Author's Note and Disclaimer:

An idea I've been wanting to do for a while. Timeline wise, it takes place after Oliver dies in Crisis on Infinite Earths and the pairing was Oliver/Sara, not Olicity, and I'm not gonna care if you don't like it, so don't bother protesting or trying to spout flames or dirty words, it'll only show how pathetic you are, it's my story and I have the right to write it as I see it fit.

This is my first time writing "watch-it" fic though, so I highly apologize in advance if the viewers' reactions are gonna be out of character. Timeline-wise, this takes place anytime after 1x19, when Tommy quit Verdant. I appreciate constructive criticism but don't be too harsh on me, please.

This will be a watch-it of the five years Oliver was gone but I'm gonna be making some changes in Year Five in Russia, since I didn't like how they were making Oliver a monster, him enjoying torture, just out of hate for Oliver. Format will be the same as Stand with Ward and Queen's watch-it fics "Whatever it takes" which is a great read and "Scott's story", since I don't like transcribing word for word.

Updates are gonna be irregular, since watch-it fics are tricky and I have college duties and other stories I'm working on.

I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

"Are you sure about this?" Slade asked as Sara was in the cockpit, wiping her tears.

"I keep wondering if things could have been different if they had understood." Sara said. "If they had known that he was not the same person…"

"Dwelling about what could have been, is pointless." Slade told her. "Trust me."

"Maybe." Sara said. "But it took them all a long time that Oliver had grown so far from the man he was years ago."

"Everything's ready." Ray said as he entered. "So, who are we going to bring?"

Laurel Lance was in her apartment, angry at her mother not telling them the truth about knowing that Sara was going onto the Gambit before she vanished in a flash of light.

Quentin Lance was at his desk, looking at the photo of his daughters and angry that he again failed to catch the Hood again and that his daughter decided to keep a distance from him, when the next thing he saw, was a flash of light.

Roy Harper was in his house, looking at the flechette in his hand, after the Hood had rescued him from the Savior, contemplating his life so far and considering searching for the vigilante before he disappeared in a flash of light.

Thea Queen had returned home from CNRI and met her mother Moira Queen back in the manor, just when Oliver confronted her regarding the Undertaking, before they disappeared in a flash of light.

John Diggle and Felicity Smoak were in the basement of the club, researching the insignia from the notebook that showed the area of the subway underneath the Glades and the data they had downloaded from Merlyn Global Group before they disappeared in a flash of light.

Tommy Merlyn was in his office in Merlyn Global Group, bitter after his encounter with Oliver but considering, whether he should make amends with Laurel before he disappeared in a flash of light.

The group of eight of them fell down on the floor as they appeared in some kind of a living room, as there was a large widescreen TV on the wall and a couch behind them and a table in front of them.

"What the hell?" Quentin groaned as he got up.

"What the… where are we?" Laurel wondered as she looked around.

"Ow. My body. Everything hurts… inside my body." Felicity groaned as she fell down.

"What's going on?" Thea demanded before she realized something. "Roy, get off me!"

"Sorry." Roy said as he got off her. While he did enjoy being on the young Queen, this was neither the time or place for this, wherever they were. "Does anyone know what just happened?"

"I think we're all as confused as you are." Moira said.

"What the hell is this place?" Diggle wondered.

"It will all get cleared up soon." A new female voice, but very familiar to the group, save for Roy, Diggle and Felicity, said as they turned to the door to see…

"Sara?" Laurel widened her eyes in disbelief as she got up, shock flooding through most of the present.

"That's impossible." Thea said, frozen in shock.

"No way." Tommy shook his head in denial.

"It can't be…" Moira whispered as they all, save for Roy, Diggle and Felicity, stared at her in disbelief.

"Baby girl?" Quentin murmured, not believing his own eyes. She seemed few years older than the last time they saw her but the dirty blonde hair, the cheeks, the big blue eyes and the freckles on her face…

"That's impossible, you're dead." Thea said what they were all thinking.

"Wait, Sara, as in "Sara Lance"?" Roy asked, finally realizing who it was as he, Diggle and Felicity turned to them all.

"Wait, isn't she supposed to be…" Felicity trailed off, completely confused.

"Ollie said that he watched her die, that she drowned." Thea nodded, confused.

