Black Canary (2) • boyxboy | Arrow

12

RENE'S APARTMENT
Rene Ramirez

I sit back in my couch laying down as I hear the TV on with ads to keep me awake a little bit. I get drowsy and check my phone every 5 minutes to make sure Zoe is okay during her sleepover with her friends.

I suddenly hear a knock on my door and look at my phone to see that Zoe hasn't even sent anything. I look at the time and it's 12 am. It can't be her or anyone I'm expecting. Curtis usually walks in since he has keys to my room.

I get up from my couch and grab a hold of my gun holding it tight arming myself incase this could be danger. I walk towards the door and look through the hole to see Drake standing there with his silver hair. Felicity told me he changed hair colors and everything to hide himself from The League. He's untraceable for now.

I open the door relieved it's not somebody else and Drake looks at me with a light smile but with fear and paranoia. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stop by so late at night." He says and he sounds a bit different but I let it go knowing he's been through a lot. I've seen all the footage and from what Diggle has told me, Argus is having a field day trying to cover up what's happening with The Justice League and keeping the reporters silent.

"It's fine, come in. Zoe isn't home yet." I say and let Drake in and he stands in the middle of my room as he's dressed in all black with a long tan coat covering himself as it's cold outside. It's different than his leather jacket look. He looks more put together, more like the fashion icon he's supposed to be in his industry. "You alright? You want anything?" I ask Drake as I walk over to my kitchen and Drake hesitates.

"Whiskey, light on the ice please." He says and I never thought Drake as a liquor drinker but I think this is changing him. I would be scared to be on the run like this. I quickly grab a cup of glass and bottom shelf whiskey along with ice cubes. I drop 2 ice cubes in there and pour whiskey in the cup and then pour some for myself.

I walk over to him and hand him the cup of glass and we both drink at the same time. He doesn't react to the taste of the bottom shelf whiskey like I do and it intimidates me. He's stronger than I thought.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Drake says drinking the entire full glass and then puts the empty glass down as I haven't even finished it all yet. He walks towards the window and looks through the blinds sneaking a peek of outside looking for anything suspicious.

"I can't even imagine what it must feel like. To run from all this." I say trying to make him open up and he stops looking out the window and sits down in the couch and sighs in relief.

"Trust me, I've been running away my entire life from who I am." He says being ashamed of himself and I shake my head walking towards him.

"Why so?" I ask and sit next to him wanting to get closer to him. I want to help him.

"This isn't the life I wanted." He says and looks out and then at me with a small fake smile. I get the feeling he's starting to open up and it makes me feel like I can trust him more.

"What happened to you? Those 2 years you were gone." I ask knowing this is a good time to ask him. Drake looks at me in the eye but this feels different. I can't find his soul in his eyes. He grabs my hand and I get uncomfortable and slightly confused by him.

"Something wonderful." He says in a whole different attitude and accent and I see him quickly take out a knife and slice it on my hand. I groan and push him off and he sits there with an evil smirk pouting his lips. This isn't Drake.

"You're not Drake!" I quickly get up, backing away from him as my hand with the cut starts to feel weird. I watch the cut turn green and black and I begin to feel weak and feel my lungs starting to fail on me. It gets harder to breathe and I begin to choke on the air.

"Can you feel that?" The imposter says and stands up walking towards me as I begin to shake uncontrollably. "Coursing through your veins? It's my essence." He says and walks away from me as I fall to the ground slowly and lay myself against the couch starring at him walking around the room as I begin to get dizzy and this isn't like anything I've had before. He poisoned me.

"Is your head swimming? Your mouth drying up?" He says and grabs my phone and opens the camera app and takes a photo of me suffering. "You know it took me years to perfect this toxin, I used only a small dosage on you, while the dosage on Batman is a whole lot stronger. It should've killed him but it's only leaving him unconscious and turning into a vegetable." He says and I hear him send the photo to someone. He turns the phone off and throws it to the side and walks towards me. "Do you know who I am?" He asks me and I look at him and he chuckles. "Soon you will."

He squats down and takes out a vile of green liquid and hands it to me putting it on my hands. "Drink it." He says and I do so doing his commands as it must be an antidote and I begin to feel better as it gets in my taste buds. I swallow the liquid and suddenly all the symptoms are gone and I feel back to normal, better actually. "It took me a couple of tries to perfect it, but now I'm glad to see it work." He says and I stare at my gun by the door and quickly push him off.

I grab my gun and quickly aim it at him trying to pull the trigger and he gets up from the floor and screams throwing me through the wall. "AAAAIEEEEEEEEEE." He screeches and I fly through the dry wall hitting the floor as the hallway lights in my apartment begin to flicker.

I lay in the debris and see rubble all over me blocking me from getting up. My leg hurts like crazy as if I've broken it and see a giant piece of rubble sit on top of my broken leg. I groan loudly as I won't be able to fight back.

I find it hard to breathe and begin to panic knowing that someone is going to find me like this. I try to regain my strength but I can't, I'm not a meta like Drake where I can throw this rubble off and get up. I'm not strong.

I look up and around from the dust of the debris clouding up the area and see the person who has taken Drake's persona and appearance. "Oh Rene, you're just as pathetic and more of a moron than your earth 2 counterpart before I killed him." The imposter says and it begins to make sense to me. This is Black Siren's brother.

"You're her brother aren't you?" I ask referring to Black Siren and he stops as he stands over me. "Why are you doing this?" He says and then gets annoyed and quickly kicks my face knocking me out.

"Because no one else will." He says as it's the last things I hear before going unconscious.