'Mea Culpa'

"Booster, come in," Felicity ordered into a communicator in the Bug. She had assumed the pilot's seat with her friends standing behind her, mostly unsure what to do; Roy and Sara were leaning against the right wall to talk quietly, while Oliver kept his eyes on the horizon. "Damn it, Mikey, we found him! We know where Ted is and I need you to be here, so answer me."

Diggle put a hand on her shoulder, hearing the slight edge to her voice. Felicity glanced up, giving him a slight shake of her head to communicate she was fine before turning back to the communicator.

"This is Kerberos, giving you a mission. Get to the Bug. I know you can track it, so be here, Mikey, or don't bother showing up at all!" Felicity snapped sharply, nose pinched. "I'm not having you show up to another mission half-cocked and unprepared because you didn't listen to me. This isn't a stupid game, not like we've been acting like it is-" she frowned, self-disappointment written all over her face in the heated words. Pausing for a second, Felicity rested her head against the mic, eyes fluttering closed, and regained her coolness from before. "This is Ted's life. I need him back with us, safe. And I know you do too, so Michael, get back here. Be a part of the plan – or stay away. It's your choice."

With a hushed curse under her breath as she sat back, Felicity shook her blonde hair and looked up towards Oliver. "We do have a plan, don't we?"

"I'm working on one."

"Care to share with the class?"

Oliver, who had been formulating said plan in his head, face turned towards the sun and not really paying attention to what was being said to him, blinked and turned his eyes to a perfectly raised eyebrow and pursed lips.

Felicity was watching him expectantly, but there was a hint of almost playful bemusement at his absent-mindedness that he ached to see. It gave him hope. Hope was something he wasn't supposed to have, not when it came to her – so Oliver coughed and turned around, facing his team and keeping his eyes level on all of them, desperate not to get caught in her gaze again.

"Whoever has Ted-"

Felicity cough-interrupted, hiding it behind a hand as she swung her seat a little. "Field names."

"Beetle," Oliver amended through gritted teeth, which he pulled off as irritated but hid a secret smile.

This was what he had missed the most: their team, the one he'd built with Diggle and Felicity, all together. Standing around to show that maybe he's not so alone. In the months Felicity had been gone, it hadn't been the same in the Foundry. There was something missing, a presence in the gloom down there that hung over them, all of them feeling it. It was her. Felicity was the missing piece. And now they were together again, and he could feel it in his bones; it felt right.

"Whoever has Beetle needs him for something, or has a personal vendetta against him and Dan Garrett. Did he ever say who it was that killed Dan?"

Felicity shook her head, eyebrows drawing together. She spoke softly, "No. He uh, he didn't talk about it, ever. It hurt him. More than I think he even realised – I'd catch him sometimes, just looking at the photograph. But Ted never said who it was, or why. I didn't want to ask."

"Okay," he nodded. "What about Dan Garrett? Do you have any background on him that could help?"

"Not really," she shrugged. By the look on her face, Oliver could see her internally kicking herself for not having looked into the incident – going over what she could have done. But it was misplaced. There was no way to know this would happen. He should have told her that, but Oliver stayed silent as she spoke. "Dan was dead and Ted said . . . he said the person responsible died that night, too. I don't think he'd ever seen someone die before."

At that, there was a simultaneous sound from the people in the room. It was an exhale of air, a nod of the head, a hum of pity in the back of the throat, for Ted – and for themselves. Because their hands were bloody long before this, but you never forgot your first. The first person you saw die. The first you couldn't save.

"Then we play it by ear, but smart," Oliver said. "As long as we don't aggravate their plan and push their timetable forward, whoever is behind this probably won't hurt Beetle, they won't risk all of their work going to waste. We go in quick and quiet. Stealth is key – we can't be seen: we find Beetle and try to get him out before anyone even knows we're there. Anything else . . ." he trailed off, running a hand through his short hair. "We have no idea what this person is capable of. Avoid a firefight at all costs."

"Avoid a fight?" The voice boomed over the intercom and they all jumped, flinching before a tapping at the window drew their attention. It was Booster Gold, flying in front of the plane, listening in but answering with sarcasm. "Have you met us?"

Felicity sighed. "Get in here, Booster."

"Yes, K."

