- Chloe Sullivan: Clark Kent at the keyboard? Have I been downsized in the bureaucratic world of superheroes?
- Clark Kent: I just got tired waiting for you.
- Chloe Sullivan: Oh, snap. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the planet.
- Clark Kent: More like the wrong side of Lois. But that will never happen again.
- Chloe Sullivan: I should have known that Clark took a walk down the ruby-red road. That explains his lack of "edit" button.
- Tess Mercer: I thought Clark was only affected by green meteor. What's the red do?
- Chloe Sullivan: Basically it turns him into the bad boy every girl dreams of... in her nightmares.
- Clark Kent: [infected by red kryptonite] You and Oliver betrayed me!
- Chloe Sullivan: It sounds worse than it actually...
- Clark Kent: You're stockpiling weapons around the world that can kill me.
- Chloe Sullivan: Not you. The Kryptonians.
- Clark Kent: I'm Kryptonian!
- Chloe Sullivan: Clark, the weapons are just insurance.
- Clark Kent: In case what, Chloe? In case I turned on you? God, I was such a fool to think that you could ever understand me. You think you're better than Tess. At least she didn't pretend to be on my side all those years.
- Chloe Sullivan: Clark, why don't you hear my side? I mean, what if someday there was a war?
- Clark Kent: There is a war, Chloe. Right now. And you're about to lose it.
- John Corben: I don't blame you for frying me. But someone who cares about you sent me here to save you. And I owe you one.
- Clark Kent: This is my lucky day to be saved.
- John Corben: Kal-El, take it from someone who's been there. We don't always know when we need saving. You can thank me another time.
- Lois Lane: Tess. How not surprised am I to see you here. By the way, this is the least-secret secret lab I've ever been in... twice.
- Chloe Sullivan: Guess who's coming for dinner, together... with powers. But you already knew that, didn't you?
- Tess Mercer: What I don't know is why the sudden bromance.
- Lois Lane: [turning on a hidden spy cam] Okay, my blurry, butt-kicking friend. You were right. Tess of the uber-villains is up to no good. She was hoarding more meteor rock here than there probably is in all of Smallville. And something tells me the reason is behind that curtain.
- Chloe Sullivan: [trying to scrub Clark's sigil off the wall] I didn't think it would be a good idea to get the handyman to repair this.
- Clark Kent: If I had an apology on video, it would have saved me a lot of time this year.
- Chloe Sullivan: Well, I'd say I did my fair share of trespassing, as well.
- Clark Kent: You mean the part where you were amassing the only weapons that can kill me?
- Chloe Sullivan: Yeah, that would be the part.
- Clark Kent: Well, maybe you're the one seeing things clearly from the beginning.
- Clark Kent: There's something I didn't tell you about the future. Your kryptonite armory was the only thing that saved the world. And me teaming up with Zod... turning my back on you and Oliver, that wasn't all the red kryptonite.
- Chloe Sullivan: Curious.
- Clark Kent: I think it was some sort of wish fulfillment thing for me.
- Chloe Sullivan: Clark, if you wanted to redecorate the place, all you had to do is ask.
- Clark Kent: It's just that seeing you and Lois together, you're like sisters. The two of you have an understanding of each other, a shorthand that I've never known.
- Chloe Sullivan: We're family.
- Clark Kent: That's something I don't have much of anymore. I mean, Zod and I, we're... we've been on different sides, we... we were raised in different worlds. But somehow, through the isolation and the burdens, losing our home, trying to manage in somebody else's, he understands things about me that nobody else can. Chloe, he's the closest thing to a brother that I may ever know.
- Tess Mercer: [in his lair, Zod finds a photo of him and Clark at the Space Needle] You're not that naive, are you?
- Zod: If Kal-El and I can work together, why wouldn't I try?
- Tess Mercer: Because he doesn't have your best interests at heart. But you and I... we have a commitment to each other. You're not backing out on me, are you?
- Zod: Well, I'm not the one that sent a modern-day metal Nero to attack you.
- Tess Mercer: No. Not today. You can't bet everything we've worked for, including the safety of your people, on someone who's so quick to switch allegiances.
- Zod: I don't think you have any idea of the power that lies within Kal-El.
- Tess Mercer: Well, I hope you're right. 'Cause you're losing control of the Kandorians. I discovered a secret rebellion.
- [showing him a surveillance photo of Clark with Faora and Alia]
- Tess Mercer: A group of your people have turned against you, and are looking to a new leader. Clark.
