AUTHOR'S NOTE: Firstly, let me give a huge shoutout to my beta, Kara Smoak here on FFN. She has helped me a lot with formulating this story, and making it as good as it can be.

Now, I have to admit that one of the inspirations for this story was The Dark Knight Rises. As the summary says, it'll take place in 2024, in an AU where Team Arrow did not survive the explosions on Lian Yu and Oliver retired thereafter. However, a new threat will emerge and he will become the Green Arrow again. Given that a lot has changed by 2024, you will see a few characters in the story which I've adapted from the Green Arrow comics. The main one will be Mia Dearden, who will be quite similar to Mia Queen from the show which is why her picture is in the story cover image. You might also be wondering who the man on the right of the image is. That's Luke Evans, an actor who I imagined to resemble the main villain for the story.

That's all I have to say for now, so here is just the prologue to set the scene for the rest of the story. We'll time-jump to 2024 immediately after this. Enjoy!

[MAY 17 2017]

The fumes of the burning trees scraped the sides of Oliver's lungs and watered his eyes as he desperately sprinted through the flaring forests of Lian Yu. He couldn't rid his mind of pessimistic thoughts, as he could only hope that his team had managed to make it to the ARGUS boat before the explosions went off, but he'd already found Samantha. If she didn't make it, then it was probable that neither did they. The adrenaline in his body surged to new heights as he wandered through the abyss of Purgatory. Right now, it looked more like hell. Not a single inch of this island was going to go unsearched, but for now, the sensible thing to do would be to head to the plane which Chase used to get to the island. That was the team's last known location.

Amidst the smoulder of the forest, Oliver's heightened senses picked up the sound of a groan near him. He stopped in his footsteps and listened intensely, aiming to pick up the direction of the noise.

"Help… please."

The fragile voice pleaded agonisingly, making it clear that that the person that it belonged to was in pain. Oliver recognised the voice immediately and sprinted off to his left. Hard to see with the smoke polluting the air, Oliver did not spot Thea initially, but as he neared her, her figure became clearer as she lay on the ground.

"Thea!" screamed Oliver, as he rushed towards her side. She barely moved as Oliver crouched next to her, turning her face towards him. Oliver grimaced as he saw the blood running down her face under her right eye, a massive laceration no doubt caused by a piece of shrapnel.

"Ollie…" she weakly replied. Oliver quickly scanned the rest of her body for any injuries. Apart from superficial cuts, she appeared to generally be fine.

"Thea, are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked, concernedly.

"I… I can't feel my legs." This revelation caused Oliver to wince, for he knew exactly what this meant for her. Another voice called out, and Oliver's protective instincts caused him to shoot back up to his feet and nock an arrow in the direction of the vocalisation. The middle-aged man immediately shot his hands up to show that he wasn't a threat, and Oliver relaxed the bowstring as Quentin's features became clearer.

"Where are the others?" asked Oliver immediately.

"Chase's plane. That way," replied Quentin, pointing towards what just seemed like a pathway of burning trees which Oliver had passed before on the flaming island. Oliver knelt back down to his sister, placing a hand on her good cheek.

"Thea, I am going to be right back, okay. I'm coming back," he said caringly, before rising to his feet and breaking off in a sprint towards the plane, "Stay with her!" he said to Quentin, as he ran past him. It took him no longer than a minute to reach the fuselage of the heavily damaged aircraft. He had been running past the scattered debris of the plane long before he reached it.

A silhouette shot up from a large hole on the side of the fuselage, and Oliver sprinted over. From the burliness of the figure, Oliver could tell that it was either Diggle or Slade, and it turned out to be the former when Oliver approached him. Only upon approaching him did the extent of Diggle's injuries become visible. His left arm hung limp by his side and was entirely draped in blood, courtesy of a large gash on his upper bicep. The tourniquet tied above the wound appeared to have done little to stop the outpouring of blood.

Oliver blurted out questions to Diggle, asking for the whereabouts of the other members of the team and if they were okay. A silent, troubling response followed and Oliver couldn't decipher whether the pale look on Diggle's face was because of the blood loss or because of the answers to his questions. When it appeared as if Diggle could not bring himself to speak, Oliver burst past him into the plane.

As soon as Oliver entered the ruins of the fuselage, he lost a breath and his heart skipped a beat as he was confronted by the hellish sight in front of him, the fire of the forest providing just enough illumination for him to identify his allies, or rather… what was left of them.

Spatters of blood engulfed the area, accompanied by a couple of dismembered limbs. Just a few feet in front of him, lay the body of Felicity Smoak. He found himself unable to take any more steps, with the remaining strength in his lactic-acid loaded legs being sapped away. He collapsed to the floor, bringing his hands up to his face as he gripped his hair with despair. He crawled to her body, desperately hoping that she was still alive… but she wasn't. It took a lot for Oliver Queen to sob. Even when he did in the past, his body seemed to be unable to shed tears, but as he met the gaze of the lifeless eyes amidst the crimson red face of Felicity Smoak, he could not prevent the waterfall of tears from drenching his face. He cradled her body in his arms as the watery discharges burnt into his cheeks while the epiphany began to sink in…

Adrian Chase had won.