Chapter Thirty-Two
Her purpose is served, My son.
"Jor-el?"
She has done a great thing that will only further your destiny.
"No! You can't take her!"
She goes willingly.
"What about me?" He cried. "I need her. I..."
Your destiny is far greater than you know. In time, you will...
"No!"
He ran to his desk and dumped over a drawer. The disc. He needed the octagonal disc. He grasped it firmly and ran back to Chloe. He picked up her limp form and sped. He ran until he saw the caves. She was still glowing faintly. He set her down and held her nearly standing with one arm as he placed the disk in its slot. He had to get her to the fortress before the glow faded. Jor-el would listen there. He'd make him. Whatever kryptonian energy she'd sapped from Bizarro, it was protecting her. He felt it. He gathered her close and closed his eyes. He could hear her heartbeat growing faster and faster. Her body could not take this power.
He sped across the snow into the cold depths. He placed her gently on the ledge.
"Now you fix her!" he yelled.
She was told this would happen. In the otherworld, I told her. She chose to act in spite of this.
"But she died for me! You took my father! The debt of my life was repaid!"
I did not take your father. Fate took him in the place of the girl. You made that choice.
"I didn't choose this!"
But she did. She would do that and more for you and this will serve you well.
"Please!" He couldn't reason with this heartless, fatalistic view of the world. "I can't lose her! I've lost her twice!" His shoulders shook as he looked into her face, now only bright with no clear aura. "I'll do anything!"
You promise, yet you will disobey when the time comes.
"I won't! I swear! You can take her then if I disobey! I swear." He gazed down at her again. "I swear on her life."
And would this oath hold you? Would you come when I called knowing I helped this mortal back to you? If I took this sickness from her body?
"It would. You know it would. Please..." Chloe's skin began to grey. "No!"
Will you leave all behind and obey me?
"Yes. Anything. Just please..." he fell to his knees as Chloe began to glow again, but red. The ground shook as she rose up, levitating a foot from the ground. He stared as her limbs began trembling. She jerked in the air twice before falling to the ground.
Clark stared around him, hesitating. "Is she..."
She will live. I have erased all kryptonian energy from her body. But she will be taken again if you do not come to me when I call.
"You have my word."
A light seemed to dim in the fortress as the shaking stopped. Clark leaned over her. He only relaxed when he felt her breath on his face. "Chloe?"
Her eyes shot open and darted around. "What the... Are we here again?"
He nearly laughed. "We had to. You needed healing."
She started to sit up, then fell back again. "My head."
"What? What is it?"
"Nothing. Just a splitting headache." She sat slowly. "I doubt you have a medicine cabinet here."
He did laugh this time. If she was making jokes, she'd be fine. "We'll get you to a hospital."
She rolled her eyes. "Clark, just take me home. I want an advil and a week of sleep and no stupid needles and nurses."
He hesitated, then scanned her body quickly. There were no breaks. Also, there was no green inside her, not even behind her eyes. "Yes," he said, picking her up. "Let's get home."
*************************
"I guess it was cool for a second." Chloe stared out the window to her side, laid back in the recliner.
"What was?" Clark sat across from her on the couch, holding a hand of cards.
"All that power. It was good before it got scary."
"Yeah, well I missed the good part, I guess."
She sighed and leaned her head back. "I'll stick to my own power, I guess." She sat up suddenly. "I keep having these fantasies where I skip around in the hospital, shooting tears, and everyone just gets up and starts dancing."
"Chloe..."
"It's almost a Disney cartoon. The birds even come in twirl around my head and..."
"Chloe..."
"I know," she said suddenly.
He leaned in. "You know what?"
"It's gone." She shrugged. "You don't have to tell me. I felt it a little, but the look in your eyes just confirmed it." She smiled. "It would have been great, though. I would have pulled a Green Arrow, except with purple, and I would call myself The Nightingale," she whispered this last.
He smiled and it warmed her. "Should we tell Lois?"
"That my abilities are gone? Yes. That I almost died again? No." She shook her head. "Took forty-eight hours to detach her from my arm the first time."
