ARGUS
"Could you keep your trap shut, Felicity?"
They passed a glass room crammed with at least six NovaScale servers, computers so powerful that even the depths of winter the room needed to be cooled with portable air-conditioning units.
Digg was looking at her as if she was the mother he was embarrassed to bring to soccer games. She did as he asked and shut her trap, but opened it again when her gaze fell upon the technical equipment in the mission monitoring room. It was the very best and most expensive, massive screens, sleek stylus-and-pen tablets, keyboards that glowed in the perpetual dimness. Bar displays that rose and fell in real time, like waves in the ocean, showing precisely the how many hundreds of thousands of ARGUS agents using the servers.
"Sorry Diggle, I just…this is very impressive."
"Didn't stop you from breaking in and entering though did it?"
She smiled mischievously, "No it didn't."
"We're here." John pushed the conference room door open, it had a large grey ARGUS symbol on it. Within the long room, waiting for them at the head of the table was Amanda Waller. She had been surprisingly punctual.
"Ms. Smoak to what do I owe the pleasure?" She said with disinterest and mild annoyance at being summoned here by the likes of Felicity Smoak.
"I'll make this simple and sweet " she said, knowing it was better to cut corners with Amanda Waller than make her lose her patience. "I hacked into Deadshot's computer; B-T-W you should pay me for the trouble I went too to get into it, there were—"
Diggle nudged her elbow. "Right. Anyway, I can confirm that HIVE has a hacker."
Waller dropped her hand onto the table because she was wasting her time by telling her something she already knew. "Indeed Ms. Smoak, of course it would have experts—"
"No, it's only one person. They're using dormant malware to cover their tracks, piggy-back on worldwide satellites, yada-yada, the works" she unfolded her laptop to show Waller what she came across. "He leaves a stamp behind with every system he has ever broken into." From the looks of it he only needed to pick a system he wanted to infiltrate and he was in as if he made a deal with the Devil.
"And why would he do that?"
"Pride most probably-" Felicity discerned, the use of stamps reminded her of someone just then, "-maybe to gloat to his college roommate about the fracking first class honors he got in first semester when you were the one who did all the work—"
"Felicity." Digg nudged her again, Amanda was stabbing the table with two fingers waiting for her to stop babbling.
She flushed, "Oh. Sorry. Anyway, the trail was indistinct, but he uses a unique algorithm to stamp his work and this presented me with plenty of strings tug. But my usual base of operations does not have the facilities or processing power I need to keep tugging."
Waller's eyebrows jerked up, "You want to join to the HIVE task force."
"No" Felicity had been waiting for the day she could say that to Amanda. "But I will help you. I'll follow these leads, track them down digitally to the best of my ability, but I will do this on my own terms."
Waller sighed, her rigid cheekbones barely moving when she did so. Yikes, can she only do two expressions? "Very well, I don't see why you had to call me to meeting to tell me this."
She gave a neutral smile and eased the laptop towards the ARGUS Commander. "Even with Mr. Diggle's clearance there were archive records we couldn't access, the ones rendered null and void. I wanted to ask nicely this time instead of destroying your paper-thin firewall."
Waller was unamused by her subtle boasting, but she placed her thumb on the scanner Felicity pushed to her, giving them access.
Lex-Corp Chemical Plant
The next day
"Remind me why are we trudging through a mile of industrial debris?"
"I needed inspiration."
"Then look at a painting," huffed Sara, kicking aside a blackened scrap of piping. "Shouldn't we been beating down dirty cops or something?"
"And what would I do, Sara? Cheer you on from the sidelines while you did all the work?" That got a chuckle out of her little sister.
Three quarters of the chemical plant was a burnt skeleton. The fire had mostly been confined to the labs where Vertigo was manufactured. Apparently Werner Zyrtle was some sort of classical-music loving mad genius chemist who just decided to become a drug lord. He jumped over multiple hoops to the top without even trying, but Laurel knew better.
