Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow.
Well guys, here it is. The final part of Artemis. I want to thank you all for following this story as I wrote it, for your kind reviews that persuaded me to keep going even if I was feeling a bit of writer's block. You guys rock, and I hope that the epilogue lives up to expectations.
Epilogue
The Justice League had been formed as a subdivision of ARGUS after Lyla had become Director following Waller's assassination in late 2015, one of Obama's final acts as President. It was made up of 'Team Artemis' from Starling City, (Felicity herself as team leader, Dig, Oliver, Sara, Roy and Thea as 'field operatives'-though she and Oliver were never on the field at the same time-and with Tommy and Aly as medical and tech support back at their base.), 'Team Flash' from Central (made up of Barry Allen, his wife Iris as their support, a guy from a parallel universe named Harrison Wells, also tech support, and Wells' daughter Jesse along with Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow as Barry's back-up, with the field operatives all being meta-humans) and 'Team Bat' from Gotham (Bruce Wayne and his cousin Katherine Kane moonlighted as Batman and Batwoman respectively with the oldest of Bruce's eight children, several friends and, on occasion, Bruce's on-again, off-again lover, Silena Kyle, Catwoman, making up the rest of their group). Through Vibe, a.k.a Cisco's ability to hop to different dimensions, they also had contact with people such as Kara Danvers 'Supergirl' and her cousin Clark Kent 'Superman' on their Earth, and with several others such as Jefferson Pierce, under the alias of Black Lightning on another. On the creation of the JL, they'd all been cleared of all their criminal charges (such as vigilantism), and their work was now legal and done in conjunction with law enforcement, though their real names were kept hidden as per their agreements.
It was a great improvement for them in many ways, though Felicity was always embarrassed when she had to pass by the statue of Artemis erected in the park, labelled 'Starling's Superhero'. No longer was Artemis considered a dangerous, psychotic serial killer taking the law into her own hands. Now, she and her team were Starling's saviours. The people of the Glades practically worshipped her.
Even some of the 1% liked her. Lower crime rates and the knowledge that there was a real-life superhero in the city brought more people to the city and cleaned up the Glades, leading to more people needing employment, leading to more money in the elite's pockets. They didn't dare risk dirty dealing, however. Artemis always found out if they did, and while she no longer killed them for it, she had no qualms breaking a couple of bones and putting an arrow in a non-lethal area before arresting them and destroying their reputations. It just wasn't worth the risk of her wrath.
On a more personal note, things for the Queens' family and friends had improved as well. After Slade, Felicity and Oliver had revealed everything to Moira. Only to learn that the shrewd socialite had already figured it out but hadn't wanted to risk saying anything for her family's sake. That talk had also led to Moira admitting that Thea was the biological daughter of Malcolm Merlyn, not Robert Queen after Oliver had brought up Isabel's rant during their fight. Thea had been devastated at the revelation and Oliver had been helplessly furious, and there had been a schism in the family for months until they had finally started to repair the damage, helped by the knowledge that Robert had known, and hadn't cared, loving Thea as dearly as if she were his blood. Walter, who had reunited with Moira shortly after the fight, had played a large part in repairing the damage to the family's relationship with one another.
Once the school year was up, Felicity and Oliver had gathered up their son and gone off on a round-the-world trip, taking a desperately needed break from everything. They had come back in time for the births of John Diggle Junior and his twin sister, Sadie, named for Lyla's best friend in the army who had died in Afghanistan. Everyone had been stunned speechless when Felicity had returned with her own baby bump, as they had carefully hidden the news whenever they called home to check in. After everything Felicity's body had been through over the years, no one had been without concerns or fears, but Lucas Robert Queen was born hale and hearty shortly before Christmas, if smaller than the doctors would have preferred, with his mother's natural brunette curls (like William), a dimpled smile that Moira liked to claim could melt the Arctic it was so bright and the same bright blue eyes of his father. He and the Diggle twins were close friends, and, like his elder brother, Lucas was already proving himself to have inherited his mother's high intelligence and his father's creative flare, despite not being four yet. Unlike most of his family, he seemed to be more into the arts, whether it was actual art (the fridge was covered in his drawings and colouring sheets) or music, though he was too young to be sure about anything. Still, he had already started learning piano from Moira, and it was a frequent occurrence to wander into the music room at Queen mansion and find her with her young grandson on her knee, guiding his tiny fingers over the keys carefully.
