Summary: AU. This story happens during and after the finale of Arrow season 5. Spoilers if ya haven't watched it yet. Focusing on Malcolm Merlyn, Thea, also the entire Team Arrow.

Author's note: Again, repeat spoiler alert! If u watched season 5 finale u know what seems to have happened there. I adore Malcolm and the way he behaved there. I'm still reeling from the episode. Decided to write this story, spur of the moment.

Enjoy!

Undefeated: Chapter 1: Landmines

XxXxXxX

Lian Yu

Thea sat down in one of the guard rooms in the prison she remembered Slade Wilson had been kept. The team just managed to make their way there before the Armageddon on the Island started. It was a good shelter, Argus had made sure of it. Even so, the explosions that shook it were a whisper in her mind compared to the one she had heard in the woods after Malcolm made them all run away, after he…

And the words he'd said, the look of love on his face when he said them.

'From the moment you were born, all I wanted was to protect you.'

'You may not think of me as your father, Thea. But you will always be my daugter.'

She leaned on the chair as the memories started to hit her. The way he always protected her. The support he had shown her after her mother was murdered and everyone had lied to her, the way he had made her strong, beyond what she thought she was capable of.

Images flashed through her mind. The night he rescued her on that train station when one of Slade's goons tried to kill her. Then the training he gave her, and the warmth as well. The travels they had together, the laughs. When her pretend DJ boyfriend tried to kill her when Ra'z Al Ghul was hunting Malcolm and his entire family for the Undertaking.

True, Malcolm was a complicated, twisted person, but he did have goodness in his heart and she knew he had been through a lot. He'd lost his wife, his son, his friends, the League, practically everything he ever cared about. And yet, he'd struggled on, and despite everything, he kept fighting for her, even when she rejected him. How could she have forgotten that, given in to her anger?

She remembered what he said to her after he rescued her from that stupid DJ from Verdant, years earlier. He never once asked for her thanks in return. Not then, not later.

'No parent needs gratitude for saving their child.'

His surprise visit after Oliver severed his hand. She'd been a bitch to him then, so completely insensitive to the pain he must have been going through. She'd made some smug remarks about his wound, but he had taken them in stride and just said one thing that still resonated in her ears.

'I would rather you hate me and be alive than love me and be dead!'

Wasn't it the very definition of selflessness?

Then it all converged at once. All the memories, like a kaliedoscope.

The way he doggedly kept trying to get her to get away from Starling to escape Ra's, find a remote location to keep her safe.

The fact he clearly only threw in with Dahrk to save her from what that madman had planned to unleash upon the world.

She realised right then and there she never truly hated him. And just how much she had misunderstood him. He'd truly wanted what was best for her.

'I'm doing this for us, Thea!'

There was this clarity she found then, painful agonizing clarity of her own mistakes. The realizaton that despite what she said to him in that forest, they had so much in common.

The way she fought, the ruthlessness she had shown, mulitple times, not only as Speedy. When she'd destroyed a reporter's career when the woman was going after Oliver's mayorship. She even remembered stuff she had done in highschool and college, before Malcolm's training. She thought of herself as morally superior to him or that her actions were the result of his manipulation. They weren't. They were her own choices and it was just pure hypocrisy to think otherwise, to blame him for her own mistakes. She couldn't blame it on genetics, she just had to face the fact it was her own doing. Genetics might have had something to do with it, she was no scientist, but Malcolm, he had shown more humanity than she had. He kept on helping her and Oliver despite their rejection, kept swallowing his pride, kept being there when they needed him most.

Suddenly, she remembered all these little details, the minutiae of his behavior, despite the impervious facade he'd put on. The flashes of pain in his eyes when she, Oliver, Felicity or John said something hurtful, when they said he was basicallly a heartless bastard, rejected his gestures of good faith, misunderstood his good intentions.

She felt guilty about all her snarky remarks, about just simply dismissing him as a villain, not appreciating everything he had done for her.

Oh, how much she missed him now. This indomitable presence, standing by her side, coming to her rescue, even if he risked her hating him. Even though she kept saying she hated him, he kept being there for her, right when she needed him the most.

Her memory travelled to the time they were in Corto Maltese. Yes, he could be brutal when they trained, but that was the way a true warrior was forged. She also remembered Oliver had not been kind either when training his recruits lately, that he had killed people as the Vigilante.

What she also recalled was Malcolm's uncanny skill as a teacher, the hours and hours he devoted to making sure she knew the tactics, his patience when she failed to understand something, the encouragement he gave her when she felt frustrated, the support he'd shown when she felt vulnerable.

