55
"Let me get this straight," Jax said. "You want me to use a computer that just got de-villified and no one has effectively used in probably thousands of years based on the age of the stones to create a virus that is guaranteed to infect every computer on Earth off the bat but will only wipe the ones that have very specific mentions of us and that means trying to make sure The Daily Planet computers that Chloe and Clark use don't get wiped out as an after thought or any of our personal stuff?"
Kon was leaning against the door to Jax's room, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. Chloe watched her son straighten and nod. "Basically."
"Do you want me to invent a flux capacitor while I'm at it?"
"No," Clark said. "We just want to know if this is something you think you have the ability to do."
"I don't even know how the Fortress works."
"It's a learning curve," Kara replied seriously. "Kon has access to the Fortress. He or Kal can affect it or use the computer systems there. If the three of us went, you, me, and Kon, then I could show him what to enter after you'd designed the program."
"You want me to do this because you think I could. Cause Brainiac could," Jax pressed.
Chloe and Clark exchanged a look. Caught. Clark sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We know it's possible for Kryptonian technology to infect Earth computers, we just don't have the skill set to do it."
"Well, I'm not exactly my dad and Brainiac is wicked smart and always evolving. Taking me to the Fortress is like introducing someone who only used a classic three color gameboy to see Bill Gates's private pad circa today."
"We know," Kon continued. "But you'd have a better shot at it than Aunt Kara. She does some decent hacking on Earth computers and so do mom and Uncle Victor but this is another level."
Jax narrowed his eyes at Kon. There was a lot left unsaid there. "So you have the idea and I fill in the time and labor. That's fair."
"I can't do it."
"But since my dad made Brainiac of course I must know the default quickest way to spread Kryptonian computer viri."
Kon winced. "I...bringing up that was shitty."
Jax shrugged, when he answered, his voice was tight. "Why? My dad did it. If even Alura knew, I appreciate being in on it."
"Jax-" Clark started.
The younger man shook his head. "I'll try it. Give me a few hours to get some deep breaths and some air back to the brain. I can't promise anything but I'll try."
"Well, it's that or move to Fargo and start hiding out there," Kon deadpanned. "Lex and Lana probably have in case files with lawyers or who knows what. Holding them here isn't going to keep them from sitting on this info long. It'll just delay it."
"No pressure," Jax muttered.
Chloe eyed her husband who nodded and then said. "Kara, Kon, can you give us a minute?"
"Kal-"
"Sure dude. Aunt Kara come on."
"But I thought we were having a meeting."
"And we mostly did," Jax replied. "Though I get the feeling everything was reached unilaterally. Come back in two hours and I'll be ready for world class hacking, okay?"
Kara nodded and touched the foot of his bed. "For Alura's sake, I thank you for trying."
"I haven't done anything yet."
"You agreed," she replied simply before following Kon out the door.
Jax laughed. "Since when did I hit the Twilight Zone?"
"From birth," Chloe replied drolly. "But you meant since you woke up."
"Squirt's acting like a human being, mostly. The Fortress is suddenly playing for Team Us, and Lex and Lana are a few corridors over in the Watchtower brig. I missed a hell of a lot."
Clark sighed. "Kon's trying to make up-"
"For being a complete asshole by coming up with really insane plans?"
"It's not that insane," Chloe countered. "Don't bullshit. We know you can do this and you know you can."
Jax looked back down at the blanket draped over his legs. "Yeah, I really think I can. I can already see the programming loops I'm going to use. It's going to be tedious and time consuming to get the right algorithm in place but it's not going to be impossible."
"Are you afraid?" she continued.
Jax shifted and she knew she'd hit her point. "Not exactly. I just thought we all agreed I wouldn't be jump starting science a few thousand years."
"You're not going to be selling this to Microsoft," Clark corrected.
"I know. I just...it's weird to know I could make programming like Brainiac, if I wanted to. I think I can even see how my dad would have had to set it up."
Chloe swallowed, keeping her breath measured and even. Kryptonians knew bluffs when they saw them. "You won't. We're just sending you and Kon and Kara to the Fortress to design something to go after Lex and Lana's hard drives. That's what really matters. Is getting rid of any record we can find related to us. You don't have to worry about anything beyond that."
"I'm just saying that it makes anything after that seem incredibly easy," Jax replied. "I don't like thinking about these sorts of things because I know I could do them, but I don't get a choice do I? Lex and Lana wouldn't stop until they ruined us."
