Author's note is at the end of the next (and final!) chapter!
Chloe paced nervously around her bedroom, making sure everything in her room was clean, tidy, and perfect. She checked everything, searching for any traces of dirt, grime, or general untidiness. She checked her bed, her floor, under her bed, her wastebasket (which she had emptied over an hour ago), and her bed again. Finally satisfied that everything was clean, Chloe then began to light the various scented candles she has strategically placed around her room. Chloe smiled nervously, as the blonde was caught somewhere between anxiety and excitement.
This was it. The big day. Clark had contacted her telepathically from the strange dimension he was training in several days ago with Jor-El's help (a process which Jor-El reminded the two teenagers was extremely energy taxing, so they had to keep their conversation short, which almost made Chloe laugh out loud as she thought about how much this situation reminded her of a normal parent telling a normal teen not to go over their cellphone minutes). And Clark had told her the exact day he was coming home…and that he wanted to see Chloe alone that night before he went home to the Kents. He also asked if Chloe still wanted to do "that thing" with him. Chloe realized that Clark was asking her if she wanted to have sex with him when he got back, but didn't want to go into specifics with "Space Ghost" listening in on their conversation.
Despite the awkwardness of that conversation, Chloe had smiled and said (although she later realized just thinking her answer would probably have worked) yes. Shortly after that, after exchanging I love yous and goodbyes, her mental connection with Clark had ended, but Chloe had not had time to be sad as her mind and emotions had went into over drive over the next several days excitedly planning her very special "welcome home" for Clark Kent. But that, getting her room "perfect", and assuring her dad it was okay to leave her at home while he went on another out of town business trip, so that the junior reporter would have the house to herself when Clark came back, were not the only things that had been keeping the blonde teen busy.
During Clark's training, Chloe had taken the "confession" that Morgan Edge had unwittingly given her concerning many of his crimes, to a police detective named Maggie Sawyer, one of the few cops in Metropolis that Chloe was sure, based on her research, wasn't on Morgan Edge's payroll. Detective Sawyer had been suspicious about how Chloe had been able to get the crime boss's confession, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and after adding the confession to the pile of evidence that Maggie had obtained from her own investigation on the crime lord, had finally gotten the go ahead to put a warrant out for the arrest of Morgan Edge. Meanwhile, Chloe had helped Maggie find a DA willing to prosecute the "king of Metropolis crime", as well as a judge that wasn't afraid of Edge or in his back pocket. It seemed that Morgan Edge was finally on the fast track to being brought to justice.
Unfortunately, Morgan Edge had gone into hiding since all of this had happened, and the cops hadn't been able to find the man yet. And that made Chloe nervous about her own safety, even after she reminded herself that Detective Sawyer had taken steps to make sure Chloe's role in the investigation against the crime boss was kept anonymous, and that Mr. Edge was unlikely to seek retribution against her person after she and Clark had stuck fear into the mob boss's heart with their (temporary, in Chloe's case) abilities. But still, the blonde reporter was worried that Mr. Edge would still find her and hurt her somehow in retribution for her finally lighting a fire under Metropolis PD to arrest him while Clark was still away.
Chloe had almost managed to shrug that thought, which had been haunting her all day, that Mr. Edge would seek vengeance against her for turning his "confession" over to the police, off as paranoid thinking, when she heard the sound of a car pulling up in front of her house. Before Chloe could even think about it, she found her feet moving her towards the window to see who would be driving in her suburban neighborhood at this late hour. The teenage girl was so driven by her naturally curious nature, which had only become more powerful after years of being a junior reporter that it didn't even occur to her that looking out her window this late at night when someone had a lethal vendetta against her might be a bad idea…until it was too late, that is.
When Chloe Sullivan looked out of her first story bedroom window, she was greeted by the sight of a black limo which Chloe was sure had never been seen in her small neighborhood before, although the vehicle still seemed strangely familiar to the young woman. Chloe's eyes widened in surprise when she realized where she had last seen the limo that was currently stopped in front of her house on the street in front of her house: It was Morgan Edge's limo!
When Chloe realized who the limo in front of her house belonged to, and why the vehicle's occupants were here, Chloe took a quick step back from the window and tried to turn and run away from the limo's line of sight. But she was too late.
A fraction of a second later, Chloe Sullivan felt several parts of her torso explode with pain, and the blonde teen heard the sound of gunshots and smelled gunpowder as she found herself dropping to the floor of her room without thinking about it. Then, in the midst of her pain, Chloe's fear turned to panic as she saw that blood was leaking out of the several burning holes in her chest like a fountain. But even the midst of her pain and panic, Chloe's will to survive was still strong enough to keep her moving.
The blonde reporter was too injured to stand, and her already hurt lungs seemed to catch on fire the one time she foolishly tried to. However, Chloe still found the strength to crawl through the broken glass that used to be her window, towards her closet, which had an emergency med kit, and was, even more importantly, far enough away from her room's window to be out of her attackers' line of sight, while simultaneously reaching towards her cellphone to call 911. Unfortunately, she never made it that far.
Before Chloe Sullivan was able to make it towards her closet, she heard the sound of her house's front door being broken, as well as the sound of a pair of running feet and a man breathing hard. Then, just before the operator on the other end of Chloe's phone line could ask her what her emergency line, a familiar but unwelcome sight greeted the junior reporter as her bedroom door was opened from the outside, revealing the visage of Morgan Edge himself!
The elderly, bespectacled man smiled, although Chloe could tell there was no joy behind the gesture, before he reached out, took Chloe's phone out of the teen's already weakening grip, and flipped the cellular device shut while turning it off. "I'll be taking that, Miss Sullivan. Wouldn't want any of Smallville's finest interrupting us, would we?" The crime boss sneered.
Chloe coughed up blood then, but she was still able to raise herself up to her knees and glare defiantly at the crime boss in front of her. "What's the matter, Mr. Edge? Did most of your boys run for the hills after I blew the whistle on you, and now you don't even have enough men to stand up to a female sheriff and couple of deputies? Is that why you had to dirty your hands and finish this job yourself?"
The crime boss smirked. "Actually, Miss Sullivan, most of my men are still loyal to me despite the…how shall I put this? Awkward state of affairs you and Detective Sawyer, who I will be dealing with shortly, have put me and my business in. That's the power of fear. Between that fact, and that the men I've had surveying this domicile for the past couple weeks have noticed you haven't been using your presumably temporary abilities since you and Clark came back to Smallville, well…I decided it was time I wrote you off as a loose end that needed to be dealt with."
The white haired man knelt to Chloe's level while easily restraining the badly wounded teen as she tried to lash out at him with her weak hands, which were balled into fist, before he spoke again. "And as to the reason for me dealing with you personally? Well, believe it or not, I wasn't able to become the kingpin of Metropolis by keeping my hands clean all the time, Miss Sullivan, and I use to have to deal with this type of nasty work on a regular basis while I was still rising my way through the ranks of the criminal underworld. And although I usually like to have my underlings do this kind of thing for me these days…"
Morgan Edge pulled a .45 out of his black trench coat and showed it to Chloe, who silently cried a few tears despite herself as she realized she was about to die while the older man continued to talk. "I do still find that sometimes, certain jobs still require a personal touch. And you made things very personal indeed when you tried to get me thrown in prison, Miss Sullivan. That is why I am going to kill you myself. After all, if you want something done right…."
Although Chloe was still crying and hyperventilating slightly on the outside, she managed to mentally roll her eyes as she interrupted Mr. Edge's delivery of a cliché line as she tried one last tactic to save herself, even while the large trail of blood between where she had been shot and her current location indicated she was already bleeding out. "Clark…Clark will stop you…."
Morgan Edge shook his head as Chloe's strength finally failed her as she collapsed onto the floor, while still managing to keep her eyes on her soon-to-be killer. "I think not, Miss Sullivan. My informants tell me Clark hasn't been in Smallville for a while. I'm guessing your boyfriend ran off on you again to who knows were, yes? In truth, I don't care where that little prick is…as long as I never see that busybody ever again! And I definitely won't be seeing you again, will I? Good bye, Miss Sullivan."
And without another word, or the twitch of a single facial muscle, Morgan Edge put his gun against a crying Chloe Sullivan's head, and fired.
BANG!
Clark heard the sound of the gunshot only seconds after exiting the Kawatche caves. Seconds after leaving the strange, ice-covered dimension Jor-El had been training him in. But even though it only took those few seconds for Clark to orient himself to being in Smallville again and superspeed to Chloe's house, Clark was too late.
For it was only after hearing the gunshot, which he easily would have heard even without his recently acquired super hearing, that Clark's world slowed down as he analyzed the situation. The alien observed the all too familiar sight of Morgan Edge's limo, saw the broken-down front door to the Sullivan home, and (with his super hearing) heard Morgan Edge say something to the effect of "sweet dreams, Miss Sullivan." And then, after noting with mounting horror that there was only one distinctive heartbeat in the Sullivan household, and using his x-ray vision to confirm the terrible truth that he already knew, something in Clark snapped.
Clark didn't really remember everything that happened after that. He only knew that Chloe Sullivan, his girlfriend, the woman he loved was dead. She was dead because of a man named Morgan Edge, who fancied himself the "king of Metropolis." A man who had threatened and blackmailed the last son of Krypton before. A man who Clark had threatened to kill if he ever harmed Chloe Sullivan in any way. A dead man.
The next thing Clark knew, he was already in Chloe's room, and he was simultaneously chocking and lifting Morgan Edge up with only one arm. The young alien's vision was red (later, Clark would find out that his eyes had been glowing a brighter red than they usually did when he was using heat vision or on red k) as he was chocking the life out of the mob boss, who kept pathetically thrashing around his arms and legs to try to get free of Clark's iron grip, to no avail. The farm boy continued chocking the older man until Morgan's thrashing started to slow down as the mortal began to become asphyxiated.
When Clark finally came to, realizing where he was and what he was doing, he found he was chanting, as he realized he must have been for at least 30 seconds, "You killed her!" over and over again. Even then, however, when Clark finally realized that he was about to kill a man, he did not stop. For he was too blinded by rage at the man who had killed his best friend and girlfriend to care that he was about to take a human life. So Clark kept right on chocking Morgan Edge, and he probably would have kept on doing so, until a voice coming from just behind and below Clark's present position, a voice Clark had feared he would never hear again, finally brought the alien to his senses.
The voice was weak, and raspy. If not for his newly acquired super hearing, Clark probably wouldn't have heard it at all. As it was, however, the sound of one single word was able to stop the almost god-like fury of the last son of Krypton. "Clark!?"
Clark immediately dropped an already unconscious Morgan Edge to the floor as he turned around in his disbelief. There behind him, sitting up on the floor with a ruined, bullet-hole ridden, and blood-soaked shirt on, but not a scratch on her, was his girlfriend, Chloe Sullivan. The blonde reporter looked at her obviously shocked boyfriend who nearly had his jaw to the floor, and whispered in a confused tone of voice. "Clark, what were you doing, and what just happened?!"