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The day had finally come, the one that Sara had feared most; the one where her past caught up to her suddenly, without any warning, and she wasn’t able to keep her team, her family safe. They’d been taken by the League. They’d done it quickly, quietly, and when the team had least expected it. The team had never expected it. Sara, on the other hand, had hoped beyond hope that it would never happen, but had always known that it was a possibility, one that she feared with all her heart.
Luckily, some of the team had managed to hide in such short notice to evade capture, but the rest of them had not been so lucky. Sara sighed heavily, scrubbing a hand over her face as she turned around to face her team. She crouched down, taking a moment to look at each of them in turn. Ava, Ray, Nate, and Charlie. They were all caught up in the middle of her mess, and it made her sick to her stomach.
“I never wanted any of you to step foot in here—”
“Some of us already have,” Ray pointed out unhelpfully.
“Okay, again. I never wanted any of you to be here again. Nanda Parbat, the League— this isn’t a nice place to be,” Sara said, hanging her head down low and running a hand through her hair, “We’ve gotta get out of here. We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
“We’re going to get out of here, babe,” Ava said, reaching a hand out and squeezing Sara’s knee gently, “I’m sure the rest of the team is already plotting how to break us out as we speak.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Sara said, “We can’t just sit around and wait for the rest of the team to try and save us, we have to leave now.”
“Okay, we will, Sar, I promise,” Ava said, moving around in the crowded cell to crouch down next to her, “We will find a way to get out of here. You know your way around this place better than any of us ever will. How do you suggest we break out?”
“I know the safest routes for us to take out of here. But we’re still going to have to fight.”
++++++
They were so close, they were nearly there. They could see the light at the end of their chosen escape route, just a few hundred yards away. Sara let herself fall back to the end of the group, urging her team to pick up the pace a little bit. They were so close. Nearly there. They’d almost made it, when suddenly an army of League assassins blocked their way through the exit. Not even a second later, Sara felt a strong, iron-like grip on her arm. She yanked and tugged, trying to break free from its grasp, but every movement she made only served to make its grip tighter.
Her stomach dropped, and she felt her anxiety clawing its way up through her, gripping her heart and lungs like a vice. This was what she was most afraid of, not for herself, but for what her team might be forced to go through at the will of the League. She turned around slowly, the icy fear making her blood run cold as she came face to face with Ra’s al Ghul.
“Ta-er al-Sahfer. I did so hope that we would one day meet again. You always were one of my most gifted students,” Ra’s said, with an air of false love and welcome. His face turned sour a moment later, and he tsked, “You of all people should know that the League does not take kindly to our prisoners trying to escape, and even more so when they strike down our ranks. Now, we’ll have to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, won’t we, Ta-er al-Sahfer? Come with me.”
He led them back down the corridor they’d just run through, keeping an iron-clad grip on Sara’s arm so she wouldn’t escape. The army of League assassins followed closely behind with the rest of her team, keeping watchful eyes and sharp blades on them at all times lest they decide to try something else to escape.
Sara knew where they were headed, knew the possibilities that were in store for them, and it made her stomach churn. Nothing good would come of this, she knew.
All too soon, they had reached Ra’s inner chambers, and they were shoved forcefully into the room. Most of the League assassins dissipated, leaving at Ra’s command, save for a select few; two to guard the doors, four to keep her team standing in place. None for her; Ra’s took that job upon himself, and it only served to make her more anxious. She could only hope that whatever he had planned, he was only going to do to her. She just wanted him to leave her team out of it.
Ra’s let go of his vice-like grip on her arm, and turned his back to her, preparing whatever it was that he was going to do to her. She considered, briefly, attempting another escape, fighting her way out of this godforsaken fortress once and for all and saving her team, but she knew any attempts would be futile at this point, and they would surely only make things worse for her team. Instead, she stood silent and still as a statue in her place, head down and hands held together in front of her as she waited for what was to come.
Ra’s turned back around to face them, holding up a syringe filled with a mysterious green liquid.
“Ta-er al-Sahfer,” Ra’s said, voice commanding, “Raise your head up.”
