Action Time (Chapter Twenty)

Chapter 20

"Houston, we got a problem."

She smiled as she picked up her radio. She'd just been silly earlier, superstitious. The Metropolis City Center was not cursed and Oliver was going to be fine. He was talking to her, wasn't he? "Are you at the satellite station yet?"

"Yeah, I'm way ahead of you, but I'm a little lost. I need you to be my own personal Mapquest, if you don't mind," he said, pretty much grunting each word. She could pinpoint the sound of a man crawling in narrow spaces by now. 

Chloe had some idea where he might be. She opened her blueprint to ventilation. "All right, what's your 20?"

"I'm inside the air ducts right now." Bingo! "Access to the main grid is through one of the routing panels."

Chloe smiled again. They'd be fine. He'd be fine. There were no such things as curses. "Okay, Moleman, just think happy thoughts and keep on tunneling. Let me know when you've reached the T."

"I hate small spaces," he groused. "Okay! Completed the first level. I'm at the T." 

He made it sound like a video game. Then again, they all did. Chloe pulled out her worn print-out. "Okay, now, halfway through the second tunnel, on your left-hand side, you're gonna find three panels. The one with JJ-910-60 is..."

"The one in the middle, yeah," he cut in. "You know, you got to admit, I know how to treat a girl on date night."

Chloe smiled and stood. "Sure. Next week, do you think maybe we could just grab some Thai food and catch a movie?" She moved to her main console and checked the back panel. Any second now...

"That sounds like a good plan," she heard him say, "but for tonight, you're gonna have to settle for streaming satellite video."

That was all she needed tonight... except for him home safe. Her screens came back to life and she wanted to... dance or something. "Hey, the link is up! Why don't you make your way home?" She turned back to the blueprints. See? No curses. "I'm gonna see if I can access the building schematics and find you a less cramped return trip." A loud beeping nose intruded and she brushed away the blueprints to reveal the more live version on her console below. "Ah! The station's motion sensors have picked you up." And she wasn't worried... until she was. She tried to tell herself again that that building wasn't cursed as red dots appeared and closed in on Oliver's previously safe green dot and alarms sounded around her. "Oh, no. Ollie, you've got visitors. There's a whole swarm of them, and they're closing in on you fast. Ollie, you need to get out of there now!"

She dimly heard banging.

"Chloe! If they find the signal, they'll trace me back to you! I got to go!"

"No, Ollie! No!" He had to stay on with her. She had to know when he was safe!

"Chloe!"

"Ollie!" she yelled, this time, panic setting in because those dots were getting closer and she didn't want to change her 'when he was safe' to if. Not now. Not when she knew...

"I love you!"

Yes. That. He said it. She said it back without even thinking, without all the worry that gnawed at her before. "I love you!" Because it was true. And he had to know it before...

The red dots eclipsed him and his voice came through one more time. "Chloe, they're not Kandorian!"

She could only stare at her console. trying to process this, trying to figure out if that was better or worse news because the radio went dead seconds after. She listened hard, but there was only static. She tried to speak back, but there was only loud, whining feedback. He'd cut her off. He didn't want them to find her.

Damn it! If they were tracing her, that was her best chance of tracing them right back! Why did he cut it off?

Because he loved her. And she was a God damned buffoon for not letting him tell her from the start, so afraid of jinxes, curses, the pain of saying it or hearing it only to never speak it or hear it again. She had a sneaking suspicion the City Center that held the Ace of Clubs was still damned well cursed. She had to get him out. She watched the red dots move off, obscuring Oliver's signal and knew that she couldn't get there on time. But someone else could.

She shoved the screen off to another monitor and signalled the team. All of them. "Guys! Alert! Zod set a trap. You all need to get out of there this second. But Bart..."

"I don't think that will be necessary, Watchtower," she heard John say a moment before he appeared on a screen.

Canary appeared on another. "Yeah. I had a little five-to-one tussle before they just... left."

"Left?" she repeated dully.

"I can't explain why," Victor added. "But we're okay. We've been trying to reach you for..."

"Zod's followers nuked all satellites," she said in a rush. So they were safe. On to more pressing matters. "Oliver just got one back online. Bart!"

