Jacob regained consciousness to find Al'Faar's head in his lap, still completely naked and breathing extremely slowly. He gently lifted her head, sliding out from where he sat and laid her back down without waking her. He stood up, silently padding to the window to look out at the city below him. Lights began to flicker on all throughout the streets as the sun cast it setting light all across the sky. Time to work, he thought to himself, turning around. Unexpectedly, he found Al'Faar's knife pointed directly at his throat.
"Have you made your decision?" she asked, staring at him unblinkingly.
"You know the answer to that," he said, pushing away the knife and walking around her.
"The mother will be displeased," she sighed, lowering her blade.
"That can't be helped," he added, pulling on his pants and fastening them around his hips.
"Do you understand I am displeased?" She asked, flipping the blade around by its tip.
"Why do you stay here?" she went on, staring out the window at the city. "We've seen cities like this before, they cannot be helped, only cleansed."
"That sounds more like Ra's Al Ghul's teaching than Nyssa's," he shot back, staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
"He was right on very few things," she shrugged, turning to face him. "But that was one."
"We fought together for months and you hid this from me?" he asked, frowning and eyeing her.
"Just as you hid your intention to return to this destitute city," she replied without flinching.
He shook his head, remark slightly stinging.
"Then I guess there's no reason to return," he said, picking up his batons and stowing them behind his back.
"They'll hunt you down," she warned, glaring at him as he moved.
"They'll try," he corrected, going to climb out the window.
"I found you," she shot back. "If I can, you know He will."
"I'll be ready for him this time," he growled, spinning back around to look at her.
"No, you won't," she muttered sadly, looking away from him. "And this time, he will kill you."
"He can try," Jacob shot back, turning to leave.
"I have to report my failure," she told the window in front of her, no longer actually speaking to him.
"I'm sorry, Cassandra," He whispered, jumping from the window and taking off into the night.
"So am I, Jacob," she replied, a tear rolling down her face contorted in rage.
Jacob slipped inside the clinic, the lights seemingly brighter and the whole place seeming cleaner. He stepped into the back room, finding Henry staring at a computer screen, holding out a pocket watch, back to him.
"Right on time," he chuckled, clicking the lid shut. "Do you specifically have something against daylight hours?"
"Tan lines," Jacob joked, walking up to see what he was studying on the screen.
Henry snorted in a tight british way, taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I do suppose that would be a problem, wouldn't it?" He asked, replacing his glasses.
"Where is she?" Jacob asked, looking around the room for the young woman.
"Sleeping on the sofa in my den," he answered, nodding to the next room over. "Poor thing said the lights were bothering her. I do hope I didn't miss any cranial damage."
"Probably the meds," Jacob shrugged, his modulated voice crackling.
"I've had to decrease her dosage unfortunately," Henry went on. "She is in considerable pain, but the human body isn't made to stay numb for quite that long."
"Is she alright, staying here?"
"Medically, she needs to not move. Personally, I don't mind having her here," Henry explained. "It's nice having a bit of conversation, for instance, though I'm not sure whether it's medical delirium or not but she thinks you are her friend named Sara."
He stopped, turning to look at Jacob.
"I do not believe it, your bone structure would indicate someone of male gender, so I would say medical delirium."
"Pan will do that to a person," Jacob confirmed, nodding his head.
Henry nodded in agreement, turning back to his computer as Jacob turned to leave.
"It would do if I had a way to contact you," he heard Henry call.
"I'll look into that," Jacob called back, ducking out the door.
Jacob dropped down into the warehouse, feet barely making a sound. A dozen or so paces ahead he could hear and see the security guard whistling, his flashlight sweeping from side to side. Waiting till he rounded the corner and exited the bay through the side door, Jacob snuck through the shelves hunting down the items he needed. He heard the mechanical whirring of a camera turning off to his right so he froze, searching for the source. Seeing a small red dot, he found it in the darkness, pointing a few steps ahead in between the two rows of shelves. He waited, watching the path the camera took before skirting around it and coming to row M. A few shelves in he found the crate, a medium sized briefcase marked: Motion Detectors. Perfect, he thought to himself, flicking the latches on the crate and finding four small camera looking pods and four pods that looked like receivers. He shut the lid, clicking the latches shut and lifted the case off the shelf. Immediately, alarms started going off, lights started flashing and he heard the security guards radio crackle.
"Bill, what the hell is going on down there?" Came someone's voice.
"Probably another rat knocking things around, hold on," the security guard responded, the jingling of keys getting louder.
Jacob shoved his shoulder into the closest rack ,toppling the shelves against the door and pinning it shut.
"What the hell?" he heard the security guard spout, shoving his weight against the door and making the shelf rattle.
Jacob bolted, tossing the case up and on top of the closest shelf before climbing up himself. Hefting it up at the top, he shoved it into the duct he used to climb down and made his way to the roof. With a kick, he knocked out the grate he rescued on the way down, free and left the squealing of alarms behind.
Jacob lugged the crate up through the window, letting it fall with a thud to the clocktower floor. Getting completely through, he slid the case over to the elevator door, snagged the laptop and mashed the call button with his closed fist. A few seconds later, the doors opened and he scooted the case in with a nudge from his boot.
