Title: Genetic
Author: Ztastviz
Fandom: Smallville
Rating: T
Summery: Locked in a small, cold room with her worst enemy, Chloe learns her connection to Lex is more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.
Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville or any of the characters within this story.
Chloe noticed the welcome mat was crooked before she let herself into her apartment; she smelled gun oil and aftershave after she entered. Her mind registered their wrongness, but she was unable to process the danger they represented. Chloe's life over the last two months had driven her to distraction—made her slow-witted. It was as though she lived a nightmare that showed no signs it would end any time soon. So when barbs from a Taser bit into her neck and caused her body to seize violently, Chloe only experienced the faintest bit of surprise.
Chloe clenched her teeth and let out a bark of pain as the current from the Taser reduced every muscle in her body to one giant convulsion. When the current from the Taser stopped Chloe went limp, her legs could no longer support her and she plummeted towards the floor at an alarming speed. But she did not fall far; a pair of long, muscular arms curled around her midsection and righted her—Chloe might have mistaken her rescuer's arms for Clark's if she didn't know better. Chloe caught a glimpse of a tall, slender figure donned in dark clothing before they slid a bag over her head, and shrouded her in complete darkness. The person who saved Chloe from a nasty collision with the floor then lobbed her over their shoulders into a fireman's carry with effortless strength.
The fireman started to move. Disoriented from the effects of the Taser and the blood that rushed to her head, Chloe quickly lost her bearings. By the time her head cleared, the fireman had laid her on a soft, flat surface on her back. She heard an engine turn over and felt its vibrations beneath her. A moment later the vehicle lurched into motion, simultaneously Chloe felt a pinch in her shoulder and consciousness slipped away from her.
When Chloe awoke the bag the shadowy figure placed over her head was gone. She was on a cot, flat on her back, her head propped on a pillow. Chloe was relieved to find the charcoal gray pantsuit, white blouse, and undergarments she wore were all in place, though someone removed her heels. Chloe tried to sit up but realized it was a mistake when waves of lightheadedness and nausea crashed through her head and stomach. She let out a pitiful moan then let her head drop back onto the pillow.
When her dizziness dissipated, and her stomach stopped trying to crawl up into her chest, Chloe searched the room with as little movement as possible, using just her sight. Her abductors brought her to a room with unadorned cement walls and a cement ceiling, also unadorned, except for a recessed halogen light fixture at the center of it, which illuminated the entire room with a harsh, white light. When Chloe's gaze reached the center of the small room she let out a yelp of surprise: Lex sat at a metal collapsible table. His hands placed palms down beside each other on top of the table. He stared at her with steady blue eyes, utterly expressionless.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you're alive, Lex," Chloe said as she slid her legs over the side of the cot and slowly rose to her feet. The cement floor was icy, but Chloe barely noticed. There was a steel door at Lex's back; Chloe knew she could reach it before Lex could stop her.
"It wouldn't be the first time Mr. Queen failed to take me out of the picture," Lex said, watching Chloe with a stillness she never saw in him before.
"Is that why you're back? Revenge?"
"Do you really believe that's why I brought you here, Chloe?"
"If you using me to get to Clark-"
"Not all roads lead to Clark Kent."
Chloe started to reply when she noticed four manila folders stacked on the table. Her gaze darted back up to Lex. He stared back at her with that same unnerving, expressionless guise.
"Then what do you want with me, Lex?" Chloe asked, careful to keep her tone calm even as dread started to boil in her gut.
"Do you know how your mother was infected by the meteor rocks?"
Chloe had to force herself not to leap over the table and attack Lex. There wasn't an ounce of remorse in his eyes, nor did it singe his voice. He could have been asking Chloe about the weather. Chloe gritted her teeth and she said to him, "Don't. You don't get to talk to me about my mother."
Lex picked up one of the folders and held it out over the table. His features were so still and devoid of expectation that the anger that flushed through Chloe evaporated, and dread once again clutched her belly. Something was very, very wrong here.
"What do you want?" Chloe asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Lex maintained his silence, still so damned expressionless. Chloe stepped closer and took the folder from his hand; thoughts of escape lost out to her innate curiosity. A traffic accident report was in the folder, dated the day of Smallville's first meteor shower. The report was unremarkable until Chloe read who was in the car when a chunk of Kryptonite struck it. Chloe looked at Lex.
