Action Time (Chapter Fifteen)

And here we are with Sacrifice. I won't be exhaustively dealing with the entire episode, just the bits that give insight or tickled my Chlollie muse. Anyway, we've all seen it by now 

Chapter Fifteen

Chloe put her car in park -- about ten blocks from Watchtower. She'd just put Victor on a plane back to Star City. She'd ended up needing him after all and they'd spent two exhausting days on security work, hardly speaking except in binary code. It was tiring. As she took the long walk, she reflected that her work, if anyone knew just what she did, should guarantee her a better parking spot. But, really, this job came with few perks outside of job satisfaction. Even that wasn't guaranteed. She'd feel much better about a day's (or night's) work if Zod was neutralized and not gunning for her family. It still burned her, that he'd been posing as the Blur and putting Lois in danger, pretty much exactly what she was trying to prevent, all last week and she didn't even know it. 

She'd been keeping eyes on Tess up till then. She could hardly have eyes on Zod now that he had all the power of Clark... and then some. Right now, she didn't even have eyes on Tess. She'd lost her. Not surprising, considering Tess was, just like them, trying to keep off Checkmate's radar. There was so much to run from and so little she could do to prevent it. She should feel absolutely impotent and miserable, bemoaining fate and all that. But she couldn't tonight.

Oliver was coming back tonight. Maybe he didn't make all the problems go away. But he certainly eased the sting.

She smiled as she turned the corner, thinking of tonight. It would be nice to fill him in. It was one thing to go into the bare essentials on the phone. It was another to sit with him, feel his hand lazily stroking her as she told him just everything she'd been up to, hear his little jokes and quips that took all these terrible things and made them something to laugh about just a little. He had that kind of confidence about him, that kind of perspective and, most of all, that faith in her. He hadn't dropped umpteen millions on Watchtower because he didn't, after all. He somehow made her feel important, essential, powerful... and that was not even counting the sex. But she was definitely looking forward to that.

It had been hard, at first, getting that in perspective. She'd almost felt guilty for enjoying it in the beginning, as if she was betraying Jimmy. To have that kind of response to Oliver she never had with him. She'd tried to tell herself that Jimmy was love and Oliver was sex and... Well, the problem was that she'd been rethinking that. Not that she wanted to marry Oliver and have a million of his babies right this second. But she was rethinking whether she'd truly wanted to marry Jimmy or whether marrying him was the act of a woman clinging to an ideal. And the very idea made her feel sick with guilt, but there it was. Maybe she'd talk to Oliver about that, too, tonight when he...

Her phone chirped and she glanced down as a text came in. It was Oliver. Stopping at Luthorcorp first. Might take a bit. She didn't break her stride. It wouldn't faze her. She could wait. She knew that it was twice as much work for him, with Luthorcorp tied up with Queen Industries now. They both knew that their relationship was on the back burner compared to other concerns. And Oliver's work funded their efforts. Without him, Watchtower would be a nice view of the city and not much else. Now it was a hub of intelligence, a valuable resource. Jimmy hadn't even known, when he bought this broken down wedding present, just how important it would be. She had to believe that made it alright. She had to believe that he would see what she did and that would make him forgive her for...

Her thoughts ground to a halt as she looked ahead and saw that Leonard was still there! She'd kind of missed Leonard, just running in and out in a panicked frenzy these last few days. 

"Hey!" She hurried to him. "Don't tell me you forgot about your favorite customer."

Leonard stopped stacking the day's unsold papers and turned to her. "I thought you forgot about me." He checked his watch. "You're late."

"I'll have the usual, please," she said, hoping he remembered the usual. Oliver's gift had kind of taken over, coffee wise.

"All I got left is strong and burnt."

"As long as it's hot," she said, both because it was damned cold and because she didn't want Leonard to feel obsolete. She'd even drink it, awful as it might be, just for him. She looked over a spare copy of The Daily Planet as Leonard poured one out, but she wouldn't buy it. Lois and Clark had been fired, after all. It kind of burned her by extension. She'd taught Clark everything he knew about journalism and, as for Lois, gave her the bug. If she couldn't write herself, she'd at least like to think that someone was carrying her torch. She could console herself that her personal favorite paper had her people on it. But now...

"You know, I've been meaning to ask," Leonard was saying. "What kind of a job has a pretty young lady working all night, every night?"

