Elena wakes with a gasp, already freezing, the snow she landed in having seeped into her clothing and her skin, her entire body feels like it's been frozen from the inside out. She rubs her chest and arms trying to stimulate some warmth but finds none, her eyes scan over her surroundings, she's in the mountains somewhere, but where is the question, the monastery is atop one of them. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath of mountain air before gaining back her determination. She pushes herself to her fee and starts to stumble her way through the snow. 

...................

Four days later: Elena approaches a field of the blue poppies at the base of the Himalayas, she picks one and studies its brilliant blue in the cold sunshine. She looks around and shivers in her clothes. Three nights sleeping in the mountains in the snow and ice have not been kind to her. She's exhausted and freezing.

...............

A few more days later: Elena, struggles through driving snow up an icy ridge, she clears it and then flops down exhausted into the snow, Painfully raises her scarf-wrapped face to the cutting wind to see a monastery perched on jagged rock. She lets out a relieved sound and manages to push herself back to her feet.

.......................

Elena climbs up the steps to the doors of the monastery, unwraps a severely frostbitten fist and pounds against ice covered wood, the knock echoes deep within. Nothing.

"Dinah!!" she yells. "I swear to Kal-El if you've left me on this damn mountain" she threatens weakly and then lowers her forehead to the door, shoulders wrecked by sobs, pounding accelerating to a frenzy. There is a grinding noise from within. Elena stops knocking and straightens up to watch as the door swings open into darkness.

............

Inside Elena shuffles forward into a low-ceiling wooden hall lit by flickering lamps. Hands trembling, Elena pulls at brittle scarf around her neck and mouth. She starts as the doors thud shut behind her.

"Took you long enough" a dark green hooded figure steps out of the shadows, bow slung over his back, Green Arrow; Oliver Queen. Elena glares at him. She wants to kill Dinah right about now and that's pretty much all she cares about, that and food, warmth and real sleep.

"Where is she, Oliver?" she asks teeth chattering. He ignores her, instead moves to stand in front of her, eyes peering out from under his hood.

"Are you ready to begin?" Oliver asks her. Elena looks at Oliver, shaking with hunger and fatigue.

"Ready? I... I can barely..." Oliver kicks her, Elena crashes to the floor.

"Death does not wait for you to be ready..." Oliver reminds her. Elena crawls, gasping. Oliver strikes her in the ribs. "Death is not considerate, or fair. And make no mistake- today, death is your opponent" Oliver turns whips his leg in a fearsome roundhouse kick aimed straight at Elena's neck, but Elena blocks the kick with a lateral movement of her forearm. He stares at Oliver, eyes blazing. Oliver smiles. Elena rises to her feet, and assumes a martial stance. Oliver strikes; Elena blocks and parries, driving her body through pain into a series of fluid, skilled moves. "Tiger Crane... Ju Jitsu..." Oliver smiles. "Skilled. But this is not a dance..." Oliver grapples Elena, brawling biting, energised, messy. "Facing death you learn the truth..." Oliver's head smashes Elena's cheek, she falters. "You are weak..." Oliver smashes Elena in the abdomen. "You are alone..." Oliver slams a punch to Elena's chin, sends her down hard. "And you are afraid..." Oliver crouches at Elena's side. Looks into her glazed eyes. He worries for a moment they have pushed her too far. "Elena?" he asks her, she nods a little. "Come on" he gives in and helps her to her feet, she spins and sweeps out his legs, sending him onto his back, Oliver stares up at her as she stands, tall and strong above him. He blinks as she chuckles. He smiles proud. He and Dinah were among some of the only people allowed around Elena as a child. Bruce was insanely protective of her so only the most trusted were allowed in her life. He can see how far from that little girl she looks right now. "You tricked me" he mumbles accepting her outstretched hand.

"Sorry" she offers, he shakes his head.

