I do not own Arrow or Daredevil or any of their characters
This is a crossover project between the sole show of the Arrowverse, which sadly will soon no longer be with us, and the Marvel show whose first and second seasons I've recently caught up on and enjoyed hugely, all thanks to being encouraged to check it out. As a result, both universes will be mixed in together, DC and Marvel characters interacting together. My partner with this, and the Flash/Supergirl crossover story I've planned out as well which will be connected with this one's universe, is my new friend and author of the great Devil and the Archer and Devil and the Hood series, as well as some absolutely cracking Flash or Arrow one-shots, Aragorn II Elessar. Thanks so much for the amount of inspiration for this and agreeing to a writing partnership, pal.
This will take place during Arrow season 3 and Daredevil season 2. Expect some massive changes, and for the better at that, to the Arrow season. The Daredevil bits won't be much affected.
Please enjoy and feel free to favourite and follow, and of course leave reviews saying of what you think of it. But, and I very respectfully ask this of anyone who sees this story and wants to check it out, and it will effectivly count for all the chapters to come and especially for who I will eventually be putting Oliver with; I will not take any nonsense for reviews I consider rude or offending enough to upset me, I am not someone who likes being judged and made upset because people don't like what he's done. So if this story doesn't turn out to be your piece of cake, then please don't review or just read and then move on without saying anything in way of judging.
Anyway, that's enough. Without further ado, I give you the first chapter of my new Arrow/Daredevil project, From the Shadows to the Open, and takes place before and in Arrow 3x01. Enjoy
Corto Moltese, night, October 7th
"Is she ready?" Malcolm Merlyn asked as he strode onto the airstrip where his private jet was waiting.
The uniformed pilot, standing by the four steps leading up to the open door of the plane, nodded. "Fully fuelled and ready as you requested, sir," he asked, with a hint of nervousness in his voice.
Malcolm nodded. "Then let's go," and with that, he walked up the steps and disappeared onto the plane, followed closely by the young woman with short brown hair in a red overcoat, her face expressionless, a travel bag in her hand.
On the edge of the field where the airstrip was, concealed in the shadows, a woman with long black hair, dressed in black jeans and sleeveless vest jacket over a burgundy red shirt, also sleeveless, watched through a pair of high powered binoculars with night vision lenses held in her gloved hands as Merlyn and the young woman entered the plane before the pilot entered and lifted up the steps, closing the door behind them.
She lowered the binoculars and took her phone out of her jeans' pocket, dialled a number and held it to her ear. "Merlyn and his daughter have just boarded his private plane," she spoke.
"Where're they headed, Ellie?" a man's voice spoke from the other end.
Elektra Natchios gritted her teeth at the name's use, but controlled herself as the plane's engines started up and a few seconds later it rolled down the strip and into the air, heading off in a north westerly direction.
She returned to her phone, "My guess is, considering the phone calls that Merlyn has made in the last day that I heard on the bugs I planted in his luxury household, they're headed for Starling City." She paused.
"What is it, Ellie?" the man said almost immediately.
"It's the way I've seen young Thea respond," Elektra said, "Something doesn't seem right with her. It's like she's not properly herself, like Merlyn's done something to her and she responds without hesitation." Again, she paused, then went on, "I bet it's some sort of drug."
"So what do you plan to do?" the man at the other end asked.
"Well whatever reason Merlyn has to travel to Starling City, and considering he's been on the run from the League of Assassins for months, it can't be good," Elektra said in a determined steely voice, "So I'm heading there myself. Hopefully I can alert Mr Queen and his vigilante friends that Merlyn and his sister are in town before whoever Ra's Al Ghul sends after them gets there first also." Without waiting for a reply back, Elektra rang off, pocketed her phone again and headed off the field at a run, returning to her motorbike parked on the road a few metres away. She pulled on her helmet, turned the keys and started the engine, and with a screech of tyres drove off.
Nanda Parbat, a few hours later
The two women, a brunette dressed in black and maroon robes, and a younger blonde dressed in black leather entered the hall with the Lazarus Pit where a buzz cut haired man dressed in long black robes lined with gold stood before it facing away from them, hands held behind his back.
