Chapter 9:

"Sit. I'll get you some bandages." Oliver finally stopped being frozen in shock and walked towards her. His face was covered in darkness and tints of dark green reflecting from the greasepaint covering his face.

"I'm fine." Thea said sharply and pointed at Felicity. She looked dazed, shifting unsteadily on the ground. She was likely unfocused from the bruise on her head. "She's the one who needs help."

"I'm fine." Felicity squeaked, flinching behind Thea right as Oliver stood right in front of them.

"You're bleeding." Oliver's voice modulator crackled. His green face glowed in the darkness.

"Trust me, it's mostly just an adjustment for me, getting used to feeling pain." It was strange to feel pain again. She was so used to her body feeling less pain thanks to the days of acclimating to boiling water with Malcolm. She could feel the burning pain in her leg from the arrow, and the intense pressure from the punches and cuts Thea received from Chase's men.

"What do you mean?" Soon, Ollie, soon she would tell him everything.

"Look, we need to get Felicity somewhere safe before Prometheus and his men come after her again. I would say, take her to a hospital, but Prometheus likes sneaking into places. He wants her dead."

"I'm fine," Felicity repeated, coughing more blood. Felicity's whole body was shaking.

Oliver put a hand on her shoulder. "She can wait."

"No." It was so strange to see him prioritize her over Felicity. It wasn't right. Thea knew what she was doing. Felicity was caught in a mess without any knowledge on why she was targeted.

"Please, let's get her some help. Figure out where to keep her safe. Then we can focus on me." Can't he see that Felicity was seriously hurt? Felicity may be a stranger to him, but she needed the Green Arrow's help more than Thea.

A clang rang behind her. Thea grabbed her gun, struggling a bit because she had to do it with her non-dominant hand thanks to the arrow that was still poking out of her right hand. She involuntarily dropped it when she saw Diggle walking out of the lock room.

"John!" Thank goodness, Diggle was still going to join Oliver's team. She didn't manage to jeopardize that.

"Ms. Queen," Diggle nodded. "I suspected that you were involved in his crusade too. You shouldn't have gone out alone."

Typical Diggle, always the critic and advisor of the group.

"I had to make sure Felicity was safe." Thea told him. "She's a target of Prometheus. That vigilante is an enemy of mine."

Diggle raised his eyebrows. "You're telling me that someone who saved your friend is a danger to society, but not him?" He pointed at her brother.

"He did attack you." Oliver said.

Thea noticed then that Diggle was wobbling and clutching his chest.

"I'm so sorry! I should have protected you!" Thea moved to comfort him somehow but stopped as she noticed the distrustful look in his eyes.

"Ms. Queen? No, she is so old. You're. You're. You're Walter, I mean Mr. Steele's stepdaughter. You sometimes go to the office. I've seen you so many times," Felicity exclaimed before coughing some more.

Thea smiled. "Walter likes you a lot."

"You work at Queen's Consolidated," Oliver said. "Is that why Prometheus targeted you?"

"I don't know. I guess. I'm just your typical IT girl."

"Yes. Prometheus hates my family, and anything related to it," Thea explained. "He picked Felicity because of Walter's high regards towards her." Did that sound logical enough? Thea wasn't sure, but Felicity and Diggle didn't know her well enough to possibly trust her word about time-travel.

Felicity smiled proudly. "I love him too. I mean, as a boss. In a purely professional way. I mean I like how he runs your family's company, Ms. Queen."

"Call me Thea, I am younger than you." Thea grabbed her future friend's hand and squeezed it. "We'll get you somewhere safe. Far away from Prometheus and his crazy schemes."

"Hood, Ms. Queen," Diggle cut in. "My ex-wife works in the government. I can take Ms. Felicity to a secret hospital to keep her safe from Prometheus. I can't quite comprehend that he's behind this, but the attack tonight is questionable."

"You would?" Thea felt relieved. "Lyla, I do trust her, but what if Waller…"

"You know about my ex-wife? A.R.G.U.S.? Did you stalk me? Intrude on my private life? Who are you really?" Diggle stood over her, his muscles pulsating. "You are definitely not a civilian."

