|Ghosts That We Knew|

The Return Of Those Lost

A/N - Not at that point of the Island but I am stupidly excited to show Thea & Anatoly's interactions, more people voted for Option One over option Three so I'll be going with that but tweaking it slightly when it comes to the order that things happened in the present. Will divide this fic so that my version of Season 1 is one and then season 2, season 3 and then things end up AU without being too AU.

The proper pilot 'episode' chapter is taking a while to write, should be finished all of the details by tomorrow so sorry that we still aren't fully into the action yet. Ahhhhh.

Essentially rewriting Season 4 as I didn't enjoy it.

. . .

Present Day, Lian Yu

Thea Queen ran through the harsh jungle of Lian Yu alongside her brother, Oliver Queen, they were running towards the shore. Hopefully it wasn't too late, they could both only pray that they weren't too late. If they were then they could only hope that Anatoli would come and save them, again.

"Keep up Speedy," Her brother teased from beside her as he raced ahead of her, his light tone a contrast to the one he had had when he killed Kovar. She grimaced and hurried to catch up with him. Branches tore at and scratched at her calves as she ran through the overgrowth - ignoring the way it sent waves of pain through her. Thea had long since learnt how to ignore and deal with pain, a mixture of compartmentalization and sheer willpower.

Pain was one of the many things she had learnt to deal with over the past five years, a couple of nicks and cuts were nothing compared to the hell they'd been through.

She watched as Ollie stopped at the ledge they had came to, they could now see the shore from where they were - the very same shore they had found themselves washed up on all those years ago. A small wooden fishing boat was hovering close to the island, they could only pray that their little 'light show,' as Anatoli had so eloquently put it would be enough to get their attention.

Oliver picked up an arrow and loaded it into his bow, scraping the arrowhead along the stone. It took only seconds before the arrowhead caught alight, Arrow pulled back the bow and fired it into a pile of wood, debris and dry bush. The perfect bonfire.

"Always a flair for the dramatics Ollie," She retorted with a small teasing smile, "Ready to go home?"

He nodded and pulled up his hood, she followed suit as they both readied themselves for what was about to happen. They could only watch with baited breath as they waited for the boat to turn towards the island, for it to acknowledge the bonfire that they had created. If they ignored it then they would have to come up with another plan and Anatoli would have spent all that money bribing various boats to fish near Lian Yu for nothing.

She self consciously tugged at her hair, where she was sure a literal birds nest was forming, "Reckon it'll be believable enough Ollie?"

"Why would they question it? We've been dead for years...everyone will be far too overjoyed at having us back to question anything." He replied smoothly, a part of Thea winced, knowing that their Mom was included in that statement. They would spend the next couple of years doing nothing but lie to her and that grated on Thea. She wasn't like Ollie, she couldn't just turn off her conscience by shoving on a hood.

Frankly she didn't quite understand how he even managed to do that. Anatoli was right, wearing a hood didn't make him a different person, she hoped that her Brother would realise that before it tore him apart.

He was on a mission to save their city and right their Father's wrongs, she was too but she was also on a different mission.

One to save her brother, from himself.

Anatoli was right, nothing good was going to come from splitting himself in two and eventually his deal with the Hood was going to fall apart.

. . .

Somewhere in the North China sea, five years ago;

"Thea!" A voice called out from somewhere above her, "Speedy!"

Warily she looked up and could just make out the blurred image of a raft floating on the water, her Father and Brother were there alongside someone else. Gus, her mind supplied. "Dad! Ollie!"

Somehow she managed to push herself against the current and get towards the life raft, practically sagging with relief as her Father and Brother pulled her into the raft with them. Immediately her Father pulled her closer and placed an arm around her, trying to warm her up whilst her Brother closed the flap on the raft to shelter them from the cold.

It took her longer than it should have to count the number of people on the boat and she brokenly realised that Sara Lance wasn't one of them. She shot a look at her Brother who had his chin resting on his knees and his arms pulled around himself in attempt to bring himself comfort.

"She might still be out there." Oliver murmured, Thea's head snapped to his and she winced in sympathy as memories of the blonde haired girl flashed through her mind. She thought back to Laurel, Laurel's Mother and Detective Lance, they were going to be broken.

Robert reached over and patted his son on the arm, "I'm sorry son, but she's gone."

. . .

Thea hated boats, which wasn't surprising given her history with them; The Gambit, The Freighter and whatever boat Amanda had used to pull them from the North China Sea. "It's strange isn't it.." Oliver murmured, "Seeing the island like that...seeing it fade."

"We weren't exactly able to see it last time," She replied as she thought back to their time on the Amazo, "At least this time we know where we're going...we're going home."

Oliver squeezed her shoulder before getting up and heading over towards the Fishermen, she watched as the fishermen talked to eachother, Oliver was speaking to them in 'fluent' Mandarin and she could practically hear Shado's laughter inside of her head.

He was certianly better than most but he wasn't fluent and similarly to his Russian his American accent shone through.

The two men seemed nice enough, giving them both blankets and making sure they both had plenty to drink. She doubted this was how they had expected their day to go.

"Qǐng wǒ kěyǐ jièyòng diànhuà, ràng wǒ hé wǒ de mèimei kěyǐ gěi wǒmen de mǔqīn dǎ diànhuà? [Please could I borrow a phone, so me and my Sister can phone our Mother?]"

Oliver muttered his thanks as they handed him the sattilite phone before sitting down next to her. His blanket was draped across his shoulders and pulled in at his chest "You ready for this Speedy?" And truthfully she didn't know, was she ready to go home? See her Mom and Tommy and get to be with them again. Her emotions were at war inside of her, anxiety, excitment, trepidation all rolled into one.

Looking at her Brother she knew the same war was going on inside of him, he had refused to return home once because of the fear he had of the darkness inside of him and so she was glad he was giving himself a chance to return home.

Even if it was more so for her and their Father than for his own sake.

His hands were shaking, she noticed, as he dialled the number into the phone. Idly she wondered if the Queen family would reimburse the call, her mind trying to distract itself from what was about to happen.

What if she didn't believe them? Didn't want them? Couldn't accept who they had become? The thoughts swirled inside of her head as the anxiety grew, for all of her bravado and brave words she was still the girl who missed her Mother - even if she tried to deny or hide it.

Oliver placed the phone inbetween them both so that she could hear, please pick up was the mantra that she repeated in her head.

"Hello?" Thea gasped as she heard their Mom's voice ring out through the speaker, she gripped her brother's free hand and looked at him in desperation - she didn't know what to say or do...that was their Mother...the woman they hadn't seen in five years. "Hello?" She asked again, her tone boardering on annoyance, "Who is this?"

"Mom...it's Oliver.." He began and Thea noted how steady his voice was, a complete contrast to the fact he looked like he was on the verge of tears.

They could both hear a barely suppresed sob before the woman spoke again, "My son has been dead for five years, he died with his Father and sister...please don't call this number again-"

"Mom!" Thea cried out, her voice trembling "It's me...it's Thea...it's us I promise...please don't hang up!"

"Mom...I swear...we're both alive...please just listen to my voice..our voices...it's us." Her brother pleaded as Thea closed her eyes, silently begging whatever or whoever might be out there to stop her hanging up. "We did not die on the Gambit...I'm alive...and we're okay and we're coming home...we're coming back."

"T-Thea...Oliver.." Their Mom breathed out, sounding as if she was on the verge of tears, "Is that really you?"

"It's us...please don't hang up!" Thea begged, she couldn't let their Mom go without talking to her, they had had to wait five years to just hear her voice. She didn't want her to go now.

"No." Their Mother murmured and for a second Thea was terrified that that single word meant their Mother hated them, didn't believe them and was about to hang up but before she could voice another desperate protest. "I won't! Oh...my beautiful boy..my baby girl...I-Is your father alive? Did he make it too?" Their Mother questioned hopefully and Thea whimpered slightly, she had killed people and watched as people had been tortured and died but she couldn't bring herself to crush her Mother's hope like that.

Luckily for her, Oliver did it for her.

"N-No...he didn't make it...he died that night...I'm sorry." Oliver told her, pain flashing across his features.

Their Mother let a choked gasp escape her lips as the fate of her Husband was confirmed, she paused and sniffled before speaking again "Ohh...Oliver...Thea...sweetheart, I can't imagine what the pair of you have been through...where are you?"

"A chinese fishing boat...off of the coast of Hong-Kong." Oliver explained, wrapping an arm around Thea and pulling her in closer, "I'm not sure other than that...but I'm coming home." Oliver said inbetween sobs.

"Mom...I love you." Thea cried out as she burrowed closer to Oliver, "I love you and I swear that we'll come home...we're coming home...I promise."

A sob echoed through the phone, "I love you! I love you both..so...so much...I'll arrange for a plane to bring you back...god...I can't wait to see you both...I love you."

"We love you too," Thea chimed in.

Oliver shook his head and schooled his features before speaking again, "Mom...I have to go...I'll phone you once we're at the Embassy...I swear...I swear that we will come home and you'll hear from us soon...okay?"

"Okay...okay.." Mom murmured, "See you soon...I love you."

As the line went dead Thea burst into choked sobs, her and Oliver holding eachother as finally let the floodgates open and everything they had felt over the past five years came rushing out at once.

"We're actually going home Ollie..." Thea whispered, "We're going home."

A/N - The votes are in and Option One has come out on top, spent a good hour or so just plotting how it was all going to work out and such. And I'm pretty happy with and proud of the result. Warning that S4 is pretty AU but we don't need to worry about that now! Let's just get through Season 1, things will be quite different from the canon show in some ways aside from the expected "Thea was there too!" changes which I hope work out in the long run.

When it comes to pairings I don't really know, Thea will probably end up with Roy and as she's the focus of this fic then I'm not sure about Ollie. I feel like I need to have some parts from his point of view but I worry they won't fit with the rest, some flashbacks will be from both of their points of view but those are all from during the Island and the actual pilot.

The next chapter looks as if it's going to be very long so I hope you all enjoy that.

SORRY FOR NOT GETTING INTO THE ACTION SOONER BUT I HAVE ISSUES WITH PACE AND AM SCARED TO RUSH THINGS.