Chapter 30: Different Earth
Last Time on Black Arrow
The wave of dark matter then passed through them.
Nathan was covered by a red aura as he fell to his knees and gripped his head in pain, shouting as his mind was bombarded by memories that were not his own. Memories of a life he didn't remember live.
"And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"
"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday"
"I'm not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That's my nindō: my ninja way!"
"It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."
"Just give up… on trying to make me give up!"
"Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"If you attack Konoha, I will have to fight you… So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it! It's the only thing I can do! I will shoulder your hatred and die with you! Because I'm your friend!"
"You're not the monster fox anymore. You're one of my teammates from Konoha… Kurama."
"Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends! I'm not gonna give up on them! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me! Period!"
"Hinata… This big idiot finally understands… The real meaning of the scarf you gave to me when you went with Toneri… I know now, from the scarf you painstakingly knitted and took so long to finish, that your love can't be unravelled so easily… Wait for me… This whole time, you always loved me for the way I am… Now, as a man, there's something I must tell you… Hinata, I swear I will save you!"
Meanwhile, Natasha was one the floor, writhing in pain, and Skye was hunched over.
Nathan's pain finally stopped and he looked to the others. "Natasha, Skye," He said as he reached out to aid help them.
All of sudden, Skye threw her head back and screamed, a vibrational wave erupting from her body, causing them all to fly out the window.
"Grab on!" Nate shouted as he grabbed both of them in each arm. Before quickly trying to figure out how to land. He didn't need to though, as a blue stormy portal opened up beneath him and swallowed all three of them up.
Chapter Start
Nathan, Natasha, and Skye came out of the portal, 3 miles above the ground in broad daylight. From wherever they were, it looks like they were falling towards a desert.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Skye screamed as she was panicking.
"NO, WE ARE NOT! HOLD ON TO ME!" Nathan shouted as he concentrated. 'I fucking hate using magic.' He snidely thought to himself.
A black smoke erupted from him as it covered all three of them. This trail of black smoke hit the ground softly, causing a massive cloud of it to appear. When the smoke cleared, Nathan was found standing on his feet, Natasha sitting on the ground, and Skye had vomited. They were not used to magic, so the experience would naturally leave them disoriented.
"Think next time," Skye stopped as she vomited, "You could warn us."
"Sorry," Nathan apologized. "I didn't have time to warn you."
"What….was that?" Natasha asked, barely keeping herself from vomiting. It was surreal, having her body turned into smoke and then put back together just the way it was before.
"Magic." Naruto growled.
"Seriously!? That's a thing too!?" Skye asked as she hugged herself. She was shaking alot.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Honestly, the other's don't know about that I am quite skilled in Darkness and Shadow Magic, but I despise using it. Personal Reasons," Nathan said, as he moved to see the road.
"Come on, we need to find civilization." Nathan said as he suddenly gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he was slammed with a memory he never had experienced.
Memory
"If you hurt my sensei," said a weird younger look-alike of himself dressed in orange, "I'll kill you."
"Show me what you got, Nine Tailed Fox!" the silver haired ninja, Mizuki, shouted.
Naruto then created one thousand clones and beat him to a bloody pulp, and the following morning was awarded the headband he had craved for over 6 years.
Memory End
"Damn it," Nathan growled. "I have got to see Constantine soon. Before this gets out of hand."
Thankfully a car was coming their way. "Come, on. This might be the only chance we get." Nathan said as he helped them both up. The three walked up to the road and he put himself in the way of the car.
In order to avoid hitting Nathan and getting in trouble with the law, the guy driving the Blue 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe stopped.
He got out and started shouting at Nathan. "What the fuck, man!? Are you stupid!? Get off the road!"
"Look, pal. I'm sure you are a wonderful man," Nathan said as he grasped the mans neck and broke it, "But right now, I can't afford to let my morals get in the way."
Nathan tossed the body aside and found his wallet and opened the car. "Come on," He motioned for them.
As Skye got in, she asked, "Did you have to kill him?"
"We don't what happened to us or where we are at. Until we do, we can't take chances. Otherwise, I would totally let him live." Nathan assured her. He extended his had and shadows gathered around the mans body and consumed it, until nothing was left.
Nathan stared at his hand. 'In the last month alone, I have used my magic more times than I've used it in 4 years combined. I don't like what this means.' He thought to himself as he got in and drove the car.
He headed north. While he did, he was thinking to himself. It's pretty clear they were in America, since everything looked and screamed American, but it was noon out right now, and it was night time when the accelerator went off, so he was wondering what had happened.
As he drove, he saw a city. It looked like Starling City. "Hey, is that Starling?" Skye asked.
"It is. I know what road we are on now." Nathan said.
It was definitely Starling when they got into town. But when he saw the welcome sign, he stopped and pulled over.
"This can't be right." Nathan said as he got out. On the sign, it said "Star City: Renamed in honor of Dr. Ray Palmer. 1981-2015." 'It's Christmas 2013 back home. There is no way that this is possibly right.'
Nathan thought long and hard about what this meant. Someone didn't just put this up here. There were two very likely and possible explanations. Either A. They had somehow time traveled into the future. Or B. They had somehow traveled to a alternate reality. Neither possible explanation was good.
Nathan got back in the car and drove further into the city. He stopped at the next gas station, and pulled his wallet out and hand 20 bucks to Natasha. "Nat, I need you to go in there and buy us 3 pairs of black baseball caps and sunglasses."
"Why?" Natasha asked.
"Because there's two possible explanations for where we are at, and neither one is good for me. Until we've narrowed it down, I need to stay inconspicuous. So please." He asked and she took the money.
She came back later with 3 baseball caps and three pairs of sunglasses. Nathan put his cap and sunglasses on.
"okay ladies, we have 4 more stops to make. The library, the bank, Walmart, and the find a place to sleep tonight." Nathan told them, but then the car started shaking and Skye was moaning in pain and hugging herself.
"Daisy." Nathan said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be okay. Just breathe." Daisy did so and she calmed down after a minute. And the shaking stopped.
Nathan then drove them to the library. He pulled up and stopped the car. They got out and walked in. The guy that Nathan killed thankfully had a library card. He handed the librarian the card.
She looked at it and noticed something was off. "I'm sorry sir, but-" Naruto pulled his glasses down and looked into her eyes for a moment. Both of their eyes became pitch black before returning to normal.
"Is there a problem, miss?" Nathan asked innocently.
"N-No, sir. No problem. Enjoy your time at the Star City Library." She said monotonously as the three left to the computers.
"What did you do to her?" Skye asked.
"You don't want to know." Nathan said, ending the conversation.
The arrived at the computers.
Nathan to his companions and said, "Okay, search all the major events that occurred in the last 1000 years."
2 hours later
Nathan slammed his hands down in frustration and rubbed his head. He and the girls had searched for hours, only to find the world was basically the same.
Nathan then decided to look more closely at Star City. There had to be a reason he landed here. Every one of the big things was different so maybe he landed here because the reason it was different was personal to him.
Nathan looked and found many news articles from the last 4 years in Star City about a arrow-shooting vigilante. First the Hood, then the Arrow, and now the Green Arrow. Only an idiot wouldn't be able to realize they were the same person. He read that the Undertaking actually had occurred here, a virus outbreak occurred last year and-
"Fucking hell," Nathan said as he read the article about the Siege. His worst fears were true. Slade was alive. And he had come to the city to destroy with an army of Mirakuru soldiers. Only, it was reported that the Arrow and a group of black clad archers, which were seen in the streets recently again, had defeated the group of soldiers. And Slade, called Deathstroke, wasn't seen again.
'How could I have possibly let this happen!?' Nathan thought in frustration as he read reports of soldiers attacking the city in recent news. Plus, no kill shots after the Undertaking, and even before then, the deaths didn't exceed 30! No Huntress either, Helena had been arrested for trying to kill her father. And recently, the League was seen fighting and killing each other in the streets!
