Arrow: Objects in Motion
By: Shadow Chaser
Summary:
In the aftermath of "Sacrifice" the cleanup of the Glades begins as well as the trial of Malcolm Merlyn with Moira Queen as the star witness. The Vigilante is still a wanted criminal, but the shift of public opinion is changing. Yet all is not well as from the corners of the world, there is still the matter of what happened on the island of Lian Yu after Fyers was killed. Through all of that Oliver realizes that the objects in motion are far more portentous as his past collides with his future.
Author's Tweaks:
A few things changing with "Sacrifice" and thus making this an alternate universe story; one Laurel actually listens to her father and gets out of CNRI within those two minutes before the machine went off along with the rest of the staff so she is not trapped and subsequently Tommy did not die. Also, Oliver was in no condition to actually ride a bike let alone sprint away from Diggle after the fight with Merlyn no matter the adrenaline – blood loss would have taken care of that nice and easy – and so did not go to the Glades.
Story:
Chapter 1 – A Race Against Inevitability
"Felicity…" Oliver grimaced as he realized the implications of what Malcolm Merlyn had said, "There's another one…" As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a rumbling sound and he moved towards the edge of the rooftop, helped by Diggle as he coughed, sending shooting pain throughout his body.
Together, the two of them watched in horror as part of the Glades began to disintegrate, the buildings toppling over as transformers blew high into the air sending a deadly shower of sparks and live wires. The area surrouding Glades were not spared as the overload on the electrical grid plunged portions of Starling City into darkness. From high above the building, Oliver though he heard screams and looked on in jaw-dropping horror at the sounds of destruction cleaved the poorest section of the city apart.
"Holy mother of God…" Diggle breathed out next to him as Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, the dizziness from the blood loss overwhelming his vision temporarily. He winced again and was glad for the moment where Diggle squeezed his fingers tightly, driving the dizziness away.
"Oliver…the Glades…"
"…Yeah…" he forced himself to open his eyes once more as he stared at the destruction UNIDAC's man-made earthquake generator did, but all his eyes would do was fuzz in and out-
"Oliver!" the slap to his face startled him as he blinked owlishly and realized he had nearly fallen unconscious and forced himself to look at Diggle's pain-lined face. "Come on man, don't do this-"
"Sorry…Dig…" Oliver tried to smile and knew he was failing by the way Diggle's face suddenly morphed into two Diggles.
"No…no, no, no, no…D-Dad?!" it was only Tommy's frantic voice that made Oliver open his eyes wide and pivot unsteadily around, grabbing at Diggle's jacket making the other man grunt as his own wound pulled in protest, to see Tommy running across the gravel-filled rooftop.
"Dad! Please…" he saw Tommy kneeling by his father's prone form, almost frantic before looking up at them and Oliver felt a twinge of remorse. He did not know whether or not Malcolm Merlyn was still alive, but judging by the mortal wound he had given him…
"Y-You…" Tommy stared at him, his eyes red rimmed, accusing, almost heartbroken and Oliver's world spun dizzily again as he tried to keep himself awake and not pass out. Passing out with his wound, he knew, would not end well, especially since he did not know what Tommy would do.
"Dig?" he whispered as he could see the black spots forming at the edges of his vision.
"Oliver, don't-"
"The arrow…" Oliver could only hope that Tommy would do the right thing as he felt the darkness taking him away and embraced it.
John Diggle nearly fell to the ground himself as he barely caught Oliver by the back of his hooded jacket as the man finally passed out from blood loss. He grunted as his chest wound pulled and tore, the knife still embedded within him, but managed to lower his partner to the ground in a somewhat gentle manner. He huffed out a pained breath as he grimaced and grabbed at his own wound before looking up at Tommy Merlyn.
The young man had a wide-eyed shocked look on his face as he stared at the unconscious Oliver. "Is he…?"
"He gave your father the stab wound at the cost of his own," Diggle gently rolled Oliver flat on the ground and made a cursory examination of his young charge's own wounds. The most grievous one was certainly the one inflicted upon himself to finally disable and probably kill Malcolm Merlyn, and it was something Diggle needed to immediately treat.
