Chapter 4

Felicity's p.o.v.- Present time

*Beep* *Beep*

'Ugh, three a.m. again. Awesome. Why the Hell did you decide to do this again?' she thought to herself as she got up from bed and started changing into her morning workout clothes.

A month, a month she's been away and she still can't get use to how things are now. She thought of the boys and how they were keeping up without her. Felicity hoped that Tommy and Digg would be able to convince Oliver to come home. She knew they would somehow and so far they've been sticking to the schedule.

'Whether they knew it or not' she mused.

While Tommy and Digg were easier to figure out how they would fit in the grand scheme of things, Oliver though, was a whole other story. From the start she knew that trying to predict Oliver's movements would be no easy task, but that's what gave Felicity the idea of leaving the videos behind. It would be easier to explain herself and would allow her to give the amount of information that she wanted at slow intervals to keep the pace.

Even so, it still made her feel slightly sick when she thought about what she was doing. She knew the boys hated to be manipulated, everyone does, but she thought about how they were all duped from the start by Malcolm Merlyn. Tommy duped by his own father, who claimed that it was all for his deceased mother; Oliver duped by his parents and his father's best friend- who was the reason why he ended up on the Island; While not really tricked, Digg was just along for the ride.

'And me? Well, I was duped by that stupid freaking Trojan that cost the death of over five hundred lives' she thought ruefully.

Felicity made her way down the dimly lit hallway to the training room and went straight for the escrima sticks. As she started training, she couldn't help but think about her role in the Undertaking.

Rationally, she knew that wasn't her fault- she didn't create the devices, nor did she set them off and go through with the mass murdering of Starling's slums. But irrationally? Felicity felt that she could've been faster with the disabling of the devices, she should have found the second device- Hell she should have been out there like she wanted to be and not listened to Oliver. Maybe if she had, then she could have stopped the second device from going off.

Even worse, she felt like what she was doing to the guys, was what Malcolm Merlyn did to them. While she wasn't conspiring to drop buildings on people with the help of Starling's evil one percenters- it was the principle of the matter. She was manipulating them as if they were pieces on a chess board and she was the Queen, while the boys where her pawns and all of it made her want to scream at the top of her lungs.

Her breathing started to get heavier with each hit the escrima sticks made as she continued to be frustrated with the obscurity of it all. The plan that was to help save Starling, she just didn't know why had to be all so damn complicated. Granted she knew complicated, she dealt with complicated everyday- whether it was working with computer software or with predicting Oliver's moods- She knows complicated.

'But boy, did the villains love their evil and enigmatic schemes?' she sighed.

"You know, I really didn't think you were serious when you said you wanted to train, but here you are- up before dawn and taking your aggressions. Though, I do believe you would have an easier time if centered yourself more and didn't allow your anger to guide you" the new arrival said.

The one started who started Felicity down this path…Nyssa.

Flashback…

Two months ago

"Just one more, one more search Felicity and if this doesn't pan out then we bring out the big guns" she whispered to herself thinking about Oliver as she walked out of Big Belly Burger with her and the boy's lunch order.

For three months she had been searching for Oliver's whereabouts and came out empty handed. While Digg told her to let him have the first two… she never really listened and basically started the search the moment the city stopped shaking. Even though she couldn't do her searches where she normally did it- not having her secret lair and Digg's instruction be damned! She was going to find Oliver and bring him back, so if she needed to turn her living room into a small command center, then she would.

Starling needed him, she…she needed him. She knows why he left, she understands it even, but damn it! He was not the only one who felt guilty for what happened in the Undertaking and to just call it quits and give her a million dollars like she was a secret mistress or something- was not okay!

After everything they went through together, she just needed to know if he was okay…well not okay, but safe. No one could be okay after all he's been through, but somehow he always comes back and for him to just drop off the face of the earth without so much as a goodbye or at least waiting until the dust finally settled and his best friend got out of the hospital before leaving…well that would've been nice and would have led to a lot less sleepless nights in front of her computer.

It made her nervous, it wasn't like him to actually run away.

'Sure it sounded like the Oliver I heard about from Tommy, but the one I got to know? Well…past Oliver and now Oliver sounded like two different people when you put them on paper. I just…where is he?' she thought.

If she hadn't been thinking so hard and had been paying better attention to her surroundings, then maybe she wouldn't have missed the deadly assassin who had been following her since she had stepped out of the restaurant, then maybe she would've been alert enough to grab her taser in time when they grabbed her into the next alley.

