Chapter 97: The Twin Cities

"It's getting late," Green Arrow murmured as he gazed at the sky, which was gradually becoming a lighter shade of black. It would be an hour or two at most before sunrise. "Or early, depending on perspective. We should turn in for now. No need to get someone back home suspicious."

"You're right," Black Canary agreed, having finished tying up the last of the thugs. "Let's go back now. If we finish fast enough, we might have enough time for some… fun." To further illustrate what kind of 'fun' she was talking about, she trailed her fingers down Arrow's sleeves with a light touch. Arrow gripped his bow a little tighter at the gesture.

The two ran off into the night, across the rooftops to where they parked their motorcycle. Arrow, of course, was driving, so Canary saddled up behind him and wrapped her arms tightly around his midsection, discreetly resting her head against his back. I could get used to this, she thought.

It was so comfortable, in fact, that she had seemed to doze off for a bit. It wasn't surprising; while Zoom did operate a lot at night, most of their attacks and operations took place during the day. There was no need for so much subtlety when you were the most powerful and feared man in the city, of course. Nor for those under his nominal protection.

When she finally came to again, the motorcycle had stopped, the engine no longer revving and turned off. Canary reluctantly unwrapped her arms from Arrow and pushed herself off her seat, stretching her arms and legs. She looked around, and stopped cold.

This wasn't the mall.

The sound of an arrow being notched might as well have been a bullet piercing her heart. Canary turned around.

"Ollie?"

Arrow ignored her. "Who are you?" he demanded instead. "And where the hell is my Laurel?"

The sight of S.T.A.R. Labs had never been so welcoming a sight to Barry. The moment he stepped back into the basement of the building and the breach closed behind him, he barked out a quick order to everyone to wait here while he did a perimeter check. Upon concluding that no one was present in the building for the time being, he returned to the basement and immediately guided everyone back up to the Cortex.

"Cisco, get Oliver's bow. I've stored it in a secret compartment behind the mannequin. Vibe it and see where Oliver is. Depending on what's happening, we might have to send Laurel to Starling first." Cisco nodded and quickly rushed to the mannequin, searching the back wall.

Barry turned to the others. "Ronnie, Caitlin, Stein use the data we got from Earth-2 to find your doppelgangers using the computers. They should still be somewhere in the city. Laurel, I've got a spare pair of tonfas for you in another compartment in my lab. Head over there and grab them. I'm going to find a spare phone and call Kara. Thankfully I memorized her cell phone number."

Tasks divvied up, the entire Cortex was a whirl of activity as everyone tried to get things done. Barry used his speed and searched high and low until he found a phone left around in Cisco's lab. A quick look confirmed that it was actually Cisco's phone, no doubt stolen by his doppelganger to help sell the lie better if need be. He quickly opened the contact list and found Kara's name, and called. There were only a couple of rings before a groggy Kara picked up.

"What do you want, Cisco?"

"Kara, it's Barry."

The sound of his sister sitting up sharply carried over the line. "Barry? Why are you on Cisco's phone?"

"No time to explain. Look, the Laurel currently in Starling City is her doppelganger. She's probably posing as Black Canary right now. I need you to go find her and back up Ollie."

"Why? Shouldn't Oliver be able to handle her?"

"She's a metahuman, Kara," Barry explained, ignoring the gasp he heard on the other end of the line. "She has a sonic cry that can level buildings. If Oliver does figure her out, she won't hesitate to kill him. I'm sending the real Laurel over there now to break the charade, so you better get there soon."

"How are you going to send her to Starling City so soon? Even you aren't that fast!"

"Cisco can open portals, breaches, whatever. I'll explain it all later, okay? We've got other pressing concerns in Central too."

"Barry!" Laurel's voice called out to him. "I've got the tonfas!" She appeared at the threshold of the door, clutching the tonfas tightly in her hands.

"I'll see you later, Kara, okay? Just get to Ollie soon!" Not even waiting for a reply, he turned off the phone, dropped it back unto the workbench and sped Laurel back into the Cortex. "Status report!" he barked after he stopped, setting Laurel back down on her feet.

"We've found Killer Frost and Deathstorm!" Ronnie called out.

"And I've just vibed Oliver! He's confronting Black Siren right now!"

"Alright! Cisco, open a breach to Oliver! We're sending Laurel now!" Barry turned to Laurel to give her some last-minute advice, handing her a pair of metahuman handcuffs he had nicked from Cisco's lab. "Be careful, alright? Try not to provoke her into using her cry. Just distract her until Kara gets there."

Laurel nodded, and Barry stepped away as Cisco opened a breach to Starling. Once it was finished, Laurel took in one last breath before running inside. The moment she was gone, so was the breach. Barry, knowing there was nothing he could do now, turned back to the computers. "Where are they?"

"At the docks. All we can confirm is Killer Frost and Firestorm. We don't have the tech to detect Reverb yet."

Barry exhaled. "Okay then. While I'm confident in my abilities, better safe than sorry. Vibe and Firestorm, you're both coming with me. Caitlin—"

"I'm going too," the doctor said firmly.

