Second Chances: Red Arrow

Chapter 1

Another addition to the series that wasn't planned, but I hope you'll like it. Thea isn't the only one of Oliver's siblings who's getting their own story. It was recently pointed out to me that there was a lot of potential for Emiko that was wasted in season 7 of Arrow, so I'm taking a shot at it. Let me know what you think.

Emiko Queen was running, like she had been for the past few years. It had all started while she was in Japan during her time with the Peace Corps, since that was how she'd chosen to deal with her grief over losing her father and brother after the Queen's Gambit had gone down in a storm.

While Emiko had been overseas, she'd been reunited with her birth mother, Kazumi Adachi, who Emiko had been told had been banned from seeing her due to her lack of mental stability and now Emiko had wished she'd listened, but Kazumi had taken advantage of her emotional state and promised her that she could help her learn to channel her pain into something more productive than the Peace Corp could and in a moment of weakness, Emiko had agreed, since while she loved her stepmother Moira, who'd treated Emiko like her own daughter, Moira had been too concerned with keeping her younger sister Thea from throwing her life away since she desperately wanted a maternal figure in her life at the time, so she'd let Kazumi into her life and had since then been indoctrinated into a group called the Ninth Circle and trained to use her pain and anger to fuel her skills as a warrior, becoming a highly skilled assassin, though Kazumi had assured her that they only went after people who deserved it.

She'd assumed that because Emiko was her blood daughter, that Emiko was loyal enough to her to be left alone. However, that turned out to be a mistake, since the moment Emiko was free of Kazumi's influence, she was quickly able to see the Ninth Circle for what it really was, a group of terrorists and she'd used her first solo mission to abandon the Circle, though that also meant that she couldn't go home, since she knew that the Ninth Circle would be after her would deserting them and she couldn't put a target on her real mother or sister's backs, since she'd already lost her father and her brother and she'd also learned that it was partially her mom's fault, since apparently Kazumi had ordered a bomb be planted on the Queen's Gambit, which meant that she was the reason her family had been shattered.

So, while Emiko had stuck to the Peace Corp story as a cover for where she's been, she'd actually been traveling all over the world, constantly running, looking over her shoulder. Even after she'd seen the news that her brother was alive, she didn't dare return home. In fact, she was already risking a lot being back in the US, though she was out in Hub City, staying in a crappy motel that she'd paid for using money she'd scrounge up working odd, often minimum wage jobs, since she couldn't access the Queen family funds without tipping off either Moira or the Ninth Circle.

However, suddenly, Emiko felt herself receive a pounding headache out of nowhere as she collapsed backwards onto the motel bed and images started to appear in her head. Or more like memories. Memories of another life she could've lived. A life where instead of being taken in by the Queen family, Emiko had been abandoned with her mother by her father and she'd spent her life training as an assassin for the Ninth Circle, eventually becoming it's leader, much to her horror, along with her fighting Oliver, who she now knew was the Green Arrow, due to the grudge she'd carried against his family until he'd gotten through to her, right before she'd died.

"So, is the Ninth Circle still better than living as a Queen?" She heard her brother ask as Oliver appeared in her motel room out of nowhere.

"What the hell was that? Why do I remember a world where I was the leader of the Ninth Circle?" Emiko asked as Oliver helped her up.

"I called in a favor with an old acquaintance. I was getting concerned about why you hadn't come home yet, since it sounds like your life in this new world was a lot better than your old one." Oliver said and Emiko smiled as she did the one thing her old self would never do before she died. She hugged her brother.

"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Emiko asked.

"Probably not, but you need to anyway." Oliver said as he explained Crisis to her and how he and his friends had rebooted the universe.

"Wow, and despite everything I did, you still gave me a second chance and a better life." Emiko said and Oliver smiled.

"You deserved a chance at a real family. Speaking of which, why haven't you come to see your family." Oliver asked her again and Emiko sighed.

"Because in this reality, my birth mother is the psychotic leader of the Ninth Circle instead of me. She manipulated me into joining it after you and dad died and now I'm on the run from them." Emiko said and Oliver nodded in understanding.

"You came to your senses about them?" Oliver asked.

"Yep. Kazumi overestimated how loyal I was to her, since I knew from the beginning how mentally unstable she was in the beginning. I'm just glad that dad kept me safe from it in this reality." Emiko said, though they were interrupted from saying anything else when about six different ninth circle assassins burst in.

"Do you think these guys realize they're outmatched?" Oliver asked, asking Emiko the same question Talia had asked him when he was helping her escape Slabside.

"I think they're about too." Emiko said with a grin, since between her and Oliver, these assassins didn't stand a chance as they quickly mowed them down.

"I have to move." Emiko said as they stood over the dead bodies of the assassins sent after her.

"No, it's time you stood your ground and fought back." Oliver said.

"Oliver, if they can't get to me, they'll go after you or Thea or Moira." Emiko said.

"Thea and I can take care of ourselves and I can protect mom. But you can't keep running forever and they're gonna come after us eventually. I've seen this before with Sara Lance when she first tried to leave the League of Assassins. She ran from them and they poisoned her sister to draw her back in until Sara forced their hand to make them release her from the league. Which reminds me, I need to get in touch with Sara to find out if that's another problem I need to deal with. But remember, you don't have to fight the Circle alone. Once you stop running, you'll inspire other people to join your cause, just like I did. Besides, Hub City could use its own protector, since its crime problem is even worse than Gotham's and that is saying something. They need a hero to protect them and I think you can be that hero." Oliver said.

"I don't know Oliver. You and Thea are heroes. I'm pretty sure you got that from your mom's DNA. I'm not." Emiko said.

"Emiko, just because you were a villain in the old reality, that doesn't mean you have to be one in this one. If you want redemption for your past, then this is a way to do it." Oliver said.

"You really think I could be a hero?" Emiko asked.

"I think that if Slade Wilson can reform, almost anyone can. Though if it comes down to a choice of killing him and saving mom, this time I'm gonna kill him before he has a chance." Oliver said and Emiko nodded.

"I'll need gear and resources." Emiko said.

"Felicity can provide you with what you need through Smoak tech once you finally come home to see mom and I'll set you up with the same guy who made all of my team's suits, though you'll need to find your own tech guy." Oliver said and Emiko nodded, hoping that she was making the right choice, though she had to admit, something did feel right about it.