The Warlord's Prize by kyanoswolf

[teot]

Title: The Warlord's Prize
Cover: Cover #2
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, Future history romance
Word Count: 3,832

Summary: The heir to the Luthor empire becomes a barbarian warlord's prize

Author's note: I know that this was suppose to be a historical romance. It just turned out to be a future history AU. Thanks to bop_radar for beta duty. But don't blame her if I didn't take all of her advice.



The Warlord's Prize
by kyanoswolf

Lex studied everything around him, looking for any avenue of escape, as he was led through the citadel's cavernous hallways. He was being marched at the end of an leather leash that seemed incongruous when compared to the high-tech, energy-dampening shackles that bound his hands. Whoever had published the anthropological study of Rokyn had either lied or been fools. How could the survey teams miss technology capable of building a city that rivaled any on Earth or its allied worlds? Or a spaceport complete with interstellar craft as diverse as those of the Interplanetary League?

This was no Neolithic civilization needing to be quarantined to protect its development. Even if the warriors wore loincloths and carried bladed weapons, they were obviously an elite fighting force. A force that even Earth's military would have serious trouble confronting considering how easily they had attacked and destroyed the LuthorCorp compound. Lex had never seen men move that fast or fight so fiercely.

The security officers had been killed attempting to defend the encampment. Lex had no idea why he or the workers had been spared.

Had it only been a month since Lex's father had exiled him to Rokyn?

Lex turned away from the observation deck’s viewport and the view of the academic planet, New Metropolis turning below the heavy cruiser. The darkness of space threw Lex's hairless head into jeweled relief.

"I assume you have a good reason for demanding that I leave the university and join you on this trip, Father."

"It's time you took your place in the family business and proved yourself worthy of the Luthor name. I'm sending you to Rokyn to supervise our operations. You've wasted enough of your time and my money on this backwater planet while you pretend to be studying -- what was it this time? Interplanetary history and politics? Or was it just your tutors you were interested in?" There was a sneer at Lex's lifestyle in Lionel’s voice, if not on his face.

Lex ignored his father's taunts. "Rokyn is a protected planet, under Interplanetary Quarantine. Just who did you -- influence -- to get permission to set up one of LuthorCorp's facilities there?"

"Nonsense, Lex. Rokyn is a rich, primitive world, filled with resources. The Interplanetary League understands that LuthorCorp is the only corporation able to develop those resources."

"Not to mention a primitive population that you can easily exploit."

"Luthors have been exploiting people for centuries, Lex. How else do you think we still run the most successful business in the galaxy? I expect the Rokyn mining colony to be in full operation and turning a profit within a year."

The 'or else' was unspoken. Lex knew that his father wouldn't hesitate to elevate one of his brothers, Julian or Lucas, to replace him as heir to the LuthorCorp empire.

"My Lord Bethgar, we were successful. We have brought your prize," the white-blond warrior who'd held Lex's leash during the journey to the city announced as they were admitted to a large council chamber filled with activity.

The warrior shoved Lex to his knees at the feet of the man Lex could only assume was in charge. He was dressed in the same type of loincloth worn by the men who'd raided the compound. A jeweled sword and scarlet cloak completed the image of a barbarian warlord from Earth folklore.

"And what a prize. The son of Lionel Luthor, himself. His precious Alexander. You've done well, Dru-Zod."

They had known who he was? Had they hoped to gain from his ransom? Not that Lionel Luthor would pay ransom for anyone. Least of all his son and heir.

The barbarian took the leash from Dru-Zod. He pulled Lex to his feet to appraise Lex's grubby form. His startling green eyes seemed to strip Lex naked before everyone present, yet he touched Lex's naked scalp with unexpected gentleness.

"You will serve me perfectly, Alexander."

Under any other circumstances, Lex would have found such a tall, well-built man attractive. Perhaps even being on his knees would not have been an unpleasant turn of events. Instead, Lex's eyes snapped with defiance and he summoned every bit of dignity he could -- the dignity his father claimed a Luthor must display under any condition. He pulled away from the barbarian's touch, as far as the leash wrapped around his captor's hand would allow.

