I was in shock. Slade Wilson was in my house. If I had any doubt that he was a bad guy before, it was gone now. I had a lot of memories about him, but I didn't know what our relationship in this world was like. However, I could safely assume that it wasn't good because he was still out to get me. I was also pretty sure that his plan was the same. He wanted to make me suffer and then he wanted to kill me. I needed to make sure the suffering part did not happen, but I was more prepared this time.
"Wh…what are you doing here?" I stammered. I decided that it would make sense for me to be nervous being around this strange man in my house.
"Mr. Wilson just made a sizable donation to my campaign." Mom explained. Was he really donating to both candidates? I couldn't help but wonder if he had some kind of plan for if my mom actually did win or if he always planned on killing her before the election.
"That's very generous of him." I commented.
"Well I felt compelled. It was the least that I could do for your mother." He explained. I couldn't help but wonder if he actually supported Sebastian's campaign platform or was just using him because of his psychological issues. "What this city needs is a pro-business mayor like Moira to spread growth through open investment."
"And we were just discussing how to combat the rising wage gap." Mom added.
"And the answer lies in your budget proposal." Slade remarked as he put his hand on her shoulder. I was pretty sure that Malcolm wouldn't like to see that. "You know when I look at your mother and think about everything that you went through after the quake, all I can say is you and I have something in common."
"What's that?" Mom asked.
"I know how difficult it is to pick yourself back up when other people have written you off." He explained. I was pretty sure that he wasn't actually flirting with her. He did seem to want to get under my skin though and it was working.
"Indeed." Mom agreed.
"What's wrong Miss Queen? You look a little peaked." Slade asked.
"I'm fine. Thank you." I declared.
At that point, Raisa rolled out some rum. Did he plan on getting her drunk or something?
"Ah, thank you Raisa. Mr. Wilson was kind enough to bring a bottle of authentic Australia rum." Mom explained. "If you want to join us in a drink, you can."
"Yes, of course." I answered. I knew that I had to because if it was poisoned, I would rather be the one to consume it since it wouldn't kill me.
"Wonderful." Slade agreed.
"What shall we drink to?" Mom inquired.
"To friendship." Slade toasted before he and my mom drank. I then drank as well. It didn't taste like it was poisoned, but it was pretty strong.
"Delicious." Mom declared. "I'm sure my husband will love this."
Slade then walked over to a model sailboat.
"This is a beautiful piece. Tell me does your family spend much time on the water?" He asked.
"No. Not since my late husband and Olivia were in an accident." She answered.
"Ah yes, the one who caused the quake. It's a shame that some people aren't who they appear to be. I do remember reading about that accident in the paper." He said before he looked at me. "You were a brave soul, surviving on that island for so many years without any help."
"I don't really remember much of it." I declared. However, I probably wasn't doing a very good job at convincing him that I didn't remember him.
"Well a lot of us try to bottle up traumatic events. It must have been hell for a girl your age." He responded.
I really wanted to know if a lot of things that had happened with Slade were the same. Why would he be so mad at me? Did he think that I had loved Shado or something? Sara had told me that she was the same age as before and made it sound like I looked at her as a maternal substitute. I couldn't help but wonder if Slade had seen me as a sort of surrogate daughter. I knew that he had multiple children of his own, though I was pretty sure that Rose wasn't born yet.
The most terrifying part about being in the house with Slade wasn't that I couldn't really contact the team for help. I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to do anything, but his plan to make me feel unnerved was definitely working. On top of fearing for my mother's life, I couldn't help but also feel for the lives of Thea and Emiko.
"So you said that you have two other children?" Slade asked Mom.
"Well technically three but only two live here." Mom explained. "My stepson is a doctor who lives with his girlfriend. There's Thea who is mine and Robert's and my stepdaughter Emiko, who Robert had from an affair."
"You know it's quite noble of you to take in a child from your husband's indiscretions." He commented.
"Well it wouldn't be fair for me to judge considering that I wasn't exactly faithful myself." Mom remarked. I was pretty sure that it was a bad idea to tell him about Emiko, but she didn't know that he was also working with Sebastian. I did hope that as my friend, Sebastian wouldn't feel the need to directly go after my family.
"So Olivia, I heard that you have done your share of campaigning for Sebastian Blood." Slade commented.
"Well I didn't know that my mom was going to be running at the time." I declared with a nervous chuckle. "I was pretty sure that she didn't know either. But I have to support my mom's campaign because she's my mom."
"Do you agree with your mother's platforms?" He replied.
"I really don't want to get into that. There are some things that my mom has done that I don't agree with but I love her just the same." I stated.
"And I also hear that you are quite the businesswoman yourself." He added. "Maybe I should check out your club sometime." He offered.
"I don't think that you're really the demographic for it." I explained. I really didn't want him there. "We don't serve alcohol and most of my employees and patrons are underage. It's meant to be a safe place for teens and young adults."
"That is a nice idea." He declared. "What inspired you to have such an idea?"
"I noticed that a lot of people my age were going to clubs, even though they weren't supposed to and there really wasn't a place to go without being hit on by creepy older men." I declared. I wanted to make it seem like I didn't trust him a little, because I felt like that would be an appropriate reaction. "And also a lot of the owners didn't seem to care about protecting their patrons and were sometimes even part of the problem themselves."
"Well you're very noble and I do agree that it is important for young people to have a place to congregate." He agreed.
"Tell me, Mr. Wilson, do you have any kids?" Mom asked.
"I have two actually, but I don't really see them because my ex-wife did not support the move to America." He answered. "I miss both of my sons, but there's unfortunately nothing that I can do."
"That's a shame." I commented. I decided to go for some more small talk. I really wished that I could leave the conversation, but I still didn't trust him with my mother. "So if you don't mind me asking, how did you lose your eye?"
"I spent some time in the Australian Secret Intelligence Service." He explained. I couldn't help but wonder what lie he was going to tell. It was also possible that he wasn't even lying because I couldn't guarantee that I was the one to cause him to lose it.
"So I suppose you lost it in combat then." I commented.
"I actually didn't. I was betrayed by a fellow solider who shot me. I was mad at first, but there was no point in me getting revenge." He declared as he looked at me. Well so much for the theory that I wasn't responsible for it.
"That's unfortunate. It must suck to be betrayed by someone who you thought you could trust." I replied.
"You have no idea, Ms. Queen." He retorted.
"Did you ever think that maybe it was just a misunderstanding though? Perhaps this person was only trying to help you." I told him.
"Maybe it's best that we don't talk about this." Mom suggested. "What happened in the past is in the past and Mr. Wilson's handicap is not really any of our business."
"I don't mind talking about, but it probably is the best to leave it in the past, Moira." Slade stated. I still couldn't believe that he was holding a grudge against me for something that I did as a 12-year-old. Had I explicitly said that I wanted to protect Sara over Shado? Even if I did, I was just a child and I probably didn't fully understand what was going on. Okay, even I think that sounds like a lame excuse considering that I would have been 12 and was also considered intelligent for my age.
The other thing that I knew about what happened on the freighter was that Tara was a prisoner. You know I had to say that Ivo was a sick fuck for experimenting on children. I also couldn't help but wonder if any of his experiments had led to Tara getting superpowers as well. Maybe that was how she gained such a high position in the Bratva, even though she could have also gotten it from being Anatoly's daughter. I was pretty sure that I was going to see her again in the future, but I wasn't sure when.
I also couldn't help but wonder what Ivo would think if he knew that he experiments did in fact work, just that the compound that he used had a delayed reaction if it was used on a person younger than 16. Well as far as I knew, he had never tested it on a person that was older than 16. I also couldn't help but wonder what his goal was as well. Was he going to try to brainwash us after we had our powers to become his personal army of superkids, or did he even have an end goal?
At that point, I got a phone call. Part of being a teenager was that I needed to have my phone on me at all times. I noticed that it was work calling.
"Are you going to answer that?" Slade asked me.
"It's work. Please excuse me." I stated.
I then walked out of the room, I didn't want to go too far away because I still wanted to be able to keep an eye on him to make sure that he wasn't going to do anything.
"Hello?" I answered. I knew only a few people would call me from the work phone.
"Hey, are you going to be here soon?" Artemis asked.
"I'm a little bit tied up at home, but I'll be there as soon as I can." I explained. "Are there any problems?"
"No." She answered. Part of me wanted to tell her what was really going on, but I didn't think it would be fair to tell her before I told Courtney or Iris. "I just wanted to know where you were."
