The ringing of his phone was what dragged Stiles from sleep. He emerged from beneath his covers, eyes bleary from sleep as he fumbled for the switch of the lamp on the bedside table. Normally he would leave his phone on the bedside table itself, but he'd been tired when he'd gone to bed, having decided to watch a movie once he'd gone back into his father's home, and he'd left his phone in his pants pocket.

Finally finding the switch, Stiles flicked it on, before he got up, crossing over the room to where he had left his pants. His phone continued to ring shrilly as Stiles pulled it from his pockets, frowning as he realised the time that was being displayed on the device. A glance at his watch told him that his phone was displaying the accurate time.

"Hello?" he sleepily mumbled, rubbing his hand through his hair wearily as he answered the phone.

"Stiles," Nyssa's voice came sharply from the phone's speaker, and Stiles was instantly fully alert. He was briefly tempted to make a remark about the obvious time difference, as it was almost four thirty in the morning, but there was something about Nyssa's voice that stopped him. This wasn't a social call (although Nyssa wasn't prone to making those). Something was wrong.

"Nyssa," Stiles greeted wearily, "What is it?"

"Stiles, I rang as soon as I heard. Father has given orders for the Alssayadin Ghamidat Alnnukhba, along with two of the seven to be sent to Beacon Hills."

"What!" Stiles exclaimed, clasping his hand over his mouth as he remembered that his father and Melissa would be trying to sleep close by. Stiles didn't expect Jackson to return to the house tonight, not with him planning on running with the wolves, but His father and Melissa had told him they were going to be returning to the home after the meeting had finished. In fact, Stiles was rather surprised he hadn't woken up when they'd returned. If he had slept through their return it was a sure sign that he'd either been more tired than he'd thought, or that his training was slipping. Either way it wouldn't be something he would be confessing to anyone.

"When are they supposed to leave?" Stiles asked, already wondering how he could lure the league away from Beacon Hills.

"They're already gone. I had a mission in Shanghai and I've only just returned. They left two days ago Stiles."

Stiles felt his heart freeze in his chest. Two days…that was plenty of time for the league to get from Nanda Parbat to Beacon Hills.

"Stiles, he's sent the Alssayadin Ghamidat Alnnukhba, and two of the Seven." Nyssa repeated.

"The..the seven?" Stiles choked out, knowing what Nyssa was referring to. The Seven Men of Death, the seven most deadly assassins within the league, answering only to Ra's al Ghul, and serving as his personal squad when it came to things that he became weary of. Stiles had seen them training while he'd still been new to the league, and they had left their impression on him. He'd had no desire to go anywhere near them since then.

"And the Alssayadin Ghamidat Alnnukhba," Nyssa confirmed.

Stiles frowned as he began throwing on clothes. He needed to do something…now.

"What's that? The Elite Mysterious hunters?" Stiles mentally translated. He'd never heard the term used during his time at the league.

"It's what Ra's calls one of his elite teams," Nyssa explained, "Stiles…it's the team he uses to hunt supernatural creatures…"

Stiles didn't need a mirror to know that his face had just lost all colour. He yanked on his pants letting himself out of the room as he fastened his belt, running towards the room that his dad and Melissa shared. He didn't hesitate before throwing himself against the door, not caring what he might accidently walk in on. He threw his hand on the light switch, illuminating the darkened room, almost blinding himself with the sudden light. He blinked rapidly, trying to get his eyes to adjust faster, before he felt his heart skip a beat.

The bed was still made, the covers still in place, obviously having not been slept in. Shaking his head, Stiles backed out of the room, running towards the front of the house and looking out a window. The only car in the driveway was his dad's Sherriff's cruiser. The Jeep was still in the garage, so it wasn't as if Stiles had expected to see it, but the absence of Melissa's car told him that she and his dad hadn't come home.

"My…my dad," Stiles choked out, his breath hitching dangerously, his throat closing as he tried to fight off the looming panic attack.

"Stiles? What is it?" Nyssa asked.

"I…I…I think they've got my dad."

