The Man in Black.

The miracle had failed. Slade was dead. And now Oliver, Shado, and Sara were at the mercy of a madman as Ivo and his men burst into the compartment.

Ivo spotted Sara, standing frozen by the door. He grabbed her arm and shoved her towards Oliver and Shado. "Get over there!" He shined his light down on Slade and knelt down. He slowly reached towards his body and felt for a pulse, but found none. He noted the bloody tears, then saw the empty syringe on the ground and picked it up. He was examining it when the new captain walked back into the compartment, the wooden crate in his hand. "Mirakuru." He said, rising to examine the box. He looked at the rows of syringes in wonder. Then turned back to his men. "Take them." He ordered.

A short time later the group was walking back through the forest towards the Amazo. Oliver, Shado, and Sara all had their hands bound behind them, and Ivo led Sara at gunpoint personally.

"Anthony, you got what you wanted. You can let them go." Sara said, trying to reason with the man. She turned back to face him. "If you ever cared about me." She pleaded.

"But I do care about you, Sara," Ivo said. "Which is why I won't choose to kill you." Sara blinked as Ivo's insanity came to the front. "But he might."

Oliver, who had stopped with the rest, looked at the doctor in confusion as he forced both Sara and Shado to their knees.

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked in dread.

"Time to choose, Oliver," Ivo said with insane glee. "Who lives, and who dies. But pick quickly, because, in 30 seconds, I will shoot them both." Oliver stared at the two women in horror.

"You don't have to do this!" Oliver exclaimed. "You got what you came for! Just take it and go!"

Ivo pointed the gun at Shado's head. "10 Seconds."

"You freaking psychopath!" Oliver shouted.

"History will make that judgment." He moved the gun to Sara "Five seconds." Oliver stared at the two women, torn. "Time's up." Ivo raised the gun.

"No, no!" Oliver ran in front of Sara, dropping to his knees in front of her. "Me, kill me."

"I guess you made your choice." Ivo said coldly, then turned the gun on Shado.

But Oliver jumped again, and he was just fast enough.

To take a bullet square in the chest, going through bone, his left lung, and his spine.

And he went down listening to his friends screaming his name.

On the sub, Slade suddenly awakened, fully healed.

"Shado…" he looked around. Suddenly, he knew she was in trouble. "Shado!"

Slade ran up the sail and back to land, running through the woods at incredible speed. He arrived at the small clearing and grabbed the first man he saw, throwing him back against a tree where he nearly folded in half. Slade attacked the other two men, killing them with his bare hands as Ivo fled into the forest. He stared down at the AK-47 he had taken off of one of the soldiers, then snapped it in half like it was a twig. The new captain clubbed him on the back with the butt of his rifle, but all that did was piss Slade off even more. Slade punched the man through the chest, then withdrew his hand and let the man drop to the ground, dead. Shado and Sara looked on in shocked horror as Slade stared at his bloodied fist.

He then looked at them, smiling for a brief moment at seeing Shado alive, and while Sara wasn't his friend, he knew the kid would be pissed if she were hurt.

Wait, where was Oliver?

He then looked down and saw his answer.

"Kid. Kid!" Slade yelled, diving down and grabbing onto Oliver's body, tearing his shirt off to examine the wound. "Come on Oliver, get up, get up!" Slade yelled.

But Oliver didn't move.

"Get up, come on. Get up you selfish bastard. You get up right now, or I swear I will hurt you!"

But his eyes didn't move, just staring off into the dead void of space.

Slade would always deny it, but others would say he jumped when Shado put a hand on him.

"Why?" The big, gruff Australian said, the reassuring iron in his voice breaking under the weight of the body in his arms.

"Ivo wanted him to choose." Sara said, drawing his attention. "He wanted Oliver to live with choosing which one of us died tonight," Sara said, trying to talk through the tears. "He jumped in front of both of us, he asked Ivo to kill him."

Slade set Olive down with a gentleness none would have though he possessed, then he broke both girl's restraints and hugged them to him. "I will find Ivo, and on my life, if it takes every day of my life to do it, he will pay."


Five years later.


"Hello and good morning Starling city. 6 months after the devastating earthquake that leveled a good portion of the city, particularly the Glades, Merlin Global and Queen Consolidated are leading the charge in rebuilding, already having put up several temporary housing complexes that could house some 2000 people. Staying at the R&R Towers as they are being called is free, provided residence allow for a 10 P.M. curfew and a thorough background check. When asked, Malcolm Merlin, C.E.O. of Merlin Global, had this to say."

"I don't look at what happened as a senseless tragedy, but as a necessary reminder, given to us by some higher power. The Glades, whether we admitted it to ourselves or not, was a squalor, a place of disease. Not of the body, or the mind, but the city. A place where crime could thrive where the poor had their throats stepped on by men and women out to make a quick buck, no matter how the cost. The quake was a reset. When a building burns down because it was faulty, you don't rebuild it the same way, you improve it, find out what caused the problem, and you don't repeat it. The Glades burned down, and while the loss of life was unfortunate, the true travesty would be to have let them die, only to have those who survive be forced to return to the same sad state of before."

"Mr. Merlin and Mr. Walter Steele, C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated, have both outlined a detailed plan to restore all the survivors of the quake to homes in the next 3 years, along with improved parks, schools, hospitals, and other recreation and public offices. Promising every opportunity to be made, as long as, and this is a quote from Mr. Merlin himself, "They aren't criminals." This is Gena Wolf, with your morning news, back to you Jeff."

"Thank you, Gena. With me now is Mark Jonson, an expert in criminology, and Ronald Dean, one of the many experts who has been helping Haiti rebuild after the earthquake back in 2010. Mark, does Merlin's statement ring true, should we look at this tragedy as maybe a gift from God?"

"Well Jeff, I wouldn't say that, but in some ways Merlin is right. The Glades has long been the ugly mole on the face of the city, a place people just pushed to the side and pretended didn't exist. It wasn't until last year, with the rise of the three vigilantes, who sources say may have died trying to help get people out of the rubble, that the glades got any attention. Gunfire, drug use, rape, stabbings, these were all just another Saturday night in the Glades, I once heard it said, 'the cops don't come tell the third bodies dropped.' Now, people have no choice but to try and help fix this part of the city that was left to die, and as Merlin is the one doing the most good in the Glades, if he says to keep the criminals out, he's allowed to say it, and he's not wrong."

"What about one time offenders, or simple purse snatchers, do you think they should be kept out?"

"No, but I do think his idea, if applied to the third, fourth, fifth, and so one offender, or the rapist or a murderer, I'd say it does hold water as a way to help people."

"Thank you, Mark. Ronald, do you think this is all a good idea, rebuilding the Glades is good, but if Merlin and Steele get their way, the property value of the Glades will, and I admit I had to look this up, decuple. What does that mean for those who will be struggling even more now, if the only land now is ten times the price it was?"

"Well, Jeff, both Merlin and Steele have publicly promised that for the first five years of this project, during the rebuilding project and after, they want to hire people to live and work in the glades to rebuild it. Sort of an "if you work, you stay" kind of deal. So housing will be free or those working to restore the Glades, along with free housing for students at the schools they hope to build. Plus, if this plan succeeds, there will be more and better jobs in the glades then there have been in years. And with people in the Glades being trained to fill those jobs, they might not be struggling for long. And with free housing, they could save money, live healthier lives. They have also said they plan to keep rent low for five years after that before recalculating it and even then keeping the price low. In ten years, we might be looking at a city where people want to move into the Glades because it's the better part of town."

"Thank you, Ronald. Mark, back to what you said earlier, I know we are getting a little off track, but what do you think of the Vigilantes, some called them heroes, others called them crazy murderers. What is your take?"

"Well, during their time, there are some undeniable facts about them. First, they killed people, a fair number of them. But most agree that they never just killed as their opening move, always giving a person a chance to, for lack of a better term, make up for what they did. Second, they helped a lot of people. Third, they did have a noticeable and quantifiable effect on the criminals of the Glades. So they were, all in all, an unorthodox, but a very real force for good."

"Do you really think they died?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't place money on it either way."


A man in black stood on a rooftop of a skyscraper, looking over the city with a keen eye, except he wasn't, because the wrap around his head had no eye holes, merely a single opening for his mouth. And yet he saw so much.

