Some things are worth fighting for:
Felicity could feel the Mirakuru burning in her bloodstream making the pain overwhelming. Her head felt as heavy as lead and white spots danced in front of her eyes. She closed her eyes and shut them tightly biting back on her tongue and when she could not handle the pain anymore, she collapsed. She passed in and out of consciousness several times and each time she could hear Slade's voice echoing in the background. When she finally came around, her body was numb with a dull throbbing in her head but the gash on her forehead was gone and she could breathe in without pain coursing her rib cage. As a matter of fact she felt strong but it was her thoughts which were clearer than ever. She did not feel rage or resentment; she did not feel powerful or conceited. She felt alive with her body mending its broken parts.
"Welcome back, Miss. Smoak, to the world of the living."
"You injected me with Mirakuru and you turned into a monster like the ones you have out there ravaging the city and tearing it down for your petty revenge against Oliver. I don't know why you brought me here but I do know one thing. You have forever tainted Shado's memories, Slade. She would never have wanted any of this."
By the time Felicity completed her statement, Slade looked wild. Felicity could not get another word out as he; adorned in his mask; approached her and placed the edge of his sword against her neck. Her breath hitched when she felt the sword cut at her throat. She had pushed the wrong buttons but she could not care less because her fate was sealed, she knew that better than anyone. There was no escaping this; there was no escape from Slade but if she had to die at the hands of a killer, she would go down fighting. So she continued speaking with the blade against her throat in a surprisingly calm and collected voice.
"Shado would never have wanted to be a witness of this madness. She died at the hands of a madman and that is what you are right now. You are no different from him and the people of this City will fight and retaliate. We will end this and put an end to you. I promise."
Felicity was ready for the cool steel of the blade to cut through her throat so she closed her eyes and waited. But to her surprise, the blow was never delivered instead the air stilled as the laugh of Slade Wilson pierced through. Felicity opened her eyes as Slade sheathed his sword and bend to his knees looking her straight in the eye.
"Courage is a virtue I treasure, Felicity. And you possess courage beyond limits. You speak of my death when you are chained and held captive; courage like no other. Shado died because the man in whom you place your trust in did not have the courage to save her and so this city pays for his mistake, you pay for his mistake. And as for Shado, she is at peace after this. She told it to me."
"We all know that Shado's death was not Oliver's fault. This city believes in him, he is a Hero. And I believe in him so you can torture me all you want, kill me if you have to but my faith in Oliver will never die. He will always remain a Hero, the Arrow. And Shado is dead, she can't tell you anything."
Felicity's eyes conveyed determination and challenge as she looked at Slade. Her faith in Oliver could never be broken. Slade stood up and started walking into the shadows from whence he had emerged. Felicity saw his form turned to face her as he reached at the edge of the darkness.
"You will always believe in the Arrow but once you die, Felicity, the man who would be left behind would live an empty life. Then this City, the one you so love, will fall brick by brick."
Felicity knew Oliver would come for her; he would not let her die. But there was one thing he was mistaken about. Felicity's was not the one whose death could break Oliver because his heart did not belong to her.
Oliver did not know where to start looking. It was more than twelve hours since Felicity was at the mercy of Slade and he knew that time was running out. Oliver did not let himself believe that Felicity was dead; he had to hold on to the hope that she was alive. He came back to the lair and found Diggle with a Mirakuru-free-Roy and filled them in on the situation when they both were ready to shoot Merlyn in his head.
"Oliver, we can't trust him; let alone work with him. We will get her back after we deal with him."
"I volunteer to save the Blondie. She saved Thea and me so I owe it to her and my son. Besides you are going to need all the help you can get."
"Diggle, Roy; we need him for now. Slade is still out there with her. We killed his men but there are a few more we need to kill. We will deal with Merlyn when all of this is over and she is back home, back to me."
"I will do this for Felicity, Oliver but if he tries anything, I swear to God, the bullet will not miss its target."
"Relax everyone. It was me who saved your beat up asses back there but do I hear a thank you? No; all I hear are more death threats."
