Disclaimer: Arrow is owned by The CW, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. The characters of the Green Arrow and the Justice League is owned by DC Comics. I own nothing; I'm just playing in their universe.
Chapter 46: The Man Under the Hood
As everyone stretched their legs and moved to the refreshments table, Felicity moved to the corner of the room and slipped a hand into her pocket, withdrawing her cellphone. She glanced at the screen and saw the message there-
::Operation Successful::
She quickly turned the phone off and stuffed it back into her pocket. 'Success.' She thought, though she was beginning to wonder if that was a good thing or not..
"Find something?" Thea asked quietly, sipping on a Coke. Though after that last memory, she could do with some real coke.
"Maybe." Felicity replied quietly. "I'll look through it tonight after we finish. Whatever Mia's hiding, we'll find out soon."
"Alright, let's get back to it." Mia called. Everyone returned to their seats, and Mia started the next memory set without further comment.
The memory set opened in the back of a van as Felicity fiddled with her ski mask. "I don't think my eye holes line up properly." She complained, pulling off the mask to try putting it on again. As Diggle drove the van, Sara sat next to her while Oliver sat on the bench across from her. All were wearing black clothes with black leather jackets, backpacks, and ski masks. Tonight wasn't a job for vigilantes. Tonight they needed to be someone else. They needed to be something else. "Is anyone else having this problem?"
"Well, that's a new look for you, Liss." Tommy said.
"You're eyeholes?" Thea asked with a teasing grin.
"Why am I out in the field?" Felicity wondered.
"Don't be nervous." Sara told her.
"I'm a lot nervous." Felicity said nervously. "This is a big move, even for us. And we've cornered the market on big moves."
"Slade didn't give us any choice." Oliver said quietly.
"Yeah, as far as plans go, this is not a good one." Felicity said sourly.
"Felicity. This was your plan." Oliver pointed out.
"I didn't think you'd actually say yes." She admitted. Oliver gave her a look that said 'Are you serious?'
Tommy, Laurel, Thea and Diggle laughed. Roy shook his head in amusement.
"We're here." Diggle announced as they pulled up to the Robert Queen Applied Sciences building. Leaving the van parked at the gate, the foursome ran to the gate and Diggle started cutting a hole in the wire mesh. Once inside, Oliver and Sara quietly made their way to the side door. As Oliver took out one guard with a sleeper, Sara moved behind the other and kicked his leg out from under his leg, sending him tumbling down the stairs hard.
"Hey! That man used to work for me." Oliver told her crossly.
"And how he works for our enemy." Sara pointed out.
"That's a bit cold." Quentin complained to his daughter.
"Pragmatism usually is." Sara replied.
"Security cameras are down." Felicity announced, pulling off her mask. She bounded up the stairs, pulling out a familiar white cylindrical device. "You all remember the skeleton key? Courtesy of William Tockman, aka the Clock King. It can open any lock." She placed the key over the electronic lock and activated it. Seconds later, the door opened. "Including this one."
"What is that, Chekov's skeleton key?" Tommy joked.
"What?" Laurel asked.
"Never introduce a gun in the first act unless you use it in the third." Tommy explained. At her continued look of bafflement, he pressed on. "I took a couple of movie courses in college. Lot's of hot young women trying to learn their craft."
Dinah let out an amused snort. "This is what I spent my money on?" Malcolm asked rhetorically. "I should have cut you off sooner."
The four moved inside, and Felicity looked around wistfully. "This is where we met Barry."
Diggle started pulling charges out of his backpack. "These are plug n' play." He said, handing several of the devices to the other three. "Fasten them to what we talked about. Let the C4 do the rest."
Malcolm laughed. Moira looked at him, aghast. "What is so funny about this?" she demanded.
"About the situation? Nothing." Malcolm said. "I'm more laughing at the fact that the plan to blow up the Applied Sciences division was Felicity's, and not Oliver's."
"Been a while since I've blown anything up." Sara noted wryly.
"Quick and clean." Oliver said. The four moved off into the building, stopping in their designated areas and fastening the bombs to various pieces of equipment.
"I'm a bomber." Felicity muttered to herself as she set her charges. "I can't believe I'm a bomber. I wonder if I can list that on my résumé under special skills."
"Freeze!" Felicity froze as the third security guard came upon her with his gun drawn. She stared at him wide eyed-
"Why is it always me?!" Felicity demanded.
"Bad luck?" Diggle offered.
"Karma?" Malcolm opined, thinking about the break in of his own building.
Then Oliver came out of nowhere, pushing the gun aside and knocking the guard out with one punch. He deftly picked the man up in a fireman's carry before he fell and turned to Felicity. "We have to go." He said.
Felicity sagged back into her seat, relived.
Minutes later the van drove off, past the three innocent security guards who had been moved to a safe distance.
"Thermal shows everybody's out." Felicity reported, staring at a thermal image of the building courtesy of an A.R.G.U.S. satellite.
Reluctantly, Oliver pulled the detonator out of his pocket and switched it on. He hesitated, knowing what he had to do, but hating it all of the same.
"It's just a building, Oliver." Diggle reminded him calmly. Oliver took a breath and hit the button, and in an instant the Robert Queen Applied Sciences building was destroyed.
Moira sighed. "Can a person be happy and sad at the same time?"
"Sure. It's called sobriety." Dinah said with a smirk. She had finally chosen to sit down next to her sister.
The scene changed to the Lair the next morning, as the team watched Isabel Rochev give a press conference from Queen Consolidated. 'Cowards.' Isabel said. 'Who else would needlessly destroy cutting edge, scientific and medical technology whose sole purpose is to make Starling City a healthier and safer place? As CEO of Queen Consolidated, I have a message to the terrorist who committed this unspeakable act.' She looked into the camera, and was seemingly speaking directly to Oliver. 'You will be caught, and punished.'
"Bitch." Felicity said.
Felicity turned off the broadcast and sat back in disgust. "For the record, I hated her before we found out she was a super villain."
"Good call." Diggle told her with a smile.
"Ok. Slade's goal is to create an army of human weapons using the Mirakuru." Oliver said. "To do that, he needs an industrial centrifuge."
"Which having Isabel Rochev steal Queen Consolidated from your family gave him full access to." Sara pointed out.
"But since Applied Sciences went kaboom, he can't use our technology- well, formerly ours- for his warped science experiments." Felicity said.
"Slade has had us on our heels for weeks. It's about time we took the fight to him." Dig said, energized.
"All this will do is set him back." Oliver pointed out. "We have no way of knowing where the next attack is coming from."
The scene changed to Laurel's apartment. She had gathered all of the evidence she had on the Arrow, and had pinned it to her office wall, trying to piece everything together to confirm what Slade had told her- that Oliver Queen was, in fact, the vigilante.
"And now I have my very own 'Wall of Weird'." Laurel said.
The scene changed to Iron Heights later that day as Laurel visited her father in prison.
"Speaking of new looks." Tommy said. "Grey is not your most flattering color, Detective."
"Thanks." Quentin said dryly.
"Look, you need to drop this, ok?" Quentin said, taking her hand. "I'm fine. Really."
"How is any of this fine?" Laurel asked.
"Look, you need to concentrate on you." He said. "Now listen, are you going to your meetings?"
"Yes. It's where I talk about how my father's facing prison." Laurel replied sarcastically.
"Laurel," he sighed. "This will all blow over, ok? Please." He begged quietly, worried for her more than himself.
"No. It won't, Dad." She said firmly. "You were caught aiding and abetting the Vigilante. Working with him last year cost you your detective shield. Now, it can cost you 18 months in prison." She told him. "They want his name. Do you know who the Arrow is?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
She stared right back at her. "I don't." he said, staring right back. She didn't detect any lie in his words. "I swear."
