slayers_desire | taking Clark to Rome

"Oh, good. I only speak two languages and I doubt you've got any Kryptonian volumes." Although now his mind is stuck on the thought... is there a Krypton in this universe? Perhaps one that wasn't destroyed, and so his counterpart was never sent here. He has no way to know for sure, not unless he got his hands on an extraordinarily powerful professional telescope.

"I would not know, since I can't read much Kryptonian. I just know strength and soul. You still owe me another lesson." April points out. The Buffyverse has demons and vampires and all sorts of other creatures of the night, she is sure there would be aliens out there too.

"I am fortunate I can read one Demon language. And Latin. Learning Spanish now." And all of this was mostly self-taught.

The walk back to the library doesn't take long. There is less light as it gets closer to dusk, so April is glad to be inside the safe haven of the Villa. With its demon wards and protection from other creatures of the night. And she always feels protected by Clark.

Guiding him up to the second floor, April stops and closes her eyes. She starts to walk along one of the ailes of books, eyes still closed, her fingers running against book spines. Until she comes to the one she wants and pulls it out. And opening her eyes, turns to him. "This one is good."

"Remind me next time," he promises. With the circumstances surrounding her arrival in Smallville, and the attempt at normalcy since, it had completely slipped his mind. And while he doesn't know if the next time they meet will be suitable for such lighthearted things, he's hoping it will.

He trails along behind her, watching in interest how she seems to feel for which book she wants. And he's perceptive enough to know that it's not just the physical feeling that she's paying attention to. "What is it?"

"I will." When things feel right for lightheartness April will be glad to learn Kryptonian from him. And remind him about the dance she owes him.

"A history on the Scourge (http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Scourge)." April hands the tome to him. "In our dimension, they were quite resourceful during the Second World War. When they were allies with an evil human known as Hitler."

Clark carefully flips open the book, handling it with the care that lifelong book-lovers tend to display, leafing through the pages. But he looks up when she mentions their ally. "So very much not nice people." Though he's only appeared to glance at a few pages from the book, each glance incorporated him reading the entire page at speed. "They definitely sound like his kind of folks."

"While Hitler was working to destroy the Jewish, the Scourge used their own concentration camps to destroy any half-demons they found." April watches his care with interest. Knowing that he respects books the same way she does connects them further.

There is a brief history of their rise and fall during the War. And how they came back to Los Angeles to attempt to destroy half-breeds again, which was prevented by a hero named Doyle. And of course some information on their strengths, their culture and their mentality.

Though he handles the book with care, he pages through it rapidly, eyes resting on each page for only a moment before moving on. Between speeding up his perception and a photographic memory, he memorizes the contents of the book within minutes.

"They must've picked their name because they thought it was ironic," he comments, sounding a little disgusted. He's run into some nasty pieces of work, but genocidal racists is something he doesn't have a lot of experience with. Especially in organized groups.

"They do not know irony. They called themselves what they wish to be, The Scourge." April bites her lower lip. There is information on some of their tactics used against prisoners too, like coercive mind control tactics, and using starvation and sleep deprivation to strengthen their cult.

"Fortunately, they have the same weakness as most Demons. Remove their head and they are dead."

Clark has always been taught that killing is wrong. For revenge, for justice, for anything other than immediate self-defense where it's the only option. But his parents' teachings never included something like this. The Scourge can't be taken to court. They can't be punished by a legal system. Even if they were, they'd just wait out any punishment and go right back to their old ways. They have to be stopped, and death sounds like the only option.

At the same time, he doesn't dare let himself fall into the trap of not thinking of them as people and therefore making it okay to kill. They're demonic, but so is part of April. And so is her father, and her allies, and friends. If he thinks of the Scourge as non-people, he'd have to consider her as such too. And he can never do that.

He closes the book gently, and hands it back. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You have never killed before." April respects this of Clark. She returns the book back to its place. "I don't want to be the person who forces you into something like that. It changes you. On a deep level."

"Even when what you killed was a monster, it still affects your soul."

"They can still be defeated without being killed."

"I've been responsible for death. Some of my classmates have died while fighting me, when I was trying to stop them from harming others. But all of them were accidental. I've never landed the killing blow myself." It's not the same as purposeful killing. But it doesn't mean he feels any less responsible for what happened. And he has been tempted on occasion, like when Phelan blackmailed Clark into using his abilities to steal and had his father framed for murder when he refused. Clark came within a split-second of turning that slimeball into bloody jelly that day, and only held back because he knew it would still be wrong.

