A/N: Here's the next chapter of this exciting tale for you all to enjoy! This is the chapter we meet one of the villians of this tale. Hopefully I've written him with justice and you don't find him too out of character or anything.

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~starr

Tomorrow morning was the big day and Felicity needed to make sure that she was prepared for her coffee with Oliver Queen. She wanted everything to go perfectly so that he would agree to an interview for an article. An article that wouldn't be dragging his name through the dirt.

She knew that there was a chance that he would ultimately refuse to sit down to an interview, but she couldn't let that negative possibility be the determining factor for how this sit down was going to go. Regardless of how tomorrow would go, she would be the first reporter to finally sit down with him. The man was practically an enigma.

He was the most difficult man in the world to schedule a meeting with and Felicity Megan Smoak, a reporter for the Starling City Sentinel, had snagged a meeting. That simple fact alone is what justified the glass of wine she was about to enjoy.

"Even if this blows up in my face I was able to get a meeting," she said, raising the glass of wine to her lips and taking a sip of the cold liquid. It felt refreshing as it made its way down her throat. Sighing with satisfaction, she made her way back to her closet in a desperate attempt to select an outfit tomorrow.

. . . . . . . .

"There's one tracking you on your six, Green Arrow," John's voice announced through his earpiece. Turning around quickly, Oliver drew his bow and fired in the direction John had instructed.

"Two down. Where do they have the hostages?" Oliver asked.

"I'm not getting any more heat signatures coming up on the screen other than you and the two you just put down. Let me see if I can get another visual on the building," John replied.

"Okay," he said, continuing along the hallway he had been searching. Something seemed off about this warehouse, but those two thugs made it seem as though he was in the right place. It wasn't like Deathstroke to take hostages when there wasn't a point in it. So what was it about this situation that warranted him taking hostages?

"I've got eyes on Deathstroke," John announced as Oliver rounded the corner coming face to face with his former Island cellmate.

"So do I," Oliver mumbled, drawing his bow back and aiming at Deathstroke's head. "What are you doing here, Slade?"

"I could ask you the same question," Slade replied, narrowing his eyes at Oliver. He knew exactly what Oliver was doing here, and it was exactly where he wanted him to be. He had already taken the boy's mother away and he had full intentions of ripping away everyone else whom Oliver held near and dear to his heart. He knew it wouldn't be hard because for as long as Slade had known him, Oliver had only ever talked about four women.

Moira Queen. Thea Queen. Laurel Lance. Sara Lance.

All four women had proven to be an Achilles Heel of sorts for Oliver. Any threat that was made towards them was met with hostility and seemingly empty threats, seeing as the Green Arrow's choice of violence no longer ended in death, only severely maiming his target.

Ever since he and Oliver had gotten off the Island, Slade had been keeping tabs on him. He had made the young man a promise and he intended to do just that. With Adrian Chase in his back pocket, Slade was able to pull strings on Oliver's life that the poor boy didn't even know he was pulling. Slade had been feeding the struggling reporter bits and pieces of things to report on since his arrival in Starling City.

"The choice is yours, Arrow. I made you a promise that I intend to keep. I had to make the first choice, and I'd hate to have to choose the second. However, if you don't, I'll be happy to make the selection again. I'm thinking one of the sisters will be a wonderful sacrifice," Slade said, smiling as he watched the Green Arrow's pupils dilate at his promise. "The hostages have already been set free. I'll be in touch soon."

With that said, Slade turned and walked away from Oliver, leaving him standing in the middle of a hallway of an abandoned warehouse dumbfounded. He wasn't sure what his next move would be, but he knew that Laurel and Sara were in danger and it was his fault. Something was going to have to give somewhere.

. . . . . . . .

Upon his arrival back to the bunker, Oliver shoved his bow back into the case. As he turned around, he was met face to face with John and the face he was met with was not one of happiness.

"What was he talking about, Oliver?" John asked, impatiently crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for an answer.

"I wasn't alone on the Island the entire time I was gone," Oliver admitted, scrubbing his hands over his face and then scratching his head. This was why he didn't parade his past around other people. It meant having to reveal secrets that he would much rather have kept hidden for a little while longer.

