Erase: Chapter Thirty-Five (35/?)
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Summary: After Chloe is found siphoning money from Oliver's company in order to purchase Kryptonite weapons, she realizes that she losing her sense of humanity. She decides that the only way to escape from who she is becoming is to erase her memories and start over. Oliver has 4 months to stop her before it's too late.
Spoilers: Up to Conspiracy, and then I write my own way.
POV: First chapter is Chloe-centric, and then Ollie-centric for the rest of the journey
Chapter Thirty-Five
Days without Chloe Sullivan: 82.8
Oliver found himself out of Bart’s apartment as quickly as he found himself inside of it. It was dark outside when Bart sped him out and went back for a second to pick up Mia.
He wished that he had his gear with him right now- all he had to defend himself with was the pathetic little gun in his hand. He still hadn’t forgotten the tanks that came after him earlier. Not to mention the children. He saw the swarm of children from his little corner in the dirt.
Was he supposed to be able to kill them now? Is that what Bart’s little pep talk was supposed to do for him? Because he still wasn’t sure if he could do it. Did Bart kill them? How long had he been here? Could he even trust him? Oliver had so many questions for him.
And then, he heard Chloe’s voice in his head. We’re a team. We trust each other, no matter what. If you don’t trust your gut, at least trust that.
***Flashback***
“I worry about them too, you know”, he said to her as he looked at the ninja star in her hand. “I wonder what they’re doing, if they’re safe.”
“They’re safe, Oliver. Absent, but safe”, Chloe answered as she moved over to a computer and started typing after putting the ninja star down. “All we have to do now is make sure that we can say the same thing for Clark.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I don’t know- I just…I think that I would just know if there was something wrong. I would feel it.”
“I have so many questions for all of them. I don’t know what they’re up to. And I don’t trust my gut to tell me if something’s wrong like you do.”
“We’re a team. We trust each other, no matter what. If you don’t trust your gut, at least trust that”, she said, her eyes never leaving the screen. The computer beeped, and she stopped typing. “Got them." She moved a hand to the mouse, and clicked on it twice. "There are heat signatures in that museum right now. And I’m betting that one of them is Clark’s mysterious friend. How are you feeling?”
He surveyed himself. “These?” he asked, looking at the cuts from the glass “It’s nothing. I’ll be fine.”
***End Flashback***
Oliver took a deep breath as Bart and Mia appeared by his side. “Alright, Impulse. Where are we?” he asked
Bart took out his cellphone, and threw it over to Oliver, who caught it with his free hand. He glanced at the map as Bart spoke. “The soldiers should be here any minute.”
“There”, Mia said, pointing. He looked ahead, and sure enough, there was a group of marching soldiers coming. How was he going to spot which one was Sam Lane? He had only seen pictures of him, the latest one dated three years ago.
“Stay close”, he said before looking at the crowd of child soldiers heading towards the Americans. They had to get over to the other side somehow. They couldn’t just run- Bart was the only one who could make it, and there wasn't enough time for Bart to super-speed everyone back and forth. Someone would get left behind. It wasn’t an option.
They had to make their own path somehow. And he wasn’t going to be able to do it with a gun. He didn't want to kill anybody. He looked at Mia. “Give me your bow and quiver for a second. I have an idea.”
She looked at him in confusion before handing her bow. He pressed a button, and the compound bow unfolded. He grabbed three taser arrows, and loaded one. They weren’t designed to kill. They weren’t designed to kill.
He took a deep breath before releasing it and quickly loaded the second, firing it before the first body fell. “Come on”, he said, running ahead and hiding behind another tent after taking grabbing the two arrows from the bodies. Oliver saw Mia run behind him instantly before Bart grabbed her hand and sped over to his side.
“If we can make it over to that side, then we’ll have better luck in finding him. How many trick arrows do you have in here?” Oliver asked Mia
“It’s almost completely filled with them.”
He nodded as he looked at the crowd of people. More trick arrows meant less dead bodies. This was good, especially since everybody seemed to be blending together. Height difference was the only thing allowing Oliver to distinguish sides.
“You had to face your demons if you were ever going to make it out alive.” He heard Chloe’s voice in his head.
He glanced at Mia’s quiver, and then at his own gun. He stuck the arrow in his hand back in the quiver, and threw the compound bow over to her. He couldn’t allow her to run around completely defenseless, and he would rather have blood on his own hands than hers.
