What's Next
AN: Set after 'The Climb'. This is based on an episode synopsis, to tell the immediate aftermath of Oliver's death. It will no doubt become meaningless once the new episodes start, which is why it will not be continued beyond this chapter. As the title says; it's just a series of drabbles tied together, in which the characters ask themselves: What's Next?
"Have you seen my pen?"
Diggle looked confused. "Your... what?"
Felicity was turning drawers inside out, tossing things off desks, moving through the ArrowCave as if frenzied, like a woman possessed. "My pen? Where is it? I had it last time I was here, and now I can't find it, and I need to find my pen! Where's my pen, Digg!?"
"Felicity..." Diggle reached out a hand to rest on her shoulder.
She shied away from it like he was on fire. "No, I'm fine, I just need my pen. And don't say that I have other pens, because I know I do, I had a box full of them, and that's not the point, the point is: It's gone, and I didn't say it back, and I need to find my goddam pen!"
Diggle just looked at her. "Didn't say what back?"
Felicity didn't answer. "Maybe it's back at the Office."
Diggle looked at her with an expression full of pain. "Felicity-"
"He's not dead." She said firmly.
"Felicity-"
"He's. Not. Dead." She shut him down.
Diggle actually smiled at her.
"What?" She demanded.
"You and Oliver. You have one thing in common."
"A hidden lair full of crime-fighting tools?"
"Okay, two things."
"A secret love of karaoke show tunes and expensive coffee drinks?"
"Not th-show tunes?" He shook his head to clear that image. "No, not that."
"Denial?" Felicity guessed.
He nodded. "He was the same way when we saw Thea arriving on that screen."
Felicity collapsed like her strings had been cut. "Why didn't I say it back, Digg? Three years I've been waiting for that exact moment, and I let it happen without me."
"Maybe... because it would have felt too much like saying goodbye."
Felicity sniffed. "Funny thing about goodbyes. You either say them... or you don't. But it doesn't stop people leaving." She sniffed again and her face turned to stone. "Doesn't matter. He's not dead." She scanned the desk again, and stormed out. "I must have left it at work."
She swept out as Roy came in. The junior superhero had to jump aside to avoid being flattened. He gave Diggle a sad look. "Still no word, huh?"
"Nope."
Roy sighed. "So. What's next?"
Nyssa was trained to notice things. She was on a walking through the streets of Kathmandu, when she noticed the man behind her answering his cell phone. He looked confused for a moment, before looking around. His gaze focused on Nyssa. Someone had described her to him.
She didn't stick around to find out what he wanted. She strode casually in the opposite direction. A moment later, her ears heard another phone ringing. Another. People were looking for her.
After the seventh phone rang, she finally stopped moving. When the next phone rang, she took it straight from the random person's hand, and answered. "Who is this?"
"It's me." Felicity answered. "We need to talk."
Nyssa snorted. "Then your attempt to show yourself as omnipresent was wasted. I won't fall for it again, and I'm already on my way to Starling City."
"What happened to Oliver?" Felicity demanded.
Nyssa hung up and kept moving.
Malcolm Merlyn had operatives. Informants, really. People who knew what to look for, and what their reports were worth... And the price of not reporting in.
His burner phone had sent a message. A quick warning that a familiar face had landed a private charter in Starling International, and not gone through customs. It took only a moment to get a photo.
Nyssa al Ghul had returned.
Malcolm sent his daughter shopping immediately, and quickly armed himself. His Dark Archer gear was hidden in a storage space off his dojo. He quickly opened the panel...
And found himself on the end of a curved sword. She had been waiting in ambush for him in his own Sanctum.
"You got here fast." Malcolm observed calmly, eyes scanning around for any weapon that was within reach. Nothing that he could get to in time.
"I got here three hours ago. Your informant was so obvious, I could have shot him in with my eyes closed. Getting his phone and sending the message on a timed delay was simple enough."
They regarded each other for a long moment. "So?" He said finally. "You here to kill me, or give me a shave?"
The sword moved close enough to do exactly that. "I came to tell you that you haven't won."
"I'm not sure I understand." Malcolm said, the picture of innocence. "I told you that I was not involved with what happened to Sara Lance. Oliver backed me."
"I know. I also know that was a lie. What remained in dispute, was how much Oliver actually knew. So we made it easy for him: Making him choose between you, and the innocent. But he chose to confess to killing Sara himself and took Trial by Combat anyway. My father was required to follow our directives. His hands were tied the moment Oliver confessed."