Thea rolled her neck backwards. It was cramping up. Her leg and hand were itching up from the arrows. She really needed those arrows out of her skin prompto. "No. I'm not. I've never been involved in the agency or met Lyla." At least the Lyla of this time. "But I've done my research."

"How? You shouldn't know?" It was Oliver this time. "You're supposed to be…"

"Innocent? Free from it all? Totally caught unaware?" Thea drawled. "I wish. But I haven't been like that since like three years ago. Since Slade Wilson kidnapped me and told me about Malcolm. Since ..." Since their mother died. Since the only one who seemed to care about her foremost was a psychopath. Since she killed a friend. Since she almost lost her brother again. Since far too many unhappy memories occurred.

Oliver's grip on her shoulder tightened. "He's dead."

"He survived. Mirakuru saved him. But that's not important. I was mad at you after I found out. I never wanted to be caught unaware again. So, I learned to fight, about what's going on. I have so much I need to tell you. But Prometheus is here in Star City. He's after you, me, Felicity, Diggle, all the people we care about."

"You're insane. You're both insane." Diggle glanced back and forth from Thea to her brother. "I'll get this woman to safety, but that's all I'll do. I quit. Find yourself another bodyguard to ditch and threaten."

"Dig, please." Thea tried to think of a reason for him to join the team. But he wasn't her friend. He wasn't Oliver's best friend. He was only a stranger.

"No. You too clearly have a lot to talk about. But I'm not interested in lunatics and crazy stories of kidnapping that were never reported and people who think it's their job to go after their own peers because they are mad that their life isn't easy anymore."

"Dig," Thea said again.

"Let him go," Oliver told her. "Thanks for getting the woman somewhere safe. Good luck with your future."

Diggle nodded and reached out a hand to Felicity, who was sitting on the floor. Felicity ignored his offered hand and turned towards Thea.

"Thank you, Thea. I won't forget what you did for me tonight." Felicity eyes gazed at her with familiar warmth and trust. She could still count on Felicity as a future friend.

Thea lowered herself to the floor and did a tight one-arm hug around Felicity, careful to keep the arrow in her hand out of the way. "You're welcome and be careful," Thea whispered. "Don't trust anyone at A.R.G.U.S. if that's where Diggle takes you."

Felicity nodded, nervously tying her ponytail back up before whipping her blood from her face and chin off with hands. "I know. I trust you."

Thea held back tears. Everyone was going to work out. Someone would heal Felicity. John would keep her safe. This was not going to be their last conversation.

Soon, Felicity took Diggle's offer hand, and her old teammates left her and her brother to fight the coming battles alone.

"There's a lot I need to tell you." Thea finally broke the silence. Luckily, Oliver trusted her enough to bring her down to the lair. After carefully taking out the arrows, he had bandaged her hand and leg. Thea sat on a white swivel chair. As she pressed an ice back on her left leg, she struggled to ignore the annoyance of her skin scratching against the sticky fabric. Oliver sat across from her on one of the metal chairs he had grabbed from his workstation. "It's hard to explain, but here it is." Thea paused, gearing herself for a struggle to convince him of the truth. "I'm still your sister. But I'm not the innocent little girl you left behind, or the messed-up drug addict you returned to."

"You saw me?" Oliver's voice cracked. Thea was glad he took off the voice modulator. It was nice to hear his voice again. "At Tommy's party."

The welcome home party? "Um, obviously. We talked at that party a few weeks ago. I rescued you from Quentin. So much drama, right?"

"No. Three years ago. His …" Oliver stopped himself. He probably realized that he was referring to an event Thea didn't know about. She sneaked into so many of Tommy's parties after the sinking of the Queen's Gambit.

"Yeah. Whatever happened at some party three years ago, I don't know about that. It's fine. Keep your secrets." There was still so much about Oliver's years alone that Thea was ignorant about. But revealing her secrets was more important than her curiosity wasn't worth delaying the inevitable. And so, what? It wasn't like she wasn't used to being ignorant. It was knowing too much that was uncomfortable.

