Hey guys
First this is an idea that has been floating around in my head for awhile now of what if Dinah Drake was around from the start? I sat down to write this.
Normally I post my thoughts down at the bottom but you know what? Let's change it up.
Having seen Dinah Drake across the entire season five, oh man what a waste of her character. Because Dinah did literally nothing and has no real relationships with anybody on the team besides a basic working one. Also any connection Dinah might have had to Oliver has pretty much vanished entirely.
Something that is all to contrary to the interviews given by Guggenheim and Mericle of how Oliver and Dinah were going to have a connection due to their past. Not that I'm exactly surprised given the Arrow's writers focus of Olicty.
Really I actually have to wonder why they even bothered bringing Dinah Drake on board in the first place.
Because let's look at what has happened to the people who use the Canary mantel since Marc Guggenheim took over in season 3 as main showrunner. (For Evelyn Sharp I just don't really count her.)
Sara Lance got killed in 3x01 by just literally standing there and getting shot.
Laurel Lance well we all know what happened to her.
Dinah Drake while a decent introduction episode or two has been shoved to the background.
This leads me to the conclusion is it's the Black Canary character herself which Guggie and Mericle have no respect or liking to. Guys you don't completely trash 3 Black Canaries in a row and this not start waving red flags. So this is a bigger problem then just one particular Canary.
For Dinah Drake as a chracter in general as of 5x23? Dinah's simply okay but not much more than that.
Now on with the story
I don't own Arrow or DC comics
Hunt Multinational building during the night in Star City
In a darkened hallway, due to having cut the power earlier, Oliver is walking towards an elevator. He's wearing an emerald leather jacket, pants with a hood up over his head. There's a wooden recurve bow in his left hand and an arrow filled quiver on his back.
Hearing footsteps, Oliver rapidly notching an arrow turns around to see a woman standing there, who he knows only as the Black Canary. They've met once before.
Dinah Drake is wearing a black leather jacket, and jeans of similar color with a dull blue colored T-shirt on underneath the jacket. A domino mask covers her eyes with brunette wavy hair that stops near the middle of her back.
"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked, lowering his bow with placing the arrow back in his quiver.
"The same reason as you" Dinah replied.
"You being here at the same time as me is not just a random chance, is it? You wanted to see if I would make good on my promise from the other night after I gave Hunt a second chance" Oliver said.
"Very Sherlock and yes, you would be correct" Dinah replied.
"Then let's take down Mr. Hunt" Oliver said.
In another hallway, with various armed guards scattered throughout the elevator dings. The guards turn with raising up their automatic weapons. The door opens, and a scream is heard as the sound wave momentarily stuns all the guards, causing them to clutch their ears.
Out of the elevator steps Oliver with an arrow notched and Dinah who extends her bow staff.
Oliver lets lose an arrow which hits the first guard in his chest sending him down dead. Just as Dinah runs up hitting the second guard on the head with her staff sending him down then kicks the third man in his left leg breaking bone, causing him to join the other two on the floor.
Both seeing the other men recovering with beginning to shoot again, Dinah and Oliver quickly hide behind different pillars which get multiple bullets in them, sending bits of concrete everywhere.
As soon as the fighting stops Dinah comes around unleashing a powerful Canary Cry which knocks out the three the men with shattering the glass doors behind them.
Running forward Oliver fires off an arrow through the seventh man's left shoulder who is coming out of the office which sends him to the ground painfully. As the guard reaches for his gun, Oliver fires a second arrow into the man's chest killing him.
Entering the office, The Hood has an arrow nocked and pointed at Adam Hunt who is cowering behind his desk then let's go. Only the arrow hits the wall behind the man.
"You missed" Hunt sneers at Oliver, even as he notches another arrow and holds it on the man.
"Really?" Oliver asked.
Suddenly Drakon was attacking the two vigilantes with knocking away Oliver's bow away, as they begin fighting, just as Hunt runs out of the room screaming into his phone. The Hood and Black Canary trade furious blows against the guard who manages to knock Dinah to the ground and dazes her.
Ducking a punch Oliver kicks Drakon to the ground who finds a submachine gun. Rising to his feet, Drakon fires away causing Oliver to leap behind the desk but Drakon gets tackled to the ground by the Black Canary.
Recovering Darkon flips them over choking Dinah who manages to knee him in his stomach freeing herself. Placing the man in a headlock, Dinah breaks his neck then gets to her feet.
Hissing in pain, Dinah feels pain in her left side where she looks down to see a bullet wound with blood already starting to seep out. Mostly likely due to a stray round, Dinah realizes while picking up her bow staff.
Walking from behind the desk, Oliver picks up his bow just as two swat team members come through the open doorway with their guns raised.
