Chapter 26 Girl Talk

"I found our mystery player," I said, slumping down on the sofa in Tess's Daily Planet office.

I loathed being here. If life were fair, I'd still work for the Planet. If life were fair, of course, I wouldn't be a mutant with a timer clicking down in my head until I went as crazy as my mother. If life were fair, Smallville wouldn't have been covered twice over in meteors, but life wasn't fair. So I came to the holding she said come to in order to discuss Dara.

Merry Christmas to me.

Well more accurately, the day after Christmas, Tess had flown me back to Metropolis. Now I was sitting in said office, trying to process anything at all. Clark had known about Dara. I'd grilled Martha Kent on it. They'd been working on the Krytponian's papers for several weeks. There was a rogue running loose and Clark hadn't even bothered to call me. I mean, I wasn't stupid. I figured only he and J'onn and Martha had known. There was no reason to think that Bart and Victor had been briefed but he'd decided to just leave me in the dark. Of course, it really wasn't that surprising. Who the Hell was I kidding? Just because Clark had bought me a bracelet-one I was still wearing under my sweater like an idiot-didn't mean he trusted me.

He'd been looking in on me for months. I'd suspected as much, felt odd breezes in my room. I knew Clark was fast enough for that, but the thought that he'd been so achingly close and still let me rot there in my basement. The ass.

I didn't even know what to do anymore. I just didn't. I loved him, wanted him home, but he always got to decide things, he always made the unilateral choices and let me suffer because of them. He had never talking to someone in his head as the same as being "noble," and he certainly wasn't. Clark was just being cruel.

And, yeah, maybe a little this was how he'd felt when I'd shut him out about Davis. But this was still different. He was avoiding me because he apparently was avoiding all human contact if he could, and I'd been trying to ensure that a monster didn't tear Clark apart limb from limb. But, Christ, he'd been coming by daily it sounded like this whole time? He could see me but I could barely get one lousy note out of him.

Why the Hell was I even in Metropolis anymore? I could get a better shrink, hire someone who wasn't terrible from a place like Arkham or Belle Reve, places that were no strangers to the insane and the powered. I could go to Central City right in a few days. Hell, Bart would speed me over and pack me himself. The boys talked to me, they didn't hide things from me or make all the rules.

I just was so tired, and, as sad as it was to admit and as crazy as it made me sound, it was only now that I was starting to wonder what I was fighting so hard for. I'd lived through losing my dream, my mind, and control of my own body. I'd lived through his barbs and suspicion when I'd brought him home from South America. It had all hurt, but nothing hurt more than knowing he'd been this close to me for months and not bothered to see me.

Maybe I really did love him more than he loved me.

Of course, if I believed that, then I'd have left the bracelet back in Star City with Martha.

Tess eyed me sitting there and shook her head. "You just trailed off, Sullivan. You're not your usual sharp self, are you today?"

"Define 'usual,'" I snarked.

"Fair enough, Chloe," Tess said, leaning back in her desk chair. "You know that you mentioned last time that none of you were play things for me to poach. Your power's back again? The Black Creek records were pretty thorough on that. So you're a supercomputer once more?"

"Black Creek was wrong," I replied. "I had an infection from Krypton in my head. Once, sure, I was infected and I guess my DNA never changed." Boy had it never. "But I don't do anything more than counsel."

Tess deflated at that. "What a pity. The things in your head. You were extraordinary."

I shuddered. I'd been in a lab three times over because of Lex's interests. I didn't need a return trip. "The genius wasn't mine to have, trust me. It ate through my brain. I'm as boringly normal as you are, now, Tess, but that doesn't mean I want to become a feeder school for the Injustice League."

"I don't call it that."

"I think of it that way. You're not like us."

"There's no League of yours anymore, Chloe, and don't pretend bombing places and murdering Lex is any better. It's not. At least I pay well, but tell me about what Clark hid from you."

"Don't say it like that," I said, pushing my hair back out of my face. It was a stupid move, borne of frustration. It cause my sleeve to ride up and Tess's eyes widened at the bracelet there. "What?"

"I doubt that came from Oliver or Lois. You must have had a very interesting Christmas."

"Clark's confusing as Hell."

"That we agree on," She said, crossing her legs and leaning on the desk. "He gave that to you?"

"We had a decent Christmas until this Dara showed up. I don't know what her angle is but I've never met any Kryptonians, outside of Clark and Kara, who weren't trouble. I don't care what line she fed Clark or how she hid things from J'onn. You don't go to the Phantom Zone for liking hugs and puppies."

