Disclaimer: All rights belong to CW, Warner Bros, and the DC comics. I own nothing. (Check bottom for longer Author's Note)
Moira silently regathered herself, taking Thea's hand. Squeezing it lightly, she turned her attention back to the screen.
Oliver ate the bird by the fire.
To say she didn't feel a twinge sadness to watch him eat would be a lie. The moment was bittersweet: Oliver had first been forced to lose a part of himself in order to survive. Moira glanced over to Thea, whose hand still lay precariously within hers. Her features had relaxed considerably since a few moments before, and Moira felt a smile spread across her face despite what they had just seen. Thea and Oliver had always had a special bond. They were normal siblings: they fought, they yelled, they ratted on each other. But she watched them lean on each other. She watched them look out for one another. Her lips tipped upwards as she thought of the Christmas parties. She and Robert used to sit and watch the two have their candy cane eating contests. She watched Thea's face light up every time she won, and she watched Oliver turn to her, give her that smile, the one that always made her smile, and a wink. He had let her win. He always let her win.
That was something that the island hadn't taken away from Oliver. It was something the island couldn't take away from him.
The man repeats the word again. Oliver states he understands that it means bird.
"Shengcun not mean bird. Shengcun mean survive."
"So, he speaks English," Tommy pointed out, obviously, to the room. "I'm sure Oliver's pissed." Thea nodded, a smile lighting up her face. Whether or not they completely understood the Oliver that came home, they definitely knew the Oliver that had left.
Oliver looks annoyed at the man and disbelievingly acknowledges that the man speaks English.
Tommy and Thea exchange a glance, smirking.
"Why'd he hide the fact that he spoke English from Oliver, though?" Laurel asked, looking between the two. They both shrugged, synchronized, and their eyes narrowed. slightly.
"Probably to show that survival wasn't going to come easily," Diggle said. He glanced over at Oliver's sister. Thea turned and looked at him.
"Well, it probably would've been easier if he had just told Oliver what to do from the start." Diggle met her gaze for a few seconds before turning back to face the screen. This wasn't something she would just understand by being told. It was something she would have to live through to truly understand. You don't learn the hardships of survival by being told about them.
"You won't survive this place. Bird not last thing you kill."
Tommy shifted in his seat, slightly uncomfortable. Yeah, so maybe he didn't exactly agree with Oliver's methods, but he was finding it increasingly more difficult to disagree with them. He looked down at Moira and Thea, frowning inwardly. If these videos were going where he thought they were going, the bird wasn't going to be the last that they would watch him kill either. That meant exposing Oliver. To his family. To a police detective hellbent on arresting him. Worry fluttered in his chest for a moment, and he watched out of the corner of his eye as Quentin looked over at him, an almost unreadable expression on his face.
The man holds up the picture and tells Oliver to forget about her and that he will not survive if he doesn't.
Laurel frowned. For so long she had been angry at Oliver for leaving with her sister on that boat. She had convinced herself time and time again that he had never cared for her at all. But, watching this, it was different. She glanced over at Tommy, who was watching her, his expression schooled. She grasped his hand in hers, giving him a light smile. They were watching the past, not the present.
The scene then changes and a rabbit is shot by an arrow. The man shot it. He instructs Oliver to go get the animal, and Oliver protests, asking to switch roles and for him to instead shoot the animals.
"Oh, this is not going to go well," Tommy muttered. Quentin looked over, one eyebrow raised. The two men met each other's gaze, sizing up one another. Quentin gave him a small smirk and turned back towards the screen. The worry in Tommy's chest returned, his time pulsing with every beat of his heart. He knew. Lance knew.
The man hands Oliver the bow. Oliver questions him.
"Try. Breathe. Everything breathe. Breathe, aim, fire." The man shows him how to shoot the bow. He tells Oliver to shoot the tree. Oliver shoots, and the arrow misses.
Thea giggled to herself, and even Diggle couldn't help but smile at the poor attempt. He had almost been expecting Oliver to be a natural at it.
The man says something else in Chinese and Oliver asks what it mean.
"You will die badly. Get," the man answers.
