Hey guys! Hope everyone had a good Christmas/New Years despite everything. I know everyone's fed up and sick of this shit, but please hang on and keep wearing masks/social distancing/etc. Vaccines are being dispersed now, but there's still a long way to go. Protect yourselves and the people you love. It'll be worth it when the pandemic ends with you and your family safe and alive. Ignoring these regulations spreads this highly lethal virus. DON'T BE KILLERS, BE PROTECTORS!

This and the epilogue are all that's left, so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow.

Chapter Thirty-Four

It's All Over Now

"About time you showed up," Slade declared cockily with a smug smirk hanging on his lips. Felicity glared at him, but most of her attention was focused on Oliver. Thank God, he seemed alright, if bruised and pissed off. They exchanged looks, and she hoped he read her mind and picked up on what she needed him to do.

He gave a ghost of a nod, and she saw how he shifted a fraction, preparing to dive out of the way the second she gave the signal. He was unbound, the blade pressed to his neck enough to keep him subdued.

Slade hadn't given her any messages on where to show up, so Felicity had been forced to guess, based on her knowledge of Slade, what he would choose as the rendezvous point. She was unsurprised to be correct in her guess of the pier where the Queen's Gambit had set off from on that fateful voyage. She had deliberately avoided the docks as much as possible since her return, due to the dark memories she associated with the place, illogical as it was. No doubt Slade had picked up on her avoidance during his surveillance of her and chosen it in the hope of putting her on edge.

Bastard.

She knew they weren't alone. The area was useless for sniper perches, but she had spotted Laurel and Isabel as well as a few others hiding in different boats on her way to the dock reserved for the Queen family. They weren't particularly subtle, no doubt reliant more on their enhanced strength than actual skill. Felicity would bet that each of them were injected with Mirakuru. This would be a tough fight, but she trusted her team to deal with the others while she took on Slade.

"My invite got lost in the post," Felicity retorted sarcastically, thumbing her bow and judging whether she could shoot him before he broke her husband's neck or slit his throat. The odds weren't in her favour, meaning she needed to stall for a bit, get him angry enough to let go of Oliver so he'd be able to duck away.

"Shame, but better late than never I suppose," Slade smirked.

Felicity hummed, tapping the hilt of her sword (which she had coated in the cure, as well as doing the same thing for her extensive collection of knives). Each of her arrows, all twenty-seven of the large ones in her quiver and the twenty-seven dart-arrows attached to her arms and legs were all carrying vials of the cure too. All she needed was a single deep enough cut, and she had him.

Thea had collapsed within seconds of the cure being injected into her bloodstream, and had begun getting woozy pretty much straight away. Felicity could handle Slade for that long, as long as she relied on dodging and speed instead of trying to take him on with brute force (not that that had ever been her style.). All she had to do was hit him deep enough and then keep him at bay until the cure kicked in.

It hurt, like a knife to the chest (something she had personal, real-life experience with) to fight Slade. Even now, after so much discord and violence, a part of her still thought of him as the man who had single-handedly taken on a dozen gun-wielding mercenaries with just a sword to save her life, who had been a surrogate brother to her for almost two years. Everything that had come after couldn't erase what had come first.

But for Oliver, for William and the rest of their family and friends and the people of the city who were all at risk, Felicity would do it. She would set aside her care for Slade and force herself to see him only as an opponent. She couldn't let herself do anything less, or else she couldn't guarantee that she would put her everything into this fight, and that would almost certainly be fatal.

Still, a part of her still tried to reason with him, even if she knew it was hopeless. He was overcome by the Mirakuru, and lost in the same angry grief that had haunted him even before they met.

"Slade, you don't have to do this," she said softly. "Shado wouldn't want innocents hurt in her name. And from what you told us of them, I don't think Adeline and your kids would want this either. They loved you, had faith in you. You shame their memories by murdering in their names."

Slade snarled at her, eye flashing with hatred. "How dare you?!" He growled. "How dare you mention them, when you're the reason they're dead!"

Felicity shook her head. "I bare part of the blame for Shado, that's true, but Ivo killed her, Ivo chose to kill her instead of killing me or Sara. And I had nothing to do with Adeline and Joe's deaths. That was all you, Slade."

He let out an incoherent yell of rage at her words and threw Oliver to the side like a ragdoll to charge at her. Oliver landed harshly on the ground and smacked his head, groaning softly. Felicity would have rushed to his side if she could, but she had her own hands full dealing with Slade.

