It had been a few weeks since my encounter with Slade. One thing that happened in those few weeks was Iris had her first meeting with the Suicide Squad. Also Barry was helping with that. So, that basically confirmed that he wasn't in a coma and he probably wasn't going to be this universe's Flash. That did leave a lot of questions to who was going to be this universe's Flash. I would have to find out who it was going to be later or maybe I would never meet them at all. Maybe I had already met them and it was someone else.
I was currently at home, I was waiting for Emiko to get back. She usually took a cab to come home since I was always the last one out. I couldn't help but wonder what was taking so long. I hoped that she was alright, even though I had a bit of a bad feeling about it. In fact I had a really bad feeling about it. I remembered that Slade had kidnapped Thea. However since Thea was a highly guarded CEO, he would be unlikely to get her, further illustrated by the fact that she was currently sleeping in her room. That could only make me think that he had her. Of course, I couldn't do anything about it, because there was still a chance that she was just spending the nighty with her mom and forgot to call.
I would at least have to do some preliminary searching. The good news was that I could tell that Slade was not going to kill her. At least I hoped that he wouldn't. He knew that she was worth more to me alive than dead. If I recalled, Sebastian was also in on it. The thing that I remembered was that Sebastian seemed to have been forced to work for Slade. I was pretty sure that part of it was blackmail.
The following night, I was in the club. I was very worried about Emiko, but I couldn't think that anything was wrong yet. Sometimes knowing how things were going to go before they happened was a curse. I saw Iris was reading an article about Iron Heights.
"I was wondering when you would get here." She declared. "You know you killing less people has made it so Iron Heights has a lot more people in it."
I also noticed that Artemis was going to be practicing with a bow. She probably didn't need to know how to shoot, but I wanted her to learn.
"Are you ready?" I asked her.
"Why am I even doing this?" She questioned. "I don't need to shoot when I can just use my fists."
"Just because you have super strength now doesn't mean that you always will." I pointed out. "I know that there's a way to cure mirakuru and I plan on using it on you as well as Slade. That's why you have to learn other methods of being a hero."
"What if I don't want to give up my powers?" She asked me.
"Artemis, mirakuru messes with your head. Even if you're fine now, that doesn't mean that you'll always be." I explained. "Besides, if you don't think you can be a hero without your powers, then you should not be a hero."
She took a shot and hit the powerline.
"Fuck!" She cursed. "I'm not good at this."
"What's really going on?" I questioned.
"It's about my parents. I really want to tell them what's going on with me." She stated. "We've always been so close and I hated keeping this secret from them."
"I know that it's hard." I explained. "My mom and both of my sisters don't know, but we don't tell them in order to protect them."
"Well I told my stepdad that I'm working with the Arrow and he got kidnapped, even though I think that's more of a coincidence." Courtney declared. I was pretty sure that would not help Artemis. "But that was an anomaly and he's been fine ever since."
"What I'm getting at is telling your parents won't make them safer and it will just make them worry about you." I pointed out. "Not to mention this is dangerous and it could put them in danger. I want you to try again and this time aim."
At that point, Mia came in.
"So have to go to a board meeting." She told me. "Since you're part of one of the subsidiaries of Queen Consolidated, it's important to you."
I was pretty sure that we weren't going to lose the company because I didn't think that Thea would sign it away in order to find Emiko. I would probably tell her explicitly not to do that if it came up.
As soon as I got upstairs, I couldn't help but notice that I had a visitor.
"Olivia!" Tara greeted me. I couldn't help but wonder what she was doing in Star City.
"Tara? What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I was in town and I thought that I would stop by your place of business." She explained. "It's nice here. What kind of drinks do you serve here?"
"Ones without alcohol in them." I explained. "You know I don't really have time to talk right now because I have a meeting that I need to get to. We can catch up later."
"I will never understand the resistance that you Americans have to alcohol." She declared.
I then headed to the meeting and found that Mom and Thea both seemed to be a little worried.
"Have you heard from Emiko at all?" Mom asked.
"No, but she probably just went to her mom's house and forgot to call." I tried to assure them. I knew that things were going to go bad, but I wanted to try to calm them until we figured out that Slade had kidnapped her. I knew that definitely would not be easy though.