William himself had proven to be a devoted older brother, as well as an adored cousin-figure to the twins and Tommy and Aly's toddler daughter, Rebecca Jackson. Where most teens would groan and complain at being conscripted into babysitting their younger siblings and cousins, Will was always up for it (so long as he didn't have plans already). It helped that his closest friends were Aly's kids and that he would often find himself watching the little ones with them while their parents fought crime or did some QC or Canary Tech related business. If not with the Jacksons, he would usually share babysitting duties with Tim Drake, the youngest of Bruce's adoptive sons (though he was a little older than Bruce's only adoptive daughter, Cassandra). Tim was old enough for his father to let him train, but too young to be allowed on the streets, much to his dissatisfaction. That being said, Tim was always happy to hang with Will, and vice versa. Only a few short months previously, William had admitted to his parents and grandparents that he was gay, something that had been supremely unsurprising to them, much to his shock. But really, all one had to do was see how Will and Tim acted around one another to figure things out.
When not hanging around Tim with pink cheeks or helping look after his kid brother, William was often found at his mother's side. Despite years having passed, a part of him still feared that he would lose her again. He had learned only a basic (in Felicity's opinion, which was very different to most people's 'basic') level of self-defence. Fighting didn't interest him. Technology did, however. He had no intention of following in his parents' footsteps physically, but he'd be happy to take over as tech support for Team Artemis in the future, and it was a given that he would be CEO of Queen Consolidated one day. Unlike Oliver, who had taken the reigns of the company out of duty, not desire, Will was eager for it. Currently, he planned to attend MIT, like his mother, and obtain an engineering and business degree, then spend a few years working at Canary Tech before moving to QC, to get used to the duties before having the responsibility of a Fortune 500 company on his hands. Already he'd done a summer internship at QC and was now in the middle of his second. He intended to do at least a month of work in every department, to get to know how it all worked, from mail to R&D. His parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents had all been glowing with pride when he laid out his plans for them.
As for the other members of the family, Walter had just been elected as Mayor of Starling City when Thea shocked the family speechless by announcing that she and Roy had eloped as she was pregnant. Liana Felicity Harper was born in summer 2017 with a full head of brunette hair (nearly a mohawk, a subject of much amusement to everybody save Thea, who got more than a little indignant whenever the topic came up. Although Speedy was no longer hyped up on Mirakuru, she was still an excellent shot, and a wicked fighter after Felicity and Sara's training, so they tended to keep it away from her hearing) and eyes that changed to grey after several months. While Thea was now around halfway to officially being a surgeon, Roy had become a rising star in the SCPD, and was on track to setting a record for youngest gold shield detective. Liana was his little princess, and everyone knew that she was going to be a spoilt brat, as he could deny her nothing.
Things weren't as plain sailing for the Lances. Quentin and Dinah were both devastated by Laurel's actions. They were even more pained when she was declared guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced to a mental institution for a minimum of twenty years for conspiracy to commit terrorism. They cursed themselves for not realizing just how bad things had gotten with her, too caught up in themselves and Sara's return. Quentin in particular was furious with himself, given he was the one in Starling, and who had noticed Laurel's spiral down into alcoholism. But every dark cloud has a silver lining as they say, and when Dinah moved back to Starling to be closer to her daughters (despite Laurel's anger towards her parents, they stubbornly visited her several times a week. Eventually, after the therapy started working, Sara began making the occasional, short visit as well.), she and Quentin eventually ended up reconnecting and got married again, though not without significant problems and lots of couples' therapy. Although his career had taken another hit when it came out that one of his daughters had helping plot to destroy the city (a very sensitive topic at the time, with memories of the Undertaking still raw a year later), he had recovered and, when Walter was elected as Mayor, he proceeded to name Quentin as the new Police Commissioner, where he was flourishing.
