"Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart."
― José N. Harris, MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love
Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow. Okay, I know that people want more Queen family time, but I just can't manage it right now. The epilogue will be all family fluff, I swear, but right now is action. Only a few chapters left.
This one's a bit shorter than usual, but I wanted to get another out this week.
Read, enjoy and review.
Chapter Thirty
Tears Shed
Hong Kong, 2009
"This is getting ridiculous, Mrs. Queen. You waste all of our time and resources with these useless escape attempts. Is this the thanks you give me for getting you off Lian Yu and saving your life?"
"I don't owe you a single fucking thing," Felicity bit out as viciously as she could at the woman seated across from her.
The woman "Director Amanda Waller of the Advanced Research Group United Support", (also known as ARGUS, a clearly incredibly shady black ops offshoot of the CIA. Given that the CIA was black ops too, Felicity was disturbed as all fuck to picture what ARGUS might be into) as she had introduced herself, was clearly going to be a formidable opponent. She was dark-skinned, with her straight raven hair pulled into a tight bun, not a strand out of place. She was perfectly put together, make up well done, form-fitting skirt-suit professional and managing to hold that delicate edge that allowed a glimpse at her long legs while at the same time conservative enough to make it clear that she hadn't climbed the political ladder to her position by spreading her legs for her superiors. It was her eyes, though, that caused Felicity to be instantly and deeply wary of the woman who stood between her and her return to Starling City.
They were hard as stone. Felicity knew with a single glance that the woman was utterly ruthless, and would do whatever she deemed necessary to reach her goal.
"What do you want with me?" Felicity asked icily. Perhaps she should've been more polite to the woman who had taken her out of that hellhole, but she was grieving, injured, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that, whatever these ARGUS people wanted from her, they had no intention of allowing her to go back home, or even let her make a phone call to tell her family she was alive. She had gotten as far as the port the last time she escaped (her sixth attempt), leaving a trail of ARGUS bodies in her wake (alive but not much of them would be fit for field duty ever again). Then they'd caught up to her as she tried to figure out what ship to try and sneak onto.
Her problem wasn't escaping ARGUS, really that was just too easy. It was getting out of Hong Kong and her lack of knowledge in how to speak any dialect of Chinese that was causing her problems.
"That's need to know, and you don't," Waller replied. Felicity scoffed in disdain at that, glare deepening.
"Bullshit," she hissed. "You have no right to detain me here against my will," she added.
Waller gave a smile that failed to reach her dark eyes. "You're dead, Mrs. Queen," she reminded Felicity, whose jaw clenched tightly. "Please do remember how simple it would be for the body to match the papers."
"Fuck you, you psychotic bitch!" Felicity snapped angrily, glowering bitterly. "What. Do. You. Want. With. Me?"
"I have need of a woman of your talents," Waller admitted. "Your skills, your IQ. We had our eye on you long before you ever washed up on that beach and picked up a bow and arrow."
"I'm not going to work for you, and I'm not going to stop trying to get home," Felicity answered stonily. Waller pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.
"Let's try this another way then, shall we?" She said. Felicity felt a jolt of unease as she watched the older woman pull out a tablet, tap at it for a few moments, and then show it to her.
The young woman felt her heart stop in fear. It was footage from a security camera, and it showed Oliver at the park with their young son, playing with him in the sandpit. She recognized them both on sight, even after over two years away and through the less-than-stellar camera view.
On a bench near to the pair was a nondescript man with glasses, seeming to be deep in conversation on his phone. After all her practice, Felicity had learned to recognize a hidden weapon, and she could easily pick out the shape of the gun on the man's hip. Her blood went cold as it dawned on her what was going on.
Waller was going to pay for this one day.
"What are you doing?" She said, her voice barely above a whisper. She felt her hands curl into fists, nails piercing her skin.
Waller's eyes glinted with triumph as she raised a phone to her lips.
"Agent Carron, please prove to Mrs. Queen that this is real-time footage," she ordered. On the screen 'Carron' nodded, casually standing up from the bench and stretching, allowing him to signal the CCTV camera.
Oliver remained oblivious, picking Will up out of the sandpit and beginning to dust him off, the toddler squirming in protest at his father's actions. Tears pricked Felicity's eyes as she watched. Thankfully, she held them back, preventing Waller from seeing them. But she wasn't naïve enough to believe that Waller wouldn't pick up on her body language and the distress she felt at the scene.
"You're a smart woman, Mrs. Queen," Waller told her lowly. "You must realize how simple it would be for us to end your family's lives."
"And if you kill Oliver and Will, what would you have left to hold over me?" Felicity asked mechanically. She regretted it a moment later when Waller proceeded to flick through different security cameras. She showed an undercover agent working as the bartender in the bar where Quentin was having a drink, a woman subtly stalking Thea as the teen shopped with her friends from school, some male agent sitting at the table behind Moira and a dark-skinned man Felicity vaguely remembered as the CFO of Queen Consolidated while the pair ate lunch together and even a woman speaking to Raisa at the grocery store.
