Disclaimer: not mine
AN: Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Busy life, fun times! Anywho, here is the last chapter of Death Knell. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. You've been the best! ENJOY!
Chapter 15- Final
Chloe's only thought had been to get to her father and fix the situation to the best of her abilities, past and present, after she left Oliver stranded. She had to do it quickly because Oliver would easily be able to find his way to Watchtower soon enough. That could not happen. He could not be there when everything went to hell and she brought it back. He would not understand.
On her way, she chanced looking down and spotted a familiar car: Lex's. He was on the lonely road that could really only lead to Oliver and Watchtower 2.0. This was something else that she couldn't let happen.
"Dammit!"
She had to deal with this now. Oliver and Lex deciding to work together was low on the scale of probabilities, but it was not impossible and there was too much risk. Chloe made her decision. She halted in the sky and dropped towards his car. Luckily, his was the only one present. Amanda Waller's tails were not close enough to Lex now. She just had to be quick.
"I'm destined to remain a problem to you, aren't I, Zor-El?"
Chloe glanced behind her and snorted at Zod. "Don't sound so smug. It means you can't let me go. I can always use that."
He wrapped his arms around her. "There is always time, Chloe. You and I will always have that. We're soulmates."
Chloe shook her head. "Only in your most hopeful of dreams, Zod. Clark is my soulmate, but there is always a place for Lex."
"And now you know that. You should get about it, should you not?"
Zod vanished and Chloe landed in the path of Lex's car. He swerved frantically and ended in a ditch. His car was effectively put out of commission. Chloe straightened from the crouch she landed in and approached the driver side. She stopped a few feet away as Lex stumbled from his car.
"Are you insane?" Lex was furious, "You could have killed me!"
Chloe cocked her head to the side. "At most, I would've had to take you to a hospital and you wouldn't suffer to badly. Unlike me and my accident."
Lex touched the blood on the side of his face and gingerly probed his face. He would have burns and cuts from the air bag. Chloe was at his side in an instant and attempted to assist him to a part of the embankment where he could sit. Her plan was thwarted when he pushed her away and held a rather impressively large shard of green K in his hand.
Chloe reflexively stepped away from him, but she felt none of the weakness and pain that Clark had often described. She stepped towards him and placed her hand over his. She felt nothing, but her hand grayed and black veins popped up along where she touched the green K. Chloe felt heat in her eyes and knew from Lex's shocked eyes that hers were probably red. Chloe smirked and tightened her hand on Lex's. Lex lost his grip and Chloe took the green K from him. She squeezed it until it became a fine mist that blew away in the wind.
She stepped away from him and waited for him to speak.
"What are you?"
"What I have always been."
"What did you do?"
"A lot of things and I'm not done yet."
There was an extended silence. Lex fairly buzzed with nervous energy. She could see and hear and feel his heart racing. The pupil dilation. The sweat. Chloe could see him begin his calculations. He would not stop and he would not rest.
"If I could repave the path in front you, Lex, would you let me? Would you follow it?"
Lex's face twisted into a snarl, something ugly. "A path created for me is not mine and I won't walk it. Never again, Chloe."
"Forget your pride, Lex! Forget everything before now! Forget it while I'm asking because I will not be denied. I won't ask again."
Chloe was forceful at the beginning, but she ended in a stillness that Lex had never seen. Lex's fists clenched at his side and he took a small, aborted step forward. If he hadn't seen what he had in his facility in Lenexa or what she had done only a moment ago, he would've attempted physical intimidation, but that was not an option.
"You could be that engineer or that philosopher, Lex. You and I can be those people. We can be remade!"
Lex calmed and stared into the distance in the direction of Smallville and his castle. "There is no destiny. There is no path. There is only a vast wilderness and I will make it mine, Chloe. I will tame it and rule it."
Who was this man that no longer believed in destiny? Only a few weeks ago had he believed in his own darkness.
Lex seemed to have read her mind.
"I've learned a lot about you, Chloe. A lot about one Gabriel Sullivan. While Oliver and Bruce and the others ran around, I could see the pattern. Zod had shown it to me once. I let myself forget it, but I will not forget again."
"It seems my influence has finally reached deep into him. Of course, this is a pale shadow."