Sara did so without any fight, knowing that obeying Ra’s orders was the best way to keep her team out of harm’s way. She looked up, meeting his eyes with hers, both cold and hardened from past experiences and sheer will. They were locked in a staredown for a long moment before Ra’s finally began moving again, sliding gracefully right in front of Sara. He held her chin up forcefully with his thumb and forefinger as he put the needle of the syringe up to Sara’s neck, pushing it in slowly and plunging the mysterious green serum into her veins.
It burned going in, and Sara winced. The effect was instantaneous. The world felt fuzzy around her, and she felt weak, tired and unsteady as her vision swam in and out, the edges going black. Her knees buckled under her, unable to hold her weight any longer, and she collapsed, the last thing she saw being Ra’s blurry face.
“SARA!” Ava screamed, voice raw and breaking, fighting against the assassin’s hold on her, to no avail, “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER?!”
“Fear not, Ta-er al-Sahfer is not dead,” Ra’s said calmly, a sinister sparkle in his eyes, “She is merely… incapacitated for the time being. A nasty concoction, that is.” He turned towards the League assassins that had remained in the chambers with them, “Escort them back to their cell. Ta-er al-Sahfer and her crew will not be leaving any time soon.”
++++++
Sara wasn’t sure what had happened, or what was going on. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure of anything. Her head felt heavy, and so did the rest of her body. It felt damn near impossible just to open her eyes, let alone do anything else. She groaned, or at least she tried to. She really couldn’t be sure if what came out was actually a groan or if it resembled something closer to a squeak.
“Sara??” said a voice. It sounded far away, like she shouldn’t have been able to hear it, but she knew it belonged to Ava. Ava. What had happened? Why couldn’t she remember? Why couldn’t she move?
“Sara?!” the voice said again, more urgently this time, “Sara, please. Please wake up. Come on, baby, wake up. Sara, please. Please just wake up.”
She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking it, but even that seemed to be a million miles away when it felt like she was sinking inside of her own skin. She groaned (she assumed) at the movement. Everything hurt. Everything was too heavy. Everything felt like it was on fire. What the fuck happened?
A memory briefly flashed before her eyes. A syringe. A weird, green serum. The burning sensation as Ra’s injected it into her veins. What the fuck had she been injected with?
She groaned again, and this time she was sure it came out more like a squeak.
“Come on, Sara, wake up, please,” Ava’s voice pleaded, watery and worried. It still sounded far away, but she could hear it a little clearer now.
It took every ounce of willpower that she had in her, but she forced her eyes halfway open, taking in her surroundings; the small League cell that they were all trapped in, the fuzzy outlines of Ray, Nate and Charlie all around her, and finally Ava, sitting right next to her but still fuzzy, as she cupped Sara’s cheek and pressed a damp cloth to her forehead.
The cool dampness felt like bliss against her burning skin, and she breathed in relief, her body going limp and lax as her eyes slid shut of their own accord, head lolling to the side as it became too much to keep in place.
“Sara?” Ava asked, voice overflowing with worry and panic as she discarded the cloth, holding Sara’s head in her hands and turning it towards herself, “Sara, baby, wake up, please. Sara. Sara, come on, baby, stay awake, please just stay awake for us.”
Ava patted Sara’s cheek lightly, another desperate attempt to get her to wake up again, but to no avail. It was futile. She slumped backwards against the wall of their cell, letting out a heavy sigh.
“She’s out again,” Ava said, sounding defeated, “I don’t know how to keep her awake for more than just a few minutes at a time. Whatever that serum was that she was injected with, it’s keeping her weak. She can hardly open her eyes all the way let alone move anything else. She can’t speak, can hardly make anything other than a pathetic little moan, and she’s burning up. I’m trying to keep her cool with the cloth, but it’s not working. Not enough anyways. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this one, guys.”
She was finding it harder to hold everything together with each passing moment, and she wanted more than anything for Sara to just wake up and be okay, to tell them how they were all going to get out of Nanda Parbat.
