Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

"What are you doing, Roy?" Sara asked.

"Is that a serious question?" Roy snapped as he gestured outside. "Look around, Sara, this city isn't any better, and someone has to continue Oliver's mission and you certainly aren't doing much to help make the city a better place, neither does Dig, Felicity, Rene, Curtis or Dinah."

"You think I wanted to give it all up?" Sara scoffed. "Ollie gave himself up so that he could take down Diaz and I want to continue his mission as much as you do but if I go out as the Canary, they'll arrest me and his sacrifice will have been for nothing. I'm still trying to make this city a better place but I can't do it the way you do. Besides, someone needs to look after William and Felicity can't do it on her own, I owe Ollie at least that much." She sighed and took a breath. "Look, I didn't come here to argue with you. But what about Thea and the Thanatos Guild?"

"Since we saw the news about Oliver being arrested, we kinda argued about our priorities. Thea decided to go after the Lazarus Pits and the Thanatos Guild on her own and then we heard about the Longbow Hunters and Nyssa has been tracking them ever since and I wanted to help continue Oliver's mission." Roy explained.

"Roy, if you wanted to put on the hood, then I could understand that but you know you can trust me, right? At least me. Dig's got other priorities now, I'm not sure if I can rely on Rene, Curtis or Dinah and Felicity's too worried about William and Diaz to be in the right mindset to help you out." Sara pleaded. "Look, all I'm saying is that you don't have to do this alone. Let me help you."

"I'll think about it but right now I have more important matters to attend to." Roy said as he jumped out through the window and Sara sighed.

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

Oliver was lying on the bed in his cell, when a guard entered, accompanied with orderlies. "On your feet, 4587."

Oliver got up and sighed as he sat down. "Who are you?"

"Your new best friend. Now, on your feet." The guard ordered and Oliver complied. "Hold out your hand." Oliver reached out as the guard showed a metallic bracelet. "This will be on you at all times to ensure the safety of yourself and the other prisoners."

The guard placed the bracelet on Oliver's wrist as a 'beep' went off and red light blinked on the bracelet.

"Where's Dr. Parker?" Oliver asked.

"He said you're ready for Phase 2, which means you belong to me now. Move." The guard said.

"Where are you taking me?" Oliver demanded.

"Down the rabbit hole." The guard smirked as they escorted Oliver out of his cell.

Oliver then noticed the orderlies dragging away one of the inmates. "Where are they taking him?"

"Pray you never find out." The guard whispered and Oliver then noticed the huge inmate who had attacked him in the shower and that Oliver had later beaten up in the yard as the guard noticed Oliver staring at the inmate. "Friend of yours?"

"No." Oliver said.

"Is there a problem?" The guard demanded, reaching for his weapon.

Oliver shook his head. "No. No problem."

The guard nodded. "Good. Keep it that way."

"When is visitation?" Oliver inquired.

"There's no visitation down here." The guard sneered.

"No… what… what do you mean?" Oliver asked, confused.

"It's probably best that you forget about anyone on the outside. They'll eventually forget about you" The guard said as he locked Oliver up in one of the cells.

During the lunchtime, Oliver approached the tables and approached the inmate, who had attacked him earlier. "Remember me? I need to talk to you." The inmate got up and started walking away, ignoring Oliver as Oliver followed him. "Hey. I know it was the Demon who hired you to attack me."

"Stop talking to me." The inmate begged.

"Tell me who the Demon is." Oliver insisted.

"Leave me alone." The inmate said.

"Hey." Oliver grabbed the inmate but the next thing he knew, he was thrown down on the floor.

The guards turned to the inmate with narrowed eyes as he raised his hands, looking terrified. "It was an accident, I swear!"

Oliver saw the bracelet on the inmate's wrist being electrified as the inmate fell on his knees, with the guard aiming at him with some device that looked like a handheld remote as the guard eyed the inmate in disappointment, approaching him with the orderlies. "Looks like you're having a relapse. We warned you about this. You know what happens now."

"I'm sorry." The inmate paled as he turned to the door in fear. "It won't happen again." He then groaned as the bracelet went off again.

