SmallvilleX: Evolution Year 3.3: Kneel Before Zod

Summary: The prophecy has been spoken. Zod is coming.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 1

"I get the feeling you do this often."

Beast raises one hairy eyebrow. "Now there is an intriguing statement, open to many interpretations...if I was one of our teenage students that is."

John Henry Irons chuckles as he realises what the hairy mutant means. Yeah, he can see how his words could be taken. "I meant staying up and working all night," he clarifies. The two scientists had continued their work on Corporal Corben.

"Ah. Yes. That does happen...too frequently now you mention it," Beast says with a small frown as he recalls all the occasions he has had to work through the night. He sips on his coffee.

Irons sips on his coffee as he looks at the monitor with the latest readings on Corben. "Honestly though, right now, I'm not sure how much more we can do. John is stable...but in the end his heart will need to be replaced...and I'm not certain a simple heart transplant will do it. There is so much cybernetic circuitry invading his body..."

"You're thinking he might need a cybernetic heart, one that can be connected to the alien circuitry," Beast reasons out.

"I'm guessing. I need a lab."

Beast coughs, looking offended, gesturing around them.

"No offence, intended. This is all very impressive but I think we need something built specifically for John. A place where we can study the alien technology in his body."

"Hmm...perhaps Star Labs," Beast muses.

"Sorry, what?" Irons asks, not quite catching it.

"I'm thinking we could ask Star Labs. We, the Institute, have a working relationship with them...and they have helped is in the past," Beast explains, recalling that time with young Mr Stone and more recently Mr Parker's clones. "But it sounds like, if you'll forgive me being presumptuous here, that you wish to take personal charge of this."

Irons sighs. "This is my suit. I made it...then I stood by and let Luthor bastardise it because of orders. Because it was my duty to obey them and look at the result. John didn't deserve this."

"It's not as simple as blaming yourself, Dr Irons. The Collector has seemingly been playing a long game at a guess from the few facts I know."

Irons shakes his head. "I'm amazed we survived at all," he has to confess as time has passed that has allowed him to start to grasp the magnitude of what they had faced.

"Yes, that is something we do often around here as well," Beast says in gallows humour...because it's true. Think about all the cliff-edge scenarios the X-Men have faced.

"Well, hopefully we can get a quiet few days," Irons says and does what you should never do at the Xavier Institute; Tempt Fate.

"Dr McCoy!"

Rushing in is Peter.

"Peter?" Beast queries at the obviously desperately looking young man who has clearly rushed down here...in only his boxers.

"It's KittysymbioteCarnageit'sawake," he trips over his words as he blurts them out without breath.

It takes Henry a moment to decipher all that before his own concern rises up. The moment they all feared was here. "Peter, I need you to slow down," he requests. "Where is she?"

Peter takes a breath. "Up in our room. She...it...I mean it doesn't...hasn't taken her over yet but she can hear its voice in her head."

That's slightly less bad at least, Henry can acknowledge. If it hasn't or perhaps isn't yet strong enough to completely take over they still have some time. "Ok. Let me get my medical bag and I'll come with you," he says as he goes over and packs it up with the instruments he was using on Corben. "Dr Irons, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you with Corporal Corben for the moment."

"I got that," John says. "Is there anything I can do?" he volunteers.

"Appreciated but unlikely. What afflicts Ms Pryde is...complicated," is all Beast can come up with because how do you explain the symbiotic lifeform within Kitty in anything less than an hour. He turns back to Peter. "On our way we'll get Charles. If the symbiote is talking inside her mind...well that's Charles area of expertise rather than mine," he explains.

Peter nods, so worked up he actually is barely hearing any of this. He's terrified out of his mind, haunted over what happened before with Carnage.

The two leave, heading for the elevator and waiting for it to arrive, the door opens and...

"Dr McCoy!"

"Oh my stars and garters, what now," Beast mutters in disbelief as they almost literally bump into Jean, looking rather dishevelled and as if her clothes had been thrown on in a hurry...which they had been.

"It's Clark. He's zoned out. L-like, you know, brainwashed like he was in the past. He's covered my walls in writing."

Beast can tell this is going to be one of those nights. "Where is he?"

"Uh, still up in my room...he went back to writing on the walls...and I figured I needed help and hoped he wouldn't just rush off...not that I could really stop him if he chose to rush off...well I could try I suppose but you know how powerful he is...I mean he really, really is," Jean murmurs the last bit as her mind thinks back to only a few hours ago and she involuntarily blushes.

