'How did it go?' Elliot asked me in a small voice.
'Splendid,' I said sarcastically.
'Did you not find him?' Elliot fretted, worried for me.
'I found him alright,' I replied, annoyed. 'But then Merlyn intervened! He's not allowing me be with Eddie.'
'You can't let him stop you,' Elliot said unknowingly. 'And if he does, like he did in this instance, then fight back! I know you're capable of anything, Aria.'
'Look, Elliot,' I started, my upset turning to frustration and aggravation. 'I know you're trying to help, but you can't help me with this. I've tried fighting Merlyn, countless times, and I've tried everything to be with Eddie. But the world seems to make me destined for despair. I already know that my fate is laid out for me; I cheated death, remember? When Merlyn actually killed me back home? And I've always been pointed towards Starling City, no matter how hard I tried to escape. Oh, and I have to befriend Tommy now, too.'
'I'm sorry,' Elliot apologised, overwhelmed with my monologue. 'I'm sorry that you feel you can't change your fate, or whatever you said. But I know that you have the power to change your life! Look at what you've been doing recently; you're saving countless lives from destruction, and you even found Eddie yourself! Don't let Merlyn, or anyone else for that matter, rule your life, Aria. Only you can determine what happens.'
Elliot clearly didn't understand what my life had been like for the past few years. I knew he was trying to help, but there always seemed to be some greater force working against me, making sure I wasn't happy in some shape or form. Right now, the world made sure I wasn't happy in my love life. Like always.
But what if what Elliot was saying was true? Could I 'change my fate' like he said? Was I just using my fate as an excuse to not take charge?
'Thank you, El,' I smiled, hugging my friend. 'I will try to stop all of this from affecting my life, I really will. Just, no promises.'
'I understand it's hard for you to break away from Merlyn's rule,' Elliot acknowledged. 'He really is a control freak.'
'Tell me about it,' I rolled my eyes, making Elliot laugh.
'And, I'll definitely help you with it all,' Elliot reassured me with a smile. 'We're going to be such a wonderful team.'
I'd completely forgot that while I was away, Ted had been training Elliot and Isaac how to fight for our vengeance against Merlyn. So we could defeat him and not let him rule over us.
'Oh, how did training go?' I asked Elliot suddenly.
'Actually, it went pretty well,' he said, surprised at himself. 'Isaac's still better than me, but I can defend myself now.'
'Let's see then,' I grinned.
I threw a punch at Elliot's chest, expecting to hit him, but he ever-so-quickly blocked my fist from his body, twisting or backwards in the process. If I hadn't endured torture on the island, I probably would have yelped in pain.
'Wow,' I exclaimed, commending him. 'You learnt quickly, my young Padawan.'
Elliot just laughed at my geeky joke.
---
'Good afternoon,' I greeted Helena as I started my shift in the forensics lab of the SCPD.
'I don't think we can class this as a good afternoon,' Helena said in a stressed tone, as though she was anxiously waiting for something.
The rest of the scientists were clearly preoccupied, as they weren't present in the lab.
'What are you... waiting for?' I wondered curiously, wanting to know why she was so tense.
'The Culebra Gang... They're back,' she said sadly. 'And they're attacking all over the Glades. No one can stop them. I'm waiting for something to analyse; I don't know how else to help.'
'I do,' I thought of how to help in the matter.
I desperately wanted to help the officers out instead of doing nothing in the lab like Helena had been doing. But she had shown me when she came rescue me and Tommy from the gang that she was capable of making a difference.
'How?' Helena asked me, lost. 'We're scientists, not officers! But you do seem to be able to survive in a fight and fend for yourself, you saved all those people in-'
'And you can too,' I interrupted her before she got too carried away. 'I saw you save me and Tommy from that gang! I know you can help too.'
'But, that was just basic self defence skills,' she denied. 'I'm not like you at all.'
It had definitely seemed like she had implied she could do much more down in the gang's base, but I just kept quiet, not wanting to upset her.
'Okay, so anyway, about what I'm going to do,' I changed the subject quickly. 'I'm going to tackle this problem head on, walking downstairs, right in the middle of it all.'
'But that's not doing your job,' Helena pointed out. 'Won't Lance get annoyed at you or something?'
'I'm sure he won't,' I shook my head. 'And anyway, if he does, what does it matter?'
'Your job, Aria,' Helena finally let out the real reason why she was worrying. 'Your job is up here, with me in the lab. You can't just go round doing other people's jobs, you might rub people up the wrong way.'
'They probably need all the help they can get,' I reassured her, trying to explain why I wanted to go downstairs. 'There's not really much do to up here when an attack on the city happens, but instead we need to fight for the safety of this city.'
'But, how?' Helena asked, acting oblivious.