"M-Mom," Nathan said in shock and despair as he read the article about his mothers death. She was apparently killed by a katana in front of her daughter and son.
Didn't help that Tommy was also found dead during the Undertaking.
Quickly composing himself, he typed furiously to find the cause. He found it.
Nathan sat back in his chair, realization and it's implications striking him like a bolt of lightning. Daisy and Natasha notice his distress and looked to see what it was.
It was his google search entry. His date of death was September 27, 2007. The same day that the Gambit went down. The same day that his father died.
This was all confirmed by Oliver Queen in a hearing on October 14th, 2012, who survived on an island in the North China Sea for 5 years.
His brother was alive. He was the Arrow in this world…..
…..and he had failed this city.
Nathan shook his head. He couldn't think about that right now. He needed to help his companion's lay low. He got up and motioned for the other to follow him, before deleting the search history.
They all got back in the car.
Daisy decided to ask, "AC, are you going to be okay?" She was worried for him. She also didn't understand what was going on and was frightened.
Nathan looked at his hand and noticed it was shaking.
He turned to her with confident smile in an attempt to reassure her. "I'll be okay, Skye."
Nathan drove them into a parking garage. He stopped the car and undid the seatbelt.
"Why did you bring us here?" Natasha asked.
"This parking lot is exactly two blocks from Starling City Bank. And we are currently short on cash." Nathan said as he stepped out.
"Your stealing from the bank? But these are our people!" Skye protested and he noticed some shaking began again. He walked around to her side, opened the door, and knelt before her.
"Skye," he said as he pulled her into a hug, comforting her, "we are currently in a precarious and difficult situation. But I promise you, I have not forgotten who I am and who I protect. I will give anything back that I steal, once this is all over. I promise you."
This seemed to convince her, as the shaking stopped.
Nathan shared a glance with Natasha, wordlessly telling her to keep an eye on Skye. Nathan then disappeared from sight.
10 minutes later
Nathan came back with a duffel bag filled with 100,000 dollars.
Nathan threw it in the trunk while pulling out 10,000 dollars.
The next stop was Walmart, where he bought a laptop. He still needed to keep up to date on current happenings and do more research. Everyone also bought five fresh pairs of clothes.
Their next stop was Subway, where they got dinner.
Their final stop, was the Embassy hotel. Nathan booked them a spacious 2 bedroom hotel room for a week, with free breakfast and happy hour.
Nathan lay on the bed after his shower, looking at the ceiling, the events of the day playing in his mind. A necklace of a black arrow dangled around his neck, the edge of the arrow head being blood red.
He looked to the others. Skye had already fallen asleep, as Nathan had given her some melatonin, to help her sleep.
Nathan sat on the side of the bed as Natasha sat next to him.
"I'm worried about Skye," Natasha said slowly. She a bit uncomfortable with being open about her feelings, given that she was the worlds best female spy and assassin.
"I am too. I'm concerned for all of us. That's why we need to figure out how to get back." Naruto said, with Natasha looking at him.
"Why did you hold out on us earlier?" she asked.
"Skye's causing mini earthquakes whenever she is upset, you're dealing with God knows what, and I am having flashbacks of a life I didn't live. We had too much on our plate for me to be explaining that we are technically in an alternate dimension." Nathan said.
"Get some sleep. You need it," Naruto said as he got up and opened the window.
"And where are you going?" Natasha asked.
"I need to find my brother. He's obviously the Green Arrow, but I have no idea where his base his. I'm going to draw him out and track him back to his base." Nathan said.
"And how do you intend to do that? You don't exactly have any arrows." Natasha noted, only for him to press his arrowhead necklace, and his Black Arrow suit materialized onto his body, with a new graphene framed bow in his hand. "You carry that with you everywhere?"
"Always. I'll be back later. Close the window when I leave." Nathan said as he jumped out the window.
Next day
Afternoon
Turns out, finding Oliver was almost too easy. He hacked the frequency he and his team were using for their comms and listened in.
He heard them mention Merlyn's name as they were infiltrating his base. Seriously? What the hell was Merlyn still doing alive!? This is why he prefers to chop off the head with high ranking members of the League. You never know when one of them ingested water from the Lazarus Pit so they could come back to life a few hours later.
When they mentioned the Khushu Idol, Nathan had bad flashbacks about those six months during his 4th year he spent taking out Shadowspire completely. What was Oliver doing messing with an Idol like that? That shit is dangerous.
He quickly figured who the others were. Spartan was John Diggle. Speedy was Thea. Black Canary was Laurel. Nathan could not believe Oliver was letting his little sister and ex risk their lives! More importantly, he was disgusted to see his brother was not killing anybody! This job was not for the faint of heart! The only way to protect the city, truly protect it, was to put an arrow in every single enemy. If you let your enemies live, they will cause trouble and plot to kill you. Just look at what happened with Julius Caesar! He was a perfect example of why you always kill your enemies if they are actively plotting against you!
Andy Diggle. Now, it was obvious to Naruto that the man was a double agent for who ever he was working for. Nathan could tell that because he had worked as a spy for some time and he now dealt with two on a regular basis. He knew how to read them. Andy must have been looking for the last piece of the idol.
"So, what do you intend to do now?" Natasha asked as they hugged and comforted Skye.
"Wait until their enemy makes a move. Then, save them, and then get an in with them. We don't have the resources to figure out what's going on with us and how to get back home, so I need to make him see that he can trust me." Nathan said as a beep caught his attention.
He pressed his ear piece, and it seems they were heading to Iron Heights to deal with a prison break. "And I believe the opportunity just arrived. Stay with Skye, okay?" He told her, which she nodded as he left.
Iron Heights prison
A little later
"…But on the count of three, I'm going to turn that wall into a Jackson Pollock painting with his brains." Damien Darhk said as he pointed the gun as his secret agent. At the 2nd count, Oliver and Diggle dropped their weapons. A prison guard came up behind each of them and held a knife to their throats.
"Now, was that so hard?" Damien asked needlessly.
"I believe you have something for me." Damien said to Andy. Andy was let go, and he pulled out the missing piece of the Khushu idol.
"An—Andy", John said, betrayal within his voice.
"I'm sorry, man." Andy apologized as he gave Darhk the piece for the gun, then point the gun at Oliver. "I've been tracking your movements for months. I know everywhere you been. All I needed to hear was that it was you that hid the stone."
"Was there ever a chance for you?" John asked.
"Your brother's way beyond reach, Mr. Diggle." Damien said as he set the final piece, completing the idol again. "It's all over now."
A bow string was drawn and two red arrows were inpaled in his stomach. Thea appeared in the doorway. "Took the words right out of my mouth!"
The fighting began again. Damien pulled the arrows out of his stomach.
"I need to sacrifice." He muttered to himself as he placed his hands on the idol and it glowed.
Oliver and the other continued to beat up the guards.
"Not enough. You know what to do." Damien said to Andy, who shot two of the inmates dead.
"Kanjigar septum vohnostrum." Damien chanted as he knelt down and absorbed their lifeforce, healing his wounds.
He then used his death-powered telekinesis to hold Oliver and his team in place.
"Ha ha ha! Ohh! Oh, I feel so much better." Damien said as the other inmates picked themselves up.
"Hey. I am sorry about your buddies, but omelets and eggs and all of that, but I know how to make it up to you, though." Damien said to the inmates before he gestured with his arms flamboyantly. "Who wants to take a walk outside?"
"No one," came a dark voice as Malcolm was thrown into the room, his back hitting the wall as he groaned., "Because not one of these scum are leaving this prison alive."
At that moment screams of horror and the squelching of bodies being torn to shreds were heard outside for a few minutes as black smoke and shadows blocked all the exits out of the room.
"Okay, this is odd," Damien muttered to himself, wondering what the hell was going on.
