I do not own Arrow.


They had put Harkness back in his cell, while Oliver and Slade were in another room, planning their next move.

"I doubt torturing is going to make him talk." Oliver said and Slade nodded.

"A.S.I.S. trains its operatives to build up tolerance to pain. Even if you'd decided to get a payback on Billy back then, it wouldn't work." Slade said and Oliver suppressed the shudder from remembering when he was tortured the first time by Slade's former best friend, when they heard Harkness laugh and turned to him.

"No need for torture. I'll tell you where you can find Takeo." Harkness said, much to their surprise.

"Why?" Oliver asked suspiciously.

"Because he thinks we have no chance of winning." Slade realized.

"You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into… and when he's done with you, you're gonna wish you'd killed me." Harkness laughed.


After Harkness had told them everything he knew, Oliver and Slade exited the room.

"He could be lying. For all we know, we're walking into a trap." Oliver said and Slade nodded.

"But we don't have many options, kid." Slade said.

"Thea is in no state to help and the guards have no chance against Takeo." Oliver said as he looked pleadingly into Slade's eye. "Can I trust you to protect Thea?"

Slade was surprised that Oliver would trust him this much but nodded after a moment.

"If you betray me, if you make me regret it, you're gonna wish I'd killed you back during the Siege." Oliver promised and Slade nodded. He expected nothing less. Oliver made his way up the ladder before he opened the hatch and went out.


Thea was sitting at the table, staring numbly at the wall in front of her, still processing what she had done, when Slade approached her with a flask of water and placed it on the desk.

"I figured you could use a drink. You must be thirsty." Slade said softly.

Thea looked up at him, not hatefully but just numbly. The fact that she wasn't glaring at him hatefully, nor did she really have a hostile remark towards him showed how much she had been affected by the revelation from Oliver. She took the flask and opened it, taking few gulps of water before handing the flask back to Slade. "Where's Ollie?" She asked.

"Assuming that our friend George wasn't lying, your brother is going to deal with our current problem." Slade explained.

"Why does my brother trust you, after everything you've done to us? Why are you helping us?" Thea asked, trying to understand. "I figured you two have a history together but I thought you'd try to kill us, after how you killed my Mom."

"It was the Mirakuru. I wasn't in control of myself, just like your friend Roy wasn't, which is on me. It's a long story." Slade explained.

"I think that we've got plenty of time right now. I mean, it's not like you and I are in hurry." Thea shrugged and Slade considered for a moment before he sat down and took a deep breath.

"Very well. I suppose you deserve that much. I used to work for A.S.I.S. Australian intelligence." Slade explained as he looked at Thea and she looked into his eye as if he was reliving the pain. "My mission was to retrieve Yao Fei. Former Chinese general sentenced to live here by his government. He's the first person who taught your brother how to survive here. But my plane was shot down by a group of mercenaries led by Edward Fyers. Have seen the scars your brother has?" He asked and Thea nodded. "After my plane was shot down, Fyers and his men tortured me and my partner. Tried to convince us to join him. I declined. Billy accepted. He's one of the people who gave Oliver one of the scars you'd seen."

Thea felt some shame over when she had seen Oliver's scars the first time and said that it was Hell for her too, realizing just how bad it was for Oliver.

"Yao Fei saved your brother from Fyers, when he was captured and tortured and showed him where to find me but Yao Fei couldn't come with him because they were using his daughter Shado as leverage to force him to work with us." Slade explained and Thea's eyes lit up in recognition upon hearing the name.

"The Shado you mentioned?" Thea asked and Slade nodded.

"I taught your brother how to fight and survive here and we managed to free Shado from Fyers's clutches but Yao Fei later betrayed us and showed Fyers where we were hiding out of fear for Shado's safety but Fyers later killed him anyway. Fyers planned to use Yao Fei as a scapegoat, while using a missile launcher to shoot down a commercial plane but we stopped him and the kid killed Fyers in the end." Slade explained and Thea wasn't sure whether to be impressed or worried about her brother because of what he had been through. "For the following six months we lived together and trained together, when a freighter Amazo arrived here."

"Amazo, I saw the wreckage back on the beach." Thea said and Slade nodded.

"I'll get to it. That was where Sara ended up when she was sucked out of the Gambit. It belonged to a scientist named Anthony Ivo and he and his crew were just as cruel, sick and ruthless monsters as Fyers was. They saved Sara and now I realize that she was only working with them only out of fear." Slade said and Thea saw how much haunted he was by what had happened as his face turned grimmer and grimmer. "They came here on the island looking for a serum the Japanese developed during World War II."

"The Mirakuru." Thea realized and Slade nodded.