"And the most she's done is drag Clark off to New York to stop a Zoner. That's impressive."

"How so?" I snapped.

"Because he's been so committed to becoming retired," Tess said, her tone whiney. "This is a good sign, then. If she can get him motivated. Christ, Clark can do more with one arm than most of my time can combined and he knows it. You think someone who could be the world's savior should waste his life in a townhouse in D.C.?"

"I think it hurts that Clark stopped helping people, but he has his own life, and if he wants to do nothing, then that's his choice. He lost a hand, and he lost his father in this stupid war. He's not your messiah, Tess, and he's not going to be."

"He's worth more than that," she hissed, standing. This was the madness in her, the weird eco-warrior bullshit that had led her to bomb things almost as often as A.C. "You've coddled him and let him go and if this new girl can get him back in the fold…"

"He won't work for you. He hates LuthorCorp."

"But he could. I could make it worth his while, and you damn well know it. I can pay him handsomely, give him whatever he wanted. Maybe if Dara comes first…"

"They're not a couple."

Tess eyed my bracelet and shrugged. "Be honest, Sullivan, if Dara were a man, would you be as upset."

"Zod, Zor-El, Faora…none of that ended well. I see a pattern, and I see that Dara could really screw all of us if she's a liar."

"Or maybe you're jealous."

I snorted. "We both are. You think I can't tell from the looks on your face. You might have some zealot fascination, Tess, be some true believer, but you're also in love with him."

"We could make a club."

"Hardly, but Kryptonians are dangerous and Zoners are worse so one that escaped? I'm not wrong to want to know more."

"Maybe Clark would tell you if you asked. Oh, wait, he didn't last time."

"You're enjoying this."

"Maybe. You and Martha, you make this club or you did, control access, and it's stupid. You think you're not replaceable, but clearly you are. You're upset because Dara wants him and he won't break her."

"He'd break you," I bit back.

She shrugged. "As long as I have what I really want, and, yes, you're not wrong, I do need someone with his strength, a cornerstone for my team. He could save the damn world and I want to get him there. If Dara warms his bed and makes him compliant, bully for me."

I stood then and glared back at her. "I'm done with this. You have your team and apparently Clark and Dara only have one Zoner to go after this. I'm done with him, and I'm done with you and if you think he'll come to you like some trained dog…"

"I don't expect that. There's always perks. Maybe I never needed your compliance, Sullivan. Maybe I just need hers," Tess stood as well and shrugged. "Besides, if you really thought he wasn't tempted, if you really thought he'd come back to you from New York, then you wouldn't have hopped back on my jet so fast. Just admit it. You hate Dara because she's like him and you're not."

"Goodbye Tess," I huffed crossing out of her office. I ignored the beautiful heart deco of the Planet. It had been my home and now it was nothing to me. I had a lot of that in my life lately, loss, and I was fucking sick of it.

I went back to my office. I had some possible new patients being transferred after the first of the year from Belle Reve. They'd been deemed well enough to be out patient. I was going over what I had and how best to accommodate them. Looked like I had one who could make their body like liquid metal-what fun flashbacks to Lionel-sponsored assassinations—and another that seemed to have the power of hypnotic suggestion. We'd have to watch her. Smallville had taught me enough to know it was the ones who could play with your mind who were the most dangerous.

Sighing, I clicked my TV back to CNN.

The melee in New York was over and the body collected. Police were going to be assessing where the threat had come from with "military assistance." That was going to go great. I made a note to see if Lois could put feelers out and see whatever the military might discover about the Zoner. She had a way of ferreting things out of Uncle Sam no matter how confidential they were. Clark and Dara weren't in the wreckage so that meant they'd survived. I frowned watching it. It was Clark's "style" to be sloppy and to draw attention to himself. That wasn't unusual, but, except for Titan, he didn't kill.

It made me think that Dara had done that, especially since he was out of practice.

Again, it didn't matter what Tess had said, I didn't trust Dara. Couldn't. Yes, it burned that, for now while he seemed to hate her and be nervous around her, they were still the same. He was the one so obsessed with compatibility and my so-called fragile nature. I could raise the dead; it wasn't like I was made of china. Still, they'd finished yesterday with this mess and Clark hadn't come home yet, not according to Lois's latest e-mail.

Where was he?

Was he with her? Did he like he better now that they'd fought side by side?

I both wanted to know and didn't.

Shaking my head, I turned off the feed and read the next file, about a girl who could control ice. I didn't get far into her information before I felt a familiar breeze and rolled my eyes at my papers scattering everywhere.

