Chapter Text
Title: Through a Glass, Darkly
Rated: R
Authors: 
dl_greenarrow and 
chloeas
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.
Through a Glass, Darkly (Prologue)
It was almost over.
Whatever that meant.
At that point, one way or the other, as long as they got the yellow sun shining again, she didn't care how it ended as long as it ended. It had been a long year, a long year of fighting the soldiers of Zod, a long year of living like rats, underground, hiding, surviving any way they could, but above all, resisting. For their world. Because even though Clark had abandoned them, Lois had been gone, Jimmy was dead, she knew that somehow, they could still stop Zod and stop the Kandorians as long as they fought back.
Finding Oliver again had given her more hope, a group of Kandorian soldiers had been about to enslave humans and Chloe, along with a couple of others that she had already managed to recruit, had stopped them. It was the first time she had tried kryptonite bullets on Kandorians, an idea she borrowed from a guy from High School, the problem was that most of her men were not incredibly familiar with guns, but they had managed to free the fifteen humans that were being held captive by Zod's man. To her surprise, one of them had been none other than Oliver himself.
It was only ten months ago, but it felt like ages. Having him fighting by her side, helping her recruit, training the team not only in archery, but how to fight and how to protect themselves, she had no doubt they wouldn't have made it this far without his help.
Chloe watched as Clark and Lois left the room, she still didn't want to trust Clark, he had turned his back on everyone, even when she and Oliver went after him, after he lost his powers, to try and have him help them, but soon, it wouldn't matter anymore, the yellow sun would rise and Earth would have Clark to protect them again, and the humans that were left would rid Earth of the Kandorians and help get their planet back to its feet.
Folding the maps, she glanced at Oliver, "I hope he doesn't turn his back on us again."
"That makes two of us," he responded, exhaling slowly. He was silent for a long moment, then he moved to her side, helping her finish folding the maps and tucking them away safely. He could only hope they wouldn't need them again. He could only hope that after tomorrow, everything would be turned around and they would be free. But it seemed like nothing tended to go their way.
Mercy was dead.
His brain still hadn't fully absorbed that. Some part of him knew that she'd brought it on herself. That Chloe had done what he'd been unable to do because of what she'd meant to him. It still left him feeling empty and cold. If he dwelt on it long, he wasn't sure he'd be able to focus on anything else.
Instead, he reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "We've done all we can for the night."
"We'll leave the others here tomorrow, if we don't succeed, I want William and Sophia to go in, they know about the Watchtower and maybe they can get it to work, I will tell them about the plan before we leave." She told him firmly, they needed a back-up plan, there was no telling what would happen, if they couldn't make it to the Watchtower, someone else had to.
He nodded slightly in agreement. They'd learned in the last ten months that they always needed a back-up plan, and they always operated with one in place. "All right."
With a deep sigh, she nodded, looking at him for a second then reaching to unbuckle her belt as she started towards their room, for the night, she wasn't their leader anymore, all of her men and women were resting, everyone was underground and their headquarters were surrounded by kryptonite, for now, they were safe and she could just be Chloe. Or what was left of her.
"It can end tomorrow," she said quietly once they were inside, no one would bother them in there unless there was an emergency, this was the only place she allowed herself to just be, she didn't have to be reassuring or strong, she could be afraid and have doubts and wonder if they would be alive to see another day.
Wordlessly he moved up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist and pressing a soft kiss to the back of her head. He shut his eyes. "Here's hoping," he said just as quietly.
Carefully, she let the belt that held her weapons slide to the floor and leaned back into him, closing her eyes and sighing deeply. They kept their relationship a secret and even if one of their men suspected it, no one had said anything. It was the only comfort they had, to know that they had both survived another day and that they were still together, and they didn't want to share that with anyone.
After a moment, she turned in his arms, looking up at him, "we will still have a lot of work to do when it ends."
He nodded slightly, gazing down at her. "One step at a time," he reminded her quietly, lifting a hand to her face and gently brushing a kiss to her forehead. He shut his eyes and leaned his head against hers for a long moment. "Right now it's just us." It was something he said to her every night, part of their secret, private ritual. The first night he'd said it to her was the first night they'd made love. He'd never been great with words, but it was the one thing he said that somehow always managed to calm her mind a bit.
It always worked, Oliver was the only link she had to normalcy, the only connection to life before Zod, the only person who knew who she really was and who saw her as more than the leader, he knew all of her and that phrase meant that she could be all of it, that he was there and no one else. With a slightly nod, she lifted her hand cup his face as she watched him, she didn't know what was going to happen when it was finally over, but she had the feeling this, them, it wasn't going to change anymore. They had survived hell together, there wasn't much that could be stronger than the connection they shared.
"Just us," she whispered, finally closing her eyes too, it was also part of their ritual, the reassurance that he was there with her, and she was there with him and for the time being, they didn't have to worry about anything or anyone else. It was a nice lie to hold on to, one they needed to survive day after day. That one moment of peace when they were alone.
