Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.

I decided that since I already did a pretty close to a "stations of canon" fic with Vigilantes' Dawn, I want to try something a little different here. So while Olivia will be going after most of the same baddies that Oliver did in canon, she may do them in different orders, and she'll certainly do them in different ways.

We'll also be having her go up against names that were on the list but never actually happened in the show, or other people we learned Oliver went against later, but didn't happen in actual season 1 as we saw onscreen.

Different Queens

By Kylia

Where'd You Learn That One?

Coming back from the dead probably should have felt more... profound.

Instead, it was just... annoying. The whole process was simple enough, but it took longer than she'd have liked, and then the paparazzi - though Tara had helped deal with them more constructively than Olivia would have if she'd had her choice, and then stopping by the corporate offices, to take a look around, at the way things were going...

Moira had taken her interest in the company as a sign that maybe she might want to take over as CEO someday, but that went far beyond Olivia's plans. She needed some sort of cover, something to explain what she did with her days, and being able to move in corporate circles would give her more opportunity to research her targets.

But even if she didn't have the mission, she knew being a CEO was not in the cards for her.

But she did have the mission. Hunt was arrested yesterday, and the news was still buzzing with the reports of the robbery of his money, the proof against him for his other crimes and speculation about this mysterious archer. The police sketch she'd given after being 'rescued' by the vigilante had hit the media - it looked just close enough to what she actually looked like in the good to seem right, but it presented a more masculine cast to the visible part of her face, the way she'd described it to the sketch artist - and the media was running wild.

And they couldn't agree on if 'he' was a monster, or a modern-day Robin Hood, or somewhere in between. Social media was exploding about it as well.

I wasn't intending on going viral on twitter, but I suppose it was inevitable.

But that still left a question of who to target first, and how. Hunt had been simple - there was an active case against him, a recent failed lawsuit, an easy trail of who suffered at his hands and how to give them recompense. The guilt was easy to determine.

It wasn't always going to be that easy. If she was going to do this, she had to do it right. Find enough proof for her own satisfaction, even if a bought and paid for court system didn't accept it.

Force them to recompense their victims, or stop whatever operations are presently hurting people is the first priority. Trying to arrange things so that even the justice system in Starling wouldn't be able to ignore their crimes was ideal, if she could manage it.

But helping the people who were being hurt and putting a stop to them was more important. The courts were... not enough.

Olivia was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of her door opening, without even a knock. She looked up, Tara coming in, arms crossed in front of her as she leaned against the wall, closing the door behind her.

"You've been avoiding being alone in a room with me." She observed, her tone conversational, not even accusatory.

"Why would I be doing that?" Olivia shrugged, but she didn't take her eyes off Tara. Did she have to act?

"Well, maybe because you didn't want me asking you about what you pulled when we left your party. You learn that move avoiding the paparazzi too?" Tara uncrossed her arms and stepped closer, resting her palms on Olivia's desk and looking over the computer at her. "I told you I'd keep your secrets as your bodyguard, and yet, you seem determined to ditch me. Makes a woman wonder why, really. But - the why matters less than this," Tara leaned forward, making an effort to loom over Olivia a bit. Olivia wasn't bothered, but someone else might have been. "If you put your hands on me like that again, client or not, I will hurt you."

On the one hand, Tara Michele was former special forces. On the other hand, Olivia was fairly confident she had nothing to worry about, even from her. But in an actual fight, rather than surprise, it wouldn't be immediate, likely.

"Entirely fair. I'll try not to do it again." Olivia answered. "Is that all?"

"Not quite." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of newspaper, cut out of the front page, unfolding it and dropping it on the desk in front of Olivia, before stepping back and crossing her arms again. "Funny, isn't it? The way you dropped me with a move someone like you, with your history, has no reason to know right before someone stole $40 Million off Adam Hunt. Wasn't your party a few blocks from his offices?"

