Stupid or Insane by Glacis. Spoilers through Splinter.

Martin Fine had lied to him. About everything. About Jor-El, about his mom's illness, about the threat from the black SUV, about everything.

Clark stared down at the messy pile of papers that was the entirety of his first college job, research assistant to the crazy homicidal pathological liar of a Kryptonian AI construct that used to be his history professor, and wondered if everyone from his planet was nuts. There were days when he knew he was.

Lex Luthor's name leaped up at him from the text scrawled across the pages on his desk, and he immediately thought, well, at least the prof didn't lie about that.

Then he thought about it.

Since being taken in so completely, first by his Uncle Jack, then by Professor Fine, Clark had made a New Year's resolution to think twice before believing anything. Now he put that resolution to the test.

What had he seen in his paranoid phase that made him condemn Lex? A kiss with Lana that she said never happened. Lionel forcing his dad to accept money to stop Lionel from carting Clark off to a lab to experiment on him... and to help his campaign against Lex; even when Clark figured out it wasn’t money, it was still damaging for Lex, since Lionel gave Jonathan Lex’s confidential financial records. Chloe getting email from Lionel about... Lex's dealings.

Wait a minute.

Lionel.

His dad... who hated the Luthor family because Lionel had played on his weakness and caused him to betray his principles... was taking Lionel's word about Lex being a bad guy? Clark concentrated on his memory, trying to pick out what could be the truth from the midst of the paranoid hallucinations. Yeah, Lionel had said something about Lex being all about the power.

Well, Lionel was all about the control.

Particularly when it came to Lex.

There was no way Lionel was rooting for Jonathan Kent over his son. Which could only mean Lionel had an ulterior motive for giving his dad Lex's financial information.

Clark smacked himself in the forehead. He was an idiot. Of course Lionel had an ulterior motive. Lionel had ulterior motives for breathing. He manipulated everyone he touched.

Deciding to look at this logically, Clark considered the facts. Not the untrustworthy, silver-Kryptonite-laced memory or the personally-biased opinions of his friends and admittedly prejudiced family, but actions taken by the parties involved.

First his parents. Lionel had blackmailed his dad into convincing the Rosses to sell their farm, giving Luthor Corp a toehold in Smallville. Lex had... literally saved the farm, paying off their loans so they didn't lose their home. Lex had flown in specialists when his mom was sick, when his dad had the heart attack... had bailed Clark out of trouble with the police on more than one occasion.

Lionel had blackmailed the Kents with Clark's illegal adoption in order to get his own way.

Lex had shot a man dead to save Jonathan's life.

When Clark was out of his head on red Kryptonite, Lionel had pretended to be blind in order to spy on his son and find out Clark's secret. Lex had... called his parents to let them know where Clark was and had brought him home instead of running off to Metropolis with him.

Okay.

Lionel definitely lost in that race.

Now, the Sullivans. Lionel was feeding Chloe information about Lex in an attempt to discredit him in the senatorial campaign. And Chloe believed Lionel... why? Lionel had bribed a Federal Marshal to blow up the safe house she and her father were in when Chloe was going to testify against Lionel... who, one must not forget, murdered his own parents and several innocent bystanders by burning down his own apartment building when he was a young man.

Oh, yeah. There was a character commendation.

Meanwhile Lex had the opportunity to kill Lionel during the tornado, and he didn’t have to blow anything up… all he had to do was let go. Instead he held on. He saved his father's life in the midst of a natural disaster. Lionel had created a man-made disaster in order to kill his own parents.

So Chloe was trusting the man who had blackmailed her, threatened her, intimidated her and tried to kill her, over the man who'd... saved her life.

Not to mention the fact that her dad liked Lex, credited him with saving the plant and Gabe's job, and with saving his and his daughter's lives.

Oookay. Another race Lionel lost.

Next Clark came to Lana. That was a tough one. Lex had actually saved her, more than once, physically and fiscally. He'd turned the Talon into a coffee shop rather than a parking garage, allowed Lana to live there rent-free when Nell left town, and put up with continual distrust from his business partner... and what had Lionel done? Screwed Nell and used Lana as a weapon against his own son.

