"Thea." Oliver broke away from his entanglement with Laurel only to end up freezing in his place, watching her eyes move around the entire room and unleash the truth right before her eyes. Her brother was The Arrow. The Starling City vigilante. The emerald archer. This whole time hidden away from her and now the last two years of her life and her relationship with Oliver suddenly made sense for every time he made up excuses to leave and lies for when he came back. She was already aware of Roy's involvement, minus the fact he knew that Oliver was secretly behind everything. She didn't expect Sara or even Laurel to know.

"Thea, I can explain. Just..hold on." Oliver struggled slightly walking towards the stairwell even with a fresh set of painkillers running through his system. There were so many things running through his mind yet nothing was more important than how Thea found out and where she knew to find him. "Please." Oliver pleaded to her watching her climb a few steps away. "There's only a few favors in this world I'd ask of you to do as your brother, this is one of them."

"What's there to explain? That you've been murdering people for the last two years and have lied to my face all along about it? And mom?" Thea exclaimed, holding onto the railing for balance ready to swat away any more lies she thought was coming her way.

"Mom knows." Oliver confessed to her, and that wasn't a lie at all. "If you give me two minutes to explain what that is on the screen behind me, I will tell you everything. Just don't leave." Thea, taken back by the confession to her, overlooked her brother and stole a glance to Roy, who was already feeling more guilty about not telling her either. Granted that now she knew that their mother, Moira, knew about Oliver, she was the only one who felt left out.

"And why should I even believe you now?"

Oliver's eyes fell sad before his sister, and slowly brought his hand up to point to the screen behind him. "Because that dot right there on the map is the location of the man who tried to killed our mother. The same man who kidnapped Laurel, who put Diggle in the hospital, and the same man who has been creating a living hell for me to live in. And I'm guessing, I'm guessing he told you where to find me here."

She frowned seeing his changed expression, even if she was mad at him. He was still her brother. "This...random number texted me about thirty minutes ago. It said I would find the truth about everything through the basement door. And here I was always wondering why it was always kept locked."

That alone helped affect the choice he wanted to make that Nyssa offered to him, to keep him alive and let the League decide his fate or to kill Slade and rid everyone of the fear he's instilled in them. Oliver recalled the moment earlier in the night when Slade randomly sent a message on his cellular device, it had to have gone to Thea or his partner to contact Thea. Either way, it was way past crossing the line.

Oliver climbed up a few steps towards Thea and offered his hand to her. Their bond was strong between the two of them, and neither wanted to lose the other. She slowly but surely took Oliver's hand. "I don't want to keep any more secrets from you, Speedy. I've come to close to losing almost everyone in this room to this man, and I don't know if I could handle losing you. And I really don't want to have to find out anytime soon. I won't let him hurt you too."

"Neither will I." Roy spoke up and stood beside Oliver's side with him. "I've been apart of this with your brother and he warned me of the consequences that came along with it. I know, I know it'll sound completely played out when I tell you this. We were doing it to keep you safe, Thea. I chose this to keep you safe and I'm sorry I lied to you."

"Mr. Queen." Nyssa gently interrupted with a purpose of her own behind it, breaking up the reunion. "I suggest you move quickly. Knowing my father, The League will soon be arriving here in your city looking for answers as well as myself. Best of hope that you find Slade Wilson before they do." She warned him as she continued to tend to Sara's bullet wound. Her eyes focused to the monitor, making sure the tracker stayed within the boundaries it was within. "You must go now. I will watch over your sister in return. Consider us even if that wasn't the case before."

"Wait, hold on. I'm sorry. Umm." Felicity found her voice on the other side of Nyssa and hoped to avoid getting on her bad side. "Are you not going with him to help him fight or stop the League? You're staying here?" Nyssa overlooked the blonde IT girl noticing the fear she displayed towards her.

"No one else is going with me besides Roy. That is final." Oliver sighed and brought Thea down with the rest of the team. He centered himself among everyone at a loss of words suddenly, catching a look from each person. "Look...You all have suffered enough for me and the actions I have taken since choosing to start this crusade of mine. Yes, it was your choice for some of you to join me, but I took it as my responsibility to keep you safe. And I have failed in doing so with each and every one of you. I need to be better. A better friend, a better brother, a better man that someone can love. The last few days have been some of the toughest I've had to endure, and I want to own up to my mistakes now before I realize it's too late."

