Fic: All I Want For Christmas Is... (2/3, complete) -- for twilighthdfan !
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Original post is here
~*~*~*~*~*~
Robin's mouth dropped open.
"That so did not happen!" Tim blurted out.
"It so did." Conner looked smug.
"You- That- You- --You're making it up!" Tim spluttered in complete denial.
Conner glared at Tim. "I am not! I saw and heard everything!"
"Get out!"
"No, really! That was the time when Circe got mad that the Metropolis Theater of Arts was putting on Shakespeare plays because she didn't like The Tempest, and got her weeks confused."
Tim vaguely remembered that, then frowned and asked, "Isn't she one of Wonder Woman's enemies?" Conner nodded. "Why was she in Metropolis?" Conner shrugged. "That sounds like a setup, almost."
Conner frowned. "I don't see how." Then, when Tim gave him a look and he caught on, "Oh, come on -- sure Lex does stuff to annoy Superman once in awhile, but this was magic! He hates magic! He wouldn't want an evil witch around any more than Superman would!"
Tim still kept looking at him skeptically.
"And... and he was being more helpful than making things worse or poking at Clark or anything."
More silence.
"He was risking his life to save Clark!"
Tim scoffed.
"Oh, come on -- he was! And it was totally romantic." Tim looked at him half-horrified. "Okay, maybe you had to be there. But it was! Lex totally meant what he was saying!" Conner pressed the point.
Tim scrubbed at his face, disbelief clear. "...How were you even there?" he asked, finally. "It was a closed rehearsal in the middle of the day on a weekday, wasn't it?"
"I had a math test that afternoon, finished early, heard the sirens, and figured I had time to check it out."
"You cut class?!"
"I had lunch next!" Conner protested. "And then history, which is totally boring!" It was -- the guy did not know how to teach at all and practically put him to sleep -- Lex was way more entertaining at explaining old stuff. "It's not like anybody missed me -- I took the bathroom pass."
Conner could practically hear the brain circuits in Tim's head frying -- skipping the awesomeness that is school, does not compute -- before he apparently remembered that Conner didn't always make sense to anyone, least of all him, and got himself back under control. "...Ok, so I get why Superman would show up, but Luthor? How could he be there and it not have been a trap?"
"Lex was the one to sponsor the plays," Conner said, folding his arms. "He totally had a reason to be there. It wasn't random."
"...So, what you're telling me is that he was the main contributor to fund an event that drew a big-time villain and all-around menace to Metropolis, and was there right at the time when said villain showed up, and to you this proves that he wasn't setting up a trap that involved Superman having to go up against a magic-user in his own city, while getting to watch from the best seats in the house?"
Conner glared at Tim. "You're twisting everything around! That's not what happened!"
"Conner--"
"--and just because it turned out badly doesn't mean Lex meant it to! Not everything he does is a plot!" Tim snorted, and Conner felt a painful mixture of shame and rage. "He funds stuff all the time that doesn't get broken up by baddie fights!" he gritted out.
"Conner..." Tim sighed.
"I know what I saw!"
"Well, then you're just misunderstanding things."
Conner gave him an even madder glare. "I am not--"
"Look," Tim said hurriedly, "I understand, ok? I know how you feel about Clark; I know how you wish he was your--"
"--Shut up!" Conner yelled, turning dead-white and slapping his hands over Tim's mouth. "Shut up shut up SHUTUP!"
Tim winced away. "Sorry, I just--" He bit his lip. "It's not like--"
Conner glared so hard his eyes started to go red. It so too was like! Clark had super-hearing, and he might hear, and Conner didn't want to jinx it. He knew what Clark thought; to Clark he was a little brother -- Clark had told him so. It was ok -- except when it wasn't, and then it sucked -- and he wished so much... he wished...
"It'll be better this way. It so will," Conner said firmly, his voice shaking only a little as he pulled back clenched his fists.
"I know how badly you want this, but it just won't work. It can't happen, ok? You're seeing things that aren't-- ...It's like those dumb fortune-tellers and spirit-mediums and crap, ok? If I went to them, and believed that they could help me talk to my parents, and then found out later how wrong I was... it would hurt worse than if I listened to somebody before getting my hopes up, ok? That's what you're doing to yourself right now, Conner. I'm just trying to--"
"I am not seeing things that aren't there, I'm seeing things that are there. And if you're not gonna help then just stay out of my way!" Conner growled, turning away and going back to staking out the rooftops.
"Kon--" Tim started.
Conner pointedly ignored him.
Tim sighed. He waited, and thought, and waited, then finally said, "Look, I didn't say I wouldn't help--"
"Good."
"--I just don't want you getting hurt, ok?"
"I'm not gonna get hurt."
Tim sighed again, then shoved himself up onto the ledge next to Conner and tuned his own mask to the right setting.
They were silent for awhile as Tim tried to figure out how to broach the other topic, which was kind of always the elephant in the room when it came to Conner.
"...So, you're trying out villainy, huh?" Tim finally threw out there, lightly.
