The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

Her mind swam with clustered agonies and confusions, all kinds of myriad inexplicables. A statue of a Mayan rain god. A pale woman dressed in black. A green man with red eyes and a voice of gloom and doom and calm and balm.

Holding her head, Chloe Sullivan awoke once more.

She looked around herself, found herself on the grassy hillside above The Cave, obscured by shrubbery.

She was soaking wet. With a soft cry of dismay, she sat up sharply and clutched at her phone holster.

The phone was dripping with water; there was no way the mother-board had survived such a corrosive onslaught.

Chloe scrunched her eyes shut and shook her aching head. At least she had insurance on the phone...

She heard Bruce Wayne calling her name and for a moment she was sure, in the midst of her migraine, she was hallucinating the sound.

But then he called again, and she rasped softly, finding that she was very very parched: "Buh. Bruce?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri, Jamie, and Pete

The Martian was quite rough with James Hamilton before he could reply to Merick's perfectly eloquent questions, and Ceri had to abandon her conversation with Marcy-- she had wondered if Marcy had secretive punk-rock roots, because wouldn't that just be the bee's knees --to stagger to her feet and take offence at such treatment.

The Martian retrieved the puzzle-piece from The Console and sealed the room with all but a gesture even as his telekinesis herded the room's inhabitants to the wall... Ceri and Jamie included.

Jamie gazed at the alien with wide wide eyes. "Well," he murmured, unable to immediately identify this fellow's planet of origin. "That's not really been called for. You could have asked."

He took The Crystal of Hope out of his pocket and frowned at it, glasses immediately back on his face. (Marvelous crystalline lattice structure. Does this have something to do with the same harmonic resonance technology? ...The Music of The Spheres? What I wouldn't give to spend a day with this under a scanning electron microscope.)

Ceri regarded The Crystal with a gasp. So help her, diamonds were a girl's best friend, and this particular gem was bigger and brighter even than The Koh-I-Noor.

"What 'little one?'" she enquired softly, glancing at the dark verdant stranger. "What 'destiny?'"

Pete bashed a fist against the wall of force and growled. "Quit your bitchin'," he shook his head, "Mean Joe Greene. You were supposed to be out looking for Chloe. Where's she at? Dammit, where's she at?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

Rose had flown.

She had followed Bruce for a ways, had seen him kick a man down that--

(Well, she was glad somehow secretly that Bruce had punked that guy so hardcore. All those years, her parents had told her to never take candy from strangers... this dark bearded man was exactly the kind of guy she imagined that she should never take candy from.

Bruce could really take care of himself. If Ceri McCrimmon had been River Tam, then Bruce was Tetragrammaton Cleric John Preston. Rose wondered who else 'round these here parts wandered around with a secret can of Whup-Ass in their pocket.

...did Martha Kent have a mean left hook?)

--had seemed very much like he was up to no good.

Rose hadn't been able to hear them talking, she'd been far enough up even for her ears to not be able to catch the sound of their speech. But she hadn't trusted this dark man as far as Bruce could throw him.

So she had followed the man, and she had followed Bruce, but she had been immediately relieved when, after a terse exchange with Bruce's handyman butlery-type-guy, the dark man had departed the vicinity.

Maybe she had been wrong about him. She'd hoped that, at the very least.

And thus, she had flown away.

At first, she had flown high into the sky, nearing the place where she had hugged Var-Sen.

She hovered there for awhile.

She wished she could have hugged Var-Sen good-bye.

Rose McCrimmon stared at her hands.

It was like that age-old question: 'You kiss your mama with that mouth?'

How could she hug anyone with arms like hers? With hands that had killed?

Sure, she had killed in defence... partly self-defence, partly planetary defence, and that made it okay, right?

('Rose McCrimmon, Defender of The Earth.')

Athyr had had a terrible, terrified look on her face as she had roasted to white powder, and Rose would never forget that look as long as ever she lived.

Rose hovered there, above the turning of the world, and she hugged herself tightly.

She couldn't afford to go crazy. Not over this. Madness was a luxury she could ill afford.

Later, she decided. We'll go crazy later.

She flew back towards terra firma, back towards Kansas...

...but even as she angled herself back towards The Cave, she glimpsed something strange in Crater Lake.

A car, parked not far from shore, partway into the water.

Worried, Rose swooped down to hover by its windows, gazing in. Empty, passenger-free...

