Fic: Endgame (3/11)
Fic: Endgame (3/11)
Series: Special Projects
Summary: The end.
Author: pen37
Beta: Strangevisitor7 and Clarksmuse
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean, everyone else.
Pairing:Chloe/Dean Sam/Sarah
Rating: pg
This is a part of the Special Projects series. You can find the rest of the series here.
Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7, Ch. 8, Ch. 9, Ch. 10, Ch. 11& Epilogue
Dean stopped abruptly as he caught sight of Luthor. “What's he doing here?”
Chloe cocked an eyebrow at Bruce in question.
“Luthor shared the same body with the demon for months,” Bruce said. “I'm hoping that he could give us insight into how it thinks.”
Dean scoffed. “Demons aren't hard to figure out, pointy-head. Some people play golf or collect stamps. Demons want to see the color of your lower intestines.”
Lex tilted his head in Dean's direction and smiled a tiny half-smile. “It's very black-and-white to you, isn't it, Winchester? Demon - evil. Not-demon - good.”
“Well, if the holy water fits,” Dean said.
“What if I told you that some of the demons that Lilith wants to release were once human?” Lex asked.
Sam and Chloe exchanged concerned looks, while Dean raised his eyebrows.
“What chu' talkin' about, Willis?”
Lex's smile turned bitter. “She liked to torture me with my own thoughts. Especially the ones about my father. She told me - when a soul goes to hell, it endures agony. They break it. Make it forget what it means to be human. It becomes like them.”
“Sam?” Dean looked to his brother for confirmation.
Sam gulped and shook his head slowly. “I don't . . .That's not in any of Bobby's books.”
“You think the established religious hierarchy would want that getting out?” Lex asked. “The Catholic Church once made a fortune selling indulgences. How well do you think the congregation would have taken it if they found out that they not only couldn't pay-by-pray to heaven, but that if they went to hell, they could end up demonic as well?”
“Not well, if the Reformation was any indication,” Chloe said.
“How does that happen?” Sam shook his head.
“Hurt people hurt people,” Bruce said. “I would imagine that rule holds true for demons as well.”
“The demon used to tell me of all the things they were doing to break my father,” Lex said.
“Bet you loved that, chrome dome,” Dean said.
Lex ignored Dean, instead letting his gaze wander between Bruce and Chloe. “It told me about how it would give me over to him when he finally broke.”
Chloe sighed. “As disturbing as hearing about Lionel in hell is, this is all academic. At least until Lilith and the demons make a move. Do we have any indication when that might be?”
“When she does, we know it will be here.” Bruce said. “So far, we know that Lilith has strategically possessed humans around the DC area. She's been using them to hide her movements and take out our operatives like chessmen.”
Bruce produced a large remote, and a holographic map of the area appeared. It hovered in three dimensions above the table. Most of it was green, but portions were lined in vivid red.
“The red indicates areas recently purchased by Luthorcorp,” Bruce said. “Lilith put up a factory and moved the clones there seemingly overnight. I suspect that when the time is right - they'll open a gate and the escaping demons will take the clones. It'll be a silent invasion.”
“So we move in and torch the factory,” Dean said. “No clone bodies, no clone demons.”
“That won't work,” Sam said. “If the demons don't have cloned bodies waiting for them, they'll just grab humans instead.”
“So instead we stop Lilith from opening her gate,” Dean countered.
“What's required to open a dimensional rift into hell?” Bruce asked.
“Lilith tried to open one in Mexico using blood magic,” Sam said. “Usually something like that requires personal sacrifice. Blood spilled, belief in an ideal.”
“And we're right in the middle of battlefield country,” Chloe said. “The Civil War, the Revolutionary War, the French and Indian Wars. There are places where grass still won't grow from the amount of blood shed for an ideal.”
“How do we pinpoint the gate site in all that?” Dean scratched his head.
“We could get the information out of one of Lilith's foot soldiers. If we could catch one,” Bruce said.
“Using who as bait?” Sam's eyes narrowed at Bruce suspiciously.
“The Collector hasn't been discovered by Lilith's people yet,” Bruce said mildly.
Sam's eyes narrowed. “We are not using Sarah as bait,” he said flatly.
“I think she's already volunteered. At least according to Bruce,” Lex said mildly.
Dean and Chloe stepped in front of Sam before he could close with Bruce. From the desk, Lex smiled maliciously.
“Not worth it, dude!” Dean said as he held Sam back.
Sam shoved Dean away. “Yeah?” he spit out. “It's not your girl he's risking.”
