'I just got off the phone with Patrick,' I told Tommy as we were preparing for the big opening night for our second attempt at starting up Verdant. 'He said the band are too busy at the moment with releasing their new album, but apparently Steve Aoki, the DJ, owes them a favour. The band were recording some music with him, actually, for the new Step Up film, of all things.'
'Wow, Fall Out Boy have officially become basic,' Tommy commented sarcastically. 'And, Oliver dated Steve Aoki sister, so that probably helps too.'
'Fair enough,' I shrugged, writing some important contact numbers down on a piece of scrap paper I had found nearby. 'Now, we need to call Steve up later about his preferences for tonight, his transport, and just housekeeping-'
'Aria, slow down,' Tommy stopped me from talking any faster, his hands placed on my shoulders to steady me and render me stationary. 'You need a rest from all this planning, you've been at it twenty-four seven almost all week.'
'There's no time to stop,' I argued. 'The opening night's tonight, and we haven't nearly enough-'
'As your co-manager, I order you to just sit down, and take a deep breath,' Tommy interrupted me again, caring for my welfare. 'Stop being such a stress-head, Aria.'
'I am not stressed,' I rolled my eyes at him in response to being told to do nothing. 'I am just trying to be organised and on top of things. And the club, it's opening, tonight!'
'You're in overdrive, Aria,' Tommy said in a concerned tone. 'You've had so much going on in your life recently, and it's taking a toll on you, visibly.'
'When did you get so serious, Tommy?' I inquired jokingly. 'Oh, God, it's like you're morphing into your father!'
'I think I'm a long way off from being as boring as my father,' Tommy remarked with a snicker.
If only he knew about the exciting life Malcolm really lived. Then he would have a very different idea of what his father was like.
Down in the Arrowcave, I found Diggle at the computers, an article on his brother's killer, Deadshot, displayed on the screen.
'Bialyan President Assassinated,' I read the article's title as soon as I could make out what was written on it. 'Interpol suspects Deadshot.'
'What are you doing here, Aria?' Diggle quizzed me at once, taken aback by my sudden appearance. 'I thought you were sorting things out upstairs.'
'I was,' I agreed with Diggle. 'But Tommy made me take a break, since I'm such a stress-head at the moment, in his words. I'm not going to ask you anything else about what you're researching, but I do have one question; what on earth does Bialyan mean?'
'For a second there, I thought you were gonna interrogate me,' Diggle laughed at my choice of words. 'A Bialyan is someone from Bialya, a country north of to Saudi Arabia and Iran.'
'Why is the Starling City Sentinel reporting about that far away country, then?' I pretended to act stupid, but Diggle knew my game.
'You're sly, Aria,' he commented in a short laugh. 'I'm finding
myself wanting to tell you all about it now.'
'Well, I did work alongside people just like that at the SCPD,' I remarked. 'Well, just the one, Detective Lance. But John, you can tell me anything, and anything you don't want Oliver to get involved with. He has good intentions, but sometimes he ends up just being reckless. I, on the other hand, am more... Sensible about things.'
'I can't fault you for that,' Diggle smiled, looking amused at my offering of help. 'But, I do need someone to talk to about this. I thought about telling Felicity, but she's loyal to Walter, and if she was in a pressurised situation, I can imagine her telling Oliver everything.'
'Yes, she only just entered this... World a few months ago,' I nodded. 'Anyway, what is it you wanted to say to me?'
'I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, over the past week,' Diggle started, hesitating slightly. 'When I found out that it was Deadshot who tried to assassinate Malcolm Merlyn, I couldn't shake this... Feeling, like I was reliving my brother's death again. Losing Andy was something I thought I could never get over. But then, I finally could rest easy knowing that Oliver had killed Lawton, that my brother's murderer got what he deserved.'
'And now, it turns out he's still alive,' I immediately sympathised with Diggle. 'I'm sorry, John, that you're having to go through all this again. It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone.'
'You sound like you speak from experience,' Diggle detected. 'I'm sorry that you had to go through this too.'
'Well, it's not exactly like what you're going through, but, thank you,' I smiled, trying to focus on Diggle's troubles, not mine. 'And, that's all in the past now.'
Also, the matters surrounding Isaac's death really were different. Instead of finding out his killer was alive, I had found out that in fact, I had caused his death to happen. But I needed to stop thinking about that, now I was nearly over it all.
'So, back to what you were thinking, about the whole situation?' I backtracked to the main reason Diggle had decided to open up to me.
I could see that John longed to tell me about it all, and that it was a perfect time for him to do so during Oliver's absence. Another question we both shared was where the hell Oliver was on the opening night of the club, his club.
'Yo,' Oliver finally and rather unexpectedly joined us, not giving Diggle a chance to tell me what he had wanted to, he quickly closing the tab with the article on it so Oliver couldn't see it and then ask questions.
