A/N: For those who are interested in such things, this story has a TV Tropes page courtesy of Nyame under the series title, "Arrow: Rebirth". Mind, it is filled with stuff from the completed story plus the sequel, so unless you don't mind spoilers, I'd wait to read it.

"Thank you, Tommy," Malcolm Merlyn said after listening to his distraught son's phone call. "Please give Oliver and Thea my condolences and tell them that if they need anything, my door is open to them." His son gave an affirmative reply and hung up. Merlyn set his phone down on his desk and moved to the window looking out over Starling City. A new day was dawning, and with it dawned an unexpected degree of hope that his plans would be salvaged despite the current interference with the F.B.I. Moira Queen had taken her own life in prison last night, and with her died any possibility of the F.B.I. finding out the truth of Tempest and it's plans for the Glades.

Malcolm said a silent prayer he learned in the League for Moira's soul and took a moment to grieve for his friend, as he had grieved for Robert after confirmation came of the Gambit sinking to the depths, and then moved to his desk. There were other matters to take care of; Moira had handled her fumbling with grace and ensured nothing could lead back to him, and in the end, that was all that mattered. The mission, the Undertaking, had to continue.

Now there was a problem with the plan, however. Walter Steele was an incorruptible type and would be unwilling to bend to his will regarding Unidac Industries. Perhaps it was time that Walter was encouraged to part ways with Queen Consolidated, making way for a younger man who had much more to lose if he chose to defy Malcolm. And if Walter proved recalcitrant, well, there were solutions for that, too. For what came after the Unidac merger was finalized, Malcolm needed someone in place at Queen Consolidated to ensure his plans proceeded, and Oliver would prove easier to manipulate than Walter. He had so much to lose; his lover, his sister, his reputation… Malcolm had quashed the murmurings of what Oliver had revealed at the dinner party, but at a word from Malcolm those murmurings could be unleashed, tarnishing Oliver's reputation.

Yes, while Oliver was useful where he was, he would be more useful as C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated, especially if he could be convinced to return Doug Miller to his former status as head of Applied Sciences once the transfer of power was official. That would take some delicate wording, of course; he didn't want to push Oliver too far, too fast. He wouldn't be able to control whoever replaced Oliver with any degree of certainty, and that was if he wasn't forced to swallow up Queen Consolidated as it spiraled downward with the loss of three successive C.E.O.s, two of them being murdered. Three, if Walter proved recalcitrant. *1*

*DC*

Oliver signed the paperwork that he needed to so that his mother's body could be transferred from the coroner's office to the funeral parlor that his mother had pre-paid for services from, his expression wooden. This had thrown him for a loop, losing his mother now. He knew that things would change when he killed Eobard Thawne, that the world he knew no longer existed, but this was the first tangible proof of that, and it was proof that was rather jarring. His mother had given her life so Thea could live when Slade captured them. What would happen now that his mother was dead? Would Slade capture Laurel along with Thea and make him choose between the woman he loved and his little sister? Or would he simply gut Thea like a trout, as Rochev had once threatened Oliver with at the offices of Queen Consolidated after her takeover?

A woman he recognized as Alex Danvers stepped up from where she had been waiting. "Mr. Queen, I'm Special Agent Alex Danvers with the F.B.I.," she said apologetically. "I'm so sorry for your loss, and I know this is a horrible time, but we do need you to come down to the precinct where we've set up and give a statement about what happened yesterday, both at Queen Consolidated and afterward, when you and Mr. Steele led Detectives Lance and Hilton to the warehouse."

"I understand, Agent Danvers," Oliver said quietly. "I have nothing pressing to attend to, so I can follow you back to the precinct."