"M-My Dad…"
"I need to get Oliver back to Verdant. I can fix him up there-"
"But the hospitals-"
"You really think they're going to treat a man dressed as the Vigilante?" he would have taken Oliver to the hospital again with another probable excuse of misusing his motorcycle; but Diggle knew he did not have the strength to change Ollie out of his Vigilante get up, not with his own wound.
"But…you're also wounded-"
"I've had far worst," he shook his head, "but I can't carry him myself…"
"Y-Yeah…" Tommy took one step towards them, nodding mostly out of shock at what he was witnessing, but nonetheless proving to Diggle that he still trusted Oliver enough to at least do what Diggle wanted him to do. "But," Tommy turned to look at his father, "my Dad…"
"Tommy, the cops are going to be here any minute now-"
"I know, but m-my Dad, he could still be alive-"
"He gave you that cut over there, lied to you, killed a lot of people down there," Diggle hated doing this, but at the same time, he knew he could not afford another minute up at the rooftop of Merlyn Global. Not with police reinforcements on their way. It was a miracle that no one had come running after the initial task force sent to arrest Merlyn during their fight with his Dark Archer persona.
"I…I can't just leave him-"
"Tommy, do you really want to be here when the cops come up in the next few minutes? Do you want to be an accessory to murder-"
"God no!"
"I know you and Oliver aren't the best of buds right now, but if there is a chance your father is still alive, they will help him. They will help him, they will arrest him, but they will keep him alive because they need the answers to what the hell is happening!" Diggle nearly shouted and it was only by the grace of his wound protesting that he stopped and gripped the handle of the thrown knife again to stop himself from pulling it out.
"Okay, okay, I know what you mean, I'll help," Tommy shook his head as he hurried over to them and knelt by Oliver. He looped his friend's arm around his shoulder and lifted him up with a grunt as Diggle stood up, sagging a little from the pain of his wound.
"Are you-"
"I'll be fine," he waved of Tommy's concern as he staggered over to where Oliver had discarded the arrow he had used to stab Malcolm Merlyn with and picked it up gingerly near its fletching, careful not to come in contact with the blood dripping on the other half of the arrow. He did not know why Oliver ordered him to pick it up, but had a feeling it would come in handy somehow and not to taint the blood on it. "You got him?"
"Yeah, god Oliver, lose some weight buddy," Tommy breathed out as Diggle shuffled over and helped Tommy take some of Oliver's weight as the three of them headed back into the building just as sirens and shouts started to make themselves known.
"There's an emergency elevator that Dad and I only have access for," Tommy turned them towards a different direction and Diggle was inclined to follow. They soon reached the secondary elevators as the sounds of SWAT teams burst into the main office. Diggle heard the sounds of glass and debris being crunched, the team checking in with each other, searching corners, examining the bodies, but all of it was suddenly cut off as the elevator descended.
It was a quick ride down to the garage floor and from there, a short distance to Tommy's posh Mercedes Benz. The two of them gently shoved Oliver into the cramped backseat, the sports car not exactly designed for more than two passengers, as Diggle grimaced again and grabbed at the handle of the knife.
"You should pull it out if it keeps hurting you," Tommy commented as he stared at the wound and Diggle shook his head, strapping himself into the passenger side as best as he could.
"Can't. Will bleed out like Oliver's doing right now-"
"He's bleeding out?!" Tommy started the car and gave a frantic look back to Oliver, "but-"
"Just get us to Verdant, downstairs, and Felicity and I can handle the rest-"
"Who's Felicity?" Tommy asked as he pulled out and drove off, headed to the Glades.
"Oliver's IT girl," Diggle replied flatly, "helped set up the internet at the club…"
"…That's all?"
"Mr. Merlyn-"
"I know, I know, I'm being petty but…" Tommy suddenly sighed as he slowed his car down, driving through the start of debris that marked the edge of the Glades, "it doesn't excuse him for what he did with Laurel- you know what? Forget it…just-"
"Tommy-"
"No, forget it; it's something I have to deal with him when he's awake…" Tommy shook his head, "and he's going to wake."
Diggle stared at the young Merlyn with a level gaze, noting that there was something different about Tommy as if he had come to a conclusion of sorts and nodded sagely, "He's going to wake."