"You know, even if I did try to sell this to the police," Laurel mused, "that Oliver was the Arrow, I mean, they'd never believe me. I'd already cried wolf on Sebastian Blood, and Oliver had already been proven innocent."
"Not completely." Malcolm said. "Honestly, what Oliver should have done was let that case go to trial, THEN have Mr. Diggle be spotted as the Arrow. Then the jury could have acquitted him, instead of the DA just dropping the charges."
"Ok, well, what about the woman in black?" she pressed on. Quentin looked up to see Sara walk into the room. "The one the Arrow works with? Do you know who she is?"
"No." he said quickly.
"Well, you must have some idea." Laurel said, agitated.
"I must have had some idea." Laurel said.
"You had a suspicion at this point." Sara confirmed. "You'd prove it soon enough."
"Honey, I can't tell you what I don't know." Quentin protested.
"Time's up." The guard announced. Quentin shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "You girls, you take care of each other." He told his daughters as he was led out of the room and back to his cell.
"Do you really think he doesn't know who the Arrow is?" Laurel asked Sara.
"It's not like dad to lie." She replied.
"Sometimes it's people closest to us who lie to us best." Laurel noted to Sara's discomfort.
"And I think I'm starting to figure out who you are, too." Laurel noted to Sara, who nodded.
"Once you get that first piece, the rest fall into place pretty easily." She admitted.
The scene changed to Queen Manor. Ned Foster, the Queen family attorney was sitting down with Olive rand Moira in the lounge preparing to discuss their new financial situation. But first…
"Where is Thea?" he asked. "She should be here for this, too."
Mia sighed. "Ah, Ned. Or as I called him: the most ineffectual lawyer EVER."
"Ned has always been very good to our family!" Moira argued.
Mia gave her a look. "At the very least, Oliver's decision to turn the company over to Isabel temporarily should have been overturned due to him bein under extreme duress at the time; that would have nullified their vote and prevented what is happening then. The fat that he didn't- well, I always suspected that Isabel paid him off, but I could never prove it."
"I doubt she's coming." Oliver said uncomfortably.
"Well, I can't lie to either of you- it's bad." Ned said, pulling papers out of his briefcase. "If Isabel Rochev is one thing, it's thorough. She's been laying the foundation for this takeover for months."
"But we still own a majority of stock in the company, correct?" Oliver asked.
"Yes, but Isabel has diluted that stock to the point where it's worthless." Ned replied. "On paper, you're virtually broke."
Oliver sighed. "And what's the good news?"
"We can protect your assets." He handed the papers over to Oliver. "We need to move everything into a new trust that Isabel can't touch. All I need is the beneficiaries from the current trust to approve the transfer. The two of you and Thea."
Oliver looked up at Ned. "Thea needs to sign off." He said in dread. He knew how she could be when she was upset.
"Yes. And quickly." Ned replied quickly.
"Also: PLEASE take me off the list of the trust." Mia added. "Never a good idea to have an emotionally unbalanced teenager be the final say in financial decisions." Mia added.
"HEY!" Thea argued.
Oliver and Moira both rose, signaling the end of the meeting, "Thank you, Ned." Moira told the lawyer, who smiled grimly then made his exit. "Well, now I have to become mayor." Moira said to Oliver after they were alone. "It seems I'll need the income."
"Losing the company wasn't your fault. It was mine." Oliver pointed out. "I let Isabel Rochev get the better of me."
"No." Moira walked over to her son and placed a hand on his arm. "You always see the good in people, even if they don't deserve it. I know that better than most." She said warmly. "Isabel is a vindictive woman. She would have done this with or without your trust."
"How do you know?" Oliver asked. "You told me months ago I couldn't trust her."
Moira sighed. "Your father had a weakness for beautiful, strong women." She said reluctantly.
That feeling of dread turned to nausea. "They were together?" he asked, praying…
"Yes." Moira said, and Oliver threw up in his mouth a little. He put his hands over his eyes, trying to rub out the image of her riding him in Russia as his mother continued. "She was still in business school at the time. The pretty intern that caught the CEO's eye." She sat and signed the papers. "All right. You take this to Thea, and you convince her, somehow, to help us fight back." She said, handing the papers to Oliver. He nodded his agreement, and she turned and walked out of the room.
"You know, there is a certain poetic justice to that…" Laurel said.
"Which part?" Tommy asked.
"Sleeping with his father's mistress." She clarified. "That's what he gets for playing around."
"Anyone else thinking 'Last Crusade'?" Felicity asked.
Tommy nodded. "With Isabel playing the role of Elsa." He agreed.
"I have no idea what that means." Thea said, shaking her head in exasperation.
FIVE YEARS AGO
A battered, bloody Oliver sat in the fuselage as Sara tended to his wounds. "Hey." He said quietly. "Will you help me up?"
"Yeah." She said, helping to brace him as he struggled to rise.
Oliver groaned, his body screaming in pain. "Just to my trunk." He said.
"Ok." They hobbled over to the trunk, and Oliver opened the lid and rummaged around. After a moment he finally found the leather pouch filled with Yao Fei's healing herbs. He took a pinch and ate them; sighing in relief a he felt them start to work almost instantly.
"Seriously. What are those herbs?" Moira wondered.
"There is a Lazarus Pit on the island." Mia revealed. "That is a pool of mystical charged water that can heal any injury and, in some cases, bring the recently dead back to life. Those herbs of Yao Fei's grow near the pit and are fed by it; therefore some of that healing power is transferred to them."
"That's where the bacta came from, am I correct?" Malcolm asked. Mia nodded in reply.
"Ohh, look who's up." The two turned to see Anatoly and Jerry walking back into the fuselage. "Just in time for all the fun." He glared at Ivo, who sat hunched over in the corner.
"What are you going to do to him?" Sara asked hesitantly.
"Make him scream. Just like he made us." He held up a rusty pair of garden shears he had found and snipped them threateningly. "Hmm? They say living well is best revenge? Ha. I prefer torture." He looked back to Oliver. "You want first turn?"
"No." Oliver said, shaking his head as much as his injuries allowed.
"Please." Ivo said weakly. "I can help you."
"No, Doctor." Anatoly said. "I can help you." "What was it you said you needed for research? An eye?" he asked, lunging forward, the shears pointed at his eye.
"No!" Ivo screamed, terrified.
"Let me get you a fresh one." Anatoly growled, the shears moving closer.
"That guy kind of scares me." Thea admitted.
"He's not so bad, for a Bratva chieftain." Mia said with a smirk. "He's the one who made Ollie a Captain."
"You can still stop Slade Wilson!" Ivo screamed.
Oliver started at that. "Anatoly. Wait." He ordered, moving closer to the Doctor. "What did you say?"
"I can help you stop him." Ivo said.
"How? That miracle drug of yours has turned him into monster." Anatoly pointed out.
"I know." Ivo replied. "I can turn him back."
"Ivo, what are you saying?!" Oliver demanded.
"The Mirakuru. There's a cure." Ivo revealed to a stunned Oliver.
"And as we demonstrated, it was quite effective." Roy pointed out.
PRESENT
Sara was prepping the club for the night's opening when Oliver walked in, followed closely by Felicity and Diggle. "Hey." She said in greeting.
"Hey, is Thea here?" Oliver asked.
"No, I haven't seen her." Sara told him.
Oliver sighed. "How's your dad?" he asked.
"He's willing to go to jail for the Arrow." Sara told him.
"I know you said you weren't worried, but Dig and I went to Roy's apartment." Felicity said, coming up to the pair. "It's empty ."
"Seems like he cleared out a few days ago." Diggle said.
"Where the hell did he go?" Oliver wondered anxiously. He let out a tense breath. "Roy will have to wait. All right, we need to deal with Slade, figure out what his next move is." Oliver said, leading the way to the basement door. "I know Slade." Oliver said as the four walked down the long steep stairs to the Lair. "He is not going to stop till…"
"Welcome home." The four stopped and stared at Deathstroke, who was standing in the middle of the Lair.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Tommy exclaimed.
