All Roads Lead to Hell *Matt Murdock* (book three of Damned-3a)

Epilogue - In the dark at the end of my road

  Read the notes after, please, even if they are about as long as the chapter :)  

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...I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't 
So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road.
And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope
It's a shot in a dark and right at my throat...

Shake It Out – Florence and the Machine

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When Felicity called him that she had received a very alarming phone call and that she was heading to the... 'Arrow cave', Oliver was baffled at best, but immediately was on his way. When she explained that it had been Vera who had called with too little info but too much desperation and that Felicity had already found enough of nasty info about what was happening in New York City to convince her Vera and friends needed the Arrow's help – not to mention an unexplainable earthquake, that sounded too familiar –, Oliver had to admit his girlfriend was right.

When she dropped the bombshell that she had already hacked into a database of a private aircraft company to slip in a little note about a scheduled and already paid Starling-NYC top class flight, he decided the world was crazy and he was not getting over Felicity skills any time soon. Or over about just how well she knew him to realize he would want to be on his way. Of course, she had called Roy in as well – by the time Oliver's emergency Arrow bag was ready, Roy had appeared, taken aback but willing to join.

Sure, Oliver and Roy studied the file Felicity had prepared for them – how the hell, when, not that it only included the newest reports from the NYPD police, but also some older, which was how Oliver learnt that Vera's boyfriend had apparently been back for a while and decided to wear horns – yet, they were not ready for what awaited them at the private airport. Felicity managed to rent them a private helicopter with a pilot who didn't question two weird hooded men ready to jump down; no, Oliver was not getting over Felicity's skillset, ever.

They might not have the Queens Consolidated and its resources anymore, but they still had Felicity Smoak.

Of course, meeting the gang of wayward vigilantes of New York by Vera's side, including her very own boyfriend – fiancée actually if the ring on her left hand was any indication – was even weirder. And the situation was only getting stranger and stranger from there.

Exhausted, banged up, but quite happy for things ending surprisingly well, they left Matt's (who had told them his name, since they had been enormous help and Oliver had more or less saved his life) and Vera's apartment, changing in an abandoned building and heading back to the private airport. That day was full of insane surprises and Oliver hoped he ran out of a month supply of those.

He was wrong. Felicity called again, announcing Vera was heading their way and was probably about to ask Oliver about the possibility of hitching a ride/ flight with them.

So much for no more surprises.

...

Oliver and Roy watched the cab pull over, its door opening before the car fully stopped. A black-haired girl in glasses got out, a backpack hanging over her shoulder sloppily. She eyed them, hesitantly making her way to them. If Oliver could be forgiven, he would say she looked terrible.

"Vera, hey. You okay? What happened?" he hurried, meeting her halfway.

Her face twisted in a desperate grimace, her hand running through her damp hair. It wasn't raining or snowing – damn from shower? Had she left in such a hurry?