A disclaimer: I do not own anything DC or anything, I borrowed from other media.
After the shakeup with his team and a serious talk with a particular new member, Oliver calls in Barry to have an essential conversation about Black Siren's arrival on this earth. While he gains a better understanding of Earth 2 Laurel, Oliver still wasn't sure about fully trusting her despite the change of sides.
With Wild Dog at home after making sure the former members of the team left while finding out from Rory that just because he's gone didn't mean he side with Felicity, Oliver and Black Siren wait for Barry to show up.
Rushing inside, Barry makes it saying, "Hey, I got your message; it seems urgent..." Barry's eyes go wide from seeing Earth 2 Laurel standing and waving at him.
"Hi Red, I would say it is good to see you out of prison cell, but that would be lying. Lucky for you, it's not my wrath you have to deal with." She greets him with sarcasm and points over to Oliver, who glares at her to stop before giving the same expression to Barry.
"Oliver, I can tell that you are upset." Barry begins to make his case.
"That's an understatement considering what has transpired recently." Oliver folds his arms ready to hear the speedster reasoning for not mention about him, not saying his former girlfriend doppelganger is stuck on this earth.
"When this version of Laurel shows up, we were just as shock as you. We chose not to tell you about her because she isn't our Laurel, not to mention it was around Laurel's death, so we figure telling you that would have made it worse." Barry explains quickly.
"I get that you were looking out for my well-being, but due to your decision, Prometheus somehow found a way to break her out and convince her to join her cause." Oliver could tell Barry was sincere with his team's choice, yet it still upset him that he did not know about her.
"Side note, he did threaten to kill me if I didn't." Black Siren points out, trying to take the heat off of her.
"Now that's a load of crap, considering you sided with Zoom before coming to our earth and attacked us, which is why you ended lock up in the pipeline." Barry reminded her of their battle when Zoom and his army of metahumans from Earth 2 attacked Central City.
"I don't recall you telling me that part of the story during our chat." Oliver looks back at Black Siren with a confused expression on his face.
"To be fair, I'm more of a bad girl, not my fault, and that might of slip my mind to mention that detail." Black Siren pouts in an innocent like matter, hoping Oliver wouldn't get too mad at her. Almost the same as her reasonable to join Prometheus, Zoom could kill her if she didn't do what he asked. Granted, she can hold her own in a fight, the evil in her would instead not take chances, unlike her Earth 1 counterpart.
Sighing to himself, Oliver says to her, "You not coming clean about your alliance is making me think that part of me is right and you're planning on betraying me. If what you told me is true and that you are willing to change, you need to start coming clean about stuff like that, especially when the others find out about you."
Black Siren rolls her eyes at this. "Fine boy scout. Do I at least get a reward for being a good girl for now?" Oliver slightly blushes at the flirtiness from her while Barry looks away, feeling uncomfortable.
"As far as you go, Barry, I won't get too harsh on you cause you already making up for your flashpoint mistake though this doesn't mean I'm entirely okay with you keeping this from me. If the role reversed, I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate me holding information about another version of someone you care a secret." Oliver said to Barry in a way to not kick him while he's down.
Nervously Barry asks him, "Does this mean I have to take another arrow to the back?" referring to their first training session together when Oliver manages to put an arrow on his back.
"You shot him?" Black Siren raises an eyebrow at him.
"It was part of his training and no not today though a makeup session as payback should teach you a thing or two," Oliver smirks, making Barry even more nervous but chuckle a bit until he realizes they were alone. "Where's Felicity and the others?"
"Boy scout here, remind the annoying blonde who runs this camp, so she quit along with the nerd and ragdoll." Black Siren cheers while Barry looks at Oliver in disbelief. "Is she serious?"
"Yes, it's true. I understand that you and Felicity have a close friendship, and since you are not around, it doesn't make sense, but for the longest time, Felicity had challenged my authority and shown that she was a hypocrite when it came to us ever since we came back to face Darhk. I was just too blind to see it at first, but no more, we can't work together like this." Oliver answers without a bit of regret in his voice.
