Title: Walked Straight into Hell (and found Heaven)
Words: 2507
Pairing: Laurel/Oliver and Nyssa/Laurel brotp
Genre: Angst/Romance
Status: done.
Summary: The madness only ends one way, Laurel knows it. So she takes it into her own hands.
"This only ends one way," He said and he was right.
She took her jacket and left him. They were done talking. Now, something had to be done. Her sister was strong. Strong enough to leave a legacy Laurel was making sure would never die.
Nyssa showed up at her doorstep, "You know he will die. The person you know. That flesh and blood, you love so much. He is going to die by taking this offer." She said as she stood there in the doorjamb.
Laurel shook her head. "No, he's not going to."
Nyssa laughed. Such words were arrogance of a caliber she had never heard.
But Laurel looked at her and Nyssa felt the brewing emotion underneath the surface of her companion. "Laurel, he is not given a choice. He must give up all claim to his former life. And my father's offer was not an offer, it was a given to him."
Laurel just looked at her. "We're going. We're going to get your father to give that offer to me." She said as she went to her closet and picked out a sword.
The brunette almost smiled. That sword was a beautiful quality, something she never would have expected out of the older Lance sister, but then, Laurel was pretty much constantly surprising her. "He's stalwart in this decision."
Laurel smiled as she looked down at the ground. "Oliver is the only thing I have left. I don't have friends. They've all moved on. I don't have family. I don't have the people I love the most. Except Oliver and Thea. They are the only things I have left anymore. So I'm going to be damned if I do not challenge your father to save my own. If I win, I use these resources the way Sara would have wanted them used. Sara hated the killing, but she loved the league." She promised Nyssa. "Take me to the Demon's head," She said.
Nyssa nodded and said nothing but lead them out of Laurel's apartment. "This will be a trying task you know," She said.
Laurel nodded. "I did not take this quest lightly," She promised.
"And the league will be galled. Mine was to be one of the first female demon's heads." Nyssa rambled one.
Laurel could tell that Nyssa was nervous. She didn't know why. Nyssa was not the one doing the fighting. She was. Laurel was going to fight the Demon's head because she had to try to save her family. The only family that mattered.
Once they were at the helipad, Nyssa kissed her forehead. "These men will ensure you a safe passage to Ra's Al Ghul," She promised Laurel, "But I can go no further. I cannot divide my allegiance between the two of you and I will surely be asked to choose a side. And the one I should stand with, is not the one I want to stand with," Nyssa said and turned away.
"Where are you going?" Laurel asked, the fear caught in her throat and she could hear it on her voice.
Nyssa shook her head. "You will do well, Ziryab, but I have a few things that I must attend to, before I can see my father again," She said and smiled over her shoulder. "Ta al se-fer would be very proud of you."
And with that she was gone.
"Where the hell is she?" Oliver asked as he dialed her number for the eighth time. She wasn't like this. Laurel was smart and slightly paranoid about her phone. She always kept the stupid thing on her and now she was nowhere to be found.
Nyssa walked in. "Ziryab, Laurel, has gone to challenge my father," She said as she looked at Oliver.
Oliver dropped his phone. "Excuse me, say that again, because I don't think I heard you right," He gritted through his teeth, "Because it sounded a lot like you said that Laurel,"
"Went to challenge the demon's head. That's right," Nyssa said. "For whatever reason, Laurel sees something in you that I cannot. Sara saw it too. She has decided that for all the people you stand for, she is not letting you die to become the demon's head. Her challenge comes as direct competition to your candidacy for this throne and if she wins, she will become the demon's head. She will become the next Ra's Al Ghul, she will honor Sara's memory." She said.
Oliver picked up his phone.
Nyssa shook her head. "She did this to save you. Now, how about you show a little compassion and return the favor," She said and then left without a word.
Oliver couldn't believe it. He sat in Felicity's chair and sighed. Laurel went to face the greatest threat of the world just to save him and Thea. Because although, Nyssa hadn't said it, Thea would always be a part of who they were together. They all fit together. They were a family. A little dinged up, but a great one that he didn't think he could take away from Thea.
He called Felicity, "I need to know where Ra's Al Ghul is," He told her.
"Any particular reason why? I mean we haven't gotten Roy out of prison, so you know, still working on that and I thought that was our priority." She said.
He heard clacking at her keyboard and he exhaled into the phone, "I wish I could save Roy right now, but I can't. You guys are going to have to carry that one on without me," He told her. "No, I need to focus on Ra's and finding, finding…"
"Finding who, Oliver?" Felicity asked as she pressed her ear closer to her shoulder.
He nodded. "Finding Laurel," He said. He said it out loud and it became real. Laurel was doing this. Laurel was risking her life. She would surely never be the person he ever knew again if she took on this role. "She's challenging him to save me." He told Felicity. "She's giving up her life in order to save the Queen Family's." He said. He willed himself not to cry. He willed it to be okay in a way that he knew that it may never be.
"Right, well, you're in luck, I mean not luck, but I mean I found him, Lexington and 89th, seem like he's been there for a while, so I assume that's where she's going, but Oliver, don't save her until she needs saving okay?" Felicity asked him.
This shook him. "She needs saving now. She can't take him." He said as his anger found him again. "She can't just be challenging him. I need her."
"Exactly," Felicity said, in an almost whisper. "And she needs this. Look, just make sure she doesn't die, but allow her to have this fight, okay? She loves you. She's just trying to save you from a life that she knows you'll hate," She said, and it hurt to talk about Laurel like this. Like she had regrets about everything. Like she could be gone in the morning. "She didn't get to help you last time. Let her help now."
