Author's Note and Disclaimer:

This version of Ragman will be slightly different, since Havenrock wasn't blown up in here.

I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

Hope you have fun

With regards

Bl4ckHunter

Museum

Thea was in the museum at the exhibition of Devarim scrolls with Roy, who smiled at her.

"This is interesting, is it?" Thea smiled, while Roy shrugged.

"I don't know what's so interesting about some ancient pieces of paper." He said as he was looking at the glass case. "Why couldn't our date be in a cinema?" Thea giggled at Roy's humor.

Suddenly, they heard people screaming as some gangsters burst in, shooting with their guns and Thea and Roy knelt down, watching as the thieves snatched the scroll from the glass case.

The Lair

"Who stole them?" Diggle asked as Curtis was at the computer.

"Hired muscle, low profile." Curtis said as he looked at the footage. Then, he scowled. "Wait, they were apprehended an hour ago."

"How?" Thea asked.

Curtis pulled out another footage as he saw the van being attacked by a hooded figure with long rags, who vanished later as he looked inside the van.

"What the hell was that?" Rene asked, disbelieved. "A meta?"

"I don't know but we need to find out what's going on before… whatever the hell that thing is makes things worse." Diggle ordered.

Starling General

"Doctor Rhodes." A woman, around 30 years old shook her hands with Tommy. "I'm Dr. Kate Harris. Welcome to Starling General."

"Thank you." Tommy smiled. "It's my first day here, actually. Honestly, I haven't worked in emergency before, I've had one patient at the time."

"It's gonna be easy, Rhodes." Kate assured him.

As Tommy put on his coat and started his first shift, the medics dragged into the emergency room a man, who was bruised and was bleeding from his hip.

"Blood loss, several internal injuries, severed injuries." The medic summed up.

"Put him on monitor and rapid transfuser." Kate ordered. "Four units of O-negative, hit him with epinephrine."

"Tried epi already, Kate; still no pulse." The medic said. "He's fibrillating."

"Damn it." Kate hissed. "Rhodes, I'll need your help."

Tommy nodded as he put on the gloves and the medical tools, rubbing some gel on the man's stomach before sticking in a syringe repeatedly.

"Kate, he's a patient, not a pincushion." The medic protested.

"I can't find the vein because there's too much blood." She groaned.

"Let me do it." Tommy said as he gently grabbed her syringe and helped her stick the needle in the vein.

"OK. Thanks." Kate nodded before the heart monitor flatlined. "Oh, no. Shock to 120!"

"Clear!" The medics put shock pads on the patient's chest as jolt of electricity surged through him. "No pulse!"

"Again! Hit 200!"

"Clear!"

Another jolt of electricity surged as the patient's heart was beating. "We have him back." Kate sighed before turning to Tommy. "Thanks, Rhodes."

Tommy nodded. "He needs BP and more blood."

Kate nodded in agreement. "Get that boy to ER ASAP."

"Not bad for a first patient, Rhodes." Kate smiled at Tommy, while drinking coffee. "Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"I'm trying to help. Is every day like this?" Tommy asked.

"It can be quite busy." Kate nodded before an ambulance rushed in a man, who had rags wrapped around his throat. "What happened?"

"Some homeless kid tried to choke him to death with rags." The paramedic said as Tommy tensed.

Five months ago, New Mexico

Tommy was doing push-ups in the room as Rachel entered the room.

"Hey." He stood up.

"Hi, Tommy." Rachel smiled.

"So, everything OK between you and your ex?"

"I hope." Rachel sighed. "I told Sheriff Tanner that he's back and he'll keep an eye out."

"If that jerk shows up again, I'll kick his ass." Tommy chuckled.

"Yeah." Rachel nodded as she put her coat on a hook and turned on the TV, where was the news report of the reveal of Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow as she noticed the look on Tommy's face. "You OK, Tommy?"

"Yeah…" Tommy sighed. "I will be."

Rachel took a breath. "Actually, there was something I was gonna ask you about. I have some friends in hospital in Santa Fe. I used to work there as a doctor, you know?" She pulled out a small plastic bag with a sample of hair. "They let me run a DNA test back in town. Why didn't you tell me that you're Tommy Merlyn? I thought you died four years ago."

Tommy tensed and then, eventually sighed. "It's… it's a long story. And… you probably wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"Did you say 'League of Assassins'?" Rachel interrupted Tommy as he was telling his story.

"You heard about them?" Tommy scowled.

Rachel nodded quickly. "That's why I didn't want you to get involved the other day with Richard. He killed one of their people years ago and was on the run from them. The reason I divorced him was because, no matter what, he just could not stop fighting. And he blamed Ra's al Ghul for destroying our marriage. He was out of his mind." She wiped her face. "I guess that explains how you were able to hold your own against those creeps the other day. And I thought that the Lazarus pit can't bring back the dead…"

"It can but… there are some side effects." Tommy admitted. "I've recovered from them, though."

