Caitlin exited the prison cell, a pod that at one time, served as the ring that made up the cover for the core of the particle accelerator. She had zipped up the body bag belonging to Farooq Gibran, also known as Blackout.

"Still not sure what happened," Barry said, remorse still present on his face. "Why didn't he just siphon all my powers like before?"

Along with the twosome were Cisco, Doctor Wells, Tony, Oliver, Slade and detective West. The last of which stared at the green hood that sat between Oliver's shoulder blades. He leant into his partner, the man who West owed his life to.

Tockman had been right. There was far more to Slade Wilson. He was marrying a serial killer, he did not even glance up when Tockman's body was taken away. Seemingly unconcerned, not even remotely moved by what had happened. But yet, it did not look like he was doing so on purpose. More like he was used to it, desensitised to a level West had never seen or even heard of. Oliver must have been too, come to think about it.

For all that had happened, both events seemed almost mundane to them. Their comfort with death was by far the most frightening thing.

"Because," Caitlin took her table from Cisco. "You finally stopped thinking about your powers and just connected to them," she showed him the screen, which was filled with a recording of biological cells. "Look, this is a sample of your blood, just after you were struck by lightening."

Tony hums in agreement but for once, remains clueless.

"Now," she swiped the screen, the cells turning from blue to yellow. "Your cells are generating more energy than ever before. It was more energy than the Meta could safely handle. It's almost like he choked on you."

Tony snorted and Slade pressed the back of his hand to his mouth to inappropriate reaction.

Oliver's head fell forward, body slumping into Slade's "To soon."

The couple had constant body contact since they came together again. A single long lasting kiss when they first saw each other, and the two had been stuck together ever since.

They needed to feel that the other was safe, still alive and unharmed.

Slade kissed the top of his head. "We should head home."

"Are you all clear to go?"

"Yes."

Oliver looked over to Joe. "Is he?"

The detective nodded.

"We should head home. Lance has given me a few days off and we have a lot to get sorted," Slade said.

Joe. Oliver nodded, a smile pulling at his lips. They could do this, look after a child.

"I think it would be best if you left," Joe said, crossing his arms.

Slade cocked a brow. "What's got your panties in a twist?"

Joe's already low brows got lower. "He's a killer," he held a hand to Oliver. "And something tells me you're not much better."

"Joe!" Barry looked at his carer and close friend in shock.

"And how many lives have you saved doing what you do? A fair deal, I'll give you that but we have saved more than you could possibly imagine, and killing is by no means something we do lightly," Slade argued, his anger settling as Oliver ran his fingers along the back of his hand.

"So, Tockman doesn't bother you? Can you really go to sleep tonight and not care?"

"Tockman killed himself. I feel for the guy but I won't lose any sleep over him."

Oliver knew that was a lie. Slade may have lost a lot and although he could push away thinking about the mercenaries, Tockman had been a regular guy before his sister fell ill. The hostage situation was all because he want to leave her something behind. Maybe a chance for treatment, for a disease she would never recover from. Slade would stay up tonight, he would reading for a few hours, keep his distance while before resuming life as usual. He would talk about it at some point but all that was no where near what a regular person would endure.

"And you don't want Barry to end up like us?" Oliver asked. "He won't last."

Barry looked at the blonde with knitted brows. "What do you mean?"

"You're not trained. You're brave but you took far too many risks, you pay no attention to your surroundings, you think just because you're fast that you can't be caught but you're wrong. You can't fight, you rely on your powers too much and you don't think." Oliver said.

"We don't kill people for shits and giggles. We do so because we have to," Slade added. "Growing used to that life is just something that has to happen. And if you can't take that, then get out now and hell, maybe someone else will pick up the slack."

"But if you can look past all that. If you can think about all those you can save. Then come to Starling."

Slade turned to Oliver. "You want to..."

Oliver held up his hand. "I don't know, I'm already training two but," he turned back to Barry. "If you want to learn to be stronger, come to my club."

