Crossroads

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville.

Note: This is an alternate scene to season five's opening Arrival.

"Why do I get this nagging feeling that you're being less than honest with me?" Lex said, sounding less than impressed. His initial elation at seeing Clark alive and well after the meteor shower was quickly fading.

"I have no idea," Clark lied.

"Well, I'm beginning to get the impression that lying is an unshakable habit of yours," Lex said, an accusing edge to his voice.

Clark fought to stay calm. The meteor shower had just ended and there were so many people to be located still before he had to return to Jor-El or face 'severe consequences' and Lex wanted to play this game now? Really? The latter Lex couldn't possibly know about, if Clark was being fair, but he knew that Clark hadn't even seen his parents yet. That really wasn't the time. "I don't have to listen to this."

"Then be straight with me for once. If you're my friend, just tell me the truth. Were you in the cave when the meteors hit?" Lex demanded.

Clark almost said no. He really didn't have time for this and he had long since been in the habit of lying to Lex so what was one more falsehood? He glanced at Lex and opened his mouth then stopped at what he saw.

There was hope on Lex's face and resignation. This was an ultimatum. For all that Lex had told him not to give up on him, he was this close to being the one to give up on Clark.

For a moment, a surge of anger ran through him. How dare he? Lex was the one who was slowly getting darker and darker and conducting unethical research and who refused to stop investigating him. Clark had been trying his best to ignore all of that and to hang onto their friendship and now Lex was going to give up on him? Because he didn't want to put his life in danger by admitting that he was an alien?

Even admitting to being a meteor mutant, which Lex likely thought he was by this point, would be dangerous. He shouldn't have to put his life in danger to satisfy Lex's interminable curiosity.

But…but it looked like this was it. He was faced with a choice now and he was a high school graduate now, old enough to make his own decisions so he couldn't hide behind his parents anymore. He could choose to put his faith in Lex and what remained of their friendship and the fact that Lex had never tried to hurt him or he could cling to his secret and watch their second attempt at a friendship fail as epically as their first.

He had chosen his secret over Lex once before when Lex was drugged out of his mind and he had never revealed what he knew, even when he said he hated Clark. And Clark? Clark had just left him alone for weeks on end and then done far too little, too late to try to get him out of there. He still hated himself for that, a little.

"Well?" Lex was still waiting.

Clark exhaled. "Look, now's really not the best time. I still have to find my parents and Lana."

"And when will be a better time?" Lex asked, his eyes flashing. "When you've thought of an appropriate cover story so you can brush me off? Again?"

"If I say I was in the caves, can we do this later?" Clark demanded.

Lex blinked and drew back, clearly not actually expecting any sort of admission from Clark. "By all means."

After visiting Lana in the hospital, Clark drove to Lex's mansion which was a first since he'd stopped delivering produce.

Lex was sitting in his study reading a book when Clark walked in.

Lex immediately stood. "Clark."

"You sound surprised to see me," Clark noted.

"It did cross my mind that you would decide admitting you were in the caves was a mistake and deny it ever happened," Lex conceded.

"Actually, I'm feeling better about telling you right now then I was earlier," Clark corrected him.

Lex's eyebrows shot up. "Really? And why is that?"

Clark hesitated. "I think my answer needs some background information."

"Alright, what do you think I need to know?" Lex prompted when it became clear that Clark wasn't going to say anything else. "Clark?"

"Sorry," Clark said, smiling sheepishly. "It's just…I've made up my mind to tell you but I've got this mental block and I just don't think I can do this."

The look that Lex gave him was decidedly unimpressed. "So you're just here to tell me that you would love to tell me but you just can't."

Clark winced. "Sort of?"

Lex sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Clark-"

"I'm working on a way around that, I swear!" Clark interrupted.

Lex frowned. "You mean you literally cannot tell me?"

Clark considered it. That would certainly let him off the hook for never telling him sooner and maybe even not telling him now…but no. He was here because now it was actually safe for him to tell Lex. "Not quite. I've just become so conditioned to not telling anybody that I can't make myself say the words."

"Surely you've told somebody," Lex said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I mean, your parents must know. And I could have sworn that Pete knew before he left."

"My parents knew before I did," Clark replied. "And I told Pete, yeah, but only because the only other choice was far, far worse. Even that I sort of mangled and it took him getting kidnapped and tortured by Hamilton for him to forgive me."

"Hamilton torturing him made him forgive you?" Lex asked, puzzled.

"Well, me saving him," Clark amended. "Like I was really going to let him suffer just because we were fighting…"

"Does Lana know?" Lex inquired.

Clark looked awkward. "No. I think she's happier not knowing, honestly, for all that she hates all my secrets and lies."

"Did anyone else know?" Lex pressed.

"Ryan knew but he was psychic. Kyle knew a little bit and so did Alicia because they happened to see things. Alicia put Chloe in a position to see something and so she's apparently known for a year or so and was waiting patiently for me to tell her. I only found that out today," Clark revealed. "Maybe a few other people here or there."

