Things were much better after Bruce's party. They didn't go back to normal, they both realized now that there was no going back but they were working out what their new relationship meant, but they were getting there. Chloe went back to work, regular and JLA but she was a little worried about how the new Chloe was work in that dynamic, after everything she'd done, everything she'd been through how could she go back to being Watchtower? Is that what the team would want or would they realize what she was capable of? Only time would tell.
Oliver walked into the space that he'd turned into a gym, the space that Chloe rarely used before she left but could be found at practically every day since she got back. Victor, AC, and Bart were staring up at something, they're mouths hanging open. He looked up and saw why; Chloe was silently and expertly weaving her way through the tangle of rafters that lined the ceiling. "Watchtower." Oliver called up after she'd made her way from one end to the other, swing, hopping, and twisting over poles to get there without once losing her footing. "We've got a mission, you want in?"
She smiled down at him jumped, landing almost impossibly silent on the floor in front of them. "Dude." Bart said. "She's a freaking ninja."
Chloe laughed a little embarrassed and followed Oliver back to the meeting room. "We've been looking for this place for a month now. We got a tip, from Cassandra that Lex was making something but she said she couldn't tell what."
"Cassandra?" Chloe was surprised to hear that name again after so long.
"Yeah, she's still sending us information on Lex." Oliver said. "She sent us a message about you." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "When you were gone. She told us you were fine, and not to worry."
"That was sweet of her." Chloe said remembering all too well that Cassandra was part of the reason she left in the first place.
"Anyway." Oliver turned back to the map. "She was pretty vague on the location."
"Isn't she always?" Victor piped in.
"But I'm sure I've found it."
"So we're heading out?" AC asked.
"In two hours." Oliver said closing the computer screen. "I'm guessing you don't want to do this one from behind the computer." Oliver asked Chloe.
"You'd guess right." Chloe smiled.
"Good." Oliver walked to a closet and pulled out a garment bag. "That means I didn't have this thing made for nothing." The boys gathered around anxiously and Chloe suddenly felt a little nervous.
Chloe opened the bag to find her very own JLA suit. Very similar to everyone else's, leather pants and a form fitting leather top with a hood only hers was a deep blue, her favorite color. "Is it ok?" Oliver asked.
"Perfect." She assured him as she closed up the bag.
Chloe stepped off the plane and felt her adrenaline start pumping and they weren't even to the car yet. She vowed that she would never get over this feeling, the excitement of what she'd be doing in a few hours, the rush of the whole thing, her first real mission with them. "You ready?" Oliver asked as they headed to the car. Chloe nodded smiling and followed him. They checked into a local motel under assumed names and went inside to wait for night fall. "The lab is about fifteen miles out of town. We can drive ten; maybe eleven miles out then we'll have to go on foot." Oliver said spreading out a map on the table.
"Do we know what the labs doing?" Chloe asked.
"No, we just know its Lex and any secret lab in the middle of nowhere owned by Lex isn't going to be curing cancer." Victor said.
"Bart will go ahead and scout it out for us; we couldn't get a good satellite image because of the mountains." Oliver said. "We'll go in, grab some samples of whatever he's making out there and let it burn."
"Works for me." Bart said jumping on the bed and turning on the television. "Let me know when we're rolling out."
Oliver, Chloe, and Victor studied the map and the blueprint that Chloe was able to get from Lex's system. When they bagged their gear and headed to the car. They'd change when they got out of town. They drove as far as they could and then set off on foot after changing. When they were close enough Bart took off to check it out.
"Five guards on the outside, only one building." Bart said when he got back scouting the area. "They're all armed, but there is no alarm system as far as I can tell."
"Why do they need one?" Oliver said. "They're in the middle of nowhere."
"How many entrances?" Victor asked.
"Three." Bart said.
"All right you guys know the plan." Oliver said.
"We've got it." AC nodded.
