It had been months since Oliver Queen had fought to the death with Ra's al Guhl and suffered his dreadful fate. He was tired, and although his experience was something completely different from that of his previous 5 years away from Starling City, he was still just as physically and emotionally exhausted as he had been then. He stumbled his way down the streets of the familiar city he once called home keeping his head low trying to not draw any attention. As he finally reached his location he walked up the two flights of stairs till her reached the apartment door he had been looking for.

Lyla and John had just woken up to one of Sara's late night crying spells. It had been months since Oliver's disappearance yet Diggle still had a hard time coping as he sometimes believed he could've done something to stop Oliver or help him. This was a man he pledged his life to and swore he would rather die than let him fight alone so why did he? He had been asking himself these questions for months while trying his best to be strong for everyone around him, his family, Roy, Thea, and Felicity. He was coming up with lies left and right to explain Oliver's disappearance but he and the rest of his team knew what Oliver's fate had become. Everyone except for Felicity. He had watched a woman he once thought was so strong fall to pieces. He thought he could be there for her and over time she isolated herself in more ways than one. He found her a couple times wandering the glades looking to get herself into trouble. He would ping her cellphone in the foundry only to find she would be at Oliver's second warehouse space that he had kept as a backup in case the foundry became compromised. He would check her location in the mornings and come to find she had spent her nights there. He knew she felt guilty that she hadn't forced Oliver to embrace his humanity and her, but Diggle didn't know how to explain to her that Oliver loved her and that may have been the only thing he was sure of. He didn't know how to save Felicity and in all honesty he wasn't sure anyone could. He sat on the couch and Lyla went back to sleep. He held the necklace Oliver had made Sara shortly before she was born.

"Why'd you have to go off on a suicide mission, man?' Dig said to himself.

Just as he was about to get up and try to go to sleep he heard a knock at the door. It was almost 3 am, who could possibly be knocking at the door, he thought. He looked through the peephole and saw a man in a hood and then heard a faint knock again. He ran to the bedroom and grabbed a gun from her night stand and told Lyla to watch the baby in their room. He slowly opened the door and in a swift motion as soon as he raised his gun he found himself on his back on the floor which the hooded main kneeling over him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Dig screamed, while struggling to break free of his grasp.

"Seriously? Is this how you greet your partner?" the hooded man replied and the proceeded to take off his hood.

"Oh my god. Oliver? You're alive?'

"As alive as I can be. But I'm exhausted and I can't go to a hospital and I need somewhere to rest. I would've gone to the foundry but I couldn't get in." Oliver said with a look of confusion on his face.

"Oh yeah, you can thank Felicity for that. She changed the lock system on the doors so she and I are the only ones who can get it right now. Don't worry, I will take you there tomorrow."

Oliver's interest peaked at the mention of Felicity's name but John didn't know how to explain to him everything that had happened and how hard she had taken his "death."

"Yeah man, about that, you need to know that Felicity isn't the same girl you left here."

"John, what happened?" Oliver said sternly with a hint of worry in his voice.

"It's nothing that can't wait till tomorrow. C'mon Oliver get some sleep. We'll deal with the rest of your problems tomorrow. I promise they'll still be there."

Oliver understood what Diggle was saying but he couldn't help but wonder what had happened since he had battled Ra's al Guhl. But he knew that he couldn't do anything in his state. He slept on the couch and he and Diggle both agreed they'd answer each other's questions the next day.

"It's good to have you back Oliver."

"Well it's good to be home, goodnight John. Thank you for this" Oliver replied with a slight smile.

He had one thought on his mind as he drifted to sleep which was that he couldn't wait to see the woman he loves, Felicity Smoak.

~The Glades~

Felicity was in the front seat of her car parked outside of Verdant. She saw a woman walk down the alley and followed. After taking a few turns she was greeted by a bouncer and went inside to a VIP area where she met a woman.

"Please sit" Felicity insisted.

"I can't I'm afraid. I'm only here to make sure there are no surprises when he arrives" the mysterious woman asserted. "I'm afraid any surprises and I assure you you'll regret it.

"Good thing I have made my intentions clear. Now where is he?" Felicity said sternly.

Felicity wasn't the same girl who stayed behind her computer. She was different and she was tired of everyone remarking on it. She was tough and was determined to break away from everyone she had once been close to. It was too painful of a reminder without Oliver around.

"It's okay sweetheart. I'm here and I have everything you could possibly want"

Felicity turned around to be face to face with Vertigo, the man responsible for blowing up her date with Oliver.

"It took you long enough" Felicity stammered.

"Maybe next time you'll be quicker busting me out of jail, or should I say hacking me out of jail. You're a smart one which is the only reason why I'm giving you what you want and not putting a bullet in your head" Vertigo said as he shut the door to the room they were in and opened his briefcase which revealed bags and bags filled with red pills. "The new Vertigo drug, just what you want. New and extremely improved might I add. Now that the Arrow isn't in my way I put a lot of thought into this new batch. It had to be something exciting and captivating, something that my clientele couldn't resist and I might say I didn't expect that you would be reaching out to me."

"Well I had hacked into Iron Height's system and you'd imagine my surprise when I saw activity in your record. Trying to sell your product to a guard? Real clever. But that's not the point. Has the change really been made?" Felicity asked this question with such dedication.

"Well I don't see why you would doubt me? Half of this supply is yours once you clear my record from the system. Unless you don't want it. Unless you don't want to experience the high of your life. It was quite a brilliant change might I add, an idea that stemmed from my time in prison. Instead of having a drug that made you see your worst fear, why not create a pill that made you see what or who you desired most? I needed something to make my product worth buying and without the arrow who is going to stop me?"

Felicity started typing away on her computer. At this point she had hacked into so many systems that it had become easy to her.

"No one is going to stop you," Felicity said proudly, "because as of right now you don't exist and the one person who could've stopped you? Well he's dead."