I JUST...REALLY WANTED TO WRITE THIS. I HAVE RECENTLY GOTTEN VERY OBSESSED WITH ARROW, AND HERE'S THE FRUITS OF THAT LOVE. I HOPE YOU ENJOY.

GOD BLESS AND GOOD DAY!

~ONE SEPTIC MARKIPLITE

"Liv...Liv...there's a boat. Come on, Liv!" That had me awake faster than a splash of water would. I bolted up, grabbing the aikuchi needles (AN ELONGATED NEELDE WEAPON I FOUND WHEN LOOKING AT NINJA WEAPONS) and tonfa, leaping up and bolting after Ollie in mere miliseconds. Sure enough, I noted as I slid over a boulder and sprinted toward the station from which we'd light our beacon, there was a boat, hardly two miles offshore. It would certainly see that bonfire Ollie prepared to light with a practiced hand. There was no need to tell him the consequences, should he miss. He knew, but pulled the bow back with a calm, steady hand, confidence in his eyes. He would not, nor did he, miss. The fire flared to life beautifully. After all, it wasn't like Oliver Queen missed a target anymore. Not after everything we'd been through on this island aptly named after Hell.

The ship came in hardly twenty minutes later. We were waiting. They, naturally, did not recognize us for the Prince and Princess of Starling City we had once been, but for the survivors of this hell-hole that needed tending to we currently were. I liked that. I really did. For once, I was grateful I was must another face to these men now leading us back toward their ship, telling us it'd be aright, that we'd be oLiv in the Mandarin language.

"Xiexe (thank you)" we replied. We took the proffered water, and ignored the constant question asked: who we were and what we were doing in a place such as this.

"Ta zai nali ni xiang yao qu de? (where is it you want to go?)" Ollie and I merely looked at each other. Then looked up at our saviours, slowly and in synch. I could tell that they were anxious and scared. Their hear rates were elevated and they shook ever so slightly. They swallowed, the sound echoing in my ears. Yes, they were scared out of their right minds, picking up two random people on an abandoned prison island named 'Lain Yu'. They were also curious, hence the myriad of questions. We smirked.

"Shi de yu. (Starling City)"

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"Bad spot on neck." One of the sailors noted in heavily accented and broken English, referring to the ring of gray-ish skin that looks like veins sprouting up all over the needle mark in a few inch radius. I tensed. No one, Oliver aside, can know what that 'bad spot' was. No one. Before I could calm myself, the memories arose.

The feeling of my hair being pulled so hard it nearly all came out, my neck craning to a severely uncomfortable angle, the needle inching closer to my skin as Oliver begged him to stop.

My tormentor's cruel laughter as I cringed beneath him, knowing that, should I resist, the pain would probably be far worse, despite the man's gruesome description of what the serum was capable of. Needless to say, it was very unpleasant to listen to.

The harsh prick of the needle entering my skin and the fire that spread from the injection site that left me in agony. I barely heard Oliver's abject terror and horror, coming in whimpers and pleas for our torturer to stop, with screams for the man to stop, but he knew it was too late to change anything as I collapsed, in so much pain, all sound ceased coming from my mouth, which was opened in a silent scream of utter agony.

The torture of every of muscle in my body being forced into a constant tensed state, adrenaline only making it worse when added to whatever that yellow stuff in the needle was. The lactic acid worked all too well as a tertiary torture device, making it feel as though I were literally being consumed by fire.

Sensory overload as whatever the FRICK they stuck me with went to work. The tiniest movement was deafening, and I'd yet to learn to filter it, focus on what I wanted, disregarding what I didn't.

It was so bad, it was as if my senses didn't work at all, confused and unable to process the bombardment of sounds, sights, tastes and smells cascading into my brain, giving me the worst migraine a human has ever to experience. It would take two days for my head to stop pounding fit to bursting open.

"-ke up!" Came a stern voice. For a second, I panicked. Was I back...there? Then...I remembered. Oliver. The boat. Of course. We were saved...

...we...were...saved...holy frick. We'd done it! "You all right?" Ollie asked. I was shaky, reliving the moment my life went to crap faster than a bat outta Hell. So, no, I was not 'all right'. But no need for my twin to worry when there wasn't anything he could do to help me. I offered a thin, weak smile.

"...As much as can be expected." Oliver nodded, then held out a refilled cup of water-all the sailors could offer- to me.

"This spilt everywhere when you went into that trance. Memory Lane?" I swallowed, nodding, unable to speak as those same memories echoed through my head again, each as vivid as if it were reoccuring. What a fricking nightmare that would be, eh?

I shook myself subtly. No need to panic. No way anything like that could happen to either of us again, right? Never again would Oliver and I be at the mercy of anyone who was bent on our destruction and misery. We would never be taken against our will to be tortured for information we didn't have, or tortured at all. We were ready, should they try again, however. Ollie and I were not the helpless people the lifeboat brought to the shore of Lian Yu. We'd been forced to grow up, make ourselves unrecognizable in order to survive. It'd be great to see the fruits of this struggle. If we can just get back to Starling City... there's a good chance that we'd see those fruits. After all, the only thing separating us from our home is a simple boat ride, right?

