Disclaimer: All rights belong to CW, Warner Bros, and the DC comics. I own nothing. IMPORTANT: I noticed I totally looked over when they introduced Yao Fei's name, so I'm going to write in a random scene where his name is told. In the last chapter in the flashbacks I referred to him by name to make it less confusing, but he was never introduced to the character's watching. (Check bottom for longer Author's Note)
Fyers questions Oliver about where he was stationed.
"Does he know that's Oliver?" Thea asked, looking towards Diggle. Diggle could only shake his head. He leaned slightly forward, resting his elbows hard on his legs. People who had known Oliver for years didn't recognize him with grease paint and a hood, so what were the chances a man who had only seen him a couple of times recognize him with a Baclava on.
He glanced down towards Quentin whose eyes were now focused on Diggle's. Lance hadn't said anything, yet, which was confusing in its own sense. Quentin wasn't stupid. Diggle had very little doubt he hadn't figured it out within the first few scenes, but why hadn't he said anything? What was his angle?
Diggle figured when they went back to their time, Oliver had a storm coming for him. Diggle stopped himself momentarily, shaking his head a little at the situation they were in. Time travel. Watching someone's memories. Yeah, this was a special kind of crazy.
Fyers then asks for a report. Oliver states that there was no trouble. Fyers then asks how long Oliver was stationed there. Oliver says he just arrived.
Thea frowned to herself. No wonder Oliver got so used to lying, he had practically had to survive by lying.
Fyers says he does seem new.
Laurel sighed. He definitely knew. Fyers hadn't even talked to the other man in the car. He was trying to catch Oliver in a lie. He was playing with him. Laurel could feel anger bubble up within her. It was some cruel game of cat and mouse, and Fyers was probably finding some sick pleasure in all of this.
Fyers says he doesn't remember a submarine bringing in new troops. Oliver says he thought everyone came in on a plane. Fyers agrees.
Laurel hated the man with every fiber of her being. A pang of remorse coursed through her as the memory of her first conversation with Oliver after he came crashing back into her mind. What was it that she had said? She wished he had rotted in hell much longer than five years? Yeah, good going, Laurel, she inwardly chastised.
There were moments that she was almost relieved that Sara didn't make it to the island. This was one of them. In fact, Laurel was waiting for a moment to come when she wasn't relieved Sara had died on that boat. Laurel couldn't help but feel a tsunami of guilt wash over her at the thought. What kind of sister was she, wishing for her sibling to be dead?
They end up in a prison camp of sorts. Cages scatter the scene.
"What the hell is that?" Tommy asked. Fyers hadn't been wrong before: the island was a prison, but he had made it into one.
Oliver looks through them. Fyers says this is where they keep prisoners prone to escaping. Fyers then hits Oliver, who cries out. Oliver collapses. Fyers pulls his mask up, saying 'prisoners like you, Mr. Queen.'
Thea jumped a little in her seat and then sat back, hugging her midsection. Her hands squeezed together, turning white with the pressure. She had known that the man recognized Oliver, but it didn't make it any easier to watch. She looked down the line of people, who seemed uncomfortable, but not unfazed.
God, were they getting used to this?
Thea could feel nausea roll through her stomach. The room grew hot around her.
Oliver is handcuffed to the cage. A man in a mask looks at him.
"He looks familiar," Thea whispered. Her mom glanced towards her.
Fyers asks Oliver if he knows why his men wear balaclavas. He says its because it masks everything except for the eyes. Eyes are where one can always find the truth.
Diggle couldn't help but let out a small huff of air. Maybe that's why Oliver's mask worked so well. He only covered his eyes.
Fyers says Oliver risked everything to say his friend, Yao Fei, even though he warned him against it.
Diggle sighed. He should've realized the man was Yao Fei before now. He was the only man Oliver had ever mentioned on the island so far.
Fyers says Oliver trusted him, and says that trust was misplaced. The man looking at him from before takes off his mask to reveal he is Yao Fei.
