"Normal?!" Clark repeated, angry that his father would use this excuse for why he couldn't keep the truck. "I run faster than the wind and I tore open the roof of Lex's car like it ws a tin of sardines to get him out! Is that normal? Or, how about this, I flew to get out of the way of the car!" Okay, granted, Lex had been primarily responsible for that, but he was mad and it was just another weird thing in a long list of them. Lex was trying to blame him for it anyway, so he didn't think the bald man would take offense for claiming the credit. "Does that sound normal to you? I'd give anything to be normal!"

Jonathan looked to the open barn doors, where Martha was overhearing their argument. She gave him a shake of her her head and a shrug of her shoulders. Jonathan took a deep breath. "It's time, son."

Clark scowled sullenly, still not happy with him. "Time for what?"

"The truth."

Clark walked down the cavernous hallways of the Luthor mansion and wondered if maybe he should have made a more determined effort to get someone to answer the door. "Hello?" he called out, hoping for some kind of response to indicate that he wasn't the only living person in the place.

Nobody answered, but a few steps further on he heard a clashing sound that he thought might be swords. He hurried in that direction, not sure if he was going to be stopping a duel to the death or witnessing some ghosts at play. As it turned out, neither was the case. There were two living people in white fencing gear and nobody's life appeared to be in danger. At least, not until the loser of the bout lost his temper and threw his epee hard enough to pierce the wall right next to Clark's head. Clark turned to blink at the quivering weapon a few times.

"Clark?" The sword hurler had taken off his mask and proved to be Lex himself. Clark looked from him to the sword again. "I didn't see you," he said with a ducking of his head that might have been an apology.

"I, uh, buzzed, but no one answered," Clark nervously explained his presence, just in case threatening trespassers with flying swords was a common occurrence in the Luthor household.

Lex joined him at the doorway and yanked the sword out of the wall. Clark watched warily, but the bald man didn't seem inclined to use it against Clark any further. "How'd you get through the gate?" he asked instead.

He'd sort of bent the bars, but Lex didn't need to know that. "I kinda squeezed through the bars," he edited history. Then he added quickly, before Lex could comment on that, "If this is a bad time-"

"Oh, no, no," Lex assured him quickly. "I think Hykia has sufficiently kicked my ass for the day." He tossed the his opponent his mask, which she caught and put away.

They walked out of the fencing room, and Clark felt it necessary to comment on their surroundings, "This is a great place."

"Yeah," Lex agreed, and his eye seemed to track something that wasn't there. "If you're dead and in the market for something to haunt." His brows rose suddenly and he added quickly, "No offense meant." Clark got the sense he wasn't talking to Clark.

Letting that pass, and feeling somewhat uneasy, Clark tried to rephrase his initial remark, "I meant, it's roomy."

Lex swept his arms out and said grandly, "It's the Luthor ancestral home." He turned back toward Clark and smirked, "Or so my father claims. He had it shipped over from Scotland, stone by stone. Let me tell you, the ghosts were not happy about that."

Clark looked around, half expecting to see those same ghosts since they'd come up twice in the last minute. Of course, there were none. Funny, Lana had talked about ghosts last night, too. Well, she'd been talking to her parents' graves, which was almost the same thing. He decided to give Lex the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just superstitious and not actually crazy.

"I remember trucks rolled through town for weeks but no one ever moved in."

For a moment, Lex looked like he was about to say something else - Clark was willing to bet it was about ghosts again - but then he thought better of it and said instead, "My father had no intention of living here. He's never even stepped through the front door."

"Then why'd he ship it over?" If Clark had a giant castle, he'd totally live in it all the time.

Lex shrugged, and raised his eyebrows again. "Because he could," he answered as if that was the only reason anybody would ever need to do such a thing.

By now, they had entered an exercise room. Lex began to take off his fencing clothes. As he did so, he asked, "How's the new ride?"

Clark heaved a heavy sigh and was disappointed his reason for visiting came up so soon. "That's why I'm here."

Throwing the fencing jacket aside and wrapping a towel around his neck, Lex moved over to a table with some fruit and bottled water. "What's the matter? You don't like it?" he asked, opening one of the blue water bottles.

Clark shook his head quickly, "No, it's not that. I can't keep it."

Lex seemed baffled by this. "Clark, you saved my life, and I nearly took yours. I think it's the least I can do." Clark really wished he could just keep the truck. It would save them both a great deal of grief. But dad . . . as if reading his thoughts, Lex asked, "Your father doesn't like me, does he?"

