The Loyal Opposition, Part 21
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.
Check out this amazingly cool banner by go_clo!
Author's note for Part 21: Remember when I said this wasn't a happy Chlark fic? Also, I know nothing about Latin verbs.
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 / Part 18 / Part 19 / Part 20
Chloe clutched the crystal in her hands to her chest. She'd never seen anything like what Tess was experiencing, and the “never” included a sense of finality that wasn't, she knew, her own. Nothing touched Tess, no knives or pincers or screws, nothing but the light - and yet her agony was vivid enough to taste. It was beautiful and powerful and she slapped a stiff, cold hand to her mouth when she realized she was giggling. Digging the tip of a crystal into the palm of her hand, she inhaled deeply and shouted: “Stop it! Listen to your son! He can barely breathe! Punishing her will not help him!”
“Tess Mercer was correct,” answered the AI. “My son is weak. He gave up his powers to help the people of this planet. He trusted in them and they have betrayed him. The time for indulgence is at an end. I have recorded his memories. This body is no longer necessary.”
“What the hell does that mean? You're going to let him die?” Fear walloped her like a rolling pin to the head. Kal-El was not... Despite the ever-present red sun and everything it implied, it had never occurred to her that he could die. Would be allowed to die. Her eyes drifted upward. She did not think it had occurred to Tess either.
“His essence will remain. In time I will prepare a new body for him.”
Above her, Tess' body arched like a bow, her arms flailing helplessly below her head. Chloe snapped her eyes shut against the sight. “No! He's your son, not some out-dated software! You can't just upgrade to the next version and refuse to supply support for the old one!”
“You did well to bring him here, Chloe Sullivan. Because you did Kal-El will not be lost. However, it is now time for you to leave. Go and serve the House of El.”
A bright light shone through her lids. She opened them and ran, stumbling over crystal ridges unseen through her dazzled vision, racing toward Kal-El, who had pulled her out of the grave and had stopped that car on Black Thursday; Kal-El who was Clark, who had always been Clark, and whose eyes had gone glassy. Her seemingly ever-present nausea made a return appearance while her mind raced and gibbered in circles around and around a curious, eager center. She froze when the center spoke.
What do you want? it said.
You know what I want! she screamed at it, unfreezing. The light had found her again.
I know what our bargain is...
Heal him!
I can do this if the terms of our bargain are met.
Just do it!
You will uphold your end?
“YES!”
The veins around her skull pulsed with a new pressure and her eyes squinted against the sudden brightness of the light. Pain flooded her head and pooled in her belly, pushing her stomach up and in. Above her, Tess sobbed and the pain swelled, burning down her face into her throat, her chest, her lungs. The air was harder, metallic; it cut into her lungs as she sucked it in. The light that had chased her changed its color, turning red, and she clutched at her abdomen. Bad choice, old machine. Her hand lifted, fingers forked; her mouth opened -
“Arde!”
The word left her lips and the crystal console exploded into a ball of blue flame. A hot wind blazed past her and she ducked against the sharp fragments that blew with it and cut her skin. When it passed, a different wind filled the hall, cold and angry, blowing in from the ice. She heard a thump and opened her eyes. To her side Tess lay sprawled on the ground, mewling.
The pressure inside grew harder, sharper; it punched her stomach up and with it came a gush of acid that spilled out of her mouth onto the white snow. White snow... she turned away from the shattered remains of the console and the bodies lying next to her to the Fortress' opening, into which the Artic wind now blew. Beyond it the stretched mile after mile of snow, flat and desolate, just as before, but with the difference that she now had to squint to look at it, because flooding down and bouncing spotlessly off it over every mile was the clear, sharp light of the yellow sun.
After so long...
Inside her skull, the pressure burst. Light blinded her and pain hammered her from her crown to her tailbone. There was a moment of confusion, memories jostling: images, smells, sounds colliding with one another - and then it was over. There was a curious lack of weight about her, as if gravity had suddenly stopped working, and then her eyes opened, and she knew the terms of her bargain had been fulfilled, for she had not opened them. Nor was it she who turned her head back, or flexed her fingers, or took a step closer to Tess.
Madelyn had.
Beneath her she could hear Tess gasping in an odd rhythm and her body bent toward her. Tess smiled up at her face and Chloe knew it was a smile of triumph. “There's your rainbow,” Tess panted, and Chloe heard herself giggle. Then her body straightened and kicked Tess in the head.