'Hey,' Diggle greeted his friend as he turned round from the screen. 'Where you been?'
'Well, I thought I'd give myself a rare morning in,' Oliver told us, Diggle and I both giving him a rather disapproving look. 'Don't... Look at me like that; the club is opening, finally, McKenna and I are going on date number six tonight, which is... Significant, and er, I dunno, it seemed like a good day to give the bad guys a rest.'
'I have been stressed, all morning, organising the club and booking last-minute acts, while you were having a lie in?' I became exasperated at Oliver's excuses. 'You own the club, Ollie, I only manage it!'
'Who's booked for tonight?' Oliver deflected the conversation from him. 'Were Fall Out Boy free? McKenna told me they weren't cool anymore, but I thought, since they're getting back together soon-'
'No,' I interrupted him shortly. 'But Steve Aoki is. Patrick said he owed them a few favours, and I heard you dated his sister.'
'Ah, it all makes sense now,' Oliver realised in a rather sarcastic voice.
'Anyway, before you two start arguing about the choice of music for tonight, we have a bigger problem,' Diggle announced. 'You were right about giving the bad guys a rest, 'cause it's the bad girls that I'm worried about.'
Diggle opened a shot of some monochrome security camera footage filming a scene starring someone very familiar to him and Oliver, the girl shown aiming a crossbow right at a poor guy's face.
'Helena,' Oliver uttered, his face dropping slightly.
'Yes, or as I like to call her, your psycho ex-girlfriend,' Diggle joked. 'This was taken at Alley Cats, the strip joint.'
'I didn't know you dated strippers, Oliver,' I jibed. 'Well, she does have a crossbow, I see why you liked her now.'
'She's not a stripper, that was a cover,' Oliver corrected me, looking irritated by my jokes. 'And she was the girl who was briefly on the team just before you saved me from that gang and joined the team instead.'
'Oh, so was I her replacement?' I reacted rather badly. 'You're lucky I didn't turn on you like she did.'
I remembered back to Oliver and Diggle's conversation about a Helena Bertinelli when I had first started training with them, and how she had double-crossed them because Oliver had thought he could help her and stop her from killing her own father. I had mixed her up with the Helena I knew, Helena Cadent, when they had talked about this new Helena, as I had been hopeful of her return, but now, I hated that she had returned just to betray me.
I guessed Helenas had a talent for double-crossing their 'friends'.
'Anyway, the police report lists the stiff's name, the guy in the video, as Gus Sabatoni,' Diggle brought us back to the subject at hand.
'It's Bertinelli's lawyer,' Oliver deduced quickly that Helena had attacked her father's attorney. 'Why would she come back to Starling City just for him? It's not like he did a good job; her father's serving consecutive life sentences without parole.'
'Come on, Oliver, we both knew this was just a matter of time,' Diggle said, the voice of reason. 'You tried to help her, you couldn't. Now the only question is how long before she drops a dime on you, me, Aria, this whole operation?'
'She didn't even meet me!' I exclaimed rashly.
'She soon will, if we don't act now,' Diggle informed me rather too casually when talking about some other criminal who would threaten my life, like the Renegades, like the mysterious Prometheus.
'Okay,' Oliver muttered, setting off to leave the Arrowcave. 'I want you to get in touch with our contacts in the Bratva, talk to anyone on the street, figure out where Helena is and why she's back. Aria, you can do the same, but after we've opened the club - I haven't seen Tommy all day.'
'He was there all morning,' I raised an eyebrow at Oliver. 'But come to think of it, he did leave just before you got here.'
'I think he's avoiding me,' Oliver confided in us. 'But, this isn't a good time for him to be falling out with me. We need someone to manage the club, right now.'
'Okay,' Diggle now accepted his orders. 'But Oliver-'
'Dig, if Helena is- if she's here, she's here for a reason,' Oliver spun round back to his friend. 'And if that's not Frank Bertinelli, we need to know what she has planned.'
'Okay,' Diggle answered again, we both watching as Oliver left us.
'To say he's only just woken up, he is really irritable,' I commented as soon as we were alone.
'Maybe he got up on the wrong side of the bed,' Diggle supposed humorously. 'But now I need to pay a visit to the Bratva.'
'Good luck,' I wished him with a grimace.
'And good luck to you with the club,' Diggle wished back with a grin. 'Just remember to keep fire extinguishers on standby this time.'
It didn't take long for Oliver to come back, and in an angry rampage.
'She was in my house,' Oliver hissed at Diggle and me as he joined us at the bar area, just after Diggle had helped me unload a large batch of liquor bottles into the storage room. 'She made a not-so-little threat. I want security around my mother and my sister.'
Helena Bertinelli had paid a brief but frightening visit to the Queen house, cozying up to Thea and Moira and threatening Oliver deviously.
