"The Canary Spotted Back in Starling"
The article made its debut after three women were attacked in the glades. One of the victims told reporters the woman who had saved her was wearing black leather and had a staff and that when she thanked her for helping all she said in return is "No woman should suffer at the hands of a man."
Captain Lance beamed with pride, at first. But this was the third time Sara had been spotted in Starling in a week. Laurel had been avoiding him, Sara hadn't talked to him since the last time she was in town, and now he was worried. Sara hadn't even responded to Oliver's death. He was worried now, figured she was ashamed of something she may have done since the last time they saw each other. So he went to Laurel's to get some answers.
He got more answers than he bargained for as he sat in the dark on her couch, waiting for her to get home. Through the fire escape he heard Sara coming in, he switched on the lights and demanded in his sternest fatherly voice, "Sara Baby, you've got some explaining to do. Where have you been? Why haven't you called?" But when she turned around and it was Laurel sneaking through the window, his jaw hit the ground.
Laurel saw the look on his face and she couldn't lie anymore, she told him everything about Sara, the Arrow finding her killer, and that the only hope she had of ever feeling normal again in taking up the mantle of Canary. For Sara. For Oliver. For Tommy. If she didn't fight the evil in this city then they all died in vain. The only detail she left out was Malcolm Merlyn. She knew he was responsible for Sara and Tommy's deaths and that he was still haunting Starling city. She would protect the streets in honor of the memory of Oliver and Sara, but she would fight towards one goal, to finally end Malcolm Merlyn once and for all.
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Roy sat in Felicity's living room, waiting for her to get home from work. At first, they couldn't get her out of the foundry. She slept in the bed that she bought for Oliver, stared at the salmon ladder while huddled in her chair, wrapped in one of Oliver's old hoodies. She had found anything and everything ever written about the League of Assassins. She had a constant search out for Malcolm Merlyn. And she was researching every mountainous area within 3 hours of Starling. Then there was the preparation for the funeral and everything that went into that. That whole time she went to work like normal, hiding her feelings to the outside world. For the week between the obituary and the funeral, she didn't leave the foundry at all, and didn't have her phone with her - something about not being 'pingable'.
When she went back to work though, in subdued colors and flats, they thought she may start to work through it. But it was like a switch, the day she went back to work was the day she stopped coming to the foundry. Laurel had stepped up to help run the comms, or Felicity would do it from home on a laptop she built and connected to the lair, but after the funeral it was like pulling teeth to try and get her anywhere near Verdant. They couldn't get through to her. Roy even got a few boxes of Oliver's stuff from Thea, trying to help her stay connected. Because whoever she was now, it wasn't the Felicity he was used to, and he couldn't abandon her.
She was still dedicated to the cause, sort of. She was dedicated to keeping them safe, and to helping Starling, but she was doing it in a more public way. For the last month she had thrown herself into work at Palmer Tech. She was always with Ray, in his office instead of hers, on his arm at charity events... She had molded herself into a socialite trying to fix the world with money and power instead of stopping crime at the street level. When they needed her help on traces or hacking (Cisco, had been helping from Central City as much as possible), they had to bring whatever it was to her at Palmer Tech and make up lame cover stories. He couldn't understand why Digg had mentioned needing to reverse engineer a sports drink when they needed her to trace the newest form of Vertigo, or how Digg's smile had turned to a grimace when she didn't even acknowledge whatever joke he was trying to make.
He was concerned. She spent all her time with Palmer, barely spoke, and wouldn't even meet up with him and Digg for Big Belly Burger. The team was falling apart without her - it was all wrong. When he saw the article in the paper this morning though - about the power couple running Palmer Tech, it was just too much, he had to know what was going on with her. When he arrived an hour ago he was hoping he wouldn't wake her, but then he realized she wasn't home. He sat in the dark, waiting, getting more worried with every passing minute. When he noticed the boxes of Oliver's stuff he had given her weeks ago still unopened, he got a sinking feeling in his gut. At 2 am when she still wasn't home, he called Digg.
