New Limits || Barry Allen [1]

31| Until Next Time

***

Sarab handed me a bow and a quiver full of black arrows once I was in uniform. I felt sick just having this on myself after I swore never to wear it again. "We must go, Ra's must not be kept waiting." He said as he began to walk off. I quickly caught up with him and matched his pace.

There was something about him and the way he carried himself that had me curious. "Why Sarab?" I asked wanting to know the meaning behind his name.

"It means..."

"Ghost." I said before he could finish. "I know, but why?"

"Because I am merely a ghost of my former self." He simply replied.

"When I was younger I would see many men and women like you coming to Ra's seeking release from their pain." I told him, mostly remembering the day Merlyn came to Nanda Parbat.  Remembering his pain and his kindness, the seeing that kindness be burned away. "Pain caused by loosing someone that they loved, who did you loose?"

"With respect, I choose not to answer." Sarab said not meeting my eyes.

"I understand." 

"You are not as Ra's has written you to be." He said as he stopped a few feet away from the entrance of the warehouse.

"Maybe you shouldn't believe everything that Ra's says." I replied, wondering what image Ra'a has painted of me. "What have you been told?"

"The League knows the story of how Artemis al Ghul."

"That's not what I go by anymore." I said looking away, still affected by the weight that came with my real name.

"That's right you are now Diane Crock." Sarab said with a small bow. "And we were told the story of how your mother Al Namira forced you out of the League." I was surprised that the real story was covered up, instead of having me killed, yet I couldn't really complain. "Come we must go."

Sarab led to to a room where Ra's was facing a wall full of a variety of deadly blades from all over the world. Once I was a few steps away from him I quickly kneeled down, my heart felt like it was at the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes as I looked down silently waiting for what my fate would be for never returning to Nanda Parbat. Suddenly I heard the sound of a blade scraping against metal telling me that one was being removed from the wall in front of my.

I felt the cold tip of the blade touch my chin as it was slowly used to lift my head up, I opened my eyes to meet those of a furious Ra's Al Ghul. "I should kill you for you're acts against The League." He said slowly as he continued to raise the blade forcing to stand up, or else I would be dead. "Do I have to remind you of who you are?"

"Of course not." I said, careful with my words because one wrong word and he would kill me himself. "I am Artemis Al Ghul third heir to the Demon."

"And as such you have broken many of the codes sacred to the League which makes you unfit of such a title." He told me as he removed the blade from my chin and used it to lift a strand of my blonde hair, disapproval clear in his eyes. "However, you are still the only one worthy of such a title."

He circled around me once with his hands behind his back, as I straightened myself and lifted my head. "I'm sorry father for having disappointed you." I said softly when he once agin stopped in front of me.