You Lose
An: I do not own Arrow. This is posted for everyone who is as angry as I am at Oliver. I wrote it today at the beach and typed it out when I got home. Feel free to point out all errors. I'll fix them tomorrow.
Warning: Oliver is not pictured in a good light and Prometheus will win this battle. There is a hopeful end though.
Summary: Oliver chose to trust Susan, a decision that very much favoured Prometheus's end game.
Oliver stood on the rooftop of a building in Star City, an arrow nocked, ready to fire at an unmasked Prometheus. Rage, hurt and anger were all that he was feeling. Prometheus was holding hostage the last persons he held dear to him. The only person that was still in his corner.
"You've lost Oliver. After today you'll no longer be the hero," Adrian taunted.
"Let her go," Oliver said dangerously.
Susan Williams was standing in front of Prometheus with a knife to her throat. He couldn't hit Adrian without hitting Susan. He had successfully rescued her once before but something deep in his gut told him this was the end.
"Honestly Oliver, you should be happy I'm removing this one from your life. She's a major part of the reason you're alone now," Adrian told him.
"That was your doing not hers," Oliver pointed out, his sights still trained on Adrian. He was hoping that Susan could give him an opening but she just stood stupidly in front of Adrian. Her eyes told him she was terrified. He couldn't help but draw the comparison to the times that Felicity had been held hostage. There was always that unwavering trust in him that they would get out of it together. There was none of that with Susan.
Adrian laughed at him, "You truly believe that. All I did was put all the pieces on the table. It was your self-destructive tendencies that did this. You think you've changed from Ollie Queen but put a good looking brunette with long legs in front of you and all that growth you thought you had gets shot to hell. Even when everyone around you warned you about her, you still chose to trust her instead of your team."
Oliver tried to ignore his words, "Let her go," he ground out again.
"Tell me Oliver where is your team?" Adrian gloated. "Let's see if I remember correctly, this piece of trash," he said squeezing Susan's arm painfully causing her to cry out, "Sought revenge against your sister and Felicity for the plagiarism article. Apparently she promised you that your secret was safe but she never promised that she wouldn't go after the rest of your team."
Oliver's grip tightened on his bow.
"Do I need to remind you that Felicity is now on the FBI's most wanted list because of Susan and your sister disowned you as her brother because she published that Thea Queen was really Thea Merlyn," Adrian stated smugly.
No, Oliver did not need to be reminded about that. It was quite literally the worse day of his life when the articles had come out. It had pinned him directly between Thea and Felicity, and Susan. But Thea and Felicity didn't force him to choose; they bravely stood up and made the decision for him. As soon as the article broke that Felicity was a hacker involved with a deadly cyber terrorist organization, Felicity fled town. He understood that she had to but she could have at least said goodbye. Susan had been happy about it for all of one hour before she tried to swipe her credit card and was told she had no funds. Thea may have destroyed her career the first time but Felicity made sure to completely decimate Susan this time.
All of Susan's financial accounts were drained and no proof could be found that Susan wasn't the one that drained the accounts. Her credit score was shot to hell. Felicity released e-mails and text messages that Susan sent to persons bad talking her boss and co-workers and even proof that she had been undermining some to get the big stories. She was fired again but this time for ethical breeches of the journalistic code. She also incorrectly filed her taxes and the IRS was after her but she didn't even have a penny to her name. The IRS claimed that she was hiding her money oversees to prevent the IRS seizing all of her assets. The real kicker that hurt Susan the most was the sex tapes that Felicity released online. Apparently Susan had one for every man she had ever slept with except him, she hadn't quite talked him into that yet. When the smoke had cleared, Susan was completely ruined.
Susan was left with no one in her corner and Oliver felt bad leaving her to fend for herself when it was clearly his fault that all of this had happened to her. He took her to a gala the next day and he publically defended her saying she was only doing her job. That night when he arrived at the lair he found all of his stuff packed in front of the elevator doors. He still remembered what Diggle had said, "Oliver, this was a very difficult decision but if you are going to choose to protect your girlfriend over your team then we need to protect ourselves man." The words had been a painful blow to Oliver. Dinah had tried to follow him to the HIVE base where he set up shop but she only lasted three days before she told him that he was a blind man that couldn't see that he was doing exactly what Prometheus wanted. He knew he had been unraveling but he really had no idea how far gone he was. It was when Quentin delivered his resignation letter to him that he told him that sometimes you have to let a person hit rock bottom. Well rock bottom was definitely this moment on the rooftop with Prometheus. He had lost all control to Adrian and he had never felt so useless.
"You shouldn't feel bad for her. Susan knew what you were and she still got involved with you. She deserves what she has coming," Adrian said and Susan whimpered in fear. "It was fun watching you cling more and more to Susan as you destroyed your other bonds. It made this final move, all the more sweeter," Adrian said as Susan cried out in pain. Adrian had pierced her through her heart from the back with an arrow.
"No!" Oliver cried. He lost all sense of being. He fired off arrow after arrow at Adrian. Part of him registered that Adrian was using Susan's dead boy as a shield but that hadn't stopped him. He followed after Adrian as the man edged towards the side of the building, suddenly jumping off of it, leaving Susan's crumpled body behind with at least a dozen of his arrows in it.
Before Oliver could jump off the building after Adrian, two bright spotlights lit him up and a hail of bullets stated firing after him. The police had finally caught up to him. He ran to the other side of the roof and jumped onto another roof. He continued doing that until he was block away. It didn't matter if he escaped. He had his hood down and mask off. They would have gotten a clear look at him. It really was all over. He felt a slight pain on his neck and he lifted his hand to his neck to discover a blow dart in his neck. His vision started to swim and body felt weak. He collapsed onto his knees. He looked across at the other roof top and saw Adrian standing there, in his District Attorney suit and a blow tube in his hand. "You lose Oliver!"
