break into our ride home.”
When Clark and Lois arrive at the car, they’re still bickering.
“Look, see?” Lois points to Marcus and Esca. “They’re okay. But are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You looked really sick for a few moments there?”
“But it stopped.”
“Suddenly.”
“Hey,” Esca intervenes. “Marcus is kinda cold and for all we know, reinforcements are still coming. Can we go? Now?”
❀
The ride home is uneventful except for some more bickering.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lois asks Clark.
“I’m fine.” Clark rolls his eyes.
“Because you were so keeled over until all the door windows closed.”
“I’m fine. And what about you? Lois, you would have been alone against four guys.”
“I took two of them down. If you weren’t there, I’d’ve taken the other two also.”
“Do I want to ask what kind of trouble you got into growing up on all those army bases?”
Marcus and Esca exchange glances before Marcus leans forward to ask, “Are you two dating?”
“NO!” And now Clark and Lois are in unison.
“Is that what you think of us?” Clark asks.
“Why would you think such horrible things about us?” Lois asks.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Marcus laughs. “That wasn’t worry for each other you two had?”
“Lois has a ‘jump first, ask later’ attitude to, well, everything.”
“And Smallville here is . . .” Lois points to Clark and gets a dreamy look to her eye but then shakes herself out of it and looks into her rearview mirror. “Okay he’s not small! But Smallville is Smallville. Speaking of small - ”
Lois pulls the car over to the side of the road and before getting out says, “You need clothes.”
Clark follows her out to the trunk of her car before he lets out a laugh. “Wow, warn me before you put any of these on. Is there some fetish for dressing up you want to explain?”
“What, you never heard of ‘be prepared’? There goes my boy scout theory of you.”
“A bikini, a nurse outfit, and an ’80s power suit prepare you for what exactly, hm?”
Clark takes off his red jacket and goes back into the car to give it to Marcus and says, “But don’t get your hopes up for appropriate bottoms. There’s nothing in Lois’s trunk that’s appropriate - for men or women.”
“Skirt with elastic waist.” Lois yells from behind her trunk. “Should stretch enough to fit him, right?”
When she’s back in the driver’s seat, she throws the skirt back to Marcus and says, “Don’t worry. I won’t perv out on you. If I wanted to, I already would’ve.”
“Good,” Esca says. “Because I’d remind you I’m his boyfriend.”
“Ha,” Lois laughs. “You can come at me anytime.”
❀
DING DONG!
At the doorbell’s ring, old Procyon lies in his bed, head down but ears pricked up while Cottia sits on her hands on the couch with Sid and Liathan beside her, their hands reaching for each other. Then Marcus’s uncle opens the door.
“Marcus!” Tears start streaming down the old man’s face as he pulls his nephew into the house to give him a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!” The hug lingers for a few moments before he also pulls in Esca for a hug. “Dear gods, Esca. What you did was dangerous.”
“But I had to,” Esca says, tears streaming down his face too. “Marcus was missing, so I had to.”
When the three of them plus Cottia, Sid, Liathan, and even Procyon who’s ambled over are in a group hug, Lois quietly closes the front door and she and Clark make their way to her car.
“I’d say that went well,” Lois says. “Has to if even you have a goofy grin on your face.”
“I’d say it went well if you’re happy yet not too smug.” Clark grins back at her.
❀
The next morning, Esca and Marcus sit side-by-side on the couch with Procyon’s head on Esca’s lap and Marcus reaching over to scritch Procyon’s head. When Marcus sees a car pull up the sidewalk, he gets up, gets a plastic bag of clothes and heads out to meet the car and hands over the bag when Clark rolls down the window.
“On another date?” Marcus smirks at Clark and Lois.
“Not dating!” Clark and Lois are in sync before they turn to glare at each other.
“For two people not dating, you two spend a lot of time together. It’s almost like you two live together.”
“Please. If I ever move in with Clark, put me out of my misery.”
“And mine.” Clark rolls his eyes. “Thanks for the clothes. Now I don’t have to listen to Lois worrying about you stretching out the skirt.”
“Was that part of the nurse’s costume?” Marcus asks. “Because Uncle thought it was ‘obscenely short.’ ”
“It’s part of a lot of things.” Lois says. “Unlike you, I have the perfect figure for it.”
“But the jacket fit perfectly,” Marcus says.
“Then you should keep it.” Lois tugs at Clark’s blue t-shirt. “Maybe then he’d wear another jacket.”
“Like his letterman jacket?” Marcus asks.
“Would you have wanted to wear that?” Clark asks.
“Nah.” Marcus says. “That letterman jacket’s yours; you earned it. But if Lois doesn’t remind you to wear it for school events - and future reunions - then maybe I should.”
“Yeah okay. Let me give you my contact info.”
“Sure; my cell phone is in my room.”
They wave to Esca as they pass by and once in Marcus’s room, Clark notices the perched golden eagle and asks, “Is that the guard to your fortress?”
“Every fort should have eyes and ears right?” Marcus tosses his cell phone to Clark. And as Clark types in his contact info, Marcus asks, “So . . . Seeing in the dark is one of your abilities?”