They navigated slowly past tanks that had exploded from inside, edges jagged and curling out like a metal flower, it must have contained some residual flammable liquid. The right wing of the plant was a tangled mass of dripping blocks and slabs, sections of its monstrous columns scattered on their sides across the cement, fragments from its roof thrown wide, still lying where they fell.
"We can't just put pressure wherever we want too and wait for something to break, we need to investigate," Laurel's response to her sister's more 'punchy' approach. "Besides dad's got the police corruption covered." She pointed to the area they were going towards. "This was where Vertigo was made a month ago. I don't know, I thought it could give us something."
She spotted the remnants of the lab, melted pipes, husks of counters and soot stained metal sinks that the fire had failed to devour. "Werner Zyrtle burnt it down himself."
Sara stopped behind her, dusting soot from her leather pants. "Felicity told me the Red Hood took over distribution and is reaping the profits too. I don't think Count Vertigo himself is our biggest problem anymore."
Laurel had also considered that, but it was more complicated than that. "If I'm correct and there's a bigger player here, surely the Red Hood muscling Vertigo's suppliers out from underneath him isn't going to prove cost-effective for both parties. And how is the League involved? Have you tried your contact yet?"
She shook her head. "I don't think my contact is going to help." Sara told her the story of the young assassin who she convinced to swear loyalty to Ra's after her mother was executed, whom was also currently Talia's go-to errand girl.
"Why do Nyssa and Talia hate each other so much?"
"Half of it's because Ra's has always made them compete against each other since they were in diapers. The other half…well, Nyssa was born out of wedlock."
"Ra's Al Ghul kept mistresses?"
"He can do whatever he wants."
"So Talia had a family, her dad, her mum, and herself. And then a strange woman comes along to live with them and ruins it all with a baby."
"That's the gist of it."
The Al Ghul family may be composed of assassins but their story sounded a lot like a typical American soap opera with a twist. Laurel stopped in the center of what used to be the lab, the wind swirling dust motes around her. She had an idea, "This used to be a LexCorp plant right? Hold on let me make a phone call."
…
Palmer Tech
When her caller ID lit up with the assistant DA's name, Felicity excused herself from the meeting. "Laurel?"
"Hi Felicity, I need a favor."
"We're favor friends now?"
"I need you to check property holdings for me" Laurel went on. Felicity sat at her desk already pulling out her keyboard.
"For?"
"LexCorp."
She stopped short, "You've got to be kidding me."
"Is there a problem?" She craned her head to inspect the conference room; Lex Luthor and Ray Palmer were conversing on the prospects of their city. Luthor had come with a very promising proposal that Ray-putting his city's future ahead of his personal reservations- said was worth the partnership. Even if she felt as though he was selling his soul to the devil, how was she going to stop him just because she didn't like Lex? It was petty. She didn't really know anything about the Metropolis billionaire beyond what anyone with access to the internet could find on Wikipedia. Maybe he had a rough childhood? Maybe he's just too arrogant, powerful, and over-confident for his own good? But did that make him a bad person?
"Nothing, I was just in a meeting with the man himself."
"Lex Luthor? Wow," although she didn't sound very impressed or amazed.
"Is this about Vertigo?"
"Yeah. I have a hunch; I think you should tell Mr. Palmer to stay away from him."
If only she'd called an hour ago. "I've had many hunches, and it's kind of too late for that. What do you want me to do?"
…
After ending the phone call with Felicity, Sara strode towards her when she motioned that it was time to leave. "Anything?"
"Nope, just more soot and dust. Who was that?"
"Felicity."
"What's this hunch you have?"
Laurel spotted something in the carnage and wiped away the ash. She read the sign, LexCorp Industries. "Maybe the person we're looking for has been staring us in the face this whole time."
Lian Yu
First, it was the sapphire ocean rushing beneath them. Then the sandbanks and green islets dotting the endless blue like scattered puzzle pieces. Then it was the shipwreck, and even after more than five years his skin still pricked upon seeing it.
