Watching as the group of assassins retreated, Batman's tension eased up a little. They had been up a creek and Batman was well aware of the unamused stare his first son was giving him.
It might have been controlled impulse that led him on a chase against Lady Shiva and Deathstroke but what he did not expect was that man, David Cain's presence.
He had back up of course, but that did not mean that the situation hadn't escalated into something that had been out of his ability to control.
"Well that happened." Nightwing remarked as the five figures were completely out of sight.
"Hrn." Batman grunted. He was not too happy.
Nightwing scoffed. "That'll teach you not to fly off into a fit of whatever this is." His response was a glare, but once again, it was rendered ineffective.
As if on cue, both of them turned to their new stranger. A young girl. Nightwing's trauma senses were already going off when he saw the utterly blank look on her face that was yet to take on a hint of expression.
Before Batman could get a word out, Nightwing drifted to her front with a disarming smile on her face.
"Hey, sooo we're kind of out of the loop right here, mind helping us out? I'm Nightwing, and big and dark over there is Batman. What's your name?"
"Raven." She answered, somehow making the smile on Nightwing's face grow softer.
"Glad we got that out of the way." His voice grew lower at the end of his sentence and his eyes couldn't help but trail where the assassins had disappeared to. "Who was that with you, and do you know why those assassins were after you guys?"
She fell silent for a moment, one they both could read as hesitation, before replying. "I don't really know. They were after Taro, not me."
"Taro? Your dad?" She shook her head. Batman decided to step in at that moment.
"If the League is after this Taro, then he is either dangerous or something he knows is dangerous. What do you know about him?"
This time she didn't hesitate. "He can fight."
That information however didn't mean much to the heroes. The League of Assassins, not to mention Ra's strongest hit squad, wouldn't just go after someone who could fight. Technically, everyone member of the League could fight. It made more sense that Ra's was after something else. Something that was tied to the man named Taro, or maybe the girl, Batman summarised.
"How long have you known him?" he pressed on.
"Come on, chill on the pressure for a bit." Nightwing threw his predecessor a disapproving look. He would have said more had Raven not easily given them another answer.
"A few weeks ago. He killed some demons who were trying to abduct me."
".... Oh. Wasn't expecting that." Nightwing looked at Batman. "Guess that answers one of our questions."
"Let's leave. We'll ask more questions on the way."
Throwing a last look at where Lady Shiva and her cohort left in, Batman guided Raven and Nightwing to the Batwing and locked on the coordinates of the Hall of Justice. He wasn't foolish to bring someone not personally vetted to the Batcave.
Their destination turned out to be accurate when Raven spontaneously dropped a bombshell enroute.
"I need your help." She had started.
Nightwing eyed her carefully. "Our help as in, personal favour or..."
"The heroes." Raven corrected unperturbed. "Something is coming, and if we... I fail to stop it, the whole mortal plane as we know it will be gone."
".... Huh. Impending apocalypse was not what I was expecting. What year is it again?"
"What does this have to do with the dark sorcerers that have been running around Gotham?" Batman asked. The tone of his voice stating that he was almost certain Raven knew what he was talking about, and she did, so she did not bother denying it. There was no point.
"They are the deranged worshippers of the demon they are trying to summon into his dimension." She replied.
"And how do you factor into all this?"
She did not flinch even when faced with the suspicious stare of the Batman. She had stared down far worse than the hard look of a masked man.
She replied evenly in that bland tone of hers. "Because that demon is my father. And I'm the key to his descent."
The two heroes traded looks with hers, one completely neutral but laced with suspicion while the other contemplative but slightly fed up.
Batman said nothing and simply sent a silent hail to the Hall of Justice to prepare for a meeting. He'll have to send a call to the magic contacts he had, just in case. One could never be too careful when dealing with mystical problems, he'd learned that the stubborn way.
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....
.
The five of them, Talia, Lady Shiva, Deathstroke, David Cain and Taro, were on a plane, having left the island a few minutes after Batman did. A few tense minutes where the four assassins watched him with intense focus in case he reneged on the agreement and fought them to escape.
Well, three of them were watching him intently while Lady Shiva procured a steaming teapot from somewhere and poured him a cup.
He ignored the caution the rest threw at him, specifically in Deathstroke and Cain's case, and simply took the cup with a nod of thanks and drank its content.
"I don't know if it's guts or foolishness, but I sure as hell won't drink her tea immediately after fighting her." Deathstroke said as he watched Taro drink the tea without even caring if it was poisoned.
"If it was up to me, I'd have put a bullet in your head." The grey haired older man, David Cain said from the side where he kept a thin eye of Taro.
"You couldn't. Not even if I let you." Taro said after finishing his tea and giving Lady Shiva another nod of thanks.