Tommy wanted to laugh, but he couldn't help but wonder if what the man said was true. He found himself turning around to look at Barry, whose eyes had glazed over. They stared at nothing. A moment passed, and then Barry blinked once and looked over at Tommy. The man looked to have aged ten years in the span of a sentence.
Oliver goes and gets the arrow. As he bends down to pick it up, two men attack him and cover his mouth to stop him from screaming.
Everyone on the couch except for Quentin and Diggle jumped sharply.
"Who are those guys?" Thea asked. Thinking back briefly to his polygraph with Oliver, Quentin grimaced. Whatever was going to happen next wasn't good, and it wasn't something he wanted Laurel to watch. Years of resentment towards Oliver had piled up, each one like a building block in a Jenga tower. The videos were poking at the very foundation. He couldn't help but feel a pang of worry for Oliver course through him.
They lead him through the forest and throw him in a cage in the ground. Oliver looks out and pleads with them.
"Wait, wait. You can't just leave me here. Don't do this to me, please!." The man hits Oliver with the gun through the bars and Oliver screams. "Please! I didn't do anything."
Thea and Laurel flinched visibly. Tommy looked away from the screen. To watch Oliver go through this made the guilt in his chest grow tenfold, his breathing coming out raspier. He wanted to reach over to Thea and Moira, to offer some sort of comfort. After all, they were all family in a way. But he couldn't bring himself to. What comfort could he even offer? 'I'm sorry that your son suffered five years in hell and we barely looked for him?' 'I'm sorry that he came back and the minute he opened up to me I turned him away?'
The men bring Oliver to a camp and throw him in the tent.
Laurel frowned, and Quentin looked over, giving her a questioning gaze.
"This island is far from deserted," she said, slowly. Her eyes lingered on the screen for a few more seconds. Quentin nodded, prompting her forward. "How come nobody thought to look? How come we never even heard of this place before Ollie came back?" Quentin blinked.
"The people on this island don't exactly look like they're on a nice vacation. Something tells me this place doesn't show up on the top ten places to visit." Lance added a dry chuckle to the end of his sentence. Laurel only sighed in response.
"We thought he was dead, Laurel," Thea said, looking over. "You don't really need to look for a dead man."
Oliver looks up to see a man sitting. The man instructs him to sit and claims he makes him feel rude.
"Okay, so who the hell is this guy?" Tommy asked.
Oliver sits. The man apologizes for Oliver's treatment, saying that they view people as hostiles. He then introduces himself as Edward Fyres and asks who Oliver is. Oliver tells him his name and tells the story on how he was shipwrecked here. He tells Fyres that his family has money and would pay for his return.
"I don't think that's what he wants," Quentin muttered, not out of spite, but rather out of disappointment.
"What else would he want, though?" Laurel asked. "From my experience, money is what drives these guys."
"For some men, conviction has a stronger hold on them than money does," Diggle said, causing Laurel to glance over. "That, or whoever is paying him pays him a hell of a lot more than whatever he believed the Queen's would pay him." Quentin scoffed lightly.
"Well, I look forward to that. But for a moment let's just talk." Oliver asks about what. Fyres shows a picture of the man Oliver was with to him. Fyres asks if Oliver knew him.
"Why would he want to know?" Thea asked absently. Moira bit her lip.
"No," Olivier says.
"Why is he lying?" Laurel asked.
"To protect him." Moira sighed, wishing her son would've just told the truth. But Oliver's loyalty, although sometimes misguided, was one of the things Moira had admired in Oliver for years. It was in that way that he reminded her of Robert. She paused, thinking. Maybe not so loyal romantically speaking, though.
Fyres repeats Oliver, looking unconvinced. "No, who-whose he?"
"You're a poor liar," Fyres says and puts the photo down.
Thea wrung her hands together. They were sweaty, now. She looked between the other people, looking for some sort of comfort within them. They all looked equally as uncomfortable as she did.
He offers Oliver one more chance to tell the truth.
"Please," Moira found herself whispering to Oliver, knowing damn well it wouldn't change a thing. Oliver would never give the man up.
