Author's note: Tommy is alive in this story, I just could not part with him. Also I've had this idea in my head for quite some time and thought maybe I should share it with you guys. While this takes place right before season 2, it will go along with the timeline you see in the show, but with an added few changes- some big, some not and some of which you will find out in this chapter and some you'll find out later. Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow or its characters, I just like playing in its universe.

Chapter 1

Outside the foundry Digg was getting out of his car. He didn't know what Felicity was doing here, and while they had refurnished the 'Arrow cave' as she dubbed it, the club was still closed due to the reconstruction of the Glades. And even though the club was technically ready to be opened, no one really thought it was the best time to start it back up.

'Especially with its owner being MIA' Digg thought as he was walked across the parking lot in the middle of the night. Felicity texted him that there was something she had to show him and to get there as soon as he could. He thought maybe she had gotten a lead on where Oliver was, it had been four months since he left after the Undertaking and they still weren't any closer to finding him then two months ago when they first started looking for him.

He had to convince Felicity to let Oliver be for the first two months and while he managed to succeed on that front- it wasn't easy. She wanted to make sure that he was okay, safe wherever he was and most of all she was concerned about his mindset.

'Who will he be when he comes back John?' he remembered her asking him as she chewing on her nails and pacing the length of her desk. He knew what she meant by that and he really couldn't say for sure. Oliver was unpredictable with his emotions at best and had a hard time letting anyone in even before the Undertaking, so he could only imagine what Oliver was like now.

The moment John was let in on Oliver's alter ego he noticed that the vigilante took upon himself to feel guilty for the actions of those around him- actions that he had no control over. Oliver had been fighting a war of his own and in the end while he still won the battle- everyone still lost.

Over five hundred lives were lost that day, so it was hard to call something like that a 'win'.

While he shared the same fears as Felicity did, he still thought it would be best if Oliver had a bit of time to himself to sort out what happened with the Glades and his family. Maybe the space would clear his head or maybe he would stay stuck on the metaphorical island he put himself on last year. There really was no telling.

Once Digg walked into Verdant he found that he wasn't the only one summoned.

"Tommy what are you doing here?" Tommy was sitting at the bar with a glass in his hand when he turned around to face Digg.

"Uh Felicity actually- she texted me to come to Verdant, but then left me odd instructions to wait upstairs for you until you got here" Tommy shrugged as he stood up and placed the glass on the counter. He followed Digg and they made their way to the basement door.

It was still a bit strange sometimes to include the new honorary member to their team. Digg remembered when Tommy was so against what the Hood stood for, so much so that it had a caused a rift between him and Oliver. But after Oliver rescued him that night at CNRI and he found out that his father had been the one behind the destruction of the Glades, Tommy started seeing things differently. Mostly Diggle thought it had to do with a certain blonde IT girl who visited him every day in the hospital for the two months that he was in there for.

At first he was a little weary of the fast friendship between Tommy and Felicity, but with Oliver not around and Laurel being decidingly MIA as well, he could he see why Tommy and Felicity would need to lean on each other. Felicity didn't have family close by and Tommy had just lost the only family he had left.

'If you can count his father who was a psychotic mass murdering terrorist archer his family that is.'

Soon Tommy and Felicity became thick as thieves and started working together on how to bring Oliver back, all the while turning the basement into an actual high tech lair. While it had been mostly Felicity's baby and was funded with the money Oliver had given her before he left, he had to say he was quite impressed with how it turned out.

'Especially once Oliver see's the compound bow she had made for him' he thought.

Still though, thinking back to the texts that she sent, Digg was starting to get suspicious. This really wasn't like Felicity to be so cryptic. For some reason he had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he wouldn't like what Felicity was going to show them.

"Felicity? Hey where are you? You said you had something to show us" Digg said as he and Tommy made their way down the stairs.

"Where is she? She did say to meet her here, right?" Tommy asked as they looked around and noticed that the foundry seemed to be lacking a certain blonde IT girl, the one who ordered them there in the first place.

"Yeah she did and she should still be here- her car's still in the parking lot" he said with an confused look on his face as he was looking around. The feeling that something was seriously wrong was intensifying and he hated the fact that he didn't know what exactly was going on. He also hated the fact that Oliver wasn't here to help them figure out.

All of a sudden Tommy grabbed his arm and was pointing for him to look over to the monitors. There was a small posted note on one of the screens. As they walked closer to it, Digg peeled it off to study it.

"What's it say?" Tommy asked.

"Play me" Digg answered as he looked back to Tommy who was looking back to him with a look of apprehension.

"I'm not liking this. Something doesn't seem right, especially since she's leaving instructions for us to actually touch her precious babies" Tommy said with an anxious tone.

Digg rolled his eyes. "I don't think we have much of a choice" he said turning on the computer. They were startled when Felicity's face popped up on the screen and she was sitting in her chair in front of the very monitor they were watching from. Digg swallowed as he pressed the play button.

"Hey boys, I bet you guys are wondering 'What in the hell going on? Why'd she ask us to come here, if she isn't here herself?' Well…Those are all very good questions" she said looking away with a nervous laugh as she smoothed back the invisible hair strand that escaped her ponytail.

