PRESENT-DAY: STARLING CITY

The second Quentin leaves Buffy quickly heads back to Oliver and Tommy "Please tell me he was discussing that really old movie and not Vertigo Vertigo!"

Oliver sighs before turning to Tommy "Is there any chance she could have scored the drugs in here?"
Tommy frowns a little unsure of what to say in front of the medic, having no idea that she was in on everything.
Oliver sighs sensing his friend's confusion "She knows." He says simply with a strong look making it clear while Buffy merely smiles "Hi."

Tommy arches a brow and glances in-between the two of them "Are you two…"

Sensing his meaning Buffy groans in disgust at the idea, what was it with people thinking she and Oliver were hooking up like seriously! "God no."
Oliver goes to agree but frowns at the looks of disgust on her face before rolling his eyes and turning back to Tommy awaiting an answer to his question.

Tommy sighs "I doubt it. I try not to hire too many drug dealers."

As the three of them head to the back of the club Oliver sighs, this wasn't good "Get me a list of employees, anyway. I'll have Willow cross-reference it for drug arrests."

As they head towards the entrance to the lair Tommy frowns "That includes the two of us, you know."
Buffy arches a brow before sighing "Why does that not surprise me?" She snarks referencing Oliver and Tommy's colourful rich boy pasts before she enters the code at the Lair door.

As she and Oliver are about to enter Tommy turns to Oliver "I thought the vigilante finished off the Count."

Oliver sighs "I did."

After Oliver had taken off to the prison to confront the Count, Buffy who was currently using Oliver's Salamdor ladder smirks down as the Arrow clad billionaire comes back in "I don't get why you look so exhausted after using this thing." She jokes as he rolls his eyes and quickly changes back into his regular clothes just as Buffy jumps down landing perfectly.

"You're a show-off." Oliver points out causing the blonde to smirk, okay maybe she was a little. Before she could give her normal sass back however Diggle enters the room "Hey I got here as fast as I could…"

Pausing Diggle frowns as he spots the cut on Buffy's face and the bruises covering Oliver's arms as well as his neck and face.
Glancing in-between them once more he sighs "I take it your vigilante meeting went well."

"He shot me." Buffy says with a shrug as she grabs her jumper and pulls it on over her workout gear.
At her words Diggle's jaw clenches and he turns to Oliver ready to yell but Oliver was ready for a rebuttal "She hit me with a sink and kicked me through a wall."

"It was a little wall." Buffy argues "It was thin. I bet you didn't feel a thing."

Diggle sighs before turning to Oliver, he was so not in the mood for this especially after his disastrous date with Carly, he just wanted to focus on the reason he was here, which he wasn't actually sure about "This about the glyph in your father's notebook?"

Oliver shakes his head "Willow and…" Oliver pauses before turning to Buffy, for the life of him he couldn't remember the name of Buffy's tech/cousin.
Buffy arches a brow "Seriously. Felicity is helping her." She tells Diggle with a shake of her head, she remembered all the crap Oliver told her yet he spaced on her only living family member's name who was now helping him!

Groaning the blonde runs a hand through her hair before focusing on her best friend "We have a problem."

At her words, Oliver turns on the news reports on the computers for Diggle to hear "Starling city is once again at war with the drug known on the streets as Vertigo. It's used to be the city's most lethal vice, but the purple and green pill was nowhere to be found in the last three months."

With that Oliver switches off the news report before turning away from the computer "Over the past few days, the city has been flooded with a new version of vertigo. More addictive, more unstable. It killed a girl in the club. Just like it almost killed Thea."

At Oliver's words Buffy's eyes widen at that as thoughts of her own sister filled her brain, she knew exactly how it felt to what your sister almost die in your arms, clenching her jaw she couldn't help but sympathise with Oliver.

Diggle watches Buffy for a moment knowing exactly what she was thinking about before he sighs and turns to Oliver "What are you thinking, we should pay The Count a visit?"

Buffy sighs and crosses her arms "He already did." She admits "Big with the no. Apparently big with the crazy and meltdowns."

