Chapter 30

Earth 1…

Smallville Chemical Plant…

"What happened here?"

Tess quirks an eyebrow at the question. After all she was in a 'quirky' mood after being unceremoniously dragged here from the Kent farm. Not that she didn't enjoy being tied up next to Clark's grown-up, time travelling daughter as much as the next person. "In what way?" she asks her faux-brother from an alternate reality.

"It's empty."

What being empty is sub-level 3. "Lionel shut down the Level 3 experiments years ago."

"I notice how you don't call him dad," Clark Luthor comments.

"That would have required him to have actually been a father to me which he never was," she replies, unable to quite mask the bitterness.

"Go on. I want to hear this. What do you mean?" the dark version of the Clark she knows asks, sounding genuinely interested.

"You know Lionel. Had an image to maintain. A bastard daughter courtesy of an affair would have been bad PR so he paid off my mother and had me dumped into an orphanage."

"Sounds a lot like my Lionel," the dark-haired man remarks, this time him being unable to mask his bitterness.

"And yet it seems like you know me?"

"Credit that to Lillian. She found out about you and decided to be the magnanimous one and let you be part of the family. One of her rare victories."

Huh. Interesting. "So why are we here?" Tess wants to know.

"You're going to need to call in a lot of workers. I have something I need you to build. Mia will provide you with the full list of materials."

"Lets go with I have no choice but to do it, you realise that will take time, right?"

"I can be patient when the situation calls for it," he claims.

It's all Tess can do not to scoff out-loud. She doesn't believe that for a second. Nothing she has seen from this version of Clark indicates him possessing any level of patience.

"Also you're right. You have no choice. Disobey me…"

"And what? You'll kill me? Unlikely. You need me. I control the majority stock of Luthorcorp."

Clark Luthor gets right in her face in an intimidating manner. "Don't flatter yourself, sis. I need no-one but I don't need to kill you. I just need to find out who you care for the most and kill them, one by one, right in front of you until you do what I ask!" he snaps darkly.

Tess tries her best not to show fear despite the fact he can kill her easily. "I need to go into the office. Think you can scrouge up enough generosity to give me a lift?"

"As if I'm letting you out my sight," he tells her as he roughly picks her up and the two depart.


Earth 2…

"Chloe?!"

"You know my name? I guess I should be flattered but honestly I'm kinda revolted," the brunette version of Clark's BFF replies, disgust written large on her face and in her voice.

She notches an arrow and aims it at Clark whose eyes can't help but notice the green coloured arrowhead. "Chloe. You don't want to do this. I'm not who you think I am."

"Must admit I didn't expect begging but it'll make a nice memory when you're gone."

Clark needs to think fast. He needs to get her to listen to him. An idea strikes him. "Your parents are Moira and Gabe Sullivan. You were born in Metropolis and lived there until you moved to Smallville when you were 13 after your father was assigned to the Luthorcorp Fertiliser Plant. You don't have any siblings but two cousins; Lois and Lucy. Your favourite flowers are tulips. Your favourite book is Tales of the Weird and Unexplained. You wanted to be a reporter for the Daily Planet since you were 5. Your hero is Nellie Bly. Every day you have the same coffee order; Almond Mocha with extra whip," he lists off things he knows about his Chloe that he bets his double wouldn't.

Confusion comes to Chloe's face. "How do you know that?"

"Because where I come from you and I have been best friends since the 8th grade. I would trust you with my life and you would trust me with yours," he says and despite his disagreements over Chloe's choices as of late he still means it.

"Who are you?" the brunette version of Chloe Sullivan asks and in the process gives Clark hope that he's managed to reach her.

"There really isn't time to explain beyond saying despite who I look like I'm not Clark Luthor," Clark has to say regretfully that there isn't time. As for why there isn't time… "Guards are on their way. I can get us out of here. I can help you but to do so you're going to have to take a leap of faith and release me."

For several moments Clark watches the familiar expression of Chloe thinking hard and quickly at the same time. He continues, "I believe in you, Chloe. I believe you know in your gut when someone can be trusted. Listen to it right now and follow your instincts. My fate is in your hands...and I have never hesitated to put my fate, my life in your hands and I will not now," he pleads quite eloquently actually.

Chloe continues to weigh up her choices, conflicted over what to do. What seems to make her mind up is the sound of the very guards he warned her about approaching. In a few moments she has blown the lock of his cage apart with a miniature explosive of some type.

Clark stumbles his way out as he has to pass by the kryptonite laced bars but as he steps away from the cage he can feel the nausea lessening and his strength returning.

Chloe moves to check the hallway for the approaching security.

Clark's eyes flicker around, his x-ray vision kicking in as he tries to get a better handle on his surroundings.

