Disclaimer: All rights belong to CW, Warner Bros, and the DC comics. I own nothing. (Check bottom for longer Author's Note)
Thea resituated herself on the couch, the underparts of her eyes still inflamed and red. Her eyes snapped downwards as she felt a hand being placed on her leg and she looked over, meeting her mom's gaze. Feeling tears well up in her eyes once more, she looked away quickly, breaking eye contact. Wiping them one last time, Thea glanced over at the screen. It was paused. Curiously, she turned around and looked towards the back corner of the room. Barry was watching her, an equal amount of sadness apparent in his eyes. She narrowed her eyes.
"Did you know him?" Thea found herself asking.
"Robert?" Barry asked, his eyebrows jutting downwards in confusion.
"No, Oliver. Like really know him?" As Thea spoke those words, the rest of the group on the couch also turned around. Their eyes watching as Barry sat there for a few moments. For a few seconds, all he did was look at her blankly, her expression unchanging before he straightened his back out and swept a hand through his hair.
"Why do you think I'm doing all of this?" Barry finally said. Silence hung heavily in the air before Moira eventually broke it.
"How did you know my son?" Moira paused for a moment. "I presume the more pertinent question here is: who are you?" The wariness on Barry's face lessened slightly and a smirk played lightly at his lips. There was a lightness to the man, one they hadn't seen before in him.
"My name is Barry Allen. I'm sure we'll get to how I know Oliver eventually." His words held finality, and he picked up the remote and pressed a button. Thea's eyes lingered on him for a moment longer before she turned back around. The screen filled with life once more.
Oliver pulls himself onto the side of the life raft.
"I almost died, I thought I had because I spent so many days on that life raft before I saw the island." The island comes into view.
"Is that-" Laurel breathed out.
Moira felt a tightening in her chest as she looked at it. She had never seen it before now, it had become almost obsolete in her mind after Oliver came back. But now, looking at it, there was a sense of dread that filled her. This was the place that took five years from her son. She glanced over towards Quentin, watching impassively as he watched the screen, his eyes slightly darkened.
Oliver drags himself from the water, now away from the life raft. "When I reached it I know I was going to have to live for the both of us." Seagulls cry out, and Oliver wakes up. He screams at them to get away from the lifeboat and his dad.
Moira watched, and a lump filled her throat. Guilt surged through her. He shouldn't have had to do this. If it weren't for her and her husband's involvement with Malcolm, this wouldn't have happened. She wanted to look away, God did she ever want to. She couldn't though. Oliver had to live this and she could hardly stand to watch it.
Oliver sadly mutters his dad's name before throwing up. He warns the seagulls to stay away again. Then, he picks up the body and walks away.
"What's he doing?" Thea asked, her mouth in an almost permanent frown. Diggle looked over. His gaze softened at her face. It wasn't that she didn't know, it was that she didn't want to know. There was a finality with burial, an acceptance.
Oliver places the body on some rocks and then finds a book in one of his pockets. He looks confused and there's a strange symbol on the cover. The pages are blank.
"Why would he have a book with blank pages?" Tommy asked himself aloud.
Dig narrowed his eyes and glanced sideways at Moira. Her face remained stoic. Somebody, whoever it had been who had written this, had gone through great lengths to make sure the secrets were kept hidden. Maybe something they were watching now would help him and Oliver figure out what was going to happen in the Glades.
As Oliver puts more stones on his father's body, he is shot by an arrow. He cried out, looking around.
"Oh my God," Laurel whispered, grabbing Tommy's arm and squeezing it to the point where her hand lefts white handprints in their wake. He squeezed back, nausea rolling in his stomach. Any anger he had for Oliver had dissipated, now replaced with worry. The room grew tense. Moira had taken Thea's hand somewhere during Oliver's screams, and she had begun muttering reassurances to Thea. Or maybe they were for herself. Quentin leaned forward, his eyebrows knitting together, worry playing across his features. He wasn't too fond of Queen, but that didn't mean that he didn't still care for him. Something else caught his eye, and his eyes narrowed at the sight of the arrow.
There's a man with a hood in the distance. Oliver then passes out.
Diggle lowered his head for a moment, closing his eyes. This was wrong.
"We shouldn't be doing this," Dig said, and he got a few glances from Thea and Laurel, but there was no other reaction. "We shouldn't be doing this," he said louder, more forceful this time, looking at them. "Oliver wouldn't want this." Thea bit her lip lightly. She remembered the time she had walked in on Oliver shirtless. She remembered his face when she even saw the remembrance of his pain on the island.
"Oliver didn't want his family and friends to die, either," Barry said, his voice startling everyone in the room. He was standing now, and a tremor passed through his body. "But here we are."
"You know, how do we even know you're telling the truth? Because you supposedly knew Oliver in the future? What are we supposed to do with that?" Dig said, standing up from the couch and looking at Barry. A spark of electricity ran through Barry's eyes and he crossed his arms. "The Oliver I know wouldn't want his family seeing this."
"You don't know the Oliver I know," Barry said. "But from what you've seen, do you really think I'm just making this up? To what? To hurt him? I'm trying to save him Diggle," he said, the latter half of his statement coming out more so as a yell. Diggle blinked, taking a half step back. He looked at Barry questioningly. There was such a deep sincerity to his eyes that Dig felt the conviction in his voice die down. It still felt wrong, to do this, to watch these things. These were Oliver's memories. "Please, John," Barry said once more, his words coming out as a plea.