He lowered the sea plane, and Lian Yu enlarged before them. He recognized every inch of the island as if staring at an old family picture. The pebbled beach he'd crossed countless times, hunting for food, hunting for men…being hunted by men. The hundred feet grey sentinel trees huddled closely together guarding the forest, the brackish water ebbing and flowing, etching curves and arches on the sand to an endless rhythm that was synchronized with his heartbeat.
The sun was rising on the vista when Diggle and Oliver hopped out of the cockpit. His boots made a disturbingly familiar crunching noise on the pebbles. Dad's body making dragging marks on the ground. Out of all of them, that sound was the most awful. It was a gloomy, bleak dawn, the sky was a dull blue, the sand a dull grey and the shadowy forest was a child's Halloween nightmare. Oliver could attest to that though, he knew there were ghosts roaming between the trees, his ghosts.
Silently, he and Diggle walked towards the ARGUS prison. He double checked his pockets, a picture of Commander Kane in one, a gun in the other. He intended to only use one of the two items.
"Wait outside, I won't be long," he told his best friend.
He knew he wasn't going to venture into hell, or towards his death but he was still a little hesitant to open the hatch. John clapped him firmly on the shoulder with the reassurance and understanding he needed.
"Good luck, Oliver."
…
For a frantic second of panic he thought Slade Wilson had escaped. Oliver reached for the gun. He felt like a child afraid to walk around his own house in the middle of the night, waiting for a ghoul to jump out from every corner.
Slade Wilson sauntered to center of his cell.
"Slade."
Wilson's eyes widened imperceptibly then narrowed into a withering look. "Welcome back, kid," his words were ripe with scorn. 'Kid' sounded even more like a curse than it did seven months ago. Oliver was the scourge of Slade's life, condemning him to this hole in the ground until the end of his days.
"I won't be long Slade," he said icily and pulled a stool in front of the cell. Slade lowered himself onto his uncomfortable-looking bed. He hadn't changed in the slightest on the outside, but the point of putting him down here was to make him change within, for however long it took to get there.
Slade locked his gaze with his single fiery dark eye. "Who gave you that bruise? I'd like to thank him for it."
It was still purple and curled around his eye like the letter C, a butterfly bandage held together the skin above his eyebrow. "I was hoping you could tell me." He held the picture of Elise Nefario aka Commander Kane to Slade, this was the most recent picture they had of her when she was still a brunette.
Slade looked at him warily, then peered at it, and then burst into laughter.
...
His laughter was unnerving, like nails scratching on a chalkboard, you knew the sound existed, but barely hearing it on a daily basis, you tend to forget how awful it actually was. Choosing to ignore it, he only held the picture closer. "Who is she Slade?" He demanded.
When the laughter subsided, he grew serious, but there was still the ghost of a smile. "My ex-wife. The beautifully insane Adeline Kane. She's the one who gave you that shiner?" He said as if he couldn't believe the odds of it. And frankly, neither could Oliver.
"Then you know who she is now?"
"A HIVE Commander," he grimaced. "She chose to betray our country, and sacrifice our friends to become what she is, making deals with the Devil." He crossed his arms, glaring at him with contempt. "You, Billy, and Adeline should form a club since you all enjoy stabbing me in the back."
Stranded on an island, turned mad by mirakuru, locked in an ARGUS prison, and yet Slade Wilson never lost his wit.
"You went to her for help didn't you? For your revenge plot against me?"
"I made a deal with her, yes. She gave me the resources I needed, I killed men for her, and I promised her your city and a super soldiered army."
"Yet she got none of those because of me," he allowed himself to smile triumphantly at that fact, just to irritate Slade. "I bet she blames both of us for that." He didn't make any move to respond, he was eyeing Oliver as if trying to discern what the trick was.
"Is she Joe's mother?" He asked.
"Why do you care who she is?"
