'Are you sure you wanna go out there?' Diggle checked as Oliver suited up and I attached an earpiece into my left ear. 'You were just held hostage by that lunatic.'
'I'm sure,' I nodded finally. 'I don't want to be defined by my failures or weaknesses, or just let myself become the 'damsel in distress' I have been lately. I'm supposed to be a vigilante, not a helpless civilian.'
'You seem pretty... Off at the moment,' Diggle picked up. 'Ever since your sister left the city, it's like something's been holding you back. Is... Something up?'
'Not... Really,' I tried to avoid Diggle's question.
'Did the Count and Vanch get in your head?' Diggle inquired, I nodding in response.
'I guess so,' I confirmed his suspicions. 'But now, I am trying to fix that. I'm going to make sure that Oliver gets back in one piece. It will, well, it'll be a start, to make me feel useful around here, something which has been hard to do recently.'
At that moment, I knew I would have to tell Diggle some of the truth.
'I... heard news of something. Something that made me ask myself a lot of things, things I had buried a long time ago. It made me feel lesser, not worthy of this... Life I have built for myself. And I need to work on that.'
'Well, maybe this will help then,' Diggle smiled. 'Just, stay safe out there.'
'I will,' I nodded again.
'My mom is holding a meeting at Queen Consolidated as we speak,' Oliver told us as he joined us, ready to go.
'If anything happens, remember you have Aria on the end of the line,' Diggle reminded Oliver, passing him my earpiece's twin.
'There's a multi-storey car park pretty near the Queen Consolidated building,' Oliver started outlining his plan. 'I will be zip lining in and out of my mom's office from the top floor of there, and that's where you'll wait, Aria.'
'Sounds easy enough,' I shrugged, but Oliver's grave face told me I needed to become more serious, and quickly, before someone got hurt.
'Good luck,' Diggle said as we parted from the Arrowcave and to the car park.
---
I waited for a good ten minutes after Oliver had entered Queen Consolidated, but I was not expecting his return to be so swift. And he was bleeding.
'Ollie!' I exclaimed at once when his green-clad, bloody presence finally graced me. 'What happened?'
'No time to explain,' he managed to state between groans and cries of pain. 'I'm bleeding.'
'I can see that,' I spouted sarcastically, but I soon realised it wasn't the time for humour. 'Take my hand.'
I hoisted Oliver up so he could use my right shoulder for support, at once getting him moving towards the steps within the car complex so I could get him help as soon as possible.
'I would take you to a hospital, but I don't think they'd be in favour of keeping your secret,' I said as I talked through what on earth I was going to do with Oliver. 'But I can't get to you back to the club quickly enough.'
I helped Oliver sit down against a wall of a lower level of the car park, my mind in full panic mode but my outward actions remaining calm and collected in this time of crisis.
'I'm gonna die if we don't get help, now,' Oliver fretted.
'I know that,' I couldn't contain my panic any longer. 'Oliver, I, I don't know what we're going to do. I was supposed to help you, to make sure you wouldn't die, but instead, another of my friends is going to die because of me.'
Well, now I might as well have revealed the whole timeline time-travel mess I was in.
'What are you taking about?' He managed to question my accidental outburst, but was luckily distracted by a certain vehicle nearby. 'Felicity.'
'Felicity?' I repeated what he had said in confusion. 'What's your IT girl got to do with any of this?'
'That's her car,' Oliver pointed to the lone red Mini Cooper a few car spaces away from us.
'I'm not even going to ask how you know that, but what help is she?' I asked, before realising where Oliver was going with his idea.
We were going to use Felicity's car.
'But, can we trust her?'
'Yes,' Oliver quickly replied as I thought back to how she hadn't told anyone about Leyla and I interrogating her about The List, and how she had so freely given me Isaac's drive with everything on Malcolm Merlyn.
'Okay then, but you're going to have to stand back as I somehow break into her car,' I said as if committing a felony didn't even faze me anymore.
