☆ CREPUSCULAR ☆ |SUPERMAN & LOIS|

[29] ● The Anatomy Of Crime ●

~~~

SARAH 

CUSHING

~~~

Sarah was walking to the Kent's household when she first heard it.

Superman and 'Morgan Edge', the aloof business man she had first thought was a really kind man paying for her treatments at the hospital but turned he out to be a villain Sarah guessed that you really didn't know people until they let themselves be known.

The two were battling it out above her in the sky there bodies looking like giant waves in the sea making clouds run away from them as if they were on fire in the air.

The ground bellow her trembled with effort as Sarah picked up her bags from were she had dropped them.

That wasn't her main problem it never was not really Superman would handle the big bad - the greater issues the world faced but what consumed her mind was far greater to her then the war that went on above her.

Sarah's problem were always more local always centralised back to her house there were individual problems arise that she let run from other side of her head like a carousel ride.

Always moving never still but always seeming to come back to the same place the forefront of her mind.

Her mom's failing to mention were her dad was prior to leaving the house, none of his work colleagues had seen him and Sarah was so sure her dad had given up sobriety and gone on a bender that when her mom had finally given her a little tad bit of information that her dad wasn't at the local bar, it almost made her what to scream.

It made Sarah think of only one thing that could keep her dad way from her like this and no it wasn't cheating that was the last thing on her mind as he kicked up rubble with her feet walking the back way home from school.

The last time her dad had walked out unexpectedly was after her first attempt.

She didn't 'Henna Backer' herself in her bath tub or anything it was quite unmellow dramatic she had been saving up pills that her therapist had prescribed to her and in a moment of hasty planning had taken them all.

It wouldn't have been enough anyways, but the time she had spent alone drowning in fear and hazy eyes hoping that she mental anguish would end only to wake up in the hospital.

With only her mother in the room the sounds of her dad footsteps outside yelling at doctors was enough for Sarah to believe that she had died and was watching the aftermath from beyond the grave.

Trapped in her own body unable to move speak even breath for the longest time until her mother noticed her wondering eyes and called out her name her dad didn't enter Sarah's hospital room until she was discharged.

It was no wonder she had to go though a round of what had felt like police questioning when she had gotten home the day after her last hospital appointment they, her parents, probable thought that she had appeared again.

Sarah was almost glad that she had feared death seeing the green horror picture show out of her window if reminded her that she wanted to live, to be alive again.

Her dad didn't leave them right away he had waited drifting in and out the household though out the days after only stepping out the house until the last time when he found out his daughter-.

-'Couldn't chose' to put in it his own words, as if Sarah hadn't hadn't chosen death over not being able to 'chose' a side to 'kiss a girl' or to 'kiss a guy'.

'To be or not to be that is the question'.

Sarah had chosen not to be.

Like Sarah had told a curious Jordan things were better now in part due to the fact that she had a boyfriend and most could pretend that she had chosen to 'kiss a guy'.

Sarah had thought that things were going well her dad had come back to the house had apologised said he'd make it up to her and he did, temporarily apparently.

So for him to up and leave again, Sarah saw the look in her mom's eyes when she'd come home from school looking at her as though somehow this was her fault.

In reality this wasn't the case Laura Cushing was in fact just as worried about her daughter as she was her husband, she couldn't help but feel her husbands absences was her fault.

Her inability to hold him down, to put out enough or do whatever needed to be done to keep Kyle at home rather then him just 'knowing were home was'.

Passing bushes and trees and coming along a path that looked disturbingly similar to the rest of SmallVille's spread out neighbourhood with corn fields lined with wheat and other irrelevant plants that go into over processed foods sold on today's American shelves.

Sarah was greeted by the sight of Jordan on the porch.

"I thought you were grounded" Sarah yelled as she walked up the stairs and stood next to Jordan in his chair.

Jordan walked up behind Sarah tugging her into his side resting his head above her shoulders.

"Got let off," he murmured into the crux of her shoulder the vibrations of his words cooking the tension out of her mind.

Deeply inhaling Jordan was hit with the sent of familiarity and a fierce tug at his sternum, it was purely Sarah.

It had been had only been seconds from when he was alone wishing his dad good luck to when Sarah arrived pulling behind her serenity and peace but even under all of that Jordan could see there was something amiss.

Maybe it was the way Sarah's eyes were drawn in a frown or her eyebrows tense Jordan couldn't place his finger on it but something was off.

"Bonus of having reporters as parents" Jordan wrapped his arms around Sarah's mid section as she leaned back upon him, relaxing.

"So they think this is going to be a big story huh?"

"Ya dad thinks it going to make front page news"

"Anything Superman is front page news" Sarah finished for Jordan.

Looking out into the distance a similar green cloud of smoke whispered along the horizon making Jordan and Sarah usher themselves back into Jordan's house.

The ground shook beneath them again, long floor boards of the old house creaked and yelled under the added pressures of the missile of miles away.

When everything levelled out again and Jordan could keep his hands off of the picture frames on the walls and mugs that looked close to falling of counters.

Sarah took refuge under the Kent's dining room table unlike Jordan being practically invisible she didn't have the option of saving inanimate objects over herself, but she did look crazy at Jordan while he stood running around crazy like.

Jordan stayed silent for a moment when the shaking stopped as he and Sarah got up and stood in his kitchen pulling down the curtains on the windows shutting out the world.

His dad had done it.

He had saved the world but at what cost Jordan didn't want to find out.

Sarah thinking Jordan needed space moved to the sink drawing a glass of water for her self and Jordan turning to face him she almost was stepped on her feet vertigo must had been messing with her head, almost dropping the glasses.

As Jordan hosted her up by her thighs spinning her round.

"What's was that reaction for?" unbeknownst to Sarah that what was the right reaction for Jordan who of course had assumed his father had won and humanity was saved, Sarah however just thought that this was another one of the governments poorly thought out meta-human contingency plans.

But there was still the questions of were Jordan's father was as he according to Jordan's hearing wasn't heading home.

Jordan took the glass filled with yellow and throw it down the sink spitting with it choosing to raw dog an orange juice carton instead pulled Sarah in for a light kiss that Sarah pulled back from expecting an answer.

"Just really happy"

"Good" she said smiling up at Jordan her cheeks not straining with a blush like they usually would.

Jordan scanned her face then shook his own and Sarah by the way she dipped her head at his glance knew that, he knew and that she could no longer hide the fact that something was wrong that fact from him.

Sarah avoided the issue dipped out from under Jordan's arms and placed her cup in the dishwasher taking a small sip from hers before doing so.

"Jonathan said to come meet him after school" Sarah said avoiding Jordan's attempt at a meaningful conversation sitting on the Kent's coach.

This time Jordan didn't sit besides her inside taking a seat on the coffee table in front of her.

"He's with mom" Sarah head snapped up a questioning look on her face as she looked at Jordan wanting him to go on.

"Who's awake now" Sarah deflated in relief. She didn't think much of Lois Lane mainly knowing her from her moms interactions with the journalist but Sarah knew what it was like to feel fear for a person you loved she would never wish that on Jordan.

"Well just have to wait for him" Sarah said as they lapsed into silence.

Jordan stared at Sarah's faces as she looked back to him, the questing look on his face finally managed to draw something out of her.

"I don't really wanna go home" Sarah could just predicted the way her mom would stared at her coming back though the front door with sad eyes hoping that it was her husband instead of daughter.

Watching the light in her eyes deflate as she realised it was just Sarah, it was getting unbearable.

It made every hair on her body stand on edge.

Jordan stood up and caught the top of Sarah's head in his hands looking at her with sympathy.

"Come on your mom's going to be alone right? At least go back for her" that's what Jordan always did before his anxiety mellowed out with the control of his powers always thinking of who he was doing something for rather then the something in question.

Like the the first football game he played in when they first moved it was for himself yes but most importantly it was for Jonathan the only thing there entire lives that they had not shared was football and now they they could.

At least that what Jordan thought, Jonathan wouldn't tell him otherwise unless he had to.

"That's part of the reason"

"Your mom?"

Sarah hummed in response leaning into Jordan resting her head on his stomach as he ran his hands though her long hair.

~~~

JONATHAN KENT 

& LOIS LANE

~~~

Jonathan returned back to the hospital walking into his mother's room he found her staring out the window, she didn't even turn at the sound of Jonathan nocking on the door.

Lois always worried like this constantly picking up her phone hoping for a call and watching the news wondering for an update but many people didn't share the same worry she had for Superman because to them he was a concept and idea of hope and the ever prevalence against evil but to her Superman was human, everyone wanted to see there favourite hero coming out on top, for Lois it was personal.

It was her husband, the father to her children.

"Mom he did it" Jonathan said his happy tone of voice at the end of his sentence fading into soft words realising what he walked in on.

Lois wiped at her eyes quickly and turned away from the window.

