Disclaimer: I have taken some pretty big liberties with Zatanna in this. Forgive me! I really want her on the show and had to figure out a way, what with there not being any magic on Arrow...yet. Which led me to go the super smart, science is magic route. I don't even know! I've been watching way too many DC cartoons lately.
"You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it."
― Goldie Hawn
Humming in triumph, Felicity ran the encryption, watching as the code scrolled by before her. She set the transfer, a file name catching her eye as an arrow zipped over her head. Instinctively she ducked, even though she knew Oliver's aim was true. There was a grunt of pain from her left.
"You don't understand," Zatanna yelled from parts unknown. "I need to find something."
"You stole highly classified documents," Oliver shouted back, his bow was drawn as he walked behind Felicity, guarding her back as they waited for the transfer to finish so she could wipe the drive clean of the stolen documents. "If they were to fall into the wrong hands they could be used to destroy the world."
"I had no other option," Zatanna said, this time clearer and closer. "I don't want to hurt anybody."
Felicity turned just in time to see a flash of smoke, Zatanna suddenly appearing in the middle of it, unseen by Oliver. Zatanna pulled back her arm, a glowing purple orb clutched in her hand ready to be hurled at Oliver. Abandoning her tech, Felicity flung herself forward, crashing in to Oliver's back to push him out of the way as a bright purple light exploded all around them. Oliver rolled them mid-air, curling around her to shelter her from the blast.
Keeping her eyes closed, she listened for Zatanna or Diggle's voice over the comm, thrown slightly by the complete silence, only able to hear Oliver's deep breaths accompanied by his heaving chest on top of her.
Deciding to risk it, she opened her eyes to find Oliver's head looming above her. He was looking straight ahead, his jaw slack as his head swiveled from side-to-side, his grip on her shoulders tightening. Confused by the sudden brightness, she rolled her head to the side to find they were no longer in the abandoned warehouse Zatanna called home. Instead she found herself looking at the legs of a large bed frame and very expensive looking rug.
"What?" Felicity asked under her breath, turning her head to look back at Oliver who was now looking down at her. His eyebrows shot up even further, his mouth hanging open as he looked down on her, before scrambling back up and off her. She looked up at him, watching as his eyes scraped over her body. Confused, she tried to stand, only to find her legs tangled.
Tangled in the fabric of a long white dress, bright pink high heels peaking out from the hem; not the sensible jeans and black coat she'd been wearing moments before. She glanced back up at Oliver, realizing he was no longer in his hood. He was wearing a black tux, still looking down at her as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Where are we?" she asked, because it was the only question her brain could process.
"We're in the master bedroom at the mansion," he whispered, still staring down at her with wide eyes.
She grabbed at the skirt of her dress, pulling her feet up underneath her to stand. Oliver didn't move, his eyes never leaving her body. She looked down at the full length white dress she wore, her fingers ghosting over the beaded detail on the bodice. Refusing to put into words what she was seeing, she shook her head, looking up to find Oliver unmoved. She stepped forward about to reach out a hand to ask if he was okay, when her eyes caught on something to his left.
"Oliver," she said, pointing to the dresser behind him. On it stood two framed pictures, both of them featuring Oliver and Felicity. The first one showed Felicity sitting on Oliver's lap in what she recognized as Big Belly Burger, smiling effortlessly at the camera as Oliver's hand rested in a decidedly not platonic place high up on her thigh. The second one was taken somewhere Felicity didn't recognize, showing Oliver kissing Felicity on the cheek as she laughed at the camera.
A weight settled in her stomach as Oliver turned to investigate. He picked up the framed picture of him kissing her on the cheek. He examined it silently, before turning back to her with a lost expression, gesturing toward the picture in his hand.
"Where are we?" he asked, his tone quiet, his eyes taking on a slightly panicked look.
Before she could say anything there was a knock on the door. Oliver immediately fell into the defensive position, pushing Felicity behind him.