A sudden gasp caused Sam to whirl around. Sarah stood in the doorway - hands to her mouth, eyes wide in shock.
“I'm your girl?” she asked.
Sam straightened to his full height and beamed at her as he crossed the room. Gently, he touched the side of her face.
“Well - yeah. At least I thought so.”
Sarah nodded slowly. Then a wide smile crested on her face. She threw herself into his arms, and stretched up to meet his lips in an intense kiss.
Dean grinned at the two of them, then coughed noisily. Almost immediately, Chloe elbowed him in the side.
“Ow! What?”
“Come on,” Chloe pulled him away. “I have a feeling that Sam is going to want to be nearby when Sarah's sting operation goes down, so we should plan it carefully.”
“I'd rather find a broom closet,” Dean grumbled. Chloe shot him an exasperated look. “What?” he shrugged. “Sam's going to. Why shouldn't we?”
She rolled her eyes in response. “One track mind, and it's kept in your downstairs brain.”
* * *
Chloe sat frowning at the borrowed supercomputer. As soon as Sam, Dean and Sarah had left to go trap the demon, she started trying to cross-reference Luthorcorp land deals with possible locations for a dimensional rift into hell. But so far, none of the potential consecrated areas were matching up.
Once again, she thought about her Smallville high school education. In some ways, high school had done a good job preparing her for life. In others: not so much. Advanced programming just didn't cover hell gates.
So when Lois came into the room and drug up a chair next to her, it only partially distracted her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I married Superman,” Lois sounded affronted. “I'm allowed to hang out at your tacky marble clubhouse.”
“I just meant that I thought you would be back in Metropolis obsessing about tulle,” Chloe said.
“Everyone is here,” Lois said. “Clark though it would be safer for me to be here also. Besides, sometimes he needs help seeing all the angles.”
Chloe nodded at that.
“What are you doing?” Lois asked.
“Plotting the gates of hell.”
“The usual, then.” Lois said. “Assuming we live through this - you do know what you're supposed to be doing at the wedding reception?”
Chloe cringed inwardly. Lois had been sending her detailed plans. Sometimes twice daily. It made the Luthor-Lang wedding look like a parade by comparison. “Show up, wear my dress. Make sure that Dean is there. Try to keep him from bribing the DJ to play Back in Black.”
“He would do that?” Lois winced.
“He's quite the fan of classic rock.”
“How does he feel about Whitesnake?” Lois asked.
“Glam rock makes him twitch,” Chloe said. “I'll try to corral him.”
“What if I arranged for Karaoke?”
“For the love of all that is good and holy, don't let Dean or Sam near a microphone.” Chloe said.
“That bad?”
“I once met a demon who confirmed this: there's a circle of hell where they torture people by forcing them listen to the Winchester version of Proud Mary.”
“Now you're just making things up,” Lois rolled her eyes.
“Maybe,” Chloe grinned. “But trust me when I say that they're awful.”
“I'll keep that in mind.” Lois squinted at the screen. “Do these hell gates have to be on Luthorcorp land?”
Chloe blinked at that. Now that she thought about it, she realized that they didn't. All they needed was consecrated ground, and they could easily slip in, raise their demon army, and slip out again. “No,” she said as she quickly keyed in a second search string. Then she shook her head. “Still nothing.”
“How fast can a demon travel?” Lois asked.
Chloe looked up in thought. “Pretty fast,” she said. “Sam said that the night the Devil's gate opened in Wyoming - there were clouds of demons spotted all over the country.”
“Widen your search further,” Lois said. “If the bad guys were trying to open a gate in Mexico, they could try to open one anywhere.”
“We were assuming that they had the clones nearby in Mexico,” Chloe said absently. “That's why Laney-in-Lex was there.”
“But that doesn't have to be the case,” Lois said.
Chloe nodded. This time, when she encoded the parameters, she found a target.
“The Devil's Den?” Lois read over her shoulder.
Chloe nodded. “In Pennsylvania. It's driving distance from here. In fact, the major part of the second battle of Gettysburg took place there.”
“There's your holy, consecrated ground then.”
Chloe called up a quick background check on the site. “Looks like they called it Devil's Den before the battle.”
“Wonder why?” Lois singsonged.
“It's a large outcropping of rock. In some places the crevices in them go so deep, that they are said to go all the way down into hell.”
“Maybe they do,” Lois said. She patted Chloe's shoulder. “Looks like you have everything under control here. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call a man about some doves.”
“Doves?” Chloe asked.
“For the reception. We're going to release them when you and your hot hubby arrive.”
“Can't wait,” Chloe rolled her eyes.