Chloe was talking to Connor. Oliver watched and sighed. She was handling it better than he was.
"So, which of them are you looking at? Your son or the mother of him?" Dinah asked
"Uh." Was all Oliver could manage
"It isn't that farfetched." She said "She's come far from the reporter she was. You should've seen her fight Oliver. After everything she's been through she still fights."
Oliver went to speak, but she had already walked off to talk to Victor who was at one of the computers. He looked back over at Chloe who smiled slightly as she spoke. Maybe it wasn't far fetched.
"Am I-well, was I a good parent? Jesse said I was obsessed with getting Clark back." she said
"You're amazing." Connor said "You tend to know how to do everything at once."
Chloe laughed a little. At least she knew. It worried her a little.
"You had Queen Industries come up with a splice machine."
"A what?" she half laughed
"It let you have clones per say." Connor said "But they found the real you, so you all died."
"Oh." She said quietly
"You're okay now and apparently you won't go looking for Clark." Connor said motioning to the one hovering nearby that was Clark, it was easy to tell that he was listening.
"I guess I won't." she smiled "So you're really mine?"
Connor laughed and nodded. She found it hard to believe. Where would she have time to build a relationship and have a child? She glanced over at Oliver who was speaking with A.C. it wasn't that she disapproved of the choice. He was a good man. She disapproved of herself. Her past relationships never really worked out for the best. She didn't like thinking about it much.
"He's okay you know?" Connor said cutting into her thoughts
"What?" she asked
"He'll wait. He's waited this long for you to open up some. He's patient…he's gotta be when it comes to being him. You two make a powerful team and are amazing leaders." Connor said
Chloe looked down then back at him. He seemed so sure about it. Then again he was her own son. Of course he knew.
"How'd you grow up so smart?" she asked
"I had good teachers." He said with a smile that belonged to none other than his father.
Chloe shook her head and stood form where she sat.
"I look forward to being your mom then." She said
Connor looked at her lopsided. She just laughed knowing his thoughts and gave him a hug. It wasn't as strange as she thought it would be. It felt like a place she hadn't been in a long time…home. It was warm and safe.
The double doors opened next and Jesse and Bart walking in laughing a little. They seemed to be a good team and Chloe noticed it. It wasn't just their common ability to be faster than light an lightning. It was the chemistry. There was a lot of it.
"So?" Chloe asked seing as they were all chipper from getting back from a patrol
"A mugging." Jesse shrugged "Nothing out of the ordinary really."
She looked at Connor briefly and nodded.
"Did we get where Lex is hiding?" Jesse asked
"Yes." Chloe answered before Oliver could speak "WE'RE going in in a few hours."
"Good." Jesse said with a smile
"Oh no. You two aren't going anywhere." Oliver said gesturing at Connor and her
"What!" Connor exclaimed "C'mon!"
"No. That's my final answer." Oliver said
"Oh…I'm out of this one." Jesse murmured as she snuck past the two to walk to the back room
Chloe followed her and nodded in agreement. Clark on the other hand being Clark tried to calm both of them down with not much luck.
"Jesse." Chloe called
Jesse turned and looked at her friend.
"Take this."
Chloe gave her the piece of lead with a sharp point that she'd stolen from the facility she and Dinah were taken to when kidnapped.
"Okay…"
"Use it on Helios if you get close enough." Chloe said
"Got it boss." Jesse winked
"So Oliver and I?" she asked
"It's not that hard to believe." Jesse said "I see the chemicals brewing already and it's not like he's seeing anyone."
Chloe was silent.
"Oh don't tell me you haven't thought about it." Jesse said
"Well…" Chloe trailed off
"Knew it." Jesse said grinning "At least I get to see it in action."
"Hey. You won't be seeing anything in…action." Chloe said
Jesse laughed and waved her off. She got the gist of what Chloe said. Who knew she'd have a dirty mind?
"Jesse. What will happen when it all changes? Will you go back to your time?" Chloe asked, the question had been bugging her for a while now since she'd returned to watchtower.
"Not exactly." Jesse said "The me that's in my mom's stomach now and the Connor that's soon to be in your stomach will be in the new future. Me and him now? We're part of a different future…one that will no longer exist so-"
"You won't exist." Chloe finished ignoring the comment about Connor soon to be in her. Instead she was saddened to hear that they would no longer be here.
"That's the theory." Jesse said
"Jesse…"
"It's not a big deal." Jesse interrupted
Walking out Jesse ignored Chloe as she tried to talk. Oliver was giving orders and she'd rather listen to that than Chloe go on about how they could find a way to keep them there. Them being there was and wasn't important. It was just something Jesse didn't find important to herself.
