I was out late at night. I really didn't need to do this, but Iris and Courtney didn't know that I already knew about The Count. Part of me thought that I initially went too easy on The Count, but even though he was a cold-blooded murderer, I didn't want to become one myself in order to kill him. I would have to do this the moral way, which meant even though I probably should kill him, I didn't want to do it unless it was necessary. I was currently tailing a drug dealer. I didn't know if it was the same one. I felt a little bad for going after such a low-level dealer, but I was also angry about what happened to Tommy. It was probably still better than going after whoever had given him the drug. Even though I was a teenager myself, it still felt wrong to go after teenagers. I finally caught the guy by pinning his jacket to an overhanging rafter.

"Please leave me alone. I'm just trying to make an honest living." He begged.

"There's nothing honest about what you do." I pointed out. "Who supplies you with vertigo. Tell me and you live."

"I can't. He'll kill me." The man replied.

"I'll kill you if you don't." I countered as I pointed an arrow at him.

"Okay, his name is The Count." He declared. With that I left to return to the lair.

When I got there, I found Iris and Courtney were there.

"So did you get anything?" Courtney asked me.

"I found the source of Vertigo. His name is The Count." I explained.

"What is he a Muppet?" Iris quipped. "So are you going back out there?"

"There's no way that you can do that. Even though you get to be late to school tomorrow, you still have Tommy's hearing. You need to be there for your brother. I know you want to catch this guy, but your family needs you too."

"You're right." I agreed. "We'll call it a night. And Courtney?"

"Yeah?" She asked me.

"I want you to promise me not to try to go after this guy on your own." I requested. "This is guy is dangerous and Vertigo is probably even more dangerous. I don't want you to get accidentally dosed by it, so don't you do this without me. We'll find him and stop him but we need to do it together."

"Okay." She agreed.

In the morning, I went to Tommy's room. I was wearing a white dress with long sleeves. He had spent the night so we could all go to the courtroom together.

"So, we should get going. I don't think the judge will like it if you're late." I told him.

"I didn't think that I would ever be in this situation again." He lamented as I walked closer.

"Hey, this is going to be okay. We'll just tell the judge that you were drugged and you should be able to get off with a much less offense." I explained. It should have been easier than when Thea did it because Tommy taken the drug willingly.

"You know I really appreciate it that you're here with me." He told me as I gave him a hug.

"That's what sisters are for." I replied. "I'm also here to tease you about your love life, but it's definitely not the time for that."

I never really figured out why I felt compelled to make such bad jokes. Maybe that was part of Olivia's personality that was becoming part of my personality. Or maybe I just didn't have any comedic timing here.

"We need to get going." Malcolm interrupted.

When we got there, there were reporters that wanted to talk to Tommy. I supposed that the issue wasn't Thea being a young attractive vertigo user, but instead being rich and famous. I made sure to hold Tommy's hand. Dinah was going to be there, but since she wasn't family, she couldn't be as close with us. I hoped that they would get married. That was one thing that I hoped happened in my universe. Of course, I decided to keep Black Siren alive, which meant the original Laurel had to die. That was a tough decision.

"Here we are. The People v. Thomas Arthur Merlyn. Charges include possession of a controlled substance and driving under the influence of a controlled substance." The bailiff read. You know I knew it was just a legal team, but I would not consider Vertigo to be controlled.

"How do you plea?" The judge asked. I didn't really like this guy. You know I couldn't help but wonder if I could threaten the judge, but that seemed very wrong.

"Not guilty, your honor." The lawyer responded. It wasn't Courtney's mom. "DUI constitutes knowingly driving under the influence. My client was drugged and did not know he had consumed the substance in question."

"Dr. Merlyn, did you immediately pull over when you started to feel disoriented?" The judge asked him.

"No, sir." Tommy answered. I had a bad feeling about that.

"Then you did knowingly drive under the influence." The judge countered. "This drug is a major problem in our city and like it or not, Dr. Merlyn, you are now the face of this menace. Maybe if people see that the richest family in Star City can't get away with using Vertigo, they'll think twice about using it themselves."

You know I was pretty sure that he didn't buy the story that Tommy was drugged. I did want to go after this judge, but I needed to show some restraint. I had a feeling that things would work themselves out and Tommy wouldn't go to jail. I just needed to focus on catching The Count.

"They can't do this. That man cannot send my son to prison. I'm going to file a notion to change the judge." Malcolm declared. "We need someone more sympathetic to the cause on the bench."

