Title: One and the Same
Author: QueencestQueen
Pairings: Oliver/Thea (aka Queencest and/or Tholiver)
Rating: M
Spoilers: for the episode, "The Climb"
Summary: "Why should I trust anything you say? Why should I trust this video?"
Malcolm's lips twitched slightly. "Let's go see Thea then. You can meet the Enchantress in person."
Notes/Warnings:
- Italicized words are words that are meant to be stressed.
- Italicized statements are thoughts.
Disclaimer:
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of this author. This author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
"It's the strangest thing..." Oliver barely resisted the urge to groan as Malcolm interrupted his time alone to think, "Thea just called and said she was attacked by the Arrow. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you Oliver?"
"This was you. You know, I figured when I spared the man who murdered my mother, I would never kill again." Oliver reached out and grabbed Malcolm by his left shoulder. He spun him around and pinned the elder man to the bar with a hand on his throat. "I was wrong."
"You might want to reconsider."
"Why?" Oliver asked, the singular word escaping through clenched teeth. In his estimation, there was no reason for him to rethink dealing with Malcolm. The man had done nothing, but destroy everything in Oliver's life since he was rescued from Lian Yu. He'd taken Thea away; God knows what he'd done to her. He didn't deserve any more opportunities to screw up her life. Then Malcolm said the only thing that could get through to Oliver,
"For Thea." That forced him to pause. In the brief second that followed, both men could hear the sound of Oliver's cellphone vibrating in his back pocket. "Check your phone. I can wait."
Oliver frowned, hating the presumption in the man's statement, before he took out his cellphone. For a few seconds, Oliver looked at the video on his screen, but he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. He stared down at the phone in his hand, wishing that the image on its screen would change, but it did not. He could tell without question that the woman in the video was Thea. No amount of swirling black hair, or magic alteration could hide that fact. Not from him. Not from anyone who looked closely enough. While the protective big brother was in shock, Malcolm escaped and stepped out of Oliver's reach.
"What did you do?" Oliver demanded, his voice taking on a dark tone, as he advanced upon Malcolm. His mind was buzzing on adrenalin and anger. Thea's DNA on the arrows that killed Sara made perfect sense now. It wasn't because Malcolm sought to inadvertently frame Oliver for her murder; it was because he'd forced her to do it. Malcolm had made Thea a murderer.
The CEO didn't back away, he didn't even cower a little in the face of Oliver's obvious anger. Instead, he made a small tutting noise and held up his own cellphone screen facing out. "If any harm comes to me, this video will be delivered directly to the League," A horrifyingly devious grin turned his lips upwards, "and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"
The implied threat stopped Oliver cold. He knew, with unflinching certainty, what would happen if that video got to the League. Ra's, or more likely the men under his command, would come for Thea. Their recompense for Sara's demise would be Thea's life. They were strong believers in the whole eye-for-an-eye thing. As if he were suddenly doused in a bucket of ice water, Oliver realized that he was cornered. He would do absolutely anything for his sister and, judging by the gleeful look in his eyes, Malcolm knew it. He had found the chink in Oliver's armor and he planned to exploit it.
"What do you want?" The words were hissed out behind clenched teeth. The plastic of his cellphone groaned in protest as his hands curled into fists at his sides. He wanted so bad to wipe that smug look off the older man's face, beat him until he couldn't be recognized anymore; at least then Oliver would be assured that Malcolm wouldn't bring any further turmoil to Thea's life.
"It is not about what I want, Oliver," Malcolm said, daring to bridge the distance between them. His hand weighed heavily on Oliver's shoulder, alongside the oldest Queen sibling's hatred for the man whose only good contributions to the world were his children. The gesture was mocking, a taunt to Oliver's restraint, but there was too much at stake for Oliver to give in to his own feelings.
"It's about what you want." Before Oliver could even formulate a way to tell the man to stop beating around the bush, Malcolm continued, "to protect Thea."
"You were the one that put her in danger!"
"No," Malcolm objected, his voice cold and matter-of-fact, "I gave her what she
wanted: to be strong." His hand dropped from Oliver's shoulder and interlaced his fingers together at his waist. "She was never going to be strong on her own."