Then, the shadows moved into the room and consumed the inmates still inside, including the fool with a stitched mouth. The squelching and tearing apart of body parts was all too obvious. Not to mention the screams. It terrified Laurel and Thea, and Oliver was a bit nervous about what was going on, as he had never seen anything like it.
Then an arrow came out of the smoke and pierced Andy Diggle in the face. He fell to the ground, dead.
"Andy!" John shouted in shock. His brother may have betrayed them, but he still cared about him.
"You shouldn't mourn for him, Mr. Diggle. After all, he betrayed you." came that voice again.
"Okay, this is getting annoying. Who are you!?" Damien demanded angrily, while trying to use telekinesis on the smoke, to no effect.
"The dead don't need answers," came the voice as a trail of smoke came from one of the blocked entrances, and knocked Damien aside, and into the wall. It then grabbed Malcolm by the throat and lifted him up against the wall.
It was then that the smoke seemingly turned into a man. The man, to the other occupants, looked like a black and red version of Oliver's suit.
"Oh, great," Damien complained. "Let's me guess. Coming to save your idol?"
The black version of Green Arrow turned his head, only for the others to see that his face was completely covered by a mask. "Pipe down, scum. I'll be with you in a minute."
He turned back to Malcolm and said, "You're supposed to be dead. How is it that you're not, I wonder?"
"What can I say? A Magician never reveals his secrets." Malcolm struggled to get out.
"Doesn't matter. You won't be coming back from this." Nathan said as he threw him down to the ground and stomped on Malcolm's lower back so hard that his foot went through the mans spine and guts, causing him to scream in pain and cough up blood.
Even Nathan was a bit shocked. He thought he only put enough force to break his spine, but he went right through him. Deciding to deal with it later and not waste a moment, he reached down and ripped Malcolm's head off his body with his spine still attached, seemingly, without any effort.
Thea, Laurel, and John were visibly disturbed by the brutality of the action, and Thea even threw up her lunch. Oliver and Damien managed to maintain their composure, but Damien was panicking. His master plan was falling apart at the seams.
The Black Arrow let the head drop and turn to Damien. Damien scrambled to his feet and began his chanting, trying to affect him with the magic he got from the Khushu idol. The Black Arrow kept walking closer. He eventually stopped right in front of the idol, "I'm sorry. Was that supposed to do something?"
"How are you not affected!?" Damien demanded.
The Black Arrow placed his hand on the idol. "There is only death…And I am it's master." He said ominously as the idol began to crack and break apart until it exploded in a show of light, causing the others to close their eyes. When the light died down, they noticed they were free and saw that the idol was nothing but dust.
Damien's eyes were wide and in complete shock. "It's not possible! The Khushu Idol is indestructible!"
"Only to a small mind like yourself. Everything can be destroyed. Some objects just have a specific way." Black Arrow said as he stalked closer to Damien.
"Wait, he is a prisoner here. He-" John tried to say, only to be interrupted when the Black Arrow delivered a swift uppercut to Damien's head, that caused everything from the base of his neck up to explode in a shower of blood, gore, and bone. Damien's headless stump squirted a little blood before it fell to the floor. The Black Arrow pulled out a turpentine arrow and shot it at Damien's corpse, igniting it.
As the flames licked the body of his adversary, Oliver nocked an arrow at the Black Arrow and shouted, "Who are you?"
He was ignored as the Black Arrow turned, nocked an arrow, and fired an explosive arrow at the wall, punching a man-sized hole right through it. Oliver fired his arrow, hoping to stun the man and stop him from escaping.
However, the Black Arrow caught the arrow without looking and snapped it in half. He looked at him, "You've got a lot to learn, brother."
The shock of his statement was all he needed to slip away.
Oliver's Arrow Cave
Later
Oliver, John, Thea and Laurel came down to the lair.
"Oliver, what the hell was that back there!?" Diggle demanded.
"I don't know John." Oliver said. He was in shock, like Thea and Laurel, about the brother comment by his lookalike and trying to figure out what it meant.
"Damn it, Oliver! My brother is dead! Dead! And apparently, you have more secrets that are still coming to light! I want answers!" John shouted and Laurel finally had enough.
"Mind your tone, John! You're just angry that Ollie was right not to trust Andy." Laurel reprimanded.
"Well, isn't this cute?" came Black Arrow's voice, as the computer chair turned around to see him sitting there. They were stunned as he had slipped past their security undetected.
"Your security is pitiful. I could have broken in here in my sleep," Black Arrow said as he caught the arrow Thea shot at him. "That wasn't nice, Speedy."
"You killed Malcolm! Why!?" Thea said, still in shock over her father's death.
"And why the hell do you care? He's a monster. He killed your father. He killed his own son and 500 other people with his ridiculous Undertaking. No one's going to miss him." Black Arrow said.
"Now," Black Arrow said as he got up, "I'm here to talk. And considering I just saved your lives and ended basically every threat to this city, you owe me that much."
None of them made a move. Oliver made the move first, put his bow down and arrow back in his quiver. Slowly, the others followed suit.
"You can take your masks off too. I already know that Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, Speedy is Thea Queen, Black Canary is Laurel Lance, and Spartan is Mr. John Diggle." He suggested/ordered. Seeing no point in resisting, they did so.
"Who are you?" Oliver asked.
"Someone from your past," Black Arrow as he pulled his hood down.
"But you can start," Black Arrow said as he pressed something behind his ear. His masks melted away to reveal the face of Nathaniel Queen, shocking the three that knew him, "By explaining what the hell is going on around here."
Chapter 31: Brothers
Last Time on Black Arrow
Oliver, John, Thea and Laurel came down to the lair.
"Oliver, what the hell was that back there!?" Diggle demanded.
"I don't know John." Oliver said. He was in shock, like Thea and Laurel, about the brother comment by his lookalike and trying to figure out what it meant.
"Damn it, Oliver! My brother is dead! Dead! And apparently, you have more secrets that are still coming to light! I want answers!" John shouted and Laurel finally had enough.
"Mind your tone, John! You're just angry that Ollie was right not to trust Andy." Laurel reprimanded.
"Well, isn't this cute?" came Black Arrow's voice, as the computer chair turned around to see him sitting there. They were stunned as he had slipped past their security undetected.
"Your security is pitiful. I could have broken in here in my sleep," Black Arrow said as he caught the arrow Thea shot at him. "That wasn't nice, Speedy."
"You killed Malcolm! Why!?" Thea said, still in shock over her father's death.
"And why the hell do you care? He's a monster. He killed your father. He killed his own son and 500 other people with his ridiculous Undertaking. No one's going to miss him." Black Arrow said.
"Now," Black Arrow said as he got up, "I'm here to talk. And considering I just saved your lives and ended basically every threat to this city, you owe me that much."
None of them made a move. Oliver made the move first, put his bow down and arrow back in his quiver. Slowly, the others followed suit.
"You can take your masks off too. I already know that Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, Speedy is Thea Queen, Black Canary is Laurel Lance, and Spartan is Mr. John Diggle." He suggested/ordered. Seeing no point in resisting, they did so.
"Who are you?" Oliver asked.
"Someone from your past," Black Arrow as he pulled his hood down.
"But you can start," Black Arrow said as he pressed something behind his ear. His masks melted away to reveal the face of Nathaniel Queen, shocking the three that knew him, "By explaining what the hell is going on around here."
Chapter Start
Oliver Queen of Earth 1.5 was not the best brother, even after he came back from 5 years of Hell. When he and his brother were 15, they lost their grandfather Gregory. He had been a great grandfather and him and Nate could be themselves around him. Not as the heirs to the Queen Family, but as just Oliver and Nathan. So when he died, both brothers became self-centered jackasses, who drank, partied and slept around with any woman with firm tits and a tight fit.
