AN: This is the third and final story in my Olibel (Oliver/Isabel pairing) trilogy. If you have not done so already feel free to read "The Sins of the Father, the Deeds of the Son" and "A Holiday Fit for a Queen" before reading this tale, which would probably make little sense without reading those previous stories. Now, without further ado, I now present, for the approval of the readers on this site, "The Demon Queen". I hope you all enjoy it!

Oliver Queen sighed as he stepped into the study on the first floor of the Queen Mansion…the one that had been his father's study, once upon a time. The exhausted man flopped backward onto the wooden chair in front of Robert Queen's old desk and forced himself to boot up his laptop to look at the encrypted messages his assassins had been sending him concerning the Intel…or lack thereof, which they had been able to collect on H.I.V.E during the last month. The Arrow tried not to think too hard about how quickly he had gotten used to think of the members of the League as "his assassins", or about how good he had gotten at giving Sarab and his fellow assassins orders in a month. And what a month it had been…

After Oliver and Isabel's third trip to Nanda Parbat, during which they had been married (not in a legally binding sense yet, but the Arrow and Midnight Sentinel still considered themselves husband and wife now, even if the "official wedding" in front of the whole world had not occurred yet) in front of the League and a few of Oliver's friends and family members, things had been rather busy for one Oliver Jonas Queen. The man had been torn between his duties to Queen Consolidated (as a CEO), his responsibility to help guard the city (as the Arrow), his obligations to the League of Assassins (an organization which was used to a more "hands on" approach to leadership than the hero was comfortable with), and most importantly, his responsibilities to his wife and family. In the midst of all of these responsibilities, finding a new place for Oliver and Isabel to live, along with their unborn child and Connor, had taken a backseat, something Moira Queen hadn't actually minded terribly, since the Queen matriarch had recently decided to move into Walter Steele's apartment, closer to both Starling National Bank and City Hall, as the older woman's relationship with her ex-husband/boyfriend continued getting serious again. Even so, Oliver was starting to find the tasks of juggling all of his responsibilities to be overwhelming, especially after some recent developments with the wedding and Isabel's pregnancy had come up. And HIVE's decision to go underground, for no apparent reason, just before the current Ra's al Ghul sent men to look for the head of that organization, was not making things any easier for Oliver Queen.

The vigilante's thoughts were suddenly interrupted, however, when he heard and felt a faint whoosh of air come into the room from outside the Queen mansion, a burst of air that was so small, and had halted so quickly, that most men wouldn't have even noticed it. But Oliver Queen was not most men, as several years of fighting for his life had made the hero more perceptive than most. Therefore, the Arrow was able to turn around and see the large, costumed man, standing in a dark corner of the office next to the window Oliver guessed said man had entered through, several seconds before the man started talking. "I think it's about time you and I had another chat, Arrow."

Oliver Queen narrowed his eyes while standing up and walking towards the man in black, until he was only a foot in front of the other man and he could look the intruder in the eye. "Fine. I was wondering when you were going to show up here, Batman. But when I heard Bruce Wayne had arrived in town this morning, I knew it wouldn't be long. By the way, I recently had the security force around this mansion tripled since that little incident with the Dark Archer. I trust my people didn't give you any trouble?"

Batman sneered. "Please. They never even saw me. If you value your life, Arrow, you'll get better security, for your family's sake, if not your own. Damien Darhk is every bit as clever as your predecessor, but without his sense of decency. When he finds out you are gunning for him, if he hasn't already, he will come after your entire family, including Connor and your unborn child. You should probably have some of your assassins…", Oliver picked up the disapproving tone in the Bat's voice when he said "your assassins" as the dark clad vigilante continued speaking. "watch over this mansion when you are sleeping or away on business. Speaking of which, I wanted to talk to you about your use of the Intel I gave you to kill the previous Ra's al Ghul and take his place as the Demon's Head. That wasn't part of our deal, Oliver!"