"Well we need to try to call her because I want all of you at the debate tonight." She explained. I wasn't actually sure if she supported Mom's campaign and she also didn't have the obligation to be there like Thea and I did.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for her to come?" Thea asked. I thought about suggesting that she drop out of the race. I was starting to think that she wouldn't even win at this point. She was behind in the polls. I also couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she lived and Sebastian still died. I knew that the deputy mayor would become mayor, but Sebastian didn't have one and probably wouldn't name one until after the election.
That night, I was dressed for the debate. I was backstage because I had the right to be.
"Has anyone seen Emiko Adachi?" I asked some of the staff. No one had seen her and I was definitely worried. I called her, but predictably she didn't answer. I sent her a text because I knew that she wouldn't check her voicemail.
"Hey, Sis, I'm at the debate right now and I'm wondering where you are. Please call or text me back whenever you can to let me know that you're safe." It read. I had gotten pretty good at typing fast.
"You really don't look happy." Sebastian remarked. "Is everything alright?"
"No, it's just my sister isn't here right now." I explained.
"I saw Thea over there." He pointed out. "Oh you mean you're other sister."
"Yeah. Even though we're not related, I still consider her to be my sister and I haven't heard from her in a while and I'm worried." I told him. I really wished that he wasn't involved in it, but he probably didn't have a choice at this point.
"I'm afraid that's my fault." He answered. I couldn't help but wonder if he was feeling guilty about the kidnapping. "SCPD insisted that I arrive in a motorcade. Traffic all over the city is messed up. I'm sure she'll be here soon."
"Yeah you're probably right." I replied. "Good luck tonight, Sebastian."
"Thank you." He responded before he went to the stage.
I then went around and I saw that Dinah was there.
"I didn't think that you would be allowed to be back here." I admitted. It was then that I realized how she was dressed. She was wearing her chef outfit.
"Well being the caterer has its benefits." She explained with a smile. "Can you do me a favor though?"
"What?" I asked.
"If your mom asks who I'm voting for, can you lie to her?" She requested.
"You're voting for Sebastian." I realized. I supposed that wasn't a surprise.
"Yeah. I told Tommy to tell her that I haven't decided." She added.
A few minutes later, the debate started.
"Sebastain Blood is not the man you think he is." Mom declared. I knew who he was and I really hoped that he would make the right decision in the end. "He's not going to save the city with social services. He's going to bankrupt it with unfunded mandates."
"Mrs. Queen's problem with my proposals is that they will be paid for by the 1%." Sebastian argued as Mom scoffed. At that point they both started to talk before the moderator stopped them.
"Okay that's time. I will have to remain our candidates to please refrain from interrupting." He declared. "Now we have the first in our series of filmed questions from Star City voters. This one comes from…Emiko Adachi? Who gave me this card?"
At that point, the video started to play and just as I feared it was her. She was begging for help and there was a message on the screen asking how much her life was worth. Needless to say that everyone at the debate was shocked and it was immediately postponed.
The first thing that Sebastian announced was that he was temporarily suspending his campaign in order to finding her. Part of me thought that he didn't even want to kidnap her because that was a very low blow for Slade to take.
I was currently in the office with my family.
"The video referenced a demand but no ransom, so this might not be about money." Lt. Pike told Mom and Malcolm.
"We're going to get her back." Quentin assured them. "Don't worry. Emiko's coming home."
"Can you think of anyone who might want to get to you through her?" Lt. Pike asked.
"There are hundreds of families that I could think of." Mom declared.
"I don't think this is about the quake." I remarked.
"How can you be so sure?" Quentin asked. I wished that I could tell them, but I didn't want them to know.
"You just need to find the man in the mask!" I ordered.
"Look, we're working on it." Lt. Pike replied. "We're running down every lead."
"What are those leads?" I questioned. I wished that I could work with them to find her, but the only one who would help me was Quentin and I didn't even know how much he knew at the moment.
"Who would go after her?" Thea cried. "Who would do something like that?"
I then went outside and once again I saw Tara. I then realized that I had an extra ally in this.
"So this girl is your sister?" She asked.
"Yes, and I was wondering if the Bratva could help me find her." I told her.
"That is not normally something that we do." She pointed out.
"I know but I was hoping that you would do it as a favor to me since I saved your life." I requested. "You must have some connections that could be beneficial for this."
"I will talk to some people." She promised. I hoped that she would. I wasn't completely sure if I trusted her, even though she was supposed to be like Anatoly. The problem was that it took me a while to trust him.
"Olivia, I need to talk to you." Mia interrupted.
We then went to the club, which was currently closed due to Emiko being missing. We went downstairs where everyone was.
"So I'm just gonna go out and say this. Slade Wilson took her. I don't think this should be surprising to anyone." Mia explained.
"Yeah, he took Thea in my world and it was part of his plan to destroy our family." I stated. "But I don't see how taking Emiko can help him with that goal, especially because there's no big secret.'
"Well you said that he knows who you are, so maybe he plans on telling her that." Courtney opined. I supposed that he could do that, but as far as I knew that wouldn't have any major repercussions. The worst thing that I could think would result from that was her going back to live with her mom.
"Do you know where Slade is?" I questioned.
"I mean all that I have is the car that he used to kidnap her." Mia declared. "It's currently outside of a defunct bar on Roosevelt St."
"You know this seems too easy." Iris commented. "Do you think that Slade would leave us a clue like that if he wasn't leading us into a trap?"
"I know it's probably a trap, but the way that I see it: either Emiko will be there or he will. Either we have to go." I explained.
"You know I thought you would say that." Sara declared. "I have some Tibetan pit viper venom. It's the most powerful sedative in the world."
"That should help us and someone else with mirakuru will be a good idea as well." I remarked, looking at Artemis.
"Are you sure that I should go to this?" Artemis asked me.
"Yes we need all of the help that we can get right now." I pointed out.
From there, we went to the bar and just as I expected, Emiko wasn't there. We did however find Slade was there sitting in a chair. He had definitely been expecting us to come.
"Where's my sister?" I demanded. He didn't answer and just got up.
"She asked you a question." Artemis declared before she took a swing at her. Slade flinched but seemed to just shake it off like it was nothing.
"Where is she?" I repeated.
"What are you gonna do, Kid? Kill me?" Slade challenged. "Even if you did manage to do that, who would tell you where your beloved Emiko is?"
"Call Detective Lance. Tell him to come down here." I instructed. Artemis was confused about that. "To arrest Slade Wilson."
At that point, I fired the arrow with the venom in it. He seemed to be surprised by it. I didn't know how long it would be able to keep him down, so we would have to act fast. To his credit, Quentin got there pretty fast.
As far as he knew, I didn't know anything about Sara working with the Arrow in order to find her. You know I was shocked by how surprised he was when he found out my secret identity. Sure I had already been absconded, but did he not think it was coincidental that my girlfriend was a superhero who happened to be working with a girl who looked like me?
I had met with my family and we went to the police station together.
"Detective, did you find out where Emiko is?" I asked as we walked around the precinct.
"He's not a Detective." Lt. Pike remarked.
"This doesn't make any sense. Slade Wilson is a friend." Mom declared.
"And he's been in Costa Rica for the past 72 hours." Lt. Pike stated. "And he can provide flight records to prove it."
"If he didn't do it, why did you arrest him?" Malcolm inquired.
"We didn't. He was apprehended by the vigilante." Lt. Pike explained. "Who then contacted Officer Lance."
"Lt. I can explain." Quentin argued.
"No. I got a pretty clear picture. God you're a special kind of stupid." Lt. Pike declared. Malcolm looked at me. I would have to explain it to him later. "The whole reason you're wearing that uniform instead of a detective shield is because you were working with the vigilante."
"A young is missing…" Quentin remarked.
"And you arrest someone on his say so?" Lt. Pike challenged. "You're lucky your next uniform won't be a jumpsuit."
I then walked into the interrogation room.
"They're calling you Deathstroke." I told him.
"It's a bit flamboyant." He declared with a chuckle. "I like it."
"How did you get off the island?" I asked. I needed some answers.
"That is your first question?" He replied in disbelief.
"Well since you're not going to tell me where my sister is, I have to ask something else." I remarked.
"It was difficult. The rip current dragged me under. The reef and rocks cut up my flesh to the bone, but the mirakuru healed me except my eye." He explained.
"I know it's just the two of us in here, so maybe you can be honest." I responded. "I'll start. I'll never marry you. So tell me why you took my sister."
"You know why and you won't have a choice." He declared. He had such an evil smirk.
"It was five years ago. I was 12 years old. Do you really want to punish me for choosing to save my best friend's life?"
"I tried to let go of the island and you should have saved both of them." He argued. "And since you still wear that hood, I can tell you haven't let it go either."
