Disclaimer: Not mine, yadayada

Writer's block is a real Bitca. Thanks to Okori for help with a particularly thorny bit.

We haven't really had much chance to see Laurel at her job, doing the charity work. That's mostly because a lot of it is pretty boring or not germane to the story. It will show up with more frequency once we get into Season 2 events (in the sequel) as it ties greater into the story I'll be telling there.

Vigilantes' Dawn

By Kylia

Chapter 27: A Message

In the late 20th century, the British satirist and author, Terry Pratchett, wrote a book wherein one character - the actual Grim Reaper - when commenting on the oddities of humanity, challenged another character to "take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy,". Obviously, one cannot find such things, and the point of the passage, and indeed, the whole book, was the power of humanity's belief in such things, despite their physical absence.

When a vigilante like the Arrow or the Black Canary sets out to seek justice for the people of Starling City, or when some hero in a patriotic costume claims to be fighting for 'Truth, Justice and the American Way'... what exactly do they mean? What is Justice? Is justice fairness? Is justice punishment?

Many would say something to the effect of the notion of justice being the punishment fitting the crime, applied equally across the social spectrum, but even then - who decided what punishments fit the crime? If a man kills another man's son, should his son be killed? Should he be killed? If I steal all your money and leave you alive, but the lack of money sees you die of a cureable illness because you couldn't afford the life-saving medication... did I murder you? Did the people who didn't give you the medication anyway murder you?

The example of the so-called 'Savior' proved that a hero or vigilante needs to be clear in what they define as justice, what they define as something to stop, and where the lines they draw are. Even if someone disagrees, then at least they're doing so in full awareness that they are in opposition to that hero or vigilante.

-Excerpt from "Age of Superheroes: The Dawn of the Vigilante," by Diana Queen, PhD Published by Starling City University Press, 2123.

March 28th, 2013

Verdant, Starling City

Oliver didn't bother alerting Felicity that the Savior was broadcasting again. After failing before, she was determined to beat Falk the next time he started broadcasting, and was monitoring his website downstairs already.

He did send a quick text to Laurel - not in so many words, of course - to let her know the Savior was broadcasting, that she needed to get back to the Foundry. Hopefully they could find him faster together.

Oliver wasn't sure who wanted to find the Savior more - Laurel, or him. Laurel had set the Glades as her mission, and she'd done what she could treating the symptoms, but less and less since December, since Nyssa had come and set them on a new mission, and he knew she felt responsible for the Savior in that way.

Felt that if she'd stayed active in the Glades, maybe he wouldn't have chosen to act the way he did. But he also knew she knew that actually helping the Glades weren't at all the point here for Falk.

But guilt wasn't always logical.

The young man on the screen - Roy Harper, apparently - apparently had a little list of minor crimes behind him - robbery, assault, that sort of thing. No murder. Nothing that would have gotten him behind bars for life, or even likely attracted Laurel's attention, except on a slow night in the Glades, given the way things worked in that neighborhood. This isn't justice. He had to stop the Savior now - stopping him now would make it clear to everyone that the Savior was just a man on a crusade for vengeance and to make himself feel better. That the Hood and the Black Canary certainly didn't approve of him or his actions.

"Wait..." Oliver heard Tommy say as he walked over towards him, looking at the screen, "I know that kid."

Oliver blinked, then turned to Tommy, mind racing - the question of just how Tommy knew some random 'gangbanger' in the Glades could wait. But if he knew Harper, Tommy might be able to tell him where Roy was when Falk grabbed him, which might let them narrow down the search, give Felicity a better lead on finding him in time.

"How-" He started, but before he could say more, the distraught voice of his sister calling for him, racing towards them caught his attention and he turned, seeing her. She was crying, terrified, and as she watched the TV screen, she gasped, a hand over her mouth, a sob wracking her.

"Oh god no!" Her plea was only a little muffled by her hand. She turned and grabbed onto Oliver with her other hand, holding him tight. Oliver put an arm around her, hugging her for a moment, before pulling back and looking his sister in the eye. "I - I didn't know where else to go!" she let out.

