Just Let Us Get This Out - August 12th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 12
Title: Just Let Us Get This Out
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Athena tries to reconcile her expanding understanding of the world - and the universe.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 8 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep3 “Hothead”
Characters: Athena, Lana, Clark, Martha, Jonathan
Word Count: 2565
“What are you reading?” Lana asked as she sat down next to Athena at lunch.
Athena started slightly. She closed the book and looked at Lana. “Sorry, just an old journal.” An odd, handwritten journal that tried to explain the mythic Vampire Slayer in simple terms. It helped to quantify what she should be able to do. Like jump vertically over six feet. “Aren’t you supposed to be in uniform? Isn’t today the big game?”
“Yeah, no, I sorta quit cheerleading,” Lana admitted. “I got a job at the Beanery.”
“Are you the pretty, brilliant barista who doesn’t know a cappuccino from an espresso?”
Lana winced. “So you heard?”
“No, it was Lex’s excuse for why he brought me the wrong kind of coffee.”
She blushed and looked at the table.
“It just means the world is a little odder than I thought,” Athena admitted. “Mysterious fires, you’re no longer a cheerleader, Clark is playing football…”
“Are you going to see him play?”
“Since I’m avoiding my father while he and Lex are arguing, yes, I’m using any excuse to not go home.”
“Well, how about I give you one more?” Lana offered. “I’ll meet you after the game and we can have a sleepover at my place.”
“That sounds great,” Athena agreed.
88888888
“Good luck.”
Clark spun to look at Athena who was standing behind him. She was staring up at him oddly, as though trying to decipher something about him.
“Thank you,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she told him. “About before.”
“You thought you were different,” he said. “It probably wasn’t an easy thing to admit.”
“I am different.” She lifted a hand to forestall his words. “I’m coming to terms with that. I just wanted you to know that I’m coming to the game. I like to support my friends.”
Clark watched her walk away. He wanted to go after her, but he needed to talk to one of the football players about the coach. And he needed the answers before someone got hurt.
88888888
Athena sat on the bleachers as the crowd cheered for the team coming out onto the field. It was some kind of big deal that if the team won it would be the 200th win for the coach.
“Athena,” Martha’s voice made her look up.
“Mrs. Kent. Mr. Kent,” she greeted with a genuine smile.
“Can we join you?”
“Yes, of course,” she scooted over a bit.
Martha sat right next to her. “We haven’t seen you in a little while.”
“Clark and I are having a thing,” Athena admitted. “We can’t see eye to eye.”
“Give him time, he may surprise you.”
Athena nodded.
“Where is Clark?” Jonathan asked.
“I don’t know.” She frowned, she could not sense him nearby. She closed her eyes and did as the journal suggested, guiding her senses towards the field. But she still could not find him.
Jonathan got up, looking around for Clark. He headed toward the field to ask Pete.
Athena tried to block out the crowd and the game. Calming her heart, she tried what the journal called expanding awareness. Slowly, she became aware of Clark’s signature. It was in the school.
She opened her eyes and shot to her feet. She could not easily get out of the crowded, concrete surrounded bleachers. Looking around she found an alternative route. She took two large steps across the bleachers, barely avoiding other people, until she was on the narrow front concrete ledge. Some people gasped at her antics. She ran for the edge and jumped off just past the cheerleaders.
Athena reached the sidelines to hear the coach taunting Jonathan about Clark not knowing how to win. She grabbed Jonathan’s elbow and started pulling him towards the school.
“Athena-”
“He’s somewhere in there,” she told him once they were far enough from others.
“How do you know?”
“I can sense Clark. I don’t know why but I can. He’s this way.” She led him into the school and turned right towards the boys’ locker rooms. She did not even hesitate entering.
“Clark?” Jonathan called.
“In there,” Athena pointed towards an office.
Jonathan ran in and looked through a small window on a sauna. “Clark!” he pulled at the handle, but it was locked.
