When Oliver woke up, he realized that something was wrong. The last thing he remembered was being told it was his turn. What was his turn? He couldn't even remember, but he sure did remember that he was supposed to be dead, what happened to him there wasn't any coming back from that. He hadn't even wanted to, he was ready to meet his mother, father, Tommy, and all the other people he had lost. Only from looking around him, could he tell that something was amiss. The room looks just like the hospital room he was in when he first came home from Lian Yu, but it was impossible. It couldn't be, could it?
While he was debating with himself whether this was genuinely real or some type of twisted dream. When his mother came into the room, "Oliver," was hyper away from the present as soon as she entered the room, he still was in equal parts disbelief and shock. "Mom, is this real?" he asked her, he prayed to any and every entity out there that it was. Moira walks towards him and he stills himself for whatever was going to happen next. On the precipice of tears, she reaches out to touch him the same way she did all those years ago. "My beautiful boy," they hugged, and only when he took in her smell did he let the tears fall. This had to be real…
Exactly like last time, he was able to go home right away courtesy of his family's name and resources. He meet Walter, Raisa, Tommy, and Thea all again and everything was verbatim what it was eight years again. The only difference was him and his ability to see how young and happy they all looked. After excusing himself from dinner he went up to his room. He used the time before his release to think about how this could have happened. He couldn't wrap his head around what could have happened that sent him back to this point, the last coherent thought he had before falling asleep was 'Did the Spectre send him back in time?'
"Yes, I did. I decided to give you a second chance before you become the protector of the multiverse."
"So you are going to give me the chance to save people?" Oliver asked to make sure that this was once again a cruel trick of the mind like he had been thinking since he had woken up. "Yes, Oliver Queen, you ushered in an entire era of superheroes. I think the least the multiverse can do in return for your saving it and accepting the burden of presiding over it for the foreseeable future is a do-over. I do warn you though, there are some events that no matter how hard you try you will not be able to change the outcome." Oliver accepted this as the truth because Barry had long since explained the concept of a fixed point to him. "Are any of my friends' deaths fixed points?"
"I am afraid that I cannot tell you that, but when the time comes you will know." and with that, he disappeared and he awoke to his hand once again over his mother's throat. "oh, it's okay, Oliver. It's all right, sweetheart. You're home. You're home." he let her comfort her this time, once again getting emotional. this time because he knew that this was happening. He really could save them…
The next morning after a long night Oliver gives Thea her gift. He forces himself not to do anything besides comment. Only when she got into real trouble would she accept real help?
"Your funeral blew." barely managed to ask with a straight face, knowing where this was going. "Did you get lucky?" Tommy was the only person who could cheer him up so easily, after he died the jokester in him all but shriveled up and died. "So, tell me what did you miss most, steaks at the palm, drinks at the station, or meaningless sex?"
This time around he would be serious about avoiding Laurel for as long as he could. He had destroyed her entire family with his selfishness and he would be damned if he didn't learn from his mistakes. "Seeing People" was all he said this time and after that, they drove in silence for a while until they stopped at Tommy's apartment. Only they never made it inside because they were drugged and taken off the street. At Least this time they didn't kill anyone innocent.
Upon waking he thinks that the ziplines and Tommy still being alive should have been his first clue that these people weren't going to hurt them. They had no qualms about killing a witness, so why haven't they gotten rid of Tommy when they only wanted him, because they had been ordered not to seriously hurt them?
This time he held out on giving them any answers long enough to be believable before telling them that he had no idea what they were talking about upon the verge of blacking out. Holding out on them resulted in two bruised ribs, a black eye, and other assorted bruises. When he came too, he was once again in Starling City hospital with his mother by his bedside. "You're awake," Moira was close to tears and She knew that this had to be done if she had waited too long Malcolm would have felt the need to act on his own there was no question in her mind that his methods would have been a lot worse, but she had no idea that Oliver would be so reluctant to tell them that he didn't know anything.
Tommy and Oliver had been missing for two hours after they were abducted, she was so close to ending the entire operation when she finally got the confirmation text that the two boys had been dumped safely. "What happened?" he asked, making an effort to sit to be able to see his surroundings better, his bruised ribs made it clear to him that it was not a good idea.
"One day back and somebody's already gunning for you, aren't you popular?" Oliver had forgotten that Quentin was the one who had been in charge of his kidnapping case back then. Honestly, did they have no other detectives that could have handled it? "Mom, what's going on? Where's Tommy?" to Lance's ire he ignored the remarks he made. He tried his best to seem confused and evidently, it worked because Detective Hilton who was the first to say anything asked, " what is the last thing that you remember?"
"Nothing, I talked to Thea, and Tommy came to pick me up, and then nothing. I don't even remember us leaving the house. Where is he, is he okay?" He was beginning to think that he had miscalculated and the men had seriously hurt Tommy and some way to make things look believable. "Oliver, relax please, Tommy is fine. Both of you were both drugged and he is still unconscious." At his mother's words he was able to relax, "So what happened, who drugged us?" he asked again hoping to get a straight answer this time.
"You were kidnapped. They probably figured you'd pay a king's ransom to get your boy back or a Queen's ransom, as it were. After all, a parent would do anything to keep their child safe." Lance was devoted to making his hate and distaste understood. "I don't find your tone appropriate, Detective." After that, for the first time Walter made his presence known, "If Oliver can think of anything else, he'll be in touch. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming." Lance couldn't leave without his parting words. "Your luck never seems to run out, does it?" He desperately wanted to tell him that Sarah was alive, but he knew that if he did that he might as well come clean about everything, he only took solace in the fact that they would eventually be reunited.
He knew that his mother was going to introduce him to Diggle soon and he didn't know what he wanted to do. A part of him was telling him that he should keep Dig out of it, but another part of him knew that he never would have been able to become the Green Arrow, without him. After a lot of thinking it over he decided that he would let the timeline play out the same way once again. Once the choice has been made he resolved to move up his timeline because he knew that Tommy would still be planning his party. Now more than ever if anything.
He decided to forgo giving Hunt a warning knowing that he would not follow it. He would wait until the night of the party and hack into the server just as he did last time. One call from Tommy confirmed that the party was still on and just as the last time he brought up the place close by Hunt Multinational. Thea managed to get into the party even though he specifically told the guards at the door not to let her or anyone under age from coming in. He could feel Diggle eyes him as he moved across the room to Thea and her buddy. "Who let you in here?" she smiled drunk off her ass. "I believe it was somebody who said, "Right this way, Miss Queen."
"Well, you shouldn't be here."
"Ollie, I-I love you, but you can't come back here and judge me, especially for being just like you." He rolled her eyes, "When has being like me ever led to anything good. Look, I know that It couldn't have been easy for you when I was gone." she chuckles at his attempt to sugarcoat it, "Away? No. You died. My brother and my father died. I went to your funeral." He lets her leave, only after he knew had the drugs. It seemed like the night was full over unmovable points of time. It had to be because he had been avoiding Laurel all week, but she still ended up coming to the party to talk to him. " Oh! Oh. You're here." His surprise was genuine just as the last time. "Tommy. He made the point that we have too many years between us to leave things the way we left them. Is there somewhere quieter that we could go?" Good ole, Tommy is determined for them to get along.
"If I could trade places with her, I would." he sees the flinch that she tries to hide at his words, but he just had to get out." When she died…did she suffer?" he could confidently tell her, "No," He even silently tacked on 'You'll be seeing her again soon
"Oliver, I just want. get this off my chest and I want you to hear me out. I blamed you like my father does, even when I heard that you had been shipwrecked for five years and I thought of the hell you must've gone through. I thought it was karmic justice for you to have to suffer, the same way we have for the past five years." Oliver put up a hand to stop her from finishing, he could see where this was going and he was going to stop it in its tracks. "Laurel, let me stop you there. I can see the wheels in your head turning, wondering did this make him a better person. It didn't, stay away from me you can't fix me, because I am happy the way I am." He walks away not even waiting for her to respond. In this world, he would be cutting her off completely, whether she wanted it or not. Knowing that he was doing this for her good, didn't make the tightness in his chest disappear. The hardest part about his plan was to sneak back into the party after everything was said and done.
There were no police to end the event, so the party lasted well into the night or rather the morning. By the time the morning came, he was wondering how the hell he even made it past his early twenties.