“Um, not exactly.”
Marcus raises an eyebrow.
“More like, it’s x-ray vision - which is not heat vision.”
Now both Marcus’s eyebrows are up.
“Um . . . But, yeah, the x-ray vision, I can use that to, um, see in the dark.”
“You should’ve used that on my legs that day and saved yourself a lot of panic.”
“I guess. Um . . .”
“If I had known, I would’ve asked you. Better you than others. You can guess why right? So would you have?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. And I’ll tell you now that when you carried me to my car, it’s not totally true that I felt nothing. Truth is, I felt like I was flying.”
“Flying? That’s great.” Clark begins to feel uneasy in his stomach.
“You look like you’re gonna hurl? You don’t think that’s great?”
“Me and flying? Not a thing that’s gonna happen.” Clark’s eyes widen in fear.
Marcus laughs. “That’s too bad. If you don’t ever get over your fear, then you don’t. But if you do, I hope you find it awesome? Okay?”
And with that, Marcus takes his phone back and the two go outside. Back at the car, Marcus turns to Lois and says, “By the way, Uncle wants to invite the both of you to dinner, kinda a small thanks for helping to save me.”
“Sure,” Lois says. “As long as you and Esca are there to protect Clark from me, we’ll both be there.”
“We’ll be there,” Clark says. “Just let us know when. But really. It’s too generous. Just stay safe, okay?”
“Sure.”
Marcus waves Clark and Lois goodbye and before going back into the house, he checks the mailbox where there is only a lone envelope. On the front, it is addressed merely to:
Marcus F. Aquila
And on the back:
T. Mercer
It’s a few moments that Marcus spends staring at the envelope until Esca comes up beside him.
“Cottia thinks Ms. Mercer’s the one driving the sports car with the license plate, NO MERCY. Are you really going to accept her terms?”
“I owe her for Clark.”
“Do you really believe that Marcus?”
“No. But she does.”
❀
The Just Destiny of Fools
Summary: Smallville AU. Marcus is captivated by a visiting Luthor Corp. executive and her talk of Destiny. But is her not being a Luthor enough reason to trust her? And is Esca pulling Marcus way from or pushing him towards her?
Pairings: Marcus / Esca, Marcus / Tess. If you squint hard: Marcus / Placidus (aka Sid) and Esca / Liathan in their pasts.
Spoilers: Smallville seasons 4 - 10.
Word Count: 27.1 k.
Rating: Teen or PG-13.
Notes
Starts at Smallville season 4 where they are high school seniors and goes from there. The Seal Prince, I’ve given him the name Liathan from the book. As for Placidus, I renamed him Sid to sound more contemporary and modern.
[Warnings:]
Warnings
Rated for disability, ableism, kidnappings, dub-con and non-con sexual battery, D / s dynamics, sub drops, discussions of rape, self harm.
Tess x Marcus: No sex but psychologically D / s.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the ever loving sistermine for being the ever patient beta reader through many drafts, and imera for the beautiful cover.
❀
- EPUB download (0.5MB)
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❀
Chapter 2
A few days pass, each with increasing normalcy. By the end of the evening after he and Clark bumped into each other, Marcus’s legs have regained all feeling and by the morning, he is up and walking and the physician agrees that Marcus can check out, but not before pleading with them to be as aware as they can be about anything that might be amiss. Still, despite the doctor’s nagging, Marcus leaves the hospital in the afternoon with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step
But the morning after, a police car pulls up to the house’ driveway and Mr. Aquila - still in pajamas and bathrobe and house slippers, and with hair uncombed and wild - greets the police with questions.
“Have you found them?”
“Mr. Aquila sir, we found Esca . . . on a road and naked and shot with a tranquilizer. My partner called for an ambulance and is with him right now.”
At the site, Esca is wrapped in a blanket, arguing with EMTs.
“I’m fine! I’m not going to the hospital!”
“But you were found naked on the road! Anything could’ve happened.”
“And that’s for me to know and not you until I say so! I’ll go when I decide to go!”
“I’ll take him home,” Mr. Aquila cuts in.
“But sir . . .”
“He wants to go home, I’ll take him home. If he decides he needs hospital care, then I’ll be the first to bring him.”
“Um, okay sir. But you can expect the police back there soon to question him.”
Once in the car, Esca is hyper, recalling the previous night’s events.
“I woke up because Procyon was whimpering and you know how he can sleep through a tornado. I went into Marcus’s room and they were already loading him into an SUV. So I ran. I wolfed out but then they shot me with something!”
“It’s okay. Just tell the police what you saw, don’t mention wolfing out, and hopefully they can find him soon.”
“I dunno.” Esca looks out the car window. “The SUV didn’t have tags. And I didn’t hear Marcus struggling. I think they were pros. Why would professional kidnappers target Marcus?”
“I . . .” Mr. Aquila’s eyes begin to gloss over but do not spill; however his hands tremble on the steering wheel. “I don’t know.”
