The Starling Saviour

Chapter 55

'Are you sure you wanna go out there?' Diggle checked as Oliver suited up and I attached an earpiece into my left ear. 'You were just held hostage by that lunatic.'

'I'm sure,' I nodded finally. 'I don't want to be defined by my failures or weaknesses, or just let myself become the 'damsel in distress' I have been lately. I'm supposed to be a vigilante, not a helpless civilian.'

'You seem pretty... Off at the moment,' Diggle picked up. 'Ever since your sister left the city, it's like something's been holding you back. Is... Something up?'

'Not... Really,' I tried to avoid Diggle's question.

'Did the Count and Vanch get in your head?' Diggle inquired, I nodding in response.

'I guess so,' I confirmed his suspicions. 'But now, I am trying to fix that. I'm going to make sure that Oliver gets back in one piece. It will, well, it'll be a start, to make me feel useful around here, something which has been hard to do recently.'

At that moment, I knew I would have to tell Diggle some of the truth.

'I... heard news of something. Something that made me ask myself a lot of things, things I had buried a long time ago. It made me feel lesser, not worthy of this... Life I have built for myself. And I need to work on that.'

'Well, maybe this will help then,' Diggle smiled. 'Just, stay safe out there.'

'I will,' I nodded again.

'My mom is holding a meeting at Queen Consolidated as we speak,' Oliver told us as he joined us, ready to go.

'If anything happens, remember you have Aria on the end of the line,' Diggle reminded Oliver, passing him my earpiece's twin.

'There's a multi-storey car park pretty near the Queen Consolidated building,' Oliver started outlining his plan. 'I will be zip lining in and out of my mom's office from the top floor of there, and that's where you'll wait, Aria.'

'Sounds easy enough,' I shrugged, but Oliver's grave face told me I needed to become more serious, and quickly, before someone got hurt.

'Good luck,' Diggle said as we parted from the Arrowcave and to the car park.

---

I waited for a good ten minutes after Oliver had entered Queen Consolidated, but I was not expecting his return to be so swift. And he was bleeding.

'Ollie!' I exclaimed at once when his green-clad, bloody presence finally graced me. 'What happened?'

'No time to explain,' he managed to state between groans and cries of pain. 'I'm bleeding.'

'I can see that,' I spouted sarcastically, but I soon realised it wasn't the time for humour. 'Take my hand.'

I hoisted Oliver up so he could use my right shoulder for support, at once getting him moving towards the steps within the car complex so I could get him help as soon as possible.

'I would take you to a hospital, but I don't think they'd be in favour of keeping your secret,' I said as I talked through what on earth I was going to do with Oliver. 'But I can't get to you back to the club quickly enough.'