"Because she's my problem now. Your ex-wife is looking for you and she's quite determined," he indicated his bruise. "She wants you alive because she wants something from you. And I doubt it's to renew your wedding vows."
Slade smiled as if he finally got the catch- that he knew something Oliver didn't, like he had the upper hand. "Of course she would be looking for me." Bitter cold calculation played over his nemesis' countenance, his eyes were slits studying him closely. "But why should I help you Oliver? You know what? I have a better idea…" he leaned to him, growling through clenched teeth.
"Maybe I should let you two fight it out, and destroy each other."
Felicity's apartment
Starling City
She yawned as she reached the top of the stairs. They need to get that damn lift fixed! Felicity unlocked her front door, a hot shower and warm bed waiting for her inside. "Honey I'm home!" She said to herself, tossing the keys on the side table. She kicked the door shut with her heel, her apartment was dark. "Wouldn't it be awesome if I actually had a honey to come home too? I don't even have a cat—"
"What about me?" A detached voice called out.
"GAH!" Felicity screamed and jumped a foot into the air. Then the Canary stood in the street light coming in from the living room windows. Her cheeks burned, "Sara! What did I tell you about using the front door!" She flicked the lights on, her heart still hammering like a drill.
"Sorry," said the assassin sheepishly, resting her bo-staff on the mantle then flopping back on the sofa, making herself at home by propping her feet on her coffee table.
"I told you she wouldn't be okay with it." Laurel emerged from behind the kitchen counter wearing a navy blue suit and carrying a briefcase. The Lance sisters could not be more unalike in their clothing and personas.
"Laurel?" She scratched her head, the hot shower and warm bed would have to wait. "What are you two doing here?"
She barely finished her sentence when Laurel said, "The Foundry was empty and you weren't answering your phone".
"Yeah Oliver's out of the country".
"We wanted to follow up on what you had on the LexCorp properties."
Felicity kicked her heels off. "Urgh, I've heard everyone say 'LexCorp' about a hundred times today," she sat down beside Sara. For some reason, the three of them together in her apartment like that, it felt as though they had done it a thousand times before, when it was actually the first time the Canary, Laurel and Felicity were quasi-teaming up. "And Ray won't listen to me, so I'm stuck in this boat whether I like it or not."
"Oh so it's just 'Ray' now huh?" Sara teased, wiggling her eyebrows at her. "Kidding," she added when Felicity stared back wide-eyed.
"Anyway, looks like Palmer Tech and LexCorp are going to work together to make Starling City a 'better place.'" She said doing air-apostrophes with her fingers.
Laurel said, "Lex Luthor is a recognized philanthropist."
"Yeah I know," she hugged her knees, "maybe my gut is wrong; maybe he is a good guy."
"I wouldn't come to a conclusion just yet." And Felicity took it as her cue to get out her laptop for the lawyer. Laurel looked at the screen over her shoulder; Sara was only partly interested since sieving through administrative documents was not her forte. "This is the listing for the chemical plant, what exactly are you looking for?"
"To be honest, I don't really know."
"Laurel!" Sara admonished.
Her sister harrumphed; she threw her arms out. "A mistake in bookkeeping or unexplainable over-inflated profits, something! Lex Luthor is a billionaire and he has the means necessary to go to Talia Al Ghul for whatever he wants. He can't be as squeaky clean as everyone thinks he is."
"It's a shot in the dark!" Debated Sara. "So what? We go after every rich guy in the city? Might as well add Ray Palmer to the list."
"Wait!" Felicity stuck her index finger up. Sara and Laurel scooted away as if to give her mind the space it needed to connect the dots. "The meeting today! Lex has more than one property in Starling City." She opened the zip file that Ray sent to her, scanning for the specific documents she needed. "Here," she indicated to the sisters. "June 2013, the chemical plant was deemed hazardous to re-open after the Undertaking, he sold the land." Felicity opened the docs with more recent dates, "but after it was burnt to a crisp, he rebought it. Why sell and buy damaged assets like that?"