His speech silently shook his team around him. Even Nyssa could see the light shine through a broken man in front of her with little they knew about each other. They felt for him.

It was Thea who broke from the group to comfort her brother with a hug. Oliver didn't hesitate to do the same regardless of how hurt and beat up his body was. The last two years of her life began to piece together and make some sense with Oliver. And if their mother had known as still loved him for who he was, so could she. It could bring them together that much closer as a family.

"I have to go." Oliver whispered into Thea's ear though wishing he could stay and tell her what she wanted to know. "I will make everything up to you, Thea. I promise."

"I hope you're not the only one who does, Ollie." Thea pulled Roy into a hug next finding it next to impossible to stay mad at him for too long either.

Oliver motioned to Felicity giving her the signal to go and grab a metal case hidden on the other side of the foundry. "There's one more thing, actually." Roy shot him a peculiar look and set his eyes on the case when it was propped up on the table meant for him. "Suit up."

Within a few moments, Roy unsnapped the locks and opened it up, staring with Thea at the red leather suit inside complete with its own red complimentary mask and compound bow to match Oliver's.

"I know I'm giving you a choice here whether or not you leave the team and this life behind here once we're finished tonight. But just in case, we had this made for you. To represent the hero that you are, not the monster others believe. And...I thought the codename Arsenal had a good ring to it. You've earned it."

Nyssa and Sara kept watch on the monitor for any activity, mostly to make sure that the tracer didn't move from its exact location. Oliver and Roy suited up together standing side by side together as The Arrow and Arsenal after Roy was finally given the cure to the Mirakuru. Laurel and Thea took it upon themselves to wish both of them luck from the side, Felicity taking watch over the monitor and setting up comms for the final upcoming mission and fed them the address of one Slade Wilson.

"Do you have any idea of what you did tonight? Everything that was lost because you failed?"

"If I were you, Billy, I'd catch my tongue right on your teeth."

The two once former partners and mercenaries stared each other down in their hideout with Slade throwing his first temper tantrum in a long time where he couldn't smash anything he wanted to. No holes punched into any walls, objects broken into pieces, nothing that a regular human being could accomplish anymore.

"You underestimated your opponent for far too long and now they're about to bring the foot down on our bodies. You bring me back from the dead to watch you fail."

"You watch it, Billy. You forget I took you out of this world once and I will not hesitate to do it again."

"Without me, you would be dead and alone. Much like I see now."

"Don't listen to him. He's weak, You killed him once to survive, surely you can do it again." A voice spoke to the side of both men, yet only Slade could hear it. And see them physically.

It was Shado.

At least, that's who Slade wanted to see. Her ghost has been with him for as long as he'd been overdosed and overcome with the Mirakuru drug as a hallucinogen. She'd been in his eyes, she'd been in his mind. Shado had lead him this far on his own crusade for vengeance and now Slade was fearful in thinking that things were coming to an end. And he didn't want to fail her again.

"Just you wait, Billy. Once Oliver Queen is dead, the Mirakuru will be in my possession again. This city will be mine, and one of Ra's Al Ghul's secret Lazarus Pits will be mine. Surely you can remember that." It was how Billy Wintergreen was even standing with him. Desperate for a sworn ally, Slade sought out Ra's Al Ghul for an exchange. Billy Wintergreen's life back for the Mirakuru drug and then some.

"You're not looking at this from the perspective you should be, partner." Billy taunted and paced around their hideout like an anxious dog, only he believed there were far worse consequences headed their way as they spoke. "It was a mistake to let Ra's believe that his daughter was planning an attempt on his life. The news he'll receive will be false, and your head will have more targets on it than you can handle."

Slade shook his head from side to side and wandered himself over to the ghost of Shado. He could see her and she could see him, it wasn't real enough like he wanted it to be. He wanted to bring Shado back next.

"Then he dies with the rest." Slade turned himself over to Billy looking straight at the X-mark he left with the sword when he stabbed him in the eye five years ago. "With Ra's out of the picture, I will become the new leader of the League of Assassins. A whole army at my command, and we will be unstoppable."