The two women kneeled before him, heads bowed. "You send for us, father," Nyssa Al Ghul, the robed brunette, said.
The robed man turned slowly around, his hands staying as they were. "Yes, daughter," Nyssa's father Ra's Al Ghul, known also as the Demon's Head, spoke. He examined them both calmly, his face giving nothing away, "We have at last managed to acquire a location as to the whereabouts of Al Sa-her."
Nyssa and the blonde looked up, their eyes filled with surprise. For months, Macolm Merlyn, also known by his League name of Al Sa-her, the Magician, had lived up to that name with his annoying capability to continuously elude capture, denying Ra's of his intention to bring the man back to Nanda Parbat to face the League of Assassins' style of justice for his violation of their code of honour by instigating his mad plan to destroy half of Starling City just to avenge his dead wife. It had been the mother of the Arrow, Oliver Queen as everyone in the League knew him as of course, Moira who had contacted Ra's to inform him that Merlyn hadn't been killed by her son in their final battle atop the rooftop of Merlyn Global, but in a way that had just contributed to the matter.
But now, if what Ra's was saying was indeed true, then that really did change things. "Where is Al Sa-her now, father?" Nyssa asked.
"Our trackers have reported him to be in Starling City," Ra's explained, "For what exact purpose he is there on, as of yet we have no idea. That is why I wish to send you and Ta-er Al-Sahfer to Starling to capture him yourselves."
"I will be returning to my home city, my liege?" the blonde in black leather, Sara Lance, the Canary as is what her League name stood for, asked. Ra's could tell, without saying a word, the touch of light in her voice.
"Indeed, Ta-er Al-Sahfer," he acknowledged, "The fact that Starling City is where you are originally from, and that my daughter recently told me that you personally know Al Sa-her, will, I am sure, help with the matter." He paused, looking Sara right in the eyes, "However, I issue this strict condition to you personally."
Nyssa and Sara kept respectfully silent, so Ra's went on, "I will permit you to visit your family should you wish to do so, but understand this: you are to return to us this time. I will not tolerate any further disobedience from you regarding this matter if you again attempt to stay in Starling City without my permission for a second time."
Sara nodded, her face solemn. "I understand, my liege," she said, "I will not attempt to do so, on behalf of the agreement I made to come back in order to help take down Deathstroke." She glanced briefly at Nyssa, and the brunette nodded and smiled.
"Excellent," Ra's nodded, "You will leave for Starling City to continue the hunt for Al Sa-her first thing in the morning."
"Yes, father," Nyssa said.
"Yes, my liege," Sara said. She and Nyssa departed from the room together, leaving Ra's to his thoughts on the matter at hand.
The two women never noticed the individual concealed in the shadows of the corridor outside the main hall watching them go. But as soon as they turned the corner at the end of the corridor and disappeared from sight, it stepped forward, revealing a man, with dark shoulder length hair, a long jagged scar running down his right cheek starting from below his eye and ending at the corner of his mouth, dressed in League gear but without the mask. He bore the usual League weapons: quiver full of black feathered arrows, PSE-AD Compound bow, and a sheathed scimitar sword.
His mouth twisted into a triumphant smirk. "Thank you, half sister," he sneered to himself, his hard brown eyes filling with glee. He glanced briefly towards the doorway leading into the hall with the Pit, saw that no one had seen him, and then made his way through the corridors of the city and out into the open air.
Once there, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose. When he opened them again, his eyes were glowing yellow. Without speaking aloud, he chanted a spell in an ancient language from within his mind. A neighing sounded out, and seconds later a magnificent horse, a black racing stallion, bearing a saddle on its back, galloped out of the darkness, trotting up to him.
"Hey, boy," the man said calmly, patting the horse's head with a hand, "We have a little journey to make." He swung himself up into the saddle, gently pulled on the reins to turn the horse around, and then with a shout and a kick of his boot in its side they were away, the horse and its rider galloping gallantly across the plain and away from Nanda Parbat.