There was a moment of silence between them.

That made Jonathan hinder at his own breath and Lois clear her eyes from the red hue that it had taken on from her tears.

"Ya Jonathan he did" Lois thought it would be easer her sons knowing, not having to hide anymore or sneak of into a room alone to cry out of frustration.

While her boys sat down watching the news there own action figures in hand playing make believe.

But Lois now began tear up realise that this was worse not having to hide meant holding back her worry was hard when there was no one to hide it from.

It made her feel exposed.

"Go stay with your brother for me would you?"

"Are you sure I shouldn't?" the words 'stay here with you' were left unsaid even before Lois interrupted her son.

"No it be better if you go"

Jonathan wanted to be there for his mom, stay by her side, as the minutes ticked by waiting for his dad to come home but at her caged appearance Jonathan faltered and turned saying...

"Love you mom" before leaving the room.

Calling out over her shoulder Lois turned back the the window again.

"Love you to" and Jonathan was sure of it.

~~~

Walking home Jonathan had thought back previously to his latest encounter with his mom wondered were his dad was.

'If he was coming home?'

It made Jonathan think back to his childhood all the times he had seen Superman be hit out of the sky and he would cheer thinking it was the same as the action film he had seen just the week before.

Now his fathers actions had weight.

They meant more then just big explosions that hardly effected him.

Every punch that landing upon Superman was the same injuries his dad had to wear home after battle.

He had to find him.

Opening his front door Jonathan almost felt bad for interrupting a moment that clearly looked to be couple like between Jordan and Sarah.

Watching as they stumble apart greeting him.

"Jordan we gotta go grandad probably the only one who knows we're dad is" Jonathan said in a rushed tone dragging Jordan behind him Sarah following along.

"Your dad's gone AWOL to?" Jordan flinched at the mention of Sarah's dad sure he knew logical it wasn't Kyle Cushing who had kidnapped him but even the reminder of his face was enough to draw back memories of helplessness.

Jonathan stopped by his front door looking to Sarah and then to Jordan remembering seeing Mr Cushing's face damped with sweat underneath green lights locked in a cell.

"No, but you might as well tag along" Jonathan said walking out of his home.

Jonathan no matter how uncomfortable it made him to intentionally inquire about Kyle couldn't do nothing while he knew that Sarah would wanted answers after all he was a good secret keeper but only for the right cause and this wasn't one.

And an explanation would sound more credible coming Sam lane mouth then Jonathans.

Jordan tagged along behind them pick up Sarah's discarded jacket for her on the way out.

Ending up a fare bit away from them because of Jonathan's rushing and Sarah's attempts to keep up with him.

"You know your my best friend right? You can tell me anything"

"Yes and your my only friend baring Jordan who practically obligated by sibling law to like me" Jonathan said sceptical looking at Sarah though squinted eyes.

She didn't have to say that for Jonathan to already know it she felt the same to.

"Jonathan did you say anything to your dad before he left?" Sarah said noticing distant look on Jonathan's face as he looked towards the horizon, seeing her past self in him for a brief moment.

And as great as Sarah was she didn't ever what to see that version of her self upon her worst enemy let alone on Jonathan.

"Not anything worth any note" Sarah let out a little breath.

Choosing to believe Jonathan, the Kent's wore there hearts on there sleeves with big displays of emotion always focused outwardly it made them easy to read Sarah was grateful for that because she for the most part didn't, neither did the rest of her family.

Choosing to hid, run, flat out refuse to speak to one another leaving the house feeling like a ghost town until they snapped at themselves and one another.

"Look you don't have to say it if you don't want to, okay but I get it Jordan's not really subtle when he's trying to be supportive" Sarah remembered when she first told Jordan she was bisexual and he started wearing blue and pink armbands around school until she asked him to stop.

Not that she didn't appreciate it but being out was acceptable of barley tolerated but being seen as showing off about it in a town as small as well 'SmallVille' well that tend to complicate things.

Jonathan stopped before turning back to Sarah.

"What did he say?" Jonathan said not mad knowing Sarah's sexuality already and it wasn't like his less then straightness was a trade top government secret or anything, he just never said anything about it honestly he was curious as to how Sarah had assumed.

"He said nothing" Jordan shouted from across the field referring to himself in the third person intentionally.

"Just asked a lot of specific non-specific questions" Sarah said shouting back slightly to Jordan's aggression.

Wondering how he had managed to hear them over the vast rows of corn.

Jonathan could almost picture in his head Jordan asking a million and twenty questions a second and Sarah answering patiently as always with a knowing smile on her face.

"Fine I'm a little less straight then what first come to glance" Jonathan admitted.

Sarah looked at him as if he was pulling on her leg.

"At first glance? I called it the moment I met you"

"You have an unfair advantage"

Jordan said finally matching his girlfriend and brothers pace coming to stand besides Sarah.

Tossing her jacket on her head as he dose so making she giggle as she tells Jonathan to-

"Rain in your brother its not my fault it took you almost sixteen years to notice".

Jonathan looked at them and wondered how when first moving to SmallVille he never thought that Sarah was going to become his best friend and his brother wasn't his biggest supporter.

Then again when first moving to SmallVille he had never, not even for a second imagined he'd meet someone like Finley the boy who had deep understanding of the way his mind worked it almost freaked him out.

It made him even jokingly ask at one point long back in there relationship if Finley could read minds as well as he could read books, Jonathan fondly remembered his response 'if I could read minds I would have made sure to get to know you sooner so I wouldn't have to'.

Until his realised it was the same for him with Finley he might not be able to tell you what Finley's going to say next but Jonathan would be able to tell you what he'll do.

Despite being cold out Jonathan had only a short sleeved t-shirt on that exposed his casted arm and during the notable silence that had fallen down upon the trio Sarah had taken notice of his suspiciously blank casted arm.

"I call dibs on re-signing first"

And that's how Jonathan ended up with Sarah and Jordan's names written inside a large heart on his cast again.

Jonathan looked down at it with a smile wondering if Finley would do the same with him.

~~~

THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE

~~~

They didn't go in though the front doors because that would have been just to easy using Jordan's enhanced sense of hearing they snuck into the building the only eyes on them being security cameras - the only thing Jordan couldn't help hide them from.

Walking with speed down the same hallway that Jordan and Jonathan had been in before they, even Sarah, felt like something was amiss.

Not just from the way the hallways seemed more chaotic with clutter spread all around the mostly surgical clean environment but also from the way even as there feet scuffed the ground they could only hear there hearts beating in time with one another.

Jordan fell dragging both Sarah and Jonathan behind a corner needing to catch his breathe, he knew his grandad had assess to Kryptonite but him didn't expect for him to use it so heavily that even now that he couldn't see it in the air anymore he could feel it.

It didn't seem to effect Jonathan though who sat patiently by his side.

Sarah looked at Jordan with confusion.

Jordan was thankful that someone walked passed were they were they would have been if not for his interruption just moments before.

It was to quite, the largest almost apocalyptic level quite, they should have been more then a couple of people that they had to hide from, this was government facility for gods sake.

A couple of people that also happened to include Sam Lane who was already high strung and talking into his phone directing orders at whoever was on the other end of the line like they owed him money.

Handing up quickly turning round and walked in the direction the trio were hiding in.

Jonathan and Jordan both looked to each other in a panic as the noises of up and coming footsteps around them became louder and louder.

Sarah stepped back opening a door behind her pulling Jordan in behind her but before the door could shut Sam lane turned the corner.

At already being spotted Jordan acted as though a home free Sarah wasn't with him pushing her into the room shutting it behind him leaving he and Jonathan alone in the hallway.

"Glad to see your better Jordan"

'But not all better' Sam thought knowing the look of battle trauma from a mile off.

Other then that Sam look unimpressed only seeing his two grandsons in the otherwise empty hallway.

Taking them both by a shoulder walking them in front of him as he took them down the hallway.

"We were just trying to look for dad"

"Your dad's safe" vague.

"Then were is he?"

"In a secure location" again vague.

"That sounds like a press release grandpa just tell us" Jonathan pushed.

"I would if I could but I can't just know that he's fine"

Jordan who up until this point remain quite and distant stopped walking in favour of staring at one particular door next to the three.

"Jordan" Sam said trying to steering him away.

Jordan didn't move his feet planted on the ground his stubbornness only growing as Sam urged him forwards.

Jonathan suspicion however only grew in earnest.

Rushing to the door in front of him opening it despite Sam's attempts at otherwise.