"Oh you're just going to buy my way out of prison." Tommy retorted as he walked off.

"Maybe we just need a better attorney. Courtney's mom managed to get me off." I pointed out.

"Actually, the fact that they had the wrong person got you off." Thea pointed out.

"Not the point." I declared.

"We should probably get you two to school." Mom stated.

"Mom, I don't know if we should go to school right now after what we just witnessed in there." I argued.

"He just want someone to make an example of and I'm not going to stand for it." Malcolm replied. I hoped that he wasn't going to try to bribe someone.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be him." I declared. "I have an idea, but I don't want to get your hopes up."

I decided to do what I had done before. I was going to go to the police to talk to them about the Count. I decided that I would go to the person in the department that I could trust, even though he didn't trust me.

"What do you want now?" He asked me. He didn't seem particularly thrilled to see me.

"I want to talk to you about Vertigo." I replied. "The judge is trying to make an example of Tommy."

"And while I don't agree with that, I'm not in a position to get the charges dropped. I've already had this conversation with my daughter." He pointed out.

"What if you caught the person who was selling and manufacturing the drug?" I challenged.

"Do you know something that this department doesn't?" He asked. It seemed he really didn't like me, even though I was trying to help him.

"I've talked to a few people and I found a name: The Count." I explained. I wasn't sure if they already knew about him.

"So you don't, then." He responded. "We already know about The Count. So unless you either know who this guy is or how to catch him, you can get out of here."

Suddenly, I wished that I had talked to McKenna. The reason I didn't was that I wasn't even sure that she knew me anymore because I doubted that we had hung out in the past. I was pretty sure that my parents wouldn't want me around someone like her. I was glad that she had gotten her life together, though.

As soon as I left, I got a phone call from an unknown number. I wasn't sure if I should answer it, but I did anyway.

"Hello?" I answered.

"I've heard that you need help getting your brother off." A distorted voice declared.

"Who is this?" I asked. Was it the other archer?

"That is not important to you." He responded. Now I was pretty sure it was. How the hell did he get my number? "I have a problem that needs to be dealt with and I'm willing to make you an offer. Do I have your attention?"

"What do you want?" I inquired. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to trace the call.

"I need to The Count to be removed from his position. Do that and I will assure you that the charges will disappear." He told me before he hung up.

I then headed to the club. I needed to talk to Courtney.

"Are you okay? You look spooked." She said.

"The other archer called me. At least I think it was him." I replied. I couldn't be sure.

"What did he want?" Iris inquired.

"He wants to get rid of The Count. He didn't say that I had to kill him but he told me to eliminate him from power and he said that he could get the charges against Tommy dropped." I explained.

"You don't believe him, do you?" Courtney asked.

"I don't know, but he is asking me to do something that I was already going to do." I remarked.

"Well did he tell you who The Count is?" Iris asked me.

"No. I don't think he even knows and I don't think he wants to do this himself. He wants me to do his dirty work for him." I pointed out.

"How do you know that he'll follow through on his end of the bargain?" Courtney replied.

"I don't." I admitted. "But considering that I was already going to try to catch The Count so they'll have someone else to blame for this, I figure that I'm helping Tommy either way."

"You shouldn't align yourself with this guy. He's killed multiple people and he put Courtney in the hospital." Iris reminded me.

"I'm not aligning myself with him." I argued. "But I may be able to use this to figure out his identity as well. Now I have somewhere that I need to go."

"Where are we going?" Courtney asked. Apparently, she hadn't heard me correctly.

"You're not coming. I have to talk to my contacts in the Bratva and I am not letting you get involved with that." I explained.

"How do you have contacts in the Russian mob?" She inquired.

"Because I'm a member." I declared as I showed off my tattoo. "I do need my bodyguard for this though."

Later, Iris and I went to the garage. She looked nervous.

"I can't believe that you want to work with the Russian mob in order to do this." She stated.

"Sometimes you have to work with criminals to catch a criminal." I pointed out. "This is the not-so-secret home of the Star City Bratva. Now, whatever happens, don't do anything. I know what I'm doing."

At that point, Alexi showed up.

"It's good to see you." He told me. "It's a bit of a long time, particularly for a Bratva captain."

"I've been busy." I remarked. "Plus, I do have school. However, I am looking for some pharmaceuticals. There's actually one drug in particular that I am looking for. I want some Vertigo."

