Suddenly, just as Oliver nearly nodded off to sleep, the lights of the ArrowCave came to life. Whether it was Dig, Roy or Sara, Oliver had no interest in turning around. He had intentionally stayed behind after the others had left, relishing the darkness and isolation of an empty ArrowCave. Whoever it was could just deal with his poor company.

"I see you've been living in the dark too."

That voice. That voice. Quickly, Oliver calmed himself down, knowing that he was either hallucinating or dreaming. She was gone. He had pushed her away.

"Polite as ever, I see."

This time, there was no question. Somehow, someway, she was here. Slowly, Oliver rotated in her chair, his favorite spot in the Cave. As he turned, she came into sight. In an instant, Oliver was transported back to two months and one day ago, the last time he had seen her here.

Standing in the center of the ArrowCave was Felicity Smoak, the person that among all others Oliver Queen trusted. The one he had pushed away. She looked almost exactly as she had when she had left. Her hair had a slight curl to it just as it hit her shoulders, her glasses framed the serious and pensive look on her face and the dress she wore matched her heels perfectly, as they always had.

Felicity Smoak had come home.

"We need to talk."

"What?" Oliver asked, shock apparent in his voice.

"Polite and a bit deaf." Felicity said with a smirk. "Although you never were the best listener. I swear to God, there were times that I would just sit at this computer and talk and you wouldn't listen to one word. Not that I was really surprised, I always was the best rambler, which I seem to be doing right now. OK, I'm going to stop. I stopped. Good. Still stopping."

Yup, definitely Felicity.

"What are you doing here?"

"Deaf." Felicity replied as she sat down next to him, rolling her eyes. "I said we need to talk."

"About what?" Oliver answered, suddenly very nervous that they were about to have the conversation that he had been dying to have for two years.

"Bruce Wayne."

Instantly, Oliver felt the energy and anticipation that he had just had leave his body twice as quickly as it had entered.

"What about Wayne?" Oliver replied, doing his best to keep from sounding bitter. "He's not really any of my concern."

"He should be." Felicity said before opening her bag and handing him a file. The front simply said "Wayne, Bruce" with TOP SECRET in giant red letters underneath it.

"Where did you get this?"

"I may have been sneaking around the A.R.G.U.S. databases." Felicity said with a smirk. "I printed all of this off my computer. The file itself isn't really top secret. Well, the information inside it is but I bought the folder at OfficeMax for two dollars. I just thought it looked cooler."

"Of course you did. What's in here?"

"What you can't read?"

"You would like me to sit here and read this whole while you wait? Because I can do that." Oliver said with a grin that he hadn't felt in years. "Or, you could just tell me what's so important."

"Fine." Felicity replied, again rolling her eyes at him. "There's definitely something up with Bruce Wayne. You know the story: parents are killed in front of him when he's ten, he leaves to go to college and doesn't come back for nearly a decade."

"Yeah, he got back what like 18 months ago?"

"Yes. Almost instantly, I noticed something strange."

"And that is?"

"He frequently just disappears." Felicity said as she opened the file. "Large quantities of money from his accounts just disappear as do various special projects for WayneTech. Then, there are numerous other projects at Wayne Tower that he alone can access."

"That's strange. Wayne is known for his business acumen even less than I am."

"Exactly!" Felicity shouted in excitement.

This was the Felicity that he missed. The one who got so excited when she was able to crack the code or figure out the problem. When she was like this, there was no one else in the world he would rather be around.

"So, isn't it a bit strange that the most aloof owner of a major corporation in the history of the world has three dozen special projects that not even his CEO have access?"

"Wait, Fox can't access them either?"

"Nope." Felicity replied. "Only Wayne's log-in information will get him what he needs."

"And how did you get this information?"

"Well, being the leading researcher at WayneTech into all things computers can get me access to pretty much whatever I want."

"Fair enough." Oliver replied. "So where does this information lead?"

"That is the one thing I can't quite place. Felicity admitted. "It could be a whole host of things and with some of the things I've seen, I'm not willing to rule any of them out."

"Good point. So what would you like me to do?"

"Actually, I'm not quite sure." Felicity admitted with an embarrassed grin. "I just finished compiling this information, told Bruce that I was leaving to visit some Starling City friends for a week and then got on the WayneTech private jet that brought me here."

Bruce. She was on first name basis with the most vile man in the country, as far as Oliver was concerned. He was a foolish boor of a man who gave money to stupid things and seemed to care nothing about the lives of those around him. Parents death or not, Wayne had no excuse for his behavior. However, maybe there was something hidden under there if Felicity had caught on to something.

"It's not like you to act without a plan." Oliver mused. "Wait a minute, a week? For this conversation?"

Felicity blushed softly when he brought this up.

"I wasn't sure that I was actually going to be able to approach you. I've already been in town for four days."

Four days. She had been in town for four days and he had no idea. He had stopped checking her cell phone tracer, which he had begged her to leave on when she left, six months earlier and hadn't thought to be looking for it again. He quickly made a mental note to go back to checking it.

"Why could you not approach me?" Oliver asked softly. "Felicity, you should know that you can always talk to me."

"Can I, Oliver?" Felicity asked, a harsh tone in her voice that Oliver had rarely heard. "I haven't heard from you in almost a year."

"I thought that's the way you wanted it. After...after the incident-"

"You mean after Slade kidnapped me?"

This wasn't the Felicity he remembered. There was a rage and an anger in her voice that Oliver hadn't ever heard. Not ever.

"Yes, Felicity." he admitted softly. "After that, you took that job at WayneTech the next day."

"I did." Felicity replied, before suddenly shifting in her seat. "Anyway, I wasn't sure how you would react, so I waited. But now that I'm here are you going to help me look into Wayne?"

She had just very pointedly changed the subject. As sad as it made Oliver, maybe it was for the better. The fact that there hadn't been any major deaths in his life since Tommy seemed to be too much of a miracle. Maybe he was doomed to love a woman who hated him as a sacrifice for the survival of the rest of his family.

"I don't hate you, by the way."

Something that had developed in the weeks before her departure had just jumped back at them. Her uncanny ability to know exactly what was going on inside his head. It was like she had some sort of device that was reading his thoughts.

Actually, he wouldn't put it passed her.

Ignoring her last comment, Oliver pressed on, his heart breaking as he did.

"I'll help." Oliver said with a forced smirk. "I'll let the board know that I'm going to make a visit to our Gotham branch. But in order to do this, I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"I need you to disappear for a couple of days." Oliver replied. "I need a good cover for why I'm going to Gotham. Gotham QC doesn't have much in the way of important projects going on. So, I need to use you as my cover."

"Cover?" Felicity asked in confusion.

"Visiting you will be my cover. I'll say that I'm going to Gotham QC but as long as no one knows you're in town, I can have some leak to the rest of the board that my real intention is to visit you and fix our relationship. It's no secret that I haven't spoken to my hand-picked executive assistant in almost a year."

"Ah. So you're going to fix our relationship?" Felicity asked with an evil grin. "Is that why you're going?"

"We'll see." Oliver replied, doing his best to maintain his cover and knowing that he was probably failing.

"Sure." Felicity said as she stood up. "I kept my apartment in town. I'll be there for a couple days and then leave on Friday for Gotham ahead of you."

"Good. Can you meet me at the airport?"

"I'll do my best." Felicity replied as she turned towards the door. Watching her go was like torture. Here she was, back in the ArrowCave where she belonged and just like that she was leaving again. Before Oliver had any idea what was going on, he was speaking.

"Felicity."

The word slipped out from between his lips like a secret. A poorly kept secret, that is. Slowly, she turned around, a look of apprehension on her face. She knew what Oliver wanted to say. She had to. She had always known what he was about to say.

"It's good to see you." Oliver whispered, disappointment ringing in his own voice.

"You too." Felicity replied, a tear noticeably falling down her face. Then, just like that, she was gone as quickly as she had appeared.

For nearly an hour, Oliver stared at the steps up to Verdant, praying that she would return. That she was jump into his arms and stay forever. Instead, all Oliver could see was the lights of Verdant going dim and the sounds of the heavy bass waning away as the time turned from late evening to early morning. Eventually and quite reluntantly, Oliver Queen stood and walked out of the ArrowCave, never quite feeling as depressed as he had right then.

She had been there.

Then, she was gone.


Oliver slept restlessly before finally waking up and dressing quickly. As Oliver straightened his tie, all he could think of was last night. It had almost been like seeing a ghost, like the night when Slade had made his reappearance. While he had known that Felicity had been alive, the fact that she had appeared and disappeared made it seem like she almost hadn't been there at all.

A voicemail from her reminding him not to forget the file she had given him, and that he did actually need to read it before he came to Gotham, proved that it had not been a dream.

