Renegade, Another Bat?

Chapter 42 - Owls Rise Again

Chapter 42 – Owls Rise Again

"Alexa?"

"Alexa Sage Al Ghul." Skye decided on her assassin persona. Known by name and name alone. "Granddaughter of Ra's Al Ghul and heir to the demon."

"Thalia Al Ghul's daughter?"

"Yeah..." she trailed off. Daughter of Thalia Al Ghul; Spoken daughter of Thalia Al Ghul. Eh, same difference.

"You were there that night," the Talon said after a few minutes. "The night we attacked the Shadows."

"I was," said Skye quietly, desperate to block the memories of that night from resurfacing. "My mother sent me away, to keep me safe. She didn't want me to fall into the hands of the Owls again."

"Again?" the Talon asked, not remembering the Demon's child ever being with the Owls. "You've been here before?"

There was a small nod of affirmation, and nothing more was said on the matter. If the kid was young now, she must have been so much younger when she was out through the gruelling training of becoming a Talon. Whatever had happened to her, he could tell it hurt. He wasn't going to force her to relive her experience, out of respect for the treaty agreed upon between the Shadows and Talons.

~~~~~~~~

Finally arriving at the secret base, all of the previously knocked out children were awoken and led inside. Jason, Dani and Hearth couldn't hold the look of wonder off their face. The others, older and more mature, were able too caught up in worry to marvel at the intricate (and probably ancient) detail. With Mark and Pan still MIA, Lex was left to bare the weight of the safety of eight children alone. His brothers and sisters were in danger and he could do nothing to save them.

"What are you going to do to us?" Xavier asked, rather bravely. Which Lex was grateful for, as he was yet to find his voice.

"Get you all some decent clothes, for one." He said after giving the gang a critical once-over. "You all serve a greater cause now. You will help us in reshaping this world."

"Great..." Kat drawled sarcastically. "And when all is said and done will all your new slaves be a part of this 'great new world'?" she did air quotation marks as she said this. Complete and utter sass and disrespect emanating off the young teen.

A slap sounded through the halls, Kat recoiling suddenly at the stinging pain, her face frozen in shock. Another Talon had entered un-noticed (almost, Dick and Skye had both seen him though) and slapped for her insolent behaviour.

"Disrespect will not be tolerated. You will be trained; disobey and you will be punished. Fail and you will be killed." He said without any trace of emotion passing over his face.

"Trained for what?" Tris asked, worry lacing her voice. But her question went unanswered.

"How are you supposed to do this?" asked Dick, keeping the eagerness out of his voice. They were so close to getting what the needed. "Change the world I mean. Burn it down just to build it back up again?"

"A conversation for another time, perhaps." He turned towards his comrade, "Bennon, take the children to the mess hall." He then turned and looked directly into the child Demon.

"Sage – with me." The command was spoken in an undertone. Skye followed behind without a word as she glanced back to where her brother was being led away in the opposite direction. So much for going through this together.

"How come the Demon's grandchild in caught up in a teen street gang?" The question was asked once the duo was out of earshot of Skye's fellow runaways.

"A... mission. I have been looking into something for the past two months or so," started Skye, trying to mentally run through what she could and couldn't share. Nothing about the bat, obviously. They already knew about her relation with Thalia, but not Slade. So, keep him out of it for the time being. And they know about Alex aka Renegade, Deathstroke's apprentice, so they will probably put that together themselves anyway.  Mission – yes. Dick (Asha, whatever) being her biological brother – no. Thalia doesn't have an older son. Previous time? Not that important either way.

"To be honest, I was meant to end up here anyway. Although, we did not know where 'here' was up until now." The Talon nodded his head in acceptance of her response.

"Through here," he told her.

Skye looked around the room with a smirk on her face, "nice."