The Glades

Dark clouds clawed through the full moon, white and swollen in the midnight sky. Beneath the Starling Bridge, in a warehouse cloaked by the bridges' gloom; the crime bosses of Starling, not yet hounded by the Arrow or the authorities gathered for a rare encounter.

Within the warehouse on a round table sat eight guests, they shared similar trades but were from different factions, yet all were losing their patience with one another.

"The hell you saying?" The tall Texan rasped, blowing smoke at the Yakuza representative, stamping his cigarette out on the table and reaching for another. "If you didn't set this up, then whose party is this?"

"I thought it was you East Starling losers" said Freddy Bertenelli giving the stink eye to the broad-shouldered bald Irishman. Freddy was the last of the Bertenelli mafia family on the east coast; those micks were his toughest competition. "You already rolled over for Vertigo and I figured you were going to ask us in."

"Rolled over?" Brick scorned, he spat on the ground to make his point. "The Count offed six of my crew in a month. Six. Some of my best people. Only in Starling do we get nutters callin' 'emselves fucking 'Count Vertigo'".

Another critical factor that brought these drug lords together was their mutual detestation and resentment for Count Vertigo. An ingénue in the trade, with no notable background or legacy to accompany his rise to the top, yet he had the dope that sold the fastest and had the highest demand. Both were enviable traits for a any respectable business to have.

"So you set up this meet?" Freddy asked.

"Nah, I thought it was the Cartel." They glanced at the South American, he was lanky with wrinkled skin that caught on his bones like old leather, he wore small round black sunglasses even though it was night and indoors.

"No, it wasn't my meet."

Freddy was not looking to wait around or spend another second with those who were inferior to him. He loudly got out of his chair and waved his hand dismissively, "Ah to hell with this, I'm going. You stronzo's can sit here all—"

"Sit down Freddy. It's my meeting."

Before he could arrogantly finish his string of insults, a voice in the darkness from the over-hanging walkway commanded them like God. The criminals immediately stood, drawing closer, huddling like sheep in an open valley waiting for the big bad wolf, staring up at the walkway as the silhouette emerged.

"It's him" the Yakuza muttered, befuddled.

"Arrow?" Asked the Texan.

"We didn't do nothing!" Said Freddy Bertinelli.

"Well, we all know that's a lie". A masked man rested an arm on the railing, the light shining off his red mask, bright red as blood, holding an AK-47 languidly by his side.

"Who the hell are you?" Brick demanded.

The cartel man wasn't taking any chances, and they were all armed. "Floor him!" Every crime lord drew their weapon and fired. The Red Hood responded bored but a little annoyed, he lazily pressed the trigger of the rifle as if he were tapping on an elevator button and it set off a rain of bullets.

The crime lords screeched, screamed, cursed and hid to avoid the line of random fire. But the Red Hood never missed, but tonight, he purposely did, because he only needed these pieces of shit to swallow their bloated pride, shut the fuck up and listen to him.

"I said sit down!"

"You wanna die?!" Retorted Freddy, standing up, "There's easier ways to kill yourself!"

"Yeah, like yelling at the guy who's holding the AK-47" he snarked, the Red Hood observed his new investments and lowered his weapon.

"Listen to me you drug peddlin' scumbags; I will be running the drug trade from now on." That garnered their attention and they exchanged glances.

"You aided the most prosperous street dealers in Starling; I'm offering you morons a deal. You go about your business as usual but kick up forty percent to me. That's a much sweeter deal than the scraps the Count is leaving for you. In return you will have total protection from both the Arrow and Vertigo." This time, however, he could see them considering it; even the most thick-skulled of them-Freddy- could shrewdly weigh the benefits versus the downfalls.

The Red Hood leaned forward, low sinister voice echoing down to them, "But you stay away from kids in school yards. No dealing to children, got it?" He warned. "If you do… you're dead."

The Texan scoffed, "Okay crazy man, this is all very generous but why in the hell should we listen to you?"

The Red Hood did not answer them. A duffel bag soared from the balcony and landed smack in the center of the table... with a disturbing wet squelch.

Brick was the only one who dared to unzip the bag. When he did, they witnessed a nightmare of blood and gore.

"You little fucking..."

"Those are the heads of all your lieutenants."

