WARNING: CLASSIFIED INFORMATION PRESENT UNDER ARGUS PROTECTION. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN THIS FILE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM DIRECTOR LYLA MICHEALS

From Feeling the Blue: A Complete Examination on the Case of William Clayton by Ralph Dibney (pg. 8)

Published via Star Labs, April 2, 2028

On the morning of May 16th, 2018 Oliver Queen drove to one of the offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To be able to apprehend notorious gangster, Ricardo Diaz, also known as Richard Dragon, Oliver Queen was forced to turn to Special FBI Agent, Samanda Watson, who had been investigating the Green Arrow's identity following a fake photo that had been leaked to Channel 52 news around October of 2017.

When he asked her for her help in apprehending Ricardo Diaz, he was then signed a deal that guaranteed immunity for everyone within the Green Arrow's circle, except for the Green Arrow himself.

Although both the FBI and vigilantes were not able to apprehend Diaz that night, they did however, manage to arrest all the corrupt Star City government officials on the criminal's payroll. Unfortunately, this success did not sway the agreement between Agent Watson and Oliver Queen one bit as he was arrested the following day.

As part of the agreement, the FBI would remain stationed in Star City, using their resources to protect the city and continue their search for Ricardo Diaz until he was taken into full custody if Oliver Queen agreed to turn himself in as the Green Arrow. In addition, all vigilantes in Star City, both active and nonactive, would be given full immunity from all charges in exchange for their permeant retirement from their vigilante careers.

While the adults were placed under federal probation, nothing was ever said or could have been predicted about the children.


Walls. That was all William could see. Sheets and tapestries of marble draped in a single lifeless color were all the twelve-year-old had for some camaraderie. No matter how hard he tried, or how far he looked, every corner, and every window, would be closed off by another set of ice-cold toffee walls. But he wasn't scared. He was confused, more so than he had ever been this past year. No one would give him a straight answer, not even Felicity when he asked her what had happened.

"I think it would be best if your dad explained it to you." She said to him while holding back tears on the drive from school.

His stepmother's answer made even less sense to him. After all, the judge had thrown out his father's case during his trial. Afterward, he and his stepmother joined ARGUS and the police to apprehend Ricardo Diaz.

But what if something had gone wrong last night? To William, it might have been possible that the police had made some sort of assumption and then arrested his father. Perhaps that's what all of this was; one big misunderstanding. Then when he would see his father, he would tell William that the issue was resolved and that he could go home like he always seemed to do.

Of course, the Something inside of William gave him the feeling that things would be much different this time. Slowly but surely, the staccato rhythm of his own heart caused both of his hands and arms to become invisible. Fortunately, he was quick enough to notice, so he shoved his arms behind his back until he calmed himself down before anyone saw what was happening to him.

"No, no, no." He begged while keeping his eyelids closed. "Please not now."

The Something intensified for a moment as an aura of white mist just began to manifest around his entire being. It remained like that until William was in control again, and there were no signs of the shimmering aura or disappearing limbs.

"William." Felicity stepped in front of him and kneeled to reach his level. "Your dad's ready to talk to you."

The boy rose from the bench and walked towards the interrogation room. His feet shuffled across the floor in a zombie-like trance as he kept his eyes on his father, who was sitting handcuffed to the table. Just seeing this picture alone, diminished any and all traces of hope inside of William, that things would go back to normal.

"Hey, buddy." He said to his son as if nothing was going to be separating them for what could have been many years.

"I don't understand." It was all he could say. "What's happening?"

Oliver took William's unblemished hands underneath his own calloused palms.

"I'm going to explain everything to you."


Ben Turner walked down the mess hall to the right-hand corridor where the solitary confinement units were stationed. He walked past a guard who flipped him off, and Turner returned with a sneer behind his back.

He walked up to Solitary Confinement Unit 3A and opened the window slot.

Oliver Queen, also is known as Inmate 4587, was doing diamond push-ups until he saw the slot open on the door of his confinement cell. Once he saw who his unexpected guest was, he wasted no time marching towards the older man.

"If you so much as-"

"Save your breath, Queen." Turner stopped him. "I'm only here to deliver you a message from Lyla. Now this time, are you willing to listen to me or not?"

Oliver looked at him for a minute with scorn, remembering that when the fellow inmate had approached him, he had somehow learned of William's name, leading Oliver to assume that he had something to do with his son's disappearance. However, Oliver knew better than to hold on to that assumption, especially with the mounting circumstances at hand; his only child was missing, and who was to say what state he would return if he were to even be found at all? Nevertheless, if Oliver was going to have any chance of finding out about his son's whereabouts, he needed to accept that despite their history, Turner had only one intention at the moment, and that was to pass along a message from his friend.