Olivia lifted up the paper, the headline reading 'HOODED ARCHER STEALS $40 MILLION', and a grainy, low-quality image of said archer fighting Hunt's security. There must have been a poor-angled camera she'd missed. But it gave no shot of her face, and was utterly useless for identification.

Tara had an odd timing, but it was hardly something she could take to the police. Olivia dropped the paper back onto the desk. This was hardly a blackmail attempt. She'd started her background check on Tara Michele, and she wasn't the type.

"Was it?" Olivia shrugged. "My visit to the company today is the first time I've really paid attention to anything corporate-related."

"I seem to recall your mother saying something about a guy in a hood rescuing you from those kidnappers too." Tara noted. "I can think of a few reasons you'd be so determined to keep something secret you'd pull the crap you've pulled, but there's a good one right there."

Olivia leaned back in her chair. "You think I'm this... Robin Hood? Really?"

"Robina Hood, maybe," Tara countered. "And it doesn't really matter what I think. So far, your mother knows nothing about your disappearing acts, and she won't ever hear about them from me. But," she gave Olivia a pointed look. "If you keep ditching me like this, I'll quit. And you'll have to hope the next bodyguard your mother hires is as understanding." Turning around, Tara left the room.

Murder and Vice

"In the last week, three prostitutes, all suspected of being illegal immigrants from Kasnia or Markovia. Each one had some dubiously accurate paperwork, but there's a lot to suggest they're fake IDs." Loren laid out the photos on the table, each victim killed with a double-tap to the chest, each one left out in the open, where prostitutes of immigrant extraction tended to do their work, on or near their 'street corners'.

"I don't care about their immigration status, or the immigration status of any other person in this city. I'm a homicide detective, and Detective Hall over here is vice. Our problem is that someone is killing these women, and it's having a chilling effect on the rest of them." Loren continued.

McKenna stepped forward, putting down a photo of John Byrne. "This is John Byrne. For the last few months, Vice has been trying to put together a case against him for human trafficking." McKenna was making an effort to be professional, clipped, focused, but Loren could tell she was barely holding back the anger. She knew two of the dead girls personally, and had spoken to them many times. She felt responsible for their deaths. Though she knew it was all Byrne's fault.

"He's been bringing in girls from Eastern and Southeastern Europe into port cities up and down the west coast for years now," McKenna continued, arms crossed behind her back, "but Starling seems to have been his main focus the last few years. We think it's because he has someone in the port or customs on his payroll, but we don't know for sure. Regardless, all three of these girls were ones we were working on trying to flip on him. None of them had agreed, but this is obviously about silencing them and intimidating the rest."

"Which is where we come in. This is still primarily a vice-led task force, but with these murders, it's also a homicide case, so the Captain wants us all working together on this." Loren explained, gesturing to the other three detectives from homicide with him. Thankfully none of them were his dad. Leaving aside the fact that giving orders as the lead detective to his father would have been... awkward, Loren was not in the mood to be around the man.

Another thing I suppose I should technically be grateful to this vigilante for. His dad was still working on that case, and apparently pulling favors to try and get a task force to deal with 'Robin Hood or whoever the fuck he thinks he is'

Either way, given the way his father had behaved the last few days since Olivia's return from the dead, Loren wanted as little as possible to do with him, for now. I hold out a vain hope he'll get over himself. But Loren doubted that. Five years and he still hadn't.

But as long as his father was focused on the vigilante, Loren wouldn't have to deal with him as much.

"These body dumps all happened outside the Glades, so we might actually get some eyewitnesses, but we have to be careful. Plain clothes, no police lights, flash your badges as discreetly as possible. Understand?" Byrne was willing to kill his own girls for this, so he'd be happy to deal with eyewitnesses to murders, body dumps, or anything else.

"We also know where the girls liked to operate. Jackson, you're coming with me while we search the third girl's apartment. Get the car ready, and I'll catch up with you in a minute."

"Right." Jackson nodded and the other two detectives filed out. Loren looked over at Mckenna, who was looking at the pictures of the bodies, biting her lip.

