Ashes to Ashes

The two were seated beside each other, Thea and Caden. This time Caden was watching out the window abscently as Thea was watching him. Both of them had hamster wheels going in their minds. Thinking about different things.

Thea's thoughts were relentless, persistent. Her constant trying to remember her past with him was fruitless, though she found little evidence to support what he said.

Her mother had said that she introduced him. Walter seemed fond of him. It appeared to her that they did really have a relationship, but why couldn't she remember? She kept her eyes on the back of his head until she looked down to see his empty hand. His skin was fair, pale. When she brushed her fingers against his skin, felt how soft it was, yet when she pushed her fingers against it, he felt super dense. It was like his exterior was just a suit made of marshmallow, while the interior was stronger than steel.

As she went to retract her hand, she found herself unable to reel her hand back in. She felt her fingers clasped in his hand, an iron grip, but he wasn't hurting her.

Thea smiled seeing their hands touching, him holding onto her.

The driver looked over at them from the rear mirror as he was driving them to the Starling Cemetery in the Oak Forest. "We're almost there, Ms Queen." The man said, he was both her driver and bodyguard.

Caden leaned back in the seat as he went through his thoughts like a filing cabinet. He had no idea he was in some way or form related to Darhk in this reality. What could he be wanting to meet him for? What were his parents connections? Were they former assassins like Darhk? Maybe they were associates of the League? Maybe even HIVE? There were so many questions lingering in his mind that none of them could be possibly answered in a fashionable amount of time.

Caden looked over at Thea who was smiling at their hands. He smiled in return as he tilting his head a bit. "I see you don' have–" He was cut off when she suddenly lunged forward, he moved back slightly, hitting his head against the window.

TONK.

Thea had pressed her lips against Caden as his head bounced off the window. She had intertwined her fingers with his. She had caught him completely off guard, but he adapted and quickly returned the gesture in kind.

She broke the kiss after about a minute, silently panting and tasting her lips. She had wanted to test something, she wanted to know how she felt.

While her mind hadn't remembered anything, her body sure knew how to react. The fluttering of her heart had deepened to the point that she felt it thumping throughout her body. She couldn't calm down from the small makeout session. She swallowed to clear her throat and nestled back into her seat awkwardly.

With a fake cough, "Uh..." Caden wanted to say something but he was completely out of it. His own face was flushed by the sudden and abrupt movement. He wasn't exactly expecting that so soon.

The bodyguard, if he wasn't wearing shades, would definitely be seen sending daggers at the young man beside her. The two of them had evaded him on their dates prior, though he didn't necessarily remember them. He just felt on edge about the two of them being so close all of a sudden on his watch.

Within fifteen or so minutes they pulled up to the Cemetery and parked in the main lot. The three of them exited the vehicle, and closed the doors almost in unison.

Caden chuckled slightly as he recalled the competitions he had with his parents, like how quickly can they shut the door all at the same time. It was cute, and just this little event reminded him of it. He let out a quiet sigh, before looking in the direction of where his supposed body was suppose to be.

"You can stay with the car~" Thea said to the driver who raised a brow at her when she hurried around the passenger side over to Caden and took his hand again.

Caden blinked a few times hearing this and then allowed her to lead him into the cemetery. Though she wasn't going in the direction of the grave, she had no idea which direction it was in. "It's this way..." He snickered as he reeled her over to his side as he lead her toward plot quadrant 1C.

Soon enough they were standing in front of his parents graves. He looked down at them, their names and the date they died. They were remembered as loving parents. He looked to his tombstone, he had already disintegrated the body in the casket before he revealed that he was alive to the world, after the surprise death of the serial killer.

Thea silently watched him as he stared at the marked stones, only to glance over towards a man in black approaching. He had blond hair, blue eyes and was relatively tall.

"You brought your girlfriend?" Damien Darhk announced with a chuckle, his own hands in his black trench coat pockets. He looked over Thea Queen, completely knowledgeable of who exactly she was and who she looked like. It was impossible to put aside the fact she looked a female version of Malcolm Merlyn.

He'd then gaze over what appeared to be his godson. All looked the same except for the eyes, which made him rather curious. "It's been a while, Cade."

Caden turned his head to look at him finally when he said his name, seemingly having ignored his first comment and Thea didn't respond for him. "It has, Mister best-of-the-best Godfather." His arctic blue eyes locked on the man.

Raising a brow at this, Damien felt several flags being sent up almost immediately. "Hm.. You usually correct me when I drop the N." He pointed out with a slight smirk across his lips.

"I guess taking a blade to the base of my brain stem, made me just a bit more mature?" Caden said with a scoff and shook his head. "Or perhaps I never did."

Thea was completely out of it, she didn't know what to make heads or tails of this kind of interaction. She felt as if she was stuck in the middle of no man's land during a war that hasn't even been fought yet.

"Perhaps," Damien snickered himself and looked over his shoulder towards his daughter Nora and his wife who were sitting on a stone wall, dividing the lots. He then turned his head back to the duo before him. "How are you alive?"

