So I was rewatching old scenes from the CW shows, Arrow and The Flash seasons 1 through 3, while reading a bunch of Arrow fanfics (mostly Lauriver but a few that weren't) and thought I'd give writing a story outline a go. I got the core idea after misreading the synopsis of "How'm I supposed to die?" by PhysicsIsMagic and thinking it was Thea in Oliver's place. Between the multiverse and the ripples of Flashpoint I figured why not, do an outline and see how it goes… Fairly well, hopefully.

Any differences to the flashbacks can to chalked up to Flashpoint's "Time Boom".

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XX Queen Mansion, Starling City; California – 2007 XX

"So Dad, I've been thinking about China." Oliver Queen said by way of greeting as in entered his father's office. "I've got this idea that'll make it really special."

"That sounds worrying." Robert chuckled, looking up from the documents scattered across his desk. "Do I want to know, this is something I could repeat to your Mother?"

"What? Yeah, totally" Oliver laughed as he dropped into one of the seats opposite his father. "So I was thinking that, maybe, say we increase the number of passengers going. What do you think?"

"Thinking of making this a little lover's getaway, you and Laurel?" Robert asked knowingly with a smile. There had been times, in the past, where Robert had seen too many of his vices in Oliver but he was so glad to see Oliver maturing and settling down… Although the look that flashed across Oliver's face at the mention of Laurel worried him. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing, nothing's wrong dad." Oliver lied poorly, worrying Robert. "Okay, you know how me and Laurel are looking to get a place right?"

"Laurel and I, son. You mean Laurel and I." Robert corrected.

"Me and Laurel are gonna move in together." Oliver stressed cheekily. "And… and I guess I'm a bit nervous, I mean it's a big step and I… Nevermind, not why I came here today. No I was thinking, what about taking Thea?"

"Thea?" Robert repeated slowly, setting aside his work and looking Oliver straight in the eye. "Thea has school, Oliver. I know you were never the most academically inclined, and I'll admit some of that was the fault of your Mother and I, but Thea is. And I don't want her missing classes."

"School year's just started Dad, she's not gonna miss anything she can't catch up on." Oliver argued. "Thea never gets to do anything cool, and how cool is this trip to China gonna be?... Come on Dad, it's like three weeks tops and she can take some books to study. Come on, Thea gets a cool story to tell at school and we get to avoid her sulking about being left out. I believe that's called a Win-Win, right?"

"Left out." Robert whispered, eyes flickering from his computer's monitor to one of the draws in his desk for a moment, securely locked and inaccessible to all but himself. "You know what, yeah… Heh, that sounds like a great idea."

XX Starling City Marina, Starling City; California XX

"Robert, I don't like the idea of this." Moira Queen told her husband. The pair stood on the jetty, out of the way of the crew loading the yacht.

"It's gonna be okay." Robert assured her, keeping himself calm while looking for anyone who might be eavesdropping for Malcolm.

"Well, how long will you be gone?" Moira asked, stepping aside to lot a pair of staff carry a large crate passed.

"Maybe six weeks, a little more depending on the weather." Robert told her then, seeming to read something in her expression, added. "Thea is just sailing over with us, once I'm done in China I'm going to send her back by jet… Give her another little story to tell at school."

"Well why not just fly to China and then fly back?" Moira asked, something about this trip was bothering her. She couldn't explain it but she knew something awful was coming. "I hate that stupid boat, please just make the trip shorter… Please?"

"Honey, this is a little bit of business with a whole lot of family time for me and the kids. I'm not cutting into it, since I don't see my daughter enough." Robert laughed, waving her off. Pulling Moira close, Robert gave her a soft kiss. "I love you, everything is going to be fine… Frank and I are going to take care of things, okay?"

"Robert, what?" Moira began before realisation set in. "No, no Robert don't-"

"Oh, my god this is going to be so cool!" A voice rang out, cutting off whatever Moira was about to beg, as the pair turned to see Thea and Oliver approaching the ship with travel bags in hand. "Thank you,, thank you, thank you a million times for this!"

"Now you remember the deal, right?" Robert asked with a smile. A smile that only grew when Thea pouted and opened the second bag she carried, showing a collection of school books and notepads.

"I totally spaced, I gotta call Tommy and tell him I'm gonna be out of town for a few weeks." Oliver declared before whipping out his phone and walking away from them.

The excuse got a snort from Robert and a chuckle from both Moira and Thea as they saw him walk up to Laurel. Laughing to himself, Robert was glad that Oliver had avoided the worst of his father's flaws.

XX The Queen's Gambit, The Pacific Ocean XX

To saw Robert Queen was angry with his son would be an understatement. Not only had the boy tried to smuggle party drugs aboard the ship, a ship his 12 year sister was on, and then tried to argue with Robert about it… The boy had even gotten aggressive with Captain Nutter and gotten kicked off the yacht.

Now that in of itself would have warranted a conversation when Robert got home but smuggling the younger Lance girl on-board without telling him – then storming off without getting her – was just ridiculous. Now Robert was stuck with an angry captain, an upset daughter and a rightfully nervous twenty year old.

"Just saw out of the crew's way, stay with Thea and we'll fly you home when we reach land." Robert had told Sara in a soft, if clipped, tone as he did his best not to blow up at the clearly infatuated girl.

Robert wasn't certain if Thea had worked out why Sara was here, she was smart by worshipped Oliver and would deny him doing something like this. Especially to Laurel, whom Thea adored as something of an older sister.

So here he was, sailing to China to meet with Triad gangsters to arrange the death of his oldest friend because said friend had finally gone insane, stuck with a daughter who may or may not have realised her brother isn't the great man she thought of him as, a very angry captain who was demanding they turn back due to a category two storm and a stowaway with one set of clothes and about five different forms of lingerie to deal with…

"Well Murphy, I'm honestly curious as to what you'll throw at me next!" Robert sighed as he eyed their position on the map. "Dave, tell the captain to divert for Hawaii if possible will you?"

"Hawaii Boss?" Dave Hackett, Robert's bodyguard, asked.

"Yeah, Hawaii. I'll get a flight on to China and we'll send Thea and Sara home on different flights." Robert huffed with annoyance.

"Both to Starling? Or should I send Oliver's mistress to Central?" Dave began. "I mean, her coming back from Hawaii might seem weird, suspicious even what with the Gambit having to stop there… But if we send her to Central City then she's just coming home from a few days away with the girls or something. Keep everything smooth for Oliver."

"That's a good idea Dave." Robert chuckled.

"Got plenty of practice covering these kinda of things up over the years, you know?" Dave laughed as he left to alert the captain of the change.

XX North China Sea XX

There wasn't enough food on the raft. Robert knew it. Not enough food and certainly not enough water. Robert knew it, and so did Dave.

With Thea huddled close, the poor girl still traumatised by what happened in the storm, Robert watched his bodyguard sit on the raft's edge and occasionally tap the knife against the emergency supplies.

"It's going to be okay Thea, don't worry, you'll make it through this." Robert promised, pulling Thea in closer. This was it, his punishment. He'd ignored or contributed to the suffering in his city for so long the universe had decided to finally punish him. And his little girl was suffering too. "Thea listen to me, you're going to survive. You'll not pay for my sins. I promise."

Reaching into his shirt pocket Robert removed his copy of the List. Gently working it in beneath Thea's life vest Robert then pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

"I'm so sorry baby, I'm so sorry." Robert repeated over and over. "I need you to survive, I need you to carry this. This monument to my sins. Our city is dying, and I helped… God forgive me Thea I helped. This trip, I… I was trying to make up for that, to fix the mess I'd allowed to worsen. You survive, okay, you survive and when you get home… Thea I'm sorry."

Thea's eyes had drooped, his voice lulling her to near sleep. That was good, Robert thought, good that she not see what came next.

"I have walked so far into this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as hard to go back…" Robert muttered softly, quoting Macbeth to himself, as he pushed away from Thea and stared at Dave. With a silent plea for forgiveness Robert knew he didn't deserve, Robert drew the small pistol he'd managed to keep on his person and shot his bodyguard once in the chest.

"Dad!? Dad what are you doing?" Thea shrieked, the gunshot having woken her from her doze and snapped her out of her shock. "Why did you… I don't … Why did you…"

"Because you have to survive Thea." Robert told her. "This trip, it was to fix what's wrong with Starling… I-I shouldn't have taken you, you're in this because I was too anxious to take my time… I… I love you Thea. I have since the moment I held you in my arms. I-I please remember that, when this is all done and Starling is… Well, I guess someone else will have to fix the mess we made, someone else will have to stop…"

"Daddy?" Thea didn't know what he was talking about. She didn't understand why he was talking like this or why he'd done that to Mr. Hackett. She didn't understand and she was scared.

"… Look away Thea… Look away." Robert whispered before closing his eye, putting the gun beneath his chin and squeezing.

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Just an idea I have, one of several for the Arrow series I've got. The idea of how 12, nearly 13, year old Thea would deal with the hell Oliver saw in the flashbacks – and how Oliver would deal with the grief of having been the one to get her on the ship – would shape the events of Arrow S1 and onwards. Would Thea come out like canon!Oliver, worse off or maybe better than he did? Would Oliver himself be like Tommy (mostly unchanged from before), would he have cleaned up his act and be a trying to help OR would the grief and shame about getting Thea and Sara killed have left him a wreck?

I might work more on this, if it looks like it gets any interest, if not at least the plot bunny is out there and no longer gonna be annoying me.

I'm dyslexic, so please point out any mistakes in spelling or grammar [I spell things the way they do in England and Ireland, so some things may look off to Americans]. Please leave your opinion via review or send them via PM, I'd like to know what you think. Well, I think that's everything I've gotta say so, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

This is Highvalour saying bye and thanks for reading