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Alien

Summary:

Jordan Kent finds his life frustrating and monotonous— but then during an experiment in biology class he makes a startling discovery about himself that makes him question who he is and how he can possibly be what he realizes he has to be— an alien. He promptly gets Jonathan involved, embarking on a journey to uncover the truth, knowing that his life will never be the same…

This is a preseries AU that takes place about a year before the pilot.

Notes:

Just something random I thought up. There are like an infinite number of ways Clark’s decision not to tell the boys could have blown up, and this is one of them. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: Alien, chapter 1

Chapter Text

Alien, chapter 1

 

 

The morning had started like any other.

Jordan trudged into the kitchen at 7 AM to find Dad standing by the stove, expertly mixing up a pan of scrambled eggs.

Again. Just like he did the morning before. Just like he always did, really…

Jordan pulled a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch out of the pantry instead, but as he started pouring it into a bowl Dad spun around, a confused expression on his face.

“Morning, Bud,” Dad said as his glasses fell slightly down the bridge of his nose. He rapidly pushed them back against his face, fidgeting with the arm to get it to sit right. He raised his eyebrows. “Eggs will be ready in a minute— you don’t need to take out the cereal—“

“Maybe I WANT cereal,” Jordan argued as he sat at the counter with his bowl. He picked up a spoon, starting to shovel the tiny, dry sugary squares into his mouth.

But Dad shook his head, pursing his lips. “Bud, you know there is almost no nutritional value in sugary cereal. It’s just empty calories… just wait for the eggs. Two eggs will give you a whopping twelve grams of protein— try to match that with that stuff and you’ll be eating all day trying to catch up…” He laughed to himself, as if he had told some kind of joke.

Jordan rolled his eyes, sighing, and then he spooned another mouthful of cereal into his mouth.

Dad was so boring, so normal, so mind-numbingly mundane. It was sometimes hard to believe he was really Jordan’s Dad at all (though his uncanny resemblance made it impossible to deny). Nobody else’s fathers recited nutrition facts as they stirred eggs…

“And Bud, you’re a teenager now, and teenage boys need upwards of 52 grams of protein every day. It’s just not enough to start your day with that…”

Jordan rolled his eyes again.

Mom came flying into the kitchen a moment later, her hands frantically scrambling in her hair as she reached for the coffee. Dad looked up from the eggs, calmly taking her arm as she spun around to look him in the eye with a stern expression plastered on her face.

“Babe, I love you, but I don’t have time right now. I have to be in city hall in… oh crap, five minutes ago. Oh no, I’m going to miss the press conference entirely…”

“Lois, let me help,” Dad said, matching her stern expression. “And I’m not worried, I’m sure you’re going to nail the article as always.”

His hands were then in her hair, twisting it expertly into the updo she preferred for situations like these.

“I’m glad you have such undying confidence in me, but trust me, I’m going to end up missing this entire shebang and Foswell is going to run me through the wringer—“

She reached up, trying to swat him away, but he was already pinning her hair perfectly into place.

She raised her eyebrows, then grinning wryly as she met his eyes. “You never cease to amaze me, Smallville.”

Dad smiled back at her like a lovesick teenager, and as always his infatuation with her couldn’t be clearer. Jordan rubbed his eyes, sighing dramatically.

“Need a lift?” Dad asked her. For some reason Jordan couldn’t explain he always asked her this, even though Dad was a pretty slow and unconfident driver, contrasting to Mom, who got behind the wheel and darted around the streets. Mom always declined, probably for this reason…

“You have to bring the boys to school, I’ll be fine—“

“They’re teenagers now, they can walk,” Dad argued. “School is only a few blocks away, anyway… Let me help you, Lois—“

Mom glanced at the clock on the cable box under the TV, her eyes only getting wider as she noted the time. And then she looked up at him, meeting his eyes as she grabbed his hand. And then she sighed dramatically. “All right,” she said, “let’s go…”

Mom quickly pecked a kiss on Jordan’s head, and Dad threw him an awkward wave as she pulled him towards the door.

“Have a good day at school, Jordan!” Dad shouted as they pummeled into the hallway.

The door clicked shut behind them just as Jonathan waltzed into the kitchen, looking immensely confused.

“Um… it IS a school day— right?” Jonathan asked, taking note of the empty kitchen. “Is it like, some kind of holiday I didn’t remember about or something, because if it is and I could have slept in I’m going to be REALLY pissed—“

“No, it is,” Jordan replied, heaving his backpack onto his shoulder. “Mom and Dad had to leave— we’re walking.”

