A/N: I don't own Smallville or any characters and places in the DC universe. Nor do I own the episodes that these chapters are based on and contained from.
I also don't claim to be a writer. My inspiration is simply to get a creative outlet going.
I only own Tyla Nevin and what pertains to her character story.
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The dirt fell into his eyes as he clawed his way out through rock and sand. He coughed, crawling out after what felt like eons, from the mound of debris that he tried to shelter Tyla from. Tyla?! He panted, forcing himself out from the rubble and turning back to dig her out. He grasped at the heaps of the earth, pushing them out of the way until he saw his girlfriend. His back sore and his arms already starting to sport bruises, he took the brunt of the impact but any more time underneath the rock and Tyla would asphyxiate.
"Tyla? Honey?" He called. "Tyla! I'm getting you out. Chloe! Chloe, come help me!" He raised his voice, hoping his shouts would spur the other woman if she was able to give herself cover. But there was no response. Instead, he was met with silence. Was she okay? He turned around, finding himself alone. "Where'd you go, Chloe?" He mused, getting up. He looked over to where he saw her last, near a giant hunk of rock but she wasn't there. There was only her cell phone as evidence of ever being in the caves with her. Lex tilted his head in curiosity. He took a few steps forward and knelt to pick up the dusty orange phone.
"Where'd you go, Chloe?" he repeated, looking up. Behind the slab of rock was the opening that he sought so hard to find. It was as if it was always there. He narrowed his eyes as he straightened up again and walked into the cavern. It led to a small chamber. In the middle of the chamber was a grey stone octagonal table. It stood clear, free of sand and dust. As Lex approached it, he could see inscriptions similar to his map and the stones scroll down in eight lines, each reaching to one side. He tossed Chloe's phone on the stone table and traced his fingers at the symbols. In the middle of the table, a smaller octagonal shape was etched with eight more symbols. In its center were the symbols of the three stones that he had searched for.
He reached forward, drawn to a slab jutting out from the table. He wiggled it, gingerly with his fingers and pulled it out. The slab was curiously also octagonal with three symbols. Lex brought it close to see. It wasn't stone. It was too smooth to the touch. It was like a cross between cement and metal. It had a reflection that glinted at his face. Suddenly, he heard a faint whooshing noise behind him and turned around to see two figures standing there. One was a female with long black hair, tied back into a ponytail. The other was a darker-skinned male who stared at Lex with an almost glossy look.
"Officers, everything's under control here," he started to say. "But my girlfriend is in tro-"
"He has the key," the female interrupted him. She extended her hand out and Lex felt his hand moved forward. As if slipping from his fingers by invisible string, the disk flew gracefully into the woman's hand. He looked from his hand to hers as she closed her fingers around it. He took a step forward. They weren't here to help him.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"Are you Kal-El?" The male decided to question him back.
Two could play that game. "Who wants to know?"
The man walked over. Lex could see that his glossy gaze was in fact because he was blind. Before he could add another quip, the darker man grasped his throat with superhuman speed and force. Lex grunted as fingers closed in tight at his jugular. He could feel nails digging into the skin, drawing blood. From the corner of his eye, he saw the female stalk around them so that she was behind Lex.
"It's not him," she stated. "Kal-El wouldn't bleed."
"Are you the Clairvoyant?" The male probed.
"Uh," Lex choked. His eyes betrayed a refusal. The male effortlessly threw him back and Lex flew across. He hit a wall, his already pain-filled back stung with further pain. He fell with a mouthful of dirt swarmed in his mouth and narrowly missing a large piece of rubble from knocking his head. He grunted, coughing out loudly while he tried to get up. Before his next thoughts formed, the two figures whooshed out, the interaction meaningless. Lex stared at the direction to which they had left. It was now an empty space.
Immediately, the thoughts of Tyla and getting her out of the way plagued him. He got up, ignoring tenderness that creeped in his muscles, the dizziness that spun in his head and the blood that started to stain the collar of his shirt. With both arms, he pulled down heaps of debris from the mound. He clutched more dirt and threw it out of the way. One final parting of rock and he saw a delicate hand fall. He gasped, shaking away any pain before unearthing Tyla. He pulled her out, holding her in his arms. He checked her pulse. She was still breathing, but only just. Blood mixed with soil matted her truly dirty blonde locks, but Lex couldn't find where it was coming from. She needed a medic and quickly. He picked her up and carried her in his arms, staggering out of the damned cave with more questions than answers.
