Wherever You Will Go, Chapter 10

Clark/Chloe
Season 6, following my story "Ever the Same"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
Read the previous chapter here.
Read the story from the beginning here.

"You failed me, Kal-El."

Clark tried to control the convulsive shudders of fear that racked him. He didn't want to display weakness in front of Zod. Then again, he didn't want to look arrogant in front of her, either. He lowered his head and forced himself to stand still, without fidgeting.

"I am sorry," he said meekly. "I tried. But Lex refused to even consider your proposal."

Zod wasn't looking at him. To his relief, she barely seemed aware of his presence. She was typing away at a computer, and Clark was reminded bizarrely of Chloe. He'd seen her working at a computer like that, so many times...

But Chloe was gone. He'd been separated from her for forty years, by his personal timeline, and almost the moment he'd gotten her back, she'd been ripped from him. And now he'd never see her again. Pain stabbed into his heart, as excruciating as a sharp piece of kryptonite.

Zod kept clicking at the keys. Her guards stood along the walls of the room at intervals, as still and silent as statues. Some of his terror drained away at the realization that she didn't seem to have intentions of punishing him for his failure. At least not now.

"I wanted Lex Luthor to join me," she said in an idle tone, "so that I could gain free access to LuthorCorp's satellites. But no matter. I believe I've finally managed to break into a network owned by Queen Industries."

Clark lifted his head, just a little, and tried to look at the screen surreptitiously. "What are you doing?" he blurted out.

She stiffened suddenly, and he realized he'd gotten her full attention. Not at all what he'd meant to do. She twisted her head, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. "Do you really believe that is any of your concern, son of Jor-El?"

He lowered his chin again, doing his best to look chastened. "No."

Her hazel eyes studied him for a long moment, and he felt himself shivering with fear. He knew how close he was to another bout of savage, unrelenting pain. But at last she spoke.

"I suppose you may as well know my plans. If you are to be my lieutenant, you must know them eventually. What I am doing, Kal-El, is setting up a pulse that will be emitted from a satellite network, in order to reshape the planet's crust. I am recreating our home."

Our home. The words of another Zod flashed through his mind: Krypton... I intend to rebuild the rest of the Earth in its image. Soon, this entire world will resemble that snowy paradise.

But Krypton wasn't his home. Earth was.

"You're going to alter the climate," he said dully. "Destroy what makes the planet Earth. Try to make it resemble Krypton as much as possible."

"I am going to fix the climate," she answered, her voice curt. "I intend to completely transform this pathetic backwater of a planet."

"How many humans will die because of this?"

"Millions, I imagine. Which is really for the best. Humans have overpopulated this planet badly, and even with its current climate, it cannot sustain the numbers of humans for much longer. But when I finish with it-- it will be a truly beautiful planet."

He knew he should shut the hell up, but he couldn't quite stop himself from answering. He'd expected this, and wasn't terribly surprised, but the sheer callous indifference in Zod's tone made it doubly horrifying. "It will be a mass grave," he responded.

She lifted an eyebrow. "As humans say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Kal-El. I intend to regain everything I lost, everything that was taken from me. I will transform this planet into Krypton. Only this time, it will be perfect-- the start of an empire, ruled by the bloodline of Zod."

He was reminded forcibly of his earlier thoughts about Zod using Chloe's body for sexual purposes. "It isn't your bloodline," he said sharply, so angry he forgot to sound meek and submissive. "It's Chloe's."

"True." Her voice sounded nearly as angry as his. "Thanks to your sire, I have no body of my own."

He really, really needed to shut the hell up, right now, but despite his gutwrenching fear, he couldn't seem to suppress his anger any longer. He let his tone grow taunting. "So you're planning on basing an empire on human genes?"

"Human," she answered, "and Kryptonian."

He stared at her, at a loss for words, and she went on. "Kryptonian genes are superior, but unfortunately, there is only one source of them on this planet." She smiled at him, a smile of such evil it made shivers run down his spine. "The grandchild of Jor-El will one day rule this world with an iron fist. Amusingly ironic, isn't it?"

He thought he understood the implications of her statement well enough, and he shook his head. "I can't have sex with you, Zod. Surely you realize that. I was bonded to Chloe. You and I-- it's impossible."

"A human and a Kryptonian cannot reproduce under natural circumstances anyway," Zod said. She had turned back toward the computer and was clicking away, and he saw a graphic of a satellite flash on the screen. "You must be aware of that, Kal-El. They are entirely different species, unable to interbreed naturally. A great deal of genetic manipulation was required to meld our DNA together."

He stared at her, his mouth gaping open, while shock and horror ran through him in sickening waves. "Was required?"

She turned her head and smiled, an icy smile that chilled him to the bone.

"This body now carries your child, Kal-El."

Read Chapter 11 here.