Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
"Why would the Monitor bring us here?" Sara wondered.
"I don't know." Oliver said as he turned to Slade, Tommy and Diggle. "How did you guys end up here?"
"Armed men entered the bunker and knocked us out." Slade explained.
"A.R.G.U.S. agents." Diggle realized.
"Sounds just as fun as tranq darts." Laurel quipped.
"I'm sorry about that." Lyla said as she went out from the tent. "I needed you here, and I didn't have time to convince you."
"What the hell's going on, Lyla?" Diggle demanded.
"Mar Novu needs us to build a weapon, and it has to be done on this island." Lyla said.
"I'm not doing anything for that guy." Diggle protested.
"John, we have to." Oliver insisted as they entered the tent.
"Kid, I must say, you must have become even stupider than when I met you here the first time, if you're listening to the guy who's been messing with you this whole time." Slade noted bluntly.
"We were wrong about Novu, Slade. He's not our enemy." Oliver said.
"Since when?" Tommy questioned.
"He dropped me, Laurel and Sara in an alternate reality in order to teach me the lesson that to fix the multiverse, we need to work with him." Oliver explained.
"This is crazy." Diggle muttered.
"I know it's hard to hear, Johnny, but it's the truth." Lyla said.
"John..." Oliver gave Diggle a pleading look before turning to Lyla. "How do we build the weapon?"
"The materials we need are already here in the crates outside. Dr. Wong has been experimenting with the dwarf star particles since leaving Hong Kong. He's designed schematics for the build." Lyla said.
"If he has the schematics, why won't he build it?" Sara questioned.
"We're counting on you for that. The device is powered by plutonium. Dinah, Roy, Felicity, Curtis and Rene are on their way here with samples from Star City." Lyla explained.
"So my mission was part of this?" Diggle realized.
"All of our missions are a part of this." Oliver explained before turning to Lyla. "With all due respect, what are we doing back on Lian Yu?"
"In the past few days, the island has seen a rash of energy spikes." Lyla explained.
"Is that your reason for it being green?" Oliver asked and Lyla nodded. "Because the last time that I was here, Adrian Chase blew it up."
"Yes. Harnessing that energy is the key, and we need to do it right away because we have no idea how long the energy spikes will last." Lyla said.
"Wait, let me get this straight, you want us to build a superweapon for a cosmic god and then we'll stop the Crisis?" Slade asked.
"There is no stopping Crisis." Lyla said.
"Then why does Novu need the weapon in the first place?" Sara questioned.
"I don't know, but Novu said this is how we survive it, and I believe him." Lyla said.
"If we can't stop Crisis, then what about Barry or Kara?" Diggle asked.
Oliver looked saddened as he sighed, realizing that there was nothing he could do for his friends anymore.
A plane was flying towards Lian Yu, with Roy, Rene and Dinah at the cockpit and Felicity at the back of the plane.
"Guess I shouldn't be surprised the Black Canary knows how to fly." Rene said.
"Flying's easy. Landing's the hard part." Dinah said as Rene and Roy looked at her worriedly. "Kidding." Then they saw in the distance the island. "There it is. Purgatory."
"Looks a little less bombed out than I remember." Rene said.
"Wow. After everything I've heard about this place, I didn't imagine it to be so..." Roy trailed off.
"…terrifying?" Rene finished.
"Beautiful." Roy said.
"Yeah, if you don't count the landmines." Curtis said.
"Uh, don't remind me." Felicity grumbled.
"Island team, do you copy? We are five miles south and inbound for landing. Over." Dinah called out.
"We copy. Island team will meet you at the airstrip to unload. Over." Diggle said.
"No wind to speak of. Looks like we're in for a relatively smooth landing." Dinah said before she noticed something. "Hang on. Hang on. What the hell is that?"
"Something's wrong." Oliver realized.
"Hey. Is everything all right up there?" Diggle called out over the radio.
"We're picking up…" Dinah was breaking up. "Something's incoming."
"Did she say 'incoming'?" Oliver demanded as they went out from the tent.
"Dinah, are you there? Can you read me? Can you read me?" Diggle called out.
"Up there." Sara pointed.
"Oh, my God." Laurel said as she saw a missile flying towards the plane.
"Kid, it looks like history repeats itself." Slade said.
"Brace for emergency landing. Hold on!" Dinah exclaimed.
The missile hit the wing of the plane as it broke off, causing for the plane to plummet to the island.
"They're not gonna make it." Diggle said, horrified.
"We need to find the crash site." Oliver said.
"I'm trying." Tommy said as he was typing away on the laptop.
"I can't reach out, something's jamming the signal." Sara said as she tried to call out on the radio.
"Not something. Someone. Most likely the same person, who shot down the plane." Slade said.
"You should have told us we weren't alone." Diggle said as he turned to Lyla.
"I thought we were. I had A.R.G.U.S. sweep the entire island." Lyla said.
"I think I have them, but the plutonium is elsewhere, according to the tracker in the case." Slade said.
"We can't build the weapon without Felicity or Curtis. Let's split up." Oliver ordered.
"I'll run point on the rescue." Diggle said.
"I'm coming, too. I called them here. This is on me." Lyla said.
"Whatever the three of you do, just be careful. We don't know who these people are or what they want." Oliver said.
"Copy that." Diggle said as he went out.
"And I guess that means, what, we are on nuclear weapon duty?" Laurel said.
"I'll stay here with Slade, see what I can do with the weapon." Tommy said as he approached a computer.
"Tommy, are you sure?" Oliver asked.
"Ollie, I've been protecting Starling City on my own for years, even before Laurel joined with me. I got this." Tommy assured.
"Slade and Tommy synched this map to the plutonium's location." Oliver said as he held the tablet with satellite imaging of the island, while he, Sara and Laurel walked down the woods. "It's gonna get us close to the case, but the coordinates won't be exact, so we're gonna have to sweep the area."
Sara looked around uneasily. "Ollie, I don't know about you, but this is starting to remind me too much of…"
"…what happened eleven years ago? Yeah, me too." Oliver nodded as he turned to Laurel. "You know, I, uh... I never expected to be on a mission with you like this, you know. I'm glad you're here."
"Oliver, I know that look." Laurel said as they stopped.
"What look?" Oliver asked.
"The look you had, when we first met." Laurel said. "You saw a part of your Laurel in me."
"Yeah, it's just that…" Oliver took a breath. "I don't know if you know this, but when I first got stranded here, I kept a photo of my Laurel with me."
"What, you got sentimental?" Laurel asked.
"No. It…" Oliver took a breath. "It was one of the few things from before the Gambit that I had been holding onto. I knew things wouldn't be the same after how I cheated on her, but I wanted to go home at least to try and make things right with her. To say that I'm sorry."
"And did she ever forgive you?" Laurel asked.
"It took some time… but eventually, yeah." Oliver said.
"You know, I wish things had been different between us." Laurel said as she smiled at Oliver. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for everything."
"It's OK now." Oliver said.
Diggle and Lyla walked down the woods before they saw Rene and Dinah limping towards them, with Rene leaning onto Dinah's shoulder.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You guys OK?" Diggle asked.
"I think so." Rene said.
"We have no idea where Roy or Felicity are." Dinah panted out.
"OK. You are definitely not OK." Lyla said as she looked Rene over. "We cannot let this get infected. You guys keep searching. I'll take Rene back and get him fixed up."
"OK. Go, go, go." Diggle said.
"We need to find Roy and Felicity." Dinah said.
"Where? Where?" Diggle demanded.
"This way." Dinah pointed as Diggle followed.
Oliver opened a case, in which was a cylinder of plutonium. "I found it!" He got up and looked around. "Sara! Laurel!"
Oliver noticed something was off before he saw a masked mercenary holding Laurel, with his sword at her throat and Oliver recognized him as Billy Wintergreen, Slade's former friend from A.S.I.S., who had betrayed him and who had tortured Oliver, when he first ended up on the island. "Let her go."
"I'm afraid he can't do that." A familiar male voice said and Oliver's blood ran cold as he turned his head to see a middle-aged blonde man in a mercenary uniform. "Hello, Oliver."
"Fyers." Oliver whispered in disbelief. "You're dead."
"What?" Laurel demanded, shocked.
"Seems I've been given a new lease on life, though this time I'll be sure to finish the job." Fyers said as more of his men showed up, aiming their weapons at Oliver and Laurel and Oliver put down the case. "Drop your weapon."
Oliver turned around and placed his hands behind his head.
"Drop... your weapon!" Fyers repeated.
Oliver whirled around and shot down Fyers's men, while Laurel disarmed Wintergreen of his sword and they exchanged blows before Laurel knocked him down and threw his sword at one of the mercenaries and Sara jumped down from above and knocked down another one nearing Laurel with his gun ready.
"Friends of yours?" Laurel demanded, turning to Oliver.
"Edward Fyers and Billy Wintergreen. They were on the island when I first got here, and they're both dead." Oliver said.
"If they're dead, then they're what, ghosts?" Sara questioned.
"Get this to Tommy." Oliver ordered as he handed the case to Laurel.
"Where are you going?" Laurel demanded.
"I have to go after Fyers." Oliver said.
"Ollie, what about the weapon?" Sara demanded.
"Fyers is my mess. He's a mercenary that I fought and I killed. He clearly wants revenge, and that makes him my responsibility. All right. I'll be back as soon as I can." Oliver said as he walked off.
Oliver was walking down the woods before he sensed something and caught an arrow that was coming his way and faced an Asian bearded man, who had long hair and lowered his hood to reveal a familiar face.
"Fool. This place is too dangerous for any one man to be alone." Yao Fei said in Mandarin.
"Yao Fei?" Oliver stared in disbelief. "Are you real?"
"As real as the men you hunt." Yao Fei said in English.
"Why'd you try to shoot me?" Oliver demanded.
"Like the first time. To keep you from danger." Yao Fei said.
"No one can keep me from danger. OK? Not even you." Oliver said.
"Because of the coming crisis?" Yao Fei asked and Oliver shrugged. "There are forces at play that want you to not succeed."
"Fyers and his men know about the weapon, and they want to use it for themselves." Oliver explained as he looked around. "All right. Well, who else has, um, returned?"
"Only those who were with you from the beginning, but you must not let the evil that tempted you at the start distract you at the end." Yao Fei said.
"He's coming after more than my mission, Yao Fei, you understand? I'm not gonna let that happen." Oliver said firmly.
"Last time you tried to do alone did not end well." Yao Fei reminded.
"I'm not that person anymore." Oliver said.
"I will hope." Yao Fei nodded.
"Roy! Felicity!"
"Roy!" Dinah and Diggle yelled before they looked around.
"Guys! Over here!" Felicity waved as Dinah and Diggle rushed to her and Curtis.
"Felicity, where's Roy?" Diggle asked
"There! We gotta help him!" Felicity pointed as she accompanied them deeper into the woods before they saw Roy lying at a rock, with his arm pinned down by a piece of engine.
"Roy!" Dinah cried out.
"I can't... I can't move!" Roy groaned.
"Roy, we're gonna get you out of here." Diggle said. "His arm is pinned. Can you feel anything?"
Roy shook his head. "No, no."
Dinah turned to see fuel leaking from a broken wing and sparks going off. "We got a problem. Fuel."
"We gotta hurry and Roy off that thing before we're toast." Curtis said as he, Dinah and Diggle tried to lift the engine and free Roy before Laurel showed up and was horrified to see Roy's predicament.
"Oh, God. Guys, we don't have time. I hate to say it but I think the best way to save Roy is if we amputate his arm." Laurel said.
"No! There has to be another way!" Felicity protested.
"Felicity, we don't have time, the engine's about to spark!" Dinah snapped.
"Then I'll make it. Do it. Just… cut me free." Roy said.
"Guys, we're about to have company and not the good kind." Laurel said as she heard footsteps.
"We can hold them off!" Diggle protested.
"John, we don't have a choice!" Dinah said.
"Then I'll make it. Do it. Just... cut me free." Roy said.
"Roy, are you sure about this?" Felicity asked.
"No. No, Roy." Diggle protested.
"John, it's better my arm than our lives." Roy assured.
After a moment, Diggle, Curtis and Felicity gave in. "Felicity, get the kit."
Felicity nodded as she ran off.
"Laurel and I will distract them." Dinah said as she left with Laurel.
A moment later, Felicity returned with the kit as Diggle tied the tourniquet around Roy's arm, while Roy groaned and Felicity handed Diggle the machete and held Roy's hand.
"Hang on, Roy." Curtis said.
"Ready?" Diggle asked.
"Do it." Roy said.
Diggle swung the blade as Felicity and Curtis looked away, while Roy held onto her hand tightly and screamed in pain as blood spattered on his, Curtis's and Felicity's faces.
"Fyers' camp is just ahead." Oliver said as he followed Yao Fei.
"We should not be back here." Yao Fei said.
Oliver sighed. "You don't have to help, Yao Fei."
"I help for Shado." Yao Fei said.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save her. Should be right up here." Oliver said as they approached where used to be Fyers's encampment but they noticed that it had been abandoned for a long time.
"They're gone." Yao Fei said.
"OK. That doesn't make any sense. He should be here." Oliver said but then they heard rustling as the net under them closed, ensnaring them.
"Fyers knew you'd come here." Yao Fei realized.
"Well, now he's free and clear to attack my friends. We need to get out of here." Oliver said as he tried to free himself.
"How?" Yao Fei questioned.
"Use your bow?" Oliver asked.
"It's pinned." Yao Fei said as he tried to reach.
"All right. Well... We will have to cut our way out." Oliver said as he pulled out a knife.
"The net is made of braided steel. That blade won't cut." Yao Fei said.
"It'll cut." Oliver said.
"Oh, my God, what happened?" Sara demanded as she saw Roy with an amputated arm and injured Rene accompanied by Felicity, Curtis, Diggle and Dinah.
"His arm got pinned underneath the landing gear. We had to amputate." Diggle explained.
"I'm sure you did what you needed to do." Lyla assured.
"Is Oliver back yet?" Laurel asked.
"Wasn't he with you?" Tommy demanded.
"No. He went after the enemy on his own." Sara said.
"Of course the kid always has to play the hero." Slade grumbled as he got up and picked his weapons.
"Felicity, Curtis, Tommy, finish the weapon, Slade and I are going for Ollie." Sara ordered as she went out with Slade.
"I was wrong. You haven't changed. Still that impatient boy I found." Yao Fei noted as he observed Oliver frantically trying to cut himself loose.
"You realize that insulting me is not gonna make this go any faster, right?" Oliver grumbled.
"Breathe. Remember in everything, breathe." Yao Fei said.
"I'm trying to cut my way out of a net, Yao Fei, not shoot an arrow." Oliver drawled.
"We wouldn't be in this net if you had breathed." Yao Fei said, lecturing Oliver like a child.
"You know what Fyers is capable of, right?" Oliver reminded. "I need to get back to my friends, and I'm running out of time."
"You could be with your friends, but you chose here instead." Yao Fei pointed out.
"I chose to protect them."
"You think that it's your responsibility to protect everyone you care about, even if there's a chance that there is nothing you can do for them and they will die, no matter what you do." Yao Fei said.
"I've made my peace with that the people I love could die, no matter what I do." Oliver said, looking sad. "That hasn't made things any easier. What am I supposed to say to Barry and Kara, if I might not see them again?"
"What I could not to Shado. You say 'goodbye.'" Yao Fei said.
"I don't think that I can." Oliver admitted. "Barry and Kara are everything I want to be but I know I can't be. They believe in hope and light and they try their best not to let the darkness they had been through change them for what they are. That's not who I am. In a way, I look up to them both… but there's nothing I can do to save them, when I know they're destined to die."
"You think you have failed." Yao Fei realized.
"The first thing that you taught me. 'Shēngcún', survive. How am I supposed to survive, knowing that I'm gonna let my friends die?" Oliver wondered.
"Shēngcún is more than body. It is spirit, what lives on like I did in Shado, like she does in you. That is 'survive.'" Yao Fei said.
"How do I do that?" Oliver wondered.
"You live now, with your friends, with the time they have left." Yao Fei said and Oliver considered.
"I need to get out of this net first." Oliver said as he kept cutting.
"Always have patience." Yao Fei said and a moment later, Slade and Sara appeared and Slade pulled out a sword, cutting them loose.
"You know, this is like the first time I met you, kid, useless and me having to save you again." Slade said and stared in shock to see Yao Fei.
"Like I said, patience." Yao Fei smiled and a moment later, Shado approached as more shock filled Oliver, Slade and Sara.
"Long time no see." Shado smiled warmly.
"Well, kid, it's like old times." Slade noted as soon as soon as he recovered from his shock.
Diggle was back in the camp, treating Roy's amputated arm as Dinah entered. "John, we got a problem."
They followed Dinah into the A.R.G.U.S. prison on the island.
"Fyers and his men have surrounded the camp. They could be here at any moment now." Felicity said.
"How long before the weapon is ready?" Diggle asked.
"We're done building it. Once the plutonium finishes transferring the energy, we can turn it on." Curtis said as he turned to the metallic ball on a pedestal.
"How long do you need?" Laurel asked.
"We don't know." Tommy said.
"Can we take this to a safer part of the island and finish it there?" Dinah asked.
"No, no. It has to be here. We've tapped into the center of the island's energy. We can't move." Curtis said.
"And it has to be tonight. We don't know when the next energy spike will be, and we can't afford to wait." Lyla said.
"We need to buy Tommy, Felicity and Curtis more time." Oliver said as he entered.
"Oliver, are you OK?" Laurel asked.
"Yeah. An old friend steered me back. I'm sorry that I took off." Oliver assured.
"It's OK." Diggle assured.
"How are we supposed to beat an army of ghosts?" Laurel questioned.
"Power up the device." Oliver said.
"The sphere's absorbing the energy of the island." Tommy realized.
"If that brought the dead here in the first place…" Curtis started.
"…activating the device will destroy them." Oliver finished.
"We're talking about plutonium here. That's nasty stuff. It can take out this entire island, us included!" Rene pointed out.
"If this is our best chance of surviving the Crisis, then we need to take the risk." Lyla said.
"Lyla's right. She's right. This is it. This is our best shot." Oliver said firmly. "Suit up."
"I haven't had the chance to say it but I'm sorry I let you die." Oliver said as he turned to Shado, while they walked down the woods.
"It wasn't your fault. Ivo calculated it all down. I never blamed you." Shado assured as she turned to Slade, who looked ashamed. "I never blamed anyone of you."
"I've made my peace with what happened. And like I told the kid, we need to forgive ourselves for our sins… otherwise our pasts will never stop haunting us." Slade said.
Oliver, in the Green Arrow suit, entered Fyers's camp as Fyers smirked. "You are as foolish as ever, Queen."
"Surrender!" Oliver said.
"I suppose that means you're not here to surrender to me." Fyers said.
"I'm the one who killed you, Fyers." Oliver reminded.
"I'm very pleased to return the favor, a task you've made much easier by coming alone." Fyers said.
"I'm not alone." Oliver said and on cue, Diggle in his Spartan gear, Laurel in her Black Canary outfit, Tommy as the Green Arrow, Slade in his Deathstroke suit, Sara in her White Canary suit, Dinah in her Black Canary suit, Yao Fei and Shado appeared.
"It doesn't matter how many people you have. The outcome is the same." Fyers said. "Kill them!"
Fyers's men and Wintergreen charged forward, while Diggle, Slade, Tommy and Shado opened fire as they charged forward too.
"Curtis, we're running out of time." Felicity said.
"That's strange. There was a double helix genetic sequence in Dr. Wong's formula. I assumed it was an error, but now I think the device can only be powered on using a specific DNA code." Curtis said as he looked at the tablet.
"Oliver? Oliver, do you copy?" Lyla tried to reach out with her radio. "Nothing."
"Like old times, kid!" Slade said as he cut down one of Fyers's men, while Oliver shot down another one.
Laurel unleashed her Siren Cry, sending some of them flying away, while Diggle and Rene shot down four of Fyers's mercs.
"Yao Fei, if this works…" Oliver grunted as he threw a mercenary to Yao Fei.
"We will part again but the dead are never really gone." Yao Fei assured.
Slade tackled Wintergreen and slammed him to some barrels.
"This time, I'm putting an arrow in your eye, Slade." Wintergreen sneered.
"Don't count on it." Slade snarled and dodged Wintergreen's sword as their blades clashed.
Sara and Dinah knocked down the mercs with their staffs, while Oliver fired an explosive arrow, sending some of Fyers's men flying away and Shado shot down one of the mercs riding on a bike and Oliver, Diggle, Tommy and Rene were shooting their way through Fyers's men.
"They're not gonna be able to hold them off much longer. We need to hurry." Oliver said as he entered the bunker.
"The sphere should go off the moment you touch it, but we don't know what happens then." Felicity said.
"OK." Oliver picked the sphere as it beeped but then, nothing.
"Wow. That was anticlimactic." Roy said.
"That doesn't make any sense." Felicity said as she looked at her tablet.
"What? What is it?" Oliver asked.
"Oliver's DNA doesn't match the algorithm's specified sequence." Felicity said.
"Does that mean we can't turn it on?" Oliver asked.
"You can't..." Felicity turned to Lyla. "But she can."
"What are you talking about?" Lyla demanded.
"The DNA sequence isn't Oliver's but yours, Lyla." Felicity explained.
"When I said, 'Like old times', when we were here the last time, it's not exactly what I had in mind!" Slade noted as he cut down another one of Fyers's men.
"We need to hold them off for as long as we can!" Sara ordered before an explosion knocked her down.
"God, I hate this island!" Laurel snapped as she knocked down one of the mercenaries.
"I thought this weapon was supposed to help us survive Crisis." Oliver said, turning to Lyla.
"That's what Novu told me." Lyla said.
"Does this mean you're the weapon?" Diggle realized.
"Johnny..." Lyla started.
"I understand why you have to do this." Diggle assured.
Back in the woods, the Team Arrow was getting overpowered.
Lyla picked the sphere as the lights flickered.
Team Arrow and Slade looked confused to see that Yao Fei, Shado, Fyers and his men had vanished.
"Lyla, are you all right?" Diggle asked.
"I have to go." Lyla said as a portal opened and she entered it before it closed, much to their confusion.
Later, they were back in the tent, packing up.
"Hey, guys. I just, uh... I just connected with A.R.G.U.S., and Lyla organized a rescue boat before everything happened. Should be here any minute, so... so, we're all going home." Oliver said.
"Uh, does anyone know what exactly happened to Lyla, when she entered the portal? Because I'm terrified to wonder what was on the other side. I mean, did she know what was going to happen?" Felicity asked.
"No. No. She was just as surprised as the rest of us." Diggle said.
"Novu just loves surprises, doesn't he?" Laurel quipped.
"Whatever Mar Novu has planned for Lyla, she can handle it." Diggle assured.
"How long before the Crisis begins?" Tommy asked.
"Not long." Oliver said.
Oliver, Sara and Slade were at the beach, staring.
"You still thinking about your friends? The Flash and Supergirl?" Slade asked.
"I've accepted that I may not be able to save them. Now I'm wondering what will they leave behind. It'll be up to me to make sure their deaths will have any meaning. Whatever this crisis brings us, it'll be bigger than anything we've ever seen." Oliver said.
"You're not gonna be alone in this, Ollie. You have me, Slade, the Legends, Cisco, Caitlin, everyone's gonna be with you, when it comes down crashing." Sara promised as she held his hand.
Suddenly, the sky turned red as they heard thunder and saw lightning strike in the sky before a glow of light blinded them and suddenly, Lyla appeared, now wearing a blue uniform.
"Lyla?" Oliver asked, confused.
"Not anymore. I'm now a harbinger of things to come."
Sara's eyes widened. "You mean—"
"Yes." Lyla nodded. "The Crisis has begun."
While I liked seeing Yao Fei again in 8x07, it's disappointing that neither Slade or Shado showed up, considering how important part did they play in Year 1 flashbacks, and like I've said before, at this point, I don't buy the ban because of DCEU or Titans anymore regarding Deathstroke and with Shado, it could be because of unavailability of Celina Jade.
Well, this ends this story and stay tuned until I write my Crisis on Infinite Earths story, but first I need to plan it out, which is going to take a while.
Stay tuned for my version of Crisis of Infinite Earths.
Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed the story to its end.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter