Chapter 2
(Underground A.R.G.U.S. Prison on Lian Yu)
Slade slowly stood up and looked at Oliver curiously. "What brought you back to the island?"
"Like I said," Oliver started, as he walked closer to Slade's cell and unlocked the door with a key. "I need your help."
"What the hell's going on here?" an A.R.G.U.S. guard, who was armed with a large gun, demanded as he walked up behind Oliver.
Oliver turned around and walked up to the guard. "We have a problem and I need you to get off the island."
"I'm not going anywhere," the guard said firmly, before throwing a glance at Slade. "Neither is he."
"I am taking him, and I'm taking Digger Harkness," Oliver stated. "There's an A.R.G.U.S. supply boat that is docked on the eastern shore. You take it and you go."
"I'm not abandoning my post," the guard insisted, dutifully.
"Suit yourself," Oliver said, before slugging the guard in the face.
The blow knocked the man a few feet back before he fell on the ground, out cold. Oliver didn't want to knock out the guard, who was merely doing his job, but he couldn't let the man get in the way of his mission.
He turned back to the cell and saw that Slade had already stepped out of it. After closing the cell door, Slade turned to face Oliver.
"Would you like to explain what's going on?" Slade asked.
"I'd like to talk about you for a minute," Oliver said as he regarded Slade. "You seem..."
"What, in possession of all my marbles?" Slade asked, and Oliver nodded. "The Mirakuru wore off a long time ago, kid." With remorse evident in his eyes, he added, "I mean, I remember everything that happened. I'm not trying to escape that, but it feels like some bad dream. Now, regardless of my sanity, why do you want to help me, after everything that I've done?"
"There is a man here on the island named Adrian Chase," Oliver explained. "He's holding my friends and my family hostage, including Thea... and my son."
"Since when do you have a son?" Slade asked with a small chuckle.
"Slade, are you gonna help me or not?" Oliver demanded, not in the mood for casual talk.
"I think I am stating the obvious when I say I killed your mother," Slade pointed out. "And for that alone, you should've killed me."
"Maybe what's happening now is the reason I didn't," Oliver said, as he took out a USB flash drive and held it out to Slade. "This is all the intel that I've been able to gather on your son Joe." He handed the flash drive to Slade. "Including his present whereabouts."
"Are you offering to help me find my son?" Slade asked incredulously, looking as though he was on the verge of tears at the idea of the man whose mother he had murdered was offering to help him find his son.
"I want us to find both of our sons," Oliver said.
He turned around and walked over to the duffle bag on the ground. He unzipped the duffle bag and took a very familiar orange and black mask out of it. He headed back over to Slade, who took a step back at the sight of the mask that reminded him of all the unspeakable things he had done while wearing it.
Slade looked hesitant as Oliver held the mask out to him. After a moment, Slade finally took the mask from Oliver and stared at it.
"You and me, kid, like old times," Slade said, suddenly ready for some action.
(Lian Yu)
Clark, Ollie, Chloe, Nyssa, and Malcolm were offloading their supplies from the plane, while Oliver had gone off to fetch additional help.
"You know, if we're going to fight side by side, you're going to have to at least speak with me," Nyssa said to Malcolm.
"I know, it's awful," Malcolm remarked.
"Pity," Nyssa scoffed. "By now, I thought you'd realize that, by disbanding the League of Assassins, I freed us both."
"Are you looking for a round of applause? Clapping is a little more difficult for me these days," Malcolm said bitterly, as he held up his cybernetic hand.
"Look, assassin lady, I don't mean to get in the middle of anything, but one thing that's pretty clear is that you guys don't get along, so I doubt you'll get Merly boy here to understand what it is you actually meant," Ollie said to Nyssa, who smirked in appreciation while Malcolm glared at the emerald archer.
"Whatever is going on between me and Nyssa is none of your concern, Mr. Queen," Malcolm said. "So stay out of it or I'll test how well you would fare in a fight against me compared to your more hostile namesake."
