Notes:
I hope this makes sense. Also I'm so, so sorry you guys. But you asked for Oliver... don't hate me! It's the Arrow writers fault.
I ain't fast like a speeding bullet I ain't strong like a hurricane I ain't as big as the bridge to Brooklyn Just a man that my father raised They can lock me up, they can beat me down Mama made me tough, I'mma make her proud
Oliver
Adrian had left him alone again after taunting him and pointing out just how powerless he currently was. He'd tried to get out of the chains, tried to find a way to free himself, but he didn't have enough room or chain to work with. He also wished he'd still have his boots on and not because the floor was cold, but because he kept tools in them, just like he did his suit jacket, which was also missing. There would've also been the slight chance that by taking off his boots, he'd be able to slip his feet out of the shackles on his legs, but alas, there was no chance. They were too tight around his ankles.
It was also difficult to find a position that was not putting pressure on his legs and with that; the arrow wound in his thigh. He could feel the arrow inside and it hurt like hell. There were moments the meditation techniques he'd been taught by Yao Fei, Shado and later on Tatsu helped him focus on anything but the pain and push it to the back of his mind but it was difficult especially whenever he tried to get out of his restraints. Oliver wasn't sure how much time had passed until the door to his prison opened again and his capturer returned, only this time, he wasn't alone.
"I don't believe I taught you how to escape from shackles, Oliver." Talia's words were matter of fact and it was true. She had not. Neither had her father in the short amount of time he had trained him. This made him wonder if Sara would know how to get out of them. Was it something every assassin was taught, or just a few? He'd have to ask her, and if she knew, have her show him how to get out of them for future reference, just in case. But there wasn't much he could do about that lack of knowledge now.
"Your father was an honorable man. You've aligned with a psychopath. And he'd be ashamed of you." Oliver tried to reason with her, not really believing it would work, but maybe, maybe pointing out what Ra's had stood for, and how little he would think of her current actions might help deter her or have her rethink her chosen path. Her behavior made little sense to him. He understood the urge for revenge, but giving in to it like Talia chose to do was against everything Ra's had stood for and dishonoring his memory and wishes.
"Well, when it comes to the shame of fathers, I shall bow to your superior expertise." He knew the dig at him was supposed to hurt, and maybe it would've stung a lot more than it did right now a few years back, but he'd come to some understanding of his parents, except for a handful of choices they'd made, and their actions and knew that for most of them there had been reasons and that they weren't evil or had been done out of malice. They had tried to make a change, to help, as misguided as their attempts might have been, but they had come from a place of care, unlike Malcolm's. Yes, there were choices they'd made that he still didn't understand, and probably never would be able to. But learning about William, that he was a father and now with Mila on the way, he felt he better understood why they'd made some of those choices. That Thea and his safety and wellbeing had been their driving force, and he couldn't fault them for that. He might not agree or understand their choices, but their motives had been pure. They had come from the love of a parent. Most, at least. There were some choices of his mother's he'd never be able to understand or forgive her for and a part of him wished he'd have the knowledge whether or not his dad had been in on her choice to make William disappear. But he knew for a fact neither of his parents had been ashamed of him. His mom had even told him just how proud she was of him the night she'd been murdered. So no, he had no expertise in that department. His parents had loved him unconditionally
"Just make sure he suffers." Talia looked at him with disapproval and disgust before turning towards Adrian while making her demand. She sounded almost resigned.
"That was always the plan." He wasn't surprised by the words. He had expected nothing else. The question was just what methods he was going to use for that. And he wasn't looking forward to finding out.
"My family will find me. They are my strength." Oliver wasn't sure if the words were meant as a warning to his capturer or as a reassurance to himself. It was the truth, though. Sara, Mila and Thea were his strength, just like the members he and Sara had sort of adopted into their family over the years. Yes, Roy and Sin were just as much part of his family as Laurel, Quentin, and Dinah were. He drew strength from them. He found some sort of calm within their presence, and he could relax around them. Most of the time, anyway. They also had the power to majorly piss him off, but that came with the territory, no one could infuriate him more than his wife after all.