"Yup."
"You know, you never said anything about the 'trying out evil' thing before," Tim added neutrally.
"Villainy, not evil," Conner corrected absently. "And what, it wasn't obvious with the whole coming-up-with-bad-plans thing?" Conner said in a 'duh' voice.
"Uh, no. Not so much."
"Seriously?" Conner said, turning to Tim in surprise. Tim nodded. "Oh. Well, whatever," Conner shrugged, turning away again. "You know now." He went back to focusing on the roof of LexCorp, and his dad, who was now up there. It was looking good so far -- there were no weapons about that Conner could see...
"And how long do you think it's gonna take for you to decide whether you like villainy?"
"I'm giving it 'til Christmas," Conner said, smiling. "It's like a week-long Christmas present for dad. If I only did it for just one day, he wouldn't think I gave it enough of a chance. It's gonna be a surprise present, though -- if I told him beforehand, he'd totally try to bias the results in his favor." And that was how Conner knew Lex loved him.
"So, up until the 25'th, or until the end of the day?"
"Why?"
"I just want to know when I might be needed to thwart your villainy-of-doom this holiday season, is all."
"Oh." That made sense. "Uh, well, maybe through the end of the day, I guess? Midnight, I mean, not 5pm," he added, thinking about business hours versus hero work hours. "I mean, I figured I'd be kinda busy with the whole get-dad-and-Superman-hooked-up thing the whole time, and it'll probably take awhile, so an extra whole day would probably be good." Conner could practically hear the disapproval steaming off of Tim; he figured it must've been the poor planning, because Tim hated those. "I'm sorry, I didn't really think that far ahead! But I think I'm spending it with Clark, so he'll be watching me and you won't have to."
Tim twitched and grumbled something unintelligible, even to Conner's ears.
"What? If it all works out early, I'm sure I can come up with something else, too, if I have to! Or, like, subplans, or something, if things are going really slow between the two of them and I need to give them some time in-between steps in the bad plan."
"What, like getting Lois single so you can woo her yourself?"
"Heh, yeah, that would be great-- ...wait, didn't I ...already do that?" Conner sat bolt upright. "Holy crap, I hadn't even really thought about that part of it before -- my subconscious is totally badass! This evil thing is way too easy for me. Uh," Conner glanced over at Tim nervously. "If I end up deciding to be good after all this, you don't think I should be worried about my subconscious totally undermining me, and my conscious self accidentally doing all sorts of villainy while trying to do good, do you?" And as much as Conner had made it sound like he was just joking, he actually was a little worried about it. Maybe he really was programmed to be bad somehow. Lex sort-of was, and people definitely thought he was. And since Conner had started out life as what people thought Lex was...
Tim just rolled his eyes again.
Well, that didn't really answer his question.
So Conner stuck his tongue out at Tim, then tried to snake a hand behind Tim's back and around his side to mess with the zoom settings on his mask.
Tim smacked him.
But that sort of did. Conner figured he'd probably be ok so long as Tim was around.
And Clark. Clark, too. If Superman could wrangle Lex, Clark could totally handle Conner, too.
A streak of red caught his attention, and Conner grinned excitedly as Superman joined Luthor on the roof. His bad plan was coming to fruition already -- cool!
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I've turned off the security measures; you can land if you'd like," Lex said at a normal decibel level, feeling no need to raise his voice when he knew that Clark could hear him perfectly fine without him doing so.
Superman hovered lower, and lower, and finally floated close enough to touch down on the roof a few feet away.
"So, mind telling me what's going on?" Lex asked calmly, sliding his hands into his pockets and walking a little closer.
"Well, for starters, Conner and Tim are on the roof of the Metropolis City Center watching us both. Conner hasn't gotten the hang of using his super-hearing at the same time as his telescopic vision, or anything else, so we don't have to worry about him listening in, but Tim can read lips, so if there's something you don't want him or Bruce to know, look towards the water," Clark informed his nemesis.
Lex blinked at him, then nodded once. Frowning, he said, "I take it you were not really the one to call this meeting, then, despite the apparent originating IP address of the email?"
Clark shook his head. "I got one similar. It didn't really sound like you, so..."
"...you thought to check it out and confirm, anyway?" Lex smiled slightly.
Clark shrugged. "That, and it's been a little hard to tune out Conner lately. He's been... plotting," Clark said with something between a wince and a grimace.
"...Plotting?"
"And planning," Clark sighed.
"My son, plotting at his age. ...Well, it's about time," Lex smirked.
Clark gave him a look. "He's three, Lex. And they're really bad plans."
"Tch," Lex waved away. "He's highly intelligent, and you underestimate him."
"I'm not underestimating him, and you should take this more seriously," Clark sighed.
"Oh, stop it. You're just cranky because Lois broke up with you again," Lex needled. When he got no response, he turned to face Clark more fully. "She broke up with you again?"
"You're surprised?"
"It was just a rumor." Lex looked a little uneasy. "This isn't exactly the best time of year for it. What happened?"
"Conner informed Lois he was spending Christmas with us this year, and then said he wanted to know if Lois wanted to spend it together with us, too. Then Lois wanted to know what Conner meant by 'us'."
Lex's eyebrows raised. "You asked Lois to... let me... join your festivities?" Lex could hardly believe that.
Clark shook his head and sighed, looking uncomfortable. He pulled his legs up to float cross-legged in front of Lex, then floated downwards to 'land' again as Lex gracefully folded his legs to sit on the roof himself and gestured likewise.
"That wasn't exactly what happened."
"What did, then?"
"Well, first off, mom hustled Conner off to go shopping with her to grant us some privacy, and you know how she keeps him busy -- he only probably heard one word in ten."
Lex made a 'go-on' motion, and Clark grimaced and forged ahead. "I never brought up the whole 'holiday' deal thing with Lois. She didn't know Conner was bouncing between us two." He paused and glanced off to the side.
"She didn't like the idea of spending the holiday with you and Conner both?"
"In a word? No." Clark rubbed a hand at the back of his neck. "She maybe would've been ok with just Christmas, but she didn't like the idea of Conner tagging along at work for most of the rest of this month, or staying at our apartment for so long, sleeping there and sharing the space."
"If it's because there's not enough room--?" Lex began to offer.
Clark shook his head. "It's more to do with privacy and not wanting him around. I don't know if you know what happened with Conner and mirror-Lionel..."
"Red-K ring, Lois abducted to the burned-out mansion -- yes, I know the basics."
"Well, she changes her mind every other day as to whether she thinks that he's creepy or not-creepy."
"Lois either needs to get over herself, or carry around a blue-K taser for peace of mind." Lex didn't bother to state the obvious -- that she'd never actually need it. "No green-K, though -- if I find out she's packing that around my son--" Lex growled.
"That's not really an issue, Lex," Clark stopped him. "That wasn't really what the fight was about."
Lex frowned at him, and Clark continued reluctantly. "Yes, sure -- she didn't like the fact that I'd made a decision with you about Conner behind her back that mom wasn't really aware of, either, until after the fact." Lex had to blink at that -- he had originally thought Clark had been acting with Martha's approval, or at least at her suggestion, since Clark had been the one to really broach the topic in the first place. "And yes, she can't make up her mind on Conner, and whether she thinks it'd make any difference whether he's spending time with you at all."
It took Lex a moment before that really hit. "She thinks Conner is a villain?!?" Lex was spitting mad. "He hasn't done anything to warrant--!"
"I know that, but sometimes she sees him and thinks you and..." Clark looked frustrated, a frustration that Lex was not used to seeing recently -- it was one he'd only ever seen Clark get when talking about how Jonathan was being unreasonable about something-or-another, usually dealing with something related to him. "I can't really do anything about that, other than explain to Conner that being like you is not necessarily a bad thing."
Lex decided to go with a silent 'no comment' on that front.
"But no -- what really pissed her off was the time I spent with you two last year," Clark ended.
"...You didn't tell her about it before?"
"Apparently she thought that I'd been so busy that I'd only just made it back to Kansas Christmas evening," Clark sighed.
"But, Young Justice--" Lex spluttered.
"I know."
"And Batman--" Lex said, wide-eyed. He knew the League chattered like old biddies with a juicy tidbit of gossip.
"I know."
"How could she not have heard about-- ...And she thinks you kept it from her on purpose?" Mind-boggling, Lex thought, and Clark agreed.
"I couldn't convince her otherwise, after I told her about what happened."
Lex stared at him. Then he said slowly, "You told her about what happened."
"I had to." Pause, then. "I couldn't lie to her."
"...What exactly are we referring to here."
Clark looked at him evenly, and then Lex got it.
"...That isn't fair, it wasn't really-- I was just... and you didn't do anything--"
"That doesn't matter. She holds me to the standard I hold myself to."
Lex sat quietly for awhile, speechless, and then groping blindly for something to say, before finally coming up with: "...She sleeps around during your break-ups, you know." And from Lex's tone he made it clear that he thought that half the reason for those breakups was that sometimes Lois decided that she wanted to do just that.
"Yes, I know," Clark replied noncommittally.
Lex looked like he wanted to shoot someone, and it wasn't hard to guess who. "I can't believe that she'd..."
Clark looked down at his hands.
"...be so stupid," Lex muttered, rubbing his temples. "She doesn't deserve you."
"I know."
Lex jerked his head up to stare at Clark. "What did you say?"
"Lex... --Look, I didn't really come here today to whine at you about how Lois is acting like a nutcase this week, ok? I wanted to know if you'd want..." -- stupid question, of course he did -- "if you'd be ok with having Conner spend the holiday with you again."
"You don't want to spend--?" Lex found that impossible to believe. Are you putting Lois before Conner? was even more impossible for him to contemplate.
