The Depths We Sink To (Chapter Twenty-Seven)

Now spoiling Descent.


Chapter 27


The mansion held nothing, neither did his father's penthouse or the airstrip or this damned office. So he lay in wait in the dark. He could wait just a little longer for his prize to come to him. 


It was quiet in the his father's office, so high above the city. It had him on edge. His hand inched under his coat, feeling the gun. He might not even use it, except to show he meant business. But he was tempted to pull it out now, keep it ready just in case his father had one ready. He just never knew with that man.


He'd been here for hours now, but he'd wait longer. Lionel had to come back here sooner or later. He could always be found here. Two men were watching the penthouse apartment in midtown. Another two on the now empty warehouse that housed what he'd learned was called Project Intercept. How dry a name, really. There was no poetry in his father. He supposed that came with being brought up in Suicide Slums. He could listen to all the opera he wanted, quote the greats, but he couldn't hide the fact that he didn't fit into that world of the rich and powerful, that he was just a guttersnipe, underneath everything.


Even as he thought it, he knew it was snobbish. But hadn't he been raised in this world? The best schools, the finest tutors, fucking French lessons he despised. His father might even be proud now, knowing that Lex had become everything a nouveau riche upstart like Lionel couldn't hope to be.


His cell phone vibrated and he opened it quickly. "What, Gina?"


"Sir, I'm at the penthouse. Regan says there's no sign of him so far. I'll check in with the men at the airstrip, see if he's been alerted by someone that we've..."


"Why are you checking in at places where I already have guards stationed?" he hissed.


"I thought he'd surely come back here by now. It's after ten now. Habits for men of is age point to an early bedtime and..."


"Just tell me if you spot him," he said before hanging up.


He tucked the gun away, wondering if she was right, if he should be at the Penthouse. It was later than when he'd first come. Lionel might be ready to go home by now, drink himself to sleep. And Regan was stationed there.


Gina would call him, ask what to do. But Lex wasn't sure about Regan. He was efficient, but he was too cocky by half. He'd try to get to him and hold him. Lex didn't want that. He'd rather one of the men off Project Intercept got to him, even. "Intercept," he sneered the name. Such an ugly title. He'd find a better word when he put it, whatever it was, to use, something Greek or...


The elevator outside the office dinged and he pushed away such useless thoughts. His father was here. He could feel it.


And he was glad. He wanted to be the first to speak to my father. And the last. His eyes widened and his breathing slowed as he realized that was what he was here to do, really. The locket, the key, was nearly an excuse. He wasn't here for that. It was just the spoils of a victory that was a long time coming. Maybe he always knew it would come to this. His fingers danced over the butt of the gun in his coat again. He hugged the shadows as the office door slid open with a hiss of air.


He watched his father for a moment as he pulled off his tie with a tired sigh. He almost pitied him, wondered if he was wrong. He thought of Patricia Swann. Of her unfortunate death. She didn't really have to die. His man could have taken it, left her on the side of the road. But, then again, maybe she did have to die. With her money and power, she could trace the theft to him, find ways to get it back. And let's not forget that she was consorting with Clark Kent, like everyone else. And so was his father. Or fevered conversations with Chloe Sullivan surely pointed that way. 


Lex watched as he sank into a leather chair, looking suddenly old, powerless. This was his father. Maybe Patricia Swann, a childhood acquaintance of no real consequence would fight him, but his own father... It was possible he would come clean to his own son. Maybe he deserved a chance to do just that.


Lex stepped out of the shadows. "I'm sure there were moments when King Arthur regretted pulling the sword from the stone. But he never gave up his quest. So why did you?" His father looked away and some of his faith in him scurried away, but he pressed on. "Or have you already found the Traveler that you and the less fortunate members of Veritas were looking for?"


"The Traveler. Why doesn't it surprise me that you've fallen for Patricia Swann's vivid imaginings?"


His calm disippated slightly at the obvious lie. "I didn't imagine the deaths of Virgil Swann or Oliver Queen's parents."


"You think I can control the fate of individuals?" He had the nerve to chuckle. "Oh, God. You give me too much credit." His father moved away.


"You certainly controlled mine," he said, satisfied when his father turned back. "It wasn't an accident we were in Smallville the day of the meteor shower, was it? The factory was just a cover. You were really there to meet this Traveler that Veritas wanted to protect." His voice grew louder. "I remember everything, Dad." He wouldn't fall for it anymore.


"Those are the memories of a small boy in shock, trying to cope with the trauma of a meteor shower." Yet Lionel just had to try.


