Chapter 20: Battle of the Glades
Five Years Ago, at the border of the Glades and the rest of Starling City
Talia Al Ghul and a masked Malcolm Merlyn stood representing the Black Spider Clan, waiting for their opposite numbers in the League of Assassins.
And then, they appeared. Nyssa Al-Ghul and Slade Wilson, the two right-hands of the demon. But they were not alone. Nowhere near it. Because to their left and right stood people with just as big a gripe with the Black Spider Clan. On Nyssa's side stood Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari, who knew in their bones that Talia had suborned the murder of a police officer and a member of their shared family. On Slade's side stood Ryu Hayabusa, who had long ago sworn to bury every member of the Black Spider Clan. He, for his part, was here because he knew Genshin would be. Whatever the plot was, whatever the goal of this clan's machinations, Genshin would want to oversee it personally. Tonight, if nothing else happened, Genshin would taste his blade.
"Well, I see you brought friends, sister. No matter. By the sunrise, you will join them in death" said Talia, a cruel sneer on her face as she pulled out a katana and nocked an arrow from the recurve bow that was on her back.
"I am SO disappointed in you, sister. To throw in with these cowards because you were sent away from the League, from your family" stated a heartbroken but still coolly dignified Nyssa, her hand on her scimitar as this was quickly turning into a standoff.
But before anything could get too far out of control, Nyssa smiled and turned to Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari and said one word that would change everything: "eabr ean nafsak."
As only Talia spoke Arabic, Malcolm having spent all of his time learning Japanese under the watchful eye of one of the linguists of the Black Spider Clan, this then meant that when Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari revealed themselves as Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance, Malcolm Merlyn was STUNNED. Like, his jaw was open and his hand faltered on his bow.
In all of his plotting, and finely sculpted backup plans, this was the one contingency he could not have planned for. He believed that the Black Spider Clan had ensured the death of Robert Queen, who he was also utterly convinced was the only person who knew about the undertaking. In this moment, though, he realized his desire to plan for every contingency had missed a trick. Namely, that he didn't request an amphibious cell of the Black Spider Clan to eliminate any stragglers from the boat capsizing.
But and he realized this too, he couldn't have killed them. For all the work the Black Spider Clan had done to ensure that the tendrils of evil had wrapped around his heart, there was still a soft spot in his heart for Tommy and his friends. And if he was being honest, Oliver and Laurel surviving made him feel good. If they were standing against him, though, could this whole thing be wrong?
That, though, would be a question he'd ask later. Because Talia Al Ghul retreated, with the aid of a few well-timed smoke bombs, to the dilapidated apartment building in the Glades where the Black Spider Clan was making their stand.
The machines for the Undertaking were there. Genshin, Prometheus, Talia, and the Dark Archer were there. THIS was the battle of the Glades.
Meanwhile, at the Starling City Police Department….
Some days, Lt. John Diggle wondered what his life had come to. Three tours of Afghanistan, and then a short run as a bodyguard to the rich and secretive. But then, his baby brother and partner Andy Diggle had been killed. Turned out, Andy had been blackmailing people, running complicated crime rings, and generally being nothing like the man John thought his brother was.
It turned out that someone had slipped him the files proving just how corrupted his brother had become. They even left them with names in the event he wanted to avenge his brother's murder. What was it, he thought? Al-Shaytana and Al-Dhiyb? That seemed about right.
He still remembers that night, feeling some kind of peace and feeling like he wanted to pay this feeling forward. So, when he got back home, he decided to join the police. It was honest work, and simple.
But right now? None of this felt simple. He had vigilantes in his office.
He had heard about Orange Dragon, and Artemis. Lord knows he had run enough meetings where they talked about how some drug dealer had been taken off the street by one of them. But this? This felt different.
Maybe it was because they were looming over him like he used to loom over a perp in the interrogation room. Or maybe it was those 3 people in the back, silent like the grave and quite obviously just as deadly.
Whatever it was, it took him a minute to find his voice.
