slayers_desire | kidnapping Clark to a red-sun Earth

Clark's whole body goes rigid, tugging against the handcuffs like he's having a seizure, and he lets out a strangled cry. His whole body hurts, as the silver kryptonite invading his brain and blood is forced downwards, collecting together in one spot, cohering into a dense little splinter. It works its way out of him, dropping from the cut on his finger and landing on the bed with a heavy thump. It's tiny, almost deceptively innocent-looking, but behaves as though it weighs eighty pounds.

His fever breaks, fresh sweat forming on his face, and he relaxes back down with a sigh. He still hurts, like the aching aftereffects of having the flu, deep down in his bones. But the fire is gone, the hallucinations are clearing, and his fear is fading away. He keeps his eyes closed, just trying to breathe, and the image of the Tree takes root more fully in his mind, the flames going out in a torrential downpour.

When the seizure starts, April's face goes pale. She feels a weight of guilt and panic. Angry at herself for demanding that Victor continue, when the other girl is in pain. Angry at herself for allowing Clark to open the damn package in the first place.

But when the splinter of silver drops from his finger with a thump, she realizes the magic worked. "Oh God... Victor... its out."

She wipes the cooling forehead down again. "He is back." Her own eyes are wet with tears of relief, and released anxiety.

Her first thought is that she's killing him, God, she's killing him, she's killing Clark, the way he's screaming, she's--

She feels physically ill, stomach lurching like a drunk man trying to walk a tightrope, and she presses her hands to her forehead, sinking down next to the bed.

It's not until she says that he's back that she realizes she did a good thing. And then she starts crying. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I hurt him, is he really okay? Is he really... God."

For Clark, it's rather like finally coming to the surface after being submerged underwater. All those muffled sounds becoming clear and coherent, and he slowly tunes in to what they're saying, that there are people here talking about him, and he knows those voices.

"Ow," he breathes, half-opening his eyes, so tired but needing to see them. To make sure that this nightmare is really over. He doesn't know where he is, or what's going on, but he's not afraid anymore.

Seeing Clark's eyes open, April whispers to him. "You are okay. Its just me and Victor here. We sort of had to handcuff you."

Those are the first thing that she will remove.

Looking to where Victor is crying, April bites her bottom lip. "Come ask him yourself. I am sure he will tell you it is alright."

There's a lot going on under the surface with Vic, a lot that people don't usually get to see, inner dialogue that stays inner.

She doesn't want to get up when she's still so out of control, when her hands are shaking, and she's crying, and she feels like her entire stomach is going to defect from the rest of her body. So she goes through the processes of calming down. Deep breaths, hiding the hurt, putting on a mask to cover that vulnerability.

When she gets up, carefully, holding onto the bed, she looks almost normal again. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry."

"Hey," he says, voice rough and feeling like he weighs a million tons, with how badly he wants to just sink into this bed and rest. "It's okay." He's still confused, and even though he knows now that he must've been really sick to see a lot of the things he saw and heard, he still isn't entirely sure how much was real and how much was just hallucinations. "What happened?"

April moves so that she can remove the ejected silver kryptonite away from him before it does more damage. She fiddles with her hair. The emotions in the room are raw and she tries not to show how it affects her.

"I believe it was Professor Fine who sent me that silver kryptonite. It infected you with paranoia. Really bad..."

"The reactions made you do and say some things. Both in Smallville and in the Nexus. We had to bring you here... to a world where your powers won't work."

"Speaking of, we should get him to a place with a yellow sun. Recharge his batteries." She's completely forgotten that just an hour or two ago she was asleep. She scratches at her scalp through that rainbow cap, plucks at the sleeves of her jacket. Her throat feels thick with the want to apologize again.

He makes an attempt to sit up, but doesn't get much further than gathering his strength for the attempt before he has to concede defeat. Fighting off the silver kryptonite has really drained him, and if it had taken a few more hours to cure him, he might genuinely not have made it.

"Did I hurt anyone?" He seems to have vague recollections of his hand around someone's throat, striking someone else, and things breaking around him.

She hates having to tell him this. Knows it will make him feel guilty. "You attacked your parents. From what I understand... Chloe showed up just in time with green kryptonite."

Moving closer, April uses her PINpoint to take all three of them to a beautiful clearing. It is a forest setting, familiar to Clark as where they went in animal form. And has a nice beautiful warm sun above.

But still gives them privacy.

Victor doesn't know much about the situation at all, so it's up to April to explain while she just nods, uncertainly.

Victor holds her bag close to her, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek, looking around the clearing with a sort of comfortable numbness. Taking deep breaths, to try to slow the thudding of her heart, even though she knows her pulse won't slow until it's darn ready to slow.