As she finally walked in the door she was talking to Ray on the phone and not paying attention to her surroundings. When Roy, still clad in his Arsenal gear, moved toward her, she screamed and dropped the phone. When he grabbed her and pulled her in the house, covering her mouth for good measure - she bit him.
"What the hell, Felicity!" He shook out his hand as he looked at her in disbelief.
All Felicity could do, once her heart had stopped racing and she fully comprehended what was happening, was laugh. It was her first real belly laugh in months. "Did big bad Arsenal just whine? About a little bite?" She was doubled over laughing and Roy couldn't help but smile, it was the first time since Oliver died that he had seen her truly happy.
Fifteen minutes later, Felicity is still laughing intently, explaining to Digg what had happened when she got home. He had arrived just a few minutes after Felicity, still clad in the new Arrow suit that Cisco had made him. It had a special polymer face mask included, which was VERY hot, but made it so that other than sheer size it would be very difficult to tell Digg and Oliver apart while wearing the suit, not an easy task but one Cisco had excelled in.
"So seriously, Digg, how many times has Roy been shot, stabbed, or beaten with a stick? One little bite from me and he's crying like a baby, and then…" She was cut short by the door being busted down and a man rushing in dressed in something that resembled a blue robot. "Oh crap!"
Roy and Digg jumped in front of her out of sheer habit and instinct, but at the sound of her smacking her own forehead as she just kept repeating "…crap crap crap..." they took their eyes off of the would be attacker and looked back to her.
Noting three sets of eyes focused on her she flushed, and took a step forward. "So, eh, A.T.O.M., how much of that did you hear?"
"Adam? So what, you know this guy? What the hell is going on, Felicity? This is why we came over in the first place - we're worried about you!"
"I second that notion," chimed in A.T.O.M., "Why do you have two of the city's heroes in your living room? Are you okay, I called to tell you the suit test was a success and you screamed, I came as fast as I could."
Felicity didn't know what to do but she didn't expect either party to play nice until some things got aired out, so she asked again, "A.T.O.M., answer my question, how much of that conversation did you hear?"
"Nothing, all I heard was…" And just as he was about to answer, in walks Laurel Lance, still dressed as Canary but having taken off her mask and wig as she entered the back door.
"Laurel Lance is the Canary? Are you hosting a hero party? And you didn't invite me?"
"Crap!" All four team arrow members cursed in unison. But Felicity never could admit defeat, so she tried to go with it, "Uh, well, no, not a party, just, well, you know I am Jewish and Purim is soon. It's like Jewish Halloween only we dress up as heroes, so we were going to go as a team of heroes. I don't have my costume yet, but I was going to go as the Flash."
Team arrow starred in awe waiting to see what would happen next, and it didn't take long.
"So Roy Harper is the Arsenal, Mr. Diggle is the Arrow, the DA is the Canary - but I thought you all met through Oliver. Okay wait, this is making so much more sense now, the funeral, everyone was concerned about you the most, so you're like the heart of the team. But where did Oliver fit in?"
Three jaws dropped behind her, partially that this man had figured them out and partially that he had mentioned Oliver in front of Felicity in past tense.
"Well I suppose there is no hiding now - Team Arrow, meet the A.T.O.M. - although you all know him as Ray Palmer."
It was his turn to be shocked and take off the helmet.
"And as for Oliver," she paused in sadness and pain, "he introduced us, but as you already know, he was an irresponsible scion, not a fighter. But he wanted a way to help the city that his parents wronged. His mother's culpability in the Undertaking simply reaffirmed his choice to support us. Admittedly, his role was mainly financial, but he also gave us access to the city's elite. Since taking over the shares in Palmer Tech and being able to get, shall we say 'samples', from applied sciences, that's been my role."
It pained her to lie, to act like Oliver was a pawn for the Arrow instead of the amazing hero he truly was, but even dead it wasn't her secret to tell. Although it seemed that night a lot of secrets would be coming out...