"What the hell is going on here?" Laurel demanded, thinking this was some kind of a bad dream, confusion and anger filling her.

Sara smiled softly, tears filling her eyes before she hugged Laurel tightly and broke down. At first, Laurel was shocked, when Sara hugged her but then, nostalgia followed, when her baby sister was sad or upset as Laurel often comforted her and it took minutes for her and Quentin to let the truth settle in.

"I never thought I was gonna see you again." Sara said as Laurel's eyes filled with tears too.

"Baby girl?" Quentin whispered, still not believing it as he neared her, while she hugged him tightly.

"Hey, Daddy." Was all Sara said as the dam of feelings she had been bottling up, burst out.

Quentin's emotions were running wild, not sure how to process what was happening before he returned the hug slowly and tears filled his eyes. "Sara?" As it all sank in, realizing it was her, he let her go, wondering if this was a miracle. "How…"

"We all thought you were dead." Thea said, finally speaking up after absorbing the truth as she looked around, confused. "What… Sara… what is going on here?"

Sara breathed out, getting ahold of herself. "Sorry, I… this is all harder than I thought it was gonna be. To see you all again."

"Wait…" Laurel trailed off. "You were alive this whole time?" Then, the disbelief and sadness were quickly being replaced by anger as she started to pound Sara into her chest. "And you… you… where the hell have you been? Five years, Sara! Five years you let us all believe you were dead and…"

"Laurel, I know you're angry but calm down, please." Sara held Laurel's hands. "I… I understand you must be angry and confused but you're gonna find what I'm about to tell you, hard to believe." Then she took a breath, realizing that this was going to be hard to tell them all, while holding back tears. "This… this is future."

"Future?" Diggle and Felicity repeated, not believing.

"What?" Roy demanded, skeptical. "Yeah. And I'm Batman."

"Gideon." Sara said as the windows opened and they saw that they were high above a city in ruins.

"Wait, this is Starling City." Quentin recognized it.

"What the hell?" Roy said what everyone was wondering, that their hometown was in ruins.

"Please, someone tell me I'm high." Diggle said, not believing his own eyes.

"I know this is hard to believe but everything I'm telling you, is true. This is Starling City, thirty years from your present." Sara said.

"Future…" Laurel whispered as Quentin sighed. After what he had been through with the Hood lately…

"OK, I'll bite. You're saying this is thirty years in the future from our present?" Quentin drawled as Sara nodded and he wiped his face, still trying to process this.

"Wait, so…" Tommy trailed off, something hitting him. "You didn't die on the Gambit, like Oliver said." Sara shook her head. "Why would he tell us that he watched you die?"

"Because I made him promise to tell you, if I didn't make it back with him." Sara said before sighing. "It all… what I'll show you, I want you to understand what has happened to him. Gideon."

On the screen was a footage of Oliver wearing a hood that everyone immediately recognized, fighting his way through a corridor of thugs, before he opened a door to see disheveled Walter Steele.

"Walter!" Moira said in relief that her husband had been found as Thea seemed to relax too.

Then the scene changed to Oliver, in his hood, fighting a man that everyone recognized as the copycat archer that appeared during Christmas before Oliver ripped his mask off to show the face of Malcolm Merlyn, much to everyone's shock, as his father was holding Oliver in chokehold.

"What the hell?!" Tommy exclaimed, not believing his own eyes before they saw Oliver drive an arrow through his own shoulder, piercing Malcolm's chest as the latter let Oliver go, while Oliver punched him, knocking him on the ground before they saw the Glades crumble.

Moira gulped, realizing that Malcolm apparently succeeded in his Undertaking as Diggle and Felicity paled, wondering if the subway map that they found in the notebook, was connected to the Glades crumbling.

The next footage showed the Hood and a blonde in black leather fighting a black man, with a grenade launcher, in the ruined Glades.

The next footage showed Oliver and Sara talking in the stockroom in Verdant, and then it clicked for Laurel and Quentin as they turned to her.

"Wait, you're the…" Quentin trailed off. The fact, that Oliver was the vigilante, did not really surprise him but seeing that Sara apparently became another one too, completely stunned him. They saw Oliver and Sara driving on a bike through the night in Starling City before seeing Oliver in a body armor, alongside with a blonde that seemed a little different than the one in the previous scene, a young archer in red hood and leather suit, who seemed to be of Roy's height and John Diggle, much to their surprise.