Six lifeless decapitated heads were arranged into the duffel bag like soccer balls. Some had red sinews worming out of their necks, brutally hacked from the perch of their unattached shoulders, others had been cut in a clean line. Terrified glassy eyes stared at them, all mimicking their last precious moments of life.

The Yakuza man hunched over and vomited, Brick covered his nose at the rancid odor. The Texan and Mexican Cartel could not remove their stunned gazes from the bodiless corpses of men they trusted. Freddy grimaced but his bowels had liquefied.

The Red Hood broke their stupefied silence, "That took me two hours. You want to see what I can get done in a whole evening?" He teased, dangerous and deadly.

"Make no mistake— I'm not asking you to kick in with me, I'm telling you."

To solidify his new rule over the criminal underworld he let his AK-47 go off, the gangsters yowled and screamed and ducked onto the floor as bullets spilt across the round table.

When they glanced up, The Red Hood was gone.

Freddy Bertinelli had flattened himself on the ground beside Brick. He turned to his greatest rival as an entirely new man.

"Forty percent works for me."

Jitters Café, Starling City.

He scanned the coffee shop for Thea. Oliver saw her sitting on a high table sipping a latte. He slid into the chair opposite her and ordered a drink for himself. As they made small talk there was nagging reminder in the back of his mind; Sara's revelation that Malcolm was alive, and was here in the city watching over Thea.

"So what's new with you, Ollie? Are you seeing anyone?"

He huffed a silent laugh. "No."

Thea laughed in return, "God it feels like forever since I've teased you with that question."

"What about you? What happened with Roy?"

"I saw him yesterday for the first time since I left during the Siege, which is what everyone's calling it". Her tone lost its playfulness. "But I wish it ended differently. He was drugged with something".

"It made him violent, yeah. I was worried about him too." He lied easily, itching to get to his burning question. "Is he okay now?"

"He was cured, thank God."

"How did you get out of the city that night?" Oliver began, casually drinking the latte he ordered. If only it had the same effect on him it had on normal people, he always had too much energy to burn.

"I went to the train station."

"Wasn't it overrun?"

"It was", she shifted uncomfortably. "Actually one of those freaks in masks tried to attack me. It was scary as hell."

Oliver's eyelids jerked up, "What? How did you escape?"

"I think a police officer shot him and I was able to get away" she tried to recall the details. "It was total chaos in there that night, people dropping to the ground terrified, smoke and fire on every street, anyone who was anyone was attacked by them. Why?"

He shrugged disinterestedly, "Just wondering. Back in Corto, I told you that I wanted to start telling you the truth. I mean it." Oliver fiddled with his mug handle trying to formulate the best explanation that didn't reveal too much of his secret. "So…there is something I need to tell you, something that might shock you."

She looked at him with a mixture of anxiety and curiosity. "Don't keep me in suspense. What is it?"

"Malcolm Merlyn is alive."

Her eyebrows shot upwards, she glanced down at her mug, eyes shifting as she absorbed that truth. Thea pushed back a strand of hair and glanced back at Oliver, she took a deep breath, "I wasn't expecting that."

"He fooled all of us. I'm telling you this because it's likely he would try to get in touch with you." He watched her carefully, but she was still shocked, lines of worry ingrained on her forehead.

"What would I even say to him? This is just so weird. All I think when I hear the name Malcolm Merlyn is what he did to the city."

Oliver held her wrist reassuringly. "I know it's overwhelming, for many reasons. But I'm going to protect you Thea; I'll do whatever I can to help you make this place feel like home again."

She pressed her lips thinly, as if her own secret was threatening to spill out from between them. "Well…"

"What?"

"I guess since we're doing truths now. Malcolm obviously knew who I was, and with everyone thinking he's dead, one of his lawyers met with me for lunch. Malcolm left a sizeable inheritance behind for me."

His shoulders slumped, it was only numbers in a bank but it felt too close for comfort. "Thea, you shouldn't be using that money, it's not right."

She tried to placate him with her hands, "I know how it seems. But it's just money. Wherever he is, Malcolm wanted me to have it. I used it to buy back the club. It was the last good thing I had here, and now it's mine again." She tried to smile, but saw he was still unhappy. "You're worried."