Chloe answered carefully as she pulled a five from her pocket. "Actually, I work for a nonprofit organization. We help people in need." That was as close to the truth as she could get.

"Trying to save the world, huh?" He took it, knowing she'd ask him to keep the change by now.

"All night, every night," she said, taking her coffee.

And that had be worth it. She'd had some qualms last week, thinking about her life as it was now. But her life had to stop mattering more than the greater good except for when... Well, Oliver was home now. As soon as he was done at Luthorcorp, he'd be with her. That was a check in the "life" column. If she could have that, she could get through the rest of it. She moved a little faster as she saw Watchtower ahead. It may just be some offices and apartments to anyone else, but to her, it was everything. She'd lost so much for so many years. She had to believe that this work, that this place, would make it all worthwhile.

She moved into the elevator and pushed the PH button three times quick, then longer pushes of four, then six more quick pushes. They had to be sure no civilians could press it accidentally, after all. Two days ago, a hired dog walker had ended up trapped in the elevator after accidentally pressing the PH. He'd been more than a little scarred by the bio scan and the thumb pad (which he didn't pass) and Chloe had to bypass measures to let him up, then tell him she was just testing new building security measures and gave him an impromptu "survey" on them. In the end, he was still skittish, but impressed. She supposed he must have been. Maybe the labrador owners who hired him would find out about it and feel that much more protected. She hadn't heard of anyone in the building complaining.

At any rate, the new security measures would keep her from going through that tapdance again. It would take sheer dumb luck for someone to press PH enough times to get to Watchtower's internal security now. It was a shame they couldn't find a high location like this in an unoccupied building. She doubted that existed, even for Oliver's money. Maybe they should set up in outer space.

She smiled at the idea as she pressed her thumb to the pad. The bio scan came up and asked her to verify/. "Chloe Sullivan. Password 051409," she said without pause, used to it by now.

"Vocal and bio analysis confirmed."

She could see her profile on a holographic screen now and she found herself sucking in and drawing up. She'd told Victor that was a bit much. He'd been in yesterday, helping her beef up Watchtower and he'd had a few ideas of his own. They were a bit extreme, but as long as they worked...

She strode from the elevator and unbuttoned her coat before opening the doors.

"Welcome to Watchtower, Miss Sullivan," she heard as she hung her coat. That was a nice touch. She'd have to call Victor and thank him for that.

"Ready to save the world from itself?" she asked, feeling fairly light as she tossed her scarf over her coat. When she approached her screens, her lightness drained away. Warning: Kandorian file accessed. That's what her screen said, but she couldn't think of just how. With all she and Victor had done this week, their files as well as Watchtower itself should be impenetrable. 

As the two went hand in hand, she figured files weren't the only thing encroached on. She might not be alone. She tried to keep calm as she strode past her monitors and toward the cabinet. If someone was in here, she could protect herself if need be. Just stay calm and get your...Nothing. The cabinet held the foam imprint of her gun, but the gun was sadly absent. She got an idea where it was from the tell-tale clicks behind her.

She turned to see Tess. She'd rather thought Tess would take the hint and stay hidden after the last time they talked.

"How did you find out my secret?" she asked, knowing she couldn't just pretend to be wandering into this space after it just greeted her by name.

"Oliver's voice ," Tess said levelly, "when I told him that Watchtower had been kidnapped. And I've seen the way he looks at you." Tess moved toward her, holding Chloe's gun steady. Tess did have more experience with guns than she did. "It's the little things a girl tends to notice."

Chloe only hoped she didn't have an intimate knowledge of this particular gun "And yet you somehow you missed an unloaded gun," she tried. Tess flinched and she took her moment and grabbed her tablet, shoving it at Tess. She ran at her, trying to get the gun, but Tess squeezed the trigger and the gun fired,

[i]"Watchtower safety compromised,"[i] that digitized voice announced. Chloe's hand moved to her ears as alarms sounded around her."Initiating lockdown." The windows started to seal all around her.

Not now.

Yes. She'd dropped a fortune of Oliver's money trying to make sure Watchtower kept the baddies out. But not her in!

She rushed to the doors, but the metallic seals hid them from her. She froze as Tess cocked her own gun in her face.

"It's in your best interest to get these doors open. Now."

Strangely, she wasn't so scared of Tess right now, gun-in-face aside. There was something worse. She rushed to her monitors, trying to override the.,.

"Security breach. Access denied."

