I'm actually quite sad to see this one finally come to an end. It has been amazing writing this story and thank you for everyone that has stayed with me during the whole time, I hoped you have enjoyed this as much as I have.

If I could I would probably do a sequel to this but to be honest with you guys I haven't really got anything else I can do.

Anyways I hoped you enjoyed reading this and leave a review and tell me thoughts on the whole thing, tell me your favourite part if you want to.

Thank you and enjoy! x

Shifting to his feet, Oliver reluctantly placed Felicity back on her own feet before moving himself so that he was close to her.

"There's only one way to find out" Felicity spoke calmly, all the while staggering over to the doorway, attempting to catch her step before she most likely ended up face planting the concrete but fortunately for her, Oliver was there to lend a helping hand.

"Will you just, take it easy? You just got out of an explosion for god sake" Oliver complained as Felicity's next couple steps stumbled slightly, regaining her balance a split second after.

"Don't have the luxury, besides I haven't taken it easy for just over two years, why start now?" was her only response before her figure disappeared behind the pillar leading into the junction of hallways.

She would never admit it aloud for the fear of judgement- mostly from herself -but when the entire group, the members of Team Arrow (and Laurel), were walking towards the source of the sound, Felicity felt a feeling of deja-vu wash over her.

It felt soothing being a part of a group, a team again. She had never allowed herself the satisfaction of giving the thought of returning to her friends 'vigilante night time, crime fighting club' much thought at all to be honest, for the main reason being was she really ready to completely let her present life go? Ready to let everything she had built up for herself go, just like that? As easy as she had come into the life, for it to just disappear without a trace?

Sure it was a fact that she would never stop being 'Black Smoak' but to return to her original life of a hacker for a hidden organisation of vigilantes and come face to face with the cold shell of her old life was something she partially feared of.

The old Felicity Smoak was vulnerable and relied on the safety that her friends provided; sure she could handle her own but wasn't trained for anything she had signed up for.

Who was she kidding; she hadn't been trained to be a secret weapon, to be an assassin, a soldier, a neighbourhood guardian, a hero?

The only thing that part of her had ever known was technology and had used that part of the world to her advantage.

She had come so far from who she had previously was and had achieved so many glorious things thanks to everything she had been through but was it all worth it?

Was it worth going through all the pain she had experienced, and for what? A life to be spent completely alone to fight enemy after enemy, protecting Starling from threats that would've once wracked the very being of the city, and to come back to nothing but an empty room?

That was a thought that never left her be.

Mentally slapping herself out of her spiral of thoughts, Felicity focused on the main task at hand.

An eerie atmosphere crashed over the team mates as they set themselves up around the corner from where Felicity primarily heard the noise coming from.

Bunching together almost as if in a herd, the friends moved in unison making sure to keep Laurel safely tucked away in the middle of the group, protected from the outside threats as Oliver led the charge with Felicity closely behind him.

Looking back at the rest of the group, Oliver nodded the next series of actions and swung himself around the corner, freezing briefly at the sight met before him.

Science equipment was strung everywhere, all around the lab at random, chemical reactions taking place here and there. Tubing ran across the length of wall opposite them, purple liquid running through the plastic tubing.

A beeping startled a figure looming over a desk near the far corner of the laboratory, prompting him to clutch hold of what looked like a scalpel, an act of defending himself against them.

"Who are you and what do you want?" his voice was soaked with fear, present in every inch of his voice.

"Who are you?" apparently Oliver wasn't risking anything, just as usual, even if they did look completely harmless.

"A scientist, obviously…wait are you here for the serum?"

"What serum?" Felicity found herself asking as her feet moved her forward, closer to the man.

"The serum Mr Wilson was having me work on for a couple years now" he answered without fault, lowering the scalpel slightly but not completely.

"You no longer have to worry about Mr Wilson; he's been removed from this" Oliver responded, sticking close to Felicity all the while.

"Removed? Is he dead?" the silence seemed to be taken as his answer, evidently calming him and calming him enough for him to leave the scalpel on the table behind him. "No offence to the man but what he has me working on is just plain inhumane, especially the way he has it injected into people….can you please lower your weapons, there is no way on this Earth I could even possibly attack you lot, I'm too much of a coward for that. Besides it's giving me the willies"

"Why did Slade have you making this serum in the first place?" Sara questioned as they all lowered their weapons when they were certain there was no further surprise attacks possible but still remained on guard.

