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Chapter: 28
Tori paced the rooftop she occupied as she waited. She had left for her 'patrol' with William a little bit early. Hopefully Danbury had gotten her message and he was able to come and meet her. She didn't want to think of what William would make her do that night, she was worried. Not only did it seem she and he were on a hunt for anyone getting too close to either obtaining the weapons to destroy the Talons or anyone who is trying to put and end to the Court of Owls as a whole. That was the other reason she thought up the idea for her to do Cobb's dirty work. She did it for Jacob of course, but also so she can end them once and for all. Now it seemed she was hunting the very people who could help her, and if she wanted to get the information they had before William noticed or came to discover she hadn't killed her prey…then everything would have been for nothing. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if she were caught,
"I got your message," Danbury's voice came from behind her. She spun around and smiled at her old mentor,
"Good," she said, "I've met Hadrian," Danbury grimaced,
"So I got from your message," he stated, "Why did you want to meet?"
"Well, you gave him the message…don't you want to discuss it?" Tori asked, "The Talons are on to you," she stated,
"I gave him no such message. I have not spoken to my son in decades," Tori narrowed her eyes,
"He said it was from you," Danbury sighed,
"I sent him one message. Months ago. It was to warn him not to come back to Gotham. There has been whispers of a traitor in the midst of the Talons, someone giving sensitive information to other people. I did not want him to try and get involved,"
"Well it seems to have been for nothing," Tori stated crossing her arms, "He came anyway, and he did have a message,"
"What of?" Danbury asked,
"It's probably best I don't tell you…in case they do suspect you. But I will say, it's something big,"
"But now that raises the question…who did send my son the message you received,"
"I don't know…but whoever it is I hope they're keeping themselves hidden. If what I have holds, then I have a big upper hand against the Court," a glimmer of hope stirred through her. Maybe she'd actually be able to follow through with this plan…then she and her family would be free. She wouldn't have to do anyone's dirty work ever again,
"And this whole scheme against the Court. You will not involve me in it would you?" Danbury asked, raising an eyebrow,
"Of course not. You're the reason I'm still here Dan. Without out you…who knows what would have happened,"
"I am glad to know our time training together did not bring you to hate me,"
"Never," Tori said with a smile. The sound of someone else landing on the rooftop jerked her attention from Danbury and her mood immediately soured, "Cobb," she said shortly,
"Victoria…and Danbury. What are you two doing up here?"
"I was passing through. I thought I would say hi," Danbury replied, a bite to his tone, "And tell her congratulations on a healthy baby boy,"
"Thank you," Tori stated, though her tone was muted by the presence of her great-grandfather,
"Well. You have your targets. Get on with it. Victoria and I have our own business to attend to," Tori rolled her eyes as Danbury headed to the edge of the rooftop to leap across to the other building, "Happy hunting," William called to Danbury as he left. Danbury wasn't usually one for field work. He mostly spent his time forging the Talons' weapons. But since the raid on Crowne Manor a few years ago, the Court was down in Talons so they needed all hands on deck. Internally Tori knew that meant they would be brining in more Talons-to-be…externally Tori didn't even want to think about that. She needed to focus on out foxing the Court and more specifically Cobb.
William turned to face her, a distasteful expression on his face. She didn't know what the expression was for and she suddenly worried if he had heard what she and Danbury had been discussing before,
"We have a problem," William said and Tori's blood turned to ice,
"W-what's that?" she asked,
"There appears to be a man who knows the majority of the Owl members,"
"Oh! That's—awful," she almost said 'wonderful' but caught herself just in time,
"It usually is not just a big deal, but this list includes the Grandmaster's name. The current Grandmaster is the last of their line. If that list gets ousted we will not have time to hide them from the authorities and we will be without a Grandmaster. We would not have time to elect a new one," Tori was surprised thy would turn to democracy to choose the next Grandmaster when the family line has all died out…it was an interesting fact. Afterall this was the Court of Owls, they were obsessed with bloodlines,
"Do you know who this man is?" Tori asked,
"Why do you think we are out here. Of course we know who he is,"
"How do you know who it is?" Tori asked, she was curious and also wanted to make sure this was legit. She would not kill an innocent man,
"It was not easy," William stated, "but we figured it had to be someone just as paranoid as any of our targets would be. Someone who knew what we could do, but also hated us enough to try and compile a list of every member to ruin our leadership and thus ruin the organization,"
"So it was someone you once terrorized," Tori summed up, "Someone you for whatever reason decided to keep alive…but you also slaughtered his entire family in front of him," William rolled his eyes and said with a disgusted sigh,
"We have too many of those instances. Some Talons are so pathetic,"
"Yeah, because refusing to murder infants, toddlers and children makes people so pathetically weak," Tori muttered, rolling her eyes and shaking her head,
"Exactly!" William exclaimed,
"I was being sarcastic you psychotic bimbo,"
"What did you just call me?"
