Last Time on Black Arrow
The wave of dark matter then passed through them.
Nathan was covered by a red aura as he fell to his knees and gripped his head in pain, shouting as his mind was bombarded by memories that were not his own. Memories of a life he didn't remember live.
"And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"
"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday"
"I'm not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That's my nindō: my ninja way!"
"It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up. I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."
"Just give up… on trying to make me give up!"
"Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"If you attack Konoha, I will have to fight you… So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it! It's the only thing I can do! I will shoulder your hatred and die with you! Because I'm your friend!"
"You're not the monster fox anymore. You're one of my teammates from Konoha… Kurama."
"Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends! I'm not gonna give up on them! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me! Period!"
"Hinata… This big idiot finally understands… The real meaning of the scarf you gave to me when you went with Toneri… I know now, from the scarf you painstakingly knitted and took so long to finish, that your love can't be unravelled so easily… Wait for me… This whole time, you always loved me for the way I am… Now, as a man, there's something I must tell you… Hinata, I swear I will save you!"
Meanwhile, Natasha was one the floor, writhing in pain, and Skye was hunched over.
Nathan's pain finally stopped and he looked to the others. "Natasha, Skye," He said as he reached out to aid help them.
All of sudden, Skye threw her head back and screamed, a vibrational wave erupting from her body, causing them all to fly out the window.
"Grab on!" Nate shouted as he grabbed both of them in each arm. Before quickly trying to figure out how to land. He didn't need to though, as a blue stormy portal opened up beneath him and swallowed all three of them up.
Chapter Start
Nathan, Natasha, and Skye came out of the portal, 3 miles above the ground in broad daylight. From wherever they were, it looks like they were falling towards a desert.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Skye screamed as she was panicking.
"NO, WE ARE NOT! HOLD ON TO ME!" Nathan shouted as he concentrated. 'I fucking hate using magic.' He snidely thought to himself.
A black smoke erupted from him as it covered all three of them. This trail of black smoke hit the ground softly, causing a massive cloud of it to appear. When the smoke cleared, Nathan was found standing on his feet, Natasha sitting on the ground, and Skye had vomited. They were not used to magic, so the experience would naturally leave them disoriented.
"Think next time," Skye stopped as she vomited, "You could warn us."
"Sorry," Nathan apologized. "I didn't have time to warn you."
"What….was that?" Natasha asked, barely keeping herself from vomiting. It was surreal, having her body turned into smoke and then put back together just the way it was before.
"Magic." Naruto growled.
"Seriously!? That's a thing too!?" Skye asked as she hugged herself. She was shaking alot.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Honestly, the other's don't know about that I am quite skilled in Darkness and Shadow Magic, but I despise using it. Personal Reasons," Nathan said, as he moved to see the road.
"Come on, we need to find civilization." Nathan said as he suddenly gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he was slammed with a memory he never had experienced.
Memory
"If you hurt my sensei," said a weird younger look-alike of himself dressed in orange, "I'll kill you."
"Show me what you got, Nine Tailed Fox!" the silver haired ninja, Mizuki, shouted.
Naruto then created one thousand clones and beat him to a bloody pulp, and the following morning was awarded the headband he had craved for over 6 years.
Memory End
"Damn it," Nathan growled. "I have got to see Constantine soon. Before this gets out of hand."
Thankfully a car was coming their way. "Come, on. This might be the only chance we get." Nathan said as he helped them both up. The three walked up to the road and he put himself in the way of the car.
In order to avoid hitting Nathan and getting in trouble with the law, the guy driving the Blue 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe stopped.
He got out and started shouting at Nathan. "What the fuck, man!? Are you stupid!? Get off the road!"
"Look, pal. I'm sure you are a wonderful man," Nathan said as he grasped the mans neck and broke it, "But right now, I can't afford to let my morals get in the way."
Nathan tossed the body aside and found his wallet and opened the car. "Come on," He motioned for them.
As Skye got in, she asked, "Did you have to kill him?"
"We don't what happened to us or where we are at. Until we do, we can't take chances. Otherwise, I would totally let him live." Nathan assured her. He extended his had and shadows gathered around the mans body and consumed it, until nothing was left.
Nathan stared at his hand. 'In the last month alone, I have used my magic more times than I've used it in 4 years combined. I don't like what this means.' He thought to himself as he got in and drove the car.