"I went through every police report filed the day of the meteor shower, this report wasn't in the SPD archives," Chloe said.
"Father had that particular file," Lex paused as he searched for the right word to use. "Misplaced."
Chloe and Lex held eye contact for a few moments. Lex's gaze was impassive as ever. Chloe's eyes narrowed. She wondered how far Lex's statement could be trusted. The report appeared to be a genuine Smallville Police Department document, but how difficult would it be for someone with Lex's resources to get his hands on a persuasive forgery?
Chloe looked away from Lex and read the accident report again and committed it to memory before she put it down and picked up the next folder on the stack. It was a Smallville General medical file, also created the day of the first meteor shower. The file documented two-year-old Chloe Sullivan's treatment for a wound in her chest and severe blood loss.
"Of course that file, as well as your—Moira's medical file, was misplaced," Lex offered, though Chloe already guessed Lex would claim as much. She reread the hospital file then moved on to the third file.
It was Chloe's Section 33.1 file. In the file Chloe saw a glossy photo of herself strapped to a backlit table, naked. The facility's doctors placed a Whitehead Gag on her and threaded tubes and wires into her open mouth. It never occurred to Chloe she was conscious when 33.1 held her—but at some point she was, she just didn't remember. The photo, in crisp color, showed Chloe's eyes wide with confusion and horror as doctors and technicians poked and prodded her with metallic instruments.
The information they mined from her was extensive. Chloe doubted her own doctor ever did a more complete medical work-up. The report even noted how many ovarian follicles Chloe had at the time of her "physical".
Chloe forced herself to re-read her 33.1 file, fighting back the tears in her eyes. She was violated; tortured in ways she never imagined, and the man who callously ordered it done to her, and God knows how many others like her, got away with it. But Chloe refused to let Lex see how much his actions tormented her—how powerless he made her feel. She would figure out what he wanted from her then find a way to escape no matter what it took. Chloe will never allow herself be left to his tender mercies again.
Chloe put down her 33.1 file then reached for the fourth and last folder on the table. The folder was thin and unmarked unlike the others, and when Chloe opened it there was just a single sheet of paper inside. By the time Chloe finished reading the information on the lone page, her pulse raced, and her hands shook.
"Am I supposed to believe this?"
"I assure you, it is the truth."
"After everything you've done, your assurances are worth exactly nothing, Lex," Chloe said without taking her gaze away from the paternity test.
"I didn't believe it at first, either," Lex said, his tone of voice deviating from the calm monotone he adopted since their dialogue began, prompting Chloe to look at him. "After my researchers finished their analysis of your abilities I was intrigued. I thought my hyper immune system was impressive, but your powers of healing and regeneration were simply incredible. You may well have been immortal."
Lex's expression also changed when he talked about Chloe's hypothetical immortality. He openly expressed something that looked like admiration, but just below that awe a well-concealed hunger glimmered in his eyes. If Chloe had just met Lex she might have missed it completely, or mistaken his desire for something else entirely.
"I had my researchers analyze your physiology backwards and forwards. After a routine DNA profiling, a genetic match was found in one of the medical databases 33.1 has access to—"
"My Mom. That's how you found her," Chloe said, her voice utterly devoid of emotion. Chloe was so outraged when she discovered Lex used her to track down then imprison her mother to further his fanatical agenda, but the contents of the file in her hands left her too mentally staggered for that anger to seep into her words.
"Right," Lex replied with a brief nod. "I had her tested for meteor mutation, and the rest you know. However, I found it strange Moira was mutated at all. It made sense that you were, it could have happened at any time while you lived in Smallville. But Forest Glen Sanitarium is miles from Smallville, and my people found no trace of meteor rock on Forest Glen's premises.
"Of course there could be countless other explanations for how Moira became infected, but I think you will agree Occam's Razor more than applies here."
"She was in Smallville when she was infected," said Chloe, thinking back to the accident report.
"I believe so, and I believe the meteor rocks infected you at the same time. Which naturally led to the question why were you and Moira in Smallville the day of the first meteor shower?"
"Stop, Lex," Chloe said. "I'm not going to play this sick, twisted game with you."
Lex smiled tightly at her and there was no humor in it. "This is no game," he said.