As Dig pulled up to Queen Tower, the newly renamed headquarters of Queen Consolidated, Oliver couldn't help but think about how lonely this trip had been for the last two years. Even if they didn't pick Felicity up on the way in to work, she was almost always in some form of communication with him, whether it was QC business or his "other" job. Now, he sat in silence as he rode towards the job that he secretly resented more than anything.

He hated the feeling of being shoehorned into working for his family's company. While he had grown into a fairly competent CEO, Oliver had always desired to give the position away once the company was in a better place. For whatever reason, he couldn't do it. Even though he had never repaired his relationship with his mother, he felt it was his responsibility to his father, a continuation of the promise he made to his father to right his wrongs.

Exiting his black Cadillac, Oliver made his way into the building where his personal team of three met him. Rather than replacing Felicity with one person, he had chosen three. One, Samuel Todd, acted as his personal scheduler for both work and non-business events. Another, Emily Ramsey, acted as a buffer between him and the rest of the Board of Directors. The last one, a middle-aged man named Anderson Shepard, was his personal business analyst, someone personally hired to ignore the opinions of every other person in the world and provide an unbiased opinion.

The second he walked in the front door, all three began speaking at once. Rarely did Oliver answer any of their requests until later today and this day was no exception. Walking silently to the door of his own private elevator, he listened while they all talked. He knew that they would all approach him later after the board meeting so he didn't bother answering.

All he did was simply enter his elevator and let the door close behind them. Once Diggle hit the button for the top floor, he smirked softly behind Oliver.

"What's on your mind?" Oliver asked softly.

"Why did you even bother hiring them?"

"They serve a purpose." Oliver answered simply. "Their purpose just doesn't matter until after the board meeting is over."

"Fine." was Diggle's simple reply.

They finished the rest of the ride silently before stepping out into the already crowded board room. In the last two years, Oliver had established control over the company in several ways. First, Oliver had purchased stocks in several small starter companies that had made him an immense amount of money. That money was then transferred into the purchase of larger quantities of QC stock.

Within a few months of Slade Wilson's appearance in Starling, Oliver had 62% control of QC.

Secondly, with his control ensured, Oliver fired all of the Board of Directors and hired another group entirely. They were all being paid nearly as much as some CEOs would be paid. This was done to ensure that they would give their true opinions on matters. If they didn't, they would be fired. One person that Oliver left at QC was Isabel Rochev, who he had named Chairman of the Board.

Unlike other corporations, the Board had no actual moving power with Oliver's consent. Therefore, there was no real damage that Isabel could do and Oliver could keep a close eye on her, as much as he had come to detest the woman for several reasons. First, she was constantly a thorn in his side and finally, and more important, she represented a significant block between him and Felicity, a visual reminder of how blind he had been.

Either way, she was there and the board meeting was started.

"Morning everyone." Isabel started. "As usual, we will start with our CEO. Oliver?"

Oliver smirked as he heard her disdain for him creep into her voice.

"Certainly." Oliver replied, doing his best playboy impersonation. "I only really have one thing to report. This Friday, I will be leaving to visit our Gotham City branch. I'll spend the weekend meeting with some friends and taking in the sights. Then, on Monday morning, I intend to tour the facilities there and visit with management."

"Why Gotham City, Mr. Queen?" one of the board members asked. "There's almost nothing of value there. In fact, the Board has considered closing it down on numerous occasions."

"Exactly why I'm going." Oliver shot back. "Gotham City is a resource we should be using. Instead, the facilities there are rotting, the management is getting stale and there seems to be no progress in any form there. I intend to interview staff and look into the facilities there to see why."

"Isn't that something that someone a little less "high profile" should do?" Isabel asked harshly.

"Maybe, but that's exactly why I'm going. I intend to use my "high profile," as you would put it, to get the opinions of the employees there to see what could be done to make Gotham City more productive."

For a few moments, the room was silent. Then, a voice rang out from the far end of the table next to Isabel.

"No offense to you, Mr. Queen-"

"I'm sure." Oliver murmured softly.

"-but isn't this something that Ms. Rochev would be more suited for? If this were a simple walk-through, one where we just needed a face, you would be perfect. But this is actually supposed to be a business trip, then I would insist that Isabel accompany you?"

For a second, Oliver sat there silent. He was impressed by the honesty this man showed, as condescending as it may have been. Paying them good money had been worth it. Finally, Oliver leaned forward.

"Don't be worried." Oliver said dismissively. "I intend to record everything. My man, Mr. Diggle, will be following me with a camera or voice recorder. You will get a copy of everything that I see and say and everything that is said to me."

