"There have been seven distress beacons from the island in the past six days. Not to mention one static filled transmission and and a security alert. Whatever is happening on Lian Yu is causing quite the disturbance." Oliver stated to Diggle. Oliver tried to make it loud enough for Felicity to hear it as well, but at that moment she seemed quite busy holding on the her seat in a ball, as if holding on for dear life. She wasn't the best flyer obviously. Her nervousness made Oliver uneasy, Diggle found both to be hilarious.

Oliver wasn't just nervous because of felicity. He was about to return to his island home of five years to hopefully discover a broken distress call box that was sending out false calls. The best case scenario was that an Argus guard had just sent it because he wanted a new posting or the box really was just on the Fritz, but Oliver had a feeling it wasn't that. What if it really was a distress call from someone from Argus who needed immediate help. A prisoner could have escaped like Digger/ boomerang or Slade God forbid. One of them could have stabbed the guard and that's why he had called for help, or unwelcome guests had made it to the island somehow. There were a thousand theories going through Oliver's head but he had to remind himself again and again that it was probably just a malfunctioning box. That's all he could hope for.

They were only a few miles from Lian Yu by that time. Oliver had already initiated the landing procedures and they were going into decent. Felicity was both relieved and terrified by the notion. The plane flew closer and closer to the ground. Oliver could see the island he had spent years on in more detail now. The beach that he saw held so many memories for him and it was difficult to keep them from engulfing his mind. Diggle and felicity had no idea how unsettling it was to be back even though he had been back before; the feeling emerged every time he came back not that he would ever show it. He always had the feeling he was never going to leave, and yet he always did. Always.

The plane landed without much trouble, Oliver took the keys, and headed out first followed by Diggle. Felicity followed after she pried herself from her seat. They all stood on the sands on Lian Yu and stood up straight for the first time in seven hours. Oliver began moving towards the Argus prison compound but halted as soon as he realized that Diggle and felicity had frozen by the plane.

What?" He asked seeing that they were both stuck looking up towards the jungle.

"It's just- that it looks so different from the last time we came here." Diggle told him. Oliver looked towards the jungle as well and saw what they saw. Trees of all sort had changed either by being burned half to the ground or washed away by storms.

"There was a hurricane here about three months ago. The fire, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised, besides, we are a few miles from where we landed the last time." Felicity not so steadily nodded. She didn't like the island especially from all the terrible stories Oliver had half heartedly told her. Oliver noticed her resistance to follow him and braced her back with his arm. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Felicity."

That reassured her. The feeling of his arm across her back and onto her hip felt comfortable and seemingly enough, familiar. If anyone could keep their word of protecting her, it was Oliver. He had never let her down. She knew he would keep her safe, even though he had left her many times before.

He had only recently returned from killing Ra's al Ghul. They had not spoken of the night they were intimate, nor where they stood since he returned. It was a conversation she was intrigued by yet also loathed the idea of talking about it. She was sure Oliver felt the same way thus the lack of speaking of it. Half of her was convinced Diggle would be the one to bring up the sexual tension between them since he had no off switch when it came to such things. But she accepted his hand on her back and allowed him to lead her in the direction of the prison. Oliver said it was a few miles, she just hoped it wouldn't be dark by that time.

Unfortunately for Felicity, they were an hour too slow. The night crept onto them when they were just a mile from the prison. Against Oliver's protest the three set up camp for the night just off of the beach. Their camp was just a sleeping bag each and a backpack filled with essentials such as a few bottles of water, food packets, matches, and a flashlight. Felicity had an extra pack Oliver had insisted on carrying which had her laptop and a few gadgets she thought could help if they were just going to fix a faulty panel and distress box. It wasn't heavy, but Oliver just didn't want her to Have to carry it.

"Felicity, why did you bring your laptop? Lian Yu isn't a WiFi hotspot." Oliver gawked while competing the finishing touches on the fire.

"It has a 36 hour battery life and I have a backupso it's really more like a 52 hour life. And I can't check Facebook but I can connect to a satellite and use it for a giant-"

"Giant GPS?" Diggle laughed.

"Yes! And with the program I installed it can track exactly where I've been for the last ten hours. After that it starts to wig out, and it works with tracking my phone too. John just let me be me." She snarled sarcastically. He chucked at the noise.

"Whatever you say. But I know this island better than any satellite map and I know the best way to get around the island. Speaking of, I want to get to the prison as fast as possible tomorrow, which means we leave at the crack of dawn, ok?" He could see the shadows of them nodding by the fire. "Ok. Let's get some sleep then."

"You're not in charge of everything, master Lord of whatever." Felicity coughed under her breath. She lie her head down and did her best to ignore the millions of insects that blasted her eardrums.

She looked across the fire to see Digg doing the same. Beside her, nearly behind her back she felt the movement of Oliver also lying down on the hard dirt. "Being the master Lord of whatever includes being the master of this island." He whispered on top of her in her ear. His sudden presence startled her. How he got so close to her so fast was concerning... and a little erotic. She could only hold her breath to keep herself from bursting out laughing. Perhaps it was his way of telling her that he was better, or his sat of showing her he wanted to peruse her further. Either way, it was good to see Oliver joking around. She shook off her thoughts and closed her eyes. She prayed from sleep, but mostly just for the sun to rise soon. It wouldn't rise fast enough in her opinion.

Oliver doubted he'd get any sleep. The island always had a way of fucking with him in some way. There were barely any good days when he lived there. Most were filled with torment or mental games. It would either deprive him of sleep or dreams or good thoughts. He just wanted to close his eyes and pretend he wasn't there. His mind wandered to the distress call and the one word that was uttered that was actually understandable, "out." It scared the hell out of him. What if that meant someone got out. It could mean they were out of food or batteries, but his kind just went to the prisoners. And his mind just wandered farther and farther from there.

Somehow Oliver's mind wandering had led to sleep. He knew because something very very loud jolted him wide awake just as the sun was rising. He was to his feet within seconds and looked off into the direction it had originated from. There was smoke coming from the precise location of the Argus prison. Oliver grabbed the two packs he was in charge of and raced to the spot. Diggle and felicity were still gathering themselves and their belongings, Felicity in particular. It took them a minute to start up after Oliver but eventually got moving. Oliver didn't bother waiting for them to catch up. He needed to get there and know exactly what he was up against. And suddenly the prison was in sight. The hatch was wide open and smoke was flying out of the top. He paused for a moment, long enough for Felicity and Dig to nearly catch up to him.

He raced across the beach to the compound and climbed down the hatch against the smoke and heat. The alarms that indicated a breakout or large problem were booming with red lights and high pitched sirens. He couldn't see and desperately waited for the smoke to clear. Above him Diggle and Felicty slowly descended the two story ladder. Diggle's eyes burned with his lungs as he coughed and gasped for air. Felicity was behind him on the ladder having the same struggle.

"I'm going to wait up here. I can't breathe with all the smoke." She yelled in a gasp and began ascending. Diggle went against his lungs and met Oliver who was also coughing slightly. They waited as the smoke quickly escaped up the hatch.

"It looks like a system overload of the power grid." Oliver yelled banging his arm against the side of the wall. They looked beyond the grid and into the cells where Slade and Digger Hartness were held. From what they could see in the smoke, Boomerang's cells door was open. John cautiously entered to inspect it.

"He's in here. He's on the floor. Dead."

"Are you sure it's him?"

"Yeah man, it's him."

Oliver moved to the center cell that unusually housed Slade; it was empty.

"Fuck! He's gone John. Slade is gone!" He yelled in near panic. He looked around at the near smoke flared room. "Wheres Felicity?"

"She's waiting up there." He signed.

"Shit! She shouldn't be alone up there!" He was above ground in seconds. But felicity wasn't there. He looked across the beach for any sign of her. "Felicity!" He yelled as loud as he could. And he waited for a response. But there was nothing.

...

...

...

...

-"Oliver!" He finally heard coming from the edge of the tree line. He began in a sprint with Diggle trailing after. Suddenly he spotted her 200 yards from the entry to the prison. His vision zeroed in on Felicity slowly being walked into the tree line. Slowly. She was walking backwards in such an unusual way, with someone holding her by the chest and leading her with one hand, and holding what could only be a gun with the other. It was him. He had Felicity in his grip. With the sight of the gun to her head, Oliver slid to a stop. And so did he.

"We'll be in touch." He yelled from the tree line. For a second he removed the gun from Felicity's temple and pointed to the ground of the beach. Oliver looked down in the direction he had been pointed and saw a hand held radio on the beach. But he didn't go to retrieve it. He began a quick pace towards them again and they nearly matched it heading deeper and deeper into the trees. Oliver was enraged and terrified. Not for himself but for Felicity. How could he have let this happen? What was he going to do to her? Was she as good as dead? Was he going to keep his promise to kill everyone Oliver had ever loved? How was he going to get her back? Where could he find them? Would he get her back...? They were gone. He had Felicity. He HAD FELICITY! How could he have ever let that happen? The one person he vowed would never end up in his clutches again had somehow ended up there again. And he felt it was his fault. He was a monster because of the things Oliver did to him, unintentionally, but all the same his fault. They had been friends once but now, he had taken away the one person that Oliver cared for more than himself. He hhad to get her back. She was his hope, his love and his friend. No matter what it took, and it would take a lot, he had to get her back.

They were just too far away for him to have gotten to them in time. Oliver had left his bow and arrows on the plane, so they were useless to him. He stood on the beach beside the radio that had been left for him and looked into the trees that had engulfed the two of them. All he could do was yell.

"Slade!"

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of my new story. The idea came to me a few months ago but today I finally had the inspirational take it where I wanted it to go. Please let me know it you think, and if you think I should continue this story. Follow and fav if you want. Thank you so so much for reading. All my stories are written on my kindle which has terrible spell and grammar check. I clean up as best I can so keep that in mind if you see a few mistakes. Ill update soon if compelled by you all to continue. Thank you!