A/N: I feel so blessed to have people like my work. It inspires me to continue on. I would hope that I could be like my friend and press on even harder if I get criticism… but that hasn't happened (the criticism, that is), so I don't know if it would spur me on or not…

OK, so on a different note, I'm going to be updating on the weekends. I'm trying to be good at work (but when I'm bored, I am spending a lot of time writing) and not use the internet for non-business related things. So, to take care of that, I'm going to do the weekend updating. But if you all are very, very good, maybe I'll take my files home and update midweek too. ;D

Next part of business… I'm considering doing a story synopsis at the beginning of each chapter… you know, like the WB does for Smallville at the 30-minute mark. What do you think? Please let me know so I can implement it with the next installment… or not.

Chapter 17

Each arm felt as if it had been clamped in a vice and suddenly she remembered the events of the night before. She didn't know if it would be worth it to struggle as they walked her down the hallway. Plus, with their augmented strength, they could easily knock her out and take her wherever anyway. Would her comments to Jor-El be inflammatory and cause more problems or did she just alienate her best chance of an ally?

She didn't really have a lot of time to agonize over her actions because it wasn't long before she was dragged into another small room… This time it was windowless with a single chair in the middle of the room. She knew it wasn't a good sign that the chair had leather straps on the front legs and the arms. She started struggling, but it was way too late. When she even pulled the three-year-old trick of going limp and having jelly legs, Lex just grabbed her legs and she was carried to the chair. Lana held her down while the other two strapped her down. Even more unnerving was the fact that they didn't make a sound during the entire operation. When she was securely bound, they turned and left the room.

Chloe took a second to look around her, but there was absolutely nothing remarkable about the room. Her brain felt like it was just running around in circles as minutes passed. Finally, the voice she was dreading and expecting filled the room. "Something was detected inside of your room. What was it?" There was no cajoling tone or any humanity forced into the voice this time. It just wanted answers… answers Chloe had no intention of giving… just in case.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said firmly, lifting her chin in defiance.

Pain lanced through her body, originating from her wrists and ankles. She stiffened in shock. She didn't scream because she refused to give it the satisfaction. The pain didn't last long, but it felt like it had lasted forever. "I am done playing your games, Miss Sullivan. You will tell me what I desire to know."

"I don't know anything," she shouted, only to be rewarded with more pain.

"You will only speak when you are spoken to. You have been coddled due to Kal-El's apparent preference for your company, but you are not the only female on this planet." Chloe seethed in silence. She would have said a couple of choice things, but didn't want to press her luck. "A signal of some sort was detected in your cell. What was it?"

"You searched me when I was brought here. You know I don't have anyth…" she trailed off as pain scorched through her again. Because she had been right in the middle of a sentence, she bit her tongue hard. Tears streamed down her cheek and she knew a trickle of blood was coming out of her mouth. When it was cut off, she could only pant for a few moments.

"You see that not providing input does you no good, Miss Sullivan. The signal was Kryptonian in origin. Are you in contact with Kal-El?"

"Clark doesn't know where I am…" she started, but it didn't even let her try and finish. This time, as the pain coursed through her, she allowed a scream to escape from her. And that seemed to help… to release part of the pain from the tension of the trauma. Why not? Isn't that part of the reason why martial arts practitioners shout?

"You will answer me, Miss Sullivan," the voice said, and Chloe could feel the smugness ooze from it.

"Wanna' bet?" she snarked. She knew the pain was coming, but didn't regret giving vent to her feelings. This time it lasted long enough that everything went black.

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When Clark hit the high school grounds, all the memories came flooding back. Sure, it had only been three months since they'd graduated, but it seemed so much longer… An age of innocence that was quickly getting left behind in the harsh light of day. It didn't help that he felt a certain type of regret from that time that he didn't really want to relive. As he zoomed through the halls, grateful that school started later in the morning, he realized that much of his time there had been wasted with guilt, hiding from everyone, and pining over Lana.

When he hit the gym, he remembered the Spring Dance with Chloe. He wondered briefly why he hadn't fought for their relationship like he'd always fought for Lana. Chloe had been hurt by his abandonment… He'd known that. Because he hadn't been able to tell her about saving Lana, she was understandably hurt. He had known that she was trying to save herself from more pain with the "only friends" thing. And then the miraculous had happened… Lana liked him back. But as their relationship grew closer, he and Lana grew further apart. She knew he was hiding something and had refused to let him have a secret from her. That's why they'd broken up in the first place. Then it looked like they'd get back together, but she'd run away after her leg had been trampled by that horse in the Lex debacle. And then when Jason showed his true colors… But her attitude didn't change. She refused to allow him to have any part that was separate from her.

The worst thing was that through it all… all the growing pains… emotional ups and downs… Chloe had been there. Sure, there'd been that one dark period where she'd been sort-of working for Lionel, but even then she'd protected him… which put her in even more danger. He should have trusted her years ago and not allowed her to find out through Alicia. Andhe wondered why he'd waited… How could she have proved herself enough that he would have trusted her with his ultimate secret? He couldn't blame it on her desire to be a famous journalist. She'd swallowed stories before. Pete had showed him the "Chloe Chronicles". It could have been the story that cemented her in the journalistic world… but she knew that it was wrong… that it would have endangered others… and had refused to publish it. That was the best thing about her curiosity… Sometimes it was enough that she just knew.

He looked through every nook and cranny he could think of or suss out with his x-ray vision. But there were only storage areas. Finally, his random route ended at the Torch. He knew that all physical signs of Chloe had been erased… no Wall of Weird… no messy desk with mounds of leads… But he could feel her presence still thrumming behind the door. He wondered if the current Torch staff was inspired by that. He wanted to stop for a few minutes to rest and enjoy the memories of the Torch, but still in the back of his head, he could feel Chloe waiting for him… waiting for him to save her. He blasted out of the school leaving behind only a wind effect that ruffled all the paper in the hall.

