Chapter One: Rosetta

It had been two weeks since the cave incident. Two weeks of knowing Clark's secret and pretending she didn't. Chloe was a little confused as to how she was able to remember but Pete wasn't able to. A lot had happened in the past two weeks. Lex discovered a younger brother, Clark got and lost his first job off the farm (all within two days), Chloe had confessed her feelings to a feverish Clark only to have him call out Lana's name. Rejected by an unconscious guy really lowers the self-esteem. And probably the biggest thing was Chloe's new obsession with the caves. She would visit them at least every other day having bribed the guards, memorized Dr. Walden's habits and found many hiding places.

That's where Chloe was headed now. Clark had been acting weird lately and Chloe had a hunch it had something to do with the caves. No clue what exactly but maybe she'd get lucky.

'Chloe you're not going to the caves again are you?' Jacob's voice sounded in her head.

'Noo… of course not. I'm just finishing up a story at the Torch.' Chloe tried lying as she parked her car near the caves.

'LIAR! I'm 2000 miles away and I still know when you're lying.' Jacob laughed. 'Why are you so interested in them anyway?'

'Ok first off it's still creepy that our mind meld thing works with us being so far apart. I mean don't get me wrong I love being able to talk to you like this but I'm still not used to it working with us this far apart.' Chloe and Jacob had been able to read each other's mind since they were in the car accident with their mothers. Before it had only worked when they were together, or at least in the same state, but since last summer's visit had ended it had grown so that even with Jacob in Washington and Chloe in Kansas they could still hear each other.

'Ok nice diversion tactic but it's not working. Why are you going to the caves again?'

'I'm taking more interest in my Native American heritage?' Chloe smiled at the guard who waved her into the caves and began slowly walking around staring at the drawings.

'Yeah that might work if the caves weren't located in Kansas, 2000 miles away from our tribe.'

'Hey they have some similar myths. I have evidence that one of the girls from the reserve could actually turn into a wolf. Sounds kinda like some of our myths, huh?' Hearing Jacob grumble quietly (another odd thing about their mind meld), Chloe caved and told him the truth. 'Ok so the truth is I don't know why I'm so drawn to the caves. I mean after the parasite thing, remembering everything about Clark and his alien origins and then his rejection I just felt like I didn't know him at all and maybe the caves held the key.' Chloe sighed as she sat down on her favorite rock in a semi-hidden corner of the cave.

'Chloe…I know Clark has hurt you. And after the way he's treated you I don't believe he's worth knowing. He's ignored you, used you, rejected you, been a hypocritical jerk and doesn't trust you to keep his secret. Why are you even still friends?'

'You know that's a little harsh. He goes around saving people and he's a nice guy.'

'Yeah he gets you to dig for information about people so he can save mostly LANA, and then gets mad at you for digging into his past. Argh…it just bugs me how he treats you Chloe. You're my best friend, my mind meld twin and I want better for you.'

'I know, I want the best for you too Jacob. Now get out of my head and let me puzzle out this cave in peace.'

Laughing Jacob said goodbye and shut off (or whatever you want to call it) his side of the connection. Chloe sat on the hard rock staring around at the symbols on the walls thinking about the past, especially the Rachel Dunleavy incident.

Chloe makes her way through the hallway of students at Smallville High. She turns and enters the Torch office, seeing Clark sitting behind her computer she snarks brightly. "Sure Clark, you can use my computer. Knock yourself out."

Chloe moves past him to set her books down, as Clark studies his hands, trying to control his emotions. When he speaks his voice is filled with accusation, "You've been getting emails from Rachel Dunleavy."

This statement stops Chloe in her tracks, and she turns to Clark stunned. "You've been reading my emails?"

"You promised me you'd stop digging into my adoption."

"Wh...all I did was post a few notices on adoption websites, to see if I could get some hits. This Dunleavy woman responded."

Clark jumps out of the chair and shoves it angrily against the desk. He moves menacingly toward Chloe, his anger increasing, his voice quivering throughout the confrontation as if near tears. Chloe steps back a few paces in fear.

