AUTHOR'S NOTE:

First, thank you for reading. I am far from being new to the world of fan fiction, however I wrote under a different penname and I personally wanted to distance myself from my previous works and genre. This is my first attempt of writing something like this, actually this is my first fic in probably four years, but this idea has been floating around for the last few weeks and it's determined to be written, so here it is.

Second, I won't be pleading for reviews. They are nice, but I don't think that begging for them is really right either. If you feel the need to review, please do, I like feedback just as much as the next person; however I ask that you are kind to me in your opinions. You are welcome to PM me if you want to chat as well.

Third, the updating time table may be a little crazy for a bit. I have spent the last four months off work due to an injury to my pinkie finger and I am actually going back to work and I am unsure on how things will be until I get resettled. So bear with me. I am not one to start something and not finish it.

Finally, I won't write a lot of author's notes, I kinda find them annoying when I am reading myself, so unless it's something that needs to be addressed, we'll just focus on the actual materials. With that being said, I'll let you to it.

-MB

I don't own Arrow, or any of the characters, I'm just taking them out on an adventure. This story starts prior to 2x19. Some elements will follow the current universe; however it will eventually go in the direction of an alternate universe. Happy Reading!

Chapter 1

"Oliver! We're late! You need to hurry along!"

Oliver looked down at the tie that he hated wearing and frowned as he continued to look at his own reflection in the mirror. He was sad for so many reasons, but most of all he was sad that one of the only people that ever truly cared about him was now gone and he would never see him again.

"Oliver!" called his mother from downstairs. He turned and scurried from his room. Passing many servants as he ran, he did everything to keep from meeting anyone's eyes. No one understood him, the will to be invisible and just be ignored. It was as he descended the stairs that he noticed his mother dressed in her best, a pink bundle tucked under her arms. He paused as he began to come down the stairs and couldn't help but smile. Thea was the only thing that made his life bearable. He would sneak into the nursery and just watch her sleep; she was the most perfect person in his life.

"Oliver!" scolded his mother.

"I'm coming," he whispered as he hurried down to meet his mother. She was holding out his jacket and was pulling it on as his father entered the foyer.

"Come along, we're going to be late as it is. Of course the boy isn't ready, he's been nothing but a disappointment," he sighed as he put his own coat on.

"Robert!" gasped his mother. "He's just a boy!"

Oliver hurried out the front doors when the servant opened them and into the awaiting car and his parents climbing soon afterward, his mother placing Thea in the safety of her car seat. Not wanting to draw any more attention to himself he quickly sent his eyes to what was going on outside of the car, not the people in it, and wishing he was anywhere but where he was at the moment.

"Robert, have you spoke the board yet, I know with everything that is going on that things will be busy. I know that being CEO will be a change and that your father…"

"It doesn't matter what my father wanted… he's not here anymore." Grumbled Robert, "Now I will get to teach my son as I see fit, not as that senile old man felt it should be done. He coddled the boy…"

Oliver's thoughts drifted to the man that he had called grandfather, the man that had meant more to him than anyone, at least that was true until he laid eyes on his sister. He was a soft soul, but was a great business man, and he would spend hours and hours listening to him work.

"He's a Queen and he is going to be a man that will be respected and he will find his voice and quite cowering down to anyone."

Oliver didn't realize that as his father continued to speak that he was actually starting to cower down into the seat and again wishing himself invisible.

"You are going to stop that! You are a Queen dammit and you are going to act as such!" bellowed Robert.

"Robert! Exclaimed Moria, "you're scaring him, and you are scaring Thea." Thea was starting to fuss. He didn't mean to, but tears began to stream down his face and it was then that he saw his father's hand come out of nowhere and struck him across the face, causing Thea to start to scream…

Jerking himself awake, Oliver sat up in the bed, wiping his hand across his face attempting to keep the sweat from running down into his eyes. He was drenched and shaking from images that he had long placed in the past. The boy he was and the man he had become were trying to merge…

It was the shifting beside him that made him remember that he was not alone. Beside him, Sara was asleep and her hair fanned out upon the pillow. She was still deep in slumber, and it was clear that he was not meant to be so he climbed from the bed and took himself to the window and began to stare out into the darkness. The sigh that escaped his lips came for a variety of reasons. Slade Wilson continued to torment them relentlessly, when they thought that they were getting close to defeating him, they would discover that he was still ten steps ahead of them and what he was doing was even more sinister than he had previously done. He couldn't help but think how ironic it was that it was now that his past wanted to come back to haunt him.