You know one thing that I couldn't help but consider was that the mirakuru might cause Artemis to have a bit of an obsession with me. However, there really wasn't anything to give me reason to believe that right now other than my own speculation. Obsessive feelings did seem to be a side effect of it, but unless I had actual proof, I didn't want to accuse Artemis or such a thing.
"I'll see you soon." I promised. "Just make sure that nothing crazy happens at the club while I'm gone and try not to hurt anyone."
"I'll try." She agreed before she hung up. She did sound a little bit disappointed that I wasn't there at the moment. Another thing that I needed to do was try to prevent Slade from kidnapping her like he had done with Roy because it had resulted in Roy going crazy. She was a lot like Roy in the fact that she also had anger issues.
At that point, I returned to the parlor hoping that I hadn't missed too much. I also couldn't help but wonder if he planned on doing anything differently. Perhaps he planned on telling my mother that I was the Arrow, but I was pretty sure that she already knew that. I couldn't help but wonder why she never thought to tell me like Malcolm did.
"I'm sorry to hear about your family, Mr. Wilson." Mom stated. She was seated on the couch with him. I took a seat across from them. "But you must have someone special in your life."
"Well I do actually have a girlfriend. She's from Russia." He answered.
"Russia?" I asked in surprise. I could help but wonder if he was talking about Isabel, who was from Russia, even though she typically wasn't thought of Russian considering that she had lived in this country for a while. I was a little surprised I hadn't seen her yet.
"Yeah and there was another woman, but she passed away several years ago." He added. There I was pretty sure that he was talking about Shado.
"I'm sorry." Mom declared.
"I can only imagine what it's like to lose someone that you care about so much." I commented. I hadn't really experienced anything like that yet. When I originally had this meeting, I had already lost my father and Tommy, but here I hadn't lost Tommy and even if Robert was dead, he really wasn't that much of a loss considering how he had turned out to be evil. "But it's probably a good idea to just try to move on from it."
"I'm sorry. I don't believe that." He stated as he put his glass down and got up. I then noticed he was looking at one of our paintings. "You know I heard that your family has an affinity for the fine arts."
"Robert amassed quite the collection of 19th-century American landscapes." Mom explained. I never could figure out why he had done that.
"I'd love to see them." He stated.
"I think that would be better suited for another time." I argued as I also got up. "My mother and I have some important family business that we need to discuss right now."
"I'm sorry. My daughter is usually better-behaved than this." Mom declared. "Let me just get my staff to open up the rest of the house."
With that she walked away and I knew that I had an opportunity. Even though I knew it was a bad idea, I grabbed a letter opener and prepared to stab him with it. Unfortunately, he was able to predict my attack and stopped it.
"Moira?" Malcolm asked as he walked inside. You know this would be an interesting situation.
"Not yet, Kid. I still need to meet the rest of your family." Slade declared.
Malcolm then walked into the room.
"Hey, where's your mother?" He questioned.
"This isn't really a good time." I declared. I needed to get to work, but I needed to get Slade out of the house first.
"Slade Wilson. I'm a campaign donor. It's nice to meet you. I've heard such wonderful things from your wife and daughter." He introduced as he shook Malcolm's hand. The thing was Malcolm was someone that I could talk to about Slade, but I still couldn't do it with him there.
"Malcolm, this is Slade Wilson." Mom responded as she walked back over.
"They've met." I replied.
"I was just about to show Slade our collection, but you know a lot more about stuff than I do." Mom continued.
"What's going on?" Thea asked as she and Emiko came downstairs. I really did not like where this was going. The good news was that I was pretty sure that Thea would not wind up kidnapped by him.
"We were going to talk about the art." Mom explained.
"Oh, last year I was obsessed with this stuff." Thea declared. "My teacher made me bring my entire Art History class over here to show our pieces. It was exactly as mortifying as it sounds."
I remembered that and it was pretty uncomfortable. I did not like all of those random in my house, but it was still better than having Slade in my house.
"I'm sure it wasn't. You're a very lucky girl to have known such privilege." Slade argued. "And I'm fortunate to have your entire family here."
We began to walk down the halls.
"And here we have an 1882 piece by Curtis Swan. Fun fact about this one: he actually painted it with his left hand because he was suffering from severe arthritis." Thea explained.
"It's absolutely exquisite." Slade declared.'
"I can't tell you how many offers we've had from private collectors for it." Mom declared.
"But it's one of my favorites and there's no way in hell I'm selling it. I know that my dad did a lot of bad things, but he was a great father to me." Thea declared. I then took out my phone to try to call Iris. "Isn't it nice, Livvy?"
"Yeah, it's very pretty." I stated.
"Then you should never sell it." Slade stated. "I believe that when we lose someone we love, we have an obligation to honor their memory."
I hoped that they would answer. I wouldn't be able to talk, so I put it on speaker.
"And here's a Joseph Cooper from 1890." Thea continued.
"That's gorgeous." Slade commented. "I actually have a painting from his first solo exhibition in Boston."
I had no idea if he was telling the truth or not and I would probably never to be able to verify if it was true, but it really didn't matter if it was. I didn't know if Slade had the intention to try to kill any of them right there, but it probably wasn't something worth risking. I was pretty sure that Slade's plan was just to make me uncomfortable, which he was succeeding at with flying colors. He didn't want to kill me right now, even though I wasn't sure if he knew about my healing powers. I could probably even regenerate my eye unlike he could. I did hear Iris's voice at least so I knew that the call had been received. I was hoping that Sara or Mia would be with them.
I couldn't believe that Slade was such a good liar that he managed to completely fool for my mother. I didn't know if Malcolm trusted him, but since my mom seemed to, he had no idea to go along with everything. He seemed to be better at handling it than I was. No one else seemed to realize how dangerous this man really was. They hadn't seen him do the things that I had seen him do. They hadn't seen him rip men apart with his bare hands. The mirakuru made him incredibly unstable and there was probably no reasoning with him at this point.
Part of me really wanted to have a long discussion with Sebastian about Slade where I could explain to him that he didn't have Sebastian's interests at heart and that he was just using him to further own agenda, but I was pretty sure that Sebastian wouldn't believe me and he would wonder how I even knew about that. I could try talking to him as the Vigilante but I didn't want to ruin our relationship just yet when I didn't feel like I needed to. I still believed that Sebastian could do the right thing.
"So Mr. Wilson, what interest you so much in my wife's campaign?" Malcolm inquired.
"Well as I was telling her earlier, I admire how she will be able to help businesses out. She cares more about protecting us and our wealth." Slade declared. "Do you honestly expect the same from Sebastian Blood?"
I found it ironic that he was disparaging Sebastian considering that he was his partner in crime. Okay, Sebastian was more an underling. I wished that he could see what his boss really thought about him. It was too bad that I didn't have a way to let him know.
"Well I don't think that our wealth needs that much protection. There probably is such a thing as too much money. I mean we don't need to be like Elon Musk, buying a lot of things and then taking credit for their profits."
"You know you look a lot like him." Slade commented. Now that I thought about it, Malcolm actually did look a lot like Elon Musk. I had interacted with him a few times in the past and I really couldn't stand that guy. Even though Mark Zuckerberg seemed like a robot, he was still more likable.
"I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not." Malcolm quipped. You know I had to admit that was a good one. It seemed like I definitely didn't inherit his comedic timing.
"So young Emiko, how do you feel about being part of this family?" Slade asked her. It was a little weird the way that he said it.
"Well I honestly did always want to have siblings growing up and I don't even care that I'm not related to anyone but Thea. It feels good to be part of something even if the circumstances weren't the best." Emiko explained.
"We really love having her around here." I declared. "She's also been great help with the club."
"I thought you would be there tonight." Mom remarked.
"Well I need some time to spend with my family." Emiko declared. "Olivia hired two more bartenders so I don't have to be there all of the time."
If things were like they were before, I was fairly certain that Courtney and Iris were outside ready to take some shots at Slade. I kind of just wanted them to know that he was there and I didn't exactly want to kill him. I also didn't think that either the staff or any kind of gun would be able to take him down. The mirakuru really enhanced his ability to survive things.
It also seemed like they were planning a rescue mission. It probably would have been a good idea for me to try to help them, but I didn't want anyone to think that anything out of the ordinary was happening. I probably could explain this as an unplanned visit from some friends if anything went wrong. It would be a little weird but I was pretty sure that I was good enough at acting for that.