"I'd been injured in the initial attack and your brother had been captured. He managed to get Sara out of there and they had hoped that if we found the Mirakuru, it would save me. I would've died without it. Sometimes I wish I had." Slade said. "When they injected me with it, my body shut down and they thought I had died, when Ivo and his men captured your brother, Sara and Shado." He looked down in shame before looking up again. "Ivo dragged them out and forced Oliver to choose between who would live and who would die. Sara or Shado."

Thea looked horrified, remembering when Slade had forced Oliver to make the same choice between her and their mother, realizing what had happened. "Oh, my God… He killed Shado, did he?"

"I never found out what exactly happened. When I arrived there, Ivo escaped and Shado was dead." Slade said before he looked at Thea guiltily. "Thea, you need to understand that the Mirakuru, it made me stronger and faster but it was also warping my mind as a side effect. I was losing control of myself more and more until I eventually began hallucinating Shado, urging me to make Oliver suffer. I tried to fight it at first but when we had another confrontation with Ivo, he twisted the truth and told me that Oliver had chosen Sara over Shado. After that… it was like a storm I couldn't control anymore." He gave Thea a pleading look. "There's nothing I can say or do to make up for what I've done to you and Oliver… but believe me when I say that I'm truly sorry for everything, Thea. We both will have to just find a way to live with the choices we've made and the best thing you and I can do to redeem ourselves is to help your brother in any way we can."

Thea considered Slade's words as she looked into his eye, wondering if she could do what he suggested.


Oliver was walking down the woods, walking down the familiar path until he stopped and stared at the field in front of him. The place where Ivo had shot Shado. One thing Oliver had to give Takeo a credit for, he was as good with taunting Oliver as Slade. Suddenly, Oliver's instincts turned in as he dodged as gunshots rang out and fired an arrow, knocking one of the guns off Takeo's hand but Takeo had another gun in his hand and opened fire, forcing Oliver to take cover behind a tree.

"It's ironic, isn't it? The same place where the woman you loved, died. The same place where you will die for what you did to my family." Takeo taunted.

"What happened to your family isn't my fault, Takeo." Oliver said.

"Liar!" Takeo shouted.

Oliver emerged from his cover and fired an arrow but Takeo caught it inches away from his face and fired at Oliver, who ran, hiding behind trees to take cover and as soon as Takeo's gun was empty, Oliver used the opening to rush at Takeo with a knife as they began exchanging blows before they were in a stalemate as Takeo grappled Oliver's hand with the knife inches away from his chest.

"Amanda Waller and General Shrieve are to blame, not me." Oliver said.

"If she hadn't found you, Akio would still be alive! My family would still be whole!" Takeo snarled, knocking the knife off Oliver's hand and punching him in the face as Oliver stumbled back.

Takeo unleashed a furious volley of punches, while Oliver used the arms to shield himself before he managed to grab Takeo's arm, elbowing him and returning in kind with jabs and strikes at Takeo's chest and punching him hard in the face.

"What happened to your nephew isn't my fault." Oliver said in between heavy breaths.

"Shut up!" Takeo yelled before he rushed at Oliver and grabbed him by his shoulder with a furious roar, tackling him to a tree and slamming his back upon impact as Oliver gasped for air. Takeo punched Oliver in the groin and kneed him in the abdomen, knocking the breath out of his lungs. Takeo then began punching Oliver relentlessly in the face before Oliver grabbed his arm and they were exchanging blows before Takeo ducked and got behind Oliver, wrapping his arms around his neck, choking him. "Do you even remember him?"

"I remember everyone I've ever lost." Oliver choked before he elbowed Takeo in his side repeatedly and kicked him in the leg, causing for Takeo to let Oliver go but Takeo ducked to avoid Oliver's punch and kicked him in the chest, knocking him down. "I tried to save him. I did what I could but it wasn't enough. In the end, it's Shrieve's and Waller's fault."

Oliver staggered on his feet as he and Takeo were trading blows again before Oliver gained the upper hand and landed a punch at Takeo's face, sending him to the ground. Takeo grabbed a boulder and whirled around, slamming it onto Oliver's face as Oliver staggered but quickly recovered. Takeo roared as he rushed at Oliver with the boulder but Oliver sidestepped as Takeo instead ran into a sharp branch protruding from the tree as it pierced his chest. Takeo dropped the boulder as blood filled his mouth and he pulled away, staggering on his feet as he turned to Oliver, staring in shock.

"You can blame me for what happened to your family all you want, Takeo. I am done blaming myself for what happened to mine." Oliver said and let out a deep breath of relief as if a heavy burden he had been carrying for years was lifted off his shoulders.

Takeo breathed and gave Oliver one last hateful glare before he fell on his knees and slumped to the ground.