Clark opened his mouth to say . . . something . . . but Lex got there first.

"It's okay. I'm bald, half-blooded, a Raven, and American. I'm used to people judging me before they get to know me." He shrugged and smirked a little, "It was a common failing in the Scottish boarding school I went to. At least we Ravens had a good stereotype, unlike the Snakes and Gryffins, so it could have been worse."

Clark had no idea what he was talking about, but figured it had something to do with the mysterious ways of boarding schools, so he just hurried to assure, "It's nothing personal. He's just not crazy about your dad."

"Join the crowd. If it makes your dad feel better, you can tell him that I take after my mother, and haven't seen Dad for more than a couple months a year since I was eleven." He rolled his eyes and circled his hands as if to indicate the mansion, or perhaps all of Smallville, "I'm here to ensure that continues even though I've finished University now. Dad can get kind of overbearing at times."

Smiling a little awkwardly, Clark handed Lex the keys to the truck and said, "Well, mine overbeared me into giving this back." Lex took them and smiled back. Something seemed to pass between them, and Clark knew Lex wouldn't hold returning the gift against him. "I better go. Thanks for the truck."

As he turned to leave, Lex called after him, "Clark!"

Stopping to turn back to him, Clark raised his brows in question.

"Do you believe a man can fly?"

Clark gave him a puzzled look, then wondered if this was about their first meeting. "Personal experience. You made me fly over your car."

Lex gave him an annoyed look. So perhaps he wasn't about talking about Clark's 'jump'. "No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about soaring through the clouds with nothing but air beneath you. No plane, no broom."

Lex was a little weird. "People can't fly, Lex." Except, of course, Lex could apparently make other people fly. But he apparently wasn't talking about that.

"I did," Lex told him. He turned and walked toward the window. "After the accident, when my heart stopped." He turned back. "It was the most exhilarating two minutes of my life - " for a moment he seemed to reconsider that, then nodded and let the statement stand. "I flew over Smallville, and for the first time since my mother died, I didn't see a dead end. I saw a new beginning." He smiled slightly, "Thanks to you, I have another chance."

Clark had no idea how he was supposed to reply to that.

"We have have a future, Clark." Clark looked up at him again. "And I don't want anything to stand in the way of our friendship." Clark supposed that answered the question of whether they'd see each other again.

Lex was just leaving the Fertilizer Plant after a few hours of paperwork to make his part-time position of Management Overseer official (the LuthorCorp position was just a excuse for him being in Smallville - the start-up mail-order company, LeXpotions, was his 'real' job now that he was a certified potions master) when he stopped suddenly as a very familiar looking kid jumped the fence and came out of the cornfield in front of him before running off. Getting out the car, Lex flashed back to the last time he'd seen the guy, and his eyes went to the cornfield.

Morbidly curious, Lex considered going into the field, but was about to decide against it when he thought he heard something. Pulling his wand (it had, fortunately, been recovered from the car in working condition), he looked back where the kid had gone, but he was out of sight already. With a simple charm, he made short work of the fence and slipped into the rows of corn. With a lumos spell lighting the way and a protego ready on the tip of his tongue at the least threat of the sky falling on him again, he made his way deeper into the field, following the weak voice that called for help.

Breaking into a small clearing, Lex gasped as he saw the scarecrow again. He'd been nine with a full head of hair the last time he'd seen this cross, but this time was almost more frightening because he knew the person tied to it. "Clark!"

The head came up and he was even more sure he had correctly identified the other. Putting his wand between his teeth, he hurried over and began to untie the ropes holding him. "Who did this to you?" he asked around the stick of ash wood. A spell would have gotten them off faster, but he was already skating dangerously close to the edge of the anti-muggle act by still having his wand out as a light source.

"Doesn't matter," Clark mumbled just before falling to the ground as the knots came free. Almost instantly after that, Clark seemed completely better as he lunged for his clothes and started dressing.

Lex was still concerned. "Clark, you need to see a doctor."

Clark shook his head, "I'll be okay," and without even so much as a good-bye, he was off running through the corn-stalks.

"Well, at least let me give a ride!" Lex called after him, but there was no response. He lowered his wand and the light made a green gem sparkle on a gold chain. Lex picked it up. He took comfort from the two facts that (a) he had a clue about who was behind the crucifixion, and (b) Clark hadn't asked about the glowing stick.