"Oliver?"

He didn't know how long he had stood there after Sara spoke, but didn't acknowledge her, he just turned back to the bed, and climbed in beside her, hoping that she wouldn't push too much, which he as almost sure she would not. Felicity on the other hand would be asking a million questions and all within a few minutes. He felt a slight smirk cross his lips at the thought of his friend though. He finally settled himself back in the bed, Sara slowly rolling over and faced him.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she gently ran her fingers along his jaw. "It seems like something is bothering you." In a way, he wanted to be truthful, but there was too much going on to worry about besides a bad dream.

"Yeah, just have a lot on my mind, I guess," he replies as he placed a quick kiss on her cheek.

"I think that to be expected," smiling as she curled herself into Oliver's side. It wasn't long before silence returned to the room, and the only sound that he could hear were Sara's quiet snores beside him. It was nice to be alone with his thoughts again, especially when they concerned people that he had long thought to be in his past. He thought about how much his life had changed after the death of his grandfather, how he became something that he didn't recognize anymore, he became who everyone wanted him to be, not Oliver, but Ollie and it was clear that the universe was playing a cruel joke on him and that his past and his present were on a collision course and it was only a matter of time before they crashed together and the world would be forever changed.

Felicity was at her desk when Oliver entered the foundry early the next morning. It was still weird that he wasn't going to the office, that now that Isabel Rochev had taken control of Queen Consolidated. The thought of the situation made him physically ill, but he did his best to keep it under wraps since everyone had enough on their plates as is. All he knew is that he needed to avoid making eye contact with Felicity; she would be reading his troubles right off his face as soon as she met his eyes.

"Morning," she sighed as she continued to concentrate on her work, never turning to even acknowledge his presence. It was the sound of the keys on the keyboard that filled the room, nothing else. They were alone, it was well before any of the club employees would be turning up to clean up from the previous night and get it ready for the next night of patrons. Looking at the clock, Oliver realized that Diggle would be arriving in an hour, and he couldn't help but enjoy the simple silence since he was more than happy to dwell within his own thoughts for a while.

As he crossed the room toward the mats, it was when he realized that the cot had been slept in and he knew the last time he was here he had picked up after himself. It was when he turned to notice that Felicity was not in her normal pristine appearance, she was pretty disheveled actually. Her normally perfect hair was in a messy bun on the top of her head, and she was dressed in a baggy t-shirt along with a faded pair of gray sweatpants, and bright pink socks.

"Felicity… did you stay here last night?" concern dripping from his voice.

It was that moment that she stopped typing, she didn't want to move, didn't even want to breathe. Acknowledging him would mean should have to vocalize why she was there and that wasn't something that she really wanted to do, especially since it wasn't really the reasons that he was likely thinking at the moment. They were stressed to the max over the current situation in concern to Slade Wilson, but this wasn't anything to do with that monster. She couldn't help but scold herself for not keeping track of time and getting changed and the lair picked up before someone arrived. It probably wouldn't have been an issue if it had been Digg, but that was beyond the point.

"Felicity?" His voice was becoming more Arrow like since he was thinking that he was avoiding the subject, and she totally was avoiding it.

Spinning around in her chair she plastered a fake smile on her face and seconds later words start to tumble from her lips. "It's not what you think, though I'm not sure what you think at the moment. I'm just really embarrassed to be here in my bum clothes and you just keep looking at me like I did something or kicked your puppy and I would never kick a puppy, I like animals too much…"

"Felicity!"

Her mouth just snaps shut, and she closes her eyes for a moment, took a few deep breaths, adjusted her glasses on her face, and finally opened her eyes to see that Oliver had rolled the other chair over by her and took a seat. Oliver couldn't help but feel confused seeing her like this, not the rambling part, which was pretty normal for Felicity, but this wild look in her eyes, that was new.

"There's been a lot of things going here lately as you know," she begins, "I know we have all been on edge due to the whole Slade and Isabel takeover, Thea finding out that Malcom Merlyn is her biological father, your mother and her insane ability to keep world altering secrets…It's been keeping my mind pretty busy. I can't seem to get my mind to wind down; it just keeps going ninety to nothing. Just being at home by myself lately has been making me a little crazy because the littlest sound makes me want to jump out of my skin, so I just got in my car and drove here."

