Kent Farm, Smallville, 2010
There was a whoosh of air behind him and turned to see Clark snapping his phone shut.
"I saw her in Grandville this morning. She said she was with you and Lois. How long can she possibly have been missing?"
Oliver raised an eyebrow at him. "You saw her? She didn't look any different to you?"
Clark frowned and folded his arms across his chest. "What's gong on? She had a boy with her, and she wasn't really wearing the kind of clothes she normally does..."
Oliver let out a laugh, it was a hollow, humorless laugh and made his eyes smart. The fact that Clark hadn't noticed how different she was just cemented his fears at how far their friendship had fallen apart. "She was from the future Clark. Our Chloe's been missing since last night. At least it was some time last night or early this morning. There was a rift, similar to the one that brought Lois and Alia back from the future. We've been hoping to figure out a way to undo everything but it seems that whatever caused it in the first place had more nefarious plans for Chloe than just sending her through time. It think whoever it was, wanted our Chloe so that they could erase her from the future."
"You think that they were switched?" Clark asked skeptically.
"Well she seemed to think so. I'm asking you to just check it out. Zatanna's already doing all she can. Clark, it's not going to hurt to take a look see."
Clark dropped his arms and fisted his hands. "Time travel is dangerous."
"This is Chloe! Do you realize that if we don't get her back, that we're..." he didn't say it. He hadn't ever let himself think about not getting Chloe back. Having the future Chloe around had kept that fear well at bay, but now that she was gone and his Chloe hadn't magically reappeared, that fear was at the forefront of his mind and staring at Clark in his indignant posture, was pushing him to his limits of control.
"She's the glue that keeps us together, Clark. Without her, there is no Watchtower. We're barely even a team anymore. Lois is already on the warpath. Honestly, I was in two minds about outing you just so I'd have extra muscle on my side here. She'd use that ring again in a heartbeat if she had the memories we took from her. Chloe's family. Lois will do anything to get her back and so will I. Please Clark. I'm asking you. Don't make me go over you on this..." he finished brokenly.
Things hadn't gone well the last time they'd been divided on something. Lives had been lost. Oliver promised himself that he'd give Clark the benefit of the doubt, try harder to understand things from Boy Scout's perspective, but this was something he wouldn't bend on.
Clark relaxed his grip and let out a light breath. He felt like heaving a sigh but he'd risk blowing the barn doors of their hinges and Lois had seen those red doors once already. There was no way she was going to write it off as a weather anomaly twice. "Chloe's my best friend. I'll do what I can to bring her back. But we have no idea what we're up against here Oliver. Don't you think we've got enough going on already without adding a future villain into the mix?"
Oliver put his hands on his hips. "That's not what I'm worried about. Trust me, I'm more afraid of a future without Chloe in it than some wizard from 2019."
"Did she say anything about when specifically?"
Oliver made a face. "No, but she did mention living on the other side of the country, so I guess you can start there."
"It would help if you could be a bit more specific than that."
The other man scowled at him. "Hey, I'm as much in the dark as you are!"
Clark scoffed lightly, "Yeah, that's why this is the first I'm hearing of what's been going on since Chloe really disappeared. Admit it Oliver. The only reason you're coming to me is because you can't fix this yourself. I'll see what I can find out. Is there anything I need to watch out for before I go?"
"Chloe did mention that you guys were still friends. I guess you could always look up the Planet database for clues if you can't find Watchtower in the future."
Clark nodded and headed for the loft stairs. "If I can, I'll bring her home."
"No wait. Unless you run that plan by Zatanna first, I don't think it's a good idea. We're thinking someone might have tried that already. Maybe your future-self. I think future Chloe did try going back earlier. It didn't turn out so well. There was an explosion in a hardware store."
Clark frowned. "I heard her call for me. She sounded really afraid. I guess that could explain why she was surprised to see me instead of future me when I just turned up in Grandville." He smirked a small smile. In their crazy lives it was ironic how that thought made perfect sense. "Who was the kid with her?"
Oliver hesitated for a second before he shrugged. "Her son."