"Oh, so you said 'Why don't you check out my buddy Clark? He may be your son!'"

"You have to believe me...I didn't tell her anything about you, Clark." She was practically pleading with him but he barely listens.

"So it's just a coincidence she shows up in Smallville claiming to be my mom?"

Chloe pauses, a bit amazed by the news. "She's here?" Clark looks taken aback by Chloe's happiness over the situation as she continues excitedly. "Clark, what makes you so sure that she's not the real thing?"

"I am not giving you an exclusive on my life!"

"You're not even curious that she might be your biological mom?"

"Why are you so obsessed about my mother? Do I ask you questions about yours?"

Chloe's face falls at the mention of her mother. "No, I guess not."

Clark gets right up in Chloe's face, his anger boiling over. "Yeah, that's because she hasn't shown her face here in years! If you want to find somebody's mother, find your own!"

At Clark's word's, tears well up in Chloe's eyes. "I know where she is Clark! The difference is, she's in a coma, I can't get to know her. You being my best friend should know that. Look, if I had the chance…if she were…with us I wouldn't hesitate to drop everything and get to know her. I thought one of us should be able to know our mothers and since I can't do anything for my mom I thought I'd put out hesitant feelers for yours. I posted them before you asked me to stop looking into it and I was tempted but never responded to her emails."

Clark's still angry however, and turns to walk out of the Torch office. Chloe is crying freely now, and calls out to him as he heads toward the door. Clark stops, but keeps his back to Chloe

"Since you'll probably never speak to me again, there's something you might want to know. Metropolis United Charities was founded by Lionel Luthor."

Clark had apologized later, and Chloe told him about the car accident. But she still felt like he blamed her for the whole Rachel/Lex kidnapping thing.

Chloe felt a swift breeze in the cave that pulled her from her thoughts. Standing in front of the opposite large wall was Clark with a silver disk in his hand. Before she could call out to him he had moved forward and placed the disk in a slot. Chloe froze as she watched the disk light up and then stared in awe as the room was filled with brilliant light. A beam shot out from the wall passing through Clark and Chloe lifting them into the air. Chloe's body and mind felt on fire. She knew something was changing in her body even as her brain filled with thousands of years of alien knowledge. It was painful and exhilarating at the same time.

Chloe must have passed out because when she woke up she heard Lex trying to wake Clark up. Luckily she was hidden behind the rock as she lay on the floor. A glint of light caught her attention and as she looked up at the wall above her head she saw the silver disk sticking out of the wall. Hearing Dr. Walden angrily storm in Chloe stayed down until everyone left. When she was sure everyone was gone Chloe stood up and pulled the disk from the wall. It was an important key and shouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

'Wow how did I know it was a key?' Chloe absentmindedly thought as she brushed herself off and carefully made her way out of the caves.

'Chloe! Are you ok?' Jacob's voice was frantic in her head.

'Yeah I'm fine. Why?'

'I felt your pain. It was like you were on fire. What happened?'

'I'm not sure but I'm fine now I promise. I need to head back to school and finish some work on the paper. I'll call you when I get home ok.'

'I can't believe she went snooping and then acted like she did nothing wrong.' Chloe was fuming as she paced her room.

'So she pulled the innocent act again and got defensive when it didn't work. Are you really surprised?' Jacob scoffed. 'Besides I thought you were trying to get over Clark. Shouldn't this not matter?'

'I decided to give up on Clark a week ago. I can still get upset. I probably shouldn't even still have them and if Pete had snooped I probably wouldn't care but it was Lana, the object of his obsession. I'd bet you anything that when Clark finds out he'll blame me first and then try to defend Lana.' Chloe threw herself on the bed and started to pout. 'It's been nice having her here and I've started to think of her like family. It hurts that she'd do that and act the way she did.'

'Well maybe she is family then. I mean you're obviously rubbing off on her if she's snooping. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much if you didn't feel so close to her. Probably doesn't help that Clark likes her.'