"Shut up, Merlyn. And tell me everything from the beginning."
Merlyn narrated the entire story from the Starling Central Station to Felicity's phone call. Oliver squared his shoulder with pride when he heard what Felicity did at the station. He handed over her phone to Oliver. Merlyn knew about the delivery of the cure to the airport because of the texts Oliver had sent to Felicity. After Oliver listened to his story, he felt hopeless. He had thought that Felicity's phone could be on her making her easier to track or a clue could be obtained from Merlyn's story pointing out to her whereabouts but both the routes led to a dead end. He did not know where to start with his search; he wasn't even sure if Felicity was in Starling City or not. Slade could have taken her anywhere but before Oliver could convince himself of the worst possibilities he pulled himself together. Slade wanted to hurt Oliver and reduce him down to a man with no faith but Oliver believed in her and her strength. He knew that the girl who had stolen his heart will not go down without a fight. And that's how an hour later, Oliver found himself going through CCTV footage of the accident pulled up by Digg; with much difficulty; while Merlyn and Roy scanned Salde's face through facial recognition. Oliver ground his teeth when he looked at the footage and the way Slade dragged Felicity by her hair. Everything looked surreal as he saw the look in Felicity's eyes. She looked defeated. Slade was going to pay big time for this; Oliver would make sure for that. There was no license plate on the truck on which Slade got in with Felicity and Oliver growled as it was another dead end. Digg was the one who told him to contain his anger and to keep looking. So he skimmed through CCTV footage for hours for the glimpse of the truck. He lost track of time and that's when Digg told him to stop and get some rest.
"Digg, she is out there somewhere. I can't rest, at least not now."
"Oliver, you are of no use if you over-exhaust yourself. Eat and sleep for a few hours. I will wake you up when I find something. If you go on this way, you cannot save her. Besides you know that once she comes back, she might kill me for letting you run around like this."
Oliver could hear Felicity giving Digg a lecture on the importance of food and sleep and he smiled. That was the kind of person his Felicity was, caring and beautiful. Oliver knew that she lied to him about Merlyn because of her promise to Tommy and he forgave her but once he got her back, he would make sure that she would never have to hide anything from him. He would make sure that he would be there beside her, forever and always. Merlyn was sleeping on the chair and Roy on the training mat as Oliver went to lie down at the couch. He would get a shut eye for a few hours but when he did sleep he was plagued by nightmares; all of them worse than the first one with him loosing Felicity to Slade's blade every time; so Oliver gave up on sleep and resumed his work. Digg was asleep with his head resting on the table so Oliver took brought to lie Felicity's computer and choked back his tears as he remembered Felicity sitting on her chair everyday while she rambled on about the latest technology. Oliver pushed back the image from his head and transferred the files through which Digg was scanning and that's when he noticed a folder on her desktop. It was titled Oliver Queen. Oliver opened the folder and saw that it contained only one video file addressed to him so he fired it up and the image of Felicity stared back at him as she down on the couch in the lair after adjusting the camera. She looked glowing and happy with her hair radiating in the camera and then she started speaking looking into the camera.
"Oliver Queen, I guess if you are seeing this that means I am not next to you right now; either I am dead or in a life-threatening situation; both of them are not good. But before you go all angry bear on everyone around you because I am not there, I need you to know that whatever happened to me is not your fault so don't hold it over your life and sink the memories you have of me into guilt. I want you to remember me as your girl not one whose death is on your head. I haven't always been perfect and I have lied to you about one thing. Malcom Merlyn is alive and I helped him hide his tracks from the League of Assassins because of a promise I made to Tommy. He wasn't just your best friend, he was mine too and before he died he made me promise that I would always be by your side. I guess I might be breaking that promise now but I want you to know that I never wanted to lie to you so I hope that you will forgive me one day. I always supported you and stood beside you to see you become the Hero you are today and if given another chance I will always choose you. Always remember that. And since this is goodbye, there is one more thing you need to know Oliver. I love you. I have loved you since God knows when and even though we couldn't be together; just know that I would have died knowing two things. I love you and I believe in you. Take care of Digg and Roy for me. Let Digg take care of you and guide Roy, don't give up on him."