...but water was leaking in and was ruining everything it touched, crawling up dangerously close to the top of the backseat. Atop which sat two laptop bags.

With a grunt, Rose pulled open the door and water spilled back into the lake. Hurriedly, she shouldered the two bags, and glanced about worriedly. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but who would...?

She peeked into one of the satchels, and immediately recognised Chloe's enviable silvery Gateway.

Chloe.

Rose wasn't ordinarily good at putting two and two together. She was highly intuitive, but her intuition was strange and mixed-up and easily-distracted... her intuition rarely moved well in straight lines.

But right now she was tired, and her thoughts had been stripped down to their lowest common denominators, and therefore putting two together with two was no longer so arduous a thing: there remained nothing left in her thoughts but the two and the two and the together.

If Chloe had abandoned her laptop, she would not have done so lightly.

The Green Martian, J'onn, had been dispatched to retrieve Chloe. Maybe he had done so! Maybe he had taken her away from danger, and had thought little of Chloe's material possessions.

If that were the case, J'onn would surely have taken Chloe back to The Cave. After all, that was the point, right? Safety in the shelter of the Kryptonian sanctum sanctorum?

So Rose would take Chloe's material possessions to Chloe.

She flew back into the sky, and left Crater Lake below and behind her as, with slow, weakened flight, Rose made her way back to The Cave.

 

[camerindrake]

METROPOLIS 2245 The Black Canary

It is just the time the partying gets into high gear. The time that Damian would usually decide to make his presence known to the filth of the city. However this isn't one of those days. He and Dinah walk up to the front door.

"Your not expecting to walk in the front door are you, Damian?" says Dinah looking at him like he is out of his mind.

"Watch me," responds Damian as he walks to the door where the bouncer is standing.

"What you want, kid, its a school night ain't it. Shouldn't you be in bed with mommy, unless this here is mommy," says the bouncer looking at Damian, then to Dinah.

"Inside, if you can arrange it, and you are to stupid to be funny so don't even try," Damian responds to the rather lame attempts at an insult.

"Piss off," the bouncer yells into Damian's face flinging spit into his eyes.

"Very well. Have it your way" says Damian says as his eyes go dark with his intent.

"Damian, don't ...." Dinah barely has time enough to say before Damian starts moving.

Damian grabs the bouncer by the throat and knees him in the groin. He thus follows by stepping into the bouncers instep and slamming into the bouncers chest in five chakra points with his fists. then he ends with the iron palm strike much like the movement of the Hadoken from street fighter without all the flashy light. The bouncer flies through the front door of the biker bar/ Strip Club.

Damian walks in as it all goes quiet. He responds to the crowd, "I asked nicely, He wouldn't let me in."

The bartender slides his hand under the bar.

"I am here to see Weasel, not to cause anymore trouble for you." Damian says to the bartender as he walks further in. Weasel is sitting at the stage with his beer.

"Sit down Wayne, Layla is about to come up." says Weasel tapping the seat beside him.

"I'm here for the hard copy Nationalized Citizen cards and drivers license's for Dinah and me." Damian demands from weasel.

"after the show," Weasel says taking a drink of his beer.

Damian lifts weasel out of his stool and brings him up to his face and his voice barely more than a growl says, "NOW, Weasel"

"OK, OK, you know you are like your father in how short tempered you are." cries Weasel as he looks into Damian's eyes which are so narrow that all you see is their whites. Once Damian put him down he grabbed his laptop bag and opens it on the table and plugs in the laptop and pulls out its mouse a mini printer with empty cards of all types beside it. "I hope you did the leg work for me already like your dad does." Weasel looks Damian in the face once more as he says this. Then looks over to Dinah, " He wants to scare someone, he don't need no mask."

Damian hands him the flash drive from his utility harness. Weasel places it in his USB port. and begins to pull up the information that had already been hacked into the government computers. "David Cain huh and Dinah Cain. Wanting to drop two years off your age ain't ya Damian. Woah, you sure you want to touch those specific accounts Damian." Damian lets Weasel rant. Damian just nods. "You know The League of Shadows, as they are called here, are going to figure it out eventually, right." Weasel warns them.

"I'll deal with it."

"Your funeral."

Weasel gets done and hands them both the printed out cards that they requested. Damian hands Weasel over 400 Dollars from his wallet. Weasel taps the bills on the table, "Nice knowin' ya."

