Arrowheart 2

Chapter 3

God, I hate myself for this. I go downstairs and start throwing all of my rage at the punching bag. I keep going until someone pulls me away from it, shaking my shoulders, and I realize Oliver is here.

Oliver: “Liz, stop! What happened to you?”

He holds eye contact with me as I take a moment to realize what I just did and start noticing the pain in my hands. Looking down, I find blood covering my knuckles.

Oliver: “Liz, look at me.[I look up into his eyes.] What’s wrong?”

Elizabeth: “Ollie, I’m so sorry. They got away with Thea and I couldn’t stop them. They had her at gunpoint.”

Oliver: “I know. I’m going to get her back.”

Diggle comes over and helps me wrap my hands while Oliver looks around at everything Felicity and I changed. We both decided some upgrades needed to be made.

Elizabeth: “Wait, I want to help.”

Oliver: “Not right now.”

Elizabeth: “Oliver, please. Let me help get her back.”

He impatiently looks back at me as I stand by his side. He softens a bit when he looks into my eyes.

Oliver: “Alright, but you follow my lead and do as I say.”

Elizabeth: “Why do I have to do as you say? I’ve been doing just fine without you here.”

He points at the target where my arrow is still planted firmly in the white zone.

Oliver: “That's why. Thea has been taken and your head isn’t in it as much as it should be. You need to follow my lead so you won’t be in as much danger. Stop going off on your own. I have no idea what possessed you to put this hood on in the first place.”

I glare at him, feeling overwhelming fury at his words.

Elizabeth: “Really? You of all people should know the answer to that.”

He takes a breath, realization setting in.

Oliver: “Liz, I shouldn’t have said that. Please just follow my lead so we can get my sister back.”

I back away from his hand reaching out to me.

Elizabeth: “I’ll follow your lead this time. Don’t expect me to bend to every command though.”

Oliver: “I would never dream of commanding you. Now let’s do this.”

Felicity: “Finally.”

She walks over to her computers, ready to start her search for the hoods.

Oliver: “Thea’s boyfriend said one of them was missing part of his hand. Maybe a veteran? Check hospital records, any males that have had surgical amputations on their extremities.”

Felicity: “Cross checking by race and age. Got one. Jeff Deveau. African American, late 30s.”

Oliver: “What else can you get on him?”

Felicity: “Ex-marine.”

Elizabeth: “There’s no such thing as an ex-marine.”

Diggle: “Would explain how he can handle himself. Did he lose his hand overseas?”

Felicity: “No. In the earthquake. It says he and his wife were trying to make it across the 52nd Street Bridge when it collapsed. She didn’t make it.”

Oliver: “Phone records, please. I wanna know who he’s in contact with.”

Felicity: “He’s made a lot of calls to a church in the Glades. Something called Standing Strong.”

Elizabeth: “It’s a support group for those who lost loved ones in the quake.”

Diggle: “Great place to meet three other guys as angry as you, looking for a little payback.”

Oliver: “Get me an address, please.”

Felicity: “You’re gonna need this.[she walks over to a case on a table and opens it to reveal a new bow.] I had it custom-made.[Oliver picks it up.] How’d I do?”

He lets out a sigh as he examines it.

Oliver: “It’s perfect.”

Felicity: “You were right. Once I signed on, I stopped thinking about all the bodies you dropped. Because I knew that being the Hood meant occasionally being a killer. Maybe there’s another way.”

Oliver examines his suit.

Oliver: “They have my sister. What other way is there?”

He puts his costume on and the second Felicity gets us an address, we leave. We arrive at a church, finding the four copycats in a church, surrounding Thea who is tied to a chair.

Thea: “Merlyn killed my father. She thought he’d killed my brother too. She was afraid of him. She must’ve been so afraid.”

Copycat 1: “Just like my wife..[c***s a gun.] When our house collapsed on top of her.”

He points a pistol at Thea and Oliver fires an arrow, hitting the gun out of the guy’s hand.

Oliver: “Get away from her!”

The copycats start firing at Oliver, who has to dodge all of these bullets flying toward him. I shoot one of them in the arm from behind, making him drop his gun as he falls forward and one of his friends turns around, starting to fire at me as I duck behind a stone pillar. The shots stop and I can hear one of them fighting hand-to-hand with Oliver. More shots are fired, so I peek around the corner to see Oliver knock out another one while the last guy is trying to shoot him. I quickly move in from behind and use the butt of my crossbow to knock him out.

There’s supposed to be one more guy though. The one I shot earlier is missing. We hear Thea screaming from the balcony and see her with the last guy. We quickly run to cut him off. Oliver goes to where he is headed with Thea while I move in from where they came, leaving nowhere for this guy to run. We both have our weapons trained on him.

Oliver: “Let…her…go.”

Man: “You wanna save her? There was no justice for people like the Queens till you showed us how to get it. You showed us.”

Oliver shoots him in the shoulder, knocking the guy over the balcony and I move in, to get Thea out of there while he runs forward and catches the copycat.

Oliver: “Go!”

I nod and get Thea out of the building, cutting off the zip ties holding her hands behind her back, before running back in, trying to help Oliver. I find him with the guy he apparently handcuffed.

Elizabeth: “You didn’t kill him?”

Oliver: “Not this time. Now help me tie these guys up for the cops.”

Elizabeth: “Sure.”

I help him tie up the four copycats to a fence and stay with him till Detective, I mean Officer Lance shows up. When he sees us he points his gun at us.

Oliver: “Do you know who they are?”

Lance: “I think the Hoods gives me a pretty good idea.”

Oliver: “Bring them in.”

He lowers his gun.

Lance: “Where you been? Typically, when I bring in guys you’ve gone after they’re a little more dead.”

Oliver: “I’m trying another way.”

Lance: “And who’s she?”

Elizabeth: “His partner.”

We turn away and Oliver shoots an arrow/grappling hook, grabbing me by the waist and gets us out of there.

After changing into civilian clothes and finally going home, we spend some time with Hannah and put her to bed. I am still so confused, so I go out on the balcony, trying to clear my head and Oliver comes out to join me.

Oliver: “Hey, do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

Elizabeth: “Not really. What made you stop from killing those men?”

Oliver: “Tommy. [I take a sharp breath.] He died thinking I was a murderer. I want to honor his memory by not killing anymore.”

Tears threaten to spill from my eyes as he comes toward me.

Oliver: “Why did you hurt yourself today?”

Elizabeth: “I just feel so powerless. I don’t know what to do anymore and I can’t seem to make the best decisions. My inability to act got Thea kidnapped.”

He holds my cheeks and kisses my forehead before resting his on mine.

Oliver: “It’s okay, Liz. Thea is safe now.”

Elizabeth: “It’s not okay. She almost died because of me.”

Oliver: “I’m going to help you, Liz. I will guide you and soon enough these fears will fade away.”

Elizabeth: “How can you be so sure?”

Oliver: “Because I know how strong you are. Together we can protect everything we hold dear and find our son.”

Our lips meet and it’s as if I can finally breathe again. All of my fears and anger seem to disappear when I’m with him and I can’t help but forget about him leaving now that he is here by my side.