NO CELESTIAL / dick grayson

twelve, our history

THERE WERE TOO many assassins in this house. Dick shook his head as he observed Lange, who'd been transported into the Batcave and now resided in one of the few holding cells within it. A rather comfortable one, and they'd been instructed to bring down some more comfortable items for Cecily Lange to make herself at home.

Remiel was talking to her. The door of the holding cell was opened, and even though everyone else was pretending to be busy, he knew they were all observing the pair. Even Damian. Especially Damian.

"Three assassins in the house now," he muttered to Batman, who was standing a few feet away.

He casted him a disapproving glance. "You think I like this any more than you do?"

"Why bring her here anyways?"

"Remiel says she's useful. And I think she has a soft spot for her. I can understand that."

"She betrayed the League to Deathstroke."

"She picked a side in the ensuing conflict. I doubt she handed information to Deathstroke prior to his successful takeover. And she's young."

"Damian's even younger."

"Doesn't mean she isn't young as well." Batman glanced at the two of them. "And I want Remiel to realise something through Cecily."

"Like what?" he asked, flummoxed.

"Like the fact that she does have a choice. If she can offer it to someone else, why won't she take it herself?"

And then he understood why Batman had agreed to this, even though normally he'd have thrown Cecily to the GCPD a long time ago. Cecily reminded Batman of Remiel six years ago. And she'd made the choice that Remiel had refused. Cecily Lange was not remaining loyal to Deathstroke out of some perverse sense of duty, out of habitual behaviour. She'd chosen to betray him, to work with Remiel. And it was Remiel who convinced her to make that choice.

Would Remiel see the hypocrisy, though? And if she did, would she do anything about it? It was difficult to break out of habits. He knew that. He'd struggled with it in the past.

If she didn't, he was just going to lose her again. He had no way of forcing her into decisions she didn't want to make.

And Batman shared that sentiment. Bruce didn't want Remiel to go back to the League and continue with that spiral. He wanted her to step out of that life, to realise that she had other opportunities, to not spend the rest of her life killing on the wrong side of history.

Especially because she didn't even believe in the cause she was fighting for.

(And that made him wonder for a moment, what did she believe in? What fuelled Remiel Chen? What made her keep going on every day? Everyone had something that pushed them forward, but he was unable to identify it for Remiel. It wasn't loyalty to the League. She didn't share any of their ideas.)

"You should talk to Lange later," Batman suddenly said, raising his head. "She's scared of me, I think, but you're less intimidating. We can't just take everything that Remiel says about her."

"I'll do it once Remiel's gone."

He nodded. "She says she doesn't know anything about Deathstroke's plans. See if you can jot her memory. And make sure she's not a spy put by our side."

"We have plenty of those," he said good-humouredly. "Though perhaps calling them spies is oversimplifying the issue."

"The world is a lot more complicated than that." Batman lowered his head. "And she might know some things about Remiel. We know far too little about that girl."