To Be a Bird of Prey

Origins

II. The Coveted

Chapter Six

The back alley of what used to be a kindergarten was scarcely lit, and smelled like something had died there about ten times over.

Not that Thea had expected otherwise from this part of the Glades.

She stuffed her hands in her coat's pockets, letting her eyes skim the skyline one more time; there were several five or six story buildings within her sights, making for black shadows against the night sky and the one, barely functioning streetlight.

"Chill, Queen," Sin told her, from where she was half-propped against a dumpster – something that Thea, frankly, considered to be unsanitary accommodations. "They'll be here."

Pulling air through her nose, Thea tried to rein in on her nerves. She wasn't scared, or really all that nervous, but she was wired with anticipation, and her muscles felt as taut as one of her old bowstrings.

"You said that ten minutes ago," she remarked, sparing her friend a glance over her shoulder; Sin rolled her eyes. A second later, they widened.

Thea whipped her head back around, following Sin's line of sight, her eyes drawn back to the sharp lines of the blackened rooftops – except, there were two shapes standing out against the sky now, too.

They split after a moment, one going for the rusted pipes that ran down along the building's façade; the other just leaped over the edge.

Thea's breath caught when the woman began falling through the air; the building was too high to jump off of, even –

Then, she realized the woman wasn't falling though the thin air at all; she was rolling down a long streak of shimmery, dark fabric, right up to the moment when she landed on the ground in a crouch.

"Oh, that is way cool," Sin let out, and Thea had to admit, it was sort of...fascinating. Beautiful, too. Striking.

Next to the woman, her companion made her own landing, having slid down the drainage pipes.

Both rose slowly, stepping closer, and Thea found herself gripping the insides of her pockets in her hands.

When they were within the reach of the lone streetlight, Thea's eyes went over them both, settling on the woman that was familiar to her.

"Hi, Thea," Helena Bertinelli said, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. "It's been a while."

She had known of the Huntress, of course – of who Helena really was. She had never seen her in the role, though, not with her own eyes. There were patches of purple in the black leather she wore, and her matching black mask framed her eyes so that, even in the dim lighting, they stood out a cold blue; her lips were painted a very deep red and, Thea noted, there was a crossbow secured at her hip, peeking out from beneath her coat.

"Hmm," Thea agreed. "Guess that's what happens when you get caught trying to kill your father and have to make a run for it."

Helena's mouth pulled at the corners, into a crooked grin. "Well, that's all done with now," she told her.

Thea took that to mean that Frank Bertinelli wasn't among the living anymore. She faintly recalled, now that her memory was jogged, a news report buzzing in the background of Verdant, about a body found in Edge City and who it was. The Huntress had, evidently, gotten her prey.

Who just so happened to be her own father.

Not that Thea couldn't sympathize with a lack of love for fathers.

She turned her eyes to the woman next to Helena, and frowned; the woman was watching her, and even with a black mask obscuring her face, the piercing blue eyes held familiarity, though Thea couldn't quite place it.

Instead of dwelling on it, she said, "I take it you're Sin's friend."

The woman smiled faintly at that, her eyes flickering to Thea's right for a moment; following her gaze, she found that Sin was smiling back – and looked a little too excited by all of this.

"That's me," the woman said next, and her voice, much like the way her eyes had gone over her, prickled at the back of Thea's mind; it rang distinctive to her ears, and she swore she'd heard it before.

Which was a ridiculous idea.

"So," Thea prompted, "what do I call you? 'Sin's friend' is kind of a mouthful."

The woman's lips pressed together, like she might be stifling a smile, and it struck Thea again just how much it felt like she had seen the woman before.

"A lot of people call me Canary."

Thea raised an eyebrow, eyes cutting from one woman to the other. "So, you're the Huntress...and the Canary?" she reiterated, a bad joke about bird-hunting season on the tip of her tongue.

"So cool," Sin breathed out, making Thea shake her head. Way too excited about all of this.

