Title: Through the Sands of Time

Author: Miranda Aurelia

Pairing: Chloe/Oliver

Summary: A betrayal sends a battle-weary Connor Queen hurtling through time into the past. Soon, the JL gang discovers that potentially messing up the timeline is the least of his worries.

Chapter 1

"You're going to be okay."

The pre-teen just tightened her grip on his arm, her eyes wide with fright.

Unfortunately at the moment, there was another explosion nearby which highlighted their precarious position. In his arms, Sarah whimpered in fear at the sound, which was not surprising considering they were currently stuck on a ledge with only cold, unyielding rock behind them and a seemingly bottomless descent in front of them.

"Hey! Up here!"

Connor looked up to see the familiar face of Nathan Kent looking over the edge of the cliff.

Seconds later, a rope was thrown over the side. However at the exact same time, Connor could feel the ledge they were standing on beginning to shake.

"Grab on!"

He quickly tied the rope around her waist and tugged. "I got it! Pull her up!"

The ground trembled beneath him and if seemed like forever before the rope fell back down again.

As with before, he quickly tied the rope around himself and tugged. Seconds after his feet left the ledge, the rock finally gave way, falling down and disappearing into the mist.

About three-quarters of the way up, he heard a masculine shout and the rope slackened. Yelling, he soon found himself dangling precariously from the face of the rock, the only thing that was preventing him from making his maker was an exposed root that he somehow managed to grab onto.

"No!" he heard Sarah cry out before her shout was abruptly silenced.

Looking up, his eyes widened at the barrel of the gun pointing down at him. However, his surprise wasn't due so much to the firearm as it was to the person holding it.

"What do you think you're doing?" He yelled at his girlfriend.

She just shrugged, "What does it look like to you?"

"Then what the hell did you do to Nathan and Sarah?"

Dominique just sneered at him, "Kent just had a mild case of Kryptonite poisoning. And don't worry about the girl; we didn't spend all this time planning her rescue only to kill her. No, as it is, you're going to be our only casualty today."

For a second, Connor just stared at her. "What?"

"The council has decided that you've become a liability, executioner." She deliberately stressed his title, "I'm just following orders."

With that, she fired and Connor reflexively released his hold onto the root to avoid getting shot. His girlfriend's cold smile was the last thing he saw as he fell towards the mist and unconsciousness overtook him.

Unseen by anyone, his body soon disappeared shimmered and disappeared.

Oliver knocked the guard out with a well-placed punch.

"More heat signatures heading towards you from the north side," Chloe's voice sounded in his earpiece.

"Cyborg, what's your status?"

"I'm downloading the files-"

"Hey, you there!" Green Arrow looked up and saw another guard closing in towards him. One arrow later and the guard was out like a light.

"Cyborg's down!" Impulse's voice rang out.

"What?"

"I'm on my way," Oliver took off down the hallway towards Bart and Victor's location.

"Aquaman, status."

"I'm almost through," came AC's voice followed by a grunting sound. "Got it!" Seconds later, "What the hell? There's nothing in here!"

Then the unmistakable sound of gunfire could be heard over the comm.

"…It's a trap!" AC yelled.

"Oh my God…" Chloe's voice was barely a whisper before she regained her composure, "Aquaman, turn left and head down the hallway. The stairs are behind the last door on your right side."

"Abort mission. Everyone, rendezvous at point B."

AC tore down the stairs. Near level two, he nearly crashed into the rest of the team as they piled into the stairwell. Victor was barely conscious; he was supported by Impulse and Green Arrow as they hurried down the rest of the stairs. A few levels above them, the sound of angry yelling and pounding feet could be heard.

Finally reaching the hangar, they were rushing towards the doors when Green Arrow hissed in pain as a bullet grazed his shoulder. The team was forced to scramble for cover as a bright green beam of light hit the area where they'd been scant milliseconds ago, leaving a decent sized crater in the floor.

"I guess now we know what happened to the stolen DX-320," muttered AC as they took cover behind some shipping crates as they tried to catch a glimpse of their assailants.

Suddenly all the lights went out.

"I've cut off the lights," Chloe's voice came on, "Everyone, what's your status?"

"Sitting duck."

"Impulse!" Oliver glared at Bart, although the effect was ruined by the dark.

"What, it's true!"

"The emergency generators are starting up," said Chloe, "I'll see what I can do."

"Blow the place up if you have to! I want them dead and out of my hair!" rang out a male voice from direction where the shooter had been. This was followed by the slam of a door.

"This just gets better and better," said Oliver dryly as another blast of green energy roared through the darkness.

Connor landed with a heavy thud onto the metal walkway. Shaking his head, he slowly pushed himself up and took in his surroundings, a slightly confused look on his face.

At that moment, memories of his last moments immediately came over him, with Dominique's face in the forefront.

Where am I? He thought, Is this what hell looks like?

Because never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that hell would look like the inside of a warehouse.

His senses screamed at him and in one smooth motion, he had his knife out, the blade held against the jugular of the man that had tried to sneak up on him.

Connor watched the thug for a second as he debated what his next move should be.

Okay, let's do this the easy way.

The hapless thug was frozen as Connor pressed two fingers against the man's forehead. Connor could feel his energy replenishing as he sifted though the man's memories.

Ah, there it is.

The warehouse he was in supposedly belonged to a company named Ares Shipping, but was really used for illegal shipments into the country. However, tonight it was being used to trap Green Arrow and his fellow bunch of busybodies-

Connor was so surprised by this information that he almost missed the fact that the man was rapidly paling.

Shit.

He quickly pulled his hand away and cut off the connection as the man collapsed facedown onto the walkway.

Checking the man's pulse, Connor was relieved to find that there was still a faint one there. Sometimes, there were moments when his powers were both a gift and a curse.

"Don't get so close to him. The guy's like an energy leech."

He closed his eyes as he remembered the whispers amongst the league members that had gone on when they thought he was out of hearing range.

His mother had been blessed, or rather, cursed, with the ability to heal all wounds – even to the extent of bringing people back from the dead. A long time ago, he'd had that ability as well, but after his mother's death, his powers had morphed into deadly ones he had today. It was as if his powers had reversed so that all he could do now was heal himself, but not others.

He barely had time to reconcile the memories he'd gained from the other man when he caught sight of four figures running into the hangar.

Who the hell does this impostor think he is, masquerading as Green Arrow? He thought, silently outraged on behalf of his absent father.

A movement out of the corner of his eye drew his gaze to the three men standing on the platform overlooking the hangar as one of them starting shooting at the four figures below.

Priorities, mate. His inner voice told him. The trigger-happy guys go first. Then you can beat up the impostor.

Connor's eyes narrowed as he began to make his way towards them.

At that moment, one of the other guys fired with a large gray blaster and there was a resounding BOOM! as green energy shot out towards the figures on the ground.

He stumbled as the lights abruptly went out.

"Blow the place up if you have to! I want them dead and out of my hair!" he could hear one of the men yell out followed by the slam of a door.

It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the dark, but the light shining through a few of the narrow, dusty windows allowed enough vision to continue making his way towards the two thugs.

Then everything happened at the same time.

The lights came back on as a bunch of guards burst into the hangar from the door the Green Arrow and his team had came from. Meanwhile, Connor knocked the thug with the gun unconscious causing the one with the blaster to turn his attention onto this new threat. Meanwhile, seeing this, Green Arrow and his team immediately ran out from their hiding place towards the exit.

Grappling with the thug for the blaster, he managed to knock the weapon out from the other man's grasp. A well-placed kick sent the blaster spinning off the platform onto the ground below and Connor leapt off after it.

Bart must have seen it fall, because seconds later Connor soon found himself staring down the barrel of yet another gun. The only difference was that Impulse didn't seem as trigger-happy as his ex.

"Who are you?" Bart asked, lowering his newly found weapon slightly.

"All doors leading into the hanger have been locked down," Chloe's voice sounded into their earpieces, "I can't really do much about the thugs stuck in there with you though."

"Stay with him," Oliver ordered AC before he pulled out an arrow and started shooting. The odds weren't great, but with the DX-320 out of the hands of the enemy and only about five guards left, he was feeling a lot better than he did a few minutes ago.

Part of him wondered about the mysterious figure that had showed up. All he managed to glimpse with a figure with shaggy brown hair and while Oliver didn't recognize the guy, but whoever he was, it seemed as though he was on their side.

A few minutes later, it was all over.

"Get Cyborg to the van," Green Arrow ordered before he slowly headed over the figure that was silently watching them.

"My team and I really appreciated your help," he said. As he got closer, he found out that the shaggy brown hair he thought he'd saw was really a dark blond. Narrowed green eyes followed his every movement as the bearded stranger finally spoke up.

"Green Arrow, I presume?"

"You presume correctly."

The stranger seemed to be sizing him up before fingers wrapped tightly around the exposed part of his arm.

"Who are you and what have you done with Oliver Queen?" The stranger hissed.

Oliver's eyes widened behind his sunglasses and he tried to yank his arm back. At the same time, he could fell his energy getting drained and he stared at the stranger in shock.

"Hey, what do think you're doing?" Bart's angry voice rang out from behind them before a red blur knocked into the stranger.

Oliver stumbled backwards before he managed to regain his footing.

"What the hell was that for?" he yelled at the mysterious man.

However, the stranger just looked at him in shock. "It really is you," he breathed. Then Connor collapsed.

Impulse just looked at Green Arrow.

"Let's go now." He pointed at Connor's prone figure, "And he's coming with us."

To be continued.