He popped up to her left. "Right here, Doll."

"I need you at the Metropolis City Center now. Same building as the Ace of Clubs. Oliver's been outnumbered and he says they aren't Kandorian."

"Boss man? I'm on it!" He disappeared from her screen and she turned to the others before her.

"Okay." She took a deep breath, resolving to follow Bart in two seconds. "Now the rest of you tell me what's going on."

"They ambushed us," Courtney supplied.

"We had the weapons," Carter growled, adjusting his arm. "But I had six on me."

"I only had three," Courtney grimaced, holding her head. "But I could only slow down one before another struck. I felt like I was just... seeing how long before they finished me off."

"Dude, I totally thought we were all gonna bite it," AC put in, reminding her she'd had him in the South Pacfic.

"And?"

"They just... left," Dinah said again. 

"But why would they..."

"I saw one of them in the sky before the others joined. They must have been signalling each other," Victor sighed. 

"Huh. They was kind of a flock of then when they reached my tormentors," Courtney supplied. "Then they flew off."

"Maybe Zod called off the fight."

"Or sicked his dogs on Clark," Carter growled bitterly.

"After that, I suppose they had somewhere else to go," John said sadly.

She backed away from the monitors, her breaths coming rapidly as she processed what that meant. "So it worked. Clark..." She couldn't say it. 

"He saved us," John said,

She whirled, realizing he was behind her now.

He grasped her shoulder. "I've never been able to read Clark, but he must have taken them away. There have been no reports of further activity."

She gasped out a sob. "Good. He did... good."

"Chloe..."

She gripped his hand, squeezed it before pulling away. "I can't think about that now. I need to find Oliver."

And then she could cry. With him to hold her. Because he loved her. He'd said it, even after she told him not to. And, damn it, that wouldn't be the last time. 

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

By the time she was entering the brownstone that had once housed the Justice Society of America, she wondered if she might be going too far. But it was too late for that.

It held more than ancient computers and scarily detailed paintings. It held knowledge.

Clark was alive. Clark was okay, despite having died, that is. Oliver wasn't. That was the only thing driving her right now.

Bart had retrieved glasses, a cam with footage, but not Oliver. The rest of them had combed the place, vents included. Still, all they had were his last seconds, warning Chloe the ones after him were not Kandorian. And saying he loved me. We can't forget that. But then there was only the face of a hardened man that said "We're coming for all of you." Who was he? Who was this "we"?

She'd been up all night by the time she sent Clark off to look into the Planet's archives for whatever it was he feared might bring Lex Luthor back into their lives. Then she came straight here. She vaguely wondered whether she was making the right decision, here... even more so when she heard the whispering. So indistinct, but clearing up as she neared the paneled door. Was she hallucinating with the lack of sleep? Somehow, she felt she wasn't. She opened it and moved through, nearly jumping out of her skin as her phone rang. She picked up, even though she'd told herself she shouldn't. Clark was fine. He didn't need her. But she needed to hear another voice right now, one that wasn't hissing at her in derision.

"Chloe, I found a research facility linked to Luthorcorp that wasn't in your files: Cadmus Labs. Can you dig up an address for me?"

"Sorry, Clark, I would," she said dully, moving through into the main room, "but I'm not exactly at Watchtower right now." She stared up at the painting as the voices, the ones she wasn't even sure were real right now, grew in colume, became clearer.

Foolish girl... Not chosen, she heard distinctly among the cacaphony of whispers. 

"Who was that?" she dimly heard Clark ask over the mocking murmurs.

Love is dangerous. Nabu knows.

"Chloe, where are you?" She heard Clark say, louder now.

"Sorry, Clark." She stared at the helmet in the glass case, agreeing with the whispers she wasn't even sure were real. Love was dangerous, wasn't it? Nothing else could lead her to this. She'd exhausted modern technology. Now she was.. what? Turning to magic? Oliver had his qualms about it and so did she. Most of what she'd seen all these years, there was usually some level of science to back it up. Not now. Now she was turning to something so unsure, so volatile... and with something so important. "But I knew you'd only try and stop me," she said, keeping the fear from her voice, before she hung up.

