I find myself sitting in front of my big sister Laurel's grave. I feel numb worse than I ever did during my time on the Amazo or the League. Laurel should be here. This was always going to be my fate, but it shouldn't have been Laurel. Laurel should have had a normal life. Law career. Marriage. Kids. Why did she have to follow me into this life? Why did she have to join Ollie's crusade? Hadn't she seen this life ruin enough lives? It's ruining Ollie's life. It ruined mine. I died.
I begin to slowly tracing Laurel's name on the headstone. Then her birth year. Then the year she died. The lastly Black Canary. That makes me smile a little. Laurel managed to make the Black Canary a positive. Something I've never could do.
I felt movement behind me, "I don't want to talk, Ollie," figuring my dad had told Oliver that I was back in the present and that I knew Laurel was dead. The feeling of having someone stare at me hadn't left me, I move my hand to my hip just in case Oliver isn't who is behind me. Dad said these Ghosts are tough.
Whoever was behind me had gotten closer. I tightened the grip on my knife at my hip. Oliver doesn't move that quietly. In fact, the only people I've ever seen move that quietly were in the League.
The person behind me finally speaks, "Ta-er al Sahfer."
I turn around at the use of my League name and standing there is Nyssa. I don't understand how she is standing here in Star City. Last I had heard Nyssa was sitting in a cell in Nanda Parbat. Before I left with the Legends, Laurel had told me, Nyssa had destroyed the Lazarus Pit. Malcolm would never have released her, not for any reason, especially not because Laurel was dead. I don't care why she is here, I'm just glad that she is. I release my grip on the blade at my hip and walk over to Nyssa and practically fall into her embrace.
"I'm so very sorry for your loss. Laurel was a gift to the world and she was taken to soon from this earth." Nyssa whispered into my ear. I bury my head into Nyssa shoulder. Laurel had said that Nyssa had helped train her and that they had formed a friendship of sorts.
"How are you here?" I finally ask, "Malcolm would never have let you go. Not after…" I don't finish my sentence. I don't like talking about my time in the Pit.
"I had loyal followers within the League. Those who believed Malcolm usurped the title of Ra's al Ghul. Then I went to find the Lotus elixir to cure Thea of her bloodlust. I used Oliver's devotion to his sister to get him to handle Malcolm."
"Ollie, fought Malcolm? And won?" I ask surprised. The last time Ollie went up against Malcolm during the Undertaking, he almost died.
"Do you wish to talk about this, Beloved?" Nyssa asks quietly.
"Do you know of another way to distract me from the fact that my big sister is dead?" I say.
"I do not know how to make your sadness go away, but we should not bring the ugliest of Malcolm Merlyn to Laurel's resting place."
I turn back to Laurel's grave and sit down in front of the grave again. Nyssa sits beside me and I lean into her side and she wraps her arms around me. We just sat there in front of Laurel's grave for a long time not talking. I felt tears running down my face, but I don't brush them awhile.
"Laurel convinced me to go with the Legends and try to make the world a better place, but if I had been here then maybe Laurel would still be alive. I shouldn't have gotten on the Waverider." I say.
"Beloved, I'm not sure it would have mattered." Nyssa says gently, "Laurel had become fighter in her own right.'
"But you don't know that," I say tears still freely flowing, "And now my parents have had to bury both Laurel and I."
"I cannot imagine the pain that your parents are in, but I am confident that Laurel was always proud of you."
"She was always the stronger one. She should be here. If Rip had just dropped us off when we left instead of the present. I could have prevented it, or at least tried. If…." Rip had to know that Laurel was going to die. He said he researched us, but after what happened to his family why wouldn't he let me save mine.
"Who is Rip?" asks Nyssa.
"Someone who has a lot to answer for," I say standing up suddenly, "I have to go."
"Go?"
"I'm going to save my sister." I say as Nyssa is getting to her feet.
"How? The Lazarus pit is gone." Nyssa says.
"I have something better than the pit." I reply. I give Nyssa a quick kiss on the lips and I instantly remember the good times in Nanda Parbat with her. Nyssa, truly is the only thing I miss from my time in the league, "I'm sorry. I need to go. I have a time ship to find."
I turn and start to head back to where Rip left us. It seems as good as any to try and find my way back onto the Waverider.