Damian takes back his flash drive and the two of them walk out of the bar. Dinah looks at the motorcycles left with their keys in them then she looks at Damian, who is going to call himself David.

"Think they will miss one." Dinah hops on the navy blue Harley on the end of the row and Damian hops on behind her. "Where to, hotshot?"

"Car Dealership. Weasel was kind enough to give us both a Debit Card to the account." Damian answered her yelling above the roar of the harley.

 

[Wyldfire]

Dinner had been fantastic and the clean up had gone quickly. The sun was still up but not for too much longer. Max had suggested she take a ride around to see a bit more of the area, and to check up on the Kent farm to see if they needed any help after the shower.

So it was that Diana was out of the road with just her cap helmet, her dark curls flowing behind her in the wind. "Gods this is bliss," she thought to herself, "This must be what flying feels like!" She couldn't understand why, if this way of travel was available, anyone would coop themselves up in automobiles. It was a sense of freedom she found exhilarating. She took the old Indian bike faster and faster down the old stretch of road counting the few mailboxes out this way. At the fifth she turned into the long dirt drive way of the Kent farm.

She roared the bike up the drive way and came to a stop throwing just a small bit of the gravel. Kicking the stand down, she dismounted the bike. The place looked basically unscathed from the shower but sometimes looks could be deceiving, and besides, Max had been fairly insistent that she should at least go and introduce herself to the Kents. He had said that they had a daughter about her age, and that making friends would be a good thing for her once she was in school.

As she walked towards the door an older man opened the door. He had a stern yet kindly look to him. "Hello. May I help you miss?" he asked.

"I am Diana Marston. I am here as a foreign exchange student here in America. I am staying with Max Trevor and he asked me to come and introduce myself as well as to check up to see if you are in need of assistance after the meteor shower." Diana said with her thick Grecian accent.

Jonathan Kent smiled. "Max is a good man. And we didn't get hit badly at all. But come on in, I'll introduce you to my daughter Kara," he said as he held the door open and gestured her into his home. "Kara, there's someone here to meet you. She's from the Trevor farm."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Dinner at the Kent farm went on fairly quiet that night, and Kara barely said a word as she polished off her plate. She was sad to see the sun start to go down, but it was like that with every day. Whenever she was outside in the sun, Kara felt renewed and invigorated. At night it seemed like she had to expend more of her stored energy to do the same kind of work.

But the work she accomplished in ten minutes would normally take an entire crew of men several days to do.

Martha was busy washing the plates inside the Kitchen while Kara retreated to the living room. She sat down on the couch and had the television on. The majority of the local news channels were busy covering the aftershock of the meteor shower, but some of the other programs had already resumed their regularly scheduled shows.

There was one show in particular that Kara liked to watch. It was a cartoon based off the Warrior Angel comics that were in circulation. She heard a roaring noise approaching their house but she wasn't able yet to focus in on it. She'd need to try and set aside some time to train her newest ability. It finally ended and she saw Jonathan walk towards the door.

"Kara, there's someone here to meet you. She's from the Trevor farm."

Kara sat up on the coach and finally stood to her feet when her father showed Diana into the house. She looked to be about her own age, with dark hair and blue eyes like her own.

"Hi," Kara said with a warm smile.

"I'm Kara," Kara said, extending her hand out towards Diana.

 

[Wyldfire]

Diana returned Kara's smile and took the offered hand giving it a firm grip and a friendly shake. "It's is my pleasure to meet you Kara, I am Diana. I am new here and Mister Trevor thought it would be good for me to get out and meet some of his neighbors." Her accent was undeniable, and if she didn't work on losing it it would quickly become a disadvantage to fitting in.

She released the grip and smiled again. "Your country is beautiful. So much larger than my own home." She took in the Kent home with her perifereal vision. It looked like the home of a happy family, something she missed. If Kara became her friend she could see herself here quite often, it would help her with the home sickness she was already starting to feel.

Max was a good man, but he was just that. A man. But here in the Kent home there were more women, and that in and of it's self was a comfort to Diana. Mister Kent seemed to be a gentle man, like Max, but he also had an edge to him that wasn't there in Max.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

One of the first things Kara noticed about Diana was that she had a pretty solid hand shake. It wasn't one of delicacy and frailty. Aside from that her accent was very thick, and Kara had a hard time placing it.