Yet, during the 2 years Oliver and Laurel dated had been amazing for him. Oliver, when he was with Laurel, was the happiest he had been since his grandfather had been died. In fact, Oliver had been so happy that he and Laurel had helped Sara and Nathan get together a year before that fateful boat trip.
That year before the shipwreck, Oliver and Laurel were really getting serious. Laurel was talking about moving in with Oliver somewhere in the city, but Oliver being Oliver, he didn't do serious. And he started doing everything her could to hurt Laurel or dissuade her. When the drugs, partying and alcohol didn't work, he started cheating on her behind her back. He even got one of the women pregnant and she ended up keeping the baby, which resulted in his son William.
Nathan had been so angry with Oliver that when he caught Oliver cheating on Laurel again on the boat, he lost it.
Flashback
Nathan counting the thunder in his room on the yacht when he opened his eyes and walked outside looking at the storm that was raging "I've got a bad felling about this." he said to himself walking inside to see his dad and Oliver talking "You know, son that is not going to end well, for either of them or for you."
"He'll figure it out on his own." Nate said getting their attention.
"What jealous?" Oliver smirked, which made Nathan get in his face.
"Of what!? The fact that you just ruined your relationship with the woman that is my oldest friend or the fact that the only woman who ever loved you is going to tear you a new asshole right before she dumps your worthless ass, which I can't wait to watch!" He said causing Oliver to frown at his slightly more muscular brother.
"Boys, boys, please." Robert said causing them to look at him
"We should head back dad, I got a terrible feeling about this storm and I'm done with his bullshit." Nate said..
"You said that when we came on board." Oliver replied as Nate looked at his dad with a frown.
"Relax, we are heading back now." Robert said causing him to nod his head as Robert walked off.
"You're such a pussy." Oliver said to his little brother, which made Nathan grab Oliver by the scruff of his shirt and pin him against the wall of the boat, before punching Oliver in the face several times.
"The only reason this pussy isn't beating you to a pulp is because dad's on board. All you are is a worthless playboy whose only saving grace is the fact that he was born into money." He searched his brothers pockets until he found the photo of Laurel and took it from him. "She loves your worthless ass, for some ridiculous reason that I can't fathom, and I will never forgive you for what you've done to her. As far as I'm concerned, you're better off dead!" He retorted, walking away from a glaring Oliver who scoffed and walked back to his lover.
Flashback End
Oliver had gotten the picture of Laurel back from Sara, who had gotten it from his brother before he died.
Flashback
Inside the yacht, Sara Lance lay back on Nathan's bed, clothed in only a black silk robe with floral patterns and white lacy underwear, while she talked to her father over the phone.
"Yeah, Dad, college is great." She lied. "No, me and my new roommate totally hit it off." She grinned. "We're like besties. Ok. Yeah, dad, I got to get back to chem lab."
Nathan stormed into the room and sat on the bed as Sara tried to wrap up the call. "Yes. It looks like I got a long night ahead of me. Love you, Dad. Bye." She hung up and tossed the phone to Nathan, who let it hit him.
"You don't have to lie to him, you know", Nathan said as he glared at door.
Sara took note of Nathan's angry expression, "What happened?"
"It's Oliver. I caught him cheating on Laurel again." Nathan said in anger as he gave Laurel picture to her. "She's the best thing that ever happened to him and he has the nerve to do this to her. It makes me so furious!"
Sara said nothing, though it angered her that Oliver was cheating on Laurel. She may not get along with Laurel that much, but she didn't want to see her sister cheated on by the man she loved.
She pulled him to her. "Let me make it better." Nathan allowed himself to be pulled into a kiss when the thunder cracked the air above them. "Did you hear that?" she asked nervously. "It's getting closer."
"Not very scientific, is it?" Nathan teased.
"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Mr. Ivy League graduate?" she asked as he brought her into his lap.
"I know a lot of things. Such as running a business, how to be better than my brother, and the fact that I love you." Nathan said sincerely.
Sara smiled and they kissed some more, and suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder. Sara broke away, slightly panicked. "Ok, that one was really close." She said nervously.
Suddenly, without warning, The boat was rocked apart by an explosion. Eyes widening, Nathan pushed Sara away from him as the wall split apart and a pipe ran Nathan through, the point coming out of his chest. Nathan gasped as blood filled his mouth. He reached the for the pipe that was sticking out of his chest. But within seconds, he fell limp, the light going out behind his eyes.
"Aah!" Sara screamed.
Oliver had left his woman that he had been cheating with alone for a bit when he headed the feminine scream and ran to see everyone running, as a red emergency light flashed repeatedly. Sprinting down the hallway he opened the door to see a pipe had fallen through Nathan's room and ran him through while Sara was on the ground sobbing.
"Sara! Come on, the ship is going down."
'"Nate, he's dead!" Sara sobbed.
"Sara, if we don't move we will be too, now come on!" Oliver said just as the ship turned over causing him to fall over onto the wall and Sara fell through a window and water flooded the room, "Sara!" In the stormy ocean, Sara shot back above water. She gasped for breath, frantically thrashing about trying to keep her head above the rolling waves. She looked around and saw the 'Gambit' slipping into the ocean; heard Oliver cry out for her. "Oliver!" she shouted futilely.
Flashback End
Nathan's death had been the thing that had haunted Oliver all of his days. Nathan had been right. Oliver was probably better off dead, because that Oliver had brought only pain to everyone he met and he really hurt the people he loved. When Oliver came back from the island, he tried every day to be better. Not just as the Arrow but as Oliver. But his guilt over his brother's death was great. In fact, Laurel had not taken it well when he told her.
He still loved his brother though, and his true regret was that he was never able to make things right with him before he died.
So, to see his brother standing here in front certainly shocked him to his very tormented core.
"What's wrong Brother? You're looking a bit pale, almost like you've seen a ghost." Nathan quipped as he held his hands crossed behind his back.
"N-Nate?" Laurel asked in shock as he turned to her.
"Hey Laurel, you look like you are doing well, though I don't condone you being a part of all of this." Nathan said.
"Brother?" Thea asked.
"Hey Thea. You've really grown into a beautiful young woman," Nathan said.
"This can't be real. You're dead. I-I saw you die." Oliver breathed.
"Really?" Nathan quipped as he felt his face and shrugged, "I'm pretty sure I'm not dead."
Oliver quickly pulled and trained an arrow on Nathan. Thea, Laurel and John reacted in shock while Nathan looked at his brother out of the corner of his eye.
"Oliver. What are you doing?" Laurel quietly demanded.
"There is no way that this is Nathan. It's impossible. I saw the pipe sticking through his chest that killed him. His body is at the bottom of the North China Sea, so whoever this is, is a fraud!" Oliver growled.
'Huh. So that's what happened to me. Well, that's just…dull.'Nathan thought before he retorted, "You mean like you failed to kill Malcolm Merlyn? You thought you killed him in the Undertaking, and then you find out he's still alive and don't immediately kill him? Good job on that, by the way."
Oliver didn't lower his bow and demanded, "Tell me something only you and I would know! Tell me the real reason we acted out in our youth."
Without even hesitating, Nathan responded, "When you and I were 15, we lost our grandfather Gregory, who we called Gigi. He had been a great grandfather to the both of us and we could be ourselves around him. Not as the heirs to the Queen Family, but as just Oliver and Nathan. So when he died, we became self-centered jackasses, who drank, partied and slept around with any woman that caught our fancy."
Oliver slowly lowered his bow and put away his arrow. Only Nathan would have really known that particular fact. Not even their parents were intelligent enough to figure it out. "How are you even here?" Oliver asked.
"Before I answer that, the three of you will regale me with tales of what you have been up to the last 9 years. The news articles only tell me so much." Nathan asked as he sat down in the computer chair.
"That's a long story." Laurel said.
