Gordon
[Gotham City Central Hospital]
Pain. The wincing feeling stings up his body, his muscles ache and his limbs are numb. His vision was blurry, everything he could see was out of focus and all the colors blend together in one whole mess that was his vision. Trying to move or even turn his head, taking a slightly heavier breath proved to be near impossible or just more unconformable than they seemed to be worth. His ears rungs, a sharp ringing blasted from his eardrums with a few voices that sound unclear and arranged into tangled messes as they overlap each other in sound, once whispers become booming echoes and once unwelcomed raised voices slowly turn to barely being audible susurrations.
"...What...-" Bruce mumbled as he figured himself to be lying on top of what seemed a hospital bed, by all means, was not completely unconformable, but it was still a far cry from one of his own beds. Trying to move his hands, feet or any part of himself felt like an all too distant dream at this point. The best that he could do was stir about in the bed, slowly creaking his neck and wiggling his toes, though his movement was still and mostly less desirable than would have liked.
"Bruce? Can you hear me?" came a familiar voice, one that has been engrained in mind since the night that he had lost his parents, the voice from that night. Bruce knew who was talking to him, his head turns to the direction where he pinpointed the voice's location, and it was not too far away. He eyes try to get a clear look, but his vision had other plans. Still blurred and still a cause of a headache. Though Bruce could tell who it was by their outline and figure, it was him.
"Gordon? Where am I?" Bruce asks as his voice was still weak and just about audible to the other man. Trying to sit upward, he was greeted with a sharp jolt of pain in his stomach and where he wound would be. Jim was quick to his feet as he gently eased the man back onto his back. Bruce realized that he did not have strength left that he thought and thus Gordon easily put him back down with somewhat of easy-going guidance. Bruce looks up as he sees the man leaning over him, trying to talk to the older man, his words were jumbled and in some instances indecipherable to the commissioner.
"Ease up, you've been through a lot," Jim tells the man lying down "Listen, once you are fully back with it...we need to talk about what happened earlier tonight" he straightens himself as he walks to the window of the room, looking to the outside world. The bright lights of Gotham shine brightly within the darkness that the night brought with its presence. The bright neon-red, blue and yellows from the next street over from outside find themselves igniting his face with their glaze "Because I know that you are hiding something, please I am asking you to be honest with me, Bruce"
"Jim...what are you talking about?" Bruce had to fight himself to be able to get his words out and to be heard by Gordon. The commissioner turns on his torso to greet the stare of the other man. Jim slides his hands into the pockets of his suit. Slowly and steadily the rest of his body follows as he fully turns to Bruce's direction. His footsteps echo throughout the room as he walks back to the man. Each step getting louder and louder to almost a thud in the back of the billionaire's mind.
"Don't do that, Bruce. Do not treat me like I am an idiot, I have never treated you in that way even with all the reckless things you did all those years ago. We are both adults, and I expect you to start acting like one. You suddenly come back after ten years, and you don't even bother to say hello to your friends - instead you spend most of your time locked up in Wayne Manner...I want to know is what happened while you were gone? Something must have happened to change you...and I want to know what that was" Gordon took a seat in one of the chairs placed beside the bed. The older man folds his arms and slants his body to lean towards the man.
"Jim? What are you trying to imply?" Bruce aggrieved as he uses all of his strength to finally lift himself up, now sitting up he looks to the commissioner "If I didn't know any better, I would think that this was an interrogation" he vexes. His muscles still were numb and even tingled in some spots.
"Interrogation? Bruce, I'm worried for your well being. Being gone and isolated cannot have been good for your physical or mental health. I'm trying to talk to you, I am trying to see if the Bruce Wayne that I was proud of is still in there somewhere. You have friends here, remember?" Gordon's voice was hard-hitting to Bruce, though he saw it coming a mile away, yet it still managed to hurt him. Seeing that Gordon was not planning on giving up his relentless attempts to g information.
"Of course I do. How could I forget all of you? Without you, I would have never been able to move on from the night that my parents were killed. You are the reason why I could finally sleep easy, and I could never thank you enough for that" Bruce acknowledges the man's words, showing the side of Bruce that Gordon thought was lost. Jim breathed easy as sees the parts of the old Bruce still being here, which was much more than he was hoping to discover, however, he was grateful to be proven wrong which was mostly never a relief in his line of work.