When he had finished, he moved the cloth back over his mouth, unveiling two silver eyes.

And then he jumped.


Malcolm surveyed the plans, they were brilliant.

"Walter, we might be nearly ready to move forward."

"Thank you, Malcolm."

"If this works, we might just have to build you both a new bookcase for all the awards they will be giving you both." Frank Chen said, walking over to hand them both a glass of scotch.

"Don't start talking like that Frank, their egos are already big enough, thank you." Moira said, accepting a drink.

"How long before we can reveal our involvement?" Susan Marks asked.

"Patience my friends. I told you all, six months ago, when the ground shook, I realized that something big had happened. And when I came to you all with my plan, you all told me it was crazy."

"It was." Marcus Weaver said.

"Exactly, but you all put your faith in me. Just keep going a little longer. People jump on bandwagons all at once all the time when something happens, and then a week later, they all leave, people are like sheep that way. But if people think that this plan to rebuild the Glades is slowly winning the elites of the city over, then even those with reservations about the plan will go along with it just to be seen as intelligent."

"They have to see people being won over, to see that there is something there." Walter said.

"Exactly. Frank will announce joining with us, pledging 5 million to the cause next week, two weeks after that, Susan, then Marcus, then Paul. And before you know it, we will have lots more joining on."

"Brilliant." Walter said, raising his glass in a toast.

Some of the group felt awkward, especially Moira, having Walter cheer Malcolm on. He was the only member of the group who didn't know how the earthquake happened, but that was good as Walter could be seen as the genuine face of this rebuilding project.

"Walter, I wonder if you could do me a favor." Malcolm asked.

"What is it?" Walter said, giving Malcolm one of his British smiles.

"I wonder if you could take the reins for a while with this."

The whole group was rather shocked. Walter because he thought this project was Malcolm's baby, and the rest because they knew it was his crazed ambition.

"As some of you know, Tommy and I have not been on the best of terms this last year, and it was only after the quake, when he had no choice but to move in because of injuries, and saw all the good I was trying to do, that we started to actually reconnect. To be honest, it's the first time in years that we felt, close. I want to spend a month or two, just, focusing on my relationship with my son. But I need to know that there is someone here that shares my ideals about this project, and I think that is you."

Walter, just smiled at the man. "Malcolm, I'd be honored to take over for you, for a while."

"Thank you." Malcolm then had someone refill their glasses. "To Walter Steele, a man of vision, and principles."

"To Walter." The room cheered.

And then there was gunfire.

Both Walter and Malcolm dived for Moira, Malcolm shielding Walter who was shielding Moira. They then looked up to see the man who had served the scotch a moment ago dead, and men in masks coming into the room.

"Mr. Merlin, you're trying to kill the Triad's business." One of the men said.

Malcolm, never one to back down, stood up, positioning himself still between the men and the Queens. "So, I take it this is an endorsement of my plans?"

"What?"

"Well, if you lowlifes are this desperate to stop me, must be doing something right."

The men just grabbed him, forcing his hand onto the table, and one of them took out a butcher's knife.

Malcolm was just thinking. The man with the butcher's knife had a bad knee, the one to his left was a righty, and the one on his right had a switchblade in his back pocket. Kick the man's knee, then head but the one grabbing his left arm, catch the knife, stab, stab, stab, then shoot the other three while they are confused.

Not a great plan, sloppy, but he needed it to look that way.

Or, losing an arm might make things a little awkward. But it could garner sympathy, constant reminder and all that.

But then again, so could saving everyone.

Plus, losing an arm would suck.

But then the glass shattered, and a man in black came in.

A man in League of Assassins black.

The attackers turned to look, only for all three of the men holding Malcolm to be met with a blade cutting their heads off, in one stroke. The man then threw two flechettes at two of the other men, killing them. He then jumped up and brought his blade down, killing the last man, by cutting him in two.

The man in black then looked at Malcolm, before jumping out the window he had come in.

Well, that was unexpected.


Slade, Sara, and Shado were sitting in Slade and Shado's apartment, looking at the news.

For a year they had been vigilantes, fighting the good fight. But when the quake hit, and they scrambled to try and help get people out, and they had not left there unscathed.

Slade healed fast, but Sara and Shado didn't, so for three months they were licking their wounds, but now there didn't seem like there was anything to do.

The police handled crime well, having gotten some generous grants from Merlin Global and QC, and in the glades, well; nothing happened there anymore because there was no place to do anything, no place to hide. You could walk a mile from anywhere in any direction without finding one brick on top of another. And the buildings that were set up, the R&R Towers, were heavily monitored for anything going on.

So, they were, for lack of a better term, retired. They were thought dead by the public, and with nothing to do, caring for family seemed more important.

But this, a report of a man in black, could it be the Dark Archer again.

The first time they had met him, was during the Christmas hostage situation, and then some reports of a man in black were reported months later, him having destroyed a lab and killed a lot of scientists.

But why come back now, and why save people.


"Dad." Tommy said, limping into the sitting room at the Queen estate where several officers and Captain Lance were taking statements. Tommy had decided to be an idiot the night of the quake and ran into CNRI to save Laurel who was trapped under a bookcase. They both would have died that night if not for one of the vigilantes, the Man in the Mask, a big orange and black mask. He ran into the room just as some of the roof was about to crush both Laurel and Tommy, and, they had no idea how managed to lift it up and away from them.

They had run like heck, Tommy getting a piece of rebar in his left knee and a bit of rubble to the head, but they both got out.

They didn't know if the man had been so lucky, they just knew that the whole building had collapsed inward a few moments after they got out.

But no body was ever recovered.

Laurel had been working at the D.A.'s office for the last 4 months, and Tommy had moved in with his father so he could have round the clock care. Tommy's and Malcolm's relationship was slowly on the mend.

"I'm fine Tommy. Not even a scratch on me."

"You could have been killed."

"No son, loss of limb maybe, but the people who wanted to do this wanted me to be a constant, living reminder that they weren't to be messed with."

Tommy just hugged him, something Malcolm readily accepted. He could count on 2 hands how any times his son had hugged him in the last 10 year, and more than half of them had been in the last 6 months. "Has anyone ever told you your attempts at reassurance could use some work."

"I've told him that several times." Moira said.

Tommy whipped around to face her. "Moira." He then hugged her in a death grip. "Please tell me they didn't touch you."

"I'm fine Tomas."

"We all are." Walter said, coming up to place a hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Mom, Dad!" Then Thea, Sara, Slade, and Shado came in. "Are you alright."

"Dear heavens, Moira, if I didn't know any better, I'd say our kids were worried about us." Malcolm said.

"We're okay Thea, and if I have to hear that question one more time tonight, I will be the one committing a felony."

"Do you know who attacked you?" Slade asked.

"Triad, unhappy with my anti-crime stance."

"And the person who saved you, I heard on the news it sounded like the man from Christmas."

"Whoever he was, I'm glad he came." Walter said.

"Can you give us any more details Malcolm."

"Just that he was well trained. I've known enough ex-special forces in my time to know that. He took down six assailants in under 3 seconds, managed to handle multiple targets in single strokes." Malcolm said calmly, but inside he was reeling. Even by League standers, what that man did was impressive, to be able to maintain momentum like that to slice through 3 people the moment he hit the ground, and he adjusted his blade while in mid stroke, moving it up and down while keeping it level to slice through the men's necks, which were different heights. And then to throw like that, the agility, the smoothness of the flip that cut the man in two. That was something that only someone who had studied for decades could pull off so effortlessly.

And to live that long, and be in that level of physical fitness, meant you needed the pit. And only certain individuals could use the pit, high-ranking, prominent members.

And they, they were only EVER, dispatched for very specific reasons.

"He had silver eyes." Moira said, drawing the attention of the room.

"What?" Both Malcolm and Walter asked.

"He looked at me, I'll never forget that look like he was peering into my soul, and those eyes, they were defiantly silver or a very bright gray."

"That is actually very helpful."

"How so detective?" Shado asked.

"Gray eyes are very rare. People who can use a sword and have gray eyes, probably even rarer." Lance then walked over to an officer. "Get in contact with every list any government agency has, Army personnel, persons of interest, sword fighting enthusiasts, find anyone who has gray eyes in that list and figure out where they are."

The officer nodded and walked off. "Don't worry, we will find this guy."

"To give him a medal I hope." Malcolm said.