Oliver couldn't help but feel bad for her. He knew that things had been affecting him, how could he not know that things would be bothering her, and it made him realize that this was likely taking its toll on Diggle and Sara as well. She looked exhausted and frazzled, but something told him that there was more than what she was saying at this point, but he decided that maybe this wasn't the time, and he would ask again sometime, just not now.

"I know I shouldn't have come, but…" she paused, but went on a few moments later in a voice that was barely a whisper, "this whole thing has brought a lot of things that I have chosen to bury back to the surface. Some things just won't stay were you want them."

Those words haunted Oliver more than Felicity could ever know. He knew he had his own demons, and it was logical that she would too, but it was hard to see someone that was normally so bright and full of life, in such a dark place within themselves, especially after his last dream.

"Believe me, I know," he chuckled to himself. Reaching out he gently took her hand, "You should get changed. Digg will be here soon and I really doubt you will want to explain this to him," gesturing to her current state, not that he really minded.

Smiling she stood and slipped across the room into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Standing he tried to put himself back together internally and did what he could to try to erase the signs of Felicity staying there in the lair the previous night. If she wanted to share her concerns with Digg, that was one thing, but to be forced is another. It was the sound of the shower turning on made him smile as he continued to work. As he finished pulling the blankets back up on the cot, he could hear Digg descending the stairs.

"You're early. Didn't really expect you till later." Laughed Digg as he came face to face with Oliver.

"Couldn't sleep," he grumbled and it was at that exact moment that Felicity had chosen to walk out of the bathroom. Dressed as she would have if she was still going to the office, she looked startled that Digg had already arrived, her eyes quickly danced across the room and relaxed when she noticed that Oliver had tried to protect her pride somewhat. The only thing that would likely make her more uncomfortable would be for Sara to arrive and witness this, especially being alone and freshly showered with her boyfriend present.

"Good morning?" snickered Digg as he dropped into the chair that Oliver had previously occupied.

"Good morning," she smiled as she placed her bag by the bathroom door and returned to take her seat back in front of the computers and hopefully resume the work that she had already been doing this morning. "Okay, I have been monitoring what Isabel has been up to and I think I have figured out how she convinced the board to oust you as CEO…" hoping that bringing their attention back to the task at hand and not on the fact that she has made herself at home in the foundry. Lucky for her, Diggle wasn't the type of person to pry into people's personal life, and today she was rather thankful for that.

"So, it wasn't a corporate coup I set in motion by my inability to keep Slade out of my head," Oliver retorted with as much sarcasm as he could muster. He couldn't help but shake his head at himself in disgust. He let Slade and Isabel get one over him, and they were all paying the price.

"Actually, no. It seems that Slade has been at work for this a lot longer than we thought, and I really don't know why I didn't think to look into this in the first place. It seems like he bought off most of the board members, and the ones that were loyal to the Queen family, he investigated them, found things that they wouldn't want the world to know and blackmailed them. From what I have found it looks like he has been preparing his revenge for a while."

"How is that even possible?" Digg quickly asked," Hell Oliver was on that damn island for five years and Slade was there." Oliver really didn't want to know how long Slade had been at work at his plot, the more he found out, the more frustrated he became.

"He wasn't with me the whole time though," Oliver countered as he leaned against the med bay table. "At one point I thought Slade was dead so how would I know what he had been up to."

"I guess you have a point," leaning back Digg rubbed his eyes in frustration. "I just know that SOB is really getting on my last nerve."

"If I was to guess, it looks like he has been working on this for a few years. Most of the stuff I have found is dated back three years prior to your resurrection," Felicity mumbles. This wasn't something she really wanted to share, but it was clear that they were even more behind tracking Slade than they originally thought which was going to make Oliver even more on edge than he already and it hasn't escaped her notice that he hadn't been sleeping. Today he looked like death warmed over.

Digg stood and began to pace around the room and suddenly stopped and turned to them. "I know that this may sound out there, but follow me for a minute. Slade wasn't on the island when you got off," he said looking at Oliver.

Oliver looked so defeated, but he knew there wasn't any point in denying things now. There were still too many secrets between him and the rest of his team; past, including his childhood and life on the island, and present ones. Sighing, he just nodded, unable to actually speak the words.

"We know from what Felicity found that he has been up to something prior to you getting off the island. Who's to say that he hasn't been planning this whole thing…? What if Slade Wilson is the real reason you were rescued from that island?!"