Green & Black: Recurve
Recap
Previously, in Green & Black...
(Malcolm & Oliver)
"I'm willing to suspend the Undertaking for a year. Or two, even. You continue with what you are doing. If you are able to make a difference, if you are able to start cleaning up the Glades and making it a better place..." He opened his hands in a peace offering. "Then you win. There will be no reason to level the Glades."
"What's the catch?"
"There is no catch." Malcolm met his eyes, held them. They wanted so badly to believe.
"I don't trust you."
"I'll help you."
"Help me?" Oliver flinched. "You tried to kill me."
"Well, you just tried to kill me," Malcolm shot back. "I guess that makes us even, doesn't it?" The younger man just blinked, completely flabbergasted. "Look, I can help you. I've been doing this a lot longer than you have."
...
Oliver cleared his throat, licked his lips. "I have some conditions for this deal."
Merlyn set the empty glass back down and folded his arms loosely. "I'm listening." He nodded encouragingly.
Oliver looked him in the eye. "You do not run me," he said. "I run this operation. I decide on the target. I choose when, where, and how I deal with them. I am not your cat's-paw."
===#===
(Diggle & Oliver)
"What did he do to you?"
"Nothing!" Oliver raked his hand through his hair in frustration. He took a few breaths and marshaled his thoughts. Diggle didn't understand. "Malcolm Merlyn isn't our enemy. We both want the same thing."
The soldier folded his arms. "Last I recall, we were about saving lives, not destroying half of Starling City."
"I know it's a little extreme..."
"A little?"
"But the original purpose of the Undertaking was to wipe out crime and corruption. Merlyn's agreed to hold off on his plans while we try less drastic measures."
"We?"
"I've agreed to work with him t-"
"Oliver, you what?"
He huffed in frustration. "He and I have the same goals," he explained.
"You were supposed to defeat this guy, not join him!" The anger in Diggle's voice rang through the basement. He wasn't listening.
"He's not some Pol Pot."
"No, of course not. I was thinking more along the lines of a Hitler!"
===#===
(Malcolm & Oliver)
"This is what's left of an explosive device," Merlyn confirmed his suspicions. He picked up a binder from the table and flipped it open. "You'll want to have your people confirm it, I expect; but from the serial numbers that could be recovered, my investigation team traced these sources." He turned the binder so Oliver could see the list. "These are subsidiaries of a handful of shell corporations that belong to a man named Frank Chen, the CEO of Sanchen Enterprises."
Oliver frowned. Frank Chen? What did he have to do with Robert Queen? Merlyn's next words brought everything into focus.
"Frank was one of the members of our group. A partner in the Undertaking."
Oliver's eyes snapped to him. "Where is he?" he grated. He hadn't done it consciously, but his voice deepened as he accessed the hunting instincts of the Vigilante.
"I killed him," Merlyn said coldly.
===#===
(Malcolm & Felicity)
"You're a brilliant, intelligent young woman," he said above her. "We don't need to play these games. You know how this works." Tears spilled from her eyes. His voice hardened ever so slightly. "If you cooperate, you earn privileges. Eventually, you earn your freedom. If you resist, if you rebel, if you try to escape... you lose privileges."
Felicity sniffled. She suppressed a whimper, but she couldn't stop crying.
"Are you ready to start cooperating?"
She nodded, hugging herself tighter, trying to compress herself into a more solid mass.
===#===
(Diggle, Oliver, & Felicity)
She blinked owlishly at him. "You mean, he comes here...?" She pointed to the floor at their feet. John nodded. "And he...?" She mimed flipping a hood up over her head. John and Oliver nodded. "And you two...?" Oliver winced guiltily as she made little running legs with her fingers then added, "...And..." - here, she pretended to draw a little air-bow and release it with a sound effect - "p-chew?"
"Yeah."
Her face felt suddenly cold as all the blood drained from it. "Oh, my God."
"Get another shot," Oliver told John, and to her: "Just put your head down if you feel faint."
"No... no, I'm fine," she managed. She jittered her fingertips against her lips. "I'm just trying to remember how many times I called the Dark Archer a vicious, maddog lackey in front of Mr. Merlyn, and how many times I told the Dark Archer that he was just a tool for a cowardly rich bastard." Her voice ended on a squeak. She gulped the last of the medicine, and wheezed out, "He took it surprisingly well."
===#===
(Felicity & Malcolm)
"I have enough state's evidence to put you away for life. I don't want to see you here again!"
She slammed the door in his face - or tried to. He caught it with alarming speed and leaned in. "Need I remind you, Ms. Smoak, that my IT department has a copy of the Trojan you unleashed on our systems, which traces back to the NIC address of your tablet? Do you know what the penalties are these days for corporate espionage?" His eyes glittered with malice. She gulped. He leaned in further. "All of us have our decks invested in this house of cards that Oliver and I have built - you and Mr. Diggle included. If any one of these cards should be removed, it all comes crashing down."
