Time seemed to be passing by slowly.
Each step that he took felt like his boots were buried in quick sand. It took every ounce of strength to pull himself through and make another stride. Even though the trees were beginning to pass by him at a quicker pace as he had entered into a full on sprint, he felt trapped in a time void. The closer they got to the origin of the gunshots, the slower the world seemed.
All of the worst thoughts had been running through his mind. Kara shooting Tommy. Tommy bringing Alex and Barry out of the plane and aiming the gun at one of them. Tommy had been unpredictable since the moment he made his first kill. And that is what unnerved Oliver the most.
The scene seemed rather harmless upon Laurel, Adrian, and his exit out of the wooded area and onto the shoreline of the lake. Oliver was scanning the area for any sign of life— Kara, Tommy, anyone he might have brought with him. His initial fear surrounded the possibility that Tommy and Kara had moved on from the site surrounding the plane.
But his newfound debilitating fear wasn't rooted in his own observations. No, it came from the cry of Kara's name escaping Adrian's lips from behind him. The anguish within the realization as Oliver's eyes laid on to the same sight.
There was no way.
Kara laid on the sand, a stain forming in the abdomnial area of her suit as her hand was covered in the blood seeping from it. The capillaries and arteries in her neck and head were pulsing through the green glow in her veins as she was struggling to catch a breath.
Oliver didn't even take a moment to try to catch his falling heart. The wind was cold as it rushed against his glassy eyes as he charged Tommy, who had been kneeling next to her. The smug grin as he made eye contact with Oliver only sent his fury into a seething rage as he drove his toes off the ground with more force than he ever had.
He began to aim his bow before Tommy stood up, locking Kara in an inescapable chokehold that forced Oliver to stop in his tracks. The only thing that he could feel were his labored breaths struggling to evade the lump in his throat. He kept his bow aimed at Tommy's chest, despite Kara's head being right underneath it.
Tommy was clearly struggling too. Blood was trickling both sides of his face. His eye was beginning to swell as the bluish tint within the inflammation was beginning to show. His breaths were as labored as Oliver's were— except they weren't constricted by an emotional reaction. He was physically struggling to breathe.
"I told you, Ollie," Tommy chokes through a chuckle. "I fucking warned you that I would test whatever strength you were trying to prove to me that you had. . ." He trails off as he pulls out the gun that Oliver could only assume he had already shot her with. He puts the barrel along her temple as he continues. "She's what makes you feel human, right? She's what drives you to be better, makes you feel alive— take her away, and what are you? What are you going to become if you make me pull this trigger?"
Oliver begins to shake his head, feeling his chin graze the fingers from his bow. He can feel a steady stream of tears glide down his cheek as he watches Kara struggle for every breath. He knows the ability he has to deliver the arrow waiting on his trembling drawstring in a line drive through Tommy's heart. He recognizes the burning desire within him to do it. But something was still stopping him.
"Why'd you bring her into his?" He says through a quivering lip. His words strengthen into a rage of steel as he yells, "She had nothing to do with what happened with you and me. She played no part in your father's death, who I became, who you became—-"
"Look at her!" Tommy screams as he tightens the grip around her neck, causing her to grimace. Oliver reenforces the aim of his bow as he watches, getting a firmer grip on the drawstring as he takes a step closer. "She's already suffering, struggling, because she's been poisoned by the one thing that can destroy her. And that's not Kryptonite, Ollie. That's you."
Oliver's attention moved to Kara, who was profusely saying "no" with a shake of her head, using every ounce of strength that she could. And the desperation in her eyes as she locked them onto Oliver's wasn't one that screamed save me, no, it was the selfless plead to not fall into the deprecating mind trap that Tommy so often lured Oliver into. The same gaze that she had given Oliver every time he did so.
"You know the only way to reconcile with what you've done. . ." Tommy trails off as he presses the gun against her temple. "You've sent her down this path of trying to get vengeance for her sister. Same thing you did with Adrian. . . and who knows what they'll do when they see how this ends."
Before Oliver even got the chance to give any kind of deflection, he was surrounded by more of the same hooded figures that they had put down earlier. Except this time, they had weapons held to the heads of his friends— Adrian, Laurel, Thea, Felicity and much to his surprise, Alex and Barry.
