"Oliver, what are we going to do?" Roy asked as he paced through the foundry.
"The only thing we can do, get the cure back."
"I think we can be of some assistance with that task." says a deep voice, clearly female.
He turned to look at the Heir To The Demon herself, flanked by a fifteen or so League Members. "Nyssa. Thank you for coming."
The dark haired woman stared back defiantly. "I am not at Oliver Queen's beck and call. I do this only for Sara."
"Whatever the cause, I'm still thankful." He glanced around the destroyed foundry and at the arrow cradled in his palm. "This has gotten out of hand fast."
"Your reluctance to do what is necessary is why your city burns." Sara placed her arm on Nyssa's shoulder as she stepped forward.
"What's did I miss?" Sara asked.
"After you left I got a call from Star Labs. They worked up the Miracuru cure and sent it with a transport by plane. When Roy got there to retrieve it, the crew was dead and the cure gone."
"Slade or one of his minions must have it." His eyebrows rose at her use of the word minion. "What? I spend a lot of time with your wife."
"We need to find it."
"But how? We don't even know where Felicity and Moira are let alone where Evil HQ is."
Leave it to Roy to not sugar coat it. Felicity loved having him on the team, saying that his propensity to say whatever was on his mind made her feel better about babbling. He knew that she would be glad to find that in her absence that she had rubbed off on Sara and Roy's speech patterns.
"Another thing I know that you do not," said Nyssa, slightly triumphant. "Slade is using the Mayor's office as his current base of operation."
"How did you know that?" Roy asked.
"I am the daughter of the Demon. I know many things," Nyssa replied.
"The Mayor's office? Why would he work from there?" He asked.
"I know why," Roy answered as he looked up from his phone. "The Mayor and The DA are dead. Man...this city has really bad luck with Mayors."
"Roy." He said sharply.
"Sorry but it's true." He rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Alright, we need to move. Roy we need as many as those injection arrows as you can find." Roy moved off to begin searching.
"Injection arrows?" Nyssa asked harshly.
"We have the cure now. There's no reason for killing."
"You speak of the man who is holding your mother, wife and unborn child captive. Are you saying you would not kill him if you had the chance right now."
He hesitated, unsure of how to reply. The truth was his anger was simmering right under the surface and the only thing keeping him subdued was the thought of what Felicity would think if he killed a man in cold blood. Even though he believed Slade death was quite warranted.
"I see. You only hold back for her," Nyssa said, speaking of Felicity. "Love is strength, but it is what you do with that strength that matters."
Was he getting advice? From Nyssa Al Ghul? If Felicity were here she'd enjoy the turn in conversation.
"I'll do what is necessary Nyssa...but I'd like to do it with the least amount of killing possible."
"You have your way...I have mine."
Roy finished his search and deposited the large supply of arrows he'd found into a large duffel bag to be carried with them.
He sent Sara a hard look but she only turned her head to look at Nyssa.
"Let's move."
They arrived at the Mayors office, the chaos in the city making it take longer than it normally would. He'd had to stop a few times to help bystanders being tormented by Slade's men. Nyssa had dispatched her men to do do what they could to corral some of Slade's soldiers.
They went in hot, bows drawn. The building was silent save for the glass that crunched under their feet as they made their way down the hallway only lit by flashing red and blue lights coming through the windows. He could hear a conversation talking place, coming from the conference room. Yelling between two people. One a man, the other a woman.
"I didn't sign up for this. Slade is destroying this city! He promised I would be Mayor yet after he's finished there will be no city left to be the Mayor of."
"You will do whatever your told. You're just another solider, easily replaceable. So I'd watch yourself," seethed the woman. It was Isabel he finally deduced.
Glass crunched under someones boot and Isabel whirled around, pulling her sword from it's sheave and placing it against Sebastian Blood's throat.
"One more step and his last name will become literal." Two of Slade's men stood behind her at the ready. "I know what you're here for and your not getting it."
"It's comical that you think we'd ask," spoke Nyssa from his right, her eyes focused and her bow aimed at her target.
"It's under the desk," Blood called out, his eyes wide in panic. Isabel let out a guttural scream and the next thing she did happened too fast for anyone to stop it. She slit Sebastian's throat and he fell to the floor in a heap, the light leaving his eyes. He fired an arrow which she blocked while she dove under the table after the cure.
A fight broke out throughout the room. He ducked as the fist of one of Slade's soldiers went by his head. He turned and kicked the man backwards but it only knocked him off balance for a moment. His main goal was to get to the case before Isabel could take it and leave but it was being made difficult by the soldier that was severely testing his no kill rule. The man caught him in a headlock and even though his vision started to blur he could see Isabel grab the case and rise from under the table. He struggled and managed to get out of the soldiers grasp, taking his bow and whipping it across the mans face. He went after Isabel only to be stopped by another solider.
"Sara! Get the case," he yelled. Sara knocked the soldier he been fighting with only a few moments before off his feet and moved towards Isabel quickly. Isabel may be strong but she was not as skilled in combat as Sara was. She got a few good punches in, Isabel lost her grip on the case and it slid across the floor stopping near the door. Sara lunged after it and Isabel grabbed her and slammed her against table, wrapping her hands around her throat. Sara started to couch as she struggled against Isabel's grip.
There was nothing he could do to help her as he was pulling one of the soldiers off of Roy and Nyssa was fighting the other. As soon as he knocked the man to the side he shot an arrow at the soldier Nyssa was fighting, the cables wrapped around him and tied him to the wall. He knew it wouldn't last but it would give Nyssa time to reach Sara. Roy grunted and threw a punch that made the other solider fall back against the wall.
He turned and saw that Sara was nearly purple from Isabel choking her and moved to helped but before he could reach her Nyssa had wrapped her hands around Isabel's neck from behind.
"Shall we see how you like it when someone chokes you?" she said strongly. He could see it in her eyes, the calm and rational anger. He knew what she was about to do and he had to stop her.
"Nyssa stop! She's may know where my family is," he screamed. She paused her hands not leaving Isabel's throat. Sara managed a punch to Isabel sternum making her falter enough for Nyssa to pull her off of Sara, the blonde stood up, grasping her throat and gasping for air. Nyssa pulled Isabel by her throat and and shoved her against the wall. Behind him Roy picked up the case and opened it, sixty vials of the cure glowing blue in the dim room.
"Let's see if it works," Roy said as he pulled a syringe from his jacket pocket and carefully began filling one of the injection arrows.
"Where is the Queen family!" Nyssa shouted, her voice dark and emotionless.
"Why would tell you?" Isabel choked out.
"Because I can kill you in an instant. Now tell me!"
"It doesn't matter, they're probably dead by now anyway."
His fist clenched and the last of his no killing resolve broke. He jumped forward to strangle Isabel himself but Sara held him back. Nyssa did something that made Isabel scream in agony and he stopped pushing at Sara. She pulled away from him and grabbed a cure filled arrow that Roy had just finished making and jammed it into Isabel's neck. She was only unconscious for a few minutes and went she came to Nyssa's slammed her head against the wall and she cried out.
"Now you're a mere mortal," Nyssa seethed into her face while making a few more expert punches against her body. Isabel held out another few minutes spending the whole time screaming in pain until she finally broke.
"Stop, please stop." He waited with baited breath as Isabel caught hers.
"They're...he was keeping them in a warehouse in the Glades."
Slade wouldn't be so stupid to leave them the same place he had taken Thea too.
"No, your lying." Nyssa squeezed her throat tighter and gasped for air.
"I'm not! He said...he said that you would know he would never go back to the same place so he took them to the warehouse where he kept your sister."
"Is there anything else you wish to tell us?" Nyssa asked.
