I apologize for the fact that it took me a few days to update. I've been busy with, well, life-and really dull readings for my paraprofessional counseling and anthropology classes. I received questions . . . and this chapter answers some of them.
Oliver balanced on his hands. Yoga always relaxed his mind and body, and made it easier to work through his issues.
He was pretty sure that it wasn't going to make Chloe believe that he truly wanted her, but it couldn't hurt.
He heard a knock on the door. Fantastic.
He got back onto his feet and walked over to open the door and saw Clark. Oh, this was going to be fun. If Oliver had ever had any doubt whether or not people could be sarcastic in their thoughts, he had just gotten verification that yes, it was entirely possible.
"Do you ever wear a shirt, Oliver?"
"Only when you're not around, big guy." He grabbed a shirt.
"We have a problem."
"Really? We have a problem? Because last time I checked, you're the one who went off half-cocked into a dangerous situation without backup. Doesn't really inspire the whole idea that we're a team."
"Lois and Chloe are missing."
"Wait, what? Buried the lead there, didn't you? What happened?" Oliver felt his heart drop.
"Lex."
"Damn it, Clark."
"This isn't my fault, Oliver."
Oliver seriously doubted that. "Okay, where are they?"
Clark hesitated."It's complicated."
"Why did he take them, Clark?"
"To get to me."
Of course. "Well, then we have to do something about that."
"I don't really think this is the time at all, Lo."
"Why not?"
Chloe laughed mirthlessly, "Well, for starters, Lex probably put some sort of surveillance in this room, just for this moment. Hoping I'd spill everything I know." She didn't say what she was thinking-which was that it didn't actually matter since he'd probably know soon enough.
"Chloe, I always said that you needed to be more careful. Hanging out with those heroes all of the time . . . something bad had to happen eventually."
"Are you blaming this on me?"
"Well, yes. I mean, not only is it your fault for getting involved with all of these vigilantes-" Lois was being unkind and lashing out unfairly. She knew it but she couldn't help herself, she was terrified. "-But you refuse to tell me anything. You're my best friend, and you can't even share your secrets with me."
"It's not that simple. They're not my secrets. These are people who are dedicating their lives to saving others. And a lot of people-evil, governmental and otherwise who would like to get their hands on them."
For the first time, Lois finally understood. Chloe had been forced into this life without any real understanding of what it would mean. Lois reflected, all of the days that Chloe had looked like she wanted to explode from all of the secrets she was forced to keep-and she didn't have anyone to talk to. She was right, they weren't her secrets, but she had to be ever vigilant in making sure that they were protected. And not just from her end, Lois had seen her cousin do damage control at the Planet countless times. "I'm sorry."
"I am too."
They heard the door open. Lex walked in, clapping his hands. "How very touching."
"Which is obviously something you know nothing about. You don't have a sentimental or sympathetic bone in your body."
"Oh, Chloe. When are you going to learn to put a muzzle on that mouth?"
"If you touch her again, I will make you regret it," Lois threatened.
Lex merely smiled-one of those scary, 'he's psychotic' smiles. And this time he smacked Lois.
Chloe and Lois were shackled to the wall. They both struggled against it.
"Whatever happened to you, Lex?" Chloe sounded disappointed. She'd once thought he was better than this.
"I finally realized that in this world you can't just idly sit by and let people lie and take advantage of you, you have to be . . . active. It's something you obviously haven't learned."
"What do you want, Lex?"
"Everything."
"That's a lot to ask for, don't you think?"
"No, you should always ask for more, something that I know you'd like more of. We all want more, right? So why not take it all?"
Clark. The world. Control. Power.
Everything.
"We're just collateral damage, aren't we?" Lois asked, suddenly truly understanding the danger of this situation.
Chloe gulped. "No, we're not. We're bait."
"You are mere tools within a plan much larger than yourselves."
"Because we already have timers," It dawned on Chloe. Once you'd received your timer, you could get rid of it . . . but you couldn't get it back. You couldn't just exchange timers, because the timer only worked with your primary wrist . . . and if removed caused irreparable damage. "You can't use us."
In a strange sort of way, Chloe was happy for that. She'd rather be dead than under the control of Lex Luthor.
"The girl is missing." AC sidestepped nervously.
"What?"
"Lucy-that's her name-she, well, disappeared earlier today." AC had been watching her, helping her to recuperate. So this was his fault-though technically he'd been knocked out-which really didn't make any sense under the circumstances. Why hadn't Lex gone after him then? Maybe he hadn't perfected the mind control timer yet-which was probably a good thing. Victor patted him on the shoulder, as if to show solidarity and tell him that it wasn't.
Oliver sighed. "He's pulling out all of the stops, isn't he?"
"Apparently. What are we going to do?"
"We need to stop him, once and for all."