She had no choice but to focus on the fight and ducking Slade's wild but powerful attacks whilst she tried to land her own hit with her knives (at this range, neither her arrows nor her sword would work, mores the pity. They were her best weapons and if she could use them, this fight would be a lot simpler for her). She was skilled enough however, that she could take a split second to affirm that the others had also engaged. Dig and some ARGUS agent were taking on a masked man while Sara was fighting Laurel, the two sisters exchanging words harsh as their blows. From the quick glance she saw, Felicity suspected they were aiming to maim, if not outright kill, though Laurel was clearly relying more on her enhanced strength than her abilities. God, she dreaded how Quentin was going to feel. Nearby, Oliver was dodging Rochev's blows skilfully, thank God. The other, nameless Mirakuru soldiers Slade had brought with him had all been engaged by ARGUS agents, and there was an ARGUS-created barrier surrounding the docks to contain the battle.

"You bitch!" Slade snarled, drawing her attention back to him as she ducked a blow that, given his inhuman strength, would probably have crushed her ribcage like a can. She swiped at his thigh with a knife, hoping to both damage his ability to move as well as get the cure into his bloodstream, but the Mirakuru had caused his mind to deteriorate, not his fighting skills and he dodged it quick enough that she barely pricked him. Not enough to affect him the way she wanted, needed him to be affected.

He managed to sweep her legs out from underneath her and she landed on her back, rolling to the side just in time to avoid being decapitated by his sword. As it was, she spotted a few strands of hair on the ground from his blade giving her an impromptu trim. As she rolled, she spied Oliver ducking the blow of one of Slade's masked minions, and she could hear the sounds of fighting echoing throughout the docks.

She kicked out instinctively, burying her heel into Slade's pelvis and making him snarl a curse as she quickly jack-knifed back to her feet and unsheathed her sword, spinning and countering a blow just in time. She was damn fit, but the force needed to counter Slade's brute strength was making her short of breath already. And with his enhanced speed, she was struggling to go on the offensive, needing to keep all of her focus on holding him at bay.

She forced herself to block out the sounds of her group's struggles. A single second of hesitation would kill her.

Sara had demanded to be the one allowed to engage Laurel during the fight. She felt a deep sense of ire and betrayal towards her sister and was determined to gain revenge for her treachery.

Oh, she and Laurel had never been close, not like Sara and Felicity were close. They were too different. Sara had been a wild child, free and loving to live life. With Felicity at her side, she had coasted through school easily (Felicity would never consider helping her cheat, but Sara was a smart person in her own right and had kept an A- average with her best friend's help), happy with the life she had.

Laurel, meanwhile, set her sights on power at a young age, and was hyper-focused on it from the start. She had set her goals and when her plans to become Mrs. Queen, the female half of Starling's future 'It Couple' had gone up in smoke, she had blamed Sara for introducing Felicity and Oliver after he transferred to Harvard.

But even with the schism between them for the entirety of their adolescence, Sara loved her sister. Thoughts of not just her parents but Laurel too, had kept her sane while she worked off her debt to the League of Assassins. That Laurel had become so spiteful she would go against everything their parents raised them to believe just to get revenge for a break-up, that she would allow herself to be injected with Mirakuru of all things, the thing Sara was most terrified of and utterly despised, utterly enraged the Canary.

"Have you thought about what this will do to Mom and Dad?" Sara spat bitterly at Laurel, ducking a swing and punching her straight in the nose. While Laurel was fucking strong and a decent fighter, she was nothing compared to the Canary. It was like comparing Little League and Major League baseball players. Sara was managing easily. She was satisfied to see that, serum or no serum, the punch had managed to break Laurel's nose, though it would probably start healing immediately. Hopefully it would heal crooked and ruin Laurel's precious good lucks. Her sister had always been vain.

She kicked Laurel's side and at last yanked a knife from its place on her belt. Sara's knives were, like the others' weapons, coated in the cure. There was no point coating her staff in it, given that it needed to be in the bloodstream to work, so knives it was.

It probably made her a terrible person, having no qualms about stabbing her own sister, but Sara was pissed enough not to give a fuck. She had no intentions of killing Laurel, but making her pay for what she had not only done, but been willing to do? That was a whole 'nother story.

"Why should I care how they feel?" Laurel spat back, managing to dodge Sara's swipe and kicking out. This time it connected, and Sara let out grunt of pain as she was sent flying backwards into a boat. "They never cared about me!" Laurel ranted bitterly. "Mom upped and left the moment you went missing, and Dad disappeared into the bottom of a bottle. They left me! They weren't there for me when Ollie left me for that bitch and her brat! The bitch you introduced him to, never mind that he was my boyfriend! And you, the whole time we were grieving for you and you were, what, travelling the world not giving a fuck that we thought you were dead!"

Sara scoffed and shook her head. "God, you're pathetic!" She hissed as she scrambled back to her feet. "You and Oliver had already split up by the time that I introduced him and Lis. As for that bullshit about Mom and Dad not caring about you, God, how self-absorbed can you be? Sure, they fucked up, but you're one to talk about becoming an alcoholic because of losing someone!"

