Nexus continuity
It's the day before Valentine's Day. To Clark, however, it's just another day. In fact, chances are it hasn't even occurred to him that it's nearing on any sort of special occasion. As far as he's concerned, he and Anna are just meeting Chloe and Jimmy for a cup of coffee and small talk at the Talon. Nothing special
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One advantage of being who she is: it cuts down on those travel times right well.
Upon entering the ballroom she's greeted by one half of the happy couple, and it's not the half she's there to see.
"Anna," says Lana with gratingly false cheer. "So glad you could make it."
Radiating sincerity like a tiny sun, Anna responds, "Congratulations on your engagement, Ms. Lang. I wish the two of you a long and happy future together."
All she gets in return is a tight smile and a polite brush-off. With a snort she seeks out Lex.
"Orpheus."
With a genial nod, "Hades."
"Eurydice is not pleased to see me."
"Well, can you really blame her?" asks Lex with a smirk. "After all, you're the one who's keeping her locked in the underworld away from her beloved."
"By all means," says Anna, holding up her hands, "steal her from my realm whether she looks back or not."
"A poor Hades you make."
"I'm not at my best - some jackass has been stealing my pomegranates."
Lex snorts champagne and glares, smirking again. With a wink, Anna sails off to investigate the hors d'oeuvres.
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"Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I can't wait to see what else you can do."
He grins, backing her up against a wall. "Well, I'm fast, but not too fast."
"You're being very bad," Lois scolds him teasingly. "You know, the last time I was here, I was with a good friend of yours."
Clark shrugs. "Obviously he wasn't that good. I better make sure you didn't spell my name wrong." He grabs the collar of her shirt and rips it open, tossing her jacket across the room and smirking again at the tattoo. And no, the fact that he's about to do with Lois what he wouldn't do with Anna in Oliver's apartment isn't lost on him.
Lois easily removes Clark's shirt and squeals delightedly when he picks her up and deposits her on a small couch a few feet away. He's in the midst of taking her shirt off when he spots a familiar looking invitation sticking out of the pocket. It's enough to take his attention from Lois completely and walk over to pick the offending piece of paper up.
"Sounds like a real rager, doesn't it?" Lois asks breathlessly from the couch.
Clark snorts. "Can't say I'm surprised I wasn't invited."
"I RSVP'd back before Oliver headed for the hills, but now I found a better way to occupy my night," she says, walking up behind him and running her hands along his back.
"What, and disappoint the future Mrs. Luthor? I don't think so," Clark snaps, turning to Lois and grinning ferally. "Besides...it's not a party until someone crashes it."
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"Fancy meeting you here," says the blonde girl. "I have a feeling I should be thanking you for a certain cake my wonderfully adorable and yet completely uncreative boyfriend just gifted me with."
"Yeah." Anna grins shyly. "He came to me for advice a while ago, and I led him in the direction of my favourite chocolatier. The rest was all Etienne's doing. You like?"
"It was amazing," enthuses Chloe with a returning grin. "We're going to do the ceremonial first cut later. I just wish he could have come here with me."
"I'd wish the same about my boyfriend, but I think we both know how badly that'd turn out."
"Uh, yeah. Clark would be about as welcome here as an ebola carrier."
"Now, now." Anna grins. "We both know he's too cute to catch ebola."
Unfortunately, their witty banter is interrupted at this point by a gentle chiming.
"Could I have everyone's attention, please?" Lex asks the room, tapping on his glass. "I just wanted to thank you all for joining us to celebrate. Over the years, I'm sure some of you have placed a few bets on whether I'd settle down. But this couldn't be further from settling. I'd like to toast my beautiful fiancée for making me happier than I thought I could ever be."
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"Looks like we missed dinner."
Lex doesn't even bother to hide his displeasure. "Clark, what are you doing here?"
"Come on, Lex. You didn't think I was going to miss this, did you? And look. My own mother would rather raise a glass with the enemy than stand by her own son."
Martha, seated across from Chloe and Anna, eyes him suspiciously. "Clark, you're not yourself."
Clark smirks and leans on the table, directly opposite his mother, facing her. "It's okay, Mom. You're more a Luthor than a Kent these days anyway. I mean, dad's been, what, dead a year? But who can blame you for joining the race with Lana to see who's gonna add the Luthor monogram to their name first?"
Lex starts to make a move toward Clark, but Lana stops him, though she keeps her voice even. "Lex, he's obviously on something, and he wants us to react. Please don't."
