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

Chapter 4: The Undertaking 2.0

Oliver was left alone in the room, chained to the roof. Slowly, he launched himself up and began to climb the chain. When he had gotten to a certain height, he let go and landed on the ground with a hard thud. He groaned, sat up and began to limp towards the entrance. A guard came down the stairwell, and he threw his chains into the man's face, making him fall to the ground. He heard footsteps, indicating another guy was on the way. The guy walked into the room, and several gunshots echoed out, causing the guy to fall dead to the floor. John and Evelyn both walked in. 

'How did you find me?' Oliver asked him. 

'Tracking your shoe,' John replied. Upon seeing the frown on Oliver's face, he quickly checked himself. 'Just kidding. That was the way I found you last time this happened, remember?' 

'Yeah. Yeah. It's not the only history that's repeating itself. Tommy's planning his very own Undertaking.'

'Don't worry. We'll stop him.' 

The three walked out of the building. 

'John, I appreciate the assist, but I still have to do this on my own.' 

'Right, because you think you have to die, right?' Oliver turned to face his friend. 

'No. I know I'm gonna die.' 

'And I know that we don't have to accept that,' I said. 

'If I let you two help me, you will get hurt or you will get killed,' Oliver shot back. 'And it will be because of me.' 

'You don't know that.' 

'I do know that! Because everyone else in my life is either dead or alone. Look at the earth that we're on. I've been gone 12 years. My mother's alive. Tommy's alive. Laurel's alive.' 

'Thea is dead,' John replied. 'And yes, Tommy's alive, but he trying another undertaking with Rene and Dinah helping, who if you haven't noticed, are very bad people here. Oliver, this world isn't better. It's much, much worse. And you know why? Because you weren't in it.' 

'I've known you long enough to know I can't talk you out of this.' 

'You can't talk me out of it either, brother.' 

'You two better have a good plan.' 

The three came down the purple-lit elevator. The doors opened to see a very stern-looking Laurel. 

'Oh, look who it is, and you brought two friends to my secret bunker.' John leaned over to speak into her ear. 

'I've been here before.' 

'Oh, look, you're here too,' Laurel said with false joy. 

'Adrian, this is John Diggle,' Oliver said. 'He's my... bodyguard.' 

'You need a bodyguard?' Adrian quipped. 

'He's not a bodyguard,' Laurel said sharply. 'And I thought you didn't need our help.' 

'I've been wrong before,' Oliver replied. 'The Dark Archer stole the Dwarf Star particles and is planning to use them to level the Glades tonight.' 

'And how do you know that?' Adrian asked. 

'Because I was just with him. Tommy Merlyn is the Dark Archer.' 

'Are you sure?' Laurel asked. 

'He blames the Glades for what happened to Thea.' Just then Adrian scanned the three of us, and his eyes fell on me. My heart stilled. I hadn't really noticed him before, but now, hearing Oliver say his name, my heart jumped in my chest. 

'Adrian?' I gasped, tears pricking my eyes. 

'Wait... Evelyn?' 

Adrian and I stood across from each other in a mostly empty area in the bunker, while John, Laurel and Oliver stood not too far away. 

'So you're telling me that you're my Evelyn - but you're from a different world?' he asked, meeting my eyes, and my heart skipped a beat for the second time that day. 

'Yeah.' 

'So what's different?' 

'I was kidnapped by the Russian mafia, held prisoner for five years against my will, raped, abused, tortured, even. The Bratva rescued me and I became a vigilante. Athena. The other - my version of you, he was good to me. He was kind. But he was a villain on my Earth, and he took his own life because he had a grudge against Oliver Queen, my brother.' Adrian stepped forward. 

'I wouldn't do ever do that to you.' 

'I know you wouldn't, but he did. I've learned to deal with the loss. It still hurts, though.' 

'If you and I gave each other a chance to work it out, for me to repair the damage -'

'No, Adrian. You can't fix me. No one can.' I stepped away, tears pricking my eyes once more. 'Besides, you and the Evelyn from this Earth are much happier together anyways, and I don't want to get in the middle of that.' 

'But she's you.' 

'She's not me. She's been fortunate enough to have someone love and care for her, someone who accepts her as she is. She's not like me. She's not broken.' I stepped fully away from him. 'Let's just stop the Undertaking. Okay?' He nodded, and we walked back to the team. 

'If you wanted to level an entire neighbourhood, how would you do it?' Adrian asked. 

'I'd use an earthquake machine,' John said, leaning over to Oliver. 

'That sounds like science fiction to me,' Adrian replied. 'And Merlyn stole Dwarf Star particles, which would make for a very real weapon.' He pressed a few buttons on a computer. 'Overlaying the blast radius with a map of the Glades should allow us to pinpoint its optimal location.' John spoke again, a little quieter, to Oliver. 

'He's like you, Curtis and Felicity all rolled into one.' Oliver gave him a look. 

'I could only narrow it down to four square blocks,' Adrian said. 

'So we split up, find it on foot,' Laurel suggested. 

'No, we don't,' Oliver replied. 'Thea died in the Glades. We find out where, we find Tommy.' 

'What are you, some kind of psychic?' Adrian bit back. 

'Maybe I'm just ten steps ahead of you.' Just then the computer beeped. 

'4587 Burke, a favourite hangout of the Glades' worst drug dealers,' Adrian announced. 

'Good,' I said. 'That's where we head.' 

'Suit up,' Oliver and Adrian said in unison. I couldn't help but let out a laugh. 

'The tension is real,' I said and walked away with the group to get ready.