whoa! This chapter got away from me. I did not expect it to turn this long. Or be this graphic.

Beware there is graphic violence in the second part of this chapter.


According to the SCPD the attack occurred around 11 PM in the underground garage of the Starling Plaza Hotel. The victim is a Jane Doe in her early twenties. The murder of this young woman, as well as the two before her seem to echo the series of attacks Starling was subjected to some years ago by the so called "Starling City Slasher" -...

Felicity turned off the news channel and sighed. This person whoever they was the reason she was currently stuck with a very grumpy Oliver working his anger out in the gym. When the second attack had happened Felicity told Oliver that he had a week to bring this person to justice because after that, it was her turn.

Felicity was a competitive person. She didn't like to lose. Especially not to Oliver.

She'd just reached for her phone when it started ringing.

Sara.

Super convenient coincidence since Felicity was just about to call her.

"Are you psychic?" Felicity said as way of greeting.

"You watched the news, huh?" Came Sara's dry reply.

Felicity remained silent, because what else was there to say?

"How's Ollie?" Sara asked when Felicity didn't answer her.

Felicity sighed. "Hopefully not breaking any bones from the force he's hitting that dummy with"

Sara was about to laugh at that but she caught herself and the sound came out as a weird strangled cough instead.

"I'll be with you in twenty. These killings are going to end. Tonight." Sara stated, all humour gone.

The line disconnected.


Two days after her dinner with Sara, Laurel received a very big bouquet of flowers delivered to her home. To say she was surprised would have been an understatement. The bouquet consisted red peonies, her favourite flowers, and the came straight with a pot which meant she could grow them in her apartment instead of watch them whither. The thing was, there were exactly four people on this earth who knew what her favourite flower was - her parents, her sister, and Tommy. Make that three.

She signed the sheet for the delivery and then went back into her living room and placed the pot on her coffee table.

It took a couple of tries, but she eventually found the card she was looking for. It was a plain white envelope that once opened revealed a bright red card with a big black bullet that dissolving into a flock of birds. But along with the card there was something else - a Bluetooth.

Welcome aboard, Athena, we're glad to have you on our side.

~ D.

PS: Press the red button on the Bluetooth if you wish to contact 's a secure, untraceable line.

Laurel wasted no time in turning on the device and attaching it to her ear.

There was a soft crackling sound and then a voice came through.

"Finally," she sounded awfully familiar, but Laurel couldn't quite place her. "I was beginning to think the delivery boy got lost. I was just about to call and pester them." the woman on the other side of the line paused to take a deep breath. "How do you like your flowers, Athena? A little birdie told me they were your favourite."

It took Laurel a moment to gather her wits. She'd been in many strange situations in the past, but this one might just take the cake. At least all those years ago when she was using that encrypted cell-phone she knew it was the Hood at the other side.

"Athena?" she asked, unable to help herself.

The voice on the other side chuckled, "I figured it was fitting - the goddess of wisdom and justice - considering what you would be doing for us as well as your line of work..." there was a momentary pause. "You can pick something else if you don't like it."

Laurel thought it over for a moment and smiled, it did fit her.

"Athena it is." She conceded. "And what do I call you? Dee?"

"The name is Devorah, actually." her companion answered. "Well not really, but Canary and I agreed to use aliases only to protect our identities from people who may hold a grudge..." again, there was a pause "Not that they would be able to get into my secure network, because I happen to be the tech wizard around here and I'd sniff them out before they hit enter."

And just like that, Laurel knew who she was talking to. Of course. There weren't that many computer geniuses in the city. Let alone crime-fighting computer geniuses who were on a first name basis with her sister.

"Breathe, Felicity." she chuckled.

"No real names, Athena." Felicity's voice was suddenly devoid of all humour. "Ever."

"I thought you said the line was secure and untraceable?" Laurel countered with the slightest hint of confusion in her voice.

"Oh it is," Felicity assured her "But you can't be too careful. We can't afford to take any risks, Athena - "

There was a loud beep on her side of the line and Laurel could hear her jump in her seat.

"I look forward to working with you and well, getting to know you better. I'll let you know when we have a case." Felicity told her.

"I'll keep the Bluetooth close," Laurel replied. "Oh, and Devorah, I look forward to helping you, too."

There was a muffled curse from Felicity's end, that Laurel was pretty sure was not directed at her and then the line disconnected.

Well... That was bound to be interesting.


"How my little niece?" Sara says as way of greeting when Felicity opened the door to let her in.

"Or nephew." Felicity added.

Sara smirked at her and reached for Felicity's abdomen "Pretty sure it's a girl. The universe has a sense of humour when it comes to Ollie." she laughed.

There was just a slight hint of swelling at Felicity's stomach. Sara rubbed it gently.

