⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
starling city

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

JULIET AND BARRY had shown Oliver how they were heroes in Central City. Now it was time for them to see how Oliver was a hero in Starling City.

Felicity had asked Caitlin to analyze the sample of DNA from the Canary's murder. It was evident that Felicity could've just mailed the sample to Caitlin, but since all of them had some vacation days, also known as not telling Dr. Wells where they were going and just disappearing, they all decided to take a trip to Starling.

While Caitlin and Cisco took the train, Juliet and Barry had some time to kill before they left because they could be there extremely quickly. She was standing in her kitchen, filling up a glass of water, when her phone buzzed. Juliet looked over to see it was a text from Caitlin to her and Barry, saying that there was an attack on A.R.G.U.S., which was a part of the government that dealt with terrorist attacks in secret.

Juliet quickly teleported in her suit at S.T.A.R. Labs before closing her eyes, imagining A.R.G.U.S. in her mind. Like every time she teleported, her body immediately knew where to go. A tingling feeling spread throughout her entire body. When she opened her eyes, she was in a dark building with two stories. She peeked around the corner where she was to see Oliver, another archer hero dressed in red, Diggle hiding with another woman who Juliet recognized to be Lyla Michaels, and multiple agents on the ground. Oliver and the red archer were in the middle of fighting some guy that had a long coat and boomerangs, just like the one Felicity had brought to Central City.

Suddenly, the man shot three boomerangs straight at Oliver while he stood still. Juliet's eyes widened and she held out her hand. Instantly, right in front of Oliver, the two boomerangs stopped in midair, red energy starting to travel between them. Oliver looked down at them, his face morphing into one of realization. The red archer, however, looked hopelessly confused.

Juliet stepped out of her corner, red energy traveling up and down her arms as she focused on the boomerangs. She then morphed her hand in a fist, causing the two pieces of metal to crunch into one ball of metal. Juliet then thrust her hand out at the man and made the ball hit his shoulder. He cried out in pain and clutched his shoulder.

Barry then sped in with a flash of yellow lightning, causing papers on a desk to fly everywhere, and looked at Juliet. "Saved nothing for me?"

Juliet shrugged casually. "Too slow, Flash."

The man then threw something on the ground, causing sparks and smoke to fly everywhere. All of them averted their gazes. When they looked back forwards, the man was gone. Juliet felt the gazes from everyone on her, but she only really wanted to acknowledge one in particular.

Juliet looked over her shoulder and caught eyes with Oliver, giving him a wink. "Magic."

With that, she teleported away to the location that Caitlin said was the Arrow Cave. Once she opened her eyes, she saw that she was in a large room underground. It had a row of computers and screens, multiple places to train with weapons, and glass cases with mannequins for suits. Despite their being fluorescent lights overhead, the room seemed to have a sort of green glow to it.

Barry then sped in and pulled the hood of his suit down. Juliet took off her mask, holding it in her hands as she walked further into the room. Felicity and Caitlin were sat at the desk of computers while Cisco was wandering around, looking at all the weapons Oliver had down here.

"Hi, Felicity," Juliet greeted with a smile.

Felicity grinned back at her, although it looked slightly strained. "Hi, Juliet."

Barry didn't say anything to Felicity. Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion at that, because it was very unlike him to not greet Felicity. However, when she looked over at him, she saw him walking towards a tall structure that had a bar on it — the salmon ladder. Barry grabbed the bar, and using his upper body strength, he reached the next indent with the bar. Once he realized he could do it, he started to go up and down the salmon ladder in super speed. Juliet shook her head and pulled up a chair, settling herself down next to Felicity.

"How often does Oliver do this?" Caitlin asked, her head bobbing up and down as she watched Barry go up and down.

"At least every Wednesday," Felicity answered. "There's a lot of sweating."

"Hm," Juliet commented, putting her elbow on the desk and resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

Barry then finally stopped, hopping down from the salmon ladder and handing the bar off to Cisco. "I don't see what's so hard about that. J, you should try."

"Absolutely not," Juliet replied.