"Let my sister go. Shado is dead because of me." I told him. "You should have kidnapped me. If you want me to beg, fine. I'm begging you. Let my sister go. Here I am begging for you to set her free."
"That must be hard for you to say." He commented. "Especially since you're not even related to her."
"Ms. Queen, you're not supposed to be in here." Lt. Pike told me before he unlocked the handcuffs. "Mr. Wilson, you're free to go with the department's deepest apologies."
"There's no need Lt. An innocent girl's life hangs in the balance. You need to follow every lead possible." Slade told him.
"Still, you should know that Officer Lance is facing some very serious charges." Pike explained.
"Well pursue them on my behalf. I'm not one to hold a grudge." Slade said as he looked at me.
I hated that Slade had such good publicity. That was the worst part. Both him and Sebastian were very important and no one could possibly think that either of them had done it.
Of course, we weren't just going to let him off the hook like that. We knew that he had done it, even if no one else believed it. I would also have to make a note to talk to Quentin as soon as we found out where Emiko was. I never even knew where he had kept Thea because he just let her go and she hadn't told me because she was mad that we knew about Malcolm being her father.
Unfortunately, our efforts to track him did not work because he was able to clone the tracker system. It led to a bunch of dead ends and no one was able to find out where he was. Part of me wondered what Slade was going to say to her. I didn't think he could do anything along the lines of what he had said to Thea, but I was still nervous about what he could tell her. There was no good that could come from it.
"So what now?" Courtney asked once we were all back at the base.
"I think he's going to let her go." I admitted. "I'm pretty sure that this kidnapping was just a ploy to show us how he thinks that he's untouchable. He played the police and he's playing the media to think that he couldn't have possibly done this. He has a bigger plan. He wants to destroy my family. He won't be able to take our company like he did last time, but there's still a lot that he can do to me. I just have to wait to see what's going to happen at this point."
"So all of this was pointless then?" Artemis questioned. "You know I thought you telling me this would bring us closer, but all you do is boss me around."
"You need to stop." Sara remarked.
"Oh you just have to protect your girlfriend." Artemis questioned. "Fuck this. I'm out of here. I don't need this."
"Look I'm sorry. I'm only trying to help you." I stated.
"I love you. There I said it, but it's pretty obvious that you don't feel the same. I'm like your third choice here if even that." Artemis remarked. I supposed that I was right and the mirakuru was really messing with her.
"Hey, you need to calm down." Sara stated as she went over to her. However, Artemis threw her to the ground. At that point, Sara screamed at her. I had girls fighting over me. At that point, Courtney grabbed her.
"So who is it gonna be, Olivia? Me or someone else? It's like I can't win." Artemis declared.
"All of you, stop now!" I commanded. "This isn't about who I love or who I don't. This is about us trying to be a team. This city needs us to work together. Artemis, this is the mirakuru talking and you need to control it."
"Everyone keeps telling me that I need to control it, but maybe I don't. Maybe I like the way that it makes me feel. Maybe I like having these powers and I'm not going to let you take it away from me." She argued. "I'm not going to part of this team anymore and I'm not going to let you hurt me anymore. I'm going to tell my parents about my powers, but I'm not going to tell anyone else about your secret or any of this, because I do still have a small ounce of respect for you."
She then stormed out.
"Okay, we have a visitor." Courtney interrupted.
I went upstairs to find that Tara was upstairs.
"What are you doing here?" I inquired.
"You know how easy it was to manipulate you. I suppose it shouldn't be considering how you have been manipulating the Bratva to do what you want for so long. Of course none of that even matters since I'm not even a member. I never was. My father wouldn't let me join, but he is still a powerful ranking member and when I told him that not only were you the vigilante but everything that you've done, he revoked your captainship." She explained.
"You're working for Slade." I realized. "Did we even meet on the freighter?"
"Yes we did and you did save me, but I devoted myself to him years ago. You know he's pretty good in bed. I'm sure that you'll figure that out soon enough." She explained. "And also you and Sara weren't the only ones who were given powers because of Ivo's experiments. Let's shake things up a little."
At that point her eyes glowed yellow and the ground started to move a little.
"I could tear this place down a second time, but I don't have any need to." She declared. "We're not done with you yet, Olivia. Be prepared for what we have in store."
"Where is Emiko?" I demanded.
"He already let her go. It's all part of the plan." She responded. "She should be returning home any minute now."
