The Meeting (Chloe/Lex) - 02/01/12

[melbee1985]

Chloe Sullivan was curious. She could never refuse to dig into a mystery that would catch her attention. So when Lex Luthor requested a meeting with her at the Mansion, as dangerous as it once sounded, she couldn't refuse. She didn't know how much he actually remembered - and how much he pretended to have forgotten - but she figured there couldn't be a better way to discover it, than meeting with him.

Chloe parked her car at the entrance of the Mansion and got out of her car. She took a minute to contemplate the Mansion. It felt like she hadn't set foot there in ages. She had a brief flash of her youth, when this place used to be a refuge for her, when Lionel was trying to have her killed. She'd found in Lex a savior, something she'd only find in two other men after; Clark and Oliver.

But while the first one was now busy with saving the world, being known now as Superman, she'd finally decided that she couldn't spend her life with the latter. Oliver was a great guy, she'd never deny it, but it just wasn't.... 'it'. Since the day she had left Metropolis to live with oliver in Star City, she'd felt like living some old dream of hers. Journalism was officialy not her thing anymore and while she still enjoyed part of being WatchTower, being with Oliver lacked something. Actually, no, she wasn't going to blame him entirely. She just felt perhaps they had grew apart but hadn't realize that until the world was safe again. Until they had quiet nights alone. Until the world would be in danger again. It was then that she realized - and probably him as well - that they weren't meant to be together. She gave him back the wedding ring - for a wedding that was never official nor legal anyway - packed her stuff and left Star City. She had crashed over at Lois (before living with Clark) and then got an apartment on her own, doing some random jobs in communication, until she'd find something to feel the void of not being needed by Clark anymore and not knowing what she wanted to do next in her life.

Maybe it was part of why she'd agreed to meet with Lex. Maybe she needed to get in trouble once more. While pondering all of this, Chloe entered the Mansion with a servant opening the door for her, and made her way to the study, a place of greatness in the past and, of course, of darkness.

She didn't know in which category this meeting would fall. But she was about to find out soon.


Lex was in his bedroom, slipping into his jacket, when the servant knocked on the door and notified him that his appointment had arrived. He nodded in recognition of the message and glanced at his watch. He was pleased to see she was right on time.

Humming softly to himself, he checked his reflection and brushed some lint off his shoulder. Then, satisfied, he headed towards his study, wondering what sort of reception he would receive.

After losing his memory (inexplicably, as far as he could tell, though he supposed there had to be an explanation somewhere for what had happened to him), he had spent the last several months trying to put together the pieces. It was maddening, not knowing who one had been or what one had done for ten entire years, particularly for a man like Lex Luthor.

His efforts had been rewarded to some degree. He'd learned that he'd been married. Three times, in fact, leading him to realize that romantic pursuits had perhaps not been his forte. He had formed ties to this little podunk town, which seemed so unlike him that he sniffed in disdain at the thought.

From newspaper clippings and various other sources of information, he'd pieced together that his friendships in this town, whatever they had been, had ended. How and why was something of a mystery, so Lex could only assume he had come to his senses and realized he was destined for far greater things than this little town could provide.

Curiously, he hadn't been able to uncover much about his recent history, after he had gone missing and was declared dead. Clearly he wasn't dead, so he had to have been somewhere. To the public and the press, he'd claimed to have been seriously injured, which caused him to suffer from amensia. It wasn't a hard story to sell, since he had in fact lost his memories. However, he had no doubt there was more to the story, and he was determined to find it.

Which brought him here, to his castle in Smallville (a ludicrous name for a town, but an apt one in this instance). He was determined to uncover the secrets of his past. It was such a personal affront, a violation. His very mind had betrayed him. It wasn't to be borne.

Finally, when the jigsaw pieces he'd uncovered failed to form together into a cohesive picture, Lex had made the decision to start at the beginning. He had memories of his childhood; he remembered his father's decree that he was to be banished to Middle of Nowhere, America. Everything after that was...blank.

But he'd read clippings about a car accident on a bridge. He'd pieced together the existance of an unlikely friendship and its demise. Many of the stories written about him in those early years had been by a then-high school student named Chloe Sullivan.

So he'd investigated her. Former journalist, widower, recent bride. What he'd read indicated that she had grown to be hardly the chairwoman of the Lex Luthor Fan Club. In fact, she seemed to dislike him quite a bit. As far as he knew, that dislike may well be warranted. She may have thousands of reasons to detest him, but that meant she knew thousands of things about him that he didn't know about himself. Which was rather the point.

He'd been somewhat surprised when his assistant had informed him that Ms. Sullivan (or was it to be Mrs. Sullivan-Queen, now? He couldn't believe she'd married the bane of his childhood existance, but it didn't speak highly for her taste) had agreed to the meeting. He wondered how she would react to his job offer.

He didn't have long to find out. Throwing open the door to his study, he strode inside, his long legs eating up the distance between himself and this stranger who knew him better than he knew himself (not that it took much). With confident smile, he extended his hand. "Mrs. Sullivan? Or is it Mrs. Sullivan-Queen? Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Lex Luthor," he introduced himself. Of course, she already knew that, but he'd realized introducing himself was the least awkward way to deal with greeting someone he was already supposed to know.

