FIC: Prey - Chloe/Zod - (T) - 1-3/3
Title: Prey
Author: scifichick774
Pairing: Chloe/Zod
Rating: T
Spoilers: For season nine and previous seasons, but I'm not sticking close to canon as most of my knowledge of the last few seasons comes from Wiki and my f-list rather than the show itself.
Summary: Chloe feels like the world has fallen down around her. Zod's there to take advantage of it.
A/N: It seems like forever since I've written a new Chloe piece, so I hope you'll bear with me while I try my hand at writing her again.
Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me and I'm making no money from this endeavor.
~*~*~
The universe had a seriously warped sense of humor.
Jimmy was dead, Lois was who the hell knew where, Oliver was severely depressed and had aborted his 'higher purpose' in favor of finding the bottom of every bottle he could get his hands on, and Clark had turned his back on both her and his humanity.
Chloe thought that she could have dealt with all of that eventually, had she had the time and personal space necessary to bury her emotions deep enough to be able to pretend her life wasn't as crap-tacular as it looked on paper. Unfortunately, fate had stepped in to make her the butt of its latest cosmic joke-in the literal sense, not metaphorical, since the other component of the lark wasn't human-and she wasn't allowed the time or privacy to lick her wounds.
Her place-her beautiful would-have-been wedding present from Jimmy-was covered in tulips. There were crystal vases of tulips on every square inch of table, ledge, and counter, and tulip petals sprinkled thickly enough that she could barely see the wood floor beneath them.
Under any other circumstances, and if she were any other person, she might think it romantic. As it was, however...
“I was informed they were your favorites. Was my source mistaken?”
She clenched her jaw to keep from screaming-in frustration, not in fear.
Okay, so there might be a little bit of fear involved.
It wasn't every day a girl came home to find the homicidal alien who had been casually stalking her for the last couple of weeks lounging on what she used to think was the most comfortable chair in her apartment, after all.
She didn't ask him how he got in. Major Zod was major evil, but he was also incredibly smart. She was sure it didn't hurt that he possessed all of the nifty superhuman abilities that Clark did, as well.
Easy to break in anywhere when he could just punch his way through any wall that stood in his way.
Thankfully, he'd just relied on his cunning to let himself into her watchtower. She wasn't sure what kind of lie she could have possibly concocted to explain the physical damage that Zod's punching through a wall would have caused.
“I'm assuming your source is Tess?” She was proud that her voice didn't waver, and even prouder that she'd been able to tone down the tremble in her hands by the time she strode over to her desk to drop her purse on it.
Except there was no room to drop her purse on it.
She huffed and then settled for hanging it by the strap on the back of the chair instead. “Since she inherited Lex's empire-little black books detailing the minute details of possible enemies lives included-then I think it's safe to say you know you weren't misinformed.”
Tess might be an evil, manipulative bitch who would lie for no other reason than it amused her to do so, but even she wasn't stupid enough to cross the monster she'd helped bring to Earth.
Chloe turned back to face her own personal stalker and folded her arms across her chest, despite the fact that he would know it was a classic defensive maneuver. “What are you doing here?”
She didn't ask what he wanted. She already knew the answer to that question.
He was intrigued by the fact that she wasn't human anymore, and had told her so in those very words. It wasn't that she was a meteor freak; he'd seen several, he'd said, and despite their interesting genetic anomalies, they were still-she remembered him wrinkling his nose as he said it-human.
He had used the term human as if it wasn't just a bad thing to be, but a useless one; a cockroach that was so far beneath him that it should consider itself lucky if he deemed it worthy enough to step on because that meant that he'd noticed it.
But she, he said, was not human. Not anymore.
Honestly, she wasn't sure what to make of that. Outdated information, maybe? Her healing ability had come and gone, leaving her with nothing in her blood that would have classified her as anything other than someone with residual radioactivity in her system.
At least nothing she was aware of.
Zod steepled his fingers and smirked before leaning forward just enough to make it look like he was genuinely interested in whatever she said-even if it was an accusatory question. “I thought we could have dinner.”
“It's late.”
In other words: What made him automatically assume that she hadn't already eaten? She could have been out on a date for all he knew!
She hadn't been, but still. The fact that he jumped to the conclusion that she wasn't was kind of a blow to her self-esteem.
The fact that he was right was the solid jab and kick that came after that blow.
“All the more reason for you to accept my invitation.”
Invitation? More like a command.
“You have a disturbing tendency to put the welfare of the lesser beings who inhabit this world above your own. When was the last time you had a proper meal? You need proper nutrition to release your full potential, not just the diet of sugar and stimulants that you seem to run on.”
Despite the situation-namely her being alone with a powerful alien who was hell-bent on turning the human race into slaves-Chloe snorted. “Save it. My dad gave me the 'coffee stunts your growth' speech a long time ago, and if I didn't listen to him, then I'm sure not going to listen to you.”
Zod rose from the chair, slow and with purpose, keeping eye contact with her the entire time. Her pulse picked up and though instinct told her to back up-to run-her brain reminded her that obeying those instincts would make him see her as prey, so she stood her ground.
She was having a hard enough time with him stalking her; she knew she wouldn't survive if he decided to chase her instead.
“Dinner, Chloe. That's all I ask. Surely it's not too much of an imposition? Friends have dinner together, don't they?”
“We're not friends.”
His lips twitched and dark amusement twinkled in his eyes.
He took a step.
Two steps.
Three.
