Thank you everyone who checked out my first story "Keys to the Kingdom" this is and my Mortal Kombat piece are my first dips into the fan fiction pool so I appreciate the support. There is no better feeling as a writer to put a lot of work into a piece and have that worked get noticed and recognized.
So once again here are the rules:
I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.
I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.
Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.
So the second track on "The Hunting Party" is named All for Nothing. Immediately upon seeing this title I thought about how everyone felt after the Undertaking, that their work to save the city was all for nothing because Malcom Merlyn installed a second device, but as I listened to the song it wasn't a song about guilt or anger, it was more about defiance and risk. Plus the music didn't sound depressing enough to have it be a guilt fest like "Keys to the Kingdom". There's a lyric from Mike Shinoda that hit me that says, "I want to skate and play it safe but this is take a shot time." Then the chorus is from Page Hamilton, "If I do what you demand, you'll make me understand, you're gonna hold me to your word, And if I sell myself away, I'll have no debt to pay, I'm gonna get what I deserve."
After listening to it a few times that line in the chorus hit me, "Keys to the Kingdom" was about guilt and in the piece Oliver went back to Lian Yu not to run away from his problems but as a way to repay his debt for his failure to the 503 people who died in The Undertaking. At the end of that piece he realizes that it's not going to work. This is why Oliver decided to leave when Felicity and Digg find him, because he needs to find a new method of repaying his debt.
Then the selling himself, at the end of season 2 Oliver was going to offer himself to Slade as a sacrifice to save his city, then Felicity convinces him otherwise not to. So this song starts to fit along into Oliver's plans into defeating Slade. At first he plans to sacrifice himself but he realizes that it's "All for Nothing" so they take a shot with the "They took the wrong woman" scene and that leads to the final confrontation between Oliver and Slade after Felicity injects him with the cure. The part that they don't necessarily play enough is the final fight between Slade and Oliver, they go back and forth between the two fight scenes five years apart (which was pretty cool by the way) so this piece is going to start off right after Slade is injected with the Mirakuru.
All for Nothing
Holy shit that worked…Oliver's mind blows while trying to remain as stoic as possible. Felicity had convinced him to make Slade outthink himself. He knew about the bugs in the house and the plan worked, Slade was watching him as he pretended to spill his love to Felicity before handing her the Mirakuru cure. The truth was he doesn't have time for love right now, in a short amount of time Waller was going to blow Starling City to its foundations if he didn't figure out a way to stop Slade. The love is for his city, his love is for Tommy and the debt he has to pay. Although he can't help but think that the words "I love you" came out a little easier than he thought.
He can worry about Felicity's or Laurel's or whoever's feelings later because their minds will be splattered all over Starling City and they won't have any feelings if he doesn't end Slade's tirade. With Slade's power gone and him writhing on the floor as the cure consumes his body he nocks an arrow and delivers a cure laced arrow to the chest of the perpetrator holding onto Laurel. With Laurel and Felicity free he guides them out of the warehouse and into Digg's car.
"I have to finish this!" Oliver yells out to Digg.
"No! You've won! Let's leave, he can't hurt you anymore!" Laurel yells out.
Felicity and Digg know better, that Oliver needs this, his conscience needs this, and that letting Slade go free now, after everything he has done: getting Rochev to steal his company, killing his mother, and all the things he did to terrorize him while he was on Lian Yu as well as the fear he conceived in him when he returned. If he lets Slade go lets him ponder in his defeat he will simply return and seek revenge and his victory and his unthinkable act of almost having Felicity throat slit in front of him will be all for nothing. Digg simply nods, Felicity stares into his eyes, tears coming from them Oliver knows what she's thinking because she's an open book.
"It's what I have to do Felicity." Oliver calms her, knowing that it's not going to work.
"Don't sacrifice yourself for him, you're better than he is, getting yourself killed will do no good for this city, it still needs you." Felicity whimpers, he knows that when Felicity means "this city" she means her, that she still needs him, so that she can feel safe.
Oliver quietly nods and shuts the door, the car speeds off and for a moment he lets off an amused sigh, both Laurel and Felicity concerned for his safety, he understands what a disgusting web he'll have to weave to sort that situation out, but now is not the time. He knows Waller has an itchy trigger finger and without Slade contained Waller will get her wish.
Oliver counts his Arrows, he has eleven left, since he reloaded before approaching Slade, none of them explosive since he used all of them to rescue Laurel. He has two web cast arrows, he still has four cure arrows left, those would kill Slade now and he will not, in this moment, a character defining moment, break his oath to Tommy, no one is in danger but him, there is no choice this time. That leaves him with four sharp point arrows and one escape arrow with an extended rope. While Slade has two endless sharp points with his massive machetes, he once again knows that he's going to have to fight smarter and not harder to beat Slade. Slade is the one who taught him how to do most of his fighting. He had a year of training in Hong Kong on his mission with Waller but nothing significant enough for him to defeat Slade with. As he begins to climb the steps to the top of the warehouse, his senses begin to expand again, for this moment he is back on Lian Yu, he is back in a domain that he unfortunately feels comfortable in, fearing for his life. He begins to hear the sound much like a cage rattling and he knows that it must be Slade baiting him to come at him and challenge him. As he ascends he starts to analyze the situation, the Oliver from last year Pre-Undertaking would have challenged him wits for wits. Mano e mano in battle to the death, if he kills him, so be it, but Felicity is right, to do that meant certain death, even though Oliver is highly trained, the man that trained him is awaiting for him on the top of the warehouse.
He starts to remember something what Malcom Merlyn told him, You can't beat me, and you never will, because you don't know what you're fighting for. He now knows what he is fighting for, he's fighting to save Starling City from being a crater, he's fighting for Felicity, Laurel, Sarah, Roy, and the others that stand by him, he fights for Tommy, and he fights to repent his sins to the five-hundred and three innocent lives lost in the Undertaking, his time on Lian Yu did not repay the debt like he thought, he realizes now that more will die if he is not successful, and giving himself a chance to be successful to save thousands or millions of people from death is how he repays the debt. Like Felicity says, sacrificing himself won't do any good, to repay his debt he must find another way.
He realizes now that this is not a battle of who's the strongest with Slade, Slade is without a doubt stronger than him, this is a hunt, a trapping to be exact, he just needs to trap him, to contain him long enough to secure him and call off Waller. He knows that Slade will have to remember how to fight without Mirakuru, that only having one eye will now be a disadvantage, that there will still be lingering pain left over from Felicity's needle to his throat, his shoulder will be sore from brunting that pain. For once Slade has weaknesses; to win he must exploit them.
Oliver makes it to the roof of the warehouse, there Slade waits for him, his Deathstroke mask not adorning his face. Oliver leaves his hood on, for some reason he feels stronger, more capable with the hood over his face.
"Nice work kid, you broke that woman's heart just to get to me, I'm flattered."
Oliver sees what Slade is doing, he thinks he can get to him by using his guilt against him, but he knows that Felicity will stand behind him, he can mend that fence later.
"You think you've defeated me, but I don't need Mirakuru to defeat you, I know all your moves, my resolve is stronger than ever, it feels good to know that the Mirakuru didn't fuel my vengeance, that you still fuel my vengeance and killing you and making you suffer without the Mirakuru will give me much…more….pleasure!"
Slade reaches behind his back and unsheathes his machetes, Oliver can't help but unleash a devious smile when Slade right hand starts to wobble from his shoulder having to indeed bear the brunt of Felicity's stab wound and the weight of the massive machete. Oliver pulls out his bow but does not nock an arrow, he must be smart about his arrow usage, even though he is weakened his reflexes are still fast enough to dodge his arrows.
"Please don't say you came up here to sacrifice yourself to save your women, because if you allow me to kill you I will find them and I will slaughter them mercilessly."
Oliver still chooses not to move, he will not give in to Slade's games. He continues to wait in hope of irritating Slade to charge at him, but Slade is also smarter than that. He knows that time is not on his side and he needs Slade to approach him, then an idea comes to him, he nocks a cure arrow, he then purposely aims it to fire over Slade's right shoulder, this causes Slade to instantly move to his left, this gives Oliver the chance he needs to move to Slade's right.
Slade sees that Oliver has moved closer to the edge of the warehouse and he starts to stalk his prey trying to corner him against the edge of the warehouse and him, Oliver again moves to Slade's right, Slade swings his right blade but it's not with the same speed and force as it used to be and this allows Oliver to duck out of the way and then swing his leg behind Slade's right knee, Slade's lumberjack like legs keep him steady enough to not fall over but the slight stumble allows Oliver to get behind Slade. Slade rotates around to his right, but it takes too long to get Oliver in sight and by the time he rotates around Oliver's bow collides with his face. Oliver's instinct tell him to try to get another shot on Slade, but Oliver can't risk getting a machete through his chest so he backs away and does his best to keep himself on Slade's right side.
Slade reads Oliver's movements and realizes that he is trying to stay on his patched eye, he moves further to his left to get Oliver on his right side, Oliver as predictably as he can moves in that direction, Slade then delivers a boot to Oliver's chest causing Oliver to do a backhand-spring and fall on his stomach. Slades stalks his prey, flipping the machete in his right hand so that it now points in a downward direction, he attempts to stab Oliver in his shoulder blade with the point of his machete but Oliver rolls out of the way and the machete collides with the concrete instead, the jolt in his right shoulder causes a stinging sensation and Slade unconsciously winces at the pain. Pain is something he hasn't had to live with in a long time and as much as he wants to believe that he did suffer while on the Mirakuru he can now see that he wasn't physically suffering. Oliver rolls into a kneeling position and sees an opportunity to use one of his sharpened arrows, he quickly nocks it and fires it into Slade's shoulder joint, Slade is too concentrated on the new sensation of pain to realize this and the sharpened point collides with his Kevlar, it doesn't penetrate the skin but the force of the arrow intensifies the pain in his shoulder and knocks him backwards. Slade snaps the arrow's shaft off with his machete and turns to face Oliver again, but he can't spot him fast enough because Oliver has gone to his right side again. Realizing that's where he probably is he swings his left machete, his stronger hand at this point toward his right side. Oliver is surprisingly close and the blade cuts through Oliver's midsection.
Oliver cries out in pain and bites his bottom lip to channel the pain away, but Slade kicks him in the ribs before he has a chance, Oliver knowing that Slade will go for the kill, rips a throw arrow out of his chest and implants it directly in Slade's sore shoulder. This causes Slade to wince again, gotcha, Oliver torques then untorques himself swinging the point of his bow directly into Slade's shoulder joint. As Slade cries out in pain, Oliver jumps and spins landing his foot into Slade's chest knocking him backwards. He then fires another sharp point arrow at Slade's shoulder, Slade goes to knock the arrow out of his path, trap the beast, and while he's busy concentrating on the arrow he fires a web cast arrow at Slade's feet, he then fires a second webcast arrow into Slade's upper body trapping Slade against a concrete pole. Slade goes to maneuver out of the casting and Oliver nocks another sharp point arrow.
"You even attempt to escape and I'll put an arrow through your other eye."
Slade can do nothing but smile, "Well done kid."
So a couple of interpretations here, first of all I think Slade having to deal with the concept of pain for the first time in five years is something that would definitely be a disadvantage to him especially when fighting with Oliver and his impeccable ability to tolerate pain. Second, I'm more of an Olicity fan than a Lolliver fan but the idea that Laurel would be catty and bitchy like a lot of the fan fiction interpretations I've read doesn't really make sense. Laurel and Oliver have been through a lot and I think when her father didn't want to know who he was and that he would rather stay in jail than know who he was made Laurel finally realize that Oliver is doing some good, and I think as we saw in the last few episodes that she would realize that she still cares for him. Now love him, I think the two of them will experiment with that in the third season. I'm also don't believe that Oliver has to be with Laurel because the comics say they end up together, as we learned from Smallville, CW does not care about fulfilling the comic storyline it is an individual entity a television show that doesn't really set its target audience on the "comic book" demographic, so Felicity is still game. There is too big a following for Felicity in terms of fandom to kill her off, the interesting concept is if she becomes the Oracle and gets her own show to form the birds of Prey, and would they paralyze her to do that, that's the question that needs to be asked.