'I'm way ahead of you, man,' Diggle was speedily taking care of something on his phone.
'Thank you-,' Oliver said in a hushed voice as Diggle put his device to his ear.
'It's my job,' Diggle cut him off, assuming what Oliver meant.
'- for not saying I told you so,' Oliver finished his sentence, correcting his friend.
'The night's young,' Diggle interjected, as though he was challenging Oliver, walking off to the Arrowcave.
'You look like you're going to throw up,' I analysed Oliver's pained facial expressions.
'Why do you have it in for me today?' Oliver inquired, feeling sorry for himself.
'Oh, stop being so whiny,' I rolled my eyes at him obviously.
'You're treating me like a completely different person,' Oliver narrowed his eyes, playing detective. 'Why? What changed?'
I could've told him the truth about how I was angry that he and Tommy kept messing me around, but instead I decided that would be too complicated and would expose me for the petty person I seemed to be turning into. So I used another excuse, although truthful, instead.
'Since the Dodger died and I suddenly lost the job I've been working towards for eight years, I have been so frustrated,' I sighed angrily. 'And you're not helping.'
Oh dear. I shouldn't have let myself start to rant. That was when I told people things I really didn't want to.
'What have I got to do with any of that?' Oliver quizzed me at once, a strained, bewildered look on his face.
'It's... Nothing,' I tried to shake the matter off, but Oliver wasn't for giving up.
'What have I done that is so frustrating to you?' He interrogated me, not backing down now.
Just in time, Tommy appeared behind the bar, distracting Oliver for a second as we both turned to our friend. There was clearly some tension between the two, and it wasn't another mess I was prepared to get involved with.
'I think I'll leave you two to talk,' I spouted sarcastically, storming off from the bar in a new found anger at Oliver.
He acted so entitled, as if it was his right to know about every single thing in my life. Just like me, he was too curious for his own good. Maybe that was why he kept finding new criminals to get rid of.
---
The opening night of the club arrived in the blink of an eye, all our hard work paying off. The whole place was packed with people, Oliver and I looking down on the club proudly. I had decided to push my resentment towards Oliver aside for the night, wanting Verdant's opening to be enjoyable for both Oliver and myself.
'To Verdant,' Moira stated as I clunked champagnes flute in celebration with her, Oliver, McKenna and Thea in the balcony part of the club, before Moira turned to me and Oliver. 'I know I haven't always been supportive of this venture, but I have to admit, this nightclub is quite an accomplishment. I'm proud of you, and Oliver, your father would be too.'
'Thank you,' Oliver and I both said in unison, McKenna and Thea smiling at us both too.
'Yeah, congratulations, Ollie,' Thea was the next to talk. 'Your club doesn't totally suck.'
'Thanks, Speedy,' Oliver responded sarcastically. 'Thank you so much, all of you, for coming.'
'Well, I had no choice in the matter,' I remarked just as sarcastically as Oliver. 'I don't think you could've run the night all on your own.'
'Aw, Oliver's finally a responsible adult now,' Thea added to my comments. 'It took him nearly ten years longer than everyone else, but we all know he's a little slow.'
'Once again, thanks, Thea,' Oliver was now shaking his head at the both of us in disapproval.
'Well, I for one think that you've done a pretty amazing job,' McKenna smiled, looking at Oliver dotingly. 'And, of course, you too, Aria.'
'You don't have to save my feelings, McKenna,' I told her sincerely, if not a little saltily. 'Oliver does own this club, after all.'
'Oliver, where's Tommy?' Moira wondered, looking for her son's BBF. 'He should be up here, celebrating with us.'
'He's helping at the bar,' I spotted him over the crowds. 'I'll go and talk to him, ask him if he wants me to take over.'
'I need to ask Tommy about something as well,' Thea announced, walking down the stairs with me to the bar, speeding past the customers.
We found he and Laurel talking to each other intently, Tommy having stepped out from behind the bar to talk to his girlfriend.
'Tommy, Tommy!' Thea exclaimed as we interrupted them. 'Did, er, did you call Roy yet?'
'I left him a message,' Tommy said hastily. 'He starts tomorrow. Er, which reminds me, I have to go check-in with... The office. Excuse me.'
'Is that the same Roy from the precinct?' I asked Thea at once with a grin. 'The Abercrombie guy who stole your purse?'
'Maybe,' Thea bit her lip in both embarrassment and happiness. 'I think we're like, a thing?'
'I thought you liked him!' Laurel piped in.
'Hey, Aria, can I... Borrow you for a second?' Oliver interrupted, taking me to the side.
He showed me a note written in the messy handwriting, signed off by Diggle. It read 'Meet me downstairs. Now.'
'What's so urgent that Diggle needs to see us now?' I pondered aloud, Oliver shrugging in response.
'Maybe it's about Helena,' he theorised quickly. 'Let's go.'