His gait was that of a predator, slow and steady stalking, and she wondered if she shouldn't have obeyed her instincts in the first place.
She was shaking on the inside by the time he reached her, and though she couldn't see her reflection in the decorative mirror that hung on the far wall from her position, she was sure that her eyes had widened to the point where it didn't matter whether her trembling was contained or not. Her panic was already evident.
He leaned down-far down; damn Kryptonians were all taller than her-so that his lips barely skimmed her ear. “Not yet.”
She felt one corner of his mouth curl up further against her temple and tried desperately not to scream for help that she was no longer certain would come when he placed a hand on her waist to pull her just a little bit closer.
“And we will be friends, Chloe-”
He paused.
It was never a good sign when the bad guy paused. She knew from experience.
“-Because you don't want me as your enemy.”
Chapter 2
Fournier's was a small, softly lit restaurant that sat at the corner of Fifth and Madison. It had a waiting list three months out, not because it had some of the best food in Metropolis-although it did-but because its romantic atmosphere had made it a popular place for marriage proposals.
Chloe didn't ask how Zod was able to get them a table on such short notice. She didn't want to know.
The sad thing was that she might have been flattered by the blatant attempt at seduction if he hadn't tried the same thing with Lana a few years ago.
And if she didn't know he was married-to a psychotic bitch who'd tried to kill her while possessing her own cousin's body.
She might have even been able to ignore that if the one child he and his wife had genetically engineered into existence hadn't been the one to kill Jimmy.
Chloe forced the thoughts aside. Bitterness had its place and this wasn't it. What she needed right now was to listen to her survival instinct, and it was telling her that she needed to do everything in her power to put Zod off his game.
Distraction was the only tool she could think of that might give her more time to think of a way out of the mess she was in.
Unfortunately, she didn't think leaning forward to accidentally show a bit of cleavage would work the same way on him as it did with most of the guys she knew, so she was left with the less appealing option of bringing up a topic she knew would anger him and hoping it didn't backfire on her.
“So what does your wife think of your plan to get another woman pregnant?”
“I have no idea. I have no way of contacting souls in the afterlife,” he replied calmly, his only expression a frown and it looked like it had more to do with the menu than her question.
“Uh...”
“Faora didn't survive the transition back to Jor-El's dimensional prison.”
Oh.
“And when she was alive?” she asked, eyebrow lifted, pointedly ignoring the way her stomach had just flip-flopped.
The first rule of journalism wasn't persistence like so many thought, it was confidence.
If you didn't have it, fake it, because nobody was going to listen to your questions otherwise.
Once they were listening, then you were persistent.
Of course, she hadn't been a reporter for a while now, but she figured confidence was the first rule for a lot of situations-or at least it should be.
“Lana Lang is one of my best friends.”
Despite the fact that she rarely saw or spoke to her.
Despite the knowledge that if she was the one whose fiancé was killed by alien spawn, Clark probably wouldn't have turned his back on her.
No bitterness, she reminded herself, the voice inside her head a sharp slap to remind her to keep her wits about her.
Right.
Back to the task of getting Major Zod to lose interest in her.
“You think I don't know that you tried to pull the same 'you have to bear my child' stunt with her?” she continued.
Zod set the menu down softly-terribly civilized, which meant he was more dangerous than ever-and then made eye contact with her.
And kept it. She couldn't look away.
“Faora didn't marry me for love, she married me for power. Had she not been barren, she might have been less supportive of my plan, but as it was, she was willing to stand behind whatever steps were necessary for me to come into the power she sought to share in. That included my need of a true heir, not one of her experiments.”
Ouch.
“The only reason I asked Lana Lang to bear my progeny-”
Asked, Chloe mentally scoffed. Demanded, more like.
“-was because I thought she was you.”
She blinked. That... hadn't been what she expected to hear. Not even close.
“Some incompetent underling mislabeled your genetic samples. Switched them. If I didn't know how prone the human race was to such idiocy, I would say it was intentional.”
It probably was, she thought. Though she couldn't think of who might benefit from doing something like that.
Well... There was Faora-she had tried to kill her when she got free, after all, and despite Zod's claim of the woman being supportive, she had no doubt that his wife still felt simple emotions like jealousy-but she hadn't been around when Zod had tried to knock up Lana, so she supposed that let her out of the possible suspect pool.
“I was so focused on my goal that I failed to notice the markers for physical appearance until after I'd been sent back to the Phantom Zone and had time to ruminate on what went wrong.”
“Oh,” she said, out loud this time-if only just barely-and then reached for the glass of water in front of her.
Nothing about the day had gone like she'd hoped it would. Why should her evening be any different?
She moved the negative thoughts from the front of her mind to the back and tried to concentrate. She needed to come up with a new exit strategy and fast, or none of her hopes had a chance of coming true ever again.
“Well, that's... uh... Listen. I have to tell you, this whole thing is just too weird for me.”
And that was saying a hell of a lot-even if he didn't realize it.
“I knew your son, Davis.”
His lips pursed, though she was unsure whether it was because he mourned his loss or because he'd never really seen Davis as a son like he claimed.
“He was... I liked him,” she said softly. “But he liked me... more than that. Don't you think it's a little creepy that you're basically hitting on the same girl your son liked?”
Because she did-and she'd had experience with that particularly disturbing dynamic before.
Maybe not exactly, because the game of tug-of-war Lex and Lionel Luthor had played over her had been all about power rather than love and/or sex, but it was similar enough to make the same chill run up her spine.
