A/N: I'm almost afraid to continue watching Smallville. I intellectually know that no one is exempt from death… but I'm paranoid about who'll be cut next. I've been TiVo-ing it, but have yet to watch Splinter. I should probably just grab a backbone, shouldn't I? I've also heard that they may start doing Clark & Lois romancing things this season. I could just vomit! Please, PTB, please! Don't kill me with your rewriting of the Superman universe!

Chapter 14

Clark allowed his conscience to ease as he sped around the surrounding area. He figured that since the Transmission had initially only affected the townspeople of Smallville that it had to be in the immediatearea. He was frustrated that he couldn't take up Chloe's suggestion of triangulating the location of the Transmission, but figured they should have known that… if Jor-El couldn't, why would he be able to? Surprisingly, what he started noticing more and more was the fact that there were a number of locations that were shielded from his x-ray vision. Considering that lead lining a room was very expensive, it was suspicious enough to start him worrying. He took careful note of each location and then hurried back to the barn to discuss it with Chloe.

He almost stumbled to a stop at the thought of Chloe. Even under red kryptonite, I should have never tried to force her… He struggled with the complete thought. He just couldn't believe how he'd acted… and yet she'd still allowed him to hug her. He shook his head and took a couple more loops around the town. He didn't understand her at all. When she'd discovered his secret, she'd kept it close to her heart and hidden her knowledge even from him… and when she finally understood the entire story, she totally forgave him his every sin. And here he'd practically committed a crime and she still believed that it wasn't really him and that he was somehow beyond the foibles of your normal man. He felt supremely humbled and unworthy of her high opinion of him.

He sighed. "I'm just going to have to talk to her about it," he shrugged, pouring on more speed. As he entered the barn, he looked around. It was strangely quiet. He rushed up the stairs, expecting Chloe asleep or something on the sofa. What he saw was rather disquieting. The loft was absolutely empty, but strangely so. He looked around, scanning for a sign of disturbance or something. His heart plummeted as he started thinking that she'd sent him off so she could run from him… but then he saw the three drops of blood on the floor and his brain burst into flames.

"Who would want to hurt Chloe?" he demanded to the empty space. But the violence obviously done to Chloe made his brain shut down and he practically ripped apart the barn looking for her before his rational mind could catch up again. He stopped himself right in the middle of tearing a bale of hay to shreds and had to chuckle ruefully. "Clark," he said slowly and aloud… to make sure that he heard sense… "She isn't likely to be compressed in the hay… nor is she likely to still be here. You gotta' be smart about this, man!" He blinked twice… realizing that he was acting like a fool… and realizing that he'd practically mimicked Pete to get his self-advice.

He sat down slowly at his desk and got out a pad of paper. He had nearly an eidetic memory, but there was something soothing about writing down what he knew and trying to logic out the answer. As he continued to doodle on his paper, his subconscious noticed something odd and kept trying to get his attention. Finally, he allowed his mind to relax enough that it came to him… "Mom? Dad?" He hopped to his feet and could only pray that he was wrong. He rushed to the house, but the house was deathly silent. He quickly covered the family property, but there was absolutely no sign of them.

Now he had an almost harder question to answer… Had his parents been taken by whomever had taken Chloe? Why would that happen when they're under the influence of the Transmission? He groaned and sank to the ground in abject misery. There had only been a few times in his life where he couldn't absolutely rely on his parents… and he couldn't bear to start distrusting them now. It was all the Transmission's fault, he knew deep inside, but he didn't feel any closer in finding it… especially since Chloe was gone. But he knew he couldn't give up entirely… If Chloe or the world were to have any chance, he had to pull himself together.

He quickly gathered items he thought he might need and stuffed them in a backpack along with his notes. He kept in mind that the population at large now knew his strengths as well as some of his weaknesses, so tried to prepare himself for those challenges. When he found himself covering the same ideas a second time, he forced himself to stop and walk away. He wondered if he should double-check his preparations with Jor-El, but Chloe's warning about his possible non-pure motives held him back. He hadn't relied on his birth father's advice before the Fortress… and he didn't want to start using him as a crutch now.

