Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I do not, just the original ideas.

AN: Welcome back! Hate to do this to you, but we will begin this chapter with what happened to Team Arrow first before rejoining Oliver and Malcom in Nanda Parbat.

Oh, before I forget, I had to slightly change several details in the last part of the previous chapter. The problem with posting a story as I write it, I ended up realizing I had painted myself into a corner as I was trying to write what Team Arrow was up to while Oliver and Malcolm were being held captive. I was stuck until I figured out to shorten the time period of Oliver and Malcolm's torture sessions last chapter, from 3 days to 24 hours. It all made more sense…Team Arrow wouldn't have waited three days before trying to rescue Oliver. Ha.

Anyhow, I hope enjoy this new chapter!

Before it all went terribly wrong, the team members in the van had no clue of what was about to happen. Felicity, with the assistance of Laurel, was doing her best to keep track of all the various feeds threading into the van's surveillance programs, quite successfully she thought, when she suddenly heard an alarm.

"Laurel, what is that?"

"Oh, no, it looks like we missed an alarm." Felicity looked over Laurel's shoulder and realized an alarm was indeed going off. They watched in horror as suddenly numerous heat signatures flooded towards the area where their team members were.

Unbeknownst to the rest of Team Arrow, before leaving Starling, Felicity had contacted Barry, aka The Flash, in Central City and informed him of the plan, as well as the Intel on the Fortress itself. He agreed to be on stand-by, in case he was needed. Realizing the team had just been made within the very scary fortress of the baddest criminal Team Arrow had ever fought against, Felicity wasted no time in sending the page to Barry. Her fingers were then flying over the keyboards of the computers in front of her in an attempt to find some way to help her team.

Laurel watched Felicity and waited for answers or directions as to what she could assist with. Overhearing the conversation, as well as the alarm, Ted stuck his head within the van. "What do we do, Felicity?"

Trying not to panic, Felicity said, "Just keep an eye out there, Ted, in case any soldiers decide to come this way. But I'm afraid everyone will be busy with Oliver and the gang inside the Fortress. So far I see no one heading this way."

Suddenly there was a blur of red and yellow, and Barry was standing next to her. Without a word, Felicity found herself being whisked away, and found herself standing in front of their plane, Laurel trying to regain her balance beside her a second later.

"What just happened?" Laurel asked, when there was another red and yellow blur, and Ted was standing next to them.

While they were attempting to gather their bearings, there was a blur of blue and red, and suddenly Diggle, Roy and Ray were standing beside them.

"Guys, hurry, let's get in the plane and leave," Diggle said.

"But….but what about Oliver?" Felicity asked.

Diggle said, while pushing her to move forward up the airplane steps. "Oliver ordered us to take off without him. Our first priority is getting away with the virus."

Felicity turned to beg Barry to go back and get Oliver, when she realized he wasn't with them. "Where'd Barry go?"

"He said he had to go back to handle a situation back home. He's literally in the middle of something, he said, and he had to get back."

"But…."

"Felicity, you know Barry. It killed him to leave Oliver there, as it does us, but there's nothing we can do at this moment."

The team rushed into the plane, claimed seats and buckled themselves in. Diggle and Ray continued to scan the horizon for any possible interference. As expected, they suddenly saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance. Several jeeps could then be seen heading their way, but still at a significant distance away.

"Go, go, go!" Diggle told the pilots.

The plane took off without difficulty. The team watched in breathless terror as the jeeps reached the airfield only after their plane was in the air. Even though the soldiers began to shoot at the plane, luckily they were far enough away for no bullets to reach them.

The group, collectively, breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in their seats until the seat belt sign was turned off. They turned and looked at one another, waiting for someone to determine where to start the conversation.

Felicity looked at the men in disgust and decided just to ask the question at the tip of her tongue. "What happened?"

Ray shrugged at the young blonde dynamo, took a breath, and prepared for her reaction. "We got all the way into the room, and got ahold of the virus, without any alarm. Or so I thought. When I grabbed the virus, a gate started crashing down. I was barely able to get out of there, but Malcolm and Oliver were locked in the room behind the gate."

Felicity looked at Ray, unable to believe what she had heard. "What? Oh no. You just left them in that room, trapped?"

"Barry arrived then, and was about to vibrate through the bars to get them out of there. However, Oliver demanded we leave, without them, to avoid the soldiers, and to get everyone else and the virus out of here."

"Everyone but him," Felicity said, bitterly.

"Just in the nick of time. We barely were zooming though the air before soldiers arrived," Diggle said.

Before Felicity could say anything, Ray said, "If Barry had taken the time to get Oliver and Malcolm out of there, none of us would've escaped."

Felicity and Laurel looked at one another. Laurel watched as Felicity attempted not to break down, how she closed her eyes tightly to hold in the tears beginning to form.

Deciding a change in subject was needed, Diggle asked, "How did we miss that alarm, Felicity?" He didn't mean to sound accusatory, but the question still came out like that. "I mean, you got all the other ones. Why that particular one, I wonder?"

"I don't know. I thought we had it all covered, between my programs and Ray's suit…"

"I was able to catch three of those alarms, but the fourth one…I don't know. It must have been the last resort, hidden so well we couldn't find it." Ray said.

Diggle looked at the downcast team. "Hey, it's no one's fault. We all tried our best. At least we were able to destroy Ra's' records and laboratory, and take all the samples he had."

Felicity couldn't stop herself. "But he has Oliver." She hated how childish and peevish she sounded, but she was too worried to care too much.

"I think we should double back and I'll try to rescue him with the suit," Ray suggested.

Diggle shook his head. "No, it wouldn't work, Ray. One, they would be expecting us. Two, Oliver told us not to. Three, we don't know where in the Fortress Oliver's now being held. Not to mention Malcolm." Meeting Felicity's glare, Diggle stated, "Who knows where prisoners are brought in that place. Without Malcolm's knowledge, we wouldn't be able to narrow down the possibilities."

"Malcolm? Who cares about him?" Felicity asked with scrunching up her nose in disgust.

"I know, but despite everything, we can't leave him there."

Laurel spoke up, "What is our game plan, then?"

Diggle and Felicity exchanged glances. Diggle looked at Ray, who shrugged, and at Ted, who shook his head. Laurel looked at her teammates in astonishment when no one offered a suggestion. "We got nothing? Among us all, we have no ideas? Come on, guys, are we really going to fly back all the way to Starling and leave Oliver there?"

Ted spoke up. "Laurel has a point. Isn't there somewhere close by we can stay and regroup? I know I'm rather new to the team, but I can't imagine you guys leaving one of you behind."

Diggle got up. "Yes, let me talk to the pilots. Perhaps they have a suggestion." Looking at Felicity, he added, "Perhaps it's time to involve ARGUS now."

Felicity rubbed her temples. "I don't know Dig." Sighing, she looked up. "I suppose. We need to get Oliver….and Malcolm…out of there."

"Whatever it takes," Diggle said, looking at the group.

"Whatever it takes." Laurel said solemnly.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Previously:

"We destroyed all the information you had on the virus, blew up the laboratory, and took the only sample you had. You're done, Ra's." Oliver said, knowing he sounded like a comic book hero, but not really caring.

"I will find another way. Unfortunately neither of you will live to see it. As a final act of revenge, I will definitely ensure the destruction of all you hold dear."

Oliver slowly let out a breath, stilling his body, not showing a reaction. He reminded himself that at least, for now, Ra's had been stopped and the team gotten to safety.

"You are not concerned? Are you so sure your team returned safely back to Starling?"

"It's been three days. If they hadn't escaped, you would have flounced it in our faces."

"Are you so sure, Mr. Queen? Perhaps I killed them and dropped their bodies in a cavern outside Nanda Parbat?"

It took everything Oliver had not to react to Ra's' statement. No. You would've made me bury the bodies myself. "What are you going to do now, Ra's?"

A slow smile formed across Ra's face. Despite himself, Oliver swallowed. The evil shining from Ra's' eyes took Oliver's breath away. "I will tell you, Mr. Queen. You will not like it. Not in the least."

Steeling himself to again ask the question, Oliver spoke once more. "So, will you tell us now what we have to look forward to, or will you bore us to death with these theatrics, Ra's?"

Oliver felt a small sense of satisfaction as he saw a quick flare of anger flash in Ra's eyes. It quickly disappeared, but Oliver knew it had been there. "Indeed I am going to take special pleasure in finishing you off, Mr. Queen. You will regret the day you crossed my path."

"Don't worry, I already have. However, it wasn't my idea to interfere with you in the first place, Ra's."

Malcolm left out a surprised cry. "Oliver, will you quit poking the bear? I'm surprised with you."

"Me? Why haven't you said anything?"

"Because I don't want to make Ra's any madder."

Ra's gave them a little smile between thin lips. "For once, Al Sa-her, you are being smart."

Oliver had just enough remaining energy to roll his eyes. A sad day indeed when he was the one making quips to the bad guy instead of Malcolm. He risked a glance at Malcolm, who gave him a sideways smirk, and waited for an answer from Ra's. Returning his gaze to Ra's, Oliver attempted to wait them both out. Until he couldn't.

"Well?"

"Patience certainly isn't your long suit, is it, Mr. Queen?"

"You should've seen him as a child. Unbearable," Malcolm couldn't resist adding.

Oliver glared at Malcolm, who smirked. "Just too good an opportunity to let pass by." Malcolm looked at Ra's. "Even if it's courting death," he smirked at Ra's.

Shaking his head Ra's split a look between them. I'm happy to provide you two a sense of levity. But I will now bring this to a close." He nodded beyond them, resulting in guards approaching the prisoners and dragging them to their feet.

All sense of levity left Malcolm's face. "But, Master, you never said what you wanted from us."

"What I want from you, Al Sa-hir? Simply for you to die the most painful death possible."

Suddenly there was thunder and a blur of red and yellow. Before Oliver could blink, Ra's suddenly was bound in front of them, and his own bonds were released. He turned and looked into the smiling face of one masked Barry Allen.

"Thanks, Barry. Not that I don't appreciate the assistance, but how are we to get out of here with Ra's army outside?" Oliver asked. The words were barely out of his mouth when he found himself standing in a hotel room surrounded by his team. Seconds later, with a gust of wind, Malcolm was standing next to him.

Malcolm looked at Barry, masked, in amazement. "What just happened?"

AN: Hope you enjoyed this. I thought I would shake things up a bit. End it a little differently than I originally planned. So…hope to see you next chapter to see what Ra's will do next.