The headquarters was an abandoned mansion that I recognized. It had been Quinlan Kay's mansion back when I was in High School. The first place I'd ever encountered anyone from the League of Shadows.
We touched down in the front yard, and disembarked. There were unconscious assassins all over, but also unconscious members of the Justice League, including Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter.
"Uncle John!" Megan said, upon seeing him. She ran over to him, I followed.
I felt for a pulse but couldn't find one. Despite this, Meg breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's alive." She told me, "He still has brain activity."
I stood up, relieved and turned to the team.
"I need Supergirl, Cyborg, and Starfire to come with me to the mansion. The rest of you, get the wounded onto the Batwing and keep a perimeter, no one goes in or out of the mansion, unless they are JLA."
Meg grabbed my arm.
"I'm going with you too." She told me. I'm sure my expression was grim.
"You're not. I already lost Helena to the League, I won't lose you. You've given me a second chance at love, I'm not going to lose it again."
"What about my chance for love? Did Dr. Fate consider that when he made you promise to give up your life?"
"I'm sorry…" I said, looking away, "I won't be able to handle it if anything happens to you."
I pulled my arm from her hands gently. She didn't try to resist.
Supergirl, Starfire, Cyborg and I all entered the mansion. It was quiet. Inside there were more unconscious, both on our side and the other side. I called out on comms to Dick.
"There's more wounded inside. Give us 10 minutes to clear the area, then enter. So far no sign of Superman, Dr. Fate, or Green Arrow. No sign of Ra's either."
"Copy Batman." Dick said over comms.
We cleared the main building. It seemed like the battle that had taken place here was over. There was just a basement level, which Kara was able to find with her X-ray vision.
The basement seemed old, much older than the main building. How long had the League operated out of this tunnel?
Down the flight of stairs, deep underground, the hallway opened up into a large, stone chamber. There were wounded everywhere. Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, and worst of all, was Superman, unconscious on the ground. Upon seeing that, I felt nervous, way more than before.
"They all underestimated the League…" Khonshu said in my head, "Hopefully they survive."
"Cyborg, Starfire," I barked an order, "Get them out of here. Supergirl, you're with me."
We walked through the chamber, to a hallway. The air felt dank, and it was dark.
"No sign of Green Arrow." I heard Kara say nervously.
"It will be ok, Kara." I tried to reassure her, despite the fact that I wasn't sure myself.
"How did they defeat Kal?" She asked, referring to her cousin Superman.
"I don't know." I told her, "if you are scared, you can head back, Kara. I understand."
I didn't get a vocal response. I felt a strong hand squeeze my arm gently. It was Supergirl, letting me know that she was going to stay with me.
As we neared another large chamber, we heard fighting. We rushed forward through the rest of the hallway to find a large chamber with some kind of ziggurat or Mayan-style tiered pyramid in the middle. All around were unconscious League Ninjas. Kara and I rushed up the stairs, to the top, where the fighting was taking place.
There was one man standing on top. He was wounded. He was almost unrecognizable due to the damage to his costume and the blood matted in his hair, but the bow in his hand made it unmistakeable who he was.
Green Arrow was exhausted. He'd been fighting all this time? Even after Superman and Wonder Woman fell?
There was only one other person on top of the pyramid. A woman, whom I recognized as Talia Al-Ghul, the daughter of Ra's al-Ghul. My blood boiled as I thought back to the night of Helena's death. Talia had orchestrated that attack. She had been just as involved in Helena's death as Ra's.
"Talia!" I roared, jumping past the Green Arrow. I brought my fist toward Talia's skull, but I was parried by the katana she wielded.
Oliver immediately jumped back into the fray now that Talia was distracted with me. He fired two arrows in rapid succession towards her chest, aiming for a killing blow. She deflected both of them with her sword and still had time to kick me in the chest away from her. She was fast.
