Full Summary: After the defeat of Slade, Oliver finally sees himself as the hero. Even with Talia still free and in the shadows, he's never been happier. He has new teammates, the city accepts him, and he has Felicity. He thinks his sister is safe from the remaining hunter… without realizing that Thea is specifically training with the League to go after Malcolm herself… So when the world finally comes crashing down, he wonders if the darkness inside each of them will finally consume them all. Olicity, Thea/Roy, Sara/Nyssa

Warnings: Violence, blood, but an overall T. If I feel it might get to a high T, I will have a warning posted prior.

Pairings: Oliver/Felicity (established prior in SCH); Thea/Roy; Sara/Nyssa (established)

Season and Current Timeline: Between Season 2 and 3, and an AU of Season 3 once it begins. This begins 2-3 months following Slade's attack on Starling

Valkyrie: From Norse mythology, a female figure who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Among the dead, they choose those they think are heroes to take to Valhalla.

Chapter 1

Talia was free and gone in the wind. Her whereabouts unknown, and there was some speculation on whether or not she had survived that night all those months ago. Sara and Nyssa had both assured Oliver that she was not with the League, and that Ra's had even normal League assassins attempting to track her.

Then there was Malcolm; he had also vanished that night against Talia and Slade, but unlike the elder al Ghul, Oliver did have a general idea of how the Merlyn was faring. Following Slade's imprisonment, Malcolm had called him from an untraceable number, though Felicity had assured him had he needed to- she could track it. The Dark Archer hadn't wanted to keep any of them in danger with one League hunter- Viper- and the daughter of Ra's al Ghul that he had kidnapped still in town. He had purposefully dropped off the radar, but to be certain of that, Oliver had Felicity erase any of traces that indicated Malcolm's current location and create a few false trails for the League to follow.

However with Talia, the League was a bit distracted. Sara had only called Oliver twice to assure him that she was safe, that Talia was free, and Viper only left the compound to track Talia's remaining men with the mirakuru. There was some rumor in the air that the assassin hunter had taken an apprentice, but no one was sure if there was any truth to that. Hunters trained apart from the rest of the League, and even Nyssa had no seen anything to indicate as such. Nonetheless, it was a rumor Oliver had to consider since his sister would be even more danger.

As a blood relative to Malcolm, the League had a right to take her life in recompense for his crimes, and without so much as a goodbye, she had run. At first, Oliver had been devastated to learn this, and he had tried to console Roy. The younger man did not understand what danger his girlfriend would have been in had she stayed, and he only saw that she had left him. Oliver eventually did come to understand why Thea had left as she did- goodbyes were difficult and he would have tried to stop her. She hadn't waited long to call and assure him she was safe and in some country in Europe. She had outright refused to tell him exactly where to protect him, but she was alive and free… that was, at least, something.

Considering all of that, Oliver was still happy. That night with the soldiers had been catastrophic, but the body count could have been astronomically higher, especially had the markov device gone off again. Even the news and a good chunk of the police force were attributing the lack of loss to the vigilante stepping in that night. When Oliver had set out to honor his father, he had never expected to go from a murderer in the people's eyes to a hero in theirs and his.

He could say he blamed Felicity for all of this; she had been the one to convince him that there was another way. However that would insinuate that he didn't like the change, and he did. Even with his company or lack of company in turmoil, life was looking up for the young archer.

Isabel had done a good job convincing the board to boot Oliver from the CEO position, but when it was revealed she had played a part in that night, the news had enjoyably ripped the board apart. It was rumored that perhaps his firing had not been justified, and she had manipulated the situation. The discovery of the markov, albeit deactivated, had suggested that Isabel had purposefully taken control of the company for access to the plans, and used them to favor her for Oliver's position. While it wasn't entirely true, Oliver wasn't about to correct the news either. It would help his case when he went after his own company soon to try and get hired back on.