There's the guilt, just as expected, and he closes his eyes for a moment. "I'll have to thank her. And apologize. I... I think I said some awful things to her. To everyone." And if his dad's heart condition worsens because of whatever Clark did to him, he'll feel even worse.

He flinches a little when they PINpoint, because suddenly finding himself elsewhere is an uncomfortably familiar sensation right now, but when the warm sunlight hits him he takes in an audible breath, deep and steadying, as the yellow sun's rays seep into his body and push out the stored red energy, beginning the slow process of strengthening him.

He opens his eyes again, nowhere near back to normal, but more awake. Definitely more coherent than he's been since this whole crazy thing started. "Are you both okay?"

April doesn't know how to respond to that question.

She understands that the silver kryptonite poisoned his mind. But she still felt his anger at her because of the assumed betrayal. And then there is the fact there is a whole Nexus out there of people who were told that she was trying to kill him.

He was able to trust Victor. But not her. And while that helped them get him someplace safe to fix it -- she is hurt.

But not selfish. "I am worried. The rock was not sent by Lex. I think it was Brainaic."

This is all Greek to Victor, who has slipped her hand under the cuff of her sleeve and is now scratching at the scars on her arms, the way she does when she's unhappy. She's easy to read, when you know which language the book is written in.

"I'm distressed that I ended up hurtin' you to fix you. That it took me so long to find the thing that worked. But I'm glad you're okay," she says, simply, scratch-scratching away.

Clark is torn between them, not sure which to comfort first when his energy levels are so seriously low. So he reaches for April's hand, then Victor's, holding them together. "I think... I might've died if you hadn't helped me. Thanks. And I'm really sorry for putting you through this." He remembers saying some pretty bad things to both of them, and he's not sure how to deal with that, because unlike with red kryptonite, it's all really hazy and unclear.

April squeezes his hand. Her eyes still wet. But really not wanting to emotionally unload yet. "I was really scared."

Him holding her hand means she has to stop scratching, which is probably a good thing, and she squeezes his fingers. "Hon... no one thinks any differently of you for acting like you've been drugged when you were drugged. Don't worry." She is astute enough to be aware of the beginnings of a guilt-fest when she sees it, and she wants him to know that he really doesn't need to feel bad.

Victor, on the other hand, should feel bad. Victor hurt her friend, even if it was for the greater good. Victor betrayed him, even if it was for the greater good.

"But I still said and did some awful things," he insists, still lying flat on his back and wishing he could find the energy to get up and look them in the eyes. "And me being better doesn't change that. I hurt you, both of you."

"And we feel like we hurt you." April whispered. Her voice tight. Strained. Each one of them have good reason to feel guilty.

"I really want to hurt Fine for this." That is the other part of the problem.

April can vocalize what she's feeling better than Victor's usually willing to, and it relaxes her some. "You didn't hurt me. My own actions hurt me. It isn't your fault that I'm upset right now, and you don't have a thing to feel bad about."

"You didn't hurt me," he says, as firmly as he can manage it, and gives their hands a weak squeeze. He's getting stronger, slowly, recovering not only from the silver kryptonite but also the red sunlight. He still looks awful, but at least it's him in there now, and he's not seeing or hearing anything that isn't real. "You saved me."

"I shouldn't have asked you to open that box." April is really going to hate surprise packages at her door after this. Just as a side note.

"Fine wanted you to be paranoid of those closest to you. He wanted this to happen... and we just can't let him win. We just can't." She wrings her hands a little anxiously. Dealing with Fine is such a delicate balance.

"I think there were others in the Nexus that tried to help to. Fine obviously didn't know who he was dealing with. A man who has such a strength of friends. Good friends," This of course includes Victor.

Victor gets blushy, starts to squirm, the hand holding Clark's twitches hard, another one of Victor's tells that she's feeling wobbly. Gosh, it wasn't anything, she was just doing what's right, and she isn't thinking that to be modest, she just doesn't see it as anything else but What Must Happen Because I Love You So Much. A platonic love, but a very strong love.

"Box?"

And she gives Clark's hand another squeeze, looking at him, trying to think if there's anything else she can do to help.

He tries to think back, remembering being in the Nexus, but not coming up with much more than a hazy conglomeration of faces and sounds. It's rather disconcerting for a guy who normally has perfect recall. "I'm going to have to do a lot of apologizing. And thank them all for trying to help."

Clark takes another few deep breaths, just soaking in the light, gathering more energy to talk. "There was a box on April's doormat, with a note claiming it was from Lex. I opened it for her and..." He holds up his hand, the one that had the cut on his finger, now just a fine white line that's on its way to disappearing. "That when I got infected."

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