Nyssa stood on a rooftop, praying that her friend was safe, she also looked up at the night sky, remembering teaching Sara about the constellations. According to ancient League manuscripts, some of the star's alignments foretold either fortune or an omen. To her beloved though, they were just something beautiful to look at.
She heard the man that had been hunting her down, "This is where my beloved departed this world. Do you even remember Sara? Or what of your family? Thea, Laurel or your son, Connor?" She asked, not looking back towards him, "Or has my father erased them from your memory as if it were a slate board?
"Ra's al Ghul, orders you to return back to Nanda Parbat. I was sent to retrieve you. The other threats to my ascension will be dealt with later. "
Nyssa turned to face the man that she once considered a friend, a man who was now her father's malleable male heir." To face justice? If so, for what crime?" She asked, "If to face vengeance, if so, for what offense?"
"They are one and the same, Pretender. Justice and vengeance."
Nyssa fired several arrows at the shell that once was Oliver Queen, following him across the rooftop, only for him to finally turn towards her firing his arrows, which she deflected with ease, with her scimitar.
The pair swung their swords at one-another, parrying and sending slashes at each other. Every move was deliberate and precise. Eventually, Nyssa was disarmed, and at the mercy of her beloved's brother-in-law.
Al Sah-Him's blade cut slightly into Nyssa's neck, a thin line of blood dripped from her wound. "Do it." She goaded him. "If I shall die this night, let my blood be spilled on the same ground as Sara's." She said as she felt the cold sharp steel against her neck.
A second later, a flashbang arrow exploded, Al Sah-Him, stood up from Nyssa and looked at a familiar-looking woman in a red hood, her bow drawn, next to a man that he had no recollection of. The man, like the woman beside him, had his weapon aimed at him.
"We can't let you take her, man."
"Ollie!" The woman in red said with her voice thinking with emotion, "Please." She begged, though didn't lower her bow. "Laurel needs you!"
Al Sah-Him looked at the Ruby Archer, then at the man with the gun, then back at Nyssa. He evaluated risk vs reward, before jumping off the side of the roof and disappearing into the night. He would devise a plan to deal with them.
But right now, something felt wrong, when he saw the woman in red, he had to overcome his primitive instincts to protect her and help her with her quest to help the woman named Laurel. Malcolm had said that she was his… Oliver's wife.
Al Sah-Him had remained strong and remained true to his liege. He didn't let Oliver Queen win.
:-::-:-:
Samanda pulled up and stopped in front of a house. Once she stopped, she felt the sharp pain in her side, she slowly put her hand to her white blouse, and pulled back with a shaky hand, seeing a red liquid coating her fingers, blood.
She then climbed out once she saw Agent Johnston pull into the driveway behind her, and climbing out of the car. "Want to explain to me why we are out here in the suburbs of Lamb Valley?"
Samanda exhaled slowly, in an attempt not to anger her wound, "Once I explain everything to the SAC, and yourself, sir, you will understand everything."
"That better be the case, Agent." He said with a grumble, before the duo knocked on the door of Agent Talos' front door, a few long seconds later, the grizzled agent opened the door, looking between Samanda and the other agent.
"Once again, I'm sorry about this, Boss." With a jerk of his head, Talos invited the agents in and guided them into the dining room. "Sorry about the mess," he said looking around at the protective plastic sheeting around the room, "The contractor promised me he would be done with all this almost six months ago, the wife has been leaving him calls to get him back. His excuse is that Starling is in dire need of carpenters and other tradesmen in the CBD after The Siege, and The Undertaking." He then ducked into the kitchen to give them a cup of hot coffee, and put the milk and sugar on the table."
The other agent placed a recording device on the table as they looked at each other before all eyes were on Agent Watson. "Interview with Special Agent Samanda Watson and Supervisory Special Agent Tobias Talos, conducted by Supervisory Special Agent Johnston, OPR."