The only real situation, besides Talia, was Amanda Waller. She had threatened to blow a hole into Starling City, and while she had apologized for the dangerous call, Oliver doubted she meant any of it. They had never seen eye to eye, but he now had Felicity and Diggle keeping a watch on ARGUS. Perhaps they were on the same side, but similar to Malcolm, ARGUS had a tendency to go for extremes. The last thing any of them wanted was for ARGUS to make another call like that…

Glancing up from his thoughtful meanderings, Oliver could see Roy sparring with Diggle. The younger man was struggling, but he was doing exceptionally better then when he had first joined. In the beginning, Oliver had been against having Roy with them. The boy was impulsive, quicker to let himself take a beating or to give one, and a real short temper… but he was also persistent. There had been a few close calls that Roy had shown up at and almost had gotten himself killed. It was at that point Oliver agreed only to help keep him alive.

With Lyla expecting, it actually worked out to have Diggle stay back sometimes and help train Roy. John wasn't thrilled by the arrangement, but crime was dropping, and criminals were getting desperate. Oliver wasn't going to risk his friend when he was about to be a father.

Next to Oliver sat Felicity. She was partially leaning against his shoulder, but her full attention was on her tablet. He wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but it probably was a sort of hack. The smile on her face suggested just that as did her furious typing as she tried to work around some firewall… or something like that. Oliver couldn't tell, and he wasn't about to ask. If he did, the next three hours would be full of her explaining it and stumbling over it. While it'd make him grin, he still had to go out tonight.

Little crime or not, China White had been eluding him the last few nights. Since her escape from lock-up, she had been working to try and re-establish the Chinese Triad as a formidable enemy. Oliver wanted to see to it that the organization stayed dead in Starling.

Squeezing Felicity's hand, he gently kissed her forehead and moved away. Her distraction was not broken though, so when he stood, she tilted over from where she had been leaning on him. Her groan and the tell-tale slam of her tablet told him everything he needed to know.

"I do expect you to work with the bag tonight," Oliver commented as he zipped up his hood and unhooked his bow. With the lack of hunters and Slade, they had moved back into the old Foundry. How the police hadn't discovered it back when the club had been trashed, no one was sure, but they had gotten lucky, that was certain. The club itself thankfully had been insured, so while severely damaged, it was under construction and would reopen in another month or so. The income would be appreciated since Oliver's fund was running low with how many computers he had owed Felicity by the time the League had left Starling.

"I will… once you go do you arrow thingy," Felicity explained as she re-opened her tablet to go back to whatever it had been. "I don't like when you watch."

"When I watch?" he asked, bemused, and he saw a faint blush run up her cheeks. She watched him all the time, and he wouldn't lie- he occasionally worked out a bit more then needed just because he liked when she did.

"Go do your hero business," she muttered trying to end the conversation.

Oliver grinned as he ascended the stairs, pushing the comm into his ear. She couldn't get rid of him that easy. Heading outside, Oliver slipped onto his bike and took off down the street. His original plan had been to drive through a few blocks known to be Triad territory, except there was a drug deal apparently going down near the docks tonight, or at least, that was what the police thought. If it remained calm, he wouldn't get involved, but if shots were fired, he'd step in.

In his ear, Felicity gave him directions to the drop. In the background, he could hear the police radio. By the time he arrived, she had already warned him that things had gone downhill fast. There was a massive gunfight, and the moment he had his bike parked, Oliver had joined the fray.

Police didn't actively approach him as he fought his way through the men, but they no longer shot directly at him either. It was an uneasy alliance so to speak, but it benefited both parties. Oliver's time as the Hood not only decreased crime but the loss of police life as well. When the old captain had wanted his head, the police had just been following orders, but now, with the job up in the air for new hire, the officers were much more lax with their thankfulness.

Shooting a few guns from hands, Oliver sprinted past crates attempting to catch the ring leader. Behind him, he could hear cops shouting for those that remained to get on their bellies, hands on their head. He didn't even chance a glance back as he ascended a crate and took to the higher ground. Notching an arrow, Oliver ran and lined up a shot with the intention of catching a leg when Lance, back to Detective now, came out from another direction and successfully tackled the man.

Lance glanced up to see the vigilante standing there, arrow being lowered; they shared a look before the Arrow nodded and moved away. He'd be long gone by the time they had this mess sorted and the evidence collected. He had places and other people, however few, to still hunt tonight.

Detective Lance had kept it to himself about what he had seen all those months ago. After all, he wasn't sure what it meant. In the back of his mind, he had always suspected Oliver Queen to be the vigilante, but the base being under the club was nothing solid. After all, Thea had been running it for a long time there, and Oliver had been under anklet that one time he had been suspected.

Thea obviously wasn't the Arrow as she hadn't been seen in months, and the whole fact she was… a she. But there was her boyfriend. Lance had seen the kid fight, and while it was nothing special, there was a possibility that had been done on purpose to sway suspicion.

In the end though, Lance knew he was just looking for excuses to believe that the once tabloid-famous rich playboy was now for certain a vigilante looking to atone for past mistakes. He wasn't sure what could be worse: the fact his youngest was an international assassin or the fact Oliver was the Arrow.

Oliver touched his comm and listened briefly to Felicity commenting on how nice it was that the police were no longer enemy number two. For the longest time, they had been just as dangerous as the people he liked to cross off the List. It was a nice change of pace to not be shot at by the cops.

With his business finished here, Oliver had Felicity try and find a link from this drug trade to China White. They hadn't looked Chinese Triad, but perhaps, the organization was recruiting. If they weren't, he'd have no lead for tonight, and while he could call it an extremely early night, he didn't have any intention of doing that.

If he couldn't go after the Chinese Triad, he'd go after someone on the List again. Written by Merlyn or not, it was still a compilation of people who had done the city wrong, and they needed to be let know how they had failed the city. By now, a house visit by him was more than enough for most to immediately do whatever he said. Little work or not, it still made a difference, and that was all that mattered.

Oliver didn't need to shoot arrows or drop bodies anymore to feel like he was making a difference.

…..

Halfway around the world in places unknown, Talia sat eyes unblinking, breath slow. Her attention was focused solely on the wall of the hotel room in front of her. Somewhere behind her, the voices lurked and the images taunted. They begged and pleaded with pain while others whispered pleasure and plans. Either way, she ignored them.

Her men would not listen to her if they thought her insane. The mirakuru had made her strong, but the side effects could be debilitating at times. During those times when those from her past made themselves known, she had to meditate. The only way she would be able to convince Ra's of her plans, of her goal was if she was in a single state of mind. Talia was not insane. She had a vision; she just had to make him see it.

And all of this required patience and for her to focus past the victims of her previous jobs. There was so much to do, and so much to plan. However, now, she had the greatest news. One of her men had succeeded at the loss of his life… by her own hand, of course. She couldn't have him spreading this to the others. They could mutiny, and for what she wanted to do, she needed them as one team. It was the only way she would be able to overthrow her enemies… Oliver Queen, Thea, Malcolm, ex-teammate that stole everything from her… A maniac grin lit up her face as she stared down at the small vial of innocent looking water and the note attached…

Lazarus

Note: Welcome back after a very, very short break. I know mostly a prologue, but hey, I want to catch people up. We are going to hit the ground running if some of you couldn't tell. For those that recognize what I'm going with here- thumbs up. Those that don't, I won't spoil it. I will say, I am going to tone it down so it's not too outside the realm of possibilities.

Anyway, I hope this chapter answered some of those burning questions you all had at the end of Short Change Hero. I will say now- I probably will only update once a week (at least once). I'm exceptionally busy, so it won't be like SCH with an everyday thing. Anyway, welcome back and enjoy!