He chuckled as he drew his pistol and opened fire. Felicity screamed as Oliver grabbed her from behind and jumped over the railing with her, dropping the seven feet to the floor. He pushed her deeper under the stairs as Slade alternated between firing at Sara and Diggle, who were running down the stairs as fast as they could and himself on the floor. Sara ran for cover behind the Salmon ladder as Diggle ran the opposite way, drawing his fire. He pulled his piece as he hit the far wall, taking a moment to throw the power switch and send the basement into darkness. Slade growled in annoyance, searching for his targets.
"Smart move." Malcolm commented. "Unless that mask of his has infrared or night vision."
"Plus, the Mirakuru sharpens your eyesight." Roy noted.
Sara took the opportunity to attack, running at the salmon ladder and jumping up, grabbing the bar as she went. She leapt at Slade, ready to spear him with the heavy metal rod-
But he caught her by the throat with a single hand. She dropped the rod as he choked her.
"Hello, Sara." Deathstroke growled, and then threw her across the room. She crashed into a work table, toppling it over and crashing to the floor hard.
Sara winced, rubbing her wrist at the memory of fracturing it.
Diggle too his chance and ran at Slade, firing all the way. "Diggle, stay back!" Oliver yelled in warning. He watched the bullets sparking harmlessly off of his body armor as Deathstroke just stood there and took it.
"You're wasting your bullets." Slade told the man as the gun clicked on empty. Switching to plan B, Diggle wailed on the mercenary, smashing the gun into the armored helmet with no effect. Even as Oliver bolted towards the two men, Slade casually punched Diggle so hard he flew through the glass display case.
This time Diggle winced, remembering how hard Deathstroke had punched.
Oliver leapt over a table and grabbed a pair of steel escrima sticks and attacked. Slade drew his sword and expertly blocked Oliver, Pinning the sticks in place and pushing back to cut into his arm. Oliver screamed in pain as Slade swept the sticks aside, picked him up by his arm, and flipped him over. Oliver landed hard on his back, still screaming in pain as Slade knelt down and punched him once hard in the head, stunning him. "Don't forget who taught you how to fight, kid." Slade growled.
With her three friends out of commission, Felicity ran towards the junction box and flipped the switch. The lights came back on to reveal the three other members of the team coming back to alertness, and Deathstroke-
Gone.
Malcolm shook his head. "He really is quite good." He admitted. "Oliver should have scrubbed this base the moment he learned that Slade Wilson was involved. His club was too obvious a place for Oliver to set up shop."
"Good point." Diggle admitted.
"One he never seemed to learn." Mia noted wryly. "This was only the first time his base was infiltrated.
"Why not kill him?" Laurel wondered. "He had him. All of them." She looked up at Mia. "Why not end it there.
Mia smiled sadly. "He believed that Oliver's punishment must be more severe. All this was for was to get more into his head."
The scene changed to Starling General. Laurel was walking down the halls briskly, looking for Sara. She stopped a passing nurse. "Excuse me, I'm looking for my sister, Sara Lance." She asked. The nurse pointed her in the direction of the doctor, so she thanked the nurse and headed over to him. "Excuse me. I'm Laurel Lance. Is my sister ok?" she asked.
"Oh, she'll be fine." He assured her. "Just a hairline fracture of her wrist. We set it. She's got some nasty bruises; Looks worse than it is." He said.
"Thank you." Laurel went to open the door to the room, but then the doctor's next words caused her to pause.
"Nothing compared to her previous injuries." He noted.
"Well, THAT'S breaking the HIPPA laws." Sara said crossly.
She looked back at him, surprised. "Previous…injuries?"
He glanced at her chart. "Yes, your sister has extensive scar tissue over her entire body. The last person I saw with that much damage was a veteran injured in Iraq." He stated, looking at Laurel. "Has your sister served in the military?" he asked.
"Not quite…we were more intense than the military." Mia joked.
"No. No, she hasn't." she replied shakily. She opened the door and quietly walked into the room, just in time to see some of those scars on her sister's back as Sara put her shirt back on. "Sara." She said, announcing her presence.
"Hey." Sara said, turning to face her.
"What happened to you?" Laurel asked.
"Oh, I'm fine. Ollie and I just had a little motorcycle mishap." Sara lied. "It was nothing. I already got my discharge papers."
Thea snorted. "If Ollie was actually that bad at riding a motorcycle, we would have taken it away from him."
"But your back," Laurel started, "Those scars, where did you get them?"
"You ok?" Sara breathed a sigh of relief as Oliver walked into the room.
"Impeccable timing, as always." Tommy quipped.
"I will be." She said. "You?"
"Yeah." Oliver replied, turning to Laurel with a smile. "Hi."
"Hi." She replied tensely. "So tell me what happened."
"Motorcycle accident. It was stupid." Oliver began.
"We were making a left turn, this car ran a red light." Sara continued the lie with practiced ease.
"Did you file a police report?" Laurel asked suspiciously.
"We didn't see the point." Oliver said. "We're both fine. That's- that's what counts, right?"
"That's weak." Felicity said.
"Very weak." Dig agreed.
"Right." Laurel replied softly. "I should really go. I have a deposition in an hour." She said, telling her own lie.
"Ok." Oliver said.
"Thanks for checking up on me." Sara added warmly.
"Always." Laurel said, stepping out of the room. As the door closed, she fell back against the wall, her mind racing. She remembered Slade Wilson's visit from the other night;
'I know Oliver Queen is the Arrow.'
She remembered the time when Oliver let her see his scars; the same kinds of scars she just saw on her sister's back. She remembered the Canary, and her unusual interest in her safety-
And in that instant, she knew two things. Oliver was definitely the Arrow; and Sara was definitely The Canary.
"And that's where you put it together." Sara said.
"Took me long enough." Laurel said.
"Not as long as it took me, apparently." Thea groused.
The scene changed to Verdant. Oliver walked into the stockroom to find Thea putting bottles on the shelves. "Hey. We missed you yesterday." He began. She ignored him, continuing to put away bottles. "The meeting with Ned Foster." He continued. Silence. Oliver sighed. "Thea, I know that you're mad at mom and me, but we may have found a way out of this financial mess where we aren't going to lose everything." He held out the papers to her. "Mom and I both signed, we just… we need your signature, and hopefully we can stop Isabel from ruining us."
Thea took the papers without looking at him. "After you let her ruin us, you mean?" she said acidly.
"That was low." Tommy complained.
"Yeah." Oliver ground out.
She glanced at the signature line. "It says Thea Queen here. Who's she?" she asked, glancing at him as she headed out of the stockroom.
Oliver sighed wearily. "That's you, Speedy."
Thea scoffed. "No, it's not. Robert Queen wasn't my father. Malcolm Merlyn was." She looked up thoughtfully as she headed down the stairs towards the bar. "Thea Merlyn. Kind of has a nice ring to it."
Mia sighed. "God, I want to smack myself."
Sara laughed and pointed at Thea. "Well, there you go…"
"This is the me that I don't want to exist." Mia said to her younger self, ignoring Sara. "This petty, vindictive, self-centered…"
"Don't hold back. Tell me how you really feel." Thea said sarcastically.
"Merlyn was your biological father, but Dad raised you." Oliver argued.
"Only because he didn't know I wasn't his." Thea shot back angrily, stalking away.
Oliver grabbed her arm. "Hey, hey! He," he stopped her and turned her back to him. "He loved you. So do I, and I am still your brother."