"Speaking of Starling," Cisco cut in.

The grouped turned the mechanical engineer with a tablet in his hands, his work partner joining in looking down at the table in shock.

Tony's grin and comment about the table being Stark Tech, was cut down when the bioengineer spoke.

"There's a Metahuman in Starling," Caitlin says, eyes stuck to the screen.

"What?" Oliver sucked in a sharp breath. His group could handle a lot but a Metahuman? He did not want to take that chance.

The table was turned, the rest of the group crowding together so they could see.

There was a video from a news site, it was a little fuzzy and wobbly, likely taken from a camera phone. As it started to play, a familiar red clad archer shot arrows at the feet of his attackers. The arrows exposed with flashes of light, blinding the men. There were too many, so Roy's plan was to run. Leave catching the men to another night, but in that moment, a man dropped down from out of no where. He fought back each attacked with fast hard strikes, every gang member falling to the floor in less than twenty seconds, including the time in which the mystery man was stabbed in the chest.

The interesting thing was, the man in an all red and black body suit and mask seemed unaffected by it.

"No blood," Caitlin said.

Slade's eyes were already stuck to the black patterned sides, there was no blood running down staining the fabric. With a wound like that, he should have been balling over in pain but there was nothing.

"The hell?"

Hours previous.

Wade sat on the gravelled roof of the building he had just scaled. He looked up to the night sky which was bleached by the city lights, the stars barely visible. From up here he could view Verdant. Everything looked calm at the moment and as Sara and Sin were baby sitting, Wade would enjoy a night to himself. Under his clothes were his latex suit, his new mask rolled up in his hand so he could enjoy the cool night air. He was looking forward to testing his new outfit out.

"That ability is incredible."

"He didn't survive. It was a long shot anyway."

"I'd rather die than live with a mind like that."

"We're faulty. Broken brained, overpowered. Some just plain useless."

"They'll kill us. Clean up their mess."

"Who will die next?"

"Wade. He was the first of his kind."

"We could bet? A dead pool."

Wade's eyes shut. So many voices, none of them his own. All prisoners. There had been many. Some were made by the Mirakuru, others had suffered other kinds of human extermination, dumped there to be used as lab rats because they were an unwanted result.

The Mirakuru, even when it did not join with cancer, causing Wade's body to wage a war between feeding the cancer and healing it. One could not exist without the other it would seem. Even without that, the body's need to replace cells was supercharged, causing a patient's brain to swell. Which lead to mood swings, episodes of mania and depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

All of their minds warped, beyond use.

But Wade, he was born with a bruised brain, categorised as not being normal. He had suffered the beatings of a mourning father, the horror of war and seen the true evils that hid behind closed doors. Cancer had not killed him, nor had the Mirakuru. He was not afraid. He did not fear his demons, he took their hands in his and skipped. He cheered on his fellow inmates. He would not die, not a single one of them would die...till one did.

That sick fucker Frankie. He took one of the inmates, who yelled at Wade, told him to keep fighting as he was dragged from the block of solid steel cages. He was returned hours late, his clothes bloodied, his face bruised, there had dried blood on one of his eyebrows and his expression was that of a dead man. He had been lobotomised. His breath was too shallow, his heart beat too slow. He was a vegetable and dying.

Wade had held him close, then snapped his neck.

After that, he did not hope for much. 'Til the day David broke in. David was a friend of his, an African American navy Lieutenant who worked with highly classified weaponry. The two were close and yet they did not know each other's real names. Wade had been known as Dennis, as in the menace. Not quite as cool as Slade's Jericho, but Wade liked the little hidden joke.

David was a friend all the same. He said he would have the building raided and told Wade to be ready.

Wade waited but David never came. Had it all been but an hallucination?

