Despite my disillusionment with MCU post-Endgame after seeing how the Disney+ series and Black Widow film has fared, this wouldn't escape my mind. Honestly, I have little to no desire to write my own spins on canon seasons of Arrow, especially considering that I've already done a lot of times my own spins on the first two seasons that it would be tiring for me at this point. Would this be considered a follow-up to 'The Hood and the Widow', I am leaving that entirely up to you, but honestly, the Black Widow film screwed up a bit the plans I had prepared for my now cancelled sequel and I was considering some modifications but the outcome of the first season 'Loki' series just reinforced my disillusionment with MCU. I am considering another Arrowverse/MCU fic but I'm still planning it out.
I'm curious about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Hawkeye series but other than that, my interest in MCU has been significantly reduced.
So, this is more like a summary of events, similar to Aragorn II Elessar's epilogue of 'The Devil and the Arrow', which I tried to continue, though the events in Russia, where Oliver and Nat met are the same as in 'The Hood and the Widow' and honestly, there are already so many versions of MCU/Arrowverse crossovers covering Age of Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame that I honestly felt like ripping off if I was going to write them and I've already written fics that were on a scale similar to the mentioned films that I don't have the energy to write them anymore.
2021
It had felt like a lifetime but after years, they were happy. In a beach house on a secluded island, Natasha Romanoff stirred and moaned softly as the silk bedsheets covering her were moving before she got up to see Oliver preparing breakfast at the balcony as she smelled the roasted bacon and heard sizzling of frypan. She got up as the blanket unveiled her naked body in its beauty as Oliver smiled and she grinned, both amused by the teasing before she entered the shower.
As Oliver heard the stream of water in the bathroom, he sat down and reminisced about how things had gone down since he had met Natasha in Russia almost ten years ago, while he turned to a crib with baby girl sleeping in it as he rocked the crib gently.
When they first met, Oliver and Natasha had been after the same target, Russian crime lord Konstantin Kovar and Natasha saved Oliver, when Gregor, a corrupt leader of the Bratva and an associate of Kovar, had attempted to kill Oliver. Natasha had saved Oliver's life and she could see how lost he had been, like she had been once upon a time and she had helped him find his way again and honor his father before they took down Gregor and Kovar. But, as they were about to take Kovar in to S.H.I.E.L.D. for interrogation, Kovar was assassinated by the elusive legendary assassin, the Winter Soldier, that Oliver, Natasha and Anatoly barely managed to fend off.
Natasha later took Oliver in for debriefing at S.H.I.E.L.D., where he got to know some good people, such as agents Bobbi Morse and Phil Coulson and Oliver got the privilege of meeting director Nick Fury, who Oliver grew to like more than Amanda Waller, director of A.R.G.U.S. While Fury could be shady and ruthless, he had his moral code and very rarely, if ever, resorted to heartless methods Waller would use. With Fury's help, Oliver managed to stage his 'return' to Starling City, where Natasha later joined in undercover as Oliver's assistant and Diggle agreed to work with Oliver as his bodyguard, due to Diggle having worked with Fury before as a freelancer. Together, they investigated Kovar's associates, who later turned to be Malcolm Merlyn, the orchestrator of the Undertaking to destroy the Glades and the man responsible for the Queen's Gambit sinking. Also, it turned out that Malcolm was more dangerous than they had thought, when they later learned that he was a former member of the League of Assassins and probably one of the deadliest fighters alive. And Malcolm was fully aware, who Natasha was and he made various attempts to take her down, hiring assassins and hitmen, who, unsuccessfully, tried to come after her.
During that time, Oliver and Natasha grew closer to each other due to their dark pasts and searching for redemption, until they confessed their feelings for each other, deepening their relationship and with Natasha's help and her friends and fellow agents, Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye, Bobbi and Lance Hunter, they stopped Malcolm's Undertaking and Oliver, barely, managed to kill him. Oliver's best friend, Tommy Merlyn, later found out Oliver's secret but after some time of thinking, he and Oliver managed to rekindle their friendship, while accepting that Tommy's father was a monster who had to be stopped for good. And after finding out about Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad and attempt to "recruit" Floyd Lawton, Fury decided to expose her and Waller was forced to stand trial before the Department of Defense commitee, who sentenced her to life imprisonment in a black site for crimes against humanity and cover-up of the outbreak of Alpha/Omega virus in Hong Kong in 2010.