He headed north. While he did, he was thinking to himself. It's pretty clear they were in America, since everything looked and screamed American, but it was noon out right now, and it was night time when the accelerator went off, so he was wondering what had happened.
As he drove, he saw a city. It looked like Starling City. "Hey, is that Starling?" Skye asked.
"It is. I know what road we are on now." Nathan said.
It was definitely Starling when they got into town. But when he saw the welcome sign, he stopped and pulled over.
"This can't be right." Nathan said as he got out. On the sign, it said "Star City: Renamed in honor of Dr. Ray Palmer. 1981-2015." 'It's Christmas 2013 back home. There is no way that this is possibly right.'
Nathan thought long and hard about what this meant. Someone didn't just put this up here. There were two very likely and possible explanations. Either A. They had somehow time traveled into the future. Or B. They had somehow traveled to a alternate reality. Neither possible explanation was good.
Nathan got back in the car and drove further into the city. He stopped at the next gas station, and pulled his wallet out and hand 20 bucks to Natasha. "Nat, I need you to go in there and buy us 3 pairs of black baseball caps and sunglasses."
"Why?" Natasha asked.
"Because there's two possible explanations for where we are at, and neither one is good for me. Until we've narrowed it down, I need to stay inconspicuous. So please." He asked and she took the money.
She came back later with 3 baseball caps and three pairs of sunglasses. Nathan put his cap and sunglasses on.
"okay ladies, we have 4 more stops to make. The library, the bank, Walmart, and the find a place to sleep tonight." Nathan told them, but then the car started shaking and Skye was moaning in pain and hugging herself.
"Daisy." Nathan said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be okay. Just breathe." Daisy did so and she calmed down after a minute. And the shaking stopped.
Nathan then drove them to the library. He pulled up and stopped the car. They got out and walked in. The guy that Nathan killed thankfully had a library card. He handed the librarian the card.
She looked at it and noticed something was off. "I'm sorry sir, but-" Naruto pulled his glasses down and looked into her eyes for a moment. Both of their eyes became pitch black before returning to normal.
"Is there a problem, miss?" Nathan asked innocently.
"N-No, sir. No problem. Enjoy your time at the Star City Library." She said monotonously as the three left to the computers.
"What did you do to her?" Skye asked.
"You don't want to know." Nathan said, ending the conversation.
The arrived at the computers.
Nathan to his companions and said, "Okay, search all the major events that occurred in the last 1000 years."
2 hours later
Nathan slammed his hands down in frustration and rubbed his head. He and the girls had searched for hours, only to find the world was basically the same.
Nathan then decided to look more closely at Star City. There had to be a reason he landed here. Every one of the big things was different so maybe he landed here because the reason it was different was personal to him.
Nathan looked and found many news articles from the last 4 years in Star City about a arrow-shooting vigilante. First the Hood, then the Arrow, and now the Green Arrow. Only an idiot wouldn't be able to realize they were the same person. He read that the Undertaking actually had occurred here, a virus outbreak occurred last year and-
"Fucking hell," Nathan said as he read the article about the Siege. His worst fears were true. Slade was alive. And he had come to the city to destroy with an army of Mirakuru soldiers. Only, it was reported that the Arrow and a group of black clad archers, which were seen in the streets recently again, had defeated the group of soldiers. And Slade, called Deathstroke, wasn't seen again.
'How could I have possibly let this happen!?' Nathan thought in frustration as he read reports of soldiers attacking the city in recent news. Plus, no kill shots after the Undertaking, and even before then, the deaths didn't exceed 30! No Huntress either, Helena had been arrested for trying to kill her father. And recently, the League was seen fighting and killing each other in the streets!
"M-Mom," Nathan said in shock and despair as he read the article about his mothers death. She was apparently killed by a katana in front of her daughter and son.
Didn't help that Tommy was also found dead during the Undertaking.
Quickly composing himself, he typed furiously to find the cause. He found it.
Nathan sat back in his chair, realization and it's implications striking him like a bolt of lightning. Daisy and Natasha notice his distress and looked to see what it was.
It was his google search entry. His date of death was September 27, 2007. The same day that the Gambit went down. The same day that his father died.
This was all confirmed by Oliver Queen in a hearing on October 14th, 2012, who survived on an island in the North China Sea for 5 years.
