AU where Oliver stays in the Bratva and doesn’t get found at the end of his fifth year and instead stays behind and helps Anatoli establish himself. After a year has passed, Anatoli has properly solidified himself in his role and Oliver has become a respected high ranking member – a Russian in spirit, they say – they suddenly get news of an earthquake leveling the glades.
Because he hasn’t been snooping or pushing Moria to do better, Malcom gets away with it and Tommy lives, because he hadn’t been meddling. So, the season 1 cast is all there, just a year later and in a city filled with devastation.
Anatoli can see that Oliver is worried about his family, no matter how much he left them behind, so he offers Oliver to become the head of the Bratva in Starling. They want to use the chaos anyway and he trusts him, so it’s not a hardship to send him there.
So, Oliver finds himself in Starling under a new identity. He does his Bratva stuff, and they’re deep in the drug trade. He runs into Thea.
He runs into his baby sister buying drugs from the Russian mob with her friend – thankfully she lets the friend get her hands dirty while she waits in the car but she is still there – and they both see each other.
Oliver pretends not to recognize her then and Thea isn’t sure, but she becomes a little obsessed. She finds him and keeps trying to worm her way close to him and Oliver doesn’t want her to get hurt, so he keeps letting her, but he also keeps pretending like he doesn’t know her and has no clue who this brother is she talks about. He puts on a thick Russian accent and steals bits from Anatoli’s life to sell to her.
It’s this bittersweet thing, where he is so close to her, but he can’t confirm, has to keep her at a distance, but it’s so hard. Thea feels much the same, feeling she has her brother back, but he’s not him and she can’t tell anyone, because they’ll tell her to stop and get away from this criminal, but she can’t, because he’s giving her a piece of family back that she misses so desperately.
Meanwhile, Thea also gets a reputation as a Princess of Starling’s underworld and close to a Bratva Captain. This puts her in the crosshair of not only dangerous enemies the Bratva have made – Oliver especially – but Quentin too, who has been put on the Bratva case.
In order to keep her safe, he goes undercover as Kapusion to check up on her, taking out threats and such. By doing that, he also notices his mom acting stranger and stranger, which drags him into solving the reason for earthquake.