"Fool!" Billy shouted to him causing Slade to pull out one of his swords and angle towards him. Billy wasn't that threatened nor was he impressed at all by the Slade Wilson he saw before him now. "I would rather be dead right now than to listen to your bullshit any longer."

"He doesn't see the future that we see together, share together. Grant him a second death. We don't need him any longer." Shado was in Slade's head again, swiping his down to the ground to spark it merely for a second. The problem was, the hallucination of Shado was beginning to fade quickly without the drug in his system. Withdrawal was already starting to kick in.

"If only you stuck with me on Lian Yu as you are right now." Billy shook his head.

"Enough!" Slade shouted mere seconds before a small explosion left a wall in complete debris and destruction. Clouds of dust and smoke filled the air, and confusion between the two mercenaries struck momentarily as they searched through the room. Emerging from the other side was Oliver and Roy as The Arrow and Arsenal together, bows loaded up and fired immediately at the two to engage them in a final battle.

"So...Arsenal?" Roy asked curiously walking through back alley after back alley with Oliver, who could travel through the city blindfolded if he really felt like it. That's how well he knew the streets in and out, fit for a being a vigilante archer. "Does that make Felicity's codename like Eagle Eye or something?"

"Codenames aren't exactly my main focus, Arsenal. And please, don't give her any ideas." Oliver sighed out, not like he didn't enjoy being called The Hood by some and The Arrow by others. From his early trials when he returned, he didn't feel like he earned the title of being called a hero. Heroes do their best not to kill anyone during their missions. And his first missions were to kill.

As his former flame, Helena Bertinelli, once told him: Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out.

"Listen. I really want to thank you for not pushing Thea away in the foundry. You have no idea how bad I've wanted to tell her." Roy confessed to him.

"It was on my list of things to do. I felt like I was being a better son to my mother when I told her, and she accepted it. Now with Thea, I can make peace with being a better brother too. At least I'm trying. They're all I have left."

"That's not true. You have us, the team. We're like, you know, a family of sort. This suit is so badass."

"Does that mean you've made a choice?" Oliver asked locating the hideout building that Slade's tracker led them to. He loaded up a grappling hook arrow once they approached the front of the building and aimed high to fire a few stories above them.

"Slade's tracker is on the seventh floor." Felicity chimed into both of their comms. "He's trapped up there. That's a good thing, right?" Slade didn't have anywhere to go. He wouldn't admit it, but he was out of options now, something he never planned on.

Oliver fired the arrow up to the sky aiming for the fourth floor to create some sort of gap to close out when him and Roy were inside. Roy shot his own grappling arrow next to Oliver's using the precise aim he's had to learn over the last few months from Oliver himself.

"Honestly, it's great fighting alongside you out here in the field. Saving people and making a difference, it's what Ive always wanted since you saved me..." That night was something Roy would never forget and not just for Oliver saving his life as The Arrow. Roy and Thea had gotten into one of their worst arguments with each other, back when Roy was living in The Glades and robbing liquor stores to pay off debts to other people. Thea called him a waste, and Roy repeated that on camera while being held captive moments before Oliver had shown up.

Their arrows hooked up, Oliver being glad that Slade's senses were no longer heightened to hear anything beyond the walls, and they repelled upward towards the fourth floor at great speed. On the other end, Felicity pulled up blueprints of the building to guide them to the nearest staircase to take to the next few floors up.

"And now?" Oliver asked after they shot through an open window to get inside the building, trying more to focus on the mission.

"I don't want to miss any more moments to spend time with Thea when I can either. I still don't see why we both can't have the best of both worlds if you're doing this while with Laurel. We deserve it, don't we?" Unhooking their arrows and loading up regular sharpened ones, they found the staircase and slowly began to climb it, closing in on both Slade and Wintergreen.

"After what just happened with Laurel, I don't want that to ever happen with my sister. Ever."

"You're almost there. Just one more floor above you, and he's yours. Wait, did you hear that? John, there!" The comm went dead afterwards on Felicity's end. Oliver and Roy gave each other a worried look until a loud voice rung through the building, focusing back on Slade and hoping Diggle, Sara, and Nyssa were protecting the team on the other end.