Barry was aware of the relationship between the two hadn't been the same since Felicity called off the wedding; he had no idea it was this bad.
"I have to respect that. It sucks, but I was blind too when it came to Iris with all the signs that we don't work relationship-wise," Barry whispers. He remembers when he came back from the Flashpoint timeline that Iris change her mind about wanting a relationship with him for his action. Though they manage to patch things up, Barry has since put his feelings for her on the back burner.
"From what I have seen and heard during the Dominator attack moving on hasn't been that hard with Kara around," Oliver smirks again with this time Barry blushing. When Kara return to help out against the Dominators, she and Barry grew closer, and thanks to Cisco, she could appear on their earth if need be.
"Anyways, not that I would love to talk about my love life, I still have substantial business in Central City. Again I'm sorry about not telling you about Black Siren." Barry extends his hand, though, to his surprise, Oliver gives him a brotherly hug.
"Water under the bridge." They quickly end the hug with Barry and Black Siren saying a short bye to each other before he flashes out of the lair.
"Siren."
"Red."
"You know you both are going to have to move past what happen," Oliver said to Black Siren.
"We will see about that." The two gaze into each other eyes for a second when Thea enters the room alongside a free Diggle. "Did Barry just come through here because I saw a red blur just now."
Thea sees what looks like Laurel standing right next to her brother. "Laurel?" Thea questions knowing that she had talked to her on the phone, but seeing how she look in person, she wasn't too sure.
"Thea. Diggle." Black Siren greets them.
"Wait, Diggle, how are you out of jail?" Oliver asks surprisingly.
"Chase received information from an anonymous source that helped clear my name, so I became free to go. Speaking of the unknown person, where are Felicity and the others?" Diggle gets straight to the point. Oliver takes a deep breath, for he is in for a long story to share with both Thea and Diggle.
"I will need to pop popcorn for this." Black Siren quips.
After explaining recent events, Thea felt conflicted for she was okay with Felicity, she didn't feel the need to shed a tear over her leaving considering she explored the relationship between her and Ollie was a bit toxic since the breakup. As far as Black Siren, she isn't sure how to feel about that issue. Diggle, on the other hand, did not like what he heard.
"I can't believe you just let her walk out like that and allowing her to join the team without consulting us!" Diggle confronts Oliver about his actions.
"Let me remind you that Felicity chose to take the high road along with Curtis and Rory. As far as Black Siren goes, she had intel that we could use on Prometheus, and right now, she's earning a chance at redemption." Oliver argues, not really in the mood to have this debate again.
"How you know she's not playing you, man?"
"What is with you and Felicity with that question? I'm giving her a chance, and as I said, if she were going to betray us, I would think she would have done so already!"
"You know what some things just don't change with you. Our Laurel or not, she's always been your blind spot!"
"Watch it." Oliver gets into Diggle's face.
"Now, you're defending her, not surprising." Diggle stares him down.
"Guys, this isn't helping anything." Thea chimes in, hoping to keep the two from fighting.
"She's right, trust me or not; I want revenge on Prometheus, so I'm willing to put my difference to the side to aid the team." Black Siren said in a calm tone seeing how the argument was upsetting Thea.
"The last thing I'm doing is trusting someone who looks like the woman who died because of me, and I will be damn if I fall for this same type of trap again." Diggle point at her before Oliver stands in front of him again.
"I already came with my decision. As I told Felicity, my authority would not keep getting undermined. At the same time, I allow opinions I won't tolerate this team to go on the jump on Oliver every time he makes a decision game. You choose Diggle, you in or out?"
After a second to think, Diggle answers saying, "I'm out. While I won't be teaming with you directly, I will join my wife with running Argus. That way, when she turns her back on you, we will be ready to take her in." Diggle glares at Black Siren.