"He wanted to enhance the performance and strength of his mirakuru soldiers altogether, he believed he could create the perfect soldier but feared that no person was strong enough to withstand the effects the blasted thing had on the human system"

"Wait, what effects?" Felicity frowned, was there a possibility that there were further components of her whole ordeal that she wasn't aware of?

"Look the whole point of the serum is to basically modify the cells in the human body further, basically like a weird version of evolution but skipping a couple generations instead. However, when Slade began the human trials with the liquid, it just mutated the victims all the more so it killed them from the inside out, slowly and painfully. Hold up one second" the scientist shifted closer to Felicity and brought his hands up to hover in front of her face but was met by resistance when instincts caught the man's hands and laid a look upon him that would send most people running for the hills. "Your eyes, they're different. If I may?" watching him in front of her shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously, Felicity realised she wasn't the only one observing his every move with a keen eye.

She didn't have to turn around to know the fact being that Oliver, Digg, Sara and Roy were all coiling up beneath their costumes, ready for any sign of trouble.

Giving the man a once over and relying on her instincts as usual, Felicity released her tight grip on his wrists and let him check out her eyes, yet another sentence she never would've thought to be saying.

"Are you…I mean have you been dosed with it? It's just your eyes they're more dilated than usual"

"Yes I have been dosed with the serum, what's it matter to you?"

"Holy Jesus, this is just….incredible. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it!" the man rattled on while prancing around his lab searching for something, causing Felicity to turn a slightly confused look to the rest of the group, who in turn returned the look all the same.

"You've never seen anything like what?" Roy leant up against one of the multiple tables scattered around the laboratory.

"You're pupils, they're dilated slightly more than a normal pupil but they're healthy. Well healthy for a dosage of the serum for certain and I do believe there hasn't been another person to show this good of a sign. How long has it been since you were dosed?"

Gathering round the table the scientist was currently spreading documents and files on, Felicity caught the feeling there was more about her whole crusade than she could've ever known.

"I was dosed about just less than two and a half years ago"

"Two and a half years? What, that's…just how?" documents settled in the crook of his arm suddenly fell with a crash to the floor as his arm went limp.

Shaking himself out of a seeming trance, the scientist shifted through document by document until he came across an image of two pupils.

"You see, this is what normal pupils are supposed to look like but this is what I've recorded the pupils of all the victim's resulting in"

Coming to stand at the side of the table, Oliver almost instantly took up the spot beside her, touching her shoulder with his own. Looking down at the images presented to them, Felicity automatically spotted the difference.

In the second image, the once of the victim's, their pupils were completely dilated almost covering the iris but not fully for a singular ring of red ran around the edge.

It was unnerving to look at them.

"If you wouldn't mind, do you think I could take a blood sample, to see just what's happening to your cells?"

"Depends what else you're going to do with it"

"Research, nothing else, primary research"

"Fine, give me a syringe then" whilst handing over the glass syringe.

Before Felicity could even so much as move it to her left arm, Oliver came up beside her and took it from her grasp.

"I'll do it, you hate needles"

"Looks like you weren't given a full dose just half a dose, which is still incredible considering this stuff is hard to stay alive with it in your system"

"So what's so special about the cells then?" Laurel questioned, pacing up and down one of the aisles between work stations.

"You see how each and every one has grown, well not only that but they've become more concentrated as well, independent too. Meaning they work together as a team more when it comes to protecting the body, even so much as repairing key areas, like limbs for instance. When normal cells come into contact with a disease, virus or bacteria for example, it will take a couple days for the system to kick in kind of like an old computing system, slow and steady. However, with your cells, they've multiplied in numbers and sizes making more of like a net so as soon as bacteria or virus or anything that could pose a threat to your body, they will defend you like an army. What happens in days actually now happens in mere seconds, minutes. You have the ultimate immunity system keeping you safe at all times. It's incredible really. When you were first dosed your body's first action was to defend you against the attack, so that's where all the pain comes from. The serum trying to modify your cells but they're fighting back, so it's a mini little battle happening inside you. But basically, I'm not sure how long into the duration it could be minutes, hours, heck even days, your cells at some point decided to not fully give up the fight but use some of the advantages given with the serum so the nucleus of the cell still has some control but is modifies but unfortunately for you, when the cells modify you can feel every single second of the battle. You're system in particular has never ceased to stop fighting, that's most likely how you've survived as long as you have done so far and probably will go on to do"

"So what's going to happen to her now? Will she be able to live a normal life?" Digg asked.