His brother was alive. He was the Arrow in this world…..
…..and he had failed this city.
Nathan shook his head. He couldn't think about that right now. He needed to help his companion's lay low. He got up and motioned for the other to follow him, before deleting the search history.
They all got back in the car.
Daisy decided to ask, "AC, are you going to be okay?" She was worried for him. She also didn't understand what was going on and was frightened.
Nathan looked at his hand and noticed it was shaking.
He turned to her with confident smile in an attempt to reassure her. "I'll be okay, Skye."
Nathan drove them into a parking garage. He stopped the car and undid the seatbelt.
"Why did you bring us here?" Natasha asked.
"This parking lot is exactly two blocks from Starling City Bank. And we are currently short on cash." Nathan said as he stepped out.
"Your stealing from the bank? But these are our people!" Skye protested and he noticed some shaking began again. He walked around to her side, opened the door, and knelt before her.
"Skye," he said as he pulled her into a hug, comforting her, "we are currently in a precarious and difficult situation. But I promise you, I have not forgotten who I am and who I protect. I will give anything back that I steal, once this is all over. I promise you."
This seemed to convince her, as the shaking stopped.
Nathan shared a glance with Natasha, wordlessly telling her to keep an eye on Skye. Nathan then disappeared from sight.
10 minutes later
Nathan came back with a duffel bag filled with 100,000 dollars.
Nathan threw it in the trunk while pulling out 10,000 dollars.
The next stop was Walmart, where he bought a laptop. He still needed to keep up to date on current happenings and do more research. Everyone also bought five fresh pairs of clothes.
Their next stop was Subway, where they got dinner.
Their final stop, was the Embassy hotel. Nathan booked them a spacious 2 bedroom hotel room for a week, with free breakfast and happy hour.
Nathan lay on the bed after his shower, looking at the ceiling, the events of the day playing in his mind. A necklace of a black arrow dangled around his neck, the edge of the arrow head being blood red.
He looked to the others. Skye had already fallen asleep, as Nathan had given her some melatonin, to help her sleep.
Nathan sat on the side of the bed as Natasha sat next to him.
"I'm worried about Skye," Natasha said slowly. She a bit uncomfortable with being open about her feelings, given that she was the worlds best female spy and assassin.
"I am too. I'm concerned for all of us. That's why we need to figure out how to get back." Naruto said, with Natasha looking at him.
"Why did you hold out on us earlier?" she asked.
"Skye's causing mini earthquakes whenever she is upset, you're dealing with God knows what, and I am having flashbacks of a life I didn't live. We had too much on our plate for me to be explaining that we are technically in an alternate dimension." Nathan said.
"Get some sleep. You need it," Naruto said as he got up and opened the window.
"And where are you going?" Natasha asked.
"I need to find my brother. He's obviously the Green Arrow, but I have no idea where his base his. I'm going to draw him out and track him back to his base." Nathan said.
"And how do you intend to do that? You don't exactly have any arrows." Natasha noted, only for him to press his arrowhead necklace, and his Black Arrow suit materialized onto his body, with a new graphene framed bow in his hand. "You carry that with you everywhere?"
"Always. I'll be back later. Close the window when I leave." Nathan said as he jumped out the window.
Next day
Afternoon
Turns out, finding Oliver was almost too easy. He hacked the frequency he and his team were using for their comms and listened in.
He heard them mention Merlyn's name as they were infiltrating his base. Seriously? What the hell was Merlyn still doing alive!? This is why he prefers to chop off the head with high ranking members of the League. You never know when one of them ingested water from the Lazarus Pit so they could come back to life a few hours later.
When they mentioned the Khushu Idol, Nathan had bad flashbacks about those six months during his 4th year he spent taking out Shadowspire completely. What was Oliver doing messing with an Idol like that? That shit is dangerous.
He quickly figured who the others were. Spartan was John Diggle. Speedy was Thea. Black Canary was Laurel. Nathan could not believe Oliver was letting his little sister and ex risk their lives! More importantly, he was disgusted to see his brother was not killing anybody! This job was not for the faint of heart! The only way to protect the city, truly protect it, was to put an arrow in every single enemy. If you let your enemies live, they will cause trouble and plot to kill you. Just look at what happened with Julius Caesar! He was a perfect example of why you always kill your enemies if they are actively plotting against you!