We finished the tour and I was really hoping that he would finally leave.
"Thank you again for such a wonderful and insightful tour." Slade commented as walked back into the foyer.
"Did you have a favorite?" Thea asked. I was pretty sure that she was just excited that someone seemed to be as interested in the art as she was. She didn't know that he was just brown-nosing her. He seemed to be very good at that.
"I found The Promise to be particularly compelling." Slade told her.
"Hey Olivia, are you here?" Artemis interrupted.
"Artemis, I didn't know that you were coming here." I replied as she gave me a look. I supposed that she was working with the team. I couldn't help but wonder if she and Sara had found out that they were on the same team because I hadn't told Artemis that.
"Yeah, I decided that it would be a good idea to check on since you were taking so long to get to the club." Artemis lied. She didn't seem like she was a very good liar, but at least I knew that she was there to try to save me and my family.
"This is Artemis Crock, she's one of my employees." I introduced.
"Slade Wilson." The Australian replied as he shook her hand. "You know you have a pretty strong grip."
"My dad owns a gym so it kind of runs in the family." Artemis stated.
At that point, I noticed Sara was there with a knife. I glanced at her, telling her to put it away.
"Livvy, there you are." She remarked as she came down the stairs and gave me a kiss. I did still hope that Artemis wasn't jealous of that, though maybe I was imagining Artemis having feelings for me.
"Sara, I didn't hear you come in." Mom declared.
"I didn't want to interrupt the tour, though maybe you can give me onr some time." Sara offered.
"Mr. Wilson, this is Olivia's girlfriend, Sara Lance." Mom introduced.
"Of course. You're the other girl who came back from the dead." Slade quipped.
"We're just glad that she's home." I explained.
"Well I'm glad that you were able to find that special someone who means everything to you." Slade remarked as Sara and Artemis both stared at him. "You're very lucky."
"So what would you like to do now, Mr. Wilson?" I asked in a semi-threatening way.
"Well I hate to break up the party but I should probably be going." Slade stated.
Mom then walked him out.
"I look forward to seeing more of you, Moira." He declared. "I'm very interested in seeing your campaign succeed."
"Iris and Courtney both have shots lined up outside." Sara whispered.
"Mr. Wilson?" I requested as he looked at me. "May I walk you to your car?"
The two of us walked outside and I was glad that I could finally stop pretending.
"So Cyrus Gold and the man in the mask, this was all you. They worked for you." I noted,
"Well I have my allies, just as you have yours." Slade countered. "Iris West for example. I suppose you're wondering why she hasn't taken her shot yet. Don't worry. She's still alive.
At that point, Slade opened his car door. It was one of those cars that opened upwards. I also couldn't believe that he was able to get a driver's license considering that he had only one eye. Maybe that was something that I should do research on in the future.
"Slade, what do you want?" I asked.
He got in his car and closed the door before he rolled down his window.
"Five years ago, I made you a promise, but since then I have seen you in a different light considering how you have developed. I'm still going to break you to the point well you have no point to beg for mercy and I will give it to you. And then and only then will I forgive you and you will be my bride." He declared. Oh that was not something that I was expecting to say. I wanted to throw up. "See you around, Kid."
I was in shock. I thought Artemis might have lusted after me, but I didn't think that Slade did. It actually made him even creepier than before. I had never dealt with anyone like that and it made me have a lot of questions. From what I understood, Shado was still an adult.
I then went back into the house. I could try to tell my mother that Slade had made advances towards but I wasn't entirely sure if she would believe me and I didn't want to put Malcolm at risk by telling him. I was pretty sure that I was starting to understand why so many women never came clean when they were harassed. I just wanted to take a shower.
"Did Mr. Wilson leave?" Mom asked.
"I think I'm going to go to bed." I replied.
"You know you were pretty rude to him." She stated.
"Well I'm sorry that I don't feel safe when a strange man comes into the house unannounced." I spat. It was a little hard to believe that she expected me to just be okay with him being there when I didn't know him. As I went to my room, I couldn't help but sense that something was off.
So as you can Slade has a different plan for Olivia. You may know about his past from the comics and I felt that him being predatory towards her would make him seem more dangerous. This story does not endorse his behavior in any way and he will not succeed. Please don't forget to review.