A week had gone by since Laurel had been attacked by the snakes. And there was no sign of the Culebra Gang anywhere in Starling City.
'I still can't believe I... Survived,' Laurel reflected as we sat down for a chat in our usual spot at the café.
'That makes two of us,' I agreed with her after I took a sip from my iced tea.
'I decided to do some research on the venom from the snakes the gang were using,' Laurel interjected. 'I was attacked by Asp Vipers, and their venom is almost always deadly. Also, the symptoms I had didn't match up- you said that I passed out and that my body turned pale, but when someone is bitten by these snakes, their skin is supposed to yellow around the bite, there should have been some swelling-'
'Wait a second, are you sure you've got the right species?' I interrupted Laurel before she got too carried away.
'I'm sure,' Laurel confirmed by taking an image of the Asp Viper from some sort of book. 'It's the right colour, it has the same zigzagged markings and it's about the same length, 50 centimetres.'
Looking closer at the image, I realised she was spot on. The snake pictured looked exactly like the ones we encountered, it's familiarity transporting me back to that dreadful moment where the snakes had attacked Laurel. How... Precise they had been. Persistent. Almost as if they had intentionally wanted to hurt Laurel due to some grudge they had...
'Are you alright?' Laurel asked, snapping me out of my trance.
'I'm fine,' I nodded at once, shaking my uncertain feelings off.
'You don't seem it,' Laurel picked up, reading me like a book. 'What's the matter?'
'I just... It's only an idea I had about the attack... It's nothing,' I hedged my way through the conversation.
No one was going to believe that snakes were behaving like I thought they had, or maybe even that they were being... controlled. It was too fantastical, too unbelievable.
'Did you think the gang had magical powers or something?' Laurel commented sarcastically.
Maybe they did, I felt like saying. I knew that couldn't be the case, but something was wrong with the attack. It wasn't right.
---
'Since the Culebra Gang have been very... Inactive this past week, we've decided to move on to another case,' Lance announced, confusion on his face.
Everyone was confused about the gang. They had directly told us that they ruled the Glades, and Bellini himself had said that he could 'squeeze the life' out of the city and 'pounce' at any given moment. Part of me wished they were still out in the open, so we could stop them before they could plot anything else. But they were cunning, wanting everyone to worry they were up to something or think that they were going to leave the city alone.
I believed neither. I knew they were going to strike at the next moment they could.
'Don't you think we should stick with this case?' I asked Lance at the end of the small meeting.
'What's the point?' Lance asked rhetorically. 'We have no more evidence to suggest they're still attacking the city, as far as I'm concerned we scared them off.'
'No, they're stronger than that,' I disagreed with Lance. 'I saw what they did to Laurel. I saw the mass of people who were there defending Bellini and their gang. They certainly put me on edge, and I have been through a lot worse. If we stop searching for them now, they could tear this city apart as quick as-'
'Enough with the chitter-chatter,' Lance cut me off rather rudely. 'We can do nothing about this, Aria. The department won't like it if we keep this case open much longer.'
Lance was too much of a goody two shoes, I thought as I rolled my eyes in frustration. He hadn't been here to witness their wrath. And if we didn't stop them soon, the city would be in grave danger with me as their first prize.
I thought he would want to punish anyone who hurt his daughter, but clearly I was wrong.
---
'You seem angry,' Ted commented as he joined me in the training room at the gym.
'Oh, you don't know half of it,' I huffed as I tackled a punchbag to the ground. 'How did you escape that lair or whatever it was anyway?'
'The gang?' Ted checked, throwing me a bottle of water, which I took gratefully. 'It was easy, I just had to lead Bellini out of his comfort zone and then I could use his fear against him. Nothing like threatening to expose his secrets to put him off balance.'
Secrets? What did Ted know that no one else did? I saw the way Bellini had looked at Ted with such hatred, how they seemed to know each other.
'How did you both cross paths then?' I asked, intrigued.
'Was it obvious?' Ted chuckled, us both sitting down beside the fitness equipment at the edge of the room, leaning on the wall. 'Bellini used to be a frequent customer here. I taught him every move, every defence he knows. He built that gang himself, with his brothers to help him. He collected people off the street, told them he was going to make their lives better. Even I believed him. But then I uncovered the real reason he was doing this. He wanted power. And power in the Glades isn't hard if you make the right relationships. He made deals with very corrupt people and then stole all their savings. Raided warehouses full of weapons and threatened every person he could find who owned a little bit of money. And this was before all the things you've seen the Culebras do.'
'And I'm guessing you tried to stop him?' I pressed, wanting to know why Bellini had such cold feet with Ted.
'Yeah,' Ted nodded. 'I tried to stop his plans every day. But he was always one step ahead.'
'They always are,' I said in distaste. 'But now, you're not on your own. You have me to help you. And Isaac and Elliot if you're able to get them up to speed.'
'Like I've told you before, I think we're gonna need their help,' Ted decided. 'After all, we need all the help we can get.'
---
'How are my two favourite boys doing?' I asked Isaac and Elliot as I entered our apartment.
But I received no joyous comments back.
Merlyn was sat on the armchair opposite the couch Isaac and Elliot were perched on, both holding hands and staying still for dear life.
'Aria,' Merlyn smiled smarmily. 'It's been a while.'
'I thought you had finished annoying me,' I said impolitely. 'Seems like I was wrong.'
'My original plan for you was to protect Tommy,' Merlyn ignored me. 'Not upset him. You seem to have broken that promise.'
'I didn't promise you anything,' I said spitefully. 'And that was five bloody years ago!'
'Well, it may not still be 2003, but I assure you, you will act as if that's where you still are with Tommy,' Merlyn hissed in a threatening voice. 'Did you know that he's planning to find Oliver Queen as we speak? And we both know that will end in heartbreak. I need you to stop him from going and finding out what really happened to Oliver.'
'You... Know?' I asked Merlyn, confused.
'I know he was shipwrecked on an island,' Merlyn confirmed, surprising me. 'But I also know you were on that boat with him before it sunk. And if you don't take my request seriously, not only I will know you were with Oliver.'
I gulped nervously, trying to not become scared by Merlyn's threats. But I couldn't help it. I didn't want the whole world to know what happened on the island. It was bad enough that I had to endure it, but I didn't want to share my experiences with anyone else. There would surely be questions about what I did there, and why I couldn't save Oliver from his demise.
After Merlyn had departed, I remembered about Isaac and Elliot, who were still slightly scared from our encounter.
'I'm... sorry about that,' I apologised wholeheartedly.
'What did he mean?' Isaac asked timidly. 'We knew you were with Oliver.'
'Why did you not tell us that this would happen?' Elliot asked more aggressively. 'What are you not telling us, Aria?'
'I don't know,' I said, genuinely confused.
Maybe Merlyn thought I hadn't told them about being with Oliver. Being shipwrecked. But apart from that, they were none the wiser. They didn't even know Sara had been with us on the island.
'We need to know what he was on about, Aria,' Elliot said gentler. 'So we know how to stop Merlyn from harming you with stupid threats about your past! How did he even track us down?'
'That is what it'll be like if we save this city!' I suddenly, retaliated. 'Merlyn won't be the only one who'll track us down either. You both need to cope with this type of danger in your lives.'
'We were put in this danger ever since you came back from the island,' Isaac pointed out reassuringly. 'We would have been in this position anyway, whether we're here or back home. All we need is a little training from the vigilante so we can look after ourselves, and then we can be on our way to saving this city.'
I couldn't wait to get started.