Disclaimer: Arrow is owned by The CW, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. The character of the Green Arrow and the Justice League is owned by DC Comics. I own nothing; I'm just playing in their universe.
Chapter 30: Broken Dolls
The memory set opened replaying the final few moments of the last. "Well, don't worry, your life is over." Laurel said, grinning coldly. She held up a small device for him to see- a signaling device. "Your life as a free man."
She pressed the button, and instantly the Task Force warmed into the office. They surrounded the vigilante, cutting off all avenues of escape. He drew and arrow and nocked it, turning slowly to face each of the cops- but there were always more at his back. He was well and truly trapped.
"Put your weapon down." Laurel demanded.
Oliver looked around at the cops, then back to Laurel. "I'm not your enemy." He told her.
"Then put your weapon down." She said.
Thea crossed her arms and looked angrily at Laurel. "Suddenly I'm starting to see where the hate came from." She said, despite knowing full well where the hate came from.
Oliver looked around; there was no escape- none that didn't include killing cops. Slowly he eased the pressure off the drawstring and began to lower his weapon as Laurel, smirking, looked on-
And then suddenly a figure dropped through the skylight. She landed right in front of Oliver- who backed away in surprise- in a crouch, then withdrew a small white device and activated it. A piercing sound emanated from it, sending the cops and Laurel to their knees and shattering every pane of glass in the room. She turned it off and touched Oliver on the arm, then turned and ran with him towards the shattered windows. They leapt out into the night as the cops, regaining their senses, opened fire.
Sara sat back in her seat, lacing her fingers behind her head and giving Laurel a satisfied smile. Laurel shook her head at the display.
"Yeah, yeah…." She said, happy that she hadn't gotten Oliver arrested.
The woman led the Arrow to a side alley, and Oliver finally got a good look at her. She was a little shorter than him, dressed in black leather pants and halter top that enhanced her rather impressive cleavage, topped off with a short leather jacket. Her hair was long and blonde, and most of her face was hidden behind a mask. She moved off on her own, now ignoring the other vigilante.
"Nice mask." He told her.
"He was just jealous that I wore a mask before he did." Sara said, still smirking.
"Actually, I think he was jealous that there was no way he could pull off that corset." Mia joked.
"I miss the corset." Roy said wistfully.
"I'll agree with that." Tommy muttered. Laurel heard him though and smacked his arm. "What?" he said defensively. "She looks great!"
"I'd give that a big ten-four." Dig said.
"Why'd you help me?"
The woman looked over her shoulder, but then without saying a word effortlessly leapt up onto a fire escape, disappearing into the night.
The scene changed to the Lair. As Oliver walked in, Felicity turned and sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God." She said.
"Police scanner's been blowing up for the past hour." Diggle reported. "Laurel called in half the force with that silent alarm."
"Yeah, because going after actual bad guys is so last year." Felicity added.
"Glad someone else agrees with us." Tommy said to Roy, then looked to Felicity who gave him a firm nod.
"To her, I am the bad guy." Oliver said as he hung up his bow.
"Since when?
"Since I didn't make it to Tommy in time." Oliver said sadly. They were all silent for a moment before Felicity asked the obvious question.
"How did you get out of there?"
"I had help from a masked blonde woman in black." Oliver said as he pulled off his quiver.
"Another copycat vigilante?" Dig asked.
"No." Oliver said definitively. "She was different. Trained, and she used a sonic…thing."
"Wait, sonic thing?" Felicity asked. "Could you be a bit more specific?"
"She turned it on and the glass shattered."
Thea looked sadly at Felicity. "Never ask him to be more specific. You'll just give yourself a bigger headache."
She blinked. "Ok, well, who was she and why would she help you? And how did she know to help you?" she continued.
Oliver put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "All good questions." He told her. "I don't like the idea of another player in town."
"I'll see what I can find." Felicity promised.
"Oliver, what I would like to know is what you're doing at Laurel's office in the first place." Diggle pressed. "She makes you public enemy number one and you figure this is a good time to chat?"
"Because I thought that I could talk to her and make her understand that I'm doing things differently this time." Oliver replied. "That I'm not the bad guy." He sighed. "I was wrong."
FIVE YEARS AGO
The scene flashed back to the island. The boys had dragged one of the skeletal bodies back to the fuselage, and they laid it down on top of a crate so that Shado could examine it.
"Wonderful." Slade said sarcastically. "Now we have a dead Japanese soldier in our home."
"Those men on the island were looking for these corpses." Shado said as she examined the bones in better light. "Aren't you the least bit interested in why?"
"I know I am." Felicity murmured.
"I'm more interested in how many more there are of them and where they're operating from." Slade replied, gathering some gear together. "They'll be coming for that, which means they'll be coming for us. And as we've already seen, they're not the friendliest bunch."
Oliver looked at Shado as she continued to examine the body. "So… it kind of looks like you've done that before." He noted.
"Back in Xingjian, I was pre-med." She replied absently.
"She's a woman of many talents." Slade said, throwing a pack to Oliver. "Come on."
"'Come on' where?" Oliver asked.
"To higher ground." Slade replied. "We need to get to a vantage point where we can establish the enemy's position."
"What about Shado?" Oliver asked, suddenly worried.
"I'll be fine here." She told him with a smile.
"We shouldn't split up." Oliver said, conflicted.
"Let her play with her corpse." Slade said. "We'll be back before she knows it." Slade moved off. Oliver took one last look at Shado, then tureen to follow Slade.
"I got a bad feeling about this…" Tommy said worriedly, glancing at Slade.
"You would not be wrong." He replied.
PRESENT
The scene flashed back to Starling City, where Officer Lance was buying a hotdog from a street vendor.
"Here you go, Bud." The vendor said, handing him the dog. "On the house, Officer Lance."
"Hey, no, no, no," Lance objected, handing him the money for the food. "Here you go; a dog this delicious? I'd have to book myself for robbery." He said with a smile. "Take it."
"All right." The vendor said, reluctantly taking the money. "Take care."
Lance walked back to his cruiser, hot dog in hand. He heard the radio sound off and he reached in through his opened window and grabbed it off of the dash.
All units, 10-78 at Second and Fletcher. Please respond.
Lance threw the hot dog into the trash as he climbed into his cruiser.
Quentin sighed. "Well, that was money well spent."
"Those are good hot dogs, too." Laurel said.
"Lance, patrol Delta Charlie 52, 10-60 Officer responding. Over."
Negative, DC-52. Lance frowned at the radio. Disregard 10-78 and resume patrol.
"According to whose orders?" Lance demanded.
Lieutenant Pike. Lance put the radio down and let out a sigh.
"I hate Pike. Have I said that?" Tommy said sarcastically.
"Not in the last five minutes you haven't." Laurel replied. "Though I don't disagree."
"He's not that bad." Quentin said lamely, trying to defend his colleague.
Ten minutes later Lance had arrived at the crime scene. He hurried towards the tape, looking for a friendly cop. Finally, he found one- Bill Hilton, his ex-partner.
"Excuse me." He said, getting Hilton's attention. "Bill, what is going on here, huh? This is my beat. Why did Pike wave me off of this?" he demanded.
"Quentin, it's under control." Hilton said, trying to stop his ex-partner as he stormed past him.
"Excuse me, what is under control?" he asked, then stopped cold. There was a girl, in her late teens or early twenties, dead. More than that, she was strung up on a steel framework and posed like a porcelain doll, complete with frilly dress and decorative choker. "That's Barton Mathis." Lance said in a raspy voice, memories of his previous victims coming back to Lance after years of being locked away in his memory.
In the viewing room, Quentin paled as well. "No…" he whispered.
"That seems to be what the M.O. indicates." Hilton said in resignation.
"He's doing consecutive life sentences in Iron Heights." Lance snarled.
"Not anymore." Hilton replied. "The quake split open a section of Iron Heights. Mathis was among the escapees. The brass wants to avoid a panic, so they're keeping it quiet." He explained.
"Are they keeping it quiet from me, too?" Lance demanded.
"Come on, man." Hilton said defensively. "Pike knows what happened to you last time. The man got in your head."
"Yeah, and I caught him." Lance shot back. "And no one knows Mathis better."
"And I've got all your notes and your files." Hilton replied. "Pike's order. If you go anywhere near this, he's going to have you arrested for obstruction."
Lance sighed in frustration, and then stalked off, pausing only to look at the latest victim.
