Athena and the League of Assassins (An Arrow: Season 3 Fanfiction)

Chapter 22: The Threat

The wind blew on the mountain at pitch black night. A hand reached for a ledge as Oliver Queen, in thick winter gear, pulled himself up, slowly, painfully, on each rock ledge up the cliff face. Gritting his teeth, he set himself to the task. 

Two days earlier... 

Officer Quentin Lance walked out of the police precinct via the back door to see a criminal with long, shaggy hair, ziptied and gagged via duct tape. 

'Merry Christmas,' the Arrow said, making Lance turn around to see the pair of vigilantes at rest, watching the officer. 

'Well, I feel bad. I didn't get you two anything.' 

'You keep the city safe,' Athena replied. 'That's a present enough.'

'So do you.' He hauled the criminal up to his feet and began to drag him up the stairs. 'You know, you two are the closest thing to partners I got. Happy holidays. Here you go, buddy.' The door was shut, leaving the two in silence. Just then, as they began to walk away, an arrow fired and Athena spun around and caught it. 

'Merlyn,' the Arrow growled. The man in black armour stalked towards them, before several more dropped to the ground and began fighting the two vigilantes. The two were soon overpowered and bound as someone in the same armour walked up to them, slamming his fist in their faces, making the two pass out into unconsciousness, the last thing they saw being the man's feet as he walked away. 

Later... 

The two came to their senses, being dragged by what seemed like League members on a stone floor in a room with torches all around, being dropped to the floor in front of a female with familiar looking armour. Their hoods were shed. 

'Nyssa,' Oliver groaned, stumbling to his feet. 'What is this? We agreed -!' 

'To nothing,' Nyssa said blankly. 'My father merely decided to give you the time to bring Sara's killer to justice, and you have failed.' 

'We are doing everything we can!' Evelyn gasped out, standing. 'Shit, you guys hit hard.' She rubbed her head. 

'You've both been distracted protecting the city! And you've exhausted my father's patience.' Nyssa walked away from the pair of siblings, turning once more to face them. 'In civilisations past, when someone in the village was murdered, the League would come and kill 50 people a day until the true criminal was rooted out. Find and deliver the one who killed Ta-er Al-Sahfer. You have 48 hours, or the citizens of Starling will see what the League of Assassins is capable of.' 

'You're going to slaughter innocent people?' Oliver asked in shock. 

'The cleansing of Starling City will fall to Sarab,' she said, and someone walked up who must have seemed familiar to Oliver, because he said a name that wasn't what Nyssa had called the man. 

'Maseo?' he asked, stumbling forward slightly. 

'Maseo is no longer. As she said, I am Sarab.' 

'Deliver Sara's killer or blood will flow in your streets,' Nyssa said. She began to walk away, followed by the League members who had kidnapped the siblings. 

'This isn't what Sara would want!' Oliver exclaimed. She turned, saying with a venomous tone in her voice, 

'Sara is dead! It's time you remember that.' The group walked away, leaving Oliver and Evelyn alone. 

At the hideout (several hours later)... 

'What happened?' Felicity asked, having just come from work at Palmer Technologies. 

'Nyssa paid us a visit,' Oliver said shortly, glancing at me as I sat on a chair, with my feet up on a bench, nursing my injured head with an ice pack. Diggle was working on something at the same workbench, while Roy was standing next to Felicity. 'The League wants Sara's killer handed over in the next 48 hours.' 

'Why do I sense there's an "or else" at the end of that sentence?' Felicity asked nervously. 

'Or else they'll start killing innocent civilians,' I replied blankly. 

'My God. Two days?' Felicity asked in horror, walking over to the bench and placing her laptop down. 'Caitlin has the DNA that we pulled off the arrows that killed Sara, but the STR markers are degraded, so it's taking a little bit longer.' 

'Felicity...' She turned towards Oliver, who stood near the glass cases with a grave look in his eyes. 'It can't take any longer.' Diggle walked up to Oliver. 

'If we can't find Sara's killer in time, we're going to need a contingency plan.' 

'I know,' Oliver said somberly. 'I don't have one.' 

Much later... 

'But you're all right?' Felicity asked over the phone to Caitlin. 'Okay. Yes, it is coming through now. No, I'm fine. Things are just, um, tense here. Thank you, Caitlin. Happy Holidays to you, too.' She clicked off the call. 

'Are those the DNA results?' Oliver asked, coming up behind Felicity's chair and eyeing the screen. 

'It's the reassembled genome STAR Labs was able to get off of the arrow that killed Sara. I need to run it against potential suspects.' 

'What database are you using?' Diggle asked, coming up next to her. 

'SCPD maintains a genetic marker database. Anyone who's committed a felony in the past two years.' She typed vigorously, then there was silence as a beep sounded from the computer, indicating the test was complete. 'No, that - that can't be right.' 

'Who is it?' Oliver and I asked, turning around abruptly from the other side of the room. 

'It must be a mistake.' 

'Felicity?' I asked, low and dangerous, stalking over to her. 'Who killed Sara?' She turned in her chair. 

'One of you did.' On the screen, against the SCPD database, was both of our faces. We both frowned and looked at each other. 

'This must be a mistake,' Diggle said, watching the screens, and the resulting DNA test. 

'I took perspiration off the arrows that killed Sara,' Felicity said. 'Two years ago, when the police arrested Oliver and Evelyn because they thought, accurately, that they were the vigilantes, they took DNA samples. Those samples are a match for 12 out of the 13 STRs. The odds of that... they're impossible.' 

'Ok, so somehow, mine - and her-' Oliver replied, gesturing to me, '-DNA is on the arrows.' 

'Someone's setting us up, Ollie,' I said. 

'Well, someone with a vested interest in pitting us against the League of Assassins,' Oliver replied, looking over at me again. I walked over to the workbench where our DNA results were on the screen. 

'What kind of sick game is the League playing?' I murmured. 

'Not the League,' Oliver said. 'It's Malcolm Merlyn.' I turned to him. 

'What?'

'Merlyn was in Corto Maltese with Thea when this was going down,' Diggle said. 

'Unless he wasn't,' Oliver replied. 

'What do you mean?' 

'I mean, Merlyn hid successfully for two years from the police and the League. He's good at covering his tracks.' 

'So we uncover them,' Felicity said, turning to the computer and typing something in, multiple photos coming up on the screen. 'But it might take some time.' 

'In less than 48 hours, the League is going to murder 50 people,' Oliver said gravely. 'We don't have time.'