I really do love this chapter. Hope you like it. I am shamelessly asking you to Review/Follow/Favourite if you're enjoying the story. ;)

June 2014

Corto Maltese

I can't take another day of this. Thea thought, blocking the sword master's sharp swing. The weariness never left her aching muscles and sweat drenched her like second skin, plastering her hair to her forehead.

'Forward!' bellowed Malcolm watching from the sides of the training area. Thea staggered at the master, toes curling round the edges of the beam, trying desperately to maintain her balance. She gave an awkward lunge or two just to give the impression that her heart was truly in it.

Six hours of training a day were taking their toll on her, and she felt beyond mere exhaustion. It started when Malcolm had poured hot wax on her hand, telling her to accept pain as a warrior does, to wade through it, to make it a natural part of her life. She had fought viciously and aimed a sword at him. He smiled and the gruelling training had begun. But she was not at his level yet, far, far from it and everyday his expectation of her drifted further and further from reality.

The sword master moved effortlessly along the beam as though he was taking a stroll by the beach. He flicked her sword aside.

"And back!"

She lurched back on her heels, tiptoes straining, her left arm waving senselessly around her. Everything above her knees was aching terribly from the effort of keeping her balance. Below the knees it was much, much worse.

Thea was totally out of breath as she parried frantically with her right hand, badly off balance, her left foot searching in the void for the safety of the beam behind her. The master was an old man, around seventy, but he showed no signs of fatigue. He hadn't broken a single sweat as he danced forward down the beam, jabbing at her and swishing his katana. She felt for the beam, the master lunged at her. She knew it was over.

"Umph!" She fell with a resounding thud onto the ground. Dear old dad even refused to lay out practice mats for her to collapse on; small mercies aren't Malcolm's thing. The floor was cool against her clammy, hot skin, she wanted to lie there and sleep until next month. Her sword was forgotten somewhere away from her hand. She heard Malcolm's sigh of impatience and frustration, and how close it was to an outright cry of fury, he's disappointed. He ordered the sword master in Japanese to leave them, and stomped towards her.

Thea turned over and slowly stood, though it felt as though she was breaking each bone with the effort of it.

"You let go of your sword!" He yelled, kicking it to her. Great now I must bend down and get it, she did so whilst withholding a groan. "A depressing display Thea, very depressing" he ranted on. Sweat was raining off her face. She was thinking of bed, thinking about a hundred things that had nothing to do with sword fighting or martial arts. "I did tell you to go back didn't I?" She nodded dumbly.

"Then why didn't you?!"

"I didn't hear you, I thought you said forward" moaned Thea. Malcolm was appalled. "Will your opponent tell you what he 'actually' said after cut he's cut your throat open? No! They will make every attempt to deceive and confuse you! As all great swordsman must learn to do!"

She wondered about Oliver and the messages he had left her throughout the months, the fake replies she sent him with every guilty push 'send'. What had happened to the club after Isabel died, what happened to Roy….

"…And you let go of your sword? If you fall off a cliff with them I expect to find you at the bottom with your dead fingers still wrapped around your steels. Have I made myself clear?"

Her attention snapped back to him, and she scowled, she didn't like his threats.

"You're distracted" he stated deadly cold.

Thea couldn't contain it any longer. "You scream at me like a drill sergeant every day and make me train until I can't feel my legs! This is all my life is now!" She gestured at the fucking beam and at everything else. "And you don't care who I am! You're meant to be my dad! But I don't know anything about you! What kind of father are you?!"

"The kind who wants his daughter to survive!"

In her own anger she let her mouth run without logic. "Did you teach Tommy how to fight? Did you teach him how to survive?"

The slightest spasm of hurt crossed Malcolm's face. He pressed his lips thinly, trying not to snap at her, crap I shouldn't have said that. He rubbed his eyes, there was a vein pulsing in his neck. When she was younger he had seemed so composed and poised, like nothing could bother him, except for me now, apparently. "The world is dangerous Thea" he said stiffly, dragging in breaths. "You asked me to train you, you wanted this path, you have to learn how to protect yourself and I need you to be committed to this."

"I'm sorry about what I said about Tommy" she sighed. "Give me some credit, my choices were limited, but yes I chose this path. And I'm sorry I've disappointed you. But you have to understand who I was before and that I don't see you as my trainer, I see you as my father. It's not easy for me to take a leap of faith with anyone. One day you're going to have to tell me what these dangers are that you keep mentioning. Because right now you're the danger and I just don't trust you" Thea sheathed the sword on her belt, turning to go up to her room. I made this decision and now I'm stuck with it.

