Separation

Alarms shrieked overhead as they ran. Oliver twisted and fired an arrow into a League assassin before making sure the next corner was clear.

It wasn't.

Diggle and Lyla shot simultaneously. One assassin went down, his knife shot in mid-air. Oliver ducked as a blade whizzed overhead and loosed an arrow aimed for the knee. The assassin went down with a scream, but Oliver was already turning back to get his friends. Felicity had Roy by the scruff of his collar, as if to stop him from running out into the fight when he had no gun or bow. Her face was white from the pain of running with cracked ribs, but the tablet was balanced steadily in her other hand, patched into the surveillance cameras.

"Take a left — two hostiles!" she shouted over the noise.

Oliver nodded and fired around the corner.

Every corridor was a trap, and the fighting got steadily thicker the closer they got to command. For every League member they'd taken down, there were at least three or four corpses wearing ARGUS uniforms. Some of them didn't even look like they'd had a chance to fight.

There was a small mound of League bodies by their feet and bleeding wounds all around by the time Lyla finally got the doors to command open. They streamed inside before the doors shut. Oliver slipped Felicity's arm from behind his neck and lowered her carefully against a wall.

"…fine," she said hoarsely, gesturing towards the others.

Roy had a split lip, Diggle had a deep cut in his hand from a thrown knife and Lyla was bleeding from the arm, but none of them had time to stop. Oliver caught one of the auto-injector syringes Diggle tossed him and knelt beside Felicity.

Felicity rolled up her sleeve, her face white. She was holding onto one of the columns in a death-grip, controlling her pain with her breathing.

"I think I'm starting to feel my mortality," she croaked.

Oliver uncapped the auto-injector syringe with his teeth, and worked on finding a vein in her arm.

"I hate shots," she said through her teeth, watching as his thumb found the vein in her arm and she tensed, as if she was actively trying not to fight him.

"I know," he said, holding her arm steady.

They both knew she hated needles, but they both knew that she couldn't be holding her sides every time they needed to run.

Oliver's eyes held hers for a moment. "Look away."

Felicity winced, her breaths evening out, and accepted Oliver's hand to pull her back onto her feet.

"You are going to pay for that later," she said, lightly.

Oliver pulled her close and pressed his forehead to hers. "Looking forward to it."


"Oh good, you survived," said Waller, nonchalantly looking up from her computer. "Agent Michaels — I need you in secondary command. We're pushing them back in all but the eighth and second sub-level, but I can add numbers to that. We should be able to crush them in good time."

"That's not the point, Amanda," Oliver said, suppressing his fury. "You said you were prepared for war. This —" He pointed at the glass screens, showing the fierce foot-by-foot battle inside the ARGUS bunker, "—is not being prepared."

"They used one of the squads' identification to enter ARGUS. They were of course stopped in the lobby, but that didn't prevent them from accessing the sub-level since they kept the unfortunate Mr. Stark alive and well. They briefly shut down our main power, but I rerouted backup control to this room." Waller recited the facts as if she was recounting a dull piece of history, as if the fight for ARGUS territory wasn't happening before her eyes. "As you can see, we are doing perfectly fine. Now all that is left is to apprehend Ra's al Ghul, and this whole war will be at an end."

"Amanda —"

"Miss Smoak," she said. "You modified our evacuation protocols, correct? I've had to let one of my agents go to the front lines, so you'll be taking his place."

"My God, Amanda," said Diggle. "You're already ordering an evacuation?"

"It's my view that the base is an important stronghold I do not want to lose, but I respect the judgment of Agent Michaels, and she seems to be unwilling to sacrifice a few lives to make sure the ground beneath our feet stays ARGUS property." She pointed Felicity to a smaller glass table at the edge of the others. "So I need you, Miss Smoak, to make sure the underground lines are operating, and that the emergency seal doors will do their job. If we need to evacuate, we will do so, and quickly. Am I clear?"

"Amanda." Oliver had leapt up onto the dais and now stood face to face with her. "Ra's al Ghul wants you dead, and even if it seems like ARGUS is winning — if you can't find Ra's al Ghul it means he has a plan."

Waller's features shifted – a ripple of something lurking unseen beneath dark water – but they didn't lose their flintiness. "So what do you suggest, Mr. Queen?"

"Let me find him."

Behind him, Felicity made a noise of despair. Waller's eyes never shifted from Oliver's, but she tilted her head.

"No."

"Amanda." Lyla pointed at the screen.

Waller glanced at the image of a League contingent making its way towards the command center, and raised one eyebrow. "That appears to be an armed threat. John, Mr. Queen, and Mr. Harper — I think I'll require your assistance in neutralizing it. You'd better get moving."


Felicity jumped down from the dais, skittering over wires and empty auto-injector syringes (trip hazard), slamming back-first into the doors before Oliver reached them.

"You're staying here," he said, before she could speak.

Felicity wasn't planning to argue it. The computers in central command didn't require hacking to get into, and while Felicity could hack in her sleep, she didn't think dodging arrows and flying knives was really the best environment to try it in. If she wanted to keep the boys from dying, central command was the best place for it — even though it meant sharing oxygen with Waller the sociopath.

"That's not it. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Protecting the people I care about," Oliver said, looking steadily at her.

Felicity shook her head, quickly and reflexively at the evasion, her hands working behind her back. There was a buffer of space between her and Oliver, because touch was their mutual reassurance — and for the moment, they were both at odds.

His self-sacrificing tendency was rearing its ugly head again, and Felicity's stubborn tendency to Not Let Oliver Die was making an unscheduled reappearance.

"Not that — I know better than to ask you not to go, so of course it's not that." Her eyes flickered up, locking with his. "But I do know you well enough by now, and I know what you're thinking. Don't try to find Ra's."

Oliver didn't say anything, and Felicity pressed, because she knew that look on his face.

"That's what he wants. He's hiding because he wants you to go after him. Don't, Oliver. Please."

"If I kill him, then all this," Oliver glanced at the screens, at the bodies of the dead ARGUS agents, "all this hasn't been a complete waste."

"That's him manipulating your humanity, using it against you. He knows you have a conscience, he knows you can't let people die. Don't play right into his hands — make him outthink you."

They both knew when that advice had worked last, and it showed on their faces.

"I outsmarted Slade by telling the truth. I said I loved you because I do." Oliver grasped her shoulders, the weight of his hands heavy and reassuring. But she refused to soften — just because she and Oliver were together did not mean she was going to stop giving him advice he didn't want to hear. "I'm going to protect us."

"Oliver," said Diggle. He slipped another handgun into his belt, while Roy hefted the pair of double rods he'd been using since the bunker. "Waller got her son out yesterday, but Lyla said the rest of the children are still in the building. After we clear the hallway, we're going to get them to an evacuation point."

Oliver turned to Felicity. "I got them out of Nanda Parbat, and it's my job to make sure they get home."

Felicity shook her head, because she knew that she hadn't convinced him to stay, not at all. She looked at Diggle and Roy, and they turned away to give her a minute with Oliver.

Oliver's hands cupped her face, and despite her instinct not to yield, she leaned reflexively into his touch, her hands coming up to encircle his wrists.

"We still need more time," she said fiercely, feeling his pulse beat strong beneath her fingers.

"We will." Oliver kissed her forehead. "We will," he said again, softer.

"We will beat Ra's al Ghul, but I know that there's another way." Felicity kept her eyes closed, because she didn't want to lose track of her words. "There will be another day to fight, and you will take the fight to him. Just not today. I know that it's not today."

In lieu of an answer, Oliver's lips pressed warm on hers. Felicity nodded but she couldn't smile. His hands started to disengage, and she let him.

"I'll see you soon," she murmured.

He rested his forehead against hers — briefly — a memory of what they'd promised about time and tomorrows. Then Oliver had to move away, shouldering his bow and standing at the door with Roy and Diggle. The four of them looked at each other, four human beings whose stories had entwined — somehow — and become extraordinary. Felicity's heart felt tight and painful in her chest from the feelings she couldn't articulate, because they were really about to fight in another war.

"Come back," she said to all of them, "or I'll be pissed."

Diggle smiled and pulled Felicity in for a one-armed hug. She used her thumb to wipe a smudge off Roy's cheek, and he half-heartedly put up a fight before she hugged him too. Then it was Oliver. Their eyes locked over Roy's shoulder, and it was enough. There didn't need to be more words, more promises. He knew what he had to do — come back to her.

Felicity nodded, and moved away to stand at the wall.

"Ready?" she said, her hand on the controls.

Felicity met all of their eyes, but only Oliver nodded.

The doors opened with a rush of hot air and they slipped through the narrow crack. Roy first, then Diggle — disengaging from Lyla's embrace…and Oliver.

Who didn't look back.

As he passed through the doors, Felicity reached suddenly for him — for his open hand — and at the very last, their fingers linked with a shiver of something ephemeral. One — one more tenuous promise. She needed that from him, at the very least. Oliver looked back at last, holding her gaze for only a second more.

"I'll see you soon," he said, and their fingers slipped apart.

Felicity forced herself to close the doors, and when he left, she shivered, as if he'd taken the warmth with him.