The Court of Owls – Family of the Cowl – Silent Night

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Chapter 4: Say No More!

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Alfred stood beside his Master Bruce, Miss Selina Kyle, Ava Maria Grayson, Timothy Drake and Kori and Dick. The rain had stopped for now, while Ava's cute little head was nestled nicely atop her mother's chest. Kori leaned in to hug her daughter. After that, Ava had not said a word to them. Raven had called it a psychic "burn out" or too much for her powers to withstand all at once emotionally. She slept and healed as the adults went over a few steps.

Jason Todd however, stayed close enough to eye ball a few feet away from them by the study door; Slade Wilson, Cassandra Cain, and really that was all he could think to add. The earlier Wayne manor "guests" had been shuttled off to see to their own needs for the night. Bruce had spoken about the event being unplanned, and that he'd deal with the rest while his, ehem …guests took to their own routes to get home. To bar the doors and sleep off any champagne nightmares.

There was only Slade; the last person that anyone might have figured had a say in the rest to follow, as Batman kept an even sharper eye on his ward and family while this merc was a part of their little war council meeting… Slade was definitely up to something. He wouldn't quit his interrogations until the man coughed up all he knew. Until Bruce lost his edge so that Wilson could beam over his victory for once.

"The Court of Owls, is back." Bruce didn't delay as the words made their way to every ear.

The room's inhabitants grew stiller than the walls in the background by those words of warning.

"Slade isn't a friend of mine, or yours either. This is all very disturbing news to me…" Selina squinted at the merc across from her who'd since shown the room his face from below that metal helmet of an anti – heroic knight of valor. He was no such person to anyone in the room, all except for how Dick looked away from Slade's glance here and again. Was something going on between those two? Bruce opened his mouth to add something, yet Jason beat him to the punch.

"I really can't say I blame you guys for keeping a distance from this loony." He sniffed. "Wilson has a track record in stalking side kicks, I hear too –

"That was a personal matter, nothing more." Slade defended quickly, going silent as Timothy now put in his two cents rather sooner than his siblings could as well. "I was turned into a turkey tonight and even found out that we had even worse news – if the Court has a plan to do what they tried to the last time they took over the city, then why are we fighting at all if his alliance with us could possibly save Gotham?"

"Tim is right about sometimes bending the rules." Bruce was the first to say it. Slade cocked a brow in interest. "Slade. You fought the Talons and even got some dirt on them through keeping a hostage." Bruce nodded to the merc, who cleared his throat to reiterate from before. "They may be closer than you first guessed, Wayne." He admitted with a shrug, "I do admit, if I hadn't come to Gotham looking for who had killed my last partner a month ago earlier; if it took all autumn to trace the killer to this city, I'd be missing the holidays for a bloody tug of war to join in on. And do you think it's old news as well, Grayson? That your history is intertwined around this city?"

"I wasn't around when they made that last threat." Dick frowned. "I'm not who needs saving, the people of Gotham are our top priority." He preached to the white-haired adult.

"I'll be asking you again, Wilson." Bruce cut the one eyed male off. Slade; knowing he had to do by their contract, agreed to pay a listen. "Will you help us to defeat the Talons if all comes down to stopping their operation, if they are trying to take over Gotham from within the shadows."

Slade brought a hand to his chin and hummed, liking the extra attention a little too much. He came to understand one thing, that deal could be one of a give – and take nature. "I would but in return I only want one thing; I want to work beside Grayson as his bod–

"Dick isn't going to fight unless he has to, and he doesn't need your help to do it!" Cassandra exclaimed, knowing that Slade was still that manipulative asshole that had shattered the first Robin into becoming Nightwing. Or, something along those lines.

"I also stand with this plan being too much to bare….and, our child is not safe here…" Kori agreed and smoothed down Ava's silver locks from her face. A longing to go back to California and recover was there, yet Dick's mind remained unsure. As Slade and Bruce both anticipated, Dick begrudgingly asked to leave the room, while Jason took to being the man's back up security that his dad had hired – to look out for Richard's ass at all times. This "cultish contingency of order and distrust that was a part of the Court's own agenda, was not only vital, they had decided to dig their claws into the bat's clan of brothers and sisters, so there surely would be feathers flying about in a couple of off - stray hours.

Both parties knew to be ready and both leading men knew that they'd possibly be up against the most impossible of all impossible odds.

Undying immortals.

Slade brought up his palm and had one last question left on the tip of his tongue, unexpectedly. "Is there room for one more player, at this table?"

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Dick paced outside the door, backing off into the hallway that led off towards a wooden balustrade which ran down to the first floor. Jason speed walked and tried to increase his chances of confronting his sneaky older brother. Grayson had been a spy once, so he was good at avoiding crowds or even just keeping out of your radar. "Dickie – bird! Hey!" Jason Todd though? He didn't care if people stopped and cocked a gun his way.

"What? Quit following. I'm trying to think, Jason." Dick stomped off and opened the doors to the kitchen with too much strain. He convinced himself to sit right down in the closest seat, away from that buzz the dragon's influence had left behind, a trail of red and he could see those wisps of energy connected to everyone who…

Dick groaned and made Jay startle a little by the timing. Once he was seated, Dick folded his head into his hands, legs jumping as if he'd gotten a real bug up his ass to have a melodramatic episode this late.

Todd hummed and got an idea – and not because he had missed partaking in the carving of that bird.

He rummaged through the fridge until something caught the anarchist's eye. He drew fort the answers in a Tupperware for one small serving size. Licking his lips, he tried to keep Dick right where he was.

"Want a scone –

"No!" Dick shouted at the dummy. Todd blinked with one hand to the fridge door, as he almost withdrew the offer.

