Author's Note and Disclaimer:
Now, I've read the overview of the latest episodes of Arrow and watched on YouTube sneak peeks and clips of scenes from episodes, purely for research purposes and I gotta say, Diggle has seriously pissed me off. He's become a complete opposite from who he was the 1st season, from Oliver's best friend to total ass.
The show keeps getting worse and worse and gives me more reasons to dislike Felicity and Diggle, honestly, I don't dislike Felicity as much as I used to but Diggle crossed a hell of a line.
Don't hate me but hate what the showrunners Guggenheim, Mericle and Berlanti did to the characters. I wouldn't have to rant about it if it wasn't for their mishandling their development
I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
As Diggle accused Oliver of leaving a trail of bodies everywhere he goes and accusing him of getting Samantha killed and leaving William without a mother, Oliver felt like if he had been stabbed in his heart with an icy dagger, considering that the words came out from his best friend, his confidante, his brother… and Oliver lowered his head for a moment before nearing Diggle as he decided to shoot back.
"My trail of bodies doesn't include my own brother."
Diggle's eyes were filling with tears before he slugged Oliver, who had blood on his lip before retaliating with a punch to Diggle's face. Diggle roared and lunged at Oliver as they fell over the computers and the railing on the floor as they disappeared in a beam of light…
… and collapsed on metal floor. But, they were both separated by a glass wall as Oliver and Diggle got up and they looked around to see they were in a metal room, in which was a glass cell, inside which was Diggle as he banged on the glass furiously. "Hey! What is the meaning of this?! Let me out!"
"The Waverider…" Oliver realized as behind them opened a door.
"I brought you both here." Sara said as she entered the room. "I've been keeping tabs on you and I thought I should finally step up."
"Sara, let me out, now!" Diggle roared as he glared at Oliver.
"No, what you're gonna do is shut up and listen to what I have to say and you are not gonna open your mouth and say your piece until I have said mine!" Sara said in a cold tone that made Diggle comply. "You know, I'm very disappointed in you, Dig." She sneered. "You used to be Ollie's best friend, moral compass and confidante. When it mattered, you were there for him, when he needed guidance or doubted himself. And look at yourself now.
You criticized Lyla for locking up Cayden James with no trial, the same Cayden James, who almost destroyed the city. Considering what he did, can you blame Lyla now? She had valid reasons to lock him up."
Diggle winced at her argument.
"You kept secret having nerve damage for months after Lian Yu and if you had told Ollie or anyone else, Rene wouldn't be injured. You blame Ollie for beating him up and putting him in hospital? Maybe he wouldn't have ended up in the hospital if you had come clean about your injury that caused Rene's condition in the first place!" She snarled as Diggle shut up, realizing she had a point.
"Then, you accuse Ollie of having too many roles already, being a father, a mayor and the Green Arrow and that he made a mistake of spying on Rene, Dinah and Curtis." Sara said and before Diggle opened his mouth, Sara raised her hand. "No, I'm not done talking. It was obvious that one of them was testifying against him and guess what, Rene was. And do you honestly think either of them would have come clean, given how they judged him last year?"
Diggle remembered Rene's and Curtis's judgmental attitudes, when they found out about the List.
"You know Ollie enough to realize that he's doing his best he can in a bad situation and that he's only human. He's been trying so hard to be there for William, lead this city and protect it, all at the same time. You can't fault him for that." Diggle had to admit that Sara had a point. "Ollie did ask you to be the Green Arrow, so that he could focus on the other two roles and you accepted it. But then, you were hiding the fact that you were trying to fix your nerve damage with a drug from Ricardo Diaz, the same Ricardo Diaz, who currently has god-knows-how-many city officials and police in his pocket, which is partly thanks to you giving him money for the drug he had been producing! This all could have been avoided if you had come clean about your injury the first time you found out!"
Diggle winced, there was no arguing about that.
"Then, another thing, when it came down to Black Siren and your teammates, you accused Oliver of not exercising restraint. You were there, John, Ollie was holding back the entire time and he gave multiple chances for Rene to stand down! All, while Rene pulled a gun on him and even came at him with an axe!" Sara glared. "You know, right now, you're no better than Slade or Prometheus, who were both trying to convince Ollie that everyone around him suffers. And if I may remind you, you were the one person, aside from me, who tried to convince Ollie that they were both wrong.
I used to love you like a brother, Dig." She said, disappointed as Oliver and Diggle noticed how she was muffling sobs. "But… you're not the man I thought I knew. Not anymore. Anything you have to say?"
After a long moment, Diggle couldn't think of anything of retorting before finally speaking up. "What are you gonna do with me, letting me rot in here and let Diaz take over the city? When it needs us?"
"No, this city doesn't need you, Dig and what I'm gonna do is something I should have a long time ago." Sara snapped as she left Waverider.
A few moments later, Oliver and Diggle became transparent until they both faded away in the Waverider…
Sara returned to Star City not long after Darhk had been imprisoned in Iron Heights as she snuck into Diggle's apartment and found a small piece of stone…
…then, Sara entered the lair, to Laurel's and Thea's surprise. "Hey."
"I thought you were with the Legends." Laurel said, confused.
"I've heard about Merlyn and Darhk, I came here to help." Sara said.