"Victor you take Chloe." Oliver said. "Bart you go with AC." They all nodded. "Let's do this. Chloe." Oliver called and she looked up. "I think you're gonna need this." He walked over and strapped something to her wrist. "It's a wrist monitor; it's got everything the computer at the Penthouse has."
"In a handy dandy travel format." Victor pointed out.
"Hey, doesn't matter where you are, at base, in the field. You're still our Watchtower." Oliver said before turning around and walking off to his position. Just like with the satellite image, the mountain's interference didn't allow the device to serve her as well she would have liked but it was better than going in blind. The communicators worked fine because they were all together but Chloe had a feeling she'd have been getting a lot of static and not much talk if she was back home in Star City.
They all went their separate ways. The guards went down easy, likely they hadn't expected anyone to ever try and sneak up on them. There was only three more inside and with very little trouble they were taken care of and Victor and Chloe went off to find the main frame while Bart and AC searched the lab. "Got anything good Impulse?" Green Arrow asked. "Come on make my day?"
"If I say yes, can I get that Ferrari?" Impulse asked.
"No civilians." AC cut in. "But we've got lots of vials of something what do you want us to grab?"
"As much as you can carry." Green Arrow said. "And any test results, medical records."
"Sure thing boss." Impulse said. "About that Ferrari."
"Impulse…" Green Arrow said in a warning tone. "Tell me you got something over there Watchtower?"
"Cyborg is in the system, I'm transferring files now." Watchtower said.
"Make sure you…"
"If you tell us to wipe the system I swear to God." Watchtower joked.
"I was gonna tell you to make sure to watch your back." Green Arrow countered with lamely.
"Why don't you do what you're supposed to do and let us do our job?" Cyborg said.
"When did you guys stop being scared of me?" Green Arrow asked.
"About ten minutes after we met." Cyborg said. "That about right huh guys?"
"I get it." Green Arrow said. "I get it. Ten minutes."
"We're heading out." Watchtower said.
"We're right behind you." Aquaman said.
"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point." Green Arrow said. "Impulse do a sweep and make sure the buildings empty before we clear out."
"On it." Impulse said.
Green Arrow met up with the others far enough away from the building to be safe when the charges went off. The five guards from outside the building and two from inside where lying a few feet away unconscious. Impulse came zooming up, dragging the third guard behind him. "All clear." He said laying him on the ground.
"Here we go." Green Arrow said and pushed a button as the building blew up.
"That should keep them warm." AC said watching the flames burn.
None of them noticed the guard behind them starting to stir and Oliver was talking about making it back to town before the sun rose, to keep them under the cover of dark until they could change their clothes.
"Let's get out of here and back home." Oliver said pushing his hood back.
"God please." Chloe said nodding. "I can't wait to take a bath."
"I just want a big double burrito." Bart said.
"Don't talk about food." Victor said as his stomach growled.
"I'm just so hungry." Bart wined then grabbed his neck, his face in pain and turned around. Oliver and Chloe saw the guard first. Standing shakily and holding a gun on Bart. Victor took off toward him and the guard let off another shot but it didn't seem to faze Victor. He made it to the guard before he could shoot again and knocked him out.
"Bart." Chloe jumped forward and caught him as his legs seemed to give out. She looked where he was holding his neck and pulled out what looked like a small syringe. She turned and saw the same thing sticking out of Victor's neck. It didn't seem to be affecting Victor at all. "You're ok, you weren't shot, it's a…I don't know what it is."
"Some sort of drug." Oliver said looking at it. "Victor grab his gun, we need to know what this stuff is." Victor nodded and took the guards gun, slipping it into his waist band.
"My legs feel strange." Bart said wobbling.
They all heard a noise and turned, looking down the hill to see a caravan of cars coming up the entrance. "We got to go." AC said and Chloe helped Bart limp into the woods.
"This isn't the way back." Chloe told Oliver.
"We'll have to go around." He watched more guards spill out of the cars and try to get as close to the building as they could. "Come on." He led them deeper into the woods and Chloe couldn't help but feel like this was a bad idea.
