The Loyal Opposition, Part 14
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
"My father?"
"Unless you think the Kandorians can run a system diagnostic on her? I think he's our best bet. Our only bet."
He shrugged. "I could ask him."
"I was thinking he could, I don't know, run some tests, download some Krypto anti-virus. It doesn't do us any good to know she's infected if we can't rid her of the infection."
"He would never allow that. He's become incredibly paranoid, and Brainiac is the reason why. I don't know what he would do if I brought her up there and told him I thought she was infected. He's not going to risk another take-over."
She forced herself not to roll her eyes. He was arguing again. It was late, she was exhausted, he must be as well now that he was susceptible to rocks and the common cold, and it wasn't as if he had some genius plan with which to counter hers. He --
She stopped. Drew a breath. Another line of thinking that wasn't safe. Desire, anger, even relief: they all seemed to be red flags to the bull that was Madelyn. Indulge them and she'd charge.
"Cl -- ." She stopped again. The situation might be getting old school, but she must not. There were eyes to see and ears to hear this conversation besides their own. There were so many mines in this field, and no way of detecting them all except by putting her foot down. She drew a breath and plunged on. "This is Lana we're talking about here. You know, Lana, the girl you've loved since you were five? The girl for whom you turned back time, for whom you were willing to remain human? You remember her..." she trailed off as she saw him frown. Shit. She probably shouldn't have added that last one. Anxiously, she sought eye-contact, realized what she was doing, and hastily began examining the lint on his shoulder. She was just going to have to wing it until absolutely necessary. "After all that's happened," she continued, picking at -- was that dog hair? On his shoulder? "after all these years, you finally have the chance to be with her. Don't you want to take it? Don't you think Lana's life is worth the risk?"
"I do," he said "but--"
"Then what's stopping you?" She gripped his shoulder, on the verge of shaking him, and forced herself to relax her hand. Calm was obviously going to require a little more work on her part.
"I told you -- he's as likely to attack as he is to listen to anyone else who enters. Especially someone he perceives as a threat."
"But you'll be with her. Won't he listen to you?"
He looked out the window into a night as dark as night had always been. "I'm not sure I'd disagree with him. A lot depends on the Fortress' ability to function. I'm not sure it's worth the risk."
Three years ago that speech would have reduced her to slack-jawed stupefaction. As it was, she was simply confounded.
"What will you do with her then? You're not going to kill her, are you?" His eyes flashed and she held up pleading hands. "Unless you have another Phantom Zone crystal?"
"No," he said, although she was not sure in answer to which question. "She'll be kept isolated. We'll observe her, keep her away from electronics, until we know what we're dealing with."
"And if she attacks a guard in the meantime, or replicates?"
"We'll deal with that if it becomes necessary," he said decisively.
Well, so much for wanting to believe. What had happened to that? Hell, what had happened to his memory? "If this is Brainiac, and you don't want to kill her, and you don't have a crystal and you don't have some nuclear accelerator-grade magnets with an EMP attached to suck it out of her and a telepath on hand to keep her mind together while you do it, you're going to have to involve Jor-El somehow. He appears to be the only one with the know-how to deal with it. And if you don't pull him in, Brainiac surely will. Even if you keep her locked up you're only delaying the inevitable. You need to go on the offensive here." She was gripping his shoulder again and once more had to will herself to let go. He was looking slightly less arrogant and slightly more chagrined, however. She wondered if in order for him to want to do as she said she needed to want him to do it, if her desire was a requisite for his. Maybe it really was only when there was a will that there was a way. Oh, that 's gonna get messy.
"I could do a dry run with him, give him some time to prep. It's still possible he may not listen to me. He's not happy I haven't finished my training."
"Does he know what you're trying to do?" she asked.
"With the baby? Yeah. He's not too supportive. He thinks I'm getting ahead of myself. In his mind it's training first, everything else later."
That actually didn't surprise her. What did was that Daddy Dearest wasn't putting up a bigger stink, considering the method by which he had chosen to "train" his son the first go-round. Long after the summer they'd both gone underground, Martha had told her what had happened, about picking up a Clark Kent-shaped body with a completely inhuman mind in it from the hospital. That first attempt had taken months of subliminal indoctrination, but the human Clark had become somehow survived it and overcame. It occurred to her that perhaps Jor-El, having failed to succeed, had decided to try, try again. The only difference being, like another disembodied will she knew, he had learned some subtlety. She had no doubt his aims were still the same.
Which would be worrisome if she didn't have another goal right now. She had to get someone up there. Someone not Tess. On the other hand, even if he was the architectural equivalent of Darth Vader, he might be willing to make a deal. Lionel had. "Maybe you could convince him that you're speeding the project up a bit and want his help."
"How? You mean, like with artificial insemination?" His cheeks turned a little pink, and she had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from giggling. Supreme Muckety-Muck-Muck or not, she wondered how many of his subjects knew they could probably incapacitate him just by saying "vagina" in his presence.
"I was thinking more like DNA analysis. I'd think if anyone could pinpoint humans with Kryptonian-friendly chromosomes, it would be Jor-El."
"So I would bring Tess up there -- "
"Do you really want to have a baby with Tess?"
Comprehension bloomed on his face. Slowly. "I would bring Lana up there?"
"And tell him you'd like his helping in screening other candidates. Say you really want to continue your training, but you think its wisest to implement a continuity management plan first, and you're looking to broaden your pool of potential mates."
"Mates, plural? You mean, other than just Lana."
"I -- " Heat flashed through her just under her skin, pulsing under the plastic wrap and in ... other areas. Areas she'd probably turn pink naming. Her and her brilliant ideas. Like getting a tattoo. She focused on its rhythmic itching, and not on ... anything else. "-- suppose. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely." Other than just Lana. Like her. She could go... The heat deepened as want infected her. "You could turn it it into a big initiative. Eventually. Get the rest of the Kandorians involved. You know, after you set the example." She scratched her back, digging ragged fingernails in as deeply as she could through the membrane. She hoped Madelyn didn't get off on receiving pain as much as she did giving it.
He sat back, considering. She watched, waited, and thought she might burst into a million tiny pieces with the effort of holding herself in. She wanted this so much she could barely acknowledge it, even as it leaked through every pore. She felt for the animal, the other inside her, but probing her mind meant immersing herself in her wanting, so she halted. Held back, hand to the bubble, the film of it just on the verge of --
"So I tell him I'm bringing a woman home to meet him, I want him to do a physical on her to find out if she's infected by an artificial intelligence he created and also to learn if she could possibly have my children, in addition to vetting the rest of my potential harem, and in return I'll promise to come back and write my thesis for him?"
Well, when he put it that way, it sounded kind of lame. "Yes?"
He shook his head. "I suppose it's worth a shot."