"Well, now that that's out of the way," Helena spoke up, "let's move on to what we came here for."

Thea straightened on instinct, her hands curling into fists again.

"Right," she said. "Sin said you were interested in Malcolm Merlyn. Why?"

Helena shook her head. "Come on, Thea," she chided. "You know that's not how this works."

"I'm not telling you anything," Thea fired back, "until I know why you're asking."

That earned her a cautioning little head-quirk from the Huntress, like she was warning her not to push her luck; Thea only squared her shoulders.

"You're tough," Helena commented next, her mouth twitching at the corner. "Malcolm Merlyn must be so proud of his little daughter."

Thea stilled, before whipping her head towards Sin; the latter raised her hands in surrender. "I didn't say anything about that," she denied quickly.

"It's not really a well-kept secret," Helena said. "Especially when you're getting kidnapped by the Dark Archer and the Arrow tries to rescue you." She clucked her tongue. "Being the daughter of the man who destroyed this city, now that is – "

"Helena," the Canary hissed under her breath, cutting the other woman's taunts off. The Huntress spared her companion an annoyed look, before pursing her lips and rolling her eyes.

The Canary's gaze stayed on her for a moment longer, before she turned to Thea. "We do know," she said, "about Merlyn's reasons for taking you, and we won't tell anyone who doesn't already know too. What we don't really know is why he left without you."

Thea's heart picked up speed at the reminder of what it had been like, being face-to-face with her dear father. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Why?" she asked again. "Why do you want to know?"

The other woman's eyes narrowed a fraction behind her mask, and Thea thought that her tone might have been a little too telling, betraying her real question.

"We're not going to kill him," the Canary told her quietly. "That's not our purpose with him. But there is...someone, who does want him dead." Licking her lips, she added, "Someone he would be afraid of."

Thea frowned. "Who? The Arrow?"

The Canary shook her head.

Helena actually snorted.

"Then who?" Thea prompted.

She didn't get an answer right away, and the Canary looked reluctant to give her a straight one. "There are people," she eventually hedged, "people he was involved with, who taught him how to be...the Dark Archer. And they're not exactly pleased with what he's done."

Thea mulled that over. It made sense, she supposed. That there would be someone who had taught Merlyn how to be what he was – someone who was better than him. Someone who could defeat him.

And it should have felt good, to know that, but any glimmer of satisfaction was squashed when she realized she didn't just want someone to defeat him. I want to defeat him, the thought ran through her mind. He's mine to defeat.

She shook her head to rid herself of the thought, and said, "So, are the two of you their PI's or something?"

"No," the Canary said quietly, "we need to know if they're already here."

"You're running from them, too," Thea concluded when it clicked. "Who are they?"

"It doesn't matter," the Canary deflected. "It's too dangerous for you to know everything."

Thea huffed. "I am so tired," she let out, "of everyone else deciding what I need protecting from."

"I'm not saying this because I think you need to be protected, Thea," the Canary told her, and somehow, it reminded her of when she was eleven or twelve, trying to slide down the rail of the mansion's staircase, and Sara Lance was chiding her, not for being reckless, but for being so when her parents could easily walk in on her.

"But these people, they're dangerous," the Canary went on, bringing her out of the weird sense of déjà-vu. "To anyone. They're unlike anything you've seen."

Thea pursed her lips. "I've seen a lot."

It seemed to make the other woman soften, and eventually, she nodded. "I know," she said quietly.

And there it was again, Thea thought, that weird sense of familiarity.

"I'd just like to point out," Helena interjected, "that we came here for an exchange of information. So far, this feels pretty one-sided."

Thea took a deep breath, then nodded. "I don't actually know why he just left," she said. "He was saying something about...the Arrow, and fighting and killing him, and – " She shrugged. "He said the Arrow was coming and left me in the room, and then...I don't know how long it was, a while, but next thing I know, it's the Arrow who's coming through the door." She shook her head. "He didn't find Malcolm on his way in."

The Canary was nodding along, and when Thea was done, she asked, "Did he say something to you? Merlyn, I mean. Something that sounded...strange?"

"Well, he's a complete psycho, so..."

"Right," the blonde conceded. "Just...tell me what you remember. It might seem like nothing to you, but it could be important."

"He just – kept talking about how he was my father, and how – " The words were sour on her tongue as she did her best to force them out, without gagging from the sickening feeling in her gut that sifting through the memories caused. "How his mistake with...with Tommy, was not including him in his mission, and that now he'd get a second chance with me, it was – " She blew out a breath. "That's all he talked about."

The other three were quiet for a while after that, and even Helena looked like she didn't have much desire for taunting anymore.

Eventually, she was the one who queried, "What did he say exactly, before leaving you alone?"

The Canary seemed intrigued by the question, while Thea frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Did he say the Arrow was coming soon, that he was already there?" she clarified. "Or that he was going to wait for him?"

"Why, what are you thinking?" her partner asked.

"I'm thinking he knew someone was there," Helena said, "and he thought it was the Arrow, but..." She turned to Thea. "You said it was a while before he showed up, and that Malcolm was already gone when he did." She shrugged, craning her head to the side to meet the Canary's eyes. "I'm thinking he did find someone on his way out, but it wasn't the Arrow."

They were having some sort of silent conversation after that, and Thea waited impatiently to be let it on it. When she wasn't, she prompted, "So? What does that mean?"

The Canary chewed on her lip for a moment longer, before bringing her eyes to Thea's again. "It means they might already have him," she said. "But considering...his skills, it's more likely that whoever they sent is dead and disposed of, and that Merlyn ran before more could come for him."

Thea pulled in a sharp breath. "So, you think he's still alive?"

"Yeah."

It shouldn't have made her feel relieved to hear that, Thea thought. But it did. If he wasn't dead, then –

Then that meant he could still be defeated.

The Canary took a step forward, coming all that closer, and Thea found herself staring at the woman's face. "We will keep looking," she said, "and when we know for sure, I'll have Sin tell you what we found."

Thea nodded quickly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thank you."

"I should be thanking you," the Canary told her, "for agreeing to this." The black mask she wore was cut out in sharp lines, making its wearer seem dangerous, and just a little deadly, but her eyes held a surprising amount of warmth as they went over Thea's face, and the latter couldn't help but think the look she was getting was strangely – proud, maybe? Or perhaps it leaned more towards wistful?

Either way, it was strange.

"I'll keep in touch," the Canary directed her next words to Sin, before giving them both a nod of farewell. Behind her, Helena did the same, and with that, they were walking away, until they had both blended with the shadows.

Thea watched them go, drawing a deep, cleansing breath.

She felt Sin's hand on her arm. "You good?"

Nodding resolutely, she said, "Yeah."

Sin gave her a small smile, draping a hand over her shoulders. "Come on," she told her as she began steering her back towards the street and the car they'd parked there. Thea let herself be led by her friend, thinking about the other two women, and just how much it felt like she had known the Canary before, and most of all, she thought about how she really, really wanted Malcolm Merlyn to be alive.

"So, what do you really think?" Helena asked, shrugging off her coat and pulling off her mask. "Is there a dead League of Assassins member somewhere in Starling, or is Ra's al Ghul dancing on Merlyn's grave in – actually, I have no idea where your old clubhouse is."

"Nanda Parbat," Sara replied absentmindedly from her position by the broken clock face.

"Right, good to know," Helena muttered, making her way to Sara's side. "So, what's the verdict, Birdie?"

Her question was met with a deep sigh. "I meant what I told Thea," Sara eventually said. "I do think he's still alive. Malcolm, he was...trained by both Ra's and Al-Owal – 'The First', he was Ra's second-in-command." Pursing her lips, she added, "Al-Owal is dead, so there are only two people left that could take on Malcolm and defeat him – in a fight that meets their code. One of them is Ra's al Ghul, and the other is..."

It seemed difficult for her to say it, so Helena filled in for her; she was getting good at figuring out what tone Sara reserved for each person from her past she spoke of. "His daughter," she said.

"Yeah," Sara agreed. "And if either of them had been here, they wouldn't have come and gone so quietly."

"So, you think a foot soldier or two were sent here, they fought Merlyn, and that was the end of the road for them?"

Sara nodded.

"Shouldn't that be good news?" Helena asked. "Because you don't exactly look happy."

"He still ran," Sara pointed out quietly. "Disappeared without Thea."

"Well, he knew more would be coming for him, right? Dragging Thea kicking and screaming with him would slow him down."

"Mm-hmm," Sara hummed. "But the question is, why would he have to run so fast?"

Helena blew out a breath. "So, you think Ra's, or his daughter, or their entire army, are still headed over here?"

"I think – " She licked her lips. "I think there's a good chance, yeah."

That was a cheery thought. "What now?"

"We should check out the place Thea was held at," Sara said. "See if there's something Oliver or the cops missed."

"Shouldn't be difficult to find something that meets that criteria," Helena commented dryly, getting her partner to crack a small smile.

"And if it turns out that one or all of them really are coming here," she added more quietly, "what then?"

Sara was quiet, pulling in deep breaths in silence. In the end, she shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I don't want to run unless I have to."

Helena had expected nothing less.

"The hostage crisis at Starling National Bank in the East Glades has just entered its tenth hour – "

Felicity kept her eyes resolutely on the source code of the upgrade she was doing for QC's servers, telling herself that the news anchorwoman's report coming from Diggle's TV was just left there as background noise while she worked. Which was –

" – the SCPD has yet to successfully negotiate with the robbers, and unconfirmed reports suggest that they have begun killing hostages – "

– a complete lie.

With a sigh, Felicity peeked over her laptop, and to the flat screen that alternated between images of the newscaster and live footage from the scene. There were barricades, and a SWAT team on standby, and the red-and-blue swirls of patrol cars and the blasting flashes of an overhead chopper, and every now and then, just on the edge of the frame, Felicity caught a glimpse of Detective Lance.

He hadn't called her.

Actually, she had almost called him. Early in the afternoon, when it had all started, Diggle had dropped by to keep her company for lunch at IT, and she had already begun reaching for her phone, only to be stopped in her tracks by John's pointed look. It's not what we do anymore, Felicity, he'd said, a little sadly, and she'd retracted her hand with a nod. She'd forgotten, for a second there, that Team Arrow wasn't in business anymore.

The one thing that she was sure would never change, though, was Sara Lance refusing to use doors.

She couldn't help but smile at the ping that came from her second laptop, signaling that the motion sensors on the balcony had been triggered and sending a video feed of the 'intruder'.

Felicity waited for Sara to make her way in, only speaking when she'd already stepped past the balcony's threshold. "Wouldn't it just be easier to use the door?" she asked, craning her head over her shoulder to track Sara's movements.

"Nope," the other woman said, with a silly sort of playful smile Felicity hadn't been treated to before; she grinned in response.

Sara plopped onto the couch next to her, and added, "Besides, you'd be disappointed if I made such a boring entrance."

"True," Felicity agreed, taking a moment to appreciate the way Sara's resulting smile made her dimples show. "So, what's up?"

With a quiet sigh, Sara began plucking at the wig she held in her lap. "Helena and I met with Thea last night," she said quietly. "To talk about Merlyn."

Felicity frowned. "Wha – why?"

"There's only one thing that would make him run the way he did, Felicity." She shook her head. "And it's not Oliver."

Biting her lip, Felicity asked, "You think the League found him?"

"Yeah. But I also think that the one who found him is dead now." She clucked her tongue. "Which means more will be coming."

Felicity really didn't like the implications of that. "So, what does that mean," she asked, "for you?"