"Wow," Peter remarks. "That's a babblin."

Beast needs to take control of this situation and quickly. "Jean, as urgent as your situation is I'm afraid it is not the only one going on right now," he explains to her.

Jean's green eyes focus in on Peter and his wild, anxious thoughts burst into her own awareness. "Carnage is awake," she says with instant concern. Jean had seen inside Kitty's mind after she had become bonded to the symbiote. It was just awful. Violent, twisted and sickening. She hadn't been able to sleep well after for days.

"Peter, go to the Professor's room and wake him up and then return to Kitty and keep an eye on her," Beast instructs the young man. "Jean, go wake up Rogue and watch Clark," he instructs her.

"Rogue?" Jean queries.

"Well while there is a debate over who is the strongest mutant here, if Clark 'acts out' she is one of the most able to cope with him," the blue-furred mutant tries to explain as he walks off with urgent strides. Not to mention Rogue has past experience with exactly this sort of situation.

"And where are you going?" Jean shouts after him.

"To get the only thing that can stop Clark in case we need it," Beast replies in grave tones.

"Is he meaning what I think he's meaning?" Peter asks.

"Yeah," Jean confirms for Peter though she's not happy about it.

Kryptonite.

Why now?

It's a question. Not an entirely urgent one to answer but it would be nice to know the answer.

It's one of Charles' questions as he rolls into Kitty's room after being awoken and told what was happening. Upon entering he finds Kitty, curled up on the bed, Peter cuddling into her, whispering soothing words to her.

Charles has to resist the urge to flinch backward at the psychic waves coming from Kitty. A horrible and distorted 2nd presence emanating from the brown-haired girl. A horrible and distorted version of Kitty herself. The symbiote, as they discovered at the time, was literally made for Kitty, including strands of her own DNA.

Which, of course, is why they had struggled to find a way to remove it. Possessing Kitty's own DNA means it is so bonded to the girl's own blood cells that there is no easy way to pull the two apart. Not without doing great damage to Kitty's own cells anyway.

"Katherine," Charles says her name softly.

'Oh look a meal on wheels! Bet his brains taste sweeett!'

'Shut up, shut up, shut up!'

'Aw but you don't want me to shut up. Not really, Kitty dear. You loved it when we were one and together. The power, the thrill.'

'That's not true!'

'Oh but it is. You can't lie to me. I am you!'

'No!'

'Yes! Embrace me, Kitty. Release me. Release us to be what we're meant to be. Let us once again bring beautiful Carnage to this world!'

'Go away!'

Laughter. 'Can't deary. You and I are stuck with each other forever. Just give in. You know you want to.'

Charles frowns as he listens in on the psychic chatter. "I think that is quite enough," he telepathically intervenes.

"Professor?" Kitty queries softly.

"Baldy!" Carnage cheers, oddly. "Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!"

"Oh shut up!" Kitty mentally yells in annoyance.

"And deny people the pleasure of me singing voice? Never!"

"God. Professor, please help me," Kitty pleads.

Charles prepares his mind. "I can silence her. Place her in a mental prison if you'll help me," he informs his student.

"Anything! Just shut her up!" Kitty begs.

"What?! Noooo! You can't do this! I just woke up!" Carnage whines in a very Kitty-like way.

On the contrary Charles can exactly do that...which he does. Carnage fights it and resists but it's like what he has done in the past for Rogue and the personalities that litter her mind. Construct a prison in a corner of the mind.

He half-bends over in his chair as he finishes and Kitty's eyes roll into the back of her head as she passes out.

"Kitty?" Peter queries as she goes limp in his arms before looking at the Professor. "What happened?"

"I have silenced the Carnage personality...for now," Charles answers, his voice a bit weary sounding.

"What do you mean for now?" Peter can't help but question.

"It's a temporary fix, Peter. For as long as the symbiote is within her and now that it is awake it'll simply grow stronger. My prison will not hold it forever. I can only say on the positive that they are at least still two separate and distinct entities at the moment. The symbiote's bond is not total. My guess is it does not yet have the strength to fully re-emerge."

"We're running out of time, aren't we," Peter says with a seriousness you rarely hear from him. Running out of time to remove the Carnage symbiote before they lose Kitty to it forever.

Charles' silence says it all.

Well this is a situation Rogue had definitely not wished to revisit. Her ex-boyfriend back in zombie brainwashed mode. God, she hated all this stuff when they were dating. All the worry and angst.