We raced down the stairs, the sound of Steve Aoki's remixes growing quieter and quieter the further we entered the Arrowcave.
'Dig?' Oliver spoke into the silence.
And then we saw them. Helena had Tommy locked onto a worktop in a very compromising position, twisting his left arm back and pushing his head to the surface with great force.
Oliver had been right; this was about Helena, just not how we had hoped.
'Let him go,' Oliver ordered menacingly as I gasped in horror. 'He has nothing to do with this.'
'I told you,' Helena seethed angrily. 'Oliver, I warned you.'
'Helena, this isn't you,' Oliver raised his voice, his first priority being to get his best friend to safety.
'My father is a mobster and a murderer,' Helena argued spitefully. 'It is not like you haven't killed men like that before.'
'And I tried to teach you to obtain your objective without killing!' Oliver raised his voice even more, starting to shout.
'By applying leverage,' Helena contested. 'By exploiting someone's weakness.'
She inflicted more pain on Tommy, making him scream and try to writhe out of his position.
'Let go of him!' I shouted back at Helena in complete rage. 'Let Tommy go, now!'
'There is a whole club full of leverage above our heads right now,' Helena went on to threaten us, completely ignoring me. 'Please, Oliver, don't make me do something that both of us will regret!'
'Okay,' Oliver shook his head, not knowing what else to do. 'Okay, you win. I'll help you. Let him go. Let. Him. Go!'
She did as Oliver wished, Tommy yelling in pain as soon as she took the pressure off him, he grabbing his hand at once to relieve the pain it was in. I rushed to his side, picking up some bandages from a nearby cabinet and wrapping his injured wrist up as soon as Helena left.
'Thank you, Oliver, for not letting her kill me,' Tommy saw this as an opportunity to joke, but both Oliver and stayed quietly serious. 'But why was Helena threatening you, getting you to agree to... Something?'
'She wants me to help her... Deal with her father,' Oliver explained vaguely to Tommy, who had wanted nothing to with Oliver's crusade ever since he found out he was The Hood.
'You mean, kill her father?' Tommy confronted him with no filter. 'Because that's what you do, right? Kill people?'
'I've told you I'm sorry,' Oliver shut his eyes, irritated. 'I didn't tell you about all this because I wanted to protect you, from maniacs like Helena!'
'Well, it didn't work, did it?' Tommy spouted. 'Oh, and why did she know about all this before I did? I met her once, on our double date in like, the November of last year? Why did she get the Hood-talk priority?'
'I thought I could trust her, Tommy,' Oliver argued. 'She was lost, and I tried to show her the way.'
'But you couldn't trust me enough?' Tommy turned on his friend yet again, feeling betrayed. 'Your best friend who has cared about you for most of our lives?'
'Tommy, he didn't tell you because he cares about you too,' I stood up for Oliver, Tommy's accusations getting on my nerves. 'Oliver doesn't care about Helena, not anymore.'
Whilst I stood next to Oliver in solidarity, Tommy's eyes fell on something in the behind us in the Arrowcave, and I watched as he quickly pieced together another something I had hoped he wouldn't have realised, not for a long time. My blue vigilante suit was hung up next to Oliver's, the whole garment exposed for Tommy to see. I knew he knew the basic appearance of the Sapphire Saviour; the blue clothes and mask, the long dark hair and the gun she carried with her. It just so happened that I had the same hairstyle as the vigilante, and Tommy had seen the gun I used both for emergencies and as a vigilante some time in the past.
'You're in on this too, aren't you?' The look of realisation visibly swept over Tommy. 'You know, I thought it was a bit weird how you stayed back to fight our attackers at the fundraiser, but I just assumed it was because you worked at the SCPD, and you thought it was your duty to protect my father and I. But you're her, aren't you? The other vigilante. I should've known.'
'Tommy, please, just listen to us,' I pleaded, not wanting Tommy to tarnish me with the same vigilante brush he had with Oliver.
'You must've found killing the Dodger so easy,' he stated too harshly, his words feeling like daggers in my heart. 'Because you're a stone cold murderer, just like our other close friend here. I thought maybe I had at least one of my friends on my side, but that island changed you, just like it did to him.'
'Tommy,' Oliver was now trying to defend me against the wrath of Tommy Merlyn.
'Save it,' he spat, his words like acid. 'And, you know what? You two are perfect for each other, I won't bother either of you anymore. I don't know why I ever thought I could compete with Oliver for you, Aria. I hope you enjoy your next killing spree together.'
Helena had not managed to create yet another rift between Tommy and Oliver, but her presence had also exposed the lies I had been feeding Tommy. And although I wanted to blame her for it entirely, I knew that I had brought this upon myself, and it just so happened that he had found out that day.
But now, the real question was, what were we going to do about Oliver's psycho ex-girlfriend before more people had to get hurt for her vendetta?