- Lois Lane: [startled by Corben] God, do you take lessons on how to do that?
- John Corben: Okay, isn't the appropriate response "Thank god you're still alive"? "Too bad you're wearing clothes this time"?
- Lois Lane: Yes, that's it. The first part.
- Lois Lane: So, how did you get away from Mercer?
- John Corben: Uh... it involved a secret cave, action sequence out of the Ice Capades, and your... best friend.
- Lois Lane: [showing him the red kryptonite heart in her purse] Maybe this makes up for everything?
- John Corben: [leading her into a nearby alley] Where'd you get that?
- Lois Lane: Souvenir from my own little adventure.
- John Corben: You know, the first time I saw you, I never thought that you'd end up being my hero. Of course, I was hoping to escape with a different heart. You know, Lois... you're the only one that's... been honest... and loyal and brave.
- Lois Lane: Wow, that's a scary-high pedestal of adjectives you just put me on.
- John Corben: You're the only one that's given me... a chance, I... I mean, I-I can't ever tell anyone else about me. You're the only chance that I have of-of living an honest... honest life. And... if I were gonna disappear again, I would wanna disappear with you.
- Lois Lane: Oh. Me. John, that means a lot. But I'm with someone else. He's a little on the squeaky side, so I probably won't pull back the curtain and reveal our wild and crazy ride, but... he is it... for me.
- John Corben: Okay. Sorry, I, uh... you have one of those words for now?
- Lois Lane: Um... maybe if this were another lifetime.
- John Corben: Yeah. You know, I really... hope that your guy knows who you really are. 'Cause you are a real... dame, Lois Lane.
- Zod: [to Clark, after encasing Corben in a block of ice with their freeze breath] And I thought I got a chilly welcome.
- Tess Mercer: I am so sorry to disappoint you, Lois. But I doubt that the government is going to want their covert defense programs on the front page of the Daily Planet, so if you could just...
- [putting her finger to her lips]
- Tess Mercer: Shh.
- Lois Lane: I saw what you did to Corben. I was on the bus when you sent me on a tranq trip to Mount Rushmore. You can't cover this up, Tess.
- Chloe Sullivan: [knocking her out with chloroform] Sorry, Lo.
- Tess Mercer: You take care of her, and I'll clean the rest of this up to make sure that no one will believe Lois' trip down the rabbit hole.
- Clark Kent: [trying to connect to Jor-El in the Fortress] Well, he isn't exactly rolling out the welcome mat, is he? Nothing's working. Which figures. As soon as I embrace my heritage, you vanish.
- Zod: Given what you've told me about my role in the last days of Krypton, I'm not surprised.
- Clark Kent: Well, he can't blame you for something you haven't done yet.
- Zod: It took you almost a year to warm up to me. I wouldn't expect my discerning old friend to... give me any more latitude.
- Clark Kent: It's all right. I've learned everything I need from this thing anyway.
- Zod: Don't be too quick to dismiss what Jor-El has to offer you, Kal-El.
- Clark Kent: Trust me, I can live without constant lectures and mind games.
- Zod: How about the answers to everything in the universe?
- Clark Kent: Give me a break.
- Zod: I was a skeptic, too. On Krypton, our children are raised to revere the red sun god Rao. Unlike your civilizations, superstition has no place in our beliefs. Religion is science. Not some... mystical questioning of it. Your father left our bible, the Book of Rao, on this Earth. You know what, with all of this, and the knowledge in that book, Kal-El, there is no limits to what we can achieve.
- Chloe Sullivan: [tracking Corben] I lost the GPS feed.
- Tess Mercer: Where'd you send him?
- Chloe Sullivan: On a hunch.
- Tess Mercer: Well, my ops found our soldier of fortune on a bus. Any luck with your problem child?
- Chloe Sullivan: How often does it snow in Seattle?
- Tess Mercer: Not a great time for a game of Trivial Pursuit, Chloe.
- Chloe Sullivan: No. Seriously, Tess. Seattle just had a fluke snowstorm with the temperature at 64 degrees.
- Tess Mercer: [searching on her phone] Oh, I got it. Thank god for blogging. They saw something vaulting towards the Space Needle six minutes ago.
- Zod: [on top of the Space Needle] It's quite a view.
- Clark Kent: Everything seems so clear from up here. I'm asking myself why it took me so long to see it.
- Zod: Sometimes it just take somebody to share your perspective. If only your father could see us.
- Clark Kent: He can. How would you like to say hello to your old friend Jor-El?
- [a raindrop hits his hand]
- Clark Kent: But first... let's give the people of Seattle a little surprise.
- Zod: For someone so reticent about joining forces, you certainly wasted no time in destroying Chloe's kryptonite stock hold.
- Clark Kent: I'm sure there's some quote about betrayal stinging you the most when it's from someone you trust.
- Zod: Your father could have rattled it off. You remind me of him.
- Clark Kent: Yeah, I'd rather not hear it. I didn't get the chance to know him like you did.
- Zod: Don't get me wrong, we used to fight... until all hours of the night.
- Clark Kent: What, he was stubborn? Like me?
- Zod: Yeah. But that never meant I didn't respect him. Y-you must have had a friend that you had a connection with, like you were opposite sides of the same soul.
- Clark Kent: Yeah, once. A long time ago.
- Zod: You no longer have to be worried about people envying you, or fearing you, because you have a family now, a family who understands.
- Clark Kent: Good. Maybe it's time to live a little.
- John Corben: I appreciate you trying to help, but I've got it from here, all right? You get yourself into enough trouble without me leading you to more.
- Lois Lane: Hey. I promised I'd get you to the military base in South Dakota.
- John Corben: [she sits down and pulls him into the next seat] So, what are you? My personal bodyguard?
- Lois Lane: My dad assured me Dr. Vale is the best guy around. So whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me.
- John Corben: As nice as that sounds, I could have Tess Mercer's entire defense division descending on me at any minute.
- Lois Lane: Exactly. So when you're free and clear and planting your homestead spike in the badlands, then I'll send you the sayonara.
- Zod: "Irony. The cleaning baptism that redeems the soul." Kierkegaard. You have to enjoy the paradox. The only thing on their planet that can harm us is a piece of our own.
- Clark Kent: You lied about having powers. How'd you get them?
- Zod: From you. From your blood. When you saved me. It's contradictory, isn't it? But then again, you are the greatest contradiction of all. Dedicating your life to the greater good and at the same time deceiving those you love the most.
- Clark Kent: I'm the one who's been deceived.
- Zod: Oh, come, come, Kal-El. You have become far too calculating to play the naive farm boy anymore. Your closest friends fear you, because they will never understand you, and how could they? You need me. Who else in your world has ever truly been your equal?
- Clark Kent: I have no equal.
- Zod: You really can't see it, can you? A modern-day messiah whose symbol is worshipped by the mere mortals at his feet. A god who rips decisions out of the hands of fate. Now... there is a real threat out there to both of us. And with your map of the kryptonite arsenals, we can take out any defense they have against us. Nothing can stop us. Now the question is... who will you join? Your friends? Your friends who have stockpiled weapons around the world to kill you? Or the one man who weighs the same decisions, struggles with the same dilemmas, and who just saved your life?
- Tess Mercer: Clark's made it clear that he's not my knight in shining armor. Which is why I made my own all-purpose bodyguard.
- Chloe Sullivan: Well, believe it or not, Tess, this isn't all about you. Sooner or later, Clark will out himself and your merry band of Kryptonians.
- Tess Mercer: If the world gets wind of their existence, there's no turning back.
- Chloe Sullivan: Right, but you can protect your alien pet project if you help me find Clark.
- Lois Lane: Glad to see you're looking so good.
- John Corben: Thanks. You look... pretty good, too.
- Lois Lane: [giving him her coat to cover himself] I meant, you know... strong. I mean... healthy, alive.
- John Corben: Oh, yeah. Right. Maybe we should get out of here before the... Blur decides to light this place up like a Christmas tree.
- Lois Lane: The Blur did this to you?
- John Corben: Yeah. I don't know how he found me.
- Lois Lane: Well, maybe he wasn't here for you. You know, maybe he was following a well-meaning source. And you did kind of go Phantom of the Boiler Room last time you entered stage right.
- Tess Mercer: Last time I checked, this was private property.
- Chloe Sullivan: Looks like Tess Mercer's skeleton is finally crawling out of the closet.
- Tess Mercer: Well, speaking of being hidden in the closet, how's Oliver doing these days?
- Chloe Sullivan: Don't worry your pretty little head about that. And by head, I mean the one that the secret government agency Checkmate is wanting to lop off. That must really suck to be on the outs of your own walls.
- Tess Mercer: I'm guessing you'd know. Since you're not cuddling up to your own cyber screens... I'm venturing that Clark has finally uncovered your kryptonite arsenal.
