When he wakes, it is dark.
It is dark, and he does not know where he is.
He does not know who he is.
"Welcome, Richard Grayson."
He looks up, up, up, and his vision is blurred, but he can see several moons drifting past the edge of it.
"Welcome to the Court of Owls."
He wants to ask, something, anything—where is he? Why is he here?
"Your task is to complete the labyrinth. Do so and you may survive."
But nothing comes out of his mouth, and pain runs through his body as he tries to stand. It is everywhere, and it sharpens his mind to one goal.
Survive.
He does not know who he is, or where he is. It does not matter.
All that matters is the maze, the maze and the Court.
He can hear them up there, the owls, laughing every time he stumbles, every time an involuntary whimper of pain escapes. It infuriates him.
He finds a stick in a corner—it is too smooth, it screams wrong, but it is the right length. He uses it, and the rags it lies among, to splint his leg.
A part of him wonders how he knows.
But it doesn't matter. All that matters is the maze.
So he splints his leg, and grits his teeth, and ignores the pain, and keeps walking.
He fights the shadows when they attack. He grabs a pair of bones and wields them against the onslaughts, determined to ignore the pain they afflict.
Pain doesn't matter now. Nothing matters but the maze and the Court.
An eternity later, he cannot remember the sun.
He cannot remember that there is a sun.
He cannot remember.
He cannot remember anything but the maze. The maze and the Court.
The fountain is white, a source of light as it rises from the shadows.
He has survived. He has made it.
But he needs water if he wants to keep surviving. He collapses on the fountain and gulps down as much of the liquid as he can.
He regrets it the instant the water burns down his throat and swallows his mind in darkness.
Regrets do not matter. Pain does not matter. Nothing matters but the Court.
Nothing has ever mattered but the Court.
It is cold.
It has been cold for another eternity.
But now it is not cold, and he is awake.
He is still cold.
He remembers little outside of the cold.
There is fighting, and there is learning, and there is standing, and there is listening, but there is no talking. Not ever.
He tries talking, once.
They lock him inside the cold.
He does not try again.
It is a while, he thinks, before they bring him out of the cold.
The owls have returned, and he stands to attention. Learning attention had been a painful lesson. He is not supposed to feel pain. He does not want to learn the lesson again.
"Are you sure he is ready for this?" He cannot tell which owl is speaking. They are not speaking to him, so he should not pay attention. That is what they have taught him. "It may be too soon."
But something else, something from before-the-cold, makes him listen. Remember everything.
"He remembers nothing except our teachings. He's the perfect blank slate, and if he ever becomes too retractable, we can simply recall him for retraining."
He does not like that idea. He knows better than to let them know.
They have given him a suit of brown and black, with goggles to cover his face. The goggles do nothing to darken the white of the faces of the owls. They stalk around him, only one remaining in front.
"Talon," that one says. "We have a task for you."
He continues to watch and listen. He may listen now.
"There is a new vigilante group active in Gotham, comprised of three people. A blonde adolescent girl, a young juvenile male, and another female. Their capabilities are, as of yet, unknown. You will follow them, discover their place of residence, and assess their abilities. You will not engage until we give the order. There is a safehouse prepared for you in Wayne Tower. You will be stationed there until further notice. You will ensure no one is aware of your presence. If anyone sees you, make sure they do not live to tell. Do you understand?"
He nods. Find the three. Follow them. Learn their weaknesses.
Remain hidden. Do not be seen.
Kill at the orders of the Court.
"Then go forth, Talon—and make sure that this city remembers the name of the Court of Owls."
Gotham City
April 21st 2019
22:19 EST
"Whoo-hoo!" Cassie calls as she swoops low across a rooftop.
"Wonder Girl!" Donna lands lightly on the roof behind her protégé before jumping and gliding to land again beside Cassie. "We're supposed to be patrolling stealthily, remember?"
Cassie rolls her eyes and shakes the rain out of her face. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But hey, you're better, we can actually get out of the safehouse, and the city is ours! Besides, it's pouring rain, who's gonna seeeeeagh!" Her last word turns into a shriek as someone jabs their fingers into either side of her stomach. She spins on her heel, gauntlets up to confront the offender, but winds up being forced to lower them with a grumble when she sees who it is.
