Down

Felicity didn't really know what she was planning to do (the lack of a plan was really becoming a recurring theme with her) once she'd gotten face-to-face with Cheshire. But she was, standing between Kang and Mia, who'd just taken down an assassin together.

"Don't even," Felicity said to them both. She wasn't going to lose them because they had a (highly understandable) bone to pick with one of the League's deadliest and most sadistic assassins.

Thank God they listened.

They both watched Cheshire warily, but not as warily as Felicity, who'd seen exactly what she could do. Compared to her, the other assassins who'd come after them were small potatoes. At least Kang and Mia knew that it would be better to run — regardless of what she'd done to them in that underground prison.

"You," said Cheshire, a low growl that sent a shiver to the base of Felicity's skull. "You annoying little rat. Meddling in matters you cannot begin to understand."

"Um," Felicity said, even though alarm bells were telling her to shut up, "Technically speaking, we exposed a security flaw in your little child-abduction ring. So maybe a thank you —"

Cheshire cracked her knuckles, making the foot-long metal claws attached to her fingers ripple in a highly disturbing manner.

Felicity silently searched for Oliver — but he was somehow fighting two assassins, and their fight was basically three near-identical blurs of black leather and steel.

"I'll deal with the traitor later," said Cheshire, as if she could tell what Felicity was thinking. "Once I can show him your severed head. Punishment for betraying my mistress."

Felicity swallowed and said, "Graphic."

Something blunt dug into her spine, a silent nudge from the two people behind her. It felt like a knife hilt, but she had no way of knowing until she took it. Plan B.

Cheshire took a step forward, her shoes sinking slightly into the snow. "Now, Sa'ida, are you ready for death?"

"Actually," She counted to three in her head, digging the tip of her shoe into the snow, as deep as she could manage. "It's Felicity Smoak."

Cheshire tilted her head in momentary confusion, and Felicity moved.

"Go!" She kicked up a wall of snow between them and Cheshire — and they all broke into a run. There was a cut in her palm from snatching the knife from Kang, but it was worth it to have a weapon in her hand when facing off against a taller and more lethal version of Isabel Rochev.

Felicity felt the blades tear at the back of her robe. She spun around on instinct, and the knife crashed against five screeching claws, except she'd forgotten about the other hand. Felicity let go of the knife and swerved as the claws swiped past her throat, deadly as razor blades. Cheshire swung another blow and Felicity deflected her arm like she'd been taught (which was as much a surprise to her as it was to Cheshire). Then, with one arm grasping Cheshire's, Felicity did what came from instinct, from training with Diggle and her penchant for inflicting blunt-force trauma. She made a fist and punched Cheshire in the face.

It was definitely not League-level, but Cheshire's initial stroke had been surprisingly sloppy, as if she hadn't expected Felicity to be any kind of threat. To a certain extent, that was true. She really wasn't — physically, and especially when she was trying to be. It was the accidental flailing and sudden rush of instinct kicking in that usually got people.

Cheshire turned her head and spat into the snow. Her teeth were bloody when she smiled, and it was as unnerving as seeing a shark grin. Felicity's hand hurt like she'd punched a cinderblock, but she pulled it together and turned to face Cheshire again.

A little too late. Felicity had just enough time to twist before the claws tore into flesh, a blow that should have cut into her torso but curved instead across her ribs and into her back. She gasped as blood — her blood — flew from the blade and steamed into the wintry air. With a noise of contempt, Cheshire hurled Felicity into the snow, and stalked towards her. Felicity landed on her front, and had barely coughed out the snow in her mouth when Cheshire's kick crashed into her ribs, making her vision pulse red and searing red-hot lines of pain into her torn skin.

Breathing through her teeth, Felicity called on every inch of mental resistance she possessed, to force her stubborn body to move — too slowly.

With her back turned, she could see the shadow in the snow, etched by the sun, as unreal as a shadow puppeteer's creation. The claws were spread for the finishing blow, and Felicity sucked in her breath.

An arrow whizzed over her head and struck bone, sprinkling Felicity's hair and the back of her neck with shockingly warm blood. Three more, and the surprisingly final sound of a body hitting the snow.

Felicity couldn't lift her head, not even to see who it was, to see what had happened. The pain was spreading across her back, radiating in agonizing shivers that were both hot and cold at the same time. Poison, she reasoned. But it definitely didn't feel like poison oak. She could hear Mia and Kang beside her, their uncertainty, their fear.

A shadow fell over her — which could have been her mind playing tricks, but when a familiar pair of hands cupped her face, Felicity had no reason to doubt. As the pain faded into a muted reddish light and retreated behind a thick white haze, and Felicity knew she was out.

Oliver remembered the last time he'd carried Felicity, after the explosion at the restaurant. He'd known that she wasn't dead. And the time before that — after the crash — he'd known that she wasn't dead either. Now he wasn't so sure.

The only thing he could think of was the blood. Not the pain in his shoulder from carrying her weight, but the way her face was flecked with her own blood, and the spreading stains in her clothes. As soon as he'd picked her up, he registered the slashes on her back and the glimpses of bare skin under her torn clothes that were livid from forming bruises — possibly from broken ribs. Felicity's head knocked against his collarbone, and her breathing was shallower than usual, evident in the lack of clouding when her breath met the cold air. He tried not to jolt her as he moved, but the trade-off in favor of stability meant that she lost valuable time. Calculations, deductions — all to hide the fact that his anger was rising.

What were you thinking? Oliver was furious — at her recklessness, and at the fact that he'd only put four arrows in Cheshire. She deserved more, for extending a fight with him to someone as innocent as Felicity.

"Is she going to be okay?" Mia asked, jogging to keep up with him.

"I don't know," Oliver said, mastering his urge to lash out. "But I need you to keep the children all in one place."

She nodded and broke into a sprint, reaching the group of children ahead of him. Oliver covered the last few feet of grassland and entered the deserted village, only one thought on his mind. He had to get her inside, to Dig, who knew more about battlefield wounds and how to treat them. Then he had to retrieve Cheshire's claws and try to find out what poison she'd coated them with this time, hide the bodies of their pursuers, cover his tracks. Laying out methodical steps to smother the instinctive panic of having a loved one threatened. To smother the fear that threatened to overpower all logical thinking and bring about precisely what he feared most — the death he'd seen in the pit, the death he'd thought was conquered, proved wrong by having Felicity stand alive beside him in the Pit.

Oliver found the house and had just reached the bottom stair when the door swung open. Instead of Dig and Roy, armed soldiers filed out of the house, all pointing their assault rifles at him from the staircase, from the doorway. Behind him, a dozen more soldiers streamed out of the alleyways and trained their guns on his back.

Oliver's temper was momentarily masked by his surprise — as the soldiers behind him moved aside to admit a tall black woman with striking features and a gaze that melded calculation with cruelty.

"Hello, Mr. Queen," said Amanda Waller. She took one look at the blood on his armor, at Felicity's limp body in his arms, and a small smile curved her lips. "I see that I won't have to persuade you to go quietly. I must say that it makes things so much easier."

Action-packed chapters, delivered for the weekend. Hope you enjoyed, will update ASAP. Cheers.