"What on EARTH Can an Alien AI Know Anyway?"
By Mari2Anne
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine; I do not own them or Smallville.
Pairing: Chloe/Jimmy, Chloe/Clark
Spoilers: Another version of mine about what's happening to Chloe in S8 up to and through part of Bride. I started writing it during the long hiatus between Abyss and Bride.
References from: Apocalypse, Relic, Identity, Abyss, Bride and many other episodes. Not following any particular order of how they happened on the show, jumping around a lot, to answer a question I had: "What if the Chloe mind-wipes/take-overs (Brainiac's & Jor-El's) didn't exactly work 100% because of something the aliens had not considered or known about?"
Status: Completed/One shot.
A little angsty, maybe.
PG/PG-13.
Hope you enjoy; please forgive any grammatical errors. Feedback is wonderful. But mostly, thank you for reading.
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The first time Chloe opened her eyes in the hospital she was too frightened to speak. Too much had happened and her mind was a whirlwind of confusion. The last thing she remembered was panicking when Davis Bloome planned to leave her at the Talon with Jimmy and Clark, neither of whom she recognized at the time. Davis had grabbed her as she'd tried to avoid Jimmy trying to get close to her, warning him, "Just stay away from me." And then Davis had a syringe in his hand and was injecting something into her neck before she could get away.
The next thing she remembered was waking up a little while ago in this hospital bed with strange snippets of a frightening nightmare that she couldn't quite focus on. As she turned her head she first saw Clark standing there beside her bed, anxious and worried and eyes filled with an expression resembling guilt. What he should feel guilty about or why he had this weird habit of blaming himself for all the bad things that happened around him, she had no clue. But she wondered why she had the nagging feeling that she should know for the same reason why she understood that expression in his eyes so well.
For the first few moments of awareness of her surroundings, she couldn't focus her mind. It felt like she didn't know Clark at all; and yet, she somehow understood she didn't have to know him to know she knew him well. That made no sense and she eyed him cautiously as he came closer. When he touched her arm, the slight hesitancy in his voice, "I'm so glad you're okay, Chloe," made something pull at her heart, but he backed away to let Jimmy closer before she could put a name to it.
Jimmy leaned down and pulled her into a tight hug, giving a very audible sigh of relief when she didn't push him away but clung to him, "Oh, God, Chloe. I was afraid you still might not remember me."
"I'm so sorry, Jimmy, I don't know what happened to me. Some weird panicking, I guess. Maybe I was just thinking too much and my mind found an escape route by going into hiding…" she replied softly, looking over Jimmy's shoulder and locking eyes with Clark.
"I'M SORRY…TO GO BACK TO HIDING THE TRUTH FROM YOU, BUT THE BEST WAY I KNOW TO PROTECT YOU IS TO LET YOU GO."
His lips hadn't moved, but she felt it had been his voice saying those words to her; quietly whispered next to her ear with a sadness that broke her heart. But when had that been and where? What had they meant? She sensed she knew the answer; it was buried somewhere deep in her subconscious. She tried to concentrate but she was so very tired and as Clark's eyes lowered as if trying to escape her scrutiny, Jimmy pulled back a little and then kissed her.
She felt comforted. Wanting his warmth and to quiet his fears, she kissed him back. Before she closed her eyes, she watched Clark release a strangled breath before he quietly turned and walked out of her hospital room. Jimmy was reluctant to let her out of his sight so she encouraged him to stay while she slipped into a much needed long nap.
Maybe because she'd drifted off knowing she was in the hospital, her dreams started in the same facility with her getting advice from a magnetic resonance imaging technician to close her eyes and think of a place that made her happy. She had thought of many places, flashes that now wove themselves in and out of her dreams. But it wasn't the places that brought happy distracting thoughts; it was the person who was in each place: her friend, Clark Kent. Thoughts that involved hugging or kissing him and doing everything she could to hold onto him and his memory.
When her dream relived the Dark Thursday memory when she'd realized that no memory was safe from disappearing, that she was forgetting Clark, she held onto him and fearfully told him, "I can't lose you, Clark," and he'd assured her, "Chloe, I'll never leave you."
And in her dream, he didn't. He'd held onto her until she believed him and released the death grip she had on him. But even so the dream took on a nightmare quality when a concerned Clark told her, "We both know what's happening to you."