"I'm – " She shrugged. "Not as scared as I should be."

"You're not leaving, then?"

"No," Sara said, "not yet anyway." She sighed. "Helena and I went to where he had Thea...we found a gem, Ollie and the cops missed it, it's – it belonged to someone I knew in the League." A small frown creased her brow as she added, "She was finishing her training when I was starting mine. We, uh – we did several missions together, actually, after I had sworn my own oath."

"I'm...sorry?" Felicity tried, not quite knowing if she should be offering condolences or not.

"Don't be," Sara told her. "Part of swearing the oath is being willing to die, being...ready to die."

"That doesn't sound like something you'd accept," Felicity remarked quietly; if anything, Sara struck her as someone who had done, and would do, anything to stay alive.

"Well, I broke my oath, didn't I?" Sara said. "I'm always the rebel, wherever I go."

Felicity cracked a smile at that.

After a short-lived smile of her own, Sara frowned again, dropping her gaze to her lap; Felicity watched her trace the outlines of her mask with her fingers for a while, before asking, "So, if you're okay with the death of your former assassin buddy, then what's bothering you?"

Sara chewed on her lip for a moment, then shrugged. "Seeing Thea," she admitted. "Talking to her. I saw her, when Sin was in the hospital, but it was just – it was just for a minute." She drew a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. "The last time I really saw her, she was still little twelve-year-old Speedy, running around after Ollie. And now, she's all grown up." When she looked up, Felicity saw that her eyes were shining with gathering tears. "It really hit me, seeing her, just how long I've been away from home."

Felicity reached out, covering Sara's hand with hers; her nose twitched in a sniffle Felicity barely heard, and eventually, she squeezed back.

"You're home now," Felicity whispered, but Sara shook her head.

"No, I'm not," she said. "Only my dad knows I'm even alive, I'm...lurking in the shadows, wondering when I'll have to run again. I'm not really home."

Feeling a few tears prickling at her own eyes, Felicity twined their fingers together. There wasn't much she could say, or do, to make this better, but Sara seemed to appreciate the gesture nevertheless. One corner of her mouth lifted into a small smile as she kept her eyes on their hands, and lightly began tapping each of Felicity's brightly-painted nails with the pad of her thumb. Felicity surmised it was the striking yellow shade of nail polish she had chosen that made Sara's smile widen, showing her dimples again, and crinkling the corners of her eyes. The last time she'd had that look, Felicity thought, was when she called her cute.

She wasn't talking now, though – not to call her cute again, or to elaborate on the Merlyn situation, or even to ask for a favor or something. She was just quiet, amusing herself with Felicity's fingers, and the latter realized that she probably hadn't had much of a reason to drop by. She had to admit, she was fond of the idea that Sara was only there for the pleasure of her company.

"It has now been confirmed that one of the hostages was shot to death in the attempted bank robbery in the East Glades – "

Felicity whipped her head towards the TV, her breath catching in her throat.

Beside her, Sara stiffened, having obviously gone on alert. She still kept quiet, though, as Felicity drank in the images on the screen and felt her eyes filling with a different kind of tears.

"If Oliver hadn't left," Felicity found herself saying, "this would have been over by now." She shook her head. "Sometimes I forget that he wasn't always here, you know? That the city went by without us saving the day."

And it was killing her, to just sit by and watch.

She felt the pressure of Sara's hand on her own. "What I told you before, about me and Helena being around," she said, "that's still true."

Slowly, Felicity brought her eyes to Sara's.

It was still a completely crazy idea.

But people were dying.

And even before she was done playing mental catch-up with the idea of working with the Huntress, her mind was already sifting through the possible courses of action, the best and worse case scenarios, the optimal ways to avoid collateral damage, what databases she would need to access for the blueprints and which of the city's grids she'd have to hack in order to play the eye in the sky.

Digg wasn't going to like this.

But in the end, she was nodding her agreement.