Oliver, Roy, and Diggle had just dug up Sara's old grave that rested next to her father's grave. Thea was resting her head resting against her surrogate sister, while she held her nephew in her arms, and Felicity was standing nearby.
Laurel felt that despite doing this in the middle of the night, it felt like a solemn occasion and not wrong. The Sara that had left with Oliver was not the one that they found, she felt more comfortable in the shadows than in the public eye. This is what she would have wanted, a small funeral with just her friends and family.
Oliver broke the melancholic silence and spoke, with his eyes darting at Laurel, Thea, and his son. "She can rest now. She's home."
Everyone watched as Felicity moved to where the large pile of dirt was, and grab a handful, and throw the dirt onto Sara's final resting place.
She looked up at Laurel, who was crying on Thea's shoulder and gave her sleeping son a small kiss to his head. "It's a Jewish custom." Her voice broke as she spoke. "I know that she wasn't… but it feels right."
Oliver gave her a small, grateful nod as Roy passed a small bouquet of white lilies to him. Oliver then gave each team member a Lilly each and gave two to Laurel after Thea had handed Connor to her. He then led the procession and silently farewelled his friend and future sister-in-law before dropping the flower on her coffin.
He watched as everyone slowly did the same, taking turns until it finally came to Laurel. She handed one to Connor, who promptly plucked a petal off, before tossing the flower into the grave, not realizing its significance.
Laurel took a few minutes before gently dropping the flower onto her sister's grave. "Bye Sar-Bear." She then ran into Oliver's arms. "It's not fair, Ollie. No one will know what she has done, who she was. It's not fair. It's not fair."
He wrapped his arms around her, careful of the infant in her arms, and consoled her the best he could. "I'm so sorry, Pretty Bird," he whispered softly into her blonde locks.
Diggle moved closer to the small grieving family. "We will know of her sacrifices and heroics, Laurel." She looked up at him and let out a shuddered breath. "I know it doesn't count for much, but me and Lyla we would like your blessing to name our daughter, Sara. We will never forget."
She gave him a watery smile. "Thank you." She managed to say, fighting the lump in the back of her throat.
Later that night, Oliver was lying in bed next to Laurel. It was the first time since Sara was killed that he had slept with Laurel. Lying next to the woman he loved gave him some respite from the world that seemed to want to batter him and his down.
His mind had been going in circles nonstop since Sara's death. He was worried about Laurel's state of mind; he was worried that she may lash out at the wrong person, or explode like she was about to with Lacroix, and kill someone. And he couldn't bear to see Laurel murder, someone, to see her soul be shattered by the act of betraying her ideals and ethics.
Perhaps she needed to go back to her roots? Laurel needed to go back to the person who had equipped her with the knowledge and skillset to move past her rage and grief she had for him and Sara. As much as he loathed Grant, perhaps he could help Laurel as he had done once before?
He gently shook Laurel's shoulder. "Laurel?" He repeated her name several times after she groaned in annoyance.
"Ollie?" She asked drowsily, and rolled over, and bury her blonde head into his chest.
"I know that we haven't spoken much beyond what has been happening." He gestured between them. "I'm worried about you Laurel; you have lost so many people close to you."
"I will be fine once we find out whoever did this to my family." She said, defiantly. "I can't sleep well knowing that this person could be targeting my family. We have both pissed off a lot of powerful and ruthless people, Ollie."
That was an understatement. Even if the people didn't necessarily have the desire to destroy Starling, they had made enemies. And if one of them was to slowly start to gain influence and target them? He shuddered at the thought, he would protect his family, Oliver promised himself.
"I need to know that you won't fly off the handle if we have a new suspect and that you trust me enough to shoulder this burden for our family, you did it once for Speedy, let me do the same for you." She nodded. He had to resist snuggling with her, this was important. "I need you to promise?"
She sighed. "I've never been particularly good at not wearing my heart on my sleeve… And I can't promise I won't argue or voice my discontent, but I trust you, Ollie. You stayed with us even when you could have fled after The Undertaking, and after what happened with Tommy… "She sighed. "I trust you to do what is right."
His lips inched upwards before he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. They were a team. Partners Family. "OK." He said before he kissed her again.
The team minus Laurel. She had started to put her nose to the grindstone. In an attempt to try to alleviate her pain and do some legal case work out of Ted's gym.
