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CONTENT:

Rating: Teen
Flavor: Drama
Language: no
Violence: no
Nudity: none
Sex: none
Other: none

Author's Notes:

The end, of Malcolm Merlyn.

Return

==#==

Malcolm tore into his work back in Starling City. The travel time between there and Nanda Parbat didn't leave him with a lot of practical time to put his numerous affairs in order.

His first impulse was to see Tommy; he missed his boy so much. He hadn't been here to help Tommy cope with the loss of his mother. Well, he had expected that would no longer be necessary, hadn't he?

Seeing Tommy first would cause too many delays, questions... and, damn it all, it would be too tempting for Malcolm to try to hide, try to stretch the mere hours with his son into days... into a lifetime.

With world's deadliest assassin army after him, that lifetime would be brutally short. Malcolm had no doubt Ra's al Ghul would carry out his threat.

Tommy already had a trust fund, for his college years, but another would guarantee him a childhood the likes of which Malcolm could have provided, if he could be there.

Now, Merlyn Global. Malcolm's mind raced. He'd put Carl in charge while he was on 'sabbatical.' That would handle the first year. Eventually, when he didn't return, he would be declared dead, and... well, the board would just have to find a new CEO.

Could that be delayed? And for how long? What if he had someone impersonate him, send business emails and directives to the board? Malcolm would be completely cut off in the Hindu Kush. Who could he trust to make the kind of executive decisions that would be needed?

A quick call had him in an emergency meeting with Robert in under an hour. Malcolm outlined his plan to his very worried-looking friend.

"Malcolm, this is..." Robert stopped short of using the word 'crazy.'

"It's just a contingency plan, Robert," he lied. "It probably won't ever happen."

Robert, canny about his best friend's moods, wasn't buying it. "Malcolm... you're not thinking of... doing something drastic, are you?"

Suicide. He thinks I'm planning to kill myself. Malcolm chuckled. "No, nothing like that. But I will be off the grid, and... you know me and contingency plans."

Robert still looked unconvinced. "Are you sure? What about Tommy?"

Malcolm made a mental note to leave a sealed letter with his attorney, openable upon his death, to ask Robert to adopt Tommy as his own son. No one would make a better foster father. Aloud, he said, "Look, I just need to get my head on straight, after... after what's happened. Tommy does, too. The two of us, rattling around in that house alone... Some time with his grandparents will do him a world of good."

Finally, Robert was convinced, but only after Malcolm agreed to have some type of dire emergency contact. Malcolm promised to send him a sat-phone number.

==#==

It was after nine when he got home. Home... it seemed so foreign, now. He was surprised he still had the key to the front door.

Tommy was already in bed. Malcolm only had scant minutes before he had to leave. He crept into his son's room. It would be cruel to wake him just to say goodbye again.

Tears pricked Malcolm's eyes. He'd never see Tommy's first sports team, his first puppy love, his high school graduation. How could he live like that?

He eased down on the bed, careful not to jostle Tommy. He lightly brushed his child's hair back. I promise, he swore silently, I will find a way to come back to you. He bent and placed a soft kiss on Tommy's forehead. I love you. Never forget that, son.

==#==

Al Owal accompanied Malcolm back from the airfield. Neither man spoke, but Malcolm's mind never quieted. Assassins were sent out into the world on missions, to ply their deadly trade. They would have access - scant, brief access - to communication equipment. The elite assassins had even greater freedom to move about.

Then that was what Malcolm needed to do. Become an assassin - the best of them. He held this conviction in his mind as he stripped off his jacket, tie, shirt.

He knelt as commanded before Ra's al Ghul in the audience chamber. A brazier of glowing coals unleashed a thick scent upon the air. "You have proven worthy to join the League of Assassins. Should you pass this final test of your induction, you shall become one of us."

"I am ready."

"You will swear your undying loyalty and obedience to me."

"I give my life to Ra's al Ghul, to be his devoted servant, to obey his command without question, without hesitation."

"You will forswear all former allegiances, friendships, family ties."

"I forswear and forsake all allegiances save that I owe to Ra's al Ghul."

The Assassin Lord rolled his lips between his teeth a moment. He seemed to break from the ritual recitation a moment to look into Malcolm's eyes and ask, "Including your son?"

"I have no son."

Ra's al Ghul nodded slightly. "On this day, on this hour, Malcolm Merlyn will die. All that he was, all that he has ever been shall be no more." He turned to the brazier, took hold of a pair of tongs and fished out a red glowing coal. "You swore to obey me," Ra's al Ghul reminded him.

Malcolm steeled himself. "Yes, Master."

"Take this."

He hesitated barely a moment, then extended his right hand. It still had the scabbed-over cut Rebecca had given him. He waited, expecting al Ghul to drop the coal into his hand, but no. No, the Demon had ordered him to take it. He clamped his teeth together and snatched the coal from the tongs; he pressed it hard against the cut in his palm.

Pain instantly screamed up his arm, ravaged his fingers like a wild beast. He held himself still, silent.

"Embrace the pain," al Ghul intoned. "It will cleanse you of your past. And, like a phoenix, you will rise beyond the pain to be born anew."

Yes. Malcolm let the agony burn away the memories of Rebecca's ghoul, let it scour his mind until he remembered her true life, her true death, painful though that was. He let the fire sear into him the promise he made to his son, to return.

But for now, his love for Tommy would only be a weakness, a flaw the Demon would sense within him and attack. So he put his love in a strong box, he buried it deep. The Magician summoned a glacier to cover it, to seal and protect it. He would feel no love until the glacier melted, when it was safe.

For now, nothing but cold. A cold, obedient automaton. A cold killer.

"Al Saher." The Demon's voice broke through to him. "Let go."

He opened his hand, and the embers of his life fell to the stone.

==X==