Thea was walking from her car to the office, she only had a few hours to help Laurel maintain their paperwork. She picked up her phone, that was ringing, it was Oliver.

"Hey, Speedy. Have you seen Laurel, today?"

"Nope. Why?"

"I wanted to invite her to the grand opening tomorrow, it would be nice to have you, Tommy and her there. Friendly faces in a crowd of strangers."

"I'll talk to her when we are in the office. See you soon, Ollie."

"Thanks, Speedy."

As she unlocked their office, she noticed nothing had been disturbed, she called Laurel's phone. Each and every call went to voice mail.

Thea's mind was racing, where was Laurel? Her thoughts kept coming back to the night she found her sister alone and bleeding in her apartment.

Thea raced to the roof to see if Laurel had made her way here via the rooftops before she searched the ones around her apartment. If Laurel still wasn't found, she would start opening the search perimeter and perhaps, recruit Detective Lance.

As she looked around, she saw, Laurel in her suit passed out on an adjoining roof.

Thea ran over to her and removed her mask. "Laurel!? Laurel!?" She gently slapped her cheeks to arouse her sister. Thea looked over her sister, with a broken arrow in her shoulder, as she gently pulled her up, she saw some scrapes and gashes on her back, and parts of her suit were worn and ripped from the impact.

She prayed that she wasn't too late.

Please don't leave me, Laurel!

"S… Speedy?" Laurel croaked, and Thea released an audible sigh of relief. She felt her shoulders sag in relief, that her sister had survived.

Thea nodded, as she saw the broken arrow in her shoulder, the shoulder that was not hit by Brick's archer.

Thea sighed in relief, and helped, Laurel into the office, and from the office, into her car.

Laurel woke up on her couch, with a sense of Déjà vu. She had been wounded from a fight with an archer, and retreated, only to have Thea find her bleeding out, or near dead.

"Speedy?" She called out, her head still ringing, and gently held her head.

Thea sat on the table, with a small scowl. "You left without me! I thought we were to look out for each other." She then handed her stubborn sister some pain relief medication.

She swallowed the aspirin, Thea gave her. "Sorry, Thea. The Triad attacked me, almost killed Ollie." She then croaked a self-deprecating chuckle. "Impulsive Laurel, never waiting for back up."

Thea's eyes lit up, at her brother's name. "He was here?"

Laurel nodded and winced at the movement. "We were talking, then The Triads…"

Thea nodded. Her eye's noticing the bruising around her temple, and the bandage around her shoulder. "They did this to you?" She asked softly, as she gently used her finger to brush a stray tendril of hair behind Laurel's ear.

She shook her head, slowly. "The Hood. He gave me an ultimatum; he was so fast… I couldn't react in time. He shot me, and I stumbled off the roof… I— He tore my wig off me and left me. After a while, I forced myself to the office, guess I didn't make it."

"Close, you made it on the roof, I helped you here. I patched you up. Had Caitlin on a video call." She then snorted. "Cisco should be here soon, with your new suit."

After Caitlin had told Cisco about her wound from The Hood, the nerdy man promised he would ensure that the Black Canary had just as much protection as her partner.

"Speaking of your new suit, what are we going to do about The Prick in Green?" Thea asked, her eyes not moving from her sisters.

"We—I need to recuperate first. And once I'm ready, we will take the opportunity available, and we will ambush him."

The room went quiet for a few moments before Thea broke the tense atmosphere by changing the subject. "Ollie was also calling for you." Laurel opened her eyes, to see Thea looking at her with a pointed look. "He wants some friendly faces there." She then teased her sister, a little. "Last night must have been some talk."

Later that night, while Laurel was resting, Speedy met Cisco in the dark parking lot, behind an abandoned bowling alley. He looked at her in a mixture of giddiness and fear. She turned on her modulator. "Mr Ramon."

Cisco nodded. "Yeah, I have a delivery for our mutual friend." He then opened the back of his car and pulled out a steel briefcase.

Speedy nodded, keeping her head down, and letting both the hood and shadows conceal her identity. "How's it different from her other one?"

"Uh, apart from looking atheistically different? I incorporated the same high strength mesh in her suit, that is in yours. It should be a lot harder for arrows to penetrate or cut open her suit. It's still all in black, and I ditched the wig, although, I suppose you could continue using it."

"The Hood… The archer who shot Black Canary, he took her wig as a trophy." Speedy growled at the thought of someone making a mockery of her sister's work. An upstart, who wanted to prove he's the biggest fish in the pond, that is Starling City.

He would regret that action, she promised herself. Perhaps, she might take his hood as a trophy, make things fair, and equal.

Cisco shuddered. "How many archers have there been?"

"To my knowledge? Three. And only one of them good. Me."

With that, she fired a grapple arrow, and quickly grabbed the briefcase, and disappeared into the night.

Oliver sat in the darkness of his bunker, after wrapping his ribs tightly with a bandage. The woman certainly knew her craft, boxing, was definitely her primary fighting style. If her fighting style didn't show him that she was adept at it, then bruising around his rips certainly showed him that.