"Trial by Combat?" Merlyn repeated, making his voice go high, as in shock. "Against your father?"
"And don't pretend you didn't know that." The sword pressed closer again, and Malcolm felt a trickle of blood. Her face was absolutely vicious. "What did happen last week, Merlyn? How did you get Oliver to take the blame for you?!"
"Nyssa, do you refuse to believe that I'm innocent, or do you refuse to believe that your Beloved might choose death to escape your father?" Malcolm challenged. "Be kind to yourself. If Oliver confessed, it was for a reason. You can't be punished for committing suicide."
"Traitor, it was Oliver Queen's goodwill, and nothing else that kept you alive. And now Oliver Queen is dead. You understand what I'm telling you?"
"Yes, you're telling me that the number of people who have tried to kill me has just gone down by one." Malcolm offered.
Nyssa didn't smile as she pulled the sword away and turned to go. "I wonder if his sister would see it that way."
Malcolm turned to say something, but she was already gone.
Malcolm pulled out his phone and dialed. "Thea, we have to move again."
"I can't." Thea said evenly. "I'm starting to wonder where Oliver is, and what I'm learning has me worried."
"Thea-"
"Also... Laurel gave me some news a few days ago. It's... About Sara. Dad, I want to try and help."
Malcolm froze. Thea knew that Sara was dead. After spending months carefully destroying all connections to her old life, finally removing her brother, she'd still found out somehow. That was a complication he hadn't expected.
"So... What's next?" He asked himself.
Felicity couldn't sleep, and didn't want to wander around the ArrowCave by herself. The Burger joint would be closed... So eventually, she went to the office.
It had been a long time since she was at her desk in the IT Department of Queen Consolidated. The last three years had changed her life dramatically. Now she had a corner office, high enough to look down on half the city. The view had a hypnotic effect, even after dark. The city lights were soothing. She needed that right now.
But it wasn't to be. Felicity reached her private office, right next to Palmer's, and discovered someone was waiting for her.
"It was a good trick, but playing the Ghost in the Machine only works if I don't know where to find you." Nyssa said without turning to face Felicity.
The blonde woman glanced around. The room was empty, except for them, but after three years working with Oliver and Sara...
There could be a dozen ninjas in this room and I wouldn't notice them.
"No weapons." Nyssa promised. "I have no grudge against you."
"Not even after Oliver..." Felicity didn't know how to say it.
Nyssa was silent for a long moment, before letting out a bark of stunned laughter. The only time she had ever expressed amusement. "Oh my gods. You thought I was here for revenge? That Oliver might have won?"
She was so derisive that Felicity instantly believed her. An instant later, she realized what that meant, and her legs gave out. "He lost the duel."
Nyssa nodded. "Yes. I felt that you deserved to know."
Felicity steeled herself. "Where is he now?"
"He fell."
"You brought the body back?"
"No."
"He's not dead." Felicity declared.
"I know a mortal wound when I see it." The assassin offered. "He was dead, and his corpse fell from a mountaintop. That kind of terrain? Nobody would even find a skeleton. They never found any of the others."
"You have a body?"
"No."
"He's. Not. Dead." She said tightly.
Silence. After a while, Felicity started crying again.
Nyssa spoke first, offering what she could. "You should know, that he fought well."
Felicity snorted. "Doesn't mean much."
"Not to you, perhaps. But Oliver was doing this for five years. His apprentice, for six months. You, not at all. Me, my whole life. The Demon's Head... longer than you'd think. People like Oliver, and myself... we have to define our limits by each other. There's literally no other way to measure ourselves. We stake our lives on the idea that we're better than anyone we face in combat. My father has fought more duels than anyone else alive. If this is how you measure yourself, then my father is in a very real sense, without measure or limit."
"A year or two ago I might have believed that. But I've been there when Oliver found ways to take down superhuman armies." Felicity stared into space. "He... He really lost the Duel?"
"He did well." Nyssa said, and Felicity realized the assassin was trying to be nice to her. "Better than any that came before. He impressed me. He was trained well, but his body was covered in scars of war. My father has fought more duels than you could count... And he has no scars at all."
Felicity sat down. "When Sara died, Oliver and I talked about it. He said that this is how most people like you meet their end. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was trying to prepare me. He was trying to tell me that it was going to happen to him, too; because his kinda life only ends one way."