Chloe sighed and watched as Clark patted Jax's arm.
"No, I don't think they would," he said. "Either we do this or we go on the run and I really don't want that to happen to any of us, especially the girls. I don't want to explain that to Alura."
Jax nodded. "Using the munchkin card against me, I see. Alright, I'll try but do I have to be paired up with Kon? I'm not exactly feeling him right now."
Clark shrugged. "It has to be him or me. One of us can affect the Fortress and Kara should know how some of the tech works but she can't affect it."
"You could come!"
"We'll be there soon enough. We just need to talk," Chloe added.
Jax narrowed his eyes, reading both of them at once. "You mean go back to the holding cell and talk to Lex and Lana."
"It's complicated," she replied. "We've known them since we were about fourteen, a lot longer with Lana and Clark. It's just-"
"Things left unsaid, gotcha. Give me a few minutes with my mom and then we'll head out to superhack. I need to feel useful."
"You are useful," Clark countered.
"I've been the damsel in distress lately. I could use a change of pace," Jax quipped, eying the IV still in his arm. "I got this. I do."
Chloe wasn't sure if she were relieved or scared.
You don't have to go in. J'onn intoned.
She was long since used to having his voice sound in her head. It was not intimidating, even when she saw J'onn stand there in his true form, all seven feet of him red-eyed and grave. It worked as well on her as any of Bruce's attempts at instilling fear.
"J'onn," she replied, placing a hand on his forearm. "It's alright. I know between you and Diana and Dinah, they aren't going anywhere. Not while the three of you are watching the room and, if they did run, there's no place to go on a satellite."
That's not all that can come from this.
"Closure matters a lot and not just the closure of seeing them arraigned or up on trial. I need to see more from them, J'onn."
They won't have apologies for you.
"We don't expect any," Clark replied, hooking his arm around hers. "Can you open the door please?"
J'onn nodded and pressed the key code into the pad. I merely wanted to go on record with my objections.
Chloe nodded but kept her eyes forward. She and Clark walked through the door and sat down at the steel table. Lex faced opposite from her and Lana from Clark, each with their hands manacled. No, no one would be staging an Attica here.
"Chloe, how pleasant," Lex said, his self satisfied smirk still in place. "And Clark and Moira too. I should feel honored, shouldn't I?"
Clark shifted to hide his stomach under the table as much as he could. "Don't forget who's being held here and who's not."
"I suppose you've forgotten who has the most leverage here. You don't really want to end up the property of Uncle Sam, do you?"
Clark clenched his jaw but kept his tone even. "We're not falling for threats anymore and we're definitely not cutting deals with you. That was the mistake last time and it just bought time. It didn't help."
Lex nodded. "It certainly didn't save Jax, did it?"
"He's alive," Chloe countered.
The widening of Lex's eyes betrayed his surprise. "What?"
"Alive, Lex, no thanks to anything you or gold Kryptonite did to him. You touch any of the children again and we won't even think about involving authorities," Chloe pressed.
Lex's smile widened. "Moira did it, didn't she? My one regret is that I don't have my hands on her. What secrets she has."
"She's not yours to have and she's never going to be," Chloe replied tersely. "Kon, Jax, Clark, Mo…they all have stopped being your play things."
Lana finally deigned to look at her. "Kon was never yours."
Clark dropped his head. "None of the six of us-"
"Your 'Council,'" Lex interjected, laughing a little.
"None of the six of us are anyone's to play with. No ISIS, no basement labs, no tricks. Any hold you had on us," he said, staring at Lana. "It's over."
She nodded and drummed her fingers against the table, her stare trained on Chloe. "Is it?"
"Excuse me?"
"How well do you think you know your son, Chloe?"
"Not as well as I used to," she answered truthfully. Once she had known her son well, known his pains and his sorrows, and now she wasn't sure she recognized whom he'd become. She certainly couldn't pretend to know who he'd grow into.
"When he and the J'onn came to me, he offered me a deal."
"What kind?" Clark asked, leaning toward her.
"He would have taken me anywhere I wanted, any non-extraditing country I chose. Ask J'onn."
Clark reached out and grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed it. She took the reassurance where she could get it. It was hard to breathe. "If he did he had a reason. You aren't in Cancun currently, if you noticed."
Lana nodded. "Someone knows who their mother is."
