Chapter 86: War of Succession
"Currently, Nanda Parbat is under siege by the League of Shadows. They outnumber the League of Assassins greatly, but we have found that the quality of their soldiers is significantly lower than ours. This has allowed us to stalemate them for the time being, but your teammates along with Nyssa and our master are currently trapped inside in the main atrium with Talia and a large contingent of her forces," Huntress explained as she guided them through the catacombs.
After having J'onn verify her story, the Justice League had acquiesced to Huntress' request, though not without their own suspicions. They had allowed her and her companions to guide them to one of the secret passageways to the fortress — a path located within the catacombs, where the remains of generations of assassins had been interred upon their deaths. Laurel resisted the urge to shudder. This was a place of death, located in an organization dedicated to murder. It was no place for someone like her.
"We need you to break the stalemate and turn the tide in our favor. Once the Shadows are sufficiently decimated and occupied, we can send a relief force to the atrium to finish off Talia and the rest of her assassins and rescue your friends. Provided, of course, they are still alive by then."
"They will be," Laurel said determinedly. "They're strong."
"The strongest," Huntress agreed, much to everyone's surprise. "Your friends are legend within the League. The prized horsemen of Ra's al Ghul, his greatest assassins. With them, he was able strike down some of his greatest enemies: H.I.V.E., the Ninth Circle, the Black Glove, the Court of Owls, among others. Some of the most dangerous and most secretive organizations in the world, all eliminated and leaving the League of Assassins unchallenged."
"But that was with the aid of Saraab's incomparable abilities. Talia has activated the safeguards within the fortress, completely negating not only her powers, but Al Sa'iqa's as well. And while they are still incredibly skilled assassins without them, Talia's forces number in the hundreds, if not thousands. Even they will be overwhelmed by such odds."
Barry and Kara shuddered as they felt the generators and the dampeners activate. It was too late for them. They were now as every bit as human as everyone else here. And while they were still far from defenseless, against this army, teeming with bloodthirsty Shadows all aching to kill them, that was little comfort. Now the numbers game actually mattered, and it would be a miracle if all five Assassins got out of here alive.
"Why are you here, sister?" Nyssa demanded harshly, brandishing her sword towards Talia. "You lost your place here a long time ago!"
"I am here, sister," and none could mistake Talia's insincere tone as she spoke the last word, "because I am ready to claim my birthright. The birthright you stole from me!"
"I stole nothing!" Nyssa retorted passionately. "The Heir to the Demon is not decided by blood, only by merit, and you, sister, are the most unmeritorious of them all! You may be a skilled assassin, but you are nothing more than an arrogant, entitled, bloodthirsty tyrant!"
"Nyssa is correct, Talia," Ra's rumbled angrily, before Talia could reply, causing the elder of his two daughters to rear back. "The Demon Ring was never yours. You proved yourself unworthy long before you left us, and it was only because you were my daughter that I did not cut you down for your crimes. I thought that over time you would eventually calm down and accept your place, but I was wrong."
"The only thing you were wrong about, father, was not choosing me!" Talia burst out in a rage. "So what if I killed more people than I was supposed to? They would've either become more of the corrupt element you so seek to cleanse the world of, or become victims of it instead! More than that, I am your daughter, your firstborn! But instead of treasuring that, you scorned me for not being a man, and then cast me out for a brat who damned herself with the same sin! You left me alone to make my own way, my own power, and now I am here to add that power with what should've been mine to begin with!"
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" Oliver cut in, voice frigid, "Do you honestly believe the League will stand down the moment you kill your father? Kill Nyssa? This is many things, Talia, but honorable combat is not one of them, and that is the only way you could ever hope to claim the Demon Ring."
Talia smirked. "Oh, you needn't worry about that, Al Sah-him. I have something in the works right now to secure the loyalty of the Demon, hence why my men have orders not to kill a single assassin if they can help it. I was planning to wait until I had it, but father's recent decree forced my hand."
"What decree?" Barry asked, looking back at his master.
"Why, the declaration of a line of succession, Al Sa'iqa."
The five Assassins were stunned as Al-Owal, one of their mentors and the current Ra's al Ghul's first follower, entered the atrium bearing the uniform of the Shadows. Al-Owal had trained each of them in their most advanced techniques, including swordplay and archery. In particular, he had helped train them all in catching arrows mid-air with their bare hands. He had even helped Oliver develop his personal technique for redirecting said arrows and sending them back in one movement. While a cold man, they had all respected him, and had never once doubted his loyalty.
And now he had sided with the usurper? With Talia al Ghul? He was Talia's spy? It was all absurd, but the sight before them could not be mistaken. He wore the uniform of the Shadows. He was one of Talia's now, and their enemy.
"Al-Owal!" Kara gasped in disbelief. "You betrayed the League? But you are the master's most faithful follower! You have stood beside him since the very beginning!"
