The Hōzen Beeps

William yawned loudly covering it with his hand as he loaded water bottles into four lunch boxes, then came the ham and cheese sandwiches (not as good as Monte Cristos, but he didn't have the time), after that came the rice crispy treats and the chips. He checked the clock and closed his eyes for a second. 6:37. Tommy needed to get up and Will didn't hear his alarm go off.

So he walked down the hall to their bedroom and opened the door. Sure enough Tommy was fast asleep. "Tom," William said as he shook Tommy's shoulder. The fifteen year old groaned and covered his head. "No, come on. You have to get up," William urged.

"Will," Tommy whined.

"I'm not kidding. You're going to miss the bus and I don't have time to drive you. I have an early meeting with investors." Tommy turned a glare up at him, very Oliver like. "Not scaring me, kiddo."

"Geez, Will." Tommy closed his eyes for a moment but Will shook his shoulder roughly. "Stop," Tommy grunted. William just shook harder. "Okay, okay! I'm up." Tommy threw his legs over the side of his bed and stood up stretching his arms up.

William coughed roughly while saying, "Shower then put deodorant on." Will waved a hand near his nose. Tommy rolled his eyes but nodded his head and followed Will out of their room and down the hall, but he stopped in the bathroom. William went a little further and opened his sisters' room.

"Kit," William gently called hoping not to wake Rose. Kit's eyes popped open and she stared at him sleepily. "Come on, school is in thirty minutes." Kit nodded and rolled over before grabbing her phone.

"Will?" a little voice asked. William tensed before turning to face Rose's bed. He prepared himself. "Are Mom and Dad home?" the ten year old asked. William swallowed.

"Not yet, bug." Rose nodded and looked away from him hiding in her covers. William sighed. Kit got up out of bed and headed into the kitchen. William walked over to Rose and sat on the edge of her bed. "I know, Rose. I miss them too. But they sent us away to protect us. And they promisedthey'd come get us."

"It's been four months," Rose whimpered. William nodded sadly.

"I know. I'm sorry." Rose's chin trembled and a tear fell. William leaned over her and wrapped his arms around her. Rose sucked in her breath at the warmth he oozed and the not great smell coming from his armpit. She moved her nose to his neck and breathed in with a big sigh. He didn't smell as good as Dad, but he smelled right and it calmed her down. She let a few more tears fall. "I'm so sorry, Rose-bug."

"Mom said," Rose shakily started. Will pulled back to look at her face. "Mom said the… the Hōzen meant what?" William wiped her tears with his thumb.

"It meant reconnection. Auntie Thea gave it to her after she asked, because Dad gave it to Aunt Thea after he returned from the island." Rose nodded.

"After being lost for five years." Will nodded.

Rose had known parts of Oliver's dark past. She knew he was the Hood, the Arrow, the Green Arrow, that he was on an island for three years, in Hong Kong for a year, and in Russia for a year, but she didn't know specifics. Over the last four months, she'd taken to asking William about Oliver's time lost from Aunt Thea and the public. William was ashamed to admit he didn't know too much. Felicity had told him some, but she had also said it wasn't her story to tell. And Will never wanted to bring up such a tense subject with their dad. Tommy had answered some things in passing, but he too was lost on bits and pieces. He knew of Tatsu, Mateo, and Akio from Oliver's time in Hong Kong and he knew that Akio died from a disease but he wasn't sure which one or how. He just knew that Dad did something horrible afterwards and that's why he wouldn't go back home after Hong Kong even though he had the chance.

Kit had filled in parts of the Bratva and Anatoly, some she'd gotten from Felicity but most from Oliver. She also knew a lot more about Slade Wilson and Sara's time on the island. Kit apparently had taken learning about Sara seriously after Sara told a story about going parachuting off a cliff and onto a ship in the middle of the North China Sea. She'd questioned Sara every single time she came to visit, at length. Sara didn't know anything about the Bratva, but Kit found that all out from her late night chats with Oliver over ice cream when she couldn't sleep.

