Sara Lance entered the clocktower where she had been hiding out since her arrival in Starling City, her father trailing behind her. She knew this location was already compromised; the League wouldn't have sent someone to confront her here after she killed the Dollmaker without already knowing about it. But it was also the one place she could control the battlefield, and if either she or her father were going to survive this, it would be because she was able to control the battlefield prior to Oliver's arrival. Yes, she noticed the tracker he had sown into her jacket, probably while she had been asleep in the mansion since all other times, she had had her eyes on it. Oliver was good, but Sara had been taught how to find trackers in her equipment by the best of the best, and that included her jacket, which had a layer of armor woven into it.

"Well, I can't imagine why I didn't think to look for you up here," Quentin Lance quipped dryly, earning a quick grin from his daughter.

"It's a good vantage point, you can see the whole city," she said quietly.

"Like a bird on a wire," Quentin sighed as he watched Sara work on some device.

"Where I was," she said as she worked on one of her sonic devices, "they have you choose a new name. I chose Ta-er Al-Sahfer. It's Arabic… for Canary."

"I bought you that canary when you were ten," Quentin reminisced as Sara crossed the room to pick up a tool to help her.

"I was as far from home as you can get," Sara said, desperate to let her father know all of this in case the worst happened, to either of them, "but I never forgot where I came from. Not the way they want you to, there." Sara closed her eyes and set the tools down before turning to face her father. "You know how they say the first thing you forget about somebody when they're gone is their voice? You can remember their face, and the way they move, but you can't hold on to the way they sound." Tears built up in Sara's blue eyes as she met her father's loving gaze. "I never forgot your voice, Dad."

"Sweetie…" Quentin began, his hands on his daughter's shoulders, only to trail off as he saw her demeanor change. Gone was the sunny, heart-on-her-sleeve girl she had been projecting and in her place was the warrior she had become, the vigilante that had been tuning up rapists and others of the like in the Glades since a month following the Undertaking… the Canary.

"We're out of time," Sara said, turning to face the three intruders and deploying her baton, inwardly chastising herself for putting her need to let her father know all of what she had said over making sure they were prepared. She sensed more than saw her father back away slightly and pull his weapon.

"So," Al-Owal said, "this is where you wanted your father to die."

"What the hell, Sara?" Quentin asked, holding his weapon on the leader for the time being. Bad guy 101, take out the leader and the minions usually run around like chickens with their heads cut off. "Who are these guys?"

"Associates of your daughter, Officer Lance," Al-Owal answered for Sara, who continued to stare coldly at him and the other two members of the League who accompanied him to this cesspit of a city. He would have to make sure the Demon's Head knew exactly what had become of Starling City since Malcolm Merlyn had been given governance of it in exchange for ensuring H.I.V.E. did not gain a foothold here. The corruption in this city would need to be purged without a custodian to safeguard it.

"Guess her taste in friends took a turn for the worse, then," Quentin snarked. *1*

"Did you really think we could not find you here?" Al-Owal asked Sara as he drew his Kris sword from where it rested on his back.

"No," Sara finally spoke, twisting her staff and pulling the two batons that formed it apart. "I knew you would." With that, Sara engaged the other three assassins, one of them stepping into a snare trap she had set earlier in the day. The other assassin broke off after a few further moments of fighting with her to engage her father, who fired at the assassin while backing away. Sara and Al-Owal engaged in a furious duel that took place in almost the exact same spot. Sara backed off slightly, letting Al-Owal think he had the advantage, before striking him with both batons together in one hand while tripping the next trap she had set up: a nail gun which fired three nails into Al-Owal's right calf with enough force to drive him to his knees.

Sara flipped one of her batons into the other hand and raised one towards Al-Owal in what could easily be considered a mocking fashion considering her next words. "You should be mindful of your surroundings." Sara and Al-Owal engaged each other again, and Al-Owal delivered a quick, powerful blow to the back of Sara's right knee with his unarmed left fist when the opportunity came, catching her throat with the side of his blade, causing the blonde rogue assassin to freeze as the assassin who had been caught in her snare trap finally freed himself while the other assassin continued his pursuit of her father, who was proving rather wily for a man who didn't know the clocktower's terrain so well.

Al-Owal gave a smile of satisfaction, and his labored breathing was only partly because of the nails buried in his right leg. He had hated Sara since her arrival, had believed the Demon's Head let his sentiment for Nyssa cloud his judgment when it came to the training of this cow. Merlyn, at least, had come to them with some inherent training and hadn't taken nearly as long to become a proficient assassin. As far as Al-Owal was concerned, Sara Lance should've been training fodder or put to work in other ways more pleasing to the League, the majority of whom were men.

Sara breathed slowly, refusing to close her eyes or show any weakness to Al-Owal. If these were to be her final moments, she would die with dignity, not whimpering like the girl who had first looked into the eyes of Ra's al Ghul and saw only a man judging her potential worth as a warrior and not as a potential conquest in bed. That hadn't stopped others in the League from having their fun with her the way the remaining crew and prisoners of the Amazo had following its sinking, until Nyssa had begun teaching her personally. *2*

It was in the intervening silence that a sound that had come to be associated with hope in Starling City was heard: the whistling of an arrow before it impacted the wall, a line running from it. The next instant, the Arrow was crashing through the window and sliding along the floor, using his bow to knock Al-Owal quite literally head over heels before turning to face the assassin that had cut himself free from Sara's rope trap. The Arrow struck the assassin with the edge of his bow, disorienting him, before delivering a final knock-out blow to the jaw with his fist, which was backed up with a pair of brass knuckles he had brought to give him the edge this time.

Sara, reinvigorated by Oliver's arrival and regaining the advantage she had lost, quickly overwhelmed Al-Owal and reformed her staff, pulling him up right with the staff pressing firmly against his throat, making his breathing ragged and giving him the bitter taste of knowing she now had him in the same position he had had her in only seconds earlier. As she did so, her father finished off the assassin that had been tracking him with a quip about having a spare gun. Quentin moved to stand beside the Arrow as Sara shifted her grip on Al-Owal. "You think… because you are the beloved… you will be granted your freedom?" Al-Owal bit out, his voice strained and harsh.

"There's only one freedom," Sara replied coolly, her expression deadened as she resolved herself to do what had to be done, no matter the cost to her soul. "Allow me to grant you yours." With that she broke Al-Owal's neck with her staff even as the remaining assassin began to stand. Sara charged forward, putting the final assassin in the same position as she had Al-Owal.

Before she could snap his neck or Quentin could react, the Arrow said, "Sara, hold!" Sara froze at the surprising command from the Arrow and she looked at him questioningly. Quentin was also staring at the Arrow questioningly from behind him. The Arrow ignored the questioning stares and focused on the veiled assassin. "What do they call you?" the Arrow demanded to know.

"Al Nasir," the assassin replied.

"Al Nasir, Al-Owal confirmed that Malcolm Merlyn became the threat he did because he was trained by the League of Assassins," the Arrow said, and Quentin let out a surprised huff of air, though it really didn't surprise him that someone like Merlyn was a part of a secret cabal of assassins. What did surprise him and made him worried was how Sara had ended up in the same organization. "Merlyn, and by association, the League of Assassins are responsible for the deaths of 503 people, as is everyone Merlyn worked with to bring about that atrocity." The Arrow hesitated for a moment before turning off his voice modulator and pulling down his hood.

Oliver Queen ignored Sara's shocked look and the incredulous laugh from Quentin Lance when it was revealed he had been right all along (though he no longer cared now since he understood Oliver was doing what he needed to do to clean up the city) and focused on Al Nasir. "Merlyn is dead at my hand," Oliver said quietly. "My mother is going to be going on trial for her part in the attack. Merlyn's son is dead. And I spend every night in this city working to fight against the corruption Merlyn bred to ensure his Undertaking would be considered in line with the League's code."

"What do you know of the League's code?" Al Nasir sneered in disgust.

"Quite a bit, actually," Oliver replied with a cool smile. "After all, Talia al Ghul is the woman who taught me to be what I am." The assassin froze in his study of Queen at this declaration. No one would make such a declaration if it was a lie; Talia al Ghul hunted down those who claimed training from her falsely and killed them without hesitation.

"But to focus back on the topic at hand, Al Nasir… the only ones culpable in the tragedy the Undertaking has become who have not or aren't paying a price is the League of Assassins." Oliver stepped forward, grabbing the assassin roughly by the jaw, Quentin tensing because he had been around Oliver's darker persona enough the previous year to recognize just how dangerous he could be. Sara alone could see the restraint present in Oliver's actions, the way his eyes showed he was restraining himself from doing more to the lone assassin.

"Listen closely, because this is the only way you are leaving this tower alive, assassin," Oliver said, his voice soft and deadly, almost silky in its delivery rather than the gruff tones he had used for the past year as the Arrow. "I am willing to forgive the League's part in turning Malcolm Merlyn into the monster he became if Ra's al Ghul releases Sara from her oath of service and cedes control of Starling City to me as he once did to Merlyn. Unlike Malcolm, I won't allow corruption and criminality to breed unchecked for my own twisted purposes."

Oliver released the assassin, and Sara did the same, moving to the side and keeping a wary eye on him in case the assassin tried to strike at them again but trusting that Oliver had managed to get through to the man. "Do you understand the message you are to deliver?"

"I do, Al Sah-Him," Al Nasir replied with grudging respect. Oliver looked to Sara and gave a nod. Sara allowed the man to go, stunned at what Oliver had just done for her, and Al Nasir took a running leap out the window, disappearing into the darkness. Oliver watched him go, stone-faced and knowing he would need to make a phone call later on, just in case the assassin chose to try and twist his words in some way or if Ra's al Ghul took offense to the ultimatum (something which Talia had implied was always possible with her father).

"Ollie…" Sara said softly, drawing his attention. "What you just did…"

"It was the right thing to do, Sara, no matter what it may bring," Oliver said quietly. "Besides, I began this mission to right my family's wrongs. I have my own wrongs to right. I can't undo what I did six years ago, but the least I can do is give you the chance to reunite with your family without the threat of the League hanging overhead."

"And what's to stop them from going after her anyways if this Ra's character takes offense to what you just did?" Quentin couldn't help the sour expression on his face as he asked. He wanted Sara home, so badly, but if it would put her in danger, he would rather she was in the wind.

"We're going to do what I did when I came back," Oliver replied. "Make it a spectacle. We imply Sara is running from an organization that prefers to work in the shadows. By doing so, if anything happens to her, they'll be implicated. The League is, in the end, a shadow organization and prefers not to be revealed to the world."

"What did you mean, do what you did?" Sara asked curiously.

"My 'rescue' was fake," Oliver admitted, and Quentin shot him a look while Sara's eyebrows popped up. "You're not the only one who got involved with a shadow organization, Sara," Oliver added, and she grimaced. "I was little more than an indentured servant for three years before I won my freedom. The rescue was to keep people from asking questions."

"So, how do we do this?" Quentin asked.

"Can you get Mrs. Lance here by tomorrow morning?" Oliver asked. Quentin nodded. "Good. I'll call you later tonight with the details. You'll need to bring Laurel, too." Oliver grimaced, reminded of Laurel's recent erratic behavior and the way she had thought their time together earlier this evening had been him trying to get back together with her. Sara and Quentin both gave him curious looks at the expression, but he shook his head, not ready to talk about Laurel yet. Right now, they needed to make sure that Sara, and by association her family, were safe from the League.

Oliver pulled the hood back over his face and turned the voice modulator back on. "Detective," he gave Quentin a nod. "Sara, I'll see you back with the others." He took a flying jump out the window, firing a cable arrow and swinging down towards another rooftop. Sara watched him with a soft, affectionate smile that had her father groaning upon seeing it.

"What?" Sara asked her father in confusion.

"Doesn't seem to matter if it's you or your sister," Quentin griped. "You're both attracted to him and his crazy life. Why couldn't you both have just stayed interested in normal trust fund brats?"

"Where would the fun in that be, Daddy?" Sara asked with a wicked grin, earning another groan from her father.

A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Ah, poor Quentin… his daughters are never attracted to nice, normal types…

Chapter Notes:

*1* Quentin's canon line about Sara's taste in friends doesn't make sense in the context of how he has viewed her throughout the series (both Arrow and Legends), and the fact that prior to the Gambit her social circle was mainly guys like Oliver and Tommy, whom Quentin had no issue with because the way he teased Laurel about Oliver being a frat boy in the 2x13 flashbacks was just that, teasing.

*2* The League was definitely being set up very differently in Season 2. The repiloting done in 3x01 and, indeed, throughout Season 3 did a lot of harm to what had previously been established. I got the impression throughout Season 2 that the League was highly patriarchal, especially with how Al-Owal looked down on Sara in 2x05 and implied it was only her connection to Nyssa that kept her alive. Let's not even get started on the idiocy of them killing the one character with major insight into the League of Assassins in the first episode of a season revolving around that group.