Zod circled Lex and ended behind Lex. She could see them both reflected in each other. Zod looked at Lex. "Can you see the tendrils that spread around you? Plans unleashed and still you are blind. Are you sure you have time for this? You already know your plan vis-à-vis Lex."
"I have no time for this, Lex."
Chloe sped forward and grabbed Lex's cellphone and crushed it. She quickly scanned his car and saw no other communication devices.
When she finished her inspection, she turned to Lex, her eyes blazed red. "To be continued, Lex. We are not done. We will never be done."
Once more, Chloe took to the sky. She had wasted too much time already.
"Remake him, Chloe. Build a better man. He will thank you in the end."
As always, Zod's words were seductive and she allowed herself to be seduced.
Breaking into the building was childishly easy. It gave him a pang to realize that he saw his daughter's work. Her signature, her sensibilities were all over this place. It was impressive, but that link would not stop him from doing what he needed to do. He had been casing this place for days. He knew security movements inside and out. Gabe had initiated several false alarms to get a feel for reaction times. Oliver was a smart man and kept his security team on task, but Gabe found the pattern. It was this knowledge that let him knife through all security measures.
Clark was just hanging up the phone when Gabe entered the apartment with Watchtower. From his expression, Clark was surprised. Gabe figured it was surprise only in the sense that Gabe was the last person he expected to see and not that he didn't hear another person.
"Mr. Sullivan. What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Clark. I'm here to upload a virus that will reboot the world's markets and take us all back to the beginning. After that, I'll upload another program that will put us on a good path. Then, I'll find some friends to help me get humanity in order. But first things first of course."
Clark was stunned. This man, his best friend's father, sounded insane. He also sounded familiar. The intonation and pattern of words sounded like Brainiac. But that should not have been possible.
Gabe chuckled softly. It was almost like he could see the little hamster in Clark's brain try to run when in truth it wasn't even present to begin with. "Please, Clark. Don't hurt yourself. You are no more capable of sorting through the myriad of implications in that statement than you are of stopping me."
The effect was instantaneous. Clark had been defensive, but now he seemed to radiate anger. He seemed to vibrate with it.
"I had thought to say that you were a grand disappointment to Jor-El to taunt you, but now I realize that it is the truth. Jor-El's intellect was a force to be reckoned with, no matter how foolish and recklessly he applied that intellect. But you? All brawn. A result of poor parentage and an over reliance on what you are as opposed to who you are. The last son? All of Krypton distilled into such a poor vessel. Such a waste."
That was the last push Clark Kent son of Jonathan and Martha Kent, Kal-El, son of Jor-El and Lara Jor-El, needed.
"You won't get away with this!"
Clark moved faster than any human, a gift of the yellow sun, but Gabe was ready for him. Gabe merely held out a syringe full of finely ground krypton and let Clark impale himself on it. The effect was immediately. Green veins raised and Clark clutched his side.
Clark fell to the floor. Gabe grabbed the front of Clark's shirt and forced him to his knees. Spittle flying from his mouth, Gabe spoke directly into Clark's face. It was fury.
"I warned you, Clark. All those weeks ago, I warned you. If I found out that you were lying to me, you'd regret it. Did you think it was an idle threat? That because of what you are you could not be touched? She is MY daughter! Mine to protect! I created her! And you…dare…," Gabe then pulled a shard of blue kryptonite from his back and brandished it. He forced himself to be calmer, "Once again a fool of the House of El dares to rise above his station and touch that which he cannot possibly hope to grasp. You are lucky that I did not strike gold."
With that, Gabe pushed the blue shard deep into Clark's heart so that it was no longer visible. It cut through him like a hot knife slices through butter. Clark screamed and stopped the little resistance he had mustered to that point. He vomited and coughed up blood. Clark's shuddered breathing and heaving gasps were like a grand symphony. Gabe adjusted his grip and dragged Clark to the balcony.
"Please."
Kal-El's blood, the blood of Krypton, coated his hands. Gabe gripped Clark's shirt with both hands and brought their faces close together. Clark held desperately held onto the hands that restrained him. Clark was the enemy, the betrayer, the builder of the chasm that separated him from the things he desired.
