Trust


When Tim woke up, still sandwiched between Dick and Hood, Alfred was already there. Without waking the Talons, he performed a quick medical exam, checking his cognition and reflexes, his stitches. "Well Master Red, it appears Master Hood did a fine job. The stitching was done well. Won't even scar. However, you are not to go on patrol for at least a week. Concussions take time."

He nodded, knowing that he would probably be able to sneak past Alfred's all seeing eyes in around four days, but only if he didn't show any indication of wanting to leave between now and then.

And now he was stuck. The Talons were still sleeping on him, and if he moved, he would wake them.

He wanted to let them sleep. But he really needed to use the washroom.

Carefully scooting himself forward, he winces when Dick shifted, then woke up. "Hm? Red? Good morning!" He rubbed his eyes, then flung his arms around Tim's shoulders, smacking Hood in the face as he did so. Which, surprisingly, didn't wake him.

Tim tried to pull away, but Dick didn't let go. "Dick? Could you let go please? I need to go upstairs."

"No. I'm hugging you. Last time you went up there, you got a concussion."

Oh. "It's safe up there now Dick. Batman and Agent A are home."

Dick gave a long "hmmmmmm", but eventually released Tim. Before he could jump off the bed though, Bruce walked in, wearing sweats and his cowl. It looked really weird. "Wake up Hood. We need to talk."

Tim nodded and shook the still-asleep Talon, planting a bug on him at the same time. He wouldn't be allowed to listen. He knew this. But he was going to anyways. The first moment he got, he planted one on Dick too.

Once Hood was awake and he and Dick were heading to the interrogation room, Tim stuck his comm. in his ear and headed upstairs. He really did need to use the washroom.


"I want to start by saying thank you for saving Red Wing last night. The kidnapper is in police custody, and they're working on getting a confession out of him." Bruce leveled his gaze at Dick. Hood was out in the hall, waiting his turn. "But you've been here for a week now, and we haven't talked about... your previous activities."

This was it. Whatever Dick, and Hood, in a bit, said here, that would tell Bruce how much he could trust them.

"We haven't. What did you want to know?"

"Start at the beginning."

Dick shifted uncomfortably, but he obeyed. He started with his own initiation. Three weeks of punishment-heavy training. His first outing, which he failed spectacularly. His mental conditioning. The four or so years where he did assignments, slaughtered people, occasionally dropping off packages and warnings.

He skimmed over meeting Hood. Just basic details. Bruce thought that was odd, but it wasn't important for what he was asking for right now. Dick obviously thought the same.

The next four years, where he rebuilt his shattered soul into something that Hood could maybe be proud of. "I wanted him to be proud to know me, and, just maybe, proud to call me his brother." He staked out his targets longer, not going in for the quick kill. He took them when they were alone, so he didn't have to kill off any bystanders. He moved the corpses, so they weren't found by the victim's children or spouse. He skimmed over meeting Red Wing too, which was fine. Bruce already knew most of that.

It was a gruesome account. Long and horrid and Dick spared no detail. Bruce collected names, which he would check against official records later. He thanked him again and sent him out.

He didn't call in Hood right away. Everything Dick had told him... It enraged him. That the Court could do this, and to a child not yet eighteen, was inhuman. Of course, from what Dick said, they weren't seen as people. Not as living things. Just as tools, to be used, stored, and thrown away when they became too inconvenient. And by people Bruce considered his peers at that!

He had known the Court existed. Had for years. But to learn that it consisted of Gotham's wealthy elite... he didn't know what to think. Of course, Dick didn't have any names to give him. The Owls all wore masks, didn't use names in meetings. But they were still people Bruce rubbed elbows with at every gala he held or was forced to attend.

He took a deep breath. Once he had his emotions under control, he opened the door and let Hood in, asking him the same thing he had asked Dick.

Hood started with training with Dick, but not much after his outing. From how he described the mental conditioning, the Court had used a high concentration of Scarecrow's fear gas to speed it up. From there, he described his first year of assignments, how he met Red Wing, his entire span of time at the Court. He had been "punished" a lot, much more than Dick had been. Actually, Dick had never mentioned getting punished outside of training, but from what Hood was saying, it was a regular occurrence for him. Mostly mouthing off, refusing to kill women, children, bystanders.

Like Dick, he spared no detail. And like Dick, after Hood left, Bruce had to try and reign in his emotions. Tried and failed. With a roar, his fist slammed down on the table, sending notes, a recorder, and fourteen pens flying.

He swore, right then and there, to bring down the Court. No, not bring down. Dismantle. Destroy. By the time he was done, there wouldn't be a trace, a hint, a whisper of their existence. They would never lay their hands on the Talo- no. They weren't Talons anymore. He didn't know what they were, but "not Talon" seemed like a good place to start. And the Court would never get to them ever again.

