Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
Oliver was on table, with a drip and a heart monitor attached to him as it started bleeping, while Barry, Henry, Sara and Chloe were treating him. Diggle started chest compressions as Barry took a sample of Oliver's blood with a syringe, examining it.
"Got it, he's suffering from intravenous coagulation."
"What?" Diggle asked.
"Blood clot." Sara explained.
"It's like maple syrup." Barry nodded.
"Can you do something?" Henry asked.
Barry looked around the room before he picked a box of rat poison from a shelf. "Lucky you guys have a rat problem."
"What, are you crazy?!" Sara exclaimed.
"That will kill him!" Diggle protested.
"He dies if I don't!" Barry argued.
"Barry, are you sure about this?" Chloe inquired, giving Barry a hard stare as he nodded. "Fine."
Barry prepared the mixture as he put it in the syringe. "Just the right amount of this stuff will thin his blood enough to get it circulating again." He injected it into Oliver's bloodstream as Oliver tilted his head slightly as he heard a familiar voice.
"Let go, Oliver." Shado said as Oliver reached out his arm before he passed out.
Later, as Barry was checking in on Oliver, he woke up suddenly and grabbed Barry by his throat.
"Oliver, don't!" Henry yelled as he and Sara tried to restrain him.
"Stop, it's OK, Ollie!" Sara grabbed Oliver's arm as his grip on Barry loosened.
"What the…" Oliver gasped. "What the hell is going on?"
"Oliver, just take a few breaths and calm down, OK?" Chloe held him by his arm. "You were injected with a strong acting blood coagulant."
"You would have stroked out." Barry said as he cleared and massaged his throat. "But fortunately, you had a very effective blood thinner handy. Warfarin, better known as rat poison."
"Kid saved your life." Diggle informed him.
"Oliver, I know you're mad but I've known Barry for a long time." Chloe said. "I trust him, he's a good detective and he's a… you could say a supporter of the vigilante. He's not gonna turn you in, I can promise you that."
"I'm not." Barry promised quickly.
"Ollie, if Chloe says that Allen's a good kid and he won't turn you in, I trust her." Henry said.
"I've trusted you many times, when you've made calls that I may not have liked. Don't you think you owe me that much?" Chloe insisted.
"As far as I've known her, Chloe never misplaced her trust in people." Sara said.
Oliver sighed as he glared but before he could open his mouth, his phone rang as he saw Moira's text message before glaring at Chloe. "You and I will talk about this later. I have to go home."
"And we need to track the guy from that bunker." Sara said.
"He touched your skin, when he grabbed your neck." Barry showed him the tape. "I was able to absorb the residual oils from his skin, which, when added to a gel-based polymer, might be able to recreate his fingerprint."
Oliver nodded, still glaring though before heading upstairs but Chloe rushed to him, holding his arm as he turned to her. "Look, I know you're mad and you have every right to be but I didn't see a better option. I've known Barry for a long time. I know it doesn't excuse it but believe me, when I say that I'm sorry and that I wish I could have thought of a better way."
Oliver sighed, nodding as he went upstairs before Sara picked up her phone to see missed calls and text messages from Sin as she seethed, then she followed Oliver.
Later, Queen Manor
Oliver dressed up as he went to the living room, seeing Moira decorate a Christmas tree, while Sara headed upstairs. "Mom?" He called out as she turned to him.
"Oliver, thank you for coming home, sweetheart." She approached him.
"Is everything alright?" Oliver asked.
"Well, I don't know." Moira admitted. "Your sister has locked herself in her room and she won't talk to me."
"Don't worry, I'll talk to her." Oliver assured her.
"OK." Moira nodded.
Oliver looked at the tree again as he remembered. "It's Christmas."
"Yes, but given the last gala that we threw, I think we're going to skip this year's Christmas party." Moira pointed out.
Oliver approached Thea's room, where Sara was yelling. "Thea, you don't have to lie to me! Just tell me what's happening!"
"What's going on?" Oliver asked.
"I don't know." Sara shrugged. "She won't open the door to me."
