Hell Hath No Fury - Chapter 5

The Villain

John dropped lightly onto the balls of his feet. The view trough his NVGs showed the warehouse to be empty. But then, he was early, with thirty minutes to spare until 10 p.m. Still, the warehouse should not be empty, should it? Or so eerily silent. Not if something as big as destroying Oliver Queen or the Arrow was about to happen.

He frowned at a slight whisper, more of a breath, coming from behind him. It was a trap. Whoever his secret contact was, he wasn’t a friend. Damn it, great time to find that one out. The SOB had set him up. Set him up from the beginning.

He turned, ready to do battle, but was blinded by a bright flash of light. Before he could pull the NVGs off, a crippling punch to the stomach brought him to his knees. Another blow to his right shoulder made him scream out in pain as bone cracked. The bastard broke his shoulder with one punch. He had to be on the same stuff as Cyrus Gold had been.

The blow to the face was much lighter, but still packed a punch. John felt himself vacillate between consciousness and oblivion, but knew the latter would win. As he fell onto the floor, he could just glimpse a figure in black with blond hair. Then everything went blank.

Λ


Roy saw stars as he felt a rib, maybe two, crack under the force of the punch to his side. He mentally—and sarcastically—congratulated Barry for his timing at developing an antidote to whatever he’d been injected with all those months ago.

Then it all made sense. Barry’s antidote, commissioned by a mysterious person contacting him over IM, the message from his own contact to meet him in the most destroyed and desolate part of the Glades...It had all been planned, his contact had set him up. The guy was probably the same person who wanted to destroy Oliver. And Roy had fallen for it, trusted him. Jesus, he’d grown up in the seedy part of town, he should’ve known not to trust anyone, least of all someone you’ve never seen.

And now he couldn’t fight back. He was back to his normal strength, while his attacker possessed the superhuman qualities of someone injected with the same stuff Roy had had coursing through his system until recently. Shit.

He dry-heaved, then lifted his head to see who had been lying in wait. He only got a view of long blond hair and a slender, leather-clad figure, before a karate chop to the side of his neck sent him to sleep.

Λ


Barry had just finished his mission that had had him breaking into the basement where Arrow’s headquarters was located—which looked much different from the last time he’d visited, when a shove from behind sent him flying. He hit his chin on the metal table and then knocked his head on the concrete floor.

His vision going black at the edges, he saw it wasn’t Oliver that’s attacked him, and opened his mouth...Then nothing.

Λ


Slade Wilson marched into the laboratory and grinned grimly upon seeing John Diggle, Roy Harper, Barry Allen, and Felicity Smoak strapped into the metal restraint chairs they used to restrain the test subjects before administering the serum. He nodded with approval at the extra care his acolyte had taken with restraining Harper. Extra chains and metal restraints would prevent the young man from using his strength to break free.

He wouldn’t bother asking how the most devout of his followers has managed to grab all four of them, he didn’t have to know. He’d demanded they be brought to him, and they’ve been delivered. The last stage of the plan could begin.

Although they’ve all abandoned him, Oliver would still rush to his former friends’ rescue. The man was made that way. What an idiot. Slade had tried to teach him otherwise—one can never regain a lost friendship, and one can never trust a former friend again—but he’d failed. Yet that failure would prove to be his gain tonight.

He walked to the four restrained, unconscious figures, and smirked. Only Felicity Smoak had remained unharmed in the confrontation with his acolyte, the men all had bruises, scrapes, and cuts. With a chuckle, he walked out of the lab and ordered one of the assistants to inform him the minute all four prisoners were awake.

Λ


He reentered the lab roughly twenty minutes later and smiled pleasantly at his four guests. Two pairs of eyes watched him with anger, the other two with a mixture of fear and apprehension.

“It’s good to see you all awake,” he said. “Welcome to the Kurumira International science division.”

Felicity’s eyes widened, and he grinned.

“Yes, Ms Smoak, the same company you work for. Why do you think you got the job in the first place, love? No one would hire you after what you’ve done to Queen.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and cocked his head. “I must say, I never took you for such a vindictive little thing. I’m impressed.”

“Who the hell are you?” Diggle asked.

“Where are my manners? My name is Slade Wilson, I’m the CEO of Kurumira.” He looked at Roy. “The serum you’ve been injected with was created under my patronage. And from my blood.”

He thought he heard Allen mutter something akin to patient zero, but could not be sure since Harper’s curses were louder.

“What do you want with us?” Felicity asked shakily.

“You’re bait.”

“You’re the one trying to destroy Oliver.”

He nodded. “You’ve done such a marvelous job of deserting him. You’ve abandoned him when he needed you the most. Poor sod, losing the love of his life and all his friends in the process.”

“What makes you think he’ll come?” Diggle asked. “You said it yourself. We’re not friends anymore.”

Slade shrugged. “Loyalty. It’s important to him. It’s also highly misplaced in this case. He’ll come for you, even though you’ve stabbed him in the back. And you’ll watch as he’s brought to his knees. You’ll watch as I use one of his own arrows on him.” He gently touched the right side of his face. “An eye for an eye.”

“You’re sick,” Felicity whispered.

“No, Ms Smoak. This isn’t sickness, this is justice. He took my eye, I’ll take his.” He paused, breathed deeply. “He killed the woman I loved, I returned the favor.”

All four pairs of eyes misted, and he smiled slightly. Laurel Lance had obviously been cherished and liked by all of them. Interesting. This would be fun.

“You killed her?” Harper hissed venomously. “You killed Laurel?”

Slade shrugged. “I gave her a choice. You’ll receive the same courtesy, when this is over. Except you, of course, Mr. Harper, you’ve already chosen.”

Incomprehension flooded their faces, then Allen gasped. “You’ll inject us with the poison?”

“It’s a serum, actually. I call it Miracle. It is a miracle, in fact. It had saved my life once.” He grinned. “Brother Daily will administer the serum, and you’ll choose. Life. Or death.”

Felicity started crying, Allen turned a nice shade of pale green, and Diggle and Harper started cursing him and all his ancestors. He laughed. This was fun. Now only two people were missing from the party. His acolyte. And Oliver Queen.

He left the quartet to ponder their fate, yell at the injustice, cry their eyes off...Whatever they pleased. He needed to prepare an adequate message for his friend. Once more, he mentally reiterated his promise to let Oliver live. Death would be too merciful. Oliver needed to suffer. The fact he’s lost his friends and allies wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough that the love of his life was dead. He needed to suffer. What’s happened so far was just the beginning. An appetizer.

When he got here to save his former friends...Then his agony would start. Then he’ll realize he’s truly lost everything. And he’ll have to live with it. It’ll drive him to his knees, Slade knew, his own knees would buckle if it happened to him. And Slade would relish the sight of Oliver completely broken.

Then and only then, justice would be served.


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