"Defeated, sure. But for how long? Who else will they hurt once they recover?" There are dark places in his soul, traits drawn out by red kryptonite and condensed into the cruel, militaristic Kal-El that he briefly was. "I'm going to want to kill them." He almost already does, just thinking about what they're going to do to her.

"I too have been responsible for death." April walks through the ailes of books again, every now and then stopping to give him a new book. With his ability to read and retain so quickly, she can teach him so much about vampires. And Slayers. And witches. And werewolves.

"And once it was the killing blow." This was said quietly.

"We can send them to a Demon dimension where they can't hurt other humans. Or half-breeds. I just..." She pauses in the stacks. "I don't want you killing something because of me. No matter what state you find me in."

Clark doesn't press for details. He can tell that it isn't something she's proud of. And this conversation is painful enough without needing to dredge up more painful memories. So he just reads the books as she hands them to him, expanding his knowledge of her world at a steady pace.

It's good that they're having this talk now, before the situation occurs. Because her admission that she doesn't want him killing for her strikes him deeply, and sticks with him. "If we banished them, is there a chance they could escape?"

"Not with the right wards. A banished Demon stays banished." April reassures him. She takes his hand in hers.

She will always remember how she felt killing for the first time. How it affected her. How it changed her. And how it appealed to her darker side.

And April will do what she can to protect Clark from that experience.

He's more than a bit tense, but has to relax to keep from breaking the bones in her hand. His older counterpart in the Nexus once told him about the Phantom Zone, a hell-like dimension where Jor-El sent his enemies. At the time he was appalled. Now he doesn't know what to think.

"So what do I have to do?"

Moving again with purpose, one hand in his, the others on the book spines, April closed her eyes and concentrated. Then she found the book she needed.

Glancing at it, she frowned. "Damn. An old language. But this book will aid you. It can help you open a portal, and send these Demons back to the dimension where they blong."

She doesn't know about the Phantom Zone. Or how to tell him that this would not be like that. The Scourge would do fine in a place like Qua-Toth.

He knows from the books about magic that anyone can perform spells with the right props and incantations, so he isn't worried about an inability to call forth the right forces or what-have-you. He's more worried about messing up during the performance of the ritual, and thus leaving the door open for the Scourge to come back.

"It sounds risky. I've never done anything like this before."

"Come..." April gestures for Clark to follow her from the library and then to the room. Keeping this certain book with them.

Entering her room, it is kept simplier and has less personal mementos than her Nexus apartment. The one thing of note is the balcony that overlooks the garden. A beautiful sight with the sun setting.

"I will help you learn." She gestures for him to sit. Then starts to light candles around the room, instead of turning on the light.

Clark looks around as they enter, noting the more spartan appearance that suggests that she's only visiting, and not entirely at home. He sits at her command, watching her light the candles, tempted to help out by using his heat vision. But he's the student here, once again, so he simply sits and waits, book in his hands.

April has not been in Rome long, and before that had been in Los Angeles, and before that Qua-Toth. So she doesn't have a lot of personal items here.

The Nexus is different She feels more at home there. And besides, she can keep more mementos of her time with Clark at her Nexus place.

Sitting beside him, April opens the book. The language is foreign to her, but she is able to find the page she needs by closing her eyes and flipping it to the right spot. There is a symbol on this page, one that is easy enough to duplicate as it is forming a spiral with ones hand.

"The symbol is easy enough to duplicate. The words are a different issue. The wrong inflection and you might open a portal to the wrong dimension."

"And you have to read it in the original language, right? Can it be practiced safely without, you know, actually making the spell happen?"

"Actually, you can cast spells in other languages. Makes it easier for those demons who only can speak their own tongue. If we work on the words first, without the symbol, it would be good practice."

"And I had an idea."

She takes his hand, placing it on the book and kept her hand there. Then closing her eyes, she concentrated. Seeing the text in her minds eye, concentrating on his kryptonian culture, and then channeling her gifts to an extent that she had never tried before.

Clark would see the book light up, then suddenly the words would appear to him in kryptonian. "Can you see it?" April asks, keeping her eyes closed.

"That's convenient." And quite a relief, since he's pretty sure he would horribly screw it up if he had to recite it in an unfamiliar language.

His eyes widen as the words seem to change to the sharp, angular symbols of his homeworld. "Yes." Unsure of how long the effect will last, he quickly reads the text as easily as he would if it was in English.

"Good. Tell me when you have memorized it." April continues to concentrate on her abilities. Allowing Clark the ability to see the magic on his own terms.

Even though he has it committed to memory the first time, he reads it twice more just to be safe. Because this is something he does not want to screw up. "Got it."

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