Robert Queen felt his eyes filling up as he watched the boat speed toward him. After five years, his exile from his family was coming to an end. But that thought just brought back to mind the person who wouldn't be seeing Moira and Thea again. He turned back for one last look at the island that had been his home, and muttered, "Goodbye, Oliver. I wish you could be here with me now. But given what's going to happen next, maybe I'll be seeing you soon." He didn't know how much to hope for that.

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The return of a titan of industry like Robert from what the whole world had assumed was his death naturally resulted in a media frenzy, and upon arriving back in Starling City he grimaced at the sight of dozens of reporters clamoring for a spot by his side. He shouted out in a tone he hoped could be heard over the roar they were making, "Ladies and gentlemen, I will be making a statement tonight. Until then, I only want to be with my family. I hope you can understand that."

As if on cue, his wife Moira burst from the crowd and raced to embrace him. But when he tried to move in for a kiss, he sensed some hesitation. Then a look of terror came over her face as she said, pitched so only he could hear, "Robert, I know this isn't the best time for this, but there really is no good time, so I'm just going to say it now. You were gone five years, and everyone thought you were dead. I mourned you with all of them, and I tried to deal with it as best I could." Robert's heart sank as he got a bad idea where this was going. And sure enough, her next words were, "A few months ago, I married someone else."

He closed his eyes and struggled to control his breathing. It was probably only due to the meditation exercises he'd learned that he succeeded, and said, "Let's talk about it in the car, away from all this." His wife nodded, and they waded through the crowd to the family limousine where his daughter Thea was waiting. She jumped up to hug him, and this time there was no holding back.

Once inside, Robert gently moved Thea away and said to Moira, "Now, who is this man?"

His wife sighed and said, "Without you, Queen Consolidated fell drastically in the stock market. I wasn't able to keep it floating by myself. But then I got an offer to merge with another company, completely equal ownership. And after working together for so long, it just became something more than business between us. His name is Ray Palmer."

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The Queen mansion looked just as Robert remembered it, at least from a distance. As they pulled up to the front door, there was one new addition in the man his wife had married. Robert had heard a bit about Ray Palmer before the shipwreck, a rising tech genius who would likely be a major player for the foreseeable future, but never expected their first meeting would be like this.

It would have been easy if Ray had been the arrogant young brat he had imagined back then, making himself easy to hate and an enemy to fight. But instead he looked just as uneasy as Moira as he stuck out his hand and said, "I'm so sorry about this, Mr. Queen."

Robert took another deep breath. Then he looked at the both of them and said, "I've had a while to think this over now. And I've decided, I'm not going to fight it. I was gone a long time, and you both thought I was dead. Neither of you did anything wrong." He turned fully to Moira as he continued, "And if I tried to fight this, all I'd be doing was forcing you to hurt one of the two men you love, no matter what you chose. Well, I won't do that." He shook Ray's hand and said, "She's an easy woman to fall in love with. I just hope she'll be as happy as she deserves."

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After getting to the basement underneath what was now Queen-Palmer Enterprises, the first thing Robert did was scream. He'd meant every word of what he'd said to Moira and Ray, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it. But in the back of his mind, he also knew that just throwing a tantrum about it wouldn't serve any purpose. If there was one useful thing he'd learned during his exile, it was how to channel anger in a useful direction.

He began the hard work of setting up the headquarters for the mission he had decided to take on. Shortly before the shipwreck he had become aware of a cancer growing in Starling City, fed by a conspiracy of selfish, corrupt people of the kind he'd been rubbing elbows with his entire adult life. There was little he could do about it within the law, which meant he had to take the fight outside of it.

He had no illusions about what he was embarking on. He might be in the best shape of his life at the moment, but a 52 year old man heading into fights like this might not last very long. But he had to do something, and kept the image of Moira and Ray in his mind to give himself focus, and build up his determination to make something good come out of what he'd lost. And he already knew who he'd be going after first.

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"Lewis Snart, you have failed this city."

The man's reaction was disappointing. Even with an arrow pointed straight at his heart, he just chuckled and said, "Is it Halloween already? Get out of here and maybe I won't put you in jail. This is my office, after all."

Robert didn't let it faze him. "Your company makes its money on the back of slave labor and defective products that cost lives, and you buy your way out of paying for any of it. And now you're part of something that will destroy this city itself if it comes to back. I'm going to stop it, starting with you."

Snart shrugged. "Hey, you got me." He took a step forward. "But the question you have to ask is, are you really willing to use that thing. Because a rat bastard like me will definitely be willing to do some bad things to you, and I just changed my mind about the cops. I think I'll take care of you myself."

Robert felt himself hesitate, and hated himself for it. He would have to get past this kind of thing if he was going to what needed to be done, and let he kept letting the man take one step after another toward him. But then the decision was taken out of his hands when the door opened. After already being loosened up by Snart's attitude, this was enough for Robert to lose his grip on the arrow completely, and it flew straight into the man's heart.

Then came the last thing he expected, as the man at the door let out a horrified "DAD!" and ran to the dying Snart's side. He expired without a word, and the newcomer looked at Robert with burning hatred. Without any idea what else to do, Robert quickly pulled out another arrow and said, "Get out of here."

Snart's son, Leonard, he suddenly recalled his name was, didn't break eye contact all the way to the door. "This isn't over," he said as he left. Once he was gone, Robert shivered and dropped his bow to the floor. Things were already spiraling out of his control, and he had so much further to go.

#####################################################################################

Leonard Snart stormed into his apartment in a blinding rage, causing his girlfriend to jump off the couch and say "What is it?"

With tears in his eyes, Leonard said, "My father's dead. Some freak dressed like Robin Hood shot him with an arrow." The look on her face might have been comical in other circumstances, but he continued, "Yeah, I know how it sounds. I have no idea what was going on, but I'm going to find out. He killed my father right in front of me, and I'm going to kill him."

It suddenly occurred to him that he was putting a lot of trust in his girlfriend, that she wouldn't take that declaration straight to the police. But instead she said, "Let me help."

That startled him out of his anger for a bit. "Really? Because I'm dead serious about this. You know what you'll be getting into."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "And I don't care. I love you, and Lewis was going to be my father-in-law. He was my family too. Let me help you."

The sudden turn left Leonard feeling drained. He sat down on the couch and said the only thing he could think of.

"Thank you, Felicity."