He leaned away. "I understand he left it for you… but it feels like he's taking care of you somehow." Thea didn't need him to provide for her, she didn't ask for it either, but he still felt as though he had that responsibility.

"No, no, don't think of it like that Ollie, please this is how I want to start over. I'm taking it as an opportunity. Please don't be mad."

Oliver settled into a smile, only putting it on to show Thea he was alright with it, when he was not. He said, "I'm not mad", I'll have Felicity track the accounts. "I'm happy for you". Can't be too careful.

The Foundry

Oliver arrived early at the steel mill that evening. There was troubling news that the Red Hood had decapitated half a dozen sergeants of the most lucrative crime syndicates of Starling.

Roy reported unverifiable rumors that the red-masked gang leader had dumped a bag of heads before the mafia bosses. There were even ludicrous suggestions that he left the bloody heads on the personal beds of their superiors to horrify them 'Godfather' style.

Others claimed they bore witness to a massacre where he killed three quarters of a Yakuza mercenary group with one rifle; they claimed he was controlling the mayor; claimed the Red Hood was a demon from hell sent by Lucifer. There was even a bizarre report that he had defended an old man from two robbers.

And he was not making any of this up. None, all, or half of these could be true.

But many claimed he was scouring the streets for recruits for his army. Compared to the other tidbits of gossip from the Glades, this was the one that worried him the most.

As Oliver walked in, Felicity was packing her things to leave.

He raised his hands, "I swear I'm early today."

"Oh", she didn't see him come in, then fell into a chuckle, "you are early, I just have to leave."

Then he saw what she was wearing, a fitted cobalt blue dress that hugged her curves, blonde hair curled into a gentle wave onto her shoulders, no glasses. The dress brought out the blue of her eyes. She was certainly not dressing this way to impress him or Roy.

"Why?" He asked, with the same amount of emotion as a rock. Inside though, there was a jealous green bug knocking around in his chest.

"Unavoidable dinner" she explained passively, it seemed she didn't want to have to elaborate further. "Ray keeps asking me—"

"Ray. As in Ray Palmer your boss?"

"Work dinner" she added, as if she needed to assert that fact very clearly for him. "If Digg drops by tell him I'm still working on Deadshot's laptop. That small thing has enough security in it to outshine ARGUS' entire intranet. I just spent an hour preventing it from installing malware onto the Foundry's comps. HIVE is a sneaky bastard."

He wasn't listening, Oliver said, "We're still tracking the Red Hood—"

"I'm sorry, I know he's going berserk chopping people's heads off, but I still have a job to go too every morning. And I like it a lot. And I don't want to lose it".

Oliver chewed his lip and then moved out of her path of exit when he realized he was a giant roadblock in it, both physically and figuratively. "It's not a problem Felicity" he said monotonously.

"Do what you want".

Edo Ichi, Starling City.

Felicity had been flattered by Ray's gift of a dress that cost four months' worth of paychecks, swooned at the Chopard diamond necklace he had loaned to her for the evening. She could ignore the fact that he kind of black-mailed her into going to this dinner to make up for her numerous early leave passes to go be a tech vigilante with the Arrow. It was all forgiven by the time they arrived at the Japanese restaurant to dine and wine several clients.

Well, mostly forgiven.

What Ray failed to tell her was that Lex Luthor was joining them for dinner.

She was getting the feeling that he had purposefully left out this detail because of her unabashed brazen comments about how she felt around Mr. Luthor which was in layman's terms; creeped out.

Oh, he charmed the rest of the dinner party until they were putty in his hands, but she would make damn sure her boss didn't fall for the act too.

All evening she had been thinking of how brilliantly Oliver had hidden his disillusionment. He was half growling at her to sit back down and stay put. What did he expect? She would chain herself to her computer in the Foundry like he was chaining himself to his bow? Okay, that's a tad harsh Felicity. But it was maddening. She needed a drink; she sat at the bar and ordered a whiskey on the rocks.

Someone tapped her shoulder.

"Ms. Smoak". It was Lex Luthor himself.

"Mr. Luthor" she said coolly.

"We never finished our discussion".

"There was a discussion?"

He smiled thinly at her quip, "At the QC rebranding event" he reminded her condescendingly. Am I the only one who hears him talk like this? Is something wrong with me?

