My name is Ashlee Merlyn. For 5 years, I was stranded on an island with my best friend Oliver Queen and one goal- survive. Now we're home and we will fulfill his father's dying wish.
"You two can survive this." Mr. Queen said.
To use the list of names he left us and bring down those who are poisoning our city. To do this, we must become someone else. We must become something else.
Previously on "Arrow and Shadow"
We watched the Gambit go down into the ocean before being pulled onto a life raft.
"You're late." I told Oliver.
"My mother wants me to have a bodyguard." He told me.
The bullet must have gone through Holder and into my shoulder.
"The bullet. Poison." I said staring at Oliver with my eyes wide.
We heard someone groan behind and went to attack them but were surprised to see Diggle holding an injured arm. We quickly grabbed him and supported him to our destination. Oliver and I quickly moved Diggle down the where all our things were hidden and he quickly made the antidote for the poison he'd given me and we gave it to him before waiting. Once Diggle woke up he reached into his jacket and drew his hand away with blood on his fingers. He turned to us as he sat up in confusion. Oliver stood up from his seat and we moved closer to him.
"Hey."
"Oliver? Ashlee? You're the vigilantes." Diggle asked standing up and staring at us in shock. He tried to punch Oliver but he just moved out of the way and Diggle stumbled into the desk.
"Easy, Dig. You were poisoned."
"Son of a bitch," Diggle said before attacking again. Oliver grabbed him and held his arms behind him before leaning him against the table he'd woken up on.
"We could have taken you anywhere, could have taken you home. We brought you here." Oliver told him.
"You really did lose your minds on that island," Diggle said.
"Found a couple things along the way," Oliver told him.
"Like what, weapon classes?" Diggle asked us sarcastically.
"Clarity. Starling City is dying." Oliver told him.
"Our city is being poisoned by a criminal elite who don't care who they hurt, as long as they maintain their wealth and power," I informed him.
"What are you gonna do, take 'em all down by your lonesome?" Diggle asked.
"No. Now, we want you to join us." Oliver told him and he scoffed at us. "Special Forces out of Kandahar. It's perfect. You're a fellow soldier."
"Oliver, you and Ashlee aren't soldiers," Diggle told us. "You're criminals. And murderers." Diggle then turned and left the basement area we were in.
"Do you think he'll turn us in?" I asked Oliver once his bodyguard was out of hearing range.
"I don't know." He answered before we changed and went our separate ways.
Once I got home I opened and closed the door as quietly as I could before taking my shoes off so they wouldn't make a sound on the floor.
"Where were you?" I heard someone ask behind me. I sighed and turned to see my father.
"What are you doing still awake?" I asked him.
"I heard about the shooting at the exchange building." He told me.
"What about it?" I asked him.
"You were once again placed in danger by being near the Queen family." He told me and I shook my head at him.
"Dad. We've been over this. The Queen family has nothing to do with my life being in danger." I told him.
"I don't want you near Oliver. If I have to I will file a restraining order against him for you." He warned me.
"One that I won't listen to," I told him.
"You will or I will kick you out of my house." He threatened me.
"Then do it," I told him. "I will find a way to survive without you and your money."
"Where would you go? Your brother? Your precious Oliver Queen?" he asked me angrily.
"What I do after you kick me out of your house is none of your business," I told him before heading up the stairs.
"Don't expect to stay long." He told me and I ignored him as I made my way to my room.
I woke to a bird chirping, my head on Ollie's lap.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Shengcún." The man said to us.
"What are we supposed to do with that?" Oli asked him.
"Shengcún." The man repeated.
"Does that mean "bird"?" Oli asked him.
"I don't think it means bird," I told my friend.
"Shengcún!" he said again.
"I don't speak Chinese!" Oli finally shouted at him. The man turned and walked away from us and Oli went back to staring at the photo in his hand I hadn't noticed before. "I'm sorry, Laurel. I'm so sorry."
I sat up quickly, the wind blowing outside my window and a knife in my hand. I looked around in my locked room but didn't see anything different from when I went to sleep. I got up and moved to a small home theater room. Tommy and I had played in this room for hours when we were kids, and now I was watching the news about a man who reportedly killed his wife.
"There were no signs of forced entry or any evidence of a struggle, but, hours later, the police found that the bloodstained kitchen knife in the trunk of his car. Forensic analysis verified Camille Declan's blood on the blade and Peter Declan's fingerprints on the handle. Despite the growing list of evidence, Peter Declan claimed innocence even after he was found guilty in court." The reporter said.
"Camille was everything to me. I couldn't kill her any more than I could kill myself." Peter Declan said in a video recorded in 2008. I looked at him on the video and gave it some deep thought before going back to my room. I got on my computer and looked up the information I wanted to know. I went into the police report and looked at the pictures from the crime scene. The knife was from their kitchen set they'd gotten as a gift on their wedding day. The knife had only his prints on it and her blood completely covering the blade. I pulled up the pictures and looked at anything that could show me if he truly killed his wife or it was a cover-up. I looked into his wife and found the one thing I needed. Jason Brodeur was Camille's former employer. I looked over a copy of the list I had and found his name. I leaned back in my seat and sighed.
That morning I quickly left and went to the steel factory and dug around some more. This was a more secure line for me to find what I needed. The reports say Peter Declan murdered his wife in cold blood. He had no alibi, and all the evidence pointed toward him. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, an open-and-shut case. The odds are good that Brodeur is involved in this woman's murder, which means an innocent man is facing execution.
"I didn't expect to see you here this early." He told me.
"Saw something on the news last night when I couldn't sleep. Memories." I said turning to look at him.
"Yea. Same here. You heard about this guy too?" he asked.
"Yea. I don't buy it. He didn't really look like a guy who would kill his wife for no reason." I said. "The police report says neighbors hearing them having an argument before the time of death. That's one of the main reasons they believe he killed her. Plus all the evidence just stacked up in their laps for an easy win."
"That never happens without help." He said and I nodded. "The wife worked for Jason Brodeur."
"So what do we do? He's been found guilty and is set to die in two days." I reminded him.
"We get him a good lawyer." He told me.
Later that night, we suited up and I turned off the lights for Laurel's apartment and we waited in silence for her to come home from work. When she did she tried to turn on the lights she failed and she quickly looked around before quietly pulling a gun from a drawer and continuing to look around her apartment. She finally turned and saw us in her living room. Oliver activated the voice modifier before either of us spoke to her.
"Hello, Laurel." He said.
"Don't move!" she almost shouted at us.
"We're not gonna hurt you." He said.
"Stay back. My father's a cop." She warned us.
"You are making a huge mistake. I'm not the person you think I am, and I need your help." He told her.
"Peter Declan is gonna be executed in 48 hours. We think he's innocent. Declan's wife was gonna blow the whistle on Jason Brodeur. Brodeur had her murdered." I explained to her as Oliver handed her the file we'd spent the day making.
"There are a thousand lawyers in Starling City. Why me?" she asked us.
"We're all trying to help," Oliver said.
"What makes you sure I'm gonna help you?" she asked us.
"Because we know you'd do anything to save the life of an innocent man." He told her before we both disappeared from her apartment.
The next day Oliver and his new bodyguard were at my front door.
"New guy?" I asked him with a small smile.
"Diggle quit." He told me.
"I see. How is he?" I asked him.
"Still learning." He told me before we got into the car with the new guy driving us to where Diggle might have been as the two of us spoke of nothing he'd understand. We stopped in the front area with the new guy in front of us. He looked around the room before looking back at us.
"Area is secure, sir." He told him.
"Thank you very much, Rob." Oliver and I walked past him to Diggle and his sister-in-law. "Hello, Diggle's sister-in-law Carly. I'm Oliver Queen and this is my best friend Ashlee Merlyn."
"I know who you are." She told us.
"No, you really don't," Diggle told her from his seat. She smiled at us before walking away as we sat in the booth across from Diggle.
"Hello. I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of police cars when I got home. I knew you wouldn't drop a dime on me. So have you considered our offer?" Oliver asked him.
"Offer." Diggle scoffed. "That's one hell of a way to put it."
"It is an offer. It's a chance to do the kind of good that compelled you to join the military." Oliver told him.
"Please. You two were born with platinum spoons in your mouths, Queen. What, you spent 5 years on an island with no room service, and suddenly you found religion?" Diggle asked scoffing at us again. Oliver took out the book with the list and showed it to Diggle.
"This was my father's. I found it when we buried him." Oliver told him.
"I thought you said your father died when the boat went down," Diggle said remembering what we kept telling everyone.
"We all made it to a life raft, but there wasn't enough food and water for everyone, so he shot himself and one other man in the head," I told him.
"As much as he was doing it to give us a chance to survive, I believe that he was also atoning for his sins. I need to right the wrongs done by my family, and we're offering you the chance to right the wrongs done to yours." Oliver said.
"Oliver, what are you talking about?" Diggle asked not believing us.
"The police never caught your brother's shooter, did they?" I asked him.
"Hey, you leave Andy out of this." He said warning us.
"The bullets were laced with curare which is Floyd Lawton's M. O. He is the sniper that we stopped at the exchange building," I told him.
"Are you trying to tell me that you took down Andy's killer?" Diggle asked us.
"We're-" Oliver stopped long enough for a waitress to pass us before continuing. "We're giving you a chance, a chance to help other people's families. Do you remember when the people in this city helped each other?"
"They can't do that anymore, because a group of people, people like Oliver's father. They see nothing wrong with raising themselves up by robbing others blind. It does need to stop, and if it's not gonna be the courts and it's not gonna be the cops then it's gonna be us." I said motioning to Oliver and myself.
"And, we hope, you," Oliver said before Rob joined us at the table as he got up from the booth. "I'm gonna go to the washroom, Rob." Oliver then left and I tried holding back my laughter as Rob waited patiently to him to return.
"Oh, that boy's long gone, man," Diggle told him and I released a small amount of laughter.
"Come on Rob. You can take me home then meet back up with Oliver later." I told him. "Think about what we said, Diggle. All we want to do it help." I chose that moment to walk away from the man before my phone went off. I looked at the screen to see a message from Oliver.
Laurel wants to meet. Suit up.
"Why don't you bring the car around Rob, I'll meet you out front," I told him smiling. He nodded before leaving the restaurant. I turned and went out back so I could get to the Steel Factory and change into my suit and meet Oliver and Laurel. I joined him on the rooftop and we waited for her to join us.
"You let her know a time and place?" I asked him and he just gave me a look making me laugh lightly. We soon heard Laurel's heels coming towards us and Oliver activated the device to distort our voices.
"I got your message." He told her.
"Is there a reason we can't do this face to face?" she asked us.
"You've met with Peter Declan," Oliver said, knowing the answer already.
"You were right. He might be innocent. Declan said his wife blew the whistle on Brodeur the day she was murdered." She informed us.
"Then we need to get whoever she told about Brodeur to testify," Oliver said moving past her.
"He already has. Matt Istook, Camille's supervisor. Only, he says that she didn't say a word to him." She told us.
"He's lying," I said.
"Well, if he is, then he's very convincing. He had the jury and police believing him." She told us.
"He hasn't been questioned by us," Oliver told her.
"I didn't become a lawyer to break the law or hurt anybody." She told us.
"We do what's necessary, what people like Peter Declan need," Oliver told her.
"If what you're doing isn't wrong then why are you hiding your faces with a hood and a mask?" she asked us.
"To protect the ones we care about," I told her.
"That sounds lonely." She told us and I looked at him through my mask.
"There's always the two of us. We're never alone." He told her before shooting an arrow into the side of another building. I walked up to him and he wrapped his arm around my waist as I wrapped mine around his neck before we swung off the roof to our next target of the night: Matt Istook.
When we found where Istook was, we waited for him to leave the building he worked in and go to his car. We saw him walk to the lone car in the parking lot and unlock it. When he opened the door Oliver blew a dart at him, hitting him in the back of his neck. We waited for him to fall unconscious before taking him to our interview site of choice. When he finally awoke we could just barely hear the train coming behind us.
"Matt Istook." He quickly sat up and turned towards us.
"You're them, that hood guy and mask girl. You're the pair that's been terrorizing the city." Istook said.
"Peter Declan," Oliver said getting him on the track we wanted him on. "Your lies helped put him on death row. Now, either it's time to tell us the truth, or it's time for the 10:15 to Blüdhaven." The train whistled behind us coming closer.
"O-ok." Istook stammered. "Ok, I- Brodeur paid me to- to say that Camille never spoke to me, but I didn't have anything to do with her death. Oh, God, please. I'll do anything. Y-you could have the file." He said as the train grew closer to us.
"What file?" I asked him.
"Camille gave me a file of evidence against Jason Brodeur." He told us.
"Where is it?!" Oliver shouted at him.
"Let me go, and I'll tell you." He told us.
"We don't make deals," I told him before we both walked past him and out of the way of the oncoming train.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't go! It's in my desk! The file, it's in my desk at the office! You can have it! Get me out of here!" he begged us. Oliver fired an arrow at the handcuffs and Istook rolled off the track just as the train past the three of us.
