Bloodties
Summary: A supernatural threat stalks the streets of Jump City, the Court attempts to destroy the one target that got away, an anomaly walks among its citizens and he's about to discover his true nature and the truth about his mother. AU.
Mary Grayson slipped down the alleyway clutching her side. All she needed was some sleep and she'd recover. The moon was covered by clouds. That didn't help.
The first thing Mary did was find a place where she could get out of the rain. And abandoned building, it looked like it had exploded.
She found a decent place to sit and checked her wounds. They had healed. The Court had taunted her, saying that the Electrum would keep her alive so they could torture her until she broke.
Silly humans, they didn't have any real power over her, even the Electrum had no effect on her, she had simply gone back to "sleep" after falling to her "death".
She had endured their torture, it hurt a lot, but she had made her escape. She was going to make the humans pay, they had no idea what they were dealing with.
She slept until morning, heading towards the soup kitchen. She waited in line like all the others, she did her best to not draw attention to herself.
She held out her plate and saw a pretty young teenager, Mary noted something about the girl was indeed inhuman, but she wasn't a supernatural being from this planet.
Another novelty she'd discovered. At least this place would be interesting.
She finished her meal and slipped out of the soup kitchen. She headed to a nearby clothing store, she found a white sweater, a blue skirt, a pair of black stockings and brown knee-high boots. She slipped into the bathroom and put the clothes on, tearing off the tags.
She could have gotten them another way, but this way she wouldn't be noticed doing anything "weird".
She walked out of the store and began moving quickly once she had exited the building.
Suddenly, she heard the sirens and was surrounded by police cars.
How interesting, her first day back and her life was exciting already.
"Lady put your hands up," the police officer pointed his gun at her.
Mary did as she was told, they cuffed her and put her in the squad car.
At the police station, Mary Grayson refused to give her name.
"Lady, we're charging you with shoplifting. We read you your rights and the state will appoint you a lawyer."
"I understand, officer," Mary told him.
"You have a name?"
"Arcueid Brunestud," Mary replied.
"That's not your name, is it?"
"That is the name I lived under before I got married."
His partner opened the door, "What do we do with the Red-X suit?"
"Move the Red-X costume to the evidence room," one of the officers told his partner.
"There's rumors about that suit, they say Robin made it to trick Slade, it didn't work. Then somebody stole it. The Titans caught the guy, but then the guy escaped, the suit needs to be returned to Robin," the officer turned to her.
"You're going away for a while lady, you got off easy, being caught by us. The Teen Titans aren't people to mess with."
"So this city's got superheroes, that's new since I've been here," Mary said casually.
"Robin's really good at catching crooks, you're lucky, he'd haul you straight off to jail, but here I am trying to figure out who you are."
"Robin…interesting, still officer, who I am isn't really important, just book me and get it over with," Mary said, glancing around. There was no way she'd be able to overpower two armed officers and escape. She didn't trust them, the Court had bragged they had deep pockets and had the authorities dancing in the palms of their hands.
Mary saw the other officer leave the room.
Mary quietly removed the green contacts from her eyes. She suddenly opened her eyes, they weren't ordinary human eyes, instead, they flashed a deep golden color, an inhuman color.
His eyes met hers and he stopped moving.
"You'll forget you ever saw me and I'm going to walk out of here," Arcueid Brunestud told him in a low voice.
Arcueid found the evidence room and slipped into the Red-X suit since they had confiscated the stolen clothing and boots.
She needed to make sure that no one could see her. For years she had made it so humans could see her photographs when they took pictures of her, but since she'd "died" she didn't want people to see her in pictures or on camera. She could easily manipulate humans' perceptions of her to make them ignore her completely. But she needed the camera footage to disappear.
She found the surveillance room and erased the video footage. Fortunately, the officer had been about to erase old footage, instead, she erased the newer footage of her in the building.
She tried to see what the gadgets did, but she didn't really have time to test the belt. She slammed her fist onto the belt buckled and felt woozy as she teleported out of the building. She ended up in an alleyway and used her acrobatics to right her balance.
"That was new easy, now let's see what this suit can do!"
17 years ago
"Yes?" Arcueid asked, opening the door.
That was the last word she managed to say before the figure, dressed in a strange costume, an owl, humans called it, viciously stabbed her over and over. The figure sliced her throat.
This should be impossible, no one, let alone a human should be able to hurt her, let alone kill her, but she'd been fighting all night, she had let her guard down. Humans rarely interacted with her, so she was stunned when she saw a human at her door in a bizarre costume stabbing her to death.
Before her body was completely destroyed, she looked into this man's brown eyes and memorized them, once she returned to life, she was going to kill him. No ordinary human filled her with rage and hatred as this one did. He was going to pay with his life for killing her. Humans mean very little to her after all, her only job was to slay Dead Apostles and Ghouls.
