It was a very rainy night. That was not uncommon for Star City which was why it was important to wear things that could get wet. I was currently interrogating someone else to see if I could find out where to find the man in the mask, even though I was pretty sure that it was still Sebastian. It was a difficult situation because I was trying to help him even though I was pretty sure that he was evil. I wished that I could help him see that he didn't need to be evil. He could be a good mayor on his own.
"Where is the man in the mask?" I asked the man as I pointed my bow at him.
"I don't know who you're talking about." He declared.
"He's been experimenting on people in the Glades. He's leaving a trail of corpses with blood running from their eyes." I explained.
"No, I deal with solo merchandise only." The man argued as I fired at him.
"He's not lying." Mia declared over the comms. "I don't think he knows anything."
At that point, I made my exit. I probably could have taken him on his other illegal activities, but it didn't really seem worth it. I hated how we really weren't close on finding anything out. The thing was even though I still suspected Sebastian being the one in the mask, I couldn't blow my cover unless I had actual proof of it.
"You should come home. You have school tomorrow and I don't think you're going to find him." Iris told me. I kind of felt like I needed to Mia about this because she was someone who wouldn't try to interrogate Sebastian. She understood how things could be different in different universes better than Courtney and Iris did.
I went back to the club and started to do the closing stuff. I always had to be the last one out so I could lock up. Emiko and I were the only ones who had keys, but she also didn't work every night like I did. I told Courtney that she could go home.
"Hey, Iris, I need to talk to Mia for a minute before we go." I stated.
"Just don't take too long." Iris told me as she walked out of the room. Once I was sure that she wasn't listening, I started to speak.
"So I need to discuss what I know with you." I told her. "It's kind of difficult because I'm pretty sure that I know who the man in the mask is."
"I just don't know why you won't tell Courtney and Iris about it." She declared. "Dad, it's not a good idea to keep secrets from them."
"I know, but there are multiple reasons why I don't want to tell them I think it's Sebastian. For one, I still believe him. I know he's done a lot of evil things, but in the end I think that he could still be a great mayor." I explained. "I actually think that even if my mom hadn't died, he still would have won."
"Well you plan on making sure that your mom doesn't die, so maybe you should let the electorate figure it out." Mia suggested.
"I want to ensure that both of them survive." I added. "That's why I'm trying to see if I can steer him on the right path."
The following day, I was at lunch when my phone rang and it was a call from Dinah.
"Hello?" I answered. I wasn't even entirely sure what she was calling about.
"I'm pretty sure that Sebastian Blood killed his mother." She told me. I couldn't help but sigh.
"Dinah. I really think you need help." I stated. She was right and I would probably have to look into it. "This sounds kind of crazy."
"He was the last person to see her alive. Doesn't that sound like too big of a coincidence?" She challenged.
"Things happen," I argued. "This sounds delusional."
"He killed his father. Maya Resik told me what happened." She pointed out.
"Did you ever think that maybe a mental patient might not be the most reliable source?" I questioned. I didn't really like making it sound like I didn't believe her, but I also did feel that even though she was right, she still needed help.
"He had her committed. She tells me the truth and two days later, she's dead." Dinah said. "Don't you think that's fishy?"
"What do you expect me to do?" I asked. "I own a nightclub and Sebastian is my friend. Maybe your dad can do something if you're really that concerned."
When I was at work, I decided to talk to Artemis while she was taking the trash out. The main reason was to see how the Mirakuru was affecting her.
"So how is your dad doing?" I asked her. "Has he found a location yet."
"You know sneaking up on me is kind of creepy." She remarked.
"It's not as creepy when I'm your boss and need to make sure that you're doing your job well. I also wanted to talk to you about how you managed to save those people at the rally. It takes a lot of courage to run towards danger." I told her.
"You know that kind of sounds like praise." She pointed out. "I thought you didn't like me,"
"I heard you also got hit by some falling debris. Are you okay?" I questioned.
"It only grazed me. So do you need anything else or can I get back to work?" She countered. She was displaying signs of paranoia.
I went downstairs where we started to look at the footage to make sure she didn't do anything.
"So did she say anything about the man in the mask who interjected her? Maybe she has seen him without the mask on." Courtney suggested.