"What?"

"Well, forgive me detective, but I happen to like this person, at the moment. His interference prevented me from having to learn how to be left handed."

"So you don't want me to capture this guy."

"Not at all, but do know that unless he is responsible for something other than breaking my windows and making it, so I need a cleaning service that handles blood, I don't intend on pressing charges. And should you catch him, I might just finance him a legal team."

"Ok then." Lance said, looking a little mad.

"Dad." Sara said. "I thought you liked the vigilantes after they saved Laurel."

"No, I slightly respect slash don't hate the Masked one because he rescued Laurel and is probably dead. I still don't want people trying to take the law into their own hands."


"And here I thought I had your dad's approval." Slade said as the team was suiting up.

"He's always believed the law was the only way, you don't shake that belief overnight." Sara said.

"And here I thought I was retired from this gig." Diggle said coming down the stairs.

Slade, after they had come home, had become the Queen's head of security, having hired Diggle himself for Thea's personal protection. After a run in with Dead Shot, Dig had been injured.

It took some convincing, but eventually the man joined in on the group's little side business. As well as providing security for the club Thea, Tommy, Sara, and Slade co-owned. Sara having thought a club was as good a cover as any for their base.

Plus, they were easy to launder money through to help with the vigilante-ing, just fake the numbers on the door charges, and charge $2 a song request.

They had called it Verdant, a private little monument to Oliver and Yao Fei, a way for them to be helping fight the good fight in spirit.

"Come on Dig, rebuilding the club could not be that much fun."

"Yeah, but it did have a certain relaxation to it."

"He has been board out of his mind." Felicity said from her computer. She had joined the group after helping with some techy things that the combined knowledge of the team couldn't, and then when she was kidnapped to help with some big cyber crime, the team had saved her, not without her being shot, and taken her back to the base to patch her up.

After that, she had become the go-to tech expert.

"So, you got anything?" Shado asked.

"Nothing. No reports or sightings in the city until now. And other than one ghost story from 4 years ago, nothing even remotely sounding like what this guy did."

"I've always loved ghost stories, let's hear it." Sara said.

"According to the report, The Danial's building in Miami was attacked sometime after 8 P.M. on July 5th, 2009. The NSA thought some big bad group was using the building, but no proof could be obtained, only the word H.I.V.E. was ever found. After the attack, all the computers were missing."

"So what happened?"

"That's where it gets scary. 600 men were in that building, all found with automatic weapons on them. The police recovered some 8000 shell casings, and only seven survivors found on different floors, tied up, with lots of bodies around them. They said that one man in black came and killed everyone."

"One man?" Slade asked, not sure if he was impressed or disbelieving.

"All seven witnesses were kept separate. All had different things to say. One said he was in the back of the room when a man in black came barreling in, killing the other seven people in the room in the blink of an eye. Then disarmed him and tied him up before he was even sure what happened, then he said: "Tell others, and especially your boss, never touch her again." And then the guy left."

"Her?"

"All seven of the men said the exact same thing, word for word. They also all said he was fast, strong, able to move like nothing they ever had ever seen before, and," Felicity stopped and pointed at the screen while turning to the group. "that he had silver eyes." Felicity then turned back to her reading. "They were all dead a week later when a garbage truck full of explosive slammed into the truck for prison transfer they were on, killing three other prisoners and two guards."

"Well, assuming this is true, and he's the same guy, what are you all going to do?" Dig asked.

"We find him of course." Slade said.

"Wow, you sure that's a good idea?" Felicity asked.

"Why wouldn't we?" Sara asked.

"Well, the guy hasn't actually done anything super wrong, at least, nothing you all haven't done yourselves." Felicity said.

"And if even half that report is accurate, are you sure that is the type of person you want to fight. Sounds to me like he's the kind of person you bring a tank for back up."

"That's why I'm here." Slade said. "And we can handle one swordsman."

"And I don't like the idea of another player in town."


A month later.


Unfortunately, said other player refused to show himself. A month spent looking under every rock, in every nook and cranny, and nothing to show for it. Other than the occasional drug dealer, but even they were rare these days.

And when there was any new activity, the Man in Black never showed up.

"Was it just a one-time thing?" Sara said, everyone throwing ideas around while sparing. "Like he was bored that night and said 'hay, this looks like fun.'"

"Maybe he's a hired gun, and one of the triad was a target. Hoping to make killing him by making it looked like an attempt to foil the attack on Merlin." Diggle said.

"Maybe he was a bodyguard. The old report did sound like he was protecting someone, the same way he was here." Felicity suggested from her computers.

"Well maybe…" But Shado was interrupted by a phone ringing.

And old Russian flip phone.

Sara went and answered it. "привет старый друг." (Hello old friend.)

"Anatoly. как дела?" (How are you?)

"Я был хорошо. я нахожусь в городе, думал, что мы могли бы наверстать упущенное. Знайте, в любом месте есть хорошая, настоящая русская еда." (I have been well. I'm in town, thought we might catch up. Know anywhere to eat good, authentic Russian food.)

"Я знаю только место." (I know just the place.)


"Thank you, Raisa, you are a life saver." Sara said. The woman having just finished making a very nice Russian meal at the apartment.

"Your welcome Ms. Lance. So, who is the lucky man."

"And old friend who lives in Russia, he's in town and thought he would stop by and say hi."

"Well, must be some friend for you to go to all this trouble. Even shooing Mr. Willson and Ms. Fie away." Raisa said with a smile. "Just make sure I meet him before your father does."

"Why is that." Sara thought, for a brief moment enjoying the look on her father's face if he ever met Anatoly, especially if he found out about his day job.

"I met all of Mr. Oliver's and Mr. Merlin's girls before their parents did, usually the morning after when I brought up a hangover cure. I expect to be allowed to judge this boy too."

And then Sara really had to try and not laugh. She had been up against drug lords, kingpins, corrupt tycoons, and assorted other unsavory characters, but Raisa was giving them all a run for their money concerning death glares.

"Ok, I promise if we get into a serious relationship, I'll drag him, kicking and screaming, straight to you."

"Good." And with a smile and a pat on the arm, Raisa left.

A half hour later, the head of the Bratva entered the room with a few bodyguards.

"Anatoly Knyazev." Sara said, throwing her arms open to hug the man. "It's been too long."

"Indeed it has my old friend." Anatoly said, taking off his coat, one of his men hung it up in the closet. "Nice place. A few too many windows for my taste, but still nice."

"Is it a problem?"

"No, but you never know who's listening, and might have a rifle."

"Watch this." And then Sara left, only to come back with a box. She opened it and pulled out a small device.

"Is that?"

"A girl has needs."

"Yes, but all you need is a short skirt, and you could have any man ready to help you."

"You're too kind." Sara then gathered up the box and walked over to the windows.

Anatoly didn't realize it before, but connected to the middle of each window was a bit of metal wire. The wires all led to a metal dish that Sara taped five of the toys to and then turned on. "The vibrations travel from the metal to the glass. It won't stop anyone from picking up the sound of us if we are shouting, but it works in a pinch."

"Very nice." Anatoly said.

"Thank you. We ordered a bulk batch of speakers we could attach to the windows permanently to do this, but they won't come until next week." Sara then motioned to the table. "Shall we eat?"


Organized crime had gotten word that some big Russian mucky-muck had come to town, and Captain Lance was more than happy to help.

He liked his promotion, the pay, the parking space, the better hours. But dear heavens, he loved being out in the field more, and he hated his desk. He had hated paperwork all of his career, now he could have a secretary take care of it, but that just wasn't in the budget.

Well, at least it hadn't been, but after a not too subtle mentioning to certain influential individuals, the department had been given a grant to hire a bunch of office monkeys.

So that meant Lance could be out from behind his desk and in the field, and it also meant he could do anything he wanted, go with meter maid one day, be solving homicides the next.

"So, who is this guy?"

"Not sure, the chatter was pretty scares. All we know is some big time Bratva member is in town, doing who knows what that will almost certainly cause us a headache." Detective Riley, a member of organized crime, said.

"So, we know nothing?"

"We are aware he's meeting someone here." He said, holding up security cam video. They watched as a large group of men walked over to the elevator. Two of them remained downstairs. "Ok, those lights should say which floor they stop at." Lance and Riley watched with interest. Unfortunately, the elevator stopped three times.