"What the," Laurel began, her voice trailing off. Diggle felt his frown deepen. Hadn't Oliver told him that Yao Fei was his mentor? No wonder he had trust issues and didn't bat an eye when the people closest to him betrayed him.
Oliver and Yao Fei are alone now, and Oliver states that Yao Fei is working for them. Oliver asks why he is doing this to him and he thought they were friends.
Moira felt her heart break in that moment. There were many things she had protected Oliver from in life: bad grades, getting in trouble with the police, the pregnancy. But sitting here, watching him be beaten and shot and tortured? With no one there to help him? Putting his trust in people that didn't deserve? Moira could feel her lip begin to tremble. She quickly pursed her lips together. Now was not the time to break down.
She couldn't be there for Oliver on the island, but damn her if she wouldn't be there for him when she saw him again.
Oliver asks why he bothered to keep him safe if he was just going to betray him. Oliver asks him to get him out of there. Yao Fei says he can't and puts a cup down.
Tommy felt a pang of guilt. He had been so angry with Oliver for not trusting him with his secret. He didn't seem to have the greatest record when it came to trusting friends. The guilt faded slightly, though. He wasn't just some person Oliver had met on an island, he was his best friend since they were children. That should've earned him something.
Oliver calls out to him, saying that he came back for him.
Quentin felt something for Oliver that he hadn't felt in years, maybe ever: respect. He had long put it past Oliver to commit any sort of selfless act.
The scene shifts and Yao Fei drags Oliver across the prisoner field.
"Where's he taking him?" Thea asked, her eyes never leaving the screen.
Oliver asks what's going on. He asks if they're getting out of there. He is led to a place where more of the guards stand in a ring, cheering on a fight.
"What is that?" Tommy asked, shifting in his seat. Quentin could only shake his head. This island was getting more insane by the minute. Mercenaries, prisons, and fighting rings? Quentin inwardly cursed his restrictive jurisdiction. He could be making a hell've a lot of arrests when he got home.
A man is being badly beaten by the man who tortured Oliver.
"Oh, God," Laurel whispered. That could be Oliver. Maybe it was about to be.
Fyers nods to the masked man, and he kills the defeated man.
Quentin cringed at the sight, then mentally tacked murder on to the man's list of crimes. Thea felt the nausea return. Before this whole thing, she had never seen a person die before. Now she had watched Sara die, her father shoot a man and kill himself, and a man brutally murder someone in some sick entertainment ring. And, she had only been watching it. Oliver had lived all of this.
Fyers then asks if anyone else would like to join the fight. Yao Fei pushed Oliver forward.
"What is he doing?" Thea exclaimed.
"I think he's trying to help Oliver," Diggle said, his words careful. Thea gave him a look.
"By basically sentencing him to death?" Diggle fought down a shrug as he met her eyes. Hope and confusion mixed together.
"I think if the man wasn't on Oliver's side," Diggle said, "Then he wouldn't have come home alive." Thea's mouth twitched a little, but his words seemed to appease her for the time being. Her head turned to the screen once more, but not before casting one last glance towards Diggle.
Fyers says the point is to strengthen cohesion and says their recruit should have a turn. He means Yao Fei. Yao Fei and Oliver face off.
Diggle couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Yao Fei had basically left Oliver's life to chance. On a different day, in a different mood, Fyers could very well have let the masked man kill Oliver.
Oliver looks hurt. He is taken down in a few hits.
Tommy couldn't help but wonder when in all of this Oliver had time to learn to fight. Learning from survival would only take a person so far.
Yao Fei puts him in a choke hold. Oliver struggles, but collapses to the ground.
"What? He killed him?" Thea cried out. Diggle had to bite his lip from replying. He had seen Oliver do this move before. But to tell them that would mean revealing some things that he figured Oliver would rather remain hidden. Diggle turned around in his seat, looking at Barry. Barry's eyes immediately met his, and he winked. Diggle blinked, his eyes widening slightly. He turned back around, looking at the screen. If they were meant to see exactly what Oliver could do, fine, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell Oliver's secret.