"My name is Lex. I serve no one. Who are you to destroy my encampment and take League citizens prisoner?"

"I am the Bethgar Kal-El, ruler and protector of all Rokyn. Who are you to steal from my people?" He drew Lex back, nearly against his muscular, golden-tanned chest.

Lex squashed the unbidden desire to tangle his bound hands in the long dark hair that spilled onto that chest. "I've stolen nothing," he denied hotly instead. "I was sent on the authorities of the Interplanetary Council and my father's company to develop this world's resources."

"Neither your father nor your Council has any jurisdiction over this world. The survivors of Krypton settled this planet over a thousand years ago, before your people ventured into space. Before your Interplanetary Council even existed. When your petty government sought to annex this world, we removed their 'surveyors' and made sure no further incursion into our system would go unnoticed."

Lex's brow wrinkled at the mention of the legendary planet Krypton, said to have been destroyed when its unstable core blew it apart. Earth had heard its praises sung by many of the beings they'd encountered once they left their own system. Archaeologists even claimed that Kryptonians had visited Earth under cover of meteor showers, influencing several early cultures. "How can you be from Krypton? Your world is long dead."

"The House of El learned that Krypton was dying years before the final cataclysm and began making preparations. When our own government denied the danger, my house built arks to save as many as would come with us. Rokyn has not only sustained us, it has made us stronger. If your people want our resources, you will have to deal honestly with us."

Lex snorted. "If you think my father's company would trade with you when he has the power to take what he wants, you are more of a fool than I was to come here. And don't think that I can be used as leverage. I have two brothers, either of whom would be eager to replace me as my father's heir."

Had Lionel Luthor known the truth about Rokyn? Had he sent Lex here, knowing that the inhabitants were not the primitives the Council claimed? That the quarantine was nothing more than an act to save face? Perhaps hoping to be rid of an heir he found unsuitable?

Kal-El's lip curved into a smile. "You should never underestimate an unknown opponent, Lex. My ancestors warned your Council that we would not tolerate any further incursions into our system. I've repeated that warning to your current Chancellor. I know your father's reputation well and have no intention of using you as a bargaining chip. Nor will I send you back to him."

Kal-El offered the leash to a man standing quietly behind the throne. "Take him to the guest chambers. Have him washed, suitably clothed, fed and guarded. Ask my advisors to join me in private council. We must deal with the Interplanetary League and Lionel Luthor before I can indulge a guest."

Lex swallowed nervously at Kal-El's decree. Only the strength of Kal-El's servant compelled Lex to leave the audience chamber.

Lionel stormed into Chambers and confronted the Councilors. "Why have you revoked my charter to develop Rokyn?"

The High Chancellor, Jonathan Kent, sighed with annoyance at Luthor's peremptory entrance. "We received Zor-El, the official representative of the Bethgar of Rokyn in chambers earlier today. Kal-El invoked his sovereign rights over Rokyn's star system as head of the House of El."

"Bethgar? Who is this Kal-El and how can he claim a star system?" Lionel asked.

Councilor Edge shook his head wearily. "His family, the House of El, discovered and settled Rokyn centuries ago. I had no right to approve your charter in light of the treaty signed with his ancestors and the League which declared Rokyn's system independent. The League imposed quarantine when Rokyn used superior military force to remove any attempts by outsiders to establish colonies in the system. We have no choice but to revoke your charter. Any assets you had on Rokyn have been seized by Kal-El."

"What about my son?"

"The Bethgar considers Lex fair payment for any profit you earned from Rokyn's resources before your mining operation was discovered and terminated. Your surviving employees were brought home by the same battle cruiser that brought Zor-El to Earth. I suggest you see to compensation for the families of those who didn't return. The money you've made from Rokyn should be sufficient. Now, please, leave us to the other matters before us." Jonathan dismissed Lionel.

"I won't let some barbarian take my property or my son," Lionel warned. "You haven't heard the last of this."