Since the experience had added a number of insecurity issues to her already large pile-making a mountain large enough to last a lifetime-she wasn't anxious to go through something like that again.
Not that she would be, seeing as how Davis was dead, but somehow she thought just having one competitor in the ring might be worse-especially when that competitor was Zod.
“He was drawn to you because I am drawn to you-and for the same reason I imagine most human men are foolish enough not to give you your proper due. They may preach all they want about liking strong women, but their genetics guide their attractions, and most will always favor females who they think they need to protect.” He rolled his eyes. “It makes them feel better about themselves, though I cannot possibly fathom why.”
The feminist in her was cheered a little bit, but thankfully her brain took over before she did anything stupid like smile at him in reward for his manipulations.
Ugh.
It was like talking to a brick wall.
He didn't understand why she might not want to bear him an heir and he didn't want to listen to try to understand. He just wanted to get his way and he was willing to do or say anything that led to that end.
A brick wall with a freaking agenda.
And not a hero in sight to help her knock the damn thing down.
“Chloe?”
Her eyes widened at the sight of Oliver squinting at her as he approached their table on shaky legs. Had he been sober, she would have let out a cry of relief.
A hero! Thank the Lord!
Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that he wasn't sober, and that made him just another innocent bystander who could be caught in the crossfire if Zod decided to stop humoring her by playing the gentleman-and started asserting the force of his personality to convince her to mate with him.
“What're you doing here?” Oliver slurred.
He sounded accusatory; like he thought she was having dinner with the enemy by choice.
Nice.
“Having dinner,” Zod answered for her. “She's been neglecting her health because she took up the mantle you dropped. Since she will be my queen when I conquer this world, you should know that your mistreatment of her-intentional or not-does not endear you to me.”
Oliver looked surprised, but he didn't goggle at the alien's matter-of-fact delivery.
Chloe, on the other hand, did.
“I've tired of your presence. Leave now,” Zod commanded, and even went so far as to make a shooing motion with his hand, as if the tall, muscular, blond man was nothing more than a pesky fly to him.
“You can't be serious-”
Faster than her eyes could track, her dinner companion had risen from out of his seat and thrown her cousin's ex-boyfriend across the restaurant and into a wall that she really hoped was only there for decoration instead of structural integrity.
She began to push her chair away from the table to rush to Oliver's side and see if he was all right, but Zod returned to his seat, perfectly composed, and gave her a warning glare that told her she shouldn't do it.
“I've found it's human nature to be obstinate, which makes giving lower life forms second chances a waste of time. That's why I don't.” He paused and made sure her attention was fully on him. “And as of now, neither do you.”
Chapter 3
“Despite the mediocre cuisine and your former friend's unwelcome interruption, I'd say our first date went rather well.”
Compared to what? Chloe wanted to ask.
But she didn't. Zod was still humoring her by pretending that he was interested in a relationship beyond her playing the role of human incubator for the many children he wanted to have, and that meant he was being nice.
Relatively speaking, anyway.
So long as he wasn't acting like the psychotic alien he was, she could hold her tongue.
Although, to be fair, she wasn't sure that vow of self-preservation would hold after there weren't so many innocent people standing around that he could use to counter whatever argument or objection she chose to pursue.
“It... wasn't what I expected,” she said for the time being.
It was true enough. She had expected a much higher body count.
But hey, the night was still young, she thought morbidly.
Zod smugly grinned at her, proud because he had undoubtedly interpreted her comment as positive feedback instead of the stalling tactic it really was.
“There. You see?” He set his palm on the small of her back and his long fingers spread in and out a couple of times.
It would have been a comforting gesture coming from from most people, but from him, it just served to make her spine tighten and her heart beat a little faster as her fight or flight reflex started to kick in.
“We can get along wonderfully when Kal-El and his odious little minions aren't around to fill your head with lies and your heart with conflict.”
Chloe glanced back over her shoulder to the curb in front of the restaurant. Out of the several emergency vehicles that were called to the scene, there were only two ambulances and one cop car that were still there.
The Coroner's van wasn't an emergency vehicle, but it was there, too.
Oliver wasn't the one who would be riding in it, for which she was enormously thankful-despite the fact that he'd practically accused her of fraternizing with the enemy.
But that the van was there at all meant bad things for someone who had been over by the wall, and her stomach roiled at the thought that whoever was bagged up and rolled into the back of the vehicle had died because she hadn't been firmer about putting her foot down in going out with Zod.
Her tummy turned again and she rubbed at it. She felt sick and she was almost positive it wasn't food poisoning-although she wouldn't have blamed the management at all if they'd tried to take matters into their own hands before the police arrived. They had no way of knowing that her date couldn't be harmed by the usual array of toxins, after all.
“That said, I think we should go somewhere nicer for our second date,” he continued, nudging her along with the hand he had on the small of her back. Because she didn't want to trip, his action forced to turn her gaze back to the front-which was probably his intention.
No looking back, no second chances.
No attention on anyone that wasn't him.
“Someplace devoid of the riff-raff one seems to run into so often in Metropolis” He grimaced, but managed to turn the expression into something more amiable by the time he glanced down at her. “What do you think of Paris? It's supposed to be romantic and it might put you in a more receptive mood for the conversation you know is inevitable.”
Chloe tried not to cringe, but she was so numb from the night's events that she wasn't sure if she was successful. To cover for her lapse in judgment regarding her self-preservation, she said the first innocuous thing she could think of that might explain the action. “Lana lives in Paris.”