"Look, I meant that I'm not the Thea you returned home to a few weeks ago. I'm from the future. I'm actually twenty-three years old."

Oliver shook his head in disbelief. "That's insane."

Thea laughed. "Sounds like that, I know. But trust me. It's true. And I'm not the only time-traveler. Samantha is one. Prometheus is another. I knew him also as Adrian Chase, Justin Claybourne's psycho illegitimate son. I wasn't there to find out his real name. You, future you I mean, killed Claybourne after he refused to not annihilate people in Lamb Valley with a deadly disease. Adrian swore revenge afterwards. Despite the fact that he knew his father planned to disinherit him and basically hated his existence. So, illogical, I know. He's a huge hypocrite too. Calling you a serial killer when he's the one who kills innocent people."

Oliver stared at her, his usual unreadable mask on his face. "I am a killer. Thea, whatever really happened between me and Prometheus, I'm sorry. But that story he told you; it never happened."

"That's because it'll happen in the future. Look at Malcolm's list. You'll see Justin Claybourne's name. You'll see that he's one of the individuals that you will target for your mission. Can't you see it? You're more than capable of targeting him eventually and you will or would have if we never time traveled. I guess we shouldn't kill him this time. Make sure Adrian doesn't have another reason to hate you."

"Malcolm's list?" Oliver sounded amazed. "Do you mean…."

"Yes. The list dad gave you is a list of all the people that Malcolm threatened and bribed like mom and dad. He's planning something terrible that will utterly destroy the Glades. After we stop Adrian, we can start planning how to deal with it."

"Malcolm is a good man. He was dad's best friend, and they were so close. He's Tommy's dad. He's your biological father." Oliver tense in his seat, denial in fool force. "Why would he try to hurt people? We know him. We went to dinners at his house, all those over-the-top events. He's not perfect, but he's someone we could go to when we had trouble at school or wanted a ride or ..."

"I know. It's hard to hear. To know a man, we grew up to is a psycho killer who killed our father and almost killed you. I hate him. I hate him for forcing mom to be a part of his plan. But it's true. Everything I told you since we entered this lair tonight is the truth. You got to believe me. You told me… I mean in the future you told me that you faced an idol like a villain we fought owned. An idol that gave someone magical, unnatural powers. You've seen magic right in front of your eyes. Why is time travel so hard to believe when you've seen that?" He needed to stop denying the truth. He needed to realize that Thea would not lie to him about something this important.

Oliver stood and walked away to his workstation. He turned on his computer and a desk lamp. Thea wasn't sure what he was doing. Did he need space? Did he now think Thea was a threat? Was he going to find her crazy?

After several tense, long minutes, Oliver finally spoke. "Who did I go after next after Somers?"

"I don't know. That was years ago. I wasn't involved in this life then. The big thing I remembered after Laurel's attack was the auction with a shootout."

"You let Laurel get attacked." Oliver said angrily. That was a good sign. He might be starting to believe her.

"I wasn't thinking. I didn't realize that checking on Samantha would change anything. I thought you would continue doing your mission as I consoled her about time travel. It's been hard for her. Right before we time traveled, we died in an explosion and Chase had kidnapped William. She's scared, and I feel for her. I feel for Laurel too, but she wasn't injured last time. If I remember correctly, I think you saved her before anything happened."

Oliver nodded. "I'm sorry," his voice sounded softer. "I'm sorry I got you both killed."

"You didn't get us killed. Chase did. He kidnapped us. Oliver came to save us, and I believe that he saved everything else. We chose to run off from the group. Besides, it's all on Chase. On his insanity. Any deaths that Chase causes in this timeline will absolutely not be your fault." If anything, it would be Thea's fault because she was the one who knew about Chase's criminal patterns and personality traits. She was the one with all the foreknowledge.

"You're really from the future." Oliver said quietly.

"You believe me?"