"You're not going to kill him, Bossman, are you?" Bart asked, stunned.
Olive hesitated, he'd been considering it. "No. I'm not. But I'm going to destroy everything he has, and send him a warning. The world needs to be safe from him. And we're going to need to keep a permanent watch on him."
"It would probably just be easier to kill him," Victor said.
Everyone stopped and looked at him.
"I didn't say we should, I just said it would be easier."
"That's what this is all about, choosing the right thing over the easy thing. We can't stoop to his level now." Clark came out of nowhere. Typical.
"We need to get you a bell. Like the kind they put on reindeers." Everyone just stared at AC.
"Dude, no." Bart said. "More like . . . " He stopped, seeing Oliver's warning look. "Nothing. Yup, we're good. No bells. Then all the bad guys would hear you when you showed up."
"I think we should get back to the point. Which is that there are three women with a crazy man who wants to take over the world. I think that's just slightly more important than arguing about whether Clark needs to add accessories to his already failed heroic costume."
Clark just looked at him, unsure whether he should acknowledge the insult. "I think Oliver's right-we should get to work."
Lex just stared at them.
Then, suddenly, he pulled out a fairly large piece of kryptonite.
This . . . was not good.
"I'm waiting for Clark to show up-along with his little friends. I'm going to try out my new timers on them."
"But Oliver-"
"Yes, he outbid me. That's true. But I did manage to get my hands on some existing timers, and I managed to alter them to suit my purposes."
"But everything was destroyed-"
"No, it wasn't. Little miss Lucy was quite helpful to my scientists-though not by choice, sadly, we just . . . made some adjustments . . . and we're ready for testing. That's why I have the kryptonite. I assume that it'll make it easier to implant him. I'll have my own little league of super minions." Lex said it gleefully.
Lois suddenly sputtered. "Oh my God."
Chloe closed her eyes. Damn. Damn. Damn. Good job, Lex.
"Oh, he didn't tell you, did he? He didn't tell Lana at first either, it's why they never had a chance of working out. That, and he doesn't seem to trust anyone with his secret, does he?" He asked it derisively.
Lois was silent. She had nothing to say to that.
"Lois?" Chloe asked tentatively.
"I don't think-I think I need to internalize for a while. Clark is The Blur, isn't he?" She said it softly, almost as if she didn't quite want verification.
"Yes." Lex said, smiling with a sick sense of humor only he and others of his same . . . disturbed sort seem capable of.
"He's sick."
"Obviously."
Lex knew they were coming. This was a setup. This was a trap. There was absolutely nothing they could do about though, except be careful and stick to their plan.
When they broke into the building-which was unofficially owned by Lex-it was a little too easy.
They took out most of the guards. But that just made them nervous. Because, truly, it was a suspicious sort of thing. It was a trap. So things being easy . . . Would probably not end well.
They split up-Oliver with Clark and Bart with AC, Victor was the gluey mess that was attempting to keep them all together.
"You know, I think we should permanently hire Chloe, and let her do this sort of thing," Victor had suggested. He liked to be in the field.
The others had just looked at him.
"Really not the time, dude." Bart had said.
Clark and Oliver found them together-yet otherwise alone-in some dungeony room.
The four of them just stared at each other.
Clark was debating with himself how to break his secret to Lois when she gave him a look. A look that he understood. She knew. He sighed. No point in keeping up this unnecessary act.
He broke their shackles.
Chloe started to ramble, avoiding looking at Oliver altogether. "Bad news-Lex has Lucy. And he has timers, and he's kind of psychotic. You know, we really have to do something about that. Anyway, you need to get out of here, stat."
They heard a strange, sputtering sort of noise. Some sort of gas started to fill the room.
Suddenly everyone felt a little lightheaded. Then Lex entered from behind them-with kryptonite to subdue Clark, smirking and laughing.
Not good. Really, really not good.
They were all restrained. The lot of them. Lex smiled. "I discovered, sadly, that once implanted, I can't just take it out, and replace it with my own special brand of timer. Which is really just too bad. However, I don't really need Lois and Chloe anymore," he motioned to them-they were locked in a corner of the odd room-it was large and contained various hospital-like beds. Chloe accidentally touched Lucy-and seemed to pass out. No one noticed though, because they were all distracted.
Lex took out a timer-implantation device. "This is specially fitted. I like it, don't you?"
Lucy, the poor girl who was partially and inadvertently responsible for this, started to wake up. Lois, who was actually right next to her, awkwardly gave her a bit of a pat on the head.
Lex stood next to Clark-who looked awful, to be honest, and leaned down to Clark.
Suddenly screams of intense pain and misery rang out.
Oh, and courtesy of a request from a member of the Chlollie livejournal community . . . there will be some actual shirtless Ollie in a coming chapter. I just added in that bit in the beginning because, well, I felt like it.