The Hood and Athena: An Arrow: Season 2 Fanfiction

Chapter 5: Iron Heights Prison

Oliver Queen's POV 

Evelyn and I sat in the visiting room of Iron Heights Prison, watching, waiting. After a few minutes the door opened, and my - our mother stepped through. Moira Queen held her head high, even as she wore a prison jumpsuit. She greeted me and Evelyn with a smile, and we gave one back. 

'Hey,' I said. She sat down. 

'Hey.' 

'I'm sorry I, and Evelyn, didn't make it here sooner.' 

'Yeah, we're real sorry, Mom.' Mom shot the two of us a small smile, seemingly just relieved that we were here and nothing else. 

'Oh, no, no, no. Please, Oliver, Evelyn. There are going to be enough apologies with me apologising to you for the rest of my life.' I leaned forward. 

'You don't have to. You saved hundreds of lives.' 

'And killed hundreds more.' She sat in deep thought. 'Including Tommy.' 

'That was Malcolm,' Evelyn said besides me. 'Don't entirely blame yourself.' 

'Your sister doesn't see it that way. And, you know, my attorney is thrilled,' Mom replied. 'If my own daughter can't forgive me, she's not too optimistic about 12 strangers in a jury box.' She crossed one leg over the other and looked at the both of us. 'Alright, enough of that. How has it been going at Queen Consolidated?' We both looked at each other, then at her with confused faces. She gave another small smile. 'Yes, we do get the news in here, Oliver.'

'Right.'

'You know, if I'd known the key to you taking your rightful place at the company was its demise, I would have declared bankruptcy a year ago.'

'I don't know if I'll get to run it for long,' I admitted. 'Stellmoor. Their VP is coming after us hard.' 

'Isabel Rochev,' she said slowly. 

'Yes.' She turned to me, a fierce look in her eyes. 

'Do not trust that woman, Oliver. You too, Evelyn. She is dangerous.'

'Well, Mom, everywhere we look, there are no good options. I don't know what to do.'

'You don't have to do it yourself. You've got Evelyn. This is a family business.' Oliver scoffed. 

'I love Thea. I don't think that she wants anything to do with it.' 

'I wasn't talking about Thea.' 

Time skip - at the nightclub Verdant

Oliver and I walked into the nightclub. Police were everywhere. 

'Oh, God no,' I said, my fears bubbling to the surface. I looked all around for Thea, but couldn't see her. We walked up to Roy Harper, who was sharing the events of the evening with Officer Lance. 

'... One of the guys was missing a hand,' Roy said to Officer Quentin Lance. 

'What's going on here?!' Oliver spoke, the two of us walking up to them. 

'Mostly, anyway. He still had sutures,' Roy added. Officer Lance turned to us.

'Excuse me,' he said to Roy. He spoke to us next. 'It was the Hoods, again. They came her looking for you, they took Thea instead.' I grabbed onto Oliver's arm. 

'Oh, God. I think I'm gonna be sick,' I said softly. 

'Hey, hey. It's okay,' he whispered reassuringly in my ear, wrapping an arm around me. 

'Where?' I asked Officer Lance, but before he could reply, Roy spoke up. 

'I'm sorry. I really tried to stop them, but I -' Oliver and I walked away. 

'Queen,' Detective Lance spoke up, but we kept walking. 

'Oliver!' we heard Diggle shout. We turned to see Felicity and Diggle there, at a table, then turned back to Detective Lance. 

'We'll get your sister back,' he said. Oliver nodded. 

'I was going to check something downstairs,' Oliver said, then grabbed my hand. Just as Lance turned back to Roy, I looked back to see Felicity and Diggle traipsing after us, downstairs. 

We'd punched in the code, and were now heading downstairs. 

'I and Evelyn made a few improvements down here,' Felicity was saying. 'Just in case, you know... You decided to come back.' She walked over and flicked a light switch, and the new and improved Arrow/Athena base of operations came to life as a soft white light flooded the room. He looked around, seeing his green suit and my red-black suit in seperate glass closets on mannequins. I bumped his arm lightly. 

'Nice, isn't it?' He said nothing, only let a hint of a smile cross his face. The sick feeling had disappated, though I would be lying if I said I didn't still feel a little bit sick at the thought that these savage Hood criminals could do anything to Thea to get her to spill on where Oliver was - or they could kill her. Painfully. Cruelly. He turned to the three of us. 

'We need to find these guys,' Oliver said. 

'I've been trying, ever since you got back,' Felicity replied. 'I figured you'd come around eventually,' she added. He saw the salmon ladder in front of him. 

'Oh, yeah. I love that.' 

'It was Evelyn's idea to keep that,' Felicity said. Oliver looked at it. 'I liked watching you do that,' she added. He looked at it once more, then turned to the three of us. 

'Thea's boyfriend said one of them was missing part of his hand,' Oliver said.

'Maybe a veteran?' I offered. 

'Check hospital records, any males that have had surgical amputations on their extremities.'

'Cross-checking by race and age,' Felicity said. Just then someone's name flicked on the screen. I leaned over Felicity's shoulder to look closer at it. 'Got one,' she said. 'Jeff Deveau. Caucasian, late thirties.'

'What else can you get on him?' Oliver asked. 

'Ex-Marine,' she said, looking up at us. 

'Would explain how he can handle himself,' I said softly. 

'Did he lose his hand overseas?' Diggle asked her. 

'No. In the earthquake. Says here he and his wife were trying to make it across the 52nd Street bridge when it collapsed. She didn't make it.'

'Phone records, please. I want to know who he's in contact with.' Oliver walked over to study the glass case that held his arrows and and a row of my reddish-black daggers. 

'He's made a lot of calls to a church in the Glades. Something called Standing Strong,' Felicity said. 'It's a support group for those who lost loved ones in the quake.'

'Great place to meet three other guys as angry as you, looking for a little payback,' Diggle said, looking over at Oliver. 

'Get me an address, please,' Oliver said. Diggle nodded at Felicity, and she walked over to one of the workbenches. 

'You're going to need this, brother,' I said. Oliver turned to us. 'Felicity had it custom-made.' We opened the box to show a brand-new compound bow. He picked it up, handling it. 

'How'd I do?' she asked. He held it in front of him, weighing it, and sighed softly. 

'It's perfect.' He walked over with the bow, to stand in front of his suit on the mannequin. 

'You were right,' she said. 'Once I signed on, I stopped thinking about all the bodies you dropped. Because I knew that being the Hood occasionally meant being a killer. Maybe there's another way.' 

'They have my sister. What other way is there?'