"Mr. Trevor's a nice man," Kara said with a smile, withdrawing her hand after a moment.

Martha peaked into the living room to see what the commotion was all about, and she smiled at seeing a girl Kara's own age come into the house. She looked very pretty, and from how things were going she seemed very honest and friendly.

"Your country is beautiful. So much larger than my own home."

"Well I know Smallville can seem a bit out of the ordinary, but it has its qualities," Martha said with a smile as she entered the living room.

"Hi, I'm Martha," Martha said as she also extended her hand out towards Diana. She figured it was pointless to introduce herself as Kara's mother or Jonathan's wife, as that was pretty obvious. Even if a person spent ten minutes in Smallville the Kents were sure to come up in some manner of conversation.

"And you look very lovely. I'm sure you and Kara will be good friends. How is Max these days?" she asked curiously.

 

[Wyldfire]

"Mr. Trevor's a nice man," Kara said with a smile, withdrawing her hand after a moment.

"Well I know Smallville can seem a bit out of the ordinary, but it has its qualities," Mrs. Kent said with a smile as she entered the living room."Hi, I'm Martha," Martha said as she also extended her hand out towards Diana. "And you look very lovely. I'm sure you and Kara will be good friends. How is Max these days?" she asked curiously.

"He is a very nice man indeed. He made a much better first impression than the one other man I met my first day here." Diana said answering Kara as she turned to shake Mrs. Kent's hand.

"Smallville is a wonderful place. Much nicer than New York," Diana said, "The pleasure is mine to make your acquantance Mrs. Kent." She accepted the offered hand and the instant she started to shake it her Mother's warning came to her and she lightened the grip she had started to use in the handshake. It was a brief second of a firm grip and she prayed that she had not hurt this woman of Man's world. "I hope we can be friends as well. It would be good to start my stay here with such good fortune."

She smiled at the question of Max. It showed that he was a good man if his neighbors asked after his health. "Mister Trevor fares well, despite the damages that the shower did. We have the barn repaired, as well as the fences, but the cows he lost were such a shame."

 

[Superman1496]

Standing outside of the caves, Bruce thought he heard something. A soft whisper maybe. He walked inside the cave entrance to find Chloe lying on the grass.

Bruce rushed over and grabbed her, holding her up. You know, I'm pretty sure you weren't here when I left earlier, and you look like you've been through Hell. Bruce said softly, looking into her eyes. She was confused, he could tell. Almost lost.

It's going to be ok Chloe. Let's get you taken care of. Bruce said as he lifted Chloe into the air. He walked out of the cave and set Chloe in the passangers seat of the Corvette waiting them. Just sit tight, we'll have you taken care of in no time. He mentioned as he walked over and sat in his seat and started the engine.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

Bruce was.

Beautiful. Broken. And stronger than he looked.

He lifted Chloe like she weighed little more than a ream of printer paper, even less. Maybe just a couple of pages.

And as much as it agonised Chloe to be at the mercy of a man, she had been through so much, barely able to remember even a fractured fraction of it. All she knew was she was covered with blood and lakewater and the hole that had gone straight through her had sealed itself shut without a scar.

All she knew was that Bruce was the most trustworthy creature she'd ever met, and that his arms were strong.

He sat her in the Corvette and she squirmed a little, licking her dry lips, worrying that she was ruining his seats, but he evidently cared about this not at all.

"I don't think I need a doctor," she murmured faintly, shaking her head. "I think I just. I think I just need to..."

She trailed off and she stared to nowhere. ("I don't think I've been through Hell. More the outskirts.")

"No hospital," she stated definitively, after a moment of being lost and then coming back to herself. "I just need to get clean. Get some rest. Get my head and my heart on straight."

She reached out and she squeezed his hand, and she smiled at him with genuine gratitude despite the whirling of her world.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue," she whispered, "my dark knight."

 

[Superman1496]

She squeezed his hand as he reached for the gear. No hospital? Thats ok, trust me, they're busy. I have a better place. Bruce said smiling.

Just, hold on for me. And, don't worry about the seats, I can fix it. Stop squirming and relax. Alfred and I will have you fixed up in no time. Bruce said.

He put the car in gear, and sped down the road towards Wayne Manor. Calling Alfred, he let him know that he was on the way with a damsel near distress.

