Summary: Malcolm Merlyn had the perfect plan to get out of the blood debt given to him by Ra's al Ghul. He would pit Oliver Queen against Ra's, who would kill him. Merlyn would then resurrect Oliver, earning him Queen's allegiance against Ra's. His plan? To train Oliver to take on Ra's once again and beat him.

AN: Just read yet another article of speculation which resulted in this plot bunny. So far, for me, what follows seems to be the most likely to occur in the episodes to come following episode 9. We shall see. This story will be totally canon up to episode 9. Then we'll find out how close to canon it is when we see the new episodes after January 21. Hope you enjoy!

Malcolm watched the scene at the top of the mountain unfold as he pretty much thought it would. Oliver fought the good fight, but the end result was him tumbling off the cliff….dead. Malcolm successfully remained hidden while Ra's, Nyssa, and Maseo left, taking all evidence of the duel with them.

There was still a smidge of conscience residing in Malcolm, which cried out in horror at what he had done. He had basically led Oliver to his death. Which would be permanent if his plan to get him to the Lazarus Pit failed.

However, Malcolm was confident he would be successful in his plan to resurrect Mr. Queen. Oliver would then be grateful to Malcolm for restoring him to life, and thus swear allegiance with him against Ra's al Ghul. Malcolm would then train Oliver to be successful in beating Ra's in a second duel, thus erasing the blood debt over his and Thea's heads.

Following Oliver's tumble off the mountain, Merlyn and two hired men bundled up his body on a sled and made their way to Ra's' compound. Merlyn kept an eye out for any possible danger, but the compound was empty. After the duel, al Ghul and his contingent had left, as Merlyn thought they would. Ra's never really liked his North American stronghold, but had held the duel here because of necessity. He hadn't wanted to reveal any more of his secrets to Queen than necessary by having Oliver meet him at his Nanda Parbat home.

While Merlyn kept watch, the two men carried Oliver into the building. Merlyn followed, after picking up two packages from the sled.

~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~

Oliver first became aware of lying on an unfamiliar bed. He knew it wasn't his bed at home because it wasn't as comfortable. His side itched, and as he attempted to scratch it, he was unable to move his hand. The somewhat familiar sensation of having his hands cuffed registered in his scrambled brain; he attempted to remember what happened. Oh no, not again. What is it this time?

Even though he felt worse than he had ever felt, which was saying something, his self-preservation was still very much alive in him. This resulted in his listening for any clues to his predicament before opening his eyes and possibly alerting an enemy of his wakefulness. Nothing, he heard nothing, so he warily opened his eyes.

"Welcome back, Oliver. Glad to see you awake."

Dread shot into the pit of his stomach at the familiar voice. Merlyn. His eyes shot open wide, and he turned his head only to see the dreaded sight of his enemy sitting in a chair next to the bed. Every hair immaculately in place, wearing an expensive suit like always, Malcolm Merlyn was indeed next to him.

Glaring at him, Oliver waited for Merlyn to say something else, to give him a clue as to what the situation was all about. All Merlyn did was smile his most maddening smile. Oliver rolled his eyes and decided to speak. "What's this all about?"

"What do you remember?"

Oliver thought for a moment. Suddenly it became clear. The ultimatum from Ra's, Malcolm's set-up of Thea, the duel…

The stabbing. In the chest. Being run completely through by Ra's sword. Life draining out of him.

"How can I be alive?"

Malcolm smiled. "Oh, you do remember. Yes, Oliver, you died. I brought you back to life by way of a Lazarus Pit."

Oliver considered what he had just heard. Several things troubled him. "Lazarus Pit? I thought that was only a legend. Make believe."

"Lucky for you it isn't. Ra's may look like he's fifty, but he's actually over 400 years old. He has used the Pits many times over the centuries."

Oliver decided to explore the topic of the Pit later and address the other issue. "You brought me back to life?" He forced himself to ask, "Why?"

Malcolm smiled a particularly bothersome smile. "Yes, who would've thought we would finally be on the same side?" Oliver glared at him, but Malcolm continued as though he wasn't bothered. "You see, Oliver, we need each other. I need your help in defeating Ra's thereby cancelling the blood debt hanging over my and your sister's heads. You need me to prepare you for your next duel with Ra's so you can win this time."

"So this is your true reason for killing Sara? So I'm indebted to you and so agree to take care of your blood debt?"

"Remember, I didn't kill Sara."

Oliver swallowed hard, fighting the bile rising up in his throat. "Why couldn't you just ask me for help instead of using Sara and Thea to manipulate me into taking care of your blood debt?"

"For one thing, you wouldn't have agreed without incentive. Second, Ra's wouldn't have allowed you to get close to him without this. I'm sorry I had to go through such extremes, but there was no other way. I would've trained you better before your first duel, but Ra's gave his ultimatum earlier than I had expected." A small chuckle escaped Malcolm. "Not to mention the fact you wouldn't believe or trust me."

"Really, Malcolm? How can I trust anything you say now?"

"You don't have much choice, do you? We need each other, Oliver. You need my help in defeating him. He will come after you once he hears you're not dead. Also, he will know how you are still alive, and he won't be happy about someone else using one of his Lazarus pits."

"Again, your doing, not mine."

"Doesn't matter. Sure, he's still after me until you kill him, but without me you wouldn't be able to defeat him. You also don't have the choice not to battle him again. He won't give you a choice."

Oliver leaned back into his pillow. He suddenly was very, very tired. However, before he surrendered to the fatigue, he needed some answers.

"I'm tired. So we will discuss this all later, but Malcolm, what are you planning? What's next?"

"Yes, I understand why you're tired. Your body reacted strongly to coming back alive, and you were insane for three days."

"What?"

"Don't worry, it's a common reaction. One that is temporary but increases in severity and length with continued use of the Pit. Thus, why Ra's is the way he is."

Oliver filed the information for future consideration. "I need to call my team and let them know…"

"Not yet."

"What do you mean 'not yet'?"

"Ra's has ears everywhere. We don't want him to find out you're alive until you're ready to face him again."

Oliver raised his voice. "That could take months. I will not allow my team to not know for so long."

"You don't have a choice. They have to be convincing in their grief. It will be okay, Oliver. When you have defeated him we will then let them know."

Malcolm's grin disappeared and instead the hard-core villain Oliver was familiar with appeared. He leaned forward, his face inches away from Oliver's. "This isn't negotiable." He got up, walked to the door of the room, and opened it. "Rest now, Oliver. We shall talk more later. It will all work out, trust me." Malcolm left, closed the door, and Oliver heard a key turn in the lock.

"Trust him? Yeah, right." Oliver looked around the small room, finding nothing capable of potential use. Actually, the bed and chair were the only furnishings, and the one window was small and grimy. Some sunshine shone through the dirty panes, but Oliver could see nothing else from the angle he was at.

Oliver leaned back into the pillows once again. Exhaustion overcame him, and sleep readily came. I'll think about all of this later.

~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~

Felicity entered the foundry as she had the past three days, resigned to the task of hunting Oliver down. Again she cursed the team's agreeing to Oliver leaving without knowing where he was going. Why oh why didn't they ask Oliver for the address? No, they should've demanded the address from that infuriating man.

She knew why she hadn't asked. She wanted to believe they wouldn't need it, that Oliver would return to them without difficulty. Even though deep down, she hadn't believed it. Neither did Oliver, she could tell. From the way he looked at her, to the way his lips lingered on her forehead, to the last determined look they shared as he left. The one thing giving her hope was that he had felt the same way when he faced Slade, the night of the siege. Despite all the odds, he found a way to beat Slade then, to survive.

Felicity walked down the stairs and turned on the lights. She didn't expect anyone to be there. A squeak escaped her lips when she heard, "Hello, Felicity," from her chair and she watched as Malcolm Merlyn swung around in her office chair to face her.