"Oh, you got time." Nathan said as he looked at his wrist to check his watch. "In fact, Ollie won't having anyone running against him, right about…"
With Ruve Darhk
Ruve was having dinner with her daughter. She was the secret wife of Damien Darhk. That was not what angered her though. Earlier today, she had secretly helped orchestrate the prison outbreak to get her husband out of jail and get some revenge on Team Arrow. But there had been reports that every single prisoner was killed. She just received a report on her phone that Damien Darhk, her secret husband had been among the casualties. Her anger was palpable, but she was doing her best not to explode in front of her daughter. What was worse was Damien's contingency plan. Every member of HIVE, aside from her and their daughter, had a kill switch in the back of their heads. Damien was a vindictive man and he felt that if HIVE failed to protect him, they didn't deserve to live. HIVE was all dead and Green Arrow would soon discover where all the missing people had gone.
"Mommy, when is daddy coming home?" little Nora said.
Ruve did not have the heart to tell her daughter that her father was not coming home. Before she could say anything though, she felt a tightness in her chest and in her upper back.
"Mommy, my chest hurts," Nora said as she clutched her heart, then fell out of her chair.
"Nora!" Ruve said in concern as she rushed to her daughter's side and felt for a pulse but did not feel any.
She pulled her phone and tried to call 911, but there was no signal. She threw her phone down in anger and tried to call out for help, but darkness took her like her daughter and she collapsed on the ground. As dead as her daughter.
With Team Arrow
"…now." Nathan said as he looked at the four members of Team Arrow in the room.
"What did you do?" Thea asked hesitantly.
"Were you not listening? I told you, Oliver no longer has anyone to run against him." Nathan repeated cryptically.
"John, go check on Miss Adams," Oliver said without looking at John.
John looked at Oliver defiantly and said "Oliver-"
"John, don't argue with me." Oliver told him as he walked up and whispered in his ear, "We need to confirm what is going on with Ruve, and my brother clearly wants to know what me, Laurel, and Thea have been doing, which means he doesn't want you here. We saw what he did earlier to Malcolm and Darhk. It would not be a good idea to anger him right now."
John soon begrudgingly conceded and left. Nathan beckoned the three remaining members of the team to sit down.
3 hours later
Nathan sat in the chair, absorbing the info that had been presented to him. He sat back in his chair and looked at them and asked one simple question. "Okay, I just have to ask. How can you three be so stupid?"
The three of them were shocked as he started. "I'll start with you Laurel. I understand that you wanted to honor your sister but you had no combat training when you started as the Black Canary."
"I had-" Laurel said but was interrupted.
"Self-defense lessons and some boxing lessons do not count. You had quite a few close calls in your first year, I'm told. You seem to be doing better, but I still don't think you have the right mindset for the job. There is also that drug addiction and drinking thing 2 years ago. I don't agree with what you did. I understand that you felt like the whole world was collapsing around you after Tommy's death and that was your only solace but that didn't make it right. I don't agree with it, but I do understand where you were coming from. Honestly, of the three of you, you are the least screwed up of this whole bunch. I think the question that you need to ask yourself is do you really want to keep risking your life out there when you can probably do more good as a lawyer?" Nathan asked before he turned to Thea.
"You're next Thea," He said as he continued, "Ok let's start with when Oliver first came back. You spent a good portion of the time being a stuck-up bitch. Apparently, you stopped for a while but when you found out you were Malcolm's daughter, you started being a bitch again." Nathan says.
"Well, Ollie was acting just like mom. He should have told me" Thea says defensively.
"Considering what you did since then, I have to think he made the right call. Then you ran off with Malcolm when he saved you in the Undertaking, despite knowing that he was a psychopath that murdered his own son and 500 innocent people, people with the same background as your boyfriend Roy," Nathan says, "Once returning to Star City, you lied to your brother and Roy about Malcolm."
"They lied about my parentage, so they have no ground to stand on" Thea says upset. Nathan takes a glass nearby and throws it at her. She screams and ducks, narrowly avoids it.
"Do not take that tone with me, young lady! You are not so old that I won't take you over my knee to teach you some humility! Mom should have done it more in your youth, because you grew up to be a spoiled brat who seems to only care about herself." Nathan growls. "And while we are on the subject, Thea, you are the only one here with no moral high ground. Protecting you from a secret you did NOT need to know is nowhere close to willingly leaving with a mass murdering terrorist, then lying to your family about it."
Thea just shuts up having no real defense.
"Once you discovered the truth about Malcolm using you to murder Sara, you apparently have flip-flopped back and forth on Merlyn of either treating him as a saint who can do no wrong or your worst enemy. Even then, you gave Malcolm more benefit of the doubt than your own brother when he was undercover in the League. You didn't even hesitate to shoot your own brother with an arrow" Nathan says.
"Are you done?" Thea asks.
"No. You need to understand something. And this goes you and Laurel as well, Oliver." Nathan said as he addressed them all. "Malcolm Merlyn may have been a good man once, but that man died the second Aunt Rebecca did. When he came back from the league, he was not only cold hearted, calculating and ruthless, but he was also insane and selfish. He murdered 500 people including his own son, and he would have killed 30 times that had Mom not sent that message on television. Did you know, Thea, that when presented with the opportunity to save your life, he chose instead to let you die so he could hold onto his power in the League." His revelation shocked Thea as she did not know that. Oliver had whispered that part to him, while Oliver glared at him for revealing that to Thea. "I killed him because the man was an irredeemable monster, unworthy of life. He deserved to die for every single one of the 500 people he murdered, and you all were fools to not immediately kill him when he showed up again!"
"Now, for you Oliver," Nathan said as he sat back. "Honestly, I don't have that many complaints for your first year, aside from you not killing as many of the people on the list. My big one though, is that you let Tommy's unfortunate death get to you and you ran away."
"After he found out my secret, you know what Tommy called me?" Oliver asked. "A murderer. He was right. My best friend died thinking that I was a murderer, and anyone that I kill dishonors his memory."
Nathan's facepalmed himself and made a show of dragging his hand down his face, all the while saying, "I swear, it's like I'm the only intelligent person in this damn family. My brother is the idiot who thought it was a better idea to cheat on the woman that loved him instead of talking things over with her. My stupid sister can't make up her bloody mind on the bastard that mind controlled her into killing someone she once considered an older sister. My oldest friend thinks the way to honor Sara was to risk her life in the field with no training and Sara thought the best way to get me to admit my feelings for her was to sleep with my brother, who was seeing her sister."
The three glared at him but he didn't care. "Oliver, you need to get over yourself. Tommy was going to die regardless what you did. He was already on deaths door. Him dying the way he did was an accident, pure and simple."
"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked in confusion.
"Tommy had stage 4 prostate cancer. He only had a few months left to live. Him dying when he did was an accident." Nathan said, shocking Oliver as he did not know that.
"Oh, and while I'm on the subject. You are NOT honoring Tommy by not killing your enemies. Honoring Tommy would have been killing Malcolm when he showed up again and making sure what happened him and the 500 casualties of the Undertaking never happened again, but instead you have allowed it to happen 2 more times! In you so-called quest to honor Tommie's memory, you have become a worse protector than when you first started." Nathan said, slamming Oliver over the head with his failures.
"Second year. You're major failure's include but are not limited to refusing to kill anybody with one exception, abandoning the list, not being there for Laurel to help her with her drug problem, letting Felicity stay on the team, not figuring out Slade had been creating Mirakuru soldiers until he basically showed up at your door, letting that Rochev whore takeover your company, LETTING SARA RUN BACK TO THE LEAGUE WHEN YOU WENT THROUGH ALL THAT TROUBLE TO GET HER OUT OF THERE AND LETTING SLADE LIVE WHEN HE MURDERED OUR MOTHER!" Nathan ended with a shout as those last two really pissed him off. It is ridiculous that Oliver just let Sara go when she was having a rough patch in adjusting to her new life outside the league. Those urges are not easy to suppress. It was hardly her fault. But instead, he let her run away and didn't even try to stop her. And letting Slade live? Oliver should have killed him for even daring to threaten his mother!
