Lian Yu

This really could be going better, Laurel thought to herself as she ducked behind a stack of crates, wincing at the sound of repeated of gunshots. She was the daughter of a cop who had been trained in firearms at the behest of her overprotective father, so it wasn't an entirely foreign sound before the island. Now, however, she was far more familiar with that sound than she had any right to be. God, it had only been two months at most and already she was sick of this place.

Slade had been training her for this mission for several weeks. The plan had been simple: sneak into the camp, hopefully undetected, head to the airstrip where the monthly supply plane touched down, steal it and get the hell off this island. Then send back an airstrike to blow Fyers and his men to hell.

They had managed to make it to the communications tower — and Laurel tried not to think of the man Slade had killed to save her — but her, being her stupid, sentimental self, hadn't wanted to go without Yao Fei. Slade had given her three hours to go and bring him back, but being inexperienced in stealth as she was (not to mention being the only woman on the island), she had been spotted and captured. Then the mercenaries dragged her to another, larger tent, Fyers's personal tent apparently, because their leader had decreed that he wanted the "first go" at her. Asshole.

She had been in luck, however. Slade had followed her. Apparently he hadn't trusted her not to get into trouble, and quickly released her from her bonds. Finally giving up on Yao Fei, Laurel had agreed to finally leave on the plane, only for Wintergreen and some of Fyers's thugs to show up and spoil everything. Which was how the two former partners had immediately started engaging in a fire fight, while she was stuck hiding behind a bunch of wood.

Laurel flinched at the sound of another gunshot, and then something was tossed her way. A pistol. She glanced up at Slade.

"Are you going to help me or not?" he asked, not even bothering to look at her.

Swallowing, she took the gun, unlocking the safety and running through all the firearms training her father forced her to get in her head. Carefully, she peaked out in an opening between the crates, and aimed.

Her first shot wasn't aimed well, and hit one of the other crates Wintergreen and his men were using. Laurel inhaled a deep breath, and aimed again, this time for the right shoulder of one of the other shooters. She imagined him as one of the wooden dummies they used at the shooting range, and pulled the trigger. This time, she reached her target. The man collapsed backward, dropping his weapon with a groan.

It was easier after that. Just hit them in the shoulder, or the leg. Not lethal, but enough to take them out of the fight. She didn't have to kill them, like Slade did with the man in the communications tower. Just wound or cripple. That was enough.

Eventually, they got them all. Slade managed to get a shot off Wintergreen's shoulder, and turned to give her a nod of appreciation. "Your father did a good job of trai—"

He didn't get to finish. The shot off Wintergreen hadn't been enough to knock him down, not with the kind of armor he had on. He had his own gun trained on Slade, and Laurel, reacting on instinct, fired first, aiming directly for the head. It was a perfect shot, the bullet piercing right through the forehead in a spray of blood, blowing the skull wide open. He collapsed backward, dead.

She had killed someone. Just like Yao Fei said she would have to one day.

Laurel didn't know how long she stood there, staring at the place where Wintergreen's body once stood. It was only when Slade was slowly guiding her arms down did she realize she was still aiming the gun. There was a softness in his expression, so unlike the Slade she had gotten to know, and maybe it was his way of comforting her, but instead all it was doing was reminding her of everything that had gone wrong in her life ever since she had stepped foot on that stupid boat.

"Laurel."

What she wouldn't give to have another cry right now. Maybe she would, when she had a minute to herself later.

Instead, she turned the safety back on and nodded to him. "Let's go."

But escape wasn't that simple, because they run across another tent, this one open air. And sitting there was another woman, tied up, in Fyers's black fatigues. She claimed to be Yao Fei's daughter, and Laurel, despite knowing that Fyers had no women under his employ and seeing the family resemblance, could not quite bring herself to trust her. There was nothing really suspicious about her — she was probably telling the truth. However, this island had worn away all of Laurel's innocence and left her wary of everything.

It's only when Yao Fei himself appeared, also dressed in those same fatigues, and took the woman — Shado — into his arms that Laurel began to give her the benefit of the doubt. The minute relaxation of Slade's shoulders did the rest. "I'm a father too," Slade explained upon her questioning look. "And there's no faking a father's love. Not like that."