I didn't know if she really had no clue or not.
'We help the officers,' I said simply. 'If you don't want to fight, you can always hand out provisions and help civilians or something. I'm sure there's something you can do.'
It was like something was stopping her from helping, something I couldn't pin down. Was it just the lack of helpfulness or was there something more to it?
'I do want to help, Aria,' Helena said, as if she could read my mind. 'I'm just... Worried. I've never done anything like this before!'
'You did when you saved me and Tommy,' I again mentioned that time when Helena valiantly rescued us from our demise. 'You told me that you trained to be ready for anything. So you could help out on the field if you had to. So, I know that you have it in you. You just have to try.'
'Okay,' she nodded bravely, my persuasion skills serving us well. 'I'll come with you.'
'Good,' I smiled. 'Now we can show that Culebra Gang who they're really messing with.'
---
'Thank god you're here, Aria,' Lance tried to smiled in a stressed frenzy. 'There's chaos all over the Glades, and it's all on me. I didn't listen to you about them uprising again. I'm the reason why they could move around the city undetected; we weren't watching them close enough.'
'Don't worry about that now,' I tried to reassure Lance. 'It's over and done with. We just need to stop these attacks from happening.'
'My men are all too displaced across the Glades,' Lance shook his head in dismay. 'Hilton's men too. We don't have enough cops to win this fight.'
'Well, we have two more people to help,' I said boldly, referring to me and Helena.
'You two?' Lance asked doubtfully. 'Well, I understand why you would, Aria, but Miss Cadent?'
'Helena has the skills to help,' I said, my faith in her. 'She's the one who rescued me, Tommy and your daughter from the gang, and she can fight them off again. I believe in her.'
As I turned to Helena, she just mouthed a 'thank you'.
'Alright,' Lance made up his mind. 'But, Helena, stick with Aria, she knows what she's doing.'
We both nodded as if we were army officers being ordered to fight the enemy, and awaited further instruction.
'Where are the attacks mostly coming from?' Helena asked logically.
'I'm sorry girls, but I have no idea,' Lance shook his head again in dismay. 'My men haven't got back to me yet.'
'We'll just have to go in oblivious then,' I muttered without any better plan.
Walking towards the SCPD exit, Helena stopped me as soon as we out of Lance's earshot.
'I need to go back to the lab,' Helena said quickly.
'Go on then, I'll wait for you here,' I replied.
'You need to come with me too,' Helena said, almost facepalming at my ignorance.
Racing upstairs in an attempt to make a difference as soon as possible, Helena turned on her computer, all the screens displaying different aspects of the city; CCTV, statistics, the news, even the criminal database.
'What's... This?' I asked, truly astounded.
'The project I've been working on recently,' Helena smiled proudly. 'This is how I found out what's happening downstairs before they even know, since the officers always have no clue until it's too late. I can help this city so much more with this up here.'
'It's amazing!' I exclaimed, predictably in amazement. 'You did this all by yourself?'
'Of course I did!' Helena laughed. 'I couldn't let anyone else know about this who I didn't trust. Well, except for you and our friend the Vigilante...'
'You know the Vigilante?' I asked suddenly. 'How?'
'He told me he needed eyes on all the city,' Helena explained. 'He has access to this platform whenever he wants.'
'Can you find anything about where the attacks are mainly coming from?' I asked helpfully as she typed away.
'I'm onto that,' she nodded, before pressing the last key in the sequence she was executing.
The screens showed many camera angles across the Glades, and so at once we tried to look for any telltale details to the attacks' whereabouts. As my eyes scanned across the images, I saw a certain disruption around the Glades Memorial Hospital.
No. Not the hospital. That was where people needed to go when they were in need of medical assistance, where everyone felt safe. But now they wouldn't.
Selfishly, I was just glad Elliot worked at Starling General Hospital instead.
'That isn't good,' Helena said anxiously, obviously looking at the same screen I was. 'They're clever. Too clever for this police department, anyway.'
'How are we going to stop this?' I questioned my capability in worry. 'We can't stop them all!'
My eyes darted to the other screens, where I kept finding more and more disruption in the area; people were frantically running through the streets, looking for somewhere to hide, whereas others were on route to the hospital with their injured counterparts.
'You told me earlier that we had to help,' Helena tried to motivate me. 'And were the only ones I think who have actually realised what's going on. The gang are trying to distract the officers from the hospital, but they haven't distracted us.'
'You're right,' I agreed finally. 'I just, I don't want to fail anybody. I don't want to let this city down. There's only two of us, remember, and dozens of them. We can't do much on our own.'
'You won't be on your own,' a voice came from outside the lab.
Ted was at the doorway with Isaac and Elliot, all of them ready to fight.
'Let's go save the Glades.'