Floating in her thoughts and memories of her past, something began pushing her out of her make-shift paradise and back into reality. Eyes fluttering open, the first thing that registered was the colour grey. Lifting her head from where it was currently situated on top of her outstretched left arm, she began looking around. Lying on her side facing what she thought was the wall now turned out to be steel bars. She was in a cell and in a big building, which looked like an abandoned warehouse. She was lying on a cold concrete floor and for once she thanked the fact that she had decided to wear a shirt and trousers that day.
"Hey….you okay?" a voice caused her to snap her head up and to her left, where another girl sat propped up against the bars. Her clothes were torn; her hair looking like it hasn't been brushed in quite a long time but the part that scared her most was the various scars that seemed to travel up her body.
"Um…. not sure, I think so" Felicity stammered out but as she went to raise herself a sudden pain flared up in her side causing her to wince. Resting her body back down again, she carefully lifted up her shirt and glanced at the wounded skin underneath. A blistering purple bruise covered the majority of her stomach, limiting her movements.
"That doesn't look too good" the other woman explained.
"Who are you?" Felicity asked, turning back to her again being careful of her movements and trying not to jolt her injured form.
"My name is Eleanor, but you can call me El if you want it's much shorter to say"
"I'm Felicity but since it's a bit long to say, you can call me Liz….um…..what happened to you?"
"They break you, trying to get what they want from you"
"Where the hell are we?" Felicity was panicking now.
"All I know is that you're somewhere that you don't want to be" by the way her body tensed up Felicity instantly knew that something wasn't right.
"Ah look the new bitch is awake and ready to get started" a deep voice broke their attention from each other and to the man walking into the room. He was wearing what seemed to be a uniform with straps containing guns and weapons of all sorts; his hair was sandy brown/blonde with piercing green eyes. Cuts and scratches littered his face, creating an atmosphere that Felicity didn't like. He was a fighter, a soldier that did what he had to do to survive and right now his main focus was on her and truth be told she didn't like it one bit. Halting just outside of her cell he seemed to be checking her over but she wasn't sure what he was looking for. Seconds later he was inside, grabbing her foot he attempted to drag her out but her instincts kicked in and possessed her, forcing her foot towards his groin making him double over in pain, clutching his possession tightly.
"Woops" Felicity stated with such enthusiasm, glaring at him. Head snapping up, his eyes vented his fury and threw her over his shoulder.
"You're going to be such fun to break" a shudder ran up her spine at his words and the tone that was used. Carrying her into the next room over, Felicity could see that she and El weren't the only ones in there. Cells were scattered everywhere, girls and women ranging from different ages trapped inside. Felicity must've counted about over a hundred, that again sent a chill right into her bones. Her attention was snapped back to where she was being taken. El's voice echoed through her mind, they break you, and what the hell did she mean by that. Well looks like she was about to find out. Suddenly she was being man-handled again and chained up with her feet clean off of the floor. Her vision began to blur once again, the crack of the whip and her muffled screams, from where she was biting her bottom lip to the point of drawing blood, echoed through the half empty room.
The team were watching Felicity's memories of what had happened to her and Oliver found his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides when he saw her being taken advantage of by several men, who he seriously wanted to put an arrow in. However, he couldn't help the surge of pride whenever she caused somebody pain. Glancing over at Felicity's reaction, she seemed to be shifting her head from side to side slightly but not much she didn't seem to be that effected even though by what had happened but what if her sub-conscious state knew that something worse was going to happen? The weirdest part was when she saw Eleanor he saw tears brimming in her eyes; like she knew that something bad was going to happen. The point where they had seen all the girls and women they had in the building, it made his stomach churn. When they watched her being tortured, especially from her view of the whole thing, he was tempted to pull her out of the machine and just hold her in his arms until those bad memories just disappeared but she had told him and everyone else that she needed to know and under no circumstances were they to stop the process. Everybody else was watching the screen closely for the faces, while Aiden was running a search of the various men. He remembered being tortured back on the island but from the scars that permanently marked her skin he knew that it was only going to get worse. He must've counted at least three days of torture for Felicity, but the part that had gobsmacked him was Eleanor's turn was up for the beating and they all saw that she was clearly in no shape to possibly survive any more so to everyone's surprise Felicity had attacked the man going for El and instead had dragged her into the room. That had gained gasps and muttered curses and death threats from the rest of the group, including him. Those bastards were going to pay, they're going to be begging for mercy by the time he's finished with them, nobody messes with his girl and gets away with it. At one point Felicity had looked down at her body in the cell, her entire body was littered with cuts, bruises, wounds and scarring skin. The worst one was a big, gaping knife wound covering her abdomen. When they heard Felicity muffling her screams it was like a living nightmare for him to watch, how in hell did she survive three days of this and still manage to fight off the men. She was stronger than anyone gave her credit for. He was sure those screams were going to haunt him for week's possibly even months. Oliver had forced himself to turn away from the screen, struggling to tramp down his fury, to the wall and equipment behind him but remembered how Felicity was still bearing the torture so as long as she was being forced to endure it then so would he. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse. It did.
"Liz" El whispered through the bars.
"Yeah" Felicity responded, slightly groaning.
"I want to give you something, just in case something goes wrong"
"El, nothing is going to happen to you I swear to god I won't let that happen"
"Still, I wanted to give you this-" El said while removing her necklace and placing it around Felicity's neck, looking down at it was a wolf howling at the moon "-never take it off, this way I'll be with you no matter what"
"El…I can't"
"Yes you can, and you will…no excuses"
"Fine but here-" Felicity said taking off her anklet "-this way I'll be with you as well….I picked this up before I went to college and ever since it's been my lucky charm and now it's your lucky charm"
"I'll take good care of it, I promise" glancing down at her ankle, now wrapped around it were two pieces of string connected by a dragon pendant.
"Likewise", and with that they gripped the others hand tightly, treating it as if it was their lifeline and allowed sleep to overtake them. But Felicity stayed on her guard, not one second dropping her defences in case something bad was to happen.
Oliver felt his tears rising to the surface when he saw the scene playing; it was as if they knew they weren't going to survive. Looking back at Felicity again, her head was beginning to slowly lower. It truly showed that she didn't feel safe enough to even fall asleep there, depriving herself of sleep wasn't such a good idea but sometimes it couldn't be helped. It shocked him to the core to see how loyal Felicity was to somebody that she had just met but acted like she had known her for years, she was truly remarkable, so selfless not caring about her own health but the safety of Kat's. She repeatedly checked her face and he instantly knew what she was looking for and right now it was plastered all over her face. A look of peace and contentment. How did she do that? How could she make someone feel so relaxed and safe, yet the managed it in that hell hole they had to live through. Oliver couldn't bring himself to even look away from the scene, he was truly captivated by how Felicity's presence can make all that bad almost disappear into thin air. Suddenly she began tracing something in the dirt in the corner of her cell; it made his heart pound into his ears when he saw what it was. An arrow. Everyone knew that Felicity referred to their little night-helping-the-vigilante group 'Team Arrow' and while at first he'd hated it, soon if became extremely catchy and so-Felicity and everyone in the team began calling themselves it.
"Keep fighting Felicity, you can do this….remember….stay alive, save them all, get home…or at least try" they heard her whispering to herself. The fact that she had to constantly remind herself of things like that, she must've really been struggling with the whole ordeal.
Felicity was half conscious when El had warned her of the incoming men that we heading their way, these men were the ones that both of them dreaded. Her body felt like crap, honestly she had no idea how she was managing to survive all of this but she had to keep fighting. Over the past few days the girls had begun to see Felicity as almost a role model, so she couldn't let her pain show through to give them something to hold onto. She felt her life ending when the leader pointed directly at her, her heart thudding loudly in her chest was the only thing that she could hear. She was going to die. Well if this was it and she wouldn't be able to see her friends, whom had since turned into her family, again then she would at least make them proud, to die fighting. Oliver had survived a personal view of his father's death and wrath of those psychopaths on the island and the entire experience had made him a better, stronger and more worthy man than before. Digg had survived the nightmare of the army and the terrible things that held, Sara survived a shipwreck and the island and the league of assassins then Roy had been strong enough to survive being dosed with mirakuru. Following in their footsteps Felicity would either survive or die fighting. A man appeared in her cell and was dragging her across the floor towards the 'Room of Silence' as she and El called it. She could see El screaming 'NO' from her cell as she was hauled away from her, tears streaming down her face. Something must've caused her to black out because the next thing she knew she was being strapped to a table and instantly knew what it was for. The room stunk of death and decay. Attempting to free herself by tugging at her strains, she knew that there wasn't any use but it didn't stop her.
"Anything you'd like to say? Beg for mercy maybe?" a man asked.
"Yes….all of you can go personally fuck yourselves, no wonder why you have to keep us trapped in cells because no other women would even think for a second about staying with you pathetic bastards!" Felicity spat out, enraged.
"I'd watch your tongue or else-"
"Or else what, what are you going to do to me that you haven't before?" Felicity growled, gritting her teeth together and booting him right in the face. During the entire time she had managed to keep her trainers in quite a good state. He looked completely and utterly pissed.
"You're going to pay for that one but for now let's see if you really are as strong as you seem to be…survive this bitch" the sandy haired man stated before plunging the syringe into her neck, not one second did she stop fighting him. Felicity lashed out at the surrounding men, landing blows to faces, stomachs, chests and even somewhere that the sun doesn't shine. All of sudden waves of hot burning pain coursed through her body, causing her to arch her back, fully lifting herself off of the table. Screaming out in pure agony, all she knew was pain and blurry faces. Suddenly getting restrained down against the table, Felicity felt the serum starting to take effect. Arching her back clear off of the table beneath her, she had her head thrown back as the fire began claiming her as its own. Her body began slowing down. Her heartbeat pounded loudly in her head, she could feel changes happening to her. Then suddenly everything went black. The last sound she heard was El screaming out her name.