Reality Crisis

After her talk with Clark, Chloe couldn't help but think about everything that had happened between his time and her time. All of the people they had lost, all of the friend they had made, and all of the evil they had stopped. Not all in their lives was bad, she knew that, but they definitely had had their share of loss.

The most recent one of course, being Jimmy. And that was the one she blamed herself for the most. While Chloe knew she had no more control over Davis' alien side than she did over his human side, she still felt like maybe, if she had stopped him when he asked her to, if she had found another way to truly get rid of the monster when Davis was willing to co-operate, Jimmy and all of the others who had been murdered when he freed himself, would have been saved.

She knew thinking about this was useless, especially now that she was stuck in an entirely different reality, but as she took a walk around the town, she allowed herself to play the what ifs that she always did her best to avoid. Mostly because there was another apocalypse coming, in this place and their own, and she felt like it was incredibly important to learn from her mistakes. This one in particular.

And the lesson was simple, it was one she had been just speaking with Clark about: Not everyone can be saved.

The air was cool, the hint of coppery tang in her mouth telling her that his punch had connected with it's target. She held her arms up, hands balled into fists as a slow grin pulled at Mia's lips. Her eyes left his face and flickered to the knife in his hands. She saw him step forward his arm in motion, but before he had the chance to jab the knife in her direction her foot shot out, the heel of her boot slamming into his shin.

Her grin widened, her body weaving as she sent a roundhouse kick to his arm and knocked the blade clear across the alley. She knew she shouldn't be out there antagonizing the criminal element of Metropolis, Oliver would most likely be furious if he knew, but he hadn't been around lately and Mia was bored.

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When it came to a potential apocalypse Faith's vote was never going to be for a rain of spiders, toads and snakes. Sure it might be ugly and dangerous but there wasn't anything for her to hit. Sitting in the back seat and waiting for something to do wasn't her style. Clean up sucked too. She might be strong but walking around smelling like she'd rolled in dead things was not Faith's style.

You know unless it was because her clothes were full of dust from taking out vampires. Then it was okay.

Soldier boy had stayed a bit to heal up and was off doing his own thing. Captain Jack was somewhere and she wasn't keeping tabs on him. Really. Boredom was not Faith's friend but she kept coming back to it here didn't she? Meditation and all that were fine in solitary but they just weren't doing the trick here.

So she grabbed a bunch of that paint thinner alcohol and sat on one of the cleaned corners to take in the world. Maybe if she got lucky one of those griffon things would land here and give her something to do.

Oliver had always been a light sleeper. He'd had to be, considering the life of his alter-ego. He had to be ready to wake up and fight if someone discovered his identity, or was just stupid enough to break into his apartment. But this morning, he'd awakened suddenly at the sound of a dull thud. And then another. And another after that.

Feeling confused, he sat up on the sofa, wondering why he'd fallen asleep there instead of in his bed, but quickly forgetting his train of thought when he heard another dull thud from above. He frowned, looking upward and then pausing when he caught a glimpse outside his window. He was pretty sure he'd just seen a couple of snakes and a toad fall past. And then another couple.

Blinking, he made his way to the window, looking down at the ground. Sure enough, hundreds of reptiles and amphibians were crawling all over the ground; others had simply splattered. He rubbed a hand over his face, wondering if he was still asleep and having some kind of bizarre dream.

But no. He was pretty sure he was awake.

He strode quickly toward the door to his apartment and made his way down the steps and into the lobby of the complex, staring out. They were everywhere.

"Well, this can't be good," he muttered.

Dinah felt a little guilty that she had simply left Oliver and Chloe to meet with Belia and hadn't sought them out afterward. She had needed time to deal with the shock and all of the emotions that seeing a version of Oliver who wasn't her Oliver had brought up, and she had trusted that Clark would find them soon enough.

But now she had done her best to stow away any past baggage and she needed to pull out of it and be a friend to both of them. While she might not know Chloe in her world, Chloe knew her back in Chloe's world and Dinah planned to honor that friendship and do what she could for Chloe, and of course this version of Oliver.

