So. This idea...came to me somewhat out of no where, I liked it, and so ran with it. It has taken me a long time to get this far - so much so I feared I'd never be able to even post. I can't promise faithful updates but I will promise to update this on probably late Wednesday or early Thursday of next week. If anyone is around to read it, and if you are I thank you very, very much.

The timeline here, where it would fall in the show...uhh, I have no idea, but let's say Oliver has been through the League (vague mentions of it) but, Raylicity never really happened but nor did any kind of a date or anything happen between our favorite couple. (Oliver is still being blissfully clueless to his own feelings, ect) This is total Olicity endgame, tho, so no worries.

So, if you endured to read this, much kudos to you and thank you! Hope you enjoy reading!

The first thing that Oliver had become aware of upon awakening was the hard-packed earth beneath him. He was lying on open ground, in the dirt; was he on the island again? Had he actually been dreaming this whole time, or was he in a dream right now? No, his senses were telling him that this was no dream - he could feel the sun on his face...the grass beneath his finger tips...and he could hear someone breathing very nearby. His eyes shot open.

"Oh thank God." It was Roy, hovering over him with a look of pure relief settling over his features. "'Cause I will admit to being a little freaked out right now." And then Oliver's eyes trailed over Roy's person, to make sure he wasn't hurt, because what could have...made Roy...freak out like-

"What," Pause. Oliver's brows were scrunched in confusion as he tried to make sense of what his eyes were telling him. "Are you wearing?" He finished, not even able to complete his earlier thought. It looked like a suit of chainmail on the younger man. A look of terror crossed Roy's face, his mouth falling open but no sound came out. Then, he snapped his mouth shut, cast his eyes over Oliver's form and, rather indignantly replied with,

"Well, you're not much better!"

Oliver's attention snapped down to the clothing he wore, and sure enough, it was...a bit different from his usual. It was actually not too dissimilar to his dark outfit when he'd been going undercover in the League of Assassins, only much lighter weight, fit closer to his frame, and no hood or tassels. Instead, there was a dark green overlay in a V-shape down his chest and when he turned his head to look, the dark green extended down his arms to the elbow, also apparently reaching up to the inside collar of his coat, but he could hardly tell from this angle. Coming to terms with what he was now wearing but having no memory of putting it on nor any idea of what any of this meant, he slowly stood up and made a visual sweep of their surroundings.

They appeared to be in a small clearing in the woods somewhere, he and Roy the only only ones around. Somewhere that, he could tell from the climate, was not the island. Comforting as that may be, he still had no idea where they actually were. Very interesting. At length, Oliver turned his attention back to Roy. Something else that was really very odd then came to his notice. Both he and Roy seemed to be armed, with both swords as well as bow and arrows. So, if an enemy had taken them and plopped them out in the middle of no where, why would they be armed?

"What's the last thing you remember?" Oliver inquired as he considered the question himself, right hand absently coming to cover the hilt of his sword.

"Last thing I remember before waking up here - next to a horse, by the way - we were in Starling...infiltrating a building, clearing a path for..." Roy trailed off, eyes widening as his gaze snapped to Oliver's.

"We'd just given Digg the green light to bring Felicity in, to hack into their servers." Oliver whispered, suddenly feeling his throat close up. If he and Roy were here, then where were Felicity and Digg? They had to have been in the building when whatever went down happened. He certainly hoped they had not been swept up into whatever was going on here, but Oliver had faced enough in his lifetime to not bet on the most hopeful outcome. But if they were here somewhere, then...well, where were they now?

The thought of Felicity being in danger of any kind, possibly alone...did not sit well with him, not at all.

"We need more information," Oliver growled and started to move forward. Roy hurried behind him, not wanting to be left alone right now with all this weirdness.

"Wait! We're just gonna wander around? We have no idea what's out there!"

"Exactly, which is why we need to find out." Oliver spoke and then came to an abrupt halt, spinning on Roy as the teen almost ran into him. "Wait. You said you woke up next to a horse?"

"Uh...yeah. Over there." Roy answered, waving in the general direction to the right of them. Oliver nodded and then took off in that direction, hoping to come upon some clues. If not, then at least they'd have some means of transportation. For one of them, anyway.