Over the years they've worked alongside each other, Digg essentially entered the role of Felicity's big brother, so he's curious as to what the path for her will be like.

"Well as normal as can be. You'll be able to live you're typically normal life but you'll just be more advanced than most but in this case, it's like you're taking steroids. You know those classic superhero movies where someone receives some 'extraordinary' talents or powers, as some would call them, and they tend to make something out of themselves and the capability. Well you now have the ability to put them to good use, do something with your life that you haven't before. Which now that I think about and actually realise what you're wearing, you currently are so yeah just ignore that last section of my mutterings. What I'm trying to say but failing slightly is that you can have a normal life, heck you can even have children if you wanted to"

"Thank you and don't worry, you made sense to me" gaining her bearings, Felicity finally breathed as a huge weight was removed from her shoulders.

The length of time in which she had feared for her future had all but driven her deep into the ground as the fear of the unknown kicked in, not knowing what to expect out of life, but now? Now she could breathe properly knowing that she was in the safe and it felt good.

"Thank you for your help, we greatly appreciate it and now that you're free from Mr Wilson, you can go anywhere you want and do whatever you want to" Sara stepped forward to place her gloved hand on the side of the man's arm as everyone else nodded their gratitude.

"I hope you find what you're looking for"

"As do I, good luck" Felicity spoke with tenderness, sending him a gentle smile before turning to exit the building.

Russia.

In all places, Slade had to have chosen Russia to keep them hostage.

"Well, what happens in Russia stays in Russia I guess" Oliver mused but was instantly shot down by Felicity's glare hurtling his way, shutting his mouth up with a snap.

The second the six of them landed in Starling City, Oliver and Roy had dragged Felicity back to lair once she checked in with Aiden and let him know they were all safe and unharmed.

"It's been a while since I've last been here" Felicity remarked as she descended the stairs and looked around the place she had been stolen from those few years ago.

It still hurt at the memory of it all.

"Well hopefully you can stay this time, permanently?" Oliver edged his way closer to her, taking her up in his arms and wrapping himself around her tightly, pulling himself flush against her back.

"I honestly haven't the slightest idea what I'm going to be doing next, who knows I might even surprise myself"

"One thing's for sure though, I'm not letting you out of my sight again for the next god knows how long" he nuzzled her neck and whispered in her ear.

"Which is going to make this very interesting, or maybe not in the slightest"

"You're not getting rid of me that easily Smoak"

"Hey Liz, out of everything what did you miss the most?" Roy caught her attention from where he, Digg and Sara were currently lounging about against the med-bay whilst Laurel was pouting with her famous why-couldn't-Ollie-ever-love-me-like-that look.

"Oh well that's a hard one, it's definitely a joint answer"

"Let me guess Oliver and Digg?"

"Nope, not even close. Salmon ladder and my babies, obviously" in mere seconds, Felicity's answer had sent them all off into a crazy spiral of laughter as everywhere there, apart from Miss Poutyface, knew it was the direct truth.

Felicity Smoak was back.

Later on that night, Oliver and Felicity had gone back to Felicity's townhouse, which she instantly realised looked 'lived in' then knew that within those two years she had disappeared, Oliver had taken up residence in her house in an attempt to be close to her.

Moving straight up to her bedroom, Felicity and Oliver didn't stop until they were both tucked in the bed within each other's entangled limbs where still Oliver refused to release Felicity from his grasp for the fear of abandonment again.

"Felicity" he found his voice, eager to ask her something that he wouldn't usually ask a woman, something 'Ollie' would never do for the life of him.

"Hmm"

"Do you want to move in together?" now that got her attention, getting her to role onto her other side in his arms so they were facing one another.

"Haven't we already done that? You've basically been living here for the two and a half years that I disappeared for" as soon as she said the word, Oliver's arms tightened their grasp on her waist, bringing them both even closer together if that was even possible.

"Yeah I know, but I know that we might seem that we're rushing things but Felicity there really isn't anyone else I would rather be with. I think you bewitched me right from the beginning. I haven't stopped loving you"

"Makes two of us then" when Felicity saw the look in his eyes, she thought he would just suddenly just break down there and then. "Don't go sappy on me now" that got a deep-bellied chuckle out of him as he brought his face to bury itself in her hair.