A/TW

Oliver counted softly under his breath, waiting for the boom of thunder to follow the flash of lightning that had slashed through the dark sky of Starling City, the wind howling as it swept between the towering buildings of Starling City.

The storm had been building off the coast for days, and it had finally hit, although it promised to be a long storm. On the TV Oliver could hear the early morning news broadcasters advising everyone that many streets within the CBD were closed, parts of the Glades had flooded, and many businesses had declared their intention to be shut until the storm had passed. Even Starling City airport had been shut by the authorities. It wasn't very often that Starling City was hit with a storm as bad as this…almost a hurricane in strength. Starling City was too far north for it to be a regular occurrence, but occasionally a big storm hit, and the city felt the repercussions hard. Starling City hadn't been built with these sorts of storms in mind, and when such storms did hit it always made a mess.

Felicity had all but forced Oliver to stay with her in her apartment, and Oliver found himself looking stonily out the window, woken by the crashing of thunder and the roaring of the wind as rain lashed the windows. He remembered watching out the windows of the mansion the last time a big storm had hit Starling City. Thea had been a little toddler then, no more than two years old. She'd cried for hours, terrified of the storm's ferocity.

Diggle was safe at his home with Lyla, Thea was at her apartment, Sara was spending the night with Laurel, while Quentin Lance was at Police Headquarters, and Roy was safely in Beacon Hills, hundreds of miles away from the storm. There was no way Oliver would have let Roy stay at home if he'd still been in Starling City when the storm had hit, even before he'd learned that the younger man was his half-brother. He doubted that the little building that Roy lived in would be able to withstand the force of the winds and the rain. Roy himself had called Felicity the day before yesterday, sheepishly asking if she could go to his house and get his most valuable possessions, just in case something happened to his house. Oliver had tagged along with Felicity, getting everything that Roy had described, plus a few extra things that their younger teammate might have forgotten about, or that had looked important or significant.

Oliver remembered how, during the drive back to Felicity's, he had looked over his shoulder at the pile of belongings in the back seat of Felicity's car, and how it had felt like he'd been punched in the gut. This was all that Roy had in his life that he really cared about. Oliver wasn't a materialistic person, not by a long way, not anymore, but even to him it looked like nothing. Even taking into account the things that Roy had taken with him to Beacon Hills the little pile of things in the back seat had looked pitiful. It would all have fitted comfortably in a single backpack, if it had to. Oliver gritted his teeth at the mere memory

As if she'd sensed Oliver's mood getting worse, Felicity chose that moment to walk into the room, a robe thrown around her shoulders.

"Oliver?" she questioned

"It's getting worse out there," Oliver offered, although he didn't take his eyes off the window.

"There's nothing you can do about it, Oliver," Felicity pointed out, "It's a storm, not a crime wave. Threatening to shoot the clouds full of arrows isn't going to do anything, and the wind would probably blow your arrows way off course anyway.

"I know," Oliver nodded in agreement, finally turning away from the window. His eyes fell on the little box Felicity had put Roy's things in when they'd gotten back to her apartment. Felicity followed his line of sight with her own eyes.

"Hard to believe that's everything he has that he cares about," she commented sadly.

"I know he chose to leave everything behind and start over," Oliver sighed, "but I would have thought that there would have been…more after all these years."

"Yeah…" Felicity nodded, "it's kind of sad. When…when he was telling us how he had no-one before he met Thea, how he used to be alone, I didn't really think about what he meant…but now I think I'm beginning to understand."

"He's got us now, and when he comes back I'll tell him about how he's my little brother. He won't have to worry about being alone or me turning my back on him ever again."

"You wouldn't have turned your back on him even before you found out you were his brother," Felicity pointed out.

Oliver nodded, "I wouldn't have," he agreed, "but I don't think I made that clear enough to Roy. He was convinced I was going to kick him out when I found out he…wasn't quite as human as we thought. I thought he would have trusted me more than that."

"I think he does trust you, Oliver," Felicity replied, "he said that he viewed you as his alpha, even though you're not a werewolf. I think that he would need to respect you a lot before he viewed you as an alpha. I've been doing some research, and although I doubt the accuracy of a lot of what I've read, one thing that was pretty much universal over everything I've read about werewolves was that the Alpha's are the leaders of the pack. It's their job to protect every member of the pack, make sure they're included and kept safe. The alpha is the leader, in times of conflict, and peace. The alpha is a nurturer, a teacher, a caregiver, a protector. If an alpha isn't doing a good enough job then the other wolves will leave it behind and go somewhere else, or they'll kill the alpha and a new alpha will rise, apparently the one who killed the old alpha gets the alpha werewolf powers. My point is that Roy wouldn't have thought of you as his alpha and stuck around if he thought you were doing a bad job looking after him."

Oliver blinked and looked across at Felicity, "You researched werewolves?' he asked, although he honestly wasn't surmised.

Felicity nodded, "Stiles gave me some pointers on where to start before they left for Beacon Hills."

Oliver nodded and turned his attention back out the window, while Felicity yawned.

"Are you going to stand there and glare at the storm all night or are you going to get some actual sleep?" she asked.

"Depends…" Oliver began, before he was interrupted bt the ringing of his phone. He frowned and shot a sideways look at Felicity. Why would he be getting a phone call at this time of night?

A glance at the screen told him it was Sara that was calling him, and he immediately answered it.

"Sara," Oliver greeted, "What is it."

'I'm sorry, did I interrupt you and Felicity doing something naughty?" Sara replied shortly. Oliver blinked.

"No," he replied quickly, glad that Felicity couldn't hear what Sara had said

"Seriously? This is, like, the opportune moment for you, Oliver. Make a move."

"Sara…I'm sure you didn't call me at… Four thirty in the morning, to give me…advice."

"Nyssa called me."

Oliver straightened his back. Although he was wary of Nyssa, he could see how Ra's' daughter cared for Sara, and was willing to continue to have a tentative alliance with the assassin.

"What did Nyssa say?"

Sara inhaled, and Oliver heard the way her breathing caught, as if she was fighting back tears.

"Sara," Oliver probed gently, fear building up his spine. Something had obviously happened…something big, for it to have affected Sara in such a way.

"Ra's has moved to attack Stiles. He's sent his unit that are specialised with dealing with the supernatural to Beacon Hills, along with some of his best men. They left Nanda Parbat two days ago, they're probably in Beacon Hills already.

"Roy and Stiles?" Oliver gasped softly. Felicity's head whipped around towards him at the tone of his voice.

"Nyssa said she'd already called Stiles and told him…apparently Stiles' dad is missing."

Oliver felt his heart sink to his stomach. When they'd been on the island it had been painfully obvious how close Stiles had been to his father…his only living parent. If Stiles' father died at the hands of the league Stiles would never recover.

"What about Roy?"

"I don't know, I called you the minute I got off the phone with Nyssa. Stiles didn't mention him to her"

"Ok, we need a plan. We need to get to Beacon Hills, now."

"How, Oliver?" Sara questioned, "The airport is shut down, and the roads in and out of Starling City are closed because of flooding. There is no way we can get out of town, for the moment at least."

Oliver's heart clenched as he realised that Sara was telling the truth. Starling City was completely cut off from the rest of the world. There was no way that He would be able to get to Beacon Hills, not until the storm passed and the floodwaters receded.

For the moment Roy and Stiles were on their own, pitted against the League of Assassins until Oliver was able to get to them and help.

Oliver closed his eyes and prayed to a God that he wasn't sure he still believed in, hoping that the two younger men would be able to survive until Oliver was able to reach their side.

He'd only just learned Roy was his brother after all…he couldn't lose him now.

A.N. Hi there. Deepest apologies to anyone offended by my attempted Arabic being inaccurate, offensive or otherwise upsetting. Google translate is probably not the most accurate methos to use when trying to translate a phrase. In the case of this chapter, and all chapters to follow, Alnnukhbat Alssayadin min Khariq means Elite hunters of the Supernatural...a name which I made up for the league's specialized Supernatural response team.

If anyone who possesses more knowledge of the Arabic language can offer a more accurate translation of a name for this group I am more than happy to hear it.

Thank you for all of your wonderful feedback.

R.W.