"I'm not sure she should have called you two," Felicity told Juliet and Barry, placing a hand on Caitlin's shoulder. "Oliver doesn't play well with others. Well, except Juliet for some reason."

"Ah, come on," Cisco began, swinging his arms back and forth as he approached the salmon ladder. "Barry, Juliet, and Oliver kicked ass last week."

"Yeah," Barry agreed, smiling widely.

"They were in, like . . ." Cisco paused for a moment, only because he was having extreme difficulty pulling himself up on the bar. "A league of their own."

"Yeah, that was, like, a one time thing," Felicity insisted.

"Felicity, that guy was throwing around exploding boomerangs," Juliet explained. "Two of them would've impaled Ollie — Oliver if I hadn't stopped them. And I'm almost positive the guy in the red—"

"Roy."

"Sorry, Roy, was hurt because he was on the ground. Whether they want to admit it or not, they needed some back-up."

"And I need some dinner," Barry added. "That salmon ladder made me hungry for sushi. Want anything, J?"

"No, I'm all right," Juliet responded. "Thank you, though."

Barry then sped off, making the papers on the desk fly everywhere.

Felicity slapped her hands down on the desk, trying to stop the flying papers. "And I need to get some paperweights down here!"

"I should have warned you about that," Caitlin stated.

"Yeah."

"Don't worry about it, I got it," Juliet said.

She focused on the papers and flicked her hand upwards, causing all the papers on the floor to rise up into the air. Juliet then made them form into a neat little pile and lowered her hand, settling down on the desk. She then heard footsteps behind her, signaling that people were coming. Juliet put her mask back on her face just in case.

Juliet turned. Walking into the Arrow Cave was Oliver, Roy, Diggle, and Lyla. Juliet stood up from her chair. She managed to catch eyes with Oliver again, and she gave him a quick smile as she locked her hands behind her back.

"Are you okay?" Felicity immediately questioned to Lyla.

"You can't work for A.R.G.U.S. without making a few enemies," Lyla responded. "Sorry to involve all of you in this." Diggle then emptied out an evidence bag, and the broken pieces of an arrow fell onto a tray. "Is that A.R.G.U.S. property?"

"It's evidence," Diggle argued.

A flash of yellow lightning then entered the room once more, causing the papers that Juliet had just picked up to fly away again. Juliet rolled her eyes and turned around. Barry was sitting down in the chair, sushi in one hand and a pair of chopstick in the other. Her eyes then instantly widened at the sight of the hood of his suit being down, completely exposing his identity to Lyla. Juliet lifted her hand and made a red blur cover his face, but it was too late. Lyla had already seen.

"Juliet, what are you doing?" Barry inquired in confusion.

She lowered her hand, making the red go away, but glared at him harshly. "I am going to kill you. Not only did you expose your secret identity to her, but you exposed mine by saying my name, which means you're stupid."

Barry hesitated for a moment before gesturing in between Lyla and Diggle with his chopsticks. "They're married."

"We're not married," Lyla and Diggle chorused.

"Or together, or whatever. He told her about us." Barry's face fell when Diggle shook his head. "You didn't?"

"I keep secrets for a living, man," Diggle responded.

"Ah." He gave a sheepish smile to Juliet. "My bad."

Juliet sighed. Well, if Barry said her name, there was no point of keeping her mask on. Juliet took off her mask and smiled gently at Lyla, completely missing the way Oliver's eyes were glued to her as she did so.

Lyla looked completely shocked as her eyes flickered in between Juliet and Barry. "You're — you're—"

"Scarlet," Juliet confirmed.

"The Flash," Barry added. He held out his sushi and chopstick towards her. "Sushi?"

"We need a location on the man who's after Lyla," Oliver cut in seriously. "His name is Digger Harkness."

Barry stood up. "Well, the first step is to work the evidence—"

"Barry, Jules — Juliet, can I speak to you both for a moment, please?"

