Chapter 16

Jason went to the office early. With Bruce gone, he had taken over Wayne Enterprise's operations. Dick had vanished, finding comfort in the tight areas between the walls. Right now, he was watching the little one. Damian stood outside Tim's room and wished there was someone else he could question.

"Do you have some business with Master Timothy, Young Master Damian?" Alfred was just as silent as Damian's grandfather and seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"What did Todd mean when he said I'm not a Talon?" Damian asked.

Dick frowned and wondered how much Alfred would tell him.

"Do you know what a talon is?" Alfred asked.

There was a moment of silence which made it clear that Damian did not know what a talon was. Dick breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"A talon is a myth," Tim answered, his door finally opening. "Just like the Court they supposedly enforce for." Tim looked away from Alfred to glare at Damian.

Damian ignored Tim. "Pennyworth, what Court?"

"The Court of Owls," Alfred responded.

"Beware the Court of Owls," Tim recited, "that watches all the time.

"Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch,

"Behind granite and lime.

"They watch you at your hearth,

"They watch you in your bed,

"Speak not a whispered word of them,

"Or they'll send a Talon for your head."

"-tt- A fairy tale to scare the foolish," Damian decided. "Such an organisation can't exist."

"It doesn't exist. Not anymore."

Both boys turned to Alfred.

"Not anymore?" Tim questioned. "It did?" He shivered at the thought.

"Father took them down, I assume," Damian said.

Alfred nodded. "But their Talon of the era escaped Master Bruce's wrath."

"What? You're saying one of them is still walking around?" Damian questioned. "Father wouldn't allow something like that."

"'Not a Talon to be trained'," Tim repeated what Jason had said. "The talon means something to Dick."

"How were talons trained anyway?" Damian questioned.

Alfred remained silent on that one. Dick recalled the labyrinth and training until he couldn't train anymore and then training even beyond that. His stomach churned and he wanted to throw up.

Jason found him a while later. Dick had gone to his room and spread himself out flat on the bed.

"I'm not sleeping under the bed tonight, Dick," Jason said. "I don't fit."

Dick turned his head and opened one eye to look at his brother. Jason might have grown tall and muscular like Bruce but their beds were large.

"You could make yourself fit," he responded flatly.

Jason sighed and crossed the room, putting his briefcase onto his desk. "What's got you all out of sorts?" he asked. "Did Damian attempt to assassinate you?"

"I wish," Dick sighed. At least he knew how to deal with an attempted assassination upon his person. He told Jason about the conversation he overheard. Tim and Damian probably knew he used to be a talon by now.

"You know you shouldn't go skulking around the manor like that," Jason said. "Alfred knows about those passages." When Dick didn't respond, he decided to ask, awkward feelings aside. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"You know they won't care. Damian's an assassin and Tim didn't even believe in the Court before today so they'll still see you as the goofy adult who didn't really grow up." There was a knock at the door and Jason opened it without letting the person see inside.

"What's up Tim?"

"I've been looking for Dick. Cass called."

"From Hong Kong?"

Tim shook his head. "From Barbara's. Apparently she flew in last night. Steph says that she and Barbara kidnapped her for a girls only sleepover last night and that's why Cass didn't tell us she was back."

Jason sighed. Just what he needed, the other assassin-raised bat in Gotham. He loved Cass but she tended to add fuel to the fire between his brothers. She found their fighting 'amusing' because she 'could see how much they loved each other'. And wasn't it just messed up that they didn't show love unless they were beating the snot out of each other?

"Cass is back?" Dick said, perking up and even getting up off the bed.

"Yeah," Tim responded a little dumbfounded. He gave Jason a look which said he was a surprised to find the eldest of them in Jason's room. "Um... about what happened after patrol-"

"Damian needs to learn to adapt, especially when his expectations don't match up," Dick said. "I'm attempting to give him that lesson, although I'm not the best at teaching."

"Yeah, you prefer to beat things until they listen," Jason said. "Leave the eloquence to me, thanks."

"You didn't even notice that's what's bothering him."