Not chosen, it had whispered. Of course, she was still getting used the very idea of a helmet whispering. But Doctor Fate... or Kent Nelson had said "But you... you walk the same path I do, Chloe Sullivan." He'd said it when wearing this very helmet. It was most of the reason she pocketed the key now in her hand now hid it away. So what did that mean? Did that mean she was meant to lose her mind and live as a vagabond on the streets, no life to speak of? More than that, was she willing to do that?

Yes.

She turned the key and opened the glass door, placing it down as she picked up the helmet. The man on the camera said he was coming, coming for all of them. But that wasn't the greatest reason she was resorting to this. She backed away, staring at it, holding it steady, even when it began to glow, knowing anything was worth this. Worth love. "Show me where Oliver is," she said firmly.

Would you sacrifice your sanity to save the archer?

The faint glow around the helmet intensified, came from inside it, nearly blinded her as the metal simply melted apart as she drew it to her, not needing to answer "yes." It knew, somehow. It knew things she didn't and it would help her find him. And that was worth it.

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

... It all played out before her, around her... as if there was no her, as if she were no more than a presence swooping into moments of lives not her own. But she knew that, didn't she? The helmet had whispered and hissed as much. That she wasn't there, couldn't be there.

Daily Planet. Lois. Luthor on the front page.

Clark was right. Lex was out there... somehow.

Yet Lois was smiling. Happy.

She wouldn't be there. That someday she always wanted, when everyone was alright... without her.

"Clark, move." 

It was a new voice and she found herself wrenched away from the brightly colored, sundrenched scene as she placed it. It was Emil. His voice seemed far away, yet she saw him clearly in a darkened laboratory, muttering untintelligibly to himself, clenching his... it didn't look an arm, or not a human one. His arm drew back with a mechanical whirr and crushed a microscope as he laughed. 

"Elevated blood pressure, irregular pulse, hyperactive eye movement. It's as if her body is in massive trauma." 

His voice was still coming from outside of her and she saw him again, standing over an unconscious... Pete? She saw Lana next to him, cowering and cradling a child. 

"Chloe?" 

It was Clark and she was glad when his voice tore her away from the dark scene and the maniacal look in Doctor Hamilton's eyes.

"I know you can hear me." 

And she saw Clark, too, saw the symbol of his house, but not burned into a building or stamped in white on black. Red, yellow, blue.

"You're the strongest person I know, and you're fighting for the rest of us."

Yes. Fighting. She could see him fighting, image upon image of him, suspended in the air, victorious over so many, spiriting people to safety and flying. He was flying. But that was later, sometime in that happy ever after. Papers and televisions all over the world carried his image. Children pored over colorful prints of him and draped red sheets around their shoulders, shouting "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's..."

"Don't lose that now when you need it the most. Don't give up, Chloe."

His voice pulled at her and she found herself dragged away again, into fire. It was all around her. And there were screams of... things. Horrible things, grotesque and barely human. And Tess. She saw her move the wreckage, frantically pulling at it until she unearthed a small boy, but the scene drew back as if on rewind and the fire rose and... This was happening. This was happening now.

"Fire. It's all burning." It was her own voice. She thought she could not see her own... Her eyes fluttered open and she saw Clark, saw Emil. "Clark, I'm so sorry." Was she too late? She sat up quickly, heart racing, remembering all she'd seen. "I've got to find him," she gasped.

Clark leaned in "Find who?"

"Oliver," she said trying to catch her breath, trying to calm the hell down if she could. She had so much to do. "Someone took him when you were fighting Zod. They threatened to take all of us," she said in a rush before gasping in a breath. "So I put on Fate's helmet." She turned her eyes to Clark, silently pleading with him to understand, not just what she'd done, but what she'd have to do. "I couldn't lose him."

Clark stared at her. "Okay, where is he?"

"Don't worry," she breathed, feeling her breathing slow. "Everything's going to be fine. I saw it." She'd make it so. She'd seen so much, so many things she had to sort through. She wasn't sure which were meant to happen and which she was meant to make happen. But there was one thing he needed to know. "Clark, I saw you, too. You were the world's hero, and you weren't in black." No. Two things. "And there was a fire, in a lab, Clark, I think Cadmus is burning." She glanced up at him. "You have to go," she said, knowing that she did, too. She had to go. Had to be gone to make all this right. And it wasn't fair. But fate wasn't always fair.

