DC: Dad Lore

[dazzle_dork]

Huh?

 

[Depth_]

The world froze for Taro Sakamoto.


Those words froze Taro Sakamoto.


Unbidden, his mind surged with memories, before they shifted, no longer from his point of view, but from that of the young lady in front of him.


As if to twist the knife in his guts deeper, even though he could see it play out in front of him, he still couldn't see when his image changed from that of a teacher to what she must've known him by all this time.


He could see, but he struggled to understand. All he could see in his memories was him as an assassin, nothing more, nothing less.


But then he locked his eyes with hers. And there the answer was.


It came as a new perspective, but slowly understanding unravelled.


In her eyes, he had been the only constant thing that was there. Not the assassins. Not the instructors. And not even her own father, Ra's al Ghul. Out of everyone and everything she had known on that island, he had been the only one who kept returning.


And only now, after a decade, could he understand a hint of what he had done to her after he left. It had been cruel. He hadn't known then. He had yet to understand the importance of familial connection at the time. But still, it had been cruel.


.


.......


.


[POV: Talia al Ghul]


She watched as he froze at the utterance of her words. It wasn't just his hands that stopped, his breath and the movement of his eyes came to a cold halt. Even the tell of intent was gone from him.


For the first time in her life, she saw as her old teacher's guard crumbled. Not from ambushes or sneak attacks.... but from her words.


What she had never managed to accomplish in all her years under him, in all the spars they had, she had now done so. Not with the steel of a cold blade. Not with the deviousness of her cunning.


All it had taken were a few soft words.


Along with that realization came a thought, one that was first nature to her: She could deliver a fatal strike while his guard was still down.


She thought of it but her fingers seemed to have lost whatever strength they had over the blades in her hands.


She couldn't help but recall all those years that now seemed like a distant memory.


She had been a child, even worse a daughter, living under the legacy that was Ra's al Ghul. The Demon Head would not allow her disappointed birth remain a disappointment and so for as far back as her memory could go, all she could remember was punching and kicking at air until her child muscles ached.


Everything was so that she could be brought up as one deserving of her father's acknowledgement. So she could one day be called the Demon's proud heir.


Everything else was both fleeting and unimportant, that is until he came.


"My masters once told me that the bond between teacher and student lasts a lifetime. And also one of the hardest bonds to cut. Greet your teacher."


She hardly reached his waist at the time and he was hardly what anyone would call an adult. But age hardly mattered among assassins, skill and strength did.


Unlike her instructors who were replaced any time she advanced or failed in something, this particular one stayed.


Back then he hadn't been in charge of her combat training, only teaching her efficiency in killing, but that soon changed as she started advancing through her classes.


Starting with languages he taught her – Japanese, Chinese and Korean – he soon started teaching her body movements and how to interpret them. A year or two later and he was teaching her how to effectively switch between a series of weapons in the middle of combat.


Her instructors left. Her father, Ra's al Ghul, hardly came by to observe her training. Even her peers at the time slowly disappeared until it was only her in that big empty training hall.


"Half the key to staying calm in a fight is acknowledging that you'll get hurt. Half the key to surviving through a fight is getting used to being hurt." Those words resounded in her ears like the beating of a war drum.


"You can win a fight by getting hurt, but torture is different. Whether you survive or not matters little. You can only survive torture by how deeply you can understand pain. And that is what I'll be teaching you: Pain."


Hell followed through that year. Broken bones, broken fingers, blades stabbed into different parts of her body, searing burns, frigid cold, electrocution – he made sure to associate his name with hell. But yet he stayed.


Sometimes he'd break her bones or twist her muscles and then have her spar with him for hours through the pain, and then at the end of it he'd have her correct her bones and loosen her muscles. If she couldn't then she'd be with them for days until he was merciful enough to correct them.


She could remember crying silently in her room every single night for years but she'd return to that hall every morning and he'd always be there.


"Take this. It is an ornamental dagger so it's not very useful in battle. I made it myself as congratulations to you for going above the expectations I placed on you. From henceforth, you are officially my student."


That was the first time she'd gotten a gift. A golden engraved dagger with the Japanese inscription 'Always survive' written along its side.


And then came the missions. It was only at that moment that she understood the meaning of that dagger. Where other assassins died, she survived. Assassination attempts, both off and on the island, she always survived.


And slowly, she no longer hated those memories of pain. Instead she grew increasingly grateful to them. Where her peers and elders died or fell short, she triumphed. And through it all, he still remained.


So one day she went to him and said the words that would change everything.


"Teach me more."


And teach her he did. The pain resumed, greater than it did before, but she endured even better. She no longer cried in the dark nights, nor did she curse the memories of him and the pain he brought. She would go to that dark hall and he'd always be there.


She had been the one wanting to take that next step. The step that led to heights only her teacher and father, and only a scant few, stood.


He taught her resilience. He taught her resolve. He ran the full length of a katana through her and slowly pulled it out, she never screamed. She pushed for more. He told her to kill her friend, she did. And then she went ahead and killed every one of her peers she was the tiniest bit casual with.


He rewarded her. He taught her how to breathe and that had changed everything. Her teacher had taught her an exoteric technique that his masters had taught him.


And she yearned for more. And as deep as she yearned, and excelled, he taught.


Sometimes he'd be gone for weeks and months for missions or personal reasons, but he'd always return. And when he did, there'd always be something new to teach her. They would speak, he would teach, she would ask, he would listen.


She had kowtowed, knees firmly on the ground and her head pressed even deeper.


"Talia's greatest fortune is teacher choosing to teach her. Till Talia falls to a blade, teacher will always be her Master. Hopefully in her next life as well."


She bowed three times to him. She paid her utmost respect to the bond he had sired between them on that auspicious day he stepped into her training hall.


His arms were crossed as he looked down at her with those calm and piercing eyes behind round glasses.


"Hmm, so you want to learn more? I see no problems with that, but not right now. Before I will teach you anything else, you will have to master an aspect of your assassination."


He had stood up and beckoned for her to follow and she was right behind him, as dutiful and precise as she's always been. He had led her to her weapon's rack and pointed at the myriads of weapons hung on it, each she was intimately familiar with.


"You can be called many things, Talia. A prodigious assassin. A deadly assassin. An excellent assassin even, but that is it. All it shows is that you are good at the craft you've been taught. A disciple of assassination, not a master of it. To be a master assassin, you have to master an aspect of assassination. You know what you prefer more, choose it. Elevate it. Master it. Then, and only then, will I teach you something new. Something better."


That had been it. She had arrived before the steps and her teacher had told her how to take the first one.


If she could master an aspect of assassination, automatically her epithet would be known all over the world. In their world where your skill speaks loud of you, mastering a killing path would put her name, not at the same height, but at the same level as her teacher.


If The Assassin himself said she was ready to be called as he, then she would toil till her blood dried to prove that he was right.


And she would do it all – master a killing path, become a master assassin, gain both recognizable respect and epithet in the world of shadows – just so she could continue learning from him. The man that has always been there.


The resolve in her heart, long past had it been to gain Ra's al Ghul's acknowledgement that all that it held smouldering within was the desire to continue making him proud.