"What did you do?" The eldest Queen asked again, turning his eyes once more to the screen of his cellphone. Thea's face was shrouded in a magical black mist, inexplicable embers floating around her, and her hair was long once more, black as a raven's feathers. There were so many differences and yet Oliver could still see his sister's features under all of the mystical modifications.
Before Oliver's very eyes, Malcolm's whole being shifted; he became the cold, calculating CEO. It made Oliver even more angry to see it. "As you know, my company employs many people all over the globe." Oliver barely resisted the urge to demand Malcolm get to the point. "One of my employees, Doctor Moone, is part of my archeology division and she was exploring Central America when she happened upon a statue in a hidden cave. As were my instructions, she brought it straight to me. I assigned my researchers to decode the ruins carved into the wood. Once they told me what it was that I had in the ancient artifact I knew I had to use it."
"You mean you knew you had to use her." Oliver interrupted, unable to believe that someone could find such a powerful thing and think, 'how can I use this for my own benefit?' The elder man ignored his enemy's condemnation.
"I was informed that the carving contained the malevolent spirit of a witch called the Enchantress. She had been trapped inside her totem, according to legend, for nearly 7,000 years. My people told me that I could control her power if I had her heart. So back in the cave my team went and they worked day and night until they found it." He shrugged as if seeking to control and harness an ancient entity was an everyday activity. "After that, I just needed a host for the Enchantress…"
His explanation trailed off, but he didn't need to complete the sentence; Oliver knew already where the story was going. He held proof of the tale's end in his hand. "So you decided to use your own daughter as a meat suit for a demon."
Malcolm glared at him. Oliver didn't know whether or not he was reacting to the judgement in Oliver's statement or whether his reason stemmed from his general displeasure at having to deal with him. Either way, the man didn't dignify the conclusion that had been drawn. Instead, he said,
"I have the Enchantress' heart so I can keep her from doing anything…" Malcolm paused, clearly searching his brain for the right word. Coming up with nothing, he simply plowed forward in his explanation, "Someone needs to watch Thea, though."
Oliver's anger was at a fever-pitch now. He'd had her possessed and now he was using what he'd done to blackmail Oliver! "Watch Thea?" He echoed as his rage boiled over, "Watch Thea! She isn't a dog, Malcolm. She's a human person. A person you manipulated into leaving with you. Your daughter who you had possessed and turned into a murderer."
Malcom's gaze was cold and unwavering, "Either you do it or I'll have to hire someone to watch her." Oliver could just imagine what that would entailed given Malcolm's twisted way of doing things. He'd probably put someone in Thea's life under false pretenses. He couldn't let her feel that pain again; he'd already seen what happened when she felt betrayed. Her cutting him out of her life so brutally when she found out about her parentage had cut him to the core.
Sensing that he might be wavering on the matter, Malcolm tried a different tactic. "You already protect her, care about her, watch out for her…It's not like you'll be doing anything you don't already do. I'm just telling you to be more vigilant and to keep her calm and happy. If the Enchantress comes out, call me; that's it."
Even though every instinct in his body screamed at him to tell Malcolm to go to hell, Oliver stayed as calm as possible, "I'm not going to help you keep Thea brainwashed."
A humorless chuckle followed the assertion, "That's not why she needs to be observed. It's because she needs protection. The Enchantress inside of her is a powerful being, more powerful than you can even begin to comprehend. If she gets the chance, she will overtake Thea and we might never get her back, and that's not the only threat Thea faces. There are many out there who wish to control the Enchantress and her powers for themselves. They will come for her."
The fanatics didn't worry Oliver. He'd already let someone take Thea away once; he was not going to let that happen again. He could, and would, stop anyone who came for her. The Enchantress, however, was another thing altogether. Fighting the demon inside of Thea's body wasn't something Oliver was confident he could accomplish.
There was a solution to that particular problem that needed to be addressed, though. "You let this thing have her," Oliver pointed out, "so just undo whatever it is you did."
"It cannot be undone. To entrap the Enchantress, within that statue, took the power of a being beyond this world as I have been reliable informed. She can only be controlled, not vanquished."
