Actions

Work Header

The Spinning Arrow

Summary:

With their future in complete shambles and no hope left, Will and Mia must complete a mission that has been in the making for three years. Which of course involves time travel. As Will and Mia travel back to the past to fix the future they end up needing some help along the way.

Notes:

Let's face it. The future so far sucks and looks grim so I thought Will and Mia should fix it.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

It had been raining all day in Star City. Crime seemed to be at a stand still for a moment. 

With Emiko going dark, Oliver was splitting his time between the SCPD, bunker, and home with his pregnant wife. 

His amazing and smart wife who had succeeded in getting her archer program up and running. 

It was hard for Oliver to be without William. Despite the number of texts and calls, even emails Felicity and him have sent. There was no response. If William just needed some space, he understood, but he wanted to hear his son’s voice tell him that he was settling in fine. Or if he wanted to come home. 

Oliver was brimming with excitement to tell William that he was going to be a big brother, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head that William wouldn’t be happy. That after he left they tried to replace him. 

The week had been quiet with the team working in tandem with the SCPD cracking down on low level street crimes. 

The team was enjoying being back in their comfort zone with training and running point from the bunker. It also helped that Felicity had all her own tech to work with. Computers that didn’t freeze in the middle of field work.

Soon the quiet night became something they would never forget.

It all started with an explosion.


 

Deep in the glades it was a quiet night. A quiet night as one can be in the glades. There was an abandoned building that had not been used for years until now as it was the source of a what they had called a ‘contained’ explosion. 

From the explosion, rolled out what they had called a time sphere that was opening. 

Two bodies crawled through the opening of the time sphere, coughing as the smoke and dust settled. Their bodies tired from the perilous journey, both just glad they were both alive. 

“Well, when Nora said that the journey would be rough, I thought she was over exaggerating.” Mia coughed harder, her lungs attempting to breathe in the fresh air.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Will took the journey harder than Mia. He thought after spending almost three years now attempting to pick up the few things that Mia taught him, that his body would be better prepared. 

The Queen siblings both stood up and dusted themselves off, trying to adapt to their new surroundings. 

“So, what’s the plan?” He questioned, still disoriented. They picked up the only things they brought with them to the past. Two duffle bags containing all that they would need. 

“Well first things first we need to find out if we made it to the right time.”

That was when they heard the police sirens.

“Well I think that just got moved down to priority number two.” As Mia turned to run, Will’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Wait! We can’t just leave this thing here, they’re going to!”

Mia cut Will off by pushing the button on the remote they had been given. Next thing they knew the time sphere had cloaked itself as a broken down car.

“Well when did you get tech nerd all of a sudden?” Will’s retort brought a smile to Mia’s face. 

“One of Mom’s parting gifts.” That single sentence sobered them back to reality. The loud clanging of the metal garage door being opened brought them back. The brother-sister duo made eye contact before dashing off to find a way out of the warehouse. 


“Overwatch any word as to what we are dealing with.” The team were currently on the next building over. Waiting for the assailants to make their grand exit, the SCPD were making their way through the building.

“No go. This warehouse hasn’t been used in the past 5 years and all previous owners are currently not alive.” Oliver sighed. Probably just some low level street thugs testing out weapons they couldn’t handle. If that was the case Oliver wanted to get these guys. 

“SCPD says that they don’t see any sign of explosives so far.”

“There!” Renee pointed out two dark figures exiting through a second story door. 

The chase was on. 


“Oh great, now we’ve got them chasing us. This was so not part of the plan.” Will was panting, trying to catch his breath and keep up with his sister. 

“Will you shut up?!” They were running through the alleys of the Glades. Slipping through every nook and cranny they could find, trying some way to go unseen and slip through the vigilante’s fingers. 

They both knew their plan had required precision, accuracy, and most importantly. Timing. If they didn’t get the correct time then everything would have all been for nothing. 

Then all of their families’ sacrifices would have been for nothing. 

They slammed their backs against a brick wall. Their breaths labored and their chests heaving in tiredness. 

“Our plan is very quickly crumbling towards our feet.” Will puffed out. 

Mia nodded. Her brain quickly trying to figure out a way to fix their plan. 

“Mom said that there was only one place that we could go to begin our mission. Where we could carry it out in peace.” An arrow wedged itself in the bricks between Will and Mia’s faces. 

“Well I really think some peace is what we need.” They both ran towards the open gate at the end of the alley. 

Mia hit her wrist watch and a holographic map was pulled up. 

“Quick! Through here!” Mia took her brother through the secret back ways that her mother had pointed out. This was where they had slipped through the fingers of Team Arrow. Putting their hunt to an end for the night. 


“You know those guys were pretty slippery for some street thugs.” Felicity quipped, turning in her chair. 

The team had made their way back to the lair. Collecting themselves to regroup. 

“Do we have any info, or any cameras to find out what they were doing or what they looked like?” Oliver asked his wife. 

“No active cameras in the warehouse when the explosion happened, and all the cameras that did capture them, had the thugs moving too fast to get any facial recognition.”

“Damn. I can’t believe we let some thugs slip through us.” Rene commented. 

“Well maybe you’re not as fast as you used to be.” Dinah teasingly smiled at Renee. 

“Oh is that an old joke?” The team had been through a lot the past few weeks. Between trying to locate Emiko and worrying about the ninth circle, it was nice for them to be joking around. 

Oliver thought chasing the thugs would help take his mind off of his sister and the betrayal he felt. For now he was letting his mind focus on that. 

“Well, I’ll have my system running so if anything pops us we’ll know.”

“So I think that means we’ll call it a night.” Diggle commented. With that the team parted ways. 


“And voila! We are in.” Will presented to his sister. 

They clambered down the stairs into the dark musky basement, both unable to see anything. 

Will turned on the flashlight and located the fuse box. 

The Arrow cave. 

“Wow, this place is a dump.” Mia noticed.

“Well, Mom did say that they haven’t used this place in years. Ever since it was raided by the police.” Will and Mia proceeded to get acquainted in the old Arrow cave. The place had not been used since it was raided by the police. Even the upstairs hadn’t been used let alone bought. 

“Whoah.” Will pulled the sheet that had been covering the computers. As the dust flew into their faces, they began to cough to clear their lungs.  

“If we got the time right, this set up is old even for this time.” Will dusted off the chair as best he could, and began attempting to try and boot up the computers. 

Mia began to explore the place that her mother had deemed the “Arrow cave”. She remembers her mom telling stories about their adventures with OTA in this place. From when her mom first rescued her father to the time he came back from his fight with Ra's Al Ghul. The good and the bad. 

Mia found it hard to believe that for such a long time her mom was fighting for a cause that she wasn’t supposed to be apart of, and ended up becoming the heart of the team. 

Mia uncovered a mannequin propped up in a clear case. Nothing done the mannequin, this was where her father hung his hood every night. Now it was just her reflection staring back at her. She could see the tiredness in her eyes. 

“Yes!” Will cheered, pumping his fist in the air. 

Mia turned to see what he was talking about. 

“Well it took some tinkering with the processor cores in these cabinets, which I’m amazed are still here. But. These computers are back online.” Mia nodded, used to all the computer babbling that she most of the time didn't understand. 

“Well now that steps one through three are out of the way, time to work on steps four and five.” Mia pulled up the hood on the dark jacket she had been wearing, turning towards the stairs. 

“Which is?” He asked confused. 

“You are going to make sure that she can’t track our system and I’m going to go grab us some food.”

“Hey. shouldn’t we be keeping a low profile. I mean we did just barely manage to escape.” Mia’s back was still turned. Despite having Will, Mia still felt like she had to venture out on her own. Thinking on instinct, that led to more unnecessary risks. But she couldn’t just sit around twiddling her thumbs while he tapped keys on a computer. 

Will knew this. 

“Hey, I know you hate to admit it but I am right. Plus I could actually use your help.” Just like that they were like normal siblings. The little sister getting excited to be included by her big brother. Despite their beginnings to an unconventional brother sister bond, they still acted like siblings. They still loved and relied on each other. 

Mia was turned back around. The smile threatening to show on her face, while it smugly showed on his. 

“Plus, I like taking in these rare moments where I’m the one bossing my little sister around.”, and just like that the smile showed on her face and she punched her brother in the shoulder. Both of them preparing for a long night. 

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Summary:

Some more Mia and Will action and a little fight.

Notes:

Thank you all for the amazing responses I really appreciate them. please keep them coming. I will try to upload either every few days or every week.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It wasn’t until three days later did Felicity find something. 

“Yes!” Her fist pumped into the air in excitement. 

“What? What did you find?” Oliver and Digg had been sparing when Felicity cheered. 

“Well. Despite us not using the first ‘Arrow cave’ anymore I still keep track on who is going in and out of that place. Well the night you chased those thugs, it was accessed. The reason I’m only catching this now is because whoever got in covered their tracks really well. I mean they are using algorithms and coding that I’ve never seen before, well, there is this one line of code that is bothering me but,”

“Felicity,” Oliver cut in. He loved his wife and her babbles, but sometimes she got too caught up in her ‘tech talk’, as he called it. 

“Right, sorry. Well whoever broke into our old lair is still there, because they are using our old software.”

“Wait, does this mean they can use the old computers to get into our current system?” Digg questioned, concerned. 

“No. Considering we have better defenses and that trying to hack into our current system using those computers is like trying to paint a landscape rather than taking a photo of it.”

“Meaning?”

“It would take a really long time, and top notch hacking skills and inside knowledge as to what new type of defense system we have. Plus. We have A.R.C.H.E.R.” Felicity simplified for Digg and Oliver. Despite them picking up some things along the way, there was still a lot they didn’t understand. 

“Could this be the same people we chased that night?” Digg asked.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this explosion happens and the same night the old lair gets broken into. I’ll go check it out.” 


“You know I really do love the rest of out little family but it is nice to have OTA back, even if Digg isn’t in the field.” Felicity commentated on through the comms as Oliver leapt off of rooftops, and through alleys. 

He was perched on the roof of what used to be Verdant. 

“Crazy to believe seven years ago this is where it all started.” Digg said nostalgic.  

“Look how far we’ve come.” Despite the amount of events that had happened from his original mission to now. Oliver still believed he did some good. There were times and moments where Oliver was overwhelmed and he felt like he did more bad than good. But those moments would be washed away when he would see little kids wearing an arrow shirt or people grateful that he had saved them. 

“Overwatch what do you see?”

“Thermal indicates two people. Male and female. Other than that I’ve got no eyes on weapons.”

Oliver knew he couldn’t go in completely blind. With that Oliver went through the entrance that only he knew about. One he kept to himself for emergency purposes. 


 Mia had taken to sitting on the thin twin cot that she called a bed. Bouncing the tennis ball on the wall opposite her. The thump of it hitting the wall echoed throughout the lair along with Will’s typing. 

Three days. Three days stuck in 2019 and they were no where near finished completing their mission. A lot of which required computer skills that Mia couldn’t keep up with. 

Mia would sneak out through the alleys to travel for food and water so they wouldn’t starve, but still maintained safety and cover.

Passing the time, Mia found was hard. There was only so much annoying Will, and training one could get done in the lair. Even with the salmon ladder. 

She couldn’t wait to get some action. 

Looks like she shouldn’t have wished so hard. 

Mia heard it before she saw it. On instinct she threw one of her stars towards the whistling sound that she had been trained to hear her whole life. Just like that the fight had begun. 

“Get down!” Mia yelled towards Will who was currently ducking and running towards cover. 

The star that she had thrown deflected the arrow that was soaring towards her. 

“Come out with your hands up!” Oliver drawled out menacingly. 

Mia and Will both froze like kids getting scolded by their parents. It had been years since Will had heard that voice, sometimes he forgot what his own father’s voice sounded like. Especially when he was being all ‘Green Arrow’ like. 

Mia on the other hand had never heard her father’s voice in person. The only time she ever heard her father’s voice was that documentary. 

When they turned towards each other, their worried faces matched each other. Both not knowing what to do. 

Mia knew this would make or break their plan. 

“You get the bags and the info on the computers. I’ll distract him.” Before Will could argue Mia pulled her hood up and prepared to fight. 

As arrows went flying, Mia knew she had to get the bow away from her father. In what was a latent attempt she caught him off guard and his bow went flying across the room. They both locked gazes. Each other in shock, and Mia took the opening and swept his leg, knocking Oliver onto his feet. 

Quickly recovering they were locked into a hand to hand combat. 

Mia knew that her father was good when it came to hand to hand, but she had no idea how good he actually was. 

Whoever this was, Oliver thought, they were good. From the feel and looks of her combat style, she was trained by the league. This made him think that these people  were anything but low level thugs. 

Meanwhile, Will was crouched down and attempting to download all of the information off of the computers. He could hear the grunting and hits being landed from the other side of the room. 

His sister and dad were fighting. Literally. Will couldn’t but help shake his head. What had his life become, one minute he was in charge of a tech company and the next he was traveling to the future with his sister he just met three years ago.

From the way his sister and their dad were fighting, it was hard to determine who was going to win. 

“Oliver you need to find a way to stop the download on that computer.”

“Copy.” Oliver was keeping up, but he knew whoever was fighting him was slick. He saw the guy crouched underneath the table, typing on some tablet. After throwing the girl off of his shoulder her body slammed to the ground and he took the opening shot. Grabbing the small throwing arrow he kept on his leg it flew through the air and straight into the computer on the table. 

Felicity had designed the arrow to be able to shut down any electronics it came into contact with. 

Sparks started flying. 

“No!” Will screamed. Just like that all their work for nothing. Their hopes for saving the future quickly crumbled before them. 

Mia got up from where she was standing and was quicker than Oliver. Holding his own bow to his head. An arrow notched and ready. 

“Stand down.” Oliver said forcefully. 

“I’m not the one with an arrow to their head.”

“I’m with the SCPD come quietly now and I won’t have to resort to more violence.”

“Or you let the both of us go and I won’t let go of this string.”

Will looked up from where he was on the floor as he attempted to salvage some of the data from the computer to the tablet. It wasn’t looking too good. 

Will stood up looking, for the first time in years, his father in the eyes. His dad’s back was turned to Mia, and if he was facing her he would be able to see the pure fear and hesitation was on her face. They both knew she wouldn’t release that arrow, but their dad didn’t. 

“You better put that down before I have backup come, and then things will get worse.” Mia and Will knew with their plan in complete shambles there was no other option. They had to go with plan B. The plan that wasn’t to be executed at all. the plan that they had labled, worst case scenario. 

Mia slowly dropped the quiver and set it onto the table. Both their hands up and surrendered as the stood next to each other for the first time in front of their father. 

They both met Oliver’s intimidating gaze, his jaw locked. 

Oliver couldn’t help but think these people looked familiar. 

“We’ll come with you, but not to the station.”

“The bunker.” Mia, interrupting Will.

“What bunker?” Oliver played it off. How did they know. 

“Cut the bullshit. We’re from the future and we’re here to save your asses.” Mia’s emotions got the best of her as she let the words fall out of her mouth. Will gave her the look he was too used to giving her now. The one that told her why did she say that. 

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Oliver chimed in. 

“Because we came through here on a time sphere that I would be more than happy to explain, but we need to get to a secure location.” Will added, being the ever so smart one. 

Oliver was backed into a corner. If these people were telling the truth then what the hell happened to the future that they needed to come here. Barry told him the consequences of time travel, and Oliver really didn't need this right now. But there was that small nagging voice asking, what if they weren’t telling the truth. 

“Oliver. Do you believe them? How do you know we can trust them.”

The way they were looking at Oliver, there was some sort of feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that he could trust them. The gaze from the man seemed familiar. 

“Overwatch, tell the team to meet us at the bunker. Tell them we have company.”


 “So this is what this place looked like.” Mia whispered to her brother in amazement. 

“You know if this doesn’t work then the timeline is going to get really messed up and those time thingies might come after us.” Will whispered back fiercely. Mia scoffed. 

“They only go after speedsters…I think.”

The two siblings had been sitting at the round table inside the bunker in disbelief. They were in the past sitting in the bunker with both of their parents a few feet away. Along with Diggle, Dinah, and Rene. 

Their bags that they had brought with them remained unopened in the middle of the table. 

“So do you think they’re telling the truth?” Rene asked.

“I don’t know. There’s just this feeling I have.” Oliver knew he couldn’t explain it, but he knew they should hear them out. But if they were lying, they could just take them to the SCPD.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” Digg said and they all walked over to the table. Ready to hear this wild explanation. 

Mia couldn’t help but stare at their parents. This was her father. A man that she grew up admiring and wanted to be just like him. The one who survived on an island for five years. The one who cheated death so many times. The man she wanted to meet, until the day she didn’t. When she learned that he was the reason she was born a crime the reason why Felicity and her had to live secluded and protected. During that time she spent so long hating her father and even her mother for the way she had to grow up. 

But for the past three years, after patching things up with her mom and spending time with her and Will, growing closer as a family, hearing more stories, good and bad, from them, she couldn’t help but miss her father. A man that she had never met. 

Then there was her mom, standing right before her. One thing that Mia noticed was she looked happier, not that her mother wasn't happy, she was just more care free, like the wait of the whole world was on her shoulders, she was more-. No. She couldn’t go there. She had to focus on the mission, Will and her had done enough mourning, and they could mourn some more after they finished this mission. 

"So," Oliver sighed, clapping his hands together, "do you want to start with the truth?"

Mia responded with her immediate defense mechanism, snarkiness. 

“Well we are from the future, which sucks by the way, we are here to destroy something in order to save the future and most of the city.” She put a smile at the end, just to add to her personality. 

Will brought his hand up to his scrunched up face, he could feel the headache coming. 

Felicity couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Look, we had this plan but seeing as you destroyed our only way of saving the future, we need your system to do it.” Will simplified. 

“How do we know you’re just not going to destroy our system and hack into other software. You haven’t even given us any proof that you are from the future.” Dinah pointed out.

This was it, the moment that they had wanted to avoid. The big secret that would gain all of their trust, but would but the whole fate of the future further out of their reach. They knew this was now or never.

Mia and Will’s gazes locked, there was no going back.

Notes:

Thanks for reading I really hope you guys like the update. If you have questions I can answer them.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Summary:

Some secrets are revealed, and someone gets a little too angry.

Notes:

Thank you for the amazing responses I really appreciate them. Please keep them coming.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Will stood up, reaching into his pocket, pulling out their proof and setting it on the table. 

Oliver and Felicity’s faces slacked in shock. 

On the table lay the hozen. The last time either of them had seen it was when William left with his grandparents. 

Oliver quickly snatched it up and examined it, finding some way to explain it.

“Where did you get this.” Oliver’s gaze careful watched the mans. His mind swirling with so many thoughts and emotions, trying not to jump to the one conclusions. 

Felicity gasped, her hands over her mouth, and her eyes watering as they wandered over him. 

“This was given to me by you guys before I left for Central City.” Will kept his composure, attempting to keep his emotions at bay. 

“William?” Oliver breathed out. 

The rest of the teams faces fell in shock, the information catching up to them, as they put two and two together. 

William nodded and looked down, breaking his gaze with his parents. 

Felicity was in disbelief. Standing in front of her is the little teenager that she looked after by herself for 6 months. The one who got excited when they had ice cream for dinner and loved doing math. The one who she hasn’t heard from in weeks and missed terribly. 

Was now a grown man standing right in front of her. 

It all felt like a dream. 

With her emotions running high and tears in her eyes, Felicity reached out a hand to caress William’s face. He couldn’t help but lean into her touch. 

She saw it now, this was their William. She wrapped him in a tight embrace, William engulfed in her warm embrace. Both not knowing who was comforting who. 

Oliver was standing to the side, unsure how to feel. Here was his son from the future, a grown man. Probably the same age as him. This is what Barry must feel like, he thought. 

Oliver watched Felicity and William embrace, his eyes tearing up at the scene. William brought them both out of the embrace, coming back to reality for a second and looked at his father in the eyes. 

Will could see the confusion and emotion on his dad’s face, unable to tell how he was truly feeling. Next thing he knew he was brought into a bruising embrace with his father. Something he hasn’t felt since he was 12 years old. 

Will knew they had to save the future and deal with the consequences of their choices, but for these few moments, he was going to enjoy hugging his father. 

Mia watched on as her brother hugged their parents, the happiness ever so present in his eyes. Something she hasn’t seen in months. Mia couldn’t help but feel jealous, but she knew how important this was for her brother. She was going to let him have this moment with their parents before the bubble was ultimately popped. 

“How? Just how?” Oliver finally muttered out, breaking the embrace with his future son. This was really going to take some adjusting, Oliver thought. 

“I think everyone should sit down for this explanation, because there are way more surprises coming, starting with her.” Will turned back to his sister, who had been standing back, he could see the fear in her eyes. 

Everyone’s eyes were on her, something Mia could still not adjust to. Sure she was able to fight and come up with basic plans but being a leader and apart of a team was something she couldn’t quite adjust to. She was still trying to adjust to having an older brother. 

Suddenly all her fears were resurfacing. Fear of finally meeting her father and that she would just be tossed to the side. Despite the stories that she was told, she couldn’t help but feel like a little girl again. 

“My name is Mia.” She paused, looking between her mom and dad. If they had been shocked before they were completely speechless. 

Felicity’s hand fell to her stomach and Oliver looked towards Felicity. Both knowing just from her name who this girl was. 

Their daughter. 

Mia, quickly grew uncomfortable and wanted the moment to end. 

“Okay Mia, how are you tied up in all of this?” Dinah questioned. 

Mia smiled turning towards Dinah,

“I’m their daughter.” Just like that the bomb was dropped. The rest of the team turned towards Oliver and Felicity, waiting their reactions, and were met with shocked faces. 

“Listen I know we just dropped all this onto your laps and you are still trying to react, but we really need to get to work.” Will chimed in, trying to get the situation under control. 

With that the team sat at the table ready for the explanation. This day couldn’t get any stranger. 


 Oliver didn’t even know where to begin. First he is told that these two adults are from the future, then he’s told that they are his children. 

His eyes never left their faces. 

First there was William, who was all grown up. Despite being unable to recognize his son at first, he couldn’t help but see it now. The way he held himself and the way his eyes shined. 

He had to keep reminding himself that present time William was currently in Central City. That he was okay. 

Then there was Mia. Their daughter that was currently growing in his wife’s belly. The little baby that he hasn’t even got to hold let alone see. The only glimpse he’s had is the sonogram picture he keeps by the bedside. The one he stares at every night that brings him endless joy and happiness. 

Here she was. A fully grown and beautiful woman. She was the perfect combination of Felicity and him. 

Oliver was hopelessly in love with his daughter. That’s why it hurt him so much to hear that the future is terrible. 

Everything that they have been doing, with coming into the light, working with the SCPD, and even ARCHER was to protect them. To protect their kids so that they wouldn’t have to live in a world full of fear and crime around every corner. To not have to be worried that some crime boss was going to threaten their family. 

It seems all this work was for nothing. Oliver didn’t even know where to begin on time travel and the effects this would cause. Damn. Barry was going to be pissed, Oliver thought.  

Oliver found that he didn’t care what it would take. He would do whatever to make sure this terrible future didn’t happen. 

As they all sat down to listen to their story he found himself glancing towards his wife. So far she hadn’t moved her hand off of her stomach. Her face still full of shock, she turned to face him and in a silent conversation they both nodded. They would talk about things later. 

“In our present, your future, Star City is this corrupt city full of nothing but crime, and no police control. Essentially it’s the epitome of a post apocalyptic city,” Will began to explain.

“While those who live in the Glades are sitting pretty behind a wall that’s heavily guarded. It’s also a place where vigilantes are very illegal and almost non existent.” Mia retorted after Will, the disgust in her voice evident. 

The siblings paused a bit. Letting only that little bit of information sink in, knowing that the rest of their story they were about to tell would be too much for the small team. 

“There was this group called Galaxy One with a plan to remodel Star City, start a new. The plan was to level it with bombs, and the mayor of The Glades was behind the plan. He thought residents were going to be evacuated before the detonation, too bad he was naive and realized this last minute.” Mia continued, glancing between every one of their faces. 

“What kind of idiot did they have running the place as mayor,” Rene scoffed. 

“You.” Mia explained, smiling towards Rene. The complete surprise on his face was priceless. 

“Me?” Rene questioned in disbelief. 

Mia had been holding in all the anger towards the future Rene. The reason why vigilantes were outlawed, the reason why she never got to meet her dad, the reason why her mother—. Mia stopped her train of thought, not wanting to go there. 

“Yes. You. In my time you leave all your morals behind and run for mayor for the glades. By then the two areas in Star City are more than divided. There’s a giant wall, separating them with no one from the run down Star City allowed into the flourishing Glades,” Mia by this time stood up, passionate and angered by what she was saying, “you wanted to make The Glades better so you enforce the anti vigilante laws, with harsher punishments. But then, you decide that that isn’t enough,”

“Mia,” Will warned Mia. 

“You decide to team up with this terrorist group thinking that you’re going to remake Star City. Rise from the ashes, you said. But too bad you were too blind to see that they were using you. By then, it was too late.”

“Mia!” Will insisted more forcefully. She gave her brother a look, she knew she was going a bit far, but it was the harsh truth. Rene meanwhile was sitting there taking it, not knowing how else to react. Mia sat and calmed down, still going on to explain.

“You got lucky that we interfered when we did.”

“If you interfered, then why are the two of you here?” Dinah pointed out.

There it was the big question, the reason why Will and Mia needed their mom’s old computers, with her specific software. The reason they had to risk everything, including the timeline. 

“We need to destroy A.R.C.H.E.R.” Will spat out. A nervous smile soon spread across Felicity’s face. 

“What?” Felicity questioned. How was she supposed to destroy something she has spent so long building from the ground up. The program that was supposed to help people and help crime. Now she was being told by her future children that she had to destroy the whole thing. 

“You go on to create A.R.C.H.E.R into this bigger program. One that everyone wants to get their hands on.” Will paused to glance at Mia. Her face attempting to remain emotionless as she stared down at her folded hands. 

“You explained to us how you started to create A.R.C.H.E.R more advanced, that it was ready to have its own launch and be this amazing program.”

“But then they got a hold of it.” Mia interrupted. Everyone’s eyes were on her now, her eyes still unable to meet her father’s. 

“The Ninth Circle. They kept tabs on your program. Seeing the potential they waited, and waited. Until they found the perfect opportunity.” Will added in. 

“You tried hiding,” Mia spoke, turning towards Felicity, “then, I was born.”

“You told us that your top priority was keeping the two of us safe. So you two decided it would be best to keep us apart,” Will chimed in, looking at their parents, “and it worked for about a year.”

“They both knew what came next. They didn’t want to say it out loud and deal with the truth. 

“What happened?” Oliver questioned, finally speaking up. 

“Silence. The siblings glanced towards each other waiting for the other to talk. To break the cold hard truth to their parents, neither of them wanting to speak up. 

“Listen. Guys,” Oliver spoke softly, “if we want to help we have to work together, and that includes the—,”

“They murdered you!” Mia shouted, interrupting her father. The high amounts of emotion coursing through her body. 

seeing everyone’s eyes on her after her outburst, Mia stood up and left the room with Will calling after her retreating form.

Notes:

I hope you liked this chapter, more coming.

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Summary:

Oliver and Felicity have a long awaited talk.

Notes:

I thought I would explain a few things in case people were confused.
-I keep switching between Will and William to emphasize how Oliver and others call him by his full name, and those closest or comfortable with him.
-I am going to stick with uploading every Thursday

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Oliver needed a drink…or five, just to process everything he was being told. 

Future. A.R.C.H.E.R. Mia and William. Dead. 