Honshu, Japan, unknown location, the next day, October 8th
Nobu Yoshioka, dressed in a dark suit, watched, stone faced, from where he stood on the second step leading up to the temple as warriors of the Hand, clad in their outfits of red and black, faces hidden behind masks, trained in the open courtyard in front of him. Some sword sparred, the clanging of their blades meeting ringing out all around, their wielders expertly dodging and ducking one another's attempted swings. Others performed archery at wooden targets to one side, their arrows thudding into the wood right in the centre, or close to at least, of the red bullseyes.
The lower half of the right side of Nobu's face bore burn marks, the resulting permanent scars of his battle at the pier warehouse with the masked meance, the infamous Devil of Hell's Kitchen, or Daredevil as the American press were now calling him, who had plagued Wilson Fisk's plans for the city like a never ending insect pest who refused to die for motnhs, until, with the co-operation of Wilson's cop mole Hoffman, he had finally toppled it all, resulting in Fisk and all his cohorts in the New York police force, press and city council being apprehended and thrown into the city's jails to rot out their days to come.
As his mind briefly wondered back to that night, Nobu thought about what should have been their final battle- he had inflicted deep wounds on the Devil, deep enough that they had weakened him, enough to kill him from the pain and blood loss. That is until at the last minute, the Devil had managed to outmatch him with the trick that had resulted in Nobu being engulfed by the flames that had inflicted his scars. Nobu should have perished, indeed, he had, but thanks to his resources and place among the ranks of the Hand, his fellow followers in the Japanese branch of the organization had retrieved him and brought him back to their home base, the temple where they were now, where they had revived him from the realm of the dead, scarred but alive.
The Devil thinks I'm dead, consumed by the fire he set upon me, Nobu thought to himself, But I will show him that death never stays permanent for long. And very soon, he will learn that for himself fully. Nobu nodded in satisfaction at his thoughts and continued to watch his students train.
An eagle's cry sounded out, followed by three more spaced out at one second intervals, and as the Hand warriors stopped what they were doing and looked up, Nobu doing the same, four magnificent golden eagles swooped down out of the sky, two landing and perching a few feet apart from one another on one side of the fence running around the compound, the other two doing the same on the other. Then came the unmistakable growls of a bear, and then another, and everyone looked to where the source had come from.
A man with long dark hair, a scar running down his cheek, and dressed in the wear worn by the League of Assassins, and flanked, extremely impossible to believe it would have been otherwise, by two great male Japanese black bears stood at the entrance leading into the Hand's compound. Now he walked purposefully forward, the two bears accompanying him, heading straight towards Nobu, the Hand members bowing their heads and clearing out of the way as he did so, the eagles on the fence swivelling their heads to follow.
The man stopped before the steps upon which Nobu stood and then lowered himself down onto one knee, bowing his head. The two bears growled again, but stayed where they were. "Master Nobu," the man said in Japanese.
"Greetings, Shabah Al-Shaytan," Nobu replied back, "I assume the reason for your visit upon us today involves some very crucial business."
Shabah Al-Shaytan, which meant the Ghost Demon in Arabic, looked up, his mouth forming a sly smile. "Indeed so," he said, "At last, thanks to what I heard my master the Demon's Head telling my half sister and her lover Ta-er Al-Sahfer last night, we now have a positive location as to the whereabouts of Al Sa-her."
Behind him, quiet murmerings sounded out among some of the Hand students, and Nobu himself gave a small hint of his own smile. "Where?" he asked.
"Starling City. The home of the vigilante in green," the scarred man answered, "Though as to what purpose he is there on, I couldn't say, as not even my master in the League knows."
"It matters not, Shabah Al-Shaytan," Nobu assured him. Although his expression hadn't changed, if only very slightly, his face was now alight. My god, we have been blessed with an equal fortune in opportunity, he thought to himself again.