Andy Diggle. Now, it was obvious to Naruto that the man was a double agent for who ever he was working for. Nathan could tell that because he had worked as a spy for some time and he now dealt with two on a regular basis. He knew how to read them. Andy must have been looking for the last piece of the idol.
"So, what do you intend to do now?" Natasha asked as they hugged and comforted Skye.
"Wait until their enemy makes a move. Then, save them, and then get an in with them. We don't have the resources to figure out what's going on with us and how to get back home, so I need to make him see that he can trust me." Nathan said as a beep caught his attention.
He pressed his ear piece, and it seems they were heading to Iron Heights to deal with a prison break. "And I believe the opportunity just arrived. Stay with Skye, okay?" He told her, which she nodded as he left.
Iron Heights prison
A little later
"…But on the count of three, I'm going to turn that wall into a Jackson Pollock painting with his brains." Damien Darhk said as he pointed the gun as his secret agent. At the 2nd count, Oliver and Diggle dropped their weapons. A prison guard came up behind each of them and held a knife to their throats.
"Now, was that so hard?" Damien asked needlessly.
"I believe you have something for me." Damien said to Andy. Andy was let go, and he pulled out the missing piece of the Khushu idol.
"An—Andy", John said, betrayal within his voice.
"I'm sorry, man." Andy apologized as he gave Darhk the piece for the gun, then point the gun at Oliver. "I've been tracking your movements for months. I know everywhere you been. All I needed to hear was that it was you that hid the stone."
"Was there ever a chance for you?" John asked.
"Your brother's way beyond reach, Mr. Diggle." Damien said as he set the final piece, completing the idol again. "It's all over now."
A bow string was drawn and two red arrows were inpaled in his stomach. Thea appeared in the doorway. "Took the words right out of my mouth!"
The fighting began again. Damien pulled the arrows out of his stomach.
"I need to sacrifice." He muttered to himself as he placed his hands on the idol and it glowed.
Oliver and the other continued to beat up the guards.
"Not enough. You know what to do." Damien said to Andy, who shot two of the inmates dead.
"Kanjigar septum vohnostrum." Damien chanted as he knelt down and absorbed their lifeforce, healing his wounds.
He then used his death-powered telekinesis to hold Oliver and his team in place.
"Ha ha ha! Ohh! Oh, I feel so much better." Damien said as the other inmates picked themselves up.
"Hey. I am sorry about your buddies, but omelets and eggs and all of that, but I know how to make it up to you, though." Damien said to the inmates before he gestured with his arms flamboyantly. "Who wants to take a walk outside?"
"No one," came a dark voice as Malcolm was thrown into the room, his back hitting the wall as he groaned., "Because not one of these scum are leaving this prison alive."
At that moment screams of horror and the squelching of bodies being torn to shreds were heard outside for a few minutes as black smoke and shadows blocked all the exits out of the room.
"Okay, this is odd," Damien muttered to himself, wondering what the hell was going on.
Then, the shadows moved into the room and consumed the inmates still inside, including the fool with a stitched mouth. The squelching and tearing apart of body parts was all too obvious. Not to mention the screams. It terrified Laurel and Thea, and Oliver was a bit nervous about what was going on, as he had never seen anything like it.
Then an arrow came out of the smoke and pierced Andy Diggle in the face. He fell to the ground, dead.
"Andy!" John shouted in shock. His brother may have betrayed them, but he still cared about him.
"You shouldn't mourn for him, Mr. Diggle. After all, he betrayed you." came that voice again.
"Okay, this is getting annoying. Who are you!?" Damien demanded angrily, while trying to use telekinesis on the smoke, to no effect.
"The dead don't need answers," came the voice as a trail of smoke came from one of the blocked entrances, and knocked Damien aside, and into the wall. It then grabbed Malcolm by the throat and lifted him up against the wall.
It was then that the smoke seemingly turned into a man. The man, to the other occupants, looked like a black and red version of Oliver's suit.
"Oh, great," Damien complained. "Let's me guess. Coming to save your idol?"
The black version of Green Arrow turned his head, only for the others to see that his face was completely covered by a mask. "Pipe down, scum. I'll be with you in a minute."
He turned back to Malcolm and said, "You're supposed to be dead. How is it that you're not, I wonder?"
