Death Bird's Cry

Chapter 10

Skye stayed in the alley until the sun had started to rise in the east, she sighed and got up before running towards the direction of Wayne Manor. Her injuries slowed her down but she still managed to climb back onto the roof and clamber back through her window before any of the others seemed to have woken up. Skye went over to her mirror and started accessing the damage she’d taken, there was bruising on her ribs and probably on her back from when she’d fallen on it, of course she could hide those easily, it was the cut on her head that she was worried about when the others saw it there would be questions, questions Skye couldn’t answer honestly.

            I can just saw I did it in my sleep right? Bruce wouldn’t find that suspicious. Skye looked around her room; nothing near her bed was sharp enough to cut her so she dug around her desk until she found her scissors. She wiped some blood from her wound onto the scissors before putting them on her floor along with wiping some blood on her pillows and bedside table to make it convincing. Skye shut the window quietly and hid her suit after changing into her pajamas, a door shut from across the hallway and she froze halfway under the covers, light footsteps went down the hall and another door opened and closed. She relaxed, Dick hadn’t heard her; she was still safe until morning, that’s when she’d find out if her lie was really good enough.

            Later that morning Skye was woken up by a startled shout as Bruce came in and saw the blood on the pillows. “Skye are you okay? What happened?”

            “I uh…” Skye’s plan came back to her and she relaxed a little. “I must’ve hit my head on my scissors in my sleep.”

            She picked them up and put them back on the bedside table, Bruce stood there a few moments and Skye thought he wasn’t buying it but he nodded a few seconds later. “Don’t leave them there again, it’s dangerous.”

            “Okay… sorry.” Skye told him sheepishly.

            “I’ll tell Alfred to get the medical kit, he’ll be up in a few minutes.” Bruce told her before walking out of the room.

            Skye jumped out of bed as soon as her father left and changed into a short sleeve shirt and some jeans before cleaning the blood off her scissors and table before taking off the bloodied pillowcases. A knock came from the other side of the door and she opened it to let Alfred in.

            “Fighting in your sleep Miss Wayne?” Alfred joked as he prepared to put stitches in.

            Skye didn’t laugh, he might not realize how close to the truth he’d come but she wasn’t about to say anything. “I guess, I don’t remember my dreams so I couldn’t tell you.”

            It was silent until Alfred finished putting the bandage over the stitches and told her when breakfast would be ready. Skye stayed where she was for a few moments before going down the stairs and was immediately ambushed by Dick.

            “For someone who can fight in her sleep you’re really bad at not getting attacked while you’re awake!” He laughed.

            Skye struggled as she tried to get out of his choke hold. “The unconscious mind reveals a lot about you that might not be known while you’re awake.”

            Dick heard another person coming down the stairs and released her. “Team up and get Jason?”

            Skye shrugged, she really didn’t care but it was nice to go back to messing around like a normal non-assassin teenager again. Of course now that she thought about it Dick was twenty now, not exactly a teenager anymore but she decided to ignore that fact. Jason jumped down the last few steps and Dick lunged at him like he’d done to Skye a few minutes before, Jason was faster though and dodged to the side only to be trapped by Skye.

            “No fair! You can’t team up!” Jason growled.

            “Everything goes no rules remember?” Dick chided as he helped pin down the struggling figure.

            “How about we make it more fair since Jason has a problem with it.” Skye replied. “…Everyone for themselves!”

            Immediately they all started attacking each other, forming a short alliance only to betray their team mate a second later, and that’s how Bruce and Alfred found them; in the middle of a destroyed room still struggling to overpower each other.

            “What is going on here?” Bruce shouted so they could hear him.

            They froze and scrambled away from each other before giving him an innocent look. Dick cleared his throat, “Nothing… I was just trying to get these two to behave.”

            Jason glared at him. “That wasn’t what happened! You two attacked me!”

            “I was threatened into doing it!” Skye defended herself. “It’s all Dick’s fault.”

            “Was not! I swear I didn’t threaten you at all.”

            “Silence!” Bruce hissed as he glared at them. “You aren’t eating until this room is clean got that. Now I’m going to work and you will listen to Alfred or regret it, you aren’t little kids anymore.”

            Skye inwardly flinched, Bruce had yelled at her and Dick before for doing things like this but never so venomously. For a second she’d even thought he would attack them, but he wouldn’t do that right? Bruce didn’t want any of them to be hurt especially by him. That’s why he can’t be Batman… Skye thought but another voice in the back of her mind was still trying to tell her they were one in the same.