"Lex, I have to work! If I take him with me to the Planet, she'll snipe at him whenever she sees him, regardless of whether I'm around because she'll think that I can't or won't defend him while I'm busy there doing... what I usually do..." Clark grimaced. "And without Lois on my side about it, Perry will yell about how the newspaper is not a daycare facility. I don't want him exposed to that sort of stress in a hostile environment. And without a decent place to stay, I can't leave Conner to his own devices at home in the daytime, either."
"Lois kicked you out again?" Lex snorted. "You really need a spare place to crash for when she--"
"I can't afford to pay half the rent and expenses and also keep even a hole-in-the-wall on the side on my salary, and even if I did somehow manage that, then Lois would complain that I wasn't taking the relationship seriously if I was keeping something like that, like I was planning a 'way out' or something, and dump me for that. Not that that matters anymore." At Lex's inquisitive look, Clark added, "Lois has made it clear that she doesn't want to spend the holiday season with me, so I'm giving her what she wants." And from his tone of voice, it was pretty clear that Clark was hoping she'd choke on it.
"Clark..." Lex took a breath, then added, "Of course Conner can stay with me." He paused for a beat, then added casually, "If you'd like to stay with us, too, you're more than welcome... assuming that the timetable for commute doesn't make anyone suspicious wherever we end up deciding on staying, of course."
Clark stared at Lex for a moment, because he knew damn well that Lex had meant it as a sincere gesture. "Lex, you do realize that if Lois finds out that her getting mad for me spending less than 24 hours with you and Conner ended up in me spending an entire month with you and Conner..."
"She's going to go ballistic?" Lex grinned.
"...You know, for a guy who's not evil, you sometimes bear a pretty close resemblance to it some days, in some ways," Clark pointed out dryly.
"I try," Lex said with humility. "Though... I'm sure Conner wasn't meaning to break you up," Lex dissembled, getting back to the start of their discussion.
"He was certainly surprised that that was the outcome from what happened," Clark said lightly.
"Clark--"
"I don't blame him, Lex. It's fine, really." And Clark didn't, not really. Not when he knew what Conner wanted, and why.
Unfortunately, Clark knew that, in this case, it was impossible to give Conner what he wanted.
Even if sometimes he wished for the exact same thing himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Conner was antsy, rocking from side to side as he watched the two of them talking.
"What're they saying, can you tell?" he asked Tim.
Tim shrugged. Conner grumbled and griped a little bit, but the fact that they were talking and obviously not fighting was a good sign, right?
"They should have a couch to sit on," Conner said. "That can't be comfortable."
"The roof has a helipad, Conner -- they can't just set up whatever they want."
"They could move it later," Conner pointed out. Then he frowned as the access door to the roof crashed open and a woman strode out onto the tarmac. "Hey, what?" he said in confusion. "Who the hell is that?!"
The duo from Young Justice sat there, shocked, as Lex and Superman scrambled upright, both looking surprised and no little bit shocked. At first Conner thought it must be a villain, because Clark moved in front of Lex a bit, his body language protective, and strode forward a few steps. But then, everything changed.
The woman didn't slow down, and strode right up to Clark, stopping inches away. Clark looked worried, then almost wary, then horrifically confused.
Then she wrapped her arms around Clark's neck and kissed him.
"Oh my god WHAT?!?!" Conner yelled. "She can't do that! Hey! Stop doing that! Somebody -- somebody needs to stop her--!" Then he paused and went still, and before Tim could stop him, Conner was gone.
Robin cursed under his breath and split his attention between watching the roof and scrolling through his portable datalink to try and figure out who the woman was.
"Oh fuck," Tim said, as he saw Conner burst onto the scene shortly thereafter.
When Tim's brain caught up to him and he realized that Lex was pale, expressionless, and that his hands had been slowly clenching into fists as he stared at the woman while she mauled Clark, he cross-referenced brunettes with both Clark and Lex.
When he got only a handful of matches, found the woman, and pulled up her Watchtower profile, the blood drained from his face so fast he felt faint.
"Conner, oh god -- Conner, pick up! Pick up!" he whispered frantically, hands shaking as he dialed Conner on their comm system.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You there! Interloping woman-lady-person! Get your hands off him! You're messing up my plan!" Conner yelled, pointing at the bitch who was ruining everything.
The petite little nothing turned to him with big doe-eyes and was still clinging to Clark. If Conner wasn't trying to be just bad instead of pure evil, he would've punched her in the face and not worried about whether she'd die with her brain matter all smeared across his fist andwow ok, he was really taking the thinking-villainous-thoughts thing maybe just a little too far.
Clark and Lex looked at him blankly, and for a moment Conner felt exposed. He fought the urge to check to make sure he really was wearing the ski mask and the serial-killer-type hockey mask over that (lined with lead, because he wasn't stupid) and black leather jacket and army cargo pants and spiked gloves. They couldn't know it was him, right? He was using a voice-changer and wearing different clothes and everything!
"Who are you?" the woman asked, sounding almost bored. Like he was totally beneath her notice somehow, and no threat at all.