------

The pain cycle continued a number of times, but Chloe absolutely refused to break. She couldn't say that she'd been through worse, but in her mind, she'd prepared for an incident that was similar… Some time that Lex realized that she knew Clark's secret and tried to force it from her. Especially after he'd rescued her from Alaska. It hadn't happened, but she knew it could at any time.

But the repetition was getting to her. "Why don't you just let me go? I don't know anything and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you!" She braced herself for the ensuing onslaught, but it never came. In fact, it was deathly silent in the room. She straightened in her chair from her previously slumped posture. "If you know anything about me, you know that the absolutely last thing I'd do is help you get your claws into Clark. I'd rather die."

"That can be arranged, Miss Sullivan," the voice said. The inflection was chilling, but Chloe knew it wasn't going to happen at that moment. Right now, she had value to the Transmission and a logical being wouldn't waste any type of lever. As Lex, Lana, and Lois appeared to take her back to her cell, she smiled and knew she was right. Sure, she hurt like hell, but in the end, she'd really won.

As they dragged her down the hallway, Chloe realized that she could have walked under her own power… but she found a perverse satisfaction in making them carry her. It also gave the impression that she wouldn't be able to withstand another session. But in the back of her head, she privately admitted to herself that she thought she could.

------

Clark waited patiently outside of Luthor Corp for the lunch bell to ring. For some unknown reason, Lex was a huge fan of everyone taking their lunch at the same time, so security would be relatively light. Clark wondered for half a second if he should wait until the end of the work day, but to leave Chloe for over a day… Well, that just wasn't acceptable. He walked nonchalantly to the side door. After years of dealing with Lex, he'd realized that his former friend had cameras in nearly every building he owned… and there was no way to delete every back-up copy that was created. He wasn't sure how he was going to convince everyone that the last couple of weeks had been a hallucination, but he wasn't about to hand Lex hard evidence.

As he walked, he reviewed what he knew of the building's layout. Thankfully, he and Chloe had been in it enough that he knew quite a few of the secret places. And most of them weren't blocked from him. But there was one set of rooms that he'd never been to and hadn't been able to see into. He walked directly to them. He listened intently at each door before he opened it up. Each was obviously a room where experiments were being conducted… but they all seemed fairly legitimate in Lex's search for improving produce and other things to help humanity. He'd felt nauseous a number of times but hadn't allowed that to stop him. Thankfully none of the amounts of kryptonite he found were in enough of a quantity to be immediately incapacitating.

But even that search proved fruitless. It was enough to make him want to scream in frustration as he left the building. Lex's facilities, besides being on his prejudicial radar of where bad things happen to good people, had seemed like the most likely places both the Transmission equipment could be hidden and also Chloe. He wondered briefly if Chloe may have just gone back to Metropolis. After all, he had just assaulted her. He wouldn't have blamed her if she'd just decided to let him deal with the problem. But then the unexpected and unexplained drops of blood hadn't been his imagination… and Lois was under the influence of the Transmission. Chloe had been feeling a rather overzealous sense of guilt for anything bad her cousin had run into in Smallville. For some reason, she'd felt like Lois would never have come there if she hadn't had agreed to Lex's scheme of faking her death.

He took a deep breath. So, if I've determined that Chloe must have been napped by my crazy parents or friends or just neighbors, it's been nearly 24 hours now. If they haven't hurt her, her danger is increasing with every minute. I have to find her!

A/N: No other random Author's Notes today... Now on to the reviews!

Johnny Superfecta: Thank you very much. I felt like I should have been able to do a little more when it came to describing the challenge for Chloe to shock Lex back to his senses, but what to do that the Transmission entity wouldn't immediately discover?

Regarding the possibility of Kryptonian telepathy and Chloe's reaction... Well, I kinda' put my own thoughts into that. Can you imagine a guy (or girl… whatever!) that you like having ESP? Somehow eavesdropping on all your little fantasies? I would have to go into hiding forever!

Water-Star: I have to admit that this incarnation of Lana has really gotten me on the edge. Usually I weep through any character's death, but I nearly celebrated when she got hit by the bus. I won't say much else to honor the delay in showing in Australia, but the 100th episode just about made me scream!

I'm so glad you liked my poem. It was totally off the cuff, but I find that's when my best poetry comes out.

KentCharm: It's hard when you love Chloe to have her still love Clark because of the way he treats her. However, I have two younger brothers and I know that they're kinda' self-centered at that age, so I guess I put Clark in that category. Hopefully, with all the trials he will soon be facing, he'll get over it. I know the PTB won't put them together, but maybe he'll be more sensitive. Oh, wait. The PTB are going to have him date Lois, her cousin… so I don't think it'll get better any time soon.

iluvsmallville1: Thank you for the props. Maybe I will start working harder at finishing my novel. It won't be ready any time soon, because of the chaos that is currently my life, but I'll do it. Mostly I've been nervous about the rejection, but if ya'll are any indication… ;D

MarkMark261: As always, thank you for the proofing notes. And I'm so glad you liked my version of Jor-El. Unlike the series, I haven't decided yet whether he's "evil" or not…

Oh, and what you said before is totally true. Trying to keep up with two stories at the same time is intense! And darn near impossible. I find this story suffering just a bit, but I'm going to keep plugging away.

I suppose you're right about the "L" and "LL" subject. Hmmm… Requires some thought… and it's the weekend, so my brainbox isn't fully engaged… ;D OK, thought about it and you're right. Point it out to me if I veer back to my old ways, 'k?