"But, Mr Queen-"

"That's that." Oliver cut the board member off firmly. "I do know that I am not the best at this kind of thing. However, I would like to think that over the past three years in charge of this company, my business acumen has grown. I would like this opportunity to stretch my legs and see how I do."

"So this has nothing to do with Felicity Smoak?"

The mention of Felicity caused Oliver to stop breathing. Looking down to the other end of the table, he saw Isabel, the obvious originator of the question, looking at him ravenously, just waiting for him to make a wrong step. Finally, taking one deep breath, Oliver settled himself and answered.

"I will be visiting Ms. Smoak during my time in Gotham City." Oliver said simply.

"Why would you have to do that?" Isabel asked victoriously. "She flew into Starling four days ago."

"Excuse me?"

"A private plane owned by WayneTech landed at Starling's private airport four days ago with one passenger: Felicity Smoak." Isabel answered firmly. "She's been in town nearly four days and isn't leaving for another two."

"How do you even know that?" Oliver asked, not even bothering to deny the accusation.

"When a plane owned by one of our largest rivals arrives in town, I take notice." Isabel replied violently. "Especially when it carries a former QC employee."

Well, this certainly complicated things. Thinking as quickly as he could, Oliver countered.

"Felicity and I are in a series of meetings that could result in her returning to QC." Oliver replied softly, hoping the lie would convince them/her. "My personal feelings for her aside, Felicity is a brilliant mind and a person that belongs at QC. I have talked with her about positions in both Starling and Gotham City."

"Hence the reason for the visit to Gotham?" one of the close Board members asked.

"In part." Oliver admitted. "I will still be doing what I said I would be doing while Felicity is at WayneTech. After the fact, I will be giving her a tour of facilities in Gotham."

"You're going to expose our company's secrets to an employee of a rival?"

"No, Ms. Rochev. Any even moderately restricted areas will not be part of the tour. I am simply doing my best to convince an incredibly talented friend to return to the QC family."

"Or just return to Starling."

"Excuse me?"

This was what it was like on a daily basis with Isabel Rochev. She was constantly doing everything she could do get under his skin. Thankfully, years of her company had Oliver's used to her tactics and he rarely rose the bait.

Unfortunately, Felicity was a sore subject, especially recently. Thankfully for him, Isabel did not press the subject any further. Instead, she opted to continue the meeting.

"Anything else, Mr. Queen?"

"Nothing." Oliver said through gritted teeth. "Nothing at all."


Later that evening, Team Arrow convened in the ArrowCave, ready to work for the night. Their target for the evening: a man who called himself Prometheus. He wore a suit of armor modeled after the Greek gods. Going with the Prometheus theme, he had set of wrist launchers that fired a concentrated pulse of plasma waves. The plasma reached temperatures of over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit and he had been using it to attack police cruisers.

Any attempts by Oliver and Sara to come up with any background information on the man who had come up short. He never spoke during his attacks and he never did anything other than attack cops. There seemed to no pattern, rhyme or reason to his attacks other than that they always involved cops.

"So basically we're stuck." Roy mumbled.

"Basically." Diggle agreed.

"We're not stuck." Oliver growled. "We're just missing something."

"Well, if we're missing something, I don't know what it is." Sara replied softly. "We've looked into everything."

"Did you look into the source of those plasma launchers?"

Now this was unexpected. That voice belonged to the former member of Team Arrow, Felicity Smoak. To the other three, there was a look of shock on their faces. To Oliver, all he could do was smile. Even though he knew she probably wasn't back forever, he could still relish in her being back for the fight one more time.

"Felicity!" Sara shouted as she jumped from her seat to attack their former nerdy aide.

Quickly, Felicity and Oliver explained what had happened the night before and the reason for her visit. Once that was out of their way, work on Prometheus resumed.

"You said something about the plasma launchers?" Oliver said, staring at Felicity a little more than she should have.

"Yes." Felicity said, embarrassed at the attention she was receiving. Suddenly, she jumped forward and got to work on the computer. Within seconds, she flipped around in her seat, a smirk on her face. "These are advanced plasma generators. Normally, plasma generators are held under lock and key. Unfortunately, some were stolen from a Kord transport vehicle six months ago. These are a prototype model, designed to generate the same amount of energy with less size. That's how he was able to strap them to his wrist."

"Do they use any external power source?" Sara asked.

"No, that's the other relatively amazing part."

"Relatively?"

"It runs on phantom power. For some of the power it uses, it recirculates some of the rest of the power back into it."

"That's incredible." Sara remarked. "How come no one else has come up with this kind of technology?

"Well, WayneTech developed similar technology two years ago before decided it was too dangerous. I always knew Kord was a little crazy."

"He's not crazy." Oliver replied. "But with QC, LexTech and WayneTech dominating the market, he has to do what he can. Developing experimental tech is one way to put himself on top."

"Either way, technology like this shouldn't be something we consider lightly." Felicity shot back.

"I'm not saying we should." Oliver answered before moving on. "Either way, it's from Kord. How was it stolen?"

Again, Felicity revolved in her chair and attacked her computer. In seconds, she started talking while still working.

"It was on transport from the Kord Industries back to its normal secure location at a warehouse outside of town. Once it broke city limits, another vehicle, a large one something similar to a cement truck, blasted it in the side. The hit knocked it on its side. With seconds, a crew blew the lock off the back and pulled the plasma generators from the back. As they did that, another vehicle, unmarked blue van, pulled up. Then, as they all jumped into the van, the ringleader, a man wearing what looks like a spartan helmet shot the other three, including both drivers, before driving off."

"No sign of the vehicle after the fact?"

"Oh yeah." Felicity said before showing Oliver her screen. "They found it at the bottom of the Starling Bay."

"Great." Diggle said before wandering towards Oliver and Felicity. "So we have a man, multiple murders, with a Spartan helmet-"

"So he's probably a little nuts." Felicity added.

"Yes, probably." Diggle replied with a grin before continuing. "So, we have a crazy Spartan man with a set of plasma generators and a custom-made battle armor that is probably built specifically to protect him from getting shot with an arrow."

"I hate it when the criminals come prepared." Oliver muttered before turning to suit up. "How do we find him?"

"Well, there's good news there." Felicity answered, turning away as Oliver stripped down. "The battle armor. It is definitely custom-made but not homemade. Instead, it was pieced together from several sources. In his more recent appearances, he wears an updated version of that Spartan helmet."

"And I assume that's our in?" Diggle asked.

"It is. The rest of it is pretty standard stuff or is modified enough that we couldn't trace it. But the helmet is very obviously a Spartan-style replica that has been modified with Kord tech. The company that makes these helmets is known as Leonidas Enterprises. They specialize in creating period recreations of Greek military attire, including but not limited to-"

"Spartan helmets." Roy finished.

"Exactly." Felicity said. "The helmet is one of their more expensive models. The specialized version, a model based on the sacrificial King Leonidas, costs almost ten thousand dollars. They used period metals and they are individually hand-crafted with a date of creation, the name of the creating artist and the name of the recipient."

"How does any of that help us?" Oliver asked, fully suited and ready to go.

"After filtering through various shipping databases, I've found that only one of those models was shipped to Starling City in the last two years."

"Where? Who?"

"A Homer Pandora, home on the corner of 5th and Glass."

"Homer Pandora?" Oliver said with a smirk.

"What about it?" Diggle asked.

"Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, of which Prometheus is an important player. Pandora is also another important part of The Iliad, the first woman to come to Earth as part of the rage that Prometheus caused when he gave fire to the humans."

"Greek tragedy references?"

"We're on our way."


Twenty minutes later, the four vigilantes arrived at their destination: a large warehouse on the edge of the Glades. Standing on the roof overlooking the building, Oliver spoke to the other three.

"Diggle, stay here and be our eyes and ears."

"Got it." Diggle replied before opening his bag of gear to begin set up.

"Roy, you're delayed response." Oliver ordered next. When it appeared that Roy was about to protest, Oliver spoke again. "Let Sara and I try and take him down first. You know that once you get in there, the odds of this guy leaving in a body bag dramatically increase."

"Not always my fault."

"Never said it was." Oliver answered. "Sara and I will go in first and try and take him down. Once you hear our entrance, Roy, give us two minutes. If you don't hear me call you off, enter. Only exception is if you hear me talking to Prometheus himself."

"What then?"

"Wait for my signal. The go word will be tragedy."

"Got it."

"Alright, everyone, move!"

Everyone instantly jumped into action with Oliver and Sara ziplining their way down right next to the building. Once Oliver checked that everyone was in position, he turned his communicator on, linking him back to the Foundry where Felicity was waiting.

"Felicity, any information you can tell me about this place?"

"No. Any information has been removed from public databases and it's apparently not an important enough building to be on private ones."

"Going in blind, lovely." Sara murmured shortly.

"You ready?"

Sara's only answer was a short nod. Seeing that, Oliver kicked the side door to the warehouse in, racing inside. Once they were in, Oliver realized that all the windows had been painted over and there wasn't a single light on in the building. The extreme darkness made it nearly impossible to see anything and only seconds after they walked in the door, Sara bumped into a table, causing the contents of the table to slid ever so slightly.

"Felicity, is there any way to turn the lights on in here?" Oliver barked into the mic.

"No. The building has been removed from everything: power, water, gas. It's like it doesn't exist anymore."

"Well, I think that's what he's going for." Oliver said shortly. "Sara, did you bring those night vision goggles?"

"Sure did." Sara replied. Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver could barely make out Sara reaching in her pocket and pulling out the goggles. Once Sara had them on, she stepped passed Oliver to take point.

"Here's how this works," Sara ordered softly. "I give you a direction, you shoot."

"Got it." Oliver replied with a smirk before falling in line.

Even with the goggles movement for the two of them was slow. From what Oliver could see, the entire warehouse was one large room with hundreds of tables, each with some sort of chemistry set up on them.

"What are on the tables?" Oliver whispered.

"Not sure. They all have the same set-up but without wasting time, I can't stop to see what they are and I can't identify them with the goggles on."

"Fine. Keep moving."

Slowly, they made their way through the open room. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they looked, they found nothing, just the same chemistry set up on tables.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the building slowly began to come on. One by one, rows of lights flickered to life, allowing Oliver and Sara to see the truly terrifying sight in front of them.

"Oh holy shit." Oliver whispered softly.

As the lights came on, Oliver and Sara could see that each of tables did contain a "chemistry set" of sorts. Unfortunately, the chemistry sets were filled with one very identifiable liquid: nitroglycerin.

"Do you like what I've done with the place?"

Slowly, Oliver and Sara turned around to see Prometheus, their mysterious enemy, standing before them, adorned in his usual cape and body armor. With the helmet and body armor on, there wasn't a single inch of human flesh to be seen. In fact, if someone had told Oliver that the thing in front of them was actually some kind of robot, Oliver would have been hard-pressed to disbelieve them."

Quickly switching on his voice distorter, Oliver spoke.

"Prometheus, what the hell do you think you're doing here?"

When he spoke, he spoke with an incredibly pompous tone, as if trying to convince someone that he was portraying the Greek god that he believed himself to be.

"I'm am simply bring chaos and disorder to a world that believes itself to be in control."

"So you're nothing more than some punk?" Sara barked back. "You might as well have painted the walls in here."

"A punk? That's really what you think of me?" Prometheus replied tauntingly. "I am a god. A higher form of intelligence. The rest of humanity will realize, once I have destroyed the pathetic excuse for law and order that they have created, that I am the only power of authority on this pitiful world."

"You really believe that you are some sort of powerful being, don't you?" Oliver asked firmly. "When I put an arrow through that suit of yours, you'll realize just how wrong you were."

"I would like to see you try. As I'm sure you've noticed, each of these tables is rigged with a bomb."

"Bombs? So that's what you call these contraptions? If you are truly some almighty god, why do you need something as mundane as nitroglycerin?"

"Oliver?"

Felicity's voice rang into his ear.

"Mundane? Far from it. True, I could truly flex my muscle and prove to the world what a god I am. However, what better to destroy the morale of these pathetic lifeforms than to beat them at their own game, destroy them with their own tools."

"Oliver, if you can hear me, you need to get out of there. I've finally be able to determine why he picked that building in particular. It's got a gas main hub directly underneath it. I'm sure that he's managed to access that. If he has and that building goes up in smoke, the flames will spread into the gas mains and very quickly, every house connected to gas in downtown Starling runs the risk of getting blown sky-high."

"So what's the plan? Blow the building up with all of us inside?"

Suddenly, Prometheus flexed his wrists and the sound of plasma generators firing up rang through the air.

"I tire of you, Green Arrow." Prometheus answered, ignoring Oliver's question entirely. "I believe that your use is at an end."

In a flash, Prometheus raised his right arm, firing a blast of plasma energy directly at Oliver. As quickly as he could move, Oliver dove out of the way before reaching into his quiver. Unfortunately, Oliver now faced a dilemma of sorts. Oliver's original plan would have been to use explosive arrows. However, with the nitro present, that wasn't really an option. Plus, most of Oliver's other trick arrows would affect Prometheus, due to the battle armor he wore. Even getting up close and personal with him by striking him with his bow would lack any real effect as long as he wore his helmet and armor.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. Reaching back into his quiver, Oliver grabbed a new experimental arrow. This particular model would act exactly as a taser round, digging into the skin and firing electricity into them, disarming them. However, Oliver wasn't sure whether the prongs would penetrate Prometheus' armor.

Only one way to find out.

Drawing his bow, Oliver dove out from behind the table he was hiding behind and fired. The shot was true and buried itself directly into the center of Prometheus' mask. Instantly, electricity from the on-board battery fired into Prometheus' head.

As expected, this did not take him out. But it did do one thing: it forced him to remove his helmet. Surprisingly, Prometheus looked to be an older man, probably nearing his fifties with all white hair and a scar that ran the entire right side of his head over his eye. He had a gentle stubble on his firm jaw and a fire in his eyes that Oliver rarely saw.

Now, that Prometheus had his mask off, it was time to play ball. Working counter to Sara, the pair of them avoided numerous plasma blasts to step closer to the madman. With each blast, another table was knocked off its axis, causing another small explosion. Thus far, the building itself hadn't caught on fire, although Oliver expected it was only a matter of time.

Once she was in rage, Sara stepped forward and laid a destructive shot to the back of Prometheus' knee with her staff, causing a slight tremble in his stance.

That small opening was all Oliver needed. Seeing his enemy's balance was off, Oliver launched himself at the Greek god-wannabe, smashing him repeatedly in the head with the broad side of his bow. Eventually, Oliver broke the older man's arm defense and crushed him. One final blow to the head from Sara's staff knocked the villain unconscious.

"Not bad." Oliver said softly to Sara with a smile.

"Same to you."

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the building. Rotating in place, Oliver turned to see the far end of the building completely in flames, preventing their escape. Looking up, Oliver saw that all the catwalks that may have led to upper windows in the past had been removed.

"Felicity, we need an exit."

"The door you came in is out?"

"It's kind of on fire right now." Sara said shortly.

"Great. Well, before you get an exit, you need to shut of the gas mains in the basement. The stairs should be at the safer end of the building. Also, fire should be there in five."

"We may not have that long." Oliver growled as he picked up Prometheus' unconscious body and raced towards the basement stairs. Nearly jumping down the entire length of stairs, Oliver found himself at a set of levers and rotating dials.

"Does this seem familiar?" Felicity mumbled into the comm.

"The first time we met Tockman."

"First time?"

"Long story." Oliver replied before jumping forward and starting to turn off all of the valves. It was slow work as some of them had gotten stuck open and those required two people. Thankfully, Oliver had Sara with him and they were able to finish just as Oliver felt a massive explosion ring from over their head. Looking back up the stairs, all Oliver could see was a wall of fire racing towards him.

Without thinking, Oliver grabbed Sara and dove to the floor, doing his best to shield her from the blast with his body. As Oliver hit the floor underneath the stone stairs, he could felt the heat sear his back and within seconds, a growl of extreme pain came roaring from his lips.

"Gaaaaaah!" Oliver screaming in pain.

"Oliver!?" Felicity shouted into his ear.

"Oliver!?" he heard Sara whisper next to him.

The last thing he remembered before slipping into unconsciousness was Sara's concerned face leaning over his as he slipped away.


As Oliver woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in an abandoned warehouse. The second thing he noticed was the pain.

"Grrrr." Oliver growled as he attempted to pick himself up off the mattress he was laying on. To say that he failed was an extreme understatement. He barely managed to lift himself off the mat before collapsing in pain and exhaustion.

Looking around, he suddenly noticed that he was in the first floor bedroom at Queen Mansion, a place he hadn't lived in just over two years. He also noticed Sara, Diggle and, to his relief, Felicity seated in the room around him.

It was Diggle who spoke first.

"Take it easy, partner." Diggle said through a grim smile.

"How bad?"

"Third degree on parts, second on the rest of your back. You'll be out of commission for a couple weeks."

"What's the story?"

"We went with kitchen fire gone bad." Sara said softly. "Unfortunately, that means we had to torch your penthouse."

"Worth it." Oliver mumbled. "How long was I out?"

"Just two days while the meds kicked in and some basic first aid was applied. You'll have no lasting issues, other than a scar."

"Those I think I can deal with." Oliver said with a grin.

Suddenly, Felicity stood and made her way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Oliver asked urgently.

"My plane is scheduled to leave in an hour or so." Felicity said sadly. "I don't want to keep the pilot waiting."

For a second, Oliver thought about letting her poor excuse go. Then, he changed his mind.

"Could you two excuse us for a second?"

With a glance at each other, Sara and Diggle made their way by Felicity and out of the room. Once he was sure they were gone, Oliver fought to prop himself up, barely succeeding before speaking.

"Where are you going?"

"Home, Oliver." Felicity replied simply. "Back to Gotham, where I belong."

"You belong here."

"I can't be here."

"Why not?" Oliver begged softly.

"This is why not." Felicity answered, pointing to Oliver and his injured state.

"Injuries happen in my line of work, Felicity. I get over them and I get back to work."

For a second, Felicity appeared ready to fire back with some snappy retort. Instead, she came and sat at the chair where Diggle had placed himself, the one directly next to his bed. Grabbing his hand, she clasped it between her own, the two of her barely engulfing his.

"It's not the injuries that bother me." Felicity said, a single tear in her eye. "It's why they happen that bother me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you got this wound protecting Sara."

"Felicity, you know-"

"Oliver Queen, I got over being jealous with Sara a long time ago." Felicity said, a rough edge to her voice. "It's not the Sara part of that sentence that bothers me."

"Then, wha-oh."

The protecting part. The instinct that Oliver had discovered the moment Ivo had pulled that gun on Sara back on the island. Without a thought, he had thrown himself in front of her, willing to give his life for her.

Like he had been for Felicity.

"Do you remember when the last time I saw you like this was?" Felicity asked softly.

"No."

"Well, you wouldn't remember." Felicity replied. "Because you were recovering from just having come out of a coma. The coma that Deathstroke put you in when you came after me. He kidnapped you because he knew it would get to you and despite every warning that I gave you when he let you talk to me, you still came after him. You came knowing that it was probably a death sentence! Why!?"

"Because it meant saving you and that's all that mattered." Oliver answered honestly.

Tears were now freely flowing from Felicity's eyes. Whether they were tears of sadness or anger or some combination of both, Oliver couldn't tell. Either way, he knew that he was the cause and he did not like that.

"I couldn't do that anymore, Oliver." Felicity admitted. "I sat in that hospital for two days until you came out of that coma. Two days to sit and watch you play chicken with death, all because of me. All because I couldn't keep Wilson from taking me."

"This wasn't your fault, Felicity. It was mine." Oliver shot back.

"And that's exactly why I can't do this anymore." Felicity said as she stood up, placing a light kiss on his cheek as she did. "I can't be the reason for your pain. I care too much about you for that. So, if the price I have to pay is to stay away, then that's what I'll do."

Quickly, Felicity collected her things and marched to the door. Opening the door swiftly, she stepped towards the exit before stopping and turning back to Oliver.

"I think we know where we stand, Oliver." Felicity whispered, tears impacting her ability to speak now. "I loved you almost from the moment you walked into my office with that busted laptop. Whenever you figured it out, I think that you love me too even if you've never said it."

Slowly, Oliver nodded his confirmation, a sadness crushing his heart as he watched her sob in his doorway.

"I'm sorry, Oliver, but I can't be the reason that you get hurt anymore. You should have died when you took that beating that Slade gave you. Instead, you came back and I think it's unlikely that you'll get a second miracle because the first ones are hard enough to come by."

Stopping for a moment to collect herself, it was all Oliver could do to prevent himself from forcing his injured body to jump across the room and put his arms around her. Instead, he sat still while she sobbed to herself.

Finally collecting herself, she finished her thought.

"That day, the day you came after Slade, was the worst day of my life. You came, unarmed like he asked, and stood there while he beat you to death. If Sara hadn't come-"

"He would have killed me and you would have survived." Oliver finished her sentence. "It would have been worth it."

"It would have been a miserable existence, knowing that you died a painful and horrible death so that I can survive." Felicity shot back, some of her normal energy returning. "Instead, I know that we are both alive and that I'm not the one causing you pain."

"You not being here causes me pain." Oliver said simply.

"Then that's something I'm going to have to live with." Felicity said before picking up her things again. "Protect Sara and Thea and Diggle and Roy all you want, they can take it."

With that, Felicity turned and marched out of the room. As she did, Oliver felt the blackness in his heart return. Without Felicity there, a shade went over his life, clouding every single happy moment with gloom.

This time, Oliver was pretty sure that Felicity Smoak, the best person he had ever met, had left.

Forever.