"I- What? Who are you? Please don't hurt me, I gotta a taser and I'm not afraid to use it!" she said, frightened as her mysterious attacker started to pin her against the wall.

"For being such a key player on the Hood's team, I wouldn't have thought he would have left her so vulnerable" the women said ominously.

At this Felicity looked up to her attacker, shocked didn't begin cover how she was feeling in that moment. The women in front of her, had to be three inches taller than her, with long black hair and an accent Felicity had a hard time placing.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" she stuttered.

"You do not strike me as a liar, Felicity Smoak. A keeper of secrets- yes, a liar…no. I've known about you for quite some time and have been watching ever since" with this said, Felicity's attacker let her go, but maneuvered around her to block an escape.

'Damn, no way out of this. Time to step up to the plate Felicity' she thought to herself.

"So if you know who I am, then what makes you think I'm going to tell you anything? And if you do anything to me, he'll know and he won't be happy about it" Felicity lied again. She didn't know exactly why she said the last part, she knew Oliver wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, but it still sounded weird coming out of her mouth.

"Oh, you might be right about that, well maybe if he was still in Starling that is. But he is not here to help you, instead he left the weakest link to fend for herself" the mysterious women said pointedly.

'I am not the weakest link!' Felicity thought angrily.

"So that's what this is about- the Hood's disappearance? If you think I will give him up, then you haven't been watching close enough. I will NEVER give him up" Felicity declared.

She knew she should've been scared, but for once her anger took over her fear and to be honest she thought it felt good. She felt in control…well that was until the mysterious women opened her mouth once again.

"Such loyalty you exude. No wonder he keeps you in the basement all tucked away and safe. You really are special. But that does not matter, even if I wanted you to tell me where he is and believe me you would- You can't because you have no idea where he is" the women stated with an all knowing look on her face.

'Smug, who does this creepy lady think she is?' she thought.

The entire confrontation was starting to really get under Felicity's skin. She just knew whatever this woman was after, it wasn't going to lead anywhere good and maybe it would even derail her from her Oliver search.

"What do you want with him?" Felicity spit out.

"Nothing. He is not who I'm after. Who I want is standing right in front of me" she said with cat ate the canary smile.

"ME?! Why are you after me and who the hell even are you?" she said nervously.

"Forgive me for my manners, let's start again. My name is Nyssa, daughter of Ra's al Ghul, Heir to the Demon and I need your help" Nyssa stated.

"Felicity Megan Smoak, MIT, class of '09 and sorry, but no. I don't usually help strangers who pull me into alleyways"

"Oh but you will when you hear what I have to say" she countered.

"What makes you think I'll even listen, like I said- I'm not overly fond of those who pull me into alleys"

"And as I said, if I want you to listen or do something, you will. But I understand, where you are coming from, so I will make a deal with you. You listen to what I have to say and I will tell you where your Hooded friend has gone" Nyssa said with a smug grin.

"You're lying, you can't know where he is" Felicity responded.

"Why? Because you don't? I have…sources, intimate sources that gave us a lead as to where he went. So yes, I can very well know where he is quite easily. So are you willing to listen?" Nyssa asked.

End of flashback

If she had known at the time that she was talking to an assassin, she might've chosen her words more carefully, but that's what she supposed won Nyssa over. From then on, it was a world wind of chaos that Felicity was trying to make light of and to be the brain that was supposed to stop it before it reached Starling, which of course that led to a never-ending head ache to boot. And worst of all, she felt like an idiot again for not having made the connection about Oliver's whereabouts.

'…the island. Really? Why didn't I think of that in the first place?' she questioned her sanity, it really wasn't that hard to make the leap. Of course he would go to the place where was free to keep his guilt and anger at himself going and the island was the best was the best place to do that…or worst place. Maybe she should be questioning Oliver's sanity.

And now because she had to take the bait, she was far from home, training with escrima sticks and a trained assassin just a few feet away from her.

"How did my life get this way" she asked herself aloud.

"When you decided to put the Hood's needs above your own, when you decided to put your City's needs above your own. You're a good person, Felicity Megan Smoak, but what I don't get is why you decided that you wanted training? This isn't why I brought you here" Nyssa implored.