Oliver knocked the door. "Thea, it's Ollie. Open the door."
"Not… not now, Ollie!" Thea yelled.
"Speedy, open the door!" Oliver yelled back, annoyed.
"Is Mom with you?" Thea called out through the door.
"No!" Oliver exclaimed. "It's just me and Sara!" Thea opened the door. "What's going on?"
"I didn't want Mom to see." Thea explained.
"See what?" Sara asked, already having a good idea as Thea opened the door wider, as both Sara and Oliver saw Roy lying on the bed, with his pants leg cut, a towel stopping the bleeding from the wound on his leg, where the arrow was sticking, while Sin was sitting next to Roy and paled as she met Sara's fierce glare.
"What happened to him?" Oliver asked.
"Vigilante decided to use him as a target practice. You're right; the guy's a psycho." Thea explained.
"Why not go to the hospital?" Sara asked as Oliver approached the bed, while Sin glared at Sara.
"In this city, an arrow's the same as a bullet, if you want the cops involved." Roy grumbled as Thea sat next to him.
"And Mom actually likes Roy but something tells me she'd revoke his tree trimming invitation if she found out he was messing around with the vigilantes." She explained as she glared at her boyfriend.
"Uh-huh." Oliver nodded as he smiled at Sin before grabbing a towel and nearing the bed. "Roy, this is gonna hurt."
"My anger's dulling the pain." Roy snapped.
"This will dull it better." Sin handed Roy a bottle of vodka as he took a sip before Oliver picked the bottle and poured it over Roy's wound, while he groaned as Sara held his leg and Oliver pulled the arrow out, while Roy started to scream in pain before Oliver put the towel over the wound.
"Put the pressure on it right there." Oliver said as he pulled out his phone and went aside before Sara glanced towards another corner of the room, while Sin followed her nervously.
"What. Were you. Thinking?" Sara hissed quietly.
"I… I wanted to find out, why did Max die. He wasn't an addict, Sara." Sin explained nervously. "And you and Queen were busy with the other stuff and—"
"The other stuff and Max are related." Sara snapped as Sin shut up. "I'm warning you, never, ever, do stunts like these again. Do you have any idea, how much trouble you could have gotten into? You need to promise me that you'll keep your distance and let us handle it."
Sin nervously nodded. "OK, OK, I promise."
"I don't know what the three of you were up to but maybe the vigilante was trying to keep you safe." They heard Oliver say.
"By shooting Roy?" Thea asked skeptically.
"I think what Ollie's trying to say is that you need to let the professionals handle it since you're getting in over your heads." Sara said as she left the room with Oliver and was walking downstairs but Oliver turned around and saw someone he didn't think he would see again as he followed her and touched her cheek.
"Shado?" Oliver asked in disbelief. "You can't be here."
She touched his cheek. "I had to see you. Warn you."
"Warn me?" Oliver asked.
"You can't fight what's coming. Put your bow down." Shado said gently. "Take off my father's hood."
"I wear that hood to honor your father. And to honor you." Oliver argued.
"If you want to honor me, stop fighting… and live. Or everyone you love will die." Shado pleaded.
"Ollie?" Thea asked, confused as Oliver turned around, facing her. "Who were you talking to?" Oliver looked back, only to see Shado gone.
Three years ago
What they saw was an underground city with growing trees out of the walls, waterfalls around as Sara, Richard and Turner and the mercenaries were walking down the path and looking around.
"This is a city of dead." Sara grumbled. "What are we looking for here?"
"I… don't know." Richard admitted. "This place supposedly contains an object of immeasurable power." He pulled out a scroll and looked at it before looking at the path. "This way."
Unknowingly to them, some figures were watching them from the shadows.
Present, the Lair
"I knew the vigilantes had partners." Barry said enthusiastically as he examined the equipment in the lair.
"He likes to be called the Arrow now." Diggle noted.
"You guys have messed up some really nasty people." Barry continued. "The Dollmaker, Count Vertigo, Dodger—"
"We weren't keeping score." Diggle said.