"How long were you outside listening?" Felicity asked, glaring him down as he flew below the plane and through a hatch in the underbelly. When he opened his mouth, she knew he would make a dumb joke about wanting to make an entrance, she would snap at him, and things wouldn't go well. To avoid all of that, she waved a hand in his direction. "It doesn't matter. How much did you hear?"

"Enough," he replied, standing bashfully. "I'm sorry, K. I was just scared and-"

"It's fine, I understand. You're forgiven," Felicity walked over to him. Her hand grazed his arm for a second, and Booster looked up and smiled at her, worry written in the creases of his face. "I'm glad you're here now."

Michael waited a moment with a hung head. Then he suddenly looked up, slow smile growing across his face. "Of course you're glad to see me," he grinned. "I've got a dumb idea."

Felicity tilted her head to the left, "What's new there then?"

"Hilarious. But in this case, my truly dumb idea might just help . . ."

Booster flew towards Pago Island, leaving a cloaked Bug in his dust, invisible to anyone who didn't know it was there. It was being flown by Roy, the least experienced in stealth of them all: Oliver learned to walk and leave nothing but a shadow on Lian Yu, Sara was a ghost trained by the League of Assassins, and Diggle had done so many covert ops with Special Forces that infiltration was in his blood. That, and Roy was the only one who could work out in five seconds how to fly the Bug from years of playing video games.

Booster had been the last to depart the familiar flying machine, having dropped Oliver on one side of the island; Diggle and Sara on the other. He was to approach by air, subtly as a flying yellow man could, and try to cover them from above. With a wink and a wave, he had left Roy sitting at the controls and stepped into thin air.

Pago Island was nothing special: dirt, rocks, soil. There was no identifying landmarks, no buildings or people, no reason why Dan or Ted had ever gone there, not that Booster could figure. But there had to be a reason, and if anyone could find it – it was the girl in his arms.

"We never speak of this, ever again," Felicity warned, voice high with fear at the sheer drop into dark waters below.

He laughed, a strained sound laced by genuine humour, like laughing at a funeral – when you know you really shouldn't be, but can't help it. Hysterical laughter. We're-about-to-die laughter. "C'mon baby, are you telling me this wasn't real?"

"I think we're better as friends," she joked weakly back. Booster was carrying her bridal style, her tiny hands digging into the back of his neck and she clung to him, face pressed into his shoulder aside from the fleeting glances she spared towards their destination, each accompanied by the paling of her face. Felicity was scared. Flying wasn't her thing, so she put her face into Booster's stupid yellow collar again and murmured. "Definitely should've gone for the piggyback."

"You're fine, I've got you. Trust me."

"I do," she replied. He could hear in her voice that she didn't just mean not to drop her. Then, more quietly, "What do you think we're going to find when we get there?"

Booster's own voice turned uncharacteristically sombre. "I don't know, K."

"Do you think he's-"

"I don't know," he cut her off before she could get more emotional. "I don't know, but I hope. Ted's stronger than you give him credit for. I can't count the number of times he's picked me up or saved my life on both hands. But," Booster's voice cracked. "But if it is the thing we fear the most, if that's what we find – we've got each other. You've got more than me, in fact – just look at all the people who came just because they thought you might need them."

Felicity shook her head, still close to his collar. She was missing the island getting bigger, but the coldness of the wind on her face and wind stealing any noise but their conversation was strangely isolating from the danger they were about to walk into. A tear slid from the corner of her eye, but was dried on her face in under a minute.

"Things aren't the same as they used to be between us. There was a time . . . we were a team. They were my family."

"They still are, K. Or else they wouldn't have come."

At the words, Felicity's grip on Michael's neck became looser. Instead of hiding in fear, her head on his shoulder became a position of comfort, as close to a hug as they could get while flying at a reasonable speed towards the centre of the island; they were over a beach now. It was odd, but she hadn't even thought of it in that way yet. It had all been so chaotic with Ted going missing and her old team showing up that Felicity had forgotten that she hadn't even called them for help – they had just arrived, right when she needed them the most. Willingly. Apologetically.

In her head, she hadn't doubted that they would be. But put in that way – it made her ache. The feeling was rooted not in her heart but in her chest, like it was filled with something she couldn't quite describe, brimming over painfully. She had missed them. Even when she was happy, even when she was laughing with Ted and Booster, she missed them.

Felicity supposed that the difference now was that she knew she could live without them. But she could also choose to want them in her life. And she did, more than anything.