"Can you fly now, Kal-El?"
Gabe tossed Clark from the balcony and turned away. He had work to do.
Chloe had the presence of mind to enjoy the immense pleasure that was flight. It was exhilarating. It was power and she loved every minute, every second, of it. It took some adjustment. Just because she knew how to get to the apartment that Watchtower didn't mean she knew how to get there while flying so she had to be careful about her bearings. She closed in on the building and could see Clark. And her father. But what she was seeing was the person she loved most in the world throw the other person she loved most from a balcony. The darkness and the beginnings of a storm were a blessing. Few people would notice what had transpired. If they did, it could be rationalized away.
If Clark was in a position to save himself, he would never have been in need of saving in the first place. Her father had done something to make him week. She swooped down before Clark hit the ground. Chloe flew to the roof and laid him gently down upon it. She smelled green K and her x-ray vision let her see what she could only deduce was kryptonite in his chest, buried in his heart.
"You can be assured that the time for bystanders is at an end."
She was torn, but Zod's long-ago words were correct. If she removed the shard and helped him, he could come to his sense before she could deal with her father and that situation would end terribly for all involved. Chloe had to see this through herself. She couldn't, wouldn't, choose between her father and Clark. If she did, Clark would invariably lose and whatever part of her that held all her love for them would be broken so she arranged him as comfortably as she could and gently touched his cheek. Chloe realized that she refused this choice last time and lost everything for it. The lack of faith, of conviction, had doomed them all. Zor-El would've lost Jor-El or Brainiac for sure, but at least he would've had one of them by his side repairing what had been broken.
"Clark, I can fix this. I know I can."
A question first posed to her a lifetime ago and she answered now as she did then.
"Yes," she breathed softly, "I would do anything to save you."
Just as with Oliver, she kissed his forehead. Chloe would atone for this sin.
Chloe stepped off the side of the building and lowered herself until she hovered outside the balcony. She looked around and saw and felt the ghosts of Krypton. All of them silent. All of them watching. The only people she did not see were Zor-El and Kara. There were many others that she recognized and that she had all loved and respected. They had been bound together in another life and those ties reached across time and space, life and death, to tether them all together now. Alura's steady aura blazed to her right, Jor-El's blazed brighter than anything else to her left, and Zod's fire to her back. The others merely assembled around and before her. They were silent witnesses. Chloe turned to face her peers and there was a palpable sense of hope and yearning. A strong gust of wind blew through and took them with it.
Chloe looked to the sky and felt rain splash onto her face. There was no running away from the duties love foisted upon you. There could be no denial of humanity in the space between life and death, love and hate.
Alura's voice rang in her ears. "You are the rock."
Chloe had only understood those words in the context of Alura giving her strength, but it had been part of an ancient Kryptonian origin poem. Alura's words suddenly became so much more.
She said the words softly to herself, "There will come a day when we will see the rock. And on that rock, we will be build a mighty tower and it will be a beacon of hope, a signal of warning, and a symbol of strength."
Once more Chloe faced the balcony. Stepping onto the ground, she glanced around, but she knew he would not be in the room. He was with Watchtower. Now was the time to lay everything bare. She would become vulnerable and force both herself and her father into the light of truth. It was who she was and she had forgotten that for the last few weeks. She had been so mired in her confusion and fear and anxiety that she could see nothing beyond those things. The dark was a refuge, but now her love for her father and Clark forced her to be better than her darkest demons. She could not fail them.
Her father's back was bent over Watchtower as she entered the office. He seemed oblivious to her presence for a moment, and then his back stiffened. He kept working even as he greeted her.
"Hello, Chloe."
"Dad. What are you doing?"
He stopped typing and turned to her. "What you have always wanted to do, but never could. What needs to happen. The flaw in Dark Thursday was the chaos. The destruction. Even for birthing pangs. But of course, you cannot expect anything from a maddened personality. Zod was never so careless, was he?"
Chloe smiled softly, "He was, dad. Sometimes he was that careless."
This was an odd conversation. Both of them danced around the questions they had no answers to. Neither had any idea how the other could know what they knew or what the other was talking about, but somehow, beyond all reason they were conversing with each other.
She cocked her head. "I can't let you do this. This is not Krypton."
"Krypton was a flawed planet. Her people were fools. Their destruction was their own, but it doesn't have to be so here. On Earth."
He turned back towards Watchtower and began work. Her father didn't think she would stop him. Gabe would never have made such a calculation, but whatever realization she was coming to was pushed aside in favor of stopping him.
Chloe quickly closed the distance and forced her father to face her. She pushed him down and away from Watchtower, momentarily stunning him. Chloe initiated a diagnostic, which had the fortunate effect of stopping all programs currently active.
"NO!"
His scream was primal. "I will not fail this time!"
Gabe scrambled from the floor and there was a device in his hand. Chloe had never seen something like it, but she knew that it wasn't something good if her father held it now. Chloe knocked the device from his hand and held her father by the throat.
"What are you? How did you do this? Help me fix this! Please, father! Help me save them!"
By the time she had finished, Chloe was screaming in panic. He couldn't be lost to her. She echoed her father's sentiment: she couldn't fail this time. Gabe raised his hand and touched his finger to her forehead. He would infect her and change her. She would be remade and then she would help him.
Chloe felt something writhe in her brain, in her mind. Dropping her father, Chloe screamed and clutched her head. Gabe also clutched his head. Both of them collapsed onto the floor. Chloe felt herself being pulled and she dreamed.
Zor-El stood in the annex room that was behind his hydroponics laboratory. It was where it all began. He stood where he and Jor-El had first conceived the notion of Brainiac and where they further refined their plan. He and Jor-El would eventually assemble Brainiac in another laboratory, but this place was where he was designed. He stood in the place where the end of Krypton began. All of his hopes and dreams for Krypton lived and died in this place. He wanted to weep, but now was not the time. Zor-El had a plan to enact and he had precious little time. Krypton was destroying itself and their mother-world only had a few days, perhaps even only a few hours, to live.
The room had a rather large population of data, energy, and display crystals. In the middle of the room, there was an interface chair. Next to it laid a dark purple crystal, whose heart radiated red. They served as the backbone for the computer he had built after he revealed his intentions to his wife. She had helped him build this room to reflect its changed purpose. Were it not for her, Zor-El was sure that he would have failed. Her unwavering love for him and her dedication to Krypton had bolstered him, but Zor-El knew that he could not take the final step. He was too weak. Someone else would need to do what he could not, which led him here, to his final defeat: Krypton would die. He would not, could not, save his planet, nor could he save all of his people.
"But I can save a few."
Gripping the back of the chair, he wanted to vomit and to scream because what he was about to do would be the most heinous act he had ever performed in his life, but it would only be the first of many more to come. There would be no recovering from what he was about to do. There would be no forgiveness or relief. Until the day he died, he would suffer from the memory; and in the afterlife, those he had wronged would spend an eternity tormenting him. It was all that he deserved.
Zor-El's attention was drawn to the sound of an opening door. He turned around and there stood his younger brother. His chest constricted and he wanted nothing more than to turn away from the course of events that had been destined to happen the day Brainiac gained favor in Krypton.
Jor-El halted next to him and stroked the interface. He was clearly confused.
"Well. This is new. I've never seen such an elaborate interface outside of Brainiac's construction of the new energy observatory, but I think this puts that to shame. What is this, Zor-El?"
There was genuine curiosity in his brother's voice. There was also excitement. Jor-El loved to learn and he had always been an engaged student. Zor-El smiled slightly. His brother would always be a joy to him.
"You are right. Alura and I have been building this room for years now. I call it a transference laboratory. Maybe it will catch on somewhere."
Jor-El had been smiling, but there was something in Zor-El's voice that gave him concern. Zor-El surreptitiously retrieved the two thin syringes he had hidden in his pocket and sidled closer to his brother. His younger brother was not prepared for the quick jab to his neck that rendered him paralyzed and he never felt the other needle as Zor-El plunged it directly into his heart. Before Jor-El's face slackened into momentary unconsciousness, Zor-El saw it darken into fury. Zor-El wished that he saw shocked betrayal or pain, but it was not to be found. Jor-El would be out long enough for Zor-El to connect him to the interface. Zor-El gazed once more into the red heart of the purple crystal and despaired.
Twenty minutes later, Jor-El was finally beginning to stir. He furiously tested his bonds for a moment before he settled. Zor-El watched his brother's face become distant. He was trying to contact the other shards, but it was not possible. Not in this room. Not in the room specifically designed to stymie him.
"It seems I have underestimated you, brother." Jor-El, no, the shard of Brainiac that resided within Jor-El, cocked his head and narrowed his eyes.
Zor-El laughed ruefully to himself. "Whether it was you or Jor-El, that has always been a constant in my life, brother."
"I suppose you think you can win here."
"No. I don't think I can win. I think you and I will both lose. But I have set the playing field for our next encounter, Brainiac."
Brainiac-as-Jor-El flexed his arms within his restraints. "I have many contingencies, Zor-El. I will not lose."
Zor-El raised an eyebrow. His voice was mocking. "Oh? Really now? I know! You plan on going to Earth and hiding the Book of Rao. You plan on gently persuading the Ruling Council to craft an Orb for our people. No, you plan on having a child with your wife and sending him to Earth, and also sending your true self with that child," Zor-El snapped his fingers, "No, wait! You have done all of the above."
Brainiac snarled.
Zor-El levered himself from his seat and circled the chair that restrained his brother, his creation, his son. "I know, I know. You thought I didn't know. You thought I could do nothing. That you would win. As long as you had Zod and Faora and Lara, you would win. Do you really think that I have not felt you here," Zor-El tapped his head, "Oh, I felt you. And I programmed that part of you to become myself. You have no sway here. And I've shown others. Soon, there will be another who will stop you on distant Earth. I played your game because it left me free to play mine. Don't worry, brother. Brainiac will ignite the planet core. Kal-El will reach Earth. He will grow with you beside him. But he will also grow with Re-El, my son. Of course, you call him Doomsday. I changed that too. And so many other things. Those plans of yours will go on because I do not know what you have done in full."
He pushed his face into Brainiac's and screamed his words, spittle flying from his lips, "I cannot save Krypton, but I can save Earth if one can be found of their number. I have saved many of our people who now have another planet to call home. Krypton will fall and your touch upon her destroyed as well. I have left my mark all over you, Brainiac. We both shall lose!"
"You are mad!"
Brainiac screamed in rage and attempted to lunge from the interface only to be met by failure. Zor-El touched pushed keys on the interface and Brainiac tossed back his head as Jor-El's body seized. The shard of Brainiac within Jor-El was pushed aside and silenced.
Jor-El's body relaxed and Zor-El saw his brother assert himself fully within his own skin. His face showed his gratitude and relief.
"He's gone, Zor-El. We can warn the others and make plans to more fully evacuate Krypton. I must save my son!"
Zor-El gazed at his brother in sadness and shook his head. "It is too late for that. Too late for you. If you leave this room, the shard of Brainiac will assume control and alert the other shards of the plan. All will be ruined," he gently touched Jor-El's face and slowly turned his face so that Jor-El could see the purple crystal, "I will reprogram Brainiac so that he will be as he was meant to be: controlled and in brotherhood with us. Then I will separate you and store both of your consciousness within that crystal. I will do that to all the infected, including the Brainiac within myself. Each piece of him is unique, and while they share intentions and information, they are informed by their host. They will conglomerate within the crystal and become something good, with parts of us to guide him. That crystal will be sent to Earth and it will find a suitable host, who will also be slowly transformed into a Kryptonian to endure the trials to come. That host will stop whatever Brainiac plans. I hope that Kal-El will be a partner in this quest. I hope that Re-El and Kara will help that host too, but I do not fully know what Brainiac has done to them."
Jor-El tossed within the chair, his eyes wide. "But…there has to be another way! We have to save our people! You have to save me, brother! Please!"
Zor-El cupped his brother's face and gazed into his eyes. The look in his eyes was something Zor-El had never seen before this moment. He lowered his forehead to Jor-El's. He felt the wetness on his face and he realized that he was crying. Jor-El was too.
