A/N: I do not own Smallville, its characters, or the main plot.
Chapter Five: Oliver Queen
It was the night before the big plan, and Victor, Bart, AC, and Chloe were asleep. Dinah however, was struggling. She was tossing and turning as flashback after flashback haunted her mind.
***Flashback***
Dinah woke up, strapped to a rather uncomfortable chair. She looked around her, and it appeared as if the chair was hooked up to some sort of machine. Great, she thought. I'm going to be electrocuted.
"Rise and shine, princess", a cruel masculine voice drawled.
"Mr. Chang", she acknowledged her kidnapper's presence. The Chinese man paced in front of her as his henchman stood near the door, looking pleased with himself.
"Now, I'll make this pretty simple", Chang said. "Who are you working for?"
"I work alone." She said, strongly.
"Well, that won't do, because you spoiled my plans for tonight, little girl. And I need answers."
His henchman chuckled as he watched his boss hit a button. Dinah winced with pain as the shock filled her body, but she didn't scream. She was tougher than that.
"I'll ask again. Who do you work for?"
"Come closer" Dinah told him. When Chang came closer, she spit in his face. Chang sputtered.
"Insolent. You probably are telling the truth. Who would work with you? You probably have no family", he said, as he punched Dinah in the face.
"No friends", he said, punching her in the stomach.
"And no purpose", he finished, punching her in the face again.
In time, Chang left with only a "she doesn't leave" to his henchman. The henchman nodded as Dinah started to struggle in her seat.
"Give it up, girl. You're not leaving", the henchman told her. Dinah still struggled.
***Flashback***
Hours had passed, and her muscles grew tired of trying to escape. What was a sense of independence became helplessness, and later hope. Dinah felt for her wrists behind her chair until she felt the bracelet.
It was the silver bracelet that her father gave her as a little girl. Dinah realized a month ago that there was a tracking device on the inside of it. She was angry at the team for invading her privacy at the time, and would be later. But right now, she made sure that her wrist was still, hoping that somewhere in the world Oliver was tracking her down, and that she would be found. If anyone could find her, it would be him.
Dinah's solitude in the cell created an obsession with Oliver. Every time the cuts stung, she thought of him and the day that he recruited her. She pushed herself to stay awake with the thought of him rescuing her. Dinah put together a picture of Oliver adorned in his green leather and composite bow, fighting every guard off. Oliver would see what Chang had done to her, and sometimes when the pain was too much to bear, Dinah pictured Oliver puncturing Chang's heart with an arrow.
Eventually, Chang had returned. He had his henchman wheel in the Chinese Water torture device. Dinah didn't know what was happening at first- she had suspected rape when they strapped her down to the table. And then the drops came. Individual cold, seemingly innocent drops of water struck a cut on her forehead exactly as each minute passed.
Dinah was screaming in her head, but still wouldn't say a word. 270 drops later, Victor and Bart came in the room and rescued her. Dinah was completely silent, the only thought in her head being "Where is Oliver?"
And then she saw Chloe. Dinah saw the look of determination in her eyes when Bart planted the bombs and the look of triumph when AC blew up the warehouse. Oliver was nowhere to be found, but that look in Chloe's eyes was identical to his whenever he blew up a 33.1 facility.
***Flashback***
"I can't live without him", Chloe said softly. Shy about her confession, she went upstairs to join the boys.
***End Flashback***
Dinah woke up with a start. She checked the clock and let out a groan. The clock read 1:45 AM. She sat up, and looked around the room. Everyone was sleeping. Dinah glanced over at Chloe, who was sleeping peacefully.
Dinah carefully crept out of the room, and put her black wig on. She went downstairs slowly, as to not wake anyone up, and headed over to the room with all of the computers. Chloe had really outdone herself here- the room was surrounded with monitors and there were neat stacks of paper everywhere.
Dinah took a seat on the floor by one of the stacks and started reading. Each stack was a phase in the plan, and each paper had every single person's role. There were scripts for Roulette, scripts for Chloe to punch in the computer, action scripts for exactly how things should be installed, pictures, people that she hired.