Later, at Iron Heights, as Andy betrayed the Team Arrow and seemingly restored the idol, Darhk scowled to see that nothing was happening. "What…"
"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Sara smirked before attacking Malcolm and snapping his neck. "I should have done this a long time ago."
"Never mind, I was trained to be the next Ra's al Ghul." Darhk said, laughing but the fight resumed as Diggle was enraged by Andy's betrayal, lunging at him and beating him into bloody pulp before Green Arrow and Sara engaged Damien Darhk and he wasn't able to hold his own against their combined efforts as Speedy then fired two arrows into Darhk's chest, pinning him to the wall and letting him to bleed to death.
"John, we need to talk." Oliver said as they were in the lair at the table.
"About what?" Diggle asked.
"About you trusting your brother." Laurel said.
Diggle sighed. "Look, I know what you're gonna say and I know now. You were right and I was wrong. I shouldn't have trusted Andy."
"It's not just that." Oliver said. "Three years ago, you accused me of having a blind spot regarding family, when now, there's a same problem with you."
"You're the one, who convinced me to give him a second chance." Diggle protested.
"Diggle." Sara sighed. "Do you honestly believe that some people like Ollie are beyond redemption?"
Diggle winced as Sara reminded him the argument he had with Oliver a few hours ago.
"Wait, what are you saying?" Felicity stepped up.
"I think we need to reconsider your role here, given what has been happening recently." Laurel said.
"That's not fair." Felicity said. "How could he have known Andy would stab him in the back like that?"
"I'm not sure you have a say in this, considering you left Oliver and disrespected him." Sara sneered with a look and tone that dared everyone to shoot back. Nobody did.
"So, what happens now?" Diggle asked.
"I don't know." Oliver said. "But what I do know is that your place in this team is a lot less certain right now. Your blind spot and hypocrisy almost got us all killed."
"Are you serious?" Felicity demanded.
"This was my idea." Sara stepped up. "I used to care about you like a brother, Dig."
"But given what's happened… I think it's best for everyone if you left." Oliver finished.
"You can't do that." Diggle protested. "Not when H.I.V.E. is still out there…"
"Believe me, I don't like doing this anymore than you do." Oliver sighed sadly. "But… right now, I'm not sure I can trust you. And I can't go out in the field with someone, about whom I'm not sure I can trust."
Diggle winced, realizing that Oliver was using his own argument against him after Oliver had returned to Star City, when the Ghosts and H.I.V.E. showed up. Sad, he entered the elevator.
"Wait, John, he didn't mean it like that…" Felicity tried to assure Diggle as the door closed. Angered, she whirled on Oliver but noticing Sara's fierce glare and how mad she was that Diggle's blind spot almost got Laurel killed, she decided to back off.
"So, are you staying around this time?" Laurel asked Sara.
"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." Sara promised.
As for the rest of the H.I.V.E., that was a problem for tomorrow… but then, she would have to help Team Arrow be ready for the most dangerous foe they have yet to face… Prometheus…
Author's Note:
There, it's out. If you hate me for it, let me be clear:
Throughout the series, Diggle was Oliver's right hand, best friend, moral compass and confidante. When it mattered, Diggle was able to set Oliver straight, when he didn't have his priorities straight or when he had a crisis of identity or needed some guidance. But in Seasons 3-4, he became an Olicity counselor, which is on the showrunners. However, his character started to bug me a lot, when Oliver had to kidnap Lyla in order to gain trust of Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins, Diggle straight-up told Oliver in his face to go to hell and criticized him for trusting Malcolm Merlyn more than his own team.
Considering that Diggle knew exactly what the League of Assassins was capable of, he shouldn't have to take it out on Oliver. Though I could understand that Diggle was enraged and felt that Oliver crossed a line, when he kidnapped Lyla and left their daughter alone in their home, he wasn't able to get over it for 5-6 months and still treated Oliver like crap even the first three episodes of Season 4 until he came around, he kept a secret the connection between H.I.V.E. and Andy, when Oliver brought up that Damien Darhk leads the mentioned organization. Keeping this secret could have easily compromised the entire team. Also, regarding Diggle's hypocrisy about Oliver having a blind spot regarding his mother, when the same issue was with Diggle and Andy, which ultimately was what got Laurel killed.
Another issue came up in Season 5, when he criticized his wife Lyla for keeping in lockup in black site Cayden James, a leader of hacktivist terrorist group with no due trial. Seriously?! An army veteran, whose wife is a director of a black ops government agency has a problem with that? There's no logic to this, especially, when Diggle helped Oliver lock up Digger Harkness and Slade Wilson in A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu.
Then, in Season 6, another issue came with Oliver and Diggle in 6x17, when Diggle was upset that Oliver took away the Green Arrow mantle from him and he criticized Oliver for stretching himself so thin and into so many directions (being a mayor, a father and the Green Arrow, a husband etc.) that the people around him suffer and that Oliver's way of leadership causes him to alienate everyone close to him, when Oliver did the best he could in a bad situation. And Diggle crossed one hell of a line, when he accused Oliver of leaving a trail of bodies everywhere he goes and that Oliver is to blame for Samantha's death because of a bad decision Oliver made.
I don't care if you hate me but I had to do it.
Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed this one-shot.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter