UPDATED NEWS: People have been writing about not being able to see 55-58, so I've UPLOADED IT TO TUMBLR (REPEAT) TUMBLR AND AO3! So if it's driving you crazy just read it there I swear I'm not doing it on purpose. My tumblr is ChronicOlicity, just go on there and look. If it's AO3, it's under the same story name.
I'll See You Soon
Felicity couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it earlier. All the ARGUS systems at her fingertips, and it hadn't occurred to her that she could have been pulling the fire alarm.
Of course, the regular fire alarm with a few sprinklers wouldn't be likely to cause a dent. But ARGUS-level fire extinguishing systems, with carbon dioxide-based, high-compression gas outputs — they were doing a pretty decent job at slowing down the League. CO2 fire extinguishers had a nasty habit of displacing oxygen, and even super-assassins needed oxygen to function.
"Impressive," said Waller, as Felicity pulled another fire alarm in the League's path and cut the power to boot. "We should have had you here in the beginning."
"There's no we, Amanda." Felicity kept typing, her eyes never leaving the screen. "Any chance of a we died when you ordered that drone strike on hundreds of innocent people."
"I did what I had to, Miss Smoak, and you will too. Right now."
Felicity stared at Waller apprehensively. "Now?"
Waller leaned closer, her voice low. "There was a protocol called the Apocalypse. It was built into every ARGUS installation, a system of explosive charges that would detonate and collapse the structure in on itself. Obviously, the risks were huge — what if executive control was usurped — what if the wrong person was given the trigger? Because of certain...pressures, the protocol was deactivated, but as you can tell, this bunker is relatively new and its design was supervised by someone who weighed the risks alongside the necessary measures to be taken for collective security."
"Sounds like a sociopath," Felicity muttered.
Her eyes glinted. "Once that elevator goes down, Miss Smoak, I need you to activate the Apocalypse protocol."
"You," said Felicity. "Really need to stop putting your faith in things that go boom."
Waller tilted her head, unimpressed by Felicity's reaction. "The only people who would die are in the League of Assassins."
"And the ARGUS agents knocked unconscious by the gas," Felicity reminded her, in a voice hard enough to rival Waller's. "Assuming that mass-murdering your own people isn't a terrible idea — which it always is — what happened to your amazing plan to draw out Ra's al Ghul? You think dropping a building on his army is going to make him any less angry? He'll regroup — there's more where that came from and he'll try again — except this time he won't fall for it, and you'll still be missing a head by the time he's done with you."
"Of course, killing Ra's is the primary objective. But the bulk of his forces are within this building and I could save lives if I made sure they never saw the light again." Waller rapped her knuckles smartly on the table. "Either way, with your assistance or without — as soon as the elevators go down, I'll pull the trigger."
"Then why did you tell me this?" Felicity asked, warily.
"Because I still think you know in your heart of hearts what needs to be done. There's steel in you, Miss Smoak, not just fire. If you ever want to be more than tech support for your little group of boys — you need to make the hard decisions, the tough calls. Starting with this one. Stop me, don't stop me — either way, you'll have made a choice. Just the small difference between the easy way out and the hard way forward."
"Felicity — ETA two minutes!"
Felicity turned towards the computers again, her hands flying across the controls. Too fast to think, too quick to process.
"Choose, Miss Smoak," said Waller, softly in her ear. "Choose."
It was almost time. The elevator was filling up with agents, crucial equipment — and bodies. Felicity glanced up as Roy was lifted past her and moved into the elevator. The doors were — uneasily — wide open, to facilitate the stream of agents still coming in from battles all across the floor. Bleeding or worse, but alive. Felicity was manning the computers, with agents grouped around the dais below — guns pointed towards the open doors, ready to fire at any sign of hostiles.
Waller was still by the computers, and Felicity didn't trust her there, but she didn't expect anyone to believe her if she said that their boss was planning to blow them up. The only people who trusted her implicitly and without qualms were all outside — fighting for their lives and the lives of strangers.
"I see you," she said, as her friends appeared on the screens. They had the injured between them, the ones who'd fallen behind.
"Felicity, we need more time!"
She was already working. "Got it."
Fire alarms, gas valves, power outages — she was doing all she could to give them those precious few seconds that could mean the difference between life and death.
Felicity thought her heart was going to burst when she saw them again. Oliver and Diggle first, supporting a hobbling agent between them, Lyla bringing up the rear. An agent went down beside her, a knife lodged in his throat. Her gun ran out of bullets — she grabbed another from the back of her belt and kept firing.