"Where is she? Where is Sara?" Nyssa asked, with an almost polite demeanor which contrasted with her threatening them with a bow and arrow.
Oliver scowled. Nyssa and The League looking for their compatriot seemed par for the course. He had only just managed to prevent Laurel from exploding from the stress and the continual lost she has been experiencing. Even now, he knew that she was still struggling to keep her head above the tide, and it will only take something to push her under for good.
Nyssa explained that her beloved was sent to this corner of the Earth, particularly back to her family's home city two weeks ago. And that since she was dispatched to Starling, it had been radio silent.
Oliver swallowed. Praying that Nyssa possessed more patience and understanding than his fiancée had. He prayed that he didn't have to navigate another potential minefield. "Nyssa. There is something that I need to tell you."
Her eyes went wide and glassy. "Sara's dead?" She asked, and at Oliver's slight nod, she lowered her bow.
"I'm so sorry, Nyssa."
Nyssa blinked away her tears. "It was an arrow wasn't it?"
Oliver tensed. "It was, and I want you to know that it wasn't any one of us here."
"Where is her body?" Oliver tried to say her name to help her grieve, but she shrugged it off. "Where?"
"We buried her in her grave from seven years ago, next to her father." Without another word, Nyssa stormed out of The Bunker and presumably headed towards Sara's resting place.
Oliver looked at Roy. He was more patient than Thea was. And wouldn't get antsy staying at a distance observing and tailing Nyssa. "She is hiding something, follow her from a distance, and observe what she does, where she goes, and who she talks to."
Roy nodded. "On it." Before quickly suiting up and leaving the premises.
"I don't suppose that you are going to have father and son time, are you?" Thea asked as she leaned against her brother.
"Is that your way of asking for a Queen night in?" He asked with a smile.
"Well, big brother, I thought you would never ask." She said with a knowing smirk. "I'll buy the popcorn and drinks, while you choose a movie, and look after my nephew. It's going to be his first official Queen family movie marathon."
"What about all those times we did that with Laurel?"
"She's family, but not a Queen… yet." She gave him a pointed look and a grin that made Oliver feel uneasy. "And that, dear brother, is not her fault, but rather yours, how long are you two going to be living in sin, anyway?" She asked playfully before she walked to the stairs and turned around to look at her brother. "And for the love of god, Ollie. Do not select The Wizard of Oz. We have to show your son some good movies, so he won't constantly re-watch that damn movie, his mother loves to watch."
"Oh, so now, Laurel is only Connor's mother and not your sister?" He asked, teasing his sister.
"I love Laurel. I hate that damn movie. It's like one of the few flaws she has." The Queen siblings chuckled, as Thea walked out to go shopping for their movie marathon, while Oliver went to pick up Connor from Lyla and John's.
Oliver and Thea were watching Die Hard, now that Connor was asleep in his room. This was one of the few times in the past week or so that he had been able to relax and unwind, he only wished that Laurel was resting in his arms, watching the movie with him and his sister. As a family.
"I'm worried about her." Oliver breathed, he didn't know what spurred that remark to come forward.
His sister adjusted her sitting position to look towards him. "She's going through a lot."
"She went out in the field, Speedy. She could have been killed. Her anger is making her blind to the dangers of the job."
Thea hummed understandingly, "She never actually promised to never go out into the field, I think what she told me at least was that she wouldn't go out as her alter ego. And she hasn't. I also think, Ollie that it isn't that fair to think that she is blind about the dangers. Is it that much different to when you almost killed Slade after he kidnapped Laurel?" She is just trying to keep all of us safe, even if she isn't going about it in the safest manner.
Oliver exhaled, while Thea took a final gulp of her soda, "Want a refill?" Oliver nodded. As Thea got up and padded over to the kitchen to refill their drinks, he got a phone call from Roy. With a reluctant sigh, he answered the call. "What have you got?"
Roy then explained what Nyssa had been up to; visiting Sara's grave, casing the rooftop, and the alley, their friend had died and fallen into, and finally to some sort of League safe house.
Oliver stood up and explained to Thea that he needed to go and asked that his sister stay until he or Laurel came back home.
"Of course." She said. "You didn't need to ask." With that, she gave her brother a strong hug, before sitting down on the couch and resumed the movie they were watching, while Oliver put on his jacket and left."
