Fly Me Courageous

By Annabell

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Smallville or its characters. This is done purely for fun.

Warnings: This fic will contain swearing, much violence and angst. Yet I can't resist some humor either.

This is un-beta-ed. So any errors are mine own.

Note: This takes place as though Tempest never happened. Lex is 22 and Clark is 16.

Archive: Hell yeah!

I've got you on the loose

I left you provin'

I've got you on the beat

I left you broken

But won't you take my place?

Its not as though I wandered

Way up on the cliff

With the brilliance of an angel

So fly me, courageous.

So fly me, courageous

  Drivin N Cryin

Chapter one

The Best Laid Plans

The silver Porsche purred to a halt on the gravel shoulder of the rural Kansas highway as the late August afternoon began to slide into twilight. Opening the door, he stepped out onto the blacktop, feeling the searing heat through the soles of his loafers and seeing the haze in the distance, making the flat expanse of wheat fields shimmer in the thick, sultry air.

The cooling engine ticked softly under the hood. In the grassy ditches lining the empty road, grasshoppers whirred a counterpoint to the chirping crickets. Slouching easily against the sleek silver side, Lex watched the reddening sun as it dipped toward the horizon through half-lidded eyes, heat rippling the scene as if it were underwater. A slight breeze brushed sluggishly against his sweat-damped face, and then died. As if it were too much effort to even try to move the heavy air. His razor sharp gaze swept the horizon. As far as he could see, there was nothing, not even a farmhouse in the distance to spoil the treasured feeling of solitariness. Just sweeping fields of golden wheat, ripe for harvesting. A wonderful metaphor, and his lips quirked at the thought.

A world of possibilities stretched out in front of him, ready for the harvest.

"Soon," he said, the corner of his mouth lifting. "This will be mine." And he wasn't talking about just the wheat either. Lex meant all of it. For a moment, the Luthor heir indulged himself the fantasy that all of this belonged to him, and only him. The ironic thing was that the fantasy was now on it's way to becoming the reality.

Breathing in the thick air, he knew that this was probably the last time he will ever feel such peace. He was coming back to Smallville after personally taking his 'formula' to the US Patent Office in Metropolis. As soon as his contact at the Office pushed it through and granted him the patent, everything would change. This was the first step in his plan that would, with some luck, end in his main goal: to rule the world before he was 25.

Absently scuffing the toe of his shoe against the blacktop, he thought about what the future held. He knew as soon as the truth of his formula got out, life would go into high gear. There would be those like his father who would try to control him and his formula. Ironically, it was thanks to his father that he knew he could deal with them easily. It was the others who would paint more of a problem, because they would try to stop him by any means necessary. Any means necessary, mostly likely including killing him. Lex was nobody's fool. He knew by what he was setting into motion, he was figuratively painting a target right on his back.  But he would have it no other way. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

The setting sun cast his normally pale features a ruddy hue, glinting off his designer sunglasses.  It would take two, maybe three days for the patent to come through. He had paid enough in bribes for his contact to get it done. And as soon as his had it, he would set the ball into play. He nearly grinned when he tried to imagine the howls of outrage that would be coming from his father's tower when Lionel figured out what Lex had spent the last four years developing in his lab. But by then, it would be too late.  Lex's plan would be unfolding and he would take the world by storm. He knew that some would hail him a savior; others would label him a destroyer. Idly, he wondered which category Clark would file him under.

Clark Kent, his best friend. His only friend.

He hadn't told Clark what he was doing. He hadn't told anybody what he was doing. Four years ago, while sitting in Advanced Chemistry, and idea had slammed it's way into his head, much like the way the meteors had slammed into Smallville.

Wham!

As the professor droned on and on, oblivious to what was happening to the bald student in the back row, Lex sat transfixed by what had started as an idle thought was clicking into what was becoming a full-blown theory. Click! Click! Wham! He had immediately started typing notes on his laptop, biting his lip in frustration that his hands was not even near fast enough to keep up with his speeding thoughts. He kept typing, not stopping for spelling errors or clarification. So absorbed in his revelation, he didn't notice the rest of the class file out, giving him curious glances as they left.

"Mr. Luthor?"

Pulled away from the sweetest high that can only come from creativity at it's most exquisite, Lex blinks up at the professor, coming out of a dream. "Wha-what?"

"The class is over, Mr. Luthor. Unless you want to sit in on Ms. Jones' pre-chem."  The old man did not like Lex, and they both knew it. But the weight of Lionel's billions kept the professor's dislike from becoming…overt.

Lex dismissed the old codger with a careless, "No thanks. I already understand oxidation-reduction reactions." Flipping the laptop closed, he stood up and placing the computer in his leather briefcase, left the professor standing alone, puzzled that the young Luthor hadn't bothered to bait him in the usual manner.

For his part, Lex was still pondering his idea. One thing he had learned from his father was to consider every angle, every possibility, every eventuality, and after that, then, and only then do you proceed.  Heading to the library, he locked himself in a study room, sat down and stared at the wall, his agile mind turning over his idea, until the true weight of the possibilities hit him.

"Fuck," he breathed. "I could own the world. It's so easy!"

And it was. He couldn't believe how easy it would be. Lex's eyes narrowed. Surely someone else must have thought of this before. Then it hit him. It occurred to Lex that he should be grateful that it was only ideas that were hitting him, because with all the hitting going on, he would have been pretty beat up by now.

Pulling himself away from that tangent, he realized that yes, someone else probably would have thought of this before, and for some reason, hadn't followed through. Why? 

Because someone had stopped them, that's why, Lex.

Well, Lex Luthor was not going to allow anyone to stop him. He would go ahead and act on his idea, make his plans, and rule the world. But in the meantime…

"I have to act like there is nothing out of the ordinary going on." Lex gritted his teeth. He would have to keep going to the clubs, skipping school, getting into trouble like business as usual. Because if anyone noticed an abrupt change in his behavior, there would be questions…and suspicions. So, life as usual, if you were the only son of a billionaire who was currently determined to get thrown out of school for the umpteenth time.

But in a way, that was exactly the right move to make, because it lead to his exile in Smallville, and precious free time, and all of Lionel's spies were easy to identify. At last he could work in peace, if the price for that peace meant getting clocked in the head every other week by some freak mutant that seemed to pop out of the woodwork, then so be it.  And after he was done conquering the world, then he would come back here to Smallville in find out what exactly was up with the meteor rocks.

Abruptly, Lex realized what he was doing. "Well, standing around here isn't going to get the world conquered."

Pushing away from the Porsche, Lex got back in and started the engine with a growl and a scream of tires announced to the still countryside that Lex Luthor had been there. He was a half hour away from the castle and still had to make a pit stop in Smallville, sort of an insurance stop. Then all he had to do was wait.

And reap the whirlwind.

TBC