Throughout the months following his resurrection and the time he had spent recovering from his wounds, Nobu had ensured his followers, as well as those he had successfully established within the Devil's home city itself, continued the Hand's vital search for a new Black Sky to use in their war against their rivals, the Chaste. The fact that the old blind man, the one known only as Stick, and who was himself a Chaste member, had located and killed their last Black Sky candidate annoyed Nobu greatly, certainly it had set them back a great deal, but that wasn't going to put off Nobu in his and the Hand's goals.
And now, thanks to Shabah Al-Shaytan, the news he had just delivered that Al Sa-her, the former member of the Hand's much bigger enemy, the League of Assassins, had at last been found after months of being on the run from his old employers only added even more to the fortunes of Nobu and his people, a golden opportunity in their hundreds of years war with the League and their leader, the Demon's Head, Ra's Al Ghul, to be taken advantage of.
"We shall begin the preparations for a journey to Starling city immediately," Nobu said to the scarred man, now speaking in accented English, "I am sure you would like to accompany us on it, Shabah Al-Shaytan."
The scarred man's smile grew. "As if I wouldn't, master Nobu," he answered almost gleefully, also switching to English, "It helps us greatly that my half sister and her lover are journeying to Starling City themselves under the orders of master Ra's in order to search for him. With who my half sister is, and who Ta-er Al Sah-fer has been trained into also, I would say we couldn't have asked for the best trackers in the world to guide us to him."
Nobu, and beyond him members of the Hand, nodded. "Indeed so," Nobu said, a proper smile now forming on his face, knowing full well what the scarred man meant by those words.
"However, before we head out on our task, I would ask of your permission to allow me to do a little something of my own first, of which the brother of Sarab, Golden Dragon, has a personal connection with," Shabah Al-Shaytan said.
"And what would this 'something' be?" Nobu asked.
"The sister-in-law to Golden Dragon, and the former wife of Sarab, to be precise, master Nobu," the scarred man said, "She is also an old friend of the Arrow's, and is now a member of a certain Order based in Kyushu, of whom she joined shortly after the events in Hong Kong a few years ago."
Nobu nodded, knowing exactly who the scarred man referred to. "You have my permission, Shabah Al-Shaytan," he said. He made a slight gesture with his head, "You will find Golden Dragon in his usual private spot."
A second Japanese man, maskless, and dressed in a leather outfit of dark red and black, red for his trousers and jacket sleeves, and black for his boots and the main body of his jacket, with black stripes running down the sides of his trouser legs also, the image of a gold coloured dragon breathing out fire displayed on his chest, stood watching silently with folded arms as two Hand warriors, their body figures female, both masked, sparred with their swords before him in the small muddy ground clearing in the forest which surrounded the Hand's compound.
The man's inner senses detected the approaching presense behind him and he stiffened, slowly unfolding his arms. Then he whirled round, at the same time throwing a shruiken. A sword knocked the lethal projectile away in perfect precision timing.
"Greetings, brother Takeo." It was Shabah Al-Shaytan, with two of the golden eagles perched on his shoulders. The other two, and the two black bears, were gone- he had released them from the telepathic spell he had used to summon them to him.
Takeo Yamashiro raised his eyebrows a little. Behind him, the two masked females, having stopped their sparring and turned to see who it was, knelt down onto one knee, placing their swords down on the ground beside them and bowing their heads.
"Hello, sharik," Takeo acknowledged, "What has brought you to see me about on this day?"
Shabah Al-Shayton explained to Takeo everything he had just shared with Nobu, including the purpose of his little walk into the woods to seek out Takeo.
"This is just what we have been waiting for, brother," he said at the end of it, "At last, we have the perfectly placed excuse we could ever have asked for in order to begin our co-joined plan." His grin returned once again, "At the end of which will see all of what we both want layed out before us for the taking."
Takeo nodded. "I could not agree with you more, shaqiq sharik," he said.
"So on that note, what do you say about paying a little visit to your sister-in-law before we accompany master Nobu to Starling City?" Shabah Al-Shaytan asked.
Takeo nodded. "I think that is a very sound idea indeed, brother," he agreed, now giving his own sly grin. He turned to the two still kneeling head bowed twins. "What do you two say?"