She would tell them, she decided, if they found Ted and survived all of this. She might even go back from time to time and help out, just to be there, just to remember. Because she wanted to. Because they were her family, as was Ted, as was Booster; no matter how many arguments or hard times that lay ahead, that would never change.

"I love you, Mikey," she said quietly. It was too raw up there to lie, so all that was left was an honest statement. She loved him. She loved Ted. She loved Diggle and Sara and Roy and damn it, she loved Oliver.

"Aw," Booster laughed. He appreciated it, face growing flush with happiness at the statement; with his sister dead, he had no one. But, he supposed, now he had them. But he chose to joke anyway, "And here I didn't think you cared."

"Aaaand the moment's ruined."

Booster laughed, and they flew in silence for a few minutes more. They were almost there now, thick rocks below them and a particularly large one in the centre of the island, where he intended to land. On the approach, he asked. "Do you think it will work? This plan?"

"Oliver believes it," Felicity answered. "I believe in him. If he say's this will work, it'll work. It has to."

"And so I follow you into the Mouth of Hell."

It was said as a joke with a movie-esque lilt, Booster letting out an airy laugh after the statement, but Felicity frowned, burrowing her head closer into his collar.

"That's not funny."

He laughed because she was right, but there was no point in letting her know that. They flew.

For hours, the three groups searched the barren island. In the centre lay a forest, thick and green and lacking in landmines, which was preferable to Felicity's last experience on one. The edge was a beach, thick with jagged rocks and caves dotted along the cliff-face, usually just cracks ten feet deep, but Felicity and Michael checked all the ones they came across anyway.

But even after hours, nothing had been found by either group. Defeated, Felicity stood on the beach as Booster flew a couple of hundred metres ahead, looking for more caves. Tapping at the tablet in her palm, she resisted the urge to smash it into the nearest rock – it was supposed to be scanning the island for any other technology, but kept crashing. It was effectively useless, and as technology was what she brought to the table, Felicity felt like she was, too.

Ted needed them, and she was stuck standing on a stupid vibrating rock with no chance –

Wait.

Felicity dropped to her knee's immediately, pressing her hand into the grey stone. It was warm to the touch from the sun blaring down on her back, but underneath her palm was definitely a vibration, pulsing gently from somewhere beneath them.

"Booster! Over here!"

Felicity's mind raced as she pressed both hands to the stone, pressing them down multiple times in disbelief, mouth agape but ripping into a mad grin, punctuated by noises of relieved joy that weren't even fully words, just pure emotion. Her heart soared. She had found something, a lead – possibly straight to Ted.

Vibrations like that suggested heavy machinery, somewhere underground. Leaning down, she pressed an ear to the rock and strained to hear above the crash and ebb of waves and wind. It was hard, but Felicity closed her eyes, letting the sounds reach out to her from below. There. The clicking together of gears, the groaning of machinery – like a factory – it was close, echoing slightly.

"What are you doing?"

Booster was standing behind her with a sceptical look on his face and hands on his hips, staring at her with her face to a rock.

"Shut up and listen." Felicity grabbed Booster by the elbow to drag him down to her level, using her other hand to pinch him behind the knee and make it buckle. Booster fell, grumbling all the way and kind of embarrassed at being down so easily, but she was freakishly strong when it suited her. Kneeling next to felicity, he didn't even have chance to ask what was going on before she pushed his hands onto the rock below –

"Holy crap is that humming?"

"There's something down there," Felicity said excitedly. She was looking at him with eyes of brimming hope, like this solved anything. Booster felt his own heart kick: they hadn't found Ted yet. He worried that she was getting her hopes up too high now, so if – if the unthinkable happened, it would be all the more to fall later. But he was doing the same right beside her, desperately looking around for a way to get beneath the earth and save his best friend. Rise, fall, hope – at least they weren't alone. "It's machinery. I know it. Something big, from the sound of it – and probably with a signal jammer, which is why I haven't been able to find anything."

"There must be a way down there, then," Booster agreed. "If they got the machinery down there-"

"There has to be an entrance!"

"Maybe a cave, or-" Booster cut off, eyes catching a glint of something in the sunlight two hundred or so metres away in the cliff-face. It was there and gone in less than a second, barely a flicker – but there was something there, he'd put money on it. Image of the section of cliff burned into his memory, he got to his feet and pulled Felicity up beside him. "Look, over there."