Oliver nods in agreement with the blonde as he paces back and forth, they didn't know a lot about Vertigo all they knew was what they had on the Count and he was no help "Since he was the only one that knew the formula for Vertigo, I don't, I don't even know where to begin."

"Good. You're here." Another voice pipes in causing Buffy, Oliver and Diggle to all turn only to spot Willow and Felicity entering the lair, Felicity looking around the lair in amazement "This is amazing! How come we don't have a lair?" She asks turning to Buffy with a confused look on her face "Your apartment is nice and all but this is more lair…ish."

Buffy rolls her while Oliver frowns, clearly unsure of who the hell this new snarky blonde was when he opens his mouth to ask though Buffy cuts him off "She's my tech."
"The cousin?"
"Yes." Felicity pipes in before turning to Oliver "Felicity Smoke…and you're wow…" She says staring at Oliver with wide eyes.

Oliver groans and glares at Buffy "Buffy…" He says warningly, the Slayer sighs and grabs her cousin "Look computer." She says pulling her away from Oliver and over to the computer set up Willow had created.

As the two tech girls sit down and bring up the news report Buffy's eyes widen, this was not good "Bad…bad day."

"I'm here at the scene where police say a disturbed patient escaped only hours ago."

At the news reporters words Buffy and Oliver glance at each other both of them carrying the exact same shocked and terrified looks, they knew exactly who this disturbed patient was, and it wasn't good news for anyone in this city.

"Authorities issues an immediate lockdown at the Starling County Institute for Mental Health following the breakout. Police are warning people to avoid contact with the drug dealer known as The Count."

Oliver clenches his jaw and turns the nearby table before launching it to the floor.

Buffy winces before turning to the others "Should have stayed in Bulgaria."

"Diggle's gonna be pissed." Buffy reminds Oliver as they wait for Diggle to return from his undercover mission, Willow was still at the computer and merely nods in agreement before turning back to the computer. She finally had her space to herself now that Felicity had headed back to the apartment. Well, Buffy had told her to go… well threatened to tie her to a chair and launch the chair back to the apartment was the more realistic version of how that conversation went.

Buffy sighs as Oliver turns to her "He'll be fine."

Buffy who had known Diggle a hell of a lot longer than him arches a brow at him "You know last time someone asked him to do something like this…he broke their nose…and then let me break their legs." She says joyfully like a child before she frowns "I'm really disturbing."

"I'm not arguing with that." Oliver mumbles before he immediately turns as he spots Diggle walking back into the lair still in the hoodie getup Oliver had forced him to wear.

Buffy arches a brow "Dig, you look hot not gonna lie." At her own words both her and Diggle go quiet, she didn't mean to say that but it just felt so wrong "That's so wrong."

"Never say anything about me being hot again." He mumbles as he pulls the pills out of his pocket and puts them into Buffy's hands, Buffy who was still disgusted at herself nods quickly "Agreed."

Diggle smiles before turning to Oliver "All right. Person of colour has successfully purchased your drugs."
"For the record…" Willow piped up "We offered." She points out gesturing in-between herself and Buffy.

Oliver sighs before glancing at Buffy who was looking at the piles curiously before she sighs and hands them to Willow, tossing the blonde her jacket the vigilante then turns to Willow "How will we know when the tracker is active?"

Willow smirks and spins in her chair to face Oliver, staring at him as though he was a child "Been there done that activated that." Smirking she then turns back to her computer "I'm getting a good signal off the monofilament strips we placed in the bills."

Diggle who was pulling off his disguise turns to Willow "Drug money's like a pigeon that always finds his way home."

"Brilliant it's like my key finder. I love secret trackers." Buffy says with a chuckle as she sips up her suit before pulling her jacket on over the top.

As she begins to pull her hair into a tight ponytail Diggle turns to the blonde "Don't you lose that key finder twice a day?"