The Arrow sighed, not bothering to ask the Bat how he knew about his new position with the League or his hunt for the head of HIVE. "No. It wasn't. I was just going to use the information you gave me to get Tommy, Isabel, and my unborn child back. Unfortunately, things didn't go the way I planned them and my predecessor challenged me to a duel, a challenge I couldn't refuse if I wanted Isabel and my child back. I was just barely able to survive that with the info you gave me (in fact, in a matter of speaking, I didn't), and I was only able to do that by killing Ra's al Ghul. And after that, I was informed that killing the last Ra's al Ghul made me the current Demon's Head, a role that I'm still trying to find a way to get out of once I deal with HIVE. So, I'm sorry that I'm not as good at fighting with a sword as you are, Batman, but killing Ra's was the only way me and my loved ones could get off of Nanda Parbat alive, so that is exactly what I did, and now here we are."

The Caped Crusader made a faint grumbling noise, but the intensity in his eyes lessened as he continued looking the Emerald Archer in the eyes. "Fine. I figured that a scenario like that was what occurred, which is why, apart from some nasty business with escaped convicts from Arkham I needed to round up, that I waited this long to talk with you after Nanda Parbat. But I wanted to be sure, and I wanted to look you in the eyes while you told your story to make sure you were telling the truth. That you hadn't just been using what I taught you to obtain a position of power for yourself. You're telling the truth. So, what is your next move? I know a bit about your deal with the Bratva, to undermine HIVE somehow, and your ties to that organization. I don't approve of you associating yourself with so many criminals but…" The Detective shrugged. "This is your city, not mine. As long as you don't cross a line, I'll let you and your friends run things your own way in Starling. In any case, I know you are planning to go after HIVE, and, now that I see you are still on the level, I wanted to offer you my help in accomplishing that goal, since HIVE has been almost as much of a blight to me and Gotham as the League of Assassins used to be, especially after they recruited one of my old enemies, Tom Hardy, aka Bane, who… gave me a lot of trouble about a year ago. So, what is your current plan to take down HIVE? And after you do that, how where you planning to get rid of your current position with the League of Assassins?"

Oliver sighed. "Both of those plans are still works in progress. I have my best people trying to gather information on HIVE, but the whole organization seems to have moved underground in the last 90 days or so, and nobody has been able to find the present whereabouts of any of the members of that organization…"

Batman grunted and interrupted Oliver. "I haven't heard anything about them either, during that time although, up until recently, I'd been too busy dealing with a psychotic clown in Gotham to look for any of Darhk's people. With an organization that size….That can only mean Darhk is planning something. Something big. Something so big that he was willing to give up 3 months of HIVE making a profit in order to put his whole organization behind preparing that plan. And that is very bad news, Oliver. The last time HIVE put this amount of time and effort into a plan, they almost destroyed Gotham by trying to make a nuclear power plant go into meltdown. Gotham PD, ARGUS, and I were barely able to stop that from happening….and Damien still got away. We need to get to the bottom of what he is up to and stop it before he tries something like that again with another major population center."

Oliver shook his head. "Yeah. And we will. Thanks for volunteering to help, by the way. But first we need to actually find out where Damien is…"

Batman waved his hand dismissively. "Let me worry about finding Damian. I know that you have a lot of talented people looking for him already, probably including some League assassins and Felicity Smoak, possibly even some of your ARGUS and Bratva contacts, but, obviously, they have been unsuccessful so far. Sometimes it is easier for one person to find a needle in a haystack than it is for a bunch of people to try to do the same task. Especially if that one person knows what he is looking for, and I've already had run-ins with HIVE before. I know how they operate. Besides, I'm pretty good at Detective work. I will find Darhk. You should focus on rallying your forces to do battle with HIVE. As soon as I find out anything, I will let you know. And by the way. Nothing personal, Oliver, but I'm going to stay as far away from you as I can from now on, and try to take a mostly advisory approach to helping you stop HIVE. Because I don't think many of your new underlings would appreciate me being around the new head of their organization. I've given the League a lot of trouble over the years, after all. Foiled a lot of their plans. And the assassins have long memories, Oliver. They do not let go of grudges easily. Remember that."