Nyssa didn't even blink. "Yes." She agreed simply.
Felicity gave her a steady look. "I was never sure what to make of your odd little triangle. You, Him and Sara."
Nyssa snorted. "Sara did not leave me for The Arrow. I believe that if I had come back the light, she would have come to me. But I was born to darkness. I belong there." Her gaze went distant for a long moment. "I didn't truly know that light existed until Sara."
"And Oliver?"
Nyssa turned away, back to the window. "Why do you suppose she never hid him from me? She tried to keep me away from her sister, away from her father and mother, but never from Oliver. Did you think it was just because he could fight?"
"Sara knew what Oliver was capable of."
"And she knew what I am capable of." Nyssa said without arrogance. "But she didn't hide him from me, and there was a reason. Sooner or later, their diversions would have run thier course; and everyone gone back to who they belonged to."
"And Sara belonged to you?" Felicity guessed.
The warrior actually looked surprised. "What? No, I... I wasn't speaking of Sarah just then."
Felicity realized what that meant and tried hard not to cry. "Nyssa..." She said finally, in a soft, hopeless voice. "If I were to tell you that-"
Nyssa moved like quicksilver and clapped a hand over her mouth. "Don't. Don't do that." She said seriously. "I know there's more to the story than Oliver told us. That much is obvious. You can't tell me anything I don't know, but if you say it, then my father killed a good man because he was deceived, and Oliver's sacrifice meant nothing."
I could tell you some things that you don't know. The Hacker thought to herself. But Nyssa hadn't released Felicity, and the blonde shed a tear. Nyssa didn't move until the single drop rolled down past her cheeks, and over the assassin's fingers.
"The League exists to be a check on corruption. Sometimes we're the treatment, sometimes we're the cure, and sometimes we're the scalpel." Nyssa said softly, and released her. "Malcolm Merlyn will be dealt with. That's what's next."
"Is that what this is about?" Felicity asked finally. "You wanted to tell me that you were in town for a reason?"
"No." Nyssa said, not unkindly. "I came to give you this. It was the only thing he carried with him during the Trial. As a matter of honor, we can return tokens of the Fallen to their Kin."
She presented the young woman with a narrow box, wrapped in a pure silk cloth. Felicity unwrapped it and opened the box.
It was her red pen.
Felicity wrapped the fingers of both hands around it tightly and brought it to her lips. After a deep breath, she turned back to Nyssa. "What do I tell Thea when she asks about her brother..."
"Felicity? You're here late."
She turned to see Ray Palmer had just stepped into the room. She looked back, but Nyssa was gone, vanished into thin air. From right there, to invisible in a blink.
Just like Oliver and Sara would do... back when they were alive. She thought, as she gripped her pen tightly and burst into tears.
Ray was taken by surprise. "Hey!" He came over and turned her to face him quickly. "What's wrong?"
And for a second, just a split second, she wanted to tell him everything. But then the secrets came screaming back to strangle her...
No. She told herself. Someone has just offered to help me with the worst night of my life, and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't respond to kindness by telling the truth. At least, part of the truth.
"Ray, the other night, when we kissed..." Felicity heard her voice say. "...and you told me that story about your wife-"
"Oh God, was it that bad?" He seemed horrified. "Jeez, you know... You never have the nerve to ask for feedback on your kissing skills, and then you become a billionaire and you have to show confidence or the Stock Market freaks out-"
"Nono, I'm not crying because of that." She sniffed. "I... I would actually really like to date you, except that I've been... well, no point coming up with awkward euphemisms now; I've been in love with somebody else. For a long time."
"Oliver Queen." He nodded.
Her jaw dropped slightly. Note to self, review Superhero Handbook on the subject of secret identities and dating...
He shrugged. "He raised a few eyebrows when he took you to Russia. Having met you, I know which rumors to ignore, and which ones... would make a man jealous."
"He..." Felicity was tiptoeing around the truth. "He's so much like you. Rich, famous, handsome. After five years on the island, plus what happened with his family, he was kinda broody and mysterious and driven, and my heart just went out to him. I felt very... loyal to him. But then, after you came along, being all brilliant and charming, and promoting me and then you told me about..."
"Right." Ray nodded. "So, you were hoping something was going to happen with Oliver, and when it didn't, you wondered if you should wait for him."