There were not many days Wade remembered for more than a few hours, his mind was only really clear after he was set free, his body no longer chained and constantly drugged. Amanda offered him a trade, his services in exchange for his brother not being killed. She ran that island, Liàn Yù, showed Wade evidence from security cameras, early footage of Slade and Billy, before they became smart to it. Wade had no choice but to obey.

Wade's old partner had come to him in Wade's first year as part of the Suicide Squad, to break him free. Well, to see what he had got himself into really, see if he could help. That was when Wade had asked about David. He been shot during a mission and died. It did not take long for Wade to realise David had been the main target, and that a week after he and Wade had spoke...

Wade kept in contact with his old partner, not often but still a very risky and difficult thing to do. The man had previously work for ARGUS and knew how to get around them.

He had lost eighty percent of his hearing during an explosion on a mission. It happened when he was still in his twenties, it was his first year as part of the governmental agency, actually. Unluckily. But he went freelance and was a damn good spy and fighter for a guy who had to wear hearing aids at all times- ASIS took the chance and it really had paid off big time.

His partner told Wade that Slade had got in contact with ASIS with the help of the Solntsevskaya Bratva, and was planning an escape. This lead to a mission of Wade's own, which if it worked, would have Wade free and give Slade no backlash. The early warming to the escape from Liàn Yù meant that Wade was able to plan his death a mere hour before the assault, so that, when ARGUS did find out, Slade's plan had already gone into action.

It was a shame Wade 'died' -the first time- before he and Burton could be dubbed Team Eight.

Wade had covered his fake death with a mission to kill Tony Stark. Wade staged the scene with his own blood, but not before giving Tony just the right story. How he had shot Wade -which yes, hurt- and pushed him off the balcony, past the cliff and into the sea. He gave Tony all the right things to say, helped him hide all existence of his AIs and had him clear his computers of the information he had gather from hacking a company linked with ARGUS. Thankfully, for Tony's sake, he had not had the time to see it. Then, he set up his own hacking system, made by ARGUS to find their remaining information, just light stuff so Tony posed no danger.

They faked his death, and as expected, ARGUS discovered Tony had nothing, which was true. The police came and went. It was too dangerous to try again, they had lost a super solider and it was pointless even if they did kill Tony.

A few weeks later, Tony went missing in Afghanistan. Wade did not owe it to him or anything, they were even, but he wanted to, he felt like he should. That and he could not risk going to see Slade, ARGUS would be watching, and he had to protect his family, which meant staying away. Though his searching had been fruitless, he all but stumbled into a mission belonging to Ta-er al-Sahfer of the League to Assassins.

Not long after, he received a call from Al-Owal. The man who had taught he and Slade the art of sword fighting and kept an eye on the both of them over the many years, they were incredible fighters after all. He offered Wade the chance to speak with Ra's al Ghul, just like he had Slade before Aussie had found his way to ASIS. It was their way of asking if he wanted to join.

At the time, he had declined, just as Slade had. He had to find Tony.

Lucky, Tony had saved himself. Wade met up with him before he returned home, and the Canadian was blown away by what Tony had created.

Wade needed people on his side. He needed a new life. He made contact with Al-Owal. He had been honest with the leader, something the man had admired, when he told him how he had spent half a year as a prisoner and spent another two as a killer for hire to protect his family. He did not know where this path would take him but if being part of their family meant never being able to leave, then he wanted nothing to do with it.

The league was very much like those gangs you seem in American films. You become one of them and that's it, they give you protection and care for you in their own little twisted way, and provide you with a name that will bring in a lot of money for your services, and you do whatever they tell you to do to keep that. The money was really, really good.

Point was, saying something like that was very dangerous, to the face of the demon. After all, going all the way to meet the Ra's al Ghul pretty much meant you had to say yes. The rest of the conversation had been tense, less about social demands and more fear of death on the part of Al-Owal.

Then Wade made an offer.

He said he could offer the league something no one else could -lies- and asked the big man himself to strike him dead. Ra's had looked upon him with a mixture of annoyance and interest. The man the arose. Seeking to call his bluff, Ra's took a dagger from Al-Owal, who kneeled before him with the weapon, hoping to stay in the man's good graces. He had brought to his leader someone he really should have not. Ra's held the blade to Wade's heart.

"You could have done much."

His expression changed when the blade went in. The blood seeped from Wade's chest, and as Ra's moved away, the dagger slowly pushed itself out, clanging on the floor.

"Still ticking away," Wade had grinned. After a little explaining, Wade told him. "I can be a great use to you. So, if you want me, you got me, and you'll always have my loyalty, but if I have to leave, and you hurt those I care for, just know that I can kill more of you before you figure out if it's even possible to kill me." Then he had bowed. The guy was the leader after all.

Ra's al Ghul had approached him, a fingertip running across his healed sink, looking at the scars as he thought. Then he smiled, a really creepy and yet oddly safe act from the world's biggest mass murderer. He had wrapped one arm around Wade, his other hand still at his heart. By far the strangest hug Wade had ever been given.

Thinking of his new name was difficult, when Ra's came to him, offering Lazarus, Wade really did have to accept, there was no telling Ra's no twice, well, the first time was more bargaining really, which was worse.

Lazarus was Ra's al Ghul greatest secret and weapon. And as long as Wade could keep his freedom, he would always come when the other man called.

But there was thing he had to do. Destroy that place, where all the lost human experiments went. He questioned whether he should ask the league for weeks, as he planned his attack. If people choose to join the league, it was their choice and it was probably the safest place some of them could really go, they would never be able to return home. But what if there was research from things like the Mirakuru? What if there were still survivors of the serum who showed themselves?

Wade could just be creating whole new programs. He tested the waters the best he could without giving too much away and in the end he had taken the risk.

They broke out everyone and killed those who were too far gone. And as the team watched, the building burned to the ground, the people who had worked there knowing what was happening, were left to die. Ra's al Ghul, who had lead the assault with Wade, a great honour, turned to the scarred man.

"Wanting not to hurt people like this to become stronger is not cowardly. Doing so in the first place, is. We are warriors, men and women of honour, not savages. Remember that, Lazarus."

While in the league, Wade watched his brother from afar, until Slade got in contact with Al-Owal about the undertaking. Ra's had been furious, Lazarus stepped up to go handle things in Starling, Malcolm knew nothing about his fighting ability and he was impossible to kill. Wade asked for Ta-er al-Sahfer to accompany him, as the young would have said to him before that Starling was her home, she would know how to get around.

But on their way, Wade was met with an old friend, someone who had been imprisoned by ARGUS, who Wade had let out, and meeting him again, that was when shit really hit the fan.

Years of working for the Navy, ASIS, ARGUS, and last but not least, the League of Assassins, had taught Wade to act first and ask later. Which is why, when he heard the sound of soft sneakers against the metal of the fire escape, he jumped into action. He was on his feet in but a second, his katana draw from the holsters strapped to his back.

He was surprised when he saw fluffy brown hair and big brown eyes staring back at his. Peter Parker.

Peter looked like he was going to argue with Wade in that sassy New Yorker way of his, defend his perfectly good reasons before being on the same roof top, but he did not.

His face.

"Oh, the horror!" Yellow box screamed.

"Oops," White box said at the same time.

Wade's blades drops to the floor as he reached up to cover his face with his arms.

"What are you doing here?!" he staggered back, almost trashing out when his back hit the brick wall of the stairwell.

"I'm sorry! I saw you going up the fire escape and I-" cautious footsteps approached. "I mean, man, you went up it like a pro. It was really impressive. Like a ninja."

Wade's hands shook as the voices continued their insults, which became more obscene and loud with each passing second. "Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out."

"I'm sorry. I-"

"Not you! But yes, wise idea," before he could convince Peter further, Wade felt a hand at his arm. Which he did not know was a hand, all he knew was that something was touching him and he wanted it off. He felt entombed by the voices, trapped by the situation and pinned by that something. He attacked.