"No..no, I've told you everything."
"Thank you for your assistance."
And before he could stop her Nyssa had snapped Isabel's neck letting her body fall to the floor. She turned, her chin rising in challenge. She knew that he did not like her methods.
"Like I said, I have my way..." she turned. "Sara?" she asked, fear coloring her tone.
"I'm fine," Sara wheezed out in answer.
Roy finished two more arrows and a moment later he stormed over to the soldier still struggling against the ropes and shoved the syringe into his thigh, the man going immediately limp. He did the same with the other soldier.
He found it hard to believe that Slade would take them back to the same warehouse. Had Isabel been lying? Even with the threat of imminent death?
"Ollie?" Sara asked.
"I have to go." She nodded.
"I know, go save your family." She looked to Nyssa who nodded. "We've got this."
Roy handed him three injection arrows. "Just in case," he said.
He squeezed his shoulder. "I'm trusting you to take care of the city."
"I won't disappoint you."
"In that I have complete faith."
He left, his strides long and determined as he made his way to his bike.
He would save his family and then he was never letting them out of his sight again.
"It's been too long. What do you think is keeping them?" Moira asked tiredly.
"Something-" she cut off with a groan, massaging a cramp out of her thigh. "Really important."
"Maybe they can't find us."
"We've got a lot of problems and Oliver finding us isn't one of them." She closed her eyes and scrunched up her nose. "I can't believe I just said that." Moira just looked at her confused. "Thea would have gotten it."
Moira sighed. "Do you think she's okay?"
"She has two incredibly strong men, who love her, plus Diggle and Sara. She's safe."
"I mean...emotionally."
"Oh..." she twisted the ring on her finger.
"Our relationship hasn't been the same since she found out about Malcolm. She talks to me but...she holds back. I miss her."
It was a funny thing that you can miss someone when they were standing right in front of you. She knew the feeling quite well.
"She just needs time. You're her mom and she loves you. She'll come around."
"I should have told her, I was just so used to lying and I wanted to protect her. Robert was her father, for all intents and purposes, not Malcolm." Moira shook her head and fiddled with the hem of her dress. "Thea's father killed a man once, he did bad things. Her mom was involved in a plot to destroy the Glade and her biological father is a psychotic sociopath who masterminded the whole thing."
She laughed sardonically. "Sounds like a bad soap opera."
Moira chuckled sadly. "It does doesn't it?That's why I wanted to keep it all a secret. I knew the kind of damage it would do to her."
"There's one thing you need to remember about Thea...she's stronger than you give her credit for. She may bend but she won't break. Oliver and you have something in common. You always try to protect the ones you love even if it means your downfall. I'm going to tell you what I tell him. You can't control everything. Life is ups and downs, it's sadness and happiness, disappointment and joy, it's losing and gaining. Those are the things that make up life and make it worth living. The things we go through, they bend and change us and it's up to us just how much and if it's for the better or worse."
Moira stared at her for a minute before leaning her head back. Felicity could tell she had drifted off into a place only she knew.
"Thank you Felicity," Moira finally said.
She nodded. "You're welcome."
Moira squeezed her hand and they settled into a comfortable silence that didn't last long enough. The door banged open again and hope flared in her chest making her heart beat wild. Maybe it was Oliver. Her hope was dashed as she saw Slade storm in and started to stomp towards them. She shrunk back and Moira pressed into her side.
Slade tore his mask of and threw it across the warehouse, crashing into a stack of barrels, the force knocking them over and crashing to the ground. He started to pace, his face flushed and a vein popping out of his neck. She and Moira stayed deathly quiet, afraid to provoke him. He turned to look at them and she flinched causing her arm to burst into flames. She gasped from the pain and her vision turned black around the edges but that didn't stop her from seeing the wild look in Slade's eyes. He was losing control and there was nothing worse than a very strong self-controlled ex-military man losing it. The longer you hold in your emotions the bigger the explosion. And Slade was about to explode. She saw a few minutes later when his control snapped and he strode over to them and jerked her up, Moira's fingernails biting in her arm as she tried to hold onto her. She bit back a cry as he stared in to her eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but he never got the chance.
