"Then explain." Thea said sharply. "Oliver isn't in Argentina?"

"No, but that's not where we need to start."

"No, you'll want to start by telling me he is the Arrow I suppose."

"You know?" Roy demanded, incredulous. Felicity on the other hand was not entirely surprised. Thea was a smart girl who, by all accounts, knew her brother very well before the island. It wasn't entirely shocking that after 2 and half years of watching him pretend to be less than he was she had caught on.

"When?" Felicity asked unable to contain her curiosity but fairly certain she knew.

"I suspected the day my mother was shot at two years ago." Thea said. "But I wanted him to come to me when he was ready so I didn't push. After Slade I realized how well he kept secrets and I told myself it didn't matter either way. I tried not to notice all of the clues when we came back from Corto Maltese, but when he rescued me from that female assassin I knew."

Felicity filed that information away for digestion at a future day and time. For now she forced herself to focus on the task at hand and not analyzing all of Thea's actions since her most recent kidnapping (was that the third one?) to see if there were clues to her awareness.

"Okay, well that simplifies things." Felicity said moving forward. "Yes, Oliver is the Arrow. You might have a lot of questions surrounding that but what we came to talk to you about something more specific. He left three and a half weeks ago because Malcolm put you in danger."

"What do you mean?" Thea stood, not quickly but her reaction was swift enough to put Felicity on alert that Malcolm was going to be the touch point, but she had already assumed that. There was no way around the whole truth though and even if there were she wouldn't have taken it. Wouldn't have taken the chance that leaving something out could jeopardize them getting what they needed from Thea and consequently Malcolm.

"Thea, I am going to show you something that will upset you, but you have to see it in order to understand what is happening with Oliver." With that Felicity handed Thea her phone onto which she had copied the video Malcolm had sent Oliver. Not that Oliver was aware of this, but Felicity was all about being prepared for all contingencies. It pained her to have to show Thea what she had done, but it was absolutely necessary for her to understand what Malcolm had done and the danger he had placed her in.

"What is this?" Thea demanded after watching the video several times. She threw the phone down and looked at it in disgust before turning accusing eyes on Roy and Felicity.

"Malcolm made that video the night he drugged you and made you kill Sara." Roy said quietly. A year ago he would have reached for her hand to comfort her knowing this news was more than anyone should have to bear, but Thea was different now, stronger in some ways that were good to see but harder in ways that worried him too. It was this hardness that he knew would resist any comfort he might try and offer.

"I didn't kill Sara." Thea declared. "I would never do that. I wasn't here. I couldn't have. I wouldn't have."

Felicity had pulled out her tablet during this predictable denial. Who would believe themselves capable of murdering a friend they had no memory of even seeing in the past six months.

"This is security footage from your arrival in Starling in October." She said as she played the few seconds of the recording of Thea and Malcolm descending from their private plane at Starling International. Letting Thea watching it several times Felicity retrieved her phone from the couch where it had been thrown and called up the next piece of the puzzle. "This is a description of the drug, Votoura, Malcolm gave you which made you vulnerable to suggestion and also made you forget everything that happened while you were taking it."

"Please don't think for a minute I believe any of this. But just out of curiosity - Why would you want me to? What are you trying to get from me? Where is Oliver?"

Felicity wasn't put off but Thea's incredulity. It was a lot to take in and without the missing piece of Oliver's sacrifice there was really no incentive to make the leap. She pushed on.

"We're getting there." She said patiently. "As I think you know Malcolm was a member of the League of Assassins. Because of all of the people he killed with the earth quake machine the League, which has surprisingly fussy rules about behavior, has been after him." Knowing some of this was news to Thea and seeing her try and school her reactions Felicity couldn't help but press this issue. "He hasn't only been hiding from the authorities here in Starling. The League has and will hunt him wherever he goes and they are a much greater threat to a man of your father's means and abilities than any police force. Recently however he came up with a solution to this problem."

"And what was that?" A clearly angry Thea demanded. "How does me killing Sara erase his blood debt?"

Felicity was surprised. She had not used the phrase blood debt. That meant Thea knew about Malcom's problem with the League. But upon consideration it made sense. Thea already knew he had killed hundreds of people with his earthquake machine, and seemed shockingly unconcerned with it. He really had nothing to lose by telling her what else this heinous act had cost him.

"If the leader of the League, Ra's Al Ghul, is killed all blood debts owed him are erased. But the only way to even have the opportunity to do this is in a trial by combat. The only reason one would have to request a trial by combat is if you are subject to League justice." Felicity paused here and moved backwards in the story wanting Thea to understand the full extent of what Malcolm had done. "Sara Lance was also a member of the League. Four weeks ago Nyssa, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter, came to Starling to tell us that if we did not find Sara's killer within forty-eight hours the League would kill fifty innocent people every day until we did."

