At present

They were running through the empty halls of the newly constructed Glade's shopping mall trying to outmaneuver a dozen men in black hunting them. Oliver lost Diggle and Felicity a few minutes ago. He maneuvered right, they left. With each turn he made, the more winded he became so he decided to stop running and fight back. He could count four coming behind him. He needed to get behind them for the element of surprise. He was on the second or third floor of the building, when he made the next corner he saw a balcony railing overlooking the center of the mall, he made a decision to jump over the railing and hang on to the other side till three of the four men chasing him would run past. He strategize just so when the fourth man came running, Oliver would swing his body and kick the fourth man square in the jaw. One down three to go, Oliver counted. The other three men heard their comrade fall and backtracked. There was no hesitation, the men ran towards Oliver and the fight begun. They fought with swift and precise movements, more skilled than the typical bodyguard. Oliver managed to take two down before another three joined in. Usually he would have the stamina to keep fighting, he has taken on a dozen men at a time, but now he felt breathless. It was the body, Oliver concluded, the body he is in now is older by ten years, it may still be in great shape but it tires quickly. He had to move slower, make his timing count. By the time there were two left to take down, he found his body had reached it's limit, for every one punch he gives out, two hits him in return.

"Enough!" a female voice ordered. Oliver turned around and the gun went off. Hitting him one in the shoulder and the other in his thigh. Oliver fell backwards, his head hitting the floor. He could not move, or more accurately he did not want to move, dread overwhelmed him. He shut his eye and prayed that he was wrong, that he his eyes were playing tricks on him. He should have listened, he should have stayed back.

15 minutes before

It was one in the afternoon, this was supposed to be routine op, gain entrance into basement of the mall, determine if the unusual spike in electrical activity had anything to do with Oliver's predicament. The mall itself is deserted, finishing touches had to be done before it could officially open. It's named Square One to signify new beginnings. It's also the location where Verdant used to be. That was the information Digg had found, there was spike in electrical energy coming from the space they used to use as a base. The electrical pulse generated was much more than the electricity of a mall could make. Oliver was very eager to check the place out. The mall is much bigger than Verdant and they needed to locate the exact point the energy was released. Felicity spent the what's left of the morning to create a program and install it into a device to track the signal. Oliver spent the time getting acquainted with his Arrow gear and asking Diggle about the ARGUS. The three of them found the entrance of basement easy enough, but as they approached, there were two men in black suits, wearing black sunglasses and Bluetooth earpieces guarding the door.

"Damn, looks like we got company. What the hell are they doing here." Diggle whispered irritably.

"I don't like this Dig, we haven't crossed path for awhile now and for good reason." Felicity said with the same hushed tones.

"You know who there are?" Oliver asked.

Diggle and Felicity looked at each other then at Oliver. Just for a moment they had forgotten about Oliver.

"It doesn't matter, we can't go in." Diggle said first.

"We should go home, come another time." Added Felicity.

"No, we need answers, I can take them, and they won't even know I was there till it's over." Oliver started moving.

"Oliver NO!" Felicity grabbed his jacket to pull him back down. " We can't-"

Oliver shrugged her off and jumped out from cover to slowly approach the two men. He was just a few feet away from the one of the man when a hand grabbed his arm to pull him away. Oliver went into defense mode, with instinct he reached for the hand with his free hand and twisted it so that it would release him, it would be second later before he realized it was Diggle's arm he was twisting.

"Diggle what the hell?"

There was a buzzing sound, the taser narrowly missed Oliver.

"Run" Diggle commanded.

Back to the present

"Stop it!" Felicity ran in front of Oliver, Diggle was trailing behind.

"You know the rules, I didn't think you would be stupid enough to approach me in this manner. Now their bloods are on your hands"

"Don't" Felicity pleaded weakly as she before she shut eyes and held her breath, knowing what comes next.

Thea Queen pointed the gun at the two men that Oliver had not knocked out and shot them in the head.

"Damn it Thea." Diggle's jaw clenched.

"I have to protect the identities of my family, which includes my sister in-law, for the sake of my niece and nephew. Should've worn a mask" Thea said unapologetically. She looked down at Oliver. "You better take him home, the wound is through and through, but he still can bleed to death."

Thea turned to leave. "Oh and lets not try to meet this way again, it gets so messy."

Oliver was escorted back to the house and down to the base for treatment. He didn't say a single work on the way. His whole body was tensed; jaw and knuckles were perpetually clenched. Diggle had an emergency at the agency and promised to call later. Felicity stitched him up in silence. Honestly, she didn't know what to say. Of all the shocking things a to tell him about his future, this was the hardest. "Gee Oliver, you know your sister, Thea? Yeah well she has become a power hungry sociopath with a twisted sense of family love because Malcom Merlyn basically brainwashed her." would not have cut it.

"You should have told me." Oliver said finally breaking the silence.

"You didn't want to know." Felicity said quietly. "Oliver I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? Sorry? Sorry doesn't cut it Felicity." Oliver got up and started pacing back and fourth. , more like limping back and fourth. "You should have WARNED me, you should have stopped me." Oliver started raising his voice.

"I tried remember? I tried to pull you back down. Diggle tried too."

"You should've have TRIED HARDER! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO SEE YOUR BABY SISTER KILL SOMEONE IN COLD BLOOD? HUH?"

"And I am sorry for that, but if you would have just listened and did what we said, I would have broken it to you ANOTHER WAY."

"Another way? I DON'T WANT TO KNOW FELICITY! If you had just let me take out those guys, we would have gone in found the signal and I would be home by now!"

"Are you even listening to yourself right now? The basement was full of men in black and Thea was down there!"

Just before Oliver could reply, the monitors directly behind Felicity turned on. Without hesitation Oliver grabbed his bow and put an arrow into the monitor, shattering it's the glass and igniting the electrical sparks.

Felicity jumped in her seat before trying to shield the back of head and neck from the shattering glass.

It took second before his action's registered. "Felicity" Oliver threw down the bow ran towards her.

"It's okay, I'm alright." Felicity answered.

He saw tiny cuts on her hands and neck at their initial stage of oozing blood. "Your bleeding" He picked her up from the chair and carried her across the room. She was placed on the couch where the exercise equipment's are kept. He went to retrieve the first-aid kit she was just using on him a few minutes ago.

"Oliver I'm fine, really." Felicity trying to reassure him when he came back.

"Let me see" Oliver insisted as he took her hands and started to apply antiseptic and plaster to the wounds. Oliver was avoiding eye contact, even after he was done dressing her wounds, he just stared at he her hands, refusing to look up.

"Hey…" Felicity approached him quietly. " It was an accident. For the monitor on the other hand, he didn't know what he did to deserve and arrow but I'm sure he will forgive you, after you know, we fix his screen."

"I didn't want to see anything else that was different in the world, I don't think I can handle anymore information."

"We have both made some mistakes, I think it's safe to say that keeping you in the dark is not working. Maybe I should tell you what this future holds. But it will only work if you're willing to open up. For all we know, this could not be your future, but just a possibility. What's to say that by coming here, knowing these things, your future has not already changed? Your resistance to new information is crippling you."

"I don't know if I can."

"You can. Just think of it like getting to know somebody else's life. The characters are familiar but you can remain detached."

Felicity saw Oliver close his and went into deep thought. After about five minutes, Oliver looked up and nodded finally making eye contact again. Felicity smiled at him.

"I'm sorry I hurt you."

"You didn't. For the record, the monitor turned on because Diggle was calling. I won't make that mistake again. You hungry? Cause I'm starving."

"Yeah I can eat. We can start after dinner then."

"Dinner! The benefit. Any chance you would be up for a party?"