She hadn't finished. She and Victor did the new system, but she was supposed to come back tonight and finish the codes, make sure she could bypass the security system no matter what. She hadn't counted on being ambushed this very night.

"We're not going anywhere," she said, resigned now. "Watchtower's in control now."

****************************

She'd narrowed things down. Checkmate's hacking, rather than Tess, was the trigger. But Tess was the conduit -- or that device inside her was. But they had no way to get it out as it moved whenever she tried, sickening as it was, to cut it out of Tess. So what could they do now?

"Air supply terminated" her painstakingly-built system said helpfully.

Nothing much, she decided, grabbing two blessedly cold water bottles from her mini fridge as Watchtower heated up. She was officially hoist by her own petard. She strode over to where Tess was, sitting defeated on the floor, waiting to die, and handed her one. She supposed waiting to die was all they could do now. She'd been prepared all along for this. She'd been prepared at Checkmate's headquarters with a gun in her face.

"We got three minutes of air left," she said, trying not to think of the many way this night had fallen short of expectations. She was supposed to be huddled over takeout and a movie with Oliver, not crouched on the floor with Tess Mercer in what felt like an oven. "You think Checkmate will find us before then?" She could hope they didn't, at least, that she could die with her secrets relatively intact.

"Asphyxiation or a firing squad," she heard Tess say rather dully.

Chloe laughed humorlessly. "Damned if we do, damned if we don't." The computer kept projecting breaches. She hardly heard it anymore.

"Just damned," Tess said. That she heard clearly. "I just wanted to save the world."

Chloe breathed out a laugh. "That's funny." She had no idea how someone got from saving the world to... Tess. "Last time I checked, you were just trying to get rid of everyone in it."

Tess sucked in a breath beside her. "Paint my ideals however you want, but you and yours don't trust people any more than I do." Chloe turned to her. "This entire building was programmed to prevent anyone from getting close to you."

Chloe drew her eyes from Tess and looked around. That wasn't true. It was to protect everyone, not keep them away. But then again... Even without the new security measures, Watchtower was still the tallest building in the city. So set apart from everyone and inaccessible. She might as well be Rapunzel, hiding in her tower. Everything she did was tied up in this place, with this work. Even her interactions with Lois, now the only "normal" person she knew and the only family she effectively had, was tainted by secrets. She thought of Leonard's coffee cart and how she made a point of going there even with her endless supply of coffee here. Maybe it was because that was about as close to the outside world as she allowed herself to get, some kind of nod to the fact that she existed outside of this hero world. But did she, really?

"Yeah, I guess I lost my faith in people a long time ago, too," she said softly, remembering that sunny, optimistic girl who truly thought the truth and the power of the pen could change the world for the better. Now she lived in a world of secrets and fear.

"It's why you won't let Oliver get close to you."

Chloe looked around, keeping her eyes wide open as she was not about to cry in front of Tess Mercer. But she couldn't help but agree. "And why I can't blame him when he eventually leaves." He'd told her she'd been planning her exit strategy all along. And she had. Not because she truly wanted out. Because she was so sure he would. What was so great about her, after all, that she'd be the one for him? For anyone? Her love life, in various ways, had proved that. In her experience, men rejected you, tried to kill you, or died. There were no happy endings. 

"He's not gonna leave you," Tess said as the computer droned on, slowly counting down to whichever death was coming. "With you, he has a purpose. I wish I could have given him that. And it kills me."

She glanced at Tess, surprised that the same woman who constantly intimated, even this last hour, she was so plain and unremarkable would be even a little envious of her.

"Because you have everything right in front of you," Tess went on, "and you can't even see it."

She could feel tears gathering in her eyes because maybe Tess was right. And that hurt even more because now her relationship was Oliver was ending in her untimely death. The idea that there could have been a happy ending made it even harder to face this end. But that was okay, wasn't it? As long as he stayed safe.

"Final breach imminent"

She took a deep breath and blinked back her tears as the implication of that set in. "They broke through the final firewall. Checkmate's gonna be here any minute," she said miserably. So it was firing squad, after all.

"As long as they torture us with the AC on, I'll die happy," Tess said with a resigned sigh.

