The End Of All Things (An Arrow: Season 8 Fanfiction)

Chapter 9: Daughter of the Demon

Talia reached for the sword, looking at it with eyes of awe. She grasped the hilt, feeling its weight.

'Talia?' Thea called out. Talia turned to face her. 

'You're too late.' Thea looked over to the rack of swords nearby and pulled one out, stepping forward to face Talia. 

'As heir to the Demon, I have the right to challenge you to combat,' she said. 

'You wish to fight me? Very well, I accept.' The two kept closing the distance between them. 'I hope you prove to be a worthy opponent.' Then the fight began. The two kept fighting for a while, trading even blows. They clashed and circled each other until Talia caught Thea with a gash across her side. 'Your brother trained you well,' Talia boasted. 'Pity the tools you learned from him he learned from me.' 

'Less talk, more fighting,' Thea growled, and the two charged each other. 

Oliver and I fought Athena ruthlessly, and that was the case until she stepped on the wrong tile in the middle of the room. She looked up in horror to see several boulders crashing down. When the dust cleared, she was barely stirring. Oliver picked up his quiver of arrows and we ran to confront Talia. 

Thea and Talia kept fighting, never stopping. Then Thea's sword was knocked away, and she was pressed up against a pillar, crouched on the ground, while Talia held her sword to her neck. 

'You were a fool to think you could defeat me,' she hissed. Thea started to rise very slowly. 

'Actually, you're right where I want you,' Thea replied, and spun around, pulling Talia into the pillar and wrapping a chain around her neck. 'Do you yield?' She growled. Talia didn't budge. Oliver and I ran into the room. Talia groaned and then finally, she gasped out. 

'I yield.' Thea let her go and looked at the two of us. 

The next morning... 

The three of us stood in the area that was littered with pillars, the place that we'd been the day were confronted by Talia's assassins. Thea was reading from a book, Oliver was standing next to her, and I was sitting on a stone boulder, sharpening my daggers. 

'What's it say?' Oliver asked. 

'It says Al-Fatih was visited by a god who possessed the power to see all that is and all that will be. He believed that if he failed to keep the balance between good and evil, this god would bring forth the end of times, the annihilation of all things.' I stopped sharpening my blades and looked up at my two siblings. 'Ollie, if that's true, it means -' 

'Mar Novu is not trying to prevent what's going to happen,' Oliver finished for her. 'Because he's gonna be what causes it.' Just then we heard footsteps as Talia walked into the clearing. 

'You're leaving?' Thea asked. Talia stepped forward to face them. 

'I have betrayed my honour and the sacred traditions of the League,' Talia replied briefly. 'The sword was destined to be yours, daughter of Merlyn. I am sorry for the pain I caused the three of you.' 

'What about your students?' I asked. 

'I have released them. They will follow you if that is what you wish,' she replied, her last statement being directed towards Thea. 

'It's not,' Thea said. 'You're their teacher. They need someone to follow.' 

'If I was meant to lead them, I would wield Al-Fatih's sword, but you do, so the honour and the burden are yours.'