"No, you're not. You're my half-brother." She pointed out heatedly. "And you know who else was my half-brother? Tommy. Tommy, who I tried to kiss." She was fighting back tears now. "I tried to kiss my half-brother- before my real father killed him! That's how screwed up I am!" She started to walk away, but then stopped. "And you know the sad part? I was actually starting to be in a good place." She said, turning back to Oliver. "I had the club, I had Roy, I had a brother who wasn't lying to me. And for the first time in my crazy life, everything didn't seem so completely and totally messed up. I thought I was going to be ok." She shook her head and took a shaky breath. "I'm so stupid."
"You're not stupid." Oliver tried.
"No, what I am is the daughter of two mass murderers. Not one, but two. So let's face it, Ollie. I was never going to be ok. It's not in my genes." She snarled before turning and stalking out of the club.
Malcolm sighed and hung his head; he hated causing his daughter pain.
Moira was similarly pained, but Thea took pity on her and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "It's okay, Mom." She said softly.
"Thea—"
"Oliver." He looked over to see Diggle standing there. "We need to discuss that security matter now." He said urgently. Oliver looked helplessly at Thea's retreating back, then sighed and followed Diggle down to the basement.
"I just have to say- you have the world's shittiest timing." Mia told Dig.
"What do we have?" he asked when he entered the Lair.
"What Slade took." Felicity said.
"Took?" Oliver asked in surprise.
"He wasn't here to kill us. He was here because we had something that he wanted." Felicity said. "The skeleton key." She revealed.
"Huh." Tommy said. "It really WAS Checkov's Skelton Key."
Mia smiled. "I really HAVE missed you, Tommy." She said softly.
"I did a full sweep. It's the only thing that's missing." Sara reported.
Oliver let out a long breath. "He needs a new way to mass produce the serum now that we've dusted Applied Sciences."
"With the skeleton key, he can get into anywhere and take anything he wants." Diggle stated.
"We know what he wants. We just need to find it first." He turned to Felicity. "Where is the most cutting edge technology housed in Starling City?" he asked.
The scene changed to S.T.A.R. Labs' Starling City branch, where Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow were running an inventory as they prepped the facility for closure.
Roy smiled. "Here's a few people I've missed." He said.
"You just saw them last week." Mia reminded him.
Roy shrugged. "Not like this. Young and innocent- and decidedly less blue, in Caitlin's case."
"The combined inventory of every scientist who ever worked at S.T.A.R. Labs. All housed right in here." Cisco said in excitement as he scanned crates on the long, high shelves. "I hereby christen this building 'da bomb'."
Caitlin gave him a look from her seat at the computer. "Nobody says that anymore."
"I say it. I define my own cool." Cisco argued good-naturedly. "I still can't believe Dr. Wells is shutting this place down."
Mia scoffed. "Yeah, well… he didn't need it anymore." She grumbled. Roy gave her a look, but she shook her head- some things they couldn't change, and Well's presence in the past was one of them. That had been a term that Barry himself had set.
"S.T.A.R. Labs blew a hole in Central City when we turned the particle accelerator on." Caitlin pointed out. "It's not surprising that Starling City cancelled the lease on this facility. We're not exactly the poster children for 'let us store our unregulated prototypes in your neighborhood'."
"It was an accident, Caitlin." Cisco pointed out.
"Yeah, well, try telling that to the families of the people who died." Caitlin said morosely as she rose from the computer.
"Maybe you can figure out how to tell that to yourself." Cisco said gently.
"She got a lot better when she found out that Ronnie was still alive." Mia said.
"Who's Ronnie?" Felicity asked.
"Her fiancé."
Caitlin sighed. "Look, Cisco, let's get this inventory done so we can go home." They moved to back to work, but then they heard a door opening at the far end of the building. "I thought we were the only ones here." She said nervously.
"Maybe it's one of the security guards." Cisco suggested. The two moved down the aisle, and turning the corner they came upon a security guard standing there. "Oh." Cisco said, part in surprise and part in relief. "Hey, man. We should be wrapped up any minute now." The guard stood there, silent and unmoving. "Are you getting a bad vibe off this guy?" he asked Caitlin. Suddenly the guard coughed up blood, then toppled over to the floor to their surprised horror. Standing behind the guard, skeleton key in hand, was Deathstroke.
"Okay, he is super-creepy in that costume." Thea said.
He quickly slid the key into a pouch on his belt and withdrew his pistol as the two scientists took off running. "The longer the chase, the slower the kill." He warned, following them like the Terminator.
"Why bother killing two scientists? What could they possibly do to him?" Felicity asked.
"Did we mention he's insane?" Thea replied sarcastically.
"And they are the ones who make the cure to the Mirakuru." Mia added. "So they could do a lot."
At Verdant the Arrow, with the Canary riding behind him, roared out of the alley on his bike. As they sped down the road, unnoticed to them, a white Ford Fusion started up and pulled out to follow them.
"Laurel Lance, Private Eye." Sara intoned, then giggled. Laurel did as well.
"I should have worn a fedora. And a trench coat." Dinah said wistfully.
"And the fishnets." Mia snickered. "Can't forget those..."
Dinah rolled her eyes. "It was for an assignment." she said in annoyance.
"It was for two years." Sara added mirthfully.
"Do I want to know?" Laurel asked apprehensively.
"Do I want to know?" Quentin added.
"No." Mia, Dinah and Sara all said at once.
"Yeah, and she managed to tail you and you never noticed." Mia shook her head in mock disappointment. "You should always mind your surroundings…"
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin led Cisco to a gated off restricted area. Quickly unlocking the door, she ran in and started looking for a particular crate. "Help me." She said. "This equipment belonged to Arthur Light. Wells fired him two years ago."
"Why?" Cisco asked.
"Because he was a psycho." She said shortly. She found the crate she was looking for and quickly opened the lid. "Please tell me you can make this work." She asked hopefully.
Moments later, Deathstroke appeared. When he entered the restricted area, he found Caitlin standing there all alone. "I take back what I said- I'll make this quick." He said, drawing his sword.
"Now!" she cried, jumping out of the way. Cisco came from around a crate holding a large weapon, which he fired. It emitted an almost solid wall of light that threw Deathstroke back and sent him to his knees, momentarily blinded.
"Aaah!" Cisco cried as the weapon sparked in his hands. He dropped it and the two fled.
"Nice!" Thea exclaimed.
"A solid light projection gun?" Felicity said with a little wonder in her voice. "Ooh, I'd love to get my hands on that…"
"Down, girl." Sara said with a smirk.
Deathstroke looked up, blinking his one good eye to clear it. He blearily saw the two scientists running down the darkened room towards the exit, and moved to follow, when he paused. Looking over, he saw exactly what he had been looking for, and under the mask he smiled. Easily he picked up the heavy machine and carried it to a waiting truck. He quickly packed it up, and then jumped in the cab.
"Christ he's strong." Lance said, rubbing his ribs.
As the truck pulled out, The Arrow and The Canary arrived. He pulled to a stop in front of the building and looked inside as two panicked scientists ran up to the security desk. "We're too late." He noted sourly, pulling out and taking off after the truck. Unnoticed by him, Laurel watched the pair speed off from the driver's seat of the Ford.
"I feel like I should be humming the tune to 'Perry Mason'." Dinah said absently.
A short time later, Felicity and Diggle arrived at the Lab and walked right in. She made a bee-line for the two scientists, who rose to greet her.
"Felicity!" Cisco said in happy surprise.
"Cisco, Caitlin! Are you guys ok?" she asked worriedly. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"You said "he" twice." Caitlin noted suspiciously. "Do you know who attacked us? That lunatic with the mask and the sword?" she demanded.
Felicity gulped. "Uh, no. I-no, I don't know." She stuttered out. "I-I said "he" twice, because on the radio, I heard that the person who attacked you had man parts, which would make him a… He." She lied poorly.
"That was terrible." Lance said, looking at Felicity. "How is it I never arrested you again?"
