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Signs From the Past

Oliver Queen frowned as he paced back and forth tossing quick glances at Felicity's computer every time he passed. She sensed it when he flicked his eyes in her direction. "Look Oliver, I know you want me to see if this was caught on any camera or maybe caught the person getting away, but you've got to relax. This part of town isn't exactly that great. With funding being cut most of the cities cameras have been turned off." She said and he let a huff of air out. Knowing she was right, there was probably no way to find out who attacked two guys who tried mugging a teenager on her way home from work. The girl reported a masked woman coming out of no where, as the guys cornered her near a bridge as she walked home through the park.

"Dig, Please tell me you have something." Oliver growled into the silence of the lair, as Felicity liked to call it. A sigh came over the speaker phone.

"I don't think so Oliver. I'm sending you pictures of where it happened but I really don't see anything here." He said and Felicity's computer lit up with a panorama view of the place the attack took place. Felicity got out of her chair and went to the fridge pulling out a bottle of water.

Oliver sat in the chair scanning every inch of the picture. He wasn't really worried about the two thugs who had gotten their asses kicked. He was worried about this seemingly new vigilante. Ever since he became the Hood, copy cats popped up once in a while. He didn't like the thought of just anyone being judge, jury, and executioner. But that's where it changed and made him think. This vigilante didn't kill the thugs. She fought them, disabled them, then tied them knocked out, to a lamppost, slipping away right as the cops got there. He at first wondered if Sara was back. But quickly dismissed that thought. She knew it was to risky, she wouldn't come back putting her family in danger like that. He knew she would of come straight to him when she got in town too. No this was someone else. Someone well trained. That's when he saw it. Mixed in with the other graffiti. Something stood out different than the others. "FELICITY! Come here, can you pull everything on the wall in this lime green spray paint? Like separate whatever that one person did with it?" Oliver asked jumping out of her seat and pointing to the line of green he was talking about.

"Yeah no problem just give me a couple minutes." She said and began working.

Oliver heard Diggle hang up as he ran upstairs to his club. He needed a beer for this. Grabbing a bottle he paced some more before walked back downstairs. His head full of questions. Could it? No she was dead. He was sure of that. She was shot in the stomach, thrown off a cliff into the ocean. She couldn't of survived. It was just a coincidence. He told himself as he made his way over to the computer. The door opened again and Diggle walked down the stairs.

He looked at the screen and frowned. He was right. "I'm almost done separating the graffiti" Felicity said, wanting to make sure she got all of the symbol.

"Don't bother," Oliver said setting down his drink, "I know what it is." He sighed walking away. It had to be a mistake. A coincidence. "Its an arcane rune. It means protection." He said grabbing a pen and paper he drew the two lines one above the other, all four ends curling up slightly. In between the horizontal lines, he drew two vertical lines angling in at the bottom. It almost looked like a roman numeral. The other two looked down at the rune, he continued, "It means protection. I've seen it before." He said.

"Where?" Dig asked, pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Remember how I told you I didn't spend all of those 5 years on that island. Well after finding Slade again things turned bad quickly. Things happened, Ivo the man we fought and ran from, the one who killed Shado, came back. He had a new group of followers and he was more relentless than ever. He took Sara. I figured he killed her." He paused and collected his thoughts. "I came across a group of assassins going after him one day. There were three of them, two men and a girl. The men didn't make it, the girl was trying to retreat but having issues. So I stepped in and got her out of there, barely. She was shot in the arm and had pretty bad slashes all over"

Dig and Felicity just stared at him, "This island was really just full of women wasn't it…" Felicity muttered before he shot her a look and continued

"Her name was River. She was part of an organization who stopped people like him, people trying to become dangerously powerful. World domination stuff." Oliver said running his fingers over his arrows. "Her organization used runes, as a symbol, a warning, all the people in the world who had reason to fear this group, knew about it, knew what the runes meant, they served as a warning, that if you crossed the line, they were coming."

"So you think shes here?" Dig asked crossing his arms and leaning back against a table.

"It's impossible." Oliver said shaking his head, "She was shot. And thrown off a cliff. On the island. We spent a year sneaking on and off Ivo's ship, trying to find out as much of his plans as possible trying to get close enough to kill him. She finished my training, the things Shado started. Well River herself was a weapon, hand to hand combat was her specialty. Then we thought we'd finally won, gotten Ivo alone. We thought we were done. Ivo had a gun, hidden, turned our back for one second, and he pulled it out. He shot River in the stomach, Pushed her off the cliff before I could get to her. Then I killed him." Oliver finished, his back to the others.

"So, they usually leave this rune behind when they, finish a job?" Dig asked moving to take another look at the picture.

"Not exactly, the rune is carved into the targets arm." Oliver said turning to face them.

"Ok well then, maybe someone from her organization is in town." Felicity offered.

"No they wouldn't of put it on the wall if their here for a target. This is a message." He said grabbing his coat.

"A message for who?" Dig asked starting to walk after him.

"Me." Oliver said and ran up the stairs, letting the door slam shut behind him, cutting Dig off.