Ollie and I sat in a corner of the cave at the Chinese man cooked something over the fire.
"What is that?" Ollie asked him. "I'm so hungry. It smells really good." Ollie went to grab a piece, but the man grabbed his hand and twisted it making him fall back towards me. "Aah! Hey, fine. Don't share." I helped Ollie sit back up as the man pointed to the bird and mimicked breaking its neck.
"Shengcún." He told us.
"I'm not gonna kill the bird." Ollie refused. The man just laughed lightly once before taking a piece of the recently cooked meat in his hand.
"Shengcún." He repeated before eating it.
After we retrieved the file we rushed over to Laurel's office where she was working alone again. I shut off the lights before we made our way closer to her. Oliver dropped the file in front of her before moving back again.
"Compliments of Matt Istook," Oliver told her.
"What's in here?" she asked us.
"Leverage on Jason Brodeur, enough to help save Peter Declan's life." He told her.
"As an attorney, I never would have gotten a file like this. I always thought the law was sacred, I-it fixed everything." She told us.
"And now, Laurel? Now, what do you think?" I asked her.
"I think there are too many people in this city who only care about themselves people who are selfish. I think they need someone who cares about the lives of other people. Someone like you." She told us. I looked down before we both turned and left the building.
I went home after changing back into my civvies and was on my way up to my room when I stopped and stared at a picture on the wall. My mother had threatened my father for a proper family photo for years before he finally consented. The picture was taken shortly before she'd been killed in the Glades and before dad had disappeared from our lives for all those years. Next to it was a picture of the Merlyn family and the Queen family. Our families had always been very close and my mother had made sure they knew we were taking family photos.
"Your mother loved this picture of all of us together," Dad said coming up behind me.
"I remember," I said staring at it.
"When she told me she'd gotten someone to take a picture of the family I hadn't known she'd invited Robert and his family until they'd gotten there." He said with a small smile on his face.
"You never talk about her," I said.
"What do you mean?" he asked me.
"Mom. You never talk about her, even when I was a kid." I told him finally turning to look at him.
"She would always joke about you, Tommy and Oliver. Saying the three of you would be there for each other forever just as Robert and I were. She even said she could see you and Oliver getting married in the future." He told me.
"Well, that'll never happen," I said.
"Not that I'm not happy to hear that, but why do you say that?" he asked me.
"Laurel Lance. He's still very much in love with her and wants to be with her again after earning her forgiveness." I told him.
"Well, then he's an idiot." My dad told me. "How about you, Tommy and I have lunch tomorrow? Just the three of us?"
"I'd like that," I told him before finishing the walk to my room.
The next afternoon I wore a strapless dark blue dress that fell to my had a black ribbon around the waist and black lace going up from the belt to the bust with dark blue peep-toe heels I wore black feather earrings, a raven necklace and a black ring with golden bracelets. I applied blue eyeliner, black mascara, and sheer gloss on my lips. The finishing touch was the golden clutch I carried and my hair is up in a bun with a few strands of hair framing my face. I made sure all my scars were covered before leaving for the restaurant my father had made reservations for. I smiled when I saw Tommy at the table with a glass of wine in hand.
"Ash, you look amazing." He told me standing and giving me a hug before pulling my seat out for me.
"So when is he supposed to arrive?" I asked checking my phone for the time.
"He's Dad. He'll be here when he gets here." He told me. I ordered a glass of wine and we drank while we talked about what I'd missed while on the island. We ordered an appetizer to share after a short time as we talked and finished it before dad finally showed.
"I see you two were catching up on old times." He said with a smile on his face.
"You were late so we also started without you," I told him.
"Then I'm glad I arrived before you ordered a five-course lunch." He joked and I forced a smile on my face before glancing at Tommy.
"Should we order lunch before someone gets a phone call and runoff." Tommy joked and we went ahead and ordered. The rest of the afternoon was pleasant and filled with small laughter. Dad told us things about mom and we all shared our memories when we were all together.
After lunch, I got a message from Oliver.
News about Declan. Meet tonight.
"We're not done yet," Oliver said angrily when Laurel told us the judge didn't stop the execution with the new evidence.
"I'm an attorney. Trust me. We're done." Laurel told him.
"What do you need to free Peter Declan?" I asked her.
"At this point, nothing short of a signed confession from Brodeur." She said.
"Consider it done," I told her before we turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" she asked us.