At least he doesn't appear to be a threat at the minute. He's simply writing all over the walls...and the floor...and occasionally he floats up and writes on the ceiling...of Jean's room.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out what had happened here by the way. Not that it is really any of her business any more. If Clark and Jean are happy all the power to them.

"I fucking hate all this crap," comes the grouchy comment from Claire. She and Clark's parents were here, just watching him as well. They had tried talking to him. Reaching out to him but he wasn't listening. The lights are on but nobody's home.

Rogue's eyes flicker up to Jean who is nervously biting her nails. Then, when Clark brushes past the redhead, Jean's hand flicks out and grabs him round the bicep...and he stops and looks at her. It's actually kinda weird in this way; you hang around Jean long enough, get to know her well enough, you can sorta tell from her facial expressions when she is using her telepathy. Rogue doubts Jean even realises they are tells. Jean would be piss poor at poker with a face like that but that's an aside. Point is the telepath in question is clearly using her powers, at least that's what Rogue thinks...but that doesn't make sense. Telepathy never works on Clark...apart from a couple of exceptions.

Yet as Rogue watches the couple she swears it looks like they are exchanging mental thoughts to each other.

Crazy right.

Who knows what goes on in Clark's head?

Well apart from her once upon a time but anything she took when she absorbed Clark previously is gone thanks to Apocalypse. The only other person might be… "Magik," she blurts out.

"What was that Rogue?" Martha asks, her worry over her son being pushed aside for a moment.

"Ah just remembered something demon-girl said. That she has seen inside Clark's head. Maybe she knows what this is."

"That is not a bad suggestion," a voice from behind says as Beast enters the room, small lead-box in hand.

"Is that…?" Rogue leaves the question unfinished.

Beast holds it out to the southern belle. "It is. Just in case. I'll go see if Ms Rasputin is here or away in Limbo," he says because Illyana pops back and forth between this dimension and that hellish one on a frequent basis.

Rogue takes the box, not happy about it because she knows what the contents can do. Heck it could possibly kill Clark. On the other hand there are very few other ways to restrain him. She turns her attention back to Jean and Clark, still in the same position as before. Jean's hand on his arm and his gaze focussed in on her. Seriously what is going on with that?

At the very least, she supposes, it seems to keep Clark calm and stationary until Beast returns with Illyana.

The blond demon-sorceress eyes the couple curiously for several seconds but reveals nothing of how she might actually be feeling. Her gaze then turns to the room and the writings adorning all the surfaces.

"So what do you think?" Beast queries.

"It's probably just some leftover programming," Illyana answers a little too casually.

"Excuse me? Programming?" Jonathan asks her.

"Just bits and pieces left over from what that fake Jor-El did. Clark tends to like to pretend it isn't there. Something must have triggered it. I doubt it's anything too harmful."

"You've seen this...in Clark's mind?" Beast seeks to clarify.

Illyana nods. "Yep," she says, popping the 'p'.

"Is there anything you can do?" Martha asks the Russian girl.

"Hmm," Illyana ponders her choices as she walks up to Clark, muttering under her breath, a white glow forming in her right hand and pow!

A blinding light smashes into Clark's face...which goes completely blank a few seconds before he topples over onto the floor.

"What did you do?!" Jean demands to know, getting right in Illyana's face.

Illyana's smokey blue eyes narrow slightly as she observes Jean. Weird. "Is there something different about you?" she asks because...well weird. Illyana can't explain it better than that. There's just something...weird...different about Jean to her supernatural senses but she can't really explain it in better words. Don't get Illyana wrong it's subtle...and weird. Gods, she needs a better word than that.

"Different? No," Jean denies anything is different...except well...the, you know, being able to touch Clark's mind.

Beast clears his throat. "If you could Ms Rasputin, an explanation please?" he asks of her.

"I simply gave his brain a jolt. Like a reset I suppose. That should snap him out of this. Just give it a minute."

Everyone waits said minute before Clark's eyes flutter open and he groans. "Ow, my head," he complains. He sits up and finds himself surrounded. "Um, what is going on?" he asks in confusion.

"Give it a few seconds. Your brain is rebooting," Illyana advises.

Clark looks at her puzzled...then his eyes go wide before he takes in the room and what he has done. "Oohhhh," he draws the word out. He rises to his feet. "Sorry about your room," he apologises to Jean.

"That's not important," Jean assures him. "What's important is that you're ok," he says, her emotions strongly coming through.

"Yes. Are you?" Clark's mother asks.