"Why do I get the feeling you're more at fault for why you and your pal Nyssa are at each other's throats?" Ollie asked.
"What happened to your hand if you don't mind me asking?" Chloe asked Malcolm, changing the subject to avoid a possible fight between her husband and Merlyn.
"Oliver cut it off," Malcolm said, contempt evident in his voice as he spoke the name of the man he blamed the most for his downfall.
"Cutting off body parts isn't personally my style, but if Oliver cut off your hand, I'm sure he didn't do it without a good reason," Clark said, only for Malcolm to glare at him as well.
"How did that come about?" Chloe asked, curious.
"Malcolm took a position in the League of Assassins he wasn't fit for because my husband foolishly gave it to him," Nyssa explained. "Months later, my husband's sister was dying and I had something that could cure her. At the time, I was very bitter, so I withheld the cure and asked Oliver to fight Malcolm for me. During the fight, Oliver cut off Malcolm's hand, which he deserved entirely, and after Oliver's sister was cured, I realized how petty I had been, so I burnt the Demon's Head ring and disbanded the League. That way, no one can any longer be bound to an organization that was corrupted long ago."
"Well, now we know which of you two is the more trustworthy individual," Clark said, as Malcolm sighed in defeat.
Just then, Oliver walked over, accompanied by Slade Wilson, who was now decked out in his full Deathstroke gear, and Digger Harkness, also known as Captain Boomerang, who was also in his uniform.
"Have you offloaded the supplies?" Oliver asked.
"Most of them," Ollie answered. "We still need to get the guns and ammo though."
Oliver opened a case to reveal his Green Arrow suit inside.
"By the way, what do you need an RPG for?" Malcolm asked.
"Well, like I said, Chase has Talia, an army of her students, Evelyn Sharp, China White, Carrie Cutter, Liza Warner, and a meta-human," Oliver explained. "I have no interest in this being a fair fight."
"As long as we rescue all your folks and be the ones to come out on top, right?" Ollie said.
"Is that why you release the animals from their cages?" Nyssa asked Oliver, as she eyed Slade and Harkness.
"Oh, come on, luv, that is no way to start a new friendship," Harkness said, as he eyed her lustfully with a flirtatious smirk.
"Look at me again like that and I'll feed you your eyes," Nyssa warned in a stone cold tone as she glared daggers at him.
"I get the feeling she isn't bluffing," Ollie replied, before turning to Harkness. "So you better listen to her."
"You're not her type anyway," Malcolm added.
"All right, that's enough," Oliver said, firmly. "Let's offload the rest..."
"We have incoming," Clark announced.
At that moment, a loud roaring sound coming from in the sky got everyone's attention. They looked up and saw an RPG projectile rapidly approaching.
Clark was about to take action when Oliver put his hand in front of him.
"Wait," Oliver instructed.
Clark stopped, remembering that Oliver had asked him to not reveal his powers unless the situation was absolutely necessary.
Everyone watched as the projectile descended and hit the plane, exploding on impact.
"Ooh," Harkness said with a smirk. "So much for our gear."
"There goes our ride home, kid," Slade said, grimly.
"Another ride will come," Oliver stated, before turning to Clark. "Did you hear anything else coming?"
"No, it was only the missile," Clark answered.
"Great," Oliver said, as he walked over to the case containing his Green Arrow suit. "I'm gonna suit up, and when I'm done, we'll take them all down."
"I'm totally looking forward to that, Grumpy Pants," Ollie quipped, and Oliver rolled his eyes at his counterpart's nickname for him.
"So am I," Chloe added as she smiled lovingly at her husband. "Isn't this romantic?"
"No matter where we are and what we're doing, every moment that I'm with you is romantic," Ollie said.
"Can't disagree with that," Chloe nodded, tempted to pull him into a kiss but knew they needed to stay focused on the mission.