"Get inside!" Felicity yelled, both to her friends and the agents around the dais. Lyla slipped through, and Felicity keyed in the command.
The doors started to close — except they didn't.
A deafening crunch stopped them dead — fixed at a shoulders-breadth apart. The body of the dead agent — knife in his larynx — had been thrown between the doors, a black assassin's boot on his crushed chest. For the longest second — Felicity was frozen, caught between a dawning sense of horror that her friends were still in danger, and the idea that any second, Waller could activate her insane Apocalypse protocol.
Then she got hit by an arrow.
The shock hit her before the pain did. Other people shut down, but her mind was in overdrive. Felicity knew they were out of time. Any second, and they could all be engulfed in the same gas that knocked Roy out and left hundreds of ARGUS agents still in the building. It wouldn't just be her that died, but her friends as well, left to the mercy of the League.
Oliver would be in Ra's al Ghul's hands, and he would die.
Her body flooded with adrenaline that dulled the pain as she crawled back onto her feet, through fragmented glass and broken arrows, towards the computers. To do what she had to – alone.
Except she wasn't.
A single gun returned fire. Waller stood above her, looking as darkly triumphant as a Queen in battle, unyielding, even in their hour of defeat. Her bullets found their mark, but the arrows kept coming. There were too many of them.
"No time, Miss Smoak," she said, and she was daring Felicity to make the choice.
Sparks rained down from shattering screens as Felicity turned back. She could see Oliver — fighting to reach her, fighting someone's hold on him — and Diggle, thank God for Diggle — forcing him back. The both of them shouting for her to come with them.
How many times had she asked him not to go?
How many times had he listened?
In that instant, the shrieking alarm drowned out everything else, making it impossible to hear what he was saying — but his mouth formed her name and she knew he was shouting it. Her vision became laser-sharp — seeing everything she knew about Oliver Queen in painful clarity – as if she knew it was the last time. Fragmented images, like a disjointed film reel – the scars on his body, as thrilling as a shared secret – the way he smiled as if it was just for her – the whisper of his words against her lips when he murmured to her between kisses – the first giddy rush when he'd stopped her words with a kiss, back in that hospital corridor, his hands gently holding her face like he couldn't bear to let her go. The very first time she'd turned in her chair, in that bright little room from another life, and saw Oliver Queen standing in front of her. He'd shown her a life that wasn't mundane and – before she'd even realized it – what it meant to love slowly, unknowingly, fearlessly…completely.
A strange feeling of calm descended on her, forging her fears to iron, her doubts to steel. Because Felicity was not going to let Ra's al Ghul take Oliver away from her – from the team – from Starling City. Not again.
Waller was right — Felicity could make the hard choice. But not about sacrificing other people's lives, because it wasn't her call to make. The only life she could control was her own, and she hoped to God it would mean something.
A split-second decision, a tough call.
She chose the hard way. An ugly sacrifice for a beautiful truth. Her tomorows for his.
"I'm sorry!" she shouted, as though he could hear her, and lunged for the computer. She slammed onto the controls and sent the elevator hurtling down — to the last way out.
With the evacuation sequence complete, the alarms fell silent, and an eerie quiet descended. It rang slowly and unnaturally in her ears, as if it was all a dream. But it wasn't. Felicity knew the League was seconds away from getting through the doors, so she pulled herself to her feet and began to type frantically, ignoring the pain in her arm, the arid tightness in her throat. She had to make sure that the data was gone from the computers and the system was wiped clean — of everything.
"No Apocalypse," she said, as the black-robed figures streamed into the room, surrounding the dais they stood on.
Waller let her arm fall to her side, and the gun clattered onto the floor. "Very good, Miss Smoak," she answered, sardonically. "We may yet survive this."
Felicity swallowed, because she very much doubted it. Slowly, she drew herself up to her full height, bloodied and bruised but ready to face it all.
Hellooooo. So this is probably going to be the last chapter of 2014. I realized after I wrote it that this was a cliffhanger-ish way to end things, sorry about that. Also - Waller is insane, even in my head. Seriously. The amount of things she says that makes me want to punch her. So sorry for inflicting her on you. When Felicity sees all those "flashes" of Oliver, I tried to parallel 3x09 when Oliver sees Felicity before he dies (in some weird misguided attempt to make people feel better about the winter finale, I guess. Bleh.)
Anyway. I am going to be both writing and studying for my mock exams which are coming up kinda soon hahahahaha (I really need a break). But Happy 2015 in advance and you guys stay awesome. It's going to be a good year.