Athena grabbed the handle, snapping it completely off. She grabbed the door and ripped the entire thing off its hinges. She dropped it to the side.
“Clark!” Jonathan ran into the small hot room.
Clark muttered something.
“Come on,” Jonathan said, pulling his son up.
Athena ran over and wedged herself under Clark’s other side. Together they got him out of the office. Almost immediately Clark’s breathing came easier.
“Aahhhhh!”Jonathan yelled as something clanged. He tumbled, taking Clark with him.
Athena turned, finding herself face to face with the coach. He had a fire extinguisher raised as a weapon. She grabbed it and threw it across the room. Coach’s eye widened in surprise for only a moment before he ran for her. She reacted, delivering a kick to his side, sending him flying into the wall away from Clark and Jonathan.
Clark stood. “You okay?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Fine. Get my dad out of here.”
“What about him?” she asked, looking at the coach who was struggling to sit up.
“That’s up to him,” Clark replied.
“I’ll get your dad to the medic,” Athena promised. She lifted the unconscious Jonathan and hefted him over her shoulder. She headed out of the locker room. As she turned towards the main door she head a scream of rage. Then silence. Smoke was coming from the locker room.
88888888
Athena stood on the field with a bag over her shoulder. The stadium was empty and the lights mostly off. The team had won, without Clark or their coach. And the coach had ended up an odd little crisp in the locker room showers.
She felt Clark walk onto the field behind her.
“My dad said you led him right to me,” Clark said once he was a few feet from her.
“I can sense you,” she told him boldly. “I can tell when you’re nearby. That’s how I found you strung up in the field on homecoming. I could sense you.”
“You pulled a door off, too.”
“And sent another guy across the room.” She turned to look at him. “Do you believe me yet?”
Clark nodded. “You’re much stronger than you appear.” He swallowed. “And you think it was the meteor rocks?”
“I did, but I’ve been told that isn’t the reason.” She reached into her bag and withdrew the journal. “I’ve read this several times since I got it. I’m still trying to figure it out, but everything it says…I’m able to do more than I knew.”
She held out the journal.
Clark reached for it. “Why are you giving this to me?”
“I’ve come to terms with who - with what I am. You may be something in there. It may not answer questions you thought you had, but it may lead you to someone who can.” She looked up at him a moment then turned to go.
“Wait,” he grabbed her wrist. “Thank you. For saving me, for helping my dad.”
She glanced at him. “It’s what I do.”
88888888
Clark finished the journal for the second time and closed it.
“You read that book all night,” his mom said. “Did you even go to bed?”
“Uh, um, no.” He looked at the window where the early rays of dawn were visible.
“Are you okay, Clark?”
“No,” he replied. “Athena gave me this book.”
“What is it?” she asked as she started putting together the ingredients for breakfast.
Clark joined her in the kitchen. “It’s a journal. It describes someone called the Slayer.” He set the journal on the counter. “Along with being strong and fast, the Slayer is always female and can sense demons and vampires.”
Martha paused. “Demons? Vampires?” she shook her head.
“Mom, there is a spaceship in the cellar.” He watched her. “People are mutating from exposure to meteor rocks.” He sighed. “Somehow this isn’t a stretch anymore.”
Martha watched her son, but he was serious and looked worried. “So Athena thinks she’s this Slayer?”
“I think so.” He opened the journal to one of the sticky note pages. “And because she can sense me, she thinks I’m a demon.” The sticky note had his initials and a question mark.
“Clark…”
“I know I’m not a demon,” he replied. “But she knows I’m not human.”
Martha’s face fell as she considered the implications.
“Look,” he slid the journal across the countertop for her to read.
“Vampires Slayers are the single greatest force of Light in the world. This may be the reason for their short lifespans, they simply burn out quickly.” She frowned. “Short lifespans?”
“The journal says these girls - or women - rarely live more than a year after they become Slayers.”
“Why did she give this to you?”
