Chapter Twenty-Nine: Demon Seed Part One


Artemis wasn't going to lie, she was very glad to see Sara back in Starling City. Given the abandonment issues, she acquired over the course of her life, having one solid constant was a good thing for her, a very good thing for her as it turned out. For once in her life, Artemis felt a little bit better.

Despite the enjoyment of seeing Sara return to Starling City, Artemis really felt a little bit of dread. Thea talked to her a bit about it, and it was obvious she may have messed up putting on the hood. Artemis would go down defending it seemed like a good idea at the time, but at the same time, hindsight tended to a bitch.

The two of them made their way to the rooftops where they ran. Artemis realized how good of shape Sara was in. While Artemis was no slouch in the endurance department, Sara cut a pretty fast pace when going from rooftop to rooftop. Artemis tried, very hard to keep up and match Sara's pace. Her heart raced when following Sara along these rooftops as fast as she could go. One thought popped into Artemis's head.

'I really think this girl is trying to teach me a lesson.'

Sara repelled over one set of rooftops. Artemis thought she could make the jump and it turned out, the jump had been made, just by the skin of her teeth. Artemis gripped Sara around the arm and pulled her onto the rooftop, looking her directly in the eye a few seconds later.

Time stood still. Artemis really did not know what to say. She did not want to be the first person to say something and potentially put her foot in her mouth worse than Felicity on a bad day.

"Okay, now we really need to talk."

"Sure, talk," Artemis said. "Just give me a moment to catch my breath."

Artemis remembered deep breaths, deep breaths, and calming breaths. This was the key to keeping herself together, in a very troublesome situation, at least how she remembered. She turned around, with Sara leaning over the ledge. A small smile flickered over the face of the older girl.

"Do you have your breath caught, yet?" Sara asked.

Artemis tried not to smile. "About as good enough as it's going to be. You make it look so easy."

Sara just looked towards Artemis with a smile, almost knowing what she was going to say next.

"You had the right idea, this city does need someone to protect the less fortunate," Sara said.

Artemis blinked and looked back at the woman in question. "I'm sensing a but here, though."

Sara answered with a half of a smile. "But, despite the fact you had the right idea, you went along this in the very wrong way. You might have made matters worse."

The younger girl gave Sara one of the most cross looks possible. Sara recalled how she was around that age. Not exactly the bastion of common sense to be perfectly honest, the five years away really caused her to grow up. Still, she made many promises, and not that Artemis knew this, but watching out for her was one of them as well.

"I thought I did a fair enough job," Artemis said. "Granted, I'm not as good as you, no one can be as good as you, but I think I did a pretty good job in keeping the fear of the arrow alive and well in Starling City."

Sara responded with a long sigh, and it was then Artemis realized she might have said something wrong.

"It's not about fear. Well, there's a little bit of fear, criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot."

"Didn't you steal that from…"

The older woman held up a hand to stop the younger woman flush in her tracks before she said the obvious inspiration for that particular phrase. "It might have stolen it from someone, but it does bear repeating. They are, a superstitious and cowardly lot."

The wind blew over the city. Tonight, it had been a quiet night. A lot of the heavy rioting died down, but then again, it was early. The Starling City Police Department's new zero tolerance policy may have caused people to take a second look at what they were doing.

"The point is, it's not about fear, it's about cleaning up this city," Sara said. "It's about making this city a better place to live, for the rich, for the poor, and for everyone in between. A lot of the people I go up against, they're of the higher end of society. But, that doesn't mean there aren't problems on all rungs of the class."

A long second passed before Sara sighed.

"Every single night, I walk a fine line between mercenary and defender," Sara said. To empathize this point, Sara stuck her forefinger and thumb apart just barely to show Artemis how fine the line was. "And I learned a lot of these skills as an assassin. It's only second nature to want to eliminate the problem. And there are times where I have to. And there are times where I wish I did."

Artemis realized Sara was referring to the one and only Malcolm Merlyn. A frown flickered across the face of the younger girl.