"Jesse, Connor, Chloe and A.C will be on watchtower duty." Oliver instructed
Connor huffed and crossed his arms as Jesse just laughed lightly at him. He never did like being stuck behind a desk. He was more of the action kind of guy.
"Bossman why don't A.C and I switch?" Bart offered
"Wouldn't be a bad idea. Bart's better at the computer and faster." Chloe said giving A.C an apologetic look
"Thanks licious." He said with a smirk
"Alright." Oliver said "Let's go then."
Like that everyone split. Chloe was quickly on the com link with Jesse who was on the computer across from her. Jesse just had her fingers barely touching the keyboard. Her electrical touch had her going through the windows on her screen at mach speed. Chloe would glance over here and there and see her move from one screen to another. She was in deep concentration.
"Wow." She breathed
Looking up at the screen she awaited for Oliver to send her the signal of their location. When she got the location she could search the area and pinpoint the main frame which made things a lot easier on her.
"Arrow to Watchtower we're in."
Chloe smiled to herself as she always did. Hearing that was like music to her ears. She saw Jesse grin too.
"Connor take over." Jesse said
He nodded and took her seat as Jesse ascended the stairs. She typed in something on the computer upstairs and down on the main floor a projection came up in the middle of the room of where the team was. Jesse came back downstairs, her and Bart looked at it. The red blips represented where their heroes were.
"Seems like everything is on track." Jesse said
As she said it though three people resembling the ones who'd been in the facility before flew in through the large circular glass stained window of the tower.
"I just fixed that." Chloe hissed departing from the computer
As lockdown started throughout the tower Helios showed up and he wasn't alone.
An arrow whizzed past Jesse's body and hit one of the guys after her.
"There's no one here." Oliver's distorted voice said
"It's a trap!" Jesse yelled as she also attacked the intruders
On the other end Oliver heard yelling and crashes.
"Watchtower!" he yelled
"Well, do my ears deceive me or is this the Green Arrow on the other end?"
"Touch her…"
"Touch who?" Lex inquired "I came to pay respects only to find nothing here. See you soon."
The line fizzled out. Lex looked over at the two beings held in the custody of Helios's and Deliria's arms.
"You won't win." Jesse hissed
She vibrated with the electrical currents flowing from her to the one who held her tightly which happened to be Helios.
"Try as you might Jesse, but you have no effect on me." Helios said "The boss made a special type of armor just for you."
"Get them out of here. I'm extremely curious about their workings." Lex said
He took an even more curious look at Bart. He was familiar...
"What about the other two?" A man asked
Lex looked back at the two limp bodies. The young man had been pierced in the side when flung across the room. The whole place was a wreck and it happened in a matter of seconds. Electrical circuits sparked in different places, a few beams had fallen one of which knocked Chloe out and pinned her to the ground, computers were mostly destroyed and glass was everywhere.
"So this is the base of your operation…sad." Lex said unimpressed "I thought there'd be more of a fight."
"Son of a bitch!" Jesse yelled fighting her hardest to get free and nearly going full on to the point of no control.
Getting a hand free she shot out at Lex, and a flash filled the room blinding everyone.
"I'm going to kill you!" she screamed
One of the men grabbed her wrist and punched her across the face. She only retaliated with kicking him across the face. Helios laughed at the guy's idiocy to even try and fight her and grabbed a hold of her loose wrist restraining her again.
"Feisty." Lex said "If you're good I'll teach you to play on the good side."
"Go to hell." She growled before spitting in his face and looking back at what she could only see as dead friends.
Lex chuckled and waved them off. Helios and Deliria carried Jesse and Bart off.
Oliver froze as he walked into Watchtower. He saw Chloe first and ran over to her as did Clark. Clark lifted the beam off of her effortlessly. Oliver checked the vitals of the non-moving woman. Her pulse was still strong and she had only been knocked out from whatever had happened here.
"She's alive." He said with a sigh of relief
Seconds later she coughed.
"Connor…" she breathed as she came around
She looked over at him and so did Oliver. Dinah was already by him wiping his face clean of dust and blood. Clark picked him up and laid him over on the couch. Connor had gasped and coughed in pain.
"Help me up Ollie." Chloe asked
"Chloe you're hurt."
"Exactly. I'm not dead or broken…just hurt. Help me up…he's my…" she didn't finish
Oliver nodded and helped her stand. She leaned on him as her standing post then fell to Connor's side. There was a metal pipe in his side. He wasn't doing good at all. Chloe blamed herself. It all went wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"Get Emil." She told Clark emotionless
Clark nodded and was gone without a word.
