Chapter 6
Nanda Parbat
8:45 AM
"As isolated as Nanda Parbat is, we are not unfamiliar with the way of the world," Nyssa said. "The League may be loath to modernize, but that does not mean it has been unaware to the threats that have come to plague the world. When we heard men were flying through the air and that they were not native to this planet, my father immediately began to adjust his plans."
Sara nodded. "I was there. I also know that he didn't seem any more stunned than usual."
"Rumors have permeated the globe that my father was immortal," Nyssa looked at Oliver. "He was clearly not invulnerable, but that does not change the possibility that he may have lived a very long time."
"He never told you?" Oliver asked.
Nyssa shook her head. "My mother was gone long before I was born. The most he was willing to tell me was that she was his great love and that she was taken from him. I still don't know if that meant she left him or if she's dead. I have a sister out there somewhere, roaming the world. At one point, she was part of the League but I've never even met her. Unlike me, she rejected my father."
"And he still wouldn't consider you his heir," Oliver shook his head. "I'm truly sorry."
"Truth be known, even if I had not loved Sara, I think it unlikely I would ever have been made Heir to the Demon in my own right," Nyssa said. "My father was always determined to pass it on to a male heir."
"And as far as you know, he doesn't have one, "Sara asked.
"None have yet come to fight me for my title," Nyssa looked in to the horizon. "But you didn't come to hear about my father's secrets."
"In a way, that is why we're here," Sara said slowly.
"Indeed, this plot that you and Oliver are not actively trying to fight against," Nyssa said. "I realize how this may sound, but it does seem a little…extreme."
"I don't blame you for thinking that," Oliver admitted. "I've had longer to deal with it, and I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it. And I have slightly more experience with even stranger things."
"If you're asking if my father ever told me anything about it, you already know the answer to that question," Nyssa said to Sara.
"We both know that he kept his own counsel from everyone, so I'm not shocked at that," Sara said. "But all three of us know that doesn't mean the end of it."
"I need to know your reasoning before we go any further," Nyssa was now speaking to Oliver.
"I find it difficult to believe that your father would go along with any plot to destroy the planet the League has sworn to protect," Oliver began. "I find it even harderto believe that, allowing for that, he would allow himself and the League to be subservient to any organization, human or alien. But the idea that Ras Al Ghul, who spent his life with knowledge of areas of the world that should be on his reach, knew nothing about a global conspiracy that has been going on for decades at the very least, that I find impossible to believe."
Nyssa stood motionless for a long time. "For the first time since I have known you, husband, we are in complete agreement on something."
"Of course, knowing that and finding out what Ras knew are two different things," Sara reminded them. "All the years I was here, I never saw something more technologically advanced than parchment and quills. And from what I know, I sincerely doubt he kept any written record of the League's activities."
"It would have gone against everything the League stands for," Nyssa agreed. "But as we are all aware, my father made the rules so he would have shown little compunction in choosing the circumstances to violate them."
"Which brings me to a question you're really not going to want to answer," Oliver said. "Do you think there's anyone among your associates, past or present, he would have confided in?"
"He didn't share his secrets with his flesh and blood; you truly can't tell me you think he'd share it with a lowly henchman," There was more than a trace of bitterness in Nyssa's tone.
Sara and Oliver exchanged a glance. "One of the members of this new Syndicate for a time was Malcolm Merlyn," she said carefully.
Nyssa looked like she was about to swear for a moment, then changed her mind. "I assume you used the past tense deliberately."
"He's dead. And while I do not mourn his loss, given his track record one wonders why the Syndicate would dare to employ someone so untrustworthy in the first place," Oliver told him.
Nyssa turned to Oliver. "You think when he was Heir to the Demon; he learned something my father was hiding."
"Knowing Merlyn, I think the more accurate term would be 'stole'," Oliver agreed. "Malcolm would do anything to ensure his own survival. He did so with Damian Dahrk and he did the same with the Syndicate."
"This Syndicate, they must have known his nature. That did not stop them from employing him?" Nyssa asked.
"From what little we know about the membership, past and present, it's practically a requirement," Sara told her. "The people who were work for them are disposable in cause of the greater purpose. They probably even expected his betrayal and were more than prepared to commit an atrocity to cover their assassination."
