The Darkest Part (Arrow Fanfiction)

Chapter Three

Eight years ago

Oliver turned off his car and pushed open the door. It was late and judging by the darkness of the house he thought everyone must be sleeping. He stepped out of the car and made his way toward the front door. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark blur rush out of the bushes. It collided with him and they both fell to the ground.

The commotion gained the attention of the motion sensor lights, which flooded the driveway illuminating what or who the dark blur had been.

"Max," Oliver whispered. "What are you doing out here? You promised if I dropped you off in town you'd come home before dark. "

Max looked over his shoulder. "They're following me."

Oliver looked his brother over noticing his disheveled and dirty appearance. Max was never untidy or dirty. "What happened to you?"

Max grabbed Oliver's arm. "They won't leave me alone."

Oliver glanced toward the house and then pulled his brother off into the cover of the bushes. "No one's following you, Max. You need to stop this. If mom hears you—"

"I'm not making this up, Oliver. Someone is out there watching me and I don't know why."

Oliver looked down at Max's hand still gripping his arm. It was unlike Max to hold onto someone like that. "Can we talk about this tomorrow? It's two AM."

"Please, Ollie..." Max's voice cracked. "I need your help."

Oliver didn't know what to do. Max had been talking about someone following him for weeks. It had been checked out with no threat found, but had stirred up a lot of unwanted media attention. Their mother said Max had an overactive imagination and they should just ignore him, but this didn't seem like that. Oliver swallowed the lump in his throat. If their mother found out he was listening to Max she would be livid. But in this moment he found the distressed look on his brother's face to be more troublesome than the wrath of his mother. He knew he might regret his decision later, but he couldn't let his brother down.

"Okay, Max. Where do we start?"

##=======>

Bruce Wayne rummaged through his large equipment bag in the loft apartment. He wasn't looking for anything particular, but he'd been pretending to be busy for the past twenty minutes to avoid conversation. Six sat on a worn couch finishing off the last bits of a large pizza. He hadn't even offered to share. Not that Bruce really cared.

Six pushed away the empty box and laced his fingers behind his head. "You know, Starling City already has a mascot, right?"

"Your point?" Bruce said.

"You might have some company lurking around in the shadows."

"As long as it's not you I'll be fine."

Six smirked. "It might be interesting watching you interact with your own kind. Vigilantes are a peculiar sort. Maybe you should start a support group. That way you can all save the world together."

"I prefer to work alone."

"Yeah, you've said that. But here we are. Working together...again."

Bruce glanced at his watch. He hoped Max would be back soon. He wasn't in the mood to put up with Six's obnoxious behavior. "I am working with Max. You were supposed to be out of the country on business."

"I finished early. And I couldn't miss this." Six gestured toward the bag sitting on the table. "The search for the missing batarangs. I mean, you wouldn't be looking in that bag just to avoid talking to me."