Chloe looked at him as he arrived. Physically, Lex hadn't change a bit. But she could see in his eyes something different. Actually, it was rather something familiar that she was seeing, though she hadn't seen that in a very long time. It brought her back to her high school years, when he actually wanted to help people; when he wasn't such a bad guy then.

She refrained from snorting when he presented himself to her and shook his hand, after a slight hesitation. "I know who you are Lex." Her hand shaking was convincing, strong. After they were done, Chloe, looking professionnal, maybe a tad serious even - or as some could perceive angry at him for the past he couldn't even remember -she stood still, arms crossed. "So why am I here?"

The corner of Lex's mouth lifted as he noted her reaction. He gestured towards the chairs in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat," he said, moving to sit behind the desk. As he sat, he assessed her silently through narrowed eyes. So, this girl used to be his friend. At least, he thought she had been his friend. As with pretty much every other aspect of his life over the past decade, he had a million questions about his past with Chloe and not many answers. "Direct and to the point," he murmured. "I can appreciate that." He paused, considering how to continue. "Would you like a drink?" he asked abruptly. Seeing her surprise, he smiled. "Trust me, when you hear what I have to say, I think you'll want one."

It was hard for Chloe to not think of who Lex was up to recently and try to act like he might not be as bad as he used to. 'It happened once, can happen again', she thought to herself. She sat on the chair, adjusting her pencil skirt, sitting right, not really feeling like relaxing. Chloe frowned slightly at his question. "No thank you, I'd rather have a clear mind when you actually let me know why I had to drive from Metropolis to come here."

Chloe was so cold to him, he swore he could feel a wave of glacial air radiating off of her. "All right," he said with a sigh. Standing, he walked to the table and poured himself a drink. She may not want one, but he was pretty sure he needed one. He took a sip and then turned to her. He might as well get straight to the point. "I invited you here, Mrs. Queen, to offer you a job."

Chloe couldn't believe what he'd just told her. A job? For a brief second there, she went back in time about 10 years ago, when Lionel Luthor had offered her a job. "First of all, it's miss Sullivan and second of all, what exactly do you need me for, that you can't get elsewhere?"

He paused when she corrected him and considered her more closely. So she and Oliver Queen were no longer together? That was interesting, and he wondered if there was anything there he could unearth to use later. For the moment, he filed it away, to investigate at a later date. He walked back to the desk. "I'm surprised you need to ask." Sliding open a drawer, he pulled out a thick folder stuffed with newspaper clippings and other various documents. Tossing it onto the desk, he nodded towards it, indicating Chloe should take a look. Inside were articles about him, written by her. There were photographs, including several apparently taken one one of his wedding days, with Chloe as the maid of honor. "You apparently know me, which is more than I can say for myself. I want to know who I am, and I can only do that if I find out who I was. I thought you could help me find that out."

He considered telling her of his plan to enter politics, which he couldn't possibly do until he knew where all the bodies were buried, metaphorically speaking. (Or possibly literally. For all he knew, he could have committed murder in his past, along with a whole host of other crimes.) Plausible deniability only worked so long as he knew what it was he needed to deny. But he decided against revealing as much right now. Chloe clearly disliked him. Or at least she distrusted him. She might not be keen on helping him get his memories restored if she knew he intended to go into politics once he had them back. Something told him she wouldn't exactly be racing off to the ballot box to vote for him, in any event.

Chloe was surprised to see all of those things that were from the past. For a seond, she felt some pride knowing someone had kept everything she wrote - or almost - but she soon remembered who was the man in question. "Why? Why me?" She blurted out as she saw a picture of Lana and then one of Chloe and Clark. Why her, indeed? Not that she wanted him to snoop around Clark - a thought that made her a little anxious remembering he'd always envy Clark and had even learned about his secret - but she still didn't understand. "I'm surprised you're not using a trained private detective or something like that, with all your resources, to do this. After all, what makes you think I know more than what you've already found in my articles?"

He chuckled. "I suspect you know more about me than a private detective would be able to find because you clearly don't like me. I'm not a stupid man, and I doubt that amnesia has caused me to grow exponentially smarter than I was before. I have no doubt I had secrets. Maybe I had many. Even today, I think I could hide my secrets well enough that some plodding detective couldn't uncover them. I suspect whoever I was would have done the same." He sighed. "Besides, I have hired them, and they have told me facts." He picked up the photo of his wedding day. "For example, they told me I the date I married the woman in this photo, and the date we divorced. They found newspaper articles about our relationship. I know she was pregnant, and I know she lost the baby. But as far as who this... Lang woman is, I have no idea. How did we meet? Did she really love me? Did I really love her?" He frowned at the picture in his hand. "Or this man. This...Clark Kent person. I know we were friends. I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I can tell you now that he's a reporter at the Daily Planet, he's engaged to marry his partner, Lois Lane. I can tell you their address and phone number, but I can't tell you why we were ever friends, though I suppose I can imagine why we're not friends today." He tossed the photo back onto the pile. "Can you imagine waking up to find an entire decade of your life is gone? Vanished, wiped from your memory. One minute, you're 22; the next, you're 32 and you have no idea what you did or what happened to you during the intervening period?