"Ok, let's assume they got off on the last floor. Up near the penthouses and lofts."

"That's floors 23 through 25." Riley said, before giving orders over the radio. "Use the Laser microphones, scan every window, and find them."

After a minute wait. "We have something." One of the tecks said. He then handed the two men a pair of headphones.

"Nice place. A few too many windows for my taste, but still nice." A man said

"Is it a problem?" A woman responded.

And Lance almost went crazy, it couldn't be.

"No, but you never know who's listening, and might have a rifle." The man said again.

"Watch this." Then footsteps could be heard

"Is that?"

"A girl has needs."

And Lance almost had a heart attack. That was defiantly Sara's voice.

"We got it, sir. Floor 24, room 2A." The teck said. And Lance shuddered, remembering that that was the loft Sara shared with Slade and Shado.

"Find out who lives there." Riley said.

"Yes, but all you need is a short skirt and you could have any man ready to help you."

"You're too kind."

And then after a moment. Wrrrrwrrwrwrwr.

"What the hell." Lace and Riley said together.

"Must be some kind of interference." The tech said. "I guess a vibrator."

"A vibrator, as in…"

"Going by the conversation, I would guess. Put one on the glass, we can't hear a thing." He said, pushing some buttons, but that sound was all they heard. "Must have put one on each window."

"Who owns the place?"

"Queen Consolidated." The tech said.

"What?" Riley asked dumbfounded.

"That's who is paying the rent."

"Looks like we need to have a talk with them then." Riley said.

"Hey, maybe I should do that."

"You sure Captain?"

"Yeah, the Queens know me, maybe a friendly face will help this."


"So, what are you doing in town, old friend?"

"Sara, as you know, the organization let you and your friends in under no small amount of protest, an American was bad enough, but someone of color, it was not easy."

"Yes, they wouldn't even let Shado join, she was given an advisory position."

"And those voices have started talking again. There are those that say, because of who your father is, and your lack of apparent interest in the day to day operations, or assisting in the brotherhood's expansion, that perhaps my faith in you was misplaced."

"And you old friend?"

"I told them I didn't like the adjectives they used to describe you and let me assure you, they were colorful. But they are not wrong, you have not done anything to publicly help us here, other than the usual payment for service."

"Well, then; in regards to the immediate problem of my critics, tell them that if they want to voice their opinions to do it in person, instead of hiding behind a few thousand miles of water. And to tell their loved one's goodbye before they come. As for my lack of help, what do you suggest?"

"You and your friends are uniquely situated to help the Brotherhood take over this city. Your knowledge and connections to the police and Slade's connection to the rebuilding efforts make it ideal. We thrive while the others starve, and then take them out while they are weak, and the Bratva own the city."

"Well." Sara said, looking like she was considering it, but honestly, she didn't like the idea. "Why should I help. Don't get me wrong, I like the brotherhood and am grateful for all the help, but the winds are blowing hard, and not in crime's direction. And I know better than to sail into a storm."

"Sara, you and I both know that a city without crime, organized crime, is idealistic, but foolishly so. Just because there was an earthquake doesn't mean people appetites for vice have gone away. And where there is an appetite, there is demand, and a supplier always surfaces to meet demand. Wouldn't it be better if that supplier was one you controlled?"

That last word made Sara stop for a moment. "What?"

"You're a captain, you do this, these men will be under your command. You make the rules on what happens."

Sara suddenly was thinking about it. Control of the only game in town, no mob wars, no innocents getting hurt. "I might be amiable to this idea."

"Good." Anatoly said smiling.

"But, we get something clear with your boys first. My town, my rules. And rule number one, no girls. I'm willing to run a business where a girl willing to use her body to make an extra buck, I understand using looks to get ahead. But if I hear about girls, especially underage ones, who's working off her visa, I will castrate anyone involved."

"Ok." Anatoly said, he had already known, given her history, that Sara might have this to say.

"And two, drugs. Anyone dealing dies."

"That one might be harder to work out."

"Please, these are civilized times, with knockoff clothing sales, who needs to sell drugs." Sara said. "Besides, drug selling mobsters get thrown in jail. But, mobsters who keep drugs out of the city, they might be a little less hated. Besides, we are in trouble if we have to sell that stuff to survive."

"True enough, my friend, true enough. Anything else?"

Yes." Sara then leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and looking him dead in the eye. "And you make sure they understand this. Not one cop dies. Anyone so much as points a gun at a cop, I will kill them, their family, their friends, their family's friends, the family of those friends, the people that owe them money, the shop owner who sells their groceries, even the person who delivers their mail. I will kill everyone, myself, if a single cop is hurt." She said with deadly seriousness. "Am I clear?"

Anatoly just smiled a big smile. "Yes, and your men understand as well."

Sara just blinked "What?"

He then gestured to the men standing around the room. "These men, they're not mine, at least, not directly, they work for you now. These are your seconds in command, they will follow your every order, and I think after that little threat, they will listen."

Sara just looked around, taking them all in. "When do we start?"


"Captain, what can I do for you?" Walter said, shaking the man's hand with a big smile.

"Hello Walter, I'm working on a case, and I need your help."

"Anything."

"Slade Wilson, he has an apartment that your company pays for, room 2a at the Fox building."

"Yes, I believe so, why?"

"In a little while, organized crime is going to be coming here, asking for information about that room, I need you to stall for as long as possible."

When Walter heard organized crime, he perked up. "What? Why?"

"Slade and Shado were out at dinner last night, and while they were out, Sara was having dinner with a big time Russian Mafia boss at that apartment."

Walter had to take a moment to think. "Quintin, you can't think…"

"I don't know what to think. All I know is my daughter was being friendly with criminals, and people will want to know why. I need you to stall long enough to ask her myself."

"Sure, whatever you require."


"Daddy, won't you come in." Sara said, opening the door of her apartment to welcome her father in. "Sorry, the place is a mess, had a dear old friend over for dinner last night," Sara said, scurrying around to clean up the last of the stuff. "So, what brings you by?"

"Can't a man visit his own daughter, do I need a reason?"

"No, you just usually give me a little more warning."

"So, a funny thing happened yesterday," Lance said, changing the subject. "I was with an organized crime unit; they were doing a stakeout, trying to find out information about a crime boss."

"Really, Triad or Bertinelli?" Sara asked.

"Neither. It was the Russian Mob, the Bratva." Lance said.

And Sara was lucky she was turned away at that moment, it gave her the time to think of how to play this. "Really, I should call Anatoly, he'd want to know if criminals from home were around."

"What?" Lance asked.

"Anatoly, my friend I had dinner with last night, he is Russian. Very dear to me, saved my life several times, although, I saved his life more times. He's very big in Russia, I could ask him to help, maybe he can ID the man."

"And where did you meet this Anatoly?"

"On the… on the island."

"Oh." Lance said, instantly feeling very weird. It was a rarity for Sara to talk amount that time in her life. When Sara had first come home, Lance had tried to probe for answers, with varying levels of bad results. Slade Wilson had had to sit him down, and explained how, to survive, you had to take on roles and do things, which otherwise you would never do. He said Lance would have to learn to accept that he might never know everything or anything about those years and that he had to not judge Sara for them.

"Long story short, we met, I save him, and he saved me. We both thought the other died after a ridiculous escape attempt, I come back to town, and he called to tell me he was alive and promised to visit sometime."

"Well, sounds like I might need to intimidate this boy."

"He's your age dad, don't worry. Besides, we have far too, interesting, a relationship to ever be together."

"Interesting," Lance was curious again. "how?"

"I saved his life… 5 and ¾ times."

"3/4?"

"I nearly killed him saving his life, the ½, and I was once asked to help kill him, but we ended up saving each other, the other ¼."

Lance just tried to process that.

Slade was right, something you just have to accept. "That makes an odd amount of sense."`


"Captain, you can't be serious?" Riley asked.

"Did I stutter?" Lance asked, looking at the group of organized crime cops to see if anyone would say anything. "My daughter told me they talked about the weather, Russian supermodels, and some personal stuff that I won't go into here. Now, why would she lie to me?"

"To cover for him."

"Riley, stop and listen to yourself a second. Now, either my daughter is telling the truth, and we are wasting our time and valued resources trying to find out if any valuable information was exchanged at a meeting. Information we can't confirm because we didn't hear anything they said and that a credible source has told me is worthless to us. Or my daughter is lying, and she was having dinner with a man and they discussed, what, the lack of all of the organized crime in this city. Does that make any sense to you?"