Racing across the room Oliver grabs Dinah by the wrist as the Swat Team members tell them to lay down their weapons then heading towards a window they both jump out. Using his bow Oliver glides down and Dinah does the same using her bow staff, as they eventually land on the roof of the Iron Works building.
Looking over "Your injured" Oliver said.
"Really, I didn't notice" Dinah replied snarkily then serious "Just go. I'll be fine, I've got a medic kit to patch myself up."
Oliver goes to say something when Dinah sways on her feet just as the archer hurriedly catches her falling into unconsciousness. Grimacing, Oliver knows he originally planned to switch back into his other cloths and put on the playboy act with meeting back up with Tommy.
However, that is not as important as being sure this woman stays alive, so he'll figure out the rest later on. Now he just has to get them both out of here and to where he can treat her wounds.
Later at the Foundry
Having set Black Canary on a table, Oliver rushes over to his trunk kept on the floor by his computer set up with lifting up the lid and pulling out the small bag of herbs. Mixing some herbs and water in a bowl, Oliver feeds the potion to Dinah, who coughs slightly but drinks. A moment later, Dinah passed out as the herbs do their work.
Sighing Oliver places the bowl down on the table, with grabbing a nearby needle and black sewing thread, needing to get to work on stitching up the wound.
An unknown time later, Dinah groans slowly awaking with doing a quick check of her face to feel the mask missing before sitting up on the table. Looking over to see the archer sitting in a chair with his hood down and quiver removed. However, it's his face that's the most surprising given it's Oliver Queen.
"Where are we? How bad was my wound?" Dinah asked.
"In the subbasement of an old Steel factory. If I didn't remove the bullet and sew up your wound you would have bled out. I highly doubt you would have made it anywhere after you passed out on the roof" Oliver replied.
"Thank you. So why is a playboy running around as a vigilante? You got bored or something?" Dinah asked.
"No. I do this because of my father and to help the people who are suffering in this city" Oliver replied.
"And spending five years alone on an island gave you the skills to take out armed men like that? It's a nice cover story for the news but you don't pick up military fighting skills by yourself" Dinah said.
"I wasn't alone. I… just don't like to talk about the hell during my time away, Tina or do you prefer Dinah?" Oliver replied.
"How do you know that?" Dinah asked surprised.
"Wasn't hard given your special ability. I just spent a couple of hours, you were out looking for anything of similar cases in the past few years and discovered something similar in Coast City a few years ago at a warehouse. Then hacked the CCPD database to get the other information" Oliver replied.
"How much do you know?" Dinah asked.
"Just the basics of your partner getting killed by Sean Sonus and both of you were held for six weeks being tortured. Then you vanished the day after your partner's funeral. I'm guessing you've been tracking Sonus and his men across the country" Oliver said.
"Your correct. That warehouse when I escaped is due to my sonic scream, that just kind of came out of me one day. Apparently, a family member years ago got cursed by some shaman which would affect their descents one day. Or at least that's the reason Constantine gave" Dinah explained.
"John Constantine?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, you know him?" Dinah asked.
"We met once during my forth year away, involving some mystical totem and an insane man called Baron Reiter who wanted to get his hands on it. Why do you wear a mask when according to your file" Oliver replied, but gets cut off.
"Because I have no family I'm close with? Since I grew up on the streets and later spent the rest of my teens in an orphanage?" Dinah asked.
Oliver nods in response.
"I was a cop and know enough that if I ever get caught I'd be going to prison. Makes that process harder to track me if I'm protecting myself and maybe allows me a chance to have a normal life. I don't know what I'd do if my hunt for Sonus ever ends. Really, I don't even know why, I'm telling you this" Dinah replied, confused.
"Because people who live through hell have a connection with other people who have done the same. What if I could help you find your life after Sonus" Oliver said.
"Like what help me find Sonus? I don't need your help" Dinah replied.
"No but do you really want to spend the next several years tracking this guy?" Oliver asked.
"Don't care how long it takes, I'm fine on my own." Dinah said with a hard edge. The people who get close to her get hurt so no need to drag somebody else into her personal war, despite Queen's ability to take care of himself.
"Alright, you can go get this guy on your own. I'll just keep the possible information I could get about Sonus due to his ties with the Bratva, to myself" Oliver said, knowing this could work.
"How?" Dinah asked.
"A month ago I was in Russia and got made a captain by the Pakhan, who's a close friend of mine" Oliver said.
"Why do you want to help me so much? Because I have no intentions of being your pity project or just another girl for you to sleep with" Dinah replied.
Raising up his hands defensively "I have no intention of either. I'm also not that same selfish playboy who cheated on Laurel, with her sister. I want to help you Dinah because I can. Sonus is a drug dealer whose destroying lives and while not on The List, the guy needs to be stopped" Oliver replied meeting her gaze.