******
Figures....A black mass...flashes of light...whirring noises...screams...fire....lots of fire. Images pooled into her mind like fragments of a vivid movie without a context. It was four-dimensional slideshow one that sent Tyla groaning in pain. Blood...more fire...it was gunfire this time...a large white complex made of ice...no, crystal...white blinding symbols. The wheels of Lex's silver Mercedes-Benz sped 70...80...90 down the highway and Tyla was feeling all of it.
"Ty..." Lex coaxed. He glanced over to the passenger seat next to him to see Tyla moving around like she was having a nightmare. He heard her groaning and although her movements gave him some relief that she was fighting her mere inches away from death, she was expelling too much energy. "Hey...honey!" He kept his eyes on the road, taking his hand off the gear shift and reached to gently wake Tyla up. At once, Tyla's eyes shot open. She tilted her head back and let out a hair-raising scream. She arched her back. Her fingers dug into the leather seat. Her knuckles were white.
Instinctively, Lex put both hands on the wheel and slammed the breaks. The tires screeched to a halt. "Tyla!" Blood pounded in his already tender head. He looked over at her in terror. She shouldn't be thrashing around so much.
"Where am I?" She shrieked. She looked around. Everywhere but at him. Lex noticed that there wasn't any pools of light in her eyes. She appeared normal, other than the frantic state that she was in. Tyla teared at herself, feeling the seatbelt strapped to her and shook at the buckle. As she set herself free, she bolted out of the car and scrambled down the empty road.
"Whoa, Tyla!" Lex exclaimed, as he took off his seatbelt. Pushing down the confusion that rose in him, he tried to get out of the car, quickly. He chased her down the road. "Tyla, wait!"
"They're still out there," she yelled as she dashed away from Lex. However, he saw her slow down. Voices echoed in her brain. Some of it she could make out as English, some of it was unknown to her. It grated her ears, and the voices were getting increasingly louder. "They're right behind us and they will kill us if they catch us!"
"Who is?" Lex called after her. He jogged up to her, taking advantage of her steps slowing to a halt. He touched her face, but the woman pushed him back. With her back to him, Tyla reached up and gripping the sides of her head, fighting back the mixtures of sounds in her ears. "Hey..." Lex wrapped his arms around her, protectively. He rested his chin on her shoulders and held her as her cries reduced to exhausted pants. "It's-it's okay, Tyla. I'm here," he tried to reassure her.
Tyla tried to slow her breathing as the voices started to subside. What replaced them was a large migraine that started to form on the crown of her head. It dripped down, seeping to reach the rest of her skull. She let Lex curl his arms around hers and felt herself be pulled to his chest. She relished in the warmth. It was a huge contrast to the cold that she had felt while she was seemingly transported. But the images that she saw, they wouldn't go away. They lingered with a message, one that she felt the need to convey. "The ship," she whispered.
Lex raised his head, confused. "What ship?" He murmured.
"There's a spaceship...and people...two of them. There's a man and a woman. They're looking for a Kae-el. No, his name was...Kal-El," Tyla hushed, trying to sort out what she witnessed.
Lex stared out. She was talking about the two people that attacked him. But how? She was under rubble! He looked around to see if they were truly alone before he slowly turned her around to face him. "How do you know that?" He asked her, softly.
"I saw it."
"Honey, you've been unconscious this entire time. Up until now," he said in disbelief. When would she have seen it? In the cave?
"Lex...I saw it," she breathed heavily as she felt the full force of her injuries catching up to her. "One minute I can't see anything and the next thing I see is.... a bunch of stuff and a ship landing." She looked down, outwardly searching. She tried to recollect everything, but she couldn't form the words. All she could see was this black ship.
Lex looked into her eyes. She was lucid. Her face didn't indicate otherwise. He cupped the right side of her face and once again, she savoured the touch. "Honey, where?" He asked.
Her eyes went from fear to soberness. It was as if Tyla was back to her collected demeanor of determination. "Landers Field," she replied, sternly. Lex sighed. That was in the opposite direction and Tyla needed to get checked sooner rather than later. He caressed her hair, gently to avoid accidently aggravating any wounds. She turned her gaze past him and towards the car. Then, she gasped and looked back to Lex. "They're coming."
"Tyl-!" His girlfriend's eyes rolled back, and her knees buckled. She fell back as if her own weight were too much. Lex grabbed her, hands on her elbows, to keep her from hitting the pavement. He scooped her up and stared at her while he walked back to the car. Her words were perplexing him but not as much as the fact that she knew things that she wouldn't have known.
*****
The sun bore down on Tyla's face when she awoke. Her skull-ache had subsided, and her eyes fluttered to the familiarity of the stained glass windows of the study. She was in the upper part of the library. Her head rested on a pillow and her legs were covered with her brown throw blanket.