"Don't worry. We'll find something we can use to nail the killer." Loren assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

McKenna put her own hand over his, inhaling. "If anyone in Starling can, it's you. But connecting them back to Byrne is going to be the hard part. He's not going to hire people that will be willing to flip on him, and it's not like we can count on a convenient archer to rob him too." She chuckled darkly.

"God, I hope not," Loren let out a long breath. "It's been three days, and Adam Hunt's lawyers are already trying to get everything thrown out because of this vigilante attacking his office, robbing him... if this was in front of Judge Grell it would already have been tossed out. But technically, none of our evidence comes from this vigilante, so..." Loren shrugged. "So, we're safe." He ran his other hand through his hair, squeezing her shoulder a moment, then, after a quick peck, headed out to meet Jackson.

This vigilante saved Olivia and Tommy. That ... I can appreciate him for that. But the way that he'd chased down that last kidnapper, killed him in such a brutal way... put a half-dozen security guards in the hospital, some with injuries that would leave them crippled for life, he'd killed Hunt's man Drakon, and used another as a human shield against a hail of gunfire that left that one dead as well... sure, Hunt was a bastard, and a murderer by proxy, and anyone who worked for him directly for long was crooked but...

That doesn't mean it's okay to kill them. Or rob them. Or put them in the hospital. Else Loren could drive down to the port now and put a few bullets into Byrne.

There was a reason why they had courts. Juries. Judges. Rules of procedure. He hated them sometimes. No, scratch that. He hated them a lot. But... They were there for a reason. And here was this vigilante, who, if he kept up as he'd had so far, such as it was, had taken onto himself the ability to decide right and wrong, guilty and innocent, without any checks or oversight.

I don't know if I could trust myself with that sort of authority. Loren certainly wouldn't want to have it. So why should this vigilante have the right to do this? Loren didn't know who he was, how he decided who was guilty? Who said they could trust this guy, at all?

On the other hand...

Hunt would still be out there, probably cleaning house and arranging for more murders, if not for the vigilante. He saved two innocent people's lives, with Olivia and Tommy. Isn't that a net positive?

Good Kind of Crazy

"Olivia, you said you wanted a role in the company, this would be perfect. For you, and the company." Her mother pressed, following her as she left the living room, moving towards the stairs. "The Applied Sciences Center, dedicated to your father, and run by you?"

"Except I don't know anything about science, mom!" Olivia pointed out. She didn't need to add that she didn't know anything about business, since that was a given. "And the CEO position is going to be Theo's, if he wants it, not mine. I don't need to be groomed for some... executive position."

"You're older-"

"And? This isn't a monarchy, Mom. Theo's been preparing to go to the Starling City Business School for a masters degree since he was eleven!" And Olivia had, at the time, worried about the way Theo had been directed onto that path, to become CEO eventually, but he'd always seemed to have no issues with it. And thankfully, the last five years hadn't changed that.

"Olivia, there will be people to help you actually make the management discussions at the Applied Sciences-" His mother started.

Then just put them in charge.

"I'm not asking to be put in charge of anything, I just want a place at the company." Olivia tried to keep her voice calm. "And I'm not saying give me some... entry level minimum wage job either." Not that there was any danger of her mom doing that. It would be 'unbecoming' for a Queen to have a job like that. Because god forbid anyone in this family do something so menial.

Not that Olivia would have time for that kind of job, but five years had shown her just how much her mother's worldview was warped by her money. How much Olivia's own view of the world had been warped.

"Then what exactly do you have in mind, Olivia?" Her mother demanded, sounding exasperated. She let out a breath.

"Something that I could actually do." Not that Olivia was really sure what that could be, but she'd been trying to figure it out. Something she could at least be competent at, something she could fall back on after she was done with the mission, but something that wouldn't interfere with her... nightly activities.

She caught Tara's eye - the bodyguard had been following from a distance, her face a very careful mask, showing no reaction to the conversation she'd overheard.

"Well, once you have something you'll settle on, let me know then?" Her mother's frustration was well hidden, but Olivia knew her well enough to pick up on it. Olivia nodded, assuring her she would, and then continued up the stairs and into her room, Tara close behind.

"Come on in," Olivia gestured to the bodyguard, "Close the door behind you."

Tara did so, and Olivia turned to look at her bodyguard.

"I've done my research. You have to take the papers and the tabloids with a lot of salt, but you were never interested in working for a living before." Tara observed, curiosity evident without needing to see the way she raised an eyebrow.

"I was 22. Young, stupid, and more interested in partying. I don't want to be that anymore." Olivia countered. The tabloids were already speculating when she would start her old habits up again, and there was apparently betting online as to when she'd have her first 'wardrobe malfunction'

It wasn't that Olivia wanted to care about this perception of her, but... that wasn't who she was, and she didn't think she could fake it again. Not without risking falling back into bad habits.

"But I didn't ask you in here to talk about me. I wanted to talk about you." Olivia watched Tara's carefully neutral expression. "You said you were former special forces, out of Afghanistan. I wondered why you left."

"Can't serve in the Army forever. Sooner or later, it gets to you." Tara offered, noncommittal. It wasn't a lie, Olivia could tell, but it was hardly the full reason.

"So it had nothing to do with the fact that you were drummed out quietly for going to ARGUS about several of your squadmates helping the heroin kingpins get their product out of Afghanistan. Against direct orders from your superior officers." The army had wanted to handle it in-house, according to Tara Michelle's ARGUS file, but they'd been taking too long, and so Tara had gone to someone else who could deal with it.

Tara's neutral expression vanished as she stared at Olivia, eyes wide, mouth open, arms fallen by her side. "How-?" She managed to clear her throat and regain control of herself, taking a few steps closer to her. "How the hell do you know that?!"

"It was in your ARGUS file. Also had the incident where you reported a group of marines who were forcing the wives of several prisoners to have sex with them so their husbands wouldn't be abused in captivity." Olivia observed. Reading about that one had made her blood boil. "Those aren't the only times you prioritized doing what was right above all else. Just the most notable."

Tara inhaled sharply. "None of that is your business."

"I had to know if I could trust you." Olivia offered. She hadn't wanted to use the ARGUS access she still had. It was limited, and she was certain Waller was using it as a lure - tempting her with the resources ARGUS had to offer, to bring her fully under her control. Or a way to keep track of her.

Probably both. And a secret third thing Olivia hadn't even thought of. That woman's mind was wheels within wheels within wheels.

"And how did you even - most civilians don't even know ARGUS exists. Hell. Most soldiers, marines, airmen - they're the most secretive agency in the US government." Tara scoffed. "If you're about to tell me that you work for ARGUS and robbing Adam Hunt like that was-"

"I don't work for ARGUS." Olivia interrupted quickly. She would never work for someone like Waller. "I was forced - quite literally - into helping them. I still have some limited - and carefully monitored - access to some of their low-security files and data."

"You were forced - on the island?"

"I wasn't actually on the island for five years." Olivia shook her head. "It's not up for discussion." Not now, Not ever. The last five years...

She had no desire to talk about them, think about them... no more than was absolutely necessary.

"Then what the hell is? The fact that you're running around shooting arrows in people?" Tara shot. "What is this about? Adam Hunt was bottom-feeding scum, sure, but did that really merit the whole Robin Hood routine?"

"Yes." Olivia replied flatly.

"So what, you got roped into working for ARGUS, learned archery and decided you get to pick right and wrong?" Tara opened her mouth, closed it, then, "It's one thing to do that in a warzone, like Afghanistan, or- but - this is the US. You can't just run around taking the law into your own hands! Who made you arbiter?"

