A/N: Ok, fair warning. This is DEPRESSING. It is based off the promo photos from the season 2 finale released, so there are also some semi-spoilers for the season 2 finale contained herein (only in the sense of this is my take on a couple of scenes based on the promo pictures). It will start in present time, and the page break will take it back in the past before the next page break will take it back to the present. I switched tenses to indicate that the past part is kind of like him remembering what happened, while the present part is the fallout.

Disclaimer: Arrow isn't mine.

Darkness Falls

He stares listlessly into the fire, at the ceiling, through the people who come to visit him. They're trying to pull him out of this… whatever it is. He doesn't care enough to name it. He doesn't care about anything anymore. He just wants it all to be over.

He rarely leaves his room, and when he does he's in a fog. Everything is fuzzy, muted, and he doesn't think anything will ever be light again. He doesn't want it to be light again. There's no possible way anything can ever be light again. Not when Slade has won.

At this point, he's just waiting for the arrow through his eye that will end it all.

He thought he stopped breathing when he heard Laurel's scream from across the room. They were in QC- he, Sara, Roy, the League- fighting their way to Slade. At least they thought they were. But then Laurel screamed and his world slowed around him. He jerked around to see her held in a choke hold by one of the soldiers, gasping for air. How did she even get there? Slade must have brought her. His breathing slowed to short gasps, his heart dropped, and suddenly everything was moving in slow motion. He thought that was it. The one he loved most was about to die in front of him.

But he was wrong. He was wrong about everything.

He, Nyssa, and Sara took down the soldier and he felt like he could breathe again. She was safe.

It wasn't until Isabel was down on her knees in front of Nyssa that he realized what it truly meant for the air to leave his lungs. It wasn't until she started to laugh, or more like cackle, that he knew there was more to this than met the eye.

"Slade isn't here," Isabel choked out.

"Where is he?" Nyssa snapped, pressing the tip of her arrow into the Russian's neck.

Isabel chuckled maniacally again, turning her eyes to Oliver. "Why don't you ask your pretty blonde assistant, Oliver? When was the last time you heard from her?"

It was then that he truly felt the full absence of air pressing in on him from all directions. The world full on stopped moving and he felt lightheaded.

Sara took up the slack, closing the distance to Isabel in three quick strides and shoving her staff under her throat. "Where is she?"

Isabel choked out a laugh around the metal bar. "Where you left her."

He was gone before he could see Isabel meet her fate. The woman was of no concern to him, not when she'd just brought his entire world crumbling down around him. Slade had Felicity. Felicity was with Slade. No matter how he put it, the thought didn't make sense. He'd left her at the clock tower for safety's sake, to keep her out of the fighting, and yet the fight had been brought to her… because she was the one Slade thought he loved most. She was his light, and Slade wanted him absorbed in darkness.

He saw the fear on her face the second he walked in, just like he saw her desperately trying to shove it back beneath the surface. She was trying to stay strong, probably thinking it would appease him, despite the cold metal blade pressed against her neck. He watched her close her eyes, blow out a deep breath, and flinch at Slade's greeting.

"Ms. Rochev delivered my message, I see."

"Let her go, Slade." His voice wavered slightly so he took a deep breath to calm himself. It didn't work. "This is between you and me."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong, kid," Slade argued, tilting his head. Oliver could see the glint of madness in his eye. "This has never been between just you and me. You made sure of that when you killed Shado."

"I didn't kill Shado," he ground out.

"You may as well have. She's dead because of you. You took her from me!" Slade yelled. Felicity flinched at the noise, but his next words were softer. "I'm going to return the favour."

Dread seeped in. This was all because of him. Felicity was in danger because of him. He had yet to beat Slade. He was in the most important round of their fight and he was the very definition of the underdog. He had an arrow loaded with the cure, but there was no guarantee that curing Slade would save Felicity. Killing him was the safer option, if he could even be killed. If an arrow through the eye couldn't do it…

"Tell you what, kid. I'm nothing if not fair. I'll give you a chance to save her. Defeat me, and you both walk out of here alive. Fail, and you watch her die."

This was his chance. He could… What could he do? He couldn't beat Slade in hand-to-hand combat. He couldn't waste the only arrow he'd had time to equip with the cure. He couldn't save Felicity in a fight with this man.

Felicity must have seen his inner turmoil because her expression cleared. There was no battle in her eyes and even a hint of a smile on her lips as she nodded at him, ignoring the bite of the blade into her skin. "It's going to be fine, Oliver. You're going to be fine. Remember that."

The next few minutes were a blur. If you asked him to recall them later, he wouldn't be able to. All he knew was that one second Slade was pulling the blade from around Felicity's neck, and the next it was protruding from her stomach, covered in her blood.

He couldn't remember the fight that led him to this point, kneeling beside her weakening body. All he knew was that Slade hadn't fought fair. He'd used Felicity against Oliver, always keeping close to the blonde to prevent him from truly giving it his all. There were even soldiers stationed outside to prevent her from fleeing the scene. In the end, Slade pierced her skin before the fight was over, breaking his word. All thoughts of curing or killing fled Oliver's mind the instant he saw Felicity's eyes widen and her mouth drop open in an 'O' of surprise. Slade fled before she'd even hit the ground; his parting remark replayed in Oliver's head on a loop as he knelt over the blonde, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

"I left you time to say your goodbyes, if you so choose."

"Ol-Oliver," she stuttered, "G-Go after him."

He shook his head. "No. I have to stop the bleeding. You're going to be fine, Felicity, got it? You're going to be fine."

The look in her eyes iced his gut. "Oliver, you sh-should go. Save the c-city from him. S-Stop him."

He felt the moisture on his cheeks but hadn't realized tears were even stinging his eyes until right then. "No. This isn't a choice, Felicity. There is no choice to make. I'm staying with you. I'm going to fix you."

He pulled off his jacket and pressed it to her stomach, but the garment did nothing to stem the flow of blood. His breath came in panicked gasps. It wasn't working.

Her lips tugged upward in a sad smile and her hand came up to rest against his cheek. "We b-both know you c-can't."

"Yes I can. I can fix you. I will fix you. We just- we just have to stop the bleeding, okay?" He brought his own hand up to brush her hair back from her face. There was too much blood on her face. Some was trickling out of the corner of her mouth and she coughed up more to join it. "You're going to be fine, Felicity."

She kept smiling at him as her hand dropped to her side, unable to find the strength to hold it in the air anymore. "Oliver, I want you to promise me something."

"No." He shook his head harshly. "No promises. You are not dying, so I am not promising you anything."

She coughed again. More blood. It wouldn't stop. He couldn't make it stop.

"Oliver, please." Her voice was weak, fading. Slade had ripped a hole in her stomach and her light was leaking out. He could see it pooling on the floor around her, bit by bit, as he struggled to keep it inside.

He closed his eyes, deciding to give her whatever she wanted. They could talk about it after all of this was over, when she had been seen by a doctor and was on the mend. He nodded. "Anything."

"Look at me." He obeyed. "I want you to p-promise me that…" She coughed. More blood. "P-promise me that you w-won't add me to your list. You didn't fail me, Oliver Queen." Her eyes are shining but her smile is blinding. "You saved me."

He didn't want to promise her that. He didn't want to promise her anything. It made it feel all too real, and this couldn't be real. Felicity wasn't supposed to be a casualty in this war. He hadn't even realized… He hadn't known what she'd meant to him until this very moment. He'd failed to see what Slade had picked up on and now she was here, with a hole in her stomach, forcing him to make her promises while she died- No. She wasn't dying. He was going to save her. And when he did, they could look back on this moment and laugh one day, joking with each other about the ridiculous deathbed promise she forced him to make, and how cheesy doesn't seem cheesy until you're looking back on it years later and wondering what the hell you were thinking.

She was still waiting for the words. He'd said anything, so he supposed he owed her that. It wasn't like he'd actually have to live up to this promise because Felicity wasn't dying. "I promise."

If he had known she was waiting for them, hanging on until he let them escape his lips, he would have held on to the words forever. He never would have made that promise if he'd known that, the instant he did, her entire body would go slack, eyes glossing over, smile still faintly on her face. He would never have promised her anything if he'd known.

"Felicity," he called gently, convincing himself she was just letting her attention drift. She didn't respond. "Felicity." Still nothing. He reached out and gently touched her shoulder, her face, turning her head toward him. It lolled heavily to the side. "Felicity." He shook her shoulder, gently at first, and then more insistently. She wasn't responding. She wasn't moving. "Felicity! Felicity, say something. I made you your promise. I made you your stupid promise, now wake up. Felicity!" Still nothing. The blood wasn't pouring from her stomach anymore. "Felicity, please. Please wake up. Come back to me." Nothing.

He lowered his forehead to rest against hers, willing her eyes to regain their spark of life under the weight of his stare. No response. Moisture dripped from his face and onto hers, making it seem as though both of them were crying. Sobs racked his body as he pulled her up against his chest, her arm falling awkwardly to the ground as he cradled her to him, rocking her back and forth where he sat on the cold concrete floor. It wasn't until Felicity Smoak was dead that he finally allowed himself to admit what he'd only realized hours before.

"I love you," he whispered, voice cracked and broken. "Please, Felicity. I love you." But it was too late for the words to be anything but a desperate plea. "I love you."

Sara and Diggle found him a full two hours later. He had no more tears left to shed, but he still cradled Felicity in his lap, not ready to let go. It was his fault. This was all his fault. She was his light, and now she was gone. All that was left was darkness.

Digg blames himself, too. He tries to tell Oliver it isn't his fault, that, of any of them, he should have seen it coming.

"When Isabel attacked me, she asked where she could find Felicity. She was looking for her, and I assumed it was just because she didn't like her and wasn't right in the head, but… I should have seen it. I should have protected her."

But protecting her had been Oliver's job. He'd promised himself he'd always take care of her. Just another in a long line of broken promises. The one promise he isn't breaking, though, is the one he made to her before she died. The promise he thought they'd look back on years from now and laugh about. He won't break that one. He hasn't added her to his list. He's made an entirely new list just for her, and she will always be the only name on it.

Sara comes by, trying to talk sense into him, telling him Slade isn't well and it isn't his fault.

"The Mirakuru made him like this, Ollie, not you."

But Oliver had injected Slade with the Mirakuru in the first place. He'd turned him into a monster, and he'd given him a reason to harness and focus his rage on a single target.

Laurel tries to get him to think about the future again, but he can't see a future anymore. All he sees are shadows and the death that awaits him at Slade's discretion. He's waiting for it, welcoming it. He wants to stop living consumed by thoughts of Felicity every waking moment. He doesn't want to see her face every time he closes his eyes anymore. He wants it all to stop.

"Ollie, I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but you're going to get through this. You'll come out the other side stronger. You're going to be okay."

She doesn't know how wrong she is. He's never going to be okay again.

A/N: So… that happened. Um, yeah, please don't hate me. I know the death scene is really cheesy, but it's a death scene! Anyways, please review, even if you just want to tell me to go die in a hole somewhere because I can't seem to stop killing people… For the record, Felicity is my favourite character and I am a total Olicity shipper, which is why Oliver didn't get a semi-happy ending. In everything else I've written Felicity's there to pick him back up. Here, she's not. For obvious reasons. Now I feel like that just kind of rubbed salt in the wound… So I'm going to stop now.