Disclaimer: See chapter one
Please see my A/N below for further information.
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Chapter 22 – Blind in the Shadow
Entering the Foundry, Diggle found himself looking down on a scene that he had never expected to see (a thought he had to hit himself for as it was clear he had never really taken in what Felicity meant on the island when she said that she was an Amazon) when he had to hit himself again as it also mean that he had not really taken in who Diana Prince was in her alternate persona and he had heard of her long before he had even known Oliver or Felicity.
Oliver Queen was working out with Felicity Smoak – and she was keeping up with him.
"Healing, endurance and stamina, Digg, remember I said I was allowed to keep them." Felicity responded, making it clear that his statement about her keeping up with Oliver had been said out loud. "But like most muscle memory things, you need to keep working them and..."
"She thinks she's a little rusty!" Oliver finished for her as they continued the exercises they were practicing (and had Diggle wondering what sort of exercises they were exactly as they were no corm of martial arts he had ever seen before!).
"If this is rusty, I hate to think what you'll be like at full strength." Diggle reached the bottom of the stairs and stood watching them, arms folded across his chest when he realised that a second glass display case now stood next to Oliver's Arrow suit and something in shades of brown and black was now being displayed. "And what is that?"
To Diggle's surprise, his simple question had Oliver drawing to a halt and Felicity falling to the mats in a spate of giggles!
When one of them eventually got round to answering him (it took Felicity a while to get over her laughing spat), he merely nodded his head and said simply, "True, very true."
He just chose to ignore the growl Oliver threw at him, grinning as Felicity pumped her hand in the air in celebration before holding her hand out to the archer for the fifty dollar bill he promptly handed her in return.
Diggle just shook his head.
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"Oh come on, Oliver, this would be the perfect one for me to start out on!" Felicity was actually tugging on his arm, much to Oliver's silent amusement (and quite frankly the cute doe-eyes she was also throwing him almost had him bending to her request).
"No Felicity." He put his foot down, (literally to Diggle's amusement). "You're the one that wanted to me use the Bluetooth as a polygraph, this first test needs you to be here in the Foundry so that you can concentrate on fine-tuning it. Maybe then, you can field-test it."
Felicity turned away from him with a flounce, growling under her breath as she did, "It will just be my luck it will be 'her' I have to field-test it on!"
Both men wisely chose to hide their laughter at that particular statement.
Oliver quickly turned to leave the Foundry, thankful that she had just put his mask on before applying her eyes as lethal weapons on him - if he chose to ignore the "Wimp!" Diggle actually had the temerity to throw at him as he left, that was his choice.
His mood was not improved by having Felicity confirm that his snitch was telling him the truth and he stood on top of the building, staring out over Starling City. "He's out there... somewhere."
"And we will." Felicity's soft reassuring voice in his ear was the only thing that helped him feel in control still. "Come home, we can't do anymore tonight... about him."
"Felicity?"
"Come home," she replied softly.
He moved home faster than he intended and found his girlfriend alone in the Foundry. Pushing back his hood and taking of his mask, he moved to her side where she sat looking down at the computer screen, a picture of Roy with the weight of the light bar on his back frozen on her screen.
Looking up at him, she moved so that he could take her seat and then sat down on his lap. "I'm worried about him." She said softly as she laid her head on his shoulder.
"So am I." He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her head. "I'll talk to him tomorrow; I need to anyway after the rally."
Snuggling into him for a moment as a comfortable silence fell over the couple, Felicity raised her head slightly. "You know I wasn't joking about it being her I would need to use it on, don't you?"
He sighed, hiding his smile though in her hair as he pressed her head back down to his shoulder. "With our luck, you're most probably right."
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How right they were had Felicity cursing someone called Tyche the following day – something that had both Oliver and Diggle individually hitting Google to find out who she meant!
So it stood that while Oliver stood speaking to Laurel Lance, they were being watched and monitored by a figure that blended with the shadows in a way that not even the Canary had done when she was in the field. (It was the ability that was to gain her the name to hide her identity behind – a name that was as appropriate for her as the names that her sister had suggested – it was the birth of the Shadow Amazon.)
The moment that Laurel was out of sight, she was at the side of the Arrow and even he was started as he heard her voice, formal, sultry and with a hint of Greece, for the first time. (She had not spoken like even when they had been upon the Island!).
"She spoke the truth." She placed her smaller tablet inside the special enforced pocket of her leather jacket and zipped it up, "With regards to all facts."
"But..." Oliver knew her well enough to know that there was something more bugging her but she shook her head in answer. "Then we have work to do."
"Oh I think we have more work to do than you think, Arrow." She ran her arm around his shoulders as he fired his travail arrow across to the opposite building. He merely raised an eyebrow at that statement but she shook her head again.
The following day as the three of them sat in Oliver's personal conference room after they had discussed the file the Arrow had been given about Sebastian Blood; Diggle caught hold of Oliver as he started to walk past him. "What if this is another trap, Oliver, you don't have Sara here to save you this time."
Oliver raised his eyebrow and then nodded to where Felicity was already at work at her main work computer. "Perhaps so Digg, but I always have Felicity."
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A Felicity who was not very happy that evening once she realised that her lack of ability to obtain the information that Oliver needed would require him to once again seek out the assistance of a certain person she preferred to not to acknowledge but because of a certain alderman was being forced to do so – very much against her personal preferences.
A ramble Diggle had listened to with bemusement as she had literally stormed around her office, throwing her hands in the air, regardless of the glass walls. Bemusement that had turned to amusement as she had literally ran across her office as Oliver returned to grab him by the lapels of his suit jacket and shook him slightly.
Oliver had immediately grabbed her by the hips to stop her for a second, "Felicity?"
"You have good news, bad news and very bad news," She replied as she literally pulled him across to her desk to show him her screen. "Good news, found the file."
"Bad news, its twenty-seven years old and the only version available is a paper file in storage facility you can only access with a key card." Diggle continued for her.
"But we do have access to an ADA who has one and will know where the file is being kept." Oliver finished as he caught the scowl crossing her face, "Which, I'm guessing, is the very bad news..."
"Because you can guarantee that she already knew this when she brought this to us," Felicity crossed her arms, scowling furiously. "There's the truth, and then there's the truth, and we got played."
Oliver pulled her up into his arms. "But she doesn't know about you or Diggle will be watching as close as you will be."
"If we didn't need this information..." Felicity ran her hands up his lapels, eyes locking with his and said softly. "Oliver..."
"Alway." It was all he needed to say and taking a deep breath, she nodded in agreement.
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Several days later, Oliver actually dropped his bow to the ground as he found himself holding Felicity as she threw herself into his arms and with a sigh of relief, buried his face in her hair as she buried her's in his chest through his open jacket. "I'm alright."
"I could have lost you." She threw back as she thumped his chest. "And I have to be thankful to her, Oliver and you know I really don't want to be."
"I know." He closed his eyes for a moment. "But as least we know Daily was the leak in the Department and the man supposedly behind the mask."
"And..." Diggle actually waved his hand in the air to say continue.
"The blind spot is finally and completely cleared." Oliver raised his head as Felicity moved more to his side, her arms moving from his neck to around his waist. "That began on the island with the return of our memories, just to clarify the situation." He looked at them both, "But that's not what has you both of edge is it?"
"As glad as we are that the elder Lance daughter is no longer of concern except for her father..." Diggle replied, glancing at Felicity as he did so. "Who we are concerned for so in a way she still is..."
"And that was a pure ramble of the my girl type." Felicity grinned at that, she couldn't help herself and tightened her hold around his waist. "The problem is..."
"Roy."
"Suit up, Felicity."
Fifteen minutes later, a small red arrow flew into the pole next to the red-hooded young man in the alley outside Verdant and he swung round to stare at it.
"If that was supposed to go through my other leg, you missed." Roy stepped towards it as the green figure walked towards him.
"You seem to be healing pretty well." The familiar growl of the Arrow went through the alley as the black and brown figure walked behind him and leant against a darkened wall to watch and listen. She barely restrained a yelp as Roy started to attack him. "You're stronger, you heal faster but you're not in control. The serum you were exposed changes your body but it also warps your mind."
"How do you know so much about it?" Roy's voice was trembling almost as much as his body was from the exertion he had just put into his attack.
"Because it has been seen before..." The sultry voice came from everywhere or so it seemed until the woman in black and brown slipped out of the shadows to stand behind the Arrow, "By us."
"It twists men, turns them into something they don't recognise." The Arrow continued as he made sure that he remained between his companion and the angry young man.
"Someone dangerous," She finished as she moved back slightly, her hand hovering over a round circular object at her waist. "But if you listen to us..."
Roy snapped before she could complete what she was saying. "Perhaps you should have put that arrow through my heart then."
"There's another way, Roy, I can teach you, to control your new ability, to control yourself." Oliver felt Felicity's hand on his back in silent reassurance and continued. "Let us help you, Roy before it warps you into something you may never come back from."
Roy stood there silently as the couple watched him patiently before he turned to look at them.
"When do we start?"
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Ugh ugh ugh! Do you know just how much LL I had to overcome to write this chapter! Ugh!
And there was the second chapter of Doctor Who on as well, Felicity would be so proud! When it came down to it, it was easier to AAA Blind Spot than I thought it would be.
As always looking forward to hearing what you have to say and getting past that 100 mark for certain ;op