"Wait, wait, wait! There could be...anything, in those woods. There could bears, lions...ogres..." Roy called out, hurriedly following after the older man and then falling into step next to him. Oliver rose an eyebrow and gave him a 'look.'

"Ogre?"

"Yeah, like a troll. They're from..."

"I know what they are, Harper." Oliver interrupted whatever explanation the boy had been about to give. Roy shrugged and continued with,

"Well, all I'm sayin' is we have no idea what's goin' on here, so we probably shouldn't be wanderin' too far off." Roy said, crossing his arms like the defiant yet scared 19 year old that he was.

"We will wander as far off as it takes to find our friends." Was Oliver's immediate response. Roy snorted, causing Oliver to glance over at him again while stepping over a tree root. "What?" Oliver gripped, seeing a disbelieving look upon Roy's face.

"Friends, huh? So you're still not admitting that Felicity-"

Before Oliver could decide whether to deny what the young lad was implying or ignore him all together, the thick underbrush to their left came alive. It sounded as if something big was stomping its way ever closer, the trees swaying and the ground shaking ever so slightly.

"Ogres." Roy whispered, unsheathing his sword and standing at the ready. Oliver took a step back, eyes never leaving the brush, and although he did not draw his sword his hand was still on the hilt, ever ready. The two shared a silent look as the noise got louder and louder, and they could almost hear the creature growling now. Possibly...muttering to itself?

That still did not prepare either man for what came stomping out from the bushes.

Meawhile, well beyond the borders of that particular forest, there lay a castle. In said castle, there was a blonde woman only now starting to wake, a throbbing headache preventing her from slumbering any longer. She lifts a hand to her head in an attempt at soothing the throbbing there in her temples, when her hand comes into contact with something cold, pointy and metallic. Instantly awake because What is on her Head, she quickly sits up, both hands lifting towards the top of her head to investigate what was going on when her lowered gaze hones in on the material covering her body. A golden dress, with possible actual gold woven into the fibers because it looked Really expensive and fancy yet strangely light weight, and above all, was Most Definitely not what she put on this morning. Carefully standing from the bed, Felicity looks to her left and heads over to the full length mirror she sees sitting upright there.

When she was a little girl, and we're talking very little here, she may or may not have on occasion wondered what it would be like to be a Disney princess, meet her prince and live happily ever after. She'd even had a friend back then who had all the princess garb, complete with pink pointy hat with a pretty veil flowing behind. She may have endulged in the dress up a time or two.

She had, however, since then learned that there were no such things as happily ever afters. And, frowning at her reflection, she was by far and away no princess. Still. Felicity sighed as she tugged on a strand of her long blonde hair that had fallen over her shoulders - which, by the way, where had her ponytail holder gone? - because while she may not be a princess, that didn't mean that she wasn't capable of appreciating this beautiful dress. It was floor length and though she could walk around okay it was restricting her stride just a little bit. The sleeves were long as well, coming to a stop just past her wrist with a cream colored V-shape pointing down to her fingers. And there was a fine, veil-like material that appeared to be attatched to the back of the simple yet elegant crown on her head, the ending of the veil tucked into her dress collar in such a way it wasn't coming loose even when she tugged on it.

Okay, so she seemed to be stuck in the pretty crown that had a single ruby in the middle, worse things have happened...

Right. Now back to the issue. Where is she, and how had she gotten here?

It was hard to think when her head pounded so, but first things first. Look around the room. Taking a step back from the mirror, Felicity crossed her arms over her chest and took a more detailed look around the room she had woken up in. The room was huge, the bed she'd woken up on was huge, and the various plush furniture scattered hither and thither looked big enough for Digg and his massive tree trunk arms to fit in quite comfortably. At the foot of the bed was a ginormous crate, probably full of quilts studdied with diamonds going by the rest of the room. Felicity walked around and looked carefully over each of the chairs, the top of the crate which she did peek into and it did appear to contain coverings of some sort, and even ran her fingers lightly over the (strangely low) long cubboard that covered most of the length along one wall. There were large candelabras on either end of it and one in the middle, with various dishes, a few orniments, and one large wooden box set off on the right side. Maybe that was where the crown she was wearing was usually kept. She had no interest in finding out.