Zod made a sound at the back of his throat. It wasn't quite repulsion, but it was close enough for her to tell what he thought of her statement. “Not Paris, then. Tell me, is there any place on this hovel of a planet where your so-called friends won't be around to meddle in our courtship?”
He'd misunderstood why she pointed out that Lana lived in Paris, but she wasn't going to correct him. The truth was that she would have welcomed all the meddling she could get and Lana was one of the best around at sticking her nose in where it didn't belong-but her friends weren't able to protect themselves.
And after seeing what he'd done to Oliver, she didn't want to unnecessarily risk anyone else's life, even if it meant a brief reprieve from her obsessed alien stalker.
“I'm not as popular as you seem to think,” she said, focusing on his misinterpretation of her words rather than the truth. “And this isn't a courtship. You said 'dinner' and I agreed because you were right about me not eating a lot lately-”
She wouldn't address how he knew that. She was creeped out enough that he'd broken into her apartment without punching through a wall.
“But we're not...” She stopped walking and motioned uselessly between them. “We're not dating or courting or whatever you want to call it.”
Chloe was amazed by how calm she sounded after everything she'd just been through, how confident, when inside she was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't help but wonder if her fear showed through in some physical quirk she was unaware of-a tic in her jaw, a purse of her lips... She had no idea what, if anything, might betray how she really felt.
And that almost scared her more than Zod at that moment.
She decided that she didn't have time to think about why, not if she wanted to keep her wits about her-and since her intelligence was the only thing that might get her out of her current predicament, keeping it sharp seemed like a very good idea.
Zod arched an eyebrow and one corner of his mouth lifted in what appeared to be amusement.
Ugh! What was she thinking? Of course it was amusement.
He had superhuman powers and an evil, multi-billion dollar corporation on his side, and all she had was her.
It was a sobering thought. And a depressing one. After years of fighting the good fight, all she had to show for it was a handful of friends who had all deserted her and the mission.
She was alone.
Even when they had still been around, the only person who hadn't let her down time after time, the only person she had been able to fully trust, was herself. And now that she was going head to head with Zod, that just wasn't enough.
And that was why the thought of her unwittingly showing any weakness had scared her, she realized. Because if she couldn't trust herself, then she had no chance of winning against such a formidable opponent.
“You know, I hadn't give much credence to the psychiatric profiles Ms. Mercer provided for me, but now I think they might have been on to something,” he said, breaking the silence.
The casual tone he used to deliver his words was a lie; she could see the way the skin around his eyes tightened. He was upset and probably a little disgusted by the revelation that any branch of human science might have something over on the advanced beliefs and techniques of his people.
“Commitment issues,” he said, his tone less casual and more disturbed now. “Thought to be brought on by-“
“I know why I have them,” she interrupted curtly.
1 - Her mom had abandoned her when she was young. She knew the reasons behind it now, but she hadn't for a long time, and knowing didn't make the old emotional wounds go away.
2 - Jimmy had cheated on her. The fact that he came back begging for a second chance that she shouldn't have given him was irrelevant.
3 - Clark was an asshole. Sadly, this was the reason that had likely affected her the most. Repeatedly being pushed aside for other girls during her formative teenage years and early twenties stung like a bitch.
And the list went on and on, she thought with a wince.
Maybe she would get lucky and Zod would tire of her snark and just kill her for her insolence. It was a horrible thought, but under the circumstances, she thought it might be the best outcome she could hope for.
“Then you should know that none of your reasons apply to us,” he said with utmost sincerity. “I will not leave you, not even in death as a human mate would. I will not engage in relationships with other women...”
She thought that was largely due to the fact that Kara was the only other Kryptonian female around and she wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole. But then, she hadn't thought Clark's cousin would ever be interested in Jimmy, either, and look where that got her.
“I will not treat you as anything but the extraordinary creature you are,” he finished and reached forward to brush back a lock of her hair that had fallen over her eye.
The touch was surprisingly gentle and she fought not to let the combination of it and his pretty words affect her like her bruised ego desired.
“I meant what I told your fallen human warrior at the restaurant, Chloe. You will be at my side when I conquer this world. You will be my queen. And if that means I have to swear a blood oath to everything I just stated, then I will do so without hesitation.”
Her lips parted, but then closed again. There were too many things going through her head for her mouth to settle on voicing just one. She was startled and wary and distressingly flattered. If she allowed her insecurities to choose like she had with every other relationship she'd ever had-not that there were many-then she was afraid she might say yes.
She was afraid she might say yes anyway. Not because she thought it might be the only real option she had if she wanted to stay alive, but because there was a tiny voice in the back of her head that was growing louder with every second that passed. Every second she had to seriously consider Zod's proposal.
What made things worse was that the voice belonged to that part of her that had refused to let her wallow in misery every time someone who was supposed to care about her put her through hell. Because of that, she felt obligated to listen to it.
Even if it was telling her things she didn't want to hear.
Like how it might not be such a bad thing to finally have a man who promised her the world and actually delivered it.
His fingers caressed her cheek and though she knew what was coming next-it was hard not to since he was uncharacteristically quiet and leaning toward her-but she didn't stop him.
She didn't say no. She didn't turn her face away.
She felt anxious, but not queasy at choosing her life over her morals as she would have expected.
She let his lips touch hers.
