I was currently trying to teach Artemis. I kind of felt like I was Mr. Miyagi, but I knew the methods from the movie were actually useful. I was pretty sure that she did not understand what I was trying to teach her though. I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't even seen The Karate Kid because the kids of today didn't really watch as many 80s movies. I knew that Thea had only seen it because I watched it with her. I was currently teaching her how to slap some water out of a bowl to train her reflexes.
"Again." I instructed.
"You know I slapped water out of a bowl yesterday." She pointed out.
"So you must be getting good at it then." I declared.
"I should be slapping bad guys not water." She countered.
"This is how you build arm strength." I pointed out.
"I really don't think that I have an issue with strength right now." She stated.
"I realize that but I also know that you don't know how to control it." I declared. She then swung her arm and she broke the bowl. "And that is how you put a guy in the hospital last week."
"How did you know about that?" She questioned.
"The girl in blue is a friend of mine." I told her. It was true. I was pretty sure that Courtney and I were friends.
"Well it's not any of your business." She declared as she looked away from me.
"You made it my business when you agreed to let me help you." I argued. "You're not the first person that I've met with abilities like this. He was injected with the mirakuru just like you were. He used to be a friend, but it diluted his mind until all that was left was a person that I didn't recognize. I'm trying to prevent that from happening to you."
"Who is this guy? Why are you not telling me about this until now?" She questioned. I was silent. "Are you going to tell me anything about him?"
"Yes. I had to put an arrow through his eye." I explained. I wasn't sure if that was also true in this world I still had a lot of questions about what happened on the island because Sara had only been able to tell me so much in the brief amount of time that she had been in Star City. I didn't even know where she was now, but I was pretty sure that she would be coming back soon.
That night, I was at home before I went into work. The ability to not spend a lot of time at home was definitely a downside, but it was part of the life that I chose. I had recently hired The Pretty Reckless to play at my club and tickets were pretty much already sold out. Anyway, Thea and I were hanging out for a bit before Mom and Malcolm walked into the room looking dressed up.
"Thea? I thought you would be with Linda right now." Mom stated before she looked at me. "And I thought you would be at work."
"I don't need to be there yet." I remarked. "Why are you so dressed up?"
"We have a meeting tonight. Some people from the company wanted to take your mom to dinner." Malcolm explained.
"I don't really know what it is about." Mom admitted. She then looked at Thea. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, mostly. Work has been a rough lately and I kind of feel like it's at my relationship with Linda." Thea explained.
"Well work-life balance isn't the easiest thing to maintain, but I know that you'll figure things out." Mom declared. "You know we can stay home if you want."
"You are not doing that." Thea declared. "Whatever this meeting is about, you need to go to it."
"You know it could just be a regular dinner." Mom pointed out.
"But you won't know unless you go to it." I argued before the two of them left the room.
At that point, Tommy walked into the house.
"What's going on?" I asked. It was a bit strange that he was there because he still had his own place.
"I'm going to be staying here for a few days." Tommy declared. "Dinah and I need a little bit of space. She's not working and to be frank, she's really not taking care of herself. I've tried to get her to go to rehab, but she won't do it. I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"Tommy, I know that things are really bad right now, but I'm also sure that you and Dinah are going to make it out of this." I explained. "Things may get a little dark, but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel."
"So cheesy." Thea commented. I glared at her. I really wished that there was something that I could do to help her, but it is really hard to help someone who doesn't want your help. I was pretty sure that even though Artemis didn't like the methods that I was teaching her, she at least wanted my help. Dinah didn't seem like she even wanted my help. I was considering going to visit her in costume to try to force her to get help, but I didn't even know a good way to do that.
I also knew that besides Tommy, Quentin was struggling with her struggles as well. He had gotten sober since getting demoted and even though he wasn't seeing Sara, I was pretty sure that knowing that she was alive really helped him. I wished that I could tell Dinah about it, but I had made a promise to Sara that I wouldn't tell anyone. Not to mention, Sara coming back wasn't even the thing that helped her before. I couldn't even remember what had helped her. I just had to make sure that something worse didn't happen. Part of me thought that I should just let her work it out, but I couldn't do that.
Later. I was working on the salmon ladder. The good news was that there really wasn't any other crime at the moment, at least not things that I knew of. There was always crime, but nothing major had happened.
'So how are things going with Artemis?" Courtney asked me.
"Not well." I declared.
"I know that I don't really know like the rest of you, but she seems like she has severe anger issues." Iris commented.
"I think that is an understatement." I pointed out. "Artemis already had anger issues before she was injected. She gets a lot of it from her father. He was arrested several times growing up and I don't think that her parents have taught her good ways to control her anger."
"So you've since this before?" Courtney asked.
"His name was Slade Wilson. I saw him on the island and here in Star City. The thing is I haven't seen him in a while and I don't know if he is pulling the strings or if it is someone else." I explained. I also had no idea where to find him.
"Well how did this work out before?" Iris asked.
"Basically, it required a cure for mirakuru, but I don't think it'll be easy to obtain. I'm trying to control Artemis until we can get to that." I told them.
Suddenly, Mia's computer went off.
"What's that?" Iris asked.
"It's from Iron Heights, I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of their internal communication and I got some news that you're not going to like." Mia explained as she typed away. You know I couldn't help but be proud of how much like Felicity she was. "Anyway, it seems like Bronze Tiger has escaped from prison. How long is going to be before he turns his life around."
"I don't know." I explained. I knew that his time in Task Force X did help him.
"You're telling me that the guy with the metal claws escaped from prison?" Courtney asked.
"Yeah and he also killed ten guards." Mia added.
"Well I think it's safe to say that their security sucks." I remarked. I probably could have broken my mom out, but that wouldn't have accomplished anything because she didn't want to hide. "We need to figure out what he's planning on doing. Keep an eye on cameras for anyone who looks like him. We need to find him as soon as possible."
As much as I was glad that Turner had turned his life around, I was still disappointed at what he was now, especially knowing now that he had a son. I also couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him in the original timeline that led to Diggle adopting him. Mia told me that she knew Connor in the new timeline, but they definitely weren't as close as they were before.
From there, I went to meet Artemis. I wasn't sure if she was ready to fight someone like Bronze Tiger because while I knew that she would stand a pretty good chance against him, I wasn't sure that she wouldn't kill him. I wanted to teach her actual combat. I knew that she played sports, but as far as combat, she didn't really know what to do.
"Now it's your turn. I need to go slowly and not break my training dummy. These things are not cheap." I warned her. I wouldn't make her pay for it because I knew that she probably couldn't afford it, but that didn't mean that I wanted to pay to replace any of them either. "This is about learning how to control your strength."
"You know if this is supposed to teach me how to control my anger, it's not working because you're only making me angrier." She declared as she knocked the top of the dummy. I sighed because I should have expected that to happen.
"Being angry isn't the problem. A lot of people can use their anger to fight, but you are letting it control you." I pointed out. "There are positive ways to control it."
"Maybe I could use it on people who are threats. How about you let me practice on something that will hit back?" She challenged. "I want to fight with you because I know that I can help you save this city. I know that I would be a lot more willing to learn if I knew that there was application for what I was learning."
I knew that she was right, but I also knew that it was really hard to trust her to do that. I didn't want to make a lot of the same mistakes that I did with Roy, but I also knew that in the end, everything that I taught Roy was useful.
At that point, I got a call from Iris.
"What's up?" I asked.
"SCPD just lit up on a fresh homicide. The victim had multiple stab wounds that resembled claw marks." She explained.
"The victim was an architect. Turner stole some blueprints of his designs." Mia added. "I'm pretty sure that I know what he's after."
"Who are you talking to?" Artemis asked. I realized that I probably should have stepped outside to take the call. I didn't say anything. "I guess you're not going to tell me who you're working with. How am I supposed to work with you if you won't even tell me who you are?"
"A guy that I put in prison got out and I have a pretty good idea where he's going." I explained. "So do you anything that can conceal your identity?"
"I have a mask." She answered. It was a simple orange mask, but I supposed that it was better than nothing.
It felt weird going to Malcolm's old house again. I couldn't help but wonder why he still kept it around because our house was nicer. From what I understood, Malcolm initially wanted to build the Earthquake machine, but as time went on, his position changed and he was no longer interested.
"So whoever we come across, I don't want you to engage with them." I remarked as she started to look around. "And don't touch anything either."