He glanced over at the blood-soaked wig sitting on the copter desk in front of him. He didn't want to do what he did. Leaving the woman, he fought to die alone and slowly.

This vigilante had saved his sister from being killed or worse by a drug dealer. In a normal situation, he would have defended himself, and left at the earliest opportunity. If only for what she has done for both the city and his family.

But between his crusade and his debt to Anatoly, he did what he had to. He just hoped that when the time came, The Bratva would be grateful and that he hadn't damned The Glades to the people he was hunting down.

Thea and Laurel were waiting for the memorial of Robert Queen to be unveiled, as Tommy approached them.

He smiled, at Thea, then his smile disappeared when he saw Laurel's bruises and her arm in a sling. "I keep telling you, Laurel. Get a new instructor." He said quite firmly.

Laurel gave him a reassuring smile, as she slightly nudged Thea. "Actually, even Thea agrees that our instructor while hardcore is looking out for our best interests."

Thea rolled her eyes and nodded. "Right. Our instructor sure gets tunnel vision. Especially, when our instructor gets too passionate." She couldn't help but remind Laurel of her impulsiveness, she was still annoyed that she wasn't called to help.

They then watched, as Oliver stumbled towards the dais, interrupting Walter's speech. While this was occurring, she heard the mumblings of the crowd, calling him a drunk.

Laurel knew it was all for show, he had taken their talk to heart and used her words to publicly shame himself.

That he used her advice to make a mockery of himself, was what stung the most. She thought that they had started to reconcile, only he had once again taken advantage of her, Again.

Hot and Cold.

As Oliver left, she walked in the other direction, she was going to her gym, to hit something. Between Oliver perverting her advice, and her loss against The Hood, they were gnawing at her like an itch she just couldn't scratch.

She would get back up to her feet, and train harder and beat Robin Hood.

Moira sat in the back of a black town car, by the river. "As you can see, my son, Oliver, knows nothing," Moira says, as she idly fiddled with her sunglasses. "Robert hasn't told him about Tempest, and Oliver doesn't know about The Gambit's sabotage." She paused for effect. "He's still the same impulsive and immature boy beneath all the trauma he experienced on that island."

The man opposite her didn't speak. His face didn't give her a glimpse of what he was thinking. So, she asked something that she had been wondering.

"We are on alert, thanks to our vigilante with the green hood, but what of this; Black Canary, and her red archer friend?"

The man traced the burn scars on his neck and his wrist. A reminder of the debt that he would one day pay Black Canary if she didn't die from his upcoming plans. But right now, and for the foreseeable future, The Hood was his enemy. His main hindrance.

"She is inconsequential. She and her friend are busy dealing with petty crime. Brickwell was stupid to wave a red flag at a bull. We must keep an eye on this new player."

As long as he didn't poke Black Canary, she would be too preoccupied with petty crimes and playing the cheerleader for the SCPD.

Oliver walked into the warehouse that hid his secret below the surface. Beside him was Tommy, and a few spaced behind them was Diggle.

He was still walking off the effects of the curare that was forced into his system. He turned to look at Tommy after he explained his plans to start a legitimate business.

"Following in your sister's footsteps, isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" Tommy asked jokingly and sobered quickly as he saw his friend's sombre look. "Well, I can tell you if you are planning to name it, Queens, you are certainly not getting the clientele you are expecting."

He wasn't really listening to his friend. His mind was on the rumours of The Red Archer replacing her former teacher's mantle with a student. There was no doubt in his mind, she would be seeking revenge for her fallen comrade.

"Pardon?" Oliver asked as he realised Tommy was waiting for him to point out his ideas for the club.

Oliver nodded and pointed up at the second floor. "Office, up there."

Tommy smirked. "For one on one meetings, perhaps two on one?"

Oliver shook his head. He had only survived the torture and the 'kill or be killed' situations he had endured, in thanks to one person. Laurel. "There's only one girl that I would want a recurring meeting with, in that room or otherwise."

Tommy gave him a look of pity. "I keep telling you man, she's changed. I don't think she's the type of girl that will put up with the constant cheating. Besides, have you seen her fight, I almost received a punch straight to my face, just for sneaking up on her. She also seems more closed off."

Oliver nodded. She may have changed, but she is still the same person at her core. The comforting talk they had the other week was a testimony to that. But he couldn't find anything to say to Tommy, so he just shrugged.

But Tommy continued, likely to help his best friend move on. "Besides, Bud. She seemed pretty pissed off, after your rendition of Drunkard-Meets-Prodigal-Son."

Oliver sighed, as he looked up at the ceiling. He knew that she wouldn't be happy about him using her advice in such a way. But he knew for certain if she knew what his crusade was, she would have understood. But he needed to keep her away from the limelight, and the heat.

But he knew that he would have to apologise to her, make things as right as they could be.

Oliver walked towards the location, the Bratva used as their headquarters. The organisation, according to Anatoly, had restaurants, and other legitimate businesses or 'fronts' that were destroyed, or seized by either the SCPD, Daniel Brickwell and or the Black Canary.

He walked into the small mechanics business, with one hand holding a bag that contained their enemy's bloody wig.

"I'm looking for Alexi Leonov."

An older bald man turned his head form the car he was fixing. "No one here by that name."

"Perhaps, not in the garage, but below?" He said, as one of the Bratva thugs pointed a gun at him, Oliver swiftly grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it, breaking the man's wrist, and relieving him of the firearm.

Oliver then pulled the collar of his shirt down, reeling his Bratva tattoo. "Where is Alexi Leonov?" Oliver asked more forcibly.

The bald man gave a small bow. "Pleased to meet you." He then signalled Oliver to follow him.

They walked down the stairs to the basement. "I apologise, I meant no disrespect to a captain. Particularly, an American one. We have had issues in Starling, as you may know?" The older man chuckled. "What is it, you Americans say? Better to err on the side of caution?" He then shrugged his shoulders. "What is it I can do?"

Oliver threw a disposable phone to him. "Call the number that is preprogrammed into it."

The Russian mobster smirked, as he called the number, and heard his Pakhan. After the call finished, Oliver handed him the bag, with the wig. "I did a favour for you, now, you do a favour for me."

Alexi opened the bag to see the wig of the woman who had caused his brothers no much anguish the past year, that had lost almost everything.

"Da." He agreed. "And what is it you want in return?"

"A hitman. His calling card is a 7.62 millimetre round laced with a poison called curare. Find him, and tell me everything you know."

Oliver, Tommy had entered Max Fuller's club, Poison. They had left Diggle at the entrance, and proceed to walk to the bar when they saw Laurel and Thea sitting at the bar.

Oliver saw that she and his sister were not just colleagues, nor was Laurel just looking out for Thea, but they were acting like close friends, or sisters.

Tommy walked over to them. "Laurel Lance, at a night club, having fun. Doesn't that violate an ancient law inscribed on stone tablets or a cave somewhere?"

Oliver then noticed, that in comparison to both Thea and the rest of the girls in the club, Laurel was wearing a more conservative dress and long sleeves. "You cold, Laurel?" He asked with concern, the room was quite warm. To add to his concern, it looked as if Laurel had applied more makeup than usual.

Laurel shrugged, nonchalantly, though he could feel that she was hiding something from him. "Nothing, I can't handle." She said, dismissing his concern.

After having a drink, Oliver was led into a back room with Tommy. Max Fuller intended on having his men beat them up, as they started the scuffle, he saw, Laurel grabbed Fuller by the neck, and punch him in the kidneys, as he went down.

It was then, he noticed Thea looked slightly amused at their reactions, as they saw an unconscious bodyguard at her feet.

"You finished Max? Or are you going to have your boy's pound on me?"

"And me?" Thea growled.

It shocked him that Thea and Laurel could be so aggressive. He knew both had a protective streak, but this was something different, entirely.

After Fuller and his goons left, Oliver looked at Laurel. "Where did you learn that?" The fighting style seemed familiar.

"Self-defence." She said simply. "Dad's a cop, remember?"

"Right." He acknowledged, softly. That is probably why he had recognised it, he had probably had seen her spar when they were younger and had simply forgotten. And likely, she hadn't given up her self-defence classes and had somehow roped in his sister.

As he went out to talk to Laurel, to thank her and apologise about him causing an incident at the unveiling of the new Queen Consolidated memorial for his father. But his phone rang. He looked at the number and knew it was The Bratva.

Laurel would, unfortunately, have to be put on the back burner. The mission comes first, no matter his wants or desires.

He sighed, as he watched Laurel and his sister leave the club. "What have you got?" He growled in frustration, taking some of his irritation out on his brother.

If the man felt slighted by Oliver snapping at him, he didn't show it through his disembodied voice. "Floyd Lawton. 1700 Broadway, Pape Motel, Room 52. Leave us out of this, yes? We don't need Kanareyka's successor, to know. She has apparently replaced the woman you killed. If this new Kanareyka and Red Archer find out about Bratva involvement they will finish her teacher's mission." He then heard the man cough. "Bratva cannot survive another war."

Instead of reassuring his brother, he simply hung up on him. He wasn't here to baby them, nor provide them reassurances. As far as he was concerned, his debt to them ended when he put an arrow through someone, that had not deserved it.

He wasn't deluded that the Bratva were criminals, and while, they may be providing alms for those in need, in Russia, but they were parasites in his city. They were feeding off those who couldn't protect themselves. And so, he killed a woman, that did what he would have done if he were in her position. He followed Anatoly's thinly veiled command and condemned an innocent woman to die slowly, and in pain.

That wasn't the plan, he wasn't supposed to be doing hits for the Bratva, or Waller.

If the Birds hadn't waged war upon him, she might still be alive, he could have pretended that she kept eluding him, or make a deal with her to take her wig as proof of her death. He thought, darkly. But that wasn't fair. And now, he would have to add her death to the ever-growing list. Yao Fei, Shado, Slade, Sara, Akio, Taiana …