He swore.


When Hood woke up, he wasn't where he had been. He had been leaning against Dick, sleeping, tired after a long day of reliving his time in the Court, followed by beating up every practice dummy Batman had to forget it. He currently was horizontal, on the most comfortable surface he'd even been on, with a quilt above him and absolutely no one nearby.

He leapt out of the bed and on top of the wardrobe. It had a good view of the door, the opulent room, and the rather large windows. It was a good place.

After a half hour (according to his inner clock), the door opened and Agent A walked in. With barely a glance at the bed, he strode over to the curtains and flung them open. "Master Hood, if you could get off of the wardrobe. It is sturdy, but even Victorian furniture cannot hold up to that kind of abuse for long." He wasn't even looking at Hood, how did he know he was up there?

Carefully, Hood dropped off the wardrobe, more mindful about damaging it than he had been going up. "Where am I?"

"You are in one of the Wayne Manor guest rooms. Master Bruce carried you up himself." He started bustling about, pulling the sheets and quilt back into pristine smoothness.

"Who?"

"Ah. My apologies. Master Batman carried you up."

Wayne Manor. Master Bruce. It took him a second, but only because it was so unbelievable. "Bruce Wayne is Batman?" Seriously?

Agent A straightened up, and in a completely dry and remorseless tone, said, "Oh dear. You figured it out. Such a tragedy. Whatever shall we do?" He ventured back to the door and held it open. "Breakfast, Master Hood?"

No matter what, Hood wasn't one to say no to food, shocking revelations or not. Bats – Bruce – and Dick were there, as was Red, who introduced himself as Tim Drake. And apparently, Agent A was Alfred Pennyworth. Huh.

During that breakfast, Hood learned a bunch about the two crime fighters. He learned that Tim was thirteen and doing pretty well juggling school and late-night crime fighting. He had figured out who Batman was more than six years ago, through a combination of stalking, intuition and luck. After his parents had died (not the Court, a private contractor by the sounds of it), he had been adopted by Bruce and eventually, become Red Wing.

He also learned that he should not ask Bruce why he had become Batman and that Tim would explain it later. But Bruce had been Batman for almost a decade. He had heard of the Court years ago, but was finding it incredibly difficult to pin them down. But, the information they had given him yesterday would be a lot of help in dismantling them.

Batman being Bruce Wayne also explained the kidnapper yesterday. The Court probably had no idea of the vigilante's identity; it was more likely they had been trying to get the billionaire to join them. It happened like that sometimes. They would kidnap a potential recruit's loved one(s), then threaten their safety until the recruit was in too deep to go to the police. Or until they thought that what the Court was doing was right. One of the two.

Breakfast was delicious, as all of Alfred's cooking had been, with the added bonus of being more than the butler could carry downstairs at one time. The table was full of things like bacon and eggs and pancakes and cut fruit and more things than Hood could name. He didn't know what this fluffy, flaky bread thing was, but it was shaped like a moon and he liked it.

After all the food was consumed, there was a stretch of awkward silence, while Bruce waited for the Talons to ask the question they wanted to; while Tim flicked his eyes between the three of them, clearly wanting to tell them before they asked; while the Talons tried to phrase it right. Finally, Hood just blurted out, "Why are we up here?" And shrank back a bit, waiting for Bruce to realize that, no, they shouldn't be up here, get back to the Batcave, or better yet, go into the cells. Clearly, trusting a Talon is a mistake.

Bruce's eyes softened with something indiscernible at Hood's reaction. "You've already been upstairs. And better yet, it was to save Tim. From what he can remember, you didn't even take a good look around before you took him back downstairs, and the security cams I have in the study concur. Clearly, you didn't care to find out my identity. Therefore, you can be trusted with it." He sat back, taking a sip of freshly refilled coffee. "Not to mention, Tim and Alfred have taken a liking to you."

Tim leaned in, and in a whisper that clearly carried over to Bruce, confided, "He likes you too. He'll just never say it."

Dick looked satisfied with the answer, and for the most part, Hood was too. But in the week that followed, he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Bruce to decide that this was a bad idea. For him to lock them up. It was one thing for them to be confined to the Cave. All the entrances and exits were jammed full of security measures and other painful-but-not-fatal things. He could pick up Mr. Freeze's gun, from his first heist, and freeze them solid.

But time wore on and none of that happened. They went to and from the Batcave when they wanted, or when Bruce had company over. It happened a few times: someone from Wayne Enterprises would come calling about something that "absolutely could not wait", and Dick and Hood would head down to the Cave. Right up until they got bored and perched themselves in a shadowy corner of whichever room the meeting was in. Bruce always noticed them immediately, and spent the entire time trying not to smile at them. The board members were always oblivious.

