"Damning?" Malcolm's hand spasmed against his thigh. Excitement more than nerves or stress. Things were finally starting to go in a positive direction. Finally. "The files are that detailed then?"
Not a surprise given the three men involved. All three tended to pay close attention to details; facts. Were nothing but thorough, leaving no stone unturned or theory unchecked. Once they found a trail to follow, they followed it to the end. That's what made them formidable adversaries to men like Nicholas Endicott.
"I can see why Endicott wants to get his hands on these files." Sorcha's small, delicate fingers lightly touched the tablet set before her on the counter. Malcolm imagined them stroking his hair, his face. "If this information ever gets out, he's done for."
"Are there lists of those who are in his pocket?" Anticipation of what the files contained chased away Malcolm's fatigue. "What organizations he's affiliated with? His shell corporations?"
"It has all of that." Sorcha got up to remove the kettle from the stove before it started whistling. "And more."
"Why didn't Batman use this information to stop Endicott?" He aimed the question at Raya while watching Sorcha move about the kitchen. "What was he waiting for?"
"Malcolm, you have to understand that this isn't just about Endicott. There's a group Endicott's involved with that are a far larger threat that Batman has been working to destroy."
That... didn't sound good. Malcolm hadn't spent much time in Gotham in recent years. His obligations to the academy, the FBI, and then the NYPD kept him busy.
'That's a, uh, bit of a lie, isn't it, son?'
Malcolm hid a grimace by ducking his head. Much as he didn't want to admit it, his father spoke the truth. The FBI and his consulting job weren't the main reasons he avoided Gotham and the people who were another family to him. The biggest reason was the woman staring at him, head slightly tilted to the side, mouth pursed. Her eyes, though, were what held Malcolm's attention. They were green. Not hazel green, not emerald, not green flecked with hints of gold or brown or blue.
Just a pure and hypnotic shade of green.
They were the eyes of a predator, farsighted yet focused on her chosen prey. That being him, Malcolm realized, fingers rattling against his thigh. Sorcha wasn't the only one with the ability to see through him. Raya could, too.
To a more accurate degree.
If anyone understood the dark things inside him, it was Raya. The same shadow creatures dwelled within her that did him. Her traumas were also tied to her father. A man who hired his father to kill her and her mother. And when my father failed to kill them, he thought as a sound came from upstairs, he shot her mother in front of her.
Matthew Berkeley then tried to get revenge on his father by kidnapping him and Raya. The only thing that saved them was a cataclysmic earthquake. Raya's father died during the initial tremors but his hold on her remained.
Much like his father's did him.
Raya had thus far remained quiet about a few of his... questionable choices of late. Meaning she was waiting for her moment to lecture him, remind him he had family and friends who loved him, and be heartbroken if something bad happened to him. She'd also insist he stop seeing his father, and after he refused, enlist the rest of the family to press her point.
Subtle, Raya was not.
Especially when it came to the people she cared about.
"Malcolm?" Raya's hand brushed his. "You okay?"
"I'm—"
"No," her and Sorcha said in unison.
His brow furrowed. "But—"
"Use that word." Raya's tone was like tempered steel. "I dare you."
Malcolm relented. What choice did he have? It wasn't as if he stood a chance against either of them. "I thought Endicott was head of his criminal emperor?"
"He is head of his own empire." Raya moved back to her seat. "He is not, however, the head of the entire empire. That position belongs to someone else."
"Who?"
"All we know is they are called the Judge of Owls."
"Owls?" Malcolm's hand spasmed as images of people in owl masks flashed through his mind. "You're not talking The Court of Owls?"
"I'm afraid so."
That, Malcolm realized as Sorcha poured hot water into mugs he had never seen before, is not good.
Not that things had been all that great before she revealed the organizations involvement.
The Court of Owls added a complication they didn't need. Added to the danger already surrounding them. Malcolm first learned of the Court while attending Gotham Academy. One didn't live in the city without hearing about this mysterious group of elites who proceeded over Gotham. Whispers of the secret society reached the ears of the FBI a few months after he graduated the academy. Because of the years he spent in Gotham, and his close relationship with the Wayne family, Malcolm was dispatched to work alongside Batman and his specially chosen task force. What they found went beyond anything Malcolm anticipated. Multiple "John Does" with bodies crucified by antique throwing knives, all marked with the image of an owl.
'Strix varia,' his father said. 'They readily grab whatever prey they can find but one of their favorites is...'
"Bats," Malcolm murmured. "They prey on bats."
"Hm?" Sorcha set a mug of tea in front of Raya. "What about bats?"
"Owls hunt bats." Malcolm wet his suddenly dry lips with the tip of his tongue. "They're the natural enemy of bats."
"One bat in particular." Raya folded her fingers around the steaming mug. "The Court has become obsessed with destroying Batman."
"Why?" Sorcha questioned.
"Batman threatens their control over Gotham for one."
The Court, and specifically their Talons, pushed Batman almost to his limits. Malcolm recalled the injuries he sustained while trapped in the Court's underground labyrinth. Scars added to scars from previous contests he narrowly won. Malcolm suspected Batman endured a wealth of emotional trauma while fighting his way out of the Court's stronghold. Things he knew firsthand would never heal. Not that Batman would acknowledge it if directly asked.
"Are the stories about the Court true?" Sorcha handed a mug to Malcolm but he turned it down with a shake of his head. His hands shook hard enough now he feared he'd dump hot tea all over himself. Sorcha set the mug next to her own and returned the kettle to the stove. "Or are they embellished to make them seem more fearsome than they are?"
