Oliver tried to calm his heartbeat as he stepped into the conference room. He glanced at his family and they stared at him in wide eyed disbelief as if seeing a ghost. Seeing Laurel and Detective Lance caused an uncomfortable twinge in his chest at the reminder of Sara, and for a moment he could hear her screams as the freighter filled with water. Oliver tried to shake himself out of that mindset. Instead his eyes found Felicity and it felt like the air was stolen from his lungs. She looked so beautiful. He was not able to dwell on it long before his sister jumped into his arms.
"I knew it. I knew you were alive." Thea declared tearfully as she hugged him tighter.
"You were with me the whole time." Oliver breathed out.
It was hard to comprehend that he was back in Starling and in the same room as his family. For the past five years he had not allowed himself to believe that he could possibly survive all this and be reunited with them.
Thea slowly let go of him and hesitantly sat back down. Almost as if she would be content holding onto him for however long she could. His mother was standing behind where Thea had been.
"My beautiful boy." She said tearfully and hugged him tightly. Oliver tentatively hugged her back.
Being in the presence of his family again caused the thin threads of hope to burn bright. That maybe he could live through everything and return home one day.
Tommy got up next and gave him a quick hug. "It's good to know you're alive, buddy."
"Are we done with the reunions?" Waller asked impatiently.
Tommy quickly sat down at the sound of Waller's voice.
"What is this about, Amanda?" Oliver asked, irritated. He moved so he was leaning against the wall, wary of even sitting in Amanda's presence. He was trained not to show weakness and only when hell froze over would he show any sort of weakness to Amanda Waller. He couldn't help but sneak a glance at Felicity and something about it was calming. That despite the shit storm that was bound to occur there was still something to be thankful for.
Waller gave him a calculated look, then handed him and Agent Diggle a file.
"Wait, he gets to know what's going on and not us?" Detective Lance asked incredulously, his eyebrows climbing towards his hairline.
"Mr. Queen, was an asset with ARGUS and part of his deal was that he was involved in the case."
"What kind of thing could he do for a government agency?" Detective Lance grumbled.
"Sleep with anything in a skirt." Laurel mumbled back, leaning slightly towards her father.
Oliver tried to ignore their comments and focused on keeping a straight face as he read the file. According to ARGUS, Malcolm Merlyn, code named "The Dark Archer" was going to try and level the Glades for an unknown reason. What they wanted Oliver to do was to take down Malcolm and his network of associates, whether killing them or taking them in. ARGUS didn't care and Oliver hated that he didn't care that much either.
Revulsion echoed through him. The thought of Malcolm Merlyn wanting to kill everyone in the Glades, left a sour taste in his mouth. Oliver knew that he was a monster, but it turned out Malcolm was at least ten times worse than he was. He also knew that he could not turn away from this, he couldn't just walk away and leave ARGUS to do this on their own. Hell, they would probably get nowhere.
"Is this accurate?" Oliver asked. Because if this intel was correct, it would ruin Tommy's life. Learning that his father was trying to kill hundreds of people, that would change him.
"All of it has been verified by operatives." Waller confirmed with a small smirk.
Oliver gave a short nod.
"What is Oliver going to be doing for you exactly?" Felicity asked, looking at Waller questionably, as if she knew that nothing was as simple as what Waller said. Oliver tried to suppress a smirk. It seemed that Felicity was easily catching on to how ruthlessly Waller operated.
"Whatever he wants to get the job done."
Oliver couldn't help but sarcastically scoff. Doing what he wanted was not in Waller's vocabulary. He always had to do things her way and any other way would result in a beating or any other form of torture she was feeling like would keep him in line, a lesson that he had learned far too many times.
"Do you have something you want to say, Mr. Queen." Amanda raised an eyebrow at him, silently daring him to speak up.
"In my experience, A.R.G.U.S. isn't much for free will." Oliver said stoically.
Amanda rolled her eyes and focused back on the group as a whole.
"You are not allowed to tell anyone that Mr. Queen is alive, if you do it will jeopardize the mission and there will be consequences for trying to tell anyone." Waller said as she glanced around the conference table.
"What sort of consequences?" Tommy asked, looking at Waller curiously.
Before Amanda could get a chance to answer, Oliver spoke up. "They'll kill you."
"A government agency can't just kill people." Quentin countered.
Oliver rolled his eyes, he couldn't believe that someone would have such blind faith in the government. But then again five years ago he probably would not have believed it either.
Waller didn't dignify Quentin with a response, just raising one eyebrow at him that resulted in his mouth opening and closing like a fish.
A moment later Oliver could practically see the light bulb go off over Tommy's head.
"Wait, wait a minute. Was that why I was kidnapped a couple years ago?" Tommy asked, his voice rising hysterically. "Because I was looking for Oliver?"
"Kidnapped? You were kidnapped?" Thea asked shrilly, turning to Tommy quickly. Moira seemed to have a look of shock on her face as well.
