Sanctuary Secrets Sacrifice

The Illusionist

"Life and death are illusions.

We are in a constant state of transformation."

-Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

There was an alarm blaring relentlessly as she walked down the halls of the prison whistling the tune of a song she's been trying to figure out the name of all day. The doors of all the cells were opened, and she had to step over the bodies of prison guards who looked as if they'd been stabbed. There was no time to verify if they were dead or not and frankly at the moment, she didn't care. They didn't matter. Only one thing mattered. Damien Darhk was going to die today. She knew it the moment she felt the energy of the idol moving. It ended up here. She was walking toward it at this very moment actually, still whistling that damn song and it was annoying her that she couldn't figure out the name.

There was commotion from up ahead. Someone was fighting. Suddenly two prisoners came running down the hall in her direction. She didn't stop, but they did. For some reason they thought seeing the woman all alone was a sign of good luck for them. They began walking toward her, one of them attempted to grab her, but instead his buddy suddenly grabbed him by the neck and twisted it in one swoop. He looked down to the dead man unsure why he would do such a thing. His eyes looked back up to the woman who continued walking as if she didn't just witness him murder his friend in front of her. It was then that he knew there was something not right about the woman and he wasn't going to try to figure it out. He went running to figure out a way out of there.

She felt the power of the idol getting stronger, and a smile broke out on her face. She thought for sure Malcolm would've warned the man. Maybe he did, and Darhk didn't think anything of it. She turned, stepping inside a room in time to see Darhk standing in front of the Black Canary an arrow in his hand.

"Oh, yeah. I want you to give your father a message from me." Darhk spoke as the Green Arrow, Speedy and Spartan stood unable to move to stop him. "I want you to tell him-" he pulled back the arrow about to stab her and for some reason beyond reality, the arrow wouldn't move. He tried to jerk it forward, to stab her, but it didn't work. He looked over to the arrow before looking around the room and that's when he saw her and he began to laugh. "Katherine, are you doing this?" at the mention of his wife's name, the Green Arrow tried to turn, but Darhk's magic was too strong.

"What? Wow. Fancy see you all here. I just thought I'd go for a stroll inside the jail. Small world running into all of you here." she walked forward, placing herself beside Oliver, bumping his arm, and releasing him from Darhk's magic. Oliver quickly picked up his bow and prepared to shoot, but he didn't expect for her to move to block him.

"Remember what I said. You don't get in my way and I won't get in yours. Get you and your people out of here. You've had your chance to stop him, now it's my turn."

"I'm not leaving you here!" he snapped angrily and for the first time this moment seemed familiar. It felt like something his wife would do, and he would love to stop and take that in, but right now there was no time. "I'm not-"

It happened too quickly. He wasn't paying attention, but he should've been paying attention. But she appeared and as always his attention was focused on her, when it should've been focused on the man behind her. Darhk used the distraction to his advantage as he tore himself from the spell, and jerked the arrow through Katie's back and out her chest. Oliver's eyes widen as he looked at the arrow pertruding from It's...her...his wife's chest. She glanced down to look to the arrow before looking up to meet Oliver's wide eyes as blood spilled out of her mouth.

"No." Oliver's voice cracked as he watched Katie fall down to her knees. He ran, this time not able to catch her before she hit to floor. He did grab her the moment she was close to him cradling her in his arms. "Hey, you're going to be ok." Damien stood above the couple staring down to the woman now bleeding from her mouth and chest with a tilted head. He expected this moment to feel different. He expected to feel different. He smiled and glanced back to his idol figuring those foolish feelings that tied him to the woman in front of him were no more.