"I think that's enough." Sara said as the viewers, save for Diggle and Felicity, looked stunned. Suddenly, all things about Oliver were making sense before they turned to her.

"So… Oliver is… he…" Thea trailed off. The lies, the disappearing and excuses, it all suddenly made sense. Whenever he'd run off out of the sudden and lied… he was actually saving someone's life, Roy's included.

Roy also started to see Oliver in a different light, much like Thea. He just assumed that Oliver was a spoiled trust fund brat but now… now Roy saw that Oliver and the man he had been looking for, the man, who had saved his life in the subway few days ago, were one and the same person.

Quentin then realized that he had been right about Oliver all along and that Oliver must have planned for the event that someone would catch up on him. However, instead of trying to arrest the Hood, now he wondered, why would his own daughter, from the future, reveal this to them and what was motivating her and Oliver.

Moira wasn't really surprised, after Oliver had confronted her about the Undertaking.

But, then they noticed the lack of surprise in Tommy's, Diggle's and Felicity's faces as they turned to them, regarding the fact that Oliver was the vigilante.

"You know?" Laurel realized.

"Wait, you know that Ollie is the Hood?!" Thea snapped.

"How long have you known, Merlyn?!" Quentin demanded.

"I…" Tommy paused.

"We saw Mr. Diggle on the footage but you…" Moira trailed off.

"Oh, it all makes sense now." Laurel said, remembering the recent tension between Oliver and Tommy. "That's why you two have been on odds lately. Ever since your Dad was almost killed."

"Wait, he told you he was the Hood?" Moira demanded. "How? When?"

"Tommy had Ollie dead to rights, when Malcolm was dying from curare poisoning and Tommy wouldn't let Ollie help his father, so Ollie eventually revealed himself to him." Sara said as Tommy seemed to be too shocked to say anything as everyone turned to her in surprise. "Future, remember?"

For a few moments, everyone was completely stunned before Quentin realized something. "Wait, so that copycat archer that showed up during Christmas and Malcolm Merlyn…"

"…are one and the same person." Sara finished, nodding as Moira paled, realizing that Malcolm was much more dangerous than she had feared him to be, while everyone, especially Tommy, Thea and Laurel, who remembered him as the man, who used to amuse them with his magician tricks, when they were children, were shocked that the man, who once was like a funny uncle to the younger ones, and a close friend of the Queens, was actually a ruthless killer, who had no regard towards innocent lives and Diggle and Felicity trailed off, wondering what kind of mess did they get themselves into. All they wanted, was to help Oliver in his mission to save his city by crossing names off the list and stopping the criminals that would endanger Starling City.

Then, Laurel, Tommy, Moira and Thea remembered Oliver's "accident" during the Christmas and realized that he was beaten up during his encounter with the copycat archer as they realized how dangerous Malcolm was as suddenly all pieces fell together, the sudden disappearances, the injuries Oliver had endured during Christmas…

"Wait, why are you showing us this?" Roy asked, finally speaking up after they saw the events that Sara had shown them. "I mean, if this is future, you wouldn't have brought us here without a reason. You want to change something."

"You've always been smarter than we give you credit for." Sara smiled at Roy.

"And how are you even alive?" Thea wondered.

"It will all be explained in what I'm about to show you." Sara said. "I want you all to understand what drives Oliver. You all saw him as the same person he was five years ago but… you need to know that what had happened to him during those five years, it all turned him into… someone else. Something else."

"Someone he doesn't even recognize anymore." Diggle added, remembering what he told Oliver after he had revealed himself to him as Laurel suddenly remembered what he told her about being damaged, when she had confronted him about his scars and the polygraph test he had taken because of her father, wondering what did happen to him.

Sara nodded. "Back then, we were stupid, reckless kids but you need to understand that… those five years have turned us both into something different. What I'm about to show you… it's gonna show the five years of what Oliver had been through, when he was gone."

"Seriously?" Felicity asked, as they were all genuinely curious what did happen to Oliver.