Dick sighed. "No, Jay…but…you won't understand. Kori and I barely know how to go about this news ourselves …. You don't want to be around me. I just need to be alone." Was all Dick told the younger male, who'd found a piece of pie in the fridge and was willing to skimp on his diet all for tonight.

Did he ever need those, anyway? Who cared!

"You, are way too serious about dem daddy issues." Jason shut the fridge with a clack back in place before reseating himself across from Dick with that mother daddy of all scones he'd promised. "Skinny brat, you need to get back into some of that action –

"No, Jay…You know what could happen." Dick's eyes filled up with fear at those words, nearly having him fall from his seat in that moment.

Jay shrugged. "Okay, but if you wanna be really sorry," He wave his fork around a he spelled out what he meant, "then you have to eat one of Alfred's scones…C'mon Dick! You know you can't resist how plain they are…!" He grinned a devil's grin, trying to lighten the mood by being a tease. "And you have to… actually, like it...No jam for you otherwise, Dickie." He tutted the Grinch - cop. "Dry to the bone!"

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Tim heard the faintest chuckling as he came to see a little bit of why Dick had left the room. With a snort, Richard stood and with command in his voice, he shushed the pesky outlaw.

"NO. I'm not going to have that…you don't own my soul."

Jay raised a face to Tim, who gawked at how red Dick's face seemed.

"Everyone down!"

Cass bounded in and leaped through the air to land a soft blow to the back of Richard's neck. His head fell into the table top, scone dropped, while Jay gasped and Timmy shrieked.

" AH ! What the heck is wrong with you two?? He's being haunted by an evil spirit!! Why would you DO that???" Tim looked over the now unconscious Grayson with a trembling lip. He was going to kill them both.

Stupid hot headed Jay and the ex - assassin from hell!

"He's, asleep." Cass peered over, coyly acting as if nothing had happened just now.

"Yeah, Timmy." Jay acted like it was fine here, but he still had a trembling set of fingers that had tossed that last scone onto the floor.

Jay always knew he didn't appreciate the Brit's cooking. Not Dick! He would have never said no….so, the prophecy wasn't a hoax?

"So, he's really possessed??"

"YES!" Tim shouted into the outlaw's ear. "You….at least Cass stopped it from causing any more trouble. You just had to mess with him…honestly!" Tim Drake. The brainy Robin, now Red Robin and quite daring as a detective of equal skill beside the bat and co, was furious for once.

He was also a bit bossy, logical and a dweeb.

"Then get him to bed, dummy." Cass rolled her eyes and grappled the older hero's torso to heave him from the chair. "A little help?" She grunted to her brothers.

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Alfred had left the room feeling a tad peckish. As memory did so to serve him, he remembered that a left over scone had his name on it inside the kitchen refrigerator. All he'd done was bake enough to suit his family, really. It was an old family recipe from his home. Britain in those times was having it hardest of all…bomb raids and –

"By…What the devil??" The older man looked at the floor and saw it, in its glorious, crumbly mess….oh.

A part of his heart was on the floor. And that guilty soul had better explain what his hands were doing with THAT creation!

"I won't stand for this." Alfred looked a bit closer and saw an unfinished piece of…..apple pie.

Who better to go after the largest slice but one glutton inside the manor.

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~ MASTER JAAASON !! ~

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Jay felt his nose twitch as the three heroes opened up that one untouched room that had once been the first Robin's happy home.

Dick groaned inside his dreams as Cass, Tim, and Jay all took a limb and lifted the unconscious male onto the mattress.

"We go back, say he needed to rest, no complaining. Anyone object?"

Tim harshly whispered with a squeak to Jay's plan in fierce protest. "What are you kidding?? We judo'd his neck and almost made him into a monster…not to mention Alfred just probably found the scone that YOU threw on the floor like a toddler!"

"I am trying to keep him from going full vigilante again for pops!" Jay growled back within the silence. Cass took out her phone and just ignored the two geeky bros.

"Dick has a family, so you don't need to bother him about his feelings. He's not ready to spill his heart out. You don't have to be so pushy –

"What about you? Acting like dad's lap dog more than the rest of us?? Are you testin' me, little man??"

Cass gasped at what she saw over the bed. The men were feeding it. That bickering wasn't natural!

"Guys??" She dared to point as the drifting shadow faced her, scaring her into silence.

"What! What do you think I want??? You to say I'm better than you?? Are you serious?? I don't care! Dad's approval is just what keeps us fed until you and I get decent paying jobs! I do this as a way to cement my growth. But you love to flaunt it, always, Jason! Dad still pities you too much but guess what? I don't even care!" Tim was shouting now, making the stirring dark cloud above Dick's bed fuss over such a meal.

~ Darkness in the hearts of man… delicious…~

Cass threw a hand over her mouth. "Get out…we have to get away! Quit fighting, idiots!! You –

"Master Jason!!"

A stomping few feet were on their way up to this room. Cass knew she'd be in trouble with the boys, but that freaky ghoul was going to eat her brothers! Major badness!

"We gotta drop this…. Ah!" She dragged Tim and Jay's arms forward before leaping and doing a rounded kick to shove them out the window, both yelling like goons as the fell. Jay broke Tim's fall and the chairs on the patio had also helped.

"What was that crash?? Jason? Are you alright??"

Bruce? Shit!

She took in a deep breath and dropped down to join them, and to drag away those idiots before they woke up. The cool windy air wasn't a bother to her. Cass had no intention of being spirited away….

"I believe that you made the wrong choice…."

Cass didn't have a chance to scream as she, Jay, and Timmy were taken far out of the way by another hunter that roamed the world at night.

A masked one as Cass moaned and shut her eyes for a bit. Just to rest…maybe she should have let that ghost nab her instead…