She recalled a particular morning when he surprised her by cooking her breakfast after she woke up totally spent after the previous day of training. The way he always made sure she was properly hydrated, had a snack in between their practice sessions to keep up her strength.

The way he sensed when she needed to just goof off, his sense of humor.

There was one moment, late at night when she caught him looking at a picture of Rebecca, Moira, Tommy, Robert. She had approached him then, fearful he would be angry at the intrusion, but was shocked when he turned to her and she noticed his face was strewn with tears. He just turned and hugged her then; so warm, his breath hitching, struggling and failing not to sob.

She had met the man behing the mask then, the man she then learned could actually feel and feel deeply.

How, HOW could she have forgotten it all? The question kept haunting her.

Thea curled up in the chair as more memories came flooding in.

The gentle touch of his hand on her shoulder when she was dealing with her grief.

The surprise short hikes he took her on, showing her the landscapes, the gentle way he tucked her in her bed in Corto when she couldn't sleep, the mugs of cocoa he brought her to comfort her in the evenings after those first difficult days of training. The stories he told her when he opened himself up to her, the information he emphasized was necessary she knew in order to survive. She learned more from him during that summer than she ever could have if she had spent years in college or military school.

And yet, she had thrown it all away as if it was nothing.

She remembered the words Malcolm had said to her during one of their arguments, the same one they had when he visited her after his duel with Oliver.

'I taught you how to fight, how to be strong, I turned you from a delicate, spoiled brat into a warrior! And all I've ever gotten in return is your venomous spite!'

He was angry, shouting, but she knew him well enough by then to recognize the undercurrrent of hurt, of desperate longing for comfort.

Then she remembered the moment from today, when he opened the cage Talia's and Chase's men had put her in. The look of concern on his face as he pulled her out.

'You okay?'

'Go to hell.' was her only response. Then she actually rejoiced in the pain it may have caused him.

Suddenly all her snarky remarks towards him came ringing through her ears, like a cacophony.

'You are not my father, we have nothing in common,' was the loudest of them.

Then the last thing he said to her rang out.

'You will always be my daughter.'

The guilt overwhelmed her again.

She remembered how he had held absolutely no grudge after she had given him up to the League years ago, how he had suffered quietly on the couch at the loft, recovered quietly in his pain and then always kept coming back to help her, how he hugged her, how he took it in stride when she just pushed him away.

And today…

Why did she have to be so stupid as to step on that landmine?

She curled up into a small ball on the chair, and just kept longing for her father's voice, his embrace.

Then it just became too much. A desperate cry escaped her.

"Daddy! Dad! Oh come back to me, please, Dad, I''m sorry, I… I need you, I love you. Come…. Come back please."

The only respose she got was the shaking of the bunker and the echo of his voice.

'You will always be my daughter.'

Then she remembered his lessons, the way he had taught her to fight against all odds, and felt ashamed of herself again. She wished he was here, and if he was, what would he think of her, lying there, curled up into a ball?

What had he taught her about doubt and never staying down? Was she failing him again, by forgetting his lessons?

What had he shown her, even if he did not have to say it? To stand, face every obstacle.

What had she learned about him, from him. What had he made her, taught her to be?

Undefeated.

Her thoughts travelled back to worry about him, the shaking walls of the prison reminding her of what was going on and yet she also remembered how many impossible situations like this he himself had faced and conquered.

And despite her fear, her doubt, she chose to trust.

Cause that was what she chose to trust about her father.

It was as if a warmth suddenly appeared in her heart.

That is what Malcolm Merlyn taught me to be, that's what he IS.

Then a word rang out in her ears,

UNDEFEATED

To be continued

Dark Empress author notes

SPOLER ALERT BEFORE YOU READ THIS: season 5 finale

So by now, the Arrow season finale and what the actor playing Malcolm Merlyn suggested, he might have been killed or just not in for the next season. As an avid Dark Archer Malcolm Merlyn lover and admirer, it obviously sent me reeling. I decided to write this first chapter of the story from Thea's point of view, after she realizes she has been such a bitch to Malcolm. This has been hard for me to write, not only because of me reeling from the finale, but also because my luckily living father is my only closest relative who is also my everything.

Also, given the cliffhanger in the finale and the unpredictability of television, I REFUSE to accept they just killed Malcolm. Why? For the sole reason he is a MAJORLY wonderful character. So here I call upon my fellow Dark Archer fans to just RISE and do whatever it takes to have him back. We can email, do a campaign. Like Malcolm, I choose to remai UNDEFEATED!

Important: Please R&R i love reviews, they always inspire me! Also huge thank you to Bloodsong, a wonderful friend and beta who makes my stories come alive!

Disclaimer: The title was inspired by the song Undefeated by Skillet, all rights are theirs.