Riley had to admit, it did seem unlikely.

"A city, I might add, that, for lack of a better term, is being seriously renovated. Where billionaires are pouring millions into urban development. A city where crime is on the out because of dozens of programs and those same wealthy men and women pouring lots of money into the police force and criminal reform programs." Lance said. "And if they were talking about anything we could use, what would it be. Would this guy is talking to a cops daughter about the last 20 people he murdered, probably giving her lots of details, telling her where they have buried the bodies and the murder weapons location, time and place it happened, the motive. Or maybe, he is giving her the location of all of his brothels and drug dens."

"All right Captain, you've made your point." Riley said, defeated. "Clearly, this is a dead end." He then quickly grabbed a file. "We have some actionable intel about the Triad."


"So, your father and his friends were listening in on our talk last night?" Anatoly asked.

"They want to know what you're doing in town." Sara said.

"Will this be a problem?"

"No, I told him you were just an old friend."

"And you still want job, even if it means being at odds with him?"

"My father is idealistic, he thinks crime can be eradicated from this city, but it can't, it can only be controlled. I'm interested in that happening."

"Good." Anatoly said before standing up. He had invited Sara to have drinks with him in the Russian consulate. "In that case, I have a meeting tonight that I need you to be at with me."

"Who's it with?"

"An old mutual friend of ours. Chein Na Wei."

Sara almost jumped the man. "Her." She said, outraged. "Why would we be meeting her?"

"We are giving her and the Triad a chance to leave this town quietly. They may be weaker with the hits they have taken these past months, but it would still be best if we could just get them to leave without a fight." Anatoly said, and Sara did have to agree that a mob war would be a good thing to avoid, but still.

"If she doesn't agree."

"I will hold her down; you will devise some ingenious and unsettling way of punishing slash killing her."

"Good."


There are five stages of decomposition. Fresh – the stage just after death. Blood stops circulating, so the cells stop getting oxygen and carbon dioxide is no longer removed. Causing the cells to lose their integrity and begin releasing enzymes. Blood starts to settle at the body's lowest point, causing discoloration called livor mortis. All the remaining oxygen is consumed any microbes that live in the lungs and intestines, giving way to anaerobic organisms that eat all the carbohydrates, lipids and proteins in the body, creating acids and gas to build up, leading to the bloating phase of decomposition. During this phase, Blowflies and flesh flies are the first to start eating the body.

During the Bloat phase, the gasses and liquids build up, stretching the skin, bursting organs, and eventually rupturing the body in places where it is weak until it's mostly just bones in soup in a skin sack.

This all takes roughly a week to happen, at which point maggots have hatched and started eating on the body as well.


"I hate this." Sara said as they drove to the docks.

"I know." Anatoly said.

"I mean, I really, really, hate this."

"I know."

"When this goes wrong, I am so rubbing your face in it."

"Yes Sara, anything else?"

"Yes, I hate this."

"Glade we made that clear." He said, getting out before helping her. "Look on the bright side, at least it's not her asking we leave town."

Sara just glared at him as they walked up to the waiting group. "Thank you for meeting us."

"Anything for a friend." China said, taking a step forward.

"I'd say this is the part where we have our men search you while yours search us, but let's be honest, we are all armed." Anatoly said pulling out a gun, smiling.

China just smiled back before pulling out two knives.

"Well, now that that is clear, down to business." Anatoly said.

"Yes, my people do not want to leave."

"Well, none of us want to leave, but it seems times will force us out. There is not enough here for all of us, only one."

"Then why not you leave."

"Because I'm in the position to make demands, you are not." Anatoly said, earning a hard glare from China. "I know your people are weak; you might be putting up a big front, telling everyone you are bringing in supplies from your homeland and such. Convening the locals, who are weaker, that you could still crush them, but we know the truth. Any help you could bring here is barely a trickle, a band-aid to stop the humoring. You can barely get a gun into the city, let alone drugs or cash."

"And you can do better?" China said.

"Yes." Then China's phone rang. "You will want to get that."

China sneered but then answered. "它是什么" (Tā shì shénme) (What is it?")

"我们被警察突袭,我们失去了装运." (Wǒmen bèi jǐngchá túxí, wǒmen shīqùle zhuāngyùn.) (We were raided by the police, we lost the shipment.)

China looked up at Anatoly, blood boiling; her glare could have killed him. That shipment was the first one of its kind in months, a half million in cocaine which could have revived the Triad.

"Problem?" Anatoly asked, walking forward. "I know of a least three more raids, like that one, only they will be on some of your warehouses, they will happen within the hour. I know you have at least seven such places, your emergency supplies of weapons, drugs, etc. By my estimation, you might be able to empty two of them before the police move in, but even if you could, where would you store the items, and moving them without being seen might be hard." Anatoly said smirking. "My friends has an offer." He said, looking at Sara.

China wanted to kill him, but she knew she should hear the offer first. "What?" She said, looking at Sara, a vague memory stirring in the back of her mind, but no need for that now.

"I will buy these supplies off of you, fair market price with maybe a bulk and hard times discount, and you leave town with a very large amount of money. I then undertake the risk of getting the goods to safety with my greater numbers and insider knowledge, it might be possible, if not a little tricky." Sara said, she then put on her best murderer look. "Or not, and you loses what you have, and we have to waste good ammo killing you all off and then taking it, and you go back to Hong Kong with your tail between your legs and nothing to show your bosses." Sara then softened. "I assume you want time to think it over, talk to people."

"Yes, thank you."

"Sorry, no." Sara said, before making a big show of looking at her watch. "We are running low on time, and my offer is a one time only deal, so act now," Sara said, smiling at China. "I might even throw in the name of your mole for free."

China wanted to kill her now too, but she only laughed. Then she looked at Anatoly. "You certainly know how to choose your friends." She then looked back at Sara. "How much is the offer."

"Your mole said something about the warehouses being worth some 4.7 million; I'm willing to make it an even 5." Sara then pulled out a briefcase, opening it to show the money.

China thought for a second, then took out a piece of paper and wrote on it. "The addresses of the, eight, warehouses." She then handed it to Sara, who also pulled out a paper.

"Your mole's name."

China just nodded. "A pleasure doing business."


An hour later, the police stormed three warehouses to find all but one empty.

That one had the body of a CI in it.


A week later, Sara was walking through town after visiting Laurel, when someone came out of nowhere and grabbed her.


"I apologies Miss Lance," China said removing the bag from her head. "But after our dealing in Hong Kong, and now here, I'm afraid I must send a message before I leave."

Sara took a moment to get her bearing before laughing. "Ahh, so, you recognized me."

"You cost my organization millions."

"You were selling a biological weapon, I would also add that if you hadn't, the people who released it in China wouldn't have gotten it, and millions of your countrymen would not have died."

"Profit is profit. We all do what we have to survive."

"Survival is all relative China. There are limits, even for people like us, especially people like us."

"You really believe that?"

"Yes, and you would to if you knew all the things I do," Sara said, and China drew a dagger. "Ferris Air 637 out of Berlin to Hong Kong." Sara said, and China stopped.

"What?"

"It was a flight you were on six years ago that was going to be shot down, would have been to without some interference. It was an assassination attempt on you, which would have left hundreds of innocent lives dead. People like us; we need lines, ones we can't cross. Because if we cross those lines, if we ignore the value and cost of human life, we will all be dead before the end of the week."

China was about to say something, but then a thud was heard behind them.

Followed by several more in very quick succession, and before China could turn around, or Sara could even register what she was seeing, five Triad men were dead with arrows sticking out of them.

"Hello, China."

Both women turned to see a man step out of the shadows.

The Man in Black.

He drew his sword, and with speed, unlike anything Sara had ever seen before, even compared to Slade, was attacking China with extreme precision. Sara had fought her many times over the years, but she had never seen anyone put the Chinese assassin on the defensive so quickly, or keep her there. Every motion was fluid, every move perfectly controlled, he dodged every attack effortlessly, and then struck back, purposefully having the attack go wide, or stopping before slicing the woman.

Sara thought it was glorious.

China was just annoyed.

The man must have gotten bored, as with a single punch, Chein Na Wei went down for the count.

