I was with Iris as I planned to go to lunch with Mom. I wasn't sure why we were doing this still because Malcolm was still here. School was letting out early today because Thanksgiving break was starting. When I was in school, we only got Thursday and Friday off. I supposed it was a good thing that we didn't have to go as much because it gave me more free time to do things. Of course, it still didn't look like I had much time to hang out with Courtney even though I did not have a crush on her like everyone said.
"So remember you're supposed to pick Mom up for lunch." Thea told me.
"I know, even though I'm not sure why it's just going to be the two of us." I told her.
"Because you're one who has been blowing her off lately." Thea responded. "Just bite the bullet and have a Cobb salad with the woman."
"Sometimes it's hard to remember which one of you is my mother." I quipped. She rolled her eyes as I had Iris take me to Queen Consolidated. We parked on the curb before I started to look around. I didn't see the shooter, which worried me. At that point, the motorcycle pulled up. I wasn't sure if it was Helena. This was something where I wished that I would have been able to get here earlier to prevent it, but because of school, I wasn't able to. I saw them pull out a gun.
"Get Down!" I screamed. Iris couldn't even pull out her own before the shot was fired. Even though I knew how to use a gun, I didn't think I would be able to fire one while simultaneously driving a motorcycle. The mob guy was killed and Mom was hit by the aftershock. I ran over to her. "Mom? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." She told me. This was a point where I realized that I could do something else different. I wasn't going to catch Helena or whoever it was. That was something that I knew and it would only make people mad at me if I tried. It would be better for me to just stay with my mother and wait for the ambulance.
I needed to figure it was indeed Helena or if it was someone else. I also had to figure out if there was a different way that I could do things. One thing that I was pretty sure was I wasn't going to join in on Helena's crusade. I had to stop her as soon as I knew she was the one responsible. That was a pretty big regret of mine. I waited for Thea and Malcolm to arrive before we all went into her room to see her. Tommy wasn't working and he also wouldn't be allowed to treat her anyway.
"Is she okay?" I asked the doctor.
"I'm fine." Mom declared.
"The scan revealed that your mother has a Grade 2 Concussion." He explained. "She can go home as long as someone stays with her to make sure that there are no after effects."
"Thank you, Doctor." I told him.
"So what exactly happened?" Malcolm asked.
"We were about to leave for lunch before this person, I don't know if it was a man or a woman, showed up and shot at her while driving a motorcycle." I explained.
"I know that this is a horrible situation, but it does sound kind of cool that they were able to do that." Thea commented. Malcolm and I glared at her.
"I want to find whoever did this." Malcolm replied. He seemed to really love Mom that he had that sort of passionate anger. I still hoped that he was a good person, or at least not someone who wanted to destroy the Glades. While Walter tried to be a father towards me, I didn't really give him the chance to. Malcolm was trying even harder and I was glad that he was. While the version that I knew was a homicidal maniac, he did seem to love Thea, though I was pretty sure part of it was because he wanted to compensate for screwing up with Tommy.
I stepped outside and I found Quentin and Hilton.
"Detectives, do you have any leads on the shooter?" I asked.
"Not yet. Do you have anything for us?" Hilton replied.
"No. He was wearing a helmet." I explained.
"We'll find him." Hilton promised. I wasn't sure if he was just saying to make me feel better or because he believed that.
"Well maybe we should have some officers at my home." I suggested.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we don't believe your mother was the target." Quentin replied. "It was the other guy. He was a member of the mob and we think that a rival mobster wanted to kill him."
He was partially right except it wasn't a rival mobster…as far as I knew. I went back to train at the hideout because I was still angry. I had been able to do nothing to prevent my mother from getting injured, even if the injury wasn't that bad. I actually didn't care about saving the mob guy but what Helena was doing, if she was still doing it, was the wrong way to do things because she had fallen off the slippery slope and become as bad or worse than the people she was killing.
"Olivia, you can take a day off of being the vigilante to be with your mother." Iris told me. "She was almost killed after all."
"My mom wasn't the target." I explained before I went to the computer. "This guy was. His name was Paul Capani. He was trying to close a deal with her when they were shot at. He worked for Bertinelli Construction as well as Frank Bertinelli."