"You feeling okay?" She asked her friend as Felicity led her towards her office.

"Baby's giving me a lot of morning sickness for a pomegranate seed, but other than that I'm ok." Felicity replied with a smile, her hand falling to her belly.

"Pomegranate seed?" Sara snorted, cocking an eyebrow in wonder.

Felicity laughed back heartily, "Oliver downloaded this app that tells you how big your baby is in comparison to different fruit in each week of the pregnancy. Apparently at six weeks, the baby is the size of a pomegranate seed" she explained.

Whatever Sara was about to say next was cut off by an alert on Felicity's computer.

"That would be Laurel, I asked her to send me all the info they had on this guy," she said, hurrying to her brand new orthopaedic chair and spinning into position.

And indeed there was a file waiting for her, containing all the information the SCPD was able to gather on this guy. It wasn't much, but what little there was was enough to make Felicity's blood boil and she was sure that Sara would fly off the handle.

No wonder Oliver spent so much time beating the shit out of those dummies in the past week.

"Donald Finch. In his late thirties, six foot one, has a history of human trafficking, theft, several aggravated assaults. He was serving a sentence in Iron Heights but was released two months ago due to good behaviour. No medical records are available." Felicity read aloud. "He's been seen around all the crime scenes but the police doesn't have the evidence to convict him. Last known address, an apartment building on the corner of Liberty and Fifth street."

Sara's fists clenched and she gritted her teeth. Human trafficking, huh? She'd downright enjoy bashing his head in. She turned on her heel to leave and suit up, but Felicity called out to her and stopped her before she could leave the room.

"I've got some gadgets for you on the third shelf. I gave Cisco that sonic device of yours and he played around with it some. He says he made it better and these should have stronger vibrations with longer lasting side effects. I'll keep digging for his medical records, I'll let you know as soon as I know more, keep your comm on." Felicity said, without looking away from her computers.

Sara nodded mutely and grabbed her new tech. She pressed a quick kiss to Felicity's head and left the office.

She passed by Oliver in the hallway and they exchanged a quick nod and pat on the arm after which Sara left Oliver and Felicity's place and went home to suit up.


Sara killed her motorcycle's engine two blocks away from the address Felicity gave her.

"Devorah, I'm on site" she said into her comm, having already turned on her voice modulator.

"Copy that, Canary. I count five heat signatures on the top floor which probably where Finch is. There's an emergency staircase on the west side of the building, you can use that to get onto the roof and I don't have to tell you what to do from then on."

Sara chuckled, but it came out like a mangled cough due to the modulator "Oh, I'll give him the VIP treatment, don't you worry," She said darkly as she started running towards the western side of the run-down building.

"Play nice."

"Never"

Sara examined her surroundings carefully. Building was five stories high, there was no back exit, a lone street lamp that seemed to barely cast any light and a large dumpster to the far corner of the brick wall that surrounded that side of the building and made it look like a small backyard.

She ran straight towards the dumpster and leapt onto it, another long jump and she was balancing herself on the brick wall. Sara went back a little, so that she would have more opportunity to gain momentum, then she broke into a run and flung herself towards the fire escape. One swing, two, three, and she'd managed to pull herself up the metal contraption and started climbing her way up to the roof.

Once she reached the roof and the door leading to the stairwell, she had to roll her eyes, because who leaves the emergency exit unlocked, in the middle of the night, in such a bad neighbourhood?!

She was about to head in when Felicity's voice crackled through the comms

"Just got my hands on the medical files. Be careful, Canary, that guy has anger and control issues..."

Sara let out a loud hiss. That was a nasty combination. Oh well, he wasn't the one with anger management problems.

"I'm going in." she said and then muted her comm, knowing that Felicity didn't need the stress of hearing her grunt and crash into things, nor did she need those lowlifes howling in pain in her ear.

She expanded her bo staff and went in.

Halfway down the stairs she could hear voices coming down from the end of the corridor beneath her. She stilled, listening quietly so that she could assess the situation.

All men.

Two of them sounded pissed off. One was bored, another was restless and the fifth was trying to play peace maker.

They were as distracted as they can be.

Sara rolled her eyes. Amateurs.

She approached the apartment door, walking on the balls of her feet, staff at the ready.

she was about to kick the door in, when she remembered her tech. She didn't really need to use it, but she knew Felicity would be curious as to how well it worked, so with her friend in mind, she took one out.

Hell, maybe it would do her job even easier.

She took a few steps back, ready to kick the door in when her comm let out a series of quiet beeps. A signal that Felicity needed to talk to her.

"What?" she whispered as quietly as she could. Even though they wouldn't have heard her, she didn't want to give up the advantage of surprise that she had on them.