Jason didn't want to admit Dick was right. So, he demanded to know, "what do you suggest then? Let him fight you?"

"He could fight Cass," Tim suggested with only a little malice in his tone. If he got to watch Damian get beaten by Cass, he would be a happy vigilante indeed.

"I think he needs a focus. Bruce had Batman, we have our vigilante identities, why not let the kid out to fight crime?"

"We're not giving the kid Red Robin."

"Tim could have Red Robin. Damian could be Robin. Or Flamebird." Flamebird had been the name of Nightwing's partner in Clark's stories.

"You can't seriously be thinking of letting him out there? He'll kill anyone who crosses his path!" Tim argued.

However, Jason was thoughtful. "A trial process," he decided, using a similar method to what Wayne Enterprises did when they were looking at new hires. "The kid kills or maims anyone and he's out. Also, he's only allowed to work with you," he nodded at Dick. "Or Cass."

"Not you?" Tim questioned.

"Whether the kid's Robin or not, I'd rather not be watching my back for his sword. I did replace the kid's father in the suit, after all. Also, Dick's in charge of telling him."

Tim nodded his agreement. He also agreed moments later when Jason made a compelling argument for him to take over Red Robin regardless of which ID Damian took.

It was no surprise to any of them that Damian picked Robin. Tim shrugged and tried not to show how it bothered him. He believed that showing indifference would bug Damian and took comfort from that. The rules were explained to Damian and it didn't escape anyone's notice that he kept looking at Dick.

Damian's first night as Robin was a quiet one. They met Cass, dressed as Black Bat, and most of the crimes were taken care of by the new Red Robin and the blond Batgirl. Damian decided to engage in information gathering since nothing exciting was happening.

"Nightwing," he said. Dick had known he was there. While he knew Damian would be in trouble once Batman realised the kid had snuck away from him and Black Bat, Nightwing also knew there was no point mentioning it to Damian.

"Were you really a Talon?" Damian asked. It was only now that he realised he had never been able to sneak up on Dick or Nightwing. The older man seemed to notice whenever others were around. "Like from the children's rhyme?"

"Speak not a whispered word, Damian," Nightwing responded softly.

"-tt- I don't care about the hidden rules of some dead cult."

Nightwing was at his throat in a moment, sliding down in one swift movement to point the edge of a blade at Damian's throat but not touching. The kid paused for a moment and then glared determinedly at him.

"That's a yes," Damian deduced. "I have a question, since you were an assassin apparently skilled enough to have only a children's rhyme whisper word of you. How do you keep from killing the idiots and fools?"

"I am one of those fools, Robin," Nightwing responded. "Or at least I was. I was a normal circus kid until my parents died. It's not like I was raised knowing that I was to be the Court's Talon. But, once Talon, I thought he knew everything. The moves people would make and the best way to kill them. But then, I met someone who did something different. Something unexpected. He didn't react the way I thought."

"Father?" Robin questioned curiously.

Nightwing smiled and shook his head. "No. Batman was predictable."

"He destroyed the Court!" Robin reminded Nightwing.

"I know. But he didn't catch me now, did he?"

Damian was silent as he pondered that. Did Talon purposely let Batman take the Court down? Not even Dick was certain.

"It was Jason. He did the unexpected. That's why you can't anticipate, little bird. If you take a moment to look, really look at the people around you, you might find someone like that."

It took a few weeks and Batman losing sight of Damian again during their team up with Black Bat but the ex-assassin turned Robin found someone who did the unexpected. A child who, instead of running, faced up to Zsasz. One who figured out who Damian was. One who held his own secret. Damian certainly hadn't expected the small, skinny, red-haired Colin Wilkes to instantly buff up into the muscular adult form of Abuse. He didn't expect Abuse to spare the lives of his enemies.

Damian thought it would be worth hanging around this kid more.

END

Notes: So that's the end. Sorry Cass didn't have a bigger role in this but it was more focused on Damian and Dick.

Anyway, I'm going to take a small break and enjoy not having any stories which need updating for a couple of days. I'll be back on the night of the 18th (Australian time) with a new story.