Tipping the Board - 1/3
Lex looked down at the chessboard. It was a perfect game of strategy. It was attacking, defending, retreating, taunting and other things all geared towards victory. Some people fancied themselves as masters of the game, but they didn’t really understand the complexities. There was one immutable fact about chess that everyone occasionally forgot: every piece is ultimately a pawn. The fancy jumping knight, the diagonal bishop, the straight as a line rook, and even the magnificent queen with her freedom to move how she pleased. Some people could never see that.
The room he was in was beautiful. He designed it. Ornate art. An expansive bed. Beautiful doors. He sighed and glanced at the only other thing that made sound in this room, the clock. He would never run out of time.
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From the moment he finished with her that fateful summer, Lex knew that Chloe was valuable and that he had to have her. She would be his black queen. Chloe would be at his side protecting him. He couldn’t make her his outright. Her value lay in revealing more of Clark. He couldn’t interfere with her. The queen had to be free.
But one such as her would never leave Clark, her white king. She would do as a queen would and protect him. It was a boon that Pete, his knight, left Smallville. Even better when his bishop died and his rook left to fulfill the duties the bishop left behind. Clark was adrift, but he still had his queen. Clark may have viewed the vapid Lana as his queen, but Lex knew better. Lana was and would always only be a pawn.
Lex moved a pawn, LexCorp pharmaceuticals, and then another, Moira Sullivan. The goal was simple: develop a way to control the meteor infected. Of course, that was when he didn’t know the truth about Clark or Chloe, but it worked out even better. He could control Chloe. And he succeeded.
It surprised him how easy it was to take her and make her find the information he needed. Clark was an alien, Oliver Queen was the Green Arrow, and more. It amazed him the amount of dirt she had accumulated on him. She had found hidden projects worse than Level 33.1. Chloe couldn’t confirm their existence with actual evidence, but it was only a matter of time. But even more exciting was the leverage he had over Oliver Queen. Suddenly his old nemesis was rendered inconsequential. It was a blood fever in him and he had to take it further. Queen had to be destroyed and Chloe was his instrument of choice.
The rest of them had fallen like dominoes. Queen was the foundation and Lex had ground him to fine dust. In a flash, they crumbled and he set his sights on Clark. It always ended with him. Clark, who had been his greatest friend and had become his greatest enemy, was his opposite. He had brains and Clark the brawn. He was the outsider, who tried hard, but eventually gave up because they weren’t worth it. Clark was effortlessly liked.
He should’ve delivered the final blow and been declared the victor; or it should’ve been Clark. Lex should’ve seen the castling. He should’ve seen the rook trade places with the king, but he didn’t. Chloe was the queen, but even in this she defied convention.
Every game played only worked when all parties acknowledged the rules of the game. He had assigned her the role of queen as did Clark even if he didn’t realize that; but she had other plans. Chloe was in turns the queen, the bishop, the knight, and the rook. But more than anyone else, Chloe Sullivan knew the truth. She was a pawn. And she treated herself as such. She should’ve accepted his victory. Everyone else had. There were no more moves to be made, but that doesn’t matter when your opponent upends the playing field, which is what she did.
Lex had never bothered trying to understand what ways the meteor rock affected her. He only knew that Moira Sullivan could control the meteor infected, his pharmaceuticals department made it into a drug, and that drug worked on Chloe Sullivan.
It was arithmetic that added up to his victory. But his arrogance clouded his vision. He never saw the glint of absolute obedience gradually become awareness and then horror. He never saw that awareness and horror morph into anger and hatred. He never saw her anger and hatred smolder and transmogrify into the beast of intelligence and vengeance. It was the exact moment that he lost. And he, the black king, never saw the checkmate.
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There was a gentle knock. Lex had to forcefully prevent himself from cringing when the door opened. She looked good. The designer dress and shoes fitted her form and added to her measure. His greatest regret was that even still he could barely see the insanity in her eyes. But even as that spark lit her face and what used to be his trademark smirk touched her mouth, he still wanted his black queen.
The only solace was that Clark didn’t win either. Her blow destroyed Clark even as it brought him low. She came to him sporadically. To gloat. To talk. To pick his brain. Chloe had the status that he had craved his entire life. LexCorp was hers and even his presidency.
Today she came to gloat. He knew it because at her side was Lex Luthor, or rather, the machine that took his form. A damned machine. Even Brainiac was hers to command. He would never fully understand the mechanics of the moves that brought him to his cage. There was another truth that Lionel never taught him and he had never learned until Chloe: the queen had to be free, but the king, who could only ever move one space, was trapped. She was a master and Lex wished that he had seen that sooner.
Part II: All of You