Almost there. Just this chapter and one more to go, though that one is almost complete already it's got a sequence that had been in my head for weeks and it's flowing well so far.

Again, hope you all enjoy. Reviews are encouraged :)

(thanks to the guest reviewer that pointed out a small goof)

Disclaimer - the people that own Arrow are the people that own Arrow. I am not one of those people.

'Thanks Barry,' Oliver went to shake the younger man's hand, but found himself being hugged.

'Don't do that again Oliver,' Barry's face was joyful, but the pain in his eyes matched his tone, 'Don't need any more losses.'

'I'll do my best,' Oliver nodded. Barry Allen stepped back, gave Felicity a wide grin and vanished in a streak of red.

'That's never going to get old,' Oliver chuckled and turned to smile at Felicity, only to see her with an look of fear on her face as she heaved the heavy duffle bag containing the suit over her shoulder. His eyes started darting around the open space in front of Verdant, Barry dropping the two off at the club on Felicity's request, 'What is it?'

'John's going to be angry,' Felicity bit her nail, 'Like, steam out the ears, exploding head angry. He told me I was mad for thinking this would work, that I could get your body back. I didn't tell him at all that I'd left, the first that knew was Barry when I contacted him to get Sara's body moved to Nanda Pardet.'

'So he's going to scream at you, then hug you to death.' Oliver took Felicity's hand and gently lead her into the club.

'HARPER!' Thea Queen's voice screeched across the empty dance floor, 'Where's that crate of whiskey you put back here?'

Oliver let out a heavy sigh of relief when he saw his sister's head appear over the top of the bar, exasperation clear on her face, 'Thea!'

'You asshole,' Thea glared, anger seeping from her as she stalked around the open end of the bar and across the dance floor, 'You should have told me what you were doing!'

'They told you,' Felicity gasped, 'Roy or Diggle?'

'Roy,' Thea stood before her brother, her eyes aflame, 'I accosted him here a few nights ago to try and find out why he was avoiding me again.'

'You,' Thea slammed her fist into Oliver's arm, 'You had no right to decide for me. I should have gone with you to account for Sara's death. She died at my hands, not yours.'

'I'm never going to apologise for doing everything in my power to keep you safe Thea,' Oliver's voice lowered near to the growl he used as the Arrow, 'Not while I have breath left in me. So don't bother trying to change that.'

'How are you still alive?' Thea whimpered, 'Malcolm said you were dead.'

'It's complicated Speedy,' Oliver sighed, 'I think it's best that I wait until we're all together before I try and explain what happened, but I can promise you that the League will not be taking action against the team or Starling in general.'

'I killed her Ollie,' Thea threw herself at her brother, her voice filling eith emotion, 'I killed Sara.'

'The hell you did,' Oliver wrapped Thea up in his arms, 'You were manipulated and forced into an action you had completely no control over. You are not to blame.'

'I'm sorry Ollie,' Thea wept, 'I've been so stupid. Why is my life so messed up?'

'Because life is a fickle mistress who enjoys fu...' Oliver's ironic huff was interrupted by the loudest bellow he'd heard in years, the urge to flinch almost overwhelming.

'FELICITY MEGHAN SMOAK!' John Diggle's forehead throbbed dangerously, his face murderous, 'WHAT IN ALL THAT IS HOLY DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING? We have been worried positively out of our freaking minds!'

Thea squeaked and scrambled behind Oliver as the man mountain stormed across the dance floor.

'I'll deal with you in a minute Oliver,' Diggle growled absentmindedly at the amused archer and turned his attention on the blonde standing defiantly before him, 'Do you have any idea just how goddamn worried we've been?'

'John,' Oliver smirked, despite the rage pulsating from the former soldier. A large finger shot up and Thea started giggling at the silent command.

'I thought you had lost your mind when you told me about your plan,' Diggle's firm voice was met by a growing smile on the shattered woman's face, 'And then to discover that you'd flown to freaking China after EVERYONE had told you that you were...

'John,' Oliver tapped Diggle on the shoulder.

'Oliver!' Diggle spun and speared him with a hard glare, 'will you let me... Oh.'

The melodic sounds of Felicity's laughter was mixed with Thea's loud giggles, the women enjoying the sight of John Diggle lost for words. Oliver wrapped his arm around Diggle in a man hug, one that was returned after a moment of astonished inactivity.

'My God,' Diggle's voice hitched, 'what the hell?'

'I'm alive John,' Oliver coughed with the pressure on his chest from Diggle's vice grip, 'Though not for long if you don't let me breath.'

'Merlyn said you were dead,' Diggle's eyes were suspiciously damp when he let Oliver go.

'He was wrong,' Oliver wobbled, the exertions of the day starting to take it's toll, 'Any chance we can continue this where I can sit down?'

'Roy's down below,' Thea narrowed her eyes at her brother, 'Which I found to be a bit irritating to find out what was going on down there when I was let inside. That's where you were sleeping for months on end?'

'I have issues being able to sleep Thea,' Oliver winced, Felicity slipping under his good side and helping him across the club, 'sleeping down there at least gave me the chance to keep honing my abilities if the insomnia hit.'

The sounds of Arrows being fired met Oliver when the hidden door was opened and he gulped down the lump in his throat at being home as he was helped down the metal staircase.

'Dig!' Roy Harper as he appeared out from the partitioned target zone, 'Where did you move the dummy arrow heads?'

'Second drawer on the right,' Diggle grinned when Roy spotted Felicity. The young man took two steps towards the group before his fury turned to shock and he dropped to to mat covered floor in a dead faint.

'Anyone would think he'd just seen a ghost,' Oliver grinned, only to receive groans in return, 'What?'

'Let me get this straight,' Roy held the ice pack to his head, the lump throbbing painfully, 'You were stabbed through the chest with a machete, was Sparta'd off the mountain top and you still managed to survive a night in freezing conditions?'

'Isn't that what I just said?' Oliver leant back in the chair and grinned, 'Maybe that knock to the head did some damage after all.'

'Ha, Ha,' Roy deadpanned, 'How the hell did you survive all of at?'

'I had a good incentive to stay alive,' Oliver reached over and gripped Felicity's hand, the woman blushing furiously, 'Plus I think it was so cold that my half naked body just shut itself down and I kinda went into some sort of stasis.'

Thea leant over the back of Oliver's chair and kissed her brother's cheek, 'I don't care how, I'm just glad he's home and we don't have to worry about the League targeting us.'

'Pizza's arrived,' Felicity waggled her phone at Thea, the two women jumping away from Oliver, 'You coming Roy? I can't guarantee that the pineapple will survive down here if you don't help us carry it all.'

Oliver grabbed Felicity's arm and tugged her back to him, earning a dramatic gagging noise from Thea when the kiss he initiated went on longer than she was comfortable with.

'Just go get the pizza Thea,' Oliver laughed. A small bottle of soda appeared before him as he watched Felicity disappear up the staircase, 'I'm so looking forward to when I can have a beer again.'

'How long?' Diggle slouched in the chair vacated by the resident IT genius.

'Three weeks,' Oliver groaned, 'Something about the herbs reacting badly to alcohol in general. I'm sorry.'

'What for?' Diggle took a swig of his drink.

'I listened to him,' Oliver picked at the label on his bottle, 'I listened to a goddamn mass murdering psycho and asked how high when he said to jump.'

'Lesson learnt,' Diggle shrugged, 'Though I'm not kidding when I tell you that I'm not letting you hurt Felicity again. I don't know if I'll ever forget the sound of her breaking down in here, It's one of the most painful experiences I've ever had... And I've been shot in the ass before.'

'What?' Oliver scoffed, 'You haven't?'

'Accidental discharge at a roadblock by a colleague,' Diggle's tone told Oliver he wasn't joking, 'I doubt his feet even touched anything solid before he was back stateside being given all kinds of hell.'

'I saw her,' Oliver muttered after a moment. He glanced over to see the look of confusion being sent his way, 'The whole life flashing before your eyes thing. The last person I saw before I was kicked was Felicity, then I...'

Diggle waited as Oliver's mouth opened and closed silently.

'...I saw tommy,' Oliver exclaimed, 'I was sat in the tree we'd spend hours in during the summer as kids and he was in the exact spot that I remembered he would take as it gave him a vantage point into Sonya Greddick's older sisters bedroom.'

Diggle snorted into his drink.

'But the tree wasn't in the large Merlyn gardens,' Oliver frowned, 'I'm not entirely sure where it was. He told me he was proud of me, that he was proud of the man I'd turned into. He said he regretted calling me a monster and that he'd known I was lying when I told him I hadn't killed his Dad.'

'Which you didn't,' Diggle pointed out.

'Then my Parents were in the tree, along with Sara and...' Oliver had to force himself to keep talking, 'Shado. They were all around me. Mom leant over and kissed me on the head like she'd done when I was a kid with a nightmare and the next thing I know I'm waking up in a pool of goo in absolute agony.'

'I've no idea if that was real or if I was being affected by the blood loss and the Himalayan cold,' Oliver looked up when a trio of laughing, pizza carrying Team Arrow members burst into the lair, 'But it felt real.'

'What felt real?' Thea handed Diggle a box, quizzical eyes on her brother.

'I'll tell you later Speedy,' Oliver wrenched open a box and proceeded to inhale a third of a pizza in mere moments.

'Good to know that your latest near death incident hasn't killed off your appetite,' Roy pulled a pair of slices out of his own box.

'Behave,' Felicity mumbled around a mouthful of pizza.

'You want to what?' Felicity lay on the large, sinfully comfortable bed Oliver had in his bedroom at the apartment he shared with Thea a few hours later. The hard pull of exhaustion had tugged the couple to the larger bed, both seemingly collapsing onto it fully clothed as the events of the last few weeks finally caught up. They were asleep almost before they'd hit the mattress.

'I need to see Lance,' Oliver's fingers stroked over Felicity's t-shirt clad arm, 'he needs to know the reality Starling is going to be facing if we can't find Malcolm in time.'

'But that means we'd have to tell him why they're after him,' Felicity's concerned eyes lifted from the spot she was tracing with her fingers on Oliver's chest, 'And that Sara is gone.'

'I think he knows,' Oliver sighed, 'I think he knows in his gut that she's gone, but he's not had the courage to find out the truth incase he's correct. If we can't capture Malcolm inside the deadline, then we're going to have the entire focus of the League down on the city. It barely survived a bunch of mindless brutes, I'm not sure it can survive the League's full attention.'

'When?' Felicity yawned.

'Tomorrow,' Oliver failed to hide the wince as he shifted, 'We'll see him tomorrow when we've had some more sleep.'

'Good plan,' Felicity whispered, a gentle snore rumbling from her moments later.

'Okay,' Captain Quentin Lance warily eyed the couple sat across his desk, the door to his office firmly closed and the blinds drawn, 'This set up is giving me the willies. What's going on?'

'I'm the Arrow,' Oliver calmly spoke, Felicity barking her annoyance almost immediately.

'Really? No easing into it? Just slamming straight in there?' Oliver's twitching eyebrow had Felicity cringing.

'Good to know something's never change Felicity,' Lance chuckled, 'Though the next time you want to drop a bombshell on someone, make sure they don't already know beforehand.'

'You knew?' Oliver blinked in surprised, 'You've never given any indication that you knew.'

'Plausible Deniability,' Lance shrugged, 'Plus when I cared, I couldn't prove it. When you'd started becoming a force for good around here, I didn't care.'

'I see,' Oliver glanced over to see the framed photo of Laurel and Sara, both women grinning manically.

'So this is the official announcement then,' Lance seemed to shrink in his chair, 'Sara's dead, for real this time.'

'I'm so sorry Quentin,' Oliver felt Felicity's hand cover his, the shaking becoming apparent to him suddenly. Slowly and painfully, Oliver recounted the story in all it's horrific glory.

'I could feel something missing in me,' Lance reached for the photo, 'I knew she was gone, but I didn't want to believe it. Not when I saw Laurel's pain when I'd mention her sister, but it was Dinah's eyes that confirmed it. The hope was gone. The hope that had sat behind her eyes for years was gone and i knew.'

'Does Thea know?' Lance cautiously asked, concern in his voice, 'Is she aware of what was done to her?'

'She knows,' Felicity replied when Oliver couldn't, his hand shaking in hers, 'Do you...'

'Thea is as much a victim as my Sara was,' Lance sighed, 'I've heard of the toxin before, so I know that your sister had no control over her actions. It's Merlyn that needs to pay for my daughters death.'

'He will,' Oliver nodded, 'as I understand it, Merlyn will be taken to the edge of death repeatedly, and brought back by the pits until Nyssa decides to allow him death. The last person she gave this punishment spent six months before they were granted death.'

'Remind me never to get on the bad side of Nyssa Al Ghul,' Lance winced, 'But that sounds suitable punishment for him. Just grant me one wish before you ship him over there, let me deck the creature first.'

Oliver felt his lips twist up, the first smile since arriving at the station, 'That we can do.'

A tapping on the glass window interrupted whatever Lance was about to say, Laurel's voice heard on the other side. The older man saw the panic on Oliver's face, 'You've not told her yet?'

'Not yet,' Oliver shook his head and wobbled to his feet, 'There's been a long list of people that I've got to touch base with again and I'm still not exactly healthy. Laurel was going to be later today.'

'Then you should sneak out the back door,' Lance motioned to the other door, 'and I'll distract my daughter to let you escape... Never in my wildest nightmares did I ever think I'd willingly help Oliver Queen escape out a back door.'

Felicity didn't stop giggling until they were back at the Lair.