In the back of Bruce's mind, Chloe's words echoed. He was her "dark knight", and he liked the sound of that.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

Her head sinking sideways to rest against the passenger-side window, Chloe let her eyes slide closed...

chaoslittleseizures

toomuchinformation

afterlifeoverdrive

'Dis, The City of Dreadful Night,' as interpreted by Freddie Hanger.

'...there ain't no comin' back.'

She sat up, spine stiff and straight, eyes wide as could be, one hand white-knuckled on the dashboard.

What am I now?

Am I a freak? Oh, God, I'm a freak.

I'm a Meteor Freak.

This is karma. This is so karma. All this time thinking ill of them and I've become one of them and oh God I'm a karmic cautionary tale...

She bit her lip and hung onto the dashboard for dear life and she didn't relax until Bruce's car brought her within sight of Wayne Manour.

She took a deep breath and she managed a smile that she really really didn't feel inside.

"Nice place," she decided. "Kinda... stately."

 

[Superman1496]

Chloe's hand on the dashboard made Bruce drive even faster. He pulled up to Wayne Manor with Alfred coming outside.

Bruce jumped out of the car, and ran over and picked Chloe up again. Alfred, she needs some help. I trust you set everything up already. Bruce said carrying her up the steps to the house.

Of course, bring her right here in the kitchen. Alfred responded opening up the doors.

Don't worry Chloe, Alfred and I are going to take care of you. Bruce assured her. He set her on the table that had been set up. He carefully laid her head down on the pillow, and grabbed her wrist to check her pulse.

It was slow, too slow. Bruce checked her forehead for a fever, but couldn't find one. Not knowing if it was just his adrenaline pumping that stopped him from knowing, he let Alfred take over.

Bruce stepped back as Alfred worked his magic on the blonde laying on the table. He turned around, grabbed a damp cloth, and laid it gently on Chloe's head.

She looked a little freaked out. Calm down Chloe, it's going to be ok. Bruce tried to reassure. Alfred knows what he's doing.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

With an effort, Chloe sat up.

With gratitude but a sinking feeling of chagrin, she gently ushered Alfred's hands away.

No wonder her pulse was slow; her heart was weary.

"I don't need that," she murmured softly. "But I appreciate the effort. Thank you, Alfred."

She swiveled about on the table, holding the cloth to her forehead as she dangled her feet over the side.

She shook her head and gazed at Bruce with worry...

...this was where the karma would come in. This was where she'd receive dark looks and poor treatment, the same sort of prejudice she'd foisted on countless meteor rock victims before her.

"Keep an eye on me, would you?" she suggested ruefully. "If I start suddenly craving human brains, I'm going to need you to take a shotgun to me. I've just shuffled back on my mortal coil, and I don't know for sure that I've been resurrected properly."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick was more than a little confused by the not-so-Jolly Green Giant. He had made him drop his fruit roll-up.

"Ya know, any other day I would think this was awfully weird. Buttoday, it's kinda par for teh course." Merick fished deep into the pockets of his jacket, he was always amazed how big those pockets seemed inside, he always seemed to be able to find something in there. "Don't mind me, just need to get me my elevensies. Did I just hear you have Chloe? Is she okay? Merick rummaged in his pockets until his hand closed on a small wrapped object. "Bonus!" Merick mumbled as he drew a single serve size pack of Oreo's and a stick of gum out of his pocket.

Merick regard the gum with disdain,"Man where did that come from. I don't even like Yipes Stripes..." he fished the first cookie out and popped it into his mouth. "Peace offering Big Green and Menacing?" Merick gestured toward the new guest with the now half empty pack.

"He is on our side right?" Merick asked to no one in particular.

 

[Superman1496]

Chloe sat up. Started talking about eating brains or something. Shock.

Bruce could understand why. The second meteor shower in a little ten years. It was definitly shocking.

Chloe, you need to rest. Bruce said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

I'm not worried about you eating my brain, but I am worried about yours. You need to lie down for a while and let us take care of you. He added.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie

"He is on our side right?" Merick asked to no one in particular.

Jamie shoved his glasses back up onto the top of his head and rolled The Crystal back and forth in his palm, eying The Martian.

He reached out and nipped the stick of gum from Merick's fingers, unwrapping it one-handed and wadding the gum into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

His eyes never left The Martian, and his left hand rolled The Crystal back and forth as his right hand crumpled up the gum's foil.