What surprised Dinah the most however, was the section of the room filled with responses. There were sheets upon sheets of paper on the responses that Oliver was going to give Roulette. Everything was planned out, and Dinah could not believe how well Chloe knew Oliver. She had coordinated the entire plan so that it could not fail- there was no room for error. Chloe had calculated everything that he was going to say, down to the word.
Dinah looked around the room, asking herself "How can I even compete with this?" For a moment, she contemplated burning the response stacks- just those stacks and nothing else.
And then she realized that even if the physical evidence wasn't in front of her, she would know about it. And even if the evidence wasn't in front of Chloe, she would probably still remember everything that was written down. Dinah couldn't stop Chloe, no matter what she did: her persistence matched Oliver's. They fit.
***
"Watchtower is online"
"Impulse is online"
"Aquaman is online"
"Cyborg is online"
"Canary is online"
"Roulette is online"
"Alright guys, let's save the Green Arrow" Chloe said into her earpiece.
"Roulette, are you in position?" she asked
"I'm in position. He's drinking and gambling, just as we planned. I'm going to approach him." Roulette answered
"Okay, Roulette is drugging him and leading him to the coffin room. Impulse, I need you to get over there, and place the speakers in the Lex Luthor coffin. I put the voice program in there. I'll be able to type in the script when the time comes, and I'll be able to hear what Oliver's saying."
"Got it", Impulse replied, speeding away.
"Impulse, when you're finished, stop by the Tower and I'll give you the change of clothes. When Roulette brings him over and I give you the okay, change Oliver into the clothes, and stick him into the coffin next to Lex's."
Bart sped over to the Watchtower and picked up the change of clothes.
"Impulse to Watchtower, I'm waiting for the okay."
"Cyborg, I need you to get to the nearest telephone booth. I need you to make it appear able to make a call at first, and then forward it to the message that we created."
"On it", Victor responded.
"Roulette to Watchtower, the CEO is knocked out."
"How long will he stay that way?" Chloe asked
"3 hours. No more, no less."
"We can do three hours. Did you give him the temporary dragon tattoo?"
"Yes. I'm bringing him over to the coffin room."
"Watchtower to Impulse, Roulette is on the way. Get over there. Be careful with the clothes. I gave him a lock-pick so that he can escape."
"Okay." Bart replied. He sped over to the coffin room, and replaced Oliver's clothing.
"Happy Birthday, Oliver. Hopefully later, we'll be able to celebrate as a team", Bart said to his boss and friend, as he reluctantly put him in the coffin.
"Impulse, is he in?"
"Yeah, he's in."
"Canary, I need you to shatter the glass in the room, so that Oliver can escape."
"Done."
"Everyone, get back to the Tower as soon as possible. You can't be seen." Chloe told them.
They all got back to the Tower. "Good work guys." Phase one is complete.
***
Three hours later, Chloe switched on the camera to the building and watched the coffin, and Oliver picked the lock and escaped.
The team was crowded around Chloe's computers and watched Oliver.
"Yelling…now", Chloe muttered to nobody in particular.
"Cue the machine's laughing…Dinah, hand me that script?" she asked
"Got it", Canary said as she handed her the papers. Chloe muttered her thanks, and started typing the script wildly.
"AC, Bart, I need you to get over there right now, and get the car and truck in position." The men nodded, and were on their way.
"Victor, I'm going to have to ask for a favor." Chloe told him
"Name it"
"I'm going to have to ask you to be isolated from the rest of the group for a while. Just hear me out, okay? Tomorrow, Oliver's going to escape. He'll get out on his own, or Clark will help him out. The first place that they're going to go is here, and I'm going to have to help him piece my own puzzle together."
"Okay…" Victor nodded, and she went on.
"When that happens, none of you guys can be here. Oliver will know that something's going on if he sees even one of you guys. And they're going to be keeping me busy in trying to help them, so I won't be able to make sure that the last bits work out. I don't know how long it's going to take, or if I'm going to be involved at all."
