"The phony surrender's over; the ceasefire has ended. The final fight for the Republic has begun."
― Marie Lu, Champion
Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow. Chap 31 was the last chapter with a flashback. Now it's all about the present. I didn't do an in-depth proofread of this chapter, too tired. Hopefully there aren't a million and a half mistakes turning it shite.
Read, enjoy and review!
(30/11/20: I tried to post this yesterday, but I couldn't upload it to the site for some reason. Apologies)
Chapter Thirty-Two
The Ceasefire's End
Slade was more uneasy about the lack of knowledge on Felicity's plans than he would ever admit. He knew that his nemesis was an intelligent woman. A genius, actually. After letting go of that irritating discontent about harming anybody, even in self-defence or defence of another, she had flourished as a warrior, both mentally and physically. The study he had done of her since she had returned from wherever she had been in those three years between the explosion on the Amazo and her 'discovery' on Lian Yu (no doubt self-orchestrated to provide a convenient and only half-fake cover story about where she had disappeared to, given the photo he'd seen of her in Hong Kong and her not being on Lian Yu when he had looked for her after the explosion), her skills at combat and strategic mind had only blossomed even more.
So Slade knew, there was no way she would be willing to just lay back and let him destroy her precious city, especially with her young son and husband, as well as her in-laws and everybody else she loved, within it. As he worked to increase his army (which was growing at an insufferably small pace given how few subjects survived the injection and the need to only take people who wouldn't be missed or whose disappearance wouldn't be investigated thoroughly by anybody), she was working to counter and stop him. And while she had a vague idea of his plan, if not the details or numbers, he only knew that she would do whatever she had to do to stop him. They were at an impasse, both holding back to try and perfect their plans while seeing if they could get any knowledge of their opponent's strategy.
Slade, after dwelling for a while on what path he should take, made a decision. It was time to send in Ravager.
He picked up his plan and sent a text message to Rochev. 'Plan Robert's Revenge is a go.'
Isabel smirked as she sauntered into Oliver's office, past the empty secretary desk. She had specifically picked this time because she knew there would be no witnesses who might interfere in her actions, given it was the assistant's lunchbreak. The CEO's bodyguard was away, dealing with a manufactured security problem in the lobby. The group had found a man who had recently been fired from one of QC's factories for trying to steal funds and convinced him to go into the lobby of the building and cause a racket. Not that it had been hard to manipulate the enraged man into doing so. They had ordered him not to do anything bad enough to cause the police to come, least the officers check on Oliver and see what Isabel was doing, but problematic enough that the black bodyguard (Dean? Darryl? Something with a 'D' anyway. Not that she cared) would be drawn away as head of the security department to help deal with it.
"Ms Rochev," Queen gave her a tight, fake smile. She felt a stirring of resentment and lust twist her belly. He was gorgeous, as gorgeous as his father had been. But then, that was the whole problem, wasn't it?
She had loved Robert, had been willing to throw away everything she had been working for to live out her life at his side. And what had he done when she suggested it? Told her that she was just some fun on the side for him, that he would never leave his family and company for her. That she wasn't worth losing everything. Then his damn wife had learned about their affair and arranged for her to lose her job at Queen Consolidated and end up having to leave Starling City after being discreetly blacklisted from every decent business job above EA in the city. And it was more than clear in the few interviews she managed to get that they knew she had been sleeping with her boss, and if she were hired, it wouldn't be for her skills in the boardroom.
The mere memory of how Moira had humiliated her made her seethe in righteous fury.
Everything belonging to the Queens should have been hers. It was hers by rights, and she would get it, making Moira fucking Dearden Queen and her family suffer when she did it.
"Is there something I can help you with, Ms Rochev?" Queen asked her. She sashayed closer, a seductive smirk hanging on her red-painted lips as she perched on the side of his desk, her short skirt riding up to reveal her legs when she crossed them on top of one another. She felt a surge of anger when he didn't even look at them, his jaw tightening and fake smile vanishing at her actions.
