A/N- In case you didn't see my author's note on Loss and Regrets Chapter 10, I was unable to post on Wednesday thanks to a bad storm that knocked out my internet for a few days.
The warden was sweating profusely, as he watched one of the most dangerous kinds of people being brought into his prison. A metahuman. This man possessed the ability to fabricate deadly cards from his own skin. Jeremy Tell, Double Down.
The man was being pushed through corridors, strapped onto a trolley, and bound in a straight jacket. "As per the Meta-Human Prisoner Act of 2018. You will be restrained in your prison and bound, and any avenue to nullify your powers will be done so. You will also be fed through plastic bags and liquid meals."
One of his guardsmen continued, "If you try to escape, or are proving too violent. Gas will be released into your cell, and once you are unconscious I and some of the boys, the ones that you had killed on your last escape attempt will fire one-hundred rounds into your body. Until we can be sure that you are sufficiently dead."
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Oliver sat down on the edge of one of the steps of the prison yard, well away from anyone else. As far as the world within these walls was concerned he was a lone wolf. He flicked to the next page of his daughter's books. He supposed that he should relish the book. He likely was going to get another for a long time, or ever.
He supposed he should be happy, or at least Laurel would that he was finally catching up on many of the classics that she had tried to get him to read while in college. Thinking of her, still broke his heart. It didn't feel real, it couldn't be real. Laurel was one of the most natural fighters he had ever seen, and she was killed by some thug with a sharpened toothbrush.
It just reminded him that any day could be his last, all it took was someone to get lucky, and he would be leaving his kids orphans and abandoning his sister and joining him waited patiently, he acted like a model prisoner. The least likely suspect in the recent rise in violence in the prison. Even if he was the one guiding the prison into chaos.
When people are scared, or worried, they reveal things. Things that are usually kept shut. Things like who ordered the hit on Laurel.
The sound of the crunching of the loose parts of the cement alerted Oliver to someone nearby; Guard Thomas Bolt. The man was a lot more intelligent than his colleagues gave him credit for. He seemed to know which way the wind was blowing. He wisely kept his mouth shut and tried to keep to Oliver's good side. Anything to stay alive. People were terrified.
"Mister Queen…. I urgh, so, Dregz... The guard that had his head cracked, the man that lured you into that room, the day that Brickwell ambushed you. I thought that you may like to know that he's on the night shift in a few hours."
Oliver raised his brow, "And why would I want to know something like that, Bolt?"
Bolt scratched the back of his head as he walked back slowly. It was obvious the man was terrified of Oliver. And he hadn't even begun to show the prison what it was like to be trapped within the confines of these walls with The Arrow.
"I thought that… Never mind, I'm sorry to have bothered you, Queen...Sir." Bolt said before resuming his patrol of the yard.
Oliver hid his small smirk behind his daughter's novel. Chaos was his way to the top of the food chain. His plan was already bearing fruit. Guards were already turning on each other. With no comradery between them, they won't be able to hold their ground against the rising tides.
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It was past dinner time when Oliver followed Guardsman Dregz down a long corridor that leads to the laundry room. There was no escape for his prey, the hallway had one way out, the laundry had no way out, besides the industrial doors, that could only be opened from the outside. Which meant the only way out for Dregz was through him.
As his target walked under one of the lights, Oliver threw a cake of soap, shattering the glass on top of the guardsman, and concealing Oliver in the darkness he quickly shoved the man against the wall. His hand resting around Dregz's neck. "You led me into a trap not twenty-four hours before another guard allowed my wife to be killed in front of our daughter…" Oliver blinked away his tears, he could rest once he had brought closure to Mia, and Laurel's ghost. "Why!? And I hope that whatever they paid you was worth it."
His target was crying, "I swear, you have it all wrong! I was just told that they wanted to have a talk, to break bread. There was no mention of what happened. I swear!" He took a deep breath, "I'm just trying to survive here to make ends meet. I have kids, and I almost had my head caved in."
Having children was no excuse for what he did. Oliver had his own, and he could just easily have died. In fact, he would have rathered being the killed that day, instead of Laurel the day after. He could rest easy knowing that Laurel would be safe with Mia on the outside, enjoying the sweet smell of flowers. Why did she die instead of him?
"Brickwell was the one who brought you?"
"One of his men, I think, but yeah."
Oliver released his grip on the man's neck. "I'm in Block A, Brick's in Block C, how do I get there?"
Dregz rubbed his neck, "You would have a better knowledge of the prison, I've seen you skulking around in your free time. Just remember that there are many cameras that are hidden for the staff's safety.
Oliver walked away slowly, not before he looked over his shoulder. "If you are worried about your family, get another job. A family has already lost one of their parents. No other family should lose that to this place."
"You're...not going to kill me?"
"Look after your family. Leave this place and I won't have to." Oliver said before sneaking off to one of the supply rooms to fashion a face mask out of some linen. It wasn't that he didn't know how to avoid security cameras, he had done it for a living, as a vigilante. But time wasn't on his side. He needed to get to Brick and be back in his cell ASAP.
With his face mask, he was able to sneak around. If any cameras caught sight of him, they would never be able to pin it on him. After all, if the media and the cops can't identify the person in his suit, they can't ID him.
Oliver tackled Brick's sole goon that was on protection detail, before slamming his head into the side of the doorframe. He could hear Laurel's voice in his mind assuring him that as long as they couldn't identify him, he couldn't be shoved back into solitary. He couldn't be punished, even if they suspected he was the one to assault the victims.