'Yeah, maybe. Well I'm going to head to bed. All this is giving me a headache.'

'Well you have had a very busy day. Breaking into the caves, being dealt some weird glowing blow, found an alien disk in the wall of a cave, caught Lana snooping. Yeah I'd call that a very busy day.' Jacob laughed.

'Brat.' Chloe laughed with him. 'Goodnight.'

'Goodnight'

"Should I tell Clark about the key or should I keep it hidden?" Chloe was talking to herself as she drove up the Kent's driveway. As she got closer her nose picked up a burning smell seconds before she saw that the barn was on fire. Luckily Clark and Mr. Kent were quickly putting it out. Chloe jumped out of the car and came up beside Martha. "What happened?"

"We came out and it was on fire." Martha said slightly in awe.

Chloe quickly pulled out her camera and snapped a picture. "Oh my god, I know that symbol. It's from the caves." 'Oh crap bad slip. They only think I've been there one or two times. Umm think fast… distract her.' "Do you think it was aliens or pranksters?"

Chloe had to hold back a laugh as Martha nearly choked when Chloe said aliens. Forcing a laugh Martha replied. "Aliens? Really Chloe? No I'm sure it was pranksters I thought I saw someone outside earlier but wrote it off as Jonathan or Clark. Everyone knows how much Clark likes the caves."

"Yeah I suppose. You know I thought I saw movement in the cornfield as I drove up." Chloe turned away from the barn and faced Martha. "I'm guessing Clark isn't coming to school today. I should get going before I'm late." She quickly turned around calling a loud goodbye behind her and sped off to school. She had a new headline to write and she had to make sure she didn't let anything slip. Sometimes she wished she were still ignorant of Clark's secret.

'Wow it has been a long, eventful and emotionally draining day.' Chloe sighed flopping back onto her bed.

Jacob laughed at her and asked. 'What has made the day long, eventful and emotionally draining?'

'Well it started out with some alien activity out at the Kent farm. My best guess is that Clark's brain went into overload and needed an outlet. That ended up being him heat vision graffiting the side of his parents' barn with the kryptonian symbol for hope. I know I shouldn't have but I took a picture and wrote an article on it. That led to Clark being a jerk and confronting me, defending Lana, like we knew he would, and getting contacted by the recluse genius Victor Swann. Dr. Walden was electrocuted when he threw a fit in the caves trashing the equipment. He's in a coma. I caught Lana packing her stuff, and by showing her I put her as sister on my family tree she decided to stay. Having a heart to heart with her is tiring.'

'Aww you poor baby.' Jacob laughed. 'Any lasting issues you have with Lana you brought on yourself by letting her stay with you.'

'Jerk. I hate it when you're right.' Chloe sat up on her bed for a moment and pulled the disk from under her pillow. 'What should I do with the disk? Give it to Clark? Hide it? Keep it?'

'Well you should eventually give it to Clark. It technically belongs to him.'

'You're right.'

'Ever figure out what it did to you?'

'I have theories. I know for sure it downloaded knowledge and a dead language into my head. I think it changed how my brain functions or something. I think it changed my body. I'm not sure how yet but I feel different. And I noticed things becoming sharper, clearer. I don't think anyone was meant to be behind Clark when the power flowed through him and I think some of his qualities filtered into me.'

'What you think you're alien now?' Jacob asked semi-serious.

'No…I think it's kinda like what must have happened with Eric. I mean Eric was walking around with Clark's powers so it is possible for a human to have them. And from what I can tell from the knowledge download, on Clark's homeworld they were like normal humans. It's just the difference of the suns. Our sun gives them powers. It's all kinda confusing and I'm really only guessing here on all of it.'

'Well you'll figure it out eventually don't worry about it until then. Now look I love you but I gotta go finish my homework. Even us geniuses have to put in the work to get the grades. Problems don't solve themselves ya know.'

Laughing Chloe put the disk inside her jewelry box. 'So true so true. Bye Cuz. Talk to you soon.'