So, this is it, this is the last chapter. Thanks to everyone who read the story.

I don't own Arrow, The Flash, ATOM, Arsenal, Black Canary, Catwoman, Batman or anyone else from DC Comics.

Arrow – Gotham Chronicles

Oliver finds Barry when he returns to Verdant, he's still in his Arrow suit and the nights almost over. The younger man sits on the stairs in the middle of the empty club staring into space.

"Barry? What are you doing here?" what Oliver means to ask is, why Barry looked like the world just ended, when he's pretty sure Barry absolutely loved every second of it, because it included meeting the 'who-is-who' of vigilantes.

"I just… I just wanted to… I don't know," Barry sighs and Oliver drops down next to him. He leans his bow carefully against the stairs and rids himself of the quiver.

Barry looks to him, "I thought I knew what it meant to be a hero, but I was wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after you and Batman left, Catwoman said some things and…"

"Forget that."

"What?"

"Whatever she said - forget it. Don't listen to her. Cat – Cat's a complicated woman. She's got her own view of justice, he own view of everything. She's twisted, broken even and whatever she said, she was wrong," Oliver can imagine what she may have said, considering their former conversations regarding The Flash.

"It didn't sound wrong," Barry points out.

"Look Barry, Cat has her very own perception of right and wrong and of what makes a hero. That doesn't mean hers is right. She has a way of seeing things that is very…" he searches for a word that isn't 'sick'. "… it's peculiar, narrow. She doesn't trust anyone, not even herself and she doesn't know you."

Barry takes a deep breath but Oliver isn't done.

"There are different kinds of heroes, Barry. I might not see myself as one, but I see you as a hero. I told you before that you are something that I can never be, because you can give people hope. You're not broken or doubting your ability to distinguish between right and wrong. You could use your speed for your own gain, but you don't. You're not driven by vengeance or revenge. You're a hero, don't doubt that."

Two things become clear to Barry then. First, Oliver is right, a hero isn't defined by his past, but by his present and his actions. Second, Cat is right as well, Oliver is fighting his inner demons every day and he should be admired for it. His past broke him, but he mended himself back together. He changed and he keeps changing – for the better every day. He no longer is the killer he once was, he has found a way to leave that behind him (but is still haunted by it). He doesn't always make the right decisions, because his past sticks with him, his trauma still lives within him, but he's trying twice as hard as everyone else every day.

"Thank you, Oliver," Barry says slowly. "For showing me, what a hero looks like."

Oliver smiles tightly.

Arrow

"What the hell was that?" Bruce rips his mask off and flings it across the room. "You tortured him!"

"I had no choice, he wasn't going to talk and we didn't know where he hid the bomb. What was your plan?" Oliver asks heatedly and starts washing the grease from his face. This situation had been entirely too close to Hong Kong and he had promised himself to never let something like that happen again. People died because he couldn't do what was necessary.

"You can't just torture a man!" Bruce roars. "What distinguishes us from them, is that we don't use the aim to justify our means. If we use their methods we become just like them. Criminals!"

"And you would have preferred if he'd blown up half the city?" Oliver screams back at him. He's grateful for what Bruce has done for him. He saved his life and gave him shelter while hiding from ARGUS. But he wasn't his lap-dog.

"There are other ways to make someone talk. You don't need to do this," Bruce's eyes flared with anger.

Oliver laughs dryly, "Because obviously your way is working so well. You stop the little fish, while the mob keeps corrupting the force because they know you won't really do anything to them. You're weak because you don't do what it takes to protect this city. If it wasn't for me, half the city would be mourning the loss of the other one."

"Get out!" Bruce's voice is deep and sharp, his eyes blast with fury.

Oliver grabs his bow and arrow, he's had enough. They had arguments like this over and over in the months he stayed here. Why can't Bruce understand that he only does what's necessary? Oliver shots Bruce one distasteful look and slams the door.

He wanders the town, his only possessions are few enough to fit into a duffle bag. Leaving the safety of Wayne Manor is a mistake, Oliver understands that very well. He could try to reach his family, but Waller had shown him what she was capable of, he wouldn't risk their safety. Maybe he should turn to the military. They had interfered with Waller once after all. Either way he has to disappear for now.

It takes Amanda Waller only two days to track him after he left Wayne Manor. He had tried to make his way to Russian, the Bratva might be the dangerous Russian mafia, but they are a brotherhood, his brotherhood and he is their captain. ARGUS gets to him before he even touches Russian ground.

"So, you're done playing hero with pointy sticks?" Waller eyes him coldly and Oliver knows his usefulness has run out. The interrogation room is kept at a low temperature but Oliver can't find himself to care about getting a cold.

"I don't assume you've got the YZD?"

"I'm afraid not," Oliver answers evenly. "What now? You'll kill me?"

"No, Mr. Queen, I won't."

"Why not?" he's genuinely interested. "Got another job for me?"

"Make no mistake, Mr. Queen. You have failed this assignment and you have betrayed ARGUS. If the choice was up to me, I would kill you."

Oliver frowns, "And who choose to let me live?"

