#arreaux

Fandom: Flash/Arrow Pairing: Oliver Queen x Sage Moreaux (OC) Words: 1583 Note: Can be found on AO3 Summary: When the Crisis looms and difficult choices must be made, wedding vows are put on the line as they face down the swift moving hands of time. Warning: This ficlet has spoilers for Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1. If you have not seen it yet, you will be spoiled. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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Her finger pulsed on the trigger, sending arrow after arrow flying off her crossbow. Her heart jumped in her chest as she shuffled backwards, keeping close to her husband and her daughter. She cracked a grin, at the idea and at taking down a shadow demon. Fighting with her husband and daughter from the future? If she weren’t so used to this life, she’d wonder what Barry did to mess things up this time. Only he had no hand in bringing Izzy to her. That was luck she supposed. And she’d cherish this moment, seeing her daughter fighting with reckless abandon, saving the Earth, following in Oliver’s footsteps.

Sage returned her focus to the battle around her, ducking and dodging to hit every and any member of the Anti-Monitor’s shadow army. Ray’s blaster beams sliced through the air, dancing with Kara’s and Clark’s beams shooting from their eyes. The rest of them stayed on the ground—Barry, Oliver, Izzy, Kate—circling and keeping the enemy away one by one. Bursting into clouds of smoke and matter with every strike.

A flash of red. Barry punching out a demon.

Blue beams. Kara and Clark twisting around, taking down demons diving from above.

A smear of green. Oliver—no—Izzy flipping through a well-aimed kick, curly hair flying.

Sage’s heart swelled with pride at the direct hit.

Izzy would be okay.

They’d all be okay.

Blue flashing and twisting within a cloud appeared to Sage’s left and she cursed beneath her breath at the sight of the Monitor. No! Not now! This can’t be it!

“The battle is lost,” the Monitor announced, stepping out of the temporal gateway. “We must retreat and save our resources for battles yet to come.”

Sage glanced at Oliver, at her husband, out the corner of her eye. He barely reacted to the Monitor’s statement, still drawing back his bow, still fighting. But she spotted it in his eye, through the grease smeared around the skin, through the mask. A fleeting sort of hesitancy that made her, for one second, rethink everything. But then the fire reignited and he kept going, his movements so fluid and graceful that for a brief moment she stared, took in the beautiful sight of him. She steadied her jaw. That’s that, then.

Her finger pulsed on the trigger.

Puffs of blue clouded smoke enveloped them one by one. Kate. Ray. Kara. Clark.

Izzy! She turned a halfstep, a shout dancing on the tip of her tongue, to warn, but it died away when she was enveloped too. Doubts careened around her. She stood and watched as her daughter, her baby, disappeared before her eyes.

Was this still right? Was she doing the right thing? There was still a chance, to spend time with her, to be there for her little girl. One unplanned but never unwanted.

“Oliver!”

Barry’s shout made her whip around, a searing pain lodging in her chest at the sight of Oliver being knocked over.

She gripped her crossbow. No. She need to be here.

Her eyes locked with the Monitor’s and he lifted his hand. “No!” she snarled with such a ferocity that it rumbled in her chest. He paused and she shook her head. The Monitor’s head inclined, a single nod. Confirmation.

She nodded back.

“Oliver,” the Monitor called out, shifting his attention. Sage did the same, lifting her crossbow and firing more arrows. They whizzed through the sky, hitting each mark. Bursting every target. “It is time.”

“Has the planet been evacuated yet?” Oliver demanded, his gruff words sending a shiver down her spine.

“Not entirely,” the Monitor replied.

“Then it’s not time!” Oliver

Oliver looked at Sage. It crept all the way down to her toes, unsteadying her for a second in only the way that Oliver could manage to make her waver. She closed her eyes, engraving that look in her mind, in her heart.

“Sage—”

“Ollie,” she interrupted him, eyelids flying open, eyes hardening.

“Go.”

“No.”

“Sage, don’t—”

Sage grasped at the insignia on her midnight blue suit, twisted it to the left. It cranked and clicked until she stopped and then slapped it, pushing it a few inches inwards. Blue beams shot off from the insignia and traveled down the inner arms of her suit, crawling up to her palms. Energy surged through her and she dropped the crossbow, holding up her hands, thrusting them outwards as she concentrated.

