Dinah had been insistent since the new Red Arrow caught media buzz. It had been three years since Mia had disappeared with Oliver’s belongings and his impulsive nature. Sin couldn’t blame her mother for wanting news, but rushing to act wasn’t her style. Her intention couldn’t be to pin Mia down and make her talk. That wasn’t how Mia, Roy, or Oliver operated. They would rather fight back to defend their space, or worse, take off unannounced- again.
So after each of Dinah’s voicemails, Sin donned her white costume for the evening. Over the past week, she would go out and try to narrow down the Red Arrow’s patrol radius. Never intending to approach her, Sin did manage to spot Mia a couple of times. Each time, Sin wondered and worried if Mia was ready to talk.
The night was beautiful for any occasion. If she had been on any other assignment, Sin would have regret passing up a night of food and pretending to be someone who enjoyed a carefree life. But this was family, at least what was left of it, and that was more important to her than anything money could buy. She was waiting at a familiar spot, one she most frequently caught glimpse of her adopted sister. The neighborhood of churches, town homes, and business storefronts was relatively quiet. The businesses below were closed for the night, and only residents in the above apartments seemed to case light onto the streets.
Leaned up against a rooftop access door, Sin adjusted her face mask. {Just a couple more minutes and I’ll try the next spot.}
Yeah, Sin wasn't wrong. Cornering people like Oliver and Roy and especially Mia almost always got their hackles up and it made them less likely to cooperate. Even with family. What did that mean anymore? Family? The Island had been her crucible and she had survived it alone, because she knew one day she would be alone. Not today. Not tomorrow. But the day would come where she risked losing even Sin and Dinah and she had to be prepared. Oliver was invincible. He was her brother and her father and her mentor and her best friend. He was also dead.
Oliver had left her alone just like everyone else and she had cauterized that wound with anger and desperate grief. She had not been ready. None of them had been. It was old news. An old scar that ached some days, deep into her bones. Dinah had insisted going back to Oliver's old ways was a dishonor to his memory. The Queen family was more than that, more than vigilantes. They were an enterprise, an idea, and people counted on them and their masked alter egos. They buried Oliver Queen but no one mourned the death of Green Arrow and so much of who Oliver was had been the hero he refused to admit he was.
A select few knew who Green Arrow had been but the fact remained that he wasn't buried in the right suit. He was buried in Armani which a trimmed beard and no dirt under his finger nails. He should of been buried in blood stained green, with a bow and arrow in his hands. Instead, his bow had become her bow. It fit so perfectly - she remembered the few times he let her use it and it was like riding a bike. When Dinah refused to let her rage and fight her way through her pain, when the one person who should of understood had told her to hand up her mask? That had been the beginning of it all, even if she hadn't known it.
She'd tried to live a normal life, just Mia Dearden. Mia Dearden. There was paperwork that only her eyes had seen, tucked away in a manila envelope in her sock drawer. Oliver had left her money, things. Of course he had, she was his daughter. But he had left her something else. A promise. One last gruff kiss with rough beard against her forehead. Queen. His name, for her to take should she want it. They hadn't spoken about it - they'd always been real with each other but that was something so sentimental, so touching, Oliver would of choked on the words. She had been so desperate to find him after he was gone, to cling to his memory, to connect with him that she had realized something, among her desperation.
Oliver didn't live in this city. He was dead and gone, but one place where Oliver Queen had left his mark, discovered himself, one place he would always be --
Years had passed. She had left them all behind. They couldn't understand, didn't want to understand. Oliver was gone but in his death she would find her strength to carry on his mission, even if Dinah and Sin refused. And in that strength, she would avenge him. Somehow. But, she had waited years, hadn't she? She could wait a few more. She was back, cleaning up the streets because wow, had they gotten dirty. They weren't her streets but Oliver had always found kinship in Gotham. Besides, Mia Queen had survived the Island and now she needed to prove to herself that that was enough. That she had earned Oliver's name and his bow and his legacy. If Mia had been well trained when she left, she was far beyond her own skills now.
She was stronger, faster, more resourceful. The violence was there, like it had always been, learning to survive on the street and then in the jungle. She had new scars and new nightmares. Oliver's bow was her bow, an extension of her body and her soul and her creed. Mia Dearden was dead and risen from her ashes was Mia Queen. This, of course, in Oliver fashion, meant she couldn't show up anywhere without attracting attention. Red Arrow. In honor of not only Ollie, but Roy. Once her name was splashed over the headlines - well, she was surprised it had taken Dinah this long to unless the Hounds, aka Sin.
Sin had gotten faster and stronger, too. Maybe the mantel helped. A mantel she was never offered because she wasn't worthy. Because Sin, apparently, deserved it more. Let her have it. Mia would forge her own identity in this Shadow War that seemed to be raging. Sin was lurking, leaning against the roof top access, following her yet again. Mia knew she shouldn't be avoiding her sister but she wasn't the same woman she had been when she left and what would she say? What would they talk about? Mia was pacing in the shadows, trying to decide whether to cross the gap between buildings. Fuck it. The sharp hiss of an arrow whistling through the air sounded and there came the rough sound of arrow head embedding itself into the mortar between the bricks, a foot from Sin's head.
Mia didn't bother to say anything, as she used the line to get across, and landed deftly on the ledge, retracting the line and the arrow, knowing she had Sin's attention. "What are you doing following me?"
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