"When I heard that Ra's al Ghul had been killed, then Richard wanted to come back to how things were but…" Rachel sighed. "He wasn't who I remembered. He had changed… into something I didn't even recognize anymore. So I left. He's been very persistent since then. I've been avoiding him almost a year."

"I won't let him hurt you, I promise." Tommy assured her. Rachel nodded as she asked him to continue his story.

Present, Star City

Roy was walking down the street before he saw a car driving down and his instincts turned on as he followed the car from the rooftops before seeing it park in an alley and narrowed his eyes to see a red-haired woman coming out and talking with Tobias Church.

"Do you have what I asked for?" The woman asked.

"Some kid with magical rags tried to snatch our item; there've been some small problems lately." Church said annoyed.

"I may have to reconsider my investment, Mr. Church."

"Miss Graves… I promise you, this is just a temporary setback."

Roy's blood ran cold as he ran away.

The Lair

"Mercy Graves?" Diggle repeated. "In Star City?"

"Working with Tobias Church." Roy nodded.

"Oh, God, no…" Thea groaned.

"Who's Mercy Graves?" Rene asked as Diggle turned to him.

"An information broker and a headhunter. A friend of ours has had some not-so-friendly run-ins with her in the past."

Thea nodded. "Last year, she leveraged Henry into stealing Rubicon by threatening to leak our identities to Damien Darhk. A mutual friend of ours had sent her packing but I'm guessing she's back."

"What exactly was our ragman after?" Diggle asked.

"Ancient scroll from time of Devarim." Curtis said as he approached the computer. "It's kinda iffy though what exactly that scroll is, I need time to decipher it but on black market, some people would pay hundreds of millions to get their hands on it."

"That van that the ragman attacked was already empty." Roy remembered.

"Which means he'll show up again." Thea realized.

Diggle called Lyla as a moment later, he hung up. "We have a problem; a big one. Remember when Barbara disabled that nuke, when Genesis happened?" Thea, Roy and Curtis nodded, while Rene scowled. "According to latest intel from A.R.G.U.S., Mercy got her hands on it and also, she's been collecting ancient artifacts lately."

"Let me guess, she wants to trade that nuke for the artifact with Church." Roy realized.

"We need to stop that trade before it happens." Thea decided.

"Yeah but we also gotta find our bogeyman before he makes things worse." Curtis said.

Starling General

"What kind of rag is that?" Kate scowled as she examined the rag under the microscope.

"What is it?" Tommy asked.

"Rhodes, what are you doing here?" Kate looked up.

"My shift's ending. I wanted to get here some blood samples before I leave." Tommy put the vials in the fridge. "There's something off about that rag, it has faint traces of some radioactive isotope…"

Tommy looked intrigued. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know." Then, her pager bleeped. "Damn it." She left the lab as Tommy ripped a piece of the rag and left.

Rachel's penthouse

"Jesus…" Rachel whispered upon examining the rag, wearing a nightie. "That radioactive isotope is not normal, the rag should have turned to dust like a hundreds of years ago. But I think I might be able to track our ragboy."

"Where is he?" Tommy asked as Rachel turned to the laptop and a moment later, a map of Star City showed the traces of isotope and a possible location. Tommy smiled and kissed Rachel as he was leaving.

"Kick some ass, honey."

Elsewhere in Star City

"Did you bring the item?" Mercy asked.

"Do you have the merchandise?" Church smiled.

"I am a man of my word, Mr. Church." Mercy smirked as her henchmen were carrying a small warhead and one of them gave her a laptop and she authorized a wire transfer. "As we agreed, an intact nuke from Havenrock plus one hundred million dollars."

Church handed her a briefcase with the scroll, when suddenly, one of the guards screamed as some rags tossed him across the hall, while the rest of the guards were shooting around, only to be dragged into the shadows by the rags as Mercy panicked and ran away with the briefcase before the rag man showed up from the shadows, cornering her.

"Hello, Mercy." Mercy gasped and backed off. "You remember Gerry Regan? You tried to buy the scroll of Devarim from him months ago in his Rags'n'Tatters shop." Ragman hissed as she looked horrified.

"What… what are you…"

"He refused… and he sent you away… and the following week, three men entered, stealing the scroll and leaving Gerry to bleed to death on the floor and a teenage boy abandoned… an orphan… desperate…"

"I…"

"Your days of greed are over…" He wrapped his rags around her throat as Mercy screamed.

Merlyn showed up from the shadows, firing at the thugs before Spartan, Speedy, Arsenal, Mr. Terrific and Wild Dog showed up, engaging them as well as Merlyn decided to engage Tobias Church, who pulled out his brass knuckles and his muscular, large stature made him a difficult opponent for Merlyn, who got knocked on the ground and Church was about to stab him with his own arrow before Spartan tackled him to the ground and Speedy approached Ragman.

"Let her go!"

"Stay out of my way!"

"She's not worth it." Speedy reasoned as Ragman let Mercy go, while Mr. Terrific apprehended her. "It's over."