"They came to Oliver with this threat?" Thea asked.

"Yes and then he told Roy and I about it." Felicity confirmed.

"And Mr. Diggle." Thea added. "He's been working with Oliver the longest hasn't he?"

Again impressed and sticking with her decision not to try and deceive the younger woman Felicity nodded.

"And Dig. I had already asked a friend to analyze the DNA on the arrow, but at this point I put a rush order on that particular favor. The result they came back with shocked us all."

"It said I did it?"

"No. Matching 15 of 16 DNA markers it said Oliver had. He was in the SCPD database from his arrest two years ago so when I entered the results he came up. His first conclusion was that someone was setting him up and his first suspect was Malcolm because Malcolm had the most to gain by pitting him against the League."

"But you had another theory?" Thea guessed.

"It was suggested that another explanation for the partial match was that you could be responsible. At this point we knew you had lied about knowing Malcolm was alive. When we found the footage of you coming to Starling we thought you had also lied about returning. After Oliver confronted you as the Arrow we also knew you were keeping the fact that Malcolm was training you from Oliver. He didn't want to believe it. Wouldn't believe it even when the forensic and circumstantial evidence seemed to lead in that direction, but then Malcolm showed up here and filled in the missing piece with that video. He told Oliver he had drugged you and you had no memory of what you had done but the League wouldn't care. They would kill you unless he confessed to killing Sara himself and then challenged Ra's to trial by combat as would be his right."

"No, my father would never . . ."Thea protested going over to the wall of windows, turning her back on Roy and Felicity.

"Oliver had no choice, Thea. Malcolm gave him none, but know that he believed he could win because it was what he needed to do to protect you. He would do anything to protect you."

"That's what he said . . ." Thea said quietly.

"What?" Roy asked.

"He came here. It must have been right before he left and he told me Malcolm couldn't love me because he wasn't capable of love. Then he told me he would do anything to protect me. Oh my God!" With that she collapsed to the ground in a heap of sobbing tears.

Felicity and Roy looked at each other in confusion and then moved to either side of the crying girl.

"Thea we aren't here because Oliver has . . . we don't know what happened to him. That's why we need your help." Felicity said.

"You don't know." Thea spat abruptly standing and dislodging the comforting arms Roy and Felicity had both placed around her shoulders. "Well I do."

Once again Felicity and Roy exchanged looks of confusion. Dig piped up on the comms. "Felicity, what is she talking about?" Felicity turned to where she knew he was watching and shrugged her shoulders before turning back to Thea.

"Oliver is dead."

They had been so careful never to even mention death as a possibility as they discussed Oliver these past weeks let alone say his name and dead in the same sentence that these words were especially shocking to Felicity. She felt like someone had punched her in the gut. Then she just got pissed that this girl who Oliver went to ends of the earth to protect seemed to have so little faith in him.

"Don't say that. You have no idea what Oliver is capable of. You have no idea that things he has been through and overcome. The people he has fought and won." Felicity was just getting warmed up, but Thea stopped her.

"It doesn't matter. No one can defeat Ra's Al Ghul. He is a demon. A monster. If half of what my father has told me about him is true then Oliver never stood a chance and Malcolm did not send Oliver there to erase a blood debt but to have him killed. He has never liked sharing me with my brother I suppose it was only a matter of time before . . . this was his way of eliminating someone he saw as a rival for my affections."

Felicity remembered Oliver saying something similar when Nyssa first came to Starling about how they couldn't kill her because if half of what he had heard about Ra's Al Ghul were true they did not want to him anywhere near Starling. Her mind was reeling. In the hundreds of contingencies she had considered this was not something she had thought of. It couldn't be. Oliver wouldn't have fallen for that. Then again even if he knew that was Malcolm's intent what could he do? The danger to Thea was the same whether Malcom intended him to live or die. No, Oliver would have gone regardless, but how did she not see this? .

"Felicity." John's voice spoke in her ear. Realizing she had been silent for too long Felicity tried to pull herself back and assess the situation.

"Right well Malcolm's intent aside Oliver did go because he had to. If he had not confessed to the murder either you or fifty innocent people would have been killed." She would not have his sacrifice belittled. "What we need to know now is where he is." Felicity raised her hand to stop another angry, tearful protest from Thea. "No, we don't know for sure and until we do we will not underestimate your brother. He is strong and brave and he has a lot to live for." At this a pang of guilt shot through her as she realized she had left him with one less thing. He didn't have the knowledge that she loved him. Could that have made a difference? Did she matter that much to him?

Thea looked at her for a beat seeming to consider her words then she nodded and Felicity felt like she was choosing hope in that moment and she was proud of her and knew Oliver would have been too. "What do you want me to do?"