"What?" Ronnie intervened, looking astonished and afraid. "No, Caitlin! You don't have any powers!"

"I must concur with Ronald, Caitlin! It will be too dangerous!"

"It's even more dangerous if I stay here alone!" Caitlin argued. "We don't know how much they've subverted the security here! For all we know, the moment you're gone and I'm here alone, Zoom or Reverb will appear and kill me or take me hostage. I'm vulnerable no matter where I go, but at least with you I'll have someone to watch me."

Ronnie, Stein, and even Cisco were looking ready to argue, but Barry, reluctantly, cut them off. "She's right. They've been here for an entire day without supervision. Who knows what damage they've done to the security, especially since their biometrics are already in the system, being your doppelgangers and all. Like it or not, this place isn't safe."

Being the leader of the team and the one with the most tactical training, everyone was forced to concede his point. Eventually Ronnie, understandably the most stubborn of them, hesitantly nodded. Barry glanced back at Caitlin. "Grab a weapon from my lab, preferably a gun. You are not coming with us unarmed and defenseless. And once we arrive and the fighting starts, stay away and stay out of sight so you don't become a target."

Caitlin nodded furiously and quickly rushed to Barry's lab. The speedster then glanced at the rest of his team. "Give Cisco the exact location of Killer Frost and Deathstorm. See if you can find a security camera of some sort that can give you a visual of them. We're going to breach there together."

"Ollie, what are you talking about?" Canary asked while internally cursing her luck. "It's me! Who else could it be?"

"Don't! Don't you dare! You aren't my Laurel! Why else would you be acting so strange at the dinner tonight? Why else wouldn't you know where we were planning to look into for an apartment?"

"That's your justification? That I forgot what place we were searching an apartment for? Ollie, people forget minor things like that all the time!"

"Not people like us!"

Canary rolled her eyes. "Ollie, stop being so ridiculous. It's me. You know it's me. You can see it in my eyes."

Arrow still had the arrow notched and aimed directly at her, but she could see him beginning to tremble. Internally, she smirked. "Look, Ollie, I know I've been off lately but—"

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Arrow and Canary both whipped their heads towards the sound of the shout and widened their eyes. Canary recognized the tell-tale signs of a breach behind the stomping figure of Laurel Lance, the real Laurel Lance. Silently she fisted her hands as she began running through backup plans.

"Laurel?" Arrow gasped in disbelief.

"Ollie, it's me! The real me! She's a fake, my doppelganger from Zoom's earth! Her name's Black Siren!"

"Get real!" Canary shouted back before Arrow could answer. "You're the fake! Why else would you appear from one of those things!"

Laurel glared at her hatefully. "Because you and Zoom kidnapped me and Barry and sent me to your earth so you could take my place! The same thing you did to Cisco, Caitlin, Ronnie and Stein!"

Canary scoffed. "If that's true, then how the hell did you get back? Last I checked our earth doesn't know any means to travel another universe!"

"We saw Reverb open a breach and figured out that Cisco could do the same!"

"Or maybe you had this Reverb open a breach to here so you could take my place!"

The two women continued to scream at each other, ready to come to blows, while a helpless Arrow looked between them, waving his bow back and forth. After a minute of this, he lost his patience. "ENOUGH!" He shouted. Both women immediately stopped their argument and stared at him with shocked eyes.

"One of you is my Laurel, and the other is a fake. The real one will know the answer to my question: what was the last thing we told her?"

Canary spoke up before Laurel could, taking initiative. "That we loved her." She didn't know who, exactly, that 'her' was, but something sentimental like that seemed a good bet.

Before Arrow could aim at her, Laurel followed up with more. "And the 'her' that we love is Nyssa."

Arrow sighed in exasperation. "Okay, another question."

"Don't bother, Ollie!" Canary burst out, stepping forward with a supplicating look. "It's me, you know it is. We've known each other all our lives, ever since we met in Balliol Prep. Nothing can break that bond, not even after the Gambit sank seven years ago."

Arrow stared at her for a long moment.

"The Gambit sank on this earth twelve years ago," he finally said.

Canary didn't even have time to curse before an arrow was shot at her feet and exploded, sending her spiraling away from the force.

Laurel felt her entire body slump with relief as she saw her boyfriend shoot away her doppelganger with an exploding arrow. The moment Siren was knocked away, Green Arrow turned to her and all but ripped off his headgear to reveal Oliver's face. The two practically ran to each other and embraced.

"Oh Laurel, my Laurel, I'm so sorry," he whispered into her ear, peppering the side of her head with kisses.

"It's alright, Ollie, it's alright. It's not your fault," she whispered back comfortingly, rubbing circles into his arms. The two glanced up at each other, and began to lean forward for a kiss.

But before their lips could meet, a piercing scream met their ears along with a powerful force that sent them skidding across the ground. Immediately they dropped whatever weapons they had in favor of holding their hands to their ears to block out the sound. Eventually, the scream stopped, but they were still heavily disoriented from the entire experience.

"You bitch!" Siren screeched. "Why the hell did you have to come back! Why the hell did you have to ruin everything!"