Wade felt his fist collided with something, and after a second, he realised what he done. Wade's strength and speed before the Mirakuru was already a formidable one, with it was deadly. Crushing bone like chalk with a flick of his wrist, punching holes through a human body like a bullet.

What would it do to little Peter Parker?

His eyes flew wide to see Peter holding his fist in his hand.

No much, apparently. How was that possible? Even without his unbelievable power, the speed alone should have ruptured his blood vessels, broken his bones, but Peter had caught him.

Wade blinked, his mouth open wide. "I'm sorry...I...how?"

Peter had the same expression, clearly having noticed the sheer force of that punch. "Never mind me. How did you..." he pulled back his hand back and Wade was pulled with him.

"The hell?"

Peter heard the hand full of sharp echoing clangs of the fire escape. It was rather impressively short amount as Peter was three stories up and no where near what the other man should have been able to do with the injury he sustained.

Wade flipped onto the roof, landing perfectly on his feet with a bounce.

At the sign of Arsenal, Wade had stripped his clothing to reveal a red and black spandex body suit, it was air tight, showing each and every pure, perfectly crafted, muscle. His chest was the peak of physical perfection, his shoulders broad and toned, even his legs and arms were huge. Everything about his body was intimidating and so very appealing.

"Are you okay?" Peter sprinted over. "You were stabbed..." Peter looked over the suit. Nothing. "Weren't you?"

"My face is up here."

Peter lifted his head, meeting the white circles where Wade's eyes hide behind. He was pretty sure that the crease in Wade's mask meant he was grinning.

"Don't worry, spidey-baby. I have a healing factor. Had the knife stayed in, my body would have pushed it out itself! Pretty funny to watch," Wade giggled.

Peter raised a hand, his movement stopped when he realised what he was doing, fingers curling inwards. He looked back to Wade and when the man did not protest, Peter gently placed his hand on the small tear of fabric. "Does it hurt?"

Wade swallowed, the feel of Peter's cooling touch was a softness he had not felt in years. His words tumbled out as those big brown eyes return to his own. "It always does but I heal too quickly to really notice, and shock is usually the thing that fucks you over. So, just the pain but I'm-" always in pain. "Just- don't worry about it. I heal and you stick to walls."

Peter laughed.

Wade smiled.

Oliver and Slade entered their apartment to see Roy and Thea sat together watching TV. Neither of them were really watching, just cuddled together.

Roy excused himself and followed Oliver to the kitchen, most likely to update him on tonight's events. So, Slade went to take his place next to Thea. He smiled when she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. He threw an arm over her shoulders, holding her close.

"I talked to your brother about what you've been asking me for."

Thea looked up. "Oh?"

Slade sighed. He rested his chin on her head. "I didn't want to teach Oliver to fight either. I knew he would be safer knowing. I could leave him and he would still be okay. He had to be stronger if he was going to survive and protect those around him. I never wanted him to be part of that life but I had no say in that matter. I don't now either." He looked down to Thea. "When you're ready. I'll teach you."

Thea moved her head on his chest. "I don't want to be a victim anymore."

Slade kissed the top of her head. "You never were."

"Hey, Ollie?"

Oliver heard his sister call as he entered the his club, holding the door open for Slade.

"This a friend of yours?" Tony added.

Oliver both wanted to smile and groan at the sight.

Slade stepped inside and followed his love's glace. At the bar sat Thea and Tony Stark, both dressed in comfortable baggy clothing as they had been instructed. The latter looked rather disgusted by his attire, either that or training at nine in the morning did not agree with him. And stood with them, with a large bag hanging off his shoulder, was Barry Allen.

"The class is all here," Slade smirked at the blonde.

"My friends are coming too," Barry spoke up. "They'll just take a little longer."

"Well then," Oliver started walking, heading for metal coded door that lead downstairs. "Class is in session."