It was probably a colossal mistake, but she'd made her decision.
~end~
Author: scifichick774
Pairing: Chloe/Zod
Rating: T
Spoilers: For season nine and previous seasons, but I'm not sticking close to canon as most of my knowledge of the last few seasons comes from Wiki and my f-list rather than the show itself.
Summary: Chloe feels like the world has fallen down around her. Zod's there to take advantage of it.
A/N: It seems like forever since I've written a new Chloe piece, so I hope you'll bear with me while I try my hand at writing her again.
Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me and I'm making no money from this endeavor.
~*~*~
The universe had a seriously warped sense of humor.
Jimmy was dead, Lois was who the hell knew where, Oliver was severely depressed and had aborted his 'higher purpose' in favor of finding the bottom of every bottle he could get his hands on, and Clark had turned his back on both her and his humanity.
Chloe thought that she could have dealt with all of that eventually, had she had the time and personal space necessary to bury her emotions deep enough to be able to pretend her life wasn't as crap-tacular as it looked on paper. Unfortunately, fate had stepped in to make her the butt of its latest cosmic joke-in the literal sense, not metaphorical, since the other component of the lark wasn't human-and she wasn't allowed the time or privacy to lick her wounds.
Her place-her beautiful would-have-been wedding present from Jimmy-was covered in tulips. There were crystal vases of tulips on every square inch of table, ledge, and counter, and tulip petals sprinkled thickly enough that she could barely see the wood floor beneath them.
Under any other circumstances, and if she were any other person, she might think it romantic. As it was, however...
“I was informed they were your favorites. Was my source mistaken?”
She clenched her jaw to keep from screaming-in frustration, not in fear.
Okay, so there might be a little bit of fear involved.
It wasn't every day a girl came home to find the homicidal alien who had been casually stalking her for the last couple of weeks lounging on what she used to think was the most comfortable chair in her apartment, after all.
She didn't ask him how he got in. Major Zod was major evil, but he was also incredibly smart. She was sure it didn't hurt that he possessed all of the nifty superhuman abilities that Clark did, as well.
Easy to break in anywhere when he could just punch his way through any wall that stood in his way.
Thankfully, he'd just relied on his cunning to let himself into her watchtower. She wasn't sure what kind of lie she could have possibly concocted to explain the physical damage that Zod's punching through a wall would have caused.
“I'm assuming your source is Tess?” She was proud that her voice didn't waver, and even prouder that she'd been able to tone down the tremble in her hands by the time she strode over to her desk to drop her purse on it.
Except there was no room to drop her purse on it.
She huffed and then settled for hanging it by the strap on the back of the chair instead. “Since she inherited Lex's empire-little black books detailing the minute details of possible enemies lives included-then I think it's safe to say you know you weren't misinformed.”
Tess might be an evil, manipulative bitch who would lie for no other reason than it amused her to do so, but even she wasn't stupid enough to cross the monster she'd helped bring to Earth.
Chloe turned back to face her own personal stalker and folded her arms across her chest, despite the fact that he would know it was a classic defensive maneuver. “What are you doing here?”
She didn't ask what he wanted. She already knew the answer to that question.
He was intrigued by the fact that she wasn't human anymore, and had told her so in those very words. It wasn't that she was a meteor freak; he'd seen several, he'd said, and despite their interesting genetic anomalies, they were still-she remembered him wrinkling his nose as he said it-human.
He had used the term human as if it wasn't just a bad thing to be, but a useless one; a cockroach that was so far beneath him that it should consider itself lucky if he deemed it worthy enough to step on because that meant that he'd noticed it.
But she, he said, was not human. Not anymore.
Honestly, she wasn't sure what to make of that. Outdated information, maybe? Her healing ability had come and gone, leaving her with nothing in her blood that would have classified her as anything other than someone with residual radioactivity in her system.
At least nothing she was aware of.
Zod steepled his fingers and smirked before leaning forward just enough to make it look like he was genuinely interested in whatever she said-even if it was an accusatory question. “I thought we could have dinner.”
“It's late.”
In other words: What made him automatically assume that she hadn't already eaten? She could have been out on a date for all he knew!
She hadn't been, but still. The fact that he jumped to the conclusion that she wasn't was kind of a blow to her self-esteem.
The fact that he was right was the solid jab and kick that came after that blow.
“All the more reason for you to accept my invitation.”
Invitation? More like a command.
“You have a disturbing tendency to put the welfare of the lesser beings who inhabit this world above your own. When was the last time you had a proper meal? You need proper nutrition to release your full potential, not just the diet of sugar and stimulants that you seem to run on.”
Despite the situation-namely her being alone with a powerful alien who was hell-bent on turning the human race into slaves-Chloe snorted. “Save it. My dad gave me the 'coffee stunts your growth' speech a long time ago, and if I didn't listen to him, then I'm sure not going to listen to you.”
Zod rose from the chair, slow and with purpose, keeping eye contact with her the entire time. Her pulse picked up and though instinct told her to back up-to run-her brain reminded her that obeying those instincts would make him see her as prey, so she stood her ground.
She was having a hard enough time with him stalking her; she knew she wouldn't survive if he decided to chase her instead.
“Dinner, Chloe. That's all I ask. Surely it's not too much of an imposition? Friends have dinner together, don't they?”
“We're not friends.”
His lips twitched and dark amusement twinkled in his eyes.
He took a step.
Two steps.
Three.
