Fandomweekly Challenge 142 - Unholy alliances

[m_findlow]

Title: Unholy alliances
Fandom: Arrow

Characters: TH

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,000 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 141 - Inspiration at fandomweekly

Summary: Thea wants to help her brother but it means they need to work together with someone they both consider dangerous.

Oliver fingered the sharp edge of the arrow point as he pondered what to do. He'd been down here for hours without coming up with any brilliant ideas when he heard Thea's voice calling to him.

'Hello? Super not as secret as he'd like lair of the Green Arrow? Anybody home?'

He smirked at his sister's humorous attempts. 'Over here,' Oliver called out.

Thea emerged from the shadows. 'Are you brooding down here alone these days? Hasn't Felicity written up a computer program yet that can do that so that you don't have to?'

'Strategising,' he told her. 'It's called strategising.'

She leaned her hip against the table and folded her arms as she considered him. 'On…'

'How I'm going to defeat Ra's.'

'Oh, that old thing,' she teased. 'Come up with anything foolproof that won't get you killed? Again?'

He pursed his lips, not wanting to be annoyed with her when she'd come down here to check up on him and was trying to keep things lighthearted. 'It's a work in progress.'

She nodded in understanding. 'About that… It's kinda why I'm here. I was talking with Malcolm.'

Oliver's head shot up at the name, his face hardening with anger. 'You've been talking with Malcolm?'

'Well, not so much talking as he turns up unannounced at my place and reminds me that he supposedly loves me. That's not the point. The point is I think you need his help. I could, you know, smooth things over between you two…'

'And I told you not to get involved with him.'

Thea gave him her sardonic eye roll. 'Oh, yeah. You're just going to hop on an American Airlines flight direct to Nanda Parbat, knock on the door and say "Hi Malcolm, just wondering if you could show me some mad fighting skills so that Ra's al Ghul doesn't totally kick my butt."

Oliver walked past her, focused on carrying his latest batch of titanium arrows over to the weapons store so that he didn't have to meet her eye. 'I don't need Malcolm's help.'

Thea prevented him from brushing her off by stepping across his path. 'Pretty sure you do. I mean, unless you think Nyssa is just going to tell you how to beat him. I don't think she's so opposed to marrying you that she'd want you to kill her father.'

Oliver could scarcely keep the impatience from his voice now. 'I don't want you getting involved,' he reiterated.

Thea's head cocked sideways as she focused her stare directly into his own. 'Too late for that, don't you think?'

Oliver tried to tear himself away from that defiant gaze, turning his back on her. 'You should never have gotten tangled up in this.'

'Yeah, well, I am. I could say the same for you. You shouldn't be here either but I can't change the fact that Mom was in on the plan to capsize the Queen's Gambit that left you stranded on an island for five years, any more than you can change the fact that I have a deep seated need to kill as a result of being resurrected in that Lazarus pit. Mom and Malcolm weren't exactly what you'd call parents of the year, so here we are.'

Oliver hated to admit that Thea was right in some respects. He had in fact considered leaning on Malcolm, but for intelligence only, and knowing that he wouldn't play ball, which made the whole argument a moot point. 'I can handle Malcolm.'

Thea snorted. 'Yeah right. Malcolm doesn't do anything that doesn't directly benefit him. Unless…'

Oliver's head shook slowly. 'Speedy, no.'

She grabbed at his arm, forcing him to turn back and face her. 'C'mon, Ollie. He'll do it for me. Much as I hate to say it, I'm probably the only person he'd go selfless for. All I have to do is ask. It's not like it's rocket science.'

It was Oliver's turn to snort. 'Yeah, like when you were dying and he refused to surrender to Ra's al Ghul to save you. It's too risky.'

'Yeah, and cause going to battle Ra's now, isn't? He trained Malcolm. Malcolm trained me. He knows how Ra's thinks. How else has he stayed alive this long?' She looked down at her feet. 'And you know… he's actually a pretty good teacher. League of Assassins, remember?'

Oliver shook his head in amused disbelief. 'Look at you, singing Malcolm's praises.'

She punched his arm and it hurt. 'Just remember he owes you. We rescued him from Nanda Parbat. He'd been dead if it wasn't for you.'

He didn't think Malcolm would welcome being reminded of that, but Thea made a point. None of them liked Ra's. None of them were truly safe whilst he lived. 'Malcolm lost a hand thanks to me,' Oliver said, reminding Thea that he'd bested the former League of Assassins murderer.

Thea gave him a skeptical look. 'I'm pretty sure he kicked your butt once or twice, too.'

Oliver was taken aback by Thea's words. 'You're defending him?'

'Not defending, just… putting things into perspective.'

Oliver chewed the inside of his lip. It kept coming back to the same thing. No one knew Ra's better apart from his own daughter and getting Nyssa to help him was even more impossible than getting Malcolm to aid him in his preparations. Ra's had bested him in hand to hand combat once before. He doubted he'd survive a second attempt. 'If I agree to this, and I mean, only if…'

Thea laid a hand on his shoulder. 'Be serious. What other alternatives do we actually have? Us. Brother and sister. A team. Working together. To defeat Ra's al Ghul once and for all.'

'With Malcolm,' Oliver reminded her, his disparaging tone made perfectly clear.

There was a pained sigh. 'Yeah, and my pain in the ass, pretend-actual dad. Urgh, how did our lives get this complicated?'

'Parents of the year.'

Thea groaned again. 'Yeah, parents of the freaking year.'