~~~

SARAH 

CUSHING

~~~

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief at not getting caught though paused realising she was stuck here until she figured out a way to sneak back out or the boys come back to get her.

So either way she was in deep shit.

The room was dark except the heavy green light cast her shadow, making it appear larger then herself against the door the buzzing of the lights around her made her shadow flicker a little before levelling out.

The hair that framed her face brushing against her chin almost reaching out in front of her however the hair was spiky and cut short reaching for the sky inside of the floor.

Sarah backed away from the door when she should have run out of it turning around only to stop something only short of a scream escape from her mouth.

"Hello my child, do you mind getting the lock for me?" Her father's voice was strong and arrogant as he nodded towards the door that encaged him.

Sarah in her shock went up to the glass cage her sweaty hands leaving smudges on the glass.

There was a key pad a physical lock and a I.D. port it was a whole lot if security for a fireman.

Sarah still fused with the mechanism regardless for a few moments running her hand over the seems and corners scratching at the sides with her finger nails.

Not taking her hands of the glass Sarah looked up at her dad realising now that he wasn't just sitting down but he was standing with his hand in cuffs attached to his feet.

He was a prisoner.

"Dad" Sarah said confused taking a step back.

"Get the lock" her dad said again his tone giving of a sinister tone, not what one would have expected from a falsely imprisoned man.

Begging, yes.

Pleading, absolutely.

But sinister, that made Sarah stare into her fathers usually expressive eyes only to find nothing, it kind of looked like when people would say you could see the evil inside someone's eyes when they were choking you as you passed out, she saw nothing but her fathers wide pupils, all blank- like everything was slotting into place for his master plan to be enacted.

Sarah wasn't a fool nor did she like to be treated like one.

"Why are you here?" Sarah tried to add it all up in her head before she just saw her father in need of help but now she only saw half of the whole picture the D.O.D. The missing people, Morgan Edge's resent defeat, her father wasn't the only one imprisoned here.

"The lock" Kyle said avoiding the question.

Sarah didn't move forward.

In a soft voice quite, then before less confrontational.

"I thought you left again" the images of her dad just gone one day, entered her mind yet again but also the fact that he came back pretending that he hadn't left town to get away from all the stares and whispers that she and her mom had to deal with alone.

"I can explain once I'm free" Kyle's voice started to sound agitated and itchy, deliberately not mentioning Sarah's name like her father often would when addressing her as if Kyle recognised her and there relationship but couldn't quite place a name to the picture of who she was.

And if there was one thing about her father that Sarah knew for a fact was that Kyle Cushing didn't do confrontation, he ran and hid himself inside another woman.

It get away from it all.

It get away from her.

"Free to do what? Go where? Cause you don't sound like you coming home"

"Sarah"

"Dad I get it your cheating on mom-" everyone knew actually it was the only thing that got them to stopped talking about her when they would mention 'The Cushing's' like they were on an episode of 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' during family gossip talk in town, incredibly embarrassing

"-And you can't be together-" Sarah had come to terms with that in fourth grade when she woke up in the middle of the night to hear her dad leaving the house again after he and her mom had an arguing over a bartender, again.

"-But you didn't have to leave me"

Kyles attention seems to flux from the lock keeping him contain to his child, the frustration clear on his forehead in the form of pulling veins that threatened to brake free at an unchecked notice.

"You thought I was leaving your mom?-" with a huffed out laugh.

"-I was leaving you"

Sarah didn't say anything back not rushing but taking her time to turn her back and walk out shutting the door behind her sliding down the wall crushing the lids of her eyes together.

Kyle although getting the last word in wasn't the Victor.

Screaming and crying out in anger from his cage Sarah could hear him, she thought about leaving but didn't know were would she go anyways

She and her dad had been good on good terms going everywhere that there small-town had to offer together- at least she thought they were doing better.

For him to throw it all back in her face?

Sarah wasn't sad but betrayed her eyes only stung with tears out of anger.

~~~

CLARK KENT

 & MORGAN EDGE

~~~

Clark awoke feeling weighted and heavy, his eyes cast in a green light, to a bored Morgan Edge hitting him over the head with a shoe.

Morgan stood ridiculously with one shoes on with a white sock on the other foot.

"Wake up you've foiled my big plan at least have the decency to rub it in my face" Clark sat up with effort finding himself still clad in his red and blue uniform while Morgan had been stripped of his suit wearing only an orange jumpsuit.

Hitting him again with his other shoe Morgan started to pace the side of the glass, behind it were a couple of guards who tensed at the sight Morgan looked smug at the reaction.

"There still scared of me even now is that just how good I am?" Morgan said in a way that Clark was supposed to take as cocky but he knew there was hurt behind those words, a certain tone of bitterness that Morgan couldn't hide.

Clark scratched at his chest, he was himself again the Eradicator that took his mind from himself was gone presumably taken by Sam when they first arrived here, but there was still dents in his hand were it had rested, before he had succumb to the Kryptonite so it couldn't have been all that long ago.

"I know you didn't do this for applause" Clark said following Morgan with his eyes.

"Really?" Morgan turned around stalking up to Clark, as if him being depowered but still being able to take charge of a room was a threat in itself.

"If you wanted applause you would have just brought a film production company"

"It was more then that" Clark went on to say.

"Worth all the people lives you've ruined" Clark said to himself he would never get it but it must have been to Morgan, who as much as Clark wanted to label as a sociopath he just couldn't Morgan was too torn up at his loss for anyone to say that.

"Anita Malkovich, Mark Johnson Bill and Martha Steward's countless others' ' - Were they were worth it?

To fail.

"You seem to believe my kill count is a long list of innocent souls, '' Morgan countered.

"The prostitute, pervert and the casualty number 1 and 2" he listed as if their sins outweigh his.

"Morgan don't" Clark refused to hear it to bend his way of thinking to match Morgan's wavelength.

Morgan, noticing Clarks defensiveness, went to strike again.

"The prostitute I admit but the rest that I'd have to contest" it was true Anita he killed, Bill and Martha Stewards probably had succumbed to their wounds because of him but Mark Johnson?

You could call Lucifer Satan but he was still the angel of humanity's first story.

"Really?" Clark said doubtingly.

Morgan didn't expect to be believed.

"Then what do I want, what do I crave for?" Morgan wondered, he truly didn't want to know what his pathetic foil truly thought of him.

That he wanted his own.

People.

To be seen.

He had it all, what more could someone assume he wanted.

Clark only had to think for a moment before saying quietly.

"Belonging" under his breath.

He had known how Morgan looked to him his family, tried to take it all starting with Lois than Jordan and then Jonathan he had tried to strike him down and make him bend to his will.

But he couldn't and that made Morgan rage with a deep seeded jealousy.

Why couldn't he have what he saw? A family.

He tried with Finley but didn't relate that a family belonging to a place outside of home to call your own was more than just made of appearances.

It was made from connections no matter how tried and tested.

That would be the foundation to why Clark called himself human in the first place because of his belonging, forging his identity out of the kindness of his mother and father, Martha Kent and Jonathan Kent, one of his son's namesake.

~~~

Sam whispered to himself frustrated once again.

He had his son-in-law in confinement, just having to watch as a determined Jordan pushed open the heavily armed door knocking it off its hinges it swinging and hitting the wall it was fixed to with a bang.

The guards stationed at Clarks and Morgan's side tensed and draw there weapons up in defence Sam matched forwards yelling out orders making the gauds backed down.

Jonathan walking in before his grandfather looking at the door in sympathy before moving round his brother to get an undisturbed look at what caused him to stop dead in the middle of the room.

~~~

Clark was shocked to stillness at hearing the commotion outside his cage, his boys standing looking just as shocked as he was.

In the time it took for Clark to snap to his senses there had seem to be a shift in the air.

Morgan shrank in on himself like a butterfly all proud of there beauty but shying away into there cocoon again due to the rain.

Something had put a damper on Morgan's parade and from the way his face was getter more and more purple under the green lethargic inducing lights Clark could say that he was all about ready to burst.

Backing against the cage like a wounded, freighted animal Morgan kept up his façade of superiority at the guns pointed at his face.

The guards directed by Sam had entered the cage.

Ignoring Clark for the most part allowing him on Sam's request to step out the cage.

A lightness filled his sleep almost instantly.

He was thankful for it as Jordan and Jonathan came to his side with large open arms.

That would have sent him to the floor but inside it just caused him to fly back a couple of inches lifting of around a foot in the air.

Morgan seemed to take that moment to lash out again for the final time yelling in harsh words that Clark thought were meant to spite him.

"You think I don't have that already, ... Brother"

The end of Morgan's sentence was the only thing that cause Clark to pause, to strain his ears against the Kryptonite in the room to hear the faint but sturdy pattering of Morgan's heart rate.

It was stable and showed no sights of fluctuations.

Morgan was telling the truth.

Clark sighed and pull away from his children thinking about what it would be like to have Morgan in his life before his drastic turn to evil.

Maybe things would have turned out different, maybe they would have been the same.

There was no knowing.

"No you don't but you could have had-" Clark started not turning back to Morgan.

"-This" in reference his family.

The relief that filled his children's eyes at the sight of him being alive having come back from battle unharmed and well.

All Morgan had was hostility and the waving disappointment of never being enough, never having enough and not all the riches in the world to by his own way into belonging.

Clark would feel sad for Morgan even grant him pity if it wasn't for the fact that Morgan could have come to him his family at any time.

Rich, broke successful or not. Clark would have been there for him given the chance the world never afford him.

But Morgan chose a different path even as he saw the red and blue symbol of hope in the sky.

Both the twins looked like they were about to tear at there own seams with questions the revelation weighing more heavily on Jordan then Jonathan, looking at Morgan over his fathers shoulders with wide eyes.

Morgan returning his gaze with a weighted look as the trio left the room.

Jordan looked away from Morgan first turning fast almost bumping into Jonathan in his attempt to flee thankful that in his anxiety state his mouth grew dry and his tongue heavy it saved him from having to spit up his own saliva in an attempt to force his mind to cooperate with him.

His dad was fine, Jonathan was fine, his mom was going to be fine and Sarah was fine.

Everything was fine.