Still looking out the window, Esca begins to plot. Round up Sid, Liathan and Cottia. Sid and Liathan to approach Chloe while he and Cottia look around the house and neighborhood for tracks older than a day.
❀
When Marcus wakes, he is in the center of a dimly lit room - well, dimly lit by a single lightbulb above. The door is metal, with a small barred window. The walls are made of concrete, with inlaid meteor rock and Marcus swears that even his smallest movements towards them make them glow brighter in concert with the pain in his legs from being closer to them.
So this is what Luthor Corp. does with all that meteor rock, Marcus thinks to himself.
Marcus already feels exposed being dead center in the room and that’s before he realizes he’s been stripped down to his underwear - there’s nothing but mere threads between him and the meteor rocks, and whoever will enter the room.
Marcus can’t tell how much time passes but eventually someone does.
Long before they even approach, Marcus can begin to feel pain slightly grow in his legs. Yet he can also feel his face wanting to chin up and his back straighten. He also feels lighter and, somehow, shielded and guarded. Even with the distance between him and the approaching person, each step they take closer brightens the meteor rocks which intensify Marcus’s pain; each step closer is another threat to overwhelm Marcus.
A woman - soft black leather gloves; vibrant red hair; tailored black suit; tailored purple silk shirt; polished black leather shoes; and tall posture from self-confidence, definitely not the other way around. Anyone who had no clue for Lionel or Lex Luthor could easily assume her to be the CEO of Luthor Corp.
“Marcus Aquila?” Without taking off her gloves, she holds her right hand out. “Tess Mercer. You can call me Tess.”
“Yeah that’s me.” Marcus keeps his eyes on her but doesn’t move. “And what’s your position at Luthor Corp., Ms. Mercer?”
“You have no reason to assume Luthor Corp.”
“Who else systematically collects meteor rocks? I’m lame, not blind.”
“Smart cookie.”
Tess takes off her gloves, and drops them onto the bed next to Marcus’s right hand all the while keeping focused on him and letting only the slightest twist peek out from one of the corners of her lips. She shouldn’t take satisfaction in Marcus trying to sink deeper into the bed away from her, but how could she not? And how could she not sit on the cot as close to him as possible without even a single thread of her clothes touching him.
“I hope to count on your cooperation. You want to go to home don’t you? I know I’d love to go home to my family - ”
“Liar.” Marcus stares her in the eye. A split second downward turn of the corners of her lips and the widening and glossing over of her eyes would be imperceptible to most people - but only most people. “You fear your family.”
“Feared, past tense.” Tess stays in her position. “That’s very good for someone who I assume has no special training. Naturally talented lie detectors disproportionately come from abusive backgrounds - survival depends on being able to read the abusers’ moods accurately. But what about you? Raised with loving parents and a loving uncle? But I suppose an empath with physical manifestations of said ability would have a need to determine if someone’s touch means the difference between pain in pleasure vs pure pain.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“As in nothing . . . yet.”
“No really. This has nothing to do with you. You just happened to be in close proximity to a subject my employer is interested in. He’ll be asking you about that encounter when he gets here.”
“Please.” Marcus rolls his eyes. “Nothing happened to me . . .”
“Nothing happened to you . . . except . . .” Ms. Mercer coaxes more out of Marcus.
“Clark.”
“Who’s Clark?”
“You have to promise me nothing will happen to him.”
“That’s not my decision to make.”
“At least promise me you’ll meet him first.”
“I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to - ”
“No. You’ll just seduce me into it.”
“Quite perceptive. Now, tell me who’s Clark.”
“Local high school football hero. There. There’s nothing else to say.”
“Nothing? My employer doesn’t take an interest in mundane things - or people - especially not for years. There’s nothing ordinary about Clark. And I distinctly heard him say you must know that. And you should know why.”
“Your boss hangs around high school kids. That’s creepy. And you obviously went through my medical records too if you know how my empathy works. That, too, is creepy.”
“You’re an empath. Clark is extraordinary. You’re a smart cookie; you do the math.”
“The way you’re doing the math because your boss, Lex Luthor, has told you some things but not everything. Well. Be prepared to be disappointed. I felt nothing.”
“Well, that’s different. You’ve always felt something.”
“How much do you know? How far back did you go?”
“To the beginning. The very beginning. It’s your story. Do you want to tell it?”
Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and he flinches back, or he tries to move backwards into the bed. But she stops just shy of of his skin and follows the curves of his profile, tracing an invisible shield over it.
“What is there to talk about?” Marcus stares at her hand just millimeters above his skin, the hand that could touch him with just the slightest wrong move by either of them. Keeping still, he continues, “Football practice just ended. I told my parents that I would take a ride to the Homecoming Game with Esca and his parents.”
“And where was Esca?”
“Running.” A tear falls. “Running away. And I was running after him.”
“And you never found him. He found you only after you’d been hit by a meteor.”
Marcus nods.
“And that’s when it started. When he found you and he tried to bring you out of the pile of meteor rocks. The pain in your legs started there.” The hand that Tess traced starting at Marcus’s head and down to his chest is now at his heart, lingering there, hovering over. “You thought you wanted to know Esca and then Esca touched you . . .”