While the Undertaking was stopped and all Oliver and his sister Thea could do, was wait for their mother's trial, an Asgardian God of Mischief, Loki, came to Earth, stealing a powerful object called the Tesseract, containing the Space Stone, one of six stones that controlled the aspects of universe and reality itself and using his scepter with the Mind Stone, Loki enslaved Clint, Dr. Erik Selvig and dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and scientists and stole the Tesseract, prompting Fury to start the Avengers Initiative, which Oliver later joined. Whie he got along quite well with Steve Rogers, Captain America, who had been found trapped within ice in the wreckage of Red Skull's bomber plane Valkyrie, Dr. Bruce Banner, whose alter-ego was the one of Hulk, a giant green behemoth capable of destruction, and Thor, the God of Thunder, he grew to dislike the billionaire Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, as his personality reminded Oliver too much of his own playboy self before the Gambit. But after the Helicarrier was attacked by Clint and other brainwashed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, which resulted in Loki's escape and Coulson dying in an attempt to stop him, they all put their differences aside and together the Avengers ventured into New York, where Selvig used the Tesseract and Tony's arc reactor powering Stark Tower to open the portal for Loki's army of Chitauri to lay siege to New York, but united, Oliver and the Avengers, managed to free Selvig of Loki's control, defeat Loki and stop the Chitauri, as Tony flew the nuclear missile into the space to destroy their mothership.
In the aftermath of Battle of New York, the Avengers were revered as heroes and Oliver and Natasha attempted to move on with their lives, when her past unexpectedly had come back to haunt her. Yelena Belova, who had trained with Natasha in Black Widow program and was also Natasha's former friend-turned-rival, was on a warpath of vengeance, hunting down everyone who had wronged her, that being Russian governmental and military officers behind the Red Room and Black Widow program and Natasha herself, who had bested her, when they had been training. Oliver, Steve, Clint and Natasha attempted to hunt her down and stop her before she would cause more collateral damage but in the process, they crossed paths with a mercenary known only as Taskmaster, who was a dangerous foe, since he had the ability to copy fighting styles and movements of every fighter he would see. Oliver was later captured by Talia al Ghul, who saw potential in him and who later turned out to be Yelena's mentor after Yelena fled the Black Widow program and unlike Natasha, who had resources of S.H.I.E.L.D. on her side, Yelena had been on the run and hunted for years. Talia and Yelena agreed to help Oliver, Steve, Clint and Natasha take down Dreykov, the man behind the Red Room, who was later imprisoned in S.H.I.E.L.D. black site and Natasha and Yelena eventually reconciled and made amends, alongside Natasha's old friend and ex-husband, Alexei Shostakov, also known as the Red Guardian.
In 2013-14, as Oliver continued his crusade, now as 'The Arrow', during that time, Oliver's former best friend turned enemy, who had been one of the men training him, former A.S.I.S. agent Slade Wilson, came to Starling City to exact his revenge on Oliver, recruiting a corrupt alderman Sebastian Blood and businesswoman Isabel Rochev to stain the reputation of Oliver's family and take over Queen Consolidated and Slade used his blood full of Mirakuru to create an army of soldiers just like him. During that time, Oliver's former lover, Sara Lance, now a member of the League of Assassins on the run, came back to Starling City to check in on Oliver and her family, despite being hunted by the League and Sara's current lover and daughter of Ra's al Ghul, Nyssa al Ghul, forcing Sara to expose herself to Oliver, Quentin and Laurel eventually, who both later figured out Oliver's secret as well but considering how he had helped them in the past, they promised to keep his secret and Nyssa was eventually persuaded to release Sara. Oliver and Natasha were understanding and helped Sara with her struggle with inner darkness, when at the same time, a lawyer Matt Murdock, also known as the vigilante Daredevil, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and an old flame of Natasha, came to set up his own practice in Starling City and later joined up with Team Arrow, alongside Thea's boyfriend and an admirer of the Arrow, Roy Harper, who Oliver first used as a scout in the Glades. During that time, a CSI from Central City, Barry Allen, came to investigate the theft of centrifuge from Queen Consolidated, chasing impossible cases and while Oliver was skeptical regarding his explanation about the man in yellow murdering Barry's mother at first, considering his own experience with inexplicable, Oliver decided to give Barry the benefit of the doubt and Barry eventually figured out Oliver's secret but promised not to tell anyone.