"That's not the easiest market. There's only one seller for that." He explained.

"I know. I was hoping you could do me a favor and arrange a meeting with The Count for me." I told him.

"He is not an easy man to get a hold of." Alexi declared. "He doesn't like new friends. I will see what I can do though. However, I need something from you in return."

"Okay." I agreed.

"It is unusual for an American, particularly a girl of your age, to hold such a position of esteem in our organization, Ms. Queen." He declared. "Anatoly speaks very highly of you."

"He should. I saved his life." I retorted.

"His daughter's too." Alexi added. Anatoly had a daughter? At that point, they brought the man out. "Now for the favor, kill this man and I will believe your interest in our organization is genuine and then I will arrange a meeting with The Count for you."

"Olivia…" Iris started.

"Shut up…" I told her before I performed the same maneuver. It had been a while since I had done it, but I still remembered how to do so in case I ever needed to do it again. I just didn't think that I would need to use it for the exact purpose on the exact same person. We then took him outside.

"I can't believe that you just killed that guy." She remarked.

"It's a good thing that you can't because I didn't." I pointed out as I touched the guy to bring him back.

"Okay. How did you do that? Can you teach me how to do that?" She asked me. There was that inquisitive nature yet again.

"No." I replied. "I do need you to arrange a new identity for this man though."

"So what are your Russians going to draw out The Count, so Robyn Hood can take them down." She replied.

"First, don't call me that and second, no, because then the Bratva will realize that I manipulated them. I am going to go as myself. After he's gone, I can follow him to his hideout."

"Do you really think it's going to be that easy?" She asked.

"Well, I am going to need my bodyguard to help me." I assured her.

Of course, the next day, I had to go to school. I really hoped that they wouldn't schedule a meeting until I got out of it.

"So how do you think this trial is going to go?" Thea asked me.

"I'm still holding out hope that there won't be a trial." I admitted.

"I don't know if you can just make the charges go away. I don't even think that someone as rich as Malcolm can do that." She replied.

"Well we still have some time before it starts and who knows what could happen before then." I pointed out. I hadn't actually agreed to help this other archer, but I had a feeling that I didn't need because I had no idea way to contact him.

"So you're not still caught up on the idea that Mom and Malcolm had an affair while Dad was still alive, are you?" She asked.

"I'm pretty sure that it's true." I remarked. I knew it was true. I just didn't know if it was true here.

"Livvy, it didn't happen." She replied. "Mom didn't cheat. If anything, I bet Dad was the one who was cheating on her. I mean he was always working late hours, taking these random trips away from home and why was he going to China anyway. He probably wanted to hook up with someone."

I couldn't believe that she managed to infer that on her own. My family was a little bit screwed up if both of my parents were cheating on each other and had children with other people. As soon as I was done with The Count, I would need to figure out more about Emiko.

After school, I found out that my meeting had been set. Fortunately, I would have time to deal with this. I was prepared. I wished that I could deal with him there, but I needed to keep my relationship with the Bratva intact.

I went to the parking garage. I was nervous about this. This man was unpredictable. There weren't a lot of criminals that I was actually scared of, but he was one of them. This man had no morals and I had no idea what he was going to do. I was wearing a hood, but not a green one, so no one would be able to identify me, even though I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be charged.

"Do you want to know why they call him The Count?" Alexi asked me.

"Why?" I questioned.

"When he was first making his drug, he experimented on homeless. The police found their bodies with puncture marks on their necks like a vampire had bitten them." He explained. I was pretty sure that the Bratva was also afraid of him. "You should not be in such a hurry to meet this man."

The first thing that they did was search us, which led to some touching in places that I was not comfortable with. I knew that I had to let them do it, but I wanted to hit the guy.

"Now I hear that you're interested in the feel good business." The Count stated.

"Yes." I replied.

"And why is it? What would make someone like you interested in something like Vertigo?" He asked me. Fortunately, I could use the same answer.

"I'm opening a club and I would like my patrons to have a little something extra." I pointed out.

"Well I'm looking to expand my brand. It would be great to explore the teenage market." He replied as he opened up his briefcase. "A good wine's value is measured by its vintage. That's the number of years it took to ferment."

I hated how he was talking down to me. I shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't respect me. Of course, it was probably reasonable to assume that I wasn't much of a wine drinker.

"Vertigo is measured in lives." He declared. "56 people died to perfect this high and I can assure you that their deaths were not in vain."

It was a good thing that I was good at not showing my emotions because I really thought this guy was a psychopath.

At that point, the police showed up. What were they doing there? I never did find out how they had found out about our meeting. Was there a mole somewhere else?

Everyone started to disperse and there was a bit of a shootout. I wanted to try to catch The Count but above else, I needed to make sure that I got the sample that I needed.

"No witnesses." He declared before he stabbed me with the drug. I immediately started to feel the effects of it. Hopefully, it wouldn't take very long for me to heal from it.

I still ended up passing out. It was a very high dose and while I was pretty sure it wouldn't kill me, at the moment I felt like I was going to die. I thought that after dealing with it before, I would be more prepared for it but I wasn't. It still hurt like hell. When I woke up, I found myself in my bed. I was actually handcuffed to my bed, but it was not in any sort of kinky way.

"How do you feel?" Iris asked me.

"I'm better now. I was right. I'm pretty sure that my body has healed itself from the negative effects by now." I declared. "I guess that means that I'm not going to be able to miss school with a hangover. I was looking forward to it."

"I don't think that I've ever met anyone with worse timing than you." She commented.

"So, I can't go to school unless you let me out of this." I declared. I mean I could probably get out of them, but it would probably be very painful and very messy. We did not need to get blood everywhere. She unlocked the handcuffs and let me free. "If that stuff was able to affect me even for a few minutes, I can only imagine what it would be like for a normal person."

"You know every now and then I just forget what you can do." She told me. "Is there something that you're not telling me about your powers?"

"No." I replied.

"Have you ever looked into something like memory tea to try to remember what happened to you on that island?" She questioned.

"I don't know if something like that would even work." I declared. I didn't know if it could make me remember things that I had never experienced. I wasn't even sure if they had actually happened because this was a new universe that for some reason was starting when I got back from the island. "So did you see what happened to The Count?"

"He got away, which means that the charges against Tommy are still standing." She answered. "So did this guy give you some sort of time limit to catch The Count?

"I don't think so." I declared. "But if would probably be a good idea to have it done before Tommy's trial starts. I then looked at the Vertigo and suddenly I got an idea. Even though I knew where to go, I couldn't just go there because then people would wonder how I came to the conclusion. "So is there any chance that you studied how to analyze chemicals when you were in the police academy?"

"I mean, yeah, I know how to do it. Why?" She asked. "It seemed like she didn't seem to get what I was getting at.

"I want you to analyze this Vertigo. Maybe we can determine where it came from and thus find out where The Count is making it." I explained.

"It'll take me some time." She pointed out.

"Well, it's a good thing that I have to spend the next few hours at school then." I declared.

I headed to school and that was where I met up with Courney.

"Are you okay? Iris told me that you got dosed with that stuff last night." She remarked.

"Yeah, it seems like even something as strong as that can only keep me down for a few minutes." I remarked.

"You should have let me come with you last night." She declared.

"I don't even want you to meet those people. I did some things in the Russian mob that I am not proud of, but it was necessary to survive." I stated. "The good news is that we managed to get a sample of Vertigo. Iris was going to analyze it and let me know what she finds."

"Well you have to let me help you when you find out where he is." She declared.

"If we're going to do that, you need to listen to me. We don't know what this guy is capable of, or what kinds of traps he has set." I remarked. "Plus we need to make sure that he gets out of this alive, so he can face justice. I don't know if this other archer will follow through, so I'm guessing that he will be worth a lot more alive than dead."

At lunch, to my surprise, Thea came up to me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. She wasn't in my lunch period.

"I needed to talk to you and you sleeping in made it a little difficult to tell you this morning." She declared. "I did some digging. I'm going to prove that Dad was cheating on Mom. Look at this woman. Her name is Kazumi Adachi. She's in several photos with Dad and I couldn't help but notice that she has a daughter. I think that this girl might be our sister."

"Thea, we can't just go about telling this girl something when it might not even be true." I pointed out. "I don't want to get her hopes up that she's related to us. I also don't want to get yours up. We would probably need a DNA test to make sure."

The main thing that I didn't like about school was how long it was. I was trying to look at my phone to see if Iris had figured anything out yet. You know I couldn't help but wonder how Felicity had managed to analyze the water since there really wasn't anything in the office that would help with that.

