Arrow Prompt: Felicity and Sarah are being held by Slade as a way of getting revenge on Oliver. They manage an escape attempt and while this is going on, Felicity is hurt. She would just slow Sarah down so Felicity sacrifices herself, telling Sarah to keep going because they would have a better chance against Slade if she (Sarah) was with Oliver, Roy, and Diggle, and that she could be rescued then. Sarah reluctantly leaves and Felicity is recaptured. Please?

"Ollie.."

He spun on a dime, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of a blood-covered Sara, slumping over as she took the stairs gingerly.

Both he and Dig rushed to her side, one arm around her waist, the other around her shoulders, guiding her to the med bay. Her head was bleeding profusely at the hairline and he could see that her left hand was shattered. She caught him looking at it and didn't have the energy to give him a smile, "Broken ribs too. And there might be a stab wound somewhere."

He hissed, hands skimming over her arms as he took in her injuries.

Even as his broken girlfriend groaned in his arms, a sudden weight dropped into his stomach.

"Wait…where's Felicity?"

Tears mixed with blood as Sara dipped her head. Oliver's swore his heart had ceased to beat as she choked back a sob, "I left her behind."

Something crashed behind him and Roy's thunderous yell shook the foundry, "YOU WHAT?!" He heard a clash of bodies as he imagined Dig rushing forward to hold Roy back.

Refusing to believe that Sara would betray Felicity or leave her for dead, his eyes stayed fixed on hers, silently waiting for an explanation, all the while tamping down the hot acid burning in his chest.

"She made me go Oliver. We were trying to get out, to get away, and we were almost clear when they caught up to us." Another tear fell. "They all had to be injected with the mirakuru. I tried to protect her, but they tossed me around like a doll. She got in their faces and pulled their attention away from me." Oliver watched her clench her eyes shut in a mix of pain and regret. "She fought back but she was as beat up as I was. She kept screaming for me to run, to get help. I was going to stop them, but next thing I knew, they were gone and so was she."

Diggle was speaking but Oliver couldn't hear a thing over the whooshing of blood in his ears. Felicity was still out there, in pain, in the hands of his enemy.

Leaning forward to press a hard kiss to Sara's forehead, he threw one look to Roy before heading up the stairs, bow in hand.

"Ollie!"

Her voice made him pause, but he couldn't turn his head. There was only one blonde in his focus in that moment. "She saved me. Please, bring her home."

— »

It took two more days.

It had been seven since Slade had taken her and Sara both, two since Sara made her way back to the foundry.

Two days of tearing Starling City upside down before he found them.

He stopped counting the bodies as they dropped. The number was too high for him to think about and too inconsequential for him to worry about.

It was Felicity. There was no choice to make.

Slade's was the last to fall. He didn't do it alone, by any stretch. It took him, Dig, and Roy to bring him down to his knees before Oliver had his own vengeance, killing Slade Wilson a second time. A part of him wanted to linger, to burn the body instantly, ensure that it would never again house a human heartbeat.

But the knowledge that Felicity was somewhere in the building, alone, in pain, and – he prayed – still breathing, carried him away from the site.

His own injuries became more apparent as he searched feverishly. The broken ribs protested to the way he yelled her name. The stab wound in his thigh protested the speed of his run to find her. The concussion he was sure he had protested the constant movement and singular focus as he opened door after door, screaming her name.

But he pushed through it. It was Felicity. There was no choice to make.

His heart had all but given out from adrenaline when he threw open a door to see a slumped figure lying on the floor in the darkness. Her name caught in his throat as he pushed the door further, skidding to his knees at her side.

His blood-stained hands shook as they reached out to touch her pale, ashen face, to brush over her colorless lips, to seek out the pulse at her neck. His heart ceased beating for a moment as he waited for the soft sound that would ensure the world would keep spinning.

Before he could feel it, her eyelids fluttered, the sight jolting through him as she pushed her eyes open, "'ver?"

The breath he had been holding since Sara showed up at the foundry whooshed out of him as he cupped her bruised cheek, frowning at the raging fever he felt there.

"Shh, it's me. You're safe now."

Her eyes slid shut for a moment and the lance of fear struck his heart yet again. He had to get her out of there. A quick glance down her form showed more blood than he ever wanted to see on his partner and filled his veins with another burst of adrenaline. In seconds, he had his hooded jacket off and wrapped around her, lifting her into his arms.

A small hand gripped his t-shirt and he looked down, seeing her eyes opened to half mast, clouded with pain.

"'liver –" she breathed, wincing as she did.

"Shh, shh don't talk now. Just rest. You're safe," he soothed, pressing his head against hers in comfort.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she exhaled quickly, pinching the material of his shirt again, "Sar – Sara..she ok?"

Oliver stopped in his tracks, looking down in awe at the broken woman in his arms. Lying there in pain, and only thinking of another. His heart swelled, and despite the seriousness of the moment and the fear he still felt over her condition, he couldn't help the slight upturn of his lips as he gazed at her, "You saved her, Felicity."

He watched her eyes fall closed again on a sigh, the hint of a smile curving her lips as she breathed, "Go team."