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Paradise Dimension
May 2023
“Oliver...I don’t know how this works but if you can hear me, we need to to talk.”
Oliver Queen closed his eyes against the urge to respond as his best friend’s voice reverbatsd across space and time but he knew what John Diggle wanted and as desperately as he wanted it too... it just wasn’t possible. And debating it with John would just make it hurt worse.
“She’s not okay, man. I mean, she hasn’t been okay for more than three years but it’s different now. I’m scared, Oliver.”
Desperately clinging to the hope that John was simply saying what he knew would get his attention, Oliver appeared at his aide, “What do you mean by that?”
Even before he spoke, the tears in John’s eyes killed that hope, “I didn’t realize it until a few weeks ago but she’s never stopped looking for you. She’s losing hope and as she does... She’s reminding more and more of someone I met more than a decade ago. And you and I both know, I could only save him because of her. Without him, I don’t.... I really don’t fhink I can save her, man. Not without you.”
“I don’t.... Are you saying she’s violent? Because I just don’t believe that.”
“No, in order to be violent, she’d have to interact with the outside world and she really doesn’t. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about her not really caring if this ends with her having a pulse. And, in her case, I think kind of hoping it doesn’t.”
Oliver shoved his hands through his hair in.... Frustration? Devastation? Desperation? He wasn’t sure as all those emotions were coursing through him. He’d never deluded himself into believing that he hadn’t left her heartbroken. And that knowlege had always added an edge to his own heartbreak but what John was describing was far worse than he’d ever imagined. “John, what am I supposed to do? I can’t go home!”
“I suggest you use those powers of yours to find a way. Because I really don’t think the destiny she’s headiing for right now is the one you saw or want written for her. Or your kids...Two orphaned by the age of four and one who loses three parents before he gets out of high school.”
“Of course, it’s not, John! But-“ Oliver broke off as John’s words penetrated his mind. “Two orphaned by the age of four? John, what are you talking about?”
John sighed. As desperate as he was to reach Oliver, he hadn’t meant to drop that on him like this. He reached for his phone and pulled up a photo, handing it to Oliver as he said, “Lucas Oliver Smoak-Queen. She really wanted Oliver Lucas but she has a hard time saying your name without crying so it didn’t really work. I didn’t mean to tell you like this...”
Oliver’s hands shook as he stared at the photo. From the ages of the children, it couldn’t be more than few weeks old but it wasn’t the presence of the baby boy he hadn’t known about or even the fact it was first time he’d seen any of them since shortly after his death, as watching them helplessly from another dimension had proven far more painful than any deliberate torture he’d ever been put through, that shook him. It was the nearly complete lack of light in those beautiful blue eyes. He’d seen her in so much pain over the years but even newly paralyzed and largely abandoned by her fiancé in the aftermath, that light had barely dimmed. And now, because of him, it was almost gone. “Where is she right now? I can’t promise I can go back but I need to see her.”
“According your mom and hers, she’s usually at your grave about now. She knows your’re not there but talking to you seems to bring her some comfort. But Oliver, man, you can’t go to her and then disappear again! That absolutely will kill her.”
“Like you said, I have powers, she won’t know I’m there. But I have to see her”
“Okay but I’m not sure seeing her like this won’t kill you. It almost did me.”
Grounds of the Queen Mansion, Outside Star City
Felicity Smoak pressed her hands against the letters forming her husband’s name. She knew he wasn’t in this grave but touching his name made her feel closer to him somehow. Moreso tonight than usual, she almost felt like if she looked over her shoulder he’d be standing there but she was starting to believe that was never going to happen. “I think I’m scaring John. I think he realizes I don’t want to do this without you. That I don’t think I can. I know I promised to keep the children safe but they have our moms and John, Thea and Roy, they’ll be fine if I go-“
“You aren’t going anywhere!”
The anguished and slightly ragefilled voice that interupted her one-sided conversation with her husband’s grave froze Felicity in her tracks. She knew that voice, she hadn’t actually heard it in more three years but she knew it in her soul. She wanted to turn around but was afraid all she’d find was empty grass and proof that the shreds of sanity she’d been clinging to since he’d been gone had finally completely shattered. She felt hands settle on her shoulders and turn her into a familiar chest. She let her arms go around him but squeezed her eyes closed. If this was just another desperate fantasy, she didn’t think she’d survive it. A hand slipped under her chin and raised her face away from his chest, “Honey, look at me. Open you eyes.”