She felt her eyes filling, nearly spilling over, as Clark nodded and sped off. "Bye, Clark."

"Yes, well... As you said, everything's going to be fine," Emil said, moving to her with a bottle of water. "And that's going to include you when you hydrate and take something to calm down. I think I might have some xanax or..."

"I'm fine," Chloe said, surreptitiously wiping her eyes and pushing off the table.

"Chloe, whatever that helmet did to you, it's left your body in a state of panic." 

"I'm alright now. I need to go." She found her coat on the floor and shrugged into it, started for the door, then realized her car was still at The Justice Society's townhouse. She turned back to Emil. "I need to get my car."

He sighed. "I'll take you myself as soon as I check you over." He gripped her arm and tried to pull her back. "Now lie down and let me..."

She shook him off, glancing in some distaste at his hand as it fell away. "I'll walk, thanks." She'd seen it gone, replaced by some sort of robotic prosthethis... and that wasn't all she saw of him. "I hope I saw it wrong," she said, staring at him. "I really do." 

He blinked at her. "What are you talking about?"

She moved out, didn't answer that, didn't want him to know. She rather wished she didn't know.

She stepped into the elevator and pushed away those other visions that swirled around her toward the end. They weren't what she needed now. She needed to take a trip to Smallville. And she needed to what in seven hells the Suicide Squad was.

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

Chloe woke with a start on the Talon's couch. She wasn't supposed to sleep, damn it! She pulled herself up and rubbed her eyes, remembered stumbling into the apartment and to the sofa, just sitting for a second, or so she thought. She must have passed out. Two days without sleep tended to do that to her, something Oliver was always chiding her about. She supposed he wouldn't hold this against her as she stood, confused at her bare feet and the blanket that fell away. It was just as well she slept. She'd need her wits about her.

She'd sorted through most of Nabu's revelations through her long walk to the JSA and the even longer drive to Smallville. It was strange, that drive. Every time she made it, it seemed faster or longer depending on why she was making it. Coming here, it had seemed like a year as the city gave way to suburbs and the suburbs to fields, all creeping by slowly to her eyes. Maybe that had been sleep deprivation, but maybe... maybe they'd been saying goodbye. She didn't know for how long, but this was goodbye. She'd been rather glad to walk through downtown Metropolis one last time. She'd always been a Metropolis girl, after all. Now... Well, she didn't know what she'd be.

By the time she'd pulled off the freeway in Smallville. She'd figured out what she had to do to make it all happen. Not so much that happy, distant someday, but the things that had to happen to make it that way. She didn't see what she had to do, but she had some ideas. That's why she'd gone home, not to sleep, but because there was something there... or three somethings. Three very special things she'd been afraid to have at Watchtower lest she actually use them in one of the many states of panic she'd been in. It was her ultimate plan B. It was the plan she never hoped to put in action. And she had no choice but to use it now.

Lois hadn't been there when she let herself in. Had she left for her assignment in Kenya already? She glanced at the open bathroom door, the discarded clothes littered in the doorway. Lois must come home after her, must have been the one to take off her shoes and coat and cover her up. It was something they'd do for each other, all those times they came home and found the other passed out. That and clean up. She moved to the bathroom, picking up Lois' clothes as usual and putting them in the hamper. She always did this, left her clothes scattered in her wake. She suspected she saw more of Lois' scattered clothes than she saw of Lois herself this year. But Lois was way more likely than she to do the dishes. 

She found herself wiping her suddenly damp eyes on the edge of a bloody tank top. She always grumbled about picking up after Lois, but she suddenly felt bereft and wondered if Lois might be scrubbing at her favorite mug sometime today and feel just this when it was clear she was...

Bloody tank top?