Laurel, despite herself, sat up, glaring heavily at her doppelganger with a fury that she had never quite felt before. She felt sorry for Black Siren, sure, but that didn't change the fact that this woman had tried to steal her life. Had tried to steal both of her jobs, her friends, her family, the man she loved. Even the kindest and most empathetic of people would find that hard to forgive.

"Why do you get to have your family, and I don't!" Siren continued to rant. "Why do you get to have him! Why do you get to have everything!"

"I'm sorry," Laurel spoke loudly, cutting the other woman off. "I'm sorry that you lost your parents. I'm sorry that you lost your Oliver, your fiance. I'm sorry you've lost so much, and have had so little to show for it these past couple of years. I'm sorry you've had such a terrible life."

Siren remained silent and in shock, not expecting to hear any of this. Laurel met her eyes, and allowed the steel to show.

"I'm sorry for all of it. But just because your life was terrible, does not mean you get to have mine. Not while I'm still alive."

That last statement seemed to be the last straw. Black Siren broke out of her stupor and adopted the nastiest, hateful look Laurel had ever seen. "Fine then," the metahuman spat, "we'll just have to remedy that."

She opened her mouth to scream, and Laurel quickly closed her eyes and clapped her hands over her ears, feeling Oliver do the same next to her.

"Oh no, we won't be having any of that."

Both vigilantes snapped their eyes open at the sound of that familiar voice. Supergirl floated down to the ground, chopping the back of Black Siren's neck before she could react. The woman dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"Supergirl," Laurel called out, gesturing to where she had dropped the meta-dampening cuffs. Supergirl quickly sped over and grabbed them, before speeding back to snap them around Siren's wrists.

"Sorry I was late," Supergirl apologized, "The city was unusually loud tonight so I had problems locating you. Thankfully, she was louder." The Kryptonian jabbed her thumb towards the knocked out metahuman.

"It's okay. You got here before any permanent damage was done," Oliver groaned, rubbing his throbbing head. "You need to take her to the A.R.G.U.S. base for imprisonment."

"What about you two?"

"We'll meet you there in a couple of hours. We still need to make an appearance at my house for breakfast so Mom, Dad, and Thea don't get suspicious."

"Maybe later," Laurel chimed in, wincing. "I haven't had any real sleep in at least twenty-four hours. If I hit a bed I'm not getting up for at least another twelve."

"Alright," Supergirl said, nodding. She hefted Black Siren over her shoulder and burst into the sky, heading towards the city's local A.R.G.U.S. base.

"Is that the last of them?" Ronnie tossed out as he stretched his arms, before wrapping one around the shoulders of his beautiful wife. He had been running around all night installing these things, and he was about ready to hit the hay. He didn't get why they couldn't have done this later, but those were Zoom's orders.

"Yup. Now we can head 'home'," Cisco used air quotes, and all three burst out laughing.

"Ah man, you should see our place. It's such a bore there," Ronnie snorted.

"Well, what did you expect babe? Our doppelgangers share it with that old man and his wife," Caitlin noted flippantly, wearing a disgusted look.

"Speaking of that, what did you do with the wife? And the daughter?"

"Well, originally we were planning on just killing them, but Zoom said it would be too much of a hassle and draw too much attention to us too soon. So he faked a free vacation for both of them and sent them on their way. Keeps them from getting too suspicious by using the old man's phone to send texts and faking his voice using Bates."

"Well that's good to know."

All three metahumans froze as a breach opened in front of them. First out was the Flash, followed by Vibe, the real Ronnie, Stein, and the real Caitlin. "I was wondering about that," Flash mentioned, drawing two knives and flipping them in his hands.

"How the hell did you get out?" Killer Frost angrily demanded, transforming herself into her powered state. Caitlin visibly flinched at the sight; while she had seen a picture of Killer Frost, courtesy of the metahuman database, watching the whole thing happen live was another matter entirely.

"Blame your boss for that one," Flash quipped, before zipping forward, knocking her down to the ground. Before he could follow up, she threw an ice blast towards him, forcing him to zip away again.

Ronnie and Stein quickly clasped hands, transforming into Firestorm and engaging Deathstorm, while Vibe started exchanging vibrational blasts with Reverb. Caitlin ran away, far from the site of the fight but still in the line of sight. She watched as the six metas continued to fight, and lifted her gun, trigger at the ready.

Hopefully, she wouldn't have to use it.

Hoped you all enjoyed that. I was really looking forward to writing the conversation between Laurel and Black Siren. In fact, this is probably the act/arc I've been looking forward to writing the most, besides perhaps Arc V.

However, I've done some thinking and the way this arc is going has caused me to make a decision. I will not be doing Crisis on Earth-X, because I wouldn't know how to write that without it basically being a rehash of this. Plus, it wouldn't really add anything to the story. So, as that was going to be the arc after Arc V, I'm cutting that out and going straight to the one after that, which is almost entirely original. As all of this is far off from the future, don't think too much of it for now. I just figured I'd warn you all.

Please comment or review, flames will be ignored, constructive criticism welcome, and don't forget to update the TV Tropes page!