Slade Wilson pursued his latest copy of the Star City Newspaper with zest. He was a few days behind since ARGUS didn't provide him the papers the same day they came out. His deal with ARGUS to show some modicum of behaviour in his cell was that they would provide him with a copy of the Star City Newspaper every day. The fall of Oliver Queen was displayed in big bold letters across the top of the newspaper for the last few days. Whoever the person was that defeated Oliver, he had accomplished what Slade hadn't, the complete destruction of Oliver Queen. The kid was now being touted as a sociopath that manipulated his way into the Mayor's office. He and his Green Arrow persona were no longer heroes. All the adoration the citizens of Star City had for him had been changed to malice. The newly elected Mayor, Adrian Chase, had promised that Star City would never be manipulated by a cold blooded killer like Oliver Queen again.
On the back pages there were some tributes to the slain journalist Susan Williams who died at the hands of the Green Arrow after he had a mental breakdown. Reporters were trying to get interviews with Thea Merlyn who Mayor Chase had locked up in Iron Heights as an accomplice of her brother. Slade would have liked to hear what the youngest Queen had to say or was she officially Merlyn now.
The sound of the lock turning on the shaft entrance to their jail cells indicated that they had a visitor. It wasn't feeding time so either they had come to move them or they were adding another person. The cell to his right was empty. He hoped this new cellmate would be as entertaining as his cellmate on his left. That girl had one hell of a mouth on her.
The guards entered and they were guiding a man between them that wasn't even restrained. As they came closer Slade recognized the man but there was no glint of recognition in the man's eyes at all when he looked at Slade. In fact the man didn't even appear to be alert, just floating along with the guards. They opened the cell and put him to sit on the lone bed in the cell. They turned their backs on him without a care in the world and locked the cell on the way out. The man just sat there and stared into empty space.
"Kid," Slade called. The man in the cell showed zero reaction that he had even heard him. Slade laughed in glee. He was getting to see his worst enemy at his lowest. Oliver Queen was now a shell of the man he once was, not that he was that great of a man anyway. All that was left of Oliver Queen was his life and Slade would make sure that he would be the one to take that but he wanted to watch him suffer first. This was the best gift he had ever been given. Shado was pleased.
"Slade, shut the fuck up. The sane people are trying to sleep," his other cellmate said.
He turned towards her, "We have a new companion." He was curious to see her reaction to Oliver.
"Well tell him the rules and let me sleep in peace," she grumbled.
A wicked smirk broke out on his face, "Don't you want to know who it is Felicity?" Slade asked.
"Nope," she said popping her p. Even being in this cell hadn't dampened her spirit. She was a fighter. Slade realized Oliver had lost his fight the moment he lost her.
"It's your ex-fiancé," he said watching her closely. Her breathing stopped for a moment and her whole body tensed. It was a whole minute before she finally spoke again.
"Then don't read him the rules. He can figure them out on his own. Now shut the hell up. I need my beauty sleep," she snapped.
Slade smirked. This was going to be an interesting year. For the first time in a very long time he was actually looking forward to the next day.
Lyla was happy to be home. She absolutely hated going to Lian Yu. She opened the door to her home in Las Vegas to find Donna playing with JJ. Usually she would make herself known but she snuck passed them to the basement door. She had to report on the results of the delivery. She made her way down to a large steel door and punched in a code. The door opened to the temporary headquarters of Team Arrow. Johnny, Curtis, Rene, Rory, Roy and Dinah were all seated around the round table discussing the plans for the next year.
"How did it go?" John asked her as soon as she joined them at the table.
"You were right. Felicity and Slade were what he needed to bring him out of his catatonic state. He's showing significant signs of improvement," Lyla revealed.
"I told you. If anyone can whip Oliver into shape, it's Felicity," Roy boasted.
"But wasn't that a very big risk putting him in a cell next to a person that tried to ruin his life once before?" Curtis asked.
"Slade failed. Oliver needed to be reminded of that. He may have lost to Adrian now but the war is not over. He's still alive and he can still fight back no matter the odds. He and Felicity defeated Slade together against near impossible odds. Felicity and Oliver both have a lot of healing to do and a lot of issues to sort out. I'm positive Slade will provide the correct amount of antagonism to get them functioning as a unit again," Diggle said.
"You know," Roy said thoughtfully, "Once those two get those big heart eyes going again, Slade's going to go even more crazy!"
Lyla had cut Felicity a deal to make the charges against her go away if she served on the Suicide Squad for one year. Felicity agreed but she couldn't be kept anywhere in the States. She chose to go to Lian Yu. Lyla cut a similar deal for Oliver, though Oliver wasn't exactly cognizant when he agreed to it.
"But in the mean time that gives us a year to come up with a plan to undo some of the damage that Adrian did," Rory said.
"The first step is getting Thea out of jail," Roy insisted.
Everyone rolled their eyes. Roy said that sentence at least five times a day. "We're working on it. The lawyer thinks she has a strong case to get out and we are going to use the legal means to get her out," Rory reminded him again.
"I still think Step 2 should be to track down Vigilante," Diggle said.
"Are you sure we want to do that. He has to have a few screws loose if he's still in Star City. Chase has a shoot to kill order out on all vigilantes," Rene said.
Curtis looked at Rene, "You do realize that as soon as we get the new base up and running in Star City, we are going back."
"Besides," Dinah said with a shrug, "Who's afraid of a stupid little shoot to kill order. When it's time to act we will act. This time it will be Chase who's ten steps behind trying to catch up to us."
An: Thanks for reading.