I want to know what happened to me. I need to know, in fact, and I'll keep digging until I find out. Whatever it takes, I'll do it. But I thought, as you apparently knew me well enough to write this many articles about me, that you could help." He paused. "I'm prepared to pay quite well for your assistance, if that matters."

[melbee1985]

There was something in Lex's voice that sounded...honest. Something she hadn't seen in him for quite a long time, if at any point. But at this moment, he was either the world's best manipulator or he was really desperate. Chloe was starting to have doubts, not sure whether he was worth helping. Part of her was telling her that he'd done things beyond redemption. But another part of her, small but insistant, was thinking that maybe it was an opportunity to have him stay on the right tracks. And control what he should 'remember' and what he shouldn't. He did say 10 years of forgetting, yeah maybe there was hope...

"I guess it's an improvement that you came to me.. last time you had your memory erased you went to Summerholt and your curiosity almost got you killed." She could see in his eyes that it was something the detectives hadn't found. Of course, she knew this could make her look even more valuable.

Chloe finally uncrossed her arms and made a step forward Lex. "We have some kinks to work on, but you may be able to get a deal" She looked around then after a slight hesitation, looked back at Lex. "First of all, this arrangement, if I do agree to it, has to remain between us." She knew it might not look good to be the one starting having secrets, but until she could get her head around this whole situation, she couldn't risk having Clark find out. Or Oliver for that matter. "Second of all, if you want me to dig in your past, you need to give me full access; anything I want to look into, you have to grant me permission. I can't work with you if you keeps secrets like your old self. And if so, you'll be on your own."

She made another step forward and presented her hand. "We have a deal?"

[Jade4813]

Lex paused, still processing her revelation. So this wasn't the first time he had lost his memory? He wondered if he should be alarmed. Some people were prone to clumsiness or had a genetic predisposition towards certain diseases. If Lex had a proclivity towards amnesia, that was fairly terrifying.

While he was still mulling over that horrifying thought, Chloe offered him her terms. He extended his hand to shake on it but then halted. "You have me at a disadvantage," he pointed out. "After all, I have no idea what you might uncover, so I don't know whether I should agree to your terms or not." Then again, did he really have a choice? If he wanted to find out the truth about himself, he probably didn't.

Of course, there was nothing to say he coudln't agree to let her have full access and then, if he discovered something she shouldn't know, judiciously determine it was best to redirect her efforts elsewhere. He actually sincerely hoped he didn't have too many skeletons mouldering in a closet somewhere, but from what he'd learned about himself over the past several months led him to believe it was likely he had enough an army or two tucked away somewhere. "Ruthless" was an adjective that had been thrown his way more than once. So if she did discover something something he'd rather she not know at all, well...he could hope that his amnesia was contagious.

"All right," he agreed, reaching for her hand. "And you don't have to worry about me telling anyone about your help. I'm having a hard enough time regaining control of my company, since they're understandably reluctant to hand the reins over to an amnesiac, without bringing some reporters into the mix." He assumed she was referring in part to their erstwhile mutual friend, Clark Kent.

Her palm was warm against his, but he felt her tremble slightly as they shook. He made her nervous, and he was inexplicably pleased by that. He held on a little longer than strictly necessary, just to assess how she would react to him doing so. Finally, he released her hand and stepped away.

Now that she'd agreed to assist him - which he didn't think she would do, in all honesty - he was a little at a loss as to where to begin. He needed to know what he'd forgotten in relation to his company first and foremost, but he doubted Chloe could help him with his business interests. He had to rely on the hope that she could help bring back some personal memories and, in doing so, could encourage the remainder of his memories to return at the same time.

Perhaps it made sense to start at the beginning. Rifling through the stack of articles, he pulled one from the bottom of the pile and slid it towards her. "Perhaps it makes sense to start at the beginning. I've seen pictures of my car after this accident. How did I survive a car crash that should've killed me? Tell me about Clark?" He asked the question as much to see her reaction as because he was curious about the man who had once been his friend (and why men such as they would ever have formed a friendship, being as vastly different as they were).

[melbee1985]

Chloe tried not to look nervous as they shook hands. But as his hand was holding hers, thoughts were racing in the back of her mind;

'What have I just done?' 'Did I just signed a pack with the devil?' 'What if Clark finds out?' 'What if he's tricking me? What if I tell him something that leads him in the same direction than before and ends up hurting her or anyone she cares again?' 'Could I trust Lois to tell her what just happened? I need to be able to tell someone!!!'

Finaly, Lex released her hand and she tried to stay collected and confident. She couldn't show any weakness around Lex. He knew too well how to take advantage of people's weakenesses.

"So you're trying to take back a company that you can barely remember? Yeah, I can see why they'd be hesitant"

Chloe wasn't sure whether the meeting was over or not. She was about to ask, but then she knew he wasn't over yet. And that her first task was already going to be a challenge.

"The accident? Right... as far as I know about it, it was some sort of miracle. This wasn't the first time and it wasn't the last time that you defied death. But I can look if you want." She'd rather not go in details. She feared Lex's obsession towards Clark would be as strong as it used to be. "As for Clark, I'm not exactly sure what you want to know. You came in Smallville, befriended Clark, then you starting going in a different path, stole his girlfriend, married her and then that's pretty much it. I think that pretty much made it clear that you and Clark were not meant to be friends then."