"Wait".

She looked back and watched him. He was thinking something over, mouth grinding at the words he dreaded saying.

"I miss Tommy too".

He let it sink in. Thea was speechless, in her months here he had never uttered Tommy's name, and she had thought it was taboo.

"Take a break for today" he suggested. "If there's anything you want. Just ask. I'm trying to do it differently this time Thea. I want to be better. I know I've been hard on you and make no mistake I won't stop." He wagged a finger at her as a reminder.

"But I do want to get to know you too, I mean it, and I hope you'll let me. I only want to protect you."

Present Day

September 22th 2014

Tibet, 9:39 AM CT

The road was ancient. Ten strides across made of hard packed Earth winding through the valley like a maze, disappearing now and again to confuse trespassers. Down into gaping caves, up into cramped holes hidden behind mounds of daggered rocks, and then back down again into the canyon. The altitude was not so high that they ever had to suffer through harsh Tibetan winter snows, but the climate could be unforgiving in the summer all the same.

As Artemis trekked closer to the entrance of Nanda Parbat, boulders were scattered on either side of the dirt road, narrowing it further until only a cart could be wheeled through, not even wide enough for a vehicle of any sort. Nanda Parbat is impregnable they say; armies crushed under falling rock, groups of would-be infiltrators poisoned to death by scorpions and red vipers. No tank could fit through our gates. I suppose it cannot be breached, though not so much that a missile won't blow it to bits, if only they knew where to aim the damn thing first.

The pass grew steeper covered by jagged ravines and steep cliffs as dry as bone. Artemis covered her brow and glanced up at the thin stretch of sky above her, it was bright azure and growing slimmer as the mountain faces drew closer together like hesitant lovers, darkening the last mile of her journey as if shrouded by a veil of grey, cooling the stone to bearable temperatures.

Her lips were cracked and her mouth parched and papery, Artemis squeezed her skin of water. There wasn't much left. Hopefully they would let her rest once she arrived, though it was unlikely. She hurried her steps, wouldn't want to keep the Head of the Demon waiting.

Nanda Parbat, 9:44 AM CT

Nyssa watched the two opponents in the yard circle each other; one dressed in red the other in navy blue. Their shoes padding gently on the flagstones: slowly, slowly drawing closer together, the blue swordsmen more reluctant than his counterpart. The blue jabbed forward, weakly, and the red flicked it away breezily. The blades rang gently together and then the red charged. She was relentless, slashing, cutting, parrying with speed and accuracy. It was all so very easy to disarm the blue swordsman when the red smashed the hilt of her sword into his wrist. His steel clattered to the ground. She kneed her opponent in the gut until he was on the ground himself, wheezing for air.

With one slash his throat was open, crying red tears.

And Nyssa had had enough.

She drew her bow, aiming for the red ones head, and let the arrow go. The red swordswoman leaned back and dodged it reflexively, almost lazily, and pulled her mask off.

"Did you want something sister?" Talia growled without a second glance to the body of the sentinel she had just killed for the crime of thievery. Of course she had to challenge him to a duel for his life first. As if he had a chance to begin with. She just can't miss the opportunity to enjoy killing a man who was already dead.

Nyssa stomped forward, "I want to know what I've done to make you turn on me."

Talia narrowed her eyes to slits and wiped her sword on her trousers, partially amused by the confrontation, everything to her is either, a joke, a lie, or an insult. "You're so melodramatic" she sheathed the sword and looked down at her younger sister, "you're going to have to remind me what I've done this time". Oh you know very well what I'm talking about.

"Taer-Al-Asfar was in Starling for Lacroix, but so was Al-Sayad for—it doesn't even make any sense—the Arrow? Not to mention Al-Sayad allied herself Lacroix, the traitorous bastard. And she wouldn't have done it unless we allowed it. This has you written all over it" Nyssa stabbed an accusatory finger at Talia as if it were a sword itself.

The eldest Al Ghul stood her ground authoritatively, "I don't tell our operatives how to carry out their missions; I merely ensure it's done. Perhaps this instance uncovers a loophole in our code. Moreover your beloved canary bird obstructed another operatives order, and oh, I guess she'll have to answer for that" she smiled thinly. Sly, very sly.

"Not if I have something to say about it" Nyssa growled. Talia started walking and Nyssa stopped her before she could be brushed off, they were alone but she leaned in closer, she didn't want to risk their soldiers hearing them quarrel. They needed to exemplify unity as a family. Such a pointless charade.

