The next day, the Red Guard had an assignment and there was a nervous energy as they spent the day practising their moves in the training room. Chloe kept looking over at Felicity and Quinn. They were her people and she had to make things right with them. She wanted to continue hunting with them. She was familiar with their way of thinking and she wanted them back.

"Hey, Quinn," she called from a few meters away. Quinn looked over to her with little emotion. "You look like you need an ass kicking," she said with her most threatening voice. He shrugged his shoulders. "I've been learning some new moves and I think I can take you down."

He smiled weakly at her. "All right," he agreed with another shrug. "If you really want to."

"Oh, I do," she said getting up and taking her fighting stance.

He approached her and took his stance as well. She knew that Quinn always went for the neck. It was his first, go-to move in every fight he was in. It was a good move and he had a lot of luck with it. But Chloe had learned that she was actually pretty good at wrestling, and she was going to try and take him down at the knees. He was looking in her eyes, waiting for her to make the first move. She smiled at him and said, "Is threatening to take you down the only way I can get you to talk to me now?"

He frowned, "Things are clearly not safe. I think we should avoid each other. Don't you?" And with that comment he struck out at her face. 

She was surprised because he wasn't grabbing, he was throwing punches, and the first one landed hard on her cheek. She felt a bone crunch under the force of the strike. She shook her head and looked at him angrily. 

"Maybe we all need to be more prepared for the unexpected," he said.

She flew at his knees. She wrapped her arms around his waist and put her shoulder into his stomach. He fell on his back with a whoosh of breath. She scrambled up onto his chest, forcing his arms up over his head. She twisted around his body, pushing him into the sitting position and pulling his arms into a tangled mess behind his head. Chloe was pretty sure she heard quite a few bones breaking as she settled in behind him. He cursed at her as he unsuccessfully struggled to get free. "I agree, be ready for the unexpected. I figured this move out the other day. I like it because it forces the other person, that'd be you, to talk if you want them to. What do you think?" she asked.

He cursed her again and she grinned. 

"I wanna be friends again, Quinn. I don't know what happened to change that in the first place. Well, I mean, I do know. But I don't think we should let Him pull us a part. We are a good team and I really want that back." She felt him nod ever so slightly and relief flooded through her. She loosened her grip and he slid to the mat.

"That was a nice move," he said with a vague smile as he adjusted his bones so they could heal properly.

"Thanks," she replied.

"I saw you talking with Sigur and Johnny yesterday," he whispered.

"Yeah, I wanted to see what they would think," she answered softly.

"And...?" he asked.

"And they thought exactly what you think they would," she responded. He grunted softly. "We need to stick together, Quinn, if for no other reason than to watch each other's backs."

"Maybe Johnny will watch your back, with his Australian accent and shaggy blond haircut."

Chloe smiled, her mood totally changing to amused fascination. She couldn't help but snicker a little bit, "Johnny? Really, Quinn? Listen, my heart is somewhere between broken and in love with someone else. Nobody is impressing me with their accent or haircut." She sat beside him and put her arm around his shoulder. She leaned her head against him and sighed. "But if I was going to be impressed, it would be by your dark good looks. Honest."

He looked down and smiled at her. "Okay, fine," he said. He pushed her gently away and got up hastily as he saw Felicity walking over. Felicity smiled nervously at them, and Chloe gave her what she thought was her most winning smile. She really wanted Felicity back, too.

"Are you okay?" Felicity asked her with some concern. She searched Chloe's eyes, looking for a connection.

Chloe's smile faltered as she felt the soul searching look pierce through her. "Uh, yeah." Her hand went awkwardly to her hair. "We were just talking about the hunt tonight."

"Oh," said Felicity looking down to the ground. Chloe hadn't seen Felicity hanging out with anyone since that awful morning, so she was really glad she had come over to talk with them.

"I was telling Quinn that I thought we should all hunt together again. What do you think?" asked Chloe.

Felicity smiled tentatively and nodded slowly, "I think that would feel good." 

And that was all it took to bring the three of them back together again. They had all missed each other, but didn't know how to get past the horror of what they had witnessed from the Pope. Chloe and Quinn caught Felicity up on all that had taken place with Johnny and Sigur. When they would normally have a nap the three friends were too excited to be talking again to sleep. They went for walk in the Vatican gardens instead, whispering as they went.

"We cannot let everything fall apart. You have to admit that He's held everything together here really well. He's built a solid system here. It's fool proof. He's got guards, assassins, and money galore. Changing things from the top is going to be hard," said Quinn.

"Hard, yes, but the most effective," said Chloe. "The good thing is that He has kept secrets from some of the wrong people."

"I would argue that He's kept those secrets from exactly the right people," whispered Felicity. "Because once those people find out, they won't back him up anymore. Most of the Red Guard love killing vampires. We have an axe to grind with them. They took the lives we knew and loved."

Both Quinn and Chloe nodded in agreement. They both felt that way... although Chloe wasn't so sure about the killing part from her perspective. Maybe she'd find out how she really felt about that tonight.

Chloe thought about her meeting with Derek the next night. "I'm meeting with Derek tomorrow night. He's supposed to be finding out some information for us. You know, to make some changes. Should I tell him about the Pope?"

Quinn and Felicity thought for a moment. "It's sort of a trump card, don't you think? Like, that's some pretty heavy intel right there," said Felicity.

Chloe nodded. It was a bombshell. "Maybe I'll keep it in my back pocket. I'll tell him if it feels right."

"Okay," said Quinn. "I'll be curious to see what he brings to the table as well. I wonder what he'll dig up from the vampire side?"

"Hopefully something really, really good," said Felicity.

They all looked at each other intensely and then Chloe's stomach growled.

"Apparently, it's time for dinner," laughed Quinn.

"We better get going then. We all know what happens to Chloe when she gets hungry, and we're in enough trouble already!" They shared a laugh and headed back to the Vatican to eat before the hunt.