Bart was able to walk on his own but he soon found out he couldn't use his super speed. "They took his powers?" Chloe whispered in horror to Oliver.
"We don't know that." Oliver said. "Maybe it was just a sedative or something, could just be interfering with his powers."
Chloe nodded, hoping Oliver was right as they kept walking.
"Can't you super speed yet? Back to the hotel and grab us some coats?" AC asked shivering.
"No." Bart said his breathing heavy. "I don't know what they shot me with but…I don't even know where the hell the hotel is from here." He shivered rubbing his hands up his arms.
"What are we gonna do?" Victor asked. He was the only one of them that couldn't feel the cold, but it didn't make him any less tired, they'd been walking since dawn and they hadn't see anything except for snow and more snow and far off mountains. Somehow they'd managed to get themselves thoroughly lost. "It's getting dark."
"I'm working on it." Oliver said through clenched teeth.
They walked a little more and came across a small little village. The people seemed to give them a wide berth. "Are they scared of us?" Bart asked.
"It's the clothes." Chloe said and they all turned to her surprised. She hadn't said anything since they set off. A woman said something as they passed and then spit at their feet. Chloe chuckled.
"What?" Oliver stepped over the spit and they tried to steer clear of the villagers.
"She called you a white devil." Chloe smiled.
"You speak the language?" Victor asked.
"Not completely." Chloe said. "I know the dialect but I wouldn't try and speak too much, there's cultural difference in the language, I'd probably end up insulting someone's mother." She stopped walking suddenly and stared straight ahead.
"What?" Everyone stopped and tried to figure out what Chloe was looking at.
"Just a second." She held up a hand to indicate they should stay where they were and walked toward a group of monks in orange robes. She talked to them for a second and then held up her right arm unsnapping her bracelet. The smiled and nodded at her and she motioned with her head for the others to follow.
The monks led them up a narrow and steep path on the side of the mountain as Bart, AC, and Victor seemed to be having a heated whispered discussion. "What are you guys arguing about?" Oliver asked and they shut up without giving an explanation. The monks stopped when they reached what looked like a temple. Chloe and the guys waited as the monks went inside and brought another monk out. Chloe walked over, bowed, and started talking again. She unsnapped her bracelet and held out her wrist. The new monk looked down and nodded at her motioning for them to wait.
"See man, I freaking told you." Bart said.
"Told them what?" Oliver asked. "What's going on with you guys?"
"Her wrist." Bart said. "There is something on her wrist. She's been wearing that bracelet since she got back, everywhere man, I've never seen her take it off, but she did now twice, she showed them something."
"Bart give it up." AC said. "What you think she's showing them her dark mark and leading us into Voldermort's lair?"
Oliver chuckled slightly but turned around to see Chloe snapping the bracelet back on. Bart was right, she'd had that thing on since she got back and he couldn't remember her ever taking it off. There was nothing special about it. It was a simple black leather band, about two inches thick with three snaps holding it on her wrist.
"First of all." Bart smiled. "You just showed us how much of a dork you really were." AC glared at him. "Second of all, dark marks are on the left arm, and not on the wrist."
Victor and Oliver turned to Bart who shrugged. "So I like Harry Potter." Chloe walked back up to them and smiled.
"They're gonna give us food and shelter for the night and tell us how to get back to town tomorrow." She looked at them. "This is a holy place guys, a sacred place. Don't act like yourselves ok, we are guests here, you'll be polite and honor these men who are kind enough to help us out. You will not wear shoes inside, you will not speak during prayer time, and you will not ask for seconds at diner. They are gonna bring some robes out for us to wear, leather isn't really big with these guys."
"They can shave my head if they've got a fire going." Bart said. Chloe glared at him and he mimed zipping his mouth up. One of the monks came back with five orange robes and Chloe bowed taking them and passing them out to the guys. They threw the robes on over their clothes and then took off the leather outfits and handed them to a monk, who held them as if they were poisonous and led them inside.