The two masked females both raised their heads in perfect synchronization. "Yes, master Dragon," they both said at the same time as each other.
(Now we come to the actual Arrow 3x01 episode. The events in Star City will happen as they did, except absolutely no Olicity date shit happened, and the blondey in glasses won't be entering any sort of romance with Ray Palmer either. The episode's end is where I'm now divulging it and season 3 as a whole from)
Star City, night
"Where are you?" Elektra muttered to herself in a frustrated tone as she stood on the edge of the rooftop, her red shirt collar pulled up over the lower part of her face, scanning the other roofs and the streets below with her binoculars, but again, still no sign of either Merlyn or of Thea Queen.
She had arrived at Starling City Airport earlier that day on the next commercial flight out of Corto Moltese that she managed to catch after leaving the airstrip, and as soon as she had disembarked and passed through the airport, she wasted no time and set out into the city immediately to search for her quarry. But to her total frustration, and as the old stickler Stick had warned her of, Merlyn had lived up fully to the name bestowed upon him by his former employers, the Magician, and she had been unable to locate his or his daughter whereabouts.
She had thought of going straight to Oliver Queen, yes she knew fully well that he was the Starling City vigilante, and his buddies to tell them of what she knew, but after watching them all day, making sure of course she wasn't seen, Elektra had decided to let them concentrate on taking Werner Zylte down, and anyway they didn't know her at all and would probably never believe her about Merlyn or Thea. Besides, she also knew that Oliver had no idea whatsoever that his sister was living in South America with the monster who was her real birth father. No, she would wait until she could deliver concrete proof.
Proof which suddenly alerted Elektra to its presence by jumping down from the rooftop right behind the one that was right in front of her. Upon which the blonde girl in black, the Canary, and who had just placed her mask back on her face, was herself, having just shared some words and a hug with her older sister.
Elektra focused on the new arrival, and stiffened as she saw who it was- Thea Queen, dressed in League of Assassins attire, hood up but without the mask, allowing her still expressionless face to be shown. And she carried a bow in her hand and quiver full of black feathered arrows on her back.
In a flash, Elektra guessed what she was about to do. She lowered her binoculars, anger forming in her eyes. Oh no you don't, she thought to herself and bent down to grab the metal pole lying on the ground by her feet. She straightened herself back up and looked again towards the opposite rooftop, seeing very thankfully that nothing had happened. Yet.
Gripping the pole tightly in her gloved hands, Elektra tensed, bracing her body for what she was about to do, and then launched herself forward off the edge of her building, descending towards where the blonde was, hoping and praying that she would arrive in time.
"Hello, Sara." Sara heard the voice, and turned round. Who she saw standing in front of her froze her to the spot, her jaw dropping open in surprise.
"What're you doing here?" she asked. The young woman in League of Assassins wear with the hood pulled up but lacking a mask didn't respond to the question, but reached back to her quiver, pulling out an arrow, notching it into her bowstring, raising the bow and firing-
But nothing is certain, not even murder, which was exactly what Sara now experienced as someone, a third woman with tied back long black hair, her top lacking sleeves allowing her well muscled arms to be shown, landed right in front of her, expertly batting away the arrow and the other two which followed in quick succession with the metal pole she held in her hands. Before a still completely shocked Sara or the new woman who had just saved her could react any further, Thea sprinted to the edge of the building and leapt off, disappearing down and out of sight.
Elektra stood where she was for a few seconds, breathing heavily, and then lowered her hands and the pole and turned to face Sara.
"Are you alright, Canary?" she asked from underneath her pulled up shirt collar.
"What...how-" Sara stammered, still completely stunned by what had just happened. But then someone slammed into Elektra, propelling her away from Sara with astonishing force, the pole falling out of her hands and dropping down with a clang as she rolled across the rooftop, only stopping when she hit into the raised edge.
"What's this, a Ranger caught off his guard?" another woman's voice asked.
Groaning as she pulled herself onto her knees, Elektra managed to give a sarcastic laugh. "I see you know Arwen's line to Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring, lady," she said as she stood up, "But I'm afraid the 'he' doesn't count for me, as I'm just like you."
