AUTHOR'S NOTE: The first twist is in this chapter, I hope you guys are suitably excited by the antagonist, i've meditated long and hard who to use and really, there was no choice to make, until Arrow Season 4 begins, I still consider my chosen antagonist as the best one largely because Barrowman is a teddy bear and I can't picture him as real bad to the bone.

This is another chapter meant to move the story forward hence the limited action but I promise the next one makes up for the POVs and verbal calisthenics of this chapter. I think after reading this chapter, you'll know what the next one is all about, clap clap clap.

Also, the poster of this fic I used on twitter is from Joisunny, send her some love too.

As usual, i do not own any of the characters but that doesn't stop me from showing my OTP couple some love. I hope you guys send me some of the love too via any of the following:

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Chapter 7 – A Shocking Twist

Felicity woke up with a headache confused for a moment where she was before it all came back to her as she said to herself, why does this keep happening to me.

She was tied down to a chair in the dark but she was fully aware that despite the darkness there, she could see a shadow of a set up of computers a few feet away from her. She'd recognize that anywhere.

She had no semblance of time, didn't know how long she was out. It could be minutes, hours hopefully not days.

She tried to pull at the strings tying her down to no avail and as if the place had motion sensors to detect that she was now awake, the lights in the room dramatically turned on one by one making Felicity cringe her eyes at the sudden brightness for a few seconds before they focused.

She was right. This was a room that had a set up of computers. And not just ordinary computers, the set of computers before her was hi-tech, despite her current predicament she craved to get her fingers on the computer. It was rare that a set-up like this existed. Her mind processed this and her breath hitched, if they had something sophisticated like this then her kidnapping wasn't random, neither was it related to the Queens. This kidnapping had everything to do with just her and most probably her abilities.

To reinforce that point, she noticed that her watch, the same wearable one that was missed the first time by the Queen kidnappers was absent from her wrist. That meant the people behind her kidnapping knew what they were doing.

Looking around the plain white painted room, she spotted a couple of cameras along with sensors. This time she really was scared, closing her eyes as she tried to get her breathing back to normal remembering her daughter and the gun pointed at her little head hoping that her daughter was safe somewhere.

Oliver. She didn't know why she suddenly thought of him. In the back of her mind she of course knew why, she was hoping that he was already aware of what had happened to her because one thing she knew for a fact about the man, he was someone she could always count on. Now more than ever she needed him.

It gave her a little comfort that she somehow knew that if he was aware of what had happened to her, she was sure that Emily was now safely with him, probably in the Queen Mansion. For that alone, she was thankful that the Queen's had come into their lives.

A door opened suddenly breaking her out of her thoughts as she tried to focus on the figure. Unfortunately, the area where the door was located was still dark.

"Oliver!" John called out to him.

Oliver immediately stood up from his chair to face John. John for his part took in everything about his friend, red eyes, haggard looks, rumpled unlike any other time he had seen his friend who was always almost impeccably dressed, something that was ingrained in him as a child. A Queen must always be of the mindset that he is on public display therefore should always appear groomed and polished. At this moment, his friend clearly had the look of someone whose world had collapsed around him.

"Any news?"

John didn't bother to answer his friend instead he pushed Oliver gently to the side and started to tinker with the laptop on top of the office desk Oliver used in the Mansion, turning it to an angle so that Oliver could have a better view.

"One of the cctv's on the street picked this up," John gave Oliver a few seconds to absorb the video before he continued, "Detective Lance will be over in a couple of hours, he was just finishing up and wanted to follow up a few leads." John looked at his watch, "maybe around seven in the morning, seeing as it's already almost five."

Oliver just blankly stared at the video that showed Felicity stepping into the black van with a backward look at Emily and Barry. It was a little grainy but it was definitely her, he would know that face anywhere. Oliver could remember an almost eerily similar incident just a couple of weeks back also involving Felicity.

"Oliver, why don't you get some sleep, we both need it," John said including himself so Oliver wouldn't bother to protest, "when we get definitive information Felicity will need us, will need you to be 100% . As far as I can see Oliver, this is far from it," gesturing toward Oliver's state.

Maybe to add to the drama of her current situation the men who entered chose to stay in the darkness, she could faintly see them from where she was still bound to a chair.