"How do you always manage to get a smile on my face, no matter what happened?"

"One of the parts of my humanity that I've just held onto no matter what, something that I couldn't afford and didn't want to let go of"

"Felicity, you are one of the most human people I've ever met. I don't think I couldn't ever be afraid of you losing your humanity, because that's just who you are. You're like the motherly figure for everyone you meet, you can't help it it's just in your nature"

Taking hold of his face between her hands, Felicity kissed him with all the love she still held for him and it didn't take him too long to respond to it either.

Rolling atop of Oliver, Felicity straddled his hips, pulling back from the kiss despite his protests.

"You know you're the one that helped me with that, with staying alive"

"What did I do?"

"You were my inspiration, you survived hell and returned. Several times in fact, you're strong in the face of danger and I just figured if you could do it then I needed to quit being afraid and stand my ground if there was ever a hope in the world at me surviving. So everything that I've done, is thanks to you"

Wrapping one of his arms round her waist and neck, Oliver tugged her down and rolled them both over so he was the one on top.

"And you're the one that convinced me I was looking for the wrong person when the man you saw was standing right in front of me. Sometimes the most well-kept secret can be hidden in plain sight but only a special sort of person can see, you were the only one who seemed to never stop fighting for him"

"Yet with that being so, yet with me being where I was, look how far you've come all by yourself" she whispered into his ear before leaning up for another kiss, smiling at his more-than-willing response to her actions.

"You have no idea how much I missed you"

"So is that why you all but moved into here? Into the house I used to live in?"

"Sometimes the only way where I found a blink of sleep was when I was laying wrapped up in your sheets where I could smell nothing but your scent, the only scent that brought comfort. I'd rather go through the five years on the island all over again than ever go through losing you again"

"I promise you Oliver, that nothing could ever pull me away again as much as those few years unless it held such a significance over me and that is extremely rare…almost impossible"

"Just promise me something" in that one moment Felicity had never in all the years working alongside him had ever seen Oliver at a more vulnerable state than she did in that one moment. "Never leave me alone, because I don't think I could go through it again"

"Oliver…even if I wanted to, I don't think there is a force strong enough in this world to keep me away from you, and that is a promise I'll keep until my last dying breathe…understand?"

During that night, Felicity kept Oliver as close as she could as Oliver finally recovered the ability to breathe as he lay buried in her body both metaphorically and physically.

Oliver's father had once warned him that once he found that someone who once they made love, in both senses, he would become so addicted to that one person he wouldn't be able to breathe without them there beside him.

However, in the end he wouldn't be able to see a life without their presence in it.

Well too late.

Right from the beginning Oliver knew that Felicity held a piece of him within her since they had first met, but he had never known to what extent that went to.

Now he knew.

Shifting into a more comfortable position, it was then he felt it.

Nothing.

Looking beside him to where Felicity had laid last night, Oliver's eyes locked onto the note resting atop the cushion. Rolling onto his back, he read over her words.

Oliver, I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly but there is something I have to do before I can even think about settling down. Last night I promised you that I wouldn't leave you alone again and I'm not. I'll be back, I promise you that I will return but this is something that must be done.

I love you.

Felicity X

Staring at the piece of paper for a couple more minutes, Oliver slumped back into the covers again and stared up at the ceiling.

She'll be back. She'll return to him.

If only it was that easy to let that thought go.

A week passed without as much as a sign from Felicity.

More and more Oliver read her note she'd left for him again and again until he convinced himself that she spoke the truth because when did she ever lie to him about something like this?

"Ollie? You know I don't believe she's coming back again, I mean she promised you she wouldn't leave you again but think about this logically, why would she come back to something so foreign to her now? She started a new life without any of us, without you, and set up a new identity for herself, do you honestly believe that she'll come back to something she may believe to be broken and tainted?" Laurel's 'cheery' voice echoed in his mind as he reinforced iron bars around his anger and held on.

He wasn't going to break to something as juvenile as this.