“No.” Marcus’s voice cracks as he pleads. “No. Please. It’s not my secret to reveal. Please.”
“No it isn’t. But anyone can read between the lines if they look.” And with that, Tess nods Marcus to go on.
“It hurt so bad. It hurt so bad, I just wanted the pain somewhere else, anywhere else. I got it down to my legs.”
“ ‘It.’ ” Tess simply says as she tilt her head. “The notes said, ‘felt as if being split open from the inside.’ Was it a curse that the male doctor who wrote that note about pain below the waist didn’t ask anymore questions at that?”
“Dunno.” Marcus shrugs.
“Deep in your heart . . .” The heart which Marcus feels beat slower yet stronger betrays the coolness in Ms. Mercer’s voice. “You know there was no justice for Esca - from the doctor who did not see any duty to the law to Coach Beppo dying randomly in a car crash.”
“Does it matter how? He’s dead. No one has to worry about him anymore.” Marcus tilts his head. “Why? What would you do?”
“Pray that I never meet anyone who gives me reason to bash his face in and obliterate his identity from the face of the earth.” Ms. Mercer presses her hand a hair closer to Marcus’s heart. “You feel it with all your heart; this is the justice Beppo deserved.”
Marcus takes his sight off Ms. Mercer’s face and glances down to her hand above yet promising to press against his heart. Making eye contact with her again, he nods resolutely. “Yes. Yes it is.”
“Fate kills off the insignificant. Destiny deals the great ones.” Tess lifts her hand away from Marcus’s heart. “Fate killed Beppo as the little coward he was. But it should have been Esca’s destiny to kill him. Or . . . yours?”
“No. Esca’s.”
“And what would you do for Esca? What would you do to give him the life he wants?”
“Anything.”
Tess nodes and presses against Marcus’s heart.
“No!” Marcus gasps. She already knew how his being an empath works. She already knew Esca’s secret past. What she wanted was someone - something - with which to hold Marcus.
❀
Another Sunday at The Torch but Chloe beams that at least the next issue was going out just in time for tomorrow’s homeroom. She’s just about to enter her car when its door is slammed shut by someone behind her.
“Sid!” And behind him was a very threatening looking, “Liathan!”
“Chloe . . .” Sid and Liathan say in unison.
“Tell me what you know about Marcus.” Sid gets to the point.
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“What do you know about Marcus?”
Chloe lets out a long deep breath and her eyes narrow.
“See. That look on your face? It tells me you know how my abilities work. But I want to hear it from you. So. Tell me. And what do you know about Marcus?”
Chloe looks away before she answers, “Empath. Your emotions correlate to the pain he feels in his legs. No one knows why. Me neither, it’s a really weird power to have.”
“What else do you know about him?”
“He and Esca like each other. As in they’re boyfriends into each other. And that’s it.”
Then she faces Sid again to rant at him. “You know what? I had nothing to do with his kidnapping. Nothing.”
“No. Actually. You did. Cottia always said that if you know about me or Marcus, you’re be a danger to us. And you know what - ”
“I have done nothing - ”
“Except you did! If you spent even a single second thinking about Marcus and Esca, you’d know that they’d been spending most nights together. The one night they didn’t and what happens?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that?”
“Except how did the kidnappers know Esca was no longer in Marcus’s room!? Esca didn’t turn on any lights as he left and all the bedroom curtains were drawn.”
“And,” Liathan cuts in. “The only way to know was through my and Esca’s instant messenger logs because we IM’d each other once he was alone. And who would knows to hack computers like that? Hm?”
“Well, I’m sorry.” Chloe gives Liathan a shove with her palm. “I’m good with security so whoever did this was a pro.”
“Fine,” says Sid. “Then you’re going to use your hacking-into-Luthor-Corp skills to help us find Marcus. And that’s how you’ll prove you’re sorry.”
“No way! Luthors are dangerous. I’m not putting myself in any more danger than I have to!”
“Then damn you, Chloe.” Sid shoves his pointed finger at Chloe. “Damn you to hell because your very existence - all your snooping and intel gathering, all without consent or even reasonable suspicion - is a danger to us. Your spying on Esca and Marcus got Marcus kidnapped. And if you had any decency, then you’d at least want to right that wrong.”
“But,” Liathan smirks. “If you don’t, then we can always tell Clark all the spying you’ve been up to if you don’t help us. And, believe us when we say: We will undeniably name your name.”
“Damn you! Fine! I’ll help you! But damn you!”
“Lastly,” Sid says. “What do you know about me?”
Chloe faces Sid again and rolls her eyes. “I know it works by you asking questions. They have to answer you with the truth. And it has something to do with you being unhappy with your parents having affairs. Are you so starved for attention you have to ask about yourself?”
“Actually. No. I’m the control.”
“What?”
“No one can tell a truth they do not know, only a truth they believe.”
“What?”
“How much what you believe about me is true might correlate to how much what you believe about Marcus is true.”
“What? No way. What I know is true.”