Clark, Ollie, Chloe, Oliver, Slade, Nyssa, Malcolm, and Harkness were all walking along the island. Oliver was now wearing in his Green Arrow suit.
"Who are these guys?" Clark asked Oliver, referring to Slade and Harkness.
"This is Slade Wilson, and that's Digger Harkness," Oliver replied, pointing at the two men in question as he said their names.
"That's Slade Wilson?!" Clark, Ollie, and Chloe simultaneously said as they regarded the man in shock.
"I knew that mask looked pretty familiar," Ollie said.
"It looks a lot like the one that Rose Wilson wore as Ravager," Chloe said.
"Are you sure that you trust Slade to work with us?" Clark asked Oliver warily, given that the Slade Wilson he knew was an unrepentant enemy who had captured and tortured some of his friends, nearly killed Lois, and did exactly that to Hawkman.
"Not fully," Oliver answered.
"Wait, didn't you tell me that this guy killed your mother?" Ollie asked.
"I know, but right now we need all the help we could get," Oliver pointed out.
"Whatever you say," Ollie said.
"So these friends of yours are aware of what I've done," Slade said to Oliver.
"Who isn't?" Oliver pointed out.
"Fair point, kid," Slade said.
"Anyway, the RPG that took out the plane came from over there," Oliver stated, focusing on the mission again as he gestured to the left. He looked down at his tablet. "And the call from my son originated just west of here."
"Hostages could be at either place," Harkness said.
"Or neither," Slade said. "This is a large island."
"I'll check the RPG site," Malcolm offered.
"I'll accompany you," Nyssa said.
"Oh, it's almost like you don't trust me, Nyssa," Malcolm remarked.
"No, it's exactly like I don't trust you," Nyssa retorted.
"She's got you there," Ollie said to Malcolm, who glared again at the Earth-21 archer.
"You know, my Earth's Oliver may have ruined my entire life, but at least he isn't annoying to my ears like you are," Malcolm said.
"Focus, Malcolm!" Oliver growled, glaring at his sister's father. "You and Nyssa check out the RPG site. Stay on comms." Turning to Clark with a softer expression, he asked, "Go with them and make sure they don't end up killing each other."
"All right," Clark nodded, as he headed off with Nyssa and Malcolm.
Oliver, Ollie, Chloe, Slade, and Harkness continued on their way.
"Why does Slade get a weapon and I don't?" Harkness asked Oliver.
"I trust him more than you," Oliver said, bluntly. Slade had been like a brother to him before the Mirakuru drove him insane, while Harkness was merely a psychopath who had tried to kill Oliver's best friend's wife Lyla.
"Did you forget that he killed your mother?" Harkness said with a smirk.
Oliver turned to Harkness with a threatening glare. "You listen to me very carefully. You help me take down Chase, you walk. You screw with me even a little bit, and I will put you right back into the hole."
"Just a gun is all I'm saying," Harkness requested.
"Kid," Slade called out to Oliver as he noticed something.
Oliver, Ollie, Chloe, and Harkness headed over to where Slade was standing.
"I see movement," Slade said, pointing forward.
He, Oliver, Ollie, Chloe, and Harkness looked through the trees and saw four cages with Samantha Clayton, Thea, Curtis Holt, and Felicity each in one of them. Oliver and Slade noticed that they were the same cages that Edward Fyers had used years ago.
"Stay sharp," Oliver instructed, before he, Ollie, Chloe, Slade, and Harkness headed through the trees and made their way over to the cages.
"Oliver!" Felicity called out in surprise as she, Curtis, Thea, and Samantha noticed the group approaching. "And other Oliver!"
"Keep your voice down," Slade instructed in a quiet tone.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Thea demanded angrily as she glared at her mother's killer.
Oliver approached the cage that Samanatha was in. "Where is William?"
"I don't know, we were separated," Samanatha replied. "Oliver, what is going on?"