Faintly, she could hear scraping. She squinted and carefully sat. Her feet slowly swung over to the floor as she pulled the throw blanket back. The sun's rays brought over their warmth along her skin. She shrugged off the blanket and felt a heaviness to her head. Something was wrapped around it. She lifted her hand to touch bandages that bound her forehead like a halo.
She must have passed out. Lex must have taken her here and got someone to tend to her wounds. Lex.... she needed to find him. But first, she needed to find out about that scratching. She pushed herself off the loveseat, hesitantly as she grunted in discomfort. She steadied herself and stiffly walked over to the railing. She looked over as she gripped the wood. Lionel was on his knees, scraping at the wooden floor in a rhythmic manner. She blinked in confusion, hobbling down the stairs to get a closer look at what he was doing.
"Mr. Luthor," she said, softly as she stepped down the final stair. "Mr. Luthor." The last time she saw him, he was on the same floor, on his back. He had broken out in seizures because he had one of the stones and then Lex had him placed in one of the rooms. She didn't quite remember but she knew that he couldn't have been so mobile. She could barely be. As she crept over, she repeated his name. "Are you okay?" She looked over his shoulder. The man was carving out a symbol, something that said...God?
Lionel seemed to have known that she was right behind him. He glanced back and grabbed her hand, causing her to gasp. "The disciples of Zod," he spoke in a trance. He looked up at Tyla, his eyes were completely white as if he was possessed by something. "They must be stopped."
She gasped and pulled away. How was she close to deciphering something that she never saw before? "You're talking about the people from the ship," she said, unsure of why she was so confident about it.
"Their home is their only poison," he replied as he got up. He looked at her then turned towards the open vault of antiquities that Lex had procured over the past year. "Their home is their only poison." He walked over and looked into the green light from the meteor rocks, ignoring the watchful gaze for only a second. He turned his head slowly to face her. "And you will be the one who stands in between them."
She was torn. She didn't know what to do but she knew that she needed to do something. Immediately, she heard the voices again. This time they were only a whisper. This time, they were calling out. "What are you saying?" She asked. Her voice was barely a whisper.
Her question was almost unasked as Lionel lunged forward and grabbed her. The two of them fell back on the floor and Lionel rose to hold her in place. Tyla screamed, watching him as he clutched the corkscrew in his hand. She lifted her feet and kicked him off.
The man fell back with a thud, but she didn't wait to see if he was knocked out. She turned around and started to get up, but Lionel was close by. He snatched her ankle and Tyla buckled down. Falling to the floor, she resorted to crawling and screaming hysterically for someone to come to her aid. She turned around and pushed Lex's father back, but he stood firm. He leaned over her and grabbed one of her wrists. He pulled it to him, fighting her attempts to move away. The corkscrew was inches from her skin, threatening to cut her.
A large boom came from across the room. "Dad! What are you doing?" Lex shouted. He heard Tyla's screams from the hallway, unaware that his father had even woken up, let alone survived the meteor shower. Behind him, two security guards ran forward to pull Lionel away from the blonde. The billionaire quickly walked over and clutched Tyla. He turned her away from Lionel, effectively separating them. But as Tyla reached up to hug Lex, she could hear Lionel's shouts as the guards struggled and dragged him out of the room.
"Jor-El chose you as The Clairvoyant! You will either be our downfall or aid in our survival!" He yelled. "Clairvoyant!"
Tyla shivered, looking back to see Lionel's white glossy eyes. He growled at her and pointed at her terrified form. Lex looked between the two of them, unable to wipe the shock from his face. "Tyla, what is he talking about? Is he calling you clairvoyant?"
"I-I-I don't know. I don't know what's going on. What's happening?" She replied, frantically. Immediately, the piercing pain in her head returned but it was coupled with a high-pitched ringing. It sounded like a beacon. She shook again, bringing her hand to her head.
"I'm calling some doctors," Lex mumbled as he watched her. "There's something going on with you. Something different."
"Lex...I don't want to be an experiment," she started to plead causing Lex to be taken aback. "Don't put me in a lab. Please." She knew that he had a tendency to search for answers but she was already around to rally the costs. Without her being in top condition, who would be there to make sure he didn't go too far?
Lex closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. "No, honey. I will never do that to you," he promised. He would rather be dead than have her become a lab rat. To anyone. "But we need to run some tests to make sure that you're okay." He could sense her apprehension. She was scared, he understood that. "At the hospital."