"Will," Rose whispered. William focused back on her face.

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"Can I have an extra rice crispy treat in my lunch today?" William lifted a single brow.

"I'll let you have one when you get home from school, how about that?" Rose nodded. "Try and get more sleep, you don't have to go in for another hour." Rose furrowed her brow and pouted her lips. William felt his heart seize slightly after seeing a pure form of Felicity in her face.

"Can't I just play games on my phone?" William held back the urge to roll his eyes. The fact that his ten year old sister even had a cell phone was stupid, but after their parents forced them to move and then left them on their own, he just didn't feel okay not knowing where Rose was at all times.

"Yeah." William handed her the phone and walked out of the room. He knocked on the bathroom door loudly and shouted, "Tommy, you better be out in record time cause your bus is ten minutes out!" Then Will walked back into the kitchen.

"Don't you need to get dressed for work?" Kit asked eyeing his pajamas. Will frowned and looked down.

"I'll do that once you and Tom are out of the apartment." Kit nodded and chewed on her bagel. "Are you okay?" William sighed. Kit frowned.

"What do you mean?" William stared at her. She looked down at her plate. "I'm not happy that mom and dad probably won't be back for my birthday. But maybe I'll get lucky and get a late birthday gift." William slung an arm around Kit's shoulders.

"If it makes you feel any better, they missed my birthday." Kit sucked in her breath and nodded with a small noise of sadness. William felt heavy, he shouldn't have brought this up before school, he shouldn't have brought it up at all. Tommy exited the bathroom and walked into their room. Kit moved to dash into the bathroom but William blocked her with his form. "Kit, talk to me," he begged. Kit wouldn't meet his eye. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Will, what the hell is that beeping?" Tommy shouted from their room. William frowned and turned toward their room. Kit took her chance and slipped by him into the bathroom. William grumbled to himself.

"Don't curse, Tom," he accosted. Tommy didn't even seem bothered by William's scolding. "What are you talking…" he trailed off as soon as he entered their room hearing the beeping himself. It was coming from his bedside table. He opened it and only found the arrow head.

"God, shut it the hell up, Will," Tommy yelled throwing on his hoodie.

"I said don't curse. And I don't know what it is." Tommy stormed over and looked in the drawer before freezing.

"It's the Hōzen," he murmured pulling it out of the drawer. William opened his mouth to object but the beeping got louder as Tommy lifted it to inspect it.

"I thought it was a rock," William mumbled. He took it out of Tommy's hands. Tommy glared at him but William tried prying it apart and it popped open. They both gasped. Tommy took one half but William had the half with the screen on it. It took Tommy a few seconds to put that together, long enough for William to figure out that the Hōzen's little screen had GPS coordinates on it.

"What? Numbers?" Tommy murmured.

"GPS coordinates," William corrected.

"Does that mean we have to go there?" Tommy asked. William frowned and thought for a minute. Felicity gave him this. This was something from her. She was reaching out, which probably meant that they did have to go there, but it was the middle of the school year. It kind of just started and the kids were still settling in at their new schools, he remembered how hard that was.

"You're going to miss your bus."

"Who cares? Mom and Dad want us there." Tommy pointed to the coordinates. "I don't need to go to school."

"Let me." William closed his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead. "Let me think about this, okay? Go to school."

"What?" Tommy shouted. "You can't be serious. This is Mom and Dad. They want us there. We have to go."

"I don't know where this is, Tommy. It could be anywhere."

"I'm going, William."

"Tommy, we don't know-."

"It's Mom and Dad. I don't care if it's the damned island, I'm going." Tommy stormed off to the closet and grabbed his suitcase.

"Tommy, let me."

"William! You are notDad. I know you've been playing the part for the past four months, but you're not. You don't get to call the shots. And Dad is telling us to go where ever that Hōzen says to go. That means we allgo." William felt his chest burn.

"Do you think I wanted to be in this position? Do you think I wantedto be asked by Rose every morning if Felicity and Dad are back yet? Do you think I like waking up this early? I love you guys. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, but I never wantedto leave my life to come here and keep you guys safe," William shouted. Tommy glared back at him.

"Well I'm sorry we're such a burden, William," Tommy snarled. William felt his fire leave.

"You're not," he said softly.

"Really?" Kit asked from the hallway. "Because you've basically just said we are. And by the way, the whole apartment building can hear you two. Why the hell are you fighting anyways?" Kit glared with even focus at William. William swallowed his tongue.

"The Hōzen isn't just a Hōzen, it's a GPS. It has coordinates on it that Mom and Dad want us to go to," Tommy supplied. Kit raised a single brow to William. He nodded silently.

"Then we're going," she said.

"Going where?" Rose asked in a small voice.

"Where ever Mom and Dad want us to go," Kit answered.

"They called?!" Rose ran into Tommy and William's room. "Why did you let me talk to them? What did they say?"

"No, Rose," Tommy stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "The Hōzen is a GPS and they put coordinates in it."

"What are coordinates?"

"It's a destination," William finally spoke. Kit and Tommy looked to him with heat in their eyes. "And we're all going. Let me just figure out where it is." He pulled his phone off his bed and typed the coordinates in. William let out a sigh of relief.

"Where is it?" Tommy asked after a beat of silence.

"Star City."

"Really?" Rose asked excitedly. William clicked a few more buttons. "We're going home?"

"Um…" William furrowed his brow. "No." Rose's shoulder's slumped.

"Then where?" Kit pressed. William held up a finger before walking out of the room, the kids on his heels. He beelined for his computer and quickly logged on before pulling up some of his favorite satellite imagery software, of course technically it wasn't his but that wasn't important.

"It looks like an abandoned building," Will murmured. He could tell no one was in there but he couldn't see what it might have been in its hay day. "Some factory maybe?" Will broke down and Googled the address. "Verdant?" William rolled the word off his tongue. He opened the website.

"This hurts my soul," Kit said raising a hand to her chest. Tommy snorted and Rose giggled.

"Outdated website. Probably from 2013? 14?" William said.

"They want us to go to a club," Tommy stressed not quiet believing it. "Like a drinking dancing club?" he asked before looking over the website more clearly than just the outdated page setup.

"That sounds like fun," Rose murmured.

"No. It's not for…" William furrowed his brow at Rose's innocent questioning face.

"It's only for grown-ups," Tommy said simply. William nodded in agreement, thanking his brother with a smile. Tommy ignored him. Rose frowned, first at Tommy then at William. Tommy moved forward however by asking, "So they want us there?"

"Oh uh… I wish I had a more solid piece of evidence saying it was this."

"Oh it's this," Kit said. Will and Tommy both stared at her in confusion. "Aunt Thea used to run this club. That's where they used to do their vigilante stuff."

"No. They did that at the bunker not-."

"Uncle Roy told me," Kit interrupted. "That's how he and Aunt Thea got together. She got him a job at Dad's club which turned into Aunt Thea's club. Mom and Dad worked out of the basement of the club."

"Cool," Tommy chirped. "Okay. I'm going to pack." He clapped his hands together and walked down the hall.

"Wait," Will called after him.

"Nope," Tommy replied. "Not ruining this for me. Buy us tickets home. Think about this. You should be happy. You get to see your car again." William sighed, aggravated. Kit patted him on the back before following Tommy.

"Love you, Will," Rose quietly said before wrapping her arms around his waist. William's hand rubbed her back on instinct. "Can I get a window seat?" she whispered turning her chin to his stomach and looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

"I'll see what I can do." Rose grinned up at him before she skipped off to join her siblings. William turned around to look at the computer screen again.

"This better be real," he grumbled.