I do not own arrow or its characters
This story takes place a few years after season two finale.
Since the arrow disappeared nearly a year ago Starling city had gone to hell. People didn't believe that crime rates could get any higher after the steel works closed down but writhing a year it nearly doubled. Criminals had gotten cocky since the arrow supposedly died in the 2016 gang riots. He hadn't been seen since. The law enforcement community who had hunted the vigilante for years was now begging for his return. Families who had feared him now prayed for him. But their prayers remained unanswered as the year continued with still no sign of him.
No one knew where the arrow had gone. He seemed unstoppable in the year prior to his disappearance, he had apprehended nearly all of the members of the triad, had kept crime rates down, and was even supported by the major. He had fought feared powers such as the dark archer who was arguably the best archer in the world seemingly without a problem. Then suddenly in a large gang riot in the area of the city previously known as the glades he fought gang bangers with small hand weapons and was never seen again. After that crime went right back up causing major casualties in another riot two weeks later. He didn't make an appearance and the city realized he may have died. An icon for their city had been brought down by blue collar criminals probably by a lucky shot. It was unbelievable but the only explanation they had. The archer was dead.
Oliver Queen sat in the parlor of the Queen estate on a late evening. Thunder rumbling in the distance and rain dropping on the Windows. He had his arms full, one wrapped around Felicity and the other holding his new born son Connor. He had the strangest feeling of pride in his stomach looking down at a bunched up piece of flesh and bone in his lap. This was all an accident but he had no regrets. Connor was resting in his lap and Felicity was in his arm; he felt like there was nothing needed to be said. With all the chaos going about his city it was nice to have one perfect moment no matter how short it was, and this felt perfect. He felt like he had a family again for the first time in years. Since Thea moved out and his mother was killed, this was the first time the house felt filled even if it wasn't a real family.
As with any perfect moment it didn't last long. A knock at the door ended the silence and required Oliver to get up from the couch and answer it. He shifted and stood laying Connor in Felicity's arms and walked over to the door. Diggle walked in from behind the chestnut doors soaked from the pouring rain. This was the first time Oliver had seen him in over three months. He didn't know where he has been or what he had been doing but he was glad to see him non the less, even if he had neglected his driving duties which were unnecessary anyway.
"I heard your message man. Congratulations." Dig said grasping Ollies hand and walking inside the warm house.
"Where have you been?" Oliver asked with his regular boyish charm. Dig lost his smile.
"Fighting crime. Something you ought to be doing. The city needs you. It's needed you for a long time." Dig said setting down his coat refusing to look Oliver in the eye.
He thought Oliver was being selfish. Eleven months before he had fought gang bangers in the glades and suddenly hung up his hood. He said there was nothing more he could do for his city, it was too far gone. And after that the city became worse than ever in its history. Oliver watched the chaos peruse every day, every time he stepped out of his house and did nothing. He said the hood was dead and if he brought him back to life Oliver would be the one that died.
"I can't. Not now." Oliver told him as he hung up the coat. Diggle walked into the parlor seeing the back of Felicitys head. He sat on the couch next to her and touched the tiny child on her lap.
"I remember when Holly was this small." Dig said talking about his and Leila's daughter. "I'd do anything for her, even if it meant going out every day and defending our city from dangerous crooks." He said directing it to Oliver.
"I've tried. You know I have. But his thick skull just won't hear it." Felicity whispered to him. She had been trying to convince him to hood up for months but he continued to refuse the idea. Something was holding him back from putting on the hood again and he refused to tell anyone. Neither his sister, partner, nor woman he loved. It enraged them but he was set in his ways as he always was.
"Look man they need you, the city needs you. Don't you want to make it a better place for your son to live in?" Dig asked changing his tone.
"That's why we have law enforcement. Like detective lance."
"But they can't do the things we do. If you were still out there you could be doing things twice as well as they do it. May be if you were out there you could show them there's hope. Maybe if you were out there Sin would still be alive."
"No Dig. No more hood. No more bloodshed." He yelled. The Oliver Queen he was when he first came home from the island five years ago suddenly surfaced. He was angry, his fists were tightened. He took some deep breath and went up the stairs.