Two hands grabbed her vest jacket and she was spun round and thrown roughly back onto the ground. "Be silent," Nyssa Al Ghul snarled as she drew her sword, Sara coming to her side, her right hand holding up her retractable batons in their bo-staff form behind her head, the previous shock on her face now replaced by a hard straight mouthed expression. The two of them positioned themselves in front of Elektra.
"I suggest you start talking, before your blood runs through the gutters of this city," Nyssa said.
Kyushu, Japan, same time
Tatsu Yamashiro, dressed in an outfit of grey and red, white mask with a red dot in the forehead's centre covering her upper face, knelt before the buddha figure on its stand inside the candlelit shrine of the Crescent Order murmering her usual evening prayer, her Katana sword in its pattern decorated sheath placed on the floor in front of her, when her senses alerted her that she was no longer alone.
She opened her eyes and reached out with her right hand, her fingers slowly curling around the grip of her sword. She took a breath through her nose, and then rose, whirling round, at the same time drawing her Katana from its sheath and pointing it, chest height, behind her.
Four figures faced her- a man with long dark hair and a long scar on his cheek dressed in the wear of the League of Assassins, a bow in his hand, scimitar sword on his belt; a second man clad in a red and black leather outfit, a mask covering his face except for his eyes, two swords on his back, the grips showing over his shoulders; and two masked warriors of the Hand, female perhaps judging from their figures, also bearing swords on their backs.
The man in red and black slowly reached up and pulled off his mask off his face with a gloved hand, revealing Takeo Yamashiro underneath. "Hello, sister-in-law," he said to Tatsu.
"Greetings, brother-in-law," Tatsu said calmly, an edge of hardness in her words.
And there you have it, and I hope you enjoyed it all. Please take note of the first A/N at the start before you review.
I got the inspiration to bring Takeo Yamashiro, who in the DC comics is Maseo Yamashiro's older brother, into use in this project thanks mainly to Bl4ckHunter's use of him in his story The Darhk War. For his face, picture G.I. Joe movie character Storm Shadow actor Lee Byung-hun. Yes, I know Lee is South Korean, but I've pictured him for Takeo for ages. For his suit, also picture the one worn by Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, and G.I Joe: Retaliation, but red and black of course instead of white. More of his background history, which will be both comic based and my own added in bits, and how he ended serving Nobu Yoshioka and the Hand, will be explained as we go along. The words 'sharik' and 'shaqiq' mean brother and partner in Arabic.
For our mystery man Shabah Al-Shayton, whose true name, as well as to what his history with Nyssa and Takeo Yamashiro is, I will reveal in time, and who I got the inspiration to use thanks to the Devil and the Archer by my writing partner Aragorn II Elessar, Tom Cruise is his face in this.
I had Elektra save Sara in this because 1) for the plans I have for this project, and because in Arrow season 2 I personally like the two women's love bond, even though my pal Aragorn II Elessar pointed out to me very rightfully that it's only possible if the League is around, I want to keep the Nysara/Nyssa and Sara pairing going, and 2) because this is obviously an Arrow/Daredevil crossover, Team Arrow and our Daredevil boy Matt Murdoch will need a good reason to meet and eventually team up, so Elektra's deed in this helps sow the seeds for that. On a small personal note to add, and no matter what others think opposite wise, I love Sara in both Arrow and Legends- Legends of Tomorrow has become my favourite of the four Arrowverse shows, and Sara IMO has been way way better than the hypocrite before her Rip Hunter in leading the team. Again, I ask politely for a non lengthy lecture on my opinions.
Tatsu is my second favourite of the Arrowverse women after Sara, I always look for any great looking stories by anyone with her in them, which shows just how much of a obsession for her I've grown, haha. More of why I have brought her in much earlier than 3x10 will become clear in the chapters to come.
And finally, I have big plans for Thea which I'm sure no one else has thought of before at all. What they are will soon be made clear.
Next chapter will be soon hopefully. So until then, adios from Flashraven.