"We've got less than 30seconds so either do something or make my last act in this world regret that I didn't kill you," she tells him in harsh tones.

Clark stalks over to where Lionel is. "He's coming with us," he declares as he rips the cage door off.

"Why?!" Chloe asks in utter exasperation.

"For the same reason his son has been keeping him alive," is the rather evasive answer. Before anyone can object the dark-haired hero has grabbed Lionel and Chloe and vanished in a blur, knocking over the security like bowling pins for good measure on his way out.


Earth 1 Smallville…

"So care to tell me why?"

"Why what?"

"Why you came back in time?"

Mia looks at her doppelganger with derision. Here she was still tied up in the barn and her double suddenly want to engage in small talk.

"Come on," the Earth 2 native pushes. "If you can't tell yourself, who can you tell?"

"You're not me," Mia dismisses that claim.

"You could have been. If you led the life I did. You know that right?"

"Why should I tell you anything?" Mia asks the pertinent question.

"Because if you don't tell me, you'll tell Daddy and trust me he won't be nearly as gentle as I will be in getting it out of you."

Mia's face tenses up. Sadly she knows that to be true. "How about we play a game?"

Mia's double arches an eyebrow in intrigue. "What game?"

"It's called the truth. I'll tell you what you want to know in exchange you answer my questions."

Mia Luthor ponders it for a few moment before shrugging and accepting. "Sure. I have nothing to hide."

"Why have we never met?" Mia asks. "I've met your father after all but you I've never even heard of," she raises the puzzle she has had since she first laid eyes on her Earth 2 counterpart.

"Daddy's greatest secret," Mia Luthor says somewhat cryptically. "But the answer to your question is incredibly simple. The Crisis hit when we were only 13."

"Our powers only started to manifest at that age."

"Bingo."

"Yet you're my age. Where have you been all this time?"

"At ah. My turn to ask a question," Mia Luthor refuses to answer, waggling her finger.

"Why I came back in time?" Mia guesses from her double asking it earlier.

"Actually, I was going to ask just why you dress like a nun? Seriously, you've seen our body right?" Mia Luthor gestures at herself.

Mia gives her double an unamused look. "I don't dress like a nun. I just have no desire to be…showy."

"You should."

"You sound like my Aunt," Mia accuses her Earth 2 counterpart.

"Then she must be so much more fun than you. I might even let her live if that's the case."

"Where have you been all this time?" Mia returns to that question because she feels it is actually important to know where her double has been between Earth 2 being destroyed during the Crisis and now.

That is when Mia watches as her doppelganger's gaze goes off into the distance and her expression is of someone whose mind is far, far away from here. Now, see, this would be a great opportunity to tackle her double off-guard…or would be if she wasn't wearing this damn power inhibitor. Eventually Mia Luthor responds. "Some place you never want to go," she says in far-off tones. "But that's the past," she says, trying to shift tones. "Of a world doomed to die but I'm here to change that."

"Yes, by telling that lunatic things he should never know. How much damage have you done to the timeline?"

"You dare lecture me, little Ms Time-Traveller?!" Mia Luthor snaps in a sudden release of anger. "What are you here for if not to change the past?"

"At least I'm doing it for a good reason. What's yours? Greed? Power?"

"All of the above and a hundred others you will never grasp but lets get back to why you are here. Hmm, what noble cause drove you to violate the rules?"

"I'm here to save our Mamá."

Mia Luthor's eyebrows rise a notch. "That's a little more selfish than I was expecting from Superman's daughter," she reflects while mocking the word 'Superman'.

"I'm also the daughter of the Angel of Vengeance. I have a darker side then you might think. Remove this collar and I'll show it to you."

"Tempting," Mia Luthor says with a small smirk. "But I've endured too much to let you try and ruin my plans."

"Interesting how it's 'my' plans and not 'our' plans. Does daddy know you're scheming behind his back?" Mia accuses her double, thinking she may have slipped up.

"That's some imagination you've got there, sweetie-pie."

Mia visibly twitches at hearing that hated term.

"Everything I've done is all to help my daddy fulfil the destiny yours repeatedly denied him!" Mia Luthor spits out angrily.

"All my Papá did was show what a complete dreg yours is."

In the blink of an eye Mia Luthor blurs forward, her hand ready to snap her double's neck, only to stay herself just in the nick of time. "I can kill you in an instant," she says, the joviality lost from her voice. This is the voice of someone truly dark and dangerous. Perhaps it is a glimpse of the real woman beneath the façade.

"If you wanted me dead I would be already. Clearly you need me for something," Mia reasons.

"You give yourself far too much importance," the other Mia dismisses the claim but yet something at the back of Mia's head is telling her she is correct. This Luthor-ised version of her needs her for something.

"Am I?"