"I take it back." Lance said, quivering with rage. "Pike's an asshole. And so are the brass. Keeping THIS quiet? God damn it!"
"I remember reading about the Mathis case in the papers." Moira said, disturbed at the sight of the girl. That could have been her daughter. "How he didn't get the death penalty is beyond me."
"It was bad luck." Quentin said. "Judge Werner was coming up for re-election, and the anti-death penalty crowd were threatening to have him ousted. He caved." Lance sighed. "I should have just put a bullet in him…"
The scene changed to the Lair. Oliver and Diggle were sparing on the floor; wrestling on mats that Oliver had laid out in the center of the room while Felicity continued to search for information on the new vigilante.
"I found a number of police reports from the last few months that may involve our mystery girl." she said finally, drawing the two men's attention. "They describe a masked woman in black attacking attackers." she spun her chair around to face them. "She put five would-be rapists in the hospital so far."
"Are you sure it's her?" Oliver asked, coming over to take a look.
"Broken limbs, ruptured ear drums. Your sonic thing." Felicity pointed out.
"That's her." Oliver said, studying the data. "She's targeting criminals."
"Misogynist criminals." Felicity clarified.
"No woman should ever have to suffer at the hands of a man." Sara said.
"First the hoods, now her. Looks like you started a movement." Diggle said.
"I don't want to start a movement, so we catch her." Olive said firmly. "I'm not letting the city get overrun with vigilantes."
Felicity's phone started ringing. She looked down at it with a frown, the picked it up and answered it. "Hi, Detective." she began as Diggle and Oliver looked at her in surprise.
Later that night, Officer Lance walked up onto the roof of the SCPD building. He looked around, and then found who he was looking for.
Oliver tapped the voice changer on his chest. "So... Miss Smoak gives you a way to call me now."
Lance frowned at the vigilante, and then walked briskly towards him. "She vouches for you." he said. "And you told me that you're trying to help the city without dropping bodies. That true?"
"What do you think?" The Arrow asked.
"Let's just say I'm willing to be convinced." Lance said finally. "This city is hurting. And the police?" he sighed. "I always thought we didn't need to go outside of law to find justice. But in light of recent events, I'm not so sure anymore." he lifted the file he was carrying, and then set it down on top of an air duct. "Barton Mathis." he said as The Arrow picked up the file to look through it. "The media calls him the Doll Maker. 'Cause he suffocates his victims with a flexible polymer that he pours down their throats and then he dresses them up like dolls. I put him away." he said emotionally. "Because of the quake, he's out and he's killing again."
Oliver looked at the photos of the previous victims, and then noticed the dates. "These are from six years ago." he said.
"That's my personal file." Lance replied.
"Maybe it's not just the file that's personal." Oliver pointed out.
"Mathis killed eight girls before I got him last time. I don't want any more on my conscience."
A pause. "So why don't you let the police do their job?"
Lance scoffed. "I could say the same thing to you." Lance shot back. "They're spread so thin, they can't even risk letting the public know that Mathis is out. You said you're trying another way?" he asked rhetorically. "Maybe I am, too."
"That's not a bad thing, detective." Felicity said.
"No, what's bad is that my own department is trying to hush this up. And more than that," he continued, "if Mathis escaped, who else got out that the police are hushing up?"
Somewhere downtown, a young woman had just left a boutique. She walked briskly to her car, alone in the dark. She hit her keyfob to unlock the doors, and then paused as she felt someone watching her. She looked around nervously, but saw nothing. Shaking it off, she got into her car and shut the door, never seeing the man who was sitting in her back seat.
Barton Mathis shot forward, clamping his hand over the woman's mouth. "You have such beautiful skin." He told her.
Felicity and Thea both shrieked in surprise. "Jesus!" Tommy exclaimed, surprised as well. Quentin gritted his teeth, enraged.
The scene changed to the Lair, where Felicity was busily scanning in Lances' file to their system.
Oliver walked back in from a quick patrol and immediately got to work. "Lance's file give you anything?" he asked the room in general.
"Last time the Doll Maker was active in Starling City, he ramped up to one kill every three days."
"That gives us two to catch him." Oliver stated. "Can we connect the victims?"
Dig pulled up photos of the victims on the digital board. "Young. Pretty. According to Lance's file, he couldn't figure out how he chose them." Dig replied.
"That always bothered me." Lance added. "There was no common factor. Nothing!"
"As if porcelain dolls weren't creepy enough all on their own." Felicity said, looking at the photos.
"Barton Mathis doesn't have any family or known acquaintances." Diggle said, coming to stand next to her. Oliver took up position at the third screen. "Lone wolves are harder to catch."
"But they do have the right to an attorney." Oliver noted. "Call Lance. Tell him to set up a meeting for tonight." He told Felicity.
"Where?" she asked.
"At the office of whoever represented Barton Mathis."
"So… I'm assuming this takes priority over finding out the identity of your secret admirer." She stated.
Oliver grabbed his bow. "I got that covered." He said.
The scene shifted to the back alley behind Verdant. Roy was taking out the glass recyclables. He paused when he felt someone behind him, and turned to see The Arrow standing their silently.
"Hey." Roy said. "I was wondering when I was going to see you again."
"There's someone new in town-a woman." The Arrow said without preamble. "She's targeting men who target women."
"I know. I've seen her." He said, surprising Oliver.
"Find her, but don't engage." He told the younger man. "Leave that to me." Roy nodded, Oliver walked off.
Sara smiled broadly. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about this!" she said giddily. "the very first time I kicked your ass."
"You didn't kick my ass." Roy argued.
"You're right. I took you out with one shot." Mia snorted at that.
The scene changed to the D.A.'s office. Donner and Laurel were walking in, looking around as workers swept up the shattered glass.
"The archer makes quite a mess." Donner noted wryly.
"No, Sara made the mess." Tommy said.
"I'll add that charge to the indictment." Laurel said with a smile.
"Well, you called it right." Donner admitted. "He showed."
"I know him pretty well." Laurel replied, not noticing her father entering behind her. "At least better than others."
"This place is a mess." Laurel turned around to see her father, a worried look on his face. "Twice in three weeks, you're ducking bullets."
"I'm fine." She told him.
"Bullshit." Both Tommy and Thea said. Laurel rolled her eyes.
"You don't look fine. You look tired." Quentin replied.
"I think I'll give you two a moment." Donner said, walking off and leaving the Lances alone.
"Did you just come here to tell me how tired I look?" Laurel asked acidly as she stalked back to her desk.
"No, I came here to check up on you and check up on some court records." Lance admitted. "Barton Mathis is out." He told her. "I'm looking for his attorney."
"Why?" she asked worriedly. "You're no longer a detective."
"Thanks for pointing that out, sweetie." Quentin grumbled.
"Sorry." Laurel sighed.
"Yeah, well, I'm just doing a little digging off the books." Lance said.
"Dad, this case… it took you to such a dark place last time." Laurel pointed out, even more worried now.
"Yeah, well, I think we both know that it wasn't Mathis who did that." Lance shot back tiredly. "Look, nobody knows this guy better than me, which means nobody's got a better chance of stopping him, ok? And that means every girl that he kills is like another one on my conscience."
"No." Laurel rounded her desk to stand in front of her father. "No, dad, it's not. Whatever guilt you're feeling… You're just using it to justify a vendetta." She told him.
"Hi, pot? This is the kettle. You're black!" Thea said sarcastically.
Lance looked around at the devastated room. "Well, maybe I'm not the only one." He said pointedly, walking off and leaving her to mull that over as she stared at the board filled with all the info she had on the Vigilante.
The scene changed to Iron Heights.
"And now on 'One 25 years to Life to Live…'" Tommy joked, earning him hard smacks on his arms from Thea and Laurel. "Ow…"
"I thought it was funny." Moira told him.
Thea hugged her mother as she came to visit. "Are you ok?" she asked.
"Oh, Thea, you have to stop asking me that every time you come to visit." Moira replied, as Thea lead her over to one of the visitor's tables.
"Ah, don't count on it." Thea replied.
"Well, then, I'm afraid you'll be asking me that for the next 25 to life." Moira quipped.
"See, even she's joking about it!" Tommy argued.
"She's allowed to. It's her in prison." Thea said crossly.
"Please don't talk like that." Thea asked sadly.