"You need to get your father to go to the League and find out what happened." Felicity said simply. "We have no way of knowing anything. We don't even know where the duel took place or when. We have a contact number for Nyssa but of course she is not answering and it is an untraceable line. Your father is our only possible connection to the League. We need him to find Oliver for us."

"Why would he do that? He has been hiding from the League for years."

"He'll do it because you ask. Because you'll tell him you know what he did. He'll do it because if he doesn't," Felicity took a breath not wanting to issue this threat but knowing Malcolm would need it. "We will send the video to Nyssa."

Thea looked Felicity in the eye for a long moment after she had said this and Felicity almost took it back.

"You have to be willing to do it, Felicity. Malcolm will not expose himself unless he believes I am in real danger."

"I don't think I can." Felicity admitted. She hated the weakness that made her say this but it was the truth. Offering Thea up to the League would dishonor what Oliver had done and whether he was alive or . . . she could not do that. Not to mention the fact that she could not bring herself to put Thea in potential mortal danger because no matter what she hoped Malcolm was still a wild card.

"Can you set up something so that it will be sent automatically unless something happens?"

"Of course." Seriously, computers 101 much?

"Then do that." Thea instructed. "I will go to Malcolm today. I will tell him that you showed me the video, but I will not tell him that I know he is behind it. I will tell him that it will automatically be sent to Nyssa at noon on Saturday unless Oliver is brought back."

"I don't know if you should lie to him." Felicity said running the plan through her mind and looking for holes and flaws. "If Malcolm suspects he may doubt the whole thing."

"He won't. I promise. He can't know I know his role because then he will realize I am on your side and he will doubt your resolve to turn me over to the League. He cannot see any weakness or he will exploit it. Oliver would sacrifice for me, die for me, but he has no reason to think any of you have any loyalty to me and we can't give him a reason to suspect otherwise."

"Okay." Felicity said.

"Okay." Roy agreed.

"I won't contact you at all until we have word, but I will be with Malcolm every moment I am able. So as soon as there is news I will know."

The three of them didn't say anything else as Roy and Felicity gathered their things and shuffled out the door. Nor did Felicity and Roy speak as they made their way to the Foundry. Diggle was there waiting for them. Felicity thought she was keeping it together but one look at Diggle's kind knowing eyes and the tears began to fall. She collapsed into his arms and stayed there until she heard Roy return which was weird because she hadn't even heard him leave. Stupid stealthy Oliver protégé.

"I brought Big Belly Burger." He said simply and the three of them settled in to their meal on the med table talking of Sara's latest antics, Roy's progress with the bow or Felicity's string of incompetent assistants at Palmer Technologies. Nothing that mattered as much as the things they were all thinking the most about. Those things stayed inside. Like the thoughts Felicity could not escape that had now coalesced into a deep, panic inducing fear that if only Oliver had known three things instead of two he may . . . but maybe he did anyway. She just couldn't escape the thought.

It was forever, it was the blink of an eye. Somehow it was Saturday and Felicity woke up to the sounds of Roy and Dig sparing. She hadn't slept there every night since Oliver left, but she stayed more often than not and every night since they spoke with Thea. She realized it must be later than she usually slept as she was generally halfway through her morning routine before either man made an appearance. She scooted to the bathroom, quickly made herself presentable, turned the coffee pot on, watered the fern and then turned to the dueling duo.

"What time is it?" Her eyes were having trouble focusing. She had gotten more sleep than usual she was fairly certain, maybe three hours, but the nightmares made sure it was anything but restorative and until she had coffee very few of her organs, including her eyes, were not working properly.

"10:30." Dig said and the three of them gathered around the small table where the coffee brewed.

"No word?" She asked needlessly. Of course there was no word. They would have said.

"No." Roy confirmed with a squeeze to her shoulder so like those Oliver used to give her. Tears pricked her eyes, but she would not let them fall. He was alive. She would know if he wasn't so she would not waste time or tears grieving.

"Do you think you could try and call Thea?" She asked Roy. "I mean you guys are friends, I mean sort of. You're exes and you work for her so . . ."

"I could . . ."

Before Roy could respond the sound of footsteps was heard on the stairs. All three heads whipped in that direction and all three bodies tensed upon seeing who it was.

Malcolm Merlyn.

"Oliver Queen is dead." He said with deadly certainly before placing something black and bloody on the table.

He may have said more. She was sure there had been threats about Thea, about their knowledge of him and his connection to the League, but all she could recall were these words. These horrible, empty, soul crushing words. But she couldn't feel them. They didn't move past her mind to her heart because she knew as sure as she knew anything in this world they were simply not true.

Oliver Queen was alive.