Not Until We Are Lost

Felicity couldn't help the twirling. The material begged to be twirled, even if it did earn her a few looks of disdain from the very pretty inhabitants; at least she guessed they were this place's inhabitants. They seem to be too pretty for words, and everything seemed to be something for words. She returned back to Ray after a little twirl away and sighed.

"You know, I can't tell if they just hate what I'm doing or hate me. Or us. The ones that look at us anyway." Her nose wrinkled, and in a need for a little security, she found Ray's hand.

"You don't think they'd want to hurt us? We could hurt them back, but that just doesn't seem right." Fingers tightened on his. "I think I should shut up and hope we find people we know soon. I really want to find people we know soon. I don't like sounding like some fraidy cat because I'm not. Not too much. Not really."

Roy stretched out on the bed, wondering why it felt a little less fluffy, or more a little less covered in thick...covers. He stretched a little more and found that he was not alone. There were times they weren't spooning, and he was okay with that. As long as he could reach out and touch a certain metahuman, he was happy.

He laughed softly as he rolled over in the direction of the body he'd touched. He was sleeping with a metahuman. There was something kind of sexy about that. Slowly his eyes opened to the face that made him smile. His fingers lifted to trace the curve of a cheek.

He didn't want to wake Laurel as she looked so peaceful. The room was certainly different from the one they'd gone to sleep in, as if winter had turned to spring. There was a soft breeze blowing through the opened window, and the sound of birds chirping felt right. Could this be another nice world, another happy little planet? Part of him hoped so; the more adventurous part wished for a little action.

He scooted closer, sliding an arm around his metahuman girlfriend. He'd let her wake up on her own. Or at least he'd try to be patient and do that.

"Snow! So much snow!" They'd been in the Christmas village for a while, but the snow still brought out the little boy in Roy Harper. He knew that in other places snow meant death and unhappiness, yet here it was the good stuff. The stuff that made kids happy about snow days.

He had woken up alone, in some overdone cabin, and jumped out of bed almost literally to get dressed. He had to find Laurel. She had to be here. He couldn't take another planet without her; what if something other than the cry happened? What if the aliens did something worse?

Thankfully he found her not long after he started searching, and the two settled into a bit of domestic bliss in his cabin - he didn't even have to get a job. It was nice that he could provide a place for her rather than the other way around.

"I challenge you to an angel off." His smile was boyish, and before he could explain what he meant, he fell back into a very large snow drift, thankful that it wasn't too deep or too shallow, and started making a snow angel. They both needed a little bit of play and fun, especially since they knew that their team was in this strange happy place.

Laurel woke up alone, and not next to a certain boyfriend. She didn't like the feeling, and she didn't think she would ever get used to waking up in a different place from where she fell asleep. She thought bitterly that the aliens must have just figured it was time. After all, she'd started to feel at home in the last place. The team had even started training and testing her abilities, and she'd started to like her job and her apartment. They'd even started doing patrols as needed. Not that there was a whole lot of crime in the small town, but it still felt good to suit up and get out there.

She went about exploring her new surroundings immediately. She'd woken up in a cozy little cabin with a fire crackling merrily in the fireplace, and Christmas decorations in every spare corner of the cabin. It would almost be cheery, if she weren't alone and disoriented by yet another change of locale.

She changed out of the flannel pajamas that she'd been wearing into a cozy sweater and a pair of jeans. A wool coat, gloves, hat, and scarf finished off the ensemble.

If she thought that the inside of the cabin looked like something out of a Christmas card, that was nothing compared to the small village outside. Everything was covered in a thick snowfall, and fairy lights twinkled out at her from every rooftop, lamppost, and tree that she saw. It was easy enough to navigate the place, and she eventually found herself in a town square. Under a giant tree in the square, there was a choir of what looked like children singing Carol of the Bells. As she got closer, she saw faces that looked too old and wizened to belong to children, and ears too pointed to be human. Elves? Was she really going to suspend her disbelief and accept that?

There had to be someone else here from the group of abductees. Someone who was human-sized. Her eyes scanned the street for any familiar faces.

It had been a few weeks since she started training with Diana and since Ray and Felicity had started their tests of her ability. And while she was still a little shaky on the whole control thing, she was making progress. She felt a lot more confident in her ability to control the scream than she had when it had first manifested. She still had an uneasy feeling about how it had come about and where she'd really been in the missing time between the resort and this university, but she tried to focus on the things she could change and accepting the things that she had no control over for the moment.