"Most of you treated him as the same person, who he was before the Gambit, an irresponsible brat but none of you could see that the Hell he had gone through, have turned him into a completely different person." Sara pointed out and Laurel, Moira, Thea, Tommy and Quentin had to admit she had a point. "I just want you all to understand. But I'm not gonna lie, you won't like most of what you're about to see. And you're…" She flushed in embarrassment as she turned to Laurel and Quentin. "You're gonna be rightfully pissed at me."

"Well. Show us." Roy said as Sara nodded.

"Gideon. Turn it on." Sara said as the screen turned on as everyone looked intrigued.

The Queen's Gambit sailed through the storm in the sea as one of the crewmen entered, recommending to head back due to the possible danger, with the storm being Category 2.

"Wait, Category 2 doesn't seem serious enough for the Gambit to sink." Laurel said, confused because she knew that the yacht had been through more dangerous waters before.

"Because someone planted a bomb on the boat and wanted Robert dead." Sara said grimly as Thea, Quentin, Laurel and Moira looked at her in horror and Moira wondered how did Sara know. Diggle and Felicity weren't really surprised, considering that Diggle found out, when he was spying on Moira.

"What?!" Quentin demanded.

"Who… I… who would've wanted to kill Dad?" Thea asked, horrified.

Felicity was about to open her mouth but Diggle stopped her as he gave her a glare and subtly shook his head. Revealing right now that Moira apparently knew about the sabotage, was not going to end well.

"Now's not the time for this, I think it will be time to mention it later." Diggle whispered and Felicity nodded lightly in understanding.

"I'll explain everything to you later." Sara said. "Just keep watching. I know you have a lot of questions and I'll answer as much as I can but right now's not the time."

Robert agreed, intending to form a crew before Oliver entered, asking if they were in trouble, before Sara, wearing nothing but a nightrobe and her undergarments, appeared, teasing Oliver as he ordered her to return back to the bedroom.

Moira and Thea were glad to see Robert alive and alright in the past but then, they, Tommy, Quentin and Laurel looked more annoyed and disgusted than anything, when they saw younger Sara, in her more rebellious days, flirting with Oliver.

"Oh, Oliver…" Diggle sighed and Felicity shook her head in annoyance, that they saw Oliver acting more like a classic trust fund brat.

"Typical." Felicity muttered, not really surprised by Oliver's shenanigans.

"Seriously?!" Laurel snapped. "You want us to see what happened to Oliver during the five years he was gone and the first thing we see, is how you two cheat on me?!" She whirled on Sara, angry.

Sara flushed slightly but remained unfazed. "Look, I'm not proud of what I did and you have every right to be angry at me. But trust me, what's about to happen, it'll make this look like nothing." She said grimly and the deadly look she had in her eyes, caused for Laurel to shift back uneasily as she, Tommy, Quentin, Moira and Thea were disturbed by Sara's bluntness and brutal honesty, making them wonder what happened to her. "It may look like sunshine and rainbows right now but after the Gambit went down, it was all "Out of the frying pan into the fire"."

They turned their attention to the screen, wondering how it was gonna turn out bad.

Oliver seemed to be smiling happy before Robert warned him that what he was doing with the younger sister of his girlfriend, cheating on her like that, was not going to end well for either of the youngsters.

"No kidding." Quentin said as he remembered the telephone conversation he had with Sara, when she was supposedly in college, wondering how the hell did he not put it together.

Oliver and Sara were in the bedroom, drinking wine as they teased each other, while Oliver sat next to Sara in bed as the young Lance said that Laurel was going to kill her but Oliver assured her that Laurel would never find out.

"Oh, come on, do we really have to see that?" Laurel groaned as she looked away in disgust and Thea, Felicity and Quentin covered their eyes and Moira shook her head in disapproval.

They were about to make out on the bed, when they heard thunder, which startled Sara. Oliver assured her as they kissed before the yacht flipped over, causing for Oliver, Sara and the furniture to fall as they hit the wall.

"Oh, my God." Moira said, causing for Laurel, Thea, Felicity and Quentin to turn their attention to the screen again.

Oliver was dazed as he got up, looking for Sara and as his vision cleared, in horror, he saw her get sucked out of the yacht as Oliver vainly attempted to reach out, while Sara screamed out Oliver's name before the sea and the darkness consumed her.

