Nikita woke up and it took her a minute to remember where she was; she was reaching underneath the pillow for the gun she usually kept there when the events of the previous night came racing back to her and she remembered she had given her gun to Clark. She chuckled slightly as she realized he probably didn't need it, before she walked out of the room and into the kitchen, inhaling deeply as she caught the scent of fresh-brewed coffee.

"How do you take your coffee?" Clark asked in greeting.

"Black." She replied and Clark laughed as he poured the coffee.

"No trouble?" She asked as she took an appreciative sip; he shook his head before handing her the paper.

"Apparently your 'miraculous escape' made the headlines." He told her, pointing the story out. It was only a small article about an escaped felon but she wasn't surprised. Percy would want to put just enough so that people would call if they recognized her without putting in enough that someone would try and find out his dirty laundry. Nikita finished her coffee and grabbed her gun from the kitchen counter, giving Clark a questioning look as she found her gun had been cleaned. He just shrugged before he answered.

"I didn't have much else to do and the last thing you need is for your gun to jam because you forgot to clean it."

"Thank you." She said, amazed that someone she had just met would be so nice to her. Michael would never have cleaned her gun, he would just tell her that it was her gun and therefore her responsibility and Daniel, as much as she loved him, wouldn't be able to assemble a gun never mind be able to clean it. She put the gun in the holster at her hip and grabbed her false passport off the table before walking towards the door only to feel a breeze and find her way blocked by Clark.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"I appreciate your help but I have to go."

"Go where?"

"Back to reality, back to dealing with Division. You need to forget you ever met me and go back to whatever you were doing before you saved my life." She tried to walk past him but he wouldn't move.

"You told me that this could put a target on my back so large every government agency in the country would be after me, so I'm sorry If I'm not going to let you do this on your own."

"I could always make you." She replied and Clark just smirked as he eyed the gun at her hip.

"Go ahead, but it would just be a waste of a perfectly good bullet."

Something in his voice caused her to hesitate and she knew she had a choice to make, a choice that would change her life forever.

"Clark, can you PLEASE warn me before you super speed in?" His best friend Chloe Sullivan asked as she picked up the papers that had fallen off her desk. She hadn't been able to get her story written at the Planet so she had gone back to the apartment that she shared with Lana at the Talon, hoping that the quiet and a good cup of coffee would help her get her story written but then Clark had supersped in which kind of ruined her plan. She smirked slightly, knowing that he was her best friend and she would drop everything for Clark Kent in a heartbeat.

"Sorry Chloe but I need your help with something." He told her and it was only the tone in his voice that caused the blonde reporter to look up; she had known Clark since they were eight years old and she had never heard him sound so serious, not even when he told her about going back in time to save Lana. However her look of concern for her friend changed to one of fear when she saw who was standing beside him. She only knew the face, but that was enough. She had helped Lois write the article so she probably knew more about the woman standing next to Clark than any other reporter on the Planet, which if she was being honest with herself, wasn't saying all that much.

"Clark, do you know who that is?" She asked, fear making her voice crack; then another thought occurred to her and she could only pray she was wrong. What if Clark had been drugged some how or put on some new form of kryptonite? The woman Chloe might be able to handle, with a good deal of luck, but an unpredictable Clark? She'd be lucky to last two minutes against him considering she didn't have any kryptonite around.

"Yes Chloe, now I need you to trust me. What I'm about to tell you is major wall-of-weird material."

Chloe nodded, knowing she trusted Clark more than anyone else on Earth.

"Chloe, the article you wrote on Nikita left out a few important details. The people that you interviewed were agents of a rogue black ops group of the CIA, basically assassins for hire. Nikita escaped and-"

"And I would've been killed if not for Clark here." The former Division agent interjected, knowing somehow that Clark wasn't going to take credit for saving her life.

"He does have a habit of doing that." Chloe replied with a small laugh.

"What do you need my help with? As much as I love hearing about my best friend's miraculous saves I doubt you came here to give me an exclusive."

Nikita smiled, able to hear in Chloe's voice that there was something she wasn't saying, some secret Clark hadn't told her yet. Then again they had only just met, although it seemed like she'd known him forever.

"You're right. Clark tells me you're one hell of a computer hacker and I need your help to crack the ultimate encryption code. It has all of Division's operatives and targets and I need to know where they're going to strike next."

"Alright, I'll admit you've piqued my interest. What's the name of this 'ultimate encryption code?"

"Shadownet."

"Tell me you're not serious."

"Afraid so. It was invented by a guy named Seymour Birkoff who thinks he's the god of technology or something."

"Then I hope this god's ready to get dethroned." Chloe replied, sitting down in front of her laptop; Clark smirked as he saw the determination in his friend's gaze, knowing Birkoff would soon meet his match. Twelve hours later a very caffeine and sleep-deprived Chloe finally made it through the last of Birkoff's firewalls. He was good, like no challenge she had ever had before but she wasn't a novice hacker either.

"Nikita, wake up." Clark said, shaking her gently from where she had fallen asleep against his chest, attempting to ignore his growing feelings for her, knowing she couldn't possibly ever return them.

She opened her eyes, blushing slightly as she realized where she had fallen asleep; she quickly shook herself before focusing on Chloe who had just exhaled in shock as she realized that she had found the fort Knox of hackers. She clicked on a file marked 'Cleaners' and couldn't have been prepared for what she would find.

"Clark, you're not going to like this." She told him.

"What did you find?" He asked, but she ignored his question instead looking at Nikita.

"What do you know about Cleaners?" She asked and Nikita's eyes narrowed.

"They're killing machines. These agents are cold, calculating and without morals. They kill ruthlessly, efficiently and without fear or mercy. After they're done there's never any trace that could connect them to the killing."

"Are they hired out?"

On occasion, why do you ask?"

"Because Alicia Baker was killed by one in the employ of Lionel Luthor."

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review and the next chapter will be up soon!