Broken Arrow: This fanfic takes place directly after the events of 4x18. Laurel is dead, Team Arrow is grieving, Darhk is still on the loose and threatening to release Genesis and everyone has some decisions to make. Can Oliver save his city when everyone he loves is in danger and the world around him is falling apart? Will he reunite with Felicity or will their destiny's change forever?
Chapter 1:
The room was eerily quiet as the doctors and nurses who had been hastily running around only moments earlier, moved on to a new patient in a new room. The rest of Team Arrow was left just standing there, waiting for a moment that would never come.
"This is all my fault." Diggle mumbled still in shock as his hands shook uncontrollably as he relived every last detail in his mind over and over again. The guilt weighing him down. "I had no idea..."
"None of us did." Oliver wanted to sooth his guilt, to calm him, the pain in his voice still strong enough to cut like a knife. But he also felt anger towards him, he had killed his friend. He should have killed Andy when he had the chance instead of letting Diggle talk him out of it.
"You tried to warn me." John admitted, "You saw this coming but I didn't listen. Truth is we never listen, but more times than not you are right." He said as Felicity still clung to John's chest as she came to terms with her own sorrow. Holding John tight and afraid to let go in case her own body gave way Felicity listened to the two of them speak, but John's last statement made her pause as she looked up to see the determination in his facial features.
"That's not true." Oliver knew he could be stubborn at times, and he didn't always make the best choices.
"Yes it is." Felicity agreed. "You could always see the bigger picture, the danger that lay beneath but we were just too naive to see it." She said, stepping away from John to stand on her own two feet. "We were too busy trying to prove to you that we were just as good to see that you were just trying to keep us safe."
"You kept me honest. You both did." He stuttered emotionally, "You kept me from becoming a monster, from become just like Damien Darhk. That's all I ever wanted, to stop you guys from following in my footsteps yourselves."
"And now?" Felicity asked concerned as Laurels body lay in front of them, still warm.
"I don't know." Oliver admitted, he felt so lost. After Sara, Roy and now Laurel, he had lost more team members than he wanted to count. He realised that he couldn't keep them safe, not if he wanted to fight with one hand tied behind his back. "I don't know if I can do this your way anymore." He spoke to her apologetically.
"Then don't." Diggle ordered him, "You do whatever you have to do to keep us safe." He insisted.
"You don't know what you're asking." Oliver warned him looking to Felicity for support.
"Yes he does, we both do." She surprised him as she spoke up, avoiding making eye contact. "And we don't care. We've held you back for too long. It's time that you do what you do best."
"Felicity you say that now but…"
"If you don't do this Oliver." Diggle threatened him, "I will." He said, knowing that Oliver would be out for revenge. Darhk had tried to kill Felicity, leaving her a cripple, kidnapped William, endangered civilians, blackmailed Lance, corrupted Andy and now he had killed Laurel by his own hand. The city would never be safe until Darhk was taken out of the picture, once and for all.
"Hey." Thea said trying to ease the tension as Oliver and Diggle stood in a stand off, their death stares strong enough to freeze a room. "I can't believe I'm hearing this." She said, but the look in all of their eyes, the rage they felt was she could see it consuming them, "You have no right to ask him of this." She scolded them, "He has fought so hard for so long…"
"I know." Felicity said apologetically, "But it doesn't matter..." She knew the struggle he had faced, what it had cost him. But she also knew that the struggle still raged within him, and that just maybe it was time to let it free.
"It matters to me." Oliver told her his voice raised. How could she ask him to become the monster he had spent four years trying to atone for? He was angry, but more than anger he was afraid, afraid that all the violence and darkened her soul, that she had lost her innocence.
"Oliver." Diggle stepped forward to shield Felicity from his wrath, deflecting Oliver's angst from her onto him.
"Is that what you think too? That it doesn't matter, all that we've tried to accomplish doesn't matter?"
"You said it yourself man. It's not working, we're falling apart."
"There has to be another way." Oliver insisted.
"And how many more of us have to die while you're busy finding it?" He asked pointing to Laurel, "Thea? Felicity? Me?" John raised his voice to match Oliver's previous rant.
"That's not fair." Oliver felt the tears welling in his eyes.
"I won't stand by and watch the ones I love die while you have another attack of conscious." John said grabbing his coat and stormed out of the hospital room before he said something he might regret.
"Diggle." Felicity ran after him. Oliver tried to grab her arm to stop her from going, to keep her safe but she stared him down and shook herself free before turning the corner out of site.
