She Who Will Rise Again

"Look, this is going to sound completely insane, but I know something of what it is to live with...something in your head."

Persephone was an...interesting being to have in her head. She was ambitious as hell and it kind of scared Julia. The surfacing memories of the life of a Greek goddess--or Issu--were plaguing Julia's mind. And Persephone wanted Julia to continue to the Isu woman's work....but Julia was not sure what it was yet.

The ever crafty Julia wanted to get to the bottom of it all. She traversed the world she knew to find pages of the Magas Codex--and this led her directly to Anna.

This Julia woman was right, it did sound insane. Shao Jun was practically screaming not to trust this person, but that was nothing new. After everything with the Templars and the Assassins, Anastasia was inclined to trust Shao Jun more than her own senses. But she didn't need her taking over to solve things anymore.

"Maybe not, but I do know what it is like to lose control of yourself and feel completely alone," Julia said with familiarity, "and we are both up against the same enemy."

"I also know what it is like to have everything taken from you," she said more quietly, staring off into some far off horror.

"A war just happened. A lot of people have lost control and feel alone." While definitely true, Anastasia's reasons for feeling those things are definitely not because of the public war. No... no, she had just lost her entire family, been implanted with the cognition of a dead Chinese lady with a grudge, been fired at, killed people, and somehow could still stop to think about it now. Sounded like a plot of some very, very strange novel.

She blinked as she heard the word 'batshit'. Not a word she recognized, and she had thought she had been doing so well with English. "How could learning something about yourself lead you to me? I am no one."

Lex sat in silence for a moment, carefully putting his thoughts into words. “You strike me as someone who’s just been given their freedom,” he said at last, tone measured. “And now you’re trying to figure out what to do with it.” He leaned back slightly, studying her.

“For the first time, your decisions are your own. No one directing you. No one pulling the strings.” A brief pause.

“You’re not entirely lost…” he added, almost thoughtfully. “But you’re not entirely found, either.” His gaze lingered, more focused now. Three months. Just… gone.

He still didn’t understand how that happened—or if there was any way to get those memories back. Because right now, it felt like he was holding onto something she didn’t even remember losing.

When Anya revealed more about her past, Lex let out a quiet chuckle—more intrigued than surprised.

“Well,” he said, a faint smirk forming, “that’s certainly older than anyone I’ve ever met.” His eyes narrowed slightly, curiosity sharpening.

“You’ve seen more than most people ever will.” A small pause followed, his gaze assessing, calculating.

“Which raises an obvious question…” He tilted his head just slightly.

Anya paused as he spoke about what he thought was in her head. "I think I liked it better when I was the mysterious girl with no past..." It felt weirdly vulnerable that he could read her that well, and, for someone who couldn't get a death to stick, vulnerability wasn't a good thing.

Anya thinks things through for a bit. How best to explain her abilities? "Well, it's not the meteors your town has, if that's what you're asking." For the obvious reason of her abilities predate the meteor storm that put them there. "They couldn't figure out what caused it, but they did find what it was."

“Felicity’s a lot more… open-minded than I am,” Oliver said, his tone even. “Do I think it’s a good idea? No. But I’m not exactly in a position to argue with her.” He’d tried that before; it hadn’t gone well.

Oliver gave a small shrug.

“Look, I was sent to find you. That’s it,” he said. “If they want a full breakdown of who you are, Bruce can handle that himself.”

At her comment about leaving one cult and not joining another, Oliver exhaled quietly—almost relieved.

“You won’t get an argument from me,” he replied. “I still think it’s a bad idea.” His gaze sharpened slightly. “We don’t know anything about you. Your background. The people you worked for.” A brief pause.

“That’s not something I’m willing to ignore.” Maybe Diana knew more.

An eyebrow raised as she heard him describe Felicity's role in this. "She wears the pants in your relationship? I like it."