Lex snorted. "She was waiting for you to voluntarily tell her? I guess her ending up in the Yukon was good for something after all."

"Yeah, I don't really do well with the whole 'voluntarily telling people' thing," Clark admitted. "As I'm sure you're aware. What she really should have done was just confronted me about it and we could have dealt with that a lot sooner."

"Like this?" Lex asked. "Clark, I know that you're a meteor mutant."

"No I'm not," Clark said, shaking his head.

"You really are well-conditioned," Lex marveled, shaking his head. "Even when you're here to admit that you're a meteor mutant, you still deny it."

"But…I'm really not a meteor mutant," Clark protested.

"It's a little late to claim that you're a perfectly normal high schooler," Lex said flatly.

"High school graduate," Clark amended.

"Clark!"

"That wasn't what I meant. I'm not…what you said," Clark told him earnestly. "But I'm not a meteor mutant either."

"What does that leave?" Lex asked, perplexed.

"You tell me," Clark said, looking expectantly at him.

Lex rolled his eyes. "Clark, I am not going to sit here and play guessing games with you."

"I think you're kind of going to have to," Clark said apologetically. "Unless, of course, you're willing to wait until I can bring myself to admit to it and you've already been waiting for four years now."

Lex looked like he was seriously considering just how badly he wanted to know Clark's secret. "Can you give me a hint? Because this is really ridiculous."

"I know," Clark agreed. "But it is what it is. A hint…hm. We can try synonyms if you want."

"You list off synonyms for what your secret is?" Lex asked. "Wouldn't that be the same as you telling me what your secret is? Like if you were a witch you'd say sorcerer?"

Clark gave him an odd look. "Lex, why would I be a witch?"

"Lana was a witch at one point," Lex said defensively. "And she turned Chloe and Lois into witches, too."

"Well I'm not," Clark said firmly. "Non-citizen."

"Foreigner?" Lex guessed. Clark shook his head. "Immigrant? Uh…Stranger? Outlander?"

Clark groaned. "Come on, Lex."

"I'm getting there," Lex snapped. "How about…alien?"

Clark didn't move.

"Alien," Lex repeated. "You're an alien? Like those people from earlier who were looking for some 'Kal-El'?"

"It's entirely possible that they may have been looking for me," Clark admitted.

"You're Kal-El," Lex realized.

"Technically," Clark admitted. "But please don't call me that."

"Those aliens were looking for you. Why?" Lex demanded, suspicion back in his voice.

Clark shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't really listening. Something about joining them and taking over the world or something."

Lex just stared at him. "You weren't listening? Don't you think that might have been kind of important?"

"Not really," Clark replied, shrugging. "It's hardly the first time someone's tried to get me to take over the world."

Lex looked a little faint. "It's not?"

Clark sighed. "Oh, come on, Lex. You know me. For all of my secrets and lies, do I really seem like the taking over the world type?"

Lex was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. "Well…I suppose that the lack of the world being taken over is a good sign as is the fact that those aliens seem to have disappeared and I don't know anyone but you that could have stopped them."

"Probably not. I couldn't kill them but I did manage to trap them…someplace. I don't know where it was but they were planning on trapping me there to stop me," Clark explained.

"Do you know if we should expect an invasion?" Lex asked very seriously.

"No. They were refugees," Clark answered. "The other place that I came from-"

"The planet," Lex helpfully supplied.

"Yes, that," Clark agreed, "was destroyed and apparently they were the only survivors besides me. Of course, I was a toddler when I got here so the whole Kryptonian desire to conquer is really kind of lost on me. I'll just be happy if I can make it through college."

Lex's lips twitched. "Some conquering alien."

"What do you think of that?" Clark asked anxiously. "The whole me not technically being human thing?"

"It explains a lot," Lex said frankly. "And the inner geek in me is celebrating right now because this is seriously amazing and the fact that the best friend I ever had was an alien just makes it better. Still, I'm not going to pretend that I'm completely okay with all of this, especially after what just happened with others of your race. Kryptonians, was it? With those kinds of powers, you really could take us out easily."

"But I wouldn't!" Clark objected. "You have to know that."

Lex nodded slowly. "And I do. It's just…you aren't yourself sometimes. I don't know why but it's happened. You saw the kind of damage my father could do with your body. You are, like it or not, extremely dangerous."

"That almost never happens," Clark argued.

"All it takes is one time that never gets fixed," Lex pointed out.

"What does that mean?" Clark asked heatedly. "That I should be locked up at all times to protect the world from things that I would never do?"

"Of course not," Lex said appeasingly. "It's just that there really should be measures in place for when these things happen."

"My parents do have a way of dealing with that," Clark informed him a bit coldly. "And it doesn't even matter right now anyway."

"Why not?" Lex asked him. "Because personally I think that this is quite important. You never know when the next time could be."

"I can not be myself all I want and it wouldn't make a difference," Clark said dismissively. "Lex, you didn't ask why I was in the caves during the meteor shower."

"Why were you in the caves during the meteor shower?" Lex asked obligingly.

