Summary: After his father's yacht was destroyed at sea and Oliver wound up on a haunted island, he was rescued by Hunters and learned their trades. It's not a life he wants for his sister, but Thea's not about to let Oliver stand in her way. So he figures they'll start small with potential Trickster sighting. Tricksters aren't supposed to be difficult Hunts - usually you don't even have to kill them, just bribe them with sweets to leave humans alone.

However, this particular Trickster is more than he seems...

Notes: For Barry Allen Weeks Supernatural Prompt
For Olivarry Bingo - O5: Savitar

Another story dedicated to the Supernatural fans who held out until the end. You were far more dedicated to the show than I and I'm sorry the finale was such a let down.

Taking some liberties with the Supernatural concepts. Particularly the Tricksters. I think this works out the last of the Supernatural bug I picked up from seeing all the kerfluffle over the series finale.

Hunters' Alliance

Oliver still didn't think this was a good idea. Thea could do anything with her life she put her mind to; she was talented and smart and stubborn as hell.

Unfortunately, she was also bent on following in Oliver's footsteps and becoming a Hunter.

As far as he was aware, Oliver was the first Hunter in their family. He'd been with his father on the family yacht when the ship mysteriously capsized near a small island. Oliver had survived and found his way ashore. His father wasn't so lucky and drowned in the ocean. The yacht's destruction hadn't been an accident, however. Not really.

A ship had gone down just off the island's shore during a storm some years ago and the entire crew drowned with it. Most of them passed on to the afterlife and whatever awaited them there. Three sailors' souls, however, remained behind and, as spirits were wont to, went mad.

Oliver had been lucky twice over. To reach the island and to have encountered the Hunters who were also there, searching out the remains of the sailors. The location where the yacht capsized gave the Hunters a better starting point for finding the ship below the waves and he helped them drag the wreck out of the water. They dried out the bones, salted and burned the remains, and fought off the spirits with iron bars until the last set of remains was finally torched.

Afterwards, Oliver couldn't let go of what he'd seen and he started seeking out hunts in his home state, calling up the Hunters who'd rescued him when he needed advice and pointers. They'd advised him to find a partner. Hunters who worked alone often died quick. Oliver hadn't been sure who he could ask to partner with him in this, though. How could he ask the people he loved to follow him into such a dangerous career. Turned out he didn't have to ask, however, since his sister decided to secretly tag along on a hunt where Oliver took on a poltergeist. It was lucky she was there, as she ended up distracting the thing long enough for Oliver to defeat it.

It was less awesome, to Oliver's mind anyway, that Thea had decided she was going to be his partner afterwards.

He'd been determined to keep her out of it, but she out-stubborned him and threatened to go behind his back to find Hunters who would train her. If it was a bluff, it was one Oliver wasn't willing to call her on. With great reluctance and many stipulations, Oliver began teaching her everything he knew about Hunting.

There were verified Hunting resources online where he made her take the 'So you want to be Hunter 101' course so she'd at least get the basics memorized. And while she was doing that, Oliver cast around feelers for an easy case. Something simple like a run of the mill haunting. No hauntings nearby, but apparently there were signs of a Trickster in Seattle. Playing on local legends and causing mischief, Tricksters weren't usually bad people. Just... annoying. Oliver had never actually run into one before, but the procedure for dealing with Tricksters looked fairly simple.

Tricksters had a notorious sweet tooth and could be lured out using certain symbols and lots of candy. They were intelligent, on par with humans, and often impersonated various deities. They had a strict sense of fair play and would use their powers to punish humans who strayed outside those boundaries, but were also willing to compromise with humans when necessary. Tricksters could be killed, but that was to be a last resort only as the blowback from a Trickster's powers imploding often killed the Hunters too.

A nice, easy Hunt to show Thea that not everything they did had to end in death... and maybe that was a lesson Oliver wanted to see for himself too. Just once... everybody lives.

So as Oliver and Thea packed up the car and readied themselves for the two hour drive to Seattle, Oliver kept reminding himself that it was going to be okay. Thea had taken well to hand-to-hand training, was a decent and steadily improving shot with various firearms, and was damn good with a bow-and-arrow. She was smart and charming and kept her wits about her in an emergency. And this would be an easy case so she wouldn't be in any danger... this time.