"To get a confession," Oliver told her before we left her alone.
"What do you want?" Brodeur asked after we'd cornered him in his office.
"You're gonna confess that you arranged to have Peter Declan's wife murdered," Oliver told him.
"What, so I can take his place in prison?" Brodeur asked us with disbelief in his voice.
"So you can avoid the death penalty." Oliver corrected.
"Except if I'm dead, well, then, you've got no one to pin Camille's murder on. You need me to exonerate Peter Declan. Maybe you could try to force me to sign a confession or something." Brodeur said before Oliver shot his hand with an arrow. "Yaah!"
"That might be difficult." He said before Brodeur's phone rang.
"My hand!" I pulled out the phone to see the number blocked and nodded to Oliver.
"Just answer the phone. Don't say anything stupid." I told him before answering the phone and putting it on speaker.
"What?" he growled into the phone.
"It's Ankov. It's going down, one hour." I hung up the phone a quickly pulled out a knife and laid it on his throat.
"What's going down in an hour?" I asked him.
"Peter Declan's execution is getting moved up." He said with a smirk on his face. I punched him hard enough to knock him out before we left.
"I won't be able to get into the prison," I told Oliver.
"I'll take care of it." He told me.
"Be careful," I told him before leaving for home.
The bird continued to make noise next to us as the man was working on something.
"Hey, please. I'm starving. I never killed anything before." Oliver called to him. He didn't say anything so Oliver who then slowly took the bird out of the cage and held it in his hands. "I'm sorry." He said holding the birds head in his hand.
"Let me," I said trying to take the bird from him.
"I can't let you do that." He told me.
"Together then," I said. Both our hands held the bird's head before snapping its neck, killing it. I took a deep breath.
"At least 5 federal, state, and local agencies are seeking millions of dollars in fines and environmental cleanup costs from Brodeur Chemical, new facts have come to light that Brodeur Chemical employee Camille Declan had discovered Brodeur was illegally disposing waste and had collected a file of evidence against her employer before her murder in 2007. Peter Declan, who was convicted of killing his wife, has been released, and the case has been reopened." I heard on the news, making me smile that we were able to help an innocent man.
Ollie and I were hovering over the meat from the bird as the Chinese man walked towards us.
"Shengcún." He said.
"Yeah. Bird. We know." Oliver said angrily.
"Shengcún not mean "bird." Shengcún mean "survive."" He told us.
"You speak English?" I asked him.
"You want survive this place, bird not last thing you kill." He said before showing Ollie the picture of Laurel from his wallet he'd been staring at since we got onto the island. "And forget her. You look at that all day, you not survive this place."
The next day, I met up with Oliver at his house in time to see Rob storming out.
"He quit?" I asked him.
"He couldn't handle the job requirements," Oliver told me. We walked into the house to see Diggle staring out the window.
"You here for the bodyguard position? 'Cause the new guy just quit." Oliver told him making him look at us.
"No, I'm not. I'm here about the other position. Just to be clear, I'm not signing on to be a sidekick. But you're right. Fighting for this city needs to be done, and you two are gonna do this with or without me." He said.
"Yeah." Oliver agreed while I nodded.
"But with me, there'll be fewer casualties, including the two of you." He told us.
"Diggle, I'm not looking for anybody to save me," Oliver told him.
"And I can take care of myself," I said.
"Maybe, but you both need someone just the same. You are fighting a war, except you two have no idea what war does to you, how it scrapes off little pieces of your soul. And you both need someone to remind you of who you are, not this thing you're becoming." Diggle told us. Oliver held out his hand for Diggle to shake which he did.
"Welcome to the team," I said with a smile on my face.
"Oliver Queen." We turned as Oliver's name was called out after the door was slammed open.
"What is this? You can't just barge in here." Walter said.
"Yeah? Well, I got a badge and a gun that say different." Detective Lance said.
"Hey, what the hell's going on?! Detective Lance—" Oliver said as the three of us walked into the entryway.
"Oliver Queen, you're under arrest on suspicion of obstruction of justice, aggravated assault…" Detective Lance said while arresting Oliver.
"What is going on?" Oliver's mom asked.
"Walter, stop them!" Thea called out from upstairs.
"Trespassing, acting as a vigilante…" Detective Lance continued.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Oliver asked him angrily.
"And murder. You have the right to remain silent. Give up that right." Lance told him leaving us all to stand in the entryway stunned by what had happened.