Taken

Broken

Oliver and Diggle stared in horror; the image of Felicity unconscious burned into their minds. Oliver could still hear her screams echoing in his ears. Slade's face filled the screen.

"Now maybe you'll understand how I felt when Shado died."

Oliver turned the computer screen off, unable to stand the sight of Slade.

"Can we trace the location?" Oliver asked John quietly. "She's still wearing her industrial piercing."

"I'll try to trace both her and the video GPS, but I'm not hopefully. He's been ten steps ahead of us this whole time." John sighed. "Unless the GPS is easily traceable, we'll need Felicity to work her magic. Not exactly an option right now."

"Just try, please." Oliver leant against one of the pillars in the Foundry, before slowly sliding down until he sat on the floor, defeated.

John sat down in Felicity's chair and opened the GPS tracker app Felicity had installed so that she could track his and Oliver's movements when out in the field. Felicity's tracker was nowhere to be seen. He tried running a direct trace on it, but couldn't get a direct ping back. He turned his attention towards the video, copying the details over as quickly as possible, unwilling to get his eyes linger on the unconscious body of the woman he considered his sister. The video GPS came back with a general five block radius. Not amazing, but a start.

"Got a vague location." John called over to Oliver, who had turned to the salmon ladder as a source of distraction.

"Where?"

"Five block radius in the middle of the Glades."

"Can you narrow that down anymore?" Oliver asked, although he already suspected what the answer would be. How they ever managed before Felicity had joined the team, he could not remember. He had to get her back. He couldn't do this without her.

"Not without Felicity. Sorry."

"I'll head out and case the area. Maybe there will be something there."

"You want back up?"

"Someone should stay in case we get anymore messages." Oliver stated, though he dreaded what those messages might contain.

"Let me know if you find anything." John replied. "Go bring our girl home."

* * *

Oliver stood in the middle of the five blocks Diggle had directed him to. Now it was just a matter of finding something, anything to help Felicity. He wandered the streets, broke up a fight, prevented a mugging, but nothing Felicity related.

"Oliver, I decide to try to back trace Felicity's tracker to see if I could see where she was before the signal failed." John said over the comms to Oliver. "Took a bit longer than I expected given I'm not a tech whiz like Felicity, but I managed to pick it up after she left Verdant last night. The last signal came from two blocks south of you."

"Thanks, Dig."

Oliver headed in the direction John pointed him and came to an intersection surrounded by apartment blocks that had been abandoned after the Undertaking. 'Great' thought Oliver sarcastically, 'just the forty-odd apartments to search'.

"Dig, can you go over the video footage again. Anything to narrow down the apartment?" Oliver asked. "Windows, basements?"

"Give me a minute." Dig sighed as he reluctantly reopened the video, determined to only focus on the background. "One window, but it's only partly in frame and only for a moment."

"Anything usable?"

"I think that there is a street visible, so probably ground floor apartment." John answered. "That's all I've got."

"Time to start knocking down doors then."

Oliver walked up to the nearest building and tested the door. Unlocked. Most of these abandoned buildings were. Bow raised, he headed into the apartment on the left, then the right, but both were empty. He headed back to the street and jogged towards the next building. He would search every building in the Glades if he had to. His Girl Wednesday was coming home tonight.

This building was as empty as the last, as were the next two. Frustrated, Oliver crossed to the other side of the road and renewed his search. He slipped quietly through the outer door, pausing as he saw a slight light coming from the apartment door on his left. He pressed his finger over his comm, silently bleeping out Morse code to Dig, letting him know that he had found something.

He slowly opened the apartment door and stepped inside. He heard movement from further inside the apartment and moved towards it cautiously.  He stepped around the corner. Felicity was sat in a chair less than ten meters away from him. Her eyes were barely open, but she was awake. His eyes roamed over her body taking everything in. There was a pool of blood beneath her chair from the wound on her leg and her blouse was soaked through. Slade stood slightly behind her; the knife he had used to stab her held loosely in his hand. The other contained his sword that was no longer strapped to his back.

"Felicity," Oliver started.

"She's not important right now." Slade interrupted. "This is about you and me. Time to finish this once and for all."

Slade plunged the knife into Felicity's stomach and ran at Oliver dodging the arrow that flew his way.