Oliver later decided to train Roy after he had been injected with Mirakuru and revealing his identity to him and during that time, Matt and Sara came to grow closer to each other due to Matt seeing the similarities between Sara and his former lover Elektra Natchios, who had been murdered by an evil ninja clan seeking immortality, known as the Hand and Matt and Oliver later managed to talk Sara out of murdering Roy, who had gone off the deep end due to the influence of Mirakuru and they later cured Roy, who decided to take the mantle of Arsenal, while they also trained Thea, who had decided to take the mantle of Speedy.
Slade later exposed himself to Oliver, psychologically playing with him and almost forcing Oliver to make brash or stupid calls, if not for his friends talking some sense into him. Slade attempted to fulfill his promise and kill Moira but she was rescued by the intervention of Steve, Matt, superstrong detective Jessica Jones, bulletproof Luke Cage and Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist and Colleen Wing, forcing Slade to flee. Even though they got some rest, Oliver was forced to reveal his secret to Thea, since Moira had known since the Undertaking, even though Thea was hurt by the secret regarding Malcolm being her father, which Oliver later explained he had not known until recently, when Matt and Laurel checked Moira's medical records during her trial, she became understanding and forgave Oliver.
Slade later launched his siege of Starling City with his army of Mirakuru soldiers but Oliver, Sara, Steve, Roy, the Defenders, A.R.G.U.S. agents and Nyssa, who had decided to help Sara, fended off Slade's army with the Mirakuru cure manufactured by Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow but the army was only a distraction for Slade to force Oliver to make the same 'choice' he had made on the island with Sara and Shado, by forcing Oliver to choose between Natasha and Laurel he had managed to capture. Unknowing to Slade though, capturing Laurel was only a ruse created by her and Oliver, catching Slade off-guard and giving Laurel an opening to inject him with the cure. While Slade's Mirakuru army was subdued, Oliver and Slade engaged in a fierce showdown and while Oliver eventually defeated Slade, considering that Slade had been a brother to Oliver once and remembering how tense was the falling out between Natasha and Yelena, also to the point of them almost killing each other, he could not bring himself to kill Slade, so Oliver decided to lock him up in an underground A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu and Moira later became the Mayor of Starling City and Blood was killed after betraying Slade and helping Oliver, alongside Mirakuru-enhanced Isabel, who was killed by Natasha. Having enough of feeling helpless, Tommy asked Oliver to train him as well and in few months, Tommy later took the mantle of the Dark Archer but using it to inspire hope, not giving fear to others.
In 2014, Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, was intrigued by Oliver's skills and willingness to kill and sent various agents of the League, including Oliver's former friend, Maseo Yamashiro, who had taken the mantle of Sarab, to test him as Ra's succesor. At first, Oliver declined the offer but when Ra's threatened to kill everyone Oliver loved, Oliver challenged him to a duel, in which Ra's bested him and left him for dead on the mountain. Unknowing to Ra's, Oliver was rescued and nursed to health by Talia, who had used the waters of the Lazarus Pit to heal his injuries and agreed to train him and when Ra's framed the Arrow for murder and mortally injured Natasha, Oliver was forced to challenge him to a duel for the second time and even though he had not finished his training with Talia, Oliver was eventually able to kill Ra's and considering how the League had become corrupted, Talia and Nyssa both agreed to destroy the Ring of the Demon, in order for free everyone, themselves included, from Ra's influence and Maseo later returned to his wife Tatsu as they attempted to rekindle their relationship and Oliver later took the mantle of the Green Arrow, when Quentin declared the Arrow dead.