"Barry!" Oliver called out as he and Sara entered. "That rat poison you gave me – are there any side effects?"
Barry thought quickly. "Um, yeah, I think, hallucinations, maybe."
"You're hallucinating?" Henry asked.
"What did you see?" Chloe inquired.
"A girl named Shado that was with me and Sara on the island."
Henry scowled. "Wait a minute, Shado, as in…" Sara nodded. "What does that mean?"
"You did train in a jungle or forest environment, hence the green." Barry said, excited as Oliver and Sara stared at him. "Let me draw you some blood, see what's up."
"Good idea." Sara nodded as she picked a syringe and drew Oliver's blood.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Barry asked. "Why no mask. Not to tell you how to do your vigilante…ing but the grease paint thing? It's a poor identity concealer."
"Yeah, it is." Henry muttered as Chloe snickered.
"So find me a mask that conforms perfectly to my face and doesn't affect my ability to aim, while I'm on the run." Oliver suggested.
"You should look into a compressible micro fabric." Barry said. "It could be great."
"Found Cyrus Gold." Henry said.
"Who's Cyrus Gold?" Sara asked.
"The human weapon that left you both nearly dead last night." Diggle explained. "Barry managed to pull his print off Oliver's neck."
"We've tried CCTV all over the town, running facial recognition." Chloe said. "Delgado and 25th, but we're about to lose him."
"What else is at that intersection?" Oliver asked.
"A parking lot, a market and a motel." Chloe said.
"Could be where he's holed up." Diggle noted.
"Let's go." Oliver said as he moved towards the weapon's stand.
"Ollie, are you sure you're up to it?" Henry asked. "I mean, he nearly killed you last night."
"Henry's right." Sara agreed. "We'll come with Dig, backing him up."
Later
Oliver was in the car as Henry, Diggle with their guns drawn and flashlights, with the Canary carefully entered the apartment.
"OK, what do you see?" Oliver called out.
"It's clean. Really clean." Diggle said.
Henry then neared a book on the kitchen counter. "'Solomon Grundy, born on Monday…' I remember this. It's a poem."
"'Christened on Tuesday.' Yeah, I know it. It symbolizes the seven stages of life – from birth to death." Oliver said.
"What stage is he in?" Diggle wondered before the Canary turned around, hitting Gold in the head, but it didn't even faze him as he punched her and she slid down the floor before Gold grabbed Diggle's hand with his gun, twisting it.
"Let him go!" Henry yelled as he shot Gold, distracting him as Gold let Diggle go.
"Run!" The Canary barked as they jumped through the window and ran down the fire escape as Oliver pulled up the car as they all entered.
"We'll need an army to take him down." Henry grumbled.
Later, Starling City
Quentin met the Arrow and Canary on the rooftop. "What's going on?"
"Cyrus Gold." The Arrow showed Quentin a file. "He robbed the Applied Sciences Division of Queen Consolidated last week."
"Daddy, he's very dangerous." The Canary explained.
"The CSI kid from Central City, he said this guy was like some kind of a monster." Quentin looked over the file.
"He is." The Arrow nodded.
"Well, what is it, steroids?" Quentin asked.
"Worse, it's…" The Arrow trailed off as he saw Slade on an air vent.
"You OK?" Quentin asked as he turned around and saw nothing.
"Yeah." Oliver said, snapping out of this.
"It's gonna sound crazy but remember, when I told you about the Mirakuru and Slade, Daddy?" Sara asked as Quentin widened his eyes.
"You're saying that this creep is like this Wilson guy that you put down?" He demanded incredulously.
Sara nodded. "Daddy, he's very dangerous. You need to gather as many people as you can and don't hesitate to put him down, because he won't hesitate to kill you all."
Three years ago, South Africa
Sara, Richard, Turner and the mercenaries kept on walking before they realized they were being followed as suddenly, out of nowhere, warriors with spears and bows and arrows and swords surrounded them, shooting guns off their hands.
"We have you surrounded, weapons on the ground!" A young red-haired woman among them ordered.