"Back Off! You have no right to yell at him like that!" Laurel shouted but her demeanor changed when Nathan rounded on her with his kyuubi eyes.
"HE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS!" Nathan shouted before he bit his tongue to calm himself down. He looked at Oliver and said. "Third year, you let Malcolm live when you found out he was alive, you let Palmer take your company from you, you dated Felicity, you let Malcolm bait you into challenging Ra's al Ghul in a duel you had no chance of winning and nearly lost your life, you let your team walk all over you when you got back, you risked your life to save Malcolm; A bastard that repeatedly betrays everyone and cannot be trusted with anything. You didn't immediately accept Ra's offer which caused a series events where Roy had to leave his life behind here to take the fall for your indecision and it got Thea killed because Ra's does not take no for an answer, which I know you are not the smartest in the world Oliver, but you should have realized that he was never going to take no for an answer. YOUR BIGGEST FUCK UP'S WERE GIVING THE LEAGUE TO MALCOLM FUCKING MERLYN! BASICALLY REWARDING THAT MONSTER FOR KILLING SARA BY GIVING HIM THE MOST POWERFUL ARMY IN THE WORLD AND THEN, YOU RAN OFF INTO THE SUNSET WITH FUCKING FELICITY SMOAK!"
"What is your problem with my brothers ex-fiancee!?" Thea demanded.
"SHE IS A GOD DAMN CYBER-TERRORIST!" Nathan shouted before he calmed down and told Oliver, "It wasn't that difficult to find, you just had to look hard enough."
He walked over to the computer and easily cracked the 12 digit passcode in seconds. "What the hell?" Nathan asked as he saw a bunch of programs running that weren't even needed. 'No wonder he can't get anything done, his bitch of a tech support is distracted 80% of the time.' Nathan thought as he mass deleted all non-essential functions. He then pulled up everything on Felicity.
"Felicity was born in 1989, to Donna Smoak and Noah Kuttler, who is also widely considered by ARGUS to be the best hacker in the world. When she was very young, her father abandoned her and her mother. She reportedly lived in Las Vegas with her mother until she went to college at MIT."
"At a young age, Felicity became interested in computers, claiming to have been building them since she was 7. However, she was always fearful that she would wind up as a cocktail waitress like her mother and worked hard to escape from her circumstances. Due to their wildly different personalities, Felicity had a strained relationship with her mother. When she was 19, Felicity was ranked 2nd in the National Information Technology competition."
"During her senior year at MIT, Felicity dated fellow computer whiz Cooper Seldon. Both of them were members of a hacktivist group on campus, along with Cooper's roommate Myron Forest, as well as part of a cyber-goth subculture. Cooper apparently managed to successfully create a "super virus" which was originally meant for so-called "noble" actions - digitally defacing criminals, exposing government fraud. At one point, Cooper attempted to use the program to hack into the campus' infrastructure to delete all the student loans but he failed. Cooper was later arrested by the FBI for his hack attempt and he went to prison. Felicity tried to get him out by confessing she'd written the virus. However, Cooper had apparently already confessed. When Cooper was about to sentenced, he (allegedly) hung himself to Felicity's devastation. She apparently dyed her hair blonde after that."
"Now, what you may not know is that Felicity is the true creator of the Virus." Nathan said which shocked the three behind him.
"How do you even know that?" Oliver asked.
"Because I hunted him down and killed him, but not before torturing the information out of him, something you should be familiar with." Nathan pointed out. He had a clone hunt him down in this world and kill him, since he wasn't a part of HIVE.
"Before I killed him, he only gave me an alias, Ghost Fox Goddess. It wasn't until I started researching Felicity more in-depth that I managed to put a face to the alias, though it took me nearly 7 days of non-stop researching to do it. This is research you could have easily done since I know you learned how to be a decent Hacker while you were in Argus, Oliver. I know that you became quite proficient in handling programs and networks. You could easily hack a system to transfer bank accounts, acquire guarded information, and work around security programs."
"What does this virus do?" Laurel asked.
"It's called the X-axis bi-numeric algorithm. It's designed to infect every server on a network and give whoever is using it root access to any server infected by it. If you infected, say, FBI servers, with this virus, you could literally go in and take or do whatever the hell you want and they wouldn't even know you were there until it was too late. It's also completely undetectable. Even Argus virus protection software can't protect against this and that software is the best in the world."
"My god," Oliver breathed as he had no idea.
"Yes Oliver, you literally have the greatest threat to US national security walking around in your secret lair with free access to a computer. That's like giving Hitler access to modern technology and hoping he doesn't go conquer the world or use nuke's to blow up Israel." Nathan griped.
"I trust Felicity. She wouldn't do that." Oliver retorted.
"People can only refuse their nature for so long, Oliver. Kinda like what you've been doing the last 3 years." Nathan said.
"Don't even get me started on this year. If I list everything, I will be here all day. I'll try to keep it to the big ones. Okay, so first would definitely be the part where you ran away to live in the suburbs with Felicity for 4 months, abandoning this city. You apparently can't fight anymore because now thugs like Daniel Brickwell, rouge cops, and a Joker knockoff can give you a tough time. Seriously!? You were trained by Talia and Ra's al Ghul, two of the best fighters in the world, and you killed the latter, who WAS the best fighter in the world. You should be able to take out basically anyone like Daniel Brickwell or Anarchy, yet you can't even defeat them without help. You lost against Damien Darhk, a guy who ran from Ra's al Ghul like a bitch because he know's he couldn't take him out, multiple times and only survived by sheer dumb luck. You dated a woman that was a sociopathic control freak that shattered your heart into a thousand pieces after you sent your son away, who she freaked out over, and selfishly used a prototype chip, that could have helped thousands of lives, on herself just so she could walk again. You let Malcolm run rampart with the League and when you took it away from him, you didn't kill him, which led him to joining Damien Dahrk. And if I hadn't stepped in when I did, all this would led up to Laurel being killed."
"It's pathetic to watch. Talia would be disgusted with you if she saw you now. I know if I became as pathetic at you are right now, she would beat my ass to a pulp." Nathan said.
"Uhm, Ollie. Who's he talking about?" Thea asked curiously.
"Talia was the woman who trained me in my last year away before coming back. She found when I was having a rough go of it, and the man I was when I was the Hood." Oliver told her.
"How do you know Talia?" Oliver asked.
"I suppose this is where the mystery of me comes full circle." Nathan said as he pressed his ear and said, "You two can come down."
"Who are you talking two?" Oliver asked.
"Just a few friends that got stranded here with me." Nathan said as the doors opened and Skye and Natasha walked in, though Skye was hugging herself. The moment they stepped in, the building shook. Skye groaned in pain as Natasha helping her ton control her breathing as Skye calmed down and the earthquake stopped.
"She's not doing well, is she?" Nathan asked.
"No," Natasha as she whispered in his ear, "I think she's channeling it into herself."
Nathan widened in fear, as she was slowly killing herself. He decided to get on with it to get them the help they needed.
"Brother, who are these women?" Oliver asked.
"These are my teammates. This Natasha Romanova, known as the Black Widow, the deadliest female assassin that isn't in the League of Assassin's, and Daisy Johnson, my hacker. They got stranded here with me." Nathan said.
"Stranded?" Laurel asks.
"How much do you know about the multiverse theory?" He asked.
"You mean the theory that there are multiple versions of Earth out there? Wait, are you saying that…?" Laurel hesitated to say.
"And this is where the mystery of me comes full circle. On my earth, it was Oliver who died, because he cheated on Laurel with Sara and I never got together with her, so I'm the one that made it to Lian Yu, who took down Fryers and Shadowspire, who stopped General Shrieve, who put an arrow through Slade's eye, and who killed Kovar. I'm the one who came back home and stopped the Undertaking, because I enlisted the right kind of help; people who understand that protecting innocent lives is more important that not killing murderers, inflating your ego's, and your stupid morals. I was having a pretty decent 2nd year, until I was almost killed by a Mirakuru soldier and I took a small vacation with Natasha and Skye to see Barry, but then the Particle Accelerator blew up, and all three of us got hit with it. Now Daisy is causing mini-earthquakes, Natasha is going through god knows what, and I'm having weird memory flashes, so I while I would like to get your ass back on track, right now, I need an expert in Meta-humans and I was hoping you knew someone."
"Call Barry." Oliver told Laurel and she pulled her phone out.
"Wait, How is Barry going to help us?" Nathan asked as Laurel got off the phone.
"You'll see," Oliver smiled a little as a few minutes later, Barry ran in, causing any paper that wasn't held down to fly all over the place.
"Really need to get some paperweights, Ollie. I hate picking up all these papers everytime." Laurel quipped.
"Hey Oliver, Laurel said you had some meta-humans that needed help?" Barry asked as he pulled his mask off.
"Wait. It is you, Barry? Nathan asked in shock.
"Nate?" Barry asked in shock before he excitedly hugged his old friend that had been lost at sea.
"Barry, before you get excited, you might want to take a step back and hear what he has to say." Oliver said as his mind was reeling from all the revelations today and being smacked in the face with his failures.
Time Skip
Two weeks later
Central City
Nathan was in the STAR LABS speeding room, meditating as all the objects in the room, all of which had a blue glow around them.
They had been here for two weeks and it had been quite an experience. Barry and Caitlin were at least happy to see him, despite not being their Nathan. Cisco and Wells did not really know him so they were all meh about it, though Cisco, Caitlin and Barry had been very helpful with figuring out their powers.
Skye's power was not causing earthquake's like he had thought, though that was an application of it. Her power was Vibrational Manipulation, which allowed her to manipulate and enhance vibrations, which can produce effects such as earthquakes and shockwaves. She also had gained apparently gained some Superhuman durability, as they had measured the amount and quality of vibrations she had been directing into herself, and it would have killed a normal person by that point. She was lucky to get away with only hairline fractures in her arms, which Nathan fixed with some quick Healing Magic. He, along with Cisco, Catilin and Barry, then helped her get control of her powers so they weren't reacting to her emotions and she was able to function normally without causing things to vibrate and could actively manipulate these vibrations, like she did when she caused an avalanche on a mountain and played with some faucet water to make it twist into a spiral.
Natasha learned that her powers were essentially proportionate to that of a human-sized spider. She gained many abilities like the ability to crawl on walls, allowing her to stick to a surface with any part of her body, like her back for example. She gained superhuman strength to were she could lift 20 tons and leap high into the air, superspeed to wear she could outrun an accelerating car on foot, superhuman stamina, durability, agility, equilibrium, reflexes, an enhanced immune system, and a healing factor. She could generate organic webbing from glands within her wrists, limited by her body's health and nutrition. These organic webs took nearly a week to dissolve and were plenty strong for allowing her to swing across rooftops and creating lines of that could not be easily broken. She also had Night Vision and gained a Psychological Awareness of her Environment. This allowed her to receive psychological awareness of her environment as a whole, allowing her to traverse across any environment without fear, even when blinded or in extremely dark conditions. She could ascertain non-threatening information. She was also able to immediately sense danger thanks to this, and her superhuman reflexes would allow her to automatically avoid the potential danger unless she consciously overrode those reflexes. Cisco nicknamed this her 'Spidey Sense', which she responded by webbing his mouth shut when he got annoying about it.
Naruto's powers were far different. He had gained a number of abilities, like the ability to open portals anywhere on earth, or to another planet in the universe and even across the Multiverse. He realized this when he conjured his first blue stormy portal and realized that it was his powers that were responsible for them being stuck here. When Cisco and Wells examined the energy, they stated wherever he was drawing his power from, his source of power might be unlimited. He could repair or power mechanisms of great power with this energy, like when he fixed the Particle Accelerator with his power. Aside for teleportation he could warp the fabric of space to generate powerful spatial pressure around his surroundings, capable of crushing, pulling and freezing with tremendous force in a manner akin to telekinesis enable him to manipulate and move objects with just a single gesture. He could also create black holes. He played around with it and learned how to phase and unphase objects out of space, rendering them incorporeal and just as easily make them corporeal again. He could also use this on himself as well. He could also conjure extremely strong blue energy force-fields. He also mastered his portal ability as he could decide what gets teleported alongside him, could decide how many people to take with him, and can even remove objects forcibly attached on his person, like his when he accidentally, teleported without his suit on, which lead a little bit of embarrassment and getting blushes from Skye and lusty looks from Natasha as they saw what he was packing down south when that happened.
The weirdest thing though was definitely his physical abilities. His Mirakuru strength, durability, speed, Stamina, and reflexes had skyrocketed far beyond what he was once capable of. He could still turn his powers off, but when they were on, it took a diamond needle to even pierce his skin, his healing factor worked even faster now, his strength, senses and speed were probably a match for a Kryptonian. He was able to confirm that his body was now 100% free of Mirakuru, since he checked his blood and there was no trace of it and the Mirakuru voices were finally gone.
There was, unfortunately, no explanation for these memory flashes though. Whatever was causing this, it was not psychological or physical.
Now that each of them had their powers under control, they could go home but there was still one thing he need to do before he left. He couldn't stay to fix Oliver but he knew someone who could.
He needed Talia.
Monastery of Talia's Cult
Somewhere in the Himalaya's
A blue, stormy portal opened up in front of the monastery, and Nathan walked out, dressed in winter gear. He examined the writing on the door and it translated to Demon, so he this was the right place. He opened the door and walked in to see a group of acolyte's. It was then that they noticed him and one took their facemask down.
"Where is Talia? I wish to speak with her," Nathan demanded.
"Who are you?" The female acolyte demanded.
"Call me a former student." Nathan said mockingly.
"Former. That means you are not welcome here." She said angrily trying to kick him but he pushed her leg aside before gripping both sides of her head and snapping her neck with no visible effort, letting the body drop to the ground uncaringly.
"Next." Nathan said as they all charged him. Naruto wasn't in the mood for games and decapitated the first with a slap, spartan kicked another in the chest so hard that it collapsed their lungs, backhanded another that tired to hit him so hard their jaw flew right off, and plunged his hand into chest of the fourth one and ripped their heart out.
"Don't make me say it again. Where. Is. Talia?" Nathan asked more forcefully.
More acolytes appeared to attack him foolishly when they were were stopped by a familiar voice, "Hold!"
The acolytes turned to see Talia standing on the ledge. "You would only be running to your deaths. Leave us," She orders and they walk out, leaving the two of them.
"I would apologize for my students enthusiasm but they are right. You should not have come to this place." Talia says as she steps down to his level.
"Well, Talia, it was difficult to find you." Nathan said.
"I know who you are, brother of Oliver Queen. Oliver never spoke much about you, but the way you two left things when you died was his greatest regret. So, it piques my interest as to how you are alive." Talia asked.
"My being alive has little to do with our business today. I'm here about Oliver." Nathan asked.
"My business with Oliver concluded 4 years ago." Talia said.
"Yeah, well your student has lost his way. He needs to be retrained. I'd do it myself, but I have other arrangements that prevent me from doing so. You were able to his pull his head from his ass when he was running away from everything and turn him into the lethal effective killing machine he was before his business with Kovar was concluded. I need you to do it again. I imagine it will be much easier this time."
"I will not help Oliver Queen ever again." Talia said bitterly.
"And why is that?" Nathan said.
"Because 1 year ago, he murdered my father." Talia said in bitterness and grief.
"Yes, I know this story. Oliver killed Ra's al Ghul in a fight to the death to save 1.5 million innocent people from a bio-weapon." Nathan said, which shocked Talia.
"How do you know my father's name? I never told Oliver anything." Talia demanded.
"Because I'm not the same Nathaniel Queen from this earth. I'm from a parallel universe, and there, I lived the life Oliver lived here, except some things happened and now I'm on this Earth. But the reason I know is because on my earth, I'm your Beloved." Nathan reveals.
Once Talia gets her bearings from the revelation, she carefully says, "If you believe that will somehow sway me to your side, you are wrong."
"Why are you so angry about it all, anyway? You know how the League's tradition works." Nathan said.
"My father and I came to be at odds when I was still the heir. He never intended for me to be the heir, but to be the concubine of the man that would succeed him. I left to forge my own path and take control of my destiny. But he was still my father when your brother shoved his sword through his chest. And I will avenge him." Talia said.
"How do you plan to do that?" Nathan asked.
"Since you won't be leaving here alive, I see no harm in telling you. I have procured a student of certain remarkable talent to use as my weapon of vengeance, the bastard son of Justin Claybourne. He learned everything about Oliver, then sought me out, to train under me so he could gain his vengeance against Oliver." Talia said.
"Consider this then. Your quest for vengeance, while understandable, is pointless. You would only be dishonoring his memory." Nathan revealed, much to Talia's shock and anger.
"Speak plainly, or the next words will be your last," She said dangerously.
"Like I told you just now, you know how league tradition works. Oliver Queen was, in your father's eyes, the living embodiment of the prophecy concerning the Demon's Head. He survived several fatal wounds in his duel with Ra's, and Ra's brought him into the League and named him heir to the demon. Everything that transpired after was his will. Oliver Queen was your father's chosen heir."
"Your grief has blinded you to the truth and has allowed you to be manipulated. You believe that you are the one in control, the one using the bastard of Claybourne's pain and grief as a weapon against my brother, but something tells me it's the opposite."
"Prepostrous! How dare you-"
"Just why exactly do you think he contacted you? Not Slade Wilson, but you. Why do you think the enemy of your prized student, would seek said student's out for help in destroying him? For what reason would he think that you wouldn't just simply put an arrow through his face instead?" Nathan asked rhetorically, horror and realization dawning on Talia.
"Because he researched everything about Oliver and me…He already knew I was the Demon's daughter before he even approached me. H-He sought me from the start with the intention to use my love for my father against me. To use it to...to m-manipulate me..." Talia trailed off, her pride making it extremely difficult for her to even admit the truth. She felt disgusted with herself that she had allowed herself to be manipulated by someone nearly a 1/3 of her age.
"Where is this bastard of Claybourne anyway?" Nathan asked.
"It's too late. He's already gone. He left weeks ago, I have no idea where he is." Talia said angrily.
"Well, you can help me with my original request." Nathan said as she looked at him. "Come to Star City and pull Oliver's head out of his ass. I have no delusions about him ever become the effective machine you created in Russia, but you should be able to get him back on track. And maybe train Laurel and Thea as well, because they need it."
Talia looked down at the floor as she pondered her choice, clenching her fist hard in anger at being manipulated before making her decision.
Arrow Lair
Oliver was sitting in his desk chair after being confirmed as Mayor earlier in the day. Suddenly, he felt something pierce his neck and pulled it out to see a small syringe with a blue liquid inside of it. He felt dizzy and fell to the ground as he tired to get up, when two individuals in black clothing walked in and the man said, "Don't worry brother, just a little something to take the edge off." Oliver fell into the sweet bliss of unconsciousness after that.
1 hour later
Oliver woke up with a groan. He rubbed his neck and sat up with a groan.
"Welcome back, brother." Nathan says as Oliver sits up.
"Nate? What did you do to me?" Oliver asked.
"I cured you of the Red Death." Nathan stated causing Oliver to sit up in shock.
"What do you mean? I got injected with that 4 years ago. It shouldn't still be in my system." Oliver said, causing Naruto to hold up the syringe.
"Your right of course, the actual drug is out of your system, but the scars it left where more severe than some temporary mental torment. You see, after getting a secret contract with the US military back home, I and a team of my top scientists were allowed to examine the brains of victims of the Red Death. After some time, we discovered that the Red Death targeted this walnut-sized area, nestled within the frontal cortex, called the lateral frontal pole. It's the part of your brain responsible for planning and decision-making. We found that this part of the brain suffered varying degrees of degradation and damage, which is likely what drives many under it's effects to commit suicide. You were able to survive the initial effects of the Red Death, but it damaged the part of your brain responsible for good decision making, so your decisions over time progressively got worse. Anyway, my team and I came up with a compound, totally safe, that when injected into the body, focuses the bodies healing to that particular part of the brain, allowing it to heal. You may already notice how you can think more clearly than ever before." Nathan said.
Oliver felt his head and muttered, "I do feel better. Like I can think more clearly. Oh, did I really go through four years of this with actual brain damage to my frontal cortex?"
"You did. It was the reason why you went from an effective fighting machine in your first year, to being this sad excuse of a protector I saw when I first arrived here and why you made so many bad decision's and were so easily shaken in your convictions. I didn't understand until I remembered the Red Death." Nathan said.
"Now, I would offer to help get your head back in gear, but I seriously need to get back to my own world, so I before I left, I figured I would leave you with someone who will." Nathan said as Talia stepped out of the shadows.
"Hello, Oliver," Talia greeted.
"Talia," Oliver greeted, "It's been a long time. I didn't expect to see you again."
"Neither did I, Oliver. However, when your brother tracked me down and told me about your situation…well, it's insulting that my greatest student could fall so far. If I had known you would falter so easily, I would not have let you leave Russia when you did. I am here to… what is it you Americans say; Pull your head from your ass?" Talia said to him.
"So here to train me again." Oliver muttered.
"Given what I've heard, you clearly need it. Especially since the worst has not yet come to pass," Talia said as Oliver listened intently. "There is a man that is coming to destroy everything you hold dear. As you are now, you will fail. I am willing to teach you again, if you are willing to listen."
Oliver thought it over, and now that his mind was not cluttered with feelings of self-doubt, realized that he had gotten extremely lucky two weeks earlier when Nathan stepped in and saved Laurel, and pretty much ended all of his problems that he had currently been dealing with good old-fashioned bloodshed. While Oliver wasn't down for going back to how he was before the Red Death, perhaps he needed as refresher.
"I accept," Oliver told her, which earned a smile from Nathan.
"Well, good luck with him Talia, I need to get back to my world. Goodbye, brother," Nathan said a stormy blue portal opened and swallowed him up to take him back to Central City to pick up Natasha and Skye, and go home.
"So, what's first?" Oliver asked. Talia pulled out a wooden bowl and poured some water into it, and Oliver suddenly felt like he was back in that plane on Lian Yu with Shado.
"Since you seem to have forgotten everything important you ever learned, you are going to relearn everything and I do mean everything. Now, slap the water," Talia ordered with her arms crossed and Oliver grudgingly began the first of many water slaps.
Back on Earth Prime
Nathan sighed contently as he starred out of his apartment at his city, just relaxing for the first time in a while. After he dropped off Natasha and Skye, he came home to a 10 hour long session of passionate sex with Lyla, Chien and Helena, to make up for his ' unintentional extended leave of absence'. The three resting were resting contently upstairs after their session while Nathan had a glass of spiced rum and stared out at the city he fought so hard everyday to protect.
He looked at his kitchen drawer, where he had stashed the envelope Barry had given him. He knew that his war with Slade was going to pick up soon, so now was as good a time as any to find out the truth. He put his glass down on the table near his couch and walked over to the drawer, pulled out the packet, and brought it over to the couch with him. He sat down, flipped the packet over and this time, instead of stopping partway, he opened it and pulled out the documents.
A few minutes later, he covered his mouth with hand to try to contain the raw emotion he was feeling. "My God," He breathed.
Ruby Arias, daughter of Samantha Arias, was his daughter.