"So who's my first assignment?" I asked, my enthusiasm was no doubt evident in my voice. I wasn't exactly excited to actually use the training I had revived in the past five years to be an angel but instead to prove myself and supposedly earn my way back to earth. I hated this whole being dead thing.
I've spent the entirety of the past half decade on an angel haven. It was an island they call Purgatory. It felt like anything but in my opinion. Being dead wasn't exactly what everyone made it out to be. It wasn't perfect and I still felt like myself. I still felt alive and the worst part was that I couldn't go home.
That's exactly why I was ready for today. Ever since I woke up here I've been told that since I drown in the middle of the ocean I still had the chance to return. They hadn't found my body yet apparently and the angel who's been responsible for training me said that if I succeed in my job to come I could go home. That job finally reached me this morning. I was nervous, impatient, and excited all wrapped in one anxious body.
Now I was currently trailing behind Slade Wilson, the angel who had trained me, waiting eagerly for my assignment. I never really thought of him as an angel. He wasn't like the others. Any other angel who hung around the island liked to show off their wings on a daily basis. Reminded me of back home how guys like to brag about what's in their pants. However, I'd yet to see Slade's wings. I myself won't get them if I want to go home. Unless I fail. If I don't end up in hell first. It's complicated, I know. Took me forever to get my head around everything.
If I remember right I have to protect someone out in the world. I don't know who yet, supposedly that's what I'm going to find out. If I fail and they die I have to return to Purgatory and I have to become an angel more of less against my will. It sucks and not at all what I thought heaven would be like. I've also been told that if I abort my mission, go back home, and try to contact my family or assist a demon I could end up as a demon. I try not to think about how hard it could be to protect a single person since I could get someone who has a lot of people after them or someone suicidal. Which sounds terrible but I'm not exactly known for my selflessness.
Slade continues his strong stride ahead of me and I'm practically jogging to keep up. "You think you're ready for that?" He asks me, sending a sort of friendly glare out the corner of his eye at me. I know it's friendly since I've gotten good at figuring out his angry looks from the good ones. I wasn't the easiest student and received the more negative ones often. I've also been around him long enough I guess.
I just roll my eyes, taking bigger steps to keep up. "Yeah well I have to be. You said that when it's time for my assignment I have to be ready, it can't wait." I huff. This earns something of a chuckle from Slade. "Very good. Nice to know you listened from time to time." He replies. I'm falling behind but I can see the smirk creeping onto his face.
"Come on Slade," my tone sounds a little more like a whine when I finish the sentence, "just tell me who it is." I'm tired of him avoiding my question, I'm ready. I know I am. Either that or I've just become that impatient. Hopefully the former and I can actually get out of here.
Suddenly he stops walking and I run right into him. The surprise impact catches me off guard and I fall to the ground. Great. It's been five years and I'm still humiliating myself. I'm way out of my element and it's painfully obvious. At least there weren't many people around this particular part of the island.
I get up as fast as possible when I see Slade begin to turn around to face me. He waits till I'm steady on my feet before he says, "Her name is Felicity Smoak." I nod, really hoping that she's American. Or at least Chinese or Russian. I picked up the languages while I was here but I'm not considered fluent in either. Again, I'm not selfless. Who the hell picked me to be an angel?
"What can you tell me about her?" I press. Other than the whole 'do this or you'll either be stuck here or a demon' I didn't really know what to expect or what to do. I mean I was taught how to fight and all but I still wasn't sure of the precise details.
Just as I suspected, Slade turns back around and begins to walk again, thankfully at a slightly slower pace and one I can keep up with. I know where he's leading me. A good sized building close to the middle of the island where they keep the information on humans and angels. I know they have stuff on demons too but I'm not allowed in that part of the place. Hell, I'm not even allowed in at all. I've been around this part of the island so I know where we are. Curiosity and plans old boredom got to me so I knew the outside well. It was just mostly tall wooden walls with a high roof and a rock path leading up the hill to it. The closest I've come is the door step at the foot of the large stone doors that keep everything protected inside.
Most around here just call it the archives and I do as well since I don't know the real name for the place. Slade says he does and he won't tell me so I'm pretty sure he's just trying to irritate me, that he doesn't really know.
"Well," he begins, his eyes staring straight ahead. It's almost second nature to him, having been there so many times, that he doesn't have to pay much attention to where he's walking. I however have to pick out the pathway through the trees and thick foliage. Five years isn't enough time to know every stone. Makes me wonder how long Slade has been here. Or if he's just that observant.
