Danny studied the building before them. Despite the darkness lit only by pools of light from the streetlamps, it was clearly more residential than business, though in this part of New York, that was never a given. Still, more curtains than blinds framed the windows, and there was no directory on the building exterior, so Danny felt safe in his assumption that this was an apartment building of some kind.
"Four fourteen," Oliver said from his position at Danny's right side. "That's the number Felicity gave me."
"Matches the one on her application," Danny agreed before glancing to Nyssa, who stood at his left. "How do you want to handle this?"
"Simple is best." Nyssa strode forward and rapped on the door.
For long moments, no sound came from beyond the door.
"I can get us in," Oliver murmured.
"Wait." Danny stepped closer to the door and pressed his ear against it. In K'un Lun, Lei Kung had told him that the Iron Fist could, in addition to strengthening his fist, strengthen his senses as well. Danny hadn't had a reason to try that particular skill until now, and he could only hope that the training he'd had would allow him to do so.
He breathed in and out, slowly and steadily, centering himself, and then stretched his senses toward and through the door beside him, as he might extend his chi through a brick he needed to break.
In this case, though, rather than breaking the door, Danny focused on extending his chi through it as though it didn't exist. After a minute, maybe two, he blinked and stared at his companions.
"I hear a heartbeat - slow and faint."
Nyssa started toward the door, but Oliver caught her by the arm. She turned on him, scowling, but Oliver just shook his head.
"Let's not wake the neighbors. Or warn whoever's inside if it's not Talia."
Nyssa's lips pressed together, but she nodded.
Quickly, Oliver had the door open and the three slipped silently inside. Oliver closed the door with a click that sounded louder in the quiet room than it actually was.
"This way," Danny whispered, and led the way down the hallway, the muted light coming through the windows enough to let him navigate the furniture in the living room the door had opened into.
Down a hallway, then left into a bedroom. Danny paused in the doorway, studying the scene before him.
The Bride of Nine Spiders - the champion for Zhizhu Wangguo - lay on the bed, still in the black outfit she'd worn when they fought, breathing shallowly. She didn't react to their presence.
"She's here," he whispered and got out of Nyssa's way as she pushed into the room.
=A=IF=A=
Nyssa hurried to her sister's side. Yes, beneath the over-done makeup and the ceremonial garb of the Bride of Nine Spiders, it was Talia who lay on the bed, unconscious and barely breathing.
A thorough but quick scan of her sister made Nyssa swallow hard. "She's been poisoned."
Oliver stepped forward immediately. "With what? I have a few anti-toxins with me."
"It's okay," Danny said. "I've got this."
He pushed past her and knelt beside Talia. He took a breath, then looked over his shoulder at Oliver. "I've only done this once before, and I was out of it for a while after."
"I've got your back," Oliver said simply, and Danny gave a quick grin before turning to Talia once more. Again, Nyssa wondered at the easy bond Oliver and Danny had formed, but she put that out of her mind as Danny's fist began to glow.
Danny opened his hand and let it hover an inch or two above Talia's chest. Even from this angle, Nyssa could see his forehead crease in concentration.
A moment later, Talia screamed in her sleep, and then Danny sat back on his heels.
"Got it, I think," he said, his voice slurred.
Nyssa rested a hand on her sister's forehead. "She feels cooler already."
"Good," Danny said, just before he slumped forward.
Oliver sprang forward to catch him and lower him gently to the bed.
"Is he-?" Nyssa began as Oliver checked the other man's pulse.
"Seems to just be unconscious," Oliver replied. "How's Talia?"
"Breathing evenly, and her pulse is strong and steady."
"Then all we can do is wait," Oliver said, and sat on the floor beside the bed.
Some time later, Talia stirred, and Oliver murmured, "I'll get a glass of water for her."
Nyssa barely acknowledged either his words or his departure from the room as she took her sister's hand. Talia's eyes fluttered open.
Nyssa leaned forward, into Talia's immediate line of sight. "Sister? Talia? Are you well?"
