Have you ever felt like nobody was there

Have you felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere

Have you ever felt like you could disappear

Like you could fall and no one would hear

Well, let that lonely feeling wash away

Maybe there's a reason to believe you'll be okay

Cause when you don't feel strong enough to stand

You can reach, reach out your hand

And oh, someone will come running

And I know they'll take you home

Even when the dark comes crashing through

When you need a friend to carry you

And when you're broken on the ground

You will be found

~ "You Will Be Found" from Dear Evan Hansen

"My mom," he heard William gasp.

Oliver just stared at what was left of Lian Yu for a moment. It wasn't just his mother that was back there, it was every single person in the world that he considered friend and family. It was the woman that he loved.

Just in case.

That's what Felicity had said.

Looking down at his son, he sucked in a deep breath and known in that moment that what his father had done almost a decade before he would have done for his own son to survive. Maybe he had done that. Was this some twisted form of suicide? Chase wanted him to suffer, to lose everything. He'd told him that he'd either lose William or everyone else and in the end that he was lose himself too.

Move, Oliver, he heard Felicity's voice in his head.

Blinking rapidly, he kept back the tears and steadied himself. Looking around, he started to put steps together of what he had to do. He turned William away from Chase's body, putting his hands on the railing of the boat. "Just stay here. Don't turn around." His voice was soft and low. William had likely seen the state that Chase had left himself in, but Oliver was trying his best to shield him from the horror of it all.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Oliver said. "Just stay like this for a minute."

It was hard to move away from William, still worried that he might disappear. Oliver made himself, though. He thought of all the people that were depending on him and that he needed to look for. Right now, he needed to get himself to the point of that happening. He swung open the door to down below and dragged Chase's body into there. He looked around and grabbed anything that might be useful. Oliver didn't want there to be any reason for that door to be opened again, to keep William shielded from Chase's bloody body.

When he closed the door, he looked towards his son and was thankful that he hadn't moved. Stepping away from the door, Oliver hesitantly reached out to touch William's shoulder.

"My mom was on that island," William whispered as he turned quickly into Oliver, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing tightly.

He hadn't missed the tears running down his son's face and just held him in that moment. "We're going to the island to find them," Oliver told him, trying to stay calm. It was all he could do in that moment. If he lost it, then whoever was still alive would never be found.

"It just blew up!" William told him hysterically as he half motioned towards the land mass. "My mom-she's dead-"

"No." Keeping his son close, Oliver moved to the boat's wheel, trying to ignore the blood in that area. "It's not just your mom on that island," Oliver tried to explain. "It's my team...they were with your mom...and they're smart. They'll have figured out a way to stay safe, they knew that the explosives were there."

"Are you really the Green Arrow?" William asked after some time.

Oliver moved his attention to where the boat was headed down to William who was looking up at him. "Yes."

"And my father?"

"Yes."

"He said that it was your fault."

"He wasn't lying," Oliver told him. He knew that this had to be a conversation, but right that moment wasn't the time to get into it. He also didn't think that William was quite old enough for that conversation. "Being the Green Arrow makes everyone I love a target, which includes you and your mom."

"And your friends?"

"Yes," Oliver told him.

William looked back towards the island again and went silent.

"I know you must have so many questions and I promise you that I will answer them all," Oliver promised.

The rest of the boat trip back to Lian Yu was silent. The dock that had once been there was gone. Obliterated. Lian Yu looked a lot more like purgatory now than it had when he'd been a resident of the island. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He knew where the plane was or at least the general direction of the plane from Felicity and Curtis. That was where they'd head next.

This island that he'd spent so much time on...it was just gone. It still was there, but at the same time it wasn't. It wasn't the same. It wasn't that he would miss what it once was. It didn't erase the memories. It didn't erase what the island had meant to him. it didn't erase who he'd become from making it to that island.

When they'd gotten to where the plane had once been, all they found was debris. Fiery debris. He had to look, though. Oliver couldn't just glance at the wreckage from the boat. He needed to go out there and walk it, to see if they'd all been standing there when the island had gone up. Moving the boat as close to the island as he safely could, he looked over to William. "I have to go check."

"Please don't go."

"I'm only going to be a minute. I have to check-"

"If there are bodies?"

Oliver stared at his son for a moment and then crouched down in front of him, his hand going to William's shoulder, and his eyes meeting his son's. "Yes," he said gently. He couldn't lie, not about this. "My team is good, I'm not expecting bodies, but I still have to check because this is where they were...and if nothing else maybe there's a clue."

"But everything blew up. How could there be a clue?" William asked getting upset.