Chloe took Connor's hand and Oliver took her other.
"He stepped in the way." she said "It should've been me."
"Chloe no…" Oliver said
He looked at the others.
"Patrol. Lex's lackies could still be in the area." He said darkly "Don't let anyone get away."
Dinah, A.C, and Victor nodded. He turned back to the wrecked Chloe who now cried silently. She was covered in numerous scratch wounds and bruises. It was nothing severe. Her deathly aches and pains weren't physical.
"We should've seen it." she said
"Chloe where are the others?" He asked dismissing her comment
"Gone…he took them. We failed…he has her…he knows what'll happen. He knows what she can do. He knows everything." She said
"Chloe are you okay?" he asked taking her face into his hands
"Our son is dying…" she trailed off pulling away
As she went to stand she stumbled a little. She was stuck in a daze. Walking over to a computer that didn't seem completely busted she tried to turn it on. She pressed at the buttons repeatedly and the screen just stuttered then went black. She took a few steps then stopped picking up a rock from the floor from when the beam fell and threw it at the computer and screamed angrily. It all hurt too much. Oliver looked back at Connor who laid there with his eyes closed barely breathing.
Emil and Clark sped in at that second. Emil stood there dizzily then rushed over to the young man he didn't even know. He didn't ask questions he just removed the cloth from around the pipe and did what came naturally. It was beyond time to ask questions. If these three found trust in this young man then there was no doubt he was of great importance.
"May I ask who this young man is?" Emil asked not looking away
"Not right now." Oliver said
"I'll tend to you next." Emil said to Chloe who was now pacing furociously
"I'm fine." She said "Just…fix him…please."
She sniffled a little. Her heart battered against her chest and she felt as if she were barely there at all.
"Oliver when I say to pull the pipe out I need you to pull it out straight or else it could rip into the skin even more or possibly cause even more damage." Emil said
Oliver only nodded. He gripped the pipe tightly. Chloe left the room unable to watch. She couldn't sit there and watch this happen.
"Clark, hold him down. He's going to feel this which will cause him to jerk." Emil said
Doing what he asked both men looked at each other. Clark noticed Oliver's eyes glisten in what he could swear were tears. Inside he was dying.
"Just hang on." Oliver whispered to Connor
"Okay…now!" Emil said
Chloe jumped and cried harder as she held her knees to her chest upon hearing his cries. She cried out to nothing.
"I think I've been here before." Bart said as he looked around the cell and then looked over at the pacing Jesse
"We're going to die here you know?" she said sarcastically
She was quiet. She'd already tried to break free and nothing worked. They planned this. They planned it all and had this made special for her. Only Helios could've contributed to it.
"Is our future traveler comfortable?" Lex's voice echoed signifying that he'd made his entrance into the room
Jesse stopped in her tracks and glared at the snake and Bart stood up from where he sat nearby. The only thing separating the two were bars.
"Now you…I've seen you before." Lex said to Bart "Not shy about stealing from me."
Bart just crossed his arms over his chest. He had nothing to hide. It's not like the Lex would've missed anything he'd taken.
"Neither of you want to talk now?" Lex said surprised
Jesse turned her back on him. She didn't even want to look at him. He made her sick with the things he did and would do. He was the reason so many people she'd known were dead.
"That's okay. You don't have to talk right now. We can work that into our schedule." Lex said
He then made a hand motion and two guards stepped forward unlocking the cell door. Four others moved into her cell. She took a step back looking at each of them. Clenching her fists tight she lashed out and caught one across the jaw as another grabbed her around the waist. She kicked another across the face as he came at her from the front. The fourth hit her in the side and she just elbowed him in the side of the head.
Lex just chuckled. She never let up.
"You could save the world." He told "You could stop the struggle for energy sources everywhere."
Jesse stopped and looked at him like he was stupid. Hadn't they been through that already? Then like that the lights went out for her as she saw a fist coming at her catching her off guard. She fell to the floor.
"Let us go!" Bart yelled as he saw two of the guards dragging her off
The other two got ready to remove him from his cell. Instead of even opening it they aimed a gun at him. His eye went wide.
"Oh sh-"
Like that he was down. He wasn't even given a chance. There was a good chance he'd be just like the girl.
Lex left the room and moved to the control room where there were several screens to monitor the grounds. He looked at two particular screens.
"I want to question her before you decide to toy with her." Lex told him as looked at her
Lex watched her on the black and white screen. She struggled in trying to get loose of the chains she'd been bound in.
