Hurray... I am out of town most of the day for work stuff, so we'll see if I get the next part up for tomorrow...

Rating: NC-17
Characters: Clark, Lex, Jonathan, Whitney, Lana, Gabe Sullivan, plus one.
Summary: The most heroic thing Clark did on a regular basis was to stitch up Taber’s right side whenever he needed it.
A/N: Oy -- now *I'm* having trouble keeping track of this plot. *rubs temples*

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3:1
Part 3:2
Part 3:3
Part 3:4
Part 3:5
Part 3:6
Part 3:7
Part 3:8
Part 3:9


“What did you do with Lana?” Lex asked, slamming Whitney up against the bricks.

Whitney’s look of shock as he recognized Lex would have been almost comical, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Lex’s pulse was racing. He’d never done this, never played the hero. “*You’re* the one behind all this?” Lex’s prey asked, eyes wide.

“Answer me,” Lex said, fierce, ignoring the way that Chloe was plucking anxiously at his jacket, saying something about not jumping to conclusions.

“You know where Lana is, not me,” Whitney said, still blinking. “You’re the one who took her, you and the other bastards at Belle Reve.” With this last accusation, he seemed to regain more of his confidence, struggling against the grip Lex had on his jacket lapels.

But then Lex had let go – he *had* to let go to keep his hands from being torn off, because something huge and powerful had grabbed him by the collar and hauled him backwards. Lex’s insane thought was that he was caught on some machinery, so unstoppable did the force seem, but then, abruptly, he turned his head and saw that Clark Kent had him by the scruff of the neck, like Lex was a misbehaving puppy.

Lex had no time to absorb this development, to ponder Clark’s sudden appearance or his apparent strength, because suddenly Clark was the one doing the shouting. “Get the hell away from him!” Clark bellowed, flushed, with sparking eyes.

It was a Clark Lex had never met. Even Whitney and Chloe backed away instinctively at the sound of Clark’s fury. Lex tried to move, tried to escape Clark’s grasp, but then he was backed up against the brick wall himself, and Clark was in his face. “Clark, he hurt Lana,” Lex gasped, the wind slowly returning to his lungs.

“You’re the one who’s hurting Lana!” Clark shouted. “You and your father.”

“Clark,” panted a newcomer, jogging into the scene, “this was so not part of the plan, remember?”

Clark ignored the intrusion.

“Lex, let’s all calm down,” Chloe said more firmly, as though Lex were the one who was being completely unreasonable, and this time Clark seemed to notice. His head snapped up at the sound of Chloe’s voice and he glanced over at her.

“Chloe? You too?” he asked, almost piteously.

“Of course not ‘me too’,” she said, irritably. “Please unhand Lex and we can figure this out. Preferably *not* in the alley.”

“But – if you’re not with Constellation,” Clark stammered, “then where are the real agents?”

“I don’t know, but wherever they are,” Chloe said, “they’re coming for Whitney, if his little tantrum in the Beanery is any clue. Whitney, what the hell were you thinking, pulling a stunt like –”

She stopped speaking, and Clark released Lex so suddenly that Lex actually felt his heels slam down onto the asphalt. The reason for her abrupt halt became apparent as Lex glanced in the same direction as Chloe. There was a dark car slowly rolling past the alley entrance. Lex quickly stepped behind Clark’s bulk, tugging Chloe with him, and they all froze for a moment, listening and watching as the car passed by.

“They won’t grab him while we’re with him,” said Clark’s dark-haired friend. “But let’s get inside.”

Whitney nodded and the three of them – Whitney, Clark, and the mysterious boyfriend – all moved towards the doorway that led to Fordman’s store. There was an awkward moment as Clark paused, casting a suspicious glance at Lex and Chloe, but after a brief hesitation, he waved them in after him.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Chloe said, once they were safely inside the back room, “but were you actually *trying* to get grabbed, Whitney? There was a news report on the radio as we drove into town, said some local ex-football hero went berserk in the Beanery. Please *tell* me that you’re not really going insane, because Lex here is just about ready to string you up for murder.”