"We discussed the possibility of you developing security software for Lex Corp."

She fidgeted with her glass, trying to find the easiest way to say 'no' to a man who hardly ever heard the word uttered around him. "I barely contributed to the team that made the software for Wayne Tech. I don't know how could help your company".

He snickered, "You're being modest, please consider my offer."

Felicity started to get out of her chair trying not to look too hasty to remove herself from his presence. "Let me talk to my boss and I'll get back to you".

And Ray saved her then. He slid up beside her, one hand in his pocket, the other on the small of her back reassuringly. "Yes. Her boss. That's me. Lex, how are you?" He extended the pocketed hand to his 'friend', a pleasant smile on his countenance.

"Loyalty is a virtue I admire Ms. Smoak" he took a sip of the forgotten, untouched drink she left on the counter. She gulped as he gave her a calculating stare, her skin prickling beneath the scrutiny.

"Which reminds me, Ray." He replaced the drink on the counter, "I want to help you rebuild this city, rebrand it into Star City, I like the name. A bit cliché. Well of course, since you chose it." Palmer's eyes widened the barest inch at that back-handed insult while still maintaining a fake smile.

"But I see the potential you see" Lex added.

Ray fumbled his response and it sounded more defensive than he intended. "That is—thank you, for having our city's welfare in your thoughts. But to me, it's not an investment or just an elaborate architecture's sketch on a map. To me, its home."

Lex pressed his palm to his chest as if to empathize. "I understand your reservations; Metropolis is my home, so why would I care about Starling City?" He asked rhetorically. Felicity wanted out of this conversation but she couldn't leave Ray for Lex to devour.

Luthor continued, "It's quite simple actually; I took a drive through the Glades this morning. I gotta say, it's a sucking chest wound of a district, driving away commerce and regressing economic development. It's set this city a decade behind."

She was eerily reminded of Malcolm's pure hatred for the Glades and how he had blamed it for ripping the love of his life from the planet. Because of Oliver, Felicity felt obliged to point out, "Crime rates are at an all-time low in the Glades."

"Really?" He challenged her with a raised brow. "Have you checked the latest figures? In addition, the population has plummeted by record rates in the last six months. "

Goddammit he's right. He's so right.

"If I were a silent partner, I could change the world's image of Starling City."

Ray had not bothered to preserve even a fake smile for Luthor. His hand clasped her back tighter as if her presence was reassuring him rather than the other way around. He was about as lost as she felt by this out-of-blue, maybe extraordinarily generous offer by the wealthy, powerful Lex Luthor of Metropolis City—who she still did not trust.

What were they going to do?

Starling docks

The Arrow and his red apprentice tossed the three thugs onto the tarmac. Then they were propped up against a container like limbless rag dolls. Tonight, Oliver was mostly fuelled by jealous rage at the concept of Ray Palmer and Felicity re-doing the botched dinner date that had quite literally blown up in his face.

"This shipment was meant for the Count, I doubt you were behind this" his voice was low, gravelly. He pointed his bow at the barrels of chemicals they had tried to hijack. Oliver was just waiting for the Dark Archer to appear from the black crenels of stacked containers to ruin everything he had built in the city, to ruin his image as Oliver Queen or the Arrow. His enemies in Starling were doubling by the day.

"Who do you work for?" He yelled into their faces.

The one in the center sputtered, "I-I swear we're not working for anyone. This was our gig. All our idea." Their obvious lie fed the naturally exuded wrath of his Arrow persona that made the street thugs fear him. He would take what he wanted without mercy.

Oliver nocked three arrows and shot each of them in the shoulder. They cried out in agony and writhed in their restraints. Roy glanced at him uneasily but he ignored it.

"Okay! Okay! I'll talk! Just stop! Just STOP!" Their ring leader begged haplessly, he moved his injured shoulder and groaned, sweating profusely from the pain. "W-We're workin' for the Red Hood. Okay? The Red Hood."

Three rapid simultaneous shots later, and the thugs were dead from bullets holes to the chest.

The Arrow and the red archer had dashed aside for coverage. Oliver sprinted back to the thugs, aiming for high-points within the area, searching for their gunman.

The red archer bent towards the dead thieves and rationalized the trajectory of fire. "The shots came from that rooftop, a sniper."