He then walked over to Sara, and pulled out a blade, hopefully going to cut the binds, but then stopped. "You're wondering why I didn't kill her?" He said, standing up straight and turning around, leaving Sara bound to the chair.

Which was very annoying. But Sara had a feeling she wasn't the one he was talking to. "You're curious, am I him, the one they speak of?"

"Are you?" Another voice said, one Sara couldn't find and was sure she recognized, just not sure where she had heard it before.

"I don't think you actually want to know, you're scared of the answer." He then walked a short distance away and turned to face a part of the warehouse so dark that even Sara couldn't see anything. "Otherwise you wouldn't be pointing that at me."

Then another person came out of the shadows, holding a bow with an arrow pointed at the Man in Black.

It was the Dark Archer.

Sara wasn't sure how she knew, but she did. Their outfits were similar, but the Archer wore a hood, while The Man in Black wore a head scarf that wrapped tightly around his head.

And, now that Sara thought about it, she didn't think it had any eyes either.

"Are you him?" The Archer said.

"Arrows, they are such ineffective projectile, I wonder why anyone still fears them." The Man said walking back toward Sara.

"Get away from her." The Archer said, pulling back more on the sting, causing the Man to stop.

"Why would I save her, and then kill her."

"Maybe you only saved her to interrogate her, maybe something worse." He said. "I don't know because I don't know you. You won't tell me who you are."

The Man just walked forward a little more, causing the archer to fire.

One moment his hands were at his sides, the next he had caught the arrow without even turning around, and then when he did turn, he was over in front of the archer before he could even draw again, punching him in the face.

They both then drew swords and fought. The Man in Black would offer the Dark Archer critics on his style, offering suggestions for better attacks, warnings when his technique was a bit off.

After a few minutes, the Man in Black again became bored, and disarmed the Archer. "Not bad." He then gave the Archer back his sword. "I am Al Sah-Him Ibn al Ghul, husband of the heir, and horseman of the Demon's Head. Now show your proper respect." The man, Al Sah-Him, said.

And the Archer did bow his head in respect to him, shocking Sara.

Al Sah-Him walked over to Sara and, finally, cut her bonds.

Yes, she could have escaped, but dislocating your thumb is unpleasant, and it would have been hard to explain.

Al Sah-Him then turned around and walked away. "Do with her what you will." He said, pointing to China, who was starting to regain consciousness, only for him to punch her again. "Have a nice day." He said to the Archer.


"What?" Slade asked, really not sure if he was hearing things.

"He beat Chein Na Wei like it was nothing, and gave fighting lessons to the Dark Archer."

"As in The Dark Archer, the one that took all of you down with relative ease." Diggle said. The whole group, minus Felicity, giving a shudder at the memory. The Dark Archer had taken hostages, calling them out, and it had not gone well for them. He was fast, and strong, taking Slade out first with three exploding arrows, Slade having caught one and sliced the others, but that didn't stop them from going boom and causing him to fall through three stories of rotted wood to a hard cement floor.

Then Sara had tried to fight him, getting an arrow in the side and shoulder for her troubles, and Shado had her knee broken, a dislocated jaw, and a broken arm.

If Slade hadn't come up and managed to throw a knife in the Archer's back, none of the women would have survived the fight.

"So, who is this Al Sah-Him?" Shado asked.

"Well, that wasn't his full title apparently." Sara said.

"What was the rest of it?"

"He said. 'I am Al Sah-Him Ibn al Ghul, husband of the heir, and horseman of the Demon's Head.' And then told the Archer to show respect, and he did by bowing to him."

"Did you say al Ghul?" Shado asked.

"Yes." Sara said.

"He is a member of the League." Shado said, looking terrified all of the sudden.

"The League?" Diggle asked.

"The League of Assassins."

"What's the League of Assassins? And please, don't say it's a league made up of assassins." Felicity said.

"No, it's an urban legend. I heard about them in Afghanistan from a tribal leader. He claimed there was an ancient sect of assassins, deadly warriors that killed and vanished like ghosts. Thought he was smoking what he was selling." Diggle said.

"They are very real. They are the myth warlords and men with drug empires tell themselves don't exist so they can sleep at night. But they are very real, my father met a member once, saved the man's life, in return, the League owed him a blood debt, one that has yet to be repaid." Shado said.

"Do you think we can use that then, get some information?" Slade asked.

"Maybe."


Shado lit the fire, causing a large cloud of purple smoke to bellow out of it and into the sky.

"Lucky, this part of the Glades is still being cleared, no one will notice a little more smoke, even if it is a weird color." Diggle said, wearing a mask to obscure his identity, the rest of the group in costume.

"Remember, the one thing we can't do is kill him; we can't even threaten him." Shado said. "If he is who he says he is, and we have no reason to believe he isn't, the League will rain down hell on this whole city for laying a glove on him."

"They would do far worse actually." A voice said, causing all of them to turn to see Al Sah-Him come out from behind a pile of rubble. "Why do you insult me?"

"Insult you?" Sara asked. "How."

"You wear your masks, Sara Lance." He said, causing all of them to freeze. "Slade Wilson, John Diggle, and Shado Fie."

"How do you know those names?" Slade asked, not hiding his anger.

"I have my ways. Be glade I do, however, were you to summon me without the blood debt owed to you, you would be in quite the pickle right now." He said. "As it is, you have saved me some time, I was going to come to Verdant and tell you this, remove our debt to you, but this works as well."

"We already have our questions." Shado said.

"And I bet I can make you throw them all away with but three words and listen to what I have to say instead." He said, and even though they could not see his face, they could hear the smirk in his voice. "How about this, if these three words don't interest you, I will answer your questions instead, deal?"

"Deal." Sara said.

Al Sah-Him laughed. "Ivo, Amazo, Mirakuru."

Instantly the vigilantes whole demenor changed, he was right, those words did interest them, extremely. "What do you know?" All three of the vigilantes asked together, causing Diggle to look at them surprised.

"That, despite your best efforts, Anthony Ivo is alive, and for the last few years, has been experimenting with the Mirakuru. He blames you all for the fact that his wife died of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, believing that had you not delayed him, he would have gotten home in time to cure her. He has amassed, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 men, all Mirakuru enhanced, and has found a way to make hundreds more."

"How?" Slade asked.

Al Sah-Him tossed a paper to him. Slade picked it up, showing an article about a recent scientific breakthrough by S.T.A.R. Labs, detailing the medical breakthrough of a biotransfuser. "What is this?" Sara asked, looking at the article when Slade showed it to her.

"The future of medicine, or the future of Mirakuru transfusion. The biotransfuser takes the blood of one person and transfers it to several people, mixing the blood together, allowing the exchange of antibodies. Medically this could allow a person naturally immune to a deadly disease to pass along that immunity to hundreds of other people. If modified, it would permit Ivo to make hundreds of soldiers by having the machine metabolize the Mirakuru, taking the survival rate from one in a thousand to one death in a thousand."

"How will he get one?" Sara asked.

"S.T.A.R. Labs has already made three of them and is planning to deliver them to hospitals in Star, Central, and National City. In a year the hospitals will give their verdict on the machines, and then if all goes well in the reviews, they will begin selling them all over the world, Ivo will try and steal on of them."

"Do you know which?" Slade asked.

"My guess would be the one in Central City, the main hospital is Central City Memorial, which is where the biotransfuser is being delivered. It also happens to have one of the largest blood banks in the country, it boasts of having 50,000 units of O- blood, with the ability to store it for up to ten years."

"He could easily build an army with that."

"I would hurry then, the unveiling of the biotransfuser in Central City happens in three days." He said before turning to walk away.

"Wait." Sara called. Al Sah-Him turned back to face her. "Why don't you help us, clearly you have the skill, and you must see what a risk Ivo succeeding would be?"

"Wars must be fought on many fronts, if Ivo sees you are in Central City, he might unleash some of his men here, and they would be unchallenged. If I remain, I do not risk more exposure, and can fight them if necessary." He said, leaving them to consider their options.


Three days later, Slade, Shado, and Sara found themselves in a large group, outside of Central City Memorial Hospital, listening to the president of the hospital make a big speech about the hope of modern medicine. "Where are they?" Slade asked.

"I'm getting nothing, no security alarms, no movement on any motion sensors, and even the spectrometer isn't doing anything." Felicity said over the comms; she was safe in the hotel a mile away.

"Spectrometer?" Sara asked.

"The hospital has them in the case of an earthquake; I thought it might be a good idea to check that no one was tunneling under the hospital."

"Well, better safe than sorry." Slade said. "But they need to make a move quick. Otherwise, there will be a lot of people surrounding that thing."

"Nothing on the police scan… wow"

"What?"

"The police just got a lot of chatter. A guy in a hockey mask with an AK-47 barged into the 11th precinct and started shooting." She then got another alert. "And now there is a bat-wielding clown, yes I read that right, going around, destroying a mall." She said. "Guys, these are both at least seven miles from the hospital."

"It's a diversion." Slade said.

And then a lot of shots rang out, and the crowd started running


"What happened?" Felicity asked.

"Five people started shooting up the event, we got in costume, and managed to take them out. What happened to you?" Sara asked.

"Someone was jamming the signal, they used a serious multi-wavelength jammer, like the kind you use in the NSA to stop any signal from getting out. I couldn't reach you, the cameras, cell traffic, everything was down."

"Did they get the device?" Slade asked.

"I don't know. I'm still waiting for the reports to come in." Felicity said, then her computer made a noise, she ran over and clicked some buttons. "Neither the man in the mall or the police station were caught, and the hospital is reporting the theft of the biotransfuser." She said in defeat.

"How."

"Apparently the hospital had an old sub-basement from the 1940s that aren't on any modern online plans, they blew the floor out and took it out through the sewers." Felicity said.

"So, this is bad." Slade said.


Three days later, Sara had the whole Bratva looking for Ivo, Diggle had reached out to ARGUS, Slade had even asked Captain Lance and Walter to keep an eye out for anything, saying that they didn't want the biotransfuser for Starling General Hospital to be stolen as well.

Nothing so far.

"I am running out of rocks to look under." Felicity said the team was having dinner at the apartment, and Felicity was on her laptop.

"How can they be so well hidden; no one can hide in this city." Sara said.

"What makes you think they are even here?" Diggle asked.

"Ivo hates us, me especially, he would want to begin his revenge here."

"But that doesn't mean he has to make his army here, they could be in Gotham City for all we know, ride into town on the 9:16." Felicity said.

"No, he's here, I know it."

"Well, where could they be then?" Felicity asked, more to the computer than anyone in the room.

Then a loud bang was heard. "What the…"

And smoke grenades came down the stairs.

"MOVE!" Slade yelled

But no one got out before they started to blackout.


"Hello, Sara."

Sara woke up to hear the voice of her nightmares.

Ok, one of the voices from her nightmares.

"I'm so happy to see you all again." Ivo said, removing the bag from Sara's head. "And now I get to meet the family."

If Sara was scared before, she was terrified now. As Anthony and his men removed bags from the head of Thea, Laurel, her father, Walter, Moira, even her mother was there. She then looked to her other side and saw Shado's sister, Slade, Felicity, Felicity's mom, Diggle, Carly, her son Andy, Malcolm, and Tommy Merlin.

"Anthony, what are you doing?" Sara said, not needing to act scared, as she was genuinely terrified.

"My wife died Sara, and you and your friends are responsible." He then took out a gun, pointing it at Thea. "And as for the Queens, well, Oliver was the biggest problem with that island."

This caused Moira to perk up, and Ivo saw it. "Yes, I knew your son, caused me many problems, so I killed him." He said smiling, to Moira's horror. "I told him to choose who lived, who died." He said, signaling to one of his men to move Sara and Shado out into the middle of the room. "He chose himself." Ivo then turned to Slade. "You were dead the last time I did this, so I'm going to let you chose," Ivo said, walking up behind them, pointing his gun at them both, getting a lot of reactions from the room. "Which one do I shoot?"

"I will kill you." Slade said, the level of venom dripping from his words was palatable. Slade then began to struggle against the bonds, but they didn't give.

"I cured you, by the way. You're an ordinary man right now." Ivo said, nodding to a man who hit Slade in the head. "Now chose, or I will shoot them both in the gut." He said, before pointing the gun toward where Thea and Moira were sitting. "Or maybe you'd rather they were here instead, maybe they could die, like Oliver did, because of your failure."

Slade growled at Ivo, snarling out ever threat and curse he could think of at the man, which was an impressive list, to say the least.

Ivo just smirked before jerking to the left.

Out of the was of an arrow that Al Sah-Him fired, causing it to miss and hit Slade. "Anthony Ivo, for your crimes you have been sentenced to death." He then drew and fired three more arrows that Anthony caught, letting the third hit him, but it bounced off.

"You think you can kill me with these, toothpicks?"

"No."

Suddenly the arrows exploded like a flash bang.

When everyone could see and hear again, the hostages were against a wall with 30 League members between them and Ivo's men, with Al Sah-Him standing alone between the assassins and Ivo.

"You think you can save them from me?"

"Yes." Al Sah-Him then calmly walked forward, drawing his sword, as dozens of Ivo's men ran at him.

It was a particularly one-sided fight.

Al Sah-Him managed to chop one of them in half almost, then twirled and cut off a head, an arm, and a leg. Four, five, six, more went down.

Until number nine got in a lucky hit, throwing him twenty feet and into a cement pillar. And so Ivo's men split off into two groups, four of them going to finish Al Sah-him off, and the rest to kill the others.

The people who went after Al Sah-Him got there first, laying into the man with a fury of kicks and punches. Everyone who should have been horrified that mad men were coming to kill them were too distracted by the fact that they were watching a man have his arms bent at unnatural angles and have his head facing the wrong way.

But then as the other group got closer the first goon yelled at the captives, drawing the attention of the shocked onlookers.

But before they could start tearing the captives apart, the first goon got quite the surprise when one of his comrades slammed into him.

Al Sah-Him was standing, and with a single punch sent two more of his attackers flying a good 40 feet away before turning on the other one, grabbing him, and breaking him in half. The rest of Ivo's soldiers were terrified to see him marching toward him.

Therefore, they did not see Slade stand up, push the assassins out of the way, grab a sword, and lay into the first person he saw.

"The arrow Slade was hit with, it wasn't a miss, it had metabolized Mirakuru in it ment for him." One of the assassins, a female with a red veil, told them. They then joined in the fight as Slade alone could not keep all the men at bay, and Al Sah-Him still had a good dozen between him and the others.

But unfortunately, the Mirakuru enhanced men, while lacking any real skill, more than made up for it in raw power. While the League could fell one of them, they could still kill three of them before they died. The numbers of assassins were quickly dwindling.

So suddenly, the group of bystanders found themselves faced with two Mirakuru soldiers and only two assassins between them. The woman in red and another man. "Once more into the breach old friend, once more." The woman said, raising her sword for the attack.

They did well, taking one of the two down, but then the guy assassin got knocked down, and was having trouble getting up, and then the last soldier grabbed the woman and drew back for what would be a lethal punch.

Malcolm, acting fast, grabbed the man's sword, who he knew was Al-Owal, and stabbed the man in the back, making sure to cut his heart in two.

Nyssa dropped to the ground, giving him a nod. "Once more." Malcolm said.

Al Sah-Him had grown bored by now, and the attack on Nyssa made the rest of his patience leave him. "Enough." He said, raising his hand above his head.

And with a flick of his wrist, a purple glow enveloped his hand, and then all of Ivo's men froze suddenly, flying up a few feet in the air, and then a purple energy left the goons and went into his hand.

After a few moments of this, the energy stopped coming from the men and they dropped, looking more like mummies that people.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" Thea asked.

Al Sah-Him looked at her. "No. It requires a certain amount of energy to drain people without touching them, especially in a group." He then looked at Ivo, the only one still alive. "Time to end this." He said, flicking his wrist toward the man, causing him to disappear. "See you for dinner tonight dear." He said to Nyssa, before disappearing himself.


Ivo suddenly woke up, dazed and confused.

"Welcome back doctor." Al Sah-Him said, standing up from a rock.

"Where am I?"

"Don't you recognize it? You killed me here." He said, nodding to something behind Ivo.

That something was the Amazo.

"Lian Yu."

"Yes."

Ivo then turned to him. "You were one of my prisoners."

"For a time."

"What do you mean I killed you, were you one of the ones who died from the Mirakuru?"