"Get him up." The guard ordered as the orderlies dragged the inmate towards the door.

"No. Not through there! Please!" The inmate begged as Oliver wondered was going on behind those doors.

A.R.G.U.S.

"Still tracking Silencer?" Sara asked as she entered the office.

Felicity shushed Sara as she glanced towards William, who was sleeping on the couch before the signal disappeared. "Frak."

"What? You lost her?" Sara asked as she approached the desk, while Felicity was typing away.

"No, the signal's still pinging, it's just faint but it may take a while for me to boost the signal to get an exact location." Felicity said.

"The moment you find out, let me know." Sara said and Felicity nodded. "Felicity, don't leave the office and don't do anything stupid, OK?"

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

Oliver was sleeping, when he heard squeaking and got up, noticing that someone had entered his cell. Oliver and the intruder exchanged few blows before he knocked her on the ground and was about to deliver the finishing blow, but froze, when he saw her face and got up on his feet, pulling away.

"I understand you've been looking for the Demon." The woman said with an Eastern accent as she got up on her feet, revealing burns on her face.

Oliver stared in disbelief. "Talia?"

Last time he saw her, she had been alongside Adrian Chase on Lian Yu, until he committed suicide and triggered the explosives on Lian Yu and Oliver assumed that she had died in the explosion.

"You survived the explosion on Lian Yu." Oliver realized. "How?"

"You know I'm not so easily defeated." Talia said.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked.

"Oh, I ran afoul of an old foe in Gotham." Talia shrugged before looking at Oliver curiously. "What surprised me was to see you here, a prisoner. I believe I taught you better than that."

"You taught me many things, including how to manipulate people." Oliver reminded as the realization hit him. "So, the attack in the shower, Brick's mind games… you pushed every button and pulled every string just to get me down here."

"You always were a quick study." Talia smirked.

"Where's Ricardo Diaz?" Oliver demanded.

"I don't know." Talia said.

"Liar." Oliver growled.

"I'm many things, but liar is not one of them. You asked how I survived Lian Yu." Talia turned to the bars of the cells. "The answer is barely and only with the help of a drug supplied by your Mr. Diaz, so, in exchange, I facilitated an attack on the man who murdered my father. left me for dead, more than a fair trade."

"There was a time, Talia, when aligning yourself with men like Adrian Chase and Ricardo Diaz would have been beneath you. You had to know Chase's father was on the list too. The same list you convinced me to target. And yet you train him? And besides, your father was going to kill innocent people in my city, the same way Chase's father did. What does that make you? A hypocrite." Oliver pointed out.

"I do what it takes to survive. Another lesson you seem to have forgotten." Talia turned to Oliver, looking at him as if he was stupid. "I taught you how to separate the man from the monster. Instead, you exposed your true identity for all the world to see and became the monster you always feared you were."

"What do you want from me?" Oliver asked.

"There is a way out of Slabside and I need your help to escape." Talia said.

"You expect me to help you after all the pain and the suffering that you inflicted on my family?" Oliver demanded incredulously.

"What does it tell you that I would even ask for your help after what you've done to mine?" Talia pointed out and Oliver stared at her in disbelief, as if she was insane. "You don't understand what they do to people down here."

"They reform them." Oliver said.

"They destroy them." Talia corrected. "You and I once stood on the same side, we can do it again."

"You stood on the same side as Adrian Chase and my son lost his mother, so now I'm here, trying to save what's left of my family, because I'm stuck in a cycle of violence and I have been stuck there since the moment you told me what to do with my father's list." Oliver said.

"You don't honestly believe that, Oliver." Talia shook her head.

"There's no Oliver here." Oliver countered as Talia raised her eyebrows. "I'm inmate 4587, so I'm asking you, however you broke into my cell, get out."

Sara was in the visitor room as she approached Dunbar. "Excuse me. I'd like to speak with Oliver Queen. I'm on his guest list and I asked to see him twenty minutes ago. What's going on?"

"Inmate 4587 has had his visitation privileges revoked." Dunbar said.

"Why? What happened?" Sara asked.