“And I’m glad you get as little as you do. And you might want to check your ego. Just because you believe it doesn’t make it so.” Sid’s eyes narrow. “Now help us. And if you’re as sharp as you think you are, you’ll get more of the truth.”
❀
Still inside the holding cell, still with Tess beside him, Marcus still lies on the cot and stares at the ceiling as the pain subsides.
“Explain what you mean by ‘anything,’ ” Tess asks.
“Just what it means.”
“Anything to make him safe? Or . . . Anything to make him feel safe?”
“ ‘And’ anything to make him feel safe. No point in being safe if you don’t feel it right?”
“Can you really not imagine being safe and yet not feeling it? I’m sure Esca could help you with that.”
“You. Don’t talk about Esca.”
“Did I uncover a chasm between the two of you? Once upon a time, all you wanted was to know what he was going through. But knowing the physical pain isn’t the same as knowing the emotional toll, am I right?”
“I said don’t talk about Esca.”
“But I’m not. I’m talking about Esca and you.”
Then his skin begins to prickle and a pain begins to ache in his legs.
Beep! The sound pierces the room from Tess’s front pocket. And when she glances at the phone’s screen, she nods.
“Lex has just arrived and he’s outside.”
Marcus doesn’t respond to her. But as a few moments pass, the prickling and aching turn to pressure. What begins as a feeling of his body in a slight squeeze escalates in a few moments to an awful grip as if every inch of his body were pinched. And the feeling continues to intensify.
Oh no, Marcus thinks to himself. He’ll be here soon. And then what?
By the time Lex stands outside the door, the pain is crushing. But as the door opens and Lex steps in - immaculate grey suit with lavender shirt and dark grey gloves and the pain lightens. Marcus’s whole body lightens and his heart warms a little as Lex moves towards Tess and shakes her hand.
Nothing below the belt, Marcus notes to himself as he looks at Lex and Tess. Tess’s command of business through seductive interrogation is nothing different from what he has noticed all along. But Lex is different and Marcus sees how he smiles warmly at Tess. So? . . . It’s very platonic?
“Anything?” Lex asks Tess.
“Not on Clark Kent but he knows why he’s here. Also: He’s given up enough of his own secrets to have a place to start with him.”
Lex then turns to Marcus. “So you know what I want. Just tell me what you felt with Clark Kent.”
“You know, it’s creepy for an adult male to be so obsessed with a high school boy.”
“The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can go back to your family. You’d do anything for your family, wouldn’t you?”
And there, Marcus sees the relation between Lex and Tess as Lex tilts his head just so slightly to her behind him and it’s the smallest split of a second but it’s there - his warm smile for her.
“Sure,” Marcus answers. “Once I openly call them family, doing anything for them is the only logical step, isn’t it? Mr. Luthor? See, I’ve already explained my loyalties to Ms. Mercer. But if she can’t understand that concept, maybe you’re the one to explain that to her.”
“Marcus,” Tess begins her warning. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? I felt nothing from Clark therefore I have nothing to say.”
“You felt nothing from Clark Kent?” Lex asks, taking his gloves off. “You mean to tell me that you felt absolutely nothing at all?”
“Nothing.” Marcus glares at Lex, but pangs of regret begin to form as the squeezing pain returns.
If only Clark where here, Marcus thinks to himself as the pain intensifies. Just anything to not have to feel this.
“If only everyone were so lucky as you,” Lex says as he reaches for Marcus. On contact, Marcus struggles to breath as the crushing pain overwhelms him but not before his heart struggles to beat as a unit, its two halves beating independently of the other as if they had split.
Then blackness.
❀
“So, I’ve narrowed it down to three locations.” Chloe stares at a computer screen - zooming into a map with three red dots and a number of blue ones - avoiding Cottia, Esca, Sid and Liathan as much as she can. “Blue dots are suspicious but not as secluded as the red dots.”
“Narrow it down even more,” Cottia says.
“Hey. Just because you’re pissy that I ignored that letter to the editor that you wrote, doesn’t mean you get to boss me around to put my life in danger.”
“Correction: Just because you ignored the letter to the editor that I and four others wrote does mean we get to dictate terms to you especially when your bigotry gets one of us kidnapped. And how do you know which ones are secluded or not?”
“Unlike you, I did my own surveillance on these properties, because I wanted to,” Chloe says at Cottia as Cottia glares even harder. “I can guess that the Three Oaks facility is the most likely to be the one Marcus is in.”
“Because?”
“The Three Oaks one is where the longest running regional VP is; fifteen years is a long time.”
“Something's off,” Sid says. “Who’s running the Miller’s creek facility?”
“A . . . T. Mercer. But they’ve been with the company only one year and they’ve transferred over to that facility in the past month. I’m telling you, it doesn’t make sense to go there. Luthors don’t trust anyone, especially not someone who’s been with the company for such a short time.”
“And you’ve ruled out the Cornsilk Valley facility because?”
“You have all my surveillance photos and the building plans I got from City Hall so you can see for yourself. The structural upgrades there are only almost done, unlike the others which have been done for a while. So, that narrows it down to two. And I have a much better feeling for one over the other. Can I go now?”