"You had the right idea, it's just….it takes a certain something you don't have yet to put on this Hood," Sara said. "It's not to say you won't be ready someday because you will. And then I can retire."

"Being a vigilante doesn't seem like the type of a job to have a good pension," Artemis quipped.

Both girls smiled but a sound caused them to stand up straight. Sara realized the same thing Artemis did. Someone had been stalking them from the shadows and was watching them.

A flash of light appeared in the darkness. Sara avoided a dagger plunging into her and nailed the attacker with a huge kick to the side of the head. The attacker pulled back the knife and plunged it towards her. The skilled fighter blocked the arm, pinned it around his back.

She forced him down to the ground while putting her foot into the back of his thigh. The goon struggled and tried to break free from the attack. Sara turned to face the attacker who tried to nail her with a shot to the throat. The arm had been caught and Sara flipped him down to the ground.

This man and the way he fought, he would not go down that easily. Sara understood from moment one when she stood up against him.

A vicious shot to the side of the neck caused a numbness to appear in the spine of the person. Sara dragged the man over to the edge and dangled him over a ladder. There's a long drop to the city.

"Why did you come here?" Sara asked. "Who sent you?"

The assassin looked up, without fear, and flashed a bloody smile towards Sara's general direction.

"Remember, your promise."

The assassin threw his head back with a snap and slipped out of Sara's grasp before life completely exited his body. His body landed onto the ground in a perfect position.

"What the hell was that?"

Artemis's question broke Sara out of her concentration. Sara turned around and responded with a very labored sigh directed towards Artemis.

"He has been sent here to deliver a message, and nothing more."

Artemis wondered what the hell was going on with that. Sara didn't seem to be too inclined to give details. She gripped the arm of the younger girl and pulled her along.

"Let's go."

No questions could be asked, at least those which Artemis would be getting the answers out of anytime soon.


Felicity Smoak found herself spending way too much time in front of a computer screen to be really healthy. Tonight, she pumped through a lot of late night leads at the Clocktower. This had been built to be the most state of the art computer system. Therefore, it could filter out the nasties, at least better than most.

'Another Nigerian scam….who falls for these things anyway?'

She cleared out the spam messages and looked at the interesting leads. A couple of rumors coming in from her good friend in Gotham City, the Oracle. Yes, Felicity couldn't believe she could say that with any degree of seriousness. Her life really got pretty good as of late. She had been giddy to she met the world's most notorious information broker/computer hacker.

'Nice easy night. Hopefully, Sara is able to talk some sense into Artemis. She won't really listen to Thea or Laurel. But, I can't say I'm complaining about having a nice quiet night without any trouble.'

No sooner did these words come out of Felicity's head, the lights on the tower went completely out. Felicity grew rigid on the chair and rose to a standing position.

"Okay, who forgot to pay the power bill?"

This joke fell upon very deaf ears. Someone had been moving about in the shadows. Felicity stepped back against the wall and pressed herself against it. The woman's heart started to beat very heavily.

Felicity was very good at what she did, but what she wasn't very good at, is handling herself in stressful situations. If someone was good enough to slip past all of the security in the Clocktower, then there wasn't a doubt in her mind they were good enough to put a serious beatdown on her. She reached over and found the baseball bat in the corner. The blonde looked around, holding the baseball bat and preparing to swing as if her life depended on it.

And something told Felicity her life did depend on what happened tonight.

'Doubt the old Thumper is going to do me much good, but it's worth a shot.'

"Whoever you are in there, this isn't funny. This isn't funny at all. You better leave…because I'm armed, and I know….how to use this thing. Do you hear me?"

The figure swooped out of the shadows. Felicity swung the baseball bat and whiffed it entirely. The figure pulled the baseball bat out of her hands and caused it to go flying. It landed on the ground and rolled away from her. Felicity's heart kept racing.

'Damn, that isn't…..oh shit….'

The figure in the shadows grabbed Felicity's arm and slammed her down onto the table with a surprising amount of force. The wind left Felicity's lungs when she had been put up against the table. She struggled against the person who pinned her down against the table.

Suddenly, a second figure moved from the shadows.

Cassandra jumped out and kicked the figure away from Felicity. The figure moved in the shadows with expert precision and withdrew a knife. She could barely be seen from the moonlight illuminating from the tower. The figure charged Cass with the knife extended.

The movements were not entirely foreign to Cass. Cass reached up with her hands and blocked the extended knife before jumping up over the attacker. The attacker turned around and tried to nail Cass with a back swing. Cass blocked the attack and pulled the knife away from the attacker.

The light barely gave them enough visibility to continue this fight. Cass pushed herself through with a brutal attack and rammed the attacker into the side of the wall. The attacker pushed out of Cass's grip and sent her flying back. The attacker put Cass in an arm hold and pushed her down to a kneeling position.

Cassandra broke the hold with a vicious elbow strike which shoved her opponent back. Her opponent staggered a couple of steps back and ran towards her with an attack. The blade had been avoided, just coming seconds away from impaling deep inside her of.

The clash of blades flicking together came through the light. Both fighters battled with each other.

The backup power came back on, which gave Cassandra a momentary advantage. She disarmed her opponent and knocked the wind out of her with a vicious uppercut punch to the stomach with dropped the woman onto her back. Cass slipped back and took both blades before slamming them down in the form of an "X". They pinned the woman down to the ground.

Artemis and Sara entered the tower and returned to a little bit of carnage. Sara blinked and looked towards the woman who had been laid out on the ground.

"Cass, back off."

Sara turned and saw a beautiful woman with dark hair rising up off of the ground. Her eyes blinked when looking towards Sara.

"Hello, beloved."

A mixture of emotions flew through Sara's face. Cass finally backed off, but still kept her eyes on the figure. She relaxed, but only slightly, when she realized who it was.

"Nyssa, it's been a long time."


Moira Queen sat in the jail cell, contemplating her face. She did live a very privileged life, as the many threatening letters she received in prison pointed out for her. The guards regarded her with about as much contempt, and Moira lived every day, wondering if it would be her last. Accidents did in fact happen, and there were a few people in this prison who had family on the outside who had been through the undertaking.

The guards had family on the outside, and many of those family members would have been put in the line of fire because of the undertaking.

The doors opened, and a rough looking guard entered the jail cell. His eyes peered towards Moira and looked a bit bug-eyed in the process.

"You have a visitor," the guard said. "Don't know why anyone would even bother, but I guess…."

The guard motioned for Moira to rise to her feet. Moira walked with hands visible and to her sides. She wasn't going to try anything and would give the guards no impression she intended to try anything. The two of them walked with what seemed like miles, past the prisoners.

Even the prisoners regarded Moira like she was nothing more than scum being scrapped out of the gutter. Moira held her head up high and refused to look beyond them. She would be tall and proud and wouldn't be bullied into submission. That was one thing you could say about her beyond a shadow of a doubt.

'I'll weather this storm,' Moira thought.

Moira had been strong before through adversity, and she would be strong again. You had to truly hit rock bottom before appreciating what you had, and what you lost.

She stepped out and saw Thea and Laurel both waiting there for her.

"The entire Queen Family seems to have fallen from grace at one point or another in their life," Moira said. "I suppose it was my turn to be knocked upon my pedestal."

Thea snapped forward and directed a very stern look in the direction of her mother. "No, it's not your turn, because you're getting out of there. There's no way any rational journey can convict you, especially under the duress you were in."

The Queen Matriarch appreciated her daughter's optimism, despite the fact common sense dictated otherwise. The problem was they were not dealing with a rational jury of their peers. The point was they were dealing with people who were motivated by emotions, and wounds which were still raw.

It was why Moira's lawyer pushed as hard as possible for the trial to take place outside of Starling City. Where people would be less emotionally motivated and would be less likely to make decisions to convict her.

The death penalty lingered in Moria's future if this trial happened in Starling City. She didn't fear this. Moira made peace, and she didn't fear what happened to Thea when she was gone. As long as Laurel and Sara were around, Moira was

"I actually agree we should have the trial as far away outside of Starling City as possible," Laurel said.

"You're the one who is going to have to….."

"Yes, I know, they want me to work for the state against you," Laurel said. "I don't really want to do it, it's a conflict of interest but….there's a job review around the corner, and they're backing me into it."

Moira frowned. She didn't really like this to be perfectly honest.

"There are people who are fighting the attempts to get the trial moved out of Starling," Laurel said. "They don't really want to see justice, they don't want to hear the facts. They want to see someone pay for their pain and suffering. It's mob mentality at its finest."

Moira just answered with one of the briskest ever.

Deep down, Laurel did believe Moira likely should have been held accountable for some crimes. She would have been more in support of a conviction if it wasn't for the death penalty thing. People could debate about the death penalty all day long, but Laurel felt deep down this wasn't one of those situations.

"It's not like I'm not used to having my fair share of critics, and it's not like I'm not used to being hated as well," Moira responded. "I have these vocal critics, and I've had to make some pretty tough choices."

She put a hand down on the table and looked on, almost thoughtfully at the situation.

"I'm certain, though, if having to cut jobs was the worst thing I had to do, then my entire life would have been easier."

Moira came to peace and realized what had to be done now. The trial was coming, and it was likely to be in Starling City. Unless someone found Malcolm and dragged him into court on that day, there was no way there was someone who would collaborate her story, at least no one who was willing or able to come forward.

"It's funny," Moira said. "I lost my husband and my son, to my obsession with saving my city, which I almost nearly lost."

Laurel and Thea exchanged a nervous look. Moira kept speaking, closing her eyes.

"And in a way, I have lost my city," Moira said. "I can't get on the stand and lie I wasn't an accessory to any of this, especially the murder of my husband and son. There's no way I can say it with a straight face."

Thea looked towards her mother, annoyance very visible. Moira didn't pay her much mind now.

"Guess this is the end of the road," Moira said. "I can't say I didn't expect it come, I just wish, everything would have been a bit different."

"Shut up!"

Thea finally blurted out. She was sick of her mother adopting thus a defeatist attitude as if the trial had already happened, like she already had been sentenced to death.

"Look, you never gave up on me," Thea said. "Why would you just give up on yourself?"

"Well, you're my daughter, I couldn't give up on you," Moira said. "No matter how much trouble you got into, that fact couldn't change."

Thea waved her hand and wasn't about to be deterred from the subject.

"The point is, if I can get my life back together after hitting bottom than so can you," Thea said. "There has to be something you can do. Something you can do to stop from getting convicted."

"Right now, I doubt there is much that I could do."

"Again, what happened to the woman who succeeded despite all of the obstacles?" Thea asked.

Moira looked around and turned towards them.

"Until Malcolm Merlyn is found, there's not much that I can do, and I doubt he's going to be found. Our hooded friend spent about three months looking for him, to no avail."

The older woman sighed. They didn't call him the magician without a very good reason.


Nyssa al Ghul didn't really know what the reunion with her beloved would have been like, but she didn't envision having to come to Starling City for reasons like this. The two of them walked forward. She sensed a bit of unease to her.

"I know I may have….not approached this with the most tact possible," Nyssa responded.

The way they parted, well that left unsaid. Nyssa wasn't too happy that Sara returned to Starling City to take up Oliver's crusade. She was less happy with the person who convinced Sara to do so.

"Nyssa, I'm happy to see you," Sara responded. "Really, I am."

"As am I, our parting….was rather abrupt," Nyssa said. "And yes, I know the reasons why…and I only wish I would have left along with you."

"But, you didn't."

Nyssa answered with a stiff nod in response. "No, I didn't."

"Are you here on the authority of your father?" Sara asked.

Blunt and to the point, Nyssa did appreciate that about Sara. She really did get to the point a lot of the times.

"I'm not, and he isn't in the position to have much authority these days," Nyssa said. "His plans for the Detective didn't go as planned, and they resulted in his apparent demise."

"We both know how that sticks."

Nyssa nodded in response. She had seen her father apparently perish too many times to be a fool and think this time would be the time where it would stick. She was well aware what no body being found in the train's wreckage meant.

"I'm guessing he made it abundantly clear he wasn't interested in being Ra's heir," Sara responded.

"Yes, he did."

Nyssa picked up on the coldness in Sara's tone when addressing her father. Ra's and Sara had a rather turbulent co-existence; most of it had to do with Sara's relationship with Nyssa. Nyssa was not blind, she knew her father did not approve. He was a traditionalist, and their relationship flew in the face of anything he believed in.

The Daughter of the Demon's attempts to maintain the peace fell on mostly deaf ears.

"So, you're here on your own, "Sara said.

"Yes."

Nyssa drew in her breath and leaned closer towards Sara.

"I'm here to give you a warning," Nyssa said. "When you left the League, you were released from your duties, with the promise you were going to be able to fix the situation here in Starling City. But the situation only has gotten worse."

Sara opened her mouth in protest at what Nyssa was saying. Nyssa cut her off with one raised hand. Sara shifted back a couple of inches.

"I'm here to assist you, to see what can be done to help fix the problems in Starling City," Nyssa said.

The blonde warrior found herself both pleased, and also a slight bit annoyed she met up with Nyssa tonight. She leaned closer towards Nyssa.

"You should have never sent the mercenary after me tonight to get my attention," Sara said. "If you wanted to talk to me, then we should have done it face to face."

Nyssa blinked in astonishment and opened her mouth, before shutting it.

"I didn't send him, though, I didn't give any such order," Nyssa said. "I managed to find your location….and I was going to came here…but your hacker surprised me by being here. And then there was Cassandra….she's really grew since we last met."

Nyssa rubbed her shoulder at these words. Sara responded with a nod.

"I know we didn't part on the best of terms," Nyssa said. "But, rest assure even though I didn't agree with your decision at the time, I respected what you needed to do. And unlike some, I know you're not beholden to the will of a dead man. Oliver, or not, you would have been pushed into this life. Regardless of my discomfort with it."

Sara had a noble heart, the noble heart which Nyssa wished she had.

"And I should have insisted I would have come along in the first place," Nyssa said.

Sara nodded, she understood why Nyssa was not too pleased. Had the situation been reversed, Sara would have had her own concerns as well.

"There's another reason why you're here, isn't there?"

Nyssa smiled. She would have to say Sara never missed a trick.

"One of my father's subordinates is hiding in Starling City," Nyssa responded. "I'm sure you recall the Ubu clan. They served my father for years."

"Yes, they were rather…dedicated to his cause," Sara said.

"Well, his faithful lapdog, his latest one, is here in Starling City, and it's not for reasons which are good."

Sara answered with a nod.

"And you're going to have to deal with him sooner or later, and I'm here to make the process easier," Nyssa said. "If you will trust me?"

Sara's thoughts lingered for a moment and nodded. She leaned forward.

"I do."

Not the first time Sara said those two words in Nyssa's presence.


To Be Continued on March 17, 2017.


Artemis and Sara have a talk, and they hash out some things, which is needed. Sounds pretty simple.

What's not simple is Moira's situation. And Laurel's role in it. Laurel is trying to be supportive of Thea, while deep down believing Moira deserves to be in prison for her role in what happened. Although, she's not extreme as some people, who think Moira deserves the death penalty.

Nyssa's back and Felicity…well points for effort. Although you weren't winning that scuffle without divine intervention. Cass is a more even match and given whose daughter she is. Nyssa is back to deal with a problem, and obviously, Ra's being temporarily inconvenienced allows her to move a bit more freely.

I think you can guess the implications of the last line.

So for the first time in a long time, Nyssa and Sara reunite and team up. Friday will be interesting. Join us then.