Eventually, he made it into Brick's cell. Silk sheets that act as drapes to cover the cell from prying eyes, a Persian rug on the floor, and a small radio sitting on the shelf.
"Why am I not surprised that you have more luxuries than the common prisoner?"
"Queen!" Brick said in surprise, before pulling out a shiv and taking a long swipe that narrowly missed Oliver's stomach.
"Not like any Queen you have met." Laurel and Thea were kind and good. They didn't have the darkness that he had within himself. Brickwell was going to find out just how much he was out of his league. Oliver Queen was gone, he had let The Arrow take control, anything for his daughter and for Laurel.
Oliver sent a heavy right hook to the man's face and watched the glorified bald thug stumble backward, and wipe the blood dripping from his lips. "Go and scream, tell the guards that I'm here, they are under your payroll right?"
"I don't need their help against a ponce like you! I may even sell the right to end you to the highest bidder when I defeat you."
Oliver bobbed and weaved around Brickwell before sending a sharp knife hand strike to the back of the man's neck before sending a hard jab to the man's shoulder. Two nerve clusters that Slade had taught him when he taught him how to fight.
Brick fell to his knees, trying his best to melt into the corner of his cell. Oliver picked up the make-shift knife and towered over Brick's cowering form. "Was it you?"
"What are you prattling on about Queen?"
"Did you order the hit on my wife in front of my daughter when I was locked in solitary?" Now that he was here with Brick, it felt too easy, too coincidental, that these events were organized by Brick. The man had a beef with Laurel, he would have wanted to be the one to drive the blade into her throat, not allow a middleman. "Who killed Laurel?"
"Not one of my boys." He groaned. "I ensured that after I found out. If she is who I think she is, she needed a bruising before I ended her."
If that was the case, was there someone pulling the strings? Someone was trying to ruin his life. Someone wanted him to hear Laurel's final moments and was unable to do anything. "Who paid you to have me put in Solitary?"
"Someone on the outside."
"I want a name!" Oliver growled and raised his fist into the air as an incentive to keep talking.
"A guy on the outside, someone called Billy Wintergreen."
Oliver froze and reeled back. Billy Wintergreen. The bastard that had tortured him. He was dead. Slade had impaled the man with his own sword. Even if he was somehow resurrected, which was not out of the realm of possibility, why wait over a decade for revenge, and why not target Slade?...Unless Slade too had been killed?
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Oliver stood tall in The Warden's office. Warden Windrow was looking quite unwell, judging by the way he was squeezing the stress ball in his hand, and antacids on his desk, he would assume that the man had high blood pressure, something that would be understandable in his line of work.
"Mr. Queen. The unrest that this penitentiary has been experiencing in the past month has to cease immediately."
Oliver cocked his head to the side and shrugged slightly. "And how exactly am I responsible for this rise in tensions?"
Windrow gave Oliver an exasperated look, "The prison had a status quo, it was relatively smooth sailing, then your wife was murdered, and you were sent to gen-pop. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots. And I've watched the news since before you were born. I know what you were like before you returned home from being washed up on a deserted island. Even if you are not— The Oliver Queen I heard about was mischievous and always looking for trouble."
"I've never been one for subtly, Warden. I urinated on a cop once."
The warden removed his reading glasses, "I'm sincerely sorry about your wife. I take full responsibility for her. Maybe I can have the prison direct some money towards your daughter with HIV, poor lass."
"Mia. Her name is Mia and she's as healthy as me. But she has her aunt looking after her, doing what Laurel and I can't."
"I implore you, Mr. Queen to please stop raising tensions in here, I have my hands full as it is."
That caught Oliver's interest. Normally he would have heard something from the grapevine of something that was occurring. "What's happening today?"
"Damien Darhk has been approved for gen-pop."
Another person who had it out for his wife. His Pretty Bird. Unlike Brick, he wasn't the man to have killed her in a different timeline. Was Darhk posing as Billy Wintergreen through a middleman on the outside?"
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Damien Darhk took a seat on his new cot and took a dramatic sigh, before looking at his loyal man. He was surprised when Oliver and his motley crew allowed both; he and Andrew Diggle to keep breathing.
"Andy, I would like you to send a message to Oliver Queen over in A-block."
Andy smirked, "Right away, Sir.
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Slade stood beneath the eaves just outside a bodega in the middle of Starling City. He pulled out his phone as he watched the rain descend from the heavens. Before he dialed the number on the burner phone, he lamented that back home in Australia they would be lucky to receive this much rain, especially in the outback.
He dialed the number. "Hello, Thea. Is the package secure? And what of your niece?"
"Yeah, got them all set up here in Seattle. I'm worried about Ollie though, have you seen the news?"
"Oliver has come far from the whinging bludger that I met on Lian Yu. He will be fine." It was all going to plan, the only regret he had was that Oliver would likely deck him for the deception. "I'm going to meet him inside the walls."
"You're going to break in and sling him over your shoulder?"
Slade chuckled, "Nothing so pedestrian. We are brothers, forged in the hell that was Lian yu. It was bloody torture there. We survived together." For the most part. "And we shall endure his time in prison for however long or short it may be." He didn't intend on leaving his brother to rot in jail and leave his family to be permanently ripped from him.
Slade then broke the burner phone, tossing it the bin, and walked several blocks towards The Glades, and saw a pimp hitting a girl that couldn't have been older than twenty. Slade roared as he ran towards the man and snapped his neck.
A few officers ran towards him, as the woman sobbed from the shock. "Easy, mate. I surrender myself into your custody." As he was cuffed and shoved into the back of the police cruiser, he smiled. "I'm coming kid."