She wasn't sure if he still had other questions at this very moment, but she didn't feel comfortable revealing too much without looking back at his past and putting a timeline, so she'd know what would be worth telling and what to avoid. Right now, there were things she wanted to tell him, to make him feel bad, like our he had used her mother, what'd he'd done to her, but she knew it might be a mistake on the long run. No, she definitively needed to overthink all of this.

"Any other questions? Because if not, I'll leave and start working on your profile." She took her bag and waited for him to talk. "Then I should get going." She turned around and made a few steps in the direction of the doors. After a brief hesitation, she turned around. "You know, you may not like who you used to be. I just hope that you'll be able to avoid taking the same path as you once did."

On those words, she turned back and left the study. She had to hit the road and get back home to start this very unique investigation.

Lex's eyebrows arched as he watched her walk out of the study. A lesser man than he would have let his jaw drop, he was so astonished. He couldn't remember the last time that someone had just summarily decided to just cut short the conversation and walk away from him like that. (Of course, he couldn't remember a good number of things, but he was fairly certain that he'd still find the event to be rare, if he had all his memories intact.)

For a moment, he considered letting her go. He had accomplished what he'd wanted in getting her to agree to help, and much more quickly than he'd ever imagined. Perhaps he should count his blessings and give her some time to process recent developments.

Only he wasn't certain he wanted to give her time to do so. She might change her mind. She had mentioned working on a profile on him, but that wasn't exactly what he had in mind. He certainly didn't want another dry document, full of facts that had been carefully edited to be the most palatable version possible. He suspected that Chloe, like many other people, would not hesitate to edit out details of his past that she found unpleasant. He couldn't afford that sort of whitewash on his history. Whatever his past, he had to know.

His motives weren't entirely Machiavellian - at least, he hoped that not everything he uncovered would be unpleasant. Chloe was just the closest thing to a tie to his past that he had been able to find since his "return" to Metropolis. At least, she was the first person he had found who could speak to his personal history and not just his professional one. Well...could speak and seemed willing to do so. He had only spoken with Clark Kent once, at a press conference about his disappearance and subsequent return. Though he hadn't spoken with the other man privately, the icy, distrustful manner in which he and his fiance had directed their questions made it clear Lex could expect not help from that quarter.

"Chloe, wait," he called as she walked out the door. Rising to his feet, he strode quickly across the room, following her. He gestured for her to join him in the study once more, and shut the door behind her once she reluctantly re-entered the room.

Meeting her eyes, he stared intently at her and lowered his voice. "I'm sorry to call you back in here, but I don't think you understand the situation. I don't need another profile to read, full of dry facts about my life. I need details. Stories. I need to know the truth, not some edited biography."

He wasn't going about this the right way, he knew. So he changed tactics. "You have to understand. I know you have no reason to believe me, but I don't want to be the man I can only imagine I was." It was not entirely a lie. At least, he didn't think it was entirely a lie. He honestly didn't know if he should want to be that man or not. In his mind, when he'd "awoken" - which is how he referred to that moment where he'd found himself in Metropolis and realized he had no memories of the past 10 years - he was a decade younger than his years. He was still that reckless kid who had apparently driven off a bridge and survived. He was still the young man who rebelled against his father, even as he longed for paternal approval that he only later realized he would never get, when he learned of his father's death.

Of course, some pieces had been put into place, and he even had the occasional odd flash, a strange shadow of a memory of the man he had become. He knew what people had told him and what little he had been able to uncover about his secrets. That man had a certain allure. Lex couldn't say that he didn't envy that forgotten Lex a little, or long for the power he had once apparently wielded.

He found himself a disquieting combination of both, at the moment. Standing at the crossroads, with no idea which way he wanted to turn. Did he want to become the philantropist he had dreamed of being when he was younger, the knight on the white horse who would ride in and solve the world's problems and somehow, in doing so, redeem himself from the sins he carried by bearing the Luthor name? Or did he want to be that ruthless businessman, the man who strove to attain the power, position, and respect that were his birthright?

He honestly had no idea.

"I can't..." His voice trailed off, and he sighed. His mind was working fast, trying to sort things out and find a way to convince her to open up to him with the answers he was seeking.

Perhaps a play upon her sympathy? He could do that. "I don't have a lot of time to find out who I was, Chloe," he said somewhat desperately. "I don't think you realize what I've been up against since I got back or woke up or whatever it is that happened to me. In the past eight months, at least four women have come forward and claimed they were secretly married to me. I've had a dozen paternity suits filed against me. There have been several threats made on my life, and I don't even know myself well enough to know which ones to take serious, or to know who might hate me enough to make such a threat." He paused and offered her a half-smile. "From the way you, Clark, Lois, and countless others have looked at me, I can only imagine the answer must be all of Metropolis.

"I'm in danger of losing my company, since my shareholders don't trust a businessman who can't even remember what his company has been doing for the past decade. They're trying to freeze me out, and if I don't get my memories back soon, my corporations will be at risk of a hostile takeover, industrial sabotage, and a whole list of other threats that will cost me my company and countless people their jobs.

"I won't even get into the number of lawsuits that have been filed against me in the past eight months by people who are making allegations I can't even begin to refute. For all I know, I really did spend the last year of my life traveling under an assumed name, milking people out of their money as part of an elaborate pyramid scheme."