Samanda cleared her throat, it was her turn to show everything she had, to show her cards. "I don't know how to say this, so I will just get on with it. I have reason to believe that Daniel Brickwell is currently engaged in a conspiracy to manipulate the Federal Bureau of Investigation into becoming its unwilling accomplice."
Samanda swallowed hard to steal her nerves."I also have reason to believe that Brickwell has turned and coerced an agent on his detail. Special Agent Siobhan Smythe. I think that Smythe may have perpetrated the attack on the nightclub, Verdant."
Johnston let out a nervous chuckle, "What are you saying? Why are you saying it?"
Samanda pulled her jacket back to show off her blood-stained blouse."When I was pursuing my theory, Smythe shot me." After the OPR agent swore, she winced, re-applying pressure on her wound. "Sir OPR needs to conduct an investigation into Daniel Brickwell, Smythe and the whole conspiracy, effective immediately."
Talos' brow creased, "This happened on your watch, Watson. I'm placing you on administrative leave."
"I understand." She said apologetically. "You have my full cooperation," she then pulled out her service weapon and badge, placing them on the dining table. Samanda then looked at the OPR agent, "What's next?"
"We call you an ambulance…" Before Johnston could utter another word, a shot from beside Samanda's side hit Johnston in the throat, killing him instantly.
Watson turned to look at Agent Talos in shock, feeling the OPR agent's warm blood spattered on her face. "Sam put down the gun!" Before shutting off the recording, giving Samanda an irate glare, "Can't leave shit alone! Why did you have to bring this into my house!?" Her mentor then leveled his gun at her. "Sit back down, we need to talk."
A second later, a well-dressed man walks in, "Your prints, the recording and of course, your service weapon. Must I remind you of what this entails?" When Samanda didn't answer, her mind thought about how The Black Canary and Thea Queen had warned her about the cabal, about Brickwell. "This will go smoother if you answer my questions."
"Do you understand? Talos asked.
Agent Watson slowly looked to the man she admired, the man that had sold himself to the devil. The man that had allowed Brickwell's corruption to fester not just in Staring but the FBI, and its institution. "I understand, Boss." She answered defeatedly.
"I'm not your boss. Not anymore. Daniel Brickwell is."
:-::-:-:
Thea stopped in one of Nyssa's hideouts, with Connor in her arms. She found Nyssa binding her hands, not looking up, Nyssa's voice sounded cold, "You should not have interfered, Thea. You should not be thinking of anyone but yourself and your nephew."
"Well, I'm not. I lost a sister, a brother, my parents and a father figure, your like family, Nyssa. And I thought that by saving you, I could somehow save Ollie." And Ollie would help her with Brickwell to save Laurel.
Nyssa shook her head in sadness, "You don't understand, once your brother was taken by the League, my life had come to an end." She then finally looked at the younger woman, with her nephew in her arms. "Where are you headed to?"
Thea bit her lip. "I don't know, I screwed up, Nyssa. The man that is making Laurel's life a living hell, I waved a red flag in his face. Roy has left our apartment, and is living in The Bunker, he said that he, Diggle and Felicity will keep trying to protect you, and try to bring my brother home. Carry on Ollie and Laurel's legacy while I go into hiding, maybe find Laurel if I can apologize to her for betraying her."
Nyssa hesitated before she patted the girl younger woman on the shoulder. "You should speak to her mentor once again. He has what you seek. Your persistence should be rewarded, I should think." She hesitated for a second. "Keep Laurel's child, safe, Thea Queen. I think he and Laurel may be the key to releasing your brother from my father's iron grasp."
:-::-:-:
Laurel walked into Wild Cat's gym and carelessly dropped her bag on the ground making her way further into the gym, looking at the ring where she had taught Thea how to spar. She kept walking until she made her way to the bench.
She sat there in silence until her father's gruff, comforting voice came from behind her. It was something like a balm to her soul, knowing that he was here for her. "So, you are gonna abandon your ideals? What about your son, Honey? What will that teach Connor?"