=#=#=#=#=

...Is it bad that I kinda almost maybe want a bit more of an exciting boat ride back home? I suppose, after five years practically living off adrenaline and fresh water with a side of whatever the frick we could dig up or hunt down to eat, I wanted adventure. Come back with a bang, you know? The departure of the Queen's Gambit was almost unheard of until we were actually setting sail. Now...we'd be all over the news. Lost at sea for five years...and now we would suddenly come home on a random fishing ship, up from the grave again. We could finally get to reunite with the people who mean the most to us, as well as upholding the vow we had made with our father.

"Survive this!" Dad had begged, just before the gunshot. He gave his life that we could live on and cleanse the city of every single parasite that drains it of its once majestic glamour. Then he'd appeared again to remind us of his pleas aboard the life raft. "Right my wrongs!" The words exhoed in my head, over and over. We intended to make the most of Dad's sacrifice. We owed it to the memory of the father Dad had been to us, the loving husband he had been to Mom. Mom...Thea...Tommy...Laurel...and Chris. We would see them soon enough. If only we'd been found sooner, before Lian Yu, then they wouldn't have to worry, but that thought is always thrown out quickly. If we'd never gone through Lian Yu, we would never be able, maybe not even willing, to honor Dad's last wish. Righting our father's wrongs would not be an easy task. We would make a lot of enemies. We might even drive those we love away, but we HAD to make Dad proud. He shot himself and killed the only other survivor just so we'd have a better chance of surviving. We had to honor that. We HAD to. And we would. Currently, we sat on the trunks we'd dragged to the beach after lighting the beacon. The ones we got from the couple that had saved our lives, taught us everything we now know. We owed our lives to them. We would have died in probably the worst possible on that island, never fulfilling Dad's dying wish, if not for them. Then...it all struck me. We could watch Lian Yu fade into the sea behind us! We weren't on it! I turned, elated beyond belief, leaning on the railing of the ship.

"Ollie! We're off the island! We're going home!" The sailors looked at us oddly. I didn't care, laughing hysterically, leaning on a laughing Oliver. He hugged me tightly to him. We...were...going home!

"You...married?" One sailor asked. We laughed even harder.

"Oh, no. He's my twin brother. We were...lost for a while." I said, giving these sailors an incredibly abridged version of things. They needn't know what happened on Lian Yu. In fact, nobody had to know. If they did know...they would no longer see us as the people they'd lost. They'd see us as tortured souls, as people who needed to be constantly cared for.

We didn't need constant care. We just needed to be with them again, hear their voices, see their faces, hear the stories from the time we missed. Catch up, but not be constantly monitored.

Never would anyone need to baby us. We weren't that kind of trauma victim. We were the kind that comes out stronger, better, eager to start making a difference. The care and attention everyone would think we need would be as bad a torture as Lian Yu ever was. I shook myself and listened intently to Oliver telling me how we'd actually get back to Starling City.

=#=#=#=#=

It was a fairly simple process to get home; we'd arrange for tickets for our plane ride home and that would be that. We still knew how to access our bank accounts. We got on and off planes in a blur for me, I was so excited and nervous. The worst nerves came when I thought of my husband, Chris. How would he respond to my arrival? Would there be an awkward introduction to a new woman in his life that I'd have to pretend not to want to murder? I prayed not because I really could murder someone now, after Lian Yu, and I might have to to cure Starling City of the plague that grips it. But enough of that kinda talk, Olivia! Geez! We're almost home. And boy, had I missed the smoky, heavy smog around our city. It sounds crazy, but I did. It was so good to be home again, in Starling City after five years at sea. I was so lost in thought, I nearly forgot that my luggage (meaning my trunk, which several airport workers and random passengers had to be told not to help me with) was passing me by. I hurriedly scooped it up.

"You almost missed your luggage there, Liv." Oliver notes with a chuckle, adjusting his trunk to an easier carrying position. "You alright?"

"Guess I'm just still in shock. Lian Yu... Nothing but a memory. We're not there anymore." Ollie nods, then frowns. "Ollie?" I asked with concern.

Oliver narrows his eyes, his muscles tensing in preparation for...something. "Why are those men coming right for us?" I hadn't noticed. The two men were behind me, lost in the crazy amount of people in the airport. They came right up to us.

"We're your escort." Was the only explanation they offered. Oliver and I hesitantly complied, only really relaxing when we found out that Mom had had them sent to pick us up. I watched the city as it passed by, noting the differences as they appeared. I then noted that we were heading for a building I had never really needed to go into before; the hospital. I felt my heart rate increase slightly. Beside me, Oliver's did, as well. Not good.

"Why are we going to the hospital?" Oliver and I asked in synch. We'd avoided needing to go there by not doing anything incredibly reckless. The thought of anyone finding out that we were left scarred and battered by our time on Lian Yu was not a pleasant one. We had survived and were home. We didn't need a health screening.

"All due respect, but your mother insisted you two get looked over." Oliver and I scoffed.

