1Title: The Guardian

Author: Marcy

Notes: I love Chloe. I really, really do. SO this chapter was really hard to write – toss in the fact that I wrote the bulk of this last night, after the premiere, that was full of Chloe-awesomeness - well. Just keep in mind that I struggled. Not to mention Lois...

Part 5: Cassandra

And I'll just come apart or something

'Cause noone will be more empty than I am

And I would take it all back if I could

But I can't

- Letters to Cleo

"I'll call you when I get back, okay?" Lois wrangled on her light purple blazer and secured her glasses back on the top of her head. The sun hadn't been out since the storm had broken wide the day before, and Clark guessed it was wishful thinking on her part. She pulled Chloe into a tight hug. "You need to come up to campus. We'll wreak a little havoc."

"Definately," Chloe mumbled into her cousin's shoulder.

The two reluctantly separated and Lois went for her bag that hung on one of the Talon's coat hooks.

"And you have to visit us here," Lana encouraged. Clark wasn't surprised when she made the request. Lois was the kind of person who prompted that type of invitation; the kind of person you wanted to be around as much as possible. If she hadn't suggested it, he would have. Although, he suspected, for slightly different motives.

Lois smirked, skeptical as much as flattered. "Sure. The next time I get a yen for the simple life, you guys'll be my first call."

Clark experienced a dizzying moment of double vision. He saw Lois, her hair pulled in a loose ponytail, faded jeans and a pale green tank top. At the same time, and seemingly the same place, he saw a woman. A white blazer, and dark hair. He reached a hand back and steadied himself on the nearest table.

The rickety wooden legs wobbled noisily under his weight, and when the world came back into focus, Lois was looking at him with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Her hand met his forearm in a gesture of worry.

He smiled, gratefully. "Yeah. Fine." He shook it off, and changed the subject. "It's going to be quiet here without you."

"I'm sure you'll manage."

The brass bell chirped as she exited the Talon, and Clark stood doubting that was true.

It had been a long day.

Lois rubbed the stress knots from her neck as she walked the black asphalt parking lot to her car. She was hardly excited about the three hour drive back to Metropolis, but every mile would bring her that much closer to her dorm room, and the bottle of cinnamon schnapps that was tucked in the recesses of her mini fridge. After the day she had, she needed that drink. Actually, what she really needed was to crack the Statistics book she had been neglecting for the past two days.

But academia was just going to have to take a backseat to her sanity.

Maybe she could take her handle of Goldschlager and her lucky shot-glass and make her way over to the Theta Kappa Epsilon house to score a few bucks drinking the frat rats under the table. Drown her sorrows in Milwaukee Stoplight shots and reimburse the booze at the same time. Two birds, one 50 alcohol by volume content stone.

It was a plan. And that was a start.

"Lois!"

She turned to find a familiar figure jogging towards her. "Clark?"

He stopped short in front of her. It seemed as though his mind hadn't quite caught up with his feet, though, and he stood searching for something to say.

"I just wanted to say thanks - for all your help," he said, finally.

"No problem." She made a move to leave - because she felt that it was not what he really wanted to say - and he blocked her escape.

"Also I was wondering-" Clark stuffed his hands into his pockets. He was avoiding her gaze now, and looked about as nervous as she had ever seen him. "See, my dad got me an old pick-up for my birthday. It's kind of a clunker, but it gets me from here to there. Maybe I could come see you some time in Metropolis. We could go to a movie or something."

He flashed her a hopeful smile that made what she was about to say that much more difficult.

"No."

Clark blinked in surprise. "Oh." He laughed, embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I think I got my wires crossed somewhere." He extended his hand. "Friendship it is."

She glanced down at it for a beat before looking back up at him. "I don't think that's a good idea either."

Clark let his hand drop to his side. "Why not?"

Lois walked around to the driver's side of her red convertible and fiddled with her keys. She could feel his eyes on her over the roof of her car. He was waiting. "Look, I'm not very good at this kind of thing. Relationships, I mean."

"I'm not asking for your hand in marriage, Lois. Just a movie."