She stilled and held the tank out. Not blood. Paint. A sloppily scrawled S. She glanced around the bathroom. There was moisture in the air. Lois must have showered, dressed, and left not long ago. What exactly had happened last night? She supposed she couldn't very well ask Lois now... or ever? Not if she'd left for Africa, at least. It didn't matter. Lois wouldn't be staying there. Chloe had seen enough to know that. She drew in a shaky breath, thinking that she wouldn't get to say goodbye. This year, they'd been nearly strangers, sharing so little of themselves. Or maybe that was mostly Chloe, hiding so much. She'd spent five years hiding so much her life from the only family she had in it. And she always told herself that it would be worth it in the end. She'd just never thought the end wouldn't include her.

She shook the sadness away as it accomplished nothing. She could cry later. She hastily changed her clothes, jerking a brush through her hair to rid it of curls. She wasn't sure if curls or makeup or her own clothes were in her future now, so she didn't pack anything, even the brush she threw aside. She wouldn't be bringing any toiletries with her. She doubted they'd let her hang on to them. She pulled out her spare laptop bag and tossed it on the counter, struck by the missing items around her, the things she'd only just brought to Watchtower to make it feel more like home. Maybe someone else would enjoy those things. Maybe even Tess, as she'd seen her at Watchtower in those swirling visions, at her controls. She'd seen Oliver there, too, sitting alone or with Tess or with Clark or with all of the gang, smiling or laughing, also looking angry and miserable... but safe.

That was worth it. She moved to her cabinet, reaching behind the false back, trembling as she pulled out her plan B. If there was ever a time to use it, it was now. She hadn't seen everything. But she knew for damned sure she wasn't here. 

She picked up the vial. It was a special kind of hydroxocobalamin. Normally, the drug was administered by infusion after cyanide poisoning. But she'd always figured that, should she ever feel the need to resort to suicide by toxin, it wasn't likely to be in a situation where she'd have any pals on hand to immediately hook her up to an IV. So she'd procured this not-quite-FDA-approved vial about the same time she bought the second item in her safe - the pill. She glanced at the late morning sun, then the clock, then the vial. Just eleven now. It needed eight hours to even be in her system, but would lose its potency four hours after. She held up the pill, the item that scared her the most, then hastily shoved it in her pocket. She opened the vial and figured she'd best take it now. She squeezed her eyes shut and gulped it down with a grimace, dropping the vial on her cabinet, staring at it, there in front of that horrible picture Oliver seemed so taken with. She let out a slight sob. It should be enough, enough that he'd be safe, that everyone would be alright. But it wasn't. 

She stumbled away, then stood in the middle of the living room, holding the external hard drive, the final piece of Plan B, terrified. 

Maybe she wouldn't make it. Maybe the vial wouldn't be enough to counterract the pill. Or maybe... maybe she wouldn't even have to take the pill. She'd been tortured for information before. She'd held strong. But if they figured her out, figured out that the supposed asset called Watchtower would give them nothing, they might decide to dispose of her quickly. That pill would be her only shot at living then. She couldn't see her own future in that helmet, just snatches of everyone else... and she wasn't there. That was what she kept coming back to. She wasn't supposed to be there. The helmet of Nabu had made that clear. And now... she had no idea what the future was. 

What if she took the capsule and they decided to incinerate the evidence? What then? How could that dead girl live then?

She went over these last weeks, knowing there was one possible way...

She whirled as she heard the door open. It was Lois. She swallowed her fear. "Dr. Livingston, I presume." She forced a note of lightness into her voice. "What? The safari got side tracked?" She hastily shoved the hard drive into the bag she'd left on the counter, not that Lois would know what it was or what it did. Chloe was always running in and out with hardware with her supposed job as a computer consultant. Today was no different. Today was no different. Today was no different. She repeated it like a mantra. She wasn't going to leave Lois worried. She made sure she was smiling as she closed the bag.

"I haven't exactly left for Africa yet." Lois moved in. "Question, Cuz... You and Oliver." She dropped her purse on the table and moved nearer. "You're busy with work and he's really busy with work and then there's... Well, all his other responsibilities."

She raised her eyebrows, knowing Lois knew and that Oliver knew Lois knew, but that Lois didn't know Chloe knew as that would lead to too many questions about just how and... if today was no different, then she had to keep playing along. "As a rich playboy?" She kept her smile. As he would still be, to the world. Because he'd be fine. She was making sure of it.