She glanced at Tess, supposing she was right. A good round of torture was surely called for first. Maybe they had techniques involving some nice, refreshing water-boarding or a tub of ice or liquid nitrogen or... Her eyes widened and she looked around. "Cold," she said aloud, her mind working furiously. It wasn't over. Or at least not yet. She shot to her feet and nearly ran to the locker doors that hid her systems inner workings and generators. "Okay. Watchtower's cooling system uses a special mix of liquid helium and nitrogen." She turned back to Tess. "Cold enough to shatter steel," she summed up, tossing Tess a clip of ammo. Tess caught it, but Chloe froze.

"What are you waiting for?"

She could barely say it. "If I pull these tanks, then the mainframe melts. All my work. Watchtower is gone."

"If you don't, we die," Tess said firmly, stepping to her.

"Critical oxygen level," the computers droned, as if in agreement with her.

Watchtower would also fall into Checkmate's control and she couldn't help thinking that was much worse for the world than her death. Watchtower had to go. All her hard work had to be destroyed, including making all their preparations this last week a waste of... She nodded turned to the locker, pulled out a tank before she could hesitate another second. She ripped the hose from it and moved to door as her system droned warnings about the temperature change. She turned to Tess. "Ready?"

Tess cocked the gun as Chloe hoped their aim was true. The bullet hit the bottle as it sailed to the door and a greyish hue spread over the steel with an icy, crackling noise.

"System failure imminent. System failure imminent..." 

On it went and she'd cry, Tess or no Tess, right now if she had the time. As it was, she moved to her desk and pushed at it. Tess joined her and they moved it out as wires detached and the blaring alarms and warning drones sounded around them. It only took one shove to send it crashing through the seal.

Tess moved first, pushing between the desk and the jagged broken metal. Chloe followed, but found herself stopping for just one look back before Checkmate was on their heels. 

It had been a year of her life spent here, but it felt like more with all that had happened, all that she'd learned, all that she'd felt in this place. And it was all gone now.

She swiped at her eyes as she moved after Tess. 

****************************

She found herself trembling as she moved out the door of the supply room and into the stark fluorescent lighting of Metropolis General's hallway, wondering if was morning yet. It felt like it should be. But it must have only been a few hours. Time seemed to drag and rush this year. She caught one last sight of the newly resurrected Tess Mercer just before she disappeared around the corner. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she hoped it was far away from her and hers. 

You say anything about me or mine to anyone, next time you won't wake up. You understand? 

She shook the words off herself. She wasn't sure she liked the girl that said those words. She wasn't sure how she felt about the girl who hesitated before she shoved that needle full of atropine into Tess' chest. It seemed a bit too close to the girl who calmly pulled off a glove and coldly ended Sebastian Kane's life with a touch. Sometimes she told herself she wasn't that girl, wasn't and could never be a cold machine of a person who murdered those who stood in her way. But it still haunted her every second, the question of who stepped into a room in this very hospital over a year ago and dispassionately ended a life.

She leaned against the door and squeezed her eyes shut. She remembered the moment, remembered how everything in her screamed in protest as she touched his hand. But how much against it could she have been? It happened. If she wanted to stop it happening, wouldn't she have succeeded? She realized it now, why she'd cut herself off from the world. It wasn't just to protect herself, but to protect the world from her. Watchtower was more than a heroic mission. It was penance. She took several deep breaths and swiped at her suddenly wet cheeks, moving down the hall. She didn't have time for this. She'd have to get away from the scene of the crime, maybe go back to Watchtower and erase any security footage of the last ten minutes and...

She stilled, realizing Watchtower was gone.... anew. She supposed she'd have to get into the hospital's system, take care of business, and then... Go where? The Talon? She'd been there so little all year, it didn't even feel like home. She had nowhere to go now.

She kept moving. It didn't matter. She'd have to tell the rest what had happened and they needed to plan what the hell they were going to do now. She moved toward the lobby, pulling out her phone. No missed calls from Oliver. Maybe he was still tied up at Luthorcorp. She spotted Hamilton rushing past her and sighed in relief, glad he was on duty tonight. "Emil?" He didn't seem to hear and she moved after him. She had to get his help erasing that footage. "Emil!"

He stopped and turned. "Chloe?" He looked rather haunted and let out a deep sigh and moved to her. "So you heard? It all happened so suddenly, I didn't have a chance to call you yet."

She let out a bitter laugh and grasped his arm. "You didn't need to call me. I was there for the whole show." She pulled him with her down the hall, trying to find an unoccupied computer. "But we don't have time for grieving. There have been a few death and resurrection hijinks and I need you to stand near me and look official," she whispered, stopping at a nearly empty nurses station, "while I clean up my tracks. I'll explain in a minute."