“Because she thought I would want to know one or both my biological parents may be demons…” he guessed. He turned to a page about demons with a question mark on a sticky: C.K. full or half demon?
Martha’s eyes passed over the journal in alarm. “Was this a warning? It says here Slayer destroy demons and vampires.”
“No.” He pulled the journal back. “There is an entire section on different types of demons and that only those who are harmful to humans should be the concern of the Slayer.”
She sighed. “We need to talk to your father about this.”
88888888
Athena walked from Lana’s house late in the afternoon. After spending the night talking, they had spent the morning in the stables, Lana bemoaning the loss of her job after only a week. Athena grinned. She liked Lana. The girl was just as lost as she felt.
Athena wondered if being lost was just a teenage thing and had nothing to do with being the Slayer. Or realizing that her friend was a demon. Maybe it had nothing to do with trying to figure out if she should tell Lex about what she discovered. Or even with the decision to call Angel for clarification about the journal. Maybe it had nothing to do with trying to reconcile the Luthor and Slayer parts of her, at war over basic philosophies.
She looked up as she approached the Kent Farm. She headed towards the house, where she could feel Clark’s presence. On the porch, she rapped on the door.
It was only a moment before the door swung open to reveal Martha. “Athena.” She waved her inside.
“Hi,” Athena greeted politely. “I’m sorry to-”
The words died in her throat when she saw Jonathan and Clark sitting at the table with her journal. She looked at the three of them in surprise.
“Athena,” Clark said as he stood.
“Did you already know?” she asked Martha then looked at Clark. “Did you?”
“He’s…Clark’s not a demon,” Jonathan said.
“But he’s not exactly human, is he?” she said.
They all looked away or shifted uncomfortably.
“I stumbled onto the family secret,” Athena realized.
Jonathan sighed and stood. “Perhaps we should talk about this.”
Athena nodded and sat down at the table next to Clark. The Kents retook their seats.
“This is something we have kept secret for Clark’s entire life,” Martha started. “We didn’t even tell Clark until a few weeks ago.”
“And we’re not comfortable sharing it with anyone,” Jonathan said.
“Especially a Luthor,” Athena guessed.
“Anyone,” Clark said. “Pete has been my best friend for most of my life and he doesn’t even know.”
“And I probably never would have suspected a thing, except I’m the Slayer,” she told them. She looked at Clark. “Do you run really fast?”
“What?”
“Sometimes, I don’t feel you approach or walk away so much as just appear and disappear. Like in the corn field, you were there, then just gone.”
Clark took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“But you’re not one of the meteor affected, since I couldn’t sense Greg the bug boy or the football coach.”
Martha put a hand on Athena’s arm. “This is going to be easier if you let us explain, instead of guessing.”
“Sorry.” She forcibly calmed herself.
“I came to Earth in the meteor shower of ’89,” Clark said.
Athena felt her jaw descend slightly at the information. The attempt to close it took more cognitive power than she thought possible.
“As a toddler, Clark developed incredible strength. And at six, he started running so fast as to not be seen,” Jonathan explained. “We’ve taught him to keep these abilities a secret.”
“I can understand why,” she admitted. “I haven’t even figured out how to tell my brother I could bench press the piano in his office.” She looked at Clark. “Your swoon-y episodes…just your alien physiology not agreeing with something here?”
“Something like that,” Martha agreed. “We haven’t found the cause. Changing location normally solves the problem.”
Athena nodded. “Wow…”
88888888
Clark and Athena walked the field, Clark was checking the fences for damage.
“This has been a strange week,” Athena said. “I spent half the week thinking I was going to be dropping a bomb in your lap about your paternity.”
“Only to find out I’m weirder than that?”
“Hi there, mystical warrior for the Light, remember? I’m likely to be dead before the end of a year. I think we could go back and forth for a while about who is weirder.”
“You’ve been very calm about all this.”
“I thought you were a demon, this isn’t that far off.” She rubbed her head. “Makes my universe a little bigger than it was when I realized vampires were real.”