"I dug around some national databases. May or may not have hacked the Witness protection system... Finch would kidnap young girls and sell them to the highest bidder. Those that didn't cooperate ended up like the girl on the news... you might want to ask around for the other girls he has captured... There were several disappearances, according to Athena, all young girls in their twenties, unconnected, squeaky clean records."

Sara let out a sound that awfully resembled a growl.

"He'd be lucky if he can breathe by the time I'm done with him," she replied.

With that she clutched her canary cry device in one hand and her staff in the other as she jogged forward and kicked the door down with one solid kick.

Next she rolled the device to the centre of the room and raised her staff - ready to fight.

The device emitted a high pitch and Sara revelled in watching them clutch their ears and scream in pain, dropping glasses and whatever they were holding to the ground.

The sound of glass hitting the floor was amplified when the windows shattered into tiny shards and flew across the room.

One of the goons looked up from the floor and noticed her.

He was huge - his arms as big as Diggle's and he was easily taller than Oliver.

This bigger they are - the harder they fall.

Sara smiled sardonically at him and tilted her head, challenging him silently.

He charged at her with a roar and she dodged him, causing him to run straight into the hallway and bump into the bannister, he would have toppled over had he not had the presence of mind to brace himself.

His roar had alerted the others to her presence, though and as much as Sara wanted to throw him off the fifth floor, she had to deal with the other four henchmen.

The sonic device died down.

Show time.

Sara swung the staff forward hitting skinny goon in the ribs and then swung it again, spinning with it and aimed another hit at Mr Cologne-a-lot. She ducked to evade the punch from henchmen #3 and used her staff to sweep him off his feet.

Henchman #4 got to her with a kick to the base of her spine, sending her flying forward and landing face first on the floor.

The floor covered in glass shards.

The cuts stung across her face and palms. Tiny glass pieces cut into the sleeves of her costume.

But the pain only made her focus sharper. She got up, dusting herself quickly and charged at the goon who had kicked her, a high kick to the jaw and a sucker punch to the stomach made him stagger back and fall to the ground. She smirked when she heard the crunch of his jaw against the sole of her boot.

Sara aimed another kick at skinny goon's chest, using the wall to her left to gain momentum. She kicked him in the ribs and effectively got him out of the way. She slid on her knees towards her staff and picked it up again.

"Kill her!" roared the fifth man in the room that had remained silent so far.

Sara's vision zeroed in on him - slimy, slicked back hair, sunglasses and a cheap suit.

"Finch." she growled and twirled her staff, bringing it in position to strike.

Before she could get to him, the two remaining thugs cut off her road to him.

One from the front and one from behind.

Sara turned just in time to hit him in the face with her staff, sending him a couple of steps back.

Then she brought her her attention back to his buddy.

She could take both of them, but not with the staff. She was going to need both her hands.

She took the staff apart and attacked who turned out to be Mr. Cologne-a-lot.

She was genuinely surprised how he was even breathing from the amount of pungent cologne he'd sprayed on himself.

Three swings later he was groaning on the ground. Sara aimed a kick at his diaphragm and the groaning stopped.

However, focusing on one goon had left her open for his friend.

She realized her mistake when she heard the bottle cut through the air. She didn't have enough time to dodge the hit.

The empty glass bottle hit her full force in the side of the head.

Sara staggered, her weapons falling to the ground.

Her vision blurred and the world seemed to be spinning. She could feel the blood trickling down her temple.

Fuck. Cleaning the wig was going to be a bitch.

Asshat aimed a chair at her, but Sara managed to dodge it.

"Hit me once, shame on me," she said, giving him her best sadistic smile, "Hit me twice, in your dreams." With that she kicked him in the gut and lunged forward, wrestling him into a headlock. Her right boot ended up aiming a vicious kick at the back his knee.

The crunch that echoed through the room would have made a lesser person throw up. The man's scream made her break into a malicious grin.

She tightened her grip around his neck and pressed against his trachea until he went limp in her arms.

She let him go and he toppled to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Sara wiped the blood off her face and turned to face Finch who was not as intelligent as the media gave him credit for because he was still standing in the room in his cheap suit. A smarter man would have been long gone.

She picked up on half of her staff on her way to him.

He started backing out towards the corridor and for a moment Sara let him.

She let him delude himself into the hope that he could escape her.

Then she reached towards the side pocket of her pants and pulled a small knife.

She aimed and let it fly.

It hit him in the calf.

Finch fell to the ground with a wail.

Sara walked over to him slowly, calmly.

He flinched when she stood over him, one foot hovering over his wound

"Where are the girls?" she asked him coldly.

"Go to hell!" he spat at her.

Sara snorted. "Wrong answer"

She lowered her boot to the side of his wound and pressed on it.

Finch screamed louder.

Sara smiled.

"Where are the girls you kidnapped? The girls you were planning to sell like cattle?!" she growled at him.