"In other words, the biggest mobster in Star City." She pointed out.
"He also wasn't the first member of Bertinelli's family to be killed." I added. "I figure that the best way to figure out who is trying to target his organization is to get inside of it."
"You know you could just let them take each other out and not worry about it." She opined.
"No, I can't do that. Capani was shot at in broad daylight. I'm lucky that my mother wasn't more seriously injured. These people don't care if anyone else gets hurt or killed as long as they kill their target and I don't want anyone else to feel what I'm feeling right now or worse." I explained. "I want to protect my family and I want to make sure no one else's family has to mourn the loss of a loved one who gets caught in the crossfire. I don't even like killing people, but this person is going to die for what they did to my mother."
That night I went home for dinner. I needed to figure out the best way to do this. I couldn't just go there on my own. I put on a navy long-sleeved dress. I started to make my way out when I was found by Malcolm. This was going to be hard to explain.
"Olivia, where are you going?" He asked.
"I wanted to go see Frank Bertinelli. I understand that Mr. Capani was trying to make a deal with Mom when they were shot at." I explained. "I thought that maybe I should offer my sympathies and maybe we could talk about the deal."
"Olivia, we don't want to make a deal with the mob. There are plenty of legitimate contractors that we can have build the Applied Science Building." Malcolm declared.
"I don't plan on making a deal, but if I talk to him, I might be able to get some information on who the shooter was that I can give to the police." I offered. I was pretty sure that I couldn't make a deal. I actually didn't know because I didn't know much about business.
"Maybe I should go then." He replied. "I don't want to put you in danger."
"I'm not going to do anything dangerous." I declared. "But I think he'd be more likely to talk to me than you. Besides, I think you should stay with Mom. You could watch a movie or something."
It was then that a rather uncomfortable thought entered my head. However, that probably wasn't something that they should do while she was suffering from a concussion. I wasn't a neurologist, but it sounded like a bad idea.
At that time, Tommy came into the house. He wanted to see Mom at least.
"Nice dress. Where are you going?" He asked.
"I have to do some business." I replied before I gave him a hug. "Thanks for coming."
"I'm sorry that I couldn't get here sooner." Tommy replied. "It just doesn't seem like it's the best time for you to be going out."
"It'll be fine." Malcolm assured him. "Why are you so dressed up?"
"Because Dinah and I going out for dinner tonight." Tommy explained. "I just wanted to check on Moira before I go."
"She's fine, Tommy." I replied. "And I'm saying this next part as your sister. Whatever you do, don't let Dinah go."
For some reason, Malcolm looked a little uneasy when I said that, but I didn't have time to dwell on that. I headed to the Bertinelli mansion. You know part of me wondered why Helena just didn't go after her father to begin with. She could poison him and it would be a lot quicker. She would be able to take over the organization. It seemed like she was wasting time trying to take everyone else out but that was just how I would do it.
"Mr. Bertinelli." I greeted him. I was glad that I had dealt with the Bratva because it made the whole thing less scary.
"Please call me, Frank, Ms. Queen." He retorted. "Come in."
"Then you should call me, Olivia." I countered. I was pretty used to the name by now. I really didn't mind being a girl anymore.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet me in my home, though I'm a bit surprised that you wanted to come. I was under the impression that you weren't going to be involved in your family's business." He stated.
"My father used to say that living rooms make the best conference rooms." I retorted with a smile. I was pretty sure being that being a teenage girl made me more approachable.
"I'm going to have to steal that." He replied. "This is Nick Salvadi, my associate."
"I see I'm not the only one with protection, this is Iris West." I introduced. I had brought her because I knew that they wouldn't me come without her.
"So would your parents mind if I gave you a drink?" He asked.
"I don't have to tell them but I shouldn't get drunk." I replied. I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to try to drug me, but the nice thing was that it wouldn't affect me anyway. At that point, I noticed Helena. I wasn't going to do anything because I wasn't going to attack her in her own home and I also still wasn't completely sure that she was guilty. Even if I had been, I would still need to find her a place that I could deal with her.
