Rescue with kneel_majorzod and <lj site="livejournal.com" user="s

[have_no_mercy]

Tess should have been better prepared for this. But then, there's no handbook for what to do when the clone of your half-brother goes AWOL. Coming after her, she'd been expecting. Going after Lena... not so much. It's a hell of a time for her to start losing her edge.

None of that matters at the moment. All she's concerned about is Alexander, his gun, and how to get herself and Lena out of this apartment alive. He won't listen to her and she's beginning to think he's right. She did abandon him, didn't she? And he knows exactly how to get her back for it.

He won't listen, but maybe someone else will.

"Please," she whispers, "if you can hear me, help us."


[Posting order Zod, Clark, Tess]

Comments

[have_no_mercy]

"I didn't make him, and Lex didn't make you," she points out wearily. "The chances of the processes being even remotely related are extremely slim."

Tess sighs again. "This is all well above my paygrade and the scientists I do have who know this field have already studied Lex's work inside and out."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"Yet Lex's work is obviously the flaw. Simply knowing it inside and out isn't going to be of much help."

Zod pauses a moment before shifting to sit in a chair beside hers and then studies her. "My people could have saved him in a heartbeat."

[have_no_mercy]

She nods slowly, seeming not to notice or react to him sitting. "Perhaps he's not meant to be saved."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

He seems to consider that for a moment. "Does he want to be saved?"

[have_no_mercy]

"He's Lex," she replies. "Of course he wants to survive. But he's still too confused to really understand what he wants."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"He wants to feel real. As if he belongs," Zod tells her softly after another lengthy pause. "Part of him hates what he is, where he comes from, but another part feels he has no choice but to embrace it. Because outside of Lex and his nature, there's no real reason for him to exist."

[have_no_mercy]

She shakes her head this time. "He knows what he was created for, but now that he has all these memories in his head it's difficult for him to determine what's his and what's Lex's. His mind can't handle all that new information."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

He glances over at her and nods. "Yes, well. Unfortunately, the cloning process often fails to take into account the emotional effect it's going to have on the end result."

[have_no_mercy]

That garners a soft snort. "Everything Lex ever did failed to take into account any emotional affect."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"When survival is one's topmost priority, it's easy to overlook," he concurs quietly.

[have_no_mercy]

"I'm well acquainted with survival," she snaps, finally glancing over at him. "What they did and what was done to you, it's not the same thing."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

He lifts his eyebrows at her. "I'm sorry?"

[have_no_mercy]

"You lived for months not knowing what you really were. You lived as if you were him, with no doubts in your mind," she explains. "Alexander, he knew he was a clone, but he didn't have memories. He spent months as his own person, only to have these memories forced on him, in rapid succession."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"I never said his situation was identical to my own," he counters, and after a moment, he stands. "I'm also not dying, as unfair and disappointing as that may be to hear."

[have_no_mercy]

She looks up at him, eyebrows raised. "What makes you think I'm disappointed."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"I have no reason to think otherwise," he replies, though he seems to have returned to an air of indifference.

[have_no_mercy]

"If I were really that upset about it, I'd have tried to kill you by now," she offers dryly.

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

He offers a slight shrug. "There's still plenty of time to try to kill each other."

[have_no_mercy]

"I suppose," she replies in half agreement. "But given everything else I'm dealing with, I'd have taken you out at the first opportunity."

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"And yet here I stand," he observes thoughtfully. "One might even think my presence was a welcome addition."

[have_no_mercy]

"You did add in an element of surprise neither of us was expecting," she agrees.

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

"Someone had to," is his simple, matter-of-fact response.

[have_no_mercy]

"Be a surprise?" She asks curiously.

[kneel-majorzod.livejournal.com]

He nods. "You were never meant for the mundane."

[have_no_mercy]

She rolls her eyes. "Sometimes I wish I had been."