"Yes," Luthor states flatly and then slaps her double into unconsciousness.


Earth 2…

Clark sits in what he can only describe as a 'safehouse' that Chloe had instructed him to bring her and Lionel to. The Luthor patriarch was currently restrained in another room. After that Chloe had wanted to know…well, everything so he sat down and told her everything as he understood it.

Now she was looking at him with a deeply sceptical look. "I have to admit that's a hell of a story," she comments.

"Which you believe at least part of or we wouldn't be sitting here," he reasons.

"Hnn," she makes the non-committal noise in return.

"Chloe, I need your help," Clark requests of her. "I need to get back home. I don't belong here."

"As I understand it, assuming we can find this 'mirror box', you'll get sent home and Luthor will be brought back. Why on any Earth would I let that monster back here? I've been trying to find a way to kill him for over 5 years and ok, so he's not dead but at least he's not here."

"And what about my world, Chloe?" Clark asks her back, the sternness in his voice picking up. "What will he do to it?"

"Not my problem," she says, trying to sound callous about it but not quite succeeding.

"You know you're not as good at lying as my Chloe," he remarks.

"Way to butter me up there, farm boy."

Clark can't help it. She sounds so like his Chloe he smiles.

"What?!" she asks in exasperation at his stupid grin.

Clark shakes his head in a dismissive manner. "What did he do to you?" he asks, his tone switching to the serious.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," she says defensively.

"You said something when you thought I was him. About him killing them all. Who is 'them'?"

"You really want to know?" she asks candidly.

"Yeah," he says, thinking he needs to know if he is going to understand this version of his BFF.

Chloe lets out a small bitter laugh. "Ok, fine. It was Graduation and Clark Luthor decided to join in on the celebration. Only his idea of a good time was to march through the halls killing every meteor freak he could find. He hates us you see. Thinks we should all be wiped from the face of the Earth."

"And you?"

Chloe lets out an almost pitiful laugh. "Me? I hid under my desk in the Torch like a coward. I thought for sure I was dead only it never came. Took me awhile to figure out afterwards why. It was this," she says pulling out a locket from under her top and opening it.

Clark almost jumps back through the wall at the green glow within.

Chloe smirks. "Doesn't take much does it," she remarks.

"No," Clark confesses.

Chloe closes the locket back up and slips it back under her top. "Wasn't exactly this necklace. I use to have one with a small meteor rock on it. I realised after I stopped shaking that it was the meteor rock that saved me. That Luthor was vulnerable to it. Afterwards I became determined to take Luthor down so I left Smallville to try and find someone who could train me in the techniques as to how."

"And that's how you became this 'Dark Archer'?"

"That's Huntress, thank you very much," she corrects him, sounding slighted.

"Sorry," Clark says as he once again takes his seat.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure in your Disney/Pollyanna world Graduation was all sunshine and roses."

"Actually there was a second meteor shower than killed and wounded dozens of people," he explains his Graduation in regretful tones.

"A 2nd meteor shower? That sounds like too much of a coincidence," she reflects.

Clark smiles softly at seeing the same journalistic instincts as in his Chloe. "It's a long story."

"I'm sure it is but honestly I don't want to hear it."

"Ok, then. Lets get back to your story. You haven't had much luck getting to him have you? Clark Luthor I mean. You and Andi talked about broken bones?"

Chloe snorts in disgust. "Luthor's been busy these last few months. Overthrowing his dad. Gathering up a group of like-minded individuals. I may be good but you try and fight a small superpowered army."

"Would all this have started shortly after a young Latino woman showed up? Dark hair. Blue eyes…like mine or his?"

"Yeah? How did you know that?" Chloe asks suspiciously.

"I read his journal and I also happen to know who she is."

"Well, you're one step ahead of me. I haven't been able to find a trace of her. It's like she doesn't exist," she says and you can hear the frustration in her voice.

"Oh, she exists. It just happens to be she's currently 4 years old."

"Ok. You've lost me."

"Her name is Mia and she's my daughter…his daughter from the future."

Chloe's eyes narrow as if trying to gauge how insane he is.

"I know how it sounds but if you're anything like my Chloe I know that you are always open to making leaps well outside the box."

"I think you just mixed up your metaphors there."

"Probably," he concedes.

"Ok lets just go with I believe you. She's a time traveller. Why? Why is she here?"

"The journal didn't say precisely beyond mentioning she offered him future knowledge. So, in all honesty you probably know more about what she has been up to than I do."

"I know since Luthor overthrew his father he has thrown massive resources into a secret project that I haven't been able to get near."

"How would we find out what it's about?"

"We?"

"Like I said I need your help if I'm going to get home. Seems reasonable to me that we work together for now. Besides I figure wherever we can find details on this secret project might also contain information on the mirror box."