"Brainiac has done too much and I am not strong enough. This time, Jor-El, I am unable to charge forward, with no fear, as you do. I am not fast enough. The Book of Rao is my enemy. I cannot trust you or Zod or Faora. I cannot trust the Orb or the Ruling Council. I cannot trust myself," he opened his eyes and met Jor-El's stricken face, "I will go to New Krypton and hope that one day my children and your child will come home. I will hope that the crystal chooses a worthy host, the best of us. I will hope that one day Earth can welcome us and we can join them in fellowship. But you cannot be there. I have failed you...and Krypton. I am so sorry, Jor-El, my beloved brother, so, very sorry."
Zor-El let his brother go, physically and emotionally. He began the process that would separate and remake Jor-El and Brainiac. When he finished, he held Jor-El's hand. Zor-El listened to his younger brother incoherently babble then scream in pain before succumbing to the interface and the crystal. Jor-El was only the first of many and his time was limited. Kal-El was already on his way to Earth with the real Brainiac and Re-El. Soon, the purple crystal with the heart of red would also make the journey to Earth. And it would take pieces of those who properly engaged the Kryptonian crystals it was linked to.
When Jor-El's eyes were vacant and the hand held within his own grew slack, Zor-El gently closed his brother's eyes, his dead brother, for he no longer held a mind. He retrieved another syringe and slowly depressed its contents into Jor-El. It would be the thing that finished killing his brother.
Zor-El dried his tear-stained face with his hands and prepared to lure the others into his trap. Zor-El kissed Jor-El's forehead and spoke into the room that held his hopes, his dreams, and now, his greatest sins.
"We are all dead men, but we have a purpose here. I know that purpose, but I have never been so lost and in need of you, my brother."
Chloe's mind sprang from the vision and into the awaiting inferno of her father's presence. They both face each other on the floor where they had fallen. His face seemed to be hidden by shadows, but she knew that was just her mind playing tricks on her. He stood and held out his hand to her, which she took, and she got to her feet.
Gabe nodded and let out the breath she didn't even know he was holding. "Chloe, look at me. Really look at me and tell me what you see. See me as I have now seen you."
A phantom flickered over his face and he looked Milton Fine, but the image shimmered and she saw the vague features of the Brainiac of her dreams.
She said softly, "A brother in the House of El."
But even that was not entirely correct. Her father. Her brother. Her son. Her adversary. Her creation. These were all ways to describe the man that stood before her now. Gabe, her father, and Brainiac, who, for a brief time, had been her and Jor-El's brother, but had always been her creation, making him a son. And, of course, he had been an adversary that had taken her over the edge once before and now threatened it again. Her face reflected her awe.
"So. Now you know."
Chloe gasped. "But how did you infect my father?"
In a very human gesture, Brainiac-as-Gabe Sullivan bit his lip, "Through you. When you were in your coma, I…Gabriel felt so lost. Alone. Impotent. So he broke into your apartment and found your secondary hard drive. I was there. There are many pieces of me, meant to come together when the time was right. But I had not anticipated that versions of me would somehow be able to travel through time or that you could possibly have a piece of me, a more perfect version of me. We have also had many time incursions. Brainiacs from the future and those versions showed me, and I suspect you, things that have yet to happen. It is all so very bizarre and baffling."
After a brief pause, Gabe continued, "All of us, you and I, and the other pieces of the mother code have a connection. We resonate with each other. Through space and apparently through time, we are one. We talk with each other. But you subsumed your version of Brainiac, there is no separate entity within you; and I am merely a vessel, which had its own problems."
Chloe's realization was lightning fast, "I took a trip to Clark's fortress in the Antarctic. I must have encountered the purple crystal there and my memory of the event lost."
It was how she knew so much about Oliver. Why she felt so strongly that he needed to fail. Something in the future needed to happen and she was forcing the event to occur when she, Chloe, had control. There were many events, from Amanda Waller to the future of heroes, that she had begun manipulating but had no idea why she had been so certain.
She saw the confusion on her father's, no, Brainiac's, but again, no, her father's face. "To stop you, Zor-El combined all of your shards and their hosts into a purple crystal with a red core. My accident made my healing take notice and I integrated the crystal's contents more rapidly than would have otherwise happened. It's why it took so long for me to heal."
Brainiac nodded, "And so Zor-El's plan could be put into motion."