Another smirk is given Lex and Clark moves down to the table, stopping behind Anna. "And my girlfriend decided she'd rather spend her Valentine's Day with the enemy than with me. But I guess when you're trying to follow in Lana Lang's footsteps, getting your hooks into Lex is the next obvious step." He leans down and lowers his voice just a little before adding, "At least Lana had the decency to wait until she was done with one boyfriend before moving on to the next."
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She clenches her jaw, too busy being angry to respond with words.
It's too easy to recognize the signs, though, so after the moment of blinding rage passes she stops herself from saying anything hurtful. Dammit.
She has to get him out of here before he does something else he'll regret later.
Unfortunately, trying for a fire-move in front of all these people would not be wise. Also, she doubts she can get his consent, and she's seen people after they were moved without their permission. It can trigger some very nasty flashbacks in torture victims - especially, ironically enough, people who've been through the kind of pervasive techniques used by Jasmine.
Anna doesn't think she can put him through that for any reason short of preventing him from committing an imminent murder.
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"Chloe. I can't say that I'm surprised that you're celebrating here. After all, once Lana's off the market, all those years of unrequited pining may actually pay off." He crouches down right beside Chloe here and leans in very close to her, lowering his voice to a husky whisper. "I can't say I haven't thought about it." Chloe, much like Anna, says nothing, but it's obvious she's thinking very much the same thing around her obvious shock.
"And you," he continues, turning toward Lana and standing resume his slow walk around the table. "You know, I've got to hand it to you. If you were going to rebound, why not choose the one person that I hated the most? But, I mean, come on, Lana. The joke's over by now, isn't it?"
Lex, trying very hard to maintain his composure, stands his ground at the head of the table. "Clark, I think you've done enough damage. Why don't you leave?"
"I'm not done yet!" Clark shouts, his anger getting the better of him for just a moment before he seems to calm down again to his smug default. "Besides, Lex, I haven't given you my gift yet. Congratulations on sealing the deal." He takes a glass of champagne from the table and then tosses a silver baby rattle at Lex, who catches it despite his surprise. "To baby Luthor," Clark finishes, holding up his glass in a mock toast. "The real reason that Lana's marrying you."
Lex, it seems, has had enough and rushes at Clark, who dodges easily and then throws Lex into a display of wine glasses.
"Lex!" Lana rushes to his side, glaring up at Clark. "How dare you?"
"Come on, Lana, if no one else in this room is going to save you from Lex, then I will," he grabs her arm as he says this and heads for the door. Surprisingly, it's Lois who tries to stop him first.
"I don't think so. Lana is your past. I'm your future."
Clark snorts. "And this is the present." Then he brushes past Lois easily and forcibly drags Lana out of the room.
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"I'll live," he groans, accepting her offer of a hand up.
"Come on." She looks around, frowning at the shocked guests. "Let's get you someplace I can have a look at that. I know a thing or two about injuries."
Lex is still himself enough to smirk and murmur, "I'll bet," as she helps him out of the room. There's a sitting room nearby, and Anna guides him to a couch, frowning again and touching a hand to a bruise visible on his arm where his sleeve has ridden up slightly.
A series of thoughts occurs to her in rapid succession.
"Lex," she says slowly, "let me guess. You're going to want to go after them."
She gets a you're kidding me look for her trouble. "Of course I am. Give me a minute and I'll be down to the garage to get my Porsche. I can only assume you have a similar goal in mind - would you like a ride?"
Anna grins. It's not a terribly nice grin. On drugs or not, Clark is pissing her off.
"I've got a better idea," she announces. "I'll give you one. I'm a fuckton quicker than that murderous hunk of metal, and your back's going to hurt like a bitch in half a day if something doesn't see to those bruises."
Lex returns the grin, with added ruthlessness. "Just let me get something before we leave."
By 'something' he means 'a gun', of course, and Anna reads this easily in his posture. It only takes a moment's hesitation before she agrees. After all, it's not as though he could hurt Clark with it, and as previously mentioned, the latter fellow has her sufficiently enraged that she doesn't entirely oppose herself to the idea of his being shot at.
With a raised eyebrow - he's not sure whether to think she missed it; Anna really doesn't seem the type to ferry a jealous fiancé to her boyfriend, infidelitous or no, and not say boo about his packing heat for the trip - Lex rises to his feet and walks purposefully in the direction of his office, Anna following close behind.
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Lana, finally, wrenching free from his grip, turns at him with all the indignation of an annoyed kitten. "You humiliated me in front of my friends."
Clark scoffs. "Come on, Lana. You hardly knew anyone at that party."