Juliet shared a look with Barry before the two of them followed Oliver to a more secluded area of the room. She crossed her arms across her chest and looked up at Oliver, trying to ignore the way her heart was beating slightly faster from being around him. Barry stopped next to Juliet, his arm brushing against her shoulder.

"I appreciate your help back at A.R.G.U.S., but we have this handled," Oliver voiced.

"You don't want to team up again?" Barry asked.

"Things work differently here. Starling City is meaner."

Juliet gave him an innocent smile. "But we're nice."

Barry ignored her. "I seem to remember helping you pretty good last year, and that was without powers."

"Plus, you should see Barry now. He's been practicing everything you taught him. It's not just me casing new environments this time, and he's not running in blind." She looked up at him, seeing the hard features on his face slightly soften. "Come on."

Oliver sighed. "We do this my way."

"Yes!" Barry exclaimed, and him and Juliet high-fived. "This is going to be awesome. Okay, what's our first move?"

"We need to reassemble the evidence," Oliver announced to everyone as he walked forwards, Juliet following after him. "It will take some time, but it'll—"

He was cut off by a gust of wind and a flash of yellow lightning. There was the sound of metal being moved around for a couple moments before it ended. Barry then picked up the tray and brought it over to the group with a smile, revealing five reassembled boomerangs.

"But it'll be worth it," Oliver finished.

"Rad," Cisco commented, picking up one of the boomerangs and inspecting it. "These are a bit more teched out than the one you guys brought to Central City. 3D printed polymer with a circuitry weave."

"Some of Harkness' boomerangs exploded," Roy revealed.

"Oh, yeah. There are grooves in here that could definitely pack a C4 charge."

"Maybe if we figure out where Harkness got the supplies, we can use that to track him," Caitlin suggested.

"These weren't made by Ka-Boom-Boomerang," Cisco said.

"Ka-Boom-Boomerang?" Roy repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, you know, he has exploding boomerangs?"

Juliet raised her eyebrows. "Cisco, that's lame. You can do better than that."

He frowned at her. "Really? It makes perfect sense—"

"Cisco," Oliver interrupted through gritted teeth, and he stopped. "If Harkness didn't make them, we need to find out who did."

"And who he made the buy off of," Diggle added.

"Markos," Cisco stated, his eyes widening in realization. "You see this collapsible node design? Dead giveaway. That's his signature."

"We need a location on this . . ." Oliver trailed off, waving on Cisco.

"Klaus Markos."

Felicity sat down at the computers and typed for a moment. "No known home address or place of employment for Markos, but he was arrested last year by an officer Quentin Lance."

Oliver looked straight at Juliet and Barry. "Get dressed."

Juliet blinked. "Excuse me?"

"We're going to visit the SCPD. Now come on."

She did as she was told. Juliet teleported into her regular clothes, leaving her suit in the Arrow Cave. She immediately walked up to Barry and extended her hand. Barry knew what she meant, so he took her hand. Juliet then looked over at Oliver and offered her hand to him. Oliver glanced at it for a moment.

"You want to hold hands with us while we go upstairs?" Oliver questioned, his tone slightly confused.

"No, we're teleporting," Juliet answered simply. "Duh."

"I told you, I don't deal with this magic stuff. And didn't we agree to do things my way?"

"Things your way takes a long time. We'll be at the SCPD within seconds, and you'll get your information a lot quicker." She extended her hand out further to him. "Come on. Trust me."

Oliver stared at her for a moment longer, Juliet tilting her head to urge him on. He finally let out a breath and took her hand. Juliet then closed her eyes, focusing on her, Barry, and Oliver as a whole. Like normal, a tingling feeling spread throughout her body. When she opened them, they were standing in an alley by a tall building which Juliet could only assume was the SCPD.

"That was weird," Oliver voiced, blinking a couple of times before looking at Juliet. "You're weird."

Juliet shrugged. "I know." She then gestured him forwards. "Lead the way."

Oliver did as he was told. He started to walk forwards. Juliet shared a look with Barry before following Oliver, Barry trailing behind her. Oliver led them into the SCPD and took them up the elevator. They entered a room, only to see Quentin Lance and who Juliet recognized as Laurel Lance (she heard of her since she was a district attorney for Starling).

