Roy Harper let out a pensive sigh and resumed looking out over the skyline of Starling city. Despite being in the glades, the building he was perched atop offered a good view of the city, and Roy often came here when he wanted to be alone. As far as he knew, none of the rest of the team knew about his hiding spot, or at least, none of them had asked him about it, something he appreciated.
Having discovered the rooftop in the weeks following his arrival in Starling City, Roy had chosen the rooftop as his sanctuary because it was nothing like anything he was trying to get away from. It was surrounded by other buildings, and had been positioned on a busy street (although following the Glades earthquake traffic had been slow to return to this area). It was impossible to forget you were in the middle of Starling City from that spot…and that was one of the things Roy liked most about it.
The rooftop also offered a good view of the night sky, and although the bright lights made stars difficult to spot, full moons were fully visible from this rooftop for most of the time they were in the sky, assuming it wasn't cloudy. Assuming he wasn't busy helping Oliver, Roy often came here on full moons and let his wolf out as much as he could.
Over seven years had passed since Roy had become a proper werewolf, and over the years he had managed to get good control of his inner wolf. Leaving his hometown had probably been the best thing he could have ever done, and the things he had learned abroad had proven invaluable when it came to controlling himself. There was no way he would have been able to conceal the fact he wasn't human from Oliver, Felicity and Diggle for so long without the training he had received while he'd been in England.
Now, however, Roy knew the whole sordid truth was going to come out, and he'd be forced to leave Starling City, to leave his friends…his family…behind.
It wasn't that Roy suspected that Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow would hate him for not being human, but he had lied to them all for almost a year about his true nature…and that kind of lie was about to have consequences…like kicking him off the team.
"Why couldn't you have just stayed wherever it is you were, Stilinski?' Roy sighed, tilting his head back until it the brick wall he was leaning against, although there wasn't any heat behind the words. He'd seen how much Stiles' sudden disappearance and assumed death had hurt those back in Beacon Hills…back before he was Roy Harper.
He'd still been Jackson Whittemore back then, still living in London with his parents and getting help from a werewolf pack that lived close by. A week before Christmas 2007 the news about the Queens Gambit sinking had broken, monopolizing the news. Jackson's adopted parents had both met the Queens in the past, although only fleetingly, so Jackson had heard all about it. Then the news of the two young stowaways that Oliver Queen had recklessly snuck aboard. One, Sara Lance, the 19 year old sister of Oliver Queen's girlfriend, and the other, almost seventeen year old Stiles Stilinski, a family friend of the Lance family originally from Beacon Hills California, who was staying with the Lance family before Christmas.
Jackson had immediately called Danny, who had been keeping him up to date on what had been happening. Jackson had already known about the Nogitsune that had taken control of Stiles, and about how Allison had died, and Lydia's current boyfriend (ironically the twin brother of Danny's boyfriend) as well. Danny had explained how Stiles had been struggling to cope, drowning in guilt. They had all thought a change of scenery would have done Stiles good, but none of them had anticipated something like this happening.
Jackson had flown back to Beacon Hills the next day, returning to the town he had never planned on returning to. Derek Hale, Scott McCall and Danny had sat him down and explained things in detail, while Lydia sat beside him, silent and broken. Losing the three people she cared the most about within the space of a month, first Allison, then Aidan, and then Stiles, had shattered the Banshee, and Jackson hadn't known what could put her back together. He was used to breaking things, not putting them back together.
What had hurt the pack the most, at the time, was the fact that Lydia had never screamed for Stiles. She'd had visions, of cold water and a boat being tossed about by a wild storm, but she hadn't screamed. Deaton had explained with unusual clarity that distance had played a part, as well as Stiles' mindset at the time of his death. His mind had been closed off from anything and everything as it tried to heal following the nogitsune, and it had impacted on the pack bonds that would normally exist between them all.
Obviously, though, Stiles hadn't been dead at all, instead surviving the Queen's Gambit and eventually ending up back in Starling City, just like Oliver and Sara had. Roy knew that Stiles hadn't gone back to Beacon Hills…that was the sort of thing that Danny would have told him about.
Roy had broken all his ties with Beacon Hills except for Danny. It had been impossible for him to break that particular tie to the town he'd been born in. For one, Danny had been the one who had helped Jackson fake his disappearance, and to set up his new identity, while at the same time Roy knew that, even if he did somehow give Danny the slip, Danny would, eventually, be able to track him down…and then punish him forever thinking that he could get away.
Jackson had stayed in Beacon Hills for a month after Stiles' presumed death on the Queen's Gambit before he'd left town again. He'd made it general knowledge that he was leaving, saying goodbye to the rest of the pack, while at the same time discretely severing the weak pack bonds that had established since his return to Beacon Hills. Derek and Scott had both known what he was doing, but at the same time they knew Jackson well enough to expect it…neither of them had expected him to hang around for long.
Two weeks later Jackson had abandoned his car on an isolated road in the middle of nowhere, leaving everything of importance behind except for the secret, new identity papers Danny had forged for him. The car was found by hikers a few days later, but by then Jackson, or as he was now known, Roy Harper, was already two states away.
In coded emails, Danny had told him months later about the desperate search Jackson's adopted parents had started, with a huge reward on offer for anyone with information regarding his location. Scott and Derek had both searched for him, more for Lydia's sake than anyone else, but eventually Derek had concluded that Jackson had been vulnerable on his own and had been ambushed and killed by hunters. Chris Argent had agreed, citing a report from a group of hunters not connected to his family which claimed that a young male werewolf travelling alone had been captured and killed in the same area that Jackson had left his car at roughly the same time. Roy didn't know anything about who the young werewolf was, or if it was an invention on Chris Argent or Danny's behalf to offer cover up for Jackson, or closure for Lydia, but he was grateful that it gave him a better chance of making a clean break from Beacon Hills…and grateful that it had offered Lydia an answer.
A little over a year later, after constantly moving around, Roy arrived in Starling City, choosing the location in part because of Stiles, and he settled in the glades, under the guise of a high school dropout who had little more to his name than the clothes on his back. Fast forward a few years, and he was a petty thief working in the Glades who grabbed Thea Queen's purse, and was dragged into the Arrow's mission to save the city from there.
None of the rest of the team had ever given any indication that they knew that Roy Harper wasn't the name he'd been born with, although Felicity had to know that there was something off about Roy's records. He did, after all, know that Oliver had made he look into him when Roy and Thea had first started dating, and Roy had seen Felicity break through false identities that were far better than the one that he and Danny had put together. Danny was very good at what he did, but Felicity was better, and Roy knew that thinking that way didn't make him a bad friend…Danny would say the exact same thing if he had the chance to see Felicity at work.
Roy had loved working alongside Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, and more recently Sara. He had belonged with them; in a way that he'd never belonged in Beacon Hills. As far as he, and his wolf, was concerned, they were his pack. Oliver was his alpha, and Felicity, Diggle and Sara his pack mates in a way that Derek, Scott, Peter and Isaac never had been, despite the summer Jackson had spent being taught control by Derek and Peter, and training alongside Isaac before he'd left for London.
But now they would know the truth about his teenage years, and they would be so disappointed in him for his deceit. Concealing elements of their past was something they'd all done, but Roy was supposed to be the one with the least to hide…not something big…like being a werewolf. As far as Roy knew none of the others even knew that the supernatural even existed.
Despite himself, Roy was curious about what on earth Stiles was doing in Starling City…and for that matter, what had Stiles been doing ever since the Queen's Gambit had sunk. Judging to Oliver's reaction to him, and Sara's as well, Roy was willing to guess that both of them had known Stiles survived the Queen's Gambit going down, and some of what he'd done since, if not the whole story, and honestly it stung a little that neither of them had ever mentioned Stiles when they'd talked about what happened. Sure, neither of them had known the connection between Roy and Stiles, but Stiles had earned a sort of fame following the Queen's Gambit, and most people who knew the story knew of Stiles and how he'd stowed away on board with Oliver's assistance, never to be seen by his family and friends again.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Roy got to his feet and began to walk towards the fire escape he used to access the rooftop. He knew that Stiles had recognized him, and while he could hope that Stiles had forgotten all about it thanks to his head injury, Roy had learned the hard way that things never turned out the way you wanted them to.
As Roy climbed down the fire escape towards where he'd hidden his motorcycle, a part of him…the more Jackson like part, wanted to get back to his house so he could start packing and get out of Starling City, but Roy pushed the thought aside. He'd promised Felicity he would come back to the Arrow cave, and he would, even if it was only to drop off his costume and weapons and to say goodbye to Felicity, because there was no way he couldn't say goodbye to her. He would have to say goodbye to Sin and Thea as well…even if it was just a message on Thea's phone, since she wasn't talking to him at the moment.
With his gut churning and his heart heavy in his chest, his inner wolf wining anxiously in his chest, Roy mounted his bike and headed towards the Arrowcave, for what was probably going to be the last time.
