After dark, on a building rooftop, suited up, I was fighting several men. Man 1 tried to punch. I ducked, punching him in the face, in the chest, pushing him aside. Two men ran toward me from either side. I jumped up to kick them both, making them fall, turning to another man who ran toward me, backhand punching him so hard I sent him flipping through the air before he fell to the ground. Man 5 aimed a gun at me. I drew my sword as a shield from the bullets, using it to slash into his hand and make him drop the gun. I walked toward the three remaining guys, using the hilt of the sword to hit against Man 5's head to make him fall unconscious. Man 6 spun to try to kick me. I ducked, punching him in the face hard enough to make him fall unconscious, turning to Man 7.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Man 7 told me. "Please, wait, wait!"

I pointed my sword at him. "Marcus Redman."

"Please," Marcus told me. "No, please, no. Don't hurt me, please."

"Cell phone, inside your pocket, call your partner," I told him. "Tell him to give those pensioners back their money. Now."

"Okay," Marcus told me. 

After he did as told, I walked away.

⚔  

The next day, I walked downstairs in the Queen mansion, into the living room where Oliver, Thea, Walter and Moira were watching the news.

"Over the past 15 years, Mr. Redman has withdrawn more than 30 million dollars from the plant's account. Mr. Redman claims refunding the Halcyon pension plan has always been his intent. But sources say Redman was coerced by a vigilante, the girl in blue."

A drawing of me in the suit and mask appeared, unable to tell my identity.

Oliver looked at his family. "This girl gets more air-time than the Kardashians, right?"

"Five years on an island and you still know who they are," Thea told him.

"I've been catching up," Oliver told us. "It's nice to see how much our culture has improved while I was away."

"No, the city used to be different," Moira told us. "People used to feel safe."

"Oh, what's the matter, Mom?" Thea asked. "Afraid we're gonna be next?"

Moira stood, looking at me. "Morning, Jill. You seem to be better."

I nodded. "Time heals all, right?"

Walter nodded. "Do you have any questions about today? A simple proof-of-life declaration. Just read out a brief prepared statement to the judge, and then your death-in-absentia judgments will be voided."

"I'll be fine," I told them.

Oliver nodded in agreement. "I know what to do. I've been in a courtroom before."

Tommy walked in. "Four times by my estimate. You know, there was the DUI, the assault on that paparazzi douchebag, stealing that taxi, which was just awesome, by the way, and who could forget peeing on that cop?"

"I wish everyone would," Moira told us.

Oliver looked at Tommy. "I'd hang, but we're headed to court."

"I know," Tommy told us. "That's why I'm here. My best friend and his savior are getting legally resurrected. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Right," Oliver told him. "Okay." He looked at Thea. "What about you?"

"Oh, I think the first four times of you in court was enough for me," Thea told him.

"Fair enough," Oliver told her.

Thea walked out, leaving.

John walked in. "Car's ready."

The others walked out, leaving.

I hesitated, pressing my lips together, shaking my head, following.

⚔  

Outside the courthouse, press was clamoring to get at Oliver and me.

"Mr. Queen, Ms. Wright, can we get a comment, please?" a man asked.

"What is it like to return to civilization after so long on a deserted island?" a woman asked.

"Can you tell us what happened on that island?" a man asked.

"Tell us about the accident," a woman told us.

I could barely breathe, annoyed and overwhelmed.

⚔  

I was in the courtroom, giving my statement in front of everyone.

"Ms. Wright, you were originally in Mexico when your parents and your brother were killed," the judge told me. "Are you originally from Mexico?"

"No," I answered. "I'm from east LA, but you already know that, otherwise I would've already been deported."

"Why were you and your sister Amy on that boat?" the judge asked.

I took a deep breath, gazing off. "Amy thought that it would be a way to clear our heads. She had no idea."

"Can you tell us what caused the shipwreck?" the judge asked.

"There was a storm," I told her. "The boat went down. Some men made it. Some were lost at sea. My sister didn't make it. I almost died. I... I thought that I had, because I spent so many days on that raft before I saw the island. When I reached it, I knew... I knew that I was gonna have to live on for my family. And in those six years, it was that one thought that kept me going."

A lawyer stood. "Your Honor, we move to vitiate the death-in-absentia filed after Jillian's disappearance at sea."

⚔  

I walked out of the courtroom.

Oliver was standing in the foyer. "How did it go?"

I sighed, shaking my head. "It's your turn."

Oliver nodded in understanding, walking upstairs.

I walked outside.

The press was even worse than before, surrounding a man.

"Mr. Sommers, one question, please," a woman told him.