Chloe shook her head. "I'm done. We've played this game fighting over Connor since before he was even born. It's over. You tried, Lana. You tried to lure him with everything you had with the lies and the charm and the million gifts we couldn't afford. You had your shot and it didn't last."
"Interruptions," she spat.
Chloe laughed bitterly. "No. It didn't work because you're a cold, heartless bitch and he's not like either of you. This? This is over. We'll see you in court."
"If you're not locked up first," Lex chimed in.
"You think you have everything figured out," Clark replied quietly. "You don't."
Lex shrugged. "I'll get what I want some day and you know that's Moira, don't you?"
Chloe let Clark pull her up out of her seat and they walked to the control panel, letting the door slide open. "Try, Lex, just try," she said, letting the door slam shut behind her.
"Chloe, marry me!" Jax called as he scooped up the order of hot wings she brought him.
She grinned and handed him a bowl of nails as well. "Now what do you want me to do?"
Jax rolled his eyes and set everything down on a collection of crystals that she assumed served as a table. "We can run to any place you want right now, preferably some place tropical. This cold stuff is for the birds."
"You can't get cold."
He shrugged and turned back to the monitor. Kara was standing next to him, trying to explain the function of some of the symbols scattered out before him. Chloe hoped it was sinking in. "I don't like the desolate winter landscape look either, Chloe. You brought me nails and chicken. It must be love."
"It's pity."
"Ouch, hit me where I live," he replied, putting his hands over his heart.
She sighed and kissed his cheek. "You three have been up here a week. I just felt bad about all the hacking we've put you up to."
"It is world champion, extraterrestrial champion even," Jax conceded. "The actual artificial intelligence behind the virus isn't hard. It's the algorithm making sure it's discreet and doesn't just rip apart a ton of computers."
"Like the ones at the Planet where Clark and I are on payroll?"
"Basically," he said, digging into a wing. "But I like a food break. The squirt's been asleep for twenty minutes while Kara and I figure out a snag."
Chloe eyed her cousin-in-law. Kara had held it together while they'd been ill, but she'd also sent Kon away when she'd had no right. Chloe wasn't sure how to reconcile that. If someone had made her afraid for Kon and Moira's safety, the way Kon had made Kara fearful for not only Alura but for Clark, she'd have reacted almost as rashly; she was sure of it. Her family mattered to her, but Kara should have known better.
Kon was home now but she wasn't sure at what cost, wasn't sure that Cassie and Jax would have been taken regardless of where Kon was staying. She couldn't tell what final piece of information pushed Lex over whatever edge of "decency" he had and she guessed she'd never know.
"Chloe, you're staring," Kara said, her tone brusque. "I have other equations to run with Jax."
She nodded and felt the key warm against her palm. "Are there even beds here?"
"There's a small alcove and a few sleeping bags over there," Kara replied, pointing behind Chloe. "You're stopping in to say hi?"
"Yup. You all need a break. Tonight at least come to the farm for some dinner that's not pre made or carry out from god knows where in the world."
Kara smiled tightly. "I think we can do that. I know Alura wants to see her cousins. She talks about Uncle Kal and Mo all the time."
"They're doing well. I can't believe we're almost through to March. Not much longer to go."
Kara's expression darkened as she turned back to the read outs. "No, not much longer at all."
Her boy looked his most like Lana when he slept. She could see his soft, straight hair fanned out against the pillow, the contrast of his dark cheeks with the ice and crystals around him, the shape of his eyelids that had just the hint of Lana's Asian heritage in them. She saw Clark in him too. In the last six months, his shoulders had broadened. She could tell he'd be larger than Jax, even if his height was still lagging. His cheekbones were high and defined, and he had a mole over his right eyebrow.
It amused her on some level that Kryptonians had those, almost like calculated imperfections.
Despite herself, despite his age and their situation, Chloe reached out and stroked the hair back from his eyes. Kon stirred and looked back at her, "Mom?"
Chloe's throat caught a little at that. She hadn't talked to him about what Lana had said. After that, they'd kept Lana and Lex under strict Watchtower lockdown. Lionel was running LuthorCorp and making excuses for the CEO's absence. She'd gone back to the farm and the Planet, taking care of Clark and Mo, and Kara, Kon and Jax had been on their programming mission. Kon's hands accessing the Fortress and entering any equation or code Kara and Jax could dream up.
Normal Kent family things.
"Hi a stor ."
"Did I oversleep? What day is it?"
"Thursday."
"No kidding. I…did I sleep too late? Aunt Kara said I could have a break."