Before I broke the rear-seat window, Oliver passed me a strange looking object that looked suspiciously like a key.
'It can unlock anything,' Oliver explained vaguely, before drifting off to half-consciousness.
In my years experiencing the strange and extraordinary, I had never come across a seemingly magical lock picker. This was a whole new level of unbelievable for me, more unbelievable than spaceships or speedsters.
I doubted it would even work, but somehow, it did.
Not even minutes later, our blonde heroine unlocked her car and jumped with utter shock when she saw us both occupying the back seats.
'Aria!' Felicity exclaimed at my presence. 'What are you doing in my car? Why are you-?'
She then took a look at Oliver properly, realising that The Hood was lying next to me.
'I'm not gonna hurt you, Felicity,' Oliver reassured her as he started to come back to his senses.
'How do you know my name?' Felicity asked at once.
'Because you know my name,' Oliver revealed his true identity, removing his hood from his head and uncovering his face.
'Mr... Oliver,' Felicity breathed, shaking her head as if she felt like she was dreaming. 'Oh, wow, everything about you just became so unbelievably clear.'
Her eyes then darted into the large bloodstain on Oliver's suit.
'You're bleeding!'
'I don't need to be told that,' Oliver shook his head at her obviousness.
'Yet you didn't like it when I said that to you,' I remarked, Oliver rolling his eyes at me.
'You need a hospital,' Felicity rashly decided.
'That's not a good idea,' I commented, opposing her.
'My- my father's old factory in the Glades,' Oliver corrected her.
'You- you need a doctor, not a steel worker,' Felicity reasoned just like any sane person would.
'Felicity, you have to promise me that you are gonna take us to my father's factory, and nowhere else,' Oliver ordered solemnly.
'Yeah, promise,' Felicity merely answered, starting her car up and speeding to the Arrowcave. 'Something tells me blood stains are not covered under my lease.'
---
Felicity and I dragged a fully unconscious Oliver into the Arrowcave, Felicity rushing in and leaving me to support Oliver's weight as she alerted Diggle of what was happening. As soon as she came back, she and Diggle joined me in carrying Oliver to a clear worktop, where we could then treat him properly.
'Oh, dammit,' Diggle said as he examined Oliver's wound. 'He just missed a carotid. It's a zone two wound. Press there.'
'I should've taken him to a hospital,' Felicity complained as she obeyed Diggle's instructions, while I was unexpectedly taken away from the scene by a phone call from Lance.
'You probably heard about what happened at Queen Consolidated earlier tonight,' Lance opened the conversation without haste.
'I don't know what you're talking about,' I replied slowly, trying to figure out how Lance cpuld have possibly known about Oliver's condition.
'The Hood attacked Moira Queen, it's been all over the news,' Lance filled me in with surprise. 'Did Oliver Queen not tell you?'
'I'm not in contact with him 24/7, Detective,' I answered back at Lance's expectations of me. 'Why are you calling me, at this hour?'
I desperately wanted to be off the phone so I could help Diggle and Felicity revive Oliver, watching as they frantically tried to stop him bleeding, but I couldn't come off suspicious to Lance or the SCPD. Unfortunately, my job came first.
'We need a Forensic Scientist at the scene,' Lance told me stressfully. 'And you're on this vigilante investigation, remember?'
'Of course,' I answered, before abruptly ending the call.
'I have to go,' I told Diggle and Felicity as I quickly washed my hands of Oliver's blood and changed my shirt to a clean one, but they were too wrapped up in saving Oliver's life to hear or acknowledge my absence.
Travelling back to Queen Consolidated, I picked up my forensics equipment from the lab on the way, the vibe I got from Lance being that there was probably something important for me to analyse or find.
And I was right, for when I entered the office with glass shattering all over the floor, a sizeable blood stain decorated the middle of the room, its ruby colour standing out against the otherwise clear, boring colour scheme of the office.
'What happened here?' I pretended to be shocked yet again as Lance approached me.
'I told you, The Hood attacked Moira Queen nearly an hour ago,' Lance retold the night's events.
