Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

AN: Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews, follows and favs! So glad you are enjoying this story. I think this might be one of my most favorite I've written. Anyhow, thanks for returning, and here's the next chapter.

Previously:

Oliver kissed the top of her head and then assisted her in standing. "Well, as Sara suggested, let's get back to the lair and start working on our plan to go on the offensive against Slade. We've mostly been reacting defensively against him."

"That's because we don't know what he's planning in that crazy mind of his, Ollie," Sara said, her exasperation clearly showing.

Diggle approached her, put his arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure it out, Sara. He's giving us plenty to work on with how his brain works."

Oliver handed Felicity to Roy to accompany her to the car, and he herded the rest of the team out the door in front of him. He looked back at the room where he and Felicity could have been killed. Nothing was left behind to possibly indicate where Slade would go next, however. He sighed and hurried after his team.

To her surprise, Felicity fell asleep during the trip back to the Lair. She woke as soon as she subconsciously felt herself being picked up.

"Whoa!" Oliver cried as she struggled to get out of his arms. "It's me. We're at the Lair, and I was just carrying you in."

Felicity blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Oliver. I…"

"I know, Felicity, I know." Oliver said quickly. "It's okay."

"I can walk there," Felicity said. Oliver offered his hand and assisted her out of the car. She steadied herself and then began to walk with Oliver into the Lair.

The others were already in the Lair. Sara had taken Felicity's seat in front of the computers, her hands already flying across the keyboard. She looked up, giving Felicity a smile. "I had some thoughts on the ride here, so I thought I'd start some searches, etc. Okay?"

Felicity struggled to smile, and nodded at the other blonde. She reminded herself Sara wasn't replacing her, only helping the team out. Felicity felt too tired at the moment to look at a monitor any way, which was something of an oddity. She shook herself at her silliness and fumbled her way to the couch on the side of the Lair. Without realizing it, she sighed deeply as she sank into its cushions.

"Would you rather go home, Felicity?" Oliver asked. "I should have thought of that first."

Suddenly Felicity didn't want to be by herself, or in her apartment either. The lair…she still felt the safest here. Despite everything. Despite Slade and his terrible acts. "No, I…it's okay."

Oliver went to one of the storage bins, pulled out a blanket and pillow and walked over to Felicity. Placing the pillow at the end of the couch, he said, "Why don't you lie down and rest? We will all be here if you need anything."

She nodded and allowed Oliver to cover her with the blanket as she laid down on the couch. As Oliver walked back to his arrowheads, Felicity thankfully sank into the comfort of the pillow and the blanket covering her. Diggle walked over to Oliver and whispered something. Oliver nodded, and the two men walked over to the workout area. Roy leaned over Sara, apparently asking her a question. Sara checked the computer screen, nodded, and they both walked over to the workout area as well.

Felicity heard Sara tell the other two men, "I got the computers running different facial recognition scans, looking for Slade and Isabel. I also got one running down possible hiding places they may be at. I can work out while they scan."

Felicity fell into a comfortable half-sleep state watching the four of them work out, as well as being comforted by the steady beat of the bo-staffs they were sparring with. She always enjoyed watching them spar. It was almost like some sort of organized ballet, watching their well-toned bodies interact with each other. She soon fell asleep.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Felicity slept for several hours, waking up to the gentle shaking of her shoulder and the soft calling of her name. She opened her eyes to see the beautiful blue of Oliver's eyes looking down at her with concern.

"Felicity, are you hungry? We ordered Chinese for supper. It's here."

Felicity smiled at him and allowed him to assist her into a sitting position. She rubbed her eyes, feeling like a child waking up from a nap, and looked around. Everyone else was sitting at the table, the food beside them. She got up and Oliver led her to a chair, and took the empty one beside her.

A comfortable silence filled the Lair as they proceeded to eat. Until Roy decided to break it.

"Did you sleep okay, Felicity? You look rested."

She smiled at the young man. "Yeah, thanks. I didn't get a very comfortable sleep the night before, I guess, even though I was knocked out. My body felt like I had slept in the chair all night. Which I probably did." She took a bite of her chicken and broccoli.

Looking at her friends, she wondered if she could talk about her experience. As if reading her thoughts, which she was sure she hadn't voiced, Sara asked, "How are you doing, Felicity? With what happened with Slade, does it feel all your work with your counselors over the past week has been undone?"