Oliver looked into her picture staring back at him and that's when he let loose of the tears he had been holding back. She loved him and he needed to tell her that he loved her too. There were no doubts and no reservations now because right then and there, he could not imagine one day without her let alone the rest of his life.
Felicity was getting tired of sitting in the chair and the links were cutting into her. She knew that she had the Mirakuru in her system but when she tried to break the chains she only ended up hurting herself. Maybe the effects of the drug had not kicked in yet because Felicity's head did not feel clouded with anger. It was as if the drug had healed her and made her sharper rather than into a beefed up zombie. She could still feel pain from where she was bleeding because of the chains and that's what kept her grounded to her surroundings. She did not know how many hours passed or days before Slade came in again.
"So, Felicity, are you feeling better?"
"Go to hell."
"Oh don't worry, girl. I will go there but not for now. My ticket to my death is right here with me so the ride to hell would have to be delayed."
"What do you mean?"
"It's interesting, this thing known as fate. It was my fate that I met Oliver and he took my Shado away from me. But what's even more interesting is that the man who killed the love of my life was the one who carried a cure to this drug, a very ineffective one. I destroyed the cure and then Oliver drove an arrow through my eye but I survived. When I came back to this world, things had changed. So I searched for the place that gave me this wonder which made me into this. You know what I found astonishing? This drug was made as a cure to cancer by a scientist known as John Fox. He worked on Mirakuru for years thinking that he was going to save lives but when he saw that the Japanese had other plans for the drug, he did a miraculous thing. He introduced his blood in the drug, encoded his DNA in it making it the kill switch to the effects of Mirakuru. Unfortunately, this scientist retaliated and was killed by the Japanese without them knowing how important his blood was so he kept his belongings with one of his colleagues. And as Fate would have it, when I came to Starling City a certain blonde caught my attention. A girl abandoned by her father with a mother having drinking problems and while she worked as the Executive Assistant of Oliver Queen; she became Oliver's partner, his salvation and his world. But what was more interesting was that this girl also had the ability to be my downfall."
Felicity was thoroughly confused when Slade shoved a photo at her face. She looked carefully at the photo and saw that it was her in the picture. She was wearing a blue dress with her blue eyes staring adoringly into the face of a man holding her in her arms while her brown hair was tied into two ponytails. She looked at the man who was holding her and the first thing that she noticed were the blue eyes staring back at her. It was her eyes. She could make no mistake. Felicity must have gasped too loudly because Slade turned the picture and she saw the writing on the back. "To my lovely daughter Felicity; with all the love in the world, your father, John Fox."
Felicity stared at the photo and then it dawned on her. If the scientist was her father, then it only meant one thing. Her blood was the cure to Slade's madness. This could all end with her.
"So you see Felicity, you are very important. You are the heartbeat of the man I have vowed to destroy and you can stop the heartbeat of the psychopath who is standing in front of you. And I guess I was right because the Mirakuru that I gave you only healed you but did not turn you into a monster like me but can you really not turn into a monster if you know enough pain?. So shall we go for round two of my experiment?"
Felicity had known pain the past 24 hours but when Slade broke her shoulder, her ribs and her jaw, she screamed till there was no breath left in her. She was again injected with the Mirakuru but this time her thoughts were reeling with a plan to end this once and for all.
And I am back. Sorry for the no update, I have been busy being an engineer. Apparently those things are important too. As for this chapter, this is a bit short but from now all hell is going to break loose in a grand way. Someone mentioned on my tumblr that I should probably take over the job for the writers of Arrow. Even though I am flattered, I believe in the writers to make this show have a beautiful soul and not shove too much of Lauriver down our throats. Who is excited for the finale, huh? Thanks again for all the reviews, the favorites and the follows. *Warning, spoilers ahead*
P.S: I know you all might be thinking that the plot line for Mirakuru's cure sounds familiar to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but this story was thought out in my head before the release of this movie because I had just finished learning the chapter on DNA coding in medicines. Hence inspiration for this fic!