"I don't know what I've done to earn this witch-hunt from Ms. Lance and her bosses at the CNRI," Sommers told them. "But I can tell you this. I am an honest businessman, and I will fight this slander to my last dime and breath. That's all I have to say. Thank you."

Sommers walked away, leaving.

The press clamored when they saw me. "There's Ms. Wright! Oh, there's Ms. Wright."

I pushed past them toward the limo.

"Tell us what happened inside, Ms. Wright," a man told me.

John came to help. "Step back, everybody, please."

"Can you give us a couple comments about the island, Ms. Wright?" a man asked. "Before you go, Jill, please." John opened the door of the limo for me. I got inside. "What happened in there?"

John ushered the crowd back. "All right. Everybody step back. Hey, man, I'll make you swallow that Nikon. Back."

I got into the front seat of the limo, driving away, leaving.

⚔  

I went to the lair, training, working out to blow off steam, to try to relax.

Oliver walked in. "You took off."

I jumped down from the rope. "I can take a lot of heat, but press and paparazzi is not one of them." Oliver nodded. "What can you tell me about Martin Sommers?"

"I can tell you Laurel's targeted the worst of Starling City, so it's no surprise his name is on my father's list," Oliver told me. "The city's police and DA can't stop him, or won't. Laurel thinks she's the only one willing to bring him to justice. She's wrong."

Oliver had gone to threaten Martin Sommers and coerce him into admitting to having Victor Nocenti killed. 

I didn't think that he would.

⚔  

John and Moira were talking at the Queen mansion.

I walked in. "Hi."

"Jill, the point of having a bodyguard is to accept their protection," Moira told me. "Where is it that you run off to?"

I sighed. "I've been alone for six years."

"I know that, Jillian," Moira told me.

"And all of this is just a little overwhelming for me right now," I told them. 

"I understand," Moira told me. "But I'd rather have Mr. Diggle with you and protecting you than you be alone and targeted again. It's not safe. You've already been targeted once. There are two maniacs out there, hunting the wealthy."

"Those maniacs saved your son's and my lives," I told her. "But okay." Moira walked out, leaving. I looked at John. "I'm sorry to give you so much grief."

"I served three tours in Afghanistan, Ms. Wright," John told me. "You don't even come close to my definition of 'grief'." He walked closer. "But I tell you what. You ditch me one more time, no one will have to fire me."

I nodded.

John walked away, leaving.

⚔

People had been sent after Laurel while Oliver and John had been there, so they could save her.

I walked into the hallway of the mansion, tossing a ice pack to John.

John caught it, standing.

"I'd say thank you, but I don't think that would cover it," Oliver told him.

"Well, like I told your cop friend, I was just doing my job," John told him. "Besides, I think it should be you that I'm thanking."

"What for?" I asked.

"The knife," John answered.

Oliver nodded. "The knife."

"That was a kitchen knife," John told him. "It wasn't even weighted properly, yet you threw it with accuracy across a 10-foot room."

"Sounds like he got lucky," I told him.

"I'm not the kind of man you want to take for a fool," John told us. "You understand me?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"And I'm thinking I'm just beginning to understand the kind of people you are," John told us.

"Shouldn't take you very long," Oliver told him. "I'm shallow."

"I'm tired, so..." I trailed off. "Good night."

I walked out, leaving.

⚔  

Oliver and I were in the lair, suiting up. 

"I wanted to give Martin Sommers the chance to confess and face a court's justice, but he chose to go after Laurel instead," Oliver told me. "The people that were after her, they're from the Chinese Triad. They're well-trained, and I know that they'll outnumber me in case I have to face them again. Martin's still going to face justice. It'll just be a different kind."

⚔  

Outside, Oliver was dismantling the shooters.

I saw Martin running into a warehouse on the docks. "Martin Sommers!"

I jumped over the railing of the balcony I was on, climbing down, running into the warehouse, throwing a knife into his jacket sleeve to pin him to a crate. 

Martin closed his eyes in fear. "Oh, God, no, no, no."

"He can't help you," I told him, throwing another knife into his other sleeve to pin to the crate. "I want the truth about Victor Nocenti."

"I can't," Martin told me. "The Triad will kill me."

"The Triad's not your concern right now," I told him, throwing another knife into the crate above his head.

"All right, all right, all right," Martin told me. "I wasn't me who that killed him. It was the Triad."

"Acting on whose instructions?" I asked. Martin didn't answer. I threw a knife to either side of his head, embedding them in the crate. Martin screamed. "Whose?"