"I'm not at liberty to say, ma'am." Dunbar said.

"Please, can you tell me what's going on?" Sara pleaded.

"I'm afraid I can't." Dunbar said coldly as he walked off.

Sara looked confused before she noticed Stanley waving his hand at her and she approached his booth and picked the receiver.

"You're Sara Lance. I recognize you from the news article about the Gambit. You came here to see Oliver?" Stanley asked.

"Yeah. You know him?" Sara asked.

"I'm kind of his sidekick in here." Stanley said.

"What's going on? Is Ollie OK?" Sara inquired.

"He got sent down to Level 2." Stanley explained.

"Level 2?" Sara repeated.

"It's bad, it's really bad, it's where they send the worst." Stanley said, looking worried.

"Wait, I don't understand, what's going on?" Sara demanded, now more confused.

"It's kind of a long story, but he got set up and then he had to stab a guard or two, it all kind of happened really fast and there was a lot of blood." Stanley said.

"Ollie? Stabbing a guard?" Sara asked.

"I'm sorry about your friend. He's the best." Stanley said as he hung up and left and Sara stared, wondering what was going on.

Later, District Attorney's office

"So you can do nothing for Ollie?" Sara asked as she talked with Laurel.

"Prison authorities insisted that Oliver already maxed his visitation allowances this month." Laurel said.

"That makes no sense. Something's wrong." Sara said as she took a breath, not believing she was actually doing this. "Can you do a favor for me, please, Laurel?"

"Is that a serious question?" Laurel asked, not believing it.

"Look, I know you're not my sister and I know he's not your Ollie but deep down, I'm sure you want to make sure he's OK and I think that my Dad would've wanted for us to at least try to get along. Can you try to look up what this… Level 2 is? If not for me or Ollie, then for Dad." Sara asked with an imploring look.

Laurel considered before picking the phone. "I'll make some calls, see what I can do."

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

Oliver walked down the hall before he saw the orderlies go out from the door that had piqued his interest with a gurney on which was lying the inmate who had attacked Oliver and it was clear that he was dead, making Oliver wonder what was going on as he saw Talia eating at the table, looking indifferently at the dead inmate and Oliver sat across her.

"What the hell happened to him?" Oliver asked.

"You don't recognize a dead body?" Talia asked sarcastically.

"What goes on in that room?" Oliver inquired.

"That's where they reform you." Talia drawled.

"Therapy doesn't kill people, Talia." Oliver pointed out.

"You have a surprising amount of empathy for a man who assaulted you." Talia said indifferently.

"He's dead because of whatever happens behind those doors." Oliver said as he pointed to the doors.

"Then he's one of the lucky ones." Talia said.

"What?" Oliver asked, confused.

"Those who walk out alive suffer much more. You have no idea what your doctor is really doing down here." Talia explained.

"Come on. Dr. Parker's behind this?" Oliver asked skeptically.

Talia shook her head. "Not so quick a study after all. You fell for Parker's lies. That's what happens, when you fail to keep your two sides separate, you become weak."

"Whatever is happening, we need to stop it." Oliver said.

"These people are criminals, the likes of which you've spent past six years putting away, I'm surprised you want to help them." Talia said.

"But you were the one who pushed me towards helping others, towards fighting for justice. You had honor then." Oliver reminded.

"That was a long time ago. Now, all I care about is getting out of here. Are you prepared to help me with that?" Talia asked and Oliver was silent as she got up and left. "Then we have nothing further to discuss."

Out of options, Oliver approached one of the guards. "I need to see Dr. Parker."

"That's not how it works." The guard protested.

"I need his help. I'm having another relapse." Oliver explained, hoping his plan would work.

SCPD

"Dinah, we need your help." Sara said as she and Laurel entered her office.

"We?" Dinah raised her eyebrows. "What's going on?"

"Slabside is denying Sara access to Oliver." Laurel explained.

"Oliver's friend in the prison told me they were keeping him in something called Level 2 but we found no mention of it in any of the Slabside records, and neither did Felicity but she may have a lead." Sara said.

"A psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Jarrett Parker with a 'P'." Laurel said as Dinah picked a pen and started writing it down.

"Can you check if there any complaints about Parker doing his private practice in the police records?" Sara asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't ask Felicity to hack into SCPD herself." Dinah noted.

"We did but she found nothing in the digital records, so we're gonna have to do this old-school way." Sara said.

"OK, but what makes you think this Parker guy is shady?" Dinah asked.

"Slabside doesn't have a psychiatric program for the inmates." Laurel said.

"And that definitely is suspicious. Look, Ollie may be in trouble and we need to help him however we can." Sara pleaded and Dinah nodded.

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

"When did you notice the rage happening?" Parker asked as he interviewed Oliver.

"When I saw the inmate with the Grim Reaper tattoo." Oliver said.

"Interesting." Parker said as he typed his notes down on his tablet. "Why do you think you responded so negatively to him?"

"He was among the group that attacked me on Level 1." Oliver said.

"Hmmm. Well, the good thing is you didn't give into your violent tendencies. You came here. That means the treatment is working." Parker noted.

"Dr. Parker, the main reason I didn't do anything was… he was dead." Oliver explained and Parker narrowed his eyes. "I saw him being wheeled out of the room with the blue door."

Parker got up from his chair as he turned to Oliver. "Unfortunately, some inmates don't respond as well as you to the process. When you're breaking new scientific ground, setbacks are inevitable."

"It seems a…" Oliver cleared his throat as he eyed Parker suspiciously. "A prisoner dying is a little more than a setback."

"Look at what we've done together. How we've eliminated that part of yourself that was trapped in a cycle of violence. Imagine that on a grander scale. The world would be a much safer place." Parker said as he turned his back.

"Right, but people are dying. What about them?" Oliver wondered.

"That sounds something the old you would say, 4587, the hero, who insisted on righting the wrongs of strangers at the expense of the safety and wellbeing and the people he loves." Parker said as he turned to Oliver. "I thought you weren't that person anymore."

"I'm not." Oliver said.

Parker nodded, seeming satisfied as he sat down. "Good. You need to continue focusing on yourself, on the man you need to be for the sake of your loved ones." He then turned to Oliver with quite unnerving look in his eyes. "If you're unable to do that, we'll be forced to pursue some other treatment options."

Later, Oliver was waiting in the dining room as he saw Talia pass by and approached her, lowering his voice as he cleared his throat. "If you still want to get out of here, we go tonight."

"Well, I'm glad you've finally come to your senses, though I suspect your willingness to conspire comes with… conditions." Talia said.

"I need you to help me expose the truth about Dr. Parker." Oliver said.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Talia questioned.

"The evidence we need is behind those blue doors." Oliver explained, glancing to the blue doors. "We break in, we get it, we escape."

"That would be unwise. You've seen what happens to people who go into that room, they go out in body bags." Talia protested.

"Talia, we are doing this my way or we are not doing it at all." Oliver said.

"You'd risk both our lives to help these prisoners, despite knowing every last one of them is a murderer or worse?" Talia asked incredulously.

"These people are being treated like they are disposable. No one deserves that." Oliver countered.

"Tell me, did you feel that same compassion for my father, when you rammed a sword through his chest?" Talia asked sarcastically.

"No. Because back then, I still allowed the monster, that you helped unleash, take over and you knew exactly, who your father was. It was either him or a city of innocent people." Oliver sneered.

"'Innocent' is a strong word to throw around Star City, Oliver and don't insinuate that my father's death was somehow my fault." Talia sneered.

"No. I…" Oliver raised his hand as Talia stopped. "Look, Ra's death was my fault. I couldn't see past what he intended to do to my city, so I didn't think to stop to think about his family and for that, I am truly sorry. I know you hate me but I was your student once and we trusted each other completely. We need to find that trust again because it is the only way both of us will get what we want."

Talia considered.

Later, Oliver was in the mess hall, waiting for Talia as an orderly passed by and Oliver took his keycard and knocked him down before another orderly approached with a remote to Oliver's bracelet as Oliver raised his hands in surrender before Talia snuck up on the orderly and knocked him out with a food tray.

