Chapter Text
There is a child sitting in the middle of the Courts meeting room. One leg pulled up to his chest, the other resting on the decapitated head of a Talon, the body right beside it. He is wiping the blood coating his knife off with his clothes. Black blood, not the deep red that seeps from everyone else. The same Talon uniform all the others wear, just smaller, tailored for a teenager. A plethora of knives wrapped around his front and legs. Bruce looks from the boy to the carnage of bodies surrounding them, all beheaded and burnt. The only way to kill a Talon. Bruce steps forward, intentionally making his steps heavy against the floor, they echo across the pristine, white room.
The boy raises his head at the sound, a pair of circular yellow goggles cover his face. He slides them off slowly, over his hair, and Bruce is met with bright, golden eyes piercing through him. No pupils, just gold through and through. His face a white hue, no natural flush to his skin, just black veins running up and down. Some make it to the corner of his eyes, up into his hairline. The boy cannot be older than fourteen, maybe younger.
The boy, the Talon, cocks his head to the side, reminiscent of a bird. "You are Bruce Wayne," he says with a raspy voice, torn, not a whisper but not loud enough to be considered anything else. He holds Bruces gaze before going back down to cleaning his knife, "You were on the list."
Bruce continues to observe him, the hand on his weapon at his side moves away. "The list?" he questions. The Talon looks up again, blinks, blinks again.
"The list. Your death day was to be tomorrow," he states.
Ah. The list of upper Gotham elite that were not loyal to the court. They had been getting murdered throughout the last month.Bruce had been wondering when a talon would come from his head. Perhaps he is meeting that very Talon now. "Are you going to kill me, then?"
The Talon stares Bruce down, without needing to blink the normal amount and without any pupils, it looks like he's staring right through Bruce. He moves his head around the room, at the slaughtered talons surrounding him, he kicks at the head beneath his foot, it rolls away slowly. "No," he says coldly. Then, "where is the Grandmaster?"
"Captured, soon to be killed," Bruce admits. It had been easier than expected, the Grandmaster not used to fighting his own battels, just a figure head in the end. Taken out by his own cowardliness.
The boys head snaps up again, yellow eyes wide, then they settle. "Take me to him," he demands, standing up and placing the knife at his belt.
Bruce does. He leads the Talon out the door and down the hall, to where the Grandmaster, a mere human, is pinned to the floor by two knives stabbed through his hands, a rag tied over his mouth. The Talon bends down to his level, tilts his head to the side once again.
"Would you like to kill him?" Bruce offers.
The Talon doesn’t move, just leans in closer to the Grandmaster, who is whimpering behind the cloth. Talon takes a knife from his belt and delicately drags it across the Grandmasters neck, mocking him. "You made me into this," he says to the man, dragging his blade a bit harder into the skin.
"Said I was special, said I would be your 'greatest weapon', said it was my 'birthright'," he leans in closer, face just barely inches from the mans, "you killed me once. Then again. Over and over." the blade draws blood, red this time. Mortal. "This is a more merciful a death than you deserve" and then Talon moves quickly, slashes the mans throat with a movement Bruce is barely able to catch. Blood pours from the wound. The man chokes on it, old eyes wide and scared.
The Talon watches. "You will regret making me," he nearly growls out, and then, in another swift movement, he cuts off the Grandmaster head. Silence. The Talon stands again, the knife gripped in his hand. He kicks the head down the stairwell next to them. Bruce hears it tumble down. He turns to look up at Bruce. "I will not take another Master," he declares.
Bruce raises his eyebrows."I did not intended on making you do so," he turns to start walking away but stops just a few paces before the exit. "If you wish, you could come with me. I think there is much to discuss." he begins walking again, but does hear the sound very light footsteps following him.
Bruce smiles.