"A good one." Oliver took out his binoculars. He saw him, the sniper, running from the scene. Without warning, Oliver broke into a run, Roy following a reassuring distance behind.

The Arrow shot a grappling hook at the arm of a crane and gained altitude. As he soared he shot at the sniper who leapt between rooftops deftly, landing like a panther. The moonlight revealed hints of a red mask. His suspicions were correct.

The Red Hood does his own dirty work.

Bitter cold air blew past them as they gained speed. Roy wasn't directly behind him but not far off. Oliver's was weightless and then rolling onto the hard gravel of a roof, then at it again. The Red Hood was making for the west Glades. Starling's hero was slowed down by the gang leader shooting rounds at him from an AK-47. His belief that guns were reckless and unpredictable had not changed since the Huntress.

If he swung around with perfect timing, there was a chance he could cut off their target at a busy intersection that led into the west Glades. Oliver shouted at his red apprentice, "maneuver 21!" Who nodded in understanding. They forked off in separate directions as the two archers and the Red Hood came upon the intersection cornered by four different buildings.

Oliver jumped off, swinging to the adjacent terrace, the cars below him honking incessantly in the traffic jam that never failed to accumulate there. He ran faster and saw he was ahead of the Red Hood. Swerving left, he spotted the cable Roy had prepared that stretched from windows on opposite buildings. He stepped off the edge of the roof, his bow hooking over the cable and he zip-lined across. The Arrow jack-knifed off the cable and landed in the Red Hood's direct path. The red archer notched an arrow behind the gang leader preventing escape from that direction.

"It's over Red Hood. You have failed this city!"

The Red Hood stayed still, his hands were on the two guns holstered to his belt, but he had no way of drawing them without getting an arrow in the back and the chest. He was effectively cornered.

He snorted, "Nice acrobatics, Robin Hood, you and your merry man make a great team."

"You've done enough. Remove your hands from those guns and get on the ground!"

The Arrow might as well have been talking to a wall; did this guy enjoy playing with death?

"It wasn't too long ago you when you were called 'the Hood' and when you killed anyone who got in your way. Where's that man now huh? I had respect for that man!" He barked.

"I said get on the ground!" Oliver ordered over-drawing the bowstring past his ears until the bow bent. The arrow could go straight through the Red Hood and out his back cleanly.

The Red Hood taunted, "You've lost who you are Arrow. I know it! You know it! The criminals of Starling? They're not afraid of you anymore!" He could barely stifle a laugh.

Oliver loosed. Roy was not expecting his mentor to do so and missed. The Red Hood rolled aside; he slid on his back, two guns drawn in each hand. They flattened themselves on the ground as rounds whooshed directly above their heads. Oliver took aim once or twice but couldn't get a solid angle.

Red Hood was still sitting on the ground, practically lounging. "You know what's funny?" He asked conversationally, like a random question your best friend would ask you. "We're all trying to save the city but we're all killers."

He resumed his shooting, the Red Hood's men joined in, emerging from a fire exit door and a barrage of bullets followed. They were overpowered with nowhere to head towards that wasn't a post for a gunman to shoot them down like sitting ducks. To Oliver's reluctance, he gave Roy signal and they made a run for it.

The Foundry

At home base, Oliver had a flesh wound to deal with, bleeding down the side of his waist. He cursed the very invention of guns. The events of tonight, the past week, was enough to set him off barking at anything that mildly irritated him.

He sat and tapped down the ire to cool down. He removed the top half of his green suit and took out the first-aid kit. The wound was beside the mottled red healing bruises the HIVE Commander Kane had given him. Felicity, he noted, was still at dinner.

"So…" he cleaned the blood off, "he's a mercenary who's making orders instead of taking them."

"Like Slade?" Roy replaced their bows and quivers in their respective cases.

"Not exactly". Slade wanted to destroy Oliver Queen, kill everyone he loved until he was alone, chisel away at my soul. But Red Hood believed what he was doing was justice. Controlling the criminal underworld was how he helped the city. He was a young man too, with fresh ideals and unforeseen talent.

'We're all trying to save the city, but we're all killers'. TheRed Hood's twisted logic in a moment where the villain was trying to find common ground with the two heroes, even if your own innocence had died, it didn't make you completely incapable of saving an innocent person.