Laurel snapped her fingers, "Unless he knew it was going to be used for Vertigo. Selling it would give him pretext to say the plant wasn't under his ownership when it was exploited." She paced behind the sofa, "Once Werner Zytle pulled up the stakes and went to Markovia, Luthor re-bought the property because he knew Ray Palmer would fall in with him for the development deal."
Glancing at a map, the chemical plant was situated beside a major underground tunnel that led directly into the city. There were many industrial estates and several open patches of ground where development had not taken place yet—roundabouts with access roads that petered out into wasteland, where one day warehouses or light industrial units would be built. It was at the epicenter of undeveloped territory that had been gobbled up by international and local conglomerates, most notably Palmer Tech, and now LexCorp, in fact…mostly LexCorp. Why let a decent plot of land go to waste?
"It's still a shot in the dark," Felicity said, Sara's argument was accurate, yet this seemed worth the investigation.
The lawyer hasted her pacing behind her, "But it's worth a try right?"
"Hell yeah it is." And the oddest thing happened next. Laurel and Felicity high-fived.
"The moment I felt weirded out by Luthor I should've hacked into the LexCorp systems. I'll start now and scrape their computers for anything incriminating."
"This still doesn't make sense," said Sara.
"What doesn't?" Her sister asked.
"Talia is disgusted by the idea of League assassins being used as mercenaries. In the hierarchy of professional killers, she considers them to be the lowest of the low. But Lex approached her with the impression that she would be exactly that. She would never compromise her personal beliefs if it wasn't worth it."
"So if she helped Lex establish the Vertigo drug empire—"
"What did she get in return?"
Lian Yu
Two of your enemies killing each other? Who wouldn't want that? That possibility had not occurred to Oliver, and Slade saw it. But then a thought struck him.
"You would never let that happen."
"And why is that?"
"Because you want to kill me yourself," he said coldly, "Commander Kane getting to me first would rob you of that."
Wilson snorted and leaned away, but trained a scathing glare on him. "Well...you're right there."
"Start from the beginning, Slade," he told him, not willing to tolerate anymore bargaining.
For a second or two he looked like he considered getting up and walking to the other side of the cell to leave Oliver with absolutely nothing. And he could've. Easily. But he didn't. His jaw was working as he tried to contain his rage, finally he tampered it down enough to begin.
"When Joe was a child. He was harmed by a mercenary I was tracking, Jackal." He paused. "I'd missed a lot of his childhood being in Team 7, but after the accident Adeline's resentment deepened into hatred, even when I killed the bastard who hurt my son, she never forgave me. Then the massacre happened. Most of our unit was killed; Billy and I were the only survivors and Adeline was missing…but she planned it all, and she didn't expect me to live." He scowled, the sting of betrayal still fresh;
"I come home, Joe is gone and so is she. I searched everywhere for them with no luck; then I was deployed to Lian Yu." Oliver, being here himself, there wasn't much more to say on this chapter of Slade's story. "My dream of finding him, taking him away from her gave me what little hope I could salvage. But why bother to hope? My best friend, my wife, my son, everyone I'd ever loved was ripped from my life. Alone on that island, I began realize I would never see my boy again. Yet I found love in this wretched place, and even if it wasn't reciprocated, I felt I could survive."
It went unspoken that the love he found was Shado.
"But she was taken away from me too, by Oliver Queen. And I made him a promise." Slade looked directly at him then, to tell him their war was far from over. Oliver felt a sudden surge of both anger at what Slade had done to his family, but also relief that he was locked away. "HIVE found me after the freighter sunk, Adeline and I were 'reunited'. She had been looking for me, to make amends, saying she 'forgave' me for not turning my back on my duty like she did." He chuckled, but his laughter was dry as bone. "She told me Joe missed me. But I was not ready to be his father...I wanted revenge first, and when I had it, then, and only then would I be ready to see my son."