“It’s the only way,” Whitney said, “if we’re going to find out where Lana is.” He sounded as panicked as Lex felt, even if his words didn’t seem to make any sense.

“You threatened me,” Lex said, “and Lana went missing that very night, according to her neighbors, and you expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with it?”

“You’re one to talk,” Whitney said hotly. “You blew town the day after she disappeared – is that just a coincidence, too?”

“Guys, stop it!” Clark interjected. “Look, Constellation got her, okay? Nobody here is a secret murderer, so let’s all just stop blaming each other and figure out what the hell is going on.”

“Lex and I came to investigate Lana’s disappearance,” Chloe started, sitting down on a cardboard box. “And, like I said, we heard the news report. We figured Whitney – I mean, if he’d really gone nuts, that is – would head for his homebase, so we booted it here and – well, you know the rest.”

“Except the part,” said Clark’s friend, “where you and Lex Luthor are apparently partners in crime investigation.”

Chloe seemed to notice the fifth member of their group, looking over with surprise. “Justin Gaines? Is it really you?” She sounded happy to see him, even if Lex wasn’t.

“Yeah,” Justin said. “Just – is everyone friends with Lex these days?”

“I’m doing a work-study at LuthorCorp,” Chloe hedged. “I bumped into Lex and it turns out we have a few interests in common.”

“Like Constellation,” supplied Clark, glowering. “You’re the one who stole Chloe’s binder from the loft?” he asked of Lex.

Lex paused, casting a look Chloe’s way. He hadn’t yet admitted to this, but there seemed little point in denying it. “I hardly think you’re one to talk about keeping secrets,” Lex returned, tacitly accepting guilt.

“The point is,” Chloe interjected loudly, “that Lex and I are on the same side as all of you. We want to rescue Lana. But what the hell did you think you were going to accomplish by getting Whitney taken away?”

Clark flushed slightly and divided a look between both his companions, neither of whom appeared to be particularly forthcoming. “We thought, if Whitney got caught, we could follow him. He could spy for us, get Lana, and we could break them both out of Belle Reve.”

“That’s the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard!” Chloe exclaimed, echoing Lex’s thoughts. “You’ll only end up getting everyone in trouble.”

“Well, what do you suggest, then?” Clark asked, darkly.

“I suggest we keep investigating, get to the bottom of this, and kill Constellation from the roots up,” Chloe said. “There’s something evil going on at LuthorCorp, and rescuing Lana from Belle Reve won’t fix it any more than –”

“LuthorCorp?” said Whitney, Clark, and Justin in unison, sounding stunned.

“Of *course* it’s LuthorCorp, Clark!” Lex said, annoyed. “It’s all in that binder, haven’t you even read it? It’s right there, in black and white. All we’re lacking is real concrete proof, something to link LuthorCorp to all the mutations in Smallville, and Constellation is going down.”

Clark strode over to where Lex was standing. “If you know so much about it, how come you never knew that your own father was using human beings as lab rats? How come you exposed Lana to your father, when he’s the last person she should meet?”

This was too much, coming from someone who had hidden the truth from Lex from the first moment he’d met him – that act of Herculean strength in the alley was not attributable to adrenalin. Whatever the reason, Lex was sure that Chloe had been covering for Clark when she told Lex that Clark wasn’t a mutant. “At least I’m doing something now that I know,” Lex answered sharply. “At least I’m not hiding out on a farm, pretending that I have no obligation to help people when clearly I could be doing much more than feeding cheerios to a toddler and moping about homework assignments.” And if Lex had doubted before, the way Clark blanched and looked in Chloe’s direction would have erased any last shreds of uncertainty. “Do you want to know why I haven’t been helping until now?” Lex demanded. “Because I’m one of the lab rats, Clark! He even gave me a code name! How would you like it if your own father treated you like that?”