Somehow... he wasn't really all that reassured.

"So why is this one assumed to be a Trickster?" Thea asked as she followed Oliver onto the college campus.

"Well, every victim so far as been a total asshole. Tricksters often view themselves of arbiters of justice, giving out just desserts." Oliver grinned when Thea snickered. "Could even be because of Tricksters and their sweet tooths that we have that phrase. Some Hunters hate them while others see them as... well... kindred spirits who go after monsters that are still human. We go after the ones who aren't human anymore and maybe never were."

"Cool, cool. So Tricksters aren't evil, just weird." Thea filed that away.

"Pretty much. Of course, aside from the choice of victim, Sara said that she and Ava were finding a lot of candy wrappers on the scenes of the attacks. Apparently this one's go-to candy of choice are all Reese's of some kind, so I commend their good taste."

"Snickers are better."

"Sacrilege," Oliver scoffed, exchanging a grin with his sister. "Anyway, Sara and Ava were called off this to join some other hunters in dealing with a vampire problem near Portland and since I'm not letting you anywhere near vampires until you've had at least a few hunts under your belt..."

"Trickster. Do they kill people? Tricksters, I mean. Obviously vampires do." Thea sounded concerned. "I mean... we kill monsters and you said they're like us..."

"Not usually. Sometimes their tricks are intentionally lethal, but they're more likely to be unintentionally lethal. And while most will try to be narrow in their focus so only their target gets hurt..." Oliver shrugged, "they don't always succeed and they don't always care. There are a lot of different Tricksters out there, so usually the course of action with them is to go in, verify it's a Trickster at work, summon them, negotiate with a shit-ton of candy, and get them to either leave the area or scale down the danger levels of their tricks. Sara and Ava apparently like to redirect their focus into sending the assholes to jail in the most embarrassing way possible."

"Sounds like step one has already been done for us. So what are we doing here instead of skipping to the summoning?" Thea waved her hands at the campus. "Not to say that it isn't a lovely day for a walk..."

"You need practice casing a scene. So, last night there was a death here." The first death to happen amongst the other things the Trickster had been getting up to around the city. Assuming this even was the Trickster. "A tenured professor with a history of taking advantage of his students, who are generally between eighteen and twenty-two years old. He is pushing fifty."

Thea made a disgusted face. "Ew."

"Yeah." Oliver shuddered at the thought of the creep going anywhere near Thea, who was in that very age range right now, so it was almost a relief the guy was dead.

"So first of all, we need a cover. Why are we here asking questions about a professor who ostensibly committed suicide last night?"

Thea hummed thoughtfully. "Reporters... no we're bloggers. Crime bloggers, looking to start a new blog with a big story."

"Why crime?" Oliver asked.

"Rumor is that one of his former victims frightened him out the window," Thea replied smoothly.

"Not bad, Speedy. Not bad at all." Oliver resisted the urge to ruffle her hair proudly.

Thea stuck her tongue out at him for the Speedy comment.

"Our names?" he prompted next.

"We should stick with being siblings, 'cause I don't want to deal with people assuming anything else," Thea said, wrinkling her nose up again at the thought. "Do we need different names?"

"Just in case something blows up in our faces, better things trace back to a Jane and John Doe than to Thea and Oliver Queen," he told her. "How about Jenny and Jason Bishop?"

"Sure. I can be a Jenny. Let's go check out the scene and ask questions."

By the time they're leaving the campus, there's no doubt for either of them that there was a Trickster involved. Reese's wrappers are all over the place, both where the body landed and in the classroom where the safety glass shattered when the Professor apparently bludgeoned the window with a bat before jumping out himself. Thea's also a natural interviewer, getting answers out of the students and staff with charming ease.

The building itself apparently had a long running ghost story about a student spurned by her professor who jumped from the top floor. Just like the Professor did. In fact, if the ghost story was based on fact, there was a good chance the professor was the one who'd spurned her. Or worse, which might explain why the Trickster had escalated with this guy in particular.

"So how do we summon a Trickster?" Thea asked as they returned to the motel room they'd rented.