Tommy nodded, but Diggle thought it was mostly for his own sanity, or decision, whatever it was, before a chiming noise rang in the silence of the car and Tommy pulled his phone out, "Laurel?! Thank God I know you were at CNRI-"
"You do know that talking while driving is against the law, right?" Diggle frowned his disapproval, but only received an eye-roll from Tommy as he weaved carefully around more debris, the headlights of his Mercedes the only thing lighting the ground.
"-Yeah…yes, yes…yes. S-Sure…I think so. It's still intact-wait, you want to what? But the hospitals- Oh…okay. Um…yeah, sure. Yeah…let your father know. I…I'm glad you're safe…"
Tommy hung up and his expression became pinched as Diggle saw the familiar visage of Verdant rising up to greet them. There was still lights peeking out, a sign that the backup generators had kicked in, but how long would the hydro-gasoline generators last was another question. One he was not inclined to answer at the moment.
"Laurel's going to have her Dad send survivors to Verdant as a check-in point of sorts. The Red Cross also wants to set up here since the building's still structurally intact as are most of the other ones here."
"What," Diggle stared at Tommy, "but Oliver-"
"What the hell was I supposed to say? No, you can't set up here because Oliver's got the Vigilante's hideout right underneath?! People will notice that Verdant is still standing-"
"Fine, fine," Diggle pinched the bridge of his noise and exhaled noisily. Oliver was not going to like this when he woke up. He would also have to warn Felicity not to show herself upstairs any time soon lest Detective Lance put two and two together and came up with they-were-all-screwed. "At least the basement has a keypad…"
Tommy stopped the car and Diggle opened the door just as the doors to Verdant burst open and Felicity came running out. "Oh my God, thank God you're-no…no you're wounded-"
"Felicity, get the blood packs and surgery tools-"
"O-Oliver…?" she suddenly was very quiet as she peered over Diggle's shoulder into the cramped passenger seat of the Mercedes.
"He's going to be fine," Diggle placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and she numbly nodded before turning away and heading back in.
"Just an IT girl, huh?" Diggle knew that Tommy could not resist commenting on what had just happened and shook his head.
"That's for Oliver to figure out if he wasn't being so stubborn," Diggle replied and Tommy snorted before the two of them lifted Oliver's unconscious body from the seat and carried him in.
"Yeah, with Laurel…"
He could only shake his head at the reply and knew that it was not his place to tell Oliver who he could fall in love with or pine after, or even hurt with his feelings. He could only hope that Oliver would slowly realize what he was really doing, even if he was trying to recapture something of his past before the five years of purgatory wiped it away. This was something between Tommy, Laurel, and Oliver and he was not going to be a part of it.
"I got everything set…" Felicity shadowed them after they descended the stairs and Diggle nodded his approval, "Dig, you're also wounded-the knife-"
"Is keeping me from bleeding out. I can help stitch Oliver's wound, but you will have to help me with mine-"
"Yeah, no problem. Just like Operation right?" Felicity gave an uneasy grin as Tommy settled Oliver down on the table and stared all around him. Diggle realized that this was truly Tommy's first time seeing the whole Vigilante set up Oliver had going on, the incident with Detective Lance storming in and discovering a wine cellar not withstanding.
"Tommy you might want to get upstairs and head off the incoming storm as best as possible," Diggle grimaced as he washed his hands as best as he could and put on surgical gloves.
"Storm? What storm?"
"The Red Cross and overflow from the local hospitals in Starling City want to set up here since Verdant and surrounding buildings are still standing. I…gave my okay since it was Laurel asking," Tommy rubbed his face tiredly, absently streaking the nearly dried blood from his cut over his jaw.
"Felicity, don't head up any time soon, or if you do, go a different way and pretend you've arrived at Verdant. Detective Lance will probably be helping coordinate efforts here," Diggle added as he unzipped Oliver's main outfit and started to strip the ruined clothes from his body.
"Yeah…I kind of got that when he was helping disable the device," the young blonde IT girl nodded as she too washed her hands and put on surgical gloves before moving to help him.
