Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow and intend no copyright infringement.
Someone had hired a hit on Walter. Someone with enough financial means to engage the best.
The League of Assassins.
They still had no idea who wanted Walter dead, but by now that question had become secondary anyway.
"How the hell are we supposed to make it out of here alive?" was a little more pressing at the moment.
They were trapped in a dilapidated warehouse somewhere deep in the Glades. All of them had gotten hurt in the course of a heated battle four against twelve which had turned into a siege for now, but the next attack was only a matter of time.
In addition to that they had to deal with a total breakdown of communication. They had lost contact to Felicity half an hour ago.
Diggle had survived three tours to Afghanistan, Roy growing up in the Glades, Sara a one year stint on the freighter and four years in the company of the most deadly people in the world, Oliver five years on that cursed island.
But this time around things felt different.
None of them said it out loud, but it was in the air like the stench of a smoldering fire.
This felt like the end.
THE end.
… … …
Felicity's big plan had been to get close enough to the warehouse to at least reestablish communication.
It took them about thirty seconds to catch her.
Sara had made it very clear that it was not in the nature of league members to be interested in pleading of any kind. Kneeling in front of the group's leader, the cold blade of a sword hovering over her carotid artery, Felicity did it anyway.
"What could a weak creature like you possibly offer us in exchange for your friends lives?", the hooded figure asked.
Good question. And – huh – it seemed like he was actually waiting for an answer.
"IT knowledge?", Felicity finally ventured.
She expected the man to break out in roaring laughter. Or to strike her down immediately.
Most likely both.
Instead he fell silent. Seconds that felt like hours passed by. Finally: "I need to make a telephone call."
And off he walked, retrieving a cell phone from his black costume.
… … …
"We've been trying to get rid of this virus for months. And she could also make our internet connection faster. Downloading files is intolerably slow right now."
Ra's al Ghul had to admit, his minion had a point. But on the other hand: "We have an assignment to carry out. Walter Steele is still alive."
"We've stepped back from assignments before. This could be a vital investment in the League's future", the other man insisted.
Not to mention the fact that he could spare Sara's life without losing his face, Ra's al Ghul thought to himself.
"Agreed", he said and cut the connection.
Thousands of miles away somewhere in North America an accurate blow to the carotid artery sent Felicity into deep unconsciousness before she even had a chance to realize what was happening.
… … …
Inside the warehouse Walter offered to give himself up to the Assassins. He still had no idea who was under that hood or behind that mask. They declined unanimously. In silence they prepared to die in battle.
But nothing happened. Minutes passed by, accumulated and slowly turned to hours. The sun sank behind shattered windowpanes. Still nothing.
Using the darkness as cover as well as he could with his injured leg, Oliver finally ventured outside.
"They're gone", he reported when he came back, barely trusting his own words.
"It's over. They're gone."
… … …
Twenty-four hours later a bucket of ice-cold water ended the drug-induced sleep the Assassins had forced upon Felicity to transport her to Tibet.
"Time to wake up!", an angry voice hissed.
Nyssa.
"She is with him now, isn't she? Sara is with that ridiculous vigilante. Tell me the truth!"
A violent kick in the stomach made Felicity gasp for air and curl up into a ball. She was shivering badly from the icy water and the cold stone floor.
"ENOUGH", a loud male voice thundered.
Without another word, Nyssa left.
Strong arms almost gently helped Felicity to her feet. "Servants will bring you fresh clothes and food. I expect you to start working an hour from now."
… … …
Coming back to the foundry and finding the lair empty hit all of them like a bolt of lightning. At first they refused to believe what instinct and experience were telling them. They tried reaching Felicity by phone, checked the lair's security cams… but when Ra's al Ghul's messenger came, he basically only confirmed what they had already suspected.
Felicity was in the hands of the League of Assassins.
What they hadn't anticipated, however, was the fact that she had willingly given herself up to save their lives.
"We cannot go to Nanda Parbat. It's a fortress. They've got eyes and ears everywhere. We try to free her, they'll kill her, in a heartbeat. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about", Sara tried to reason with Oliver.
"So what are we supposed to do? Stay put?"
Nobody replied. The answer was too painful.
… … …
"I did not step back from a lucrative assignment, risking our reputation of absolute reliability, for you to ruin what we were supposed to gain in exchange." Ra's al Ghul's gaze rested strictly on his daughter.