"That sounds good," Alex said with a nod, and the two of them left the morgue, splitting up in the parking lot. Oliver got on his Ducati and pulled out of the parking lot, following Agent Danvers' car while still processing what this early death for his mother meant. There were other things his mother had done that would no longer happen if things proceeded as they did last time. There would be no warning voice about the Undertaking, leading to no evacuation the night it happened. There would be no face to the Undertaking, which could lead to a violent uprising towards everyone within the Queen and Merlyn income brackets. There would be no one to warn the League of Merlyn's continued existence, should the worst happen, and the bastard slipped through Oliver's fingers. There would be no one to run against Sebastian Blood and nearly defeat him, which was one reason Slade had acted when he did. *2*

Worse, there was no way now for the revelation of Thea's parentage to come from his mother unless she had stuffed the paperwork away in a storage unit like she had the evidence of Emiko's existence. In some ways, this was a relief, but Oliver wasn't blind. He had seen the gooey eyes that Thea threw at Tommy, and his stomach churned at the thought that with Laurel no longer on the market, Tommy might be willing to entertain Thea's feelings once she turned eighteen in a few months. He had to figure out a way to reveal their relationship so he could nip that in the bud before it became something all too real. Best he could do right now was play the threatening big brother card.

Oliver, not for the first time, wondered why the hell Barry and Sara thought that time travel was so cool and exciting. In his opinion, there was nothing fun, cool, or exciting about this. Horrifying, heart-wrenching, and nerve-wracking, on the other hand? Yes, to all three of them.

Nearly half an hour after leaving the morgue, Alex's car and Oliver's motorcycle pulled up in front of the precinct. Oliver dismounted and placed his helmet on the handlebars, following Agent Danvers into the precinct. "Ducati?" she questioned his mode of transport.

"Yup," he said evenly.

"Nice," Alex said appreciatively. She led Oliver to an empty interview room, the difference between it and an interrogation room being the lack of a one-way mirror for people to spy on you with. Oliver took a seat at the table and Alex sat across from him. "Alright, Mr. Queen, let's start from the top. What made you think the package was suspicious?"

"After five years of trusting my senses to know when it was a good day to leave my shelter on the island, those senses are pretty sharp," Oliver said. "I detected a faint odor of decay from the package and worried what we might find in there. I didn't expect it to be Felicity's head, or for it to have an apple in it like some sick joke."

"Yes, the serial killer who apparently killed your friend is known for this particular sick calling card," Alex said quietly. "Now, did you inform Mr. Steele of the information Miss Smoak gave you before or after the package's arrival?"

"Before," Oliver replied. "We had just decided to go check it out later in the day when the package arrived."

"I've listened to the recording of your report of what happened," Alex said. "You sounded rather detached, but you speak of Miss Smoak familiarly. Were you… involved?"

"Are you asking if I was seeing Felicity on the side despite my relationship with Laurel Lance?" Oliver asked with a quirked eyebrow. "I'd expect that kind of question from Detective Lance, not the F.B.I. The short answer is no. Walter asked Felicity to help me familiarize myself with modern technology." Oliver gave the agent a sarcastic smile. "I was stranded on an island with no technology for five years. It was kind of big news."

Alex returned his sarcastic smile. "I must have missed that newsbyte. Or maybe your rescue just wasn't important enough for Seattle news networks," she said. She looked at her folder. "According to the reports of Detectives Lance and Hilton, you were the one to suggest that the passcode was related to you or your father. How could you have been sure if you didn't know about the warehouse and what it contained?"

"Are you asking, without saying the words, if I knew ahead of time what we would find in there?" Oliver asked.

After a moment, Alex said, "Yes, I am. I find it highly suspicious that you knew the passcode, Mr. Queen."

"It wouldn't seem so suspicious if you had gotten to know my mother, Agent Danvers," Oliver replied frostily. "My mother was a very complicated woman, but the one thing that mattered to her above all else was family, and at the time she set this LLC up, her mind would've been focused entirely on what it meant regarding my father and me. The only surprise for me is that it was my father's name, considering their marital issues."

"Marital issues?" Alex echoed questioningly.

