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

Chapter 31: The Confession

Evelyn Queen's POV 

Oliver and I walked into the Arrow/Athena hideout. 

'The Undertaking is happening tonight,' I announced. John and Felicity turned, shock on their faces. 

'Oliver, Felicity may have found something,' Diggle said. We walked towards the computer screens. Felicity held up the book with the list of names in front of our eyes, opened to the very first page with the strange symbol on it that I had always assumed was joined to some sort of weird cult. 

'This symbol is a map of the old subway tunnel system.'

'That's what got us thinking the Undertaking is connected to the Glades.' 

'What if it was more specific than that?' Felicity asked. 

'What do you mean?' I asked, coming over to stand on the other side of the bench, facing her. Oliver came to stand next to her. 

'If I had a machine that could trigger an earthquake in an otherwise geologically stable area, where would I position it?'

'Underground,' Oliver answered after a moment of thought. 

'Yeah.' She pulled up something on her screen. 'This is a U.S. geological survey of the tectonic plates running underneath Starling City. This red line here is a known fault that runs through the Glades.'

'About a mile,' Diggle said, 'the fault runs underneath the old Tenth Street subway line.'

'Dollars to donuts, the seismic device is somewhere along here,' I said. 

'I know where it is,' I heard Oliver say. We all looked to him. Just then his phone buzzed, and he answered on the second ring. I came to stand next to him as he went into a corner of the room and he put it on speaker for the two of us to hear. 'Now is not a good time,' he said. 

'Yeah, understate much?' I heard Thea's voice over the phone. 'Mom has a whole bunch of reporters here. She's holding a press conference or something.'

'What channel?' I asked her. 

'Ah, it looks like all of them.' Oliver turned to Felicity. 

'Felicity, pull up the local news, please.' Oliver hung up on Thea's call and the four of us crowded around the computer screen to watch what was happening. It showed Moira Queen, our mother, standing there with cameras flashing all around her, recording the press conference. 

'My name is Moira Dearden Queen,' she spoke. 'I am the acting CEO of Queen Consolidated. And God forgive me, I have failed the city.' There was a moment of silence. I placed my hand over my mouth in shock over what this could mean for my mother, confessing the truth to aiding and abetting in the Undertaking with Malcolm Merlyn. 'For the past five years, under the threat for my life and the lives of my family... I have been complicit in an Undertaking with one horrible purpose - to destroy the Glades and everyone in it.' 

At the Queen Mansion... 

Cameras flashed as shock rolled over Thea Queen's face. Roy Harper lived in the Glades. 

'I realise now that my family's safety will mean nothing,' her mother said, 'if I let this dreadful act occur. But you need to know that the architect of this nightmare... is Malcolm Merlyn.' 

At the Merlyn Global Group building... 

Tommy and Malcolm stood watching the news as well. When he heard this declaration, he slammed the computer down and destroyed part of his ornate glass table in anger. 

'No!' Malcolm shouted, furious. 

Back at the mansion... 

'Yes, and I have proof that he has killed dozens in pursuit of this madness. Adam Hunt, Frank Chen, and my husband, Robert.' Tears fell down Thea Queen's face. She had to get out of there, she had to find Roy before the Undertaking took place. 'Please. If you reside in the Glades, you need to get out now. Your lives and the lives of your children depend on it. Please.' Moira stepped down, having seen Thea standing there, nothing but shock and grief written on her face. 

'I don't understand,' Thea said amidst the sea of reporters, glaring at her mother. 

'I'm sorry,' she replied with tears in her eyes. 'I love you.'

'I love Roy.' 

'Roy?' she asked, confused. 

'He lives in the Glades. I can't leave him there.' She tore herself from her mother's grasp and stormed out of the room. 

'Sweetheart - Thea!' her mother shouted, but was unheard by her daughter. The police detective that had been working with Detective Lance came up behind Moira Queen. 

'Moira Queen, you're under arrest for conspiracy. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.' The police of the SCPD marched her away, with reporters still crowding around them. 

At the Merlyn Global building... 

'Is it true?' Tommy asked with ice in his voice. 'Did you kill all those people?' His father turned to him, a look of menace in his eyes. 

'I did what I had to do.' He walked over to a panel and slid a painting back, putting his thumb against the keypad behind. He slid the painting back into place as a door opened, a panel in the wooden wall. Right before Tommy Merlyn was the suit of the Dark Archer. He gasped in shock. 

'Freeze!' an officer shouted as four to five guards poured into the building, dressed in full body armor. 'Malcolm Merlyn, you are under arrest.' They came to apprehend him, but the older man was surprisingly quicker. He unleashed a pair of blades from the Dark Archer arsenal and attacked them, butchering them quickly.

'Dad, no!' Tommy shouted. Soon enough, he had hacked his way through all of the police soldiers.  Tommy began to be frightened and he had pulled a gun from one of the dead bodies, holding it to Malcolm Merlyn's chest. 'Please, Dad.' He took a step towards his son, but he held the gun up like a shield. 'Stay back. I don't want to hurt you.' 

'You can't. And you can't stop me.' He slashed quickly, which the younger man was too late to avoid, knocking the gun from his hand and sending him to the floor. 

A/N: Next chapter is going to be the last one - get ready for some super long action!! 

Can't wait to finish this one.. gonna be great!!