"So you need me to make sure that everything happens." Victor said
"Yeah. I'm going to need you to hide behind the bookcase. It's incredibly roomy, and there's a desk in there with a laptop. The laptop is synchronized to these computers, so you'll be able to control everything that happens. And since you're all fully debriefed, you know exactly what needs to happen at exactly what time. And since I don't know if there are going to be any other interruptions, you're going to have to make yourself pretty comfortable in there as soon as Oliver wakes up." Chloe explained
"That's fine- I just want to be involved. Can't be any more involved than that now can I?" Victor asked, with a smile.
"Thank you for understanding. I'm not trying to isolate you; it just needs to be done." Chloe said, giving Victor an enormous hug.
"When you're there, I also need you to plug yourself into the laptop Oliver's going to wind up in a room where men will paint the picture of Roulette trying to steal his money. You need to give the image of all of his money being withdrawn, but only 30 seconds after Oliver puts in his password, so that the men leave. After that, he'll head over here."
"I'll be ready."
"Watchtower, Green Arrow's escaping into the car. We're hitting him with the truck." Impulse reported
"Good. Impulse, make sure that you rescue him just before the collision, and knock him out on the ground before he realizes that it's you." Chloe instructed
"Got it." Impulse replied
"Aquaman to Watchtower, I hit Arrow with the truck. He's been rescued and knocked unconscious. We're heading back."
***
Lois Lane was pissed off. She just visited the Clock Tower with Clark, and found a video-clip of his suicide attempt. And Clark didn't even bother to tell her! She went over the speed limit in order to get to the Talon- Lois needed to vent to Chloe, who was taking an opportunity to put away her dry-cleaning. She stomped up the stairs and opened the apartment door.
"Lois, what happened?" Chloe asked, concerned for her cousin
"Apparently, Oliver tried to kill himself." Lois explained
"Don't you like Clark?" Chloe asked, nervously.
"Yes, but that's not the point! The point is that Oliver didn't tell me, and neither did Clark. Clark was right there when it happened. I was literally at the barn last night with him, and he didn't say a thing!" Lois said angrily.
"Lois, you can't just tell someone that you're going to off yourself, you know. You can't expect Oliver to tell you that." Chloe told her
"No, but I thought that Ollie and I were closer than that. We're friends, Chloe. Friends don't keep friends in the dark like that." Lois said
"Well, you've been kind of busy lately."
"I haven't been that busy. Oliver should have found a way to tell me!"
"Well, maybe if you weren't so wrapped up in your own life, people would tell you these things!" Chloe exclaimed
"Where is this coming from?" Lois asked her
"It's the truth. You and Clark haven't given any thought about anyone else's life for months. It's always all about you- it makes me sick." Chloe said, disgusted.
"I have always been there, Chloe." Lois told her
"Oh really, Lois?"
"Yeah. I have always been there for you, no matter what." Lois said confidently
"Lois, where's Jimmy? Where's Davis, exactly? How did I even get away from him?" Chloe asked her, her body trembling.
"Uh…" Lois said, staring at the floor.
"Exactly. You have no idea. You can't answer any of these questions, because whenever I talk to you about anything, all I hear is 'Chloe, the Blur won't talk to me', and 'Clark's being a pain'. How can I possibly tell you anything? You don't listen!!" Chloe screamed
"Chloe, what happened to you?" Lois asked
"Oh, now you want to know what's going on. You were missing for three weeks, and when you finally came back and I try to tell you, what was occupying your mind?" Chloe asked her
"My meeting with the Blur", Lois said feebly
"Exactly. The Blur- some guy that you've never met before. And me?" Chloe said, pointing to herself "I'm family, and I was panicking every single day. I thought that you were dead." Chloe told her
"Chloe…"
"And while I called the police every day, and rushed to the hospital the moment I heard that you were even alive, you leave to go meet the BLUR?"
"Chloe…"
"Well, here's a newsflash, Lois. The world does not revolve around you. My life does not revolve around the issues of Lois Lane. So while you were meeting the Blur, I was grieving. Jimmy was murdered by Davis, and when Davis tried to kill me, Jimmy used whatever strength he had left to save me." Chloe was crying now, something she was trying to prevent for weeks.