Following the line of his slender finger, Felicity squinted her eyes in the sun towards the cliff, rewarded a few second later with another glint of sunlight hitting a reflection, proving there was something other than sand and stone there. Turning excitedly to one another, Michael spoke first.

"We should call the others."

"Right, of course." Felicity pulled a communicator from her pocket and hit a button, "Come in, everyone. We've found something. There's machinery underground here, and we think there's an entrance to wherever it is in the cliff-face. I'm leaving a tracer here so you can find it, but me and Booster are going in ahead to check it out."

"Kerberos, wait!" Oliver's voice cut through suddenly, slightly winded. "Hold back until we get there, we're stronger together-"

Felicity looked over to Booster, whose eyes hadn't left the cliff. At his sides, his hands were fists; his lips were curled into an uneasy grimace of desperation. There was no way he was waiting; and neither was she. They were so close.

"Beetle could be dying! I'm not waiting, we'll be fine. Just get here as soon as you can."

"Wait!"

But Felicity was already leaping into Booster's arms, her grip still just as tight but head facing outward this time, quick eyes locked on the glinting something in the sunlight, ready to tear apart whatever lay below them and save Ted. In the air, they flew towards the stone wall at alarming speed, a crevice in between two rocks thirty feet above beach level becoming clearer the closer they got – an entrance.

"Felicity-"

The rest of Oliver's sentence crackled into static as Felicity and Booster flew into the shadow of the crevice, cutting off their signal to the rest of the team. Oliver's words had gone to the wind anyway – Felicity was so focused on getting inside and finding Ted to her anything but her own hammering heart.

Darkness enveloped them, Booster flying in semi-darkness until the cave tunnelled out, looping in a long curve left and slowly descending in a way that wouldn't be noticeable – if it weren't for the sound of machinery getting louder. That logically meant they were heading deeper down into the oozy heart of the island; Michael held Felicity a little tighter.

After what could have been ten minutes or an hour, there was a light up ahead, and Booster slowed from steamroller to tricycle, still holding Felicity aloft so neither of them make footfalls or any noise but their own breathing. Stealthy, just like they planned to be.

The machinery was screaming now, loud enough for Felicity to hold her hands to her ears as they reached the end of the tunnel – which opened out into a spacious cavern, well lit and lined on every wall by large rust red machinery. It chugged loudly, producing something – they couldn't see what yet – but before they looked, they had a different priority.

"Ted!" Felicity shouted before the thought that it was a bad idea even registered.

It was a bad move, but in the precise moment she saw blue and a body in the far end of the room, it didn't matter; nothing did. Ted was there, chained to a chair and with more red on his costume than blue, goggles cracked at his feet and face uncovered. Above his eye was a deep gash, trickling blood down the side of his face steadily, but beneath that, the green eyes she would know anywhere blinked up at the sound of his name.

Ted stirred, obviously injured but alive. There was a second when his eyes lit up at the sight of them, bright and burning and overjoyed, but – and there was always a but at moments like these, when the world finally seemed perfect after crawling with bloody hands and knees to the summit of a mountain, only to find the only thing at the top was a sheer drop – his happiness lasted for only that perfect second.

Then his eyes went still, a cold fear drowning the light as what he was seeing clicked into place, widening as his lips formed words incomprehensively a few times before his hoarse, dry voice cracked out across the space.

"No. No, no, no, no, no. You weren't supposed to find me," Ted whispered at first, seemingly to himself as he struggled against the chains binding him. He glanced down as he strained and twisted to move, but looked back up at them quickly. "You can't be here! Run, go, you can't be here!"

Felicity didn't have time to question his screams before a beam of orange light hit them like a truck, her and Booster flying towards the now desperately screaming Ted before a hand landing, the air crushed from her lungs on impact. Rolling until she was almost at Ted's feet, the last thing Felicity saw was him with his mouth open and shouting something at her she could no longer hear, chairs taunt and pressing into his flesh so hard it was white as he tried to reach out to her.

The room went black, and Felicity slipped into nothingness.

A/N: it wasn't too long between updates this time, so there's that. And I keep putting off action scenes because I suck at writing them, but it looks like I'm going to have to write one next chapter, damn it. I'm going to work on a couple of one shots before the next chapter probably, but it'll be soon. review!