"Thea, there's not a lot of value in the power of positive thinking when you're being put on trial for mass murder." Moira pointed out.
"Let's just try to take things one step at a time, ok?" Thea said, lifting up the clothes she had laid on the table and showing her mother.
"Well, I'd have to check with my lawyer, but I don't think retail therapy is a viable legal strategy." Moira noted wryly.
"Well, I spoke with her, and she said that you can wear regular clothes to your pre-trial hearing." Thea said, laying the clothes back on the table. "So I picked these."
"Hmm." Moira sighed. "I wish the fashion police was all I had to worry about." She said.
"Please don't joke." Thea pleaded.
"Thea, listen to me." Moira aid, placing her hands on Thea's shoulders. "I need you to understand what's happening here. 503 people are dead and there is a measure of guilt that is owed me. I'm ready to accept my punishment." Moira told her.
"Except you're only being punished because of my actions." Malcolm said quietly. The remark startled most everyone in the room, as Malcolm had remained mostly silent. That, and the sincerity that had been in his voice.
Mia's eyes flickered over to her father, and she allowed a small smile to form. 'Maybe he's really starting to get it.' She hoped.
"Even if that means spending the rest of your life in here?" Thea asked.
"Yes." She said, and then embraced her daughter.
The scene changed to the Office of Tony Daniel, defense lawyer. It was late, and Tony had the lights off as he prepared to leave when Lance walked in.
"Tony Daniel?" Lance asked.
"Help you with something, Officer?" he replied as he continued to pack up his briefcase.
"Barton Mathis." Lance announced. "According to the D.A.'s office, you handled his post-trial appeals, and I'd like to know where he is."
"So you can give him a parking ticket or something?" Tony said snidely. "If you want to talk to me about one of my clients, come back with a detective shield. Or a court order."
"Jack-ass." Quentin growled.
"Wait for it." Mia said dryly.
He looked up to see Lance chuckling lightly. "What, you find that funny?" he asked hotly.
"Well, a little bit." Lance admitted, looking past the lawyer.
The first thing Tony saw was the shadow of a man in a hood. Slowly he turned around to see The Arrow standing there.
"Where do we find him?" the vigilante demanded.
"Iron Heights prison." Tony replied.
"He got out."
"What? How?" he was either feigning it, or he was genuinely surprised.
"You spent hours with him! Where would he run?" The Arrow demanded. "Where?!"
Sara sighed. "He has such a better 'intimidation voice' than Batman." She said.
"Totally." Mia agreed. "Bat's sounded like he smoked twenty packs a day."
"I don't know, I-I swear!"
Oliver sighed heavily, then in one fluid motion drew an arrow and shot it into the lawyers shoulder. He screamed in pain, collapsing back into the desk as a startled Lance ran over to him.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Lance shouted. "I thought you were done killing people!"
"He'll live." The Arrow said.
Slade chuckled at that.
"Yeah, but he'll report me to my lieutenant!" Lance complained.
"He won't talk to anyone."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because he has another shoulder." The Arrow growled, then leaned down and pushed the arrow in deeper.
"Aah!" Tony screamed. "Oh, ok, ok, ok!" The Arrow backed off. Tony grasped his shoulder and groaned in pain. "There-there is another place." He said finally. "He was always drawing it. Sketching. His cell walls were covered with the place."
"Yeah, well, what's the place?" Lance demanded. "Was it in Starling City?"
"Yeah." Tony replied. "The Bisque Museum. He said the building reminded him of Germany. Where porcelain dolls were invented." He gasped as The Arrow let go of the arrow in his shoulder and stalked off.
"I'm sorry. I guess he just gets enthusiastic sometimes." Lance said, before following the vigilante out.
Thea, Tommy and Laurel laughed; Sara chuckled fondly at her father as he blushed in mild embarrassment.
The scene changed to a street down in the Glades that held the Bisque Museum. Just down the road was a two-story brick apartment house, advertising rooms for rent. Inside the building Lance and the Arrow moved cautiously down the hall.
"The lady at the desk said a guy matching Mathis' description checked in last week, room 52." Lance told his new 'partner'. "And he paid in cash. Now listen," he added, "just so we're clear, when we go through that door, we're here to arrest Mathis, ok, not to torture him."
"You asked for my help." The vigilante said.
"Yeah, and that wasn't easy, and neither is aiding and abetting." Lance said "And I am still a police officer."
"Do you want to catch him or not?" The Arrow asked.
Laurel looked at her father in confusion. "How can you not realize that's Ollie?" she asked. "You're standing right next to him…"
"I'm pretty sure he knew it was Oliver, if not by then, then shortly afterwards." Sara said. "He would never admit it, though."
Laurel nodded. "Of course. Plausible deniability. " she shook her head. "You'd have to be a complete idiot to be around him so much and not realize it."
Sara snickered, and Roy glanced innocently over at his wife. "Say, dear. When did you first realize-"
"Shut. Up." Mia growled, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
"Just pointing out that the two recovering addicts figured it out first…" Mia shot him a look of pure loathing as Thea groaned.
"Seriously?" the younger girl said. "They figured it out first?"
"Fraid so, sweetie." Sara said with a smirk.
Thea sat back heavily, her arms crossed. "Well that's just great." She groused.
Lance let out a long breath, then drew his sidearm. "Let's go." He said, leading the way. He reached the door and kicked it open, leading the way with his gun. He scanned the room, finding it empty of occupants- save for a small porcelain doll set up in front of a small table. On the front of the doll was an article clipped from an old Starling City Star newspaper with the headline 'Dollmaker Captured' over a photo of a younger Lance bringing Mathis in. On the table was an old style rotary phone- which started ringing a moment later.
"Creepy." Thea said.
"Do you like scary movies?" Tommy joked, earning a glare from Quentin.
"Naw," Thea disagreed. "With this set up, I'm expecting Morpheus to be on the other line. 'Hello, Neo.', that kind of thing."
"I was TOTALLY thinking the same thing!" Felicity exclaimed with a smile. Then she remembered what she was watching, and the smile quickly faded.
Lance stared at the phone for several moments before finally picking it up.
"Detective." Barton's voice said. "It's been too long."
Oliver activated his com-link. "Felicity, I need a trace." He said quietly.
"On it." She said.
"You sick son of a bitch." Lance said into the receiver.
"Sick? I've never felt better." Mathis said with a smile in his voice. "Fresh air agrees with me."
"Yeah, well, don't get too used to it." Lance said. "I caught you before. It's just a matter of time before I do it again."
"Fair enough." He insane man replied. "In the meantime, however, I have someone who'd like to say hello to you. Say hello, dear." Lance heard a girl shrieking and crying over the line, and he grimaced. "She's a little inarticulate." Mathis said by way of an apology.
The smiles and the jokes on the lips of Thea and Tommy died right then, and they quickly realized that they would be witnessing something- no, someone, else dying as well.
"She's done nothing to you. Please, don't hurt her, just let her go." Lance begged.
"And allow her to wither away in a mediocre and forgettable life." Mathis stated. "No. No, no, no, no, no. She deserves so much better." In the factory where he had set himself up, he walked over to table and picked up a large plastic container of liquefied polymer. "She deserves to see her beauty preserved." He continued as he walked back to the girl. She was strapped upright to a table, her arms held out to her sides. In her mouth was a plastic tube that was attached to a small, empty reservoir at the other end.
Tommy was sickened. "Jesus Christ…." Even Slade and Malcolm had fierce scowls on their faces.
"Pristine. Forever. Don't worry. I will turn her into something special." He stepped up on a stool and poured the polymer in to the tank, and it slowly worked its way down the tube towards its inevitable destination. "Pay attention, Detective." Mathis taunted as Lance listened helplessly on the other end. "What comes next is really quite exquisite. The sound of an esophagus slowly hardening." He heard the girl shrieking in the background. "Like a symphony."
Olive heard the panicked screeching and activated his com link. "Felicity!" he urged.
"We're trying, but he's blocked the trace." She told him.
"Barton, don't do it." Lance pleaded. "I'm begging you, ok? Is that what you want? I am begging you. Please, just stop!"
In the factory, Mathis pulled out the tub and moved the stand with the tank away. "It's for the world to enjoy. After all Everyone loves a pretty doll." He said, admiring his work. In the apartment, Lance dropped the receiver, defeated.
"My god…" Moira breathed, disturbed by the death she had just witnessed.