Lois tried to comfort Chloe, but she wouldn't let her. "Don't touch me. It's a little late to comfort poor, innocent Chloe, isn't it? And it's not even that you weren't there- you knew that I was missing, and you didn't even try to help me."
"I asked the Blur to save you" Lois told her.
"But you didn't do a thing. While Oliver- he looked all over the world for me. And when Jimmy died, he came to the funeral. He felt responsible for Jimmy's death because he hired Jimmy to find me."
"I broke into Tess's office to try and find your location, Chloe."
"You tried, but Jimmy was already there. I didn't hear anything about you even leaving the Daily Planet building to look for me yourself."
"That doesn't explain why Oliver didn't tell me about his suicide attempt." Lois said
"You're not dating Oliver. He doesn't have to tell you anything. He thinks that there's a bomb under that pressure plate, he has the choice to walk away from it. He doesn't need your approval." Chloe defended
"You knew?" Lois asked her
"Of course I knew. I'm fixing it." Chloe said, about to leave the apartment
"How? What are you going to do? You don't have a job at the Planet anymore." Lois told her
"I'm not going to do it with a story. I realized a long time ago that there are more important things in the world than writing a newspaper article. You don't need to know the details", Chloe said, grabbing her purse and coat.
"And don't try and follow me. You may be working at the Planet, and they may tell you how wonderful you are, but you're not that good." Chloe told her bitterly, walking out of the apartment.
***
Chloe went back to the Watchtower, as Victor quickly stuck his head out of the bookcase. "Chloe, I just fiddled with the computers to make Oliver appear broke."
"Good work. He's probably on his way here. Cover for me, okay?" Chloe asked, as she handed him specific instructions
"Okay" Victor said, heading behind the bookcase as quickly as possible.
Almost like clockwork, Clark and Oliver opened the doors to the Watchtower within 20 minutes. Chloe did a search on Roulette just for show, and Oliver got mad at her when she refused to give him his gear. She told Clark to stay behind, and gave him the information that she dug up on the Kandorian a day ago so that he wouldn't get in the way of the plan.
When Clark left the Watchtower, Victor came out of the bookcase "Chloe, we have a problem."
"What is it?" she asked, alert
"Lois got a little bit curious. She's over by Oliver's car right now."
"Watchtower to Roulette, my cousin's over by Arrow's car. She's trying to compromise the plan. Bring her over to the warehouse. You're going to have to fight her, but you can handle it."
"You got it Watchtower. This isn't part of the plan- how are we going to use her to our advantage?"
"This is one of the backup plans. Arrow's going to go over to the warehouse and try to kill you. Don't worry; the gun's loaded with blanks. The room that you're going to be in has activated flames. You'll try and light the entire warehouse on fire, and he'll try and save you."
"And if he doesn't? Do I burn alive in a noble effort?"
"He will. But if he doesn't you can deactivate the flames, and all of you can leave."
"Okay, I'll stop your cousin."
***
Chloe was drinking coffee and reading the Daily Planet at a local coffee shop, when suddenly a white chess-piece landed on the table. She glanced at it. It was a queen.
"Nicely played" Oliver said, as she looked at him guiltily. "I started asking myself who knew about Lex, about Toyman, the things I'd given up, what I tried to do. And it all occurred to me- Dinah shattered the glass by the warehouse, Bart rescued me from the car, Victor faked the computers, and Watchtower kept an eye on the whole thing" he said, sitting down at the table and smiling.
"Right?" he inquired. Chloe looked down slightly, and then looked in his eyes- it's time to tell him the truth.
"You were living like you had a death wish, Oliver. You had to face your demons if you were ever going to make it out alive and I had to push you over the ledge in order to pull you back." She explained
Oliver nodded. "Did you have to push with a three-ton truck?"
"I didn't think a tricycle would be a strong enough point" she said, leaning forward. "You're a fighter Oliver. You fought for yourself and a second chance." He smiled
"Chloe, I'm not the only one you put at risk."
She scoffed. "If you're worried about our little club, relax. Don't be- I played my cards close to my chest."