"Hood!" Donna admonishes him with laughter in her voice, the traitor. At least she isn't bent double like her boyfriend is.
"Oh my god, Wonder Girl, you should have seen your face."
Cassie's getting ready to punch Jason, but before he can launch into a fresh wave of laughter, he stops and pulls up, white lens-eyes fixed on something behind the two warriors.
"What?" Donna turns to look behind her and Cassie follows her lead, both of them squinting into the rainy night.
"I saw someone moving," Jason says. His voice has dropped. "And I'm not a hundred percent certain, but I'm pretty sure they were wearing a costume."
"Damian, how many times do I have to tell you? Stay out of the light!" Stephanie grabs the back of Damian's black hooded cape and hauls him back into the shadows. The cape isn't big enough to cover him completely, and since he's wearing red, green, and yellow underneath (he had almost stabbed her when she called him a traffic light), he's far from invisible.
"Tt. This city is my birthright. Why should I care if anyone sees me? They should know I am here." He wrestles his way out of her grip, but thankfully stays out of the light of the streetlamp. "And if you place a hand upon me again, you will lose it."
Stephanie suddenly remembers why she didn't want to go out alone with him before. She looks him over again, trying to figure out where on earth he could be hiding one of the knives and/or swords she knew she hadn't been able to keep him from taking. Hopefully it would only be a knife. "How—never mind, I don't want to know. Damian, I know the Lords haven't been seen in Gotham for a while, but I almost died for running around this town in costume. I'd really, really, really rather not go through that again, especially since no one is supposed to know you exist."
Damian—well, Stephanie thinks he might be trying to growl, but it honestly sounds very kitten-ish. "I am heir to this city. They should know I am here, and they should fear and respect me."
Breathe in. Breathe out. Do not beat head against a wall. Do not try to strangle small demon assassin brat. He knows ten ways to kill you in your sleep and is probably carrying sharp things. Stephanie reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose but stops when her fingers hit metal. Her old costume, the one she used before this, had, well…okay, three words: yards. Of. Spandex.
Yeah, she has regrets.
Now, she doesn't have the security of a full-face mask, but she has a handy filter that covers her mouth and nose, and a clinging suit of spandex and body armor with lots of handy pouches.
Plus a cape. It's eggplant, and awesome, thank you very much, and it hangs just right so she blends into the shadows better. Also, it keeps off the rain she missed for like a month and then was happy to live without.
Capes seem to be the Thing, currently, with the three of them. Damian had started it by insisting on the aforementioned black cape (she doesn't totally believe that he's Batman's kid, but after the past three years…well, her skepticism meter has gone way down), Stephanie had accidentally shredded one of the versions she tried to sew for him and Cass, for reasons unknown, had immediately claimed that one. Since fighting the only person probably on the face of the earth who could actually keep Damian in line seemed like a bad idea, she had thrown up her hands and gone about recreating her old cape.
Stephanie's jolted out of her musings by Damian trying to run ahead, again, and makes a growl that she assures herself was far more impressive than his as she chases after him down the wet alley.
Fortunately for her sanity (and probably also her fingers) Cass drops out of nowhere and lands in front of Damian, halting him in his tracks. He scowls up at her through his domino mask as Steph catches up.
Cass had gone the simple route by covering her head entirely with a black cowl, sporting an all-black bodysuit with exercise tape wrapped around her wrists and forearms, and the same tattered black cape. She definitely has a thing for black, but Stephanie doesn't really think she has any ground to stand on regarding the whole theme-color thing.
"Stay hidden...is too hard now?" Cass asks Damian.
His scowl shifts to a grumble, but he doesn't argue.
Steph would like to nominate Cass for godhood now, please and thank you.
Suddenly, both of the assassins immediately straighten up and shift their stances, eyes fixed on the sky. Stephanie shuts up and follows where they look, trying not to gulp audibly when she sees a shadow float across the sky.
Followed by another.
And—yup—a third shadow underneath them, slipping along the street.
She racks her brain frantically, trying to remember all the snippits of news on the Lords she managed to pick up—who's been seen lately? Who's missing? Have any warrants been issued for new metahumans?
The trio collectively holds their breath as the other figures move over the rooftops towards the alley where Steph and Damian just came from.