She nodded. "I... I just got my answer; and now I'm crying."
He took two steps forward and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry, sweetie."
"Sweetie?"
"Calling you 'Miss Smoak' doesn't seem to be appropriate when there's crying women involved. Seriously, I'm having HR send around a memo." He offered. "I'm a guy. What do guys do in these situations? Do I beat him up? Can I buy you something really expensive, make you feel better? More diamonds? A house? Tell me, what would help?"
She chuckled. "Give me something to do. Something useful, and not related to contracts, stock markets, or... other people. Not ready for people yet."
He grinned, suddenly enthusiastic. "How about the ATOM suit? Ready for field testing?"
She pulled back, shock making her eyes clear. "Already? You solved the conversion issue?"
"Wanna see?"
The new suit was sleek, modular...
Palmer was telling her all about it, waving his hands back and forth to rotate the holographic display. For a geek, or a superhero groupie, it was a dream come true.
"So?" Palmer said eagerly, waiting for her opinion.
Felicity had been intimately involved in the design and upgrade of more than one superhero uniform. She was already redesigning it, and thinking up superhero names. After a while, she carefully expressed her expert opinion. "I have... ideas." She drawled in the same, slightly pornographic tone she'd used when he pulled out the Coture dress.
"Excellent!" He clapped his hands together, loud enough to make her jump. "Let's get some Chinese food in here and get busy."
"Chinese food? At this time of night?"
"You'd prefer deli?"
"No, but who's going to be open this late?"
"Felicity, I think you keep forgetting how disgustingly rich I am. If I can get Cartier to open just for me at this time of night, I can pull off some takeout."
"You're showing off."
"I am. I don't usually." He admitted, and froze on the spot, the way he did when his brain suddenly went in a new direction.
"Because this would seem like an impromptu dinner date to a neutral observer." Felicity offered awkwardly.
"I'm just realizing that myself." He nodded and shook off the thought. "But at this time of night, what neutral observers are there?"
"You'd be surprised." Felicity smiled a little, wishing he wasn't so likable. "Can I ask you something personal?"
"At this point I think you should." He nodded.
"Has there... been anyone, since your wife died?"
His head tilted like a curious puppy. "Um... No, actually. Well, there was this one pizza delivery girl, but it turned out that she just had a twitch in her left eye, so..."
Felicity slid her glasses down and squeezed the bridge of her nose for a moment. "Well. At least one of us is the rebound. You sure you want to order Chinese?"
"Well, I haven't eaten in a while, and we've got a dozen things we have to sort out."
"Two dozen." Felicity didn't even look away from the display.
"So, first: Food." Palmer picked up the phone. "After that, what's next?"
It was another day and a half before anyone else on Team Arrow heard from Felicity. Roy picked up the secure line on the first ring.
"You want to talk to Dig?" Roy asked quietly.
"I can't." She whispered softly into the phone. "I... I can't face him."
Roy swiftly understood. "You're leaving, aren't you?"
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Not the city. You're leaving the Team."
"I..." Felicity floundered.
"You heading for STAR Labs, then?"
"No. I thought about calling Barry and asking him to come pull me out of the big tub of Rocky Road I'm currently hiding in; but if I did, he'd be here offering a shoulder to cry on before I could get the question out... and that ship sailed. And sank. No survivors." She shook her head slightly. "But Ray Palmer is onto something here. Something that would make STAR Labs sit up and bark."
"Y'know, Ollie swore me to secrecy, but when you got promoted, he started reading Scientific American."
Felicity blinked. "What? Why?"
"Well, this is gonna sound crazy, but... I think he was worried about you getting bored with him."
"What?!"
"I know, crazy. But he heard you and Palmer bouncing ideas off each other, and I think he figured between electronics and tech-talk and matter and anti-matter, Oliver was suddenly worried that he wouldn't matter at all."
"Whoa. I made Oliver Queen feel insecure." Felicity hummed. "Is it wrong that I'm oddly turned on by that?"
Roy snorted. "Felicity... There comes a time in the life of every tongue-tied IT girl when she has to choose between all the handsome billionaires and superheroes chasing after her. If that's why you're not coming back..."
Felicity rolled her eyes. Here's a conversation my mother never had. "No, it's not that. Well, not just that. Roy, I liked myself when I was part of this. More than I did when I was an IT girl in a cubicle. With Oliver gone... He wouldn't want us to give up on Starling."