Sometimes, Bruce would call them into the Batcave to ask them more about the Court, its day-to-day operations, the Talons, the Owls, their time there, and the average treatment. It was during these last two that he started taking breaks, every dozen sentences. Hood couldn't figure out why, and ended up going to Alfred for an explanation.

"What was done to you, young sir, was simply atrocious. Master Bruce is leaving because he needs to master his emotions. He worries that an outburst would upset you." The butler was his usual stoic self as he ran a cloth over the trophy cases, but there was a hint of anger in his tone when he talked about what was done to the Talons.

Sure, the Court hadn't treated them well, and turning ten-year-olds into assassins was horrifying, but all the other stuff? The punishments and training accidents? They didn't matter. Hood was a Talon. Dick was a Talon. They healed. Sure, Hood would jump in front of a bullet to spare his... brother the pain of an injury, but even if he didn't, Dick would heal. Hood would heal. What happened with Joker was different.

He was still confused a few days later when – during tea time, which Alfred insisted upon – he heard something. A high pitched sound that was strangely... hypnotic...? "Do you hear that?"

Dick stumbled into him, rubbing his ear. "I do. It's a little... floaty."

"It is." It was.

Bruce grabbed his chin and snapped his fingers in front of his face. Frowning, Hood made a noise of protest and batted his hands away. "What is it? What do you hear?" Already, he was pulling out a tablet computer. It was probably connected to the Batcomputer, ready to analyze the sound.

Dick stood up. "It's really, really high pitched and it sounds like a song." He started walking, towards the door, with Hood following.

He stopped when Tim put a hand on his chest. "Wait, where are you going?" He looked worried. Why? It was such a pretty sound.

"Over there Timmy! The sound is coming from Gotham and it's so nice. I want to find it." Dick started picking at the fingers splayed over his chest. Sleepily, Hood gracelessly landed his elbow on Dick's shoulder and did the same. They had to go find the sound, but they both needed to go.

Suddenly, a horrible screech exploded behind them. Hood cried out and covered his ears, but the noise slipped past his hands and straight into his brain, like a dagger. He fell to the ground, barely registering the movement beside him as Dick did the same. The world went black.


"What did you do to them?!" Bruce had pressed a button on his tablet, and then the Talons had blacked out. Tim knew that whatever Bruce had done was intentional, he just didn't know if the Bat had intended for the Talons to go unconscious when he did it. Most likely not, but you never knew with him.

Bruce carefully put the tablet on the carpet, then started checking Dick's vitals. "The computer noticed an incredibly high frequency sound blanketing Gotham, inaudible to anyone except some infants and, apparently, these two. Anyone with perfect hearing. I had it calculate a counter frequency." He moved on to Hood. "We should probably get them to the Cave. We have soundproof ear plugs there."

Tim nodded and carefully, they pulled the Talons downstairs. There was a bit of difficulty on the stairs which had them leaving Hood upstairs while both of them carried Dick down to the medbay, then going back up. The ear plugs were specifically designed to block out certain frequencies of noise, while letting in others. They were mostly for use against Pied Piper or Man-Bat, allowing Batman or the Flash to fight them, to hear what the villains and bystanders were saying, without being affected. They were in final testing stages.

Plugs in, Bruce went to the Batcomputer and blocked out the frequencies for the unknown sound, and the one that the computer was still spouting. Almost immediately, the Talons woke up.

Dick was the first to sit up. Hood just rolled over and pulled his pillow over his head. "What happened? I remember a song..."

"We're still triangulating the source of that. And don't take the plugs out of your ears. Those are the only things keeping you from going to find it again." Bruce stared at the Batcomputer through the medbay window as he said this, as if constant observation would cause the search to go faster.

"The Court... They still haven't gone after the Joker, have they?" At Tim's mostly confused nod, Dick continued, "That song... I think it was a Call." Dick looked thoughtful and just a bit... scared?

Pulling the pillow off, Hood sat up. "A what? I've never heard of that."

"A Call. It was before your time, but a Talon once defected. Skipped a kill, tried to give the police information on the Court. Before he could give up anything incriminating, the Court sent out the Call and he went back." Tim didn't have to ask what had happened to that Talon. He'd listened in on Bruce's interrogations of life at the Court, even though he wasn't supposed to. Most likely, he'd been thrown into the Bay.

Hood's face took on a frightened cast as well. "But that means..."

"That they know we're alive. Probably that the Bat has us. And they want us back." Oh. Dick and Hood had every reason to be scared.

After quite a few minutes of mostly brooding silence, Batman said, "If you want, we can go after them. I have almost everything I need to take them out, thanks to you two." He left for a minute, coming back with a rather large piece of paper. "I drew this map based on what you told me of the labyrinth. The areas we should focus on would probably be the punishment room, the cold storage chamber and the Parliament room."