"God had nothing to do with that son of a bitch." Quentin growled.
Sometime later that night, Lance rolled up to Mathis' new crime scene. He got out of his cruiser and stared at the victim sadly.
In the Lair, Oliver finally returned and Felicity updated him. "The police found her body an hour ago." She said."
"Does the new victim give us any forensics we can use?" Oliver asked.
"CSI did a complete forensics work-up, but they sent everything out to a private lab." Diggle said.
"Can you get in?" Oliver asked.
"No." Felicity said, dejected. "They took their system offline. It seems like someone hacked into a lot of police-related systems last year."
"Then we do it like we did the Merlyn job." Oliver decided.
Malcolm raised an eyebrow, amused that his name had been relegated to a reference, and he once again made a mental note to hire better security for his buildings.
The scene changed to Granger Laboratories. A security guard was making the rounds when suddenly he was hit with a tranq dart. He dropped to the ground within seconds. As soon as he was out, The Arrow rounded the corner with Lance in tow.
"So glad you invited me to tag along." The cop said, stepping over the guard's body as they entered the main lab.
"Tranq dart." Oliver told him. "He'll be out for 36 minutes."
"Yeah, I remember." Lance said sourly.
"Oh, yeah." Tommy said. "He got you with that once, didn't he?"
"Merlyn?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up." Quentin said harshly.
The Arrow plugged a device into the mainframe, then stepped back and activate his com-link. "You're up, Felicity."
"So, this is what a typical night's like for you, huh?" Lance asked sarcastically. "Just a little breaking and entering."
"All right, I got toxicology first." Felicity said. In the lab, the results also came up on the screens there.
Lance looked at them in confusion. "What are all these?" he asked.
"Chemical ingredients of all the make-up found on the victims- skin cream, nail polish, lipstick." She explained.
Lance spotted something familiar suddenly. "Wait, wait, wait, stop." He ordered. "Scroll back. Scroll back." She did so, and Lance pointed at the screen, despite the fact that she couldn't see. "This one." He said for her benefit. "Ethyl paraben. Sodium laureth sulphate. I've seen this before." He said.
"It's skin cream." She explained. "Forensics found traces of it on her fingers. Probably something she used before he grabbed her."
"Skin cream." Lance racked his brain. "Mermaid something. One of the victims from his last run, she had this in her purse and I had the lab analyze it, and it's the same formula." He said, suddenly remembering.
Oliver realized that Lance was on to something. "Felicity." He urged.
"Already on it." She said, going back to Lance's digitized file. After five seconds, she pulled up the label of the skin cream, and displayed it at the lab. Lance looked at it in stunned amazement.
"How the hell could she do that?" he wondered. Under his hood, Oliver smiled proudly.
"Because I'm that good." Felicity said, a satisfied smile on her face. Thea reached over and gave her a high five.
"Ethyl paraben and sodium laureth sulphate is Mermaiden's proprietary formula." Felicity explained.
"Two victims with the same taste in skin cream." The Arrow said. "That can't be a coincidence."
"I could never figure out how he chose his victims." Lance said as the realization struck him. It had already stuck the Vigilante.
"I think you just did." He told the cop.
"Son of a bitch!" Quentin exclaimed. "The skin cream was the common factor!"
"It's always the little things." Laurel said.
FIVE YEARS AGO
The scene flashed back to the island. Oliver and Slade were still heading for higher ground, but Oliver was still worried about Shado.
"We shouldn't have left Shado." He said, voicing his well-known opinion.
"Well, it's her life. It's her choice." Slade replied tiredly as they continued up the hill. "You listen to my advice."
"What advice?" Oliver asked.
"To avoid attachment." Slade reiterated.
"That's a lonely life." Thea remarked.
"But it is a life." Slade replied.
"Yeah. That was bad advice." Oliver replied sarcastically.
"But it will save your life." Slade said.
"Maybe I don't want to live under those terms." Oliver said.
"Yeah, well, maybe you're an idiot." Slade opined.
"Hey, you think that carrying about people gets you killed." Oliver pointed out. "I think it's what keeps people alive."
Slade stopped, then turned and walked down to face Oliver directly. "I was wrong about you." He said. "You're definitely an idiot." He finished with a smirk.
"Then that's who I am." Oliver stated plainly. Slade scoffed and turned to continue climbing. "I'm not changing." He continued.
Slade took another step, and then slipped on some loose rocks. He let out a surprised "Ohh!" as he slipped over the edge of the very steep, very sheer cliff. Oliver dropped down immediately and grasped the older man's hands, preventing him from falling to his death. "You should be happy I haven't avoided attachment to you." Oliver said, grunting as he strained to pull Slade back up to solid ground. Slowly but surely, he did.
"I wish he had." Roy murmured to Mia.
PRESENT
The scene changed to the Glades. Roy, carrying a small crate with a couple of bottles of wine pilfered from Verdant, walked up to a bazar of sorts, where looters and burglars from all over Starling made their way there to fence their stolen goods. The owner, Louis, looked up and smiled as Roy walked over to him.
"Harper." He said pleasantly. "It's been a while, hoss."
"I've been busy." Roy said, hefting the crate slightly.
Thea leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. He wouldn't…
Mia glanced at Thea and quickly hid her smirk.
"I can see that." Louis looked over the wine. "I'll give you a hundred."
"Four." Roy countered.
"Two-five." Louis said.
Roy looked at the man. "Done." He said, handing over the liquor. "If you throw in some information." Louis scoffed, but Roy pressed on. "Come on, man, you've got your finger on the pulse." Roy said as Louis put the wine in the back of his van. "I'm looking for someone. A blonde, likes black leather."
"Sounds like your type." Louis said.
"Oh really?" Thea said, looking at Roy.
"I like brunettes as well." He said with a grin. "Red heads, black hair..."
"Green head bands." Mia added with a smirk, causing him to wince.
"Not my best pick." he admitted.
"You think?"
"And beats the crap out of guys with a bow staff." Roy finished.
Louis chuckled. "That still sounds like your type."
"Well, that hasn't changed." Mia remarked dryly.
"But I want to put eyes on her. What do you know?" Roy asked.
Louis pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and climbed out of the van. "Not much." He admitted. "You know Cindy? Folks call her 'Sin'. She's got short, spiky hair." Roy shook his head. "Yeah, I've seen her a couple times hanging around with your black leather girlfriend."
"So where can I find Sin?" he asked.
"Well, she hangs out over at Fifth and Boyton." Louis said, handing Roy his money. "And that is what I know." Roy smiled in appreciation, and then took off.
Sara smiled sadly. It had been so long since she had seen Sin, so long since she had died…
The scene changed to the Lair as the gang was going over what they knew about the Mathis case.
"So this is it." Diggle said. "Skin cream, that's our lead?"
"It's something." Oliver said. "What do we know about the product?"
"It's made from crushed mother of pearl and it's super high-end." Felicity said. "Only carried in a handful of boutiques and it's marketed for women with extremely delicate complexions."
"He picks his victims for their skin. The cream is how he finds them." Oliver summarized.
"It's a good theory." Quentin admitted.
"Only four stores in the city carry it and three have surveillance systems. I've ran facial recognition through all of them looking for Mathis, but come up empty." Felicity informed him. "He must be staking out the stores from the outside."
"Fine. So we'll do the same." Dig suggested.
Oliver shook his head. "That could take days we don't have." He noted. "He's probably out there right now looking for another girl."
"So that's what we give him." The two men turned to Felicity. "I'll go to the stores that carry Mermaiden, and buy it in each one to cover our bases." She offered.
"It's too dangerous." Dig said at once. Oliver looked to object next, but Felicity rose from her chair.
"More dangerous than going undercover in a mob casino or jumping out of a plane?" she asked them, then looked directly at Oliver. "It's my life." She said. "It's my choice."
Slade gave Felicity an appraising look. The girl was tougher than he realized, he thought.
"I'd be proud of you if I wasn't so busy being terrified for you." Quentin said.
"You and me both." Felicity replied, looking a bit pale.
FIVE YEARS AGO
The scene flashed back to the island, where Oliver and Slade had almost reached the highest point.
"There are only two ways onto this island- by sea, and by air." Slade reminded Oliver.
"So what, you're going to steal whatever they use to get onto the island?" Oliver quipped.