Damian valiantly ignores the "I-told-you-so" look Stephanie delights in giving him.
After a few more minutes, the area is clear, and Steph releases a sigh of relief.
"Head for Harper's," she murmurs, shaking water out of her face. "I need to talk to her about the Resistance."
Donna and Cassie drop down into the alley as Jason, who came up around the perimeter, follows.
"See anything on heat vision?" Donna asks, bending down to look at the ground.
"I got nothing. Doesn't say much—if they're anyone who knows anything about what they're doing, they'll have covered up with the good stuff to block it out."
"And if they're not?" Cassie ignores their conversation and looks up. No one ever thinks about 'up' as a means of escape like fliers do.
She's just in time to catch a glimpse of someone somersaulting over the edge of the roof.
"Hey!" She takes off after the figure through the rain without a second thought.
By the time she's up, though, the roof is empty.
Donna follows a second later, carrying Jason. "Wonder Girl, what is it?"
"I—I just thought I saw someone." Dammit. Now they're going to think she's jumping at shadows.
Jason seems to take her seriously, turning on his heat signature filter and heading over to the edge of the roof.
"Nothing. No heat sigs anywhere. Sorry, prophet, looks like you live up to your namesake this time."
Cassie sticks her tongue out at him. It's an old joke between the two of them after he gave her a copy of Agamemnon for her sixteenth birthday. She had punched him for it—mostly because it had been her mother's joke first, and the loss had still been raw—but she kinda likes it now. She can't ever let him know that, of course.
Donna looks around, searching the area. "I don't see anyone either. But it's our first night out, Wonder Girl, it's understandable if you're nervous."
Cassie twitches at the statement. "I am not—"
"You jumped a mile earlier when if poked you in the kidneys. Normally you'd just deck me if I did that."
She grumbles, but concedes the point. "So now what do we do?"
"Looks like we're just gonna call it a night. Nightwing hasn't been out in a while, but the Lords came down hard on Gotham." Jason shrugs and gets to his feet. "There really isn't much trouble at all around here. Plus there's this new Thai place down by 34th I wanna try."
"Better than chili dogs?"
"Nothing's better than chili dogs, princess."
Cassie stares at the edge of the roof for a few moments more before following her mentors.
Behind them, a figure in brown and black clings to the shadows of the building, watching the trio go.
There were only supposed to be three. But there are six. The man, the girl, the woman. The boy, the girl, the unknown.
They do not know of each other. They do not know of Talon. But Talon knows both, and what he knows, so does the Court.
He has been following them for two nights. There is the girl in purple, who is not a fighter—but she is experienced. She is at home in these streets. She knows them in a way that makes something in his chest hurt. Something that says he should know them like she does.
There is the boy, who knows them not at all, but pretends he does. He is like the small creatures that slip along the alleys, the ones that do notice Talon until he moves. Sometimes they get close enough so he can see their big eyes and twitching ears and fluffy skin. He likes them, he thinks. The boy likes them too. It is how Talon learned that he can touch their fluff if he is patient and steady.
The unknown moves like he does. She is quiet, and stealthy, and sees all. Talon must work hard to avoid being seen by her. She does not know these streets, either—not as the other girl does. The girl knows them the way he knows the maze and the court. He does not want to think about how she knows them that way. The unknown does not know these streets, but she is trying to learn. She learns quickly the layouts, the crevices and shadows and hiding places, but she does not know all of them.
The unknown learns them by rote. The other girl knows them by heart. The boy is trying to make the streets learn him. He will fail. He has too much firey light, when what the streets demand is shadow.
Talon is not sure the Court will care about these things. It does not matter to him. He likes his assignment to gather information on them. It means he is allowed to watch them as much as he likes. And he likes watching them.
He found their residence already. It was a simple task. The girl who knows the streets at least knows enough to try to lose him, but she could not. The unknown might have spotted him, but she was too busy learning her own route. Now, he has plenty of time to find other ways to her home. Those will help Talon avoid the unknown.
The boy is too busy trying to make the girl and the unknown notice him to ever notice Talon.
But the new three…
The two girls are powerful, but they do not know these streets at all. They do not watch as they should. They do not walk the ground as they should, if they want to know these streets.