He wished he remembered the woman before him so that he could know her well enough to read the expression on her face. He didn't know if she was wavering or not.

Very slowly, he reached for her, resting his hands on her upper arms. Rubbing her arms gently, he stared intently into her eyes and played one last card in his hand. "Chloe, I know...I know that I once helped you, when you needed me to. I found some old documents..." He let his voice trail off, since he really didn't know that much about what he'd done to help her. He knew he'd rented a place for her and her father to stay under an assumed name he had provided for them. He also found an obituary for her from around that time. Had he helped her fake her own death? Or had he simply hidden her after she had done so? In either event, why had she deemed it necessary to do such a thing?

Speaking slowly, he chose his next words with great care, knowing he had to play his hand just right. "If you came to me for that kind of help...and if I offered it...I can only imagine that it's because we meant something to each other. At the very least, we had to be friends. I don't know what changed that, but I'm asking for your help now."

If he wasn't mistaken, there was a flicker of...something behind her eyes. Was he getting to her? He leaned in a little closer, trying desperately to read her expression as he made one final push. "If you don't want to talk about anyone else right now, that's fine. There's so much I don't remember, I don't even know where to begin to ask questions, anyway. So maybe we should start with something easier. Tell me about us, Chloe. What have we been to each other?" He paused for a second and then added, "And what did I do to make you hate me so much?"

If he could at least get her to open up to him a little, it would be a start. And perhaps he could get an idea of how likely she was to be honest with him about the more unsavory aspects of his past.

<tag>

[melbee1985]

Chloe listened carefully to what Lex had to say. She sighed at some moments, unimpressed with his speech at first. Lex Luthor, evil or not, was known to be a good story teller. He'd been raised with the medias surrounding his family after all.

Despite being on her guards, arms crossed, Chloe's expression on her face slightly changed as he kept talking. She remembered him using the same kind of tone in his voice years ago, when she had the power to make people tell the truth. When he'd tell her he wished for his father's love, with a broken voice, this had touch her in a way she hadn't expect. She'd even felt some attraction to the man back then. They had worked on bringing down his father for months, after all. It had helped her forget about Clark, at least just a little bit, which back then was a huge deal for her. Of course, she'd never have acted on her teenagers impulse; he was 23 and she was only 17, how could a man possibly fall for her when she could barely get a look from a teenager like Clark Kent.

Chloe tried to shake this memory away. "Well, I don'tk now about you having any illegitimate children, but you were not nicknamed the playboy of Metropolis for nothing." She smirked, though she had meant for her words to sound more cold than they came out.

Just as she finished speaking, she felt Lex,s hand on her arm. She didn't know why - maybe she was nervous or afraid - but her heart started racing at his touch and his closeness. For a moment there, she felt stuck on the floor, not able to move. They had been close for a moment, a very short moment overall though. But back then, she had seen what Clark had seen in Lex; she'd seen a man desperate to do good, the only way he knew - using at times schemes and secrets to get to his means. One of his biggest liability was his curiosity for Clark's past. If that could be out of the equation, maybe t here was still hope to make Lex a great man. A good man.

After he'd asked her some questions, she finally looked away and walked over the couch. "We were friends.. Sort of..." She sat on the couch, looking at Lex and inviting him with her silence to join her. She had to minimize Clark's impact at all cost in the conversation. She'd known him through Clark, but she would try to avoid mentioning him as much as possible, to protect Clark and in a way, to protect the world of a potentially very dangerous man - the Lex he used to be just before he had his memory erased.

"We had... friends in common. And, hmm, well..." She kept searching for her words. If someone had told her she'd have to remember about her past with Lex, she'd certainly written it down. "Actually we were never 'good friends'. We helped each other when your father started threatening my life because I had discovered he,d kill your grand parents for money. And you were trying to bring him down for similar reasons - because he was a dangerous person and he had you placed in an institution with weeks of your memory removed. So together, we teamed up to bring him down. We helped each other. And yes, you saved my life when your father tried to have me killed. For few months, I was hiding with my father in a witness protection, presumed dead."

Chloe looked down, playing with her hands. "And then you forgot about me. About what we had been able to accomplish together." It had always upset her, back then, that he had went back to ignore her and had focused his attention on Lana. like Clark. Like most guys she,d known. "You just started to get obsessed with things that made you grow apart from me and my friends." There was so much he'd done, so little she could tell him. How to tell him he'd been a monster without telling him about his obsession in meteor freaks? Could she risk raising that interest in him again? She could never forgive herself if she became responsible of him going to the dark side again.

"I know you don't remember much, but I'm surprised you came to me, because not so long ago, you would have done the opposite. You always hated that I snooped around your illegal schemes, even got me fired from the Daily Planet. You didn't like that I was the only one who could ruin your plans". The last part was almost true, although she'd usually assist Clark. But most of the t ime, she'd been the brain behind the operation. She'd rather take the blame than taking Clark or anyone else in the situation. "If you really remembered anything about me, you would have avoided me like the pest."

She still didn't know how to detail their on and off confrontations without compromising Clark, but she figured he at least earned to know what she represented to him before he lost his memory.

