You Saved This City

Taking the kit and her arm he scowled a bit, “ you should be in school. don’t jump in your father’s grave, Mia. Don’t become The Hood.” 

send me a ‘dibs’ if you are ridiculously attached to me as an rp partner

“My name’s Percy,and it seems like we’re both after the same target,” he stands a safe distance away from her, Riptide still clenched in one hand as he eyes the other, taking specific note about her bow and arrows, “So, are you a daughter of Apollo then?” the question’s interrupted by a screech in the distance, “Never mind, you can answer that later,” and he sprints off to the source of the noise. 

“No, Oliver Queen.” Mia gave him a strange look. Apollo? Was that some vigilante name she’d not heard anyone use before? She supposed it was possible. As he went running full throttle at the noise, the hero in training drew her bow and shot out one of the lights near him to give him better cover from whichever gang was causing the issues tonight. Because if Mia actually listened to one thing her brother told her it was to not to let people run in without cover - even if she would totally run in without cover herself.

      Q kept her eyes on her mom. Whatever Oliver’s issue was none of her business nor did she care. On her Earth, that Oliver Queen was dead and in time she was from on Earth 1 - he was long gone. He wasn’t her problem, he was Mia’s. She listened to Mia go off on them, taking a glance at her friend. Her brows shot up as she mentioned her Dad shot the Flash and gave a look to Oliver. Q worked with her Earth’s Flash sometimes, if he had done the same to Jesse as he did to whoever this Earth’s flash was, she’d have some words. Mia was right though - they trained that way to stay alive. Earth 2 had it’s issues but not nearly as bad as Earth 1′s future which is why she had stayed in the first place, to clean up the city.

         She didn’t buy for a second that Mia was fine considering she was chewing their parents out but she bit her tongue. Eyes looked to Connor and William who were at a loss for words. “She’s right you know, we’re your kids but we aren’t children - haven’t been for a while..” Not just in age, they grew up pretty fast. She sighed and followed Mia out of the bunker, shooting a softer look at her mother who she knew wasn’t trying to be holier than thou, she was just worried and probably confused considering what they were going through.

           “They have big belly burger here right? I’d kill for their beyond burger right now.” 

That rant wasn’t nearly as bad as the one she had with her dad the day after they arrived, when Laurel first turned up. When she told him he wasn’t her dad and just some guy in her way. The little progress they’d made was her not throwing the fact he wasn’t there for her growing up because he decided other people where more important than his family. Baby steps. Still, the looks they’d gotten had rubbed her up the wrong way. It was hard to take seriously when their parents trained harder than they did.

“Yeah Connor saw it yesterday - at least in this time it will be none of that artificially grown meat.” She tried to snort but it came out as a sigh. The cut on her neck still stung as a reminder of Zoe. Her dad her tried to talk her through these feelings of guilt when they went to grandpa’s grave but it was still hard. “Why did the Monitor bring us here Q? Or why couldn’t he have brought us back five minutes earlier while Zoe was still alive and fighting for her life?”

She can’t help but ache for Mia, as she listens to her.  There is so much about her that feels the same way.  She always felt that way, after the Gambit.  She should have died on that boat.  Out in that water.  And yet, she was spared.  For reasons that she didn’t know.  But she was.  She was given more chances than any one person should have been.  But with those chances, brought more pain and misery than it should have.  Dying on that rooftop, was what should have been her fate.  Not the pit.  Not the pain that being soulless had brought her.  She still felt it, even if she fought it everyday.  

“We all want to change your dad’s fate.  He’s the hero in all our stories.  He’s the reason that we’re all here, doing what we’re doing.  The reason that any of us are here.  I wish there was something that we could do, to change all of this.  And I will never stop looking for it.  I want nothing more than to make sure that your dad gets to come back to you.  To all of us.”  She takes in a breath, sighing a little.  The only thing she ever wanted for Ollie, was for him to be happy.  “The Pit will work for him.  It will bring him back.  But it will also change him.  In ways that we can’t predict.  I just want you to be prepared for that.”

They had no way of knowing how it would change Oliver.  What the pit would do to him.  Each person was different.  The only thing that was the same, was the blood lust.  The need for death that came with it.  “We will find a way.  I promise.”