"What are you doing here?"

Rising, Malcolm walked to the medical table in between them. "I have a message for you from Ra's al Ghul." He laid a sword on the table. "Oliver Queen is dead."

Felicity looked first at Malcolm with eyes wide, and her lips formed into an 'O', then at the sword lying on the medical table. She was unaware she was holding her breath until Malcolm said, "Breath, Ms. Smoak. I don't want you to faint on me."

Forcing herself to breath, Felicity kept her eyes on Malcolm. "What happened?"

"Ra's used this sword, ran Oliver through, and threw his body over the cliff."

Felicity forced her lips to ask, "Where is his b…b…body?"

"I couldn't get it. Ra's took it away with him. He had left the sword on the mountainside, so I brought it back to you. I knew you won't believe me, so you can have the sword to test. The blood on it is Oliver's."

Felicity forced her body to remain in place, even though she wanted to run away. Or hit Merlyn with everything she got. "Why are you here? How can we believe you? Why should we?"

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders. "Believe me, don't believe me. I don't care. My obligation is done."

"Is that all you can say? Oliver is dead, because of you, and that is all you can say?" Felicity didn't want to look upon him anymore. She could not bear it. "Get out. Get out now!"

Malcolm again shrugged his shoulders. "I am truly sorry, Felicity. For your loss, your team's loss and the loss to the city."

As he walked past her and started up the stairs, Felicity grabbed the first thing she could find, which was a stapler, and threw it at him. It barely missed him, but Malcolm didn't stop or look back. He left without a word, and as the door slammed behind him, Felicity crumbled to the ground.

~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~OQ~~

As Diggle and Roy entered the foundry and started down the stairs, they saw Felicity curled in a ball sleeping on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Diggle bounded down the stairs to the IT girl and gently woke her up. He assisted her into a sitting position and asked, "What happened, Felicity?"

She had stopped crying several hours ago, but with Diggle's question the tears began to flow once more. Loud, racking sobs came out of the petite blonde as she threw herself into Diggle's arms. Diggle looked at Roy over Felicity's shoulder and noted tears in the young man's eyes as well. They both knew and feared what had made Felicity cry. Roy looked at the medical table and saw the sword. He walked over and picked it up, drawing Diggle's attention to it.

"Shush, Felicity. It will be okay." Diggle made soothing circles on her back. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Felicity tried to stop crying, and instead loud gulps were heard. Diggle let her go, and turned her body to face him. "Come on, Felicity. Slow your breathing, come on honey."

"Malcolm was here."

"What?" both Roy and Diggle exclaimed.

"He said he was here to bring us the sword as proof that Oliver….that Oliver is…"

Roy and Diggle shared a shocked look. Diggle closed his eyes, took a breath, opened them and asked, "Felicity, did he say Oliver was dead?"

Felicity nodded. "He said Ra's stabbed him and threw his body over the mountain."

Roy said, "Guys, how can we even know this is true? Come on, we're talking about Malcolm here."

Diggle turned his attention back to Felicity. "Where is Malcolm now, Felicity?"

"I don't know. I yelled at him in my loud voice and he left."

"First, Felicity, we will test the blood on the sword. It probably is Oliver's, and it won't prove he's dead, but it is a place to start." Felicity nodded as Diggle continued. "While I do that, you can check your scans and see if anything is showing up. We need to find the place of the duel, and see for ourselves what had happened. Also, see if you can get a handle on Merlyn."

Felicity took a deep breath. She felt a little better. After all, if Oliver was indeed dead, she would certainly have felt it. Wouldn't she? She got up and headed back to her computers. Diggle watched her with sad eyes, hoping he wasn't wrong in giving her possibly false hope. He got up and joined her at the desk and began to work.

AN: So that's the first chapter. When will Team Arrow find out Oliver's alive? What else does Malcolm have planned? Can Oliver trust him? We shall see. Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you so much for reading!