Disclaimer:
I do not own DC Comics. I do not own The CW. I do not own anything related to DC Comics in general, or Arrow specifically. Except maybe a few DVDs of old DC movies that I haven't given away yet.
Following Through
Chapter Eighteen
Downfall by Demon
By The Shroud
A/N:
Please review on whatever you can, suggestions, ideas, etc. This chapter imagines if Ra's demonstrated any of his actual skill or power (such as from Gotham) on that bridge battle… along with a few other AU elements (including one I stole from my other story, Prometheus Unleashed, though that's more of a reference than anything too big). By the way, I'm changing my update schedule to still be every week, but on Wednesdays and with the occasional additional chapters on Tuesday or Thursday. And sometimes on Friday or Monday, such as this one.
Middle May, 2015
On A Bridge Over The Dam
Ra's stood, almost lazily, with his left hand behind his back and his right hand holding a sword to Oliver's neck [1]. As a final test, hoping that perhaps this heir could relent from his foolishness, he lifted his sword up high, in what would normally be an abysmal choice, before swinging it down-
The mere boy grabbed the sword, trying to imitate him, disappointingly predictably, jabbed him in the throat, ineffectively thanks to the League uniform, and yanked the sword away to make a precise incision into the left side of his chest… but Ra's had already stepped back and kicked the sword aside with his boot, disgusted with the shallow level of thought.
Before his once-'heir' could do anything more, he used the power of the Ring, as the duel was not conducted formally, was entirely pointless, and would only waste his time, and teleported behind Oliver before knocking him down to the ground with a powerful punch. "Despicable. You thought you could defeat me by using the minor tactic I used against you during our last battle? How laughable."
He kicked Queen again and again, closer towards the edge, before lifting him up… and slamming him onto the rail, breaking his back. Ra's walked back, grabbing the sword. "Before you, I had an heir who had a problem you have also had, not being willing to do what is necessary. But the Detective was smarter than this foolishness. He and I battled to a stalemate, him not willing to kill me or willing to let me kill him. We managed to separate, so long as we left each other alone, or until either of us became willing to do as the other, and either do what is necessary, or stop insisting on doing so. Your arrogance and my lack of time before the Ring and the Lazarus Pit fail to keep me alive long enough means I shall have to back down, and so you shall pay dearly, with our own life… and the lives of your friends and family."
Before Queen could speak, the Demon's Head quickly made hundreds of small cuts in barely a minute and a half, drawing nearly four liters of blood and many screams of agony. He then picked up Queen once again, and threw the bloody, convulsing, whimpering shell of someone once willing to do what was necessary down into the dam, dying from blood loss.
Upon seeing a red dot moving towards his heart on his chest, he looked up, unfazed, to see someone, that had just received a sniper rifle capable of firing at this distance accurately [2], aiming at his heart... and the Magician right behind them.
On Top Of The Dam
The police officer lined the red dot with the remaining person's heart… and was decapitated with his sword. The other six officers, including Quentin, turned to where he had suddenly popped out of nowhere, drawing their guns… but he slit the throats of the nearest three in a wide swing, rolling to the side, drawing six arrows, and firing three each into the hearts of two more officers.
Quentin refused to shake, instead moving forward slowly, shouting to him and asking what the hell was going on. Oliver had died, meaning he would have to proceed with plan A, the most likely one, as he feared. Malcolm dug his fingernails into the bow and leaped out, swatting the gun aside before knocking the man out. He drew three arrows, firing them in quick succession to end the father of a girl he had used his own daughter to murder.
Merlyn pulled a grappling arrow, using it to swing down, before releasing it and rolling onto the bridge. He stood up, in front of Ra's, before kneeling, shouting, "Ra's!"
Ra's slowly walked forward to him, but Al Sah-her refused to show fear. The Demon's Head began speaking, "Al Sah-her. You've been very busy since the last time we truly talked, which we didn't get to do when I was torturing you, to make you more pliable. This last year, you sent many discreet messages to me. Explain to me why I should believe your claims that you let the Undertaking fail, in order to supposedly train the heir you had arranged for me in the form of your own godson, purposely stranding him on Lian Yu somehow and somehow having the Bratva take him in despite how they distrusted him by meeting with Kovar?"