Buffy opens her mouth to argue, however, she quickly realises he was right, maybe she needed a key finder for the key finder "Ummm…noo?" When Diggle merely arches a brow she groans, why did he always have to give her that look, he knew her well too well "Buffy…"

Buffy rolls her eyes "Don't give me the Diggle look."

Oliver sighs in annoyance before turning to Buffy both of them now suited up "You ready?"
Buffy smirks and walks past him tapping his chest as she goes "Let's go Legolas!"

"I'm regretting this already." He mumbles before turning to follow the blonde out the door.

"I hate stakeouts." Buffy moans as she and Oliver stand on top of one of the large shipping containers for what felt like hours.
Oliver sighs and glances down at the blonde who was pouting at the sight of her ruined nails, he just couldn't get it to click.
Evening knowing that she and The Woman in Red were one and the same, it felt like he knew even less about her now. However, something he knew for sure was that her humour was probably covering up for some really messed up issues, to be fair though after 12 years of fighting he couldn't even imagine what kind of horrors she had seen.

Oliver is quickly pulled from his thoughts as Buffy stands and taps his shoulder pointing down at the hooded figure moving towards the car that had just pulled up.
"You ready Hawkeye?" Buffy jokes as she pulls the scythe from her side, while Oliver prepares an arrow for the ready.

Oliver couldn't help but smirk at her playfully "You say fighting can be fun? Let's give it a shot." With that, he releases the arrow just as the dealer throws the bag of Vertigo into the air.
Buffy's eyes widen as the arrow splits open the bag and she laughs "Nice!" She breaths before she leaps down onto the ground.
As the dealer quickly starts to run for it one of the guys from the card pulls out a gun aiming it at the two, Oliver quickly turns to face Buffy "Get him!"

"On it!" She yells and without hesitation, she takes off in a run towards their dealer, as she runs she launches the scythe causing the dealer to scream in agony as the axe ends up slicing through his leg, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Buffy smirks slightly before gracefully making her way over to the now sobbing dealer. As she picks up the scythe she smiles ever so sweetly at him "Hi there? So you ready to chat about the shiny green stuff? Or do I need to make you cry out for mommy again?"

The dealer who was clutching onto his bleeding leg stares at her in astonishment "You crazy bitch!"
"Hey!" She yells "I'm not crazy. The term is emotionally damaged. Geez, go back to school." Rolling her eyes she prepares to grab him only for her eyes to widen as a car speeds around the corner and hits her right in the side sending her flying, crashing painfully into another shipping container.

As the blonde crashes painfully to the ground she winces before her eyes widen as she spots the car speeding off and her dealer was now gone from sight.

"Oh dammit."

"I got hit by a car Oliver!" Buffy yells as the two storm back into the bunker together where Willow was still glued to the screen, keeping her eyes wide open trying to figure out where these guys could have gone "What was I supposed to do, ask the car not to hit me!"
"Aren't you supposed to be invulnerable?!" The Hood yells back in frustration, while he knew it wasn't her fault he was just furious that these people had managed to evade their capture...again.
Buffy scoffs and she turns to face the annoying sexy arrow welder "Oh, I'm sorry that you know more about my abilities than me! Please tell me how much I can take? Should I just wait around to get shot too!"

"Guys!" Willow exclaims in annoyance, she swore there was so much damn tension in the air right now. Oliver and Buffy either needed to kill each other or just go screw in a broom cupboard because it was giving her a damn headache now "So shut the hell up and listen!"

"All units, all units, code 99. 417 in progress, Starling Aquarium. All available units—"

As she plays the 911 operators announcement she turns back to the two vigilantes "Police frequency mad with the panic right now. Big with the Lindsey Lohan type breakdown."
Buffy and Oliver merely frown before both of them circle around Willow, each of them standing to one side of the hacking genius as they watched the feed currently coming from the security camera at the Aquarium.
"You want to hurt me, huh?" The man in the footage screams before firing two rounds, the last of which blacks out the camera.

Willow sighs before glancing in-between the two costumed people to either side of her, to be honest, it kind of reminded her of a weird dream she had in college but now was so not the time "Bystanders said they saw him pop some green and purple pills. Which normally pretty...this not so much."

At Willow's words, Buffy's eyes widen and she turns to Oliver both of them having the same thought. The herbs she had used on him when he had been affected "Do you have any?" She asks as she yanks off her weapons holster and moves over to her little med station.
Oliver nods, honestly, he still hadn't figured out how she had found this stuff herself, he had only ever seen it on the Island "Here." He tells her as she reaches into one of the draws and tosses it over to the blonde while he moves over to the table and begins helping her.

Willow who was watching the two of them closely, couldn't help but frown in confusion, as nice as it was watching the two of them get along without alcohol involved for a change, this was an odd time for it "Not that I'm complaining about the whole not arguing thing but..."
"Their medicinal herbs. They counterbalance the effects of drugs and poisons bla bla." Buffy explains as she continues to work "I used the last of my supply to help Ollie here you know with the not dying like every tabloid thinks he will. That reminds me..." The blonde pauses in her words and glances over at the blue-eyed vigilante with a gaze of confusion, she had only been able to get a small amount of this stuff from Constantine years ago and she wasn't even too sure how it worked until recently. How the hell did he have the stuff? "This stuff is rare how did you...I mean Ollie no offence you don't seem like the farming type."

"It was on the island." He explains before shrugging and taking the syringe filling it up.

As the two stand there basically having a silent conversation Willow quirks an eyebrow "You guys aren't gonna kill him are you?"
"We're gonna help him." Buffy assures her before grabbing her weapons and following Oliver out of the room but not before throwing one last glance in Willow's direction "Call Diggle!"

As they go, Oliver glances down at the blonde who was pulling her mask over her lips and nose "What do you think?"
"We may not have a choice. We safe him...if we can't...then we do what we gotta do."

"Agreed."

"Lights are out." Oliver tells Buffy as the two of them crouch behind a door on the upper level of the Aquarium out of sight of the shooter.
"I can see that." Buffy tells him before she peeks around the corner and spots the shooter swallowing a handful of green and purple pills, smiling she glances up at the green-clad arrow man "Shall we play a game?"

At her teasing tone Oliver couldn't help but frown in confusion, what the hell was she talking about "What?"
"You don't get it?" She huffs before groaning "My god you need an education Buffy style." She tells him before huffing and standing "Old fashioned violence it is. Shall we?"

With that, Oliver steps out of their hiding place and fires an arrow right into the guy's hand causing him to howl in agony as he drops his gun.

As he does Buffy jumps over the railing and quickly moves to chase after the guy as he begins running. Spotting him heading for the stairs her eyes widen as he moves behind what was probably a water filter.
"Here drugy drugy!" She taunts as she jumps on top of the filter before flipping through the air landing right in front of him. The guy screams before Buffy's eyes widen as his own eyes suddenly go wide and he drops forward right into her arms convulsing.

"No, no." She breaths in a panic lowering him to the ground before pulling the cure out of her pocket just as Oliver appears, his eyes widening at the sight of the man finally taking his last breath "We're too late."

"Dammit!" Buffy yells before she frowns as she feels a weird sensation fill her spine, something was very wrong. It was almost like they were being watched.
Looking around her eyes widen as she spots the glint of a gun in the darkness, aimed right at Oliver "Look out!" She exclaims before running forward and shoving Oliver out of the way just as a loud gunshot fills the room.

Buffy hisses in agony as the bullet hits her in the shoulder and she drops to the ground, attempting to sit back up she is forced to cover her eyes as a large flash fills the room.

"Buffy!" Oliver yells in a panic as he hits the ground however before he could check on the newly shot blonde he has to close his eyes as a blind flash fills his sight, blocking his view.

Finally, after what felt like hours the light begins to disperse, standing he turns to where he expected Buffy to be only for dread to fill him. Instead of the blonde super soldier, he was met with the sight of a puddle of blood and her scythe. Nothing else.

She was gone.