"I was his most faithful follower, Saraab," he corrected her, face foreboding, "until he betrayed the League by sacrificing our traditions, by proving himself weak! These last two decades, he has released four of our greatest assassins from our service, refused to pursue Talia even after she proved herself to be a threat, and began relenting to the shortcuts of the modern world! I knew Nyssa would be the same, as would all of you, so I sided with Talia, who will return us to our roots."
While the others cursed Al-Owal for his betrayal, Oliver immediately cottoned on to something else the traitor said. "Master, what did he mean by stating that we would be the same? Does this have to do with the line of succession he mentioned?"
"Yes," Ra's admitted, "Recently I made a decree to the League establishing a line of succession for the Demon Ring. If Nyssa was somehow unable to fulfill her duties as Heir to the Demon and succeed me upon my death, then the position would fall to you, Al Sah-him. And if you were similarly unable, then it would go to Al Sa'iqa, and then to Saraab."
This shocked him, as well as Barry and Kara. "But we are no longer members of the League!" Barry argued. They were only supposed to be beholden to following the tenets of the League, to their careers as vigilantes. They were not supposed to be anywhere near the Demon Ring, let alone being in line to wear it.
"Perhaps, Al Sa'iqa, but none currently within the League besides Nyssa are currently worthy of the mantle. You three, however, are, despite the faults some of you have."
"But why, master? There has never been a need for such a thing!" Kara pointed out. By League tradition, there was only ever one heir at any point in time. And if something happened to that heir, then the current Ra's al Ghul would simply choose another one. That was the way it had always been.
Ra's sighed, looking suddenly more tired, more human, than anyone had ever seen him before. "Because the waters of the Lazarus Pit no longer have any effect on me. I am dying, my students. I no longer have any time to train a backup heir in case something happens to Nyssa, and the recent invasion of the Dominators has taught me that nothing in this world is certain, has reminded me of my own mortality. If the Demon is to survive, tradition must be sacrificed."
"Tradition," Al-Owal ground out, interjecting himself into the conversation, "Is what made the League of Assassins what it is today!"
"And that is why you are a fool, Al-Owal," Ra's replied with a tone of regret and fury. "If we cling to the past then our order will die out eventually. But you are not just clinging to the past — no, you are devoting yourself to a woman who would risk everything to correct whatever perceived slight happens upon her, and that is tantamount to destroying the League itself."
"Enough!" Al-Owal screeched back, drawing his sword. Realizing the time for words was soon coming to an end, the five Assassins once again prepared themselves for battle against the army of Shadows. However, there was one last question that needed to be asked.
"The attack on Iris," Barry started, calling out to Talia specifically, "What was the purpose of that?"
"Isn't the answer obvious, Al Sa'iqa?"
Barry glared at her. "It was bait, wasn't it? To draw us here. With the master's decree, you no longer just had to contend with Nyssa for control over the League. You had to contend with all of us."
"Yes. As long as at least one of you was alive, none of the League would follow me. I had always intended to eliminate you all eventually, you would've never suffered me to live after I killed my sister, but my father's decree forced my hand. So, I sent one of my recruits to attack your friend, knowing that regardless of whether or not it succeeded, you would come here demanding answers."
"Here to Nanda Parbat," Kara said slowly, tightening her grip on her knife, "The one place in the world where my brother and I are guaranteed to be vulnerable. That way, you could corner us into the atrium and slaughter us all in one fell swoop." She snorted.
"Crude, but effective," Oliver had to admit.
"You will not win, sister," Nyssa grimly claimed as she crouched down into a stance.
"Oh, I wouldn't be sure about that, sister," Talia replied mockingly, before signaling her men to attack.
As a sea of black threatened to envelope them, the Assassins brandished their weapons and stood close to each other, back-to-back. There was no more time for talk.
The Battle of Nanda Parbat had begun.
"So how did you end up with the League? Did Arrow send you here after he jailed your dad?" Laurel couldn't help but ask curiously.
Huntress frowned, holding up a torch and then gesturing them to follow the next corner. "Not exactly. I was given a choice of either going to jail with my father or trying my luck here. As I realized I had no purpose once my father was gone, I decided to take your friends up on their offer."
Mari blinked. "What do you mean by 'no purpose'?"
"I may have been his daughter, but I had long ago realized what kind of monster Frank Bertinelli was, and was planning to help take him down. I made contact with the FBI and was giving them all the information I had on them. However, I made a mistake," and here, Helena fisted one of her hands, "I left the laptop I was using to contact them with my fiancee Michael."
Jefferson frowned. "Let me guess — he found out about it, and had Michael killed, and comforted you and lied to your face about what happened." There was also a distressingly familiar story in Freeland.