Later that night, after Nyssa had explained that Malcolm was alive, and somehow once again escaped death. Oliver, Roy, Diggle, and Nyssa were in The Bunker. She explained how Malcolm had once been a member of The League, one of the highest-ranking stations second to that of Ra's himself. And that he was released, on the understanding that he would not violate the League's laws.
Roy scoffed. "You guys are professional killers. It's a pretty low bar."
Nyssa gave him a look of derision, "Merlyn's Undertaking violated the League's principals." She then looked at Oliver. "When you killed him, we considered the matter settled. Until we received word from your mother, Moira Queen, that Merlyn had faked his demise."
Diggle blinked. "It's not the first time that Malcolm has risen from the dead."
Nyssa looked at the men, confused. "What do you mean?"
Oliver wiped his face with his hands. "Laurel. a year before I came back to Starling had fought and killed him. She said that he had burned alive. She didn't know he was Malcolm at the time; she only knew him as Tempest's enforcer." And an ally to Daniel Brickwell, a member of his cabal.
Nyssa nodded but didn't seem surprised. "He was working with this Daniel Brickwell to likely have access to parts of The Glades for his Undertaking."
Oliver continued as he moved towards the computers. "We found these, on Sara's camera from her safe house. "The computer displayed numerous photographs of Malcolm, conducting business throughout the city.
Roy quirked his brow. "I thought Lance and Hilton found Malcolm's broken body?"
"Malcolm was a powerful man, with a lot of contacts. I'm willing to bet that he had a friend or someone who owed him something in the coroner's office."
"It wouldn't be the first-time corruption took place in Starling." Muttered Digg with a shake of his head.
"There are other ways a person can extend or return to the land of the living," Nyssa said before she explained that after learning that Malcolm continued to breathe, Ra's had ordered his assassins to trail the globe to hunt him down so that he could receive League justice. They were ordered to look into every rumor, whisper, and trail they found, no matter how vague or unreliable it may seem.
"And one of these whispers lead Sara back to Starling?"
Oliver nodded. "She was tailing him, and we are going to retrace her steps." He said, wondering how he was going to explain to Laurel that the trail wasn't as cold as he had thought, thanks to Nyssa.
"You found evidence on Sara?"
Roy nodded, walked over to where they kept the evidence on their friend's murder and handed Nyssa a blank piece of paper. "We found this scrap, blank piece of paper."
Nyssa smirked and looked at Oliver. "Do you have a flame?"
After heating up the invisible ink, Oliver smiled. And explained that his father had a notebook with the same sort of invisible ink. To which Nyssa nodded and said that she suspects, he received the notebook from Merlyn.
Oliver nodded. "Almost everything traces back to Merlyn." Without him, he would never have been marooned on Lian Yu and never given Slade the Mirakuru, Brick wouldn't have aligned with Tempest, nor received their funding or aid, No Undertaking. Tommy, his mother, Lance, Sara all would have been alive and healthy if Malcolm wasn't a sociopath."
"It is called ghost ink," Nyssa said, before explaining that the League used it to conceal secrets and documents.
Oliver nodded, as he studied the note. "It's Sara's handwriting. She writes about Merlyn's whereabouts." He then spots a name. "Jansen. question mark?"
Diggle moved to the computers and ran the name in the database to see that the name belonged to a Buddhist monk. He then gave them the details.
After casing the Buddhist temple, Oliver watched as Nyssa drew her bow on Jansen.
"Oliver I found Jansen," Dig said through the comms.
Oliver shook his head, as he watched Nyssa advance slowly upon the man. "Negative. I have eyes on him."
"Negative. Whoever is up there, it's not Jansen. We are standing next to a plaque made in dedication to him, born 1961 to 2012"
Oliver clenched his jaw and bolted towards Nyssa, not caring if anyone heard him. He could only watch as he ran towards Nyssa fighting with someone, followed by a thick cloud of smoke as he entered the small building.
Nyssa bellowed at him. "Where is he!?"
Oliver spun on his heels and fired a tracer arrow at the fleeing black figure, as they vaulted over a small wall. The arrow just nicked the man's shoulder, cutting the fabric, and his skin, judging by the small wince the figure gave.
The man turned around to reveal Malcolm, who gave him a cocky smile and disappeared into the night.
Oliver froze, it couldn't be… He and Laurel had watched him fall off the side of the building. His body was broken, there was no way he could have survived that fall. "He couldn't have survived the fire either." Laurel's voice whispered in his mind.
Oliver snarled; Nyssa had said that The League had a way to extend one's life. Perhaps Malcolm had learned this mystical art before he left Nanda Par Bat? It would explain how he managed to live despite being immolated and later falling and braking almost every bone in his body.
As the team filtered into the base, he saw Laurel who was there waiting for him, likely so they could go home together. He sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to handle the situation well. Oliver wished he could do it privately in their home and discuss what happened, without worrying about the team morale, at seeing their two leaders constantly butting heads.
Two people, who were supposed to love each other and give each other the benefit of the doubt. Not claw at each other, or let their hurts fester until the other exploded. It was not healthy for them, and certainly not the thing he, nor Laurel wanted their son to become normalized to.
Laurel looked at him. He could see her bruised knuckles from boxing bare-knuckled against the hard bags. He frowned, as he gently took her hands into his.
"What's going on? Did you find Sara's killer?" She asked, her voice sounding almost hopeful.
He swallowed, preparing himself for the inevitable argument. "We have a suspect. Malcolm Merlyn is alive. Again." She opened her mouth, but no words came out of her mouth, so he continued. "Sara came back looking for him. But we think he found her first."
Laurel's face slid into one of stoicism. "And his whereabouts?"
"We are working on that." He said, rubbing her knuckles gently. "He got away from us earlier tonight. But," He said, interrupting her argument before it could leave her mouth. "I hit him with a tracer arrow that uses nanotechnology, we can locate him, he can run but he can't hide."
"So, you could have hit him with a lethal arrow, instead, you decided to go for a flesh wound and hunt for him later? What if he kills more people while you tagged him and let him back out into the wild? What will you do when you finally catch up to him?"
"I'm not a killer anymore, Laurel. You know that." She had been with him since he returned, she was the one that showed him that there was a better way than killing, that they were just helping the justice system by picking up those that fell between the cracks.
"Maybe, but Ollie, Merlyn is. He killed Tommy and eighty-two innocent people. Not to mention anyone else he killed. How many more people are gonna die before you do what we couldn't and put him down permanently? Me? Speedy? Or our baby?"
Her words felt like a slap in the face. It was a cheap shot, and he knew that she didn't mean to infer that he was not protecting their family. That he was as bad as Merlyn. She was angry and hurting and lashing out. He took a calming breath and exhaled to prevent saying something that he would regret.
"You think that Sara would want that?" He asked softly.
"Yes." She answered adamantly. "I do. He is a threat to us, Ollie. Our Family." She then marched out, and up the stairs.
Laurel was briskly walking down one of the connecting alleyways, that would eventually lead her to Wildcat's gym. She couldn't go home to Connor angry, and full of rage. She never wanted her son to see that dark part of her.
Speedy would likely aid her if she decided to go after Malcolm, albeit with reluctance. Not because of who they would kill, but the act itself. She knew that she had dedicated her life to saving lives and punishing the guilty, but never to kill someone. But Thea would help her because she put her family first. And Laurel knew that deep down, Oliver felt the same way, but he was often forced to sometimes put their needs below others.
It was something that they had agreed on when she was pregnant with their son. That as much as they loved their family, and would do anything to keep them safe, there would be times where they had to put others before themselves and their wants.
"Laurel." Her sister's girlfriend called after her.
She kept walking, but replied. "I just found out that Malcolm was just raised from the ashes for a second time and killed my sister. I'm sure that you can understand that I have more important things to worry about than wanting to talk right now."
"I understand, your grief." That made her stand still and cease walking towards the gym. "I loved her too."
Laurel turned to see Nyssa looking more human than she had ever seen before. "I'm sorry for your loss."
Nyssa gave her a sad, tight smile. "Thank you, and I express the same condolences to you, as her kin." The assassin's throat bobbed. "I promised Sara, and now I promise this to you. We will find Merlyn, and I will do what your beloved refuses to do, put an arrow through his heart, and make him a head shorter. It is but one of the few ways to prevent him from coming back."
She let out a shuddered breath and closed her eyes. She had the chance to get justice for Sara, to allow The League and Nyssa to carry that burden for her family. But it would mean throwing everything she believed in and going behind Ollie's back. She had given him her word that she would trust him.
She shook her head. "No. As much as I want it to happen, I don't give you my blessing. I know Oliver will do what we believe is right." Before Nyssa could speak, Laurel turned and decided to go to her car instead, and go home.
