"Oliver."
Moira Queen's son turned away from the window just as the daemon at his feet glanced up. Aksinya, a fox no more.
"Mom."
The sound of his voice snapped her attention back from the grey wolf, and Moira stumbled forward just as he moved to meet her. "Oh," she breathed. "My beautiful boy." She felt fur brushing past her legs, knew her own arctic fox, Demyan, had moved to greet her son's wolf.
Moira wrapped her arms around him, sobbed once, and buried her face in her son's shoulder.
Nevermind his changed daemon, his scars, how severe his once-joyful face had become. Her son was home. That was all that mattered.
.
The Queen mansion now seemed almost obscene to Oliver, a monument to excess and undeserved privilege. He glanced down at Aksinya. She glared up at the building, and then looked to him. Oliver knew what she was thinking - do we really want to do this?
Oliver didn't know the answer, but it was the only option left to them now. It was too late to second guess himself.
He heard the chauffeur open the trunk of the car, and swiftly moved to intercept him, Aksinya sauntering in his wake. After a quick exchange with the driver, Oliver hoisted the box - painted with Chinese symbols and filled with everything he needed to begin his crusade - and let Moira and Demyan herd them into the castle.
"Your room is exactly like you left it," Moira said as she opened the double doors. "Never had the heart to change a thing."
The foyer itself had not changed in his long absence, Oliver noted as he set down the crate; there was still the table covered in family pictures, the grand staircases, the quiet opulence. Even though he had fond memories of the place, it no longer appealed to him, not after years of living in squalor.
"Oliver!"
A bald, dark skinned man strode toward Oliver, a badger loping after him. "It's damn good to see you," he said fervently in a British accent. The badger squeaked in agreement, her nostrils twitching. Beside the stranger, Moira smiled.
After a beat, the stranger seemed to realize that Oliver didn't know him. "It's Walter," he murmured, looking at him in surprise. "Walter Steele?"
"You remember Walter, your father's friend from the company," Moira said, slipping an arm around Oliver's shoulders. Below them, Demyan pressed himself into Aksinya's side. The badger squeaked again.
Oliver did not, in fact, remember Walter, his father's friend from the company, but he had spotted someone much more important, so he let the matter drop. Slipping past Walter, who was watching him carefully - "It's Alis," he heard the badger inform Aksinya - he moved across the room, toward the maid in the grey uniform, standing beside a Scottish terrier daemon. "It's good to see you, Raisa."
"Welcome home, Mr. Oliver," she beamed up at him. Beside her, the terrier's tail wagged madly and did not waver as Aksinya stepped forward. Raisa had always seen the best in him, even when he had done nothing to deserve her kindness. It shouldn't have surprised Oliver that she and her daemon would not care about Aksinya's transformation.
Raisa tore her eyes away from him to his mother, who had followed him across the room. "Mr. Merlyn called. He wants to join you for dinner."
"Wonderful," Moira said graciously. Above, a door opened and shut, and Oliver glanced upward. Aksinya shivered and trotted toward the stairs, and Oliver moved after her, distantly aware of his mother's voice behind him.
They stopped at the foot of the staircase just as a teenage girl bounded into view. Not giving himself time to hesitate at the sight of the fox peering out from behind her legs, Oliver spoke: "Hey, sis."
Thea paused, only for a moment, and sped down the stairs with a cry of "I knew it! I knew you were alive!" and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, Oliver's own arms coming up to support her. "I missed you so much," she murmured. He watched Aksinya crouch slightly to look the fox, Hadyn, in the eye.
"You were with me the whole time," he whispered back.
Hadyn licked Aksinya's nose. Asinya let out a long sigh, and relaxed as Hadyn pressed his face into her fur.
They were home.
.
"Come on Laurel, we're lawyers, not miracle workers. We can't win this!"
Johanna's meerkat grunted up at them in agreement.
Laurel didn't look up from her mail. "If we can't win a class action suit against a man who swindled hundreds of people out of their homes and life savings, then we're not fit to call ourselves a legal aid office." The small falcon on her shoulder casually preened his feathers.
She strode forward, as Johanna scrambled to catch up, Sango in her wake. "And if we go bankrupt in the process, we won't be a legal aid office. Hunt has an army of lawyers and they're ready to bury us."
Laurel at last stopped and looked up from her mail. "You and I against an army. I love those odds." The falcon on her shoulder flapped his wings, but did not take flight.
Johanna crossed her arms, glaring after Laurel as she began to move again. "Why do you hate me?"
Laurel didn't respond. With a sigh, Johanna at last moved away, Sango scurrying ahead of her.
Laurel sighed and sat back in her chair. Mikolas fluttered upward to rest on the cork board beside her as she stared at it.
Adam Hunt.
Damn him.
Knowing her thoughts, Mikolas said softly, "We'll get him, Laurel. We always do."
"I know," she murmured back. "It's just how that bugs me."
Lost in thought, she gazed at the pinned pictures and newspaper clippings until a new voice registered. ". . . details of the castaway story you've all heard about, the son of a very wealthy billionaire will soon become a legendary story. Jessica now has more details and the complete castaway story."
