Oliver lifted his head from the file he was reviewing with Zatanna the moment Chloe entered the room. He allowed his gaze to roam, drinking her in until he noticed her attention focused somewhere on his shirt rather than his face. The closed expression on her face said enough. Her light make-up couldn't hide the fact she'd been crying.

He abandoned his seat on the chair to walk over to the blonde. She watched him approach like one keep an eye on a dangerous cat. His heart sank in his chest. Did she regret the tender moment Zatanna had interrupted?

It took all he had in him to offer a faint smile. "Coffee's brewing."

She softened a little at that. "Thanks."

"Welcome." Oliver guided her toward her favorite couch, hand hovering but not touching her. "I gave Zee the Cliff notes about Hawkman and his bedtime' stories."

Chloe shook her head. Blonde hair spilled over her shoulders. He lifted his hand to tuck a curl behind her ear to meet with her Watchtower mask once more. Oliver dropped his hand. Chloe stepped away from him and sat, gathering her laptop and typing a series of command.

"We'll get to that part later. Zatanna, did your father ever talk about his association with a man called Randall or Vandal Savage?"

Oliver started. Chloe turned her laptop so show him the screen.

He stared at the black and white photo in bewilderment.

Even partly submerged, the Temple of Isis from Philae cut an impressive figure in the background, but what caught his eye was the stern figure of a man he recognized from his History books, Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, who'd almost won the war for Hitler before he came to his senses and turned against his Fuhrer. Standing next the stern German, a John Zatarra in his early twenties stared at the camera with an indecipherable expression. The third man in the picture was a twin of the one he'd chided away from Chloe the day before. He recalled the square teeth and the tight mullet which gave the man's face a brutish look. The outfit also matched, from the severe collar buttoned up to the bearded chin to the black silk shirt and tie. A beast in swank sheep clothing.

"It's him."

"Sidekick…"

"It's him," Chloe repeated. "It's Savage."

Oliver braced himself when Zatanna reached over his lap to snap the lid shut. Her normally violet eyes glimmered like Amethysts.

"He's a dark warlock. Father mentioned him only once, to tell me that if I ever saw him or someone looking like him, I had to go to Leeds to weave and pray at the temple."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Cryptic, much?"

"You tell me. I never really understood what my father meant. So I figured he just wanted me to stay far away from that man and I did."

"What else?" Chloe inquired.

Zatanna turned to her and his lungs accepted to work again. He really needed a good night sleep. He had to be losing it if beautiful women invading his personal space put him off like that.

"It can't be the same man," Oliver insisted. "No one can look exactly the same 70 years apart."

He couldn't wrap his head around it. It couldn't be the man they met at the museum the day before. The resemblance was uncanny, yes but it couldn't be the same man. It was a relative. Or they were dealing with a metahuman who could regenerate. Or a clone. It wouldn't be the first time.

Oliver shuddered at the thought. He glanced up to the brunette, hoping for an indication of some sort. Zatanna's pupils returned to their natural shade of indigo. "Black magic bestows incredible powers to those who pledge to it."

"Like immortality?"

"Right. Immortals, Black Magic, Reincarnation and Egyptian Gods. Business as usual…" Oliver groaned.

Neither women paid attention to him. "Demons will offer anything to get free. But the price to pay is monstrous, Chloe. If Savage made such a pact, he doesn't have a soul anymore. He became a shell for greed, envy and hate."

A shell thousands of years in the making, if the Big Bird and that stupid photograph was to be believed… Oliver wished he could read Chloe's mind, if only to make sure she wasn't thinking what he thought she was.

"Carter is after him. It must be why he's here. We can't let him face Savage alone, Oliver."

Here's hoping.

Oliver sighed. "I had a feeling you would say that…"

Her hand moved down from his biceps to his side. Lightning shot from his hip to his groin so fast he jumped. Chloe jerked her fingers away. "Sorry. Sorry, I… I'll get the coffee."

He watched helplessly as the door close after the petite blonde woman. Zatanna chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh Oliver… Pinning doesn't become you."

"I'm not pinning."

The pretty magician cocked her head to the side with a knowing smirk.

"I am not!"

He played with the uncapped water bottle in his hands. "There's no point in pinning, even if I were. And I am not. It's too late. The whole thing… Chloe feels trapped, or she believes I do. I've waited too long."

Zee pet his knee. The gesture was meant to be sympathetic. It just felt funny. Oliver stretched his legs in front of him. He gave his bottle another twirl.

"Ollie, you're both trying to rationalize something that can't be put into clean little boxes. A soulmate is someone with whom you have a natural affinity. Take your time to discover if it's friendship or something more that connects you. No one tells you to rush into marriage, 2.5 kids and a white picket fence house."

