Previously:
Slade slapped her again, this time hard enough to knock her out cold.
"Honestly Oliver how do you put up with her incessant rambles?" said Slade looking at the camera over the door as he exited leaving her unconscious.
When she came to, her jaw ached and her right eye stung, the swelling blurred her vision and it didn't help that her glasses had fallen off. She lay still on the floor hoping he had left the room. She rolled on her back, pain shot through her and she whimpered as she reached to get her glasses. She looked around for cameras, spotting one over the door. She groaned loudly and rolled over so her back faced the camera.
He could come in any minute so she made quick work of retrieving the phone hidden in her bandages. She tried not to move, to be discreet, it was difficult to ignore the pain and control her shaky hands.
She switched the phone on and let out a sigh of relief. This would be all soon, dead or alive they would find her and this nightmare will be over, her friends would be safe.
"Give me that" roared Slade ripping the phone out of her hands. Standing over her he looked so different, he was no longer Death Stroke, wearing a white shirt and black pants. The eye patch brought a few poorly timed pirate jokes to Felicity's frontal lobe and she shook her head in an effort to escape the urge to mention plank walking.
"There is no need to call Oliver, he is watching you right now" he snickered. She looked over to the camera and back at Slade. She had assumed that the camera was for Slades benefit not to torture Oliver. "You have some real issues you know that?" she frowned.
"I am working through them, its endearing that you are concerned for me Miss Smoak, I am sure Oliver would much rather see you a little more concerned with your own situation." He looked over to the camera and chuckled. "She is amusing; not your usual type but I get it."
Slade dragged her up off the floor crushing her arm in the process. Tears betrayed her revealing themselves with a painful scream. She didn't want to be a source of pain for Oliver; she had to be stronger than that so with grit she muzzled her screams pushing the pain down for later acknowledgement.
Face to face with a monster Felicity had to draw on every shred of strength she possessed to live through this. She had set Wilsons demise in motion before the clock tower and now she had to become something else, she would not be corrupted she would not loose herself to the madness that her life had become. She had decided Slade would not be allowed to change her but she would allow him to make her stronger. Adversity has a way of doing that, of showing us we are made magnificently, able to be metal when we need to be metal yet keep our light, keep our soul.
Felicity eyed the phone again "Funny and smart, let's not forget smart" she gave the camera her best dead pan look.
Slade caught that and frowned focusing back on her phone. The screen was black so he assumed it was off. He ran his thumb over it and noticed the screen reacted to his heat signature.
"What is this?"
"I am so sick of hearing about how there was no phones on that Island" she rolled her eyes mocking him in an attempt to hide her distress.
He crushed her phone with his hand. "No calls Felicity and there will be no spousal visits either, next time Oliver sees you he will be digging you out of a shallow grave."
Once he walked out she slowly made her way as close to the camera as possible. "I don't know if you are still there Oliver, Digg…? I…I just want you to know that you are both very…very important to me." Her throat started to close up as tears filled her eyes so she turned away. She wiped them away and lifted her eyes again to the camera.
"I am so sorry about the foundry, it's possible…I may have over reacted slightly" she smiled and shook her head and she wrapped her arms around herself and looked away again trying to compose herself but failing miserably. "I am so sorry" her apology whispered through a chest shaking sob.
Out from deep inside a flash of anger crept in and she scolded them for the last time saying "Oliver you are not allowed to mope over this, Digg don't you dare let him, this is a hundred percent on Slade not you, focus on that. Ooooh and don't you dare dig me out of that grave either…I won't know where I am and I won't care, the dead don't feel anything so please just leave me there, please let me at least spare you that... Let me take that power away from my killer…please….I don't want you to remember me like that."
She turned around walking to the centre of the room; she buried her face in her hands and pulled herself together giving herself a mental pep talk. Gripping tightly on her crossed arms she approached the camera again. "Oh and hey one last thing, my friend Caitlin might call looking for her phone" she points to the grounded devise on the floor "… and she will because she looooved that phone, can you apologise for me? Tell her I am really sorry, make sure you tell her she knows me well enough... Oliver please promise me you will give her my tablet…it's the least I could do"
"Cisco, Felicity has made contact" said Caitlin.