"Artemis really isn't the kind of person who's comfortable discussing her feelings." I declared.
"Well maybe we shouldn't be interrogating random criminals to see if they know things." Iris commented.
"What if he just left town because he knows you're after him?" Courtney replied.
"I don't think that he would recreate the serum and test it on people if he was just going to leave." I declared. "He's still out there and we need to find him."
At that point, my vigilante phone started to ring.
"It's Detective Lance." Iris told me.
"Hello, Detective." I answered.
"Can we meet? I have someone who wants to talk to you." He replied. I had a pretty good idea that I knew who it was.
I wasn't surprised that when I suggested to Dinah that she talk to her father that she would want to meet the vigilante. I knew that she was going to ask me to look into Sebastian and I supposed it might provide some clarity on whether or not he was the man in the mask.
I found her on top of a building. The railway could be seen from the top.
"Hello Dinah." I greeted her.
"You're late." She responded. I really wished that she would get help because she was starting to bug me a lot. She needed to admit that she had a problem.
"I had to make sure that I wasn't walking into a trap." I pointed out.
"That's fair but I wouldn't have asked my father to put me in touch with you if I didn't feel like you were the only one who could do anything." She stated.
"What do you need?" I questioned.
"Sebastian Blood. He's about to the new mayor of Star City." She declared. That was only guaranteed if he ran unopposed.
"I know who he is." I replied. I really wished that she would just get to the point.
"No you don't. No one does." She countered. "I've been looking into the death of a young man named Max Stanton."
"Do you think that he was involved in Stanton's death?" I inquired.
"It was either him or a man that worked for him named Cyrus Gold." She explained as she showed me a picture. "Gold was the guy that caused numerous crimes. Blood and Gold knew each other from the orphanage that Blood was raised at. He would do anything to keep the truth about his past hidden, including murdering his own mother."
"Why would he do that?" I responded.
"To cover up the fact that he killed his father." She replied. "It seems like no one will believe me. Sebastian Blood is dangerous and you're the only person in the city who can stop him."
At school, I was talking to Mia and Courtney about what she told me.
"So Dinah does have a point. Sebastian did have a close relationship with Cyrus Gold." Mia declared.
"Yeah, but just because they were friends doesn't exactly make him involved." Courtney pointed out. "I mean I know he seems a little shady, but he's done so much for the Glades. What do you think, Livvy?"
I was a bit shocked when she said that because that was the first time I had heard her say it.
"I mean I do think that we have to consider both sides of this." I stated. I had to act like someone who learned a disturbing secret about their friend and it still was pretty disturbing. "I don't want us to attack Sebastian because he could still be innocent though. We'll start with this case number that Dinah gave me. We need to find out if Sebastian really killed his father. After we do that, we can figure out if he has the Mirakuru formula."
I was also pretty sure that there was more to the story of Sebastian killing his father than Dinah knew about.
"Are you sure that this isn't just one of Dinah's delusions. You told us that you don't think that she's doing that well." Courtney declared.
"It might be, but I also have seen enough movies to know that some of the craziest theories sometimes turn out to the right ones." I pointed out. I did really wish that I could convince her to get help though.
After school, Emiko told me that Artemis had something that she wanted to talk to me about. So we met at a construction site before work.
"Is there any particular reason why we're here?" I asked. I didn't expect her to tell me so quickly.
"I have something that I need to show you." She declared before she punched a cinderblock, shattering it into pieces.
"What the fuck?" I asked, like it was nothing I had ever seen before. "How did you do that?"
"Do you remember that night when I didn't show up to work?" She questioned.
"Yeah, and I told you that you don't need to worry about it." I remarked.
"Well there's a little more to what happened." She admitted. "I didn't think that I would be telling you of all people about this, but you're kind of my only friend."
I couldn't help but feel touched when she told me that.
"I was kidnapped by this man wearing a mask and he injected me with something and ever since, I'm super strong and I can heal from any injury." She explained. "I don't really know what to do. I'm really scared."
"Have you told your parents about this?" I asked.
"No, I don't want them to know because I feel that they might try to go after this man. I think he's dangerous and he'll kill them." She explained. "I know this is kind of freaky, but can you please tell anyone?"
"What are you going to do about this?" I questioned.
"I think that maybe I could use these new powers for good." She suggested. "I think I want to be a superhero."
"I don't know if I can have you missing work because you want to fight crime." I told her. This was a bit of a weird conversation because I was pretty sure that Roy wouldn't have said something like that to me. I also couldn't help but wonder Artemis would eventually become part of my team. "I'm also concerned as your friend."
"I promise I'll be okay." She declared. The thing was that I really didn't have time to stop her.
"You need to be careful and also don't do anything stupid. I don't want you to get arrested." I suggested. I kind of thought that I should tell the team. "Now I think that we need to get to work."
I headed to the club and went to talk to them.
"Whoa, you look tense." Courtney noted.
"Artemis told me that she wants to be a superhero. The thing is I don't have time to focus on stopping her right now." I admitted. "I know that she could really hurt someone, but I can't do anything about it."
"I could keep an eye on her." Courtney volunteered.
"Well you need to be careful, because she probably won't trust you." I pointed out. "So what do we know about Blood?"
"We actually don't know anything. It's a closed case that's over 27 years old, so there is no digital copy of it." Mia explained. "The only way that we would be able to access it would be to get it from the city archives."
"So we can take it. It shouldn't be that hard." I declared.
"There's another issue with that. You would not only need a key card to get in, but it's also not catalogued, so we would have no idea where to look for it." She pointed out.
"I know someone who might." I stated. I then headed back to Dinah and Tommy's apartment. I made sure to do it while he was working because I didn't want him to know that I was helping her.
"So I need your help now. The file on the death of Sebastian's father is in the city archives and I have a feeling that you might know how to find it." I explained. "We won't have a time to do this though."
I took her inside and used the key card that I had Mia make me.
"This could take a while." She commented.
"We only have six minutes to do this." I declared. I hoped that she would be able to come through with it.
"Uh oh. We have a problem." Mia told me. "These security officers seem like they actually know what they're doing. They're going to send the police there. You need to get out of there."
"We have to find the file." I stated. "Dinah, we're running out of time."
"I can't find it." She stated as I looked at the door. "Wait I found it."
Unfortunately, the cops had also arrived.
"They'll come after me. Try to get out." I instructed. I ended up shooting an arrow with a smoke dispenser on it. They were still taking shots at me. I hated trying to escape all of these cops. I then broke the window and took her out it…only to find that the file was blank.
"So I can't find anything about who got the file, but I do know that Sebastian would have access to it as a city alderman." Mia declared.
"Yeah, but any city employee would also have access to it." Iris added.
"I really don't know what to think here." I admitted. "Part of me just wants to ask him myself even though I don't really think I can get an honest answer from him."
On my way out, I ran into Courtney.
"So I happened to notice that Artemis was looking into someone called the Star City Slasher." Courtney explained. "He's this guy that has been killing prostitutes in the Glades."
"Courtney, I'm sorry but I don't have time to deal with him right now." I admitted. "If you want, you can look into it. I have to talk to Sebastian."
I went to Sebastian's office where a lot of people were campaigning. It was then that I felt someone behind me. He was definitely in the office.
"Are you looking for me?" He asked.
"Yes, it's good to see you." I told him as I shook his hand.
"You too. Unfortunately, I can't really talk because I'm right in the middle of a polling snafu." He explained.
"I just have something brief. Dinah has this crazy idea about your family." I explained. "Did something happen between the two of you because the two of you used to be pretty close?"
"If I didn't know any better I would think that you had some sort of romantic interest in her." He joked. I knew it was a joke, so I smiled.
"No, but she's my brother's girlfriend so I'm a little concerned." I explained.
"I'll talk to her." He promised. I knew that I should have talked to him about his father, but I didn't want to seem like I was being nosy. If he reacted a certain way, I would know that he was trouble.
After I was done, I got a call from Courtney.
"So Artemis is wearing this really slutty dress and heels." She told me. "She's definitely trying to find this guy."
"Well follow her." I instructed. "She doesn't know what her powers can do to people and this guy won't see justice if he's dead."
Once I got home, I got another call.