Talia blinked at her, and her eyes cleared. "Nyssa? What's happened?" Then she looked around, nothing in her expression suggesting she recognized her surroundings. Her gaze landed on the man lying next to her on the bed, but all she said was, "Where are we?"
"New York," Nyssa answered. "What do you remember?"
"I remember receiving the summons from Zhizhu Wangguo, and leaving you and Father. And I remember meeting someone else, someone I didn't know. The rest is blank." Talia seemed to force the words past a dry throat.
Nyssa was about to call for Oliver when he returned with a glass half-filled with water. He held it out to Nyssa and bent to check Danny's pulse and breathing while she helped her sister to sip the liquid slowly.
Talia took several swallows, then pushed the glass away and focused on Oliver. "What are you doing here?"
Nyssa wondered at the venom in Talia's tone, but Oliver answered evenly enough. "Helping your sister find you."
"So you can kill me, too, like you killed Father?" Talia asked.
"No." Oliver's answer was simple and direct, and when Nyssa thought he'd explain more, he simply shifted his attention from Talia to her. "I promised Danny I'd have his back while he recovers from healing her. Once he's awake, I-"
"Wait," Talia said. "Who is Danny, and why did he heal me?"
Nyssa gestured to the man sleeping on the bed beside Talia. "Danny Rand, Rand-Kai - the Iron Fist of K'un Lun."
Talia's eyes widened. "The Iron Fist healed me? There is more to this story, and I would hear it now."
Oliver started toward the door, but Nyssa held up a hand. "Stay, Husband."
Talia stared at her, then Oliver, then back to her. "Husband?"
"Al Sah-him," Oliver said. "Son of the Demon."
Talia swallowed hard. "The story, Sister. Now."
=A=IF=A=
Danny came instantly alert when he woke, despite the lingering fatigue in his body. He felt less tired now than he had after healing Colleen.
Colleen. The thought of her didn't hurt as much as it had when he'd left her dojo. He was, he supposed, grieving the loss of their closeness, the relationship that he'd thought might be something special - the relationship that had begun to die when they'd reached the pathway to K'un Lun and found the city gone.
He'd wondered then how things might have been if Colleen hadn't lied to him from the beginning, hadn't handed him over to the Hand in the form of her sensei Bakuto when he'd collapsed after healing her, hadn't seduced him away from his purpose as the Iron Fist.
That doubt had grown and, just as Lei Kung had said, led to the death of any relationship he might have had with Colleen outside of a civil acquaintance.
Now, lying in a strange bed after healing another woman as he'd healed Colleen, Danny couldn't help wondering what kind of relationship he might have with the Bride of Nine Spiders.
Talia, he reminded himself. Nyssa's sister.
Who was not lying beside him in bed - her bed. Danny listened but heard no signs of activity in the apartment around him.
Disappointment stabbed through him. Oliver had said he'd have Danny's back. Where was he? And the others?
Danny swung soundlessly out of bed and moved swiftly and silently across the room and down the hallway - where he stopped to see Oliver moving through a kata in the living room. The other man was bare-chested and moved slowly, which explained why Danny hadn't heard him.
"You all right?" Oliver asked.
"Tired, but fine," Danny answered. "I need to recharge my chi."
Oliver didn't break his movement. "Anything I need to do?"
"No." Danny moved to a position where neither of them would crowd the other's movements. "Where are Nyssa and Talia?"
"Getting lunch." That told Danny just how long he'd been out. Then Oliver's tone turned wry as he added, "Which is probably code for girl talk."
Danny chuckled more because he sensed he should than because he had any idea what girl talk actually meant. Then he took a breath to center himself and began the movement pattern that would restore and recharge his chi.
He wasn't surprised when Oliver shifted his own routine to mirror Danny's. He was surprised that it took two complete repetitions for him to feel centered again.
He followed Oliver into the kitchen of the tiny apartment, watched the other man set water on to boil for tea.
"I feel - good," Oliver said, looking at the kettle rather than Danny. "Better than after any other katas I've done."
