A New Year special chapter. A special Thanks to my reviewers and those who put this story on their alert list, your support means the world to me. This is my take on an alternate bratva universe, I don't have a beta so all possible spelling and grammatical errors are solely mine and I hope you guys do forgive me for the very many possible errors. I don't know any Russian so please forgive me if there any mistakes.
And most importantly… I don't own Arrow or any of the characters in it ….. I am merely borrowing them for entertainment purposes.
I
"I am doing this with or without your help." She brusquely responded to his protests. She was here after decades long of inner conflict.
She hated mysteries, whenever she came across one she had the insane urge to solve them and this was personal for her. She had a damaged childhood and rebellious teenage years because of his actions. She needed to know why he did what he did.
She had tried to stay away, she had convinced herself that he was undeserving of her attention but there was always this voice at the back of her head that needed answers.
People around her made her realize how truly different she was from them, people enjoyed life, thrived in the wonders of nature but no matter where she was what she was doing there seemed to be a profound emptiness that was embedded deep within her.
The emptiness made her life seem irrelevant and distorted and she needed to change that. She walked ahead of her two best friends without whom this wouldn't have been possible.
She was so glad that she had met them both on the first day of college. Without these two she would have been downright miserable in MIT.
"Are you sure you want to do this Felicity." She heard her best friend's concerned voice behind her. She turned to look at her friends.
Her eyes flicked to their concerned faces, she let out a deep sigh before responding to them.
"I am sure Caitlyn, I want to know who he is? Why he left?" She responded making her friends look at her sympathetically.
They both had been there when she had finally decided to track her father, they had been there for her ugly struggles to come to terms with what she found.
She always thought that her father had been a computer analyst and her love for all things technological stemmed from him but she had found out he had lied about everything. Right from his name to his profession, she found layers of lies and carefully planted fake identities. If she had not been extremely good at what she does nobody would have realized what was going on.
It had quickly evolved into a game for her, chasing after the real person behind the fake name and identities. And here she was in another freaking continent trying to get to the end of this witch hunt.
"You guys were so supportive before what changed?" She asked them unable to understand why they suddenly changed their mind, they had made this long exhaustive trip to Russia and now they wanted to back away. It didn't make any sense to her. She looked at them expectantly.
"It's not that we are not supportive." Barry began. Treading carefully trying his hardest not to upset her.
"If a man has gone to such lengths to keep himself hidden, then we should probably rethink what we are about to do." Caitlyn finished the sentence.
"I don't want to wonder for the rest of my life." She told them, her voice filled with silent determination. Barry nodded at her in resigned understanding.
"Then let's go find out who he really is." Caitlyn told her, giving her a warm smile.
They made their way inside.
II
They were sitting in the lobby of an expensive hotel in central Moscow, the walls were covered with large colourful murals. Something about this place was disconcerting to them.
She had discovered that her father visited this hotel every third Wednesday of the month. What he did here would remain a mystery. Her online searches had not yielded a location; she had paid good money to her boyfriend's PI for this bit of information.
They were early, her father normally showed up around seven. She checked her phone once again, there was no way she could have missed him. The couch felt a little crowded with the three of them, she had gone ahead and booked rooms in the hotel with fake identities. To outsiders they seemed like a bunch of tourists busy planning for their outing tomorrow.
Barry kept a close watch on the front door, she was worried. She had not able to hack into their security cameras, she needed access to their servers and that was impossible what with their servers located on the twentieth floor. Barry had been against doing anything illegal when they were here. She too felt responsible for their well being, she could not put them in incessant danger.
"Felicity." Caitlyn whispered beside her to get her attention.
"What's wrong Cate?" She whispered back.
"What if he disappoints you?" She asked her, genuinely concerned for her friend. Caitlyn Snow knew how hard it was for her friend to be here. In the ten years that she had known her, her father had been a sore subject.
"I honestly don't know Cate, I have no answers to give you." She responded honestly, she was filled with equal amounts of excitement and dread.
She felt guilty, she had dragged them both into this mess maybe she should have made this trip alone. Caitlyn was giving her a contemplative look.
"Does your boyfriend know why you are really here?" She asked her.
"Yes." She responded quickly. Caitlyn knew her well and immediately knew she was lying.
"Felicity." She scolded.