"That's sweet. But I'm running out of ways to tell you, Oliver, I'm not interested in killing you." Those words were both reassuring and terrifying. It was good to know that he would most likely get out of this alive, that he'd get to see Sara again and hopefully be there when they welcomed their little miracle into the world. But the knowledge that there was a different reason, a probably more sinister one, to keep him here was downright petrifying. Not knowing what he was going to do during his time here, not even necessarily to him, but to the people of his city or he cared about while he was helpless to prevent it was the worst kind of torture. It made him wonder if Adrian was aware of it. That this, that messing with him mentally like this, was so much worse than anything he could do to him physically. He hoped not, because if Adrian knew, he'd be fucked.
"Then what the hell is this game that we're playing?" The amused look of superiority on Adrian's face was sickening and infuriating and almost made him believe he was very aware of what this was doing to him mentally.
"When I had Joanna as my guest, I confessed to her that you'd helped me discover who I really am and what my purpose is. That's what I'm going to help you do, Oliver." His words worried him more than one would think they should. But the words, in combination with the look on his face, told him that whatever it was that Adrian thought he really was, was going to be really, really bad. And the way to reach that discovery promised to be exceptionally painful.
Roy
Gideon made him aware of a message he had received from Sara almost two days ago and reminded him after listening to it that he could not interfere in the events that had already unfolded in order to prevent them, since it was a fixed point in the timeline, but needed to stick to the actual time it had taken him to receive the message and the accurate time to reply to and to visit Sara.
It was a fact he hated, but he knew Gideon was right. If it was indeed a fixed point in Oliver and Sara's timeline, interfering with it would have catastrophic repercussions, and it wasn't worth the risk. He felt horrible about having made Sara wait for this long to get an answer though and wished he could cheat there and have her receive his reply sooner than this, but he knew even that small change in the timeline could lead to devastating consequences… didn't have to but could, because he would be interfering with the original timeline and whatever action she took because of his silence. A timeline in which he knew Oliver would survive his current encounter with Prometheus. It was a guarantee he would no longer have if he changed the events leading up to him having been taken or right after. Not that it was a hundred percent certain, but as far as Oliver's timeline went, he should stay alive for several more decades.
Unless someone fucked something up, which was always an option, but it wasn't going to be him, that was for sure. So, he had to leave things as they were.
"Gideon, when does me showing up in Star City to help not significantly change his timeline?" He'd apologize and explain his lack of response to Sara later, but for now, all he could do was follow the original timeline until the point he could interfere without causing too much harm to it.
"Having you show up in Star City almost two days from now won't mess with Mr. and Mrs. Queen's timelines too much, Captain Harper." Two days. That meant Oliver would've been gone for four already. This sucked. He didn't even want to know what Oliver was going through right now. And he didn't. He made it a point to know as little as he could about his friends' lives outside from what they were sharing with him, not wanting to risk changing their future and fucking things up for them. So, he had never looked into their futures, never tried to find out how their lives were going to progress. It had been hard at times, especially after they'd crashed in Star City in 2046, but it was the only insurance he had to keep himself from interfering when he shouldn't.
Knowing that both Oliver and Sara actually did contact him if they needed help made sticking to that decision a lot easier.
Poor Sara, she must be so worried about Oliver right now. He hated the fact that he needed to let her deal with it alone, or at least without him, for another two days. It wasn't that he didn't think she could, or she'd do something stupid or rash, she could, and he knew she wouldn't. It was simply that he wished she didn't have to. At least it looked like Sin and Thea were with her. That was something. It meant she wasn't alone, and those two women knew how to handle Sara, even though Thea was probably in worse a shape than Sara. Oliver was her only living family left. And he knew just how much Thea loved her older brother and how emotional she usually got in situations like this one. This again made staying away a lot harder, but knowing the three women were currently sticking together helped, they'd take care of each other.