"A trauma brought on by my own father," he spat, drawing closer. "My life changed forever that day." And what had his father done? Looked at him with revulsion, grew his hair long as a lion's mane as if to taunt him. But that wasn't the worst part. It was that he just didn't care. Whatever happened to Lex just didn't matter in light of The Traveler. "You sacrificed me for the Traveler. Why?" He gripped his arms. "Who is it, Dad? Who is it?" he whispered. "Who is it?" he asked louder now. Didn't he get it? This could all end tonight. But if he told him...


"What if I told you now," his father said lowly, "that you are the Traveler?"


Lex released him and moved away. More lies. 


"You're right," Lionel went on, his voice almost bright. It was always more animated when he lied. "Your life truly changed that day. I told you in the helicopter that you were destined for a great future. That's why I've been so hard on you, trained you so relentlessly." What part of he remembered everything did his father refuse to accept? "Think, Lex. Think. You have survived mortal injuries so many times. How else can you explain it?"


Of course, his father didn't know how much he'd overheard then. If he hadn't remembered, this would be a spectacular lie. He might have even fallen for it. Might have even let it excuse the cruelty that was his childhood. As it was...


He turned. "Because I was trained never to accept defeat," he said dully, watching with something akin to satisfaction as his father's face fell at his last possible lie falling so flat. "When I get my hands on that box in Zurich...I have a feeling all my questions will be answered."


He strode away, pulling his gun from his coat. He'd given him every chance to come clean. He had no choice now. He couldn't fight destiny.


"Lex? " He knew he'd seen the gun, yet he wa moving in front of him, positioning himself for it, as if he knew, too, that this was fate. "I know how strong it is, the attraction of the dark power. But it will destroy you. I can't let you go down that terrible path." Lex hardly heard him as he turned to the window, then back. He was so close to the glass, to the emptiness beyond it. It was like permission, really. "You must not open that box."


Lex heard that last all too well. At least his father was admitting there was a box. "I can't open it because I need a second key. Give it to me." One last chance... 


His father only stared back and he realized he really had no way around it now. He raised the gun and fired. Lionel ducked. But he needn't have. Lex wasn't about to resort to something as ugly as a gunshot. That was no way to end this.


The window behind him shattered and Lex moved closer, knowing there was nowhere for his father to go. "I've swept every possible place you could have hidden it, and I finally realized, there's only one person you would trust it with... Yourself." He ripped at the collar of his father's shirt, then yanked almost blindly at his neck. It came away in his hand, as if it was meant to be there. 


"Lex?"


He stared at it, feeling destiny in his hands as his father's voice droned on.


"Lex, if you open that box, if you get hold of that secret...there will be no redemption for you. No redemption. Ever."


He was finished him, finished with his lies, finished with his twisted version of fatherhood. He was finally, finally finished. He gripped him by the lapels of his suit. 


"I was raised in your shadow," he said, so calm now. "Now you're gonna die in mine. No one will even remember your name." He pushed, then let go, calm settling over him like a blanket, like a benediction, as his father fell backward. This was destiny, after all. All he really did was stop fighting it.


***********************


Chloe stared at the flashing maps on the screen. "I'm sorry, Clark. I've traveled halfway around the world via satellite. There's no trace of Kara and Brainiac." 


"I can't let Lana sit in that asylum in pain. The only way to help her is to find Brainiac."


When he'd said Lana was being transferred to St. Christopher's, she'd been as eager as he was to stop it. That was a permanent care facility and she was not about to leave Lana to that fate. But now... 


She'd typed and clicked her fingers to the bone and there was still nothing to point them to Brainiac... and Kara by extension. "I've tapped every radar screen known to mankind." And nearly all of her resources in finding them. "I mean, there's no bogey or blip unaccounted for. It's like they just flew off the map." There had to be another way. She'd refreshed these same grids hundreds of times now with no change.


He leaned over her, unrelenting. "What about Brainiac's power sources? Check the electrical grid for any power surges again."


A siren wailed and her head turned to the window, not quite under her command.


"Stay focused, Chloe," Clark said at her ear.


"Busy night out there," she said dully, her mind hazy with lack of sleep and coffee, her eyes tired, and her fingers raw. She typed and clicked on, but the chatter around her was getting distracting. She glanced up as Lois moved into the bullpen, followed closely by Jimmy. Now she had to know. "What's going on?"


"Someone at LuthorCorp just jumped out of their office window," Lois said quickly. "Rumor has it, it was Lionel Luthor."


Chloe stood and grabbed her coat. She couldn't sit here now. It seemed Clark could, staring into space. "Clark? Let's go." She moved out of the building to join the throng already gathered across the street, still hazy.


Maybe there was a mistake. She felt like she'd just spoke to him. 


***********************


"I ju... I just talked to him," Lex said, following Detective Sawyer out of the building. Strangely, his voice sounded shocked and he wondered if he was. He supposed it was one thing to watch a man sail down the front of a building into the dark below. It was another to see a body covered in a yellow tarp, speckles of blood on the pavement around it. His hands shook at the sight. But he had to see it. Seeing it was necessary.


"You said you were working down the hall from your father tonight?"


Lying was also necessary. "I heard him yell. Then he was gone." He pushed the words out, resenting them. If the world knew why he'd done it, he wouldn't have to lie. 


"I know how difficult this must be for you, Mr. Luthor, but I need a positive identification," Sawyer said, her tone brusque. "Whenever you're ready," her voice gentling slightly.


He moved closer to the... body. There was a body under there. His father's body. He really had no right to be shaking. He did it, after all. He needed to get a grip.


Sawyer moved around to pull back the tarp and Lex bent. And there he was. But he wasn't. Not really. His father was nowhere in those sightless eyes.


"Yeah," he choked out.


"Thank you," she said softly and moved away, finished with him, to his relief. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. The noises around him faded, press calling out, sirens still blaring, police controlling the crowd that was growing. He couldn't do much more. He'd had to kill his own goddamned father now. It was the highest price he'd paid in his quest. And he was sure he'd pay for the act itself. But he had to. He f*cking had to. That's how you got things like keys that opened the universe. It's how his father had. He had no ch...


"You killed him?" He turned. The boy was there, standing on the steps above the broken husk that had once held his father. "You killed Dad." The tiny voice cracked and Lex turned away only to face Clark Kent beyond the police lines, staring at him with his well-worn look of befuddlement.


He moved away, glancing back furtively to find Clark still dogging him on the other side. He stopped, wondering if he had some obligation to say something. He spied Chloe, coming up behind Clark. He hadn't thought of her tonight, or of him. They seemed like strangers now across that gulf, that side. 


"Everything I do, I do to fight something that's coming. Yet you fight me? You're on the wrong side."

"You made the sides."


That's what she'd said. And he supposed she was right. As good as the ends would be, he'd done the things that made this gulf between him and people like them, people with clean hands and doting families. People like that would never understand. It was useless to even think of making them.


He did turn away, then. And he didn't look back. 


******************************


Chloe searched for Clark through the crowd of press and onlookers. It was true. Lionel Luthor had thrown himself out his office window this night. She thought of her last words with him. If she said something that... No. She wasn't doing that. She'd said nothing that wasn't true. She didn't make this happen. If anything, it was the weight of all the things he'd done that drove him to take his life rather than face himself.


She straightened as she saw Clark ahead. She moved through the throng towards him, but stopped short of him, seeing Lex just beyond him. His eyes locked on hers and it registered that more than Lionel's suicide had happened. Lex had lost his father tonight. For a moment she wanted to call out to him, move nearer to him, just a touch... He turned away and she dropped the impulse. It would have been foolish. Whatever he'd lost didn't erase what he'd done or what he might do. He might be even harder to predict now. It was best to stay clear-headed and clear of him.


She moved to Clark, sighing at the tell-tale droop of his shoulders. Maybe he was thinking of his last words with Lionel, too. "Not that I wanna speak ill of the dead, but Lionel left a lot of damage in his wake." She pulled him away. "Remember, he locked you in a Kryptonite box?"


"Lionel did a lot of things, Chloe, but he'd never commit suicide."


So that was it. "I don't know about that, Clark," she said as they moved back to the Planet. "He was beyond disturbed when he came to the Daily Planet today."


"It doesn't mean he'd take his own life. He was pretty rattled the last time I saw him, too. He was desperate to give me something, a locket."


She turned back, realizing Clark had stopped. "What does a locket have to do with Lionel Luthor falling 40 stories from his office window?" She moved back to The Planet, trying to push it out of her mind. 


She had work to do. This interminable night wasn't over yet. She had to find a way to get more satellite feeds. She couldn't change what had happened tonight, but she could work on tomorrow. "Kara, Lana," she muttered, walking faster. They were people that could be saved. She wasn't about to waste time dwelling on two men that couldn't.


*******************************


All for nothing. An hour ago, it had meant something, what he'd done. An hour ago, he had a key in his hand. Now he realized he had a shell. He stared ahead of him, letting it in now. He'd killed his father for nothing. For a trinket. For a fucking necklace.


There was a soft knock behind him. He barely turned to it before Gina spoke. "Mr. Luthor... I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was to hear about your father."


He was sorry, too, now. "When I was a boy...we took a trip together to Washington, DC." He let the memory in. Something nice. His father had just died for no reason. The man at least deserved a fond memory or two. "It was just the two of us. I thought I was just tagging along on another business trip, but he wanted to show me the Air and Space Museum. He knew I loved things that could fly." His fingers rubbed at the locket. He couldn't let it go. He'd killed for it, after all. "We were looking up at the Apollo 11 Command Module. I couldn't believe it went to the moon. My father held my hand...and he told me, The right man can make anything possible."


He froze slightly as he felt her hand on his shoulder. It felt like years since he'd been touched. Yet it couldn't be. Maybe a matter of weeks, at most. Lately, he'd felt as if he could be touched by nothing and no one, especially not... His mind wandered away from Gina and found Chloe, standing in this very room, giggling and running away, tucking a robe under her arms, sliding her hands up his chest, trying to convince him he was sexy. 


He smiled just a little and placed is hand over... Gina's. Not Chloe's. He was tipped off by the surprised sort of gasp... that and the fact that Chloe would probably never touch him again after what he'd done. And for what? His thumb ran over the engraving on the locket.


"You have his locket," Gina whispered.


He stiffened, realizing he was about to lose the last person willing to touch him.


"How did you get him to..."


He shrugged her off, waiting for the judgements, the recriminations.


She came around his chair, crouching in front of him. "Lex...Lionel was a cruel, sadistic man."


Lex suddenly found something worse than judgement -- understanding. He wasn't sure he wanted it right now. "What are you suggesting?"


She smiled, strangely. He couldn't answer with one of his own. His father was dead for nothing now. "No one will ever know, Lex." She took his hand. "I promise you." She nudged his fingers apart and took the locket. He let her open it, let her find out what he already knew. That this was all for nothing. "Where's the key?"


"It was empty. My father must have given it to someone," he choked out bitterly. "I asked you to keep an eye on him, Gina." 


She stood, her eyes wide. "Lionel stopped by the Daily Planet before going to LuthorCorp. He was spotted in the basement."


"Get the helicopter ready," he said stiffly.


"Of course," she breathed before leaving.


He should be nicer with Gina. She really was the best assistant he'd ever had. She'd brought him a crucial piece of information, after all. He swallowed hard, thinking of why Lionel had been at The Daily Planet. There were three pieces of his puzzle working there. He didn't think he was there to see Olsen or Lane. As eager as they were, searches of their hard drives had proved they were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. It was Sullivan. He stood, readying himself. He hadn't spoke to her since that night. He didn't want to. He moved to the sideboard for a dose of liquid courage. This wouldn't be easy.


"You killed Dad for a necklace?"


He stilled. It would be a hell of a lot harder with this fucking hallucination of a kid breathing down his neck, saying everything he thought in this tiny, sad little voice. "You're not real," he insisted, moving more firmly toward the cut crystal decanters and glasses.


"He was mean sometimes, but he loved us, Lex."


Some scotch slipped over the edge of the glass as he almost wanted to laugh. Mean sometimes. It was like saying Nero only burned down a little of Rome. The kid was... Not fucking real. "Get out of my head," he growled. "Get out of my head!"


"You shouldn't have done it!" the kid yelled, refusing to go away.


"I had no choice!" Lex screamed, whirling on him, throwing the tumbler, as if that would make him finally... go away. And he did. He was gone.


Lex stared at the fireplace, empty except for the flames that licked at the liquor splashed on the frame.


He needed to get a grip. He had to face her now. And she was tricky. She always was. He stared at the sofa as his breathing slowed, saw her kissing her way down his chest, spouting her pretty lies. He couldn't let her fool him again.


"Sir?" He jumped slightly at the voice. But it was only Gina in his doorway. "The helicopter is prepped."


"Call ahead to The Planet. Tell them to go over all security footage from the basement. I think I know who my father just had to see."


******************************


Chloe dropped her purse and shrugged off her coat. She'd been to the DWP again with hardly any results, it nearing midnight now. She'd been hoping to up her clearance, but she supposed it would do no good. Brainiac and Kara were definitely outside city limits by now. She just had to find a way to get to that other half of the world she couldn't seem to access. 


She dug in her desk, looking for Oliver's special number. She hadn't saved it in her phone, thinking she wouldn't need it too often, plus this particular number didn't exactly dial the head of Queen Industries, more his green counterpart. It may be late, but he owed her a few. She needed more access to track Brainiac. She dug in her top drawer. It was on a green bit of... paper. She drew out a bit of paper. But it wasn't green. It was white and she didn't remember placing it there, and from the kryptonian symbol on the front, it had nothing to do with the Green Arrow. 


She studied it closely and something dropped out. It looked like a... key. Golden and engraved with a tiny V surrounded by little stars. V. V for...


She didn't time to put it together. She heard footsteps on the stairs and, this time of night, it was nothing as harmless as an intern. She turned to the glazed door to find she was right. It was nothing harmless.


It was Lex Luthor.


She shut her drawer hastily and stood, moving to the shredder. She definitely didn't want any Kryptonian symbols in Lex's eyesight.


She heard the door open as she shredded the scrap in her hands. She felt him at her back as it disappeared. "Lex." He was standing close, closer than he'd been for... it felt like years. Yet it must have been mere days. "I'm so sorry about your father," she said, feeling she had to acknowledge it. She detested the murdering slime and, to a lesser degree, the cruel bastard in front of her, but good manners...


"Thank you, Chloe." He nearly smiled, as if acknowledging the pleasantry, as it was. An empty sort of smile. "He visited you here tonight."


She'd hoped he hadn't known that. Too much to hope, where Lex was concerned. "Yeah. He really... wasn't himself."


"I fear in his deluded state of mind, my father disposed of some valuable family heirlooms," he said in a rush. "Did he give you anything?"


She glanced at him, then through the door at the man and woman waiting on the other side before moving to her desk. He hadn't exactly given her anything. But that key... "Other than the feeling that something was definitely off? No." She took a file from er desk and moved to the cabinets. She didn't even know what it was, but whatever that key was, Lex shouldn't have it. She knew that much. "I mean, he was only here for a few minutes," she moved to the cabinets, hoping Lex would follow, placing the file of what-the-hell who-knows-where, "and to be honest, I got scared, so, I..."


"Have you checked your desk?"


She slammed the file drawer shut and turned. "He didn't give me anything, Lex." That much was true. As to after she left him... "I swear. He just came here to talk."


********************


Lex stared at her, mostly at her hands. She was wringing them in front of her. It was a tell. She'd always had tells. From that slight shake to her voice under her protestations against fucking him to that deeper tremor as he hit just the right spot at the top her clit, but she didn't want him to know. Chloe was easily read.


He wondering why now, with all hope of it lost, these purely sexual memories were coming back to him. Perhaps it was because she was wearing a skirt. How many fucking times had he intimated he wanted her to wear a skirt and now she was. And it was tight and her top was low cut and all this was being paraded in front of him at a time when he couldn't fucking touch her.


He pushed open her drawer, wondering if she'd be impressed by his foresight. It wasn't really foresight. He'd just watched the footage, seen his father frantically shove something into her desk. He pulled out the key he knew, he just knew, he'd find there. "This was my father's," he said, wondering how she'd answer. He'd seen her shutting that drawer as he'd come down the steps. She knew it was there.


"I've never seen it before." 


She lied so prettily. But he was done. "Why were you hiding it from me?"


"Lex, if I knew it was yours, I wouldn't keep it from you." But she would. He knew she would.


"Why would he even give it to you?" She was too tied up in everything. He held it up to her. "Do you know what this key is for?" This wasn't just about her powers, about just what kind of freak she was now. This was something bigger. Right now, she was standing between him and the fate of the world. 


Her eyes were steady and he was fucking positive she knew just how big this was. "Lex, Lionel wasn't in his right mind when he was here. I don't know why he left that.


Yes. She was definitely standing between him and the fate of the world. And on the wrong side. Her steady gaze was nearly condescending now and he wanted to grab her, shake her, tell her to join him if she knew what was good for her. But he'd tried that before. She just threw it in his face. He was done trying with her. Now he just wanted to hurt her, just to see if he could, if he still had that power. He couldn't... not physically. But he could... 


"You're fired," he found himself saying. That would hit her where she lived. He turned away, gesturing to Gina and the newest mew guy. "Escort Miss Sullivan from the building," he said as they moved through the door.


"Aren't you going to give me a second to clear out my private things?"


He turned to see her grab only her coat before the newest new guy pulled her away from her desk.


"Your personal items will be boxed up and sent to your home," he said with relish as she was pulled past him.


"Lex, your name may be on the building, but that's my personal stuff. I have rights. If anything is missing, Lex, I swear to God you won't hear the end of it."


Her tiny protests faded as Gina moved forward. "I'll pack up Miss Sullivan's belongings. You go back to the mansion. Get some sleep."


He turned away, ready to do that with a heacy buffer of scotch when he felt her hand on his shoulder.


"We did it, Lex," Gina said as he turned back.


He answered her strange smile with an empty one of his own. But what had he really done? Fired her from a job she'd seemed to hate for months now? He wanted to hurt her now, for her lies and for her sides.


This didn't feel like enough.


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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT