'Oh no,' I stared at the screen, aghast. 'Thea has no idea.'
'I doubt Mr Merlyn does either,' Leyla told me knowingly. 'I did my research on the Queens and the Merlyns, and trust me, Mr Merlyn is none the wiser.'
'Then this would destroy him,' I grinned wickedly.
'Maybe it would tip him over the edge, but this alone is not enough,' Leyla agreed with me to a certain extent. 'We need to undermine him using different parts of this file, and Miss Queen being his daughter will be the final push.'
'Well, it would help if we knew what Merlyn's 'big plans' are,' I remarked. 'And I'm sure they won't be on this file if he's planning them just now.'
'Wait a second,' Leyla took the laptop from me and jumped back to the list of files we had first been presented with. 'There's a Tempest file.'
She opened it and we both looked through it quickly, but all it told us was what we already knew. A footnote was present at the bottom of the document, which I went on to read.
'Tempest are in the middle of planning a city-wide scheme,' I read Isaac's words aloud. 'But I was unable to find out what this was.'
'So even your friend had no clue,' Leyla added, looking defeated. 'How unhelpful.'
'Whatever it is though, Isaac knew it was big,' I pointed out. 'And that was a good three years ago, I'm guessing. It's not just Merlyn who's behind it, it seems; all of Tempest are.'
'So we still have hardly any leverage over Mr Merlyn,' Leyla said in a frustrated tone.
'We have a pretty big piece of information over him,' I reminded my sister. 'Thea?'
'Yes, but we can't use that to break him,' Leyla shook her head, looking at the names of the files. 'Aria, what's... Nanda Parbat?'
'That sounds familiar,' I felt a strange feeling of deja vu. 'Open it.'
It contained a hefty document, all about Merlyn's time in the League of Assassins. I remembered how Simon, a member of the League, had posed as head of forensics at the SCPD before the island, and had nearly killed me in an attempt to get back at Merlyn for 'betraying the League'.
'This is everything about Merlyn being an assassin,' I vocalised my thoughts to Leyla. 'This is good. Really good.'
It went on to tell us the location of Nanda Parbat, the training each League member went through, and other things such as how their assassins approach a fight and the moves they were taught. What astounded me the most, however, was the fact that Isaac had found all this out.
'We can use this to learn how Merlyn fights,' I suggested. 'We can work out his weaknesses. We can remind him of the past as a way to mess with him; he'll be much easier to fight.'
'He'll be exposed for the monster he is,' Leyla was now the one grinning wickedly. 'Then we can end him. For one last time.'
---
My sister and I worked tirelessly to learn the ways of the League, using Isaac's files to understand how Merlyn won every one of his fights. He had already taught me some of the League's ways before the island, when he had first recruited me, but there was still a lot we needed to learn. Between working at the SCPD and training with Leyla, I had no time to do anything else or see anybody else, and so I told Oliver I was spending all of January with my sister. Obviously, he thought I was talking about Rose, but really, Leyla was the sister I needed at that moment in my life.
During one of my shifts at the SCPD, Oliver had decided to pay me a visit.
'Hey,' Oliver approached me as I was analysing the blood on a knife Lance had found at a crime scene.
'I'm a bit busy at the moment, Oliver,' I informed him before he could get me caught up in conversation.
But as per usual, he didn't listen to me.
'Are you.. Okay?' He asked me with concern. 'I've hardly seen you this past month.'
'As you can see, I've got my hands full,' I repeated my point. 'I told you right at the start of the year that ever since The Hood has been on hiatus, the SCPD has been swamped.'
'It's not just that,' he frowned with concern, spotting my dark circles which were a result of late night training with Leyla.
He was right, of course, but I also hadn't been lying. Oliver not being the vigilante had made the crime levels in Starling sky-high, and so I was constantly trying to take look at and solve every piece of evidence given to me in a very tight schedule.
'I'm fine,' I rolled my eyes as I turned my back on him. 'But you need to listen to me. The Hood needs to listen to me. You have to to carry on with The List; it seemed to scare all the criminals away. I'm sure it's because they didn't want an arrow in their chest. And the guys The Hood faced were usually at the heart of a lot of the crime in this city.'
'You know I have a family I need to be there for,' Oliver challenged me. 'And a club to start up. Don't assume that you're the only one who's busy.'
'Fair enough,' I understood Oliver's reasoning. 'But please, at least try to get back into being The Hood. We need you, Ollie.'
'Have you been talking to Diggle?' Oliver seemed to sound amused. 'He was just telling me the same thing.'
'Then you should know that that's a sign,' I raised my eyebrows at him. 'Just, think about it. Please?'
'I will,' he smiled slightly.
I just desperately hoped he would.
---
'I think we're almost ready to fight Merlyn,' I grinned as Leyla reduced me to the floor in our next training session. 'You're good.'
'Not as good as you,' she complimented me indirectly. 'You're more than ready to face Merlyn, whereas I lack the capacity to do so.'
'I won't fight Merlyn without you,' I shook my head, not wanting to abandon my sister. 'I can't.'
'You have been trained in self-defence since you, regardless of choice, moved to America,' Leyla reminded me. 'I am already at the age of twenty five and I have only just taken up the skill, but you, my sister, have had ten years of practise.'
'Well, if you put it that way, I suppose I am the one who should pursue Merlyn,' I agreed. 'But you're not backing out of this, Leyla. You're still going to be involved.'
'Of course,' Leyla accepted our new arrangement. 'I'm not going to bail out on our crusade. I would have done that at the very start if I was going to just leave you on your own. And I want to see justice done, myself.'
My phone buzzed with a message from Oliver, telling me I needed to join him at the Arrowcave.