"Wait a minute, this seems way too easy," Ollie noted, as he looked around. "Shouldn't there be guards around here?"
"That's exactly what I was thinking too," Slade agreed.
"Could it be a trap?" Chloe suggested.
"Seems pretty obvious that's exactly what it is, luv," Harkness said with a smirk.
Suddenly, Talia al Ghul and Evelyn Sharp leapt down from the trees as Oliver, Ollie, Chloe, Slade, and Harkness turned to them. Oliver and Ollie each reached for an arrow in their quivers, only for Talia and Evelyn to point an arrow and pistol respectively at them.
'It's definitely a trap," Harkness said, smugly.
"Don't even think it, Oliver, or your son loses his mother," Talia said, as she pointed the arrow at Samantha.
Oliver and Ollie both lowered their hands, the former not wanting to risk the life of his son's mother, while the latter was unwilling to risk an innocent woman getting killed.
"I'm sorry, which Oliver are you talking about, ma'am, him or me?" Ollie said, jokingly. "You see, my name is Oliver too, so you can see how that could be pretty confusing."
Talia frowned at what Ollie said, but shrugged it off as nonsense.
"Shut your mouth," Evelyn said smugly, as she moved her pistol from Oliver to Ollie.
"Look, little girl, if you think you're intimidating just because you have that gun, think again," Ollie remarked. "If I counted all the times someone pointed a piece at me, I'd be a hundred times richer than I already am."
"I said shut your mouth!" Evelyn shouted, as she moved closer to him with her pistol.
Chloe slowly moved her hand towards the gun in her left holster, but the sound of a familiar click and the feeling of cold steel against the side of her head made her freeze in her tracks.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, luv," Harkness said to Chloe, as he had a gun pointed at her temple.
"You son of a bitch!" Ollie exclaimed angrily, as he and Oliver glared daggers at Harkness.
"Oh, and you didn't have to worry about that gun, mate," Harkness said to Oliver. "Mr. Chase gave me this nice new one." He then moved the gun away from Chloe to point it at Slade. "Along with a better offer."
"Adrian said it would be pointless to reach out to you," Evelyn said to Slade.
"Although given this turn of events, perhaps you've changed your mind?" Talia added.
"What's it gonna be, Slade? Care to side with the winners?" Harkness offered.
"You haven't won anything yet," Ollie said, feeling disgust towards Harkness for threatening his wife and betraying them.
"What's it gonna be, mate?" Harkness asked Slade again.
After a few seconds of indecision, Slade pointed to Oliver and said, "Put a gun to his head."
"Why am I not surprised, considering that you are Slade Wilson?" Ollie said, as he glared at the man in question.
Ignoring Ollie, Slade said to Oliver, "Sorry, kid, but there's no giving up to these guys."
Now understanding Slade's intentions, Oliver seemingly gave in and put his bow on the ground as Evelyn walked up to him with a smirk and pointed her pistol a few inches from Oliver's forehead.
Meanwhile, in their cages, Thea, Felicity, Curtis, and Samantha looked very concerned for Oliver, while feeling nothing but disgust towards Slade and Harkness for their betrayal.
"Looks like you should've picked better allies," Ollie said to Oliver.
"I assumed you'd wanna be on the winning side," Harkness said to Slade, who moved close to him.
"Assumption, is the mother, of all, failures!" Slade declared, before he slugged Harkness in the face hard.
As Evelyn turned her head to see what was going on, Oliver immediately took advantage of her distraction, grabbing Evelyn and throwing her to the ground as well as disarming her of the pistol.
As Talia fired her arrow at Samantha, Oliver threw a flechette, which deflected the arrow before both weapons fell to the ground.
"Nice one, but can you do that to a bullet?" Ollie said to Oliver, who rolled his eyes.
Harkness punched Slade twice in the stomach, but Slade didn't seem affected much due to his armor protecting him from the blows. Harkness threw another punch, but Slade blocked it, before grabbing Harkness by the back of the head and throwing him to the ground.