Which was why she'd asked around and found out Oliver's apartment number. She had once dealt with an Oliver that had been returned from the dead minus several years of memories, so she supposed this was sort of similar. She took a deep breath, braced herself for whatever other unpleasant surprises and differences might be in store and then knocked on the door.

After the meeting with Belia, Oliver and the rest found themselves politely escorted outside once more. He watched as the other man from the meeting--Owen, he thought his name was, headed away, leaving Ollie with Chloe and Lois. He glanced between the two women, feeling selfishly glad they were both there with him. "Well, that was...interesting," he muttered as he walked between them, farther away from the building and out of earshot from any guards who might be listening in.

He supposed they didn't have much choice but to start exploring this new world in hopes of finding something that could take them home. But in the mean time, they were going to have to do something about having a place to sleep and food to eat, both of which Belia had promised them during the meeting. She'd also given them directions toward the apartment complex where the so-called "Chosen" were staying. Not that they needed them, since he and Chloe had already been there to see Clark.

Startled, he glanced at Lois. "Have you seen Clark since you got here?"

The situation was getting more dire now. Belia could tell that the walls between realities were getting more strained. More 'chosen' were showing up than ever. The apartment building that had been cleared out to accommodate potential new arrivals to this world now held a lot more than simply the two that had been the first arrivals.

She wanted very badly to believe that they would be the saviors of her world, as many of her people believed. She was too cynical for that however. Instead, she believed that they had the potential to help and could just as likely bring an end to even this meager existence that her people had had to fight tooth and nail for.

Extending hospitality, attempting to keep the chosen in her city and under her thumb was the best way she could think of to maintain control of the situation. She would do what she could to make sure that they had motivation to help and to ensure that she had enough warning to do something to prevent any of them causing this world lasting harm.


It wasn't perfect nor was it guaranteed, but it was all she had.

Her guards had notified her of the small handful of new arrivals that had shown up recently and so she sent them back out to collect the new chosen that had come to die Festung for a greeting. They were instructed to extend the invitation politely and only to use force if lives were in danger.

She waited in the room that was now much more frequently used for greeting newcomers. A wide array of food was spread out on the table, simply waiting for the chosen to indulge themselves if they so chose.

With directions from Dinah, he and Chloe had separated from the other blonde woman and headed farther into the city, locating the apartments she had spoken about where Clark was staying. Unfortunately the younger man hadn't been there when they'd arrived so now the two of them were lingering outside the apartment complex, both quiet and lost in their own thoughts.

Oliver couldn't shake the feeling that there was a lot more going on than Dinah had told them about, and he also couldn't shake the feeling that it was more personal. But that was going to have to wait for the time being. At least until they'd reunited with Clark. Hopefully among the four of them, they could figure out some way to get back home. He sat on the steps, elbows resting on his knees as they waited. Beside him, Chloe sat mimicking his position, looking deeply troubled.

He certainly couldn't blame her for that. He started to say something when he heard footsteps and he looked up to see Clark approaching. Arching his eyebrows, he rose to his feet. "Hey," he greeted with a small smile. He had a feeling Clark was going to be a lot more freaked out about all of this than he was. Especially since Dinah hadn't mentioned Lois being there. "Gotta say, if we're trapped in a weird apocalyptic universe, I'm glad you're here with us."

One minute the two of them had been walking up the stairs on the way into Watchtower, and then he missed a step (which generally never happened to Oliver), and then he was falling, tumbling backwards, a startled shout escaping him. He hit the ground hard, wind knocked out of him. Groaning a little, he shut his eyes for a moment until he could breathe again, half-expecting to sit up and find Chloe staring down at him from her place on the stairs with an exasperated expression on her face.

Instead, he found himself staring up at trees. Huge, towering trees that he was certain had never been there before. Blinking, he pressed a hand to the ground to help him sit up. "What the hell..."

Watchtower was gone. How the hell did a building the size of Watchtower simply vanish? As his senses started to return to him, he asked himself a better question: when the hell had a forest sprung up in the middle of Metropolis, Kansas? He felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck the way it usually did right before a major lightening storm popped up while he was patrolling. He looked around slowly, both surprised and somewhat relieved to see that Chloe was there, too.

"I know this is cliche, but I've always wanted to say it anyway." He raised his eyebrows at her. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Dorothy."