"You want to stake your life on it?" The cold hitman dared.
Taro finally turned to look at him, cold apathetic eyes dim behind his glasses. "I do. Do you?"
The plane suddenly felt too tight as the two men stared at each other, while Deathstroke and Talia slowly reached for their weapons. Their memories of fighting Taro were still fresh in their minds, the latter more so than the former.
Taro sighed. It was easy to see that he was feeling less than hospitable at this moment and it was what was putting everyone on edge, except for Lady Shiva it seems.
'Well she's too abnormal.' Taro thought. He might not look it to the others but he was on edge. Not from them though, but from what would happen when they landed.
And not once, his mind went to Raven who he had sent on the way with the heroes. While he was still concerned about her wellbeing, or just concerned in general, she was in a better situation than following him to the heart of the League of Assassins.
"We should have taken the girl with us. Along with the Bat. I doubt you'd have this kind of chance again."
Off to the side, Deathstroke remarked. "I wasn't paid to get rid of the Bat. And like it or not, our chances of taking both the girl and getting rid of dear ol' bats were even at most."
His eyes trailed to Taro as he said so. Talia who had been silent from the beginning finally decided to speak.
"Why did you let her go with them?"
Taro gave a deadpan raised brow at her question but she kept staring at him, clearly expecting an answer but unfortunately wasn't going to get one.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Taro still felt awkward around her and didn't know how to act around her.
"Your efforts are in vain. My father wants her, that means he's going to get her. She's no doubt important enough for you to trade your surrender for her freedom."
What she said was indeed true. But still it is better this way. He wouldn't bring her anywhere close to Ra's and he intends to make it remain that way.
"How did you find us so fast?" He asked instead, more interested in this little tidbit than anything else.
"You mean after the whole fake scenario thing?" Deathstroke said with a laugh. "That's a new one, I'll admit. I have never seen such a genuine fake scene and it had thrown us off for a good thirteen hours, but then we got some nice help before we lost you forever."
Talia interjected. "You are asking about how we found the building so quickly in the first place, are you not?"
Taro nodded.
Talia crossed her arms and wore a frosty look on her face. "It would have indeed been troublesome had we been looking for you in your former form. Your current state made it easier. A few eyes saw you leaving Gotham."
"Ah..." Well, it couldn't be helped if that was the case. And she could have said it all without letting that disgust roll off her tongue.
"You have been awfully silent, Wu-San."
Lady Shiva raised her eyes from behind her cup and carefully studied Taro. It was more as if she was surgically dissecting his words.
"I have nothing of importance to speak of. We'll talk after you meet Ra's." Her curt words were delivered loud and clear as she went back to her tea.
With nothing else to do, Taro relaxed into the chair with his eyes closed, ignoring the soft unsheathing of blades around him as he prodded himself to a short sleep.
.
....
.
The air on the island felt the same as it did when he left.
Stepping back on the island, whatever feeling Taro suspected it would evoke were not to be found. Clearly he had grown over it.
A few guards led them into the ancient palace where Ra's resided. Even the air here felt no different than what he remembered.
Somewhere along the way, Deathstroke and David Cain had left the group and just before they got to Ra's, Lady Shiva and Talia pulled away from the guards leading Taro, and led him to the point where he alone was standing before a slightly ajar door.
"Do not stand on ceremony. I have been kept waiting for quite some time." A voice came from behind the door.
Walking into the dim lit room, Taro's eyes immediately locked into the figure of the Demon Head who stood leaning against a balcony.
He looked slightly older than Taro but younger than David with small tufts of grey staining his stark black hair. The overall stature looked unassuming but that notion was immediately thrown away when you looked at his eyes.
They were almost like an eagle's. Cold. Assessing. Striking. It was the eyes of a seasoned killer.
Having lived more than most men could dream, Ra's al Ghul was a figure clad in both history, experience and death.
In front of this stout figure, Taro looked unimpressed with his head tilted to the side in a lazy rest.
"Ra's." Very few could speak his name as casually as Taro did and the man himself took it in stride.
Taro had more than earned the right to call him that casually.
"Taro. Sakamoto." Ra's moved away from the balcony and stepped into the room. "How long has it been?"
"Thirteen years. Give or take."
Ra's smiled. A genial thing that no doubt would have unsettled all who saw it.
"Right." He nodded as if counting the time. "Over a decade since you spat on my grace and walked away without speaking a word to me."
Taro remained silent, watching Ra's every move as the way older man walked around the room with the measured pace of someone who owned it.
"Tell me, Taro. What is it that we do to deserters? You were once an enforcer, so surely you remember?"
"Death by a hundred cuts. To be carried over and over for however long they live. However, they'll be pardoned if they survive a thousand cuts." Taro replied. He removed his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt before propping them back on.
Ra's tapped the arch of a fireplace. "Death of a hundred cuts. Redemption of a thousand cuts. You remember well."
Taro shrugged. "You can't forget something that descriptive."
There was no humour in Ra's gaze as he looked upon Taro, tentatively tapping on the arch. "And tell me, why are you not under execution?"
"You tell me. Why am I not under execution?" Taro asked in turn.
Ra's hummed to himself and turned around to pick up one of the pokers that was burning red at its tip.
He brought it to his face, turning it to get a good look at all its side, and hummed in approval.
"You broke my trust, Taro." He stated. "I found you, brought you to my home, taught you until I could no longer, honed your talents and directed your purpose. All for what? For you to throw away and abandon everything I gave you."
Taro remained silent.
"I brought you up and wrapped my cloak on your shoulders, the same way I would a son." Ra's spoke calmly, staring deep into searing red poker. "I treated you like a father would a son. I provided all you could have asked for, even before you did. And you left....without even speaking to me. You disappoint me."
Taro breathed out. It wasn't that simple. "It wasn't that simple."
"Then you come to me, and I would have made it very simple for you." Ra's cut in sharply. The barest hint of anger could be heard in his voice.
"I raised you to one day be my heir. To be truly known as my son, and what did you do? You walked away from everything I taught you. I will ask you this one question: Was it worth it?"
"Yes." Taro said without hesitation. "Everything was worth it." He repeated again for good measure.
"What do you want from me, Ra's?" Taro asked without any trace of his previous frivolity.
"Everything has a price, Taro, I taught you that." Ra's answered slowly. He returned the dimming glow of the poker to the fire and held it there. "I called you back here to ask for my recompense."
"And what would that be?"
"Something of equal measure." Ra's replied evenly as he slowly turned the poker in his hand. "I once looked upon you as my child, Taro, and since you betrayed that, I'll take that which you look upon as a child."
Ra's turned to look at him with his eyes thinned into dots, like a predator stalking around a daring prey.
"I heard you were with a girl. I'll take her as mine and then you'll be free to leave. I can only see it as fair compensation."
Ra's eyes widened for an instant as the poker in his hands was suddenly grabbed by Taro with such strength that he couldn't move it.
"I'll warn you only once, Ra's. Go near her and I'll kill you." Instead of buckling under the pressure Taro was currently exerting, Ra's smiled.
"Good. Do that and be the next Demon Head. If that girl is what it'll take then so be it." He was totally unfazed as he stared Taro straight in the eye.
The two of them continued staring at each other, Ra's with a wicked smile on his face while Taro had on a frowning visage.
Briefly, Taro considered just killing Ra's al Ghul and getting done with it but couldn't put out the intention. It wasn't about his past as a favoured assassin under Ra's grace. Those sentiments were long gone.
The two of them separated at the same time, Ra's rubbing his wrists while Taro folded his hands.
"If you have nothing else to say then I'll be leaving." Taro turned around to leave but Ra's voice filtered into his ears.
"I'll be seeing you soon, Assassin." The door closed behind him. Just a few minutes and he was already fed up with this place. He saw no guards by the door and couldn't help but shake his head. A subtle play. One that was designed to not make him feel like a guest in a place he was once familiar with.
"I'll be leaving soon." He said to himself. Thoughts of Raven kept flashing into his head and despite what his calm exterior might profess, he was a bit worried about her. It was a feeling he was getting slowly used to after a few weeks, and he couldn't say he hated it.
The few assassins he saw on his way dutifully ignored his presence and he in turn let them be. He wandered aimlessly, well not exactly, until he came to a very familiar door.
"Your projectiles are too stiff in their flight path. Predictable. Make it less so."
"Yes sir."
The thought came to him as he reached for the door, and behind those thoughts were the whispers of certainty.
She'll be there.
The doors slightly creaked open and he could already hear the sharp swishes of a blade cutting through the air, but for some reason it sounded, not amateurish, but slightly unrefined.
He pushed the doors open and he heard the swishes again, but this time the sound was stretching towards him.
He tilted his head and the thrown blade embedded itself into the door.
"Speak. Who are you and what are you doing in my private halls? Speak no lies or I'll have your tongue."
It was a kid. A young boy that was probably below ten years old. Well, the eyes and the sharp words definitely didn't belong to that body.
A few things the child said stood out to Taro but he didn't dwell on them and instead noted the changes that now filled the hall. It wasn't as bare as it had once been.
Swish.
He absentmindedly moved his head and dodged another rude knife from the irate child.
"This will be the last time you ignore my words. Answer me; who are you, and what are you doing in my private halls?"
The sharp teetering voice of the child brought him out of his reminiscing and when his eyes fell back on the child, he couldn't help but think inwardly.
"Who are you, kid?"
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