recovering from an ordeal

[slayers_desire]

Clark and April had stayed in her home universe. It had been a day since the whole ordeal with the kidnapping and everything. April was still not talking about anything.

In fact, for the last couple of hours, she had stayed in the guest bed that the others had given the couple.

Comments

[slayers_desire]

Lex is back... and obsessed with you? This is not good...

"Do you have something of his? Maybe I can get a read off him."

[smallvillains]

"I have his clothes from before he grew out of them. Some of his favorite books... what will you do if you find him?" Tess is worried about him, and not just because it turns out she's his half-sister.

[slayers_desire]

"We have to find out if he is a danger to us. To anyone." But technically, if this clone has done now harm yet... they wouldn't attack him.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"And if he is?"

"We're not going to kill him," Clark tells her. "But we need to know."

[slayers_desire]

"Please Tess... I know you care for him. But we just wanted to help him..."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I wanted to help him too. I failed. I thought I could raise him right..."

"It wasn't your fault," Clark says. "Lex... if he has the memories of his adult self, he hasn't been on the right path for a very long time."

[slayers_desire]

"We can bring him back to you Tess. And together, we can help him deal with these memories."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"I don't think going after him is a good idea," Tess says, glad that they aren't blaming her for keeping this a secret, but so worried about the clone. "He'll see it as kidnapping... maybe his memories need time to settle..."

"We won't," Clark promises. "Unless he's planning to hurt someone. Once April knows what he feels like, she can find him again. We can keep tabs on him."

[slayers_desire]

"We just want to know where he is, and if he is going to come after Clark or not." April is worried. This is another person who is after her husband.

Touching the clone's clothing... she reaches out with her voices to see if she can connect with him. Learn more about him.

[jla_npc]

Alexander is an angry young man, whose mind is confused. Presented with so many memories out of context, his reality is far different from the real one, remembering Clark as both friend and mortal enemy. Right now he's hiding in the slums, just wanting to be left alone to sort himself out, trying to figure out what to do. Tess's guess about his age is right, but there's something not quite right about him. He doesn't feel like Lex, not entirely.

[slayers_desire]

"I see him. He is trying to sort himself out. He is confused."

"But something is not right about him. He doesn't feel like Lex. Not entirely."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Is it because of his memory problems? Or because he's a clone?"

[slayers_desire]

"The memories are out of context... but something just feels... different."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

It's vague, but he doesn't blame her. If Alexander is this confused on his own, he doesn't expect her voices to make sense of it right away either. "Is he a threat right now?"

[slayers_desire]

"No. I don't think so. He is just trying to figure out his own life."

"He does remember you."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"We'll leave him alone for now, but if you see an opportunity to try to help him... we have to take it." Clark looks over at Tess. "We might need you to help."

"Of course I would. He's my..." Brother? Adopted child? "Responsibility."

[slayers_desire]

"I will keep my mind open to him, in case he needs help. But for now... he is trying to be his own man."

"You should be proud." April smiled softly at Tess.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

That echoes strongly with one of Clark's memories. The other Lionel, holding a blue kryptonite blade to his throat. "You want to be your own man, that's natural. But remember, Clark. I am your father, and I alone raised you in my own image to become the man that you are today."

"He's away from Lionel's influence," he says, trying to shake that memory. "That should count for something."

[slayers_desire]

April looks up from her seated position, something else worrying her. "Were there other clones?"

[smallvillains]

"Yes," Tess admits. "But the others... didn't survive. There was one, but he was aging far faster than Alexander is. He died before I left Cadmus."

[slayers_desire]

Hearing of a rapidly aging child reminds April of Evan. And she is quiet for a moment. Sad.

"We won't let that happen to Alexander."

((heaidng out for supper with dad))

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"My scientists already have a cure for his rapid aging. A way to stabilize his DNA."

"Why didn't you give it to him already?" Clark wants to know.

"He frightened me," Tess admits. "He told me he was Lex. You know how much of a monster he was at the end."

[slayers_desire]

"I think he is scared of that part of him too."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark is heavily conflicted. On the one hand, Lex was a monster who only cared about destroying those he hated. And repeated experience has shown that clones, like his father, can be very nearly the same person they were cloned from. But... Alexander is a child. And if there's something different about him, if they can change his path early enough... what could happen?

"If we get him to take the cure, what then? What if he grows up into the same Lex we knew before?"

"That's why I hesitated," Tess agrees, ashamed of taking that stance, that she's implying it could be better to let Alexander die than risk him stepping into his predecessor's shoes.

[slayers_desire]

"Just because Lex took a dark path doesn't mean Alexander will." April feels torn about this. She can't stop thinking of Evan. And how... even after he killed his father, she would have done anything to save him from aging again.

She can feel the tears in her eyes. "I would know more seeing him face to face."