"Well huh," Clark looked at him thoughtfully. "Never pictured Chloe as a mom. She always seemed so on the go, too busy to settle down for anything."
Oliver sighed. "Can you get going? We can discuss Chloe's heart and psyche at length later, when she's home safe."
Clark nodded and started climbing the stairs. "Keep an eye on Lois for me, okay. She has an uncanny habit of finding trouble without even trying."
"I'll head back to Grandville. She's probably strong armed or dazzled a poor shop assistant into risking his job by now. And no doubt she's on the track to solving part of the mystery of what Chloe was up to this morning."
Oliver left the barn just as Clark disappeared in a burst of light. Boy Scout hadn't even bothered with a disguise. Seriously, his black on black didn't scream subtlety. He would have been better off sticking with his bullpen attire. Shaking his head, Oliver wondered whether Clark's future self had learned a little better or Lois would probably be getting an eyeful on the store's surveillance cameras right about now.
Watchtower, Earth Orbiting Satellite, 2019
J'onn didn't understand the data he was seeing. The monitor they'd set up using advanced Kryptonian and Thanagarian technology to pick up anomalies in time and space was in overdrive. It started with barely a glitch in the early hours of the morning, but now it seemed to on the brink of a major fritz. He was getting a headache too, accompanied by an assortment of confusing memories. It wasn't just him though - the thoughts in the minds around him also seemed conflicted. And going over his own thoughts for even the last few days seemed to be at odds too. It was becoming hard to tell what was real and what wasn't.
The medbay alert was bleeping through the speakers, and he could feel the shift of emotion on the base. There was a lot of anxiety and shock surrounding a certain individual being brought in by Green Arrow and Superman.
His concern grew. The public hadn't seen Superman in years. Not since soon after Lex Luthor took office and blamed Darksied's invasion and the immeasurable destruction caused by Superman, on invading aliens. Only by uniting government and the Justice League forces had they purged Darksied's brainwashing from Kal-El and had turned the tide of the war.
Since that day, superhero activity was strictly outlawed and anyone accused or caught in acts of vigilantism were arrested. The Justice League were underground, most of their members in hiding or living out normal lives under their everyday aliases doing their part to persuasive the truth and justice through legal channels; like politics, armed forces, police and press. All of which Lex Luthor and his supporters controlled and monitored at every level.
The Watchtower Space Station was a joint effort of both the Justice League and the Justice Society, it had taken them years building it and shipping it out piece by piece. It helped that there were many able hands that could enter orbit quickly and discreetly, working with minimal machinery to put it together in vacuum.
It was the only eyes they had to monitor the globe that couldn't be scrutinized or controlled by any government, least of all Luthor.
Switching to standby mode, he secured his workstation and started for medbay to visit with two men he hadn't seen in a very long time.
Medbay, 2019
Clark stood to the side while Oliver barked at one of the medical attendants, demanding that they do something. Everyone seemed surprised to see them, and while a nurse looked over Chloe. Oliver punched the intercom for the operations deck.
"Where's Emil?"
The nervous voice of one of the technicians squeaked in reply, "Emil?"
"Dr. Hamilton. Where's Doctor Hamilton. We radioed ahead to have him beamed up if he wasn't already on duty," Oliver growled impatiently.
The medbay door hissed open and J'onn surveyed the chaos before him with careful attention.
"J'onn, what's going on here?" Clark waved a hand around, a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face.
"You're not of our time...the present reality in which we live that is."
"What?" Oliver spun around from his spot beside Chloe's bedside, "What the heck are you talking about?"
"When you teleported from the surface, something changed in history from what you know to be reality. In this world, Dr. Hamilton is loyal to his own code. We discovered a few years ago that he was accumulating alien and metahuman DNA and creating programmed clones for a secret government organization under the guise of protecting humanity from any future superhuman threats." He looked pointedly at Superman. "I am sorry Kal-El, I must caution you to limit who you have contact with on the base. While we screen our personnel carefully, we can never guarrantee how far a person can be tested to protect our secrets. President Luthor has scouts searching for you still."