"What can I say? A Magician never reveals his secrets." Malcolm struggled to get out.
"Doesn't matter. You won't be coming back from this." Nathan said as he threw him down to the ground and stomped on Malcolm's lower back so hard that his foot went through the mans spine and guts, causing him to scream in pain and cough up blood.
Even Nathan was a bit shocked. He thought he only put enough force to break his spine, but he went right through him. Deciding to deal with it later and not waste a moment, he reached down and ripped Malcolm's head off his body with his spine still attached, seemingly, without any effort.
Thea, Laurel, and John were visibly disturbed by the brutality of the action, and Thea even threw up her lunch. Oliver and Damien managed to maintain their composure, but Damien was panicking. His master plan was falling apart at the seams.
The Black Arrow let the head drop and turn to Damien. Damien scrambled to his feet and began his chanting, trying to affect him with the magic he got from the Khushu idol. The Black Arrow kept walking closer. He eventually stopped right in front of the idol, "I'm sorry. Was that supposed to do something?"
"How are you not affected!?" Damien demanded.
The Black Arrow placed his hand on the idol. "There is only death…And I am it's master." He said ominously as the idol began to crack and break apart until it exploded in a show of light, causing the others to close their eyes. When the light died down, they noticed they were free and saw that the idol was nothing but dust.
Damien's eyes were wide and in complete shock. "It's not possible! The Khushu Idol is indestructible!"
"Only to a small mind like yourself. Everything can be destroyed. Some objects just have a specific way." Black Arrow said as he stalked closer to Damien.
"Wait, he is a prisoner here. He-" John tried to say, only to be interrupted when the Black Arrow delivered a swift uppercut to Damien's head, that caused everything from the base of his neck up to explode in a shower of blood, gore, and bone. Damien's headless stump squirted a little blood before it fell to the floor. The Black Arrow pulled out a turpentine arrow and shot it at Damien's corpse, igniting it.
As the flames licked the body of his adversary, Oliver nocked an arrow at the Black Arrow and shouted, "Who are you?"
He was ignored as the Black Arrow turned, nocked an arrow, and fired an explosive arrow at the wall, punching a man-sized hole right through it. Oliver fired his arrow, hoping to stun the man and stop him from escaping.
However, the Black Arrow caught the arrow without looking and snapped it in half. He looked at him, "You've got a lot to learn, brother."
The shock of his statement was all he needed to slip away.
Oliver's Arrow Cave
Later
Oliver, John, Thea and Laurel came down to the lair.
"Oliver, what the hell was that back there!?" Diggle demanded.
"I don't know John." Oliver said. He was in shock, like Thea and Laurel, about the brother comment by his lookalike and trying to figure out what it meant.
"Damn it, Oliver! My brother is dead! Dead! And apparently, you have more secrets that are still coming to light! I want answers!" John shouted and Laurel finally had enough.
"Mind your tone, John! You're just angry that Ollie was right not to trust Andy." Laurel reprimanded.
"Well, isn't this cute?" came Black Arrow's voice, as the computer chair turned around to see him sitting there. They were stunned as he had slipped past their security undetected.
"Your security is pitiful. I could have broken in here in my sleep," Black Arrow said as he caught the arrow Thea shot at him. "That wasn't nice, Speedy."
"You killed Malcolm! Why!?" Thea said, still in shock over her father's death.
"And why the hell do you care? He's a monster. He killed your father. He killed his own son and 500 other people with his ridiculous Undertaking. No one's going to miss him." Black Arrow said.
"Now," Black Arrow said as he got up, "I'm here to talk. And considering I just saved your lives and ended basically every threat to this city, you owe me that much."
None of them made a move. Oliver made the move first, put his bow down and arrow back in his quiver. Slowly, the others followed suit.
"You can take your masks off too. I already know that Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, Speedy is Thea Queen, Black Canary is Laurel Lance, and Spartan is Mr. John Diggle." He suggested/ordered. Seeing no point in resisting, they did so.
"Who are you?" Oliver asked.
"Someone from your past," Black Arrow as he pulled his hood down.
"But you can start," Black Arrow said as he pressed something behind his ear. His masks melted away to reveal the face of Nathaniel Queen, shocking the three that knew him, "By explaining what the hell is going on around here."