Oliver had insisted on a motel - cheaper, people asked less questions, and they were a lot less likely to notice if the carpet got peeled up to spray paint a devils trap in front of the door. Or send in maids who'd clean up salt lines. It meant less privacy from each other, but more privacy from the rest of the world at large.

"Butcher paper on the floor and pencils first. I'm going to trace out symbols, you go over them in marker. We'll be going off one of the Hunting wiki pages for this." Oliver grabbed his tablet and called up the wiki page in question while Thea set up the paper and the rest of the supplies. "Step one is the symbols, step two is a latin chant, step three is we wait to see if the Trickster takes our invitation or not. There are a bunch of different rituals from various cultures and languages, but the next easiest Trickster summoning is in German and my German sucks compared to Latin."

"So what you're saying is I need to brush up on my Spanish and French because this is a very multilingual job?" Thea asked.

"Yeah." Oliver sat down and started tracing out the symbols off his tablet, making sure Thea had a good view of the screen too. "And pick up a few more while you're at it."

"Lovely," Thea muttered under her breath.

One sheet of butcher paper covered in symbols and a Latin chant later, and the symbols glowed for a long moment before going back to the black of the ink.

"So now we wait. If the Trickster doesn't show, then we'll have to track him down the hard way," Oliver told her.

"I'm going to download the Duo Lingo app while we wait," she told him, settling on her bed to wait. Only to immediately jolt back to her feet when there was a knock at their door.

Oliver peered out the peep hole to see a handsome looking man standing outside, head tilted so that only one side of his face could be seen. Taking a chance that their Trickster was being polite instead of just materializing inside the room, Oliver pulled open the door.

Handsome brunet indeed. With kind of... wounded eyes. Which Oliver definitely did not need to be getting swoopy feelings in his gut over. And there was a scar covering one side of his face. Burn scar, maybe, or electrical. It looked like it must've been painful.

"Hi, uh, can I help you?" Oliver asked, hesitant because this guy might not be a Trickster and that summoning invite could attract the attention of other beings too. It just... didn't usually attract anything but a Trickster. Sort of a nine times out of ten deal.

"I think that's my line," the man replied, an attractive smirk curling across his face. "You summoned me. The Trickster Savitar, at your service."

Glancing back at his sister, Oliver opened the door wider and let the man - the Trickster - inside. "Savitar, from the name of the Hindu god Savitr?" Oliver asked curiously.

"That is the inspiration. Like all true gods, the real Savitr disappeared from the Earth a long while back. Wherever they went, nobody knows, but unlike most who borrow their names I make no claim of being the original or even a relation. Savitr embodies the sun's life giving aspects but is also heavily associated with motion and movements... running as it were. And it's something of a joke to say I'm the god of speed, so..." Savitar walked over and tore the butcher block paper in half.

"Hey!" Thea objected.

"It was loud and I'm not the only one around here who could hear it. You don't want to meet some of those other things, kiddo. So, is this where you people ply me with candy and tell me to stop murdering rapists?"

"There is candy involved and, honestly, I can't say either of us object to the murder of rapists," Thea said honestly, tossing Savitar the first bag of Reese's.

The Trickster popped the bag opened and sprawled out on Oliver's bed to start munching on the candy while they chatted.

Oliver tried to keep his eyes from roaming over the Trickster's long, lithe body. For all he knew, this wasn't even the guy's true form and, besides, he had a job to do. No time for roaming eyes or flirting, he reminded himself firmly.

"You have drawn a lot of attention, however, and not just from the Hunter's Alliance." The Alliance was a loose network of Hunters across the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. They provided each other with back up, information, safe houses, and maintained a number of websites like the wiki that Oliver got a lot of his hunting information off of. They also networked with werewolves to find them safe places for the full moon and keep track of moon phases for when they needed to travel. The same with Vampires who voluntarily chose not to eat humans.

The Alliance wasn't the only network for Hunters out there, though, and not all Hunter's liked that those kinds of networks even existed. And aside from the Alliance, most other Hunters killed non-humans indiscriminately.

"Awww, the little Hunters are worried about me?" Savitar snickered. "That's cute."