“Yeah, sure.” Liathan opens the door.
“I still think we go after the Miller’s Creek facility,” Sid says once Chloe is gone. “Luthors don’t trust anyone but how does someone only a year older than Lex get to be a regional VP with only one year in the company? It’s kinda like, how does a 21 year old college screw-up get to manage a crap factory? They’re either really really good or family - or both.”
“Well, great,” says Liathan looking at blueprints on the screen. “The Miller’s Creek place has an underwater entrance. I can get myself and one other person in real quick. And Sid says being a selkie is useless in Kansas.”
Esca, too, looks over the blueprints. “And once I’m in, I’m fairly sure I can wolf out and scare people away.”
“Or get tranq’d like last time?” Sid asks.
“No. This time, no one even gets to think before I’ll be on them.”
❀
When Marcus comes to, the room is empty and the meteor rocks don’t glow any brighter than when he first woke up in this room. He breathes easily and his heart beats normally now and there’s no pain of any kind except for what he has already felt at the beginning of this imprisonment. But the barred window is blocked with a metal panel making it more difficult to hear anything going on outside.
Marcus lies as still as he can with his breathing as even and quiet as he can get it so the only sounds in the room are from the outside. And that’s when he hears them - footsteps on this level but faint with the distance between him and them. Their rhythm is slow and steady, like the drum corps at a football game beating out a menacing tension. Pain begins to tingle in his legs as the muscles in the rest of the body begin to feel tightly wound up, ready to spring.
Who are you? Marcus asks himself as each drawn out footstep drags along building pain and tension in Marcus’s body. If you don’t belong here, don’t be so tentative!
“Hey!”
Marcus hears a familiar teen girl’s voice once the footsteps arrive at the door and it’s - Chloe’s cousin.
“Hey! It’s me, Lois Lane. We met at the hospital. I’m gonna get you out - ”
“Lois?” asks another voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Clark?” Lois asks. “I asked about an SUV. What are you doing here?”
“I . . . um . . .” Clark mumbles. But to Marcus it sounds almost like the words “other place” and “ran here” got lost before they hid in Clark’s mouth.
Just then, a dripping wet Esca arrives, chased by two security guards. As they approach, Lois grabs one and exchanges punches with him before knocking him out. Meanwhile, Clark knocks out the other one into a wall.
“There’s another security watch station in this building, but it’s on the top floor. We need to get Marcus out now - ”
“I’m going to meet them,” Lois says as she moves towards the end of the hall. “I’m gonna try to stave them off, give you time to figure out that door.”
“Lois!” Clark moves after her. “Lois, wait!”
“My car’s parked by the south fence. I know which emergency staircase has views of it. If I see you at my car, I’ll meet you there!” And with that, Lois is gone, Clark with her.
“Marcus.” Esca eyes the door. “I’m getting you out.”
“Careful with the meteor rocks,” Marcus says. “They make my disability stronger.”
Esca lays his hand on the door handle. And with a sharp twist, breaks it off and the door opens. “Marcus!”
As Marcus lays on the cot almost naked, Esca feels his blood boil. How dare anyone do this to Marcus.
“Esca. Don’t. I can barely move with all these meteor rocks intensifying everything.”
“I’ll get you out.” Esca brings himself to support Marcus. But his support barely helps him as he collapses with every stray flash of Esca’s anger at whoever did this to Marcus.
“Come on!” Esca urges. He scans the room, mentally scanning the blueprints he’s studied all night when he feels Marcus support himself a little bit. “I know how to get us - ”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Tess stands in the door and blocks the two boys. “Are you Esca? Well, I’m not sorry but I can’t let you take Marcus.”
“You let us go or else,” Esca warns.
“Or else what?” Tess shrugs. “Or else Marcus might not be the only one we’re interested in?”
“If you know all the reasons you have to be interested in me then you know exactly why you are in no position to negotiate for your life.”
“Why?” Tess smirks. “Because you’d make it look like a wolf attack? Well come on and attack me then. You know you want to. You’d never reveal yourself as a wolf to another person. But here I am now, offering you your chance to let out everything you’ve ever wanted to.”
“You should be careful about your intel.” Esca braces himself as Marcus begins to collapse. “Unreliable sources distort half truths into lies.”
“I do due diligence very thoroughly. Even if you can’t trust the source of your data, you can still trust the data as long as you trust yourself and your own instincts.”
Esca’s blood is boiling now, boiling three times as much as when he first laid eyes on Marcus and the meteor rocks in the walls are glowing brighter than he’s ever seen any of them glow and he eases Marcus back onto the cot before letting him go.
“You’re in no position to negotiate for your life. And you - ” Ms. Mercer turn her attention from Esca to Marcus and steps closer. “You’re in no position to negotiate for your freedom. But I can give it to you.”
“We’ll take nothing from a Luthor!” Esca glares at Tess.
“I am not a Luthor.”
“I don’t care that you believe you’re not a Luthor,” Marcus says. “You still are.”