He laughed. "You're right."
She didn't join. "Did you do it?" she asked soberly.
He didn't answer, only got up and came back, carrying an ornate wooden box.
"It's beautiful," she whispered, feeling real, unenhanced tears at the back of her eyes.
"It's my mom's silverware box. I don't think she'll mind, really."
"It needs something." She looked up.
"What?" he peered at it.
"His name."
*********************************
They stood in the waning sunlight. She bent to place the box with "Jonathon" carved into the top.
She grasped Clark's hand and stared at the box that contained the pile of ashes that once was Biz... Jonathon.
"I... um.... I'll always remember how you tried to be good," she said in a choked voice. She turned to Clark.
He looked surprised. She knew he hadn't seen the softer side of the poor creature, but she hoped he had something to say. "You... You packed a hell of a punch."
She slapped his arm. "Clark!"
"What? It's a compliment. The guy beat the living..."
"Just find something nicer."
"Well... I always envied your flying." He sighed. "And I hope... I hope you still get to do it."
She beamed at him. "Thank you."
They knelt down and pushed the dirt into the hole.
"What do you remember, Chloe?"
She knew what he meant. She sat back on her heels. "Well... The first time, I died, it was hazier. This time, I... I saw people. All these people I knew and loved and they were beckoning as if from a ledge. I saw them high and far away." She squinted into the fields. "My grandmom and grandpop, poor Jody Melville..."
"Who?"
She rolled her eyes. "Clark... Freshman year? She lost all this weight from meteor shakes and..."
"Okay. Yeah. Go on."
"Well,the funny thing is. Someone was missing."
"What?"
"Clark, I... I didn't see Lana."
*********************************
Chloe stared at the TV in The Planet. Here she was, a reporter, and she was missing the scoop of her life.
"If you're just joining us," a monotone voice droned from the suit. "We are watching as Police lead Lex Luthor, billionaire mogul and wanted man, away in handcuffs. Theresa Cheng has the story."
"Thanks, Edward. Lex Luthor was found early this morning in the city of Topeka. He was staying in a low-rent motel under the name Xander Thurol and wore a wig to disguise his signature bald pate. Authorities were alerted to Luthor's presence by an anonymous tip from an undisclosed source. Luthor is under arrest for the murder of Lana Lang Luthor, his wife of only three months, who was taken earlier this month in a fiery explosion. Sources close to the..."
Chloe jumped as Clark walked through the doors. "I know, Clark."
"The bastard was alive the whole time." His fists were clenched, his knuckles nearly white.
"Calm down. They're leading him to prison now. And with the evidence against him, they'll..."
"You know him, Chloe. He'll slither his way out of this just like with everything else."
"And we'll make sure he doesn't." She took his hand and led him to the copy room. She shut the door.
"He should pay for what he did to Lana."
"Clark, he will. Do you think half those thugs in prison wouldn't like to get their hands on him?"
He calmed slightly. "I just don't want him to get off."
"He won't," Chloe assured him. "Come on. Sullivan and Kent are on the job. We'll make sure Luthor never sees another day of freedom." She ducked her head and glanced at his mutinous face. "I promise, Clark."
*************************************
Clark grabbed a post and drove it quickly into the ground. Redoing the fences was exactly what he needed right now. It was almost work.
Chloe was somewhere in the house on her cell phone, making her way through the red tape to talk to someone at the police station. She swore she had a source in forensics, but Clark hadn't seen results yet. At this moment, the Luthor defense team was probably shooting holes in all the evidence and it made him so mad, he could kill without conscience. Of course, he knew that wasn't true. Instead, he envisioned Luthor's body at every point he drove a post. He'd killed ten Lexes so far.
He picked up another easily and backed away, wanting to throw it this time. It was all getting too easy. He threw it hard and it landed precisely where he wanted it- right in the middle of Lex's torso.
"Wow," he heard behind him. He froze. "I knew when you told me, but to see it..."
He turned slowly. His ears could be tricked, but his eyes...
"Lana," he breathed.
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Chapter Thirty-Three
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