"Body Memory"

Part I: Prolog.

The only thing she knew for sure in her life was that she was no good. She found that out just 5 minutes after she first opened her eyes on that sunny day on the road to Metropolis. She was born to be a Queen -- someone who would hold her subjects in a loving embrace and protect them and shelter them and nurture them until a golden age came to pass. Her mate was to rule with strength but she was to rule with her heart. But something went horribly wrong. She was flawed. Undesirable. Found wanting. Inadequate for her task. Her Mother had aborted her, her mate had rejected her and the man who took her in never thought what she accomplished was good enough. A heart can be broken and twisted and darkened when all the dreams that are part of that person get dashed in the minute following the first taste of air. This was the life Alexis Luthor was born into.

Lionel Luthor knew that Alexis had an intended mate -- a powerful invader from another world. Considering who the child's mother was and the strange circumstances behind Clark Kent's arrival in Smallville, Lionel had no doubt as to who the strange visitor was. Alexis's first words let Lionel know that he had a new competitor that might block his plans for acquiring ultimate power on Earth. But Alexis also became a tool for him to use to achieve more than he could have ever hoped to on his own. To put a better spin on himself in his own mind, Lionel decided that it was his personal duty to mold Alexis into the person that could beat Clark at every turn and keep Clark from his destiny of world domination. To do this, he decided that he must push Alexis to become a stronger person -- stronger than Clark was or ever could be. It would have been easier on Lionel had the male child fallen into his hands when he first arrived, but Lionel was content to work with what he was given. He had an advantage. Clark was raised by a farmer -- not a dynamic self-made man like himself. Clark was un-ambitious. Clark didn't see his own potential. Clark was complacent -- he knew that he was the strongest man on Earth so he did little to enhance or refine what he had been given. Lionel had more than enough ambition and drive for the both Alexis and himself. Alexis was number two but he would make her try harder. And if worse came to worse, he had back-up plans. Her DNA would be the basis for synthetic super-soldiers answerable only to him. Lionel had a knack for exploiting any situation. He knew immediately that having a female under his control meant that, as soon as she was capable, he would at last be able to have children of his own that were worthy of him. In some ways, Lionel was quite old-fashioned. The thought of having Alexis artificially inseminated never crossed his mind. He followed historical precedent -- if you could only have one slave, it is best that you have a female. The rest you can make yourself. And, have no doubt, although Lionel called her his daughter, Alexis was his property -- body and soul.


Part II: Training.

Lionel Luthor had tried every method he could think of to train Alexis, but her limits seemed unreachable. Having her work out with weights was useless. Lionel even bought a thousand ton press used to mold plastic parts. She was able to effortlessly resist the forces it could put on her body. The press was rubbish the first time it was used. Lionel couldn't even find a way to get Alexis to sweat. Finally, he turned the problem over to her to solve. He asked her how it would be possible to train her to be stronger and faster than she was. Using the information that she was born with, she developed a machine that would radiate a solar field comparable to that of a red sun which would temporarily negate her yellow sun based powers. The machine was quite large and required massive amounts of energy. It was not portable enough to be used as a weapon against Clark, but it could create a field within Alexis's small gymnasium so that she could be rendered about as strong as a normal human her size. Once the machine was completed, the child was worked mercilessly. Her workouts included weight training, running, swimming, acrobatics, boxing, kick boxing, martial arts, fencing, .... All the while, Lionel stood there shouting, "I bet HE would be faster. I bet HE could lift more. No wonder he didn't want you!" When Alexis was as good or better than any Olympic contender her size, Lionel added kryptonite to the mix. He decided that she must learn to tolerate the pain. She was worked in the presence of kryptonite until she proved to Lionel that she could think clearly and function physically even while kryptonite was in physical contact with her body. Ultimately, this training would make save her life and make her unequalled physically by anyone on the planet ... and perhaps off planet as well. As well as her physical training, she was given rigorous academic training and social training. If she was to be Lionel's companion, her manners and grace must be above all reproach. Alexis slept very little and rarely played. It simply wasn't in the schedule.



Part III: Vacations/Exploitations.

Lionel and Alexis Luthor traveled the world together. Alexis found untapped mineral resources both on land and in the sea. Lionel obtained mineral rights where conventional wisdom said there was nothing of value and almost immediately doubled his fortune. A favorite game for Alexis was hunting buried treasure. On trips to South America, Alexis found ancient cities and excavated them with her tiny hands. Lionel removed much of the treasure she found for him. Then he would publicly announce his find and turn over what he claimed to be all the artifacts he had found at the site. Lionel had Alexis swim the ocean bottoms looking for ship wrecks that she could salvage for him while he sipped wine on his yacht on the ocean surface. He joked with her about finding Atlantis. He never really expected that she would.