During that time, Barry awoke from coma and became the Flash and with the help of Oliver and Barry's friends Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow and his girlfriend, Detective Patty Spivot and mentor, Dr. Harrison Wells, he later trained to become the fastest man alive until it turned out that Harrison Wells was in fact Eobard Thawne, an evil speedster from the 22nd century and Barry's would-be arch-nemesis, the man, who had murdered Barry's mother and also the real Harrison Wells and his wife Tess, assuming Wells's identity and building the particle accelerator to turn Barry into the Flash and getting home before they discovered Thawne's secret. Even though he had manipulated, played and killed other metahumans and tried to kill Patty as well due to her being a threat to Thawne's future, with Oliver's and Firestorm's help, Barry defeated Thawne. Thawne offered Barry to save his mother but Barry only used that opportunity to say 'goodbye' to Nora before he and Thawne engaged in another fierce fight, resulting in Thawne's ancestor, Eddie Thawne, commiting suicide to save Barry before Thawne would kill him, erasing him from existence.
In 2015, in New York, Elektra later turned out to be brought back from the dead and used by the Hand as their secret weapon, 'The Black Sky', and Team Arrow, the Defenders, Colleen, Stick, who was later killed by Elektra, attempted to stop them, which resulted in Matt and Elektra perishing in the destruction of Midland Circle, or so they believed. During that time, Fury was later almost killed in an assassination attempt by the Winter Soldier, who later turned out to be Steve's former best friend, who he had believed he had died in World War II, Bucky Barnes, with Hydra infiltrating various governments and agencies, S.H.I.E.L.D. and A.R.G.U.S. included and one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s elite agents, Brock Rumlow, and much to Oliver's and his friends' surprise, Diggle, turned out to be sleeper agents of Hydra and betrayed them, forcing Oliver and Steve's friend, Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon, to kill Diggle and Rumlow ended up severely wounded but later returned as a mercenary known as Crossbones and Alexander Pierce, the leader of the current Hydra faction, was killed by Fury. In their tense fight aboard the Helicarrier, Steve refused to finish the fight and managed to make Bucky at least partially remember who he was before the Helicarrier went down and Bucky saved Steve from drowning in Potomac river before Bucky killed his Hydra handlers in Washington D.C. and then left in a quest of self-discovery and regaining his memories. In the aftermath, Steve decided to try a relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, who was also niece of Steve's old flame Peggy.
Later that year, Damien Darhk, the rival of Ra's al Ghul and his organization called HIVE, terrorized Star City, while the Avengers were hunting the remnants of Hydra. During that time, Oliver learned about his son William, who he had sired unknowingly with Samantha Clayton, who Moira had paid off and sent to Central City and made her keep William's existence a secret to Oliver. When Oliver found out, it put a strain on their relationship but after Moira was almost killed by Darhk, they reconciled. With John Constantine's and Mari McCabe's help, Oliver was able to figure out the source of Darhk's magic and kill him and the rest of H.I.V.E. was later captured and arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D., secretly under the leadership of Coulson, who had decided to keep his survival a secret for a few years, or hunted down and killed by Nyssa, Talia and their followers from the remnant of the League of Assassins.
During that time, Clark Kent had gone through trials of Jor-El and became Superman and his cousin Kara Danvers, who had taken the mantle of Supergirl, later became allies of the heroes, with Diana of Themyscira deciding to re-emerge in the world of Men and they, together with Oliver, Team Arrow and Team Flash, consisted of Barry, Cisco as Vibe and Caitlin as Killer Frost and the Defenders helped the Avengers in Sokovia against a rogue AI Ultron created by Tony and his army of robots and Pietro was almost killed by Ultron if not for Barry's intervention but Hulk, believing himself to be too big of a threat to the world due to his rage, decided to take the Quinjet and flee the Earth and when Oliver rescued Natasha after she had been kidnapped by Ultron, they decided not to let themselves be torn apart anymore, they later got married, with Steve being Oliver's best man and Sara Natasha's Maid of Honor, with Tommy, Thea, Roy, Laurel, Barry, Patty, Cisco, Caitlin and their fellow Avengers friends attending. Thor left Earth and searched other realms in an attempt to find out who had been playing them, considering the recent appearance of more Infinity Stones.
