I want to thank every one of my followers, favorites and reviewers. You guys are so supportive and really make a big part of this story for me. I always want to thank my Beta Mrs. Thor Odinson. She is a big help and it's always great to have an extra pair of eyes to look over one's work.

Yeah, I own Arrow…. Not! Believe me if I did Victoria would be in it and things would be a lot different ;)

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Erudessa-gabrielle: I am so glad you are enjoying it so much. Well I guess you'll just have to keep reading and find out ;)

The Other Queen – 12

Chapter 12

Lian Yu 2007

Slade and Victoria held onto Shado and Oliver tight as they made it to their camp. As soon as they were within the wrecked plane Oliver placed Victoria and Slade by the fire. Slade caught his breath and looked over at Victoria to see if she had anymore injuries.

"Are you alright?" he asked her in concern.

"Yeah, a bullet to my shoulder and I am a little stiff but I'm going to be alright," then she placed a hand on his leg only for him to hiss in pain. "Oh, did I hurt you?"

"Fyers shot me in the leg. I hadn't noticed till now how much it hurts."

Victoria inspected the bullet hole closely and winced in sympathy.

"Kid, are you the only one without a bullet hole?" Slade asked Oliver.

"Yeah, well it wasn't like I was telling Fyers to pull the trigger," Oliver replied snarkily.

"I can't believe that the rest of us got shot and you got away scot free," Victoria remarked, giving Oliver a glare.

Shado was holding her arms and looking around for something, Oliver looked at her in confusion, "What are you looking for?"

"Medical supplies, I had some experience with medicine in school. I was actually studying to be a nurse," Shado explained.

"Wow, learn something new every day," Victoria commented with a smile.

"Yeah, who knew you liked them smart, Kid," Slade joked.

Oliver looked away and Shado tried not to let them all see her blush. Victoria chuckled and Slade looked pleased with himself for making them both act like teenagers.

"Now you have to show my incapable brother how to take care of you. Don't think I didn't notice the bullet that was fired into your shoulder," Victoria said changing the subject.

"I can be seen last, first I need to tend to you both," Shado replied.

"Shado," Oliver breathed with a look of concern.

"No I first look after them then we worry about me," She declared.

Slade tried not to smile as Oliver shut up and Shado went into making sure both bullets were safely out of them. Luckily the bullet that had shot Slade's leg had gone completely through. Victoria's wound still had a bullet though and Shado had made sure the blade was sharp and cleaned it before using it to taking it out. Slade helped Shado tie Victoria's wrist down so she couldn't move.

"Let me guess, worried I'll kill you?" Victoria asked with a smirk to Slade and a wink.

"Something like that," he replied with a small smile.

Shado tried to be as gentle as she could be but the blade still was stinging and causing a sharp pain to go through all of Victoria's arm. She only tossed and turned a little, her bounds around the wrists left her little room to move, it was a good thing too. Otherwise Shado might have managed to give her a cut as well as a bullet hole. Oliver had to look away and even Slade winced as Victoria cried out in pain. Finally, Shado stopped and Victoria was left with a sharp pain that was seemingly spreading through her whole arm and she felt completely tired and spent. She shrugged her shoulder forward to relieve it of the weight but as it stiffed she winced and stood completely still.

"Carefully, Toria. That arm is going to take a while to heal," Slade warned her.

Victoria shook her head in agreement and let Shado continue to place some sort of healing palm onto her sore arm. Victoria winced as Shado brought it closer to the wound.

"Sorry, Toria," Shado said as she gently placed more on and then stepped away to survey her work. "That should work. If it doesn't feel better in two days don't be afraid to tell me. Tomorrow I should give it another look. Here," she handed her a cup filled with hot water and Yao Fei's super herbs.

"Thank you," Victoria said taking the offered cup. Shado was about to walk away when Victoria grabbed her arms, "I am so sorry about you dad, Shado."

Shado shook her head and offered a sad smile.

"Don't worry, tomorrow we will bury him," Slade commented with tight lips. No doubt going over the last ungrateful words that he had said to Yao Fei.

"He was a great man, Shado. And it doesn't matter what anyone else ever thought, everyone here knew how much of a wonderful man he was," Oliver paused and his voice seemed to crack. "If it weren't for him I wouldn't be alive today."

"Thank you, Oliver," Shado said as she took his hand in hers.

Shado looked like she was going to allow the grief to overwhelm her when Slade stiffed just a bit and hissed from the pain. She seemed to rouse herself and went straight into helping him.

Oliver just stood there admiring her till it was his turn to help her which he managed to finally do after a few almost trials and errors.

#

Victoria was lying on her side and couldn't seem to sleep. Faces, faces from home kept flying through her head. Thea, Tommy, Laurel, Sara, her mother and her best friend Abby. Did they miss her? Would she ever see them again?

Finally, she felt so tired that she fell into a restless sleep.

#

Victoria felt like she was drowning, water was on all sides of her. It was becoming difficult to breath when she felt strong arms grab her, pulling her out of the water and into a lifeboat. She coughed up all the water that was burning her lungs and as soon as she could take a deep breath without feeling like she was choking she was handed a life-jacket, one that she put on quickly without another thought. Looking around her she was relieved to see her father and brother still alive but looking harder she panicked when she remembered that Sara had been on The Gambit and she wasn't anywhere to be found on the lifeboat.

"Oliver, where is Sara?!" she asked

Oliver didn't reply, just simply looked up at her with a look of shock.

"She is gone," their father answered for him.

Victoria felt tears forming in her eyes. She had never been close to the youngest Lance but they had often been thrown in with each other at parties. They had always had an unspoken respect for one another. Always staying away from the guy that the other had laid claim on. It was a silly game they would play when they were drunk, who could dance with the cutest guy in the place. Having fun with their fake IDs. Victoria normally was the one who stay away from the alcohol so she would be able to drive Miss Lance home. They were friends, not close but always there for each other. Her father wrapping his arm around her brought her back to the fact that they were still on a boat with no way to get home.

"It's alright, Tori," her dad said while wiping tears off her cheeks.

"She was my friend," Victoria.

"I know, I know. You're alright. You're going to be fine. I'm going to make sure of that."

Victoria didn't even notice that he was talking to her like he would to a child, instead she held him tighter and wept as Oliver looked on with his dumbfounded stare.

It was later, Victoria felt just simply tired, tired of the ocean, tired of this helpless floating, just so damn tired. She looked over and watched as their dad searched through the food, he looked over at her and Oliver with a face she couldn't place. She offered him a smile that didn't seem to make his scowl disappear. What's going on with dad?

Suddenly without another look he grabbed something from his left pocket with his right hand and lifted it up to his head, it was a gun and slowly he undid the safety. Victoria felt like she was living in slow motion as her heart started beating faster. Her father simply looked at her and Oliver like he was completely calm. Besides her Oliver was freaking out and she faintly heard him yell at their father to put the gun down.

"There is only enough food for the both of you. I'm not the man you think I am," Robert simply stated.

"Come on dad, let's just sleep," Oliver pleaded.

"Dad, please just put the gun down," Victoria said as though she was talking to a spooked animal.

"You two can survive this. Make it home. Make it better. Right my wrongs but you have to live through this first," she heard her father say through the loud beating of her heart.

She reached out to do something, she couldn't just let him go, wouldn't let him go. This was her chance to save him. With one more minute of chaos she heard her father say, 'survive' before her pulled the trigger. She couldn't seem to look away as his blood splattered on his shirt and she saw the bloody hole in his head as his head jerked back. From where she sat she saw blood flowing down and she felt fresh bile rising in her throat.

"Dad!" she screamed.

"Dad!" Oliver shouted from besides her.

"Dad!" she exclaimed as she sat up.

Looking around her she saw their camp within the wrecked plane and saw Slade a few feet away from her with a look of concern on his face. She felt something wet dripping down her cheeks and on her neck, she must have been crying during her nightmare. Because you see it was a nightmare but to her it felt so real. Hell, it felt more real than the memory she had of that moment in time. Fresh tears formed in her eyes and a lump in her throat. Looking up she noticed Slade once more but now he was a step closer to her.

"Was just a… it was just a nightmare," Victoria explained with a shaky voice.

"You okay, Toria?" Slade asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine… it was… was just a dream… just a dream," she repeated the last part more to herself than to him.

Unconvinced he moved closer and knelt in front of her. He pushed away a strand of her hair and wiped the tears off her face, "You want to talk about it?"

She looked up into his eyes and saw that he was being sincere but she didn't want to mention that haunting moment right then. There is no reason to put that load on Slade, she thought.

"Thanks, but I think I'll go take a walk," she said as she pushed herself off the bed.

Slade watched as she walked out of the plane and he took a deep breath when she got out of his sight. Whatever she had been dreaming had really shaken her up and he wished she would confide in him. Best not to push her though, he decided. After all trust needs to be earned.

Victoria thought it very sweet of Slade to offer for her to get whatever was bothering her off her chest. However, it wasn't like the other sorts of nightmares that normally spook you, this had happened. For months, she had just been so focused on getting off this island and/or defeating Fyers that she had been too tired to dream. It had been weird to her because as a child she always remembered having the weirdest/coolest dreams. But now she wished for that dead tiredness that allowed her to sleep dreamlessly. Briefly, she closed her eyes and saw the lifeless eyes of her father's. She had to stop thinking about it, this wasn't calming her down at all.

Looking back behind her into the plane wreck she saw Slade headed back into bed. A smile formed on her lips. He was a great man, he made her feel special and protected. Her smile became wider when she noticed it didn't take him long to close his deep brown eyes and fell back to sleep, snoring loudly. When had she noticed that his eyes were brown and that she liked the sound of his snoring? Who cares! A part of her brain exclaimed, there was enough bad right now without questioning one of the few good things. Because caring about him was a good thing, she thought to herself. Or at least she hoped so.

#

It was early in the morning when Oliver, Slade, Victoria and Shado headed to where Oliver and Victoria had buried their father. Now, Oliver was the one carrying Yao Fei's limp body as they made their way towards the grave. Stopping, Victoria looked around and noticed how cloudy the sky was and she could smell the grind from the sea. She took a deep breath and knelt to the ground to collect stones to place on top of Yao Fei. Shado, Slade and Oliver helped her which made the task go faster. Before long they were finished and Victoria looked over to Shado and noticed tears silently running down her tanned cheeks. Oliver noticed as well and stood closer to her as Slade seemed to stand just a little bit closer to Victoria than usual.

"Today we honor a great man. A man that helped us all in so many ways, too many to count. If it weren't for this man, there is a chance that none of us would have made it this far," Oliver said.

"He was a strong man," Victoria spoke up.

"The bravest I ever knew," Slade added with a look of regret.

"He was a warrior and now he'll have a warrior's reward. He was a great father and loving, And I…" Shado started to choke on her words. Oliver wrapped his arms around her. "And… and I will miss you, Baba."

Victoria felt bad as Shado couldn't say another word through her tears. She silently made her way to Shado and hugged her tight. It took a minute of Shado being stiff before she wrapped her arms firmly around her. Victoria didn't complain as she felt tears make her shirt wet but simply continued hugging Shado until the Asian youth let go and returned to Oliver side. Victoria didn't notice she had tears running down her cheek until Slade came over and wiped a few off her cheeks and opened his arms wordlessly to her. Without hesitation Victoria buried her head in his chest and allowed him to just hold her. A few moments passed in silence between the couples before Oliver spoke up, "Well we all should say our goodbyes and go."

Each of them nodded their heads in understanding. Slade was the first to walk over the grave, placed his hand on the stone, spoke inaudible words and continued his walk towards the camp. Victoria went next as she knelt down and whispered, "Thank you so much for keeping us all alive. You deserved a better end, Yao Fei. You shall be missed."

Victoria continued to walk down the hill to allow Shado and Oliver more privacy, they were the two that knew Yao Fei best. She caught up with Slade and they silently made their way back to the camp.

"Hey, you go next," Oliver offered to Shado.

"No, you first," Shado waved him off.

"We'll go together," Oliver said with smile.

Shado rolled her eyes and if she had forgotten that this was her father's funeral she would have chuckled.

For a moment, they simply looked at the cold stone and Oliver just felt it wrong that two of the best men he knew were no longer part of the living.

"They both deserved so much more than this, this… this hell. Being put through things that made them chose to die for us. To have to die for their children," Oliver remarked angrily.

"Oliver," Shado hushed him, holding his face in her hands.

"It's unfair," Oliver declared.

"It never is," Shado explained. "We are the ones who do what we must to survive. And that's what our fathers gave us. We must honor their wishes and continued as we are, together."

"But how many more good people are we going to have to leave upon the way?"

"I don't have any answers, Oliver. But we must try for them."

He closed the space between them, giving her a chaste kiss and pulled away. He smiled when he opened his eyes to see she still had her eye closed and a small smile upon her face. They could do this, they had to. Her dark eyes met with his blue-green ones. He took her hand and gave the inside of her palm a kiss.

"I'm going to give you a minute," Oliver explained as he walked away.

She half wanted to not be left alone. But decided she needed a proper goodbye for her dear Baba. For a few moments, all she could do was stare at the sharp, cold stone that laid upon her father's body.

"Baba, I'm afraid… I'm afraid I won't be able to do this without you. You were always there for me and then you were not… And I just don't know how… I don't know if I can be as strong as they all need me to be. I mean look at me, I'm crying like a child. I didn't cry when I broke my arm at eleven," she said with a chuckle. "Baba, I love you. God, I love you so much. I wish… I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you, I wanted to save you."

She took a deep breath and let her forehead rest in front of the grave. Tears still rolling down her cheeks. After a few moments of silence, she sat up, wiped her eyes and held her head high. He father would have wanted her to be strong, she needed to be strong. When she stood up she felt a little off balanced until she righted herself, looking ahead she saw Oliver waiting for her at the foot of the hill, she smiled at his kindness. She kissed her hand and placed it on the stone that was closest to where her father's face would have been and walk towards Oliver.

He held his hand out to her to which she gladly took and they headed towards their camp. She looked up and saw that he was already looking at her with a sad smile and he squeezed her tenderly. They could do this. They just had to stick together.

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