Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
"It's very old. I haven't seen language like this since…" Nyssa trailed off.
"So, you know what it is?" Sara asked.
"I know what it isn't, which is less helpful." Nyssa said as everyone groaned before she turned to Roy. "How is it, that you're facing against Jade Nguyen, John Butcher and the Longbow Hunters?"
"Guess we've got that kind of luck." Roy shrugged.
"Apparently." Nyssa sighed as she examined the amulet before taking a look into Rose's journal. "So, three years ago, you found the Well of All in Himalayas but let it be destroyed?" She turned to Sara.
"We had to." Sara explained. "We didn't have a choice."
Three years ago, Himalayas
Rose and Roy were driving to a small town into a jail as Rose was talking to an officer in Chinese as he scowled but when she showed him a strap full of cash, he discreetly put it into his pocket as Rose and Roy followed him. "Who are we bailing out?"
"Sort of a hot-headed loose cannon." Rose explained as they were nearing the cell and looking at the man lying on the bunk, who looked annoyed.
"Look, you're ruining my sunlight."
"Oh, what a shame." Rose said sarcastically as the man shot up from the bed as Roy saw the branded 'J' on his cheek.
"Rose!" The man laughed.
"I should have known you'd get in trouble again." Rose chuckled. "How you doing, Jaybird?"
"Just great." The man laughed as the officer opened the cell.
"I had to grease some palms." Rose said as she and the man hugged each other before she sniffed him. "Jesus, do they have showers here?"
"I wish." The man said before turning to Roy. "Who's your friend?"
"I should introduce you." Rose smiled. "Roy, this is Jason Todd. Jason, meet Roy Harper."
"The archer." Jason said as he measured Roy. "Funny, you're not as tall as the Arrow." Roy shrugged. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"You're the one to talk!" Rose giggled, pounding Jason lightly into the shoulder.
"How'd you find me anyway?" Jason asked.
"I have my sources, Jason. We found it." Rose said enthusiastically.
Jason scowled before it hit him and he shook his head. "No. No. No, no, no, no, no…"
"Yes." Rose said. "Think about it, we can cure sicknesses, prolong human life… but if Broderick gets his hands on it…"
"As much as I like killing douchebags, I also like being alive, no, thank you!" Jason waved his hands dismissively. "I appreciate you bailing me out but no way you're dragging me back into that hellhole!"
"Either you're coming with us, or I'm making a call to Gotham and let's see how well are you gonna hide now." Rose threatened as Jason rolled his eyes.
"Fine." Jason said.
"If they haven't found the entrance, there's still time." Rose said. |I know where they're camping next."
Roy, in his Arsenal outfit and Jason in red hood and helmet were in a forest as they were walking down the river. "Arm the charges and as soon as they plan to camp here, they'll get fireworks and avalanche." She said over the radio.
"I like that plan." Red Hood smirked as Arsenal pulled out a map. "OK, we need to plant the charges here, here, and here."
"They'll never know what hit them." Rose laughed. "Just be careful, guys, there'll probably be scouts ahead to secure the perimeter."
Arsenal and Red Hood separated as Arsenal saw a lonely mercenary walking down a path as Arsenal took cover behind a rock and jumped down from above, knocking the mercenary out.
"Looks like they're setting themselves up." Red Hood said. "I'm seeing encampment ahead."
Arsenal reached the Red Hood as he was observing two men moving a big metallic machine. "What do you think?"
"I don't know but whatever they…" Suddenly, both of them were falling from the cliff down as they hit the snow as two mercenaries tackled them. Red Hood quickly got the upper hand over his enemy as he snapped his neck, while Arsenal grabbed his bow and tried to block the knife of the man, who was about to stab him as he kicked him back and as the man attacked, Arsenal dodged and knocked him out before glaring at the Red Hood.
"You did not have to kill him!" Arsenal snapped.
"It was either him or me!" Red Hood retorted. Arsenal was about to open his mouth before they heard explosions. "That's our cue to run!"
Rose was fending off the mercenaries using a sword and an Uzi as she was running through the camp set ablaze and taking cover as the mercenaries were throwing a grenade. As she hid from the explosion, she jumped on line on the tree and cut it, swinging across the river as the mercenaries kept on chasing her before she slid down and grabbed her trigger, pressing it as above her sounded explosion and the following avalanche buried the mercenaries pursuing her.