"I'm in Metropolis. You're in Smallville," she needlessly reminded him.

He stepped forward and rested his arms on the car's black canvas top. "Trust me when I say that really isn't a problem."

Lois shook her head. "It's better if we don't, Clark. Just...trust me, okay?" she said tiredly.

She could tell he was confused, but to his credit, and her relief, he didn't press it. Instead he took a step back and shrugged sadly. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

She opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. If she had the luxury, she might have taken that moment to think about just what the boy in front of her had to offer. But since she didn't, she stuck her key in the ignition and fired up the engine.

She turned back to him one last time. "I'll see ya ar-," Lois caught herself. "Bye."

Lois drove away from the Talon and from Clark. Within a few minutes she had reached the Smallville town limits. As she cleared the line, the meteor-splashed welcome sign passing by in a blur, Lois had no way of knowing that the world's greatest love story had just went out with a whimper.

"What do you mean it didn't work?"

This was bad. Very, very bad. Chloe paced a tight line.

"Lois won't break the promise," Lana explained.

"When Lois was seventeen her father warned her to never go near a pack of cigarettes, so she took up smoking. When the senior class uber-jerk complimented her on her brown hair, she stripped it blond." Chloe rolled her eyes. "Figures she'd pick now to start listening to someone."

"Not someone," Lana pointed out. "You."

Chloe collapsed onto the chair with a deep sigh. "Lucky me," she intoned, with a twirl of her finger.

The truth was Chloe wasn't all that surprised that Lois had kept a stronghold on her promise. When it came to Chloe, Lois would do just about anything to ensure her happiness. There was a time when Chloe thought the same could be said for her. Now that the theory had been tested and buckled under the weight, Chloe was left, slumped in a chair, feeling like a complete failure.

At that moment, Clark walked back into the Talon.

Chloe perked. "Clark, what happened?"

He just shrugged. "She turned me down."

"What?" Chloe's last thread of hope snapped. She made a move for her pocket. "Let me call her -"

Clark stopped her with a hand. "No, Chloe. It's ok. We both agreed that it probably wouldn't work out anyway." He smiled sadly. Disappointed, but not destroyed. "I'm going to go help my mom with this week's stock shipment. I'll catch you guys later."

She watched him leave, disappearing behind the double doors of the kitchen. She made sure he was out of sight before she went for her phone.

"What are you doing?" Lana asked.

She covered the receiver with her hand and answered, "This has gone too far. I'm fixing this now." When the other line clicked on and she heard the familiar "Talk to me" she removed her hand and replied, "Lois? It's Chloe. Where are you?"

Lois told her.

"Can you meet me at the gorge? I forgot to – I have something to give you." She thumbed off the phone and dropped it back in her jacket.

"What are you going to do?"

"What I should have done in the first place." Chloe drained her mug of coffee and stood up. "I'm coming clean. I'm telling Lois everything."

Her confession had Lana springing to her feet. "I don't think this is a good idea. We should talk to Lana."

"We tried her way. It didn't work." Chloe tossed the tip for their second round of drinks on the table and began to walk towards the exit.

"Actually, that was my plan," Lana corrected, tagging behind.

Ignoring that, Chloe made a beeline for the door. Her shoulders were squared, her eyes narrowed. "Look, you don't understand. This is all happening because of me. Because of me, Lana. So I can't just sit by and hope things work out. I won't."

Lana scooted in front of her, bracing her arms on the doorframe and blockading Chloe's only way out.

"I know how you must be feeling-"

"You really don't," Chloe corrected, hotly.

Lana continued, evenly. "But that doesn't mean you should just rush into this."

Chloe was sure her friend was wrong. She knew the longer this went on, the longer they allowed everyone to amble down the wrong pathway, the harder it would be to correct. It wouldn't be long until the damage was irreparable - if it wasn't already.

She wasn't about to have that hanging over her head, too.

Chloe grabbed Lana's arm and yanked it towards her. Her hand tightened around her wrist, forcing Lana to look at her - regard her deadly serious disposition and listen carefully the words she was about to say.

"Either you're with me or against me. Pick a side," she said. "But in the meantime, get out of my way."

Chloe stood beside Lois on the edge of the cliff, watching her cousin peer over.

"I don't get the allure of a big hole." Lois kicked a nearby rock and watched it thunk its way down into the canyon below. "This Smallville's newest hot spot? Miles of corn losing its appeal?"

"Something like that," Chloe said.

Never one to indulge in chit chat - especially of the idle variety - Lois crossed her arms and got down to business.

"Well, I'm here. So what did you want to give me?"

Chloe swallowed. "The truth."

Lois' eyebrows lifted in mild surprise. "Okay. I'm listening."

Chloe took a deep breath. "Before I start, I need you to promise me that you'll listen to everything I'm about to tell you. And that no matter how ridiculous it sounds, you'll hear me out."

A specter of a smile crossed Lois' lips. "Promise? Seems like the word of the day."

Chloe grew immediately remorseful. "Yeah... I'm sorry -"

"It's ok, Chlo."

Chloe shook her head. "That's the thing. It really isn't," she admitted, miserably. That familiar feeling of nausea churned her stomach.

Guilt was the watchword.

"There's a reason I asked you to never get involved with Clark. It has nothing to do with lack of sleep or hypotheticals or anything like that. It has to do with the reason I called you the other night."

She nervously wrung her hands and continued, "I saw something that night, Lois," Chloe confessed. "I saw you. In Clark's loft."

Lois shook her head. "That's impossible. I was at school. You know, the one three hours away."

"That's because it wasn't you. It was you from the future," Chloe explained, and got the 'you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me' look from Lois she expected. But once again true to her promise, Lois stayed silent and allowed Chloe to continue. "You used some kind of portal to travel back in time to save Clark from a man who was trying to kill him. And you did that because, in the future, you're his wife."

Lois said nothing. In the middle-of-nowhere silence, Chloe could hear her own pulse in her ears. As each second ticked passed Chloe wished Lois would say something, anything...

"Are you on drugs?"

Except maybe that.

"What? No!" Chloe took a fraction of a second to look insulted before plowing on, "Look, Lois. I messed up. Lana and Clark found you in the caves and brought you back to the loft. When I stopped by the farm, I overhead the whole thing. I was jealous - you worked at the Daily Planet, you were married to Clark – you had my life!" Chloe stopped and evened out her voice. "I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm just trying to explain why I did what I did."

Lois considered this. "So you made me promise to never see Clark."

Chloe nodded. "I thought I could change the future, and I did. For the worse. Things are bad now, Lois, because of me. I thought I could fix things - take back the promise and everything would be okay - but you had to be so damn loyal –"

"I love you, Chlo." She said it so simply, that Chloe almost lost it right then and there. Hot tears began to cloud her vision.

"I know," she said, her voice thick with emotion. And then, because it was almost too much to hope for, Chloe asked, "So you believe me?"

"No."

Chloe's last bit of resolve crumbled. "But it's all true."

"Chloe," her cousin intoned. Lois looked at her strangely, as if trying to pinpoint the exact moment she had gone stark raving mad. God, maybe she was crazy. Time travel? Scrolls?

No. It was the truth. She had to show her.

Chloe stumbled, frantically. "You don't have to take my word for it. You can ask them." She spun around and shouted, "I know you're there! Just come out. I told her everything!"

After a moment, Lana emerged from the woods that flanked the gorge. And then, on her heels, came the older Lana.

Chloe looked at her cousin, who was having a very hard time digesting the scene before her. Lois' face changed into a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"What the hell?"

Chloe didn't bother with introductions, it was fairly obvious who all the parties were. Instead she ran over to the younger Lana, grabbed her bag and pulled out the evidence she knew would be there.

"This is the scroll of Templar," Chloe rushed the explanation. She marched up to Lois who was still gawking, open-mouthed at the double-vision in front of her. "It allowed you to come back to our time to save Clark. And it let Lana do the same thing." Chloe took a moment to let this sink in. "That's why Clark was having dreams about the gorge, Lois. He was here with you. This is where you found the man who was trying to kill Clark. You jammed his gut with a stun gun and he threw you off this cliff."

She shoved the paper into Lois' hands and forced her to read. Not that her cousin could have deciphered the scratchy symbols, but she hoped that its mere presence, the fact that it was something Lois could see and feel, would be enough to make Lois believe her.

"So you see? This is all real. You need to give Clark a chance." Chloe looked to her big cousin. "Please," she said in a desperate whisper.

Lois studied the paper in her hands. Chloe watched, heart in her throat, as she ran her fingers along the markings. Thumbed the fraying edges. And when she was done, she looked up, cleared her throat of her own welling emotions and said,

"No."

"What?"

"I said no," she repeated, this time with venom. She cut Chloe with her eyes. "You think you can just come here with the Doublemint twins, tell me the future and then expect me to follow along? Live my life like some kind of paint by numbers - any big questions, check the time line? It's Monday, September 26, 2008. What am I supposed to have for breakfast today?"

"But..but you have to! If you don't the future will be destroyed!"

"It already is, Chloe!" Lois countered. She turned to the older Lana. "Future Girl, is this how Clark and I got together in your world? With teary apologies on a cliff?"

Lana looked at Chloe; a sad, miserable look. She didn't need to hear the answer, she knew. "No."

"See? It's already different. You messed up, Chlo. And this time I can't help you." Lois chose to make that her exit line, and spun to leave.

"Wait!" Chloe's hand shot out and caught Lois' arm.

"Let go of me, Chloe," Lois snapped, jerking it back.

The next part was a blur.

Something flashed at Lois' feet - small and metallic. It rolled beneath her heel, kicking her off balance.

If there had been time, Chloe would have screamed. Instead, her knee-jerk reaction was to lunge for her cousin, catching her hand before it cleared the ledge. The force, however, pulled Chloe right along with her over the lip of the cliff.

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the fall, but it never came. Instead she felt a sharp jolt, and she was soon hanging - one hand holding Lois' and the other being held by the future Lana. She couldn't tell what the older woman was clinging to for support, but whatever it was, she had it in a vice grip.

Chloe looked down to find Lois wriggling for a better hand-hold. Just beneath her, a familiar piece of paper fluttered toward the water below.

"The scroll!" Chloe yelled.

"Forget it!" Lana said. When Chloe looked back up, she saw that Lana now wore a fresh cut on her face. The gash sliced chin to cheek, across her lips. Blood dripped down, spattering their human chain in crimson.

Somewhere above all of this, Chloe heard the younger Lana screaming for Clark. She would have too, if her focus wasn't being pulled in a million different directions. Like to her throbbing shoulder, that felt like it was being slowly negotiated from the socket.

Or to Lois, who dangled perilously below her. "Chloe, hold on," she instructed. Her voice was dull and calm, no doubt an effort to keep Chloe from panicking further.

"I'm sorry, Lois," Chloe cried freely now, her whole body heaving with sobs. She felt her grip on her cousin slipping. "I'm so sorry for everything."

"Hold on," Lois repeated, fiercely. She had hazzarded a look down and her eyes were now wet with fear. "Chloe," she begged.

Chloe had always heard that moments before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. She learned that the same truth applied to when you held someone else's life in your hands.

She saw family holidays - birthdays, reunions. Time elapsing. Games of tag. Late night phone calls. Secrets and confessions. In her mind, they were 7 - swinging on a swing set in Centennial Park.

"This is too high," a scared Chloe admits, but pumps harder to keep up with her big cousin.

"Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen to you," Lois assures her.

She's getting higher. "How do you know?"

On the downswing, Lois catches her eyes. "Because I'd never let it."

The memories poured over her mind like a flash flood.

And then, her fingers slipped.

Clark Kent eventually came. But for the first time since they had met, Chloe's best friend was a second too late.

END of Part One

Part Two : Destinations.

Chapter 1 : Requiem