There was no sense that Kal-El meant to harm him. Lex's suite was more suited for an honored guest than for a prisoner, except for the guards and the walls around the garden. Lex could almost find living in Kal-El's citadel quite comfortable. But a gilded cage was still a cage.

Lex thanked every deity he could imagine when he saw the simple, if colorful, shirt and trousers which replaced his damaged clothes. The restraints had been taken away with his old clothes. Lex had no idea what Kal-El had planned for him. The servants who'd brought food were frustratingly uncommunicative.

A brief knock on the door was Lex's only warning before Kal-El strode into the room and made himself comfortable on a sofa.

"Do make yourself comfortable, Bethgar. Where's the cape and loincloth tonight?" Lex's voice was anything but welcoming. He noted Kal-El was dressed much more conservatively in a black shirt and trousers.

"I only wear the cape when I'm intimidating captives." Kal-El returned Lex's verbal volley. "Your father's employees have been returned to their homes," he added off-handedly.

"And what about me?"

"Consider Rokyn your new home, Lex."

"I'm a prisoner, then?"

"Prisoners are sent to the Zone, a dimension where you'd be nothing more than a phantom, only able to observe as life continued around you. You wouldn't like it there." Kal-El reached for a piece of fruit from the bowl that the servants brought with Lex's dinner. "Did you enjoy your meal?"

"Why have you kept me here?" Lex gritted his teeth, trying to maintain his temper at Kal-El's non-answers.

Kal-El bit into the fruit and Lex was mesmerized by the ruby juice allowed to trail onto the barbarian's fingers. "I've decided that you'll do as recompense for your father's invasion of my world."

"I'm not some commodity you and my father can barter!"

"Did I say that there was any negotiation involved? There wasn't. You are mine to do with as I will." Kal-El licked his fingers free of juice.

"And if I object?" Lex wished for something he could effectively use as a weapon against the man. Throwing a crystal vase filled with flowers would probably only make Kal-El laugh.

"I don't think you will." Kal-El rose from the sofa as abruptly as he'd taken up position on it.

Lex backed away but found himself against a wall with nowhere to go. "You seem very sure of yourself." He remained defiant.

Kal-El stood within Lex's personal space, not yet touching him with anything more than a heated gaze, smiling when Lex gasped apprehensively. "Oh, I am. My sources tell me that you are a scholar. I've authorized access to the Kryptonian archives and more of the citadel. I think you'll find my home interesting."

Kal-El then touched Lex's smooth scalp trailing his hand down his neck, under the collar of Lex's lavender shirt. His fingers lingered for a moment where Lex's pulse did nothing to betray his nervousness. "So soft. Yet I sense great strength." He turned away and headed for the door. "I think I'd prefer you in a warrior's loincloth. Your skin was made to be displayed."

Lex stared after him, unable to reply.

Kal-El strode into the practice arena several days later, muttering about turning the Kryptonian archives into slag even if it set Rokyn society back two thousand years. He went straight for the armory and drew a war sword. In moments he had turned a practice dummy into splintered metal.

"Practicing with an energy blade this early in the morning, Kal? Should I ask what has you in such fine form? Is it perhaps your Lex? Is he still driving even Brainiac crazy with his questions? Or is it that he avoids you in the hallways?" Dru-Zod teased his leader and friend.

Kal-El laughed. "I think Lex is a bit -- unsettled. He seems to expect to be pounced upon by the crazy barbarian king any moment. I may find I need to defend myself from his indignation when I next confront Lex. In the meantime I think a bit of sparring might ease my frustrations."

"Energy blades?"

"I don't think mere steel could assuage my frustration today."

Dru-Zod smirked and drew another war sword from the armory. They circled one another and traded a couple of blows, each easily blocking the other's strikes.

Dru-Zod raised his sword. "Perhaps you should just take what you want."

Kal-El parried Dru-Zod's slashing attack easily. He drove the warrior back with several blows that could have cleaved a lesser man's head from his body. "But where would be the sport in that?"