"A psychotic bimbo," Tori replied, not at all deterred by his dangerously scary tone, "I'm not scared of you anymore. I'll say what I want around you. Now let's get this over with so I can go home to my son and husband," William stared at her a moment longer before facing away again,
"Anyway. We do keep records of who is accidentally kept alive in case they do become problems later in life. We found every name that would at least be in their mid to late thirties and have an occupation that allowed access to certain threads of CCTV footage and/or security cameras…and then we followed them to look for certain patterns of research and paranoia. Eventually we found our target. Cornelius Winterbloom,"
"Wow, you actually know what CCTV is, good job. Go you for finally learning twenty-first century tech,"
"Don't mock me heir," William snapped,
"Don't call me that," Tori shot back,
"That's what you are and what you will be until the end of time,"
"Or until I kill you first," Tori hissed under her breath. William of course heard and he let out a laugh,
"If you do that then our deal would be null and void. We'll be doing this for a very long time Victoria. You can count on that,"
"That was not part of our agreement,"
"You never confirmed that detail. If I did happen to die it would just pass on to someone else…or who knows, you might find you actually like killing your targets. You did use to like it, you especially loved your little trip to London all those years ago," Tori flinched and lurched a step away from him. She still hated to think of then…she didn't deny it had happened, but it still hurt her that she had caused so many people so much pain,
"I did not enjoy that,"
"Perhaps afterwards you did not…but during? I think you like it very much," a silence rippled between them until Tori finally found her voice again,
"Just tell me what you want me to do,"
"All you had to do was ask. You are the one who sidetracked us," William stated with a shrug, "You are to kill him naturally…but to erase all evidence of the list you will have to burn the apartment building down,"
"What, no! Innocent people live in that building," Tori exclaimed, Cobb huffed out a breath,
"You would not be killing them, the fire would," he explained, like that was entirely logical,
"I would still be lighting the fire. I said I would not harm innocent people. I will not do this,"
"You will or I will have my men hurry back to your warehouse home and take your son and murder your husband. You agreed to this so you will uphold your end of this bargain," he hissed at her, drawing close to her face, his eyes almost as inky black as the starless night sky. Tori swallowed,
"I will not kill them," she stated again. William let out an annoyed snort,
"Get them out in whatever way is the least likely to draw attention to yourself or the building. I do not care how you do it, just kill the man and destroy the evidence," Tori fixed William with a glare, but launched herself off the rooftop and to the apartment building across the way.
Tori walked like a ghost up the many flights of stairs to Cornelius's apartment. He was a hermit. No family, not close relatives…they had of course been all murdered. He kept to himself. No one would miss him she told herself. Of course she needed him alive long enough to get that list from him. Before getting to him though, she would need to get everyone else out of the building. In the basement, the location she entered the apartment building in, she turned off the water supply to the sprinkler system and broke the knob off the device so no one could undo her sabotage. Then, she lit a fire in the basement…it would hopefully burn out quickly enough or at least only barely reach the first floor by the time the fire department got there. Everyone would be able to get out. She was now on her way to his rooms. Quickly and quietly she reached the top floor and right as she reached his door the fire alarms rang, but no water fell. Immediately commotion sounded. The fire-station was on the other end of the city, the closest volunteer fire department was still twenty minutes away, plus traffic. She had enough time…she hoped. The door handle wiggled in front of her and it opened, revealing a pale, tall and portly middle aged man with blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He started when he saw her, his eyes going wide and fear leeching any color he had from his already pale skin,
"Sorry, but you're not leaving this building," Tori stated, shoving him back into his apartment and slamming the door shut behind her, just as all the other doors on the floor flew opened and voices shouted for kids—old and young—to hurry and to grab the valuables. The man swallowed at her, his skin already glistening with sweat,
"B-b-but you're Talon," he whispered,
"I know I am," Tori replied, "and I need your help,"
"M-my help?"
"I don't want to kill you," she said, "But I don't know if I can prevent that. You dug quite a hole for yourself,"
"I had to. They deserve to burn for what they've done…not just to my family but to Gotham itself!"