"Then why are you keeping us so distant, even Selina acts like you are a stranger to her" Gordon inquires as he sees Bruce slightly become unnerved. Bruce was many things, but easily taken back was no longer one of those qualities of himself, he had long discarded that fragment.
"I was gone for ten years, yet she waited for me to return. I could see in her eyes, her pain, her sorrow and all the sleepless nights...how could I come back and look her in the eyes after I did that to her? A part of me wishes that I never left and stayed in Gotham...with her" Bruce confesses, with the feeling now returned to his hands he moves it over his shoulder. His eyes tense as he experts a grunt of pain "I returned to Gotham to make good on my parent's legacy, that's why I came back...I thought that I could throw away all that I had before I left, but it looks like I was wrong to do so"
"Bruce, remember what I told you that night when we first met?" Gordon raised an eyebrow as he asked him.
"How could I forget it? However dark and scary the world might be right now..."
"There will be light" Jim finishes "Gotham is not the type of city where you can go at it alone, you need friends...you need people that you can trust. That's what I learned when I first arrived here, trust me as I speak from experience, one man can't hope to save this city alone, even now I don't think that I can..." Gordon admits as runs his hand against his chin, a couple of glances towards the door; he sees Harvey Bullock was stood on the other side as he knocks on the window looking outward to the ward.
"I will be back, stay here" Jim stands up and walks out of the room.
Bruce quickly looks to the side of him, his phone was residing on the counter next to the bed. Picking it up he holds it to his ear "Lucius, can you hear me?" he asks.
"Bruce? Good to know that you are still kicking, what do you need?"
"Send the car, and bring my nicest suit" Bruce answers as he steadily pulls himself from the bed and onto his feet "I know Talia, and when she is dedicated to something...she won't hurt any civilians, but she will have no problem killing any criminal she sees fit to complete her mission...I can't allow that...I won't let her take any lives..." Bruce stumbles to the ground as his breath spiked "My nerves are still messed up, even with the Batsuit 2.0, Talia would easily win if I faced her head on...Lucius one more thing..."
"Whatever you need, I'm there for you"
"Thanks, I need you to equip the suit with the NW 2.0 and the new Batarangs prototypes that you were developing"
"Bruce...those are called prototypes for a reason; they haven't even made it out of the testing stage yet"
"Well now is the perfect time to test them. I didn't spend all those years training just to let Gotham fall back into the hellhole that It was before, this is our city. And we are going to show the court, Talia and the Talon that we are not going let it go without a fight..."
Outside the room, Jim and Harvey saunter down the hall "What's the problem?" the commissioner asks towards his partner.
"A man was found with a pipe shoved through his chest on the upside of town" Harvey sighs as he looks to Jim "He was known criminals, and we have multiple eye-witness accounts of some guy that seemed to be gliding from that area...It's him. That Bat has finally lost it just like I told you" Harvey seemed almost too scared to finish what he was trying to say. Jim caught that his partner's hands were shaking and that he was struggling to get the words out. Jim places his hands on Harvey's shoulder.
"Harvey?"
"This why you should have listened to me. After everything that we have been through, all the trust that we have each other - you threw it all away the moment the bat appeared in Gotham. I have been telling you over and over the past few days that he cannot be trusted, yet you chose to ignore me and put your faith in him!" Harvey shoves Jim's hand away from him "All the bloodshed that he has caused...that's all on you, Jim. I hope that you know that and are willing to accept it"
Meanwhile across Town
"Oh god, it hurts..." Selina cries as she was sitting down on a metal flight of stairs as Alfred was tending to her left leg. Her boot was already pulled off and was settled on the ground beside them. Her leg was bleeding heavily, the crimson liquid drips onto the ground as it slowly forms into a red puddle that mixes with the dirt of the ground. Selina's leg appeared to have a hole blown through it from the bullet. Alfred was kneeling and was using two small medical instruments to explore the wound. Selina hisses as she breaths heavily, her chest moved to sync with her inhales and exhales "Shit! That hurts! Could you seriously not get anything to numb the pain before you started doing that?!"
"Deepest apologies, Miss Kyle. You are losing a lot of blood, so by the time I could have procured that, you most likely would have been dead by the time I got back to you" Alfred replies carefully moves his gloved hands with the small surgical which caused the woman to wince in pain and to almost kicking the man in his face in reflex, just barely missing "Please remain still, the last thing we need is for me to also need medical attention"
"Remain Still? I would like to see you sit still if you have a bullet in you" Selina growls, not to threaten the man but to show her distress as she was in agony because of the wound and the sight of her blood leaking from her and the pool of her own blood that was much larger than she would have liked "Alfred, she managed to take out Bruce without breaking a sweat, what the hell can we do against her? She threatened Bruce that she would kill me if he got in her way and since she knocked me on my ass even easier than Bruce...I actually am hoping that he decides to leave this one to her..." Selina's words were mixed and mingled with sharp pauses as she took moments to breathe and to adjust to every jolt of pain.