"Lesson One," he murmured to Merick. "'Sides' are for horseshoes, hand-grenades, and tetradecagons. Mutual defence pacts don't always carry as much weight as you'd think."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

"I don't want to close my eyes," Chloe admitted, with more than a touch of panic to her voice. "Because this time when I close them I might not open them again."

She tossed aside the damp cloth that had been soothing her forehead and she rubbed her face with both hands.

"You can understand that, right?" she pleaded. "Sometimes... sometimes The Night is more than just darkness."

A chill ran up and down her spine.

"'The undiscover'd country,'" she recited, heartsundered, "'from whose bourn
No traveller returns, -- puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?'"

 

[Superman1496]

Bruce picked up the cloth.

Alfred, could you give us a moment please? Bruce asked looking at the wall beside him.

Chloe, I do know what the Night can hold. I've been there myself. He told her, still not looking at her. His mind raced with the images of his parents, lying on the street, and that joker smiling over them.

He turned and looked Chloe in the eye, squarly. Trust me Chloe. I will never let anything happen to you. He said.

You don't have to close your eyes. Just lay back, relax, and talk to me. Tell me what's going on. He added, holding the cloth out for her.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

Warily, Chloe accepted the cloth back from Bruce. And she did lay back.

She donned that cloth upon her forehead and she lay her head upon the pillow and she stared up at the ceiling.

"I don't really remember," Chloe recounted, "what happened. I think my dad was there, but he had somewhere to be and he left me behind. And the sky was falling, it was... it was coming down in little chunks and big hunks and one of the little chunks... hit me. Hit me and went right through me. And then."

She went a little more pale.

"And then I was in Soho," she breathed. "Except I don't know if it was the Soho in London or the SoHo in New York. And after that..."

Chloe grinned faintly. "This is probably some sort of long-latent post-traumatic stress disorder, right? New meteor shower evokes old memories of same, sends my head into weird shell-shocked places."

("Of course that's what it is. A perfectly understandable bit of crazy.")

"All I know is," she described, "I woke up and a green man was helping me. (I think it might have been The Swamp Thing, like in those urban legends? He had burning eyes and he was very very green... except I think The Swamp Thing only happens in Louisiana.) And then I was gone again, and when I woke back up I was at The Caves."

She bit her lip. ("A perfectly understandable bit of crazy, that's all it is.")

"Also," she pondered, "'Water is in Honduras.' Whatever that means."

 

[Superman1496]

Chloe was in shock. She was suffering greatly, and had no clue what was going on.

Or, did she?

She knew what was happening with the meteor shower, she knew the truth about things, maybe there's more truth.

But, green men, rocks falling through her, Swamps?

Ok Chloe, talk to me. Just keep talking. I don't care about what you talk about. Just talk. Bruce said, grabbing her hand, holding it firmly. What did you think about my car? He asked, trying to get her on an easy subject. I'm thinking about calling it the Wayne-mobile. He said smiling.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

Chloe laughed achingly, holding her sides.

"Oh, Bruce," she murmured. "Don't name your car. Only arrogant rat-bastards and mutant turtles name their rides. ...if a car is worthy of naming, it'll distinguish itself in some way, and often the naming happens organically. You can't just name something and expect the name to fit; there's a kind of process."

She reached up and she touched his cheek, and she gazed deeply into his dragonslayer eyes... her face was clutched with pain that was hardly at all physical.

"Don't go," she whispered. "I went and I came back and I don't want you to go."

 

[Superman1496]

Bruce looked into Chloe's eyes as they stared back into his.

I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay here with you. Bruce said, still smiling.

He wasn't, couldn't leave her after this. How are you feeling? He asked, allowing the hand to remain on his cheek.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe

She smiled... the pain fled from her face, though worry still haunted her eyes. He said he was staying. He was staying. But somehow Chloe worried that that... really didn't resolve anything. The biggest answers still belonged to questions that had not yet been asked.

Chloe took stock for a moment, ran a diagnostic, and she found, to her incredulity...

"I feel like an afterthought," she murmured. "Like I was just made up to fill in some blank, that I never really belonged anywhere. Like my destiny is meant for someone else, and that all I do in the meantime is just noise in the face of history."

She let her eyes sink closed, but she only let them stay that way for an instant.

"I feel like a footnote in someone else's legend," she murmured, and from the sound of her voice it was evident that she knew full well how crazy this sounded.