******
Lex left her in the hospital with a gnawing feeling in his stomach. While she started to recount the events to the doctors, she mentioned that she was with Clark before the meteors came crashing down. Among the entire ordeal, he remembered that she had implied that she had given a stone to Clark. It didn't matter now but somehow if the teen knew what was going on with Tyla, Lex needed those answers.
However, when he came to in the caves, it was just him and Tyla. Chloe was gone and there was not a single trace of Clark. All there was, was a gaping hole that revealed a stone table. He sauntered in the remains of the Kent house in the barn. Somehow, he had a feeling that Clark would be there. To his intuition, the brown-haired boy was in the middle of what used to be the living room. "Clark," he greeted in relief. "Thank God you're okay." He strolled over, stepping through debris and damaged floor.
"Where's my mom and dad?" Clark blurted.
Lex took a step forward and sighed. "At the hospital. Your mom has a concussion and a broken leg but she's gonna be okay." He replied. He had run into them when he was dropping off Tyla. "She's out of danger."
"What about Lana?"
"Tyla had her evacuated to Metropolis. My guess is that she's safe with her aunt," Lex said, taking another step forward and looked around at the broken-down home. "It's Chloe I'm worried about." He walked away from Clark, gauging to see if his voice would give away any tells.
"Why?"
"Clark, she was down with me and Tyla when the meteors hit. We were knocked out and when I came to, Chloe was gone," he picked up a piece of a toy plane from the ground and tossed it on a heap of fragmented wood.
"Wait, Tyla?!" Clark exclaimed. "Is she okay?"
Lex turned around and narrowed his eyes at him. Was he feigning concern to change the subject? Or was it genuine? "I'm not sure. I fear that she may have multiple concussions but that's the worst-case scenario. She's at the hospital while we wait for my best doctors to go over the test results. Clark, before I passed out, there was a light brighter than anything I've ever seen. It engulfed her and caused temporary blindness." He turned around, studying Clark's face but it came off as unfazed. Lex let out a low chuckle. "I could have sworn past that light, you were standing right in its epicentre, unscathed."
All Clark did was shake his head. "I was nowhere near those caves," he lied.
"If you weren't with your parents when the meteors hit, where have you been?" Lex asked, failing to hide how exasperated he was started to feel.
"They insisted I get a head start. I got a ride on one of the military vans."
"Tyla said she saw you before coming to the mansion." If what Clark said was true, then it would mean Tyla had never given him the stone or talked to him.
"I haven't seen Tyla. She was supposed to be with Lana, so I thought maybe she left with-"
"Why do I get this nagging feeling you're being less than honest with me?"
"I have no idea."
"Well, I'm beginning to get the impression that lying is an unshakeable habit of yours, Clark." Lex accused.
"I don't have to listen to this." Clark turned around and started to walk out.
"Then be straight with me, for once!" Lex exclaimed. He walked forward and followed Clark. He put his hand on his friend's shoulder to stop him from leaving then placed his hands on either side of Clark. His eyes held a quiet desperation. It was less about the lies and more about trying to find out if Tyla was going to be alright. "If you're my friend, just tell me the truth. Because if you had something to do with what's going on with Tyla...." He swallowed hard. "Were you in the cave when the meteors hit?"
Clark stared long and hard. A part of him wanted to say something. If Tyla may have been injured, Lex would do whatever it took to find out why. If it had anything to do with kryptonian circumstances, he needed to see for himself. But he couldn't tell Lex. He couldn't trust him. "No," he lied, once more.
A small smile appeared on Lex's lips. It wasn't one of content, nor was it of any satisfaction. It was one of defeat. He turned and walked out of the ruined house. It was clear that they were not friends, not if there was a chance that he would throw Tyla into the fire.
****
Tyla found herself back in the study with the dark man that she saw through those images. The woman with the long, sleek black hair held onto the blonde's arm, not intending harm but not allowing her to escape either. The two barged into the hospital, finding her.
They spoke to her, calling her the Clairvoyant. The same thing that Lionel snarled to her. Then they spoke about trying to find Kal-El. The only thing that she could managed to say was that she could help them find him. However, she knew she had to stop them. The images, the voices, they told her to be careful and since things were starting to come true, then she couldn't stand by and watch her world burn around her. She lied and led back to the mansion. Back into the study. "He's in there," she fibbed, jerking her head towards the vault. If she could find some way to lock them in, she could buy herself time to get rid of them.
The man walked forward, stalking towards the vault while the woman let go of Tyla and followed suit. As they walked in confidently, the meteor rocks that Lex kept in there lit up a bright neon green. "It's a trap!" The woman cried as she fell back. The man yelled in pain and moved out of the way. He fell to the floor and dragged himself out of the entryway of the vault. "Get the door," the woman added. "Seal it!"
