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"Ta-er al-sahfer, we have been given an assignment." Nyssa told Sara, walking in to their chambers.
"We just got back two hours ago." Sara protested. "And before that we were only here for a day between missions last time."
"I have negotiated with my father, and he is allowing us a week before returning after we complete our assignment." Nyssa informed her, walking towards her girlfriend.
"I love you." Sara said, kissing her with a smile.
"As do I, Beloved." The dark-haired woman smiled when their kiss broke.
"So what are we dealing with?" Sara asked. "And when do we leave."
"We depart in three hours for England to dismantle a child smuggling ring." She informed her.
"Sounds fun." Said Sara, walking off.
"Where are you going?" Nyssa called after her.
"I need a shower before we leave. Care to join me?" She offered. Nyssa hesitated for a moment before quickly following after her.
------
They followed the man expected of running the organisation to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere around an hours drive from Bristol. Sara spent the entire time swapping between the radio and the various CDs that had been in the car they 'borrowed'.
"It appears that we have arrived." Nyssa told Sara when the van they had been tailing came to a stop.
"Then pull over and we'll walk the rest of the way." Sara suggested. "He probably already knows that someone is following him."
"I was going to drive past to the farm that appears to be for sale just beyond." She replied. "That way if he did notice us, there will be a reasonable explanation."
"You're smart." Sara smiled, leaning over and kissing her.
Once they parked and made a point of walking around the front of the farm and then into the large barn. From then it was surveillance of the unloading of the van. The man had obviously noticed there was someone around and hadn't unloaded it just in case they saw. The sight that greeted the pair in the barn was of a pair of unconscious girls being untied and unloaded from the back. The youngest was a small blonde who looked no older than about two. The older of the pair only looked around three, but was clearly the sister of the other.
"We have to get those kids out of there." Said Sara a while later. "And kill the bastards who took them from their families."
"We have no idea how many people are in there. Or how many children." Nyssa pointed out.
"Please, you could probably take them all out with one arm tied behind your back and no weapons." Sara said. "They're going to be the type of criminal who hide behind a gun."
"You are not going to relent until we go in are you?" Nyssa realised.
"They're little kids, Nys. They need to be at home with their families." Sara said.
"Sara, we can not go in blind." Nyssa protested.
"No one has gone in apart from those two when we first arrived almost an hour. It's probably safe to assume that there are at least a few extra guarding any other kids, but not many otherwise we would have seen some leave, since it's got dark." Sara told her. "Based on most buildings like this we've taken before, there are probably four exits, and the kids are going to be in a room with no windows on the second floor."
"Impressive. But are you willing to put it to the test?" She asked.
"I'd put our week off in one of the nice safe houses on it." Sara gambled.
"Very well." Nyssa replied.
------
They entered through one of the doors on the ground floor, still in their civilian clothes and each concealing a few knives on their person.
"Go and find the children." Nyssa ordered. "I will find the men and any paper trails or computer." Sara nodded and they split off.
It wasn't long before Sara heard a baby sobbing and a man's muffled yelling, which she followed to a room with the door ajar. She peeked in and saw a pile of children huddled on a bed in the back corner with a giant of a man stood over them screaming profanities and waving a gun at them. The oldest child couldn't have been more than five and Sara could see at least two infants, neither of which were the one that was crying. She made the split-second choice to go in, kicking the door open. The sound of the door hitting the back wall made the man turn around and run at her. It wasn't a long fight, before Sara got the upper hand and stabbed him with a small knife she had lifted out of his pocket. The kids were all in shock, cuddling even closer together.
"It's okay." She promised them, taking off her hood. "I'm here to get you out. I'm Sara."
One of the older children, a young boy, stepped forwards. "Kitty's hurt." He told her.
"Okay, is she the only one?" Sara asked. The boy shook his head. "If you're hurt, stay where you are and I'll try and help, if not go to the bed over there." The children did as they were told and Sara saw just how many there were. There were fourteen, six of which couldn't have been old enough to have started talking.
Only three of them were hurt, the little girl called Kitty being the worst of them. The little boy, who turned out to be her twin brother told Sara that she had taken a beating for one of the others the day before.
"She has at least three broken ribs and about half of the others are at least bruised." Sara told the kids after she examined the girl. "There isn't much I can do, but stay sat up and try and breathe normally." She ordered, moving on to the next child who had a deep cut on his arm, which she bandaged by tearing a piece of fabric from the bottom of her t-shirt and using that. The last one was a toddler who had been grabbed so hard that she had fractured her wrist.
"Ta-er al-sahfer, have you located the children?" Nyssa called from downstairs.
"In here!" Sara shouted back. "We've got fourteen, three are hurt but only one badly."
Nyssa jogged in and stopped at the body lying on the floor. "Sara make him go night night." One of the young girls offered as an explanation.
"Did she now?" Asked Nyssa.
"We need to call someone to come and get them." Sara said, standing up and walking over to the tall brunette.
"I have already informed the authorities of the situation and they are on their way." Nyssa told her. "It is fortunate that we are already in civilian clothing."
The police were there less than half an hour later, asking questions to the pair of women.
"We were just looking in to buying the farm next door when we heard a baby crying and a gun shot and we just had to come check the poor little soul was okay." Sara told him. "Then I came up here and saw these little kids and that man just attacked me and I grabbed his knife off of him and got a lucky shot I guess. I checked the kids over, I was a med student until I dropped out of college."
"Are any of them hurt?" The officer asked.
"Yeah, the little girl called Kitty has taken a beating to the chest and I'd say half her ribs are bruised or broken, the little boy called Ethan has a nasty cut on his arm and poor little Sophie was grabbed so hard she fractured her wrist." Sara told him.
"We're going to have to take them back in groups, are you alright to stay with them?" The officer asked. "There will be officers downstairs looking through the office, but the kids need someone they can trust right now and they seem to like you two."
"Of course." Replied Nyssa.
"Yeah, we completely understand." Sara added.
"Strictly between us, there are only twelve missing child profiles for this age group over the whole of the south west." The officer told the girls. "Some of them may have to go into foster care."
------
The last two children left were both infants, a boy and a girl. Sara was holding the girl and Nyssa was holding the boy.
"Do you think we could take them if they don't have anywhere to go?" Sara asked, rocking the sleeping baby.
"Sara." Nyssa replied. "You know the life we lead does not accommodate for a child."
"I know, but you would be an amazing mom. Plus, you look really hot holding him." Sara sighed.
"I would like to have a child with you beloved, but we cannot while my father controls us." Nyssa said firmly.
"So let's run away, start a life together, get married and have a kid. I want a life with you Nyssa." Sara begged. "I love you."
"I love you too Sara, but I cannot renounce my title and my father would never allow us to leave peacefully." Nyssa reminded her. "You are aware of the fragility of my position."
"I know, but just think how great it would be. We could runaway and settle down near Starling, use new names and have a family. We could be the parents you always wanted." She tried.
"What would we call these hypothetical children?" Nyssa humoured her.
"We'd name the girl after our moms. Dinah Amina, but we'd call her Amy. We could name the boy after my dad or just pick a nice name we both like. You would be the good mom and I would be the fun one." Sara told her, like she had thought about the subject before.
"I am not naming my child the same as your mother and sister. There are already two Dinah Lances in one family." Nyssa objected.
"Fine, so just Amina. We could open a martial arts studio and teach people to fight. We could have a little house on a street near a good school that does block parties and have that I promise I'm not just pretending to like you relationship with our neighbours." Sara offered.
"That sounds wonderfully peaceful Sara." The taller woman agreed.
"It's the life I always thought I didn't want until I met you." Sara smiled. They had somehow migrated to be right next to each other over the span of the conversation. Nyssa placed her free hand to Sara's cheek, a touch which the other woman leaned into.
------
It took a few hours, but the families of the last two children were found on opposite ends of the country. The pair of female assassins gave mostly false statements and false names and asked to remain anonymous before leaving the country the next day. They stopped off at a small cottage, a safe house of one of the more senior league members, in the south of France for their week off before making their way home to Nanda Parbat.
------
It was around a month later when news reached the fortress of Malcolm Merlyn's undertaking. Nyssa had been the one to tell Sara, barely able to read the expressions on the blonde woman's face upon hearing the news. Sara left that night when Nyssa fell asleep, with only a small bag containing enough food and water for a week and a few changes of clothes. She kissed the heir to the demon softly on the forehead and whispered apologies before she snuck out with the group going on patrol.
When Nyssa awoke the next morning without Sara by her side, she immediately knew what had happened and cried for the first time since she was a child.