Eveything Changes but Some Things Don't

Chapter 19: Two Months Later

Two months later found the apartment with glass walls Chloe called the Watch Tower in her own head cleaned, fixed up and actually looking like an apartment. The first level, the floor Jimmy died on, was now set up as an entertainment area/living room while the upstairs now had a master suite with connecting bath, a kitchen/dining room, a smaller guest room with connecting bathroom and a smaller living room which when a person pressed down on one of the wall decorations hid a computer set up like Isis. Isis was still open and running but now it was actually run by meteor infected people that Chloe and the League had checked out thoroughly, wanted a second chance and a good reason to use their gifts.

The League’s members had been missing since Jimmy’s funeral but soon after Clark left they either returned on their own as in the case of Bart Allen aka Impulse and Victor Stone aka Cyborg. Or were found by Chloe herself as in the cases of Arthur Curry aka AC or Aquaman, Dinah Lance aka Black Canary, Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow and many more such as Andrea Rojas aka the Angel of Vengeance and others.

Her home, her sanctuary was now the current base for the League though they did use Oliver’s place but not as much.

This new venture of having a superhero base in her home had started the morning after Clark left. She had woken up feeling she needed to do something and called Oliver. He and the other members of the Justice League came over bruised but well to hear her out. She quickly got them to agree that the city, the world needed heroes right now plus she needed a way to look for Lois without rising too much suspicion with Tess still out there looking for a fight. Oliver had instantly begun funneling personal funds into fixing up her home the way she wanted it and getting the computers and security systems set up throughout the apartment.

At the moment Chloe was typing away at a computer giving a status report to the Justice League members standing around her in their civilian clothes.

“It seems we have a rogue meteor freak from the last 33.1 you guys destroyed in Lithuania. It appears they followed you guys home and is now causing major problems in the south sector of town.”

“Okay so it’s the basic find and contain, try to rehabilitate if can’t, lock up,” Oliver’s voice replied after checking out the information sheets Chloe had printed off for all of them on the person they would be facing.

“Yes, now go do your jobs. I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“Got ya’ Beautiful,” Bart smirked whizzing by her.

“Control the impulses, Impulse,” AC aka Aquaman replied smacking the teen upside the head.

“You heard the lady team, suit up!” so the team did and they headed out for their mission.

A few days later found Chloe again at the computer updating her files while Oliver stood behind her with a grim look on his face. He needed to talk to her but every time he brought his subject up he got his head bit off. Sometimes he wondered how she and Lois could be related but then Chloe would get mad and he would get his answer.

“Yes, Ollie did you need something?” Chloe asked still typing away.

“Oh, it’s nothing…just…Chloe it’s been two months…”

“Don’t even start, Oliver!” she said her tone getting hard and her eyes still on the computers and not him.

“But Chloe you said yourself he’s the one that said he’s dead. Maybe he meant it, maybe he doesn’t want to…doesn’t plan to come back. You shouldn’t count on him…”

“Coming back?! Why Oliver because you think he gave up, he ran away from his destiny for good. Well, Oliver…” she said spinning around to fully face him with steel in her stance, voice, and eyes, “you don’t know Clark like I do. He runs, but he always comes back. And until he does we’ll keep protecting the people of the city like he would want us to. He always comes back,” she stated turned back to the computers with a hopeful tone to her last words.

“How can you be sure that this time isn’t different Chloe?”

“Because I know the real Clark. He can’t stay long, this is home.”

“Metropolis? I thought Smallville was…”

“Not Metropolis, not Smallville, not even Kansas. The world, its people are his home Oliver. He’s a hero through and through, not because some supposedly superior race sent him here to protect us but because being a hero is what…who he is. And until he’s ready to pick up the mantel again we’ll fill in. Now if we’re done with this discussion I’m done with this update and I’m feeling hungry. Do you want to join me for some lunch or what?”

“Um, uh no I’ve got Queen Industries stuff to do. I’m sorry if I made you mad Chloe I just wanted you to think about the situation a little more than you have been.”

“I know, Ollie and I grateful for your concern really but Clark will be back. He always comes back usually when you least expect it.”

“Okay, Watch Tower,” he said smirking down at her as she smiled up at him with a twinkle in her eyes he hadn’t seen until they started this venture of hers. He kissed her cheek, picked up his helmet and walked out the side down to her living room walking down a little hall to the elevator that went down to the ground level of the building. There were the steps from the outside they could use but this was much faster. Before they all had started this venture only the top few floors had been Chloe’s but once they began Oliver had bought the rest of the building making it into a coffee, computer, reading café combo thing with hidden rooms and labs for all their hero exploits. There was even a small hidden medical area.

Chloe had closed the computer area and was now in the kitchen making herself some tea and warming up some soup. Her stomach had been bothering her lately. She had even thrown up a few times a few days ago so she was taking it easy on herself. She had just grabbed some honey from the fridge for her tea when she suddenly got light headed and had to catch the fridge door to steady herself.

“Okay Chloe you are definitely laying down after you eat. Dizzy spells are not a good thing,” she thought to herself after the spell had passed.

She had just finished eating and was refilling her tea cup and putting her dishes in the sink when a knock came on her door from the elevator hall. Thinking it was one of the guys come to pick something they forgot again she answered the door with a smile and joking response of, “Okay, what did you forget this…” but before she could finish her sentence the air left her lungs and the tea cup fell from her hands to spill on the carpeted floor.