"When? And why didn't you tell us?" Felicity asked, her loud voice threatened to come through. Oliver gave a slight wince; he had been on the end of her loud voice many times and it was not pleasant.
"I didn't want any of you to worry. It was like two years ago in Hong Kong because someone had logged into Oliver's email account, and before I could go looking, I was kidnapped." Tommy turned towards Waller. "Was I kidnapped because I was looking for Oliver?"
Waller seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Yes."
Oliver shifted uncomfortably.
"You can't just kidnap people!" Laurel exclaimed.
"The asset was supposed to kill him, if that is any better. Luckily for Mr. Merlyn, the operative had a lapse in judgement and decided to scare him out of Hong Kong instead." Waller had a look of disgust on her face, as if deciding not to kill Tommy was a mortal sin.
Before Tommy had a chance to respond and judging by the surprise and anger starting to bloom across his face it would have been a long response, Oliver spoke up.
"Can we get back to the reason that we're all here."
Waller sighed as if it was the biggest inconvenience to focus on the topic of all of them being there and shifting away from a conversation that could potentially bring up Oliver's questionable past in Hong Kong.
"You all will be notified when the mission is over. I would advise, Mr. Queen, that you refrain from being in contact with anyone while you're in town."
He had a feeling that Amanda was giving him more of a demand rather than a suggestion. Oliver knew that there would be severe consequences when ignoring her demands and he had no desire to find out what those consequences would be.
Oliver gave a short nod as Waller stalked out of conference room. A bit of tension seeped out of his shoulders as soon as Waller was gone. Almost like he could breathe properly again.
"Oliver," He gave a slight jump and managed to ignore the urge to strike out as Thea touched his shoulder. "where are you going to stay?"
"I'm going to figure something out." Oliver left it vague, he knew that he was going to set up a base of operations somewhere in the Glades. Probably in one of the abandoned Queen's Consolidated was no way that he was going to work at ARGUS.
"You should just stay at the mansion."
"I must insist, Oliver. You should be at home." Moira added, walking over.
"People would see me there and no one can know I'm alive."
"You can't just sleep out on the streets!"
"Mom, I'll be fine. I've been in worse situations."
Immediately Oliver could tell that was not the right thing to say. Moira took half a step back in shock, apparently she had not considered that he had suffered over the past five years.
Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver noticed as Laurel and Quentin walked out of the room.
"I've already got it figured out where I'm going to stay." Oliver lied in an attempt to placate her. Nothing could be worse than sleeping on Lian Yu with various enemies roaming around. He was certain that this would be a paradise in comparison.
"Alright then." Moira conceded hesitantly. "You need to visit. We need to know that you're okay."
Oliver nodded. He'd probably only go see them before he left, he couldn't risk putting them in danger by consistently visiting.
Moira hugged him quickly. "I am so happy that you're alive."
Oliver forced a quick smile.
Thea hugged him and whispered in his ear. "I've missed you so much."
"I missed you too."
Thea stepped back and smiled at him, before walking over to the doorway where Moira had been waiting for her. Oliver watched them through the glass as they left.
"Buddy, we'll have to catch up, yeah?" Tommy clapped him on the shoulder and Oliver nodded. It would be nice to be able to sit down and just talk with his best friend. He'd have to try and do it before this was all over.
Tommy headed for the door but seemed to hang back for a moment.
Felicity approached him next and it felt like a breath of fresh air to have her in front of him. Her hair was pulled back in its signature ponytail and her glasses were perched on her nose. She gave him a small smile and then reached forward and hugged him tightly. Oliver would easily admit that in the past five years he had become a lot less tolerant and willing for any sort of physical affection. But with Felicity hugging him, it was a lot easier to let it happen.
She slowly stepped back and seemed to be searching his face for something.
"If you need any help, I can hack anything." She gave him a small smile.
"I'll keep that in mind." Oliver said, and his lips quirked slightly. There was no way he was going to get Felicity involved with anything related to ARGUS. ARGUS was far too dangerous for her to get involved in, he was aware of the extent of Felicity's hacking prowess. But, this was something completely different. Oliver didn't want her to be in any sort of danger because of him.
Felicity turned towards Tommy and hesitantly walked over to him. Oliver watched them leave the room and faced Agent Diggle, who was still reading over the file that Waller had given them.
"I can handle this myself."
"I don't think you can, Mr. Queen." Agent Diggle looked at him as if he was trying to read a book.
"I've handled worse."
"I don't doubt that, but it'll be a lot easier to finish this mission if we work together."
"Frankly, Agent Diggle, I don't trust anyone that works for ARGUS. So, if it's all the same to you I'll be working on this on my own." Oliver grabbed the file on Malcolm Merlyn and made a quick exit.
He didn't want to get involved with ARGUS's shit any more than he had to. There was no way in hell that he would willingly work with an ARGUS operative. It would be much easier to get this done by himself.
The halls of ARGUS blurred together as Oliver found the exit and he started to mentally plan how in the hell he was going to take down Malcolm Merlyn's network before he managed to destroy the Glades.
But first he needed to find a place to set up a base.