Oliver nodded. "I will keep that in mind. And I appreciate your help. This will be two that I owe you now, Batman. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

Batman shook his head. "First of all, you don't owe me anything. Both the League of Assassins and HIVE have been thorns in my side, as well as Gotham's, over the last two years. So I'm glad I was able to help you change the leadership of the first organization, and I'm more than happy to help you take down Darhk. Make no mistake, I'm not helping you out of charity."

Before Oliver could reply to that revelation, the Dark Knight resumed speaking. "Also, although there is no other HIVE business we need to discuss at the moment, there is one other matter I would like to speak with you about. Your tendency to make strange bedfellows in the company you keep. And in one particular case, I mean that quite literally...You told me you were having a child with Miss Rochev, Oliver, and I've recently heard that you are going to marry her soon. Is that correct?"

The Batman's tone made it clear that last question was a rhetorical one, but Oliver answered it anyway with a glare. "Yes. Of course that's true. It's only been in Starling City's society pages for the past month, Bruce. Stop being cryptic. Where are you going with this?"

The Bat shrugged. "I was just wondering why you have allowed yourself to get so close to someone with a history as…interesting as Isabel's…"

The Arrow's fists clenched. "If you were thinking of mentioning Isabel's history with my family again, you can save your breath. I already told you Miss Rochev and I have decided to put the past behind us and…"

The Caped Crusader didn't even blink. "I'm sure you have. But I was actually referring to Isabel's former position as Ravager, Slade Wilson's right hand woman. That man was one of your greatest enemies, and one of the best assassins in the world, after all. And now you have allowed yourself to get close to his old accomplice…"

Oliver's fists clenched harder as he resisted the impulse to punch Batman in the face for continually questioning his relationship with Isabel. Even so, the Arrow's nails were digging into his hands hard enough to draw a small amount of blood now, as the Emerald Archer replied to the Dark Knight's words through clenched teeth. "The Midnight Sentinel risked everything, including her very life, in order to turn on Deathstroke and help my team beat Slade. In doing so, she trusted me with her life, and has continued to do so since then. How could I do any less in return? And not that it's any of your business, but Mrs. Rochev-Queen, as her name will soon be after we make our marriage legal, happen to love each other, so I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to get me away from the woman I'm going to have a child with soon. After all, I'm not the one who has been hanging out with a villainess since I was twelve years old. How is Selina Kyle doing these days, by the way?"

The Batman's face remained stoic, but his eyes noticeably widened, earning a small smirk from Oliver as Bruce spoke. "I don't know what you are talking about…"

"Save it!" The Arrow replied, smirk still on his face. "Do you really think you're the only one who does homework on other vigilantes and their associates? I know all about your longtime…" The Emerald Archer coughed in an exaggerated fashion. "Friendship with Catwoman, Batman. So you can stop pretending you have a leg to stand on when you criticize my relationship choices right now."

The Dark Knight's scowled at the Emerald Archer. "I don't know what you think you know about me or miss Kyle, Arrow, but my personal relationships are none of your…"

"Business?" Oliver shrugged. "I quite agree. Just like my relationship history is none of your concern. Agreed?"

A scowl remained on the Caped Crusader's face even as he nodded slowly. "Agreed."

With that, the dark clad vigilante started towards the window, until he hear Oliver mutter something to himself out loud. "What is it about us vigilantes and bad girls anyway?"

This comment earned the blonde man a glare from the Batman, and the latter party was about to give Oliver an angry reply before the voice of a third person, who had just entered the room, made Mr. Wayne think better of it. "Oh, I don't know. I don't think I'm that bad, Oliver."

Isabel Rochev entered the room, and the first thing the Caped Crusader noticed was that the brunette was noticeably rounder than he would have guessed. The Russian woman already looked about four months pregnant. A fact which was somewhat unusual, considering that her and Oliver's baby had been conceived only a little over two months ago. The vigilante with a cowl decided to file that information away until later, when he had time to research the Midnight Sentinel's unusual pregnancy, as the heroine, clad in an elegant black dress that fit her somewhat enlarged frame perfectly, slowly walked up next to her husband and faced Batman with her arms crossed in front of her chest as she smirked. "Not any more, at least."

The Russian woman smiled as she leaned towards Oliver's ear and whispered. "Except sometimes when we are alone together. Right, lover?"