"Mr. Diggle-"
"Oliver will make it out of this alive," he shot the young Merlyn a quick smile before Tommy nodded, receiving the message as he headed back up the stairs. It was only after the door closed behind them that Diggle turned back and shook his head, "now's the hard part…"
As soon as the door closed behind him, Tommy Merlyn leaned against it heavily, the shock of it all finally catching up to him. He closed his eyes and scrubbed his face heavily, stopping only as he felt a flash of pain near his cheekbone, reminding him of what had just happened. His best friend was downstairs, possibly bleeding, dying, he did not know aside from the fact that the bleeding wound was in the region near his heart. His father was a mass murderer, a vigilante, or rather, a version of Ollie's Vigilante, and was willing to do anything to make sure the Glades were leveled…all in his mother's name. It was…
Tommy grimaced again as he felt bile coming up and hurried over to the nearest trash can before throwing up. The wash of burning alcohol coming back up his throat nearly made him gag, but he managed to keep the rest of the contents in his stomach intact, too used to waking up with hangovers or even drinking himself under a table. He spit once, clearing his mouth of the rancid taste before grabbing a bottle of sparkling water nearby and drained half of the contents in one gulp, letting the bubbling carbonation settle his stomach some more.
He felt sick, not physically, but mentally. How could his father…how could- And even Ollie- He slid down to the cold ground, bottle still in hand as he shook his head. In the span of twenty-four hours, his world was turned upside down…Laurel…Ollie…his father…what was…what did it mean?
He did not know how long he had been sitting on the ground before a sudden loud bang on the doors of Verdant made Tommy jump a little as he looked up dumbly towards them. He wondered for a second who in this time of night would be banging on the doors before he realized that it was also the time that Verdant was usually open, full of party going crowds and music. However, with the east side of the Glades in ruin…
The frantic banging came again and he scrambled to his feet, stumbling towards the door before he heard Laurel's muffled voice through the door. "Tommy, Tommy?! It's Laurel-"
He yanked the door open and saw Laurel, a few cuts on her face, but otherwise hale and healthy looking and before anything else was registering in his mind, he reached out and hugged her tightly, splashing some of the sparkling water he still had in his hand. "Thank God, you're all right…thank God…"
"Tommy…" he heard his name on her lips and buried his head in her shoulder, tears nearly springing to his eyes. He was only interrupted by the very familiar sound of a throat clearing and broke apart from Laurel to see Detective Lance with a stony look on his face.
"It's not beer," he hastily gestured to the bottle he had in his hand, "though I probably can use several shots after…after my f-father-"
"Yeah, we can talk about that later," the detective narrowed his eyes and Tommy stiffened a little at the implications. "We've got a lot of incoming wounded and we'll have to sort the place out-"
"You're wounded!" Laurel suddenly interrupted and Tommy felt her hand gently brushing the cut he had received from his father.
"It's nothing," he grasped her fingers and smiled grimly, "it's really nothing, just a cut." Turning to the detective, he could already see beyond him several groups of flashlights bouncing along the ground and people walking towards Verdant. Beyond them, the smoke and fires of the quake's destruction of the Glades was evident. "All right, I can get some of the temporary folding tables out that we used when we were initially setting up the place. Got ladders and everything-"
"How much gas do you have?" Lance asked as he parted a little to let them in.
"Gas?"
"For the generators?"
"Uh…I'm not too sure. I'll have to check in the manager's office-hopefully Ollie didn't change the locks on me-"
"Do that. I'm going to get some backup here and set up an organized perimeter so we don't have a mob scene-"
"I told the rest of the CNRI office staff to meet us here, so they can probably help set up the different sections-"
"We have water on tap-"
"Nope, can't trust tap water right now with the pipelines potentially being compromised," Lance shook his head, "go down to your secret lair after you're done checking the fuel and get all of the bottled water, sparkling, whatever, and bring them up here. We're going to have a lot of thirsty people soon."
Tommy nodded before heading towards the stairs to the manager's office. Relieved that the key still worked, he opened it up and closed the door behind him, noting that several groups of people were already being let in, Laurel directing them to the different corners. There was someone running towards the bar before a shout from Laurel stopped the woman and she sheepishly turned around before heading towards her area. This was going to be a bit of a nightmare if the drinks were still there. At least he could hope that if those drinks were out, then there was a lot more downstairs in case they needed to restock.