===#===
(Laurel & Tommy)
"I know you've always had a thing for me-"
"A 'thing'?"
"And your friendship with Oliver kept you from acting on it. Then I know things were bad between me and Oliver for a time, but you were right, Tommy." She paced, unable to meet his eyes. "Despite everything, my heart never stopped longing for him. I can't explain it, and I am sorry, but I can't control my heart." Now she did face him, and her eyes were dark with sorrow. "You're a great guy. You've really grown these past few months, and I'm grateful for the time we shared together. You also know, things can't continue that way."
He grabbed ahold of himself. He had to make her see the truth. "Listen to me, Laurel. Oliver is not the man you think he is. He's changed."
"Of course he's changed. He's been through a lot." She folded her arms. "No one could go through what he's suffered and remain unscathed."
"No, you don't understand. You don't know him like I do," he insisted.
She quirked a brow. "I suppose that's true, you two being guys and all. I'm sure he tells you different things. But you don't know him like I do, either."
Tommy raked his hand through his hair, turning a small circle in frustration. "He hasn't told you the truth, has he?"
"He wouldn't lie to me."
"Oh come on, Laurel! He's been lying since he got back!"
"Okay, yes; you're right." She unfolded her arms and pressed down with her hands, as if fending off his words. "He's been through Hell, Tommy. I understand why he doesn't want to talk about it. He'll tell me in his own time. Or maybe never. But there's nothing you can say that can make me stop loving him."
===#===
(Quentin Lance & Tommy)
"Let me guess what happened. You two got into a fight over a girl. You lost, now you hate his guts. Oh, wait." He straightened. "That's not a guess. I know, because the girl you happen to be fighting over is my daughter. Small town, huh?" He flipped his hands up in a mock shrug. "Then you come in here with your accusations and no evidence-"
"You're the cops! Getting evidence is your damned job!"
"Don't you mouth off to me, boy," Lance growled. "I'll slap your ass in jail, and I don't care who your daddy is."
===#===
(Tommy & Malcolm)
"You never talk about her."
Rebecca? His brow creased. "Tommy, I think about her every day."
"Every time you talk about her," Tommy said, finally looking up, "it's always about how she was killed, about the man who murdered her." His eyes were dark, like deep water. "You never talk about her when she was alive."
===#===
(Malcolm & Tommy)
"All my life, I've been so self-absorbed in what I was doing, I never made time for the people I cared about. I would always push you away when you were a boy. And I thought... I was going to be better a better father than that, now."
===#===
(Felicity & Malcolm)
"Look. You got hurt trying to help people, to save the environment and all." And that was a brave, noble, and downright heroic thing to do. But she found she couldn't say that to his face.
She shook her head and tried another tack. "If you'd been doing something bad, like robbing a bank, and the security guard shot you in the ass? Okay, then, yes, there would be gloating." She swiveled back around. "Gloatage like you would not believe."
"I want to thank you, Ms. Smoak," he said. "For helping me."
"You're welcome."
He hovered there awkwardly for a few moments more. Then he said, "I don't like being in debt to people."
She sighed quietly and twisted to look at him. "You don't owe me," she said firmly. "We're a team. We help each other; that's what teams are for."
===#===
(Malcolm & Oliver)
Malcolm turned, looking out beyond the walls of the basement. "When I look out my office window at the city... Especially at night, when the lights glitter... And when the first rays of sun hit the skyscrapers, and they gleam all pink and golden and new... I can only see how beautiful it is. But I know that inside, it is hurting. There are elements poisoning this city. I want to take control. I want to excise the evil. I..." He stopped and rubbed his face. "God, I sound like an evangelist."
"No," Oliver said. "No, you're right. I know exactly what you mean."
Malcolm looked at him, his eyes moving over the scars that marked Oliver's body. "Because we have come through the pain, we've lost our fear. Others... their fears keep them chained. They can't make the hard decisions that men like you and I know have to be made." He looked Oliver in the eye. "Like Tommy, like your mother. They can't understand."
Oliver nodded again, slowly absorbing this. They couldn't condone murder, but he was not murdering people. He was a vigilante; he was dispensing justice, protecting the innocent. Doing the things that needed to be done, but that the police were constrained from doing.
Oliver looked at Malcolm with new understanding. My God, he's right, he realized. I am him.
===#===
It has been about a month or so since we last saw our heroes (or hero and anti-hero). They have been recovering from their injuries and crossing off a few more names from the List. And don't you know, Detective Lance was just thrilled to find out the Vigilante was not one of the unidentified bodies recovered from the chemical plant fire.
===X===