Strength

An: I do not own Arrow. This little plot bunny entered my head on the way to work and I had to write it and post it today. Enjoy.

Summary: Adrian Chase is playing a game of Cat and Mouse on Lian Yu with Oliver and his team. His current hostage is Felicity Smoak and he takes a moment from the chase to try and break her allegiance to Oliver. Implied Olicity.

She was on her knees on the hard uneven rocky terrain of Lian Yu with her hands tied behind her back. In hindsight if she knew when Chase was going to take her, she would have worn jeans instead. A skirt was definitely inappropriate. She knew her knees were bruised and bleeding but that wasn't important. What was important, was the insane man pacing wildly in front of her. Since they had met him, he had had the upper hand. He had been planning this for years. Felicity could see clearly that Chase was a brilliant strategist and it was a pity he hadn't put that gift to use for more positive outcomes. Everything Team Arrow did was because he wanted it done. That was until he reached Lian Yu.

Lian Yu was clearly Oliver's home ground. He had spent years on this island and suffered through fire and brimstone, moving the fight to Lian Yu had been Chase's first mistake. The odds were stacked against Oliver but somehow Oliver had managed to slowly change the course of the tide. She knew other members of Team Arrow and William had already been rescued. Chase's wild pacing told her that Oliver was closing in on them which could be both a good and bad thing.

It was good because she knew that meant things with Chase would be ending soon but it was bad because the more you boxed a wild animal in a corner the more unpredictable it became. She was fairly sure that Chase was analysing the chess board and thinking ten steps ahead to regain the upper hand. Their little break was for a reason and Felicity was positive she wouldn't like the reason.

Chase's angry eyes suddenly turned to her and Felicity mentally prepared herself in case this was the moment it ended for her.

"You know what truly amazes me," he started saying, "The fact that you can stand by that murderer especially after everything you suffered through because of him. He ruined your life! You were kidnapped by the Count, Damian Darkh, …."

Felicity chose to interrupt him and clarify the first point. "Actually the Count didn't really kidnap me. He held me hostage. I was caught poking around where I should not have been. It was that incident that taught me how important it was to have back up when you are out in the field," Felicity said looking up at Chase. He was three feet away from her looking down at her.

"Backup?" Chase questioned, "Like the backup you had when you took on ARGUS?" From the glint in Chase's eye she knew he thought he had the upper hand in the conversation with her but he was very wrong.

"Oliver had my back, just not in the way I thought I needed him to. He understood in a way I hadn't yet, what I really needed," Felicity said defiantly.

Chase laughed bitterly, "They say I'm the insane one yet you blindly support him," Chase spat at her. "You're a paraplegic because of him."

"Damian Darkh made me a paraplegic not Oliver. Oliver was always there for me, at all my darkest moments. It would have been so easy for him to turn his back on me when I was in that hospital bed but he didn't. He chose to put that ring on my finger again. When I was ready to give up, he wasn't. He encouraged me to keep fighting for what I believed in. Oliver is the exact opposite of what you are trying to portray him as," Felicity insisted.

"Love really is blind," Chase mused. "It's a good thing I don't feel it. Evelyn was able to easily see the true Oliver Queen but you let your emotions cloud your judgement. You love a murderer, a man that kills for pleasure who's no different to me," Chase spat at her.

"I see the real Oliver Queen," Felicity said defiantly sticking her chin out. "I see the hero he is."

Felicity closed her eyes as Chase reached for the sword on his back and swung it down towards her but when she felt no pain, she opened them. He had stopped the sword right on her neck.

"No your death won't be so easy. I locked the two of you in that cave you call a bunker to show Oliver how weak you are. Instead of leaving you behind, he brought you out but I guess that just means that I'm going to get to gut you in front of him like a pig," Chase goaded. He slowly withdrew the edge of the sword from her neck by pulling it back towards him. She felt a slight sting of pain and she knew he drew blood purposely. He turned his back on her, confident that she couldn't do anything to him, and walked slowly away putting a little more distance between them before he turned back around to face her.

"But you know, I'm a reasonable guy. If you repent and admit your sins, I'll let you live like Evelyn," he said as he put his sword away.

"There is nothing to repent for. I know Oliver better than I know myself and I will stand with him," Felicity said fiercely.

"Even if that leads you to your death?" he asked pulling out his bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. He slowly levelled the arrow at her.

"Oliver and I are a mortal lock," Felicity insisted quoting the words Oliver had said to her in his office a few months earlier.

Adrian let the arrow fly and she fell backwards as the arrow buried itself in her shoulder right where the Clock King had shot her. It hurt just as much as the bullet did and she wished for some of those aspirins that Digg had given her the first time.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Chase asked as he walked up to her and crouched down next to her. "That's the pain that all of Queen's victims felt when he shot them with an arrow."

He reached forward and yanked the arrow from her shoulder. White hot pain shot through her and her vision went black for a few seconds. She must have screamed loudly because in the distance she could hear Oliver screaming her name.

When she was able to focus again she realised that Chase was staring at her. "You're much stronger than you look. I should have realised when my plan for Oliver to kill Billy didn't break the two of you apart. It's a pity I don't have the time to invest in breaking you. I'm fairly sure it would have been a wonderful experience."

Felicity had never understood those scenes in shows where the hostage spat in their kidnapper's face but that was exactly what she felt like doing at that moment.

He roughly held on to her wounded shoulder and forced her to stand. Felicity screamed in pain again and she heard Oliver shouting her nameagain. He was getting closer.

"I hope you enjoy your end Chase because Oliver is so much stronger than you," Felicity taunted him.

Chase smirked at her, "Oh the end of this game will be very explosive. We'll see if your Queen and his pawns survive."

Felicity had a sinking feeling as Chase dragged her along that he had one more nasty surprise up his sleeve but now was not the time to doubt Oliver. She believed in him and she believed they would end up victorious. Chase was not going to win. He was not going to break them. Team Arrow was strong and they would prevail.

An: Thanks for reading. For my usual readers the next part of Newlyweds will be posted Tomorrow.