A/N: Hey guys sorry for the late update, I hope you all enjoy this chapter :) Your support throughout the story has been amazing so thank you all so much! and a massive thank you to my beta Rebekah99! Please feel free to leave a review even if it's just a word or two I love to hear from you guys, enjoy :)
Previously on I'll Fight With You:
Felicity pulled up her hood so that her face was in the shadows, she followed Thea out into the driveway and climbed into the car behind her. Leaning backwards against the soft luxury of the leather, she felt herself relax. That was her first mistake. She jumped at the abrupt noise of the doors locking shut. Raising her eyebrows in question at the driver, he quickly explained that it was for security reasons. Nodding in understanding, was Felicity's second mistake. Noticing Thea sprawled out across the seat next to her in a deep slumber should have sent Felicity on high panic mode, but it didn't. That was her third mistake. Glancing out of the window, she wondered how long it would take to get to the club, surely they should be there by now? Barely glancing from the two phones in her hand that still proved to be useless, she asked the driver why it was taking so long.
'It's just traffic Miss Smoak, nothing to worry about.' He replied darkly. Felicity glanced upwards, a small shot of panic startling her, at the realisation that the driver knew who she was. Meeting his stony eyes in the rear mirror she gasped, immediately recognising the cold, empty look she had seen one to many times. Undoing her seat belt, Felicity struggled with the locked doors, throwing all of her force into her kicks at the glass. The car dragged to a halt and suddenly icy hands were upon her. Struggling against his grip, she threw every defence move she had learnt and every attack that Dig had taught her, but in the confined space they weren't doing much good. A sick smile filled her vision as a small prick cut into her neck followed by the sensation of a cool liquid flowing through her. Her body turned limp, her arms becoming a dead weight and any remaining energy in her was drained until she could barely support her own head. As the world turned black, her last thought drifted back to Oliver.
...
A piercing beam of light tore Felicity from the blissful darkness. Flickering open her eyes groggily, she could barely suppress a loud groan, her entire body emitting a dull ache. As her blurred vision began to focus slightly, she took in the room, desperately scanning for Thea. Noticing a crumpled body dumped in the corner, Felicity let out a sharp sigh of relief. Trying to get a better glance of the room, she twisted her body round, immediately regretting it when her side bit back in a fiery fury. Wincing through the pain, she could feel the harsh metal sides of the handcuffs slicing her skin mixed with the tearing pain in her over stretched arm muscles tied behind her back. Drawing in a sharp intake of air, she wriggled her wrists, trying to escape the cuffs, while ignoring her arms as they screamed in protest.
After several failed attempts, Felicity's confusion grew, the hope of escaping crushed; she should be able to break her ties in a matter of seconds but for some reason she could barely lift a finger without needing to take a rest. Finally managing to slip one wrist out of the cuffs, she tugged at the other, her weak movements making time run in slow motion. Dragging her sluggish body onto shaky legs, she moved towards Thea's still sleeping form. Her whole body shook violently as she shivered furiously. Feeling the energy drain from her legs, she crumpled to the floor, unable to move. She watched, in silent protest, as a figure swamped in black strode confidently into the room. A slow panic settled in her stomach as she screamed helplessly at the man walking towards Thea. She watched as the man kicked Thea's limp body further into the corner and aimed his sick smile towards Felicity.
…
It had been a fairly simple night in the foundry but Oliver could not keep still. Diggle and Roy's eyes met more than once in concern at the pacing vigilante.
"Hey if you're that worried about her, maybe you should just go home," Dig offered. The glare Diggle received caused him to blink twice; sure, he had seen Oliver riled up before, but he was never this bad.
"Felicity said she wanted me to trust her and I do," as the words left Oliver's mouth, his pacing increased, a continuous movement, from the bottom of the steps to the training mats, the monotonous repetition seeming to sooth him.
"I don't care, Oliver, your pacing is driving us mad, so, please, for all our sakes just go!" Dig shook his head, hiding a threatening smirk at the behaviour of his partner.
Sighing, Oliver gruffly pulled out his phone from his trousers' pocket and jabbed at the screen with his finger. The painfully slow dialling tone enveloped the foundry in silence. After the fifth ring, the colour drained from his cheeks; something was wrong. Attempting to calm the man looking like he would explode in a fit of rage any second, Dig placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.
"She might have just left the phone on the side, it's nothing to worry about. Why don't you try Thea?"
Trying to hide his visibly shaking fingers as his mind filled with dread, Oliver let out an exasperated breath as the ringing halted, signalling Thea had answered. But the cheery, young voice he expected to answer was gone. Instead the recognisable voice of the house's maid; Raisa, answered.