He and Clark were practically nose to nose now, but that didn’t keep Lex from shouting as he reached the end of his tirade. Clark blew out an infuriated breath and reeled away, pacing across the narrow dusty room to where Justin and Whitney were leaning against some metal shelves. He seized Justin by the wrist and hauled him upright, dragging him over towards Lex. “You see this?” Clark asked, brandishing his friend’s braced hand like a weapon. “*This* is what happens to people when your father decides to fuck with them. You ask me, if all you got from this is a wounded ego and a code name, you got off pretty damn easy!”

Justin tried to wrench his wrist back, shooting Clark an angry glare, but Clark wasn’t paying attention.

“It’s not just tests and experiments, Lex,” Clark said. “They messed with his brain. They erased his memory so he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone what happened.”

“Okay, both of you, stop it,” Chloe suddenly intervened, but Lex was in no mood to listen to her, and neither was Clark.

“Lucky him!” Lex shot back at Clark. “I’d give anything to forget the fact that my father thinks I k–”

He stopped short, unable to say it. A strange silence descended as Clark released Justin’s hand and looked away, unwilling or unable to meet Lex’s eyes.

“Um, guys,” Whitney said, quietly. “Can we get back to the part where the men in white coats are literally coming to take me away?”

“We have to run,” Clark said, eyes widening. “God, we can’t let them take him.”

“I have a better idea,” Chloe said, laying a hand on Clark’s shoulder. “We’ll take him ourselves.”

***

Clark watched Lex and Chloe confer in low tones, head still reeling from the revelations of the past ten minutes. Constellation was LuthorCorp’s project, and Lex – he knew about it. He was part of it, an unwilling part. He knew about Clark, or he thought he did. And he and Chloe were planning to take all of it apart, everything that had been done over the past seventeen years, all of it.

The part that Clark couldn’t quite grasp, out of everything, was that he wasn’t involved in any of their grand schemes. It was heroes’ work, and Clark was watching from the sidelines like a benched player. Even Whitney was playing a more active role, with his willingness to sacrifice his own safety for the good of the plan.

“The thing is,” Chloe was saying, quietly, “you need to bluff your way through this. Can you do it?”

Lex appeared mildly offended. “Of course I can.”

“I’m not talking getting into a bar at the age of seventeen,” Chloe said, gravely. “I’m talking about convincing a crack security team that they have to get on their knees and kiss your ass. I know *I* can do it – but I need you to be just as confident.”

“I am,” Lex said, nodding once, dismissing Chloe’s worries.

“I am, too,” Clark said, impulsively. “I can be – an orderly or something.”

Chloe seemed surprised to hear his voice, as though she’d forgotten he was still in the room. “Clark, no,” she said, almost gently.

“Why not?” Lex asked, to Clark’s shock.

“Because,” Chloe said, and ended her argument with a significant eyebrow raise in Clark’s direction.

If Chloe was trying to tell him something, Clark wasn’t cracking the code. He glanced first to Whitney, then to Justin, and last of all to Lex, seeking insight. They all looked as puzzled as Clark felt.

“Is it because they know him?” Justin asked at length. “Is it part of the reason they won’t go after him?”

“Who told you –” began Chloe, then stopped. “It’s – complicated.”

“Why do I get the feeling,” Clark asked of her, exasperated, “that you’re keeping something back from everyone here?”

Chloe glanced around, suddenly on edge as the four men in the room all trained their eyes on her. “I – it’s not something I can say,” she managed, at last. “Look, we’re running out of time. If we’re going to do this, then we have to act –”

“No,” and even though Clark thought the word, it was Lex who spoke. Clark felt his heart begin to hammer, because he thought he knew what Chloe was about to reveal, deep down in some inky-black part of his soul.

Chloe looked around the room again, her gaze bouncing off each of them in turn, finding no respite. Finally, with a shaky sigh, she answered. “Constellation is a ticking time bomb,” she said, locking her gaze with Lex. “And when it blows, it’s taking all of us with it.”