"Cool, heading to the lab now" said Cisco
"Hello? Is this The Arrow?"
"Who is this?"
"Caitlin…we have a friend in common. Felicity Smoak?"
"Yes, she mentioned she would be looking for your phone."
"No, I have my phone?" she looked at Cisco a little confused. "Felicity instructed us to contact you the instant we had the formula. Cisco and I are on our way to Starling now."
"Tell him about the vertigo arrows…" it was evident that Cisco had no idea how to whisper as The Arrow heard him loud and clear.
"Vertigo arrows?"
"She said you would need them to administer the sumiriculizer, well that is what we are calling it for now, it was Felicity's idea so we want her to name it."
"Alright, I will send you coordinates, let me know the minute you enter the city limits." Oliver frowned as he looked at Digg
"That was her friend?" asked Digg
"Yes they are heading to Starling with a sumiriculizer for me to shoot at Slade…"
"What the hell is a sumiriculizer?" asked Digg
"I don't know Digg, but we don't have a lot of time."
At the edge of the glades, under a graffiti covered bridge The Arrow and The Canary met with Caitlin and Cisco.
"Thank you" said The Arrow as Cisco handed over the vials.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Caitlin asked The Canary.
"A friend of Felicity's" she answered without turning around. Sara kept watch of the bridge.
"I wonder if Felicity also plays dress up?" smirked Cisco to Caitlin. Caitlin shook her head trying to warn Cisco that this was not the crowd for his type of jokes.
"She told me to give this to you, do you know why?" asked the Arrow as he handed Felicity's tablet to Caitlin.
She shook her head and took the tablet. She looked at him nervously bitting the side of her mouth. "Hmm password protected…why would she …" she said she tried to get in. "Wait she said to give it specifically to me?"
"Yes, she said she was sorry and that you knew her well enough … she rambles sometimes" he said swinging his bow onto his back and crossing his arms.
Caitlin smiled "One night when she was in town to see Barry we went out for drinks. Felicity talks a lot but doesn't share a lot. We had spent some time together in the hospital and she managed to extract my life story but I only learned four things about Felicity Smoak. One: She is brilliant. Two: Palm readers give her the heebeegeebees, unless of course they are the digital kind." Caitlin placed her hand on the tablet and five blank boxes appeared.
"Three: her favourite color is Green." She smiled as she keyed in the word Green. "Nice outfit by the way" she raised her eyes to The Arrow and chuckled.
The tablet came to life. It was some sort of GPS tracker with a location marked a mere fifteen minutes away. It beeped and flashed on an orange and black target.
"Wow we can see who does all the heavy lifting, here is the sumiriculizer and by the way you can find him here." He taps on the screen with a massive smile on his face "She is cool, but wait …what was the fourth thing?" asked Cisco
"Four: She likes Barry a lot but she cares about someone else a lot more." replied Caitlin directing herself to The Arrow instead of Cisco.
"She said that?" asked The Canary.
"She didn't have to" replied Caitlin.
"What does the sumiriculizer do exactly?" asked The Arrow.
"Felicity plans on putting your Mirikuru friend on ice, cryogenically until we come up with an antidote"
"Thank you Caitlin, Cisco, we have to go" said The Arrow as he and The Canary disappeared before they could say another word.
"HA and they say that science is a boring field…" said Cisco
"Digg did you hear that? We are heading back to you, get Roy" said Oliver
"Yes, ok I am on it and ready to go get our girl back but Oliver, you do realise that Felicity is bait?"
"I know, I also know that Slade has no idea that instead of using a worm to lure me in he has been taunting a highly intelligent shark" he smiled ever so briefly feeling a small bubble of hope rise. He held on to it and accelerated feeling Sara arms tighten around him as they rode to meet the team. There was no time to waste, her words and the look in her eyes felt like goodbye but he wasn't ready for that, he was just getting ready to say hello.
