Chapter 23: Full Disclosure (Partial)
The Foundry felt smaller with Oliver's fury filling it—his demand for truth echoing off concrete while Ben calculated how much honesty he could afford.
"Sit down," Oliver commanded, his voice carrying the kind of authority that had kept him alive for five years in hell. "We're going to have a conversation about exactly what you are and why you've been lying to my team."
Ben settled into a chair across from Oliver while Diggle and Felicity flanked the table like a tribunal. The aftermath of the Deadshot incident hung heavy in the air—security footage showing impossible physics, witness statements describing a man who'd stopped bullets with his body and mind, the undeniable evidence that Ben Hale was far more than he'd claimed to be.
"Three distinct metahuman abilities," Oliver began, calling up footage on the main screen. "Precognitive foresight that let you position yourself to intercept Lawton's shots. Causality manipulation that erased a bullet from existence mid-flight. And kinetic energy absorption and projection that sent a trained assassin through a reinforced window."
Ben watched his own impossible performance play out in slow motion, his veins glowing blue with absorbed energy while red shimmer marked the moment he'd negated reality itself.
"These aren't variations of the same power," Oliver continued. "They're three completely different abilities that shouldn't coexist in one person. I want to know how you got them, what their limitations are, what else you're capable of, and why you've been lying to us about the scope of your capabilities."
"Decision point. I can deflect and maintain operational distance, or I can give them enough truth to rebuild trust while protecting the secrets that would destroy everything. The transmigration stays buried, but everything else..."
"The powers awakened after my death," Ben said, choosing strategic honesty over comfortable lies. "Building collapse, technically dead for three minutes, came back different. I don't know why or how—just that dying and being resurrected fundamentally changed what I'm capable of."
"Death doesn't grant superpowers," Oliver said flatly.
"Near-death experiences can trigger latent metahuman genes," Felicity interjected, already pulling up research on her tablet. "Extreme trauma, temporary brain death, massive adrenaline surges—there are documented cases of people developing abilities after clinical death and resuscitation."
Ben nodded gratefully. "The precognition came first. Three-second window showing immediate futures, usually triggered by danger. I thought it was just enhanced reflexes until I realized I was seeing things before they happened."
"And the causality manipulation?"
"Negation. I can erase single actions from the causal chain, make things un-happen. Thirty-second cooldown, exhausts me quickly, only works on discrete events." Ben demonstrated by dropping his pen and negating the action, the writing implement simply returning to his hand like the fall had never occurred. "Discovered it during the Dodger incident when I negated the bomb's detonation signal."
POV: Felicity
Felicity stared at the casual demonstration of reality manipulation, her mind racing through implications that made her head spin. Ben had just violated conservation of momentum and causality simultaneouly while making it look effortless.
"Okay, that's officially the most impossible thing I've ever seen," she said, fingers flying over her tablet as she began modeling theoretical frameworks. "You're not just manipulating energy—you're editing the fundamental structure of cause and effect."
She pulled up holographic displays showing the three power signatures she'd detected: temporal precognition, reality negation, and kinetic manipulation. "These abilities work together to let you manipulate causality itself. You see what's coming, you can erase what you don't like, and you can redirect energy to create new outcomes."
"He's not just a metahuman—he's a walking violation of physics who can rewrite reality on a limited scale. The scientific implications are staggering, but the tactical applications are what matter to the team. No wonder Oliver's been suspicious—Ben represents a level of power that could destabilize everything if misused."
"You're a causality breaker," Felicity concluded with growing excitement. "Someone who can bend cause-and-effect rules through conscious will. That's theoretically impossible, but here you are doing it anyway."
POV: Diggle
Diggle watched the scientific discussion with the pragmatic acceptance of someone who'd seen enough impossible things to stop being surprised by them. Ben's abilities defied explanation, but his character had been proven under fire when he'd used those same powers to save Diggle's life.
"The how matters less than the why," Diggle said, drawing attention back to human concerns rather than theoretical physics. "Ben used every one of these abilities to save my life without hesitation. He revealed capabilities he'd been hiding rather than let me die. That tells me everything I need to know about his priorities."