“How did you get the journal?”
“Some do-gooder vampire,” she said. “He was getting sick because everything was meteor laced. He wanted me to come with him, learn about the Slayer, protect people.”
“But you decided to stay in Smallville.”
“I think we have all we can handle right here, even if they aren’t demons.” She exhaled, throwing her shoulders back and tilting her head towards the fading light. “Did Lex actually hit you?”
“Yeah, at sixty miles an hour.”
Athena sighed and looked at him. “And you still saved him.”
“You were mad and still saved me,” he pointed out.
“I wasn’t mad. I was…hurt. Now I’m just mildly annoyed. But I get why you wouldn’t want people to be changed by the meteors.” She watched him flinch. “Guilt, eating at you?”
“How’d you know?”
“Luthor children are ridiculously self-flagellating,” she explained. “We recognize it in others.” She pulled him to a stop. “We have to agree to keep this secret. I understand why you told your parents, given what I suspected about your origins. But no one else can know.”
He nodded. “That means not telling your brother or your father.”
She sighed. “My father would think that I have my mother’s madness.”
“Madness?”
“Julian - my twin - and I were six weeks old when my mother smothered him for seemingly no reason,” Athena said in one breath. “Lex was seven at the time, he took me and hid under the desk in Father’s office. Protected me in case she tried to come after me too.”
Clark’s eyes widened.
“Since then, my father has always been watching for signs that I’m unstable. Somehow, I think saying anything about the supernatural or extraterrestrial would rank up there.” She rubbed her hands together. “And in some way or another, Lex has spent my whole life trying to protect me. How would I tell my protective big brother that I’m a superhero who, based on the data Angel provided, won’t live to see sixteen?”
Clark shook his head, no answer coming to him.
Thank you for reading. Reviews are always appreciated. I hope this was an interesting twist on the Clark's an alien reveal - I wanted something compelling. And you can't fool Slayer senses just by saying "it's nothing just a figment of your imagination."
Title: Just Let Us Get This Out
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Athena tries to reconcile her expanding understanding of the world - and the universe.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 8 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep3 “Hothead”
Characters: Athena, Lana, Clark, Martha, Jonathan
Word Count: 2565
“What are you reading?” Lana asked as she sat down next to Athena at lunch.
Athena started slightly. She closed the book and looked at Lana. “Sorry, just an old journal.” An odd, handwritten journal that tried to explain the mythic Vampire Slayer in simple terms. It helped to quantify what she should be able to do. Like jump vertically over six feet. “Aren’t you supposed to be in uniform? Isn’t today the big game?”
“Yeah, no, I sorta quit cheerleading,” Lana admitted. “I got a job at the Beanery.”
“Are you the pretty, brilliant barista who doesn’t know a cappuccino from an espresso?”
Lana winced. “So you heard?”
“No, it was Lex’s excuse for why he brought me the wrong kind of coffee.”
She blushed and looked at the table.
“It just means the world is a little odder than I thought,” Athena admitted. “Mysterious fires, you’re no longer a cheerleader, Clark is playing football…”
“Are you going to see him play?”
“Since I’m avoiding my father while he and Lex are arguing, yes, I’m using any excuse to not go home.”
“Well, how about I give you one more?” Lana offered. “I’ll meet you after the game and we can have a sleepover at my place.”
“That sounds great,” Athena agreed.
88888888
“Good luck.”
Clark spun to look at Athena who was standing behind him. She was staring up at him oddly, as though trying to decipher something about him.
“Thank you,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she told him. “About before.”
“You thought you were different,” he said. “It probably wasn’t an easy thing to admit.”
“I am different.” She lifted a hand to forestall his words. “I’m coming to terms with that. I just wanted you to know that I’m coming to the game. I like to support my friends.”
Clark watched her walk away. He wanted to go after her, but he needed to talk to one of the football players about the coach. And he needed the answers before someone got hurt.