Oliver then told Nyssa what the Syndicate had done to ensure Malcolm's death. Nyssa features darkened. "Based on what you have told me, it was clear they had no honor," she said savagely. "But however ruthless the League is no one in it, not even my father, would commit an act that horrendous rather than stand behind their own actions."
"Don't tell me overkill isn't part of the League's modus operandi," Oliver reminded her.
"You kill a member of the League, you and you alone pay for it," Sara countered. "When Malcolm," a very deliberate pause, "killed me, his life was forfeit. If he had been willing to take responsibility, that would have been the end of it. Because he wouldn't, dominos began to fall."
Another reason to hate the already dead Merlyn. "From what Mulder and Scully have told me, the Syndicate was always willing to commit more heinous acts to cover up their actions. The leadership may have changed, but their methods have not," Oliver told her.
"Is this true of only the human conspirators or these aliens as well?" Nyssa handled this absurd question far better than anyone on Team Arrow had when they asked it.
"No one can give a clear answer on that," Oliver said. "However, considering the ends that these aliens are working too, I'd say it's a moot point."
Nyssa acknowledged this. "Even with the League's resources, your forces would still be severely undermanned against these invaders."
"Mulder and Scully have made it very clear that they only view all-out assault as an absolute last resort," Sara told her lover. "They think if it ever comes to that point, the battle is truly lost. We came here not so much for soldiers but for intelligence."
Nyssa thought for a moment. "Why did you come to the rendezvous point?" she asked suddenly. "The last year and a half you didn't bother with the subterfuge coming here. And I know your Felicity and her friends could have saved themselves much heartache if they'd done so."
Oliver looked at the woman he had been married too. "Why were you in Thailand?" he countered. "I know that the League can move like lightning, but based on their transportation, it would have taken at least a day for you to even get the message in the first place. And yet less than four hours after Sara sent the message, you made contact."
For the first time since he'd met Nyssa Al Ghul, it almost looked like she was blushing. "I had heard rumor that Sara had returned after leaving Star City," she said carefully. "I knew at some point she would want to make contact. "
Sara looked warmly at Nyssa. "And this is where we first met," she said softly.
"I realize I am the last person who should be telling anyone this, considering how notoriously bad I am at," Oliver said with compassion in his voice. "But having affection for another person is not a weakness. It's a strength."
Nyssa seemed to regain her composure. "Your Felicity. I assume she knows where the two of you are."
Both Oliver and Sara had to stifle a laugh. "I'm actually a little stunned she and the rest of the team aren't knocking down the door by now," Sara said slowly.
"Next time you want to have a meeting, just come here." Both Oliver and Sara could barely hide their surprise. "I realize our union was far from ideal, husband, but given everything that has happened I do trust you."
"Thank you," Oliver said.
"Have you informed your friends in the government of the League or where we are located?" Nyssa asked.
"No," Sara assured Nyssa. "And unless you give us permission to do otherwise, we shall abide by the oaths we have sworn to."
Nyssa considered this. "My father exposed us before his death," she reminded them. "I realize the outside world is different, but I find it hard to believe our assault on your city went unnoticed by the government your agents represent."
Oliver nodded. "John's wife now runs the agency whose charter was hunting people like you down," he told her. "That said, the woman who previous ran said agency is now part of the Syndicate. I'm actually stunned Amanda Waller didn't send at least a team or two in this direction before faking her demise."
"She did. They were inadequate to the task," Nyssa waved it off. "They never got within a hundred miles of the citadel."
Oliver filed that away for another time. "In any case, Mulder and Scully no doubt have theories, but even with all their experience I doubt they ever got close to the truth. I don't have to tell you why we're sure of that." Nyssa nodded. "If and when we tell them is an issue for another day, and right now because there is a certain element of time involved, we need to find out what your father might have known."
Nyssa thought for a few moments. "My father has made many journeys around the world," she said slowly. "To every corner of the globe. But there were occasions where he would go on short trips and come back more troubles than usual."
"How short a trip?" Sara asked.
"He'd be gone less than a day," Nyssa said thoughtfully. "And sometimes when men had disgraced the League, he would take them with him and they would never return. I assumed they had either been killed or imprisoned. But he always phrased it a certain way. That they had one last test to take."
A thought was tingling in the back of Oliver's head, but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
Just then, a man ran up to her. "Lady Al Ghul, there are some strangers within the perimeter."
Nyssa's actually seemed to smile a little. "It took your friends less time than I anticipated for them to find you," she said. "Let them pass unharmed."
