The End Of All Things (An Arrow: Season 8 Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Earth-2

Earth-2. The Queen Mansion.

The limousine rolled to a stop and Oliver got out of the vehicle, entering the spacious foyer of the mansion.

'Your room is exactly as you left it,' Moira said to Oliver. 'I never had the heart to change anything.' Oliver let out a deep sigh.

'I can't tell you how great it feels to be home.'

'Oliver, it's really you,' a familiar voice said, walking up to him. He stared at Malcolm Merlyn.

'Hi, Malcolm,' he replied tersely.

'Welcome home,' he said, pulling Oliver into a hug, leaving him shocked.

'Okay, what - where's... where's Walter?' Oliver asked, near speechless at the sight of Malcolm Merlyn in front of him.

'He sold his shares in the company when the Gambit went down,' Moira explained. Oliver frowned in confusion.

'Okay. Okay.' He turned to the steps to see another familiar face.

'What'd I tell you?' Tommy Merlyn quipped. 'Yachts suck.' He came down the stairs, Oliver letting out a chuckle at his quip. 'I knew it. I knew you were too stubborn to be dead.' The two hugged.

Tommy,' he said warmly. Letting him go, Tommy frowned.

'Why are you looking at me like I'm the one who's been gone a decade?'

'I just missed you, Tommy.' He looked around. 'Where's Thea? And Evelyn?' Moira and Malcolm looked at each other.

'Sweetheart, um - why don't you settle in?' Moira asked him, skirting around the question. 'I mean, you must be exhausted.'

'Yeah, but I'd like to see my sisters.'

'Oliver, when you and your father disappeared, it wasn't easy on Thea. She took things really hard.'

'There was this new drug called Vertigo -' Tommy said, Oliver, turning to face him.

'Tommy.'

'I tried my best to look -'

'Tommy, Tommy, it wasn't your fault,' Malcolm interrupted gently. He turned back to Moira and Malcolm.

'What wasn't his fault?'

'Thea, on her 18th birthday...' Moira replied, trying to bite back the tears. 'She overdosed.' Oliver stared at the ground, tears in his eyes. 

'And Evelyn?' he asked, looking back up at his mother. 

'She was kidnapped by a mafia shortly after the Gambit went down. The police found her body dumped in an alleyway. She'd been raped,' she replied, sobbing. 

Hours later... 

The family sat at the dinner table: Oliver, Tommy, Moira and Malcolm. 

'Raisa's famous chicken marsala?' Oliver asked. 'I used to make this for William all the time.' 

'Who's William?' Moira asked. 

'Oh, I know,' Tommy chimed in. 'He was like your Wilson on the island, something like that, right?' Oliver inclined his head to his friend with a soft smile. 

'How did you manage to survive by yourself all that time?' Malcolm asked from the other end of the table. 

'It's a long story,' Oliver replied. Moira nodded. 

'So, uh, things you missed while you were gone,' Tommy cut in. 'I got married and divorced - twice.' Malcolm chuckled from the other side of the table. 'Ah, let's see. What other gossip did you miss?' 

'Our parents getting married,' Oliver said flatly. The couple looked at him and Tommy looked down. 

'It's um...' Moira said before Malcolm interrupted. 

'Complicated.'

'Oliver, I know this must all be a lot,' Moira replied.

'Well, Mom, my apologies, but I actually am a little tired, and I think I'm gonna head up to my bedroom.' He patted Tommy's shoulder on the way out. 

Oliver stood in his bedroom as the thunder cracked and lit up the sky overhead, the rain falling with it. Sitting on the bed, he pulled out the photo from his pocket of himself, Evelyn and Felicity with their baby girl, Mia. He looked at it with fondness. Just then, he heard a knock on the door. Moira was standing there and she walked into the room. 

'Hey,' he greeted. 

'Your bed has been made,' Moira said. 'And there are fresh towels in the bathroom.' 

'Thank you,' Oliver replied. 

'I know the changes must be overwhelming, and you just feel like you're on a different planet or something.' 

'You could say that.' She walked forward. 

'It couldn't have been easy all those years on that island.' 

'Sounds like it wasn't that easy here.' 

'Now, you're not the same man as when you left. And don't take this the wrong way, but I get the sense that it's - it's for the better.' 

'I'm not so sure,' he said and stood up. His mother frowned. 'Mom, when we were growing up, if you had to leave me, Thea and Evelyn, to protect us, would you have done it?' 

'Oliver, whether right or wrong, everything I've ever done was to protect my children. It's all a parent can do. And someday, when you have children, you'll understand.' 

'Mom, I'm so sorry,' he said with tears in his eyes. 'I'm sorry.' She pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around him as he cried. 

'Everything's okay,' she reassured him. 'You're home. You're safe.' The two pulled apart and she looked Oliver in the eyes. 'Close your eyes. Get some rest. Okay?' He nodded and she separated from him fully and left the room. Pulling something from his pocket, he looked at it. An identification tag for a company: Queen-Merlyn Enterprises. 

Queen-Merlyn Enterprises. Sometime that evening. 

Oliver landed soundlessly on the floor as the two scientists trailed into the doors in front of him. Pulling out his bow, he walked towards the nearby doors and pressed his mother's identification card to the key scanner and it lit up green. Then, jumping over a glass railing, he landed on another floor and kept walking until he came to a computer. As he began to type on the computer, he heard a hiss and a click. Moving away from the computer, he rounded a corner to see several scientists dead on the floor, three arrows in each of their backs. He whirled as an arrow landed on an electrical panel, sending a shower of sparks. He saw the unknown assailant land on the ground, ready to fight. The unknown attacker drew an arrow in his bow and hissed, 

'You have failed this city.' Then the two began to fight. Oliver kicked a bench in his way, but the other archer vaulted over it and kicked him back before Oliver could draw a single arrow. The two began to match blow for blow, mostly kicking each other into electrical panels, before the unknown shot at him with an arrow that had green fletching on it. Oliver prepared to defend himself, but a baton flicked out at the last moment and knocked it away. 

'Stand down,' the female standing above Oliver said. Oliver stood to face none other than Laurel Lance. 'Oliver, what the hell are you doing on my Earth?' The unknown archer stood, removing his hood. Oliver stared in shock, only one name running through his mind. 

Adrian Chase.