Emil squinted at her as she tapped away at the keyboard. "Death... grieving... But it's not that..."

"Please look at a chart while you talk to me so this looks legit," she hissed. "And... listen I know it's just wires and hardware in the end, but yes. There might be some grieving. The only good thing to come out of this is that Mercer might finally leave us alone." 

"I'm really sorry if... Mercer?"

"Almost done," she said as she erased anything in or around that storage room in the last ten minutes. "That's the best I can do without Watchtower." She glanced at him. "How did you hear about it, anyway?"

"Hear about what? And why would you need to do without Watchtower?" Emil was squinting at her again and she had the sinking feeling that he didn't know and it might be more than Watchtower that fell tonight.

She starightened and turned to him. "Because Tess trapped us in and Checkmate was after us and its entire mainframe was fried when I destroyed its cooling system to prevent both our imminent death and Checkmate getting the database," she said quickly to get it out of the way. "Since this obviously wasn't what you were talking about, what the hell is going on?"

He moved nearer, rather awkwardly patted her shoulder. "It's nothing that won't heal in time. He's fine. He's stable."

That sudden appearance of bedside manner wasn't exactly on answer. "Who?"

"Oliver," he said softly.

She sucked in a shaky breath and looked past him. "Where?" 

*********************

Chloe stared down at Oliver, reflecting on... just everything. All the things it took to get him here. She kind of wanted to shake him and beat at his injured chest. Tied up at Luthorcorp, were you? Emil had told her that Oliver had gone after Zod with Clark's urging. Clark had intimated to Emil she wasn't to be told until now. Now!. When it was too late for her to stop it. Then again, she wouldn't have been available, would she, trapped in a prison of her own making at the time? She shouldn't be angry with Oliver, not even with Clark. These were desperate times and she understood that Oliver might have thought, maybe even Clark thought, they were protecting her.

She understood it even more after tonight. She'd been more than willing to die to protect their band of merry men. So she shouldn't be angry with them. She should just be angry with Zod. That was the safest place to put this rage. She resisted shaking Oliver and clutched his limp hand instead. He was heavily sedated rather than comatose, so she counted her blessings on that score. "I guess I can't be mad, can I? I'd have done the same for you." She squeezed his hand just a little harder. "You jolly, green idiot."

But it was true. She would. And not just to protect his identity, but for him. Somewhere in the middle of all this, his life started mattering to her just a bit more than her own. And not just in that offhand way these heroes mattered to her. Really, she'd long ago accepted that the world might survive her death more easily than any of theirs. But he mattered, pretty specifically. So this was pretty obviously more than sex now.

"But when wasn't it?" she whispered aloud, squeezing his hand. She supposed it was easier to think of Oliver as just sex. It alleviated that guilt. That she felt things for him, did things for him, thought of him in ways she never had of Jimmy. It was just great sex, wasn't it? She was just responding to the obvious skills of a master seducer, after all. Her relationship with Jimmy didn't even come into it. Sex without strings just felt better than love in the act itself because it was... just sex. 


Jimmy was a great guy. I liked him a hell of a lot myself. But sometimes it's just not... there. 


Oliver had said it that first night and she'd turned it over in her head and decided that Jimmy was love and Oliver was sex. Love was something noble, something life-altering. What she had with Jimmy was special. That was what she'd wanted to believe. That was what she told herself every time she fell sated with Oliver, buried her head in his chest, watched him sleeping. It was sex and it was separate.

But she knew that was bullshit by now. Probably knew all along, deep down. And she refused to feel guilty about it anymore. Oliver was the one thing, these days, that made her feel like something more than a search engine, an emergency failsafe, an employee. Considering he was the founder of this group and he financed her work, that should seem strange. But there it was. He was a bright spot. He, more than a coffee cart on Bleaker Street, tied her to the world, to humanity. He made her feel. And she'd refused to feel anything for so long, pushing him away at every turn, never trusting her feelings. Hadn't feelings led her to run off with Davis? So much fear and love for Clark and genuine sympathy for Davis had led her to attempt to save the both of them. And then... look what happened. Jimmy paid the price for her feelings. So why feel? Why trust emotion? Look what it did. 

But it also did this. It gave her Oliver and months of laughter, of comfort, of deep loyalty and guidance. And she felt for him. She wanted to shout it out now, all those feelings. Nebulous as they seemed, they were also strong.