On the ocean floor, Alexis peered through the thick glass wall at a remarkable ancient city. She watched the city's inhabitants go about their daily lives. Then she traveled an undersea road to a second city. This one had no protective dome. The people who lived there where like the ones in a Disney movie that she Miss Harris had sneaked in for her to watch once while Lionel was out of town on business. She watched the half men/half fish with fascination until she saw a female caring for her infant daughter. The ocean around Alexis began to boil as she became angry. She thought, "Ever fish people have mommies that love them. Why can't I? Why can't I?!" She considered killing every single one of them, destroying the city and then going back and bursting the bubble over the first city she had seen. But she settled for the fantasy because in her heart, she didn't want to see any more pain than what she saw when she looked in her own mirror. She swam away looking for something she could take back to Lionel to satisfy him since she decided it best not to tell him about the 2 cities.

There were other trips that Alexis had to make on her own. Lionel had Alexis collect rocks for him -- on the moon. Lionel was very proud of his collection. He had a house built of moon rocks in Florida. It was his own private joke on the world that he would have such an ordinary little house built for his fishing trips with his daughter. Alexis had been scared on her first trip, but soon she came to enjoy the quiet solitude of sitting on a moon rock looking at the big blue and white ball far away. She also enjoyed stealing time to play with an erector set and car that someone had left behind years before.

In future years, courts will have to decide who owns Mars, because Lionel sent Alexis on a little trip there to claim it for him. The idea of going so far frightened her so she asked if she could have a companion to go with her -- perhaps a teddy bear. Lionel laughed at her for being so childish and sent her on her way. She had never been so alone for so long in all her life. When she reached Mars, she immediately began to excavate and shape huge rocks to build a platform that Lionel had showed her plans for. It was shaped like 2 "L"s nested together. The platform was so large that it could be seen from Mars' orbit. Having built the platform, Alexis anxiously opened her back pack and took out a large titanium plaque and hardware that Lionel had sent with her. She looked for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that she was told would be in the backpack. She frowned when she discovered that they weren't there. She considered changing the first "L" to an "A." but the thought of crossing Lionel and being totally alone frightened Alexis. He would only make her come back and fix it. She placed the Plaque on the platform and drove the hardware to attach it to the solid rock with her index finger. Then, having filled the backpack with rocks for Lionel's collection and after taking about 200 photographs, she headed home. Instead of returning directly to Metropolis, she stopped at a small farm in Smallville and sat in the field. She looked through the wall of the farmhouse and watched the TV show that John and Martha were watching. She imagined sitting with them and sharing their popcorn. She had frequently come to the farm when she able to perform tasks for Lionel in less time than he had allotted her. This time was different. This time he had been seen. "Hey Kid," said Clark, "What are you doing here? Why aren't you home?" Alexis snarled, "Because I don't have a "home." I have a place to stay but no home." Clark grabbed her hand and said, "Come inside, you must be freezing." Clark began to pull her and used more and more force. Clark's legs began to sink into the frozen ground but the girl still didn't budge. He heard her curse at him in Kryptonese but quickly decided that he must be mistaken. He concluded that this little girl was a meteor freak or a kryptonite clone. He made a quick move to grab her and held nothing back. Before Clark could lift her or react, the girl had somehow managed to lift him and effortlessly throw him into town. He flew back in less than a second but the girl had vanished. In his heart, Clark was glad that she had gone and hoped that he would never have to face her in a fight.

Part IV: The Legacy.

