Ficlet: Trade
Jan. 14th, 2007 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bagheera_sanSomething teeny tiny, that has been bugging me to write it since Season five. Chloe fic! You know how we all see that Chloe is awesome, but that it's going to end badly for her? Well, it probably is. This is that, but not entirely bad and not entirely good.
Title: Trade
Rating: PG
Length: 432
Pairing: vaguely Chloe/Lana
Continuity: futurefic
It's all about information.
She didn't have powers, or money. She wasn't even a genius. But she had a talent, and a passion. She was in love with information. Knowledge. Truth for truth's sake. It was never the writing that attracted her to reporting. Writing meant that you had to wrap the information into a pleasing wrapper, as if it wasn't just great by itself. It was the hunt for information, and then the moment, the thrill when you found what you were looking for, or even something entirely unexpected. The glow, afterwards, when you knew something others didn't.
Information is also a trade.
At first it was easy: you looked, you found, you passed it on to others. But then she learned that sometimes looking was dangerous, and that sometimes looking meant that you had to hurt people.
She got more careful after that, and people started to confide in her. They filled her to the brim with secrets, until she wanted to scream them out loud and gloat, and then until she wanted no more.
She learned that sometimes, information was personal and keeping secrets could hurt as much as uncovering them.
And still she kept her dream. She would deal in information, and be the best at it, and do good besides.
The first friend she lost because of information she kept to herself.
The second friend she lost because of information she let slip.
The third friend she lost because of information she gave away intentionally, in order to end all the secret-keeping. But he couldn't handle it, and broke up with her.
And still she had a dream, and she pursued it.
The day Chloe Sullivan was shot twice, she nearly died. Afterwards, the word was a dangerous place, and she had to hide from all the enemies she had made. For long time she lived in dark places, unable to run without the use of her legs, and wished that she had died.
She had information still, that could have bought back her old life. But she would never be a reporter. She watched them on the news, Lois and Jimmy and Clark, and read their words in the paper. They were good.
They were doing good.
She had information still, and she used it to buy the weapons of her trade. She had always liked keyboards better than pens.
*
Nobody knows who the Oracle is. Nobody trusts the Oracle. Few confide in her, and nobody feels betrayed. But they need her, for she deals in information, and information is the world.
They trade with her, a secret for a secret.
Most of them do good.
*
One day there's a woman on the Oracle's doorstep, looking for sanctuary. Another survivor of the information war. She has her legs still, and her beauty, but she rarely smiles. She doesn't need to, in order to charm the world. It lies at her feet, and she has learned how to use it. It's how she found the Oracle.
"No secrets between us," she demands.
The Oracle has thought about getting an outside agent for some time.
Title: Trade
Rating: PG
Length: 432
Pairing: vaguely Chloe/Lana
Continuity: futurefic
It's all about information.
She didn't have powers, or money. She wasn't even a genius. But she had a talent, and a passion. She was in love with information. Knowledge. Truth for truth's sake. It was never the writing that attracted her to reporting. Writing meant that you had to wrap the information into a pleasing wrapper, as if it wasn't just great by itself. It was the hunt for information, and then the moment, the thrill when you found what you were looking for, or even something entirely unexpected. The glow, afterwards, when you knew something others didn't.
Information is also a trade.
At first it was easy: you looked, you found, you passed it on to others. But then she learned that sometimes looking was dangerous, and that sometimes looking meant that you had to hurt people.
She got more careful after that, and people started to confide in her. They filled her to the brim with secrets, until she wanted to scream them out loud and gloat, and then until she wanted no more.
She learned that sometimes, information was personal and keeping secrets could hurt as much as uncovering them.
And still she kept her dream. She would deal in information, and be the best at it, and do good besides.
The first friend she lost because of information she kept to herself.
The second friend she lost because of information she let slip.
The third friend she lost because of information she gave away intentionally, in order to end all the secret-keeping. But he couldn't handle it, and broke up with her.
And still she had a dream, and she pursued it.
The day Chloe Sullivan was shot twice, she nearly died. Afterwards, the word was a dangerous place, and she had to hide from all the enemies she had made. For long time she lived in dark places, unable to run without the use of her legs, and wished that she had died.
She had information still, that could have bought back her old life. But she would never be a reporter. She watched them on the news, Lois and Jimmy and Clark, and read their words in the paper. They were good.
They were doing good.
She had information still, and she used it to buy the weapons of her trade. She had always liked keyboards better than pens.
*
Nobody knows who the Oracle is. Nobody trusts the Oracle. Few confide in her, and nobody feels betrayed. But they need her, for she deals in information, and information is the world.
They trade with her, a secret for a secret.
Most of them do good.
*
One day there's a woman on the Oracle's doorstep, looking for sanctuary. Another survivor of the information war. She has her legs still, and her beauty, but she rarely smiles. She doesn't need to, in order to charm the world. It lies at her feet, and she has learned how to use it. It's how she found the Oracle.
"No secrets between us," she demands.
The Oracle has thought about getting an outside agent for some time.