"You know how he is, he would have gone all protective boyfriend on me." She explained sheepishly, she knew she would have a lot of explaining to do when she got back. She just hoped that her relationship weathered this storm, she liked him too much to give him up.
"I find him creepy." Caitlyn told her with faint disgust.
"Caitlyn, it's been four years and you still find him creepy?" She glared at her friend slightly offended by her remarks.
"He pinged your phone, followed you." Caitlyn teased her friend.
"He was trying to woo me." She defended her boyfriend's actions.
"I call that stalking." She mocked her friend.
"Guys." Barry called out softly, his eyes trained on the door.
Her father had just walked in, she couldn't recognize him for a moment. Two scary looking guys followed him, there was no she could get him alone here. He looked shorter than what she had remembered, he wore the salt and pepper hair well. He was dressed in expensive looking clothes, she momentarily wondered what he did for a living and whatever he did must pay him well. After all these years there he was just a few feet away, felicity wondered if he realized she was here. She chastised herself for getting carried away.
"Time for me to get into action." He told the, Barry jumped up from the couch. He was nervous and they both realized that.
"I can do it Barry." Felicity intervened before he took off.
"Don't worry Felicity I got this." He reassured them.
The plan was to find his car and a tracker on it, then can they can triangulate the location where he lived. Felicity needed privacy when she confronted him, he seemed to be a man of many faces and she didn't want to take any added risks. She needed to get him alone.
III
"Are you sure it was his car?" She questioned him again. He eyed her with amusement, he found her adorable when she was flustered .
"Yes I am sure Felicity." He muttered dryly.
"Let's get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps." Caitlyn interjected.
"You find everything creepy Caitlyn." Barry retorted playfully.
"With reason Barry, with reason." She said slowly, staring him down.
"Sorry." He muttered sullenly.
They got back to their hotel, all of them completely exhausted. Jet lag had finally caught up with them. They barely managed to keep their eyes open to get some food down their stomachs.
They were in Russia under the pretence of a Tech conference, they had a hard time explaining away Caitlyn's presence there. They had convinced everyone back home that they were just going to turn into a much needed vacation.
"Tomorrow we can decide how to approach him." Barry told them, he didn't trust Felicity to make sane decisions when it concerned her father.
The three of them made their way to their rooms, tomorrow would be a big for them.
IV
Felicity tossed around the bed, she now had his address. The place was not very far from her hotel. She wanted to talk to her mother but she knew Donna Smoak would kick her ass if she finds out why she was here. Her mother had moved on, she would be celebrating her eleventh wedding anniversary with Quentin in a few months.
Felicity abandoned her bed when she realized that she would not be getting any sleeping tonight. She tried reading, drinking warm milk and attempted yoga to calm herself down but nothing worked. She was too wired, filled with too much anxiety. She paced around her room.
Her habit of talking out loud, took over her.
"What if he refuses to acknowledge me?"
"What if he doesn't remember me?"
"What if he has a family here?" That made her pause in her steps. She was horrified, she realized that she never thought about him having another family.
"Am I going to ruin his life?" she asked herself. After what seemed like hours she decided she didn't want to meet him after all.
She realized she had gone through an awful lot just to be here. She decided to leave the next morning, she called the pilot to inform the change of plans. Flying private definitely had its perks. Suddenly Russia was suffocating to her. She decided to tell Barry and Caitlyn in the morning. She felt awful, she had dragged them here for nothing.
Just one more time, she just needed to see him once more, it might be her only chance. She dressed quickly and pocketed the address. The lobby was almost deserted, she made her way to her rental car.
She drove around for about ten minutes, she realized she had entered a residential area. The streets were lined with big luxurious houses.
She parked on the side of the road, she shivered when she got out of the car. The winters were brutal here. Her breath left her mouth and formed thick mist. She checked her tablet the tracker was still active, she was in front of the right house.
She chastised herself loudly.
"What were you thinking coming here in the middle of the night?"
"Did you really think you would find him roaming about the streets at this time of the night?" She sighed.
She knew she was behaving irrationally, what was wrong with her? She stared at the house ahead. She was drowning in melancholy.
She was so distracted she hadn't realized someone had sneaked up behind her. Before she could react her mouth and nose were being covered by a cloth. She let out a muffled scream, she tried hard not to breathe in the sickeningly sweet smell that she identified with chloroform but it was a futile effort as drowsiness slowly pulled her under.