Oliver shifted uncomfortably. He hadn't meant to talk about that, but the cat was out of the bag now. "My father was not the most faithful of husbands," he said delicately. "Many of his assistants over the years were also his lovers."

"Something I hear the two of you have in common," Alex said. "You did, after all, take Detective Lance's younger daughter with you while dating her sister, a sister you are now seeing romantically again. Personally, I think she's too forgiving. If I had a sister and someone did that to us, I'd castrate them."

"Well, then perhaps it's for the best that you have no sister," Oliver sneered out. "Not that I would be interested in you, anyways. I have a pretty good detector, and you haven't checked me out once. Maybe you pitch for the other team?"

"And if I do?" Alex said hotly.

"Then I suggest you turn your sexual frustrations towards finding a partner instead of cornering a man who has just lost his mother with unfounded accusations!"

The door to the interview room opened and another agent stepped in. "Danvers, a word, now. Mr. Queen, you're free to go. I assure you that the next time one of us speaks to you, it will be with the utmost respect."

"Thank you, Agent…" Oliver trailed off leadingly.

"Darius Trimble, Mr. Queen. I'm the Special Agent in Charge," Trimble said.

"Thank you, Agent Trimble, and I wish you good luck in piecing together this mess. God knows I would like some answers as to what happened five years ago," Oliver said, standing and departing the room without another word. Trimble shut the door behind him and glowered at Alex.

"We are barely being tolerated here because this case is too big for local police to handle, and you're letting your personal feelings for Mr. Queen's life choices influence your attitude towards him is not making this process any easier," Trimble bit out at the young behavioral analyst. "You were sent here because of your expertise regarding the serial killer calling himself The Huntsman. You will exhaust yourself in pursuit of the killer, and only in pursuit of that. You will leave the investigation into the Queen's Gambit to the rest of the team. Dismissed."

Alex slowly got up and left the room, cheeks flaming red with shame and embarrassment. She hadn't been ripped into like that since basic training at Quantico, and worse, she knew it was for damn good reasons. She had gone after Queen hard because of what she had read in the reports from Quentin Lance, who hadn't been able to keep his personal bias against Queen out of his report. Even Hilton's report had mentioned the circumstances surrounding Sara Lance being on the Queen's Gambit when it was sabotaged. Instead, she would focus on the charge she had been given, hunting The Huntsman. *3*

*DC*

Oliver entered his office at Queen Consolidated, hands still flexing as though he would like nothing more than to place them around Alex Danvers' throat and not let go. He took deep, calming breaths as he moved to look out at the cityscape. He would rather not be here, but Walter had called him and told him they needed to show a united front for the Board and for their investors, and so he was here, trying to put on a political mask for the vultures picking over his mother's proverbial carcass instead of at home with his sister, processing his grief. One thing he knew for sure was that he was going out tonight and he was going to find someone deserving to unleash his pent-up grief and anger on.

"Mr. Queen?" Oliver looked up as his Executive Assistant, a mousy woman named Gina Atkins, knocked timidly on the glass partition. "Mr. Steele left word for you to go to his office as soon as you came in."

"Thank you, Gina," Oliver said, taking a few calming breaths. "Tell Walter I'll be up there shortly." Gina nodded, and Oliver took a moment to grab a water bottle from the minifridge in his office. Uncapping the bottle, he downed several large gulps before returning the bottle to its place in the minifridge. He made his way to the elevators, suspecting his E.A. had already told Walter he was in a foul mood. Sure enough, when he got to Walter's office, Walter was giving him a concerned look. "What?" Oliver asked briskly.

"Oliver, I know what I said, but if you're struggling with everything that's going on, I can assure the Board on my own, it'll just take a few more minutes than it will with you present," Walter said softly. "And you don't need to come to the Unidac auction tonight. You need to be with Thea."

"I'm already here, so we might as well get it over with," Oliver said. "And it's not you; one of the agents decided to take offense to how Sara ended up on the Gambit and accuse me of seeing Felicity on the side while seeing Laurel now."