88888888
Athena sat on the bleachers as the crowd cheered for the team coming out onto the field. It was some kind of big deal that if the team won it would be the 200th win for the coach.
“Athena,” Martha’s voice made her look up.
“Mrs. Kent. Mr. Kent,” she greeted with a genuine smile.
“Can we join you?”
“Yes, of course,” she scooted over a bit.
Martha sat right next to her. “We haven’t seen you in a little while.”
“Clark and I are having a thing,” Athena admitted. “We can’t see eye to eye.”
“Give him time, he may surprise you.”
Athena nodded.
“Where is Clark?” Jonathan asked.
“I don’t know.” She frowned, she could not sense him nearby. She closed her eyes and did as the journal suggested, guiding her senses towards the field. But she still could not find him.
Jonathan got up, looking around for Clark. He headed toward the field to ask Pete.
Athena tried to block out the crowd and the game. Calming her heart, she tried what the journal called expanding awareness. Slowly, she became aware of Clark’s signature. It was in the school.
She opened her eyes and shot to her feet. She could not easily get out of the crowded, concrete surrounded bleachers. Looking around she found an alternative route. She took two large steps across the bleachers, barely avoiding other people, until she was on the narrow front concrete ledge. Some people gasped at her antics. She ran for the edge and jumped off just past the cheerleaders.
Athena reached the sidelines to hear the coach taunting Jonathan about Clark not knowing how to win. She grabbed Jonathan’s elbow and started pulling him towards the school.
“Athena-”
“He’s somewhere in there,” she told him once they were far enough from others.
“How do you know?”
“I can sense Clark. I don’t know why but I can. He’s this way.” She led him into the school and turned right towards the boys’ locker rooms. She did not even hesitate entering.
“Clark?” Jonathan called.
“In there,” Athena pointed towards an office.
Jonathan ran in and looked through a small window on a sauna. “Clark!” he pulled at the handle, but it was locked.
Athena grabbed the handle, snapping it completely off. She grabbed the door and ripped the entire thing off its hinges. She dropped it to the side.
“Clark!” Jonathan ran into the small hot room.
Clark muttered something.
“Come on,” Jonathan said, pulling his son up.
Athena ran over and wedged herself under Clark’s other side. Together they got him out of the office. Almost immediately Clark’s breathing came easier.
“Aahhhhh!”Jonathan yelled as something clanged. He tumbled, taking Clark with him.
Athena turned, finding herself face to face with the coach. He had a fire extinguisher raised as a weapon. She grabbed it and threw it across the room. Coach’s eye widened in surprise for only a moment before he ran for her. She reacted, delivering a kick to his side, sending him flying into the wall away from Clark and Jonathan.
Clark stood. “You okay?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Fine. Get my dad out of here.”
“What about him?” she asked, looking at the coach who was struggling to sit up.
“That’s up to him,” Clark replied.
“I’ll get your dad to the medic,” Athena promised. She lifted the unconscious Jonathan and hefted him over her shoulder. She headed out of the locker room. As she turned towards the main door she head a scream of rage. Then silence. Smoke was coming from the locker room.
88888888
Athena stood on the field with a bag over her shoulder. The stadium was empty and the lights mostly off. The team had won, without Clark or their coach. And the coach had ended up an odd little crisp in the locker room showers.
She felt Clark walk onto the field behind her.
“My dad said you led him right to me,” Clark said once he was a few feet from her.
“I can sense you,” she told him boldly. “I can tell when you’re nearby. That’s how I found you strung up in the field on homecoming. I could sense you.”
“You pulled a door off, too.”
“And sent another guy across the room.” She turned to look at him. “Do you believe me yet?”
Clark nodded. “You’re much stronger than you appear.” He swallowed. “And you think it was the meteor rocks?”
“I did, but I’ve been told that isn’t the reason.” She reached into her bag and withdrew the journal. “I’ve read this several times since I got it. I’m still trying to figure it out, but everything it says…I’m able to do more than I knew.”
