TW: Thank you. Glad you liked it.

Plane

Oliver was in the back of the plane, handcuffed to what he thought was a radiator, one pair of handcuffs on each of his hands. He'd discovered upon waking that all the flechettes he had under his sleeves and pants legs were gone. No doubt Dragon had seen to it that he was without weapons once he woke up. Even Oliver couldn't fight them all off without any weapons.

Even just thinking Dragon's name filled Oliver with rage. Almost three years of working together, training together and fighting alongside each other, and Dragon had betrayed him without a moment's hesitation. And it wasn't like with Slade, who had driven out of his mid, Dragon had been planning this for who knows how long. Dragon was Hydra.

Slade had been right all along, Oliver mused bitterly. Everyone was in this life for themselves.

The door to the room opened and Oliver looked up, seeing Dragon enter the room. Oliver's hands tightened into fists as Dragon approached.

"Sorry about the accommodations, but you understand how it is," Dragon said with an unapologetic shrug.

"No. I don't understand anything," Oliver said, his voice giving away no hint to the rage he was feeling inside. "How long have you been planning this?"

"I didn't plan anything, I just follow orders. It's not personal Oliver, just the mission," Dragon said and Oliver scoffed.

"Feels pretty personal from here. The shadow organization that we were pursuing in Russia, it was Hydra," Oliver realized and Dragon smiled tightly.

"You always were smarter than people give you credit for. Yeah, Hydra was the one who went after your loved ones," Dragon confirmed.

"Makes sense, it went after the Omega. Only thing I can't understand is why you saved my sister if you were working with Hydra," Oliver noted and Dragon laughed.

"Did you really think we expected you to get the Alpha out of a base with heavily trained SHIELD agents? We knew it was doomed to fail. But saving your sister put me in a position to gain your trust. I stuck close to you in Russia to make sure you didn't catch onto Hydra operations, which was not easy, let me tell you," Dragon said with a snicker.

"Hydra was working with Kovar, which is why you just happened to fail at letting him take out the government. I'm assuming Hydra plants are now running the Russian government," Oliver said and Dragon smirked.

"Yep. For the last two years, Hydra has controlled Russia. The plan was to have Hydra agents take over Russia and then take out Kovar afterwards, but you sped up the process," Dragon shrugged. "After that, my orders were to stick close to you for when the time was for Hydra to come out into the open. Luckily, Secretary Pierce was able to convince Fury to assign me to your team."

"Pierce? Alexander Pierce?" Oliver asked in disbelief.

"Hydra's leader. Well, he was anyway. Word's going around that he was killed, but either way, cut off one head, another grows back," Dragon shrugged.

Oliver stared at Dragon for a long moment, feeling like he was seeing him for the first time. Gone was the gruff but well-meaning SHIELD agent, replaced by the immoral, power hungry enemy before him. And there was another thought that occurred to him, one that caught in his throat, Oliver lacking the courage to speak it. But Dragon seemed to understand, kneeling down until he was eye level with Oliver his eyes softening.

"Go ahead, Oliver. Ask it," Dragon said gently and it was silent for a long moment.

"Did you have anything to do with Kovar finding our safe house?" Oliver finally managed to get the words out.

Russia, two years earlier

Kovar was in a meeting with Gregor when his phone rang. Kovar turned away from Gregor, answering it.

"Konstantin Kovar," Kovar said in answer.

"Oliver Queen is in a safe house a few hours away from your mansion. And I will tell you where," Dragon said on the other side of the line.

"You were getting too close to Kovar and to Hydra. My orders were to have you eliminated. I didn't know Morse was pregnant with your kid," Dragon said and it was silent for a long moment. "I'm sorry."

"Would that have stopped you?" Oliver asked, once more without any hint of how he was feeling.

"No," Dragon admitted.

Oliver closed his eyes for a long moment, processing this further betrayal. He once more felt grief for himself, Bobbi, and his child that never got to live, his anger at Hydra and finally, the all-consuming rage and lust for vengeance that he thought had been satisfied with Kovar. But now it was reborn, with a new target. Oliver opened his eyes, staring at Dragon with eyes that promised a very painful death.

"I…am gonna kill you," Oliver said coldly and Dragon laughed.

"I doubt that Oliver. You see, once you've outlived your usefulness, you'll get a bullet to the head. What, you thought we kept you alive for the heck of it? Hydra doesn't take prisoners," Dragon said, mockingly tapping Oliver's cheek as Oliver sneered at him. "You're alive because of who you are. The son of Robert Queen."

"What, now you're telling me my dad was Hydra too?" Oliver scoffed at the absurdity and Dragon smirked.

"No. Your old man wasn't a saint, but he wasn't Hydra. But Queen Consolidated has some of the most cutting edge advancements in technology in their applied science division, second only to Stark Industries. Hydra has an eye on some of their projects," Dragon explained and Oliver stared at him in disbelief.

"So your plan is to ransom me off for these projects in my family's company?" Oliver asked in disbelief.

"Why not? Even if he wasn't married to your mother, I'm sure Walter Steele would only be happy to answer this ransom. After all, he practically saw you grow up," Dragon pointed out and Oliver growled low in his throat. "And then, once I'm done here, I might just mention Xavier's school to my superiors at Hydra. We could always use more Enhanced."

Oliver glared at him when three more Hydra agents walked in.

"Sir, we're about to arrive. You should get him ready," one of them said and Dragon nodded.

"Uncuff him, at least from the radiator," Dragon ordered as he got to his feet.

"Sir, are you sure that's wise?" a Hydra against said doubtfully.

"He knows he can't fight us off. Besides, once he knows where we're going, I have a feeling he'll let us take him there," Dragon said with a smirk, confusing Oliver while at the same time filling him with dread.

Not long after, Oliver, hands now cuffed in front of him, was forcibly led up to the front of the plan by Dragon and the other agents. More Hydra agents were in the cockpit when the group entered.

"We almost there?" Dragon asked and the pilot nodded.

"Just coming up on it now, Sir."

As Oliver looked out the window, Oliver understood why Dragon was so sure he wouldn't run. Because the plane was coming up on an island. A very familiar island. The island he spent the first two years after the Queen's Gambit had sunk stranded on.

"Welcome back to Lian Yu Oliver," Dragon said with a smirk, enjoying the look of shocked realization on Oliver's face. "You once said you thought you'd spend the rest of your life here. Well, you are. However short that might be."

Not a very long chapter, but an important one to sort of show how Oliver is dealing with the Hydra reveal and Dragon being Hydra.

Yes, Dragon is the one who tipped off Kovar about the safe house in the previous story. It was never explained, but that was always the plan.

And we've finally made our way back to Lian Yu. Why Dragon chose to take Oliver there of all places will explained next chapter.