And thankfully, despite the alarming pattern that had appeared to have begun emerging at the time, the fight with Slade was the last major attack on Starling the team had been forced to deal with. Nowadays, save for major threats that required the JL to team up to combat, most of what Team Artemis dealt with were minor drug lords or petty criminals. Everyone knew that setting up criminal activities in Starling City was doomed to a painful failure, so most avoided it. Crime rates had dropped by 97%. The remainder was mainly due to the mob families that stubbornly clung to their territory in the city, and the team was steadily chipping away at their power, curbing more and more with each operation. The worst thing they had dealt with was an attack by a group of psychotic meta-humans in early 2018, an attack they had repelled with minimal civilian casualties, aided by the police helping instead of hindering them.
As for Sara, she had ended up reconnecting with her old lover from the League of Assassins. As it turned out, said lover was not just any member of the League, but the leader's daughter. And, by 2018, the leader. Oliver didn't know the details, but the previous 'Demon's Head' had died, and Nyssa had replaced him. On doing so, she had reached out to Sara. They had a long-distance sort of thing going on. Oliver didn't really get how it worked, but he understood that Sara was happier than she had been since returning from the League, so he was happy for her.
Oliver shook away his memories of how the last several years had gone as they approached the medical wing. Lucas was on his hip, sucking at his thumb and playing with a button on Oliver's shirt. Clever as he was, at three, he didn't fully understand what was going on. Will was half-bouncing with eagerness and excitement as they arrived at the door.
"Don't be too loud now, okay?" Oliver warned the boys, more Lucas than William. "Mommy's still feeling very tired."
Luke withdrew his thumb to press a finger to his lips and make 'shush' sound. Oliver's already broad grin widened, and he nodded.
"That's right," he confirmed. "Shush. Good boy."
"Come on Dad, I want to see them," Will urged impatiently. Oliver smirked at the teenager's eagerness and reached out to open the door to the hospital room.
Felicity was reclining against a pile of pillows on the bed in the centre of the room, looking drawn and exhausted and utterly beautiful as she smiled lovingly down at the tiny pink bundle cradled in her arms.
She turned her smile on her husband and sons as they entered, shifting the baby into one arm to reach out the other towards them in a silent invitation.
"Come and meet your little sister, boys," she urged them.
"Down, Daddy," Lucas demanded. Oliver warned him to be careful as he placed him on the bed beside Felicity. Thankfully, Luke was a gentle child and had some experience with a baby from Liana, enough to know to be careful as he peered at the baby. "Pretty baby sister," he stated decisively after a moment of studying her tiny, pink and scrunched up face. "I like her."
The proud parents hid their laughter at the serious declaration, and Felicity stroked his hair.
"I'm very glad to hear it," she said sincerely. Given the many other kids around him, they hadn't been too concerned about any possible feelings of sibling rivalry, but it was still good to hear that the first impression he had of his little sister was a good one.
"What's her name?" Will asked as he hurried to his mother's side and leaned over to get a better look at the child in her arms.
"Her name is Mia," Oliver announced proudly. "Mia Donna Queen, for her grandmothers."
AN: In the comics, Roy's daughter is named Lian, but given Felicity was stranded on Lian Yu, I've elected to tweak it to Liana instead.
Again, thank you all so much for your support of this story. You guys rock. Stay strong and stay safe. The more we follow government regs, the quicker this pandemic will get under control, so social distance, wear masks, be OCD about hand washing and get vaccinated asap!
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