The guard looked nervous, but nodded and ran away.
"How long will it take to calm Felicity down?" Nyssa said.
"Two minutes when she sees we're unharmed," Oliver said. "Which is good. I'm going to need her to do what she does best."
"And what's that in this case?" Sara asked.
"Tell us where to go next."
RURAL CANADA
4:58 PM
"This could just be your deadpan tone, but I'm not certain how seriously to take you," Stein asked.
"All the years I worked the system," Mulder said carefully. "I bent and twisted every possible regulation when I was in the Bureau, but I never violated the rules. I did what the good guys are supposed to do. And what did it ever get me? Allies and family murdered; the woman I loved abducted and left to die. Given a son, and then he was taken away. And whatever victories I got, never counted to anybody that mattered. I am done playing fair."
"I know, but still what you're talking about," Samantha started.
"They violated you in the name of this project," Mulder said in a blunt tone to his sister. "When I tried to rescue one of them twenty years ago, I did it because I thought she was some version of you. But they're not. I now know what was done in order for them to be here. The countless women whose immune systems were super-radiated in order to extract the ovum for them to exist and then were discarded and left to die in the most agonizing way possible. If it hadn't been for blind luck, Scully would have been one of them. How many women died so this farm could exist? How many farms are there like this throughout the world?"
It was clear Samantha had been trying her hardest not to think about that she came to Canada. But looking at countless copies of her as a girl, it was impossible to avoid it.
"I failed every time I tried to protect one of them," Mulder said deliberately. "They killed them all, knowing full well they could just make more. They might try to use euphemisms like drones or clones, but let's not mince words."
"They're slaves working a plantation," Jefferson said simply.
"Only whatever instinct that would make them want to escape has most likely been bred out of them," Mulder agreed.
"Agent Mulder, did you come here planning to do this?" Stein asked.
"Honestly, I don't know what I was going to do," Mulder admitted. "Take photos, try to liberate one, maybe just do reconnaissance. But I've done all that before and it hasn't made a dent in the greater purpose. The Syndicate has never shown any interest in playing fair. They've always been able to cover up any time I've tried to expose them. Maybe my problem was because I was always acting on my own, I always seemed to be thinking too small."
"You're the head of a government task force," Samantha said carefully. "Won't they're be ramifications?"
"I never gave a damn about the consequences when I was a humble grunt," Mulder said. "Now that I'm the boss, I'll let whoever does this with a rap on the knuckles."
"You don't need to sell me on this," Jefferson said grimly. "Speaking just for myself, I am not going to watch this and just sing 'Zip-a-Dee-Do-Da.'"
"I'm not inclined to just let this stand either," Stein agreed. "But even with Jefferson and myself using our abilities, I'm not entirely certain we'll be able to do enough damage on her own to do whatever it is you have in mind."
"Well, if we're going to do this, we have to go big," Mulder reached into his pocket.
"You sure about this?"
"How do you liberate a group of alien clones? You call a more powerful alien," Mulder took out the DEO communicator he had. "I just never had one on speed-dial before."
NANDA PARBAT
Felicity had spent the past four years in her job as Overwatch mentally working out the worst case scenarios for every situation Oliver could end up. Considering her job, that came into play practically every time Oliver had donned the Hood and considering her intelligence, she had constantly had to push back the Overton Window as to how implausible and horrible these scenarios could end up being.
Naturally her mind had gone into overdrive the closer she, John and Ray had gotten to Nanda Parbat, most of her scenario wondering which extremities Oliver and Sara would be missing by the time they managed to get there, assuming they were still alive by then.
Not one of her scenarios had she assumed that once one of the League's members located her, his reaction had been closer to a bellboy guiding his guests to a luxury hotel in Star City with only the words: "They're expecting you." This had led her down an even more terrified stream of consciousness that lasted pretty much until they got inside the citadel proper to see that Oliver and Sara were completely unharmed.
Felicity had done what she always did, run into Oliver's arms, hug him so tightly and then launch a near-incomprehensible ramble simultaneously saying how worried she had be and that she could never do this again.
Then she had finally noticed Nyssa and whirled around, with a similar rant building.
"I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but I believe Laurel once referred to it as: 'All these months gone, you don't write, you don't call?'"
