A/N Big thanks goes out to my good friend MarvelAndDCWriter who helped me out on this story, acting as both fact checker and sounding board. He also wrote a prologue to this story and you can find it over on his profile it's called Arrow: Prologue to The End. Go check it out.

Also, I know this story will end up being completely AU as soon as the new episodes start back but I'm going to write and post it anyway. :P

It's funny how things turn out sometimes. And it's funny how sometimes no matter how hard a person tries to keep something a secret, it just refuses to stay that way.

Oliver had discovered this first hand. Apparently, no matter what he said or did, the circle of people that knew his secret just kept getting bigger.

At first it was just him, then he told Diggle, then Felicity joined the club, then Tommy replaced her as the most recent member of the 'Knowledge of Oliver's Secret' society, then, thanks to Felicity, that kid Barry found out too.

But, apparently, Oliver wasn't the only person with secrets that just wouldn't remain as such.

Oliver stared out the window of the living room, lost in thought. He was trying to process everything his mother had just told him.

Malcolm Merlyn was alive. He was threatening his mother. And he was Thea's father?

Oliver's head spun with the gravity of it all. And to top it all off, Malcolm had sent five trained men to kill Moira, and Oliver had been forced to fight and kill them in order to protect his mother and himself, and his mother had witnessed it all. Oliver scrubbed a hand across his face. He was beginning to wish he had just stayed in bed this morning.

"Oliver," his mother called softly, breaking into his thoughts. "How did you... What you did to those men... Who are you?"

He turned to face her and looked her right in the eye.

Diggle would say what he was about to do was stupid and a huge risk, but Oliver preferred to think of it as taking a leap of faith. Faith that his mother was still, at least partly, the person he knew. After all, she had done the right thing by warning everyone about the undertaking, and she had told Oliver about Malcolm rather than keep it a secret again. And she had told him, not a hooded vigilante with a weapon pointed at her but him, her son. She trusted him enough to do that, so the least he could do was show her the same level of trust.

"I'm The Arrow, Mom," he said.

"What? How?" she asked in disbelief.

"I learned how to fight on the island," he said vaguely, trying to keep the details to a minimum.

"You learned to fight, like that, on a deserted island?" Moira asked, a bit overwhelmed.

"It's... complicated," Oliver replied.

"I can see that," she said. "Wait. If you're The Arrow then... it was you who was... in my office." she said slowly, shocked.

"Yes, we had found evidence that you were connected to something. We weren't sure what, so I confronted you as The Arrow to try to get more information, but Mom, you have to believe me, I wasn't going to hurt you. I would never hurt you," Oliver said, crouching down in front of her and looking her in the eye, silently imploring her to believe him.

She met his eyes for a moment before remembering that this was her son. She may not have known everything but she still knew him well enough to know that he was not faking his sincerity. Not this time.

"I know," she said. "I know you wouldn't, but you sure did fool me when you burst into my office. I was so scared and..." she trailed off, her face going pale. "I- I... I sh- shot you," she breathed, horrified.

"It's okay," Oliver said, gently grabbing her shoulders as she looked like she might faint. "I'm okay," he stressed.

"How... how bad?" she asked.

He was quiet for a long moment. He didn't want to lie to her but he didn't want her to have to carry the truth.

"Let me see. I want- I need to know," she said, her eyes almost begging him.

As much as he wanted to say no, he knew his mother well enough to know when she had made up her mind about something, and he could tell that she wasn't just going to let this go. Mentally berating himself for what he was about to do, he reached up and pulled down the collar of his shirt, exposing the scar from his gunshot wound.

Moira stared at the small round scar for several minutes before tentatively reaching out and letting her fingertips brush the scar with a featherlight touch.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Oliver let go of his collar and took both of her hands in his.

"You didn't know. All you knew was that a masked man was holding a weapon on you and was threatening your life. You defended yourself. There is nothing wrong with that. I shouldn't have come at you like that. If anyone should be sorry it's me," Oliver said.

"You're right you shouldn't have," she said slapping him on the shoulder. "How dare you scare me like that!" And just like that her shock and horror disappeared and righteous anger took its place. "But if I had been upfront with you the minute you brought me that list instead of lying to you, you wouldn't have had to do that."

And suddenly the anger was gone and reason returned. If it wasn't for the shocking and traumatic nature of the last half hour, Oliver would have been concerned by his mother's roller coaster emotions, but as it was, he figured she was more than justified. And he was even mildly impressed she was taking it all as well as she was.

"Mom, why did Merlyn send those men after you?" Oliver asked.

"Malcolm is involved with a very dangerous group of people. When he threatened to tell Thea the truth, I called those people. They also thought he was dead, and by revealing to them that he was alive, I put his life in danger. He wanted revenge," Moira explained.

"You contacted The League of Assassins?" Oliver asked.

"You know them?" Moira asked.

"I know someone who knows them," Oliver deflected. "Mom, before we go any further, I need you to promise me not to tell Merlyn that I know he's alive," Oliver said, looking her right in the eye, dead serious.

"Why does that matter?"