'You were quick getting here,' I commented on Lance's swiftness. 'You really do want to catch this guy, don't you?'
'Isn't it obvious?' Lance added with a smirk, before directing his attention towards the blood. 'As you've probably guessed, we need you to collect some blood from over there, 'cause if you get a clean enough sample, we might finally be able to unmask this nutbar once and for all after the DNA results come through.'
Now Oliver was sure to be found out for who he really was, and our vigilante days would be over. And I couldn't think of a valid, innocent excuse this time.
As soon as I had collected all the evidence Lance required, I took myself outside the room to a secluded part of Queen Consolidated, speedily dialling Diggle's number.
'What is it Aria?' Diggle answers abruptly, not caring for niceties in Oliver's time of crisis. 'I don't have time for small talk.'
'I need to talk to Felicity, and now,' I explained just as directly. 'It's urgent.'
'Hi, what's up?' A calmer Felicity soon talked. 'Dig said it was important?'
'Yes, he's right,' I confirmed her thoughts. 'I don't know when I'll be able to get back to the club, and I need you to do something for me. Detective Lance made me collect blood samples from where Oliver bled out at Queen Consolidated - just before we met you - and I have to deliver them to the lab, there's no other way to not make myself look suspicious. When the samples in the lab go online, I need you to order for them to be destroyed.'
'How am I supposed to do that, it's not like I'm in charge of the SCPD,' Felicity said before she thought through what I was implying. 'Oh, you want me to hack the SCPD's computer system. That's... Just great.'
But if Oliver's true identity was revealed for all to see, then it really wouldn't be great.
---
'Ollie!' I breathed as I entered the Arrowcave and found that Oliver was alive. 'Ollie, you're okay!'
I went to hug him, but stopped as he winced with pain.
'Sorry.'
'No, no, it's not your fault,' he smiled faintly. 'If you hadn't got me to Felicity's car, I would've been a dead man.'
'How did you get into my car, exactly?' Felicity wondered, slightly concerned. 'Did I forget to lock it? I don't want anyone else to suddenly appear behind me when I drive home from work anytime soon.'
'Lock pick,' Oliver explained vaguely, but Felicity accepted his answer.
'How did you manage to stitch Oliver up?' I inquired, admiring Diggle and Felicity's handiwork on Oliver right shoulder, where he had been shot by his own mother.
'It's not bad,' Oliver agreed, looking at his body via a small, handheld mirror. 'So how am I gonna explain this one?'
'Hickey gone wrong?' Diggle joked, much to the amusement of Oliver.
'The police, well, our Forensic Scientist here, collected a sample of your blood at Queen Consolidated,' Felicity announced from the computers, referring to me.
'Aria?' Oliver started to question what I had done. 'What were you thinking?'
'I had to do my job without Lance guessing anything,' I shot back. 'It's not like I had a choice.'
'Well, I just hacked the crime lab, and ordered the sample destroyed,' Felicity told us quickly to stop Oliver from interrogating me further. 'Oops.'
She laughed awkwardly as I nodded at her in thanks.
'I was the one who told Felicity to get the sample destroyed,' I pointed out so Oliver wouldn't pin it all on Felicity meddling with the police.
Oliver still remained solemn, not wanting to joke around, but his eye soon caught the updated, modernised Operating System on the computer screens that Felicity had decided to install.
'I... Hope it's alright,' Felicity started to tell him something even more awkwardly. 'Your system looked like it was from the eighties, and not the good part of the eighties, like Madonna and leg-warmers.
'It was fine for Aria,' Oliver stated, bringing me into it.
'Hey, I'm not as good with computers as Felicity is,' I reminded him, slightly ticked off. 'And I use the computers at the SCPD, which are just as bad as these ones with all the cuts they've had to make, until Felicity upgraded them.'
'That's a lot of work,' Oliver pointed out, looking back at Felicity. 'Does that mean you're in?'
'You mean in, as in, I'm going to join your crusade?' Felicity checked, raising her brows.
