These Prison Walls (An Arrow: Season 7 Fanfiction)

Chapter 29: The Best Parts of You

A voice called to him. 

'Oliver. Oliver!' 

He gasped, his eyes flashing open, realising he was still standing in the same place underground with his hallucination of Tommy. It was all a lie. Killing Emiko, his team and Evelyn dying from his arrows in their chests, the fight... all of it. 

'What was that?' he asked, his voice cracking with unshed tears. 

'How would I know?' Tommy asked. 'I'm just a figment of your imagination. But if I had to guess... I'd say it's a reminder of what it feels like.' 

'Seeing my loved ones die?' he asked brokenly. 'Seeing my family be threatened? What about that don't I already know?' He sighed. Tommy walked around to face him. 

'Well, then, you know exactly what it feels like to be your father. The fear, how that leads to vengeance, how that leads to cruelty. It's why he abandoned Emiko. It is why she is trying to kill you now. Look, Oliver, I know that you think that you have broken your father's cycle, but as long as you are giving in to your worst impulses, you are never going to be free.' 

'What am I supposed to do? Just tell me what I am supposed to do.' Tommy stepped forwards. 

'Lean into the best parts of yourself - your loyalty, your selflessness, your courage, your compassion, and show that side to Emiko. You are living proof that people can change, and you have got to find a way to see that in her, too.' 

'I don't know if I can.' 

'That's okay. That's the risk you've got to take.' 

'He should be in there,' Dinah called out. 

'Oliver!' John yelled. Oliver turned to hear their voices. 

'Looks like our time's up,' Tommy said softly. He turned, a tear spilling down his face. 

'You know, Tommy, I - I miss you every day. So does Evelyn.' 

'I know,' he replied, 'but I'm always with you.' He turned. 'It's time to wake up now.' He snapped his fingers and Oliver awoke, trapped beneath the concrete. 

'He's over here!' Rene called out. The group made their way toward Oliver through the debris. 

'We're gonna get you out,' Dinah said. 

'I thought we lost you there for a second,' John said, kneeling by Oliver. 

'So did I,' he said gratefully, looking around at all of his team. 

Felicity turned around from her chair to see Oliver limping up the steps. 

'Oh, thank God you're alive,' she said. 

'Hey,' he said softly. 'Are you and the - are you okay?' 

'Yeah. Yeah, we're fine. Emiko did pay us a visit, though.' The rest of the team walked up the steps. 

'Emiko was here?' Dinah asked. 

'Guess she left without killing you,' Rene replied. 'You got off easy.' 

'Too easy, John remarked. 'She must have been after something else.' 

'Our thoughts exactly,' Alena Whitlock said, coming up to stand behind Felicity.

'Yeah,' Felicity replied, 'but we checked, and the only things missing are a few arrows from the armoury.' 

'Why would she need Oliver's arrows if we already got blamed for the attack on the subway?' 

'She must have had something else planned,' I said. 

'Yeah, but Emiko thinks she killed us,' Rene replied. 'How could she pin a second attack against a group of dead vigilantes?'

'Well, the public doesn't know that you're dead - yet.' 

'Just got an APB,' Dinah piped up, looking at her phone. 'Green Arrow sighted outside of SCPD, shots fired.' 

'At least now we know what she was after,' John said. 

'Oliver, we walk in there, we're going in as wanted criminals,' Rene said. 

'Let's gear back up. We've got to move fast.' 

Star City. 2040.

A woman walked down the steps of the hideout, Mia turned around to face her. 

'So you're the fool who's responsible for this whole ARCHER mess,' Mia hissed. 

'You're the hid Felicity went into hiding for,' Alena Whitlock replied. 'I can see you've got a lot of your mom in you.' 

'Well, that's not all you're gonna see if you don't step back.' 

'Alena has agreed to help us destroy ARCHER for real this time, isn't that right?' Felicity asked, stepping up to her friend. 

'Well, now that you've frozen my bank account and shredded my passport, yes, I have.' Mia stepped back, and Alena stepped forward to address the group, turning to Dinah first. 

'I'm sorry about your Canaries. I never meant for ARCHER to be used like that.' 

'And how exactly did you mean for it to be used after you stole it from Smoak Tech and sold it to Galaxy One?' Dinah growled. 

'It started as a software licensing deal till Keven Dale turned it into a hostile takeover. Once he had ARCHER, he threatened to use it to hunt and kill everyone loved unless I disappeared, so that's what I did... to protect them.' 

'Why don't you get to work taking down ARCHER so we can all come out of hiding?' I snapped. 

'I guess three genius brains are better than one,' Mia remarked. 

'Speaking of geniuses, where is William?' Felicity asked. My heart sank. 

'I spoke to him right after you and Roy left,' Mia replied. Felicity moved over to the computer and began to type on the keyboard rapidly. 

'Oh, where the hell is he?' 

'Mom, what's wrong?' she asked. 

'That sequence that William ran to steal Keven Dale's Blindspot code. I think he used it.' 

'No. I thought you said he could only use it if he actually went -' 

'No,' I said quietly. 'This can't be happening.' Just then we heard several guns cocking and returned to see an army of ARCHER-powered Zeta soldiers coming down into the hideout. 

'By the authority of Galaxy One, you are under arrest.'