Nyssa Al Ghul was smiling. Nyssa Al Ghul had just made a joke. Nyssa Al Ghul had just made an appropriate joke about their situation. Felicity's reaction was immediate: "Holy smoke, the world really is about to end!"
Oliver and Sara were also smiling, which was not the typical reaction you expected from people who had been taken prisoner by the League. Although considering that it had happened so often the last few years, perhaps they were used to it by now. Hell, given everything that happened they should maybe consider them coming with a punch card offering a free Belly Burger after every ten abductions. Then again, if that promotion was a reality, the multi-billion corporation would have gone broke handling its Star City operations alone.
Finally Felicity managed to regain some degree of normalcy. "Why is everybody so fricking calm?" she asked in as measured a tone as she could handle.
"I apologize for acting the way I did," Nyssa said slowly. "But when your former husband and your current love show up together, one has been known to overreact. I believe the three of you should understand."
"Is this…an apology?" Diggle asked cautiously.
"The Heir to the Demon never apologizes," Nyssa says firmly. "Laurel Lance's friend, she does."
Nyssa was being civil and polite. "Leadership looks good on you," Felicity found herself saying reluctantly.
"Having spent my whole life yearning for it only to have it plucked away so many times, I'm still having trouble getting used to it," Nyssa said. "My actions were those of the League of Assassins, not of someone who considers you allies. I am sorry for the stress I put all of you through, especially considering the nature of the crisis that Oliver and Sara have been explaining to me."
Diggle took on the optics of the military man. "Soldier to soldier, how are you handling it?"
"Confused at the nature of the crisis, angered that my father may have kept this secret to himself," Nyssa told them.
"So you don't think your father was involved?" Ray asked.
"He told no one in the League about it, which means nothing," Sara told them. "We all know the kinds of secrets Ras could keep."
"There may be one hint," Oliver told them what Nyssa had told them about her father disappearances and his tests. "Now we all know the Syndicate survived on experiments on the unsuspecting. The question is would Ras be the kind of person to provide them with test subjects?"
Felicity grew thoughtful for the first time. She looked at Nyssa dead on. "He would disappear for no more than a day at a time with these prisoners," she asked slowly.
"Correct."
"I know that the League has access to airplanes and other vehicles," she said slowly. "Do you have any idea if your father used one of them in his travels?"
Nyssa gave the subject serious consideration. "He didn't use them often," she said thoughtfully. "I know he knew how to drive, but I'm relatively certain he never knew how to use a plane or a helicopter. He always trusted soldiers with those missions. And I am certain that on these particular voyages, he would only go with himself and the prisoner."
"He didn't trust anyone enough not to ask questions about these trips?" Diggle asked.
"My father trusted no one," Nyssa reminded them.
Felicity looked at Ray. "Get out one of the maps we have," she said. "We need to find out the area he could have covered in that time."
Ray nodded, and reached in one of packages. "You're going to need to do some complicated calculations?" Sara asked.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure anyone of you could do this with a compass and a map," Ray pointed out. "That's the easy part. Hard part's going to be figuring out where to search."
It took Felicity and Ray less than three minutes to do some fairly simple calculations – based on the terrain, the location of Nanda Parbat and the average vehicle speed during the time allotted. Usually everybody needed Felicity to translate how she figured out her methods; this time everybody in the room knew pretty much what they had to do.
"All right. Based on what Nyssa's telling us and this is a very loose method," Felicity said. "I think we're talking about a range of maybe three to four hundred miles. Now that is an area that can be covered with the right amount of air support, which you know, we have. But that's not the problem."
Diggle looked at the map. "Yeah, I can see the problem. Based on where we are, at least two-thirds of the grid is Russian territory. And even though that's pretty much the deadest of the Tundra, there's no way that somebody on Putin's radar doesn't report this to somebody."
"Wait a minute," Oliver said slowly. He pointed to the map. "I think I know where your father went."
"Krasnoyarsk, "Diggle said. "Is this some part of your seedy Russian history?"
"No," Felicity said as it sunk in. "Its part of Mulder's." She looked at Nyssa. "Your father wasn't involved with the Syndicate. But he did know about the conspiracy."
"I think you'd better explain," Nyssa said.
"Mulder's the one who can do that best," Oliver said. "You'll have to settle for the short version."
"I know your stories, husband," Nyssa said grimly. "There are no short versions."