Laurel let out an incomprehensible howl and hurled herself at Sara. And at the blade of the knife Sara was pointing outwards. It pierced her side (Sara never hit a place she didn't intend to and as furious as she was, Laurel was still her sister) and sent her to her knees in surprise at the sudden burst of pain. Soon after, she began to seize and fall unconscious as Sara pinned her down and prepared to restrain her so she could be taken into custody.

Oliver was pissed as he ducked Isabel's punch. 'Thank God Felicity and Dig insisted on me training so much' he thought absently as he jumped backward, trying to stay out of range. He wasn't an idiot, quite the opposite actually. He had no weapons and while his fighting skills were better than Isabel's, she had superior strength and endurance from the Mirakuru in her veins. His best option was to get away, but she was fast enough to block his every attempt. the fight had moved a fair distance from the origin point, but she kept too close for him to get away, as well as blocking him from getting to the others for help.

"When I've killed you, I'm going to show your damn mother your corpse!" Isabel hissed at him, a wild, insane light in her dark eyes. She had been ranting for a while about his parents. As it turned out, she'd had an affair with Robert years ago, and it seems to have ended on a very sour note. Taking control of QC was so she could destroy his father's life's work, and everything else was about making his mom suffer. "Then," the madwoman continued with her monologue. "I'll make her watch as I kill that brat of a sister of yours! I'll make her suffer! She wasn't even his daughter, but he chose her over me anyway! How fucking dare you? I'll make your whole family pay for what you did to me!"

"What?" The claim of Thea not being Robert's daughter startled him, allowing Isabel to gain the upper hand and send him to the ground. She was straddling him before he could react, still ranting about how she would make his family suffer even as she raised a fist to smash his face in, and Oliver braced himself, shutting his eyes instinctively. A second later, there was a gunshot, and he felt her go limp on top of him.

Oliver was unsurprised to open his eyes and see that Dig had been the one to save him, having put a bullet right through Isabel's forehead, killing her instantly.

"Thanks man," he told his friend as Dig hauled Isabel's body off him and helped Oliver to his feet.

"No problem," Dig shrugged it off. "Sorry I let her get her paws on you in the first place."

Oliver waved the apology away dismissively. "She was good at hiding what a psycho she was," he replied indifferently, though the memory of her words about Thea continued to linger. He shoved it in a box to be dealt with later. Right now there were more important things to worry about.

"Where's Felicity?"

"Over there, facing off with Slade," Dig replied grimly, pointing at two figures clashing swords.

"We gotta help her!" Oliver exclaimed, picking up on the fact that the smaller figure was being overwhelmed by her opponent.

"Let's move," Dig agreed, leading the way over to the fight.

Felicity held out a long time, but eventually Slade managed to take advantage of her flagging energy and disarm her. Her sword was just out of reach, her bow and quiver had been lost as they clashed and moved through the docks, and she was now pinned, unable to attack him with a knife or arrow dart. She stared at him defiantly, resigned to her fate. She was too exhausted to keep fighting, and the position they were in, her flat on the ground with his sword tipping the centre of her chest, his feet crushing her fingers to keep her in place, prevented her from doing so anyway.

"You're not walking out of this," she warned him. "ARGUS agents have surrounded the whole dock and have a helicopter in the air. Even if you took a boat, they'd catch you."

Slade shrugged, a wild, excited grin on his face. "So long as I bring you down with me, I don't care," he answered bluntly. "It's a shame you won't see your precious family or city be destroyed, but you've suffered and you'll die knowing you failed. That's enough. Without revenge, I have nothing left."

"Grant and Rose are still alive," Felicity pointed out softly.

He twisted his lips bitterly. "I lost them when Adeline and Joe died," he responded. "I have enough sanity left to realize that, at least."

Felicity sighed heavily and nodded. "I wish things hadn't turned out like this," she said regretfully.

Slade briefly looked solemn. For a single moment, the man Shado loved had returned. "Me too," he acknowledged, before the sorrow was again replaced by insane rage and he raised his sword.

A second later, she heard a yell, and an arrow sprouted from his throat. They both blinked in shock as Slade staggered back, one hand pressed to his throat as he choked on blood. Acting on instinct, ignoring the agony in her broken hands, Felicity grabbed her sword and lunged at him, swinging and severing his head completely. She stared blankly at the body for a moment before looking up to see who the shooter had been.

A broken laugh left her painted lips when she saw Oliver holding her (Shado's) bow and running towards her, slightly ahead of Dig.

He pulled her into his arms the moment he was within reach, and she buried her head in his shoulder, shaking with sobs. Whether she was crying from pain, relief or grief, not even Felicity knew.

"It's okay, it's over now," Oliver whispered in her ear, rocking her slightly like they did for Will after a nightmare. "I have you, we're okay. It's all over now."