But if Oliver sensed any sort of bullshit in whatever Turner said about William, he would not hesitate to use any other means to pluck out the truth from him.

"What did she tell you?"

"It's about the search for your kid. " Turner said to him. "Everyone your friends can reach out to, they've already contacted. Every resource and string they can pull, they're pulling it to bring him home. They haven't found any trace of him so far, but they're putting in every fucking inch that they've got to find your boy, or at least to find out what had happened to him."

Oliver nodded, fully understanding the dedication and effort his friends were making to find his son.

"Before you ask, Lyla came here a couple of days ago to tell you all of this, but you were in solitary at the time," Turner said to him. "I had just finished talking with my ex-wife when she waved for me to come over and asked me to give you her message."

"Why would Lyla trust you of all people with that information?" Oliver asked him.

"After I saved Lyla during that mission in Markovia back in 2014, she repaid me by allowing me to spend one day with my son. It was my son's 10th birthday party, so that day meant everything to me. When she asked me to do one last little favor for her, I said I would owe nothing to her after that, and she agreed that as soon as I gave this message to you, we'd be square."

Oliver understood him. "Thank you for that information." But Ben Turner didn't leave. He wasn't finished yet.

"One more thing." He said. "From one father to another, don't waste your time focusing on the what-ifs or the what-if-nots and all that shit that's running through your head right now. What you can do, to have a middle ground that you can stand on, is have hope. I know it doesn't sound like a lot of help, but from my experience, the best thing you can do is to keep a level head, as long as you can, while also having a little bit of hope. You know, for the sake of not completely losing it."

Oliver agreed silently. "I'll keep that in mind."

The door slot closed, and Oliver was left alone with walls of desolate concrete slab that remained his only company within the confinement cell.


Excerpt from a questioning proceeding the Clayton Investigation:

Joe West: Will you state your name for the record, please?

Samanda Watson: Agent Samanda Watson

Joe West: According to our records, you were the agent who escorted Oliver Queen to the press conference after the brief meeting he had with his wife and child on the morning of May 17th?

Samanda Watson: Absolutely.

Joe West: Did anything happen as you did?

Samanda Watson: I'm not sure what you mean.

Joe West: I mean, did anyone say or do anything as you left the interrogation room that morning?

Samanda Watson: Well, I was on my way out when Oliver's boy came walking up to us. For a moment, I thought he was going to say something to his father, but he said something to me instead.

Joe West: I see. And what did he say to you?

Samanda Watson: Only one word: Why?

Joe West: And what did you say to him?

Samanda Watson: Nothing.

Joe West: Looking back on it now, do you think that William's answer could have been answered?

Samanda Watson: I'm sure you of all people would understand Detective, that my job is very demanding and takes up a tremendous amount of my time. I figured it would have been better to leave it up to his guardian to explain it to him.

Joe West: I see.


From the Transcript of the Zoe Ramirez Tapes:

John Diggle: Where and when was the last time you spoke with William before he went into hiding?

Zoe Ramirez: I think it was around 10:30ish, about the time William's dad was unmasking his Green Arrow persona in front of the whole world. My dad was with me at the precinct then.


The doors of the then-vacant office on the second floor opened wide up, Agent Bordeaux and Zoe filling in as quickly as they could. Zoe glanced around worriedly, having already been briefed on Oliver Queen's prison sentence, however, have no idea where her best friend was.

"Zoe." A familiar voice called out to her. Zoe's father, Rene Ramirez, walked in with a few scrapes on his forehead, but they did nothing to distract the warmth in his smile when he saw his daughter.

"Daddy!" She ran up and was enveloped in his burly arms.

"Hey, Peanut." He kissed her forehead and rubbed her quivering shoulders. "How are you doing?"

"Dad, what's going on?" She asked. "Why are they saying that William and I are being split up?"

Rene knelt in front of his daughter and held both of her hands. "Peanut, listen. You know that William's dad is outside telling the world that he's the Green Arrow, right?"

"Right." She nodded.

"So, unfortunately, that means a lot of attention is going to be put on his family from now on," Rene said to her. "And it's a lot of attention from very bad people who won't hesitate to hurt William for simple payback on his dad. The only way to ensure that will not happen, and I hope to God that it won't, is for William and his mom to go into the Witness Protection Program. It's kind of like what happened when CPS took custody of you, only it's a lot more secure and secret. Which means William can't contact you at all. No texting, no phone calls, not even a postcard."

"Why does William's dad need to out himself though?" Zoe asked. "I mean, isn't the point of a secret identity is to, you know, keep it a secret?"