"About time." Oliver said.

"You know, they say the mark of a great teacher is when her pupil finally surpasses her." Talia said.

Suddenly, she pulled out a shiv and cut Oliver across his shoulder as he groaned and stared at her in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"What I should have done from the beginning. Let you perish." Talia said.

Oliver and Talia exchanged blows as the shiv kept switching its owner until Oliver grabbed Talia in chokehold as the guards and orderlies entered.

"Brace yourself." Talia said.

"God, I could use a nap." Oliver muttered before their bracelets went off, incapacitating them both.

SCPD

"I got something." Sara said as she read the file. "During Parker's practice, he was also a defendant in three malpractice cases. All of them settled in court."

"Check this out. Robert Goodman. It's one of his patients." Dinah said as Sara took a look.

"'22-year old male referred to Parker back in 2015 after experiencing several violent outbursts. Parker promised the parents he could make their son docile. Instead, Goodman began suffering spontaneous bouts of amnesia.'" Sara read.

"What the hell is this guy doing to these people?" Dinah wondered.

"Some kind of an experimental treatment." Sara said.

"Looks like Parker's making a career out of because I am looking at eight different cases that are exactly like Goodman." Laurel said.

"'As Goodman's amnesia became more frequent, he eventually lost all sense of identity and was…'" Sara paled. "Oh, my God…"

"What?" Dinah asked as she and Laurel looked at Sara worriedly.

"We need to get Ollie out of there before it's too late. They're gonna erase his memory." Sara said.

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

Oliver and Talia were in a lab, both of them restrained to chairs.

"I'm disappointed in you, 4587. It's always so unfortunate, when a study doesn't work out, but this failure is especially painful." Parker said.

"You're a monster." Oliver growled.

Parker banged the table in anger. "We could have done such great things together, helped so many people."

"This isn't helping people!" Oliver protested.

"I misjudged you." Parker said as he prepared a syringe. "I thought after our work together, you were committed to breaking your family's cycle of violence."

"My father pushed people away. He kept secrets and I made those same mistakes but if I choose to break the cycle, I'm gonna do it my way." Oliver said firmly.

"I suggest you hold very still, 4587." Parker said, about to inject Oliver but Oliver grabbed Parker by his throat.

"My name… is Oliver Queen!" Oliver snarled as he got up and threw Parker as Parker fell against a cart.

Oliver grabbed one of the orderlies and kicked the other one back, while throwing down the first one and then the other one as Talia got up.

"Well, it seems like you've picked up a few new tricks without me." Talia noted.

Oliver approached the computer and picked a flash drive, plugging it into the computer and copying the files, while Talia picked the drill and undid the bracelet and then an alarm blared throughout the whole level.

"Must have an anti-tampering alarm." Oliver realized as he started to undo his bracelet.

"I got the keycard." Talia said as she took the keycard from one of the orderlies.

"I've got the file. We gotta go." Oliver said as he unplugged the flash drive from the computer.

"We'll not be able to go quietly." Talia said as she picked batons and handed Oliver a chain as he wrapped it around his hand.

Talia then used the keycard to open the door as they went out and saw the inmates fighting the guards and orderlies and were about to approach the exit.

"Hey! Where the hell are you two going?" A guard called out as Oliver and Talia turned to him. "We're on lockdown. You're supposed to be in your cells." The guard ordered but Oliver and Talia just kept standing. "I said, get back to your cells."

The guard used the remote but was shocked to see that Oliver and Talia had managed to take the bracelets off before Oliver knocked him out. Oliver and Talia then went downstairs, looking for a way out.

"Straight ahead." Talia said as they kept going, they then had to face several armored guards with riot shields and billy clubs and she smirked. "Do you think they realize they're outmatched?"

"I think they're about to." Oliver smirked as Talia extended her batons.

Oliver and Talia rushed at the guards, beating them up as Oliver slammed two guards to the walls and threw another one down, while Talia jumped at a guard and kicked down another before throwing the first one to the ground and then kicked the other one down again. Oliver kicked another guard back and wrapped the chain around another, slamming him to the ground. Oliver and Talia worked together in tandem as they fought their way past the guards until they were all beaten up and lying down.