A small scoff. "The Bat's certainly welcome to try. He won't find anything. Not anything that would make any sense, anyway. And that's coming from someone who knows you guys have an immortal being on your team." Her DNA would lead back to records of a dead princess... well, not princess, but close enough in English... in Russia, someone who was suppose to be dead for a hundred years now. Someone who history has supposedly confirmed to be dead. She still wasn't sure how much she believed her own files, and... well, there was a lot of things in it that would have been quite damning for that organization if it got out. She had no reason to assume it was lying, and that every handler that made updates to it chose to continue the lie.

She was about to make a quip about how that made two of them that didn't know anything about her background. But then he mentioned who she worked for. She paused, looking back to him. "You want to know something about them? Fine. I didn't work for them. That implies choice, or at least the illusion of one."

Oliver forced himself to ease up—at least a little—though the mention of Felicity still sat wrong with him. Maybe he should’ve been more careful. Maybe he should’ve used Bruce’s system instead. Then again… Diana had gotten through Wayne’s security in minutes. If she could do that, there was no reason to think this woman couldn’t. He exhaled quietly, shifting his focus back to her.

“Honestly?” he said. “She'd probably want to buy you a coffee and figure out how you got past her code.”

A slight shake of his head followed. “She’s the best at what she does. Knowing someone could get through that…” A brief pause.

“…yeah. She’d want answers.” His gaze hardened just a fraction. “And people with your skill set? They don’t exactly get the benefit of the doubt. Most see hackers as liabilities.” He rolled his eyes at her comment, brushing it off as he moved on.

“I don’t know how much you’ve been told,” Oliver continued, tone shifting—more serious now. “Aliens. Gods. Whatever you want to call them.” He took a step closer, not aggressive—just deliberate.

“This planet’s been invaded twice. First by the Kryptonians—Superman’s people.” A beat.

“Then again, by someone who wanted to turn Earth into the foundation for his own empire.” His jaw tightened slightly. “I wasn’t there for either. But I’ve heard enough.”

He crossed his arms, studying her carefully.

“Bruce thinks we need to be ready for whatever comes next. Better prepared. Better equipped.” A faint scoff. “Personally? I think trying to recruit an assassin we know nothing about is a risk.”

His gaze didn’t waver. “But I’m not one of the founding members.”

This Felicity lady would buy her coffee and want to talk hacking? "That'd be a first. Being rewarded for making someone's day harder." She knows hacking is technically illegal, but... well, she wasn't a citizen, nor does any country know she existed. She could only imagine how much attention that would get. Something Oliver Queen wouldn't want.

"You don't know my skill set." Cheeky. She was learning she had low tolerance for people assuming they knew her. Ironic, given that she didn't really know herself yet.

“I’m surprised I got that close,” Lex admitted, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “I make a habit of reading people whenever I get even the slightest hint of who they are.”

He lifted his glass, taking a measured sip before setting it aside.

“I don’t always get it right,” he added, almost thoughtfully, “but the process is… entertaining. Especially when there’s so little to work with.” At her question, his gaze settled on her—studying, calculating, taking in every detail without being overt about it.

“You appear to be in my age range,” he said after a moment. “Mid-twenties, give or take.” A slight tilt of his head, curiosity sharpening.

“Though something tells me that’s not entirely accurate.”

A faint, knowing smile followed.

Anya chuckled. "And what exactly does your reading of me tell you?" That she was a mess? Like someone's first day being a human? She imagined something like that. Not her fault that she has been under someone's thumb for longer than most humans have been alive.

Oliver’s jaw tightened at the mention of Felicity. Even with the arrow lowered, his grip on the bow didn’t ease, and he let the crack about the brooding go. He’d known getting her involved was a risk—but he’d told himself he could protect her.

He had to believe that. “Leave Felicity out of this,” he said, voice low and firm. “She did what I asked.” A brief pause, his expression hardening just slightly. “And for the record… I’m still not sure how I feel about her skills being on par with Batman’s.”

His gaze locked onto hers. “Any threat to her… is a threat to me.”

The words weren’t loud—but they didn’t need to be.

He finally set the bow down, though the tension in his posture didn’t fade. “You found me,” Oliver continued, more controlled now, but no less guarded.

A beat.

