A Dangerous Love: Athena and Prometheus (An Arrow: Season 5 Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: A Miracle Release

'I'd like to thank District Attorney Chase, who stepped out of his lane to represent my friend John Diggle and to make sure that justice was done,' Oliver Queen said, standing in front to several reporters, with Quentin Lance, the new Deputy Mayor, and John Diggle flanking him, with myself and Adrian Chase standing next to Diggle. 'Mr. Chase's actions further exemplify - Star City takes care of their own. Thank you everybody. That will be all.' The reporters filtered out of the room, and Diggle turned to Adrian. 

'Thank you for getting me out.' The two shook hands warmly. 

'Thank whoever leaked the NSA's case against Walker. My job was easy.' Just then Susan Williams walked up to the two of them. 

'Congratulations, Mr. Diggle,' she said, then turned to Adrian. 'I wondered if the DA might have a second to chat.' I touched Adrian's arm. 

'Um, I'm gonna leave you with her for a bit.' 

'Oh, no, it's okay, Evelyn,' he said, taking my arm gently, lacing his fingers through mine. 'I'm not going to be long.' I smiled softly. He turned back to the journalist. 'Save your energy, Ms. Williams. I know you're doing a story on the death of Detective Malone. I have no comment for you.' 

'And yet everyone I spoke to said you were the man to speak to. It's a little odd for a DA to be so involved in a police matter.' Oliver had been listening in, and he spoke up to Susan. 

'The victim was a member of the ACU. That office is monitored by city hall, not the SCPD.' Just then Susan pulled out her phone. 

'Oh, my God,' she gasped. 

'Not what you wanted to hear?' Adrian replied sarcastically. 

'The military police just took General Walker into custody. Walker and his men just shot their way off of Fort Zerillo. 30 dead, and he and his men are in the wind, and the nuke trigger he stole in Chechnya is still missing.' Oliver and John looked at each other. 

A couple hours later. An airport in Russia. 

The doors opened, and Oliver Queen, followed by myself (Evelyn), Felicity, John, Curtis, Rory and our newest recruit Dinah Drake, walked through the lobby of the airport. 

'Okay,' Rory said. 'This whole flying private thing is something I could get used to.' 

'Being mayor has its perks,' Oliver remarked. 

'You're lucky that Star City's sister city is in Russia,' Felicity said, coming by my side to walk alongside Oliver. 

'As of 12 hours ago, at least,' Oliver replied. 

'Are you ready for this?' I heard John ask Dinah from where they were walking behind us. 

'When I signed on,' I heard her reply, 'I didn't think I'd be stopping a nuclear arms deal in a foreign country.' 

'Yeah? When I signed on, I didn't think I'd be dealing with aliens.' 

'Aliens?' she asked him. 

'Yeah,' he replied, almost in disbelief. 

'John said you two had friends in Russia,' Curtis said to Oliver and I. 

'Yeah, about that... do you want to tell them about the mess we made or should I?' I asked him.

'One friend,' Oliver replied. 'Reached out; didn't hear back...' We stopped dead in our tracks to see one certain gangster Anatoly Knyazev standing there, flanked by two men. 

'Oliver Queen,' he said. 

'Anatoly.' The two were seemingly about to hug, but then Anatoly reeled back and punched Oliver right in the jaw. I took a step back. 

'Okay, that happened.' Anatoly looked at me, and I raised my hands in surrender. 'Please don't punch me too.' Instead the short man, who was equally as short as me, just simply held out his hand. I took it, shaking it warmly, and then he pulled me in for a hug. 'I've missed this. It's good to see you again.'

'Good to see you too, Афина (Athena),' he said, adding the last part in Russian. I stepped away. 

'Can't say you didn't deserve that, bro,' I remarked to Oliver, then turned back to Anatoly. 'Now, please explain to me why the hell you're so pissed off at my brother.' 

'Alexi Leonov - you remember him, yes?' Anatoly asked Oliver. 'He was one of your brothers.' 

'I can explain,' he said, trying to say more, but was cut off. 

'You asked favor of him. He asked favor in return, and you pull gun on him instead.' 

'You know why I can't be some Bratva thug,' Oliver hissed. 

'You made promise. You swore oath, and now one of your brothers is dead. So why should I welcome you as brother?' He stepped up, glaring at Oliver venomously. 'Go home, Oliver. There's nothing for you here.' The three men walked away, leaving our small group alone in the lobby of the airport. 

We brought the luggage into the old home. 

'Oh! It feels like somebody died of tuberculosis in here,' Felicity remarked. 

'What's the Russian word for creepy?' Rory asked as John and Felicity began to set up stuff to help track down the sale for Walker's nuclear bomb. 

'Жутко (Creepy),' Curtis replied. Rory gave him a look. 'I was studying on the plane,' he defended. 'Where did you find this place?' 

'Lyla,' Diggle replied, unpacking some stuff. 'This used to be an ARGUS safe house, and as you can tell from Amero-Russian relations, it hasn't been used much lately.' 

'Yeah, no kidding,' Dinah remarked. 

'And why aren't we working with ARGUS?' Rory asked. 'I assume preventing black market nuclear deals would be pretty high on their to-do list.' 

'John's right about Russia,' Oliver replied. 'ARGUS can't operate here without causing a diplomatic crisis.' 

'Oh, yeah, speaking of diplomatic crises,' Felicity chimed in, 'why did your friend punch you?' 

'Three years ago,' Oliver said, 'Evelyn and I -' 

'You mean you used a Bratva contact to track down Slade Wilson. I met the guy. But you were the one that did the damage.' 

'Right. I used a Bratva contact when I was trying to track Slade Wilson. He asked me for something in exchange. I refused. Slade killed him.' 

'You never told us you were part of the Bratva, Evelyn,' John said. 

'I didn't have to. Anatoly saved my life. Rescued me. Gave me a home long before Oliver came to the Bratva.' 

'So that's why he was friendly with you,' Felicity replied. 

'It's not a big deal. I don't like talking about it.' The subject was left behind and Oliver turned to Felicity.

'How long do you think until we're up and running?' he asked her. 

'I'm not sure,' she replied. 'I'm pretty much starting from scratch here, and I have to hack the Russian server to see if we can find any chatter on Walker, and that might take no time, or it might take a - a lot of time.' 

'What about your Bratva friend with the good right hook?' Dinah asked. 'You could try making nice.' 

'It's not that simple.'

'Yeah? Well, simple or not, Oliver, we have to use every asset we've got,' Diggle replied to Oliver. Oliver looked across at me. 

'Just send me. I can talk him down,' I said, without looking up as I scrolled through my phone.