Rene chuckled. "Yeah, Zoe, that's the idea. Unfortunately, today, things just aren't that simple." Zoe raised an eyebrow at her father, who quickly realized the expression that was taking form on her face. "Hey, before you give me the Look, I want you to know that none of this is up to me, so there's not much I can do to change it. If I could, I would volunteer to take care of William and move out of this city if it meant keeping you two from being apart, but right now, it is what it is, Peanut."

Zoe looked at her shoes in a dejected manner, as she took in the severity of the terrible situation upon them. "So even though I can't keep you two from being separated," Rene walked to the door. "I did, however, manage to get an opportunity for you to say goodbye to William. The problem is, I was only able to scrape a few minutes, so both of you will have to make it quick. Ok?"

Zoe nodded at him. "Ok."

Rene opened the door along with Agent Bordeaux, and her best friend came running to where she was. The door closed, leaving the preteens alone together.

"Are you ok?" William asked her.

How can you even ask me that right now?" Zoe asked. "I mean, you're being shipped off to the middle of nowhere, but you have to ask if I'm ok?" William twisted his thumb and forefinger together, unsure of how to answer her. "Alright, we don't have much time, so does anyone have anything they want to say?"

"Ok," William said. "I lick all the frosting off the Oreos but never eat the actual cookies."

"Ok, my turn," said Zoe. "I, uh, always lose my erasers in school and have to constantly keep borrowing other peoples'." A long awkward silence came surrounding the two 6th graders. "This isn't working, is it?"

"Nope," said William. "Thanks for trying, Z."

William turned towards the window and planted his hands onto it, resigning into submission from the weight he carried on his shoulders.

Zoe walked up to him and placed a hand on one of his hunched shoulders. "Did they say anything about where you were going?"

"Nope."

"Did they tell you how long you were going to stay there?" Zoe asked him quietly.

"Nope."

"Even so, are you planning on telling your stepmom about your, you know…" It only took William a second to figure out what she was referring to.

"Yes." He replied while turning away from the window and crossed his arms sternly. However, suddenly, he began to twist his thumb and forefinger together, which was a habit that was common for those who knew William best, that acted out whenever the boy was extremely apprehensive about something. "No." His aforementioned fingers continued to fight amongst themselves. "I don't fucking know, Zoe. All of this, it's too much to think about right now." He ran his hands through his chocolate brown hair whilst leaning against the window.

"Say no more." Zoe leaned against the window as well, crossing her arms just as William had done moments before. "I don't know if foster care is the same as going under federal protection, but I know what it's like to be separated from your family, and not have a say about any of it. It's not going to be easy to handle, not for a long time anyway. The best advice I can give you, is to try to find a way to make the best out of the situation that works only for you."

Before William could ask her how she did that, the doors swung open, and Agent Bordeaux came in with Rene.

"Ok." She said. "Time to go."

"Please, just a couple more minutes?" William asked.

"Let's go." One of the adults said.

The children pulled themselves into each other's' arms, and would not let go of each other, so Rene had to pull Zoe away from William, and Agent Bordeaux had to pull William away from Zoe. They both fought to be free from the tight grasp of the adults, but they couldn't be free from the arms of steel.

They both kicked and screamed, the sound of their pleas bouncing off the rigid stone walls. The further the kids were separated from each other, the louder they begged their parents to not to take them away. Soon enough, however, William was in the van with no windows to show his face, and Zoe was left in the precinct, staining her father's jacket with her salty tears, but Rene didn't mind. He stroked his daughter's shoulder-length hair, allowing Zoe to hold onto him as he gave a silent goodbye to through the window both Felicity and her stepson as the windowless vehicle drove away until it completely vanished out of sight.


From Feeling the Blue: A Complete Examination on the Case of William Clayton by Ralph Dibney (pg. 10)

Published via Star Labs, April 2, 2028

As per the restrictions of the Witness Protection Program to ensure their safety, both parents of William Clayton, and Zoe Ramirez were not allowed to arrange any form of communication for their children under any circumstances whatsoever.

Following that morning, Zoe continued to stay in Star City, while William had to start anew in a location, that aside from the identities mentioned here, is one of the reasons why this case study remains hidden under secure ARGUS confidentiality.

For the next four months, both William and Felicity lived under new identities at the sleepy suburbs of Hope Springs California, a small junction, just about two hours south of Los Angeles.

Although testimony from Felicity Smoak, supported by evidence collected by a small team of private investigators, confirms that William Clayton had full intentions to live out a civilian life, one question had puzzled officials during the initial investigation: Did William Clayton plan to become a vigilante or was this a career he was forced to choose?