It was a Monday like any other as Lex rode the executive elevator to the top level of Lexcorp plaza. He tuned out the mellow jazz music as he mentally reviewed his game plan for the upcoming board meeting. He knew the board would object to the new takeover. They saw the vulnerable offshore drilling company as a poor move for the company image. He saw it as a priceless opportunity to get Lexcorp an independent fuel share.

Well, let them whine about some fish, I'll crush them all into tin cans.

The elevator doors opened and he strolled into the executive lobby towards the Boardroom. As he made his way through the impeccable marble-clad lobby, he took a moment to admire the large new wall logo. He had only just had it installed. He liked the new design with the x buried in the L. He thought it better reflected that this was his company. Not his father's, not even his sister's.

His.

The only complaint anyone had dared utter was that the huge logo took up most of the wall, leaving only a small space for the television in the waiting area. His staff thought that made it seem as if keeping visitors happy while they waited wasn't very important. He smiled mockingly to himself. It wasn't, really. If they were waiting out here, they were supplicants, not visitors. Maybe he should remove the TV altogether.

He glanced at the area off to the side where the expensive flatscreen hung over a collection of well-appointed leather chairs. The TV was on and set to one of those horrible Celebrity Buzz shows. He frowned. He should ask Gina to set the channel to something more appropriate. He hated those shows. They were an expensive PR nightmare, though he had long ago ceased to care about anything they said.

Then he saw Her.

He froze instantly, staring at the screen.

Chloe.

It was Her. It was really Her!

Something stirred inside him at seeing her, something he had thought dead and gone.

Something he had tried to kill over and over again, only to find himself lost without it.

Chloe was alive and whole in the world.

"Mr Luthor, if you will follow me, the Board is waiting..." Gina interrupted his thoughts.

His hand flashed up to silence her with a gesture and a sharp, "Shh!"

His eyes never shifted from the screen.

Oh God. She really was that beautiful.

The TV host chattered on about the picture with obvious delight, "Billionaire Environmentalist Oliver Queen, also known as The Green Arrow, and his elusive wife, Chloe Sullivan-Queen, have filed for divorce after their three-month separation. The couple is seen here at a charity event earlier this year shortly before separating."

In the picture she was in a purple floor-length gown. In her bright hair, a red-and-teal butterfly wing hairclip flashed.

His breath stopped. The clip!

She was smiling at the camera, but it wasn't the bright, wide smile from his fantasies. It looked brittle, forced. There was a tightness around her eyes that hinted that not all was well in her world, but otherwise she looked...whole.

The marital problems would account for the tightness, but otherwise it looked like her.

Wait. She had married Oliver Queen?

His first thought was that she must have been after the money. But no...this was Chloe. She had never been the least bit interested in money. If he had never been able to buy her, he doubted Queen could have managed it. She was more interested in truth, which was something he had failed to give her in the end.

Funny thing, that. She knew of his darkness and hadn't run away. It was only when he broke her trust that she left.

Had Oliver Queen given her the truth she sought? Could she have married...for love?

He thought of the hairclip he had seen her wearing in that picture. The clip he had given her. She still wore it.

Had she really loved Oliver Queen? Or...had she settled?

His lips quirked in evil delight at the thought. Settling...for Oliver Queen. The idea tickled Lex's fancy as much as he knew Oliver would loathe it

His thoughts had distracted him from the TV. He looked back at it again, hoping to see more of her, but the host was now yapping about some country singer.

Didn't matter anyway.

She was alive and whole. He knew who she was, and where to find her.

Gina was still standing silently next to him, wringing her hands and glancing apologetically through the glass of the Boardroom to the waiting group.

He ignored them all. He spun on his heel and strode back towards the elevator.

"Mr Luthor!," Gina called after him.

"Call my jet. Tell them we take off in twenty minutes."

"But Mr Luthor, the board meeting!"

He spun around and pointed at the huge new logo on the wall.

"That is my name on the f***ing building! They work for me! Reschedule."

He spun back around, marching to the elevator.

He jammed his finger hard on the down button, hoping the force of the push would somehow speed up the machine.

He heard Gina gulp loudly even from across the room. "Where should I tell the pilot you are going?"

"Star City."

After a short detour back to the loft for something...

A ding sounded. The elevator doors retreated back and he stepped inside.

His last view as the doors closed again were the open-mouthed gapes of Gina and the board members.


At last, he had found her...by chance of all things. All his power, all his money, and he hadn't found her. Truthfully, couldn't face finding her...if she had been broken. But chance, or fate, or whatever had stepped in, giving him another shot. He wasn't going to walk away this time. He still didn't know what had happened at Black Creek or since, but whatever it was, hadn't broken her.

There was still hope for him. For her. For them.

This whole time he had been unable to determine what exactly the visions were trying to show him, but now he finally understood their mad reasoning. He and Chloe were strong enough to survive apart, but were...incomplete.

In that light, the pieces of the sendings were finally making sense. They weren't just about getting him to find her. They were about what she was for him. To him. Telling a story, with layers of intention woven throughout. To show him how it had been - the heat, the need - not just for him, but for her too. Even during the fights, she had been a match for him. Accepting that, he now understood why he had failed so utterly to make her into something she wasn't - something he could dominate. He now understood why the visions focused so heavily on how it had been when he stopped trying to control her, and just...was.

Seeing her on that screen finally made him understand. They had been stronger together. He never should have tried to subdue her. Any woman that could be his equal should be valued as such, and not bridled into being something...lesser.

Why hadn't he seen that before? That last awful vision finally made sense. In his quest for power and control, he had shattered them. He wasn't exactly sure what he had done, but he knew he had broken her trust doing it. That had been the end. The only woman to ever match him, and he had driven her away.

Away, but not down. Not like him. He should have realized how strong she was.

He should have known she was resilient enough to survive Black Creek. After all, she had withstood him.

He had fared much worse losing her. When he had broken her trust, he had destroyed himself. She was the only light in him and he had extinguished it. No wonder he had gotten so lost. No wonder he had died and come back a shell. His light was gone.

He wasn't a Phoenix. He was Frankenstein's monster. He had died and come back, but he hadn't arisen as he liked to think. He had been dragged back as an abomination - just a collection of remade body parts and jagged memory, thanks to his father and Tess. Without Chloe, he was a body with no soul - a true monster. She was his soul. He'd been a fucking idiot and lost her time and again because he hadn't understood that basic truth.

Well, he could finally make it right.

His mind may still be blank, but it was finally clear. He would find his soul.

Finally.