Diggle looked at him, his eyebrows slightly raised. He looked around the room, catching the eyes of Moira and Laurel. They held no guilt. Curiosity had won over them. Muttering a quick apology to Oliver, wherever he was, Diggle sighed and walked back to the couch, sitting down once more. The recording had been paused once again, and immediately as he sat down, it began to play.
Oliver wakes up in a cave with the arrow still in him.
Tommy couldn't help but wince. Oliver really hadn't been exaggerating when he said a lot happened to him on the island. Hell, this was only the first day.
The hooded man enters the cave.
The tension in the room returned, but Quentin's focus remained on the hood. He leaned back, a slight tinge of satisfaction coursing through him. His suspicions had been confirmed.
Oliver questions who he is, and the man pulls down his hood. He is Chinese. Oliver asks why he shot him.
Moira couldn't help but wonder why her son was still alive. If the man was trying to hurt Oliver as they all suspected, he would surely be dead by now.
The man replies in Chinese and holds up some herbs and water, wanting Oliver to drink. The man says something else in Chinese. And Oliver takes the herbs and drinks them. The man removes the arrow and Oliver screams once more.
Thea winced, looking away from the screen. She felt a hand take hers, and she looked over, catching the eyes of Laurel. The pain in her eyes reflected Thea's. They looked at each other, searching for a crutch within one another. Thea gave her a light smile in mock reassurance.
Oliver wakes up and the man is asleep. He scrambles out of the cave.
"Thank God," Tommy found himself whispering as he watched his friend.
He runs through the forest before eventually getting caught in a net.
"Never mind," Tommy muttered.
"Do you think that's the man's net?" Laurel asked, looking towards her dad. "That doesn't look like something you would find on a deserted island." Lance nodded in agreement, his eyes narrowing slightly. Oliver had said he wasn't alone on the island. Maybe that meant more people than just the man who shot him.
The man eventually finds him, and Oliver wakes up to him holding a sword against his neck. The man says something in Chinese again and cuts the rope, causing Oliver to fall to the ground.
"I never thought I'd be happy to see him," Thea said, crossing her arms. Tommy nodded in agreement next to her.
Oliver untangles himself and follows the man. A group of armed, masked people find the trap and inspect it.
"Something tells me those aren't the good guys," Tommy said, a lightness in his tone. Laurel gave him a sidelong look but didn't comment.
"Just how many people are on this island?" Lance scoffed as he watched.
In the cave again, Oliver takes out a photo of Laurel and stares at it.
Tommy felt the jealousy stir in his chest again as he looked over at Laurel. Her cheeks held a slight pink tinge to them, and her eyes held a softness Tommy had only seen directed at himself a few times. A look of love. Lance, on the other hand, looked the opposite.
"Are you kidding me? What, is he going on a trip down memory lane? Wanting to remind himself of the mistakes he made?"
"Dad," Laurel admonished. He looked over, a blaze apparent in his eyes.
"He doesn't just get to hurt you and get away with it." The protest came out weakly, and Lance felt the fight die a little in his chest.
"Obviously he didn't get away with it," Laurel defended, nodding towards the screen.
The man comes back in with a caged bird. Oliver stares at it.
"Shengcun" the man states. Oliver questions what he's supposed to do with it. The man repeats the word.
Diggle leaned back in his seat. He knew what was coming. Oliver had told him this story. When he had done so, he had done so with ease. But, watching it was completely different. It was strange to see Oliver as the man before he was now.
"Does that mean bird?" Oliver asks.
"Something tells me that's not what it means," Tommy said, nervousness playing at his words.
The man repeats it again, and Oliver, frustrates, yells that he doesn't speak Chinese. Oliver pulls out the photo again, apologizing to Laurel.
Laurel turned and gave her father a pointed look. Quentin didn't meet her gaze.
The man roasts some meat on a fire and Oliver looks over, asking what it is.
"I'm so hungry, that smells really good," Oliver says, wandering over to it.
Moira couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he had eaten anything. He had floated out on the life raft for an undetermined amount of days and then landed on the island. She struggled to think of a time before the island where Oliver hadn't had everything that he needed. She struggled to think of a day where she had gone without food or water.
Oliver reaches for it but the man pushes him back. Oliver grows frustrated again, and the man simply repeats the word.
"I'm not going to kill the bird," Oliver says.
Quentin's gaze softened slightly.
"Shengcun." Oliver looks at the bird.
"Hey, please. I'm starving. I've never killed anything before," Oliver pleads.
A pang of sympathy ran through Lance. He had regarded Oliver as a cold-blooded killer. But now? Watching him struggle to kill a bird? These were not the actions of a monster.
The man ignores him, and Oliver opens up the cage, picking up the bird.
"I'm sorry," Oliver whispers, looking away as he breaks the bird's neck.
Tommy took in a deep breath, his earlier words to Oliver haunting him. The man wasn't a murderer. Oliver had tried to explain, and he hadn't listened. Moira looked downwards, barely containing her cry out. Oliver had held such an innocence within him, at least before the island he had. She had always tried to protect him no matter the cost. But she couldn't protect him from this. She was forced to watch her baby lost his innocence right in front of her. And she couldn't do a damn thing. She was vaguely aware of Thea sniffling next to her.
Author's Note: Hey everyone! Kind of a short chapter this time, but I wanted to update you guys! I'll make it longer next time! Anyways, let me know what you think! I love hearing from you guys! A special thanks to GabuTheDragon, SandorthienLiza, and pmbbfor their kind comments! To address SandorthienLiza's concern, this will not be an Olicity fic. I doubt I'll include any pairings in this to be completely honest.
Stay awesome!