"Nothing I did left permanent damage", Nyssa defended herself.
"You know what I think about wrath…", he continued. "It clouds your judgment."
"Says who?", Nyssa replied before she could stop herself.
Ra's al Ghul looked at her with raised eyebrows. Everyone else would have paid for such disrespect with limb or life. But Nyssa was his child. And he knew her pain.
"You don't see it, do you?"
"See what?" Nyssa was still in defiant mood.
"The look on the woman's face when you mention Sara and that vigilante."
Satisfied with having given his daughter something to think about, Ra's al Ghul left the room.
… … …
"It was a scam."
Ra's al Ghul arched his eyebrows at Felicity. "It looked like a genuine message from e-bay."
"E-bay would never ask you to confirm your password via e-mail. And that e-mail promising you a tax refund? Sorry, scam, too. Granted, it looked pretty real, they've tried quite hard to copy New Zealand's Inland Revenue logos and all… are you seriously paying taxes in New Zealand? What do they think you earn your money with? Do they ever send tax inspectors to check? I've had one tax inspection in my life so far, afterwards the inspector suddenly had a year's subscription for The Teddy Bear Lover's Magazine… you haven't heard that…"
"How very evil of you."
Outside the sunset turned the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayan Mountains deep orange. Felicity couldn't help but stare in wonder at the spectacular sight.
"Thanks to you our computer system is running very effectively now. You've made our work easier. Well done, Ms. Smoak."
Suddenly the mountain tops seemed crimson red to Felicity.
… … …
"It is tea. Just tea. I'm not poisoning you."
Last time Felicity had seen Nyssa she had been rolling on the floor after a violent kick in the stomach – and now she was bringing her tea?
The League's headquarter was built like a huge temple complex, with lots of hidden gardens and remote corners where birds sang and fountains splashed. Almost two weeks had passed since Felicity's arrival in Nanda Parbat and she still couldn't wrap her head around the incredible twistedness of everything – the beauty of the place, the serenity with which the League members trained… the cold-bloodedness of their deeds.
Nyssa was still holding the cup out to her. Felicity decided that it would not be wise to refuse it. It was a delicate thing, light as a feather. The tea was dark green – as the jungle on a remote island… or a hood.
"Knowing that someone you care about is with someone else hurts", Nyssa said.
Felicity realized that this was as much of an apology as she would get.
"Yes", she replied after a long time.
They drank the tea in silence.
… … …
The first few days after Felicity's departure were filled with trying to figure out who wanted Walter dead. The League of Assassins had stepped back, but that only meant that someone else came along to pick up where they had left. They brought the replacement killer down and in the end also his client.
With Walter safe Felicity's absence became more palpable than ever.
None of them took it well, but Oliver… He stopped eating. He stopped sleeping. He worked out like a madman, but his weakening body refused to function. When he fell off the salmon ladder, Sara had enough.
… … …
"We're getting a visitor", Ra's al Ghul told his daughter as they were standing on the headquarters' highest rooftop.
"I know."
"I would have expected you to be more… enthusiastic… about her return."
"Her body returns. Her heart doesn't". Nyssa turned her face away from her father.
"You've learned something." He nodded in appreciation. "So what do we do now? Keep two prisoners? Kill one? Both?" Ra's al Ghul loosened his dagger from his belt and handed it to Nyssa.
It's your decision.
"For her friends' welfare Felicity Smoak would pledge allegiance to us and Sara would return to the fold. They would even face death… I could strike Sara down. But it wouldn't change a thing. Even the last beat of her heart would be for him…"
She handed her father the dagger back.
"You've really learned a lot", he said.
… … …
Felicity came stumbling towards Sara halfway on the path to the League's headquarter.
"They let me go. They just let me go." Felicity couldn't believe it.
Neither could Sara. She expected a trap every step back down the path.
But they were alone. They really let them go.
As Ra's al Ghul watched the two women leave from his vantage point on the rooftop he nodded in satisfaction. Nyssa would one day follow in his footsteps. To be the leader he hoped her to be she needed to understand the hearts of the people.
Instead of trying to force her will on others no matter what she needed to learn what they held dear, what they were willing to die for. Only then she'd be able to decide when applying pressure was useful and when it was only a waste of time.
As a leader, that ability would help her greatly.
Oh yes, bringing Felicity Smoak to Nanda Parbat had definitely been a vital investment in the League's future.