Felicity, Moira, Laurel and Thea gasped in horror.

"No!" Quentin exclaimed.

"Oh, my God…" Roy whispered and Diggle tensed.

"I survived." Sara assured them as they turned to her, staring for a moment before relaxing. "But as far as Ollie knew back then, I didn't make it. He thought I was dead."

A few moments later, Oliver was sucked out of the Gambit onto the open sea as well as he swam to the surface, while he attempted to vainly call out for Sara.

The lifeboat, on which was Robert and his bodyguard, Dave Hackett, neared Oliver as he got onboard. Oliver vainly screamed out Sara's name and wanted to save her before they saw the Gambit sink to the bottom of the sea as Robert told Oliver that there was nothing they could do for her anymore.

"He did try to save you." Quentin said.

"Oh, Ollie…" Laurel sighed, realizing how hard it must have been for him.

"But… you said that you survived." Thea realized as she turned to Sara. "He thought you were dead but you made it out alive."

Sara nodded and Quentin and Laurel relaxed and felt more than a bit ashamed of how they accused Oliver of killing Sara.

"I did. But…" Sara sighed. "…what happened to me, wasn't any better than what Oliver had been through, as you're about to see."

Suddenly, Quentin and Laurel tensed again and considering the scars they knew Oliver had, they all wondered how bad it must have been for Sara.

"Sara, are we…" Laurel paused. "Are we gonna…"

"No. You're gonna see in here some pieces of what me and Ollie had gone through but I'm not gonna show you everything from when I was… gone. Trust me, you're better off not knowing what happened to me." Sara said with a serious look in her eyes as Laurel, Quentin, Tommy, Moira and Thea had to wonder what did happen to her. They remembered her as reckless, rebellious young girl but now she was more reserved and serious and apparently had been through a lot of pain as they realized it wasn't any easy for her to relive what they were seeing.

A little while later, Robert handed Oliver a bottle of water but Hackett protested that they were wasting supplies. Robert, however wanted for his son to survive, no matter what.

Tommy, Laurel, Moira and Thea smiled that Robert was looking after Oliver, no matter what. Quentin, while he didn't like that Oliver made it to the raft and Sara didn't, he couldn't fault Robert for wasting the supplies on his own child, as Quentin would've done the same thing for Sara, if they were in their place.

Robert apologized for not being the man Oliver had believed him to be and that he had failed his city, much to Oliver's confusion.

"Wait, what does he mean by that?" Thea asked, not understanding, as Quentin, Laurel, Roy and Tommy were as much confused.

"Do you think he's talking about the List?" Felicity asked as Diggle nodded.

"Possibly."

"You know about the List?" Moira demanded, turning to them before she remembered that the people that the Hood had targeted, were people from the list and then she realized that Robert must have given him it.

"Wait, what List?" Roy asked, confused.

"It will all be explained soon enough." Sara said.

"Wait, Ollie said that Dad drowned on Gambit. Why would he lie about that?" Thea asked, when they saw that Robert was alive.

"Well…" Sara sighed. "You're about to see in a moment. And trust me, the truth was far much worse than what Oliver had told you. He wanted to spare you and Moira of that pain."

The lifeboat seemed to drift on the sea for hours, maybe even days, as Oliver, Robert and Hackett were clearly tired, with Oliver sleeping and leaning onto his father, who had his arm around Oliver. Robert apologized to Oliver, pleading for him to be strong, to survive and make it back home, while Oliver was still unconscious. Robert insisted for Oliver to make Starling City better and right Robert's wrongs. Oliver, however did not seem to pay much attention, due to exhaustion, starvation and thirst, wanting to rest as he closed his eyes.

"What wrongs? What does he mean by that?" Tommy asked, not understanding.

"The List, the people that the Hood had been targeting, Robert and… a group of other people…" Sara said carefully as she gave Moira a look as the latter paled. "Wanted to coerce criminals and businessmen like them to leverage them to making the city a better place. However, it did not seem to work."

Robert pushed Oliver gently away before he pulled a gun out of his jacket.

"Dad…" Thea said, horrified, wondering what was he going to do.