Olivia inhaled slowly. It was, in a way, a fair question. She had clarity. A mission. Ivo thought what he was doing was right. Waller was convinced of her own standing, that she was doing what was 'necessary'. She turned away for a moment, looking out the window, then pulled the curtains shut and put a hand in her pocket.

"I found a lot of things while I was away. Clarity was one of them. Another was this." She pulled out the List. "I lied to the court when I said that my father didn't make it to a lifeboat. We both did. And he shot himself, so there'd be enough supplies for me, to have a chance to get rescued." Olivia swallowed, trying to ignore the look of shock and pity on Tara's face. "I found this on him when I buried him. My father failed Starling City, and in there is a list of everyone else who failed this city too. Adam Hunt was just the first. I gave him a chance to pay his victims back. He turned it down."

Olivia turned her computer screen around, showing the face of her next target. "This is John Byrne. He's been trafficking girls into the US through ports up and down the west coast. Starling especially. But he's been untouchable for years."

Tara's eyes narrowed, and she looked at the picture, then back at her. She opened her mouth, paused. Closed it. "...You want my help."

"It would be easier than ditching you every time, or whoever my mother hires if you quit. And you're a soldier. You know what it's like to fight a war, which is exactly-"

"This isn't a war, Olivia." Tara cut in. "There's a lot of things someone can say about what you're about this... hit list of yours, or your father's. Necessary, crazy, evil, heroic... a war is not one of them. War isn't some one-woman crusade."

Olivia watched Tara carefully. This was the make or break moment. Had she read the other woman wrong?

"Well, what do you say then? Because it doesn't have to be a one-woman crusade." Olivia held out her hand, stepping closer to Tara.

Tara looked at the hand, looked at Olivia, probably picking up a little on the way Olivia had braced herself to strike if she had to. Not all of it, but Olivia had no doubt about Tara's skills being real and extensive.

"I say it's crazy." Tara said, then quickly reached out and grabbed Olivia's hand, shaking it. "But I also think it's the good kind of crazy."

The Port of Starling I

Two more days of monitoring Byrne's movements, and taking advantage of Tara's own expertise. Somewhat to Olivia's surprise, Tara was not a bad hand with hacking, and could put her skills to use in a broader array of ways than Olivia could - her theft from Adam Hunt had relied on being able to connect to his servers locally, behind all the firewalls.

Tara was an enthusiastic self-taught amateur who had mostly abandoned that hobby when she joined the Army, but she kept herself at least up to date on the techniques and technology.

There were limits on what she could do, but between Olivia's scouting, and Tara's hacking, Olivia had a firm idea of Byrne's schedule. She wasn't one hundred percent sure that he was getting a shipment tonight, but as she shot a grapple arrow over the fence surrounding the Port of Starling, letting it pull her up onto a stack of shipping containers, she was going to find out.

A complete list of Byrne's victims was impossible without a look at his own books and records - assuming he even kept all the names in one place like that. The best chance for them to get some restitution would be lawsuits... after his imprisonment. That would be the only way anyone could be safe to do it, and be sure that a jury even in Starling City or any other city he operated in would rule against him.

Which meant she needed to catch him red-handed, with a shipment of girls.

Jumping down from one shipping container to another below it, Oliva crouched and got eyes on Byrne again.

"...look, you son of a bitch, this may be your port, but if you really think you can demand a bigger cut without doing anything, then you've got something else coming. I don't have to move my product through your port." Byrne was on the phone with someone.

"Any chance you can figure out who he's talking to?" Olivia murmured.

"If you're asking if I can hack into his phone carrier and trace a number, no." Tara replied over the earpiece. "But I can aim one of the cameras right at him."

"And what good will that do?" Olivia countered. The CEO of the Port of Starling was Martin Somers - which did put him on the list of people Byrne could be talking to - but he was on the List too. He wasn't going to turn that kind of footage over to the police.

"I can save a copy and if he says anything incriminating..." She could hear the shrug in Tara's voice. "Like I told you, this was always a hobby for me. The security cameras aren't very well protected in the Port's security system."