"Of course." Deliria Grinned evilly
Lex left the room and made his way down a barren hallway where the only sound was his footsteps and walked into the dark room where Jesse was held up in chains. Her feet barely touched the ground as her arms were held out like a wingspan. Everything ached and it hurt to even contemplate breathing. It didn't mean that she didn't fight. There was nothing that she'd ever given up on.
"It could've been easier than this." Lex's voice echoed "Just tell me what I want to know, and you and him can go free."
Jesse laughed. She laughed so hard that it made everything hurt more hurt. Lex just glared. He really wasn't as smart as he though the was. HE'd messed up big. He had no idea what she was really capable of or what she'd been through just to get here and how it only made her stronger.
"You made three mistakes Lex." She said as her hair hung in her face.
"Oh?" he said sounding amused
"Oh yes…three."
"First, you only have two guards guarding me…big no no. It's not like they're any good." she said "Second, you attacked someone from the future…someone that even now knows your every move."
"And the third?" Lex asked seeming unimpressed
"Third…" she laughed
She looked up at him with her eyes electrically blue and the air snapping with static as the surge crawled up the chains
"Third, you put me in silver chains…silver chains are quite conductive." She said darkly as her eyes began to glow an eerie blue color of energy as static crackled
Lifting herself up off the ground she heard the chains getting even looser. She had been working them long enough. With one more yank they broke from the stone, and she whipped out. One chain slung around Lex's throat tightly as the other she whipped out knocked both guards out completely. She was a dangerous weapon and perhaps the most dangerous one. He had no idea how dangerous, but she'd gladly show him before she killed him. He couldn't be allowed to live anyway and the others wouldn't be able to kill him. It wasn't in their moral code. She could though. She had nothing to lose, not anymore.
"Now…let's talk." She hissed in his reddened face
She sent more voltage through the chains and saw him twitch unbearably. It made her lips twitch in a near smile. He'd open his mouth trying to say something and be gasping.
"Better yet. You locked up one of my friends here and you're going to help me get him out." she said
Yanking him up to his feet she started dragging along the hallways. Jesse struck any guard who tried to attack. They fell to the ground without and effort whatsoever.
"Don't worry. They're not dead. I'm good at making sure they don't wake for hours though. Being a lightning freak does that." she snarled "Now where is he?"
Lex pointed to the left.
"You lying?" she asked as she tightened the chain
He just kept pointing that way. Dragging him along since he was at least a foot taller than her, she went left. Who knew he'd be great leverage and have some actual use? Going in through the door he gestured to, she stopped. Helios stood by Bart with a needle to his neck.
"Adrenaline…" Helios said "We all know you can't burn out, but he can and will quite quickly if I shove this needle in."
"Helios…" She snapped angrily
"Just let him go." Helios said simply
Jesse tightened the chain and Lex's face turned a purplish color. He was suffocating quickly.
"Now!" Helios said now having stabbed Bart in the neck with the syringe, Bart hissed.
I hesitated at first, but then let him go and watched him fall to the floor. He choked and grabbed for his neck which now had bruised marks from where the chains gripped him. Jesse glared up at where Helios once was. He'd disappeared and that always made her nervous.
"Behind you!" Bart yelled
Before Jesse had the chance she felt a prick in her neck and then a sudden rush flowing through her body. It was dizzying at first then everything heightened.
"Let's see if you live long enough to see sunrise." Helios whispered in her ear
Jesse fell to the ground looking down at her hand which now twitched slightly and bluish lightning flicked from her finger tips. It was getting bright and stronger. It was unbearable. Jesse started crying then. This had never happened to her and the harder she tried to control her ability the worse it all got.
Helios rushed over to Lex and grabbed him. They were gone instantaneously. Jesse screamed in anguish and fury.
"Jesse!" Bart yelled trying to get free
She looked up feeling extremely hot all of the sudden. Stumbling to her feet she made her way over to him and struggled to get him out all the while shaking. Ten minutes later she'd found a knife to pick it. He rushed ot her side as she fell to the ground.
"Ow!" he exclaimed as he went to touch her, but got shocked instead
"I have no control…you have to go." She said looking around dazed "Go now. I can't hold it in."
"We have to get you out of here." he said hurriedly
"Go!" she yelled crawling away from him
He looked at her struggling sweating form. Her eyes were completely electric blue and her body was crawling with surges. There was no chance of stopping it even though he wanted to try. She cried out and reached out for nothing. when he looked at her he thought that she was some form of a goddess that was possessed.
"I'm coming back with help." He said
Turning he ran. He pushed himself hard.
Jesse cried. She had absolutely no control and was losing it. She screamed as it coursed through her. An ache that begged to be released and she didn't want it to happen. She knew the outcome would be catastrophic.