"Father will kill Artemis for what she did. The blame will be entirely on her. You waste the lives of our people with your negligence for detail."

"Father won't kill her, my dear sister" her voice dripping with overly sweet patronizing tones. Nyssa felt a surge of fury but she would not be manipulated into anger by her sister, she'd learnt that the hard way. Talia shrugged her face a blank canvas, "it was all a matter of circumstance, nothing more. I serve the League and I'm certainly not trying to work against you, trust me". The sentiment did not reach Talia's eyes. How reassured I feel, I'll find out what you're up to sooner or later.

Nyssa shouldered past and looked back at her, "That's the last thing I would do."

September 21th 2014

The Glades, Starling City, 23:04 PM PST

It was a quiet night as it had been for the past week. He took a break and waited. He'd patrolled the area half a dozen times, which was more than enough to appease Oliver who was harrowing him with a hundred orders every day. He'd rearranged his quiver thrice, taken practice shots back at the foundry and still found time to sit down in his red suit on a rooftop daydreaming of hero names he could give himself. Red archer? No, that reminded him of the psychotic bitch who nearly killed him. Red Arrow? No, too confusing in the field.

When he spotted her coming out into the alleyway, he jumped down onto a dumpster with a loud bang.

Sin yelped and spun around yielding a pocket knife. He hopped onto street level; her eyes were wide as pennies, changing from fear then entirely into recognition.

"Roy?" She exclaimed. He peered around the area hoping nobody had heard her shout out his secret identity, he wasn't too popular in these parts and it was no good to attract anyone's attention, but he'd chosen a secluded place to meet her.

"How did you know?" He flipped his hood off; he was wearing his mask beneath.

She folded the knife back into her leather jacket. "We heard the Arrow was running with some guy in a red hood". Some guy in red hood, why don't I call myself that? "Figured who else could it be? So you're his sidekick huh?"

"Partner, actually" he corrected but she was obviously in no mood for jokes.

"That's it?" She held her arms out. "Nothing else you gotta say? The last time I saw you, you tried to kill Thea; suddenly you drop down from the sky in a Halloween costume and everything's alright?" She reproached. Roy felt very guilty and sheepish then.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry for losing touch with you. It's wasn't fair."

"So where've you been?"

"The night of the siege, the Arrow gave me a cure for the drug that made me insane, and I've been training with him ever since."

She frowned, unsatisfied with his answer. "Doesn't explain why you can't say hi once in a while".

"No it doesn't" he sighed. "I guess I just needed some distance. It's not easy doing this, not to mention Thea and I broke up. And it sucks. But it was my fault for not telling her the truth to begin with."

Sin lost her defensiveness at the mention of Thea. "Man, I'm sorry to hear that. Is there any chance she'll come back?"

He shrugged; he was crap with emotional talk anyway, best not to talk about it at all, oh God I'm becoming Oliver. "I don't know. I don't know why she would. What about you? How are you?"

"Same as always, I'm trying to get by. You guys can protect the city, but you can't make it a better place to live in." That created a pang of sadness and determination in him, with the sudden urge to save everyone and everything; the hero complex Oliver called it. "The Glades is still suffering from the effects of the Undertaking and The Siege, ask anyone who lives here. They're homeless or they're starving, most are both."

"I'll find a way to help. I will, the Glades is my home too" he said.

She smiled, though she wasn't very convinced by his statement, in many ways she's right, the others will have an idea of how to help, I'm sure. "I appreciate the optimism Roy, and I hope you do find a way".

He checked his watch; Oliver would need him back soon, probably to make me polish my boots or something, he's running out of ideas to keep me busy. "I got to go", he slung his bow around him and waved goodbye to her.

"Hey Abercrombie!" Sin called before he dashed off. "You should know there's a new gang leader in town, goes by the name 'Red Hood'"

Roy nodded and flipped his hood back on. "I'll look into it".

September 22th 2014

Nanda Parbat, 11:50 AM CT

She knew she was being watched. Which only meant that she had arrived in Nanda Parbat, gradually it came into view. There were two long parapets built into the red stone of the mountains. The pass, narrow where it meets the gate, is guarded by twin watchtowers, which are joined by a natural slender land bridge that arches above the road. Archers flanked the cliff edges, perching on shelves of rock and leering at her from the arrow slits inside the watchtowers.

"I am Al-Sayad a servant of the League of Assassins. Let me pass" she said in Arabic. They withdrew their bows and she walked through the gate unscathed. The valley opened to behold the home of the League of Assassins.

It was a monastery, and could even be a small city. Barracks and temples and armouries were built inside the mountain's natural caverns. The bulk of it had been constructed between towering faces of red stone, made with such care it was difficult to say where the natural cliffs ended and the man-made one began. Artemis picked her way carefully across the hard packed earth, wary of poisonous critters that would choose her ankle to bite.

A sentinel from the gate approached her, his chosen weapon a double sided axe; it brought unprecedented shivers down her spine as it swung languidly on his hip. Even in the heat he wore his all black uniform and plated armour, enduring the weather like a soldier.

"The Masters seeks an audience immediately" he informed. Should I be planning my last moments alive? Her dread caused her stomach to turn over on itself. If we return to Nanda Parbat, I won't be able to protect you from the consequences Sara had said. But she wasn't here anyway.

Artemis would meet the Master with respect and not run like the traitor Simon. But she had never been in a room alone with Ra's. The last time she had seen him was four years ago, and it was day she desperately wanted to forget. Yet it haunted her nightmares and waking moments incessantly.

2009

Nanda Parbat

Survive, she reminded herself, as she spun the spear hitting the moving target dummies charging at her from dark corners of the training room. Survive, she reminded again, but the chant only followed with the memory of the local diplomat she had killed a week ago. I slit his throat in the middle of the night, there was no honour in that, his children found him in the morning, they cried helplessly. Sara was nearly barraged by the next dummy but she rolled under it swiftly. Suddenly the dummies stopped their automated movements; Sara looked at the entrance and saw Nyssa standing there a bright grin spread on her lips.

"Enough training for today" chirped the Al Ghul stepping inside.

She twisted her spear in rapid arches and replaced it in its holder; she couldn't help but smile when she saw Nyssa, "you look happy".

"They finally caught him." She was excited, proud, if only I could feel the same. "Simon Lacroix. Father's executing him in the catacombs in half an hour. Two years the traitorous bastard has evaded our justice. Now he'll pay."

"You really don't like him huh?"

"I hated him" her lip curled in disgust, she talks like he's already dead, "he took every mission as opportunity for his own advancement and self-gain. Such characters are riddled within the League but there's nothing we can do about it. Anyway, let's go." Nyssa cocked her head towards the door, but Sara did not share her enthusiasm for executions, and was not in the mood to watch a traitor die when she felt like betraying the League herself these days. Which is the same as betraying Nyssa, whom you love. So she could not say she was entirely disappointed to be busy that night.

"I can't, I have a guard duty".

"What? Oh skip it. Sensei won't mind, he's too much of a stickler for the rules anyway and he needs to learn that those need to be broken. Tell him that I specifically requested you to accompany me". She took Sara's hand and pulled her closer. She liked the playful side of her; it was nice to be loved by someone again.

Sara smiled lopsidedly, she leaned closer and gave her a light peck on the lips, "I have to pay my dues like everyone else Nyssa. When I bump up a rank maybe then I can be more lenient with my schedule. But now, I'm late for guard duty" she said pulling away, though reluctantly.

Nyssa rolled her eyes. "Fine, go do your boring guard duty" she joked. She paid her farewell and strode to the catacombs with determination to see the traitor face the music once and for all. She has so much power here, and over me, she doesn't even realize it.

Sara changed into the standard League uniform of sentinels and walked to her post with haste outside the recruit quarters. Most of the recruits on the top floor were children who had acted as payment for the League's services, give us your child and we'll kill someone for you. Some were orphans from the village, and others were children of the League's own assassins. She had expressed vehement disapproval of the whole business of child-killers to Nyssa initially, but never spoke against it since. No point fighting against something you can't change, like throwing pebbles at a mountain hoping it will budge.

Nevertheless, all were treated equally but their regime was stricter than the adults to enforce discipline at an early age. The lower floors were where the adult recruits were housed and where Sara's old chambers used to be when Nyssa first brought her here, it feels like a lifetime ago.

She replaced her colleague who was doing the rounds before her, and stood sentinel-as was the name of her rank-with a spear in her right hand, back straight, and stiff as a tree. Other guards were scattered elsewhere in the courtyard. Sara glanced upwards at the sky. It was a big black bowl dotted with stars brighter than she'd ever seen them, even on the island. The moon was swelled and full, pushing the clouds aside. It was a blood moon, the colour of dried blood when you washed it away. While awe-inspiring and majestic, it was disconcerting too as if suggesting a bad omen.

A commotion across the yard distracted her; three sentinels none of which were on the rounds with her were running hurriedly towards her. Her heart picked up its pace tenfold, something's wrong.