As for what to do with Helena, I wasn't quite sure. Part of me thought that I should kill her because it would save me later trouble from her, but the other part of me thought that I shouldn't just kill those who I didn't like. Helena was still a victim in a way. She was a ruthless killer, but she might not deserve to die. And if it was someone other than Helena, I was even less sure of what to do.
I went to the living room and he handed me a glass of whiskey.
"So, Olivia, I'm a little surprised that you're here right now." He commented. "I also thought you were going into a different business venture."
"No one seems to think that I can do it." I admitted. That only made me want to do it more.
"Well I have to tell you that as a businessman myself, you should never listen to the doubters." He replied. "Now I'm going to be blunt. I want the contract to build your family's new applied sciences building."
"Well we're still doing some due diligence and keeping our options open." I explained. "We have to be very careful because this will have my father's name on it after all."
"I can see why your mother wasn't so enthusiastic about it. I understand the importance of family." He declared. Even though he was a mob boss, he definitely knew how to charm a person. "How is she by the way?"
"She's got a concussion, but she's recuperating at home," I explained before taking a sip. It was scotch, my favorite. "Thank you. I'd also like to express my sympathies for what happened to Paul Capani."
"Paul was a good friend and a good man." He said as he wiped a tear from his eye. "The violence in this city is quite a problem. Sometimes I wonder why I stay."
There was a strong sense of irony to that.
"So why did you come back here?" He asked. "You could be anywhere right now."
"I love my family." I stated. "I know I could have been emancipated or gone to some fancy boarding school, but I like living here. This is where I grew up and I kind of love it here."
At that point, Helena came in speaking Italian.
"It means no matter where you go, you always end up back home." She said.
"I prefer the Hannah Montana version. You'll always find your way back home." I explained. Thea had gotten me into the show…and I really liked it. I had watched the whole series and the movie on Netflix. I was pretty sure if anyone back home found out about that they would make fun of me for it.
"Olivia, this is my daughter, Helena." He introduced. I got up to shake her hand because I didn't understand the whole curtsy thing or if anyone still did it.
"Hi." I greeted her as I shook.
"It's nice to meet you." She stated as she shook back. "I'm going out."
"Take one of my guys with you." Her father instructed.
"I can take care of myself." Helena retorted.
"It wasn't a suggestion." Frank replied before he was called away for a meeting.
"I can come back another time." I offered.
"No, but Helena would love to take you to dinner." He explained.
"But I was hoping to have an audience with you," I replied with an added frown.
"Well as you speak for your family, my daughter also speaks for ours." Frank assured me.
"Okay…" I responded.
"Tell your parents I look forward to working with them." He stated.
"Is it weird that I trust her even less than I trust him?" Iris whispered to me as we walked out. Barry had always told me that she had good intuition.
I couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen between Helena and I. I wasn't attracted to her because I knew she was dangerous and she wasn't attracted me to (at least I hoped she wasn't) because I was a minor.
The Russos were very night, but that was mostly because they were afraid of her father. I was glad that I had an overactive metabolism because I would need it for a hearty Italian meal after already having one dinner.
"I heard about your mother's accident. Is she going to be okay?" Helena asked. I wanted to be sure that she was the one who had caused the accident.
"She'll be fine." I stated. I didn't want to be cold to her, even though I didn't trust her. I needed to pretend like I was interested.
"I'm glad." She responded. It sounded a little like guilt, but it could have been regular sympathy. "So why would you want to go into business with my father. You know who he is and how he made his money."
"I take it I won't be making any deals with you tonight then." I declared. I still needed some proof before I did anything. For all I knew, her fiancé was secretly alive and doing the killings himself. I didn't know how likely it was, but it was certainly possible. I just didn't want to be wrong about anything and attack an innocent person.
"My father and I share a name and that name defines us whether we want it or not." She explained. "You're probably aware that I don't want to be here with you right now."
"Yes, I figured that pretty quickly." I remarked.
"I know that it must have sucked to be on that island alone for five years but do you ever miss it?" She asked.
"People think that the lack of human contact would be calming, but it's not. It's lonely and I wouldn't wish that on anyone." I replied. That was something that I had learned since coming back from the island and spending so many years in Star City. I also knew not to fall for her traps, even though I might want her to think that I had.