"Ollie and I made contingencies. Thea can look after him, if not Ted will." There was also Roy and Walter. "He can, and probably will shun me when he grows up and learns that his mother is a killer. And I will happily endure his disdain if it means that he lives. I will happily live to be a pariah of The Team, and of my family if Connor and Thea get to live."
"Is this what this is about? Oliver abandoning you, his family? You know that he died to save the girl that I considered a third daughter, the young woman that you see as your sister, the woman that you helped to become independent and resourceful. You would have done the same if the positions were reversed."
"It doesn't make it hurt less." She replied sullenly, feeling her heartache. "He's still gone. And I'm lost."
Ollie would know what to do, and what was the right thing to do. God, she missed him.
"You need to pick yourself up. Show the world, show the others that you are the resilient girl that I raised into a woman. A good woman, Laurel. A Hero. We are Lances, Sweetheart. We get hit around and knocked down but we get back up. We endure. We always get back up."
Laurel blinked away her tears. "Easier said than done."She then grabbed one of the hammers that Ted or one of the carpenters must have left when repairing the gym, and slammed the tool down on someone's lock, breaking it. "If I had killed Malcolm with that fire the year before Ollie came home... Tommy would still be alive, Moira would never have been in prison. Maybe Slade never makes his move because the city is in a better, more stable place. You would still be here… How many people died because I was too weak to make a decisive move? Sara would be alive, and Ra's would have no reason to demand Oliver's blood. "
"That's a lot of maybes, and unnecessary guilt you are holding onto, Baby." He said as she continued to search in the other lockers until she found a pair of white boxing straps. Binding her wrists and hands would protect herself from injury since she didn't have her usual protective suit. "You have a code, Baby, it's why I never hunted you down. Sure, you beat the living snot out of people, but you don't kill."
"Sara killed people; Oliver killed people. If I wasn't holding onto my stupid pride, Brick and Merlyn would be dead." And everything would have been fine.
"Laurel, Honey, I always tried to teach you and your sister that just because someone does something bad or immoral, doesn't mean that you can get a free pass."
Laurel exhaled, as she then heard her father's voice turn into her dead sister's voice. "Doesn't matter in the end, you beat up people, send them to ICU. It doesn't make you any different to me."
Laurel swallowed, was there any difference? She crippled, how many people did she unknowingly kill when she had fought with people? Or Thea or Roy? She would be responsible for the blood on their hands just as much as her own.
"There is something wrong with us Sis," Sara said almost wearily, "It's just who we are."
"We let the darkness inside, and once it is let in, it never comes out." Laurel agreed. "When I finally get my hands on Brick. I am going to kill him."
"It gets easier Laurel, killing..." Sara said softly. "But the guilt.."
Laurel chewed her lip, wincing, "I'm not doing this for me. I'm just doing whatever it takes to keep Connor and Thea safe." She would gladly endure torment for her sins as long as it ensured that her baby and her sister were safe.
It was then Ollie's ghost to haunt her. "Is that what you are doing, Laurel? Or are you using Brickwell as an excuse to beat the shit out of people? A convenient excuse to hurt people without oversight after your hiatus from vigilantism?" After a moment his voice turned to a low growl, "Leaving my son to fight Brickwell is selfish! You have shown your true colors, Laurel. You're not the woman that I fell in love with. She was a lie! And that's why you abandoned the team to go on a stupid impulsive blood-vendetta!"
Was that what she was doing?
No.
Connie was defenseless, and the only way to keep the target of his back was to stay away from her son, her sister and wave the red flag towards Brick to keep his attention solely on her. To keep him away from Brick at all costs. All that mattered was that Connor was safe and healthy. Her health didn't matter. The bruises, the broken bones, nothing mattered beyond killing Brick.
"I'm just doing whatever it takes. Something that you would do, Ollie."
:-::-:-:
Thea found Ted out in a park feeding the ducks with a large loaf of bread, he threw the bits of bread and watched the ducks and geese hoard towards the food. The little boy cackled at the sound the ducks made.
Thea forced a smile to her lips, and knelt down, her hand still holding his, "What sound do ducks make?" She asked playfully before making the sound. "Quack. Quack" Making her infant nephew cackle again. Before he tried to move his mouth to make the sound of the word, but couldn't manage anything but babble.