"Oliver's focusing on deception and operational security, but he's missing the more important truth—Ben chose to expose himself rather than watch a teammate get killed. That's character, not calculation. Men with character can be trusted even when they carry secrets."
"The question isn't what Ben's been hiding," Diggle continued. "It's whether we can trust him to use these abilities responsibly when it matters. And based on what I witnessed today, the answer is yes."
POV: Ben
Ben felt the weight of three sets of eyes evaluating him from different perspectives—Oliver's tactical suspicion, Felicity's scientific fascination, and Diggle's military pragmatism. Each represented a different aspect of trust that needed to be earned or rebuilt.
"I should have been more honest about my capabilities," Ben admitted. "But I discovered these abilities gradually, and each one came with complications I wasn't sure how to explain. The precognition makes people think I'm crazy. The negation makes them think I'm dangerous. And combining them makes me look like a walking violation of natural law."
"You are a walking violation of natural law," Felicity pointed out cheerfully.
"Which is exactly why I've been careful about revealing them. Power like this attracts attention from people who want to study it, weaponize it, or eliminate it. I've been trying to stay under the radar while figuring out how to use these abilities responsibly."
POV: Oliver
Oliver studied Ben's expression for signs of continued deception, using techniques learned in environments where the wrong judgment about someone's honesty meant death. What he saw was someone choosing strategic disclosure while still protecting deeper secrets—honest about capabilities while concealing origins.
"He's telling the truth about his powers but not about everything else. The story about awakening abilities after resurrection is plausible but incomplete. There's more to his background, more to his knowledge, more to his presence in Starling City than he's revealing. But the question is whether those secrets threaten the team or just represent personal privacy he's entitled to maintain."
"New terms," Oliver said after a long moment. "Full tactical disclosure during operations. No more surprises in the field, no more discovering new abilities mid-mission. If we're going to work together, I need to know what you're capable of so I can plan accordingly."
"Agreed."
"But personal secrets remain your business unless they directly endanger the team. I understand the need for privacy—we all have things we can't share. What matters is operational honesty and tactical reliability."
Ben extended his hand across the table. "You have my word that I'll be completely transparent about my capabilities during missions. No more hidden powers, no more last-second reveals."
Oliver shook the offered hand, recognizing his own need for privacy reflected in Ben's careful boundaries. They were both men carrying secrets too dangerous to share, working together because their goals aligned rather than because they trusted each other completely.
"It's not perfect trust, but it's functional trust. Ben's proved his loyalty through actions, and his abilities make our operations significantly more effective. We can build operational partnership on that foundation while respecting each other's right to maintain certain secrets."
"Welcome to the team, officially," Oliver said. "Though I suppose we need a new designation for someone who can break physics on command."
"Causality Breaker," Felicity said immediately. "It's scientifically accurate and sounds appropriately intimidating."
POV: Ben
Ben felt something dangerous and unfamiliar settling in his chest—belonging that wasn't conditional on deception, acceptance that acknowledged his secrets while respecting his right to maintain them. Team Arrow was recalibrating around his expanded role, building trust on operational necessity rather than complete transparency.
"They know I have three reality-breaking powers but not where they came from or what else I'm hiding. They know I can manipulate causality but not that I'm from another timeline entirely. It's partial disclosure, but it's enough to maintain functional relationships while protecting the secrets that could destroy everything."
"One more thing," Ben said as the meeting concluded. "These powers come with costs. Overuse causes physical and mental exhaustion, and there are some things I can't do even with reality manipulation. I'm not invincible, just really hard to predict or contain."
"Noted," Oliver replied. "We'll factor limitations into our operational planning. Anything else we should know?"
"I'm from the future, I know how all of your stories end, and I'm here to prevent the death of thousands of people in an earthquake that hasn't happened yet. But that conversation is for another day, if ever."
"That covers the important parts," Ben said instead.
Team Arrow adjourned with new understanding and modified trust, ready to operate as a unit with a causality-breaking ace who could see the future, erase mistakes, and turn enemy attacks into stored ammunition. It wasn't the complete honesty Oliver might have preferred, but it was functional partnership built on mutual respect for necessary secrets.
And for Ben, it was enough to continue the work that mattered—saving a city that would never know how close it had come to complete destruction.
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