Oliver's head was spinning. Just a half an hour ago, he was simply happy to have his sister back where she belonged, and now, she was supposedly possessed by an ancient being. It was then that Oliver realized that he was taking one thing for granted that he should not: that Malcolm was telling the truth. He certainly didn't have a reputation for trustworthiness. For all that he knew, Malcolm could have somehow managed to manipulate the video. "Why should I trust anything you say? Why should I trust this video?"
Malcolm's lips twitched slightly. "Let's go see Thea then. You can meet the Enchantress in person."
Oliver didn't trust Malcolm at all, but it wasn't as if he hadn't been to the loft that the Queen siblings shared before. If they got there and nothing happened, then he'd handle Malcolm as he should have on the night of the Undertaking. If he was telling the truth…well, Oliver would deal with that if it came to pass.
As he unlocked and opened the door to the loft, he heard the telltale sounds of Thea's Christmas music. His eyes landed on her almost instinctively as he walked through the door. She twirled and danced her way around the living room unpacking their many boxes of Christmas decorations. Looking at her as she attempted to make their new home festive, Oliver was hard pressed to believe any of Malcolm's claims. There was no way it was her hands that fired the arrows that killed Sara. This was Thea, the young woman who wanted so badly to be a ballerina when she was growing up. It wasn't possible a witch resided inside of her.
Before either he or Malcolm, who was right behind Oliver, could alert Thea to their presence, she spun around and spotted them. "Ollie!" She exclaimed happily, before shutting off the music. With that, she started to cross the room in their direction. "What do you think? I've been working all day to-" Her smile faded into a confused frown immediately when she finally took notice of their guest. "Dad, what are you doing here? Better yet, what are you two doing together?"
With that single question, Oliver knew he hadn't hidden his dislike of her biological father from her as he had hoped. He had wished to keep Thea from feeling like she had to choose sides when it came to her father and brother. Just another thing I failed, Oliver thought.
Malcolm stepped around Oliver and into the living room as if he owned the place which, unfortunately, in a way he did. With both their trust funds and stocks in the company frozen as a result of Isabel Rochev's take over, the only real money either sibling had was whatever money Malcolm deigned to give his daughter. Just knowing that it was the money of a murderer that was keeping a roof over their heads made Oliver uneasy. The only reason he put up with it was Thea.
He would have been fine sleeping in the Foundry until he found a way to unfreeze his assets or make a decent living, whichever came first, but Thea couldn't live there too. For one thing, she was entirely unaware, or so he hoped at least, of his secret identity. Even if he'd told her his secret, he would never allow her to live in a basement, sleeping on a cot like he had. His Speedy deserved far better. So he ignored his gut, which screamed at him that he shouldn't accept anything Malcolm Merlyn offered, as there was always a catch with the elder man, and buried his pride. Thea needed him to do so.
"He knows, Thea." Malcolm stated coldly, setting the military-grade briefcase down on the couch. Oliver was insanely curious to see what the silver box contained, but he couldn't look away from Thea. As soon as Malcolm spoke, the color drained from her face and she looked almost frantic in response.
"Why?" She turned around to face her father, keeping her back to Oliver. He wasn't quite sure what she hoped to achieve by doing so; he could still hear their conversation just fine.
"Someone has to keep an eye on things. You know how she can get. I can't be around all the time." The locks on his briefcase clicked as he entered his passcode.
"You can't expect him to-"
Malcolm cut her off as he looked up, his eyes were hard and angry as he glared at her. Oliver had to stomp on his instinct to jump in and defend Thea. She could handle herself. "I most certainly can. You were the one who insisted on coming back to this city. You knew there were no preparations here like there were in Corto Maltese and yet, you still begged me to come back. You gave into his puppy dog eyes so now you both have to deal with it." He paused and then asked, as his eyes flickering between brother and sister, "Am I making myself clear?"
Every fiber of Oliver's being protested at being scolded. He was a wayward child no longer and, even if he were, Malcolm had no authority over him. He did have authority over Thea, though, and she responded like her father probably wanted in the first place.
"I understand."