She then slowly walked towards Laurel's mentor, hesitatingly sat beside him, bringing her nephew to her lap. "I don't know where she is. I looked around the whole damn city for her!" He said defeated. Judging by his
"Why, what happened?" She asked as Connor watched the ducks intently as they waddled around the bench.
"She is having a crisis of faith in herself. She thinks her code— is holding back from stopping Brick and his hitwoman." Ted answered softly, as he handed Connor more bread. "It will be good for her to see her sister and her son."
"I—We can't. Brick knows about who Laur—" she stopped, not knowing if Connor would recognize his mother's name. "Dinah is. I have to warn her before we run."
"Damn." He muttered, "Do you have a plan?" Thea shrugged helplessly, reminding Ted of just how young Thea was. "You will stay with me, I will protect you and Connor, give me a day to make a few calls, I could arrange you shelter hallway across the world."
Thea wept, silently, holding back tears for her nephew. "Okay."
:-::-:-:
Samanda stood alone on the edge of the bullpen as her Agent Talos made the announcement that Special Agent Siobhan Smythe, Brickwell's puppet, would be reinstated effective immediately. She watched as Smythe stood forth with a proud smile.
Everything happened in a blur until she felt Smythe give her a pat on the shoulder. "It's all thanks to you, Sam. Someday, I hope to pay you back for everything you did."
Watson felt sick to her stomach. The whole institution was being infected by Brickwell. The FBI was no longer a part of the justice system. They were criminals. Their only hope was that the Black Canary would clean up the mess. Only she could exercise the traitors from the organization.
:-::-:-:
Al Sah-Him stood in one of the League's hideouts, looking at the bound figure of Lyla Michaels as she dialed a burner phone. He waited several seconds for the phone to ring, before he heard breathing on the other end of the line, "John."
"Oliver?" He heard the man ask in confusion.
"Oliver Queen died. I am Al Sah-Him, Heir To The Demon." He said resolutely, before continuing, "Let me assure you, no harm will come to Lyla as long you comply, and that as we speak, My Liege's men are hunting down the traitor known in your world, as Malcolm Merlyn. We have already slain his lieutenant in Australia, bring us the other turncoat, and your wife will still breathe."
"Lyla... Oliver, I need my wife back. And you need to help yours. Oliver— Laurel, and Thea… Your family is in danger!"
"You will bring Nyssa." He said, cutting off the man on the other end of the call, "To the warehouse on Fullerton and Halsted, and your beloved shall be free." After hearing John Diggle threaten him, Al Sah-Him gave the man thirty minutes to comply, before hanging up.
:-::-:-:
John looked at Nyssa, Felicity, and Roy. "He has Lyla!" He growled. "Oliver has my wife, he is going to kill her if I don't hand you over, Nyssa," Diggle said, giving the assassin a pleading look.
Nyssa quirked her brow and spoke after a long moment of silence. "And what makes your family more important than my own, Laurel, Connor, Thea?"
"Nyssa, please!" Diggle begged Nyssa.
The woman nodded, after a second. "Though, it is not for you, but for Oliver, and for Laurel. You are lucky that my beloved's sister has a gentle heart and would not want someone to die because of her. Be sure to thank Laurel for treating me no differently to the rest of her family."
:-::-:-:
The FBI left the vehicles, and entered a chop-shop to see the garage door open, Samanda followed Smythe into the room to use her screams, knocking down the runaway woman.
Samanda could only watch in fear and growing resentment as Smythe moved towards the fallen woman, who was bleeding, and she turned to see another older man being arrested.
"Victoria Sinclair you are coming with us," Smythe said gleefully as she sent a hard kick to Sinclair's side before she hauled the woman to her feet and dragged her out to the van. When Smythe came back into the shop, she spoke to Watson, sporting a smug grin. "We have sent agents all over the city, and Daniel Brickwell's influence grows exponentially."
:-::-:-:
At Wildcat's gym, Laurel is pounding her frustration into the hard bags, she immediately stopped as she heard her phone ring, she jumped over the ring to pick it up, and answers, "Yeah?"
"Brick has left the FBI."
Laurel froze, "How?"
"Smythe wasn't the only FBI agent that he had under his thumb. But she is taking Brick to have a sit down with the remaining crime-bosses"
Laurel ran a hand through her damp hair, "The location?"
"I'll send you the address. If you can catch him in the act..." The woman didn't sound the same. She sounded scared.
Laurel found herself smiling, despite it. "Thank you, Watson. This is our chance to make things right." She could practically see the light at the end of the tunnel. A traitorous thought asked her how many times she had felt that way in the past year. Too many times.
Her father's voice came to her again, "You can't be serious, Laurel? You really think that this Watson is still one of the good guys?"
Laurel sighed as she began stretching, "Doesn't matter. Not anymore."
"It's a trap, Laurel!"
Laurel shadowboxed and tightened her wraps slightly. "The only difference is... I know it is a trap this time."
"When was the last time that you used those kinds of wraps in the field, sweetheart? Back when Ted was training you, right?" Her father never knew that it proved to her what she had suspected for a long time, she has been hallucinating, or being visited by ghosts. When Ollie experienced them, he had to listen to them before they finally left.
"Her cry is stronger than mine, she knows how to use it since she was a little girl. I need to get in close, and hit hard and fast." The wraps would protect her wrists.
"Don't be bull-headed, Laurel. Don't let our Lance genes allow you to be impulsive, and get yourself killed. Take a breath, call Thea. Ted will even join the fray. I don't want to see you die. Laurel, Baby, c'mon. Everyone leaves us because we are cursed, Laurel. You and me. Your mother left us; Sara left us. Oliver left you. Don't let Connor be tainted by the curse like we are."
"So, all this?" She asked with a lump in her throat, "All this is my fault?"
"Will you take a hard look at yourself?" He asked her before his voice turned into Oliver's.
"You put on that mask, to hurt people. It makes you feel like you are doing something important. Something noble. You failed our family, Laurel. You failed me! You should have gone into hiding when you found out about him, listened to Diggle and Felicity."
Her husband's voice started distorted into a cockney accent that forced her to clench her fist, her knuckles cracking under the pressure. "You think that leaving Connor alone, to fight me is for the greater good, you claim to fight for justice, but that isn't the truth."
It was now just Brick speaking to her from behind, "The truth is, Darlin'. Sara, Thea and your husband are cut from the same cloth. Triggermen who take satisfaction in killing. Then you have the girls' eldest sister, Oliver's wife. A woman that has been blinding herself in an attempt to think she is better than they were. That she is somehow morally superior in an attempt to justify why she has left her own son to become an orphan."
"You are nothing. You have always been nothing!" Brick continued, before Laurel lost it, she spun on her feet, sending a right hook to his face, and proceeded to beat the imaginary Brick into the ground, before finally snapping his neck.
Laurel blinked as she heard his neck snap, looked around to see nothing, she felt bile rise in her stomach before she left the gym towards the door. She couldn't look back. Not now, after Brick was at her feet with a crushed trachea, or broken neck would her son be safe. She couldn't let Brickwell or her hallucination of him best her.
:-::-:-:
Brick sat at the head of the table in a wine cellar looking across the table he could see a handful of the criminal elite and mobsters of the city. Councilman Kullens, Reverend Swanson, a man of the cloth, and unknown to most once of the best fences in the city, Tobias Church, Judge McGarvey, and a few other men and women that were once apart of Tempest that managed to avoid the ire of Malcolm Merlyn, or the Green Arrow and Black Canary.
"You are here today because I offer you my protection. Under my protection, you will be shielded from investigations and prosecutions by the federal government"
Church appeared irritated when he glared at Samanda Watson and another FBI agent. Before glaring at Brickwell. "Bullshit, Brickwell. This is a sting!"