I decided to stay with her and listen to what she had to say because I needed to put on a good acting job. I had gotten better at lying as well and I could probably even be an actor but that was not something that I wanted to do. I wouldn't even have time for a school play. I couldn't help but wonder what the Russos thought about us being together, but they were probably too afraid of her dad to question the fact that she was on a date with a teenager.
"After everything that you've been through, you probably don't like talking to people about it." She said. "You lost a critical time in your life and you have to feel different from everyone else."
"I'm sorry. I was just admiring your necklace." I stated.
"Thank you. It was a gift from my fiancé." She told me.
"So you're engaged then?" I asked. I wanted to feel sympathy for her but it was hard to do after everything that she had done.
"You can't be engaged to a dead man." She replied.
"I'm sorry." I declared. I just wanted her to give me a sign so I could put her away.
"You know I'm glad that I don't have school tomorrow." I commented.
"And there it is. You keep reminding me that you're too young for this." She said. "Don't get involved with my father. It won't go well for you."
At that point, my phone rang. It was Iris. She was outside, but she was calling me anyway. I was pretty sure that I knew what it was about.
I went outside to talk to her.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I've got contacts telling me that Bertinelli is going after everyone who owes him protection money and this place should be coming up." She explained. You know I was surprised how it never came up that I technically worked for a rival mafia. I was surprised that Helena didn't recognize the Bratva tattoo that I had.
"You're lucky that I want to protect these people, but I'm not really looking to take down the mob." I pointed out. "Hopefully, I have enough time to get my stuff before they get here.
Fortunately, the restaurant wasn't that far from the factory. I was able to get there in time to stop them from hurting the Russos. That was possibly Helena showed up with a gun. I was prepared to fight even though I couldn't use my bow. It was then there was a blast and that caused the helmet to fall off to show that it was indeed Helena. Was this other vigilante following me around? Who was helping her with this stuff? Helena grabbed her gun and shot me before running off. It didn't even pierce my skin, but it did still hurt. From there, Iris took me back to the factory.
"Why is she targeting her own family?" I asked.
"Does it even matter?" Iris challenged.
"Well I would like to know what her motive is." I pointed out. "I am going to take her down, but I need to figure how much force I need to use."
"You mean whether or not you need to kill her." Iris replied.
"Yeah that is exactly it." I explained. "I want you to tell me something. What do you think I should do?"
"Well in the academy, we were always taught to avoid the use of lethal force is unless it's necessary." She replied. "Now she took a shot at you. Do you think it's necessary to try to kill her?"
"I think if her father found out that she was the one behind the killings, he would have her killed." I stated. Considering that was literally what he tried to do, I had a pretty good idea that he would try to do it here too.
"Well are you telling me that you want to save her then?" She asked. "Because you could just bow out of this and let them deal with her."
"How do I know that they won't come after me since I interfered with their business?" I challenged. I meant me as in the vigilante because they didn't know who I was personally.
"If you want to save her, then save her but don't forget that she is also a criminal. She needs to be dealt. She's the one who shot at your mother. You can't possibly tell me that you want her to get away with that. You can't be feeling sympathy for her." She responded.
"Iris, I want to stop her. I want to make sure that she faces punishment, but I have to do this in a way that makes it so I don't end up in a war with the mob myself." I explained.
"I can see why this is a challenge for you. I just don't want you to lose track of your goal which is take down the person who put your mother in the hospital." She replied. "Now let's get you home."
You know it had been a while since I was concerned about the wrong way to do the right thing. Not even Iris knew how dangerous Helena was. She had gone after numerous people in my life
The following afternoon, I was at home. I opened the door to find Quentin was there.
"Detective, how can I help you?" I asked.
"Your BFF with the arrows was over at Russo's the other night." He explained.
"And I was there last night as well. Are you here to try to arrest me again?" I challenged.
"No, but I know you were on a date with Helena Bertinelli." He told me. I cringed a little when he called it a date.
"It wasn't a date. We were discussing business. I can assure you that nothing illegal happened." I replied before I blushed. I wasn't sure why talking about not having sex would make me blush.
"That's a little bit surprising considering who her father is." He quipped. "You need to stay away from her."
"Okay…I'm a little bit confused at how you suddenly care for my wellbeing." I remarked.
"Listen, I made a mistake when I arrested and I almost got you killed and I wanted to apologize for that. The truth is as much as I don't like you, I don't want to see you harmed in any way. What happened to Sara was not your fault." He stated.
"Thank you." I told him.
"Now if you value your life, you'll stay away from the Bertinellis." He replied before he left.
I decided to head to where I knew I would find Helena. I didn't feel the best at doing this in a church, even though I wasn't actually sure what I was going to do. I knew what I needed to do, but I would probably wait until I got there to decide how to do it.
"Helena Bertinelli." I declared as I drew my bow. "You need to come with me."
"How did you find me here?" She questioned.
"I have my ways." I told her.
"Do you really think that mask is going to fool me? I spent all night looking into those eyes." She pointed out.
"Then you probably know why I'm here." I stated.
"You want me because I shot at your mother." She remarked as she stood up. "I wasn't trying to hurt her. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sorry for the pain that I caused her."
"I don't need an apology." I pointed out. "You killed four men and put numerous others at risk."
"So what do you think I'm just going to lay down and let you bring me in. I bet you can't even do that." She challenged as she started to run. It was then that she was grabbed by Salvadi and I knew that I had to follow. You know it probably would have been easier if I had just been kidnapped too. All of the running after her really started to wear me out. It was a good thing that I would heal quickly from it.
I made it there as they were interrogating her. I still didn't get the point of it. Were they recording her to show it to her father? Why didn't they just kill her right away? At least it gave me time to get there and break things up. I fired a bow at Salvadi and hit him in the chest. Even though I didn't like killing people anymore, I knew that there were some people who didn't deserve mercy. I probably should have killed Frank as well, but I would rather see him go to prison personally.
Of course, there were still some other men that I would have to deal with as well as making sure that Helena didn't get away. However, once again I managed to get some help from my friend in blue.
"Don't let her get away!" I commanded.
Helena started to run for the door as I dealt with the two of them. It was one time that I was not adverse to using lethal force because the men in question were mobsters. The other vigilante shot an energy blast causing her to lose her footing and fall to the ground and I shot a tranquilizer to knock her out. I just needed to find the right place to leave her. Or I could just leave her there since there was evidence that Helena had killed the other men on the tape.
"Thank you for your help." I declared. This time she looked like she wasn't about to go. "I have to know why you're always around when I'm here."
It was at that time that I heard sirens. The girl grabbed her staff as she prepared to go. I couldn't let her get away. However, I wasn't prepared for what happened next. The staff flew towards me and grabbed me and then her and took up on top of the warehouse. It was a place where we wouldn't be able to be seen by the police.
"Why did you save me?" I asked.
"Why do you think?" She questioned. That was when I noticed that the voice wasn't distorted. I knew exactly who this was. "Don't take your mask off yet. We need to get somewhere better than this."
"How good is thing at following directions because I know a place." I replied. I had it to take us to the factory. Once we were inside, she removed the mask and I pulled my hood down. "How did you know it was me?"
"I told you that I wasn't sure if you were the vigilante, but last week I became sure. I'm more surprised that you weren't able to figure out my identity." She remarked.
"To be fair, I didn't really get a chance to see you up close." I pointed out. "So what is all of this? Where did you get that staff and how does it work?"
"I found it in my stepdad's things and it really only works for me." Courtney explained. "Now it's my turn to get you a question. Why are you getting involved with the mob? That's not very smart."
"I was trying to figure out who shot at my mother and I accomplished that. That's why I didn't want you to let her get away." I remarked. "You know you can't tell anyone about this."
"Olivia, what's going on here?" Iris interrupted.
"Except her." I declared.
"So she's the other vigilante then?" Iris asked as she looked Courtney over. "You know if you had mentioned how short she was, I probably could have helped with that. So, are you two about to kiss because I can come back later if you are?"
"No." Courtney and I both said at the same time.
"Courtney, I have something to show you." I stated.
So when it came to this episode, I didn't feel like it needed to be a two-parter especially since Olivia wasn't going to date Helena. Also, Olivia found Courtney was Stargirl. The next chapter will reveal the identity of the Dark Archer. Please don't forget to review.