Arriving on the base floor, he unlatched the case and picked out the sensor modules, arranging them all throughout the room before placing the receiver pods accordingly. Flipping the laptop open, he loaded up the accompanying program, standing next to each pod and tapping keys to configure them. After the screen showed all four pods with green lights, a display showed up, showing each pod and the area it covered. He waved his hand in the closest area, the screen picking up the movement and identifying it as a red dot with INTRUDER ALERT flashing across the screen. That'll work, he thought to himself, hopefully no more surprise guests. He shut the laptop, sticking it under his arm before kicking the crate lid shut and sliding it back into the elevator with his foot. Riding back to the top, he shoved the crate out and sat the laptop down, flipping the lid and making sure the proximity program was still running. Nodding to himself, he took off his League jacket, hung it up and started his workout routine.
Felicity sat in the computer chair, chewing on a piece of red Licorice, watching the new report scroll across her screen: Sigma securities reports breach in warehouse. Frowning slightly, she double clicked on the headline, bringing up a video.
"I'm standing outside one of Star City's growing security firms, Sigma Securities, where sometime in the last few hours, a break in occurred. Now the head of Sigma, Luke Gemberling, urges everyone not to panic. All customers data was protected on a private server and any flaws in their system are currently being evaluated to prevent a recurrence. He also urges any customers who have any questions, comment and concerns, to contact the Sigma Securities hotline and they will be assessed, handled and cared for immediately. This is Joyce Chen, reporting for channel 7."
Licorice hanging out of her mouth, Felicity started tapping away, bringing up Sigma's database. A few minutes later, their entire inventory laid open at her fingertips. Scrolling through, she found several memos and reports before finding the missing item. Item number M407B2 flashed red on the screen. She chewed on the licorice piece, it wiggling in her mouth. After a few more minutes of digging, she broke into the files description: Motion Detector, four sets with accompanying receivers, proprietary battery designed and tested.
She wiggled her eyebrows before scribbling a note down on her pad in front of her.
Sara+ MM
Diner? Note that was left
ARGUS? JACOB?!
Sigma Securities?
She looked up again, digging further into the details, specifically into the proprietary battery.
Felicity slowly paced through the glades, nose firmly stuck on the screen of her tablet as she walked. The tracking program she had composed over the last few hours seemed to be working, the red dot on the screen urging her forward. She made a quick few turns, skipping a shady alleyway and staying on the main road leading up to the clocktower, the dot blinking brighter.
What would a motion detector be doing in a defunct construction site? She thought to herself, walking up to the scaffolding and looking up. Nothing seemed out of place, of course she hadn't been there since Argus had originally blown up the building after the mirakuru incident. She walked around the building, the red dot on her tracker never wavering. Looking up to the gloom, she tried to see if anything moved, but ultimately found nothing.
"Let's see what's behind door number one," she muttered to herself, walking up to the front door.
She reached for the handles, finding them chained together loosely. Opening the door, she found she could create a gap before the chains pulled tight, quite possibly big enough to fit through.
"This is a bad idea," she muttered out loud, wiggling her way through; her glasses getting caught on the door and falling off. She moved back and grabbed them before standing up and tapping a scan button on her tablet. A semi circle appeared for a few minutes while she gazed into the dark, cobweb filled atrium. Slowly but surely, the four separate nodes displayed themselves on the screen.
"Well hello, my prettys," she whispered, turning them all off with a quick series of keystrokes.
Upstairs, Jacobs program for the motion detectors went blank, flashing DISENGAGED, with him being completely obvious while doing pull ups.
Felicity pushed her way through the cob webs, following a schematic for the room to where the elevator should be. Finding the dust free silver doors, she cocked her head to the side.
"Clean door in a dirty room," she whispered to herself. "That's not suspicious…"
She pushed the call button, the elevator humming and silently opening. Stepping inside, she clicked the on switch to an ultraviolet flashlight, pulling out a pair of yellow tinted glasses as well. Looking for any fingerprints she could find, she began to wave the flashlight around the interior of the car. There were multiple sets, most of which she wrote off as construction workers, but one stood out in particular: one single print on one button for the highest floor. She clicked off her flashlight, using the bottom of it to push the button. The elevator shook and hummed upwards, making her let out a small gasp of surprise. After almost a minute, the doors opened to the main room of the clocktower, looking out at the glass clock face.
"Sara, are you here?" she called into the darkness, stepping out of the elevator.
Something moved up ahead in the darkness, causing a metallic scraping sound. She fumbled with her flashlight, clicking it on and off twice before the white light began to show. Her light wavered in her hand, suddenly illuminating a broad set of shoulders, shoulders that she thought seemed very familiar.
"Oliver?" she gasped, peering harder in the darkness.
"Not Oliver," came the voice, turning around.
Felicity squinted in the darkness, her flashlight barely illuminating the face till it started to move closer.
"You might not recognize me," the person called, moving closer into the light, his whole body now being illuminated along with his face.
The man paused a few steps away from her, a smirk coming to his face as she stared at him in absolute shock.
"Jacob?" she gasped, raising a hand to her mouth.
He nodded, silently acknowledging her.
"What happened to you?" she asked, light flickering over his body as she stared at him, slightly terrified.
"Sara, the League, you know," he shrugged.
"Sara did this to you?!" she asked, now clearly terrified.
"Unintentionally," he admitted, walking away to the table and pulling on a black shirt to hide the scars. "How'd you find me?"
She held up her tablet, the search program and the nodes still displayed.
"The proprietary battery?" he asked, shaking his head.
"Plus some clever hacking," she admitted, eyes still wide but nodding.
"Of course," he groaned, looking over at his laptop and seeing the flashing disengaged message still displayed.
"Where have you been?" she asked, blinking rapidly and seemingly coming back to her senses.
"Buy me dinner and I'll tell you," he said through a smile.
She nodded, still staring as he shut the laptop and tossed a cover over his weapons.
"You really need to upgrade your system," she stammered, shaking her blonde locks.
"I think Argus would take a little more notice over that," he laughed, pressing the call button and gaining a glare from her.
Big Belly Burger
Jacob sat opposite Felicity, Rockets Hat pulled low over his eyes. A whole burger sat in front of Felicity as Jacob emptied a third basket of both fries and burgers.
"You went back in time?" Felicity burst out, eyes wide; a few tables around them shooting glares at her.
"Yeah," Jacob replied, swallowing and waving her to calm down. "To Lian Yu, Sara thought it would be better to train me somewhere Oliver trained but with no people."
"How long were you there?" she asked, nibbling on a fry.
"Days, weeks, months?" He shrugged, working on his own batch. "Didn't exactly keep a callender."
"Well where have you been for the last five or six months?" She pressed.
"With the League pretty much," he shrugged. "Went where I was told."
"But Nyssa dissolved the league?" she asked, confused.
"It's complicated," he sighed, tossing a fry back into the bin. "but basically the tyranny Ra's installed is gone."
"So how are you here? Why are you here?"
"How, is easy, working with the League opened a lot of doors for me. As for why, you already know the answer."
"Thea, the feather," she muttered, chewing on another fry. "That was you."
He nodded silently, glaring at his fries.
"Oliver found it and had me analyze it," she went on. "He thought maybe someone was threatening her."
"God dammit," he swore, smacking the table and making her jump. "That was supposed to be for her. I wanted her to find it and know I was still thinking of her. I wanted to be sitting here telling her all of this"
"You do understand how that sounds right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's all a bit strange, yes I admit that," he went on. "But when I saw that article in the paper, then being in that hospital room, seeing how messed up she was, and my ring…"
He broke off, eyes turning to the window and staring out into the darkness outside.
"You hurt her when you left, you know that right?" she asked quietly. "For days, she'd come down, expecting to see you there, holding your ring in her hand. She would talk about you, and ask about you. But after a while, she stopped coming. Then the shit with Chase blew up, literally, Lian Yu with it and she's been in the hospital ever since."
"She still had it," he muttered, absently fiddling with a plastic straw in his left hand. "It was still on that necklace she wore, sitting there on the table beside her."
"Have you been back to see her?" she asked. "Aside from the first time."
"I can't risk it," he said, shaking his head. "If Olivers already on my trail, going back and seeing her would only make it worse."
"I can understand that, but," she hesitated. "What you're doing, our team usually handles the city."
"You handle the major players," he argued, looking back to her and glaring, the straw in his hand twisted into knots. "But yet the Los Harcones still run rampant, the Bratva still has a presence here, the Glades haven't changed at all. Oliver thinks he's helping this city but in reality he's only helping half."
"And you plan to help the other half?"
"I'm damn well going to try," he went on. "I've already put the pressure on the Los Harcones. Once they're dealt with, I'll move on to Bratva. The people here deserve to feel safe. I sat by and watched as other people fought to keep them safe, I won't any longer."
"So then talk to Oliver…" she tried to say.
"Dammit Felicity," Jacob broke in, slightly too loud. He paused, shaking his head and lowering his voice before continuing. "He refused to train me when I first got here, just like he refused to train Laurel. What makes you think he's gonna change his mind now?"
She sighed, shaking her head and taking her glasses off.
"You two are more alike than you realize," she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fine, if you're so insistent to go it alone, I'm going to help you."
He blinked a few times, staring at her.
"I never said I was alone," he said through a smirk. "But i'll take all the help I can get."
"Good, cause your computer and security literally made me cringe," she replied, a shiver running through her spine to the base of her neck.
"It did the job," he shrugged, eating a fry. "It's not like I've pissed off any techno geniuses."
"Oliver thought the same thing," she warned, picking up a fry and pointing it out at him. "Then Malcolm Merlyn kept showing up in our bunker."
"Yeah but isn't he dead?"
"We don't know…."
Across the street, lurking on a rooftop, a dark hooded figure with a green serpentine pattern across its chest watched as Felicity and Jacob sat and talked. It tilted its head, the green scales across its face mask catching the light and giving off a menacing flare.