If anything, Lana might have had a beef with Lex for getting her boyfriend fired from the high school, but considering Teague later turned out to be a stone-cold killer with an Oedipal complex the size of Kansas, it was probably a good thing he wasn't still the football coach at Smallville High.

Then, Lex had saved Lana during the second meteor shower, and had paid for first class airplane tickets to Paris when she wanted to go to art school... and Clark had a sneaking suspicion Lex had more than a little to do with Lana being accepted at that school to begin with. So, of the two, Lionel was an annoyance to Lana, but Lex had actively helped her pursue her dreams.

Third race Lionel lost.

If Clark had to consider Lois, not that he liked to, then the only reason he could come up with for her to hate Lex was because she didn't like men who bought their way into power. Which, really, was a perfect description of Lionel. The only thing Lex had ever done to Lois was tell her the truth... and every time Clark thought about "muffin-peddling college drop-out" he found himself grinning.

So, going on reality and not Lois' weird personal vendetta against anyone who stood up to her, Lex won that race too.

Which brought it down to Clark. And his secret.

Clark had the itchy feeling that Lex knew a heck of a lot more about the truth than he let on. Lex was brilliant, and Clark had never been the best liar. Especially when he was lying to someone he liked. And yet... Lex had never used it against Clark. If anything, he'd consistently asked, not demanded, but asked, for Clark to tell him the truth. Gave him chance after chance, and Clark lied to him every time.

Uncomfortably aware of the fact that if anyone was in the wrong there, it was himself, not Lex, Clark turned his examination toward business dealings.

Lionel experimented on meteor rocks, knowing what it did to people, and not letting that stop him. Lionel had a track record of bullying, buying out, and ruining people. He gave no consideration to the human cost of business, only the bottom line. Earl proved that.

Lex, on the other hand, formed a collective to buy the plant so Smallville didn't lose its single largest employer. He expanded into defense contracting, but that was actually, oddly, legitimate. The country was at war, after all... just listen to Jonathan any night at dinner and he'd talk about it until his listeners' ears fell off. So Lex, in making money, was actually researching and developing weapons to help the country win the war. Clark guessed, balancing sailors' lives over fish, that not everyone had Arthur Curry's unique perspective on marine life. Clark knew from experience Lex cared about people and wasn't, on the whole, so uncaring about animals. His reaction to the poisoning of the Kents' herd was proof of that.

Oh. Right. Another time when Lex came through and paid, out of his own pocket, to help the Kents recover from a disaster not of Lex's making.

So, essentially, Lex was making money by keeping people employed and working to protect the servicemen and women of the United States. While Lionel screwed over anyone he had to, including his own son, to make a buck.

Ah, well, Lex won that one on moral grounds, even with the shifting tectonic plates of Luthor-defined morality.

And let’s not even get into familial relations. When Lionel was blind (or so everyone thought), Lex took him into his home and cared for him. Even hired Clark’s own mom to be his assistant.

In return, Lionel poisoned his son to make him think he was crazy, locked him up in an asylum against his will, and subjected him to electroshock treatments.

Er, right. On the humanity scale, Lionel was in negative numbers and Lex was a surprisingly caring son. If anybody treated Clark the way Lionel treated Lex, Clark would have booted the bastard so hard he’d still be in orbit a year later.

Adding it all up, Lex was a dutiful son, a successful businessman without being inhuman about it, a good friend to Smallville, the Kents and the Sullivans in particular, and a continual source of support, financially and influentially, for Clark himself.

Lionel was a lying, scheming, manipulative, murderous, blackmailing, cold-hearted bastard.

Yet everyone Clark knew believed Lionel when he said to watch out for Lex.

He felt rather proud of himself at the way he'd logically worked out everything he could. Then he looked at his list and tried to draw some logical conclusions. When he was done he could only come up with one.

Was everyone in Smallville insane, or just stupid?

If Lionel was backing Jonathan for Senate… Clark was voting for Lex.

END