The Loyal Opposition, Part 6 of ???
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. Thanks to go_clo for the amazing banner!
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
[Sidebar editorial: Ack. I think I'm going to do all my fic posting now on Recovery Saturday. Did not watch last night (saw Where The Wild Things Are, which was beautiful and bittersweet, and holy moly what a cast!), but have read recent comments and spoilers. Have decided that my "Ironic" thesis may be giving them way, way, way too much credit.]
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Chloe bit her lips between her teeth to keep from screaming. She was rigid with unspent tension and the sudden absence of Madelyn, who had fled as quickly as she'd returned. Forget Oliver, she thought. Let Lex do his worst.
Of course right now Tess herself still looked angry in a smooth, acquiescent sort of way. Leaving Kal-El alone with Lana did not suit her at all, but the decision had been made.
Well served the b***h right. What was going on between the two of them, anyway? Was the hair sending some kind of Oedipal signal? Had she conjured a 16th century witch of her own?
The hair in question was tossed and Tess gave a brief nod to the Kryptonian guard. Again with the head signals. Did no one on the security team ever talk to one another? The guard seized Chloe's elbow and gently hoisted her to her feet. Her knees screamed, and she staggered; she wondered if the guard knew his hold on her was the only thing keeping her upright. She just had time to notice Kal-El lifting Lana and setting her on one of the couches next to the fire-place before she was rushed out the doors behind a determined-looking Tess.
Chloe swallowed. Remember what I said, Maddie-girl. This head off this body.
She and the guard followed Tess to a room at the end of the hall, smaller than the library but with equally large windows that had once overlooked the garden. That had changed, if nothing else had. Few plants had survived the spectrum shift.
"They call this room the solar," Tess announced, as if she were a realtor and Chloe a prospective buyer. Tess moved to the windows while the guard took the usual position by the door, watching Chloe while Tess watched the dead landscape. "I believe it served as a drawing room for the ladies of the family at one time."
"The Luthor ladies?" She had no idea where Tess was going with this, but if Tess wanted to be chatty, Chloe could chat. If Tess wanted to dance the watusi Chloe could do that too. She just wished the woman would turn around.
"No, the original builders, the MacLeod ladies. The house was part of their parish. I don't believe Lillian spent much time in this room. Her health was so poor. And after Lillian, there was no lady of the house until Lex married. You know how that turned out. Or should I say, 'those'? Women don't last very long in this house." With that she finally looked back, her mouth twisted somewhere between contempt and amusement.
"But you have," Chloe answered. Tess' face relaxed into a pleasured surprise. Oh please. She'd been tangling with Luthors when Tess was still swimming with dolphins. On the other hand, she realized, it wasn't only the mansion's women Tess had out-lasted. Lionel was dead. Lex was a cripple and exile. Zod had disappeared. But here Tess stood, taking her ease in the solar. The woman was a quick study.
"Yes," said Tess. "I'm still here. And now, so are you." She took a seat at a small table next to the window, waving her hand at the chair across. "I'm just dying to know how it is you got here."
Chloe pulled out the chair and took a moment to settle herself. "I took the interstate to the county road" was the tempting answer, but counter-productive. She'd dismissed Tess as a high-ranking party flak the moment she'd met her, but her attitude was going to need an adjustment if she wanted to leave this room on her own steam. She had to focus. "I assume," she replied, her eyes glued to Tess', "that means you want the five W's of the resistance."
Tess shrugged. "I doubt you have the big scoop. The resistance has their agents," she smiled, "and we have ours."
Chloe remembered the alien in the room and concentrated on her breathing. No. No way. No f**king way. Who? Who did Tess want her to think would turn? Take care of Tess while you're in there. Ollie? Could Ollie do that? Would he want back in Tess' pants badly enough? She shut the thought down. It was possible. It was also possible the woman was just trying to mess with her mind. She was going to have to put more effort into it than that, Chloe decided.
"And therefore you needed me to walk in here and pin-point Lana's location for what reason?"
Some of the contempt crept back into Tess' face. "Obviously her movements were made privy to only a select few. Any covert group worth the description would limit that kind of information. And you all have been covert. Your group has a certain -- what? Signature, shall we say, I recognize from previous associations." You don't con a con man, her expression seemed to say. "No. What I really want to know is why you thought it was a good idea to waltz into the Metropolis security station and surrender."
After you tell them what they know, when you've established you're not a liar, then you tell them what they want to hear, Lex had said. "It's done," Chloe said. "The implosion in Bamiyan convinced me of that." The massacre in Bamiyan, she thought, but calling it that wouldn't get her anywhere.