"I'm only going to be a minute," Oliver repeated. "You stay with the boat. You'll be able to see me the whole time."

There was no shock when he hit the water. He'd spent much time on that island and in the water during different seasons. In that moment especially, Oliver was numb to it. His eyes on the shoreline before he briefly looked back over his shoulder to where William was. Focusing on what he was doing, he made his way to the shore. He knew that it would really take longer than a minute, but there was something comforting when you were a kid to it taking just a minute. He stopped right short of where the water hit the shoreline, his chest clenching, and his lungs refusing to work in that moment. Oliver felt lightheaded, like he was going to pass out, his balance started to wan, his legs started to give out, and though he fell he also caught himself in the water. It brought him face to face as breath pushed from him with what had shaken him. Right there on the shoreline were a pair of glasses, they were broken, but he knew exactly who they belonged to.

Felicity.

His fingers grabbed at them, but it took him a few attempts as tears clouded his vision and sobs filled his chest. Finally he was able to grab them and straighten. He looked back at the boat, hoping that he hadn't worried William, he saw him there looking at him. Oliver managed a nod, hoping that the simple motion would convey that he was okay.

He wasn't sure he was.

Oliver moved away from the water, holding tight to the glasses, and carefully looked around. The remainder of the island looked nothing like he remembered. It wasn't just that it had been blown up, every single bit of plantlife was seared and nowhere near where it had been originally growing. The familiar silhouette of Lian Yu had been drastically transformed forever. Drawing in breath, he turned three-sixty and took in the charred metal components that had somehow landed back on that shoreline from the plane and the bits and pieces of everything else. Nothing looked like bodies, though he knew that with the explosion that had taken place that bodies wouldn't necessarily have been along that shoreline where they'd been standing.

No, they were alive.

They had to be.

"Can't we call for help?"

"We're in the North China Sea," Oliver said quietly. "And the radio doesn't work."

"They probably don't speak English either."

"I speak Mandarin," Oliver put out there. Sure, this wasn't necessarily the time to talk about this, but it was a moment. He'd lost so much time with William and he didn't want to miss anything more, even if that meant them learning small things about each other. He already knew that William preferred the Flash, he still wasn't completely thrilled with that (though Barry was adorable).

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool, I guess."

"I didn't learn it at school, I was never good at school, but I was living in Hong Kong for a while and I just had to learn it to live there."

William seemed a little calmer since he'd gotten back on the boat, Oliver had noticed. "How are you so sure that they're all okay?" William questioned.

"Because I have faith...and I know them."

"Where could they be?"

ARGUS.

The ARGUS prison.

"I might know," Oliver whispered as he changed the direction of the boat. ARGUS would have built the prison to withstand a lot. Sure, there were all kinds of caves and structures (apparently) on the island, but the secret ARGUS prison had to be more fortified and more likely to withstand the entire island being blown up.

"Where?"

"There's a prison on this island."

"A prison?"

"It only had two prisoners, but I let them out."

"Why would you do that?"

"To help me save you."

William just stared at him, he was obviously confused.

He hadn't been the only one.

"It's a long story."

It had taken some time and Oliver had hated having to take William along with him because there was so much fear inside of him that he'd saved William and that possible unknown danger lay in the island. That island was never just what it was. There was always a fight for darkness and light there, maybe that was why it was so aptly named Lian Yu.

"Is that blood?"

Oliver saw it too.

What he took as a better sign was that the door to the prison was closed. The hatch seemed sealed and the entire thing just looked like it was still intact. The blood was on the concrete exterior of the tunnel that led downwards and into the prison. It was a miracle that the blood was even visible though between the dirt and debris scattered everywhere. As it was, he was going to have to move a rather large part of a tree from the top of the hatch, which made him wonder if the hatch was really closed or if the tree was just holding it down.

There's always another way, he knew Felicity would say.

This had to be that other way.

"Stand right here a minute, okay?" he asked. William just gave him a nod. Oliver moved towards the large piece of tree and slowly worked on moving it away. He didn't need to move it much, he knew gravity would do the rest. It was so much heavier than he expected, but that didn't faze him, instead he just channeled everything he had to move it. He let go and let gravity take over nearly immediately as he stepped back to keep himself from getting injured. Stepping up to the round hatch, his hands on the wheel. Turning it proved not as easily done as when he'd done it every other time. That didn't stop him. He pulled the door open and back once it had unlocked.

William was right by his side by that point.

"I'll go first," Oliver told him. He wasn't sure what was down there, but he also couldn't just leave his son up there. What if there was some other threat on the island? He'd seen people die and had them come back...and he'd been one of those people. Dead was never really dead in his world far too often when it came to enemies especially.