"Gideon, is there any way for us to learn the location where Oliver is being held at?" He hoped there was, and he was allowed to know that without fucking things up, but his AI would let him know if this would also mess up the timeline, so he wasn't worried about asking her.
"I assumed you would ask that the moment Mrs. Queen tried to reach you and I have therefore been looking for Mr. Queen ever since. I can look further into it, Captain Harper, but so far, I have found nothing that indicates where Mr. Queen is being held. His original timeline has no mention of the place he is currently located at." Okay, so at least they were allowed to look into it. She wouldn't have been doing that in his absence without his order otherwise. But it was curious that Gideon couldn't find anything. But then again, if there was no digital record of it, there was no way for her to find it. Huh. But how would there not be a record of it if Oliver survived the ordeal? This made little sense. Unless the record had been destroyed after, or it had never been entered to begin with.
But if Team Arrow were to ones to find him, there would be a digital record for sure, Felicity always left a trace, no matter how well hidden it might be, Gideon had no trouble finding it and connecting the unique signature to Oliver's IT genius. And he was in no way diminishing Felicity's expertise or exceptional work. Gideon was an AI from the future constructed with tech the nerd squad probably couldn't even dream about. He'd been grateful his team had managed to keep them from trying to take not only Gideon but the entire Waverider apart when they'd been on the ship during the Alien Invasion.
He sort of had kept their time on his ship to a minimum on purpose, there was tech that was being used for the Waverider and Gideon to work that he couldn't risk them detecting already, it would do no good if it was being used almost a century earlier. Too dangerous and as much as he loved Felicity, and liked Cisco, they were both too curious for their own good and there was no way they wouldn't use knowledge they'd gained by dissecting his time ship even if he told them they couldn't. He'd spent enough time by now watching Ray and Stein to understand how the proclaimed geniuses worked and believed they were always the exception to the rules because of their IQs. So better to keep them away from it entirely than risk having to deal with the repercussions of twenty-second-century tech being used in the twenty-firsts-century.
"Thank you. Just keep looking and let me know the moment you find anything, no matter how small. I'm going to go talk to the team, let them know about the situation and that I will head to Star City shortly." He walked out of the Bridge to go and find his team members; Jax and Amaya, before anyone else. They were the ones he'd be leaving in charge, after all.
Oliver
"Did you hesitate at all when you killed him? Or was he just another name you crossed off your list? Five, four, three, two, one." The words Adrian spoke to him were muffled and sounded far away but that wasn't the only reason it was difficult for him to focus on them, his head being held under water and keeping him from getting air was the other, never mind the position he was in, in order for Adrian to dunk his head into the water repeatedly, put pressure on his wounded leg and he could clearly feel the arrowhead still within. They hadn't bothered to remove it yet, and he really hoped it wouldn't get infected. He was grateful when his head was finally pulled out of the water again. He hated drowning in every shape or form.
Oliver felt relief when his lungs could finally be filled with air again and the oxygen flooded his system. He took several deep breaths and tried to calm his racing heart. The panic that automatically set in the moment his head hit the water began to wane, he'd never been a fan of water, even less swimming or diving but ever since the Gambit went down, and he'd nearly drowned and then all the times on Lian Yu that he nearly drowned, just the thought of voluntarily putting his head under water for any reason but to wash his hair was unfathomable and made panic rise within him. It was the perfect torture that Chase had found to use against him, even if he wasn't aware of it. But his head being stuck under water and him being incapable of getting it out on his own transported him right back to the night the Gambit went down, and he'd lost Sara for the very first time. He could hear the thunder, taste the saltwater and feel the paralyzing fear and panic when he came up from the water and couldn't find her anywhere. It took every ounce of willpower he had to pull himself back to the here and now and not get lost in the memory.