She leaned down, pressed her lips to his ear. "I might be more than crazy about you." She straightened and squeezed his hand. "So you better get back to your old self because you'll have a field day with that."

But how would he ever get back to his old self? It wasn't just that this inury would have him out of commission for months. It was that he would forever wear Zod's mark. How could he go on, always being reminded of that moment? If she could make it go away... If she could turn back the clock for him... But she couldn't. That wasn't something she could do anymore, as she knew from her failed attempt to heal Clark. She'd had Emil look her over in the weeks following and, though there were still concentrations of meteor rock in her system, whatever power it might have was dormant.

She leaned into him, pressed her hand to his chest, thought of what she did for Lois and Jimmy and even Lex that year. If she could just do this for him... She straightened, feeling nothing preternatural at work.

She felt useless, just staring as the EKG beeped in time with him. She touched his cheek, almost wanting a movement from him while hoping he didn't stir even a little as he needed his rest. She felt a presence here. Not Oliver's, though he was surely here. She carefully drew her hand down his arm and glanced to the window. It wasn't Checkmate or the newly resurracted Tess Mercer come to haunt her. It was just Clark.Just Clark. How strange to see him as less than everything. She moved to the door and wondered what the girl she was even a year ago would think that.

She pulled it open and saw he was holding out a cup of coffee. That girl from a year ago might have taken it, even flung herself into him and held on for dear life. Not this girl. She knew what he'd done to her and she wasn't going to be sucked in again. She ignored his offering with barely a glance and moved into the hall.

"Please tell me you found that Z-branding bastard so we can slap him back across the universe,"

"Zod's on the move," she heard behind her, "and there's no sign of Faora or the Kandorians." 

She turned to him, nearly ready to ask him why he hadn't discussed this with her. She knew it was something they just didn't do now. But this was Oliver. And he had to know she had a damned stake in his welfare now. And if he thought a coffee made up for the... fire. Her eyes were arrested by the mounted TV behind him.

"Maybe if I can reach the others, I can talk some sense into them," Clark was saying.

Chloe stared at the screen full of flames that licked at and devoured the paraphets of her last jail. "We may be too late for that." She may have only seen it for bare seconds while flung over Clark's shoulder as they fled, but she knew the place. "That's the Castle. God, Zod's attacked Checkmate." 

Clark turned to the monitor. "Oliver was personal," he said dully. "With this, Zod just declared war."

Her phone chirped and she looked down. The satellite feed was being sent to her. She should be happy that one last vestige of her exhaustive work at Watchtower this week had survived. But not when it bore this news. "You're not gonna like where he's gathering his troops." Clark turned back to her. "My eye in the sky above the Fortress is picking up movement."

And he was gone. For once, she was glad. Let him handle his people. She'd handle hers.

She moved to the window and glanced in at Oliver. She'd like nothing more than to go back into that room and hold his hand right until he woke up. But Oliver of all people would understand that she couldn't. Watchtower might be a husk of its former self, but she was still among the living. Clark could focus on Zod and the Kandorians. She had to focus on what she could do. The most she could do now is focus on Oliver. Or maybe she just wanted to.

She moved down the hall, looking for Emil, telling herself that helping Oliver was not selfish. From a professional standpoint, he'd be out of commission for weeks with burns like that. And they needed Green Arrow. But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't mostly operating from a personal standpoint. And, from there, she was not going to let him run around with the mark of that bastard on him. She was absolutely positive Oliver would fall in with that line of thinking.

He needed healing. Last she knew, she was the only person that could make that happen. Tracking down another meteor mutant with healing capabilities would be impossible. The Isis files were fried along with the rest of Watchtower. And Emil might be a damned good doctor, but even he couldn't get Oliver on his feet and out of pain tonight. He needed healing and she was the only way. Yes. Her power was dormant. She suspected she'd depleted it in her, all things considered, vain attempt to fight off Brainiac. But who knew where it stood now, and whether it could be halped along?

She found Emil consulting with a nurse two rooms down and checked the instinct to pull him away. Whatever was going on in their world, he had work to do here and his patients were more than just a cover.

"I want to try a course of Keflex. That might be more effective for the..." He trailed off, seeing her standing rather awkwardly in the hall, "the UTI." He handed the chart off to the nurse. "Get back to me in the morning on her progress."