"Very time consuming," Lois said on a nod.

Chloe nodded, too, keeping her smile even though she desperately wanted to dispense with all these games if this was the last time they spoke. But that wasn't what she was here to do. She was here to leave.

"So I'm guessing, between the two of you, things must get... complicated?"

Chloe squinted at her, picking up her bag. "Lois, what exactly are we talking about?" she asked, trying to sound casual as she moved to the table. Her coat and her keys were waiting and she had to go. She had to go to the Luthor mansion, find Tess, convince, cajole, or threaten her into helping her make this happen. And she had the strangest feeling Lois was in the mood for a longer talk than she had time for.

"Chloe, what really happened between Clark and Lana?"

She stilled, knowing this would take way more time than she had and involve many things she had no right to share.

"She couldn't make the sacrifices he needed, could she?"

Chloe found her eyes filling again, but she smiled. She'd had an inkling, in all those whirling visions of Nabu, that Lois would know. That someday when the truth came out, the one she was always saying would make up for all the lies? She had a feeling that someday had started somehow. Lois had been cagey, even in this short conversation, and that last question had been nothing if not pointed. She blinked back the tears because she really hated to miss it, but kept her smile as she turned. "Let's just say Lana was not the one fated to be in Clark's life."

Lois gave her a rather sad smile and huffed out a shaky breath, her eyes filling. "Well... I mean, that doesn't even... I'm going to Kenya, so I don't even know why I asked. I..."

Chloe rushed to her, pulling her in. Because today wasn't just any day. "Everything's going to be fine," she whispered, letting her eyes spill over. "I promise." 

Lois sighed and hugged her back... then stopped, gripping her shoulders, pulling back with her brows furrowed. "What's the matter?"

Chloe forced a laugh and swiped at her cheeks. "You know, I'm just... Just gonna miss you while you're away," she choked out. "So... Goodbye." She drew away, quickly grabbing her coat and her meager bag, rushing to the door before Lois started to worry. "You know, I've got this potential client I'm hoping to meet and..."

"Chloe..."

"Everything's going to be fine. I promise," she repeated at the door before she put herself on the other side of it, moving down the steps and not looking back. She couldn't afford to.

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

It was rather galling, knowing the last friendly face she'd see was Tess, who'd never exactly been friendly to her. She paced Luthor Mansion's exercise room as Tess seemed determined to keep her there.instead of in the library. She had a small idea why. She'd seen Tess spiriting a boy away from the wreckage of Cadmus Labs in the visions. She supposed her little guest was hidden away there. She didn't know all the details. If that boy was some product of Lex's... She cut off that line of thinking as it didn't matter. She'd seen the further future. Whatever or whoever that boy was, he wouldn't keep everyone from being fine. Just fine. She had to keep believing that.

She glanced at the clock. Past four. She'd been here hours now, after having shown up on the doorstep with a "Hi. Congratulations on being alive. Now why don't you tell me what the hell the Suicide Squad is before they kill Oliver." 

Soon this would be over. Just three more hours until the hydroxocobalamin was safely in her system. She took a deep breath and waited for Tess to come back, absently pushing at a punching bag. It hit her back and she reflected that she really wished she'd had more combat training. Oliver was always willing, except for how those sessions always devolved, really. She should have asked John, maybe, or Victor or Dinah or... Well, not Bart. God, she'd miss them. Really, they were like family. A very messed up family, but a family all the same. She hoped Clark would allow them closer to him now. Maybe they would all take care of each other, like she'd wanted. And she hoped like hell they all took care of Oliver. Oliver had done so much, for years now, putting this gang together, coordinating strikes way before she first put on an earpiece and dove into Watchtower. She had to believe they could be fine without her again. That Oliver...

She took several deep breaths and moved to her bag, pulling out her laptop. Even if it seemed like a stupid thing to do, she logged in to her email. It was the last time, anyway. She wouldn't have an email address soon. She couldn't leave him without a word.

She stared at her screen blankly, knowing she couldn't tell him, couldn't tell anyone, just what she planned to do. But she could give him more than a rushed declaration of love over a radio. She could leave him with that much.