"Mulder's stories are long," Diggle said pointedly. "Oliver still hasn't told us most of his."
"Given the nature of this one, I think I have to share," Oliver said, shaking his head. "Because even though I was never in this particular part of Russia, this area may be one where Mulder and my life intersect."
DEO HEADQUARTERS
6:14 pm
"You do know that is the exact thing that got your ass in a sling when you were in the Bureau the first time," Hank Henshaw was saying over the radio.
"I didn't have multiple government agencies backing me at the time," Mulder reminded the DEO.
"We may have decent relationships with Canada, but do you really think you're not going to set off some international signals by doing this?" Alex Danvers sounded as dubious as Hank at this point.
"I'm breaking into an illegal scientific prison camp," Mulder countered. "I'm not naïve enough to expect that we will be greeted as liberators, but I'm pretty sure that in order for them to charge me with doing something treasonous, the powers that be will have to explain just what it was we were doing wrong in the first place. There will be questions raised, I have no doubt, but they will be the kind of questions the Syndicate doesn't want asked in the first place."
No one at the DEO could deny this particular logic. "These people have cover stories for their cover stories," Hank countered. "There will be some blowback for this."
The Mulders exchanged glances. "I'm looking at at least ten versions of myself at eight years old," Samantha finally said. "The phrase that comes to mind as to these concerns is 'rat's ass."
Alex looked at Hank. "It's really hard to argue that this isn't at least part of our charter, even before we knew of the Syndicate," she reminded him.
"Believe me, the idea of these kinds of camps doesn't appeal to either one of the faces I wear," Hank said. He got on the radio. "Please tell me you don't intend to do this by the seat of your pants."
"If I was, I wouldn't have bothered to call you," Mulder sighed. "I'm not naïve. As good as your people are, there could very well be blowback and it could do major damage to you. Of all our allies, the DEO is the most vulnerable right now. But they're also the people most likely to get the job done right. Which is why I want you to create a trail that says this was a direct order from me as the head of this task force."
This was more cover than any of them had expected. "Mulder, you don't have to do this," Kara said.
"You know what Truman said about where the buck stopped," Mulder said. "If I'm going to be in a position with responsibility, I have to start taking it."
"From what we understand you did nothing but take responsibility when you were on the X-Files," Stein said.
"It's one thing to do it when you're a subordinate and another as a superior," Mulder said slowly. "Skinner will laugh his ass off when he hears about this."
"Mulder's right," Kara said. "Based on what we read in the files, at some point we were going to be doing some variation of this. Our enemy has camps like this all over the world, no doubt some of them doing far worse things to far weaker subjects. At the very least, this is something that Supergirl is supposed to be doing before she even heard of the Syndicate. If we can't do it now, we've really got to wonder what the whole point of this task force is in the first place."
"Agreed," Hank said after less than a couple of seconds thought. "How much time do you think we have?"
"Honestly I'm amazed the men with guns haven't stormed the barricades already," Samantha told them. "We take much longer; you're going to have to add the four of us to those you need to liberate."
"Can you buy us five minutes?" They all knew it wasn't either of the Mulders that Alex was talking too.
Stein looked at Jefferson. "What do you need us to do?"
NANDA PARBAT
"So based on what your telling us, the Russians have had their own version of this Syndicate for at least as long as the Americans," Nyssa said slowly.
"Mulder was never as sure of that much as he was the rest of it, but based on what's in those files, I think it's a safe assumption," Felicity said.
"And the Russians got access to their part of this from a meteor strike a century ago," Nyssa was still trying to process.
"For what it's worth, I actually knew this part of the story well before I signed on," Ray told them. "In 1908, in the area of Russia known as Tunguska, a huge fireball – I think the figure quoted was that it had the force of at least 2000 atom bombs - smashed into the Earth. The theories at the time involved a comet or an asteroid, but there was no evidence as to what it actually was."
"Based on what Mulder saw, there's an excellent chance it was some version of that alien force there," Oliver said. "And I think that your father provided the Russians with test subjects for them to use that force for experiments."
"Mulder has proof of this?" Nyssa asked.
"Mulder was the subject of one of them," Felicity said. "Twenty years ago, he was exposed to what the Russians called the 'black cancer' as part of it. The only reason he survived was because he was given an experimental vaccine. "
"He came to Russia on his own, was held prison in a gulag for a period of days, was subject to those tests and manage to escape both the prison and the country," Nyssa shook her head. "On that alone, Agent Mulder appears to be a worthy ally."