"Yes, Dr, Hamilton." She glanced curiously at Chloe, but moved away, all the same.

"I need to know," Chloe whispered when she was out of earshot.

"Know what? His condition is straight-forward. Third degree burns. I know it's hard to see, but they aren't life threatening. He can survive this." 

"He deserves more than just surviving. I need to know if I can help him."

"Well, you can be there for him. I can send him home early if you feel up to caring for him. But maybe he's better off here, with all that's going on..."

"With all that's going on, we need him." Or maybe it was just that she needed him. "I need him healed and not over the course of months. I need to take it away. I need to heal him. I need to know if I can make that happen." She grasped Emil's sleeve. "I need to know how to reactivate my powers."

He opened his mouth several times, then grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty room. "Chloe, even if I could, Oliver would never allow me to let you take on his injuries."

"But I just feel them! I don't show them. I can get through that if I know he's clean. I won't allow him to suffer with that bastard's brand on him."

"But he won't have to," Emil insisted. "There's plastic surgery."

"Not enough to remove that much deep tissue damage and you know it."

"Oliver can afford the best. There nust be a doctor somewhere than can remove all traces of..."

"Emil, no matter what, he'd be out for months. And he wouldn't want that! Can't you activate me somehow?" She moved to him, ready to beg now. "Can't you make me... not dormant or..."

"I don't think I can," he hissed. "I work for Oliver. I might moonlight with Clark, but my experience with Kryptonian things, with meteor rock... It's just sketchy at best." He drew back, narrowing his eyes. "But I... I might know of someone."

"Okay. Good. Like a doctor who can fix me and make my powers..."

"Not that," he said, waving her off. "I might know someone who can heal him." He paced away. "You know how Oliver's always looking for new recruits? Well, I keep my eye out. I keep records on those I hear of, investigate possible team members and... Well, I have a rather large file on Rachel Roth."

"Oliver's never brought up a..."

"No. He's been working with Mia and we're considering bringing Stargirl in. That's enough to work with. I haven't brought Rachel up to Oliver. And he hasn't found her, himself. There are no records of her till last year, when she just showed up, living with her mother, Arella. She actually searched me out. Volunteered herself. I'd been at her school giving a lecture and she must have delved into my mind. She wanted to be one of us. But I was hesitant." He turned to Chloe. "She does have empathic healing abilities, much like you did. She can also feel others' emotional pain and take it away, absorb their knowledge, astrally project herself into places and times as well as the mind, teleport at least two-hundred miles... But who can tell how far she could go with training?"

Chloe's head was spinning. She'd seen some powerful beings in her day, but few other than Clark and John harnessed so many gifts in one package. "Why haven't you told me about her? If she can do all that..."

"Zatanna advised against it. I've kept an eye on Rachel, all the same. But I trust Zatanna when she says to be careful. As her powers are magically based, she can sense magic in others and she got a read on Rachel and... Well, she sensed a demonic energy." He sighed. "Outwardly, she's a pacifist. Her school records indicate remarkable intelligence and a penchant for protecting others despite how shy and withdrawn she is. She indicated to me that she's rather afraid of her own power."

"Then she needs to be drawn out," Chloe said, just imagining this lost girl. "She needs to feel accepted. She needs to learn control and we can help her do that." She was already imagining John, working with this mystery girl as she delved into minds. She could see Bart, rushing ahead to meet her at some appointed teleportation site. 

"Chloe, we don't know this girl and Zatanna said..."

"Zatanna thought it would be nifty to turn me into my cousin and Clark into a clueless idiot, so can we shelf her input for now?" She didn't mean to snap, but she wasn't exactly asking for Zatanna's help after all that. It was a year by now, but she hadn't forgotten. "Just tell me... Would this girl help Oliver?"

Emil nodded. "From all I know, she'd do it without hesitation."

Chloe took a deep breath. "Then find her."

PREVIOUS CHAPTER
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

As you might have guessed, I am bringing a version of Rachel Roth aka Raven into this fic to heal Oliver.

See, TPTB just lazily said, in season ten, that Oliver had plastic surgery to remove Zod's mark. Never mind that there wasn't enough actual time for that between Sacrifice and Lazarus. Never mind SCIENCE. Never mind realism. And I know this is a superhero show, but come on! So I wanked another DC hero (one of the few that heals others) onto the scene. Also, Raven might have a hand in explaining a few other things from canon. So look for that and her in the next chapter.