"Clark, good timing. I guess that means that you do remember how to get back from New York and we are still speaking to each other. That's novel."

"Wrong one," a deep alto rang out behind me.

I froze. If Dara was as dangerous as I thought she was, then I might get a chance to see how well my powers bounced back. I knew if a Kryptonian snapped bone, then it would heal fast. I wasn't sure if that applied to my neck, but I might find out.

"You confuse me," she said, stepping around my desk and facing me. I stared her down, those unnaturally bright blue eyes of hers as intimidating as the rest of her. Of course, I'd faced down Brainiac and Davis's Beast before. I'd seen my fair share of horrors. I wasn't going to give her any satisfaction. "Your heartbeat is racing so fact, but you're not reacting."

"Lie detectors. I hate that," I said. "Where's Clark?"

"Kal-El got sanctimonious about how I decided to get rid of our problem, and then he refused me again."

"We have this saying on Earth. Maybe he's just not that into you. I can't imagine why," I drawled.

"I think my problem is how much he's attracted to you. I'm frankly at the point of thinking he's broken somehow, that being raised with only humans ruined him. Maybe he's only attracted to your kind. Poor bastard."

I smiled and hoped it was as feral as I wanted it to be. "Maybe you're not as attractive as you wish you were. Between us girls, you look rough around the edges from all that time in the Zone. Maybe a little bit of skin cream will fix that up."

Her eyes flashed amber just a second, and maybe I was never the smartest, said too much. At least I held my tongue more often than my cousin. "What's so much better about you."

"Must not be that much better. You're the one who pointed out he watches me but won't talk. At this point? I don't know if he sees me as anything at all."

She snorted and her eyes were still glowing. I'd always found it neat with Clark, but with her, it made my heart stop. She might be tempted to use it. "Oh, I made what I wanted very clear to him. He wants you, only you, so how did you do that to him? Assuming he's not just hopelessly fucked up by living on Earth."

"Oh, he is. Clark's got more issues than Rolling Stone," I said, echoing something Lana and I had once commiserated over.

"But assuming he doesn't have some monkey fetish, why you? Your nose is too big and your arms too fat. You don't have any actual power, and you're shorter than I'd have assumed at first, way he goes on about you."

"Thanks, would you like to mention any other shortcoming?"

"You don't have a winning personality."

"I've heard that more than once today," I said. "Look, I never had him, not once. I thought there was a moment or two…but he won't even talk to me anymore, not like he used to. All I want to know is if you're a killer? What really got you sent away because tech thief doesn't strike me as enough even if Jor-El's an ass?"

She smiled but her expression gave nothing away. "I guess you'll never know, pet."

"I want to. You might have done something to even convince J'onn, and, since he's not powered and the last days were probably confusing as Hell, maybe he didn't know enough about your case to know better. Clark believes in second chances. I'm not as nice. If you do anything…"

I stood then, not that it did much good. In her boots, Dara was over six feet. I wished I had gotten some height from my uncle and Lois's side, that would have been nice. "Then I will make you sorry. I know how."

Dara moved faster than I could count and her hand was clamped over my forearm. I wasn't sure if she'd squeeze to make her point or if she'd reach further, like for my neck. I felt pressure for an instant and assumed she was going to snap it. But she didn't.

Her eyes went wide and she dropped me, almost as if I'd scalded her.

"What are you?"

"Huh?" I asked, completely confused about where this was all going. "I don't understand."

"There's something…there's everything different about you. I thought you were just a human, but you're not. Kal-El didn't tell me you were gifted."

I snorted. That was one way to label being able to wake in morgue drawers in a single bound and owning a one way ticket on the crazy train. "Gifted" was hardly what I would call myself, ever. "The Kryptonite did a number on me and on most of my kids here. We're just so lucky."

Dara shook her head. "I…you don't understand at all, do you?"

"That I'm a mutant? Believe me, I get it!" I snapped.

She shook her head and backed away from me as I stepped towards her. Things were turning on their head fast. She'd been so confident before she'd touched me, and now she was gaping back instead, her expression that same odd mix of confusion and horror that was on Brainiac's face when he'd hurt me. Or, okay, I'd found some weird, reflexive way to injure him.

"No, you really don't. I had no idea what Kal-El had found. This? This will take some planning."

She was gone in a massive breeze again before I had time to ask what the Hell she meant. Pulling out my cell, I called Clark's number and screamed when he sent me to voicemail. I jammed it off and just shouted instead:

Don't be an ass. We have a problem, a huge one, and her name is Dara. Meet me at my apartment in five because she's got plans and I don't think they're good.