“I don’t need to be a Luthor. How much have you planned for the redundancies in place? Even with all the cameras in this building already torched, I’ll still know where you are. Even if you already got through these two security guards and the other two in this building, would you get past the reinforcements on their way?”
Marcus and Esca exchange worried glances.
“But, I could let you out.”
“For what?” Marcus says.
“I - not Luthor Corp., not Lex Luthor - own 1,500 acres, land for you to do whatever you want.”
“No.”
“You’ll work for the land. Someday you’ll own it.”
“No. I know how you Luthors work.”
“You have choices. And they’re either stay here - ”
“You mean be a prisoner here.”
“Or leave and go.”
“Your land, your terms. That’s still not freedom. There’s no freedom in either choice.”
Marcus tries to stand up from the cot but Esca is the one supporting him completely. Despite Esca on the verge of collapsing under him, Marcus stares across into Tess’s eyes. “Clark Kent.”
“What about Clark Kent?”
“You do nothing to him until you meet him face-to-face.”
“You gotta give me a reason to.”
Once fully upright, Marcus stares down Ms. Mercer. “Do you want me in here or out there?”
Tess makes her way forward until she is standing over them and points a finger to Marcus’s face; she stops just millimeters from his skin.
“Fine,” Tess says. “I’ll do no harm to him until I meet him. But, I’ll go even further than that and you will owe me.”
And with that, Tess turns her back and leaves.
When she’s out of sight, Marcus and Esca break for it as fast as they can. But there are many similar rooms on this level and each room’s meteor rocks glow green as Marcus, with all his weight on Esca, passes by until -
At every door, a panel rises to seal off its window. And Marcus, with his weight still on Esca, can feel the pain there but lessening.
It should’t be that easy; that’s not how meteor rocks work, Marcus thinks to himself. And yet it is. Whatever those panels are made of, they’re blocking the effects of the meteor rocks and Marcus can support himself and he and Esca can finally run for it.
❀
Stars shine with the new moon as Esca and Marcus rush to the car. In near darkness , Marcus has trouble holding onto Esca’s hand as stones and twigs dig into his feet; branches and brush cut across his skin; Esca’s adrenaline rush makes his heart beat too fast. But Esca’s worry and panic mean a warm and pulsing ache in Marcus’s legs and as long as he has that - that pain that slows him down and grounds him; that pain that is the message in his body that he still has Esca - he can keep holding onto Esca and keep moving forward as Esca navigates them through the dark toward tiny glints of glass and metal and the growing waft of gasoline.
“They’re not here,” Marcus says.
“If they’re not here at the first sign of someone coming after us, do I go back in to get them or do we break into the car and drive off?” Esca asks as he turns on his cell.
“Clark is strong, I think?” Marcus isn’t so sure but he’d like to have more confidence in his hunches about Clark’s powers with the messages he sees Esca sending.
we have a car
luthor corp reinforcement security coming
get out asap
Marcus tilts his head so his ear is towards the building and he can make out some vague bickering between a teenage boy and girl.
“They’re fine, Lois. I saw them with my own eyes.”
“In near darkness? Are you sure?”
“You hear that?” Marcus asks Esca.
“It means we don’t have to break into our ride home.”
When Clark and Lois arrive at the car, they’re still bickering.
“Look, see?” Lois points to Marcus and Esca. “They’re okay. But are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You looked really sick for a few moments there?”
“But it stopped.”
“Suddenly.”
“Hey,” Esca intervenes. “Marcus is kinda cold and for all we know, reinforcements are still coming. Can we go? Now?”
❀
The ride home is uneventful except for some more bickering.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lois asks Clark.
“I’m fine.” Clark rolls his eyes.
“Because you were so keeled over until all the door windows closed.”
“I’m fine. And what about you? Lois, you would have been alone against four guys.”
“I took two of them down. If you weren’t there, I’d’ve taken the other two also.”
“Do I want to ask what kind of trouble you got into growing up on all those army bases?”
Marcus and Esca exchange glances before Marcus leans forward to ask, “Are you two dating?”
“NO!” And now Clark and Lois are in unison.
“Is that what you think of us?” Clark asks.
“Why would you think such horrible things about us?” Lois asks.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Marcus laughs. “That wasn’t worry for each other you two had?”
“Lois has a ‘jump first, ask later’ attitude to, well, everything.”
“And Smallville here is . . .” Lois points to Clark and gets a dreamy look to her eye but then shakes herself out of it and looks into her rearview mirror. “Okay he’s not small! But Smallville is Smallville. Speaking of small - ”
Lois pulls the car over to the side of the road and before getting out says, “You need clothes.”
Clark follows her out to the trunk of her car before he lets out a laugh. “Wow, warn me before you put any of these on. Is there some fetish for dressing up you want to explain?”
“What, you never heard of ‘be prepared’? There goes my boy scout theory of you.”
“A bikini, a nurse outfit, and an ’80s power suit prepare you for what exactly, hm?”
Clark takes off his red jacket and goes back into the car to give it to Marcus and says, “But don’t get your hopes up for appropriate bottoms. There’s nothing in Lois’s trunk that’s appropriate - for men or women.”
