The last of our non-Oliver flashbacks for now, enjoy! P.S This chapter is really important for the overall League arc ;)
2009
Nanda Parbat
"Master, she has escaped" she heard someone report to the room. Her eyes remained sealed shut.
"Find her! No one outruns my wrath" the Head of the Demon ordered. Sara opened her eyes and released her grip. The girl fled back down the tunnel, but she wasn't as fast this time around. Sara sprinted and used her spear to vault into the air; she pushed off against the wall and swung about, barring the girl's path.
Sara dropped her weapon to the ground she did not want to display any sign of hostility. The recruit looked up, a tear-stained face, white as chalk, and that same unmistakable fear.
"You're in shock" said Sara, carefully, holding out her hands, easing closer. She was terrible at consoling people, but she had to try.
"I-I don't—" she mumbled, eyes skittering here and there in confusion and hysteria.
"I'm so, so sorry." She meant every word. She wanted the girl to understand that her own heart was wrought with anguish too.
"I don't— I don't understand" she muttered, wrapping her arms around her, leaning back into the wall.
"You've witnessed something awful my dear. But I can help you."
Survive. Survive. It was selfish of her to even think of her own woes in this instance, when a child no older than fourteen had witnessed the death of her own mother. Someone she loved, taken from the world in a violent and brutal manner, beheaded. It made her sick to imagine it. But she couldn't help but consider her own circumstances.
She loved Nyssa, she enjoyed the lifestyle they had, but she did not love the League of Assassins. She wanted to run, she wanted to see her family, she wanted to embrace them and ask for their forgiveness, they deserved so much more than what she gave to them; lost at sea, a watery tomb. This girl shouldn't have to live out the rest of her life like this, a servant of a man who killed her mother. Sara believed there was darkness inside of her, but this girl was raised to accept the darkness, she didn't have a choice and she deserved to have one.
But Sara had two choices here; help her escape… and risk getting caught and killed; Sara would also be killed for treason. Or make her stay. She was torn. She cannot live here, she cannot live in fear, I am Sara Lance, and I must save her…but if I help her escape and she's caught, it'll be both our necks on the line, and for Nyssa it'll break her heart. Moreover, her mother was a traitor, none of this is her fault, and she'll survive, like me. I can help her get through this, help her understand what she saw, it's the truth isn't it?
Her mouth was dry, she gulped and gently placed her hands on the girls' shoulder, she flinched wildly but stilled the moment Sara's eyes met hers. "The truth is…" she breathed in, "the truth is your mother conspired with Lacroix, our enemy, and she died for her crime. Now you must go in there and swear fealty to Ra's Al Ghul." There I've done it, I've sealed her fate.
Tears welled up in her eyes again; she shook her head in protest "I won't. I can't. I—"
"You must!" She shouted the girl stayed quiet, watching, waiting. Sara had to look away briefly; it was one of the most difficult tasks that had ever been thrust upon her, there was doubt gnawing her stomach like a parasite, and her tongue felt thick, with lies? Do I truly believe every word I'm about to say? But to survive, we all must do things we don't want to do, things we're not proud of. "The League is your home. Swear your loyalty; you are not your mother. You are not a traitor. Swear your loyalty."
There was a pregnant pause that stretched on. Eventually, the recruit gave an imperceptible nod, but she believes me.
"I'm…not a traitor" her words lacked all the mourning it had held previously, they were replaced with chilled resolution. Sara nodded with her and removed her hands from her shoulders. I'll protect her, I must, and I'll teach her the way my parents taught me about being a good person. I won't let her become heartless like the others. This is the best way for both of us, it has to be. The girl was still in a daze, but it'd wear off soon, she was made of steel, no child could survive the League this long without being made of tougher stuff. She is a warrior. Sara ripped a strip off the recruit's shirt and used it to wrap the bleeding cut on her arm.
"I am called Taer-Al-Asfar, to the uninitiated I am Sara. What is your name child?"
"Artemis."
Present Day
September 22nd 2014
Nanda Parbat, 12:10 PM CT
"Master". She knelt on the floor. Eyes on the stone. She could feel Ra's Al Ghul's stare tattooing her back. The chamber was not hot, yet beads of sweat formed beside her ear and down her neck. She waited for his punishment for her failure, pure terror thrashing her heart sideways and forwards, she held her last breaths…
"I have a task for you."
Shock. She stopped herself from gasping and blinked at the ground in disbelief. "W-what would you bid me to do?" She asked, controlling the shakiness in her throat.
"There is an abomination in Gotham that I need you to track; he may have fled the city as we speak. But you are one of our most competent trackers and therefore I will not assent failure from you."
His voice echoed; clear, soft, smooth, and educated. A voice you never forget. She dared to look up at him. He hadn't aged a day. The same shrewd, pitiless brow, the same planes of wrinkles around eyes that were alight and keenly observant. He killed her without blinking, without remorse, only cold disdain. And for what?