Between training, testing, and teaching classes, she hadn't had much time for rest in the last few weeks. But that wasn't much different from her normal life, and at least she had the chance to sleep next to Roy when they did get sleep.

She'd made a point to tell Diana about her team and to tell Ray, Felicity, and Roy about Diana. She finally thought it was time that everyone meet up. So she'd invited them all over for dinner. She even promised not to cook because those who knew her well enough knew better than to accept anything she'd made herself. Eventually, she settled for just ordering enough pizza for everyone. It wasn't a fancy dinner party, but the dinner wasn't really the focus of this gathering anyway.

Felicity chewed on her thumb as she stared at the screen. She wasn't sure what she was looking for. She had read the available papers on the X gene, the debate on whether or not it existed. She'd paid attention to the leading thinkers, and she'd even read what she could on those who were "changed." Gamma radiation and Super Soldier serum, there was something about toxic waste.

She'd been a little nervous about asking to test Laurel's blood; the hacker didn't want her friend to feel like a lab rat. It was one thing to have a boyfriend who didn't mind being experimented on, even if it was dangerous and exciting. It was a completely different thing to ask to experiment, or to poke and prod in this case. Experimentation with Ray, or his suit more so than him, was testing the suit, not testing him, not seeing what he was made of.

Felicity had been concerned that Roy wouldn't let anything go on, that he'd bring up the very issues that she had with all this - testing Laurel like she was something to be dissected, nothing more than a frog, worm, or shark. Some kids got to dissect sharks in school, or so Felicity had heard.

Roy sat in the corner, giving Laurel assuring glances. He looked ready to help in any way he could, even if it was simply holding his girlfriend's hand. Felicity was getting over how odd this whole situation might be, even the different reality issue. She leaned against Ray a little as they waited for the results of the blood test.

"I've tried to tell it everything we need, but this would be so much easier if the team from STAR Labs was here." Her hand rested on Ray's shoulder. "Caitlin would know what to do."

Laurel had a difficult time focusing on work after discovering the sonic scream that came out of her mouth, but she did her best. So far, she hadn't lost control again. She also hadn't found much time or chance to practice control. It wasn't until she was looking over the list of staff members and spotted a familiar name in the physical fitness department. She just had to hope that it was the same Diana.

She found the department easily enough-she'd had the chance to explore the campus and learn it by heart, and she'd sometimes come here to use the gym after her own classes. It didn't take too much work to find out where Diana would be. Laurel found the Amazon leading a class in archery out on one of the fields. She took a seat in the nearby bleachers and watched the last ten minutes of class. If this wasn't the same woman who'd trained her back at the resort, she would be surprised.

Once the students had packed up and started to filter off the field, Laurel pushed off her seat and moved over to the brunette.

"Diana?" there was the faintest hint of a question to her tone. She waited and hoped for the spark of recognition in the other woman's features.

Laurel wandered for awhile after what happened with the would be mugger. She couldn't get the image of his prone figure out of her mind, nor could she wipe away the feeling of that scream bursting forth from her lungs. She wasn't sure what to make of all of this, but she knew that it was best if she wasn't around people right now. She didn't want to hurt anyone else

She knew that by now, Felicity would have worked on cleaning up the mess she'd left behind. She wouldn't put it past the hacker to have erased any street cam footage of the event, and to come up with a cover story for what had happened. She felt bad for leaving her friend behind to do all that, but there hadn't been a better option. After walking for awhile, she'd stopped to send Roy a text message. She had a feeling that Felicity would have contacted him soon too and she wanted to let him know that she was... well, 'alright' was a lie. But she wanted to let him know that she was still drawing breath and just needed to stay away for his own safety

She hadn't turned her phone off after that. Maybe she wanted the contact of a text message or a call back, or maybe she knew on some level that if Roy wanted to find her, he'd have Felicity track her phone. None of that went through her mind consciously, but the decision to keep the phone turned on was a decision all the same.