Laurel rose from her chair in time to see a well-groomed Asian woman appear onscreen, daemon out of sight. Laurel's feet moved of their own volition. "The Queen's Gambit was last heard from more than five years ago. Mr. Queen has reportedly confirmed that he was the only survivor of the accident that took the lives of seven people, including local resident Sara Lance, survived by her sister Laure-"
Laurel groped for the TV remote, smashing the power button down just as the reporter said her name. The rest of the office turned to stare at her, and she dropped the control like it'd burned her.
Oliver was alive.
And Sara wasn't.
Mikolas let out a small, sad scream as he alighted on her shoulder.
.
"Okay, what else did you miss? Super Bowl winners - Giants, Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants again. Uh, black president, that's new. Oh, and Lost? They were all dead. I think."
Tommy Merlyn was exactly the same, youthful and unaware, a Capuchin clinging to his left arm as they chattered through dinner. Every now and then, Ulani would jump down from Tommy's arm to dart over to Aksinya and Hadyn, who were sitting in a jumble between Oliver and Thea, and gently press down on the wolf's head, pleased to have her friend back, but unwilling to leave Tommy's side for longer than necessary. The two had always been close, closer than Oliver and his own Aksinya, and Tommy had told him it was only during sex that Ulani willingly moved away from him.
Oliver was both pleased that something had remained the same while he was gone, and annoyed at how Tommy hadn't realized how stupid they'd been, with their parties and booze and naivety.
But Tommy was his friend, and he could tell Aksinya was pleased to have friends again, especially Hadyn, who she had doted on before they'd been stranded. Everyone was a little startled when they saw Aksinya, who had gone from a small, mischievous red fox to a large, scowling wolf, but so far his friends and family were willing to overlook her change in favor of celebrating his return from the dead.
No one had asked about what had happened.
"What was it like there?"
Until Thea, that is.
The table quieted, Tommy's smile slipping off his face as Walter looked up sharply from his plate. Moira chewed slowly, and studied him. He saw a flash of white, knew Demyan was making his way toward his children.
Oliver considered for a moment, and said the only thing that would not give his baby sister nightmares: "Cold."
Tommy hastened to change the subject. "Tomorrow," he said, pointing his fork at Oliver. Ulani hurled herself off his arm to ruffle Aksinya's ears. "You and me, we're doing the city. We've got a lot to catch up on."
"That sounds like a great idea," Moira put in.
"Good. Then I was hoping to swing by the office."
Walter Steele put down his drink, though he hadn't taken a sip. "Well, there's a better time for all that. Queen Consolidated isn't going anywhere."
Behind Oliver, Raisa stumbled into him, almost upending an ornamental basket of pears in his lap. The terrier barked in surprise. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Oliver," Raisa murmured, righting herself, and before Oliver could stop himself, he blurted out his forgiveness in Russian.
Idiot. He could feel Aksinya glaring at him.
Raisa stared at him incredulously. Tommy was the first to recover. "Dude. You speak Russian?" Ulani, still crouching beside Aksinya, poked the wolf's side accusingly.
Walter saved him. "I didn't realize you took Russian in college, Oliver."
Oliver distracted him with the first, and most obvious, thing that came to mind. "I didn't realize you wanted to sleep with my mother, Walter."
The table was silent as Oliver stared Walter down.
It was Thea broke the tension, sighing, "I didn't say anything."
Oliver's attention switched from Walter to his mother, lowering his voice. "She didn't have to."
Moira nodded, and after a moment's hesitation, she reached for Walter's hand. "Oliver. Walter and I are married. And I don't want you to think that either one of us did anything to disrespect your father."
Her husband came to her aid. "We both believed that Robert, like you, was uh . . . gone."
"It's fine."
It wasn't.
He gazed down the table at his mother and wondered how much of her marriage to his father had been a lie. If they'd ever really even liked each other.
Oliver stood, and Aksinya stood with him, dislodging Hadyn and Demyan, and stalking past Ulani to stand beside him.
"May I be excused?" He felt like a little boy.
After a beat, his mother nodded. He snatched up an apple and moved toward the door, clasping hands with Tommy ("Hey, don't forget about tomorrow, buddy.") and winking at Thea as he went. Aksinya moved ahead of him, evidently impatient to be alone with her human.
Demyan followed them to the door, but stayed behind as they left the sanctuary of the dining room. Ulani chittered nervously.
.
"One, two, three. . . It's getting closer."
Oliver remembered Sara. He could never forget her.
He remembered how Mochni twittered around her head as she talked, before settling down between Aksinya's ears. He remembered her kisses, the taste of white wine on her lips. Her worry over Laurel; Mochni had flapped his wings, agitated, whenever Sara brought up her sister. Her giggles, as he'd pressed her down onto the mattress.
"Okay, that one was really close."
Her screams, as she was sucked down, down, down, into the briny deep.
The canary never flew again.
.
Oliver came awake, suddenly, and twisted, flipping his attacker and putting his hand to their throat. He could feel Aksinya flying to consciousness, hear her snarl, a deep, wild sound, from the bed he could not use.
"Oliver!"
Walter- his mother.
He scrambled away from Moira, Aksinya's defensive posture collapsing into a submissive slouch as Demyan and Alis scrambled to his mother's side.
"I'm sorry- I'm so, sorry." Walter helped her to her feet, and she croaked, "It's okay, Oliver." She sunk to her knees, Walter still clinging to her shoulders. "It's alright, sweetheart. You're home."
"You're home."
Lightning flashed. Aksinya had vanished.