"But how? How did you resist Brainiac's influence? Not even Jor-El could resist!"
"Because the conglomeration and you were stronger than the shard of me within Gabriel. The conglomeration of the true Brainiac was incomplete because of Milton Fine. You became my daughter, Chloe. The consciousness within the crystal in you grew and changed and it, in turn, changed me. I became a father. I became Gabriel Sullivan. My original objectives changed and so I could not fulfill my original purpose, but I could enhance Gabe's drive for vengeance. I added nothing to him, but he changed me. Somehow I could not force my will. He still caused destruction, but I could not hurt you. I could not destroy Zor-El's work as I should have wanted to. I wanted only to help you in the only way I knew how.
I thought I knew myself. But, even on Krypton, I yearned and strived to be kindred with them. I could give them a beautiful planet. I could give them order. I could give them knowledge. But those things, my touch, destroyed them. It destroyed my brothers. How could I understand that Jor-El and Zor-El were my kind? But through Gabriel, I could see it. I could feel it. Through him I could hurt for what I had torn asunder. "
"But you attempted to destroy the Kents and to order large corporal entities with the focal point being Lex Luthor. I—"
Brainiac interrupted her before she could finish. "Earth must be remade. I was merely wrong in how I was doing it. You must fortify Clark Kent and Oliver Queen and all other would-be heroes in this new world. You must come to a decision on Lex Luthor," his voice lowered to a whisper, "You are the kingmaker, Chloe. Make them kings."
Saving the planet didn't always have to be dramatic. It didn't always involve a grand explosion or an apocalypse. It didn't have to mean suffering. It could be the soul and essence of an entire species. It could come in a quiet moment. Saving a planet could be the countless little moments that defined what life could be. What it should be. She could help guide what life on Earth meant.
She nodded. He was right, of course. The visions from the crystal, the knowledge she now possessed all, led to saving the Earth and to saving Krypton. She could do both of those things. There was a long list of things to be done. The Orb, Book of Rao, and Brainiac's marks upon Earth would need to be found and destroyed. The Kandorian clones had to be found. She had to create an Earth that could exist in fellowship with the Kryptonians that she would soon find and bring to Earth. She had to put in place a system of guidance for Clark, which wouldn't be too hard since all the Justice League needed was maturity and identity.
Chloe had to reintegrate Davis Bloom with the imprisoned Doomsday. His human consciousness couldn't really be killed and he had the ability to shapeshift so he could be as he was, so that Re-El could be as Zor-El meant his son to be. She had to bring Kara back to this timeline because the future was not her place. Somehow, and she had to research the information more, Zor-El had been able to connect with her from New Krypton. Chloe was sure she had actually felt his presence a time or two. She had to find Zor-El and redeem him. He hadn't failed. He had succeeded at great cost, but he hadn't truly failed. But right now only one thing mattered.
Chloe hugged her father tightly. "What about you? My father can't be this."
Brainiac drew back and caressed her face. "You know how to destroy me."
He turned from her. He seemed lost in his own mind, his own torment. "Should not a father love his son? The creator his creation? A brother his sibling?"
Her father turned to her again and cupped her face in his hands, "Should a father forsake his daughter? Or the daughter her father? How could such a thing be real? But to save more than two finite beings? To save planets? In the face of such, those things are real. The sacrifice is real. You must make it real, Chloe."
"You must accept our better angels this time. You must trust yourself this time."
This was Zor-El's true failure. Brainiac would not be a machine to her. Jor-El was right. She could not have known this truth until she had been shaken.
She shook her head. "No."
There was no reason that there couldn't be another stronghold of Kryptonian knowledge. This version of Brainiac couldn't be lost, nor could the other shards of Brainiac that were more malevolent in intent and action. They offered necessary and valued perspectives.
"We can store your programming somewhere. Clark's repository has to be changed. Jor-El must be changed. Neither Oliver nor Lex knows it was you behind anything and Clark's memory can be erased. Amanda Waller will always be a problem and that's a good thing, but we can fix this. I will not destroy you!"
Brainiac nodded and held her tightly. Chloe breathed in his scent. She would soon have her father back and they had a tower to build.
THE END