Something was whispered. Something rough and low was said. Unfortunately, she wasn't meant to hear what was said otherwise they would have avoided he whole drama of having this conversation in the dark.

Finally she heard footsteps approach making her sit up straight. Who ever was the man who walked ahead of the others two who entered with him, he was clearly the leader of this circus and she was about to find out why she was abducted.

Slowly, the blurry vision of the man who was walking toward her became clearer.

Oliver's bedroom door burst open with a loud bang. If he had been sleeping the noise surely would not only have woken him but would have had him jumping from his bed, fortunately for him he wasn't asleep despite his promise to Diggle just a couple of hours ago.

How could he just be expected to close his eyes and fall asleep as if all was right in his world. He wouldn't, couldn't even if he wanted to. Not after he had been through, not after what they had been through, together. He wasn't going to just pretend she didn't mean anything to him. He couldn't and he wouldn't.

He already admitted it to himself, those who mattered to him, his family knew what he was feeling, what was in his heart. Hell, he had said it to her, maybe not in the exact words that were needed, but only because she had wanted to put the brakes on them.

But not anymore, he wouldn't waste a second. Not after what happened. He was repeating his vow to himself to man up and say the words to her, nevermind if she thought he was crazy. Because he was actually, he was crazy in love with her, almost at first sight. When you know, you just know. And boy, he knew it.

It was at this moment that his bedroom door burst open and in came his son Connor, his expression clouded for a second when he didn't see his Dad where he should have been before he finally spotted him seated on the floor in the corner of his room beside the lighted fireplace.

"Dad," Connor kneeled down in front of his father, clearly aware now of what had occurred last night while he was sleeping. "Why didn't you wake me up?" He asked his Dad with an accusing tone.

Oliver just buried his fingers on his hair and exhaled heavily, he didn't want to deal with this on top of everything else but avoidance was never good, even in times like this he still had to teach his son the correct values. He however chose to post a question of his own in lieu of answering one.

"How?"

"It was on the news. I was getting ready for school, the tv was turned on in the living room."

Great, Oliver thought. If the tv was turned on in the living room that meant his Mom and Dad already knew but were probably giving him a few more minutes of quiet before they hammered down on him or John had probably done him a big favor by doing the task of filling in his parents on the events of last night.

"Is Em here? She should be with us. She should be with family."

All it took was for his son to mention the word family and Oliver couldn't hold his emotions back in anymore. It started with a single tear rolling down his cheek then the water works started and wouldn't stop. At some point he probably pulled his son to him as both of them left their emotions on their sleeves.

This was how his parents and a few seconds later, his sister with little Emily found the father and son.

He could barely look at Emily, not when he messed up when it came to protecting her mother. He knew he had a lot of misplaced guilt when it came to Felicity being kidnapped. But after he had acknowledged, accepted his feelings for her, it went without saying that she became his responsibility, just like each and every member of his blood family was. She was as his son put it earlier, family, she and Emily where family. He knew it and by just looking at his parents and sister, they too considered the Smoaks family.

While his right arm was still solidly wrapped around his son, his left arm was now held out as if beckoning Emily to join in the father and son embrace. Without any hesitation, that was exactly what she did. Oliver then transferred his hands on top of the head of each child. This was his family, his own family. Connor, his own flesh and blood and Emily, he may not be her biological father but everything in him already loved her like she was his own.

It would have been a perfect picture except Felicity, the woman who would complete his little family wasn't with them. She was somewhere, probably afraid, hungry, all alone and very definitely waiting for him to come to her rescue just like the time he had moved heaven and earth to get his son back.

And as he pulled his little family to him, kissing the top of each of their heads he whispered to both of them the same vow he uttered to himself just a few minutes earlier, he would get her back, get Felicity back, Whatever it took, he would do it.

Felicity sputtered, "Who are you!"

"Someone you should be very afraid of, Ms. Smoak," the man answered her sneering at her.

Felicity gripped the arms of the chair tightly to prevent herself from reacting, particularly to prevent showing any fear, which the man noticed. The eye patch he wore over one eye gave him an even more sinister appearance in her eyes.

"Such bravery coming from something so delicate. We will see just how brave you really when perhaps your daughter's life is being threatened?"

Felicity switched to fight mode immediately, unmindful of any injury that may come her way if she pushed her aggressor a little too far, "don't you dare threaten me with my daughter. Don't you even dare hurt a strand of her hair or…"

"Or what Ms. Smoak? What can you do while you're tied up and at my mercy. You see I for one know that in a physical battle your practically useless but arm you with technology, ah…then your true potential is unleashed. That's why we took away everything you may use to your advantage including that watch of yours," wagging a finger close to her face, "the thing is I know more about you than you think I do. The only way for you to get out of your current shall we call it…..dilemma is for you to cooperate and do as you are told. Otherwise, we'll let's just say your daughter's life expectancy may be shorter than you had wished for."

Her brain was going several directions at this point but the one most important thing she needed to know was, "where's my daughter?"

The man pulled up a chair beside her, "at this moment, she is safe. I am not a monster really, I only threaten if need be. She may not be physically in my clutches right now but I have 24/7 access to her. That I can assure you of."

Felicity thought, racking her brain. Her last image of her daughter was that she was in the arms of Barry Allen, her oldest and most trusted friend Barry. So she was safe. Barry would never betray her, he was like the brother she never had. She was almost 100% sure that the Queens, particularly Oliver had her little girl now, tucked away safe inside the Queen Mansion.

So while physically her daughter wasn't in the clutches of the evil man in front of her, he somehow had access to her, as he put it 24/7. So discounting the Barry and any of the Queens, it could be anyone with access to the Queens or even, a gadget that gave the evil man remote access to her daughter, a bug, a tracking device, or something that was technology based.

"Care to share your thoughts?" the man sneered at her, leaning back on his chair.

"What do you want from me? And who are you!" Felicity redirected the conversation.

The man shrugged, "okay, maybe it's time you know something about me. My name is Slade, Slade Wilson. I'm a businessman, just like you are. Mine is more of the supply and demand type, I specialize in particular bits and pieces. My clientele includes Businessmen, militia groups, private contractors, government agencies, tyrants, dictators even countries, and some of them are not even third-world banana republics. I'm not really very picky as long as they are willing to pay top dollar. This time what I am in need of is information, that's where you come in Ms. Smoak. Let's talk about you."

Slade Wilson took a chair and leaned into her personal space, his one eye critically going over every detail of her face almost as if memorizing every mole and pore.

"Felicity Meghan Smoak, graduated top of her class MIT 2009, double majored in Computer Science and Cyber Security and founded and runs a successful online game design company. Quite a feet for someone who was abandoned as a child by her father and left to her own devices by her mother."

Felicity couldn't prevent a short sharp breath that escaped her. How could someone who she didn't know have such an insight in her life. The most important, carefully guarded secrets some of which she had herself buried.

"All that you have achieved probably makes you quite a role model in the eyes of most, I have myself been glued to the news lately as they sing your praises, consider you a hero for your act of bravery for someone who is of no relation to you. Or is he? The media has been pretty sure you and Mr. Queen have developed quite a relationship."

"Is that what this is about? Another kidnap for ransom attempt, abduct me and get the Queens to pay up. The first attempt wasn't successful so you're attempting a variation of that by abducting me this time?" Felicity dared to ask her captor.

Slade just chuckled in reaction for a few seconds, "you really underestimate your own worth Ms. Smoak. What you can do, what you are capable of doing with proper guidance say….by me, is greater than the millions any one may be willing to pay for you. No my dear Felicity, you being here has nothing to do with Oliver Queen or any of the Queens but it has everything to do with you and what you can do for me."

Felicity gulped again trying to process what the man had just said, "but all I am is someone who dabbles around with designing games."

Slade stood up from the chair he was seated on and walked around Felicity, touching the skin on her neck ever so slightly leaving goosebumps on their wake before he touched her now loose high ponytail and gripped it tightly forcing head to pull back.

"Don't even try to sell yourself short Ms. Smoak. What you can do is what put you in my purview in the first place. Though you obviously don't advertise the fact, you also have one other hobby that is actually an asset I am very much in need of right now. Like I said, I've done my research well. You Ms. Smoak are a world-class hacker with superior capabilities that put you in quite an elite group. That elite group, I count seven, their use to be more but alas, the last two I have worked with chose to test me. Fortunately for me, you were always in my radar largely because I'm always in the lookout for new talent and the plus factor that you live around my neck of the woods."

"So you see my dear Felicity," Slade continued finally letting go of her ponytail making Felicity groan out unconsciously, "we were always meant to meet someday. That someday has come today."

Slade rolled her chair forward until it reached the sophisticated computer set up.

"What is needed to be done is simple really. Unfortunately it is not among my many fine talents and I seem to lack a hacker at the moment since he took an untimely plunge in the river a few days ago. I've left an instruction paper," pointing a finger to a single white sheet to the right of the keyboard. "I suggest you read then go about what needs to be done. I'm giving you two hours to access the data. Just in case you're thinking of doing something, I'd like to tell you right now that I have remote access to whatever you will be doing here, what you see and what you will be doing, I will know about. We don't want to mar that porcelain skin of yours if you try to pull a fast one on me. Jason," a younger man moved from the darkness to stand beside them, "Jason here will be near you just in case."

With that final warning Slade stepped out of the door.

The Queen family where gathered in the home office of Oliver. Despite it being almost mid morning already, every single member of the Queen clan had chosen not to go about their normal routine and instead just stay inside the Mansion, particularly gather near Oliver.

The children Connor and Emily had also been excused from school for the day so they were also with the adults, half for their safety the other half because Oliver just refused for them to leave his sight.

The police had been there and gone led by Detective Lance who was strangely sympathetic to them using an unfamiliarly soft voice mainly when he talked to Emily Smoak.

Barry Allen had also made an appearance earlier, and after another talk with the Detective, the Detective had shared with them that they narrowed it down to two theories, one, it had nothing to do with the Queen and totally something to do with Felicity, principally with her company. The second one was that it was connected with the Queens after the very public attachment the Smoaks had with the Queens, it was possible that she was a victim of an attempted ransom but the lack of immediate contact with the Queen ruled that as a lower possibility.

Oliver was looking out the windows and into the gardens that had just a few weeks ago held very pleasant memories for him, his and Felicity's very first date. For despite her not terming it that, he did consider it as one.

He rubbed his face in frustration as he turned around appraising the people inside the room. His parents occupied the twin classic armchairs that fronted his work desk, the kids were seated on the floor currently engaged in a game of building blocks with John Diggle, bless the man for distracting the kids with games. Finally, he glanced at his sister frowning at the picture of her beside Barry Allen, shaking his head to clear his mind of that telling himself that if there was a story there, it was to be for another day. Today, every single cell in his body was dedicated to Felicity Smoak, and just her.

The ringing of his phone interrupted them, seeing it was the office from the caller ID, he almost did not bother answering it but decided he needed something. At first all the information was rubbish to him, his mind was slow in registering what was being said but then his brain finally caught up. Someone had attempted to breach the QC secure servers, the same ones that had firewalls of the best and most expensive kind. When he was fed the information that the few second breach was in the Applied Sciences back-up servers, his body perked up.

On top of everything else, this wasn't happening today. Despite assurances from the head of IT that it was just a breach and upon double-checking they were confident that it was nothing significant, and that it was just protocol for him to call the current head of QC with this information, this had Oliver on alert.

The timing of it all may be significant. Maybe Felicity's abduction was just a distraction. He knew he was grasping at straws, but at this point he was a desperate man. And desperate men sometimes grasped at straws.

He turned to the man he knew he could consult about this just as soon as the conversation ended, calling out his name and startling him in the process because at that very moment he was making puppy eyes at the man's younger sister.

Felicity was a good hacker. No that wasn't true she was one of the best, she knew it and Slade Wilson knew it too. That made her greater than great, so if she wanted her breach not to be noticed, she would have done that. But leaving her electronic footprint in the system was the only way she could think of to alert someone, anyone, hopefully someone who understood what this was.

She knew it was a long shot, putting all her hopes on the IT department of QC and hoping they would recognize this, QC was one of the best after all, they should hire the best people. So maybe pinning her hopes on QC's IT was not such a long shot after all.

Thankfully Jason proved to be more bored than anything else. His boss didn't allow any electronic device inside her 'prison' therefore Jason had no cellphone to amuse him, all he did was walk around like a lost boy and occasionally glance at her half-heartedly, some guard he turned out to be. She was 100% sure this man wasn't the one who grabbed her. Nope that man would be more alert than this one. Thank god for small miracles, the clear disinterest of her guard allowed her to send out the mini-footprint on the QC server.

Slade had tasked her to breach the servers of not only QC, but two other companies in Starling City company's Merlyn Global and Kord Industries. He wanted specific information on a project the three companies had been working on, a top secret advance stealth tech that was silently commission in three parts between QC, MG & KI obviously so no one company would have all the data in one place by an anonymous client. Slade had tasked Felicity to hack that top-secret information from the three companies so he could probably sell it to the highest bidder, technology of that kind in the wrong hands could be a very powerful weapon. Felicity didn't put it pass Slade to already have a buyer and financier at this point.

Her two hours were almost up, and she did as she was instructed more to give her time than anything else, because crashing the servers of a company as big as Queen Consolidated wasn't child's play anymore. She really needed someone to interpret the breach as something more than just playtime.

"I need a better access point. I need to be at the actual mainframes of QC for me to check if you're theory is correct," Barry told Oliver after almost thirty minutes of trying to find anything at all from Oliver's laptop that had an access pass to the QC servers.

"I know it's a long shot Barry, it may be nothing but I just have a feeling about it. I may be asking too much from you by asking you to do this," Oliver told Barry, his voice held a level of helplessness to it.

"If there is even just half a percentage chance that this could be Felicity and I didn't do anything about it, I'd kill myself for not doing anything at all."

Oliver nodded to Barry, momentarily unsure if he should be with Barry or stay with his family, thankfully the decision was taken out of his hands.

"Why don't I take Barry to QC. Just make the call to IT I'll do the rest Oliver. You're needed more here, as we said, this is a long shot," John Diggle said as he approached Oliver who looked to his parents for guidance and saw both of them nodding their heads.

Oliver gave John a nod then shook Barry's hand as a gesture of his gratitude but as soon as the two men left, Oliver was once again consumed with frustration. It was almost mid-day already and they still had nothing.

In the meantime Barry had texted Cisco to meet him at the QC headquarters. If this were indeed related to Felicity, it wouldn't help to have Cisco with him. In this instance it was all hands on deck.

Two hours later Slade was back in the room with Felicity. He was now shifting through the data that Felicity had successfully gathered when she was surprised by the big man as he suddenly threw a chair across the room before he menacingly approached Felicity who was now tied again to her chair on the side of the computer bank, "this data is lacking, where is the rest of it!"

Felicity was tempted to roll her eyes at the gargantuan tantrum the big man was having complete with a lot of grunting, she really hated the damsel in distress vibe she felt at the moment and attempted to improve her posture.

"Merlyn and Kord were easy enough to hack and get the information from, QC is another level all together. Their system is almost impregnable."

Slade felt the need to grunt again at the top of his voice in frustration, "this information is useless if I don't have the complete data!"

True enough Slade was speaking the truth. The project was awarded to three different entities tasked to build parts of a highly advanced bioweapon from what she could figure out as separate contracts. This was the strategy by the one who commission them so that no one entity would be able to piece together what they were ultimately building.

"I could only do so much with remote access. If all the data is really necessary, the only way to access that is directly through their servers."

Slade stepped in front of her and hunched down, "you want to go to QC and access the data I need from there?" Slade with his one good eye gave her a penetrating look as if attempting to read her thoughts. "I know how smart you are woman, and I know you are trying to play me."

"I'm not," Felicity said innocently.

Slade reached out a hand to grab Felicity's chin giving her another one of his penetrating gazes. "Felicity Smoak, unfortunately for you I don't trust you at all. If indeed going to QC to get me the final piece of this program is what is needed then we will both go, you and me. Now what do you say to that?"

Felicity's head sunk down to her chest in defeat as she tried to think of a back-up plan, this was QC after all, the Queens should have top-notch security. Hell, maybe Oliver was in QC. Did Slade intend to go right now, in the middle of the day or was everything going to go down at night? All she could do was ask herself these little insignificant questions.

"Oh and Ms. Smoak," Slade once again demanded Felicity's attention, "remember, I have access to your daughter, if that little brain of yours is planning anything but a solution to get me that information you need, the consequences will toll heavily on your little girl. If there is one thing you should know about me, I am a man of my word. Your daughter's life is in your hands."

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