He logged into the computer and checked the status of the hybrid hydro-gasoline generators, kind of glad that Ollie had opted for them instead of gas generators. The gas lines were probably broken or compromised and it was the saving grace that nothing had busted the fuel tanks out back. He made a mental note to ask Detective Lance to station at least several officers by the tanks to make sure no enterprising looter would steal the gas from there. The news had already shown that besides people panicking and running from the Glades, there were those that stayed behind to loot the empty stores, thinking they could get away with robbery.
He heard a muffled squeal and peered out to see Thea and her boyfriend Roy coming in with a throng of people, all whom huddled together. Thea had launched herself at Laurel and was hugging her; oblivious to her own bruises and cuts on her face and hands. Her boyfriend Roy Harper looked even worst and was coughing a little into the sleeve of his dirtied hoodie. He saw Laurel move over to the bar reaching behind to hand Roy a bottle of sparkling water before shoving several into Thea's arms. There was a brief flash of momentary confusion on Thea's face before she realized what she was supposed to do and nodded.
It was also a reminder to him of his second task and he hurried out of the office, locking the door behind him before descending the stairs. Luckily Thea did not see him, or if she did, did not have a chance to call his name out as he made his way towards the locked door of Verdant's basement and hurried in. He did not want to answer anyone's questions at the moment…
"Mr. Diggle, we've got a slight problem," he said as he descended the stairs, "Thea's just arrived with her boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure she's going to be asking about Oliver."
"Noted," Diggle's voice sounded a little breathless and Tommy saw that he was wincing at the ministrations of Felicity who looked a little queasy, but continued to stitch him up.
"Where's Oliver?" for a moment Tommy dreaded to hear that his best friend had died on the operating table, but that moment passed as Diggle gestured towards the back with his free hand.
"Sleeping it off," he said, "Oliver created a small apartment of sorts in case any of us needed to stay overnight or something."
"Oh…" Tommy knew there was more than what Diggle was saying, but did not press the issue. Something else had also caught his gaze, "Is that-"
"One of the Dark Archer's arrows, yes. Ollie wanted to study it after his first two encounters with the Dark Archer. He kind of woke up briefly in the middle of surgery and said something about switching the blood from the arrows. I don't really know why, but if he really woke himself up after stabbing himself in the chest with his own arrow to tell us that I'm not going say no. I'm almost done with the process."
"Oh…well…um…" Tommy gulped a little, feeling a little more than sick himself before he steadied his breathing, "where did Oliver keep the bottles of water?"
"Back, a whole lot of boxes there. He's even got MREs…" Felicity commented absently as she concentrated on her work.
"Better not reveal those yet…Detective Lance will probably think I'm the Vigilante," his poor attempt at humor fell flat as no one answered before he sheepishly ducked his head and headed towards the area that Felicity indicated.
As he passed by the impressive looking rack of arrows, all pointed as if to ward away an intruder, he saw the area that Oliver had been moved to and noted how…homey it looked. It certainly looked comfortable and Tommy briefly wondered if Oliver had spent a lot of nights here when he was not at the mansion. He had heard from the servants gossiping after Oliver had initially been back that he had taken to sleeping on the floor with the windows open, letting himself be exposed to the elements…at how wild he had become.
Maybe this was a place of refuge for Oliver whom Tommy could now clearly see was not coping with being back in civilization. Sure there was the semblance of coping, the slightly forced friendly smiles when he was trying to be "normal", but it was an act. Even though he had said that he was trying to help the city, trying to do what needed to be done, it was not right.
"Ow!" Diggle's shout echoed across the cavernous room broke Tommy out of his thoughts as he moved past Oliver's prone form and back towards his task at hand. At least he could keep focus for the next hour or so…instead of dealing with whatever was happening down here or even up at the rooftop of Merlyn Global.
Author's Notes:
As of right now I have somewhat of a plan for this story, but not exactly concrete. It may change as Season 2 premieres, but I really wanted Tommy back alive. I love writing him…