This is the final flashback chapter of Arrow. Also, on a different note, is anyone else thrilled that the day we've all been waiting for since Crisis is nearly here. Oliver Queen returns for one last fight on Wednesday and I cannot wait for it. It's been too long since we've seen Stephen Amell wearing that hood for anything new. It'll probably be the highlight of season 9, since I know several people have mixed feelings about the final season, but please don't share those opinions here. I only added this note because of how excited I am for the final crossover. Now onto the chapter.

"Ollie?" Laurel asked in shock at seeing her supposed to be dead boyfriend Oliver Queen alive and well and wearing a weird green hood.

"Laurel, is that really you?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, how, I thought you were dead? I mourned you?" Laurel asked, trying to make sense of all this.

"I know, but Laurel, you have to continue to act like I'm dead, since if anyone finds out I'm alive, they won't be." Oliver said.

"What?" Laurel asked as Oliver explained what had happened to him after the Gambit went down. How he'd been marooned on an island in the North China Sea and how he'd been forcibly conscripted into the service of a clandestine government organization called Argus that was forcing him to work for them and do their dirty work and he'd been told if anyone in the city found out he was still alive, they'd be killed.

"Ollie, let me help you." Laurel said.

"No, Laurel, I don't want to put you on Waller's radar. That woman has no morals or ethics of any kind. Hell, she was willing to hire a mercenary to shoot down a plane of innocent people just to kill one target that was on the plane. I can't risk her getting her hands on you." Oliver said.

"I can take care of myself, Ollie." Laurel said.

"I know, that's why I don't want you to get involved in this, since I don't want Waller to force you to work for her too. It's bad enough I have too." Oliver said.

"Ollie, I just got you back." Laurel said.

"I know and Laurel, I've thought about you every single day since the Gambit went down. My main motivation for coming home was to come back to you, but not like this. I can't expose you to Waller. Please, promise me you'll forget you ever saw me." Oliver begged her and Laurel could tell he wasn't kidding.

"One condition." Laurel said.

"And that would be?" Oliver asked as Laurel walked up to him.

"Promise me that once you finish whatever it is you're doing in the city and before you leave, since I doubt you'll be able to stay here too long, you'll come find me. I want to see you one more time before you leave and then you promise me you'll come back." Laurel said and Oliver smiled at her.

"I promise, but Laurel, I have to ask, where's Thea?" Oliver asked and Laurel sighed.

"I wish I knew. She kind of disappeared off the face of the earth. As far as I know she's still alive, but I have no idea where she is. We kind of lost touch while you were gone." Laurel said and Oliver sighed.

"I'll find her eventually." Oliver said and Laurel nodded and before they went their separate ways, though Laurel couldn't help but look back as she saw her lover jump off a rooftop and she couldn't help but think about what a good partner he'd be in her mission when he came home, since she did expect him to come home to her eventually.

However, before she could head back to her base, Laurel felt a dart enter her neck and she lost consciousness.

When Laurel regained consciousness, she found herself strapped to a chair and stripped down to her undershirt and shorts, since Bruce had taught her to be prepared for this eventuality. She saw her suit jacket and pants, along with her mask and weapons, put up on a shelf nearby and she could tell that her powers were being dampened.

"What the hell?" Laurel asked as she tried to shake the grogginess out of her head.

"Ah Ms. Lance, I see you've regained consciousness." an emotionless female voice said as a black woman wearing a pantsuit walked up to her.

"You must be Amanda Waller." Laurel said, since in addition to Oliver, Bruce had told her about this bitch.

"I see you've heard of me. I'm assuming your teacher told you about me?" Waller asked.

"Yeah, though he didn't mention that you'd strip me down on the first date. I thought you'd at least buy me dinner first." Laurel said, joking weakly as she tried to escape.

"Your attempts at humor are almost interesting. But I wouldn't waste my energy trying to escape if I were you. You'll find we've taken very serious precautions. Those cuffs you're wearing are made out of an Nth metal alloy. Not even Superman could break out of those. At least not easily." Waller said.

"Why the hell am I here?" Laurel asked.

"Mr. Queen broke the rules. I told him what would happen if anyone in Star City discovered he was still alive and while I could kill you, I think you'll be more useful to me in more than one capacity. After all, in addition to being the incentive Oliver needs to learn to fall in line, someone with your skills could be of great use to me." Waller said, only to have Laurel spit in her face.

"I will never work for you, willingly or otherwise." Laurel said.

"We'll see about that." Waller said, right as they heard the click of a gun's safety being removed and Laurel felt her heart lift when she saw Oliver standing behind Waller with a gun aimed at her head.

"The only thing we're going to see is if I'm gonna shoot you in the head and end you quickly or am I gonna drag out your suffering? You shouldn't have brought Laurel into this." Oliver said.

"You brought her into this. And do you really think that you can just walk in here all high and mighty and get away with shooting me?" Waller asked.

"Considering the fact that you're done either way, yeah I do." Oliver said.

"What are you talking about?" Waller asked.

"Laurel's tech support saw you grab her and contacted me and also hacked your sister and sent your ledger of dark, dirty secrets to the pentagon. There should be a swat team here any minute. The only question is if the body they'll find will be dead or alive. Either way, your time of doing whatever you want without consequences is over." Oliver said and Laurel couldn't help but smirk that her step sister had done all that. Especially after she felt the power dampener in the room shut off as she felt her cry come back.

"Ollie." Laurel said.

"Yeah?" Oliver asked her.

"Get down." Laurel said with a smirk and Oliver didn't question it, he just nodded as he jumped out of the way right before Laurel used her cry to send Waller flying back into a wall as Oliver then rushed over to her.

"I'll get you out of here in a second." Oliver said.

"Thanks for coming for me." Laurel said.

"Did you have any doubt I would?" Oliver asked.

"Not at all." Laurel said as Oliver used Waller's security card, which he'd grabbed before she was blasted back to remove Laurel's restraints.

"You better get your suit back on. Don't want anyone else to know who it is under that mask." Oliver said and Laurel nodded as she went to grab her stuff while Oliver walked up to Waller.

"If you think I'm sorry about what I did, you're wrong. I am proud of everything I've done for my country. Everything has been to protect it." Waller said as Oliver aimed the gun at her.

"Well you won't be doing that anymore." Oliver said coldly as he pulled the trigger and put a bullet in Waller's head.

"Was that necessary?" Laurel asked as she walked up to him, fully suited up.

"I would've shot her in the heart but she doesn't have one. Trust me, this was kinder than she deserved. You should get out of here. I'll deal with the fallout of all this and then find you later. It's best if no one knows you were involved." Oliver said and Laurel nodded, but before she left, she couldn't stop herself from kissing him.

"You better come find me." Laurel said before walking out.

After she thanked her sister for helping get her out of that situation, Laurel headed home, only to find Oliver waiting for her there.

"So, everything go well at Argus?" Laurel asked.

"Yeah. Considering all the shady shit Waller did, they've agreed to cover up this whole incident and not hold what I did against me in exchange for my silence." Oliver said, but Laurel could tell that it wasn't good news.

"You're not staying are you?" Laurel asked and Oliver sighed.

"No, I'm not. The US general who's taken jurisdiction is insisting that I be debriefed about everything back in China. But once that's done, then I'll come home." Oliver said and Laurel sighed.

"You promise?" Laurel asked.

"I promise. But I'm not leaving until tomorrow." Oliver said with a smile, which Laurel shared.

"Good. Then we still get some time together. And I promise my lips about all this are sealed." Laurel said.

"Good. But promise me you won't tell my family I'm alive. I don't want them to know what I did to get this far." Oliver said.

"I promise. Now, enough talking." Laurel said with a smile as she walked up to Oliver and kissed him and they both let things develop from there.

However, Oliver did not return from China like she thought he would, so she assumed that he'd died in the chemical spill Laurel had heard happen in China while he was over there, so she returned her efforts to protecting Star City, including recruiting a doctor to help patch her up. The doctor's name was Abigail Sawyer. Laurel spent another two years protecting Star City alone until the day she merged with her counterpart from the old universe. The day she came back to life and the day that the love of her life finally came back into it. She just hoped that he'd still love her. Especially since Felicity was no longer an option.