Miraculously all the guys, especially Bart were quiet during prayer time, which to everyone's surprise Chloe joined the monks in. Then they all sat down for diner. Number 16 was acting as their guide of sorts; he spoke enough English so that Chloe didn't have to worry about insulting anyone.
"So are you gonna explain why they're doing all this for us?" Victor asked.
"And what's up with your wrist?" Bart said.
"My wrist?" Chloe asked.
"The bracelet. You've been wearing it since you got back and you never take it off. But you did for these guys." Bart said. "You showed them something."
"Bart." Oliver snapped at him. "Maybe she doesn't want to tell us."
"No." Chloe sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "It's ok." She thought about the last time she'd been in a monastery.
For the first six months her days at Bruce's were practically the same. She got up, ran, sat, did her training and then got the shit kicked out of her by Bruce until it was time for dinner and bed. Her muscles didn't ache anymore which Chloe figured was probably a bad thing because if Bruce found out he would just think of some new torture to inflict on her. Today was different, besides her morning runs she hadn't been outside of Wayne Manor since she got there, but now she was on Bruce's plane and he hadn't told her where they were going or why.
"I'm proud of you." Bruce said. Chloe looked over at him.
"What?" She said confused. Her muscles didn't hurt any more but she wasn't getting any better as far as she could tell. She was still a good twenty minutes behind him on their morning run. She had a real hard time with the sitting and Bruce still kicked the crap out of her on a daily basis. She'd grown accustomed to stepping out of the shower and seeing a black eye, bloody lip and completely purple torso.
"To tell you the truth." Bruce said. "I thought you'd leave that first day." He tilted his head at her. "When I said no coffee."
At the mention of the word Chloe's mouth watered. She hadn't had any coffee since the cup she got from the airport lounge right before she went to the Manor, if she would have known that would have been her last she would have made the trek to a Starbucks. "I guess I'm stronger than you thought." She bristled at the lack of faith he had in her.
"Much." Bruce admitted to her. "But there is so much more for you to learn." He said. "And I just can't teach it to you."
"What does that mean?" Chloe asked leaning forward in her seat.
"It took me years of training to get where I am today. I know you don't have that kind of time, and I don't have that kind of time." Chloe wondered what was going on. Was he taking her back to Star City? To Oliver.
"Bruce."
"I have some friends who are going to help me. Get the more basic stuff out of the way, your martial arts training, getting you into shape." He said to her. "To be perfectly honest I'm starting to feel like an asshole beating the shit out of my ex every day."
"So you're taking me to friends?" Chloe said.
"I'm taking you to the people who trained me." He said.
"You mean the crazy ass Monks who tried to kill you then came back to Gotham and tried to kill it?" She asked concerned.
"No." Bruce laughed. "These are different Monks." He said. "These are the guys that taught me all that Zen crap." He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "They can teach you what you need to know to fight." He smiled. "Then I can teach you what you need to know to be a superhero."
Chloe sat back in her seat. She wasn't sure how she felt about this. She'd come to Bruce for help, not his friends but if this was his way of helping she was going with it. She was a little scared though. She'd gotten used to her routine at the Manor, gotten Alfred to open up a little, gotten Bruce to laugh a few times even. "If you think it's best." She said settling in her seat and staring out the window.
She fell asleep at some point because the plane was landing when she opened her eyes. "We're here." Bruce said unbuckling his seat belt and walking to the door. He opened the ladder and Chloe froze, literally. She'd been wearing a light sweater to ward off the morning chill but outside the plane was a frozen lake, surrounded by frozen trees, surrounded by snow covered mountains. "Come on." He motioned to her and she followed him without question, down the ladder, across the ice carefully and to a long row of steps. "Go up there." He said pointing to the building at the top. "They're waiting for you."
"You're leaving?" She asked her teeth banging together in the cold.
"I'll be back when you're ready." He said. He thought for a second and then pulled her into a hug, kissing her on the forehead before walking back to the plane.
Chloe forced her frozen legs to start on the enormous row of steps to the temple. She didn't look back, even when she heard the plane take off.