"Well, I'm tired of living here, aren't you?" Slade said as he raised his binoculars. Oliver did the same, and they began to sweep the coast of the island. Almost immediately, they spotted it- a ship.
Sara's face darkened. "The Amazo."
"What?" Laurel asked.
"The name of the ship." Sara said. "They were the ones that 'rescued' me."
"Oh, my God." Oliver said.
"It appears to be two or three clicks offshore." Slade noted with some excitement.
Suddenly there were a series of explosions that startled the men.
"What the hell?" Oliver asked as the explosions continued.
Slade lifted his glasses again and scanned the ship. Though it was too far away to see any detail, he couldn't miss the tell-tale signature smoke trails of missiles being fired from the deck of the ship. "It's firing off its location." He said.
Oliver's eyes widened in realization. "The plane!" he exclaimed.
"They must have found it." Slade realized.
"Shado!" Oliver exclaimed, and then took off running back to the camp.
"Kid!" Slade called out helplessly, then cursed and took off after him.
"I have a feeling that won't end well." Diggle noted.
"You'd be right." Slade replied.
PRESENT
The scene switched back to Starling, where Felicity was leaving a boutique with a bag of skin cream.
"Left the last store." She said into her com link. "You're going to reimburse me for these, right? I saved my receipts."
Quentin let out a snort of amusement, even as he worried about the danger the blonde was putting herself in.
-Go to the rendezvous point.- Oliver's voice said. On a roof above her, he kept his eyes on her as she walked down the street. She walked past a parked car that contained Dig, and continued on. Stay in public.
Milling around on the street, Lance kept his eyes open. "Just for the record, I'm not a huge fan of dangling helpless girls in front of psychopaths like meat." He said darkly.
"Glad I haven't lost my mind completely." Quentin said.
-She volunteered.- Oliver reminded the cop.
"Well, she must really believe in you." Lance said.
Oliver sighed. "So did your daughter."
Lance exhaled deeply. "She suffered a loss." He explained. "Grief's got a way of shifting a person's beliefs. But then you know all about that." He added. "You've lost people, too, right?"
Oliver blinked in surprise. "Why would you say that?" he asked.
"Why else would you be doing this?" Lance asked rhetorically. "My youngest, she died."
"I'm sorry." Oliver said, meaning it in more ways than one.
"Less than a month after it happened, I-I ended up catching the Doll Maker case." Lance continued. "Threw myself into it. I think on some level, with each girl I was trying to save Sara." He admitted. "And just like with Sara, I couldn't. He killed eight girls Sara's age before I caught him."
Sara got up and moved to sit by her dad, putting an arm around his shoulders. "There are some things you just can't protect me from." She told him. "And some things that were just meant to be."
-Someone's coming.- Felicity said over the radio. Oliver changed positions to get a better view.
"I got him." He told her.
"Ok, I'm going to admit to being seriously wigged out right now." Felicity said.
"And me as well." Felicity said nervously.
A moment later, she breathed a sigh of relief as the man entered a restaurant. "False alarm, but next time I offer to be bait for your serial killer, please turn me down." She said, looking behind to see if anyone was following. Not seeing anything, she looked back ahead-
Just as she ran headfirst into Barton Mathis, who grabbed her at once.
Felicity screams were muffled by his hand, but Diggle jumped out of his car and raced towards her.
"Delta Charlie 52 to Central." Lance yelled over his police radio. He looked down the alley to see Mathis dragging Felicity around a corner. "Code 99, possible 207 in progress, immediate back-up required!" he yelled, taking off down the alley.
Mathis dragged Felicity, still struggling with everything she had, into a construction site. Suddenly he was shot in the back with an arrow, and the pain caused him to lessen his grip. Felicity took advantage and elbowed him hard in the gut. Mathis staggered back, but pushed Felicity, who stumbled and fell, hitting her head on a concrete block. He reached around and yanked the arrow out of his shoulder, looking at the approaching vigilante briefly before making his escape.
Oliver ran in, but stopped and knelt besides Felicity. "You're all right, you're all right." He told her as she groaned, grasping her head. "Don't move." He advised her. Lance raced past them, and then Diggle was there. "She hit her head." He told his partner.
Felicity leaned forward anxiously. "Don't stop for me, get the guy!" she exclaimed.
"Go, go, go." He urged Oliver, who jumped up and took off after the two fleeing men.
Mathis raced through the construction site, ripping through tarps with Lance right behind him. He ducked behind a scaffold, and then grabbed a piece of wood from the ground. He swung for the fences just as Lance started to run past, sending the cop crashing to the ground. Mathis dropped the wood and picked up Lance's dropped gun, then sauntered over to the former detective, who lay groaning on his back.
Laurel tensed in her seat and Quentin gritted his teeth, annoyed at himself.
"I thought there'd be more ceremony to this moment." Mathis said as he raised the gun at Lance's head. "I'm a little disappointed, to be honest." Suddenly and arrow knocked the gun out of his hands, and he looked up to see the vigilante standing there. Oliver reached for another arrow, but the approaching sirens suddenly blared loudly right outside. He looked back to see the flashing lights of police cars approaching, and when he looked back, Mathis was gone.
"Damn!" Quentin snarled.
"Get out of here!" Lance urged The Arrow, who reluctantly departed as the police officer climbed to his feet. He held up his badge as the patrol cars skidded to a stop right in front of him. "Officer Lance, SCPD." He told the cops who jumped out of the cars. "It's Mathis. I almost had him." He sighed in relief as Hilton got out of one of the cars and approached him.
"Search the area. Whole building." Hilton ordered. He turned to Lance and grimaced. "Sorry."
"For what?" Lance asked, then sighed in annoyance as Hilton put him in cuffs.
"Pike's orders. He wants you collared for obstruction."
"WHAT?!" Felicity shouted.
"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Laurel roared.
"I'm going to have fun making his life a living hell." Tommy promised, already planning on how to humiliate the cop. Well, peeing on him could work… even if it had been done before…
"What, he—" Lance sighed, but didn't resist.
"Quentin Larry Lance, you have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right to remain silent, anything you say can…"
The next day, Oliver was walking to the courthouse as Felicity updated him on his phone. "They're charging Lance with obstruction." She was saying. "He's in custody."
"Mathis isn't." Oliver noted sourly. "He'll be looking for another target."
"I hacked Mermaiden and sent out an email blast from their servers telling stores the product was defective." She told him. "That will slow him down."
"Smart thinking." Lance said. He was pissed about being arrested; but the support everyone here had shown him warmed his heart a little.
"Smart." Oliver said.
"What about Lance?" Felicity asked.
"One legal problem at a time." He replied.
A bit later, Oliver entered the courtroom and walked over to his mother, placing his hand on her arm and letting her know he was there.
"Docket ending 4587, State versus Queen." The bailiff announced as he took his seat next to Thea.
"All right, I'll hear your motions, ladies first." The judge said, looking at Moira's lawyer, Jean Loring.
"Your Honor, we would like to be heard once again on the issue of bail." She said. "Ms. Queen has languished in the Iron Heights prison now for five months."
"And in those five months, did the 503 people she's charged with killing miraculously return from the dead?" the Judge asked. "If not, I'm a little unclear on how the passage of time is relevant."
"Might I remind the court that the defendant is presumed innocent?" Jean asked.
"No need. I went to law school. It's where I learned that bail, once denied, cannot be set in the absence of change of circumstance." The judge informed her. He looked to the prosecutor's table. "Mr. Donner, what do you have for me?"
Donner stood. "Your Honor, the State has no pre-trial motions to make at this time." He said. Then looked over at Jean. "But we would like to serve notice to the defense pursuant to rule of criminal procedure 15."
Laurel gasped, and Malcolm sat a little straighter in his seat. They wouldn't…
Thea looked between the two warily. "What…."
Jean leapt to her feat. "Your Honor, I would like to conference with the district attorney." She said heatedly.
"There's really no need, nor any obligation." Donner said smugly.
"What about professional courtesy?" Jean shot back. "I would like to have a conversation with you before you seek the death penalty." The crowd gasped and Thea grasped her brother's arm. Moira felt fear, then resignation as she realized how this trial would go.
Thea looked at Laurel fearfully. "They can't do that…"
"They would want blood and Moira, for good or ill, became the public face of the Undertaking." Laurel said sadly.
"Your client aided and abetted an act of mass murder." Donner said to Jean. "503 conversations wouldn't convince me that Moira Queen shouldn't be the 504th fatality."