Adrian had forced him to move onto his knees, which not only aggravated his arrow wound but also put pressure on his lower back and bad knee and the cold of the stone floor only intensified that pain, and shortened the chains so he couldn't change his position to a more comfortable one. It was another form of torture; he was sure of it and not simply for him to be able to stick his head in the container with the icy water he had brought in. His torturer could've just as easily done that with him lying on the floor. The cold of the water helped him clear his fogged mind and stay sharp, the lack of oxygen was doing the opposite though and it was a constant battle, most of all trying to stay focused enough to not miss anything Adrian was saying, still hoping he'd give more away, he'd give him some clues that would help defeat him somewhere down the line or reveal whether or not he was connected to Ruvé Darhk.
"Hundred and forty-five seconds. That's how long Justine Claybourne struggled under the water, after your arrow pierced his aortic arch, but didn't kill him, before he died. According to the autopsy, my father was still conscious enough to feel his lungs filling with fluid for a-hundred-forty-five seconds." This might well be true; he had never actually looked into the specifics of Justin Claybourne's death, but it didn't change the fact that it had not been his arrow that caused the man's death.
"And here you were, bragging about a plan more intricate than torture." Maybe by riling him up and taunting him, he'd get him to reveal more than he meant to. It was a tactic that worked on most people, and he hoped Adrian wouldn't be the rare exception.
"Did you ever think about why I chose the name Prometheus? He challenged the omnipotence of the gods. You see, because, like you, they play judge, jury, and executioner. But Prometheus took away their power." Surprising enough, he did know that. He knew the story of Prometheus, just like he had actually read the Odyssey, both were in thanks to no other but Dinah. She'd sold him on both stories when he had complained about having to read the Odyssey for a college course over dinner at the Lances and she had made the story sound so colorful, intriguing and fascinating that he just had to read it. What had also helped was the fact that Sara had been interested in it too and he'd ended up reading a big chunk of it to her, while they'd spent a long weekend away in one of his family's vacation homes in the middle of nowhere, lying in bed naked, her snuggled up to him, with her head on his shoulder. That was one of his favorite memories from before. It had been just the two of them away from the world. They'd created their own little oasis. It had also been the first time they'd taken a trip together and both of them had stayed sober during its entirety. He'd felt at peace for the first time. And once they'd been through with the Odyssey, they'd moved on to another book from Greek Mythology they'd found in his father's library and that had been the story of Prometheus. Maybe they could recreate that memory when he was back home. It had been nice just lying together while enjoying a good story.
"If that's what you're gonna do to me, you'll need to come up with something better than whatever this is." This was a statement of fact and not just said to piss Adrian off, this was child's play compared to some of the torture he'd been through on Lian Yu or at the hands of Ra's al Ghul. Yes, his injuries hurt like hell, yes he hated being drowned, but still, this was nothing.
"I did. And the only way for you to stop it is to confess." This was at least the third time that Adrian told him to confess. The only problem was he had no idea what it was he was supposed to confess. Not because he had no sins to confess, but because he had too many but none seemed to have anything to do with him, none but what Adrian believed he had done to Claybourne, which was not one of his sins, but one of Malcolm's.
"That I supposedly killed your father?" He still needed to find out though if this is what he wanted him to confess, and with that admit, to.
"Nothing so pedestrian even though there is no supposedly when it comes to my father's murder and your connection to it. But this is not what matters right now. I want you to tell me a secret, Oliver. I want you to confess to the one thing that you've been afraid to admit to yourself." The only connection between him and Claybourne was the fact that he'd been on the list and Malcolm, but other than that he'd nothing to do with it. That was expecting a whole damn lot of him. The only thing he had been afraid to admit to himself had been how much he loved Sara and how much he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her; build a home and create a family with her. And that had only been because admitting that made it real and the pain of losing her that much worse. But he'd eventually taken the leap and was now reaping the rewards from it. Their relationship had never been better. They'd never been closer, open and honest with each other. But he seriously doubted this was what Adrian was gunning for. Hearing him wax some poetry about his wife and their relationship seemed to not be worth all the torture. He was almost tempted to try it, simply because he knew Sara would laugh her ass off when he were recounting the event. But it was too dear to him to share with a monster like Adrian.
"How many times am I gonna tell you that I don't know what you're talking about?" This situation was seriously pissing him off now, which led to him yelling at his capturer. It was so damn frustrating and he was in pain and hadn't eaten anything in who knew how long and he was worried about Sara and Mila and his family and friends and he was so done with this vague bullshit. He should just straight out tell him what he wanted and the goal of this whole exercise was. It would make things so much easier for both of them.
"Fine. You'll come around, eventually. Now, where were we? One-forty-five, one-forty-four, one-forty-three…" The only warning he got was Adrian taking a step towards him before taking hold of his head again and pushing it back under water.
He hated nothing more than fucking drowning.
Quentin
"You up for making a statement?" It had been decided, after Laurel, Diggle and he had talked to Joanna to try to gain more knowledge about Prometheus, that he would stay with and take Joanna to the precinct if she felt up to it, while his daughter and the former soldier returned to their base to help look for Oliver. The lawyer had agreed to come with him. Once he had promised her he would make sure that she'd be protected, and he wouldn't leave her out of his sight the entire time.
"I'm up for anything that will inject three lethal doses into Adrian Chase. A man like him deserves the book thrown at him and cannot stay in the position of power he is currently in. It's too dangerous. And he embodies everything that is wrong in our justice system and turning the D.A.'s office into a massive joke by his murderous actions. The repercussions from this will be unfathomable." Joanna understood very well what the meaning behind going after Star City's star district attorney meant, just as well as he did. Everyone he had put to prison during his time in that position would request a new trial. Their already overworked justice system would suffer even more under this, but it was the right thing to do and they couldn't let him continue in this position. And she was right. How was anyone supposed to take the D.A.'s office serious after learning they had hired a serial killer for one of the most powerful positions in the justice system? That a criminal had received the critical position of going after criminals in order to prosecute them? Yes, he was turning the entire system into a circus.
"I like your thinking." This was most definitely a death row case. So many people had needlessly lost their lives at his hands while he had been taking advantage of his position. He only hoped the case would go to trial, if Oliver, Laurel, and the rest were right and there was a connection between Adrian and Ruvé chances were their mayor would do anything she could to keep this from happening and him in the position he was now in.
"Hello, Ms. De La Vega. Long time no see." The last thing he had expected was to encounter the man who had held his current charge captive at the exact same police station he was taking her to.
"You get away from her." He stepped in front of Joanna the moment he recognized the voice; it was years of training and instinct. He couldn't believe that man's audacity to show up here. Like this.
"Please don't threaten me. I'm in mourning. Haven't you heard? The Green Arrow killed my wife earlier tonight. And apparently Oliver Queen is missing. He was supposed to meet with the mayor earlier today. You wouldn't happen to know where he is, Quentin?" So, it was true, his wife had died of her injury. They had all hoped Doris would survive the wound that had been inflicted by her own husband's hand, who was now using her murder as an excuse and a way to blame Oliver. This piece of information was news to him and he wasn't entirely sure if it was true or not, no one had mentioned anything about Oliver meeting with Mayor Adams and the only person who could confirm or deny that fact for sure, was the one person they hadn't told about Oliver being missing yet.
"Honestly, it doesn't look good. Oliver disappearing under these circumstances. Especially given how many times he's been in the SCPD's sight while they were searching for the Green Arrow." This was how he was going to play this? Framing Oliver as the Green Arrow for his wife's murder. There was no way he'd get through with this. Yes, Oliver had been charged under suspicions of being the vigilante, but they'd never had anything that would stick. He doubted Adrian had something on him now. At least he hoped so. Otherwise, they would have a tremendous problem.
"You give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you arrested right now." But they'd face that challenge once it actually came up. Chances were they'd have Chase charged with kidnapping and murder before he got the chance to provide whatever evidence he'd doctored to frame Oliver.
"Because you don't want your son-in-law back in pieces. Right?" Those were the last words he had expected to hear, and it took him a moment to process the words that the D.A. Adrian Chase had spoken and completely floored him and left him blinking in shock, he was stuck on the sending him back in pieces which was the last thing he wanted so it took him another minute to register the exact choice of words before that part and the one specific word that stood out. And he had no choice but to watch as Adrian Chase walked past them.
Your son-in-law. Son-in-law. His son-in-law. Oliver. Oliver wasn't his son-in-law. He was the father of his unborn grandchild, sure. He was his daughter's… whatever they were right now, but he wasn't… they weren't… Sara and Oliver weren't married. Or were they? But if so, when… how…?
"Especially given that Sara came to the decision to stay and help Oliver raise their daughter… for the first time in years, they both looked happy and at peace … They took four days for themselves to plan their future and those few days led to Sara asking me to go to a mall to buy items for their baby girl … four days, that Oliver and she spent in solitude… they were happy when they picked me up at the airport, happier than I've seen them in years…" Dinah's words sprung to his mind. Could it be? Had that been the reason for the four days they had taken for themselves?
Had Oliver asked her to marry him? Was that why Sara had chosen to stay? Had that changed her mind? Maybe… Quentin wasn't sure. He knew his younger daughter's stance on marriage. Maybe if they had been talking about Laurel, Oliver being willing to commit in such a way would've definitely changed Laurel's mind. But Sara… no, it wouldn't have changed her mind. Not a simple proposal. Oliver had been ready to commit to her, and not for the first time, everyone had known that, including Sara, and it hadn't changed her mind. Still… the thought was nagging at him. Was it possible? Yes, of course it was possible. Was it probable? Not likely, but at the same time maybe… and if so, why hadn't they told anyone? Why had they done it in secret? And without their family present? Did it matter?
He guessed it didn't matter in the end. All that mattered was that they were happy, and that Oliver was going to come home alive. So that he could be there for the birth of his daughter and raise her with Sara. Yes, Oliver was going to come home. No matter what it took, he would not let his granddaughter be born a half orphan. This was not going to happen.
Son-in-law or not, either way, Oliver was a crucial part of his family, he was going to do everything in his power to bring Oliver back home to his daughter and then to fix their relationship, as Sara had asked him to. Maybe Chase was just playing mind games with him, but maybe he wasn't. But what he really didn't want was for Sara to feel like she couldn't tell him if she and Oliver got married or planned on getting married.
Oliver
"Do they look familiar?" Oliver was still trying to get rid of the fog around his head, waking up from his latest bout of unconsciousness, making it difficult for the words to register and to understand the meaning behind them.
"What?" He tried to sit up, but everything hurt. Most of all his thigh with the fucking arrowhead still inside it. Adrian could've done something useful as a method to torture him and removed the arrowhead. It would've hurt like hell for sure, but at least it wouldn't be inside of him anymore. If the wound started to close around it, getting it out would be so much more painful and difficult. Kneeling hurt, but sitting would leave him at another disadvantage.
"Do you even remember their faces? These are your victims." This, for some strange reason, reminded him of the confrontation he's had with Felicity shortly after she had joined the team and tried to lock him into the Foundry, a place he had created and set up with his own bare hands. He had set up everything, including the electronic and security systems. The fact she had believed she could trap him in his own creation had been rather ridiculous and slightly insulting. He hadn't thought about that event in years. Felicity had tried to force him to do what she had deemed right, simply because Ken Williams had a son, a son who had already lost his mother. He had known that. He had always known everything about the people he had targeted on his father's list. Knowing everything about them had been crucial to his success. And yes, he had felt sorry for Ken William's son, but it hadn't changed anything about who his father was and what he had done. It was also a chance for his son to grow up and not become his father. To be raised by people who cared about other people and didn't see them as expendable and stepping stones on his way to even more money and power.
"They were people who did terrible things. They had victims." Maybe he should've let her walk away. Just like maybe he should've let Dig walk away too, when he had wanted to. Before he had let his friend talk him into fighting street crime. He might have never gotten into the situation he was now in, if he had spent the last couple of years focusing on taking down the origin of Star City's decay and used his mind to focus on the actual issue. Instead of using his muscles to take down the average drug dealer and thug. He should've been able to keep himself from getting into a situation like this. He should've been at the top of his game.
"And husbands and wives, daughters, sons, sisters. Confess your secret, Oliver, and all this ends. I'll give you a gift, and you can walk out that door and go back home to your wife." Sara and Mila depended on him. God, Sara, his Pretty Bird, was probably worried sick and driving herself crazy because she couldn't do anything to help.
"Adrian, you're sick. And you're a hypocrite. There is nothing that I've done that compares with you. You murdered your own wife." He couldn't even fathom how Adrian could do that. He had seemed to love Doris a lot. Just the thought of killing Sara brought him physical pain and made him sick to his stomach. He could never… he'd stab his own heart before ever physically harming her. That would be less painful than the thought of her dying again and at his own hands, no less.
Inconceivable.
"And I might do the same to yours. I haven't decided yet. Cecil Adams. You knew him by his street name, the Count. You put three arrows in him." Adrian's words made fear grip his heart. And he had to remind himself again that he couldn't get to Sara. That she was safe. That she wouldn't do anything that could put her in danger. She was too smart for that. Of course, he knew the real name of the man responsible for the highly addictive and dangerous drug his baby sister had been taking and which had nearly led to her death.
How could he ever forget?
"He was gonna kill a friend of mine." It was easy to recall that moment in time. How petrified Felicity had looked. She shouldn't have been there. Shouldn't have been in that situation. She should've never investigated on her own. That had been the first time of many where she had purposely and unknown to him, put herself and, in effect, the entire team at risk. This made him think of the time she had put Sara in harm's way… he should've been tougher on her after her foolish choice to catch the Clock King on her own… he should've made her understand what her rash, thoughtless actions could've led to.
He should've never coddled her the way he had.
"Felicity Smoak. Yeah. Confess, or you get the same three arrows." He still never would change the decision he had made that night. It had been the right one. And he'd do the exact same thing again. What he had told Felicity that night had been the truth. There had been no choice. There never would be when it came to the criminals destroying their city or his family and friends. The criminal would die every single time.
"Go to hell." He was so fucking sick and tired of this. He just wanted Adrian to make his point and let him go. Chase could just fucking tell him what he wanted him to say. He'd say it and hopefully put an end to all of this.
"I've already been there, Oliver, and I've come back with a message for you." Well, that made two of them. He tried to prepare himself for the impact he knew was going to come when Adrian raised his bow and notched the first arrow.
He felt the air leave his lungs in a pained groan and himself fall backwards at the impact of the first arrow, the third had him lying on his back on the floor panting in excruciating pain from the new arrow wounds but also from his old one that had been aggravated through his movements. He hoped Adrian would not leave those three inside of his body as well. That would seriously suck. That was the last thought he had before darkness claimed him once more.
Notes:
Time travel is confusing and has the possibility to fuck things up and make it way too easy to just change things, which is why I've come up with this explanation as to why Roy only shows up when he does and not before Oliver was kidnapped and preventing that entire event from happening. I get confused and it gives me a headache and if my reasoning makes no sense oh well, it's the best I could come up with but let me know if there's a flaw in my logic and you have a better solution or reason as to why Roy doesn't show up earlier. I also haven't watched Legends in ages so I might have forgotten the reasons Rip gave in Season One, when there were still rules to it all and their actions had consequences… and made the show more realistic but I digress…
Did everyone else notice and end up confused because we can see Adrian fire two arrows before the scene fades out but the next time we see them Oliver has only one arrow wound instead of the promised three and the two we saw him get? Very confusing but then again, Oliver got stabbed in the lung by Ra's and the wound miraculously shifted down to his stomach between scenes...
Chapter title is from the song „Just a Man" by Tom MacDonald.