Oliver and Thea both bristled. Savitar's smirk widened just a hair and Oliver had to repress the urge to groan. The Trickster was winding them up. Because of course he was.

"Was there really no way you couldn't have landed that professor in jail for his crimes?"

"Most of his students don't understand that the power imbalance is abusive until their older. The ones that do are afraid ending things will ruin their grades. And the ones who do put an end to the affair before he's ready to toss them aside... aren't students for much longer afterwards. They come forward, nothings happens. No one in the position to stop him cared. But killing him tipped over a domino that's gonna ruin an entire administration's careers. Pretty sure there's an internet meme for that." Savitar frowned and sat up. "This bed is terrible." Snapped his fingers and the bed clearly changed. "Much better." And then he lounged again, this time his shirt riding up on his stomach a little bit.

"You know... if you really want me to keep a low profile and not kill humans when its the easier option for sleazeballs like that... then how about this. You two let me tag a long for a little while. Tricksters are social creatures, but I've been alone for way too long." He batted his eyes at them both. "I promise not to get chocolate all over the car and the motel rooms."

Exchanging looks with Thea, they said nearly at the same time, "we'd need to discuss it first."

"Ooooh, definitely siblings," Savitar concluded. "Well, then how about I take my candy and go? Be back in the morning bright and early to hear your answer, though if it's a no then I'm going to keep on with what I've been up to thus far. I'll skip around cities more frequently if it means keeping Hunters off my back, but..." he shrugged.

Trickster morality wasn't human morality.

Savitar smirked as he accepted the rest of the candy they'd bought earlier and then just... disappeared with a snap and a flash of light. The altered motel bed was back to normal too.

"So what do we do?" Thea asked.

Truth be told, Oliver had no idea. In many ways he was still a novice too. What happened if they made the wrong choice here?

Being a Trickster was a little like being in WitSec for the supernatural. The original tricksters were gods, of course. And all gods were true gods, as far as Savitar was aware anyway. A blasphemous thought, but not one he could be punished for anymore.

Not unless he got caught, anyway.

Most of the true gods slept these days, though the ones who were still active didn't show their faces on Earth anymore - though their miracles could still be felt at times. Other beings had filled in the gaps, however.

It started with the demi-gods and half-gods and nephilim - which, despite the stories of Enoch, had not been wiped out - who'd been apprenticed to the various Trickster gods. They opened up their ranks to others, though. Those who had the necessary power to warp reality to at least some degree and were willing to devote themselves to the pursuit of justice and vengeance and fun.

Savitar managed the first two just fine. He still struggled with the whole having fun, thing.

Hunter's weren't really a threat to the Tricksters, but they were useful in keeping the populations of particularly violent monsters and demons manageable. And the rising star of the Hunter's Alliance was helping creatures that were still mostly human keep the monster from taking over completely. In fact there was a very nice short order cook in Seattle that Savitar had dropped in on out of curiosity - man liked his steaks bloody (and not spelled like 'stakes') but otherwise he wasn't hurting anyone. Had a good support system in place, even, that helped him stay on top of the more murderous urges that came along with the extra set of retractable teeth.

And that support system... it made Savitar all too aware of his own loneliness. Creatures like him were not solitary beings. He used to be able to hear every one of his siblings, their voices linked in glorious praise... but that wasn't his life anymore. And those very siblings were the ones who would strike him down if they recognized him for even a moment.

The funny thing was, in a matter of speaking Savitar was still amongst his siblings even now, enjoying their kinship and their closeness. But he, of course, was not called Savitar. He would never have sat in the halls of worship for any religion other than their father's nor asked for the blessing to rename himself in the honor of a foreign deity. And he definitely would not stoop so low as to murder a human. They would find divine justice in the after life, as all humans would.

Savitar didn't think that justice came soon enough. Like the scaring on his true face that showed through upon the visage of his crafted vessel... there was much now that set him apart from his other self. The one who actually belonged in this time.

The Hunters were siblings. That was what prompted Savitar to make the offer. The elder of the two - the brother - clearly found Savitar's vessel attractive, which was amusing... and a bit flattering. Most humans were turned off by his facial scars. They weren't usually cruel about it, though the ones who were often found themselves with what they believed to be unsightly scars of their own. Perhaps then they might learn a little compassion and humility.