Felicity considered her question. She never thought Sara could be so perceptive as she had shown to be over the past few weeks. "Yeah, kind of. I guess it shows how much more healing I have left. I sure had the anxiety attack when I first woke up to find myself in Slade's clutches once again. And then he leaned over me again…I…I…." Even though her body threatened to start hyperventilating, she fought to control it.

Oliver quickly said, "You don't have to talk about it, especially during supper, Felicity."

Felicity cleared her throat and shook herself out of the memory and successfully calmed herself. "I'm okay. But I guess it shows I still have to work at putting those calming techniques into practice."

Diggle caught her eye. "It isn't easy learning those coping skills, Felicity. It does take practice to use them almost automatically."

Felicity smiled at him in gratitude for his perceptive observation as well. "Yeah, I gotta keep reminding myself of that. Hopefully Slade will quit giving me reasons to practice them."

Instead of making the atmosphere less tense by her joke, it only reminded everyone how Slade had escaped them. Felicity mumbled an apology. "I'm sorry, guys, I feel like it's my fault. Maybe if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been misled by the fake ARGUS agents."

Sara shook her head. "Now you're being just as stupid in your self-blame as this lunkhead," she said, elbowing Oliver, who gave a small yelp in surprise, almost knocking his plate out of his hand. "Why would you think it's your fault? Just because Slade thought it was a good idea to inject you with Mirakuru?"

"Sara's right," Oliver agreed. "It isn't your fault. And I really don't think we should blame ourselves, me included, that we were fooled. Like I said, it was a real ARGUS badge they showed me. I just didn't think about asking to see badges from the rest of the so-called agents."

Wondering if he should ask, but he wanted to know the answer to his question, Oliver asked, "What made you stop trying to kill me back there, Felicity? Or were you only pretending to be on Slade's side all the time?"

A faint blush covered Felicity's cheeks as she attempted to find the words to answer him. "No, it was so strange. All I could feel was this…this anger flowing through me. At first it was directed towards Slade, I suppose at that point it was because he was the first person I saw. Then, when he directed my attention to you, I focused my anger on you.

"Here I was, the only thing I could hear was the voice in my head telling me to kill you, because…" Felicity felt her face redden even more, "because of all that you'd done to me." Felicity could feel the beginning of a ramble beginning but decided to go with it. "I mean, I know it was the mirakuru in me, but all I could think about was how supposedly you had changed my life for the worse by including me in your mission, using my attraction to you to your advantage, flirting with every woman in the world but me. I really wanted to kill you, Oliver. It was freeing and scary and empowering all at the same time."

"What snapped you out of it?" Roy asked.

"It was…weird." Looking into Oliver's eyes, she said, "Your comments finally sunk through my angry brain and I just stopped when I realized I was actually beating you to death. I quickly realized what was happening, and that I couldn't let Slade figure out I was 'myself' again."

"Well, you did pull it off. I was fooled when you said you were tired of beating me up today and will continue to do so tomorrow," Oliver said, smiling. "You took me by surprise how you were able to get Slade into a head lock and break his neck."

Felicity sat up a little straighter in her chair. "Yeah, it takes me by surprise when I think about it as well."

Sara looked at Felicity with pride. "I knew we should've been training you sooner." She shot Oliver a look. "Explain again why you never trained her in self-defense, Oliver?"

Felicity watched in interest as Oliver's face turned a little pink. "Um, well, I…."

Diggle came to his rescue. "He thought I'd do better at teaching her, but it's been tough working it in with everything else going on."

Sara shook her head, looked down at her Chinese container and grabbed a particular piece of shrimp. She popped it into her mouth, looked at Oliver and Diggle, and said, "Yeah, I bet."

Roy had seemingly not caught on to the underlying tension going on, finished his food, and looked around. "Boy, sometimes another bad side of the mirakuru is the appetite. Anyone else still hungry?"

Everyone groaned, but Felicity was happy that once again Roy had provided some comic relief, even if it was unintended.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

Miller reached his open hand towards the Flash. "We'll take it and administer it after he wakes up and we have him secure on the premises."

The Flash looked at Oliver, who nodded his agreement. The Flash handed the antidote to Miller, who then nodded to his three colleagues, who picked up Slade in a fireman's hold and carried him off.

As the group watched Slade being carried off, they all breathed easier.

After leaving the warehouse, the four fake ARGUS agents had rushed to a van behind the building. The side door opened for them, and the three agents quickly deposited Slade in the back and climbed in after him. The man calling himself Miller got into the passenger seat. As soon as they were barely in the van, and the door closed, the van took off. They sped through the streets of Starling to a nondescript house in the northern part of Starling and pulled into the garage. After the garage door closed, they all got out.

They proceeded to the living room, where the three men deposited Slade on the couch. Isabel Rochev approached Slade with a syringe and injected an antidote for the venom into his arm. She took a seat in an arm chair across from the couch to wait as the antidote slowly made its way through Slade's system over the next five minutes.

Isabel watched as Slade's eyes opened. They focused on her and she could almost see his mind work to sort out the details. She jumped as he went from the lying to sitting position in only a few seconds' time.

"What the hell happened?" Slade's low baritone growled.

"You screwed up," Isabel said.

Slade looked around. "Why are we here?"

"We had nowhere else to go. The entire Arrow gang now knows about our warehouse hideout in the Glades. We had to come here." Isabel sneered at him. "Your mind is obviously still affected by the viper venom."

"I'm too busy controlling my impulse to strangle you for not telling me before now what happened."

"Because you insisted on your obsession with that useless secretary Smoak, she got the better hand and beat you unconscious. She would've killed you but your enemy stopped her."

Slade thought it over. "You mean Oliver stopped her?" He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. "I don't believe it. The kid had a chance to get rid of me and he didn't?"

"Believe it. I can't believe it myself, but it happened. We are now at square one again. Both Queen and Felicity are still alive."

Slade growled. He got up and began to pace. "You know I thought I'd end Oliver Queen today, using his own love to kill him."

"I never thought that was a smart idea to begin with."

Suddenly, Isabel was struggling for breath because Slade had his huge hands around her throat, pushing her up against the wall. Finding herself floundering mid-air, with her feet flailing uselessly, Isabel attempted to calm her partner. But before she could say something, he continued.

"You keep forgetting yourself, Ms. Rochev. I am in charge of this operation. I bankrolled your operation. I could as easily remove you from your new position as I did in putting you there in the first place."

"Sorry. Slade, I…I…" He released her and she sat down heavily on the chair. She rubbed her throat. Making her eyes communicate penitence, Isabel hoped he'd believe her. "I'm sorry, Slade. I just wanted this part of the plan to be completed as soon as possible."

"Yes, I'm fully aware how you feel about Ms. Smoak, even though it escapes me why you allowed such a flighty girl to get to you. However, that is your concern. My concern with her is only using her to bring the utmost misery to Oliver Queen before I put an arrow into his eye."

"You keep threatening to do that. So, when are you going to make that happen?"

A low growl escaped Slade before he replied. Isabel moved slightly away from him as he replied. "As we've discussed, I wanted to do that today. However, it didn't go as planned. We now must come up with something else to drive Oliver even further into despair."

"Please don't get angry, Slade, because I simply want to understand. Why not just kill them? Even a cat gets tired of playing with its food eventually and kills the mouse."

"Oh, Isabel, have you not been enjoying getting your revenge on your former lover's son? I thought that was the reason for your agreeing to this entire operation in the first place."

"True, watching Oliver suffer has been an extremely satisfying experience. Plus, kicking him out of my building was especially gratifying. However, we do have bigger goals, such as the destruction of Starling itself. Blood has been waiting for his orders to proceed."

"That man! He has been another annoying little gnat. If we hadn't set him up to be such an integral part of the plan, I'd have gotten rid of him weeks ago."

"Well, if you will stop playing games with Queen, we could progress with our plans for Blood. The sooner we do that, the sooner you can get rid of Blood."

Slade once again sat down on the couch. He leaned back, crossed his legs and stroked his chin. After a moment, he said, "I suppose you are correct. Even though I would love to continue torturing Oliver, the sooner we complete this next phase, the quicker we are rid of that Blood." Indicating the place next to him, he said to Isabel, "Should we begin discussing the next phase then, Isabel?"

Isabel couldn't help her huge smile as she sat down next to her partner.

AN: I debated about adding Slade and Isabel's POV at this point, but thought it was about time we saw some of what they're up to. Well…at least see how Slade was doing after his rescue, at least. Ha.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, I hope you make me happy and let me know what you think. Always, always appreciated.