Still, the younger almost saw him earlier. She did not quite believe what she saw, so he does not have to kill her.
The Court says that Talon's purpose is killing. Talon has, indeed, killed before. There were three—all maze-addled, two delirious. All caused some complaint from the Court, even if they liked watching him kill. It had been hard for them to get the victims.
Killing was easy. He slit the neck of the first, smashed in the head of the second. The third fought back, and broke his neck.
That injury took some time to heal. He ripped out the victim's throat in retribution.
The Court ordered all three deaths. They have not ordered the deaths of any of these.
When he considers it, he dismisses the idea. Talon kills only on the orders of the Court.
Talon also notes that he does not want to kill any of them. Death seems messy. Inefficient.
And something about the way the man moves, the way he knows these streets even better than the girl or Talon does, makes him…
…it makes his chest hurt.
The man does not remind him of the fluffy creatures in the alleys. The man almost reminds Talon of the owls that live in Wayne Tower, with their deadly grace and ease in the air.
Almost.
Talon has not been ordered to watch this group. Talon does not know if he will watch them anyway. They are fascinating, but they make his chest hurt and do not pose a serious enough threat.
He will consider the matter later. The first three are his primary objective.
Talon will follow them now.
Washington DC
April 21st 2019
22:19 EST
Wally sighs as he turns the key in the lock of their new apartment.
"Honey, I'm home," he mumbles, wandering inside and collapsing on the end of the couch.
He feels the floor under his feet rattling and rumbling as Artemis wheels her way over.
"Rough day?" Her voice is dryly amused.
"Five transmission overhauls. Five. Why doesn't anyone know how to take care of their own cars?"
"If they did, you probably wouldn't have a job, and you would also probably be dead."
"What?" That wakes Wally up and even convinces him to open his eyes and stare at her. "Why?"
"If you didn't have a job, you'd still be in the house fussing over me and I would have lost patience and murdered you a long time ago."
"Huh." Wally considers this. "Okay, you're probably right. How was your day?"
"Not bad. I called my mom and we chatted. Jaime dropped by looking for Bart around noon and made a grocery run, so we're good for another couple of days. He also took those library books back before the due date and picked me up a couple more. I hacked your phone and deleted your Beach Boys music."
"You what?!" Wally yelps, sitting up. "Artemis!"
She's laughing and shaking her head as he frantically pulls out his phone and scrolls through it. "No. Can't get into cell signals yet." The smile slides off her face, replaced with a grimace. "Turns out hacking is freaking hard. I thought I was okay at coding, but this is on an entirely different level."
Wally stands up and walks over, gently wrapping his arms around her shoulders and bending over to plant a kiss on her head. "You'll get it, babe. I know you. You never give up."
Her head suddenly twists out from under his lips until she's smirking up at him. "Never, hmm?"
He grins and leans in, just a little bit. "Weeell…not when it's something you really want…"
Artemis's laugh vibrates her shoulders under his arms and he leans in even closer…
…just as the doorbell rings.
Even though they've discussed it, it still unnerves him that she can pull three knives out of he-really-doesn't-want-to-know-where and tuck them into her hand by the time he's next to the door.
One look through the keyhole doesn't help him decide whether he should tell her to put them away or not, so he settles for grimacing, gesturing safe, and opening the door.
"Jade, what the hell, it is literally ten thirty and okay baby." He opens the door with the intent to chew her out before having a diaper bag dumped in his arms and a (fortunately civilian-clothed) assassin stalk into his home.
"Sorry to impose, my regular babysitter's in El Paso. Lian's currently being spoiled rotten by her dad and grandfather, but Paul had to make the trip with me. Got a mission that shouldn't take longer than tonight, I'll be back by seven. Thanks, sis, gotta run."
Jade places Paul carefully in her sister's lap before she's out the door again, leaving the couple staring blankly after her.
"What."
"I officially hate your sister."
Artemis sighs and bounces Paul in her arms as her nephew begins to fuss. "Join the club."
The Batcave Computer
April 21st
22:27:34 EDT
File: Project Taurus
Host Server: CADMUS labs
Program: Fireworks 2.0
Type: Virus
Countdown to Release: 00:15 seconds
Registered user code: RG4
Last reset: 10/3/19
Automatic release date: 30/3/27
Enter passcode to reset countdown
CADMUS Labs
Washington DC
April 21st
22:27:49 EDT
Project TX is fast asleep in her pod. She knows she has to be, because the moon is right there in front of her, and her brother isn't here with her.
She loves dreams, and hates them at the same time, because she sees all these wonderful things, but she can't share with Project TY.
Well, she probably could, if the stupid G-gnomes would just cooperate.
Everything in the dream dims blue, and she groans, because Lefty is just too sensitive, okay?
Sorry, Lefty. But you know I'm not really angry at you, I'm angry at the stupid people who—
:You must awaken.:
The dreamscape goes abruptly blank as Project TX looks around for the genomorph who spoke. The voice sounded kind of familiar…
:You must awaken, now.:
"Ow!" she yelps as she jolts awake in her pod. She immediately clamps a hand over her mouth—she's not supposed to talk unless the scientists want to ask questions or Uncle is here, but Uncle hasn't been here in ages and what if she gets in trouble?
But no one's there except for Dubbilex, who's nice, even if the scientists make him separate her and TY with telekinesis sometimes.
Lefty, Middle, and Righty are all quiet now, and not sending anything into her head. They're supposed to tell her the training schedule on days she actually wakes up, but they're not doing anything.
What's going on?
Dubbliex's horns glow red, and her pod opens up.
Normally, she'd be out of there in a second, but this is weird and scary.
:Come with me, child. You need to leave, now.:
:What's going on?: she thinks at him, just like she would at her G-gnomes. What is this, what if it's a trick, or a test, and she's failing? The scientists will be mad if she leaves, and even Uncle told her to never get out of her pod without permission…
:This is not a trick. I promise.:
She stares at him.
Dubbilex isn't capable of sighing, but he looks a lot like Dr. Roban does when TX won't stop asking him questions. :We do not have much time before the power grid is restored. You and your brother must be out by then.:
Out like out of the pods?
She pushes off of the back of her pod and runs over to Dubbilex and the world goes fuzzy for a moment. "Really? You mean it? We get to get out?"
He blinks down at her. "Yes."
"Awesome!" She can talk to Dubbilex. He doesn't mind. "Are we running today? Do we have to go to the icky labs? Where are we going? Is there—"
"I'm afraid you misunderstand my meaning, sister." He turns around and heads for the door (the open door) as she walks quickly to keep up. She's not supposed to run without permission, and anyway, it's no fun without TY.
"You and your brother are leaving Cadmus."
Okay, leaving Cadmus, that should at least—
What.
"What? Leaving Cadmus? But we don't leave Cadmus, this is our home." She stopped for a few steps, and then she had to catch up with him and she thinks she might have run but that doesn't matter because they can't leave Cadmus—
:Calm yourself.:
So TX tries to breathe in and out slowly and carefully like she does after she's had to run on the treadmill for a long time, and thinks about happy things, like dreams about the moon and the sun and when she and TY get to do exercises together and figure out ways to solve puzzles, and how Uncle taught them to do backflips the last time he visited, and her and TY's secret names.
And it works, and she can think about outside without panicking, and she can follow Dubbliex to the other end of the hallway and the doors labeled Project TY and she gets to go inside.
She hasn't actually been in TY's room, not since they both turned one and the scientists decided they had to have their pods in separate rooms.
He always tells her it's really boring, and it kinda is, but that doesn't matter because he's here, and Dubbliex lets her poke him to get him out of his pod, and then Dubbilex is talking in their heads about how to take the stairs up to the top level and push this button and how they should go here, to this house, and she's holding TY's hand and they're running together, like the scientists almost never let them do anymore (because they want TY to get faster on his own instead of sharing speed with her and when they first did it TX got so mad that she screamed at them and she had to stay in her pod for a week and couldn't see TY for a month, and she's still mad because couldn't they see how much it was hurting him?!).
They're running, and there are so many stairs, more stairs than she ever knew existed, and then they're in a little hallway and the buttons Dubbilex told them about are right there and TY has to push them because she's shaking too much and then the wall slides open and they're out.
Everything smells so clean. The G-gnomes never gave them smells, and it's all fresh and new and nothing like the air on their level. There are flowers all around them, and she tugs TY behind her as she hurries out because what if the door closes again before she has a chance to see flowers?