Roy reacted. "That's the first time you've admitted that he might not come back."
Felicity realized suddenly that Nyssa hadn't told any of the others. Only her. Her voice dropped. "I can't come back to the ArrowCave. Not without him there."
Roy understood, and his voice went weak. "We're not giving up on this city either. But... I don't know how we're going to keep this going without you."
"Well... don't take me off your Christmas list just yet." Felicity promised. "We're starting something good here. I figure, another week, and I'll know for sure if I want to be part of it in the long term..."
"What do I tell Diggle?"
Felicity sighed. "I've taken care of it."
The Verdant didn't open for another few hours, and Diggle was working. There were cover stories to put in place, plans to be carried out, Merlyn was still a wild card, and somewhere in there, they had some crime-fighting to do.
"Dig?" Roy called as he came in. "I ran into a courier outside. He was trying to decide if we were open or not."
Diggle looked up from his notes. "A courier?"
"Yeah, looks like Felicity Fed-Ex'ed something to you."
Diggle raised his eyebrows. "She could have just brought it in."
Roy said nothing, handing him the padded envelope. He opened it, and his face fell. Roy knew what message Felicity was trying to convey, though he didn't know what made Diggle react that strongly.
Felicity had messengered him a cheap red pen.
Diggle sighed hard. "I... I don't think Oliver's coming back."
"And Felicity?"
Diggle help up the pen as though it explained everything.
Roy just looked at him. "Okay, help me out here, because longing, mournful looks is kinda what the other two members of the team does. We don't play that game, Dig."
"When Oliver and Felicity first met, she was a little starstruck. Enough that she didn't notice the fact that she still had a pen in her mouth." He held it up again. "It was this one. This was before she knew The Big Secret, but he had her run something down for one of his investigations. A few days after, he bought her a really flashy pen. Expensive, works underwater, the whole bit. She took it with her when she was put in the field. We were knocking over an underground casino. The pen got stolen, Oliver stole it back. Felicity took out the expensive, never-fail inkwell, and stuck it in her cheap ballpoint." He smiled a little. "She was very pleased with herself. She said she was giving her pen a secret identity. Oliver laughed at the joke, which made it the third time that I had ever seen him without a scowl, and..."
Roy swiftly understood. "The first thing Oliver ever gave her."
"And possibly the first thing either of us noticed about her." Diggle nodded. "Felicity was looking for it yesterday. I didn't have the heart to tell her that he took it with him when he left."
Both of them looked sick. "And now the pen came back without him."
Dead silence.
"I'm a little surprised she's not-"
"Not what? Not hiding under a desk in the cave, sobbing? Not moping, heartbroken? She is. This is how she handles heartbreak."
"Does Palmer know that?"
Diggle looked sadly at him. "If Oliver's dead, we should really stop trying to set them up."
Silence.
"What do we do now?"
Diggle set the pen down and stood up. "We finish what we started." He said simply. "Back in the war, my commander told me: The Soldier is expendable, the mission is not. That's the nature of our business. Losing Oliver is a massive blow. He was the head of this team, Felicity was the heart of it., But you and me? We're the backbone. Strength and support."
"You think we can do it on our own?"
Diggle was cool as ice. "Oliver did."
Silence.
"Hey. What's that?" Roy pointed at the pen.
"Felicity's teeth marks. She's a nervous chewer."
"No, not that. Look."
Diggle looked closer. The end of the pen had been prised off. In fact, now that he looked at it, the cheap ballpoint had something inside, curled around the refill. It was a small piece of paper.
Diggle prised it out of the pen, and read it. A moment later, he smirked slightly. "He's not dead."
Feeling his heart give a thump, Roy took the paper and read it. A single word written in ink, though neither of them recognized the handwriting.
LAZARUS
"I don't know what that means." Roy said plainly.
"Neither do I, but I can't wait to find out." Diggle settled. "In the meantime, we have to figure out how to keep the city safe, now that it's just two of us."
"Three." A voice called from the door.
Both men turned in surprise, to see Laurel Lance stalk in. Her stride had changed, now with the grace that came from someone who knew how to move, how to stand... and how to fight.
Roy and Diggle traded a cool look. She was plainly volunteering, but that wasn't what got their attention.
It was the fact that she was wearing a familiar black leather jacket.
"So." Laurel came up to them with confidence. "What's next?"
AN: Read and review!