"Ladies? What can I help you with?" he said, with more of a confident timbre in his voice than he actually felt.
"There will be a war in the Glades tonight. We need you to ensure that no one is there but us, and the armies who will be fighting that war. No innocent civilians need be hurt" said the only woman standing in the back, and every vigilante in the room nodded their approval.
Pinching the bridge of his nose and drinking from a cup of mint tea, John Diggle answered.
"So, let me get this right. You want me to, on the say so of two vigilantes, clear out the Glades? Because there's a war coming between two armies you don't want to tell me anything about? Have I gotten everything?" he groans, utterly exasperated.
"Mr. Diggle, this is not a joke. This is not some dark cosmic test. We are serious. The man who killed Detective Quentin Lance is a member of this army, and they are here to finish the job he started. Do you want to watch your city burn because of pride, or do you want to help?" said that same woman, and just like that he knew what he would have to do.
He loved his hometown, in a way only his wife Lyla understood. More than that, just like to Lyla, he had sworn an oath to protect it. There really was never a question about what would come next.
"What do you need?"
Meanwhile, inside the McMillan Housing Projects….
The Black Spider Clan knew what was coming. Anyone with a brain would have to. So, the ancient ninja order set up their defenses. They only wanted one battle.
Genshin, the Dark Archer, and Talia Al Ghul stood on the roof of the main building, sitting cross-legged in the center of the roof. Not that they needed to be, but it turned out that they were each HEAVILY armed. Genshin carried the Blade of the Archfiend, a long katana literally coursing with evil power in addition to his trademark hand and foot claws. Talia, and Malcolm, each had their own blades and the Black Spider Clan's recurve longbows.
But they were the endgame, the peak of the mountain they were tasking the League of Assassins with climbing. At the entrance to the building, and for that matter the entire projects, lay small squadrons of ninja sworn to the Clan. If the League wanted their vengeance, they would be tasked with earning it.
And not for the first time since the big surprise he had been dealing with, Malcolm Merlyn was dealing with an emotion unfamiliar to him. Doubt.
Could this really have been the best way to deal with the grief of his wife's death?
But doubt could wait. It would have to. This was not a thing that could be done with any emotion clouding one's mind. Even if, just a little, Malcolm was questioning if it actually had to be done.
Meanwhile, at a League of Assassins safehouse….
Well, Slade Wilson thought, this was going poorly. It turned out that when the Black Spider Clan retreated to the McMillan houses, they made sure the best of the best of their teams were guarding the entrance to the one building. That was expected, honestly, and what he would have done if he were coordinating their battle plan.
But and he should have realized this, the other problem was what the rest of those teams were doing. Apparently, the heads of the Black Spider Clan had somehow divined where the main safehouse was headed and was sending every other team in town to raid it.
Honestly, if this was how it would end, he would be ok with that. At times like this, he remembered how he got here. It was the darkest of all possible coincidences, but it fit. He had taken a mission with ASIS, one last one before he was going to retire and be a family man. Sure, it was a slum on a small island in the Philippines. And sure, they were extracting quite a few Australian diplomats and high-level influencers who had somehow found themselves the hostages of a drug lord famous for buying off government officials.
And then, things went to shit before he could even blink. Billy Wintergreen, his usual mission partner, betrayed him. Apparently, their target had doubled his pay to betray everyone he had ever known. Meanwhile, the League of Assassins had descended at the same time into this situation and before too much longer the whole thing turned into a clusterfuck. He had been shot in the arm by Billy when he saw it. Admittedly, he thought he was dreaming it. This woman, tall and graceful in a way only runway models and royalty were graceful, carved through an entire room of drug dealers with the ease of someone ordering a takeaway. Then she got to Billy.
Slade had always known of the rumors of this League. They were like phantoms, and there were even some who began to wonder if they were actually real. If he survived this, though, he'd swear to their veracity. Because this woman, someone he had never met before, cut through an army of drug dealers and then vivisected his partner in a matter of minutes.