"All right, all right," Martin told me. "It was mine. It was mine, all right? Nocenti said he was gonna testify against me."

Martin looked behind me.

I turned to see a woman in black with blonde hair.

The woman spoke in Chinese. "Cong ta shenshang yi kai. [Move away from him]."

I spoke in Chinese. "Rang wo. [Make me]."

The woman tried to punch me. I backed away enough to make her miss. The woman tried to punch me repeatedly. I raised both arms to block the moves. The woman withdrew a staff. I drew my sword. The woman tried to hit me with the staff. I used the sword to block the move. The woman spun to try to hit me. I jumped up onto a concrete step to make her miss, slashing toward her. The woman jumped up onto the concrete step next to me to make me miss, swinging the staff toward me. I ducked, rolling off of the step to the floor. The woman jumped down toward me, spinning to try to kick me. I ducked, slashing the sword into her side, making her fall into the step. The woman stood, swinging the staff toward me. I used the sword to block each move, jumping up onto the step, jumping down to slash toward her from above. The woman spun out of the way. I landed on the floor, standing. The woman spun to try to hit me with the staff. I used the sword to block the move, punching her in the face, kicking her in the chest, making her fall to the floor.

We heard a voice over the megaphone. "This is the police. Drop your weapons. You are surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air."

The woman and I both ran out of the building. 

I put the sword into the sheath on my back, hopping over a fence to the other side. 

Lance came out of hiding from behind a container, aiming a gun at me. "Freeze!" I stopped. "You twitch and you're dead. Swords down, hands up."

Oliver was above one of the containers, shooting the gun out of Lance's hand.

I threw a knife with the recording of Martin's confession into the container wall behind Lance.

Oliver and I both were gone before Lance knew what happened.

⚔  

The sun had came up by the time we got back to the lair.

"Laurel was right," Oliver told me. "I can't be the Oliver my mother wants me to be and still keep the promise I made to my father. I have to be the person I need them to see me as."

"So you're giving up running your father's company in favor of being a vigilante," I told him. "Sounds about right."

I put my swords into the wooden suitcase.

⚔  

There was a press conference announcement for Queen Consolidated. 

Thea and Moira were sitting on the stage.

Walter was giving a speech on the stage. "Good afternoon. And thank you all for coming. Welcome to the future site of the Robert Queen Memorial Applied Sciences Center." There was applause. "Now, this is a building that will stand as a monument to the man whose company and vision are his greatest legacies."

Oliver walked through the crowd, pretending to be drunk. "Whoa. Whoa." He took a wine glass off a table, taking a drink, putting it back. "What about me? Right? I'm a legacy." He walked toward the stage. "Hey. Thanks for warming them up, Walt." He got onto the stage, picking up a gold shovel. "All right. Ow. Fine, fine shovel. I got it." He pretended to be about to drop it. "I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I got it. Some of you may not know me. My name is Oliver Queen. Uh, watch some television, read a newspaper. I'm kind of famous right now. Mostly, though, I'm famous because I'm Robert Queen's son. Uh, but as Walter, who's my new dad... Huh? Who is... Sorry. As Walter was saying, I'm not much of a legacy, per se. And, uh..."

"Oliver, you don't have to do this," Walter told him.

"No, sit," Oliver told him. "Sit. Gosh." Walter sat down. "See, I was supposed to come here today, and I'm supposed to take my rightful place at the company. Prodigal son returns home and becomes the heir apparent. But I'm not my father. I'm not the man he was. I'm not half the man he was. I never will be. So, please, stop asking me to be."

Oliver put the shovel down, walking off stage. 

Everyone was left in uncomfortable silence.

⚔  

That night at the Queen mansion, outside, Oliver was talking to a headstone for his father to apologize. He looked at the construction workers, pointing at his headstone. "Take it down." He walked toward me. "All that time on the island, plotting my return, I didn't realize how hard it would be. To reconnect with Mom, Thea, Laurel. Okay, I didn't... I didn't know how painful it would be to keep my secrets."

"I guess that makes me lucky, hmm?" I asked. "Having no one that close to me to keep my secrets?"

"Your misfortune makes up for it by giving you no one," Oliver told me. I looked down, nodding. "My dad asked me to save the city. To right his wrongs. I will. But to do that, I can't be the Oliver that everyone wants me to be. Which means that sometimes... to honor his wishes..."

I nodded in understanding. "You have to dishonor his memory. I'm sorry, Oliver."

"Me, too, Jill," Oliver told me. "For everything."

Oliver walked toward the mansion.

I stayed where I was, sighing, looking down, thoughtfully distant.