07:06


In the early hours of the following morning, Oliver was back in the Lair with the completed exoskeleton for his arms, attempting to implement it into his suit. Curtis claimed it was ready for practical use, which was something Oliver as a sign that it was ready for the suit. While he wouldn't be able to test it right away, Oliver knew that he had to be ready just in case.

As he slipped the arm into the fabric, much to his disgust he watched as the metal came right through the other side. "Shit!" he growled as he set the arm down and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, that's not gonna work. Guess I better break out the sewing machine."

It wasn't his favorite task, repairing his suit, or even making a completely new one, but it was a necessary task. As he ran through the process of marking all the dimensions, he began thinking about what he had read on werewolves and ideas for this suit came into his head like a wildfire. Personally he would never try to be as flashy as Harry was while the Red Arrow was in action, but in this case, his own personal flair would help tremendously.

To combat Greyback's strength, Oliver added some durable lightweight armor padding into the torso of his suit. That would be where Greyback would attempt to strike him first, no doubt. Oliver would be able to maneuver enough this way that hopefully he could avoid most of the damage Greyback would dole out.

It was simple enough to get the exoskeleton into place with the new sleeves, but he noted that without enough padding underneath it felt like the metal would dig in and cause issues. Keeping in mind that the arms were meant to be extremely flexable, Oliver adjusted it and laid the jacket out on the table, glancing at the forearm area. He stood there for a moment, puzzled as a strange thought came over him regarding the Red Arrow suit and ran over to the computer to pull up the specs on Harry's suit.

The gauntlets Harry had, there was something special about them, but Oliver couldn't put his finger on what. As he pulled the image of the gauntlet out, Oliver suddenly remembered Harry's hidden blades.

"Hmm" the thoughtful grunt left his lips as he walked back to the table. A hidden blade is for close up, stealth attacks. I'm not one for stealth attacks. If I'm gonna fight someone I'd rather fight them face to face. The blade concept isn't bad, but using it the way Harry would, that's not my style.

From the shadows, Harry could use his blade, but I need to be able to use it to change the course of a fight. If I can't get to them, bring them to me...

Oliver built a bracer based off of Harry's, but made some of his own modifications.

A mechanism inside this gauntlet would allow a chain to come out, attached to a kunai. The kunai itself would be a titanium alloy with a silver overcoat, but the point of the kunai was that if Oliver threw it at an enemy, he could have the blade attach to his opponent, and using the chain, pull them straight to him, like Scorpion's blade from Mortal Kombat. Fun fact, this was one of Oliver's favorite games to play with his father before he died.

If I don't say, Get over here, when I use it, I won't get sued for copyright infringement, right? Oliver mused to himself, smiling lightly as he put the gauntlet on and went over to one of his practice dummies. Alright, let's see how well this works.

Oliver pressed a pressure sensitive button on his hand that was a part of the gauntlet and flicked his wrist forward at the dummy as the propulsion system within the gauntlet sent the kunai flying out at a remarkable speed, piercing the dummy's torso. Oliver smiled brightly, and then grabbed the chain and pulled, watching the dummy come at him as the chain retracted back into the gauntlet. Grabbing the dummy mid-air, Oliver laughed. "Oh that'll do, that'll do nicely."

Laying the gauntlet down, Oliver went to work making a new pair of gloves, adding an armored padding to the knuckles underneath as he put silver knuckles into the gloves themselves. He stitched everything into place and continued adding armor where he needed to. Once all that was done, Oliver thought about the color of the suit. He was so used to the dark tone of the suit that it felt almost wrong to change it, but something in his gut was telling him a lighter tone of green would do just fine.

Well, lighter will make the Arrow look less like the Red Arrow, I suppose. Wait, why do I want to step away from the Red Arrow? Oliver thought to himself. The Red Arrow scares people, but me... I need them to know that when I'm there, they shouldn't be afraid, they should believe that I'm there to help.

Oliver went over the suit with a dark emerald colored material, made out of a polymer Kevlar weave, having changed the material from just being lined with Kevlar. With the polymer Kevlar weave it made the suit 25 percent lighter while giving him the option to carry 15 percent more gear. The color was only a few shades higher than the pine green he had used originally, but he could see the difference already.

After adjusting the pants a bit, adding a modified hard shell kneepad with copolymer rubber that wouldn't restrain movement at all or cause issues getting the suit on in the first place, Oliver opted to keep his boots the same for now, except for replacing the GPS tracker he had in the sole.

It must have taken him three or four hours to get everything into place, which in his opinion was record time because the first time around when he made a brand new version of his original suit given to him by that woman, Talia, it had taken him nearly double that. Of course, with practice came efficiency and Oliver's upgrades even took less time he found. The only thing time consuming about the upgrades was figuring out how to make it work in the first place; implementing it was like clockwork at that point.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead from his hard work, Oliver laid his tools down and proceeded to the shower to get cleaned up, knowing that he would have to make his rounds at Queen Consolidated in about an hour or two.


Hopping out of the shower, Oliver walked over to the desk where his phone was laying to suddenly notice it was lit up.

1 message - Thea.

'Hey, where are you at? We missed you at breakfast.'

'Sorry, wanted to get an early start at work today. You have school today?'

'Uh, it's Saturday, Ollie. There's no school on the weekend.'

'Been working a lot the past couple days, guess I lost track of the time.'

'Wanna meet up for lunch later?'

'Yeah, I'd like that.'


As the ritual completed, Greyback let out a dark growl. It wasn't enough to pinpoint the Dark Lord's location. At the same time it had only given the position as in the lower half of Starling City, but that didn't do enough. Maybe he had read the instructions wrong, but then again he had never tried the incantation in such a populated area. This was meant for a larger scale search, but he needed the exact location. He owed him everything... he had to find him.

One can't be enough to find him. A larger sacrifice should give me the results I desire.

Greyback's eyes went from the monstrous dirty amber to a pale blue, and his long mangy hair retreated, facial hair included. By the time he was done changing, Greyback couldn't be picked out from your average civilian. Been a while since I fully changed back. Feels wrong.

He cleaned himself up, changing into an inconspicuous outfit, and left his hideout. Needing to get some fresh air and all, and time to himself, Greyback wandered the heavily populated city of Starling. Part of him was on edge at all times, feeling the threat of the Arrow overhead. So far he had been lucky to not encounter him, but he knew his luck would run out eventually. The Arrow wasn't even the threat he was concerned about, the Red Arrow was.

It's not like him to be so quiet... he should have made an appearance by now. Where is he?

Eventually, after a while of walking, he managed to catch wind of a phone call. "Oh, Joanna... hey, I just got your email about the fundraiser... why didn't anybody tell me it was going to be at the Merlyn Global Plaza?"

"I didn't think it would be a problem, considering Tommy was the one who offered it in the first place."

Greyback's eyes narrowed, realizing that a fundraiser in a tight area like that... it'd be perfect for collecting what he needed.


Lunch with Thea was great, Oliver hadn't been able to have a clear mind in days, weeks even. It seemed they both needed it, seeing how much lighter Thea seemed to be as they ate. It was one of the first times he had seen her out of the manor in the last few weeks. He set his fork down and wiped his hands into his napkin, chuckling lightly. "It's good to see you smile, Speedy."

"Yeah," Thea nodded, noticeably wincing when he called her by her nickname. Oliver took note of it, deciding to not call her that anymore, at least, until she was ready. "So, I saw Laurel was at the house last night, what'd she want?"

"Oh, apparently her father thinks I'm trying to get back with her."

"And?" she became extremely interested, leaning forward eagerly. "Don't just leave me hanging!"

"And, nothing... we're not getting back together."

"WHY?!" if it weren't for the table separating them Oliver might have been hit with a slap, which made him slightly thankful. He might have been a vigilante, but getting hit by your sister is a different kind of pain, regardless whether you want to admit it or not.

"I don't want to be with her."

"That is a lie."

Oliver knew he was lying, but he was faking the smile as best as he could. "It's not a lie, Thea. I betrayed her in the worst way, and I will not hurt her again. When I came back, all I thought about was seeing her, but when I did, all I could see was Sara."

Finally, he felt the weight leave his shoulders partially, and Oliver knew he couldn't stop himself from saying anymore. "I had everything given to me, I mean... I had a loving girlfriend, a family that supported me, and the rest of my life ahead of me. I drank it away, partied, and I screwed up. Laurel, she wanted to move in with me, to have us get a place of our own. I, I got scared. And I'll be the first to admit it was a terrible, terrible decision, yes... I got with Sara behind her back. I took her on the yacht and I got Laurel's sister killed. I watched her die in front of me, and honestly there are so many times that I look at Laurel and all I can see is Sara's face right before she was pulled into the water, Thea. Each time I see her, I feel those old wounds opening back up, and I feel guilty, again, and again. She's moved on past it, and I feel like I can't, because I caused her family to fall apart."

"Ollie, you didn't destroy Laurel's family. When Sara went with you, she knew what she was doing. It wasn't your fault. Sure, it might have been a terrible decision on your end, but it's not your fault. I know that entire time you were on the island you had a photo of Laurel in your wallet, and that it was what kept you going most nights.""

"How-"

"You have a very outspoken friend."

"Oh," Oliver rolled his eyes, mentally cursing Harry for running around telling everybody that. "Five years I wanted to get back to her, but now... I honestly don't want to be with her, even though I still love her."

"Why don't you, Oliver?"

He thought about it for a moment, and ran his hand through his hair. "I hurt her, and I don't want to ever do that again. I want her to be happy... she deserves someone who is better than me."

Thea very clearly was upset by this remark, and groaned. "You don't give yourself enough credit. Laurel was with you because she loved you, faults and all. People change, Ollie. You definitely did. You're not the same immature jerk that you were back then, but I'm not gonna push the matter. Sometimes, the things you want to prevent, happen because you try to stop it from ever happening."

Like how Harry hurt you because he left, just to protect you? Oliver thought silently to himself. He scolded himself for letting his thoughts turn sour and instead thought about what he and Tommy had talked about at the conference.

"Well, changing subjects... Tommy is going to be the manager at my club when we get it open."

"Really? Tommy doesn't seem like a managerial type."

"He's up for it, and I think he'll do great." the vigilante smiled. The rest of their talk was peaceful, and Oliver was thankful for the chance to clear his head.


Hey guys, so there's the chapter. I'll be honest with you. I'm burned out on this story. I've spent so much time trying to write without actually giving myself a break and right now I can barely even write two full sentences at a time for this. So, I'm gonna be taking a month off from this story to hopefully rejuvenate myself and get back on track. Now, don't worry, we got things planned out for wrapping up the episode as we got just a couple chapters left for this arc.

My big questions for you guys as I go to take my hiatus and refresh myself:

How do you all feel about Harry's absence from the main story currently? What do you think he's up to currently?

Who is this Dark Lord being mentioned?

Do you like Oliver's development so far this episode?

But yeah. If all goes well after this month is over we'll be getting more chapters out. See you guys then!