"Oliver needs to meet the Enchantress. Call her." The order had Thea turning to look at Oliver over her shoulder; he could see the distress in her face. Clearly, there was something he didn't know about this witch.
Thea turned back to fully face Oliver and this time, her features were blank. She held her arms out towards him. "Watch closely." She whispered before closing her eyes. "Enchantress…" The whisper was long and drawn out, hanging heavy in the air.
As he watched, another set of arms slid out of the shirt that Thea wore, as though someone else was putting on her clothing while she was still in them. The second set of limbs slid down until the pitch black fingers could interlace with Thea's. For a second, it looked like a horrifying parody of a romantic moment. Then suddenly the dark hands flipped over and Thea was gone.
With only the Enchantress in front of him, Oliver realized, that what he had originally presumed was paint didn't encompass all of her. Instead, the dark color started at her fingertips and faded up her hands to dust her skin. Thea's halter tank-top and black denim pants were replaced with a scandalous all-metal outfit. Yet somehow it was the least eye-catching part of her transformation.
No matter how she moved, the black smoke stayed true to her form. Embers danced among the darkness as the witch twisted a strand of her metal skirt in her hands. Her head tilted in curiosity as she stared him down, the gold of her irises unnerving Oliver. She bridged the distance between them with an elegant gait that spoke of her ancient origins. The closer she came to him the more detail he could see in her altered appearance. Her metallic outfit was incredibly intricate and matched the massive necklace around her throat as well as the half-moon hair ornament in her lengthy raven tresses.
"Who are you?" The Enchantress' voice was melodic and slow, vaguely hypnotic. Someone else might be swayed by her voice, by her energy, but Oliver was immune. To him, this spirit was just an intruder in his Speedy's body. Her blackened fingers reached out for him, and his instincts tried to convince him to back away, but he refused. Oliver Queen never backed down.
Just before her fingers touched his cheek, Malcolm's voice called out for her, breaking whatever spell she was trying to weave. As soon as he spoke her name, the Enchantress' head snapped towards him. "Go get the eyepatch, girl."
There was an anger that infused her being, but within a second, she was gone, her magic transporting her away. Two seconds later, she reappeared as if she'd never left in the first place. Without a word, she held out her hands towards Oliver and opened them slowly.
"That's Slade Wilson's eyepatch from inside his cell on Lian Yu." Malcolm informed him, but the eldest Queen wasn't paying him any mind. His attention focused solely upon the Enchantress, standing soundlessly before him.
"Thank you," he said, reaching out and taking the patch from her hands and slid it into his back pocket. Whether or not it belonged to Slade, they had indeed proved her magical abilities to his satisfaction.
"We'd like Thea back now." Malcolm chimed in and as Oliver watched, he saw the Enchantress' features harden. The Merlyn patriarch was clearly not her favorite person. When she failed to jump to his command, Malcolm took out a sharp knitting needle from inside his suit jacket and began to stab it into the silver case that he'd opened earlier. With every jab he administered, the spirit cried out. "Give us Thea."
In an instant, the spirit had retreated and Thea stood before him. "What happened?" She asked Oliver softly, right before her eyes rolled back into her head and she started to fall. Luckily, Oliver had very quick reflexes and he managed to catch her before she hit the floor. He scooped her up, his right arm coming to rest under her bent knees and his left behind her back. Malcolm picked up his case and quickly set it on the floor while Oliver laid her down on the sofa carefully.
"So now you know," Malcolm said, his voice too loud in the apartment. Oliver ignored him. His fingers moved lightly over Thea's forehead, pushing her hair out of her face. "she needs someone to keep an eye on her."
Yes, she does, Oliver realized, hating that her father was right. "I'll do it," He glared at Malcolm as he straightened to his full height once more, "because she needs me to. It has nothing to do with you."
Malcolm chuckled in that condescending way of his and bent down to close his case. Oliver's eyes glimpsed the contents of it ever so briefly. It looked like a small, bundle of hay; is that her heart? The locks clicked closed and Malcolm stood up again. "Whatever you need to tell yourself." He looked back at Oliver over his shoulder on his way out of the apartment, "Just don't screw this up, Oliver."
In the next chapter: Oliver and Thea will discuss the details of Thea's predicament.