"Hey Agent Scully did her fair share of the heavy lifting too," Felicity felt honor bound to boost his partner. She looked at Oliver glaringly. "You leave out the part where she was abducted by this Syndicate?"
"From what I understand, it was in part because she refused to do their dirty work and render the X-Files obsolete," Nyssa said to Oliver. "Did they consider her more of a threat than him?"
"She was pretty much the only person at the Bureau who was willing to follow him even if she completely disagreed with his way of thinking," Sara answered. "She was loyal but not blindly so."
"You've been remarkably tactful when it came to discussing their personal relationship," Nyssa asked.
"Because it's irrelevant to the proceedings," Oliver paused. "They were partners at the Bureau seven years. From what I understand they spent at least six of them and probably much of the seventh dancing around each other."
"You said they were intelligent people." Was that a twinkle in Nyssa's eye?
"A lot of us have blind spots to these things. It took me the better part of three years, and I did screw that up," Oliver acknowledged, looking Felicity in the eye.
"Not beyond repair," Felicity told him with a similar stare.
Nyssa considered this. "Are Mulder and Scully the kind of people who would accept assistance from us?" she said, appearing to change the subject.
"They don't know why we came here in the first place," Sara told Nyssa. "And I won't lie; some of it was to protect them. That said, given the crisis we are facing, they wouldn't reject your help."
"Even given everything that happened in Star City two years ago."
This time Felicity answered the question. "Mulder's made these kinds of bargains before," she said carefully. "He came to regret some of them, I'm certain, but you're not your father and he wouldn't think you should have to pay for his sins. Scully's a different story. She doesn't like make blind deals with the devil, and given some of the things the League has done, she would have some misgivings."
There was a long pause. "Remarkably succinctly, Felicity has summed it up well," Oliver said. "If there is one thing we have learned from working with her, it's that you damn well better have proof before she's willing to sign on."
Nyssa pondered this for a moment. "You came here originally trying to find proof as to whether the League knew anything about this conspiracy." They nodded agreement. "I suggest we find it."
Everyone recognized the unquestioning certainty of Nyssa Al Ghul. "And just how do we do that?" Diggle asked.
"Agent Mulder gave you eight days before he would start…panicking?" Nyssa asked Oliver. When he nodded: "That gives us a little more than six days to see if we can find that evidence. "
She looked at the map. "According to that map, we can reach that area in less than eight hours. If those camps are still active – and based on what you've told me, that is a strong possibility – we may very well find evidence of them there."
They all knew how dangerous this could be. "They'll be heavily guarded, even if the technology is still as primitive as it was when Mulder was out there twenty years ago," Diggle pointed out. "And we can't risk too big a force, or even the simplest Russian soldier will grow suspicious."
Felicity looked at Nyssa, possibly as an equal for the first time in her life. "I know the League never believed much in technology, but is there any area around where I could set up perhaps the most primitive of tech support?"
"The League chose this area because it was invisible to almost every form of surveillance from without," Nyssa said respectfully. "That did not mean my father did not believe it had no use. "
"It didn't seem that way the last few times we were here," Oliver reminded her. "Did you find something on your own?"
"When I decided to destroy the Lazarus Pits, I felt there had to be some kind of accommodation we made to the new world," Nyssa looked at Sara. "Perhaps I was too hasty on that particular decision."
"I've had some time to think about that," Sara said gently. "For a long time after I was brought back, I was lost. Not in the way Thea was, I was genuinely lost. I've spent months trying to find my way back to who I was, and while I have found a new purpose – one that I don't think I had even when I was in the League or with Oliver - I have to accept that a vital part of me died two years ago. Thea seemed to be better than I was when she came back, but now even she admits that she just did a better job of hiding it."
"I knew my sister. Better than she thought I did," Sara said with a small smile. "I have an idea what part of me was taken from me in the Pit. And I'm pretty sure it's the part that Laurel would never want to be without. I know what she did for me, and she knew what it cost me. She wouldn't wish it on anyone else. Not even her."
Nyssa stared into the eyes of the woman she loved. "Thank you for saying that," Nyssa said. "Your sister was as brave as you. Certainly braver than either of us ever believed when you left."