"Like hell." One of the mercenaries sneered as he was about to pull a trigger before an arrow shot his gun off his hand as he groaned. "What the—"
"Anyone else wants to be stupid?" The woman said.
"Stand down." Richard ordered.
Turner, Sara and the mercenaries put their weapons on the ground as an elderly woman in beige robe approached them. "What do you seek in the All-Caste's sacred sanctuary?"
Richard took a breath. "Power… and clarity."
"Then, you must pass a trial." The elderly woman said as she pointed to the door.
"What trial?" Sara asked.
"You…" The woman pointed at Sara, then Turner. "You…" Then at Richard. "You." She then pointed to the door behind her.
"You want us to go there?" Sara asked as the woman nodded, smiling. As Sara, Turner and Richard entered the door, there was nothing but darkness but then, a chill was sent down her spine after what had followed next.
Present, the Lair
"You OK, Chloe?" Barry asked as they and Henry were examining Oliver's blood sample.
"I'm worried about Oliver, you know?" Chloe said.
"Do you… like him?" Barry asked as Chloe flushed.
"Well, yeah, maybe… but not in that way." Chloe said. "All I wanted was to make the world a better place… but with Sara and Oliver, it's different. Besides, I've tried to date someone in the same line of work before and it didn't work out, remember?" Barry nodded in understanding. "That's why I left the force. You can't afford to get too attached to your colleague… especially, when it ends up in heartbreak and tragedy."
"You did your best." Barry said.
"Oliver will always be my friend." Chloe said. "That's all I want."
"Sometimes, romantic feelings can just make things way more complicated." Henry nodded. "That's why I'm trying have not too many strings attached. No offense."
Barry then looked at his watch as he turned on the TV with news broadcast. "Protests continue into the final countdown for tonight's ignition of S.T.A.R. Lab's controversial particle accelerator. S.T.A.R. Lab's founder Harrison Wells promises a new era of scientific advancement is at hand."
"I guess I won't be back in time to see them turn it on." Barry said.
"Who knows, you'll get lucky this time, Barr." Chloe assured him.
"You know what, let's take a break, it's gonna take a while before the analysis is finished. I'm in mood for some Big Belly Burger." Henry said as he looked at his watch.
Oliver was walking into the lair, while Sara went to Sin's apartment, about to give her a stern lecture as Oliver threw a tennis ball and fired an arrow, before it was caught by, to Oliver's shock, one Slade Wilson.
"What's the matter, kid? You look like you've seen a ghost." Slade waved the arrow around. "This is a nice place. It's a bit more comfortable than the fuselage on the island."
"You're not real." Oliver snapped.
"Neither are you." Slade walked to the mannequin with the green hood. "You told everyone, when you started this crusade that it was about making up for your father's sins. That was a lie." He broke the arrow and dropped it on the floor. "This charade is to atone for your sins." Slade sneered, glaring at Oliver.
"You're dead." Oliver said.
"You're not a hero. Or a friend. Or a brother. You are nothing." Slade kept on taunting as Oliver turned away from him. "Do not turn your back on me! Not again!"
"You're gone." Oliver said.
"Wherever I am, it's time you joined me." Slade threw Oliver on a table as Oliver tried to hit Slade in the head with his bow but Slade dodged and blocked before he threw Oliver on another table. "They say a coward dies a thousand deaths but even that wouldn't be enough for you."
"I tried to save you! And her." Oliver protested.
"But you couldn't." Slade pointed his finger accusingly. "Just like you couldn't save this city." Oliver and Slade exchanged blows but Slade managed to disarm Oliver and punch him as Oliver fell over the table behind him on the floor. Slade threw the table off his way and got Oliver on his feet as he hissed into his ear. "The island didn't make you strong, kid. It revealed you to be weak." He tossed Oliver through the glass case with the mannequin with his green hood as Oliver looked around to see Slade gone.
Later Barry, Henry with bags of Big Belly Burger, Diggle and Chloe entered to see the trashed lair as Oliver was cleaning up.
"What the hell happened here?" Chloe demanded.
"Someone was in the lair?" Henry asked.
