"This burn on his chest is quite baffling." Dr. McCoy said as he examined Clark again. "The burn is a diamond-cut pentagon with an up and down infinity inside it. I wonder if he did it to himself or if something happened to him. Which is in and of it's self baffling because the cuts that Logan gave the boy have left no trace and are completely healed." He said as he moved to Clark's abdomen.

Clark was still in a coma. He was starting to wonder if his theory of the sunlight was correct. "The boy should have woken up days ago but he is still in a coma. It is almost as if the boy wants to stay in a coma. Every physical test I have given him shows he should have been awake days ago."

He looked up as he heard Pete walk into the room. He had to admire the boy's persistence. Pete came to visit Clark every morning and before he went to bed and various times during the day. If Clark was going to recover -not from the coma, but from whatever he was battling- he knew that Pete was part of the antidote. The rest of the antidote was on it's way. "Good morning, Pete." Dr. McCoy said as he turned off the tape recorder to which he had been talking.

"Morning Hank." Pete said as he walked over to Clark.

"I'll leave you two alone." Dr. McCoy said as he left the room. Before he left he took one last look at Clark and asked a question that had been bothering him for days. "Why don't you want to wake up, Clark? What are you afraid of?"

* * * * *

Pete walked out of the elevator and toward the dining room where some of the kids were having breakfast. He sat down next to Kitty and looked around. Most of them accepted him and didn't seem scared anymore. It felt good to be so easily befriend them. He had only been there a couple of week but it seemed as if he knew them longer.

"Is it true? that Clark is an alien?" Kitty asked as she turned to him. "Rogue said that he is not a mutant but an alien."

The whole room went silent -they all looked at him. Waiting for him to confirm what Rogue had been telling them. It wasn't his secret to tell, but it seemed a little ridiculous to keep up a charade -this whole school dealt with the extraordinary. "It's true."

You could hear a pin drop -the room erupted in chatter as people talked about aliens.

"So then, what Rogue has been saying about the ring was true?"

"What did she say?"

"Like, that the ring made Clark do all the evil things and that it wasn't really him."

Pete nodded; he didn't want to tell her the ring didn't really make Clark do anything. It took away his good inhibitions and it more or less just turned him into a walking Id. "No, it wasn't him. Clark would never hurt anyone."

* * * * *

Lex looked at his newly built shelter. Large leaves over lap each other crossing in a triangle between three trees. Though it looked as if a strong wind came by it would fall down. He was still proud of it as he made it on his own -at least it would block the rain and the sun at mid-day. There was a cache of coconuts piled to the side of it; next to that a little puddle of fish swimming around. He remembered when he found the stream with the fish. He danced, hollered and whooped all day. Only stopping to catch fish and eat it. Now he made the puddle to save fish for when he didn't have time to walk to the other side of the island. It was very helpful, as there were no refrigerators.

He moved and lay under the leaves with his arms behind his head as a pillow. He closed his eyes imagining he was back at the mansion in his bed. There was a cold glass of lemonade next to the table with ice. Oh, of all things ice is one of the things he missed the most. Then he could feel the air from the air conditioning; it blew across his face.

Helen walked into the room and he smiled. It had been so long since he had seen her. She picked up a pillow and hit him with it; again and again she hit him. Then she stopped and held him down with the pillow. He tried to yell for help but no sound came out. Why would Helen be doing this? He tried to holler again. Suddenly he was covered with leaves. He could hear the wind as it whistled above him. He could tell it was a tropical storm starting.

"I HATE THIS PLACE!"

* * * * *

Chloe walked into the Torch's office and pulled the shutter closed. Then popped the board open and revealed her progress on her investigation of Clark Kent. Chloe stared at the board. She knew Clark could do something with heat. She put all the articles together and with each fire incident Clark was there. A line was drawn from Clark to fire. Below fire she wrote how?

Just then her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller id. I said unavailable but she knew who it was.

Lionel Luther had been dogging her for information. He was becoming impatient. "I have told you already Mr. Luther, I need more time. It has only been a couple of weeks and Clark isn't even here." There was a pause as she listened to the man's voice. "Yes Mr. Luther. I understand." Then she hung up the phone.

She didn't know why she was so angry with Clark. They had been friends so long that she should never have even thought of doing this to him. Every time she would think of calling off the investigation she would think of Lana or see her when she came home. Then her blood would start to boil again and her curiosity would grow again.

She sat at the desk and unlocked a drawer, pulled out a stack of papers and set them on her desk. She had started to go through each article one by one marking when Clark had been near the incident. She knew most of the time it was because of meteor mutants but there were the few articles that appeared to have nothing to do with mutants.

* * * * *

Clark struggled in this black nothingness again. Then he felt something -heat, warmth, wonderful warmth. He wanted more of it. He didn't realize it until now but he was cold. He was finished being cold. He thought he found the direction the warmth was coming from and he clawed his way there. Every movement was tiring; which was strange. Excluding the krytonite he had only felt tired once in his life and that was when he had no powers.

A string of light broke through the darkness -Clark fought harder. The harder he fought the more strings of light started to appear. Then the dam that was holding back the light broke and Clark was blinded. He now wanted to hind from the light, impossible now that the dam was broken. It was painful, his eyes burned from the sudden light he wanted to retch. He turned this way and that, left and right, up and down any direction to hide from the light.

Then he felt as if he were falling -he tried to grab anything to stop him but nothing was solid. He hit something solid -the wind was knocked out of him. He tried to breathe as his lungs refused the air. He tried again and again then he received a small breath. He coughed as he tried again for more air. The light was still blinding. His eyes were closed but the light was so much that he felt as if he were going to be blind.

It felt solid underneath him, he crawled to get away from the light; it was everywhere. Then his head hit something, he put his hand up to feel and it was a wall. He stood using the wall for balance. Walking along the wall and found a switch. He flipped it down and the light stopped. Clark cheered to himself. Opening his eyes he looked around. The room didn't look familiar; it looked like it was a hospital room of some sort. Then a picture flashed in his head and he knew where he was. He was at the mansion. He remembered seeing rooms like this one when he had scanned it with his x-ray vision.

Now he wanted out! Panic set in -these people would never forgive him. He tried to use his x-ray vision to find a path to get out, but it didn't work. Running to the door he opened it -surprised to find it was not locked. Light flooded in at him and he slammed the door shut. If he wanted out of here he would have to brave the blinding light. He looked around the room -opening cupboards and drawers looking for something to cover his eyes. Then he found a wrap. He wrapped it around his head covering his eyes. He would be blind but at least it was a dark blind and not a bright blind with the urge to vomit.

He opened the door and felt along the wall. The light was still bright enough that it peeked through the wrap. He stepped around a corner but found too late that it was the wrong move. He heard the door close behind him and he found he was in and elevator. The door opened and he stepped out slowly.

"Clark?"

Clark jumped back and hit the wall he wanted to run, but where? he couldn't see anything.