Despite my negative feelings towards Arrow 6x04, it's gonna be included here in this story.
Oh, and just so you know, Roy is gonna be addressed as "Green Arrow" in this chapter because I prefer to address characters as their codenames if they're out on the field in costume.
WARNING: Olicity fans may not like what they might read here.
Leave a review after reading, please. Feedback is always appreciated.
I'd like to thank the following users for reviewing the previous chapter: CallMeMiles, TheLifeStruggleIsREAL, lupo95gxd, Ladyawesome45321, Aragorn II Elessar, AwesomeSauce
To AwesomeSauce: I'm glad you like Caitlin's story.
"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without." - William Parrish, Meet Joe Black
Felicity and Alena have arrived at some rave club where they plan to acquire a ghost mirror drive from a man codenamed "Amnesiac." As it turns out, Cayden James, the founder of Helix, is a madman hatching an evil plan that will wipe out 4% of the world population, which amounts to nearly 300,000,000 people. The girls needed to hack into Cayden's servers, but they can't do that without a ghost mirror drive.
As they talk to the club owner's three muscle-bound bodyguards, a man wearing a gas mask follows them.
The two girls attempt to act tough, and failing to do so, as they talked to the bodyguards.
"Yo, muscles!" Felicity started.
"What do you want?" asked one of the bodyguards, who had both sides of a chain attached to his shoulder to make himself look tough.
The look of the shoulder chain was enough to make the girls lose their tough girl act, intimidated. Still, they persevered.
"We're here to see, um..." Felicity paused.
"Amnesiac," Alena finished for her.
"Yeah, so take us to him. Now!" Felicity demanded.
The three bodyguards, however, were not intimidated by the girls' tough girl faces. Two of them grab the girls with force and immediately drag them to the club owner's office. The club owner was currently typing on his computer, but turns around when he heard his bodyguards come in. To Felicity and Alena's surprise, Amnesiac is just a scrawny guy in a cheap business suit.
"Pardon my thuggish compatriots, but they are paid to hold a certain aesthetic," said Amnesiac. "And I see you are shocked."
"You're Amnesiac?" Felicity asked, still surprised by the letdown.
"I get it. You were probably expecting someone with a combination of thuggish looks and a street-smart demeanor," said Amnesiac. "What do you want?"
"A ghost mirror drive," Alena answered.
"And what do you want with it?" asked Amnesiac.
"That's our business," said Felicity.
"And selling illegal tech is mine, and it only stays in business by avoiding any legal entanglement," said Amnesiac. "And everything about you two screams narc."
Felicity and Alena were confused. They don't look like cops, do they? Sure, they put on tough girl acts, but how does that translate to cop-like personality? Or is Amnesiac just paranoid?
Suddenly, the man in the gas mask bursts through the door with the third bodyguard. He rips the chain off his shoulder, hurting him badly, and then uses the chain to choke him into unconsciousness. While the masked man takes another bodyguard, the other slams Alena to a table before taking on the masked man. The masked man quickly takes him out by flipping him to the ground and punching him in the face.
Amnesiac picks up a gun and shoots the masked man, missing embarrassingly. The masked man throws him down on his back and knocks him out with a punch. Felicity grabs Amnesiac's gun and points it at the masked man, afraid.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, Felicity! It's me!" The masked man spoke.
Felicity recognized his voice.
"Oliver?" She asked with shock in her voice.
Oliver takes off his mask.
"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Felicity, enraged that her boyfriend is here.
"Trying to save you," Oliver answered.
"I didn't need you to," Felicity argued.
Felicity checks on the unconscious Alena. Her face was bruised from the slam, but she was alive.
"What are you even doing here?" asked Oliver.
"Getting a ghost mirror drive from these guys to stop Cayden James from killing hundreds of millions of people," Felicity answered quickly as she looked for what she came for. "And what were thinking about when you decided to follow me? The FBI may not longer be on your tail, but the entire city has you on a 24/7 watch."
"I can handle that, but what I can't handle is you going off after a criminal without backup," Oliver said in a scolding manner.
"We will talk about this later," said Felicity, opting not to speak of this right now.
Felicity grabs the ghost mirror drive and carries Alena out of the club. Oliver just watched her leave with worry all over his face.
Felicity and Alena show up at the bunker where Helix once operated. However, they were ambushed by Black Siren, her mercenaries, and the man in charge, Cayden James.
"Um, nice to meet you... without a sack over your head," Felicity said nervously.
"Alena said you had a strange sense of humor," Cayden mentioned. He turns to Alena and says, in a cold, hurt voice, "You hurt me, dear. I had thought you had potential and that we could do wonderful things together. Your betrayal was shocking."
"I became a hacker to make the world a better place, not to murder," said Alena.