"I know. And I will ensure that, but I need that list and everything you have on the Court. I'm an outcast and mistrusted but I have to do what they tell me or my family will suffer. You give me the information and I can try to get you out, or at least make sure this all wasn't for nothing," the man paused, seeming to consider what she was saying. He understood she was on her side, but he also understood that either way, he would die. And despite his slightly unhealthy lifestyle and obsession with the Court, he still didn't want to die. To be fair, Tori completely understood that notion, having experienced death herself…but in the moment, she didn't have time to care about that, "We don't have that much time. If you are not dead and this apartment on fire soon my…er…keeper, no handler, no that sounds bad too…my evil assassin buddy will come in here and kill you himself and then probably kill me for not killing you myself and then nothing will be done to a save Gotham from the Court," the man still didn't move. He seemed stunned…Tori was kind of worried he was about to have a heart attack, she so did not want to deal with that right now,
"Perhaps this will hasten your decision," she lit a match and held it up between them, "Take me to that list or I drop this and leave you with the doors and windows locked," she hadn't actually locked the doors or windows, but he didn't know that,
"O-okay, come over here, just don't drop it!" he cried, hurrying over to what appeared to be an office…and it was cluttered with all things Court of Owls. Tori immediately started taking photos of the news clippings and string webs connecting various pictures to an Owl mask pinned to the board. She wondered where he got it but didn't ask. It looked store bought and plastic. Cornelius gestured to his computer and she immediately plugged in a UBS drive and started the process to move the documents from the computer to her drive,
"Thank you for doing this,"
"A-a-are you going to kill me?" he asked, his voice choked up with fear. Tori bit her lip and pulled out the box of matches, looking at them with a knot in her chest,
"Yes she is," a voice growled and they both turned to face William who had slipped in through the window. Cornelius gasped and stumbled back into the corner of the room. William stood near the doorway, the man could not escape, "What is taking so long, heir? I sent you here to do a job!"
"I wanted to make sure this was the correct room. As you can see it is,"
"And why have you not killed him yet?" Tori hastily lit a match and held it up for William to see,
"I was deciding on whether to kill him then burn down this apartment or should I just burn it and lock him inside," she stated, putting her free hand on her hip and leaning against the desk to hide the UBS drive on the computer,
"Well I think you have been dawdling on purpose,"
"I haven't," Tori snapped,
"Then. Kill. Him," William hissed, "Now," with a sigh she turned to face the cowering man,
"I'm sorry," she said, raising a kukri knife,
"No, stop…actually I like your other idea better," William stated, a smile forming and Tori felt her insides turn to ice. William grabbed the door handle and snapped it off, effectively locking the room. He then marched to the window, "Drop the match," he stated, "He should have known better than to dance with the Court," Tori hesitated, the match still grasped in between her pointer finger and thumb. She swallowed, looking over at Cornelius who had started crying and mumbling a pray. Sirens sounded off in the distant, drawing closer. The smell of smoke from the basement crept through the front door…she was out of time. With a pained sigh she closed her eyes and dropped the match on a pile of papers that were on the desk…pages she'd already taken photos of. Much of the room had not been investigated. Hopefully Batman could pull something from the ashes. William was already out the window and Tori hurried to follow as the room lit up quickly. She snatched the drive and shoved it into a pocket of her belt and as she neared the window she stopped. Cornelius had started screamed and scrabbling at the door, he'd scampered over as soon as she lit the papers on fire,
"I'm so sorry," she said to him, "But you won't suffer. I promise," he looked at her and before she could look and see what emotion he held in his eyes she threw the Kukri dagger. It was a clean throw, right in the heart and he slumped to the ground, dead before his head hit the wood floor. Tori hoisted herself through the window and onto the rooftop above. She then leapt to the adjacent building where William stood,
"Excellent work—,"
"—shut up. Just shut up, shut up shut up!" Tori yelled at him, "I am so sick of you and your demented games. I will do what you tell me but do not congratulate me on your messed up ideas of fun and success. This is not who I am, I will never be like you…I will never enjoy this!" William stared levelly at her,
"Are you really so sure?" he asked, "You thought up of a pretty demented way to kill him all on your own…and that is how he ended up dying. You did not have to do that. I merely said I liked it…and to drop the match…but I didn't say where," Tori bit her tongue. She so desperately wanted to say she only thought of that to keep suspicion off of her…and to distract him. Tori also held back saying she threw her Kukri dagger at him and ended his life before the flames did. She instead just turned away from him,
"Goodbye William," she ground out, preparing her grappling gun,
"Till June then, heir." William called after her.
Tori crawled through the window to her room quietly. She felt empty. She felt sad. She didn't like this. She didn't know if she could do this. Jason was still up…probably from changing Jacob's diaper or feeding him with a bottle. He looked over at her and smiled…that smile made her break. Tears flooded her eyes and she threw herself into his arms. She clung to him and he held her tight, he was silent at first, but he then planted a kiss on her temple and murmured,
"I'm sorry," it was all he said but it was enough, "you had no choice," he didn't even need to ask what had happened. He knew she would have tried to find a way out of killing anyone…but William had been there and she couldn't risk him finding out her secret. No one could know her secret. It had been a risk to even include her intentions to Danbury. But now, in the arms of her husband she shook those thoughts away, and instead just held on to him…because there would just be rougher and rougher times ahead.
A/N: I am very pleased with this chapter! Please please please REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!
Next chapter on Monday, Nobody's Weapon will be updated on Friday(or sooner if I get some reviews!)