"Wow she looks cute." She commented. It was then that I saw she was looking at what appeared to be an old picture of me when I was 11. Malcolm must have been so devasted when he thought that I died. It wasn't until a few years later that he and my mom got married. I had to say that the fact that he kept the picture was pretty touching, but I resisted the urge to cry.
"Do you know her?" I asked.
"Yeah, she's a friend of mine." Artemis told me. "I used to work for her, but I had to keep my distance because of this."
You know it was kind of weird hearing someone talk about me in the third person. I also couldn't help but wonder if Artemis liked me as more than a friend, but it really wasn't something that I wanted to ask her because even if she didn't know who I was at the moment, it would still be really awkward.
"You know you seem to know your way around this place." She commented. "Have you been here before.
At that point, I was pretty sure we both heard the sound from coming underground.
"That came from underground. Merlyn had a large garage. Let's go." I instructed. I also had to note that it felt weird doing this with someone other than Mia or Courtney. We slowly walked towards the sounds. I hoped that Artemis would be ready for this stuff.
Another thing was that I was a little bit shocked that Malcolm kept the prototype, but he probably thought that it was too dangerous to hand over to anyone else and he had also managed to keep it safe from even Robert. Unfortunately, it didn't help if people knew where to look for it. Maybe that was why Malcolm moved because no one would think to look in an abandoned house for it.
"This looks like a simple snatch and grab. I don't know why Mr. Armitage thought that we needed you." One of the men remarked.
"For that." Turner declared as Artemis and I stepped out.
"Get away from the device. You don't know what you are dealing with." I ordered. Since it was a prototype, it could have been even more dangerous. "Do you have any idea what happens if that falls into the wrong hands?"
"Yeah, I get paid." Turner answered. "Who's this chick? Do you have a new sidekick or something?"
At that point, the two of us started to fight with each other. I had a bit of an advantage being smaller, but it wasn't a huge one. At that point, I noticed that Artemis was beating up one of the thugs and I also noticed that Turner got the truck and drove off. Her angry assault caused us to the fail the mission.
Needless to say, I was pissed off when I got back to the club. I couldn't even enjoy the music because I was so angry. I had changed back into civilian clothes because I was still trying to watch one of my favorite bands.
"What happened?" Courtney asked me. She was pretty good at figuring out when I was feeling upset.
"Artemis screwed up the mission." I explained. "She let Turner get away with the prototype of the earthquake machine Malcolm had made before he changed his mind. On top of that she nearly killed someone. I'm really glad that she's not working here anymore because right now I really want to fire her."
"So do we know if this prototype will even work?" Courtney asked.
"No, but it could be turned into something that does." I pointed out.
"Well why would he want to destroy the city?" She questioned. I didn't even know if they wanted to use on Star City.
"He doesn't but his clients do." I explained. "Now I have to try to find out who wants this thing and stop them, all because I had the bright idea to trust a teenager who's not in her right state of mind."
"Do you think that Artemis might think that you don't trust her. I mean I get that she's very dangerous, but do really you think that she will listen to you when you won't even show her your face. Is it because you're afraid to tell her because you don't want things to change?" She inquired.
"Part of the reason I'm nervous about this because of my past experiences with people who were injected with mirakuru. It warps your mind and can make you a worse version of what you already are." I explained. "If I can get through to Artemis, I know that she can be the hero that she wants to be."
The following day, I was opening the club up when Artemis walked in.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her.
"You need to get out of here for a little while." She stated.
"Excuse me?" I answered in surprise.
"You need to take your family and get out of town for a few days." She declared.
"Artemis, I can't just leave. I have a business I have to run." I responded. I was pretty sure that I knew what she was talking about. She thought that someone was going to use the earthquake machine. "What's going on?"
"I just need you to listen to me." She demanded as she grabbed onto me.
"You're hurting me." I told her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." She apologized before she headed out the door before I could even say anything. Seeing her like this was really frustrating. I couldn't help but wonder if it was similar to how Tommy and Quentin felt with Dinah. Maybe it was different because I at least felt like I was able to directly help Artemis and she at least wanted help. Dinah didn't seem to want any of that. She didn't seem to want anyone to help her. There was a difference to knowing you had a problem and not knowing how to fix it and not acknowledging you have a problem.
I then went home to get some things and found that Walter was there.
"Mr. Steele, I didn't know that you would be here." I remarked.
"Olivia, I have been trying to convince your mother to run for mayor." He declared. "Would you tell her that she would be great for the offer?"
"Mr. Steele, I don't know if I'm the best person to do that considering how much I've been involved in Sebastian Blood's campaign." I pointed out. There was also the fact that she would be running as a Republican. "But are you sure this would even be a good idea? Besides, I'm not even sure that my opinion matters because I can't vote."
That night I was waiting at the warehouse where I was training with Artemis.
"You're late." I declared.
"I tried to get my friend to leave town, but she won't. My parents happen to not be around now but they could be back any day now." She explained. It was really weird to be having this conversation from two different sides. I was lucky that I didn't have a bruise from where she was touching me. "How do you do this knowing that some of the people you care about could be in danger and you might not be able to save them? How am I supposed to lie to my friends and family?"
"I remember that the only way to keep people is for them not to know who I am." I explained.
"Keeping people safe is what keeps them safe. Telling people the truth is what keeps them safe." She argued. "You won't tell me anything. I'm beginning to think that you're not the person that I thought you were. You're just a fucking coward."
"Artemis, you are spiraling right now." I stated. "You're losing control and you need to calm down right now."
"No, I need to save Olivia." She argued. Maybe she did like me as more than a friend. Also, it was extremely awkward. She started to walk away before I grabbed her arm.
"The reason that this device got out is because of you." I pointed out.
"Let go of me." She demanded.
"Artemis…" I started.
"I said let go of me!" She shouted.
"You need to get control. If not for me or for yourself, do it for your friend. Do it for your family." I instructed.
"You don't know anything about me. Don't talk about my friend like that." She ordered as she swung at me. Luckily I was skilled enough at martial arts that I was able to dodge every strike that she took at me. I was also able to restrain her in a headlock.
"I think we're done here." I stated. However, she then pushed me off and into a table. It was a good thing that I could heal because it really hurt.
"No, I'm not done. I'm going to stop this thing whether you want me to or not and your arrows won't do anything to me because I heal fast." She boasted. "If you get in my way, I'll give you a good look of that anger that you don't want me to lose control of. You don't know bad of a bitch I can be."
From there, I just decided that I needed to go to work, I hoped that I would be able to get through to Artemis the same way that I got through to Roy, even though I was pretty sure that I would have to do it the same way. I didn't know what Artemis would think of me when she knew my secret identity. It was a bit of a last resort, even though I was pretty sure that I would have to do it.
"So what are you going to do about Artemis?" Mia asked.
"How are we on finding the identity of the client?" I countered. I wanted to think about the mission and not what was going to happen because of it.
"Look, maybe it's not a good idea to try to work with Artemis." Iris explained. I couldn't help but wonder where she was going. "Maybe she's just too stubborn to listen to your help. Maybe you're not the right person to do this.
"I don't believe she can't be helped." I declared. "Do you know why she's doing this? She wants to protect me. It was a really awkward conversation but she cares about me. Not the vigilante. She cares about me: Olivia. I'm not going to let the mistakes of my come back to haunt me. I am not going to let her break. I believe I can help her."
At that point, my phone rang. It was Emiko.
"Can you come to the floor right now?" She asked.
"Why?" I questioned. She usually left me alone at night unless there was a problem.
"Because Dinah's here right and I'm pretty sure that she brought her own alcohol inside. I don't want to kick her out though." She told me. "She's really wasted."
I then headed upstairs to find Dinah was asking for drinks.
"We don't sell alcohol here." I remarked.
"Well maybe you should start." She argued.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Isn't this the hottest club in town?" She questioned. It wasn't for anyone who wanted to drink alcohol.
"Dinah, I think you need to go home." I declared I took the bottle of her hands.
"Are you seriously telling me that I can't be here right now?" She asked. I glared at her. "Fine kick me out. It's not like anyone will hire me now that I have a criminal record. Maybe I should work here. I'd be great as a waitress."
At that point, I picked her pocket and grabbed her keys.
"I thought you didn't even have a license." She remarked.
"Emiko, can you please call her a cab?" I requested.
"Of course." She agreed.
At that point, I saw Mia was upstairs.
"I got a hit. I remembered how you mentioned the guy with Turner said something about someone named Armitage and found a black market merchant named Milo Armitage." She explained.