"Damn it." Oliver inhaled sharply, trying to hold back the tears and the rage.
"They'll be back." Thea grabbed his arm to support him, "They're just angry. They'll calm down eventually."
"Not if they get themselves killed first." He said, praying he was wrong.
"What are you going to do?" Thea asked concerned by the look in her brother's eye, "Olli?" She said placing a hand on his arm in support when he didn't answer her.
"What I've always done." He said, trying to convince her was ok, "Whatever it takes to keep them safe." He said through gritted teeth. He didn't like being backed into a corner, but he also didn't want to believe that they were right. Squeezing Laurels hand in one final goodbye, Oliver left the room leaving Thea to wonder what her next move should be. To save her brother from the darkness, or to stand by Felicity and Diggle and take Darhk down no matter the cost. Either way, even if they won this battle, they had already lost.
John Diggle did what he knew best, he went to ground. He had found the old abandoned building some weeks ago when they had been on another mission. It wasn't much he thought to himself, but it was all he had. The underground basement was quiet large, and had obviously been constructed as a long tem fallout shelter. The stairs led down into a main room that had already been half furnished with lounge furniture and a six seater table. There was a small bathroom in the back corner adjoined by a small room with a double bed. A second, smaller room existed off the lounge, probably intended as a storage room or a second sleep quarters Dig thought.
Armed with his handgun and his back up piece he had raided from the Arrow Team's weaponry stash already, John began to plan his own attack on Damien Darhk from the safety of his new hideout. He couldn't risk Oliver trying to stop him, so until he knew where Oliver's intentions lay he was on his own. Felicity would feed him all the intelligence she could gather as she worked covertly from Palmer Technology, but he would not risk her life in the field he had promised himself. This would have to be an old fashioned show down, Diggle vs Damien Darhk. Not even Lyla could know where he was or what he was up to, she'd want to join him and it was too dangerous, he had Sara to think of. Aiming at another target John hit it dead on, '6 for 6' he note to himself. He'd been a killer once before for his country, it was time that he became one again.
Felicity had been working on a plan of her own. She had turned the old bunker under Palmer Technology into a war room. News articles, maps and string boards filled every inch of every wall. She had spent the last few months after her accident and Williams kidnapping uncovering everything she could about Damian Darhk and HIVE. There had to be a weakness, a flaw that they could take advantage of, something. She just need to find it. Felicity knew that John was determined to go up against him, she also knew that eventually Oliver would too. Knowing this, she no longer slept, and only snacked on whatever Curtis brought food down to her hoping that when the time came she would have her answer. He had wanted to help out more, but Damien had enough targets on his radar, she didn't see any point in adding another victim to his list. Curtis had been a big help, he had been keeping the company in check while she was preoccupied these last few months. They would never be safe until Damien Darhk was out of the picture, she would never feel satisfied until she had made him pay for what he had done to her, to her friends, to Laurel.
Entering the Team Arrow bunker, Thea found Oliver sitting and starting at the Arrow costume. An old picture in his hand of himself and Felicity in some far off place, happy and care free. She stopped to watch him a moment, slumped over and broken. He made no noise but she could tell from experience that inside he was screaming. He had a distant look on his face like he had just lost a part of himself he could never get back. It was more than Laurel's death that was haunting him, it was the ghosts of his past. Oliver hadn't noticed her enter and Thea found herself almost standing beside him before she saw him flinch in recognition of her presence. "Olli?" She whispered placing a reassuring hand on this shoulder, "Talk to me." He was never one for words, but his silence scared her.
"Huh?" He knew she had said something, but he wasn't sure what.
"I know that look in your eyes." She warned him, "You're going to do it? Aren't you?" Thea questioned him, sitting beside him on the step and staring lovingly at her sweet brother. "You're going to become a killer again?"
"I don't see any other way." He sighed, "I've already sold my soul. I came to terms with that a long time ago. And if reprising my previous… principles, saves Diggle or Felicity from losing theirs', then it's worth the cost."
"I don't believe that." She said taking his hand in hers.
"I know." He kissed her on the head, "And that is why I love you. Even after all you've been through, you are still my sweet optimistic sister." He smiled at her, pulling her close for a hug, "You always were the best of us." He said standing up and walking away to look something up on the computer as a diversion of his own emotions.
"Then let me help you." Thea begged him.
"I would love to, I would." He said finding what he was looking for, "But where I'm going, you can't follow. None of you can." He said grabbing his quiver and going to get changed.