"No." Oliver said.
The computer beeped as Barry went to take a look. "Your blood analysis is done. Good news."
"So, you know what's in my system?" Oliver asked.
"That's the thing, your blood's clean." Barry said. "There's nothing wrong with you."
"Then why am I hallucinating?!" Oliver demanded.
"I don't know." Barry replied. "But whatever your problem is, it's not pharmacological. It's psychological. It's in your head."
"It's in my head." Both Oliver and Barry finished.
Chloe went over to the computer and her blood ran cold as she read the news. "Oliver…"
Sin's Apartment
"Look, I know I messed up but I needed to find out what happened to Max." Sin said sheepishly.
"But you have no idea what kind of danger it is!" Sara exploded. "If it really is the Mirakuru, you and Roy and Thea need to stay the hell away and let me and Ollie do our job!"
Then her phone rang as she picked it up. "Laurel? Is everything…" She paused as her face turned into full of dread.
Later, Starling General
Oliver and Sara approached Quentin's room as Laurel was going out, with tears in her eyes.
"Is he OK?" Sara asked.
"He will be." Laurel nodded. "But… Hilton…"
Sara hugged her sister as she started to break down, assuring her as Oliver entered the room.
"How are you?" Oliver asked Quentin, who was lying on the stretcher, groaning.
"I'm alive, which is more than I can say for the most of my unit." Quentin replied weakly.
"I'm sorry about your partner." Oliver murmured.
"I took him there." Quentin reminded.
"Because of us." Oliver sighed.
"Because of me." Quentin corrected. "Not every death in this city is on you. I got this off Gold." Quentin showed him a key on a nightstand. "Hopefully you can do something about it." Oliver picked the key up. "I didn't believe it at first but this guy, I mean, it's like he's not human."
"He's human." Oliver assured him.
"Well, then you can kill him." Quentin said as he looked at him. "For Hilton. And me."
Oliver went out as Laurel was approaching Blood, hugging him before turning to Sara. "Anything?" She asked as Oliver nodded.
"You're not coming with me." He said harshly as Sara glared. "I don't want this to end up like the last time."
"I'm not the same person anymore." Sara snapped. "I won't let anyone like Slade take me down so easily."
"This is not a discussion, Sara!" Oliver snapped back.
"You can't believe that you can beat him on your own!" Sara retorted. "Either we'll do this together, or not at all."
Oliver sighed.
Later, the Lair
"We have something. We took a look at the serial code of the key that your father gave you." Henry said.
"That particular key fits to a locked gate somewhere on Crescent Circle in the Glades." Barry explained.
"Are you sure about this?" Chloe asked.
"We have to." Sara replied.
"But… he nearly killed you two. Just like Slade." Henry pointed out.
"We need to stop him." Oliver snapped and Henry and Chloe realized that neither of them were going to talk them out of it.
"Just be careful." Henry nodded.
Later
Roy was screaming in excruciating agony as blood was streaming down his eyes as the ceiling exploded and the Arrow and the Canary descended and the Arrow fired, taking down one of the lackeys as he aimed at the man in the skull mask.
"Brother Cyrus told me he killed both of you." The masked man said with a disguised voice.
"Guess he's not as strong as you thought." The Canary snarled.
"Where did you get the Mirakuru?" The Arrow demanded. "Who gave you the formula?!"
"It was a gift." The masked man said as he was holding the syringe. "A gift I will use to save this city from itself."
Gold rushed at the vigilantes as the Arrow fired at his shoulder, while he and the Canary dodged. The Arrow grabbed the line they had rappelled down on, swinging around but Gold threw him across the room as he hit the wall and fell on the ground. The Canary tried to attack with her batons but Gold blocked with his arms and slapped her on her chest as she fell to the corner of the room.
The Arrow got up on his feet and rushed at Gold but he kicked the Arrow back as he was sliding across the floor, hitting a pillar, then crashing in a table as both vigilantes saw the masked man measure Roy's pulse.
"Another failure." The masked man said as the Arrow collapsed.