"Because I'm too pretty for jail?" Felicity threw out, causing everyone to chuckle.
Dig stepped up to save her as the two scientists looked at each other suspiciously. "I'm John Diggle, I work security for Queen Consolidated." He started. "Do you have any idea what the masked man may have taken? An industrial centrifuge, by any chance?" he asked.
"No. It's a secret." Caitlin said quickly.
"What kind of secret?" Felicity asked.
"The kind I have to keep." She replied firmly.
"Well, does Cisco have to keep it, too?" Felicity asked hopefully.
"Yes. He does." Caitlin said quickly, shutting up her partner.
Felicity sighed. "Ok." She relented. She hugged Caitlin. "We're just so happy that you guys are ok." She said honestly. "How's Barry doing?" she asked as she stepped back.
"He's the same." She reported.
"Barry's condition deteriorated. They moved him to S.T.A.R. Labs. They've been looking after him. That's how I met Cisco and Caitlin." Felicity explained to Diggle.
"Right." he said.
"Well, I'll come visit again, as soon as I can." Felicity promised.
"That would be cool." Cisco said as the two moved off. "Don't worry, Barry gets lots of visitors. Iris is there a lot." He mentioned.
Felicity stopped and spun around. "Iris?" she asked, a bit jealously.
Oops. "She's, um, his… Something." Cisco said lamely.
"Oh. Sure. Good." She said weakly. She turned and moved back to Diggle, and the two walked off. "That's just swell." She scoffed. "Barry's in a coma and he's already moved on."
"I think that was the universe's way of telling you to stick with my brother." Thea offered.
The scene changed to the Lair later that night. "I hacked into Harrison Wells' personal files." Felicity was saying to the assembled group. "He's the director S.T.A.R. Labs, which basically makes me unstoppable."
Felicity looked pleased with herself. "You should be happy, Felicity." Mia told her. "The fact that you got into HIS files is impressive as hell."
"And look what I found." She pulled up the schematics of the machine Slade had stolen. "It's a prototype for one of their new bio-tech projects. The patent is still pending, which is probably why they didn't want to tell us what it was."
"So what is it?" Oliver asked.
"It's a biotransfuser. It can deliver blood from one single patient into multiple patients, at once." She explained.
"Why would Slade need a blood transfusion?" Diggle asked.
"He doesn't." Oliver realized. "The prisoners that he freed from Iron Heights last week to create his own personal army do."
"With a few tweaks, Slade can retro-fit it for the Mirakuru, bypassing what we know to be a less than desirable ratio of success to, you know, death." Felicity stated. "Instead of it metabolizing in the person, it happens in the machine."
"That's going to require a whole lot of blood." Sara noted.
"Even a man with Slade's stamina can't handle that kind of drain." Diggle stated.
"He didn't have to handle it." Roy said sourly.
"Good." Oliver said harshly.
"What do you mean?" Sara asked.
"We let him use it." Oliver explained. "He'll be weak, vulnerable, and that will be my opportunity to kill him. How do we find this thing?"
"A machine like this pulls an exorbitant amount of power from the grid. When it turns on, I'll know when and where." Felicity said softly. "Right now, we just wait."
"I'm tired of waiting." Oliver growled.
FIVE YEARS AGO
"Don't listen to him, he's lying!" Anatoly said angrily.
"The cure is real, I promise!" Ivo pleaded.
"No, he's just trying to save his neck." Anatoly growled. Sara lay a gently hand on his shoulder, silently asking him to move away. Anatoly scoffed in annoyance, but moved away so that Sara could kneel down in front of the doctor.
"Anthony, look at me." She said as Ivo gasped in pain. "Tell us about the cure."
"I want to help you, Sara." He gasped. "But first, you have to promise you'll help me, too."
"She can't save your life." Oliver told him coldly.
"No one can, not anymore." Ivo said, moving the shirt away from his blackened stump where his hand used to be. He pulled away the collar of his shirt, showing a similar black spot that was spreading through his veins.
"What is that?" Moira asked uncomfortably.
"Radiation poisoning." Sara said. "Slade injected him with a highly radioactive serum that Anthony used to test a body's reactions with. He'd be dead in days."
"Yeah, that doctor was a charmer." Lance spat.
"And yet, he did save my life." Sara said.
"All I ask is for is a quick death."
"You don't deserve a quick death." Oliver whispered harshly.
"I know." Ivo replied. "And I'm still asking."
Sara looked back Oliver hopefully. For all the evil he had done, Ivo had saved her from being a victim for over a year. She owed him at least this.
Oliver nodded. "It's your call." He told her. Sara looked back at Ivo and nodded as well, agreeing.
"Thank you." He said.
"Start talking, Ivo!" Oliver demanded.
"I was never able to replicate the Mirakuru serum from the original Japanese World War II research I discovered." Ivo started. "After conducting experiments on the prisoners that I acquired this past year, I was able to synthesize a solution that counteracts, reverses the physiological effects that exposure to Mirakuru produces." He looked at them significantly. "From more than human back to human."
"Where is this cure now?" Oliver asked.
"You'll keep your word about ending my life?" Ivo begged.
"Yes. Tell us." Sara replied after a moment.
Ivo sighed and used his remaining hand to pull a key out of his pocket. "On the freighter. In the safe in my quarters." He revealed, handing the key to Sara.
"Great. So now you got to get back on the boat!" Laurel said.
Sara chuckled. "Yeah. If we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all."
"Now I believe… this concludes my end of our deal." He said weakly. Sara stood and walked over to the crate where the pistol was laying. She picked it up, turned back to Ivo, and aimed it at him shakily…
PRESENT
The scene changed to Queen Consolidated. Isabel was working in her new office- Oliver's old office- when Oliver and Diggle entered.
"Whatever you came here to say, it takes security about 60 seconds to reach this floor, so I would start talking." She advised, not looking up from what she was reading.
"And it would take Oliver less than 60 seconds to deal with them." Thea noted.
"Sure." Mia said. "But then Isabel could have him arrested. She'd love that."
"Where's Slade?" Oliver asked calmly, causing Isabel to look up at him and grin. "I just wanted to give you the chance to do the right thing." He added.
"I'm under 30, and I'm the CEO of a Fortune 500 company." She said with a smirk. "I'd say I've already done the right thing."
"Bitch." Moira spat. "The only thing she was ever good at involved her being on her knees."
Thea shuddered. "And now I'm thinking about her doing that with Oliver." She groaned. "And now I'm thinking about her doing that with DAD."
"And now I just threw up in my mouth a little." Mia added. Thea nodded in agreement.
Thea glared at her mother. "It's like you WANT to psychologically scar me."
"And do you even know who Slade Wilson is? Or why he's doing this?" Oliver asked.
"I don't care. I got what I earned." She said, going back to her reading.
"What you earned?" Oliver said incredulously. "You think that sleeping with my father entitles you to my family's company?" he asked harshly.
Isabell's head snapped up. "You have no idea what you're talking about." She snarled.
Oliver scoffed. "Wow, he fooled around with a lot of girls. I don't see any of them ordering hostile takeovers."
"Fooled around?" she said in disbelief.
"Yeah."
"Is that what your mother told you? Of course she would write me off as a meaningless affair." Isabel rose from her chair and walked into the boardroom. "Slade Wilson put me through hell. His training nearly killed me. Would I put myself through all that just because I was a jilted lover?" she demanded.
"No, you'd do that because you're a crazy bitch." Felicity remarked.
"Honestly, I don't know what you are!" Oliver replied.
"I was your father's soul mate." She said passionately. Oliver laughed. "He was going to leave your mother, leave the company, leave you." Isabel revealed. "Our bags were packed."
"Really?" Oliver said, unbelieving.
"Your sister had to go and break her arm- doing something ridiculous, no doubt." Isabel continued, laying out sheets at each seat at the table.