“I’ve been getting that reaction a lot lately,” a voice Chloe would never forget and thought never to hear again spoke from a face she thought never to see again.

“Lex! How?!”

“Aren’t you going to invite me in, it’s the polite thing to do when you have a guest.”

Chloe quickly came to her senses seeing the pompous, superior than everybody, I can get away with anything grin on Lex’s face and replied coolly, “I’m sorry I just didn’t expect to have company from a ghost today.”

“But as you can see I’m not a ghost so won’t you let me in for a moment?”

“Why should I? We’ve never been exactly friends Lex, actually we’ve been the opposite.”

“That’s true, but I think what I have to say to you would be better said in private and not in a hallway.”

“No one lives here but me Lex and how did you find me or get in here for that matter?”

“Funny thing that, it seems when you’ve supposedly been dead for half a year and computer security asks for verification like eyes or a fingerprint they don’t take into account the dead.”

“The system would have gone off if that was true, Lex,” she said with venom in her voice, “so how did you really get in?”

“Oh, fine Ms. Sullivan if you must know I used some of the same resources you and your hero friends use to get into my 33.1 labs,” Lex said shoving into her apartment to sit on the couch with his legs crossed acting as if he owned the place.

“Okay, that I believe,” she replied shutting the door and crossing her arms over her chest as she stepped to face Lex with the coffee table between them.

“How long have you been back from the dead then Lex?” Chloe snarked.

“About two months, ever since Clark left apparently. I’ve read there’s no more Red Blue Blur saves, but suddenly there’s a whole group of costumed heroes calling themselves the Justice League. Would you know anything about that Ms. Sullivan? You seem to know all the hero types.”

“Nope not a clue. If you’ve been alive for two months why not tell the world Lex Luthor’s back, Lex?”

“Because Ms. Sullivan something like coming back from the dead must be done with finesse and time,” Lex said uncrossing his legs and sitting with both arms spread on the back of the couch as he watched her.

“So why come here? Why tell me?”

“Because Ms. Sullivan you’re precious to Kal-el and I want to know where he is,” Lex said sitting forward his tone getting deeper, darker.

“Wait, Lex never knew Clark’s real name. He just learned about Clark’s true origins,” she thought to herself as she watched Lex even more closely now but coolly replied, “Kal-el? Who’s Kal-el?”

“Clark Kent, Ms. Sullivan don’t play the dumb blonde, you’re not,” he said touching his fingers together as he laid them on his knees to make a sort of triangle.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Oh, wait Lex never knew his true name, just his alien origins didn’t he?” Lex replied with a calculating smirk at Chloe.

“I think being dead’s messed with your head Lex your talking in third person,” she sarcastically replied.

“That or maybe having an alien being possess the body does that to an Earthling mind,” Lex replied standing up and walking to the end of the coffee table a few inches away from her.

“I can see why Kal-el likes you…Courageous, witty, clever, spunky, intelligent…for an Earthling…and beautiful form, hair and eyes. I guess your Earthling saying applies correctly here, how did it go…oh yes, ‘like father like son’. I don’t know what it is about the El family and falling for spunky blondes but I guess Kal-el is just like his father in that respect.”

“What are you talking about?” Chloe said eyeing Lex as he leaned closer to her forcing her to crane her neck and bend her back a bit to look at him.

“If I want to get to Kal-el it looks like I’ll have to get to him through you my dear, which might be fun actually. I haven’t had this much fun with the Earthling race in a while, it might be fun to play human for a bit.”

As he spoke he walked around her in a predatory circle forcing her to turn with him to keep him in her sights.

“Wha---Zod! Your Zod, aren’t you?!”

“Correct! Give the Earthling girl a prize.”

“Now I know Kal-el isn’t around right now, but he will be sooner or later. So until then I’ll just have a bit of fun fulfilling this Lex’s ambitions. It was nice to meet you Ms. Sullivan we must have another talk some time soon,” Zod as Lex stated smoothly as he walked to the door.

“Oh, yeah I’m looking forward to it,” Chloe sarcastically replied as she watched Zod leave her building.

As she went back into her apartment and shut the door with a heavy click she didn’t even notice that she had shut the door with her back and as she stepped away from it finally picking up the cup of spilt tea she kept thinking, “Got to tell Oliver and the others, got to change security precautions, but how am I gonna keep Kryptonian out of my apartment without making precautions that would hurt Clark if he ever showed up.”

She had just cleaned up the mess with some soap and water and was going to the kitchen to put the rag in the sink when she became light headed again but this time her vision was becoming blurry and she felt herself falling as if by slow motion to the ground. She instinctively called Clark’s name but it wasn’t Clark who caught her in his strong arms.

It was Bart who had caught her as she fell to the ground before she hit her head on the floor.

He had sped into her apartment after using the safety measures from the other side of the building, not seeing Lex leave, just having arrived from his last mission across South America. Bart had wanted to fill his empty stomach with food from Chloe’s fridge and tell her about his travels while he basked in her beauty but when he had stopped in her kitchen doorway and saw her falling, he didn’t even think before he reacted and caught her in his arms and rushed her to Metropolis General even though they had a medical base he wanted to make sure she was completely okay and they could call Dr. Emil Hamilton or as he secretly called him Dr. E from Metropolis Gen. As he rushed her to the hospital he called Oliver and the others to tell them what was going on so they could come too.