"Stop!" she screamed though her own ability would never listen
It was heightened, and she fell over from the strain and tension it gave to her body. At any moment she felt like she'd explode into a million particles. It would be complete obliteration.
As Bart reached the outskirts he felt a sudden wave of crackling and static. Turning he saw trees going to stand up right from the wave. He ducked as limbs and branches fell. The clouds over head were lit up like in a storm. Looking back at the direction of the building he saw nothing. Not even the building. It was as if it had completely disappeared.
"Screw help." He muttered "Hold on Jesse."
Running back Bart quickly stopped before even reaching his destination. Out in the open where hundreds of trees had fallen, it looked as if there had been a fire. There were scorch marks everywhere. As he walked even farther he saw bits and pieces of the building. Then he stopped.
It was completely leveled. The whole thing was flattened. He didn't see her anywhere. There was nothing.
"Jessica!" he yelled
Walking amongst the rubble he saw other body parts of the people who must've been inside, but he didn't see her. He kept walking and shoving aside the mess. Having looked for nearly an hour he froze when he saw a female arm sticking out.
"Jesse." He whispered
Shoving away wood and metal off of the body he pulled her out. He shook her, and she wasn't waking. She laid there limp in his arms, but not cold. She was scorching hot to the point where it burned. Then looking up as he felt sudden drop on the top of his head he saw a bright flash and like that Jesse was struck not once, but twice by lightning. It hit her without leaving a single mark on her skin. It was attracted to her.
As it started to downpour, thunder rumbled across the sky. Bart just moved her hair from her face. He jumped when he heard her cough. She turned over on her side as she coughed.
"You're alive." He breathed
She looked around her. The energy burst killed everything within a one mile radius or possibly more including the people that were still alive in the building. Her breathing was heavy and she struggled to try and stand only to fall. She felt like jello everywhere.
"Don't move so much." Bart said as he reached to pick her up
"I did this…" she trailed off as tears streamed down her face
"No, they did this." Bart said
"He's stable now. There shouldn't be any infection, but he has lost a lot of blood. He'll need to be on constant watch though I'm still saying that you bring him to the hospital." Emil said
"No." Oliver said
They couldn't bring someone from the future to the hospital. There would be no way to explain who he was. It would leave too many questions.
"Alright." Emil said "I'm going to go see Chloe."
"Chloe is fine." She said as she came out
She walked past them both and sat on the floor beside the couch and took Connor's hand. She hadn't changed or gotten cleaned up. Oliver could tell that she had been crying from the redness around her eyes.
"Where's Clark?" she asked flatly
"I told him to go check on Lois."
Chloe nodded. As Oliver went to open his mouth to say something Bart sped in with Jesse in his arms. She was barely awake.
"You're alive." Chloe breathed as she saw them
"Barely." Bart said
Oliver took Jesse and cleared a nearby desk and set her on it. He had to keep her steady as Emil checked her immediately. She just fell against him.
"Her heart rate is off the charts."
"That's normal." Oliver said matter of factly
Jesse was still staring off into space as Emil tried to get her attention. Nothing seemed to register at all.
"Do any of them work?" Bart asked about the computers
"No." Chloe said
"Hold on." Jesse said quietly
Jesse slid from the desk weakly along with the chains following behind her making a loud clanging noise. Bart caught her quickly as she started to slide for the floor. She made slow steps for the electrical panel with him holding her up around the waist from behind. Holding her hand up she brushed her fingers across the switches and at first watchtower flickered and a bulb busted, but it came on for what was left.
"There." she said quietly
"You need to sleep."Bart said
"I can't…I haven't slept since I was eight. I don't know why." Jesse said
"Good work." Oliver said
"All you had to do was ask." She chuckled lightly
Jesse looked over at Connor. He laid there on the couch with his eyes closed. Then all of them in the room turned to the large screen upon hearing Lex Luthor's voice.
"Can't he just stop?" Jesse asked rhetorically
He was on the news and it was about his facility.
"We were just there." Bart growled
*My facility purely for medical research which was soon to make a breakthrough was destroyed earlier this evening by what we only know as vigilantes. I think now it is safe to say we know what side these masked men play for. They are not here to help us. Sixty five lives and counting were destroyed in the explosion this evening.*
"I killed them." Jesse said quietly
"He's just out there for publicity. He's trying to turn them against us." Oliver said
"And it's my fault." Jesse said
*These people we call heroes are not who we think they are. How can we come to trust what we cannot see? I ask that these so called people who call themselves these heroes step forward and reveal yourselves. You have a crime to atone for. Step forward before it's too late.*
"It's already too late."
Everyone looked in the direction of the small voice belonging to Chloe Ann Sullivan.
