Chapter 32

Thea, Harry, and Dinah stepped into Felicity's base of operations to have a chat with her. Felicity had been in the process of pouring over several maps.

"I think I found Speedy," Felicity said.

"What?" Thea asked. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, and it makes way too much sense," Felicity said. "There's a chance, she might be alive, but Lex has been making all of those trips to Russia over the past several months. And Oliver must have figured it out as well, because he's on his way there."

"So, you have been tracking Oliver after all," Harry said.

Felicity just looked flushed for a second before she got all to business.

"No, because that would make me a creepy cyberstalker," Felicity said. "But, an American Billionaire...well not so much a Billionaire anymore, maybe a millionaire, maybe by the skin of his teeth given how much his net worth has decreased over the past couple of months….."

Harry cleared his throat and Felicity took at as her cue to get back on task. Which she had trouble with.

"Right," Felicity said. "But, anyway, someone of Oliver's notoriety being sighted in Russia, especially in light of his recent questionable decisions, it's going to raise a few eyebrows."

"And wouldn't Lex doing the same raise some eyebrows by the general public?" Thea asked.

"Well, no," Felicity said. "But, yes, but no, Lex is smart enough to plan his trips under the radar. Not that I'm saying Oliver's dumb, but he does make some questionable decisions, based off of emotion, rather than logic. Not that I'm one to throw stones, living the glass house that I am….but...regardless, Lex has tightened up his security and has used body doubles where he could. Getting a shot at him is almost impossible."

"Yes, almost impossible, although I'm sure you wouldn't try anything questionable base off of emotion, rather logic," Harry said.

Felicity just had the sheepish look of a girl who had been caught with her hand in the sweet jar.

"Well, my questionable emotional based decisions have lead me to Speedy, that's the say the r...the original Thea Queen," Felicity said.

"So, are we dealing with the League of Assassins?" Dinah asked.

"Oh, we could only be so lucky," Felicity grimly responded. "I've done some digging, and broke a lot of laws in the process...but there was a program from the 1920s well into the Cold War in Russia. Where young girls had been conditioned to be spies, soldiers, assassins. They call it…."

"The Red Room," Harry murmured.

"Yes, but it was shut down around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall," Felicity said. "Although, there are some hardline supporters of the program in the former Soviet Republic of Kasnia, and there are...whispers among those who think they know something, that Kasnia people infiltrated the Russian government. Tampered with elections, blackmailed people, caused people who might come close to exposing the truth to disappear."

"I need to make a call," Harry said.

"What's the deal?" Thea asked.

"I need to make a call," Harry repeated.

Harry had been in a funny mood, which caused both Thea and Dinah to shrug their shoulders. He always had his reasons.

Dressed in all black gear, Oliver Queen arrived outside of a facility. He had been getting close, although what he would find, Oliver did not know. But, perhaps, perhaps, Oliver could locate it.

"Hang tight, Speedy," Oliver murmured. "I won't fail you this time."

Oliver slid underneath the barbed wire fences and with one well placed shot with an arrow, took out the security cameras. Eighteen months, Oliver had been searching. Funds depleting, he sold off many assets to just get the funds to track down Speedy. He refused to ask anyone for help, even Felicity, because this was Oliver's mess and the fact Speedy got captured and cloned, was his fault.

"Hands up where we can see them."

Several armed guards appeared. Oliver turned around and fired at two of them. One of them fired off a shot which almost missed.

"The next one will be in your h…."

An arrow impaled the guard in question in the chest. Oliver had not fired it. The guards had been slaughtered ruthlessly by the mystery archer.

The figure stepped out of the shadows and Oliver's mood did not improve based off of this guest.

"You...no, you're…."

"Dead? Yes, I know. But dead people can get a lot accomplished."

The man before him had many aliases. Oliver knew him as Malcolm Merlyn, the father of Oliver's childhood best friend, and also the Dark Archer, sworn enemy of the Green Arrow.

"Nice beard," Oliver said.

"Wish, I could say the same about the goatee," Malcolm said. "What possessed you to grow it anyway?"

"What do people have against the goatee any...you know, never mind," Oliver said. "What are you doing here, Malcolm?"