A moment of consideration passes "Very well. What's this list?" Dinah asked.
Climbing to his feet Oliver grabs a brown leather journal with walking over to Dinah and handing it to her. Dinah flips through to see a name already marked out then Adam Hunt's with a line through it as well.
"I found that on my father's body when I buried him on the island. Then found a video message he left me two years ago explaining the book. He assured me every name in there is guilty" Oliver said.
"What happened to Adam Hunt?" Dinah asked, handing the book back.
"I took his money by the router arrow I shot into his wall then transferred the forty million to all the people he stole from. Basically, Adam Hunt is left broken to wander The Glades without what he treasured most" Oliver explains.
"Given his ties to the criminal underworld somebody is bound to be unhappy at his new found lack of help or even the person Hunt might have answered to will probably go kill him" Dinah said.
"One day, somebody probably will" Oliver said in agreement.
"I better get back to my motel room." Dinah said hoping off the table, with pocketing her domino mask.
"I keep my bike out in the alleyway, hidden inside a trash dumpster your more than welcome to take it" Oliver said.
"Really?" Dinah asked.
"I have spares" Oliver replied with a shrug then pulls a cellphone out of his pocket.
"What's this?" Dinah asked gesturing to the phone.
"An encrypted phone for you to contact me" Oliver explains.
"Black, kind of basic but my kind of color" Dinah said taking the phone and pocketing it as well. "One question I do have about your past."
Oliver nods, figuring since Dinah's talked so much about her past, he'll let her ask a question or two to solve her own curiosity.
"I saw a leaked photo of you from the Chinese embassy on the news and it had you looking like a hobo. How exactly did you end up back on that island with such long hair if you were in Russia a month ago?" Dinah asked.
"I returned to the island and my recuse was staged. For my hair, a guy who is former chameleon in the KGB made me a fake wig and beard" Oliver replied.
No more words to be said between them Dinah heads for the stairs then a moment later, Oliver can hear the door close. Being left alone in the silence Oliver let's out a tired sigh since it has been a long night.
Walking over to the computer desk, Oliver does a quick check of his text messages from his cellphone. Mostly from Tommy who at first assumes he's with Laurel but then realizing he isn't with wanting to know where he's at. Along with going on a rant about Quentin and the SCPD searching the Iron Works building, plus interrupting the party.
Oliver sends a text message back that he's fine and has spent the night with a brunette. For once doesn't actually have to lie about it, but just doesn't inform of Tommy of just what Dinah and him were really doing.
For Dinah, well it's been so long he doesn't actually even know what it feels like anymore but Oliver can say it's almost like hope inside of not being so alone.
Briefly thinks on Laurel who he saw earlier tonight at the party then had to pull his playboy act, to get her to stay away after offering to be there for him. Doesn't need her pulled into this dangerous life as the Archer.
Plus, any of the love he had for Laurel years ago, went with the playboy who washed up on the shores of Lian Yu. Besides given their toxic relationship due to his frequent cheating and Laurel blindly ignoring it, pre-Gambit well Oliver knows there's too much pain there to restart anything regardless.
Setting the phone back down on the desk, Oliver unzips his jacket with removing it. Needs to get changed then get some hours of sleep on the cot, set up in the back.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and if you want, let me know what you think in the reviews which are always appreciated.
Right into Dinah already being the Black Canary, yeah this was the only way I could see allowing Dinah to stand on her own without being connected to the whole Laurel Lance mess. My other story idea was to make her the Black Canary following Sara but that just didn't quite work out, so it got scrapped.
I decided to leave Dinah Drake with her Canary Cry instead of removing it to just fit in with the realistic tone of Arrow, which never made it past season 1 anyway. Since there was no Particle Accelerator yet I decided to pull from a origin story told in a 1983 Justice League comic of the Earth 2 Dinah Laurel Lance having the Canary Cry due to magic.
Through the events of what took place in the comics, for the messed up reconning of Dinah Drake swapping bodies with her daughter and everything that took place, basically just makes my head spin.
Now I don't exactly know how long this is going to be and I've got a few different plans in mind for various stuff, so will see. Just a question of figuring it all out.
For Oliver reflecting on how Laurel ignored Oliver's cheating/womanizing behavior pre island? Well from the conversation Laurel and Sara had in 2x13 flashbacks that was pretty clear Laurel just pretending that part of Oliver didn't exist. Also Laurel tried to just put the focus back on Sara, since she didn't want to hear the truth.
Which for this story, Sara Lance died on the Queen's Gambit. Mostly because I don't need 3 different Canaries running around and story wise I have no real use for her.
Until next time