To hell with that.
"I'm the baddest villain you're ever gonna lay your sorry-ass eyes on, and if you don't disappear yourself in two seconds, I'm gonna rip you off him and..." drat, he couldn't toss her off the roof, Clark would feel like he'd have to dive after her and catch her, and that would just involve more clinging! "And you will know pain." Right, because evil did that sort of thing, and evil was freaking terrifying and just the sort of thing to scare her off. The worst villainy was evil, and did pain-things, and he was vague and didn't have to specify how much, so it was in-character for his villainy trial-week. Could be a papercut, could involve knives of something. She wouldn't know.
But she didn't react properly at all -- all she did was smile again and said, "No."
Conner couldn't possibly have heard her right.
"...No?" Conner growled dangerously.
Lex stepped closer to Conner and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. Conner looked at him in confusion. "Don't--" Lex whispered.
"No. He's my boyfriend and I'm not going anywhere."
Conner and Lex both turned and stared at her.
Lex, startled, let go of Conner.
"The hell he is!" Conner yelled, seeing red.
When the haze cleared, Conner was panting, arms outstretched, both Clark and Lex were yelling, and the bitch was half-embedded in the wall next to the access door in front of him.
"I-- I--" Conner stammered.
Then she raised her head, curled her fingers around the edges of the hole, and pulled herself out of the wall, looking vaguely annoyed.
"Uh..." Conner said, not sure whether he felt relieved or not.
Then he heard his comm chiming and raised his hand to his ear. ::Conner, you have got to get out of there! That's Lana!:: Tim's voice told him, sounding frantic, and that was weird because Tim never sounded freaked out.
"Who?"
He watched Lana stalk a bit towards him, watched Clark speed over to check to make sure she was ok and offer apologies, got mad all over again.
::Lana Lang, Lex's ex-wife and Clark's ex-girlfriend and -- look, she has this crazy super-suit-skin thing and is practically invulnerable and she's been off the radar. Deep off.::
"Oh, yeah? You don't say. Kind got the invulnerability thing from watching her being able to get half-punched through a wall without a scratch. What else you got."
Tim didn't skip a beat. ::Batman thinks she might have been killing people, but there's no proof. She's got Kryptonite radiation embedded in her skin -- you have to get away from her -- she hates Lex!::
"Really?" Then Conner got a slow grin. "Great, I didn't really need another reason to punch her into next week, but sure. Awesome. No K on her though, I feel fine, but thanks for the heads-up."
"Conner!" Lex exclaimed, grabbing his arm and pulling him backwards away from Lana, and Lex was looking at him like he couldn't decide whether to yell at him or shake him until he rattled. "Stop this right now!"
::No, Conner, wait! -- if she finds out who you are, she's going to ki--!::
Conner flipped the comm off again.
"...Conner?" Lana said, looking between Lex and Conner. "Your little mini-me clone-monster version of Clark?" she said lightly, like she was discussing how pleasant the weather was that day.
"Lana..." Clark protested tiredly, turning to her. But he hadn't seen the expression that had flitted across her face. Conner did, and he might've missed it if he hadn't had super-speed. He wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but he felt a shiver go up his spine.
But apparently Lex hadn't missed it, either, because Lex's hand suddenly clenched down around Conner's arm so hard he would've had bruises if he'd not had Kryptonian DNA in the mix. Then Lex's heart skipped a beat for a moment, then was thrumming away rabbit-fast.
And Conner hesitated. Because Lex was acting like... like he was afraid of her. And that was insane.
And that was when he realized how dangerous she really was.
Ex-this, ex-that, messing around between them? Forcing them apart?
No. Nobody messed with his family. Nobody.
Conner tore off the hockey mask and ski mask in quick succession and tossed them at the tarmac. "You do not threaten my father," he snarled, shrugging Lex off and stepping forward, fists out.
Bitch was going down. Hurt his parents again, would she?
Over his dead body.
Then everything went wrong.
Lana was suddenly in front of him, almost faster than he could blink.
Conner's eyes widened, because Tim hadn't said anything about super-speed.
Then she whipped out a knife -- a glowing, green knife -- and Conner felt pain unimaginable.
And then he hit the ground.
He stared up at Clark, who was standing in front of him.
Who then fell to his knees and onto his side.
Conner shakily scrambled to sit up, and then he saw the handle of the blade jutting from Superman's chest.
Conner screamed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex barely had time to think.
Lana smiled at him, eyes dark. God help him, if he'd known that she hated him so much that she'd do this, just to get to him--
He'd have killed her. Would've torn out his own heart doing so, but he'd have done it.
She could use super-speed, but she wasn't. She walked towards him, taking her time. Enjoying it. The feeling of power. Life and death hers to decide.
Lex remembered what Clark had once said about evil, and felt horrifically sick.
He'd done this to her, caught her up between him and Lionel.
Lex had had Clark, for such a long time, but Lana? She'd had no-one. Least of all him. He couldn't be trusted, hadn't been able to be her light against the dark.
