NO CELESTIAL / dick grayson

thirty-one, into the abyss

"YOU KNOW YOU can't keep me here forever." Huang Yan sounded more amused than anything else. "I'll find a way out, you realise that?"

"Do you know how lucky it is I'm here?" Remiel asked, tilting her head. "You'd already be dead otherwise."

"Oh, if it wasn't for you, Shan Ling would have executed me immediately." She sighed, leaning back against the wall. The cells had been cleaned up and made ready faster than Remiel had thought.

The cells were rather far away from where most people lived on the mountain, located underground on the other end of the mountain from Yu Lan's peach blossoms. Having had no prisoners for the past few years, they had been out of use. But now, it was back.

They were still handling her uncle's cell. His was going to be slightly nicer, albeit still not exactly comfortable.

The sect were not killers. They were not assassins. They were martial artists, but they were still very interested in murder if it came to someone like Huang Yan. But rather fortunately for Huang Yan, Remiel was as much Bruce's student as Seraphina's. There were fates worse than death. She was still alright now, but after months of isolation, Huang Yan would eventually break down.

If she did ever find a way out, they'd hunt her down again. Huang Yan would find that she was never able to escape the haunting of the Yuannan Mountain Sect.

"You ought to be a little more grateful." Remiel paused for a moment. "You could have never bothered with all this, you know. If you'd truly wanted revenge, you could have just told me. I'd have done it myself. But you just had to bring innocents down with you."

"You really think they were so innocent?"

"Their parents may not have been, but the ones you killed were mostly my cousins. They were no more than children themselves when everything happened. They were innocent."

"You think your position is secure?"

"I think," Remiel said slowly, "that you think far too lowly of me. Honestly, you wouldn't even have to be here if you'd just let things be. But you just wanted a reason to go after them, didn't you?"

"Does it matter?" Huang Yan asked.

"Must be a lonely life," Remiel murmured. "You killed your own brothers and your father is dead. You have no friends, not even an affiliate. All by yourself. You saw something in me, didn't you? You saw something in me that you saw in yourself. That's why you offered to teach me. Even though you didn't even have qi yourself."

"Now you're grasping at straws," Huang Yan sighed.

"Oh, your motives are elusive, but everyone has some form of a motive. Even someone like the Joker. You're not more crazy than the Joker, don't worry." Remiel moved her stool a little closer. "But unlike you, I had slightly better parental figures. And I have friends. And I don't take my boredom out on other people's lives."

"You really think you're better than me just because you don't kill?" Huang Yan looked amused. "You're from the League of Assassins. Your little lover boy might be able to overlook your past, but we both know what you are. Not just you, that little demon spawn too. Your hands are no cleaner than mine."

"I don't think I'm better than you because I don't kill," Remiel replied with a shrug. "And quite frankly, the reason I don't kill isn't because Batman demands it."

"Oh?"

"It's because death is too easy a way out for people like you. And because it's too difficult for me. I have no interest in people like you haunting me like a ghost for the rest of my life. I have no interest in letting that be on my conscience."