"Okay, so she has a bit of a problem." Courtney told me. "The good news is she managed to catch this guy, but the bad news is she has rage issues and she nearly beat the guy to death. When I tried to stop her, she threw me off of her like it was nothing. I don't think anything's broken or anything, but it hurts a lot."
You know I had to admit that things were easier when I didn't have to deal with this stuff.
"I'll talk to her." I declared before I hung up.
At that point, I came across Thea.
"I didn't expect you to still be up." I admitted.
"Sometimes I just want to make sure that you get home safe." She said. "So how is work?"
"I mean profits are about the same as before. I gotta see if I can find a good artist to play for me." I remarked. "What about you?"
"Really not much of a chance." She admitted. "You know if you told me ten years that we would both be heads of our own companies, I wouldn't have believed you."
"It is pretty cool though." I pointed out. "Good night, Sis."
"Good night." She reciprocated before I went to bed.
However, right before I went to bed, phone went off again. This time it was Quentin.
"Detective, I was about to go to bed." I told him.
"I know but this is kind of serious. Dinah got arrested." He explained. I couldn't help but wonder if Sebastian was behind it. It seemed like he was right about the mole in the police department. "I also found out that she stole some medication from me."
"Oh." I responded.
"She was going on and on about Sebastian framing her." He added. The thing was that technically she had broken the law by having the drugs. It was possible that she could be right about him and also have a problem at the same time. "I don't know what to do with her anymore. I want your advice. Do you think that I should tell her about Sara? Do you think knowing that her sister is alive would help with this stuff? Do you think that it could get her out of this funk?"
"I don't know if replacing one vice with another is a good thing." I stated. I also knew that Sara definitely did not want her to know. "If you tell her, she's going to become obsessed with finding her. It would probably be best to focus on getting her help."
"It really feels like I'm talking to a stranger whenever I talk to her." He admitted.
"How much do you need for bail?" I questioned.
"I can't ask you to do that." He told me.
"She's practically family. You don't need to ask. I'll take care of it." I promised.
I was pretty conflicted. She really needed to go to rehab because she did have a problem, but she also seemed to be right. I couldn't help but wonder if Sebastian had noticed that she was taking pills. I did wonder if he genuinely wanted to help her or if he just wanted to get her off of his trail. Even if he was helping her for the wrong reasons, he was technically still helping her. I didn't know if I should confront him about it, especially since I didn't even have any proof of it. Quentin was right that she needed help.
The following day at school, I was immediately approached for Artemis. She looked like she was pretty distraught. She was probably going to tell me about what happened.
"So I don't know if I should be a superhero." She replied.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I went after this serial killer who was attacking prostitutes and I started fighting and I put him in the hospital." She explained. "Had that vigilante with the stars on her costume not shown up, I probably would have beaten him to death. It felt good and I didn't want to stop. I don't know if I want to be this person."
"Maybe you should tell more people than just me about this." I offered.
"I'm afraid if I tell the wrong person, they'll try to send me off to a lab somewhere." She stated. Well there was one lab in particular that could help her, but I was pretty sure it was too early for them to do anything with that. "And if they don't, they'll probably think that I'm a freak. I don't want anyone to think that I'm a freak. Do you think that I am a freak?"
I grabbed her hand for a second for a little bit of assurance. I would have hugged her but I didn't think that she would want that.
"I don't think you're a freak, but I don't think that this is something that you can just not tell people about." I explained.
"I don't think that I can continue working for you." She told me. "I'm afraid that if someone says the wrong thing to me that I might attack them and I really don't want to put anyone else in the hospital or worse. I'm sorry Olivia, but I quit."
After school, I was helping Tommy and Dinah clean up their apartment. It was a bit of a tricky situation. I wasn't used to dealing with these kinds of things, especially without my mask on.
"You haven't said much. Are you going to lecture me too?" She asked.
"Dinah I've been trying to just let you deal with things, but clearly that isn't working." Tommy told her as he left the room. I didn't think that he was going to break up with her, but he was clearly very frustrated with her. I looked at her and she looked at me with a disapproving glance.
"So just say whatever you're going to say." She told me.
"So I think that you had everyone fooled." I remarked. "You want people to think that none of this gets to you and you don't need any help."