Diggle couldn't help but wonder why Barry would bother to bring Quentin into this. Even without knowing who he was, Oliver was public enemy number one in Lance's eyes. All this would do would slightly accelerate Oliver's eventual incarceration.
The scene shifts and Oliver is on the edge of a cliff with a guard standing over him.
Thea shook her head. Her brother was alive. He had come home.
Fyers nods to him. Yao Fei says something to Fyers and walks over to Oliver, looking around before he bends down and pushes Oliver off the cliff into the water.
"So if he didn't already kill him by choking him to death, he was going to kill him by pushing him into the water while he's unconscious?" Thea asked. Her words were meant to come out harsh, but her voice cracked slightly at the end.
Oliver is face down in the water for a few moments before he takes a deep breath, swimming to shore.
Everybody let out a breath of relief. Quentin frowned, he didn't even realize he had been holding it.
He wipes his face, then pats his pocket, finding a map with a location circled. The scene flashes back to Yao Fei pushing Oliver, he presses under his chin.
"How does that even work?" Quentin found himself asking. "Is that even physically possible?"
"Apparently, it is," Tommy said, nodding towards the screen. Quentin gave him a half-hearted scowl.
"You know what I mean." Diggle had to hide his smirk.
Oliver whispers survive and limps off. He walks and finds the wreckage of a plane.
"Do you think whoever was on that survived?" Laurel asked.
"Well-"
"Tommy don't you dare say something about Lost." Tommy clamped his mouth shut, but a small smile graced over his lips.
He walks inside. It is apparently empty. He looks around, and a man drops in from above, holding a sword to Oliver's throat.
"Holy crap!" Tommy said, looking around. Was everyone on this island a freaking ninja?
He tells Oliver if he twitches, he'll open his throat.
Tommy unconsciously shifted his leg. And then his arm. God, why did he have the urge to do anything besides sit still. He wondered how long he would've survived on the island. His finger twitched slightly.
Probably not long.
He asks Oliver how many are with him.
"Does he think Oliver is working for those people?" Laurel scoffed.
"I think that's the more reasonable explanation than him shipwrecking on the island, and then accidentally killing a man, putting on his clothes, and then stumbling onto his little plane hut," Tommy said, glancing at Laurel. She narrowed her eyebrows but remained silent.
Oliver is confused. The man says that Oliver has ten seconds to tell him something that he believes before he kills Oliver. Oliver says Yao Fei sent him here, and he didn't think it was for him to die.
"That's true," Thea muttered. This man was crazy.
The man pushes Oliver from his grasp, questioning him. The sword is still pointed to Oliver.
Thea narrowed her eyes. He could put the sword down now.
Oliver says that Yao Fei gave him directions to him. The man looks at the map, reading out survive.
"I take it he knew Yao Fei?" Tommy asked.
"What was your first clue?" Thea said.
He says there's and airfield ten clicks from their location and that it is the key off the island.
"Clicks?" Laurel asked. "Was he in the military?" Quentin could only nod in agreement. The real question was, how did he end up stuck on the island?
Moira sighed. What had Oliver gotten himself into?
He says him and Yao Fei had been observing it for a while. He says they were supposed to get off the island together. He says Yao Fei was compromised that they were separated.
"So how did he know Yao Fei?" Laurel asked. "Was this some sort of rescue mission?"
"If it was a rescue mission, wouldn't somebody be coming to rescue the man when he didn't come back?" Thea asked. Laurel could only frown. Something bigger was going on here.
He hands Oliver a blade. Oliver asks what it is for and the man says he thinks Yao Fei sent him to help him take the airstrip.
Thea let out a giggle. "What's Oliver going to do with that?" Moira gave her a chastising look. "What?" Thea asked, her voice slightly biting.
"This is serious, Thea."