"Is Lex nothing but sport to you, Bethgar, or do you intend to take this one to mate?" A burst of energy allowed Dru-Zod to regain some ground. "I will admit he is very pretty. But he is not who your father would have chosen for you, were he still alive."

Kal-El barely frowned at the mention of his father's desire for Kal-El to wed, but met the next blow with a bit more force than necessary. "I believe Lex suits me much better than a dutiful maiden chosen just to produce an heir for political gain."

"Then take him."

"Maybe I prefer to win him." Kal smiled and continued to attack.

Dru-Zod went down on one knee, deflecting Kal-El's blows, "I yield, Kal!"

Kal-El stepped back and offered Dru-Zod a hand. "Perhaps you should practice more, Dru, if I can defeat you this easily."

Dru-Zod raised an eyebrow as he regained his feet. "Easily? Kal, go deal with your Lex and stop taking your -- frustrations out on your poor soldiers."

Kal-El’s attentions were driving Lex crazy. There were the dinners for two where the food never seemed to require utensils, forcing Lex to watch Kal-El suck various juices from his fingers. Then there were the garden picnics where Kal-El basked in the bright sunlight like a big house cat.

On such a day Lex had finally learned why the warriors wore loincloths. Kryptonians had evolved to process and store energy from sunlight more efficiently than other humanoids due to the weakness of Krypton's red sun. Rokyn's sun was younger and brighter, much like Earth's, giving the refugees greater strength and durability. But this advantage began to fade with each succeeding generation born on Rokyn. The loincloths exposed as much of a warrior's skin as possible to sunlight.

Kal-El had treated Lex to a sailing voyage across a vast inland sea. The trip was ostensibly to visit Kal-El's uncle Zor-El's family in the province of New Kandor.

"Why don't we take an air car across the lake? I know you have them," Lex had resisted the idea of a trip on a ship that would have been at home flying the Jolly Roger in Earth's distant past.

"Nonsense, the sea air will do you good." Kal-El insisted.

"How do you know I won't be sea-sick?" Lex needed some excuse not to be alone with Ka-El

Kal-El laughed. "I'm sure my physician can deal with that. Come sailing with me. The sunsets on the water are not to be missed."

They had watched the sun sink beneath the waves, turning the sky and Kal-El's skin into fire.

Zor-El's family had even liked Lex and made him feel at home. Kal-El's young cousin, Kara, had been full of questions about the worlds of the Interplanetary League.

Lex knew he couldn't stay on Rokyn or he would succumb to Kal-El's charms.

It had taken days to extract the appropriate information from Brainiac, the archive's interface, without arousing suspicion, but Lex now knew how to escape the citadel. It wouldn't be easy, but Lex had to try. If his father had moved on, Lex could too. There were plenty of worlds in the League where he could start again.

Lex had learned from Brainiac that his garden was originally shared with the quarters next door before walls were built to make this suite secure. The suite was originally used for visiting dignitaries from other provinces. The quarters next door were currently vacant and unguarded. Lex had only to scale the wall and he could slip into a corridor leading outside. He had only to make it to Rokyn's spaceport and board the first transport off the planet.

"Have you learned where they took my son?" Lionel demanded of his assistant.

Dominic answered nervously. "I learned the location of a Rokyn spaceport by hacking into the navigational computer on Zor-El's cruiser before it left, but there was no information on where Lex is being held."

"We'll start with their spaceport, then. Perhaps a targeted strike will pay back these barbarians for destroying my mining operation."

"What about Lex?"

"If he's alive, he'll be useful too."

It was several days before Lex could put his escape plan in motion.

"Going somewhere?" Kal-El asked from his position leaning against a wall, as Lex slipped into the corridor from the vacant suite.

Lex cursed Kal-El's entire lineage under his breath. He should have known that Brainiac wouldn't reveal any alarms Lex would trip going over the garden wall.

"Oh, that's not nice. My mother would have been appalled at such language," Kal-El chided.

"What would she say about you keeping me here?" Lex asked.