- Chloe Sullivan: What exactly caught your better than bionic eye this time?
- Clark Kent: It's Tess. It was her underground lab that Lois was snooping around in.
- Chloe Sullivan: What's with the thermo-radioactive scan of North America?
- Clark Kent: She's storing meteor rock around the country. She's gonna pay for it.
- Chloe Sullivan: [he moves to leave] Uh, Clark, wait. As much as I would love to have Tess out of our lives, you can't take her down for this. You're connecting the dots in the wrong order. These deposits don't belong to Tess.
- Clark Kent: Tess is the only one who knows what kryptonite can do to me.
- Chloe Sullivan: Except... for me. And Oliver.
- Chloe Sullivan: Okay, vector ten and a half feet north. Have I sunk Lois' battleship?
- Clark Kent: Chloe, I can see fifty feet in every direction. There's no reason why Lois would be standing in this spot for two hours last night.
- Chloe Sullivan: You know, not that I wanna wade into the salty ocean of amour that is Lois and Clark, but if you two are playing "Mr. & Mrs Smith" now, don't you think there might be a slight trust issue?
- Clark Kent: I'm worried she's holding something back from me.
- Chloe Sullivan: It's kind of different when the control's on the other foot. You know, Clark, Lois trusts you. Now you need to trust her.
- Clark Kent: I do.
- Chloe Sullivan: Right. And that's why you had me LoJack her key chain? Look, Clark, I just checked the time code, and if we could rocket back a few hours, you would be standing on Lois' shoulders.
- [looking around, he notices a manhole cover in the sidewalk]
- Lois Lane: [surprised to find Corben in the Talon basement] John Corben?
- John Corben: [she picks up a wrench] I gotta... I gotta hand it to you, bright eyes. You... you sure have a way of finding trouble.
- Lois Lane: Said the man who swatted me around like a tether ball on our last arena challenge.
- John Corben: [breathing and panting heavily] I just wanted to get you h-home. I didn't... I didn't mean for you to see me.
- Lois Lane: Wait. G-Get me home?
- John Corben: When I woke up on the lab table, they had altered me. And-and my mind, my mind is almost normal. It is. It is, except... except for this... this upgrade here.
- [indicating the back of his neck]
- John Corben: It's here. Look.
- Lois Lane: Upgrade?
- Lois Lane: John, who did this to you? Tess?
- John Corben: Her scientists did. I heard them saying something about... slamming a chip... in the back so they could control... everything that I do. But then you... you helped me escape before... before they could.
- Lois Lane: [he groans and clutches his kryptonite heart] John? John, what's happening? John look at me.
- John Corben: My heart is-is gonna stop... if I don't find a meter rock and... and refuel.
- Lois Lane: [waking up in bed next to Clark] How'd you get in here? How did I get in here?
- Clark Kent: Well, it must have been some night.
- Lois Lane: Yeah, I was chasing down a red-hot lead and then... hit a dead end.
- Clark Kent: [seeing a scratch on her arm] Lois, what happened to you?
- Lois Lane: Uh, oh, uh, you know, I was just, I was... trying too hard to open up my, uh, "The Hangover" DVD, you know, with dad's Swiss army knife? And he was sure I wouldn't put it to good use. Wanna kiss it better, soldier?
- Clark Kent: What's going on, Lois? You've been AWOL for over a week. Now, I know we agreed a little mystery between us would be good, but I'm worried about you. Come on, I think it'd be a good idea if there was nothing between us.
- Lois Lane: [coyly] I think that can be arranged.
- Clark Kent: Lois.
- Lois Lane: Mm-hmm?
- Lois Lane: [her phone beeps just as they're about to kiss] I'm sorry, Smallville. It's Randall. It-it could be the story of the century. I can't risk a coulda, shoulda, woulda.
- Clark Kent: [moving to leave] It's okay. I wouldn't want you to miss out on something big.
- Lois Lane: Really, really bad timing, but I won't hold it against you.
- Zod: [calling as the Blur] Have you found the information on Mercer I requested?
- Lois Lane: Yeah, she's running a secret underground facility at 4th and Lincoln, where she's testing some red form of meteor rocks. But score one for the obvious column, I think that you already knew that since you saved me from an early obituary, right?
- Zod: [unsure what she means, but covering] Yeah. What is she experimenting on?
- Lois Lane: You know what, listen, if-if this isn't a matter of life and death, I really... I have to go.