"I'm afraid things have changed now," said Cayden. "Sorry, Ms. Smoak, but you are what is known as collateral damage. Mr. Sheck, take care of them."
Cayden leaves the bunker. His top lackey, Sheck, was about to shoot Alena, until an arrow came out of nowhere and pierced him through the arm where he held his gun. The rest of Black Siren's mercenaries started firing as Felicity and Alena take cover.
Green Arrow (Roy Harper), Black Canary, Wild Dog, and Mr. Terrific arrived.
Green Arrow started shooting arrows and beating up the mercenaries with his own two hands, using everything he learned from Oliver Queen.
Black Canary uses her staff and her kicks to fight the mercenaries, as well as using her own sonic scream to increase the number of unconscious enemies quickly.
Wild Dog starts punching thugs and shooting at them with his own guns.
Mr. Terrific knocks out the mercenaries using his T-Spheres, throwing them like baseballs.
Black Siren has grown tired of standing back and gets in on the action. After knocking out Mr. Terrific with her sonic scream, she takes on the Green Arrow. She unleashes a series of swift kicks that he fails to react to. The two throw punches and kicks at each other, but remain evenly matched. Black Siren jumps in the air and kicks Green Arrow on the chest, knocking him down.
Black Siren and her men retreat as Green Arrow notices literal blood on Felicity's hands.
Alena was shot and dying. Team Arrow had to rush her to the hospital.
After getting Elena to the hospital and giving the ghost mirror drive to Curtis to find out Cayden James' plan, Felicity returns to her apartment. Her boyfriend, who happens to the mayor, decided to pay her a visit. He had one of those looks on his faces. The look that he was ticked off.
"Look, I know what you're gonna say. I shouldn't have been out there," Felicity started.
"Yeah, you shouldn't have," said Oliver. "I thought we were done with secrets, Felicity. I let the Helix partnership slide, but taking on a criminal mastermind is too big to just hide from me."
"You gave up saving this city. I didn't," said Felicity.
Oliver scrunched his eyebrows, offended and a bit baffled by Felicity's words.
"Oh, my bad. You're the mayor. It's your job to protect the city. I meant... you gave up on saving this city as a member of Team Arrow," Felicity babbled.
"So, just because I gave up the hood, that means you can just go on some dangerous mission behind my back?" Oliver questioned her.
"I was trying to protect you," said Felicity.
Oliver shakes his head, seemingly irritated by Felicity's attempt to justify herself.
"So, when I do something rash for your safety, I get berated like some sort of juvenile delinquent. But if you do the same thing, it's just okay?" Oliver questioned.
"Um, well..." Felicity couldn't respond to that.
"Felicity, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed," said Oliver.
"You sound like a mother," Felicity joked.
"When we got back together, I thought we agreed we were done making the mistakes that led to our break-up. Yet, he're we are," said Oliver.
"So, what, you want to break up again?" Felicity accused.
"That's not what I'm saying," said Oliver. "Just because I'm not suiting up anymore, it doesn't mean that you have to keep secrets from me regarding the welfare of this city."
Felicity's phone beeped. Curtis message her. The team found out where Cayden James is going to destroy the internet, which is what his planned appeared to be.
"Curtis found out where Cayden James is executing Operation: Internet Meltdown," said Felicity. "Can we talk about this another time?"
Oliver didn't say a word, so Felicity just left the apartment. Oliver sat down on the couch and thought about his relationship with Felicity. Two weeks ago, he gave her the key to his apartment as a reward for being a mother figure to William. Earlier tonight, they went out on their first dinner date in three years, which was interrupted by a murder committed by Black Siren.
Now, Oliver had just discovered that Felicity was planning on risking her life behind his back. What for? To protect him? Even if that were the case, she made the decision to keep him out of the loop entirely.
At the International Domain Name Directory, Cayden James is preparing to destroy the internet, accompanied by Black Siren, her mercenaries, and Sheck. In order to get to the inner sanctum, they have to get past security first, which was no problem, especially for Black Siren.
She had stabbed the last security guard in the gut with what appears to be one of Prometheus' throwing stars. The guard crawled backwards on the floor, bleeding to death.
"I have a wife. I have to little girls," he said, begging to spared for the sake of his family.
"I had a family once," Black Siren said with a fake sweet tone.
Black Siren grabs the guard's head and snaps his neck in an instant, killing him.
"I appreciate your zeal, Ms. Lance, but we just need people down, not dead," said Cayden.
"Says the hacktivist plotting to kill millions for his dead son," Black Siren retorted.
"A little gratitude would be appreciated. Were it not for me, you would've either starved or bled to death on Lian Yu," Cayden reminded her.
"Don't lie to me, Cayden. I know the truth," said Black Siren. "Someone contacted you and asked you to fetch me from Lian Yu. I'm working with you only because you were the one our mysterious John Doe sought out."