“What? They had to leave at the same time?”

“Yeah.” Jordan shrugged as he scooped his cereal bowl off the table, dumping the remainder in the garbage and tossing it into the sink. “I don’t know, Dad offered to give Mom a ride somewhere. She was running late or something—“

“Are you serious? Does she not remember how slow Dad drives? If she was late before, imagine how late she’ll be now…”

Jonathan grabbed his own bag off the floor, elbow-checking Jordan as he reached for a fork, and then Jonathan started inhaling the finished scrambled eggs right out of the pan on the stove.

“Um, Dude, that’s disgusting,” Jordan said.

“Fastest way, Jordan, and neither of us can afford another late on our records…”

Jonathan wasn’t wrong about that. Mom and Dad were so busy that they were late to school more often than not, and had been for their entire childhoods. It drove Jordan just as crazy as Jonathan, since their report cards reflected it; but every time Jordan tried to bring it up over the years, both of his parents would throw out lame excuses that didn’t even really make sense. It seemed like a losing battle, frankly.

Jonathan shoveled the rest of the eggs into his mouth, and then he dropped his fork into the empty pan, leaving it there. He tossed his backpack onto his back, then turning to look at Jordan.

“Ready?” Jordan asked.

“Lead the way, dumbass,” Jonathan replied, gesturing to the door.

Jordan pursed his lips. “Real classy…” he said, the door finally slamming closed behind them.

———

The day passed in a blur of monotony, just as always. Jordan found himself slumping from one class to the next, sitting at one nondescript, beige desk after another, bracing his chin in his hand and struggling to get through it all. It wasn’t easy, but his life never was, especially because he didn’t even have friends to brighten up the whole miserable experience that middle school was.

Jonathan, on the other hand, swept through the day with a smile, always surrounded by other kids and chatting and bitching around in every spare second of the day. It was amazing that they managed to have such contrasting middle school experiences despite being twins— but after thirteen years, Jordan was pretty used to it.

The bell rang at the end of English class and Jordan leapt to his feet, then trudging back out to the hallway, his impossibly heavy backpack digging into his shoulder. He shuffled down the hallway, finally reaching his locker. But then, as he opened it, once again faced with his messy array of textbooks, he felt his will to continue through this endless monotony drain away entirely—

And then he was suddenly shoved against his locker, smacking right into his textbooks. He jumped, ready to face one of the many bullies who loved to go after him—

But it was just Jonathan.

Jordan sighed, rolling his eyes. “What do you want, Jon—“

He looked up at Jonathan, surprised to see a clear look of concern on his face. “Um— nothing really. Just checking up on you.”

Jordan sighed again. “Look. You’re busy. With your friends and stuff— I’m fine. You don’t need to do that—“

But Jonathan just stared at him with wide eyes. “Um, yes, bro, I do.”

There was a pause as Jordan just stared right back at him. “I don’t get how you do that—“

Jonathan grinned, shoving his shoulder playfully. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jordan…”

They chatted for a while, just about nothing at all. It didn’t even matter what they talked about— it never did. Just having Jonathan here, listening to whatever bullshit Jordan had to say— it meant more to Jordan than Jonathan would ever know...

“Dude, just stop being a dork for like thirty seconds,” Jonathan said, shoulder bumping Jordan in the process.

Jordan slammed his locker shut, throwing his backpack over one shoulder. “Impossible, Jon. Then I would be denying my true nature.”

Jonathan groaned. “Fine, so act like you don’t know me or something.”

Jordan rolled his eyes. “Bro, we look way too similar for that. I’m basically you in a dark, floppy wig—“

“Um, sure,” Jonathan said, patting him on his shoulder, “whatever you want to believe…”

And then the bell rang. Third period was starting at Metropolis Middle School PS 34, and Jordan knew that today, of all days, he didn’t want to be late. Science was Jordan’s favorite class (and probably the only class he actually enjoyed, if he were to be honest), and his honors science teacher had hinted that they would be doing some kind of exciting experiment that day. Jordan knew that he wouldn’t want to miss a single minute of it.

“Look,” Jordan said. “Enjoy yourself in remedial science or whatever, I still don’t know why you failed that exam on purpose—“

“It… wasn’t on purpose—”.

