So the Smallville version of Oliver Queen, played by Justin Hartley is a brash and sincere master archer who is more of a Robin Hood character who was born to privilege.
This speech did not have quite the effect he'd intended. The stranger who had rarely spoken a handful of words at a time actually backed away and lowered his head. “I was wrong about you...I'm sorry.”
He called for a water-skin and with the slightest tilt of his head indicated it was for Oliver, not himself. His lieutenant gave an uncertain glance, but spoke no word of objection. J'onn dismissed the man with a wave of his hand. Oliver mumbled his thanks and tried to ask why, but J'onn gave no answer. Instead Oliver watched in stunned amazement as the alien who had taken them both prisoner actually knelt and wrapped Sarrin's injured leg.
“Listen, not that I'm not grateful, I am but...what changed?”
“I thought you were keeping her, not protecting her, and I hated you for it.” J'onn said suddenly. He stood up and backed away.
“Do you know her?” Oliver asked completely nonplussed.
“I know she is no more human than I am. If it served me I could look human, but she does...whatever her race is, they look human.”
“She has a tongue as well as a name.” Both men looked rather caught out as Sarrin stood up. “My name is Sarrin, I'm Atraxi. Oliver is...something the English language does not allow for. But he's as human as it gets. The question is, what kind of person are you?”
“I am...J'onn Jo'nzz.” The stranger said simply.
“I mean more literally than that.” Sarrin said with a slight chuckle.
“I am a Martian.”
In the end J'onn does let Oliver go and asks Sarrin to stay. Though it didn't unfold quite so simply.
“Protector, Guardian. It's the same word in our language. It's not a charge one is given a thing one is. And undefined by anything else.” Sarrin looked at Oliver and then at J'onn before continuing. “A legal guardian is one thing; Solena. A man like a cop or a protector is one thing; Alana-Kai. But neither have the mantle of protector. To be a guardian or protector is an individuals choice and reality. With this understanding, I can tell you, Oliver is my protector. And now it seems, you are.”
“I do not doubt for an instant you are willing to stay here. I must ask if you want to.”
The Beginning of Paradise
“No please, take me.” Jeremiah Danvers said in a rush. The alien warrior lowered his fist. “Listen I might not care for him but he is my commanding officer and I cannot let him come to harm. Leave him here. Let us, you and I go away, someplace we can't be found. It's a strange way to start a new life but 'a new life' is what I've been seeking the past six years of my life.”
“I am not sure what you are saying. What are you suggesting?”
“Listen if we are going to do this, we should learn each-others names.”
“That is polite even among enemies.” The alien said quickly.
“My name is Jeremiah Danvers.” The agent said, placing his hand over his heart.
“I am...J'onn Jo'nzz.”
“Jean. I give you my word, I promise, if you give him his freedom as well as his life then without your instruction to the contrary I will not leave your side. He has a tracker on him, a beacon to activate in emergency and call for extraction. Activate the beacon and leave him as he is, our people...agents from our organization will find him; he will be alright. But you can't be here when they come. To tell the truth I'd rather not be here either.”
The alien solider bent down over Hank Henshaw and put the back of his hand against the man's temples. He closed his eyes briefly before righting himself. “Then we should get out of here.”
Two silent hours later Jeremiah came to a clearing in the middle of the mountains. There was very little around as far as structures. Just what looked like an old one-room school house and a few houses with flat roofs made out of red clay. With a wave of his green hand J'onn motioned his companion into the school house. The room was sparsely furnished but quite comfortable. A cot was set up on cinder blocks with lightweight sheets and fluffy white pillows on it. A low set table and an equally short bookshelf stood off the one side. “I hope you'll be comfortable here. I have to go see a friend. There's more of us here than you realize...strangers and friends.”
“Thank you.” Jeremiah said in a heartfelt tone.
“I get the feeling I should be thanking you.” And with that he was gone.
In the middle of the next afternoon J'onn came back and Jeremiah instantly got to his feet. J'onn looked almost disquieted at the courtesy. "I am waiting for you to ask the obvious question." He said simply.
"What happens now?" Jeremiah replied.
“Do your people have a word for being able to move freely throughout the premises as long as you do not leave the premises?”
“...House arrest.” Jeremiah said.
“Then I suppose 'house arrest' is the best description. You are not my prisoner. I do not intend to treat you as any sort of captive. I...am sorry if that's what you expected. I would hope we could treat and regard each-other as equals. You were the first human to treat me as an equal, seeing me as I really am. I was hoping we could continue that.”
“I would like that as well. And I didn't expect to be a hostage. I just wasn't sure...who or what to expect if you understand me.” J'onn nodded once. “Does that mean I can soon see the rest of this place?”
“ 'the rest of this place'...is what I came here to show you.”
J'onn walked out of the building, and headed to the West, with Jeremiah walking half a step behind him. Ten minutes later they came to another clearing. This one dotted with structures made of wood as well as a few made of gray stone. And one that seemed to be formed entirely out of moss and knitted together with animal bones. There was a beaten path straight down between the houses leading to a small outdoor market. There were a few pale faces, Caucasians but most seemed to be indigenous to central America. A few faces were clearly other than human. “Welcome to Arias.” “A collection of outcasts and misfits and a few people who don't mind being around outcasts and misfits.”
“Arias, what does that mean?”
3 years later, a truly happenstance visit from an Enkaren half-breed named Elana and her nuclear mate Martin Stein brings the possibility that Nikita, whom Jeremiah freed from the D.E.O. nine years earlier, is working with the D.E.O under Hank Henshaw...willingly. At first J'onn doesn't believe it's possible. Jeremiah tells him what Henshaw is really like. “He did what he thought was necessary to protect civilians, all of Earth really from people he honestly believed were our enemies. I can't fault him for that. And if this is coming from the mouth of an alien, then you can believe it's at least possible.”
“What's the real reason you want to go?” Jeremiah looked mildly shocked. “I can read your mind pretty well by now. It's almost natural to hear what's on the surface. You don't want to see him, at least not for any personal reason. You believe without proof he has changed. Which means there's another reason you want to go back. Why? Why are you so certain he has changed?”
“Nikita. She was a dear friend of mine. Well, she was a dear soul and an innocent one. I served under Henshaw for six years trying to be a good agent, trying to do my job and not let it get the best of me. When I met her I couldn't let her get interrogated for information she didn't have. It was assumed by pretty much everyone that she was deliberately a threat that she didn't actually pose. It would have been obvious to everyone...should have been I mean. I broke her out of the DEO. I had to stay; I had NO choice in that. According to Firestorm over there, she's back at the DEO, but as an officer, an attache to the man I thought had the thickest skull on the planet. I need to see if it's true, if she believes Hank has changed or is simply following orders, playing along like I was doing all those years. I mean don't get me wrong I believed in what we were trying to do. But I saw how much...To be concise, If Nikita is with him willingly, without reserve, I need to know. And I will have my answer and can leave. I can finally have closure...then we can keep going with our lives.”
“You love this woman.” J'onn Jo'nzz observed.
“Jeremiah. You don't need to stay with me.” The human scientist started. “If you leave, I mean if you decide to stay in National City I'll miss you sure but I wouldn't keep you here against your will. And I am sorry if I've made you feel otherwise.”
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