"I remember that. I fell off my horse." Thea said quietly.
Oliver started, the memory coming back to him in an instant. "She fell off her horse." He said slowly.
"We were at the airport when he got the call." Isabel continued. "I begged him not to go. I reminded him that Thea wasn't even his."
Oliver looked at her in shock. "Are you saying that my father knew?"
"Of course he knew. He was a fool, not an idiot." Isabel stated to his shock. "And like a fool, he loved her anyway. He promised me that we would leave the next day. But instead, my internship was terminated and he never spoke to me again." She finished bitterly.
Moira snorted in disgust. "God, but she is beyond delusional."
"You're saying he wouldn't have run away with her?" Mia asked, genuinely curious.
"Oh, I have no doubt he was planning on flying away with her." Moira said, surprising everyone. "And I have no doubt that he would have a fun day or two. But then he would get tired of her, and he would remember that he truly DID love us- especially you, Thea." She added, looking at both of her daughters. "And then he'd sneak away from her, fly back home, and THEN fire her. Soul mates." She scoffed. "That's a load of crap. And the fact that she believes it proves how bent she is."
Oliver scoffed. "Oh, so that's what this is really about. He chose us over you." He said harshly.
That was the moment security walked into the room. "Please escort Mr. Queen off the premises." Isabel ordered.
The guards moved to Oliver, but he twisted out of their grasp. "Don't touch me." He snarled.
"He's no longer welcome in this building. My building." Isabel said vindictively. Oliver glared at her, but turned and walked out. He walked out of his old office into the hallway, glaring over his shoulder at the security guards as he pulled out his phone. He quickly dialed his sister's number.
- Hello?—Thea said.
"Thea, its Ollie. Listen, I just need five minutes face to face." He said quickly before she could hang up.
-What do you want?- she asked angrily.
"There's something you need to hear." Oliver told her.
Thea sighed. -Five minutes. Come by the club after we close.—she said, then hung up.
Oliver walked over to the elevator that Diggle was holding. "Just spoke with Felicity." Dig said. "Someone reached out to the Arrow. Wants a meeting."
"Who?" Oliver asked as the two stepped inside.
"Laurel." Dig said to his surprise as the doors closed.
"It's… a trap?" Tommy finished uncertainly.
"Probably not." Laurel replied.
The scene changed to Iron Heights. Lance was in his cell playing solitaire when one of the watch officers walked up to the cell door. "You comfortable in there, Officer Lance? I can see if there's an extra blanket if you're cold." He offered.
"Nah, I'm good." Quentin said, looking up at the guard and smiling. "But hey, now that I'm on this side of the bars, I think it's just Quentin."
"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. You'll be out of here soon." He replied. At the end of the hall, another guard was leading a new prisoner in. He undid his handcuffs in anticipation of putting him in his cell.
"Yeah, I appreciate your optimism." Lance said with a chuckle.
At the end of the hall, the prisoner exploded into action, rushing his guard and tackling him to the ground.
"This doesn't look good…" Laurel said worriedly.
"I'm sure it'll be fine." Lance tried to assure her. "I'm on the other side of the bars, remember?"
"Hey!" the watch officer shouted, running from Lance's cell towards the prisoner. He rose to meet him, taking him down with a strength borne of fury.
Lance jumped up and headed to his cell door. "Hey, what are you doing?" he yelled. As the prisoner beat the guards. "Officer! We need help!" Lance shouted, trying to raise the alarm. The prisoner grabbed the keys off of the watch officers belt, grabbed his baton, and moved towards Lance's cell. "We need help! Whoa, whoa, what are you doing, man?" Lance said in alarm, back up as the prisoner unlocked his cell door.
Lance blanched. "Oh, shit!"
"Yeah, that about sums it up." Diggle agreed.
"Remember me? You should, 'cause I remember you, Officer." He snarled.
"No, you can't do this." Lance said, grabbing the bars to keep the door closed. The prisoner whacked his knuckles with the baton, causing him to jump back and cry out in pain.
"All right, take it easy." Lance tried as the man stepped into his cell.
"'Cause you and that hooded freak show are the reason I'm in this place, I thought I should be the one to welcome you." He hit him once with the baton. Lance slugged him back, but he shook it off and hit Lance again, knocking him down. As Lance lay on the floor, dazed, the prisoner went to town, hitting him again and again with the club. Lance curled up into a ball and put his hands over his head to protect it, praying for the guards to come. Moments later they did, and the two new guards pulled the prisoner off of Lance.
"Oh, Daddy!" Laurel cried. Lance squeezed her knee in reassurance.
"This isn't over! This is not over!" he yelled in rage as he was forcibly pulled out of the cell, leaving a dazed and bloodied Lance behind.
"Hope you enjoy prison, asshole." Dinah growled. "You'll be there for a while."
"I should have found that little bitch and killed him." Sara snarled.
"Sara!" Lance said sharply.
She had the decency to look contrite. "Sorry." She mumbled.
Roy snickered. "Such a Daddy's Gir- OW." He rubbed his arm where Sara had hit him.
The scene changed to a parking lot downtown. Laurel pulled in and got out of her car as The Arrow walked towards her. He stopped a short distance away.
"I heard about your father being arrested." He began. "If I could help him, I would."
"That's not what this is about." Laurel said. "It's funny, isn't? A year ago, he thought you were a murderer. And me, I was- I was drawn to you." She began. His heart began to race. 'She couldn't know, could she?' "I couldn't explain why, but… but a part of me felt connected to you. You were always there. For me… for my family, and for some reason, I never asked why."
"Are you asking now?" he asked.
"I don't have to." She replied. "Because I already know the answer." His breath hitched as he realized 'She knows.' Suddenly her phone rang, and Laurel turned away to answer it. "Hello?"
"Laurel," Sara said from the other end. "It's dad."
She turned back to The Arrow. "What is it?" he asked.
The scene changed to Iron Heights. As Laurel was walking briskly down the halls, Kate Spencer was walking towards her.
"Laurel, I am so sorry. We had your father under protective custody." She said as Laurel brushed past her.
"Yeah, because security has been so good at the prison." Felicity said sarcastically.
Laurel glanced back. "There's no such as thing as protective custody in Iron Heights." She said coldly, entering the hospital wing. She saw her father lying in the bed, looking like he had been in a car wreck. Sara was also there, sitting at the edge of the bed.
"Dad!" Laurel exclaimed, rushing towards him
"Hey. It's all right, sweetheart, it's all right." He assured her, but waved her off when she went in for a hug. "Hey, whoa, don't touch the ribs! The ribs." He said weakly.
Laurel stood. "I'm getting tired of visiting my family members in a hospital." She said after a moment. "What happened?"
"Oh, it's just some old collar paid me a visit." Lane explained. "I guess I'm not the most popular guy in prison."
"Sara, do you mind giving Dad and I a second alone, please?" Laurel asked, glancing at Sara briefly before looking back down at her father.
Sara considered her for a moment. "Yeah, of course." She said finally, rising from her seat. "I'll be right outside." She said.
"Don't go far, sweetie." Lance called out.
As soon as she heard the door close, Laurel sat down on the edge of the bed. "Dad…"
"What is it, honey?"
"I have to tell you something." Laurel began.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I know who the Arrow is." She revealed.
"What?" Lance said, astonished. Almost immediately he continued. "Don't say another word. Don't say anything." He ordered. He groaned as he sat up a bit. "Ok, listen to me. There was a time when I would have sold out my badge to find out his name. You know that." He said. "But then I realized I didn't care who he was. In fact, I didn't even want to know who he was." He revealed.
"Why not?" she asked.
"'Cause I knew if I knew who he really was, then he'd become a person, right? Maybe he's got a family. Friends. People that care about him. Someone with a life. That he couldn't be what I needed him to be. What this city needs him to be. It's the Arrow that matters. The man under the hood isn't important." He said with conviction. "Look at me. Can you imagine what it's like to be him?" he asked his daughter. "What he has to live with day in and day out, what that's got to be like? Hey. The least I can do is sit here and do a little bit of time for him." The two looked at one another with a new understanding.
"You're a good man, Quentin." Moira said warmly to the cop, their past arguments forgotten.
Lance chuckled. "Ah, I have my moments."
A few minutes later Laurel stepped out into the hall, smiling at Sara before turning to Kate.
"How's your father?" she asked.
"He'll be better once you drop all charges and sign his release papers." Laurel said.
"He is facing 18 months." Kate pointed out.
"Yes. But he is not going to stay here another day unless you want me to resign and embark on an exciting new career as a criminal defense attorney whose sole ambition will be to sue the District Attorney's office for wrongful arrest and reckless endangerment." Laurel threatened.
Kate gave her a strained smile. "Your father will be released on his own recognizance within the hour. And reinstated. Tomorrow." She said, walking off. Kate stopped and looked back at Laurel. "A word of advice- be mindful of the battles you choose, because it will not always be this easy." She warned, then turned and walked off.
Sara smiled. "That's my sister." She said warmly.
"Yeah, but just be careful how often you blackmail the DA." Lance warned. "She still is the one assigning you your cases.
Sara was grinning as she walked up to her sister. "Nice work, counselor." She complimented with a chuckle.
"Thank you." Laurel replied. "How's your arm?" she asked.
"Mmm, fine." She raised it and wiggled her fingers through the soft cast. "Only hurts when I wave."
Laurel touched the bruise on her forehead. "Ouch." She remarked.
"I'm fine, I promise." Sara said.
"I know you will be." Laurel said with a soft smile, brushing her hair away from her face. Sara smiled and walked back into the hospital wing. The door closed, and Laurel stepped up to watch Sara take a seat at their father's bed. She considered them for a moment before heading out.
The scene changed to Verdant. It was after closing, and Thea walked out to the side alley to meet Oliver.
"Thanks." He said as she walked up to him. "Thank you for agreeing to talk to me."
"You're talking. I only agreed to listen." She said harshly.
Oliver sighed. "I just want to start with—" and of course his cell phone chose that moment to start ringing. He ignored it. "I know you think that—" it kept ringing to both their annoyance. "Ahem. Hold on." He told his sister, pulling out his phone and turning away to answer it. "I can't talk right now, Felicity." He growled angrily.
"I know." She said. "But the grid at Collins and Main just spiked, drawing a hell of a lot of power. Which means someone either plugged in the world's largest hair dryer, or the biotransfuser just went online. The power cycle on this machine is very specific. You have 30 minutes, 40 tops." She explained, then sighed, "I know this is selfish, Oliver, and don't hate me for saying this, but…don't go." She pleaded. "If you don't get Thea to sign those documents, your family loses all of its assets."
"If I don't stop Slade right now, a lot of people will lose a lot more." Oliver said, hanging up. He turned to make his excuses to Thea- but she was already gone. He looked at the empty alley sadly, then turned and headed for his side entrance.
Thea shook her head, both at her antics and her brother's behavior.
Mia glanced at Felicity. "First, I want to say thank you for trying to get him to talk to me." She said. "That being said- next time- if god forbid there IS a next time- just wait five minutes to call him!"
"But as the whole point of this is so that there isn't a next time," Roy said, glaring at his wife, "don't sweat it."
"Oo-kay." Felicity said, glancing between the two before settling her eyes on the screen once more.
The scene changed to a warehouse at Collins and Main. Oliver dropped into the building from the roof access, warily making his way through the large space. As he walked into the center of the room, he found a terrifying sight. Twenty of the prisoners were laid out on metal tables, arranged in a circle around the biotransfuser. He made his way into the center of the circle, warily circling the figure whose blood was being used to fuel the Mirakuru army. He climbed the steps to the main bed, staring in horror at not Slade-
But Roy.
"Oh my god…" Thea whispered in horror.
Tommy looked at Roy in shock. "What the hell is he doing to you?"
Roy sighed. "He used me to filter the Mirakuru, just like Felicity had posited." He said. "He would pump it into me, and since I already had it in my system it would metabolize in my blood, which was then transferred to his 'army'." He shook his head. "And unfortunate side effect was that he was OD'ing me on Mirakuru, but the stuff was healing me instantaneously."
"So why is that a bad thing?" Felicity wondered.
"You'll see." He said darkly, his mind traveling back to the moment he shoved an arrow into a cop's heart.
He felt for a pulse- it was weak, but there. He looked Roy over, noting the main tube carrying his blood out of his body. He moved to yank it free, when a familiar voice stopped him
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Slade said. Oliver spun and drew, aiming at his former friend as he casually strolled into the room, Isabel right behind him. "Removing him mid-cycle will surely end his life."
"Slade, he's just a kid!" Oliver growled.
"Who's here only because you pushed him away." Slade said with glee. "You were the one person he looked up to. And for that, you crushed his soul."
"We found him at a shelter in Bludhaven." Isabel explained. "Pathetic. Didn't even put up a fight."
"I will." Oliver promised. "Tell me how to shut it down."
"If you could feel the power that is surging through me… you would know that I do not fear an arrow. I am stronger than you can even imagine." Slade said, pulling out his sword and subtly waving it at the convicts. "And soon I will not be alone."
"Dear god, he thinks he's Darth Vader." Tommy said sarcastically. "And does he ever shut up?!"
"He did like to hear himself talk." Mia said.
Oliver spun and fired his arrow into the fuse box, cutting the power to the machine and blacking out most of the lights. He then spun back to Slade and fired three arrows in quick succession that Slade blocked with his sword. Isabel drew a gun and opened fire, and Oliver dropped down behind the machine for cover. They ran the circle of tables with Isabel firing until Oliver threw a flechette that disarmed her. Isabel jumped and rolled over the edge of a table, kicking Oliver back and moved in to attack. He easily blocked her kicks, before punching her in the face with his fist once, then with his bow, knocking her down.
"I guess she should have trained for longer." Moira said contemptuously.
Slade rushed at him, spearing Oliver and picking him up, then ramming him into a concrete pillar. He flipped Oliver over his shoulder, sending him crashing to the ground hard.
"You can't hurt me, kid." Slade said confidently. Oliver turned over and held up his bow, then hit a hidden switch on the handle. A pair of small bolts fired from the arms of the bow, implanting into Slade's chest. He looked down at them in surprise- and then they exploded, sending him crashing to the ground.
"I bet that hurt, asshole." Laurel said viciously, rubbing her gut lightly.
Oliver grunted as he pulled himself up. He moved to the biotransfuser, stopping as something caught his eye- a small glass vial filled with a green liquid. Mirakuru, he realized, taking the vial and pocketing it. As Isabel started to pick herself up, Oliver ran up the stair of the small platform and started unhooking Roy. "Come on, Roy. All right, stay with me." He urged quietly. He looked up, startled as he heard a gun cock. He saw Isabel standing there, a triumphant grin on her face as she aimed at his head-
Then suddenly there was a gunshot, then another, and two perfect bloody holes formed on her chest. Isabel collapsed to the ground, and Oliver looked back behind him. Up on the catwalk was Diggle, his gun still aimed at Isabel just in case she moved.
She didn't.
Oliver looked past her as Slade rose from the floor. Knowing he couldn't beat him now, Oliver fired a grappling arrow into the ceiling, grabbed Roy, and hi the winch on his bow, drawing the pair into the air and out of Slade's reach.
Moira rose from her seat and walked over to Diggle. Reaching him, she leaned down, grabbed the back of his head, and pulled him in for a passionate kiss as everybody looked on in shock. After a full thirty seconds, Moira broke the kiss and then calmly walked back to her seat.
After a full minute, Felicity lightly cleared her throat. "Moving on…" she suggested.
"Absolutely.." Diggle agreed, somewhat uncomfortably.
The scene changed to the Lair a short time later. Roy was laid out on the med table, a blood bag hooked into his arm as they tried to replace what Slade had taken.
"He's lost a lot of blood." Sara said. "I don't know what the biotransfuser did to him. But his pulse is really weak; He's barely breathing. And he needs a real doctor." She urged.
"We can't take him to a hospital- they run tests." Oliver pointed out. "We need to keep what's in him from getting out."
"What do we do now?" Felicity asked.
"The only thing we can do-we wait." He said.
"Well, while we're waiting, we still have a Slade problem. He's got 20 guys just like him, and we have no way to stop him." Sara pointed out.
"Yes, we do." Oliver argued, pulling the glass tube from his pocket and holding it up for them to see.
"Is that what I think it is?" Felicity asked.
"Mirakuru." Oliver revealed.
"You weren't thinking about taking it, were you?" she asked.
"No. We're going to use it to make a cure." Oliver revealed.
"Oliver, we don't even know if it's possible to reverse the affects." Felicity argued.
Oliver sighed. "Yes, we do." He said, turning to face his friends. "Ivo did it." He revealed to their shock.
"Why didn't you ever tell us that, Oliver?" Diggle demanded.
"Because I'm ashamed." Oliver admitted.
"Of what?"
He looked at Sara, and she nodded. "Five years ago, I had the chance to use the cure on Slade. I chose to kill him." He revealed to their shock. "Everything that's happening right now is my fault."
Sara sighed. "God, he had a guilt complex that was second to none." She complained. "Everything was his fault; nobody else's actions mattered at all."
"Still, it's a step up from NOT taking responsibility for anything." Tommy noted.
"He's got a point there." Thea said.
FIVE YEARS AGO
Sara stood frozen, the gun held on Ivo as he looked on, helpless. "I saved you once, Sara." He said weakly. "It feels like a long time ago now. Time to return the favor." Her hand shook, but her finger started tightening on the trigger…
Then Oliver's hand came up and gently pushed the gun down. Ivo sighed as Oliver took the gun from Sara. "You might not believe it now, but I was considered a good man." He said. "A good doctor. A good husband." He sighed. "Until the Mirakuru drove me mad. I didn't even take any myself—"
He was cut off as Oliver shot him twice in the chest. The doctor slumped over, dead. Oliver turned away and put the gun down on a nearby crate.
"You didn't have to do that for me." Sara told him shakily.
Oliver looked at her. "Once you take a life, it changes you forever." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "And I don't want that for you."
"It was a good thought, at least." Sara said sadly.
"You know, I take back most of what I said about Queen." Lance said suddenly. "He may have been a bastard before the shipwreck, but afterwards he did try to look out for you girls."
"He really did." Dinah agreed.
"Thank you." She said gratefully.
Anatoly and Jerry came back into the fuselage. "Schastlivchik." He muttered, looking at the body of the good doctor. "So, now what do we do?" he wondered.
"Well, I don't suppose any of you know how to pilot a submarine?" Oliver asked.
"The sub!" Tommy exclaimed, then frowned. "Wait, I thought that it was grounded?"
"There are ways of shaking it loose." Malcolm noted. "None of them safe, though."
"No, it really wasn't safe." Sara said.
PRESENT
The scene changed to Queen Manor as Moira watched helplessly as Thea walked down the stair, a bag on her shoulder. "Thea." She began as Thea grabbed the handle of a red suitcase that was already at the base of the stairs. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Just grabbing some stuff. Something tells me the mansion's new owner won't want my clothes here." She replied snarkily as she headed for the door.
"Thea, wait." Moira tried. Thea ignored her, and sighed in annoyance as Oliver stepped into her path, blocking her. "Now he's not busy." She groused.
"I'm so sorry, that couldn't be helped." Oliver said quietly. "May I speak to you now?" he asked. She rolled her eyes, but looked at him, silently telling him to go on. "Dad knew the truth." He revealed to both hers and Moira's shock.
"What?" Moira gasped.
"He knew about Merlyn." Oliver repeated.
"How? He never said anything to me." Moira said in surprise.
"He didn't have to." Oliver said, smiling at his sister. "Thea, whatever Dad's faults were He loved us. All of us. Because we were his family. You were his daughter, and some stupid blood test wasn't going to change that." He told her. "He chose us. He chose you. He made a decision to be your father, even though he didn't have to be." He stared at his sister, who was struggling not to cry. "So what does that tell you?" he asked gently.
Thea pulled herself together and glared at the two of them. "It tells me that he's a liar. Just like both of you." She spat before brushing past Oliver and walking out of the mansion.
"You know, it occurs to me that Felicity could have probably forged my signature on those documents." Mia said suddenly.
"Oh sure, I definitely could have. It would be really easy to do…" she trailed off at the look Quentin was giving her. "…not that I'd ever do anything like that. Nope. Not at all."
The scene changed to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Cisco and Caitlin had moved to packing up equipment in the lab. A knock on the door got their attention, and they looked up in surprise as Felicity strode briskly into the room. "I need you guys to do me a favor." She began, holding up the vial of Mirakuru. "This time, it'll be our secret." Caitlin reached out and took the vial, silently urging Felicity to continue.
"Frosty and Vibe to the rescue." Roy said with a grin.
"They certainly saved your ass." Mia said.
"I dare you to call her 'Frosty' to her face." Dinah added with a smirk.
The scene changed to Verdant. A despondent Oliver sat on the stairs to the second level, staring at a small picture of his family taken several years ago.
"Oliver." He looked up to see Laurel standing there at the door. He slipped the picture into his pocket and stood as she walked towards him silently, staring at him. Suddenly she surged forward and hugged him tightly.
"What's this for?" he asked.
"Because you're important to me." She replied quietly. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to become lost in the hug.
The scene changed to the warehouse. In the darkened room, Slade was fixing his sleeve after disconnecting himself from the biotransfuser. He stepped down to the last remaining table, occupied by a single figure-
Isabel Rochev.
He placed his hand on her forehead as her eyes, still bloody from the tears, opened wide, the Mirakuru having healed her. Around them his army gathered, ready to go to war.
Moira groaned.
"Well, shit." Tommy said.
"Don't worry; she still sucks." Roy told him.
"Before we continue," Mia said, her voice grave, "I want to say one thing. This next memory set will be the last for today, and we may take a break tomorrow as well." She swallowed hard. "There are only two other memories of my own that compare to this one, and I …" she cleared her throat. "I—"
"This is where I'm killed, isn't it?" Moira said, causing Thea to stiffen. Mia nodded, but didn't say anything. "Well, there's no use delaying the inevitable. Let's get started."
TBC
A/N: There is a wrestling-themed Easter egg in this chapter. I'll give you a hint- think Canadian.
There is a second Easter egg for anyone familiar with the DC comics.
I don't normally beg for reviews, but I see that, as I write this, I have 960 reviews! Only a handful of chapters left in this story, so lets see if we can break 1000!
At the end when Oliver was looking at the picture of his family, I froze the fame to get a look. While I know the actors gave the producers pictures from when they were younger and the crew spliced them together into a single picture, it was amusing to see how the actors looked when they were younger. Willa Holland kind of looks like Emma Watson from the early Harry potter days, and Stephen Amell kind of looks like Scott Kahn from Hawaii Five-0.
Finally, my apologies. I did a final edit of this chapter on the website (as I always do), but when I clicked to save the changes, the site instead logged me out and told me to log back in. Of course, all of my work was lost. This is the second time this site has done this. So there isn't a lot of Dinah in there, because all of the stuff I added was hers.