Clark nods. "I'm fine."

"What happened?" Jonathan asks.

"What Illyana said. It was some leftover programming. Time triggered. I had almost forgot it was in there."

"The writing," Jean begins.

"Yeah, what does it say?" Claire asks.

"Zod is coming," Clark answers.

"Which means what, exactly?" Rogue asks.

"What called itself 'Jor-El' was corrupted by Apocalypse."

"We are aware of this," Beast points out.

"Apocalypse had seen the future. He had seen Zod's potential return so he stuck a warning in my head."

"Potential return?" Jean queries that part.

"There are many possible futures, Jean. Our choices determine which one we experience. The warning...this warning," he gestures at the writings, "is telling me that I'm running out of time. Brainiac must be close to enacting whatever plan it has to try and force me to release Zod. Our final battle is approaching," Clark says gravely. It means he must hurry up and find a way to destroy his AI foe once and for all.

"That sounds...bad," Claire says.

"You have a gift for understatement," Illyana dead-pans.

Clark has to smile wryly at his ex. He'll always be fond of Illyana's fatalism. "Yes, well, it's not like I didn't know what was coming," he has to accept. Perhaps not this soon, just after he had stopped the Collector but he knew it was coming. His and Brainiac's final showdown. "In the meantime, thank you Yana, for the brain reset," he says gratefully.

Illyana shrugs. "Just be thankful I didn't shove my sword into your head."

Clark chuckles while everyone else just gives Illyana a wary look.

"So Clark will you be ok now or do you need to come down to the infirmary?" Beast asks the young man.

"I'm fine Dr McCoy. I'll just be a diversion from your other patients," Clark assures him.

"Very well," Hank decides to just accept Clark's assurances. "I think we've kept everyone up enough now then," he says, choosing to bring this little gathering to an end. Besides he should go and check up on how Charles is getting on with Katherine.

"Yeah. Lots to get through tomorrow as well," Clark utters.

"Indeed," Hank says a little morosely as he exits the room. Rogue and Illyana follow and Clark's family too after he's given them a few more assurances that he is fine.

As soon as everyone is out the room Jean wraps her arms around Clark tightly, needing the feel of his body against hers. His mind against hers...and she can feel his mind sort of snuggle itself against hers. And it feels so...warm. Before it felt cold but there is warmth and comfort now.

"Why didn't you mention that you can sense my mind, Jean?" Clark asks softly.

"You...know?"

"I can feel you."

"Why aren't you freaked out?"

Good question. Clark doesn't have a good answer beyond its kinda...nice. Weird considering his not inconsiderable issues with his head being messed with but on the other hand its Jean. The lovely woman he just spent the night making love to. Clark holds her tight. "How is this possible?" he asks.

"I don't know," Jean answers honestly.

"I remember when I had amnesia you said to read my mind your powers would need to evolve to a higher level."

"I can't really read it. It's not your thoughts I'm picking up. It's more...abstract. It's hard to explain."

"But it's far more than before, though?"

"Yes," Jean confirms. Before Clark was like a blank space. Now that darkness is filled with...colour. Again, like she said, hard to explain.

"And what about your powers having evolved?"

Jean's brow furrows. "I guess it's an explanation," she says. "The Professor has always said that there is far more to my powers than I've thus far accessed," she recalls. After all she is classified as an Omega level mutant. The Professor has never hidden that from her.

"You'll have to tell the Professor, Jean," Clark points out.

"I know," she says with a sigh. "I...just didn't want to do it right now. It's too late...or early or whatever time it is. I just wanted you to be alright."

"I'm fine. I'm sorry if I freaked you out in anyway. I truly had practically forgotten any of that programming was still in there," Clark says apologetically, gently rubbing his girlfriend's back.

"Lets go back to bed," Jean decides. "As you said it's going to be a long day, even longer when I have to explain this change with my powers."

Clark could point out he doesn't really sleep but Jean does...and thinking on it for a second she probably just wants him to be there with her so the two of them slip back under the sheets and cuddle up together, their minds finding comfort in their new connection.

Author's Note: So here we go. The final part of Year 3. We'll get onto Zod soon but I have a story arc I want to get through first with our resident speedster. A temporary fix for Kitty but yeah, I think we all know what's coming. As for Clark, I suppose this does raise the question as to what other leftover programming is in his head. Thanks to all those that continue to leave reviews. Next up; Debrief Day as the X-Men try and sort out the lingering fallout from the Collector's assault.