All ARGUS agents, all carefully placed to kill somebody Felicity loved if she didn't cooperate.
Her expression was dead and emotionless when she met Waller's gaze, but inside a flame sparked to life and she silently resolved to make the Director pay for her actions.
Felicity was going to make her pay for this, if it was the last thing the archer ever did.
Following Laurel was easy. Felicity had left her employees in charge of SCT (the good thing about being a boss with a habit of giving random, excessive bonuses was that she was able to wander off to do vigilante work without anyone causing a fuss or getting suspicious. Or at least, if they were feeling suspicious, they kept it to themselves. And, violation of their privacy or not, Felicity had inserted viruses into both their work and personal tech to alert her if they started looking into her activities so she could put them off the scent. It was hardly the worst of her list of sins. Barely ranked on it, to tell the truth.). She disguised herself as a platinum blonde with grey eyes (ignoring the shudder that went through her when the wig made her think of Chien Na Wei) dressed in a vintage cream shirt with a square neckline and covered in a plethora of pink roses, some faded denim jeans and a black faux-leather jacket, finished off with a pair of boots with a buckle on the side. Once dressed, she headed off to the District Attorney's office where she settled in and waited on the rooftop opposite, a pair of binoculars pressed to her eyes as she squinted in at Laurel's office, patiently waiting for something to happen.
That was a long, boring four hours, but Felicity had dealt with worse. Eventually, she saw Laurel receive and read a text message, before gathering up her things and hurrying from the room. Felicity quickly gathered up her own things and ensured no traces of her watch remained in her sniper's nest (Felicity didn't kid herself into pretending it was anything else, even if she hadn't actually sniped her target.), swung her satchel over her shoulder and used the pipe to scramble agilely down to the ground.
After that, Felicity lost sight of the lawyer until she saw the brunette stride briskly out of the building to where her car was parked. Felicity herself was waiting by her bike, pretending to be rooting in search of something through the small compartment attached to it as an excuse for her lingering outside the building for longer than a casual observer would deem it necessary. It often amazed (and disturbed) her how easily more sinister actions could be hidden by putting on the appearance of the mundane. Then she swung her leg over the seat and kicked it into gear just in time to chase after Laurel's dark green Skoda, being careful to stay far enough back to avoid being spotted while at the same time being close enough to keep sight on her target.
She was unsurprised when Laurel pulled into the parking lot of a relatively busy shopping mall, about half-way between the Glades and the centre of the city.
It was still easy to keep track of the other woman, pretending to be window shopping. She followed her all the way to the Starbucks, always bustling and directly across from a shop that Felicity ducked into for a while to keep up appearances. Due to the two large windows facing one another, she was able to keep an eye on Laurel's movements.
She very nearly lost her composure when she saw Laurel sit down at a small table across from Slade Wilson.
/\\\
Despite her best efforts, she couldn't tell what they were discussing (most likely their plans to kill god-knew-how-many-people out of resentment towards her). Their faces were angled so that she was unable to read their lips, especially when she had to leave the first store and go next door instead to avoid raising suspicions.
She wasn't surprised when Laurel, who passed literally inches from her while leaving her meeting with the ex-A.S.I.S agent, didn't shoot her a second glance, even when their hands brushed against each other.
And she definitely wasn't surprised that, even though "Laurel the Lawyer/Spoilt Child Who Had No Concept of Espionage Even While Helping A Dangerous Conspiracy" hadn't recognized her, Slade did. He was, after all, a former spy. And he'd been one of the best in his division. Spotting her was easy as cake to him, Felicity had no doubt.
He managed to sneak up on her, though she was quick to hide her disconcertion at that fact and raise an eyebrow at him.
"What an unwanted displeasure," she drawled, tilting her head back to meet his gaze. He towered over her, and she knew he could break her in half with one hand. It wasn't even a hyperbole, because of the damn Mirakuru. In spite of that, she refused to be intimidated or yield. They locked eyes for several moments before Slade finally broke the tense silence.
"Why don't you join me for a coffee, Princess?" He suggested with a smirk.
She scoffed. "You haven't had enough already?" She retorted. The last thing he needed was more caffeine to heighten his anxiety/paranoia and heart rate. The higher his heart rate and blood pressure was, the more psychotic he would be. She jerked her head towards a bench that would provide both of them with the vantage points they would need to keep reasonably calm.
Slade smirked slightly, the edges of the expression failing to reach his ice-cold eyes, and joined her on the bench. She resisted the urge to shift away on instinct when she felt him brush against her.
She couldn't risk showing any tiny bit of weakness in this 'conversation'.
"So, how many successful Mirakuru injections have you managed so far?" She inquired casually. "Can't be much, otherwise you'd have unleashed your new hounds on the city by now."