His gait was that of a predator, slow and steady stalking, and she wondered if she shouldn't have obeyed her instincts in the first place.
She was shaking on the inside by the time he reached her, and though she couldn't see her reflection in the decorative mirror that hung on the far wall from her position, she was sure that her eyes had widened to the point where it didn't matter whether her trembling was contained or not. Her panic was already evident.
He leaned down-far down; damn Kryptonians were all taller than her-so that his lips barely skimmed her ear. “Not yet.”
She felt one corner of his mouth curl up further against her temple and tried desperately not to scream for help that she was no longer certain would come when he placed a hand on her waist to pull her just a little bit closer.
“And we will be friends, Chloe-”
He paused.
It was never a good sign when the bad guy paused. She knew from experience.
“-Because you don't want me as your enemy.”
Chapter 2
Fournier's was a small, softly lit restaurant that sat at the corner of Fifth and Madison. It had a waiting list three months out, not because it had some of the best food in Metropolis-although it did-but because its romantic atmosphere had made it a popular place for marriage proposals.
Chloe didn't ask how Zod was able to get them a table on such short notice. She didn't want to know.
The sad thing was that she might have been flattered by the blatant attempt at seduction if he hadn't tried the same thing with Lana a few years ago.
And if she didn't know he was married-to a psychotic bitch who'd tried to kill her while possessing her own cousin's body.
She might have even been able to ignore that if the one child he and his wife had genetically engineered into existence hadn't been the one to kill Jimmy.
Chloe forced the thoughts aside. Bitterness had its place and this wasn't it. What she needed right now was to listen to her survival instinct, and it was telling her that she needed to do everything in her power to put Zod off his game.
Distraction was the only tool she could think of that might give her more time to think of a way out of the mess she was in.
Unfortunately, she didn't think leaning forward to accidentally show a bit of cleavage would work the same way on him as it did with most of the guys she knew, so she was left with the less appealing option of bringing up a topic she knew would anger him and hoping it didn't backfire on her.
“So what does your wife think of your plan to get another woman pregnant?”
“I have no idea. I have no way of contacting souls in the afterlife,” he replied calmly, his only expression a frown and it looked like it had more to do with the menu than her question.
“Uh...”
“Faora didn't survive the transition back to Jor-El's dimensional prison.”
Oh.
“And when she was alive?” she asked, eyebrow lifted, pointedly ignoring the way her stomach had just flip-flopped.
The first rule of journalism wasn't persistence like so many thought, it was confidence.
If you didn't have it, fake it, because nobody was going to listen to your questions otherwise.
Once they were listening, then you were persistent.
Of course, she hadn't been a reporter for a while now, but she figured confidence was the first rule for a lot of situations-or at least it should be.
“Lana Lang is one of my best friends.”
Despite the fact that she rarely saw or spoke to her.
Despite the knowledge that if she was the one whose fiancé was killed by alien spawn, Clark probably wouldn't have turned his back on her.
No bitterness, she reminded herself, the voice inside her head a sharp slap to remind her to keep her wits about her.
Right.
Back to the task of getting Major Zod to lose interest in her.
“You think I don't know that you tried to pull the same 'you have to bear my child' stunt with her?” she continued.
Zod set the menu down softly-terribly civilized, which meant he was more dangerous than ever-and then made eye contact with her.
And kept it. She couldn't look away.
“Faora didn't marry me for love, she married me for power. Had she not been barren, she might have been less supportive of my plan, but as it was, she was willing to stand behind whatever steps were necessary for me to come into the power she sought to share in. That included my need of a true heir, not one of her experiments.”
Ouch.
“The only reason I asked Lana Lang to bear my progeny-”
Asked, Chloe mentally scoffed. Demanded, more like.
“-was because I thought she was you.”
She blinked. That... hadn't been what she expected to hear. Not even close.
“Some incompetent underling mislabeled your genetic samples. Switched them. If I didn't know how prone the human race was to such idiocy, I would say it was intentional.”
It probably was, she thought. Though she couldn't think of who might benefit from doing something like that.
Well... There was Faora-she had tried to kill her when she got free, after all, and despite Zod's claim of the woman being supportive, she had no doubt that his wife still felt simple emotions like jealousy-but she hadn't been around when Zod had tried to knock up Lana, so she supposed that let her out of the possible suspect pool.
“I was so focused on my goal that I failed to notice the markers for physical appearance until after I'd been sent back to the Phantom Zone and had time to ruminate on what went wrong.”
“Oh,” she said, out loud this time-if only just barely-and then reached for the glass of water in front of her.
Nothing about the day had gone like she'd hoped it would. Why should her evening be any different?
She moved the negative thoughts from the front of her mind to the back and tried to concentrate. She needed to come up with a new exit strategy and fast, or none of her hopes had a chance of coming true ever again.
“Well, that's... uh... Listen. I have to tell you, this whole thing is just too weird for me.”
And that was saying a hell of a lot-even if he didn't realize it.
“I knew your son, Davis.”
His lips pursed, though she was unsure whether it was because he mourned his loss or because he'd never really seen Davis as a son like he claimed.
“He was... I liked him,” she said softly. “But he liked me... more than that. Don't you think it's a little creepy that you're basically hitting on the same girl your son liked?”
Because she did-and she'd had experience with that particularly disturbing dynamic before.
Maybe not exactly, because the game of tug-of-war Lex and Lionel Luthor had played over her had been all about power rather than love and/or sex, but it was similar enough to make the same chill run up her spine.