Her and Bart, they were only kids. He knew that he was going to feel guilty for killing, but he knew that he couldn’t let anything happen to them. Sacrifices were going to have to be made in order for all three of them to come out of this alive.
“Do me a favor?” he asked both of them. “Don’t judge me for what happens next.”
They nodded. He took out his gun, and fired at a child soldier in order to make a path. He avoided looking at the falling body. “Come on”, he said before running out.
They followed him as Oliver slowly made a path over to the other side. He avoided looking at the dead bodies around him. He couldn't see the General. “Mia, you’ve seen the pictures of the General too. Do you see him around here?” he asked over his shoulder
Mia loaded another trick arrow on her bow. “No. I can’t see him anywhere.”
“We’ll find him, Oliver. He has to be here somewhere.” Bart assured him
Yeah. Hopefully. “I know”, he said, looking around. The only way to find the General is to see every single person here. There were dead bodies covering the ground- there was a chance that one of these bodies could be the General next. Oliver wasn’t going to take that chance; this was the one solid lead that he had left. He wasn’t about to let that slip through his fingers. They had to find him fast.
There was a child soldier headed towards them. The kid was shooting blindly. Good thing his aim was crap. Oliver quickly took out his gun and took a shot. Nothing happened. He was out of ammo. Shit.
He pushed Mia behind him and pulled out her crossbow out from her side before shooting out a tranquilizer dart.
“Nice”, Bart said, impressed as Oliver folded up the crossbow and handed it back to Mia.
He couldn’t help but smile at the remark. It had been a long time since he had been the Green Arrow. But now wasn’t the time to brag. “We have to keep moving. The sooner we find him, the faster we can get the hell out of here.”
“And if he isn’t even here?” Mia asked
That was when he saw General Sam Lane out of the corner of his eye, fighting off a group of child soldiers. He didn’t seem to have changed too much from the pictures. He was covered in dirt, and there was a nasty bruise forming on his cheek, but there he was.
Oliver knew that Bart and Mia were following his trail of vision. “That him?” Bart asked
He nodded silently. “I’m going to need to borrow your compound bow again”, he told Mia.
“I can do it, Oliver. You trained me yourself”, she insisted.
“Mia.”
She let out a sigh, and handed him the compound bow. He removed the taser arrow she had loaded, and pulled out an arrow with a small container of knock out gas. The gas would be released through the impact.
He loaded the arrow, and pulled back the bowstring. He waited for the opportune moment, but it was difficult with all of the fighting going on. There was an entire group on the General, and like before, they had abandoned their weapons and resolved to knocking the man down and punching. He kept the bowstring back.
“Oliver”, he heard Mia’s voice.
“I got it.” He told her
Oliver heard footsteps, and then Bart’s voice. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Oliver shot out the arrow, and heard the whirring noise from the arrow as it was released. He watched as the children fell to the ground. The General didn’t get up from the ground. The knockout gas worked on him too. He shot out another knock out gas arrow so that a small path could be cleared.
They ran over to the General. “Bart, can you bring him back?” he asked
Bart nodded. “I’ll be back for you guys.” He said before speeding off with the man.
Oliver threw the compound bow back to Mia. “I could have handled it, you know”, she told him.
“I wanted to do it.” He answered
There was a large group of children that seemed to spot them in the corner. They were surrounding them all. Oliver pulled out Mia’s crossbow, and they stood back to back. He reached out behind him, and grabbed a handful of darts from the quiver resting on her back. “We just have to fend off these guys until Bart comes back. Hit the guys that are the closest to you, and take the arrow back. We don’t want to leave behind any evidence that we were here.”
“Okay”, Mia answered.
“You ready?” he asked
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go”, he said before shooting out a tranquilizer dart. He ran over to the falling body, and pulled out the dart before turning around quickly and reaching out for the child that was coming closer. He threw the kid onto the ground and punched him before he was knocked unconscious.
He kept an eye on Mia, shooting the child soldiers behind her while trying to fend them off on his own end. He turned his back on her to wrestle a gun out of a kid’s hands and hit him over the head with his own rifle.
He turned back to where Mia was standing a couple of minutes ago, but he couldn’t see her. “Mia?” he called out before running over to where she was. “Come on, Mia, this isn’t funny”, he said again before shooting out another tranquilizer dart.
There were so many of them, but Oliver kept his eyes peeled for Mia. She wasn't on the ground. Where the hell was she?
A hand grabbed his shoulder, and before he could turn around and react, he was gone.