"Same thing as you," Malcolm said. "I want to find Thea, ensure she's brought home safe. Although Lex has been very hard to get ahold of...and if I did get ahold of him…."

"There's a line," Oliver said.

"I don't doubt that, son," Malcolm said. "We have a common goal and we're closer than you think. But, tell me one thing, what do you know about the Red Room Program in the Soviet Union?"

Oliver blinked a couple of times.

"I slept through history," Oliver said.

"Well, if you took your studies seriously as you should, you wouldn't know anything about it anyway," Malcolm said. "And I left one breathing just long enough to tell us everything he knew."

Malcolm put the arrow at the man's throat who just smiled.

"Tell us about where you sent her," Malcolm said.

"She was moved….to the Badlands months ago," the man said. "You should kill me now, for once...she finds us, we will all perish."

"The Badlands?"

"Nothing out there but wilderness, cold and bitter, most would perish in the elements," Malcolm said. "The perfect place to hide something...or someone you want no one to find."

Superman, Black Canary, and Red Arrow dropped down in Russia. They waited for someone to step out of the shadows. The one and only Black Widow approached them.

"I received your message," Black Widow said. "And if Ms. Queen has been taken by the program, if the program exists still...then it will be hard to reach her."

"You snapped out of it," Harry said.

Natasha closed her eyes. Memories buried, for good reason, threatened to bubble over to the surface. Oh, she had gotten out and become a hero, or at least a force to do something good in her life. But, it was years she had to fight the demons of being in the Red Room program. It had been both a blessing and a curse her training.

"Some minds break when going in," Natasha said. "Although, they normally do not take guests as old as Ms. Queen. They start them young, easier to mold because there are fewer life experiences. Most of the girls are uneducated, from poor families...or unwanted bastard children."

"Lex must have cut a good deal with them," Dinah said.

"I couldn't agree more."

An extremely beautiful dark haired woman appeared, with a fantastic body. Looking as young and pristine as she was in the prime of her life, Agent Peggy Carter appeared in the flesh.

"Agent Carter, it's an honor to meet you," Harry said.

"As it is you as well, Superman," Peggy said.

"My mother speaks most highly of your work," Harry said. "Lena...that is."

"Yes, I know, I've read her fan fiction," Peggy said. "It's...quite intriguing."

"Wait, Lena Luthor writes fan fiction?" Thea asked. "Oh, please tell me it was self-insert, and please tell me you have a copy of it."

"Well, wrote as in the past tense, as she did it when she as a teenager," Peggy said. "But, we have more important things to discuss...like what we're going to do about your original donor, and how deep she is into the Red Room program. Never thought I'd have to see it again when I personally lead a team to shut it down."

Peggy hoped against all hope the original Thea Queen would not have been lost to them.

"Oliver's here," Thea said. "He might not know what he's getting himself into."

"One of my spies on the ground sighted Oliver, and he was moving, with the Dark Archer," Peggy grimly said.

Thea's mood darkened several shades. Her biological father, well technically Speedy's biological father. But, still a sore spot for Thea being the Bastard Daughter of Malcolm Merlyn. And Thea remembered hot it was something involving Malcolm that caused her to feel so reckless that night where she, or rather Speedy, went after Luthor's shipment alone.

Oh, being a clone could be so confusing sometimes. Thea wanted to head desk herself.

"Are you okay?" Dinah asked.

"No, obviously I'm not," Thea said. "Ollie's working with that bastard...even after all he's done. Even after he tried to blow up Star City and frame Oliver for murdering the Mayor."

"We're going to need to move if we wish to reach the facility by the evening," Black Widow said.

While she sympathized with the clone Thea's frustrations, they could not jeopardize the mission. Liberating the girl, and assessing what kind of state she is.

Natasha walked closer to Harry and Peggy. She spoke to them in undertone with full knowledge they would do what needed to be done.

"If she's gone mad, we might have to take...steps to prevent her from leaving the facility," Natasha whispered.

"Do what you have to do," Harry said. "But, give me a chance to reach here."

"Remember, you might have a deep rooted bond of trust with her," Natasha said with an inclined head towards Red ARrow. "But, it's different with her."

"Agent Romanoff is right," Peggy said. "She doesn't know you from Adam."

