A dire situation develops at the DEO, prompting Oliver to re-evaluate his relationship with Kara.

(Kara's Apartment – 01:47)

Oliver Queen had managed to lay down once Kara had drifted off to sleep, her body still close to his. He had fallen asleep momentarily, but his protective instincts woke him up. The moonlight still glistened through the windows of her loft, with the sun only set to rise in a few more hours. Kara's tender body was pressed against his, as she slept with her head on his chest and her arm around his body while he simply stared at the ceiling, gently caressing her back with his left arm.

Unable to sleep, his mind languished deep in thoughts about what a life with Kara would entail. Their relationship would have many boundaries which could stop it from working. For one, they were from two different worlds, literally, and then there was the question of her powers. Once her powers came back, their physical intimacy would surely be affected in a way that he had never experienced before. He tried not to worry about these things right now, for in this moment, he just wanted to lie next to her and cherish her.

As he closed his eyes, the faint sound of a phone buzzing began to ring out. His phone was next to them on the coffee table, but he couldn't reach it. He peeked over and saw the caller ID – J'onn J'onzz. He needed to take it. He regretfully slid away from Kara, gently so as not to wake her, before picking up the phone and moving away before answering it.

"J'onn," said Oliver, as he answered the phone.

"Oliver, we have a situation here in the DEO."

"What's happening?"

"The building has been placed on lockdown and we're all trapped inside. Clark, Nyssa, Alex, all of us."

"What? How?"

"When we broke into Stellmoor International, Lacroix planted a Trojan in the files which infiltrated our system as soon as we plugged the hard-drive into our computers. That's how he knew you were heading to Lian Yu. He has full access to the system, and has completely shut us out."

"Can't you and Clark break out?"

"This building was designed to take punishment from Kryptonians and Martians. It'll take us a while if we try. Winn can't get back into the system either. My main concern is not being stuck here. With full access to the system, Lacroix can set off the nuclear reactor powering the DEO. Clark and I would survive such a blast, but everybody else within a 10 block radius won't."

Just as Oliver was about to speak up again, he started to receive another call. An encrypted number… Lacroix.

"Do whatever you can J'onn," said Oliver, before he hung up and answered the other caller.

He lifted the phone back up to his ear, not saying a single word as he waited to hear Lacroix's voice on the other side.

"Oliver… I'm sure you've heard by now the predicament your friends have found themselves in."

"Don't you dare set off that reactor!" scowled Oliver.

"I don't think you're in a position to make demands. I asked for my totem, and you didn't give it to me."

"It's somewhere safe. A place where you won't be able to get to it."

"Oh, I'm sure. Which is why you're going to bring it to me… tonight."

"I can't get to the totem tonight."

"Make a plan… or else you'll be scraping through rubble for your friends' bodies in a few hours. I'll send you the location to come to soon."

With those words, Oliver hung up the phone, and had to stop himself from throwing it to the floor out of anger. He clenched his teeth as he placed it into his pocket, turning around to see Kara fully awake.

"Oliver, what's-" He interrupted her as she was walking towards him, putting up a hand to signal her to stop.

"No, don't. Don't come any closer," he said in a panic.

"What?" she replied, shocked at his words.

"Don't. This was a mistake. Telling you how I feel. We can't be together."

She noticed his clearly agitated and unnerving behaviour, "Oliver, what's going on?" she asked, demanding an explanation.

"Lacroix has hacked into the DEO and placed it on lockdown. He's threatening to blow the nuclear reactor if he doesn't get the totem. J'onn, Winn, Roy, Alex, they're all trapped inside." Kara couldn't contain her shock, as she lifted her hands to cover her gaping mouth, "It's my fault that they're in there. That's why we can't be together."

"Oliver, not everything bad that happens is your fault," she replied adamantly.

"Kara, this is! All of this started because of me! We can't be together because everyone and everything that I love suffers because of me. Kara, I do not even live in this universe, yet in the short time that I have been here, I have caused dozens of lives to be lost. Kara, you were tortured because of me. You were nearly killed."

"Nearly, but I'm still here, Oliver. And Cadmus would have gotten to me anyway if they wanted."

"Kara, this is what you don't understand, I have already seen you die!" Those words from Oliver seemed to echo multiple times in Kara's loft. He noticed how they silenced her, stopping her from attempting to argue further. He realised that he hadn't mentioned Earth-1 Kara at all to her since he had been here, and he hated using her to justify what he was feeling, but it was the truth. "I know she wasn't you… But she had your face. And when I found you, on that bed in that facility, you had the same look in your eyes that she had, seconds before she died. I don't want to see that happen again. I can't be responsible your death."

He and Kara were both fighting back tears at this point. Just as they had felt the universe had finally brought them to a place where they could accept their love for each other, Oliver had quickly been reminded of his failures to protect everyone else in his life.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"This started because of me. It ends with me too," said Oliver, his voice conveying the solemnness and desperation of a man at his wits end as he started to make his way to Kara's door, trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"I've already lost Mon-El. I can't lose you too," she said, prompting Oliver to stop in his tracks as she tried hard to not let her tears fall. He didn't turn to face her as he spoke his last words before leaving.

"There's only one way this ends… with an arrow through Lacroix's heart."