"Grayson, is the woman dead?" Samantha Vananver asked.
"Yes, Grandmaster, she's dead. I've done as the Court asked, I must return to Haly's Circus before anyone notices my absence."
"Why she targeted members of the Court, we don't know, but she's interfered with us for the last time. She's been all over the world but we found her in Gotham City."
"It doesn't matter, I've carried out the Court's orders and she's dead."
John returned to Haly's Circus, changing out of his costume and into his work costume as an acrobat, the Flying Angel.
He went about his routine, performed for the crowd, and listened to the applause, not caring about any of it.
He saw the crowd leave and noticed a lone figure leaning against a railing.
"So you're finally here," Arcueid looked at her killer.
John hid his shock very well. This wasn't good. She had survived, he'd have to finish the job.
"Well, thank you so much for your hospitality yesterday," Arcueid told him with a carefree smile.
"Yeah, I'm the woman you killed yesterday. I'm glad you remember me."
John smiled, "Why don't we go somewhere private where we can talk."
"Of course," Arcueid nodded.
He led her towards his trailer. He always kept it out of the way where onlookers couldn't see so he could change out of his Talon costume without drawing attention to himself.
The situation was laughable.
"Don't be ridiculous, a person who's dead can't possibly be alive."
"Yeah, but that's not surprising, is it? It's just I was killed and I came back to life."
"Humans can't come back to life."
"But I'm not human. You could say I'm a vampire."
"I see, like something out of folklore or a movie. Excuse me," John said.
John bent down, pretending to tie his shoe, he removed a knife and aimed at her, to his shock, she moved faster than he could track and slammed him into the side of his trailer.
He threw more knives at her, but she batted them away like they were made of plastic rather than steel.
She grabbed him by the neck and threw him through his trailer door and slammed him into the wall.
John's eyes widened as brown met golden she gazed at him, glaring fiercely, he'd never felt such an oppressive feeling before, her intent to kill was incredible.
Suddenly, she let him go.
"Yes, you'll do fine. Tell me, human, do you feel remorse for killing me?"
"I'm an assassin, what kind of question is that?" John asked.
"If you happen to feel sorry for what you did, I'll forgive you," Arcueid told him simply.
"I don't like killing, but this is the only thing I'm good at, it gives my life purpose."
"Yeah, you're a good person, aren't you?" Arcueid tilted her head at him, smiling.
"I've decided. As I thought, I'll make you help me after all."
"I'm going to help you, how?" John asked.
"I'm saying in exchange for my forgiveness, I was wondering if you could help me get rid of the vampire that has taken root in this city," Arcuied gestured at him.
"You mean Batman?" John asked.
"He's not a vampire, he's just a human," Arcueid looked at him.
"I don't have a choice, do I? I've already seen you can kill me ten times over," John sighed.
"You're a piece of work, making me use 80% of my power to heal myself," Arcueid scowled.
"If my masters find out you're still alive, it'll be problems for me," John sighed.
"Humans don't notice me if I don't want them to. But tell me about the Court, they've piqued my curiosity."
"No now. Too many eyes and ears, but if I help you, you'll leave me be and I'll never see you again."
"If that's what you want, human, then I'll do that," she smiled.
"So woman, what's your name?" John asked.
"Finally—I can introduce myself, well, it's a very long name so you can just call me Arcueid. I'm from the True Ancestor Caste of vampires. What sort of human are you?"
"I'm John Grayson, Acrobat and Talon for the Court of Owls," John told her the truth, she'd already seen his skills so it was useless for him to pretend to be an ordinary person.
"I look forward to working with you, John. I'll be sure to have you take full responsibility for killing me."
Arcueid held out her left hand to the assassin. He took it.
"Yeah, this is really insane," John sighed. This woman was going to get him killed.
Arcueid examined the Red-X suit with interest, she'd be able to use it and hide her extraordinary abilities. She was lucky, the Court would be looking for someone wielding inhuman power, not someone in a costume.
She had the inhuman ability to learn instantly and she used it to understand the Red-X suit.
This would be fun, she rarely enjoyed herself, such a concept was novel to her. She'd spent hundreds of years asleep, only waking to slay Dead Apostles and ghouls before going back to sleep. Meeting John Grayson had made her love the world of humans, but she had to deal with suppressing her bloodlust, but she'd been failing, still, she'd be able to live among humans for years until she'd been "murdered" by Tony Zucco.
After her "death" at the hands of Tony Zucco, she'd been asleep for seven years, before being tortured by the Court of Owls.
She practiced firing the Xenothium, her ability to learn whatever she wished made her a terrifying opponent without her vampire powers. Still, she knew there was a Dead Apostle in Jump City, people had been going missing and the Titans were looking into it.
She slipped into the streets, a new adventure and a new identity, Red-X was going to be the perfect disguise and nobody would find out what she really was.