He watched as every one of them had their eyes on Kara, observing in horror as she struggled to hold on to her life. Alex was biting onto the cloth that was silencing and stifling her sobs. Barry looked on in shocked horror, a collar that Oliver could only assume was dampening his speed draped around his neck. Adrian had the same darkness resting in his eyes that he did the night they all found out about one another's secret.
But he wasn't able to look at Laurel until he heard Tommy's final ultimatum, as he said with haste, "Kill me and save Kara, my people pull the trigger. Spare me and I pull the trigger, saving everyone else's life."
He watched as Laurel shook her head profusely, trying her hardest to yell through the hand of the person silencing her.
"Don't do this, Tommy," Oliver says through tears as he pulled back his bow. "None of them deserve to die because of me."
"They're dead anyways!" Tommy cries. "The same way that I lost my life. The same way your mother and Laurel lost theirs. Because of your actions. Your mistakes, they're going to pay that penance regardless. You have the opportunity now to save someone from that now."
And as Oliver looks to Kara one last time, her head cocked in a slow nodding motion. There was no question in Oliver's train of thought as to what she was signaling. It was who she was. She put the well-being of everyone else before herself. It was the sacrifice that she had made in the years that she hid her powers. It was the way that she gave and committed herself to making this city better in the only ways that she could.
She was relenting her life away as her head bobbed up and down. And all Oliver could do was mouth, "I'm sorry", as he put down the bow. But as he put it on the ground, the attention of Tommy and everyone else was drawn to the aircrafts flying above. And in that split second, he made eye contact with Barry.
The affirmation was all he needed.
He took his bow off the ground and aimed it sideways, maximizing the quick efficiency of the angle as he aimed an arrow at his neck. He felt his breath stop for the brief moment the arrow was in the air.
However, he never got a chance to let it out in relief as in the millisecond that he waited to see where it landed, Barry had already ran and taken the guns out of everyone's hands, leaving a fair fight to everyone within the parameters of the circle Tommy had created.
And just as Tommy had realized that Barry had done that, Oliver had already charged him. He tried to put a knife to her neck but Oliver was able to knock it out of his hand with an arrow.
He dropped Kara to the ground as he prepped himself for Oliver's impact. He was able to combat the first punch, taking his fist into his hand as he tried to throw one of his own. Oliver blocked it with ease, throwing an elbow into his cheek and landing it with force. It caused Tommy to be off-balanced, allowing Oliver an opportunity to knock him off his feet.
He tackled him, forcing him to the ground and throwing a few more incapacitating punches to nail him to the sand. He takes a strong hold of the jacket he was wearing, crumpling it into his fists as he pulls him in his direction.
"What are you going to do?" Tommy asks, anger in his whispering struggles. Blood was trickling down his face and his words were struggling to heighten to above a whisper. "No ultimatums. No threats. No ones in danger. Just you and me on an island."
For the first time, there wasn't a smug confidence resting in his narrowed glare. There was desperation in his eyes, holding on to some kind of hope that Oliver would give in one last time.
But Oliver wasn't giving in. He was holding onto something else.
"You can blame me for the dark path that you took, for wasting your second chance," Oliver tells him, words cracking as they escape his throat. He watches as the defeat falls through his demeanor, only driving in Oliver's next words.
"But I'm not going to blame myself for your bad decisions. . . ." He trails off as he clamps onto Tommy's vest and pulls him closer, making sure the intent in his glare is more than seen. "And I'm not going to kill you and give you the vindication you so desperately crave. I'm not that person anymore."
"They're going to find out, Ollie. . . " Tommy begins through gritted teeth. Pain feigned his fading voice as he finished. "They'll find out the kind of man you truly are. And I hope to God it's not the way that I did."
Oliver locks a grappling arrow to his arm, clicking a button to ignite the line to wrap itself around his torso. He then allows him to fall onto the sand, firing one last arrow into his chest— this one being full of tranquilizing fluid to put him into a state of slumber.
The fight around him had quieted down as well. Everyone had taken out the person that had been holding them captive or holding them back. But as he turned and saw Kara seemingly fight for her ability to breathe, his mission once again changed in an instant.
He immediately inched towards her. Her breaths were quick and labored as she made eye contact with him and began pointing at the wound in her stomach. She couldn't speak the words with a full breath, so she kept repeating with strain, "Get it out. . . Get it out."
"The bullet?" Oliver clarifies with urgency, getting a quick nod from Kara in affirmation. He pulls an arrow from his quiver as he continues to ask for more, "Are you sure you want me to do this?"
She weakly takes his free hand, trembling as she nods with fervor. He lets out a shaky exhale as he slowly begins to drive the point of the arrow into her skin. She quickly jerks back in reaction to the pain and takes a firmer grasp of his hand. He tries to give her some kind of affirming words but he knows that they won't do much to soothe the anguish that she was dealing with.
So he kept digging into her softened stomach, trying to find the bullet within the tissue with the tip of an arrow. With every minuscule movement he could see the obvious pain that she was in, only cracking at his already dissolving heart. Once he found the bullet, he began to carve through the tissue, only causing more blood to pool from the wound and onto his hand.
With an upward motion, he was able to dislodge it. She then silently brought his attention to her lower leg, pointing to the bloodied hole on her shin. He began to make his way to hover above it, only to be stopped by Alex who had taken the arrow from his hand.
"I'll get this one," she tells him as she begins to dig towards the bullet. She motions her head towards Kara's abdomen, "Stop the bleeding."
He nods while beginning his search for something to act as a barrier to slow down the pulsing. He notices Adrian walking towards them. He was wearing the shirt he had worn to work that day— buttoned up yet dirty from his time on the island. He notices the undershirt resting underneath it, prompting the idea and immediately forming it into a question as he demands firmly, "Give me your shirt."
"Why do you need my—," he stops as he had seen her wounds for the first time, noticing Oliver's hand acting as a bandage on her stomach. It prompts quick action from him as he begins to take his shirt off.
Alex had already relieved Kara of the final bullet and had begun to remove the jacket that she was wearing, then wrapping it tightly around Kara's leg. Oliver takes the shirt from Adrian as he does a similar gesture, gently taking the arms of the shirt and encasing her wound behind the cloth after trying to fill it was smaller pieces of fabric from the shirt. He watched as the blood began to pool onto the blue fabric in a lesser manner, feeling okay to remove his hand from her skin.
She was no longer glowing green. The Kryptonite had seemingly been removed and there was a sign of relief coming across Kara's face.
"That was quick thinking," Oliver tells Kara with a smile. He puts a tender hand on her shoulder as he asks, "Do you want me to help you up?"
She nods as she slowly lifts her arm, "Please." He lets it fall on his shoulder as he braces her back and legs into his bicep and forearm. When her body folds, she lets out a cry of pain before holding her hand out to ask him to stop. "Let me try to stand."
"Won't you bleed out?" Adrian asks as he makes his way to the opposite side of her.
She shakes her head. "The sun is already speeding up my healing. Just help me stand up."
They both look to Alex, who gives them the nod of approval before they both brace her back and shoulders as they lift her up. He can feel her tense up slightly, but she showed no signs of extreme pain like she had earlier. She was favoring one side but still was standing. And that was enough to raise Oliver's spirits.
"What now, Ollie?" Barry asks as he joins the now forming semi-circle around where they stood. It was almost as if he was acting as a spokesperson as everyone had joined that spot, waiting to find out what they had to do next.
"ARGUS is expecting us at the shore," Oliver begins to explain. "They're going to take us back home."
"And what about Tommy?" Laurel asks, her eyes almost pleading as she awaits an answer from Oliver.
"They're going to come get him," Oliver tells her with a hint of assurance. "He's going back to prison."
"For good this time?" Thea asks with a raised eyebrow.
Oliver looks at Kara, who gives him a knowing nod. He smiles as he's able to answer, "For good."
***
They had began their trek back towards the shore. They were taking their time, as they wanted to make the journey as easy on Kara as they could. Thea and Laurel were creating a perimeter in the case that any of Tommy's followers still had orders. Felicity had reunited with her tablet, keeping tabs of any heat signatures that it possibly could pick up around them.
Alex followed closely beside Oliver, Adrian and Kara, watching Kara and making sure that she was keeping her stability. There wasn't much change in her condition. She was still struggling to walk on the leg that was shot, and there had been brief periods of time where Oliver and Adrian had to lift her legs off the ground and do the walking for her.
Oliver could sense a growing concern from Alex, but he couldn't panic quite yet. Kara wasn't getting worse. She was simply slower to heal than what was expected.
"You know," Barry begins as he begins to walk beside Oliver. "We'd probably be on our way back to Star City by now if you'd just let me run everyone to shore."
Oliver chuckles as he shakes his head. "Barry, why don't you let yourself slow down for once?"
"I just spent the last twelve hours with my speed dampened," he replies with a slight annoyance. "I miss running."
"Go take a jog then," Adrian quips with a smirk. "We won't even notice you're gone."
Thea scoffs. "You definitely noticed he was gone after Tommy had him captured."
"Were you worried about me, Adrian?" Barry teases with a smile, poking his head around Oliver to gauge Adrian's reaction. Noticing the deflection looming, he laughs heartedly. "You're not so cold after all."
"I don't remember there ever being this much talking amongst the team," Laurel adds in, looking back in Adrian and Barry's direction.
Adrian glares at Barry knowingly. "It's Allen's fault."
There was a sense of levity that existed among the group. Even Kara's face resembled one that was humored, despite the struggle that was still present in her grimaced expressions.
There was a normalcy in the moment that felt alluring. But of course, normal wasn't something that Oliver could ever get used to.
"Guys," Felicity begins, stopping in her tracks as she became fixated on her tablet. "We have a problem."
Everyone else halts in their steps and brings their attention to Felicity who had turned her device around to present her findings. There was a map of the island displayed on the screen, hot spots marked in various spots across the land. Confusion rested within everyone's stares as they tried to understand what exactly Felicity was alluding to.
But then Oliver saw it. They weren't just hotspots. The thermal imaging had picked up C4 in these widespread intervallic spaces throughout the island.
"Tommy rigged the island," Oliver says in his realization, the dour panic in his voice resonating with his entire team. There was regret laced in the fear, knowing that this likely was some kind of result of him not taking his life. A contingency to ensure some kind of victory.
But there was also worry intertwined within those emotions. And as he came to terms with that fact, he realized that the regret wasn't just being driven by decisions made in the last hour. No, it was that same regret that had driven him to stop killing when his crusade was defined by that.
And in the most jarring form of irony, Oliver knew what he had to do.
He begins to step away from Kara, motioning for Barry to take his place. When Barry catches on and makes his way towards them, he instructs him, "Get her and everyone else to the shore as quickly as you can."
"Ollie," Barry begins, his glare narrowing in his concern. "What about you?"
Oliver exhales sharply, feeling the weight begin to fall on his chest as he starts to thinking about his instinctive reasoning. When he's sure that Kara's arm is securely over Barry's shoulder, he begins to walk back in the direction that they came from.
"I have to get Tommy," Oliver tells him, almost apologetically. He feels his burning glare along the side of his face as he brings his attention to Felicity, asking, "Do we know how much time we have?"
Felicity shrugs her shoulders. "I'm trying to see if I can access any kind of timer, but my best guess would be 10-15 minutes tops."
"Run them all to the shore, Barry," Oliver says, intent sharpening his tone and demeanor. "Do not come for me until everyone is safe."
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Adrian asks with widened eyes. "What if Felicity is wrong and the bombs go off in five minutes, two—"
"That's a risk I'm going to have to take," Oliver affirms, a honest softening lowering the pitch of his voice. He looks to Barry again, who's gaze had become filled with worry. "Get them to safety. Please."
"You can't do this, Ollie," Thea protests. "Tommy isn't worth the risk. He did this to himself."
Oliver shakes his head. "I can't leave him."
There was more shouting that ensued, cursing enveloping the words and Oliver had no choice but to ignore. Laurel remained silent, only affirming to him that she agreed with his decision. She was the only one who truly would understand why he had to do this— their earlier conversation making it all the more clear.
But another person was silent. Oliver had thought that it was because she felt too weak to speak, but no, she had began to slowly make her way to where he stood. When he notices her walking, he quickly runs to aid her as she could hardly keep herself upright.
She had fallen slightly. Oliver braced underneath her shoulders, squatting as she had nearly touched the ground. As she allowed her knees to rest along the dirt, she took her hands to Oliver's cheeks, holding his head in her weak grasp.
She smiles, tears welling up in her eyes as she tells him faintly, "I know why you're doing this. Go."
He nods, mirroring her lips with his own while taking her hands into his for a brief moment as he waits for Barry and Adrian to come to their level to help her stand. When they begin to kneel, he starts to go in the opposite direction.
"Get her to the plane," Oliver instructs Barry again, still seeing the hesitance in his eyes. "Get everyone to safety."
His gaze falls with his demeanor, as the pleading that rests in his glassy whites makes it's final wish. "Ollie. . ."
"Do it!" Oliver tells him one last time before turning and finally facing the direction that they came from.
His jog quickened into a sprint, his toes almost defying gravity as they pushed off from the uneven terrain below. He didn't have super speed but yet, the world felt like it was slowing around him. The trees becoming blurs, the dirt feeling more and more like slick concrete with each step.
He had made this kind of run before. Time wasn't on his side and he knew it with each breath that he took. He was fighting against it in the same way he combatted the wind trying to slow him like a parachute. There was this anticipation of the worst looming, each step awaiting the possibility that it could be his last.
This time it was explosives threatening his life. Last time, it was the possibility of missing his ticket home after five years of hardly living in his fight to survive. And in a sense, he was still fighting for his life— more like his soul, perhaps, with his physical being waiting in limbo.
And once that terrain changed to the sand of the shore of the lake, he felt like he had once again escaped the inevitability of death.
He ran over to where Tommy was still encased in the line from his grappling arrow. There was a shock in his eyes as they made contact with Oliver's while he kneeled down.
"Why did you come back?" Tommy asks in his surprise as he watched Oliver saw away at the thick material.
Oliver shakes his head as his motion became quicker and more aggressive in his urgency. "I couldn't leave you to die again."
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
Oliver broke through the last line of the rope, finally released him from his binding captivity. He put his arm around his shoulder, pulling him up slightly to support his back.
"No point and time to explain," Oliver says through a grimace as he hoists Tommy onto his feet. "We have to go."
"Why are you doing this, Oliver?" He asks as they begin to walk in a quickened pace. He was clearly still weak, leaving Oliver to carry most of his weight as they trudged back towards the woods.
"I don't have to explain it to you," Oliver reiterates as they cross the terrain border. He quickly activates his com, speaking to Barry as he says, "I've got Tommy. Is everyone safe?"
No answer. He keeps pressing. "Is anyone listening?"
"Oliver," he hears Barry through the line. "There's no time."
In the time that it took for him to register what was going on, the only move his instincts drove was upwards. He dove towards a mound to their right, trying to shield Tommy as much as he could before they were blown even further in that direction.
Time stopped for a moment as they went through the air. He was aware of his surroundings. He recognizes them as a place in which he had so often found himself in these predicaments, knowing that he was hanging in the balance. So many times though, he had cheated the wrong way to go.
But as he felt his body hit the ground, he wasn't so sure that he was going to be so lucky this time. A sharp pain that quickly dulled into nothing radiated throughout his entire right leg. The discomfort in his back was nothing like he had ever known.
He could feel like smoke from the burning fires around him fill his lungs. The trees and grass below and around him were a crisp black, splintering like an axe had been thrown threw them.
He looked around for Tommy and couldn't find him, and suddenly all of this felt like it was in vain. He had failed at the one thing that he had set out to do.
But he felt someone take his hand as his vision became foggy and blurred. His arm was draped around a shoulder as he could feel himself being lifted from the ground. And with the last bit of strength that he could muster before everything faded to black, he tasted his last hint of victory.
"Stay with me, Ollie," Tommy tells him.