The Court of Owls
Summary: A badly injured woman washes up on the shores of Titans' Island, leading to an unexpected reunion for Robin, and unearthing a conspiracy that will destroy Jump City, and a revelation of the Grayson family legacy.
"My family legacy doesn't belong to you, do you hear me Court of Owls! I'll be back to destroy all of you!"- Mary Grayson
Chapter One: Keep Me Breathing
Just a little farther, Mary. Just a little farther to freedom.
Mary Grayson swam with what little strength she had.
Have to get out of here, away from them, gotta get help.
She swam, forcing herself to come up for air. She glanced around. She'd made it out of the underground lake and saw it. The ocean. Mary could make out with hazy vision that there was something in the bay, on the formerly empty island that she'd never seen before. A giant tower shaped like a T, she was drawn to it, it was her only option. She didn't know if she'd be able to swim out that far, it was a mile away. The wound in her side was bad, and there were other dangers besides bleeding out.
"I'll have to swim out there, can't go to a hospital. Hope the sharks aren't hungry."
She began swimming, hoping that the blood wouldn't attract the marine predators, so far, she hadn't seen anything, but she was swimming as fast and as hard as she could.
Beast Boy was flying overhead and saw a spot of red in the water. He dove down to investigate, shark attacks happened in the summer and he'd often had to fight off sharks and get bite victims to the ambulance. He could see a woman swimming in a sea of red, he scooped her up, expecting bite marks and injuries, instead, he saw a nasty stab wound.
He began to fly towards the shore.
"No hospitals!" the voice ordered weakly.
Beast Boy couldn't talk to her in his bird form and he reversed direction, heading towards Titans Tower.
Beast Boy landed on the shoreline of Titans Island and he set her down, changing back to his human form. "I really need to take you to the hospital; I'll have Cyborg take you—"
"No hospitals," Mary told him sternly, the expression made him flinch. "I'll take you to our infirmary, but it's not nearly as good as a hospital. It's mainly for us when we get hurt."
He led the woman up to the Tower doors, "Why can't I take you to the hospital?" he asked.
"They'll find me, and kill me."
Beast Boy took her words seriously, people didn't just walk up to the Titans and say they were in danger, any attempt at using those words as a prank was met with stern lectures from Robin.
Mary staggered towards the door, Beast Boy was steadying her. She reached out and placed her hand on the scanner.
"You won't be able to—" Beast Boy protested, after the Terra incident, Cyborg had doubled Titans Tower security by making it so that the door would only open based on Titan DNA. The door wouldn't open for her.
He saw the Tower doors open for them. He led her in. He grabbed his communicator out.
"Dude, I got a lady here, she's hurt really bad, she won't go to a hospital, says people are trying to kill her."
Beast Boy heard Robin's voice on his communicator. "I'm coming down; I'm having Cyborg prep the infirmary. Did she say who she is, or who's trying to kill her?"
"No, not yet dude, but she's really hurt and I can't hold her up much longer." Beast Boy stared at Mary. How could this woman open the Tower doors?
Robin hurried to the elevator and headed down to the bottom floor, this was definitely an emergency. He had to help the woman he found before she died.
Robin saw the elevator doors open and he began shaking. The woman he saw was his own mother.
"Mom, oh God, Mom!" he ran to her immediately, his eyes took in her appearance, pale like a corpse, her neck was definitely intact but there was a stab wound in her side. She was soaked in water.
"Dude, I found her in the ocean!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I should've known it was her, seen her picture in the evidence room."
"She tried to swim here?!" Robin gasped in shock. His mother was alive, how that happened, he'd find out, but right now keeping her alive was his number one priority.
"It's okay Beast Boy, you found her, that's all that matters right now."
Mary suddenly collapsed. She thought she heard a familiar voice from far away.
No, not the drugs, the hallucinations again! Mary felt her head pounding as she clutched her temples.
Robin caught her and helped Beast Boy move her into the elevator.
"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Mary screamed.
"It's okay, Mom, it's okay!" Robin held her tight.
"John? John?" Mary inquired, her mind wasn't right; she was so disoriented and confused.
"No Mom, it's Dick, I'm here, you're going to be all right," Robin reassured her.
The doors opened to the Common Room and Starfire saw Robin and Beast Boy walk in carrying a woman, she and Raven immediately made their way towards the infirmary. Robin helped his mother onto the medical bed and Cyborg inserted an I.V. into her arm.
"Robin, is she—?" Starfire asked.
"Yes, she is, and I don't know how she came back," Robin looked over at Cyborg.
"Rob, I wanna do some tests on her," Cyborg told him.
"It's fine Dick, I want to know what happened to me too," Mary sighed heavily.
"Mrs. Grayson, you'll be fine," Cyborg reassured her.
"Just call me Mary, Mrs. Grayson makes me feel old," she managed to laugh.
"Robin, she will be all right?" Starfire asked, taking his hand.
"I hope so Star, I hope so," Robin replied.
"Who are you friends?" Mary asked.
Robin gestured to his friends in turn, "Victor Stone, he's Cyborg, Garfield Logan, he's Beast Boy, Rachel Roth, she's Raven, and Kori Anders, she's Starfire."
