Nothing in the world was permanent, especially in this world. She’d already had a few versions of her Laurel show up and leave. Each arrival was another chance she was going to relive the pain of loss all over again. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to take advantage of the time she had. Oliver was here. The last time she had seen him had been over a year now, and he had died right in front of her, and there hadn’t been a damn thing could do about it. It was one of those things that would haunt her for the rest of her life, however long that was.
Sara was at the DOA when she realized he was there, tucked away in her office, reviewing mundane reports and working on a few plans the defence department had coming down the pipes, when she had noticed Oliver’s message after a quick network check.
She had been out of her seat before she had his location, and was already on her way out of the building when she confirmed where he was. Luckily he hadn’t gone far, and she’d be able to reach him quickly.
A minute or two later and she finally found him. There he was, standing in Vallo, and very much alive. It was impossible not to smile when she saw him, “Oliver!” she called when she got close enough, and then quickly jogged to close the distance between them, going straight in for a hug. “You’re actually here. It’s so good to see you.”
Oliver still wasn’t sure what had happened. He’d heard the explanations and, sure, he’d seen a lot of weird in recent years, but it was hard to wrap his head around the fact that he was supposed to be dead. He was as sure of that as he was of the solid ground beneath his feet and yet here he was, standing in the middle of a foreign city with just a few lingering cuts and bruises.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth he told himself and when he spotted Sara jogging toward him, the grin he gave her was warm and genuine. The two of them had been through a lot together and whatever this place was, he felt a lot better equipped to handle it if he had one of his most trusted friends here to face it with him.
“I’m actually here,” he confirmed, wasting no time in returning the hug. “I’m still not sure how, but I’m thinking maybe we don’t question it.”
Oliver Queen not questioning something. Times had definitely changed. Sara squeezed him tightly, so incredibly thankful for the chance to see him again, before stepping back. “This place will do that a lot. Random shit is going to happen and there won’t be any rhyme or reason for it.” You just learned to go with it, handle it, and move on.
“What’s the last thing you remember from home? And did the DOA give you a rundown of this place?” Despite working for the DOA, she was not part of the welcoming committee, and learned very quickly that not everyone actually bothered to pay much attention when they arrived. Or they didn’t believe it. She couldn’t blame them there.
Oliver had paid attention and after everything he’d seen in his life, it wasn’t even that much of a stretch to believe it, but his head was kind of spinning with the fact that he should be here. Moments ago, he’d been dying. Maybe even dead and now here he was, a little banged up still, but living and breathing and definitely not on death’s doorstep. Not even close. It was a lot to get his head around, but it was also something he wasn’t sure he wanted to question, for once in his life. If Vallo had decided to give him a second chance, he guessed he should try to do right by that.
He nodded at Sara’s second question, but hesitated a moment before answering the first. If time travel was a thing, what if she didn’t know? He had no real way of knowing where she was at in their timeline or even if she was from the same Earth, but he also knew he couldn’t lie to her. For one thing, Sara knew him well enough to know when he was bullshitting.
“I was dying,” he admitted finally. “Maybe I was actually dead, I don’t know.”
The thing was with Oliver, and her life as well, ‘I was dying’ could apply to so many different situations, but she was pretty sure she knew what he meant. Really, there was one of two possible times she was thinking of. At the start of Crisis, or at the end. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific,” she said with a frown. “At the start of Crisis? At the end?” An entirely different point in time? Though in terms of looks, she’d guess he was from around the time of crisis.
Oliver had cheated death more times than he could count, but he still blinked at her question, because he had somehow known that he wouldn’t this time. Well, he wouldn’t have if something hadn’t brought him here to Vallo. “Closer to the start,” he answered after a pause. “Did I [...] die more than once?”
Well, shit. This wasn’t a conversation she thought she would be having. Sara frowned slightly, crossing her arms over her stomach and bracing herself for how this was going to work. “Do you remember anything about actually being in crisis? About the Spectre? The Paragons?”
Oliver shook his head. “The last thing I remember, before dying, anyway, was fighting that army of shadow demons on Earth 38, Kara’s Earth. I held them off as long as I could.” A part of him wanted to ask if it had really worked. A part of him was afraid of the answer. “I remember talking to Mia and then it felt like I was gone, but I woke up here instead, mostly healed.”
“What happened after... did we win? Did we save the multiverse?”
This really was the last conversation she wanted to have with him. Sara shoved her hands into her pockets and sighed. “One universe.” she answered, “We weren’t able to stop the anti-monitor from destroying the multi-verse. But we were able to create a new universe.” It was a long story, and one she did not want to have while standing in the middle of the street. “Let’s go inside. I’ll tell you everything you’re missing.”
“Okay,” Oliver agreed, giving her a look that said he expected her to really tell him. He recognized that there was a better place for it than standing out here and he could even recognize that it probably wouldn’t be easy to hear or easy for him to tell him about. Even knowing that, though, Oliver still wanted to know. He wanted to know everything.