Clark let out a short sigh. "If not Emil, then it would have been Luthor. It was always a possibility someone would try it. Either using my DNA or Kara's. Sometimes you've just got to give people the benefit of the doubt. Hope for the good in people."
J'onn nodded and smiled. "That's what makes you Superman."
Clark looked to Oliver. "How could everything have changed so much? Between the time we called in and getting her here, it was barely two minutes."
"I think I can answer that," came a familiar voice.
Oliver looked up and his face morphed with relief. "Zee, please tell me you can fix all this."
She shook her head sadly. "It took me awhile to put it all together but something about today had me feeling all levels of crawly. So imagine my shock when I stepped out of Shadowcrest to this dimension and found half the people I knew weren't around anymore. Had me running back to check my journals and it turns out I found the common denominator. Years ago, you called me, much like you did this morning saying that Chloe had disappeared. Only you believed it was a scrubbed-from-history scenario. I looked into it for awhile but came up empty. For me, there's actually two sets of memories in my head. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. You said Mordru was behind this but when I spoke to Lord Coldrake just before I left, he said that he'd never heard of him.
J'onn's eyes flashed briefly. "Kal-El wonders how you clearly remember both memories when the rest of us don't. I am curious about that also."
Zatanna shrugged. "I guess being located in a different dimension shielded me. Although that doesn't explain how Mordru could go from being confined to the Dark Tower to being unheard of by the warden."
Oliver curled his fingers around the medical bed side guard until the plastic polymer cracked as he gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at Zatanna. "What if someone was using the portal to The World of The Dark Tower at the time of the rift?"
"Then it's possible that his reality was altered as well," Zatanna agreed with a nod.
"So Mordru could be anywhere?"
"And possibly unaware of the change?"
"Or that was his plan B all along," said Oliver darkly, "Punish me for the rest of my life and escape from Shadowpact."
"There has to be a way we can track him down."
"Sir?" one of the nurses said timidly.
"Yes!" Oliver barked irritably.
The nurse jumped and flinched back. She'd been the one fitting Chloe with an O2 mask, checking her blood pressure and swabbing her hand.
Oliver forced himself to calm down when he realized she was doing her job and trying to help. "Is she stable?"
"I'm sorry, sir," she said her hands shaking. "She's gone."
Oliver felt like someone had knocked him for a six. He staggered forward, if he wasn't leaning on the guard panel already, he was pretty sure he would have hit the floor on his knees. He stared at Chloe's ashen face, still disbelieving what the monitor was telling them. There wasn't a heart beat. His gaze flew to Clark. "She can't be dead."
Clark was having trouble breathing himself. Watching one friend's face twisted with grief and the other utterly void of life, he could barely remember to blink. He didn't need to do those things like regular humans. He could stare for hours at a time if he wanted. Hold his breath for about the same. He had to remind himself to appear normal, to take regular breaths, to blink so he wouldn't draw attention. Already, he missed her laughter, her easy bright smile. Her teasing words. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to never see those familiar sparkling green eyes again.
"She's not dead," Oliver's voice was defiant. "She's not."
"Arrow..."
Oliver didn't seem as though he'd heard them, focused as he was on the unmoving form on the narrow bed. He held her face between his hands and touched his forehead to hers. He couldn't feel warm breath leaving her lips. Her skin was cold and sucked the warmth from his on contact. Hot tears fell from his eyes and he squeezed the lids shut hoping to hamper the uncontrollable flow. "No," he whispered savagely. "NO!"
J'onn bowed his head. "In our world, Chloe Sullivan disappeared April 12th, 2010. We searched for her when we learned she was missing. With no exact information to go on, we couldn't find her. Perhaps this explains why she was never found. Kal-El, I was told you did search for her."
Clark closed his eyes and felt a headache coming on. Ordinarily he only felt pain under the effects of green Kryptonite or while he was human. This skull splitting sensation wasn't a feeling he enjoyed. He didn't remember any of what J'onn was telling him. "I don't...hold on a second." Something was coming to him, was it a memory? "I did come to this time. I remember. Watchtower!" His eyes widened and he stiffened. "We have to stop him."