“Mom never met anyone else you know. He was her Wizard of Oz, the one to bring her home.” Because to her mom, Oliver Queen was her home, wherever he was, she wanted to be. Mia couldn’t help but worry that when her mom left her and William in 2040, that she didn’t plan on coming back. That knowing that Mia and William now had each other, she could finally go be with dad. But she couldn’t afford to dwell on that, couldn’t afford to be blinded by the pain that she might never see either of her parents ever again. “I know, Nyssa didn’t just tell me about your success story, she also told me the horror stories. Vaguely alluded that the pit is the mother of all zombie stories.”

With Oliver’s instincts they’d be lucky to pull this off one time, never mind a second or even third. She could remember one time in all her years of working with him when her and the team had actually managed to surprise him– wait, two. Once with Roy taking his place as the green arrow and faking his own death and twice with the surprise birthday party that landed Curtis on his back. Both had been impossible feats but they managed. So as difficult as it might be this was possible. “Let’s just focus on the one time and go from there.” She smiled. “I am actually quite accustomed to tricking your father when necessary thank you very much. It  makes the surprise that much more believable. As for distracting him with a criminal… you are either better off just waiting for one to distract him on his own or letting me know when you need the distraction.” 

Sara couldn’t bite back the bitter laugh that came when she described Star City was sunshine and roses, that was not exactly how she saw it. It never was, it never would be. That was how propaganda was, it always tried to spin things in a positive light…And if she was talking family videos, they never recorded the bad times. “You have a lot of things to learn about me and the past.” There was also the concept that she was a lot more streetwise than she felt Mia was giving her credit for.

The blonde fell into pace behind Mia, allowing her to take the lead in this situation - she knew these people. The question that came caused her to smile. “It was just some time to have some downtime, I let the guys pick a random date and we ended up here.”

“It’s better than what we have now, okay?” Sara could laugh, but by comparison, Star City back then was a bright fluffy unicorn. The rich had walled themselves off in the Glades, Archer had controlled people movements, super soldiers. “Yeah well Vigilante’s are shot on sight now. It’s illegal and the Canary sightings are met with armed force.” Mia muttered. “Then there is the Death Stokes, prominent gang down here in the underbelly.

Run by JJ but that wasn’t something she was comfortable sharing with Sara. She didn’t know how much the other knew as a Time Traveller, but William would tell her to stay on the side of caution and telling Sara could end up changing the past and Mia liked existing thank you very much, the Butterfly Effect could be a real thing.

      “So you fucked up, oh well. Time to make up for it and move on.” Q didn’t believe in shouldering guilt. If she messed up, she fixed it and moved forward. Otherwise she’d be stuck in the past with lots and lots of demons. It was something she learned from her mom. Like Q said, her mother hadn’t always been the best person but she has spent years trying to make up for it. The Canary network was part of that. “She’s kind of a badass like that. the Canary Network was her and my aunt Dinah’s doing.” She shrugged. Technically Q was part of it even if she fell under a different alias until she’d inherit the name of Black Canary. “He already sounds like an entitled jackass. His parents were heroes weren’t they? They had a job to do. Wow how dare they want a better world for him.” She never faulted her own parents for their late nights patrolling because they were doing it for her. So she’d grow up not afraid to turn her light out at night. “Your whole world is backwards to me - on my Earth the Glades is a terrible part of town completely filled with crime while Starling is the shining city.” She observed it was the complete opposite here - and renamed from Starling to Star City. “Do you even actually like anyone then?” Q asked honestly.

Mia didn’t necessarily feel guilt over it. Blame? Yes. Annoyance? Yes. Should she had listened to Zoe more? Debatable. She still wasn’t sure who had made Zoe the unofficial lead of the New  ‘Team Arrow’ considering Zoe’s dad wasn’t you know, the Green Arrow. She didn’t like the others enough yet to feel guilty. “They just tiptoe around it with the weird look of blame in their eyes but when I mention it’s my fault, they clam up and are like no it wasn’t.” Mia’s eyes rolled. “Entitled jackass sounds about right. My dad dies to save the world, I have to grow up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere being homeschooled but JJ had such a hard life with two loving parents making the world better for him. Like boohoo.” The only reason Mia had been angry at her mom was that her mom had lied to her and hid the truth. If Mia had known from the get-go, she would had happily supported her mom. “Mom said that’s how the city used to be back when I was born, the Glades were the area of the city all rundown until Rene became mayor and did it all up.” She paused to think. “I don’t know, I’ll let you know when it happens. Might just be William.” and that was more of an obligation and the only family she had left rather than getting to know him.