She then formed a platform of dirt and started to fly away on it. I was beginning to think that I was in over my head.
The fact that Slade had another metahuman was definitely a not a good thing. At that point, Mia ran upstairs.
"Are you okay? Did she do anything?" She asked.
"No." I answered. "But Slade has once again got the upper hand on me. Even though I knew what he was going to do, he still managed to get ahead."
"Well it's about to get a lot worse. He just intercepted the bus full of prisoners headed to Iron Heights. He's going to inject them with mirakuru isn't he?" She asked. Yeah he was and things were going to get a lot worse for Artemis.
From there, I went into the precinct to see Emiko. She looked pretty pissed off and didn't seem to want any hugs from us.
"Tell your staff to start packing up my things because I'm moving back in with my mother." Emiko declared. Yup, to say that she was pissed off would be an understatement. I couldn't help but wonder what Slade her told her, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't any good."
"You don't need to do that." I told her. I needed to try to talk some sense into her.
"Can I talk to Olivia alone?" She requested as Malcolm, Thea and Mom all walked out of the room. "You really thought that you could keep this from me. I've been working for you over six months. We've known each other for over a year and you didn't think to tell me that you're a fucking vigilante and you've told so many other people about it too. You told fucking Artemis before you told me. I thought that I was your sister. You said that even though we're not related that you still care about me, but I guess that isn't true. I want you out of my life! And you can take your fucking job and shove it!"
"I was trying to keep you safe." I argued.
"And look where that got us. I got kidnapped because of you. I had guns pointed at me." She explained. "You know one of the reasons why I liked you so much is because I thought that you were honest with me. And after all of this time, everything that I know about you has been a lie. You're lucky that I don't want you to go jail because I could tell everyone about this."
So it seemed like Slade's plan to destroy my family was working. Simply telling Emiko my secret was enough to push her away from all of us. It made sense that she saw it as an act of betrayal. I was fortunate that she was not going to betray me right back. I had hoped that Emiko was going to react the way that Thea had originally did when I told her, but I was also pretty sure that the reason that she did that was due to the fact that I had told her myself.
To make matters worse, Sara told me that her father was still being arrested for conspiracy. I couldn't remember how they managed to get the charges dropped. I could try to get them dropped myself. Emiko had even told them that Slade was the one who kidnapped her. I couldn't understand why the police hated me so much. It was probably because I could do their job better than they could. Quentin understood that they weren't going to be able to stop the criminals that I took down on their and I wished that they would have seen it as well.
In good news, my mom's polling numbers were up even though Emiko wasn't even her daughter. I didn't know if it would last or not because I still didn't understand politics. I had only become mayor because the previous one was killed. I may have been able to beat, but it was also possible that I could have lost. I couldn't help but wonder how Sebastian felt about it, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't good. I couldn't help but wonder if it was getting him to begin questioning his loyalties. Maybe he could still change sides before it was too late. I would definitely accept his help.
Of course, there was still one more thing that I knew that Slade did around this time and I was a little bit scared about it. I knew that Laurel had originally taken it pretty well, but I didn't know if this version, Dinah, would react the same way.
I went back to the club because even though I knew I should probably be with my family, I knew that it was better for me to be there right now. I needed to discuss everything I knew with the team. I wasn't going to keep any more secrets.
"So here's what I know. Slade is trying to produce an army to take over Star City. Sebastian Blood is working for him and the only reason that I haven't killed him or taken him down is because I want to see if I can reach him because I did get to him originally. If it's anything like it was before, he's going to trying to kidnap Artemis in order to get his army." I told them.
"Well we're going to do whatever we can in order to help you." Courtney explained. At the point, my phone rang. It was Tommy.
"Hey, can you let me in please?" He questioned.
I went to open the door and I saw him. He looked like he had been crying.
"What happened?" I asked him.
"Slade stopped by our apartment." He explained.
"Did he do anything to Dinah?" I questioned.
"Yeah, he did." He responded solemnly as he started to cry once more. "He didn't hurt her, but he told her that you were the Arrow and that I knew about it. She was so hurt by the revelation. She kicked me out."
So the biggest surprise in the chapter is one that really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Tara is Terra and she's working for Slade. The other thing is Artemis really is obsessed with Olivia. And finally Dinah and Tommy broke up because of Olivia's secret. Please don't forget to review.