He chose revenge over Joe, she chose power. "You haven't seen him in seven years?" He felt a strange kind of pity for him. I should have looked for Joe, after I cured Slade, maybe...maybe I could have changed his fate, reuniting father and son. But after the Siege, Slade was not ready to be a father to anyone, not with vengeance still ruling over him, and Oliver was the one who had to make that call.
"No. But I told him what his mother was, and he ran away. I got him away from her, like I wanted."
"You never trusted her. You never told her I was the Arrow."
"She was unstable and we had a deal." He seemed darkly amused, "but you thwarted her plans, and HIVE's Council are picky of who they admit into their ranks. If you can't contribute to their chaos then you don't belong. If she knew you were the Arrow, she'd want you dead." Slade glared at him, "And I'm supposed to be the one who kills you, remember?"
Oliver leaned towards him, they were a foot apart, it would be so easy for one of them to reach out and choke the other.
"You gave her mirakuru, didn't you?"
"She was on the verge of death, saving her made her indebted to me."
He shook his head at how perverse it was; he despised her so deeply that he would let her lose her mind? While she had no idea it was even happening? Oliver wouldn't wish that fate on even his worst enemy. "It drove her insane."
He scoffed and stood, pacing the width of his cell. "She didn't need mirakuru to be insane. I saw Shado speak to me, and she saw our son whispering to her how she should enact the bloody apocalypse."
It was rather morbid if you asked him. Since the night he stabbed Slade with the arrow he had entirely forgotten the man had a son. On the island, before Shado's death, Oliver had always thought Slade's family was composed of a little boy with dark hair, and a beautiful woman, both waiting on a porch somewhere for him to come home, missing him terribly.
He never imagined the reality to be quite like this.
"She wants you to tell her where Joe is."
"Above all, she wants to kill me for telling him the truth," he smiled ruefully, sitting down again.
"Where is he?"
That struck a nerve in Slade. "You think I would tell you where my son is? My own flesh and blood?"
He was stunned by the fact that he believed he was that kind of man. "I would never hurt him, Slade," he said steadfastly.
His mouth warped with distaste. "Oh yes, I was wondering when the honorable Oliver Queen would surface. Stop pretending like you know what fatherhood is, kid." He suddenly stood out of his cot, forcing Oliver to stand as well. Slade jabbed a finger at him through the bars, "just because you won't harm my son don't presume it means you're forgiven!"
Grief slammed into Oliver along with a devouring fury, his hands were clenched into bloodless fists. "You killed my mother! If anything, you should be asking me for my forgiveness!"
"One day I'm going to get out of this hellhole," Slade rasped, perilously wrapping a hand around a bar, it was rattling from his ferocity as if he meant to bend it and escape that instant. "And then I'll come find you, kid, and I'm going to leave you, same way you left me. Alone in Purgatory."
Oliver would never admit it to a living soul, but he often dreamed that he was able to cut his bonds, and kill Slade in front of his mother and sister the night of the car crash.
Yet choosing not to kill Slade was the difference between being a vigilante and a hero.
...
With nothing more to say he left Slade where he was. He was locked in a cell while he was free; this was his punishment, nothing more nothing less.
Diggle let out a relieved shudder when he saw Oliver emerge from the Supermax unscathed. He described the whole interrogation to him as they strode towards the sea plane.
Basically, Adeline and Slade were in the world's most lethal custody battle.
For Roy's dilemma, putting Jason on Lian Yu was the only chance of redemption Oliver could see. But Slade seething and swearing to kill him one day could put Roy in Oliver's shoes. He wasn't sure what would be more painful for the younger man, killing your best friend or making him hate you forever.
It was odd to imagine, but seven months imprisoned, Slade seemed as though he was becoming a…family man.
"You joking?" Diggle asked when he said this.
"In the end, Slade Wilson is a man." Oliver would never have realized this in the moment of anger, but he did then. He felt the tragedy of Slade's situation now that he understood his motivations. On the island, he never spoke of his marriage, thus calling him a 'former friend' would suggest he actually knew Slade Wilson, when he obviously did not.