"He knows who I am. If he finds out I know he's alive, it will take away any advantage I have," Oliver explained.

"I won't tell him. I promise."

"Thank you. Now, I need to call Diggle."

"Why?" Moira asked.

"We have to do something about those bodies but the police can't know I'm the one who took care of them. So, I'm going to have Diggle come over and take the credit for it," Oliver explained as he pulled out his phone.

"How are you going to explain it to Mr. Diggle?" Moira asked.

"I don't have to. He already knows about me," Oliver said with a small smile.

Several minutes later, Diggle arrived and took in the sight of the five dead men.

"I really can't leave you alone for a second can I?" he asked Oliver, incredulously.

"Look, I need you to take credit for this with the cops," Oliver said. "How good are your knife throwing skills?"

"All right I guess," Diggle replied with a shrug.

"Good. We're going with the story that you lost your gun in the fight and had to resort to using knives," Oliver explained as he motioned to the dead men all of which either had knife wounds, or broken necks but no gun shots.

"Where were you and your mom supposed to be during this?" Diggle asked.

"My mom was over there," Oliver pointed at the dead man that had threatened his mother. "That one grabbed her and put a gun to her head. Fortunately, you were able to hit him with one of the knives and save her."

"And where were you while I was saving your mother?" Diggle asked a bit sarcastically.

"I was hiding in the living room," Oliver replied.

"Of course you were," Diggle said with a roll of his eyes. "So how did you explain this to your mom?" he asked.

"I told her the truth," Oliver said simply.

"Wait, she knows? She knows you're The Arrow?" Diggle asked, his voiced laced with concern.

"I didn't have a choice, she saw me fight. That's not our main concern right now, though. Malcolm Merlyn is alive."

"What?" Diggle cried. "But how? I saw you stab an arrow through his chest."

"I don't know how he survived, but he's the one who got my mom off on the murder charges. And that's not even the half of it," Oliver said, rubbing a hand over his face.

"What? There's something worse than 'Malcolm Merlyn is alive'?"

"He's Thea's biological father."

"Your family is so messed up," Diggle said.

"You're telling me," Oliver grumbled.

"How much did you actually tell your mom?"

"Pretty much everything," Oliver said.

"Are you sure she's not working with Merlyn? She did in the past," Diggle asked carefully.

"She was being coerced before. This time she's not helping him," Oliver said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Malcolm is the one who sent these guys after her."

"Why?"

"Mom called The League of Assassins and told them he was alive. He wanted revenge," Oliver summed up.

"Man, no wonder he sent people after her. Those guys are the last people I would want coming after me," Diggle said.

"Look, I understand your reservations and I don't expect you to trust her, but can you at least trust me?" Oliver asked.

Dig looked at him a moment more before nodding. "If you're sure."

"I am," Oliver said.

"Then I guess we'd better get this taken care of," Diggle said, motioning to the dead men as he pulled out his phone and called the police.

)()()(

"And where were you while this was going on?" Officer Quentin Lance asked Oliver.

"I was hiding in the living room," Oliver replied.

"Why am I not surprised?" Lance mumbled.

Although encounters between Oliver Queen and Officer Lance had gotten better in recent months, they still had their moments of animosity.

"Please, do not criticize my son," Moira said.

"It's all right, Mom. I deserve it," Oliver said, his mask firmly in place.

It amazed Moira to see the difference in the man sitting in front of her, from the man that had saved her life just a short while before. She was beginning to realize just how little she really knew her son. She couldn't believe she was only just now starting to see the act as just that, an act. In hindsight, it was so obvious, but isn't that the way most things are?

"No, you don't," she said to Oliver before turning back to Lance. "You will please treat my son with respect, Officer. After all, we are the victims here. He has done nothing wrong."

Lance secretly thought that, that was debatable but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

"Right. Well, I think we have all we need. Armed men broke into your home and threatened you. Mr. Diggle fought back and killed them," Lance repeated the nutshell version of the story they had told him. "We will look into it and see if we can discover who hired them and why. If we find out anything, we'll let you know."

"Thank you, Officer," Moira said.

Then Lance and the other officers left along with the corner's men who had taken the bodies out of the house.

"So, what now?" Diggle asked the question on all three of their minds.

"Now, I confront Malcolm about sending those men and try to get some information about his plans," Moira said.

"What?" Oliver asked.

"I'm going to become a spy. Any information I can get on Malcolm I'll feed to you. There is no way that he just came back because of Thea. He's up to something," she explained.

"I know what you were saying, Mom, but you can't. It's too dangerous," Oliver said.

"No more dangerous than what I've done in the past but now at least I'll be doing something good. Maybe it can help atone for my sins," she said.

"Mom, he just tried to kill you-"

"Oliver, I am doing this. Either you can take advantage of the information I get or I can take it to someone else but I won't be a party to his crimes by doing nothing anymore."

"Oliver's right. He did just try to kill you. What makes you think he won't just try again?" Diggle asked.

"You let me worry about that. Despite what you might think, I can handle Malcolm Merlyn," Moira said.