Oliver barely surprised a shudder of excitement while his "wife" turned her attention back to the Batman. "And from what I understand of it, Miss Kyle isn't that bad herself, at least by Gotham villain…" The heroine put air quotes up in the air as she said the word "villain." "Standards. Now am I interrupting something? Because it sounded to me like you two where having some sort of superhero pissing contest in here. And you were doing so awful loudly, I might add. I didn't even need my superior senses to hear your argument. I'm just glad that Connor is at a sleepover with the Jones' tonight, or he would have heard it too. Also, as much as I appreciate you wanting to defend my honor, Oliver, it's not necessary. I can defend my own reputation, thank you very much. Especially from some overgrown child who spends his nights dressed up like a bat because he never got over his mommy and daddy dying in front of him."

Bruce Wayne had a surprised and angry look on his face for half a second before he was able to collect himself. "That will be all, Miss Rochev."

"Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that!" Isabel sighed after Bruce Wayne silently left the Queen Mansion the same way she came in. "Was that too mean, Oliver? Yes, that was definitely too mean. He is a hero after all, and from what I hear, he's saved Gotham City a bunch of times. And he's helping us. And the poor man probably hasn't had any kind of normal social life since his parents died when he was twelve. How is he supposed to know what he should and shouldn't say around people? I'm sure he was just trying to be a friend to you, in a weird, somewhat jerkish way, when he was warning you about me. Oh no! I'm a mean person! I'm going to be a mean, horrible mother to our child and…."

Oliver quickly drew Isabel, who was now crying hysterically, into a hug, cutting off his wife's rambling. "No. No you're not. You have done a wonderful job being a mom to Connor, and you aren't even his biological mother! Yes, it's true that your healing factor and resurrection-induced accelerated pregnancy has made your emotions more volatile than normal. And yeah, you did step over the line with that comment about Bruce's parent's, and you should definitely apologize about that remark the next time you see him, but in general, you have actually been acting progressively nicer, both around my family, especially me and Connor, and in the office at Queen Consolidated."

Isabel nodded. Even if it was still hard for her to see herself as a good person after so many years of doing bad, her recent experiences had shown Isabel that she was, in fact, getting better at being nice to people. Besides her obviously strong relationships with Connor and Oliver, Isabel was also getting along better with Felicity, who the Russian women now considered her closest female friend. In between office activities and Arrow business, the two women were spending a surprising amount of time together performing mundane activities such as shopping (were Isabel gave Felicity fashion advice every now and again) and surfing the internet (where Felicity turned Isabel on to the possibility of using social media to promote QC more effectively, as well as installing a better firewall into Isabel's personal PC).

On a similar front, Isabel was also spending more time with her protégé, Thea, who had been the active participant in planning her brother's upcoming (public) marriage to Isabel, since the engaged couple were busy running QC and Moira was busy running all of Starling. This gave Thea ample opportunity to engage Isabel in conversations concerning the latter's upcoming marriage to Oliver…which Thea often changed into movie night's and/or girl talk in with her trainer, who happened to also be her sister in-law, and the future mother of Thea's niece and/or nephew. When this happened, Isabel always half-heartedly complained that she was a busy woman, and that she didn't have time for Thea's constant social calls…but the slightly older woman had secretly come to enjoy spending time with her trainee and sister in law, even outside of Arrow business.

Spending time around Moira Queen was still a bit of a tricky proposition for Isabel, however. Even though the Queen matriarch had privately forgiven Isabel for her affair with Robert, the middle aged woman's pride would never allow her to publicly acknowledge that she had forgiven her late husband's ex-mistress for her past transgressions. This was unfortunate, since it had frequently been necessary for Isabel and Moira, who was technically in charge of planning her son's wedding, to meet to discuss the details of the Russian woman's public marriage to the heir to the Queen fortune. These interactions had led to numerous small conflicts between Isabel and Moira including, but not limited to, Moira's objections to Oliver not giving Isabel a prenuptial agreement (even though it had been Oliver's idea not to do so), and Isabel's overly speedy pregnancy, which was making it increasingly obvious to everyone that Isabel was already heavy with Oliver's child. And try as she might, the Queen matriarch had been unable to put together a spectacle like a "proper Queen wedding" before Isabel started showing, since Moira refused to follow Isabel's suggestion to have a smaller wedding, with less important guest and more friends and family. Moira's suggestion, that Isabel should start eating more in public to pretend she was just putting on a lot of weight, in order to preserve the reputation of the Queen name, was met with equal resistance on Isabel's part, since she refused to pretend she was getting fat just to avoid embarrassing Moira. Therefore, despite Oliver's insistence that he didn't care how big or small the wedding was, or how obvious it was that Isabel was pregnant, since he was not ashamed to be having a child with the woman he loved, things were tense between Moira and Isabel. But at least Isabel and Moira were able to disagree about things in a civil manner now, unlike several months before.