"You know him?" Tommy and Thea both know him?

"Roy he- he's my friend," Thea started to babble, speaking quickly, "and - and we were having an argument and some guy he came out of nowhere and he just attacked us! He doesn't deserve to die!"

Oliver put his hands on her upper arms for a moment, meeting her gaze. "Tell me everything. I'll call Sara, let her know-" he almost stopped there, knowing he couldn't, shouldn't say more, but the look of fear and pain on his sister's face... he couldn't let this stand. "I promise you he's going to be alright."

I hope I didn't just lie to her. He would do everything he could, and more.

He would save him, for Thea.

"Stay here with Tommy, alright?" Thea nodded and after meeting his best friend's gaze a moment and getting a nod back from him, Oliver turned, heading for the basement.

When he reached the foundry, he started suiting up as quickly as he could. "Anything?"

"His signal keeps bouncing around, and I can't figure out how. I've given up on that and I'm trying to find something else, some sort of clue in the video that will do it... " Felicity called back without looking up. "It's the only thing I can think of," she admitted.

"And are you getting anywhere?" Oliver asked, grabbing his bow and hood after he slung the quiver over his back.

"Maybe?" Felicity said, "I've isolated this sound in the ambient noise." She handed Diggle a pair of headphones and then gave one to Oliver as well. Oliver held one up to his ear, hearing the sound. "It's rhythmic, but I can't figure out what it is."

"It sounds... almost like a car, but over... lane markers, or speed bumps." Falk being in a car had already been raised as a possibility, but that didn't help narrow things down.

"It can't be a car. It's too big. And where would have so many speed bumps or lane markers for a car to go over?"

"Bus?" Oliver suggested, but her point about lane markers was a good one. Where would you find so many. Test driving track? Drivers' Ed course, maybe?

Diggle held up a hand, making a shusshing sound before dropping it. "I know this." He muttered, then repeated it. Oliver watched him, giving Diggle a moment to place the sound. I hope he does know it. They were running out of time.

Diggle dropped the headphones, "Felicity, can you give me a map - everywhere we found the signal, and sites of the abductions." the blonde immediately obeyed, and after a moment, she brought up the map in question.

Diggle leaned over the screen, pointing at it, reading off the intersections. What is he getting at. Diggle had an idea, but what was it? And would he get it fast enough?

"Those are all subway stops!" He exclaimed, suddenly.

Wait, what?

"Subway?" Oliver said, then realized that he wasn't the only one who had said it - Laurel was coming in from the club side entrance, and must have heard the tail end of Diggle's thinking out loud.

"Starling City doesn't have a subway," Oliver said, as Laurel reached the bottom of the stairs and started suiting up herself.

"No, not anymore. But it used to. Back when I was a kid - my dad used to take me down to the Rockets game, by subway." Diggle explained.

"So that's how he was doing it." Felicity interjected. "He wasn't driving near 23rd and Mira, he was at 23rd and Mira. Just underground. He knows all the old subway stops because he used to work for the DoT!"

"So then where is he now?" Oliver pulled on his hood.

"Old crosstown line. He'll be at the spring street stop in fifteen minutes if he keeps going," Felicity said, looking at another screen.

Cutting it close, but we can do it. Oliver nodded to Laurel as she put on her mask, grabbed her tonfa and they both ran for the exterior door.

March 28th, 2013

Spring Street Station, Starling City Subway System

The station was dark, damp, and leaking yet more water from dozens pipes everywhere - were it not for knowing Falk must have been down here recently, Laurel would have thought no one had been down here in years, decades even. Everything looked like it was on the verge of falling apart.

Why did they get rid of this system? Think about how much good this could be doing for the Glades if it was still running! Laurel couldn't help the indignation she felt - some bean counters in city council and the mayor's office had probably decided it wasn't profitable enough, probably after being lobbied by car companies and the like, and then they shut it down, robbing the Glades of yet another vital service that could have helped them stay afloat rather than become increasingly cut off from the rest of the city.

