Previously, on Arrow: In a dystopian future of Star City, Mia Smoak and the vigilante Canaries staged a vigilante rebellion against the tyrannical Galaxy One, the terroristic Eden Corp, and the savage cruelty of the Deathstroke gang. It was the new Deathstroke himself, a sadistic and violent John Diggle Jr, who ultimately killed Zoe Ramirez, her friend and daughter of Rene "Wild Dog" Ramirez in front of Mia and her comrades.
Mar Novu, the Monitor, recalled the legacy vigilantes from the future to 2019 to help in the Crisis of Infinite Earths. While Mia met her father for the first time, Oliver Queen ultimately died during the fight so that he could rise again as the Spectre, guardian of the multiverse and defender of all reality. In doing so, he restored the shattered fragments of the old multiverse into a single "Prime Earth" from which the multiverse would spread anew.
In this new world, Mia Queen was leading a happy civilian life alongside her long-time boyfriend John "JJ" Diggle Jr. A temporally displaced Dinah Drake, now owner of an upscale bar and mysteriously erased from history, was reluctantly forced by Laurel Lance of the erased Earth-2 to restore Mia's memories and request her help in saving Bianca Bertinelli. Their investigation revealed a new Deathstroke gang under the command of Trevor Duell, her fanatical ex-boyfriend who chose to detonate an entire building instead of surrendering to the heroes with the chilling words: "You can't stop what's coming - she won't let you." Mia spotted a strange tattoo on his wrist that resembled the Hōzen her father had once found on Lian Yu before he was unguled in the explosion.
Later that night, Sara Lance arrived from the past to escort Mia back in time to attend her father's memorial service where she was also forced to rescue the younger version of her brother. Meanwhile, in 2040, Laurel admitted to Dinah that her presence in the future was not as cosmically mysterious as Dinah's was. Sara had warned Laurel that Star City would start to fall in 2041 with Mia somehow at the centre of it. The Legends were unable to leave the timestream unprotected for the extensive duration preventing it would take and Laurel had volunteered for the role. Saving Bianca was simply the first domino they needed to keep from toppling as she and Dinah now watch over and stand alongside the new Green Arrow.
Elsewhere, JJ is attacked in his apartment by a cloaked figure who forcibly restored his memories from before the Crisis.
A/N: A few small details of the penultimate Arrow episode "Green Arrow & The Canaries" will be adapted for the purposes of this story, primarily minor adjustments to timing of events and some backstory as added in the recap above. These discrepancies should cease by chapter 5 and will be mostly unnoticeable (I hope).
Star City - 2040
The Fish Net
Despite an untested team and difficult conditions, two Black Canaries and a budding Green Arrow had been not only successful in rescuing Bianca Betinelli but in taking down her lunatic ex-boyfriend's twisted little homage to the legend of the assassin Deathstroke. While ultimately agreeing to help in the new age of heroes, Dinah could sense that Laurel had another agenda for coming to the future and pressed the issue to an unfortunate revelation;
"Sara said when the city falls, someone is at the centre of it: Mia." Dinah stared at the tablet in shock. Displayed on screen was a news article from 2041, detailing that Mia was the culprit behind city-wide devastation.
"But Bianca was dead in the future and Mia wasn't the Green Arrow. We should be in the clear, right?" She was less experienced than Laurel but Dinah had seen enough movies to know that changing the past always changed the future.
"I hope so." Laurel said softly. "I really hope so." A gentle knock at the door interrupted the quiet moment.
"Hey," An unmistakable voice sounded behind the door. "Can I come in?"
Staring at each other, the pair instantly went on alert. "Coming!" Dinah called as Laurel powered down her tablet and shoved it under a seat cushion. "Mia." Dinah greeted her guest. "We didn't expect to see you again so soon." She noticed the canvas bag carried in one hand. "You going somewhere?"
"Just got back," Dropping her bag by the door, the edge of a compound bow could be seen peeking out. "Sara woke me up."
"Sara?" Laurel straightened up. "Why was she here?" Only Sara, Laurel, and Dinah knew that Mia was somehow destined to bring about the collapse of Star City. If Mia knew her future, there was no way of knowing how it would play out.
"She took me to Dad's funeral." Eyes widened as they finally placed the moment. The pair of senior heroes had taken the funeral in real time and only known that Mia had come from some point in the future. That time was now.
"Wow," Laurel instinctively fell back into sarcasm. "She has bad timing in every universe."
"No," Mia muttered in disagreement. "It was… nice." There was nothing much to say after that and they all sat in silence for a minute. "Look, about this new team you want to put together: I want to help. It's what" Her phone burst into life. "Shit, sorry, no signal in the past." She pulled the handset and mouthed apologies as she answered the call.
"Mia!" JJ's panicked voice screamed down the connection. "Help me!"
"Shut up!" A much harsher tone cut down the connection.
"JJ? JJ!" Mia shouted into her phone.
"Mia, what's going on?" Laurel was instantly by her side.
"Dinah," Mia thrust her phone at Dinah. "I need you to track the last call on my cell phone."
"On it," When a Queen spoke in that tone, it meant there was no time to waste. Taking the handset, she paired it to her own and began a trace.
"Mia," Laurel carefully gripped her shoulder. "What's going on?"
"It's JJ." She snapped. "Someone's taken him."
"Got it!" Dinah was surprised at how quickly the trace had gone. "Star City Museum."
"Let's go," Mia was already turning to the door when the Canaries blocked her way. "Move!" She ordered. They didn't.
"Mia, that trace went way too easily." Dinah explained. "This is probably a trap."
"Or JJ found the one unlocked handset still operating on a landline and actually remembers a phone number." Laurel said sarcastically. Even in 2020, humanity had long since assigned phone numbers to their contacts app.
"If you guys want to stay away from this, that's your business but get the hell out of my way," Mia said simply. "Otherwise, we're wasting time." The two Canaries looked at each other uneasily.
"We're with you." Dinah conceded. "But no rushing in blind, we take this like every other mission."
"Fine," Mia snarled. "But I'm not holding back." Five minutes ago, she had been at her father's funeral and rescuing her brother from a kidnapping. Today was the exactly wrong time to fuck with people she cared about.
Forty years of combined experience managed to convince Mia that they needed to do at least a preliminary scout of the area. That, and the threat of having to fight her way past two Canaries unless she did this properly. "There's too many cops to sneak in." Dinah peered at the group thronging outside the building. The entire plaza was illuminated in strobing red and blue as police taped off the perimeter.
"Hang on," Laurel pulled a small radio from the small of her back. "Code 10-33, repeat, code 10-33, APO and AWIK on the intersection of O'Neil and Dillin." Every officer in the plaza below was instantly scrambling for vehicles. Within a minute, even the stragglers from inside had cleared out. "Okay," she cautiously stepped out above the parapet. "That should give us a few minutes."
"What did you do?" Mia had had no need to learn police codes in this life and the ones from her restored memories mostly revolved around vigilante activities.
"10-33 is an officer requesting emergency response," Dinah explained as they clambered down the fire escape. "APO and AWIK mean Assault on Police Office and Assault With Intent to Kill."
The three sprinted out over the concourse and up through the broken remains of the front doors. Inside was a single guard from the museum, already looking hopeful that someone was already coming back to relieve him. Mia simply let her momentum force him back into his chair and pulled her bow in a single movement as a boot made sure he didn't try to escape.
"Who was here?" She growled as the arrowhead made the guard go gently cross-eyed. "What. Was. Taken?!"
"Ai, buh, whee!" A pudgy finger pointed down the hallway before the eyes rolled all the way back and he collapsed gently into a drooling heap.
"Yeah, you can't push them that hard." Laurel knocked Mia's boot away and carefully folded the prone body into the recovery position. "Your dad had the same issue a few times."
"Didn't he used to shoot people first and ask questions later?" Even though the memories were still settling into place, her tone explained she knew the impulse intimately.
"Come on," Dinah jerked a thumb towards the ruptured security door. "We'd better get this over with before someone comes looking."
Navigating a museum had never been easier. All the group had to do was follow the soft glow of the floodlights still illuminating the crime scene. What lay inside turned Mia's stomach. "What the hell is all this?" Staring down at them was an uncanny valley of their extended adopted family. Fake wings and hollow masks, LED illuminated armour, and enough spandex to sate an Olympic athlete horde recreated the work of the more elusive costumes from the leagues of heroes over the last few decades.
"It's part of their 'Heroes and Villains' collection," Dinah explained as they scanned the displays for the broken cases. "Star City, Central City, and National City are doing rotating exhibitions. We have the Flash exhibit, Central City has the Super Friends one," She caught the astounded looks. "What?" Dinah shrugged uncomfortably. "Had to check how history changed somehow."
"Heh, nerd." Mia smiled. Behind her, Laurel paused in front of a particular white jacket before moving on uncomfortably. The search would have gone a lot faster if the cops hadn't been trying to cash in on overtime by roping off every exhibit in the space.
"Wasn't there a break-in at the Flash Museum the other day?" While Dinah had learned all about the new history, Laurel had focused on studying their present and two museum robberies with hero exhibits couldn't be a coincidence.
"Guy in my bar works for CCPD. Says it was S.T.A.R. labs that got hit, not the museum." A fine distinction considering they existed in the same building.
"Hey, over here!" Glass crunched underfoot as Mia stopped in front of a broken case. "History buffs, do your thing." Both Canaries looked at her in bafflement. "What? One of you is a nerd, both of you are from the past, figure out what was in this."
"We finally know what happens when cross Oliver's brains with Felicity's intellect." Dinah rubbed a temple to alleviate her headache. She hadn't had this particular brand in a couple of decades.
In the distance, sirens started to sound as the cops realised they'd been had. "Did you learn any forensic stuff from your father while you were with him?"
"No," Mia admitted. "My mom was the one good with that. Do you have any tips from your cop days?"
Dinah eyed a stack of pamphlets nearby. "A couple," She grabbed one and spread it out. "Look at what's here instead of what's missing." She began cycling through the list of costumes and marking them off against what was next.
Laurel carefully extracted a white card from beneath the shards of shattered glass and shook it free. "Found it." She said casually, smirking at the dirty look Dinah was sending her way.
Mia snatched the card for herself as the pair fell into petty bickering. Two sentences were on the card;
Tactical battle suit used by the mercenary known as Deathstroke.
And, underneath, someone had scribbled a single word in furious letters: MINE!
"Come on," Mia crushed the card and shoved it inside her pocket. As part of the multiversal reboot, Oliver had removed all public traces of Slade's identity and set his children on a better path. With Trevor vaporised by his own explosion, there was only one person she knew who would care enough to recover the armour. "I think I know where we need to go."
Running ahead, she led the escape out of the museum as sirens closed in again. All three failed to notice a white and purple jacket hanging limply in a display case with the door swinging openly unlocked.