Probably deliberate. Olivia considered. If Somers was in the same vein as Hunt, as Bryne, as everyone else on the list... then he would want to have an excuse for why the cameras 'mysteriously' didn't have video of things that happened. Low security due to budget cuts, files deleted remotely.

Something like that anyway.

Byrne spoke again, whoever he was speaking to was finally done on the other end of the line. "...no, I'm not afraid of the Triad. They're not your muscle, and they don't work for you." Another pause. "If you want a bigger cut, then I want priority unloading for my container. The last container I nearly lost three girls to starvation because your system left it hanging on the ship for too long."

Triad. Olivia stiffened, her mind going to a very specific old enemy. But there were a lot of triads and each one was itself large, and there was almost no chance China White would be here, in Starling.

But even a small chance... Olivia would have to look into that. If the local triad was at all connected to the 14K China White worked for, they might eventually reach out to their best killer if she caused them trouble.

Olivia was a far better combatant than last time she'd seen China White, but there was every chance the other woman would realize who she was, if they faced each other.

"Then I think, Somers, we can call that a deal." Byrne hung up the phone. "Bastard. Well, let's get this over with," He gestured to the four men with him. None of them had visible weapons, but she could see bulges under their coats.

"Which way are they going?" Olivia watched two take the lead, getting out of sight from where she was crouched.

"One 'block' west from your current position and you'll have a better angle on them." Tara said after a moment. "If I had to guess, I'd say they're heading for the northwest corner of the port, but I can't be sure."

With Tara on the cameras monitoring their movements, Olivia leapt from stack of containers to stack of containers, following close behind. Byrne wasn't saying much, occasionally barking orders to his men.

"Is the truck ready?" Byrne demanded of one of his men after a few minutes, and the man pulled out a handheld radio, speaking into it for a moment. Then he nodded to Byne after an affirmative response came back. "Good. Then let's open the container up. No sense in letting my property sit here any longer."

Byrne stepped back, allowing one of his men to approach the container and unlock it, the doors quickly swinging open, the cries and gasps of at least a dozen women audible. Bryne barked out a command for them to be silent in Russian, as his men pulled out guns.

I doubt all of them speak Russian, but it's hard to miss the intention of guns pointed at you. Olivia climbed to another container, getting a better vantage. All the girls in the container, or at least the ones she could get a good sight of from here, were thin, pale, and terrified.

"How many of you speak Russian? Raise your hands please" Byrne demanded in that same language, and three that Olivia could see raised their hands slowly. "Good. Now translate for the rest of your friends, will you?" They nodded, eyes wide, huddling back. No doubt they'd been brutalized on the other end of whatever smuggling chain had brought them here. Plus weeks in the container...

"In a few minutes, a truck will be here." Byrne continued in Russian. His accent was atrocious, but one could understand it, and he was fluent in the language. Does he have connections to the Bratva? Not that the Bratva was the only organized crime group in Russia, or the former Soviet Union at large...

"You'll be getting on that truck, quickly, and quietly. You'll do everything you're told, when you're told. Once you reach your destination, you'll be fed, and given clean clothes and a bath. Or, you can disobey, try to run, fight back or backtalk, and you'll get a bullet to the skull and be dumped into the ocean. Are we clear?"

There was a pause as the girls translated for the others. Olivia couldn't tell if the language the girls were speaking was Markovian or Kasnian or another Eastern European language.

Now's the time. "Tip off the cops, send them the camera footage. I'm going to make sure Byrne's here to greet them." Olivia didn't wait for a response as she fired off two arrows in quick succession, one getting one of Bryne's goons in the shoulder, another knocking the gun out of a second one's hand.

"What the fuck!" Byrne ducked back, pulling out a gun of his own. Olivia dropped off the container, to another, then dropped and rolled off that, coming around the corner and firing again as the guards started shooting in the direction her arrows had come from.