"No." He said. "This place, so close to her, is the only place I can be as I once was." He then began unwrapping his headscarf, revealing a grotesque body underneath. Maggots were eating at his flesh, crawling over his body and into his ears, his eyes sockets, out of his nose. His skin was discolored, blotchy purple in random places, but otherwise a sickly pale color. His chest was bloated, as were his arms. "Do you know what it's like, to have life cling to you, like a disease?" He asked, his tongue was green with a chunk missing, maggots crawling in his mouth. Taking out his sword, he sliced his lower stomach open, causing a disgusting yellow green and brown liquid to pour out onto the ground, after a moment the flesh resealed itself. "To feel your insides liquefy and cause your skin to pull itself apart, only for it to heal and do it all over again?" He asked. "To beg your friends not to bury you in the cold, dark earth, to watch as they buried you, begging with all you have, hoping they will hear you and stop, only to be slowly sealed in the purest darkness you can't even fathom?"

Al Sah-Him then began to glow with the same purple light he had when he was taking the life of Ivo's men. His chest became a standard shape, his arms shrunk, still large with mussel but not with gas buildup, his eyes regrew, his tongue was no longer green, and the maggots began to fall to the ground before scurrying away. His flesh became a more natural color, and his bald head had blond hair growing out of it.

When it was finished, Oliver Queen stood before Ivo, looking the same as when he was killed by Ivo, five years ago.

"Oliver." Ivo said, shocked.

"Yes, me." He then swung at the man with his sword.

But then he dropped to the ground in agonizing pain, unleashing a scream that challenged the sound of the oceans waves. The pain of constantly dying was nothing compared to this, he could feel it as each cell burned, was torn from him, was twisted, or exploded; the very fiber of his being was being pulled from him and destroyed.

"Not Yet, Bring Him To Me; You Must Sacrifice Him To Me. Unlock My Full Power." A voice that only Oliver could hear for the last three years said.

"Yes, mistress." Oliver said through his blood-curdling screams, and the pain stopped.

Oliver rose up after a moment, to see the pale face of Ivo. Even he could not remain composed in the face of such a sound.

Oliver then faced inland, and focusing on the power inside him, called it forth to create a door into the secret chambers of the island. After a moment, it appeared, and He forced Ivo to go through the door and into a tunnel.

"Where are we?" Ivo asked.

"On the island, a little north of Hell, here, a little bit less north and to the left." Oliver said, forcing the man forward.

"What are you doing, if you're going to kill me, kill me, I gave you a quick death."

Oliver shoved the man against the wall of the tunnel. "No, what you gave me was an eternal death." He then forced him to keep moving.

"At least tell me what is going on?"

"Have you ever heard of the Minocar?" (Pronounced: Min-O-S-air)

"No."

"Billions of years ago, a race of beings began experimenting with the deferent form of energy born out of the universal background energy, an electromagnetic field that binds all living sentient being together; it's what causes you to know when someone is watching, or that feeling you get before something goes wrong. They created a universal police force called the Manhunters and set themselves up as the universes guardians, but the Manhunters failed. They then decided that they would create a police force out of living beings, and created devices to harvest that same universal energy, and they eventually settled on the green energy of willpower. But not all of them were convinced, some thought they should take it a step further, and create living beings out of the universal energy, they called them the Minocar, meaning motivation in their language. Unlike emotions, all beings, regardless of mental state, have some form of motivation, whether that is a sentient motivation, or simply the need to continue living." They then entered a large chamber, the wall depicted people marching toward the far end of the room where they cast themselves into a fire, burning alive, blood dripping from them as they went. Above the people were giants holding whips, encouraging them forward. And above them on the ceiling was some great deity, her arms outstretched to touch the walls, her feet above the door, and her mouth was open, taking in the smoke from the fire. "While the green energy of will was weak against magic, these new beings were able to master the mystic arts quickly. The Guardians feared magic, and so sealed the Minocar away in different backwater planets. Millennia later, we came in the scene."

It was only then that Ivo noticed, what is probably an important detail, the people being led into the fire, and even the giants holding the whips, they all had a look of terror on their faces, and they were looking at her.

"Who is she?" Ivo asked.

"She is Marcav." (Pronounced M-air-K-Av) "She draws her power from the motivation caused by suffering, particularly physical pain." He said, watching Ivo look around in terrified awe.

"She's what draws them, isn't she, she's why this island was a prison for so long."

"The Island has something of a history of being an unpleasant place. If it gives you comfort Ivo, they are not terrified of her."

Ivo turned to look at him, shocked. "Why would you want to comfort me?"

"Because, despite all you have done, in the end, there were worse fates that could have befallen me, and you always wanted to do good, you just got very lost along the way. I can relate, if it wasn't for a few people in my life, I might be just like you are now."

"So, why not let me go. Show me mercy, like you would want mercy."

"Because Ivo, just because you wanted to do good, doesn't negate all the evil you have done. What is that old saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Oliver then nodded toward the fire. "If it is any consolation, your death will bring forth a power that will save more lives than you ever thought possible, not just on Earth, but every life in the universe." Oliver then looked at him. "Is not the essence of heroism, to die so others might live?"

Ivo, looked around, before nodding. "So, what are they terrified of?"

"Failing to summon her. They feared that their suffering would not give her the power necessary to fight back a great evil. They did, but she was imprisoned again, underneath this chamber." Oliver said, directing Ivo's attention to the floor, which depicted circles inside of circles inside of circles. It took him a moment, but eventually he saw that they were all interconnected.

"A gordian knot lock. They sealed her under an unbreakable seal."

"Nothing is completely unbreakable, but the key is something, almost impossible to obtain."

"What is it?"

"A selfish man, selflessly sacrificed for the life, or lives, of his friends, killed by an evil man on a genuinely righteous quest, must be brought back to life, and then find the man who killed him, must kill him in cold blood, and the evil man must be accepting of his fate," Oliver said. "She had almost given up hope of finding such men until you and I came. Exactly what she needed, to open the lock."

"And, why would you want that?"

"She is the one keeping me this way, but she can bring me back to life, completely."

"And how do you know she won't wipe out humanity?"

"Because, we happen to be a very abundant food source, most of our suffering is simply self-inflicted, and we are very slow learners. Not to mention our habit of remaining hopeful and defiant in the face of suffering, which is what she needs. She cannot feed on those who have accepted their suffering, as it no longer motivates them. The monster that is coming could make even us accept the hopelessness of life, and then he might be able to do that to everyone in the universe. Something she cannot allow, and so she is willing to defend Earth and humanity." Oliver said. "Plus, when you are forcefully bound to a planet for countless millennia, it's apparently hard not to get attached."

Ivo thought over what Oliver had said, the man's words carrying with them a certain weight. "Ok, do it."

And without a second's hesitation, Oliver opened Ivo's intestines, having them fall to the floor in a pile, a moment later the man hit the ground as well, not quite dead, but certainly getting there.

His skin then slowly began to melt, flowing into the grooves on the floor, the intricate design, until there was no longer a body, just soup.

Then the floor began to shift underneath Oliver, turning, twisting, as it slowly unraveled itself, shrinking down into the earth to reveal a door that then opened to reveal a body on an alter that looked like it had been there for forever.

Oliver then walked forward, and the fell to the ground again as the pain overtook him.

But, where typically the pain fueled himself, filling him with power, he felt it being leached, taken in by the dry bones on the altar, and slowly it reanimated itself. The cloth over the body becoming a light purple again, the golden crown on its head shining with a new brilliance, the darkest hair growing from its head, reaching to about the bottom of the shoulder blades.

The body underneath the cloth did not actually fill it out much, but as it rose up, crimson stripes appeared to bleed through the fabric, and dark black eyes opened, and a mouth made of the cloth it wore.

Finally, the pain subsided. "You have done well." She said to him.

"Thankyou mistress." Oliver said, bowing.

"Now we must prepare, is there much to do, and not a lot of time."


This is part of changingdestiny40's Assassin Canarrow (Nyssa/Oliver/Sara), Canarrow (Oliver/Sara), and Olyssa (Oliver/Nyssa) fic event to celebrate the 100th episode of Arrow, and I am personally celebrating the fact that the show sucks a lot less now than it has the last few season, it might even be getting good again, but I will wait tell the end to cast that vote..

There will be a part two to this, just don't know when as it will probably be longer than this one, and this one is already really long. And after that, it depends on if people want more or not.