"And now I add another name to my list." Tommy said darkly.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about humiliating Donner." Mia said. "He does that to himself. Repeatedly."
The crowd started murmuring loudly, and Oliver leaned forward, placing his hand on Moira's shoulder. "Mom, we are going to fight this." He told her. "No one is going to take you from us. We won't let it happen."
Mia's eyes flickered to Slade, her gaze calculating.
FIVE YEARS AGO
Back at the island, Oliver ran into the clearing that housed the downed plane, headless of the missiles as they rained down all around him.
"Oliver!" Slade called out in vain, but then a missile struck right in front of him, sending the soldier flying.
"Shit!" Diggle exclaimed.
"That was one of the thoughts going through my mind." Slade said dryly.
"Shado!" Oliver screamed. Just as a missile detonated behind him, sending him flying as well. Slowly he regained his senses, siting up and looking at the devastated airplane as his ears rang heavily. He looked up to see Slade, half his body on fire, before he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Moira grasped Thea's hand as the younger girl whimpered.
PRESENT
The scene flashed back to the SCPD, where Laurel dropped a set of handcuff keys on the table in front of her father. He let out a sigh of relief as he grasped the keys and opened the handcuffs.
"I had to call in a lot of favors to get those." Laurel told him irritably. "The only problem is that I've been at the D.A.'s office for less than a month, and no one owes me any favors." She said.
"So how did you get the charges dropped?" he asked as he rose from the seat.
"Your friend Pike and I have been working together on the anti-vigilante taskforce." Laurel reminded him. "Do you remember?"
"Hmm. Last year you were working with the Arrow. What a difference a few months makes." He remarked as he walked out of the interrogation room.
"The Arrow?" she wondered.
"Yeah. Seems more appropriate than the Hood." He replied.
"And now you're working with him." She remarked; a statement more than a question. "Guess I'm not the only one in the Lance family that's done a 180."
"This city needs help. I just became less particular about where it comes from." He said tiredly. "What's your excuse? Still Tommy?" he asked.
Laurel winced. "That was a bit harsh."
"Sometimes harsh is the only way to get through to you." Quentin said.
Laurel sighed. "What would you tell me if I said it is?"
Lance let out a long breath. "That a guy with a bow and arrow can't save a guy who's had a building fall on top of him." He looked at his daughter sympathetically. "What's going on with you is not about the Arrow."
"He's right, you know." Tommy said to Laurel. "There was nothing anyone could have done for me."
"I know." Laurel said. "But she doesn't seem to get that."
"She will." Sara promised.
"Then what is it, Dad?" she asked sarcastically. "Hmm? I mean, why don't you tell me? You seem to have all the answers. That crack that you made about me feeling guilty about something."
"Tommy's death." Lance said simply, cutting her to the quick.
"Why would I feel guilty about that?" she hedged after a moment's hesitation.
"I don't know." Lance said. "I wish I did. 'Cause it's eating you up."
"Your psychoanalysis would probably have a bit more credibility if it wasn't being offered under police custody." She told him sarcastically.
"Laurel, I'm worried about you—"
"I'd stay away from Pike if I were you, and the Doll Maker case." She told him, before turning and walking off.
The scene changed to the Glades. Roy was walking around trying to spot the girl Louis had mentioned. Finally he spotted her coming out of a building, finishing off a bottle of beer before throwing the glass bottle to the ground.
"Ah, my two best friends' first meeting." Mia said humorously. "The reprobate and the purse-snatcher. And to think, I was the tame one with them!"
"Ha, ha." Thea said, deadpan.
"Excuse me." He called out to get her attention.
"Step off, Abercrombie." Sin replied.
Thea snickered at the nickname. "You totally look like an Abercrombie model." Laurel agreed.
"Cindy? Sin?" he asked, though he knew it was her.
"What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?" she asked sarcastically.
"Wow, sarcasm running wild on both sides of the screen." Felicity noted with a grin.
"I'm looking for a friend of yours." Roy said. "Blonde. Black leather, head to toe." Sin looked him over, then gave a small smirk before she took off running. Roy sighed. "So I guess that's a yes." He said to himself before taking off after her.
"I should have Rose pipe in 'Yakatey Sax'." Mia said.
"You're a real laugh riot, dear." Roy said crossly.
Sin took an early lead, running towards a fenced-in parking lot. She jumped up, grabbing the top of the fence and planting her foot in the mesh, then boosted herself over and dropped to the ground. Roy followed a moment later, hoping the fence just as easily. The two dodged in between parked cars, and Sin looked back to see Roy starting to gain on her. She ran out of the lot and into a side alley, and then slid down the railings of a set of short steps. Roy followed close behind, slipping through the railing and dropping the few feet to the ground. Sin ducked into a building- the old Clock tower on the edge of the Glades. Roy ran in right behind her, and trailed behind her as she raced to the top. He saw her scramble through the trapdoor and hurried to follow.
Sara shook her head. "Damn, I forgot how fast she was back then."
Roy clambered up through the trap door, and was surprised to see- nothing. He looked around, trying to spot the elusive girl-
And then he was hit on the back of the head by a metal rod. Roy fell to the floor, unconscious.
"ONE SHOT!" Sara exclaimed, looking triumphantly at Roy. "Boo-ya!"
"Don't go stealing Cyborg's catchphrase." Roy replied sourly. "And it was a lucky shot."
"Yeah. Lucky you were completely oblivious." Sara crowed. "How the hell did you NOT die before you met Thea?"
"That is a truly excellent question." Mia opined.
Back at the SCPD, Lance was wearily walking though the garage towards his car, ready to go home and rest. A sound drew his attention, and he walked towards it. He saw a man in a tattered coat leaning up against the side of one of the SUVs. "He said he would go inside… That's what he said. He said he would go inside." He was muttering to himself.
Lance walked over. "You all right, pal? Need a doctor or something?" he put a hand on the man's shoulder-
Then the man spun around. One hand clamped on the back of his neck, the other planted a taser in his chest. Lance gasped in pain, and then collapsed.
Laurel screamed in shock as the rest looked on in stunned disbelief.
"No." Barton Mathis said. "I'm fine, thanks." Mathis quickly bound his hands with zip ties and threw him into the back of his van. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Laurel, similarly bound next to him.
"IN THE POLICE STATION?!" Laurel screamed. "Are you KIDDING ME?!"
"Yeah, Pike's running a tight ship." Tommy said sarcastically.
"Damn, I forgot the only person to get kidnapped more than me was you." Mia said to Laurel.
The scene changed to Verdant, where Thea was on the phone with one of her vendors. "I checked the order and you shorted us half a case of champagne." She complained into the phone. "I'm not paying for booze I didn't get." She sighed in annoyance and hung up, tossing her phone down onto the bar. She looked at one of the bottles of booze, half of which she was missing, and picked it up.
Thea shot an annoyed glance over to Roy, who shrugged in apology. "Higher purpose, greater good, yadda-yadda-yadda…"
"That won't help." Oliver said as he came into the club.
Thea sighed and set the bottle back down. "Yeah, well, neither is yelling at my vendors, but I want to yell at someone right now."
"Mom's going to be ok." Oliver promised. "Because we are going to help her fight this. As a family."
"They want to kill her." Thea reiterated.
"I won't let them." He replied firmly. He felt a buzzing in his pocket and pulled out his phone. He looked at the screen to see a text from Felicity
::News. Now.::
"Thea, can you turn to channel 52, please?" he asked his sister. She grabbed the remote and changed the channel on the news. 'Officer Quentin Lance and his daughter Laurel were abducted earlier today.' The broadcaster was saying as Thea and Oliver looked on in alarm. 'No ransom has been demanded. SCPD are urging anyone with information regarding their whereabouts…'
Oliver slipped away from Thea and headed downstairs. Felicity and Diggle were already there, and Felicity was pulling up camera images to search for her friend. "How did he get them?" Oliver demanded.
"Apparently there wasn't any security in the SECURED GARAGE." Laurel seethed.
"Laurel, honey-" Quentin tried, but she was hearing none of it.
"He could have killed you!" she exploded. "Right there! If he had pulled a gun, or a knife, you would have…" Quentin pulled Laurel in close for a hug, trying to calm the young woman down.