"I can't believe that Bruce would...well be close to an al Ghul, after all, that her family has done to this city. Both Ra's and Nyssa brought this city into bloody hell, so I'm not expecting anything different from this Talia if she is allowed to continue running a much..." Alfred comments before as he steadily pulls out the bullet from the woman's leg "Got it" he places the bullet onto the ground as he reaches for a small needle and some thread.
"Oh they were much closer than that, she was taunting me about their special times, I can't believe that Bruce would do this...yet again I have been repeating that same phrase over and over since the day he got back" Selina's eyes widen as she feels Alfred pushing the now threaded needle through the skin of her leg as he tries to shut the wound "Ow! Once again, there is no painkiller" she hisses. Alfred ignores her as he dove the needle across and sealed the bottom of the woman's wound.
"it's hard to believe that the boy who left the city and the man who returned to it is indeed the same person, but at the end of the day...he is. Ten years is a long time for someone who leaves everything they care about behind, but even this is too much for my taste. I never thought of Bruce as someone just to randomly sleep with a woman, so I can only guess that did indeed love each other at one point. As hard as it is to believe, it is the only logical conclusion" Alfred's hands work to seal the rest of the wound "And I think you are good to go, Miss Kyle. Though you may have a limp for a few weeks and I would recommend no strenuous movements to be made with that leg of yours..."
"So let me get this straight, I'm out of commission, Bruce is out of commission, you were already limping from back with Bane, Gordon would not even be able to touch her considering how his fight with Talia's sister went...are we seriously supposed to just sit back and let Talia tear this city apart to look for the court of Owls and the Talon while on her way killing whose knows how many people?" Selina runs her hands across her closed wound, wincing as she even lightly touches it.
"I'm afraid that I don't know, miss Kyle. Talia could indeed die by the court or vice versa, I am sure of one thing though...we could see many lives be lost, and Master Bruce knows that. No matter how broken he may be, he would never give up...and it is up to us to believe in him to win...if Bruce trusted this woman enough to love her...then I know that has it in her to do the right thing..." Alfred's voice was full of uncertainty which Selina quickly picked up on.
"Well I'm done doing that, he doesn't deserve my trust" Selina grabs onto the railing as she tries to pull herself up, with her left foot unable to touch the ground without her gasping and shuddering in pain "Let's face it, Gotham is screwed...again...and there is no one that can even save it this time" Alfred stood to his feet and held out his hand to the woman which she swipes away "I'm fine. I just need to work on my footing..." she pushes her boot back onto her leg as she looks to Alfred "You should go to the hospital - to Bruce...he needs you a lot more than I do right now..."
"Miss Kyle, I strongly suggest that I first take you home. You will get nowhere fast with that leg of yours if you go at it on foot" Alfred recommends to the woman who could barely stand in place, let alone walk or move through the city in her state.
"I'll be fine, but tonight was all over the news...do you really think that Bruce's clone would give up on such an easy opportunity to kill Bruce now that he locked in the hospital? You need to get there as fast as you can, thanks for the...help..." Selina thanks the man.
[Gotham City Central Hospital]
"We are still partners, Harvey. Things have just been too much for the past few months...I'm sorry if you feel that I have been putting you down" Gordon tells Harvey. Both men stood opposite each other "Maybe I was a fool to look to some man cloaked in the shadows...to hope that he could actually be the hero that Gotham needs...I let it blind me...to my friends, I'm sorry but the bat could not have done this...it has to be an imposter" Jim reluctantly tells the man stood next to him.
"Oh yeah? How can you possibly know?" Harvey counters as he throws his hands up.
"I just do, you need to trust me on this!" Gordon nearly yells at the man, but with a just slightly less volume to it. A moment of silence passed between them Afterward, Jim's eyes look over than man as he now feels ashamed by the way he spoke to his closest friend "...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." he tries to explain himself.
"I think you did. Listen to yourself...this freak is trying to drive us apart...because he knows that I'm no longer going to trust him and that I see him for what he truly is...a freak and a murderer, and I have been booking those sort of guys before you even came to this city" Harvey protests the other man.