Since the experience had added a number of insecurity issues to her already large pile-making a mountain large enough to last a lifetime-she wasn't anxious to go through something like that again.
Not that she would be, seeing as how Davis was dead, but somehow she thought just having one competitor in the ring might be worse-especially when that competitor was Zod.
“He was drawn to you because I am drawn to you-and for the same reason I imagine most human men are foolish enough not to give you your proper due. They may preach all they want about liking strong women, but their genetics guide their attractions, and most will always favor females who they think they need to protect.” He rolled his eyes. “It makes them feel better about themselves, though I cannot possibly fathom why.”
The feminist in her was cheered a little bit, but thankfully her brain took over before she did anything stupid like smile at him in reward for his manipulations.
Ugh.
It was like talking to a brick wall.
He didn't understand why she might not want to bear him an heir and he didn't want to listen to try to understand. He just wanted to get his way and he was willing to do or say anything that led to that end.
A brick wall with a freaking agenda.
And not a hero in sight to help her knock the damn thing down.
“Chloe?”
Her eyes widened at the sight of Oliver squinting at her as he approached their table on shaky legs. Had he been sober, she would have let out a cry of relief.
A hero! Thank the Lord!
Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that he wasn't sober, and that made him just another innocent bystander who could be caught in the crossfire if Zod decided to stop humoring her by playing the gentleman-and started asserting the force of his personality to convince her to mate with him.
“What're you doing here?” Oliver slurred.
He sounded accusatory; like he thought she was having dinner with the enemy by choice.
Nice.
“Having dinner,” Zod answered for her. “She's been neglecting her health because she took up the mantle you dropped. Since she will be my queen when I conquer this world, you should know that your mistreatment of her-intentional or not-does not endear you to me.”
Oliver looked surprised, but he didn't goggle at the alien's matter-of-fact delivery.
Chloe, on the other hand, did.
“I've tired of your presence. Leave now,” Zod commanded, and even went so far as to make a shooing motion with his hand, as if the tall, muscular, blond man was nothing more than a pesky fly to him.
“You can't be serious-”
Faster than her eyes could track, her dinner companion had risen from out of his seat and thrown her cousin's ex-boyfriend across the restaurant and into a wall that she really hoped was only there for decoration instead of structural integrity.
She began to push her chair away from the table to rush to Oliver's side and see if he was all right, but Zod returned to his seat, perfectly composed, and gave her a warning glare that told her she shouldn't do it.
“I've found it's human nature to be obstinate, which makes giving lower life forms second chances a waste of time. That's why I don't.” He paused and made sure her attention was fully on him. “And as of now, neither do you.”
Chapter 3
“Despite the mediocre cuisine and your former friend's unwelcome interruption, I'd say our first date went rather well.”
Compared to what? Chloe wanted to ask.
But she didn't. Zod was still humoring her by pretending that he was interested in a relationship beyond her playing the role of human incubator for the many children he wanted to have, and that meant he was being nice.
Relatively speaking, anyway.
So long as he wasn't acting like the psychotic alien he was, she could hold her tongue.
Although, to be fair, she wasn't sure that vow of self-preservation would hold after there weren't so many innocent people standing around that he could use to counter whatever argument or objection she chose to pursue.
“It... wasn't what I expected,” she said for the time being.
It was true enough. She had expected a much higher body count.
But hey, the night was still young, she thought morbidly.
Zod smugly grinned at her, proud because he had undoubtedly interpreted her comment as positive feedback instead of the stalling tactic it really was.
“There. You see?” He set his palm on the small of her back and his long fingers spread in and out a couple of times.
It would have been a comforting gesture coming from from most people, but from him, it just served to make her spine tighten and her heart beat a little faster as her fight or flight reflex started to kick in.
“We can get along wonderfully when Kal-El and his odious little minions aren't around to fill your head with lies and your heart with conflict.”
Chloe glanced back over her shoulder to the curb in front of the restaurant. Out of the several emergency vehicles that were called to the scene, there were only two ambulances and one cop car that were still there.
The Coroner's van wasn't an emergency vehicle, but it was there, too.
Oliver wasn't the one who would be riding in it, for which she was enormously thankful-despite the fact that he'd practically accused her of fraternizing with the enemy.
But that the van was there at all meant bad things for someone who had been over by the wall, and her stomach roiled at the thought that whoever was bagged up and rolled into the back of the vehicle had died because she hadn't been firmer about putting her foot down in going out with Zod.
Her tummy turned again and she rubbed at it. She felt sick and she was almost positive it wasn't food poisoning-although she wouldn't have blamed the management at all if they'd tried to take matters into their own hands before the police arrived. They had no way of knowing that her date couldn't be harmed by the usual array of toxins, after all.
“That said, I think we should go somewhere nicer for our second date,” he continued, nudging her along with the hand he had on the small of her back. Because she didn't want to trip, his action forced to turn her gaze back to the front-which was probably his intention.
No looking back, no second chances.
No attention on anyone that wasn't him.
“Someplace devoid of the riff-raff one seems to run into so often in Metropolis” He grimaced, but managed to turn the expression into something more amiable by the time he glanced down at her. “What do you think of Paris? It's supposed to be romantic and it might put you in a more receptive mood for the conversation you know is inevitable.”
Chloe tried not to cringe, but she was so numb from the night's events that she wasn't sure if she was successful. To cover for her lapse in judgment regarding her self-preservation, she said the first innocuous thing she could think of that might explain the action. “Lana lives in Paris.”