She had agreed, "I'm being taken over by Brainiac."
"Brainiac is replacing your memories with Kryptonian data."
She had speculated, "Do you think Brainiac is sending me a message?"
Clark had been adamant, "Whatever he's doing we need to stop it."
Suddenly another voice interrupted, "I tried to warn you of the dangers in sharing your true identity."
And that's when she woke up, a quick scan around the small room, telling her she was alone. To the air she whispered, "Why did you do it, Clark?" There were still too many things out of order in her mind for them to make complete sense, but so many things came back to her. Her life, that had seemed to be on some pre-programmed auto-pilot for the last several weeks, suddenly seemed to have had a purpose. She just had to try to figure out what it was. "Wake up and concentrate, Chloe!" she quietly commanded herself.
Everything came back to her with an alarming speed as though a photo album that had been closed to her was opened and dropped at her feet. The pictures were jumbled and out of order, some face-down, but they were all there in bright living color and as she forced herself to pick them up one at a time to put them back in their proper sequence into the album a sound-track was added.
She leaned back into the pillow, closed her eyes and her mind picked up the photo she imagined was the beginning. The picture was taken in the living room of the Kent farmhouse after Lex had been arrested for the murder of his wife, Lana Luthor. She had gone to the farm to make sure Clark was all right. The conversation had gone a direction she had never anticipated when Clark revealed he'd planned on killing Lex and what his battle with Bizarro had forced him to face.
"Chloe, I saw the monster I could become if I wanted to. It was a reminder that I am not human."
She had denied it, "Tell that to every person you've ever saved. Clark, whether you want to see it or not you're one of us now. And the fact that you're from a galaxy far, far away just adds character. And you know I'm here, no matter what side of nature or nurture happens to be winning out."
His eyes alone showed the turmoil of emotions swirling in his head and heart at her unconditional acceptance, and she felt the truth in each word as he almost convinced her, "It goes both ways, Chloe."
But she hadn't been ready to share what was happening to her. It wasn't that she didn't trust him with her healing-and-coming-back from the dead meteor-infected powers. She couldn't talk about it at that time; it had still scared her too much. And yet, today she wondered if the next picture would have developed differently had she come clean with Clark and let him help her, maybe let him take her to the Fortress and have Jor-El try some way to undo the "abilities" before they were out of control.
Maybe then Brainiac would not have chosen her mind to invade if she hadn't been strong enough to survive his attempt to destroy her that day at her Talon apartment. That picture still brought an unwelcome shudder through her whole body.
Relaxed in her hospital bed, eyes still closed more pictures caught Chloe's eye as she scanned the floor picking them up and trying to put them in order. She was at the ISIS office searching through papers explaining where the flower that poisoned Oliver could be found.
Clark had been there gazing at her as if he were afraid of what she was doing.
"Clark, why are you looking at me like that?"
"You mean like I'm at a Met-U lecture? Chloe, you're the smartest person I know by a long shot but since when can you trace a few chemicals to some obscure flower?"
It was getting increasingly harder to distract him from what was really happening to her. "It's no big deal. I'm just expanding my knowledge base."
"You're getting smarter." He sounded shocked, as if it were a crime!
She was more than a little upset with him. "I don't have time to discuss this with you right now" she told him as she had started speed reading through the ISIS multi-big-screen computer.
Clark couldn't believe she was actually absorbing everything that screamed by on all the screens. "What is all this, Chloe?
Without taking her eyes off the screens or removing her tapping fingers from the keyboard she answered him. "Thanks to Lex's obsession with toxins and viruses, Luthorcorp has the most comprehensive collection of organic material on the planet."
As the on-screen pages flew by at lightening speed, Clark couldn't stop himself from revealing his concern. "You're reading all this, aren't you?:
Chloe ignored him. "There it is. If Luthorcorp has this flower, then they have the antidote."
"Listen Chloe, as much as I appreciate whatever you just did here, this is all because of Brainiac, isn't it?"
"All right I admit it. After he attacked me, my hacking skills went from analog to digital. And whether I like it or not, I can read and process data at lightening-fast speed. Now I know that right now you are making a list in your head of all the possible ways this could be your fault. But please don't."
"If this is because of Brainiac then we don't know what can happen."