Lionel had eaten her alive, and he hadn't seen it.
And now she was poison, and he'd made Clark see that.
Except she'd shown up at the worst possible moment, having somehow de-irradiated herself, and Clark had let his guard down.
And she'd struck like a viper in the dark, all that poison on the inside still there, all the more potent for having had more time to distill in the heat of white-hot anger.
He had planned for this, having to confront her. He had known she'd be back eventually. He'd thought he'd been ready for her. But he had never expected this, he realized, fighting the urge to glance down at Clark, to run over to him, to curl into a little ball and scream.
Lex backed up a step, two. Lana's almost vacant smile widened slightly. He pointedly did not look at Conner. He had to keep her attention on himself, and away from Conner, if he was going to have any chance.
The last thing he needed was for Lana to think of pulling the knife out of Clark and using it again, to take Conner out of commission as well. Possibly permanently, and he struck the thought from his mind before it paralyzed him, prevented him from acting.
Bored with the stalking game finally, Lana blinked into existence right in front of his nose and wrapped a hand around his neck.
Even prepared for it, waiting for it, Lex was barely able to react in time.
As she lifted him off his feet, he slid the aerosol mask into his hand and slapped it over her nose and mouth, right before she squeezed.
He saw black for a moment, heard a cracking noise, and coughed, his knees hurting as his vision swam back into focus.
Conner had her by the wrist, had squeezed hard enough to make her drop him... by super-strength standards. Her right wrist looked like jelly in his grip.
She hissed at him like a feral thing.
His son flicked her at the ground so hard she bounced. Tears were running down his cheeks, but his face had no expression. And then he--
Lex launched himself at Conner, encircling him in his arms, squeezing so hard he felt his own ribs ache. "STOP!" he yelled, hoarsely.
Conner twitched, but his hands, encompassing Lana's throat, did not tighten further.
"She killed him," Conner croaked, shaking as he fought an internal war over a decision that Lex had long prayed Conner would never have to confront.
"No, Conner."
"She killed.. she killed dad, she needs to die."
"Conner, let go!" Lex said raspingly with as much authority as he could muster.
"She'll kill again, she was going to kill you, she--"
"No, she won't. It's done. Undone. You see her skin?" Lex babbled smoothly, trying to project calm. The outer layer of 'skin' -- the suit -- was already beginning to turn grey and crack. "It won't work anymore. She's not invulnerable now. She has no powers of any kind. She cannot take any sort of punishment, and if you do not let go you will kill her."
"Good," Conner said hoarsely.
"Conner -- you have to let go!"
"No!" his grip started to tighten.
"Clark needs you!"
Conner gasped and jerked away in automatic reflex. "Wh- wh- no- he- you-" His eyes were rolling around in his head, and Lex pulled him backwards to his chest, wrapped an arm around his head, got Lana's prone form out of his line-of-sight.
"You need to get Clark to the Watchtower. He's not dead. He's survived worse. But he needs help now."
"I-- he-- ...n-not dead?" And Conner's eyes went from blank and dead to shocky but at least somewhat there.
"No, he's not," Lex said, pulling Conner upright and over to Clark's prone, motionless body. Conner whimpered as Lex kneeled next to him and pulled the Kryptonite knife from Clark's necrotic flesh with a sickening sucking sound, then tossed it to the edge of the roof. It hit the lining wall hard. "Take the stairwell, try not to jostle him. Grab Emil as soon as you're there, tell him Clark was stabbed with twenty grams of triple-refined green-K, one-minute-twenty duration. He'll know what to do."
Conner staggered, fell to his knees from even the short exposure, but gathered himself back together quickly, scooped Clark up, and sped off.
And Lex was left alone on the roof of LexCorp Towers with Lana's slowly-stirring form.
He clenched his fists on his knees and could not think of a single reason why Lana should not die horribly.
He slowly levered himself to his feet, pulled a semiautomatic from his shoulder holster, and turned in one smooth motion, raising the gun to unload the clip into her skull.
He didn't pull the trigger.
But only because a child was barring the way.
"Drake, you have balls, and I respect that, but if you do not move I will shoot through you."
"Conner will never forgive you if you do," Tim said, voice shaking.
Without warning, Lex took Tim down in three lightning-fast punches to the neck and skull, and snarled, "Fine!" leaving him sprawled on the ground. Conner might not have understood Lex killing Tim in the heat of the moment, but he would understand this. Lana was still dangerous, and Lex wanted Conner to feel safe. Be safe. He turned back to his task.
But Lana was already starting to sit up, and Lex had to mentally clamp down on a scream, because this would have been so much easier if she hadn't been conscious. And then he was stalled even further, because while the boy was too dazed to get back to his feet, he was still able to grab Lex's leg.
"N-no. St-stop. You... you stopped Conner... because... it was wrong."
Lex pulled the slide back, felt the first round click into the chamber. "I stopped Conner because I did not want my son to become a killer."
He grabbed Robin and shoved the boy off of him. He hit a few feet away, rolled limply, and didn't move again.