Harry closed his eyes and nodded. He could have been the monster if he did not have the support of Caitlin when in Cadmus. So, Harry was not going to give up on Speedy just yet.

A figure, with a cybernetic arm, looked off in the shadows in a control room. She watched the footage of the Green Arrow and the Dark Archer walking side by side, having hit the facility down south and were heading closer to where she is.

"Remember, you have your mission."

"I have my mission," the girl said in a robotic voice.

"And you will not rest until all of the people that have made you suffer have been killed."

"I will not rest and I will not be free until they all perish," the figure said.

"What is your name?"

"My name is T...my name is Arsenal. And I am a living weapon."

The wielder of arm turned around and an old woman and two children had been brought into the facility. They trembled in fear. Arsenal just turned and they screamed. She released a blast of energy from the arm and incinerated the three of them. The handler nodded approvingly and turned to another one in the shadows.

Ruthlessly, she murdered then without a second thought. Blood splattered against the weapon. Arsenal casually wiped it off.

"My name is Arsenal. The Green Arrow failed me. And now he must die."

The sixteen year old girl stepped out of the shadows. Dressed in black and red, with the arm, with her hair cut short, and hair dyed a dirty blonde, the younger version of Thea Queen, the former Speedy, had been turned into something else. She pressed in the side of her visor which caused a face mask to appear around the brainwashed teenager's face.

Natasha, Peggy, Harry, Dinah, and Thea arrived to see several downed and dead men. Many arrows were on the ground. And only a couple of them had been Oliver's. And more more arrows had been left in the chest of the men and necks in question.

"The Dark Archer," Dinah murmured darkly.

Thea ripped the arrow out of the chest of one of the dead men and nodded. Oh, she knew it all too well.

"So, any idea where they went from here?" Harry asked.

"This is the last stop before the Badlands," Natasha said. "Although, they kept moving the facility every six months, and the girls along with it, although they did them in shifts not to disrupt the conditioning. And the weaker and more broken ones…."

Harry had no need for Natasha to say much more. She said more than enough. Harry entered the facility which had no computer systems. The cabinets had been bare, cleaned out a long time ago. Not even a discarded apple in a trash can.

"I found something," Thea said.

Thea pulled out a map stuffed in the back pocket.

"We're close," Peggy said. "It's there...it's right on the other side of those mountains."

The journey would be treacherous. Harry got a good look at the map and the coordinates. He swept the air for magic and opened a portal to the closest approximation. They might not be able to get on top of the facility, but they would be able to get close enough for it to matter.

Breathing heavily, shivering cold, The Green Arrow and the Dark Archer arrived, braced for a fight.

"We find my daughter, and then I take down Luthor and put an arrow in his throat," The Dark Archer said.

"Lex needs to answer for his crimes," Green Arrow said. "We need justice, not vengeance."

"Oh, and how well does that work for someone like Lex Luthor?" The Dark Archer asked him. "Because, charges are dropped, evidence disappears, and key witnesses backpedal on their stories, or get into mysterious car accidents, or suddenly are driven into comas."

"The pot and the kettle are both black," Green Arrow said before moving down the hallway.

In the midst of a playroom all alone, a young girl brushed the hair of a doll, or so it seemed. She hummed "It's a Small World, Afterall" while rocking back and forth.

"Hey, have you see another girl here?" Oliver asked. "Another girl, about fifteen, sixteen years old...it's okay, we're not going to hurt you, but we want answers."

The girl responded by just humming her song. Oliver moved closer. She could be no more than eight, or nine, at least by the looks of things.

"Maybe you should try Russian?" Malcolm asked.

Oliver repeated his questions in Russian, but no answer. Thinking the girl might have been deaf, Oliver tried to get her attention so he could ask his questions in sign language one more time.

The girl spun around with lightning fast fury, the dolls hair fell off to reveal there had been a concealed blade underneath, which stabbed Oliver in the leg.

Instantly, Malcolm grabbed the child around the waist and wrestled her around the leg. She tried to claw at Malcolm's eye when she struggled at her.

"Oh, she's going to be no good, she's...she's here to kill anyone who gets too close," Malcolm said.

"Let her go, you can't kill a kid!" Oliver yelled.