"As a matter of fact, there is," she replied. He leaned backward against his chair when she reached out towards him, opening his mouth to say something. He never got the chance, as she shoved the tip of the syringe she had been holding discreetly in her hand into the side of his neck.
"Mister Wilson sends his regards to your wife," Isabel smirked viciously as she watched him slide into unconsciousness, a stricken look on his face at her mention of Slade.
Once he was unconscious, Isabel used her Mirakuru-enhanced strength to pick him up and carry him over her shoulder towards the private elevator, reserved for the CEO's sole use.
She couldn't wait to make Moira suffer the way she had suffered, taking everything the older woman cared about away from her, the same way she had taken everything from Isabel. Starting with her precious son.
Felicity had gone on a jog. She was in desperate need of some fresh air, and time to herself to think. Sara was back at the SCT office, overseeing both their business and Thea's training for the day, as she had no classes to attend. The younger girl had taken to the physical part of what they were teaching her easy enough, but the mental part was a lot harder for her.
Not surprising really. People in general struggled with meditation and gaining control over their emotions. Felicity had struggled with it a lot too, but there hadn't been much to do in the months of quiet between Fyers' death and Ivo's arrival, so Shado had taken to teaching her meditation, and Tatsu had added to her previous lessons.
That being said, difficult as it was to grasp, it was an important skill to have, and Thea having Mirakuru swimming through her system only made it more so. They couldn't rely on Roy always being around to snap Thea out of her anger, after all. But so far, he was helping. It was interesting to witness for the scientist parts of Sara and Felicity, even if they were too wary to try and test it. It was strange that Thea, always so fiercely independent, now relied on her boyfriend the way little kids relied on their teddy bears or blankets, but it worked, so they let it go.
Roy too had joined their team, taking up archery with surprising ease (once he and Thea had gotten over their annoyance at Felicity's (or rather, Shado and Yao Fei's) 'hit the water' exercise). He had some hand-to-hand combat skills from his youth, but they were rough and needed polishing. Under the team's guidance, he was flourishing in his new role however. Finally, Sin too had joined them officially, but she was mostly either eyes and ears or med/tech support, always under instructions from the more experienced members of the team.
The blonde archer shook her head, waving away her thoughts. She had gone on the run to get away from her thoughts, not to sink further into an unending and repetitive spiral, after all. That was when, in the middle of the head movement, she spotted a glint of metal in the trees ahead of her. A glint she could recognize as easily as she recognized the palm of her hand.
It was a sniper rifle. Aimed in her direction.
Carefully, the archer slipped into a different stance, preparing to lunge for cover immediately. As she did so, she kept her expression even while she surveyed the park, searching for anymore threats. She identified two more potential perches in the forest-like area where snipers could position themselves along the route she'd been taking, and mentally cursed herself for her laxity, especially now of all time. She'd wanted to go to the park to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city proper, but there were specific trails for runners laid out, and it gained attention and often difficulties with the park security if you didn't follow them.
She casually came to a stop, trying to keep her body language from revealing that she had made the sniper and beginning to make her way to a kiosk selling refreshments on the other side of the park, near one of the gates. She was betting, based on the obscured perch chosen by the assassin, and the time being quiet enough that, if they caught her off-guard, she wouldn't be found for a while, that they didn't want to attract too much attention. Not before they had gotten away, at least. If she stayed in sight of others, she could probably keep them from coming after her until she could get to a better position to fight them.
Her fear that the hitman had been sent by Slade disappeared, and her wariness was replaced by annoyance when she arrived at the kiosk and found Amanda fucking Waller already there. As immaculately dressed as always, the ruthless but beautiful woman was accepting a steaming cup of what Felicity assumed was tea (Waller never drank coffee, for whatever reason. Even when she had been up for days dealing with a crisis, she stubbornly stuck to regular breakfast tea with a dash of milk. One of her few habits, and thus noted and tucked carefully away in the back of her mind by Felicity. Anything that could be used as an advantage in their tempestuous relationship, was to be used.) from the bored college-age girl manning the stand.
Felicity ignored Waller as she took her place at the kiosk, ordering a simple water, seeing as her own was empty now, and an energy bar. Then she made her way over to the bench where the director of ARGUS was sitting primly, sipping at her drink as she worked on her phone. Maybe she was ordering an airstrike on some village in the Middle East or something. It would be a very Waller thing to do, casually order the death of hundreds in between sipping her tea primly, not even smudging her dark red lipstick.
"That yours?" Felicity asked, hiding her words with a swig of her water. She tilted her head slightly in the sniper's direction to ensure Waller understood what she was referencing. She had no doubt she was right. Waller knew Felicity too well to meet her without insurance, just in case Felicity got fed up and tried to kill her, or made a move to release the incriminating information she had on ARGUS that would bring down the agency and probably cause a minor world war over which country Waller was extradited to. That USB, of which Felicity had six copies stashed away in various places, including her thigh (the dubious benefit of being a Bratva captain) was the reason she was able to walk around freely, without Waller dragging her back. Valuable as Felicity was, she wasn't valuable enough for Waller to risk her releasing the info to the world. "Not well hidden, is he?"
"He's adequate enough for his purposes," Waller shrugged in response, not removing her gaze from her phone. "A good shot, though not as good as you of course."
"If you were anybody else, I would think you were giving me praise," Felicity mused, knowing the older woman was simply stating a fact. Few could match, let alone beat, Felicity when it came to marksmanship. "So? What do you want?"
"Beneath the bench there is a vial taped to the seat," Waller responded evenly. "That is the new cure for Mirakuru created by my scientists. All it needs is proper testing to be performed on a human subject. Animal testing phase is done. I am sure you have some way to confirm its' success?"
"I'll get it done," Felicity agreed, discreetly feeling around for the small package. Once she had found it and pulled it off the bench, she swiftly slipped it into the pocket of her windbreaker. She decided not to look into how the hell the organization could have come up with a counter to the deadly drug so quickly. It hadn't been that long since Felicity had warned ARGUS of Slade's return and the Mirakuru's reappearance. Somethings it was best not to know about.
Still, Felicity knew that it would be as safe as the scientists could make it. Waller wouldn't risk handing over a sample unless she was a hundred percent positive it was safe to use. She knew that Felicity would kill her otherwise.
"I look forward to hearing the results of your test, Mrs. Queen," Waller whispered to her, as Felicity rose and began stretching in preparation for restarting her run, though she would head back to the site where she had parked her car to drive back to SCT as quickly as she could. The faster they had cured Thea, the more content Felicity would be. "Inform me of them. On confirmation of it being a success, my team will begin mass-production."
"Noted," Felicity muttered back, before returning to her run. 'Please,' she sent up a silent prayer to the god she wasn't sure she believed in. 'Please, let this work.'
Thea was unconscious.
Ignoring the heavy protests of Tommy and Aly, who would much prefer to run their own tests on the sample supplied by ARGUS before injecting anyone with it, the young heiress had insisted on trying it out.
"We have to find out if it works," she pointed out to the two worried medical professionals. "And the best way to do that is to test it on someone with Mirakuru. Trying to kidnap Slade would be suicide, so I'm our best option."
The couple had given in under protest, and they had given Thea the injection. She had immediately fallen unconscious and, much to their alarm, started to seize. It had been quick, but ever since the end she had been unconscious, breathing normally with an oxygen mask over her face on Aly's insistence. She was hooked up to a dozen different machines, with everyone keeping a careful eye on her.
Felicity herself could feel worry and guilt twisting her stomach into knots. She silently vowed that if Thea suffered from the 'cure', Felicity would take it out on ARGUS' hide. She glanced at her phone, furrowing her brow anxiously. She had tried repeatedly to call Oliver and Diggle, and sent a million and a half text messages wanting to update them on Thea's state, but had received no reply. It made her gut churn warningly.
When Dig arrived, two and a half hours after Thea fell unconscious, with a grim expression on his face, she knew she had been right to worry.