"You won't shoot," Lana scoffed, smiling like she knew a secret that she could bury him with. "You still love me. You couldn't do it then, and you can't do it now."
"I didn't want to shoot you then, because I loved you then. I loved you still, even when you framed me for murder." His voice shook. "I loved you still, even when you were with Clark, because at first I thought you loved him. At first, I thought he made you happy, until I realized you were just using him. You hurt him, and me, and me through him. I could not repair what I had damaged with him, because of you." And the old hurt reared its ugly head. "And when you were sick, I tried to help. And when the aliens were rampant, I tried to move you away from the danger that follows both Clark and myself everywhere we go. And even when you were searching for me, when I was sick and dying, to try and kill me, I loved you, and I hid myself in shadows and spread false trails yet set no traps. And when you were dismantling my company around my ears, I loved you, and did not fight back. When you stole from me, again, not just money, but the best hope I had of survival, I loved you, and I did not set the wolves on you as I did the others. I had the means to disable the suit, even then. I could have had you killed, easily. I only did my best to separate you from Clark, without delay, because I knew I might not survive the surgeries, the clone organ donations, and that it would take years if it worked at all. You two were never meant to be together, you were not safe with him, or he with you, and you were killing him by inches just to spite me." Lex whispered. "But no, I do not love you now. Not anymore," Lex ended, and then his voice was steel. "You threatened my son, and you are nothing to me now." He raised the barrel, and felt no pleasure as Lana's face went blank with shock.
And Robin slammed into him from the side.
Lex staggered, snarled, fought him off, grabbed the slight, too-small boy up almost off of his feet, and snarled, "Tim!"
Then he saw a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye. Gun. Lana.
Lana, with a gun.
Damnit!
He pulled Tim backwards, raising his own gun, but he knew he'd fire too late--
And that was when Batman slammed into Lana's back from above, ploughing her face-first into the concrete. The gun clattered away.
Lex stared at Bruce in shock for a moment.
"Where the hell did you come from, an airplane?!?" LexCorp was the tallest building in a twelve-block area, he couldn't have ziplined over and up from above -- there was no above.
"You're welcome," Bruce grumbled.
"I am not fucking thanking you, you can go find another rooftop where she's isn't! I am killing her."
"The League is taking her into custody."
"The League can go to hell! She is either dying here, or dying in jail, and since I have no faith in the judicial system at this point, guess which option we're going with today!"
Batman was tracking the firearm Lex was waving about in his rage, and so help him, if Bruce tried to batarang the blasted thing out of his hand...
"You are not shooting her," Batman growled, adamantly.
Lex took a deep breath and counted to ten, and reminded himself that attempting to shoot Bruce in the head was probably a bad idea and that there were reasons why he didn't pull that shit, even if he was having trouble remembering them at the moment.
"You are not handing her over to the League. She has friends there. She will disappear. Again. And then come back to finish the job. I will not have her slitting Conner's throat because of your ineptitude."
"They will not--"
"Tess hates me, loves screwing with me, and will sympathize with Lana. So will Chloe, except that she would also throw her more considerable tech skills behind her. Oliver would give her a fucking medal and ask for an engraved invitation to the party. Is that enough of the main roster there, or need I continue?"
Batman was silent.
"None of them will think farther than their noses to realize what has already happened to Clark and Conner was her doing, and somehow I doubt that most of them will particularly care or otherwise worry that it will happen again when they side with her. So the League is out. I'll turn her over to my security staff," Lex said. "I'm fairly confident that Tess and Oliver no longer have any moles in that department, at least."
"No. Too little oversight. I will take her to Arkham."
"Arkham is a revolving door for anybody with a sob story and a halfway-convincing lie. She'll be back out on the street faster than if you handed her to the League."
They glared at each other for awhile.
"Smallville," Batman offered.
Lex frowned at him.
"The police department there is used to dealing with metahumans, and they already know of her past with you."
"They threw me under the bus thinking I'd murdered her. She's duped them before."
"Exactly. They know that she gave false accusations against you. They will not listen to her lies this time."
Lex sucked in a breath. It was risky. Risky, especially since, once she hit the state level, she'd eventually run into the same corrupt part of the system and public officials that had let Lionel go free, but...
"Fine. But if something happens and she goes free, her life is forfeit, and I will also be holding you personally responsible. All bets off. And she has to stay in-state. No letting the Feds pull her out to be tried elsewhere. I want her to get the death penalty."
"What? But there's no proof that she's killed anyone," Tim said, craning his neck up at Lex.
"She killed Clark. Superman. That ought to be enough."
Tim's eyes went wide. "You told Conner--"
"I needed Conner away. The chances that Clark will survive that are actually astronomically low." Lex grimaced. "The blade only started glowing again after I pulled it out. It was reacting to Conner, not Clark. He was dead."
"He has come back from worse before," Batman stated.
"Only with nearly-divine alien intervention."
