3

It was cold.

That was what struck her most. It was July and it had been scorching this morning, hadn't it? She'd finally managed to slip out from under the general's notice, to leave the base on the outskirts of Metropolis, to finally find where her cousin had been buried. Lois stood over the grave, watching as the dirt turned to mud, watching as the down pour washed away the fresh tulips laid out there, washing as the headstone, itself began to chip and crumble under the downpour.

"Chloe Anne Sullivan, Beloved Daughter"

That was all the stone said, all there was to commemorate her. It seemed so funny to Lois, so odd. There should have been something more, some quote from one of those writers Chloe had loved so much, something snarky, more vibrant, something her cousin. Her heart felt heavy, like it was crumbling in her chest, like the ground beneath her was swallowing her whole.

No, wait.

The ground was moving, sifting unsteadily beneath her feet. Lois screamed before the ground gave way completely, the mud and worms pressing in on her. She clamped her mouth shut as fast as she could but still felt the dirt crushing her, the taste almost of ash.

She closed her eyes and when she opened them again...well she didn't expect to be able to open them again. Suddenly she was in a penthouse, something well lit and beautiful, something ultramodern and that should have been on the cover of any Better Living magazine. Something that, like the grave, was nothing like the cousin she knew.

"Chlo?"

Her cousin was there, her hair a dark brown, not unlike Lois's own, an amused smile playing on her lips. Chloe knew something she didn't. Chloe always knew something she didn't. "Hey, Lo. You're late."

"I didn't know I was supposed to be here."

Chloe laughed and it sounded tinny, like her cousin was a million miles away and not right in front of her. "You weren't, but you're here now."

"You were dead."

Chloe pulled out a deck of cards from seemingly nowhere and pointed to the center. As Lois watched the card flipped itself over, revealing a joker underneath. "Slight of hand, the art of misdirection. Your dad knew."

"Who are you?"

Chloe frowned. "Who I've always been. Why do you ask?"

"No, not like this. Not with penthouses you can't afford."

Chloe grinned and Lois watched as something flashed between the palms of her now empty hands, something bright and rose-colored. "You don't know everything about me, Lo. Do you know me at all?"

"I thought I did. What's with Calvin?"

"Clark."

"Yeah, him. He was a farm dork and now he can afford to live in the best in Metropolis. He didn't love you but now he does. You can bring him down with a touch. What's going on."

Chloe smiled and then started to fade slightly. It was like looking through a ghost. "That would be telling."

Lois narrowed her eyes. "I want to know. What did Lionel want from you? What did you know?"

Chloe's smile widened. "What don't I know. And it's the wrong Luthor, cuz."

Chloe faded completely then and Lois reached across the expanse of the sofa, trying to keep her there, and instead fell flat on her face. Grumbling, she picked herself up and saw that everything had changed. She was in The Torch, the little paper her cousin ran, watching as Mikhail, the student body's own bookie, circled her cousin.

She knew Mikhail by reputation. And by Chloe's own confessions. He was one of the weird kids from Smallville, Lois thought maybe the kind that belonged to the Wall of Weird, but she wasn't sure. All she did know was that she'd had to steal a frequency jammer from Chloe to deal with him...and that he'd vanished.

As she watched, Mikhail wasn't circling Chloe any more. The walls of The Torch blurred and ran and faded until she was standing in the middle of a warehouse, of a blank, nondescript storage area. Mikhail was still now and Lex Luthor was circling him, some thick cuffs held in his hands. He slapped them on the smaller man and turned to Lois, an ugly predatory grin marring his features. "Did you know I'm coming for her too? That she made it so easy?"

Lois surged forward then but instead of reaching Lex, she felt the force of three guards as they slammed into her, a large set of cuffs covering her wrists. "Not Chloe!"

Lex laughed. "You don't even know what you're dealing with, do you, Lois? And you're never going to find out."

Lois screamed again and that was all she knew.