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

Chapter 3: The New Bodyguard

The next day... 

Oliver walked down the stairs to see his mother at the front door. 

'Oliver, I want you to meet John Diggle,' Moira said. John stood, stoic and quiet. 'He'll be accompanying you from now on.' 

'No - sorry. No. I don't need a babysitter, Mom,' Oliver said. 

'No. This is something that I need.' Oliver took a deep sigh and nodded. 

'Yeah.' He walked out of the house with John. 

In the car... 

'So what do I call you?' Oliver asked. 

'Diggle. Dig if you want.' Oliver leaned over to jiggle the door handle. 'Sorry, Oliver. Fooled me once.' Oliver opened his mouth to say something but frowned as John looked at him in the mirror. Just then, there came a grunt and a curse in a familiar language as someone climbed over the back seat to sit next to Oliver. I looked up at him with a cheeky smile and waved. 

'Hello, Oliver.' 

Later... 

'How did you two find me?' Oliver asked as we stood in a largely empty parking lot. 

'It wasn't easy... it was like you disappeared off the face of the earth - until Felicity figured out that it was only our earth.' 

'Still, John, it's not like you can just charter a jet.' John pulled a techy disc out from his coat.

'Cisco let us borrow it,' I pointed out, gesturing to the disc. 'And now, if we're done answering your questions, we have a few of our own.' 

'Can't talk about it.' 

'Can't or won't?' John asked pointedly. 'You know, Oliver, it's interesting that we're revisiting when we first met. You going at it all alone is like deja vu. I thought we were past that.' 

'This is new. It's bigger. And I'm not going to ask you two to take the risk it involves.' 

'Oliver, that's the thing about being brothers,' John replied. 'You never, ever have to ask.' 

'Can you just believe me when I tell you this is different?' Oliver snapped. 

'Yeah, Felicity told me. Some Godlike being talking about the end of the universe?' Oliver didn't respond, continuing to look down at the ground. 'What didn't she tell me, Oliver?' John looked at me. 'Did you know?' 

'I know, but I ain't telling. That's Oliver's burden to bear. Not mine.' 

'A crisis is coming, John. He's seen what happens,' Oliver replied. 'He's watched me die.' 

Later that evening... 

Oliver walked down the hall, away from the party in the main room of Verdant. 

'You know, the party's back that way,' a familiar voice said, stopping Oliver in his tracks. Oliver sighed. 

'I don't have time for this, John.' John eased himself off the wall as Oliver turned to face his friend. 

'Oliver... has it occurred to you that whatever happens in this crisis happens because you push the people closest to you away?'

'Say you're in a forward area. Somebody throws a grenade right into the middle of your platoon. What do you do?' 

'I jump on it. I contain the blast.' 

'That's what I'm doing. I can't prevent whatever it is that's going to happen to me, but I will be damned if I'm going to put other people at risk.' 

'And I will be damned if I just let you go gently into that good night.' Oliver sighed. 

'Okay. All right.' Oliver reached out his hand. John took it, but Oliver grabbed him, putting him in a headlock. 'You always fall for this move,' Oliver said. 

Tommy Merlyn walked down to his car, unlocking the vehicle. He was about to step into the vehicle when he paused. 

'That Lian Yu must have been one hell of a place... Oliver.' Oliver stepped up a couple of metres behind him. Tommy turned. 'So were you ever really gone? Because it looks like you've been running around a certain green hood.' 

'Like you've been running around in a black one?' Oliver retorted. Tommy looked down, letting out a quiet chuckle. 

'Ah, Ollie, you never should have gotten yourself involved in this.' A dart flew out of nowhere and hit Oliver in the neck. Pulling it out, he stared at it, as if trying to ascertain who it was, but before he could, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The security guard, who was none other than Earth-2's version of Rene Ramirez, walked around the corner, holding the silver gun. 

A splash of water landed on Oliver's face, waking him up. 

'I hope I didn't hurt you,' Rene said, the SCPD police sergeant, Dinah Drake, behind him. Tommy walked into the room. 

'Leave us.' The two filtered out of the room, leaving Tommy and Oliver alone. He stepped forward to Tommy. 'So I've been thinking, and you really were on Lian Yu, because if you had been here, you would've been protecting our sisters.' Oliver simply stared at him. 'So the question is, why are you running around in the Hood's hood?' 

'Doesn't matter.' 

'Yes, it does!' Tommy yelled as the thunder cracked loudly overhead. 'The Hood is running around this city, thinking that he's saving it, and nothing can save it. You don't understand the cancer that has taken over this city.' 

'Oh, my God. This is the Undertaking,' Oliver said. 'You stole the Dwarf Star particles because you want... to destroy the Glades and get revenge for Thea and Evelyn.' 

'How could you know that?' Tommy asked. Oliver didn't answer. Tommy stepped up and grabbed his face. 'And what happened to you on that island?' 

'What happened to you while I was on the island?' Tommy stepped away from his friend. 

'While you were gone, this city has been rotting. It can't be saved!' 

'That's not true, Tommy. I have seen Starling City come back from darker moments than this. It can be redeemed. You can be redeemed.' 

'You don't understand what I've seen. You don't know how I found our sisters. Every time I close my eyes, I see their bodies lying there, cold, clothes ripped, on the dirty ground. So I swore that I would get vengeance on the Glades for what it did to Thea. And I am not going to let her down. Not again!' 

'That's not going to make you feel better, Tommy.' 

'I don't care about feeling better. I just want the Glades to suffer.' 

'You're a better man than this.' 

'That was a different me.' He turned and began to leave. 'Goodbye, Oliver.'