Oliver and Talia then entered the morgue as Oliver used a stand to lock the door and Talia opened a shaft. "This goes down to the water."

"Right. The only way out is through the morgue." Oliver drawled.

"Shameful way to treat your dead." Talia noted before they turned to the door as they heard shouts. "They won't be long. We must go."

Oliver handed Talia the flash drive. "I need you to give this to Sara."

"If you stay, you will die." Talia pointed out.

"If I leave, I'm a fugitive forever. I won't do that to them. All those years ago, you were wrong. Giving the monster an identity didn't contain the darkness, it just gave it power. Separating into two selves, hiding in the shadows… that was never the answer." Oliver said.

They heard banging on the doors as Talia turned to Oliver. "I will make sure Sara gets this and that she knows that you are stubborn."

"I'll hold them off." Oliver said as he noticed the doors were about to break and Talia gave Oliver one last smile before entering the hatch.

The guards burst in through the door as Oliver engaged them but was quickly overpowered as he curled to the ball, while they beat him up with their nightsticks.

Oliver was back in his cell, when the guards entered. "Time to go, inmate."

"Where are you taking me?" Oliver asked.

"This whole place is getting shut down. You're going back to Level 1." The guard said.

District Attorney's office

"I wonder who sent us those files." Sara said as they saw the news report about Parker getting fired from Slabside due to his malpractice.

"Does it matter? Oliver's back safely in his cell in Level 1. Plus, this, and the files we got from the records room will earn Dr. Parker his own cozy little prison cell." Laurel said as she picked the flash drive.

"You know, Slabside's got a real P.R. nightmare on their hands right now. What if we could use that for more than just shutting down Level 2?" Dinah suggested.

"We can use this to appeal Oliver's conviction." Laurel realized.

"We can use it to get Ollie out of prison." Sara realized.

Slabside Maximum Security Prison

Parker was carrying a box of his things and walking towards his car, when Talia slammed him to the trunk and put the bracelet on his wrist, much to his confusion before Talia picked the remote as the bracelet went off and Parker fell on his knees.

"Suffering from a relapse, doctor?" Talia asked sarcastically as she pulled out her sword. "Allow me to provide the cure."

"No!" Parker screamed in terror as Talia swung her sword.

The guards accompanied Oliver back to his cell on Level 1.

A.R.G.U.S.

"You have a lock on Silencer?" Sara asked as she entered the office.

"She's in Russia." Felicity said.

"What is she doing there?" Sara wondered.

Moscow

There was deathly silence as Silencer walked past a trail of corpses up on the rooftop and turned off the muter as she approached Diaz. "You got what you came for?"

"Yup. Just making good on an old promise." Diaz smirked in satisfaction as he grabbed the terrified Anatoly and lifted him into the air.

I've said it before in my other story "Paths realigned" but Talia's reasoning for allying herself with Chase was quite stupid and it makes her a hypocrite. Talia had convinced Oliver to target the List in the first place, which makes her as much responsible for Claybourne's death as Oliver and it's stupid that she decided to help Chase and train him after Ra's death, when Ra's was trying to kill millions of innocents with Alpha/Omega.

And just a side note, considering their dynamic in flashbacks in Season 5 and in 7x05, where Oliver helped Talia break out of prison, anyone else thinks Oliver/Talia is a good match, if you remove her more villainous traits? Since, if you remove her obsessive loyalty to Ra's and megalomania, her and Oliver probably could have been a good match, I do get some plot bunnies with Oliver/Talia but it's kind of difficult for me to actually go through with it, considering what happened with Bruce/Talia in comic books and it's one thing that the fanatics are obsessed with Oliver/Laurel and try to roast Oliver/Sara pairings but I wonder what's wrong with them, that they roast Bruce/Selina and try to pander Bruce/Talia despite "Son of Batman" arc for example, since I myself found her almost always choosing Ra's over Bruce a major turn-off and Damian was just the last straw for me.

So, what do you guys think?

Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.