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

Chapter 25: To Oliver Queen: A Memorial pt. 2

Elsewhere, Nyssa al Ghul and her sister, Talia, stood. 

'My condolences on your husband's passing,' Talia said. 

'I had our marriage erased,' she replied. 

'Feelings cannot be erased,' Talia said. 

'I had no feelings for him. Our marriage was Father's perverse joke, meant to torment me.' 

'Our father only ever meant for you to have a normal life.' She gave her sister a look. 

'I have lived a life far more normal than the one Father designed for me.' Just then, Sara Lance stepped up. 

'Hey. Thank you for coming,' she said to the two of them. 

'There's nowhere else I'd be,' Nyssa replied. The two women gave each other warm smiles. 'Sara, this is my sister Talia.' 

'Hi,' she said. 

'Hello,' Talia replied stiffly, and the two shook hands. 

'Talia, this is Sara, my beloved,' Nyssa said. Quentin Lance stepped up, and Sara leaned into him. 

'Hey, Dad,' she said. Quentin nodded at Nyssa. Nearby, Mia walked up to Felicity. 

'Hi,' she said softly, startling Felicity. 

'Oh. Hi.' She turned, staring in shock. 

'I'm -' 

'I know. This morning, you were teething, and now you're - I mean, wow.' 

'Dad and Aunt Evelyn had a very similar reaction when they first saw me.' 

'You met your father and aunt.' 

'Yeah - they trained me. He taught me to be a hero, how to be like him.' 

'I can tell you're a lot like him,' Felicity replied with a smile. 

'I can only hope.' The two hugged with tears of joy. Just then, Barry walked up. 

'Felicity,' he said. The two of them hugged. 

'Thank you,' she said. 

'He was a good man,' he replied. 'I was there, in the end, and every day, I'm tortured with the thought that I could have done more, should have done more.' 

'No. You did everything that you could, Barry.' 

'How do you know that?' 

'Well, because, you know, I know you.' He leaned over and hugged Mia as well. 

'I'm sorry.' John stepped up and hugged Felicity as she shed quiet tears. Kara also came forward and hugged her. 

'I'm so sorry,' she said. 

'There is no body down there, no?' Anatoly said, and they all turned to look at him. 

'No,' Barry replied. 

'We buried a casket full of mementos,' Tommy spoke. 

'Does anybody want to say a few words?' Sara asked. 

'I'm barely keeping it together as it is,' Felicity said with a strangled sob. 

'I think that Oliver would have been worried that I'd say something tactless anyway, so...' The small group let out a quiet laugh at Tommy's quip. 

'I don't know what to say,' Barry said. 

'Yeah,' Kara spoke. 'Words seem... meaningless.' Felicity grasped John's arm. 

'Hey. Should be you,' she said softly. John looked at the grave, and grasping the hands of his wife and Felicity, he spoke. 

'The Oliver that I met eight years ago is not the one that we say goodbye to today. Oliver always told me that in order to save his city, he had to become something else, someone else. I always thought that meant becoming the Green Arrow. But today, I realised that meant becoming a better man. The best man he knew how to be, and he took all of us with him on that journey. He changed everything. Oliver brought heroes into the world, he inspired heroes, he inspired all of us here. I was his brother, and Oliver Queen was mine. Of course, life will go on. It always does, but how, what twists and turns it will take, I can't say. I don't know what the future holds... except to say to expect the unexpected. Oliver may be gone, but his mission endures. That mission lives on, Oliver lives on in the people he inspired. Some will take that mission to the rest of the world, maybe even beyond that... because if the past eight years have shown us anything - it's that this universe is far bigger than any of us could have dared imagine... even if it is a little less bright without him in it.'