In different ways, the women Slade loved destroyed him; he loved Adeline and hated her that much more for her betrayal. He loved Shado and loved her so much it consumed him with revenge. Oliver just didn't know who was to blame for his demise.
"At some point in his life he loved someone and they loved him. Someone loves him now too. If he's out there."
"Who?"
"Joe. His son."
And because Oliver was Oliver, he was genuinely guilty that he was depriving a son of their father. "I know what it's like to lose a father."
Diggle said firmly, "you have a good heart Oliver, probably one of the best there is. But the only person who can forgive Adeline and Slade is Joe. We don't owe them a damn thing."
John was right. Slade hardly mentioned Shado, let alone blamed her death on him. It was progress. But it didn't make him any less a threat. He was a useful asset for their battle against HIVE, but a prison visit to exchange intel was as far as a 'partnership' between the Arrow and Deathstroke would go. At least he hoped so.
2009
Hong Kong
His creative manoeuvre to have her assassinated by his kidnappers had evidently failed. Merlyn glanced over her, she didn't look like she was suffering, and there was certainly no inconspicuous bullet wound in her head. That ARGUS agent was clearly a terrible shot with pitiful aim since he missed her heart.
Personally if he had been looking down that scope, he would've aimed for the skull. Nevertheless it was an inventive plan hatched in the spur of the moment while he was under the influence of a truth serum; he could not win every game as impeccably as he would like. It goes to show that precise planning is always the directive anyone should take if they desired to be successful.
Commander Adeline Kane minimized the holographic projection from her touch pad, a broad contented smile spread across her lips. Most normal, wealthy, women he knew only wore that satisfied look when their husbands left them more money in the divorce than they deserved, or after a lavish shopping spree.
But Adeline Kane was not most normal, wealthy women.
"Mr. Merlyn, these designs are very promising, our lab has done simulations and I am impressed. I look forward to viewing a prototype of the earthquake device."
Adeline could see her vision coming to life as clearly as she saw her reflection. Voices of reason spoke through her, telling her the direction she should take. They sounded a lot like her son.
Her wound had healed remarkably fast, though Slade never breathed a word about it to her. Alas, she didn't care. There was power coursing through her veins. Almost dying gave her an epiphany; reborn she could see the true purpose of her mission, that nature needed a way of correcting itself.
She had the assassin in Hong Kong to thank.
As for Malcolm, she could always appreciate those who shared her vision for evolutionary progress, especially if they had a large bank account to support their prerogatives.
Her ex-husband's revenge plot was in its beginning stages of gaining allies and the monetary funds, in addition he was executing those who would stand in the way of her organisation and the Council. From Slade, she would secure a super-soldiered army, and from the American businessman; a cataclysmic machine.
What happened to Starling City in the process was merely a demonstration, a 'test-run' to Adeline Kane.
"Of course, you will be one of the first, I plan to make two, and one will be all yours. You must note that we are still within the testing stages; projected completion of the prototype is early 2012."
"The Council are a patient ilk, and your contributions to our constitution were both wise and productive, not to mention it was invigorating to obtain a new perspective. There is no substitute for hard work." She stood and walked around her desk to Malcolm.
"Great things take time. I'll wire the funds within the next 24 hours." There was always a seat for men like Malcolm on the Council. She had been suspicious of his intentions at first, since he was a strong public advocate against crime in Starling City. But he had proven to her that he could be one of them, a member of their lucrative, exclusive group of craftsmen of the world hammering it into shape.
Merlyn left his seat and extended his hand to her and said, "It was pleasure doing business with you. I look forward to what can become of this partnership."
"As do I," she shook his hand, "Welcome to HIVE."
A/N: I thought it was time Slade got over Shado, I mean really; even when Oliver cured him he still hated him for her death. We'll be back with Oliver only flashbacks for the next few chapters. See you later!