TheHoodedAssassin: Thank you for the kind review! And yes, it felt like the finale of S7 was lacking. The only thing I liked the most out of the entire episode was the Monitor showing up, to be honest.

The Man in the Hood

Starling City-2012

It was a bright and early morning in Starling City, as it always usually is. The city's the home to thousands of people, including the Queen Family full of billionaires. Five years ago, Robert Queen took his son, Oliver, with him on his yacht boat but, sadly, the boat sank during a storm. The world was led to believe that the father and son never made it, leaving the family devastated.

Walking down the street with a group of friends was Oliver's younger sister, Thea. The group must've came back from shopping, as they were all carrying bags with them.

"Thea, you going to that party tonight?" One of her friends asked.

"What party?" Thea questioned.

"Did you forget? Tommy's birthday party, everyone's going to be there." The other friend answered.

"Oh, of course I'm going!" Thea answered, laughing.

On the other side of the street, sitting at a bench was Oliver wearing a grey hoodie. It's been years since he's seen his sister, but due to the circumstances he's in and the mission, he can't let her know he's alive. How would she react, knowing that her brother had been alive this entire time?

There was a car, one of her friends', parked by the curb and before she could get in, Oliver noticed a van swing around the corner. Three masked men, dressed in all black and armed, hopped out of the car.

"Hey!" A random man yelled, walking through a back door before getting gunned down in front of them.

They didn't go after Thea's friends but they went after her, using a tranquilizer to sedate her. Oliver quickly got up from the bench and started running across the street, hopping over cars while they put her inside the van.

Oliver had charged at the man who closed the vans door, knocking the gun out of his hand and engaging in a fist fight. With five years worth of training, Oliver quickly put him down, but the van began to drive off.

He watched as the van was almost in the distance and looked around, spotting a bike on the sidewalk.

Abandoned Warehouse

Thea woke up in some empty warehouse, sitting in the middle of the room, tied to a chair. Her vision was pretty blurry, as she looked around and saw figures surrounding her. One of them had her shopping bags and emptied it out, as shoes, pants, etc landed on the dirty ground.

"Pl-please, just.. just let me go!" Thea cried, as the masked men looked at her.

"Not until you tell us where all the Queens' money is," One of them said, taunting her with a taser.

"I don't know where the money is!" Thea replied.

"Don't lie to me, Thea Queen! You wanna know what happens to liars?" The masked men said.

Suddenly, one of the masked men dropped on the ground with a loud thud. Laying next to him was a bloodied rock, which came from the direction outside. The other masked man went to go check, having his gun by his side, just in case.

From out of nowhere, he was yanked to the side and beaten by Oliver in the grey hoodie. The two men inside rushed over to Thea, untying her and holding her with a gun pointed at her temple. The other man had his gun drawn in case someone came in.

"Don't you come any closer or she dies!" The guy yelled, keeping the gun at Thea's head.

The man second-to-last masked gunner was shot down, scaring the guy who had Thea, knowing he was next. Oliver sneaks up beside him and grabbed his gun, using it as a bat and nails him in the head.

Thea was relieved, but was still in fear, seeing the dead body bleeding and the hooded man with a gun. She didn't know what to say.

"When the police ask, tell them you saw a man with a green hood take everybody out. Okay?" Oliver, unknown to her, had ordered.

"O-okay," Thea nodded. He began to run out of the warehouse, hearing sirens coming. "Thank you!"

He stopped, turning around. "You don't have to thank me."

He managed to leave the place before the police had arrived, seeing all the dead bodies on the ground. Thea had her back turned as she thought about the guy in the hood, there was something familiar about him.

Queen Mansion

The SCPD drove Thea back home, where her mother, Moira and new husband, Walter Steele were waiting for her. They were concerned, after getting a call that Thea had been kidnapped earlier today.

Thea was sitting on the couch, explaining to Detective Quentin Lance and Lucas Hilton what had happened.

"So that's your story? A guy in a green hood flew in and single handedly took out three, armed kidnappers. I mean, who is he? Why would he do that?" Detective Lance asked her.

"I don't know, find him and you can ask." Thea answered, looking down at the drawing of the hooded man.

"Were you able to identify the men?" Moira asked the detectives.

"Scrubbed identities, untraceable weapons. These were pros." Detective Hilton answered.

"They probably figured you'd pay a king's ransom to get your girl back, or a Queen's ransom as it were." Detective Lance said. "After all, a parent would do anything to keep their child safe." He finished, staring at a photo that had Oliver in it.

"I don't find your tone, appropriate, detective." Moira said as Thea glared at him.

"If Thea can think of anything else, we'll be in touch. Thank you, gentlemen for coming." Walter said, politely with his deep, accented voice.

Detective Lance grabbed his stuff and got up, looking at the Queen Family and Thea.

"You're lucky you got your girl back, I wish I can get mine." Lance said, referring to Sara Lance, his other daughter.

At the time, Oliver was dating Laurel, he brought Sara with him onto the Gambit. Detective Lance has been blaming Oliver and the Queen's family for years, after finding out that the yacht sank.

The Foundry

Oliver was back in his lair, doing more research on Adam Hunt, even having a newspaper about the businessman. He opened the small notebook, given to him by his father, filled with names of people who had failed Starling City.

He knew that it was almost time to pay Adam Hunt a visit.

Queen Mansion

Thea was in her bed room, thinking about the guy that had saved her. He moved fast and quickly took out the masked men, even go as far as killing them. She was lucky he had came, if it wasn't for him, she'd be dead right now.

A knock on the door disrupted her thinking. Thea sat up from her bed, "Come in."

The door opened and it was her mom, Moira, Walter and a tall African-American man by their side.

"Thea, I'd like to introduce you to someone." Moira says, as they walked into the room. "John Diggle. He'll be accompanying you from now on."

"I don't need a babysitter, mom. I'm almost 18." Thea replied, looking at John.

"Yeah, I understand but what if something like this happens again? With Mr. Diggle by your side, I know you'll be safe." Moira responded and John nodded his head.

Thea sighed, "Fine. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Diggle."

"Please, call me Dig." He informed her, nodding his head.

"You're like a bodyguard, right?" Thea asked.

"Oh, John used to be in the military." Walter said.

"Yes, sir. 105th Airborne out of Kandahar, retired. Been in the private sector a little more than four years now." John said.

Moira looked back to Thea, "He will be going with you to that party Tommy is having, just to make sure you're safe."

Thea grunted, knowing that she'll be watched by her bodyguard.

The Hood hasn't started yet, I wanted to show how the family was doing. I noticed that some of Oliver's lines in EP1, if it was Thea in that position, works better with her. Anyways, next chapter we'll see the Hood suit up for the first time.