None of them could tell, but Sara thought Nyssa was trying very hard not to blink back tears. Felicity, of all people, decided to take her off the hook. "This accommodation, where is it?"
"I assume you have the necessary technology," Nyssa replied.
"I travel about as light as you do," Felicity said with a trace of her old snark. "I just don't hide it as well."
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
6:22 pm
"The perimeter was breached more than half an hour ago," Harold Vicks demanded of his fellow security guard. "Why haven't we done anything to make a move?"
Nathan Antilles looked at his partner. "I contacted headquarters and sent them the footage. Their instructions were to maintain surveillance until further notice."
Vicks heaved a sigh. "We're in the ass end of Canada for five years, staring in the middle of nowhere at nothing. In all that time not a single person has ever showed up, not a hitchhiker, not a census taker, not a goddamned Mountie. Yet every shift we have to scour this beautiful tundra waiting for something to happen. Well, today something goddamn well happened….and the powers that be don't want us to do a fucking thing?"
"Look on the bright side," Antilles said. "At least we know the last five years haven't been a practical joke. Remember Hector? He spent twenty years in Guam shipping out food, and then got a severance package telling him and Glen that their services were no longer required. They never even found out where they were sending those packages of polar bear tranquilizer darts to."
"I should have known something was suspicious," Vicks grumbled as he turned away from the monitors, pacing. "They pay us twice the money I could get moonlighting as a security guard anywhere in the world to stare into nothing eight hours a day. Hell, half of me was beginning to wonder if these people were watching the ghosts of the Montreal Canadians play hockey matches and none of us could see it."
"Now that's just silly," Antilles said slowly. "Clearly there's something of great value that we've been guarding all this time." There was a pause. "And whatever it was, it was clearly very, very illegal."
"Why are you saying that?" Vicks asked his friend.
"Because unless I have started to hallucinate myself, the female embodiment of Truth, Justice and The American Way is hovering about two hundred meters above us," Antilles said slowly.
Vicks turned to the monitor. They may have been in the prairie equivalent of a deserted island, but both of them watched enough news to know Supergirl when they saw her.
The two of them stared at it for a moment. "We've been watching this area for five years," Vicks said.
"Indeed we have," Antilles agreed.
"And we just alerted our superiors about the intruders."
"Right you are."
"I'd say that means were more to overdue a vacation."
"Fine idea." The two moved as quickly as they could towards the front door.
"You know, it will look like we're trying to run from Supergirl."
"She only wastes her time on the big fish. We are barely guppies."
Vicks nodded. "Nevertheless, I think it would be in our interest to leave via the basement."
"Probably prudent." Antilles paused. "You know, our bosses could be angry with us. Consider some kind of dereliction of duty."
"In the long run, who are you more scared of: the bosses we've never met or someone who can shake off being hit by an armored car?"
Antilles considered this. "Your car's faster right?"
"Want to bum a ride?"
"Much obliged."
As they ran out towards the exit, neither noticed the trucks arriving in one of the monitors on the outside of the perimeter. Fortunately for them by the time the soldiers inside had time to think of the guards they'd left behind, those same soldiers would be occupied with more significant problems.
Very occupied.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Am I ameliorating Nyssa Al'Ghul too much? Compared to Talia she seemed the more reasonable of the Al' Ghul daughters, especially after Laurel's death but I may be softening her too much? Maybe she's happy to see Sara again. Hell, she might well have developed a certain sense of humor.
Based on what we know of Nanda Parbat's location, it may well be within shouting distance of the Russian tundra where the camps that Mulder and Krycek found in Tunguska/Terma in Season 4. There were a lot false flags in that two-parter (but name one mythology episode that didn't have any) but I think the idea of the black oil tests in the gulag does fit well with the series, as with the idea of Ras Al Ghul's mission.
Was Sara being too noble in letting her lover off the hook? Is she being too forgiving for her sister not being able to be treated the methods that brought her back. I am unsure. And considering all the mess we got with the alternate Laurel in Season 5, I still think we would have been better off that way. But again, there's no Season 5 of Arrow in this universe.
Yes, the distant ancestors of Vicks and Wedge Antilles are involved in the Conspiracy and that they're still on the outside looking in. (Admittedly, this is more of a Final Fantasy joke than a Star Wars won, but it works either way, don't you think?) And I threw in another Lost reference for free. Bonus points if you know where it is because it's not, strictly speaking, part of the original show.
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