"You were also happy with yourself to play along with the corruption long before I came to this city too, so don't try to have the moral high ground - no one in this city deserves it at least of all...you. No one is perfect, but the bat is not your culprit...the sooner you learn to see that that better it will turn out" Jim shoots back, this time he did not feel nearly as bad as the last time that lashed out at his partner. Bullock's eyes narrow as he did his best to restrain himself from acting on his anger.
Their attention was brought upward to the lights along with the ceiling as the lights begin to flicker on and off. Eventually, the lights turn off and remain so; leaving the two men and the rest of the floor in the dark "I don't like this...one bit..." Harvey comments as he pulls out his gun with Jim doing the same "Check on Bruce, I'll check the floor" Bullock tells Gordon as they both nod in agreement. While Harvey went on his own way, Jim backtracked Bruce's room.
Walking into the room, Jim sees that Bruce missing and that the window to the room was open "Oh no..." he says under his breath as he then walks back out to the room "Harvey! Bruce is gone!" he calls out while he follows down the path where Bullock went his own way.
Harvey was deep in concertation, holding his gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. He slowly paced across the hall, turning a corner jittering at the sound of something that moved behind him. He quickly turns and points his gun "What the?" he thinks to himself as he saw a woman standing before him. Talia gives a light smile to him as she punches the man in the face; knocking him out "You'll be thankful once you awake" She steps over him as she reaches for the sword that was on her back.
"There is no point in hiding. I know that you are here, so come on and let's do this..." Talia's ears perk as she hears something move from within the darkness in front of her as two white orbs shine, looking straight at her "I like to think of myself as a fair woman. If you tell me what I want to know...you shall receive a quick death" she raises her blade and holds it the direction of her target "Well? What do you say to that Talon?" Talia smirks.
"Talon? I am so much more than that now" the voice booms from the shadows as a dagger was tossed to the woman's direction. Talia expeditiously lifts hand hands and catches the blade between her index and middle finger. She drops it to the ground and kicks it away from them both.
"As you wish, a painful death shall be your end" Talia flicks her hair as she spins her blade "You and your friends will regret crossing the league of shadows...and for hurting my love. These will be your last moments on this earth, I recommend that you make the best of them..." Talia runs towards him with her blade in hand. Owlman's white orbs narrow as he moves out of the way from one of the woman's swings. Talia spins on her heels and kicks the man in his stomach, which he used his hands to grab the woman's ankles as he throws her against one of the windows that looked into one of the rooms; causing it to slightly crack.
Talia rolls back onto her heels to avoid one of the man's slashes from his daggers "Talia al Ghul, standing in my way will only result in your death" the Owlman warns as Talia smirks. She jumps against the wall and hits the man in his helmet; knocking him back a few steps. She moves behind him and holds the tip of her blade against his neck, using her free hand to pull the man's head back. She leans against his left ear and grins as they both remain still.
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing...now tell me. Where is the location of the court of owls? Tell me or I will slit your throat right here and now..." Talia warns as she gently presses the blade against the man's neck, slightly drawing blood from a small cut that the action created "I will not ask you again..." she apprises with a growl to her voice. Her eyes look ahead of her as she sees a flashlight focus on her. Before they stood Jim as he points his gun to them.
"GCPD! Stop what you are doing, right now and put your hands in the air!" Gordon warns them both.
"Oh for crying out loud" Talia sighs unknowingly loosening her grip around Owlman which he noticed. Taking one of his daggers he rams into Talia's shoulder; causing the woman to let out a loud sheik. Owlman then quickly turns on his heels and punches the woman in the face. Talia's eyes narrow as she pulls the knife out of her shoulder and bares it as her own weapon. Rubbing the spot where Owlman's fist landed on her cheek, she sees that the man in question had vanished and she was now alone with Gordon who still aimed at her with his gun "Good work, officer. Letting someone who murdered your own men walk free. You must be proud of yourself"
"You were going to kill him, no matter what's he done. I can't allow you to kill another person in cold blood" Jim answers back.
"Maybe you might sing another tune if he is too kill someone that you loved? Perhaps the mother of your little girl?" Talia inquires as she places her sword on her back. Gordon's eyes lit up with curiosity at the woman's words, he steadily lowers his weapon but never taking his eyes off of her.
"Barbara? What are you talking about why would that guy have something against her?" Jim asks.
