A/N: I don't want to give anything away so I will just say thank you once again for all the love and comments. The story WILL go on, though it might take me a week or two for another update as we are heading into a busy stretch in the Stacy household. Hope this lives up to everyone's expectations and if you disagree with the outcomes I'm sorry and I love you anyways :)

Disclaimer: CW and DC comics own it all.

Oliver and Diggle slithered down the hallways of Merlyn Global until the saw the open door of Malcolm's office. They turned the corner half expecting a trap, instead they found the bodies of three police officers near the doorway. " Looks like we missed him" Diggle said sadly. They heard a cough come from an area behind the desk.

"Tommy?" Oliver asked as he followed the noise. Sure enough, his best friend was just drifting back into consciousness. "Tommy." He rolled over groaning.

"Oliver?" Oliver pulled his hood back and knelt down.

"Where's your father?" He helped him sit up, noting the gash on his cheek where Malcolm had clipped him with the blade. If that was the worst injury Tommy had, things were starting to look up.

"I-I don't know." The younger Merlyn blinked, trying to get his head to stop screaming loud enough for him to be helpful. "We were right. We were right about him."

"Oliver." Diggle had noticed a sliver of light behind the wall panel. It was too easy. Oliver looked from his partner to Tommy.

"Are you going to kill him?" Tommy asked trying to mentally prepare for whatever answer he gave. Oliver avoided his eyes. He didn't want to make a promise he couldn't keep.

"Find Laurel, get to safety." He helped Tommy up and pointed him towards the door. Once he was certain the injured man was leaving he joined Diggle by the wall. John had already trained his gun on the crack of light.

"Looks like a false wall." Oliver took position behind him as the ex-soldier eased the wall open. Malcolm stood at the end of a table full of impressive weaponry.

"Welcome Gentlemen, I've been waiting for you."

Felicity was looking through the schematics one last time while waiting for Detective Lance to get in place. She heard the tell-tale beep of one of their earpieces kicking in.

"Smoaky? Still there?" a male voice wheezed. Tommy was running down 30 flights of stairs, he didn't want to take the chance of getting stuck in an elevator at a time like this.

"Tommy! Where are the others?"

"They are still on my Dad's trail. I've got to find Laurel. "

" I can ping her cell phone and find out where she is." Felicity pulled up a window and after getting Laurel's number from Tommy figured out the location. "Her last cell activity was registered on the tower in the East Glades. Does that help any?"

"Yeah, I know exactly where she is. See you on the other side." He disconnected the call and made his way out to the street. The roads were in gridlock as the entire city tried to get as far away from the Glades as possible. If Tommy went to his car he would be trapped like the rest of them. He would have to make it on foot. It was ten blocks between Merlyn Global and CNRI. Tommy gritted his teeth against the pain and started running.

Diggle pulled the small blade from his shoulder and followed the path he had seen Oliver take. As he approached the open door he heard arrows whizzing through the air and a small explosion. The resulting flash made it clear Oliver had used one of his delayed detonation arrows. He slowly crawled up the last few steps in time to see Oliver and Malcolm fighting hand to hand. It was evenly matched until Malcolm disoriented Oliver enough to get behind him. The older man took several shots at his back, still weakened from escaping that morning. He wrapped an arm around Oliver's neck, squeezing tightly. Oliver pawed at the mask, ripping it from Malcolm's face.

"Don't struggle, it's over. There was never any doubt of the outcome." Merlyn squeezed tighter and angled himself so the young man couldn't reach up anymore. "Don't worry, your mother and sister will be joining you in death!" As the corners of his vision blurred with oxygen loss, Oliver heard another fatherly voice.

"Survive." He was overcome with the vision of his father's sacrifice as well as thoughts of Thea, Felicity and even his mother. He would not leave them unprotected in a world like this. His eyes rested on a black arrow nestled into the gravel. With his arms limited in their mobility there was only one way he could still hit his mark. He grasped the shaft of the arrow and plunged it through his upper chest straight into Malcolm's lung. Oliver felt the grip around his throat loosen and eventually fall away. He collapsed himself as he took his first decent breath in a few minutes. He struggled to stand.

"Thank you for teaching me what I'm fighting for." Oliver made it to his feet and turned to face the dark archer. " But my father taught me how." Malcolm tried to get to his feet and was met with a solid punch that sent him falling back to the pavement. Oliver lost his balance again from the effort of the blow.

"Oliver, Lance did it." Oliver hit his radio link to confirm he received the message. He looked down at Merlyn who was still struggling to move.

"It's over" An evil smirk crossed his fallen foe's face.

"If I've learned anything as a successful businessman, it's redundancy." Malcolm took one last gasp of life before collapsing on the roof of his empire. A horrible realization hit Oliver.

"Felicity, there's another device. There are two of them." Oliver turned to help Diggle as they heard the first explosions echo from the Glades. He ran over, lifted his partner up and moved to the edge of the roof. They stood there helplessly watching the city crumble.

Felicity was frozen in her seat. At Verdant dust fell on her from the ceiling as she heard the bar collapse in a rain of broken glass. The out of date electrical work sparked and Oliver's exercise set up fell apart. Once the shaking stopped she timidly hit her earpiece. "Oliver?"

"Are you ok?" She nodded forgetting that he couldn't see her.

"Yeah" She took a deep breath to keep from sobbing. "The damage seems to be contained to the east side, past Lowell street."

"Laurel." Oliver said quietly. He knew that was the CNRI neighborhood.

"Tommy was going after her, So was Detective Lance but I haven't heard from them. I don't know if.." Felicity whimpered. Oliver exchanged a look with Diggle, silently asking what he should do.

"Go Oliver, go!" Diggle shoved the young man towards the door. Oliver raced to his bike and weaved through abandoned cars and frightened crowds to the heart of the destruction.

As he sped down the street he saw Laurel, her coworker and Lance standing in front of the crumbling building. From the way Lance was holding his daughter back he could only assume Tommy was still inside. Oliver turned a street early and pulled up to the back of the building. He ran in, hoping the flames wouldn't get out of control before he could find his friend. By the time he made his way to the area where Laurel's desk used to be he could hear Tommy call to him from between two large pieces of concrete. Oliver began pulling back pieces of debris "Tommy, you're going to be fine." Tommy laughed but with the pressure across his body it came out more like a cough.

"That's one more thing we're going to have to disagree on." Oliver pulled back the top piece to reveal a piece of rebar sticking out of his abdomen over his hip. "On top of that, I can't feel my legs."

"Yeah well it won't be the first time I've carried you out of somewhere." Oliver ripped the sleeves off of his shirt stuffing one around the piece of metal and having the other one read for the bleeding that was sure to follow.

"Laurel? Did I –did I save her?"

"Yeah, yeah you did, you saved her." Oliver gave a reassuring smile as he cleared the debris from around Tommy's legs. It was probably a god thing he couldn't feel them at the moment, they were shattered. "I'm going to get you out of here, ok? But it's going to hurt." Oliver pulled the hood back down over his head before positioning himself to lift Tommy over his shoulder. "Count to three for me"

"One, t-two," Tommy took a deep breath. "Three" He cried out in pain as Oliver slowly pulled him from the impaling debris. Oliver shoved the cloth from his sleeve into the wound and carried Tommy out to a safe distance behind the building. He put Tommy's hand over the sleeve pieces and wound.

"Keep holding that. I'll call Laurel and her dad and tell them where you are. I wish I could stay-"

"Go, I know." Tommy winced as he adjusted his position as best he could. Oliver got on the bike, taking one last look back before driving off.

In his mind, he had failed the city.