"I thought you like to destroy for the fun of it," said Sheck.
"Well, there's that too," said Black Siren.
Cayden opens his briefcase and gives Black Siren and Sheck the fingerprints collected from Black Siren's three kills tonight.
He decided to give a philosophical lecture to savor the moment. "The pre-Socratic philosopher Thales of Miletus, known as the father of science, believed that for any event, there was a natural cause, even if we couldn't see it. And he though that with perfect knowledge, man could control anything. Everything."
Using the fingerprints, Cayden, Black Siren, and Sheck opened the door to the inner sanctum.
"Looks like something out of a sci-fi video game," Black Siren commented.
"We're right in the center of the very mothership of the digital world, Ms. Lance.
"Let's just get this over with," said Black Siren. "I have things to do besides assist you with your little vendetta."
"And to think, I was astonished to be a witness to the miracle of resurrection," Cayden replied. "A noble hero transformed into a harbinger of destruction."
Black Siren ignored Cayden James and just followed him to where they have to be to complete their mission. She was gonna have to get used to the belief that she is Laurel Lance brought back to life.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ARROW ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Green Arrow, Black Canary, Wild Dog, Mr. Terrific, and Felicity have arrived about half an hour later to see the dead guard and the open door to the inner sanctum. Felicity started using her tablet to locate Cayden James.
"Cayden's overclocking the vault's CPU," she reported.
"English, Felicity," Green Arrow replied, not understanding Felicity's technobabble.
"He put a virus in the system that's gonna make the whole thing explode," Felicity clarified.
"That's a bit too much English," said Wild Dog.
"How much time do we have before the vault goes boom?" asked Mr. Terrific.
"6 minutes," Felicity answered. "I just need one to stop the virus."
"I doubt Laurel and Cayden are just gonna sit by and let you do that," said Green Arrow.
As if the universe wanted to prove Green Arrow right, Black Siren's mercenaries come out and started shooting at Team Arrow, forcing them to hide behind serves for protection.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Felicity cried.
"No is not what I want to hear right now," said Wild Dog, shooting at the mercenaries.
"Cayden just used the processor's firewall to block me out. I can't take down the virus remotely now. I have to do it on-site before turns this whole place into an ash tray, not to mention, you know, the internet," Felicity said as if her super power is super fast talking.
"We'll cover you," said Green Arrow. "Delta formation."
Green Arrow, Black Canary, Wild Dog, and Mr. Terrific come out of hiding and engage the mercenaries in order to clear a path for Felicity. Green Arrow shoots arrows. Wild Dog shoots his guns. Mr. Terrific throws. Black Canary uses her sonic scream.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ARROW ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Felicity weaves through the chaos until she arrives at an area that looks like a maze. She had to duck low because Black Siren's mercenaries were there, looking for any signs of foe.
"I don't think doing this solo was such a good idea," Felicity mumbled to herself.
"Good thing you're not alone," Oliver said through the comm-link.
"Oliver?" Felicity was surprised to hear his voice.
"Well, technically, if I'm in this chair, that makes me Overwatch," said Oliver.
"That's good and all but I really need to get to the northwest quadrant and I can't find a safe passage past these goons," Felicity said rapidly.
"Don't worry. I have the schematics for the complex. I see ten hostiles between you and the room where you need to be," said Oliver. "Take the corridor to your left."
Felicity heads left, only to duck and hide upon seeing mercenaries passing her way.
"Sorry. Your right. My left. There's a bit of a learning curve here," Oliver apologized.
Felicity goes the other way, staying low as to avoid detection.
"Stop," said Oliver.
Felicity stopped, allowing the mercenaries to walk right past her.
"Go right and then under the door," said Oliver.
Felicity takes a right and sees the door to the room where the processor is.
"3... 2... 1..." Oliver counted.
As if she always wanted to do it, Felicity slides under the half-open door. It wasn't even closing.
The room was empty, which meant Cayden had fled.
The former IT girl immediately sits down in front of the computer and starts hacking, trying to disable the virus planted by Cayden and save the internet.
"More hostiles incoming," said Oliver.
Just when Felicity thought it was time to start running, the door closed, courtesy of Oliver. She proceeds to doing what she needed to do on the computer.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ARROW ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
The rest of Team Arrow have taken down all of Black Siren's mercenaries. Black Siren herself, however, has stayed hidden from the fight. The four vigilantes split up to search for her. Green Arrow became the lucky man who found the black-clad metahuman.
"I figured you'd be around here somewhere," said Green Arrow.
"Well, I can't seem to stay away from you," Black Siren said flirtatiously. She tilts her head to the right and sarcastically says, "Although, you changed something about yourself. I just can't quite put my finger on it."
"Let me help you with that," said Green Arrow.
Green Arrow shoots an arrow at Black Siren, but she destroys it with her sonic scream. Green Arrow can only look at her with shock. How did she do that?