"I hear him." Oliver quieted his voice down to nearly a whisper upon hearing an uproar from the floor above them with Slade's voice behind it, having out his frustrations to her mercenary partner. "Load up, aim, and stay on target. I'll take Slade, you take Wintergreen. And Roy, be careful. He's like a carbon copy of Slade from what I remember about him." Oliver reached back into his quiver the second they walked up to the seventh floor of the hideout, and found a room on the right hand side before the very last room. He made sure Roy was ready and swapped out his arrow for an explosive one. Oliver released the arrow shooting it straight into the wall and patiently counted down with the arrow as it beeped consecutively.

Within five seconds, the arrow exploded and made a huge hole in the wall, Oliver quickly grabbed another arrow and lead the charge with Roy following into the room, approaching Slade Wilson and Billy Wintergreen and catching them off guard with arrows aimed straight at them. "Slade Wilson, Billy Wintergreen. You have failed this city."

"You have failed this city."

"No, it is you! You have always failed this city and everyone in it!" Slade shouted at the two archers and reached for his gun to fire at them. An arrow shot it out of his hands before he could lift it up to aim, courtesy of Roy Harper himself. Oliver didn't want to talk anymore, he didn't want to argue anymore with Slade Wilson. He saw his mission in front of him and he was going to finish it.

"Round two, playboy?" Wintergreen challenged Oliver referring to their small bout back on Lian Yu and almost killed Oliver under orders.

"I could ask you the same thing following this man under his authority. What a waste of a second chance." Oliver shot back to him. "He killed you once, and he would do it again. Except both of you are mine tonight. This is my city. And I'm going to remind both of you why that is so."

Wintergreen drew his sword to the taunt and darted towards Oliver looking to kill, unconvinced to this point that Slade would succeed in doing so himself drowning in his own rage. However he was cut off short by Arsenal firing an arrow at him, swinging his compound bow to clash with Wintergreen's sword after dodging the stray arrow. Next to them, Oliver fired five consecutive arrows at Slade one after the other to buy him time to attack.

There were no more footsoldiers to deal with, no more super enhancemetns to worry about in this fight, minus. This was between him and Slade, and there no was no escape anymore. Confidence took over quickly, Oliver ignored every single aching inch of his body to fight back against Slade.

Each blow to Slade's face kept him in pain, every strike with his compound bow hurt just as much as the next. Slade's healing factor was gone, and so was his strength. Oliver held his own against Slade this time, being swept off of his feet after Slade kicked his legs out from under him.

Slade swiped his sword down to a vulnerable Oliver and stopped merely inches away from his body. Roy delivered a a swift kick to Wintergreen's body and bought him enough time to fire an arrow into Slade's side and making him weaker and injured.

Wintergreen wasn't having it any longer with any of the three. He underestimated Oliver on Lian Yu five years ago, and the same with Roy who was besting him. His biggest disappointment was to see how much Slade had fallen since the island with his rage and delusions guiding him into an abyss, and he was taking him down in the process. He returned the kick to Roy and exchanged a few shots with Oliver while Slade ripped the arrow out of his body.

Next to Slade appeared Shado, and he was unsure if it was the last of the drug leaving his system or from the pain that was rushing throughout his body. He looked upon her with sad eyes wondering if his actions brought failure to her.

"Slade! Retreat!" Wintergreen shouted to him fighting a losing battle against both archers. But Slade stared into the eyes of Shado as she stared into his, keeping him distracted from the actual battle.

"Come with me, Slade. Let us finally be together again. Kill them. Kill all of them, and we can be whole." Shade's ghost offered to him with Oliver noticing Slade being completely out of his mind. Wintergreen grunted being taken down by both Oliver and Roy kicking his knees out to him, making him bow before the two vigilantes. Reacting quickly, Wintergreen slashed Roy across his knees with his sword making the archer fall to his knees as well.

Roy was half a second away from being slain. After the cut to his knee, Wintergreen went for his neck. The blade was stopped inches away by Oliver's compound bow, which he then kicked his sword out of his hands and made Oliver go into that dark place again to save Roy Harper's life. The sword was gone and so was Billy Wintergreen once more, Oliver shot two arrows into his head and downed the mercenary for good this time.

There wasn't another choice Oliver wanted to make other than to save Roy's life by any means necessary, for both himself and his sister. Groaning on the ground, Roy flashed a look of thanks to Oliver.

"That's it, Slade. Do it. Do it for me."

"I'll see you both in hell!" Slade snapped out of his trance from Shado and rolled himself over to where his gun was to fire at the two. Oliver went to reach back into his quiver to fire at Slade, but he was beaten to the task off to the side. He watched as Slade received an arrow through his wrist, disabling his ability to fire his pistol.

"Enough!" A voice shouted from behind Oliver and Roy, and there stood Nyssa with a mysterious older man next to her. And rushing up to their sides were a group of assassins in black robes, Oliver could only assume the League of Assassins had made their way to Starling City.

That could only mean that the man who was standing next to Nyssa was Ra's Al Ghul himself.

"Slade Wilson..." Ra's spoke out and moved forward with his group, Nyssa lowering her bow after firing the arrow into Slade's wrist, revenge for shooting Sara beforehand. "It has come to my attention that you have been causing some conflict between this city and my family. We had a deal, a code to honor, and you have broken it."

"You have not an idea of what you are saying, Ra's. Agh!" Slade pulled the arrow from his wrist.

"Save it. You betrayed me. And more importantly, you put my daughter and her beloved at danger." Ra's walked up to him past Wintergreen's body, the League members walking along side with him to detain Slade into their custody. "Your actions, you will soon find, have the utmost consequences with the League of Assassins."

Nyssa helped Roy up to his feet and lightly explained to the two of them how the League show up at the foundry and how she left with them to ensure that they would be safe from her father's wrath. Oliver approached the famous and infamous Ra's Al Ghul, moving his eyes between him and Slade.

"He's mine. My family, my friends...were all put in danger by this man." He spoke blindly with his emotions mixing with anger, hate, and fear all at once. "I'm the one that should put an end to his life if that's what consequence you have for him." Ra's felt the tension between the two and imagined the battles that took place with them in the last few nights.

"Mr. Queen. A man who swears his word to me means that he has given me his trust and loyalty. And in return, they share my trust with them." Oliver was taken back by the fact that Ra's who knew he was under the hood, though knew he shouldn't have been too surprised. "My apologies on his behalf for endangering your loved ones and the city they live in. Kill him now, or let us be on our way to let him face true justice."

"He won't kill me. Oliver Queen is and will always be a coward from the day I met him. Five years, nothing has changed and nothing ever will." Slade spat at them. "How did it feel to put those arrows into my partner? You imagined it was me, now you have your chance to prove me wrong. Kill me."

He really wanted to after everything Slade had done to him. For nearly killing John Diggle, kidnapping Laurel and Sara threatening their lives in front of him, and for contacting Thea although it backfired on Slade for point he was trying to make with it. His dark place started to rise inside of him, his fingers begging to grab an arrow and stab it into Slade's other eye and end his life for good.

But when there is darkness, there is also light. And Oliver didn't know if he could succumb to killing Slade in cold blood. His mind was dancing on the line in between both vengeance and justice. Billy Wintergreen was another story to save Roy from certain death, and in his mind thought you couldn't kill what was already dead in the first place. The choice and the fight were over.

"Take him away. Get him out of my city and make sure he never comes back." Oliver requested and wound his arm back for one last punch to Slade's jaw, one that he wouldn't ever forget in his life. "I told you that you would lose. I kept my promise." The guards bound Slade's hands behind his back into chains and took him away as he shouted incoherently to Oliver and The League, somewhere hearing that he would be back for both of them. Ra's shook his head to such light threats planning out his sentence in his head.

"A bold and wise choice, Mr. Queen. Now then, all we ask of you in return is the drug known as the Mirakuru and we can be on our way back to Nanda Parbat, long away from Star City." Ra's asked of Oliver but the emerald archer stood his ground despite hearing the stories about him, and what he has done in his long lifetime. "Don't worry, Oliver. It will be in safe keeping and far from anyone in the known world, as well as your secret with the League of Assassins. Consider us even."

"Even?" Oliver questioned to him.

"Yes." Ra's answered and looked over to Nyssa to study her with his eyes. "The legends are true about me, and what you've heard of my history. My daughter, Nyssa, is the heir to my throne and I plan to keep that intact. The traitor will be dealt with for his crimes against the League and putting her at risk of death. I thank you for capturing him."

Nyssa was surprised to hear any of those words from her father, The Demon as some would call him. It had been too long since he had spoken highly of her, or better yet keep her in line for the throne over anyone else. Ra's nearly never approved of Nyssa's relationship with Sara, but even The Demon himself did not want to be Ra's Al Ghul forever.

"The drug is yours on one condition. If I ever see it in my city again, I'll know where to look when I want answers, with all due respect."

"I admire your courage. You would make a great asset to the League, if you are ever in need of a change." Ra's left him with that offer that Oliver knew he would never take. It was nice to keep to all options open, especially being offered a position under Ra's Al Ghul himself. The night was over, they had won. Oliver took a deep breath and helped with Roy leading him and the League back to the foundry.

At the end of the night on every successful mission that tended to take a toll on vigilante heroes, celebration was completely necessary. And celebration meant the finest champagne Starling City had to offer late on the particular night. Ra's Al Ghul with the League of Assassins took Slade Wilson back with them to Nanda Parbat for his own trials, along with the Mirakuru drug that Ra's would make sure never saw the light of day again in Starling City. Nyssa stayed behind to be with Sara, who felt in a pickle between going back or staying with her family again.

"Everyone, tonight was the night. And I'm sorry it took so long for this night to come." Oliver raised his glass of champagne high to propose a toast to his team and his friends, grateful that their suffering had come to an end. "Starling City is safe from Slade Wilson, from Deathstroke. Tonight, I honor each and every one of you for being in my life, and the sacrifice you make for wanting to be apart of it. To friends, to loved ones, and to allies. Cheers."

The team clanged their glasses together in unity and took a fair sip from their glass, including Thea who secretly stole herself a glass for the occasion. After helping bandaging up Roy's wound for the night, she wanted to keep him close by, much closer.

"You give a good speech, Oliver. And you lead one hell of a charge. Believe it or not, I'm honored to be apart of this with you, we all are." Diggle said and shook the billionaire's hand and sharing a friendly smile to each other. "Any clue on what's next?"

Oliver shrugged his shoulders to the question and even the thought of the next mission. "Honestly, Digs, I think this a time for everyone to take a little vacation for a few days. And that's very unlikely of me, but there are things I have to tend to in the meantime. Besides, we deserve it." His eyes floated over to Thea, feeling their brother and sister bond grow tremendously stronger without his big secret being kept from her. And finally, his eyes moved over to Laurel where he wanted to make up for more lost time. Laurel was chatting with Sara and Nyssa, properly getting acquainted with Sara's beloved, unlikely knowing what their next moves would be. Her eyes met with Oliver's and her smile helped brighten up Oliver's mood more than he thought it would.

Laurel gave her sister a hug and shook Nyssa's hand, confident she would see them again no matter where they went with each other. Setting her glass to the side, she made her way over to Oliver and pulled the archer into a much needed hug.

"Hey, mind if I speak with you about something? Privately?" She asked him in his ear.

"Yeah, of course. One sec." Oliver agreed and broke them away from the group. The hour was extremely late and only imagined everyone would be getting a good night's rest tonight. They walked upstairs from the crowd to the club of Verdant, closed for the rest of the night so they could really be alone on the matter.

"You know, tonight really had me thinking about a few things. About Sara and Thea, and about us." Laurel started out trying not to throw Oliver off in any fashion. "Seeing you how you were from when you first came home to becoming The Arrow, and seeing it now as both at the time with your team. You really started something here, Ollie. Something no one that thought you would get through college would even think would be possible. And I don't want you to freak out, either."

"I'll do my best to remain calm then." Oliver remained curious leaning up against the bar while Laurel struggled to find her wording. Playing with her fingers didn't help so much either. "Is there something going on?"

"I want in." Laurel rose her face up from the ground to meet Oliver's gaze and took his hand for a little comfort for the both of them. "I want to join your team and your crusade to protect Starling City."

"No." Oliver plainly said to her and tightened his grip on her hand rather than to let go of it. "I almost lost you tonight, Laurel."

"And you didn't because you saved me." Laurel reminded him and moved closer in his space so he wouldn't try and walk off from her. "I could have died tonight and I didn't. I trusted you to be there to save me. But I don't want to have to trust you all the time if I'm in danger. I can take care of myself, and I want to be able to not have anyone else worry about me if anything like that happens again."