Malcolm fidgeted, knowing the packet of lies he had created was sketchy, the reason why he had tried so hard to find another way to prevent Ra's from killing him, but now all other efforts had failed. "Yes, you see, I made some deals with Kovar in order to work on the Undertaking, and discovered Oliver was trying to get into the Bratva with the help of a friend of his, Anatoly Knyzaev. I managed to convince Kovar to let him in, and some further manipulations made it possible for him to kill Kovar, all on his own, preventing Kovar from carrying out plans that would be counterproductive to the League's goals. I had originally planned to blow up the Gambit, with a bomb not strong enough to do too much damage, next to Lian Yu, where Robert would be stranded but still alive as he was my friend once, but upon finding that Oliver was dropping out again, and was interested in going on the trip, I saw the opportunity for him to endure a trial by fire, where he could become someone worthy of being your heir. I have always been loyal to the League, such as when I was truthful in telling you he was going to betray you. I placed a person from the Glades who was desperate for money to feed their family, Dave Hackett, as a bodyguard there, who would work to leave Oliver alive by himself by throwing away supplies besides just enough for one person, Oliver. And the Undertaking would have either succeeded, purifying Star City as per the League ways once I then assassinated those on the List, or failed due to Oliver, who would then have proved himself worthy of your training."
Ra's was silent for a minute, and then he chuckled derisively. "Yes, you supposedly foresaw all of this. Your manipulations, lies, and cover-ups are more obvious than you think, arrogant Magician. I understood what you were really doing long ago, right after the Undertaking failed and you started work on fleeing me. You were the one manipulated, boy. I used you to remove Sara, who was becoming too reluctant to kill for my use, and to test Nyssa, who passed in leaving behind her arrogance if not her rather volatile and emotional personality, opposed to how you did the reverse. Do you remember when I released you? You were young, but you were just as arrogant then as now. Time has had difficulty in tempering Nyssa, but you have not corrected yourself at all. Deception may be your strong suit, but I have faced against The Tamer, Damien Darhk, and beaten him. He is more skilled than you."
Ra's drew his sword, shoving it through Malcolm's spine to kill him instantaneously, before throwing him off the bridge as well and then leaving to the Arrow's lair.
Foundry
Felicity frantically dialed on the phone, trying to get an update from Quentin on Oliver. Ray looked down, realizing that Oliver had probably died. From the dark, the Demon's Head walked out. Ray grabbed an arm with an energy blaster. Ra's nearly instantly regenerated, scaring both Ray and Felicity. He commented dryly, "Ouch."
Ra's threw a lightly bound bloody sack he had been holding on the floor, which unraveled, with the heads of Roy, Thea, Diggle, and Laurel inside. As they stood with their mouths open in horror, Ra's drew his sword and struck down Felicity for corrupting his heir. As Ray opened his mouth to speak, Ra's ordered, "Tell me how to disable the nanites you are using."
Ray started, "Nev-"
For it to be cut off with a scream as Ra's sliced across his arm. The torture had began.
Minutes later, Ray was bloody, and gave up, explaining tiredly how to do it, before being finished with his neck being snapped. The nanites were disabled, and the Outbreak began anew, travelling across Star City and killing those in it.
Ra's walked back, finding his younger daughter, and forced her to return with him to Nanda Parbat
Later That Week
Talia's Dojo
Talia entered, only to see bloody corpses strewn about. As she advanced deeper into her own dojo, she saw horrors that only one man was capable of- her father. One last corpse then fell in front of her, that of the man she had started manipulating by having an assassin pose as the Arrow and kill his wife Doris, Simon Morrison.
She looked up to see her father, and speedily kneeled, trying to soften whatever was to come. Ra's spoke, "It's time for you to return to the League, Talia. I have made my choice, and we shall accept the Detective's condition, of not trying to make him kill. He will learn the error in that in due time, and I am more close to death than I would like, especially at such a critical time. This time, your sister, Nyssa, will be the one to recruit him. She may be volatile, but recently I have had some experiences that prove there are worse flaws, such as arrogance, which you demonstrated last time. I could tell that my attempts to convince him were drastically damaged by the fact that you nearly raped my own heir."