She didn't realize that a whole year had passed until Number 20 told her one morning as he was setting up the mats. Days seemed to melt into each other here, far more than they had at Wayne Manor. There she at least had some contact with the outside world. Learning to sit in Bruce's office gave her an inside look at the workings of his company, but here the days flowed together without any distinction except for sleep and even that wasn't a reliable indicator because the Monks would keep her awake for days at a time. There was no routine here either, routine got you complacent, and complacency got you killed.
It was very likely for the Monks to switch her training up in the middle of an exercise just for the hell of it. Then there were times when she would go for weeks doing the same exercise over and over until everything blurred together. Some days were spent doing nothing but sitting. Sitting in the temple, sitting on the lake, sitting in the mountains. Everything was done however with a running commentary on way of the way of the Zen master, parables and sayings were shoved into her head whether she was fighting, training, sitting, or eating.
On the day that Number 20 said she'd been there a year he also said that her training would be different that day, which didn't mean much to Chloe seeing as how her training was different every day. "Sit." He said pointing to the middle of the mat. Chloe nodded and walked to the middle of the mat and sat down. Number 20 bowed to her and left the room.
This was different, generally at least one Monk stayed behind to watch her sit so that if they felt she was zoning out they could hit her in the head with something. At least she figured out where Bruce got that from. She closed her eyes and started her breathing exercises, closing out everything around her and listening to the sound of her breathing, centering herself, calming herself.
She had just gotten into her meditative state when she heard something, something faint coming from somewhere in the temple. All the monks were in the mountains on a pilgrimage. Number 20 was the only one who stayed behind to watch over her but he'd left. She heard something again and calmly as if she hadn't heard a thing she kept her position. Someone was here in the temple and she didn't want them to know that she knew they were there.
The Monks did this every now and then. They would jump out at her whenever she was in a relaxed state, about to go to bed, walking from one place to another, they would test her. She figured that's what was happening now. She took deep breaths, keeping a mental track of the sounds she was hearing, weeding out the ones she knew were supposed to be there, the breeze hitting the lotus tree, the mouse in the corner, the lake down the path. She picked out the sounds that were not supposed to be there, the small thunk above her head in the rafters, the squeak that emitted from the board fourth from the alter when someone stepped on it, the small crunch of shoes on the workout mats, the noises that had no place in the temple.
Chloe breathed with her eyes closed, adjusting the height of the intruder based on the shadow that covered the sun from the east windows, the weight of him based on the pressure put on the mat. She felt the slightest of breezes on her earlobe and threw her hands up in the air, connecting with an arm that had been in an arc straight for her head. She pulled down and felt the weight of her attacker fall to the mat as she scrambled up, opening her eyes. Excepting to see Monk number 20 she momentarily froze when she saw the man completely dressed in black. That was all he needed, she was still holding on to his arm so he used that to pull her down and himself up. She put her head back in the fight and extended her leg, catching him in the elbow and forcing him to let go. They both rolled to opposite ends of the mat and jumped up circling each other.
This was not Number 20, or any of the other Monks for that matter. This guy was all dressed in black and had his face covered with a ski mask. He was quick, well trained and for a second and only a second Chloe contemplated that this could still be a test, until he grabbed a sword off the wall and headed toward her. She took a calming breath and evaluated her surroundings, she could bet on the chance that she knew this place better than the strange ninja that was attacking her and crouched quickly, rolling through his legs to come out on the other side of him.