"Zack Snyder likes to think he created a new league of villains with the Court of Owls." Raya lifted her mug to take a careful sip of the fragrant brew. Mint. The only kind she drank. Like Sorcha. "He merely took some of the lore and designed a comical rendition of it."
Sorcha's lips twitched. "Not a fan, I take it?"
"I was of the original story he released." Her mouth thinned into a hard line. Full disapproval and disdain. "But he then took it too far when he introduced the Batman Who Laughs and his retinue of psychotic Robins. All to fulfill his desire to have Batman kill."
"Gee," Sorcha lightly kidded, "Tell us how you really feel."
"Don't get her started," Malcolm warned. "She's like me about the wrong flavor of Jello."
"Nobody's as bad as you about the wrong flavor of Jello, Bright-Boy." The fondness in her pet name brought a smile to Malcolm's lips. "Even Alfred stocks only your favorite flavor."
"And Twizzlers."
"Bruce bought him black licorice once," Raya said. "Ten minute diatribe on how terrible it is. And he supported his stance with honest to god facts." She smiled at him over the rim of her cup. "Bruce wanted to adopt you right then and there."
"Because I made an argument about black licorice being terrible?"
"Because you made an argument he couldn't argue against." Raya set her cup down. "Let's focus on the Court of Owls, though, shall we? They're the present threat we need to worry about."
"Are we talking Cartel or Taliban level here?" Sorcha asked.
"Let's say the Court of Owls makes the League of Assassins look like a street gang."
Malcolm wished Raya was overstating things but she wasn't. If he had to choose between the Court or the League, he'd pick the League. They only had to worry about expertly trained assassins, bat-human hybrids, and the fanatical Ra's al Ghul with the League.
Talons were deadlier and more formidable an enemy.
"They're that massive an organization then?"
Raya nodded. "The Court has operations on every continent, agents in nearly every organization around the globe, and a slew of Talons they can awaken at any moment to carry out their orders."
"And Endicott is one of them," Malcolm said. "Right?"
"As was my father." Raya's face remained cool; composed but her eyes told a different story. A wealth of things Malcolm understood far too well darkened those green depths. "I will assume a member of the Milton family was too."
"Don't tell my mother." Malcolm grimaced. "You've seen how well she handled my father being a serial killer."
Alcohol, pills, sarcasm, and helicopter parenting barely scratched the surface of how well his mother coped with what his father was.
"I'd be surprised if Jessica doesn't know about the Court, actually." Raya glanced at her phone when it buzzed. Malcolm assumed it was her cousin letting her know she was almost finished with whatever modifications were being made to his mother's security system. "Not the corrupt organization with a retinue of undead assassins part but the compromised of only the crème de crème of high-society one."
"How does Martin Whitly fit into this?" Sorcha brushed her hair back behind her ears. Glanced at Malcolm when he sighed. "We know this has something to do with him. It always does."
"Your father wondered that, as well." Raya waved towards the tablet. "It was what he was working on before he passed away."
Sorcha's eyes widened. "My father was looking into the Court of Owls?"
"The Court became your father's focus after Deputy Turner took over the Watkins-Whitly case."
"Why, though?"
"I'm not sure," Raya admitted with a small, sheepish smile. "Batman didn't allow me full access to the files until tonight."
"You didn't have full access to them?" Malcolm couldn't mask his surprise. "Why not?"
"Because I was barred from investigating anything related to your father, my father, Inceptive, and the Court while I was pregnant."
Malcolm's eyebrow tilted. "And you obeyed?"
"Unlike you, Jason, and the dope I married, I listen when my mentor tells me to back off."
Malcolm shot a look at Sorcha when she snickered. "Don't encourage her."
"I'm not."
"Right." Malcolm looked back at Raya. "I also know you. You only pretended to listen."
"I did listen, Malcolm. I did not investigate. I did, however, ask Calvin Rose to see if he could figure out where the Court had bases of operations, who the presiding members are, and what Talons they might awaken. The Court of Owls instructed Endicott to put together his ring of serial killers. Calvin obtained documents from the man who helped cover their connection." She indicated the tablet with a nod. "Something else your father was also looking into. He just couldn't figure out why given the Court have Talons at their disposal."
"And Batman hasn't figured out why, either?"
"Oh, he has a theory."
Malcolm had only been feeling moderately grim up to that point. Something told him that was going to change once Raya revealed Batman's speculations as to why the Court allowed the use of men like his father.
Like John Watkins.
Like Robert Harwood.
He couldn't shy away from the truth, no matter how bad it was or how hurtful it turned out, though. Neither could Sorcha, who sighed, and said, "You're about to tell us something we're not going to want to hear, aren't you?"
"I'm afraid so, yes."
Sorcha slid out of her chair to move closer to him. "Alright." She slid her fingers between his. Strength and support. Comfort and solidarity. None of which he deserved after how he treated her. "Tell us."
"Batman believes this has to do with a prophecy." Raya's expression was as grim as her tone. "One about a demon who was created at the dawn of time."
"A demon?" Sorcha frowned. "What demon?"
"He's called Barbatos." Raya's sigh shivered through Malcolm. "He's the…"
"Destroyer of the Multiverses," Malcolm whispered, hand spasming in Sorcha's.
"Yes," Raya said. "And the Court wants to bring him here by killing all firstborn children of Court members."