The only telephone capable of calling long distance belonged to the village doctor. He was younger, probably a little bit older than me, and spoke perfect English. Apparently, the whole village had saved up money to send him to a British Medical School. I'm sure they appreciated the fact that he moved back to the village to repay them.

He was chatty though. He'd loved England, and, despite the fact that I was American, my culture had more in common with the English and that of Nanda Parbat. After I made my call to Barbara, I really tried to pay attention to him, but I was so tired that I just really couldn't keep myself awake…

"Danny, wake up." I heard a voice say. It was my own. When I opened my eyes, Khonshu was sitting in front of me, with a grim expression on his face.

"Time to go?" I asked, sitting up from the couch I was playing on.

"Afraid not." He said, frowning. "Time to hide. There are League Assassins here. They don't know we are here or alive."

"Why are they here then?" I stood up and peeked out the window. There were several women dressed in League of Shadows outfits, going building to building, dumping people in the streets.

The young doctor also came to the window next to me.

"What are they looking for?" I whispered to him.

"Tribute. Anything of value. Any girls in the village below the age of three."

"Why?"

"Why are they looking for girls? To take them and train them as League Assassins. My baby sister was taken when I was a young boy."

These people really did know more about the League of Shadows than anyone else. No one dared fight back. I had to do something…

"I know that look in your eyes, Danny…" I heard Khonshu say in my mind, "Don't. Ra's doesn't know we are alive. We have the advantage of the first strike. Don't waste it."

Khonshu was right. Despite the fact I couldn't sit idly by and watch these people suffer, our tactical advantage against Ra's was too great.

I almost didn't do anything. I saw a baby girl get yanked from her mother's arms. Then I saw Ali. He went right up to the Assassins, and, after some yelling, tried to take the baby back. One of the women beat him to the ground. His son, Daniel, was screaming. That was it for me.

I pulled the ornate sword from my leather bag. I heard Khonshu protesting but he didn't stop me. I stepped outside and started to walk to the group of assassins, who were holding Ali on his knees, with one raising her katana to slice off his head.

"Stop!" I roared in my Dayhound voice. I pulled the sword from the scabbard and threw it to the side. The assassins all turned their attention on me. "If you lay so much as a finger more on that man, I'll kill you all!"

"Well… you aren't from around here, are you?" The one holding the katana said, slowly lowering the blade. She took a few steps toward me. "This is your one chance, outsider. Lower your weapon, and you will be spared."

I continued my stride forward. The four others, two of whom were holding Ali on his knees, came and stood by the 'leader,' the woman who had almost chopped Ali's head off.

"Daniel, no!" Yelled Ali, but I ignored his pleas. He was just trying to protect me. But he didn't know who I really was.

The five assassins readied their weapons. As I closed in, I held up my free hand and blasted them with a force spell.

The women all went flying backwards a good distance. All, except the leader of the group, who, knowing that I was up to something, made the split-second decision to plunge her blade into the ground and hold on.

"A magician?" She asked, getting back into her stance. I didn't respond, I just started running to close the distance between us.

She made the first strike. A powerful, downward swing. I blocked it with my black sword and pushed it to the side. Her sword sparked against mine as it slid down.

I made the very next strike. A hilt bash to the face, aimed right at her nose. She staggered back, and I could've ended the fight with her right there, had one of her comrades not been able to recover and rejoin the fight in time.

The second assassin lashed out at me, bringing her sword around in an upward arc. I stepped back just in time and spun myself around, attacking her free side just below the navel. She barely brought her blade up in time to block it, but hitting her with the sword wasn't my goal. I swung my free hand around and knocked her onto the ground.

Two more had rejoined the fight. They both attacked at the same time. All I did was parry. Our swords sparked together, demonstrating the power of their strikes. Despite this, my sword and arm held true against the power of the blows.

I decided it was time for one of Savage's sword forms. I started the first step to the third form, a backwards leap to gain distance. I ducked, and dashed forward, cutting swiftly, side to side with the sword in both hands. All my slashes were blocked, but I made distance between the two assassins. I jumped in front of one of them and slashed twice, once above and once about knee level. The first slash sparked off of her katana, the second sliced open her thigh. The wound wouldn't kill her, but it certainly would make it hard to continue fighting. Time for the last attack in the form. I jumped back, pirouetting in the air, and chopping sideways at the second assassin as I did. This was the strike that was supposed to cut an opponent in half. I didn't aim for her torso though, I aimed for her sword. The blade shattered against my strike, in an explosion of sparks and chunks of metal. The force of the strike was great enough to send the assassin flying to one side, in the direction of the slash. She crashed into the wall of a nearby building, cracking the foundation as she did. She certainly wouldn't be rejoining the fight.

