Sara stares after Nyssa as she leaves as the last one and closes the door behind her.
Leaving Sara all alone with the Demon's Head.
She turns around to a mess of arrows, daggers, swords, bow staffs and ripped pieces of clothing.
And blood.
And bodies.
"This… this isn't peace." Sara whispers in the suddenly quiet hall.
She just can't look away from the life less bodies, only noticing Ra's al Ghul's movement from the corner of an eye as he puts his cloak back on and wanders around the room.
One of the fallen men lost their hood and his eyes are staring right at her as the blood stain around him grows.
Sara wants to back away, wants to run but there is blood everywhere on the ground around her.
"You have much to learn, child." the Demon's Head tells her, kneeling on the edge of the well as he fishes a couple of arrows out of the water.
"Peace isn't the absence of violence. It's the absence of oppression and imbalanced power. Or do you not have boxing matches in times of peace?"
That's one fucked up way to define peace but Sara can't think of a good argument to dismiss his logic, her mind still trying to process what just happened.
Ra's al Ghul walks from the well to a little niche on the wall beside it. There's a little table with several jugs, mugs and grails as well as some small boxes. All gold and very ancient looking.
"The League of Assassins has existed one way or another as long as laws have existed." he explains as he opens one of the boxes and pulls out something small that Sara can't define from across the room.
He walks back to the well, moving around he room as if bodies scattered on the floor are part of he interior.
"Because where there are laws protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty, there are loopholes making the guilty untouchable." he explains as he dips the thing in the water and carries it back to the table.
"So you're just putting yourself above the law and killing them." Sara states flatly, keeping her eyes fixed on him. But his back blocks her view of what he is doing.
Finally he turns around to her, a mug in his hand that could pass as the Holy Grail from a King Arthur movie as he makes his way towards her.
Sara forces herself not to flinch at the splashing noise when he steps into puddles of blood. Blood of his own men.
"Imagine all bad people were gone at once. Imagine if you had the power to do so," he holds out the cup and Sara takes it without any conscious decision as he continues, "All murderer, rapists, child abuser, drug dealers, politics who let their people starve so they can be rich… would you not wish their death?"
The way he stares at her makes her want to squirm.
He looks so knowing as if he had heard every single violent and bad thought she never dared to say out loud.
Stab Anthony in his sleep.
Castrate pedophiles and let them bleed out.
Burn people who mistreat animals alive.
Hurt abusers the way they hurt their victims, make them feel what they felt.
"Wishing someone was dead and actually killing them are two very different things," Sara defends her thoughts, "We've got prisons for people like that."
"And did prisons help against Anthony Ivo?"
Sara opens her mouth but nothing comes out.
She has wondered why no authorities ever tried to stop Anthony. There were countless nights she spent wishing that when someone finally arrests him it'll be a country that has a death penalty. Only to realize that no one was coming.
"If you had the power to stop him, would you not have done it?" Ra's al Ghul inquires but he sounds like he already knows the answer.
"But I wouldn't have killed him!" she cries, answering a little too quickly.
Would she?
Knowing what she knows now, would she really not have killed him the first moment she met him if she could have?
It would've speared Shado, Slade would've never been injected and Ollie would still be alive. Not to mention the countless prisoners like Allison and her boyfriend and Peter and Anatoly and Thomas and even Hendrick.
Sara always told herself that she just didn't stand a chance against Anthony and the crew on her own. But even when he was all alone, injured and begging her for death, she didn't have the guts to pull the trigger.
Not even after all the horrible things had happened had she been able to make sure Anthony can never hurt anyone ever again.
"Drink." Ra's interrupts her thoughts and Sara takes a look at the liquid in the grail for the first time.
It looks like plain water.
"The waters from the Lazarus Pit have healing abilities." he answers her unasked question.
If that was all there is to it then surely the Demon's Head wouldn't go through the trouble to give it to her himself.
But at the mention of her injuries she notices the pain her body is in again for the first time since entering this room. She shifts her weight off her injured foot.
Ra's Al Ghul notices her hesitation.
"It is an honer to drink from the holy waters. And a one time offer to heal your wounds."
It's sounds like a threat in Sara's ears.
I will make you go through what I have in store for you with or without you being injured.
Despite the hair in her neck standing up at the idea doing what this man tells her to, Sara drowns the water in few big gulps.
It tastes like plain water too.
She's aware that Ra's al Ghul studies her while she drinks.
He looks satisfied when she hands him back the grail without a word.
He doesn't say anything for a while.
The silence stretches uncomfortably long as they just watch the other watching them.
Finally Ra's Al Ghul smiles and Sara feels like she has won and lost the stare off at the same time.
She wants to throw up his stupid holy water at his feet.
"It appears you are faced with a decision, Sara Lance. Die as the helpless child you are or rise to become a warrior like us."
Somewhere in the back of her mind she was aware that this is the choice it would come down to; kill or get killed.
But how can she help another mad man to hurt people?
Fuck, she wants to live - but she doesn't want to live like this!
"I-I can't…"
The Demon's Head ignores her protest as he walks to the door and opens it. Within a few seconds after speaking in the foreign language the room is swarmed with dark clad people again.
Does anyone around here wear anything other than black?!
Ra's turns to her as his men clean up the room around them.
"You will have one night to make your choice."
With those words one of his men pulls her away. As she is dragged away Sara looks over her should at the Demon's Head standing in the middle of his working followers.
People who can catch arrows in the middle of the air.
People who can fend off someone twice their size.
People who seem unfazed and in control in the face of danger.
People who could've easily stopped Anthony and Slade.
People who obey to Ra's Al Ghul's every word without questions even if it means their death.
A/N: Soo, what do you think? I mean, obviously we all know that Sara is going to end up in the League at some point but do you think she's gong to give in right away or is she going to struggle with her conscience and try to fight this?
Btw if you feel like discussing headcanons or ranting about how many opportunities the writers are missing I'm always up for talking via DM or tumblr (truelittleblackstar)