"Clark, what do you want from me?"
"What I've always wanted," he answers, voice softening. "For you to be happy."
Lana smiles thinly. "I would love to know how that feels, but it seems like every time I get close, you rip it all away from me."
"Lana, stop kidding yourself. You're never going to be satisfied with Lex. You can't marry him," Clark says, very seriously, stepping closer to her.
She shakes her head. "I've already made up my mind."
"Even though you're still in love with me?"
"What makes you so sure?" Lana challenges back.
Clark grabs her around the waist and pulls her close to him. "Because I'm still in love with you." He doesn't give her a chance to reply and leans down to kiss her. Lana resists for a brief moment, but in the end, she's kissing him back just as much. "Don't marry Lex. Marry me."
She pushes away from him and barely keeps her voice even, starting to cry as she speaks. "I have given you every chance. I have stood in this spot so many times, just waiting for you to say something, and you decide to do it now?" Lana shakes her head in disbelief. "You don't love me, Clark. You just can't stand the idea that I love someone else."
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She sees all of this. She's pretty sure Lex does, too, though she knows he's going to be distracted by the intensity of fire-moving. She can't hear any, though, until she gets close enough.
Which is just in time to hear her boyfriend passionately declare his love for another woman.
She was going to set Lex down gently out of sight, really she was. Not anymore. The two of them materialize in the barn's doorway and stalk up to the loft very nearly in unison.
"Lana!" Lex calls. "Lana?"
Anna just growls, ignoring Lana completely. She needs to have Words with Clark, and she'd prefer to have them out of earshot of Lex Luthor if at all possible.
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Clark walks slowly down the stairs, stopping on one of the landings and leaning against the railing. "Go ahead, Lana, tell him," he gives Anna a cursory glance, "that you'd rather be with me."
"Don't listen to him. He's on something." Lana likely is saying this as much to Anna as she is to Lex.
Clark laughs. "Oh? Well, it didn't seem to bother you two minutes ago when you were kissing me."
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"Clark." Anna speaks first. "We need to talk. Somewhere that's not here."
Lex shoots her a glance, querying. She responds with a raised eyebrow; did he really think she was going to let him shoot her boyfriend if a more palatable option presented itself? He concedes the point with a tiny shrug. The whole exchange lasts perhaps three seconds, and then he moves to take Lana aside, though not before tossing off a one-liner.
"What do you really expect is going to happen now, Clark?"
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Lana, still clinging to Lex, glares at Clark. "I'm not a competition." She does, however, allow her gaze to shift briefly to Anna, just in case Anna isn't aware who the centre of attention here really is.
"You are to Lex. He didn't tell you? He's always wanted everything I've ever had. And you were at the top of that list. You're just a trophy to him." Clark sneers at Lex. "And he's nothing but your consolation prize. Now," his attention focuses back on Lana, "tell me you don't love me. Lana. Tell me you don't."
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"Stay away from her," he says, pointing the gun at Clark.
"Fuck," mutters Anna, regretting this already - she can see very clearly a few possible outcomes of this situation and none of them are any good. Clark is ignoring her, so the only thing she can do that'll affect him is fire-move, which she's already ruled out except for absolute emergencies.
Her course of action is pretty clear at this point. She grabs Lana and manhandles her out of the way, putting herself as much between the fragile living woman and the testosterone-filled showdown as possible.
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Clark eyes Lex and the gun with nothing short of outright amusement. "You don't want to do that. You can't win. You don't even know the rules of the game."
When Lex doesn't back down, Clark sidesteps the gun and shoves Lex hard through a glass plate and up against a barn wall, hand wrapped around Lex's throat. "If I'd have known who you were going to turn out to be, I never would have saved you on that bridge."
Lana continues to struggle against Anna. "Clark stop it! You're killing him!"
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This doesn't stop her, of course, from turning towards the scuffle herself. Lex, madly scrabbling for a weapon, picks something up - Anna can't quite see what - and stabs Clark in the side with it.
Fortunately for Clark's secret, if not for his health, this action exactly coincides with Anna spotting a familiar lead box on a nearby shelf, picking it up, and flipping open the lid. She holds the whole contrivance in one hand on the opposite side of her from Lana, effortlessly adjusting her body language so it looks as though she intends to use it as a simple bludgeon.
"Clark," she says, her tone warning but sympathetic.
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Lana runs to Lex and helps him up, although it probably isn't missed by Anna that she sees something on the ground that shocks her before she starts helping Lex toward the door. "Come on, Lex, it's over. Let's go home."
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