She jumped up before he turned around and grabbed another sword off the wall. He studied her for a moment and then attacked. They fought their way through the temple and outside to the grass. Neither one getting the upper hand, both struggling to keep up with the other until Chloe had a lucky moment and the ninja slipped on a rock in the Zen garden. She knocked the sword out of his hand as he fell and watched it clatter down the steps like a slinky. Her short distraction however cost her and he managed to regain his footing and knock her sword out of her hands and send her sprawling to the ground. She grabbed onto his shirt at the last second and the both of them went tumbling down the steps after the sword, the both of them bumping their heads and arms and legs as they wrestled with each other. The ninja trying to get Chloe to let go and Chloe trying to hold on as tight as she could. They both landed at the bottom, a few feet away from the lake and laid there assessing the damage and making sure there were no broken bones. Chloe heard the ninja grunt and pulled herself to her feet. She walked over toward him and as he started to pull himself up she kicked him in the side, sending him rolling a little more right to the edge of the lake. He rolled over onto his back and Chloe put her foot on his neck. "What do you want?" She asked, her breath coming fast as she grabbed her arm, almost positive she'd broken it in the roll down the steps.
The man reached up and pulled the hood off of his head and smiled. "You're ready." Bruce said smiling at her. She moved her foot from his neck and reached out a hand. He looked at her then grabbed it and allowed her to pull him up. They turned around to make their way back up the steps, Bruce holding onto his left leg like Chloe held onto her arm. They headed back up to the temple only to see the Monks standing at the top nodding at Chloe. She lowered her head and trudged up. "Crazy ass Monks." She said to herself as she went to gather her things.
There was one more thing she needed Number One told her. They were throwing her was would constitute a going away party, as much of a party as Monks ever had she supposed. He brought her over to Number 5 who was sitting by a table full of very small needles and a vial of ink. "You're giving me a tattoo?" Chloe asked. "Does this mean I'm part of the gang?"
Bruce chuckled. "Sort of." He held out his hand and showed her his right wrist and she figured if Bruce did it, she could do it. She nodded at Number 5 and he dipped the needle in ink and motioned for her hand. She took a deep breath and gave it to him.
"Chloe." AC said and she snapped out of her memory.
"I trained with a group of Monks when I was gone." Chloe said putting a piece of bread in her mouth. "They taught me, most of what I know now. This group is part of the same family I guess you could call it. When I explained to them that I'd lived with their brothers and showed them my wrist they allowed us sanctuary." Chloe said.
"What's so special about your wrist?" AC asked. Chloe took a deep breath and held out her hand, she unsnapped the leather band slowly and Oliver grabbed her hand.
"You don't have to if you're not ready." He told her.
"It's fine." Chloe assured him. She removed the leather and flipped her wrist over. The guys all looked down and saw four Chinese symbols tattooed there. Oliver reached over traced each one then looked up at her.
"What do they mean?" He whispered.
She looked over at Number 16 and he nodded jumping in with an explanation. "When you complete your training, you are marked, a signal of your completion." He took her wrist and pointed to the first one. "This is the symbol of the monastery where she was trained." He pointed to the second one. "This is her number 47."
"What's with the numbers?" Oliver asked.
"Names have personality, ego, they separate us from the whole, make us different." Number 16 said. "They give us numbers instead, it's supposed to hinder individuality and tap down your ego. We keep a reminder of our number to separate us from our ego."
Chloe shrugged. "The same thing with the robes. Problem is having separate numbers is just like having separate names as far as I'm concerned. I never really got into the whole Zen thing."
"What about these two?" Oliver asked looking at the other two symbols.
"These apparently represent my soul, my destiny." Chloe looked at them.
"In every monastery there is a monk who is trained to look into the soul." Number 16 said. "He sees your true person, your destiny, what you are and what you will become."
"What do they stand for?" Bart asked.
"This one means Guardian?" Chloe asked Number 16.
"The one who watches over." He added.
"And this one is for Healer." Chloe said and Oliver looked up. "You want to know the really strange part? I didn't tell them anything." She smiled at Oliver. "About my role as Watchtower or my meteor powers."
"How did they know?" He asked as she snapped the bracelet back on.
"Number 5 was always a freaky son of a bitch." Chloe laughed. "Always saying cryptic things that no one understood. But every now and then he'd say something so personal and you'd have no idea how he knew about it."
"Maybe he had his own meteor powers." Oliver offered.
"Maybe he was truly enlightened." Chloe said. "Who knows."
"Why do you hide them?" Oliver wondered.
