Laurel woke, not in a hospital bed, but an old bedroom, one she hadn't slept in since she moved out of her parents. After their divorce, she had run to an apartment with Joanna, ranaway from the empty room next to hers. She walked to her old vanity, fingers ghosting along makeup and jewelry she hadn't seen or worn in years.
She was dead. She had to be. Darhk had killed her, but what was this, heaven or hell or somewhere inbetween. Tears welled in her eyes, she would never see them again, her friends, her family. Her gaze rested on an old photo of her, Oliver, Tommy, Sara and Thea. It had been taken before everything, before the gambit. Was this where Tommy was, where Sara had been?
"You're not dead."
Startled, she jerked around putting her fist up in a defensive stance. A man stood in a green hooded cape. She couldn't see his face, only green eyes gazed out from under the hood.
"Who are you supposed to be?" She relaxed her stance, keeping her fist clenched.
"The Spirit of Vengeance, The Spirit of Redemption, The Avenging Wrath of God." His voice was deep and monotone. "But you can call me The Spectre."
She let out a breath. "That's a few titles you've got. I'm-"
"The Black Canary." He interrupted.
"-Laurel." She finished. "Black Canary works too. Since you seem to be all knowing and such."
"I'm offering you a choice. You can spend your death here living but not living. Or-"
"You said I wasn't dead." She took a step forward.
"You're in purgatory. Not dead, not alive. A limbo of sorts." He paused. "If I could finish."
She made a go ahead gesture.
"Or you could live again, make the world better, change the timeline, create a better one. You could save your friends and family. You would awake the day the Gambit went down. Build a new and better future for them."
"What are the conditions?" She said, crossing her arms. She could save them, stop her sister from dying, Thea from being taken by Malcom and the League. She could save Tommy.
"You cannot save Oliver, he has his own crucible to go through to be the hero he needs to be. Sara will stay with the League until she can break free on her own. You will tell no one of your knowledge of the future for you will be in a new world, one of heroes and villains."
"No."
"Is this your final decision? Then Tommy will still die, without the Black Canary to help the Green Arrow, many will die by Oliver's hand if you don't show him you can help people without killing them. Thea will be overtaken by the league as will your sister until she is killed and driven mad by the pit, she will never get the freedom she craves with the Legends. Felicity will become the evil she is fighting against, Diggle will lose his family, your father will die." The Spectre's voice had stayed the same monotone, his eyes glowing an eerie green.
She could feel the tears welling and the anger building. The choice was a simple one save the many and leave Oliver to his torture on the island and her sister to the League. Her sister, her baby sister would be stuck as an assassin for years, she might not ever come back to herself. Nyssa would be there for her, but at what cost to her sister's soul. She would save them, save Tommy from his death, save Thea from her father, save her father from himself, Felicity, Diggle and Lyla. Oliver would come back cold, unattached, murdering people, she could be there as Specter said to guide him, to stop the Undertaking. Sara would find her, the strongest person she knew, Sara would find her way out, back to her family.
"Yes. I'll do it, but I have conditions. If Sara isn't back by the same time she was in the original timeline, I will get her out. I'll keep my knowledge a secret, unless it is needed to save others, to prevent deaths."
"Deal." The green of his eyes brightened, the glowing green swallowing his eyes whole, face glowing. Oliver? Laurel thought as the world went white, and she lost consciousness.