The Rise of Athena (An Arrow: Season 1 Fanfiction)

Chapter 29: Heroes or Murderers?

Flashback - Third Person POV 

'You can survive this. Make it home. Make it better,' the older man whispered to the younger Oliver Queen as he lay against his shoulder. 'Right my wrongs.' He laid him against the side of the boat, then pulled out a gun. Pointing it at the crew member, Gus, he shot him, startling Oliver, who bolted away from him in shock. 

'Dad?!' he shouted. 

'Survive,' was all he said before he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. 

'No! No!' 

End of flashback - Oliver Queen's POV 

I awoke with a splash to my face and a scream from my lips. I gasped out loud and looked around. I was in an abandoned warehouse and saw the guard leaving, carrying a bucket with him. I was drenched in water from head to toe, just standing on my tiptoes, my arms hung from up above with thick chains. 

'I hope I didn't hurt you,' I heard Malcolm say as I looked up, glaring at him. He strolled into the light, hands in his pockets, looking at me. 'At least I can properly thank you now for saving my life. If I only knew how you were spending your nights... My hope is that I can explain everything to you to help you understand.' 

'You murdered my father!' I screamed. 'You sentenced me to that island, to five years of hell. If I hadn't of gone, Evelyn wouldn't be hurting!' 

'I am truly sorry for what happened to you. And your sister. You know I have lost people.' 

'Yeah, your wife. Do you really think that you're honoring Tommy's mother by destroying the Glades?'

'As surely as you believe you're honoring your father with this hood,' he replied, holding up the hood. 'Not a day goes by I don't miss your father.'

'You'll see him soon,' I snarled. 

'You can't beat me, Oliver. Yes, you're younger. You're faster, but you always seem to come up short against me. Want to know why? Because you don't know, in your heart, what you're fighting for. Neither does your sister,' Malcolm said back to me. 'What you and your sister are willing to sacrifice, and I do. No one can stop what's about to come. Not even the vigilantes.' With that, he dropped the green hood he was holding on the floor and left the room. 

Time skip 

I hung by the chains. Standing on my tiptoes, I looked up, surveying the area. Then, I launched myself up onto the chains, gathering it slowly as I inched my way up. I stopped, then let myself fall. The chain snapped, and I was finally free. I landed hard on my back, making me let out a groan. I saw someone, a guard, come down the steps, and I threw my chains at him, making him fall. He fell, face to the ground, and I knelt next to him, snapping his neck in one clean snap. Then I hid next to the door as another guard came in, and wrapped my chains around his neck, strangling him before I snapped his neck as well. I tried to avail the guard of his keys, but another came in. I looked up in shock just before the man was shot dead and fell. John Diggle and Evelyn came around the doorway, and John lowered his gun. He came to me, with Evelyn, who was in her Athena suit. 

'I take back every joke I made about you sticking a tracking device in your boot.' She came to me, and picked my locks with her daggers. The chains fell free and I hugged her. 

'Glad to have you back, Ollie.' 

'You too, Ellie-bear.'

More of a time skip - in Athena's POV 

The three of us walked down the steps of the Arrow and Athena hideout. 

'Felicity's at Queen Consolidated. She's still going through the data she pulled off Merlyn's network,' Diggle said. 

'Did she find anything?' Oliver asked. 

'Yeah, the design schematics of the earthquake generator,' I spoke up. 

'So we can shut it down,' Diggle replied. 'Assuming we find it in time.' Just then his phone rang and he picked it up. 

'Yeah, Felicity, I got him.' 

'Thank God. Is he okay?' she asked over the line. 

'Mostly.'

'Okay. I'm on my way.' She hung up. 

At the police station...

'Please,' Detective Lance said, opening the door for Felicity. 'Take a seat.' He closed the door of the questioning room behind him. 

'You know, I think I'd rather stand.' He said nothing, only stared at her, which made her incredibly scared as she sat down hurriedly. 

'You're not exactly a hardened criminal, are you?' he asked her. 

'No, I'm not any kind of criminal.' 

'What do you call computer hacking?'

'A hobby? That I do not engage in.' He sat down opposite her. 

'Hey, I got a whole mess of computer gobbedly gook that I don't understand, but it says otherwise. I had my tech guys go through your computer at Queen Consolidated. You used it to hack into Blackhawk Squad security to research arrows shipped to a company called Sagittarius and to analyse a water sample to tie back to a Vertigo lab. These are all cases involving... the Hood and Athena. Tell me, Felicity. What am I thinking?' Just then his phone rang and he picked it up, holding it to his ear. 'Saved by the bell,' he said to Felicity. 'Excuse me.' 

'Hello, Detective,' Athena's voice, via a modulator, said into the phone. 

'Funny you should call. I got your trusty sidekick sitting right in front of me.' The noise that Athena made on the other end sounded like a snort. 

'The Hood and I don't have sidekicks. When we need help, we call you. Malcolm Merlyn plans to level the Glades with a manmade earthquake using technology from Unidac Industries.' 

'What? Now you're just trying to have some fun with me,' Detective Lance chuckled. 

'I don't know what Merlyn's timetable is, so you need to evacuate the Glades immediately. Get as many people to safety as you can. Whatever you think of the Hood and I, Detective, please... believe this.' Athena hung up and Detective Lance turned to Felicity. 

'Sounds like you have bigger problems than me,' she said. 

'Don't leave town,' he barked roughly. She got up and went towards the door. Opening the door, she stopped and replied.

'You know... I used to think the vigilantes were criminals too, but it seems to me, whoever they are, they're willing to sacrifice an awful lot to help the people of this city. Kind of makes them heroes... doesn't it?'