These Prison Walls (An Arrow: Season 7 Fanfiction)

Chapter 26: Hallucinations

Oliver gasped, awakening, now fully aware of the large concrete structure crushing him. 

'Overwatch? John?' he groaned, reaching for the small arrow near him, but to no avail. 

'Need some help?' a voice said, rolling the arrow towards him. He picked it up with a groan, pulling it close to him. He looked over, meeting eyes with the person that had rolled the arrow towards him. 

'Tommy?' he asked, his voice cracking with long since pent-up grief. 

'Hey, Ollie. It's been a while.' 

In another part of the building... 

Roy awoke, coughing, attempting to straighten himself while groaning in pain. Nearby, a gasp sounded as I awoke, sitting up. A shard of metal had made its way into my leg, and I groaned in pain at the sight of it. 

'John! Rene! Dinah!' Roy called in desperation. 'Can anyone hear me?' Then, he turned to me, limping over to kneel by my side. 

'I can hear you, and it's bloody loud,' I hissed. 'I can't walk. If you're going to find the others, you're going to have to leave me here.' 

'I'm here!' John called out. 'I'm here.' Roy ran into another room, pushing some metal beams off of John. He got up. 

'You okay?' Roy asked. 

'I'm good,' John groaned. 'Can't say much for my helmet.' Sparks shot out from every which way as Dinah's coughing echoed through the building. She stumbled towards the two. 

'You good?' John asked her. 

'Well, my bo staff's smashed, but other than that. Where's Rene?' 

'I don't know,' Roy replied. Dinah turned in panic and began to call out for Rene. They heard a weak plea as they kept shouting. 

'You guys going to get me out of here?' Rene asked. 

'Rene, are you in there?' 

'He's here. He's here,' Diggle said, pulling a plastic sheet off to reveal Rene trapped under concrete. 

'Get him out!' Dinah screamed. After a while of fruitless grunting and groaning to get Rene out, they found a metal bar and placed it under, using it to leverage the concrete and pull Rene out. When they were all standing, they made their way to Evelyn. Diggle pulled her up, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. 

'What the hell just happened?' Roy asked. 

'Emiko just dropped a building on us,' I gasped, hopping on one foot, attempting to stay upright. 'That's what happened.' 

'We've got to get to Oliver,' Diggle said. 'As we lost contact, he was chasing Emiko on the floor beneath us. We have to get there.' 

'Then we better hurry,' Dinah said. 

'Wait,' I called. 'I need to sit.' John let me sit on the floor. 'Come back for me when you've found Oliver. I'm in no shape to run - or fight.' 

'We can't leave you,' Rene said. 

'I know, Rene. Just come back for me, please.' 

'Okay,' Dinah replied. 'We'll come back for you.' 

Meanwhile... 

'You look shocked,' Tommy said. 'Is it the beard?' 

'No. You look good,' Oliver replied. 

'Yeah.' 

'Oh, I must have a really bad concussion.' 

'Yeah, man. A building just collapsed on you. It could be a little PTSD, too. That position that you're in with the rebar, it's remarkably similar to how you found me all those years ago.' 

'The night you died.' 

'Yeah. And I got to tell you, man, it looks like the same thing is going to happen to you if you don't get out of here, like, right now.' 

'Yeah?' 

'Yeah.' He used the arrow piece to drill into the metal, releasing him from the middle of it, Tommy pulling him out. 'Ooh, yeah, that was close,' Tommy said. 'You think you want to pop that thing back in?' Oliver hummed, steeling himself for the pain. 'Okay. One, two and three.' He popped Oliver's shoulder back in, causing him to yell. 'That had to hurt.' 

'Yeah.' 

'You have the Oliver angry face on right now. Just saying.' He sighed, walking away from Tommy. 

'I've got to get out of here. The team might be dead. Everything we've built with the SCPD is - is gone because of Emiko. I need to - I need to get out of here. I need to find the others. And we have to stop her.' 

'Isn't that going to be kind of hard considering she's family?' 

'She's not family anymore.' 

'Well, I hope you weren't planning on using your bow to get out of here because...' The two turned to the ground, where Oliver's bow lay broken. He limped up to it, picking up the mangled mess of the bow, then throwing it down onto the concrete. He stepped away, opening up his comms. 

'Overwatch. Arsenal. Athena. Does anyone copy?' After a failed attempt, he turned back to Tommy. 

'I know that you were worried about them, but they are pretty resourceful people. They're probably fine.' 

'Let's hope you're right.' 

'I usually am. You know, it is insane that we both had secret half-sisters.' 

'Well, yours didn't didn't try to kill you, did she?' Oliver snapped. 

'Well, you should give Thea some credit. I died before she had the chance to try.' Oliver gave him a look, and the two walked over to the arrows laying on the concrete. 'A couple of specialty arrows left, two explosives. Seems kind of risky considering the instability of this place, especially without a bow.' 

'Well, there are solutions for that.' 

'Speaking of, what abut Emiko? What kind of solution are you planning for her?' 

'The one she deserves. She let our father die.' 

'He abandoned her, Oliver.' 

'She's been manipulating me and Evelyn, and she's been manipulating the team for months. Posing as some sort of hero. The woman's a murderer.' 

'So now you're gonna be one, too? And here I thought we were done with all of that.' 

'I don't see another choice here, Tommy.' 

'It is exactly that kind of attitude that's gonna keep you stuck down here.'