"Is he in Star City?" I questioned.
"Yup. His ship has a permit at the docks." Mia answered.
At that point, I looked back over at Dinah and knew what I needed to do. I called the number that she had given me for emergencies.
"I know I was only supposed to call you if there was an emergency, but there is one going on right now. Dinah is not doing well and she needs your help. I haven't told her, but you need to."
At that point, I got another unexpected visitor. Well I probably should have expected it a little.
"You know I have been thinking a lot about the proposal. I think I could change this city without being as radical as what Sebastian Blood wants to do." She stated.
"Well you do have experience as a CEO." I remarked. I knew that I probably couldn't dissuade her from politics, which meant that I would just have to focus on keeping her alive and let the electorate choose who they wanted. I wasn't even sure if she could win. It would be a lot from a Republican to win in Washington. "You would be a pretty kickass mayor."
From that point, I headed to the docks. Courtney and I were both there. Turner was indeed selling the device to Armitage. I first shot Armitage and noticed that Turner had run off.
"Looks like your partner abandoned you." Courtney replied.
"He's not my partner. He's someone that I hired to do a job." Armitage declared before he jumped out and attacked us. Fortunately, it was me that he attacked and not Courtney. "It looks like it was money well spent."
The two of us started to fight him. At that point, Artemis came out wearing her mask and knocked him to the ground. I then noticed that Armitage had an activation switch.
"Don't do it. You'll kill all of us." I told him.
"If I don't deliver this to my buyer in Markovia, I'm dead anyway." He declared before he activated it. It set off the timer. The problem was there were a lot of shipping containers and I didn't know which one it was in, but I also figured out that there was someone who could help me.
"Artemis, we need your help." I explained. "Artemis, stop."
She continued to beat up Turner and I realized that there was only one thing that I could do. I pulled down my hood and ran over to her.
"Artemis, I need your help." I told her.
"Olivia?" She asked in shock.
"This steel is built to withstand a bomb but not someone with strength like yours." I explained. "You wanna save me? Well I need you to do it right now."
I felt like I didn't need to tell her that I would probably be fine and Courtney could get me out of there.
"You need to control your anger and your strength." I told her. "Focus on your family and on me. I need you right now."
She then punched through the container and Courtney fired her staff inside, causing it to blow up. We jumped out of the way of the explosion.
"You know this makes a lot of sense." Artemis admitted. "You don't know how much you helped me. Before I got to know you I didn't have a purpose. I was just an angry kid who wanted to get back at the world. You saved me. I'm not talking the vigilante. You're just as much of a hero without that hood on."
"And I'm going to teach you how to be a hero too." I stated.
"We both are." Courtney added.
"But I think the first thing is that I need to give your job back." I quipped.
"So maybe we should vote on who to gets to join our team." Iris declared as I gave Courtney some ice. "So what's she doing now?"
"She's at home processing everything." I explained.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to tell her your secret though?" Iris asked. "She could do a lot with the fact that she knows your secret. Who knows who she could tell?"
"I have to believe that she won't tell anyone." I declared. "I knew that I needed some strength and I knew the Arrow wouldn't be able to help her find that strength. Only Olivia, her friend could."
The other thing that happened was that my mom had decided that she wanted to run for mayor. Everyone was going to support her and I really hoped that Sebastian would understand that I couldn't help him anymore. I wasn't going to stand against my mother, whether I agreed with her positions or not.
The next day, after putting Artemis back in the system, I began to take her downstairs.
"You know I always wondered what was down here." She commented. "I thought this was just your second office."
"Well it kind of is." I explained. "Artemis, one thing that you need to know is you can't tell anyone else about this, not your parents, not the other employees, not even Emiko."
"So how many people know about this?" She asked.
"Probably too many but these are the only three that you need to know about." I explained as I introduced her to Mia and Iris.
"So what are you called Team Arrow or something?" Artemis replied.
"No, because it's not all about me." I pointed out. "But we're glad to have you."
"Do I get a cool costume too?" She inquired.
"We'll work on that." I promised as Iris shook her hand.
So Olivia had a much more personal connection to telling Artemis. Though she is beginning to think Artemis has feelings for her. Not to mention, Dinah is still a mess and it's causing problems with her relationship with Tommy. Will Sara be able to fix things? Please don't forget to review.