While they had a rough start, she and Nyssa grew to respect each other and started to become… well she wouldn't say friends exactly, but something close to that. Felicity had seen the lengths Nyssa was willing to go for something she believed in and she respected that. Who knew one day, the IT girl would become friends with a deadly assassin?

'She may be a part of the League of Assassins, but who knew she was an assassin with a heart'

"I know why you brought me here, but this, this is something I have to do" Felicity stopped what she was doing and turned to face Nyssa and she paused before continuing again.

"You gave me her journals and I've read each and every one of them. I've read about what they went through on the island, what he…went through. I can't just sit on the sidelines anymore. If what you say is true, then it's going to take all of us to stop it" She tried to calm her breath, just thinking about what could happen and what has happened already-Felicity wasn't completely sure, but she thought she was reaching her breaking point and it only had been a month since she's been gone. She sighed.

"But Felicity, you have a pure heart. Do not darken it for this, once you do there's no going back. We will be able to stop this, I promise you" Nyssa assured.

"Nyssa! You can't know that!?...You once said I was the weakest link and you're right. Put me in front of a computer and I can take everything away from them, but put in front of someone wielding a blade? I wouldn't last thirty seconds" she said directly.

"I can protect you, we can protect you-" before she could finish, Felicity interrupted.

"It's not about that…I've read her journals- about the first year there. She couldn't defend herself. She felt helpless- she couldn't fight, but when she learned…She felt more in control, more so in her life then she ever had before. I know what it feels like to feel that helplessness- I felt that all last year! I couldn't defend myself or do anything because I was in the basement…It's time pull myself out and who better to learn from than an assassin? Right?"

"I just-" Nyssa started.

"Will you help me?" Felicity asked again.

"Yes, but for the record I never truly thought you were the weakest link and if this interferes with what we're doing-"

"IT won't, I promise" Felicity said, shaking her head.

"IF it interferes, we stop and you listen to what I say. Understand?" she demanded.

"Yes, I understand…and we will find her Nyssa" With a last look, Nyssa walked out of the room leaving Felicity alone with her thoughts.

Even though, Felicity convinced Nyssa that it was what she wanted, she was still unsure of it herself that it was something she could do. She knew this wasn't going to be easy, but hell none of it was and she could already feel herself slipping. So many times, she's had to stop herself from reaching for her phone the first two weeks that it finally led to her just throwing it out and while the phone was already stripped of anything that could track her- she still kept reaching for it. So if training made her feel more in control of the impossible situation, then it had to be done. And at this point she knew Oliver had just gotten back to Starling and things were really going to start moving.

And besides, this wasn't just a mission she could sit in the basement for. Felicity was going find her, save Starling, help Oliver- it was her objective. She was going solve this mystery if it was the last thing she did. After everything Oliver did for her and the City, it was time for her to give something back as well.

'Especially since I screwed up in the Undertaking- Sorry Oliver, this is something I have to make up for…I hate mysteries' she thought bitterly as she went back to the escrima sticks.

Author's note: So what'd you think? Did you get all the Easter eggs? This chapter took me the longest to write and forgive me- While I knew where I wanted Felicity, I still couldn't figure out her motives…that was until it freaking hit me and suddenly I worked out the major why's. I don't think I gave away too much and likely, you won't find out what's really going on until the band is back together…which could take a while.

As for Felicity feeling guilty about the Undertaking, they never really go into that on the show, but it feels like something that could've happened. Her revamping the arrow cave, to me was her trying give back. After the Undertaking, she became all in and she had spent all her time and resources making sure she had everything at her disposal to help Oliver, so I wanted to touch upon that. This is basically her island and none of the boys realized what she was putting herself through. I am really looking forward to when they meet again.

The next chapter should be up sometime this weekend. I will start updating regularly on the weekends and chapter five is already on its way, though since it has been a while I am going to have to re-watch some of the beginning of season or if it would be too terrible, I might also decide to derail a lot from season 2. I'm toying with the idea of Felicity's videos not being as prerecorded as much as the boys think, what would you guys say to her hacking the vids into her computers in the foundry? Sounds more plausible to me.

Feel free to give feed back! It's what got me back into gear in the first place and can I just say holy fish sticks at 174 followers?! You guys are awesome and the reason why I'm continuing this!

Next up: back to the Arrow cave with Oliver, Digg and Tommy. Again, Oliver's point of view and most likely it will be his p.o.v for the next few chapters. Hope to see you then and please review. (^_^)*