Felicity and dig stared at each other. They hadn't been able to get an answer out of him in eleven months. Something had changed Oliver during that fight, it must have. He refused to put on the hood after that. It had nothing to do with family he wasn't seeing felicity at that time and his sister was out of town. It wasn't fear for his own life, he had dozens of threats already. But there was something going on with him something so big that he had to give up his hood.
It was April of 2016. The city was an interesting place. Crime rates were down but that didn't mean that criminals weren't still underfoot. The vigilante was catching more suspects than the police force. Oliver had suited up to fight off some of the rioters the police weren't able to take down. He drove them into an alley between two apartment complexes. He had just knocked down twelve of the fifteen remaining rioters and was still as fresh as he was when he stared. One came at him from behind puncturing the skin of his back but he grabbed the man and flipped him over on his back and stepped on his weapon crushing it. Then he stepped on his ribs crushing two. Another man took out his weapon aiming for the hoods face, but he reacted and shot the gun out of his hand, then knocked him against the wall while preparing to fight the third and final rioter. But this one was different. He seemed swifter and preferred to use his hands rather than his weapons. Finally a worthy opponent.
The man in a ski mask, much skinnier and more agile than the rest grabbed the railing of the fire escape and lifted himself above the arrow. He climbed after him but by the time he got up there the gang member had grabbed him and pulled him back down to the concrete ground. Oliver hit the ground hard half convinced he heard church bells in the distance. The man picked him up from the ground and kicked him in the ribs. Oliver cringed but hit him back flipping him over to the ground an arrow in his hand. He moved back just a slight inch and felt the man's hand holding a knife to his back. This was a move he had seen before, a counter defence he had been taught long ago. Oliver was in shock nearly dropping his arrow. The man did nothing, did not move barely breathed. Oliver grabbed the collar of the rioter and stopped calling the person a man in his head; for this man was not a man at all, he was a woman.
He brought her to her feet not letting go of his arrow or her clothing. She still didn't move but finally relaxed her joints. Oliver let go of her collar but still held his arrow. He took his hand and went up her neck grabbing the bottom of her ski mask. She allowed him to pull it up her face and let down her long black hair. She opened her eyes looking straight up at him. He took a step back dropping her mask in a dirty puddle of the alley. He didn't know what to do, he was completely shocked.
"Hello Ollie." She said. He quickly took off his hood and his mask to get a better look at her not caring if she knew who he was or not. "I like your beard." She told him. Oliver had grown a goatee and small beard for the last year. She hadn't seen him like that before. She hadn't see him in nine years since the island. It was Shado.
"But You're dead!" He said not being able to say anything else.
"I know." She answered simply touching his face.
They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Shado had a smile on her face as she examined Oliver. He had gotten old since she last saw him even though he wasn't a day over 35. Being the arrow had seemed to have taken a toll on him. But he still looked good beard and all. Oliver had an expression of utter confusion. He didn't know what to feel. She had died right in front of him, he had buried her on the island and had been the reason for her death. Was she even dead? She hadn't aged a day. She was still just as beautiful as he remembered her to be, her smooth hands, her silky hair, her sweet face. Everything just as he remembered. Finally she spoke again.
"You have to stop. You have to stop this now Ollie." She told him.
"What?"
"Take off my father's hood. End this. You have to. Or everyone you love is going to die. Everyone you are going to love, everyone you have ever known will know nothing but pain. And it will be all your fault. You have to stop, take off my father's hood."
"Is someone threatening me? Shado I can handle it. It isn't the first time someone has threatened me. And I'm a better fighter than you remember me to be." He said confidently but still a little dazed. Shado stepped away from him towards the fire escape.
"Not this time. You can't win against this person. Because if you don't stop being the arrow, it will be me who goes after your family. And you can't stop me." Suddenly she climbed onto the ladder and pulled her up three levels in a few seconds.
"But you're dead!" He yelled to her again.
"I know." She answered again and then then was gone like a shadow.
Oliver stood in the alley for hours after that trying to understand what had just happened. Shado was dead she had been dead for years. She couldn't have lived through what has happened to her. Not even if she was injected with the miracuru. She would have been long dead when anyone could have gotten To her to inject her. But now she was alive. What could he do besides obey, she was a better archer and fighter than he ever could be and seemingly a ghost. He felt like he had to obey for the sake of his son.
There will be more chapters coming soon. Sorry if I missed grammar issues, the spell check on my kindle sucks. I write all my stories on it. Please review and thank you for reading this so far.