Oliver, I never thought I'd have to tell you how I feel about us because the smile on my lips when I looked at you pretty much said it all.

He'd known, hadn't he? He'd known that she didn't stop him from saying the words before he left because she wasn't sure she could say them back. She could have and she would have and, right now, she damned well wished she had. 

She typed on. But now that you won't be seeing it anymore, I'll have to use words to tell you.She'd give anything to say this in person, to have said it before instead of being silly and superstitious about cursed Earth stations and... She let out a bitter laugh, realizing it was cursed, after all. She gathered herself and typed on. It didn't matter what she failed to do. It mattered what she was doing, that she loved him enough to do it. Still, he deserved to read the words.

I've never loved anyone the way I've loved you. And I never will again.

How could she? This was the most terrified she'd even been, but she wouldn't hesitate. And it was all for him.

You will always be my brightest star, my knight in shining leather, my hero. She groaned and let out a horrified laugh, wondering what he'd make of that schmaltz. Her finger hovered over the backspace key, but she didn't press it. She'd let it stay. He deserved some silly, infatuated words from her after all this, after all the ways she rolled her eyes at him, deflected his compliments, refused to admit she was crazy about him for so long.

She heard the door and quickly hit "send." Time was up.

"I'm back. I just had to..."

"You don't need to tell me what you're up to," Chloe cut in. "It's not going to be my problem anymore." She went into her laptop's system and set it to erase all data before she set it aside. "I just hope you're done now."

Tess raised an eyebrow. "Done?"

"Let's not play games, Tess. You've actively sabotaged me and... Hell, all of us, for two years now. I think you might finally know enough to stop."

Tess shook her head, her lips pursed. "That's not fair. I'll be the first to admit, I've made some f*cked up calls, but..."

"But what? How many lives have you put at risk and outright destroyed?"

"I have been floundering," Tess growled, moving nearer. "I didn't ask to be brought into this sh*t. Lex threw me in here with no answers. And if I know enough to stop, as you say, then it's with no help from any of you. Everything I've learned, I've had to learn the hardest f*cking way! You tell me what you would have done with half-truths and outright fear. I thought I was saving the world!"

Chloe stilled, staring at her, suddenly seeing herself, crossing lines to save the... No. It wasn't the same. It couldn't be. "So did Lex," Chloe hissed. "Look what he ended up doing."

"Well, no offense, Sullivan," Tess sneered. "I have my own issues with Lex. But maybe it's damned hard to know what to do when you're surrounded by people that constantly ask for your help, then turn around and keep you in the dark no matter what you do."

"I've never asked for your help. All I've ever tried to do was stay the hell away from you!"

"You're all a hive mind," Tess said with a dismissive laugh. "I'm useful to you, then discarded. How many times has Clark..."

"Clark has also saved your life more than you know."

"Clark has also threatened my life," she countered, eyes narrowed. "I have been pushed around by Clark a damned lot, knocked out, choked, dangled off skyscrapers, and nearly burned alive. So you tell me that you could live through all that and not have some damned questions about just who the good guys are!"

"But he was..."

"He was what? Infected with different meteor rocks or coming to grips with identity or... Jesus! It doesn't matter! These are things I find out too damned late. The fact is that I have been struggling to do what's right and it's pretty damned hard to know what that is when I'm treated like an idiot. And I may have roughed you up a little, but let's not pretend you didn't kill me at least once."

"But I brought you ba..."

"You hesitated," Tess cut in. "I might not know for sure, but don't try to tell me you didn't. I have f*cked up. Okay? But I had the wrong information. And you... all of you... could have changed that!"

Chloe stared at her, both silent except for labored breaths, part of her wondering what might have been different, if Tess had been trusted and let in, if all her money and power and savvy had been on their side. It could have been. Tess Mercer wasn't just a Luthor proxy. She'd been an idealistic girl once, a researcher making a difference, a good guy... until she threw her lot in with Lex. But how was Tess to know? How was anyone ever to know? Clark's distrust of Lex, in those early years, hadn't been so much a result of anything Lex did, but of Jonathon Kent's bitterness toward the name Luthor. And hadn't they done the same to Tess? Hadn't they looked down their noses at her just for being part of the Luthor empire? What if Lex, who she knew herself with that summer hidden away once had good intentions, had been let in? How much damage could have been avoided then? How might they have been if...

She turned away from Tess because it did no good, wondering how things might have been. She had to deal with what was. "You'll do better things now. That's all I need to know," she said, turning back to her laptop and checking the progress. She'd seen it, after all, had seen Tess doing more at Isis than handling her system. She'd seen her smiling there, genuinely happy there. She forced a smile herself and handed Tess her laptop, now safely blank. "You can destroy this or... donate it, maybe. I won't need it now."

Tess peered closely at her as she took it. "Chloe, what exactly are you doing?"

She moved to her bag, pulling out the external hard drive. "I'm taking some time off, I guess."

"The Suicide Squad is ruthless. If you think Checkmate was harsh... They will give you the rest of your life off if you're not..."

"Careful? I have been. Or will be." She held out the hard drive. "Anyway, life is such a fleeting thing. Just a few clicks and it's gone."

Tess' eyes widened as she took the drive as well. "What do want me to do?"

"Erase me." She nodded to the drive. "There are two files on there. One will give you clearance in Watchtower. The other will unleash a very specific virus." She fished in her pocket and pulled out her cell. It must be dinner time in Gotham by now. A certain someone would be home. "No real harm to anyone's CPU," she said dully as she dialed the number she'd saved last week, rather regretting she'd now lose all her numbers. And her cell. She'd just got a summery animated wallpaper, after all. "It's was designed to wipe out just one person. As if she never existed."

"Chloe..."

She held up a hand as the person on the other end picked up. "Hold that thought."

"Hello?"

"Hi, Rachel. It's..."

"I know. I've been waiting for your call for days."

She let out a dry laugh. "I guess you knew before I did."

"I usually do."

"I need a favor."

"I know that, too. And I'll do it," Rachel said in a rush, her voice just barely eager under the monotone.

"Then listen closely."

"But I know..."

Chloe sighed, not used to dealing with omniscient kids. "Then you should also know that I need to know you know."

"That was a horribly confusing sentence." Rachel paused. "But okay."

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

Everything would be okay. Everyone would be okay. She wasn't so sure about herself. She just needed to get though each step.

Some had been taken by Tess.. or would be. Tess had taken the hard drive. Tess would reformat Watchtower. Tess had destroyed her laptop and her cell phone. Tess had placed the cryptic call that now had her in the back seat of an SUV, sandwiched between two men... or surprisingly muscular women. She couldn't exactly tell with a sack over her head. Tess had promised not to tell and Chloe only hoped she'd hold to that.

Later, she'd need Rachel to take a few steps, but that was after her own steps.

She felt the rough hands grab her and really hoped her captors weren't female. She'd like to think a female would have more sympathy than to jerk her out blindly and shove her forward. She consoled herself with the idea that she wouldn't be with these cretins long.

She was prodded forward and she stumbled along, taking her steps. Just one at a time until she stumbled, brushing against something... or someone.

She heard a slight grunt and knew it was Oliver. She'd like to think she knew every sound he might make by now. Her hands were bound. But even if they weren't, she couldn't reach for him one last time. He couldn't know. She couldn't take the risk that he'd try to stop her, keep her, keep this deal from going through. More than that, she knew she had to be gone. She'd seen him safe, but without her. Nabu had known and said and shown and... She might have taken some steps to save herself, but they just didn't matter as the ones that kept him safe.

And why?

Because she loved him.

She needed no greater reason than that.

PREVIOUS CHAPTER
EPILOGUE


If you noticed, I included some of Doctor Hamilton's future as Ruin. I don't know why the show never took any kind of advantage of that, even adding a foreboding line or two. Could've made things more interesting. Anyhow...

I took some details from later episodes that explain Chloe's trade in and whatnot, gave those lines a scene or two. Also added the flashback from Icarus as that was supposed to have happened between the fate helmet and Chloe trading herself. I also wanted a bit of a goodbye for Chloe and Lois.

I also rather liked writing my Chloe/Tess scene as it brings up some things I sometimes think about Tess... and Lex. I do have a thing for those Luthors.