"I can only imagine how she's going to react when she finds out that a scrawny little Russian girl beat her coding in five minutes. That'll be a fun conversation later... for you. If it makes her feel better, you can tell her that most hacking I do takes about thirty seconds, max." Okay, that was a bit condescending. But, if he was going to intentionally misunderstand her, then she was going to belittle him.

A roll of her eyes. "Leave it to the big men with egos to hear a threat when there was just an observation." She scoffed. "Didn't I just say that, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead? Why on Earth would that be any different for your IT department?"

“Boy Wonder?” Lex echoed, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “That’s… flattering. Though I assure you, I’m far from any kind of wonder.” His gaze sharpened slightly, something more thoughtful flickering behind it.

“There is someone in this world who fits that title,” he added, almost offhand. “But I doubt they’d appreciate the boy part.”

Just as quickly, he let the subject drop—clearly not interested in lingering there. At her question, a quiet chuckle escaped him.

“Abducted,” he began, almost clinically. “Conditioned. A loyal soldier.”

He leaned back, studying her like a puzzle already half-solved.

“Recently freed… and now you’re trying to figure out who you are without someone dictating your every move.”

He was indeed keeping up. Impressively well, in fact. "Pretty well, actually." She leaned against the desk, her arms folding in front of her chest. "It was a little more involved than simple conditioning, but yeah... basically."

“In that case, I wouldn't have made it easy for you,” Lex said with a low chuckle. “But don’t mistake me for some spoiled rich boy with no sense of self-defense.”

He straightened slightly, gaze steady.

“Could you take me out? I don't doubt it.” A faint smirk.

“But I wouldn’t make it easy. I’ve never been the type to sit back and accept my fate.”

He turned, pouring himself a drink with practiced calm before settling into the chair across from his desk.

“Go on,” he added, gesturing lightly with the glass. “Try me.”

His expression shifted—subtle, but curious beneath the confidence.

“My father believes there’s a super-powered alien walking the Earth… and that gods still exist.”

A small pause, his eyes flicking back to hers.

A small scoff escapes her lips. "I'll keep that in mind, Boy Wonder. It's been a while since anyone has been able to keep up. Might be fun." She loved a challenge... or, at least, she thinks she did. She was still figuring out her personality now that she was free.

“Kind of hard to set up two-step verification when you’re stuck on a hellish island for five years,” Oliver said evenly, replacing the arrow but keeping the bow raised.

“So, yeah… forgive me for not updating my Facebook status. I was a little busy trying to stay alive.”

When she mentioned he’d been looking for her, he gave a slight shrug—nothing more. Finding her had been on the list. It always was. Bruce knew about her, too—but between running Wayne Enterprises and being Batman, his priorities were… elsewhere. Oliver’s jaw tightened slightly at the thought.

“Word travels fast,” he said. A brief pause.

“And I don’t brood.” His gaze sharpened.

“That’s his thing.” Another beat, quieter now—more controlled.

She folds her arms in front of her chest as she rolled her eyes. "That's what the blonde is for, isn't it? What's her name, Smoak? I like to keep informed of who might become an issue." Meaning she looked in on everyone in his side job.

"Interesting that your option for an unarmed intruder is to aim your favored weapon at them. I assure you, had I come here to kill you, you would be dead." Not that she was technically unarmed when she could make a weapon appear at will, but she hadn't summoned one yet.

@scrawnylittlenobody

Oliver had just gotten back from gathering intel on a new threat from his father's list. He had just pulled his hood down and was just about to place his bow on its holder when he felt a presence, and he wasn't one for uninvited guests and immediately took up his bow again and pulled an arrow from his quiver and slid it in place, but didn't draw back and aim, not yet.

A small scoff escaped her lips as she heard him speak. "Let's go with bold, then." She walked out of the shadows, grabbing a wheeled seat as she went, and pushed it to him. "Pull up a chair."

She stepped a step or two closer to him. There was no fear in her gait, no hesitation in her voice. "I heard you were looking for me. Why, I have no idea. But here I am. You really need to beef up your online security. I found you in like five minutes."