He dipped his head and kissed her softly on the lips, one hand tangling gently in her hair. "Just us," he echoed, his voice barely audible.
Chloe lifted a hand to his shoulder then, on her tip toes, leaned closer to kiss him again, slowly, gently, the thoughts of Zod, Clark and even Lois disappearing from her mind, all she could think of, all she wanted to focus on was the man standing there with her, because he was the one person she was confident would never turn his back on her, would never disappoint her.
Oliver pulled her closer to him, deepening the kiss even as he walked them backwards toward the mattress on the floor. He needed this time with her, needed her more tonight than he ever had because tomorrow it would all be over one way or another. There was little doubt in his mind about that. "Chloe," he murmured. "If something happens to me, I need you to know--"
Her chest tightened at his words and she held her breath, keeping her eyes closed and tightening her hold on him, "I know." She whispered before opening her eyes and looking up at him, her gaze holding his intensely, "I know." She repeated.
He held her gaze just as intensely, nodding slightly before lowering her down onto the mattress and covering her body with his own.
They hadn't said the words, in fact, they didn't talk much at all when they were alone. There wasn't much to say and words didn't mean nearly as much as having each others' arms to fall asleep in. She knew it, he knew it. That was enough. There was no telling when they were going to lose each other, with the lives they led, it wasn't a matter of 'if', it was a matter of 'when', so they made the best of the time they had left, when they could.
This time, however, there was something she needed to talk to him about, something that had just occurred to her "wait," she whispered, waiting for him to look at her and looking up at him. Reluctantly and gently, she slid from under him and sat up, if she had to give him orders, she couldn't do it with him laying on top of her, and if this happened, he had to follow through with the plan that was just starting to form in her brain.
Whatever it was, was obviously serious given the look on her face. He sat up, as well, quiet and studying her intently. "What is it?"
"The ring," she told him, turning to face him, "Oliver, if we fail tomorrow, if we can't hack the towers, we still have the ring and no matter what happens, one of us needs to take it from Zod, we can go back in time, change things," she paused, holding his gaze, "maybe even stop this whole thing from happening."
He swallowed hard, then nodded slowly. "All right. Then that's our Plan C."
After watching him for a moment, she took a deep breath, her expression became more determined as she knew the next part of the conversation was going to be much harder, "if we try to hack it and we don't succeed, they will notice and they will come right to us, if something happens, Oliver," she said firmly, "if anything happens, I don't want you to stop, I want you to keep going, I want you to focus on finding Zod and finding the ring, don't waste time with things that could only get you killed."
Chloe had been doing this long enough to know that Zod and the others knew she was the one behind the resistance, there were groups all over the world, but unlike most of them, she knew exactly what was happening and knew exactly how to fight it, and although she did her best to spread the information, it wasn't easy to do. Either way, she knew she had a bright red target on her forehead, she had had it for months and killing Tess, the only human Zod trusted, only made it worse, she had no doubt of that. But an attempt on the towers, to try and take away the powers from every single one of the Kandorians that walked the Earth, she didn't expect to make it for longer than a couple of minutes. The second they knew someone had tried to, or someone had successfully hacked their towers, she had no doubt they would be coming for her.
The words seared through him like she'd shot him with one of the arrows and he stood up abruptly, moving away from her, and away from what was laughingly called a bed. He rubbed his hands over his face. She'd asked a lot of things from him over the last few months, and he'd done as she'd asked with no hesitation at all--ever. No matter what the circumstances had been, he'd followed her directions, taken her orders. But this? What she was asking? It was too much to think about right then. He shut his eyes, his shoulders slumped a little. "Chloe..."
"No, Oliver," she stood up too, she knew it was a lot to ask, too much even, she didn't know if she could turn her back on him if he was injured, but this wasn't about saving themselves, it was about saving their world, and they were two of the very few people who had a chance of actually doing it, "no matter what happens, you have to keep going. If the red sun is still up, you have to keep fighting, do you understand?" Her voice was firm, the thought of leaving him behind made her stomach clench, but she had to think as a leader, not a lover.
He kept his eyes closed for a moment, knowing she was right, no matter how much he hated it. It wasn't about them. It had never been about them. "I know," he said quietly, slowly turning to face her. His gaze was intense. "And I know you'll do the same if it's the other way around."
Holding her breath and his gaze, Chloe nodded shortly, "what needs to be done, that's all that matters." Or it was what they had to keep telling themselves in order to keep going.
Oliver didn't want to talk anymore. Instead, he reached out and hauled her against him, kissing her urgently. Tomorrow may be damned before they ever saw it, but tonight, at that moment, they were together. And that was all that mattered right then.
Relieved, she wrapped her arms tightly around him, clinging to him as much as she could, that could be the last time they were together, the last time they were in each others' arms, they last time they made love. Made love because they knew they loved each other, that this was as close to happiness as they would get.
When he laid them down on the mattress again, she wrapped her legs around him, pretending for one last night that each other was all they had to worry about.