"Get up, Oliver." A familiar voice seemed to echo throughout the room as Oliver raised his head to see Tommy Merlyn, who knelt down, facing him.
"Tommy?" Oliver whispered.
"Neither you or Sara is gonna die down here." Tommy assured him.
"Tommy, I'm sorry." Oliver said. "I let you die."
"You didn't let me die, Ollie." Tommy said. "You fought to save me. Because that's what you do, what you have always done. You fight to survive. I know I called you a murderer but you are not. You are a hero. You beat the island. You beat my father. So fight, Oliver. Get up and fight back." Tommy disappeared as a new wave of strength and determination flooded through Oliver.
"Kill them." The masked man ordered.
Gold was approaching the Arrow, who got up on his feet and he and the Canary engaged Gold, the Canary attacked furiously with her batons and the Arrow kicked Gold back with a precise kick to his stomach. The Arrow continued pummeling Gold in his face before the Canary kicked him in the chest, making him stagger back.
The Arrow then fired an explosive arrow at the machine as it exploded, splashing acidic chemicals on Gold's face as he screamed out in pain before a part of the ceiling collapsed, the rubble crushing both Gold and the henchman on the floor to death as Roy fell down, still restrained to the chair as Brother Blood managed to escape in the chaos.
Oliver and Sara approached Roy and Sara was breathing into Roy's mouth as Oliver was doing breast compressions.
"Come on, Roy. Hey, I am not leaving anyone else to die! You're strong, kid. Come on!" Oliver shouted. "Come on! Come on, Roy! Fight! Come on, fight!"
Suddenly, Roy gasped and coughed out as both Oliver and Sara sat back, relieved.
Three years ago
Sara was in darkness, nothing around her as she looked around and then, in front of her stood Anthony Ivo as Sara gasped. "Anthony? No, it can't be. You're dead!"
"Death… is… a relative term." Ivo smirked. "Wherever I am, it's time you joined me. I trusted you to help me save human race and look what you have brought!" He shouted as he was about to drive a syringe to Sara's neck but she grabbed his hand and twisted it, then jamming it to Ivo's chest.
"I'm not afraid of you anymore!" Sara snarled. "You're not real! I watched you die!"
"Just as you watched me die." Shado said as she appeared in front of Sara suddenly. "That's what you bring into the lives of people you want to get close to. Pain. Death. Misery."
"No…" Sara shook her head. "It was Anthony, not me! I never wanted this!" She wailed. "I'm done blaming myself for…"
"…creating me?" Slade taunted. "You took everything away from me." He grabbed Sara by her throat. "Now, I'll take everything away from you."
"Go to hell!" Sara snarled as she punched Slade but the apparition vanished as she was suddenly back at the courtyard with Richard and Turner.
"You all passed." The elderly woman smiled. "I'm impressed."
"What was that?" Sara demanded.
"Your guilt, shame… your greatest fears." The woman said. "I wanted to know if you are worthy."
"Worthy of what?" Turner asked, confused.
"Of protecting this sacred place." The woman said cryptically.
Present, the Lair
"Where's Barry?" Oliver asked.
"Back in Central City, didn't want to miss the ignition of the particle accelerator." Chloe explained.
"You still have a ghost problem?" Diggle asked.
"No." Oliver shook his head.
"But we have bigger problems." Sara added. "Roy's been injected with the serum."
"What?" Henry shouted.
"He's alive." Oliver assured them. "But we need to keep an eye on him."
Sara was about to protest. "Ollie, what if he—"
"No." Oliver said. "I won't kill him, just because he's been injected. We don't know if it's gonna end with him the same way it did with Slade. We haven't crossed that bridge yet. If it comes down to it, we'll see."
Sara nodded reluctantly.
"Speaking of which, Barry left you a gift." Diggle said as he showed him the box and Oliver smiled to see a green domino mask inside it as he tried it on. "Even the Arrow needs a Christmas gift."
"How do I look?" Oliver asked.
"Like a hero." Sara said approvingly.
So, what do you guys think about it?
Please review and let me know if you are enjoying this so far.