When you ignore the circumstances, Roy, The Red Hood, and I, we're killers, but it's complicated. He would never voice these thoughts to Harper. Come to think of it… was Roy truly passed killing that cop? Or was he faking it? Hiding how he felt like Oliver often did?

"He has more men, gaining more each day."

"Sorry, I was way off with the figures" Roy said.

"You only met him once; it's not your fault."

"Oliver. I've been lying to you."

The abruptness made him lose concentration. "What do you mean?"

"The Red Hood. I know him. I know who he is."

"How?" The pain of the bullet graze was mounting and mixing with his growing anger. Harper had been acting weirdly since the day Amanda Waller kidnapped Oliver and Diggle.

Roy scratched the back of his head, unable to meet Oliver's intense gaze. "He was my friend a long time ago. He lured me to that electric plant to reveal himself. He knows who I am."

Oliver felt as if he were slapped awake. He could not have been more wrong. The Red Hood wasn't attempting to find a common cause with the two heroes, or simply spewing nuggets of wisdom because he liked the sound of his own voice, no.

"He wants you to join him…"

"He's...asked me to join" Harper gulped, "...multiple times."

"What the hell Roy?!" Oliver shouted with the combination of the biting pain of the flesh wound and the general feeling you get when your apprentice— whom you love like a brother— tells you the crime boss corrupting your city is also his best friend and has also tried to convince him to abandon your crusade. Our crusade. To describe it as anger was too humble a term for Oliver. This was back-stabbing betrayal.

"Secret meetings with the enemy? That's what you've been up too in your free time? Do you know what that looks like to me, Roy? Your so called friend murdered three men in front of you! He slaughtered eight men like they were animals!"

"I know what he is!" He was in anguish.

But in the moment, Oliver could not bring himself to sympathize. "Did you know what he was going to do?"

"No! Of course I didn't! I wanted to tell you, but I—I couldn't, I couldn't bring myself too. I was so mad at you, especially after…"

To Roy's misfortune Felicity decided to return from the evening with Palmer. She was unhurriedly walking down the stairs since she was in heels.

"This lair is meant to be a secret you know, but I could hear you yelling from—you went on a mission without telling me?" She said when she saw them decked in their gear.

"Didn't want to disturb your dinner plans with Ray Palmer" he remarked narrowly leaving out 'fucking' between the words Ray and Palmer. He earned himself the affronted look he knew he was going to get, and then Felicity saw the wound he was sewing, and she was concerned.

"You're injured…"

"Yes. I am aware of that Felicity" he said bluntly.

Just as easily she threw him a dirty look, "Why are you being such a dick?"

"I'm sorry" he said impassively, because he was still not done with being angry at Roy. "I'm just processing a rather vital piece of information that Roy has been withholding from us for over a fortnight!"

The conversation went full circle back to a trapped Roy Harper.

"What vital piece of information?"

Roy now understood how Oliver felt when he confessed his deepest, darkest secrets. It was no easy feat. He sighed, braving himself for another heated interrogation.

"Jason Todd aka the Red Hood was my best friend from childhood."

She blinked and folded her arms, "Say what now? You knew his name? He was your best friend? Why—why didn't you tell us?! How could you even begin to consider this was unimportant?! I can't believe this!"

Harper motioned at Oliver and her. "Don't gang up on me when you don't know the full story!"

"The full story?" She guffawed sardonically, throwing her arms to the ceiling, "Oh. My. God. Let's start with the fact that he knows you're the Arrow's partner! Did you even think about the consequences of that? What if he figures out who the Arrow really is? How can you be so inconsiderate of our safety?"

Roy bristled, "I would never intentionally endanger any of you!"

"Oh, so you'd do it unintentionally then? Why? Oh yeah. Because you're an idiot!"

And that was the catalyst for a minute-long shouting match. Oliver doubted even the strongest painkillers could soothe the roaring migraine he was experiencing. Grinding his teeth, he cut the sutures and then slammed the surgical scissors on the table.

"HEY! Cut it out!" He yelled stopping them mid-sentence, or rather mid-insult, since they were both getting rather creative in that area. Oliver, who was habitually reserved in speech, withholding his opinion, glanced at Harper with less antagonism than before.

"Roy, what do you owe him?" He asked because if this was any other crime boss they would've heard about it by now.

He sat down, weary of arguing and just talked, breaking down the dam that was holding back his past. "He was like my brother…" Roy began, which made Oliver wince, but not because of the flesh wound.

"Jason took care of me, he had big dreams. He was never like this before Oliver, I swear." With the expression on Roy's face, he believed him. "He grew up here at the heart of the Glades and he loved it. But he was also the man the city made him, he was criminal and he didn't have my restraint. So when he decided that we should be heroes, I followed him".

"Why?"

He shrugged, "because I thought my life was crap, because my dad was a tool and he was dead" Roy licked his lips, "because I was younger… and because he's Jason." He shrugged again. Half the time he was running with Todd that was the only explanation he could give himself whenever he was in doubt.

Because he's Jason. Todd could convince you that maybe a little insanity could save countless lives. "He wanted to do more than help, he wanted to destroy. He chose the Mexican cartel as our first target."

Both his teammates were astonished by the apparent 'skies the limit' approach Jason took to criminal justice. "I know, like I said. Big dreams. Anyway we threw our hats in with Brick. It was part of Jason's plan to double-cross him after taking out the cartel."

"Irish mafia" ventured Felicity. Brick was a player that had yet to be locked in Iron Heights. One of those factors preventing it was Red Hood's influence in the Glades.

"In his flawed plan, Jase managed to get us into a tight situation. I was captured by the cartel, and Brick double-crossed us. He threw two stupid kids under the bus. The cops were on us and in the commotion the cartel got our friend, Kyle." Roy had to bite the inside of his cheek to control any nostalgic stirrings within him that could cause his eyes to water.

"They killed him" muttered Felicity, but he barely heard her.

"In Jason's apartment." Roy closed his eyes. It still haunted his nightmares. Sudden flashes of survivor's guilt meddled with remorse often slammed into Roy when he remembered it.

They tied Kyle to a chair in the living room, strapped his arms down and…

"Heroin overdose, he...choked on his own vomit". From then, Roy never wanted to see another needle near his vein again, no matter what was in it. "By then, we both knew we had swum with the sharks too long and we needed to get out." He sighed heavily, "I didn't know what else to do so I called the cops, Jason was mad but he told me to run. He took the fall… for everything, and I never saw him again".

'Run Roy. I promised I would help you make something of yourself. I'm sorry I have to leave. But you can make it on your own, Harper. I know you can.'

Afterwards he saluted him as Roy made a break for it, police cars surrounding his best friend. Jason knelt on the ground, hands behind his head with a smile on his face and a laugh. Because somehow, Jason Todd knew he would survive.

"I'm sorry" said Felicity. "For everything I said."

"You have history with him, I get it" Oliver supplied. "But the friend you owe your freedom too, he's gone. And he's never coming back".

Roy shook his head. "You don't know that."

"I do." God he did. He knew more than he could ever say of what it was like to help a friend who had gone off the deep end. They only found a way to pull you deeper into the dark waters with them. Roy's next hopeful recommendation only added to the stinging betrayal Oliver was feeling.

"We could help him".

He straightened until his sutures nearly tore.

"That is out of the question!"

"A chance for redemption!" Roy argued, "He's been through a lot; he didn't wake up one day and decide to become this monster you all see."

He sensed Roy was about a heartbeat away from proposing Jason Todd join Team Arrow and he was never going to allow that to happen as long as he lived.

"But that is what he is now. He is a threat to the Glades and we need to stop him. Some people are too far gone."

But Roy was unyielding. "You can't just give up on someone you care about! What would have happened if you gave up on me?" He stabbed at his chest.

"What would happen if we gave up on you, Oliver?"

He held his breath. Awkward silence followed. Felicity studied both men, "I think we should call it a night."

"Yeah" said Oliver, throwing on his hoodie giving Roy a final glance. "But I haven't changed my mind." The red archer looked away, his jaw working.

A/N: Oh my God, Team Arrow is unraveling! Can they pull themselves back together? Do you agree with Oliver or Roy? Is there a chance for redemption? Or was the simultaneous decapitations a bit too much? In the first scene I used dialogue directly from Batman: Under the Red Hood. Check it out!

Next up: present day Nanda Parbat and flashbacks. See you soon!