So this happened. I wrote this ages ago, my computer crashed and I lost the ending, and only now have gone back to it. Because of that this is kind of set in the middle of the second season, but I updated it to reflect the recent plot points resulting in a sort of alternate season two where the big things still happened. Only three chapters in total.

For Laurel-Haters: I shamelessly use Laurel in this story to further along the plot in a way that is not flattering to the character. However I like Laurel as a character and will not tolerate any hate towards her. Your opinion is great, I'd love to hear that, but I've been abused on this site before because of my opinion on Laurel and that's probably why I've taken so long to write anything new. In conclusion, opinions are great; for or against. Hate and insults are not welcome.

Mentions of violence, small spaces, and up to and including season two spoilers.

Chapter 1

Inside the bare concrete floor was lit by floodlights and inconspicuous waiters walked the crowd with trays of drinks. Everyone was gathered in the centre of the room, all the lights and attention focused on the temporary boxing ring. Armed guards patrolled the edges of the huge space, hidden by the shadows but Felicity could now be considered an expert on scoping out security measures.

"I'm in," she muttered, grabbing a glass from one of the waiters and mumbling into it. Since she signed onto the arrow team she had seen most of Starling City's underground. It started with the casino, then secret mob headquarters and tonight she was at an illegal fighting ring.

The ring had drawn the Arrow's attention when the group had branched out from semi-professional fighters and started to pay desperate Glade-dwellers to star in the fights. There were even rumours of death matches, despite Felicity finding no evidence of any deaths, but either way the ring had to be stopped before it escalated. To stop them, however, they needed information. She had had to work her way up to get an in for the event, starting off with a fight in a dodgy looking gym two weeks ago. That had led her to an abandoned community hall in the Glades and that in turn scored her an invite to the classy event tonight – where hopefully there was someone high-up enough in the organisation to have the information they needed to shut the whole thing down. The worst part of it all though was that there was a dress code, the men wearing suits and the few women in colourful dresses and jewels, like dressing up the event made it all better.

Pulling out of her thoughts Felicity got back to work. "At least two guards on each entrance and one or two on the open upper level," she announced.

"Got it," Oliver said, picking her up over their earpieces.

"I've got eyes on Digg. I think I'll go introduce myself."

Walking through the crowd Felicity made her way to where the fighters were being corralled in a roped-off area. Five men were lined up, all shirtless, each with two guards standing on either side as the crowd inspected them. John Diggle was one of them.

Felicity walked up and down the rope fence making a show of inspecting the men. They all looked vicious in one way or another. John was not the largest by one, but what the others lost in muscles was made up for with tattoos or scars, showing that they were seasoned fighters. Felicity rolled her eyes mentally when she realised she could accurately judge the men's fighting prowess.

At first they thought that the ring would be a simple operation, and had decided an inside man was the surest way to get information they could pass along to the police, so Diggle had volunteered as bait for the selectors with his recognisable military background. However they soon found out that the fighters were exposed to next to no useful information. They didn't even know the location to the fights, they were just picked up and driven there, and then cleaned up as they wanted them presentable for the idle rich. That meant that Diggle couldn't have any communication device without being discovered, nor a tracker as they gave them new clothes. Diggle was essentially going in blind so Felicity was there to fix that, with Diggle as her backup.

She stopped in front of Diggle and looked him over.

"What's your name, gorgeous?" he asked with a wink.

"Megan," she smiled back. "Are you going to win this fight for me?"

"Depends. Will I see you after?"

"Maybe," Felicity said coyly. Reaching into her clutch she pulled out a fake business card. Holding it up to show the guard that it was just a card, she then held it out to Diggle. "Call me," she said as flirtatiously as she could, because after all it was Diggle and really it was like flirting with a sibling which was all kinds of wrong. Passing him the card she also managed to stealthily slip him an earpiece.

She sauntered away, or at least she liked to think she sauntered and found a place off to the side of the crowd.

"I gave Digg the earpiece," she said to Oliver.

"I'm here," Diggle announced. "Good work, Felicity."

"Five minutes to the fight," Felicity advised. "Moving into position."

Skirting the crowd Felicity headed over to the betting table. The bookie was the only part of the fighting ring that kept records and they hoped he had some information that led to the rest of the ring. Follow the money as it were, helped along by the fact that the more affluent patrons preferred to wire a deposit through their anonymous accounts. Walking around the Glades with thousands in cash was a bad idea. Lining up to make her bet, she glanced at the laptop that she would be hacking once a distraction occurred. And boy would it be a big distraction.

Felicity watched calmly as the first two fighters were led into the ring and barely flinched as the lights cut out and chaos descended. The sounds of screams accompanied the whistling of arrows through the air.