And she doesn't let go of his hand, and she doesn't look up, because she's so afraid that all of this is just going to fall apart around her, so she just bends over and looks at the orange flowers with separated petals.
"Hey." Her brother is pulling at her hand, and she shakes her head, because he's here, and that's normal, but the moon might be up there, and he's never there when the G-gnomes show her the moon, and if she looks up one of them will have to go away and she can't lose either of them. She can't.
"Irey, it's okay."
She snaps her head up to stare at him, because that's her secret name, like Jai is his, but they never call each other that where anyone except Uncle can hear and what if someone hears them?
"It's okay," he repeats, green eyes steady and sparkling like they haven't since Uncle started showing him coding. "See?"
And he's so happy and he's here and he's holding her hand and she feels safe enough to look up.
"Oh."
The moon is almost full, and it's not as big as she always thought it would be but it's so much prettier, all silver-gray in the sky and glowy and there's a bunny in it. There's a bunny in the moon!
And it's the moon, and it's right there in front of her, and Jai is here with her, and they're out of Cadmus and everything is new and scary but so, so, worth it.
So she looks out at the great big green space in front of her and wonders just how fast and far they can run together when there aren't any scientists to ever make them stop.
"Come on!" Irey says to Jai, because they aren't TX and TY anymore, and they won't ever be again, and he grins at her and they step together and take off running, letting the speed energy flow between them.
A small camera attached to the statue neither of them really looked at documents them running off and transmits the data before shutting down and erasing all its footage.
Batcave Computer
File: Project Taurus
Host Server: CADMUS Labs
Program: Fireworks 2.0
Program status: successful completion
Total erasure of file data from host server in 4 minutes 59 seconds
Enter passcode to cancel erasure.
Barbara Gordon is once again monitoring global energy readings when she gets the alert.
She takes a moment to tweak the security feed. Tim's somewhere in Smallville, still looking into the Phantom Zone, and they'll need it soon with how unstable Conner's being. They've been rationing him for a week now, and it's starting to show, so she hopes that this time Tim has an actual lead. The point is, he'll check when he gets back, and she doesn't need him knowing just how far her network reaches.
So once the loop is going, she accesses her private system-specifically, the alert she has set up to let her know whenever something has been altered by the Bat-cave's computer.
To her disappointment, it's only a delayed program that ran down its clock and deleted some files from Cadmus. It's an unknown how long it's been ticking down, and she can't tell what it deleted from-
Wait a minute.
She goes back to the globe and checks the scans.
The coding to scan for energy trails given off by speedsters has been deleted from the protocol.
By the Batcomputer.
Which she officially isn't allowed to access.
And unofficially hasn't gotten caught at yet.
Well, that's convenient.
So she closes down her network, unloops the security feeds, and goes back to scanning for energy signatures. If she doesn't report it, it could be weeks before anyone notices and recodes it.
She'll have to find some way to pass word to the Resistance that one of their biggest obstacles is out of the way.
Things would be so much easier if Virgil was still their spy.
Ah, hello. My sincere apologies for the month-long wait. I'll try to be more prompt with the next update, which will probably be the coffee shop oneshot in "Day by Day."
This chapter is where the ball really starts rolling on the sequel, so I'd love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, a few quick notes:
Yes, I'm going with the Court of Owls storyline. It won't be very much like the comics, but a few elements will be incorporated.
I had tons of fun writing for the Gotham groups. (They're my new favorites. Shh, don't tell the others.)
Stephanie's Spoiler costume is based off the one she wears in the New 52. The one she regrets would look more like her preboot, the one with the full-face mask. Damian is wearing something similar to his Robin costume, but lacking the logo. Cassandra has the cape from her Black Bat run, which was too cool not to include.
Dick, at this point, has very vague memories of the circus, but almost nothing from afterwards.
Wally works as a mechanic, much like he does in the comics. And listens to the Beach Boys.
I'll refrain from commenting on the Cadmus scene. *grins* Actually, I'll say one thing, and that is that I get how Iris and Jai's powers work in the comics, and I have an explanation. Just not yet.
So now the Lords no longer have the tech to track speedsters. That should make things simpler.
Again, if you have the time, reviews would be greatly appreciated!