"Where's Felicity?" The words left his lips as the final ring still hung in the air.
"Mister Oliver?" The normally reassuring voice now sent icy shivers through him, "I'm sorry, Mister Oliver, I saw Miss Felicity and Miss Thea leave earlier, at least a few hours ago."
Fear clawed at his insides, they were supposed to stay in the mansion; she was supposed to be safe. Slamming down the device mid-call, he raced to Felicity's monitors typing in the memorised commands Felicity had taught him in case something like this were to ever happen.
"She's at the mansion," he stated simply before storming into the club upstairs, closely followed by the team. The speed limits he was breaking were the least of his worries as he sharply swerved in and out of the traffic. The roar of his motorcycle growled into the icy wind that tore at his bare arms, temporarily numbing any sense of fear.
Passing through the mansion gates, he jumped off the bike seconds before he pulled to an abrupt stop. Oliver was already pounding on the thick wooden door just as engine noises died down from his bike. In the spilt second the handle turned, he threw his body into the hallway, startling an unaware maid, and bolted up the stairs. Reaching Thea's room, he kicked the door open with such force, it buckled under his weight. His eyes frantically scanned the room, fear trampling his hope when he spotted the two phones strewn across the light oak flooring. Pocketing the pair, he made his way towards the sound of the team finally arriving at the mansion. As Oliver reunited with the rest of the team at the bottom of the stairwell, he noticed a couple of guards had gathered around, alerted by the commotion.
"Where are they?" Oliver growled at the nearest bodyguard, the arrow persona blinding its way through his voice. The tall, muscular man dressed in a smart plan black suit similar to Dig's stepped forward. His normally invincible military posture slightly faltered at Oliver's snarl.
"Sir, both Miss Queen and Miss Smoak left about an hour ago. They asked to be driven to Verdant. Is there a breach of security we should be worried about?"
Ignoring his question, Oliver glared at the man.
"Who drove them?"
"Mr Francis, Sir." The guard regained his posture, despite his client's scowl burning into his forehead.
It was Diggle who stepped between the men, acting as a buffer, confusion painting his expression, "I don't remember a Mr Francis. Did you check his ID and number?"
"Standard procedure, Sir, of course. It was his first day here," The man responded, averting his gaze downwards as if trying to escape the uncomfortable situation.
"I personally check and hand pick every guard on these premises and there have been no new body guards for at least the last few months."
The second Dig spoke, the dreaded realisation set in on Oliver. It was like something clicked inside of him; one second he was a billionaire CEO and the next a blood-thirsty, rage-driven animal. Slamming the security guard against the wall, he held him upwards in a choke. His face contorted in a thousand ways, fury driving him as he roared at the man.
"YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE THE REASON SHE'S GONE!" Reacting immediately, Dig clutched at his partner's arm, desperately trying to pull him away. Sara was on her toes before the room could blink but carefully put her reaction down to shock at the outburst; there were people here that didn't know her skills. Moira appeared alongside a brown-haired business man at the sudden noise, a look of horror passing over herself.
"Oliver! Calm down, we will find her, we will find them, but you have to calm down," Dig whispered threateningly into Oliver's ear and, after a few moments, his death grip loosened and the guard dropped to the floor, clutching at his throat, struggling for breath.
Composing her frightened self, Moira held her head high.
"OLIVER! What is the matter with you? I am in the middle of a meeting. Why are you behaving like an animal?!"
With eyes of fire, Oliver pointed at the man in rage, spitting out each word with such a force each blow seemed to cripple the man.
"HIM. HE CAUSED ALL OF THIS. HE AUTHORISED THE DRIVER AND NOW SHE'S GONE."
The reality hit Oliver once again, a tsunami of icy fear leaving him breathless, and for the first time since the island, Oliver broke down. His body crumbled to the floor, his limbs turning numb as stray tears prickled his eyes.
Before he could stop himself, the words left his lips in a murmur, "she's gone, Mom. He took her and Thea. The one person I let in, the only light I could see. I loved her and now she's gone." His blurred vision swam as horrific thoughts ripped away inside his mind. He almost didn't notice, but suddenly two arms engulfed him. Turning his tear-stricken face into the familiar comforting warmth, he sobbed into her chest, oblivious to the terrified expressions crossing his teams faces at their leader's break down.
"Mom..." he whispered into her shoulder, the missing affection, from when he was a small boy, now returned.
Minutes passed by, but slowly the continuous circular rubbing on his palms began to comfort him and the whispered words of reassurance slowly regained his strength. It was the gentle tapping on his shoulder that finally awoke Oliver from his daze. Looking upwards he saw the mansion swarmed with men in uniform, paralleling a few days before, except now this was officially a missing persons case and, not just any missing person, but this included one of the city's most well known billionaires; Thea Queen.
As Oliver straightened himself out, the distraught look of fear and panic he saw shining through his mother's eyes matched his own. Taking a moment to compose himself, Oliver glanced around his house, searching for the team. His eyes caught Dig's immediately, he stood the other end of the hallway talking in hushed whispers to Detective Lance but Sara and Roy were nowhere to be seen.
…
"Felicity Smoak," the man snarled at her, the crazed glint never leaving his eyes. Pulling herself forward, Felicity's body scraped across the stoned floor but she couldn't trust herself to stand without keening over. The muscles in her arms screamed at her, their tortured voices fighting to be heard against the blood rushing in her ears. Gripping with one shaking hand onto an uneven slate on the ground, she pulled her body forward, burning every remaining strand of strength left in her.
Through the corner of her eye, Felicity could make out several darkened figures entering the room. She expected them to stop her, to tie her back up again or even to put her down, but nothing happened. The figures just spread across the room, acting as if she was not there. For the first time, Felicity noticed medical equipment down the side, sending a petrified shiver down her spine. The figures went about mixing different liquids together, chatting amongst themselves as if this was a daily occurrence for them. She could see the row of syringes, as if they were daring her to take a step towards their poisoned point. The first figure that had entered stood in the shadows, his face half covered in pure darkness, giving him the perfect identity concealer. The sound of his feigned laugh echoed off the solid walls, his amused smile growing stronger; Felicity's pain the central cause of his glee. Finally reaching Thea's limp body, a cold fear griped her; Thea was awake. This entire time, Thea had been awake. A small tear escaped her terrified eyes at the same time as a frightened whimper left her lips. A million possibility's tore at each other, each thought trying to be heard above the rest, all trying to answer one simple question; why hadn't Thea moved? Sure, Felicity could understand being frozen in fear or faking dead to survive but Thea hadn't even lifted a finger. Her terrified expression remained the same, almost as if it was frozen in place. Felicity lifted her numbed fingers towards the back of her friend's head, dread ripping away at the wet feeling of blood matting her hair. Her rosy cheeks replaced with a cold paleness and her once energetic ringlets a mass of lifeless, worn out reddened curls. This wasn't right. A surge of hope spread throughout Felicity; the bump on her head was too small to cause any real damage, so that couldn't be the reason for her paralysis. So why hadn't Thea moved?
…
Frustration rose in the pit of Oliver's stomach; he should be out looking for Felicity, not wasting time pacing the mansion. Oliver had seen Lance phone the Arrow and he was now relaying information to him, desperate to find any leads on Felicity. Remembering that he left the Arrow phone in the lair, Oliver smiled, noticing for the first time Sara and Roy's disappearance from the scene.
Dig seemed to be somehow keeping his cool whilst yelling at the mansion's security co-ordinator, whilst his mother fretting about the pace, making several calls, although from what Oliver could tell, they seemed to be more in the PR department than actually useful calls to her many contacts. He shouldn't be here, the swarming officers around the mansion, the multiple stressed conversations over lapping one another and the mass of bodies, offering their condolences were too close for comfort.
Oliver knew that he had to stay in the mansion, the news of the kidnapping had spread quicker than wildfire and had been devoured by starving paparazzi. From the several calls to the mansion, Oliver had heard Thea being abducted along with a mysterious blonde had been declared the story of the year. Everywhere he turned, across every channel over television, radio and any type of media, it was the headline.
He could feel the air begin to thin, as he gasped for a breath, the edges of his vision blurry, and the panic tearing its way into his body. Oliver had experienced enough panic attacks since the Island to know that being in this room wasn't helping, and it certainly would help find Felicity any quicker.
No longer caring about the Queen's public image, Oliver stormed out of the mansion, ignoring his mother's and Detective Lance's protests. He was temporarily blinded by the sudden white flashes of light piercing his vision and the million questions thrown at him from every angle, fighting to be heard over the rest. It was the small placement of Dig's hand on his shoulder, which shook him from his stunned state. Leading his friend over to the car, Dig ushered Oliver in, away from the crowding cameras and set off towards the foundry without another question. The hope of finding them remained solely in their hands.
…
Looking up at the men in horror, Felicity gently shook Thea's lifeless shoulder.
"Oh, I doubt she will be able to move any time soon. Neither should you actually, we will have to see about that," the man growled at her, taking a threatening step closer.
