Rimilod
"I didn't kill your father," Lex said quietly from the far corner of the room.
The chained man blinked at him in confusion. "I... beg your pardon."
"I had gone to the farm to ask for his help." Lex laughed softly at himself. "I was desperate and had nowhere else to turn. I thought... that despite our differences he might," Lex's voice dropped in volume and the words sounded as if they were causing him great pain, "help me."
"Help you?"
Lex slowly closed the distance between them and lightly ran one finger down the kryptonite-laced metal. "I thought he might save me," he confessed, barely above a whisper.
"I don't understand, Luthor," his prisoner said, while his words were clipped, he spoke them softly.
"Neither did your father." Lex took several steps away, not turning back to face his victim, confident that his words were being heard. "You see, my father had discovered your secret, and as we both know Lionel was all about control. If he saw something he wanted, he took it. If he saw someone as a threat, he destroyed them."
Lex walked to the far side of the room and leaned his back against the wall, so that he was facing the chained man. "At first, I thought he was going to try to find a way to manipulate you into doing his biding. I believed that ultimately all his little plots and schemes were his way of trying to blackmail your mother into being with him."
Lex pressed his hands flat against the wall behind him and dropped his gaze to the floor. "I had only realized that morning he wasn't after you at all... but me... that all his machinations had been an elaborate scheme to wrap me in his web so tight that I had nowhere else to turn but to him."
"Why?" his prisoner asked, then looked frustrated as if he had promised himself that he wouldn't give in to his curiosity. "After all, you were his son."
"And the seed never falls too far from the tree, right?" Lex raised his face and laughed bitterly.
"Why, Lex?" the man asked again.
"Ah, that's the crux of the whole problem, don't you see? But the whys aren't important... at least now."
The prisoner opened his mouth to protest, but shut it when Lex waved him silent.
"I remember every detail of that day," he said, his eyes not focused on the present. "The morning was so crisp it was practically a sexual experience. Jonathan was in the barn. The hay smelled sweet and the sun was streaming in through various windows and openings which made the place seem practically magical. I don't know if I ever told you or not, but I always loved that old barn."
Lex rolled his head back onto his shoulders and rubbed the top of it lightly against the wall behind him. "I won't bore you with all the inane details that haunt me from that day. I know... I know it would be painful for you to hear and, quite frankly, it wouldn't really serve any purpose. Suffice it to say that Jonathan was sweating." Lex huffed with amusement, but didn't make eye contact with the chained man. "But then again Jonathan was a farmer, so I didn't think anything unusual about it."
Lex took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "When he clutched his arm, I figured it was a protective gesture. You know, not wanting to hear what I had to say. I was a master in non-verbal communication... or so I thought."
Rolling his head forward, Lex harshly rubbed his eyebrows. "I don't know which of us was more surprised when the attack brought him to his knees."
"Before..." the other man hesitated, "before the end, he kept gasping your name."
Lex closed his eyes, knowing what the admission had cost the other man to make, knowing what he was admitting by his simple statement. "I know. To this day I'm haunted by what he was trying to say. Was he asking me to protect his family? Was he damning me to hell?" This time when Lex looked up, his prisoner was the one to drop his gaze. "I was desperate to talk to you but..."
"I wouldn't listen."
Lex smiled wanly. "The cause was just."
"Or so I thought."
"Ah, but what are we but an accumulation of our thought processes?"
"That was deep."
For a brief moment, the two men shared a smile, but both faded as their history once again intruded into their thoughts.
"So why tell me now?" the prisoner asked softly. "After all these years?"
Lex hesitated for a moment. "Because you have a right to know."
"And?"
"It's my parting gift to you."
The other man's features hardened. "I see."
"No, you don't. Not yet, anyway." Lex lifted his hands off the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "When I realized I couldn't escape my fate, when I accepted the fact there would be no rescues, I embraced my destiny."
"With zeal."
"Have you known me to do anything without zeal?"
"I suppose not."
"I protected you as best I could, but for every hole I covered, every plot I unearthed, Lionel enacted two more in its place. I was only able to stop so many without giving away my own agenda."
The man against the far wall blinked in stunned surprise. He shook his head and opened his mouth several times to speak. "And when he was gone?"
Lex's fingers bit into his shoulders and he reveled in the self-inflicted pain for a moment. "It was a way to keep you in my life."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I imagine that fact does come as something of a surprise." Lex dropped his hands to his sides and moved back into the corner of the room. "Ah, Clark, look what's become of us," he finally whispered after several moments of silence. "All because Lionel Luthor couldn't accept the thought that I considered you family."
"What?" his prisoner gasped.
"I thought... I thought I'd been so careful hiding my feelings from him."
The caped man struggled to say something, but no words came.
"Don't." Lex raised his hand and shook his head sadly. "To answer your question, let's just say that in order for true good to shine, it has to overcome true evil."
"You aren't true evil, Lex."
"No, I suppose not. I'm Evil Lite. Just one calorie, not evil enough." Lex barked out a laugh, but it came out more as a sob.
"I know about Rebel, Inc."
Lex blinked at his prisoner in surprise.
"I know about the humanitarian work you've done. The scholarships you've set up. Not just the ones under the guise of LexCorp, the ones you put out for the public to see, but the ones you yourself oversee. I know about the grant that paid for half my college classes."
"Did you know then?"
The other man shook his head.
"No matter."
"So, what are we doing here now?"
"I'm here to put an end to our feud."
"By killing..."
"No, nothing that dramatic, Clark. Although, I suppose, I can't blame you for making such a leap, if you'll forgive the pun. I have been rather dramatic with my schemes over the years."
"And yet have rarely hurt anyone. When you did it was usually for a good reason or because of circumstances beyond your control."
One corner of Lex's mouth curled upward. "When did you figure that out?"
"About an hour ago."
"Ahh."
"So..."
"Tomorrow a Hank Fabersham, from the Publicity Department, will be contacting Clark Kent to let him know that Lex Luthor has sold LexCorp and its subsidiaries to his employees."
"What?"
"Rumor has it he's retiring."
"But you're not even forty yet."
Lex laughed and, for the first time since the conversation started, it sounded joyful.
"Where will you go?" his prisoner asked when Lex quieted.
"It doesn't matter. I'm only telling you now so that you aren't constantly looking over your shoulder waiting for the other shoe to drop. I wanted Superman to know he has nothing more to fear from Lex Luthor."
"You could have taken me out of the game at any point in time, couldn't you?"
Lex shrugged. "Not in the beginning."
The prisoner leaned back against the wall. "Because all this time you--"
"Ah. Ah," Lex interrupted. "Let's not talk about 'could have beens.' If our paths had been different I probably would've figured out another way to dazzle you with my brilliance, but I'm not totally unhappy about our time together. It's been a fabulous game filled with intrigue and suspense."
"And we'll always have Moscow."
"And Edinburgh." Lex grinned over the happy memories, then moved toward the door.
"Lex?"
"Yes, Clark?"
"Why the chains?"
Lex smiled again and shrugged. "Old habits, I suppose."
"Uh, Lex... regarding the chains?"
"Someone will release you in about two hours. While bad guys don't get happily-ever-afters, they do sometimes get to ride into the sunset, if they play their cards right."
Lex opened the door and was about to step through, when his prisoner called out to him.
"Lex."
"Yes, Clark?" he answered softly.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"It hurt so bad."
"I know that, too."
Both men dropped their gazes to the floor.
"Clark?" Lex looked back at his childhood friend one last time.
"Yes, Lex."
"Think kindly of me from time to time?"
"I will. I promise."
Lex Luthor smiled sweetly then shut the door behind him.
Lex leaned back against the bale of hay and chewed contently on a dry stalk as he watched the sun's slow descent toward the horizon. He inhaled deeply and tried to remember happier times.
"You were wrong, you know?" a pleasant tenor voice said from behind him.
Lex never diverted his gaze. "In what way?"
"It's not that bad guys never get happily-ever-afters, it's just that they become reformed and, therefore, aren't considered bad guys anymore."
Lex smirked and cocked his head at the intruder. "You don't say?"
"I do say." The man closed the distance between them and sat on the bale next to him. "You're not an easy man to find."
"And yet you're here."
"Because I'm the best."
Lex raised one elegant eyebrow.
"You're in retirement now."
"Oh, I see how it is." Lex chuckled. They sat in silence until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. "Why are you here, Clark?"
The man beside him took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Have you ever thought about the fact that people riding off into the sunset actually have to start fresh somewhere else?"
Lex blinked as he absorbed that tidbit of information. "You know, I don't think I've ever looked at it like that before."
"See, that's why I'm the best." The man beside him jostled him playfully with his elbow.
"You're not suggesting... I mean, there's so much water under the..."
"Hi," the man beside him said as he stuck out his hand. "My name's Clark Kent. I'm a recently retired journalist."
Lex looked blankly at the outstretched hand for a moment, then slipped his own into it. "I'm Lex Luthor," he said slowly, "recently retired corporate executive."
"Hi, Lex. Want to see what's beyond that sunset?"
"I'm game, Clark. I'm definitely game."
End