Oliver states he thought he was on the island alone and that he doesn't know the guy.
Quentin couldn't help but feel impressed. He had viewed Oliver essentially as a monster for so long, it didn't even cross his mind that Oliver would risk his life for a man he didn't know, or barely knew. Hell, did they even know his name?
Fyres then asks if Oliver knows the name of the island. Oliver shakes his head.
"We're on Lian Yu. Mandarin for purgatory. And I can make it feel like hell."
Moira felt dread growing in her stomach as she looked at the scene before her. A small whimper escaped her lips as she looked at the fear on her son's face.
Fyers walks away from the table. "I don't know why you're protecting him, Perhaps you don't know either. Think about it while you're begging for death."
"Mom?" Thea whispered, looking over at Moira, her eyes widening. Moira looked back to the screen as soon as they made eye contact, feeling the breath leave her body. How could she be strong for Thea? How could she be expected to be strong for her?
Fyres walks out and passes by a man with a mask, saying Oliver is all his now. The scene changes and Oliver is tied against the support.
Moira let out a small, choked sob, putting her hand over her mouth as she did so.
Fyres asks where he can find the man.
Laurel shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. Tommy grabbed her hand but didn't look over.
Oliver doesn't respond. Fyres nods towards the man and the man lifts Oliver's shirt and slices his abdomen. Oliver screams.
"Oh," Moira whispered brokenly, and Thea shiver, grabbing her arm so tightly as to leave a bruise. Tommy felt sick. Nausea rolled through his stomach. Quentin felt guilt course through him. He thought back, once again, to the polygraph. He had interrogated him, practically bullying him into telling him about his time on the island, making him relive this.
The man slices again and Oliver screams louder.
Thea was crying now.
Oliver then hangs limply from his restraints.
Laurel turned to Tommy, a tear falling down her face. He pulled her in his eyes and resting his head on her shoulder. Her body shuddered momentarily before she pulled back. Her face was red now. Tommy could feel his own tears welling in his eyes, his brain cruelly replaying Oliver's screams, something he feared would grow to haunt him. He quickly looked away from Laurel, squeezing one hand tightly on his pant leg, bunching up the fabric in his hands.
Diggle steeled his face, but winced inwardly. He had seen men go through less and come out worse.
"Amazing. You have resolve I didn't credit you for. Or perhaps he truly doesn't know anything. You should put him out of his misery."
Moira had to consciously remind herself that Oliver came home. He had lived. The thought didn't help much.
Fyres begins to walk away. The man from the cave comes in, tackling Fyres and shooting Oliver free.
"Thank God," Thea whisper, her body instantly relaxing.
Oliver collapses to the ground. He shoots at the man in the mask but the man simply catches and breaks the arrow.
"Holy shit," Tommy whispered. He absently wondered if the Oliver that came home could beat this guy.
The two men fight and the man with the mask is knocked down. The man from the cave helps Oliver up and they escape.
The people on the couch collectively untensed.
They enter the cave and he lays Oliver down.
"I tell you. Island dangerous. But you not tell them where to find me. You stronger than I thought. Take it. I lead them off you stay." The man gives Oliver a pouch of herbs. Then he tells Oliver to breathe in order to survive longer. Oliver tries to get up and come with the man but he stumbles and is blocked by falling rocks.
Thea felt conflicted. On the one hand, she understood the man was just trying to protect Oliver. On the other, it seemed that every time he left Oliver alone, something bad happened. She feared this time would be no different.
The scene switches again and Oliver sat next to a fire, tearing pages out of the notebook and throwing it into the fire.
"There's that notebook again," Tommy said curiously. Diggle, on the other hand, frowned. Oliver had never told him that they never had the complete list. He glanced over towards Moira again, watching her reaction carefully. He watched a spark of relief pass over her face, but nothing more. They were missing something. Something big.
Suddenly, a hand grabs his shoulder. It is Robert.
"Is he alive?" Thea exclaimed, sitting up straight in her seat. Her mom looked over, frowning. Images of her dad shooting himself in the head cruelly made their way back into Thea's mind. She sat back. "Right."