Knowing her chance of escape was virtually impossible without Thea being able to move herself, rage once again rippled through her. What was wrong with herself? She was supposed to have the Mirakuru in her, so why was her body a dead weight? What the hell had they injected her and Thea with? The threatening man continued to step closer to the pair, and hopes of fighting back were quickly dismissed when Felicity found herself unable to even lift her own head. Wrapping her arms around Thea protectively, Felicity closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. She shivered in disgust as the man ran his hands across her neck, sweeping her matted locks of hair to one side. Then the sharp prick of a needle in the back of her neck drained the remaining energy from her now numb body as she lost the battle to darkness.
…
When Oliver arrived at the foundry, Roy and Sara quickly moved away from Felicity's computers, predicting his temper.
"What have you found?" he blurted out, without glancing from the busy screens. Sara quickly glanced over at Roy, who had instinctively taken a step backwards and realised he was leaving her to brave Oliver.
"Right, so we checked all the mansion security footage and any surrounding cameras on the premise but it seems that whoever took them was a cameras were disabled an hour before the suspected time of their kidnapping."
"Dammit!" The aggression stood out in his voice as Oliver slammed his fists violently on the desk, the vibrations almost knocking the computer screens from their setting.
"Hey, Oliver, calm down. We have a lead, okay?" Roy butted in, daring to engage with the beast. Noticing his demeanour change, Sara took advantage of the now calmed Oliver and quickly explained what they had found.
"We traced the car Mr Francis used to a back alley in the glades, although the car was abandoned we managed to swipe any prints and have sent it to the lab for testing but it's not looking good. So we came up with the idea-"
"I came up with it," Roy interrupted proudly, only to back away quickly at Oliver's burning glare.
"Fine, Roy came up with the theory that whoever disabled the cameras might have done it manually. We asked around and several of the security guards on patrol saw an un-plated black RV come through the mansion gates just before the guard switch over which would have been at one o'clock. From their different descriptions of the van, we concluded that it was a company van and have narrowed it down to six companies located here in Starling City. The driver in the van had claimed to be working for an electricity company, his ID checked out so security let him through. Which means however took them are good."
Oliver nodded, impressed with his team. They had a lead, and any case with a lead was solvable. He would find his girls again, he would always come for her.
"Have you hacked into surrounding traffic cameras?"
Roy nodded, "Yeah, the computer's scanning through them now in a five mile radius for any black vans, between eleven and two, but it's taking its time," Roy finished miserably.
"Good." The single-word reply from Oliver was all the team needed to pull them from their worried thoughts.
…
When Felicity awoke again, the hazy numbness blurred her vision. She groggily flicked her eyes open and glanced around the room. She tried to turn her head towards the last place she had seen Thea's body but for some reason her body refused. A panic settled in the pit of her stomach as she attempted to lift her tied wrists from their new aching position but found she couldn't move them either.
A small tear found its way dribbling down her cheek, falling to its death as the simple sound of water hitting concrete echoed off the walls. She was paralysed. It explained why she had gone down so easily in the car, unable to protect Thea and it explained why she could barely even support her own head. Sure, the Mirakuru was fighting whatever venom they had injected her with off, otherwise she would be as lifeless as Thea.
Thea. The name sent her senses on high alert; they must have injected her with the paralysis as well, it would explain why she hadn't even twitched when Felicity had moved to her side. Glancing around the room once more, Felicity began to study the newly familiar walls she had spent hours doing monotonously the first time she had woken up. Deciding that nothing was working, frustration grew inside of her, bubbling over the edges of her control.
What would Oliver do? The thought brought a small sense of comfort to her. Her mind drifted to a memory of one of her first training sessions with Oliver, a week after joining the team. 'Think outside the box, if it's not working then try another way, never make the mistake of giving up, that's when your opponent will strike; in that one moment of weakness when you drop your guard'. They had been sparring in the foundry when Felicity had flopped to the floor, exhausted.
"It's not working! I give up!" she had complained, slumping her exhausted body to the ground. Oliver had simply replied with that quote, a hidden smirk plastering his face. The happy memory caused a small smile to brighten Felicity's face despite the circumstances- it had been one of the only times Oliver had let his guard down with her and smiled a real genuine smile.
A new wave of determination shone through her. Felicity hated mysteries; they bugged her, and she would figure out who had taken her and why, no matter how long it took. Just like Oliver had told her, she couldn't give up. Felicity had no doubt that Oliver would save her and Thea, so letting the fear that had worked its way into her chest go, she filled herself with one powerful emotion; hope.
A/N: So what did you guys think? And what did you all think of the new arrow episode?! Can't wait to hear from you all and I will see you all in about a week with the new chapter which I am currently 1/3 of the way through! Thank you :)