"Let. Her. Go," came a growl from across the room. It was Oliver's Arrow voice and this time it even scared her. Slade slowly turned his head and before she could even see it coming a blade was at her throat.
"I told you Oliver that one more person had to die for this to be over," he said, his accent heavy.
Oliver moved into the light, slowly, one foot in front of the other, his bow carefully drawn, arrow knocked. "No, this is over NOW!"
The blade pressed into her neck and she felt blood trickle down the column of her throat. For Oliver seeing it was his worst nightmare coming to life.
"I'm not asking Slade! Let her go," he roared.
"I'm going to give you a choice." Slade looked to Moira who was now standing a few feet away from them, fear etched into every feature. "Your mother... or your wife and unborn child." Slade moved them further into the light. "I'll give you five seconds."
"Five..." she could see Oliver tense.
"Four." Oliver was breathing deeply, looking for anyway to get her out of Slade's grasp. Slade pulled her more securely in front of his body, using her as a human shield, giving Oliver no chance to fire his weapon. "Three."
"No stop!" cried Moira, tearing running down her cheeks. "Kill me...not her." She got down on her knees. "Kill me...kill me."
"Moira, no!" She screamed but Slade pushed the blade closer causing her breath to catch. Then the worst thing happened. Something in a million years she'd never thought would happen. Thea came through the door and Slade's eyes jerked to look at her, a wicked gleam in his eye. Various cries of disbelief echoed through the room.
Another bad thing happened while their attention was distracted and when she could tear her eyes from Thea's panicked filled ones she noticed the blade had left her throat and found a home in Moira's abdomen. Slade pulled it back out and blood bloomed crimson on her clothes. Her eyes went dim and she saw the light leave them just before her head cracked against the floor.
"NO!" She screamed, being joined by Oliver and Thea.
Slade started backing away still dragging her with him. Thea was sobbing but she stood frozen, looking at her Mother's body that had crumpled to the floor. Oliver face was filled with a rage she had never seen before as he moved towards them.
"It's over now." Slade said gruffly.
"It's not over until your dead." Oliver replied, his voice as dark as the night.
She was gasping for air as sobs tore from her throat, for Moira, for Oliver and Thea...for herself. She didn't even feel the pain from her arm anymore. She was completely numb.
Suddenly Slade was ripped away from behind her and she was thrown to ground, landing on her hands and knee's. She rolled over onto her back and started backing away, towards Oliver. A moment that felt like a hour passed before she really took in what was going on around her. She saw another thing she never thought she'd see. A league member, dressed all in black. A studded hood and black mask covering his face and hiding his identity. Slade pushed him away and drew another sword from his belt.
A fight broke out unlike anything she'd seen before. She'd watch Diggle, Oliver and Sara fight with bamboo stick but this was nothing in comparison. It didn't look like a fight between two adversaries but a dance. Metal clanked against metal and all she could and all she could think about was the two men fighting in front of her. A sob from behind jerked her back to the present. She flipped over and crawled on her knees towards Moira's broken body which Thea was now sitting next to, her face buried in her neck.
She could still hear the sounds of the battle and she quickly glanced behind her to notice that Oliver had joined in the fight. She couldn't watch so she turned her attention back to Moira, her face pale and blood spreading through her abdomen and pooling on the floor. Her shaky fingers moved to her neck, tears still flowing freely down her face as she felt for a pulse, not expecting to feel anything. Her fingers stayed there for a few moments and she wondered if she would be able to feel anything even if it was there with how bad she was trembling. Something jumped under her fingertips and she gasped. It couldn't be possible. Her eyes moved to Thea who was still sobbing. She tried to stay as still as she could. There. She felt it again.