"Hey, Laurel," Oliver greeted. "Detective. Captain. Cap — Captain. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Captain Lance replied. "It's been a while."

Laurel looked from Barry, to Juliet, then to Oliver. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, it's fine," Oliver reassured her. "This is, uh—"

"Ah, Bart Allen and Jenna St. James, right?" Captain Lance interjected, making Juliet's eyebrows knit in confusion. "You get hit by a bus or something?"

"It's Juliet and Barry, actually," Juliet corrected. "And we got struck by lightning."

"Huh. Ow." Captain Lance looked down at Laurel. "Barry and I worked together on a case last year, and he mentioned his partner, Juliet, a couple of times."

"Barry and Juliet are friends," Oliver stated. "They're in town with the Central City Police Department, and I was hoping that you could help them with . . . they'll explain."

"Sure."

"Oliver, can I talk to you for a moment?" Laurel inquired.

"Yeah," Oliver agreed, and the two of them walked off.

"We're looking to track down a suspect you apprehended last year — Klaus Markos?" Barry explained. "You know where we might be able to find him? None of his last knowns are checking out."

"Well, I don't really keep up on the skels I busted walking the beat, you know?" Captain Lance responded. "I'm not real sentimental that way."

Juliet nodded. "Could you tell us what he was arrested for, then?"

"Um . . . identity theft. He was using some gizmo to steal credit card numbers for the, uh, the Bratva. Russian mob."

She offered him a small smile. "Thank you, Captain Lance."

Juliet then looked up at Barry, placing her hands into the pockets of her jacket. They had some figuring out to do.

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

AFTER OLIVER HAD explained who the Bratva was to Juliet and Barry, all of them got ready in their suits. Juliet teleported to an abandoned warehouse that Oliver said to go to. She appeared just in front of Roy and Oliver. Oliver didn't react, but Roy jumped slightly backwards.

Roy pointed at her. "How did you do that?"

"Teleportation," Juliet stated simply. "Perks of getting powers. I'll teleport with you one time, it's fun."

Barry then sped next to Juliet, smiling excitedly at Oliver. "I cannot believe you're a member of the Russian mob!"

"Former member, probably," Oliver voiced. "We had a falling out last year. This is where they run their cyber crime operation."

Barry looked at Roy. "Hey, nice outfit, by the way."

Juliet summoned a ball of red energy and held it up, grinning. "Red's always better."

Roy stared at the energy before looking around at the building. "This place looks like a fortress."

"Kalishnikovs everywhere," Diggle revealed as he approached them.

"Roy, take the southeast corner," Oliver instructed, and Roy walked off. "Barry, scan the perimeter." He sped off. "Dig—"

"I've got northwest," Diggle interrupted.

"—are you going to be okay?"

"You think I'll lose it because Harkness is after Lyla? I'm good."

Juliet looked up at Oliver as Diggle walked away. "And I'm with you?"

"You're with me," Oliver confirmed. "Let's go, Jules."

She scolded herself at the way her stomach fluttered from the nickname, because now was not the time, she followed after Oliver into the building. They jogged behind some cars, but a flash of yellow lightning sped throughout the place. Juliet summoned energy and Oliver went to pull an arrow, but they noticed that Barry had knocked out all of the guys and tied them up.

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "Didn't save any for me?"

Barry smirked. "Payback." He then noticed the unimpressed look on Oliver's face as him and Juliet walked up to him. "I had eight seconds to kill. Was that wrong?"

Oliver said nothing and walked away.

Barry shook his head. "What?"

Juliet shared an amused glance with Barry before following Oliver. Oliver kicked down a door that led to a new room. There was only one guy in there, which was Klaus Markos. Once his eyes set on Oliver, he got up and tried to run away. However, Juliet was faster. She lifted her hand up and focused on him, completely making him stop in his tracks. Red energy traveled around him as well as up and down her arms. His eyes were wide in shock.