[Jade4813]

Lex sat next to Chloe and watched her carefully as she explained their history together. Her revelation about the murders his father had committed caused no reaction in him. He had become aware of his father's duplicity in the past several months, having pieced the information together from old newspaper clippings and so forth. The initial revelation had caused him the feel the sharp sting of betrayal and dismay, but the stories were still foreign to him, and they inspired no great depth of feeling in him now.

He did notice that she mentioned it again, his previous period as an amnesiac. He had to investigate that. What had prompted his former bout of amnesia, though that had apparently covered a much smaller period of time. Could the same thing be at fault for his current lack of memory?

He noticed her reaction when she talked about how he'd 'forgotten' her. (Ironic, as she undoubtedly meant it metaphorically and now it was all too literal. But at least she could have the comfort of knowing she wasn't alone.) If he wasn't mistaken, she seemed a bit wounded. Now that was interesting. Very interesting.

He considered it as she talked about his obsession - a word that had been used to discribe his past self quite a bit, so it came as no surprise. What obsessions could have led him to grow apart from his former "friends" - as unlikely a concept as that was? She was clearly reluctant to discuss his obsessions, and she seemed to be choosing her words carefully when it came to his illegal schemes. At least he now had confirmation that she would be careful about what she revealed to him about his past and how she would convey the information. It didn't come as a great surprise, but it was good to have his suspicions confirmed.

As little as she'd told him, he was starting to get a picture of the woman in front of him - her strengths and her weaknesses. She seemed reluctant to talk about her friends, and she didn't know anyone to know she was working with Lex. So she was loyal, but not so loyal that she couldn't be swayed to put her own motives and desires above her friends' wishes. She had apparently gone up against his father, to her own detriment, so she was brave, perhaps even foolishly so. If the papers were any indication, she had tried to thwart both Lex and Lionel at every turn, so she had to be smart enough to piece things together and, again, foolhardy enough to go up against the Luthors.

He wondered whether there wasn't more to it, as well. She had agreed to help him, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and she had thawed a little when he'd let her think of him as a little boy lost. So she was soft-hearted. And, perhaps even more importantly still, she clearly focused on his secrets - demanding he be honest with her about everything, that he allow her all access, admitting she had "snooped" into his secrets before. She couldn't possibly have printed everything she'd uncovered about him, or he would have been able to read his past from the newspaper and wouldn't need her help now. So was it a simple search for the next story that kept her digging into his past, or was it something more?

Was it possible she had the same unquenchable desire to KNOW, as he did? Lex had never been able to accept an unsolved mystery. If there were questions that arose, he demanded the answers and, yes, even obsessed about the mystery until it was solved. Was it possible that Chloe was the same way?

Lex knew, perhaps better than most, the slippery slide that came from an intense desire to KNOW. It was a small step to needing all of one's questions answered, to demanding the answers to questions one had no right to ask. It was an even smaller step to craving the power that came from having the answers nobody had, in being the only one in the room who had a particular piece of information.

If Chloe really did share these characteristics with him, then Lex had chosen wisely in his decision to enlist her aid. Not only would she be likely to help him find the answers he sought, but he could use her desire for answers against her. Right now, he needed an ally, and though she might be wary of being that for him, he could use her desire for answers as a lure. If it was true that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then nobody wielded power as a weapon quite like a Luthor.

The fact that she had once been apparently wounded by his younger version's casual disregard left open other possibilities. Perhaps she had been drawn to the answers she thought he could have provided her before and he had alienated her. Perhaps he'd turned her into an enemy, when she could have been a very useful ally.

He would not make that mistake this time around.

So he admitted, "Well, while I admit I'm still not thrilled about the idea of someone investigating me as thoroughly as you apparently have, I can't really afford to be churlish about it now. The fact that you are so good at snooping - as you put it - is the reason I requested your help in the first place." Then he smiled, as though the two were sharing a joke, "Anyway, I can't worry too much about you ruining any of my dastardly plans, until at the very least, I start getting some vague recollection on what those plans would be."

He paused and then added, "I suppose I should probably apologize for getting you fired from the Daily Planet. Though of course I have no idea why I did. Anyway, if you ask me, the quality in news reporting at that paper has really gone down lately." Perhaps because they had done a number of news stories about his "return," and while they didn't report on him MORE than other papers did, their stance on his return, his motives, and his claims of amnesia were distinctly more skeptical than the relatively more pro-Lex reports printed in other papers. Of course, Lex had realized that a good deal of the skepticism lobbed his way came from articles written by his former "friend" Clark Kent.

What had really happened there, he wondered?

Clark was an issue to investigate another day. Once he got Chloe to relax a little more, let her guard down - once he had enticed her with the secrets she had thus far been unable to discover and was driven to want to know - he could perhaps convince her to be a bit more forthcoming about the things she was so reluctant for him to know.

But first, he had to draw her in.

"All right, Chloe, you said you wanted full access, to help me uncover my past. It's yours! My life is an open book...with, admittedly, a lot of blank pages. I have no idea where to even being, so maybe you'll have an idea. Where do we start?"

[melbee1985]

At this moment, Chloe really felt like she was talking to a 10 years younger Lex. One that still know how to smile, how to have fun - in a non twisted way. It was refreshing. Maybe she could indeed change his future... their futures.