It would take years to master an aspect, and that would always be the easy path. Many spent their lives and wasted away without truly mastering one, but she would succeed where they failed. She wasn't blind to the nigh-impossibility of the task set before her, nor was she arrogant enough to believe it'd be easy – it wouldn't – but still she cared little.


First would be choosing an aspect to focus on for the years to come. Polish it to her perfected limit....and then she'd hunt down those who excelled at the same path she was about to thread on.


That was what she decided, and he had left her to it. They still sparred, and he still taught her, but never anything new.


And that was how it was until one day where he abruptly disappeared.


He had taught her the previous day to the mid of night, and when she went to their training hall he wasn't there. She thought nothing of it because he always went on missions without telling her.... She had thought that until she didn't. Until her father had called her.


He had specifically called her to his chambers for the first time in fifteen months and personally gave her the news that her teacher, Taro Sakamoto, had defied him and the League of Assassins by walking away.


"The Assassin has severed his ties with me, and by extension, the League of Assassins. He is no longer one of us, and as such, he is deemed your teacher no longer. Dismiss."


That had been Ra's words and she could remember leaving that dark room with great confusion in her heart and calm in her mind.


Her teacher taught her how to be a master assassin. Words couldn't shake her, no matter how cutting they were. He had left, and that was it.


'It hurts.'


She went back to that empty hall and began practicing. Nothing had changed. Her forms, her techniques, her weapons – she still had to perfect them. Nothing else mattered other than becoming a master assassin.


'It hurts.'


So she trained.


'It hurts.'


Her bones cracked. Her blood dried.


'Lies. He'd never leave. He always comes back.'


Days and weeks passed. Slowly and surely, she was confident enough to take out her first mark to further master her aspect. The years and decades to come will be arduous, but she'll succeed at the end. She'd master this path if it was the last thing she did.


'Lies. He'll come back. He promised to teach again when I become a master assassin. So he'll come back.'


Years passed, she had yet to master her killing path. A few short years wasn't enough to master an aspect that'll put your name out to the entire underworld. It had been so long that she couldn't even remember if the fight against her first mark had been an easy one or not. Time makes people forget these things.


But she could still remember that night, years years ago, where she once again cried silently in her room. And the nights that followed.


Because he never returned.


All those nights, slowly turning from days to weeks, to months, she silently cried herself to sleep because her teacher never returned.


Her father never returned.


.


..........


.


He looked at her as she looked at him. Their eyes never strayed from each other's, and in them were things too heavy to fit into words.


But there was one thing they both shared in this instance; both were hurt. One by choices made, and the other by realization.


It was not the same but the feelings were there. Was that all that mattered? Maybe. Maybe not. They wouldn't know either way.


For Taro, the impact of everything was so tremendous that for the first time for as far as he could remember, the living myth known as The Assassin faltered.


He tried to speak but the words couldn't come. It also said a lot about how the current Taro differed from his past and younger self.


If this had been back then, his younger self would have simply dismissed her and found a way to kill that thought from her mind. He probably would have tripled her exercises for that day and would have left her with a quarter of her body's bones displaced.


Any word that came to his mouth tasted sour so all he could do was call her name.


"Talia...."


He didn't know how to react to her. All he had ever known her as, all she ever was to him, was his extremely talented and curious student. One who was so focused on assassination that nothing else mattered, except training and learning.


And now, all of a sudden he is confronted by his grown up student after almost thirteen years, all for her to rage at him and blindly challenge him to a death duel, which was mildly understandable, and out of nowhere indirectly called him her father. Or at least sometime or somewhere along the way, she had come to see him as one.


The fact that he was this shocked by her words also showed how human – soft and weak – he'd grown to be in the last decade.


"Talia..." What more could he say? Chastise her words? Chide her? Apologize to her? Or ignore her?


Talia's eyes scanned him and she gave him a hollow scoff, her eyes looked just like she sounded.


"Of course... After all these years and you still won't say a word. Why should I have expected anything else?" She slowly withdrew her blades, the will to fight leaving her. For the first time in thirteen years, she momentarily lost the strength to swing her blade.


"I..." Taro's mouth opened but no words came out, no words wanted to come out, so he forced one out regardless.


"I'm...sorry." He ended up apologizing. Why specifically? He had no idea. It was the only thing that tasted least sour in his mouth.


A spark of venom filled her eyes. "I don't need your apologies. I no longer need anything from you."


The two of them stood before the other, their thoughts and emotions too muddled for them to comfortably think through.


Talia moved first, stepping out of his way. "I won't bar your path any longer. Lady Shiva is expecting you."


Taro could only sigh at that. His priority hadn't changed but something about this particular situation rubbed him the wrong way. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to deal with it, or even what to say to make it a little....better?


He scratched the side of his head and glanced towards where Raven had silently stood all this while and nodded towards her.


"I'm sorry....little one." He apologized again, calling her by what he used to call her sometime ago. A very long time ago.


He was almost gone from the centre intersection when he heard her speaking.


"That girl," she had started, "is she your student?"


Taro hesitated, mulling the words, before replying. "Not exactly. It's a little...complicated."


"Then I pity her even more." Her words were cold and cutting but lacked a hostile edge because she said it not out of bitterness, but with clarity and certainty.


"Should she ever come to look up to you for even a fraction of how much I did then I pity her even more. She'd open her eyes one day and you'd be gone without a word."


She chuckled, a hoarse and empty thing. "Truly the mark of The Assassin. You'll mercilessly kill her everything in an instant, and then be gone in that very instant."


They both walked away in silence. He never replied to her, and she had no other words to say to him.


He silently followed behind Raven as she led him to their last obstacle, and the most hardest one for more reason than one.


Raven could tell that his mind was split in two and the part that wasn't focused on their current mission was wrecked with churning emotional thoughts. While she might not be able to read his mind or even his intent right now, she could tell that his brief confrontation with that woman shook him a bit. A bit higher than most things did.


But she did not ask about it. The whirlpool of emotions around them when they fought had been so complex and complicated that she would rather not touch it.


She had her own secrets, one she would only share if she wanted to and if she could trust who she was sharing it with. All she'd do was wait until Taro was ready to tell her what that had been about.


And then there were the woman's last words but she preferred not to think about it. She had more important things to worry about.


They had arrived in front of Lady Shiva's room.

 

[dazzle_dork]

Poor Talia.

 

[Fafnir13]

Well goddamn. I almost pressed the report button. The feels. That being said I'm surprised she didn't murder Bruce in this version since he also dipped.

 

[Depth_]

Taro walked into the room without any hesitation, with a dreadfully casual flair to his steps, and started looking around.


"You decorated?" He asked, staring specifically at the soft rug that was happily spread over every inch of the room. "You come here often?"


"A few times." She answered easily.


Taro nodded in understanding, pointing at the ground still. "Rug?"


Lady Shiva shrugged. "Not mine. It is..."


"Expensive. Expensive is what it is." Taro interjected, helpfully completing her sentence for her.


He went around the little table in the centre of the room and came to sit on the edge of the bed where Raven's unconscious body lay.


"How is she?" He asked softly.


Lady Shiva just as easily and casually gave him his answer, standing at the head of the bed and leaning against its frame. "She'll be out for the rest of the day if nothing is done."