"The Call room too. I don't know where that is exactly, but I know the area. Shouldn't be too hard to the records room. That has everything we'll need to get the police involved." Dick pointed out.

Hood snorted. "The records room, which we've never been to and don't know for sure exists."

"It exists, and I'm fairly sure it's behind the Parliament chamber. See here," the acrobat pointed to the map, "there's a blank space. A big blank space."

"Couldn't it be something else? Sewer access? Or a really deep basement to a skyscraper?" Tim didn't think so, but it was a good idea to ask.

"Not sewer access." Hood stated. "The Court is deeper than the sewer. As for a deep basement, possibly. But one owned by the Court. They wouldn't allow anyone to get that close to them. Dick is right. This one is our best option." He paused. "Why do we need to go to the punishment and cold storage rooms?"

"To destroy them." Batman said it as if it were obvious, as if he didn't know why Hood was asking.

This just confused the Talons further. "Why?" asked Dick. "When we finish the Court, those rooms will be useless. No one will know they're there."

Tim sighed. Neither of them understood. "It's fine Dick. It'll just make us feel better, that's all. What happened to you in those rooms... It wasn't right. If we do this, we'll feel like at least some of the injustice towards you two has been righted."

Dick nodded, but Hood still looked confused. That was fine. He'd understand later. For now, "What's the plan Bats?" Bats? He'd never called Batman Bats. The Talons were clearly rubbing off on him.

Bruce raised an eyebrow at the name, but continued focusing on the map. "According to Dick and Hood, the Court holds weekly meetings in the Parliament room. If we can sneak in there, we can place a few canisters of stun gas around the perimeter. Once they're all knocked out, we can cuff them, unmask them, start finding evidence. Unfortunately, a good portion of the members will be able to use their influence to get out of a prison sentence, but hopefully, the police will have enough time to cripple their base of operations before then. The Court may resurface, but they won't have anywhere near as much power as they do now." From the look on his face, Batman had no intention of letting the Court resurface.

Red Wing and the Talons nodded. Then, Dick took over the briefing, seeing as he knew the most about the Court's goings-on. "The Court will have as few as two Talons awake, more probably four. It's unlikely they have more than that out of cold storage. All that's left are the older Talons, and they don't last too long once they're past their prime. Of the ones awake, one will be guarding the entrance to the labyrinth. The other entrances are trapped. They all set off alarms if they're even touched. All except one." He pointed to a spot, on the opposite side of the original entrance. "I found this one ages ago. It's a bit tricky to get to, but it should fit us. You might get a bit stuck tough Bats." Bruce looked down at his muscles with a hint of surprise. Tim just smiled. There were advantages to being small.

Dick smiled as well, then went back to the brief. "Another will be wandering the labyrinth. We'll have to be very careful not to run into him. If we do, we'll have to fight, and that will make noise. Noise that will carry through the halls, straight to the Court. There might be two wandering the halls, sometimes the Court needs two Talons for assignments, and another one guarding the Parliament room. It's not likely, but we should prepare for it."

Batman nodded and took over again. "So, we go in, place charges in the punishment room, and in the cold storage room. Head to the Parliament room, subdue the Court, find the records room. Once the police have collected everything they need from the labyrinth and figured out what to do with the Talons, we'll detonate the charges."

A sudden idea popped into Tim's head. "Batman, can we place charges on the ceiling too? In strategic places of course. Flood it with sewer water once we're done." Batman didn't comment, simply gave a quick smile and a nod.

Grinning at the suggestion, Hood stood up. "Well? What are we waiting for? We've got bad guys that need chasing."


AN: People should probably stop swearing to stuff. I always find a way to make a character break a promise. It's a really bad habit.

I think the Call needs some explaining. Basically, humans have these little hairs deep inside our ears, and those are what allow us to hear. As we get older, the hairs break, starting with the ones that hear high pitched noises, ending with the ones that hear low pitched noises. But since they're Talons, they healed all those little hairs and have perfect hearing.

And yes, that last sentence was a reference to Under the Red Hood. Wow, that can't be a good sign. Especially since I've told you twice that the rest of this fic is horrible terrible.

And the passwords from last chapter, in case you couldn't figure it out, are the dates and issue numbers that Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Jason, Tim, Steph and Damian first appeared in the comics, in that order. For example, 0527DC1939, 05 is May, 27 is issue 27, DC is Detective Comics, and 1939 is the year. B is for Batman, obviously. Yay! Easter Eggs! Congrats to the people who did figure it out!

I did toy with the idea that Jason had been the one to kill Tim's parents. But while Tim might have been able to forgive Jason some day, I don't think Jason ever would have been able to forgive himself. There's already too much guilt in this story. Which is actually a spoiler for the next chapter! Yay! Guilt!

Wow, long AN is long.

Read and enjoy people! Loxie OUT!