“I can’t..If you’re not real, I...”
“I’m real, Felicity. I’m sorry it took so long but I’m here and you can’t spend the rest of our lives with your eyes closed. I’ve seen you walk into enough things with your eyes open that that has to be terrible idea.”
Felicity laughed as she finally opened her eyes and looked into the eyes she’d missed so much. She slowly lifted her hand to cup his stubbled cheek and just as he had what seemed like a lifetime ago outside Slabside, he turned his face into. That was when she let herself believe because as beautiful as that indvidual moment had been, it was bookended by enough pain on both sides that it never made it into her fantasies. She whispered his name as his mouth lowered to hers..
He would have spent eternity in her arms if he could but, “There’s something I have to do. I’ll be back in a minute, stay here.”
“Oliver, no, please...”
“I did this in the wrong order. I’d planned to talk to Mar Novu before revealing myself but seeing you like that , I couldn’t wait.. i need to talk to him.”
“No, Oliver, he took you away! What if he won’t let you come back? I can’t lose you again!”
“No power in this universe or any other will stop me from coming back to you. I’m done playing by everyone else‘s rules and always being the one that loses. I swear I’ll be back before you know I’m gone,” he assured her with another kiss as he disappeared.
Oliver was speaking before he’d even fully appeared in front of Mar Novu, “I’m going home to my wife and children and I honestly don’t care if I have to rip apart the universe to do it so I suggest you figure out a way that doesn’t happen.”
“Oliver Queen cannot come back to life.”
“Well, he’s going to so I don’t know what to tell you. And I don’t actually think you have the power to stop me anymore so figure out a way.”
“Oliver Queen cannot come back to life.”
“Stop saying that! I’m not leaving her again!”
“In the eyes of the world , Oliver Queen must remain dead,” Mar Novu began. At Oliver’s glare, he continued, “ Let me finish, but with your powers , he can. To everyone else , you’ll be someone else but to those you love, you’ll be Oliver Queen”
“Is that possible? And it is, why the hell didn’t you tell me before?”
“ I wasn’t sure it was possible but when you went toJohn Diggle tonight, I knew we’d be having this conversation and that I had to figure it out. If you can create a solid enough new identity, it should work. Coupled with our powers, my understanding is that your wife’s skills should be able to do this. And given all you did sacrifice, your bizarre idea of paradise will still be waiting at the end of the journey.”
Oliver laughed as Mar Novu glanced dubiously at the office walls surrounding them, “it was the first place I saw her.”
“Had I known that, I might have realized sooner that we’d end up here. Go home, Oliver.” He waved his hand and Oliver was again standing in front of his grave. And his world.
“Felicity-“ he’d barely finished saying her name before she was in his arms, covering his face with desperate kisses. “You didn’t believe me, did you?”
“I believed you meant it but he’s so powerful and... i’ve heard ‘I’ll always come back before’...”
“Hey, I come back! It took a while and John and then you scaring the hell out of me but I came back!”
“Wait, John knew?”
“Not for very long. And I think as long as he believed I couldn’t come home, telling you I wasn’t techinically dead just seemed cruel. But after he saw you today, he basically yelled until I came to him and told me I had to figure it out because you’re weren’t okay. I’m so sorry I did this to you.”
“I don’t care anymore. You’re here, that’s all that matters. There’s someting I should tell you before we go inside but I don’t-“
“About Lucas? John told me, I don’t think he meant to. And we do need to talk about what you were saying when I showed up. Felicity, you were talking about-“
“We will talk about it, I promise but right now I just to celebrate. And figure out how to tell the world you’re not dead, again.”
“Actually, we can’t tell the world, the people we love can know but to the rest of the world, I have to stay dead. We’ll have to create a new identity for me, I’m thinking as your new love and eventual second husband. It might be nice to actually date this time...”
“We dated!” Felicity protested
“We went on one date that was blown up at which point I-“
“Became a jackass?” Felicity finished for him
Oliver laughed, “I was going to go with ‘freaked out’ but your version is probably more accurate so fine. And while it was wonderful, we then had what circumstances dictated was basically a one night stand before i-“ he paused as she opened her mouth. “I admit it’s probably still accurate but please don’t say ‘became a jackass’ again. Thank you. And then we were living and traveling the world togther, that isn’t dating. We went on a couple of dates the second time around but were still married a month after we got back together. We skipped a lot of steps and I think having to go through them to make this believable will be good for us.”