He was dead. Oliver knew that he would end up dead one day. But he figured that would come after watching his own kids grow up. 

Watching them bond together as brother and sister. Teaching William how to shave and drive a car. Holding Mia for the first time, being able to hear her first words, or be there for her first steps. Get to take her to her first day of school and play with her. 

None of that. He wouldn’t be able to experience any of that. 

After Mia retreated to one of the more secluded spaces in the bunker, William stood up to go talk to her. 

Rene seemed to still be processing the fact that he became a person that he hated. Someone that was willing to put innocent lives in jeopardy and bomb a city. 

“I’m gonna get some air.” Rene stood and left, with Dinah trailing behind him. 

Diggle stood to give Oliver and Felicity some privacy. Knowing they would need a bit of time. 

Felicity turned to her husband, rubbing his back in comfort. 

“So, first there’s the whole thing with Vandal Savage, then theres flashpoint, then there was that whole body swap, well not technically, also there was the nazis. But I think this might be the cherry on top of our crazy sundae of life.”

“How are you so calm about this?” Oliver was beyond a loss of words, he didn’t even know where to begin. 

Felicity knew her husband well, and she could see all the gears in his head turning so fast that his emotions didn’t know what to do. 

“I’m not,” she sighed out, “I’m actually beyond freaking out. I mean, that is William. All grown up. The little teenager that loved cooking is standing before our eyes as a fully fledged grown man that is almost as tall as you.”

Oliver couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. Despite the circumstances, it felt nice to see his son so grown up. 

“Yeah. It is nice.”

“You know in the past 5 minutes I’ve seen him, he’s just like you.” Oliver couldn’t believe what his wife was saying, and threw her a sketchful look. 

“I’m being serious. The way he smiled when we hugged him. The way his face scrunched up. Plus the way he was concerned about his sister.”

Mia. 

“Speaking of freaking out,” Felicity added, “that was Mia. The little baby that is currently growing in my womb. Here she is, also standing before us, all grown up.”

“I thought that after everything that I have been through, everything that we have been through. I thought that we would get this chance to be happy. To raise our baby in a safe and loving environment. One where we weren’t scared that we wouldn’t make it home that night,” Oliver took another deep breath in an attempt to keep his emotions at bay, “I thought that I would get to watch her grow up into an amazing person, one that we would be proud of no matter what. That we would get to both raise this baby together and see her grow up. That we would get to introduce her to William, and hopefully the two would bond. That we would get to be there for her first words and steps, first day of school. That we would be able to do it all together. But. But finding out that all our efforts to do good and work with the SCPD so that we could have that, was all for nothing.” 

He couldn’t keep the emotions in any longer. Oliver, not one to get very emotional let the tear escape his eye. Felicity watched as it fell down her husband’s cheek. 

To see her husband so overcome with emotion was making Felicity more emotional than she already was. 

“I know. I know. I thought me creating A.R.C.H.E.R would help protect us, help protect everyone, our family, and,” Felicity was beyond words, “to be told I have to destroy every last bit of data of my program, but to be told I’m the reason that our kids are kept apart and I’m the reason that you’re.” She couldn’t finish that sentence, she didn’t even want to think about it. 

“Hey,” Oliver turned to his wife, taking both of her hands in his, “it wasn’t your fault, it was the ninth circle’s fault. It was their fault our kids had to be protected. It was their fault your program was used for evil, and it was their fault,” Oliver’s voice wavered, attempting to finish the sentence, “it was their fault that I died. But now is our chance. To right the wrongs. To change this course that we are headed for and save the future. But most importantly our family.” Felicity nodded at her husband’s inspirational words, the tears flowing down her cheeks. The ones that she had been trying to keep at bay. 

Oliver smiled at his wife as he wiped the tears off of her cheeks. 

“At least we know how much she’s like you,” Felicity noted, making light of their situation. It worked. Oliver was smiling at the news about their daughter, “I mean that smile, how fierce and passionate she is, and I mean. She had to get that blonde hair from you.” They both laughed at that part.

“You should have seen the way she kicked my ass. I mean. I couldn’t believe it. She may act like me, but she is as beautiful as her mother.”

“Whatever happens next, whatever plan our kids come up with, we will face it how we’ve always done things. Together.” The way they both took in her words was comforting to the chaos going on around them. 

The rest of the team had walked back into the room the same time Mia and William came back. They both tried not to notice Mia’s red eyes, hoping that being comforted by her brother helped her, through what she was going through. 

Meanwhile Rene looked angry but determined, the whole team feeling the same. 

“So how do we get this plan in motion.” Diggle announced. Mia and Will communicating with their eyes and nodding. 

Yes, they would give it all they got to save their parents, no matter the sacrifices.

Notes:

Thanks for reading. keep the comments coming, I love them. sorry for the short chapter, that's why I gave you guys 2 instead of 1 this week. if you have any questions, just ask.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Summary:

Will and Mia get some more bonding moments.

Notes:

Since these past 2 chapters were short and I wanted to keep them separate I just thought I would upload 2 chapters this week. please enjoy.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Mia walked off angrily and tried to find some space where she could brood in private. She found that the small medical area on the other side of where her parents were sitting, trying to process everything that they had just told them, like a good place. 

Her arms were crossed as she paced back and forth. The years when it was just her and mom, she found feelings a bit easy, able to talk to her mom about anything and everything. But she just made sure to not really mention her father. Sure her mom told her amazing stories about her dad, a lot more when she was younger and constantly wanted to know about him. Stories about who he was, and the good things that he did for the city and stories about how much they loved each other. 

But even at a young age Mia could tell that the stories brought a hint of sadness to her eyes. Sadness that had seemed to grow over the years. 

One time when she was 16, Mia woke up to find that her mom had a little too much red wine and was crying while she talked to a photo. The photo that had been taken was of mom and her father on the day of their wedding reception. A happier time. 

From then on Mia tip-toed around the subject of her father, not wanting to upset her mother. 

Mia learned to cope with having to be a fighter, and live as a fugitive. Knowing that she had to keep her head down and her eyes open. The day she learned why, was the day her father turned from her long thought hero to the father that she hated. Then adding to when she learned her mom was overwatch just filled up the bottle that she called her emotions. 

But then came Connor. Someone she felt she could take comfort in, not just emotionally. Sure they got really close. Really, really close, but then she got scared when the emotions got too real and her walls started to fall, so she ran. 

Then Will came along and all of a sudden the bottle of emotions she kept hidden were poured out when she reunited with her mom and had that heart to heart. With Will’s annoying consistent big brotherliness, her walls slowly began to crumble once more.

“I already know what you’re going to say.” Mia could feel her brother’s gaze on the back of her head. She turned and could see his concerned face, with a hint of anger. 

“Oh yeah?”

Mia sighed, uncrossing her arms, “You’re going to say that I’m childish for acting up. That I need to keep these emotions in check. That I shouldn’t have been so stupid and revealed so much. That.” Mia paused, noticing Will’s unchanging face. 

“I was going to ask how were you doing.” Will, always trying to be a good brother. Something Mia knew by now that it was pointless trying to hide whatever she was feeling, from her brother, he always somehow managed to get it out of her. 

“How do you think I’m doing? First our plan gets totally ruined, then we are met face to face with our parents from the past, who by the way I can barely look at.”

“A ‘not good’ would’ve sufficed,” Will walked closer to his sister. 

“Will, I thought I could handle traveling to the past and fixing the future, but, being here and looking into their eyes, knowing that they don’t,” her voice wavered, the emotions peeking out, “knowing that they don’t get to see the future. It sucks, it beyond sucks.” Will crossed the rest of the space between them and brought her into a comforting hug. Her head and tears falling into his chest. 

They had both been through the wringer their whole lives, not really having another person know or understand what they were going through. But for the past three years they’ve had each other to lean on. Sure they got on each other’s nerves, after all they were still brother and sister. But they still made sure to be there for one another. 

“I miss her.” Mia confessed. 

“Me too.” Will nodded, rubbing her back more, with that Will let the tear escape his face. 

"It's their fault she's dead."

"I know." 

They stood there for another minute, just needing a moment for themselves. Ever since they’ve set this plan in motion it has been a constant state of go, go, go, and not stopping to take a breath. So here they were. Taking a breath. 

Will pulled them apart, needing his sister to hear these next words. 

“Listen, I know seeing them hug me wasn’t, easy, for you. And neither is seeing and talking to them, and all these feely touchy emotions are uncomfortable, but we need to push through so that we can have a future. A future where we can all be a family in a city that isn’t burned to the ground.” Mia nodded and wiped her face, knowing her brother was right. 

“Will, I know most of the time you don’t know what to do or say and you annoy me some days where I feel the need to punch you,”

“Gee thanks. Really feeling the love sis,” Mia smiled. 

“But you do know how to cheer me up, and know what I’m going through, and you’re my brother and I love you. So. What i’m trying to say is thank you.”

“That’s what annoying over bearing brothers are for.” The Queen siblings smiled, both feeling a bit better.

The both of them had been through the thick and thin of it the past three years. From finding out they were siblings, to finding Felicity and working together to save the city. To grieving over their lost friends and family, now to this. They both knew that it didn't matter the outcome, good or bad. They would still be brother and sister, and that they could always rely on each other. 

“Well time to get back to this shit show we call life.” Mia added as they walked back to where the team was. Ready to fix everything.

Notes:

thanks for reading. keep the comments coming, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Summary:

Three out of Four Queens walk into an Underground fighting ring...yup, that's it, there is no punchline.

Notes:

Thank you for the responses I really love them. I will have some more information on my updating schedule at the end.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The team walked into the illegal underground fighting ring, it was crowded with people of all shapes and sizes screaming at two oversized men fighting in a cage. The blood dripping down their bodies and hands. Money was being waved in the air as people placed bets, wanting to win the big one. 

“Alright plan is find this Strickler fellow, interrogate him to get him to reveal information on The Ninth Circle so that we can save the future.” Felicity commented through the comms. 

The original plan for Will and Mia was that they needed Felicity’s software to run algorithms to track down an old user id from their present that was used to access a known Ninth Circle bank account. 

This led them to one Hans Strickler. 

“Copy Overwatch.” Oliver responded, as he and Digg pushed through the crowds of people. They had split into 3 teams, while Felicity was in the bunker running comms and interference. 

Oliver had been trying his best to push his emotions down, knowing that it wasn’t good to deal with them in the field. That meant having to let his kids come with them into the field where they could possibly be hurt, or worse. 

He knew that they had been through a lot with each other from what they had told them, and that they could defend themselves, especially from that little fight he had with his daughter. But still. It was his instinct as a parent to be in a constant state of worrying. 

“So, how are you taking this whole kids from the future thing man?” Digg asked, bringing Oliver out of his self brooding. 

“You know I thought the weirdest thing was Nazis from another earth, and Barry and I switching lives. But no. This takes the cake, but this, this is harder to cope with. I mean. To think that our kids grow up in a city where vigilantes are outlawed to the point that they are executed and our kids become illegal, based on the fact that their parents were trying to better the city.”

Digg nodded agreeing with his friend. 

“I mean, I barely get to spend a year with my newborn daughter before I’m ripped away from my family. I don’t get to watch her or William grow up, I don’t get to grow old with my wife. I mean after almost 7 years of trying to save the city it just crumbles.” 

“Listen man, I know this is hard, I mean your kids come to tell us we have to save the future. I mean anybody in your position would be freaking out right now. But you’re here. Trying to fix the future because you want to see your kids grow up. It’s what any parent wants. There are too many things and events to think about, but what we can focus on is making sure we follow through with this plan so that our future doesn’t become our kids’ past.” Oliver nodded, Digg was right. 

They were going to put in all of their efforts to make sure the plan worked, to make sure his kids get to grow up together, and to make sure the future doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. 

Digg was glad Oliver took his advice, he made a note to himself to ask William and Mia about his son. He knew that it was dangerous to know about one’s future, but he felt like since they were changing it anyway. What’s the harm?

“So far Rene and I haven’t found any sign of him.” Dinah commented through the comms. 

“Yeah no sign of him on our end either,” Digg added. 

“We’ve got something, Strickler is in charge of this whole ring, he’s also the one in charge of bets.” Will muttered through the comms. 

“Alright where is he?” Rene questioned. 

“Well he is currently standing a few feet away from us there’s just one problem.” 

“What?” Oliver asked.

“He is surrounded by thugs, and it looks like their packing.” Mia finished, for her brother. 

“Great, how do we separate him from his guards without causing a scene?” Digg asked, waiting for a plan to come through. 

“I’m on it.” Mia said without hesitation. 

“Mia no! We don’t know what he is capable of, and if he tips off The Ninth Circle about our plan then this mission turns into dust.” Oliver growled, he really didn’t want this scumbag near his daughter. 

Oliver and Digg turned to see Mia and Will across the room, they could also spot this Strickler guy, an average, mean looking guy with 5 thugs all standing in close proximity to him. 

They could also see William gripping his sister’s elbow, trying to stop her from doing something stupid. 

Too bad it didn’t work.

“I know what I’m doing. I can get us alone in his private box, I’ll give you guys the signal and I can make sure he doesn’t alert anyone.” Oliver felt the vein in his forehead about to burst, he was so angry. 

Every time Oliver thought about what it would be like to have a daughter, the one thing that kept coming up was having to deal with her angsty teenage years, and when she started dating, and having to scare off every boy that tried looking at her.

Sure he preferred that she not date until she was 20, but he knew it wasn’t practical. He knew that eventually the issue of when she wanted to start dating would come up, but Oliver had pushed that to the side as a problem for the future. 

But here they were skipping the beginning, and now here is daughter was, in an underground fighting ring trying to get information on The Ninth Circle, and their best plan was she was going to ‘flirt’ with this piece of human waste to get some information. 

Digg looked towards Oliver in case he had to stop him from doing something stupid. 

“Mia I don’t think that’s a good idea, and too late.” Felicity said, attempting to stop their daughter. 

Oliver could see William was upset with his sister for not listening, and Oliver was beyond upset. He knew she was too old, but he swore that she would be grounded. 

Oliver had to look away for the next part, because if he saw his daughter and that guy touch, all hell would break loose, and Strickler wouldn’t be able to talk, because Oliver’s fist would be too busy in his mouth. 

Next thing they knew Mia gave them the green light, and they walked up to the closed door, no thugs in sight. 

Oliver’s anger quickly dissipated into pride. Strickler was handcuffed to his own own desk with his tie gagged around his mouth. He could see the blood dripping from his nose where Mia punched him, and not a single scratch on her. 

He was so proud of his daughter. 

Meanwhile the rest of team was impressed with her skills at managing to do this on her own without alerting the thugs, Will knew later he would have to tell his sister that she was right. 

“Told ya.” Mia smiled. She took the gag out of his mouth so that he could talk. 

“You crazy bitch!” Had been the first words out of his bloody mouth. 

Mia slapped him in retaliation, Will tried his hardest not to laugh when that shut him right up. 

“Listen we are just going to ask you a few questions then we’ll let you go and you can go back to being a scumbag.”

Strickler began to chuckle at Mia’s words.

“Really, darling, what’s in it for me?” He was giving Mia a dirty smirk, that got wiped off by Oliver punching him in the stomach. 

Mia was shocked. 

“Listen. I don’t think you want to see what happens if you don’t answer our questions.” Oliver growled out. 

Strickler began to chuckle again. 

“What do you want to know?” 

“The Ninth Circle,” Will chimed in, “we want to know how you’re connected.”

If Strickler had been chuckling before, he was laughing now. 

“You really expect me to give up this type of information, just because a bunch of wannabe vigilantes threaten me. You must think really little of the Ninth Circle.”

Mia pulled out a knife and held it to Strickler’s throat. They needed answers. Oliver was trying not to react at how easily Mia found it threatening people. Another concern for later when the future wasn’t at stake. 

“Oh go ahead blondie. Would love to see you get answers from a dead corpse.” Mia held the knife a bit closer. Enough to knick him on the neck, pricking a bit of blood, before ultimately letting him go. She knew this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. 

“How about a bet.” Will added, catching everyone off guard. Will knew that from what they found out about Strickler was that he was an addicted gambler. He couldn’t refuse a bet. Especially one that he knew he could win. 

“Your strongest and undefeated fighter against the one that managed to handcuff you to your own chair.” Strickler smiled smugly. While he held no doubt that the little blonde girl could hold her own. He doubted that she could take on ‘The Bear’. Seemed like an easy win.

“What’s in it from me?”

“Well let’s see aside from the fact that you take in about 65% of all winning bets, and there should be more than enough money betted against us, I can also make half of a million dollars magically appear in your account. You know the one you use to stay under the radar.”

“You can?” Felicity asked, impressed.

“You can?” Strickler asked. 

"I can." Will agreed, nodding his head. 

Oliver couldn’t help but be amazed at his children. Here Mia was, taking down grown men without breaking a sweat. Then there was William, coming up with a plan to save their situation. 

It seemed Will got his smarts from Sam and Felicity, while Mia took after him. 

He didn’t know if that was good or bad. 

“I like you stiff. You’ve got character. Tell you what, despite this precarious situation, you have me in, you’ve caught me in a giving mood. If that blondie manages to put my guy on his ass then I’ll tell you all I know about The Ninth Circle. I’ll even give you my inside guy.” The team didn’t expect this. They didn’t think that Strickler was on the outs, turns out he knew a guy. 

“Looks like you’ve got yourself a bet.”

Notes:

Thanks for reading. I know Arrow is ending soon, but I have a set ending for this story figured out, I just need to write it. As for updating schedule, I think rather than every week I might do 2 times a week or just when I feel like adding another chapter.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Summary:

This is a real heart felt one, a tear might escape your eyes. I apologize in advance for any information I got wrong.

Notes:

SURPRISE! Another update. I was really excited about this one, but I really hope you guys like it.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Oliver was pacing the outside of the ‘locker room’ where the fighters had time to prepare for the fight. Trying to think of something to tell his grown up daughter from the future, who basically never met him, and was about to go fight some huge dude called ‘The Bear’. He felt like ‘good luck’ wasn’t enough.

The rest of the team had gone to sit with Strickler in his box, make sure everything went smoothly and there were no surprises. 

Before leaving to come to talk to Mia, William had pulled him to the side. 

“Hey, Dad,” It was weird hearing that word come from this grown William’s mouth, but it also made him realize how much he missed his son, “I know what you wanna do. You wanna go and tell her that she doesn’t need to do this that she can back down from this, and you’re probably going to skip around the whole ‘i’m your Dad and you’ve never met me’ thing.”

For Oliver it was weird hearing his grown up son tell him exactly what he was going to do. After the amount of time he's had with William he was so used to William looking towards him and Felicity for help. Now here his son was giving him advice how to talk to his daughter. He felt like he was going to have a semi permanent migraine after this whole ordeal. 

But William did know Mia better than he did after the amount of time they spent together, compare to the fact that Oliver hasn't even met his unborn daughter yet. So he was going to take all the advice he could.  

“Mia doesn’t operate like Felicity and I,” Will couldn’t help but smile, “when we first met I quickly found out how much she took after you.”

“Yeah so far I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” They both laughed at that. 

Here they were. Father and son laughing and enjoying their time together, as if they weren’t worrying about saving the future. 

This moment was making Will realize how much he really missed his parents. Made him realize the times he took for granted helping his Dad make dinner. The times that they would spend lazy afternoons playing with the plastic bow and arrows. The days where the three of them would stay in their pajamas all day and watch movies and play games. The nights where he would have nightmares about the island and his Dad would stay up with him, hugging and comforting him until he fell back asleep. The times after school when he would teach him self defense, and they would end up wrestling to the floor laughing until their stomachs hurt. 

Will even missed the times he would get lectured about leaving his clothes laying around and not putting the toilet lid down.  He even begun to regret the times where he yelled at his father in frustration. The times where he ignored his father and wouldn't talk to him, because he was being a moody teenager and  didn't think his Dad could even begin to understand him. After going so long without his Dad and seeing him now, it made him realize that his Dad always loved him and just wanted to keep him safe. It's funny how it isn't until something is gone does someone realize how much they miss them. 

He couldn’t wait until this stupid future was fixed so that his stupid future self would have more memories with his parents and baby sister. He also hoped that his younger self would get his attitude together and call his parents. 

“Trust me, you may not see it, but it is a good thing.” William took another big sigh, his hands falling into his pockets. 

“Listen I know it’s been a small amount of time for m-Felicity and you, but for me it’s been over 20 years. But despite how weird the situation may be, I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.” Oliver was confused, wondering where he was goin with this, until William brought him in for a warm hug. It took him a second to realize what was going on, but he didn’t want to waste any more time, so he hugged his son back even tighter. 

“I know I didn’t say it a lot when I was younger. But I love you Dad.” It took all of Oliver’s will power to not fully burst into tears, but two did escape, both rolling down his cheek. 

“I love you too buddy.” William  didn't realize how much he missed hearing that nickname, the one that he sometimes hated. 

They soon separated, knowing there wasn’t that much time left until the fight. 

“One last piece of advice, just tell her what you would want to hear. After all. The both of you are more similar than you think.”

With that William had left him behind with even more emotions, while he was left pacing, still trying to figure out what he wanted to say. 

Deciding on just to let her hear what he would want to he knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Mia shouted, from the other side of the door. 

He was greeted by the sight of Mia in her white tank top and green jeans. She was taping up her hands and preparing for the fight. 

Oliver stood there, his hands clasped together behind his back, watching her while she concentrated on her current task. 

As Oliver observed his daughter and he saw a few things. Felicity may have pointed out the ways their daughter was like him, but for him, it was almost over powered by how much of Felicity he saw in her. The confidence that she carried herself with, and how concentrated she was. He knew that gaze anywhere from many nights in the bunker and Felicity stared at the screen to try to figure out some way to decode something. 

“I know what you’re going to say.” She said that without looking up, bringing Oliver from his thoughts. 

Oliver paused a bit before speaking up. 

“It’s better if you tape between each finger, coming back down around the wrist, rather than making the ‘x’.” Mia honestly wasn’t expecting that to be what came out of his mouth. 

Oliver offered his hands to show her what he meant, Mia took it and gave her father the tape, while offering her hand, accepting his help. 

As he held her hand against his chest so he could wrap her hand and show her, they both came to the realization that this was their first time ever actually having any sort of physical contact. 

Mia didn’t know how she felt about this, the whole time staring at they way his hands moved while he taped her up, preparing her for her fight. 

“You know, I was gonna come in here and try to I don’t know, give you some inspirational speech about not needing to do this and yada yada yada.”

Mia scoffed, knowing she probably wouldn’t have responded well to those words. 

“But, I’ve come to the realization that you take after me more, and I know that in this situation, that, that is something I would not want to hear either.” Oliver finished with her right hand and started on the left one. 

Mia meanwhile was intrigued with what her father had to say. This being their first time truly interacting, and it was just the two of them together. No team or brother to fall back and rely on.

“After spending some time in Russia fighting men twice my size I learned a few tricks to help me along the way. One for example is when you see you’re opponent starting to tire out, get them to think they’ve got you right where you want them then boom. Strike them.”

“I know. I’m pretty used to fighting. Back in Star City there was a similar set up like this. I was undefeated.” He smiled at this little piece of information. Mia found it oddly comforting in the way her Dad seemed to be proud of her. It brought her a small smile to her face in response. 

“There’s also this trick that I learned in Hong Kong. It was an ancient technique that buddhists used to defend themselves. Buddhists believed in peace, but they also wanted a way to defend themselves,” Mia was intrigued by her father’s story, “There is a certain pressure point, that, applied with the correct amount of force, it renders you’re opponent in complete vertigo for about 10 seconds, which gives you the right amount of time to knock them unconscious.”

“Isn’t it like that thing from that really old space show Mom used to watch. Uhh Star Trip?”

Oliver enjoyed the sound of Mia talking about Felicity, calling her 'Mom', it brought a warm feeling to his chest.

“Star Trek. And I know what you’re talking about, and no it’s not like that. The thing on the show made them die, while this just makes them extremely dizzy and have dizzy vision.”

“So are you gonna show me, or just leave me shrouded in the dark.” Mia asked, excited and nervous. 

Oliver smiled at how much of a child she looked like in this moment and nodded, he grabbed Mia’s now taped up left hand, guiding it to the right side of his neck. 

“This point that you feel, you’ll feel a bit of a ‘gap’ you could call it. This vein leads to the brain. Do you feel the pressure I’m having you apply?” Mia nodded, making sure to pay close attention and try not to move her fingers. After all, she didn’t want to accidentally knock out her father. 

“Now just the tiniest more bit of pressure than what you are doing right now and it works. Anymore than that and…” Oliver trailed off dramatically causing Mia to get extremely nervous. 

Oliver let out a small laugh, after seeing Mia’s nervous face. 

“Anything more or less than that, and you’re just going some weird thing to his neck.” Mia let go of her father’s hands and shoved him a bit, rolling her eyes, frustrated at the joke that actually brought a small smile to her face. 

After a few beats of silence Oliver felt the need to say one more thing, something that had started when he found out that she was his daughter. 

“Listen, I know that this isn’t something you want to hear right now, but I know that it is something that needs to be said.”

Mia grew nervous, not at all used to talking to her father, let alone having heart to hearts. When she looked down at her fidgeting thumb in her hand, she noticed that her father had been doing the same thing. It was funny. Her mother always said she got that from her father. Seeing it for the first time was strange. 

“I know you don’t really know me, and that all you know about me is from stories, which is something that should have never happened." Oliver paused and looked back down at his hands before glancing back up, "We are going to do whatever it takes to fix the future,” Mia was following along, waiting for the rest of what her dad had to say, “but just know. That no matter what happens, whether we fix the future for the better or worse, or maybe even not at all. I want you to know that you are my daughter. That from the moment your mother told me she was pregnant I loved you. It doesn’t matter what you do, who you become, or even if I get to watch you grow up into this amazing badass women. I want you to know that I will always love you.” 

Mia didn’t know how to feel. Here her dad was, standing before her, a man who she previously only heard stories about. A man who for a quarter of her life, she hated. The one that she thought she didn’t even think she needed to meet. That for the rest of her life she could go without needing any sort of closure from her father. 

Turns out she was completely wrong. 

Mia didn’t know that hearing those words come from her father’s mouth was exactly what she needed to hear. That those three little words could bring on all of these emotions rolling through her body. Mia realized that the times that she hated her father, or hated him for not being with her. She wasn’t mad at him. She was jealous of the fact that she didn’t get to be with her father. 

To bond and spend time with him. For him to teach her to do normal kids stuff like ride a bike, or hold a bow and arrow. For him to tuck her in at night with her mom and convince him to read her one more story. Playing together, cooking together, teaching her how to drive. Watching him be so in love with her mom that she would be grossed out whenever she would see them kiss. 

Mia didn’t know how badly she needed her father. 

That hearing those three little words could heal her so much. That the little girl that longed to hear those words and see her father was still inside of her. The little girl that cried because she didn't have a father to hold her and tell her how much he loved her. 

Deciding on instinct,Mia, for the first time ever, tackled her father with a hug, her head resting on his chest. 

Oliver, shocked at first, quickly wrapped his hands around his daughter. He couldn’t believe it. Here he was, for the first time ever, holding his daughter, her head resting on his chest while he held her. Wrapping his arms around her, as if he could protect her from the outside dangers of the world. He didn’t know how much longer they would get, so he rest his head on his daughters, and enjoyed the moment. 

Mia was finally getting something that she had wanted to do for a really long time. Hug her father. She remembers being younger and seeing all the other little kids with their dad’s and she secretly longed for that. She had pushed it to the side as she got older, and just enjoyed having her mother. 