"She'd probably want to know when I was going to make my intentions clear." Kal-El pushed away from the wall and took Lex's hand, stroking the palm with his thumb.

Lex pulled his hand away. "I'm not some maiden captive for your amusement."

Kal-El laughed. "Ah, but you do amuse me even so. Come, let me take you back to your room." He placed a hand on Lex's waist.

Lex deftly avoided Kal-El's touch and headed back toward his suite, ignoring the studied disinterest of his guards.

The stillness of the night was suddenly rent apart by explosions. The corridors shook with their force.

"What the hell is going on?" Lex demanded.

"There are reports of a ship bombarding the city, Bethgar," Ak-Var, one of the guards, reported, listening to his comm unit for details. "Shields are holding for the moment, sir, but they need you."

"I have to go." Kal-El pulled Lex close and kissed him hurriedly. "Please stay inside your suite, Lex. It's fortified against attacks. Your guards will keep you safe." At Lex's dazed nod, Kal-El turned to the guards. "Do not let anyone past you." he ordered before chasing after a squad that had just hurried past.

Lex didn't have time to tell Kal-El to be careful.

The explosions continued and grew closer, but the guards would tell Lex nothing nor would they let him leave the suite. He paced for hours waiting for some news.

A blast took out the shielded door of the suite, knocking Lex to the floor. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see his father walk through the gap followed by a pair of his private security guards.

"Father? How did you get in here?" Lex was afraid to consider what had happened to his guards.

"So you are alive. The Bethgar and his warriors are too busy trying to save their city from my mercenaries to pay attention to me." There was contempt in Lionel's voice as he looked around the suite. "Have you been whoring yourself to this barbarian for this luxury?"

Lex got to his feet and casually dusted off his clothes. "And if I have?"

Lionel backhanded Lex, knocking his head against a wall. Lex slid to the floor.

"Then you can help convince Kal-El to return my mining rights if he's so enamored with you."

Lex wiped away the blood from his split lip. Despite the ringing in his ears and the blurred vision, he taunted Lionel: "I should have guessed that this wasn't a rescue attempt."

"You should be happy that you are still valuable to me as a bargaining chip, Lex. Lucas is proving to be a most worthy heir."

"I'm surprised that you chose Lucas over Julian. But then again, Lucas is the very image of you, while Julian is more like Mother. Too soft for your kind of business. What makes you think the Bethgar would trade mining rights for me?" Lex laughed.

"He will or I'll have you killed in front of him."

Lex wasn't surprised by the threat. "I wouldn't ask Kal-El to give you directions across a street. I suppose you'll just have to kill me then."

"I don't think so." Kal-El's voice accompanied the thrust of a sword through Lionel's mid-section. "No one takes what is mine." He pushed the dead weight off his sword and knelt by Lex's side.

"I wish I'd been able to do that myself." Lex sighed. "Are you all right?" He tried but failed to focus on Kal-El's face.

"Am I all right?" Kal-El was incredulous.

Lex would never admit that he passed out.

"The last of your father's men have been returned to his ship along with his body. Dru will return them to Earth." Kal-El informed Lex when the doctors pronounced Lex fit enough for visitors. They were still confining him to his bed, however. Between the exploding door and being knocked against a wall, Lex had quite a concussion.

"I hope you are keeping the ship." Lex's complaints that he didn't need to stay in bed had fallen on deaf ears, but Kal-El was here with him now.

"I've demanded that LuthorCorp's holdings be turned over to you."

"I don't want LuthorCorp. Lucas and Julian can fight over it."
Kal-El took Lex's hand. He took a deep breath and asked. "Will you stay here with me?"

"On one condition."

Kal-El frowned. "A condition?"

Lex raised an eyebrow and asked wickedly. "Would you please claim the spoils of your victory?"

Kal-El leaned forward to capture Lex's lips. When the kiss threatened to deepen into something more, Kal-El pulled back with a bright smile on his face. "I think that can be arranged."

END

Please remember to leave feedback!