"Exactly! No-one knows, so let's not worry about it until we have to. Clark, this is my life. And for once something good came from something horrible...
I'm choosing to look at this as a gift. One that could help us save Oliver's life. Now trust me."
And another photograph brought back a continuation of the same argument as she had tried to convince him she was okay with her Brainiac abilities. "Please I've analyzed every possible scenario and as much as it scares me, you can't wave your Kryptonian wand and save me on his one."
He wasn't convinced. "I'll find a way..."
She hadn't given in either. Why give her hope when he couldn't deliver? She was a realist. "Clark, it's just how it is; there's nothing you can do so just let it go."
But now as she tried not to open her eyes for fear she'd lose the scattered photos, she thought she should have let him try. Maybe, just maybe her life wouldn't be such a mess right now.
But why did he have to wipe her memories of him from her mind? Well, try to wipe anyway. He should have known better than to give that task to Jor-El. What did Jor-El know about the human mind? The human heart? Obviously nothing. Because it hadn't worked.
What had made Clark think she wouldn't want to remember him? Somehow underneath Brainiac's control of her mind, she had been aware. And she remembered everything. Remembered that it was Clark that had asked Jor-El to erase any knowledge of him and Krypton. To protect her! To keep her safe! Who was going to protect and keep him safe if she lost the knowledge of his powers and weakness? How would he and Kara have escaped the Phantom Zone if it hadn't been for her? Stupid alien!
And then another picture surfaced under her fingertips. It had been one of the face-down photos so she hadn't seen it right away. Maybe it was one of the reasons he thought she should be able to concentrate on her life and not be constantly at his beck and call.
It had been at the Daily Planet when she'd been trying to find Dr. Curtis Knox to cure her meteor infection. Clark had rushed…well, whooshed in…demanding she help him. And she'd told him to start wearing a bell so she could have some warning of his approaches.
"Clark, you're going to have to fly solo on this one because my dance card's completely full."
"Chloe, this is really important."
"I'm sure that it is. Look the view from Mount Olympus must seem like us mere mortals have nothing better to do than help you look for your crystal but believe it or not I have important things to do, too."
Later at the Talon apartment after her first appointment with Dr. Knox, Clark confronts her, "Chloe you're a good liar; you've had a lot of practice keeping my secret. But I don't think you're researching Knox for any article. I think it's about the procedure."
"Then you realize that he's my only hope. Dr. Knox said he could fit me in at the end of this week."
"Chloe, you don't know anything about this doctor."
"I know that he can give me a chance at a normal life."
"Look, I understand wanting to have a normal life, I do. But brain surgery is not the way to do it."
"You don't understand, Clark. Going psycho or turning into a serial killer aren't the only two things I have to worry about. When I healed Lois in that dam it almost killed me. Who's to say the next time I try and save someone isn't my last?"
"What are the side effects of the procedure?"
"Potentially memory loss."
"Oh, Chloe!"
"If I have to give up a little bit of my past to gain a future, then so be it."
"You're going to forget everything. You're going to forget your friends, your experiences…you're gonna forget me. You're gonna forget me!"
"People will be there when I come back to fill in the blanks. In time I'll be fine. Clark, if you want to save me, let me go."
Next, she lifted the picture of her anger when he'd betrayed her ISIS group. He was busy at his desk at the Daily Planet and she'd walked in accusing him of sharpening his pitch fork. "If you're gonna lead a marauding posse you'd better come prepared. Clark, you gave the police the names of my ISIS group? How could you use your powers to betray me like that?"
"I didn't mean to go around you, Chloe, but you were so defensive."
"Like I've been defensive of you? Clark, you don't get how much of my life I spend protecting your secret. And if you ever had enough courage to actually step forward like the rest of these kids did, you would be the first one on that pyre. How could you of all people, be the ringleader for this witch hunt?"
"You're taking the side of people that you hardly know. I would think after eight years of friendship, you might be able to give me the benefit of the doubt."
"That works both ways. And your bonus features don't give you the right to trump anyone else's judgment."
It wasn't the first time she'd been angry with him. It wasn't the first time she'd brought up how much of her life was spent protecting him. Maybe he'd felt guilty again. She put herself in harm's way quite often because of him. More than once in their many years of friendship he'd worried that his secret was destroying her life. Sometimes she was responsible for him coming to that conclusion but she always ended up knowing her life was better for knowing him and being trusted with his secret.