In those three years that they had spent coming up with this plan, she found those old feelings resurfacing at the prospect of coming face to face with her father. She found herself scared that they might run into their father. So many scenarios had run through her head in the off chance that they ran into their father. Many of them involved her screaming at him and using not so nice words. But now, here they were. Hugging. A point in time that she never thought she would get to. 

“You’ve got three minutes.” Came from the voice on the other side of the door. 

Father and daughter pulled apart, Mia heard her father sniffle a bit, as she wiped her face from the tears that had fallen. The both of them smiling. 

“I know you’re going to do good. So go out there and kick some ass.” Mia smiled at her father’s words and nodded. Now, more than ever, motivated to fight. 

“Let’s do this.”

Notes:

Thanks for reading. Keep the comments coming I love them. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you until next time.

Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Summary:

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEE!

Notes:

Sorry for the slow update I got caught up with school. Also, so how bout that finale...I already have my set idea of how I want this to end so sorry if it isn't strict canon to the show.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

To say that the team was on the edge of their seats would have been an understatement. After Oliver had finished having that heart to heart with Mia, he came back to the box where the team was. All of them ready to witness Mia fighting. Including Felicity who hacked one of the cameras inside the joint to witness her daughter from the future fight. 

“Did everything go okay?” William had asked, as his dad took a seat next to him. 

Oliver nodded, smiling at the tender moment he had with Mia. 

“Yeah, we’re both going to be okay.” Father and son both smiled at each other. 

“How’s Strickler been.” He said, nodding towards where Strickler was currently sitting on a throne looking chair. Two goons on either side of him. 

“Other than smiling to himself and telling his goons to make sure everyone of his usuals places a bet. Nothing.” 

Oliver was growing a little nervous as the fight got closer and closer. 

“So, who trained Mia?” The both of them were observing the current fight between two meat heads that seemed to be equally matched. 

“Nyssa.” William replied. Will remembers that had been one of his questions that he asked his sister. He was confused how she managed to fight like their father, yet she had never met him. That was when she told him about Nyssa. 

How Nyssa became Auntie Nys.

“She told me that Felicity wanted her to be able to not only defend herself but to be able to fight. That from the moment she could talk and walk Nyssa had started her training. Essentially becoming like an aunt to her.” Oliver was shocked at first, but then he decided it did make sense.

Felicity wanting their daughter to be like him. Wanting her to defend and fight for herself in a world where she was born a crime. Knowing that at any moment the people responsible for Oliver’s death and the horrible future, could show up and take their daughter away. 

Oliver was glad that Nyssa was there for his wife in their time of need. William mentioning the word Aunt made him ask a question that had been nagging him at the back of his brain.

“Another thing, Thea, what happens?” Oliver was looking down at his clasped hands. His thumb moving anxiously along the outside of his hand. 

“She’s alive,” Oliver’s head looked up, those two words made him so relieved. William was nodding his head at his father, “she was safe in Europe when Star City fell. When you,” William had to pause, swallowing the lump in his throat, “died, Aunt Thea was there for Felicity for a bit, before Felicity asked Aunt Thea to keep tabs on me.” Oliver saw William smiling at his memories with his Aunt. He was more than happy that his sister was there for his son, a time where he couldn’t be there for him. 

“Every year on my birthday, your birthday, and her birthday she would visit. Checking in to make sure I was doing okay. When I went back to Star City and was there for a year, she came and stayed. She helped out the City a lot, in more ways than just fighting.” Oliver couldn’t be more relieved at the information William was giving him. 

Will knew that his dad found all this information important and good. He knew that when they had time he would have to tell his dad the important thing. Will looked down at his hands and took a deep breath.

“Listen Dad, there’s something I’ve got to tell you,”

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” William was interrupted by the announcer broadcasting the upcoming fight.

“What?” Oliver questioned, looking at his son with so much curiosity in his face. William knew that this could wait, that now was not the time to talk about this. They would have plenty of time later. 

“I’ll tell you later.” William commented, both of them turning back towards the fight. 

“WE HAVE ONE OF THE MOST EXHILIARATING, THE MOST HAIR-RAISING AND MIND-BLOWING FIGHTS OF THE YEAR!” The announcer was hyping the crowd up, making the stakes seem even higher. 

“IN THE GREEN CORNER WE HAVE THE TINY, FEROCIOUS BLACKSTAR!” 

“Why Blackstar?” Dinah questioned.

“Something Felicity used to tell her.” William responded, smiling. 

They all watched as Mia walked out, more than ready to fight the so called “Bear”. The people surrounding the cage were booing her so loud. Oliver grew anxious as he heard a few comments that did not sit well with him. He was glad he was up here and not down there or else there would be other fights breaking out. 

“AND IN THE BROWN CORNER WE HAVE THE RETURNING CHAMPION. THE SKULL CRUSHING, THE GUT TWISTING, THE BEAR!” 

Out walked this large brute of a man. He easily towered over Mia, standing well over 6 feet. With his long beard, huge muscular arms, and legs, at least they knew why they called him ‘The Bear’. With him only wearing a tank top they could see that he was covered in tattoos. Some that Oliver recognized as Russian mob tattoos. 

“Oh, I really hope she was trained to fight Hulk.” Rene added sarcastically. 

Oliver gave him pointed look, not needing the fact at how unevenly matched they were, pointed out. Oliver still believed in his daughter, he knew that she could do it, that she could beat him. 

“Well, I’ve seen her take down ten heavily built members of Galaxy One while drugged up,” Everyone gave William a pointed glance, realizing what he said, William nodded his head, “story for another day.”

All their gazes turned back to the cage where Mia was currently. 

“I WANT A DIRTY FIGHT. ANYTHING GOES EXCEPT WEAPONS!” The crowd cheered even harder, with avid watchers banging their hands against the cage that separated them and the fighters. 

“LET THE MATCH BEGIN!” Just like that a loud buzzer sounded. This was now or never. 


 Mia knew that she had to get the first hit in to discombobulate The Bear. She had to get the upper hand if she wanted to win this fight. With that Mia faked a punch to his face and hit him where the sun don’t shine. She could hear the crowd groan in response to the hit. 

Too bad it didn’t really affect him, and he went for Mia head on. 

The both of them started to exchange fists each of them blocking the others punch while landing the occasional punch. 

At one point Mia had The Bear up against the fence, throwing punch after punch, kick after kick into his large body, then the roles were reversed with Mia’s body pressed up against the fence. 

Mia learned how to take a punch, after fighting men that were twice her size, and twice her muscle, it was a necessity. Another trick that she had learned was the sensitive areas of the human body. Places where no matter how big her opponent was, she knew it would hurt them hard. 

Mia quickly avoided a kick to her gut and got behind him, jumping and climbing so that her legs wrapped around his neck like a snake. Cutting of his oxygen supply. Mia pounded her fists against the sensitive parts of his head and sides. 

Too bad The Bear thought of a way out. He slammed his body down onto the ground, also knocking Mia onto the ground. The back of Mia’s head made a deep konk as it hit the cement floor, not only Mia, but the rest of the team winced when it happened. 

Mia lay there cradling her head, The Bear found his opportunity and trapped Mia’s body under his. She brought up her arms to defend herself as he attempted to land punch after punch on her body. 

Oliver was gripping his clasped hands so hard, wanting nothing more than to go down there and beat the man himself. To bring his daughter in for another hug. The rest of the team was feeling like they wanted to help fight as well. 

Oliver brought his hands up to his face, as they covered his mouth, he kept whispering,

“Come on. Come on.” Oliver knew that Mia could do it. That she would find the opening she needed. He knew that she could do it. 

Mia saw no end in sight, she knew that she had to make a decision, and make it fast. 

The Bear landed a punch that knocked Mia to near unconscious. Her head shook back and forth slowly on the ground attempting to find someway to bring herself out of it. 

The crowd had grown louder and louder as The Bear had Mia nearly beaten. The crowd’s yelling and the ringing in her hears was almost making it impossible for her to hear. Mia could feel the blood from her forehead drip down her cheek, she could taste the blood in her mouth. 

The Bear saw her head stop swaying on the floor, and he assumed that he had won. His smile turned dark. He stood up from where he had been sitting and brought his arms above his head in victory. The crowd cheered as their beloved champion remained undefeated. 

The team felt shock course through their mind and bodies, they could feel Strickler’s smile on the back of their heads. 

They lost. 

That was the window of opportunity that Mia needed. 

She quickly kicked herself off the floor and tapped The Bear on the shoulder, the surprise on his face was priceless as she brought a bone crushing punch to his face. After he was in nothing but shock, Mia brought her hand up, and just like her father showed her, applied pressure. 

Silenced echoed throughout the entire underground ring as The Bear’s massive body hit the ground with an echoing thump. Mia wore a huge smug grin on her face, knowing that she had won. 

“Yeah!” William screamed jumping to his feet, he looked around realizing how over excited he got and cleared his throat, trying to contain his giddiness. He sat back down smiling towards his father. 

Then the crowd seemed to erupt in a mix of pure anger and accusing her of cheating to those cheering her on, claiming her as their new champion.  

Mia’s smile, ever present on her face, she brought her hands up in victory, happy  that her fighting allowed them their opportunity to save the future. 

As she glanced up towards the box where the team, father, and brother were sitting she pointed up and smiled towards them. Telling them that this was for them. For their family. 

Oliver started laughing and smiling, this point he felt like joining William in standing, cheering, and clapping for Mia. The rest of the team were all wearing big smiles. 

Oliver could hear his wife in his ear cheering for them,

“Whoo-hoo. There we go that’s our daughter Oliver, her and her total bad assness. She gets that from the both of us.”

The team cheered and clapped on as the rest of the angry crowd followed suit. For once, Oliver thought, things might be looking up.

“Well Strickler, I believe that is a win for us, so, you owe us some information.” William said smugly. 

The team turned back to where Strickler was sitting, his face wearing a dejected look, knowing he was backed into a corner and had lost. With that Strickler nodded and stood up, indicating to the team to follow him.

Notes:

Thank you for reading. This was my first time writing a fight scene, sorry if it doesn't flow. I love the comments and please keep them coming.

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Summary:

In this chapter we find out what information Strickler has for the team.

Notes:

SORRY, for the slow update and short chapter I've been busy with school, but tomorrow I will post another chapter that is longer than this one.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

They followed him back to his office where they would get the information they needed. The whole team on high alert in case Strickler tried to double cross them. 

Mia walked into the office where the team was currently waiting for Strickler to come back from resolving a certain situation with The Bear.

“So how did you think I did?” Mia questioned sarcastically, her smile spreading across her face. 

Will turned to his sister, overjoyed at her winning. He had no doubt. He started laughing and smiling at her, before wrapping up his little sister into a hug. Oliver stood to the side with a matching smile, enjoying watching his children hug. The moment lasted for a few more seconds before they pulled apart. 

“Well you know I did place a small bet against you.” Will added sarcastically. 

Mia chuckled a bit at his attempt of a joke, and shoved her brother. 

“Those were some moves Blackstar.” Dinah stated proudly. 

“Yeah girl, that bear stood no chance.” Rene added on. 

Mia felt a little uncomfortable, still not used to the feeling of receiving compliments. But it still felt good none the less. 

“Yeah, I know. I kicked his ass.” Mia was still running on the adrenaline from the fight. She almost forgot how good it felt to win fights. After they had sent their plan in motion, she had a couple months without fighting. Needing to lay low. 

As if unconsciously, she turned towards her father, wanting to see his reaction. He was genuinely smiling at her.

Oliver, meanwhile, couldn’t be more proud in this moment, he also couldn’t be more relieved that his daughter made it out of the fight alive. Getting a better look at her after she got all cleaned up from the fight he could see a small cut on her lip, and a band-aid on her forehead doing nothing to help the cut on her forehead. He made a mental note to fix that once they got back to the bunker. 

Oliver opened his mouth to tell her how good she did and how proud he was but was interrupted by Strickler walking into the office.

“Well that was some fight.” He sauntered over to his desk and sat down in the chair, “Now normally this is the part where I double cross you and you all die, but considering that would be a bit suspicious with the Green Arrow and his buddies go missing, I’m actually going to follow through.” Strickler was wearing the smile proudly, trying to hold back the urge to laugh at the joke, that only he thought was funny.

The team remained standing and silent as Strickler brought out a key to open up his desk. As he unlocked the drawer, out came a tablet, cellphone, and a thin looking manilla folder. 

“The Ninth Circle has a lot of connections. A while back I needed assistance setting up some accounts. So I contacted them, knowing they had the best people and they brought in this guy. His name is Troy Nolan.” Strickler dropped a file onto the table, presenting it to the team. Diggle scooped it up, besides the single sheet of paper in the folder, there was a photograph of a young whiter guy, probably mid-20s with some round glasses and blonde hair. 

How the hell was this guy in the Ninth Circle, Diggle thought. Pushing the photo aside, he began to read the single piece of paper that was in the folder.

“It says here he went to Cal Tech and was expelled after he hacked a bunch of bank accounts belonging to rich kids and transferred the money to his account. It was all covered up by the school because they didn’t want this to leak, and he’s been off the grid ever since.” They looked back to Strickler, needing further explanation. 

“Yes, but in reality he was recruited by The Ninth Circle for his ‘particular set of skills’, anyway he’s in charge of all their tech stuff and most of the accounts.”

“How is he your inside guy?” Dinah questioned, wanting to get straight to the point.

“Well my connection to the Ninth Circle is for every ‘soldier’ so to speak that I provide them with, they provide additional funding to my personal bank account. But they only want the best. So one day a few years back this guy tells me 'bout that Nolan guy, so, I get him here, charm him, and next thing you know he’s the head of the whole fricken department at the Ninth Circle. They were ever so grateful for him that they upped my salary.” Strickler paused, wanting to let the story sink in, he was feeling overwhelmingly smug.

“Okay, but we are going to need information.” Will added.

“Alright, alright, jeez. Okay. About three months back they cut all ties with me saying 'thanks for the help but we don't need you anymore' which of course pissed me off. So that is one of my reasons as to why I am so willingly letting you threaten me."

Mia rolled her eyes, and huffed out a sigh. Just when they thought they were so close to getting some sort of lead, it either goes cold or leads to a dead end. She was starting to think that the universe purposefully wanted to make her life difficult,

“Calm down sweetheart. There is a silver lining.” He threw her a greasy flirtatious smile, Mia was pretty sure she threw up a little in her mouth. 

Oliver stepped in between her and Strickler, blocking him from looking at her. 

“Okay papa bear, the plus side is that those devices are the only means of contacting the Ninth Circle. The tablet is . But here’s the thing.”

“Strickler can you just get to the point we don’t need another drawn out story.” Dinah retorted. If Will didn’t know how intense the situation was currently, he’s pretty sure he would have laughed out loud from the look on Strickler’s face. 

“Nolan was grateful that I got him that job so he hooked up that phone as a direct link to him.”

Just like that Mia and the rest of the team had hope again.

“If Strickler is telling the truth, then Will and I can come up with an algorithm to back trace his current location so that he doesn’t detect this threat. Then when he is alone BAM! We grab him.” Felicity exclaimed through the comms. Excited at this new lead that they were chasing. Will, meanwhile was trying to contain his giddiness as they got closer and closer to their end goal. 

"Also. That tablet, contains almost all of The Ninth's Circle's key players, and some soldiers I sent their way." If it was even possible Strickler was smiling even wider. 

"Why?" Oliver was so confused, usually criminals weren't this forth coming with information. Strickler faced Oliver, smiling.

"It's like I said, they cut me off, so now I think a little pay back is in order."

Will and Mia both looked at each other, knowing how the other person was feeling right now, with that they both let a small smile cross their faces. Overjoyed that they were getting closer to fixing their piece of flaming shit future. 

“Now normally when a fighter wins I prefer to share a drink, but considering what I just handed you, I need you all to get the hell out of my place.” With that the team journeyed back to the bunker. 

Notes:

THANK YOU! for reading. please keep the comments coming.

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Summary:

Some talking occurs between parents and kids.

Notes:

WAIT!!!! So there's a scene in here that I know it doesn't follow canon but it is a wonderful scene so just ignore it.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It had been a long night for the team, after Felicity reassured them that the algorithm would take anywhere from a couple hours to two days, even with the help of William. The rest of the team headed home. All of them wanting to do nothing more than crawl into their beds and sleep.  

Will had got a second burst of energy when Felicity presented him with coffee, he was going to need it with the rest of the night ahead of them. 

Mia was currently taking off her taped up hands, the adrenaline finally wearing off, making her aware just how tired she was. As Oliver watched her, he noticed that the band-aid from earlier was falling off, dry blood was on her forehead from the fight. 

“Come here.” Oliver motioned for her to follow him. 

After their talk Mia felt better and more secure with her Dad. Dad. She couldn’t bring herself to say those words out loud. But even just thinking them was a big step for Mia. Sure she still had a few issues after not growing up with a father, but she knew she could trust him. She knew that he loves her. 

Oliver lead her to their medical area and pointed her to the bench for her to sit down. Mia followed suit and watched as her Dad rummaged through the cart for stuff to fix up the gash on her forehead.

Mia couldn’t help but notice that all the things her Mom told her about her Dad. The good things, how similar she and him were, that these things were true. She knew that her Dad had done some bad things, made some bad choices. But seeing him in real life and not an unmoving photo, she could tell there was more to him. 

Mia smiled, funny how here she was pointing out the things that he’s done and his good heart, and Will has been telling her the same things about her. Will and Dad were much more similar than she gave credit for. 

Oliver turned and set the stuff to the side, reaching his hands towards the band-aid, Mia was watching his every move, whether out of intrigue or caution, he didn’t know. 

They were both rooted in silence. Both of them unsure what to say or do in this situation. After all, so far in none of the parenting books Oliver read, none of them had a chapter on ‘Meeting you’re grown up daughter from the future: What to say.’ The silence was growing a bit awkward.

“So, uh, if you don’t mind, how old are you?” Oliver blurted out, wondering why this was the first thing to come out of his mouth. 

Mia could tell her Dad was nervous, so was she, but she smiled at his question.

All her life Mia had wanted to meet her father and get to know him, vice versa, Mia knew that Will told her to enjoy and treasure these moments, because after this they didn’t know what was going to happen to them. They both chose not to think of that road when it came to. Will telling her to just enjoy the moments and not hold onto her anger. 

So that’s what she was going to do.

“I’m 24,” Oliver couldn’t help but be awestruck at this news. If she was 24, then William. Seeing the wheels turning in her Dad’s head she gave him a break, “Will is 37.”

“That makes him older than both Felicity and I,” Oliver noted, trying to contain his shock. 

“Yeah, but you’re still his parents so if you, you know wanted to ground him you could.” He couldn’t contain the laugh that escaped his mouth, his smile matching Mia’s. 

Oliver brought the alcoholic wipe up to his daughter’s forehead, beginning to clean up the dry blood. Mia initially winced at the stinging of the wipe on her cut. 

“Sorry,”

“It’s alright.”

“So, what was life like before, you know.” Oliver decided to get straight to the hard stuff. Wanting to know what happened and how bad things got.

Besides Will and Connor, Mia had never told anyone what life was really like. Sure she had her Mom, but they had both lived through it so she found it wasn’t necessary to bring up the past. As Mia met her Dad’s eyes she could see he wasn’t asking out of necessity or guilt, but he just, wanted to know. He wanted her to talk to him. Mia was going to take the leap.

“Well, it was really just Mom and I. We were really close, we had to rely and lean on each other a lot,” Mia was smiling, reminiscing on her old memories with her Mom.

“Mom couldn’t cook, so early on I learned how to cook out of pure will to live and not eat Kraft Mac ’N’ Cheese or burnt chicken my whole life.” The father and daughter both laughed at that. 

“Well, your Mom may be a beautiful genius that can hack into almost any satellite, but she can’t seem to figure out how not to burn toast.” Mia and Oliver both laughed at that fact. Oliver brought a gentle hand up to his daughter’s chin, delicately guiding it so he could finish cleaning up the dried blood on her face. It’s funny how hands that have killed and hurt numerous people were being so gentle and caring right now. 

“As soon as I could walk and talk Mom wanted me to train with the best so that I would be able to handle myself. So in came Aunt Nyssa.” Oliver looked on as his daughter smiled again at her memories. 

“Sure we were secluded and needed to hide under the wire. And yes, it did get annoying as I got older. I mean Mom did say I got my stubbornness from you.” Oliver smiled at that, his eyes still watching her face as he continued to wipe the blood. 

“I mean, when I found out who you and Mom really were that was when we bumped heads and you know. Went our separate ways for a while, and yeah there were times when I thought she was just being a paranoid over bearing Mom. But now,” Mia sighed out, pausing to take a breath from all the information she was spouting, “I realize that she was just trying to protect Will and I.” Mia was looking back at all the moments she butted heads with her Mom. The times that she yelled at her Mom, claiming that she didn’t understand her, or didn’t want her to live her own life. But now, after all they went through, she knew that her Mom just wanted to keep her safe. It took Mia three years, a lot of emotional talks with her Mom, and some near death experiences to come to terms with it. 

Before those three years, and before Will showed up, Mia wouldn’t have been able to do that, and would have much rather run from her emotions, or better yet, punch them out. But, coming to terms with her emotions about well, almost everything, she found it easier. Sure there were times when she couldn’t deal with things and would resort back to her old ways, but with help she got through them. 

“Well, if there’s one thing I know about parents is that it may not seem like we are doing what’s best for you but, we are.” Oliver finished clearing up the blood on her face, the wipe full of reddish-pink tint from the blood. He turned and grabbed the prepped needle and thread, ready to stitch up her wound. 

Mia was hesitant, an unnerving feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. Mia may have been a tough as nails badass that could hold her own and take down mercenaries. But if there was one thing she didn’t like. Was needles. Sure, she was okay with knives, and needed to get stitched up every now and then, but those times were out of sheer necessity, sometimes she was even passed out when they were done. 

So here she was, the daughter of the feared and beloved Green Arrow and Overwatch, afraid of needles. 

“You know, my forehead feels fine, it’s just a little cut and you can just slap a band-aid on it.” Mia began to babble and attempted to stand up to try and escape the prospect of dealing with needles. Too bad her Dad wasn’t giving up any time soon. Oliver could sense the look on her eyes, the way her eyes bugged out when he brought out the needle. Sensing her discomfort for the situation, Oliver quickly diffused the situation. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Sit. Down.” Oliver commanded with a calm and nurturing look on his face. Mia begrudgingly followed suit. 

“Look, everyone is scared of something,”

“I’m not scared!” Mia angrily stated, she cleared her throat, realizing how he sounded. 

“I’m. Not scared.” She said more calmly. 

Oliver smiled at her stubborness, the furrow in her brow that showed her determination. She didn't like showing weakness. 

“I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying that people hate needles, I mean no one likes needles, they just deal with them,” She was nodding along with her father’s anecdote. 

“What I’m trying to say is it’s better if you have someone to help you through it.” Oliver offered up his hand for Mia to squeeze, just in case she wanted it. As she stared at it, she was hesitant in taking the open inviting hand. 

“Don’t you need to use both hands?”

“When one of your hands is broken and you’re bleeding from your side, you learn a few things.” After a few times on the island and 'abroad' he learned to suture stitches with one hand. Sure, Oliver knew it would take twice as long to suture up the wound, but it was worth it the moment Mia nodded and took his hand. Squeezing it for comfort. 

It was like all the air in his lungs whooshed out, the feel of his daughter’s small calloused hand in his big calloused one. He didn’t know if it was more comforting for her or him. 

“Alright, it also works with a distraction, so, how ‘bout I tell you the first time I let William meet The Flash.” Oliver launched into his story while Mia was adamantly paying close attention, smiling and laughing where it was needed to. By the time her Dad was halfway through the story she barely even noticed the needle. But she would never forget the feeling of holding her Dad’s hand, squeezing it when needed. 


 Will and Felicity were so similar, even if she wasn't his birth mother, but being his step-mom was good enough. In the time that they had spent together in witness protection, and after having only each other to lean on in that time of need, they became really close. After being sent away to school, he felt like he was being pushed to the side. Someone that they didn’t care about, but were forced to take care of. 

That was why when he came back home, he wanted to let all his anger out over everything that was happening to him. Cameras in their home, him lying to Felicity and his Dad about why he was really expelled, and feeling like his Dad and Felicity didn’t care about him. 

When he called his grandparents he didn’t realize the can of worms that he opened. Instead of acting like the mature kid he always was, he instead thought like an angsty teenager. Sure, living with his grandparents was fun for a while. Most of the time they would leave him alone, they would ask about school and his day, ask why he didn’t play sports. Normal grandparent stuff. Before his Mom had died his grandparents were two of the best people, but after they lost their daughter, they lost a part of themselves. But he couldn't really blame them. 

One time William made the mistake of bringing up his Dad and Felicity, he had never heard his Grandpa scream and curse as much as he did. Of course he retorted back, defending his Dad and Felicity, then spent the rest of his night locked in his room. After that he knew to never mention them again. 

It was about a month in did he start to realize that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side. William didn’t like it anymore. He missed Felicity helping him with his homework and babbling on about how he could get into MIT. He missed helping his Dad cook, while they teased Felicity about her lack of skills in the kitchen. He missed his parents. 

The first two weeks he arrived at his Grandparents house he ignored their texts and calls, only texting them that he had made it safely to his Grandparents house. 

As William got older and he received no contact from his Dad or Felicity what so ever, he just assumed that they were angry at him. Or worse, that they really didn’t care about him. So William fell into that hole of teenage angst and decided ‘screw them, I don’t need them’. He just wished he realized at 13 rather than 33 that when his Grandparents gave him the newest smartphone they made sure to block Felicity and his Dad got the wrong number. 

So after graduating high school and getting accepted into MIT, he left his whole life behind, choosing to start new, even changing his last name to his Mom’s middle name. 

Harris. 

The time he was apart from his Dad and Felicity made him realize that she really was like a Mom. Felicity could never replace his Mom, they both knew that, but she would always be his second Mom. During that first year of concocting this plan he started calling her Mom, he remembers the first time he did it Felicity had tears coming down her face and brought him into a deep, bruising hug. Which would have been fine, if they had not been in the middle of a gun fight. 

William’s thoughts soon drifted over to the dark parts. The last time that Mia and him called her Mom. Shaking those thoughts from his head, he glanced over towards her now. The younger and cheerier version of his Mom, the one who still had the possibility to raise her children together.

“So, do you wanna tell me how the future is, or was for you. Actually that would be your present.” Felicity asked, not taking her eyes off of her keyboard. Looking back to his screen he nodded towards her. 

“Well I got into MIT,” Felicity seemed so overjoyed by that. Her face left her screen to drop her jaw at that fact, “Yup, and, top of my class.”

“Well I would expect nothing less from you.”

“and, I sort of run my own business.” 

“Oh my god that is so amazing.” Felicity’s hands left her keyboard to give Will a brief and, surprising hug, the both of them smiling.

“Yeah, Harris Consolidated.” Felicity was nodding on and smiling as he spoke about the technical aspects of the company, she chimed in every now and then to ask him more technical questions. 

“But I should thank you.” He added, Felicity looked confused.

“When I decided to start up my company I received a huge anonymous donation, later on when,” William hesitated, “when the three of us were reunited I found out that it was you.” Felicity marveled at this revelation she couldn’t believe this man was little William, but at the same time, she could. 

“Well, it was my pleasure.” They were both smiling, and they went back to typing, after everything he put his parents through, Will felt like now was a perfect opportunity to deal with some emotions.

“Listen, I know I didn’t really tell you and Dad how grateful I was for everything you guys did. I mean I was a little bit of an ass.” Felicity shook her head disagreeing, but a smile present on her face. 