"You think I don't know that?" Thea's voice was low, dangerous. "I've sat here and watched my brother die. Multiple times. Forgive me for trying to find some sanity in all of this." Moira's eyes softened slightly, and Tommy glanced over at Thea. He murmured her name once, but Thea crossed her arms, steeling her face and focusing on the screen.
Oliver says it sounds like Yao Fei, and the man says that Yao Fei is a softer judge of character than he is.
"No kidding," Tommy said.
He says if Oliver is going to have his back, he needs to know Oliver can cover it. He attacks Oliver with a sword. He puts the blade to Oliver's throat, telling him to fight back. Oliver tries, but fails.
"Does he really expect Oliver to be able to fight him?" Laurel asked, anger hinting at her tone.
"He needs him to," Diggle answered. "It's not a matter of whether or not he has the ability to, it's about if he has the heart to. It's about how much Oliver wants to survive" Laurel's frown deepened.
"Oliver won't be able to help him if he's dead." Diggle couldn't argue with that.
The man tells him to keep his blade up. He tells Oliver to always stay behind his sword. Oliver tries again. He fails. The man says Oliver has no skill or strength, and to say he fights like a girl would be a compliment.
"Hey!" Thea exclaimed at the screen. Laurel suppressed a chuckle at her. This man was a real piece of work.
Oliver says he wasn't a soldier, he was shipwrecked. The man asks where Yao Fei was. Oliver says he told him to run and he did. The man knocks him out.
"This can't be good," Tommy mumbled. Oliver had barely escaped being murdered by the dude when he wasn't angry at Oliver.
Oliver wakes up tied to a chair with his hands behind his back. The man says its nothing personal and that the airfield is very fortified.
"Uh, this seems a little personal to me," Thea retorted to the screen. Her eyebrows creased worriedly.
He says he cannot take it on his own. Oliver asks if he's just going to kill him. The man holds the blade to Oliver's throat, repeating that it's nothing personal.
"Oh," Moira whispered, "Oh , no." Her voice choked. Thea glanced over towards her, grabbing her hand in hers. Moira glanced over, meeting Thea's eyes, their glassiness a mirror to her own. "It's okay, sweetheart," she whispered.
It wasn't okay.
He says if Oliver is alive, the people with find him and torture him to give up his location, and he cannot allow that to happen. Oliver stands up, protesting that he won't say anything.
Tommy could feel his heart beating painfully in his chest. Why didn't the man just let Oliver explain?
The man pushes him back down, telling him to not make it more difficult. He can kill him in a way that Oliver will not feel it.
"Oh, how kind of him," Tommy snapped. Anger boiled under the surface.
Oliver breaks his thumb, pulling out of the restraints while crying out, then punches the man.
"Holy shit," Thea said, letting out a light laugh of relief. Moira glanced over, opening her mouth to comment on her language, but closed it. She didn't disagree.
Tommy couldn't help but rub his own thumb. Yeah, he wouldn't have survived long.
The man grabs Oliver's shirt and laughs, introducing himself as Slade Wilson.
"Slade?" Quentin repeated. "What type of name is that?" Barry sat back in his seat, looking away from the screen. Slade was a name they would all grow to hate. It was a name that would leave a bitter taste in their mouths for years.
Oliver introduces himself. Slade says there may be a fighter in him after all.
Author's note: hehe I love Slade. Ya'know, pre-mirakuru Slade, but he's one of my favorites. A super special thanks to Speedsters and Arrows, Evy 47, Brady420, summernoice, Amelia-Queen-Black, ILoveRebornNarutoKProject, SandorthienLiza, and the two guests who left lovely reviews on my last chapter! I love hearing what you guys think! I've had a few people ask me what the pairings are and the truth is I literally have no idea. I'm not much of a planner besides having the ending in mind when I'm writing and some backstory so it'll be a surprise to me as well as you guys. But, odds are that my pairings will mainly appear in the sequel to this/aftermath of them watching it. But, ya never know. Anyways, have a fantastic week!