The man got up and stumbled over to the large steel door. He shuffled around and lifted it up as if it were merely cardboard. The man pushed the door across the room. Tyla's eyes widened. These people were weak against the rocks like Clark but this one seemed to have super strength. The man closed the entrance with a thud and turned to face Tyla while the woman got up. "Lying is their way," he stated.
"Not for long. They will bend soon enough," the woman noted, watching as Tyla started to turn and run.
Whooshing filled Tyla's ears. She turned to the door and both the figures stood in front of her. They stalked forward, sending Tyla to scurry back. The man reached out and grabbed her arm. He tossed her aside and Tyla screamed. She flew in the air, getting knocked against a bookcase. A crash echoed and as Tyla fell to the floor, voices started to appear around her.
Although she could hear everything, she couldn't see anything. Flashes of images burst as if she was witnessing another movie. She heard Clark's voice, but she was unsure if it was in her imagination, the image burst or if it was real and she was in some sort of dream. She felt her head sear with pain, and she started to twitch.
Clark had visited the hospital to see if his parents and Tyla were alright, but he was only met with trouble. Those figures, Kryptonians had taken Tyla which meant that she would probably take them back to the mansion. His hunches were right but now after defeating the two of them, he was met with a shaking Tyla. He turned around and picked her up. She was unconscious and yet she was moving as if she was in a bad dream. He raced to the hospital, using his superspeed. He appeared just as doctors came racing in to aid the woman who was now twitching in his arms. He had stayed until they called Lex Luthor. Her mother was still in Metropolis which made the billionaire her emergency contact.
Lex watched helplessly as they explained to him her state of the hospital. There was apparently an attack, one that was unprecedented. Fury arose when they added that Clark had come in with Tyla is such a state that they needed sedatives to calm her racing heart. She was under a cat scan, asleep when he had decided that she would return home under his watchful eye.
He had come back from moving the spaceship from where she had told him it would be, taking it to LuthorCorp's hanger for further inspection. Now, he saw Tyla in the home office of their mansion. The television was on, the sound of some dramatic sci-fi movie was playing in low volume. Tyla sat on her lounge couch, watching but not fully paying attention. She didn't notice that he had the phone on one hand and a handful of her tests results in the other. He walked slowly over, careful not to startle her. However, she gave him a look of fear before realizing that it was him. He knew that it wasn't directed to him or that he was taking control of her health to take care of her. It was from what was happening to her since she woke up. He sat down at the end of the couch and started to speak. "I just got off the phone with Dr. Remenez. Your REM sleep patterns are off the charts. It's as if you've been awake." He tossed the scans at the foot of the couch.
The papers splayed along the grey fabric, but she made no indication that she was curious to see the results for herself. "Tyla, this is activity that's normal for someone who seemed to be drinking energy drinks. Your brain is hyperaware while you sleep."
"How?" She choked.
"I think when that light hit you, you developed some sort of telepathy. You have some sort of otherworldly sense. It's like if one of those meteor rocks hit you. It seemed to have shot a bunch of your neurons into hyperdrive." Lex watched as she shivered, and he sat down next to her to wrap an arm around her waist. He pulled her close. His other hand rubbed her other side in a loving manner.
Tears started to stream down her face. "Lex...I don't want this," she cried.
"I know...." He stared down at the papers as if they would somehow miraculously give him an answer.
"Will it be permanent?"
"I don't know. It only happens when you sleep. Your scans while you were away came back normal." He didn't want to tell her that it could change, for better or for worse.
"There's so many images that are running through my head and words, I think, they're like vivid projections," she whispered. She finally leaned over to pick up a scan and sighed. The picture of her brain showed large patterns of red, orange, and yellow. This one was while she was sedated. No wonder she had another skull-ache.
"The running theory is that you are grasping at the world around you, even when you aren't in the room. It is like a sixth sense."
"And what is Lex Luthor going to do with me?" She turned to look at him. One would be lying if someone said that this wasn't beneficial. It had its uses for LuthorCorp.
But Lex said, "nothing." He reached for her hand and squeezed it. "I'm keeping this quiet. No one will know and we are going to work on this together. We will manage it, or it will wear off."
Tyla gave him a weak smile but it fell quickly. She started to moan. A rush of images started to come back, and voices began to whisper. For a second, she felt lost but then, there was a nudge on her shoulder. The images seemed to part for a bit and reveal Lex looking at her expectantly. She looked down to see that he held a notebook and pen in his hand. She slowly took it and started to scribble everything that she could discern. As vividly as they came, they softened as she brought them to life on paper.