"Is there something you'd like to say Laurel? Something you'd like to share with the rest of us? Like for on being that you're jealous of Felicity receiving more attention than you or the fact that the second she came back to me, we basically moved in together? You want to know one thing about Felicity that you have never done?" his sudden response in such a context had her on the edge of her metaphoric chair. "Felicity actually believed in me when nobody else did, she trusted me and sometimes she didn't even know why but still she listened to that part of her nonetheless. She never gave up on me or believed me to be something that I'm not, she took me as I was and who I am today and has never regretted that decision. So don't force her onto such a dark path because you're afraid you're going to lose me to her when the truth of the matter is already that you lost me a long time ago…..that shipwreck, was the day that your 'Ollie' died for good. You don't understand anymore, the only person that does is the woman that I love with every single part of me, everything I have and the one person that I will never stop waiting for until she's by my side again"

"And it looks like that's not going to be too much longer either" came Sara's voice from the top of the stairs as she instantly went over and pulled up the current news footage.

'Well it looks like this city has yet another guardian angel as just last night the hundred women that mysteriously disappeared about three years ago have suddenly been turning up on their families' doorsteps. A black figure was spotted just downtown watching a woman by the name of Eleanor Bennett as her family welcomed her home with open arms. When speaking with one of the witnesses, they stated the name of the vigilante was Black Smoak that had found and rescued them from where they had been held prisoner and they owe their lives to her, they wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. All the victims will be known to be making full recoveries thanks to their guardian. I speak for the community here and whoever you are out there, thank you. And back to you, Bruce.'

"Something that had to be done….she found them all" Oliver found himself speechless at the thought of after everything she had been through, Felicity still thought about that of her friends she was imprisoned with.

Felicity's more remarkable than he had ever thought her to be.

Without giving it another thought on the matter, Oliver grabbed his gear and set off into the night.

"Something that needed to be done, you're truly remarkable you know that?" Oliver announced as he jumped onto a rooftop where the familiar black figure was perched upon one of the multiple chimney tops of the current roof, watching the city as it glittered like a thousand fireflies.

"Couldn't move on without wrapping up my past first" Felicity responded as he came over to join her.

"You know I could've helped"

"Yeah I know, I believed it to be a dead end when Aiden gave the information and location to me so I didn't want to end up wasting your time in the fear of being as such. However, when I got there nobody was home"

"So how did you find them then?"

"It seemed as if they'd picked up a habit of mine for hiding in plain sight. So naturally, they followed my lead and hid in the most obvious place of them all" not taking her eyes off the city, Felicity knew he would've followed her there so hence the reason she left in the night after he'd fallen asleep. "There was a secret cave hidden away beneath the building that we had been held captive at, apparently there were enough provisions to live on and they taught themselves how to survive. I finally found them and it quite a sappy reunion and kept my promise of returning them all home again, I couldn't just leave them there like that so one by one, we helped one another like we all had once done before"

"And now?" he prompted.

"I'm keeping my other promise. The one that I made to you and the rest of the team of returning to help you lot fight for this city, besides I'm not known to go back on the promises I make to people"

"So you're staying?"

"Yep, but I'm staying at the house I've lived in for two years now. No matter how much I try and convince myself otherwise, what I used to call my home isn't so anymore. So I'm starting afresh"

"What about the Foundry?"

"I'll come by to see what I can do to help but mainly, Aiden can take care of most of the technical side of things. However, that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about"

"What did you then?"

"Remember when you asked me if I wanted to move in together?"

"Yes, and I still want that"

"Good, because I'm proposing for you to move in with me, if you want to that is" during the time in which they had spoken, they had now ended up facing one another, looking into the other's eyes as Felicity waited upon Oliver's answer.

But he didn't intend to use words.

Banding an arm about her waist, Oliver pulled Felicity flush against him as he dove into a passionate kiss, his other hand coming up to bury itself in her flowing locks.

Felicity on the other hand tried her hand at keeping his hood up to obscure his identity from those that may be watching around them however, Oliver however didn't seem that focused on that part of things, instead focusing everything he had on the kiss.

Retreating a couple centimetres apart from each other, Oliver rested his forehead on hers as his lips whispered over her own.

"Perfect"

As Oliver was about to lean in for another wild kiss, the sound of guns ripped their attentions to the streets as an armoured van blew smoke down the road.

"I guess duty calls" reaching to her earpiece Felicity asked, "Aiden, you ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be"

"You two lovebirds ready to go break up a drug deal?" Digg's voice spoke up over both their earpieces as Aiden tapped them in.

"And here I thought tonight was going to be quiet" Oliver signed.

"Where's the fun in that?" Felicity whispered before darting off the roof, Oliver in tow as they both swung towards their target.

Yep, in this world this was as normal as it got but one thing stood stoic.

Team Arrow was back and stronger than ever.