A/N: okay, here it is (Finally). Anna and Oliver go toe-to-toe! And some secrets about Anna's past and heritage are revealed!

Episode 7: Paces

"So this is your base of operations?" Anna asked, looking around at the computers and weapons. "Looks like the Bat Cave on a smaller scale."

"Bat Cave?" Felicity asked, twisting in her chair to look up at Anna.

"Long story" Anna said. Anna went to a glass rack of arrows and picked one up, spinning it in her fingers. Felicity came next to her and took it from her then gently sat it on the rack again. "Careful" she said.

"So, what do you do?" Anna asked. She followed Felicity back to the computers and, as Felicity sat in the chair, Anna sat on the desk facing the other direction. "I help Oliver track down the people he needs to find, and—well, I pretty much do anything that involves a computer" Felicity said.

"You do much more than that, Felicity" Diggle said, walking down the stairs into the room, followed by Oliver. Felicity seemed slightly embarrassed. Anna stood and went to Oliver. "You didn't tell me why I'm supposed to be here" Anna said. Oliver walked passed her to a rack in the far back that held tall, thick wooden sticks. He picked one up and tossed it to Anna, and she caught it with one hand. "Seriously?" Anna asked.

"Seriously" Oliver said, smiling. Anna sighed and he grabbed one for himself then walked to a large mat further into the room. Anna looked back at Diggle and Felicity with a 'help me' expression but Diggle just shrugged. She sighed again and reluctantly followed after Oliver. "You really wanna do this?" Anna asked, standing on the opposite side of the mat as Oliver.

"You need to know how to defend yourself, so that next time you decide to take on assassins by yourself you can actually fight them" Oliver said.

"Okay, fine, but don't come crying to me when you hit the mat" Anna said, with a sly smile.

"I won't be the one hitting the mat" Oliver said.

"We'll see about that," Anna said. "And don't worry about going easy on me." Anna twirled the stick like she didn't know what she was doing to make her statement seem ridiculous. After the initial what's what speech they began sparring. Anna blocked, parried, and struck with ease, much to Oliver's surprise. After the first two spars Anna went back to her spot and got in ready stance.

"You make it out like this is hard," Anna said, ducking Oliver's stick. "It's actually quite easy." She swung and of course Oliver ducked and swung at her, then she picked up the pace with faster blocks and strikes. "Are you sure you know nothing about this?" Oliver asked.

"I may have lied a bit" she admitted. Felicity and Diggle were standing by watching, Felicity flinching and grimacing when the sticks hit. Anna got the upper hand and twisted Oliver's stick out of his hand so it went clattering to the floor. She positioned the end of her stick at his neck in a perfect finishing stance. "Just a bit?" Oliver asked.

"I know a few things. But, honestly, I'd forgotten all of this—seeing as it's been eight years" Anna said, stepping back to her side.

"Where'd you train?" Diggle asked.

"A city on the east coast, called Gotham City, ever heard of it?" Anna asked. He shook his head. "Who taught you?" Felicity asked. Anna was quiet a while. "My dad…He trained with some of the best martial arts teachers in the world, and he taught me some stuff," she finally said, as if she was just remembering it herself.

"But that was a long time ago. Doesn't matter." Anna put the stick back on the rack and started for the stairs. "Anna," Diggle said, walking to her. "Thought you might need this." He gave her the camera she'd dropped at the election gala last night. And then she remembered she had a dead line for her article and she gasped. "Oh crap."

She hurried down the sidewalk and entered the office. She ran to her desk and quickly printed out the article she'd written and took it to the Editor's office. She knocked before entering and Joanne sighed, annoyed. "Why was the article not on my desk when I came back from the board meeting? I thought we discussed this. You write it and get it on my desk on time, or I fire you" she said. Anna handed Joanne the article. "I know, okay? I had a bit of a…family…emergency. But it's done" Anna said.

"And it's late" Joanne said, dissatisfied. Her eyes skimmed through the article quickly. Then they started to slow to normal pace and she re-read the article a few times. "Are you sure you wrote this?" Joanne asked.

"Yes, I wrote it…?" Anna said, suspiciously.

"This is…this is exceptional, Miss Rogue. I'm surprised you haven't put out something like this earlier," Joanne said. "You can expect to see this on the front page in the next issue." Anna sighed in relief and left the office.

She sat in her desk chair and let out a breath she'd been holding as she leaned her elbows on her knees and planted her face into her palms. "Everything okay?" she heard a familiar voice and perked up. "Oliver? What are you doing here?" she asked, standing.

"You left in a hurry. I thought I'd make sure everything was okay" Oliver said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Could we talk?" Anna asked. Oliver nodded and Anna grabbed her jacket, swinging it on as she started for the exit with Oliver on her heels.

Anna led the way down the stairs into what Felicity called the 'Arrow Cave'. She took off her jacket and tossed it onto the computer chair and went to the rack of wooden sticks. She grabbed one and tossed one back to a confused Oliver. She then went to the mat and took her spot. "I can't do this without a distraction," Anna explained, as Oliver took his spot. "I need to say some things that you might want to know. So let's start already." Anna took the first strike and Oliver blocked, striking back. Anna ducked and twisted stances so that they switched sides of the mat.

"I'm not who I said I was. My name isn't Anastasia Rogue" Anna said. She struck and blocked. "Then what's your name?" Oliver asked, trying to keep up with Anna.

"Anastasia Wayne…or Al Ghul…whichever way you wanna put it" Anna said. Oliver automatically stopped upon hearing Al Ghul. He stared at her with a confused expression not saying a word a long time. "Al Ghul?" he asked, sounding a bit hurt.

"Not the Al Ghul you think, Oliver," Anna said, breathing hard from the exercise. "I didn't know when I witnessed John Legend's murder. I knew my dad, not my mom."

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Because if things ever go wrong you'll know how to kill me."