"Hey, they're ready for you guys," Diggle's familiar voice called through the door. Oliver strode forward, pulling open the door to find a smiling Diggle on the other side.
"Diggle," he said, gesturing for Diggle to come inside. "What's going on? Where is Zatanna?"
"Zatanna?" Diggle asked, reeling back a little as Oliver closed the door behind him. "What about Zatanna?"
"Where did she go?" Oliver asked, his fist clenching at his side.
"Last I heard, Bruce had her working on something in Gotham City. She sent you a gift and an apology about not being able to make it to the wedding," Diggle said, looking to Felicity for help.
"What wedding?" Felicity asked, her heart rate increasing with unease.
"Ha. Ha," Diggle said dragging out the sounds in obvious annoyance. "You two are so funny. We don't have time for jokes. Thea said they are lighting the sparklers in exactly five minutes and that you'd better be waiting in the foyer."
Then he turned to Oliver, fishing something out of his pocket before throwing it in Oliver's direction. Oliver reached out and plucked it from the air, probably on instinct because his slack jawed expression hadn't changed.
"Five minutes. So don't be starting anything," Diggle said, gesturing between them with a small grimace. "I will have to break down the door if you're late. Since I had the privilege of giving away Felicity today, that makes me her honorary father. And there are some things no father should ever have to see…again."
He shook his head at that, his grimace growing as he made his way to the door, throwing another "five minutes" over his shoulder.
Oliver turned back to her as the door shut, his eyebrows drawn together. She shrugged back at him, just as lost as he was.
Oliver turned on his heel, striding to the other side of the room, grabbing something from a large desk before walking back toward her, holding out a tablet.
"Find out what is going on," he said, his voice in full Arrow mode, as he began to pace the room.
"Right," she said, glancing down at the super thin tablet in her hand. She got to work, forcing herself to ignore that the system in her hands was far superior to anything she owned. Running a preliminary search brought up a page full of articles. She clicked on the first one, gasping at the headline.
"What is it?" Oliver asked, stopping abruptly in front of her.
Glancing back at her tablet she read, "Oliver Queen to marry former Executive Assistant, Felicity Smoak in a private affair at the Queen family estate." She gulped, not looking at him as she read the last part. "The article is dated April 2019."
She looked back up at him to find they were both frozen in place, neither knowing how to react.
"This is one of Zatanna's tricks," she whispered, needing to say something. "Right?"
"Right," Oliver nodded, his expression blank.
"Because no matter what those documents she stole from STAR labs said, time travel isn't possible, right?" Felicity said, staring at Oliver intently. Waiting for him to tell her what a crazy idea that was, she tried to stomp out Sara's opinions from earlier in the day about the possibility of it being true. Felicity had laughed, the idea so absurd. But Sara had shaken her head, muttering something about seeing 'too many impossible things' in her lifetime.
"It has to be an illusion of some kind," Oliver said, returning to his pacing. "Of course, time travel isn't possible. She must have drugged us or something."
"Because it's normal for people to have shared drug trips?" Felicity questioned, with a panicked giggle.
Oliver stopped then, coming to stand in front of Felicity, "Zatanna is a world class magician. She also happens to be very smart. This is all an illusion or maybe we've been hypnotized. She is playing with our minds. We're going to get out of here. Go to the foundry. And figure out how to stop her."
Felicity nodded back, reassured as he rested a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. Then his hand fell away, as he turned to rifle through the dresser. She caught sight of a full length mirror. Walking forward until she could see her own reflection before she could second guess herself.
Blinking, she took in the image before her. Her hair fell in soft curls, pinned off to one side. The dress was beautiful. Unconsciously she ran her hand over the straps before tracing the small gold beaded pattern that wound around her waist. Smiling, she lifted the hem to look at the hot pink shoes. She glanced up to meet Oliver's eyes in the reflection. The smile slipping from her face, she waited for him to turn away, to shut her out.
Surprising her, he didn't break eye contact, a small smile on his lips as he said sincerely, "You look amazing."
"Thanks," she said, the smile growing on her face. He smiled back, before dropping his eyes to where his hands where digging through a drawer.
"Of course, you always look amazing" he said, distractedly looking for an unknown object. His voice dropped to a mumble and she thought she overheard the words 'especially in my dreams.'
"Yeah, this is definitely some sort of hallucination," Felicity said, rubbing her neck, blushing at the idea of showing up in Oliver's dreams. "Why would we be getting married? You're in a sickeningly perfect relationship with Sara."
"Sara and I ended things last week," Oliver said, not looking at her as he pulled a gun from the back of the drawer.
"Oh," Felicity said, wondering why she hadn't been aware of that development. She wanted to ask what had gone wrong, but another knock sounded on the door, drawing their attention.
"Come on," Diggle called. "If you don't come out, I'll send Thea in."
"Coming," Oliver called. He tucked the gun behind his back in to his belt before grabbing the tablet in her hands to stuff inside his jacket. Then he turned to look at Felicity again, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Whatever is going on here, Diggle seems to think it's our," he clenched his jaw, closing his eyes briefly before saying, "Our wedding day."
Felicity nodded mutely, glad he'd been the one to say it instead of her.
"We just need to play along until I can get us out of here, okay?" He asked, waiting for her to nod back before he grabbed her hand pulling her to the door. Diggle stood on the other side, a huge smile on his face.
"About time," he said with a smirk, gesturing for them to follow him.
Oliver threw an arm around her waist, drawing her into his side as they followed Diggle to the foyer of the Queen mansion; they passed the remnants of what looked to be a pretty epic party.
"Everyone's outside waiting to see you off," Diggle said as they approached the large front doors. He paused, turning to look back at them. "You sure you're all right? You look like you're about to go on a mission, not your honeymoon."
"We're fine," Oliver said in his 'Oliver Queen' voice, squeezing his hand on Felicity's waist in a gentle reminder. "Just tired. It's been a long day."
"Yeah," Felicity said, using her own false voice of joy as she wrapped her arms around Oliver. "Just tired."
Diggle stared for a moment, looking like he might call them out on their lies. But then he only shook his head before turning back to open the doors.
People lined the walkway, cheering as Oliver and Felicity appeared all holding sparklers above their heads for the happy couple to walk under. Felicity couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation, recognizing some faces in the crowd. She held onto Oliver as they practically ran to the end, not wanting to be left alone in this unfamiliar world. At the end of the lane, the people they were closest to waited to say their goodbyes.
Felicity smiled tightly as her crying mother embraced her. Thea pulled both her and Oliver into a group hug, Roy standing awkwardly behind her as Thea whispered "Welcome to the family" in Felicity's ear. Sara grabbed Felicity from Oliver's side, walking her toward the passenger side door of the waiting two door convertible.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Sara said with a wink, wearing the biggest smile Felicity had ever seen on her face, kissing her on the cheek before handing her off to Diggle who was holding open the passenger side door for her.
"Remember," Diggle said, wrapping her in a bone crushing hug. "To have some fun. We'll hold down the fort."
She slid into the car before tilting her head back to look at her friends crowding around. She unconsciously buckled her seatbelt as the people she loved most in the world stared down at her in complete joy, every last one of them smiling goofily. They were happy for her, for both of them and for just a moment, Felicity let herself feel it with them. They were all safe and alive. It was all she ever wished for, waving back at them as Oliver drove them away, trying to memorize the looks on their faces.
"Here," Oliver said as they drove around a bend blocking the mansion from sight. He dropped the tablet in her lap. "See what you can find about Zatanna."
Pushing her brain back to the task at hand, she quickly built a program that would search government databases for any information about Zatanna. She focused the search on Gotham and someone named Bruce, remembering Diggle's words.
With nothing left to do but let the program run its course, she leaned back in the seat, enjoying the cool night air as they drove down the Queen's private, ridiculously long driveway toward the city.
"They looked so happy," she said absently, catching Oliver glance over at her in the corner of her eye. "Everyone safe and healthy. No Slade in sight."
"We will beat Slade," Oliver said for what felt like the thousandth time. Felicity turned her head, watching as his jaw clenched and his grip tightened on the steering wheel.
"Diggle—," Felicity began, the events of the night finally coming in clearer.
"Diggle what?" Oliver asked, glancing over at her.
"Dig, he said… He said that he walked me down the isle when we got married. That he was my honorary father. That's a nice idea," she said, smiling up to see Oliver staring down at her with a serious expression. Cataloging her words she stumbled on, trying to explain. "Not that marrying you is a nice idea. Just Diggle giving me away. Oh," putting her hand to her head as she realized what she'd said, "Not that marrying you is a bad id—"
"Felicity," Oliver cut her off, his hand leaving the steering wheel to rest over her's where it gripped the tablet. She looked up at him, thankful the night hid her blush. "I'm sure, no matter what year it is, Diggle would be honored to be the one to give you away at your wedding."
Felicity smiled back at him, thankful that he always seemed to understand what she was saying in spite of her ramblings. His hand squeezed hers once before returning to the wheel. She looked down at the hand Oliver had just touched, almost laughing as she finally realized what was on her left ring finger.
"Subtle," she laughed, holding up the large emerald ring for Oliver to see. He glanced over, having the nerve to laugh out loud when he saw the ring.
Then he suddenly sobered, returning his attention to the road, "My mother wasn't there. At the mansion. She wasn't there."
"It's not real, Oliver," she reminded him, ignoring the slight sense of loss that she felt. "None of this is real."
"Would you—" He asked, glancing down at the tablet in her hand. Nodding, her fingers began to move, searching through the web for Moira Queen. Her hands froze when the first results came up, an obituary. Beside her Oliver shifted in his seat, "What? What did you find?"
Clearing her throat, she read aloud with as steady a voice as she could muster, "Moira Queen passed on May 14, 2014 during the attack on the city by the criminal known as Deathstroke—"
"It's not real," Oliver cut her off. "None of this is."
"It's just another one of Zatanna's tricks," Felicity reassured him. Repeating again, "None of this is real."
They didn't talk for the rest of the drive, Felicity shooting Oliver worried looks as she continued her research in silence. Pulling up behind the foundry, they wordlessly climbed from the car. Oliver had just put his hands on the key code to enter the password when another blinding flash of purple light shown, enveloping them.
Felicity closed her eyes, feeling Oliver grab her arm. When the light behind her eyelids dimmed, she opened her eyes to find them in the same abandoned warehouse. Oliver in his hood, her in her jeans.
"Hey," Sara called through her voice modulator. They both turned to find she had her knee in Zatanna's back, pressing her to the floor while securing both her hands behind her back. "Where were you?"
Sara's voice was panicked, but Oliver ignored her, striding over to push Sara off Zatanna's back and pull her up from the floor.
"What did you do to us?" He yelled, shaking Zatanna a little.
"Did it work?" Zatanna asked in return, her voice sounding hopeful.
"What did you do?" Oliver repeated, his own tone becoming panicked. Felicity walked up behind him, studying Zatanna's face, vaguely aware that Sara was asking if she was okay.
"If my calculations were correct, I sent you five years into the future," Zatanna said, an air of desperation about her. "Did it work? What did you see? How long where you there? You have to tell me. If I can send you to the future then I might be able to send myself to the past. Reverse engineer it. Please, you have to tell me."
Oliver stumbled back, dropping his hands from Zatanna.
"We have to go," Sara said, pulling on both Oliver and Felicity's arms, trying to budge them from where they both stood staring at Zatanna. Felicity shook her head, the sounds of sirens growing louder as Sara forcibly pulled her back.
"It worked," she thought she heard Oliver say as Sara pulled her through the door to the streets outside where her motorcycle was waiting.
Sara waited until they were all back in the foundry before rounding on them, "Where were you?"
Felicity froze under her concerned glare.
"It doesn't matter," Oliver said, pulling down his hood as he moved past them to stow his bow.
"Doesn't matter," Diggle said, standing up from where he had been sitting in front of Felicity's computers. "Both of your comms and GPS were off line for a full ten minutes."
Oliver turned to meet Felicity's eyes at that, probably thinking the same thing that she was. They'd been gone for longer than ten minutes. Felicity shrugged, unable to explain it.
Nodding Oliver turned back to the rest of the team, "We don't know where we were. She must have doused us with some sort of drug or something."
"A drug that turns off your GPS?" Sara questioned with sarcasm.
"I don't know," Oliver yelled back, the whole room stilling at his voice. "I don't know where we were or what happened. But we are back and we're safe. Can we all move on?"
Felicity watched as he met the eyes of everyone in the room, waiting for each of them to nod before for moving on to the next. When his eyes finally settled on Felicity's last, she gulped at his expression, everything about his posture and stance tense, silently pleading with her.
"It wasn't real," he said quietly, his gaze never wavering from her.
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Sara asked, the concern and fear evident in her tone.
But Felicity couldn't respond to Sara, unable to look away from Oliver.
She thought about the last hour, everything they'd heard and seen. Thought about how everyone had been happy, safe. Thought about how beautiful her wedding gown had been. Thought about the research she'd done on the drive to the foundry. Thought about the details she'd uncovered about Moira's death at Slade's hand.
"It wasn't real," she agreed with a single nod. He nodded back, the tension leaving his shoulders at her words.
Except when May 14, 2014 rolled around and Slade informed Oliver that his mother was currently being held in one of ten abandoned buildings each rigged with explosives, Felicity knew there had been some truth in the trip Zatanna had sent them on.
"Sixteenth and Lex, address number 3792. Fourth floor, " Felicity said without hesitation into the comms.
"How can you be sure?" Oliver asked back.
"Zatanna," Felicity replied, knowing that would be enough for Oliver.
She collapsed back in her seat when Sara clicked on her comms to inform Felicity that Moira was safe and she was on her way to help Oliver finish off Slade; listening mutely as Oliver and every friend he'd made along the way finally ended Deathstroke's reign of terror.
It took Oliver three days to talk to her about it. They were just finishing up their first day back at QC, when he sat down in the chair in front of her desk, looking at her wearily. She folded her hands on her desk, waiting him out.
"It was real?" He asked, his tone giving nothing away.
"Looks like it," she said, making herself maintain eye contact.
"You saved my mother's life," he said. "Thank you."
She nodded, "There wasn't any other choice to make."
He opened his mouth like he might say something before closing it, shaking his head.
"Oliver," she said. "Do you know what this means?"
He shook his head, pulling back slightly.
"Your mother is still alive. We changed the future," she said smiling at him. She wanted him to see that the future they had seen shouldn't haunt him, ignoring how it left a small hollow in her heart. "Nothing is set in stone. Our future is what we make it."
"You're right, we make our own future. But," he said, a smile free of worry filling his face as he reached out over her desk to grab her left hand, his thumb rubbing on the knuckle of her ring finger. "There are some things that are inescapable, no matter what we change."
She couldn't move, transfixed with the openness in his eyes. They sat, neither moving until the ding of the elevator reminded them where they were. Pulling her hand back, Felicity smoothed down her skirts as Oliver stood, walking toward his office.
"There is one thing I want to change," Oliver said, turning back to look at her. She titled her head in question. "Getting married at the mansion? That's a horrible idea."
She laughed at that, nodding her agreement.