“But you guys did a lot, and,” He sighed, trying to process the thoughts going through his head, “thanks for everything you guys did. And thanks for being the best step-mom ever.” With all the hormones and emotions swirling through Felicity’s body she let the tears escape. Rolling her chair closer to Will’s, and closing the space between the two of them, she squeezed her son as tight as she could. For a moment Will was surprised by the sudden action, his arms stuck out before quickly settling around his Mom. 

They both enjoyed the moment, not knowing when they would get another one like this. Will and Mia knew that they had no idea what was going to happen by the end of this mission, they both had an inkling if what Nora had told them was any indicator. But they both knew that their sacrifices were for the greater good. After all their parents didn’t die for nothing. 

“So then, Barry swipes him up to take him on a run and when they come back, his butt is on fire. Barry and William are freaking out, I’m trying not to freak out, your Mom is trying to find the fire extinguisher, then Barry ends up using his hands to fan out the flames, and somehow it ends up knocking William and Barry into the boxes of packing peanuts they had.”

Felicity and Will separated at the sound of Oliver and Mia’s laughing, both of them smiling at each other.

“There were peanuts everywhere.” By this point Oliver and Mia were laughing hard at the story.  

Catching the last part of the story, William stood up to chime in, meeting them as they stood on the platform. 

“You are not telling her embarrassing stories about me to her are you?” Listen, Will was all for telling his little sister cool stories about their family and super friends, but embarrassing stories about him? Nope, it was bad enough she liked to tease him as is, now she was going to have more ammunition to fire at him with.

“Aww come on Will, don’t be like that,” Mia was smiling at her brother, “Mr. Flash.” She added teasing. Oliver and Felicity both smiled along at their children, both of them remembering the story. Meanwhile Will groaned, nodding his head up towards the ceiling before looking from his Dad, back to Mia. 

“Okay first of all! I was 11 and really really nervous okay?” Mia smirked even bigger at that, she loved teasing her big brother. 

Will crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows towards his sister,

“How would you like it if I told them the story of when you first tried to make a creme brûlée…Ow!” Mia’s face turned threatening and pinched her brother to shut him up. Felicity’s east perked up at the story.

“What happened?” She asked while smiling.

Will was smiling down at his upset sister, while he started to tell the story.

“Well for Felicity’s birthday she wanted to try and make one of her favorite desserts that you used to bake for her. I mean it was nice gesture if she had made them before. Everything was good until it came to the fire part.” Will was already smiling at the rest of the story, knowing where it was going. Meanwhile Felicity and Oliver were smiling for different reasons. 

“Okay to be fair it said a ‘blow torch,’ I mean I was just following the instructions,” Mia added, defending herself. Oliver wore a dreading smile, knowing what was coming next. 

“Too bad it meant a cooking blow torch and not an industrial one.” William was smiling and laughing remembering the events that unfolded next. He had been next to his sister, both of them wore black aprons covered in flour. He had been watching, and telling her that she was doing it wrong. The first three she had burnt, but the last one, well she turned to tell off her brother and ended up setting an oven mitt on fire, thus leading to their kitchen almost burning down. 

“Get the fire extinguisher!” Mia was yelling as she was attempting to beat out the flames.

“No! Mia, I was gonna look for a camera and capture our house burning down!” Will replied sarcastically, he had come in a minute later with the fire extinguisher and put everything out. Their desserts covered in fire foam. As the Queen siblings looked at the mess Mia had made, (because Will to this day still thought it wasn’t his fault), Will had opened his mouth to retort when Mia cut in.

“Don’t. Say it.”

“I was just going to say at least dinner isn’t ruined.” As if perfect timing, the oven dinged, indicating the three-cheese lasagna was done.

After the incident, it turned into Will comforting his sister because she just wanted her Mom to have a good birthday where she could remember their Dad. After this moment and a funny story to their Mom, they quickly laughed and joked about the situation. 

“Let’s just say we are lucky we had a fire extinguisher.” The whole family was soon smiling at the lovely memory. 

“Well you weren’t any help at all just standing there.” Will nudged his sister to shut her up.

“Hey you said and I quote ‘I’m head chef, you’re my sous chef, listen to what I have to say.’” The sibling went back and forth bantering about the situation while their parents looked on. 

Felicity and Oliver both knew how dire the situation was, knowing that not only the fate of the future was at stake, but so was their family. This. This could be their family. A future where William and Mia grew up together and have more stories spent together that involved sibling bickering and rivalry. 

Oliver looked towards Felicity, both of them wearing a knowing gaze, they knew this is the future they wanted, no, needed. 

“Okay as much as I love the bickering, in fact it brings me back to me and your Auntie Thea when we were younger. But hows the programming coming along?” Oliver questioned turning towards the computers. 

“Well thanks to William, this amount of work that would have taken well over 48 hours will now only take until 12:30 pm, tomorrow.” Will beamed at the compliment. 

“Well it does help that I know some secrets from the future that involve hacking. I mean there was also that one time when I was 13 and I hacked NSA…” William trailed off when he saw the look of shock on his parents faces, “I mean not 13. I mean that’s way too young to, to hack anything,” Oliver crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows towards his son, Felicity almost matching his stance while Mia was trying not laugh as her brother babbled on. “what I meant to say was you know that uhh I was 33, not 13, what?” Will trailed off knowing that the babbling wasn’t helping, but was relieved when instead of seeing angry faces on their faces, he saw smiling faces. 

“Anyway,” Will emphasized, clapping his hands together, “the algorithm we set up to get passed the defenses that Nolan put up is so that we can track wherever the phone goes without alerting him. After that we can hopefully come up with a plan to infiltrate the Ninth Circle and destroy them and everything that they have on A.R.C.H.E.R. Also we uploaded the files from the tablet to your main frame and since Team Arrow is working with the police, they can start cracking down on infiltrating and breaking up The Ninth Circle. I mean, we have to wait to give them all this information until we are done."

Felicity couldn’t help but see more Oliver in William, now more than ever as he stood there and came up with their plan.

“So until then I say we get some sleep and jump back into this in the morning.” Felicity added on. 

“So, where do you keep the spare blankets?” Mia questioned, the place where her and her brother had been “staying” was somewhere they didn’t want to go back to anytime soon after it was raided and the computers were destroyed. Will and Mia had both just assumed they were going to take up residence in the bunker for the rest of their mission. 

Oliver and Felicity began to immediately shake their heads. 

“No, no, no. You guys are our kids and you’ve been staying in the cold dark old lair. You guys deserve a nice warm bed.” Felicity said. They were both being drawn and persuaded with the promises of warm beds with soft blankets and pillows, instead of ratty old ones and thin worn out cots that felt like they would collapse any second. Just as they were about to retort and decline their parents, Oliver chimed in. 

“And this isn’t an offer it’s a demand. So come on get your stuff. We’ll even pick up some Big Belly Burger on the way.”

Mia and Will both looked at each other with looks of disgust,

“Actually do you think you could cook?” Mia questioned, her eyes begging.

Oliver turned and showed them a look of confusion.

“Well, after having it for the past three nights I think we would rather have something else.” Will added. 

“Sure, we have a lot of leftover chili from last night.” Their mouth’s began to water just at the thought of their Dad’s famous chili, seeing their looks Oliver smiled.

“Well get your things. Let’s go.” With that the Queen family was out the door and on their way to what they called ‘home’.

Notes:

Thanks for reading! Please keep the comments coming, the next update will be Monday.

Chapter 11: Chapter 11

Summary:

Some fluff dinner and more fluff.

Notes:

Enjoy the chapter, sorry I didn't update yesterday. I will probably update at the end of this week or beginning of next week, I've just been busy with school.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Felicity opened the door and the rest of them followed through the doorway. Mia and Will each carrying a duffle bag. 

Mia was glancing around the loft, getting the feel around for how her parents lived. Will on the other hand was suddenly taken back to the last time he was here. The emotions that were rolling through his 13 year old body, all the things he was going through, and all the things he wanted to tell his parents, but didn’t feel like he could. The place where he almost died had it not been for that glass bottle. 

But this was also the home that he missed so much. The one that he thought back to for happy memories with his Dad and Mom. 

“Well, William your old bedroom is still how you left it well, past you left it, and uh Mia there’s the guest room.” Felicity pointed out, she wanted to make her kids as comfortable as possible. They have been through a lot. 

“I’ll just. Warm up the chili. Let you guys know when it’s ready.” Oliver muttered, he knew that their kids needed their own space for a bit. To destress and take in everything that they had been dealing with the past couple days. 

Mia started following Will, where he had been dragging himself to his childhood bedroom. 

“Whoah, whoah, whoah.” Will interjected, stopping his sister, “Your room is that way.” He emphasized by pointing towards the other side of the loft.

“Oh, I know that, but seeing teenaged William’s bedroom is too perfect of an opportunity to pass up.”

“You mean too perfect of an opportunity for you to make fun of me.”

“Oh well, there’s that.” Mia was smiling up at her brother knowing she had him right where she wanted him. Others would have thought from the amount of teasing Mia put her brother through that she hated him. It was in fact the opposite. Since they didn’t get to grow up together and have lots of more shared memories together Mia felt that they had time to make up for. Despite Mia pulling her resources from old movies and television shows, she knew that siblings made fun of each other, but they loved each other. It just so happened that this dynamic fitted their personalities. 

Plus from the amount of embarrassing photos and stories her Mom told Will, he had more than enough information to tease back, he was just choosy of when he told to use them. 

“I’m really gonna regret this,” He muttered, “alright. But! Don’t touch anything unless I say so. It is still my stuff.”

“Whatever you say.” She wore a smile on her face knowing she got him. They walked into the room leaving their parents in the kitchen to talk. 

Felicity watched as her husband was fiddling with the spoon that was stirring the chili, his body radiating nervous energy. She brought her body up to the counter beside the stove, now was the perfect time to talk. 

“So, how are you dealing with everything so far?” He put the chili on a low simmer and put a lid on it. Walking towards his wife, finding comfort in holding both of her hands in his.

“Well, I’m doing a little better. I mean. It is a bit hard wrapping around my head around this, but this is our reality. I mean,” Oliver smiled off distantly, remembering the moment he shared with his daughter. “I got to talk to our daughter face to face. I got to see how much like us she is, and. She’s the perfect combination of the two of us.” She was smiling as her husband went on. Glad that this situation wasn’t all bad. 

“She has so much of our fight in her. She’s also as stubborn as me. When I talked to her before her fight, and and, getting to hold her. Especially since.” Oliver took in a shaky deep breath and looked down to the floor, so many emotions coursing through his body, his mind replaying the past days events. Suddenly he felt his wife’s gentle and caring fingers under his chin, she brought up his head to meet hers. His eyes were full of emotion and tears, Felicity’s eyes showing nothing but comfort, silently telling him to go on. 

“Especially since I might not get that choice. But the feeling of holding our daughter, getting to hug her and, and tell her how much I love her. It couldn’t have been any better.” Felicity’s tears began to run down her cheeks, both of them containing too many emotions. She smiled and cradled her husbands head, their foreheads touching before their lips met in a sweet brief embrace. 

“Well,” she breathed out, “while on the subject of heart to hearts, I got to have one with William.”

“Sam did a good job of raising William, and so are we. I mean, seeing him all grown up and, from what this William says, after only being around you for the time that you guys had, he is so much like you.” Oliver added.

“I mean, he is CEO of his own company.”

“Really?” Oliver knew his son would amount to great things in no matter what he wanted to be. 

“Yeah, I mean at least he can run a company, and not just into the ground,” Felicity quipped towards Oliver, his eyebrows raising at her comment. 

“Oh yeah? Well I mean I was a little busy trying to save the city.” He wrapped his arms around her waist while she brought hers up around his neck, their faces inches apart. 

“Really? I must have missed that being demoted to a PA.” Just like that the two of them were smiling, reminiscing about the old days. Oh how far they had come. They both leaned in to close the remaining space between the two of them. 


Mia and Will dropped their bags on the floor of his old room, the bags emitting a loud thud. 

“Wow, so this is what little 13-year-old William was up to.” Mia took in his simple bed and dresser, the decorations of sports balls on the wall. Mia walked over to his waist height dresser to look closer at the framed pictures. There were a total of five. 

“That was my first science fair when I came to this new school, not to brag but I got first place.” She could tell without looking at him he was smugly smiling. 

“So then where is it?” Will pointed towards his 5-shelf bookcase, the trophy sat on the top of the bookcase, not even on the shelf. 

“That next one was of Dad, Felicity, and I at their wedding reception. Aunt Thea let me have a sip of champagne.”

“Well aren’t you a little rebel.” Mia replied sarcastically.

“Ha-ha, I was the complete opposite, it was just for the toast.” Will pointed to the next frame, it showed their Dad standing behind William as he guided his arms to the right position, William was holding his Dad’s quiver and arrow.

“That was my first time holding a bow and arrow. It was a father son day.” Mia smiled at how William had so many fond memories when he was a kid. 

There was another photo of him and Felicity, the same one their Dad took with him to prison and stared at for 6 months.

Mia picked up the last photo, seeing the majestic silver frame, in it was a black and white photo with a woman and on her hip was what she assumed, William as a toddler. 

She turned to see his brothers face, his smile looking back fondly. 

“This is your Mom.” Will nodded and they were both looking at the photo now, smiling.   

“She was one of the strongest and nicest people ever. She may have been a single Mom who worked her ass off, but somehow she always made time for me. Enough to where I didn’t even notice when she was gone.” William was looking back fondly at his happy memories with his Mom.

“I remember when she signed me up for soccer when I was 6, and she was there at every game. Cheering me on.” Mia set the frame back down where it was.

“Well she sounded like an amazing Mom,” Mia brought her hand up to her brother’s shoulder, squeezing it in comfort. 

Will was overwhelmed with emotions, he took in a deep shuddering breath, a tear rolling down his cheek. 

“She was.” Will knew that no matter how old he was or wherever he went, he would always remember and miss his Mom, and he was okay with that. As Will got older, he learned to cope with the grief, learning how to mourn and move on at the same time. 

Mia brought her brother in for a warm comforting hug. They enjoyed the sweet rare moment before they pulled away. 

“Well, I hate to be a downer, but we have to talk about what happens when we destroy A.R.C.H.E.R.”

Mia nodded and took a seat on Will’s bed, her brother following suit. 

“Well, after talking to Aunt Sara and Uncle Barry once we destroy A.R.C.H.E.R. then the timeline will fix itself.” Even as she was saying it out loud, Mia still didn’t want to think about what was going to happen once it happened. 

“I know. It’s all scary, but we both knew what was going to happen when we signed up for this.” Mia was staring at the photo of her brother and her Mom, more emotions being brought up. 

“I miss her so much.”

“I know.”

“It isn’t fair.” Mia managed to keep the tears at bay as she focused on her anger. 

“I know. I know how much you miss them, especially Connor and Mom. But they sacrificed themselves so that we could survive and save the future.”

“Doesn’t make anything easier.” 

“I know.” She rest her head on her brother’s shoulder, the both of them were drained for the day. When Mia met Connor, and after he was able to get through her walls. She secretly hoped that maybe one day they would have a strong love like her parents did. During those three years when they were underground, they somehow managed to fix themselves and they were together. 

Then he had to be a stupid jerk and sacrifice himself to save her. They had to sneak in to one of Galaxy One’s hideouts to steal information off of their computers. She put the thumbdrive in the computer so Will could hack it while her and Connor set up bombs around the place. They were so close to getting out Connor had told her how he had a really good date planned. Then they got caught, she had ended up with a bullet in her shoulder, and Connor gave her one last bruising and passionate kiss while yelling at her to run. The idiot stayed behind so she could escape. She made it out of the building and was waiting for him to come out, just to watch the building go up in flames. Mia had held up hope that he made it out of the building and was going to make a dramatic entrance with some ridiculous line like ‘miss me?.’ But he never did make it back. 

If it hadn’t been for her Mom and William she would have completely fell apart. They had become her rock. 

As if on cue, their stomach’s grumbled, they had been so busy that they had forgot how hungry they were. The two of them laughed at how loud their stomachs were. 

“Come one, let’s go see if Dad’s chili is done.” The two of them stood up and walked out of Will’s room, their minds focused on food.

Notes:

Thank you, please keep the comments coming, I love them.

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Summary:

We have a nice family dinner served with some angst but a side helping of comfort.

Notes:

Okay look...I know I know. It has been a long time. No excuse that seems fitting but basically life caught up. I didn't have any ideas or inspiration to finish. But now with everything going on I knew I needed to finish this. So. Hope you enjoy.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Mia knew that growing up without a father sucked. But she knew that it sucked even more for her Mom. Her Mom who grew up without a father too and was raised by a single Mom. A woman who struggled with love and finally found the one person that was her soulmate. They enjoyed a few years of blissful happiness only for him to be taken away from her. 

Mia remembers every year on their wedding anniversary her Mom wouldn’t be able to make it out of bed. When she was younger, her Mom would just tell her stories about her Dad, but as she got older, Mia knew that her Mom just needed the day for herself. 

During the past three years their Mom found it easier to talk about the more cheerful moments and would talk about how in love they were. Will would even add in the few times he would walk in on them kissing and would cringe. 

Sometimes Mia would find herself wishing to be able to see how in love her parents actually were with her own eyes. 

With that being said it didn’t mean she wanted to walk in on her parents basically making out on the kitchen counter. 

“Oh my god,” Mia and Will groaned at the same time, their eyes avoiding their parents. Oliver and Felicity jumped apart at the sound of their kids interrupting them. One of the joys of parenthood, not having any privacy. 

“Really, I almost lost my appetite.” Will complained.

“Well, then more chili for us and your sister.” Oliver responded. Felicity came down from the counter and started to get the bowls out of the cupboard.

“I said almost.” Will walked towards the kitchen, opened the pot, and took a deep inhale,

“Smells as good as I remember,” Oliver smiled at his son, happy that he was happy. 

“Well I need my sous chef to taste it, see if it needs anything added,” Oliver finished with handing William a spoon. When he was first trying to bond with his Dad, he found cooking to be one of the easier ways to bond together. Despite not having all the skills, his Dad would always have him try whatever they were having for dinner before it was served. Will couldn't help but stare at the spoon in his father’s hand, taken back to the last time he got to do this with his Dad. 

He gladly took the spoon and dipped it into the chili pot, tasting and taking in all the delicious flavors. 

“Mmmm. I’m not sure if this is the fact that I haven’t eaten all day or how much I’ve missed your chili, but I say it’s perfect,” Father and son looked into each other’s eyes, smiling, Will was glad to have this moment with his Dad. He could see Mia in the corner of his eye, standing there, and so unsure of herself. The only times when Mia wasn’t confident was when feelings were involved.

“But,” Will added, “I think I might need a second opinion.” Will took the second spoon by the pot and turned towards his sister, holding it out for her to take.

“Me?” Mia pointed towards herself in disbelief.

“Yeah, I mean, you do have a better pallet than me.” Mia looked at Will, before looking at her Dad, it hurt Oliver to see how unsure of herself Mia was, but it quickly fell away when she saw the warm inviting smile on her Dad’s face. 

Mia walked over to the pot, taking the spoon from Will’s hand, dipping it in and slowly bringing the hot chili towards her mouth. She had to keep back the moans that threatened to spill out. Mia had never tried to cook chili before, but she was an ‘amateur’ chef, so she knew when dishes tasted good or not, and this, well. It was one of the best things she ever tasted.  

The rest of her family was watching her with smiles on their faces and fascination. Mia thought about it for a few seconds before speaking up,

“It just needs a hint of pepper.” Oliver turned and grabbed the pepper, she was expecting him to add it in himself, but instead he held it out for her to take.

“Well, I think Will just got knocked down from sous chef.” Oliver made Will and Mia smile at his sarcastic comment.

“Hey,” Will whined.

Mia found herself on cloud 9, almost pinching herself at how unreal this was. Taking the pepper, she added it in before letting her Dad take a taste.

“Mmm. Perfect. Nice work.” She was basking in the compliment and praise her Dad gave her, never wanting it to end. She missed out on a lot, so she was taking every chance she got. 

Will helped Felicity finish setting the table while Oliver and Mia served the bowls, soon they were all taking their seats to have their first ever family dinner. Will and Mia sat opposite to their parents at the wooden table. 

The first few minutes consisted of nothing but eating. Will and Mia were stuffing their faces, because they were so hungry while Oliver and Felicity just took in to watching their kids, savagely eat, smiling at how much they resembled toddlers a bit. 

It soon dawned on Felicity at the fact that this was their first family dinner, for either of them. That the two siblings in the future would only have dinners with her and not their Dad. 

“Mom you okay?” With Mia asking her that sent her over the edge. 

“Yeah I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be fine, I mean it’s not like this is our first family dinner together. I mean you do, or did with me in the future, but. Yeah.” Felicity managed to keep the tears at bay, watching as her kids sent her weird looks. Pausing to calm herself down. 

“What I am trying to say is that this is nice, considering the circumstances. I mean when all this is over it will be nice for you guys to have the memories of all the family dinners.” Oliver and Felicity were too caught up in the happiness of the situation to notice the worried look Mia and William briefly shared. 

“Yeah. It’s gonna be amazing.” There was no indication that their parents could hear the nervousness in their voices. 

“Well umm, would you like to tell us some more stories?” Felicity attempted to break the thick sense of awkwardness in the air by attempting to strike up some type of conversation. 

“Well there is only so much we can tell you without injuring our timeline,” Mia uttered between bites of chili. Will nodded along, his mouth and his brain so focused on how good his Dad’s cooking was. The warm chili bringing him back and reminding him of how much he missed home. 

“Spoilers.”

“Spoilers.”

Felicity and Will both added at the same time, smiling deeply at each other, understanding the pop culture reference. During their time in witness protection Felicity had introduced him to her favorite show. Doctor Who. At first it had been hard to watch, with Will being unenthusiastic about anything that first month they were in witness protection. But soon after, the show became a comfort for the both of them. Something that they could watch at the end of the day when they didn’t want to think about Oliver being stuck in a tiny cell. 

Mia sent her father a confused look before he mouthed back to her ‘Doctor Who’ and she nodded in understanding. Her mother had tried to introduce her to the show, but she found herself asking too many logical questions. But on the bright side she did seem to take well to Star Wars. 

“Well I can tell you about the time when your father and I met.” As Felicity launched into her story, Will and Mia paid close attention, smiling and laughing at the right parts. Their Dad interjecting at some points in the story to comment and add on. 

“Alright you know what, at the time I thought they sounded like valid excuses.” Oliver couldn’t help but smile at their story, their kids wore smiles that couldn’t seem to be wiped off, their bowls of chili empty since they finished all their food.

“Oh so the so called hangover cure in a syringe seemed like a valid excuse,” Felicity threw Oliver one of her ‘matter of fact’ faces.

Oliver did that breathy smile chuckle that he did, Will and Mia couldn’t help but smile at their parent’s antics, enjoying the family bonding time. 

“Okay to be fair I was injected with Vertigo and was attempting to fight off the side affects.”

“and the Arrows that you wanted to order for your so called friend for his birthday.”

The three of them watched Oliver’s reaction as he sat with a contemplative look on his face. 

“Yeah you’re right.”

“Thank you,” the two of them lifted their wine glasses and clinked them together to cheers. 

“But technically that wasn’t the first time that I saw your mother.” Will and Mia threw their Dad a confused look while Felicity smiled, knowing what story he was talking about.

“Explain, please,” even Will didn’t know what his Dad was talking about. 

“Well the first time I actually saw your mother I had been on my third missing year and on a mission for Amanda Waller, former boss of A.R.G.U.S, I had to break into our family’s former company, Queen Consolidated and steal information off a computer. Well I heard someone coming so I had to hide,” Oliver smiled at his wife as he told the rest of his story, remembering the joy she brought to his miserable face.

“then this gorgeous woman in glasses and heels walks into the office and drops files onto the desk. That’s when she starts talking to a photo on the desk.” He looked towards Felicity and smiled towards her.

“It was a photo of your father when he was a teenager which by the way, can we say poster boy for looking like a serial killer?” Felicity quipped at her husband. 

“Oh okay but what did you call me,” Oliver teased towards his wife. 

Felicity quietly mumbled something under her breath. 

“I’m sorry what was that?”

“I said, and I quote ‘you’re cute, too bad you’re you know…dead’” Their Mom’s comment sent Will and Mia over the edge, laughter escaping their mouths. They’ve heard a lot of their Mom’s slew of widely outrageous and funny babbles. This had been one of the things they missed most from their Mom, her babbles that seemed to brighten a serious situation. The one’s that could bring a smile to their faces. After listening to the story and knowing what she said to their Dad’s photograph had them reminiscing on one of the things they missed most. 

“Well that and her whole ‘I need to stop talking to myself’ got me to truly smile. Something I found myself unable to do in those dark times.” 

Will and Mia couldn’t help but be happy at how their parents looked at each other, with so much love and devotion. Two people that were destined to be with each other. They knew how long and hard their parents fought to be together. As their Mom and Dad leaned over to give each other a brief kiss, the want and need for them to get on with their plan further resonated with them. 

They spent another hour as a family getting more of the delicious and warm chili that warmed their stomaches while their parents continued on with their stories. Mia and Will even cut in and added their own stories that they could tell. 

It was when Mia saw her Mom trying to keep her eyes open during Will’s story about how far the future comes technology wise, that she found herself tired as well. As if he could read her thoughts, their Dad spoke up,

“Well, I don’t want to cut our time short but we all know how big of a day we have tomorrow so I think we should all get a good night’s rest.”

“Yeah, it has been a long day, and I think all my adrenaline has finally worn off.” Standing up, Will and Oliver insisted on taking the dishes leaving Mia and Felicity standing in front of each other in the living room. 

“You know, after everything that has happened I’m glad that we can have these moments.” Felicity grabbed her daughter’s hands and Mia found herself getting overwhelmed. Her mother, the one who raised her by herself and was so strong for her, the one who would tell her stories about her missing father. The mother that made sure she was safe and protected. The one who loved her until the very last minute. Attempting to keep the tears at bay and not have her mother asking a million questions Mia looked down.

“I am too. I just. Can’t wait for this to all be over.”

Mia unexpectedly pulled her Mom in for a tight and warm embrace. Felicity stumbled a bit at the gesture, but quickly leaned into the hug. 

After a brief embrace her Mom showed her the guest room where she would be sleeping for the brief seeable future.

“Just try and you know get comfortable and uh goodnight.” Felicity gave her daughter one more meaningful glance and squeezed her hands before walking towards her room. Mia caught Will’s gaze from across the room as they both stood in the doorways of their temporary home for the next few nights, or however long this mission was going to take. They both shared a small smile with each other, a gesture to reassure the other that they would be okay for the night. That everything would be okay. With that the whole Queen family all retreated to their rooms to attempt to enjoy a good nights sleep.


To say Oliver was a light sleeper would be an understatement. After five years of hell and his time in prison he learned that being asleep was when a person was at their most vulnerable. When he came back from the island Oliver found it more than difficult to try and get a good nights rest. His nights full of tossing and turning and tangled sheets, even some nights where he had to force himself to sleep on the floor because his bed felt like he was sinking in too much. 

Then when Felicity came into his life and further impacted him he found sleep easier. Dreams filled of lipstick covered lips and bouncing blonde hair that he knew he would never be able to truly feel, Oliver found himself looking forward to sleeping. Felicty’s light brought him comfort on dark and lonely nights. Nights when he found himself being violently awoken by his nightmares Felicity would be there, either rubbing his back or holding his head to her body as he wept or just stayed completely silent. 