"Oh, you can't expect me to ruin the surprise, now can you?" Slade replied easily. The way they were speaking to each other and sitting calmly side-by-side, an outsider would be forgiven for thinking them good friends instead of bitter enemies.
At one point, they had been good friends. They had stopped just short of being siblings in arms, as a matter of fact. But that, Felicity knew all too well, was a long time ago.
If they had been alone, she might have tried to provoke him, or else to reason with him. Neither had ever worked before, but Felicity was stubborn, hard-headed and loyal.
She didn't want to fight Slade, even now. She was acutely aware that it was the Mirakuru and grief, combined with the trauma they'd all gone through on that godforsaken hellhole of an island, that had turned him from the man who had guarded her back while she hacked Fyers' missile to reprogramme it to go for the mercenaries' camp instead of the plane, to the maniac who had killed his own wife and son on hearing of Felicity's survival. If only she and Shado hadn't given him the damn drug. If only Sara had warned them beforehand. She had gone through the different 'what if's too many times to count by now, and the only conclusion she had ever come to was that she regretted ever hearing of the goddamn serum.
Damn those Japanese idiots who had come up with the fucking thing. And damn the Allied morons who had failed to properly bomb the submarine into too many pieces to survive. If only...
At any rate, the point was that, Felicity didn't want Slade to be her enemy. She still wanted to get through to him. But because they were in a crowded place, and she knew that this version of Slade Wilson wouldn't be above using the civilians surrounding them as hostages against her (after all, he had always had a hard, cruel streak to him. The Mirakuru had only strengthened and worsened it, not created it.), she didn't dare to risk it.
"I am going to make you pay, Felicity," Slade warned her lowly, switching abruptly from feigned friendliness to cold-hearted villain, intent on revenge. It was disconcerting to see his mood swing.
"Then do," she agreed, a hint of pleading coming through her voice. Despite her earlier resolve, she found herself trying to reason with him anyway. "But kill me, Slade. Leave my family and the city be. Whatever you're planning, don't do it. Please."
He smirked cruelly at her. "Ah, but I don't just want you to die," he pointed out. "I want you to suffer. To feel the grief I felt when Shado, Adeline and Joe died. All of them are dead because of you. I lost everything because of you, so you are going to pay for it. And I know you, Felicity. You held out under torture at eighteen, and again the year after.
No, physical pain isn't the way to punish you for what you did. Emotional pain, on the other hand, is. You've always had such a tender, loving heart. Always been so compassionate and sweet, willing to put your life on the line for another without batting an eyelash. Nothing will hurt you half-as-much as watching the people and city you love so much crumble into pieces, all because of you. Once you've lost anything, and you're too distraught to fight anymore. That's when I'm going to be kind and put you out of your misery."
She watched with a pained, helpless expression as he rose to his feet and walked away, a smug smile on his lips as he left her behind.
An older woman patted her on the shoulder, giving a sympathetic smile. "He's not worth crying over, dear," she said kindly. No doubt she thought they were just after breaking up or something. Felicity gave a bitter, teary smile in return.
"Yeah, he is," she corrected her painfully. She looked over her shoulder, but Slade was already disappeared into the crowds.
She tried to feel as if she was losing him all over again.
"What's happening to me?" Thea whimpered to her boyfriend; her green eyes wide with fear as the couple stared in shocked terror at the desk. Or rather, at its remains. They'd been arguing about a topic that had swiftly disappeared from Thea's mind the moment she hit the desk with the side of her fist in frustration, only for the thing to collapse in on itself.
If it had been an old wooden one, they might've dismissed it as merely the wood being conveniently weak in that particular spot. But it was metal, only purchased a month or so before the Undertaking, not that long ago, relatively speaking.
And this wasn't the first incident Thea had had since she had woken up in the hospital after being attacked by the masked lunatic, even if she had only revealed them to Roy.
"What's happening to me?" She repeated fearfully, holding her arms to her chest protectively. Roy pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head, eyeing the debris warily.
"I don't know what's going on," he admitted as he rubbed a hand up and now her tense back. "But we are gonna figure this out, okay? You're gonna be fine."
"I need you to promise not to leave me, no matter what happens," Thea breathed back. He pressed a kiss to her hair again.
"Not a chance, Baby," he vowed. "You're stuck with me as long as you'll have me."
She curled closer to him, burying herself in his scent and the feeling of safety and reassurance he gave her with his embrace.
Outside, Sara manoeuvred herself up on top of the building and sat down with her knees up, frowning grimly at them as she debated what to do next.
Thea's 'abilities' were starting to manifest, and though she seemed more mentally stable than Slade or any of the other subjects had been described as, she still presented a danger to everyone around her.
Killing her was off the table, regardless of how much easier it would make things. That left one question to be asked, the most basic one possible: what did they do now?