"Of course you're not really the Green Arrow. That was a kill shot you tried there. The real Green Arrow would've just tried to incapacitate me," said Black Siren. "Guess you're gonna have to decide what's next... Roy."
Green Arrow was shocked. How did she know? It doesn't matter, he thought. He focused on taking her down.
Green Arrow and Black Siren start fighting up-close. They were evenly matched for a pretty long time, long enough for Felicity to keep working. Black Siren kicks the archer on the shoulder before punching him across the face. Green Arrow kicks the metahuman on the leg, grabs her arm, and then flips her to the ground.
"Time to go," said Black Siren.
Black Siren uses her sonic scream and sends Green Arrow crashing against a server, allowing herself to flee without any problems.
"Are you okay, Hoss?" Wild Dog asked, rushing towards his new leader.
"I'll live," said Green Arrow, grunting in pain as he held his aching back. "Overwatch, how's the progress with the virus?"
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ARROW ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Felicity was still trying to hack into the processor to disable the virus. Suddenly, she did something that caused the inner sanctum's lights to go red, meaning that she might have accelerated the countdown to the detonation. Trying not to let this bother her, she keeps on typing. Just when she thought all is lost, she was given access to the system where the virus is planted. She disables it. All the lights in the sanctum were reverted to their natural colors.
Sighing with relief, she leans back on the chair and says, "We're not dead."
"Good job," said Oliver.
"Thank you," said Felicity, grateful.
"I'm just glad I found a way to help," said Oliver.
At an abandoned hangar outside Star City, Cayden James was about to take a temporary leave from Star City via a small jet. Before he does, he has a little talk with Black Siren, who was confused why he seemed satisfied even though the internet is still active.
"The plan was never to take down the internet, was it?" Black Siren guessed.
"It's what I wanted them to think," said Cayden. "When Ms. Smoak took down the firewall protecting the vault, she left her digital fingerprints on the processor. Quite the talented hacker, she is. I thought it would be safer if she would do the job for me."
"And you can frame her should the FBI find her digital fingerprints in the IDED's systems," Black Siren realized.
"Once she had taken down the firewall, I was able to upload a critical piece of code to Arclight," said Cayden.
"Well, happy travels," said Black Siren.
"Have fun, Ms. Lance," said Cayden. "This is the just beginning of something wonderful."
Cayden James and Sheck boarded the jet and left Star City, off to hide until they're ready to execute the next step of Arclight. Black Siren takes out a comm-link she has been hiding in her person and puts it on, talking to a mysterious someone on the other side.
"He suspects nothing," she said.
"Good work, Ms. Lance."
"And the invisible bug you placed in the system?" asked Black Siren.
"Once the firewall was temporarily down, I inserted my program into the web. No one but me will know it's there until it's too late."
"Anything you need me to do, partner?" asked Black Siren.
"Just do what you wanted to do. Trash Laurel Lance's good name. Traipse around Star City like it's your personal playground. Have fun."
"That I can do," said Black Siren.
Felicity returned to her apartment to see Oliver sitting on the couch with that unhappy look on his face. She sits down on the couch but keeps her distance, knowing he isn't in the mood for a make-out moment right now.
"Slade Wilson called," Oliver started. "He needs my help to find his son."
"And you came here to tell me that, why?" asked Felicity.
"It means I have to go away for a while," said Oliver. "It means that I won't be here for you for a while. It means that you have the time to think about where we are right now."
"Break-up town?" Felicity joked.
"Felicity, I am serious," said Oliver. "I lost my parents. I lost my best friend. I lost my father's company. You helped me stay in the light when it seemed impossible for me to return. But now I see that we're still a long way from being what we really want to be."
"Are you sure we're not in break-up town?" Felicity asked.
"Felicity, listen to me," Oliver said seriously. "I love you, and you love me. That's all that should matter, but it's never that easy. I want to trust you as much as you trust me. Tell me. Would you have kept Cayden James a secret from me until he was stopped? And don't lie to me."
Felicity bit her lip as her heart beat fast due to nervousness. Oliver had put her in a tight spot, and she needed to get out with the right way. No loopholes. No cheats. Just the truth.
"I would," Felicity admitted.
"I am sorry to talk to you like this, Felicity, but I need both of us to use this time apart to think about where we go from here," said Oliver.
Oliver gets up and leaves his girlfriend's apartment. If their current situation escalates out of control, he might not call her his girlfriend again. He hopes it would not come to that, but what happened tonight threatens the beautiful they have.
I did leave a warning for Olicity fans. Regardless of my feelings towards Olicity, I'm trying to my best not to make their relationship struggles seem immature. My story is meant to address some common complaints about the Arrowverse and finding ways to make them fit in with my story.
One of those complaints is that Oliver is too soft when it comes to Felicity.