Barry sped in front of him and grinned. "My friend wants to have a conversation with you."

Juliet thrusted her hand forwards and slammed Markos against the cage wall. She walked further into the room, ignoring the way her mind was slightly starting to spin and how her muscles had begun to ache.

Oliver held up a boomerang. "You made this for Digger Harkness. I want to know where he is."

"Go to hell," Markos replied.

Oliver, without a second of hesitation, notched an arrow and shot it right in Markos' arm. Markos groaned in pain. Juliet's eyes widened and she dropped her hand, letting all of her concentration go on Markos. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Had she just held Markos in place for Oliver just to shoot him?

"The only thing that hurts worse than an arrow going in is an arrow going out," Oliver voiced, walking up to Markos and starting to pull the arrow out, making him groan in pain again.

"Woah, hey, w-what are you doing?" Barry demanded.

"Getting information! Where is he?"

"I don't know!" Markos cried.

"Arrow, stop," Juliet pleaded, desperation seeping into her tone. "He just said he doesn't know."

"He's lying," Oliver said. "If you want to be able to raise your arm again, tell me where he is!"

Markos then lifted a phone up. "Here! Harkness gave it to me. It's encrypted. I had an order ready for him. I called, he came. I don' know where he is, I swear, I swear."

Oliver took the phone away from him. On the way out towards the door, he caught Juliet's eyes. Her stomach churned. She had seen Oliver Queen be all smiley and joke with her about her being a wizard. But now, seeing that . . . it was hard to believe that the Oliver Queen who smiled was the same one who basically tortured someone.

While Barry ran Markos to the SCPD, Juliet stayed in the room they had found Markos in, her mask off. She leaned against the cage wall with her arms crossed, staring at the bloody arrow on the ground. Maybe red wasn't always better.

She heard footsteps. Oliver came back into the room, his hood down and his mask also removed. Juliet watched as he walked up to Markos' workspace. Juliet averted her gaze back to the arrow.

"Got something to say, Juliet?" Oliver began, sounding very calm as he examined the phone.

"To be honest, I don't really have the words, Oliver," Juliet admitted.

I was only a second later when Barry sped in. His hood was down as well, and he stared at Oliver in disbelief. Juliet pushed herself off of the wall and joined his side.

"Felicity can track the encryption," Oliver explained, turning around to face the two heroes. "Use this to track down Harkness."

"You tortured that guy," Barry began.

"I interrogated him."

"No, you shot an arrow into his arm and threatened him," Juliet corrected. "I wouldn't call that interrogating."

Barry nodded in agreement. "When my friend said your tactics made you a criminal, I defended you because I thought you were supposed to be a hero. I thought we were supposed to be better than them."

"Barry, Juliet, you both live in Central City, where it's sunny all the time and your enemies get cute nicknames," Oliver stated, and Juliet's eyes narrowed. "You're not in Central City."

Juliet nodded. "Okay."

Oliver walked up to them, and Barry slightly pushed Juliet behind his back, making Oliver stop in his tracks. "I live in a city where my best friend was murdered, where a woman that I loved was shot full of arrows and sent tumbling off of a rooftop, where my mother was murdered right in front of me. So before you—"

"My mother was murdered in front of me, too," Barry cut in. "But I don't use my personal tragedies as an excuse to just torture whoever pisses me off."

"Well, I'm sorry, Barry and Juliet, I'm not as emotionally healthy as you are."

Juliet turned to face Oliver as he walked away. "Why are you acting like this?"

Oliver rounded on her. "When we agreed that you two were staying, we decided that it would be on my terms. If that is proving too difficult for you, you know your way back to Central City."

"Well, sorry if I didn't think that your terms meant torturing people. Next time we'll make sure to read the terms and conditions."

Juliet rolled her eyes before walking off past a frozen Oliver. She couldn't believe what just happened.

〖 ϟ 〗

YOU SEE THESE MFS

I MISS THESE BITCHES. LITERAL DEFINITION OF RIGHT PERSON WRONG TIME. THEY DESERVED BETTER