"It's past curfew, the recruits are in bed. What's going on?"

"Lacroix has escaped! Ra's is rooting out the traitors who allowed it and anyone else suspected of treachery. It's a bloodbath" her comrade explained anxiously, gasping for air. "Sensei has ordered us to search the grounds!"

The remaining two tried to push past her through the archway; she yanked one back outside forcefully. "Hey! These are the recruits' quarters; the children are asleep in—"

"Move aside and follow your orders!" She barked and shoved her almost to the ground, running back in. Sara scowled and moved to hit her when the sentinel behind her took her arm and said, "leave them be! We have to find Lacroix!"

But something's wrong.

She stared after them a moment longer and then thought against chasing them down, I cannot obstruct their orders and I must do mine. Survive. She went against her gut and followed the other sentinel down to the catacombs.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they spilt up. The sentinel went towards the outer gates. She almost followed him. Then Sara spotted an odd scene from across the stone walk; a recruit in her pyjamas hurrying towards the tunnel that led into the catacombs deep in the mountain.

"Hey you! Get back to bed!" The girl stared wide-eyed at her, the whites of her eyes whiter in the moon light; the fear in them was palpable. There were red rivulets trickling down her arm, blood. She bolted down into the tunnel and Sara sprinted after her, spear in hand.

She didn't know where they were running too, but she followed, the girl was fast but Sara was taller, with longer legs that had seen years of toughening. Eventually she caught up, she used her spear to swat the girl's legs from under her, and she fell on her back on the stone ground with a thump. Sara had her pinned to the wall within half a second.

"Why did you run?" She demanded into her ear, she didn't want to scare her but she needed answers. Blood from the girls arm stained Sara's shirt. The young recruit was shaking so badly that Sara's arm shook with her. She turned her around and pinned her again, her eyes were as terrified as a deer in headlights.

"T-two sentinels dragged me out of bed" the recruit stuttered, "t-they told me my mother was being executed in the catacombs. I-I ran—I ran from them". The blood means you escaped from them.

Her breath hitched in her throat, a foreboding, dark cloud hung over her as the horror of understanding seeped into her bones. She peered around; we're in the catacombs, in the balcony above the—the—

The girl thrust her away with astonishing strength and ran towards the edge of the railing. Sara yelled after her.

"NO! N—"

But it was too late, she had seen. A women was kneeling with one knee on the ground with her back to them, she was a full-fledged assassin, with her own custom suit and bow and quiver slung behind her back, as her chosen weapon. She was weeping audibly.

Standing before her were the three Al Ghuls; the demon and his daughters. Talia on his right, Nyssa on his left, they stood solemnly, but Sara knew Talia was smiling on the inside with elation. Nyssa however was truly sorrowful for the disaster tonight had ended in.

Ra's was more daunting than either one could ever hope to be. There was grim set to his mouth, a proud and wrathful wrinkling of his brow. His robes made him a man of another time. A man with infinite knowledge and power. A man not to be fooled with. His sword was still sheathed, but it wouldn't be in a few seconds.

Sara grabbed the girl around the waist and pulled her down to the ground, and clamped her mouth shut, muffling her outcry before she could make it. I let three children find the body of their dead father and I must bear the guilt again. The girl's head was against her cheek, blonde hair in disarray around her youthful face, eyes in utmost pain and grief.

"Master, please, please let me explain, I had nothing to do with this—" the woman cried, but it was futile. Ra's had made his decision.

"Treason is the sin of sins" Ra's showed no rage on the surface. The inferno was contained within him, beneath a hard ruthless stare as cold and as implacable as a glacier. "You swore your allegiance to the League and to me and you have betrayed your oath. Pray to your God and kneel."

There were faint whispers as she prayed and then knelt sluggishly as if each of her limbs were made of marble, and bent forward, exposing her neck. She knew better than to run. Ra's drew his sword and said his own prayers of respect in Arabic. Sara held the girl tighter and tighter until she was squeezing the breath out of her as she struggled to push Sara away, but her grip was iron, nothing could ever make her let go.

Sara closed her eyes, drowning out all sounds except for her and the recruit. The girl's last muffle was a pitiful shriek, like the last gasping breath of a hapless forest mammal being stabbed through the heart. She could feel wetness on the hand holding her mouth closed.

There was a soft sound like a thousand sighs, then the piercing scrape of metal on stone cutting through them all.

A/N: Aww sisterly love. Okay, okay I know I said Oliver would face old enemies but that'll come next chapter most probably. We'll check in with Nanda Parbat for a moment and then it'll be Oliver all the way.