One luxury of having wings is that you don't have to walk everywhere, something I don't have and Slade has made it clear he's not going to carry me there. "She's an intelligent woman from what I understand. She also seems pretty average so you'll have an easy job." He tells me.
The last part should excite me but the look Slade has on his face makes me nervous. Normally he's good at hiding his emotions outwardly but I can see a hint of something mixed in with the stoic expression he usually wears. It's like he knows some terrible truth he can't tell me. Which is very unnerving.
"Seems easy." I say trying to shrug it off. "But you never know. She could have secrets. Or her family does." I was right and I knew it since the smirk returned to his face. "So which is it?" I ask but he ignores me.
It's not much longer before we reach the archives. He leads me inside and I quietly follow behind. Part of me feels like I shouldn't be entering but he'd I am.
The place is huge. Bigger than the mansion I grew up in. On the outside it doesn't look that big but inside it's huge. Like something out of Harry Potter. The walls inside are wooden as well and the floor is stone. The endless shelves with hundreds of books and files, even, are wooden. Makes me think that if fire was set to this place the only thing left would be ash and the stone flooring. In some clear spots there's round tables with chairs set around them. Looks like a medieval type of library or something.
Slade leads me to a table located in a corner at the far end of the building. Occasionally on the way he stops, pulling something off of a shelf.
The place is a little dark and so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Dusty too. Guess people aren't in here too often. Thinking back now I don't think I saw anyone when we came in.
"Wait here." Slade commands as he begins to leave me. I simply nod and decide to sit in one of the chairs placed at the table. Looking around at my immediate surroundings. It's not much to see and not anything like I had imagined. Not nearly as grand a the huge craved stone doors out front make it seem. Other than its size anyways.
It seems like forever before he returns again. It probably wasn't that long and that I'm getting impatient from my eagerness to begin my assignment. He makes his way over to the table and sets down four total files before sitting in the seat opposite me. I watch him, practically squirming in my seat ready to get over with whatever this part is so I can get to the real stuff.
Painfully slowly he arranges the files in a line in front of him. It wasn't that slow but it seemed unnecessary in my mind. From where I can I can't read what appears to be labels from here. Finally he pushes the one on his far left towards me. It's close enough now that I can read what's on the front. It's a name. My name. Oliver Queen is in bold right in the center.
My heart skips a beat and I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. I mean I already know I'm dead. I know I drowned. I know I have fifty-fifty chance at going home. Yet something in me isn't ready to look at this. It's like the reality of it hurts still. For a moment I'm left staring at the folder but decide that it's stupid for me to be nervous so I pull it closer to me.
The information sort of startles me. I'm excepting a detailed layout but it's nothing more than a picture of me and a simple form.
Full Name: Oliver Jonas Queen
Date Of Birth: May 16, 1985
Place Of Birth: Starling City
Birth Parents: Robert Queen Moira Dearden Queen
Living Sibling(s): Thea Queen
Date Of Death: March 13, 2007
Cause Of Death: Drowning
Location of Body: Unknown
Deceased Immediate Family: Robert Queen
Assigned Mentor: Slade Wilson
Purgatory Residency Length: 5 years : 0 months : 7 days : 1 hour : 45 seconds
On the first page that's literally all there is. The picture takes up more than the information. There's other pages in there as well. Quite a few of them. Probably everything I've done wrong and everything I've done right. I don't want to look through them. The first page is enough. My father's name is alone enough to trigger a negative reaction. "Why did I need to see this?" I ask. My eyes are still on the paper before me. I'm making sure no tears get a chance to escape. I don't need to show this kind of weakness. It'd be dumb. Yet seeing this hurts me. Reminds me of what happened so long ago yet it feels like yesterday.
Slade begins to pull it back, knowing and apparently understanding how I felt about it all too well. I let him, not wanting to look at it much longer. "I thought you might want to see it." He says quietly. He must regret showing to me. To most people Slade seems like a tough guy and he is really but we've known each other for five years and he's hardly every left me alone for more than a few hours. He knows me almost as well as I know myself. And for the most part I know him.
"It's fine." I say as I clear my throat, trying to appear alright and as unaffected as possible, "I didn't know I had one." At this he nods and closes the file. "Everyone does." He explains.