They reached the edge of the tracks, and she held up a hand, leaning towards Oliver. "Let it pass, come in from the back?" She suggested.

"Probably our best bet," Oliver agreed.

They heard the train coming and pulled back just enough to not be in the way, Laurel bracing her legs to make the jump. And then, as it passed by the end, they jumped. Despite the speed of the subway train, it was easy work for Laurel to grab onto the back, the small handles by the door. Holding on under the force of the train was easier said than done, the strain on her arm painful, but she managed to break the glass on the door and open it, swinging onto the train, Oliver right behind her. Now they just had to find Falk, and Harper.

"Felicity, what's Falk doing?" She heard Oliver ask into his earpiece. She heard Felicity reply over the comms to both of them.

"He's just given the kid his 10 minutes, but from the sound of it -" she swore, "he's all but telling Falk to just shoot him."

"Which means we're running out of time," Laurel muttered as she moved through the train, opening the doors to go from car to car. They had to be getting close. Falk was probably near the front, so he could get to the controls easily...

She saw them after a minute running, someone suspended, hung from the poles along the edges of the seats, silhouette against a plastic tarp, the backdrop for Falk's little execution shows.

"...no one's gonna miss me," the suspended man said - Harper - and as Laurel got closer, she could see the other one, another man, holding a gun, other hand by his side, holding something. Video camera.

Laurel met Oliver's eyes and nodded. Laurel ran for the tarp, grabbed part of it and pulled, ripping it off the ceiling and Oliver threw a flechette, cutting one of the duct tape 'cuffs' holding Roy Harper to the pole and letting his arm drop.

Falk fired a shot, still holding onto the camera, but it went wild, missing everyone, and Laurel lunged, diving past Harper and kicking out at Falk's hand. His arm swung wildly, but he still, somehow, managed to hold off from losing his gun. He fired another shot, through the glass this time, but before he could aim at her again, Laurel was on him, grabbing his arm and wrestling the gun from his grip, breaking his finger to pull it away from the trigger.

"You - You're the Black Canary!" Falk got out, "You - I'm on your side! I'm fighting for the Glades, just like you!"

"No, Joseph Falk, you're fighting for yourself. This isn't about the Glades, this is about making yourself feel better!" Laurel tossed the gun aside and shoved him away, sending him staggering as the video camera slipped off his hand, but a quick glance showed it was still recording.

Behind her, she heard Oliver cut Harper free, and then he knocked an arrow to his bow, pointing it at Falk.

"If you kill him, he'll never have a chance to change," Oliver growled.

"I'm delivering justice to the people who failed this city! Who failed the Glades!" Falk shot back. "He's a criminal! A thug! He won't change!"

"You changed." Laurel countered. "Your wife died, and you became a killer. You can give this kid a second chance, now. He's not a killer yet, so he has a chance to do better, to not become that!"

"Emma never got a second chance!" Falk shouted. "You've killed people for this city!" He gestured at Oliver. "What makes you and me different!"

"I kill people when they don't take a second chance," Oliver said, lowering his bow. "You give someone ten minutes to defend their very right to live."

"If I gave you ten minutes cold, could you do the same?" Laurel advanced. She could just knock him out now, drag him out of the subway and hand him to the cops.

But Sara was right. They needed to send a message.

"Is this kid a criminal? Yes. He admitted it himself. But he's just a symptom of what's been poisoning the Glades, not the cause. He's barely an adult, and you're proposing to kill him for... petty theft? Assault? That's not justice."

"I thought - I thought you understood! That you understood that we're the only ones who can save this city, both of you!" Falk was all but screaming now. "We can't stop now!"

"Did killing that slumlord rather than forcing him to pay his victim's families make you feel better, Joseph?" Oliver asked, his tone as level as it could be to be heard over the sound of the train. "Did killing an overworked prosecutor make you feel better?"

"A public servant who is only one part of the system that failed your wife?!" Laurel added. "Are you going to keep going until you've killed every prosecutor in the city? Every cop? Killing won't bring your wife back, and if this was about justice, your first resort would be for justice!" Laurel was shouting now, anger.

Anger at how her vision for the Glades rising up, inspired to take back their own community, had been ruined and tarnished by this man's hatred and petty vengeance.

"My wife is dead! Killed by a thug, like that one right there! And no one found her killer! No one- No one even tried! Because no one cares about the Glades! Not unless you send a message!"

"And what message does this send, Joseph?" Laurel demanded. She stepped closer to him. "What message does it send to kill him!?" She gestured back towards Harper. She could hear him there, behind them, probably afraid to run, or maybe not caring enough, from what he'd said.

"I - I -" Falk started, but he didn't finish whatever he was trying to say.

"What message does it send to kill him?" She demanded again.

"He's just like the rest of them!" Falk tried to counter, "Just like the ones who killed Emma! You - you two have no idea..." his voice broke, "You have no idea how lonely it is. Trying... trying to live on without..." He actually broke into tears, dropping to his knees.

I know how it feels to have the person you love die. Twice, she'd thought Oliver dead. She was lucky that he hadn't, but she'd felt it all the same.

"It doesn't give you the right to kill people in cold blood," Oliver told him, walking up to Falk and grabbing his arms, pinning them behind his back. "What makes the difference between you and me, is that I give people a chance to make amends. To change. If I kill, it's because I have to. When you killed Nickel, you didn't even give him the ten minutes you gave Carnahan and now Harper." He forced Falk to his feet, the man apparently unwilling to struggle now.

"You kill as a first resort." Oliver finished.

Laurel grabbed the camera, which, thankfully, had been broadcasting all of them. Hopefully the news cameras played the sound of their argument, even if it hadn't shown it, and Falk's website and everyone watching it, had seen that, at least.

"Starling City..." Laurel said, speaking into the Camera. "I am the Black Canary, and I'm here to say... I have failed this city. We have failed this city. We set out to fight for justice, to protect the innocent and stop those who preyed on them. And instead, we enabled this man, gave him an excuse. We've left you all to your own devices, without any idea of what we're really trying to do, or why. What makes us target someone, what makes the Hood kill, what makes me combat who I combat."

Laurel paused, taking a breath.

"We are here to serve the city, serve it's people. I set out to serve the people of the Glades specifically, as much as I could. But I haven't done enough. We haven't done enough. No more. Now, to those who wish to see justice done, we will not rest until it is. And to those who wish to bring harm to the Glades, and to all of Starling City, you should not rest. Because we will pull your plans apart. We will find your crimes, and we will make sure you are punished for them."

Verdant, Starling City

March 28th, 2013

Technically, this wasn't allowed. Harper was a material witness, if he wasn't still in the station so he could give a formal statement about what Falk had done to him, he should at least be in the hospital.

But given what she knew about Thea and her feelings for Roy - and what Oliver had said to her after dropping both Harper and Falk off in front of her and her care - which had just happened to be conveniently located to where the Hood and the Black Canary had come out of the subway tunnels.

Sara had gotten flak for that when she'd brought Falk into the station, explained that the two vigilantes had handed him over to her.

It had been easy - Falk seemed rather dead to the world, for all that he was conscious. She'd watched the feed on her phone, heard them talk the monster to death, as it were.

But this was not the first time she was being connected to the Vigilantes, and it was probably not a good idea for her to be so publicly linked to them a third time. At least not for a while.

She'd pointed out that the Hood and the Black Canary had both been armed and ready, while Sara's gun had still been holstered with the safety on, that there was a chance Falk would escape if she tried to arrest them, and of course, she was outnumbered against highly dangerous vigilantes. So it wasn't like she could have done anything.

But all that aside, after taking Falk to the station, she'd bent a few rules to let Harper agree to give her a full witness statement tommorrow.