"And Lois- she was what? Just another ace up your sleeve?" He asked.
"No, I never meant for her to get involved. She was chasing after you when she accidentally ended up storming the field. That's when Victoria went off script."
"I could have killed her." Oliver told her
"No offense to your manhood, but I made sure that your gun was loaded with blanks just in case." Oliver smiled at her. Chloe always knew what to do.
"I trust you Oliver." She told him "just…not that much." She drank from her coffee, and Oliver stared at her.
Chloe reached inside her bag, and pulled out a check. "What is this?" Oliver asked
"Oliver, I'm sorry. I had to get the team back together, and they were all located in different areas. I had to power the Watchtower when you were missing. I needed to track down the team, and they all had different issues."
"Issues. Like what?" Oliver wondered
"Bart was in living in Central City as a car mechanic. Don't worry, he wasn't stealing anything. He was making a modest living, but in order to stay honest he stopped eating so much. He lost his powers, and when I found him, I needed to try and jump-start him. He needed a lot of food- $10000"
"It's okay. You did what you needed to do, and Bart has his powers back." Oliver told her
"And then AC, he became a hardcore activist, and got arrested. In order to save him, I needed to bail him out. That was $50,000" she said, miserably.
"That's fine. I would have done the same thing."
"And then Victor, he was reprogrammed by someone that he thought was a friend. He almost blew up the UN building, but we stopped him in time. He was a mess though, and I needed to give him an organ healing upgrade in order to help. And he needed to stay at a hotel. That was $230."
"I would have given him a 5 star hotel."
"And Dinah…she was kidnapped by the Chinese mafia and tortured. Dr. Hamilton took care of her, and she'll be okay. But when he sends that medical bill, I'm sure it'll be outrageous" she finished
"Chloe, it's okay. I would have done everything that you did." Oliver told her
"We borrowed your private jet a couple of times in order to go from place to place, but we tried to limit it. We only went twice, but I don't know the cost of that. And I got Bart to speed us from area to area when it was going to look suspicious. And chances are I'm going to need more money in order for the Watchtower to keep on running. I took out a loan. $100,000. It was almost impossible to get, but I was able to. I don't want to owe you anything, or for our friendship to be materialistic. I didn't mean to take advantage of your money, but I guess looking back at it, I did, and…"
"Chloe. Stop. It's okay. You did it to benefit the team- you didn't decide to randomly purchase a yacht or anything. It was for the good of mankind." Oliver said, taking the loan check and ripping it into a million pieces. He threw the pieces up in the air.
"I know that what you did was right. I have faith in you, Chloe. You didn't take advantage of me." He told her.
Oliver appreciated Chloe's honesty. Her confiding in him created a sense of truth in their relationship that had disappeared before. There was something he still needed to ask her.
"Did Clark know about this?"
She looked at him strangely, relieved that he wasn't mad, and bewildered that he could even think that Clark was involved.
"You can't be serious. Clark would never in a million years risk what needed to be done."
"Well, he's lead a different life than we have hasn't he? I can't expect him to know me like you do. The places that I'd sunk to, the depths that you must have had to go to bring me back- thank you." He said softly
"You proved it to yourself. Even with your face in the gutter, you still had the hero in your heart", she said with unwavering loyalty.
Chloe felt the warmth emanating from his hands as Oliver reached over the table. "You saved my life, Chloe. Both the myth and the man."
Chloe looked at him and saw a new Oliver Queen in front of her. Not the man that couldn't stop drinking or sleeping with random women, but a respectable man that humbly did whatever he could to make the world a better place.
***
When Chloe went back to the Watchtower, she stepped into the kitchen. She swept the shards of what was a broken coffee mug, and threw them in the garbage. She opened up a small box, and smiled at the new mug that took its place.
A/N: I know that a lot of you are probably mad at me for the Chloe/Lois fight, but I needed to fill the gap between Chloe needing to "drop a bomb" on her in the first episode, and Lois suddenly knowing what was going on in her life during "Warrior". I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you're enjoying the story. Please review!