People at Queen Consolidated were also starting to notice Isabel's new temperament, as the Russian woman rarely yelled at her worker's anymore, and she actually smiled and laughed around the office now and then. Because of these changes, despite a few jokes here and there about Isabel being obviously pregnant, most of the office gossip concerning Isabel at QC concerned how "Oliver Queen somehow melted the heart of the Ice Queen." Despite her enhanced hearing allowing her to hear every word her employees were saying, Isabel pretended not to hear such idle gossip, for two reasons. One, it made her angry that her employees were talking about her in such a disrespectful manner. And two, because their words about Oliver melting her old heart of ice were truer than she really wanted to admit, even to herself. Even so, despite her improving temperament, Isabel's unusual pregnancy made her susceptible to wild mood swings every now and then, which would make her say things she regretted sometimes, to people like Bruce Wayne, Moira, or her newest trainees, Helena and Laurel…

Pulling her out of her thoughts, Oliver drew Isabel into a deep kiss that lasted several seconds. After the heir to the Queen fortune pulled away from his osculation with Isabel, Oliver forced himself to smile. "Don't worry. You're a good person, Isabel. And somehow, being with you, sometimes makes me feel like I am one too. And we will get through all of this. This pregnancy. Working with Batman, as infuriating as he can be sometimes. Even beating HIVE. As long as we have each other, and our friends and family have our backs, we will be able to survive anything and build a happy life together.

This time it was Isabel who pulled Oliver into a deep kiss, causing Oliver's left hand to drift towards Isabel's waist even while his right hand fondled Isabel's pregnant belly. As he did so, Oliver swore to himself that he would keep his promise to Isabel. For Isabel's sake, and their unborn child, and Connor's, and all of his friends and family, and hell, even a little bit for himself, Oliver knew he would do whatever it took to make sure he and the people he loved survived the storms of their chaotic life and got their happily ever after…one day at a time. Because right now, in the arms of the woman he loved, Oliver couldn't think of a single thing he would rather be fighting for.

AN: First of all, I would like to start out by saying I am so sorry it took me so long to get started on this, but a variety of technical problems (like my constantly malfunctioning computer) and personal issues (including being sick and some family related incidents I won't go into here) have conspired to keep me out of a position in which I could write. I hope you will all forgive the long delay. On a similar note, I believe this story will be shorter, at least by number of chapters, than my previous two entrees in this series. Also, this will be my final entry in the story of Olibel. Don't get me wrong, I love playing with the characters of Arrow and the DC comics universes, but I think it will be time for me to move on to other writing projects by the time this story is completed. I hope you all understand.

On a more positive note, I worked really hard on this chapter, and I think you will like some of the twists and turns that I will put in this story (I'm sure you have already spotted one of them) as well as how this story will end. But please, readers, I would really appreciate your honest opinion of this first chapter of "The Demon Queen." After all, you are the reason that I post stories on this site, so I want to know if you all think I am doing a good job!

On a similar note, I would like to use this space to give a big thank you to all of my readers, new and old, who have been reading this trilogy from the first chapter of TSFTDS until now! Your support and reader loyalty are greatly appreciated.

And last but not least, I would like to thank my beta reader, who had made sure that I cross my t's and dot my I's, and just generally kept my story from resembling the aftermath of a gladiator arena after all the battles have been fought. As always, your help is greatly appreciated!

Until next time, I am…

-supercode