"Someone forwarded proof that the YZD has been destroyed to the Pentagon and your involvement in the matter. I was outvoted because apparently destroying such a dangerous poison constitutes as a heroic act," Waller spits out.

I had to be Cat, Oliver realises. She was the only one who knew what happened to it. But why would she do it?

"So, I get to go home?"

Waller leans back with a cruel smile, "No, Mr. Queen. It would raise too many questions, if we dropped you off in Starling."

A weird sense of bad foreboding seizes his body, "What are you going to do with me then?"

The smile is stuck on her face, "We, will return you exactly where we found you. On your own personal purgatory."

Arrow

He descends the stairs to the foundry and finds his team waiting for him.

"Did you get to ride the Batmobile?" is the first thing Roy asks.

Oliver chuckles, "A gentleman never drives and tells."

"Is that code for ' No'?" Cat detaches herself from the shadows of the ceiling and lowers herself elegantly to the floor.

"Wha…?" Felicity jumps up in shock. "Since when have you…?"

"Just returning the bike," she drops the keys in Oliver's hand.

"I have to admit I didn't think I'd ever see it again."

Cat smirks at him.

"This is not over," he says. "Ra's doesn't give up just like that."

She smiles, "This is just the beginning."

"But you won't be there for the end," it's not a question.

"When have I ever been?" Oliver watches as she walks up the stairs.

"I'll be right back," he tells his team and sprints after her.

He finds her in the dark alley, dawn is not too far away and the glow of the sun starts to brighten the dark night.

"Why? Why did you really do all of this?" He calls after her.

Cat turns, she contemplates her answer for a while, "I owed you."

"No you didn't."

"Maybe you don't feel that way but I do. You saved my life – you protected me, after I betrayed you. I didn't think something like that even existed in this world. I betrayed you and you took the fall for me. They tortured you because of me, because of what I did, because I sold you out and you still tried to save me. You knew I wouldn't come back for you. I wouldn't have. Yet you still did it. You've impressed me."

"You saved my life multiple times after that," Oliver reminds her.

"Debt has to be repaid in equal worth. You saved what is most precious to me – my life. But your own life isn't what's most valuable to you, is it?" She chooses the words carefully. "In all the time I've known you, you never put yourself first. You've never picked yourself. Every single decision I've seen you make, you always chose the one you'd suffer most from. The decision that costs you most. Every single time, always."

Cat smiles at him. "You know, you've impressed me. More than that, you have the one quality I'm lacking. I admire you, because you're the most selfless person I have ever met. I know you don't see yourself that way," she hastes to add. "But to me you are. I am the most self-centred person, I never put anyone before myself, but you – you do it over and over again. You keep yourself in despair. And still you've shown me something, and I wanted to repay that favour.

"Tonight I have shown you a part of my world. Saving your life wouldn't have been enough to pay my debt, so I saved your city – and you with it. To show you, that there's a choice that includes you as much as the rest of the world. You never pick yourself, so I did. I choose you, because you never do. You need someone to do that for you, Oliver. Or rather you need to learn to do it for yourself."

"You're a much better person than you think you are," Oliver tells her slowly.

Cat laughs bitterly, "No, no I'm not. Even doing all of this I had an ulterior motive."

"Is it about Br…"

"Yeah, it's always about him. I still can't believe it happened to me. I love him, but…" her eyes have a far-away look. "But he doesn't trust me. Maybe he never will. I knew him once, when we we're kids and… I abused and broke his trust so many times, I don't think I'll ever be able to repair that. Because… Well, you see – Oliver Queen is The Arrow. It's simple as that. You're both at all times and every decision you make, it's Oliver and The Arrow who make it. They are a part of one another. There is not Arrow without Oliver Queen and there's no Oliver Queen without The Arrow.

"It's different for me. I… I've lived as Cat since… since ever, I don't even know who Selena Kyle is. So every time I need to make choice, I never consider what I means for Selena. It's Cat who decides and so I fail at regaining that trust over and over again."

There are no tears in her eyes, just acceptance. "But I keep thinking, that maybe… that if I can manage to make the people he trusts, trust me – that maybe then their trust will someday become his. And he trusts you."

"I stay by what I said before. You're a much better person than you think you are," Oliver looks at her earnestly. "And I trust you."

Cat approaches him, she stops before him and takes a deep breath. "You're wrong, but thank you." Then she turns around.

Oliver is about to make his way back into Verdant when her voice stops him.

"Oh, and I changed my mind."

He turns to see her holding up the keys to his bike.

"I am taking your bike."

"You know I'm no longer a billionaire, right? I cannot afford a new one," he calls to her.

"What about your company?"

"It's Palmer's now, as you very well know."

"Then take it back. If you go at it with all of your Oliver Queen and Arrow attitude and hit them with your charms and good looks… well that little boy won't know what hit him."

Oliver grins as she's speeding off into the approaching new day. She's been so spectaculary wrong about one thing, and at the same time, it's something that sticks with him.

Oliver Queen is The Arrow.

Oliver Queen is The Arrow.

Maybe he should try that sometime.

So one last time. Let me know, what you thought!