"Arrows? It's that fucking loon who attacked Hunt?! What the hell!?" Byrne was shouting as Olivia fired again, getting another guard in the leg, and then she was among them. She grabbed the back of one's head and pulled him down onto her knee, ducking under a punch and dropping the guard, hitting the leg she'd shot with her bow, dropping the guard onto his back as he fell over.

Another arrow fired, and this one missed her target by an inch, a last minute movement, but it made him flinch, giving Olivia time to run, and dive, letting one punch at her - she leveraged his momentum, grabbing his arm, twisting, pulling him around, in front of her as the bullets Byrne fired from his own gun connected with the guard's chest.

"Who the fuck are you!?" Bryne shouted, diving away. Olivia was about to shoot at him, but one of the other guards had pulled the arrow from his shoulder and gotten back up - he punched her in the back, sending her staggering, gasping.

Olivia spun, pulling an arrow out of her quiver and driving it upwards into the guard's stomach as he charged her. All four of them were out now, for good finally, and Olivia turned back to Byrne...

To see him holding one of the girls, gun to her head, his other arm around her waist, using her as a shield. He was standing near another container.

"I don't know who the fuck you are, or what the hell you want, but you're going to put that bow down or I put a bullet through this girl's skull!" Byrne snapped. The girl was whimpering and crying, "SHUT UP!" He screamed at the girl.

"Looks like there are cops on the way, but you've got at least five minutes, maybe more." Tara's voice murmured in her ear.

Olivia didn't say anything, lowering the bow, dropping it to the ground.

"Who the hell do you work for!? Who hired you to take out Hunt?" Byrne growled. "It was a nice touch, making yourself look like some Robin Hood, giving all that money to his victims, but we don't live in a fucking fairytale. Who paid you to take me out and steal my property?! Was it the Mexicans? Is the Triad trying to muscle in on my business?" Byrne's eyes were wide, his expression crazed. He sounded absolutely certain of his belief that the archer in front of him was some criminal mercenary.

"Whatever they paid you, I'll double it! Or I'll kill this girl, and all the others!"

Olivia didn't say anything, taking a step to the left, not closer to him, but a better angle.

"WHO HIRED YOU!?" Byrne demanded.

"John Byrne - You Have Failed This City!" Olivia ground out in a loud, deep voice, pulling a flechette off her wrist, flinging it into Byrne's hand - the sudden pain right at his wrist had Byrne dropping the gun. Olivia picked up her bow, moving forward as Byrne tried to rip the flechette from his wrist, but Olivia was there before he could, pulling the girl out of his grip.

"Police are coming," Olivia said in Russian as she gently - as much as she could under the circumstances - pushed the girl out of the way. She punched Byrne in the gut as he finally managed to pull the Flechette out of his wrist. The trafficker staggered back, bumping into the container - and Olivia pulled out another arrow, firing it right into the palm of his hand, the same one she'd hit with the flechette, pinning his hand to the container. She could hear police sirens in the distance - quite a bit of distance, but there were presumably several, and very loud.

"If you somehow manage to escape prison," Olivia growled, still masking her voice, "I'll be paying you another visit. And I won't be this merciful." She shot another arrow, not at Byne's body, but pinning his suit jacket to the shipping container as well, the arrow placed such that his free hand would have a very hard time getting at it and it out before the police got to him.

"I'll KILL YOU!" Byrne snarled as Olivia fired a grapple arrow at another stack of containers, "You won't get away with this!" Olivia was already climbing up the containers and vanishing out of his sight as he continued to rave.

Part of Olivia wanted to just kill him now. But killing had to be the second choice. She had to give her targets that chance, that one chance, to make things right.

Endnote: We will be getting a Tara POV vignette next chapter that should help make her own perspective on all of this make more sense. I agree it feels a bit abrupt - Diggle took a whole episode - but Tara isn't Diggle. She does think and work differently than him, and she's already had several days to get used to the idea that Olivia was almost certainly the one wearing the hood anyway.