Yao Fei turned to them, and there's no hint of the rugged survivor that had shot an arrow into Laurel's shoulder and taught her what it meant to make it here on Lian Yu. Just the desperate look of a loving parent, and that was enough to make her let go of any of her remaining misgivings. "Take her," Yao Fei told them, pushing Shado towards them. Slade took his sword and cut through the woman's bonds, freeing her arms. "Fyers will come back soon with the main force. If you're still here when he does, you'll never escape. He'll kill you, all of you."

"What about you?" Laurel asked, not willing to leave her first mentor behind. She owed him too much to leave him like this.

It seemed, however, she didn't have a choice. "Someone needs to distract Fyers," Yao Fei explained, shaking his head. "And he won't kill me yet. He needs me for something."

Before anyone could try to argue with him, the camp suddenly came alive again with sound. Slade and Laurel exchanged a look, before glancing back at Shado. The woman didn't look any happier at leaving behind her father than they did. But upon Yao Fei's pleading expression, she closed her eyes and nodded, and that was the end of it.

Another shout from Fyers saw them turning and running, and Laurel chanced one last look back at Yao Fei before following her companions into the safety of the forest.

So much for their great escape.

There's a listless, depressive silence when they arrive back to Slade's hideout. The man was furious they had missed the supply plane and only had an extra mouth to feed to show for it. There were moments where he looked at Laurel as if he was about to yell at her, but something always stopped him. Laurel didn't know whether she was grateful for that or not. Her emotions were in so much turmoil that a good old-fashioned argument would be a well-needed catharsis.

The mood only started improving when Shado noticed the spot Slade had cleared out for training Laurel, and had asked for a spar. Slade, skeptical but nonetheless eager to blow off some steam, agreed. Laurel stepped away to watch.

And couldn't help the laughter that escaped her lips when Slade got flipped on his back within two moves.

"Now are you ready to take me seriously?" Shado asked innocently, as she peered down the groaning man in amusement. Slade glared up at her, springing to his feet, and then they started sparring for real.

Shado, it turned out, could fight. A part of Laurel was jealous, but most of her was in awe. If she had the kind of skills Shado had, her father probably wouldn't have terrorized Ollie so much. And Fyers — well, Fyers would have thought twice about trying anything with her.

"Who taught you how to fight?" Slade asked, impressed, after they finished another round.

"My father wanted a son," Shado explained, unwilling to bend.

This, if anything, caused Slade to smirk. "Well, he got one," he declared.

It was a sign of respect, one Shado returned with a nod of acknowledgement. With that, she finally turned her attention to Laurel, giving the other woman a searching look. Laurel, for her part, blushed and gave a tiny wave upon being noticed.

"How about you?" Shado asked, gesturing to the mat.

Laurel, realizing she was asking for a spar, shook her head furiously as she held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Oh no. I wouldn't be much of a challenge."

"She's a cop's daughter," Slade explained further, causing Shado to turn back to him. "She's talented, but inexperienced. Has some advanced self-defense training and a few moves from me, but not much more than that." He took a swig of his water bottle, and then smirked. "Real crackshot with a gun, though."

"I see." She glanced back at Laurel. "Would you like to learn?"

What? "Yeah, but—what about Fyers? Your dad?"

"It's going to take time for us to find an opening and formulate a plan. And there's only so much time we can spend on reconnaissance." Shado crossed her arms. "A better use of our time would be making sure you know how to defend yourself properly, if you get separated from us."

That was… true. "When can we start?" Laurel asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Shado smiled, and nodded towards the mats. "Come here. I'll start teaching you right now."

Later that night, Laurel prepared dinner, sore all over. Even so, she didn't think she had ever been this pleased since first arriving on the island. Shado had been a patient and attentive teacher, and Laurel thrived under her tutelage. Even though she had been thrown on her back God knows how many times in the past several hours, she had never felt stronger. She had already picked up a few of the moves Shado had been trying to teach her, and the other woman had already promised to teach her more in the coming days.

"Slade's looking for vegetation we can eat," Shado explained as she re-entered the hideout, carrying a squirming wild chicken. "He said we need to have as much of a balanced diet as we can manage here on the island. A weakened immune system is a much nastier way to go, he told me."

Laurel snorted. "It's saying things like that prove without a shadow of a doubt he's a dad."

Shado laughed. "Agreed. Hey, you think you can handle the chicken?"

"Sure," Laurel replied, reaching out for the knife. She turned around and grabbed it from the feet, only to freeze.

It was white. Just like the one Yao Fei made her kill.

You want survive this place, bird not last thing you kill.

"Laurel? Laurel!"

Laurel broke out of her thoughts, just in time to see Shado snatch the knife out of her hand and slash the neck of the chicken herself. The college student winced at the sight of the blood. Her companion turned to her, looking understandably upset, but it faded away the moment she got a good look at her new friend's expression.

"Was that your first kill?"

The younger woman blinked. "W-What?"

"At the camp, you killed someone, didn't you?" Shado surmised, looking completely understanding. "Was that your first kill?"

"…it was my first human kill," Laurel replied with a sigh, looking down. "Your father made me kill a chicken when I first arrived on the island. It was to teach me a lesson — if I wanted to survive, I needed to be willing to kill."

Shado didn't say anything to that, just hummed. She took the chicken and began cleaning it, while Laurel turned away and tended to the fire. For a while, they just remained in comfortable silence.

"You know," Laurel suddenly said, feeling the urge to speak. "I was planning on becoming a lawyer before all this. I always wanted to be like my dad, to use the law to help people. He wouldn't let me be a cop, so I decided to be a lawyer instead."

She stared into the flames, lost in thought. "Now I'm wondering if I could ever be that person again, after everything that's happened." How could she still believe in the law, on an island where there was no law? Where the only way to live was to survive, and the only way to survive was to kill?

If her father saw her now, would he even recognize her? Or what about her mother, or Sara? Ollie? Tommy? She wasn't the Laurel they knew anymore. That person had died with Robert Queen on the Queen's Gambit. Whoever she was now, it wasn't that girl who had once dreamed of making a stand in front of a judge, arguing for justice. Because on Lian Yu, the last thing in the world that mattered was justice.

"I know that feeling," Shado confessed. Laurel turned around to look at her curiously. "Before my father disappeared, I was a med student. I was planning on becoming a doctor, a combat medic for the army. My father might've wanted sons, but he still loved my twin sister and I. He didn't want us going into the military; I thought this would be a good compromise. I wanted to make him proud."

"And now?"

She shrugged, a bit helplessly. "Honestly, I'd be grateful if both of us made it off this island alive. Everything after that can wait."

Laurel's lip trembled, and she let out a bitter laugh. "Ain't that the truth?"

Shado was right. The first priority was survival. Everything else could come later. Laurel banished all her thoughts of home, and instead pulled out one of the sticks Slade had stored inside the plane. It looked like they were having roast chicken tonight.

Starling City

"Ollie, Tommy! Over here!"

"And there she is," Tommy declared, grinning, as Oliver sighed. The two childhood friends walked over to their third childhood friend, Sara Lance, who was waving at them from one of the tables. They were at Burger & Lobster, one of their old haunts; a lunch date, to catch up between friends.

They hadn't seen Sara in forever, not ever since word about the Gambit came. While none of the Lances blamed the Queens for what happened, there was a distance that hadn't been there before. Oliver couldn't even look at Sara without being reminded of Laurel, and he had a feeling that Sara had felt the same way. When they saw her last week at that club, it felt like a year had already passed instead of three or so months.

And yet there she was, standing in the club, talking to one of her old high school friends. For a moment, with the lights darkened, Oliver almost mistook her for Laurel, and he had to shake his head to chase the hallucination away. When Tommy and him realized it was her, they had immediately gone to her to catch up.

Sara had been standing in the side for once, instead of being in the middle of the action like she usually was. When she saw them, her face lit up, and before the three of them knew it, they were chatting like old times. She had to leave soon after, but they had made plans to meet up again soon. Which is how they were here, right now, eating at a place they hadn't stepped foot in months.

Oliver tried to ignore the empty seat next to Sara, or the memories of who would usually sit there with his friend. It was much harder than he cared to admit. "So how have you—" It took a minute for all three of them to realize they were speaking at the same time, and soon enough they were all laughing.

"Alright, alright," Sara said as the laughter trailed off. "You two go first. What have you been up to?"

Oh, wasn't that a loaded question? "We've been going out a lot. You know. Like usual." It was the truth, though they had gotten kicked out of so many clubs lately that Tommy decided they were overdue for a house party as his place. The fact that he and his father had gotten into another argument yesterday was a complete coincidence, certainly.

"I've actually got a party at my place in a few days," Tommy added, with a roguish grin. "You're invited, of course."

To their surprise, Sara didn't react with glee like they expected. Instead, she gave them a shaky smile in response. "That's nice and all Tommy, but I can't. My parents and I are doing something that night and I don't want to blow them off."

That was… completely unexpected from Sara. Sara usually had no issues blowing off her parents for a good party. Even when she couldn't she had always been careful to sneak out of the house once whatever outing they were on was done so she could join in on the fun. The Lance home hadn't been able to keep her inside in years.

"Well, that's fine," Tommy said, trying not to sound as confused as Oliver felt. "What about you then? What have you been up to for the past couple of months? College?" Much like him, Tommy had been kicked out of more than his fair share of secondary schools.

Sara shook her head. "I'm taking a sabbatical from college," she explained. "I wasn't passing my classes and after… after, I was too depressed to try and start putting in any effort. So my parents made the call to put me on leave until I was in a better headspace. They're thinking I can retake my classes this semester."

"So what have you been doing instead?"

"Therapy."

Oliver blinked. "Really?"

His friend nodded. "Family therapy, to be exact. A few weeks ago I crashed my car and was nearly arrested for a DUI. Dad pulled some strings to get me off since I didn't kill anyone, but then we got into an argument when I got home. And I… I had something of a breakdown over… L-Laurel's death."

The atmosphere turned solemn and grim. They had all avoided saying Laurel's name, and yet her ghost was here all the same. Oliver swallowed.

"I said a lot of stuff that I'd been holding back over the years," Sara continued, looking a bit uncomfortable. "It made my parents realize that there were a lot of problems in our family that we needed to resolve. Laurel—She wouldn't want us like that. So we decided on family therapy. It's been really helpful so far."

That was good. Really good. Laurel would be glad for that. Oliver put on a smile. "I'm happy for you then."

It was true. Even if he didn't really feel happy at all.

When lunch was over, Sara asked to speak with him privately. Surprised once more, Oliver complied, so they stepped aside in a corner of the restaurant while Tommy called his driver to pick the two of them up. He had offered to take Sara home as well, but she waived him off, saying that she was just going to hail a cab instead.

"What's up, Sara?" Oliver asked, once they were alone.

Sara crossed her arms, giving him an unimpressed look, and never before had she looked more like Laurel's sister. "Ollie, I'm not an idiot. I know how bad you're doing."

"I don't know what you're talk—"

"I can read, Ollie," Sara cut him off, a hand going to her purse and taking out one of those trashy tabloids. One that had his face plastered all over it, after he had gotten kicked out of another club. "You don't need to say anything. The paps have been saying enough, and it's enough for me to be concerned. Hell, even my dad is worried about you, and you and him haven't had the best relationship in recent years." Not since he had started dating Laurel, at least.

Oliver winced, before schooling his expression. "What are you trying to say, Sara?"

His friend sighed. "Have you ever thought of getting help yourself?" she asked seriously.

"Wha—? You mean therapy, like you and your parents?"

Sara nodded. "Laurel wouldn't have wanted you falling apart either, Ollie. Nor would your dad. You keep going down this road, you're not just going to hurt yourself. You're going to hurt the people who love you too."

"Sara…" For once, Oliver really was speechless. When had his immature friend grown up?

"Just think about it, alright?" With that, she pulled him into a hug, rubbing the back of his head and patting his shoulder before letting go. Oliver could only stare as she walked away, and it was only the sound of Tommy's voice, announcing that the car was here, that broke him out of his trance.

As he walked towards his best friend, only one thought crossed his mind: where had that come from?

Concern, Oliver. Concern. Other people care about you, you jerk.

Laurel and Slade become a trio with Shado a bit earlier than Oliver and Slade did in canon. That's deliberate too — I wanted Laurel and Shado bonding just a little bit longer. Their friendship is going to be a major part of the early years of the story, and is going to help shape Laurel into the hero she's meant to be. Not to mention, I also wanted to portray their similarities. That's going to be important later on as well.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Tommy catch up with Sara, who is in a better headspace after a few weeks of therapy. She's finally talking about her problems and working through them, which is a major help. And because of that, she can see how much Oliver is struggling and is encouraging him to get help too. Whether Oliver takes her advice or not remains to be seen.

Next Chapter: The last chapter of Year 1.