"The pattern helps recharge and center my chi," Danny answered. "Bakuto taught me how to do it."
"Bakuto? The Hand leader you mentioned - not Lei Kung or the monks?" There was no censure in Oliver's question, only curiosity.
"Sometimes, I think all Lei Kung wanted was for me to be a weapon," Danny said, surprised to admit the thought aloud. "Bakuto said there were things I hadn't been taught."
There are things I need to learn, but I have no teacher.
It was a fact, and Danny refused to let himself regret it. He focused on the tea Oliver offered him.
"You'll have to teach yourself, then," Oliver said.
Danny nodded and sipped the tea, wondering exactly how he might go about that. Books? Kung fu or other martial arts teachers? Trial and error that might cost someone's life?
Before he could get too caught up in his thoughts, the door opened and Nyssa and Talia came in, bags of groceries in each of their hands.
Both women wore serious expressions, and Danny shot a curious glance toward Oliver. The other man's puzzlement matched his own, but Danny could equally read the other man's reluctance to speak.
"What?" Danny asked.
"We have a theory," Nyssa began, but her sister shook her head.
"An idea," Talia corrected. "Or perhaps a hunch. Certainly not a theory yet. But Nyssa can explain it to you. I need to speak with Oliver."
Danny didn't try to keep his eyebrows from flying up at her tone. It was one of command, from someone who expected to be obeyed, and Danny found it both amusing and irritating at the same time.
He was halfway to objecting - hesitating only because this was her apartment, after all - when Oliver met his gaze.
"Talia and I do need to talk," Oliver said. "I'd hoped it could wait until later, but apparently not."
Danny studied his new friend, sensed a weary, wary resignation from the other man. All he said was, "I'm happy to hear your theory, Nyssa. Even if it is just a hunch."
=A=IF=A=
Oliver watched Danny escort Nyssa from the room, saw her concerned glance at him, and wished he could offer her some reassurance - a nod, a smile, something. But he had no idea whether Talia truly intended to talk or whether she might eviscerate him out of angry grief.
Whether he deserved evisceration was not a question he chose to explore too deeply.
A door clicked shut deeper in the apartment - the bedroom, presumably - and Oliver met Talia's gaze calmly, telling himself he was ready for whatever might come next.
"You killed Ra's al Ghul," Talia said. "My father."
"To save the lives of everyone in Starling - Star City," Oliver corrected himself. He had no objection to the new name, but old habits lingered. "I didn't want to kill him, but he offered me no other choice."
Talia raised one elegant eyebrow at him. "Save to follow him."
"And let those people die because of it?" Oliver shook his head. "That's not a choice."
"It's not a choice you were willing to make," Talia countered. She crossed to the counter where Oliver stood and reached past him for a cutting board and chef's knife.
Wordlessly, Oliver pulled groceries from the bags she and Nyssa had brought, eyeing the collection of vegetables and rice for a minute before venturing, "Stir-fry over rice?"
Talia nodded, and gestured to a cabinet with the knife she held. Thankful that, for the moment at least, she didn't appear intent on eviscerating him, Oliver retrieved a pot from the cabinet and set about filling it with water.
"I wanted to kill you," Talia said almost conversationally. "After I'd trained you, helped you - you betrayed me by killing my father. It was more than a want," she added reflectively. "It was a driving need. All-consuming, you might say."
"And yet I'm still standing here," Oliver murmured, then wondered why he was provoking her.
A slight twitch of her lips suggested she'd intuited his thought, but Talia remained focused on chopping the vegetables. "I even sought someone with a grudge against you to train as an instrument of my vengeance."
Oliver swallowed. "What happened?"
"Before I could begin training him, I received the summons."
The summons she'd thought had come from Zhizhu Wangguo, the summons that had taken her from Nanda Parbat.
"And then I was betrayed, taken by my sworn enemy and turned into a tool of violence on their behalf," Talia continued. The pile of evenly-chopped vegetables beside her grew - as did the silence between them.