"We don't need to go to the hospital." Oliver explained in a tone that should have negated further discussion. "We're perfectly healthy." He added. Unfortunately, it didn't quite convince the stony-faced men driving us, as they merely looked back to the road.

"We're still taking you there, sir. Mrs. Queen was very insistent. She'll pick you up when the doctors are through." I swallowed, mentally rehearsing the story of my accidentally hitting my neck on a rock or a stump or a root. Anything but the truth of my injection. That would not go over well. I prayed they wouldn't get too curious at the mysterious substance in my bloodstream. If they even did a blood screening. They probably would. Great. Fricking terrific.

"Great." Ollie and I grumble, sinking into our seats with resignation. Here we go.

=#=#=#=#=

"Pardon me, but...what did you do to your neck?" I groaned under my breath. I'd known the doctor would have asked about the neck, sooner or later. It seemed, the longer the check over went on, with the blood samples (I nearly brained the doctor, but managed to contain it to a small hiss as the needle entered my skin. Let's just say...I officially hate needles) and the X-rays I really didn't want, the more tense the good doctor became until the question spilled out. He bounced slightly on his feet, awaiting some answer to his question, and I blinked, very briefly wondering what he was doing here, but then remember. Right. What do I tell him?

"Oh. Right. Uh...tr-tree root." I mutter. Guess that's the one I'll pick. "I fell down a hill, slammed it pretty good, I guess." The man frowned.

"Please, ms. Queen. That mark looks like an injection site."

I frowned. "Small root."

"Please, ms. Queen." He repeated, then sighed, looking at a chart on a clipboard. "You have an unidentified instance in your blood and a suspicious looking spot on your neck. How did you think this could go unnoticed?" I felt panic rise slightly. I swallowed.

"Look...its nothing. I hit my neck, the wound might have soured a little or something, but it really is nothing." The doctor didn't look convinced, but stropped pressing me. A male nurse came in and whispered something in the doctor's ear.

"The tox screen failed to identify that...whatever it is in her blood." He said. If I hadn't been given the serum, I'd never be able to hear. And I was oLiv with them never knowing what was in my blood, but I had another hurdle to leap. I felt a keen need to use the shower. After asking around a little, I was left in the bathroom with a pair of scrub pants and a green three quarter sleeve shirt with a sweetheart neckline. How they found my approximate size was...not too unexpected. I do suppose there are nurses that have my average build. I got into the shower and started massaging my head with my shampooed fingers, dazed. All those previous times I'd done this, in the rain, in a river, anywhere and any time I could on the island...it never felt like this. This...the feeling of the shampoo in my hair after five years...oh, man...nothing compares to this. My hair felt clean for the first time in five years. The conditioner was equally impressive. Soap...was the icing on the cake. I spent a good five minutes scrubbing off the thick layer of dirt and grime all over me. Another ten was used shaving my legs and pits within an inch of their lives. This...felt...amazing. No other word for it. I reluctantly got out after a solid half an hour and let Ollie have a turn. He only spent fifteen minutes, probably because he didn't have the list of shower duties I did. He came out with his hair a mess and a sheepish grin on his face. He had shaven his beard. I kinda liked the beard, but the scruff left was just as cute. He held up an electric razor. I laughed. We'd talked about the first thing we'd do when we got home on the plane. First thing Oliver said was that he wanted to get his hair buzzed off. I said I wanted to refresh my half-buzz I'd had before the island made it impossible to maintain and I gave up on trying.

He held out the razor, awaiting my answer. "You do me, I do you?" I smiled.

"Sure, Oliver." He sat on a small chair and I circled behind him, plugging in the razor as I went. He needed a big buzz after five years. It took hardly five minutes. And that's just because the razor was very good. Very good. There was a lot of matted hair to cut through. But this baby managed beautifully. He was true to his word, buzzing my head. It felt right, but looking in the mirror when we were done...we were unrecognizable, strangers in our eyes. I couldn't get rid of the image, the one of me watching my brother buzz half my head. It was surreal. He was buzzing my head because we had made it. We had survived that hell hole, and now we could buzz each other's heads and we could see our families again, and help them overcome the wounds we had given them by stepping onto that boat. Yet, I was nervous. Thea had never been the most stable girl to begin with, and now that she believed she had lost her farther and twin siblings...who knew what trouble she'd gotten up to. I just hoped she hadn't served jail time. That would be rough for her. I hadn't been to jail myself, but I'd heard stories...

Yeah...I was nervous. A knock at the door to the room came and a young male nurse poked his head in.

"Your mother is on her way." he told us. We thanked him and he left without further comment. This was it. The moment we're reunited with lost family. I felt distinctly nervous as we waited in our hospital room.

How would Mom handle seeing us again, without Dads there, as well, laughing and kissing Mom. There should be a reunion between the two. There should be whispered confessions of undying love and devotion shared between my parents.

But there wouldn't be. Never again would Mom be able to look at Dad's kind, loving smile.

It's somehow really hitting home for me now, of all times. I suppose I just...had to focus on surviving and all that while on the island, constantly watching my back and having to go from one task to another, essentially, to survive. And now...there's no need. I can just relax, not worrying about anything. Man...not sure I know how anymore. Ugh.