"Ah," Walter said quietly. "How did that come up?"

"I may have mentioned something about Mom and Dad's marital issues," Oliver admitted. Walter grimaced, remembering more than one occasion where Robert had been sleeping with one of his assistants. "Look, let's just get this dog-and-pony show over with, then I'm taking the rest of the day off to be with Thea. Tommy's staying with her for now, but…"

"But she'll need her brother to get through this," Walter said evenly. "Alright, son. Let me walk you through what to expect…"

*DC*

Laurel Lance sat across from Peter Declan in an interview room at Iron Heights prison. She wanted to be back in Starling, to be there for Thea and Oliver during this horrifying time in their lives, but Oliver had quietly reminded her of the ticking clock on this man's life. Even though Oliver believed the man was innocent, Laurel needed to hear the man's story for herself before she decided to take this case, especially at this late hour where she couldn't be sure any new evidence would be accepted. "A jury has found you guilty, Mr. Declan," she began.

"The evidence was stacked against me," Declan said, hands jerking emphatically, one hand holding tightly to the picture of his daughter, "but I didn't kill my wife." He placed the picture on the table between them, pointing at the little girl in the photo as he continued, "I didn't take my daughter's mother from her."

"The murder weapon was a knife," Laurel began methodically, "from your kitchen, with your prints on it. It was found, along with Camille's blood, in the trunk of your car." Declan got up, pacing the room as Laurel continued, "Your neighbors said they heard an argument that night."

"We had a knockdown fight over Jason Brodeur," Declan said, once more jerking one hand up and down emphatically. "Camille worked for him, and his company had been dumping toxic waste into the Glades." Laurel kept her face impassive, but her gut jerked at this statement. She had seen plenty of documentaries about toxic waste being dumped at sea and contaminating the wildlife. What might toxic waste do to people if it were mixed into their drinking water due to oversaturation? "Camille told me that she had gone and told a supervisor about it. I was afraid for my family's safety. And we argued. Very loudly, yes.

"Izzy started crying. So, Camille went and stayed in her room," Declan said as he moved and took the seat across from Laurel again, who was finding nothing false about what Declan was saying, how he was acting. "In the morning I went to apologize, and, uh, and that's when I found her." Laurel leaned forward, watching Declan's face, and more importantly his eyes, which had a tormented look about them, as the man continued, "So, I just grabbed Izzy, and I ran outside, and I called 911." Declan leaned forward, meeting Laurel's green eyes with desperation shining in his own. "I'm innocent, Miss Lance."

After a long moment, Laurel said softly, "I believe you." *4*

*DC*

Oliver checked over his gear one last time. Fyff was back behind the computers, looking gratified at being away from Waller's immediate presence again. He had asked no questions about what happened to his replacement or where John Diggle was; he had raised an eyebrow at the arrival of Laurel and Thea with Oliver and the way they went to the 'training center' but had said nothing. Oliver looked over at Laurel and Thea, his heart breaking slightly at the morose expression on his sister's face. Losing a parent wasn't easy; Oliver had had to deal with his grief over Robert's death on his own while also struggling to survive. He was just glad he and Thea had Laurel and Tommy in their lives to help them. Grief was easier when you had someone to share it with.

Laurel had gone to see Declan earlier today and then got the information from her father about Matt Istook. Oliver was going to pay Istook a visit and then, once he got the file and delivered it back here, go on a patrol of the Glades, see if he couldn't find some drug dealer or would-be rapist to pummel. "This shouldn't take long," Oliver said, turning to face Laurel and Thea. "Once I've dealt with Istook, got the file, and done some legwork in the Glades, I'll be back here for our training session. Okay?"

"Sounds good," Thea said, looking down at her feet. Laurel put an arm comfortingly around the girl's slender shoulders.

Oliver turned and began to change into his gear.