A thin, blue dome popped up around them. The shadow demons all halted, stopped in midair, frozen. Pain rolled in waves in Sage’s head. Tears formed on the bottom lids of her eyes and a warm, wet trail slid down from her left nostril. It slipped over her lips and she stuck out her tongue, taking in the familiar metallic taste of blood. Oliver whipped around, looking this way and that as she gritted her teeth, straining.

“Wha…?”

“Froze time,” she uttered.

“You can—?”

“I can now,” she said. Her legs began to tremble. “It’s new. I don’t use it much.” She sucked in a hissing breath through her teeth as he approached. “Don’t have much time. Just needed…to say something.”

She focused on Oliver’s echoing footsteps rather than the flames licking at her muscles, coursing beneath her skin, and cracking her skull. Her breaths came out in ragged, hissing bursts but she kept her eyes on him. On Oliver. And she leaned into his comforting touch when his gloved hand cupped her cheek and his forehead pressed against hers.

“I’m…I’m s-so…proud of you,” she uttered, doing her best to keep her strength. In her words. In her body. In her resolve. “Oliver Queen, I’m so proud of you. And—and I love you. You gave me a b-beautiful daughter…and a beautiful life. And I th-thank you.”

“I love you,” Oliver said. He pressed a kiss to her lips, the blood clinging when he pulled away. He didn’t move to wipe it away. “You need to go.” His breath ghosted across her lips. She took in his scent, cologne mixed in with leather and mint. So uniquely Oliver.

Sage shook her head. ‘’Til death do us part, remember?” His eyes darkened and his jaw set. A little muscle twitched near the back, below his ear. His lips pressed into a line and, oh, how she wanted to kiss those lips again. One last time.

But she couldn’t move.

Not yet.

The field would break and then… It wasn’t time.

They needed to be ready.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“I can’t ask you—”

“You didn’t. And you won’t. This…this is what has to happen. I’m fine with it. This is what I want. You’re what I want.”

Oliver’s hand curled on his bow. He nodded, his nose nuzzling against hers. A low hum sounded in the back of her throat at their touch. She nodded. With a groan, she dropped her arms. The dome around them broke, shattering into small glittering pieces that rained down on the rooftop beneath them. Sound hit them all at once. The screeching of the shadow demons vibrated her bones and turned her stomach but her resolve steeled.

Staggering back to her feet, she pushed her hair back out of her face as Oliver lifted a bow and in one, fluid, sure gesture, shot it at the Monitor. Sage turned her back on him as he fell to the ground, electricity coursing over his body.

Lifting her stinging arms, Sage readied her crossbow, recalled all the marksman training her uncle Joe, and her father, and Oliver had put her through, and fought.

And fought

And fought. She rolled and dodged away from swooping shadow demons, landing swift kicks and punches to those that got close enough. A few exploded with the force of her swinging her crossbow around, catching them in the sides.

An explosion knocked her off her feet. A loud ringing screamed in her ears, her vision tilted, and her breath stuttered as she rolled around, trying to get back to her feet. Trying to fight. Soot and dirt coated the inside of her mouth, sucking the moisture out. Her coughs, ragged and hacking, seized her body and famed the flickering flames of ache.

Sage got to her feet, unsteady. Her eyes darted around until she spotted Oliver on the ground. “Ollie!” She clumsily skirted the debris and slabs of concrete on the roof top and dropped to his side. He swung his legs around, lifting into a kneeling position as he reached back for an arrow.

He grabbed air.

She held her gloved hand out to him and he grasped it, allowing her to help him to his feet. Their grip tightened as they looked in one another’s eyes, their breaths steadying. She squeezed hard and slipped her hand out of his grasp, turning to face the shadow army head on. Flashes of her family flittered through her mind: Uncle Joe, Iris, Wally, Barry, Nora, Caitlin, Cisco, Ralph, Cecile, her daughter Izzy.

Oliver.

“By the way.” Sage dragged the back of her hand against her mouth and turned a half-smile over to Oliver, coupled with a wink. “Happy anniversary.”