Oliver disabled the jammer before he returned to the A.R.G.U.S. prison.

"We can call out for help now." Oliver said and the guards nodded before one of them picked his satphone.

"So I suppose it's back to my cage now?" Slade asked as Oliver considered.

Even if Talia had trained Oliver, they needed more help to take on the League. Thea wasn't in any state of mind to help Oliver after what she had learned and Diggle and Roy were skilled, but they were no match for the likes of the League of Assassins, not to mention Laurel. He was going to need all the help he could get and there was no way he would let Waller 'recruit' the likes of Slade into her Suicide Squad.

"Tell Waller he's coming with us." Oliver said, much to everyone's shock.

"What?" One of the guards asked as he looked at Oliver as if he was insane.

"I'm not gonna let Waller get her hands on you and with what I'm up against, I need all the help I can get." Oliver said.

"Why would you want to help me after all I've done?" Slade asked.

"It's either us working together or you forced to work for Amanda Waller. Like I said, with what I'm up against, I need all the help I can get." Oliver said as Slade turned to Thea.

"I'm not ready to forgive you… but you helped my brother and from what you've told me, you two used to trust each other and Ollie's right, we need all the help we can get. But if you stab us in the back, you're gonna wish you'd stayed locked up in your cage." Thea said and Slade nodded.

"There is a supply ship on eastern shore. It can take you to the mainland." One of the guards said.

"Thank you." Oliver nodded before he turned to Slade. "It's a long way to China. I'll tell you everything on the way back to Starling."


Talia was in her apartment, on her knees with her eyes closed and meditating, when she heard the door opened and she smiled and got up on her feet and turned around. "Took you sooner than I'd thought it would. I see you've outdone yourself."

"You almost got me and my sister killed." Oliver said with restrained anger.

"I took no pleasure in this but it was necessary to help you awaken your killer instinct again. Hate me for this, if you must but you will see that I only did what I had to do to." Talia said.

"You want me to trust you but how am I supposed to, if you hold things like this back? There was a time when you and I trusted each other completely, even if I didn't always agree with your methods!" Oliver shouted as he neared Talia, who did not seem fazed by his display of rage but still seemed to show some remorse.

"I'm sorry for whatever pain you two had gone through back on the island but you both came from it stronger and that strength is one of the few things that's going to keep you both alive. I care about you and I want you to survive. If you don't trust me, trust at least this much." Talia said.

Oliver looked into her eyes and he could tell she was genuine with her regret. "I want to trust you… and I want to believe that we can work through this."

"Then trust in that we both want my father gone." Talia said as she placed her hand on Oliver's chest as he took few deep breaths and calmed down.

"If you put Thea in danger like this again… you're going to wish you'd never trained me." Oliver said coldly.

"I'm not your enemy, Oliver." Talia said.

"Start giving me reasons to believe it." Oliver said.

Talia looked at Oliver with genuine remorse before she kissed him for a moment but Oliver didn't react to it. He wanted to care about her but right now, he couldn't bring himself to, still blinded by the anger over her putting Thea in danger before she pulled away and looked at him pleadingly. "Then believe me when I say that I'm sorry."

She walked away and entered her bedroom, leaving Oliver to stare at his reflection in the window.


In a room, where were sword racks on the wall and weapons stands around, a white-haired albino man was on his knees, sharpening his sword with a whetstone, when a man in a hood entered.

"Takeo is dead." The man announced as the white-haired man nodded.

"And what of Oliver Queen?" The white-haired man asked.

"He and his sister are still alive. And they've taken Slade Wilson as an ally and also…" The man hesitated for a moment. "We have a reason to believe that Queen is working with Talia."

The white-haired man looked up in surprise. "Are you certain?"

"Our scouts confirm it. She's been spotted with Queen." The man said and the white-haired man nodded.

"Thank you." The white-haired man said as the other man left. The white-haired man fumed and with a roar of rage, he swung his sword, shattering the table in front of him into pieces.


The character at the end is another enemy who is going to complicate things for Oliver and Ra's as well and if you are familiar with comics, I think you can tell who it is.

I'm trying to give Oliver/Talia this Matt/Elektra vibe, since while they have a common goal, both Elektra and Talia can use more drastic measures to do it, while Oliver and Matt disagrees with them and I think Oliver/Talia had potential as a pairing but Batman/Talia in comics is just terrrible, since at the end of the day, Talia is more loyal to Ra's than to Bruce and if not, she is a power-hungry megalomaniac too and let's not forget she drugged and raped Bruce to conceive Damian but Talia in Arrow, when handled well, was nowhere as crazy but still, Oliver would disagree with some of her methods.