"and if she proves you wrong?" A disappointed Oliver questions only for Diggle to look at Oliver one last time as he leaves the room. Now it's Thea turn to make a choice.
"What about you Thea? No matter what you chose, that won't change our relationship." Oliver assures her for he didn't want to put pressure on his sister over something like this.
"While I'm not sure how to feel about Laurel's look alike, I'm with you Ollie. It will take time for me to trust her, though." Thea answers honestly as the memories of her time with Earth 1 Laurel came to mind.
"Completely understandable sis." Oliver smiles, and the two share a hug. When they ended their hug, Black Siren step in to talk to Thea.
"Listen, I know that I don't have the relationship with you as my doppelganger had, but I do hope I can in time gain you and your brother's trust and maybe recreate that bond. In my world, I didn't have Sara as my sister, so I don't know what having one is like." She extends her hand out, surprising Thea and even Oliver.
"Let's just take it one day at a time, I suppose." Thea accepts the handshake and nods to her. Once she said her goodbye, Black Siren notice that Oliver was glancing at her strangely. "What?"
"Wasn't expecting you to reveal about being an only child to Thea, especially when you haven't told me about it."
"What's the fun in giving all the details. Plus, isn't the girlfriend's job to make a great impression on the boyfriend's sister?"
Oliver couldn't believe his ears just then. "Boyfriend?"
Black Siren smiles and walks over him seductively. "Come on Ollie, the way you acted when you saw me return, not to mention you stood up for me; you're into me just like I'm into you."
"I thought you were Laurel from this earth, and yes, I did stand up for you because I have to believe that there is the Laurel I know in you, and I'm hoping it will come. Regardless that doesn't indicate feelings I have for you." Oliver half-lies, while he most certainly didn't have the same feelings for her compared to his Laurel, he can't help but feel drawn to Black Siren and found her highly attractive. The problem was the trust issue, as well as the voice in his head saying he is betraying Laurel if he goes down the route.
"Are you sure about that, because your body language speaks otherwise." She bites her lip now directly on Oliver's body.
"Don't try to play mind games with me." Oliver tries not to look into her eyes.
"Who playing games? You are the one who won't admit that you are growing feelings for me. I know I'm from another earth, but the only difference is the paths we have taken. It's like fate allows us to have a second chance." She said with passion in her voice and got close to Oliver's face to kiss him.
Realizing he needed to get out of this position, Oliver comes up with an excuse to stop the moment. "I have some mayor business to take care of. We talk about the decision of telling Lance and your future later."
Black Siren groans in frustration as Oliver slides away from her but smirks and says as he leaves, "Playing the stubborn game huh, fine. However, if your Laurel is one thing like me, I don't take things slow for I close my eyes, and I jump, but in my case, the more aggressive way."
It was at that moment that Oliver knew that he is in trouble.
TBC
Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was going to update this story, and even now, I don't know how long it will go, but here's something I guess. To those who wonder how I feel about the S5 finale and S5 in general, here's how I think. I thought the S5 finish was the best that Arrow had produced, and the season, in general, was better than S3 and S4. However, I honestly can't say it was my favorite due to flaws in the season; for example, how they wrote Black Siren's character, which was the reason why I started writing this.
Now to the story at hand. I felt the need to have Oliver and Barry talk about the issue of keeping Black Siren a secret to eliminate the plot hole of them not having the conversation at all. The decision to have Diggle leave the team came from the fact that at times he seems too much on Felicity side more than he is on Oliver, so I wanted to expose that and to follow up on my opinion that the lair was starting to have way too many people in it. For those who feel Oliver should have been harsher, I prefer writing him as someone who wants to be fair but, at the same time, no longer putting up with the bus he has dealt with from his team in the past seasons.
Lastly, Black Siren/Green Arrow part of the chapter. Now as much as the urge to have the two become official came to mind, I think it fits both characters by having Oliver slowly warm up to the idea of being with E2 Laurel with her already wanting to jump Oliver creating that tension between the two.