That smile he'd just given her reminded her of their first encounter, when she'd interviewed him. He'd been so charming. If she hadn't been so young and so in love with Clark Kent, she probably would have fallen for him. There was no surprise he'd been so popular with women in the past, probably still was. This charm had lost its effect when he'd started to plot to get more power and when he'd started to test on meteor freaks. He was surely everything but charming. She took a deep breath, trying to chase away her thoughts.

Too many thoughts, too many different emotions. it was annoying.

She was stunted by his last statement - open book? Really? Even in his good old days he'd never been entirely an open book. She had her doubts.

"Ok.. Well.. Perhaps we could start by you telling me what you already know. I mean, besides what you've found in papers. I'm sure the other you must have hidden some files somewhere. I'm also sure you must have talked to people at Luthor corp - and I don't mean shareholders, but rather employees. So I'd like to know what you REALLY have learned so far about your past... including things that are suppose to be out of the record."

Chloe gave him a challenging look, arms crossed. She needed to see how much he knew of his past and how honest he would be about it - since she would, obviously double check at some point his says.

"Your turn."

[Jade4813]

Lex hid his frown when she threw down her challenge. She clearly didn't trust him, when he said he would allow her unfettered access to his life. Not that he could entirely blame her, given that he was lying. He had no intention of actually sharing all his secrets with her; however, he was open to letting her believe he would, if that meant getting her cooperation.

Apparently, she knew him well enough to be suspicious that he would be as good as his word. So now the problem was, what did she likely already know, and what did he need to keep to himself?

He couldn't ponder her question for too long, or she would be suspicious. Best to start with something easy, something he was 99% certain she already knew, while he weighed what else to share.

"All right," he said agreeably as he rose to his feet and walked over to his safe. Taking a few moments to open it, he pulled out a file. It was the original file he'd found on 33.1. He'd been working to uncover further information about the project, but the contents of the file at least comprised the bulk of what was "easily" uncovered about the project - and, thus, what she might already know or would likely be able to uncover, herself.

"Apparently, I spent some time moonlighting as a modern version of Dr. Frankenstein," he admitted as he put the file on the desk and pulled it open. "I clearly tried to have the records destroyed, at some point, given how incomplete they are." He paused, then amended his statement, "Well, either I did, or someone else related to the project did. At any rate, I haven't found a list of names of the...ah...subjects involved; only an incomplete list of numbers, which I gather were designations for some of the various subjects involved." He showed her the list.

"It looks like these people were supposed to have some sort of special abilities, likely from those meteor rocks you wrote so much about in high school. We were apparently trying to determine the origin of these abilities, how they changed a person's physiology, to see if we could replicate the abilities in non-infected people.

"Now, I have a note, here, at the bottom of the file, indicating the project was to be closed only a year after it was first begin. However, I also found this." Lex pulled out a newspaper clipping on John Corben, who Lois Lane dubbed "Metallo" in the press.

"If this article is correct, a man named John Corben had been in an accident and his heart had been removed, to be replaced by meteor rocks, or Kryptonite. He was turned into a cyborg. Now, I have no records on anything to do with anyone named Corben or any project of that nature, but it seems like what was done to him is the type of thing my researchers were looking into. Or, at least, the 33.1 project seems tangentally related to the method of Corben's cybernetics."

He frowned, gazing at the newspaper article in his hand as he sat in his chair. "I don't know if my company or my research had anything to do with what happened to this man, but I can only pray it didn't. Of course, this article was printed after my apparent "disappearance" but if the 33.1 project had anything at all to do with what happened to this man, then I am ultimately to blame." At the thought, he couldn't suppress his shiver of revulsion. What had happened to John Corben against his will was undeniably horrible. Lex couldn't even imagine being responsible for such a thing.

"As for what else I know, I've been looking into my numerous past marriages. My romantic history seems to be less than impressive, given that my first two wives tried to kill me. My third wife..." His voice trailed off, and he paused, considering the woman in front of him. Chloe's role as his third wife's Maid of Honor would imply that the two of them were close friends, and so he wondered how she would react to what he had uncovered about their marriage and Lana's behavior after.

Well, she'd wanted the truth; he never promised that she'd like hearing it. "My third wife, Lana Lang, didn't appear to have attempted to kill me, but it doesn't look like our marriage was any happier than my previous ones." Opening his top desk drawer, he pulled out a wedding band and rolled it between his fingers, once again reading the engraving inside.

"I know she left me and ran away to China, after stealing a good deal of my money and apparently setting up surveillance upon me." He tore his eyes away from the wedding band and looked at Chloe. "I haven't found any of the tapes, but I did find some records of purchases she'd made, including the purchase of cameras she'd apparently had installed throughout the Mansion. Which means she either loved me so much she couldn't let go, or - and this seems to be much more likely, given the pattern of my romantic relationships - she hated me so much that destroying me became an obsession."

He put the wedding ring back in his drawer and pushed it closed. "I also know that we were together long enough for her to become pregnant and to miscarry our child. At least, I assume it was our child, since I have no reason to believe otherwise." The idea caused Lex to feel a sudden wave of sadness. When he'd first read the doctor's reports on the miscarriage, he'd felt something almost akin to a spark of familiarity; though he didn't remember his marriage to Lana or her pregnancy, it was almost like the memory of his loss hovered just out of reach.