"Good to see you again, Daniel. Some of my girls told me you may have survived, but it is good to have confirmation." She said, her red lips turning up into a demented smile, "I think Mr. Queen was just about done with the fight. I am sure he is grateful you arrived. With the She-Kryptonian nonetheless."
No words were said by us. I looked at Oliver. He was panting, but gave no indication he was done fighting. He nodded at me.
I drew my own sword and charged Talia. While I was charging, Green Arrow fired another volley. Talia dodged and deflected them, and I brought my sword down on her. She was still too quick, dodging my slash just in time. She brought her own sword up and cut my face. The cowl protected my skull from being cut in two, but it was completely torn off by her razor sharp katana. I jumped backwards to avoid a follow up blow.
Kara charged in, flying towards Talia. Talia gracefully ducked under her and spun backwards as Kara fired her heat vision at the Assassin.
Talia deflected this beam as well with the shine of her sword, sending the beam right back to Kara. It pierced her shoulder. She cried out, feeling pain for the first time since she arrived to earth, and went crashing down out of our sight.
Talia didn't give us time to recover. She slashed repeatedly at me, sending sparks flying off of my sword as I blocked. Oliver got behind her and nodded at me.
He fired an arrow towards the back of Talia's head, which she slipped skillfully. I caught it before it struck me in the face and jabbed it into her gut.
She shoved me back, then rolled away from both of us. She slammed her elbow down on the shaft of the arrow, snapping it off close to her body.
"You two make quite the team." She said smiling again. "It's going to take a lot more than one arrow to kill me though."
"How about three then?" Oliver said, launching three arrows quickly. I ran as he did, and jumped into the air, where he fired a fourth, explosive arrow at me. I tossed it at Talia as she deflected the three original arrows. It exploded, but she dodged just in time to only be singed a little bit, her clothes and hair smoking slightly.
Oliver didn't let up though. He ran at her, and smacked her in the back of her head with the flat of his bow. She spun around, only to be kicked in the back by me. We were starting to overwhelm her.
She didn't let up though. She slashed down at me, which I avoided with a quick backstep, then to her left, swiping at Oliver's throat. He ducked and bashed her knee with the bow. She fell down to one knee, and I chopped down towards her head. She threw up her sword barely in time to stop my blade, but this sent sparks into her face. She flinched instinctively, and I grabbed her right wrist. I flipped her down onto her back.
Oliver kicked her in her arrow wound, and jumped back, nocking and firing another arrow as he did. She managed to break free of my grip just in time and spun to her feet, slashing up through my cape and back as she did. I dashed forward to avoid further injury as I felt the cold sting of steel.
All three of us stood there for a moment, panting. This fight was exhausting.
"Goddammit!" Oliver shouted as we all caught our breath, "we should be able to finish this, Danny."
"I'm just getting started." Talia responded, smiling painfully. She spit out blood that was in her mouth, and got back into a fighting stance.
We heard an animalistic roar as Kara flew back up. Her eyes were glowing red as she grabbed Talia by the back of the neck, tossing her in an arc through the air and slamming her into the stone floor. It cracked and broke, leaving Talia in her own crater.
Oliver and I didn't waste a second. We ran forward as Supergirl grabbed Talia by the lapels of the leather jacket she was wearing. Kara sent a painful looking knee into Talia's gut. She veered forward, vomiting blood as her face hit the ground.
Despite the injuries Supergirl had caused, I saw Talia smile. She reached a hand into her pocket and threw a handful of glowing green powder into Kara's face. Kara staggered back, coughing and wheezing as the powder entered her lungs. It was kryptonite powder. Talia didn't hesitate.
She ran forward, quickly and light on her feet. She bashed Kara in the nose with her palm. Kara staggered back, grabbing her broken and bleeding nose. Talia sent a roundhouse kick to her face, sending her flying once again off the pyramid.