“—but I’ll catch up with you later. You’ll be at the football field after school, right? I’ll swing by there on my way out.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jonathan said. “Just leave your dorkiness behind in honors science, the football field doesn’t have any room for that crap—“

But Jordan stuck his hand into the air, parting it between his middle fingers. And then he grinned slyly. “Live long and prosper, Jon—“

Jonathan let out a dramatic sigh as he pursed his lips, shaking his head slowly. “For god's sake— you’re hopeless, Jordan…”

———

As Jordan entered into the science lab a few minutes later, he glanced at the microscopes set up at each station and finally felt a grin sneaking onto his face.

Biology was probably his favorite subject of all, and even more so when it was a lab day. He always found himself completely engrossed in the assigned experiment, as if the entire world had melted away around him and left only Jordan and his microscope, equipped and ready for the day’s discovery.

Jordan looked around the room, trying to catch someone’s eye— anyone’s eye— to pair up for the experiment.

But of course, as always, every single person couldn’t have looked away faster.

Jordan sighed. It was probably a good thing that he found the experiment itself so satisfying— because social interactions were definitely not.

But the class had an even number of students, and so, before he knew it, Joe Shuster was trudging over to his lab table, a reluctant sneer plastered on his face. Joe was on the football team with Jonathan, and, as the only jock, he considered himself way cooler than everyone else in the class.

Jordan sighed again, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Kent,” Joe said as he slid into his chair, “let’s just get this over with so we can go back to pretending we don’t know each other.”

Jordan shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”

“How you and your brother were produced by the same parents will never fail to amaze me…”

“Yeah, Jon and I say the same thing,” Jordan replied, even though they never had.

They had been learning about human cells over the past few weeks, and Jordan wasn’t surprised when they were instructed to swab their cheeks with a q-tip, and then they were supposed to prepare a slide as per the directions written out on the whiteboard. Jordan looked around, not surprised to see many of his classmates having trouble with this step, including Joe.

Meanwhile, Jordan found it easy. He found most of the work in school easy, actually, and he knew Jonathan did, too— which is why he couldn’t have been more confident that Jonathan had pushed himself into the lower science track intentionally.

It wasn’t long before Jordan’s slide was ready. He knew there wasn’t much to look for in cheek epithelial cells, but that there would be a distinct, dark nucleus smack in the middle of each one. He was getting excited now as he secured his slide to the stage, and then he peered inside…

And his forehead immediately scrunched in confusion.

At his side, Joe was finally getting the hang of preparing a slide, and soon he too had secured his sample to the microscope’s stage.

“What are we supposed to do again? Identify the nucleus?” Joe asked, stifling a yawn. “Well… that’s easy. It’s just those dark spots in the middle of each one. Check. Cell membrane? Check. Mitochondria? Check. Cytoplasm? I guess that’s the crap in the middle?”

Jordan rubbed his eyes. He knew that he hadn’t made a mistake in preparing his slide— he knew what he was doing. And yet—

His slide had none of those things.

He cleared his throat. “Um… can I take a look at yours? You know, for comparison’s sake…”

Joe scoffed. “Um. Sure, dude. What— do you think it’ll look any different?” He raised his eyebrows. “Actually, there’s no way we’re the same species, Kent— so maybe you’re right…”

Normally Jordan would have sighed dramatically, making sure to throw in a very obvious eye roll— but now he was way too focused. He was way too fixated. He just had to know…

But with one glance into Joe’s microscope his heart suddenly launched into a gallop.

Joe was right. In Joe’s sample he was able to identify the organelles quite easily…

“Can I look in yours?” Joe asked, reaching for Jordan’s microscope.

“No!!” Jordan suddenly exclaimed, grabbing the slide off the stage.

“Um…”

“I think I messed mine up,” Jordan covered. “I guess I’ll prepare another one…”

Starting to fall into a bit of a frenzy, Jordan reached for the container of q-tips, prying one out and shoving it into his mouth, where he skimmed it along the inside of his cheek.

He was moving quickly but carefully, double and triple checking every step of the slide preparation to ensure he didn’t make a mistake this time—

Because that’s all it was, clearly. A mistake. He had made a mistake.

This time his slide would look just like Joe’s…

He clamped his finished slide onto the stage, taking a deep breath before he pressed his eyes against the eyepieces, and then he turned the knobs to focus…

And he swallowed heavily.

This slide looked exactly like his last one had.

The slide wasn’t empty— it did have cells. But they were pointy, and with a thick, triple layered membrane. And instead of there being one dark nucleus in the center— there were TWO.

Two nuclei, in each and every cell on the slide.

Jordan had never seen anything like this in his life. He didn’t even know something like this existed. It was completely crazy, almost like it was otherworldly…

“Can I see?” Joe asked, nudging Jordan with his elbow as he pulled the microscope towards him.

But just as Joe pressed his nose against the microscope Jordan snatched the slide right out of the clamps on the stage.

“Bro! What the hell!” Joe exclaimed.

“I…uh… I think I messed it up again,” Jordan lied.

Joe narrowed his eyes. “Dude, it’s really not so hard…”

But Jordan just shrugged, pretending to act casual. He had to act casual, at least as long as he was around people…

But inside he was screaming.

Screaming, thrashing, and his panic was leaping to bounds he didn’t even know he could muster.

Finally he couldn’t sit still any longer, and he suddenly leapt to his feet, trampling over to the door of the classroom.

“Mr. Kent! Sit back down immediately!” the teacher exclaimed.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” he lied easily.

He didn’t even wait for a response, slipping right through the door and launching into a run as he hit the hallway.

He couldn’t understand it. It didn’t make any sense. He had made the same strange slide— TWICE.

TWICE.

And he knew how to prepare slides. He knew what he was doing. Science was his best subject, by far, and he was pretty decent at the rest of the subjects, too…

He didn’t even want to let his brain wander to the next step in the logic train. Because the next step was just way too insane…

He finally reached Jonathan’s classroom, and he pressed his nose against the window of the door, waiting for Jonathan to catch his eye.

It didn’t take long.

Jonathan sighed as he emerged through the door, his brow furrowed in frustration.

“Bro, I don’t have time for your stupidity right now,” Jonathan said. “Can we deal with whatever you’re panicking about later…”

But Jordan’s eyes were intensely wide and focused. He grabbed Jonathan’s arm, dragging him down the hall towards the bathroom.

Jonathan sighed. “Bro, seriously, if this can wait—“

But Jordan just shook his head. “It really can’t…”

Jordan pushed the bathroom door open with his elbow, then immediately searching for occupants as soon as they entered. He dropped to his knees, making sure he didn’t see any feet through the bottoms of the stalls…

“What the hell are you doing??” Jonathan asked.

But Jordan didn’t answer. Satisfied, he hopped to his feet, then scampering back over to the bathroom door and turning the lock.

“What the hell is going on, Jordan??”

And then he swiveled around, meeting Jonathan’s eyes. “I need to talk to you,” he said. “And no one can overhear what I have to say…” He trailed off, almost afraid to go further, as if saying it out loud would actually make this crazy situation real.

“Um… ok…”

“I think,” Jordan said, taking a deep breath. “I think there’s something wrong with me.”

Jonathan stared at him for a moment, blinking several times…

And then he suddenly burst into laughter.

“Um, yes, there’s definitely something wrong with you,” Jonathan spit out, clutching his stomach. “You’re not going to hear any arguments about that from me—“

Jordan narrowed his eyes, feeling anger starting to boil under his skin. “It’s not funny, Jon. I’m serious—“

“Sure, sure, I know you are. So tell me, Jordan. What’s wrong with you? Other than like— you know— everything.”

Jordan narrowed his eyes even more… but then he just sighed, slumping on the edge of the bathroom sink as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I think,” Jordan started. He paused, taking a deep breath and trying to find the courage to continue. He glanced at Jonathan, who was watching him with wide eyes. “I mean— it’s all because of bio class. Those stupid slides we had to make—“

“Um,” Jonathan interrupted as he leaned against the sink next to him, “what are you talking about, bruh—“

“Like, if we didn’t have this experiment, when would I even have discovered this? In a year? Five years? Never??”

“Jordan, you’re not making any sense—“

“I mean, maybe I NEVER would have found out about this. And then I would have just continued living my life, blissfully unaware, just assuming I’m as regular as I ever was. Or I guess— as I never was.”

“Um,” Jonathan said, “what the hell are you talking about??”

“I don’t get it. How did this even happen?? It doesn’t make any sense. And seriously— do you think Mom and Dad even know??”

Jonathan jumped forward, grabbing Jordan by his forearms. “Jordan, back up for a second,” he said. Jordan’s head snapped up, his eyes meeting Jonathan’s. “Just back up. Start from the beginning. Know what? What are you—“

“Jon—“ Jordan said, his eyes getting impossibly wide. “I think— I think I might be— an alien.”