Arsenal and Red Hood hijacked a car as they were driving towards the rendezvous point. "I like it when the plan comes together! Whoa!" Red Hood yelled cheerfully.
"You're crazy, you know that?" Arsenal said, laughing.
"This should set them back for now." Rose said as they were resting in valley. "But, still, it's gonna be days before we find the entrance to All-Caste. For now, we should take some rest. There's a small town a few hours down the road. We'll get some sleep, food, then, we'll go."
Roy was at the bar with Jason, drinking beer.
"So, let me get this straight." Jason gulped. "You faked being Arrow and then faked your death because he was chosen by Ra's al Ghul himself. Then, he killed Ra's and gave the title to one of the greatest psychopaths on Earth?"
"I get he wanted to honor a deal but it was a mistake, if you ask me." Roy said disapprovingly.
"If I led the League, I would have turned it into a force of good." Jason said. "An… old friend of mine had also been an enemy of Ra's for a while."
"Why?" Roy asked.
"Long story, Harper." Jason said.
"So, what's your story with Rose?" Roy asked.
Jason took a breath. "Let's just say that I messed some things up and I didn't want to be around those I care about because I'd only get them hurt somehow eventually. I travelled to figure myself out, until Rose came to me and offered me some job for a load of money, but things turned into SNAFU."
"How so?" Roy asked. "Broderick's men?"
"He wasn't, who she thought was." Jason said. "Look around." Roy saw half-ruined walls and bullet holes as Jason kept on talking. "Broderick may be a visionary but he's one power-hungry S.O.B. He used this small town as a base of operations, until we snuffed him out. But authorities got a hold of us and I got caught and Rose and Jade bolted, not that I blame them."
"And you want to find that… treasure?" Roy asked.
"I don't know if 'treasure' is the right word for it." Jason shrugged. "But… it's supposedly a place of great power and I'm… curious. They used to be at odds with the League of Assassins from what I heard."
"How'd you find out about that place anyway?" Roy asked.
"A little bird told me about this place." Jason said. "The main reason I agreed to go there, was to figure myself out. The woman, who told us about that place was a woman named Talia al Ghul. Daughter of Ra's."
"Ra's had another daughter?" Roy asked, intrigued.
Jason nodded. "She left the League because she never believed that Ra's would hand his mantle to a woman and started to train her own disciples. I was one of them."
Rose was a few miles away from the town as she was in a cavern, putting a dagger inside a hole as the stone wall in front of her shifted and Rose opened a map from her pocket as the light from the ceiling shined on the mountain range. "Bingo."
Jason's phone rang as he answered the call. "Yeah, Rose?"
"Jason, I think I found a backdoor to the monastery. We won't have to fight through the guards again. We'll go first thing in the morning."
Unknowing to Jason and Roy, a blonde woman in fur jacket was observing them from the corner of the bar as she narrowed her eyes at Roy. "You're supposed to be gone…" The blonde whispered.
The following day, Roy, Jason and Rose were walking down the mountain road as they entered a small cavern tunnel and they saw corpses around before they heard whisper echo.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Jason muttered and suddenly, the corpses came to, very much alive as Rose screamed.
"Holy shit!" She stabbed the corpse but it did not faze it a one bit as it kept nearing her, while Roy fired at another corpse, piercing it's chest, while Jason started shooting at them.
"Zombies!" Jason groaned. "I hate zombies!"
They kept fending off zombies before someone jumped from above with a sword, slicing through the corpses as Roy noticed the long blonde hair. "Run!" The woman exclaimed and Roy could swear he had heard that voice before as the woman threw a torch on the ground, igniting some flammable liquid as Roy, Jason, Rose and the blonde ran to the entrance and the blonde tackled Roy to the ground, just as the cavern breathed out fire and the rubble buried the entrance. "How is it, that you keep getting yourself in over your head?" The woman snapped as Roy recognized that voice as his vision cleared, seeing the face of his savior.
"Sara?"
"So?" Joe asked.
"We found them. We'll cut them off and let them join us on our way." The man said. "But not Harper. I have some unfinished business with him. He needs to pay for letting me rot in jail and that A.R.G.U.S. left me for dead."
"You're lucky I helped disarm the explosive."
Ben Turner sharpened his claws. "Once I get my hands on Harper, he's a dead man."