Then there were nights like today. As Oliver lay in bed staring at the dark ceiling he turned towards his beautiful passed out wife. Felicity most of the time had been a heavy sleeper, but now with the pregnancy it seemed to turn her into an even more heavy sleeper. She was turned with her back towards him, the sheets tangled through her legs, her mouth open a bit as she slept peacefully. Oliver couldn’t help but smile at his wife, they would always start the night cuddled together, then midway through her sleep Felicity would drift to different positions on the bed, but they would inevitbly find themselves back together by the morning time. 

Oliver checked his phone and found the time to be 3:00 am. It had been only three hours since they came to bed. Giving his wife one more glance he pulled himself slowly out of bed and towards the kitchen for some water. 

Taking in a deep gulp of the water Oliver shut the light off and started to check in on his kids. 

One of the many things Oliver remembers about being a kid was when he would stay up late and he would hear either his Dad or his Mom’s footsteps approaching his door. Where he would quickly pretend to be asleep and they would open his door, as if to make sure he was still there. When he unexpectedly found himself as a Dad and William started to stay with him, Oliver finally understood the deeper meaning of a parent’s desire to check up on his kids. 

Slowly opening the door to not make a noise he first checked up on his grown son. A joyous smile found its way onto his face as he saw his 37 year old son curled up on his teenage bed. Though he was bigger, he still somehow fit on the bed. Walking further into the room Oliver looked down at William’s relaxed face, it was crazy to see how much his face looked like his present William, relaxed and at ease. He pulled the sheet a bit further up on William and made sure he was comfortable before turning and leaving. 

It was when he found himself standing in front of his daughter’s temporary room that he hesitated a bit. Even after their small moments Oliver still found himself awkwardly trying to figure out how to be a father to his grown daughter who before this had never even met Oliver. No matter how short of a time she was here, he still desired to make sure she knew how much he loved her and how much he couldn’t wait to be her father. 

It was when he could hear the quick shuffling and thrashing of the sheets coming from the other side of the door that he opened it. He found Mia’s face contorted in what appeared to be pain and sadness, the sheets thrown all around the bed. 

Nightmares. 

Rushing to his daughter’s side, he sat on the side of the bed and kept whispering her name, knowing that if he would touch her it could potentially make things worse. It was after the fifth time saying her name that Mia shot up in bed, gasping for a deep breath. Her forehead and some of her shirt caked in sweat from all the thrashing around and the nightmare induced fear, the tears running down her cheeks. 

Mia was taking rapid and short breaths, moving her head quickly around the room to assess where she was, her brain still in flight or fight mode. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m right here,” After Mia’s swiveling head stopped on her father she found herself taking comfort from the sight of her Dad.

Oliver gently brought one of her hands towards his chest, and had her feel the calm beating of his heart, so she could also feel his slow and deep breaths. This was one of the techniques he used to calm William down when the island nightmares became too much for his young son. 

“You’re safe. You’re safe. Just feel and breath with me.” Mia nodded and followed along with her Dad, slowing her breathing and her heart rate, calming herself down from her horrible nightmare. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Oliver comforting his scared daughter. 

Her heart rate finally leveled out, but Mia couldn’t bring herself to move her hand from her Dad, finding comfort in her Dad’s heartbeat. 

“How often?” From experience Oliver knew that the last thing she wanted to hear was ‘are you okay’ after all he was well versed when it came to haunting nightmares that tended to linger. 

Mia kept her gaze locked on her left hand that was settled on her lap, not wanting to look up yet and crumble before her Dad. 

“Well, a lot more frequently after starting this plan and losing a few people along the way.” Oliver nodded along, suspecting there was more, but he wasn’t going to press her further, instead, he was letting her come to him. 

The two sat in the quiet and dark room, the only sounds being their combined breathing, until Mia broke the silence. 

“Is Mom okay?” Then and there Oliver knew, her nightmare was about Felicity. 

“Yeah, she is sound asleep, and I think we both know that when your mother is out, it takes a lot to bring her back.” That seemed to bring a small smile to his daughter’s face, small, but Oliver gladly took it. 

“Don’t I know it. When I learned to brew coffee I knew that if I wanted her up when I was, I had to have one of them waiting for her.” Mia finally looked up at her Dad’s face and was met with a warming smile. A smile that told her that everything would be okay. A smile that made her know that she was safe and that he was there for here. A smile that she saw whenever she looked in a mirror. 

Mia before the three years had handled her nightmares like she did any problem, bury them and not deal with them. Sure when she was younger and found herself having nightmares her Mom would come to the room and hold her until she felt she was safe enough. But when she got older and more distant, Mia would brush off her Mom’s attempts at talking about her nightmares. But then during the three years, and having her eyes opened, she would find herself waking up and talking to her Mom about the nightmares. Bringing the both of them comfort. 

When it became just her and Will, they both tried to not talk about their nightmares, but when they both found themselves sleep deprived, they knew it wasn’t healthy. From then on they talked about their nightmares, making sure they both emphasized they were both there for each other. During that time was also when Will told her about this. How their Dad would comfort Will during his nightmares, and now here she was. Being comforted by her nightmares about her dead mother, by her living Dad in the past, a place she never would have thought she would have found herself. 

“Mom.” Being met with a small and confused look on her Dad’s face, Mia continued on, feeling the need to talk to someone. 

“My nightmare was about Mom and the day she,” Mia was hesitating, still scared, still trying to process the nightmare, but she pushed on by taking further comfort in having her Dad there, and she took another deep breath. 

“In our time it was the day before Will and I left for the future. At this point the only people that had made it this far were Roy, Dinah, and Mom. The place that we were staying at was supposed to be well hidden away so that they wouldn’t be able to get to us. The dinner was supposed to be our big sendoff, our quintessential last meal together. Roy had agreed to help me cook, and for once, we were all happy,” Mia’s gaze was locked at a random area on the wall, her mind was back in that happy moment. She could smell the warm Turkey that they had worked hard on all morning, hearing the music that was being softly played in the background as everyone was laughing and talking about anything that didn’t involve aspects of the mission. By that point, Mia dropped her hand from her Dad’s chest and placed it in her lap to join her other hand, she needed something to fiddle with. 

“Mom stood up to raise a toast. She said how proud she was of Will and I, how proud you would be of us. Mom told everyone that we would all soon be reunited as a real family, which included the people that weren’t there. We had only started five minutes into the meal when the lights went out.” Oliver grew even more tense, unprepared for the rest of this story. 

“We all immediately knew something was up. Suddenly a window shattered as a flash bomb came into the house. That’s when all hell broke loose.” Mia could see it now. Roy and Dinah flipping the table so that they would have some sort of coverage. Bullets started flying and whizzing past their heads, some of them making their way into the table next to their heads. 

“Luckily Roy and Dinah kept a gun strapped to them and were able to cover me as I ran for mine. Somehow they made their way into the house and it was a fight for our lives. We were somewhat lucky in that their initial strike team consisted of only ten people.” Mia could still hear the sounds of the bullets as they missed her, sounds of Dinah and Roy fighting hand to hand against the goons that made their way into the house. 

“I found a way onto the roof and with my bow and I took out the other five goons that were around the perimeter pelting the house with bullets.” Mia paused, Oliver could sense that this was too hard for her. For Mia, this only happened a few days ago. He knew that she wouldn’t have had time to process the events, let alone attempt to move past them. He could hear the deep breath that she took in attempt to keep her tears at bay. Oliver watched as a tear managed to escape his daughter’s eye and roll down her cheek. Grabbing her hands and squeezing them, he was able to comfort her and encourage Mia to go on. 

“I knew it was too quiet. That it just wasn’t that easy. I came back into the house and all I hear is Will scream. That’s when. That was when. He and. I mean. She was just. I couldn’t. I. I.” Mia collapsed into her Dad’s warm arms, her head on his warm chest, listening to his deep thudding heartbeat, too overwhelmed, she clung to him and let her hot tears flow down her cheeks and onto her Dad’s shirt. 

Oliver was distraught, the painful thing about being a parent is when your child is crying, and all you can do is hold them and tell them how much you love them, and how you will always be there for them. Oliver was in untreaded territory, but that didn’t stop him from wrapping his arms tighter around his daughter and rubbing comforting circles on her back. He gave her a brief kiss to the top of her head. So wrapped up in his daughter Oliver didn’t notice the tears that escaped his eyes and down his cheeks.  

The two just sat there, father comforting daughter, her walls completely down. Deep down, this was something Mia had always wanted when she was a little girl. A little girl that was violently awoken by nightmares, plagued by dark, mysterious creatures that wanted to take her away. The little girl that just wanted to be held by her father. Now here she was. 

“I need to keep going.” Mia sniffled out, pulling away from her Dad.

Oliver shook his head as Mia still clung to his arms, his hands placed gently on her shoulders. 

“No, no, it’s okay. You don’t need to.” But she just shook her head.

“No. I need to talk about this.” Oliver was hesitant but nodded. Mia continued on. 

“Mom’s head was in Will’s lap, her shirt caked in blood from where she got shot in her stomach. I rushed to her side and tried to put more pressure on the wound,” 

“No no no! Okay Mom, you’re gonna be okay, alright, you’re gonna be okay! But you’ve gotta fight alright! Stay with me you’ve got to fight.” Will was whispering to their Mom similar phrases, both of the siblings had too many tears running down their faces. 

Dinah, Roy, and Felicity sadly knew the cold hard truth. 

“Get me the goddamn medical kit!” Mia wasn’t sure who she was screaming at, but she didn’t care. 

“Mom. Mom. No please. Stay. Please stay. Please stay with us. We need you okay. Please fight alright. You can do it, you’re going to be okay.” Will wasn't sure if the words brought him more comfort or more for his Mom as she lay, dying, a tiny sliver of blood making its way into Felicity’s mouth. 

“My beautiful boy,” Felicity choked out, “You, are so strong, you ‘ave so much of your father in you.” She held a deep sad smile on her face, Will choked out a small laugh and smile. “He ‘ould be so proud. Of both of you. I love you so much.” She brought Will’s hand that wasn’t covered in blood to her lips and placed a gentle kiss. 

“Mia.”

“Oh, no, no. You aren’t going to give me this goodbye speech because guess what you aren’t going to die! I can’t lose you, we both can’t lose you!” Mia didn’t care that her face was covered in tears, or that he hands were getting full of blood, she just cared that her Mom was still alive and fighting.

“You are too stubborn to die! okay! Please, Mom.” Felicity brought her hand up to stroke her daughter’s face. Remembering all the times when she would hold her tiny bundle of joy and do the same gesture, her smooth and soft baby skin sliding against her palm. 

“I ‘ave watched you grow, you are so ‘mazing, your Dad loved you so much. I love you so much, Mia.” Mia smiled and leaned further into her Mom’s touch. 

Dinah and Roy stood back and let the family have their moment, their eyes red with tears as they watched their best friend, their sister slowly give in. 

Felicity looked past her daughter and to her two oldest friends. 

“I love you both. Please. Protect them.”

“We will Smoaky.” Roy and Felicity managed to crack a small smile. 

“It’s okay,” Felicity muttered, bringing Will and Mia back, “I’m going to join your Dad.” Her eyes were slowly fluttering closed, her eyelids growing more and more heavy, her arm falling back to her body, to weak to keep it up. 

“Hey! No, come on stay awake, eyes open.” Will exclaimed, his hands were gently placed on either side of her head, trying to keep her awake. 

“Mom. Mom! Stay awake!”

“We love you both.” These were the last words of Felicity Smoak-Queen, her eyes remained shut, where they would remain. 

“No, no no, come one Mom, wake up, please, please wake up, Mom! Mom! Mommy!.” The sound of Mia’s distressed screaming mixed with Will’s sobbing echoed throughout the small house. The two of them clinging to their mother’s body in hopes that she would open her eyes one last time. That she would go on another one of her weird rants or one of her inappropriate babbles that they loved so much. 

“We cried for ten minutes, which felt more like ten seconds, then Roy and Dinah brought us back to reality. The system that Mom set up came back online and said that there were more people coming. We barely had enough time to get our essential supplies before heading back to main base camp.” Oliver wasn’t quite sure when he lost his breath as he listened to his daughter describe in horrible detail of losing her mother. Oliver has fought so long and hard to keep those he loved alive, but to hear his wife, the love of his life die, brought an unbearable emotion to him, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like to be there and live through it. 

“We didn’t even get to bury her,” Mia sobbed out “Dinah and Roy said we need to erase all traces, so we set the house on fire and we managed to escape back to our main base camp.” This is what plagued Mia’s nightmares, the scene of losing her Mom over and over again. The past few nights were spent as Will and her awoke from nightmares, while the days were spent focusing on the mission. The most amount of sleep that she’s had in the past three days has probably been a total of six hours. 

“It’s all my fault.” These were the words Mia muttered as the last few tears fell onto her clasped hands seated in her lap. Oliver’s head immediately snapping back up at this. 

He has spent so long blaming himself for everything bad that has happened in his life. More than half of it actually not being his fault, he has spent countless nights and years of torment blaming himself. If it hadn’t been for Felicity arguing how it wasn’t his fault, Oliver thinks he would have fallen into a pit of despair a long time ago, and he wasn’t about to let his own daughter go through this. 

“Hey,” Oliver brought her in for a strong embrace, both of them needing the security of this hug, “It was anything but your fault. The people responsible are dead soldiers that were acting on orders from someone who thinks they can control others. I have spent years blaming myself, for events that were out of my control, shouldering the weight of losing people that I loved, blaming myself that it was my fault they died I wasted countless and sleepless nights dwelling on the past. As someone who has an experience of always blaming themselves, don’t follow in my footsteps.” The two were suspended in silence, with the occasionally sniffling from Mia as she enjoyed the warm comfort of her Dad’s embrace. 

“In this life you are going to lose people you love. You can control how much you love them and how much time you spent with them, but you can’t control another person’s actions, let alone death itself. All we can do in this life is hold on to the people we love and tell them how much we love them. Then when we do lose the people we love,” Oliver took a small pause swallowing the lump in his throat that had been gathering, “All we can do is remember them for who they were, honor their memory, and learn to live in a world where they don’t exist. No matter how hard it may be, we all have to learn to move on.” 

Oliver’s words resonated in Mia’s head, the emotion behind them, and the lessons behind them imbedding themselves into her brain. Here she was, sitting and hugging her father as he told her it wasn’t her fault that Mom died. Sure she had heard those words more times than she could count from her brother. But hearing them coming from her Dad, the man that knew her Mom better than her, they seemed to fully sink in. 

It was after she had finally calmed down, and noticed that unless she said so, her Dad wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. Mia started to reflect on how her life would be different if her Dad had been there every step of the way. Comforting her during nightmares, teaching her to fight, helping her, guiding her. It brought more tears to her eyes. 

Mia had spent so long denying herself the chance to even think about that life, because if she spent time dwelling on that, then she would ultimately be let down in the end by the reality of their situation. But this, being able to feel safe in her Dad’s arms, a feeling like no other, Mia didn’t want to lose this. 

They were both unsure how long they spent, just wrapped in each other’s arms, each in their own headspace, not wanting to break the silence and head back to reality. Mia felt her eyes to get a little droopy, her tiredness catching up with her, even Oliver could feel himself getting a bit sleepy. 

“Hey how about I tell you a story about how me and your Uncle Tommy stole my Dad’s Ferrari and took it for a test drive.” Oliver could feel Mia’s soft laugh from where her head rest on his chest. He knew the story could ease her nerves, and hopefully lull her to sleep.

“It all started when I was 10…” Oliver launched into his story, and went into every detail possible, losing himself in the memories of his best friend. It was when he reached the end of his story did Oliver notice the even and slow breathing of his daughter. Oliver maneuvered himself so that Mia could sleep soundly in the middle of the bed, without waking her up. 

In what felt more difficult than any special ops or mission he’s been on, Oliver managed to get Mia to lay down without waking her up, while he slid his large bulky body off the bed. 

Oliver stood for a few moments, watching his daughter continue to sleep, all the stress and crying that had just happened was free from her face. 

“I love you so much, and I would give up everything just for us to be a family.” Oliver pays no attention to the tears that rolled down his cheeks. He bent down and placed a gentle kiss on Mia’s forehead, staying there for a few seconds to enjoy the moment before leaving the room. 

A smile slid its way onto Mia’s face as she fell back into a dreamless sleep.

Notes:

I currently have everything done. I am writing the epilogue right now but now it is just a matter of me editing and posting the chapters. Thank you for everything !

Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Summary:

Some fluff, Mia annoys her brother, what else is new. Plus. A plan is beginning to form.

Notes:

Thank you so much for the kudos and the comments on the last chapter. Really hope you guys enjoy this.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

To say it was a hectic morning would be putting it lightly. Normally Felicity wouldn’t be caught dead waking up before twelve when there was nothing to do that morning. There were some mornings where she had to be at 8 a.m. meetings and it took Oliver waving her coffee mug under her nose to even coax her out of bed. 

So when Oliver found his wife missing from their bed, and after checking that it was indeed nine in the morning, he was shocked to find her dancing around their kitchen where he assumed she was attempting to make breakfast. 

Oliver loved his wife more than anything, but it was a known fact that she was not that strong in the kitchen. Sure she could bake the occasional cupcakes, but most of her time in the kitchen was spent assisting him in cooking by either handing him ingredients or “tasting” the food to make sure it came together well, as she put it, and he loved her for it. 

By the looks of the mess in the kitchen she was attempting to make pancakes, there was some pop song on the radio playing softly in the background that Oliver had heard her play before. Oliver stood at the counter just watching Felicity float around the kitchen. 

She was in her own little world prancing around the kitchen holding the bowl full of pancake batter. On the stove was a heated pan that was currently cooking a pancake, and on the plate next to the stove was what looked like a burnt pancake and an undercooked pancake. 

Just as she started to sing the next line in the song Felicity turned and screamed in surprise at Oliver finding her in the middle of her singing. 

“Oh my God, Oliver, we’re gonna have to tie a bell around your neck with how much you like to sneak up on people.” Oliver slinked around to the other side of the island to bring Felicity in nice and close. He could smell the strawberries from her body wash that she loved so much. 

“You would like that wouldn’t you.” 

“Mmmm. Maybe just a little.” Their faces were inches apart, their smiles from ear to ear, meeting in the middle they shared a sweet and long kiss. A moment to themselves in the midst of all this craziness. 

“Umm. Honey?” Oliver said in between short kisses, his eyes starting to drift open in confusion. 

“Yes?” Felicity replied sweetly, her mind still wrapped up in the blissful haze of kisses. 

“I think your pancake is burning.”

“What?” Felicity turned around sharply to a huge cloud of smoke coming from the pan on the stove. 

“Frack! Frack frack frack!” Felicity frantically turned the stove off and scraped the black pancake into the trash. She turned back to see Oliver waving a towel to fan the flames before it set off the fire alarm. 

After literally fanning the flames of this disaster Felicity looked around at her carnage that was now the kitchen, then it broke her. Her eyes started to water up, and she brought her hands to her face in defeat. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Oliver quickly strides over to Felicity to calm her down, “It’s okay, it’s okay, it was an accident.” Felicity shook her head against Oliver’s chest. 

“No, it’s just, I wanted to give them a good breakfast and, and do something I really don’t normally do. I mean I thought I could at least throw something together that was decently edible, but apparently I’m too useless to make fracking pancakes.” Oliver quickly shook his head in disagreement, giving her a comforting kiss on the forehead. 

“No, no, no. Alright. You are one of the most brilliant people ever. You have put so many criminals behind bars, and saved the world a countless amount of times. Who cares if you can’t cook, I still love you the same and those two kids still love you the same.” Felicity sniffled and was calming herself down, her husband’s words comforting her in more ways than one. 

“Where would I be without you?”

“Probably still trying to figure out the basics of facial recognition software.” There was the positive Felicity he knew and loved. Oliver brought his head down to give her another long lasting kiss, he turned back to the situation at hand. 

“Now how about I salvage the rest of these pancakes and you can be my sous chef.”

Her smile widened, showing how much better she was now.


Will was enjoying his peaceful and dreamless sleep, for the first time in the longest time he didn’t have a nightmare. Will was in between waking up and a dream where he was flying when he felt a tickle on his face. 

He brought his hand up to scratch at the tickle when he was violently woken up by whip cream on his face.

“What the fu-” Will was beyond confused as he looked down at his hand that had apparently been covered in whip cream. It was when he heard his sister’s hysterical laughs that Will realized what had happened. 

In her hand was a can of whipped cream, Mia was literally caught red handed. 

“Mia!” 

“You should see your face.” Mia choked out in the middle of her laughs. 

“Oh so you think this is funny?” 

Mia nodded at her brother’s furious expression. Will sat there and took it in while his sister laughed her ass off, he realized there were two ways he could react, he could either take it like it is and just be mad, or… he could get even. 

Leaping up from the bed Will started after his sister, Mia realized what he was doing and ran off towards the main area of the house to escape, her laughs still echoing throughout the house. 

Oliver and Felicity’s heads snapped up from where they were making up the plates in the kitchen to see Will yelling as he chased a laughing Mia around the living room. 

“Get back here!” He chased her around the couch, next thing they knew they were doing that weird dance where the couch was in between them and each were trying to see where the other would choose where to go. 

“Ohhh when I get to you, you are so dead.”

“That’s only if you can get me.” Despite Will’s determination, there was a small smile on his face. This was the most carefree the two have been in a long time, after all there hasn’t been much time for carefree fun. 

Mia’s teasing was cut short when she went left and Will jumped the couch to get to her, trapping her in his arms to smear the rest of the melted whip cream onto her face, his maniacal laugh drowning out her defeated laughs. 

Their parents watched on as they saw their children be carefree and just, laugh. While Felicity took in the sight she fondly rubbed her belly, and Oliver pictured them younger. An almost grown 16-year old William chasing his tiny 3-year old menace of a sister around the living room, their laughs echoing throughout a house located in the suburbs, instead of a loft in the big city. Maybe even a dog chasing their two children around the house. 

Oliver was finding it more and more difficult to not think about these possible memories, his eyes too caught up in the peacefulness of the sights before him. 

“Are you serious?”

“Hey, that’ll teach you not to mess with me.” Oliver was brought out of his thoughts by his kids talking, looking down at Felicity, he saw her smile that was almost as wide as his. 

“Alright, alright, you two clean up, it’s time for breakfast.” Oliver warned his kids, the two of them grinned at their father before heading off to clean up their faces.

“It’s hard to believe their grown adults,” Felicity whispered fondly. 

“Well, everyone still has a bit of a child inside of them,” Oliver dropped a dot of whip cream onto Felicity’s nose to emphasize, her smile turning into a teasing glare. 

The family sat down for a ‘normal’ breakfast, their smiles never leaving their faces. They didn’t let the thought of their impending doom come across their faces.


Everyone was gathered in the bunker by lunch time, Digg had picked up pizza for all of them to chow down on while they discussed the rest of the plan. 

“So, does someone want to tell us what our plan is? Cause so far I have no idea what the hell we are doing.” Rene had voiced everyone’s concerns. Everyone was turned towards Will and Mia, expecting them to speak up, after all this was their plan. 

“So, I’ve been thinking,” Mia chimed in

“That’s always dangerous,”  Mia threw Will a dirty look as he stuffed another bite of pizza into his mouth. 

“So, we have Nolan’s location, and we need him alive because we need his login access to the computer that will allow us to destroy ARCHER and all of their copies of it. Well I’m remembering what Strickler said about bringing people in. So we convince Nolan to bring me in as a ‘consultant’ and I work from the inside out to give you guys access in.”

“I’m assuming when you say convince you mean threaten,” Rene added, he met Mia’s gaze and immediately pushed the hesitation to speak up aside, she was really her father’s daughter. 

“Wait, how come you get to go in?” Will brought up, his eyes glaring a bit at his sister.

“No offense Will, but if they don’t believe us then I have a better chance of getting myself out of that situation,”

“Oh, well, in that case you saying no offense, I take full offense. You know, I know how to defend myself.”

“Will, I know but we don’t need you getting hurt because you’re our,” Mia trailed off not wanting to finish the sentence. But Will wasn’t letting go, he kept going. 

“Oh, you wanna finish that with because you want to stick me up on backup, well too bad because whether you like it or not, I’m a whole lot smarter than you and––,”

“ENOUGH!” Mia and Will both turned to their Dad, his voice loud and ‘scary’ enough to make them stop arguing. 

Oliver rubbed his head, he loved his kids more than anything, but he almost forgot how much siblings love to argue, he started to understand his parent’s frustrations whenever Thea and him got into arguments. 

“I understand you are both frustrated and you just want the mission to end well, but none of that will happen if the two of you keep arguing. Understand?”

“Understood.” The both of them echoed, the two of them a little embarrassed having to be yelled at.  

“Wow Papa Arrow,” Oliver threw Rene a glare that stopped him from finishing that thought. 

“Mia while you’re plan does sound like a solid one,” Felicity started, 

“I hear a but coming,” Mia knew that tone of voice, it was one she was all too familiar with. 

“Sadly we need all hands on deck when it comes to destroying ARCHER.”

“I’m confused, don’t you just press a delete all button?” 

Will scoffed at Mia’s thought process. 

“If only it were that easy. We need to destroy all of ARCHER, that includes all of the copies that The Ninth Circle has created and we also need to get to the skeleton software.” Will was met with more confused glances and went into more detail, “The skeleton software is just that. They are the basic code and software where everyone begins, it is what Felicity first ever programmed for the software.”

“So I’m guessing that this will take some time,” Digg cut in and Will nodded in agreement. 

“Then that’s settled, we have our plan,” Dinah added, “We convince Nolan to bring in Will as a consultant, and since he’s a tech genius they will obviously believe him. So him and Nolan go in and they start breaking everything down.”

“The plan is going to need adjusting once we confront Nolan and he can give us a layout of the whole place and how many goons will be there,” Oliver finished for the team, “because we are going to set bombs all around the building. We are going to finish this once and for all.” 

The whole team seemed to agree on this singular point, that The Ninth Circle was going to be taken down for good. 

“Well, I’m glad that we have a better understanding of what we are doing, but we still need more details as to what happened.” Diggle said the question that was on everybody’s mind, the one that they were scared to say out loud. They all knew the consequences of knowing too much about one’s future, but they were all going in blind to this mission. 

“The consequences,” 

“Screw the consequences,” Rene interrupted Will, “If these details can help you guys improve your future and prevent what the two of you came here to prevent, then is there really any harm?” 

Since they had arrived here, Will and Mia’s resolve seemed to break more and more. With the two of them enjoying their time here, the desire to reveal more than necessary became more and more tempting. Now here they were, the power to change the tide in their own war, in the palm of their hands, with one last fleeting glance between them, that final resolve broke. 

“Well, it was like we said, The Ninth Circle took the copy of ARCHER when they were here a few weeks ago. In our timeline, they started to break down your program so that they could copy it and sell it. Well after you two were forced into hiding, you were unaware that The Ninth Circle had your ARCHER program. That’s how they tracked down Dad.” Mia paused, the emotion of the situation, almost too much. 

“After that Felicity found a new place to hide, one where her and Mia wouldn’t and couldn’t be tracked. This is something we’ve recently discovered. Your sister, Emiko, she found out that it was Dante, her second in command of the whole Ninth Circle operation, who killed her mother. So with her killing Dante and her leaving, The Ninth Circle was left in shambles. With no one in charge they sold all of their secrets to none other than Eden Corps. They eventually figured out a way to further advance ARCHER and with them having everyone in their pockets and having a fake business front they not only caused The Glades to rise through corruption and Star City to fall into chaos. They used ARCHER to make these ultimate super soldiers.” Will stopped to let Mia finish the rest, the whole team was hanging onto every last word soaking up all this information. 

“We attempted to destroy the program, but we didn’t have enough backup, it resulted in a lot of innocent lives and it caused us to go underground. We eventually found Nora, Iris and Barry’s daughter, in our timeline, Barry disappeared in some event. So she was more than willing to help us, she was the one who pitched us this idea, and let us use the time travel sphere. So. The rest of what was left of our so called ‘rebellion’ started planning. But our plans were moved up a week when they somehow tracked us down. Will and I barely made it into the sphere when they finally broke through our last line of defense.” Mia trailed off, her mind replaying the events. 

“Which brings us to now.” Will finished off, his hand gripped his sister’s hand that was under the table, squeezing it in comfort, her gaze meeting his as they both shared a small smile. 

The rest of the team soaked up this information, the story and the meaning behind everything bouncing around in their heads. They didn’t need to hear the exact words, but they could tell from the context that every single last member of their rebellion died, they were the last two survivors. Their last hope. 

“Well the search has led us to a farmhouse. We make our move tonight and this will finally almost be over.” With those last words from their Dad, they went back to eating, afterwards they would start training and going through the plan for tonight.

Notes:

again. thank you. thank you so much. Please keep leaving kudos and comments, I really appreciate them.

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Summary:

We finally meet the elusive Nolan who can't seem to stop flirting with a certain one of our characters. The plan is coming back together more than ever.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Ugh…i’m pretty sure I just stepped in some cow shit.”

“Well, Will it is a farm.”

“Yeah, but I have yet to see a single farm animal.”

“Can we at least try to keep the comms clear as we scope out the grounds.” Dinah announced. 

The whole team had loaded up into the van and parked it a couple miles back. Will and Felicity were currently walking to meet at a spot that Oliver deemed ‘safe’ where they could set their equipment up and wait for the team to secure the little farmhouse. 

The rest of the team was currently taking their positions and waiting for the go ahead from Oliver before they could storm into the house. 

The mother and son duo reached the large tree where they began to pull up the software on the two laptops that they brought. 

“Okay so the jammer is locked on, we can communicate on our lines and not have to worry about anyone listening in.” Will continued to type on the computer. 

“I also used a scanner to try and locate any external cameras that alerted Nolan of our arrival, but there is only one located on the front and the back doors of the house.” 

“Which I just disabled.” Will added smugly, he turned to Felicity and smiled, he really missed this, spending time with Felicity. He remembers when he first really got to spend time with Felicity, she was the one that made the transition easier to live with his Dad. She taught him a whole lot more than he could ever thank her for. 

“Alright. John, Dinah, and I will go through the front, Mia and Rene cover the back. Just like we talked over.”

“Yup. It’s only a single story so, it shouldn’t be hard finding him.” Mia finished for her Dad. 

Oliver took his position at the front door and waited for the ‘all ready’ before bringing his booted foot up and sending the door flying off the hinges. They canvased the rooms, their weapons raised at the ready for any sign of danger. Diggle’s flashlight beamed over the empty rooms, devoid of any furniture, even the kitchen had been empty of any appliances. The only sounds resonating through the house had been their careful footsteps as they creaked loudly against the rotting wood. 

Oliver’s ears peaked up at the sound of rustling, Digg turned his flashlight to a box in the corner of the living room, as the shadow casted against the walls, the box shook even harder. They held their breaths, waiting, then the box had stopped shaking, Oliver and Digg glanced at each other. The box burst open, they held themselves back from flinching, but out came a possum. Digg and Oliver watched as the possum hissed at them before running out towards the back. 

“Clear.” Mia announced as her and Rene walked into the room, her voice held a tint of disappointment. 

“I don’t understand, he should be here,” Rene added.

“Overwatch?” Oliver questioned, the rest of the team gathered in the empty room. 

“Hold on, I don’t understand. This says he should be right on top of you, and the floor  plan shows no other rooms.” As the team stood there in the dark, confused, Mia kept trying to wrack her brain on where he could be, that’s when the idea struck her. 

“Unless…unless, he got rid of the floor plans. I mean most creepy farm houses have basements.” Oliver nodded at Mia, trying to hold back his proud smile, then the teams split back up, Mia and Rene taking the outside, while Digg and Oliver took the inside. All of them looking for some sort of secret entrance underground. 

Mia crept around the side of the house, her feet light as they fell against the soft grass. Mia spotted a lone bush perched up against the side of the house, it fit in, yet at the same time it looked so out of place. Her feet came within inches of the bush when Mia felt a slight change in the ground, slowly glimpsing down, she moved her feet slightly and could feel the ground become hollow underneath her. 

“Guys…we got something.” Mia informed the rest of the team, her eyes still focused on the ground beneath her. 

“Wait for us,” Oliver started, but Mia was never one for patience, she reached down to dust off the loose dirt. Her hands scrubbed away at the dirt when her fingers stumbled upon a string. Mia glanced up at Rene from her squat position, sending a questioning glance his way. 

“Listen, jr wait for the rest of the team, we don’t know what’s down there,” 

“I’m not gonna go in, I’m just gonna, open it up,” Mia smiled before she tugged on the string and pulled the trapdoor up and open. If it hadn’t been for her Dad tackling her to the floor, her head would have been taken off by the booby trapped knife that came flying at her. 

They both grunted as their body’s met the floor, both breathing heavy at what had just happened. Oliver glanced over at his daughter giving her his best pointed look. 

“I told you to wait,” Oliver got up and offered his daughter his arm, as she got up from the floor she added,

“Well, now I know,” The rest of the team gave each other one last glance before steadily walking down the wooden stairs that lead to the storm cellar. 

The room was about the size of their original lair, the room littered with computers and huge motherboard cupboards. 

“This looks like your dream boy cave Will,” Mia whispered into her comms.

“Shut up Mia and pay attention before you get another knife launched at you,”

“Kids,” Oliver warned. If it hadn’t been such a serious situation, the rest of the team would have burst into laughter. 

“As they scoped the rest of the room, they found a small kitchen next to a small twin bed, it was here that they found a passed out Troy Nolan.

“Seriously, this is the man that has avoided law enforcement AND the ninth circle,” Mia stared down at Nolan, he wasn’t that intimidating. His body sprawled out as much as it could on the small twin bed, his arm dangling off the edge. 

Rene kicked the bed, startling Nolan from his sleep and onto the floor before he jumped straight up and took the sights around him. 

Nolan’s eyes grew wide behind his glasses as he took in the five vigilantes surrounding him. Mia couldn’t believe this guy was going to be the key to helping them save the future. A man the same height as her and his short blonde hair a mess on top of his head. As she looked him up and down Mia was pretty sure that she could easily take him with one hand tied behind her back. 

“Okay, this is either some really weird dream, or someone finally managed to hack into my system.” 

The team all glanced at one another, all of them not believing what was happening before their eyes.


Will had grown so accustomed and grateful for futuristic tech that when they came to the present it took some…adjusting to. By that he meant needing the patience whenever the programming codes he was used to couldn’t be inputted because of the computers software. 

So being here in this Nolan guy’s…disturbing lair surrounded by all these computers, which by the way were exclusive computers that weren’t on the market yet for this time, made the transition a bit easier. 

Nolan was seated on a chair under the watchful eye of his Dad, Mia and Digg, while Dinah and Rene cased the outside in case Nolan had any ‘acquaintances’ scoping out the place. Will and Felicity had their tablets out, hooked up to Nolan’s main frame trying to get any information they could.

“Okay I have run a complete diagnostic on his setup and just as we thought. His equipment and IP dresses cannot be traced so there shouldn’t be a problem starting the program that we need to get rid of the A.R.C.H.E.R program,” Will thought out loud. As Felicity and him continued their work on Nolan’s equipment, he decided to open his mouth. 

“Okay so from what I’m getting here is that, you people want me to risk my life by coming out of the shadows to help you destroy a program that you created and I perfected,”

“Excuse me?” Felicity’s head had turned so fast, Will thought it was going to snap off. Will’s eyes were wide, shocked that this guy really…went there, his gaze following from Nolan to Felicity. 

“What do you mean perfected it?” Felicity gave Nolan one of those smiles that teachers give when they know a student is in trouble and wants them to dig themselves a bigger hole. 

Nolan looked up at Felicity, glasses met glasses. Will, Mia and their Dad all glanced at each other, unsure what was going on, before Will turned his attention back to his tablet. 

“Well, other than the fact that when I got the program they were some gaps in the coding, I also managed to perfect it making sure the program was only accessible by my data retrieval key, not even you could––,”

“I’m in.” All heads turned towards Will who kept his face focused on the tablet, running the diagnostics that he needed. Nolan’s face was slack in shock, not believing what he was saying. 

“How did you…”

“Well, while it is true that you tried designing the program to only fit your key, I was able to copy your key and make the program accessible.” Will threw Nolan a smug look, basking in the fact that he managed to knock down this guy a peg. 

“Okay please tell me I’m not the only one losing myself in all this technical crap?” Mia’s raised hands was soon followed by Oliver’s and Diggle’s, the three of them all standing confused. 

Will watched Nolan’s gaze, as he tried to figure out how Will just did what he did. Will could tell what kind of person Nolan was, he was all too familiar with this type when he went to MIT. Kids who think just because they graduated high school early and knew more code than the average person, they were some genius. It was too bad they were always somehow not as smart as Will. Nolan gazed at Will for a few more seconds, his mind making sense of what happened before a smile spread across his face. He leaned back in the chair that he was being held in and didn’t let his smile or gaze leave Will’s face.

“So. Pretty boy here managed to get past my code. So what?” Will rolled his eyes at Nolan’s attempt to get a rise out him before turning back to his tablet. 

Oliver came around, sat in the chair across and got face to face with Nolan, his dark menacing gaze meeting the smile stretched across Nolan’s face. Diggle dropped his heavy hands onto the kid’s shoulders making Nolan flinch slightly. 

“So, if you don’t want us delivering you to the NSA for what you’ve done and spending the rest of your life with no internet connection, I suggest you cooperate.”

Their gazes were locked, the continued smirk never left Nolan’s face, Mia and Diggle watched while Felicity and Will’s attentions were focused on starting up the program. Oliver’s menacing look never flinched. Seconds soon passed and next thing they knew, Nolan was laughing right in the face of the Green Arrow, everyone’s heads turned to what they assumed was an insane man. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just, you’re gonna have to threaten me with a lot more than that if you want me to help. I mean. HA. You, you almost had me, but if you think I’m afraid of the NSA then you’ve got another thing coming.” Nolan’s giggles soon subsided, but the smile still remained on his face. Oliver was losing his patience, if he saw this guy smile for just a bit longer, than he was going to try some more…hands on…methods. 

Will gave Nolan another once over, after dealing with these types of guys in school, even dating a few, he knew how to handle them. Will looked down towards his tablet and punched in some more code before walking over towards the interrogation chair.

Will put his hand on his Dad’s shoulder, gently pushing him aside so he got the message. He plopped down in the chair an unamused glare across his face, eager to bringing this guy down a peg. 

“Well. Well, well. Finally someone of my own caliber. Tell me prince charming why don’t you tell your team to give up and we can talk a bit…in private.” Will’s face remained annoyed as he saw Nolan sit back in the chair, thinking his useless flirting was working. A beep from the tablet brought Will’s glance down to his hands, a slow smile spread across his face. Got him. 

Will’s smirk met Nolan’s,

“First of all, you’re not my type. Second of all, I know you’re not afraid of us.” Will leaned forward to get closer to Nolan, the latter sitting up a bit straighter in the hot seat.

“I know that all you see are empty threats. And no matter how much pain, or threats we make, you will not budge.” Nolan leaned forward, his face inches away from Will’s, cocky and arrogant smile plastered across his face. 

“You’ve got me there pretty boy.” Will smiled before leaning back inches chair.

“Well. That’s the problem with so called crazy geniuses. They are so cocky that they begin to make mistakes. And you, you are no exception,” Will continued his excited smile and tone, watching the smile slowly slip away from Nolan.

“You see, you have managed to hide yourself in this place for so long while still managing to have millions of dollars in your bank account. You see. While you thought that you were a ghost on your online activity, and that your bank account was nonexistent, I was able to backdoor you, and find your mistake.” Will held and faced the tablet for Nolan to see, smiling as Nolan’s face cycled from fear to anger. 

“H-how did you?”

Will turned the tablet back towards him, Nolan’s body trying to move under Diggle’s grip, to glance at the tablet.

“Like I said, you made a mistake, because I know what you are truly afraid of.”

Nolan scoffed,

“I-I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Wow, that is a huge lie. Anyway. You are afraid of the Ninth Circle. That’s why you are here hiding out. Oh see, I found some messages from you and what appears to be a Ninth Circle member. Turns out you haven’t been to base in a month! Wow. Are you using up all your sick days?”

Will kept on, the anger and fear still evident on Nolan’s face. 

“See these messages say that they need you there to fix some bugs with the program, but you keep replying that you are stuck trying to find someone to bring in to help you on this big project.” Will paused, letting this information sink in, watching as Nolan kept looking more and more worried. Will had him right where he wanted him. 

“See. You thought that you were just gonna go in and fix whatever simple tech problems they had, make a couple hundreds of thousands of dollars and continue living your life. But. Then you found out that they wanted you to stay. I mean you couldn’t say you wanted out, because you’ve seen what they’ve done to people. Now. Here you are. Biding your time until you can figure out your next plan. Safe and sound.” Will finished off his little show and tell with a cocky smirk, he got him. For the first time in a while he got to be the one that made the threats. For so long he has felt a little out of his element being back in the past as an adult, but now here he was. Hacking his way into a program and putting an annoying genius in his place. 

Nolan’s face remained the same mix of fear and anger sitting behind a pair of black rimmed glasses. His mind racing to catch up with the problem that was put in front of him.

“So…I see this going one of two ways. One you help us and then we make sure that The Ninth Circle can’t get to you. Or…we give up your location to them right now. And we leave you to be eaten by the sharks. Your choice.” Will emphasized his last point by plastering a smile across his face, meeting Nolan’s angry gaze.

Notes:

Thank you all so much. Please keep the kudos and comments coming. I absolutely love seeing and reading every single one. also get ready for the next chapter.

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Summary:

Strap yourselves in for an emotional Queen family dinner.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Okay so can someone catch D and I up on this crazy ass plan?” Rene and Dinah had come back in from securing the perimeter and were all kinds of confused seeing Nolan unrestrained and on his computers.

“Nolan is going to go to The Ninth Circle HQ and bring William in as the man that he was looking for. They are going to take this time to input the program that the geek squad is currently doing on their tablets. Then the next night the program runs on their computers so that it deletes itself meanwhile they will also take down the security cameras that allow us to get in, plant some bombs then…boom. No. Pun intended.” 

“You know Mia, there’s a lot more that goes into programming than simply pressing buttons,” Will added, not overjoyed at the ‘geek squad’ comment, his focused still remained on the computer in front of him. 

“Well I didn’t want to annoy them with all the technical jargon that only half of them will understand.” 

“Well that’s why I’m the smart one,” Will said smugly, Mia’s face dropped, wanting to quip back at her brother. 

“Oh yeah, well––,”

“Mia.”

“Mia.” Mia’s head snapped as her parents both warned her, and her mouth shut. For Mia it felt so strange to have both parents scold her, but Will found himself trying to contain his laughs from Mia getting in trouble. 

Nolan finally glanced up from where he was typing on the computer to shake his head at the quarreling family.  

“Can we please get back to risking our lives and destroying this program.” Nolan, Felicity and Will went back to typing out the code while the rest of the team stayed in the background watching on as their plan was getting closer and closer.


“Alright that was Dinah, she says that her and Rene are switching shifts and keeping an eye on Nolan in case he gets cold feet and tries to run,” Oliver put his phone back in his pocket, walking to Felicity as she started serving everyone dinner. For what was to presumed to be their own ‘last supper’ Oliver made some delicious steaks and vegetables for everyone to enjoy. 

“And William and I have also placed a tracker on him so in case he does manage to slip by, we can catch him,” Felicity looked up at her husband and they both couldn’t help but smile. For so long, they have spent their lives sacrificing their happiness so that the city would be safe, so that their family could live in Star City and be happy. Oliver leaned down and gave his wife an embracing kiss, their happiness that they would soon all be a happy family was overwhelming. 

“Okay, as much as I would love to continue this, we do have children to feed,” Oliver loved hearing that come out of her mouth. Their children. It was a feeling like no other, being a parent, it is one of the most terrifying things. That parents are responsible for a whole human being, but it was also one of the most amazing things ever. Oliver and Felicity wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

“I’ll go get them.” Oliver slowly walked towards William’s room where him and Mia were currently going over the plan. As much as Oliver was happy that they would be saving their future, and giving them better memories, he was sad at seeing his children leave them. He knew that they weren’t his William and Mia yet, but, they were still the future versions of his children, children that he loved more than anything in the world. Oliver shook his head and smiled, with the way they bickered. You almost couldn’t tell that they didn’t group up together. 

As Oliver reached up to open the door, he could hear a heated, but whispered argument going on. 

“We have to tell them!” 

“No Will, we don’t.”

“Why? I mean, they are going to find out eventually as soon as we take down the program, you know what Nora said. Time travel is tricky. We could disappear immediately or in a matter of days.” Disappear? Oliver was beyond baffled, what the hell were they talking about? What secret were they keeping that they couldn’t tell them? What did William mean when he said disappear?

“That is especially why we aren’t going to tell them. Because the minute we do they will take us off this mission in their attempts to be overprotective parents or they will try to find another way to change the plan so that this doesn’t happen.”

“Mia, they wouldn’t do that,” There was a brief moment of heavy silence, “Okay. Okay. I understand. It’s just. Hard. Seeing them get their hopes up.”

“This isn’t any easier for me Will, they're my parents too.” Oliver was met with more silence, his heart and his mind both heavy. Oliver quietly walked back a bit before walking up to the door again, making his steps heavier so that they would be able to hear them and knocked on the door before opening it. 

Oliver was met with Mia and Will sat on his bed side by side, their faces so similar in the way they looked at him. Oliver cleared his throat, thick with emotion. 

“Dinner’s ready.” They both nodded and stood up and strived out of the room, having no idea that Oliver had heard their whole conversation.


Dinner was filled with eating and small, funny stories from Will and Mia about their short time together while Felicity laughed along at their stories. Oliver brought small smiles to his face to disguise his hurt and confusion over the fact that his children were keeping some big secret from them. 

“So then Will climbed up on top of the table and before he could even start talking the whole thing collapsed underneath him,” Felicity and Mia burst out into laughs while Oliver managed a small chuckle. 

“Alright alright, but to be fair I had like 6 shots of tequila coursing through my body.” The family laughed at the rest of the story, enjoying the last happy moment that they would be having together. Oliver looked around at his family’s smiles and was baffled at how Mia and William were able to carry on with these laughs and smiles while there was a huge secret in between all of them. 

Oliver was brought out of his thoughts as he watched Felicity lift her glass of water, bringing her arm up into the air.

“As cheesy as this sounds I would like to propose a toast.” The rest of the family raised their glasses in the air, smiles drifting across Mia and William’s faces. 

“Although the two of you were brought here as a surprise, your father and I are overjoyed that the two of you are here. And. No matter what happens tomorrow, know this. We are your parents and we love the both of you no matter what you do today or what you do in the future. That includes future you now and present you.” The tears shined in Felicity’s eyes, but she did not let them fall, she promised herself that she wouldn’t cry. 

“To family.” Will restated. 

“To family.” They all cheered in unison before bringing their cups up to their lips and taking a drink. Oliver wholeheartedly agreed with everything Felicity said, but they have worked so hard to where they are now that he couldn’t stand the there was some huge secret that could affect them. 

After a brief pause of silence Oliver spoke up, not realizing the can of worms he was about to open. 

“William. Mia. Are you guys keeping a secret from us?” That was it, all of their heads snapped towards the words that just flew right out of Oliver’s mouth. 

Oliver could see the both of them tense up, their faces and posture attempting to hide their lies and deception. 

“Why would you think there is some big huge secret we are hiding from you guys?” Despite William growing up, Oliver could still see all of his son’s tells from when he lies.

“I think you’re overthinking everything,” Mia interrupted, Oliver could see that Mia was better at keeping up a strong front, it was the same way he acted. But he could tell she was still holding something back. 

“Because I overheard the two of you talking earlier.” Just like that, Mia and Will were stripped of their lies and they were laid out on the table. Everything that they had been keeping in attempts to not have their parents worry were ruined. A heavy silence fell upon the room, Mia and Will making eye contact, the two of them having a silent conversation with each other. 

“Okay I’m sorry I seem to be the only one left out so can someone please start explaining,” a nervous smile was plastered onto Felicity’s face, the worry evident in the way she spoke. 

“Why were you listening into our conversation, isn’t there a thing such as privacy,” Mia glared at their father, her intimidating gaze, trying to make Oliver crumble under the pressure. She reminded him so much of him, it was almost scary. The way Mia said that made Oliver think they were having a conversation with a teenage Mia who was caught saying something she wasn’t supposed to. 

Oliver was trying his best not to butt heads with his…adult children, because they came from where Oliver wasn’t around at all. Oliver was barely trying to process the fact that in a couple of months he would be responsible for this tiny baby. But they were still hiding something.  A secret that could jeopardize the whole mission. 

“Mia,” It was the soft voice from Felicity that made Mia tear her gaze away and soften at the sight of her mother. Mia couldn’t help it. Mia was still having trouble trying to cope with the loss of her mother, she was still reeling from not hearing her voice everyday. One last look to William and the two knew that they would have to spill the last of their secrets. 

“When this whole plan is over we aren’t going back to our time,” Will breathed out. Oliver and Felicity’s reactions were still clueless and confused, after all it wasn’t like Barry had time to teach them about the do’s and don’ts and consequences of time travel. 

“Wh-what do you mean? I mean you two can’t stay here because think of the consequences of time travel?” Felicity stuttered out. Again, Will and Mia nervously made eye contact, Oliver could see how nervous they were, the both of them practically shaking. He himself couldn’t help but mirror their nervousness, more and more dread building up in the pit of his stomach. 

“We know. We weren’t planning on staying either.” Felicity gazed at the both of them, confusion still on her face, her brain still trying to come up with some sort of answer. Her eyes scrutinized her kids one more time, and then, it’s as if a lightbulb went off in her head. They had the same looks on their face that Oliver had all that time ago when he was off to fight Ra’s al Ghul on that mountain. 

Felicity inhaled a large gasp, her hands falling over her mouth in shock, but Oliver was left in the dark, his face still confused. 

“The two of you weren’t planning on surviving this trip?” Just like that. No more secrets and no more lies. Oliver’s jaw dropped in shock, his brain attempting to catch up with his emotions. He couldn’t fathom the thought of his children dying, Oliver didn’t even want to think about it. Oliver shook his head. For so long, he has sacrificed so much so that his children would be safe, so that his family could be safe. But here they were. Ready to sacrifice themselves to save their future. 

“What?!” The words left Oliver’s mouth before he could filter out what he was going to say, his emotions bursting at the seams. 

Mia and William were having a hard time looking their parents in their eyes, their emotions having such a hold on them that they were going to break down any moment. Mia glanced out of the corner of her way at Felicity. Seeing her Mom in a total state of shock and emotions made it hard for Mia to keep up the front. 

“Why?” Felicity breathed out, her tears threatening to spill over. 

“That’s the thing about time travel,” William breathed out, “Dramatic changes to the past means dramatic changes to the future. Since the manipulation of the A.R.C.H.E.R. program led to our future, the destruction of the program means…it means…” William was struggling to get the words out, having to say out loud what everyone was ultimately thinking, he didn’t have to struggle for long as Oliver finished for him. 

“It means your timeline will cease to exist meaning you two will disappear along with it.” A heavy silence fell upon the family, the ramifications of what was just said were dire. Oliver and Felicity couldn’t fathom the thought of their children just, becoming, gone within an instant. These were their children, albeit from a different timeline, but these were still their children. Parents were supposed to protect their children, make sure they were loved and safe. Parents shouldn’t have to bury their children. 

Heaviness fell into Felicity and Oliver’s hearts, they refused to give into the thought let alone the actual action of watching their children…cease to exist. 

“Wh–what do you mean disappear. I mean the two of you are people, you exist, I mean the movies about time travel are just movies there is no quantifiable data to say that you two will just disappear…I mean…right?” Felicity was babbling, trying in her own way to cope with this horrible news. She was wracking her brain, trying to come up with some sort of explanation where they could prevent this and not worry about it. But. Nothing. This was time travel they were talking about and the only person who knew time travel was…Barry!

“We can, we can call Barry, if anyone can helps us its him! Maybe we can even call up team Legends so they can help out!” Felicity looked to Oliver and their children, expecting them to jump up at this brilliant idea that she had just come up with, but she was met with downcast faces from her kids. 

“Barry and Sarah are the ones who told us what was going to happen.” Mia added, “the timeline will fix itself then poof. We disappear and we cease to exist.”

“What do you mean poof, disappear? I mean we know about you two! How can we forget you? Forget about our own kids?!” Oliver had many questions, none of them good. 

“It’s mixed research. In some cases we will just disappear and you will remember or forget us and in others our bodies will slowly crumble into tachyon particles. Tachyon particles being the residual particles left on a person’s body as a result from time travel…” William trailed off as he saw the pointed look he was receiving from Mia, he was babbling again. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to get…graphic.” William took a big gulp from the glass of wine he was drinking, he was going to need a lot more if they were going to get through the rest of this conversation. 

“That’s why you didn’t tell us. You didn’t want us trying to fix this problem.” Felicity observed, the tears spilling over onto her cheeks. Will and Mia sadly shook their heads at their mother, both of them too emotional at seeing their Mom cry. 

“No. NO!” Oliver said angrily. He stood from where he was sitting, his body full of emotions, clueless as to what to do. 

“I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that you two will just disappear. I mean after everything we’ve fought for, everything that we’ve planned for, it can’t just end with with our kids just disappearing,” Olivers voice was wavering and shaking, the tears he was holding back falling at that last word. Disappear. “there has to be another way, there has to be.” As Oliver kept going, Mia and Will couldn’t take it anymore, they stood from their seats to slowly walk over to their father, his voice still shaking. 

“I mean we we can put you guys on the waverider and the two of you will be safe. We we can take you guys back now so that when the timeline is fixed the two of you won’t notice anything.” More tears fell down Oliver’s cheeks, no longer able to prevent their descent. His eyes turning red from the overwhelming onslaught of emotions he was feeling. His face meeting his children’s who were standing right in front of him, tear stained eyes meeting. 

“I–we can’t lose you guys. We can’t lose our children.” Their arms all met in an emotionally crushing group hug. All of them letting the tears fall freely down their faces, while still holding back their sobs. Oliver wrapped his arms tighter around his kids, each of his hands cradling each of his babies’ heads. Oliver was hanging on and he didn’t want to let go. 

The three of them felt Felicity come in and join, her small body fitting in perfectly with her family. All of them, with tears in their eyes and heavy hearts in their chests, hugging and comforting. 

The small family didn’t know what was going to happen tomorrow, they didn’t know if everything was going to go according to plan. But in this moment. In this moment of comfort and tears, they knew one thing. 

They were going to go in and come out fighting as a family.

Notes:

Thank you again so much. Like I said. I am trying to edit and post as fast as I can. The epilogue is almost done.

Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Summary:

We have a quick flashback involving William and Felicity. ***Trigger Warning*** there is a word said that might be offensive and triggering for people.

Notes:

***Trigger Warning the word Fa***t is mentioned.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Will’s knee was bouncing up and down, his nervousness radiating all throughout his body as he was forced to stay seated in the stiff office chair. His fingers from his bruised and scraped right hand twitching against his bouncing leg while his left hand held the cooling ice pack against his aching bruised face. He knew how much trouble he was in, nothing compared to the other kid, but still, William knew that Felicity was going to be upset with him. He knew that they were supposed to stay under the radar and not make any waves, but he let his anger get the best of him. But it was worth it. William was fighting back the small sense of pride that was surging inside of him. 

“I am so sorry it took so long. I mean I had to explain to my job, and my job you know was already understaffed, but yeah.” Will’s head snapped up as the door to the principal’s office slammed open to reveal Felicity. Her pierced face absent of glasses, and pink streaked hair made her almost unrecognizable…almost. 

Felicity’s eyes swept over the principal’s plain emotionless face before landing on William’s bruised face, her concern was immediate as she rushed over to the empty seat placed next to William. She wasn’t told a lot on the phone as the secretary only explained that there was an incident and she needed to some right away. 

“Oh my frack! Are you okay? Can you see? How many fingers am I holding up? Do you need to be taken to the hospital? What happened?” Felicity bombarded Will with questions, her small hands gently running over Will’s face, inspecting every inch and extent of his injuries. At the last question her head snapped to the principal, her face accusatory. Will raised his eyebrows at Felicity, immediately knowing what face that was, this was her, what he liked to call ‘mama bear face’. A face that he saw more and more of every day the longer they were in witness protection. 

“Mom. I’m okay. I can see just fine, no need to call an ambulance.” Will brought his hands up to rest on Felicity’s hands, bringing them down from his face, into her lap. Her eyes softening at the word ‘Mom’, something that she would never get used to no matter how many times he said it. For a brief moment Will smiled at the way her eyes grew soft, enjoying the small bit of joy they could find after the hell they had been put through. 

“Yes Miss Cassidy, your son Graham is fine, the school nurse made sure of it. Just some bruising but he will be fine.” The principal’s monotone voice cut through the small moment, bringing them back to reality. Their focus now on why ‘Graham’ was in the principal’s office with a bruised face and hand. 

“As far as what happened, there was an…altercation of sorts.” Felicity’s eyes grew wide, before falling into her questioning face. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, another student by the name of Chad was teasing and making fun of another student. Graham came over telling Chad to stop, after a few…heated words were exchanged. Graham tried walking away when Chad said something and your son threw the first punch.” Felicity’s face was full of shock, Will could feel her gaze travel to him, but he couldn’t look at her, his face fell down to the forgotten ice pack in his lap. 

“Well I mean I am in no way condoning fighting, in fact we will have a long discussion when we get home, but he did stand up for another student?” Will’s attitude perked up a bit, he knew he was still in trouble, but at least Felicity wasn’t as mad as he initially thought. The principal still gave a pointed look, his face still bored. 

“We have a zero tolerance on bullying and a zero tolerance for fighting. Chad does have a past with bullying so he will be suspended for two weeks. As for Graham…I’m afraid since Graham threw the first punch he will be suspended for the rest of the week.” Will kept his eyes glued to his lap, not wanting to look Felicity in the eye. 

“I––.” Felicity started, trying to find someway to fight back against this, but she looked over to Will then the principal, knowing it would be a useless attempt. Which would also result in her loud talking and an embarrassed Will. 

“I understand. Thank you Mr. Abernathy. Come on Graham.” William kept his head down while he grabbed his bag. The two of them walking out of the office and back to what William liked to call their prison.


Felicity unlocked the door to their high tech security system, the two of them making their way into the safe house. Felicity’s nerves were never settled until they made their way safely inside and armed the system again. She turned to tell William that they were going to talk before watching his retreating form rush into his room to slam the door behind him. 

The echoing thud of the door, seemingly adding onto the current weights she felt on her shoulders. The past month had been hard on the two of them, mostly on William, she acknowledged. His life had been uprooted too many times already in his short life. Here he was back in witness protection for the second time. Felicity knew better than to blame her husband for putting them in this situation. Sure there were parts of her that were furious with the fact that Oliver didn’t tell her his plan. But she knew he wasn’t to blame for them ending up in this situation in the first place. It was the all those villains and their plans to ruin others lives. That was why they were here. 

Felicity was doing her best. Trying to be a good parent for William after everything that he has lost. Here she was, trying to be here for William so that he could have some resemblance of normal. She was in no way trying to replace his mother at all, she was just trying to be the best step mother she could be. 

Felicity walked slowly over to William’s door, knowing that this was going to be a difficult situation. Despite how calm and how peaceful William was most of the time. He was like Oliver when it all became too much. Holding in all of his emotions until they all boiled over and he took it out on whoever was close. 

She gently knocked on the door,

“William?” She waited, unsure if she should wait for him to say come in or if she should just go in. Deciding on the latter she slowly opened the door. William was on his bed, his back to the door and Felicity. 

She walked over to the bed to sit down and placed her hand on his back, doing her best to somehow comfort him before she had to resort to finding out why he was upset in the first place. 

“So? Do you want to talk about why you decided to throw that punch? I mean I’m glad that you were standing up for another student but at the same time, you know better.” Felicity was met with more silence, which meant she wanted to fill it. 

“I mean being here for the rest of the week I can ask for the time from work off and we could spend some time together but I would have to run it by the agents to see if that would be suspicious but,”

“Why are you acting like this is normal!” Felicity was knocked back by William raising his voice in frustrating. Springing himself off the bed so that was standing up. 

“You act like the job you have, the school I go to, and the stupid agents that we have to ask permission to do anything is normal!”

“William…I’m not saying…” Felicity was shocked. 

“You wouldn’t have to be asking for time off and I wouldn’t have gotten into that stupid fight if we weren’t here!” Felicity was letting William empty out all of his anger, she knew that if he did this he could start healing. 

“If Dad didn’t make that stupid deal then we wouldn’t be stuck in witness protection!” She could see his frustrations with Oliver, she was frustrated too, but Felicity could tell that there was still more to the story.

“William trust me, I understand your frustrations, after knowing your father for so long and dealing with his not so smart decisions I know more than anyone, well maybe not Digg, but still. Your anger is justifiable.” She could see the anger from William begin to settle a bit, the tears welling up in his eyes. Felicity stood up and slowly made her way over to William, just wanting to reach out and bring him in for a hug. 

William brought his arms up and embraced Felicity. Letting the warm hug try and erase his worries and emotions. The tears fell from his cheeks as he let himself mull over the past month. Between missing his Dad and that stupid bully at school William was finding more and more reasons to be angry with the world and no way to express it. But here, in Felicity’s hug. He could try and forget. 

Felicity didn’t deserve his anger, she was coping just like him. She was trying to act normal so that he could have some resemblance of normal. Deep down Will knew that, but sometimes he found it easier to just be angry. Felicity also deserved an explanation about the fight. 

“Faggot,” the word shocked Felicity. Out of everything she was expecting to come out of William’s mouth, that wasn’t one of them. William was looking down unable to meet Felicity’s face, the fear was evident, “that’s what the kid called me.” Just like that the tears that William had been holding back were now flowing freely. 

Felicity brought in her son for a bruising hug, one that would make him feel safe and more importantly loved. The two of them stood there, embracing, William’s tears rolling down his face and onto where his face was hiding in Felicity’s hug. 

“I am. Gay.” William whispered not pulling apart, too tense, and not ready to see how Felicity would react to the truth that he finally admitted out loud. 

“We know bud,” Felicity hugged her son even tighter, loving him for who he chose to be, hugging him so that he would know that they still loved him, hugging him hard enough for Oliver, who was supposed to be the one embracing his son in his time of need and comfort. 

“What?” William pulled the two of them apart, his face full of confusion and wet tears. 

Felicity framed William’s face gently with her hands, a gentle smile on her face. 

“You’re Dad and I…we knew. We just, we were waiting for you to tell us when you were ready.” 

“Dad knew?” His face full of shock and complete disbelief. 

Felicity nodded. 

“Your father told me that when you told us he was going to give you one of the biggest hugs he could and tell you how much he loved you.” William’s eyes teared up even more at this new found revelation, more tears rolling down his cheeks as he looked down in sadness. Felicity gently wiped her thumbs across William’s cheeks, trying to take the sadness away. 

“But he did end that sentence with the fact that he was going to have to give you the talk,” That small quip brought a small laugh and smile to William’s face. 

“Listen, there are people in this world and all they will want to do is try to break you down. But we can’t let them bring us down to their level. Instead we’ve got to bring ourselves up.” William managed another smile before Felicity brought him for another hug. 

“How was that? Am I doing okay at this whole Mom thing?” Felicity questioned out loud, both jokingly and serious. It made William smile.

“You’re doing great.” Hearing William say that brought a huge weight off of Felicity’s shoulders that she didn’t know was there before. The two of them stood there in silence, letting their hug comfort one another during this difficult time. 

“I miss him,” William whispered, not wanting to ruin the moment. 

“Me too,” Felicity added on, echoing through the disturbing deafening silence the longing for Oliver left.

Notes:

Thank you guys so much. I wanted to have a chapter that just had a flashback and a moment for William. Also sorry about the word. Please keep the comments coming, I absolutely love them.

Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Summary:

Some good old sibling teasing each other fun.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Alright Will this is a comm check one two,” Oliver sounded off. 

“Read you loud and clear Dad,” Will responded. 

“Alright we’ve got you pinged so that if Nolan or anyone tries any funny business we are right there,”

“And what would you define as funny business,” Came Nolan’s response, egging on Oliver to respond. 

“Just stick to the plan Nolan,” Oliver could hear the irritation in his son’s voice. Oliver, Digg, Dinah and Rene were currently perched on the abandoned building that was near what was the Ninth Circle’s headquarters while Felicity ran point from the bunker with Mia. Oliver needed someone in the bunker to protect Felicity in case Nolan tried to sell out the team and in case Emiko sent her goons to the bunker. He had asked Mia and explained to her and he could see the lack of hesitation to accept the offer and skip out on some field work. 

Despite how much Felicity and Oliver didn’t want to send their son into the belly of the beast, they knew their son was a grown adult and was needed for this plan to work. Besides its not like they could ground him to stop him from going. No matter how tempting it sounded to Oliver. 

After last night and that whole exchange, things between the Queen family were, stiff, nonetheless. Mia and Will had spent that whole time at Nolan’s preparing for tonight, well that’s what they said, but Oliver and Felicity could tell what they were doing. Avoiding an awkward situation and avoiding their feelings. Oliver has become all too familiar with that tactic. 

Oliver and Felicity spent most of the night wrapped up in each other’s arms as they attempted to muffle their sobs so as to not wake their sleeping children. Not long after, Oliver managed to help Felicity calm down. Stress wasn’t good for the baby. Mia. Oliver was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Felicity was pregnant with Mia and older Mia being here wasn’t setting off any huge cosmic earthquake that would make the world collapse within itself. 

Eventually when Oliver had fallen asleep his dreams were riddled with images of his children disappearing right before his eyes. A young Mia and Will running towards him in fear, only for them to almost reach him and disappear before he had a chance to grab them. The nightmare had startled him awake early in the morning.

Oliver tried to clear his mind with the workout in the bunker while Felicity typed away at her computer, but next thing he knew he had his head in his wife’s lap as he let the tears fall again once more. Both of them taking comfort in the fact that they both weren’t okay, but that they would get through this together. They both agreed that now was not the time to tell the team about the inevitable, instead needing them to have their minds focused on the mission. That made things more difficult when Oliver watched Mia and Will interact with the team, telling stories, sharing food, and laughing. 

“Alright we are approaching the entrance, we are going to be silent on our end to not arouse suspicion,” Will’s words brought Oliver out of his thoughts and back to the task at hand. He couldn’t afford to get distracted now. He could worry about that later when Will wasn’t at risk of being run through.


Will had done a lot of crazy things in his life. Number one still being the whole time travel thingy, but this was a close second or third. Will had spent the whole time in the car fidgeting with his tablet, triple checking for the fifth time that the program was running smoothly. There was a reason Will chose not to do field work and enjoyed staying behind the screen and taking in the comfort that he was safe. That’s why Mia and him operated so smoothly she was the field work and he was the brains. 

Will needed to make sure that the plan didn’t fall through, the last time he was in the ‘field’ he almost ended up with an arrow in his foot. An arrow that HE shot, long story. That’s why Will was making sure that Nolan didn’t create any backdoors to try and get back into the program. 

Despite the fact that Nolan was a bad guy his hacking and computer skills were actually pretty advanced. 

Will jumped as he felt Nolan reach over and smack him in the shoulder. 

“Ow?!” Will sent Nolan a confused and questioning look. 

“Too wrapped up in your own thoughts pretty boy?” Will rolled his eyes at Nolan’s incessant teasing. He knew from experience with Mia not to give into the teasing. But that didn’t stop the small smile on Nolan’s face. 

“We’re here.” Will looked up and realized that they were in some sort of parking garage surrounded by ominous looking black SUV’s. 

“Nice to know that one of the company benefits of working for the Ninth Circle are creepy black SUV’s.” 

Will threw Nolan a look, hearing him chuckle sarcastically at his latent attempts at a joke. 

“That’s cute. But starting now no more incessant nervous talking or jokes. Last thing we need is your big mouth getting us caught.”

Will opened his mouth to get a retort in, pissed that Nolan of all people was telling him he had a big mouth, but was interrupted by said big mouth. 

“You don’t speak unless required. Other than that you are a shy and mute IT tech that the Ninth Circle believes I recruited to help make this program better.”

The only way Will could describe what walking in to the mysterious headquarters of the elusive Ninth Circle was a death march. The impending doom of what was about to transpire, weighing heavy on his shoulders. 

The two of them walking into the elevator, the nod that the guard gave Nolan before putting the key card in the elevator that let them go up a floor. 

“Into the lion’s den we go,” William muttered in his head before the elevator doors shut.


To say that everyone was nervous was a huge understatement. It was the afternoon before they would begin their siege onto the Ninth Circle’s base of operations, and finally put to rest this whole situation. The previous night, they had sent Will into the lion’s den with Nolan to plant their program into the main frame. 

Will was surprised at how smooth everything had went, sure William was practically shaking in his boots when Emiko made a surprise visit to where he and Nolan were but they managed to act like everything was normal. 

Right now the team was training, putting in their final workout before the ultimate showdown would begin. 

Will heard the sound of a body flopping onto the mat, looking over he could see his sister flat on her back, her face splitting into a surprise grin. 

“I told you, you’ve got to move that leg back or else they're going to use it to do…well…that,” Their Dad added before helping his daughter back up. It brought a huge smile to William’s face to see Mia getting the chance to spend some time with their Dad, it also helped that she was the one getting her ass kicked for once. Will went back to the computers with Felicity as his Dad reached out a hand to help Mia back up. 

“So far so good the program is still running and embedding itself inside their software so that tonight when we basically push the kill switch it will run smoothly. This is…amazing work William.” Felicity complimented her son. 

“Well it was a team effort.” Will added. 

Dinah and Rene were currently keeping an eye on Nolan, making sure that he wouldn’t try anything funny, and Digg was with Lilah, working on getting the bombs for their plan. It was just the Queen family, enjoying one of the last few moments they would be spending together. 

Will brought himself out of his thoughts, he didn’t want to dwell on the negatives. 

“Well with everything in place we are good to go for tonight,” Felicity emphasized this by putting the monitor into sleep mode and pushing herself out of the chair, stretching her sore body.

Will followed her over as they watched the rest of Mia and Oliver’s sparring session. 

Despite what Will said, he always found himself in awe and a little bit jealous of the way his Dad and Mia were just able to fight so fluidly. How quick their reaction times were and knowing which way to immediately go. Will wasn’t stupid, he knows the reasons why they were so good at fighting. It was a necessity. They needed all that training so that they would be able to survive what this horrible world had planned for them. For his Dad it was adapt or die, and for his sister it was so that she would be able to protect herself and Mom when the inevitable bad guys came for them. 

But Will was apart of this narrative now. Having Mia teach him to defend himself so when they found themselves in tricky situations Will would be able to put up some type of fight. He was no Green Arrow or Arsenal, but more like…like…yeah, nothing came to Will’s mind, but he could put up some type of fight. That’s all that mattered. 

Watching the two of them spar, and the way their faces changed and morphed with the way their bodies moved and their defenses and stance changed, it was easy to see just how similar Mia looked like their Dad. 

The next Green Arrow. Will smiled at the thought. Letting himself think that at the end of this Mia will have grown up in a world knowing and believing that her Dad was a superhero, and wanting to be just like him. 

Will could see Mia opening up her stance, a taunt as if to let Dad come at her, to exploit the opening he just gave her. Will smiled, he could see her manipulation. As their Dad came in, expecting to exploit the move he was just telling her to avoid, prepared to knock her onto her back for the second time. Mia let him in, thinking he had the upper hand and just as their Dad got his foot in, prepared to get her down, she brought in her other leg, moved her arms, and just like that. 

Their Dad’s body met the floor mat with a heavy and thunderous thud. 

“Oh my god,” Felicity exclaimed, a little shocked at seeing her husband get laid out by their daughter. Will couldn’t hold back the smile and laugh that escaped him as Mia brought her booted foot gently to their Dad’s neck. The fight was over. 

Oliver’s face morphed from shock, to unexpected pain, back to shock and now, it was beaming with a proud smile. 

“Good job,” Oliver let out breathlessly. Seeing that her husband was okay, Felicity joined William in his small jolt of laughter that seemed to grow a bit. 

Oliver was a bit shocked at seeing his wife and son laughing at what just happened that he didn’t see Mia’s outstretched hand. Taking it he brought himself up and father daughter gave each other a high five before a brief side hug. 

“See, just like that.” Oliver tacked on. 

“Yeah, pretty soon you won’t be able to keep up with me old man,” Oliver’s jaw dropped at what his daughter just called him. Finding himself at a complete loss for words, hearing his family laugh at his shocked expression. 

“You know I’m still in my prime okay,” was all Oliver could some up with, his outstretched hands trying to emphasize his loose point. All it did was make his family laugh even more, the sound adding a few more years to Oliver’s soul. 

“Well I do agree with you, you are still has handsome and alluring as the day we met,” Felicity added. Oliver smiled fondly at his wife, walking over to her and bringing her in for a kiss, both of their smiles too big. 

Hearing a groan come from their adult and somewhat mature children, reminded them that they had company. 

“Come here Will, I wanna teach you a defense move for tonight,”

“Ugh, really, can’t you just demonstrate on Dad and flop him onto the floor again instead of me.” 

“No way bro, learning is doing,”

Oliver and Felicity both remained on the sidelines, watching and observing as their kids sparred together. Well, when they mean spar they mean Mia pretending to teach her brother so that she could tease him a bit. 

Both of them found themselves getting lost in the moment, their thoughts quickly overtaking their minds, the two of them thinking the same thing. At the end of this they would lose their children. Simple as that. 

No matter the explanation of ‘technically it’s not them’, and that their present selves are still here. All those excuses were blended up together and went straight out the window. Being parents, it didn’t matter what version, real, fake, dream, or imaginary version this was of their children. They were still their children, and it still felt like a stab to the gut to even think about losing their children. Their precious children that they are fighting so hard to protect. 

Instead of seeing their two grown kids sparring, they saw a sixteen year old William and three year old Mia. The two of them playing on the mat. They saw Mia laughing and screaming in complete and utter euphoria as her big brother dodged her attacks and pretended to gently hit her. They saw William picking up his little sister and holding her upside down, teasing that he was gonna drop her. The smile and laughter from his face helping show he wasn’t serious, he would never let his little sister fall. The screams and laughter of a sixteen year old Will and a three year old Mia echoed throughout the bunker. 

The two of them were brought out of their heavy, emotional moment as Mia stuck her leg out and made her brother flop hard onto his back, William groaned in pain. 

“Mia.” Oliver and Felicity both warned at the same time, throwing on their best scolding parent faces. Mia looked up from smiling down at her brother. 

“What? I was just teaching him a move.” Mia was so distracted by her parents that she failed to see William moving his legs, and in a single move, Mia joined her brother on the floor of the mat, letting out a soft groan of pain. 

“Hah! See! Not so fun is it.” Will gloated. Mia glared at her brother from her spot on the floor,

“Uh-oh,” Will knew that glare all too familiar, it was usually when he said some snide remark or teased her too far and she was about to flick him on the ear. Will rushed to get up off the mat to get as far away as possible. 

“Get back here!” Mia exclaimed before kicking up and rushing to chase her brother’s retreating form. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Oliver rushed out, trying not to let the smile show on his face…too late.  Will had taken solace at hiding behind his Dad’s back, knowing that it would stop Mia from going any further.  

“Save your energy for tonight, now the two of you grab your stuff and we’ll grab some lunch,” The two of them watched their kids walk away.

“and no fighting!” Felicity added. 

With their children no longer present, the two parents let out their laughter that they were holding back. 

“They are definitely Queen siblings,” Felicity emphasized. Wrapping her arms around her husband’s waist, trying to be as close to him as possible. Following suit, Oliver wrapped his arms around his wife and met her smile. 

“Hey, Thea and I…” Oliver trailed off, trying to come up with something to say, instead being met with his wife’s tilted head to prove her point. 

“Yeah you’re right,”

“I always am,” 

“Mmm maybe that’s why I married you,” Their heads slowly moved in together, embracing each other with a warm and happy kiss. Enjoying the peaceful and quiet moment. Slowly drawing themselves back, Felicity settled her head on her husband’s chest. The two of them letting themselves get comfortable into the embrace. Both of their thoughts racing to the same idea. 

“Oliver,” Felicity let out, defeated. 

“I know.” There were both thinking the same thing. The same thought running through their heads. 

They remained in the embrace, letting themselves comfort one another. 

“MOM! DAD! YOU’RE CHILDREN ARE HUNGRY!” And just like every other parent they were interrupted by their children yelling for them. 

“Yeah, we are gonna have to get used to being interrupted.” Oliver groaned out bringing themselves out of their moment. 

With one last sweet kiss, Felicity began walking over to their hungry children. 

“Okay, I think I’m feeling some tacos…” Oliver listened as Felicity’s voice trailed off the further she walked away. Glancing one more time at the mat, Oliver closed his eyes and let himself enjoy that moment again before opening his eyes back to the present. 

Walking away, the thought replaying in his mind was the one him and Felicity shared. 

I don’t want to lose our kids.

Notes:

I know things are moving along pretty fast but trust me. It will all come together in the end. Please keep leaving comments. I really enjoy reading them.

Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Summary:

Everything has been leading up to this moment! Who is going to sacrifice themselves in this chapter? Who knows.

Notes:

Also. Sorry if the technical stuff doesn't make sense I am in no way an expert.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Will found it funny that no matter how many times they went over a plan, no matter how many back up plans they made, and especially no matter how many precautions they took. When events happened in the field there was always some sort of blowback to their faces, and in this case for Will. It was literal. His face caked in sweat and blood from the head wound, the blood trickling down the side of his face. (Don’t even get him started). His fingers moving as fast as they could on the computer, just needing a few more lines of code and then they could make a break for it. 

At the beginning of the night everything was fine. While William was on the ground with Nolan, infiltrating and starting their coding for the program, putting the security systems on a loop. The rest of the team was making their moves and planting the bombs, trying not to be seen. The ARGUS team was on standby for backup and for when they would capture everyone in the Ninth Circle. Everything had been going fine, until Emiko decided to make a surprise visit again to the security room and was somehow able to recognize that the security system was being played on a loop. That was when she called Nolan into her office and…tortured the information out of him. 

With their plans revealed the team had split up. Mia was in charge of protecting William so that he could finish the coding, Digg and Rene were in charge of planting the rest of the bombs, while Oliver, Dinah, and their ARGUS backup fought the Ninth Circle men that were sent to take care of them. With Emiko going straight for her brother. 

That’s where they found themselves now. He could hear the grunts from Mia as she was holding off anyone that tried to rush into the room. The rest of the Ninth Circle’s army distracted by the the team and the ARGUS agents outside. Will had managed to convince everyone in the room that living was more important than some job, he was only met by one disgruntled worker who managed a few hits to William before Mia arrived. Luckily all that training and instincts kicked in and William was able to knock him out just as Mia walked in. With that the rest of them evacuated, choosing safety.  

Digg had set all of the bombs in their right places, the charges set and ready to be fired off by just a click of the button from Felicity. 

“WILLIAM HOW MUCH LONGER?” Mia questioned, yelling towards her brother, breathless. 

“I’M TYPING AS FAST AS I CAN! WITH THE CODING AND THE ALGORITHM IN PLACE IT SHOULD TAKE A COUPLE MORE MINUTES!” Mia grunted, taking out another one of the Ninth Circle’s men, taking a breath. 

“We might not have a couple of minutes,” Mia whispered under her breath taking out another one of the Ninth Circle’s members. 

This was it. The final stand off. The one thing standing between them and having their happy ending as a family. They would do whatever it takes to complete this. 

“Guys we have a problem!” Felicity screamed into everyone’s ears. It made everyone stop dead in their tracks. 

“Great, what now?” William asked. 

“There is a decryption program coming from Nolan’s laptop and it sort of…activated the bombs.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone screamed at the same time. 

Just like that. The small amount of hope that they had been feeling, the happy ending that they were looking forward to, just turned to dust. 

“How is that even possible? Aren’t your computers highly encrypted?” William question, spurred on to type even faster. 

“Well to put it in laments terms Nolan told Emiko everything and had him hack the override switch without me noticing because we are so focused on deleting A.R.C.H.E.R, and well there is no killing the detonation, you guys have five minutes. The two of you need to get the HELL out of there!!!” Their Mom was screaming at them. The desperation in her voice, “I can finish decrypting the program from here, just get out of there,”

“I agree with your Mom, you two get the hell out of there!” Their Dad growled in his Arrow voice. 

Mia and Will both threw each other a desperate look, Mia looking to her brother for the next step. The next phase in their disastrous plan. They both turned off their comms. 

“Mom can’t run it on her computer. If it’s just her running the program she won’t have enough time to delete A.R.C.H.E.R before these servers get completely blown by the explosion.” Will paused, letting the realization settle in at what they had to do next. Letting the realization settle in with the fact that they were going to actually go with sacrificing themselves. That this would be their last stand. 

They knew that this was the inevitable. That this was the endgame. It ended with the two of them…ceasing to exist. Sure there had been that slim chance where Sarah had said there was a light possibility that they would be sent back to their timeline and end up in an alternate universe…but, Barry begged to differ. Mia was holding back all her fears and anxieties, holding back the tears that this would be her last moments. The same look in her eyes matched her brothers. But they both knew they couldn’t let the fear overtake them. Mia and Will both let the tears escape their eyes, this was it. 

“MIA! WILLIAM!” They both heard their Dad shout back at them as they turned their comm systems back on. William went back to typing as fast as he could. 

“The blast from the explosion will fry the servers and you won’t have enough time to decrypt the program.” William stammered out. There was a pregnant pause from the other side of the line before,

“NO! The two of you need to get the hell out of there now!” Now it was their Mom’s turn to demand. Her voice full of worry and concern so much that it slightly wavered. 

“I’m sorry. But we have no other option.” William added apologizing. 

“no,” was whispered softly into their ears from both of their parents. Their hearts breaking at the sound. The both of them unable to keep the tears they were holding back from flowing down their cheeks. 

Mia had never been really good with words. She always felt that actions spoke louder, she didn’t really like confronting her feelings, because that was showing that she was vulnerable…a sign of weakness. But now. In her final moments, as she replayed the days that she had together with her family over and over again. All she had was words to say. 

“These past few days have been the best days of my life. We got to spend real time together as a family. We got to have a semi normal family dinner where we laughed and joked with one another.” Mia sobbed out with a smile. The tears getting fatter and fatter on both her and her brother’s cheeks. 

“For the first time ever I got to meet my Dad…I got to hug my Dad.” Mia cried out. 

“Thank you. Thank you for always loving us.” William added. 

“We love you.” Was the last thing they said.


Diggle and Rene were physically holding Oliver back as he tried to rush into the building  to go and drag his kids out. His kids who were ready to sacrifice everything.

“You have to let me go! YOU HAVE—THOSE! THOSE ARE MY KIDS! I CAN’T—THEY CAN’T—,” Oliver was hysterical. It broke everyone’s hearts, their eyes pouring with tears, their hearts going out to their friend, their hearts aching for the kids that they had bonded with the past few days. Their laughs echoing inside their minds for the last time, wanting to remember them as happy. 

The echoing explosion from the building shocked everyone out of their minds. All of their mouths dropping in shock as they watched The Ninth Circle’s base of operations explode into pieces. They tried not to let their minds wander as to where exactly Will and Mia were in all of that chaos. Not letting their minds wander and think about how crushed their bodies would be. 

In their ears they could hear the sobs from Felicity as she cried and mourned over the loss of her children. Oliver, in the midst of hearing his wife sobbing, and trying to process losing his children, fell to the floor. Unable to hold himself up anymore. Oliver remained totally unaware of the tears that were pouring out of his eyes and down his cheeks. He stayed motionless as he remained there on his knees, Oliver’s gaze one of pure and utter defeat as he stared at the burning building. The only thing coursing through his mind was the bright and happy faces of his children a few hours ago. 

“Felicity…” Oliver started into the comm set, not even knowing how to comfort his wife. Oliver didn’t even know how he felt, his heart continuing to break, how could he be strong right now for his wife. Just as he started to get lost in his thoughts, Dinah shouted.

“LOOK!” Oliver’s eyes snapped up to the building burning, the haze from the smoke blocking their sight a bit, but Oliver could still see as two bodies emerged from the smoke one leaning heavily on the other. Not wanting to get his hopes up, Oliver’s breath caught in his throat. A feeling in the pit of his stomach rising more and more up, until,

“MIA! WILLIAM!” William was leaning heavily on Mia as the two of them limped out of the burning building. 

The shock of what he was seeing made Oliver rise off his knees and rush to his children, the rest of the team following not far behind. Grabbing his other son’s dangling arm, Oliver wrapped it around his neck so he could take over the weight of William from Mia. His eyes not leaving Mia or William’s for one second, taking in all the injuries that he could see. Their faces covered in soot from the fire, mixing in with the sweat running down their foreheads. 

“What you thought we were dead?” Mia added sarcastically, trying to make light of the heavy situation. 

“We’re your kids…it’s gonna take a whole lot more than that to get us,” William gritted through his teeth. That seemed to break the rest of the tension that had been holding them together. Just like that they all broke out into relieved laughs. Every single one of them grateful for the more time they were granted with these two amazing kids. 

Despite everything, Oliver was too wrapped up in his emotions. Oliver brought both of his children in for a warm embrace, the two of them in each arm, each of his hands cradling each one of their heads. He could feel their arms slowly wrap themselves around their Dad, grateful for this moment. Grateful for the more time they were given to spend with their family. 

William and Mia ignored their impending doom that was looming on the horizon, and instead they hugged their Dad as tight as they could. 

Notes:

Whew. Thank you again so much. We are almost at the end. Just one more chapter then the epilogue. I really appreciate you guys.

Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Summary:

This is it. Get ready for the official departure of William and Mia.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“PROCHNOST!” Everyone cheered as they clinked their glasses together before they all took a drink. 

“Oh yeah…I definitely needed that.” William muttered out as he finished taking a shot. 

After the whole explosion and effective cleanse of the Ninth Circle, A.R.G.U.S. took over the clean up. Dealing with everyone that was left and arresting them to take them to some secret prison. With the whole nearly dying thing they had come back to the bunker for everyone to get patched up and recuperate. 

Mia’s death grip on their Dad’s hand didn’t once loosen up the whole time that Digg was stitching up the deep cut on Mia’s arm. The minute William tried to tease her, their Mom poked him in his bruised ribs that she was wrapping up and gave him the warning,

“Be nice to your sister,”

Now they found themselves gathered around their own round table in the bunker, celebrating that they now had a future. Eating pizza that Dinah somehow managed to pickup without them noticing. 

“Whoah, this is…strong,” Rene grimaced out, “yeah, this definitely going to help,”

“I still cannot believe that this is all finally over,” Digg added, everyone nodding in a agreement. 

“I just wanted to say. Thank you guys. I mean. I know Mia and I came here with the intention not to use any of your guys’ help. But. You guys proved and showed us that we needed a team.” 

“Not to get too sappy but I agree with Will,” Mia looked down at the empty shot glass in her hand, trying to find the right words, “Thanks for letting us have a second chance at having a family.” Mia tried to finish that last part without getting too emotional.

“Well no matter what timeline you two are from. You guys are family.” Dinah added. The team stood there taking in the precious moment. 

“So, I’m guessing this is where you two disappear off into your little time machine to go see how much your past has changed. Hopefully we didn’t cause too much damage to the timeline.” Rene chimed in, his face bright and eager.

“Well whatever it is I’m sure it can’t be any worse than when Barry created flashpoint.” Digg added.

The Queen family all shared a knowing look together. Despite everything they still haven’t told the team. Not wanting them to get wrapped up in everything. Even now they were still hesitant to tell them anything at all.

The conversation between the rest of the team faded away as they walked off towards the table of pizza and cake. Stuffing themselves with more food, and leaving the family with their last goodbye’s.

“So. What happens next?” Oliver questioned, scared for the answer. He reached for Felicity’s hand for reassurance, Will and Mia shared a look. 

“Well to be honest. We have no idea. We could disappear now or maybe in a few days. We don’t know how long it takes for the timeline to cement.” Oliver took a deep shuddering breath and let out a huge sigh. 

“Listen. I know I wasn’t around much William. And Mia, I know I wasn’t around at all. But you guys should know that I have always and always will be proud of you two. No matter what happens in the future, no matter what the future may bring us. Your mother and I will be proud of you guys.” Felicity nodded in agreement, tears in everyone’s eyes. 

“Your father and I will always try to be the best parents that we can be for the two of you. Protecting you two, and doing what is best for you two. Doesn’t mean we will be perfect, and we will still make plenty of mistakes. But just know we love you two, and we are doing our best.”

“Hopefully teenage me will try and remember that when he gets grounded by the two of you.” The Queen family all laughed at William’s joke. 

Oliver opened his arms and they settled in for a big, family hug. A hug that could last them until their family was soon reunited. 

“Well, that’s enough crying for me,” Mia uttered. The family laughed and came out of the hug.

“I don’t know about you guys but I could sure use another slice of that cake.” They continued laughing and enjoyed the moment. Oliver and Felicity walked off slowly hand in hand, William trialing slowly behind them while Mia stood in her spot for a few more seconds.

Mia finally let herself truly and genuinely enjoy the moment. Here she was finally with her family, she had her mom, dad, and William. They no longer had to worry about saving anyone or anything right now. Mia, in this moment was more happy than she had been in a long time. She had no idea when the timeline would decide that her and her brother would be erased or even if they would be erased, time travel was weird like that. 

No matter when that was Mia was happy to be taken at any time. Her new self, the baby growing in her mother’s stomach would get to grow up with her father and her brother. William would get to grow up like a normal teenager and not have all this baggage he claimed to have. Mia would have more time to annoy him as a little sister. That last part brought a bright smile to Mia’s face. 

Mia was okay. 

That was when she started to feel a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach.


William was beyond happy. They had managed to save their future. It was bringing tears of joy to his face. He would no longer be using the excuse ‘Daddy issues’ when he was dating, which would be a huge relief later on in life. There were different scenarios running through his minds. Him being reunited with his parents and getting to come home, getting to hold Mia as a baby for the first time. Felicity teaching him different ways to hack that they would hide from his Dad. Dad teaching him how to cook. It brought complete and utter joy to William’s face. He was even looking forward to Mia annoying him as a little kid. 

William glanced back to look at Mia, and the bright and eager smile he was wearing quickly slid off his face seeing the pained and shocked look on her face.

“Mia?” William questioned worryingly. The worry in his tone caused their parents to turn around as well.

“Will?” Mia whispered out before falling onto the floor.

“MIA!” The three of them screamed out and rushed over to Mia’s crumpled form on the floor. The sound of worry caused the rest of the team to rush over from where they had been eating.

Oliver cradled his daughter’s head in his lap, trying to make sure she was okay, while Felicity and William each held on of her hands. Mia opened her eyes slowly, her mind disoriented. 

“Dad?” Mia slowly questioned, looking up and smiling up at her father.

“Yeah? What’s the matter?” Oliver let out, horribly worried.

“I don’t feel so good.” Her voice trembling. Oliver, Felicity, and Will all looked at each other with concerned looks. 

“What the hell is going on?” Digg questioned, trying to figure out if he should get the med kit. A sudden realization hit William like a freight train.

“The timeline,” he let out slowly. Just like that, those two words turned into Oliver and Felicity’s worse nightmare.

“I-I I feel like...I don’t know what I’m feeling.” Mia was slowly stuttering out. No matter how absolutely terrified Felicity and Oliver were of losing their children, they knew, in their children’s final moments, they needed them to feel safe.

“Hey, hey. Mia it’s-it’s okay. Alright. You-you are safe and-and your family is here okay.” Oliver bent down to give his daughter a kiss on her forehead, the tears flowing freely down his cheeks. Oliver felt like he was losing a piece of his heart. 

Mia’s mind and body were completely disoriented, her mind not knowing at all what was happening. She smiled up at her father, happy to see him at last, she turned her head and saw.

“Mom!” Mia let out excitedly. Her eyes full of complete joy. Felicity couldn’t help the small sob that escaped her mouth.

“Yeah baby. I’m right here.” Felicity gently caressed her daughter’s face, wiping away the tears. Felicity put on a comforting smile for Mia, but she couldn’t help the tears flowing down her face. 

“I-I thought you-you were gone forever.” Felicity shook her head.

“No. No I’m right here. Alright. I’m right here and I’m not gonna leave you okay.” Felicity brought up Mia’s hand to give it a small kiss. 

“Hey Willy,” Mia smiled, teasing her brother again.

“Hey. You know one day I’m gonna come up with an annoying nickname for you.” The tears on Will’s face were flowing freely as he witnessed his sister slowly deteriorate right in front of his eyes. 

“I-I know I don’t s-say it t-that often, but but I do do love love you.” Will let out a tearful laugh. His nose sniffling as he tried to clear his eyes from the tears in his face. 

“I love you too.” 

“I love love all of you guys.” Mia stuttered out. She was speaking to everyone in the room but her eyes remained on the faces of her parents and her brother. 

“It-it feels like I’m f-fading away.” Oliver gently shushed her. Oliver brought her up, his chest and body bracketing Mia’s body, her back against him. 

“Hey-hey, it’s gonna be okay alright. I want you to keep your eyes on us okay. Mia, I need you to keep your eyes open for me okay for as long as you can. You don’t, don’t need to be scared okay. You Mom, brother and I are here for you alright.” Mia nodded along slowly understanding.

“Uh—oh.” Will let out, before slumping over on the floor next to his sister.

“William! No-no no!” Felicity quickly scrambled to get to William’s limp body. With help from Digg Felicity was next to Oliver, William’s body leaning against his mother and sister, a scared expression on his face.

“M-Mom. D-ad. Please, please don’t make me leave. I-I’m scared.” 

“Hey, hey hey,” Felicity gently soothed Will’s face, trying to calm him down, “I know. We know Will. We don’t want you to go either. Okay. But hey, it’s going to be all okay alright. Alright  we are here. We are all right here.” Felicity and Oliver were trying to hold back their sobs, but it was difficult. The two parents were both holding their dying children in their arms, unable to do anything about it. All they could do was make sure their last few moments were peaceful and not scared. 

“Hey buddy,” Oliver sobbed out.

“Hey Dad.” Will smiled up at his Dad, his mind more aware than Mia’s, “I’m sorry sorry about every everything.” 

“No. Hey buddy. No. Nothing is your fault okay.” Oliver grabbed onto William’s shoulder, “You are the best son I could have asked for alright?” Oliver looked as William nodded in confirmation before he bent down to give his son a tearful kiss on his forehead. As the family and the team all surrounded the two kids, unsure and confused as to what was going on, they hoped that it wouldn’t get any worse.

“What, what’s going on?” Mia questioned.

They spoke too soon.

Mia glanced down to her left foot, but instead of seeing her black combat boots she saw what could only be described as bright white looking flakes slowly gathering on her foot before the tip of her foot was no longer there.

The tachyon particles. 

“What what’s going on?” The fear evident in Mia’s voice, she couldn’t stop staring as she watched her feet slowly start to disappear.

The room was completely stunned and shock.

“no, no, no,” Oliver whispered out softly.

“What?” William let out breathlessly. He brought his right hand up watching as his hand slowly collected in the same white light, turning into scales and his hand slowly disappearing.

Mia and Will both began to freak out.

“Hey, hey, hey, Mia. Will look at your Mom and I okay. Look up at us hey come on.” Oliver was trying to calm them down, despite how completely scared Oliver was. Felicity tried to hold back her sobs.

“There we go.” Felicity responded when Will and Mia met their gazes. Ever since the two of them arrived Felicity couldn’t help but see them as how grown they were. But now, as Oliver and Felicity cradled them in their final moments all she could see were two scared little kids. Kids that had run to their Mom and Dad’s room because they were scared of the dark. Two scared little kids that needed their Mom and Dad more then ever. 

“Everything is gonna be okay. Alright.” Felicity tried reassuring them.

“I want you two to close your eyes alright. Just close them and everything will be okay. We are right here. Your Mom and I aren’t letting go okay. You-you guys are just gonna fall asleep and and when you two wake up everything will be okay.” The fear on Mia and Will’s faces were slowly fading away as they looked up at their parent’s faces, all of their eyes full of tears. 

Mia and Will took one last look at their Mom and Dad before finally closing their eyes. Unable to play witness as their bodies slowly began to turn into this weird bright light flakey substance while parts began to disappear. 

Felicity and Oliver took another look at their beautiful children, choosing to remember them for the good moments, they closed their eyes as well. Pushing their heads together and laying them on Mia and Will’s heads, Oliver brought his arms out, pulling his family together as tightly as he could. 

Hoping that he could hold onto them for just a bit longer. But as the timeline became finally cemented, the former timeline featuring William Clayton and Mia Smoak disappeared along with them. 

Feeling their children disappear, Felicity and Oliver let their bodies become overtaken with sobs as they clutched onto one another. Their screams of anguish and the sobs from the team echoed throughout the bunker.

Notes:

I know. I know. That was a lot. But don't worry. Epilogue coming soon.

Chapter 20: Epilogue

Summary:

The happiness begins

Notes:

First I wanted to thank you all so much for everything. I am really happy with this ending.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

William was frantic; running around trying to find what he was looking for. The day already had him as stressed as can be he didn’t need this on his plate as well. William was sure that it was a life or death situation. 

“MOM!” William yelled out to the rest of the house. 

“Yes?” Felicity popped her head into William’s doorway to see the 18 year old frantically turning over everything in his room. His usually neat and clean room with the occasional underwear or video game laying around was a complete and utter disaster. 

“Whoah. Looks like a tornado found its way in here.” Felicity replied jokingly. William’s head peaked up from behind his bed, an unamused look on his face. 

“Okay tough crowd.” 

“I can’t find my speech cards anywhere!” 

“Did you try looking in our bathroom where you were practicing last night?” William’s face lit up as he remembered, and shot up from his place on the floor. 

William was dressed in his school’s signature green graduation gown. The yellow stole standing out as it was draped across his shoulders. His dark navy blue suit and crisp white shirt peaking out from the small dip in the graduation gown. 

“Thanks Mom!” William let out quickly as he rushed passed his Mom and towards the end of the hallway towards his parents bedroom. 

It was the day of William’s high school graduation. Of course he graduated top of his class and was giving a commencement speech and he was as nervous as he could get. He had been practicing so much that his parents kept telling him he could give the speech without his cards. It didn’t mean he should.

It had been five years since the whole Ninth Circle fiasco and the Queen family was thriving. After finally dealing with everything, William had come back home that same year. Just wanting to be back in the same house as his parents. 

As soon as Felicity hit six months they had managed to find the perfect house for them in Star City. Perfect for their family of four. It had a master bedroom with their own bathroom. Something Oliver was looking forward to. He loved his son dearly. But having to tell Will to pick up his dirty clothes from their bathroom was tiring. Plus the home came with its own home office (something Felicity was looking forward to). A bedroom for each William and Mia (something everyone was grateful for). Plus the big backyard and pool. 

The last one was apart of William’s ‘absolutely must haves’ in his list for potential homes, right above pool table on that same list. 

It was a home that they could be a family in, plus enough room to have weekend BBQ’s with their ‘super’ extended family. 

With the fall of the Ninth Circle, ARGUS and the FBI had their hands full putting away so many criminals. With a rocky road ahead of them and thanks to Dinah cleaning up the SCPD the city showed its thanks by giving full pardons to The Green Arrow and his team. Giving the city back its masked vigilante hero. The Green Arrow was finally being celebrated. 

With Oliver able to be more at ease with himself and the team, plus with their newborn baby Mia. Oliver hung up his hood for a solid year. Dedicating his full time to his family. Wanting to be there every step of the way with Mia and reconnecting with William. 

With Oliver being a stay at home Dad it also helped Felicity able to get Smoak Tech off the ground and moving. 

In just five years Smoak Tech was a millionaire dollar company that would pretty soon be a billion dollar company by the end of the year. With their ‘implantable bio-stimulant’ as their first product the company was able to get its feet off the ground much sooner than anticipated. 

Smoak Tech was a company dedicated to ingenuity and creativity for science and technology. 

Despite being CEO of Smoak Tech, Felicity left more than enough room for her family. The weekends were for family and so were other major events in her children’s lives. She even kept enough room in her schedule for date night with her husband. Always Friday nights. This left Mia at a sleepover with her best friend Sarah Diggle and William at whichever friends house or other place him and his friends ended up that night. 

Now Oliver found himself breaking out the hood when things at the SCPD would get too much for them. Even breaking it out for whenever his fellow ‘super’ friends needed some assistance from the Green Arrow. 

But his most important job that Oliver found himself most dedicated to was father and husband. 

William rushed down the hallway and he bumped right into his baby sister Mia as she was running out of her room. 

“Willy! Don’t worry I am keeping your hat safe!”

“Thanks Mia.” William smiled down at his sister. Despiser her seemingly cute exterior and most of the time her demeanor. Mia was a force to be reckoned with at only the age of five. Some days William didn’t want to let go and some days he wanted to strangle her. Like that time she was three and drew all over his newly painted bedroom walls. Then there was last week when he was trying to relax by the pool and she wouldn’t stop splashing at him. 

He could just hear his Dad saying “they remind me of Thea and I”. His Dad’s favorite thing to say. 

But despite all this she still had her cute moments. Like all the times they played in the pool together, him chasing her around their backyard. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be in your dress?” Mia was dressed in her tank top and her arrow pajama bottoms. William’s green graduation cap on her small head slipping off slightly. Mia quickly brought her finger up to her mouth. 

“Shhh. I’m hiding from Daddy.” Her sneaky smile on her face was the same one she wore when they tried to sneak extra sugar snacks when their Dad wasn’t looking. It brought a smile to William’s face. 

“Well don’t hide for too long or else you’re going to miss my speech.” He warned. 

“Mia?” Oliver came down the hall from his room. Dressed for the ceremony in suit pants and shirt, his sleeves rolled up, ready for anything. 

Mia turned and ran back into her room. Hiding in her princess tent she called her clubhouse. 

Oliver let out a sigh in frustration. 

“I swear your sister lately has been difficult about getting dressed.” 

“Well she is half you and half mom.” William said jokingly. Oliver gave William a teasing glare. 

“Is Mia not wanting to get dressed again?” Felicity came down the hall to see the commotion. She smiled up at Oliver while he threw her a pleading look. 

“I will get our daughter dressed while you help our son relax and find his speech.”

“I’m relaxed!” William cut in, offended, he was met with skeptical looks from both his parents. 

William went off into his parents bedroom to their bathroom. There on the bathroom counter between the two sinks was William’s notecards. 

“Thank God!” William let out a relived sigh. William looked up at his reflection, he could see the nervousness now on his face. Staring closer, William could see his gelled hair beginning to fall a bit. He groaned out in frustration. 

“Here let me,” Oliver added gently. William turned to face his Dad, letting him try and fix his hair. 

“So. This is it. The beginning of the rest of your life.” 

“If you’re trying to calm me down that isn’t helping.” Oliver chuckled glancing down at the serious nervousness on Will’s face. 

“Listen buddy. You have practiced this speech day in and day out, you have it down. But I’m getting the feeling that it’s not the speech you’re worried about.” 

Will gave his Dad a nervous look, one that Oliver knew all too well. Oliver couldn’t help but notice how Will was able to easily look him in the eyes, it brought an unexpected tightness to Oliver’s chest. Even more evidence that his son was growing up before his very eyes, and he got to be there for every second of it.

“You’re right. I mean. It’s graduation then I have summer vacation with my friends and then. I’m off to college.” William seemed to trail off at this point. 

“A full ride on an honors scholarship to MIT I might add.” Will smiled at the proudness in his Dad’s voice, before it slowly slid off into nervousness. 

“What if…what if I can’t make any new friends? What if it turns out that I don’t like MIT? What if?” Will trailed off at seeing his Dad chuckle lightly. 

“Dad! I’m serious!” 

“Will. We toured MIT and you even got to stay at their prospective students event for the weekend. As far as friends goes William you have managed to make friends everywhere you go.” Oliver paused a bit, letting those words sink in for William. 

“Listen. I know it’s a bit scary to be on your own on the other side of the country. But despite how far we maybe, your Mom and I are always a phone call away. Just because you’re gone doesn’t mean we are going to forget about you. Far from it actually. You might actually be annoyed with how many times we will call you.” William couldn’t help but laugh. 

“I think saying goodbye to Mia will be the hardest part.” Oliver couldn’t help how his heart clenched at that thought. Since the day Mia was born, the brother and sister were inseparable. Then when she learned to walk all she wanted to do was follow her brother around like a duck. Despite their less than stellar moments as siblings when they were annoying each other, they still had a bond like no other. 

“Well your sister is strong. She gets that from her older brother.” William smiled at his Dad. Forgetting about his hair he brought his Dad in for a hug. Father and son both stood there enjoying the moment. 

“Also nothing wrong with enjoying some college parties.” William laughed at his Dad, of course. Oliver Queen and his notorious partying. They came out of the embrace and William turned to look at himself in the mirror. His hair back and put into place. 

“Of course don’t sleep around like I did,” William’s face went red. 

“Dad!” Oliver laughed. 

“Well I know it’s been a month since you and Jason broke up but I’m just saying still treat them with respect.”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe what you’re saying.” William was putting his face in his hands.

“I’m just saying you’re lucky your mother stopped me from going out as the Green Arrow to talk to him.” 

“You’re joking right?” William gave his Dad a shocked and embarrassed look. The image that popped into Oliver’s head was him about to head out the garage on his motorcycle fully intent on scaring Jason shitless when Felicity came out to stop him. 

“Yeah,” Oliver said skeptically. Will smiled, sometimes it was events like these that reminded William his parents cared. 

“May I present little Miss Mia Queen,” Felicity playfully announced before walking into the bathroom. In her arms was Mia dressed and ready for William’s graduation, her golden blonde braid peeking out from Will’s graduation cap. 

“Well I’m glad Mommy was able to wrestle you into that dress.” Oliver added, smiling at Felicity.

“It’s green! Like you and William Daddy!” Oliver smiled, his eyes crinkling up in happiness. 

“Yes that’s right Mia, and you look very beautiful.” Something he always made sure to tell his family everyday. 

“William everything is set up outside and inside for the party.”

“Thanks Mom. You know you guys didn’t have to throw me a party.” 

“Mmm. Trust me. Your Dad and I are more than happy to have this party. Plus. It lets us have fun with our friends too.” William smiled. 

“Okay Mia I think it’s time to give me my cap now,” William held his hand out for Mia to give it to him when she leaped out of Felicity’s arms and out of the bathroom yelling,

“Catch me first!” 

“Mia!” William shouted back, chasing after her. Oliver and Felicity just stood there and shared a laugh. 

“So what was he really freaking out about?” Felicity questioned, adjusting her makeup a bit. 

“Well you know. Normal college kids stuff, worried about leaving home.” Oliver wrapped his arms around Felicity’s waist, watching her while she concentrated on her makeup. 

“He’s going to be just fine.”

“I don’t know if that’s supposed to reassure us.” Felicity smiled, turning in her husband’s arms. 

“We just need to realize that this is part of it. I mean sure I am going to probably bawl at his speech and when they call his name, ugh, I’m tearing up at even the thought of when we have to say goodbye.” Oliver quieted his wife’s thoughts by placing a calming kiss on her lips. 

“We will cross that bridge when we get there.” Oliver added. They could hear the sounds of Mia’s joyful screams from the living room. 

“Meanwhile we should go make sure our kids try not to destroy anything.” 

They walked out hand in hand, stopping at the opening before the living room. They watched as William chased Mia around the couch, his gown trailing behind him as they played cat and mouse. Both of their smiles an laughter echoed through the house. 

Felicity leaned back in her husband’s arms the two of them enjoying the sight before them. A memory trying to poke it’s way through. 

“Deja vu?” Felicity questioned. 

“Yeah. A bit. But I mean they do love chasing each other.” Felicity couldn’t help the feeling that there was something she was missing. The sense that she had walked into a room and completely forgot why she was there. 

The sounds of screeching laughter brought her back out of her thoughts. All Felicity knew now was their family was complete and happy…well almost complete. 

“Should we tell them yet?” Oliver’s hands drifted from her hips to her stomach, still flat, after all she was only a couple weeks along. 

“No. Let’s give Will this week to himself. He’s going to need it.” Oliver added on. Felicity nodded. Overjoyed at how happy William would be to be a brother again. She was more worried about how Mia was going to react. 

They watched as William finally caught Mia, grabbing her and dangling her upside down, the cap and her hair falling, her screams of laughter louder. 

“Okay let’s not keep the ceremony waiting. Will. Rene, Dinah, Digg and Lyla are already at the stadium.”

“Oh! Is Connor going?” Mia quickly questioned. Her new best friend and the Diggle’s recent adoption. Felicty couldn’t help but smile at how happy Mia looked. 

“Yes. Also your Uncle Barry and Iris are almost there, they were just wrangling up the twins. I don’t know what they’re going to do when their powers manifest.”

“Well hopefully Barry can keep up,” Oliver teased. 

“Uncle Barry said that I could piggyback with him and I can go super super fast!”

“Hey but the Green Arrow is still your favorite,” Oliver asked, reaching down to pick up his daughter.

“Hmmmmm?” Mia pretended to think, in response, Oliver began to tickle her.

“Yes, yes!” She responded breathlessly. 

“Okay. Let’s please make sure we have everything before we leave.” With that the family began the usual proceedings of leaving the house, Felicity grabbing her purse, Mia rushing to grab her Flash and Arrow toys, and William making sure he had his speech and phone. They walked out the door and Oliver armed their security before shutting the door behind him.

Notes:

Thank you all so much for this journey. It was a fun and long one, but worth it. I think maybe I want to do some one shots that take place before and after the epilogue, just some short ones. If you guys want?
Thank you again.

Notes:

Thank you please leave comments and kudos.