Kullens sniggered and added. "Jury if you can hear this on tape, I'm innocent and doing this under duress."
McGarvey shifted his weight on the chair. "How much?"
"Twenty percent, Your Honour."
"Christ!" Someone said that Brick didn't see.
"On everything." Brick clarified, his eyes locking on to each person one by one, looking at Samanda Watson who looked uncomfortable.
"It's a wonder how you keep your clothes so clean, with the amount of bullshit you speak. There is no point denying it. We all know what this is. We are just sacrificial lambs so that you can buy another month in your castle." Church then started to rise from his chair. "I'm out, I'll be safer on my own."
The door behind him opened slowly, followed by the echoing footsteps of his enforcer, Sionbahn Smyth, his Banshee to Starling's Canary, instead of the wig that she wore in Verdant, the woman now had died her hair grey-silver. The Silver Banshee stood above the men and women menacingly in her black suit with coattails.
Smythe sauntered over to Church, holding his arms in a bind as she screamed her high-pitched scream into his ear, killing him. Brick noticed how sickly Watson started to look at witnessing the death of the man as his brain matter leaked out of his ears.
Daniel Brickwell exhaled, allowing the death of Tobias Church, a known gangbanger and drug dealer, to sink in. They were either with him or against him, and if they were against him they were dead and he would absorb their assets. "The protection levy is now thirty percent."
McGarvey tapped his fingers on the granite table. "You certainly have a flair for the dramatics, Mr. Brickwell. I suppose there is only one question that is worth asking, where do I drop the cash?"
:-::-:-:
Laurel walked into the Hochman Hotel, bypassing people through the narrow corridor, before pulling the fuses out of the hotel, forcing a blackout, before she made her way up to the penthouse, waking in slowly, she looked around the grand apartment in shock and disgust.
She walks up the stairs, and cautiously into his bedroom, looking around before entering his closet to find scuff marks on the carpet as if something ran across the carpet. As she gently moved the bookshelf, which slid across automatically, Laurel looked around, before slowly making her descent into Brick's den.
:-::-:-:
Samanda watched as the room became as silent as a crypt. They received word that the Black Canary was now in the hotel. It wasn't long before Smythe marched slowly towards her, locking eyes with Watson beneath her black mask.
If you tip her…"
Watson blew out a breath. "I said exactly what you told me to say." She turned to see a smug smirk painted on The Banshee's face. "You were right there."
Brick rose from his seat towering above everyone else. "Let's go."
Samanda felt the guilt rise in the back of her throat at the guilt of throwing The Canary of Starling CIty under the bus, she was the only person who was trying to keep the city safe from Brickwell and his influence."
:-::-:-:
Laurel stopped at the door, to see a young African American man, sitting frozen at the computers, "Are you going to kill me?"
"Not you, Mr?"
"Holt. Curtis Holt." He whimpered, not looking back at the vigilante. "Are you going to kill Brickwell?" He then swiveled in his chair to reveal Brick's ankle monitor on his leg. "Thank god!"
"When will he be back?" Laurel asked as she glanced around the dimly lit room, wondering how Brick managed to pull the wool over the FBI's eyes long enough to make his own Bunker. All of a sudden, the light shot back on, as did the security feeds on the monitor. "Thank you." She whispered, before getting ready to make her surprise attack until she heard the FBI agent speak over the feed.
"Thea Queen has been spotted with an older gentleman, and an infant, at the old abandoned Queen Manor. Keep any and all SCPD units clear of the location until specified otherwise."
Laurel froze, and glared at the young man in the seat, "What does Brickwell want with Thea Queen and her nephew?"
Curtis didn't answer for a second, making Laurel's insides twist in anxiety. "He wants her and the child killed." Laurel's shoulder stooped, as she saw in her mind Thea, and Connor murdered, with Brick standing above them with a blood-curdling smile. She should never have left her baby, her sister. Her family.
She had a choice, that wasn't a choice. stay here and ambush Brick but her son and sister will be murdered, or leave and protect her family, but Brick still gets allowed to breathe and regroup.