She held out the journal.
Clark reached for it. “Why are you giving this to me?”
“I’ve come to terms with who - with what I am. You may be something in there. It may not answer questions you thought you had, but it may lead you to someone who can.” She looked up at him a moment then turned to go.
“Wait,” he grabbed her wrist. “Thank you. For saving me, for helping my dad.”
She glanced at him. “It’s what I do.”
88888888
Clark finished the journal for the second time and closed it.
“You read that book all night,” his mom said. “Did you even go to bed?”
“Uh, um, no.” He looked at the window where the early rays of dawn were visible.
“Are you okay, Clark?”
“No,” he replied. “Athena gave me this book.”
“What is it?” she asked as she started putting together the ingredients for breakfast.
Clark joined her in the kitchen. “It’s a journal. It describes someone called the Slayer.” He set the journal on the counter. “Along with being strong and fast, the Slayer is always female and can sense demons and vampires.”
Martha paused. “Demons? Vampires?” she shook her head.
“Mom, there is a spaceship in the cellar.” He watched her. “People are mutating from exposure to meteor rocks.” He sighed. “Somehow this isn’t a stretch anymore.”
Martha watched her son, but he was serious and looked worried. “So Athena thinks she’s this Slayer?”
“I think so.” He opened the journal to one of the sticky note pages. “And because she can sense me, she thinks I’m a demon.” The sticky note had his initials and a question mark.
“Clark…”
“I know I’m not a demon,” he replied. “But she knows I’m not human.”
Martha’s face fell as she considered the implications.
“Look,” he slid the journal across the countertop for her to read.
“Vampires Slayers are the single greatest force of Light in the world. This may be the reason for their short lifespans, they simply burn out quickly.” She frowned. “Short lifespans?”
“The journal says these girls - or women - rarely live more than a year after they become Slayers.”
“Why did she give this to you?”
“Because she thought I would want to know one or both my biological parents may be demons…” he guessed. He turned to a page about demons with a question mark on a sticky: C.K. full or half demon?
Martha’s eyes passed over the journal in alarm. “Was this a warning? It says here Slayer destroy demons and vampires.”
“No.” He pulled the journal back. “There is an entire section on different types of demons and that only those who are harmful to humans should be the concern of the Slayer.”
She sighed. “We need to talk to your father about this.”
88888888
Athena walked from Lana’s house late in the afternoon. After spending the night talking, they had spent the morning in the stables, Lana bemoaning the loss of her job after only a week. Athena grinned. She liked Lana. The girl was just as lost as she felt.
Athena wondered if being lost was just a teenage thing and had nothing to do with being the Slayer. Or realizing that her friend was a demon. Maybe it had nothing to do with trying to figure out if she should tell Lex about what she discovered. Or even with the decision to call Angel for clarification about the journal. Maybe it had nothing to do with trying to reconcile the Luthor and Slayer parts of her, at war over basic philosophies.
She looked up as she approached the Kent Farm. She headed towards the house, where she could feel Clark’s presence. On the porch, she rapped on the door.
It was only a moment before the door swung open to reveal Martha. “Athena.” She waved her inside.
“Hi,” Athena greeted politely. “I’m sorry to-”
The words died in her throat when she saw Jonathan and Clark sitting at the table with her journal. She looked at the three of them in surprise.
“Athena,” Clark said as he stood.
“Did you already know?” she asked Martha then looked at Clark. “Did you?”
“He’s…Clark’s not a demon,” Jonathan said.
“But he’s not exactly human, is he?” she said.
They all looked away or shifted uncomfortably.
“I stumbled onto the family secret,” Athena realized.
Jonathan sighed and stood. “Perhaps we should talk about this.”
Athena nodded and sat down at the table next to Clark. The Kents retook their seats.
“This is something we have kept secret for Clark’s entire life,” Martha started. “We didn’t even tell Clark until a few weeks ago.”