He decided that superspeeding around would just make him more noticeable. He didn't think he could totally pull off anonymity, but as he was the only one with super human powers, he needed to try and remain under the radar. He grimaced at his mental choice of words. He started toward the family's truck, but realized that would be nearly as conspicuous. He sighed. Thankfully, he'd never had any problems with physical activity so he started out on his trek, choosing for his first investigatory site KROW, the local radio station. He couldn't understand why they would have a lead vault on the property and now seemed to be the time to find out.

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Chloe groaned as the world started to force itself upon her again. She longed briefly for the sweet release of unconsciousness, but chided herself for her lack of courage. She cracked her eyes open and swallowed back hard on the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. She closed her eyes and prayed that the world would stop whirling so dramatically. When she dared experiment again, all seemed more normal. She remained lying down to help her equilibrium and took in what she could of the room. It seemed very grey and dim, but there had to be windows or something in it because light was pouring in and there wasn't a light fixture on the ceiling. She took a deep breath and levered herself to a sitting position, inadvertently groaning as the nausea hit her again.

"Do not worry, Miss Sullivan," a cold, disembodied voice sounded. "You have a minor concussion and your symptoms should resolve themselves in short order."

Chloe wondered at the voice even as it sent shivers down her spine. It seemed to be trying to offer her some sort of reassurance, but that was no comfort. She decided to play the blonde card. It really didn't help that the voice was totally unemotional."Oh, am I in some sort of hospital? I'm so relieved!"

The voice didn't change in tone, but Chloe imagined that it got colder in the room. "Do not attempt to play the fool, Miss Sullivan. You know very well that you are my captive and I do not take that role lightly."

Chloe's temper, ever uncertain, rose like a shot. "What do you want with me? What could you possibly hope to accomplish by holding me captive?"

The answer, if anything, threatened to make Chloe pass out in panic by its absolute unemotional and totally implacablequality. "To bring Kal-El to heel, of course, and steer your pitiful planet into the greatness that was denied Krypton."

A/N: I'm falling behind! I usually give myself a little bit of a buffer, but I only have one chapter ready between this one and the one I'm currently writing! This is bad… Bad… The pressure is… too… much…! OK, I'm good. ;D

Vee017: See, that's what I thought. Considering their changed relationship within the story, I thought it was most appropriate.

I thought that with the red kryptonite issue, Chloe could have a fuzzy flashback to when she and Pete were taken over by the parasites, but then lost their memory. Plus, there are a finite number of instances where Clark's acted entirely out of character and a red rock has been on his person each time. Since Chloe already knew of his abilities at the beginning of the story, I thought it was appropriate for her to finally put two and four together to realize that maybe other meteor rocks affected him differently.

My dream is that Lois will be killed off and then Chloe will disappear to wallow in her grief for awhile and come back to decide to change her name to Lois to honor her cousin. Maybe they could kill Lois off by her saving Chloe's life somehow.

MarkMark261: Buenos dias, my friend! Chloe did seem to get over the assault pretty quickly, but she realized that Clark was under the influence of red K and wasn't himself. I guess that's how I justified it. Also, I didn't want it to drag on with the angst too long. I figure Clark will do enough of that with the guilt bit, after all.

I figured that due to their changed relationship, Clark would go after Chloe. After all, he and Lana had broken up and we haven't seen him pining for her at all. In fact, he's been a bit snippy to her.

I understand about the preferences. For a while I was a Chlexer, but then I got into some Chlark and have been hooked ever since. I doubt that anything like that will happen on the show, but I can always dream, right?

Maybe I'll put the Pete flashback entirely in italics, since that's how I usually indicate thoughts. Thanks again for the proofing!

KentCharm: Chloe is a strong chick. She can totally take care of herself. And considering how often the members of Smallville community are hit over the head, I think they must all have heads of steel.

And I'm not going to tell you who did it. That would be too much information…

ilovesmallville1: You're so kind. I'm so glad you enjoy my work. It encourages me to write more. Have you read any of my past stuff? (hint, hint)