"You're saying martyrdom isn't your style?"
"I'm an agnostic."
"Which means you're either lazy or a coward."
"It means I'm open to the fact that reality may not conform to my thoughts about it." You there, Maddie-girl?
"Our team leader said he counted 932 skeletons in those caves after the collapse. You're telling me the deaths of 932 people convinced you your thoughts that, and I quote, 'The Kal-El regime will never bring peace, only more genocide' were wrong?"
Wake UP Madelyn. We need to convince her that my words are right -- right now! She took a moment, as if to gather her thoughts, breathed deeply. With Kal-El, it had been easy -- easier, at least. They'd known what he wanted. She'd been on the money with her pig guard, too; the man had turned traitor for belly and bullying, which is probably why he hadn't been told anything important. What did crazy-ass Tess Mercer want besides the never-ending reign of Kal-El?
She looked back at Tess, smiled weakly. "I see you're a fan of my work." Tess smirked in return. Eye contact. Focus. Lose the attitude. Where was all the fear when she needed it? Deep breath. "Bamiyan convinced me that the answer to people dying is not more people dying. We aren't going to get out of this hole if we keep digging. Especially not when nature," she choked out the word, "is doing such a damn fine job of solving the over-population problem. I surrendered because I want to stop. I want the dying to stop. And I hope my surrender will encourage others to stop as well."
"I doubt that," Tess said. "But they may be inspired to give up the good fight when you are tried and executed."
Chloe felt her saliva thicken, felt how hard it was becoming to swallow. She felt fear now, nestled just below her ribs in the general vicinity of where her stomach had once sat. Not the fear that quickened, but the fear that killed. She had guessed wrong. Tess didn't want to hear how wrong Chloe thought she had been. Ok. So no more guessing. She was dead anyway. Might as well get straight to the point.
"Is that what you want? You want to see me dead?"
She never took her eyes from Tess' but Chloe could see the expression around those eyes changing. A flit of a question, then a softening, sarcasm and disdain melting into openness. She looked younger, and even tentative; Chloe's one thought besides surprise was that if this was the kind of vulnerability she projected for Kal-El then what she'd seen in the library between them was no surprise at all.
"What I want?" She seemed to give the question actual thought, as if she wasn't sure. "What I want -- is justice."
Justice? What could that possibly mean to Tess Mercer? No time to think, though. Two queens on the table and no choice whether to stay or take the hit.
"Justice is all I've ever wanted too," Chloe said quietly.
"I'd guess we define justice differently," Tess answered, but she seemed ... distant. Her eyes were focused vaguely on the hideous porcelain vase in the center of the table. With gaudy castings of pink peonies and red birds stuck all over it, Chloe was surprised it had survived the Great Lana Purge of 2007. It must have also been hideously expensive to do that. Tess, however, seemed fascinated by it. She picked it up and stared hard first at the birds, then at the empty interior before finally setting it down.
Okaaaaaay.
"But," Tess resumed, as if nothing had happened, "as entertaining as it would probably be, a trial may not be the best use for you. And have been remarkably useful at times. Kal-El told me how you stopped him from imprisoning Davis Bloom in the Phantom Zone. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that."
"I aim to please," said Chloe with a breathy little laugh. She hoped that seemed appropriate. She hadn't been able to help herself. What had just happened? More Madelyn hoodoo or had Tess finally fallen into the deep end of the pool?
Tess gave her a little smile. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
"None. Well, I remember the incident in question. I just never realized keeping Davis free was important to you. I mean, you tried to blow him up. You sent assassins after him."
"I sent assassins after you. Not very bright assassins, as it turns out. But I admit I had no idea a threat to you would cause him to react that way. And at the time I was distracted by a lead that went nowhere. I'm sure you remember how frustrating that can be."
Tess was a master of deflection. Chloe had to give her that. But she was no longer a reporter and asking the probing follow-up question, as badly as she wanted to, was not her objective. Keeping her head was. The head that was still reeling from the other woman's good cop-bad cop-insane cop routine. What was going on?
"All too vividly," she said. As in live-and-in-color vivid.
"It seems we have more in common than we thought then. What do you say we just let bygones be bygones."
It had to have been Madelyn. What could Tess want from her? Unless the thing that Tess wanted was her. Which was just sil -- Could -- ? She smiled her big patented Sullivan smile, guaranteed to bamboozle county records clerks and big dumb aliens. "Of course," she said. "Bygones."