Of course, Lex had always wanted a wife and family, but given what he'd uncovered about himself, perhaps it was better for everyone that he had thus far been unsuccessful in forming a lasting, non-homicidal relationship.

He let his gaze drop to his desktop and leaned back in his chair, unable to meet Chloe's eyes at the next confession. "I don't remember any of this, of course, but I can only imagine I was devastated by the loss of the child. Since returning to the Mansion, I have come across a nursery that I apparently never had removed after the miscarriage." It was in one of those locked rooms Chloe had referenced earlier, though it was painful to admit - he still remembered the terrible twisting in his stomach he'd felt when he'd first stumbled across the room, when realization struck that he'd perhaps had, in his previous life, something he'd so longed for. However, he decided to reveal it to Chloe, hoping she would take it as an act of good faith, believing it meant that he really was willing to be open with her about everything. After all, it was not a confession that was easy for him to make.

He breathed a heavy sigh. "Actually, I take it that I genuinely loved my third wife. I couldn't find any pictures of my first two wives, but I found several of Lana, around the Mansion. I had also apparently kept my wedding ring." He paused and shifted through his papers until he found their wedding photo. He stared at it for a long moment, considering the happy couple and the image of the bride in white. She was lovely, but looking at her now caused no feeling of regret in him. Instead, there was the vague shadow of...anger? If so, he had no idea what could be its cause.

He frowned and put the photo back in the stack.

"If I did love her, then perhaps my memory loss is for the best. However it ended, I have no doubt it did not end well. I think...I think I might have come to hate her, in the end."

Lex leaned back in his chair and looked back up at Chloe again. "I also found a report that she had supposedly died in an explosion, just before the records I found showing that she fled to China. I don't know if I tried to kill her or if she took such drastic action to try to escape me, but neither answer speaks terribly well of me, does it?"

His question was rhetorical, so he didn't give her time to respond before continuing. "Other than that, let me think...ah, yes, I found some records on something called Veritas and someone called the Traveler, which had apparently been an obsession of my father's at some point. Perhaps mine, as well. In the records were some reports about a monster that had apparently attacked Metropolis, a few years ago. I have no idea if the two are related - whether the monster was supposed to be this Traveler or not. Since the Veritas project was about alien life coming to Earth, it all sounds pretty ridiculous to me." He paused and added thoughtfully, "At least, it did until I read the rumors that Superman is not human. Perhaps my father was on to something, after all."

He went silent for a long moment, considering whether he should share anything else. Finally, his eyes locked on hers, he added in conclusion, "And, on top of all of that, I think it's entirely possible that I either killed my father, or I had my father killed. Which is one hell of a family legacy, if so."

At this, Lex smiled, though the gesture was without any real warmth. "Well, Miss Sullivan? Do I pass the test?"

[melbee1985]

Chloe, arms crossed, listened to Lex. She was surprised he was giving so much information, out in the open, but then again, Lex never did anything without taking in account the possible consequences on what he was saying. If he was so open and honest with her, then perhaps he knew more on her than he had previously said. Still, there wasn't much proof that she was aware of everything he was telling her; perhaps it was a guess he was taking. If so, she had to admit it was bold.

When he mentioned Metallo, Chloe knew he wasn't responsible of it. But could she tell him? What explanation could she give him instead? No, it would be too risky, she thought. She nodded as he spoke, only saying "It could be something you could have done, but then again you probably weren't the only mad scientist in town".

Chloe wasn't sure how to feel when Lex started talking about his failed marriages. She believed him when he said he must have loved Lana, altough perhaps not the way a normal person should. She didn,t know much about his past marriage with Helen, but she'd always felt that when Lex was in a relationship, he was really the woman. She also knew how Lana had been with him. Chloe knew that Lana had only come to lex because Clark had dumped her - for her own safety so he'd told Chloe. She'd always wondered if Lana had done it mainly out of revenge on Clark or if because lex was the next best thing to having a man who already was head over hill for her. It probably had felt safe at first, but Lana's heart had always belonged to Clark and Clark to Lana - she'd learn the lesson during her high school years. Chloe had never approved lana's relationship with Lex, but she also hadn't approve the way she'd behave with Lex.

As Lex spoke, Chloe couldn't help but feel bad for the man. At least for some part of his life. Altough she though people always have a choice to get on the right track, despite their past, she also knew he didn't have an easy life; lost his baby brother, and hism other. His cold hearted father made his life really hard between trying to lobotomize him and kill him. And in the midst of all, none of his wives had ever really loved him. Losing a baby probably wasn't easy either. Sometimes she just couldn't help sympathize with Lex, forgetting for a small moment everything he'd made Clark, Lana and herself go through.

This was, until he asked her if he'd pass the test. Chloe frowned slightly, looking into his deep blue eyes in silence. She had to keep in mind that there was a possibility he could change. She,d seen it. She'd even dreamed about it. He was the main reason she was back in town after all.

After looking dead serious and remain silent for a minute or so, her face finally softened and she even smirked. "Maybe... We'll see..." She stood up and looked around, like she was looking for something in particular, the looked back at him. "Ok, we've shared some information. So, what now?"