"You're an optimistic fellow aren't you?"

"I have to be. I can't not believe that I can get home."

"I'm still not convinced I want to help you bring Luthor back," Chloe lays out. "However, even with him gone his minions are still around and I want to know what project he has been working on so I guess, for now, we can be allies," she says, albeit with some reluctance.

"Your ardent enthusiasm is killing me," Clark mutters which earns him a sharp look. "Sorry. Long day," he apologises. "But as for your project, I might have seen it."

"Where?"

"The Smallville Chemical Planet, sublevel 3. They're building something, though I have no idea what."

Chloe's forehead furrows in concentration. "That won't be easy to get into even with your powers," she thinks.

"Then maybe we should ask someone who might know a way," he suggests.

Chloe's eyes light-up. "Lionel."


Earth 1…

"Oh, you're back with us then."

If Mia had the energy and muscle control she would give the source of that flippant comment a right good old-fashioned death glare. "You're just lucky I have a migraine the size of California right now," she grumbles. She starts to take in her surroundings.

"We're at the Chemical Plant and we've got problems."

"Tell me something I don't know, Tess."

"I can do better. I can show you," the redhead replies as she helps the time traveller to her feet.

A little shaky on her feet means Mia has to lean into Tess as the two walk.

"Just to be clear, you're not my type," Tess teases.

"Oh shut up," Mia argues pathetically.

The two women end up on the catwalk above the vast empty space…or rather it was empty. Now there is a partially built construct that is growing by the second as two blurs buzz around it.

"How long was I out?" Mia wants to know.

"Not sure. A few hours at least."

"They've been busy."

"I think we've made a misjudgement over just how much time cooperating is going to buy us," Tess worries because at the rate the two Earth 2 residents are going they are going to have this completed in a few scant days at most.

"It's the interdimensional portal."

"I guessed that."

"That's far bigger than necessary just to bring the Syndicate across," Mia comments at the scale of what is being constructed.

"Oh great, so it's even worse than I thought. Just brilliant!" Tess says with a flare of sarcasm.

"Can the sarcasm. What on Earth could they need a portal that size for?"

"You tell me, Future Girl."

"Like I've told Papá on numerous occasions I am not an encyclopaedia on future events. Plus this is most likely something to do with whatever plans my double has had since the moment she travelled back in time."

"So, you really have no idea what is happening?"

"No," Mia must confess and it is an unsettling feeling.

"Well we better find out before they finish," Tess states what is, to be fair, the rather obvious.

"And how do we do that?"

"I'll tell you when I figure that out."

"Oh my God, we're slagged," Mia mutters in despair.


Earth 2…

"What could possibly motivate me to help you?" Lionel asks his 2 captors incredulously.

"Give me 5 minutes," Chloe says threateningly which earns her a disrespectful snort from the bearded man.

Clark raises his hand in front of her face to get her to stop. "The chance to regain what you've lost," he states calmly.

"I'm listening," Lionel says.

"If you haven't figured it out already I'm not your son. He's gone to another world. This is your chance to take back control while he's absent but to do that we have to stop whatever it is he left his associates…"

"Minions," Chloe corrects.

Clark counts to 3 in his head before finishing, "…doing. I'm proposing a deal. Help me get home and I help you get your company back. What do you say?"

"I would say you're clearly the smart one of this pairing. Issuing threats is a demonstration of weakness not strength," he insults Chloe.

Clark has to physically restrain her from lashing out. Good thing he has super quick reflexes. "As much as I would love to indulge in witty banter I would rather not leave your son on my world any longer than absolutely necessary so do we have a deal or don't we?" he cuts to it, impatient and deeply worried over just what Clark Luthor might be doing on his world.

"Well, admittedly my options are slim but then again so are yours," Lionel explains the situation as he sees it.

"Don't flatter yourself, Luthor," Chloe snaps back with total and utter disdain. "You'd make it easier. That's all."

"Such a charming young lady," Lionel comments in deliberately irritating tones.

"Yeah, I'll show you how charming I can be you greedy, insidious, amoral…"

"I think he gets the point," Clark cuts in.

"Hardly," Lionel drawls. "But as I said previously my options are slim so I agree to your offer. Now if you could untie me?"

"This is a bad idea," Chloe murmurs under her breath.

Clark may not necessarily disagree. The Lionel is his world may have redeemed himself before his death but Clark well remembers what the man was like when he first met him. He was like the man in front of him now. This world's Lionel is one who never changed but like the man said; Options are slim so he unties him...which is an act he is probably going regret.


Author's Note: Admittedly I'm 50-50 on whether where Mia Luthor has been all these years since Earth 2 was destroyed is that important or not. Oh well, I have time. Lets just leave it as a mystery for now. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.