In 2016, the Sokovian Accords were put in effect, holding back the Avengers, since after the events of New York and Sokovia, the UN had enough of letting the heroes roam free and wanted to control them. While Steve, Sam, Natasha, Wanda and Clint decided not to sign, Tony, fueled by his guilt over Ultron and Sokovia, signed and he went out of his way to convince everyone else to sign and during that time, Helmut Zemo, former Sokovian Colonel, framed Bucky for bombing of UN meeting in Vienna International Centre, flushing Bucky out of hiding and leading him to getting captured by Joint Terrorism Task Force and Zemo using Hydra's trigger codes he had stolen from Vasily Karpov, a former Hydra colonel, to trigger Bucky's Winter Soldier programming and revealing the location of the Hydra base in Siberia, where five Winter Soldiers had been kept. Even though Tony was held back by the Accords, he gave Steve the benefit of the doubt and listened to him. They eventually went to Siberia, where, surprisingly the Winter Soldiers had been killed by Zemo, who revealed to them that Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, had been responsible for the death of Tony's parents. Enraged, Tony attacked Steve and Bucky but Steve didn't fight back and managed to talk him down, while explaining to Tony that he had only suspected Bucky's involvement in the deaths of Howard and Maria Starks until Zemo's revelation. Tony was angry but understanding and let Steve and Bucky go, while T'Challa captured Zemo and offered to help Bucky free himself from Hydra's programming.
In that year, an assassin calling himself Prometheus came to Star City to exact his revenge on Oliver. He later turned out to be Adrian Chase, originally named 'Simon Morrison', an illegitimate and psychopatic son of one of Oliver's targets on the List he had killed, Justin Claybourne. He had travelled and trained with various assassins and fighters to match Oliver and spent four years obsessively studying Oliver, psychologically taunting him and playing games and when Oliver figured out who Chase was, when he had framed the Green Arrow for the murder of Detective Billy Malone, Chase shed all his facade and proceeded to play deeper psychological games by using three legendary assassins feared even by the League itself, the Longbow Hunters, to eradicate Bratva and kidnap Anatoly. In an attempt to rescue Anatoly, Chase captured Oliver and tortured him in an attempt to convince him he was a murderer who enjoyed killing. Luckily, Oliver managed to escape and he and Anatoly attempted to take Chase down by Anatoly testifying but Chase had anticipated that move and rigged the trial by threatening the jury. Chase attempted to kill Anatoly but a ruthless vigilante Frank Castle, also known as the Punisher, followed Anatoly and fended Chase off. Anatoly ended up in a coma but left them dying declaration in an attempt to take Chase down and Oliver and Chase later had a brutal showdown in the hotel before Oliver subdued Chase, declaring that he would not let Chase destroy Oliver's soul.
Chase ended up in A.R.G.U.S. prison but he had another ace in the hole, he managed to kidnap Natasha, Laurel, Tommy, Roy, Moira, Thea, Lyla, Rene and Rory, even William and Samantha due to him recruiting more allies, that being Dinah Drake, a vengeful metahuman he had managed to get on his side, the Thanatos Guild, who were the remaining members of the League, enraged by Oliver being responsible for disbanding the League and the Longbow Hunters and Benjamin 'Dex' Poindexter, a psychopatic former FBI agent with the ability to use any object as a deadly weapon and throw it with pinpoint accuracy. Oliver recruited Talia and her students, Nyssa, Matt, Jessica, Danny, Colleen and Luke and Frank and Helena Bertinelli, who Oliver had wanted to help before she lost her way and Oliver had convinced her to turn herself in to prison until she was released on early parole and together they ventured to Lian Yu, where he also asked for Slade's help and Slade agreed due to him regaining his sanity over the years, with the effects of the Mirakuru having worn off, in exchange for helping Slade find his son Joe.