When the silence threatened to become oppressive, Oliver said, "I have no words for that. No idea what to say."
"Neither do I, really." Talia offered him a weak smile. "But I will deal with it, as you Americans say. And I will deal with you helping to save me from the Hand, as well."
Oliver poured rice into the boiling water. "I don't assume that the one makes up for the other."
"I don't assume there is any making up to be done in this situation. But you have my word - until we discover why I was taken and what the Hand's purpose is now, you are safe from any vengeance I might take."
And just what was Oliver supposed to say to that? Thank you? I'll look forward to the day you decide to take your vengeance?
He shoved those responses aside in favor of an apparently simple, "I understand."
And he did, however twisted and perverse the situation and their roles in it might be.
Then Talia was encouraging him to get out of her way with, "I will be interested to hear your thoughts on our hunch."
From Nyssa, that would be a suggestion that he bring the others back into the room - and how did he know her that well already? Oliver set that question aside as Talia removed a large pan from a cabinet and set it on the stove to heat.
She lifted one eyebrow again, and he decided that both sisters had similar tells. With a nod, he strode from the kitchen and down the hall to tap on the closed door that led to the bedroom. Danny opened it immediately, and Oliver suspected the other man had been leaning against the door, if not actively trying to hear the conversation he'd had with Talia.
"You're still breathing, and not bleeding," Danny observed. "Everything's okay?"
"If not okay, at least tabled until after we deal with the Hand," Oliver answered, addressing Nyssa's concerned expression as much as Danny's. "She wants to talk about your … hunch."
"It makes a lot of sense," Danny said as he stepped back to allow Nyssa to leave the room first.
She paused to meet Oliver's gaze, and he could only give her a nod and a hint of a smile. He and Talia hadn't reached an understanding and doing anything to suggest otherwise would be wrong.
"What makes sense?" Oliver asked as he fell into step behind Nyssa. From the kitchen came the crackle-hiss of vegetables hitting hot oil.
"I wondered if perhaps the Hand were trying to corrupt all the champions," Nyssa said.
It took Oliver a moment. Then, "Each of the Heavenly Cities has a champion, and each of them are sworn enemies of the Hand?"
"And what better way to destroy the Cities than by corrupting their champions?" Talia asked from where she stood over the stove.
"Take the one most vulnerable," Danny said, "turn her, and then use her to draw out or defeat the others."
Oliver couldn't help chuckling, and three pairs of eyes turned to him. He shrugged. "I just have a hard time thinking of Talia as vulnerable."
Talia looked surprised, but Nyssa smiled grimly. "Only vulnerable because of Nanda Parbat."
Which made no sense to Oliver, but Danny nodded. "Nanda Parbat is not Zhizhu Wangguo. Within the City, she would have been safe. But outside-"
The two women nodded, and Oliver saw their reasoning. "It makes sense as a working theory - but if that's the case, why didn't they kill Danny when they had the chance? Why not corrupt him, too?"
"Because I defeated them," Danny said. "The Veznikov brothers. The Bride - sorry, Talia. And the other guy, the one with a scythe."
Oliver shook his head, offering a quiet thanks as Talia passed around bowls of stir-fried vegetables over rice. "Sniper from a few hundred yards away."
"My fist can stop a bullet."
"Only if you know it's coming," Oliver pointed out and took a bite of the vegetables and rice. After he swallowed, he said, "But knowing that's their purpose - or assuming that's their purpose - doesn't bring us any closer to stopping them here and now. We need to know who they are and where they are."
"I don't remember anyone or anything," Talia said. "Not even the fight with Rand-Kai. I cannot help you."
"And I know even less than my sister," Nyssa said. Oliver hid a smile at the frustration beneath her words. She was so like him - wanting to do something, to take action when action was necessary.
"Which leaves me," Danny said. "What can I do?"
"Tell me everything you know, everything you remember, involving the Hand," Oliver said. "Names, places, dates."
Danny grimaced. "I'm going to need a notebook or something."