"Yes," Helena confirmed, eyes stormy. "I swore revenge on him, and started eliminating his inner circle one by one and framing it on the Triad, in hopes of starting a gang war that would wipe him and his family out."
While the others gaped at her for her ruthlessness, something else caught Laurel's attention. 'Eliminating his inner circle one by one'… her eyes widened, as a memory was recalled to her mind. "The assassination on Paul Copani," she breathed out, "that was you, wasn't it!?" She had remembered that attack very well — Oliver had been so stressed about the danger his mother had been in, and her father had worked on the case diligently for the sake of one of his family's close friends, but had never managed to find the perpetrator.
But just because her father had failed in his search, the same couldn't have been said for Oliver. And no matter how angry Oliver would be about the attack, he would obviously ask questions about why Frank Bertinelli's own daughter was trying to take him down. With his strong sense of justice and Kara's natural compassion, they would obviously sympathize with Helena and would try to help her find a way to channel the anger inside her into something more constructive. Considering Helena was a killer already and didn't look poised to stop anytime soon after her father was put away, they must have assumed that the League was the only place they could hope to send her to that would stop her from self-destructing.
Huntress looked back at her and nodded. "That's how I caught Al Sah-him and Saraab's attention. They promised to take down my father as long as I didn't start a gang war. He was going to go down either way, but they threatened to make sure I went down with him if I continued with my vendetta, and offered this as an alternative."
"So you decided to go?"
"I had no other purpose. This place gave me a path where I can make sure none can suffer like I did."
Nobody really had anything to say to that. Things fell silent once more as the group followed Huntress throughout the maze of the catacombs, finally reaching the exit to the main courtyard where the battle was taking place. It was a staircase leading to a loose hatch, where light was filtered in through the cracks. One could hear the telltale sounds of metal clashing against metal and the yells of battle. Huntress put a finger to her mouth, ordering them to remain silent, before slowly opening the hatch, trying to get some visual about what was going on outside and whether or not it was safe to join yet.
She peered through the small crack she made, before gesturing to Laurel to follow her. Laurel walked up the stairs and lifted her own gaze, with Helena pushing the hatch up a little higher to get a better view. Laurel could only gasp at what she saw.
The place was just as Helena said: in complete chaos. Dust flew everywhere as Assassin and Shadow clashed. Bodies were strewn on the ground, their lifeblood pooling together with the dirt and staining the boots of the combatants still standing. It was like a swirl of red and maroon and black and gray, an endless mass of bodies moving against each other in acts of violence. And somewhere, in the midst of it all, her teammates, her friends, were fighting for their lives, trying to survive.
This wasn't just some battle. This was war.
Laurel dropped down, turning back to her other teammates, face twisted in fear. "How are we supposed to get through all that? Even with J'onn—"
"We just need an opening," J'onn said, face determined. "If I can take to the skies, I can avoid the fighting altogether and just phase through the walls into the fortress."
"Will your powers even work in there though?" This fortress, after all, was modified to negate even Barry and Kara's powers.
Everyone exchanged looks. "I don't know," the Martian admitted, "But what choice do we have?"
What choice indeed. Oliver, Barry, and Kara were somewhere in there and the longer they failed to act, the more their chances of survival would fall. If they didn't make a move now, it might be too late to save their friends.
"Do you mind if some of your compatriots get hurt?" Jefferson asked Huntress, who shrugged.
"There are always casualties in war, and we have… methods of healing them."
"Then everyone, stand back."
Quickly realizing what Jefferson was about to do, everyone did exactly that. Mari touched her totem, allowing the image of a cheetah to envelope her, while J'onn quickly transformed into his Martian Manhunter form. Laurel took out her tonfas, turning on the electrifier so the blue current ran through it. Huntress took out a crossbow, while her companions also drew weapons.
Jefferson took a deep breath, allowing the electricity he stored within himself to arc through him, before charging up the stairs with a roar, breaking through the wooden hatch and letting out a massive blast of blue energy. The electricity spread throughout the entire area, affecting Assassin and Shadow alike and sending them flying. Upon his signal, his comrades followed him up the stairs and charged into the fray.
And so, here we are. The Battle for Nanda Parbat, the climax of Act II.
If you're lost, this is what Talia's original plan was. Originally, she was going to attack Nanda Parbat when the trio were not there and kill Nyssa and Ra's, and then use the location of the second Lazarus Pit to secure the League of Assassins's loyalty via bribery. However, Ra's' recent decree revealed that Oliver, Barry, and Kara had been made potential candidates for the Demon Ring as well, meaning even with a Lazarus Pit in her pocket she wouldn't able to maintain most of the League's loyalty as long as they were alive. So she drew them to Nanda Parbat using the attack on Iris so she could kill them all first and then take over the League, knowing that with them gone and with Al-Owal advocating for her, she'd be the only strong candidate for leadership left.
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