Chloe was hard pressed to dismiss his words. If Lex had an angle, Chloe couldn't find it. He wasn't after Clark's secret; what Brainiac didn't tell him, the rest Lex discovered all by himself.
Chloe considered Lex's target might be the League, but quickly dismissed that premise as well. The League all but disbanded after Doomsday. Chloe knew the identities of the League's members, and that might be worth the charade Lex was putting her through, but he knew Chloe well enough to know she would die before she betrayed that trust, even if the evidence in the files was true.
"What do you want from me?" Chloe asked Lex once more.
"I want you to know the truth. You used to be all about the truth. Once." There was an edge to Lex's words—a hint of mockery.
Chloe closed the file then tossed it onto the table with deceptive casualness. "The truth is you abducted me and brought me here when you thought I was at my weakest so you could sell me a nightmarish fairytale. There is nothing magnanimous about what you're doing."
"The night I killed Lionel," Lex said once Chloe finished, "after I confronted you at the Planet, did it surprise you that I didn't have you killed?"
Chloe stiffened at Lex's question.
The way Lex looked at her when he found Lionel's key in her desk that night, Chloe thought she'd share an obituary page with Lionel. Instead, Lex took the key and fired her on the spot. As Lex's goons literally dragged her away, it was not lost on Chloe how close she'd been to losing more than just her job.
"You'd seen the key and that was reason enough to remove you from the board, but by then I already suspected who you really were. That and—" Lex paused and looked away for moment, and clasped his hands on top of the table. Then he turned back to Chloe. "The way you looked at me, I could see it in your eyes. You…"
"Always knew I'd die at the hands of a Luthor," Chloe said, finishing Lex's thought. Then Lex let out a bark of laughter that caught Chloe so off guard she took a step back from the table.
"What more proof do you need?" he asked. "You knew instinctively what took me years to learn: We Luthors always seem to eat our own."
"I am not a Luthor," Chloe said.
"You may not have been raised a Luthor, but Luthor blood runs through your veins. You've seen the evidence," Lex countered, an arrogant smirk on his lips. His voice was smooth and held more than a hint of condescension. And there he was: the Lex Luthor Chloe was waiting for finally surfaced.
Chloe's jaw clenched. She walked back to the table and pointed at the file that contained the paternity test results. "You mean this—this—fiction? God, Lex, the only things true in that file are the names in it!"
Lex unclasped his hands and reached into the pocket of his immaculately tailored jacket. When his hand reemerged, Lex held a syringe between the tips of his fingers and thumb, its needle covered by a clear, plastic cap. He set it on the table next to the files.
"What is—?" Chloe started to ask what the needle was for, but she already knew.
Lex looked down as he pushed up the arm of his jacket and his shirtsleeves and exposed the tanned, unblemished expanse of his forearm. His arm was well muscled and Chloe could see his Cephalic and Ante brachial veins clearly delineated beneath his skin. When Lex was done lifting his sleeves, he looked at Chloe.
"Inspect the syringe if you want," he said.
Chloe held Lex's gaze for a few moments before she let her attention fall onto the needle. Chloe didn't believe for a moment she was Lionel Luthor's progeny; she wouldn't even entertain the notion. But why would Lex allow her the opportunity to draw and test his blood? She had the equipment to disprove his ridiculous claim, and there was no way he'd be able to falsify the results of her tests. If he was trying to con her, giving her access to his blood was a major miss-step on his part.
Chloe grabbed the needle off the table. After a prolonged inspection of the syringe's components, she walked around the table and stood beside Lex. He held his arm out to her, his expression once again a mask of calm indifference. Once Chloe drew the blood and pulled the needle away, Lex pushed down his sleeves and stood. Chloe stepped back, the syringe clutched in her hand. Lex's blood still warm inside it.
"I wonder what you'll do when you learn the truth," Lex said. Chloe scowled at his ponderous tone, but decided not to give him the satisfaction of a reply. Lex turned and walked to the door. Chloe expected him to signal his minions on the other side to let him out, but Lex simply turned the doorknob and the door opened after a soft click. "Your car is parked outside. You're free to go."
Just before Lex passed through the threshold, Chloe asked, "Where is Lucas?"
Lex paused mid-step, half in, half out of the room. "Goodbye, Chloe," Lex said after a long pause, then he disappeared into the darkness beyond the door. Chloe looked at the syringe in her hand.
"That's what I thought," she whispered.