Hope is a Four Letter Word
By JTrevizo
Disclaimer, rating, spoiler warnings in chapter 1
Author's Note: I continue to be supported by the invaluable beta services of ScarletDeva.
Summary: Team Arrow now knows Slade is free, but can they connect the dots?
Hi all. So glad everyone liked the last chapter. I know it was a lot in just one part, but there's still a lot more coming. As well, I want to thank everyone who appreciated the location of the new lair as well as Dig (finally!) getting his own costume! Code names and the like will be revealed in a later chapter (when we get to the rescuing). Now let's get to the story…
-x-
Hope is a Four Letter Word
By JTrevizo
Chapter 7 – What Was Once Lost
"God damn it is right, Ollie," says Sara, slightly under her breath, as she slides to sit on the edge of the desk beside him.
Slade's free.
Dig and Sara glance at one another before turning their attention to Oliver. His head rests on the fist he'd just slammed into Felicity's desk and they both know that his fear for Felicity has increased exponentially now that he knows Slade is loose. The real question is how exactly he's involved.
"Do you think Felicity learned about him escaping Lian Yu from the terrorists? Or… are you thinking he's somehow involved?" questions Dig, trying to pull Oliver from his pain and guilt and back into strategy mode.
Dig's words cause Oliver's head to rise slowly as he turns in the chair to regard the two people that he trusts like few others. The moment that Felicity had reminded him of Slade and that night he'd used her as bait set his emotions in a turmoil. Now, realizing her words were a warning, he knows that his one-time friend must have something to do with this or Felicity wouldn't have said anything until she was safe and back with him.
"I can't believe that this is a coincidence. Waller only learning that Slade was missing a week before the kidnappers attack the wedding and take Felicity. No, this is trademark Slade Wilson…"
"So… he's there? You think Felicity saw him? That he's behind this?"
"I am sure of it. I can't imagine she'd go to such lengths to get us the message now if it wasn't vital to her well being, and ours. It just makes too much sense..."
Both Dig and Sara watch Oliver, the expressions on his face giving away everything he's feeling. The fear, the anger, the helplessness and guilt all war for prominence on his face. When the anger gives way to determination, they know that Oliver's done what he has to; compartmentalized everything but the mission once more. Which is good, as they still have another mystery to solve.
"Okay, so we figured out that the I love you bit Felicity said was a warning about Slade. But what the heck was the rest of that about Roy?" questions Sara.
"I have no idea. …" tosses out Dig, trying to to make sense of Felicity's strange comment about Roy as well.
"It has to tie in with her other message," remarks Oliver, his eyes closing as he rubs his hands over his head, scrubbing his hair and face roughly.
"I wasn't there for all of that night. I know he went out there with all of us, got his mask and fought with us. The only other thing I recall was that Thea left him, but they're together now," muses Sara before she adds, "And anger management classes?"
Oliver pulls his hands from his face as his eyes widen and he swings his gaze to Sara, causing her to catch her breath. Both of them have distinct memories of Slade following his injection with the Mirakuru on the island. The mood swings, the anger, the rage all escalated in the subsequent weeks, culminating in the man that had attacked Starling City.
"The cure," states Oliver, looking to Dig now, knowing that his partner will recall the agonizing decision they'd made in the clocktower.
"Roy had issues before, but the majority of his anger issues happened after he was injected with Mirakuru. We tested the cure on him that night," explains Dig, since Sara wasn't there when they'd used the potentially lethal Mirakuru cure on Roy.
"So you think Felicity…" replies Sara, trying to wrap her head around the reason for Felicity's mysterious statement again before a painful sounding roar leaves Oliver's lips as he stands, his fists clenching at his sides.
"I think she's talking about there being more Mirakuru," says Oliver, his chest constricting painfully as he fights not to hyperventilate, panic seeping into his bones at this turn of events.
Dig's eyebrows raise and he looks distraught at the suggestion Oliver's proposing, "But there is no more Mirakuru. We dosed everyone with the cure that night. Roy, Slade and his soldiers," he replies, his voice adamant.
"If Slade's there, and involved, why else would she say it if not to tell us that he has the serum again? The idea that Roy 'could get back what he lost' - that's the strength from the Mirakuru," Oliver asserts, more sure of his hypothesis as the moments pass. He knows Felicity almost better than himself. He knows that she wouldn't provide them with a clue like this unless it was not only critical but true.
"Maybe it was to reinforce the Slade connection?" tries Sara, hoping against hope that perhaps Oliver misunderstood his partner and fiance's meaning.
"But why bring in Roy? And suggest he could get back something that he lost? She could have just as easily mentioned something else about Slade, like the visit to the mansion with my family, or Thea's kidnapping. Both of those things could have worked without the Mirakuru connection."
"Oliver, with Slade, Roy and the others all cured, there's no one to get blood from to make the formula again," points out Dig, albeit not as forcefully as before.
"Slade used his blood as well as Roy's to create the serum the last time. If he had some blood stored from before the night of the attack on the city and was only just now able to get to it to synthesize a new batch of Mirakuru, he'd have what he needed to get his strength and healing back," Oliver says finally, playing his ace; the memory of seeing Roy hooked up to the machine in the warehouse, his blood being used to create Mirakuru to fuel Slade's army, still haunts him some nights.
Sara and Dig both go stock still. The idea that Slade could have stored his own blood before the assault on Starling City that night, and only now, that he'd been freed from Lian Yu could he go back and reengineer a Mirakuru serum…
"Oh my God," starts Dig, his mind assessing everything that's happened in the last few days as he comes up with a truly terrifying realization, "did we take down or really injure any of the terrorists that attacked the wedding?"
"No, we didn't. There were bodies, but none were the gunmen," Sara acknowledges, shock showing on her face now as she recognizes where Dig's going with this.
"I remember it felt like punching a wall. I just thought I was imagining it, but…" Oliver adds, his tone filled with dread as he sees matching looks of horror on Sara and Dig's faces. "So Slade gets in bed with these guys and asks them to do him a favor… kidnap Felicity…."
"And in exchange, he juices them up," Dig replies before swearing, "Shit. If Felicity hadn't said anything…"
"We'd be going into this blind," confirms Oliver. No matter what the circumstances, his partner was always watching over 'her' team...
"Do you think they realized what she was telling us?" Sara questions, concern for her friend evident in her voice.
Oliver throat works' convulsively as he tries to swallow the lump that's lodged itself there as he recalls the yelp Felicity gave when the kidnapper had cut her off. He fights to not think of what kind of repercussions she might face at the hands of a Mirakuru-enhanced Slade or any of the terrorists if they figure out what information she'd been able to relay to them.
"I don't know. Maybe. But the kidnappers have to know that they can't hurt her if they want their money. Slade, however…" Oliver starts, but falters as memories of watching Slade hold Felicity to him, sword blade poised at her throat, roll through him, making him shake before he pushes the image away forcefully.
"Look, she's given us a lot of information that we need to act on," says Dig as he moves to clasp Oliver's shoulder in his large hand. Oliver looks up and recognizes the concern for Felicity in Dig's eyes. A look that he knows is mirrored in Sara's as she moves to stand with them.
"Call Cisco at STAR Labs. See if he and Caitlin still have the formula for the cure. I know that they couldn't make more before, but maybe now…" Oliver suggests, then remembers some random discussion one day with Felicity after the attack on Starling City. At the time, Felicity had hypothesized that, if Cisco could have had more time, they probably could reverse engineer the Mirakuru from the remnants in the bloodstream of a formerly infected person.
Which meant…
"Tell Cisco and Caitlin they need to go to Starling General and take Roy's blood. They can use it, whatever notes they already had on the cure when they had the Mirakuru sample and make an new batch."
"Didn't Felicity say that Cisco needed the Mirakuru to make more cure before?" asks Dig, surprised at Oliver's directive.
"That was before. They've had time to play with the formula, and, if what Felicity suggested about reverse engineering was anywhere near valid, and you and I know that she's always right Dig, then using Roy's blood could be just what they need to do it!"
"Okay," agrees Dig as he turns and calls Cisco. He'd heard that he and Caitlin, along with Iris and Barry, had headed home to Central City after they spoke with the police during the investigation into the attack at the wedding. Now though he'd have to hope that they'd be able to turn around and quickly come back.
As the phone rings, Dig stifles a laugh at the idea that two of the people who are friends and colleagues with the fastest man on the planet couldn't get to Starling City quickly.
"What can I do, Ollie?" asks Sara as Dig starts speaking to Cisco.
"Call Barry. Tell him what we know and ask him to be on call. I think we're going to need his help," says Oliver, as he feels his phone vibrate as a text comes through. Knowing that the kidnappers haven't ever used that method of communication, he delays reaching for it.
"What about the League?" questions Sara. "With Nyssa and myself here…"
"There's no way they could get here in time. I suspect that in twenty two hours, when the deadline is up and the terrorists working with Slade give me the time and place for the exchange that everything will happen way too fast. We have to rely on the allies we have here and now."
Nodding, Sara fishes out her cell phone and scrolls through her contacts, finding the listing for Barry Allen. Felicity had inputted into her phone directory during her last visit to Starling City when Thea had thrown her and Oliver a surprise engagement party. Felicity had said that she wanted to be sure that, if anything ever happened to the team, Sara knew who else she could reach out to for help. Then she'd introduced her to the mild mannered man from Central City, who had looked like he was just out of high school, and recalled one of Oliver's more colorful rants about the young man that had made him question just what his feelings were for his blond IT girl.
With Dig and Sara both occupied with their own calls, Oliver searches his pocket and pulls out his cell phone, finding a text notification on the screen. Opening it, he sees that Lanning has completed the stock sale and the $250 million is now in an account at Starling National Bank. All he needs to do is say the word and Walter will sign off on the withdrawal and Lanning will have the cash delivered to him at the mansion.
Fingers of ice thread through Oliver's limbs as he sends back instructions to have Walter clear the funds and have the money packed up in cases for delivery at the mansion before the end of the business day. If he has the money in hand, ready to turn over to the kidnappers he's hoping that perhaps he can convince them to honor their agreement and return Felicity to him..
Once the text is sent, Oliver knows that they're running out of time. The kidnappers have one last call, which will give him the location and time of the meet, but he can't help but replay Felicity's words, and ponder the true meaning behind them…
When he'd locked Slade up on Lian Yu, he had thought that he'd buried another threat to Felicity's safety… The Count, Slade, Malcom… the list continued to grow even as he kept locking them away. It wasn't until he realized that they'd never be safe that he'd allowed himself to admit that keeping away from Felicity for her own well-being was a paradox. As long as Felicity was alive, Oliver would be afraid for her life, and staying away from her forever was impossible.
So he'd broken down and decided that he could be with someone he could truly care about.
He'd finally crossed that line and spent the last two years building a live, loving this remarkable woman - his partner and friend. And just when he'd thought he was going to get that impossible 'happily ever after' Slade had struck. He'd had three years, stuck in his cell, waiting until now, this perfect moment, to get his true revenge. He'd figured out that, while Oliver had used Felicity as "bait" all those years ago, he did truly love her. So he'd plotted and, only now that losing Felicity would truly, completely devastate him, Slade had acted.
Oliver folds in on himself, his hands cradling his head as he leans forward onto his legs. Unless he can get the cure, unless he and Team Arrow and Barry can stop Slade and his allies, he really could lose Felicity.
And if that happens, he won't survive.
-end chapter 7-
Thanks again for reading! Please leave a review if you have thoughts, questions, etc - I always love replying! Also, just a reminder - I try to post weekly between Friday and Monday, so look for updates then.
Thanks - Ms. J.
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