He shut off his phone and took off, Lexington and 89th was on the other side of the city, but it allowed him to ponder the words that he'd been given about Laurel. He thought about all of the times he'd gone. On the boat. To the island. To Nanda Parbat. To that damn mountain. She'd always been a chief reason among his myriad to go. He wanted to figure out how to fix them. And he went at it alone.
And now she had done the exact same thing. She'd gone out there alone, to fix them. She'd gone out there alone to help him. Never consulting if he wanted her help. There was something in that, because of course, he never consulted her either. He never asked if the time spent apart was okay.
Mostly there was worry that she wouldn't make it out alive. This mission had a high risk of fatality and she jumped at it, without a second thought about it. The thought of her dead was worse than any other fate he could imagine.
He thought about that stupid picture on the island. Her face. Her smiley face was the only thing that kept him alive so many nights. The fact that she was alive was the thought that helped him rest in places that he should never be able to rest.
When he got to the building, he heard swords clanging and burst in the door. Neither of the combatants looked at him, instead concentrated on each other. She was beautiful in a fight, not beautiful because the moves were beautiful, they really weren't, her moves were deliberate and punchy. They were meant to have kick. They were Peggy Carter, in the way that Sara's moves were Black Widow.
Still Ra's got in good shots, she was worn and he could tell she would definitely be bruised, but there was no mountain for him to throw Laurel off. That gave him hope because at least she wouldn't be where he couldn't get to her. When Ra's looked up and saw Oliver, he smiled, "I can see why you like these sisters. This one has more grit, perhaps from losing more," He said and swung a killing blow.
Oliver stepped between them and the sword slit his side, a good mortal wound. Something that not everyone would come back from. And he stood there in silence.
"This was not your fight, Al Sahim." Ra's raged. "This was Ziryab's fight. Her death. Her honorable death. And it will be her death." He said and looked over to Laurel as he picked up his sword stance and started at her.
"It will be my death too, then." Oliver said.
Ra's stopped. "Why would you waste your legacy for one woman?" He spat. "You could be so powerful, Al Sahim, but now I see you for what you really are. You are weak. Just like my daughter, weakness borne from love. At least Ziryab's love brought her strength. And now you will see that waste away,"
"Think again," Laurel said and ran her sword straight through his gut without thinking about it.
When she realized what she had done, she dropped the sword and Ra's spat up blood. He looked proud though. "See, that's what love should bring. A desire to keep the ones you love safe. She went to the ends of the earth. Did what had to be done. And for that, she will become the next Ra's Al Ghul," He told them, before his eyes closed.
Laurel took his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed the phone, her hands shaking as she looked at him. "You should not have come here," She said with a smile that said otherwise and a look in her eyes like she could cry because he did.
"I could say the same about you," He told her.
She nodded and when she heard Felicity's voice, her whole face lightened. "I need you here. Right now. Oliver needs medical attention and we cannot move him, if we do we risk him losing a lot of blood. I also need you here fast," She said as she looked at Oliver who was nodding off a little. "Okay, just hurry," She said and hung up. "Nope, you can't do that, talk to me," She told Oliver.
"Why did you come here?" He asked.
She shrugged. "You said this only ended one way and I wasn't going to let you die, literally or figuratively to save the rest of us. I needed you to be you. Even if I couldn't be." She said. "I don't have a family to go back to. But you do. You have Thea. And you have Felicity. And Roy and Diggle. They need you. Way more than anyone needs me."
"I need you," He whispered. "I've always needed you." He told her.
She nodded. "I would go to the ends of the earth for you," She promised him.
He chuckled and winced. It hurt when he laughed. "This was pretty close. This was farther than anyone has ever gone for me before," He told her.
Her face wavered. As she looked at him, hurt because of her, because she was about to die, she felt like crying. "I'd do it again. Again and again." She said as she caressed his face, gentle and soft skin making him smile. "I love you."
He grabbed her hand that wasn't touching his face and squeezed it, "I love you too. Always and forever, never gonna change," He told her.
"Always and forever," She choked out. That was what they said when they were in love. They were unstoppable. Their love, she thought, would be so epic that even time would notice and stand still for moments at a time.
He closed his eyes and Felicity came barging in. Laurel stepped away and let her work. She went to her cell phone and called Nyssa.
"You are alive," Laurel heard from the other side of the phone.
She nodded. "Your father is dead. And I'm the next Ra's Al Ghul. But the thing is that I would rather like to gift that position to you. I'm needed here." She said as she looked at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes, her entire little family there.
"He saved you." Nyssa said and Laurel thought she heard something vaguely reminiscent of a smile.
Laurel laughed. "He did. Funny how he came in to save me. Like he knew what I was going to do. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" She asked.
"No, I cannot say that I do. If Oliver has done something compassionate, then it is truly a sight to be seen," She said and Laurel just shook her head. "You said something about handing over the title though?"
Laurel smiled, hearing the excitement in Nyssa's voice. "Yes, I want you to take it over. Run like Sara would have wanted it run. Besides, this is what you've been working towards your entire life, I cannot take that from you." Laurel told her.
Nyssa blushed. "One thing, Ziryab." She said and Laurel waited. "Don't ever let him doubt how strong you are. Because your sister would be in awe of you," She said.
Laurel tried to keep it together, but hearing Nyssa say that she was making Sara proud, that was something that she didn't think she would hear again. Her sister was the bravest person and the strongest. "Thank you," She said, lightly into the phone. "Till we meet again."
"Your city will be free of assassins for a while. They will not interfere with your work here," She promised Laurel. "You and your team will be able to keep your city free from crime as you see fit," She said. "Till we meet again."