"You know those crystals that you spent last year tracking down?" Clark asked rhetorically. "Apparently they were Kryptonian and mine and I need to combine them. It made some sort of a fortress and the insane and probably evil AI of my dead biological father didn't want to let me leave to take Chloe to the hospital but if I hadn't she would have died."

"Can we get back to the part about the insane and probably evil AI of your dead biological father?" Lex requested.

Clark shrugged. "I don't really know what to say. He came with my ship and has been pretty dead-set on me conquering the world for a few years now. He tried to make me leave Smallville around the time you married Helen so I tried to blow up the ship and caused my mother to have a miscarriage. Since he enabled her to get pregnant in the first place, probably to replace me, I'm not sure he didn't do that intentionally. Then right after I found your creepy stalker room-"

"It was not a creepy stalker room!" Lex said exasperatedly. "How many times do we have to go over this?"

"Lex, it had a large picture of me at the center of it so I'm never going to be convinced," Clark said bluntly. "But anyway, after I found your room I was sort of kidnapped by it and emerged a few weeks later with no memory but a desire to take over the world. I think I might have attacked your plane, too, which is weird because I can't fly. I can't be positive, though, since I have no memory of that time."

"How convenient," Lex said, annoyed.

"I am sorry," Clark said belatedly.

"Of course you are," Lex said tiredly. "What happened with Chloe?"

"After I took her to the hospital, I went to make sure everyone was alright and then stopped the other Kryptonians," Clark said, resuming the narrative. "I decided to take Lana to the hospital instead of making it back in time for the twenty-four hour limit and so now I officially have no powers anymore. I'm human."

"Except for the fact that you were still born on another planet and are a very different, if superficially human, species," Lex pointed out.

"But really, for all practical purposes, I'm human now," Clark insisted.

"Clark, are you telling me that the only time you could get around to making me guess your secret was after you didn't have any powers so if I were planning on experimenting on you or exploiting you it would serve no purpose?" Lex asked testily.

"I…suppose you could look at it that way," Clark said cagily. "That wasn't what I was thinking though, really!"

"Right," Lex said skeptically.

"I admitted the part about the caves back before I lost my powers and back when I was still planning on making it back," Clark pointed out.

"You could have denied it later," Lex countered.

"But I didn't," Clark reminded him. "I'm here right now."

"But now you've lost your powers," Lex replied.

Clark rolled his eyes. "Well then you're just going to have to trust me."

"After the last four years?" Lex asked dubiously.

"I'm telling you now!" Clark exclaimed.

"So how long do you think your powers are going to be gone?" Lex inquired.

Clark shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe forever. Hopefully forever."

Lex's eyes widened. "How can you say that, Clark?"

"I never wanted them," Clark explained. "I just want to be normal."

Lex looked pained. "I swear, Clark, sometimes it feels like we're just completely different species."

"Perhaps because we are, in fact, two completely different species," Clark said helpfully.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to stay away?" Lex asked, concerned. "I mean, your insane…you know what, do you have anything shorter I could call him?"

"Jor-El works," Clark answered.

Lex nodded. "Thank you. Jor-El seems pretty determined to get his hands on you. Maybe you shouldn't wait until he kills another baby before you go make nice with him."

"But Lana and I are finally giving it another shot!" Clark protested. "And now might be my chance to be free of him. And-"

"Do you really trust him to just let you go and not make you suffer for defying him?" Lex cut him off. "I mean, I've never met him but from what you say he sounds a lot like my father. And I know what my father would do. Remember what he did to the plant when I just didn't want to go back to Metropolis with him?"

Clark shuddered. Maybe this whole ignoring Jor-El thing wasn't the safest thing after all. "I'll look into it," he promised.

"Can I come?" Lex asked, trying not to sound too eager.

"Why would you want to?" Clark asked, mystified. "It's probably going to be horrible."

"Call it morbid curiosity," Lex replied.

Clark shrugged. "Whatever. You'll be able to help remind me why I'm doing this, anyway."

"Once you get your powers back, there's something I should probably show you," Lex said slowly.

"What?" Clark asked, intrigued.

"I need some sort of incentive to get you to actually do it," Lex said, shaking his head. "It seems dangerous, though, and it really isn't my fault."

"We can look into it tomorrow," Clark promised. He hesitated. "So…where do we stand? I've lied to you for five years and you're getting into some pretty shady things. Is it enough that I finally told you or…?"

Lex smiled at him. "I'm not going to lie and say that I wish you had told me the truth when I ran over you with my car…you are willing to admit to that now, aren't you?"

"Lex, it's been four years!" Clark protested.

"Is that a yes?" Lex inquired.

Clark rolled his eyes. "Fine! Yes! You hit me with your freaking car! Are you happy now?"

"Extremely," Lex said, his smile widening. "Like I said, I'd rather have known sooner but all that really matters is that you told me when it mattered. It's not too late, Clark."

All in all, that had gone far better than Clark had hoped, even if now he did have to go and get his powers back when he really didn't want to. He should have tried that whole telling Lex thing years ago.

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