"You see though, there are a lot questions that I won't be able to answer unfortunately. At least not yet, but I can say that… by the time you're watching this video- I'm already gone. Missing to be exact" she said as she took a deep breath before continuing. "I know, I know- now you're all alarmed and freaking out, but please- don't. When I say 'missing', I mean that I'm voluntarily missing- well not really voluntarily, more like I… knew it was coming and did nothing to stop it. And I can just picture your faces right now, 'what'd you mean Felicity- are you missing or are you not?' And to answer that- yes and…no. I can't really go too much further into that right now, eventually it will all come together and I'll tell you the why's and where's, but for now this is the best I can do" Felicity said as she looked into the screen.

"I know what you're thinking John. You're thinking that 'that's a load of crap, you could've came to us if you knew you were in danger' And your right I could've, but…there is so-o much more to this and in the end- this was something that I had to do on my own. I'm so sorry guys, I really am and I'm sorry that I won't be there to help you bring back Oliver or physically be there to help you guys fight the bad guys- But that doesn't mean that I can't guide you from here. While there are things I need to do, there are also quite a few things that you have to do as well" Tommy and Digg noticed that she sat up straighter and started looking more pointedly towards the screen.

"Remember when I said I knew ahead of time that something was going to happen to me? Well that was because I was given enough time to be able to do something that could help you guys while I wasn't here to help as your tech support. I've upgraded the computers with new programs that will help you almost as efficient as if I was really there, there also very…user friendly- so they shouldn't be too difficult to man. Not that I'm saying you couldn't figure it out on your own or that you're not smart enough too- or I should just- stop there and move on. Okay…um also occasionally there will be prerecorded videos- much like this one that will randomly pop up and I will tell you something that you need to know. If I now you guys as well as I think I do and I'm talking including Oliver in this as well, then the videos should be played at the right time"

"Now you guys are probably thinking something along the lines of 'how would she know when to play the videos?' Well you see, we're all and I do mean all- on a bit of a schedule and I don't mean to sound like a puppet master or that I'm clairvoyant or anything, but…I was given a lot of information in a short amount of time and this- this is what I came up with to help you. And I can't tell you it all right now because..." she paused, trying to find the right word.

"Because there are certain things that if learned a head of time, can alter things in a way that it can do more damage than good and quite frankly the information is too much to leave on just one video. I really hope this isn't too confusing…this is just the best I can come up with" She sighed.

"Now finally, I'm going to be gone for quite some time-a few months. I'm not entirely sure, it depends if I can complete what I need to in the amount of time I'm given… and now listen boys, really listen up because I'm only going to say this once- You cannot search for me. Right now you have more important things to do then worry about little ol' me. Right now, you should focus on finding Oliver and bringing him back home because Starling is going to need him- it's going to need all of us by the time this is over. You need to bring him home, convince him to take the company back and convince him to go back to being the Hero the city needs- Not the vigilante, the hero. And I know this is going to be hard, but it needs to be done for everything to work right. I know it sounds like I'm not giving you guys much of a choice, but like I said- there are things you don't know, things that are coming- bad, really bad things and I'm afraid…I'm afraid for what's coming. I've thought and thought about it and this just… just seems like the best solution"

She cleared throat before finishing. "I know you want to fight me on this, I know that as soon as this video over- you're gonna want to find me, but…don't. Not right now. Trust me when I say this- you have to trust me on this- forget about me and find Oliver… I'll miss you and… I'll see you guys around" With that Felicity stopped recording and Tommy and Digg were standing there for a few moments silent and unsure of what they just watched.

Tommy was the first to come out of his shocked state.

"So what'd we do? Do we go and find her or do we listen to her and try and find Oliver now because it couldn't have been that long since she's been gone- so we still could go an search for her and get her to explain all of this" Tommy asked.

"Somehow I don't think it's going to be as easy as that" Digg said.

A myriad of emotions went through John. Part of him felt they should just ignore what she said and go look for her as Tommy wanted to do, but he also knew that it was as simple as that.

"I think we have to do as she say's and go find Oliver and then-" before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off by an overly anxious Tommy.

"What you're suggesting that we let her stay kidnapped or-"

Digg rolled his eyes and put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. "You didn't let me finish. We do what she says for now, but once we find Oliver- we'll go and find her"

"We've been searching for him for over two months and that was with Felicity here. What makes you think we'll be able to find him without her?" Tommy questioned.

"Because she believes we can" Digg reminded him.

"Okay so, say we do find him, the trail could go dead in the amount of time it takes us to find him. What then?" Tommy asked with his arms crossed in front him.

While Tommy did bring up a lot of good points and wasn't happy with what John thought they should do- Hell he wasn't even happy with what he was suggesting, but this is what Felicity wanted them to do and he would have to trust her.

"Tommy, I'm not too thrilled about this either, but she wanted us to trust her and up until now I never questioned her and you shouldn't either because what if Felicity's right and there's something coming? We need to do go about this carefully because she said that we're on a schedule- I don't want to screw something up and it lands her in danger" Digg argued.

Tommy looked like he wanted to refute it, but he knew he wouldn't be able to change his mind and with that Tommy said what Diggle knew to be the only thing left to do.

"So…Now we find Oliver?"

"Now we find Oliver"

Authors note: I have re-done and edited the story, though there still be might be a few things that slipped through...sorry. I know this has been a while since I've updated, but Chapter 5 will be up this weekend and we should start seeing new updates every weekend, I'm going start scheduling this because then there should be a lot more frequent updates. And to new readers, that probably sounded like bad sign. In any case...enjoy! (^_^)*

Next up: It's a month later and the start of season 2. Digg and Tommy find Oliver and tell him what has happened to our favorite blonde IT girl and he does not take well to that information. (^_^)*