Chapter 18: The Curtain Begins to Rise
Present Day….
Even now, despite everything that they've seen and done, Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance remain the most amused by the whole Green Lantern Corps thing. They've never been able to wrap their head around the idea. But and this is a testament to their kindness and good humor about the whole thing, they also supposed that the person they knew who ended up joining the Green Lantern Corps, and getting a power ring, was the right person. No one had more integrity, or honor, than him.
They knew this before they even met him. After all, Sara Lance and Thea Queen waxed poetic about the things that John Diggle had done for them. It all started in the leadup to the Battle of the Glades.
Five Years Ago, in Starling City at the Richard Diaz and Sandra Wu-San School of Fighting Arts…
After being told that their sister, daughter, and brother were all coming back to them, Dinah Drake-Lance, Thea Queen, and Sara Lance were all stunned into complete silence. Now you could have heard a pin drop, everyone was so completely shellshocked by what they had just heard.
They weren't dead, like they had feared. They had somehow survived and been found by an ancient order of holy monks sworn to provide justice beyond the reach of traditional law enforcement. Honestly, saying it in their inner monologues didn't make it any easier. The three people here who were the most affected by this "gift" weren't celebrating. They weren't weeping either. All that they were doing was just…. Standing there.
As their shock faded, though, Thea Queen was the first one who immediately saw the dark side to the shining gift that they had just bestowed upon them.
"If they're showing up, sensei Hayabusa, that means the war is imminent. The die is cast" She said confidently, although every sentence of that truth felt like acid leaving her mouth. "The police aren't qualified to stop it. But maybe, if we amass every resource we've got, we can hold it off long enough for my brother, Sara's sister, and the people who trained them to do what they were apparently sworn to do."
"And what's that?" said a worried Dinah Drake, her years as a cop's wife and a vigilante meaning her investigative instincts saw the same thing Thea's did. "Because I've never heard of this League of Assassins until right now."
"Ms. Drake, and this goes for all of you, I will tell you their story. Since the days of Charlemagne, there has been a group that existed to provide justice when the governments of the world could not provide it themselves. They swore themselves to a solemn task: Harm no innocents and ensure that only those who are worthy of harm receive it. And since their formation, they have held tight to that goal. These are people, trained since birth in the deadly arts, who have sworn their lives to achieve perfection with the bow and the blade. That is who they are" said Ryu Hayabusa, foreboding and dark promise dripping off every syllable.
"So, we help them. That's not the issue. The issue is how" said Sara Lance, needing something to DO rather than just talk in theoretical terms.
"Before we ask that, I've always wondered something. Why no guns?" asked Dinah Lance-Drake, and if they were being honest, Sara and Thea had wondered the same thing themselves.
"There is no great skill required to use a gun. Anyone can walk into a room of people and fire a weapon, and if they're lucky, hit the person they're aiming at. It takes true skill, and true effort, to master a bow" said Sandra Wu-San, punctuating her point by grabbing Thea Queen's Heavensong bow and firing 5 consecutive arrows center-mass into the middle of one of the bullseyes that had been set up.
"As to your question of how, Ms. Lance, we train. We do not stop training until sensei Hayabusa tells us the League has arrived. I am sure he will offer our assistance, should they need it" states Richard Diaz calmly, his fear hidden behind knowing that, at this precise moment, it wouldn't do any good.
So, their plans put together, the people who would call themselves the Defenders got to work. Because they knew, as much as they knew anything, a war was coming. And the chances of it being confined, or controlled, would be slimmer by the day.
Meanwhile, 3 months ago in Nanda Parbat…
The thing about being the 2nd in command to a guild of impossibly well-trained assassins who have existed since the 12th century is that you are expected to be as skilled at guiding your forces as you are with battling alongside them. So, whenever they weren't being directly required to pick up a contract, most of the days of Nyssa Al-Ghul were split evenly between making sure her training was up to the standards of perfection that she kept for herself and reading classic books on leadership and military strategy.
And the one lesson that stuck, above all the others, was this: You can't play favorites. To be a good leader, to be the spy and ninja of the level her skills required she be, you couldn't have a favorite person in the field.
She really did try to make this work, genuinely. But, as she discovered, there was one person who she could not shake a deep and abiding love for. That person? Laurel Lance, Al-Kanari to the rest of the doe-eyed initiates who were both intimidated and awed by her presence.
First, and perhaps most important, it was her fighting skill. It seemed everything, from the classics like Western boxing to every branch of Asian martial arts that could possibly exist, was learned and then mastered. It had long been rumored that she could fight, and defeat, anyone that the League put in front of her. One day, while Nyssa and Slade watched, that hypothesis was put to the test. Every member of the League who had combat training faced Al-Kanari, including her boyfriend Al-Sahim. And, to a person, they all fell before Al-Kanari's fists, feet, elbows, and screams. It was in that moment where Nyssa began to appreciate her as a sister, not just a lieutenant.
She supposed that was not normal. But then nothing about Nyssa Al-Ghul could ever be normal. She had been responsible for too much bloodshed, too much pain and death, to ever know what true normalcy felt like.
But Laurel? Laurel understood. She realized just how weird her life was, and never tried to change her. In fact, she believed that there was someone out there who would match Nyssa's combative spirit and enjoy the quiet moments like Nyssa needed. That was the second thing. Laurel understood Nyssa, and the person she wanted to be.
All of that, that caring and gentleness, was something that she wanted to protect.
That was why, when she found out the depth of the Black Spider Clan's evil, the usually calm Nyssa Al-Ghul felt anger coursing through every vein, every capillary. She didn't much mind if Talia wanted a war with her, just her. That was coming and had been ever since Ra's cast Talia out for one too many requests to not just kill, but MASSACRE, someone who had barely reached the standard for a "visit" from the League of Assassins.
But to do this? To sanction a political assassination on a police officer, someone sworn to do justice, merely to draw her out. That was beyond the pale. And then she discovered who the officer WAS. Her sister in all but blood had just lost her father, and she would be damned if she would not defend her.
Soon, she spoke to her father about this.
"Father, I have a request" said Nyssa carefully, still the meek little girl she had once been when faced with the titanic force of nature that was Ra's Al-Ghul. At an imposing 6-7 inches, he loomed over every person he gazed upon and stood through the world like a colossus.
"Speak, my daughter. I have a sense I know your request, but I would like to hear it from you" Ra's said carefully, his deep voice laced with menace and kindness in equal measure.
"We have found out the breadth and depth of the plots of the Black Spider Clan. For reasons we do not yet know, Talia has thrown her lot in with them. They seek to draw us to a war in the former home of Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari, and they have murdered Al-Kanari's father, a police officer, to sweeten the trap. What do you suggest?"
Ra's heard his daughter's request, and to be honest, he was not wholly willing to grant it. After all, he knew about her abiding love for Al-Kanari and was concerned that the familial love they shared would blind her daughter to the work that must be done.
But, killing a police officer? That sin could not stand and knowing his disowned daughter had orchestrated the plot was…. personally offensive. As he thought of it further, this angered him as it angered his daughter.
"Unleash hell, my daughter" Ra's said, a wolfish growl in his voice.
Meanwhile, on the Korean peninsula….
Talia Al Ghul was a secretive person. Whether this was down to nature or nurture no one was entirely sure. However, what those who knew of her existence were all willing to agree on was that she wasn't exactly the warm and cuddly type. Rare were the times when she smiled, or any facial expression beyond a snarl.
So, with that in mind, it wasn't a surprise that she showered alone every morning. But there was another reason, a darker one, that she kept her morning preparations secret on a level that the most top-notch spy agencies would consider to be overkill.
Because once they saw the massive black spider tattoo that took up her back from shoulder to shoulder, they would have been able to
Talia Al Ghul, in secret, was leading a branch of the Black Spider Clan. And that branch, in addition to creating new ninja inculcated in its evil teachings, ended up helping to ensure that the plans of Genshin were never seen, never noticed.
After all, why would anyone WILLINGLY start a war with the League of Assassins if not to serve as a misdirection for something doing someone even worse?
Back in Starling City…
When Ryu Hayabusa tells you he wants something done, you do it. Even when he's the dictionary definition of kindness and caring, he still carries more than enough intimidation in his voice and bearing that the "suggestions" he makes don't actually feel like requests.
So, when he told Sara Lance to meet the League's plane at the private airfield on the outskirts of Starling City, she did it. And honestly, the Orange Dragon figured that was happening because she was expected to be providing intelligence of some sort. What she didn't understand was why her. After all, how many people were there in this little confederation of defenders? Surely, one of them would have been better suited for the work of setting up this League of Assassins strike team with what they needed.
So, she sat in the empty hanger waiting for this apparently expansive private jet to appear, doing her homework for her personal training certification while she worked. Turns out that Sara had discovered that her new interests in physical fitness extended to helping other people get the best shape they possibly could.
And then, it happened. The jet pulled into the hangar, and out walked a football team's worth of people. Armorers, cooks, medics. She ignored them. After all, fabric and meat are pretty much universal in the modern world.
And then, like an angel singing, she saw the woman she knew she would spend every day with. She was tall, vaguely Eurasian, and without doubt, the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. But it wasn't just the way she looked that made her beautiful. (Although, HOLY SHIT the way she looked.)
It was the dignity, and grace, she carried herself with. This was not a woman who slouched, or diminished herself in anyone else's presence. Instead, she demanded your attention, and your respect.
In that moment, seeing her walk off of that jet, there was absolutely no one in the world for Sara other than this woman whose name she didn't even know.
For Nyssa Al-Ghul's part, she was utterly done for herself. She had always known she wasn't the husband type, but had made herself ebleive that extended to all romantic relationships. And then, like a lightning bolt, there was this woman standing in front of her. She was tall, and so thoroughly beautiful, that it hurt to look at her for too long. Right then, before she could convince herself it was wrong, she decided that after this thing was over, she'd talk to Ra's about staying here full-time so she could simply exist in her orbit.
Finally, they introduced themselves. "Hello, I am Nyssa Al-Ghul, heir to the Demon. And you are?" "I am Sara Marie Lance."