'He's back,' I said happily to a confused Leyla. 'Ollie. He's training again.'
'That's brilliant,' Leyla joined in my celebration. 'But remember, don't forget about our crusade while you fight his.'
'I don't think I could,' I smiled at her. 'After all, I've been planning to finish the Dark Archer for years.'
Arriving at the nightclub-in-progress, I found Tommy busy at work, his brow creased in concentration. The club looked barer than it should be, the opening night supposedly extremely soon.
I tried to avoid Tommy's gaze so he wouldn't suspect why I was at the building, but I was not swift enough.
'Aria, what are you doing here?' Tommy looked up from his work untimely, surprised at my presence.
'She was looking for me,' Oliver appeared out of nowhere, saving the day. 'Hey.'
'Ollie,' I greeted him, feeling relieved he had stopped me from embarrassment before turning to Tommy. 'I came to... Take a look at the club. See how you're doing.'
'Well, there isn't much to see yet,' Tommy told me in dismay. 'Our contractor is absolutely useless.'
'I'm sure they'll soon pull their weight,' I said optimistically. 'And if they don't, why don't you tell them that you could just... Give the job to someone else?'
Every word I said to Tommy felt utterly painful as I felt my love for him trying to break through. But I had to hide them, Tommy looking as though he was doing the same by his facial expressions.
Quietly, Oliver and I made our way down to the Arrowcave, Tommy being none the wiser, and I saw that Diggle was also joining us.
'What made you want to get back in the swing of things?' I inquired as my eyes skimmed the room, it evident that Oliver had been using his equipment very recently.
'Laurel reached out to me about a case,' Oliver explained. 'She contacted me on the phone I gave to her father.'
'Isn't that the same phone that I had to analyse the other day?' I wondered aloud. 'Lance wanted to use it to track you, well, The Hood, but I just told him it was a dead end forensics-wise.'
'Laurel's desperate,' Oliver stated. 'She wants to help her friend at the CNRI, Joanna de la Vega, get justice her brother's death.'
'He died in a recent fire the Fire Department were trying to prevent,' Diggle added for my benefit.
'If I knew anything, I would tell you,' I started sadly. 'But the Starling City Police and Fire Departments try their best not to get involved with each other. I have no idea what happens at the SCFD.'
'Fortunately, Oliver, you can be very persuasive,' Diggle reminded him. 'I'm sure you can do some more digging.'
'Like I told you earlier, Diggle, this is in the police's hands,' Oliver argued. 'A reckless billionaire's son can only do so much.'
'I agree with Diggle,' I contested Oliver's ideas. 'You're Oliver Queen, the boy who managed to survive five years on an island. Well, that's what they thi-'
I stopped myself from spilling Oliver's secrets in front of Diggle. I wasn't even supposed to know about Oliver's history with Amanda Waller.
'I can find out for you who the right people to ask about the case are,' I changed the topic, logging onto the computer on the desk next to me and searching the Fire Department's database.
I found a link to their forum, an 'Updates' page live.
'It seems they have an online alert system,' I informed Oliver and Diggle, rather impressed with the SCFD's efficiency. 'There's a fire at a building downtown as of this second. Maybe you should go to get a feel for what situation Joanna's brother was in; put yourself in his shoes.'
'Laurel said there has been a few deaths in the department recently,' Oliver commented. 'Maybe the killer will be there tonight.'
'Perhaps you can stop this guy from killing anyone else,' Diggle suggested. 'This city needs The Hood, and now.'
---
Oliver returned in no time, a look of sheer disappointment on his face.
'Is everything okay?' Diggle asked him as he slammed his bow down.
'I wasn't fast enough,' he said quietly. 'I let a man burn in a fire.'
'You can't win every battle, Ollie,' I tried to comfort him. 'It was your first fight as the vigilante since you recovered from hospital. Don't be too hard on yourself.'
'Did you find anything out about the killer?' Diggle tried to let Oliver stay positive.
'He was fully covered, I couldn't see his face or get an idea of who he was,' Oliver told us sadly. 'The only thing I could see was a scar and a tattoo of a firefly on his wrist.'
'Firefly tattoo...' I repeated slowly. 'That rings a bell.'
I quickly typed on the computer keyboard, looking through the archives on the SCFD database.
'It looks like some of the firemen at the SCFD got themselves tattooed with fireflies on their wrists, just like you said the killer had,' I told Oliver as I found out about a particular SCFD unit. 'They called themselves The Fireflies. All eight men decided to get matching tatts.'
'How adorable,' Oliver commented sarcastically. 'I'll let Laurel know.'
'I hope you're not dragging her into something only The Hood should know about,' I said ambiguously. 'There's a reason you hide behind a hood in cases like these, but Laurel has nothing to hide behind from danger.'
'It's nice you still care about her, Aria, but I've got this,' Oliver told me definitely. 'Please, don't worry. Anyway, you better get back to your sister. You said you wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.'
Saying goodbye to both Oliver and Diggle, I headed out of the back doors of the club, Tommy luckily absent from the building. Starting to walk towards Leyla's fabulous underground den, a man in a long, brown coat made a beeline for me, his expression serious and driven. His appearance very much reminded me of some Doctor Who character, his outfit giving off a very futuristic vibe.
'Are you Aria Coleman?' He asked me in a British accent much posher than mine.
I nodded, confused as to how he knew who I was.
'You mustn't kill Malcolm Merlyn,' he told me with vigour. 'It is vital you do in order to preserve the timeline.'
'How can I trust you?' I challenged him, warily trying to back away, my hand hovering over the pocket where I carried my gun. 'I don't even know your name.'
'Rip Hunter,' he answered my queries. 'You better come with me, Miss Coleman. I think you may want to hear this.'