"You haven't figured it out? Well sorry, but this is a family affair so I have no business with you..." Talia turns as her back faces the commissioner. Jim kneels down to his unconscious partner, checking the pulse of his neck and taking a light breath as he knows that his partner was still alive.
"Who are you? And why did you save us?" Jim asks.
"Please don't flatter yourself, I didn't do that for you...you mean a lot to someone close to me, that's all" Talia clarifies to Jim. As the commissioner looks back to the woman she was gone, vanished without a trace, now it was only him and Harvey in the hall.
"I'm getting really tired of people doing that"
[Across Gotham]
Talia stood on the roof as she looks over Gotham, arms resting by her sides. Her eyes taking in the early hours of the dawn over the city. The early hours of Gotham brought with it an entirely new world. Her eyes slightly tense as she feels someone watching her from behind "So you did not listen to my warning? Well what are you planning to do now, lover?" she asks the man stood behind her. Batman's eyes narrow at the woman's words.
"I know you, Talia. You have an unyielding honor. You could never bring yourself to take innocents lives to get what you want. I knew that you wouldn't really hurt Selina just like I knew that you would save Gordon and Harvey..." Batman stands in the last remaining shadows of the roof. His eyes watch the woman endlessly. Talia's lips curve into a smirk as she turns her head to him "Using me as bait for the Talon...I expected nothing less..."
"It was either that or you going out and getting yourself killed...so I chose the option where we live"
"You were standing on this roof for over an hour before I arrived, why did you want me to find you?"
"The last time I saw my father...he told me that you would one day that you would cross paths with me and that I was meant to train you the best way that I could. He also instructed me to never step foot in Gotham and to let you forge your own fait...not to interfere even if your life was at risk..." Talia explains.
"I know...you told me this before...when we first met all those years ago" Batman comments.
Talia turns her body to face him "He knew everything about you, your destiny, my role in your training..., but never told me that I would fall in love with you...he didn't tell me that you would mean more to me than anyone else in my life...he told me once before he left that he was never coming back, but his last request was for me to train you. I should have hated you for killing him, but I love you too much...it hurts knowing that I was supposed to lead you to your death by just letting you back to Gotham on your own..." she walks towards the shadowed figure.
"This is why I came to you. Why you were tasked to train me...this moment. For me to prove myself to be able to protect Gotham...but over the last few days, everyone I have known has warned me about the dangers of going through the world alone...about my one-man war on the crime of Gotham. I need your help to save Gotham...going at it alone any long longer would just be putting this city in even more danger" Batman requests he sees Talia inch even closer to him.
"Help you? What the hell do you think that I have been doing? I got you out of the way so that I could tackle the Court of Owls by myself. I don't want to see you die, I didn't even want to let you leave me, I only did so because I didn't want you to leave me by force...I love, Bruce. I cherish what we have, all our good times, all of our love, you are the only man that I have ever loved and I would do anything in my to make you happy, but you are in no shape to face the court even with me by your side" Talia tilts her head as she and Batman were only a few centimeters apart from each other.
"If I don't do something soon...people are going to die, I can't have that on my conscience and, neither can you - no matter how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise. I'm asking you to do the right thing, if you do really love me, then please help me" the dark knight requests the woman stood in front of him.
"Of course, I love you. How could you suggest that I don't? Bruce we have known each other for a whole decade and been together for more than half of it" Talia crosses her arms as exhales "Fine, we will do it together if that is what you truly desire...and I know where to begin searching..."
"Where?" Batman inquires.
"A long time ago my father conquered most of the known world with Gotham being one of the places that reign was felt. My father would leave a Lazarus pit in every city that he ruled...with one being under Gotham, one that I was told was recently used over two days ago, and the only people that would have known about its existence is me, my father and...her..." the dark-haired woman explains as her green eyes look into his own. Batman's eyes widen as he hears the woman's words "I got the feeling that she never left Gotham and was hiding until she could make a play for power..."
"Wait, you mean...?" Batman says in disbelief.
"Yes, lover. Why Talon has all of your training when I was the one who trained you...how the court knew the secrets of the league of shadows and was trying to kill Gordon. Gordon was supposed to be in that station the night that Talon attacked it, luckily you managed to get him away from it that night. And that's why the court is most likely going to go after the mother of his child: Barbra Kean. It has all been the work of my dear sister, Nyssa" Talia finishes as her eyes focus on Batman.
Chapter End