'Well, you're practically an honourary member of the team already,' Oliver smiled properly for the first time since he had been conscious, while Diggle and I nodded with Oliver's flattery.
'So Mr Diggle said,' Felicity smiled back.
She took a moment to decide what her next utterance would be, her face appearing slightly conflicted.
'No.'
'Then why'd you upgrade my system?' Oliver raised his voice in confusion.
'First, because seeing a network that poorly set up hurts me, in my soul,' Felicity explained in a mix of comedy and seriousness. 'And second, I want to find Walter.'
'My step-father?' Oliver queried shortly but softly.
'He was nice to me,' Felicity reminisced about her old boss. 'And Mr Diggle told me that the notebook you use to fight crime is the same notebook that got Walter abducted. I'll help you rescue him, but that's it. Then, I want to go back to my boring life of being an IT girl. That's my offer.'
It made sense, where Felicity was coming from; she had been trying to find Walter ever since he disappeared, my sister and I witnessing that when we had tried to interrogate her at Queen Consolidated all those weeks ago. She was just doing what she thought was right, but without getting into the life of crime that Oliver, Diggle and I were immersed in. There was no reason for her to want to lead out kind of lives; she had only led a life of computing and hacking in the safety of a room, whereas Diggle had fought in Afghanistan on the front line, I had spent a good ten years in danger's path, from being abducted by Malcolm Merlyn to surviving on the island that called itself purgatory, and God knows what Oliver had been up to in the five years he was missing.
'Okay,' Oliver accepted Felicity's 'offer' strangely calm.
'So I've been meaning to ask, is there a bathroom? Because I've had to pee since I got here,' Felicity asked truthfully, causing Oliver to chuckle at her question.
'It's upstairs to the left,' Oliver told her as he still laughed under his breath.
Just before Felicity left, Oliver stopped her.
'Felicity,' he said, holding his hand out so she could shake it. 'Thank you.'
'Yeah,' she muttered, walking up the stairs.
'Oliver, I know you don't want to hurt this girl,' Diggle acknowledged as soon as Felicity was out of earshot. 'And you didn't have any choice in telling her who you really were, but we're asking her to get involved in some pretty dangerous stuff.'
'Felicity doesn't have the... Experience we have,' I tried to think of a way to remind Oliver she wasn't a fighter, nor had she fought in combat before like the three of us had.
'We can protect her,' Oliver defended his decision at once.
'How?' Diggle contested him just as quickly. 'Your mother just shot you, Oliver, you can't even keep yourself safe.'
'She was scared,' Oliver narrowed his eyes at Diggle, annoyed he would even bring a subject like that up. 'She was defending herself.'
'Or, she was hiding something, like maybe her involvement in Walter's disappearance or worse,' Diggle accused Moira easily, much to Oliver's discontent.
'Diggle, we don't always know why people do what they do,' Oliver continued to argue. 'But what I do know is that when I was standing in her office, with an arrow aimed at her heart, she begged me to spare her, all on behalf of me and Thea. Now I've taken down a lot of bad people, none of them brought to their kids, Dig.'
'Oliver, she had The List,' Diggle pointed out the obvious, which seemed to be a blind spot for Oliver at that moment. 'Now, she may not be in charge of whatever it is, but she's definitely involved.'
'Involved in what?' Oliver spurted angrily.
'You need to listen to us Ollie,' I started to try to plead with him in order to talk some sense into Oliver. 'Please. Of course you'd be biased, she's your mother. We can't decide for sure if she is involved in... It.'
'We don't even know what it is,' Oliver starred again in more anger towards me and Diggle. 'And until we do, she is off limits. Am I clear?'
Oliver stared at us both in disgust before turning away, feeling hurt by our accusations.
'But Oliver, are you saying this because you truly believe she's innocent, or because you don't wanna face the fact that your mother might be guilty?' Diggle questioned wisely, before he picked up his coat and left the Arrowcave in silence whilst I did the same.