"What about the proverbial dog?" Chloe deadpanned as she reentered the room with a tray laden with fruits, finger sandwich and cheese.

His stomach did a little jig, as if it was suddenly aware their breakfast had been interrupted and they'd never made it to lunch.

"Thanks, Sidekick."

Her knowing smile eased some of the tension lodged in his back.

Chloe curled on her end of the couch once more, her elegant fingers curled around a mug of coffee. "So if we move on to the other reason we called you, how does this protection work exactly? Will I project force fields with my mind like Suzan Storm in the Comics?"

Oliver scowled. Why did she compare herself to the Invisible woman? She was not invisible, not to him! She was beyond gorgeous. Her smile could light an entire room. She was courageous, generous, brilliant…

Zatanna hesitated between a sandwich and fruits and finally selected a slice of apple to nibble on.

"Oh no, it's nothing like that. It's a magical ward."

"So she can still get hurt?" The tension reappeared, blinding hot. "What kind of protection is that?!"

Unable to seat still, Oliver walked to the window to glower at the sea that glittered at the foot of the hill beyond the terrace. The approaching sunset mixed peach and rose hues to the pale blue of the sky. It reminded him of Chloe's sun-kissed skin when she blushed.

"The Shenu wards off spells. Once complete, it'll prevent Chloe to be bewitched or possessed."

"It would have come handy when I was seventeen. And nineteen. Oh, and Twenty-one. That one was a bitch."

His mouth curled at the corner hearing her snarky quip.

"What about Oliver?" Chloe asked Zatanna.

"I don't know for sure but since he's wearing your mark, I'd say it'll be the same if his modifies the same than yours when you… Once it'll be complete."

"I'm what?"

Chloe glanced away. Zatanna looked positively giddy. Oliver pressed on, "Chloe?"

She met his stare making a visible effort to swallow. "Huh… You… I, huh…" She pointed behind her at the general part of her tattoo. Oliver gritted his teeth against the urge to touch his own back. "I noticed earlier when… when you… hum… When you got out of the pool," she spluttered out in a rush.

When her had gone wide as saucers and she'd run faster than Bart after a burrito. Oliver forced air into his lungs.

"How is that even possible? No don't answer that. We're swimming in the impossible since we set foot in the damned country. Okay, no, no I want to know. How could this happen? We didn't— You healed me."

"It can't be how, Oliver. I've healed you before, as I've done for AC and Clark, even Lex. Neither got—"

"You never repaired something so serious before, I was paralyzed from the waist down, Chlo—"

"I brought Lois back from the dead!" Chloe cried out. "She was dead. And I died too. I die when…"

Her pupils dilated with anguish and fury. Oliver ached to pull into his arms and soothed her. The need was so brutal he dug his nails into the back of the chair not to grab her. He forced himself to relax his grasp. "Call Lois."

"What?"

"Call Lois. Ask her if she has a tattoo like yours."

"She doesn't. I would have seen it."

Oliver came to seat next to her on the couch.

"I should have died bringing you back…" She sounded on the verge of tears.

"You just—" Oliver struggled to find the right words. "slept it off. You still had a pulse and you were breathing." He'd watched the faint rise and fall of her chest for hours. "You were up and about less than five hours later."

Her chin trembled. "I don't understand what's happening."

Unable to resist this time, Oliver brushed a finger on the back of her hand. Chloe lifted brilliant eyes to him. He turned her hand in his to entwin their fingers, palms touching. The contact settled his nerves so he felt like himself again.

"Maybe exercising your power with Emil honed your control," he said without too much conviction. The look on her face confirmed she didn't believe that any more than he did. In fact, she had that far away look he knew too well, the one that said she was retreating within herself and walled up emotions so she didn't have to deal with them.

If she needed to be clinical about the whole thing, he could indulge her. For now. Oliver released her hand. "Let's start with Science before we dive in the supernatural."

Zatanna frowned. He dismissed it with a shrug, still focused on the blonde. "Chloe, I want you to contact Emil, see if he has any ideas about the situation."

Chloe opened her mouth to argue. Oliver gave her a pointed look. "If your power is evolving, we need to know. Zatanna, I'd like you to send us the information you have on that Shenu symbol, as well as anything you can find about the trip your father took in Egypt circa 1941. I want to know why he was there, and what he did."

"Very well. I'll be in touch."

The brunette gave a cheeky little salute and winked out of sight in a purple flare. Chloe recovered her laptop from the coffee table and pushed to her feet. "I will let you know what Emil has to say. Boss."

The door banged behind her.

Drat it all. She refused to be treated with kid gloves and sneered when he acted as the leader he was supposed to be. "What am I supposed to do Chloe? What else do you want from me?"

The tiny sandwiches didn't answer. Oliver tackled the plate in retaliation.