"The thing to remember about maniacs like Mathis," Mia explained, "Is they LOVE to monologue. It's like it's hard-coded in their DNA or something. Mathis wouldn't have killed your father there, Laurel. He wants him to suffer first. That gives you an advantage, and that also buys time for Oliver to find you and save you."
"And me." Sara added.
"Yes, and Sara would find you and kill him as well." Mia replied dryly.
"I don't know about Laurel. Detective Lance was abducted from the precinct parking lot." She pulled up the video for him to see. "Mathis shot a guard on the way out, which sounded the alarm. I pulled up the department's security camera footage, and a van from Metamorpho Chemical caught my eye."
"Metamorpho was condemned after the quake." Diggle informed him. "Perfect place to make some dolls."
"Not tonight." Oliver said, moving quickly towards the case with his uniform.
"Cops will use tracers, Oliver, same as we did." Diggle warned.
"They won't make it in time." He said.
The scene changed to the Clock Tower. Sin leaned over Roy, now bound at the wrists, and slapped his face lightly a few times. "Hey." She said as he started to come around. "Wake up, Abercrombie."
Roy shook his head, willing his vision to clear, and saw a smirking Sin standing over him. Then he heard someone else walking around, and turned his head to see a pair of black leather boots come to a stop next to him on the other side. He looked up to see the Canary standing there, half of her bo staff resting on her shoulder.
"Best part of that day…" Roy said with a wistful smile.
"What, besides stealing my booze?" Thea asked archly.
"That was fun, too." Roy said with a wink.
"Did they send you?" she asked.
Roy managed to bring himself to a sitting position. "Did who what?" he asked in confusion. She quickly brought the half staff around, whipping him on the side of his face. He groaned in pain. "Not my face!" he argued weakly. "I have a disapproving girlfriend."
Thea and Felicity snickered.
"Are you one of them?" she demanded.
"One of who?" She brought the staff up again, but he was literally saved by the bell (or buzzer) as his phone vibrated. "That's mine." He said needlessly as the blonde woman reached into his pocket and withdrew the phone. She looked at it, then tossed it into his lap.
"Let him go." She told Sin, and then took off at a run, jumping up and scaling several pieces of scaffolding as she made her exit to the roof. Confused, Roy fumbled for the phone and looked at it. On the screen was a text from Thea.
::Where R U? Laurel kidnapped. Need you!::
Mia looked at Sara with a raised eyebrow. "Did you actually think he was with the League?" she asked in disbelief.
Sara shrugged. "You never know. Many of them were skilled actors."
"No one from the League could act as incompetent as he did." Malcolm pointed out, a hint of his previous sarcasm present.
Roy grimaced. "I wish I could argue… but, I can't" he admitted.
The scene changed to Metamorpho Chemicals. Laurel was strapped onto the table that the last victim had been secured in, the tube already secured in her mouth. She struggled helplessly as her father looked on. Lance was tied to a metal pole not far from her.
"Isn't this nice?" Mathis said as he prepped the polymer. "All of us here together. It's like Thanksgiving."
"Laurel, just stay calm." Lance called out to his daughter. "Stay calm. Barton, I'm sorry." He said to the insane man as he walked past towards Laurel. "I know you hate me. I know you hate me, ok, and I understand that. But you hate me. So please let my daughter go." He begged desperately.
"Now why would I do that?" Mathis said. "Look at her. She's so lovely. Maybe a little too much melanin in the skin, but it's the imperfections that make art sublime." He said, running a finger over her cheek.
"Sick fuck." Tommy growled. "Get your fucking hands off of her!"
"He can't hear you, Tommy." Mia reminded him.
"I am the one who put you away." Quentin pleaded. "She had nothing to do with it!"
"She had everything to do with it!" he roared. "She's your world, she's your very soul." He danced past him and grabbed the container of liquefied polymer. "You know, I could kill you, I could maim you, I could slice you up into a thousand pieces, but if your soul remains intact, what have I wrought? Huh?" he asked rhetorically. "Nothing."
"I will kill you, you son of a bitch!" Lance screamed as Mathis poured the liquid into the reservoir. "I will kill you! You son of a bitch!"
Laurel groaned, tears streaming down her face as the liquid traveled through the tube. Lance stared at her desperately. "Laurel, sweetheart… Close your eyes." He begged her as she watched the liquid, terrified out of her mind. "I'm here. I'm here, honey."
Quentin clutched his daughter close to himself as he watched the memory helplessly.
"If you struggle, it will take longer." Mathis said as the liquid reached her mouth.
Then the Arrow was there. He landed on top of Mathis' workstation and fired an arrow that knocked over the reservoir, allowing the liquid to drain back out. He drew another arrow, but Mathis ducked behind Laurel. Oliver looked for a shot, but there was none. He fired anyway, the arrow embedding into a shelf behind Mathis, and the man took off, desperate to escape. Oliver jumped down form the table and walked behind Lance, cutting him loose before pausing to look at Laurel to make sure she was okay.
"Do whatever you need to do, just get him." Quentin ordered the vigilante. "Get him!" The Arrow took off after Mathis.
Farther into the factory, Mathis was beginning to think he had made a clean getaway. He didn't notice a figure with blonde hair and dressed in black leather drop from the ceiling behind him on aerial silk.
Mia harrumphed. "Show off." She muttered to Sara, who grinned back at her.
The Canary landed in a crouch, then withdrew the two halves of her bo staff. She connected them just as Mathis turned and swung it, sweeping his legs and sending the insane man to the ground. He got up, just to get the staff across the face. She swung low, sweeping his legs again, and hit him hard in the back, sending him to the ground once more. Mathis crawled forward, trying to get away. He grabbed a fallen pipe and swung it at her, but she dodged, then blocked his follow up shot and sent him to the ground once again. Mathis looked around wildly, and noticed a chain. He yanked on it hard, releasing several pipes that had been set in a rack above. The pipes dropped onto the Canary, knocking her down and pinning her to the floor.
"You never did learn to mind your surroundings." Mia told her, clucking her tongue in disapproval.
"Rule number 2- Don't get cocky." Roy reminded her.
Mathis got up and stalked towards the fallen vigilante. "Let's take a better look at this face of yours." He said menacingly. "You have such lovely skin." He started to bend down, but then was thrown back when a pair of arrows pierced both of his shoulders. He fell back against some aluminum pipes. He looked up to see The Arrow drop down in front of him.
Oliver switched his bow to his other hand and glared at the psychopath. "You're going back to prison."
Mathis glared at the vigilante- then gasped as one half of the bo staff flew past the Arrow and pieced his chest. He gurgled for a moment, and then fell still, dead.
"No, he's not." The Canary said. Oliver turned, but she was already gone.
Quentin let out a breath. As disturbing as it was for him to witness his youngest daughter murder someone, he couldn't help but feel relieved that Mathis was finally dead.
Laurel looked at her sister. "I don't know whether to be grateful that you took him out, or upset that you killed someone."
"That wasn't the first man I'd killed." Sara reminded her. "So I'd settle on grateful."
"I just wish you didn't have to." Laurel said sadly. Sara shifted seats so that she was next to Laurel and gave her a hug.
"Isn't that precious." Slade sneered. "I know that wasn't the first death you've caused; I REMEMBER the first death you caused. You and Oliver." He spat. Sara stiffened.
"Take it down a notch, Slade." Mia warned. Slade stared at her hard for a minute, then finally sat back in his seat.
Back in Mathis' workshop, Quentin was helping Laurel away from the scene after freeing her. "It's ok, sweetheart." He told her. "It's ok, he saved us."
"I know." Laurel said, dazed. "I know he did, and after I hunted him."
"It's ok, it's all right." He told her.
"No. He came. He came to save me."
"Yeah, I know, he saved us both." He told her.
Laurel shrugged free from her father. "No. Not him. Not the Arrow. Tommy." She told her father.
Lance looked at him in confusion. "What?"
"Oliver, he- he told me to stay out of the Glades," Laurel began, letting the floodgates open for the first time since the Undertaking, "and he-he told me to get out of CNRI, and I didn't. Tommy was only there because I was too stubborn!" she cried. "To stubborn to get out when I had the chance. You were right." She admitted. "I was blaming the Arrow because… Oh, my God." She gasped as fresh tears started to fall. "It's all my fault, Dad. It's all my fault that Tommy died." She broke down in her father's arms.
Laurel's eyes misted over, and both Sara and Quentin leaned in and hugged the girl. Tommy reached over and placed his hand on her knee, squeezing gently. He glared at Slade, daring him to say something else.