"I heard what you said to Falk," Sara had told him. "But I can promise you Thea would have missed you." Then she had leaned in close, eye to eye. "Thea's kind of like the kid sister I never had," not totally, but close. "I might be a cop, but I have friends who aren't." Not that Harper knew how true that was. Or who would be coming after him if he hurt Thea, but as long as he got the idea. "So, if you hurt her..."

"I won't," Harper had replied, voice soft. "I... I wasted my life this long doing... so much stupid shit. I don't want to do that anymore."

"A good plan. Thea likes you. Just keep making her happy, and we'll be fine." Sara had told him. And then she'd driven him to Verdant, where Thea was waiting. The broadcast would have made her hopeful her boyfriend was alive, but Sara knew Thea would want proof.

"Thea!" Sara called out for her. She motioned for Roy to step forward as Thea turned away from the bar. And then she smiled as Thea's expression changed, the signs that she'd been crying still there, but the smile on her face, one of wonderment, surprise, pure joy - she all but ran across the dance floor to hug Roy, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder for a moment.

"I thought - I thought you were gonna die!" She said, her voice muffled before she pulled back enough to look at his face, eyes widening a bit at the injuries Falk had given him. She trailed her hand gently along his face.

Ah, young love. Thea was probably not making a great choice here, but Sara wasn't going to tell her she couldn't make it. And she'd meant what she said - as long as Roy Harper kept making Thea happy, she wouldn't intervene.

I should probably make sure Oliver gets that too. The last thing that anyone needed was Oliver playing the overprotective big-brother too hard, too much, and scaring Harper away.

"That makes two of us," Roy admitted quietly, probably only intending Thea to hear, as the music played on the dance floor behind them.

Thea laughed, as much from a release of the worry and tension and fear as anything else.

"I probably look like a mess," Thea said quietly, ruefully.

"So do I," Roy pointed out. "I don't care," He leaned in and gave Thea a light kiss on the lips. Thea returned it happily.

"I'll leave you two to it," Sara smiled, walking away, looking to see if Oliver or Laurel were back yet. No sign of them out on the main club floor, but she did see Tommy. After a moment, she walked over to where he was, watching the dance floor from behind the bar.

"They look happy to be back together," Tommy gestured towards where Thea and Roy were starting to walk outside the club. "So Roy's not just her friend, then."

"Nope." Sara nodded. "She told me a bit ago. Would you believe they met because he stole her purse?"

Tommy did a double take, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Sara laughed, shaking her head. "I threatened him to treat her right, and I'm sure Oliver will soon enough, so I think she'll be okay."

"Probably. But shouldn't he still be at the station?"

Sara laughed, "You got me. Yeah, he should. But I figured Thea deserved some time with her boyfriend after seeing him get kidnapped right in front of her." She shook her head. "This is the first guy I've ever seen her actually... worry about." She turned to look at Tommy. "Speaking of significant others. You and Joanna?"

Tommy flushed a little, laughing just a bit, at himself. "We're... we're making progress. We've actually... decided to go on a date. Like, an actual date we're calling a date." He sighed, "took us long enough, but..."

"Congratulations." Sara grinned, "I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - she's good for you." She was about to say something else her phone rang. And not her main phone, but the one she used exclusively to talk with Oliver and Laurel - and Diggle and Felicity, in theory - about vigilante business.

Tommy raised an eyebrow as she pulled out a phone different from her usual one.

"SCPD is slowly giving us all new phones for official business," Sara lied easily. "I was lucky to get one of the first few." She answered, "Lance here." She stepped away from Tommy, under the stairs to the upper level.

"Sara," it was Laurel. "We've got a lead on what Merlyn's up to." She said.

"How? The - I thought we weren't ready to make that move yet." Oliver and Laurel were going to be breaking in to Merlyn Global soon, but not for another few days, at least.

"We aren't. But - you know that weird intersecting line image at the front of the List?" Laurel asked, and Sara nodded.

"Yeah?"

"It matches a map of the old subway lines under the Glades exactly."

Sara blinked.

"So that means... whatever he has planned..."

"It involves the Glades. And probably those subway lines." Laurel confirmed.