Batman frowned, then tied up Lana and gave Robin his official marching orders: "Escort Mr. Luthor to the Watchtower. He will want to see how the Kryptonians are faring."
In the time it took Lex to glance down at Tim, curl his lip, then glance back up to raise his voice in protest -- he knew perfectly well where watchtower was and he didn't need a pint-sized bodyguard to take him there -- Batman had vanished.
"Jerk," Lex grumbled. "Hate it when he does that." He holstered his sidearm.
"...You really aren't so bad, are you?" Tim said slowly.
"Excuse me?" Lex said, turning and glaring down at Tim, offended in the extreme. Was he not paying attention when Lex had beaten him into the ground not five minutes earlier? Or during any of the other encounters he'd had with Young Justice?
"Well, when Miss Lang was going to shoot, why didn't you use me as a shield?" Tim asked quietly.
Lex stared down at him.
"I've got Kevlar body-armor," Tim pointed out.
Lex said, finally. "Obviously I wasn't thinking clearly."
Tim smiled.
"You brats think you're so damn smart," Lex growled. "I dare you to try that shit with me once you hit the age of majority. I will shoot you in the ass."
"I hope not, I bet that'd hurt."
Lex didn't care that Batman might be watching. He smacked Tim upside the head anyway.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tim was a little impressed and a little freaked that when Lex insisted on taking the elevator up, it recognized "Luthor, Alexander" as a validated user.
Lex just smirked. Gaining respect, one hacker to another? Ah, the simple pleasures in life.
Then he lost the smirk when the thought hit him of what state Conner was probably going to be in when he got to the top floor.
He steeled himself as the doors opened and he strode into the central area. Tess was by the main terminal, her back turned. Conner was hovering nervously over by the couches, moving around in little bursts of super-speed and unable to sit still. Oliver was over by the big window, showing Mia some trick with a bow.
Conner saw him first. Lex ignored everyone else as he headed towards him.
"DAD!" he yelled, throwing himself into Lex's arms. Lex grabbed him up in a hug by sheer reflex. He saw Tess' head whip around and her mouth drop open in shock before he mentally dismissed her completely, opting to focus on his son instead. Conner started babbling far too fast for Lex to make heads or tails of anything he was saying, but he didn't seem nearly as sad or distraught as he ought to be if...
Lex's eyes widened. He pulled away, caught Conner's head in his hands and stilled him.
"Conner, where is Clark?"
The next he was aware of his location, Conner was letting go of him and they were standing next to a gurney. Emil was standing off to the side, tiding things up on a tray, and Clark...
Clark was sitting upright, half-out of uniform, with his torso swathed in bandages. He turned, wincing a little at the motion, caught sight of Lex, and blushed a little sheepishly.
"Uh, hi," Clark said.
Lex swayed and nearly collapsed in relief. Then the anger took over, and he marched forward, slid up onto the bed, grabbed Clark by the shoulders, pulled him forward, then wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and kissed him.
Lex was shaking when he finally pulled away.
"Um," said Clark, having mostly just sat there through the kiss-to-the-forehead. He slowly curled an arm around Lex's waist and looked up at him with a slightly puzzled look on his face.
"Idiot. It's called dodging. Learn some basic goddamn self defense," Lex growled out hoarsely.
"...Ok?"
Lex was not going to cry. He refused to.
Conner wavered a little by the edge of the bed, and both Clark and Lex each snagged an arm and pulled him in. the three of them ended up in what Lex recognized as the canonical 'Kent family group hug'.
He'd always wondered what one of those felt like. It felt kind of... nice.
Lex heard a discreet cough and they all finally looked up.
Dr. Emil Hamilton looked down his glasses at Clark. "This shouldn't bear repeating, but you are off hero duty for the foreseeable future. That magic poultice was a last-resort, and Zatanna warned me that it could not be used twice on the same injury. If I understood her correctly in how it works, you are probably going to be powerless for the duration it takes to heal completely as all of your body's resources go into healing you instead of anything else."
"But I feel fine now," Clark protested.
"That is the magic holding you together while you heal. You are not fine, Clark. If you overdo it, the spell will unravel without enough of your body's vital life energies to sustain it, though don't ask me what those are -- I've not been able to get a straight answer out of Zatanna yet," Emil sighed. "Don't go anywhere near any mages or witchcraft, because if they dispel it you'll fall over half-dead, with your wound just as bad as it was when you arrived. This magic is all-or-nothing, apparently: it only stops when you're completely healed, and if it is broken at any point in-between, well..."
Clark grimaced, Lex felt worried, but Conner just smiled and looked a little excited.
"Does this mean you'll be spending all of Christmas with me?" Conner asked, bright-eyed.
Clark blinked at him, then glanced at Lex. "Um..."
"We'll be staying in the penthouse, and Clark will be on strict bedrest," Lex said firmly. When Clark looked like he was going to protest, Lex gave him the hairy eyeball.
"You learned that from mom," Clark griped, but he didn't argue.
~*~*~*~*~*~
On to Part 3