"Thea! She still has a pulse." Hope filled her and she couldn't stop it even with the dire circumstances. A pulse meant a chance. Thea's head snapped up. "Hurry," she grabby Thea's hand and put them to Moira's abdomen. "Put pressure on the wound." She tore off her jacket which was extremely difficult with only one good hand, Thea moved her hands and she pressed the jacket to her stomach. "Call an ambulance." Thea fumbled for her phone, her fingers trembling so bad she kept hitting the wrong buttons. She took her hand from Moira's wound replacing it with one of Thea's and grabbed the phone dialing the number and handing it back to her before her hand was back on the blood covered jacket.
"You have to hold on Moira....hold on Mom," she cried. "You're going to be fine. You have to stay here, Oliver and Thea need you you're grandson needs you.,....I need you. " She pressed harder, trying to stop the flow of blood. She was already covered in it and she knew that later it would break her to see it. "You promised you were going to make up for everything you did. You can't do that if your dead," she growled.
Moira would not die. She would not let her. Angry tears fell and she felt every muscle in her body coil.
The sounds of the fight died down behind her and she threw a look over her shoulder.
he league member had taken his mask off and she was shocked at who was under it and from the look on Oliver's face so was he. It None other than Malcolm Merlyn. Thea's eyes followed her gaze and she gasped. Slade had one knee on the floor and a syringe sticking out of his neck. He threw it to the floor before he ran listing to the side and careening into the pile of barrels before quickly recovering and disappearing into darkness.
"He'll never stop. Not after what you just did to him." Malcolm proclaimed. Oliver eyes moved to hers and then to his Mother's body lying prone on the floor. He stepped towards them but Malcolm put his hand on his arm stopping him. Oliver jerked from his grasp. "I'll take care of them, stop him."
"Why should I trust you?" Oliver hissed.
"Because I just saved your wife's life and I love my daughter."
Oliver turned to her, seeking permission. Her heart pounded in her chest and she wanted to tell him that he couldn't go, that he needed to stay there with her where it was safe. But she knew that they would never be safe, not truly with Slade on the loose. She nodded stiffly and he paused for a moment.
"GO!" Malcolm said and then he was gone into the same darkness Slade had disappeared into. She hoped that the last thing she saw, him under his green hood, his blue eyes boring into hers wouldn't be the last memory she had of him. Malcolm appeared at her side. Thea shot him a scathing look but she was too focused on her mother to be too concerned with him.
"Did you call an ambulance?"
"Yes," Thea bit out in reply. He nodded and started going through his numerous jacket pockets. He pulled out a capsule a moment later and shoved it into Moira's mouth.
"What did you give her?" She demanded, her face close to Malcolm's, her body practically steaming with anger.
"It's a League drug. It might just save her life." She eyed him warily.
"Thea-" Malcolm started.
"Don't think this gets you anywhere. You're not my Dad," she answered, her voice tight and brittle.
An ambulance wailed in the difference.
Malcolm stared at Thea for a moment. "I may not be your Dad but I am your Father. One day...one day you'll be proud of that."
"That day will come when Hell freezes over," Thea seethed.
Malcolm's eyes filled with something akin to hurt. She began to wonder if she had imagined it so she blinked and when she could see him again it was gone.
"I love you Thea...give me time and I'll make you believe it."
Then he was gone, like a thief in the night, leaving as quietly as he came.
"Thea, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She sucked in a breath. "What about Ollie?"
Her gaze moved to the direction Oliver and Slade had left. Her chin rose as she turned her attention back to her mother-in-law. "This is his battle."
The ambulance was right outside and Thea jumped up to escort the paramedics in. They loaded Moira onto a stretcher and then raced them to the hospital. She prayed the whole way. Asking God to save the woman who held such an important position in their lives. She was still praying as they wheeled her into the operating room.
She just hoped they weren't too late.
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