"Jax said you've been out about twenty minutes. I brought snacks. If Jax doesn't hog all of it, there are nails for you too."
He blushed a little. "Nails, heh."
"They're a perfectly acceptable source of iron if you're invulnerable."
"They are good," he admitted. "God, it feels like we're never gonna get this right."
"Jax and Kara think you're close though."
"And then we don't have to worry about little cages for everyone," he said, eying Jax as the other man typed.
She cupped his chin. "He doesn't blame you."
"No, Cass took point on that one. She's back to the not taking my calls stage."
"She might yet come around. There's time."
"It feels like forever! Cass and I always talk."
"I felt that way with your father after he found out about my deal with Lionel. It's like this gulf that doesn't close."
"But you two got married."
"It takes yeas, a stor . You have to prove that you can be trusted again. Saying it doesn't mean anything."
"What did you do?"
"Almost froze to death in the Fortress. It helps."
"I think I need a better plan, mom."
"I suggest time and groveling. Girls like groveling, but there's no diamond shiny enough-even if you could afford it-to make up for what Lex did. You spilled her closest guarded secret and it got her in massive danger. It's just going to take time."
"You said that."
"Years, sometimes, Kon. There aren't easy fixes to things."
"Like being an asshole for six months and calling you everything but a child of God."
"You might have gotten to that too," she quipped, sitting down next to him on the sleeping bag. "Lana said some things the last time I saw her. I was going to dismiss them, but J'onn said the same thing."
Kon stiffened. "About the deal?"
"Yes. I don't think J'onn wanted your father or me to know about it."
"But Lana said it."
She nodded. "Would you have taken her, if she said yes?"
Kon licked his lips and looked down at the flannel of the bag. "If she promised not to hurt Cassie or Jax or any of us again, if she promised to let it go and destroy all the records, I would have."
"Because you love her?"
"I wanted to love her. I thought I did when she was telling me what I wanted to hear."
"And now?"
"I was a lot in love with being human. I wanted to be just like her in that way. I'm so scared to be what I am."
"There's nothing wrong with it," she replied, nodding toward Kara and Jax. "I happen to know some very good Kryptonians."
"I don't know if I'm one of them. Lana's my mom."
"I was aware," she drolled.
"No, I mean she's my bio-mom."
"Still aware."
"I'm not explaining this right," he said, sighing. "I mean she's a sociopath and she's related to me. What does that say about me? What if I end up like her and want to hurt people. I saw her. I begged her. She was supposed to have loved dad and all she wants now is for both of you to suffer. What if I turn out like that?"
"You stopped Lex when you had to," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. She'd wondered about this the first time she'd caught Kon doing something like Lana. He'd shoplifted at five because of how easy it was with his speed, because he'd wanted something.
"I was cruel to all of you and I liked it. I liked going after you. It gave me like this high."
She kept her attention on him and forced herself to keep her breath even. "But you don't want to hurt people anymore, do you?"
"I don't want to be like her. I saw who she is and it's scary, but I could be."
"Grandma Moira's catatonic."
"I know."
"Her mutation has affected her mind. I'm scared every day that I'll go insane and end up in a hospital of Uncle Oliver's. I still think about that every day."
"Mo?"
"We'll see when she's born and when she gets the bulk of her abilities in puberty. She won't be that much like Grandma Moira. She's half dad and a quarter Grampy Gabe, after all."
"You wouldn't go crazy."
"I could. I could go catatonic one day and be like that for centuries. You think I don't know that? It's possible and I am scared shitless of it every day of my life, but I have a lot of people to live for while I'm still me."
"Mom-"
"You make decisions. Lex told you dad once when they were friends that evil was a journey and not a lightswitch. You choose every day if you're going to be cruel to people, if you're going to abuse your powers, if you're going to grow up like her."
"I have so much power. It's so easy."
"Of course it's easy. Taking whatever you want is easy and hollow, Connor. Earning it, that's a test. I can't tell you 'don't be like the Joker!' and expect you to follow that like you're five anymore. You have to choose and whatever you decide, your family-all of us-have to live with it."
"Meaning?"
"We'd stop you."
"I just…she's so terrible. Why can't she..."
"Love anyone? I dunno, a stor , but I know you can. Go and finish helping Jax and come home. You aren't going to be like her."
"You don't know that."
She forced herself to smile and kissed his forehead. "I promise you you won't be, no matter what I have to do."
