A/N: Hello loves! I'm back with the next chapter of this adventure. I have not started writing the chapter that comes after this, but it is on my list of things to do as I work through stories with impending due dates.

I know I left us on a bit of a cliff hanger, and it doesn't really get much better here. However, I do hope you enjoy this next installment.

Follow me on social media if you're interested in keeping up with my life in general! My penname will lead the way.

Love always,
~starr

"Son of a bitch!" Oliver shouted, throwing the phone across the bunker. How in the hell did Slade find out about his connection to Felicity? Other than the one meeting for coffee that they had in Star City, John was the only other person who had seen the two of them together. All of their other encounters took place in Central City, and the only thing people would have seen was Felicity climbing into the back of a limo. With her being known as a reporter, that limo could have belonged to anyone, and Felicity was just being taken to a meeting.

What was he going to do now? There was no way that Slade was still in her apartment, and it was almost a guarantee that he wasn't going back to the warehouse that they had bugged earlier this week. There was no way for him to know Slade's next move.

This was why he never agreed to do interviews with anyone. He didn't want anyone to get hurt because of him. Losing his mother and almost losing his sister was pure torture, and Slade knew it. Slade had seen the pain in Oliver's eyes when he was forced to choose between the two. Why hadn't he killed Slade then? Maybe if he had, Moira would have still been alive, and Thea wouldn't blame him for her death.

He couldn't be the reason that Felicity ended up dead too. He had no choice but to save her. However, he was currently waiting for John to return to the bunker. He had sent an emergency page, but unless John felt his phone go off in his pocket, he would have no idea that Oliver was trying to get a hold of him.

Oliver looked at the computer screens in the middle of the bunker. Maybe if he was able to think like Felicity, he might be able to find her using the technology that she had introduced to the bunker since her first time here.

"She's going to kill you if she sees you messing with her computers," John teased, walking into the bunker and noticing Oliver sitting at the desk in the middle of the room. He could see that something was bothering him, but he had no idea what it was. All he knew was that he had gotten an emergency page from Felicity saying he needed to get back to the bunker as soon as possible.

"She can't kill me if Slade kills her first," Oliver grumbled, looking back over his shoulder as he watched John quicken his pace across the bunker to the desk. Oliver's comment was enough to light a fire under his ass to get back to work.

"What do you mean if Slade kills her first? I got a page from her saying I needed to get back to the bunker," John said, stopping behind the chair that Oliver was sitting in and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I sent that," Oliver replied. "It was one of the few things that I could remember Felicity teaching me how to do. I thought she was calling me to set up a meeting for tomorrow."

Oliver spun around in his chair to look at John. The concern he had for Felicity's safety was painted all over his face. His brain was working a mile a minute in an attempt to figure out how Slade had gotten a hold of her or even knew who she was. Every possible outcome of this situation, he could think of was negative. There was only one option that he could think of that gave Felicity the chance to make it out of this alive.

He had to give Slade what he wanted.

The chance to kill him.

However, there wasn't a chance in hell of that happening. Oliver wasn't about to go into this kind of a situation unprepared. He knew exactly who he needed to call.

"We need to gather a team," Oliver said, looking up at John with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Okay, I'll call Lyla. What's going on, Oliver?" John asked, reaching for his phone out of his back pocket. "For her to send a team, she's going to need a little more details other than Slade killing Felicity and you sending out a page about getting to the bunker."

Oliver hung his head and sighed. John was right, Lyla would need more information if they were going to get Argus involved, even if she knew that he would never ask them for help if it wasn't entirely necessary.

"Felicity called me earlier this evening, but it wasn't our normal call during the week," Oliver began to explain. He rolled his eyes when he saw John's eyes and face lit up at the idea of their standard calls during the week. " She didn't answer when I said hello, but I could hear her, and I could hear Slade. He broke into her apartment."

"What does he want with her? How does Slade even know who she is?" John asked, furrowing his brow as he flipped his phone open and dialed Lyla's number.

"I have no idea," Oliver replied. "That's what I've been sitting here trying to figure out since I sent the page out. I'm going to go over to her apartment to look for clues."

"You aren't going by yourself," John grumbled, tilting the phone away from his mouth as it rang. "Wait until Argus can get there. What if Slade is there waiting for you, and the call was a trap?"

"I heard the panic in her voice!" Oliver shouted, jumping up out of the chair and walking over to his suit. "I can't just sit here and do absolutely nothing, waiting for Argus to show up. By the time they get here, she could be dead. I can't be responsible for her death because I chose to sit around and do nothing. She doesn't deserve that."

"And what good will you be if you get killed before you can save Felicity?" John hissed, glaring at his best friend. "Lyla, we have a situation."

Oliver rolled his eyes as he watched John walk away from him, explaining the situation to whoever he was able to get on the phone. He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out, flipping it open and scrolling down to Slade's contact in his phone.

The only way to guarantee Felicity's safety was for Oliver to make a deal with Slade. Or at least schedule a meeting with him, since that was what he had said he wanted earlier. Oliver just needed to figure out where would be the best place to meet because there was no way they were going to meet on Slade's terms. It needed to be neutral ground if this was going to happen.

None of them actually knew what improvements Slade had made to that warehouse, and Oliver wasn't in the mood to figure it out when someone's life was on the line. When they had placed the heat sensors on the warehouse, they didn't take the time to explore because they didn't know how much time they would have before Slade's return.

"What are you doing?"

John's voice caught him off guard, and Oliver slowly turned around and closed his phone before slipping it back into his pocket. Oliver looked at him and shrugged. "I thought I felt the phone vibrating. It turns out it wasn't."

"You're lying," John replied, reaching for the hand in Oliver's pocket, holding his phone. "I saw Slade's name on your phone screen. You were about to call him and schedule a meet, weren't you?"

"I have to do something," Oliver insisted.

"And we will," John assured him, "once Argus gets here."