Clark landed alongside the car in the river. Now several feet under, he reeled against the feeling of irradiated water against his skin, but shoved the pain out of his mind as much as possible. Someone was trapped inside the car, and it looked like he was unconscious.
Clark grabbed hold of the car door. As he pulled on it, his muscles screamed at him, as though he were tearing his own arm off. Clark looked through the window; the driver was going to die. Clark pulled as hard as he could manage; the door ripped off its hinges instantly. The car immediately filled with water; Clark snapped the seatbelt off the driver and pulled him out.
"Flying" through the water to the shore felt like it took forever. When they were out, Clark was thankful to see that the driver was still breathing.
"Thanks," the driver said weakly as he coughed up water.
"No problem," Clark said, breathing heavily. He hadn't felt this tired since he was five years old. Fortunately, the river was wider than the bridge was tall, so he was plenty far from the meteors. He felt himself getting stronger every second.
Clark looked at the driver for the first time clearly: he was young—about Clark's age—well-dressed, and bald. Clark was stunned when he recognized him.
The driver held out his hand: "Lex Luthor."
Clark slowly shook Lex's hand. "We've... met."
Lex narrowed his eyes, thinking. "...Oh. You're... you were Lois's..."
"...Yeah."
An ambulance sat atop the bridge; paramedics tended to Lex's cuts and bruises while Sheriff Miller interviewed him.
"It was my fault; I was distracted and driving too fast," Lex said. "I could have sworn I hit Clark, but I must have just missed him. I was barely conscious, but I remember him pulling me out of the car when it sank."
Jonathan, Chloe, and Diana arrived.
"Son, are you okay?" Jonathan asked Clark.
"I'm fine. There were some meteors in the river, but I got away from them before anything bad happened."
"Where is he?" Diana asked, a slight rumbling fire in her voice.
"Over there," Clark said, pointing to Lex. "But Diana, it was an accident."
"He could have killed you!" she countered.
"No he couldn't. I got hit, and I'm fine."
"But he doesn't know that!" Chloe said. "It was dumb luck that he hit the only Kryptonian in existence. What if you were human, like everyone else?"
"He deserves to be locked up in prison, at best," said Diana.
"Hey, now," Clark said, "there was no harm done. Besides... I think he has enough problems. That's Lex Luthor."
Everyone was visibly shocked. Chloe felt her reporter's fire shrink down, and she fell silent. Jonathan put his arm around her. "Let's go back to the car, Chloe."
Lex and Sheriff Miller walked over to Clark and Diana.
"Clark, Lex says he thought he hit you. Is that true?"
Clark almost winced. He hated lying and wasn't even good at it. "If I'd been hit, would I be standing here?"
The Sheriff was surprised at Clark's flippant response. Clark had always been such a respectful boy.
"So... you dove in after him, and pulled him out of his car, is that right?"
"Yes sir."
"Clark, I didn't think you could swim."
Clark thought about it. Technically, he couldn't swim. "I learned the Summer before last, sir," Clark said, thinking of when he learned to fly.
Sheriff Miller didn't like this at all. He'd known the Kents all his life, but this seemed... off. But there wasn't a single concrete thing to point to, so he let the matter go.
Clark glanced at Lex. Lex was still shaken from the crash, but there were much worse things going on than he would admit. Just from what Clark knew about Lex's life, he knew that Lex had to be at rock bottom by this point.
"Clark," Lex said, "I really want to apologize again."
Clark smiled. "Hey, don't worry. Everybody drives their car off a bridge sometimes."
Lex and Sheriff Miller didn't even chuckle at Clark's stupid joke.
"Actually, would you like to come over for dinner?"
Lex was a bit unsure how to react for a second; no one had invited him over for anything before in his life. "Um... no, no, that wouldn't be right."
"Come on. You wanna pay me back for almost hitting me with your car, come over and help us eat my mom's rhubarb pie. She always cooks way too much."
Lex awkwardly shrugged. "Okay?"
Dinner was slightly awkward, but the Kents had a way of making everyone feel like family that even Lex couldn't shake.
"So... Lex," Martha said, "what brings you to Smallville?"
"I, um... I came to see the Luthorcorp plant a few miles west of here."
Everyone fell silent; no one wanted to continue the conversation about Lex's father's company.
"Um, mom? Is the pie ready yet?" Clark asked, breaking the tension.
"Not for another fifteen minutes or so," Martha replied.
"Well," Clark said, "I think it'd be nice to get some fresh air before dessert. Lex?"
Lex nodded. "Sure."
Clark and Lex politely stood up and walked outside.
Diana looked at Jonathan and Martha. "Do we... trust him? Lex, I mean?"
Jonathan and Martha exchanged a look.
"Well, we don't have a reason not to yet," Jonathan said.
"But... he's Lionel Luthor's son," Diana said. "How do we know he's going to be any different than his father?"
"Lex took a stand against his father when he tried to save Lois," Martha said.
Diana didn't find that much comfort. Lex killed his father after Lois was already dead. The fact that the Kents were able to find a silver lining in that said a lot about their character.
"But..." Jonathan added, "if you want to stay close by, I wouldn't be terribly upset."
Martha stood up to take a peek at the pie, gently patting Diana on the wrist. "You might want to grab your bracelets."
Diana smirked.
Clark and Lex stood in the barn's loft, staring at the stars.
"You know," Lex said, "I don't think I've ever actually seen the sky before. The stars, I mean. My whole life I've lived in big cities. Metropolis, Gotham, New York. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where there weren't a thousand lights filling the sky."
Clark nodded. "Yeah. It's nice."
Lex mentally drifted off, depression showing in his face.
"Lex..." Clark said, "Why are you going to the Luthorcorp plant?"
Lex rubbed his bald head, pushing away a stress headache. "I'm trying to stamp out all my father's old... 'business' ties. Most of them fell away from the company as soon as he died, but a few are still using Luthorcorp resources."
"Isn't that a job for the police, or the FBI?"
"Yes, but... I want to do it myself. Besides, I have easy access to every plant, factory, and office building, and I won't alert anyone like the authorities will."
"But isn't that dangerous? Confronting crime bosses like that?"
"Oh, I don't confront them. I just find out how they're using the company and how to find them. It's pretty easy, actually. I look through the books, check building blueprints, and make sure every room in the place is clear. I just say it's a surprise inspection and no one stops me."
"You read blueprints and check financial records for the entire plant? That must take weeks."
"Nope. Takes a day or two."
"...How?"
Lex turned to Clark. "Give me a math equation. Anything."
"What's two thousand, three hundred seventy-one times seven-hundred ninety-two divided by the square root of two hundred eighty-nine?"
"One hundred ten thousand, four hundred sixty point seven zero five eight eight two."
Clark was genuinely impressed.
Lex tapped his head with his pointer finger. "I'm a genius, or so they tell me. I use exponential statistics to find anomalies in the records, and I have a photographic memory, so I can recall every room in the building and check it against the original blueprints or vice-versa."
"All in your head?"
"All in my head."
"That's... wow."
Lex stared up at the sky again.
"Why are you doing it, really?" Clark asked.
Lex lowered his head. "I hate my father. I really do."
A slow, chilled breeze flowed through the barn. Clark couldn't ever imagine speaking those words; he'd never had anything but a wonderful father.
Lex stared at his feet. "I want to cut off every last bit of his twisted corruption and watch it die under my heel."
"And what about when you're done?"
Lex stared out across the horizon. "Then... I'll be done."
Clark was a bit startled; he knew what Lex meant. Once his mission was done, he didn't have a reason to live. Lex was planning to kill himself.
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