"Did you think we didn't come here prepared to fight gods, Daniel?" She asked, wiping blood from her mouth, "there's a reason it is only you two left here. No special weaknesses, just pure martial combat. The rest will be easy to defeat, but you two and your other powerless friends, well, I am not sure if I can defeat them alone. My father will though. So go ahead, Mr. Queen, Mr. Wilson, kill me here. It doesn't matter. We have already won this battle. We've shown the gods that they can be beaten."
Oliver drew his last arrow. I readied my black sword. Talia readied herself, smirking confidently. She knew something we didn't.
I moved first, swing my sword in wide arcs, like in the beginning of Savage's second form. When I got close, Talia easily deflected my blows. I tried to sweep her legs, but she jumped my kick. I jabbed at her in rapid succession, continuing the form. Oliver let his arrow loose. She almost dodged it all the way, but it cut her cheek as it passed. I grabbed it with a telekinesis spell, and swung it back this way. It pierced her shoulder.
Talia switched her sword to her other hand and slashed wildly, cutting my thigh and forcing me to retreat back. She dropped her sword and yanked the arrow out, whining in pain as she did. Oliver didn't let up now that she'd dropped her sword. He rushed, hitting her with his bow. She fought back, landing several kicks.
He wrapped the bowstring around her neck and pulled her towards him. She was strangling.
"Finish it, Wilson!" He yelled. I didn't hesitate. I ran and plunged my blade through her gut. She gasped, and hit me with a hard right hook in the chin, knocking me away from the sword. She painfully pulled the black jian from her abdomen. Blood spilled out onto the ground. She was running out of breath.
She chopped at a wide angle. Oliver cried out as his bow fell to the ground, his severed right arm still grasping the hand.
"Shit!" He yelled, clutching the bloody stump to prevent further blood loss "You bitch!"
She tossed my sword aside, and threw down a smoke pellet.
"You can either follow me to finish the job, Daniel." I heard her voice say as it faded away, "or you can save him."
The smoke cleared fairly quickly. Oliver was losing blood. The only option seemed clear to me. I had to think fast though.
I removed the bowstring from his discarded weapon, and used it as a makeshift tourniquet. Talia had gotten away, but I wasn't going to let her have the satisfaction of killing the Green Arrow, despite the fact I could probably catch her with all of her wounds.
I retrieved my sword, and helped Oliver down the stairs. His wounds were much worse than mine. I had no idea how long he'd been fighting Talia without me, but it had to have been forever.
When we made it down the stairs, he stopped me, and leaned up against the railing.
"Go get Supergirl." He ordered. His pain was audible in every word.
"Your arm." I objected, "we need to get you to the others at the very least."
"I'll be fine. You stopped the bleeding. Go get her. We don't know what kind of condition she's in."
That was something I admired about Oliver. He always was putting others before himself. Even having lost an arm. I'm sure he was experiencing more pain than ever before, but he was thinking about Kara first.
I helped him sit down, and limped around the back of the pyramid, in the direction that Talia had knocked Supergirl off. My wounds were starting to burn as my adrenaline from the fight wore off. I had to remind myself that Oliver and Kara had received the worst of it though. My injuries were surface level compared to theirs. Oliver's severed limb was career ending for him, and Kara, if the kryptonite powder hadn't worn off before she hit the ground, could be dead.
I found her lying in a small crater, out cold. Before moving her, I checked her pulse and her wounds. She may have had fractured ribs, but it seems like she was doing better than I feared. I gently picked her up, taking extra care around her torso. She groaned a little, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I couldn't leave her there.
I made my way back to Oliver, who was back to his feet. He was bandaging his own wounds.
"You're tough as nails, you know that Oliver?" I asked him. He laughed, despite his pain.
"This all looks worse than it really is." He said, holding up his stump, "I was looking for a good reason to retire anyways. Maybe I'll go into politics."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was still joking at a time like this. I smiled at him.
"This is the first time I've ever seen any Batman smile." He laughed again, "Wish I had a camera."
We left the chamber. We may have won, but it sure didn't feel like it.