“I’m sure the rest of the team will figure out a way to get us out,” Ray said softly, giving Ava a reassuring smile, but as he glanced over at Sara’s limp, unconscious body, he found that he couldn’t make it reach his eyes, so he grimaced instead, “You know none of them are going to rest until they get us back.”
“I know,” Ava said, leaning her head back against the cell wall, “But I also know the League isn’t one to just let go without a fight. Sara has always been clear about that much.”
“That certainly complicates things a bit, dunnit?” Charlie said, putting on a brave face but they as well found that if they took a glance over to where Sara lay unconscious, the act became harder to keep up, “Well we’ve gotta think of somethin’, don’t we?”
“We’re at a pretty big disadvantage without Sara,” Nate piped up, “None of us know the layout of this place well enough. Sara’s the only one that has any real experience with the League. She’s the only one who knows which routes to take and what to avoid.”
“So we’re stuck, is what you’re saying.”
“Until the serum is out of Sara’s system, or until the rest of the team comes to rescue us, yes. We’re stuck.”
++++++
The first thing Sara noticed when she came to again was the cool, damp cloth being pressed to her forehead. The second thing she noticed was the soft, far away voices that spoke quietly over her. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but she didn’t need to, not right now. She opened her eyes ever so slightly, groaning, and this time she was pleasantly surprised to hear that it actually came out as a groan. The voices above her stopped talking in an instant.
“Sara?” Ava asked, still far away but getting closer by the second, “Sara, hey, are you awake? Can you hear me?”
Sara grunted in the affirmative, nodding her head ever so slightly. Everything still hurt, everything was still too heavy, and she still felt like she was on fire, but judging from the relieved sighs throughout the room and the murmured thank god from Ava, Sara guessed it was more than she’d done in a while.
She tried to move, tried to bring her hand up to her face, tried to do something, anything, to get her body to do what she wanted it to, but movement took energy, of which she had none. Her body felt weak (too weak, and it made her anxious), powerless to do anything but lay there, grunting and groaning and trying to get her bearings well enough to figure out what was going on.
“No, no, hey. Hey, Sar, don’t try to move yet, okay? Let us help you,” Ava said, letting her hand hover over Sara’s shoulder to keep her from moving again, “Nate, come here. Help me sit her up.”
Nate and Ava took caution to move her slowly, pulling her to sit up and sliding her backwards to lean up against the cell wall. Sara scrunched up her face, gritting her teeth and letting out a loud, pained groan the whole time they moved her. They let go as soon as she was leaning against the wall, backing up ever so slightly to give her space to breathe for a moment.
Sara’s head lolled to the side the second it was no longer being supported by something other than the wall, and she huffed in frustration, too weak and tired to pull it back up and hold it in place.
“Heavy,” Sara groaned out, trying and failing to push herself further up against the wall.
Ava was back by her side in an instant, cupping Sara’s face in her hands, using one hand to hold her head up while the other grabbed the cool, damp cloth again to wipe the sweat from Sara’s forehead.
Sara looked at her through half-lidded, heavy eyes, giving her as much of a small, grateful smile as she could, which she could only assume was the smallest, barely-there upturn of the corners of her lips. The damp cloth against her forehead felt like heaven. She blinked slowly once, twice before her eyes slid shut for a long moment. She took a deep breath, forcing them halfway open again.
“Long?” Sara forced out, hoping beyond hope that Ava would understand what she was trying to ask. She was sure that using more words would only serve to weaken her more.
“You’ve been in and out— mostly out— for a couple of days, baby. Whatever serum you were injected with had a nasty effect.”
“Out?” Sara asked, still forcing her words through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, babe, you’ve been mostly unconscious and out of it for a few days—”
Sara shook her head weakly, furrowing her brow and closing her eyes to try to concentrate.
“... Getting… out?” she asked in between huffs and grunts of pain and frustration.
Ava’s face lit up with recognition.
“The rest of the team is coming for us, love,” Ava said quietly but excitedly, “With any luck we’ll be out of here before sundown tonight. In fact, the team should be coming any minute now.”