He puts my file aside from the other three. Pointing at each one remaining, going from his left to his right he says, "that one is mine, this ones Miss Smoak's, and that's her's." The lack of name given for the last one is concerning. I try to sit up in my seat to pear at the name on the front. "Who's?" I ask, wondering if it's who he was assigned to.
"Shado's." Something about the way he says her name sounds sad and regretful. I go to ask more but he cuts me off, looking me straight in the eye with the most serious look I've ever seen cross his face. "What I'm going to tell you you don't have the privilege to share. The only reason I'm even telling you is because I don't want to you to fail like I did kid."
There's silence between us. I've nodded once or twice and mentally promised to never tell anyone. I mean I was about to get my ticket back home so who was I going to tell? No one would believe me anyway. Maybe that's why he decided to share whatever it was with me. His story maybe? I know he knew mine. Not that it was much to tell. Rich, irresponsible, kid goes with his father on a boat trip and drowns after a severe storm.
"Alright. I'm listening." I say, nodding yet again. Slade drops his gaze to the papers on the table, breaking the eye contact. This is probably hard for him to tell. Which seems oddly out of character for him but who am I to judge? I wondered how many people he's shared it with willingly or if I'm the first one.
"How I died isn't important." He starts, "All that matters is that I hadn't been buried and still had a chance to return to my life. Like you." When he says 'you' he looks up at me for a moment but eventually looks back down. "I didn't want to be dead. I didn't accept it." That sounded familiar. Maybe everyone who died without a choice didn't want to accept their fate. "Since I already had extensive training from my living occupation I didn't have to wait before my chance like you. They gave me my assignment as soon as I could think straight. I was chosen to protect a someone. I did it for a while but then I found out I was able to leave her. I wanted to go home so that's what I tried to do. I was reckless and not only did I abandon her, I left her open to an attack by a demon. He found out what I was and why I was following her so he killed her." He stops there and that's all he said on the matter. This wasn't just a story. It was a warning. Now a few things about him became clear. How guarded and serious he seemed for one.
The one lesson I was taught day after day and stressed the most was that when I was given a person to protect I could not contact my family or leave my assignment for too long. In my head this wouldn't be a problem as long as I was far away from anything familiar to my life.
I want to say wow. I want to say sorry because I feel bad for him. Yet I'm afraid he'll just shut me down. To play it safe I locate the file with the name Felicity Smoak on it and pull the papers over to me. I know Slade's watching me. What does he know that I don't? It's really beginning to bug me. I look up momentarily to see what he's doing but he's just going over the other two files. Shrugging, I open Felicity's.
She's cute honestly. That's probably a little creepy since technically I'm dead and when this is over I probably won't see her again. Even though in the picture her hair is pulled up, I can make out its blonde and her blue eyes are framed by glasses. I begin to read the information given underneath the headshot. It's much different than mine. Has a few more details like where she works and lives and such.
She's only a few years younger than me and, Slade was right, she's smart. Like graduated at the top of her MIT class smart. My 11th grade Cs and Ds look terribly lame in comparison. Currently I'm wondering why she needs a guardian angel when she seems fairly normal. Other than the super smart part anyways. Oh well. At least it will be easy.
For only a few more seconds do I think this. I only have to read a little further to find out just how screwed I am. Two lines stand out to me, bolder than any of the others on the page.
First there's-
Place Of Birth: Starling City
And second, the worst of it-
Place of Occupation - IT Department, Queen Consolidated
My eyes go wide and now I know what Slade was hiding. This whole time he knew and he didn't tell me. I want to be mad at him. He knows that's here I'm from. After all this time he's warned me and taught me about never returning home while I'm protecting my assignment, this happens.
I know he's aware I've found out since he clears his throat to get my attention. I look up so suddenly that I could have gotten whiplash. He doesn't give me a chance to say anything because he says, "I know. I saw it and tried to get them to pick someone else. They wouldn't. Told me once it's done it's done." As he raises a hand to his temple, ready for an expected freak out from me.
Except one doesn't come. I feel like I'm going to pass out and between that and on the verge of hyperventilating I don't have room to completely freak out. Just when I think I have my emotions under control they slip out from underneath me an I have I catch them only to ad them to the ever growing pile of things I'm keeping in.
Everything I had hoped for up until this point just crashed and burned at my feet. This may be Purgatory but it sure felt like hell.
A/N: yes on top of Second Chances I've started this AU and working on another. Goodness.
Expect SLOW updates on this one because I'm trying to use more detail and make longer chapters.
Hope you all like it so far!
- TOMF