Five Fights That Chloe and Clark Didn't Quite Have
Author's Note: This is a gender bent version of Smallville, basically where Clark is the meteor mutant/sidekick/Watchtower, and Chloe was always the Kryptonian. As part of that flip, Doomsday is tied to paramedic Dana Bloome and, instead of getting deep into it with Oliver in s9 and s10, Chloe was drawn to a Lex returned from the Arctic around Abyss in season 8.
Basically, mostly imagine, the latter seasons with Chloe and Clark's roles reversed and Oliver as more of a non-factor.
I. Doomsday
"I don't even understand," Chloe asked. "How did Jimmy even afford this?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't know and I don't know why he felt he needed a building like this but don't you think it's perfect?"
She blinked and sat down on the old spiral stair case, still covered in cobwebs. "For what?"
Her...she wasn't even sure what the word was for him anymore. She'd called him a boyfriend again since the incident at Reeves Dam, but then she'd stolen his memories of her secret and he'd found out. He still helped her research, finding their shared calling too much to resist. Hell, that phone call he'd given her when he'd been on the run with Dana was still playing through her head. Everything he'd ever done had been for her .
And yet here they were with Jimmy and Dana's death on their heads.
Clark was still grinning and she didn't like the look. "Jimmy died because I trusted Dana and I shouldn't have. He was a good friend and a great partner at the DP. I did that because I made one mistake after another. This has to mean something. We can use what he left us so he didn't die for no reason."
"Clark, I know we could have sent Dana to the Phantom Zone when we had the chance and before Tess Luthor stole the crystal. I get that. You were trying to save me from being trapped there forever or from letting out phantoms again. I know you did that for me."
"And two people are dead and Jimmy didn't deserve to die. Ollie's on the run from the law because of trying to blow up Lex, and Dinah, Bart...all of them can't be found. We need to do this!"
"Do what?"
"Make this a beacon for everyone, something in the center of the city, The Watchtower."
She sighed and grabbed the railing, ignoring how it bent in her grasp. "I don't get it."
Clark adjusted his glasses as he paced. "It can be the new base of operations for Justice. It can be a place that the team operates out of. It'll mean something ."
"There is no team. They broke up, Clark. Fuck, you said it yourself, Oliver's on the run for attempted murder and he fucking started Justice. There's nothing holding it together."
"I can. Until A.C. and Victor and everyone come back, I can run it. Chloe, we have to try."
She snorted. "Lois is missing. Lex won't talk to me after everything with Doomsday, and the League fucking disbanded. Everything is falling apart so hard and it's my fault."
"We made the mess together. We have to fix it," he said, finishing pacing, staring back at her with wide, sad eyes.
"No, I did. Jor-El...he always told me that I put human emotions above everyone else. I trusted your judgment."
"I know and I messed up so big I can't even explain how guilty I feel."
She stood up and walked closer to him, still keeping boundaries between them. "I wanted to believe the best in people, wanted to believe that nothing was wrong with Dana. I showed her mercy and it was a mistake."
He reached out to her and she stepped away from him, inching closer to the doors. She couldn't bear to turn around and look at him. He made her weak. "Chlo, you're wrong about that. Being human makes you better; it makes you the hero I know you are."
Still not looking at him, she fought back tears. "If I were really a hero then Jimmy would still be alive and Lois wouldn't be MIA after the chaos downtown. I'm not who I can be."
"Why does this sound so final?"
Sighing, she turned back to him. "I'm going to train. I finally realized that I need it. I can't...I'll never be the hero I can be if I listen to my emotions."
He walked over to her and tried to hug her. She pushed him away with more force than she needed to, and he looked back at her, stunned. She knew he'd be bruised, despite his newly returned ability to heal, for a few days. "Don't leave. We're all we have left. We've always been a team. Even after you ran away to Metropolis, we've been a team."
"I can't. I...Chloe Sullivan really is dead, no matter if you brought me back. There's just Kala now." With that, she blurred off to the Arctic, ignoring his shouts for her to come back.
II. Metallo
She knew Clark was coming up The Talon stairs long before he knocked on her door. Pulling her long duster closer around her, Chloe shooed Shelby to back to her bed. Superhero or not, patrolling or not, she did still have a pet to feed. "Fuck," she hissed under her breath.
He didn't knock, just barged in and she wished she'd locked the door (not that he couldn't just pick the lock). "We need to talk."