In a fierce battle on Lian Yu, the Thanatos Guild, Dinah and most of Chase's allies were killed, while Oliver and Chase had a fierce face-off on a boat, where Chase threatened to kill William or let Oliver kill him, with Chase having a dead man switch and rigging the whole island with bombs. Oliver, however, beat Chase and knocked him out, later imprisoning him in Slade's cell on Lian Yu, while Oliver and Slade reconciled and Oliver later helped Slade search for his son Joe in Kasnia, where it turned out that Joe had shed his former self and become a ruthless mercenary Kane Wolfman, having been pushed down this path by witnessing Slade murder a man, when Joe was young and Slade's actions as Deathstroke. Oliver and Slade parted ways, with Slade searching both for Joe and his other son, about whose existence he had been unaware of until Joe's revelation, Grant.
However, the Avengers had been divided by the Accords and during that time, Diana ventured into the Underworld to track down monsters from other worlds and Clark and Kara ventured into the Phantom Zone to search for her father Zor-El, who had somehow managed to survive the destruction of Krypton and with the heroes divided, Thanos managed to get all six Infinity Stones and decimated half of life, not in one universe but in entire multiverse, affecting countless other Earths as well and also, the Snap disrupted the Speed Force, making it impossible for Barry or Jesse to time travel. Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, T'Challa, Groot, Drax, Tommy, Sara, Danny, Melinda May, Jemma Simmons, Deke Shaw, Luke, Roy, Thea, Cisco, Ralph Dibny, Allegra Garcia, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Jay Garrick and Jesse Wells among others were affected by the Snap and turned into dust; the remaining heroes, however, decided to fight back, and after an uneasy venture, they succeeded taking the Infinity Stones from Thanos, with the help of Phil Coulson, who had been brought back to life by Fury and an experimental serum GH-325, and his team of agents, among them Bobbi and Hunter, Jemma, Fitz, Deke, Daisy 'Skye' Johnson, Elena 'Yo-Yo' Rodriguez, Melinda May and Alphonso 'Mack' Mackenzie. During that time, Coulson passed away due to his deal with the spirit of Ghost Rider, who had burned the serum out of his body and before his death, he reconciled with the Avengers for faking his death and forgave Thor for not saving him.
But what none of them anticipated was how deep ran the power of the Negative Speed Force. Thawne somehow managed to return in ghost-like form, possessing Harry Wells from Earth-2, when he was trying to help undo the Decimation and recruited various villains the heroes had faced before, from the past and the present, helping Thanos in his attempt to take them. Thor managed to undo the Decimation and with the help of Slade, Yelena, Alexei, Nyssa, Talia, Cisco, Gypsy, Breacher, Doctor Strange and Wong, the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Defenders, X-Men, Runaways, the Justice League, Team Arrow, Team Flash, Clark, Kara, J'onn, Nia, the Amazons, Atlanteans and other heroes engaged in an epic battle with Thanos, until Barry used the Infinity Stones and used them to destroy Thanos and their enemies forever. Thawne was later exorcised from Harry's body and his ghostly form of negative tachyons destroyed due to Barry using the Stones but it took a toll on Barry, severely injuring his arm and resulting in him losing his speed forever.
In the aftermath, the Infinity Stones were split among the worthy holders, Oliver decided to retire as the Green Arrow, choosing Tommy as his successor as the next Green Arrow and while he and Natasha would still help with bigger threats, they decided to retire and live in peace and seclusion together, while Matt purposed to Sara and Steve decided to try a relationship with Sharon.
Barton's homestead, Missouri
Cooper and Nathaniel Bartons were playing around, while Clint was practicing archery with Lilah, when they noticed a car driving in.
"Dad!" Cooper yelled and Clint approached the car, that stopped, when Oliver and Natasha and Samantha and William went out, holding two baby baskets.
"Uncle Ollie!" Nathaniel said.
"Aunt Nat!" Cooper exclaimed.
"Oh, hey there, you rascals!" Oliver said, hugging them tightly.
"I know you two and Samantha and William. But I don't know these two strangers." Clint said with a chuckle as he turned to the babies. "Unless babies can grow faster than in nine months now, you can't be…" He trailed off as he turned to Natasha.
"No. And even if I wanted to… bearing kids isn't something I wanna do. So, we decided to file for adoption." Natasha explained.
"Are we late?" Oliver asked.
"They're waiting for you. Come on." Clint said, inviting them into the farm, where was Sara, Laurel, Tommy, Roy, Thea, Steve, Tony, Pepper, Thor, Sam, Sharon, Matt, Barry, Joe, Harry, Caitlin, Cisco, Patty, Ralph, Allegra and Laura seated as they sat down, enjoying the dinner.
Oliver was brought out of his trip down memory lane, when he turned to Natasha, who had towels wrapped around her body and head as she held his hand.
"Is something troubling you?" Natasha asked.
"You wanna know something strange?" Oliver asked and Natasha frowned. "I'm happy."
They smiled and kissed each other as the sun rose, while smiling at their adoptive daughter Mia and son Connor too. Whatever the future held for them, they would face it together.
In this fic, I'm modifying the events with Yelena and deeper details about Natasha's past I covered in 'The Hood and the Widow', since the film kind of blew up my plans and I tried to salvage them but gave up after the aftermath of 'Loki' and don't get me started on how stupid the red dust pheromone controlling the Black Widows was and I especially didn't like how they handled Taskmaster in MCU, so I'm sticking to the comic book portrayal of Taskmaster (more or less). And the events of the Netflix MCU series happened already here after Avengers, I checked the MCU wiki timeline and Daredevil timeline fit with AoS Seasons 2-5, so 2014-2018 and as for Matt's involvement in Starling City, I'm chalking that up to in between Daredevil Season 2 and Defenders and in comics, Matt/Natasha were briefly in relationship and the idea here is inspired by Aragorn II Elessar's 'The Devil and the Hood' series, alongside Moira's survival. And while the only reason Oliver didn't kill Slade in Season 2 was Tommy's death, I wanted Oliver's reason for sparing Slade to be different, since I planned Natasha's and Yelena's relationship to be quite tentative.
And I read other stories, where Tommy became Oliver's successor and I also have done this too, so I thought, "Oh, why not?"
Considering Matt/Elektra, I can see Matt/Sara work.
In Season 3, frankly, while Oliver undercover in the League was intriguing, I hated how Diggle, Laurel and Felicity were so self-righteous and tore Oliver down every chance they got, so I left that out.
As for Oliver's and Natasha's adopted children, Connor and Mia, it should be obvious why those names. Honestly, asides from Arrow Season 8, there are some fanatics who also killed my desire to write Mia as Sara's daughter or anyone else's than Laurel's or Felicity's and if they have a problem even if she is adopted, it only shows how delusional you are.
Honestly, Talia as a villain in Season 5 could've been interesting but it was stupid and hypocritical of her to train Chase, when she was also responsible for his father's death by convincing Oliver to target the people on the List, so in this fic, Chase had various teachers, who are master martial artists and villains of both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, who they are I leave entirely up to you, but I'd count Darhk, former members of LoA and the Hand, Hydra and such among them. And to be blunt, there are various instances that Team Arrow could've figured out that something was off about Chase, considering Oliver's, Quentin's and Thea's day-to-day interactions with him, but they had to either make them completely braindead or make a last-minute decision to make Chase Prometheus, which frankly, wouldn't surprise me and I used events inspired by Stand with Ward and Queen's 'The legacy of Oliver Queen' and my 'Shadows of the past' to deal with Chase.
And as for Diggle being a mole for Hydra, it's inspired by Stand with Ward and Queen's 'When we stand together', where Diggle turned out to be a mole for the Ninth Circle and that also means no Andy alive and being a war criminal or HIVE operative. While the link to Andy and HIVE was interesting with the tease in Season 2, it later turned into a poor rip-off of The Winter Solider and Andy being a traitor and responsible for Laurel's death was salt to the wound.