Oliver exhaled out a deep sigh. He could feel the energy in her argument and knowing Laurel Lance for as long as he has, he knew she would put up a fight and never back down when it was something she really wanted.

"Laurel..." Their bodies pressed up against each other gently, exercising the closeness physically and emotionally. "It's not that I don't trust you, or that I believe you wouldn't be a good asset to the team. If anything ever happened to you out there like tonight or anything like that, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I wouldn't be able to live with myself after that."

"And you won't have to, Ollie. I promise. I talked this over with Sara and Nyssa, they agreed to train me for this. Yes, my baby sister agreed to it. She thought we could keep a better eye on each other."

"And what about your father? I'm already on his radar with both identities." Oliver mentioned.

"Don't worry about him. We can catch the bad guys at night, and Laurel Lance can take care of them in the morning when the DA office opens." Laurel couldn't help but to smile at the thought of it, her and Oliver with the team taking down the bad guys so she could put them away the next day. The same thought ran through Oliver's mind too, because he was starting to think of how much safer the city could be without having to kill every guilty person in it. The killing had came to an end, and he didn't want to revisit it anytime soon.

"And what...would we call you?" Oliver began to give in to her request, beckoning yet another smile on her face to match the one that was growing on his.

"Well, I figured Sara was a Canary herself. Maybe we could incorporate that in when I reach it. What about-" Laurel was cut off by the rest of the team joining them up in Verdant and shutting down the foundry below. Each of them said their goodbyes to each other and would live to defend the city another night.

Roy shook Oliver's hand in the process for a job well done and would continue to fight alongside him as Arsenal maintaining his relationship with Thea after all. "Hey, Ollie." Thea killed the silence once more just moments before the two archers. "You know if you gave him the name Arsenal, you might need a better name too. Like, maybe, Green Arrow."

Oliver flashed his sister a side smile on his face, one of approval of the name this time unlike when Malcom Merlyn tried to dub him the name a year ago when The Arrow first came about Star City. And he was thankful now he didn't take the name then.

"Good night, Speedy." Oliver acknowledged her as the other couple walked off, and Oliver overhearing Thea saying something to Roy how that could be her codename if she ever did what they did.

"So, Green Arrow. What's next?" Laurel walked out with him to the streets of Starling City where they both smiled up at, no longer having to worry about a Mirakuru supersoldier causing mayhem here any more. "What does a hero do when he takes a vacation?"

"He takes it with the one he loves." Oliver quickly threw the answer at her, pressing his lips to hers for a soft kiss. "We'll talk more about this idea of yours after I get through speaking with Sara and Nyssa about it."

"I think Nyssa would be an amazing trainer for me. She trained Sara, anyway. Imagine telling my father that both of his daughter trained by an assassin." Laurel smirked.

"You are starting to love this more and more, aren't you?" Oliver caught her smirk and pressed another kiss to the side of her head. "Like I said, later. For now, I want to spend the rest of the night with you and only you. And not have to worry about another threat to this city especially at this hour." Throughout the rest of the walk to Laurel's apartment, Oliver looked around all over at the rooftops of certain buildings that he thought Slade would watch them from. Except each time he looked up, a smile formed to his face.

The city and his team were safe from Slade Wilson once and for all, and the darkness inside of Oliver slowly but surely started to be combated with the newfound light in his life. It would always be there inside of him, wanting to break free and wanting out to play, it would be up to him to decide whether or it not it should.

Author's note: Chapter 5 for The Darkness That Never Left, the final one. First off, I want to thank each and everyone of you who read this story and the ones who patiently waited for me to finish it! This story was a challenge for me to write, and I loved writing every word for it regardless. I honestly do wish I could continue with it (and yes hint hint, I purposely left it open for a possible bonus chapter or so). But I wanted to finish this story before I moved on to anything else because it deserved the proper ending after two years, and I'm really happy that I got to see this to the end. Thank you for everyone that read this story and I really, really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! And I may write a bonus chapter for it sometime, but feel free to let me know anyway if you'd like to see one written for this story.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! It always made me smile getting notifications on this story and I'd love to hear anything you thought about it, review or PM wise. Again once more, thank you to everyone. I feel great having this story exist and having everyone get the chance to read it. Thank you very much!