Chapter 5: ARGUS

When Dig arrived just outside the ARGUS facility, Lyla and the suicide squad were already in place.

Lyla had explained that Waller had information on Deathstroke that she was keeping tight lipped about and it drew her suspicions. After some digging she found out about the drone and that it had been ordered before all hell broke loose in Starling. Project X was also slated to be terminated, so she grabbed the only 3 members of the suicide squad that had not yet had the implants infused into their spines and removed their trackers. One ran, but he didn't get far, as Lawton shot him seemingly without even aiming. The other two, dead shot and bronze tiger, opted to help her get to the bottom of this, to confront Waller.

Breaking into the Facility wasn't difficult as Lyla had codes and most of the ARGUS troops in the he area were deployed to keep the citizens of Starling City hostage while their impending doom flew in on a drone. Once the reached Amanda's command center Dig walked in alone, while the other three moved into flanking positions. He tried to make her see reason, to get information from her. When nothing seemed to be working he turned to walk away, to regroup, and on the screen behind him he saw a tracking map- Waller knew where Slade and Isabel were. Without thought he turned back, gun drawn. It was only after he was screaming for information that he realized his back up had joined in on the fun- bronze tiger had taken out three men while Lyla had locked two others in a storage room and Deadshot had gone straight for the source, instantly training his weapon on Waller.

After a few moments of a Mexican standoff, it was Diggle who reacted. As Waller called out to have the suicide trackers activated, thereby terminating all members of project x, Dig lost his senses and shot her. It wasn't a kill shot, it was in her shoulder, just enough to incapacitate her. She was quickly disarmed and he was left towering over her, gun aimed directly between her eyes, "that was a warning shot- I'm running out of time and patience. Where is Slade Wilson and how do. I stop that drone."

As his team left the building they took weapons and vehicles, a couple of computers for Felicity, and all the tracking info on Slade. They had radioed in for the drone attack to be cancelled, but unfortunately had to tie up Waller to ensure she wouldn't call for another strike. Diggle didn't even feel guilty as he hit her in the back of the head with the hilt of his gun, some satisfaction in her slumped unconscious form.

They were on their way to the clock tower to bring Felicity her new toys. Lawton had already begun transferring the cure into bullets, and Lyla was covering their tracks with ARGUS.

"We are about 30 minutes out, maybe longer with the way the roads are- you need to get to QC, that's where Waller last pinged both Slade and Isabel. Seems like the soldiers are in the tunnel near QC- they have turned a train car into a mobile operations base. You go now and we will catch up after dropping the gear off for Felicity."

Felicity and Oliver shared a look, not acknowledging the rest of the people in the room, not even the two extended team members that had been privy to the conversation.

"There's enough arrows for each league member to take 3 and for you to have 7. I'll keep making more and send the rest with Digg."

Oliver nodded to Felicity and grabbed his bow and quiver, glancing at Sara to let her know it was time to go while looking to Roy and Malcolm. "Roy, you up for the fight?" After his emphatic nod Oliver Focused next on Malcolm. "I don't trust you, but I do believe you would never let anything happen to Thea- stay here and protect her, I will never forgive you for marooning me on that Island, for Tommy, but I will give you this one chance to make me not want to rip your heart out with my bare hands." The last bit was gruff and quiet as he walked past Malcolm and toward Felicity.

"Okay, my dad is up to speed on the plan- the police have grenades and rocket launchers that they confiscated from the mayor after the undertaking and they will be ready near the old subway entrances. The lieutenant put my dad in charge, so they will follow our lead." She grabbed the arrows for herself and the other league members and headed for the door. As they walked past Malcolm they shared a look of unfinished business- she had never known he was responsible for the Gambit going down.

Nyssa took the opportunity to grab Malcolm and give him one final word of friendly advice, "the Arrow may be willing to give you another chance, but Ras Al Ghul will not. Once we have incinerated this threat, we will be back for you."

Roy and Thea said their goodbyes and Roy promised to come back to her. She promised to call Sin and have her come to the tower where she would stay until his return. Thea turned to say her goodbyes to Ollie when she caught a glimpse of the tender moment he somehow was finding the time for while hell broke loose around him.

He had Felicity in his arms, what looked to be a simple, innocent hug, but as he whispered in her ear a small tear tracked down her and he ever so gently wiped it away. He took her cheeks in both of his hand and she could barely hear him say, "stay here, you are the best of all of us and I can't do this without your voice in my head- you are my conscience and I need you to guide me tonight. I'll be back for you. Your my girl, you'll always be my girl."

She looked back at him, into his eyes that seemed to have softened just for her, "you better be, if not I'll be pissed and you know you don't want to be on the receiving end of my loud voice."

They lingered there for a moment, forehead to forehead, but Thea was shocked that they didn't move to give each other a goodbye kiss, just his hand lingering on her shoulder as he grabbed the rest of the arrows and walked her way. He hugged her and kissed her forehead, "stay here Speedy, I love you and when
I get back I will explain everything."

She barely had enough time to say "I love you too Ollie" before he was gone, they were all gone, she was left with Malcolm who was examining the arrow sticking out of the wall and the blonde she had always underestimated, diligently working with the arrows.

"Felicity, can I help?"

She looked at Thea with soft eyes, she had so much emotion pent up for this strong young woman whom she respected, but had never really had a chance to show that. "Of course Thea, I'll teach you- but first you should call Sin- she knows where this place is," she winced at the face the Thea made as if to be offended that Sin had known before her. "Not that she knows about Oliver being the Arrow, or really any of this- she was kind of Sara's side kick when Sara first came to town, before Oliver came back after the undertaking. That's how she knows about this place, this was Sara's safe house. Our lair is actually at Verdant, in the basement, or it was, before Slade broke in and Isabitch stole the building and all of the glades starting falling around it..."

Luckily she wasn't able to babble anymore as Thea couldn't help but interrupt, "Isabitch? I like that!"

Felicity still didn't have control over her mouth, "yeah, Isabitch... I kind of hit her with a van earlier tonight, It felt really good."

As both women lightly chuckled Thea held up one finger as she dialed Sin and walked to the other side of the room, still steering clear of Malcolm. By the time she hung up she was hysterical once again, Sin was only a block away, but she was trapped. Felicity was seconds away from drugging her when Malcolm stepped in.

They all came to the agreement that Thea would go get Sin and Malcolm would go with her. Felicity had finished more Arrows so he took a few of those just in case. They would be gone less than 10 minutes and Oliver never had to know.

"Okay Dig, see you in 20 minutes, I will be muted for then next 15 minutes or so to fix the earpiece, but I will still be able to hear you from my tablet."

"Thea, it's all set, the boys think I'm fixing the comms so you can take it, just in case. This button here is how you unmute it- just press it if you need me or Dig. Oliver, Sara, and Roy will be able to hear you too, but just like I told Dig, I have a set up on my Tablet so I can monitor you and the earpiece has a tracker. If you aren't back in 20 minutes I will have to tell them you left to get Sin. Just for the record Merlyn, I don't trust you and I think you are an awful person- but I do Trust Thea- she shot you once and I know she would do it again. She has my .22 and obviously knows how to use it. Beyond that, if you don't get her back her safely in the next 20 minutes, I pity you. Oliver and Roy already have a grudge against you and she is the only person either of them care about at this point- they will hunt you down like the dog you are." She continued glaring at Malcolm, satisfied that he took her threat seriously, hugged Thea, and sent them off, turning the tracker on from her tablet to keep herself from passing out from worry.

Felicity sat at the table slumped over, both hands rubbing her temples, "I just sent Oliver's little sister into hell on earth with Malcolm Merlin, what the hell did I do?"