"I don't know." Chloe said. "It's not something I want to advertise, it seems personal to me for some reason, I'd rather not have people ask about them." She looked at the guys. "I wasn't sure if I was ready to have you ask about them."
"I'm sorry." Bart had the decency to look ashamed.
"It's ok." Chloe smiled at him. "I want you guys to know where I've been, what I've done, you just got to understand it may take some time, and sometimes you might have to force it out of me."
"We can do that." Victor said.
Another monk came and whispered something to Number 16. He turned to Chloe. "Number 1 would like to speak to you."
Chloe nodded at the guys and stood up, following Number 16 to the lead monk. They talked for a minute and Chloe looked over at another monk who nodded and bowed at her. She shook her head and chuckled a bit before heading back to the guys. "Number 20 over there seems to have the same freaky power here Number 5 did at my monastery." She looked over at him again. "Number 1 says that Number 20 knows what we're doing here."
"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.
"He says he knows what we're doing, he knows that we stopped death palace." Chloe sighed.
"The death palace?" Bart looked at the monk and then back at Chloe. "I don't know how well his powers are working, but I'm sure we don't know anything about a death palace."
"Lex's Lab." Oliver said. "They know about it?"
"He says they take people from the village and do something to them. They come back a few days later and they're fine but then they get sick and they die." Chloe shrugged. "They also say that despite the leather, if we stopped the death palace, we might not be so poorly reincarnated."
"You might even make it up to cow." Number 16 nodded enthusiastically and Victor and AC had to stop themselves from chuckling.
Oliver looked over at Number 20 and nodded his thanks. They all slept soundly that night and in the morning were given their leather clothing back and a day's worth of rations as Number 16 told them how to get back to town. "Should be a half a day's walk from here." Chloe said. "We got ourselves pretty turned around out there, we were closer than we realized."
"Sorry guys, if I could have super speeded I would have saved us a lot of trouble." Bart said.
"It's not your fault Bart." Oliver assured him. He was actually happy for the little detour, it gave him a change to get some insight into where Chloe had been, what she'd done.
"How are you feeling today?" Chloe asked concerned.
"Pretty good." He said. "Like I could run a thousand miles."
"When we get away from the monks, go for it." She told him.
As they started to leave Number 20 grabbed Oliver's arms and said something to him. "I'm sorry I don't understand." He shook his head. Number 20 looked at Chloe to translate. She nodded and thought for a second.
"Um he said you are a great leader?" She repeated the word to Number 20 who shook his head and Chloe searched for the right word. "A selfless leader. And…" She looked at Number 20 again and he repeated the second half. Chloe smiled and looked up at Oliver. "And if you trust in your Guardian, you will find the Justice you seek."
Number 20 nodded and then walked back to the monastery. "How did he know?" Oliver asked confused.
"I told you, freaky son of a bitch." Chloe laughed and her and Oliver met up with us the other and started the trek to town.
Oliver sent everything they'd gotten from Lex's lab to his lab as soon as they got back and the stuff from the guards gun. Chloe and Victor decided to divide and concur, Victor taking the hard drive and Chloe going over the medical records and test results that Bart had gotten from the labs. "It's a cure." Chloe said flipping through different medical files and everyone stopped and turned to her. "Well not so much a cure, it's a suppressant. He's found a way to suppress powers. He must have gotten the formula from that lab, you remember the one Cassandra sent us to?"
"We've been watching that place, still. There's no way Lex got anything from them." Oliver shook his head.
"Maybe he got there on his own." AC said.
"But it doesn't work right?" Bart asked hopefully. "I mean it wore off after a day."
"It's not permanent. But it's supposed to last for three months. You were just able to metabolize it faster than anyone else would."
"So that's why it didn't bother me?" Victor asked leaving the computer to come look at Chloe's files. "Because I have no powers to suppress."
"It looks like it's harmless to normal people; it just affects those with powers." Chloe said passing the files to Oliver who was standing over her. "Is that possible?"
