The Lone Knight (Under The Cowl Book #1)

CHAPTER 34

     Renee sat chained to the floor while seated in the hard steel chair sculpted with hard edges. Cold and sharp, every inch of the chair dug into the meat of her thighs.

It was not the first time Renee found herself stuck wearing cuffs, though under completely different circumstances at a time where pleasure was on the forefront of her mind, there was no pleasure here.

Fighting her way out of this predicament with the use of her fist instead of words would be a task far easier than the later. It would allow Leslie to become distracted, give Gypsy the opportunity to implement her plan already put it into motion. Although she wished she could have seen Stephanie escape this world and return to her own.

Better this way, her being the captured prisoner, the distraction. She'd grown attached to Stephanie which was never the plan. The plan was to have Stephanie save Bruce, bring back the man who was once Gotham City's greatest hero. Remind him what he lost is not forgotten, that there are still people in this world who cares for him.

Did Stephanie get Bruce to take off the Mask of Ruin? Did she help him move on? Or was it removed by force and tossed into an interdimensional breach hopefully lost forever. Either one didn't matter. It would mean Leslie got Bruce back, his life saved.

Renee turned her head at the sound of the door to this giant white room slid open behind her.

She listened as a pair of footsteps followed in mismatch tune with one another. 

Leslie along with a solemn face teen dressed in black came into view.

"I'm sorry you've been put into this precarious position, Renee." Leslie apologized. "This was not how I wanted things to play out."  

"No, you were just ok with sacrificing someone's life for..." she waited to hear Leslie's answer.

"Argus has been there for me the same way the police force has been there for you."

"You said Argus was no longer a part of our lives. Was that a lie?"

"... When Grace died I let my grief cloud my better judgment. I shouldn't have allowed things to get that bad. I've had ways of removing the Mask of Ruin from Bruce. But I didn't want that as it would have resulted in his death, an agonizing and painful death I did not want him to suffer from. So I thought I could save him with Stephanie's help. He had to be the one to remove the mask in order to survive."

"And? Where is Bruce now?"

Leslie's face darken. Her eyes point down at her feet along with her lowered head. The worse,  actualized through Leslie's silence.

"What have you done?" Renee fearful of Leslie's answer.

Leslie lifted her head and replied, "What had to be done. Bruce is gone. And I ended his suffering swiftly."

Renee felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. "And S-Stephanie?" her voice cracked.

"I told you not to get yourself attached to that girl. I told you she was not our Grace. She had one job, save Bruce."

"'That girl'? Who was she than if not the very image of what your granddaughter could have become? Why bother to enroll her into university or get her an apartment close to home? Why allow her to go out night after night to patrol the streets of Gotham? Why bother to be concerned about her wellbeing when you knew the danger she was putting herself in?"

"Stephanie Brown is not Grace Wayne." Leslie replied with a firm tone.

"That made things easier for you? Rationalize the fact since Grace never got the chance to grow up she and Stephanie couldn't have had the same face. You're fooling yourself!"