Disclaimer: All rights belong to CW, Warner Bros, and the DC comics. I own nothing. (Check bottom for longer Author's Note)

Quentin glanced towards Moira, watching as she rubbed the underparts of her eyes to get rid of the mascara that had fallen there. He didn't know what he would do, if this was Laurel or Sara on the screen and he was forced to watch it. And not only just watch it, but be forced to watch it with a group of people, to not even be granted the gift of privacy when she was forced to see her son be tortured and broken on an island. Turning around in his seat, he glanced towards Barry.

"Why would you show all of this to us? I get it, you want to save us or some bullshit like that, blah blah blah" He said. "But, making us all watch this together? Moira and Thea, maybe. They deserve to know what happened to their son. And, they should be together for that. But watching this with his bodyguard? His ex? And best friend? And me? Why would you do that to someone who you say was your friend?"

"They deserve to know what happened?" Barry asked, narrowing his eyebrows at them, ignoring the rest of Quentin's speech. Quentin watched as the man's legs tensed up as if he were about to stand up. But, he didn't. "I'm not showing this because you deserve to know. I'm showing this for Oliver. Because he deserves for me to do anything in my power to save him. I never said that he would be happy the way I went about doing that." He watched as Thea's face twisted into a frown at his words.

"Save him?" Thea asked. "What do you mean, save him?" Barry looked away from them for a long moment. "Barry?" Quentin remained silent for now. This wasn't his place. "Is my brother going to die?"

"The dude said we were all going to die in this future, are you really that surprised that your brother will too?" Tommy asked, putting an arm on Thea's shoulder. Quentin didn't know how those words could've been meant to be reassuring, but somehow, Thea's shoulders loosened a little as she glanced back towards the screen, biting her bottom lip.

"I would like to know," Moira spoke up. "How are we going to die? I don't understand, if you want to prevent this future so much, that you won't just tell us how to save each other? That would be much easier than forcing us to sit and watch all of this." Moira had collected herself by now, the facade returning to her face. The one where she was okay. Barry shook his head once more at them.

"It's much more complicated than that. Time doesn't work the way you think it does-"

"I've gathered that," Quentin quipped, glancing around them. Barry gave him a long stare that sobered him up.

"I've gone through hundreds of futures. I've told you -well not you, you, other yous- every way you're going to die, and you never live. I decided to try something different this time."

"And we're just your guinea pigs this time around?" Tommy asked, rolling his eyes. Barry didn't laugh at his words, and Quentin turned back towards the screen. So, they were just the man's guinea pigs. He guessed messing up one life didn't seem to matter that much in Barry's world. There were hundreds of other Quentin Lance's for him to use.

The television screen began to play again.

Slade throws some bags at Oliver and says they're moving out. They leave the plane and walk through the forest. Slade leads. Slade holds up a hand for them to stop and then says they're clear. Oliver asks to take a break.

Worry turned in Moira's stomach. Oliver wasn't ready for some army mission? This Mr. Slade or whatever, this was his job. Oliver's job was to be her son. His job was to have fun, to be a child, to keep his innocence while he still had it. God forbid he knew any of what she knew about the world now.

And this island, it was teaching him that, day by day.

Slade tells them to rest on the plane. Oliver steps on a landmine.

"That doesn't sound good," Tommy said, his tone coming out joking. Laurel glanced over, opening her mouth to chastise him, but stopped herself. She knew the look that Tommy wore. She had seen it the day of the funeral. She had seen it on every birthday that passed that Oliver hadn't made it home for. Each time that Tommy was reminded of Oliver's, well, his mortality, she guessed, he wore that look. And he was wearing it right now.

Slade tells him to not move. Oliver asks if it's a mine. Slade bends down and looks at it, he says it is and it's probably Japanese and from world war II.

"What the hell type of island are they on?" Quentin asked, leaning back in his seat. Diggle glanced over at the man for a few moments before narrowing his own eyes at the screen. Having bombs on there from World War II meant that this island was much less hidden than everyone had thought it was. If it managed to fly under the radar so much for simple detective's work, that must mean that governments knew about it, and they were hiding something from there.

That also meant that there was a strong likelihood that ARGUS knew about that island. He made a mental note to talk to Lyla when he returned.

Oliver asks if he can disarm it and Slade says not without disarming Oliver.

Moira clenched the cushion of the couch between her fingers, biting her lip until it turned number under her teeth. There were times like these that she wondered just how Oliver had managed to live through all of this. She saw him with her own two eyes, back at home, safe and sound. She had seen him return, she had touched his skin, felt his scars, his pain. And yet, watching this, it made her doubt that her son had ever returned from this place.

She wondered if maybe this was all just some sort of grief induced hallucination. Maybe one day her mind just snapped, maybe Oliver never came home. Perhaps she was imagining all of this right now. She pinched her arm between her skin, squeezing it so night that the skin broke under her fingers.

She didn't even know if she wanted to wake up. Or, if it mattered if she woke up. In both realities, the son she knew was dead.

Soldiers come and Slade flees after grabbing Oliver's bag.

"What the hell?" Tommy muttered, scoffing at Slade. No wonder Oliver came back so damaged by this. The man couldn't trust anyone anymore, and Tommy honestly didn't know if he blamed him for it. Five years was a long time. It had destroyed whatever trust and hope and love that Oliver had previously held within him.

And they had sat around blaming Oliver for it, when they should've been blaming the people that destroyed that part of him.

Oliver calls for him to stop and then he puts on the baclava.

Quentin blinked in surprise. Oliver had always been smart, not book smart by any means, but he always had some sort of wit on him. He didn't know if in that situation, he would've had the mind to do the same thing. And he was a trained officer for god's sake.

The soldiers ask what he's doing so far from camp and Oliver says he was separated from his unit. The soldier tells him too come with them and Oliver says he can't. Slade rushes in screaming and kills all of the soldiers.

Diggle leaned back a little, looking at Slade. So far, this man, who was maybe a little rough around the edges, had managed to save Oliver on multiple occasions. Probably just as many times as Yao Fei had at this point. He had trained Oliver far more than Yao Fei had. But, Oliver had never spoken of him before, which meant something was going to happen, and he had a feeling it was going to be a little more complicated than Slade suddenly dying or something like that.

He tells Oliver to be still and Slade pushes Oliver off of the mine and one of the bodies on. Oliver thanks him.

A smile graced over Thea's lips as she watched the man. Whoever this was, was responsible for saving her brother. She glanced over towards her mother, expecting a similar look to be on her face. But, her mom's face was frowning at the screen.

She figured she should be too, considering the fact that Oli just barely survived stepping onto a mine from some war that was older than both her and her brother combined. But, she chose, just this once, to focus on the fact that he was alive.

The scene changes to a camp and Yao Fei walks through. Fyers tells him to sit. Fyers pulls out a bow and says when he first saw Yao Fei with it, he thought it was ridiculous until Yao Fei killed the men.

Quentin held in a laugh. He had felt the same when the hood -Oliver- had shown up toting his bow and arrows and running around the night like he was Robin Hood. For a while, he thought that Queen was playing a prank on him and his department when the kid had said the hood had saved his life. But, who could blame Quentin for thinking it was a joke. What nutjob went around with a bow and arrow shooting people with thugs for chump change?

He figured he probably shouldn't be calling the hood a nutjob anymore. But, if the shoe fit-

He says more bows will be coming and he wants Yao Fei to train his men. Yao Fei says archery takes a while to master and Fyers tells him to be a good instructor.

Diggle frowned. Oliver had five years on the island to master being an archer. And, that was most likely with one on one training. There was no way that Yao Fei would be able to train a whole group of missionaries how to use a bow effectively in such a short amount of time. And, he suspected that Fyers knew that.

Fyers was just showing the control that he had over Yao Fei.

He had run across men like Fyers before. And usually, it ended with the death of whoever they wanted to control if they stepped out of line.

He dismisses Yao Fei. He says he hopes Yao Fei is committed to the cause for "her sake". Yao Fei says he is.

"Who's her?" Thea asked.

"Probably his wife or daughter," Quentin said, looking at the screen. At least, those would be the only two women in his life that he would be willing to give up his personal beliefs and moral compass for. He figured Yao Fei wasn't much different.

The scene changes too Oliver attempting to make a fire and Slade says Oliver must've never been a boy scout.

Tommy snorted. Moira gave him a harsh look in response.

Oliver asks what tipped him off. Slade tells him to hurry because wolves will come out soon. Oliver questions that there are wolves there.

"What?" Thea whispered. That was just great. The fact that her brother was stranded on an island wasn't enough. The fact that her brother was stranded on an island with people that wanted to kill him wasn't enough. And now what? Wolves?

Diggle held in a laugh as he watched the screen. Unlike these people, he had never known Oliver before the island. So, watching him now, where he was just like every other spoiled rich kid that he had been a bodyguard for, was almost humorous.

But, it was also concerning. A few killer missionaries weren't enough to turn Oliver into the person he was today. This was just the tip of the iceberg, and if Oliver's family was already struggling this much watching him right now, he had no idea how they were going to get through whatever was going to come next.

Slade says the only thing to keep them out is fire. Oliver says he's welcome to help. Slade pulls out a lighter.

This time even Diggle had to laugh at the screen. This was exactly something Oliver would do to him now, to teach some sort of lesson about perseverance and how he had to work for everything on the island.

Oliver is annoyed and says he been working on it for two hours. Slade says he knows and thanks him for the entertainment.

Tommy smirked at Slade. He liked this guy.

Oliver is looking at the picture and Slade says he's going to wear it out. Slade says not to worry and she'll be waiting for him. Oliver says he doubts it because he was with her sister on the boat.

Quentin glanced away from the screen, looking towards the floor. He could feel the familiar anger brewing inside him again. He almost let it control him again, he felt its fingers wrap around him, pulling it back into its grasp.

But, instead he looked back towards the screen, unblinking, ignoring the feeling in his stomach.

Slade says he didn't take Oliver to be the bad boy. Oliver says that why he needs to get home, he wants to make it right.

Laurel bit her lip. When Oliver was gone, she had demonized him. When he had gotten on that boat, it was because he was a monster, not because he was the guy she knew that made stupid ass decisions every once in a while. But this, on the screen, that was the guy she remembered. That was the guy she had fallen in love with. She avoided looking over towards Tommy in this moment. Every time her name had been mentioned on the screen, something switched within Tommy.

It was moments like these where he almost reminded her of Merlyn.

Slade says he can't make it right. He says Oliver is stupider than he thought and that means something.

Quentin laughed. He couldn't help but agree with the man in this instance. Some consequences, accidental or not, were things you couldn't come back from. And killing your girlfriends sister while cheating on her was one of them.

Oliver says he doesn't strike him as something who accepts apologies. Slade says everyone is in this life for themselves. Oliver asks if he learned that in spy school and Slade says he learned it here.

Moira sucked in a deep breath. She felt Thea's hand wrap around her own, and she glanced over towards her daughter. Thea didn't look back at her, but squeezed her hand tighter around Moira's. It was moments like this that reminded Moira about why she found it so hard to punish Thea for anything. Because, along with losing her brother on that island, Thea had also lost herself somewhere along the way.

Moira supposed that she had lost herself too. But, she had lost it long before the gambit ever went down.

Slade then discusses his old partner, he says it was the man that tortured Oliver and his name is Billy Wintergreen. Their plane was shot out of the sky and Slade and Billy were taken in and offered a position with Fyers. Billy accepted. He declined. He says Billy was the godfather to his son and he still turned his back on him. The scene switches and Oliver and Slade are running towards the airstrip, bags in hand.

Diggle sighed as he watched the video. This, as much as he hated to admit it, and as much as he still felt uncomfortable with the fact that they were invading Oliver's privacy, made him understand Oliver a little bit more. The way he always saw the bad in every situation, the way he never trusted anybody on their word.

It was because he had been deprived of the good for long that he could only see the bad now.

Author's note: Hey all. I hope everyone is doing well and is safe during this pandemic. I'm sorry for such a late update once again, thankfully, I had already typed out the TV part of this chapter, so it made it more manageable to write. Special thanks to JoeyDe (!), FictionLover007, timbarney110, Zenny01, gleefanforever09, ILoveRebornNarutoKProject, GreenArr0w, mastercheif1229, Flaremage, Enkay5968, LizaSandorthein, and the two guests for their awesome reviews! It really matters and I can't thank you guys enough!

Stay awesome and stay safe.