*DC*

Finding Istook was easy. What was hard was not just letting the train hit the mewling bastard after he gave up the location of the file. The man was guilty of setting up a woman to be murdered, and the side of Green Arrow that had exulted in his training by the League of Assassins was howling for Istook's death. But that was not the way to inspire others to be heroes, Green Arrow knew, and so he had let the man go at the last possible second, disappearing as the train shot by. He made his way swiftly to Istook's office and retrieved the file before returning to the Bunker and giving it to Laurel, who set about familiarizing herself with the file.

With the Declan case moving forward with their possession of the file, Green Arrow took to the rooftops of the Glades and began his patrol, keeping his senses open for any sign of crime and waiting to hear if Fyff picked up something on police chatter. As he raced across the rooftops, he found himself itching for violence. He knew it was wrong; he knew he probably shouldn't be out here with this desire in him, but he didn't want to destroy his relationships with Thea, Laurel, and Tommy by lashing out. So, he would lash out at those who deserved it, those who preyed on the people of Starling City like a cancer preys on healthy cells.

Green Arrow heard a muffled scream come from the east, and instantly turned in that direction. He found himself looking down at another alleyway, and another waitress, this one from Al's Bar & Grill. Four drunks had surrounded her. Green Arrow fired a zipline arrow and descended rapidly, knocking one of the men down in the process. He didn't give the men in the alley a chance to react, surging forward and delivering a knife-hand attack to one man's throat, which caused him to gag and then vomit. Green Arrow leaped back from the deluge and found the man he had knocked down, a bear of a man, had recovered his balance as the man wrapped his huge hairy arms around Green Arrow and lifted him up. Green Arrow thrashed in the man's grip, but to break this sort of grip, he needed leverage, and the man wasn't offering him any. His bow dropped to the ground as he moved his hands upward to try and pry one of the arms loose.

The man he had forced to vomit lumbered forward drunkenly, swinging at his head. Green Arrow ducked his head to the side, and the punch landed on the chin of the bear of a man holding him. Unfortunately, this did little to phase the man. The next punch from the drunk did land on Green Arrow, forcing his head to the side with it's force. "Ooh, that hurt," Green Arrow said sarcastically. "Maybe with a couple of more beers, you can actually lay waste to me."

"Sheddup, Greenie," the drunk said thickly. He reared back, and Green Arrow thrust his legs forward, catching the man's neck between his ankles. He twisted his torso, using the leverage he now had with his legs grounded in some way, and managed to force his way out of the bear of a man's grip. Unfortunately, this meant he crashed to the ground and pulled the other drunk down on top of him. Green Arrow delivered a solid strike to the man's temple and then threw him off, standing. He stood, snatching up his bow, and turned to face the bear of a man, firing a bolo arrow that wrapped the bastard up like a Christmas present. Then he heard the sound of a pistol being cocked. He turned slowly.

The other two men were holding the waitress tight, one of them aiming a pistol at the shaking girl's head. Up close, Green Arrow would put her to be about 21 or 22, the same age he had been when his yacht had sunk, and he had begun his journey to become the man he was now. "Lose the bow, Green Bean, or I'll blow this bitch's brains all over the alley and fuck her corpse for the fun of it," one of the men said roughly, earning a high-pitched wail from the girl.

Green Arrow gritted his teeth. He had run into this fight angry and stupid, and because of that, it was either give up his weapon, or let an innocent girl be shot. He could never do the latter, but if he did the former, they were both probably dead. He slowly began to lower his bow, struggling to think of a way that he could get himself and the girl out of this.

A metallic thunk sounded, and then another high-pitched wail was heard, this one coming from the device and piercing the eardrums of everyone in the alley. Both men holding the girl moved to grab their ears, and Green Arrow took the shot with one of his basic arrows, catching the pistol the man had been wielding and sending it skittering across the blacktop. Green Arrow wasted no time, surging forward and taking the fight to the man who'd been wielding the gun, beating him down with his bow, while the other man found his hands were full in dealing with the demonic blonde in black leather wielding a bo staff that had descended from a nearby fire escape. Green Arrow and The Canary made short work of the two would-be rapists, and the girl who had been cornered raced out of the alley with a shouted, "Thank you," aimed behind her at the two. *5*

Green Arrow, finished with beating his target silly, let the man drop and turned as The Canary dropped her target with a well-placed blow with her bow staff. "Thought you decided to leave town," he said.

"I did, but I heard the news and thought I should be here," The Canary said. "You missed a spot." Without looking back, Green Arrow delivered a backwards kick to a rising man's skull, knocking him out again. "Shouldn't there be a thank you for saving your ass somewhere in there?"

"Thanks," Green Arrow said grudgingly. "Come on. We'll go back to my base. We can talk more there."

"Fine," The Canary said shortly, unaware of the trap that the Green Arrow was springing on her.

*DC*

Oliver and Sara, his hood down and her wig and mask removed, entered the Bunker from the alley-side entrance that Oliver used to go out into the Glades, and Sara froze like a deer in the headlights when she saw Laurel sitting at a table, going over a rather thick file. Laurel, glancing up to check on Oliver and make sure he was okay, likewise froze as she spotted her younger sister. "Did I not mention that Laurel knows about me and was waiting back at my base?" Oliver asked in an innocent tone that fooled not one person in the Bunker. Thea, breaking briefly from her otherwise morose attitude, snickered at the glare Sara aimed at her brother's back as he headed back to change.

"Sara," Laurel said softly, standing and moving to face her little sister. Sara ducked her head down, as if ashamed to be in the same room as Laurel. The older sister approached the younger one, standing in front of her for a moment. Then Laurel grabbed Sara by the shoulders and pulled her into a warm, welcoming hug. Sara froze at first at the feel of her sister's arms around her, then melted into her arms and hugged her back. Sara dug her face into her sister's shoulder, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of her sister's perfume, a scent that brought tears of familiarity to her eyes. "It's okay," Laurel whispered, holding her sister close. "It's fine. You're home. You're safe. You don't need to be afraid, Sara. You're home, you're safe."

Sara and Laurel were still caught in the midst of their hug when Oliver returned, now dressed in his own exercise gear. Oliver pulled Thea over to the training mats and began showing her the exercise using eskrima sticks. The solid thwack-thwack of the eskrima sticks beating against each other pulled Sara and Laurel's attention from their reunion and to the training mats. Sara raised her eyebrows at the fact Oliver was teaching his little sister how to fight, while Laurel smiled softly at the sight, because there was a small, excited grin on Thea's face. For the moment, at least, her mind was off of her mother's suicide.

"Care to tell me what's going on around here?" Sara asked Laurel.

"Sure," Laurel said with a smile.

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.

And yep, Sara is back. I won't say she's back for good cuz I have a couple of ideas I might use for her that would see her leave again, but there's the possibility it's for good. We'll see how things play out.

Chapter Notes:

*1* And we're back to feeling like one needs a shower after writing a scene with Malcolm Merlyn plotting away. Hmmm… now how easy do people think it will be for Malcolm to control Oliver and get him to do what he wants? Consider all the factors carefully…

*2* In writing these sequences where Oliver was thinking of the impact of his mother's death on the timeline if it remains mostly intact, I found there were a few other things Moira did that weren't related to her children, but overall I stand by what I said last chapter. Overall, Moira Queen was not a good person. But she was an interesting character, and I'm going to miss writing her.

*3* I'm sure some people are surprised at the confrontation between Alex and Oliver, seeing as Alex isn't a sister to anyone on Earth-1. The way I see it, she's idealized the relationship and she's reacting based on that.

*4* Some things are happening just a little bit earlier than they did in canon, which is good since I have something that I need Oliver to do and I need him doing it during either Episode 4 or Episode 5. We'll see how things play out.

*5* After I put The Canary in a compromising position in "The Spectre", I figured it was only fair I do the same with Green Arrow in this story.