Learning to meet cruelty with mocking cruelty had been all too easy, after everything he'd lost. Savitar thought... hoped that perhaps these two might help him remember what it felt like to care about somebody else. Assuming the Hunters let him ride along as he'd asked. It was a tall order. They might easily say no.

And why wouldn't they? He was a dangerous stranger and a wild card.

Still... he'd asked. And in the morning, he supposed he would have his answer. Once, he would have prayed to his Father for guidance. Now he tucked himself away in his little pocket dimension and picked a new book to read. The candy all disappeared, finding itself redistributed at a group home where the human children would appreciate it far more than he.

An angel - even one as disgraced and fallen as he - had no use for sleep or sustenance.

Neither Queen sibling got much sleep that night. They argued around in circles, each taking one side of the debate and then circling around to the other.

Tricksters had never shown an interest in partnerships with Hunters before, which made their situation unique. And Oliver's Hunter contacts had no real advice to give him. The Alliance had only ever partnered with former humans thus far; not beings that were never human to begin with.

But they did finally arrive at a satisfactory answer before they finally passed out in the early hours of the morning.

Savitar returned with a to go order of eggs, bacon, and pancakes that the siblings gratefully thanked him for. The syrups were all mislabeled - because of course they were - and Oliver snickered when Thea scrunched up her nose in irritation when her butter pecan packet turned out to be blueberries instead. Oliver wasn't thrilled with the strawberry syrup he wound up with, but he wasn't about to complain about free breakfast, especially seeing as they hadn't formally agreed to anything yet.

While the trio ate, Savitar told them about some of the places he'd traveled and tricks he'd pulled. Cherry-picked for maximum amusement and making the Trickster appear relatively harmless, no doubt, but still funny nonetheless.

But when breakfast was over, the Trickster asked, "so what conclusion did you two arrive at about having you're very own Trickster guardian?"

"We decided on a trial run," Thea told him. "For a month and if we're all happy with the traveling arrangements, we'll keep it up. But if it's not working out... then at least we'll have given it a fair try."

"Awesome. So you're both in agreement about this?" Savitar asked, fluttering his eye lashes at Oliver as he added, "don't mind having me around, pretty boy?"

"I've never been one to say no to having eye candy around," Oliver flirted back daringly.

"Oh god," Thea muttered. "You two better not spend the entire month flirting or I'm going to call Laurel and Nyssa and see if they'll train me instead of you, Ollie," she added louder, giving them both sharp looks.

Oliver ruffled his sister's hair and teased, "not the entire time. Promise."

"I suppose I can try not to be too obnoxious for your human sensibilities," Savitar sighed, feigning sadness.

"That's all I ask." Thea headed over to her bed and zipped up her duffel bag. "Now, I think it's about time we checked out of our hotel and headed off on a real hunt. I want a haunting, Ollie. At least one ghost."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll call up Rip and Gideon, see what they've got for us." And let them know the Trickster would be going traveling with him and Thea after all.

Hopefully this wasn't about to turn into some massive mistake.

Notes: So the idea behind this was that Savitar is the only survivor of some apocalyptic future that wiped out the Earth and Heaven and probably Hell too. Like maybe the Leviathans? I dunno what and it doesn't really matter since this is where the story ends, but Barry - the angel Bartholomew - traveled back in time to prevent the chain of events from happening. But that meant there were now two of the same angel in a single timeline. Because of his experiences and scars, he was seen as tainted by his siblings - the very people he wanted to save - as well as his past self. So they cast him out. And since he overshot the mark while time traveling, the event he intended to undo is still some time off in the future. Thus he's hiding out on Earth as a Trickster, lonely, bitter, and recognizing that murder is coming to him all too easily these days. He's not even sure he wants to avert the bad future anymore... or if maybe he'd rather just help it all come to pass instead.

But there's something about these two Hunters he's drawn to... Oliver in particular. Maybe in them he'll find a reason to want to save the Earth after all...

It's a fun idea and I enjoyed what I've written so far, but alas... not really interested in going any further with it so this'll likely remain a one-shot.