She'd found a few empty beer bottles in her wandering and eventually she cut through a corn field. The corn was high enough to conceal any sight of her from the road. And hopefully, hopefully she'd go unnoticed and unheard. She set the bottles down and tried the scream again. She didn't know if she should be trying to suppress it, but she had to know more about what she could do. She couldn't exactly get it to work on command-sometimes she tried as hard as she could and nothing but a strangled cry came out. Other times, she barely opened her mouth before the sonic scream left her lips and shattered the glass bottles in front of her.

After she'd succeeded at the scream a few times, she took a seat and just stared at the shards of glass scattered on the ground. She hugged her knees to her chest and took a few deep breaths as the fear and panic from earlier gave way to a delightful numb feeling. She'd be lying if she said that she hadn't at least wanted a full bottle to dull the worry for a little bit, but she didn't seek it out. She was stopped as much by her fear of opening her mouth and seriously injuring someone as she was by thinking about how long she'd been sober and how far she'd come. And as out of her element as she felt right now, she wasn't going to throw everything away for a temporary fix to a much bigger problem.

Felicity hadn't been avoiding Laurel Lance, but she hadn't sped out to find the other woman either. She was glad to learn that Laurel was around, and she hoped this was the Laurel who belonged with the Roy they'd met back on the ship. Felicity hoped that both of them would be happy, and she did her best to not think of all the cooties that were shared in that pairing. She really did wonder at her brain sometimes, and thanked whatever put them together that Ray didn't mind how her brain worked, only that it did and often.

When she saw Laurel's name on the IT ticket system, Felicity decided that she would look in to the problem herself. She wasn't sure what "it's just not working" meant, but it probably meant something serious had happened. Laurel was a capable woman who could probably troubleshoot quite a few things, but "it's just not working" made it very difficult to decide what the problem was exactly.

Laurel's secretary was a nice woman, and she let Felicity in without question. Felicity was more than a little surprised at the power of her badge. Things people did when they saw IT; they could be so trusting.

She'd been working on the computer for a short time when she realized what the issue was; Laurel showed up at the same time. She tapped a few more keys and turned a smile to the ADA turned law professor. There was awkwardness, but both women were determined to work through it. Each saw a potential ally and friend in the other, even if they weren't from the same reality.

Because going to a bar to work it out over drinks wasn't an option, they settled on the next best thing: coffee.

"I think he liked you." Felicity smiled. "Or was he one of your students? Which is weird to say - you and Ray have students. I have tech monkeys - I'm going to call them that I think. Fly, fly, my little tech monkeys!" She paused on their walk. "Hmm, maybe not?"

The campus was beautiful, even as or especially as the sun set, so the two women thought walking and talking was a nice choice. Walking and talking somehow seemed safer than sitting in a busy coffee shop to catch up or hash out some confussions.

The last Laurel remembered, she was fighting her way through the creatures that had overwhelmed the hallway at the resort. She never did find Roy. And then... nothing. Nothing until she woke up in a tiny apartment. Further inspection produced notes for a lecture, a schedule, and an ID badge bearing her picture and 'Professor Laurel Lance.'

"This is way more disturbing than a forced vacation with monsters," she muttered to herself.

It wasn't that she had problems presenting in front of a crowd. After all, she was a lawyer. But she was more worried about the fact that she'd apparently been given a job that she didn't interview for. It didn't help that Roy was still nowhere to be seen. She took a few minutes to explore the apartment and found some of her clothes in the closet, including a certain black leather outfit and tonfa. She wasn't sure yet if that made her feel better or worse. But she had learned her lesson from the resort. She found a briefcase and made room for the weapon. Just because this place didn't seem to be currently under attack didn't mean much.

With all that done, she set out to explore. The sun was just setting and judging from her schedule, she didn't have anymore classes to teach for the day. That was a small comfort, she supposed. It gave her the whole evening to explore and see who she could find. She resisted the urge to suit up for the moment, though it was tempting. She didn't know exactly what waited for her out there.

The crisp air that greeted her once she got outside was a bit of a shock. This was no longer the balmy air from the last place. The trees were afire with reds and oranges, and there was no ocean in sight. She started to make her way around the campus, wandering by the dorms and then grabbing a paper from the news stand. There was something about 'Avengers' on the headline and a picture of people in brightly colored costumes, including a man in a metal suit. That was... new. She also ordered coffee from a nearby vending cart and then kept walking with her attention half on the newspaper and half on her surroundings.