“And we’re not comfortable sharing it with anyone,” Jonathan said.
“Especially a Luthor,” Athena guessed.
“Anyone,” Clark said. “Pete has been my best friend for most of my life and he doesn’t even know.”
“And I probably never would have suspected a thing, except I’m the Slayer,” she told them. She looked at Clark. “Do you run really fast?”
“What?”
“Sometimes, I don’t feel you approach or walk away so much as just appear and disappear. Like in the corn field, you were there, then just gone.”
Clark took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“But you’re not one of the meteor affected, since I couldn’t sense Greg the bug boy or the football coach.”
Martha put a hand on Athena’s arm. “This is going to be easier if you let us explain, instead of guessing.”
“Sorry.” She forcibly calmed herself.
“I came to Earth in the meteor shower of ’89,” Clark said.
Athena felt her jaw descend slightly at the information. The attempt to close it took more cognitive power than she thought possible.
“As a toddler, Clark developed incredible strength. And at six, he started running so fast as to not be seen,” Jonathan explained. “We’ve taught him to keep these abilities a secret.”
“I can understand why,” she admitted. “I haven’t even figured out how to tell my brother I could bench press the piano in his office.” She looked at Clark. “Your swoon-y episodes…just your alien physiology not agreeing with something here?”
“Something like that,” Martha agreed. “We haven’t found the cause. Changing location normally solves the problem.”
Athena nodded. “Wow…”
88888888
Clark and Athena walked the field, Clark was checking the fences for damage.
“This has been a strange week,” Athena said. “I spent half the week thinking I was going to be dropping a bomb in your lap about your paternity.”
“Only to find out I’m weirder than that?”
“Hi there, mystical warrior for the Light, remember? I’m likely to be dead before the end of a year. I think we could go back and forth for a while about who is weirder.”
“You’ve been very calm about all this.”
“I thought you were a demon, this isn’t that far off.” She rubbed her head. “Makes my universe a little bigger than it was when I realized vampires were real.”
“How did you get the journal?”
“Some do-gooder vampire,” she said. “He was getting sick because everything was meteor laced. He wanted me to come with him, learn about the Slayer, protect people.”
“But you decided to stay in Smallville.”
“I think we have all we can handle right here, even if they aren’t demons.” She exhaled, throwing her shoulders back and tilting her head towards the fading light. “Did Lex actually hit you?”
“Yeah, at sixty miles an hour.”
Athena sighed and looked at him. “And you still saved him.”
“You were mad and still saved me,” he pointed out.
“I wasn’t mad. I was…hurt. Now I’m just mildly annoyed. But I get why you wouldn’t want people to be changed by the meteors.” She watched him flinch. “Guilt, eating at you?”
“How’d you know?”
“Luthor children are ridiculously self-flagellating,” she explained. “We recognize it in others.” She pulled him to a stop. “We have to agree to keep this secret. I understand why you told your parents, given what I suspected about your origins. But no one else can know.”
He nodded. “That means not telling your brother or your father.”
She sighed. “My father would think that I have my mother’s madness.”
“Madness?”
“Julian - my twin - and I were six weeks old when my mother smothered him for seemingly no reason,” Athena said in one breath. “Lex was seven at the time, he took me and hid under the desk in Father’s office. Protected me in case she tried to come after me too.”
Clark’s eyes widened.
“Since then, my father has always been watching for signs that I’m unstable. Somehow, I think saying anything about the supernatural or extraterrestrial would rank up there.” She rubbed her hands together. “And in some way or another, Lex has spent my whole life trying to protect me. How would I tell my protective big brother that I’m a superhero who, based on the data Angel provided, won’t live to see sixteen?”
Clark shook his head, no answer coming to him.
Thank you for reading. Reviews are always appreciated. I hope this was an interesting twist on the Clark's an alien reveal - I wanted something compelling. And you can't fool Slayer senses just by saying "it's nothing just a figment of your imagination."