"Felicity!" Oliver's voice echoed throughout the large room, a tone of irritation unmistakable as he placed his bow back into the glass case. "We were so close, so what happened? How could you think he was headed north when he was going south? You sent us in the opposite direction!"

"Oliver, calm down. We didn't even have a plan-" Sara tried to reason, grabbing onto his arm.

"That's not the point, Sara," he said slowly, pushing her hand away from him. "This is Slade. Any chance we get to take him out we have to take, and we can't afford mistakes like this."

"You can't honestly blame me every time something goes wrong. This is technology, Oliver, and in case you didn't realize it, technology can be extremely unreliable, especially if compromised. I got a strong signal that he was headed north so that's what I reported. It must have been tampered with or something." Felicity got out of her seat and faced Oliver as he lowered his hood, his eyes as dark as his mask. She crossed her arms defensively and tried to remind herself that he was under a lot of stress, but more importantly he was scared, no matter how much he tried to cover it with anger. This wasn't the first time he misdirected his frustration at her, so she prepared herself for the worst of the storm and prayed it would pass quickly.

"Every day he is out there the people I care for are in danger. What if that was our only chance to prevent something-"

"Hey, there will be more chances, ok? And next time we'll be better prepared." Felicity watched as Diggle walked in behind Sara and looked between Oliver and Felicity, catching himself up on the situation based off of their body language.

"Well I would hope so because if we face him with the same kind of organization we had tonight, we're all dead."

"Oliver, we know what we're up against, and we knew tonight was a long shot. There wasn't anything we could have done to beat him. Tonight just wasn't the right time." Diggle firmly placed his hand on Oliver's shoulder and looked from him, to Sara, to Felicity. "I think we just all need to get some rest and start again tomorrow. Our nerves are a little shot and now isn't the time to be lashing out at each other. It will only make us more vulnerable to him, okay? We have to stick together, right?" Oliver closed his eyes and nodded, patting Diggle on the arm. Felicity relaxed and sat back down, spinning around to face her computers and letting out a deep sigh.

"I'm going to head out. Sara, why don't you stay with me tonight, that way I can make sure he doesn't try anything tonight. I'd sleep better if I knew he couldn't get to you."

"Yeah, of course. I'll meet you upstairs," Sara agreed, smiling in response to his softer voice, the threatening edge now gone. "Night Felicity, Diggle. Keep safe." Felicity and Diggle both quickly smiled and waved as she left. Felicity turned back towards the computer and looked at the map, wondering how the signal could have been so wrong. Focused on her own thoughts she didn't notice that Oliver had approached her and knelt by her chair, placing his hand gently on her arm and turning her towards him.

"I'm sorry, Felicity. I know it wasn't your fault, I'm just—worried. You okay?" She slightly moved into his touch, comfortable again with the concern in his voice and his gentleness. She would never admit it, but she'd always get a little scared when he'd raise his voice at her, despite her knowing that he would never hurt her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I know tensions are high right now, don't worry about it. Just go get some rest. Diggle was right, we could all use some right now. When was the last time any of us actually slept anyway?" She shrugged slightly and moved back towards the screens, but his arm stopped her and she was once again facing him. He started to stand up but his hand remained on her arm, letting go after a light, reassuring squeeze.

"I could never be angry at you, Felicity. I hope you know that."

"Mhm." She nodded slowly and her heart sank once she lost that contact, hearing him walking away. Walking away from her and to another woman, one he couldn't help but care about a little more. But she couldn't think like that; things were different between Oliver and Sara. They were just more alike, shared a deeper kind of bond, one that she could never rival as she would never be able to fight alongside him. As long as she needed protecting, she would always be a risk he couldn't take.

"Hey, you want me to walk you home?" she heard Diggle ask from across the room. "I'm headed out now."

"No, it's fine. I'm probably going to stay here, clean up some of these programs and try to find what went wrong. But thanks, I appreciate the concern." She knew she was lucky to have Diggle, someone who always stayed behind and made sure she was taken care of in the midst of all the distractions. Sometimes he was the only reason she didn't feel completely neglected.

"Don't stay too long. You need a break too, Felicity." He started to walk away but stopped for a moment, looking back at the IT girl. "Make sure you lock your doors, and walk in well-lit areas when you head out. And remember, you can call any one of us if you need help, or even if you're just scared. We have to stick together, you know?"

"You worry about me too much. In case you forgot, I learned some pretty effective defensive techniques from the best. Anyway, I don't live too far away, and I've got Team Arrow on speed dial." She waved her phone in the air and continued her work, hearing Diggle's last footsteps and then finding herself in complete solitude. "It's a little eerie, I must admit," she whispered to herself, looking behind her a few times before continuing her investigation. "So where did that signal go?" she said, drumming her fingers on her keyboard, waiting to get a better connection. As she watched the faint dot, waiting for it to light up, her eyelids became heavy and she rested her head back on the chair.

She woke to an indistinguishable sound, her heart beating quickly due to the abrupt arousal. She checked her phone and realized it had just been an hour, figuring it was probably time to go home. She gathered her things and walked quickly towards the stairs, trying to ignore the question of what had caused the noise that woke her. As she went to turn out the light a loud beeping noise starting sounding from the computer, indicating that the signal had picked back up. She rushed to the monitor and observed the location the bright, red dot had stopped at.

"That doesn't make sense though, how could it-" her heart stopped as she zoomed into the location, her hands shaking as she grabbed her phone to call Oliver. She placed the phone to her ear, studying the image on her screen as the dot continued to blink. "Pick up, pick up. Oliver…" Suddenly the beeping stopped and the dot went dull again. The ringing continued in her ear but the sound of her heart suddenly seemed to be louder. She watched as the screens flickered and went black, then noticing that the ringing in her ear had stopped. She pulled her phone back to find it was dead too.

"Ow," Felicity moaned, touching the back of her neck upon feeling a light prick. She slowly sat down as she began to lose her balance, and her body became so heavy and useless that she was unable to react when a dark-haired man approached and knelt in front of her, holding both of her wrists firmly and smiling, his one eye meeting hers.

"It's so nice to meet you, Felicity."

Let me know what you think of Chapter 1. Hopefully I'll be able to write the next chapter pretty quickly, but no promises... Anyway, I hope the writing was believable! I tried very hard to keep everyone in character.