Chloe.
She was inside this building. Davis didn't know how he had known, but instinctively, he had come to her here. Everything in the last few days, from his dreams to the quakes to his sighting of her today had worked to draw him here. To her.
He took a deep breath, trying to still his wildly beating heart, then pressed the speak button on the intercom. "Chloe. It's me. I am Davis Bloome."
How strange it was to say those words aloud after so long. I am Davis Bloome.
He continued, "The one who you saw after the split. The one that...killed Jimmy. That wasn't me." He took another deep breath, and found himself leaning into the door, as if he was trying to be closer to her, even if only by a few inches. "That was...umm. This is hard to explain, but it was another side of Doomsday. I was in the Geothermal Plant with Clark. I was there when it exploded, but Tess dug me out."
He released the speak button, waiting to see how she would react to his shocking statements.
There was a long silence.
After an eternity, another voice came over the intercom - Clark's voice.
"You should probably come inside. I think we all need to talk."
Then the door buzzed, allowing Davis entry into the building. With another deep breath, he went through the doors and into the lobby. The elevator was already open and waiting for him.
A moment later, the elevator doors opened onto a high-tech control center. And guns. Guns pointed at him. A lot of them. Though many of them seemed to be somehow part of the African-American cyborg man that stood next to Chloe. Though - even more shocking - one of them rested easily in Chloe's hands.
When had Chloe become so comfortable with guns?
Clark, dressed in his Superman costume, was the only one without an obvious weapon drawn. Though, of course, he had plenty of his own built-in weapons.
Despite being confronted by the famous Superman and a half-man/half-machine, it was the petite blonde that seized Davis' gaze and wouldn't let go. Her face was cold as she looked at him, though he felt warm inside just at seeing her again so close. "Hello, Chloe," he greeted her softly.
She cocked the gun at him. "For the record, I don't believe this wild tale you concocted and I don't know why you came here, whoever-you-really-are, but I've been over-ruled in hearing you out. So talk."
Davis took a deep breath, then started explaining what had happened after the Black Kryptonite split. He recounted how he had been injured when Doomsday threw him across the room, but how he had healed from an impossibly broken back. That caused a dangerous narrowing of Chloe's eyes and Clark's face went stony. They both believed his healing ability was because of his monstrous side - Doomsday. Davis rushed to explain.
"I don't think the healing is actually part of the monster. That power, that ability felt too...clean. I think it was the power that was part of being a Kryptonian." Davis turned and looked at Clark, whose face was a blank mask. "I'm not like you, Clark. I wasn't born. I was made. I think that is why our powers have some overlap, but are different. I also think that is why Doomsday was the conduit for my Kryptonian heritage until we were separated. Once we were split, I was able to tap into that power on my own, though I have chosen not to since that terrible day." He turned to look at Chloe with mournful eyes. Her own green eyes simmered with anger and pain. "I was trying to redeem myself. Trying to be worthy of the life I was granted." He broke away from her hostile gaze. "And to atone for the lives lost because of the other parts of me released that day."
He then described how he had been split not into two parts as they had assumed - but three. Himself, Doomsday, and a creature that had his form, but Doomsday's evil - the thing Davis had felt taking over his mind and that he had called "The Darkness." That explanation caused Chloe to go white as a sheet, shock replacing simmering anger.
Seeing that his explanation may be winning her over, he went on with his story. He recounted how Clark and Doomsday had come crashing back into the plant and how he had hidden the unconscious Clark and lured Doomsday away.
"I found that when I tapped into the power that had healed me, it seemed to have an effect on the monster. I think the creature could feel me taking in that force. I believe we were both connected to the same source, and by using it myself, it weakened the monster's access to the well of power. But at a cost. When I did so, Doomsday knew." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I decided to use that to my advantage and lure the creature away from the unconscious Clark." Clark and Chloe exchanged a look, but didn't say anything. "I thought I had figured out Oliver's plan to trap Doomsday in the earth by forcing me down the Core Shaft. So that was what I thought to do to The Beast. Only...it didn't work out quite that way." He took another deep breath and looked at Clark. "I was successful in getting the monster to chase me to the Core Shaft room. Then I tricked it into charging at me while I stood at the pit's edge, but I wasn't quite fast enough and instead of the monster going into the pit - I did."
That part of the story caused Clark to gasp audibly and take an unconscious step toward Davis. "It was you! It was you that I saw climbing over the edge of the shaft after I sent the monster down! Then there was the explosion and -" The big man placed a hand to his head, as if trying to recall. "Somehow I got out. I never really knew what happened." He looked back up at Davis. "Or why the monster had abandoned me to go to the Core Shaft instead. I never thought there might be a connection. I always assumed the person it attacked at the pit was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." His eyes widened and he turned to Chloe. "Chloe, you always asserted you saw someone busting through the security doors and Doomsday on the security footage that day. I always thought you saw it wrong, with the explosions and the debris affecting the cameras becauseI knew it wasn't me. I came upon the monster already there..." He stopped again, looking back at Davis with still-wide eyes. "But why?" Why did you do it?"
Davis smiled ruefully. "You were injured, Clark, and despite everything, I was an EMT. It is what I did - help the injured - and I knew...I knew what everyone said was true." He paused and pointedly looked at Clark's Superman outfit, letting his rueful smile soften to something real. "You were the hero the world needed." He looked at Chloe for a moment, but he couldn't put a finger on her feelings. Her expression kept flickering between one emotion and the next. He turned back to Clark. "And I knew that even as much as Doomsday wanted to kill you, it wanted me more."
"But wouldn't you just heal if it hurt you?" Chloe asked.
Davis shook his head, turning his attention back to her. "No. I think because we were connected, I am vulnerable to it. It injured me in the plant when it grabbed my throat. That was part of why I never called for help, even after you sent the monster down the shaft, Clark. I couldn't."
"But if you are vulnerable to the monster..." Chloe started.
Davis finished, "Then yes, I think he is vulnerable to me too. I know I can siphon off his power, but I also have something else." Davis unslung the bag from his back.
Victor loudly cocked every single one of the weapons he had pointed at Davis. "Hold it! Give the bag to Clark, then back away."
Davis did so. When Clark had the bag in hand, he passed it over to Chloe. "What did you want from here?" she asked Davis without any inflection.
"Inside is an elaborate box. It was sent to me after Tess Mercer's death."
Chloe looked confused, but began opening the bag. She pulled out the box, and catching his eyes for a moment, opened it. She gasped at what was inside.
"What is it Chloe?" Clark asked.
She turned the box around to show him "It's the Phantom Zone crystal."
Clark's eyes had gone cold when he turned back to Davis. "You better explain that RIGHT NOW."
Davis was startled by Clark's vehement reaction to the Phantom Zone crystal, but explained that it had been sent to him at the Emergency International camp after Tess Mercer's death.
Chloe cursed roundly. "That bitch! After everything we went through with the Kandorians, and Desaad, and Apocalypse! You'd think at some point she would say 'Oh, hey, guys! I lied about destroying the crystal. Would it help if we could send these baddies to the Phantom Zone right about now?' "
Victor was shaking his head. "I swear I will never understand that woman."
"Me either," Clark agreed, before turning back to Davis. "So how did you end up in Emergency International? How did she know to send this to you there?"
"Well, she is the one that set it all up." Then Davis explained about her recovering him from the ruins of the plant and giving him a new fake identity and getting him into Emergency International.
Chloe's voice was soft as she said, "Davis told me once that was what he would do if he couldn't be an EMT."
He nodded, holding her confused eyes with his own, begging her to believe him.
"Why did you agree to that? Why didn't you return..."
The unsaid words hung in the air...Why didn't you return to me?
Davis eyes turned sad and dark. "Tess told me about Jimmy. She told me...I killed him. A first I didn't understand, but then it came to me. The thing that was in my head. The thing twisting my mind and thoughts - "
"The Darkness," Chloe supplied.
"Yes. Somehow it had been given form too during the split. A thing that was part me, and part Doomsday." He paused, holding her eyes. "An evil thing that killed someone you loved." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Then tried to kill you! And it came from me!" He turned away. "It was too much. The pain, the shame. After everything you had gone through to save me, and to have that happen. It was my fault. Then when Tess threatened -"
"Tess threatened you?" Chloe cut in.
Davis shook his head. "No." He held her gaze. "Tess threatened you."
Chloe stood for a moment in surprise.
Davis continued. "She said with everyone thinking I was dead and Doomsday contained for good, that Clark would finally be on his way to his destiny. Then she offered me a chance at a new life - a new life far from Metropolis. I took her up on that."
"So you went away just like that?" Chloe asked.
"Yes. After all that had happened because of me, after all the pain I had caused, and the lives I had taken...I saw it as my chance to atone for my sins." He paused, holding her gaze. "Surely, you can understand that?"
She didn't reply.
Davis shot a quick look over at Clark. Clark's face had softened somewhat, though his impassive expression made it clear he still didn't feel kindly towards Davis. While Clark believed his story, he still wouldn't forget the pain Davis had caused those years ago.
Davis returned his attention to Chloe. Did she believe him?
Her eyes were hot with some overwhelming emotion as she approached him slowly. "I only have one question left for you."
"Alright, " Davis nodded.
"Are you as impervious as Clark? Like can you be hurt or feel pain from things besides Doomsday?"
Davis was confused by the question, but replied. "Yes, I can feel pain and be hurt, but I heal quickly from injuries that aren't caused by the monster."
"Good," Chloe said, then hit him with a hard right hook to the jaw that sent him reeling backwards.
Author's Note: Hehe. ;)