"That's not a child anymore, this is a weapon," Malcolm said. "Think about what it's doing to these kids...they are spies, assassins, murderers….and they…."

"What if it was Thea?"

Malcolm simply put the girl to sleep instead of killing her. Having a few choice words about "bleeding heart liberals" before he backed away from the fallen girl. Oliver propped himself up against the wall to recover.

Before either could react properly, someone stabbed Malcolm from behind. Malcolm Merlyn turned around, only to get a hand to his neck and have his neck sliced and hacked repeatedly, first by a knife, and then an arrow moved out of his quiver. He had been castrated for good measure, although already dead in the process.

Oliver, on one leg, turned and fired an arrow at the mysterious enemy. She blasted the arrow into dust, along with Oliver's quiver, just before it could be fired from the bow.

Suddenly, she punched Oliver in the stomach. She threw Oliver across the room and beat him severely to death. Each one of the punches felt like a battering ram hitting Oliver's chest, surprising from such a lithe girl. She beat Oliver about the head, about the neck, about the face.

"You...you left me," she coldly said.

Oliver slammed into the ground, ribs puncturing his internal organs. His pelvis had been shattered by the force which this mysterious attacker drove her down onto the ground.

No sounds came from Oliver, only an endless shower of blood. Oliver felt each breath, pained, and he lost it, lost it so hard.

"You did this to me, you left me"

The last thing Oliver saw before he passed out was the face of his missing sister. Who beat him savagely, within an inch of his life. While Malcolm Merlyn's mangled body laid on the ground. Blood pouring all over the pace.

"Speedy," Oliver murmured before the blood loss overwhelmed him.

Arsenal did not even spare her brother a passing glance. She walked off, but not content with Oliver's blood, or Malcolm's, there was one other person she blamed for her suffering beyond all others.

Black Widow stepped into the shadows, past the control room. Three dead bodies, an old woman and two children, never a good sign. And then, three scientists were slaughtered, and two gentlemen were down on the ground. Black Widow recognized them from their attire as the Red Room handlers, only they had suffered a rather grisly end as well.

From the room, Black Canary, Red Arrow, Superman, and Agent Carter came in. The grisly remains of Malcolm Merlyn was on the floor, beaten severely, stabbed severely, and casarated. Overkilled no question about it. Red Arrow, despite her tension with Malcolm, came inches away from throwing up at the sight of her mangled father.

"I'm sorry," Dinah said.

A groan coming from elsewhere caught Thea's attention. Oliver, still alive, although in pain, in misery, and coughing up blood appeared. Thea rushed over.

"Ollie, Ollie, listen, Ollie, I'm here," Thea said. "You didn't have to do this alone….I know I'm not your real sister…."

"You are….you were for three years," Oliver managed in pain. "And I'm sorry...for pushing you away...but….oooh."

"It's okay, I'm here," Thea said. "We're going to get you…."

Oliver used his last bit of strength to look Thea in the eyes. He did not want the last time he saw his sister's face to be after she brutally beat him.

"I love my sisters, both of them...no matter what," Oliver said.

Oliver coughed several times before his eyes closed for the last time.

"We got to get him out of here, get him some help," Thea said.

Superman listened for a heartbeat. Nothing. The stench of death and decay hit them, the final uncomfortable reminder that Oliver Queen exited the mortal plane.

Despite the turmoil that was their relationship, Dinah could not help but feel saddened at the death of a long time friend. Thea, on the other end, had been torn between numb shock, sadness, and rage. Lots and lots of rage.

Thea kicked a chair over in frustration and then picked it up before hurling it against the wall. Dinah moved over to console and comfort her.

"Luthor, that bastard!" Thea howled out. "What did he have to….I'm going to fucking kill him!"

Harry moved in to rub Thea's back, trying to tell her that it was okay, but there was a whole lot about this situation which was not okay.

"Looks like you're in the same mind as your sister," Black Widow said quietly.

In someone's blood, the name "Luthor" had been scrawled, with an arrow stabbed through it. At least Harry knew where Speedy's next move was.

"I'll call in some people in, to take care of him," Peggy said.

Black Widow's worst fear had come to light. Someone put through the program, had escaped, and would be a danger to herself and most certainly others.

She needed to be put down. Now.