V
"Wakey wakey." A thick accented voice called out. Someone was roughly slapping on her cheeks.
She tried to squeeze her eyes open. The dim lights were harsh on her swollen eyes, she blinked away the blurriness.
She tried to move but realized she couldn't, she was unable to move her arms or legs. She was instantly filled with dread, adrenalin pumped through her veins. She realized with great alarm that she was tied down to a chair. Three really surly looking men were facing her, one in particular was leering at her making her skin crawl.
She surveyed her surroundings, she was in a dimly lit room, there was low window in the room and she could see the dawn. She was being held in a basement somewhere.
She realized she had been gagged too, she had heard stories about women getting abducted on foreign soil but never thought she would be one among them.
"Sleeping Beauty is awake." He guffawed in evil mirth. He moved forward to tuck her hair, she tried to move away from his touch. She squirmed as she felt his hands on her face.
She didn't even want to imagine what was ahead for her. No matter how strength she pretended to be, she couldn't stop the tears that rolled down.
"Don't worry princess I will take good care of you." He spoke again making her tremble in despair.
Her idea of a midnight stroll suddenly seemed so much more foolish to her now. Barry and Caitlyn would not get to her in time, they wouldn't know where to look for her to begin with. She wondered where she was. Who had her? The three men spoke among themselves, she really should have tried to learn a little Russian before she came down here.
She heard the door open and someone coming down the ladder. It turned out to be her father, she swallowed her silent gasp, she didn't want to believe that her father could be involved with people like these thugs in the room.
"Что здесь происходит?" Her father spoke in fluent Russian.
"Это сука здесь было отслеживание вашего автомобиля" The perverted thug replied, she could barely understand a word of their conversation.
She was quickly thinking of ways to let him know it was her.
"Что?" Her father snapped at the goon angrily.
"Я думаю она была после нас, я видел ее в отеле прошлой ночью" The younger looking minion responded.
She looked on helplessly, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't break free from the ropes.
"Вы узнайте кто она?" Her father asked them, the minions seemed to be terrified of the man in front of them.
She was instantly filled with disgust was this the man she had travelled half way across the globe for?
"American, Я нашел двух наборов по идентификации, один явно поддельные." Minion number three responded.
"Она может быть КС или журналист" Minion number two spoke.
"Давайте узнать" Her father told them.
"If you promise not to scream I will remove this from your mouth." Her father spoke to her, she nodded furiously jumping at the opportunity to tell him who she was.
She coughed once the gag was removed taking in big gulps of air through her mouth. Her breathing calmed down after a few seconds.
"Now tell me Miss who are you?" He asked her, peering down to look at her face. She summoned all the courage at her disposal before she spoke.
"My name is Felicity Smoak." She responded defiantly, his eyes widened in shock. He looked at her closely, he knew she was telling the truth. He recognized her now. Shock was slowly replaced by cold fury.
"Обрежьте ее ослаблен" He spewed angrily.
When the perverted minion hesitated he was rewarded with a menacing glare towards him.
"Я сказал вырезать ее ослаблен" He barked again making the minions stare at him in confusion.
Minion number two moved forward to cut her restrains. She rubbed her now sore and chaffed wrists.
"What are you doing here?" He asked with barely contained fury.
"Don't you think I need some answers dad." She replied boldly despite the circumstances that now she found herself in.
"Dad? Now that is a new development." A scrawny man who stood near the door responded.
"Anatoli." Her father called out, he looked surprised and slightly fearful of the man standing near the door.
Translation:
Что здесь происходит? - What is going on here?
Это сука здесь было отслеживание вашего автомобиля - This bitch here was tracking your vehicle.
Что? – What?
Я думаю она была после нас, я видел ее в отеле прошлой ночью - I think she was following us, I saw her at the hotel last night
Вы узнайте кто она? - did you find out who she is?
Я нашел двух наборов по идентификации, один явно поддельные - Found two sets of identification, one clearly counterfeit
Она может быть КС или журналист – she may be a cop or a journalist
Давайте узнать – let's find out
Обрежьте ее ослаблен – cut her loose
Я сказал вырезать ее ослаблен - I said cut her loose
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