The other four were recovered by now, but were all stunned by what they had just witnessed.

"Who are you?" The leader asked, her voice full of genuine surprise.

"Your worst nightmare." I told her, flicking the blood from my black sword, "Leave this village alone."

They didn't say another word. They started a coordinated attack, each one running at me and slashing, one after the other. Each one coming from a different direction. It was a fast and effective strategy. I couldn't block all the attacks, and they got some decent slashes on me.

"You can't keep this up, Danny!" Khonshu said, "Figure something out. Now!"

I used a fire spell this time, to blast myself in the air. My current attacker blew backwards, but the remaining three were far enough away to not be affected by the spell. I flipped through the air and brought an ax kick down on the affected one's head, knocking her out cold. I didn't give them time to recover their strategy. I had to act now before they could use a new tactic.

I charged forward, trying to slash through the next closest assassin. She stepped back just in time. This was the perfect moment to use Savage's first form. I jumped back onto my left leg and executed a spinning heel kick. This caught the assassin in the face. I brought my sword down onto her now exposed back. I sliced through skin and tissue, then stabbed at her thigh, aiming for the femoral artery. I didn't want to kill any of them, but this was also about survival for me.

Luckily for me, she stepped back with the leg I was aiming at, saving me from another killing on my conscience. Unluckily for her, this put her in a very back position. I brought the hilt of the blade up, bashing her chin and knocking her out cold.

There were only two left, and one was injured enough that she could probably only fight with half her normal effectiveness. I went for her next. She brought her blade up to try and guard, but I was already in position. I kicked her injured leg, sending her sprawling. She dropped her sword and clutched the injured limb. I dropped onto her back and hit her a few times in the back of the head with my free hand to finish her off.

It was just me and the leader of the group left. Her stance and legs held firm, but something felt off. I only realized when Khonshu spoke up.

"She fears you." He said in a dark tone, "Her terror is almost palpable. You've won."

I feigned a step, testing the waters. She stumbled back, tripping over one of the unconscious assassins behind her. I took my chance the moment it came, dropping my sword and landing on top of her. I sent one strong punch flying into her jaw, ending the fight quickly.

All the villagers were gathered around, staring in awe. They'd seen the whole fight and were surprised that anyone was able to actually stand up against the League of Shadows. But they were also scared, I knew that. They were probably wondering who this stranger in their village was, who had arrived this morning, near death and exhausted, then in the evening, defeats five league assassins without saying so much as a word.

"Finish them." Khonshu said, referring to the five unconscious ninjas on the ground around me. His tone sent chills down my spine. I had never realized that my own voice was capable of sounding so evil. "If you don't, they will report to Ra's that you are still alive."

He was right, but I couldn't just kill them. I wasn't a murderer, not anymore. The threat had been neutralized, no further violence needed to be incited.

"No." I told him plainly, after recovering my sword. I started to head back to the clinic to get my wounds patched up, and hopefully convince the doctor to attend to the 5 assassins as well, "It's over. We won the fight."

As I walked, I stopped mid-step. I couldn't continue any more. I couldn't move, not even a finger.

"That… worked?" I heard my own voice say from my mouth.

"Khonshu? You took control?" I tried to ask, but my mouth didn't move.

"I have control." My mouth spoke again. Khonshu now had complete control of my body, whereas now I was just the voice in my own head. "I'm sorry, Daniel, but we have to kill them."

I, or rather Khonshu, walked over to the leader of the group, who was the closest.

"I hope you can forgive me, Danny. I do this with a heavy heart. If there was any way I could maintain our advantage without the shedding of blood, I would do it, for you."

Khonshu raised the sword above our head, ready to strike the assassin's head off. Despite my many objections, I felt his intentions to bring the sword down. I also knew I was powerless to stop him.

"No, Daniel!" Ali yelled, standing up with the doctor's help. Khonshu stopped, lowered the sword, and turned our head to face Ali.

Ali said something to the doctor, who then stepped forward towards us to talk.

"He says that if you kill them," the doctor translated, "Ra's Al-Ghul will send more to the village to avenge them. And the assassins he sends won't be after goods or people, they will come to this village seeking blood."

Khonshu appeared to not care. He raised the sword again.

"Khonshu!" I yelled in our head, making a last-ditch effort to end the violence, "if any of that story you told me, about the Arbiters being heroes, was true, you can't do this. You won't do this."

Just as I felt Khonshu about to swing the sword, he stopped. The sword-arm dropped to our side. We fell to our knees. I felt Khonshu release control back to me.

"Thank you…" I whispered, my voice weak with emotion and surprise. I didn't get a response.