"The same way you're alive, Darhk." He was well aware of the fact that Damien Darhk used the Lazarus Pit's water in order to remain alive.

When addressed as his main ego, he nodded slowly. So the boy knew who he really was, even as his Godson. He had a silenced pistol in his pocket. He could take them out if he so chose to without alerting anyone.

However this meant he would have to remove Moira Queen and Walter Steele, they knew he met them here. And he couldn't just reveal their bodies to his daughter. He couldn't risk her hating him if he was remaking the world in his image just for her.

Caden could smell the gun, but didn't at all seem alarmed as he glanced over towards little Nora who waved to him. He smiled and waved back, wiggling his fingers childishly in return.

Damien noticed this antic, it was similar to the original version of Caden who had played with her when he was a little younger, about a year ago.

"So why did you want to meet here?" Caden asked as he yawned, watching as he loosened his grip on the pistol. It was clear he was no longer going to fire at them, and even if he did, it wouldn't hurt nor kill either of them.

Nodding, "I have your personal effects." Damien would take out a wallet and hold it out for the boy to take. The wallet was black leather with a white Imperial Logo from Star Wars embroidered on it. The wallet looked as if it was in mint condition, though it had a bit of blood on it.

Caden lulled his head to the side and reached out with his free hand, grasping it and taking it from Damien's hand. He opened it and held it that way as he stared at the contents.

There was a blue visa debit card which was linked to his parents funds left behind for him, a gold mastercard which also had his name on it, and then there was an gamestop card with five hundred dollars on it.

His eyes then moved to the State ID's for both Pennsylvania and California, social security card and a pair of keys with a keychain. There was a single note attached to the keychain with an address and apartment number. He looked up at Damien who was smiling at him slightly.

Everything here other than the apartment was consistent with what he saw in the file that he saw in the future on Nora's device. "Seems like everything checks out," he stated as he smiled lightly.

Damien watched as the boy seemed to be verifying everything that was there, as if he knew what to look for. "Hm..." He let out a slight and awkward sigh as he shifted in place, "So how'd you two meet?"

Caden raised a brow, "Everyone wants to know that don't they...?"

Thea giggled a bit at this and looked around the cemetery. There were very few people here, it was rather eery, but the sky was bright above, so it was also similarly peaceful.

"She came across me creeping around her backyard, at her father and brother's grave markers." Caden admitted as he kept her hand enclosed in his, as if trying to stop her from flying off like a kite, even though she showed no sign of wanting to depart anytime soon.

"Creeping around?" Damien snickered at the way he worded their first meeting. "I mean, you've done worse than creep around someone's backyard." His eyes flickered over to Thea Queen, who was guilty of breaking and entering, then back to Caden. "Serial killers don't usually fall from the sky and fifteen year old boys usually can't fake their deaths on their own."

Thea looked over at them come this part of the conversation. "Fall from the sky...?"

"Maybe I'm the second coming of Al Sa-her?" Caden retorted when he called him out on faking his death and the fact that his murderer fell from the sky.

As soon as he brought up the Magician's name, Damien grasped his pistol once more and without pulling it out of his pocket, pulled the trigger three consecutive times as it was at his hip.

Two feet away from the duo, octagonal fields of magic energy intercepted the bullets. Instead of them ricocheting off of the force fields, they popped like corn.

Thea was squeezing his hand when this happened, surprised by the sudden popping sounds and the flashes of light coming from a spontaneous hole in Damien's pocket. "What the hell!?" She uttered in a hushed tone as she was trying to find her voice, Caden wouldn't let her step back.

Damien just stood there staring at the two, he had no idea what just happened, but he smiled a sinister smile. This excited him, something of the unknown and it was in his grasp. He slowly took his hand out of his pocket, leaving the pistol behind. "How did you do that?" It was a simple question, but it wasn't a simple answer.

Caden tucked the wallet into his blazer as he looked over the ex-member from the League of Assassins. "How about I don't retaliate, and don't answer your question." He smiled smugly, Thea smiling nervously trying to match, as if it would ward the man off.

"This is entertaining... But I'm keeping my daughter and wife waiting," He went to turn away, but stopped half way. "I'm sure you remember where we live. Stop by anytime to play with Nora, she really missed you, Big Bro." Damien winked as if he had never discharged the weapon and walked away merrily.

Thea just stood there, afraid, watching as the family of three vanished after going to the parking lot on the other side of the property. "He just shot us right?" She looked over at Caden, tapping him on the shin with the side of her foot.

Caden looked over at her when she had left mud on his pant leg. "Huh? Yeah, pretty sure he did." He yawned quietly before brushing a bug off the chest of her pea coat. She didn't even feel his hand.

"Aren't you glad you didn't bring the Bodyguard?" When he said this, Thea blinked a few times and nodded. If they had brought the guard, he'd be lying on the ground dead, and how would they explain that.

"So how did you block the bullets," She felt a bit jumpy and her skin was pale. It was too early for a surprise like this, but she was really curious of how he stopped the bullets.

Caden grinned at her and spoke a single word, "Internet."