Oliver shoots up, looking at his dad in shock. Robert looks angry, saying he begged Oliver to survive. He then hands Oliver a gun, saying there's still one bullet left if Oliver doesn't think he can survive.
"What?" Thea found herself asking again.
"It's just a hallucination," her mom said, laying a hand on her shoulder. She shook it off.
"I know. But why would his mind see dad handing him a gun to kill himself? Why would he think that's what dad would've wanted?" Moira sighed.
"He probably didn't think that's what Robert wanted." Moira paused for a moment. She sighed. "That's probably what Oliver wanted." Thea shook her head, whispering the word 'no' over and over.
"No, Ollie wouldn't just give up like that. He wouldn't just stop fighting." Nobody answered her.
Oliver tries to take it but Robert pulls back, saying his death is made meaningless by his. Oliver takes it, saying he is starving and is going to die anyway. He wants his death to be quick like Robert's.
Thea scoffed to herself.
Robert says he can survive this and Oliver denies it and apologizing. He holds the gun to his head. He pulls the trigger and nothing happens.
Moira couldn't help but feel a trickle of relief. She had understood on a conscious level that it was just a hallucination, but watching her son put a gun to his head didn't make it feel any less real.
Oliver throws the gun to the floor and acknowledges that this isn't real. Robert says he betrayed him and that he died so Oliver could live. Robert says Oliver threw the gift away, making the sacrifice empty.
"Was it really a sacrifice?" Laurel said, bitterly. "Killing himself in front of his son?"
"He was saving the supplies for them," Moira defended, anger flashing in her words. Laurel didn't get to judge her family, her husband.
Oliver says he isn't strong like Robert.
Diggle shook his head a little. Oliver may be a little misguided, a little vulnerable when it came to matters of the heart, but he was the strongest man he knew. In all accounts.
Robert says he isn't the man that Oliver thinks he is, and then expresses regret about what he's done and was about to do.
"What does he mean by that, Moira?" Quentin asked, looking over.
"I have no idea." Quentin frowned. She knew more than she was letting on. Odds were, Oliver knew that too. That's why he had shown up at his mother's office that night. His eyes narrowed. What was really going on?
Oliver asks what it means. Robert gets angry, telling Oliver to right his wrongs. He says it's Oliver's responsibility.
Diggle sighed. He could see how these words were still affecting Oliver to this day.
Oliver asks how. He says he can't even get off the island. Robert puts a hand on his shoulder, saying he's sorry for not telling the truth and says he loves Oliver.
Oliver wakes up, panting.
"A dream," Thea found herself whispering to herself.
"A nightmare," Tommy corrected, looking over at her. She expected him to be grinning as per usual, but he looked wary. Tired. There was no lightness to his face.
He pulls out another page and holds it over the fire. Words appear.
Moira narrowed her eyes. Oliver had discovered the list. Then, why-
She stopped. Her eyebrows raised slightly. Oliver had the list. The hood was targeting the list. From what she had seen- the torture, the arrows. The green hood. God, how had she not put this together before? Barry had even said that they were watching the beginning of a hero. She looked down the couch, searching for any sort of recognition in their faces, any sign that they knew too.
She saw none. For now, at least.
Oliver puts the book over the fire, watching as more names appear.
"My responsibility," Oliver says, "I promise dad."
"What is that list, anyway?" Tommy asked. "I mean, how could it even be his responsibility if he didn't know what it was?" Tommy looked back, raising an eyebrow at Barry, who shrugged. "Oh, come on. You've been pretty quiet back there. Care to share anything?"
"Not particularly," Barry replied. "This isn't my story to tell."
Author's note: Hey everyone! How are you guys doing? After I posted the last chapter I found out that I had guest reviews that never posted on the first chapter because I didn't know I needed to moderate them. Oops! So, thank you to those guests for your kind words! I'm sorry my thank you is a chapter late, though : (. A big thank you to Stephane Klein, Flaremage, summeronice, TheHoodedAssassin,SandorthienLiza, GabiShea17, and to those few guests! And also, merci beaucoup to Evy 47! Anyways, I love hearing from you all! Have a great week!
Stay awesome!