Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow.
As the three of them walked out of the shop after Oliver, the scene changed again. They were back on Lian Yu but it was night. Oliver sat around a campfire, holding a small picture. As they walked over to him, Laurel risked a glance at the picture and it was confirmed to be the picture she had given him before he set sail on The Gambit.
"You're gonna wear that thing out just by looking at it."
The trio looked up and saw, to varying degrees of shock, Slade Wilson sitting across the fire. Although this Slade was not the one they remembered. He had both eyes still and seemed much less homicidally inclined.
"Don't worry, she'll be waiting with flowers for you when you get back." Slade told Oliver who scoffed.
"Doubt it. Remember how I told you I was shipwrecked here? Her sister was with me when the boat went down." Oliver explained.
"Never took you for being the bad boy. You seem to lack the spine." Slade noted.
"It's why I have to get home. To make this right." Oliver said firmly.
"Ollie..." Laurel's emotions were a mix of touched and pity.
"You think you can sleep with your girlfriend's sister and make it right? You're dumber than I thought and that is saying something." Slade said and Thea fought the urge to laugh.
"Well, you don't seem like the kind of guy who accepts apologies, so!" Olive threw his hands up.
"Everyone is in this life for themselves." Slade said matter of factly.
"You learn that in Australian spy school?" Oliver asked sarcastically.
No, I learned that here," Slade said as he sighed, "Do you remember how I told you I had a partner?"
"Yeah." Oliver said slowly.
"Do you remember the man who tortured you?" Slade asked him.
"That-that freak show was your partner?" Oliver asked incredulously.
"His name's Billy Wintergreen." Slade told him.
"Guess you two had a lot in common." Thea said bitterly.
"Our mission was to exiltrate Yao-Fei and find out why Fryers' and his men were so interested in him. But our bird was shot down before we even saw the airstrip." Slade explained.
"That's where I found you." Oliver said and Slade nodded.
"Fryers took us prisoner and asked if we would join him and his men. Billy accepted, I declined. He was the godfather to my son, Joe, and yet he turned his back on me without thinking twice about it. Everybody is in this life for themselves." Slade snarled before he stood up and went for a walk.
"I always thought Slade was just a psychopath...now I'm not so sure." Thea said as she stared after him.
"According to Oliver, he and Slade used to be pretty tight before the Mirakuru happened." Diggle told her.
"I don't think Ollie's here," Laurel said as she looked around, "we should keep moving."
Agreeing, the three walked past Oliver and the scene changed again. They were on a train. Oliver, in his Arrow suit, as aiming his bow and arrow at a man. Behind them, Roy was strapped to the back of the cart.
"Let the kid go," Oliver ordered, and the man shook his head vehemently, "if you kill this kid, he'll never get another opportunity to change. You can give him a second chance!"
"We're the only ones who can save this city, we can't stop now." The man said as he turned to Roy with a gun in his hand.
"We're not the same!" Oliver shouted.
"You've killed people for this city, so have I." The man said.
Oliver nudged his head to the left and the others looked to see what he was looking at Roy was reaching towards a flechette.
"What's the difference between you and me? Emma never got her second chance. You have no idea how lonely it is." The man said as he turned back to Roy, seeing him cutting himself free.
"I think he has some idea." Laurel said softly.
"Joseph, Joseph !" Oliver called out and Joseph turned back to him, "I understand being alone, but that doesn't give you the right to kill people in cold blood."
"He deserves it, just like the gang-bangers who gunned her down. He's no different than them. And now I get to gun him down." Joseph said as he raised his gun at Roy.
"Don't do it!" Oliver cried out as Joseph fired.
Even though she knew Roy was alive and well, Thea couldn't stop the scream of horror that left her mouth. Roy ducked after getting his hands free and Oliver fired. The arrow went into Joseph's chest. Joseph looked over at Oliver before falling dead. Oliver turned and left as Roy pulled himself to his feet.
"Now I get it," Thea said softly as she looked at Roy, "now I get why he was so dead set on finding Ollie."
"He does have that effect on people." Laurel agreed.
"He's not here," Diggle said as he looked around, "Let's go."
the three of them walked down the opposite end of the train, Thea looking over her shoulder at Roy before walking forward. The scene changed once more Oliver, in his Arrow suit with the hood down, was sitting across from an unconscious Diggle, who lied on a med-table. Diggle groaned as he realized what this was. Memory-Diggle sat up and blinked as he absorbed what he was seeing.
"Hey." Oliver said causally.
"Oliver?" Memory-Diggle said before he put the pieces together, "you're that vigilante."
Memory-Diggle took a swing at Oliver but he easily side-stepped the strike.
"Easy Dig, you were poisoned." Oliver told him calmly.
"Son of a bitch." Memory-Diggle growled as he lunged for Oliver again.
Oliver caught the fist and forcibly leaned Memory-Diggle against the med-table. Diggle was starting to get uncomfortable with the looks Laurel and Thea were shooting him.
"I could have taken you anywhere," Oliver said as he let Memory-Diggle go, "I could have taken you home. I brought you here."
"You really did lose your mind on that island." Memory-Diggle snapped.
"Found a few things along the way." Oliver said.
"Like what, archery classes?" Memory-Diggle asked sarcastically.
"Clarity. Starling City is dying. It is being poisoned by a criminal elite who don't care who they hurt as long as they maintain there wealth and power." Oliver told him.
"So what are you gonna do, take 'em all on by your lonesome?" Memory-Diggle asked sarcastically.
"No. I want you to join me." Oliver said.
Thea couldn't stop the giggle that came out of her mouth. At the looks her companions shot her, she smiled.
"Come on, was anyone else not thinking 'Darth Vader?'" Thea asked.
"You're a fellow soldier." Oliver was saying to Memory-Diggle.
"Oliver, you're not a soldier, you're a criminal. And a murderer." Memory-Diggle snapped before storming out.
"In my defense," Diggle said as Laurel and Thea glared at him, "I was in shock. But I admit, not my greatest moment."
"Either way, it doesn't look like he's here either," Laurel noted as she looked around, "where is he?"
"I don't know, but we're just gonna have to keep looking until we find him." Diggle said as they walked forward.
The scene changed once again. They were in a wrecked plane and Slade was screaming As Oliver pulled a bullet out of his arm.
"I'm impressed, you didn't puke." Slade gasped.
"I swallowed it." Oliver said weakly.
"You can untie me now." Slade said and Oliver began to unbind him.
"Why'd you want me to tie you up in the first place?" Oliver asked as he took off his binds.
"A man in pain is unreliable. I was afraid I might kill you. him as he looked at his wound.
"Suddenly, Oliver started laughing. Slade and the others looked over at him confused.
"What?" Slade asked.
"It's just...I'm on an island and my only friend is named Wilson, Oiver chuckled and got some laughs from Thea and Laurel and a smile from Diggle, "so what now?"
"Well, our fire work show should set Fryers back a bit, maybe enough for whoever hired him to call things off."
"Hired him?" Oliver repeated.
"Well, Fryers is a Merc. He follows the money, so he's on this island under someone's employ." Slade explained as he stood.
"What do we do?" Oliver asked.
"Well, for starters, we make sure neither of us dies on this god-forsaken island." Slade told him and Oliver cocked his head to the side.
"I thought you said if we didn't get on the plane, we weren't gonna make it." Oliver said and Slade smiled.
"Well, that dumb kid that I trained, he would never have made it. You?" Slade held out his hand to Oliver and Oliver took it, "you might just have a chance."
"They really were friends." Thea said softly as they watched this.
"Hard to imagine, I know, but they were." Diggle said.
Thea, overwhelmed, turned and walked out of the plane. Diggle and Laurel followed her and they found themselves at the Starling City docks. They three of them were startled by an explosion and they turned to see two figured running away from it. Oliver and Roy looked over at it before they looked at each other.
"You..." Roy trailed off as he looked at Oliver in a new light.
"Yeah." Oliver said awkwardly.
"Last year, you saved me. And I don't mean from the guy who kidnapped me, you saved me. You gave me a purpose." Roy said as he held out to Oliver, which Oliver took.
"We're just getting started." Oliver promised him.
"What is it with him and taking in strays?" Diggle joked and Thea glared at him.
"Roy was never a stray!" Thea shouted and Diggle held up his hands.
"I know. He was always much more than that." Diggle assured her.
So, what do you guys think? Please leave any thoughts or comments you may have in a review, feedback is greatly appreciated.