Moira Queen glanced out the window and froze. Her daughter in law was, as expected, standing in front of her son’s grave but she wasn’t alone. She was being held by a large man and from this distance, Moira couldn’t tell if it was voluntary. And unless John Diggle had returned, she rather doubted it. “Who’s out there with Felicity?”
Her daughter Thea and her fiancé Roy Harper followed her gaze before taking off at a run towards the door, “We’ll find out.”
“They’’ll protect her,” she assured a worried looking Donna Smoak just before Thea launched herself at the man. At first, she thought she was attacking him but she suddenly realized she was fiercely hugging him. And, although one of his hands never left Felicity, he was hugging her back just as fiercely. It was as Roy also launched himself at the man that she realized what she was seeing and started for the door.
“Where are you going? You can’t fight him!” Donna protested.
“Donna, look at him! Thea and Roy aren’t attacking him... They’re hugging him and he won’t take his hands off Felicity. That’s not an enemy... I don’t know how but that’s Oliver,” Moira replied as she started to run towards the group that had begun making it’s way owards the mansion. “Oliver!”
Felicity smiled and squeezed his arm as the other three pulled away to leave him alone with his mother, “We’ll see you inside. I need to check on the kids and figure out your new identity. I think we can tell William the truth. As much as I hate it, he’s lived with secrets before but-“
“Mia and Lucas are too young, I know. I love you and don’t make me too boring... The world has to buy that you’d move on from the Green Arrow to whoever I am.”
As they drifted out of site, he heard Thea mutter to the others, “Oh, good, saving the universe has given him a bigger ego. Who even knew that was possible?”
He was laughing as he reached for his mother’s hand, “Hi, Mom.”
“My beautiful boy... You’re back...and this time you’re happy.”
“Yes, I am. And you and Felicity seemed to be getting along. I was worried about that.”
“I was wrong. About her and considering how much you clearly never hated her for telling you the truth about Thea, about your feelings for her.”
“Is that why she was so convinced she’d lose me? That fear almost got her killed so thanks for that.”
“I’m sorry, I truly thought she was just your secretary who had a crush on you, not-“
“The love of my life? To be fair, I knew she was more than my secretary but I didn’t, or wouldn’t let myself, know what she truly meant back then either. Although even if she had just been my secretary, it wouldn’t make what you did okay!”
“I know and I am sorry but you just came back from the dead. Can we focus on that?”
“She used that to delay an uncomfortable conversation too but you’re right. And i need to see my children, let’s go inside.”
As they walked inside, he noticed only Thea, Roy and Donna remained downstairs, “Where’s Felicity?”
“She went upstairs to check on the children and do whatever she does to create a new identity. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal but it’s good to see you, Oliver,” Donna answered, holding out her arms
“It’s good to see you too. If it helps, at least 80% of what I’ve ever asked her to do has been illegal and she’s been fine,” he answered as he stepped into her arms
Thea laughed as she saw the look on Donna’s face, “Nearly limitless power and still no idea what mothers find comforting. I don’t think ‘she’s broken countless laws for me’ is quite what she was looking for, Ollie.”
“Sorry but you have to know that I’ll protect her with my life.”
“I do and I can tell you’re about coming out of your skin to get to them so go. The rest of us will be here when you get back.”
“Thanks,” Oliver said as he all but ran for the stairs. He paused momentarily as he noticed Donna walk over and embrace his mother.
Roy followed his gaze, “They’re close, it’s weird. And it doesn’t get less weird the longer you’re around it. It just... stays weird.”
“Yeah,” Oliver agreed as he headed towards the room where he could hear the click of computer keys. He paused in the doorway as he heard his son’s voice.
“Felicity, what are you doing?”
“Creating a new identity-“
“For who? We don’t have to into hiding again do we?”
“No, this identity is a really good thing.”
“Why?”
Felicity glanced over her shoulder, “I think I’ll let him explain that.”
“Who? What? Dad?!”
“Hey, buddy,” Oliver caught William as he ran at him
“You’re alive?”
“Yes but outside of the family, I can’t be-“
“Hence, Felicity’s new identity.”
“Yes, I’m sorry I have to ask you to keep a secret again but-“
“Dad, you’re alive and Felicity’s smiling again, I think that’s worth keeping a secret.
Just before he fell asleep, Oliver grabbed Felicity’s phone and took a picture of thei entwined hands on his chest before typing a quick message under it.
John Diggle smiled as he looked at the picture that proved all was finally at least close to right in this world, “You’re welcome, Oliver