~~~

Sam waited until the door was hasty put back on by a sheepish Clark, it being held on by will and Clarks heat vision alone.

Although being surrounded by his co-workers, Sam felt like he was alone standing across from Morgan who looked like he was wallowing in self pity.

'Good' Sam thought.

"Your sentencing though I rather let you rot here unknowing, wondering if and when you'd get out but that be unconstitutional, is twenty five years for every overlooked person you've tormented. I'll leave you to calculated that for yourself"

Sam turned around walking out the door with a calm place, then jogging to catch up with his family.

~~~

Morgan was left alone.

Well as alone as one could get while under twenty four hour surveillance.

He wished that at his revelation to Clark would draw up more of a stir within his sibling.

Maybe drive him to murder, show the world that Superman was just another one of him, so that Morgan wouldn't have to spend another moment battling with boredom.

He thought to would have been more of a bomb shell, leaving his brother.

Morgan felt a twinge at is throat thinking of Clark as his own.

And his nephews thinking at least, about the nature of man but it did little but make the useful twin traumatised.

Morgan was sadistic, yes, but he wasn't unpractical.

What was trauma to him if he wasn't able to uses it?

Looking at his own reflection in the glass his orange jumpsuit staring back at him.

He guessed it really was the new black.

~~~

To see another unsupervised child amongst their group and by the way Jordan embraced her he would guess that was the girlfriend everybody would tease him for.

Sarah looked to shaken to question Superman's presents in front of her as she pointed to the door she had been sitting outside of.

Many people who Morgan had taken were caged in green darkness behind identical doors and cell that Sarah's father now stood in.

Clark looked down the hallway it seemed to expand yet constructed his heart like a snake as he looked through the door to see what Sarah was so shaken up by.

'Kyle Cushing' her father frothing at the mouth like a wild dog.

"Mr Lane" Clark said formally to his wife's dad.

Sam looked aspirated then deflated fiddling with his pockets picking out its phone before dialling up John Henry who came running down the hall seemingly at the sound of his phone ringing with Sam on the other end of the line rather then picking up the phone.

John had the Eradicator locked in a green crystal box clearly fashioned out of Kryptonite due to the prickling that was felt all the way down the hallway on Clark skin that he hid well enough but Jordan let out a full blown shiver at its sights.

Jordan visible shrieked allowing for Jonathan that would normally be a little shorter then Jordan to stand tall against him as he stepped in front of him not baring the ill will of the Kryptonite .

It didn't take much for Jordan to pull Sarah back with him allowing for all the three adults to allow themselves into the room without much fanfare.

Sam handed over to Jonathan his security pass just in case someone were to walk past and wonder why teenagers were running round a secure government facility unattended.

Watching as the door closed on them Sarah turned to the twins with a questioning look on her face.

"Dad's fine he's just in one of these cells" it wasn't a lie Clark had been in a cell just moments before so Jonathan didn't feel to bad about stretching the truth.

Jordan could tell that Sarah's gaze was only partly split between him and his brother most of her attention going to the noises and shuffles that came from beyond the door.

Walking in front of her blocking her view Sarah still bounced on her toes peeking over his shoulder.

"Superman's going to fix your dad Sarah that's not him, he may look act and talk like your dad but he's not him" Jordan said staring at Sarah her troubled thinking only being slightly pushed to the side.

"I hope so" Sarah said rubbing her hands together anxiously.

"Trust me?"

"Of course"

Jonathan would have thought that he would have felt a third wheel having to bear witness to his brothers love life but no, sure it still felt weird as all hell and made the hair stand up against his back in a heebie-jeebies kind of way.

But it was sweet, cute if you will, almost like a cavity.

~~~

When John Henry first got a hold of the Eradicator it had been gripped so tightly in Clarks hand that they had to wait a full hour under the gaze of Kryptonite lights to pry it from his stiff hands.

He had spend some time theorising how the Eradicator worked but it a matter of application to see whether he was right or not.

John has assumed the Eradicator wouldn't work when being welded by humans, as it didn't do anything when John and many others had attempted to use it to revere its own effects on the people they had locked up.

But that it had some sort of fail safe 'Kryptonian only' handling security feature on it.

Mr Cushing however would be the first person John would test his theory on.

"So are we sure how this thing works?" Clark said looking sceptical between the Eradicator in his hands and 'Kyles' collarbone the same place were Morgan had gain control of him.

"By my calculations it should work via drawing out Kyle's subconscious"

"What about the sun?" Clark said looking up at the lights surrounding them.

"Well Clark 'Mr Cushing' can't process the sun like you and Jordan so it wouldn't work at an extricated rate to draw him out natural, who knows how long it would be until a biological humans return to normal, but just in case" John said opening up a tented window pouring yellow light into the room.

'Kyle' in response rolled his shoulders back in relief and sagged forwards while Clark was tempted to copy him.

Sam looked at Clark for the go ahead before leading 'Kyle' out of his cage by his restraints just enough so that 'Kyle' would still be affected by the artificial green lights but not so much that Clark would have been also.

As much as he presented Clark with hostility, Sam didn't wish for his son-in-laws downfall as much as he probably thought Clark assumed.

~~~

Watching Sarah and Jordan canoodling could only be so entertaining for so long before Jonathans thoughts began to wonder to his own relationships and he left the two alone and went wondering not to far down the hallway.

Passing identical doors to the last about several dozen times letting his hands graze over the walls.

Jonathan stopped as he reached a door that reminded him of when he first saw Mr Cushing it was ajar unlike the rest of the doors that looked nailed shut.

Hearing the sounds of wet chewing like a lion eating on a David Attenborough documentary.

Looking back at Sarah and Jordan seeing them turned away, Jonathan turned back to the door knowing he wasn't being watched putting his hands up against the door he-.

"Jonathan" who startled hearing his name being called from an unfamiliar voice behind him, John Henry.

Who pushed his glasses up his noise with a scolding look.

Jonathan looked back to his sibling.

It was clear they were talking whispering to each other even from were Jonathan was standing but he didn't try and listen in, something about seeing Sarah so upset made him know that going forwards that Kyle needed to do some making up to her.

It was obvious though from the privacy that Jordan had tried to afford them in the small hallway that it was something personal.

Jonathan could see that his dad and grandad were standing by the door were Kyle was so he gave John an apologetic smile and handed over Sam's security badge.

John stayed by the door locking it even after hearing the disturbing sounds come from beneath it he and Sam shared a look over Jonathan shoulder.

Each taking note of the door together.

Kyle and Sarah although sharing a aura of tenderness around themselves seemed to also to what to say something to other.

But would both get to wrapped in there own head about before having a chance to speak noticing this the Kent's backed away from them letting them go a few passes ahead of them as they walked out of the D.O.D.

With Clark as Superman flying off after saying a quick hushed goodbye to his sons before he would go change and then visit Lois at the hospital, it had been to long since he had heard her voice, spoken to her, felt more then just her hands under his own.

Kyle had offered to walk the boys back home but they both could tell the privacy of a long walk was needed between Sarah and him, so they said there goodbyes hearing Kyle say sorry to Sarah over there shoulders as they parted ways.

Splitting off from two thirds of the Cushing's and making it down a dusty road Jordan looked like he wanted to ask a question so Jonathan relented and asked what he had wanted.

Jordan twiddled with his thumb pulling at the edge of his sleeves.

"Finley he needs help" the 'needs' was stretched out and exaggerated.

Jonathan paused.

"I am helping him" like it was obvious.

To which Jordan put up his hands in defence.

"Like professional help"

"The D.O.D. would just lock him up" Jonathan had already considered that multiple times running though every option in his head.

But considering how they had treated literally everyone who got unknowingly involved in the whole Edge vs Superman debacle.

Jordan sighed and went on to say.

"I mean like from a therapist, psychologist even a doctor hell I was with Morgan for like a day and I'm reconsidering therapy" Jordan wasn't lying.

He couldn't even stand to let the water from the shower spray on his head it reminding him to much of Morgan's hands in his hair forcing his head back that he had to baths instead, baths.

The knowledge of his own blood doing that to him knowing that it was his nephew had only made that worse.

So yes he was going back to therapy, preferably sooner rather then later.

"He doesn't want anyone to find out that he's alive"

"Not anyone just Morgan ... and he thinks he's dead" Jordan informed Jonathan hoping that would change his mind.

Jonathan had thought about it like that before, Finley never really seemed disgruntled when Jonathan would what to tell others it always came back to Morgan like he was the one person that bard Finley for his freedom.

"Everyone dose"

Well Jonathan didn't and now Jordan didn't to so that had to count for something right?

"Even I did before you'd told me " Jordan admitted.

Staying in SmallVille he had grown accustomed to the thought of Finley being missing, presumed dead, even his missing posters seemed to spell out the words 'dead' on them after a while.

Jonathan stopped and turned to his twin.

"Why didn't you doubt me?" Jordan had all the reason in the world not to, Jonathan could show him no physical proof that Finley was alive.

At that moment Jonathan just hoped that his word alone enough to convince him.

Jordan however thought the contrary his brother could have told him that pigs could fly and honesty it would take him a quick Google search to confirm otherwise he had always believed in Jonathan.

He had rarely been given a reason not to.

"Its because of the fact that I came out of there, lived, survived and didn't have anybody I would disappear to"

Jordan looked off to the sun and then hid his body from it shielding himself from the mess of the world.

Jonathan was in front of him his face unguarded.

His body shining in the light that Jonathan's own shadow obscured him from.

"Well think he'd be against anyone else knowing but he knows what happened to you I think he'd be glad to see that your okay"

Jordan give Jonathan a questioning look raising his eyebrow at a slightly deflated looking Jonathan who realised he'd have to spell it out for him.

"See?"

Jordan followed Jonathan with the look on his face growing wider as Jonathan went the opposite way to there house his stepped unplanned, like he thought they were going one way but decided at the very last moment that he'd chose another.

"Figured you'd wanna meet him"

Jordan looked to Jonathans face, seeing the look of amusement like he had said something obvious.

"Why not?" Jordan answered back taking his place walking aside Jonathan on the road not needing to be pulled along anymore.

As they walked Jonathan told Jordan about Finley's apartment.

"He's got this place it's cold and dark but I can't say it doesn't suit him"

Jordan let Jonathan continue on talking watching how his face blossomed with a look of adoration.

~~~

As they grew closer to Finley's apartment the more Jonathans talking became less noticeable to Jordan at first he thought it was because he had grown to used to.

The sound if Jonathans voice but no it was because of the fact that he had stopped talking, entirely now walking silently by Jordan's side as he walked closer towards the abandoned looking apartment complex.

Pushing open its front door that had been partially broken that hadn't been the case before according to the look Jonathan throw over his shoulder.

Jordan scanned the floor they were on his X-Ray vision proving him with wonderful natural night vision.

They were alone.

Glancing back at Jonathan, Jordan urged him onward.

The hallways that were previously filled with abandoned pieces of furnisher were cleared away to the side so that both the twins didn't have to move around them like Jonathan previously had, Finley didn't usually move them as he said it dissuaded the rats more often then not.

On the ground below them there were droplets of blood that were smeared out into drag marks.

It being so dark that the blood appeared to be a dark colour like the earth or the pupils of your eyes.

At that Jonathan's steps began to gather speed that would have left Jordan behind if it wasn't for his super powers.

Jonathan didn't know why the sights he saw on the way to Finley's apartment bothered him so much the place wasn't fancy or clean or particularly inviting in any manner but what it was, was consistent.

The same shade of darkness no matter were you stepped.

The same steps of stairs with the one towards the top, always making Jonathan trip, it didn't after the second time with his strides being so wide and purposeful now.

Even the way he felt every time he entered a new hallway was the same, a flutter in his chest that would overcome him like a building anticipation that wouldn't burst like a soda can but crash like a way when he caught sight of Finley.

Now though jumping up steps and turning corners Jonathan felt different.

Like there was something missing.

Finley's apartment door was open not in the way it usually was left, with the door unlatched and just closed but busted open its hinges swinging.

Inside the apartment was bare stripped of its character and any knowledge of the fact that someone had lived there before.

"This the right one?" Jordan asked in a shallow voice looking around awkwardly from his perspective it looked like someone could move in at any moment.

"Ya" that caused Jordan to tense from the way Jonathan had described the apartment he had expected a more homely library like environment not a glorified trap house.

Jonathan ran though the apartment calling out for Finley as he went in a quite tone like he didn't expect to be answered by the boy, before Jordan had to stop him pulling him away from his search.

"I don't think he's been here for a while Jonathan how about we go look somewhere else" Jordan had the sneaking suspicion though that they wouldn't find Finley.

'Maybe he skipped town during the battle, being frightened off by the fact that Morgan's permanent residence would be in SmallVille for the time being.' Jordan thought.

'But by the way Jonathan reacted, Finley wouldn't be the type of person to disappear for no reason.'

"Ya let's do that" Jonathan replied stepping out onto the road. 

Walking fast several steps in front of Jordan, who let him go ahead as he saw that Jonathan needed the space.

As there wasn't anything Jordan could do at that moment to help him he just trailed along after him.

~~~

JOHN 

HENRY

~~~

Before John got the call from Sam he was sitting at his desk a full plate of Finley's left-over meal on his desk and a sample of Finley's blood next to it.

John had ran it though one of those scientific 'jump ripe machines' the kind of one that look like an antigravity amusement park ride.

It had separated Finley's blood into different layers.

The first being a light pale liquid, his plasma, then a thin white line his buffer coat that separated his plasma from his red blood cells.

Then there was the heaviest liquid at the bottom a think substance that made up the majority of the bottle a yellow clumpy mixture that sparkled under John's eyes.

He had found X-Kryptonite in many places in Edges victims.

In Mark Johnson it had been in his oesophagus and lungs in Anita Malkovich it had been the same though in lesser amounts.

Finley's levels were literally and figuratively of the charts, the most he had very drawn from a person, possessed or not.

John had guest that had been because of the rates of decomposition why Finley was tested higher then any of Edges dead victims.

Looking back at the meal John looked rapidly between it and the test tube.

The tube rolled around on the table due to Johns sudden movement almost as if it was aware it was being watched.

John stared as the plasma and red blood cells mixed before diving down into the X-Kryptonite in the tube.

Almost like in a cartoon a light bulb went off in his mind.

'Finley was dead.'

Before John could gather all of his thoughts, his phone rang from beneath his lab coat without having to answer John knew who it was and went to go find Sam.

He was the only one to call him during work hours, after all.

~~~

John while being lead by the clan of Kent's kept a sharp eye down the hallway almost stopping next to the door that held Finley in.

Shaking his head he walked faster in order to leap up with Sam.

Unaware of the reaching that was coming from beyond the door.

~~~

When john first came out of Kyle Cushing's temporary prison he had felt relief, there was a way to reverse the effects of Morgan's possession.

The people they had confined could and would be freed to go back to there normal lives.

If only that could be the case for Finley too.

The thought of the young child made John glance again to his prison though stopped short in his tracks when he saw Jonathan standing next to the door that held Finley.

Hoping that the boy hadn't already looked inside John went to stopped him placing one of his hands on Jonathan shoulders, only to get a startled response.

~~~

Watching the group walk away from him two happy families, John turned back to Finley's holding cell.

Opening the door making sure it clicked behind him, it wouldn't have been good if he left it open for a second time around now would it?

Turning around John almost dripped the Kryptonite caged, the Eradicator was held in causing John to clutch at it harder.

John couldn't place a name up the face of the man he saw slumped over with half of us arm gone.

He ran over ignoring the perpetrator kneeling down by the man who was pale and had a face that was stuck in a relaxed position.

His clothes around his arm torn, the bone that was left exposed were Finley had only managed to claw away flesh.

It was clear form John's quick evaluation of his pulse that the man was dead.

Reaching up and fumbling closed the hatch that divided Finley from the rest of the world.

John was thankful that the rectangular whole used to slide prisoners food was small.

The noise that he had been hearing from beyond the door had intensified as he walked closer to the centre of the room.

Looking up from his place on the floor john hand never believed in the 'Boogie Man' before this or even 'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde' but now he did.

It was the only explanation as to why a child such as Finley both looked innocent yet deadly at the same time.

Finley hadn't notice John to busy spitting up what was left of the man that lay outside his cage but even as he did, he kept going back for more.

The slab of meat that was in Finley's hands was floppy having been pulled from the bone.

Finley didn't stop, even when he couldn't hold the blood, flesh and veins down and his stomach rumbled.

He was so hungry that the feeling of emptiness didn't just claw at his stomach or make his body ask for more but it made his intestines feel as though they were being wrapped around his midsection pulling tight making breathing almost impossible.

But the man's arm didn't satisfy him if anything it just reminded him of what he was missing.

John count do anything other then stare at Finley's regurgitation of flesh.

How despite the unpleasant nature of his meal Finley's feeding grew more agitated and frantic as the clock ticked by.

Finley wasn't gaining any fulfilment.

His hunger wasn't satisfied.

'Why?' he didn't have the answer to that.

So John did the only thing he could in that moment reach with trembling hands for his phone.

Guess that's the answer as to why Finley wasn't eating any food.

~~~

"Cannibalism" Sam said standing outside of Finley's containment room in the hallway John right next to him.

They could have called it in to there higher ups, Hell they should have but Sam didn't, watching the look on John's face that told him to do otherwise.

Kyle and many others who they have managed to cure from Morgan's entrapment would be brought back in for testing locked up again for an indefinite amount of time, if they had.

All because of Morgan's little slip up that resulted in Finley's compulsion to eat people.

They needed a cover story John thought as he hastily tore of his bloodied lab coat and folded it into itself multiple times, hiding the blood.

Sam shook his head wondering if it was worth it walking into he cell and having to bare witness to what John had seen, though he guessed that he would have to considering they were both going to have to cover this up.

Walking into the room leaving John behind him to gather his thoughts.

Sam causally managed to avoid staring directly at the man dead in front of him.

He omitted this vile odour that Sam was thankful the pressurised room kept from escaping.

Finley had his back to Sam his chewing become less aggressive as he heard to steps get closer and closer to him from Sam's side of the glass.

"Why? You can't even keep it in so what's the point?" Sam said in reference to most of the flesh and blood being on the floor and on the bed of Finley's cell rather then in his mouth.

Finley remind silent though his eating ceased for a moment at least as if he was tempted to speech.

Sam stepped back when he noticed blood running up to his shoes in a pool.

"I guess I'll just go ask Morgan then he's down the hallway locked in a cell just like yours wonder how desperate he is to get out" Finley stilled at the Mention of Morgan being so close to him.

All this time he had found comfort in the fact that even if he was locked away, at least it would be the furthest place Morgan would ever find himself from.

But at the knowledge that Morgan was closer to home then once thought Finley looked like he was standing on edge, literally.

'Good' Sam thought.

It was exactly were he needed Finley, caged men in his experience don't speak, trapped men however do.

Finley felt confined, trapped attempting to pace the length if his cell with a bloody arm not of his own in hand but he knew there was no way out, he was trapped.

Finley looked at Sam and held his gaze for a moment time ticked by in the minutes measured by the blood from his hands dripping on the floor before he spoke up.

"He doesn't know I'm alive and I'd appreciate it, if it were to stay that way"

Sam wasn't surprised 'Kyle' had reacted very differently to Finley when he was captured all smug and taunting.

Unwilling to please like Finley was.

He was under Morgan's thumb, much like the rest of the world a couple of hours ago.

Finely remind him to much of his own grandchildren for Finley's own good, it was probably why Sam hadn't run to is superiors and told them already under all that blood and gore the water, wetting so Finley eyes called to Sam's usually hard persona.

It made him believe even more that whatever was going on between Finley and Jonathan was genuine.

But he couldn't let Finley catch on to that, a potential unsub no matter how much they appeared to be a victim would grasp on to any sympathy shown and use it for there own gain.

"You know how it can"

Sam said casually gesturing to the scene in front of them both.

"Its not right" Finley said tossing the arm at the glass in front of Sam in a nonthreatening way, like how you would throw away left over food, with no thought to the starving children in the world.

The arm draped against the glass leaving smudges like it was on the floor of a butcher shop distorting Sam's view of Finley.

Ok so Sam never said the kid wasn't creepy.

"It's an arm. How 'not right' can it be?" Sam asked with a frowned face.

It was the same problem Finley had with Jonathan, trying to explain to him how he should have tasted but just didn't, it was like trying to describe a sent that you didn't have the words for.

"It smells right but as soon as I taste it, I can't eat it" Sam looked to the floor of Finley's cell as enough prove of the child claims.

But he needed more, he needed justification as to why he was considering seriously covering up a murder.

"Again going to need more then that"

Finley looked like what he said should have been enough for Sam to understand.

"I don't know its just not right, if it was then he wouldn't have gone to waste"

Sam cringed internally at Finley's wording, watching him look at the man on the floor like he was looking at spoilt meat in the fridge or fruit that was soft and sour instead of hard and sweet.

Finley could see the gears turning in Sam's head.

How with each passing glance he took towards the dead man at his feet his eyes grew wider and wider as if to ask the question before Sam had a chance to say it himself.

"Is that what you said before about Mark Johnson" Sam said airily like he was breathing out in succession to his realisation.

He was losing his cool.

"Bill and Martha Steward's too" Finley added confirming his suspicion.

"You could eat them"

Finley's voice was gaining frustration by the second as he sat back down on his bed, his stomach fighting him every step of the way in aggression.

"But I can't eat him" almost pout like.

The unnamed man, who had been propped up on his side, fell over slumped to his front almost as if to say 'Hello again remember me your huge, mind numbing problem your going to have to deal with'.

Sam stumbled out of the room locking it behind him remembering to change the access codes to make sure no one else could get in without notifying him first.

John didn't say anything to Sam the look he exchanged with him however was one of urgency in response they both backing themselves into John's office.

"He killed them, not under Morgan's orders but to eat" Sam said pushing himself down in John's office chair.

"We gave him food" John insisted as he looked towards the untouched plate of food that they had given Finley before.

Like he couldn't believe the evidence his own eyes had provided him.

"Something tells me that's not an option for him" glancing at John's eyes, Sam made the quick comment.

John didn't say anything for a while and Sam left him to his thoughts tending to his own during the silence that settled between them.

'Finley needs to eat to survive' that was clear.

'This isn't something that he or we can put of for any longer'

But why hadn't Finley done something about this before he had killed before, just had and would do so again with seemingly little issue with it.

Sam's thought drifted back to his grandson once more.

'Why hadn't he killed Jonathan was it for the same reason as to why he hadn't been able to eat that man?'

'Had Finley already tried and failed'

If so why hadn't Jonathan come to Sam, his dad even, with more then a cryptic note.

Sam felt bad for only having a passing thought towards the man's death like it was a footnote along the many bat shit moments that had occurred in the SmallVille within the last few months.

John shattered the silence as he gathered his brief case and car keys.

"I have to get to the morgue"

Sam stood up from his chair following John as he walked out.

"You can't be considering"

"What choice do we have?"

They didn't really have one.

Did they?

They had to keep Finley alive that was evident enough but to really hand over some of the only solid evidence they had of Morgan's crimes to be essentially destroyed.

Sam was for once happy the US government wanted to get this clear up fast, otherwise they'd be walking into more trouble then just the ethics of it all but that didn't mean he had to encourage it.

"-And tampering with evidence is the answer" John turned and gave Sam a looked that told him that he knew what they had to do and all Sam's words were just lip service.

"We might not get any answers if he starves" Sam relented.

They would have to performed a switch around with the bodies in order to get Finley what he needs.

John paused at the door way before he open the door.

"He's already dead" he told in a haunted voice, Sam's breath buckled behind him.

Finley didn't look like a zombie or a monster so-

"No he's not so there's another explanation"

A man of science such as himself complete throwing out the rules of nature.

Sam knew already what the world if meta-humans and rich men with too much time on there hands would bring hi, he had been prepared.

John Henry however didn't, in the space of a week he now knew Superman identity that body snatching was a thing and that cannibalism had caught on in fashion again.

"I don't think their is"

Sam didn't blame him for having a mental collapse of judgement but they couldn't afford that now, with Edge imprisoned and hundreds of people waiting for release.

So he let John have his moment, even if it was just the walk to his car from the building.

Before Sam started up again.

John needed to focus, to get a grip because Sam couldn't do this on his own.

He wouldn't know were to start and since starting his investigation, Sam was happy to have someone in his corner, with him through all of it.

Not having to keep secrets and run back and forth between leader, partner and long time friend.

Sure his thinking was selfish but dame it, if he didn't deserve to be already.

"John look you teach your students that what logical is right, that there are no falsehoods to evidence"

"I do" John muttered nodded along as he turned the car onto the main road.

"Then how is he dead if he's still up walking, talking there's no such thing as walkers so he's not dead"

Sam insisted watching John's hands come to a stop on the head of the steering wheel as his fingers tapped, picking up in tempo, like they were spelling out the beat to a song of Johns worries.

"A couple months ago I would have told you body snatching don't exist either"

"Well now there's evidence to the contrary so figure it out"

John didn't reply to Sam for a long time letting the sounds of his own heavy breathing batter against his rib cage.

"We are still going to need to remove that man's body" he finally spoke.

"We could switch them the man for ones in the mortuary"

Sam said as if that wasn't Johns plan all along and for that suggestion John gave Sam a scolding look that left him silent for the rest of the ride.

"I'll claim I need it for more testing, I'll have to do some anyways to figure out why Finley didn't finish that man off"

~~~

They didn't do much at the mortuary except pick out the biggest body that there was Mark Johnsons and used a ambulance van as transportation.

John saying a silent prayer as they moved Mark Johnsons corpse up into the ambulance, he was used to the smell of over turned decaying bodies.

While Sam meanwhile took over driving as soon as he could in order to get further away from it.

Sam would have left John to do his dirty work and went to visit his daughter but when he turned to go down the ward John knew Lois was in, he took Sam by his arms and pulled him down to the mortuary with him.

Leaving Sam only a little awkward moment to wave at his daughter and son-in-law before being dragged away.

Now that he thought about it alerting Clark to there presence in the hospital wasn't the best thing, well at least now they had an alibi.

John wanted for there to be no way Sam could argue passable deniability in court, when they eventually got caught for there crimes.

The things Sam had convinced him to do over the years would be enough for life in jail, well at least he'd have a cell buddy if it ever came down to that.

~~~

LOIS LANE 

& CLARK KENT

~~~

Lois was last up in her hospital bed barely being able to get a glimpse if her father before he was pulled away.

"Was that?" She asked her husband with a raised eyebrow.

Her red eyes had cleared back to there usual white as the worry faded at the sight of her husband and the news that both Jonathan and Jordan were safe.

"Your dad, ya it was" Clark answered, his civilian clothes as usual looking more sunny in comparison to the harsh cold outside.

Lois continued to look forward the door in confusion before settling back to her husband.

"Are you sure everything's cleared up" Clark knew that Lois had figured out something was wrong before she had asked her question.

It didn't take a fool to know when Clark had something bothering him.

It showed plainly as if he was a silent film actor.

So he sighed leaning all the way into his wife's side resting light on her, mindful of her bandages.

"Morganas in custody and we are working on getting his victims free" - 'I should really be there' Clark thought but left unsaid.

"But?" Lois said pulling Clark next to her.

So that they were both on the bed horizontal Clark was lucky for his ability to fly made it so that he could cuddle up to Lois, out any risk.

"He's my brother" Clark said in a low tone his face hidden behind Lois hair.

Lois didn't say anything for a moment just allowing there silent breath and Clark's apprehensiveness to fill the void.

"Okay how we feeling about that" she chalky said, softly not reacting in anyway outwardly way allowing Clark to lead the convention.

For once Clark wished that Lois would just tell him what to thing, how to act, Lois telling him wat to do, it made Clark feel inadequate like he didn't know how to parent or be there for his kids.

His spare of the moment thoughts were irrational most of the time, when he thought back on them knowing Lois was only was proving advice from a place of good intent but then it made him wonder why he didn't think if solutions like she did.

This time however he welcomed the thought of being told to feel angry, sad, conflicted or to get over it.

To curse Morgan aside or to nurture him because he truly didn't know.

He was like a blind man walking though a storm everything around him being lit up in pure chaos with only hope to guide him.

Lois wasn't proving answers, wasn't telling him what to think and honestly Lois didn't know.

Logically she knew that Morgan's actions were separate from Clark and everything he and there family had cultivated together.

But there was that voice in the back of her mind that wondered if Morgan could have been Clark and vice versa if their head been more or less of the Martha and Jonathan Kent's in the world.

"Like I could have done more protected him, to stop this from even happening in the first place" Clark had many thoughts like this, of what could have been done in hindsight.

It had only gotten worse when he had become Superman.

When he had become hope and suddenly people had someone to call when they were in a car wreck or falling from a building or when there was a baby stuck in a house fire because when he couldn't come, when he put his family above them or when he was preoccupied as Superman elsewhere and couldn't multiply himself.

They had someone to blame for why they lost there mom or husband and hell be could remember a time were he was blamed for cancer.

Lois knew of the guilt that Clark held on his shoulders some of it earned but most of it coming from obligation rather then necessity, she knew she couldn't take all that away but what Lois knew she could do was tempt him away from those feelings.

"Clark you can't change the past your not responsible for Morgan's actions-"

"But if we had known each other" Clark responded quickly.

Lois in response gave him a stern look, he had interrupted her.

"Look towards the future that's all we have now to change" Clark looked like he wanted to say something else but he could find no fault in Lois words.

They was nothing he could do about what had already come to past but that didn't mean he couldn't change the new.

~~~

JONATHAN & JORDAN KENT

~~~

They had been searching for hours walking round town Jonathans strides with purpose with Jordan trailing behind him.

It was clear to Jordan that Jonathan was growing irritated with every new place they looked having his brother becoming more and more of an irritant.

It wasn't to late after school, extracurricular clubs were still going on.

So there school was still open without it being too weird for the twins to be there.

Jonathan ran past Mrs Winchester and Mrs Tolsburry with Jordan having to quickly apologise for him as he did so.

They pass though the locker room Jordan noticed how Jonathan deflated when he saw that the fog inside was from the showers and not something else.

What that 'something' was Jordan didn't have a clue it left him confused.

They burst into the library Jonathan not waiting for Jordan as he ran up the stairs looking between alphabetical labelled book shelves.

Jonathan shoulders shivered when there turned up to be nothing other then books and dust, to greet them.

Looks like Finley hadn't even stopped by on his way out of town.

At Jonathan's discomfort, Jordan placed a form hand on his brothers shoulder that when Jonathan attempted to shake off he didn't let go instead tightening his hold.

Jonathan relented and made as if he was going to stay in place.

So Jordan let him go but stilled was within arm reach of Jonathan waiting silently as the air in the library shifted to sombre wailing.

It was almost as if Jonathan had expected to see Finley out of the blew when nothing indicated that he would.

Finley hadn't left a note behind, a letter or any indication that he was coming back.

Honestly at this point it made Jordan mad not with a steering hatred or anything like that, he wasn't irrational.

But a type of madness that could only overcome someone when love under stitched it, like a fierce protectiveness washed over him in waves.

Jonathan however seemed to not notice this sudden change in his brother.

As he was focusing on anything but the physical.

Hoping that Finley was out there, that maybe he just hadn't looked hard enough.

If you had asked Jonathan just a year ago if he would be wishing for fog he would have called his future self crazy as fog was a bitch to have when playing out on the fields.

But that feeling of a sharp contrast in weather right now wasn't saying that he could explain to Jordan it wasn't even something that he himself could rationalise.

So he focused hard and deep and heavy like all the times that he saw Jordan and his dad squinting there eyes and twitching there ears to hear something off in the distance.

He didn't have the gifts his brother and farther had so all he heard was a book downstairs toppling to the floor.

It must have been another student.

All it made him think of was the books that had been toppled down like a children's play set in Finley's apartment and it set him off.

Pulling books out of shelves he knew Finley would be cursing him for.

Finley mishandled his books all the times but they all meant something to him, he treated them with care stating that every book had its place.

Whether that place be the floor or in an unused microwave, well that was for Finley to decide.

Jonathan was so overwhelmed he didn't care in fact he welcome it as the reminder of anything other then Finley's disappearance was a gift.

Jordan would have stopped Jonathan from enacting property damage.

If he didn't see the way his tense shoulder relaxed as each book fell.

So instead of protesting, he decided to help but instead of pulling out books, he simply topped the whole shelf.

Watching as the bookshelf fall Jonathan looked at his brother in harmonised synchrony as they continued to intact there harmless violence.

Jordan could hear, in the lower level of the library, students scurrying to see what was happening most jumping to the exit without hesitation.

They must have went to go get a teacher as the twins weren't being particularly subtle because Jordan could hear large heals clicking on the ground outside of the library, fast approaching gathering speed as they came up to the door.

Jonathan seems to be blissfully unaware of everything around him right now only focusing on what book to pull out next.

One he thought Finley would like,- Frankenstein.

Then one he would hate,- anything by Colleen Hoover - and another that Jonathan knew would really irritate him if he was there, I'll leave you to fill in that blank.

As if to imply that by his physical actions that Finley would appear as though he was a magician's bunny from a hat, by his side.

Jordan stopped his antics quickly pulling Jonathan so that he was hidden behind his figure while also not disturbing Jonathans outrage.

The sound of thundering heals grew closer and closer like they were happening in slow motion the ticking an unknow wristwatch alerted Jordan to the fact that he was perceiving events in a altered manner.

Not speaking, not wanting to be identified, Jordan looked around him for a way out shrugging off the books that Jonathan would throw in his direction barely feeling them.

To go out of the library only exit and entrance would be flash bang in front of were Mrs Winchester was coming from.

Turning to face Jonathan, Jordan noticed the window large enough to fit himself and also his brother with little issue.

This wouldn't be the worst thing Jonathans gotten him to do that day.

Running up to it Jordan did a double take at the distance from the window to the ground he doubted that it would do any damage to him but to Jonathan?

Well lets just say he didn't what to thing about it too much.

Jonathan was finally startled out of his sinfully tempted rage because of Jordan shoulders shoving him out of his brothers way making him realise quickly after that.

That he hadn't taken any precaution when it came to his broken arm using it as if it was a hammer sweeping shelves of literature to the floor, but once he realised it he couldn't shake of the feeling of pain.

Holding his bandaged arm to his chest.

Jordan opened the window to which it opens to the extent of its safe latch.

Obviously meant to keep children from jumping out the window and falling to there deaths, only allowed a could inches of air to pass though from the outside but he and Jonathan weren't small they needed more room then that.

So Jordan just broke it off its hinges.

He didn't have much time to think about the feat in strength that he had displayed, Jordan just acted prying the window open letting gusts of cold wind turn pages of lopsided books over.

Jonathan turned around facing the open window at feeling the cold on his skin.

He looked at Jonathan for a moment before pushing him out the window face first.

Leaping down after him.

Hearing not only his but Jonathans screams as they fell to the floor, maybe he should have thought this through more?

Perhaps even taken the punishment.

Nah.

Mrs Winchester had came up the stairs by that point only to see bookshelves toppled over and a open window, glancing down she saw nothing but grass down bellow outside.

She wondered what kind of prank the students, that had called this to her attention, thought they were going to get away with.

~~~

FINLEY

~~~

"Turn left"

"No right"

"Circle round"

"Let me get up by his head"

Those are the words that Finley heard from outside his cell beyond the door as a bickering John and Sam busted though the door, with a tarp covered body.

That Finley could snuff out a mile away, it made him scurry out of his bed and almost press his face into the glass in order to get closer.

The sudden moment must have startled Sam as his hands went to draw his gun but paused when he saw that Finley's attention wasn't on either him or John.

"This is the only one your getting, so making it last" Sam said finally drawing his gun into his hands using it to make a waving gesture to the other end of the cell.

Finley took the hit and stepped back and to the side.

"How are we going to get him in?" John asked.

Opening up the cage wasn't something either of them was willing to do but John thought himself more smarter then the stupidness that they were currently up to so he left it to Sam to make the final call.

They couldn't drown themselves more in shit if they tried at this point anyways.

Sam just shook of Johns words off, used to his dry tone of voice, and took Mark Johnson's hand of the table wheeling him closer to the cell open slot.

Finley took that as a green light for movement so he stepped slowly first in order to find out whether he had misinterpreted what Sam was trying to do.

Reaching out though the metal two sided door Finley took Marks hand in his own and tugged at it.

Apparently pulling at a well gone dead people was a big no no because Mark came apart like he was made of Lego.

Wet, slimy Lego.

His lower arm being pulled away from his upper body and flopping down on the floor next to Finley's feet.

Who didn't stop there though reaching his hands further into the whole grasping at Marks shoulder tearing it away from bone.

The only thing that stopped Finley from chowing down right there and then was the noises of disgust that he had drawn from Sam and John who both respectfully looked horrified.

Finley had never had stage fright before, never felt much self consensus but at that moment even though the pain scratching and tearing at his stomach, he moved taking both halves of Mr Johnsons arm with him and sat down on the other side of his bed blocking his eating from both Sam and John.

Sam had been hardened in life by many things, the military, war alien interrogations from terrorists but never in his life had he heard the sounds of a boy finishing of an arm like it was fall-off-the-bone stake.

If he thought he was hard before this was just icing on the cake waiting for the right amount of heat until it and he melted.

Schooling his face Sam turned to John, who had taken to distracting himself from the living by focusing on the dead.

The unknown man on the floor slumped over was a clue John knew it if anything from the sounds of pleasure around him could say was that Finley didn't have any trouble eating Mark Johnson.

So why not the man in front of him?

John felt bad at having to lug the man up and onto the same gurney that Mark Johnson once lay upon.

The man that would remain unknown who died a horrific death like he had deserved more then just some dead persons leftovers even if the unnamed man himself was just that, left overs of Finley's meal.

When Finley had realised that the man doesn't suit his stomach tastes.

Hauling the man up John made sure to gain samples from both Mark Johnsons and the man for comparison.

Finley stood up again his stomach wide and full for the first time in days and turned so that he was again facing John and Sam.

Feeding the rest of Mark Johnsons body though to Finley was easy after the first time.

Bits and pieces of the man were torn of in fast fashion by Finley's hand.

He let them drop on the floor as there wasn't anywhere else he could put them and the thought of guts in his bed wasn't his first chose in meal prep so onto the floor Marks body went.

Finley remembered Mark clearly his hives jacket and the way he eyed him up and down from his truck.

Finley didn't really feel bad for going back to the man for seconds.

Even if the fact that his body was half decayed put him off, just a little.

John left the room without a word leaving Sam to clean up the messes left behind from Finley's feeding.

Sam would have called out for help but with all he was asking John to do, the secrets he had asked him to keep he didn't mind pulling his own weight in muscles in order to make up for it.

~~~

By the time Sam was done the only evidence of any crime was contained to Finley's cell.

There were no longer streets of blood on the floor the unknown man's body was pulled up into the back of an ambulance van ready to be transported back to the mortuary.

The last thing Sam did before exiting the room was toss a rag and some cleaning spray bottles though Finley's meal hatch with the silent suggestion that he clean up after himself.

Before Sam managed to leave he was stopped by an echo of Finley's goodbyes to him.

"Thank you" said in a gurgle voice coming from beneath what Sam had assumed to be one of Marks organs.

Sam left with out answering, still wondering if he had done the right thing.

~~~

JORDAN & JONATHAN KENT

~~~

Jordan pushed both he and Jonathan up against the wall that surrounded the outside of the school underneath the ledge that was under the libraries window obscuring them from view.

Jordan was panting in excitement silencing Jonathans screams with his hands.

"Did I just fly?" Jordan whispered as he heard noise from the library grow quieter and quieter as the teacher walked away from there hiding spot.

Jonathan rolled his eyes and licked Jordan's palm causing him to 'ewww' at the feeling and withdraw his hands as if he had been burned whipping his hands on the back of Jonathans shirt.

"It was more of a large jump with a slightly shitty landing" Jonathan corrected sharply still not shaking the feeling that Finley was close but his inability to get to him making his skin crawl and his mind itch.

Jonathan pulled a stunned and deflated Jordan away from school.

Walking along the back pathways hoping to run across Finley the same way he had stumbled across his mom.

"We've already checked everywhere we could Jonathan" Jordan said coming to his senses.

"He has to be around here somewhere"

Jordan realised quickly that Jonathan's outburst a few minutes ago wasn't enough to shake off his overtly negative emotion.

Leaving him exposed and unable to deny that something was wrong with not only Finley's whereabouts but his own disdain for not being able to predict that he would leave so suddenly.

Jordan pulled Jonathan away from walking past there house once again and took him shoulders under his arm.

"You said he always came to find you right?"

Jonathan had mentioned some things about he and Finley's relationship, how they could keep things so under wraps for so long.

Jonathan nodded in conformation.

"Then let him find you, he left for a reason and that reason wasn't you, he'll be back"

Jonathan looked harshly at Jordan for a second thinking back to the days prior events.

How Jordan had been there for him, though things many other brothers wouldn't have been and it made Jonathan trust Jordan like his brother had done to him.

There was no telling if Finley would come back on his own but with no way of contacting him, Jonathan would just have to hope.

And even if that hope landed him looking down at the almost empty brown bottle of pain pills that didn't do anything to quill his hurt - well at least he'd do it surrounded by family.

~~~

JOHN 

HENRY

~~~

Looking at the three samples of blood in front of him, under a microscope.

John was alone in his office facing with his back to the door watching how in Marks blood sample his discombobulated flesh, that he had managed to snag before Finley eat it all up, was moving and distorted by the the X-K running though his blood.

How along with Finley's sample it had done the same looking like it was being pulled along with a rope though the test tube but the unknown mans was left undistorted by the lack of X-Kryptonite in his blood and didn't do the same.

Mark and Finley's test tubes looked identical.

Filled with purples discoloration and vibrant hues of yellow, the only difference between then was life and death.

So John wasn't wrong Finley was dead, but in a figure of speech kind of way.

Up and moving, almost reanimated.

He was Frankenstein's monster.

With Morgan being his assumed creator.

~~~

So I've maybe been spelling mortuary wrong this entire time ... sorry about that - I'll go though and fix it- eventually.

Sorry for the long wait times, school is my 13th reason - sorry.