"Why the look of surprise?"
"Nothing, Master" she mumbled, pulling her gaze back to the floor. "I apologize."
He hummed in response; she didn't know what it meant. "Be gone by first light" he said and turned away as a sign of dismissal. She wouldn't feel safe until she was out of that room. Artemis stood, her joints and movements wobbly, and walked back down the aisle quickly, trying very hard not to run.
2009
Nanda Parbat
She made sure that Artemis was ushered safely into the catacombs to renew her vows to Ra's Al Ghul following the execution of her mother. By the time the chaos subsided it was approaching dawn. Sara went to find Nyssa. She found her sitting alone in one of the alcoves carved into the side of the mountain where members would go to meditate.
"Whose blood is that?" She asked aghast when she saw the front of Sara's shirt.
"I had to bury some bodies" she lied, and sat down next to her. "I don't understand how this could've happened." Seven assassins dead. A traitor escaped. A child without a mother left behind in the world.
"I know it's brutal" she agreed, plainly upset. "Why can't he see what it's doing us? Our numbers fall and we grow weaker. We make a sham of ourselves every day and I hate it." Nyssa held both Sara's hands in hers. "Promise me, Taer-Al-Asfar" she pleaded, Sara had never seen her so close to tears, and it broke her heart. "Promise me that you will not be kneeling on that podium one day. Promise that you won't dishonour the League. I won't be able to stop my father, please don't make me choose."
Sara couldn't bear to meet her gaze, she cared deeply for her family, but would they even accept what she'd become? Instead she wrapped her arms around her, "I promise. I won't leave you, or the League, ever."
It was a promise hoped she would never have to break.
Present Day
Nanda Parbat, 12:25 PM CT
Her knuckles rapped the thick oak door, studded with iron. A call from inside gave her permission to enter. She brushed dust from her uniform and shut the door, then strode further into the vast private antechamber. From the gaping window sunlight spilled, and the wind whistled all the way up into the tall ceiling where ancient gilded oil lamps hung from.
The Heir to the Demon paced the width of the room at the end of the hall, she knelt before her.
"What are your orders?" Asked Talia, half her mind occupied elsewhere.
"To gather intelligence. I have to go to Gotham in the morning." Talia didn't respond. Artemis stood and folded her arms behind her back, still shaken by her meeting with Ra's.
"Talia, I mean no disrespect but I thought he was going to kill me. You told me the orders to kill the Arrow came directly from the Master—"
"You thought you would end up like your mother. Beheaded" she cut her off. Artemis' mouth twitched infinitesimally at the ghoulish reminder. Talia stopped her pacing to look at her. Except when Talia Al Ghul looked at you, she was actually trying to look into your soul. Her mind would acutely measure the tone of your voice, a flicker of your eyelash, a soft brush of your hand. And when she was charming she was actually scrutinizing your every detail. She was a woman who got what she wanted, no matter what the cost, like father like daughter.
She waved her hand airily, "don't worry. He will understand my reasoning for your mission."
Artemis frowned. "But I don't understand. Initially I had to kill the Arrow to stop his interference with Vertigo, but after the drugs production left Starling, there was no need to get rid of him."
"It's simple. My father still questioned Sara Lance's loyalty, and I needed you to test my theory."
All that trouble to prove a theory? Artemis glanced at her shoes, remembering her argument with Sara inside Queen Consolidated, seeing her fight with the Arrow against her. It had to be done. The partnership with Lacroix, the confrontation. I see it. 'Leave. I won't hesitate next time'. She flexed the hand with the cut Sara had given her that caused her to relinquish her sword that night.
"Then you were right."
Talia recognized her disenchantment, she sighed empathetically at Artemis' pain. "I know you were very fond of her, but we have to come to terms with the facts. If we want to change the face of the League, to return it to its former glory we must make terrible sacrifices. And unfortunately my sister's relationship with Taer-Al-Asfar is one of them."
Out of both Al Ghul sisters, Artemis thought Talia the most proficient primary secondary. There was no one more fit to inherit the League. Artemis feared Ra's, but hated him, his mismanagement of the organization had gone too far, and Talia didn't mind her opinion at all. She listened to her. Most importantly, she agreed with her. And that was why she chose to be loyal to her alone.
She was the first person who shared Artemis' thirst for vengeance, for change, the change and protection that Sara had taught her to strive for. The same kind the Canary had spoken of when she fought beside the Arrow to defeat Slade Wilson. Artemis wanted that for herself. Sara didn't understand anymore and was no longer capable of it; Artemis was tired of trying to reason with her. She was blinded by her love for Nyssa, and torn by her loyalties in Starling City.
Ra's could only spark mutiny in them. But Talia could lead and inspire them. Soon, Ra's Al Ghul would also come to terms with the facts;
His rule was over.
A/N: Up next: back to Oliver in Starling!