She tried to defend herself, "I-"
His voice boomed, "Silence!"
Ra's started walking, saying only one word, "Come."
Talia followed, resigned to returning to her father's organization. The Demon's Head began plotting, so as to find a useful loophole.
A/N:
And that concludes this chapter. This felt cathartic, killing off the weak S3-Oliver, and just letting it all burn. Arrow's ending, it's all getting worse and worse, so let's light it up and make this a party, Mick Rory style. I hope this last one-shot, before I finish moving, is enjoyable.
[1] Can I mention how badly the Arrow writers treat Ra's, by having him have his very sharp sword right at Oliver's throat and yet instead of just stabbing forward immediately, he lifts it up like an idiot and swings it back down slowly enough for Oliver to easily catch it?! If Oliver wins, at least have him win by something other than pure stupidity, somehow evading this and using Ra's' own move against him somehow. In Failsafe, I had Ra's let himself be stabbed because he could only be killed by his heir or by someone using a special enchantment, which Oliver did not have, and thus if he lived, Oliver was not the heir and would be killed by him, and if he died, Oliver was the heir and had been trained enough to handle the duties of being Ra's. In an earlier chapter, "No Tricks (Up His Sleeve)", Ra's sacrificed himself because he had already given the title to Oliver and they needed an edge (by destroying the idol) before Darhk's reinforcements arrived (and they would be quicker than League assassins would be).
[2] That police officer had such a clean shot. No bystanders. Just two people, both of whom they want to shoot (though the reason why they wanted to was nowhere near well done in the show, something this chapter suffers from as well). In here, the dam is MASSIVE, and so they aren't able to shoot with precision, and needed to get a special sniper rifle capable of firing down to there. It's a crappy explanation, but it actually works.
Also, here's an omake. Some people from real life get burned now, too.
September 2019
Conference Room
A man known as Marc Guggenheim was writing in a book, in the room slightly drunk with some people who agreed with what he had done in the past. "Oh, no. That's awful. Oliver actually being acknowledged for doing something right this eighth and final season (1)? Nah, fuck him. Felicity gets all the credit, even if she was the one who caused this whole thing. And she gets to be the hero of Crisis, because we managed to get her back for these last six episodes! This is great, guys!"
Greg Berlanti cheered, "Feminism! Hacking! Stuff! Nerd things! Even though we mess all of those things up horribly as we truly know nothing about it!"
Before anyone else could cheer even more, Deadpool suddenly appeared out of the dust, wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. "Boo! It's me, no, not Green Lantern you CGI buffoons, me, Deadpool! And I have a special guest that wants to have a word with you all about what you did to his character. Have fun!"
Deadpool disappeared, and the people in the room were all slightly sobered as someone else suddenly came out of the shadows… the real Ra's al Ghul. "Ah, Mr. Guggenheim. I've been meaning to have a word with you about- how did the person Shroud, the 'acquaintance' of myself and Deadpool, admires, ArlyssTolero (2), call it? Ah yes, the foolish Ra's al-Love Guru, who made so many errors and was quite incompetent. No doubt you have some plea, as to why your portrayal of me failed so easily, such as giving romantic advice to Felicity?"
Guggenheim stated rather boisterously, "It was organic! Felicity is the absolute best character ever and deserves whatever we think she would want, damn what some people say!"
Ra's nodded sarcastically, while frowning slightly. "How… pointless. If that's what you have to say about this… then here's what I shall do about this."
Stalking, marching from one to another, he tore out each of their throats, slowly, before eventually making it to Guggenheim, who slowly backed up into a corner, begging, crying, pleading, "No, no, please, no…"
And he died as well, having his heart ripped out. Satisfied, Ra's disappeared into smoke, back to his own universe.
(1) Obviously, this is a bit of a parody. I don't think they will actually say or do any of this… I hope.
(2) One of the best authors I know. If you haven't already, see his works, they are utterly amazing.