If he was going to die here, alone, seeing that would be a thrill he'd remember until he stopped breathing.
And then he heard this woman, this vision of vengeance and skill, scream. Apparently, what he hadn't noticed was that she came with a partner. And that partner had a bullet in his stomach.
It was all a blur after that. He remembered being dragged to an SUV, and then to a plane. He remembers being indoctrinated into the League.
And tonight, he will take everything he learned and use it to do what the League should have always done: protect those whom the law cannot.
Almost on cue, then, the door opened and the help he had hoped was coming showed up. Sara Lance, Thea Queen, Richard Diaz, Sandra Wu-San, and John Diggle.
"Mr. Al-Dhiyb? What can we do to help?"
At the McMillan Projects….
The League of Assassins, or at least the cream of their crop, stood at the entrance to the main building of the McMillan Projects. And, to a person, they shared two things in common: They were armed to the TEETH, and they were PISSED.
This was going to be a bloodbath. They all knew that. But it had to be done. Sometimes, every once in an impossibly long while, things like this required not the grace the League was known for, but violence and fury. The world would know of them tonight, but it could not be helped. The Black Spider Clan needed to know what happened when you tempted fate.
But before they entered through the front door, Ryu Hayabusa stopped them all and pulled a small orb from out of his pocket and said the only two words he would need to say.
"Stand Back."
Putting the orb in the hole in the handle of his sword, Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance were stunned when the blade glowed pure white light and Nyssa Al-Ghul stood in the middle of the porch with her jaw open.
"The True Dragon Sword. I had only heard of it in rumors and fantasies. I never believed it was real" said a stunned Nyssa, her hand quickly going to her own sword as they all realized the depth and breadth of what they were about to find themselves involved in.
"What is this True Dragon Sword? And why are you shocked to see it?" said a worried and confused Oliver Queen as he reached for his sabre as Laurel Lance checked the balance on her trusty kanabo. While they both knew arrows were going to come out, those were finite resources. Swords and clubs were undoubtedly not.
"This blade was carved from a dragon's fang, Mr. Queen. Inside this blade, the power of that dragon still exists. However, it remains dormant. On special occasions, when the world is at risk, I am allowed to awaken it. That is what the True Dragon Sword is, the sacred power of the dragons whose lineage I defend. I do not use this weapon cavalierly, but because I cannot allow the Black Spider Clan to destroy a city with millions of people in it, I will use it. To do what we have to do, to defeat the people we have to defeat, nothing can be left to chance" said a determined Ryu Hayabusa, and it turned out that they all believed that to be their mission statement.
And with that, Nyssa Al Ghul kicks open the door and they go to work. A small quartet of the world's most trained assassins found themselves on the ground floor of a 15-floor dilapidated housing project with ninja popping out of corners, abandoned elevators, and empty houses. This…. This was going to be fun.
And so, they began. Nyssa Al Ghul cut through floors of ninja with her Chinese dao, as Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance buried their sword and kanabo in whoever staggered away. Meanwhile, Ryu Hayabusa dispatched his own enemies clear on the other side of the room. With every dead body, every ninja, their determination grew stronger. This thing had to be done, and they were going to do it. But when they got to the top floor, they didn't find the people they were looking for.
In fact, they didn't find anything but a note that simply said "Try Again". And so it was for the other 2 buildings in the complex. They killed many ninjas, but at the top of each roof, all they saw was a note that said "Try Again".
To say this was infuriating Nyssa Al Ghul was, perhaps, an understatement towards the idea of being infuriated. Seeing this, Laurel moved over to her sister in all but blood.
"Nyssa. I know you're mad. I am too, but we need to think. And isn't that what Talia would really want? For you to be so angry that you walk into a trap? If you ask me, those are the actions of someone who knows they can't beat you. So, let's go to that last building, because we know they're there. And then, let's kill ALL of them" said Laurel Lance, anger and bloodlust competing for equal space in her eyes. In that moment, the four were re-energized. The Black Spider Clan had no idea what they were in for.
Back at the League of Assassins Safehouse….
Slade Wilson took pride in possessing a lot of skills. But right now, as he felt the wave coming, the one he was happiest to have at his disposal was that he had a lot of experience with planning siege works of all different types. He knew the people he had here were skilled fighters, or veteran law enforcement officers, but he honestly was unsure as to how long they could hold the line. Honestly, though, they didn't need a ton of time. All they needed was enough time for the League's backup to arrive.
So, with nothing else to do, Al-Dhiyb gathered his troops and prepared them. He noticed that the smallest of them, a woman in a sea-foam colored hood and suit, had a quiver filled with arrows and a small bow. Immediately, he put her on sniper position and went to the armory to grab one of the quivers that had been left behind and gave her even more arrows. If she was going to rain death from above, he was going to make sure that she would get as much done as possible before she ran out of ammunition. With that handled, he then looked around at everyone else and he was shocked at who he saw there.
He had heard rumors of Lady Shiva and Richard "Dragon" Diaz, of course. You couldn't travel in the circles that he did and have no knowledge of them. But to see them here, on the side of the League of Assassins, would always take a little bit of getting used to. But nonetheless, they were warriors and they knew what this was. So he put them at the other three doors to the safehouse. He gave them weapons too, even though it felt like overkill.
But to the last man, this police lieutenant John Diggle? He wasn't quite sure what to do with him. That was, of course, until John Diggle revealed the sniper rifle he had taken. That would do.
At the McMillan Projects….
And so, the League of Assassins, and their confederate Ryu Hayabusa, found themselves at the last building in the McMillan Projects. Their weapons were blood-stained and their lungs and legs were burning.
But they weren't tired. They could afford to be tired later, after this was all done. Right now, a potent mixture of adrenaline and hatred was guiding them through this. They knew their enemies were here, and making them have to be chased like this was only confirming what they knew. These were rabid dogs, and they needed to be put down.
Standing in a perfect line they all looked at each other with the same thought on their minds.
IT ENDS. Come hell or high water, this whole thing finally ends.
And so Oliver Queen kicks in the door. Now is the time for the arrows, in addition to the blades. Before long, the League makes it up to the top floor and then the roof.
Waiting for them is their quarry. Talia Al-Ghul is there, smirking and confident. Genshin is there, massive and seemingly impenetrable. But Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer, seems…. Unsure.
There were no words. There didn't need to be.
And then the battle was joined. Ryu and Genshin battled with their blades faster than the eye could see, nothing but rapid-fire flashes of blessed holy katana against accursed evil one. But this was nothing new. Their two clans had battled, in different ways, since before anyone could remember. Hell, their swords were imbued with the energies of the forces that had sculpted their clans. But, and this they knew, the battle between them would end here on this rooftop. One would walk away, and the other would die. And so, after many more rapid-fire attacks and counters, Ryu Hayabusa saw his opening. First, he ducked under a wide swipe of Genshin's Blade of the Archfiend and, just as quickly, buried his own True Dragon Sword right in the chest. At that, Genshin gasped, and dropped his cursed blade to the ground. Despite himself, despite the hatred that guided him here, Ryu waited alongside his long-time rival.
"Ryu Hayabusa? Are you still here?" begs Genshin, his voice already thickening from the blood in his lungs.
"Yes, Genshin, I am" said Ryu, ignoring the battles around him. He felt, more strongly than he had felt anything in a while, that doing this was what he needed to do. "I will not leave until you have said all you need to."
"All grows dark and quiet, Ryu Hayabusa. With my last request, with my last words, take my cursed blade. Use it to fight for your lineage, as I used it to fight for mine."
And then, Genshin extends his hand out and presents the Blade of the Archfiend to his enemy. Taking it, and the scabbard that comes with it, Ryu crouches down and closes the eyes of his enemy.
Standing up Ryu leans against the wall, as Talia Al-Ghul sees this and rolls over before delivering a series of stomps to the dead body of Genshin. "Such a failure. So pathetic."