The room was now lit only by the torches at the end of the guard's guns, trying to identify where the Arrow was. In the broken light Felicity snagged the laptop off the table and ducked over to the side where she was out of the way. The bookie was trying to secure the cash as people demanded their money back instead of running so he didn't notice his missing laptop.

Felicity frantically worked, downloading everything onto her USB, willing it to copy faster. She flinched when someone came near her, but relaxed when she recognised John.

"Thirty seconds," she said and he nodded taking a protective stance over her. "Alright, done." She placed the laptop back on the table, the bookie still having no idea that it had gone missing.

Diggle hustled Felicity out of the warehouse, the guards too distracted by everything else to care that one of their fighters was escaping.

"We're clear," Diggle told Oliver as they hit the night air. Sirens could be heard in the distance.

"Meet back at the safe house," Oliver ordered.

They made their way to where the car was parked a few streets over and headed back to the building where Oliver had set up his second hideout.

Felicity went straight to the computers, eager to look at the data she had stolen. She kicked off her high heels as she waited for the data to load and started to remove the many hairpins that had been keeping her hair up in the fancy bun. She zoned out the rest of the room as she concentrated on her computers. She vaguely noticed when Oliver returned and quickly looked up to see if he was injured, but he seemed fine and she went back to her task.

"How did we do?" Oliver asked as he noticed her smile in triumph a few minutes later.

"Well, asides from the extensive list of rich people in this city with serious morality issues, there isn't much."

"And that's a good thing?" Diggle asked.

"Yes. I noticed several of the spectators tonight used their private driving service to get there, and each of those cars has a GPS. I hacked the driving companies and accessed the past GPS routes and with a little cross referencing I got a set of locations in the Glades that they use for the fights. There are only so many places in the city to hold an illegal fight so they rotate the…" she quickly counted her list "…eleven locations in a random order."

"That's…very resourceful, Felicity," Oliver said in amazement.

"I aim to please," she shrugged. "So now all we need to do it tip off the police about the locations, they go in and arrest everybody and someone should talk to lead them to the ringleader. Voila, fight ring crumbles."

"Where are we on the ringleader?" Oliver asked. "Police resources what they are I doubt they'll be able to find him if they have to spread out over eleven separate locations."

"Now I know the names of the spectators I know which bank accounts to target. With the deposit required for tonight's fight I can follow the money, but if they are any good it will take me a while to track it. Criminals tend to be paranoid about these things."

"Let me know when you have something," Oliver ordered.

"Aye, aye," Felicity saluted and spun back to her computers.

Oliver and Diggle shared a fond smile at Felicity's eccentricities and went about their own business.

It was a few days later when Felicity got a hit on the fight ring money trace.

She blinked in surprise as she hadn't seriously been working on it; she was at Queen Consolidated, returned to her former title of IT consultant, and after finishing her required work for the day had been alternating between Arrow projects and trying to get Oliver back as the CEO. The money had been wired through multiple accounts to disguise its trail but Felicity had been tenacious and it had paid off.

Grabbing her phone Felicity quickly dialled Oliver. "I got him," she announced her triumphant grin obvious to Oliver through her voice. "Everything I have on Leonardo Yates I've just sent to the private server. We have our fight ringleader and by all accounts a very dangerous man."

"I'll call Diggle. We hit him tonight."

"He won't know what's coming."

The taking down of Leonardo Yates made not just the local news but also international. The SCPD were lauded over their good work and their budget was increased so that they could keep fighting the good fight. The Arrow was never mentioned.

Felicity spend a few minutes complaining about how the police force kept taking credit for their good work but cut off when she saw the look of pure amusement on Oliver's face.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just…you're so irate about this."

"And you aren't? I mean I wasn't the one running around with a bow and arrow but I once had this group project in college that I spent all this time on because my partner refused to do anything and then she had the nerve to claim that I did nothing and that it was all her work and I nearly punched her. Not that I ever would, and apparently I wouldn't have done a very good job because Diggle told me I have been punching wrong for all my life…and seriously why don't you ever stop me?" She took a breath and looked at Oliver who was no longer just amused but was wearing a genuine smile.

"I'm just happy Yates is off the streets," he said and then added, "and I think you're angry enough for the both of us."

"This is coming from the grrr-arrow-guy?" Felicity asked incredulously. "Go sharpen your arrows, Oliver," she scowled, throwing one of his tennis balls at him.

Oliver laughed and easily dodged the ball.

Felicity turned back to her computers, hiding a smile. It was rewarding to see a light-hearted Oliver.

It was a quiet week, the city's underground rocked by the arrest of Yates, everyone keeping a low profile while the police were riding the high of success. Oliver kept the nightly patrols to a minimum in the lull, using his time to put more effort into figuring out the whole QC mess which he had neglected slightly in the lead up to discovering Yates. Felicity appreciated the break as it meant she went home at a more acceptable hour and had enough time to do some of the things that she had been putting off - like a proper clean of her apartment and meeting up with a few work friends, especially now she was back in IT.

It seemed like Oliver was also enjoying the small break as he came into Verdant one night with a smile on his face announcing that he and Laurel were having dinner that night so everyone could all have the night off if nothing came up on the scanners.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to go out with Laurel?" Diggle asked. Felicity paused at her work her attention caught. She was glad her friend had breached the subject first so she didn't have to.

"I know she was upset with us for going after Yates without her, but I think she's over it now, especially since she got the prosecution case against him." His smile fell, "And I was hoping she might be able to give me a few legal pointers about getting Queen Consolidated back."

Diggle clapped Oliver on the shoulder in understanding. "As long as you're both on the same page – you two are as stubborn as each other. It'll be good for us all to have a night off."

"Hot date?" Felicity asked Diggle impishly.

"Maybe," he admitted.

Felicity broke into a wide smile. "Where are you taking Lyla? There's a great new bistro on third that has these amazing ice-cream sundaes, I think she was craving ice-cream last I saw her, oh and a little further down is Ping's. Best dumplings ever."

"Whoa, girl, slow down," Diggle laughed. "I don't know where I'm going, Lyla is taking me out."

"Aww, Digg, who knew you were such a romantic," Felicity teased.

"Uh-huh," he dismissed walking over to the training area.

"Any plans, Felicity?" Oliver asked politely.

"Only if you count a bottle of wine, television and painting my nails."

"Sounds nice," Oliver said honestly.

Felicity had a sudden image of her and Oliver siting on her old couch with a bottle of wine. She quickly changed the subject. "So, where are you going to take Laurel?"

The three of them left the lair at the same time later that night, the guys walking Felicity to her car before going their own way. Usually only one of them escorted her, but they were still arguing over whose fault it was that Diggle's phone had been broken – it was now sitting in the trash can in pieces after it had had an unfortunate meeting with the unforgiving cement floor. When Felicity wished them a good night they were still arguing.

It was an uneventful ride home for Felicity and she walked to her door slowly as she checked the calendar on her phone; her car was due for a service soon and she had to find time to take it in.

Opening her door she threw the keys to the side before turning to close the door behind her. She didn't have time to scream as a masked man came from nowhere and shoved her door open again, the blunt edge catching her on the head as she stumbled backwards and fell on the floor.

In a daze she watched as the man closed the door behind him. He looked down at her and decided she was out for the count. He pulled out a phone and dialed a number. "I got her," he said turning away from her.

Seeing his phone, Felicity realised that she still had hers tightly clutched in her hand. She didn't have time to call or message someone, but she curled into a small ball until her hand was near her feet and slipped the phone into her left boot. She was just in time as the man turned back to her and grabbed her leg to drag her further into her apartment. Felicity took the opportunity to lash out, kicking up with the leg he held and catching him in the stomach.

Scrambling to her feet she tried to get to either her bedroom with the window she could climb out of or her bathroom with the lock. The man bowled into her from behind and she fell back to the floor, upsetting her side table first, the man's weight pinning her down as well as the table's.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, hoping one of her neighbours was home, she struggled. Her elbow hit something that crunched and she guessed she had just broken his nose judging by the sound and the amount of cursing he was doing. He moved just enough for her to wriggle out from under him while he was distracted. Backing up she grabbed the first thing she could, a lamp, and threw it at the intruder. It missed and he continued to go after her, the broken table impeding him only slightly as he shouted in anger.

Felicity got as far as her bedroom door before she was grabbed from behind and thrown into the wall. She hit her already dazed head and fell heavily. This time the man didn't second guess her and kicked her twice in the stomach.

She gasped in pain and he picked her up by her shirt collar. "That was from me," he snarled. "The rest is from Yates."

He delivered a punch to her face.

Blackness came swiftly.

Felicity woke up slowly.

It was dark.

Everything hurt.

Her head hurt most which was why she was obviously having trouble putting her thoughts together.

The next thing she realised was that she couldn't move.

Her hands were bound, her feet as well, and she was lying on her side on a hard uncomfortable surface.

Her next realisation came with a heavy dose of panic; she wasn't blindfolded, her eyes were open and it was pitch black.

Reaching out in front of her she banged her hands on a course piece of wood. Rolling over, ignoring the pain, she frantically stretched up, hitting wood again with a solid thump, just inches above her head. A fine layer of dirt rained down on her and she coughed. Stretching out her feet and feeling around her, all Felicity could find was solid wood.

"Oh no," she sobbed as she finally understood.

She was buried alive.