Fortress

Saviour

A/N: I don't own Smallville or any characters and places in the DC universe. Nor do I own the episodes that these chapters are based and contained from.

I also don't claim to be a writer. My inspiration is simply to get a creative outlet going.

I only own Tyla Nevin and what pertains to her character story.

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The news of Lex Luthor's jet crashing was something of the ages. With Helen surviving and living to tell the tale, LuthorCorp was in disarray for the next three months. When she received the news that the jet was missing, Tyla was with her family in her father's bungalow. The news hit her like a ton of bricks. She tried her best to focus on what the older male was saying. But the world seemed to close in on her. She was unaware the was face-to-face with her little brother who looked at her questionably. It was something about getting the press under control when she returned on Monday but that was the last thing on her mind.

Lionel scoured the islands tirelessly for the next few weeks until he had declared that Lex was dead. They had found Helen rather dishevelled and frantic. Upon returning to Kansas, it was then that Tyla heard that Lex was truly gone. Shock covered her entire being. She felt frozen, with the last memory of trying out cakes with the millionaire filling her mind. She had lost a friend. He may have been the one who employed her, but she considered him one of the first people that she had befriended upon moving to Metropolis. They were fast friends and the last thing that she remembered telling him was that she wouldn't be able to attend the wedding.

It took her a while to figure out that the other feeling she was having was the fact that other than Helen's testimony, Lex was truly declared missing. Was there a body? Where did the plane end up? It was then, at that very moment, in her apartment as she watched the news, that Tyla decided that this was the miracle that she was going to perform. She would recover Lex, dead or alive. This was the confirmation that everyone needed, not the story she spun for the Daily Planet on the Luthors' behalf.

She had to keep this revelation under wraps. That was typical of her process when she worked for Spheerical Industries. It avoided distractions. So, for the next six weeks, Tyla wrote speeches and held media releases for Lionel in the meantime as if she had accepted Lex's predicament. Although the funeral looming close had disheartened her, she pushed on. Behind the scenes, she focused on her old contacts to track down the younger Luthor. In person, Lionel had asked her to come with her to keep the reporters from further slandering the name of Luthor. To add, she had to write a speech for him.

"Mr. Luthor, this is the speech," she said as she handed him the paper. She leaned back against the cool leather of the stretch limo and smoothed out her black skirt.

Lionel frowned. "It's rather short," he said, curtly.

Tyla sighed. She didn't know what it was like to lose a child. She could only imagine what her parents would feel if she turned up missing, no less dead. She wouldn't admit that a lot of the words were of her own thoughts. About how Lex was gone but not dead to her. Perhaps, Lionel felt the same. Perhaps, he had some inkling. "I would expect that you would show at least some emotion," she murmured. "That would be a better buffer than something long winded, don't you think?" Surely, if she had to write his speech, he could show sadness for his son. Lex certainly deserved that. The entire funeral was a press release for him. She knew that. After all, she had organized it all the while hating it.

When they arrived, it wasn't surprising that Lionel didn't extend the information for Helen to attend. She had been rather theatrical since she had come back. She was more than a PR nightmare for Tyla as one minute the widow was in tears when the paparazzi came and the other, she was caught shopping clothes. If Tyla wasn't deflecting the reporters to confirm Lex's heroics, she was trying to keep up with the latest Helen-antics and instill reason into the public in order not to embarrass the late Luthor. It was a headache for her and somehow, she felt like Helen knew.