Ire
Summary: Thea Queen has lived through her fair share of losses and she is determined not to lose anyone else to Prometheus.
An: I do not own Arrow.
Thea Queen has suffered a lot of losses for someone in her early twenties. At 12, she lost her father and brother when the Queen's Gambit sank. Immediately afterwards, her mother fell into such a state of grief that Thea was left to fend for herself. The only person in her corner was Tommy Merlyn, a man she had a crush on who would later turn out to be her half-brother. Her mother would eventually pull her life together and remarry but Thea fell into the wrong crowd and started doing drugs. When she was 15 her drug dealer died at a party she attended but that hadn't clicked as a warning that she was on the wrong path. By 17, her brother had returned but he wasn't the man she remembered. He tried to warn her about the drugs but she didn't listen and totalled her brand new car while high on Vertigo.
Detective Lance was ready to throw the book at her but Laurel stepped in and saved her. Roy and Sin also had a hand in getting her back on the right path. She finally felt like she was settling into her life when her mother announced that she was part of The Undertaking. Tommy died that night, Oliver disappeared after his funeral and Laurel descended into alcoholism. With no family member around to guide her, Thea grabbed a hold of the club as something to do. Her brother and Tommy had run it successfully and she didn't want to see something that they had built together be destroyed.
Oliver soon returned, becoming CEO at Queen Consolidated and things were looking up until Roy cheated on her which she later found out was his way of trying to break up with her for her own good. Slade Wilson then appeared and took her mother away from her. She and Roy were going to leave town together but then he had to stay behind to help her brother. That left her open to the discovery that Malcolm Merlyn was her biological father. She asked him to make her strong but in truth she was already strong. All he did was solidify the different parts of her together.
Her father was the one that set in motion the death of Sara Lance and Thea's near death experience at the hands of Ra's Al-Ghul. Roy had to fake his death to save her brother from prison. Though she was alive, she suffered through the side effects of the Lazzarus Pit. She met a wonderful man, Alex, but he was ripped away from her by Anarchy, a villain she had created.
It had been a rough road to get to that current point in her life. Her brother was the only person she knew that suffered more than her. Everyone on the team experienced some form of suffering. Curtis had been the only one that seemed whole but she had overheard his conversation with Felicity about his husband. Based on her experience that was not going to end well for Curtis.
Thea visited Felicity in the wee hours of the morning after Oliver had delivered the bad news. She had given her some time to herself to grieve first since the blonde had a habit of stepping out for air when she got too emotional. She wasn't surprised to find her still in tears on the couch. Oliver wasn't there but she understood why. He killed Billy, how do you comfort the woman you love when you are the one that caused her the pain. She wasn't sure what hurt Felicity more though, Billy's death or the fact that Oliver had been manipulated into doing it. The blonde had barely been able to call Billy her boyfriend, and in terms of priorities Team Arrow and Oliver always fell way above him. Thea saw the relationship for what it was, Felicity's attempt at moving on. She also knew that Felicity had pushed Oliver to Susan Williams because she felt guilty for moving on when Oliver hadn't. She was there when Felicity received the news that Diggle had been taken back into custody at an ARGUS safehouse and Lyla was in trouble for harbouring a fugitive. They tried to call Oliver and tell him but when he didn't pick up, a GPS search revealed he was at Susan's apartment.
It was at that moment she realised what Prometheus was doing. Oliver had told them what the villain had said to him. It seemed a repeat of Slade Wilson but this villain was smarter. He had learned from the mistakes Deathstroke had made. Thea hadn't been around for Oliver's victory over Slade but she knew that he couldn't have done it without Felicity and Diggle. In fact, she believes her brother would have died long ago if it weren't for those two. They have stood by him through everything. Even when Felicity tried to leave the team, she came running back to support him as soon as Laurel died. Diggle eventually forgave Oliver for kidnapping Lyla and JJ. No matter what has happened between the three of them, their bond has remained. Sure it has bent and probably held on by a thin thread but it has never broken. Prometheus's real first move against her brother was to try to break those bonds to weaken him. Thea could see clearly that everything else he did was a distraction to play with them. Prometheus may think he did his research but he had no idea the strength that resided in both Felicity and John. He was going to have to try a lot harder to break those bonds.
She figured Prometheus was probably going to lay low for a while to observe the fallout. He most likely expected Felicity to blame Oliver and walk away,thereby weakening the team, especially with John in custody. Thea was going to ensure that would not happen. In fact, she was going to work on repairing the bond those two had. Susan Williams was only a minor obstacle and Thea was going to take her down. Payback was a bitch. She was going to demolish whatever twisted logic Ollie was using to justify the way Susan had treated her. She was sure if Laurel were here she would have hung him from his balls for dating a woman like that. Thea would not fail Laurel in this regard.
Prometheus had taken shots at Lance, Curtis, Felicity and Digg. The only ones untouched so far were her, Rene and Rory. She was fairly sure, she would be his next target and if he was coming for her he was going to target her at City Hall. He would try to take the Mayorship away from Oliver and he would use her to do it. That was NOT happening. Thea hadn't been involved in the fight against Slade. Her brother had tried to keep the darkness from tarnishing her but in truth she had already been tarnished the moment the Queen's Gambit sank. One could even argue that she had been conceived in darkness. An illicit affair between her mother and Malcolm Merlyn wasn't exactly the best circumstance to create life.
Thea was going to stand by her brother. She meant what she told him about what the dream world had given her. She had a new family now. One that consisted of Oliver and Team Arrow. She would not stand idly by and let some crazed individual out for revenge take that away from her. She was a fighter and she would fight to keep her family safe. Prometheus thought he was breaking them apart when in actuality he was making them stronger.
A plan was forming in her head to take Prometheus down but first they had to determine who he or she was. There was a definite link to Oliver's days as The Hood. He could be Justin Claybourne's illegitimate son or that could just be another misdirection. She was going to sit down with Oliver and talk about his early days as The Hood. She might even have to call her father to find out the names of everyone involved in The Undertaking. It could be someone who had a lot invested in it. She wasn't looking forward to waking him up from whatever cave he had climbed into to hibernate.
While they pursued their leads they needed to work on clearing John's name permanently. He wasn't responsible for what happened and they needed to prove that. Living a life in the darkness was slowly tearing away at him. She didn't think John could watch his son grow up from the shadows. Clearing his name would also mean that they could reinstate him as a bodyguard. It would help to have the extra reinforcement at City Hall. Perhaps she could also get Rory and Rene in as aides or clerks. Curtis could become Oliver's technical adviser. Oliver ran his campaign based on the slogan United. Well Team Arrow was going to present a united front to Prometheus.
There was one thing that was worrying her though. Prometheus clearly knew the Green Arrow was The Hood. The rest of the team hadn't even known that. Most people thought Roy was The Hood. Did Prometheus know who Oliver really was before Evelyn turned? If he did and he has been planning this for four years, how much information does he have? Does he know about William? Malcolm knew about Prometheus has been watching Oliver, then he could know about William. She was going to have to ask Felicity to keep tabs on both William and Roy.
She made plans to go to the lair after work for some target practice with those tennis balls her brother so loves. She had made a grave mistake in not keeping up her training. Speedy was an important part of who she was and she needed to finally embrace her. She would put back on the red hood and keep it on. A fire burned bright within her now and never again would she allow someone to hurt her family.
An: I promised a one-shot week months ago and I finally managed to get my act together and do it. This is the first of seven one shots! Look out for the one tomorrow.