Robert shot Hackett in the head as Hackett fell over, into the sea and Oliver woke up, startled, looking at his father in confusion.

They all looked stunned and shocked, not believing that Robert would've done something like this, killing a man.

"Dad!" Thea wailed in shock.

Robert told Oliver to survive before putting the gun to his temple, much to Oliver's horror and pulled the trigger, committing suicide.

Thea, Felicity, Moira and Laurel screamed in horror, covering their mouths as Quentin, Tommy and Diggle looked stunned at what just happened. Suddenly, Thea and Moira broke down in tears as Thea leaned onto her mother, sobbing into her shoulder as Moira wrapped her arms around Thea's head, trying to soothe her. Felicity wasn't any better as she vainly attempted to hold back tears as Diggle had his arm around her head, doing whatever little he could to comfort her.

Roy felt a lot of sympathy for Oliver, reconsidering his own opinion on him, considering that he saw his own mother commit suicide after vainly fighting off drug addiction.

Tommy just stared in shock, not believing his own eyes, frozen at his spot. "Jesus Christ, Ollie…" Tommy said, wondering how awful it must have been for Oliver, feeling ashamed of how he had been treating his best friend after finding out his secret.

A while back, Quentin would've thought that Oliver had not suffered enough because of what happened to Sara. Considering that she seemed to have survived, Quentin instead started to wonder how bad it must have been for Oliver as he realized that how bad his treatment of Oliver was, when Quentin arrested him and interrogated him.

Laurel just stared, her mind not quite processing what just happened before she remembered how she had told Oliver that he had not suffered enough or that she had wished he should have rotten in Hell longer than five years. Seeing now that his own father had committed suicide right in front of him, she was more left to wonder how bad it must have been for him and considering what Sara described, it was all about to become much worse.

"I'm sorry you all had to see that. But you need to understand how hard it all was for him." Sara said as she paused the footage, letting them all process what they had just seen. Few minutes later, they all pulled themselves together but Felicity, Thea and Moira still had their eyes wet as they sniffed.

"Keep going." Moira said as Sara unpaused the recording.

It all became too much to bear for Oliver as he was passing out again. When he came to, he saw the island of Lian Yu.

"That's it, right?" Laurel realized.

"Lian Yu. The purgatory." Sara nodded as they all were genuinely both intrigued and worried what happened to Oliver on the island.

As the lifeboat washed ashore, Oliver decided to give his father a proper funeral, wrapping his corpse in one of the covers of the lifeboat as he mourned for a moment. Feeling sick, from what he had just been through, Oliver retched and vomited and coughed out before the seagulls were about to eat on Robert's corpse before Oliver scared them off.

"Oh, Oliver." Moira sighed as they all looked at him sadly.

Whatever anger Quentin and Laurel had for Oliver, was replaced by sympathy and pity.

Oliver grabbed Robert's body and put it on the rock hill nearby before he found a notebook in Robert's pocket that piqued Oliver's interest as he picked it. Oliver took a look but all the pages were blank, much to Oliver's confusion before he found a strange insignia on the first page of the notebook.

"Is that…" Felicity trailed off and Diggle nodded, it was the map of subway under the Glades.

"At least he was still with him." Thea said as she realized that Robert's body was on the island.

"Wait, you said that the notebook contained a list of names that Ollie was after." Laurel said, confused. "There are… blank pages."

"You'll see." Sara said and Quentin sighed. He had a feeling his daughter was going to say this a lot.

Oliver pocketed the notebook before burying his father under a pile of rocks but then suddenly, he cried out in pain as he was shot from behind into his right shoulder by an arrow. Oliver fell down, leaning onto Robert's grave, screaming in pain as he turned around to see an archer in green hood in the distance at the shores of Lian Yu as he notched another arrow.

"What the hell?!" Roy demanded as they all looked in horror to see Oliver injured, just right after he got onto safe land.

"Who the…" Thea trailed off.

"Wait, that hood…" Felicity said, recognizing it as she looked at it closely.

"That must be Yao Fei." Diggle realized as Sara nodded.

"Yao who?" Tommy asked, not understanding.

"You're about to see in a moment." Sara said.

Author's Note:

So, what do you guys think? Is it good? Is it bad? Should I continue?

Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this.

With regards

Bl4ckHunter