Judging from the light streaming through the single window in the room, a window that was up very high, it was still day time so none of the candles were lit. Felicity paused and tapped her fingers against the wooden cubboard, thinking. Then she noticed with a frown that the turquoise blue she had just painted on her nails last night was unfortunately completely gone, bare as the day she was born. That was a crime, and someone would pay.

Around this time is when she began to remember that she likely had team members out there somewhere, too. The last thing she remembered was entering a building with Digg. ... Digg! Oliver, Roy! What had happened to them? If she was here, then where were they? Not knowing what may be out there but knowing she had to find her friends, Felicity rushes over to the door, attempting to pull it open.

It doesn't budge, because, as she quickly comes to realize, well, it's locked.

She screams.

"I am So Not going to be the princess locked in a tower! Ugh!" Felicity pounded on the door and heaved with all her might, but nothing seemed to work. She even resorted to lightly banging her head against it in case this wherever she was had a really weird way of opening doors, but all that did was make her head hurt worse. Turning around, she slid down the door until she was sitting down, but she wasn't about to give up. Just taking a rest. Leaning her head against the unyielding door that may as well have been a wall, she opened her eyes and stared at her hands.

If it were Oliver...or Digg, or Roy...heck even Laurel, what would they do in this situation?

Pick the lock. Simple!

Felicity stood, took a step back and then turned to examine the door. It was your standard castley type door, thick, strong wood with a metal locking system. Now, she was much, much, Much more proficient at hacking electronic locks than medieval metal ones but with no other options, she would give it a go. Just as she was about to get started on what would no doubt prove to be a fruitless endeavor, because what did she have to pick it with, she heard footsteps echoing on the other side of the door and froze. The foot steps halted right outside her door.

"Felicity? Is that you?" Asked a familiar voice, and Felicity could've cried in relief. "I heard a scream, are you ok?"

"Ray! Oh thank goodness. The door is locked! Can you find a key or something out there? You don't happen to be in your Atom suit do you? That would be really awesome, cause then you could just blast it to bits. So much easier." Felicity said this all fairly quickly, and there was a pause on the other side of the door.

"Very funny, but you didn't answer my question. Are you ok?" Ray asked again, to which Felicity responded by pouting at the door. Then she began to wonder how it was that Ray was here, too, wherever this was. Perhaps he had been keeping an eye on things and was coming to their aid when he'd been captured, too? He was acting a little off, she thought, but given this whole experience...

Maybe they, or at least she, was locked in some virtual reality and none of this was actually real? That did make a lot of sense, actually.

"Felicity?" Ray asked again, recalling the woman to her senses.

"Yes, I am fine. Just stuck in some weird reality where I am apparently serving as the princess locked in the tower, now go find that key!" Felicity yelled, banging on the door once for emphasis.

"Yes ma'am! I'll go...see what I can find." Ray responded immediately, sounding uncertain at the end but she heard his foot steps moving off anyhow, no doubt muttering something about crazy blondes. Felicity sighed and leaned against the door. She did hope that it was really him and not just part of the program that had been written into this virtual reality, if it indeed was one; but why would he have been written in at all? Unless to confuse her in some way? And was she really here alone, or were the others out there somewhere?

Ugh, there were too many questions and her head was still killing her, so she wasn't going to overly worry about it just this moment. She would wait a little while in case Ray did come through for her, then she would work on carrying out her own escape plan.

If she were to be completely honest, though...being a princess locked in a room here, if she had to be, Ray would not have been the first choice she'd choose as to the identity of 'Prince Charming,' the one meant to come and save her. No, that individual would be a little more blond and blue-eyed...if she could survive the teasing she'd no doubt endure from that circumstance.

She sighed, holding her head in her hands for a moment. Seeing as she had no idea where that particular man was at present, which she was worried and hoped he and the others were ok, she took a moment to close her eyes and just sit quietly. Endeavoring to quiet the pounding just behind her eyes. It was making her feel ill, which was odd because she had no bump or even bruise there on the side of her head where it hurt so bad, but then if this was a video game they were in she supposed it wouldn't have mattered because this wasn't their real, physical bodies anyway.

After a few minutes she declared herself done with quiet time and with waiting for Ray. Turning to survey the room again, she began to develop an idea. It was a crazy escape plan to be sure and bit of a long shot, but she'd make it work. She'd have to.