Finch looked at her with all the spite and fury he could muster.

Unfortunately, for him, looks could not kill.

He spat hat Sara's leg in contempt.

"Go to hell!" he grunted.

Sara tilted her head "Been there. Done that."

She lifted her leg from his wound and aimed it at his throat.

He gulped.

"I will not ask again" She told him.

Finch glared at her with all the contempt he could muster.

Sara pressed her foot against his throat.

He choked, bringing his hands up to try and remove his foot but she smacked them away with her staff.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" she roared, pressing harder, but not hard enough to make him pass out.

"B-b-basement," his answer was barely above a whisper, but Sara heard him.

She aimed her staff at his head and swung, hitting him with everything she had.

The man crumpled against the wall, unconscious, and he would remain like that for a while.

Long enough for the cops to get here.

She went back to the main area and picked up the other half of her weapon and headed downstairs.

"Devorah, I have a location on the girls. Have Athena send the cops to pick up the trash and call an ambulance." Sara told Felicity when she switched her comm on again.

"Ambulance? Are you ok?"

Sara looked down on her hands and grimaced at the headache she was developing.

"Just a few scratches. Nothing a bottle of whiskey and some stitches can't cure. Sin can handle it." she replied "Don't worry, Dee. I'm fine. The ambulance is for the girls. Just in case."

"On it"

Sara reached the basement and stilled, listening to for any noises that might lead her in the right direction.

Sure enough, there was some rustling coming over to her left followed by someone making shushing noises.

Sara knew what rats sounded like - those wasn't rats. She also knew what terrified women in cells sounded like - most definitely that.

She ran towards the source of the noise.

"Stand back!" She shouted as she reached the door.

It took her a couple of kicks but eventually she managed to kick the door down.

Sara turned off her voice modulator and tucked her weapons back into the holsters on her waist.

"I'm not here to hurt you, "she said gently, raising her hands in front of her. "I'm here to take you home. It's over." she explained, when the three girls flinched and huddled closer together.

"The cops should be here any moment now, there's an ambulance en route as well. Let's get you upstairs..."

"Finch.." One girl objected. She looked no older than twenty two. Sara's heart twisted in her chest.

"Will never bother you again," she couldn't help the menacing growl that came out of her throat. "Let's go. I'll stay with you until the cops get here."

She led them up the stairs, making sure to walk slowly and turn back every now and again to make sure they were alright.

"When you get to the precinct, ask for Captain Lance, tell him what happened, he will make sure you are looked after and safe." Sara told them just as they reached the entrance of the building. She could hear the sirens in the distance.

"I have to go," Sara told them and turned around to head back upstairs.

"Why are you helping us?" a second, black haired girl, called out after her.

Sara turned on her heel, halfway up the staircase, and smiled. "No woman should suffer at the hands of men."

With that she disappeared.


"Athena, this is Canary. Bastards are incapacitated, and there will be 3 girls with the Captain for you to talk to. Work your magic. Nail this piece of shit." Sara told her sister through her comm, the minute the police cars disappeared around the corner.

"Copy that." Came Laurel's response. "You okay?"

Sara grunted as the cuts on her hands burned from the friction of sliding down the metal fire escape. "Peachy".

"Canary,"

Uh-oh, the 'big sister voice'.

"I'm fine, Athena, I swear." Sara sighed, mounting her bike. "Take care of these girls."

She didn't wait for an answer, but disconnected the comms.

She couldn't wait to get home and fall onto her bed.


Laurel delivered her closing argument with a flourish, her voice completely commanding the courtroom. She was in her element - precise but compassionate, laying down the facts and extracting what she wanted to hear from the witnesses with a finesse that few of her colleagues possessed.

Persuading the three girls to take the stand had not been easy, but Laurel had always been a people's person. The gentler sister out of the two. The more compassionate. Eventually she managed to persuade two of them to testify under an assumed identity and the promise of witness protection.

The two witnesses, plus the bundle of evidence Felicity had sent her while Sara was busy "taking out the trash" [Sara's words] were more than enough to put Finch behind bars again, this time for twenty five years with no prospect for parole or early release.

The moment Finch was taken away, Laurel turned back from her seat to look at the benches.

Felicity and Sara were sitting next to each other, smiling proudly at her.

She smiled back and approached them.

"I think a celebratory lunch is in order." she told them with a smirk.

Felicity's eyes lit up. "Your nephew is craving Italian," she said, standing up and pulling Sara up with her.

Sara sighed and rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Well, whatever my niece wants, my niece shall get. Lunch it is."


I hope you liked where I took it. Since this was their first case I wanted it to be about defending women, since that was what Sara was all about when she was first introduced. As always opinions are more than welcome, I'd love to hear what you think. Don't be shy. I don't bite.