Oliver picked his bow up from the ground and put a hand to his quiver, while Ollie had an arrow aimed at Talia, who had a hand near her quiver as well.
"Sister!"
Talia turned around at the sound of Nyssa's voice as the latter and Malcolm appeared, bows at the ready as Clark standing with them.
Clark was about to make a move when Oliver waved a hand at him.
"Wait, not yet!" Oliver instructed, and Clark nodded in understanding. He wasn't ready to give away the element of surprise just yet.
Talia and Harkness, who had got back to this feet, exchanged a look before the former threw a flashbang grenade on the ground. The resulting smoke blinded everyone, except Clark, who could easily see the two enemies quickly making their escape but obeyed Oliver's wishes. Once the smoke was clear several seconds later, Talia and Harkness were gone.
Oliver, Slade, Clark, Ollie, Chloe, Nyssa, and Malcolm headed over to the cages and, after they managed to unlock the locks, Thea, Felicity, Curtis, and Samantha stepped out of them.
"You okay?" Malcolm asked his daughter with concern.
"Go to hell," Thea spat out, not even making eye contact with him.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Malcolm remarked.
Slade locked Evelyn in one of the cages. "You've been left behind," he told her. "You should choose your friends more wisely."
"Where is everyone else?" Oliver asked the others.
"Not sure, Chase split us up into groups when we got here," Curtis said.
"We are gonna talk about that, right?" Felicity asked Oliver firmly as she pointed at Slade.
"Yes, we're gonna talk about that," Oliver nodded. "Right now, we need to focus on finding the others." He turned around and walked up to the cage Evelyn was in. "Where are they?"
"I wish I knew," Evelyn replied in a spiteful tone. "So I could tell you to go screw yourselves."
"We're not gonna get anywhere with this one, are we?" Ollie said. "She's just gonna waste our time."
"Why did Chase split up all the hostages?" Malcolm asked Evelyn.
"Why does Chase do anything?" Evelyn retorted. "So far he hasn't laid out a single hoop you could keep yourself from jumping through. Maybe leaving me here was part of the plan."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that, missy," Ollie said, as he walked up to Evelyn's cage and stood next to Oliver. "You think this is a game? You're probably nothing more than a pawn in what this Chase guy is doing, so if the fact that you're working with him comes back to bite you in the ass later on, the only person you'll have to blame for that is yourself."
Evelyn glared at Ollie as he and Oliver turned around and walked back over to the others.
"How did Chase get you here?" Oliver asked Thea, Felicity, Curtis, and Samantha.
"A plane," Felicity answered.
"Do you think you can find your way back to it?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, probably, but..." Curtis started.
"Malcolm, can you fly a plane?" Oliver asked.
"If it's anything like the three Gulfstreams I used to have, yes," Malcolm replied as he felt insulted by that question.
"Get them to the mainland and then come right back for us," Oliver ordered, and Malcolm nodded.
"We are not leaving you here," Felicity protested.
"I need to focus, and that means getting you all out of harm's way," Oliver said, before turning to Evelyn. "And despite my better instincts, when this is all over, I will come back for you."
"When this is all over, you'll be dead," Evelyn retorted in an arrogant tone.
"Is it wrong that I'm very tempted to put one of my arrows between her eyes?" Ollie said.
"She isn't worth it, honey," Chloe told her husband.
Thea approached her brother with a firm look. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Yeah," Oliver nodded, before he and Thea moved away from everyone else.
"Okay, what the hell are you doing?" Thea demanded.
"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, although he had a good feeling this was about his recruitment of Slade and Malcolm.
"I mean, Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn," Thea replied, disapprovingly.
"Thea.."
"No, we are orphans because of those two," Thea reminded her brother.
"You know what I'm up against here," Oliver pointed out.
"Yes, so why are you sending Curtis and me away?" Thea wondered.
