Disclaimer: I do not own anything in Arrowverse or Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Comics, Marvel Comics or any characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises or anything else you may recognize.
The Lair
Team Arrow returned to the lair with only Oliver's bow. "Oliver's gone, we need to assume Chase has him." Luke said.
"Foggy called me. Anatoly is in SCPD but Chase's wife passed away in an ambulance." Matt said.
"How are we gonna find Oliver?" Colleen wondered.
SCPD
"Is he going to make a statement against Chase?" Sara asked.
"We're gonna nail his ass—" Quentin stopped, when they faced Adrian and the phrase 'if looks could kill' came to mind.
"Mr. Rand. Miss Lance?" Adrian smiled.
Sara glared. "You son of a—"
"Please, don't threaten me, I'm in mourning." Adrian said, feigning sadness. "Haven't you heard? The Green Arrow killed my wife earlier tonight. And Miss Mayor can't get in touch with her son. You don't know where your husband is, Miss Lance?"
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now." Sara growled.
"Because you don't want your husband back in pieces. Right?" Adrian said as Sara was burning holes into his forehead with her fierce glare. He walked off as Sara, Danny and Quentin glared at him.
Later, Star City
In a cell, Oliver was in shackles, trying to free himself but then he felt electric shock as he fell to his knees, screaming in pain.
"You're not going to get out of these. Unless you want thousands of volts surging through you." Talia said.
Oliver looked up and glared at Adrian and Talia. "Your father was an honorable man." He glanced at Adrian. "You've allied with a psychopath and he'd be ashamed of you."
Talia smiled in amusement. "Well, when it comes to the shame of fathers, I shall bow to your superior expertise." She walked away before turning to Adrian. "Just make sure he suffers."
"That was always the plan." Adrian smirked.
"My friends will find me. They're my strength." Oliver said.
Adrian paced and seemed amused. "That's sweet but I'm running out of ways to tell you, Oliver. I'm not interested in killing you."
"Then what the hell is this game we're playing?" Oliver demanded.
Adrian stopped and took a breath. "I confessed to your friend Anatoly that you had helped me discover who I really am. That's what I'm gonna help you do, Oliver."
Oliver gasped for breath as Adrian pulled him out of a bucket of water and picked a towel to dry his hands.
"145 seconds. That's how long my father struggled under the water before he died. According to my father's autopsy, your arrow pierced his aortic arch, but it didn't kill him. No." Adrian paced down the cell. "He was still conscious enough to feel his lungs fill with water for 145 seconds."
"And here you were bragging about a plan more intricate than torture." Oliver sneered.
Adrian knelt down near Oliver. "Did you ever think about why I chose the name 'Prometheus'? He challenged the omnipotence of the gods. You see, because, like you, they play judge, jury and executioner. But Prometheus took away their power."
Oliver snorted. "If that's what you're gonna do to me, you'll need to come up with something better than whatever this is."
Adrian smirked as he got up to his feet. "I did. And the only way for you to stop it is to confess."
"That I killed your father?" Oliver questioned.
"Nothing so pedestrian." Adrian shook his head. "I want you tell me a secret, Oliver. I want you to confess to the one thing that you've been afraid to admit to yourself."
Oliver felt like if Adrian was completely insane, not that it surprised him. "How many times am I gonna tell you that I don't know what you're talking about?!"
Adrian sighed. "Fine. You'll come around. Eventually. Now, where were we?" He shoved Oliver's head into the bucket, counting down. "145, 144, 143…"
When Oliver came to, he was lying on the ground as around him were photos on the wall and he recognized their faces.
"Do they look familiar?" Adrian gestured around. "Do you even remember their faces? These are your victims."
"They were people, who did terrible things." Oliver said. "They had victims."
"And husbands and wives, daughters, sons." Adrian listed. "Confess your secret, Oliver and all this ends." He gestured at the door. "I'll give you a gift and you can walk out that door and go back home."
Oliver again tried to struggle out from the shackles but felt a jolt of electricity as he fell down, glaring at Adrian. "Adrian, you're sick. And a hypocrite. There is nothing that I've done that compares with you. You murdered your own wife."
Adrian sighed as he showed Oliver a photo. "Guillermo Barrera. You put an arrow into his heart."
"He was an assassin and I defended myself." Oliver said.
Adrian picked up a bow and a quiver. "Confess or I'll put an arrow into you."
Oliver got up to his feet and glared at him. "Go to hell."
"I've already been there, Oliver, and I've come back with a message for you." Adrian notched an arrow and fired at Oliver's shoulder. As Adrian neared Oliver and pulled the arrow out, suddenly, Oliver grabbed Adrian in chokehold as the latter smirked. "I've been waiting for this! Go ahead. Do it! Kill me! Or I'll come after your mother, your sister, Sara, Laurel, Diggle, Felicity, everyone you—"
Oliver tightened the grip as Adrian was closing his eyes before he passed out and fell to the floor. Oliver checked Adrian's pockets until he found some remote, turning off the power in the shackles and opening the door. Oliver freed himself and ran off, taking his hood and weapons. He needed to find the others.
The Lair
"Any clues?" Sara asked as Danny, Colleen, Luke, Rene, Rory and Jessica entered.
"We've checked the streets. Nothing." Danny said.
A few minutes later, they saw Oliver enter, limping as they gasped at his injuries.
"Oh, my God, Ollie…" Sara whispered.
"Easy." Diggle said as they had Oliver sit down.
"Chase had me… but I got away." Oliver panted out.
"Oliver, we'll get that son of a bitch." Diggle said.
"How?" Oliver breathed out. "He's been ten steps ahead of us this whole time."
"Because he's had us fighting on two fronts." Sara said. "He had us cornered. Now we're gonna corner him." Oliver's fists clenched as he seethed. "What?"
"I could've killed him. I had a chance to kill him… but I didn't." Oliver said. "He wanted me to kill him."
"It's just like Fisk." Matt assured Oliver. "He's trying to destroy who you are. You can't let him do that. We're gonna take down Chase but we're gonna do it on our own terms. Laurel is gonna convene a jury to have Anatoly testify—"
"That's not gonna work, Chase has been ten steps ahead of us the whole time!" Oliver exploded.
"What are you gonna do the, Ollie? Kill him? Are you really gonna give Chase the satisfaction?" Sara snapped back. "Chase wants us to take him out? Fine. But like Matt said, we're gonna do it on our own terms! Not his!"
"Oliver, it's fine." Anatoly assured as he entered. "If that's what it takes to stop Chase… I will do it."
Oliver could feel himself deflate. For some reason he felt like if he was going to regret it but they were right. If they wanted to stop Chase, they were going to play by their own rules, not his. "Fine. What's the play exactly?"
Honestly, the whole 5x17 with Chase torturing Oliver was painful to watch due to Oliver being unable to free himself from shackles despite that he had been trained by Ra's, so I had Chase add electricity into it. But that's not gonna stop Oliver but with the amount of torture he had been through by that point, Chase would be able to get into Oliver's head to an extent and Oliver would want to put him down and to me, the whole "confession" about that Oliver likes killing is nothing but a load of crap and the writers trying to make us spite Oliver.
The only reason Oliver didn't kill Chase at the moment here was because he mainly wanted to escape and not give Chase the satisfaction of being right, at least not at that moment.
They'll try a different tactic and if you've seen Daredevil Season 3 and read Stand with Ward and Queen's story "The legacy of Oliver Queen" before it was taken down, you can take a guess what happens next.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed this and want for me to continue.