“Fight,” Sara breathed out, feeling herself start to slip a little bit, her eyelids growing heavier and her head leaning further into Ava’s hand.
“Yeah,” Ava sighed worriedly, “We’re still gonna have to fight our way out. The rest of the team will be fighting their way in to get to us. You don’t have to worry about that though, okay? The team will have it covered. Ray and I will be helping you get out of here. Everyone else will handle the League, okay?”
Sara hummed in vague understanding, slipping back in and out of darkness again, conscious enough to get the gist of the plan, but not conscious enough to keep herself functioning the little bit that she had been able to.
++++++
It was time. The rest of the team had finally arrived, and they came in guns blazing judging from the commotion out in the corridors of the League headquarters.
Sara breathed deeply, groaning through gritted teeth as she forced herself up ever so slightly, opening her eyes halfway once more.
“Time?” she asked, looking to Ava for confirmation.
“Yeah, it’s time, baby. The team is here,” Ava said, cupping Sara’s head in her hands. She turned to Ray, “Help me get her up. We need to be ready to move as soon as the team finds us.”
Ray nodded, and he and Ava got to work helping Sara to her feet. They threw her arms over their shoulders, placing their hands over her abdomen to support her as they lifted her up. Sara grunted in pain, screwing her face into a grimace as her skin broke out in a heavy sweat at the exertion. They took a moment once she was on her feet to let her catch her breath before they tried getting her to move anymore.
“Can you walk?” Ava asked, making sure she and Ray were holding tightly onto Sara’s wrists so that she didn’t slip. They took a few small steps to try to get Sara going, but all she had in her were a few clumsy steps and a stumble as her knees buckled under her weight, even with Ava and Ray holding her up.
“Trying,” Sara forced out, gritting her teeth and tensing her body up to keep herself up and moving, “Hurts.”
“It’s okay, baby. Just do what you can, okay? Ray and I can handle the rest.”
Sara took a deep breath in and nodded.
It was then that the rest of the team showed up outside of their cell, making quick work of getting rid of the guards and getting them out.
“Woah, I bet you guys are happy to see us right now,” Zari said, taking a moment to look at them, “Is the Cap okay?”
“Yeah, really happy to see you,” Ava said in a rush, “But we really have to get out of here. Ra’s al Ghul injected Sara with some type of serum. We have to get her back to the ship so Gideon can help her.”
Zari only nodded, and the rest of the team, as well as Nate and Charlie, formed a loose circle around Ray, Ava, and Sara as they fought their way back out of the League’s fortress walls.
As they ran, Sara grew weaker and weaker, stumbling over her feet more and nearly collapsing to the ground a few times, even with Ava and Ray supporting almost all of her weight. The rest of the team fought around them, keeping the League at bay and making sure they all got out safely. It was getting harder for Sara to keep going, to stay conscious. Her breathing was heavy and labored, but still she breathed in deeply, grunting once more as she tensed herself up, giving one final, big push as they finally made it through the last of the League members in their vicinity and out of their fortress walls.
The last thing she saw before collapsing to the ground, unconscious, was the fading daylight, and Ava’s worried face.
++++++
Sara blinked her eyes open to the bright, sterile lights of the medbay. She grumbled, bringing a hand up slowly to block out the light, noting with somewhat pleasant surprise that she no longer felt too heavy to move herself, but grimacing in displeasure at the pain she still felt all over her body. She felt Ava’s hand in hers, and she squeezed lightly, just enough to catch her attention.
“Sara! You’re awake!” Ava exclaimed, standing by her side in an instant, “How are you feeling?”
“Like five cars, ten buses, a tractor, and a tank all ran over me one after the other,” Sara groaned, sitting up slowly with a little help from Ava.
Ava pressed her lips together sympathetically, rubbing Sara’s shoulder gently to provide some comfort.
“You’ll probably feel like that for a few days at least. Gideon was able to get most of the serum out of your system, but she couldn’t get all of it. Ray is taking a look at it in the lab, trying to figure out what it could’ve been. Whatever it was though sure did a number on you. I was so worried. We all were,” Ava said, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of Sara’s head as she continued to rub Sara’s shoulder comfortingly.
“‘M sorry I scared you,” Sara said, leaning her head back to rest against the medbay chair and closing her eyes as she blew out a long, heavy breath.
“Hey, don’t apologize for that,” Ava said firmly, squeezing Sara’s shoulder gently to get her to look at her. Sara’s head lolled to the side as she opened her eyes wearily, looking up at Ava and giving her a small, barely-there smile, “Ra’s al Ghul did that. Not you.”
“Yeah, but if it weren’t for my past with the League we wouldn’t have even been in that situation in the first place, and—”
“Hey. Hey,” Ava interrupted her, voice resolute and unyielding, “You did what you had to do to survive back then, okay? Listen to me. You did what you had to do to survive. I don’t want you to think you have to apologize to me for that. You don’t.”
Sara nodded, closing her eyes and swallowing past the lump in her throat before looking back up at Ava.
“Can we go back to our room now?” she asked, voice soft and watery. She was grateful Ava didn’t mention it when it cracked slightly, “I’m tired and everything hurts.”
“Are we free to go, Gideon?” Ava asked, looking towards the ceiling for the all-clear.
“Yes, Captain Lance is okay to leave the medbay,” Gideon affirmed, before telling them to take it easy and get some rest.
“Help me up?” Sara asked, motioning for Ava to give her a hand, “I can only imagine how much this is going to hurt.”
“Oh! While you were asleep Gideon said you might wanna use these for a few days,” Ava said, pulling a pair of forearm crutches from beside the medbay chair, “Just until you get your strength back up.”
“I’ll use one but I’d rather have you on one side of me,” Sara said, taking one of the proffered forearm crutches with one hand and grabbing onto Ava’s outstretched arm with the other, “These things won’t do a damn bit of good unless I can actually hold myself up a little bit. With you at least I know you’ll support whatever weight that I can’t.”
“Good call,” Ava said, pulling Sara up and holding her close to her side. Softer, so only Sara could hear, she continued, “And I’m so proud of you for recognizing that you’re not at a hundred percent right now and asking for help accordingly.”
Sara smiled up at her, though she was sure it looked halfway like a grimace instead, and leaned into Ava’s side as they started walking.
“This is gonna be a long few days for me, isn’t it?” Sara said as they entered their room, letting out a heavy, relieved sigh as she sat down on the edge of their bed, “God, whatever was in that serum was some nasty shit.”
“Unfortunately, yes on both accounts,” Ava said, taking the forearm crutches and resting them against Sara’s nightstand, “Sorry, babe. Wanna get comfy?”
“Nothing I want more,” Sara sighed, “I gotta get out of these clothes though.”
Ava grabbed a pair of sweatpants from her drawer, as well as a new, clean tank top.
“Here, let me help,” she said, and without waiting for a response, got to work helping Sara out of the clothes she was wearing and into the clean and comfy ones that Ava had grabbed for her.
“Thank you,” Sara said softly, grabbing Ava’s hand in her own once she had finished, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You won’t ever have to,” Ava promised, pressing a kiss to Sara’s forehead, “Lay down. Get comfy. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Sara laid down, rolling onto her side, her back facing Ava’s side of the bed. Ava made quick work of changing into her own comfy clothes and getting each of them a bottle of water and a cup of tea from the galley, and soon enough, she crawled into her side of the bed, coming to lay right behind Sara. Sara pushed herself further back against Ava, and she smiled as Ava wrapped her arms securely around her.
“Get some sleep,” Ava whispered, holding Sara tightly to her. She pressed a kiss to her shoulder, doing anything she could think of in the moment to help Sara fall asleep, “You’ll get your strength back in no time. I’ve got you until then, though, and I’ll still have you even after you do. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Sara murmured, pulling Ava’s arms even tighter around herself as she finally slipped off to sleep, “So much.”
“So much,” Ava echoed, pressing one last kiss to Sara’s jaw before settling down and letting herself slip off to sleep as well , “So goddamn much.”