"My lab looked over the stuff we got." Oliver said. "They stuff from Lex's lab wasn't complete. Like he made it in two or more components and he doesn't keep them all at the same place and it's taking them a while to break down what we got from that gun."
"So it's not harmful?" AC asked. "But then why were the villagers dying?"
"The villagers didn't have any powers." Chloe said. "They were injecting them with meteor solution, then injecting them with the cure and then taking biopsies and blood samples to study the effects." Chloe sighed. "The combination of the meteor solution and the cure, on top of the biopsies is probably what killed them. It didn't seem like they were trying to be careful or even sanitary about the procedures."
"So they most likely died from infection of the biopsy site." Oliver said.
"That's what I think." Chloe sighed. "If he's mass producing this, putting it in weapon form…"
"We don't know that yet." Oliver warned her not to think so pessimistically. "Let's not jump to conclusions."
"Your right." Chloe said. "I'm just tired."
"We're all tired." Victor said.
"Let's just take a break." Oliver sighed. "We won't know anymore until we get the lab tests back and I've been working you guys pretty hard recently."
"Because Lex has been working pretty hard recently." Chloe pointed out.
"I'm gonna head home, get some sleep. Maybe revisit this stuff in the morning." Victor logged off the computer.
"I'll come with you." AC said.
"I'm gonna go get some dinner." Bart said. "Anyone want to join?"
"No thanks I think I'm just gonna relax here." Chloe said.
"I'm not that hungry." Oliver said and Bart nodded before getting into the elevator with the others.
Oliver sat on Chloe's couch and leaned back sighing. Chloe grabbed her laptop and the hard drive that Victor had gotten and sat down next to him. "You don't have to go through that now." Oliver said. "I know you're tired."
"I want to. Without the full formula, this is all we've got." Chloe assured him. "But you don't have to stay, you can sleep." She said.
"No, I'm good." Oliver said as his breathing slowed and his eyes closed.
Chloe looked over at him and smiled. She'd bet her company on the fact that he was out cold in five minutes. Two hours later Oliver was spread out on her couch and Chloe was at the printer pulling papers out. She walked back to the couch, looking over them and lifted Oliver's feet, sat down, and put his feet back down in her lap as she yawned. "Chloe go to bed." Oliver mumbled as he rolled over on the couch.
"Ok." She said to him, not really paying attention as she went over the papers, pretty sure she could last for a few more hours. Thirty minutes later Chloe was spread out on top of Oliver fast asleep, her head on his chest and her papers scattered over the floor.
Chloe started to wake up the next morning to the smell of fresh coffee. She stretched and rolled over onto her back, only to remember that she was on the couch and there was nowhere to roll over to. Before she slammed into the ground someone caught her around her waist and she opened her eyes to see Oliver leaning over and holding her up.
"If you guys slept in a bed you wouldn't have that problem." Victor said from the kitchen where he was waiting for the coffee to finish. Oliver slowly lowered Chloe to the ground and she pulled herself up and popped her back very loudly. "And you're back would love you."
"What time is it?" Chloe asked as Oliver stood up and stretched.
"Six." Victor said. "Figured I'd get an early start on that stuff." He looked at all the paper scattered around. "Looks like you beat me to it."
"I've got to jump in the shower." Chloe yawned. "I've got a few meetings at work today but I can be back later to help you."
"No worries." Victor said. "I don't have anything else to do."
"I'm gonna head home and get ready for work too." Oliver grabbed his jacket and headed to the elevator. "Lunch today?"
"Sure." Chloe said grabbing the cup of coffee Victor was holding out to her. She took a sip of the coffee and notice Victor was smiling at her strangely. "What?" She reached for her hair, expecting it to be standing straight up or something.
"Nothing." Victor said but his eyes cut to the couch.
"We fell asleep." Chloe said to him. "It was nothing."
"I didn't say anything." Victor walked to the computer.
"Shut up." Chloe said on her way to the bathroom.
"Didn't say anything." Victor smiled to himself as he started where Chloe left off.