"Who else was there?" John replied. The frown on his face had hardened into a firm line. Honestly, he was sick of being kept in the dark, but the pieces of Oliver's past that he was privy to make him understand why he kept so much of it to himself for so long. Although with friends from his past coming into place, those secrets wouldn't be staying hidden much longer.

"Slade Wilson," Oliver replied. "Or better known to you as Deathstroke. I'm the reason that he has the eye patch. I may have shot him in the eye with an arrow during a fight on the Island."

"I'm not sure I want to know what happened to make you shoot him in the eye with an arrow, but what made him decide that he was coming here? What choice is he talking about?" John asked.

"He killed my mother and has threatened to kill everyone that I love or have ever loved," Oliver admitted with defeat, walking away from the case that held his suit and sat on one of the tables on the other side of the bunker.

"When he threatened my mother, he also threatened Thea. He wanted me to choose which one died and which one lived. But I wasn't given much of a choice when he aimed the gun at Thea and as he pulled the trigger, my mother dove in front of her taking the bullet directly through her heart," he continued quietly.

John nodded slowly. "Oliver, you were faced with an impossible decision and your mother made the choice to die so that Thea didn't have to. She didn't want you to be alone in the world. But now that Slade's resurfaced, don't you think we need to put Thea in protective custody?" he suggested.

"I'd love to, but she won't let me. You remember the hard time I gave you when you first became my bodyguard?" Oliver replied.

Again, John nodded his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Just picture it being ten times worse and that's what you get with Thea. She has refused a bodyguard since she learned how to say that word no. Even when Slade held a gun to her head, she would have refused protection. We have to take out Slade before anything can happen to her," Oliver told him.

He looked down at the watch on his wrist and sighed. It was almost one in the morning and he had to be up bright and early for a meeting. It wouldn't be wise of him to cancel on Ms. Smoak on such short notice, especially after she had been so persistent to schedule a meeting and she had been rather accommodating with his special request to get coffee before the actual interview.

"Late for a date?" John asked, laughing quietly to himself.

"Not yet, but if I don't get some sleep I'll be late for a morning meeting. If I'm late, I'm pretty sure the reporter will ask for my head on a silver platter," Oliver replied, gathering up a few of his things and making his way towards the exit. "Same time tomorrow, Dig?"

"Yes sir," John replied with a nod.

. . . . . . . .

"What do you wear to coffee with the CEO of the biggest company in Starling City?" Felicity mumbled to herself as she rummaged through the clothing in her closet. Every outfit she looked at for more than five seconds didn't seem to give off the right vibe. There was no way in hell she was going to screw this up and part of that was making sure that she was wearing the right outfit.

She turned to look at the few choices she had laid out on her bed. A slimming black dress. A business pants suit. A maxi dress. These were the best options she could come up with and she hated them all. What the hell was the matter with her?

If she was being honest with herself, she didn't have the slightest clue what the answer to that question was. None of her other meetings ever had so much riding on them. This meeting was to set her up for the ultimate interview that would guarantee her a spot in the hall of fame of reporters at the Starling City Sentential.

Although the other question that kept bouncing around in her mind was why did her outfit choice matter? She wasn't trying to get laid. All she wanted was to score an interview. Her outfit shouldn't play any role in that, but she wasn't willing to take any chances.

She looked at the choices on her bed once more. "Come on, Smoak. Make up your mind. If you don't get to sleep soon, you'll never be ready for tomorrow," she mumbled to herself. Felicity picked up the maxi dress and looked at it for a few brief moments and shook her head, tossing it to the side.

"Doesn't scream I'm trustworthy, you should definitely sit down to an interview with me," she sighed. Now she was down to two choices. Two of the outfits that happened to be favorites of hers. One a little smarter than the other. However, one was also a little luckier than the other.

Making her decision, she picked up the pants suit and threw it over into her closet. The dress was the clear winner here. Her only hope was that Mr. Queen was a dress man and not someone who preferred the more professional look.

Glancing over at her clock on the nightstand, she sighed. 1:30 am. She should have gone to sleep almost two hours ago. Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the light switch and flipped it off. She made her quickly back to her bed and collapsed face down into her pillows.

Who actually needed eight full hours of sleep to be a completely functional adult anyways? Flipping herself over with a loud sigh, Felicity pushed her head back into the pillow and closed her eyes. Hopefully, dreamland would take over soon.