"Antidote?"


"Second drawer on the left."


Taro sighed as he stood up to finally face his old acquaintance. She was the closest thing to a friend he would have had if the both of them weren't so focused on their craft at the time, instead of engaging in trivialities.


"What do you want, Wu-San?" He asked. She was the most straight forward person he knew, yet she always made dealing with her a difficult and stressful affair.


"What do you think I want, Sakamoto-dono? Are you at least prepared to give something for a bargain?"


See? Unnecessarily difficult.


He scratched his head, wondering if he actually had anything of worth to offer and the answer came up a resounding no. He deflated.


"It seems not, Sakamoto-dono. Then please step aside. You have my word that no harm will come to her, except through Ra's direct order." She offered her word despite knowing that he wouldn't accept it. He was just as stubborn as she was.


"Can't. Came here for her." Taro shook his head sadly, already knowing what was about to come. And he wasn't wrong.


The knife that sailed greedily to his neck hidden under the turd of flesh he called a chin was caught in its voracious attempt by two chopsticks.


Lady Shiva's eyes twitched for a moment, scanning the whole room in tenths of a second, and confirming that yes, her chopsticks had gone missing. Despite it being there by the time he'd crossed over to the bed.


"How aggravating. Your skills have grown dull." She remarked dispassionately.


"You think this comes with discipline?" He sarcastically retorted while silently gesturing to his whole body.


She sounded as calm as ever, not at all like someone who had just tried to kill him, and he sounded too relaxed, not at all like someone who they just tried to kill.


"If it'll assuage your worries, know that Ra's doesn't see you dead." She offered.


"I'm not worried about Ra's." Taro snorted as he threw the knife and watched it pin itself on the centre of the table.


"Of course you wouldn't be worried about him." She agreed easily, almost like it was natural. "But that doesn't stop you from answering his calls. It'll stop me from having to hunt you down at another time."


"I'll think about it on my way out."


The words hardly flew past his lips before Lady Shiva's hands came at him with the speed of a bullet. Her fingers were raised and curled, like the claws of a tiger, and that was exactly the ferocity and danger it carried.


He held the chopsticks together and smacked her hand away with it as it came around with such unrealistic force that it temporarily declawed the tiger in its hunt.


Like flowing water, she didn't even react like it had hurt, and brought the hand back while the other one went forward in reprisal.


He let the hand come close, knowing exactly just how dangerous and daring the decision was, and barely caught it under the wrist while the chopsticks came pointing down as if intent in stabbing her through.


A feint.


Her other hand came forward, aiming to cut the most dangerous thing Taro currently carried – other than his body that is – and succeeded as it cleanly sliced through the chopsticks before they could stab through her pressure points.


The other arm Taro held suddenly changed its form. It had been shot straight and fast as an arrow but now it wriggled and slithered in Taro's grasp and easily slipped out of it as it aimed for his heart. It's intent cold and venomous as a snake's.


The other hand once again exposed its claws as it hunted for Taro's neck with renewed thirst.


Both the average and prodigious martial artists would have been dead, crippled or maimed against Lady Shiva's first two attacks. But Taro was neither average or prodigious, and they both knew this.


His right hand twisted and coiled like a whip and suddenly sprung towards his left where the snake darted centimetres from his heart. The whip wrapped around the snake's neck and with his thumb pressing into the middle of her palm, he defanged the serpent.


In the same motion with which he struck as the serpent hand, he also pulled himself into Lady Shiva's body and hence evaded the tiger's hunt while also body-checking her in the process. Three fluid motions all done with a single action.


He pushed up the half chopsticks that were still held in his palm and stabbed into her eyes as his shoulders shoved her backwards.


His hand were soon held in a clasp as both of her arms wrapped around his wrist, but that didn't stop Taro as he used a single finger to flick back one of the chopsticks towards his mouth, caught it, and instantly spat it out back at her like a bullet.


She tilted her head, no signs of rush or panic in her motions, but she wasn't fast enough as it struck a line of blood across her cheek.


She still didn't flinch at the wound, remaining perpetually calm, and kicked out her leg towards his stomach only for it to be stopped between his thigh and the elbow that dug mercilessly into it and twisted all the muscles in that part of her leg.


He dropped down to avoid the hand that tried grabbing his head, then leaned to the side to avoid the other one that came for his head. He narrowly dodged it but it had ripped off the shoulder section of his shirt.


"I don't have time for this Wu-San." He avoided most of her attacks and redirected the others. "How about we do it some other time? Hmm?"


They both separated from each other, Taro sporting a few tears on his shirt and nothing else while Lady Shiva had an injury on her cheek, twisted muscles on her leg, two broken fingers on her left hand, and a partially paralyzed pinky on her right hand.


"This will get us nowhere." He huffed.


"Be that as it may." She fixed the two broken fingers on her left hand by simply pressing on them with her thumb and then disperse the paralysis in her pinky by flexing it twice.


As for the twisted muscles on her leg, she simply stood and controlled the muscles around the affected area to untangle themselves. All the while never flinching once in their whole exchange.


Why would she flinch in the first place when she could simply turn off all the pain receptors in her brain?


"I see you haven't lost your ruthless edge. That is good to know." She sounded even more lifeless and empty than Raven on her best day, Taro thought.


'Done yet?'


'... Still focusing.. Almost there... Two minutes.'


"Are you buying time for someone?" Taro asked, wanting to do anything else than fight her in this moment.


She gave him no reply but simply centred herself for the next round.


Taro sighed. "Figures."


They were barely an arms length from Raven's face as there was hardly any place for them to move to in this small room. He doubted she'd listen to him if he said they should take it behind the doors so he didn't bother.


Even after all these years she still remained a pain to deal with.


Surprisingly, she spoke for once without being prompted. "Though I'm certain you've grown weaker, I thought that I would have breached a common ground between our skills in the last decade, but now I'm glad that isn't the case. Even weak, you still remain easily stronger than most. You're truly something, Sakamoto-dono."


"Eh...thanks?" Really? Poisoned needles? He rolled his eyes as he flicked all of them out of the way.


His moustache gave an irritated twitch when he saw her move the moment he did. Her innate ability to cold read the human body like a spoken language was quite the annoying skill to work around but he luckily found a way to do just that(and it was one of the hardest things he's ever done), but it looks like it's been so long that a few things were slipping through the cracks.


It looks like he'll have to put a tad more intent in his strikes. And he did just that.


She used the moment he'd flicked the needles away to get behind him with a movement technique she'd copied from him twenty years ago, which was also one of the main reasons he searched for a way to counter her cold reading, and set in motion to drive her elbow straight into his spine.


Not only that, but she also threw two more needles that harmlessly sailed past Taro only for them to ricochet off the other and start flying back towards Taro.


If he turned around to stop her, the needles would pierce him on the back. If he remained facing the needles and tried to stop her with one hand or his legs, she'd be able to run three new different attacks in the moment before the needles got to him.


The time given to analyse, anticipate and react to her attacks were a quarter of a second, and Taro responded in a timely manner.


The last bit of chopsticks in his hand flew into the air he turned towards her, hands set and palms open to catch her elbow, and perfectly set themselves on the path of the needles to effectively block it, despite piercing halfway through.


He caught her elbow, and having already anticipated and predicted her next viable attacks, started his action a fraction before she started hers.


His punch socked her across the face and flipped her over the table with so much force that by the time she regained her bearings and corrected her landing mid-air, she had already landed right in front of the door all the way across the room.


She wiped the smear off her lips with her sleeves, her eyes still on him, which was the reason she brought her hands together after understanding that he had crossed the room and was right in front of her.


Her bones rattled but were otherwise fine as the last second movement of her feet displaced a lot of the force that ran into her body.


She was now outside the room, arms still crossed in her block, realizing quickly that Taro had punched her through the doors.


She could still feel her bones vibrating and that told her with wizened clarity that she had failed to push him anywhere near his limit.


"Stay put for a second." She heard him say as he went over to the girl's side.


Taro reached her bedside and saw that her breath had changed. A bit freer and conscious.


"Are you okay?"


"Y...es." Raven murmured as her eyelids cracked open. "It was a lot harder than I thought."


"I'll help." His fingers blurred as they struck specific pressure points that instantly made her breathing clearer. "Take it easy for now. The bulk of it will fizzle out of your body in an hour or two."


Whatever spell she'd done had drastically decreased the time it would have taken for him to flush it out of her.


"Can you walk?" She took a moment to move her legs a bit and then gave him a nod.


"Let's get out of here."


He turned around and saw that Lady Shiva was already gone, and contrary to what most might think, that was a bad sign.


"Let's hurry." He didn't give Raven a chance to react, object, or agree before he picked her up in his arms and broke off in a sprint towards the exit of wherever here was.


It took them less than thirty seconds to exit the tunnels and find themselves under a canopy of trees.


He followed the marks of a path that led him through the trees to what was hopefully the end/beginning of this forest.


"There are some people ahead. I think they are fighting." Raven informed him as soon as they broke through the trees into a more open area. Taro thought about it for a moment and headed in the direction she'd indicated.


The moment Taro cleared a particular rock formation, he caught sight of the fight Raven had sensed and instantly recognized every party involved.


Whatever he was thinking fizzled out as he whirled and grabbed something that had been right in Raven's face.


Smoke left his hand as he opened it to reveal a slightly longer caliber of a high-powered sniper rifle.


His eyes immediately locked on a spot not too far from where Batman and Nightwing were engaged in combat against Deathstroke and Talia.


He flipped the bullet in his hand and studied it briefly before looking up back at spot, but slightly more to the right this time.


"Cain."


Raven felt the outer shell of his irritation bubble for a bit when he mentioned that name. As for the fact that she'd almost died, well, she pushed it aside after confirming that she'd survived. She has gotten used to walking off close calls.


She heard him sigh first before gently letting her to the ground.


"What are we going to do?" She asked.


"Well, we've been trying to get to the Justice League and there they are." Taro patted her on the head. "Let's go."


Taro's eyes kept moving along a line in the distance. He was actively tracking David Cain's movement and so far the man had changed positions seventeen times to try and throw him off, but his locations started becoming easier to single out the closer Taro got.


He could have simply gone the other way as soon as he realized who they all were, but he chose not to.


The main/easiest reason was Raven. Running was no longer an option, especially how restless she grew in the past few days.


The other reason was also partly because of the child in his care, but the decision had been spurred on by the people present.


David Cain – one of the world's very best. A master assassin and fighter.


Lady Shiva – one of the world's very best. A master assassin and arguably one of the world's foremost martial arts masters.


Talia al Ghul – heir of the Demon. A terrifying and deadly assassin. One of the world's very best. And also a master assassin and fighter.


Deathstroke – one of the world's very best. The world's greatest mercenary. A deadly assassin and an even deadlier fighter.


These were the people Ra's had sent out to look for him. Even going as far as to temporarily paralyze an entire town just to get to him.


Taro had to give it to the man. He knew how to send a message. And he knew how to make sure it didn't go ignored.


The moment they stepped into visible range, the four fighters took notice and suddenly stopped fighting.


Taro stopped and kept staring ahead of them, much to the confusion of the two heroes, and he kept at it for three minutes where no one spoke, until David Cain stood from where he hid.


Neither he nor Raven missed the masked surprise and increased tension that took over the two heroes.


"David Cain..." Spoke the grim and grave voice of the Batman at the appearance of the older man holding a sniper rifle loosely.


Just then Lady Shiva arrived and the heaviness in the atmosphere was doubled.


"We no longer have any business with you today, Bat. You will do well to leave while you can." Lady Shiva spoke up before promptly turning to the silent pair of Taro and Raven.


"You've made a decision, I take it?"


All eyes drew to Taro. On the veiled heroes' part there was mostly hidden confusion. Taro was a new and unknown element, one whose importance instantly skyrocketed the moment Lady Shiva of all people addressed him.


Everything went quiet, except for the soft whispers of the wind, as they waited for Taro to speak.


He sighed. One filled with great annoyance.


"Raven, go with the heroes." He said to the girl who silently stared up at him like an emotionless mannequin.


"And you?"


He scratched his head before replying. "I'll go with them. For now."


Nothing was said but she just continued staring at him with her usual blankness. She said nothing, only stared at him before turning to look at the heroes with her usual blank gaze.


She didn't react when Taro's hands came upon the hood of her cloak and softly assured her.


"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."


"Mmn." She gave a short hum before walking towards the heroes, ignoring everything else around her, even when David Cain and Lady Shiva took a step forward.


"She comes with us." David Cain's hoarse and emotionless voice cut through the silence as he took a step towards the walking Raven, not at all caring for heroes' presence.


That was until Taro took a single step forward. David Cain stopped his march towards Raven and whirled around to aim his gun at Taro who just stood after that single step and kept staring at him.


The air grew increasingly tense and the heroes quickly put themselves in front of the stranger girl and watched as Lady Shiva, David Cain, Talia and Deathstroke stared hard at the fat white haired man. The two men hovered their hands around their weapons and looked tensed for combat, while the two women just stared impassively at him.


"She'll go with the heroes. And he'll come with us."


At Talia's words, the tension abated and immediately they turned to leave, no longer interested in the presence of the heroes.


Taro looked behind and saw Raven staring at him so he gave her a smile along with his biggest thumbs up. His thoughts flew out unobstructed to her.


'Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it.'


-----------------------------


Patreøn.cøm/1stDepth.com

 

[Bashful_Walrus]

You bastard you absolute bastard. I need more.

 

[Depth_]

Watching as the group of assassins retreated, Batman's tension eased up a little. They had been up a creek and Batman was well aware of the unamused stare his first son was giving him.


It might have been controlled impulse that led him on a chase against Lady Shiva and Deathstroke but what he did not expect was that man, David Cain's presence.


He had back up of course, but that did not mean that the situation hadn't escalated into something that had been out of his ability to control.


"Well that happened." Nightwing remarked as the five figures were completely out of sight.


"Hrn." Batman grunted. He was not too happy.


Nightwing scoffed. "That'll teach you not to fly off into a fit of whatever this is." His response was a glare, but once again, it was rendered ineffective.


As if on cue, both of them turned to their new stranger. A young girl. Nightwing's trauma senses were already going off when he saw the utterly blank look on her face that was yet to take on a hint of expression.


Before Batman could get a word out, Nightwing drifted to her front with a disarming smile on her face.


"Hey, sooo we're kind of out of the loop right here, mind helping us out? I'm Nightwing, and big and dark over there is Batman. What's your name?"


"Raven." She answered, somehow making the smile on Nightwing's face grow softer.


"Glad we got that out of the way." His voice grew lower at the end of his sentence and his eyes couldn't help but trail where the assassins had disappeared to. "Who was that with you, and do you know why those assassins were after you guys?"


She fell silent for a moment, one they both could read as hesitation, before replying. "I don't really know. They were after Taro, not me."


"Taro? Your dad?" She shook her head. Batman decided to step in at that moment.


"If the League is after this Taro, then he is either dangerous or something he knows is dangerous. What do you know about him?"


This time she didn't hesitate. "He can fight."


That information however didn't mean much to the heroes. The League of Assassins, not to mention Ra's strongest hit squad, wouldn't just go after someone who could fight. Technically, everyone member of the League could fight. It made more sense that Ra's was after something else. Something that was tied to the man named Taro, or maybe the girl, Batman summarised.


"How long have you known him?" he pressed on.


"Come on, chill on the pressure for a bit." Nightwing threw his predecessor a disapproving look. He would have said more had Raven not easily given them another answer.


"A few weeks ago. He killed some demons who were trying to abduct me."


".... Oh. Wasn't expecting that." Nightwing looked at Batman. "Guess that answers one of our questions."


"Let's leave. We'll ask more questions on the way."


Throwing a last look at where Lady Shiva and her cohort left in, Batman guided Raven and Nightwing to the Batwing and locked on the coordinates of the Hall of Justice. He wasn't foolish to bring someone not personally vetted to the Batcave.


Their destination turned out to be accurate when Raven spontaneously dropped a bombshell enroute.


"I need your help." She had started.


Nightwing eyed her carefully. "Our help as in, personal favour or..."


"The heroes." Raven corrected unperturbed. "Something is coming, and if we... I fail to stop it, the whole mortal plane as we know it will be gone."


".... Huh. Impending apocalypse was not what I was expecting. What year is it again?"


"What does this have to do with the dark sorcerers that have been running around Gotham?" Batman asked. The tone of his voice stating that he was almost certain Raven knew what he was talking about, and she did, so she did not bother denying it. There was no point.


"They are the deranged worshippers of the demon they are trying to summon into his dimension." She replied.


"And how do you factor into all this?"


She did not flinch even when faced with the suspicious stare of the Batman. She had stared down far worse than the hard look of a masked man.


She replied evenly in that bland tone of hers. "Because that demon is my father. And I'm the key to his descent."


The two heroes traded looks with hers, one completely neutral but laced with suspicion while the other contemplative but slightly fed up.


Batman said nothing and simply sent a silent hail to the Hall of Justice to prepare for a meeting. He'll have to send a call to the magic contacts he had, just in case. One could never be too careful when dealing with mystical problems, he'd learned that the stubborn way.


.


.......


.


The five of them, Talia, Lady Shiva, Deathstroke, David Cain and Taro, were on a plane, having left the island a few minutes after Batman did. A few tense minutes where the four assassins watched him with intense focus in case he reneged on the agreement and fought them to escape.


Well, three of them were watching him intently while Lady Shiva procured a steaming teapot from somewhere and poured him a cup.


He ignored the caution the rest threw at him, specifically in Deathstroke and Cain's case, and simply took the cup with a nod of thanks and drank its content.


"I don't know if it's guts or foolishness, but I sure as hell won't drink her tea immediately after fighting her." Deathstroke said as he watched Taro drink the tea without even caring if it was poisoned.


"If it was up to me, I'd have put a bullet in your head." The grey haired older man, David Cain said from the side where he kept a thin eye of Taro.


"You couldn't. Not even if I let you." Taro said after finishing his tea and giving Lady Shiva another nod of thanks.


"You want to stake your life on it?" The cold hitman dared.


Taro finally turned to look at him, cold apathetic eyes dim behind his glasses. "I do. Do you?"


The plane suddenly felt too tight as the two men stared at each other, while Deathstroke and Talia slowly reached for their weapons. Their memories of fighting Taro were still fresh in their minds, the latter more so than the former.


Taro sighed. It was easy to see that he was feeling less than hospitable at this moment and it was what was putting everyone on edge, except for Lady Shiva it seems.


'Well she's too abnormal.' Taro thought. He might not look it to the others but he was on edge. Not from them though, but from what would happen when they landed.


And not once, his mind went to Raven who he had sent on the way with the heroes. While he was still concerned about her wellbeing, or just concerned in general, she was in a better situation than following him to the heart of the League of Assassins.


"We should have taken the girl with us. Along with the Bat. I doubt you'd have this kind of chance again."


Off to the side, Deathstroke remarked. "I wasn't paid to get rid of the Bat. And like it or not, our chances of taking both the girl and getting rid of dear ol' bats were even at most."


His eyes trailed to Taro as he said so. Talia who had been silent from the beginning finally decided to speak.


"Why did you let her go with them?"


Taro gave a deadpan raised brow at her question but she kept staring at him, clearly expecting an answer but unfortunately wasn't going to get one.


It had nothing to do with the fact that Taro still felt awkward around her and didn't know how to act around her.


"Your efforts are in vain. My father wants her, that means he's going to get her. She's no doubt important enough for you to trade your surrender for her freedom."


What she said was indeed true. But still it is better this way. He wouldn't bring her anywhere close to Ra's and he intends to make it remain that way.


"How did you find us so fast?" He asked instead, more interested in this little tidbit than anything else.


"You mean after the whole fake scenario thing?" Deathstroke said with a laugh. "That's a new one, I'll admit. I have never seen such a genuine fake scene and it had thrown us off for a good thirteen hours, but then we got some nice help before we lost you forever."


Talia interjected. "You are asking about how we found the building so quickly in the first place, are you not?"


Taro nodded.


Talia crossed her arms and wore a frosty look on her face. "It would have indeed been troublesome had we been looking for you in your former form. Your current state made it easier. A few eyes saw you leaving Gotham."


"Ah..." Well, it couldn't be helped if that was the case. And she could have said it all without letting that disgust roll off her tongue.


"You have been awfully silent, Wu-San."


Lady Shiva raised her eyes from behind her cup and carefully studied Taro. It was more as if she was surgically dissecting his words.


"I have nothing of importance to speak of. We'll talk after you meet Ra's." Her curt words were delivered loud and clear as she went back to her tea.


With nothing else to do, Taro relaxed into the chair with his eyes closed, ignoring the soft unsheathing of blades around him as he prodded himself to a short sleep.


.


.......


.


The air on the island felt the same as it did when he left.


Stepping back on the island, whatever feeling Taro suspected it would evoke were not to be found. Clearly he had grown over it.


A few guards led them into the ancient palace where Ra's resided. Even the air here felt no different than what he remembered.


Somewhere along the way, Deathstroke and David Cain had left the group and just before they got to Ra's, Lady Shiva and Talia pulled away from the guards leading Taro, and led him to the point where he alone was standing before a slightly ajar door.


"Do not stand on ceremony. I have been kept waiting for quite some time." A voice came from behind the door.


Walking into the dim lit room, Taro's eyes immediately locked into the figure of the Demon Head who stood leaning against a balcony.


He looked slightly older than Taro but younger than David with small tufts of grey staining his stark black hair. The overall stature looked unassuming but that notion was immediately thrown away when you looked at his eyes.


They were almost like an eagle's. Cold. Assessing. Striking. It was the eyes of a seasoned killer.


Having lived more than most men could dream, Ra's al Ghul was a figure clad in both history, experience and death.


In front of this stout figure, Taro looked unimpressed with his head tilted to the side in a lazy rest.


"Ra's." Very few could speak his name as casually as Taro did and the man himself took it in stride.


Taro had more than earned the right to call him that casually.


"Taro. Sakamoto." Ra's moved away from the balcony and stepped into the room. "How long has it been?"


"Thirteen years. Give or take."


Ra's smiled. A genial thing that no doubt would have unsettled all who saw it.


"Right." He nodded as if counting the time. "Over a decade since you spat on my grace and walked away without speaking a word to me."


Taro remained silent, watching Ra's every move as the way older man walked around the room with the measured pace of someone who owned it.


"Tell me, Taro. What is it that we do to deserters? You were once an enforcer, so surely you remember?"


"Death by a hundred cuts. To be carried over and over for however long they live. However, they'll be pardoned if they survive a thousand cuts." Taro replied. He removed his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt before propping them back on.


Ra's tapped the arch of a fireplace. "Death of a hundred cuts. Redemption of a thousand cuts. You remember well."


Taro shrugged. "You can't forget something that descriptive."


There was no humour in Ra's gaze as he looked upon Taro, tentatively tapping on the arch. "And tell me, why are you not under execution?"


"You tell me. Why am I not under execution?" Taro asked in turn.


Ra's hummed to himself and turned around to pick up one of the pokers that was burning red at its tip.


He brought it to his face, turning it to get a good look at all its side, and hummed in approval.


"You broke my trust, Taro." He stated. "I found you, brought you to my home, taught you until I could no longer, honed your talents and directed your purpose. All for what? For you to throw away and abandon everything I gave you."


Taro remained silent.


"I brought you up and wrapped my cloak on your shoulders, the same way I would a son." Ra's spoke calmly, staring deep into searing red poker. "I treated you like a father would a son. I provided all you could have asked for, even before you did. And you left....without even speaking to me. You disappoint me."


Taro breathed out. It wasn't that simple. "It wasn't that simple."


"Then you come to me, and I would have made it very simple for you." Ra's cut in sharply. The barest hint of anger could be heard in his voice.


"I raised you to one day be my heir. To be truly known as my son, and what did you do? You walked away from everything I taught you. I will ask you this one question: Was it worth it?"


"Yes." Taro said without hesitation. "Everything was worth it." He repeated again for good measure.


"What do you want from me, Ra's?" Taro asked without any trace of his previous frivolity.


"Everything has a price, Taro, I taught you that." Ra's answered slowly. He returned the dimming glow of the poker to the fire and held it there. "I called you back here to ask for my recompense."


"And what would that be?"


"Something of equal measure." Ra's replied evenly as he slowly turned the poker in his hand. "I once looked upon you as my child, Taro, and since you betrayed that, I'll take that which you look upon as a child."


Ra's turned to look at him with his eyes thinned into dots, like a predator stalking around a daring prey.


"I heard you were with a girl. I'll take her as mine and then you'll be free to leave. I can only see it as fair compensation."


Ra's eyes widened for an instant as the poker in his hands was suddenly grabbed by Taro with such strength that he couldn't move it.


"I'll warn you only once, Ra's. Go near her and I'll kill you." Instead of buckling under the pressure Taro was currently exerting, Ra's smiled.


"Good. Do that and be the next Demon Head. If that girl is what it'll take then so be it." He was totally unfazed as he stared Taro straight in the eye.


The two of them continued staring at each other, Ra's with a wicked smile on his face while Taro had on a frowning visage.


Briefly, Taro considered just killing Ra's al Ghul and getting done with it but couldn't put out the intention. It wasn't about his past as a favoured assassin under Ra's grace. Those sentiments were long gone.


The two of them separated at the same time, Ra's rubbing his wrists while Taro folded his hands.


"If you have nothing else to say then I'll be leaving." Taro turned around to leave but Ra's voice filtered into his ears.


"I'll be seeing you soon, Assassin." The door closed behind him. Just a few minutes and he was already fed up with this place. He saw no guards by the door and couldn't help but shake his head. A subtle play. One that was designed to not make him feel like a guest in a place he was once familiar with.


"I'll be leaving soon." He said to himself. Thoughts of Raven kept flashing into his head and despite what his calm exterior might profess, he was a bit worried about her. It was a feeling he was getting slowly used to after a few weeks, and he couldn't say he hated it.


The few assassins he saw on his way dutifully ignored his presence and he in turn let them be. He wandered aimlessly, well not exactly, until he came to a very familiar door.


"Your projectiles are too stiff in their flight path. Predictable. Make it less so."


"Yes sir."


The thought came to him as he reached for the door, and behind those thoughts were the whispers of certainty.


She'll be there.


The doors slightly creaked open and he could already hear the sharp swishes of a blade cutting through the air, but for some reason it sounded, not amateurish, but slightly unrefined.


He pushed the doors open and he heard the swishes again, but this time the sound was stretching towards him.


He tilted his head and the thrown blade embedded itself into the door.


"Speak. Who are you and what are you doing in my private halls? Speak no lies or I'll have your tongue."


It was a kid. A young boy that was probably below ten years old. Well, the eyes and the sharp words definitely didn't belong to that body.


A few things the child said stood out to Taro but he didn't dwell on them and instead noted the changes that now filled the hall. It wasn't as bare as it had once been.


Swish.


He absentmindedly moved his head and dodged another rude knife from the irate child.


"This will be the last time you ignore my words. Answer me; who are you, and what are you doing in my private halls?"


The sharp teetering voice of the child brought him out of his reminiscing and when his eyes fell back on the child, he couldn't help but think inwardly.


"Who are you, kid?"


.


.


.


.


––––––


.


Patreøn*com/1stDepth


.


––––––

 

[Faber_The_Builder]

A young boy that was probably below ten years old.

Click to shrink...

Ah, yes. Grandson getto.

"You are being adopted, do not resist."

"UNHAND ME!"

"No, I am adopting you and taking you to meet your father. He has my daughter. We trade, simple."

 

[Depth_]

The ride to the Hall of Justice was a cold interrogative one where Raven gave clear and concise answers to whatever Batman and Nightwing asked.


She could tell that neither of them fully trusted her, more so Batman than Nightwing. While the younger crusader appeared more understanding and sympathetic, Raven could tell that other than the smidgen of benefits of doubt, he was secretly keeping an analyzing eye on her behind his soft smile and softer words.


She really didn't care. They were willing to listen to her and verify her words and would be inclined to help her if her words were true, that much she could tell and that was all that she needed. They were already doing far more than anyone else.


It would have been even better if he had been here.


The thought came in through the slips and she was forced to strangle it out when she realized what it was. She cursed herself once more as she did.


She tried not to think about it, even going as far as to regulate her mind with some breathing exercises – something that instantly put her under intense focus from the two heroes, not that she cared – but those particular thoughts still found ways of slipping through her defences.


She knew she absolutely couldn't entertain them at any cost. They weren't just thoughts slipping through. They were waves from certain emotional aspects that Raven kept under locks in the depths of her mind. And the last thing she wanted to deal with at the moment was her own emotional masks.


In the end, he left just like the others. Just like everyone.


She clamped down on that traitorous thought with her full focus that the air around thrummed, further alerting the heroes.


"I'm sorry about that." She apologized.


"Um, don't worry about it. But, uh, mind telling us what just happened?" Nightwing walked closer with concern on his face.


So he said but caution and distrust towards her increased. Well he did feel a bit concerned about her so maybe that was a plus.


"Bad thoughts." It was such a simple reply and she saw how it left him stumped for a brief second before he recovered himself. He was a great actor, she thought, better than his teacher who sat in the pilot seat.


That was a bit wrong. She looked at Batman and concluded that yes, Nightwing was the better actor, but also because Batman didn't bother to act. He just kept everything under a deathly neutral expression.


"Were you thinking about him?" She looked at Nightwing who sat on the seat in front of her and turned it around so that they were facing each other. "Taro, I mean."


She let the returning silence stretch for more than a few seconds before she opened her mouth to speak.


"Not necessarily. It was a more unpleasant thought."


Nightwing really had no idea on how to carry on the conversation with their pale-skinned temporary ward. It was like he was speaking to a pale-white blackboard.


'That's a little too harsh.' He thought to himself while outwardly chuckling. She was emotionally stunted, too much so that it was jarring. He was sure Bruce had instantly noticed. He had some...experience on that angle.


He caught Bruce's signal and calmly extracted himself from her and went over to Bruce's side where said man discreetly pointed at a screen where the public profile of one 'Taro Sakamoto' had been pulled up.


Along with the information was a little note from Barbara.


Are you sure this is your guy?—


He took a few seconds to skim through it and instantly understood why Barbara had attached that note even as a joke.


The public information screamed normal citizen. It wasn't overly perfect like some model citizen's, but there was also no highlight of note. He wasn't some secretive person as a few retailers from Central Gotham knew him very well.


In fact, the information was too mundane for someone of importance. There was no angle they could dig through.


"At least we got his house address." He whispered.


"Hrn." Batman replied. He almost rolled his eyes. Batman couldn't be more dramatic even if he tried to, Nightwing thought.


On Raven's end, she was still having an intense internal battle with her thoughts and trying to force them out when she abruptly stopped and looked at the bundle of thoughts wrapped down by her.


"You." She said dispassionately.


Oh, foolish daughter. You can't keep me away forever. I am the only one who will remain by your side.


The thought in her hands and in her head disgusted her that she hurled it down.


Oh? Was that in anger or in fear, daughter?


The fact that Trigon had found a way to hide his voice behind her thoughts was concerning. Bare thoughts could sway people and a demonic being like Trigon, hiding his voice behind her thoughts, could slowly influence her mind without her knowing.


He left you in the end, just like I said he would. What? You thought he was what? A friend? A guardian? That you were some defunct family, and he was what? Your father? Hahahahahaha!


"Shut up." She said calmly but the thought laughed louder in her head. It was trying to get inside her head, she knew, but she wouldn't give it that pleasure.


You thought he wanted a daughter in you? How delusional. Have you ever asked yourself if you deserved a father other than me?


She had. A million times and a million times over. It was a question she kept asking herself at least a dozen times every day ever since that day.


As you saw, he already has someone he sees as a daughter. Why would he want something as dysfunctional as you?


"Are you done?" She asked nonchalantly. "You are crowding my head with your incessant wailing."


Chains sprang up from the dark below and wrapped around every thought around her and started pulling them down to the pits of her mind.


Her mind finally regained a bit of comforting silence as all her thoughts drowned in a murky black sea. And yet, echoes of words kept ringing in her ears...and subconsciously she clenched her fist.


.


.........


.


On the other side of the globe, Taro was currently faced with the cold stare of an irate child that was garbed in assassins' getup.


The child must've apparently gotten fed up since he rushed at Taro with a short sword in his hand, murder clear in his eyes, and a defiant shout.


Taro wasn't exactly in the mood for whatever the child was up to as he took a step back from the first swing and then simply caught the kid out of the air the moment he jumped for his follow-up swing.


The kid tried disarming himself from Taro's hands by swinging his blade at it only to find out that his hand was empty and before he could go for another maneuver, his sleeves were drawn and found themselves tied to a knot behind his back. The same had been done to his pants.


"Untie me right this instant or I'll have your head." The kid's mouth was clamped with a cloth but all that did was increase the intense murder in his eyes.


He ignored the warning in those childish eyes and picked up a rope, tied both the kid's hands and legs on one end and tied the other end to a bar and watched as the kid dangled with great mortification in his eyes.


Having finally gotten rid of the kid, he took a walk around the hall, noting the changes and new position of everything in the hall. He could remember some of the weapons and training dummies but they were few in numbers compared to what was now in the hall.


A slight air draft in the room notified him that someone had silently entered the room and even without turning he could already guess who it was.


"Your talk with father has ended, it seems." He heard her say as she walked towards where he strung up the boy. Ah, he realized.


"And I see you've met my son."


That got him to turn around and take a closer look at the both of them as Talia cut off the rope and then left him the knife to untie himself.


"I can see the faint resemblance." He found himself saying. The eyes were there, he admitted to himself.


He wanted to ask who the father was as a reflex of his gentle older man persona but stopped himself when he remembered where he was. He definitely had no right to ask if Talia's cold eyes were anything to go by.


"Who is this, mother? I want to kill him." The child spat out bubbling venom rolling off his tongue.


"Meet my son, Damian al Ghul." She pushed the boy a few steps forward. "Damian, meet my old teacher, Taro Sakamoto. He taught me all I knew in my youth."


Instead of being pacified, or at least ceasing direct hostilities, the boy's glare increased.


"So you are the traitor grandfather told me about. Why do you still have your head?"


"Because Ra's would lose his trying to take mine." Taro replied candidly, and yup, the glare was kicked up a notch.


"Mother..."


"Be quiet, my dear." Talia however chided him, albeit softly. Her cold eyes stared dead at Taro. "What are you doing here?"


Taro scratched his head awkwardly. "It's the only place I could go other than outside, and I doubt I still have my old room back."


"You don't."


"Figured."


The two of them stood in awkward silence, one where Taro could almost swear that he heard something growling, but then Talia turned to Damian.


"You will continue your training later. Would you excuse us, dear?"


With eyes full of reluctance and natural hate, he slowly carried himself out of the hall and left the both of them to their standoff-stare off.


There were no chairs in the hall, something that still remained so from Taro's memories, so Taro sat on the ground and gestured for Talia to do the same.


"... I–"


"I don't need your apologies." Talia cut him off before he could get his first word out. "I was a young girl with flighty thoughts. There were no mistakes made so there's nothing to apologize for."


Taro sighed. He ran his hand through his hair as he suddenly became lost for words. What was he apologising for? What was he hoping his apology would fix?


He looked at Talia in front of him. The woman sitting across him did not look like one that needed a father figure, unlike what her past self must've wanted.


What did he even want from her at this point? These were all questions that ate away at any words that came to his tongue.


"How have you been all these years, Talia?" He asked.


She looked at him with one brow raised inquisitively. "By that you must mean these past thirteen years."


He nodded, prompting her to continue.


"I cried. Every night. For months after you left." He winced at her brutal words. "'Master a killing aspect'. That was your last assignment for me, but it was one I couldn't complete, or even start, in the first five years of your departure. My father's words forced me to bury any foolish attachments I might have had, and I did."


The more she spoke the more uncomfortable Taro became. It was like opening a wound he never knew he had. It was both strange and jarring while being hurtful at the same time.


"I focused on my missions and then somewhere along the way I had Damian. I had to divide my time between being his mother and teacher and also advancing on the path I had started walking."


She sighed. It wasn't a tired one. It was more like a wistful expression.


"The first few years following Damian's birth was a hard one for me. Being a mother and an active assassin at the same time was something I had no idea how to juggle but I managed. It was all worth it, and for him I'll do it all again."


She looked at him, those cold green eyes staring at him like frozen venom.


"He is my heart and blood. All I am is to become all I can for him."


They both shared a brief look that Taro ended with an understanding nod. Her saying those words meant a lot and it could be because of Taro's newfound guilt, his past memories, or the look in her eyes, a few words left Taro's mouth before his brain could process them.


"If you ever want me to teach him, tell me. It is the least I can do."


They had once been an intertwined pair – teacher and student – but now they were both strangers to the other with how much they've grown, despite having grown in the same direction.


They could no longer have what might have been – it was wishes on the sand at this point – but that did not mean that the bond they once had had to end.


Talia spoke softly, calmly and slowly summarizing her experiences in the last decade to Taro who patiently listened.


"I am glad you never told me back then." He suddenly said words that surprised Talia, and continued before she could react. "I wouldn't have understood what you meant and would have forced you to dismiss it."


He looked at her and smiled. It was such a soft and harmless thing – especially with his features – that it left Talia stunned, who was only seeing such a smile on his face for the first time in her life.


'It looks familiar.' She thought to herself. It almost looked like the smile she'd have on some occasions a few years ago when listening to every childish thing Damian had to say. 'It looks familiar.' She said to herself.


"I'm more proud of the woman you are right now, than the woman you would have been had I stayed."


He took off his glasses and looked at her with his grey eyes.


"I make no excuses for my departure, but I'm glad I left when I did. If I hadn't, I would have become someone I could not be proud of. On your own you trained yourself to stand firm, that is something I would have not been able to teach you. Not to this level at least."


The embers of his smile still remained as he wore his glasses while looking at Talia whose lips were currently pursed.


She closed her eyes to hide the emotions that were dancing in them and took in a deep breath to calm herself.


"....Thank you." She muttered with her eyes closed. Her words were so faint that she hardly heard it, but that was no problem for Taro as he had read her lips.


He received her thanks with gratitude and silence.


.


........


.


[Hall of Justice]


A few figures were sat around a large round table and above the table were holographic projections of documents, pictures and reports, all centred around one figure – Raven.


"So you're telling me, according to her words, that a demonic apocalypse is coming? Does it get more outlandish than this?" The Green Lantern, Hal Jordan's rhetoric, was met with a serious deliberation.


"So a possible demonic invasion before New Year, that's a new one." The Flash remarked drily. He looked utterly drained out and it remained uncertain if it was because of the current deliberation or something else. Nevertheless, it was a rare look for the Flash.


"What do we know about this being called Trigon? Has there been any past contact with it?" Martian Manhunter asked Batman who had brought up the meeting.


Batman shook his head. "Inconclusive as of yet. I've sent a message to our magic contacts. I couldn't reach Zatanna, but I got hold of Constantine and Dr. Fate. They'll be here soon."


He waved his hand and the projections flew to the side. "From her own words, apart from her being his daughter, he has conquered millions of worlds and dimensions, including her last one. He now aims for earth and she is the key to doing that."


"Key? Nah, not key mate. She's the bloody bridge that'll open up an express to hell." Constantine walked in with a swaying swagger to his steps and a half smoked cigarette in his lips.


"You look like you've been through hell yourself." Hal quipped.


Constantine flipped him off. "Piss off, will ya? Hangovers are demonic bloody nuisances, and I'm on a first-name basis with every last one."


He looked at the projections and cursed under his breath. "Yeah, that's the apocalypse for ya. Knew something was off—sun was out, birds were singin'. Bloody ominous, if you ask me."


Flash snorted.


"What can you tell us about this particular threat, John? You seem to be certain about the impending apocalypse." Wonder Woman spoke up and drew Constantine's gaze to her while the Englishman scratched his head in frustration.


"Blind as you are, sweetheart. Only thing I know? His name's one letter shy of the Devil's—small 'd,' mind you. Even the demons won't whisper about him, and that? That's a proper bad sign."


He read over Batman's report on Raven's words and nodded to himself. "Spot on, mate. Death, destruction, subjugation—million bloody worlds burnin', apocalypse bingo, Armageddon with a side of chips. You've got the whole doomsday catalog down pat. But if you're askin' for my 'professional' opinion? Wrap the bitch in a bow, chuck her into the next dimension over, and pray whatever's there has a really strong stomach." He discarded the half cigarette and lit up a new one.


"John!"


"Dude!"


"The hell man?"


The man in question just shrugged and took in a deep drag and blew out the smoke. The smoke formed a globe with cracks on it that soon started spreading until it covered the globe and the globe exploded.


He looked over at Batman who had kept his eyes on him since his arrival.


"Listen up, Batsy—no sugarcoatin' this. Some things you don't fight, and he's top of that list. If the bastard's set his sights on our mudball, the best we can do is play shell games with the apocalypse. Buy time, redirect attention, maybe trick him into blinkin'—but stop him? Nah. Not a chance in hell. And as long as she's here? We're just windin' the clock. Might stall the hour, but midnight's comin'. Only question is whether we're still standin' when it hits."


The room fell silent as whatever remains of humour was drained away by Constantine's words. Just like he said, he gave them his hard truth and they knew him well enough to know that he wasn't joking, not about this.


"We don't trade lives, John." Superman finally spoke up. "There's still a lot of things we still don't know and we're only looking at the worst case scenario. We'll speak with her again after we've heard from Dr. Fate."


"Gotta hand it to you, Big Blue—that optimism of yours? Bloody legendary. Shame it burns faster than a sinner in a holy water bath once you're down in the pit. Hell doesn't just kill hope, mate—it feasts on it. And you? You're a walking, talking all-you-can-eat buffet."


He turned around and walked out of the room with his swaying swagger while his last words drifted back to the meeting room.


"If there's a bottle of whiskey within a ten-mile radius, now's the time to speak up. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to exorcise this memory the old-fashioned way—with enough cheap scotch to drown a hellhound."


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