I finally got a call from her when school had gotten out. You know I couldn't help but wonder if she had managed to figure it out earlier, but deliberately waited until I was done with school to tell me. If that was the case, I probably couldn't be mad at her. I mean I was a little mad at her, but she was also looking out for my education. She might have decided that I could only be a vigilante if I did well in school.

"So what did you find?" I asked her. "Also did you wait to tell me until I was done with school on purpose or did you legitimately just find out?"

"That's not really something that you need to know." She quipped. I wished that she could have seen me pouting. I didn't know why I ever bothered pouting because she couldn't see me. Anyway, the solvent that was used in the Vertigo came from runoff water from where East Glades meets the bay. The only thing there is an old juvenile detention center."

From there, Courtney and I went to the hideout so we could get changed. I noticed a bit of an uneasy look on Iris's face.

"Are you sure that you can go out there in your condition?" She asked me.

"Iris, I am completely normal condition." I remarked. "It's all out of my system right now."

"I'm not completely sure if I believe you. You could still experience after effects." She pointed out.

"Iris, what's really going on?" I asked her.

"Okay, I've pretty much failed the most important of being a bodyguard which is don't get attached to the client. The thing is I don't have any family left. You're like my sister and I can't bear to see you get hurt." She stated.

"Can you grab one of those tennis balls?" I asked her.

"Why?" She questioned as held it up. I then shot an arrow and hit it out of her hands. "Jesus! What the fuck was that?"

"That was to show you that my aim is not affected." I declared.

"You can give me some warning instead of almost giving me a heart attack." Iris replied. "Okay, so I guess you have healed from this."

From there, Courtney and I headed to the detention center.

"This place gives me the creeps." Courtney stated.

"Remember, do exactly what I say." I instructed her. "If you get dosed with that stuff, you won't be as lucky as me. It might even kill you."

We then went inside and started to take out the various henchmen. I couldn't help but wonder why they never had high-quality henchmen, but I imagined that The Count wanted to spend as little money on security as possible. It also seemed like he wouldn't need a lot of security if no one had been able to find the place.

"Come on. I think he's this way." I told Courtney. I knew that he would be in the center of it. His office was in the warden's office. I was pretty sure it was so he could feel like he was in charge. I didn't know what they had done to him there, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't because of what happened to him that he was so crazy. He was just someone who enjoying inflicting pain and suffering on people. He reminded me of a criminal that I had only heard about, but he was supposed to be the worst of the worst.

I had Courtney focus on taking it out the henchmen while I went for the Count. He started to run and I ran after him. I made sure to where an extra layer of protection this time so he couldn't dose me again. It was a little bit uncomfortable but I wouldn't need to wear it for long.

"You should have stuck to your depraved elite. I am merely providing people with what they want." He told me as he pointed the gun at me. Did he really think that would work on me? "I'm providing a public service!"

"That makes two of us." I declared as I shot the gun out of his hand. At that point, the two of us began to fight each other. He took out another syringe and tried to stab me with it, only to find out it got stuck in my extra layer. I then pulled it out and stuck it into him instead.

"Sorry I don't do drugs." I declared as I jabbed it into him.

"Freeze!" Quinton interrupted. At that point, I did the same thing as before. I was glad that The Count was so skinny because it made throwing him so much easier. At that point, I ran. Fortunately, they were distracted enough that I could get away.

In the morning, I found that the charges against Tommy had indeed been dropped. It just so happened to turn out that the hospital tech "accidentally" switched Tommy's blood sample with another patient's. I did not that story at all, but it seemed that the other archer had stuck to his word. I assumed that meant threatening someone at the hospital. I supposed the question that was on my mind was why. Why did he want to get rid of The Count and why was he willing to help me with Tommy to do so?

After school, Thea decided to take me home because she had gotten a parking pass. I was weird that she actually managed to keep her driver's license. Come to think of it, it was probably the first time she had ever driven me anywhere.

"So is there any reason you wanted to give me a ride home?" I asked.

"Well, I did some digging." She answered. "You said that we should do a DNA test, so I went to this coffee shop that Emiko likes to go to. I managed to get a DNA sample from her. I didn't talk to her, but I got enough. Olivia, this girl is our sister."

So as expected, Olivia was severely underaffected by Vertigo. What she didn't know was that Robert managed to get the charges against Tommy dropped. Also there's confirmation that Thea is not related to Malcolm since her DNA matched with Emiko's. I'm going to be skipping the next two episodes since they're mostly related to things that didn't happen here. Please don't forget to review.