Slade chose to remain silent.
"It's all right, honey." He said as she sobbed. He looked up to see The Arrow watching over them, and nodded in thanks.
Later that night, Lance put Laurel to bed in the guest room of his apartment. He tucked her in and turned out the lights. He walked out of the room towards the living room, and then heard the telltale sound of a voice changer being turned on. He looked up to see The Arrow standing in the darkened living room, the drapes blowing from the opened window he had climbed through.
"How is she?" Oliver asked.
"She'll be all right. In time." Quentin replied. "I might not always agree with your methods, but I can't argue with your results." He admitted. "You saved my daughter. Again."
"She needed help." The Arrow said simply.
"And she wasn't the only one." Lance admitted. He sighed. "Thanks." The vigilante nodded in return, the climbed out of the window and into the night.
The scene changed to Iron Heights, where Jean was visiting with Moira.
"Moira." Jean said, leading her client to a table. "I know how hard this day has been for you."
"Yes. And believe it or not, I've actually been in worse situations." Moira said wryly.
Moira shot Malcolm a look.
"Listen to me. Donner knows how strong our defense is. Don't let him scare you with that little death penalty stunt of his." Jean advised.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of dying, Jean." Moira told her lawyer. "I've made my peace with this world a long time ago."
"Then its win the case in the courtroom." Jean continued. "The trial is going to reveal that you were living under Malcolm Merlyn's thumb. It's going to reveal everything."
Moira sighed. "Yes. And that's what I'm afraid of." Moira said resignedly.
Jean sat back in her chair and regarded her client. "Moira, what don't I know?" she asked. "Don't you do this. You need to tell me. I am your lawyer, and I am also your friend."
"Thea and Oliver." Moira said simply. "I'm finally in a good place with my children, Jean. I have my family back. But there are some things that must never be spoken of." She told Jean.
Thea looked at Moira. "Malcolm?" she asked simply.
"Malcolm." She agreed.
The scene changed to the Clock Tower. The Canary entered as she had left it, via the roof. She moved down several exposed poles before dropping lightly to the floor. She was about to take her mask off when she sensed a presence behind her. Turning, she saw the Dark Archer standing there.
"You shouldn't have come here." She told him.
"I had no choice." He replied. "Ra's Al Ghul has ordered your return." The Dark Archer removed his black hood to reveal not Malcolm Merlyn, but younger Asian man.
"I'm not going back." The Canary said. "I can't."
"That is not your decision." The other assassin said.
"Tell them that you couldn't find me." The blonde begged, moving in closer. "Tell them I ran."
The assassin pulled a knife from his belt. "I won't lie for you." He said.
"Fine." She said simply. Then she deftly grabbed his hand with the knife, spun the man around, and jammed the knife into his throat. "Don't tell them anything." She finished, allowing the body to drop to the floor.
Laurel shuddered a the casual cruelty that had come so naturally to Sara. Her sister looked at her sadly, the old fears resurfacing.
The scene changed to the lair.
"Something's going on with this woman." Diggle said. "She keeps following you around, helping you out."
"We've got to find her." Oliver said.
"To stop her; or to send her a thank you note?" Felicity asked, only half-joking,
"That depends." Oliver replied.
"On what?" she asked.
"What side she's on."
FIVE YEARS AGO
The scene flashed back to- a prison. Oliver woke up suddenly, and then pulled himself to his feet. He moved to the barred door and looked out at the cellblock, though he could tell by the way the floor was moving that he was on a ship.
And in the bay of Lian Yu, The Amazo steamed, circling the island once more.
The memory ended. "God, I forgot how much I HATED that damn ship." Sara growled.
"Is this how you became…" Laurel started to ask tentatively.
Sara sighed. "Not exactly, but it was a start on the path to becoming a killer. 'The Amazo' is where I learned that sometimes to survive, you have to make choices that normally you would never even consider." She explained, her eyes dark with the memories. "You'll be seeing a lot more of that ship- and the terrors it unleashed." Her eyes moved to Slade, who glared at her in return.
"I think one more, then we'll stop for lunch." Mia decided as she queued up the next memory.
TBC
A/N: You know, I forgot how much I hated Pike. I sorely wished I could see him busted down to meter maid. The guy could never handle the fact that Lance was a better detective than him, that Lance was always right when Pike was wrong, and he kept punishing Lance for it. Both in this episode, and later when Lance fingered Slade, and Pike let him go.
So, I had a guest review (Grrrrrrr) that I wanted to address, because he/she actually made some good points. The review dealt with my reaction to that scene I hated where Felicity told off Oliver. Here is the review in question:
From: Guest
:Love your story, really big fan.
I wanted address the whole Diggle and Felicity ordeal. Individually I think the main reason Felicity was upset was for what's to come in 2x6 where Isabel insinuated that Oliver and Felicity were sleeping together. Assigning her as an EA was career suicide. Mainly because people will think she got her job on her knees rather than her merits. Seeing that in season 3 she works at a Tech Village rather than a company, firm, office, etc. And to Felicity her job is important to her, since it is how she supports herself.
As for Diggle, I think it's not so much for not knowing about him or Carly but that Oliver did not bother to ask how they spent their 5 months other than him assuming that they were ok, safe, and the same. Now, about the two of them tricking Oliver into being the vigilante, they wanted him to know that the city is in desperate need for him. Yes, Oliver agreed to save his sister but later on he agreed to continue to do so to honor Tommy's memory. Making it his own decision, even if in the beginning Felicity and Diggle "forced" Oliver to resume his vigilantism.
Sorry for the rant and the horrible MUGs, just wanted to say my piece. Though I was excited that I didn't have to wait two weeks for the update. I look forward to this as much as I do to the actual show.
I get your point. Yes, Felicity's career could be damaged now by insinuations that she slept her way to the top. And yes, I do think that's part of the reason she was upset. She didn't go to MIT to become a secretary, after all.
But here's the thing. Being a vigilante requires sacrifice. It was unrealistic of her to think that, by working with Oliver, she wouldn't have to sacrifice more than just a few hours of sleep every night. And if Oliver was going to be CEO, then she needed to be close so that they could work on Arrow business during the day when need be- and it just wasn't feasible for her to still be in IT and have the CEO trek downstairs every day. That would just make the rumors worse.
Now, to be fair, I think Oliver should have named her head of Applied Sciences- at least if she got a promotion to a job in her field, there would be multiple people willing to testify that she was more than qualified for it, including Walter.
As to why Felicity was working at Tech Village- I actually thought that was her keeping her options open so that when Oliver took back QC, she could go right back to working there. But when Palmer outbid him, she initially stayed away out of loyalty. But say what you will about Ray, he recognized her skills and moved to hire her immediately. And I have no doubts that she would have had other job offers lined up from Kord, Wayne, and Luthor.
As for Diggle- I actually felt that he was rather blameless in this. He didn't tell Oliver about the breakup because he felt that Oliver had too much on his plate. His ultimate guilt was tricking Oliver back to take up the hood again initially, but he was okay in his role as the 'Black Driver'.
ADDENDUM: So, that review was from ssclassmage, who reviewed a second time because the first was posted as a guest review. We actually had a real good conversation on that point.
And that is why you should sign in! I will respond (most of the time;) To all of those who I didn't respond, though, thank you for your reviews!
Season finale this week for Arrow, next week for Flash. Arrow has really picked up in the last few weeks, and I'm loving it. My current theory- Malcolm is actually working for Damian Dhark, who had to be the one to save his life after season 1. And while Malcolm is working with Oliver to destroy the League from within, it's all a part of Damian's plan. and at this point, I will be surprised if Damian turns out NOT to be Felicity's father.
One last thing- I have been getting repeated requests to do a story like this for The Flash. Let me be clear and unambiguous- NO. First off, it takes too much time to write these chapters. and second- Flash already has time travel. Barry has already traveled through time. And I suspect he may have Gideon by the end of the season. So this kind of story just won't work.
HOWEVER
I have started kicking around an idea that would be a third multi-chapter story in this series that would take place mostly with the Flash characters. But that is a long way off and just a germ of an idea.
One last thing- audience participation. The AI Gideon will have a small roll in the sequel, and I'm making it an anagram. I've got a really clunky one now:
Global Intelligent Database and Enhanced Operating Network
Now, who can do better?