Well, being taken over by Brainiac had not turned out so well, but she had been able to help Oliver, Clark and Kara because of it. She had saved Clark from Maxima because of Brainiac's knowledge of who she was, where she came from and how to send her back. So it hadn't all been tragic.
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A few days later at the Talon apartment Clark showed up while Chloe and Jimmy were looking at wedding reception seating arrangements. She had smiled brightly at Clark and eagerly hugged him. He had saved her after all. She would think of that only for now until she figured what she really felt. All the pictures had been put back in the photo album by then, although she felt some were still not in the correct order. She wasn't ready yet to reveal that Jor-El's memory wipe had not worked. A very hurt part of her heart didn't know if she could forgive him and wanted him to suffer a little for what he'd tried to do.
Clark was talking, "I'm just glad the bride is safe…everything is back to the way it used to be." He looked so hopeful, she had to look away. Could she fool him, or did he know her too well?
She suddenly remembered about the wedding flowers, she had to get to Metropolis to give the florist a check. Clark volunteered to run the errand for her.
She laughed inwardly. "Are you kidding me? That's like a two hour trip, and you drive like an old lady…and besides there's a whole bunch of folding tables that he needs to set up at the farm and I, uh, seriously doubt that Clark can carry them all by himself…"
She stopped herself for fear she was overdoing it, that he wouldn't believe her over-bright smiles. But then she saw the achingly relieved and worried eyes he couldn't quite hide and then the sudden smile. Good! He seemed convinced she didn't remember.
On the long drive to Metropolis her heart saddened a little. How could he believe I would forget? The human heart does not forget! You were more than in my mind, Clark! How could you ask him to do it, Clark? How could he? What on Earth can an alien AI know anyway about the human heart and soul? Damn it, he knew I loved you!
But then maybe human emotions were not part of the AI's programming? Maybe he had never been programmed to remember his earthly visit and affair with Lana's aunt? How he had so easily shared who he was? Had Jor-El forgotten that memory on Earth and therefore the AI did not know of it?
And suddenly she remembered a voice in her dream at the hospital. "I TRIED TO WARN YOU OF THE DANGERS IN SHARING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY."
It had been Jor-El's voice at the Fortress just before he'd removed the Kryptonian data from her brain. And she thought maybe she understood a completely different view. Jor-El and therefore the AI also, must have remembered Louise and that he had inadvertently gotten her killed. And knowing Clark's secret had once gotten Lana killed. So, just maybe, she could understand just a little bit about why they did it. That guilt thing was hereditary, in the El family genes obviously!
Even though her "memory wipe" was Clark's fault, she did sometimes get tired of him blaming himself for everything. He could not change that Krypton exploded. The villains that arrived on Earth were not his fault, or that they were evil. Earth would have been destroyed if it had not been for Clark. Jor-el had shown him that.
If you think you can save the world all by your lonesome, have at it, Kal-El. Oliver was probably right when he pegged you as a lone wolf who was not a team player. You just go for it, but don't worry, I will never be far away, to catch you when you fall and need me. And need me, you will! Even a stubborn hero like you needs someone to save him. And like you told me, it was true then, and always will be: I've saved you more than you ever could have saved me. If you want to be alone…Boyscout…I'll let you…I'll marry Jimmy…if that will help convince you that it's the happy little life I always wanted. But now I'll have a secret, too, and it will be you, Kal-El. I will always be your best friend and ally. And maybe someday, when we trust each other again, I will tell you my secret.
But she wasn't very happy about it yet. It would take her some time to stop being angry. Damn it, she was his best friend! She might never forgive him. But she knew why he had done it and she knew she would see his regret each time she smiled at him. Each smile would be torture. But she was safe, or so he thought. And if it helped him worry a little less she would let him suffer with his guilt. And she could still be there to protect him because he so needed that more than she ever needed his protection.
As the tall buildings of Metropolis slowly came into view through her car window she had reached her decision.
It was monstrous of you to try to steal the life I loved, Clark, but I promised to be there no matter what side of nature or nurture happens to be winning out and Chloe Sullivan doesn't break her promises.
The end!