“Skirt with elastic waist.” Lois yells from behind her trunk. “Should stretch enough to fit him, right?”
When she’s back in the driver’s seat, she throws the skirt back to Marcus and says, “Don’t worry. I won’t perv out on you. If I wanted to, I already would’ve.”
“Good,” Esca says. “Because I’d remind you I’m his boyfriend.”
“Ha,” Lois laughs. “You can come at me anytime.”
❀
DING DONG!
At the doorbell’s ring, old Procyon lies in his bed, head down but ears pricked up while Cottia sits on her hands on the couch with Sid and Liathan beside her, their hands reaching for each other. Then Marcus’s uncle opens the door.
“Marcus!” Tears start streaming down the old man’s face as he pulls his nephew into the house to give him a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!” The hug lingers for a few moments before he also pulls in Esca for a hug. “Dear gods, Esca. What you did was dangerous.”
“But I had to,” Esca says, tears streaming down his face too. “Marcus was missing, so I had to.”
When the three of them plus Cottia, Sid, Liathan, and even Procyon who’s ambled over are in a group hug, Lois quietly closes the front door and she and Clark make their way to her car.
“I’d say that went well,” Lois says. “Has to if even you have a goofy grin on your face.”
“I’d say it went well if you’re happy yet not too smug.” Clark grins back at her.
❀
The next morning, Esca and Marcus sit side-by-side on the couch with Procyon’s head on Esca’s lap and Marcus reaching over to scritch Procyon’s head. When Marcus sees a car pull up the sidewalk, he gets up, gets a plastic bag of clothes and heads out to meet the car and hands over the bag when Clark rolls down the window.
“On another date?” Marcus smirks at Clark and Lois.
“Not dating!” Clark and Lois are in sync before they turn to glare at each other.
“For two people not dating, you two spend a lot of time together. It’s almost like you two live together.”
“Please. If I ever move in with Clark, put me out of my misery.”
“And mine.” Clark rolls his eyes. “Thanks for the clothes. Now I don’t have to listen to Lois worrying about you stretching out the skirt.”
“Was that part of the nurse’s costume?” Marcus asks. “Because Uncle thought it was ‘obscenely short.’ ”
“It’s part of a lot of things.” Lois says. “Unlike you, I have the perfect figure for it.”
“But the jacket fit perfectly,” Marcus says.
“Then you should keep it.” Lois tugs at Clark’s blue t-shirt. “Maybe then he’d wear another jacket.”
“Like his letterman jacket?” Marcus asks.
“Would you have wanted to wear that?” Clark asks.
“Nah.” Marcus says. “That letterman jacket’s yours; you earned it. But if Lois doesn’t remind you to wear it for school events - and future reunions - then maybe I should.”
“Yeah okay. Let me give you my contact info.”
“Sure; my cell phone is in my room.”
They wave to Esca as they pass by and once in Marcus’s room, Clark notices the perched golden eagle and asks, “Is that the guard to your fortress?”
“Every fort should have eyes and ears right?” Marcus tosses his cell phone to Clark. And as Clark types in his contact info, Marcus asks, “So . . . Seeing in the dark is one of your abilities?”
“Um, not exactly.”
Marcus raises an eyebrow.
“More like, it’s x-ray vision - which is not heat vision.”
Now both Marcus’s eyebrows are up.
“Um . . . But, yeah, the x-ray vision, I can use that to, um, see in the dark.”
“You should’ve used that on my legs that day and saved yourself a lot of panic.”
“I guess. Um . . .”
“If I had known, I would’ve asked you. Better you than others. You can guess why right? So would you have?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. And I’ll tell you now that when you carried me to my car, it’s not totally true that I felt nothing. Truth is, I felt like I was flying.”
“Flying? That’s great.” Clark begins to feel uneasy in his stomach.
“You look like you’re gonna hurl? You don’t think that’s great?”
“Me and flying? Not a thing that’s gonna happen.” Clark’s eyes widen in fear.
Marcus laughs. “That’s too bad. If you don’t ever get over your fear, then you don’t. But if you do, I hope you find it awesome? Okay?”
And with that, Marcus takes his phone back and the two go outside. Back at the car, Marcus turns to Lois and says, “By the way, Uncle wants to invite the both of you to dinner, kinda a small thanks for helping to save me.”
“Sure,” Lois says. “As long as you and Esca are there to protect Clark from me, we’ll both be there.”
“We’ll be there,” Clark says. “Just let us know when. But really. It’s too generous. Just stay safe, okay?”
“Sure.”
Marcus waves Clark and Lois goodbye and before going back into the house, he checks the mailbox where there is only a lone envelope. On the front, it is addressed merely to:
Marcus F. Aquila
And on the back:
T. Mercer
It’s a few moments that Marcus spends staring at the envelope until Esca comes up beside him.
“Cottia thinks Ms. Mercer’s the one driving the sports car with the license plate, NO MERCY. Are you really going to accept her terms?”
“I owe her for Clark.”
“Do you really believe that Marcus?”
“No. But she does.”
❀