Present, Ukraine
"You did the right thing." Nyssa said. "The Well of All is one of the most unstable Lazarus pits from what I've heard."
"And now we might have a lead to another source of eternal life." Sara said. "One of the lost cities of the League of Assassins."
"Long before Nanda Parbat." Nyssa nodded. "Father would have covered entire countries with blood, if that were the cost of finding one."
"And Butcher and the Longbow Hunters want to find it. If they get their hands on it, they'll be unstoppable." Rose explained.
Nyssa sighed. "I could try to reach out to… other associates."
"Former members of the League?" Oliver asked.
"Some of them." Nyssa nodded. "Are Thea and Laurel alright with this?" Oliver, Roy and Sara squirmed as Nyssa sighed. "Secrets are going to cost you dearly, you do realize that?"
"They wouldn't understand. And even if they did, we can't put them at risk." Oliver pointed out.
"You're giving them too little credit, Oliver." Nyssa said.
"She's right." Diggle agreed. "Oliver, I keep telling you that you don't have to do this alone."
"This time it's different, John." Oliver turned to him. "This time, we're facing far more dangerous people than before. The less people are involved, the better."
Nyssa finished examining the amulet as she considered as Sara turned to her. "Well?"
"All-Caste. Where exactly were the Acres of All in Himalayas?" She asked.
"That place is guarded by monsters." Sara protested. "We were barely able to get in the last time."
"We're not heading there. I just need to know the landscape." Nyssa said.
Later, Himalayas
Oliver, Sara, Roy, Nyssa, Rose and Jason walked down the mountains as Nyssa looked through the goggles. "Apparently, we're not the only visitors here." She handed Oliver the goggles as he looked across the hill to see militia making camp.
"Mercenaries. Looks like they're excavating."
"Butcher?" Rose asked.
"Seems likely." Roy nodded. "If Jade's nearby."
"And where's Joe or the Longbow Hunters?" Sara asked as Oliver handed Nyssa the goggles as she saw nearby a man with short hair and around 40 years old and very muscular.
"Richard Dragon. Their leader." Nyssa whispered. "This just got more complicated. Keep your eyes open."
They were walking down the mountains as they saw excavation equipment around. Drills, explosives, lights… then they heard voices as they took cover in the grass and behind rocks as Oliver, Sara, Nyssa, Jason, Rose and Roy knocked out the mercenaries that got into their proximity.
"Someone is here with us." One of the mercenaries said.
"Keep your eyes open. Kill anyone that gets in your way." The voice with Australian accent on the radio called out as Sara, Roy, Rose and Jason tensed.
"Joe." Rose whispered as they were trying to sneak past them.
"Next time I see Oliver Queen or Roy Harper or anyone else, I want their heads on a spike." Joe said over the radio as Rose sighed, disappointed that her brother was following Deathstroke's footsteps.
"Don't give up on him yet." Oliver assured her as they were hidden in tall grass. But then… the ground beneath them collapsed as darkness swallowed them all as they hit the rocky ground hard as they all groaned.
"Everyone OK?" Sara asked.
"We're peachy."
Suddenly, breeze entered the cavern as voices echoed but no one could find the source of the voices, when suddenly, above them were screams and gunshots and explosions.
"Ah, they're everywhere!"
"Shoot them! Aaah!"
"This place is haunted! Ghosts! No!"
"That's not good." Oliver said.
"We need to hurry." Nyssa ordered as they were running deeper into the cavern before a mist that shaped into a human, appeared in front of them.
"Heir to the Demon… and Al Sah-him…"
"You know who we are?" Oliver asked.
"You… have… come… to… prove… your worth…" The voice said before disappearing.
Everyone stared in confusion before they were going deeper into the cavern. "What was that?" Sara asked.
"I don't know." Nyssa admitted.
"It reminds a bit of the ghosts we saw back, when we were looking for the Well of All, remember?" Roy reminded as Sara, Jason and Rose nodded.
"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked, when suddenly a black arrow landed on the ground as they looked up to see a woman with long brown hair in black leather suit with belt of knives, a sheathed sword, a black hood and bow and quiver.
"You!" Nyssa glared.
"Oh, come on!" Oliver groaned. "Not again!"
"We have an unfinished business we need to settle." The woman said, aiming her bow at them.
Author's Note:
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.