The Arrow & The Huntsman [The 1st Installment of DC HEROES: CHAMPIONS OF EARTH]

[6] A Sea of Nightmares

That night, there was a thunderstorm rolling in from the coast. Oliver was already in bed, snoring as loud as the thunder outside, but Dearden could not find rest. He tossed and turned as nightmares plagued his mind.

~~flashback~~

Dearden was still fuming from his encounter with his brother, and the intense rocking of the boat did nothing to ease his mood. Just then, his phone rang in his back pocket, and he immediately pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. Almost instantly, he felt both extreme relief and immense guilt.

Nevertheless, he answered the phone and took a deep breath. "Hey," he replied. "Yeah, I'm good. I just got into a fight with my brother." He paused and listened to the other person speak into the phone. Dearden's eyes blew wide in shock as he listened to the person talk, a feeling of dread and fear creeping into his heart.

"Really, she did?" he gulped. "Did she say why?" He listened for their response and visibly relaxed when he got his desired answer. "Well, I'm sorry you don't know the whole story," Dean remarked sympathetically. "Hey, listen, uh, I gotta go, my dad's calling me. OK. Bye."

Suddenly, he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He whirled around and saw his dad gazing at him intensely, and he knew he was about to get chewed out for what he did to Ollie. "I'll go apologize later, Dad. Don't worry," Dean groaned. However, his father narrowed his eyes in response. "Who was on the phone?" he questioned.

"Aaron," Dean stated.

"What did he want?" His father pried.

"Nothing," Dean lied.

"Then, who was this "she" that you kept speaking of?" Robert glared. Silence. "Dearden, you just gave your brother a very extreme scolding because of his cheating habits, and now you're doing the same thing?" "Oh, my God. Dad, no!" Dean balked defensively. "If you must know, his girlfriend broke up with him. And second, I was--" Before he could finish his sentence, the ship rocked violently, knocking them off their feet.

"Dad?"

The next thing they knew, the Queen's Gambit was taking on water. Dean had blacked out for most of it, but when he surfaced above the water, he was choking and gasping for breath. He felt familiar arms dragging him out of the water and onto a life raft, all while he coughed and hacked up salt water. Dean blinked repeatedly as his eyes adjusted to the bright fluorescence of the lamp. Looking upward, he saw his father hovering over him, and he groaned deliriously.

"Son," Robert echoed, "are you okay?"

"Dad?" Dean said groggily.

"SARA!" another voice called out in the distance.

Immediately, Dearden shot up in full awareness and peered into the distance to find the source of the voice he'd heard. "Oliver!" He shouted over the storm. He searched for any sign of his brother until, finally, he made out the shape of his silhouette in the distance. Without hesitation, Dean dove back into the water and swam towards his brother. He ignored his father's shouting urging him to return and continued on his charted course. "Ollie!" he cried again.

"SARA, NO!"

"Oliver, we need to go," Dearden yelled, pulling his brother away from the wreckage of the ship. It wasn't easy with Oliver constantly fighting him, but by some miracle, he got both of them back to the raft. Oliver sobbed, and Dearden hugged him close while he and the remaining survivors witnessed the Queen's Gambit sink to the bottom of the ocean. "I'm sorry about Sara, Ollie, but you gotta stay with me, man," the eldest Queen brother consoled in hushed tones. "Stay with me, Ollie."

~~end of flashback~~

"Dearden, wake up. Dearden?" Moira voiced, breaking through her son's nightmare. His eyes shot open, and he judo-flipped her onto the floor and put his fist against her throat.

"Dearden!" Oliver called out, rushing to his brother's and mother's sides. "It's Mom."

Thunder boomed loudly in the background, making Dearden jolt backward from his family. "Guys, I'm sorry!" he let out. "Dearden, it's all right," she comforted, reaching for his hand tenderly. "You're home, both of you."

"Dean," Oliver started, "we're going to be OK."

Dean looked at his brother and sighed, nodding in agreement.