"Really?" she snapped. "I thought you said everything you had to say when you asked me to set back time and save Jimmy's life to alleviate your guilty conscience. I can't do that. It's not right and the last time I fucked around with time, Linda Lake made me tabloid fodder in the first go around."
"I'm not here about that," he said, balling his fists up at his sides.
"Really, because you're right. it is is your fault. You did kill him."
His jaw clenched. "Go to hell, Chloe...Kala, whatever." His tone was enough to set Shelby whining and scurrying under her bed.
"Probably don't take in aliens anyway," she snarked. "Besides, you're the one who's encouraging me to embrace this," she said, pointing to the El crest on her black t-shirt. "You said that I wasn't even human anymore anyway."
He shook his head dismissively. "You have a mission now and I still support that. We've both lost everything for it. So you know, stop fucking around."
"How?"
"Lex. You're sniffing back after him. You can't have it both ways. Either you're all Kryptonian and won't get attached to humans or you're Chloe Sullivan and you can."
She smirked and circled him, her steps deliberate and predatory. "You're jealous. This isn't even coming by about me or what I'm not doing. This is about the fact that Lex and I...we're rekindling things after his whole wedding to Lana debacle and you can't stand it."
"It doesn't have a damn thing to do with me being jealous of Lex," he lied and she could hear his heart race as he said it. "It has everything to do with you picking and choosing how human you're gonna be. On one hand you're still at the Planet and flirting with Lex, on the other you're treating me like shit and scorching half the buildings downtown like a maniac. You're such a hypocrite if you can't choose one thing or the other to be. It's all what's convenient. Which are you gonna be? Kala or Chloe because it can't be both, not now."
"Then it's Kala Jor-El , Clark," she huffed blurring in an instant into her work clothes. "Look I gotta go. I actually get to still work at the Planet."
"Fuck you."
"Not anymore."
III. Persuasion
She was on the ground in an instant, screaming with the pain. Clark was standing over her with a massive chunk of meteor rock grasped between his hands. It must have weight six or seven pounds, easily. "What...Clark stop. You stopped me with Tess. I'm not infected anymore with the gemstone K."
He shook his head, expression grim. "It's not about that, not at all. I know what you're planning to do to Rao Towers."
She grimaced with the pain, but didn't deny it. "If I don't, the Kandorians win, game over."
"I'm not going to let your torch two towers, Chloe, not ever. You haven't even checked to see if there are people inside or humans around on the street. If you do this, you could kill people. Do you not even care?"
"It's expedient," she hissed.
"We'll find a way to stop Zod, but we're not doing it like this. You're not going to do something that could kill innocent people. You're not a terrorist, Chlo, or at least you didn't used to be."
"It's the only way."
Clark shook his head. "It's not. Calm down and we'll talk about this rationally. I can't let you do this."
"Why?" she breathed, barely getting the words out.
"Because you're better than this, so get your act together or next time it'll be more."
IV. Collateral
Clark took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He'd been gone a long time, eight months, and in Smallville that always meant that so much happened. Evil carried on and the world kept turning. The VRA had come for his friends, had put Chloe on the government's radar as the Fate Helmet told him it would. He'd been able to save them by turning to the Suicide Squad. He'd seen the look on Chloe's face when they'd ridden home from the VRA headquarters. She'd stared at him the entire time as if she'd never met him before.
Probably thinking he'd sold his soul to save her, sullied himself with terrorism.
He hadn't damn it.
It stung so hard that he'd had to go to Lois, begged her to get Chloe to believe his avatar and his message. On one level he understood, honestly he did. Chloe and Lois were cousins, family, and they'd always trust each other in a way lovers and friends might not be able to. It still tore through him that after all they'd weathered together for ten years, that Chloe hadn't believed he was here to save her, that he hadn't defected with her secret to the government of all places.
When had things collapsed so hard?
That year and a half basically between his power manifesting and Brainiac (then Jor-El) wiping out his memories had been good. A lot of high school too. Why couldn't they make things click anymore? He just wanted...no not friendship. He wanted to be her world again. He'd died for her once already, at least for eighteen hours. He'd gone underground and erased his life permanently so he'd be ready for her and the JLA when the time came.
So why was he sitting in Lex's penthouse in Metropolis (his bitch of a half sister Tess had usurped the mansion), staring at pictures and waiting for her to come back from the Planet?
Sighing, he looked at two pictures side by side. One was from the Corn Festival in freshman year. Chloe'd been named Corn Queen and had the silliest looking crown in history on her head. The three of them were smiling brightly and, even with her burdens back then and the meteor mutant menace, the three of them looked so carefree. The other, much more recent picture, was of Chloe and Lex at the five year reunion. She was wearing a crown, to recreate her having been Prom Queen (sort of an anti-vote that year), and he was sitting at her side looking as insouciant as only a Luthor could.
It hurt.
He should have been there. Fuck, Lex hadn't even gone to Smallville High. He'd gone and he'd danced with her at that prom long ago.
"Clark?" Chloe called out, sitting next to him on the sofa.
He forced himself to smile. "I was just taking a trip down memory lane. It's been a really long time."
She looked over the pictures and smiled. "Three musketeers. I miss Pete a lot."
"Me too. I'm glad at least you guys got on better terms."
She shrugged. "Exchanging e-mails is a better place, yeah. At least he sent those."
"Ouch, duly noted," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose; it was a nervous tick of his.
"You ran away, Clark. From everything. I mean, Lois was smart enough to track down the antidote at the farm but you left me thinking you were dead and then, worse , thinking you hated me and weren't coming back. What was I supposed to think?"
"You don't really need me anymore, Chlo," he replied, his voice thick with emotion. "Last year we barely talked more than shop and we spent most of that yelling at each other. You had Lois to be your partner in crime at the Planet and Lex on your side at Watchtower and for other things."
She blushed and placed her right hand on top of her left. It didn't matter. He'd have been blind not to have notice an engagement ring that large on her hand, even if he hadn'talready seen the future, one that didn't need him. "Clark, about that...I don't even know how you knew to send him the pocket watch as a congratulations. I figure you had your ear to the ground, but I thought...you're okay with things right?"
He forced himself to smile more wildly and he felt like his face was going to crack. "Some things weren't meant to last, Chlo. If you're happy, that's all that matters. I'm happy for both of you, alright."
She nodded and patted his back. "I really missed you. Eight months is too long. I didn't even get a letter or a text or anything. I had to have faith you were alive, Clark, and it really hurt. Then you're teamed up with the same group that tried to murder my uncle."
"I got to them after the assassination attempt. I knew they were too dangerous to let run loose. I gave them an offer of me turning them over or working for me to save you all and stop the VRA, alright?"
"Because you saw that with Fate's Helmet," she finished, frowning. "What else did you see?"
Too much.
"It doesn't matter, most of it's passed now like the Cadmus fire or Lois being trapped."
"You traded for her."
"She's your cousin and my friend. Of course I would."
She sighed and changed to rubbing wide circles on his back. "You give up too much, Clark. You've lost so much for me-your career, your friendship with Jimmy, your mind and life at least for a bit. Hell, 'Clark Kent' doesn't even exist anymore. Does your mom even know you're alive?"
He swallowed. "I'm calling her today. I couldn't let anyone know in case I was being watched. I know it hurt her, but if the VRA had known about me, you'd have been dissected by now, along with Dinah and Bart and everyone else."
"See, you give up everything, and it's ridiculously noble. Don't you want anything for yourself?"
You.
"I've said it before, Chloe, but I take this mission, our mission seriously. Learning your secret is still the best thing that ever happened to me because I've done so much to save the world over and over again. There aren't a lot of guys who can say that."
"I know but 'dead' for eight months? Legally off the books?"
"Mom can probably fix that anyway. Benefit of being a senator," he quipped.
"Still, I...things got so messed up. You've always had so much faith in me and I didn't in you when it mattered, not when you left. I really thought we were done and you hated my guts."
Smiling genuinely then, he stroked her cheek. "I'd never hate you. No matter what, we're best friends, and that's never gonna change. We've been part of each other's lives for over eleven years now. I couldn't hate you if I tried."
"Good, don't leave for so long again. I couldn't stand it. I mean, where did you even go?"
Clark shrugged, thinking of Diana and Bruce. Their secrets weren't his to tell, but it heartened him to know that when the time came, Chloe would have amazing allies to protect her, to do things for her he could never hope to do. "I saw a lot of the world. I've been tied to Smallville for so long, it was nice to get more perspective, and, I have to tell you, even the League isn't the end to all the amazing people out there."
"You found other metas?"
"Definitely, among others. Small world after all."
She nodded and reached over with her other arm to hug him. He let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and settled his chin on the crown of her head. "I missed you. I...you're the best friend I've ever had."
He wished the word friend didn't cut so much, that she wasn't preparing her dream wedding to another man, one he'd even considered like a brother once.
"I know."
Still huddled close to him, she asked the one thing that cut him even deeper. "Clark, we had something we wanted to ask you. Lex is at a shareholder blood bath trying to hold Tess at bay and everything, but he wanted me to ask-"
"What?" he said, pulling away and frowning down at her.
"Will you be the best man?"
Dying had hurt less.
"Sure, Chlo, I'd be honored."
V. Masquerade
Clark was sifting through his old yearbook in Watchtower. It had been a bizarre night. He hadn't expected Oliver Queen of all people to come out of hiding to help them shut down De Saad's club. It was so bizarre, seeing him back, wondering where he'd been for over a year and a half, wondering how far he'd fallen since both trying to blow up Lex andshooting Chloe in the back with green K.
Needless to say, Clark didn't trust him and worried about where he'd lead them and the League.
Sighing, he glanced over the superlatives page. Once he'd been voted most likely to succeed. What a joke. He'd had a career out ahead of him with the best newspaper in the country, the woman of his dreams by his side, and a niche in the world-saving market. Now, well, De Saad had been right, the world had moved on without him and no one needed him anymore, especially not Chloe.
No career, no legal identity, no hope.
When had everything derailed so hard?
Familiar heels clicked up the spiral staircase. "Clark, hey."
Looking up, he offered Chloe a shy smile. "Thank you. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead."
"Goes with the territory, besides wasn't it just two weeks ago that I'd be government property without my business suited cyber savior."
"Maybe, but he was gonna cut out my heart. It was really scary."
"I just wish Lex and I had tracked you down sooner."
The mention of the other man's name made Clark's smile fall and he couldn't help looking at her ring. "Good, thank both of you."
Pulling up a chair, she sat and frowned at his trip down memory lane. "Are you okay?"
"I dunno, near death experiences make a guy re-evaluate his life or lack thereof."
"You said your mom was figuring the legal loopholes out."
"It's not about that. I...when did my life just stop being mine? I barely remember what that guy working his way up at the Planet was like. I mean, I've been a lot of stupid things since that don't suit me worth a damn-a counselor, Watchtower, and then the White King for the Suicide Squad. None of it's made me happy. I mean, I was glad that the last thing helped me save you, but I haven't felt like 'Clark Kent' since high school. That's way too fucking long not to be yourself."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't do the Chloe guilt thing. It's not about you. I made my own decisions and they all seemed to backfire."
"I..." she started biting her lower lip. "Lex wrestled control of the Planet away from Tess earlier this year. He could get your reinstated, same level as me or Lois."
Clark shook his head. "I can't take handouts. I'm just not a reporter anymore. I'm not sure what I am, but I know it's not my destiny."
"What's that even supposed to mean? That's what you are and have been since The Torch. What's with all the destiny talks and little winks since you got back. You were never like that before."
He looked at her and forced himself to stay composed. "I lied about the Fate Helmet. I saw you in 2013 and you and Lex were already married and you and Lois were happy at the Planet and I wasn't there. I wasn't even a blip on your radar. You've outgrown me, even De Saad could see that."
"And he was reading your insecurities. I do need you."
He sighed and stood up, grabbing his coat. "No, you did fine leaning on Lex last year and now. You did fine with Lois to help you too. You never needed me the way you thought you did."
"I won't collapse without you now, but learning to grow is good. I don't need you exactly but I want you here. Shouldn't that matter?"
"I can't. Lois has my career and Lex has my place in your life. Hell, Kara's even back now to be your family. If I stay...I have to watch that every day of my life and know what I lost." Leaning down, he gave her a kiss on the cheek, staying there a little longer than he had to. "I still love you, Chloe, and I know you can't help how you feel about him. I won't complicate your life."
She stood too and put her hands on her hips. "I want you to stay."
"Can't always get what you want," he replied. "I'll stay for the bachelor and bachelorette party next week. I already promised Lex I'd have a hell of a toast ready and I'll come to the wedding, but I can't stay. I don't fit anymore."
"I-"
"You finally grew past me," he said, starting down the stairs, shuddering at his collection of Omega-free X-rays. "Chloe?"
"What?" she demanded, her voice hoarse.
"I'd keep my eye on Ollie. I get the worst feeling about him. I saw De Saad when the police escorted him away. You didn't beat him up like that did you?"
"No."
"Take care of yourself, Chlo. I'll see you Friday," he said, walking down the stairs and heading out to the farmhouse.
Alone.