I'm mixed about Dinah Drake frankly, mainly because Juliana Harkavy is a good actress, but like Katie, her character gets the worse end of the stick. Chase recruiting Dex is inspired by Aragorn II Elessar's 'The revenge of Fisk and the Throwing Star Killer' and 'The Devil and the Arrow's epilogue
With the events of The Flash, I'm imagining Barry with Patty, using my Barry/Patty stories 'Stand by me' and 'Between two Earths'. As much as intriguing it would be to have Barry pair with someone from MCU, it wouldn't fit here and in this, Ralph became Elongated Man during the first season of The Flash, believed dead but in coma and Allegra recruited by Team Flash happens earlier. Also, Henry dying would still be canon but without Flashpoint happening and Caitlin would get the Season 5 origin of Killer Frost and I didn't want to include the Dominators here due to some issues I had with it, that being Cisco, Sara, Ray, Jax and Stein being idiots and hypocrites. I consider canon only the first two seasons of Legends of Tomorrow, alongside the Legends recruiting Zari and reformed Nora Darhk in Seasons 3-4, I know how some people, me included, feel about the show but it didn't feel like it would fit without Legends.
With Superman and Supergirl, I'm imagining the Smallville version of Clark, since Tom Welling gives best the powerful presence you expect Superman to have, and Melissa Benoist, since she's better actress than Laura Vandervoort, frankly, as Kara, but without her ego and self-righteousness from Season 3 onward and I'd imagine her, while not using killing as her first resort, she knows when to "take the kid gloves off", like in my other stories where I involve Kara and with the Phantom Zone, I was inspired by some arcs from Smallville and Supergirl.
As for Bruce Wayne (Batman) and his Bat-family, the actors for them are shown on my bio.
And X-Men films up until DOFP are also canon.
And while I understand to an extent that Tony signed the Accords mainly out of guilt due to Ultron, I disliked how shady and more unreasonable he had become, so in this story, he didn't go out of his way to convince everyone to sign. Look, to an extent, I can see both sides of Team Cap and Team Iron Man, but I have no intention of getting engaged in passionate debates, in which Team Iron Man pulls out ridiculous arguments or go out of their way to trash Steve and it's stupid that Team Iron Man deliberately ignored Steve warning them about the threat of five Winter Soldiers, at least Tony, Natasha and Rhodey would get alarmed by the revelation and I'm using here the events from my one-shot 'We'll lose together', since that way Tony wouldn't have at least been ruined that much and unless Nat was undercover, I find it hard to believe she would sign the accords.
As for Spider-Man, I'm leaving out Peter being Tony's fanboy or Homecoming but he will still be a "newbie" to MCU with him participating mainly in street stuff with the Defenders before Infinity War and Endgame.
To paraphrase from debates I've read some time ago regarding some other fandoms where they clash about ideals:
"While freedom is a beautiful ideal, it's dangerous as well. Too much freedom means chaos. While there should be order, too much control would restrain people so much that they would lose what makes them human: freedom of choice."
I get the idea of the Sokovian Accords but disliked how it was handled, especially considering how much of a wedge it was for S.H.I.E.L.D. in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., alongside how it ruined Tony's character.
Hope why other heroes not helping in Wakanda and Thanos winning and Barry unable to time-travel makes sense.
Honestly, I hated the disservice to Natasha in 'Black Widow' film, with how they handled other Black Widows, the pheromons, Taskmaster and Natasha having a secret family before the Avengers just cheapens her relationship with Clint and his family, Steve, Tony and her other Avengers friends.
If anyone is up for writing the events I've laid out, I hope you will do a good job, since to be honest, my interest in writing Arrowverse or MCU stories outside of crossovers (asides from the types that I have mentioned) or shorter stories within the mentioned universes, has been significantly reduced due to recent events but hope you like what I've summed up here, which is similar to how Aragorn II Elessar laid out his 'The Devil and the Hood' universe.
Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed this one-shot.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter