11

"You're back." Her dad said, as he followed Clark down the stairs, rolling his eyes slightly as the much taller guy had to duck his head under the stairwell.

"Yeah," she said, not looking up from the tablet clutched in her hand.

"You know, when you got back, I was expecting you to make an announcement. Come by the plant to drag me out of work, anything to celebrate the fact that you were sticking around our good old Cow Town." He finished as he clomped down the last few steps. His tone changed from glib to concerned as he spied how red and swollen her eyes were. "Chlo-bear?"

"Oh daddy," She said, throwing her arms around him the second he touched her shoulder. "You were right. I shouldn't have gone."

She felt her father's chin rustle against the top of her head as he turned to look at Clark. "We're not going to have to move to another continent to avoid Swann's wrath, are we?"

"No sir." Clark assured him, stepping forward himself to put a hand on her shoulder as well. "He didn't do anything to hurt her. In fact, quite the opposite. He offered to help her if she ever needed anything, no questions asked."

"Well that's a pleasant change of pace." He said. "Then what's wrong, sweetheart?"

Sniffling, she raised her head from his chest. "I…it was too much. I wasn't ready to hear what they had to say."

"Then there are others?" He asked, forcing a smile to his lips. It was the kind he'd always reserved for when Moira's more annoying relatives had visited at Thanksgiving when she'd been small.

"No, that's just it, daddy. There aren't any others. My planet's gone."

She heard his heartbeat slow down to normal with his relief, but his tone was as gentle and concerned as ever. "Oh, Chlo-bear, I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am. I thought there'd be someone else, anyone else, I really did, and now I know there's not. I know now that I'm always going to be alone." As soon as she said that, Clark flung his arms around her fully and she was squished in between the two most important people in her life. It was a good thing she was Kryptonian or she'd have been suffocated by all the affection.

"You're not alone, Chlo." Clark added, his tone as genuine as ever and they so needed to bottle whatever it was about him that was so Norman Rockwell. The sincerity in his voice came close to cajoling her into believing that she'd be alright. It was infinitely more effective than the arms wrapped around her.

"You have both of us, sweetheart." Her dad finished.

She nodded and pulled away from the both of them. "Thanks." Holding out the tablet for both of them to see, she added. "I know what this is now."

"I was kind of going to ask about that." Clark said, blushing at the way he'd just let his inner geek out.

She smiled back at him. "It's the ship's heart." She said as she slid it into the appropriate spot in the ship. It activated then, hovering above the floor and glowing brightly. Chloe blinked as it peeled back, revealing an impossibly small chamber inside. It baffled the mind to think she'd ever fit in that.

Her dad echoed her thoughts. "It's hard to believe you were ever that small."

"Speak for yourself." Clark joked. "She's still microscopic."

"Whatever, Paul Bunyan." She joked uneasily, squinting at the now familiar concentric circles spiraling through the ship's seat. Pausing, she reread it three or four times, trying to ensure that she'd gotten the translation right. She was hoping she'd been wrong, that her download was seriously flawed but based on what she'd already read from Lex's research, she didn't think so.

"Chlo-bear." Her father said, trying to break through her disquieting silence. "What does it say?"

"It's a message from my biological father. I…Jesus. It has to be wrong."

"What's it say?" Clark prodded, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders.

Chloe repeated the message verbatim without stopping, without even hazarding a glance back at her family. "'On this third planet from the star, Sol, you will be a goddess among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength for this is where your true greatness lies.' My God. They didn't even think to include a nice 'We love you, Kala' or 'Good luck on the fucking alien planet we marooned you on.' Nope, just 'go out and be all that you can be as a goddamn alien dictator.'" She was shouting by this point, but she didn't care. The basement had plenty thick walls so exposure wasn't a worry.

"Chlo-bear," her father started. "Maybe you read it wrong."

"No, I didn't. It's that never fail alien technology downloaded right into my brain. I can read it just fine and it says that I'm here for conquest. I finally have my raison d'etre and it's to destroy all humans."

"To be fair. It doesn't actually say that, and so what?" Clark said, shrugging. "You heard, Dr. Swann, you don't have to do anything that They wanted. They're gone, Chlo, and you're here and they don't have any say in who you are. I mean, look at Lex. His dad practically wants him to be the second coming of Alexander the Great but it doesn't mean he always listens to him. If he had, the plant would have been shut down and he would have left back to Metropolis by now and let Smallville die."

"We're playing for slightly bigger stakes here, Clark." She snapped, beginning to pace. "So I don't want to do it, but what if it's fate or something and I can't avoid it? Is this the kind of person-and I'm using the term generously-I'm going to grow up to be?"

"Sweetheart, you're going to be fine. This doesn't matter."

"How can you say that? I'm like a one woman War of the Worlds !" She shouted, finishing her pacing and breaking down into tears.

Her dad was there then, wrapping her up in a hug. "You're not going to do anything to hurt anyone, Chlo-bear. You're not."

"You can't know that," She hiccupped, the tension still straining her shoulders even as Clark started to rub them. "Are you still happy you brought me home now? You should have just left me there for Uncle Sam-the metaphorical one-to take instead. It would have been safer for everybody."

Her father shook her and it surprised her. "Don't ever talk like that, not ever. I'd never regret taking you home, and I don't believe anything that stupid tin can has to say. I'm your father. I raised you and know you and you're nothing like that."

"I wish I was sure."

"I am sure." Both her father and Clark chorused.

She nodded and let herself rest against her father's chest. If she'd been any other girl, she'd have believed him, but she wasn't and that, of course, was the problem. She was an alien with alien senses and she perceived everything. She could smell the stench of him as he sweated from nervousness, could feel the tenseness of his body, could hear his heart jackhammering in his chest as he lied.

Her father was as uncertain as she was.

Do you regret anything yet, daddy?