Alliance {The Flash/Arrow}

One

Oliver

Cold wind rushed around my place on the balcony, my eyes carefully scanning the city around me. My city. The home that I had been fearlessly protecting for the past four years. It was heartwarming to see that the change had been more positive than negative when it came to how the citizens viewed me, seeing as how they all wanted my head on a platter when I first came about. I will admit, my motives in those days was less than admirable, and I regret taking the lives of people the way I did. Yes, some of them weren't the most reputable people in the world--some of them rightfully earned their place in hell--but it wasn't my place to take their lives from them. I had no right to make that kind of judgement call, and I wished that I could take it back for numerous reasons. I wished that I could go back to that time and try to do things right, to make things better without making them worse to begin with. But, what's in the past is in the past now, and all I can do is try to atone for what I've done by doing right by the people that lived in Star City.

As I watched the city, I began thinking back to everything that had happened in the past few years. Everything that had happened with Sarah and Laurel, bringing Roy onto the team before letting him go due to his "death" after claiming that he was The Arrow, my time with the League of Assassins, fighting Slade. It was astounding how much had happened in just a few years. But, with the bad memories, there were good ones. Namely, my engagement to Felicity. The time we spent together away from Star City in Pennytown was one of the most peaceful and relaxing times of my life. If I could, I would live every day of my life like that, but I knew that we had gotten ourselves in too deep with our operation to go back. But I was glad that she was staying by my side through all of this. I could only imagine how much stress she must be under with dealing with our underground operation along with being the CEO of Palmer Tech. after Ray's accident. She said that she loved working there, but I felt bad that I was constantly putting her under so much stress. She deserved a happier, normal life, and I wished that I could be the person to give it to her.

Even though the past few years of my life hadn't panned out the way that I originally planned, I was glad at how everything had happened. Yes, I could have lived without facing Slade Wilson again or becoming Ra's Al Ghul, but each trial helped me grow closer with my team. I trusted my sister and my friends more than I would have if I had continued my life the way I had been before the Queen's Gambit. If I hadn't been in that accident and suffered through the following five years of hell, I wouldn't' be the man I was now. I wouldn't be resilient in the face of danger, and I probably wouldn't have the appreciation for life that I had now. I'd spent five years wishing that I would die instead of living through the trials I was facing, and, now that free of those crucibles, I was trying to put my efforts towards making my home a better and safer place for my friends and family. It definitely wasn't the safest way that I could have done it, but I honestly wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

The sound of the sliding door caught my attention, and I turned around to see my fiancé standing there, a small smile on her face. "You have a visitor." She stated simply.

I furrowed my brow slightly. "Who is it?"

"You're going to want to see for yourself."

I chuckled lightly, following her inside, curious as to whom my visitor was. I took maybe three steps into the apartment before I saw her standing there, a small, hopeful smile on her face as she looked at me with her familiar, warm blue eyes. Her chestnut brown hair fell in gentle waves around her shoulders, accenting her prominent cheekbones and ivory-colored skin. She was clad in a burgundy sweater and black jeans, the all-too familiar Converse hightops tied securely on her feet like they had been when we were growing up. She looked more like a ghost than she did a real person, and I had a difficult time believing that she was actually here. I hadn't seen her in God knows how many years, and she was honestly one of the last people I expected to see here. We hadn't ended on bad terms or anything of the sort. I just thought that she had forgotten about me after all these years. I knew that her sister was working at the company, but I'd kept my distance from both of them in case Elena didn't want her sister to see me again. She smiled softly at me, her cheekbones becoming even more prominent than before.