Oliver nodded. "I've been trying to figure out why Prometheus would save Laurel but try to kill John and that woman you saved. I was also confused about how Samantha- a person I haven't seen in years and only knew briefly - would know that I'm the Hood with such certainty. Why she appeared so scared of me."

"Samantha is not scared of you." Thea said with conviction. "She's afraid of Prometheus. She's scared that he'll kidnap William once again. She doesn't want William to be traumatized. She knows you're a hero. We should talk to her tomorrow on my burner; figure out a plan to hide them."

"It probably is not the best idea for Samantha to hide. I sued for custody," Oliver said sheepishly.

"You didn't!" Thea exclaimed. "Oliver."

"He's my son."

"But you don't have time for a court battle with your mission." Thea stretched her arms, trying to relax the tension. Her shoulders still ached from the fight with Prometheus's men.

"I felt that mom could handle most of it," Oliver explained.

"Well, we have to hide them with Chase out there. You just need to sign a written agreement with Samantha that you will not use it against her. That she can hide while Prometheus is out there. Legal fights are not worth their safety."

"I know," Oliver sighed. "I just needed to do something. Samantha. She took away any chance I had to know my son. I want to know him."

Thea nodded. "After everything that happened to you, you deserve to know him. But please don't ruin Samantha's life. Her past two years were no picnic. William was kidnapped twice. She had to go on the run under a false identity."

Oliver stared at her with a lost expression. "No wonder she hates me."

Thea walked over to him, ignoring the pain pulsating from her leg. "She doesn't hate you." She used her good hand to squeeze one of his. "She's stressed and worried. I am too. But I know that together we can stop Chase. I need your help getting surveillance cameras and getting them around people that might be in danger. I need you to listen to me as I describe what happened the past five years."

Oliver shook his head. "You don't have to be involved. You gave me everything I need to know that I have to kill Prometheus before he ruins our city. You can have the normal life you were denied in the future you lived."

"You don't understand," Thea huffed. "I'm no longer someone you need to protect. You know, I understand. It took Oliver three years to tell me the truth and that was after everyone besides Quentin and Walter knew the truth."

"Everyone? I was revealed? Did Detective Lance and Walter die before the secret came out."

"No. I mean everyone who was important to us. The Green Arrow's identity was still safely hidden in my future." Thea squeezed his hand again. "Look. I know what it's like to be afraid of what my actions would do to people I care about. What it's like to cause them pain. I sided with a psychopath. I burned a person. I threatened a little girl. I killed Sara."

"Sara? She's dead. I saw her die." Oliver said solemnly. "You couldn't have killed her."

"She's alive. She survived. She'll be back home in a year. She's not in the best place, but she is currently with a woman who loves her. A woman who refused to kill me when I told her about how Malcolm gave me some herb that brainwashed me to kill Sara." Thea closed her eyes, remembering Nyssa and her fury towards her and Laurel and they brought Sara back to life. She must have felt so alone ever since Laurel's death. Nyssa had offered her mercy at her darkest moment and Thea did nothing to pay her back. "Nyssa and Sara deserve to be happy as long as they can be. Please don't interfere. Not yet. Sara should choose when she comes home, like you did."

"I agree. I'm glad she's alive, but I won't force her to return." Oliver then stood up and closed his strong arms around her and Thea let out all the tears she had been holding in for weeks. She could finally find comfort that her brother understood her again.

Plan Kill Ex-Fiancé was an utter disaster. Chase listened to the news reporter spotlight on the event.

"Max Fuller, the owner of the successful nightclub called Poison and the beloved son of the Former Deputy Mayor Melvin Fuller and heiress Julianne Fuller, was found shot on the fifth floor of Queens Consolidated. Mr. and Ms. Fuller has offered a ten-thousand-dollar award for anyone with any information on the attack and asks for the public to give them privacy as they wait for news of the son. His ex-wife, Denise Johnson, who once publicly threatened to kill Mr. Fuller, during their high-profile divorce in September 2018, has stated that she had no involvement in the attack. Time will tell if she is telling the truth. I, for one, heard there's strong evidence that supports Ms. Johnson's involvement," The blond-haired female reporter continued to ramble on about useless information.

Why wasn't the news sharing anything that associated the attack to the Hood?

Despicable. How hard was it to get the Hood blamed for every attack? Fuller was supposed to leave an arrow at the scene. Even worse, how hard was it to kill an IT girl? Chase was clearly misguided when he chose to recruit Fuller and his men as members of Team Prometheus.

"You hear this?" Chase yelled at Fuller's men, who were standing in front of him in the secret lair. Luckily, they were well enough after the attack to escape. "They don't believe the Hood's involved. Felicity Smoak is still alive. Your leader is bleeding in the hospital. What will I learn next? Did you leave something linking to me? Did you say my name to her?"

Suddenly, the reporter shared some great news! "I'm sorry to report that Max Fuller died from his gunshot wounds." Yes! Yes. Yes! Chase no longer had to worry about Fuller betraying him.

"I mentioned your name to the woman." One of Fuller's henchmen said. Dammit. Chase could only enjoy a brief second of happiness before Fuller's men ruined everything.

"Scott!" His fellow henchman groaned. "He's going to be mad. You should've lied."

Boy, these two were brainless. Chase struck a throwing star deep into the second henchman's neck. Glorious blood dripped onto the floor like raindrops. Chase almost felt like singing as he cut off the man's head with his sword.

"No, Scott. You are doing good. Now tell me what else happened or I'll kill you too." Chase kicked the dead man's head away like a soccer ball.

"Anthony!" Scott started crying. The big, burly man punched his fists into the ground. "No. No. No."

"Get a hold of yourself, or you will wish that you were the one who got himself killed." Chase leaned his sword against Scott's neck. "Now tell me what happened."

"We came in, killed the security guards, we used the key and information you provided to enter the elevator and enter the fifth floor. We found the woman at her desk. We got her on the floor. Max was getting ready to stab her with the arrow when we heard a loud noise. Max went to check. Next thing we knew Max was lying on the floor. Shot." Scott started crying.

Pathetic. Chase made a tiny cut in Scott's neck. "What happened?"

Scott continued to cry, refusing to explain. Chase punched him. He needed Scott to finish his story. How did his grand plan go so wrong?

Scott groaned and spit on the floor. "A vigilante in a black sweatshirt and a mask attacked him. Far shorter than the typical man. Anthony and I fought him, but he kept using this terrible noisemaker that hurt my ears. Anthony almost killed him, but he kicked his penis, and everything was so loud."

Chase didn't need to hear another word. "Come with me," he ordered Scott. The bleeding man swayed as he stood up. Chase led Scott to his special room. He beaconed the man in.

Scott shook his head profusely. "Please no. Please. I told you everything."

"You failed me. You can come out after your punishment." Chase pushed Scott in and then closed the door as the man screamed. What a wonderful song!

After a few days, Chase would be merciful and kill him. But he was too angry right now. This man told the ex-fiancé that Prometheus was responsible for tonight's attack. Scott did more than fail and betray him. He shared the one piece of information he told his followers to never say during a fake Hood attack.

Chase now understood what happened. Talia had told Chase that the curse she created had a drawback that an enemy would time-travel with him. While Chase could choose Samantha to come with him, there was a possibility of someone in her vicinity arriving in the past as well. Someone short. That narrowed it down. Most of the vigilantes in Oliver's group were tall. Only two were on the shorter side: Felicity and Thea.

If it was Felicity, it would have to be her future self because the present Felicity couldn't very well save herself. But why would she come back to her older body when he didn't? And Felicity wasn't a fighter; she was tech support. The one who needed rescuing. The team member who was weak and defenseless without technology at her side.

Thea made more sense. She went to Central City to see Samantha. She fought him in the hospital. His research had shared that she no longer participated in club and drug activities with her girlfriends. Strange behaviors if she was still a seventeen-year-old girl.

At least the sister was weak physically and Chase spent enough time with her the past year to know all her weaknesses. To verify his conclusion would do a test. Looks like it was a perfect time to recruit a certain sidekick.