"Kid?" came a familiar voice.

Oliver looked down, he was already coming down the ladder when he'd heard the voice.

Slade was standing there at the bottom, no armor or anything, but there. That gave him some hope. "I see you found your kid," Slade said.

"The others?"

"Merlyn didn't make it."

Oliver wasn't sure how to feel about that, except to be worried about Thea. No matter how much his sister disliked him, he was still her biological father. No matter how messed up Malcolm had been in regards to both Tommy and Thea, losing a parent was never an easy thing. Now, Thea had lost three. He hadn't been there for her...but he hoped he still could be.

As he reached the bottom of the ladder, he turned to ensure that William was doing okay.

"Chase?"

"Dead," Oliver reported.

"Ms. Smoak did say that he had some twisted dead man switch, I guess the thing worked," Slade commented.

It worked too well was all he could think as he waited for William's feet to touch the ground. The heavy duty ARGUS door was open and he could see people sitting around inside, some in the cells and others just sitting on the floor leaning against the bars. He noticed as they moved inside that some of the walls near the stairs were cracked. It wasn't completely bomb-proof, but it was good enough.

"William!"

It was Samantha. She was on her feet and rushed to him immediately, tears falling down her face, and her arms wrapping tightly around him once she had him.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? Are you okay?" she questioned and pulled back to cup his face.

"I'm okay," came William's quiet reply.

Samantha pressed a kiss to his forehead before strangling him in a hug once again. "I was so worried. I don't know what I'd do if something had happened to you."

Oliver knew that they needed space. He needed to give it. As he took a step away, he looked around, Nyssa was sitting next to Quentin on a bench in one of the cells. They both sent a smile his way, but the way they smiled was almost sad. Rene and Dinah were sitting on the ground not far from Quentin and Nyssa. He turned to look in the direction where the others were. Diggle had found a chair (likely one that the guards used) while Thea and Felicity were curled up together on their sides on the floor and Curtis was sitting at the other end where their feet were.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked. Oliver hadn't expected Thea and Felicity to be sleeping, but at the same time they'd been through a lot.

"Do you have a boat?" Slade asked.

"Yeah," Oliver said, his attention temporarily diverted to Slade. "It's not far."

"Let's get out of here then."

His attention went back to Felicity and Thea, the two people he wanted to hug most now that they'd found everyone. His heart skipped a beat though when he realized only one of them was moving and it was Thea.

"Felicity?" Oliver breathed out as he watched how gentle his sister was with her. In that moment he also noticed the looks everyone was giving him, apologetic and sad. He moved to her and Thea and crouched down. "What happened?"

Thea sat up and stared at her brother for a moment. "We were above. Felicity grabbed me and pushed me down first right as one of the explosives went off. It knocked her into the wheel on the submarine door up top and then she fell all the way down here. No one saw or knows exactly if she hit anything else on the way down."

"We're fairly sure that it damaged the biostimulant," Curtis spoke up.

"Or she has spinal cord damage," Diggle added. "I'm also concerned that she might have internal injuries."

"Slade found some medical supplies, so she's drugged up at least. She shouldn't be in pain," Curtis offered.

"We need to get her to a hospital ASAP though."

And he wasn't going to argue or challenge that. If Felicity had to be drugged, then she obviously had to have been in a world of pain if Diggle gave them to her. Oliver just took all of what was said for a moment and then gave a slow nod. "Okay, let's get everyone to the surface and then to the boat."

"Is there a radio on the boat?" Dinah questioned.

"It doesn't work," William answered before Oliver could.

He was right.

"Maybe Curtis can look at it," Oliver put out there.

He exchanged looks with Thea and Diggle at first before he carefully scooped up Felicity. The group of them moved out of the prison area and towards where the stairs were. Oliver didn't miss the bag that Slade was carrying. "What are you bringing?"

"I'm not going all the way back to Star City with you, Kid," Slade told him. "I'm bringing the medical supplies for the boat and my new suit that you were so kind to bring to me wherever I decide to disappear…"

"What about your son?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"See him."

"I said I haven't decided." Slade tilted his head to the side. "One thing I know for sure is that if we don't get Ms. Smoak to a proper hospital than she's going to die."

Without words, Diggle took Felicity from him and between the two of them they carefully draped her into a fireman's carry position draped across his shoulders.

It took some time, but eventually they were all on the boat. There also came the decision that Chase's body was to be removed from the boat and put on Lian Yu. Diggle and Slade moved him to the prison. There would be time later for a proper burial, but right now they didn't have the time. They needed to be able to keep the boat balanced with so many people on board. Normally he was certain that the boat would hold no more than four to six people. They were looking at twelve people. They just needed to get to the mainland and to get Felicity help. After that, then they could figure out where everyone was going. His team would return back to Star City with him, but he had no idea where Nyssa and Slade would go. He had no idea if Samantha and William would go back into hiding, back to Central City, or figure something else out. He hoped that he'd be able to see more of his son now that the threat of Chase was gone, but there would always be threats in the future...and Oliver just couldn't make that choice for them.

Curtis and Diggle had been the ones who had moved Felicity to the boat itself. Without a dock, they'd all had to tread and even swim through water in order to get to the boat.

Getting people settled was difficult. Diggle had tried to make the inside space they did have in the boat so that any blood that might have been in there was covered with a tarp at the very least. Samantha and William wanted to be out on the deck. They'd figured out a way to keep the door open to allow for ventilation and so far, Oliver didn't know what to do or where to go on the small vessel. Slade was the one at the controls now. It left Oliver without a specific purpose and he was torn at what to do next. He had been trying to continue to give Samantha and William space, but at the same time that was difficult. He wanted to sit with Felicity too, but he felt selfish for wanting to do that.

"Where we?" came a slurred but familiar voice.

He moved to the room where Felicity was right inside with Thea, Curtis, Quentin, and Nyssa. Oliver stood close to the door, not wanting to crowd. Felicity was awake though, she looked worse, he realized.

"We're on a boat," Thea told her. "We're heading towards somewhere we can get you help."

"Sat phone," Felicity said.

"We don't have one," Curtis spoke up.

Felicity just seemed to smile at that. Her hand extended and she seemed to be trying to grab the bag that Slade had brought with him. "Lyla...call...we could call…"

Oliver didn't ask questions, he just moved to the bag and started to go through it. In the very bottom he found a satellite phone. Why hadn't Slade mentioned it? If Diggle had known, then he would have already called Lyla, called for ARGUS backup. None of that had happened, but why?

"It probably wouldn't have worked in the prison," Curtis brought up. "Between how heavily fortified that place is and the whole blowing up of the island."

"It'll work now?" Nyssa asked.

Oliver held it out to her. "Take it to John. He can get ARGUS out here."

Nyssa didn't say anything else, she just took the phone and left them.

Moving to Felicity's side, he stroked her cheek and he had no idea how she could still be smiling like she was. It was like nothing had happened to her. He remembered the last time when she'd been like this was when she'd been in the hospital when she'd first had her spinal cord injury. "We're going to get you help," he told her gently.

"I was trying to convince Thea to tell me stories," Felicity said before a pain filled groan left her lips and she cringed. "About when you two were kids...and all I got was shot up with something."

"You're in pain...and you were in pain…"

"I think I might like consciousness better," she whispered. "If I get to have the choice...and I should."

"You were moving too much when you were in that much pain," Thea told her.

"I'm sure ARGUS is on their way right now," Oliver told her.

Felicity blinked quickly, like she was trying to stay awake. "Will you tell me a story?"

"Are you in pain?"

"Yes."

"Yes, but with conditions…"

Felicity grumbled a bit. "Thea's definitely the more sneaky Queen…"

Thea laughed at that.

Oliver couldn't help but smile. He found the painkillers in the bag and prepared a syringe. "I will tell you a story about me and Thea as kids if you let me give you this."

"Okay," Felicity agreed.

"Really?"

"Really," Felicity told him. "I hurt enough to agree to that."

That didn't make him feel any better. It made him feel worse, in fact, but at the same time he knew that it would ease her pain and allow her to sleep...hopefully until they could get her to some real help. "When Thea and I were little, we were always asking our parents to take us on business trips to other places." He injected Felicity with the pain medication. "We thought that there had to be something fun like an amusement park in every corner of the world. So, one time they took us to London with them. It was definitely cool and we had a good time, but Thea kept wanting something like Disneyland."

"Which was totally paid off by me being a brat because we got to go to Disney Paris," Thea chimed in proudly.

Oliver smiled at that. "My parents were so irritated with us, but once we got there...it was like being there fixed everything. Not just Thea and I behaving, but with my parents...with us all as a family."

"That was my favorite vacation ever."

Turning to look back at Felicity, he found that she'd nodded back off. She'd already looked like she was having a hard time staying awake, so maybe it had just been enough to take the edge of the pain to allow her to rest. "We'll be home soon," he whispered before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Just rest."

TBC…