Arsenal tried to engage Church in close combat but because he was taller and stronger, Arsenal was taken down quickly and Church was about to finish him off, Ragman tossed him away as he got up and entered his car. Speedy and Wild Dog fired at the tires but they missed.

Spartan, Arsenal and Merlyn were on a rooftop as they looked at each other.

"Thanks." Merlyn told them.

"Your welcome." Spartan shook his hand with him.

"Your offer sounded intriguing." Ragman said as he showed up.

"Why did you give up your vengeance to save me?" Arsenal asked.

"I don't know." Ragman said before taking his hood and mask off, revealing the face of a young boy around Roy's age. "I think that's what my father would have wanted me to do."

"What did Mercy do to him?" Speedy asked. "A friend of ours was wronged by her too. She offered him a dangerous job… and because of that, he lost his daughter. I'm guessing something similar happened to you."

The boy nodded. "Last year, Mercy… wanted to buy the scroll from my father but he had already handed it over to someone else… he never told her to who… so… she killed him… as I watched… in the backroom. Bleeding to death on the floor of his own shop… then he showed me the rags… said that they'd make me strong… that they'd help me not to be hurt like he was. Said that they were from the time of Devarim and the scroll would help me understand its power… wanted me… to make things right… I didn't know what he was talking about…"

"Until you did what you did." Spartan realized.

"You see why I have to avenge him." The boy whispered.

"Your father wouldn't have wanted you to become a killer." Merlyn said.

"You don't know that." The boy retorted.

"My father gave up his own life to save my brother." Speedy spoke up. "He wanted him to come back home and right his wrongs… and I've been trying to help him… but I feel like I'm not making any difference. And it's been… five months since then."

"Oliver Queen was my best friend." Merlyn added. "I vowed to follow in his crusade and help save this city… because all my life, I've been thinking about myself and gave a little consideration to feelings of others and I've been trying to be better… but so far I failed… but I don't want to fail anymore. I believe that together, we can save this city. And I think that you want to be better than you were too. So, what do you think?"

The boy nodded, shaking his hands with Speedy, Spartan and Merlyn. "My name is Rory. Rory Reagan."

"John Diggle."

"Thea Queen."

"Tommy Merlyn."

Five months ago, New Mexico

Rachel held Tommy's hand as he finished the story by mentioning him watching Oliver's and Laurel's wedding. "You're not a monster, Tommy."

Tommy wiped his tears. "Am I not? I've killed…"

"You were wronged and manipulated, none of that is your fault. Don't blame yourself." Rachel reasoned.

"I'm trying… but… I don't know if I can be better than that. If I could take back everything I had done, I would." Tommy sighed.

"You can't change what you did… but you can make up for that by trying to be better. By figuring out a way to honor Oliver." Rachel said.

"How?"

"For starters - Don't think just about yourself." Rachel suggested. "Think about people around you, the ones close to you."

Tommy smiled at her kindness, Rachel suddenly reminding him of Laurel as she was kissing him slowly again, while he lifted her top.

In Sheriff's office, a policeman compared a sketch of Tommy against FBI database as he got a match.

"We might need to talk with the new guest in town."

Richard observed Rachel and Tommy making out in hotel with his goggles as he sneered. "Let's see how can you deal with a horseman of the Demon… Magician."

Present, Rachel's penthouse

"So, this is where you live." Thea quipped.

"It belongs to my girlfriend, actually." Tommy said as Thea giggled.

"I thought that you had your eyes only for Laurel." She quipped as she saw a photo of Tommy and Rachel near a valley in the desert on the desk.

"People change, Speedy." Tommy chuckled. "And… I've moved on… long time ago."

"Thank you, Tommy." Thea said. "For the other day. I think Ollie and Laurel would be proud of you, if they could see you. Maybe you could join us."

Tommy laughed. "No offense, Thea but I'm not a team player. I work better alone. But if you need me, I'll be there. I hope you can do the same for me."

Thea nodded. "Partners?" She offered her hand.

"Partners." Tommy nodded as he shook his hand with her. "And my shift starts." His pager beeped.

"You're a doctor?" Thea asked, impressed as she saw the white coat.

"Had enough time to study."

Elsewhere in Star City

Tobias Church was inside XLR8 club in his private booth with his female company as his henchman entered. "Boss, someone wants to make an offer for you."

A tall muscular man entered, alongside with a woman in red jacket, wearing wrist guns, similar to the ones Floyd Lawton carries, a man with a breathing mask and a flamethrower and an Asian woman with stark white hair.

"China White. Aren't you supposed to be in jail?" Church smirked.

"Thanks to my associate, I am not." She turned to the muscular man.

"Tobias Church. My name is Richard Dragon. I have heard that you've been having a problem with some certain vigilantes. I can help you with that. Under one condition."

"Which is?" Church asked.

"Merlyn is mine. I have some unfinished business with him." Dragon said, the message obvious. "Once he's down, we can all run this city. Fair and square."

"Deal." Church nodded.

Author's Note:

So, what do you guys think about it?

Please review and let me know if you are enjoying this so far.