There had been no success using Alexis's DNA for cloning experiments. Researchers that Lionel had hired reported that her DNA seemed as if it were encrypted. It would break down anytime anyone would try to alter or reproduce it. Then the day came when Miss Harris reported to Lionel that Alexis should be capable of having children. Alexis had thought she was dying and had come to Miss Harris crying and scared. Alexis had no other woman to turn to -- which was the way that Lionel had planned it. Lionel immediately called Alexis on the intercom and ordered her to the gymnasium. Lionel entered the room to find her there prepared for a workout -- but not prepared for the workout that Lionel had planned. Lionel switched on the machine that generated the red solar field. He walked over to Alexis and lifted her and carried her to a bed that had been put in the corner of the room. He put her on the bed and ordered her, "Color up. You look too young." Make-up wouldn't stick to Alexis's skin under normal circumstances, so Lionel had Alexis learn how to control blood flow to make her lips redder and the area over her eyes darker. Alexis answered, "Sorry, Sir, I can't do that in here with the field on -- not much anyway." Lionel called for Miss Harris to come to the gymnasium with her make-up kit. When she arrived, Lionel told her, "Do something with her to make her look a little older." Miss Harris applied the make-up and whispered to a confused Alexis, "Be brave. It won't be so bad. You'll get used to it and might even enjoy it eventually." Soon Miss Harris left. Her work was done. Her bonus had been earned. She knew that Lionel wouldn't be calling on her anymore that night. Soon a child's screams echoed through the gymnasium, but no one was there to do anything about it. Lionel eventually 'persuaded' Alexis to take her medicine a little more quietly. Any marks he made on her would heal as soon as the machine making the field was turned off -- so what was the real harm?

Not through the lack of trying on Lionel's part over the months and years that followed, Alexis did not become pregnant. Time was running out for Lionel. He was becoming weaker by the day. His physician had ruled out any reason why he couldn't father another child. But no physician could diagnose what was eating away at Lionel's internal organs. Finally, one physician who was researching Alexis's fertility and looking at her compatibility with Lionel found a link between Alexis and Lionel's condition. First he concluded that Lionel's sperm had been treated as an invading organism by Alexis's body and had been destroyed. Had Lionel not stopped using the red solar field while mating with Alexis, her egg might have been fertilized and the pregnancy carried full term -- especially if Alexis had been kept in the red solar field for at least the first trimester of the pregnancy. But by mating with her without the presence of the field, Lionel's body had been determined as an invading organism. On one or more occasions, Alexis's white blood cells had managed to enter Lionel's blood steam and had begun attacking his body. Tiny invaders from her Kryptonian body were tearing his body apart from the inside. The damage was irreversible. He would be dead in days if not hours.

Lionel called Alexis and told her to wait for him in the gymnasium. He rolled into the room in his motorized wheelchair and found her in a sheer robe by the bed they often shared. He turned on the red solar field and moved his chair towards her. As he rolled up, she let the robe drop and said, "You haven't had to use that field to get your way with me for years. In the mood for some blood tonight?" Lionel answered, "Yes, I am!" He pulled a gun that had been hidden between his lag and the side of the wheelchair. She calmly asked him, "Are you going to use that on me after, before ... or during?" Lionel contemplated the woman that stood revealed before him. Tears came to his eyes. He knew that he loved her as much as he could love anyone. He loved her because he had made her. She laid down on the bed and waited for him. He pushed himself from his chair, struggled to his feet and climbed onto her one more time. He took the gun and placed it to her temple. She put her hands around his now frail body and clapped her hands. Lionel fired the gun six times in rapid succession. She never stopped smiling. She said, "That Clapper is a wonderful invention!" Lionel noticed now that the red glow in the room had faded. He also noticed that one of the bullets had hit him after bouncing off of Alexis. He said, "Alexis. Your body was killing me. Any man that you love like you loved me will die. You will always be alone. Always." With that he died. Alexis smiled for a while but the smile soon faded. Lionel was all she had -- all she had ever had, and now he was gone. Alexis rocked Lionel's body in her arms and cried like she hadn't cried since the first time Lionel had taken her. She cried because he was gone. She cried because she was alone.



Part V: Epilog. [After the events of "Four More Visits: Shall Kingdome Come."

Superman landed by the front porch of the Kent farm holding Ryanna at his side. He started to release her, but Ryanna no longer knew how to use her legs to support herself. From inside the house, Jon shouted for joy then he and Martha ran outside to embrace their son and daughter in a group hug.

Ryanna's memory was gone. The sun had cured her injuries and burnt the remaining kryptonite from her system, but she had to learn everything she had lost. She learned to crawl and then to walk. Clark took a leave of absence from the Planet to stay with her and help her recover. Clark was shocked by how quickly she regained her physical control and command of her powers. What her mind had forgotten, her body remembered. The rigorous training Lionel had put her through was having unexpected benefits now. Before long, there was no reason for Clark to stay in Smallville. Though she was delicate with everyone and everything she touched, Ryanna could run circles around him and had a grace that gave her and un-worldly quality. There could be now doubt that soon this girl would be a match for Superman.


THE END