The Loyal Opposition
Title: The Loyal Opposition
Author: latetothpartyhp
Rating: PG-13
Genre: drama
Spoilers: through Pandora
Pairings: ETA: I envisioned this as mainly a Chlark confrontation, but what emerged in addition to that were some hints of Chlex friendship, mutual Chless manipulation, and some (mostly) off-screen Clana. There's also a Lexana fight for anyone who's interested. And Cless! We have added Cless!
Warnings: some violence & language - ETA: Character deaths in store.
Summary / Author's Note: Chloe's on a mission for the resistance. Could be a Supernatural crossover if you squint real hard.
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Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14 / Part 15 / Part 16 / Part 17
“No, I don't,” Chloe answered. And to think she'd thought Madelyn was crazy... She shut her eyes, probably a bad move but she needed to focus. All the control she'd wheedled and worked so carefully for had been snatched from her, thanks to her mouth, and now they were back to death threats. So now it was her move, pawn to queen's three: what did Tess want? She opened her eyes. “I gave you my best guess. It was right. I don't know what more you expect from me.”
“Some respect would be nice. I'm not an idiot, Chloe. Keeping Davis out of the Phantom Zone was your idea, not Kal-El's, and I would bet this gun against an hour in a holding cell with Alera that bringing Lana to the Fortress was your idea as well.”
Point noted. Madelyn? “I think we've both given him a few ideas over the years,” she said. Tess' nostrils flared. Careful. “And, I know we're not the only ones. Lana's been known to have an influence on him, and while that has had its downsides I know I am far more comfortable with a Kal-El who would prefer to leave a woman he has cared about alive than a Kal-El who kill her once he realizes what a threat she really is.”
“Obviously,” Tess replied. She did, however, click Glock's safety back on and tuck it into the waist-band of her cargoes. “I do hope you realize what happens now is on your head.” She opened another drawer and pulled out another box, this one not noticeably made of lead, and pulled an ear-piece from it. “Rangi, report.” She paused, waiting for a response, and added, “Bring my car to the side entrance. We're going to the Foregate.”
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County Road 30 hadn't gotten any smoother in the last year and a half, Chloe thought as the Jeep Rangi drove sped her and Tess to wherever it was the Foregate lay. In fact, she was pretty sure the potholes were the one life-form on the planet that had managed to be fruitful and multiply. Road maintenance was clearly not a priority of the Kal-El regime, even this close to home.
Nor were the pot-holes the only sign of crumbling infrastructure. Her earlier trip from Metropolis to the mansion had been in the back of an armored truck, so there hadn't been much of a view. This time she had a court-side seat to the decay of Lowell County. The houses and barns that hadn't been cratered into the ground were all on the verge of collapse. The army, when there was still something left that could be called an army, had hit Smallville hard. An assassination attempt that failed, the propagandists had said, but Chloe knew her Uncle Sam knew the futility of that. It had been revenge, the only kind the old man could get, and she couldn't in her heart of hearts blame him.
Still, so many land-marks were missing she barely knew where they were. Perhaps to show the world he couldn't be black-mailed Kal-El had left Smallville undefended. Or perhaps he truly didn't care the Wild Coyote had been destroyed and and the Hubbard's mud-room shower was on display for the whole world to see. Did it mean so little to you? She wondered. If so then why the hell do you stay?
As if the universe felt her rhetorical question deserved an answer, the Jeep pulled into a long-untilled field with a spiky protrusion running along the edge. Smooth and regular, the spikes glowed a dirty, rusty gray in the red light, as if absorbing rather than reflecting it. As the Jeep neared the protrusion it grew, and she could see it wasn't outcropping of any kind of rock indigenous to Kansas. It was part of a structure made, she was sure, of materials from a galaxy far, far away, and unless she had lost all sense of direction it covered the area of the Kawatche caves.
“What is this?” she asked.
Tess flicked a glance back at her from her position in the front passenger seat but otherwise ignored her. After a quick glance at Tess, Rangi answered: “This is the Foregate. I don't know how it was built. The Kandorians did it.”
“Does it … do anything?”
“It stands,” Tess said. “Get out.”
“You want me to come along?” Rangi answered.
“No. Alera's up there. I need you to keep watch down here, make sure no one else comes in. I'll contact you when we get there. If I'm not back an hour after that I want you to take the Jeep and go.”
“What about her?”
Tess stared out the window a moment, then shrugged. “Your call. If she comes back alone she may be useful or she may make things more complicated. Just don't take too long to decide.”
“Alright,” he said slowly.
Tess smiled at him then, wryly enough that Chloe thought it must be genuine. “It's a little sooner than anticipated, but we've hit Ararat. Time for the floodwaters to recede.”
“Yeah. I know.” He glanced back at Chloe, his face troubled.
Tess turned to her as well. “Get out,” she repeated. “You're coming with me.”
Chloe schooched over to and stumbled out the rear driver door. If Tess was going to do anything she was going to have to work for it, she decided. Tess, however, was back to ignoring her, plunging down the hill to the large triangular opening that looked like the entrance. Beside her, Rangi out. “Best get a move on,” he said. He looked calmer but his voice was harsher, and it occurred to her that now might be a good time to demonstrate her aptitude for usefulness.
“Good idea,” she said, and took off after her. Her breath came faster than she would have expected with the light jog. The discussion of what to do with her if she came back had quickened it, she thought. If she came back. If she came back and Tess didn't. What did Tess expect to happen? What had she anticipated?
Something tickled in her mind, and something else chuckled in response. That was irritating. She hated being the only one who didn't get the joke.
“So. What was that all about?” she asked as she caught up. “That thing with the floodwaters. What did you mean by that?”
“It was a metaphor,” Tess said, pulling the Glock from her waistband. “What did you think it was?”