Summary: After defeating and surviving Slade Wilson's siege on Starling City, crimes have been at an all time low in the past five months. But what happens when a new challenger emerges, which causes Oliver to make one of the biggest decisions of his life? Will he do what he thinks is best for him, or best for his friends and Starling City? I do not own none of the characters, everything belongs to DC. (Obviously?)
"Secrets."
Six Months Ago, Corto Maltese
"It's not your fault, it's mine." Malcom said.
"What do you mean?" Thea asked, pulling out of the hug. "It's not your fault, it's mine."
"I thought I could do this differently, but I can't. I need to train you as I was trained." He said. "Treat you as my student, not my daughter."
Then, Malcom elbow'd her in the face and Thea fell to the ground.
"What are you doing?!" She asked, confused.
Malcom hit her again.
"The only way to forge steel is to temper it with fire." He said.
Thea grabbed a sword off of the rack.
"Stay away from me, you sick son of a bitch!" She yelled.
"Now we can begin." Malcom replied, with a sinister grin.
Present, Hotel in Corto Maltese
"Why didn't you call me sooner? I could've helped."
"I didn't want you to worry, Lyla." John responded. "Besides, I thought we could handle it."
"This is H.I.V.E. we're now dealing with, but we've hacked into his email traffic, he's got a buyer en route to Corto Maltese." Lyla informed them.
"Who?" John asked.
"The tech boys are still working on that. But Waller has dispatched a wet team to your position." She answered.
"They're not going to get here in time." John replied.
"They might. Keep your powder dry." Lyla said.
"Copy that." He responded before ending the video chat.
"We're not going to keep our powder dry." Oliver said.
"Hell no." John agreed.
Star City, Queen Consolidated
"Any luck raising our digital lazarus from the dead?" Ray asked, walking into Felicity's office.
"The hard drive is toast." Felicity responded. "And the power supply, and the actualator." She said, getting up from her seat and picking it up.
"I'm sensing a pattern." He replied, sighing.
Then her phone vibrated.
"Sorry," Felicity said before answering it. "Hello?"
"Hey Felicity, this is John. Where are you?"
"You wouldn't believe me, if I told you." She answered.
"Are you near a computer?"
"Kind of." Felicity answered.
"I'm looking for somebody in Corto Maltese." John informed her.
"I'm actually a little bit in the middle of a.. "
"I need to know where is. I've emailed you everything I have on him."
"I'm so sorry, It's a friend." Felicity told Ray before sitting in the chair. 'Well, a few friends. It's a long story."
"Why am I under the impression that you have a lot of stories, all of which are long?" Ray asked. "Want me to come back later?"
"What? Sorry," Her phone began beeping and someone else was calling. "Hello?"
"Felicity, I need a favor." Laurel said.
"Are we favor friends now?" She asked. "Are we friends?"
"What?" Laurel asked.
"Nevermind, sorry." She replied and then the telephone in her office started ringing. "Oh god, one second. Hello?"
"We got cut off." John announced.
"According to the file you sent me, this guy is somewhat of a hacker." Felicity informed him.
"Let me guess.. long story?" Ray asked.
"Yeah, the guy I'm looking for, broke into A.R.G.U.S.'s system."
"And he left a trail, it's faint- hacking wise- but with a little bit of luck, I will find him, or his laptop. I will email you when I have something." Felicity said before hanging up and going back on her cellphone with Laurel. "I'm having a bit of a day."
"I need you to help me find someone by googling his phone or something."
"Pinging his GPS." Felicity corrected her before looking at Ray. "Can I call you back?" before hanging up.
"Is that what a typical day looks like for you?" He asks her.
"Believe it or not, this is better than most." She answered.
Hotel, Corto Maltese
"When Felicity has Shaw's location, I want you to text me and I'll be there." Oliver said to John, with Roy.
"Thea.." Roy said, walking with them.
"Yeah." Oliver replied.
"Oliver, I don't think she's going to change her mind on this. She doesn't want to hear and I don't blame her. I mean, we both lied to her. A lot." Roy said.
"I know, it's why it's time to tell her the truth." He responded.
"Oliver, when you say "the truth", you mean..." John said before Oliver finished.
"What happened the five years I was away, everything we've done since I've been back, all of it." He informed the both of them.
"You might want to think about that for a second." John responde.d
"Lies are what drove Thea away from Starling City, in the first place. The truth is the only thing that's going to bring her back." He tried saying.
"Except you won't be telling her the truth, will you?" He asked Oliver. "You'll be telling her that her brother has been lying to her, to her face, with almost pathological sincerity for the past two years. She won't believe another word you say. And you will lose her, Oliver, forever."
"Oliver's right, I mean, look around. We've already lost her. There is no other choice but to tell her the truth, the full truth." Roy said to John and Oliver, while John had his views on what "the truth" would be in Thea's perspective, Oliver thanked him for sticking up for him.
Later, Starling City
A man walked into the alleyway, from an exit, and was heading to his car. Laurel was around the corner, watching, before putting on a black mask. As he was taking out his keys, Laurel came up from behind and wacked him in the side with a wooden bat.
"I hear you like to hit women," Laurel said. "How about one who likes to hit back?" She continued hitting him until he grabbed the bat and yanked it away from her, out of her hands.
He began kicking Laurel and hitting her.
"You're right. It's better when they hit back." He said and was going to hit her again until someone grabbed his arm. He looked back to see a girl, wearing a leather jacket and a punk rock haircut.
"How about this one?" She said before socking him in the face and he fell to the ground. He was bleeding from his nose and looked up at her. "Now, I suggest you leave her alone before I actually do break your nose." She warned him and he got in his car and drove off. Laurel took off her black mask as she had bruises all on her face and the girl checked up on her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I.." Laurel said before she was interrupted.
"Wait, I know you. You're Laurel, Sara's sister, right?" She asked and Laurel looked at her, confused.
"Wait, you know Sara?" Laurel asked.
"Yeah, we were good friends. She didn't tell you about me, I guess. My name's Sin." She said, extending her hand out to Laurel and helped her back up on her feet. "Now let's get you to a doctor."
Starling General
Detective Lance hurried into Laurel's room and sighed, looking at his daughter. She was laying in the bed, with a bruised up face.
"Baby, are you okay?" Lance asked, checking up on Laurel.
"I'm so sorry." Laurel answered.
"I'm too relieved to be mad at you, I really am. But, sweetheart, this is crazy. What the hell were you thinking going after that girl's boyfriend?" He asked her.
"There's just something I needed to work out. I know that the world isn't fair. I know that it's a terrible place where... Where people deserve to get punished. And they don't. I just... For one night, I needed the world to be different." Laurel tried telling her father.
"Okay, Laurel, Laurel... What's going on with you, huh? You're not being yourself lately." Detective Lance said, noticing. "And now you're running around, you're tuning this guy up. What are you doin'?! Baby, you can talk to me about anything. You know that, right? You know that."
"I know," Laurel replied.
"Talk to me, then." Lance said and Laurel couldn't tell him what was really going on. "Laurel, you're not the Arrow, or your sister. You promise me you'll never do anything like this again, ever."
"I promise." She said. "It was a mistake, I wasn't thinking."
"Hey, I got you some.." A voice said and they both looked to see Sin at the door, with an ice pack. "Ice."
"Um, who are you?" Detective Lance asked.
"Oh, I'm Sin. Think of me as a family friend." She answered. "You must be Detective Lance, I've heard a lot about you."
"Sin helped me tonight and even drove me here." Laurel said to her father.
"Wait, you can drive? Are you even legally allowed to drive?" He had asked her.
"Well, not exactly. But, it was an emergency, so.." Sin said, shrugging, before handing Laurel her ice pack. "I'll be outside if you need me." She told her before walking out of the room.
Corto Maltese
Thea came and met Oliver.
"If you want to stay in Corto Maltese, it's fine, but there's not much here in the way of sightseeing." Thea said.
"I need to talk to you." Oliver said.
"Look, between you and your new best friend, Roy, I'm pretty sure you guys have said everything." She tells him.
"I haven't." Oliver confessed. "Not, yet, anyway." He said and the two take a seat. "Roy showed me the note you left him. And you were right about everything. I have lied, I have kept secrets. The truth is that if I tell you all the things you don't know about me, that I might lose you forever. I spent five years in the worst kind of hell, and there were things that happened, that if.." Oliver paused. "If you knew, you would see me differently."
"No, I'll always see you as my big brother." Thea replied. "I mean, no matter what happened to you on that island, or who you became, it's the secrets you kept about my own life. I mean, you lied to me about who my father was."
"Malcom may have been your blood. Robert was your father." He said and Thea shook her head. "I lied to you about him, too. Dad wasn't the man we thought he was. He was better. And I've kept something from you because I just... Never wanted you to know. Dad made it off the Gambit with me."
"You told me he drowned." She said.
"We made it to a life boat together. There wasn't enough food and water for both of us, so he killed himself. And that is one secret that I'm telling you now because I need you to realize, mom and dad, they sacrificed themselves, so that we could live. But if we're not together, then we're not even really alive. You're my family. And even if you don't need me.. I need you. Please just consider what I'm saying." Oliver told her.
She nodded as Oliver got up from his seat and walked off.