Zod made a sound at the back of his throat. It wasn't quite repulsion, but it was close enough for her to tell what he thought of her statement. “Not Paris, then. Tell me, is there any place on this hovel of a planet where your so-called friends won't be around to meddle in our courtship?”
He'd misunderstood why she pointed out that Lana lived in Paris, but she wasn't going to correct him. The truth was that she would have welcomed all the meddling she could get and Lana was one of the best around at sticking her nose in where it didn't belong-but her friends weren't able to protect themselves.
And after seeing what he'd done to Oliver, she didn't want to unnecessarily risk anyone else's life, even if it meant a brief reprieve from her obsessed alien stalker.
“I'm not as popular as you seem to think,” she said, focusing on his misinterpretation of her words rather than the truth. “And this isn't a courtship. You said 'dinner' and I agreed because you were right about me not eating a lot lately-”
She wouldn't address how he knew that. She was creeped out enough that he'd broken into her apartment without punching through a wall.
“But we're not...” She stopped walking and motioned uselessly between them. “We're not dating or courting or whatever you want to call it.”
Chloe was amazed by how calm she sounded after everything she'd just been through, how confident, when inside she was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't help but wonder if her fear showed through in some physical quirk she was unaware of-a tic in her jaw, a purse of her lips... She had no idea what, if anything, might betray how she really felt.
And that almost scared her more than Zod at that moment.
She decided that she didn't have time to think about why, not if she wanted to keep her wits about her-and since her intelligence was the only thing that might get her out of her current predicament, keeping it sharp seemed like a very good idea.
Zod arched an eyebrow and one corner of his mouth lifted in what appeared to be amusement.
Ugh! What was she thinking? Of course it was amusement.
He had superhuman powers and an evil, multi-billion dollar corporation on his side, and all she had was her.
It was a sobering thought. And a depressing one. After years of fighting the good fight, all she had to show for it was a handful of friends who had all deserted her and the mission.
She was alone.
Even when they had still been around, the only person who hadn't let her down time after time, the only person she had been able to fully trust, was herself. And now that she was going head to head with Zod, that just wasn't enough.
And that was why the thought of her unwittingly showing any weakness had scared her, she realized. Because if she couldn't trust herself, then she had no chance of winning against such a formidable opponent.
“You know, I hadn't give much credence to the psychiatric profiles Ms. Mercer provided for me, but now I think they might have been on to something,” he said, breaking the silence.
The casual tone he used to deliver his words was a lie; she could see the way the skin around his eyes tightened. He was upset and probably a little disgusted by the revelation that any branch of human science might have something over on the advanced beliefs and techniques of his people.
“Commitment issues,” he said, his tone less casual and more disturbed now. “Thought to be brought on by-“
“I know why I have them,” she interrupted curtly.
1 - Her mom had abandoned her when she was young. She knew the reasons behind it now, but she hadn't for a long time, and knowing didn't make the old emotional wounds go away.
2 - Jimmy had cheated on her. The fact that he came back begging for a second chance that she shouldn't have given him was irrelevant.
3 - Clark was an asshole. Sadly, this was the reason that had likely affected her the most. Repeatedly being pushed aside for other girls during her formative teenage years and early twenties stung like a bitch.
And the list went on and on, she thought with a wince.
Maybe she would get lucky and Zod would tire of her snark and just kill her for her insolence. It was a horrible thought, but under the circumstances, she thought it might be the best outcome she could hope for.
“Then you should know that none of your reasons apply to us,” he said with utmost sincerity. “I will not leave you, not even in death as a human mate would. I will not engage in relationships with other women...”
She thought that was largely due to the fact that Kara was the only other Kryptonian female around and she wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole. But then, she hadn't thought Clark's cousin would ever be interested in Jimmy, either, and look where that got her.
“I will not treat you as anything but the extraordinary creature you are,” he finished and reached forward to brush back a lock of her hair that had fallen over her eye.
The touch was surprisingly gentle and she fought not to let the combination of it and his pretty words affect her like her bruised ego desired.
“I meant what I told your fallen human warrior at the restaurant, Chloe. You will be at my side when I conquer this world. You will be my queen. And if that means I have to swear a blood oath to everything I just stated, then I will do so without hesitation.”
Her lips parted, but then closed again. There were too many things going through her head for her mouth to settle on voicing just one. She was startled and wary and distressingly flattered. If she allowed her insecurities to choose like she had with every other relationship she'd ever had-not that there were many-then she was afraid she might say yes.
She was afraid she might say yes anyway. Not because she thought it might be the only real option she had if she wanted to stay alive, but because there was a tiny voice in the back of her head that was growing louder with every second that passed. Every second she had to seriously consider Zod's proposal.
What made things worse was that the voice belonged to that part of her that had refused to let her wallow in misery every time someone who was supposed to care about her put her through hell. Because of that, she felt obligated to listen to it.
Even if it was telling her things she didn't want to hear.
Like how it might not be such a bad thing to finally have a man who promised her the world and actually delivered it.
His fingers caressed her cheek and though she knew what was coming next-it was hard not to since he was uncharacteristically quiet and leaning toward her-but she didn't stop him.
She didn't say no. She didn't turn her face away.
She felt anxious, but not queasy at choosing her life over her morals as she would have expected.
She let his lips touch hers.
It was probably a colossal mistake, but she'd made her decision.
~end~