"It's nice to meet you all, Dick, how bad is it?" Mary asked.
"You've been stabbed, you've got lacerations and you're dehydrated, we've been pumping fluids into you," Cyborg explained.
"Mom you said someone was trying to kill you, do you know who it is?" Robin took her hand.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Mary sighed.
"Mom, I've seen stuff a lot of people wouldn't believe, I'll believe you," Dick reassured her.
"Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head."
Robin's face stilled, he knew that rhyme, despite not being a Gotham native, he knew it, the children sang it at Haly's Circus when playing jump rope or other games. His mother never sang it to him, she disliked it, and when he'd asked as a child, she told him, "It's about very bad people Dick."
"Who are they mom?" Robin asked.
"Don't know couldn't see them, all I saw was white masks and fancy, expensive suits. Their assassins, the Talons do all their dirty work. But I remember one of them…was a seven-year-old girl." Mary visibly shuddered. "They think all of this is some big game they're playing."
"It's a start Mom, it's a start," Robin looked over at his friends. "Dig up anything you can."
Raven looked at him, "I'll stay here and help your mother."
"Beast Boy, thank you," Mary smiled.
"You're welcome, we'll get them, I promise," Beast Boy replied.
He turned and left, Cyborg and Starfire followed him.
Raven took Mary's hand, "I'm going to heal you, as best as I can." She began to chant, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
Mary could feel her body slowly knitting itself back together.
"Mom, do you know who stabbed you?" Dick asked.
"Felix Harmon, the Gotham Butcher," Mary sighed. "I managed to get away from him, bashed his skull into the concrete to make an exit, he's as big as he is dumb, but still scary as Hell."
Dick paled, the Gotham Butcher was someone he'd read about in school, he killed hundreds out of boredom in the 1800s before disappearing, to think his mother had survived being attacked by him was a miracle.
"I won't let them get you Mom, I promise."
"I know, Dick, I want you to teach me, as soon as I'm back on my feet, I told off those scumbags, I promised them I'd come back for them. That I'd destroy their organization."
"Just rest now, Mom, that's what you need now, we'll start when you're better. You'll be fine."
"No you sound like your father, always reassuring me that everything's okay," Mary smiled. "Your father had to reassure me you'd make it back from the movies alive when Gotham blacked out. I was so worried about you."
Robin smiled, "That was a crazy night, I remember."
"You went to the movies, by yourself, in Gotham City."
"I know, it was stupid, but I had people help me get home."
"How are they, Jana, Josh, and CJ?" Mary asked, "We used to have them over when we'd visit."
"I haven't seen them in years."
"Oh, and Raya and Raymond?"
"Raymond passed away, heard he drowned in an accident," Dick replied.
Mary sighed, "Maybe it was an accident, maybe it wasn't."
"Mom, what are you saying?" Dick put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm saying that our home wasn't the bright, happy, safe place we thought it was. Accidents happen there, and it has nothing to do with what happened to your father and I."
"As for Raya, I haven't seen her in a very long time," Robin smiled.
"I'm surprised Dick, she was your first crush," Mary laughed. Raven raised an eyebrow.
"She's also the reason you've got a thing for redheads," Mary kept chuckling. "Like the girlfriend you currently have now. I don't have to be the "World's Greatest Detective" to know that you and Starfire are close."
"Must you tell Raven everything about me?" Robin sighed.
"Yes!" Mary teased him, pulling him into her arms, hugging him tightly, ruffling his hair.
She released him, and suddenly placed a hand over the R emblem on his chest, "You've grown up so much and all the things I've missed, but I'm so proud of you. You always wanted to help people, and now, you do."
"I know Mom, I do this because of you and dad, because of everything you both taught me."
"I know, little Robin, I know."
"A term of endearment, that's why it stuck," Raven observed.
"Yeah, it stuck," Robin smiled.
May leaned back and closed her eyes, "Let me sleep son."
"It's fine mom, it's fine, just rest."
Mary shut her eyes, she felt a tear escape her eyelids, "John, you can't be gone, you just can't…"
Robin squeezed her hand; he didn't know what to say.
Raven looked at him, she'd never seen a normal marriage or family, she felt sorry for the two of them.
Robin saw his mother drift off to sleep as Cyborg entered the room. "I ran those tests on your mother, there's electrum in her blood, apparently an altered version of it is what brought her back from the dead. Her body's been reanimated, but it's not like a normal resurrection. There's also bad news."
"Tell me," Robin ordered.
"She's running out of it, it's only a matter of time before she dies…again. I'm sorry man."
"Don't worry Cyborg, I know of a way to save her. It was supposed to be an emergency, just in case we lost someone on the team, it's here in the city, and I sealed it away, I never thought I'd use it, especially on my mother."
"What is it?" Raven asked.
"A Lazarus Pit, I sealed it away to hide it from Ra's Al Ghul."
"Lazarus Pits are dangerous Robin!" Raven scolded him sternly.
"I know Raven, but for my mother, it's a risk I'm willing to take."