"Because I need the two of you to keep Felicity and Samantha safe," Oliver said. "We need to get them off of the island."
"Okay, Curtis can handle that," Thea said.
"I understand if you don't want to go with Malcolm," Oliver said.
"Damn right I don't," Thea said.
"And I do not want to rely on Slade Wilson," Oliver said. "There's nothing about this situation that's ideal, Thea. I need your help, Speedy, and this is how you help me. Besides, the additional help of the other Oliver, his wife, and Superman will be sufficient if things go south."
"Okay," Thea gave in, before she and Oliver headed back over to the others.
Meanwhile, Clark, Ollie, Chloe, Felicity, Curtis, Samantha, Slade, and Malcolm all stood together while Oliver and Thea had gone off for their talk.
"So you're the Felicity my husband told me about," Chloe said to the other blonde.
"And you must be his wife Chloe," Felicity replied, and Chloe nodded. "I was wondering if we'd ever meet one day."
"Me too, and now we have," Chloe said, before holding out her hand. "Nice to finally meet you."
"Nice to finally meet you too," Felicity said back, as she shook Chloe's hand.
"Wait, who exactly are you guys?" Curtis asked the Earth-21 visitors. "I don't think I've met any of you before."
"I'm Superman and these are my friends Oliver Queen and his wife Chloe," Clark answered. "The three of us are visiting from another Earth."
"Did you just say that he's Oliver Queen?" Curtis asked incredulously, pointing at the unfamiliar blonde man garbed in green.
"You heard correct, but I'm not the Oliver Queen you know," Ollie said.
"Wait, your name is Oliver Queen too?" Samantha asked, looking at him in disbelief.
"Absolutely," Ollie answered, much to Samantha's shock.
"If you're a version of Oliver from another Earth, shouldn't you look like him the same way Laurel and Black Siren look like each other?" Curtis pointed out.
"Another Earth? What are you talking about?" Samantha asked in confusion.
"He's talking about multiple Earths, which are just as real as aliens, meta-humans, and time travel," Felicity explained, as Samantha widened her eyes in awe.
"Multiple Earths? The world has come a long way," Slade said.
Oliver and Thea walked back over and rejoined the group.
"My sister and Harkness fled into the forest," Nyssa announced, as she walked over as well. "But I can track them."
"They might lead us back to the rest of the hostages," Slade pointed out.
"They're our friends and we don't need your help," Felicity said angrily, as she glared at Slade.
"I see you haven't lost your feistiness, Ms. Smoak," Slade remarked.
"You have to admit that he's got a point though," Chloe said to Felicity.
"Maybe," the glasses-wearing blonde said.
"Get them to the plane," Oliver said to Malcolm before turning to Clark. "Make sure everyone stays safe."
"It's one of the things I do best," Clark nodded.
"Remember our phrase," Oliver reminded him.
"Of course," Clark nodded again. "Superman to the rescue. Once I hear that from you, I know exactly what to do."
"Good," Oliver nodded back. He turned to Curtis and handed him comms. "Comms, just in case something goes wrong."
"You mean 'when', right?" Curtis replied.
Oliver then handed Felicity a tablet and told her, "Detailed satellite imagery of the island. Again, just in case."
"Maybe you should go with them, Chlo," Ollie said to his wife. "That'll give you some time to get to know your fellow blonde tech girl. In the meantime, I'll stick with grumpy me, his assassin lady friend, and his pal Slade."
"Are you sure that's what you want?" Chloe asked.
"I could do without you for a while," Ollie said. "Never hurt me before."
"Okay," Chloe nodded, before grabbing her husband's head and pulling him into a passionate kiss.
They ended their kiss after a few seconds and Ollie said, "We're gonna make it through this, honey."
"Like we always do," Chloe agreed. "Good luck."
"You too," Ollie said, before Chloe walked away from him.
"You all keep each other safe," Oliver said to everyone, before they all headed off.