Disclaimer:

I do not own DC Comics. I do not own The CW. I do not own anything related to DC Comics in general, or Arrow specifically. Except maybe a few DVDs of old DC movies that I haven't given away yet.

Decision, Season One Of Prometheus Unleashed

Chapter One:

Didn't Have To

By The Shroud

A/N:

This is an AU story based on an idea I had. Please review on whatever you can, suggestions, ideas, disagreements, changes, questions, etc. I like doing alternate takes on characters, where they are instead good, or neutral, or evil, or any number of changes are made to them, also being done to other characters. And this is an extreme example, where I take probably the most psychopathic character in Arrow and try to give him an AU backstory to change results drastically. It's sort of inspired by how he says "What?", like he hadn't been breaking Oliver for a while, spawning an idea in which actually Oliver was under the influence of Vertigo hallucinating the whole thing, leading sort of to another idea, with Talia not being evil, while this has Adrian manipulated by Talia, combined with a plot point inspired by how Diaz manipulated Cayden James. And if you're wondering, Talia's motive was that Oliver abandoned doing what needed to be done, and then became full-blown revenge. The story begins below.

Soundtrack: 12, Betrayed By Those You Love

Arrow Season 1 OST

Blake Neely

YouTube Code (the thing after 'watch?v=' in the YouTube video link): mcfxo_O-Srw

2017

Unknown, Star City

He was speaking to the man who killed his wife, Oliver Queen, "Confess, Oliver. You don't kill because you have to, so why?! Why do you do it!?" It was ridiculous. That may be a plausible excuse to his loved ones, but a man who killed only when necessary would not have killed an innocent women. It didn't make sense otherwise, he could only be a psychopath, that sometimes stopped only to trick those that cared about him into accepting it.

Oliver spoke up, in a whisper, "Because I wanted to." He admitted it. But it was all wrong. He confessed, but it was out of desperation, like he didn't believe anything else, like he was broken, not like he was truly admitting something he did.

He asked, confused if this was a ploy, "What?"

Oliver continued, "I wanted to," before pausing, looking down, and then yelling, "I wanted to! And I liked it!"

He, Adrian Chase, paused, before smirking, bluffing to himself, "Is this, what, an attempt to stop me from finding out?"

Oliver crouched down, exhausted, saying, "Isn't this what you wanted, for me to tell the truth? Isn't it?!"

Adrian snapped, "I wanted you to confess that you killed my wife! Then I would kill you, like you killed her, mercilessly! She didn't deserve to die, but I think you do, Oliver!"

Oliver fell back on the floor, shaking his head, "What are you talking about? I didn't even know you-"

Adrian continued, "Stop lying! I know you killed her, I saw the surveillance footage, from January 20, 2015."

Oliver just fell silent, shaking his head and blinking in confusion.

Adrian crouched and pulled out his phone, with the surveillance footage.

In the video, a woman was setting up dinner, checking a clock, before sighing in resignation, about to walk to the bedroom. At that moment, a man dressed in green with a bow at his side and a quiver at his back, dressed exactly like Oliver had as the Arrow, jumped in through a back window. He pulled out an arrow and shot it at her chest. She crumpled in pain, as he pushed her to the ground, pulled out a flechette and brutally stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach with it, causing her to bleed out significantly, but not quite to death. He then stood up, pulling out only the flechette, wiping it off on a nearby cloth, and then walked out the back. Twenty seconds later, Adrian had walked in, beginning, "I'm home-" but then rushed over to her, holding her in his arms, pleading as much as he was attempting to assure her, "Don't worry, you'll be fine, stay awake, everything's okay, just-", hopelessly, as she died in his arms.

He put away his phone, standing up, speaking emotionally, "Now do you remember? Or is your list of victims so long you've forgotten anything about them?"

Oliver choked out, "That's not possible. I wasn't in Star City then. I was recovering from nearly dying at the hands of Ra's al Ghul. I wasn't even awake again yet."

Adrian was going to lash out again, accuse Oliver of lying, but recognized a name. "Al Ghul?"

Feeling broken, Oliver just answered, not understanding what Adrian was fixating on, "Yes. I killed him, too. And you're right. I must ha- I liked it too."

Adrian groaned in realization. It was never about getting justice for his wife. Talia al Ghul only trained him because he was a convenient tool, to get back at Oliver for killing her father. But then why did she have Oliver framed back then - unless she had another grudge even before that. She had trained Oliver, claiming that she hadn't known he was a psychopath who like to kill. But maybe she was the one who tried to force him to kill. And then when Oliver rejected killing after the Undertaking, she considered it a rejection of her.

Then that meant, all those people she told him were criminals, were corrupt, were dangerous... might have been innocent. All this time he had blamed Oliver... but he was the monster who had killed innocent people. Even if Talia had lied to him, he had been the one to do the deeds. Deeds that he didn't have to do.

He felt sick. His world, that he had reconstructed over the past years, crumbled around him.

Discombobulated, he stepped out, needing time to think. He contacted Evelyn, "Meet me here. Now."

And Talia had lied to Evelyn too. Ironically, they had tried to shock him into confessing by pretending he had manipulated and killed her. No wonder Oliver had been so strong, so resilient - he had merely been telling the truth all along. And Adrian's rage had blinded him to it.

Morning, Next Day

Unknown, Star City

Slowly, he woke up. As he slowly sat up, he saw he didn't have any chains on him. As he looked around, blinking to clear his vision, he saw Adrian and Evelyn.

Confused, he started, "I thought you killed her."

Adrian shook his head, and explained, "No, it had been to manipulate you, but our goals have changed."

Still groggy, Oliver asked, attempting but failing to growl, "What did you mean about your wife?"

Adrian explained indirectly, "Two years ago, a man named Simon Morrison, the illegitimate son of Justin Claybourne, came home to find his wife dying, with a green tipped arrow embedded in her stomach. He was contacted by a woman, Talia al Ghul, who offered to train him, so he could get justice for his wife. About half a year ago, he came here, under a new name, Adrian Chase. He was lied to, told by her that people that were merely innocent were criminals, corrupt, dangerous, using planted evidence to convince him. Until yesterday he believed her, and so did Evelyn Sharpe. Not anymore."

Oliver asked angrily, "What changed? Why should I believe you anyway?"

Adrian answered morosely, still guilty over having listened to Talia, "Because I'm letting you go. And I'm offering to help you against her, as well as Evelyn. But only if you let us."

Oliver deflated, "Doesn't matter. I've lost everything. I'm a psychopath. It's better I just hang up the hood, leave this all behind..."

Evelyn defended, still reeling from having realized she was manipulated, "Even if you shouldn't use the hood, even if you did kill people, I... guess you can make up... for it. Talia will still come for you, your friends, and us. Would you just let them die?"

Oliver relented, still uncertain, "Fine. But you're going to have to prove this." He started standing up, only to stagger a bit. Adrian and Evelyn immediately went to his sides, helping him stand, even if he didn't need it, even if they didn't have to, feeling they owed far more than it.

Bunker

Diggle, Curtis, and Felicity were arguing. But then Felicity looked over behind Diggle, to see Oliver, bloodied and tortured, asking herself as much as she was asking Oliver, "Oliver? Oh my god." This prompted Diggle to ask the same question, only to see Adrian and Evelyn behind him, immediately causing him to grab a weapon.

Oliver dropped his bow and arrows, and raised his hands, speaking in a still haunted tone, "Guys, guys! Calm down. It's a long story, but... they're on our side."

A/N:

This concludes the first chapter. I hope it's, at least, a good chapter. What's your opinion on it? Could it be interesting, maybe not, don't know yet? Let me know. I'm a bit more uncertain about this chapter than I have been with others.