It had been a strange few days at the resort. The staff had disappeared and for some reason, the even emptier halls felt eerier. Laurel didn't mind having to fend for herself in terms of food and cleaning and fetching her own towels for the pool, and so on. But she did have to worry about what might have happened to send all of the staff away. Or what might be coming down the pipeline that they could see whereas the abductees could not.

She'd spent this particular morning in the gym and was just coming out of that room when she heard snarls. Which was strange, to say the least. She looked around, only to see a pack of gigantic hyena-type creatures. They were a bright crimson, but resembled hyenas in shape. And in the laughter-like sounds that bounced around the hallway once she spotted them. She silently ran through her options in the split second or so before the beasts would pounce. Running on its own wouldn't do much good. So she whirled and knocked over a table lining the hallway and adorned with some decorative vases. The vases shattered as they hit the floor. Laurel didn't wait to see the reaction, but turned and made a beeline for a nearby exit.

Once outside, she found a tree to climb. She just had to hope that the mutant hyenas couldn't climb trees too. There were coconuts on a nearby palm tree that would have to do for attempting to take them out before they went looking elsewhere for prey. She had to wonder how they'd gotten in here. And if they'd gotten in, what else was lurking in the resort?

Laurel was going a little stir crazy. Some might say that she didn't know how to take a vacation, which was probably true. Though she attributed her inability to relax and enjoy the scenery to the fact that they'd been brought here by an as-yet-unseen force and so far, there was no way out. She missed her dad, and she was worried that she would have no job to come back to. It didn't help things much that alcohol was so readily available and there were no AA meetings at the resort. She spent a lot of her time with Roy, and that helped as a distraction from other ways she could soothe her anxiety. And when she wasn't with Roy, she hit the gym. Hard. she actually found herself wishing that she could find something that hit back. That would be better than spending her time with a punching bag. Though, she hadn't gotten so desperate that exploring the outside of the wall in search of the spiders as big as a house sounded good. A few more weeks of this and who knew how far she'd go to break the monotony, but she wasn't courting a death wish just yet.

The sound of her knuckles against the bag echoed through the empty gym. It was still strange to her that this place was so empty. After a couple weeks here, she still had nothing but more questions. Working out helped to quiet the questions and worries for at least a little bit, but they were still there.

As soon as she found a way to punch her way out of here, she was going to take it. And she was sure Roy would be right by her side. Likely, the others as well, if they actually found the way home.

Her form while fighting still needed work, but she'd been training hard and had improved a lot over the last year. It was just a shame that she seemed to have rotten luck when it came to trainers. First Ted had landed in the hospital and now she'd lost Nyssa. She and Roy were doing the best they could to help each other, and she just hoped that didn't mean that something was going to happen to separate her from Roy.

They'd been here for about a week now and still hadn't found a way back home. It wasn't all bad, but that didn't mean she was completely at ease. She was, however, enjoying things as much as she could. She and Roy had combed just about every inch of the resort looking for answers, and they'd come up with nothing helpful. They had yet to wander outside the wall, but she didn't feel up to doing that until they found weapons to use. They would need to check it out eventually, because there was a very big chance that 'stay away, it's dangerous' was meant to dissuade them from finding the one way out of here.

For now, they found other ways to expend energy. One of those ways just happened to be sparring in the gym. Roy kept her on her toes. He'd learned a lot in his time with Team Arrow and he made a good trainer. She just hoped that she'd learned enough to keep him on his toes as well.

They were both dressed in the closest to workout clothes they could find in this place. They had plans to check out one of the fancier restaurants afterward. If she squinted, she could almost convince herself that this really was just a vacation. Almost. She put a hand on Roy's and gave it a squeeze.

"When we get home, we should think about doing this for real. Or at least we could take a weekend to head somewhere a little sunnier? What do you think?"

She tried to suppress the slight flush as she realized that it might be seen as a big step in the relationship. Going away for a weekend was kind of a big deal. She tried not to be conscious of such things, but there was a part of her that might always be a little gunshy about taking relationship steps. After all, her first serious boyfriend had run off with her sister once they'd started discussing moving in together. Not to mention that both had been thought to have died for years. So there was that. But she tried not to let that scare her away too much when it came to moving forward with someone else. Then again, all of this might be a moot point if they didn't find a way home. But she wasn't ready to quit hoping. That wasn't her style.