"No, that was good" he assures her. "But your enemies won't give in because they feel bad, Elena" he warns. "That worked because I feared we'd pushed you too hard with this.....it won't work again" she nods her understanding. He touches her arms and looks over her. "I didn't get to tell you before; but I am glad you are okay, kiddo" he tells her. "After the Ten Rings..." she nods a little looking down. "The entire League was worried about you"

"Thank you" she offers looking back up. "But I'm trying to put I behind me"

"Don't" he scolds and they share a look, his beginnings as Green Arrow is actually pretty close to hers. "Use it" he offers. "Let it make you stronger" they share a look, she nods. "Bruce said you feel guilty" he adds. "Told us he can see it in you like it was in him" she looks away. "It's Ho Yinsen?" Oliver asks. "The man you spoke about" she nods and follows him as he starts to lead Elena along a screened passage overlooking extraordinary mountains.

"My anger outweighs my guilt" she admits, Oliver opens a door...and leads Elena onto a level stacked with boxes and bottles. Dinah sits ahead of them pouring powders into packets, mixing compounds. Oliver takes a pinch of a powder- throws it down- BANG! Elena flinches, Oliver smiles good-naturedly.

"Advanced techniques of Ninjitsu employ explosive powders" Dinah explains standing.

"As weapons?" Elena asks.

"Or distractions. Theatricality and deception are powerful agents" Oliver answers and hands her a pinch of the powder. "To be a great warrior is not enough. Flesh and blood, however skilled, can be destroyed... you must be more than just a woman in the minds of your opponents" Elena listens to this then tosses the powder- BANG!

..............

Elena and Dinah circle each other on the ice of a frozen lake. Swords poised to strike. Dinah strikes at Elena, who deflects the blow using a black gauntlet, part of her suit, with three scallops (thick, hook-like projections). Dinah skids left, breath steaming, feinting with her sword. Elena steps sideways on the ice, her foot landing on a thin patch which creaks, water bubbling underneath, Elena looks down at it. Oliver stands on the snow at the edge of the lake watching them.

"Mind your surrounding" Oliver shouts. "Always" he adds, Elena strikes, Dinah blocks with her own gauntlet. Elena slips right and flies in with a short thrust, Dinah's arm flips down in a backhand move and catches Elena's sword in one of her scallops.

"Yinsen's death was not your fault..." Dinah tells her as she rotates her arm, wrenching Elena's sword from her grasp, it skids along the ice. "It was Stark's" Dinah adds, Elena looks to her, her jaw tense, she never thought it was Tony's fault either and she knows what Dinah is trying to do. To invoke a reaction. And she gets it. Elena dives at Dinah, swinging at her with the scallops, furious, reckless. Dinah parries with her sword, they lock, noses inches apart, Elena breathing, angry. "Anger does not change that fact"

"Those men had guns!" Elena snaps.

"Would that stop you?" Oliver asks, she looks to him.

"I've had training" she counters.

"The training is nothing. The will to take control is everything" Oliver tells her. "Yinsen sacrificed his life so that you and Stark could live. Do you think he would want you to beat yourself up about what happened to him?" Oliver asks seeing Elena getting upset, but she considers his questions and shifts slightly, her breathing slows, her emotions pulled back from the edge. She's calm now. She and Dinah separate. "That's why you here, that's why you are doing what you are doing, to make sure that what happened to you, to Stark, to Yinsen, never happens again...." Oliver glances to Dinah, they share a look and Dinah moves to attack again, she strikes down at Elena with her sword, Elena blocks the strike with her forearms closed, she slides between Dinah's legs and across the ice to where her sword lies. Grasping her sword Elena spins, sweeping at Dinah's feet, Dinah leaps but Elena catches her foot, brings her down onto the ice, Elena thrusts her sword at Dinah's throat but stops inches from the flesh. Dinah freezes, arms at her side, Elena looks down at Dinah, smiling in triumph.

"Yield" Elena demands, Dinah smiles and shakes her head.

"You haven't beaten me" Dinah argues. "You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke" Dinah taps the ice beneath Elena's feet with her sword- the ice gives way, plunging Elena through the surface.