"I don't." She argued.
"I would have a easier time believing you if I didn't know you." I explained. "When I was growing, I always looked up to you and up until this year, I thought that you were a great role model. You lost your restaurant. You were kidnapped. A lot of bad things happened to you. I get it."
"I just need a glass of water. Do you mind?" She asked. I went to get her some water. When I came back, something was put in front of my face. I felt myself feeling faint, but before I passed out, I saw the mask. Okay, it was definitely Sebastian.
A few minutes, I was woken up by Tommy.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"I don't know. They took her." He explained. It was then that we saw the wall. There were red letters that said they were at the Star City Cannery. "On second thought, I think I know."
"I'll get the team together and we'll go get her." I promised Tommy.
I had to be honest that I wasn't entirely sure what the point of kidnapping her and then saying where they were going to be was. Also far as I knew, Sebastian didn't know that I was the Vigilante.
I took Courtney and Mia with me and we all pointed out weapons at him.
"Let her go or we will kill you." I threatened.
"You know it seems like you are a very popular woman." Sebastian commented. I really didn't want to deal with that right now.
"You wanted to see me and I'm here." I stated. "Now let her go."
"No, I think that she should witness this." He declared as he tossed her aside. You know that didn't seem like it was the smartest decision because unlike last time, I was not alone and he was outnumbered. I was going to be handling him myself for the most part and Courtney and Mia were going to cover me in case he got the upper hand.
"Surrender now. You're outnumbered." I warned him. I knew there wasn't any point to it.
He did start to get the upper hand before I realized something. It wasn't Sebastian under the mask. It was Officer Daly. Even though I knew that it really was Sebastian, I had to act like I didn't. It meant that I would have to think that she was wrong. Even though, she was right that Sebastian was a problem, that didn't negate the fact that she still had one. The other good news was it meant that we weren't going to be seeing anything for a while and I might be able focus on trying to help Artemis out.
I knew that everyone was going to think that Dinah was crazy and I really wished that I could tell her that I believed her, but I couldn't. Probably the biggest reason was that I knew that Sebastian by being manipulated by someone, who was probably Slade. He was nowhere near as bad as he acted. He was just a pawn in Slade or whoever it was in charge's game. I had forgiven some people who had done even worse than him, so it wouldn't be wrong of me to forgive him too if I found out that he deserved it.
I decided to talk to Mia about afterwards.
"So have you ever killed anyone before that?" I asked her.
"No." She admitted. "So I'm judging by the fact that Courtney and I aren't here, that there's something that you wanted to tell me."
"I know that Daly was a decoy." I explained. "Sebastian is the one who was really in charge. The thing is I have to let Dinah take the fall for this, because I don't think that she'll be able to get help otherwise. I have to make her think that I think she was wrong and I hate it."
"I guess the biggest question I have is why you would do this. You know that Sebastian is this guy, but you won't do anything about it." She stated.
"It's because I want to believe that Sebastian can change. I know that he's being manipulated, even though I still don't know who's manipulating him and above all else, I want to keep him alive." I explained. I then looked upstairs at the cameras to see that Artemis was upstairs. I walked up because I knew that I needed to talk to her. Emiko was also behind the bar.
I tried to talk to her before she walked off.
"What happened to her?" Emiko asked.
"She put someone in the hospital. It's a little hard to explain." I declared.
"Well she turned in her badge. I can't believe that she's quitting. I wish that I could help with whatever she's going through." Emiko suggested. It was then that I was hit with an idea. Maybe I was trying to talk to her the wrong way.
I headed out to the road that she lived on because I needed to know everyone's home address as part of their paperwork. I knew that there was a bit of risk to this but I felt that this was probably the only way that I could help her. I shot an arrow in front of her feet.
"What the fuck?" She asked. "Look, I didn't mean to hurt that guy as bad as I did. You don't need to put me in jail."
"I'm not going to put you in jail." I told her. I knew that it would be difficult to get her to trust me but I also knew that I needed to try. "Artemis Crock, we need to talk."
So Olivia has to hide that she knows Sebastian is the one in the mask. Also she's trying to help Artemis deal with her powers on both fronts. Will she be successful? Please don't forget to review.