Laurel didn't like the idea of going to sleep in the strange hotel where she wasn't sure that she could trust her surroundings, but eventually she realized that she didn't have much choice otherwise. She'd barricaded herself in the room as best as she could and eventually sleep claimed her in the wee hours of the morning. She woke a few hours later and was a little disappointed at finding that she was still in the same place. A glance out the window confirmed that nothing had changed overnight. That this wasn't some crazy dream.

She would have to spend more time trying to talk to the people around here and trying to figure out what was going on, but she had the need to do something more physical. She was already missing training and she thought that the least she could do was swim a few laps. And then she'd resume the search for a way home. She just hoped that it didn't hold as many dead ends as yesterday. Wherever he was, Roy had to be going nuts. Or worse. She couldn't help but worry about what might have happened to Roy after she was knocked out. Staying active and trying to keep her mind off things was the way to go right now. Worrying about losing yet another man that she cared for might paralyze her and keep her from continuing to fight to get home.

She wasn't ready to take a chance on the ocean, but the hotel pool looked safe enough. She dipped a toe in the water, making absolutely certain that it was water. When nothing happened, she dove right in and started to swim around. The exercise had precisely the mind numbing effect that she'd hoped for. She lost herself in the movement as she swum the length of the pool and back a few times.

Sunlight filtered in through the windows, and Laurel groaned as consciousness started to overcome her sleep. Her head was aching and she struggled to get her thoughts straight. What had happened last night? She hadn't been drinking. Of course she hadn't, though the headache and confusion certainly made her worry a bit. No. She remembered now. She'd gone up against that gigantic blond vigilante-wannabe and had her ass handed to her. She winced and chanced opening her eyes finally. If Savant, as he'd called himself, had knocked her out... then where was she?

That thought cut through the grogginess and the headache and she sat up straight and looked around. She was no longer in her Black Canary outfit, which was disturbing all on its own. Instead, she was in a sundress. She tried not to shudder at the idea of Savant undressing and dressing her again. She stood and paced around the room, which appeared to be a well appointed hotel room. A glance out the window made her stop and stare at the beach outside. She frowned at the expansion of white sand and the rolling aquamarine waves. Beaches like this didn't exist anywhere near Starling City. So she'd been knocked out and taken somewhere else? She forced herself to take a few deep breaths and circled the room yet again, looking for anything she could use as a weapon. And where was Roy? Had he gotten away, or was he here somewhere too? She wasn't sure which she hoped for. If Roy was here and she could find him, they might have a better chance of getting out of this together. But if he was back home and safe, then he'd be able to rally the rest of the team to find her.

She didn't find much in the way of weaponry or even makeshift weaponry, but she would just have to improvise if it came down to it. It was more of a surprise when she found that she was able to leave the room. The door wasn't barred and nobody was guarding it. Which was extremely strange. If Savant was behind this, then where was he? What was his plan here?

She grabbed the keycard on her night stand and then ventured out into the hallway, senses on high alert as she looked for anything or anyone that might be a threat.

They had yet to track down the vigilante wannabe. His m.o. was all over the place, but he seemed to feel the need to make sure that his presence was known in the city. She’d asked Nyssa about it, but Nyssa swore that he wasn’t one of her father’s men. Laurel still hadn’t decided if she would trust that, but she had a feeling that it was true. Nyssa might not be entirely truthful with her about everything, but she didn’t believe that the other woman had good reason to lie about this. And she trusted Nyssa, in a strange sort of way.

So the team kept taking to the streets in search of the man who was causing so much trouble for Starling City’s underworld. Laurel thought that it showed growth that Oliver recognized that killing criminals and/or beating them to a bloody pulp wasn’t the way to go about things. Though she also wondered if he just had a need to micromanage any other vigilantes in the city. It was likely a little bit of both, but she was still glad that her ex had chosen a better path to justice these days.

She was currently checking out a street near the Glades that was rumored to be a haunting grounds for a gang that was terrorizing women who dared to walk through on their own. Roy was backing her up from the rooftops. Laurel preferred those times when she had Roy watching her back. The two worked well together-and that had been true before they started seeing each other.

No matter how aware she’d been as she patrolled, she still didn’t see the hulking blond guy coming. He managed to sneak up behind her and clock her in the back of the head. Laurel reeled forward, mind racing as she tried to get her body to cooperate and turn to fight. Instead, her knees hit the ground with a thud.

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