Chapter Text
A woman sits in a dark cell, arms relaxed and palms resting on crossed knees. She’s injured, terribly, her breathing ragged as she tries to inhale and exhale deeply.
Footsteps patter on cold stone, and the woman pays no mind.
“Meditating? Tut tut, Ms al Ghul. Surely a woman like you knows when to admit defeat.” A man says, leering at her through the cell bars, and Talia al Ghul opens her unswollen eye.
“Until you or my father are to sink the blade of my own sword into my heart, I have not been defeated.”
“And yet you sit in a hidden cell, left to rot. I guess everyone was right about you - your stubbornness is known around the world.” The man says, and Talia closes her eyes again.
“Nothing to say? I’m seeing your father after this; I’m happy to pass on a message.”
The man stalls, waits for a response. Talia’s deep breathing fills the room. The man turns to leave.
“Your plan won’t work. There are people out there who will figure what you and my father are up to, and they will stop it. And when they free me, I’ll kill you myself.”
The man laughs, though he feels a prickling sensation in his arms. He tries to remind himself there’s no need to be worried; she can’t hurt him, not where she is, not when he has Ra’s men to protect him.
“If you’re talking about your beloved Batman-- Well, I’m afraid to say he may be too preoccupied. Your hopes for any kind of revenge may fall rather… flat.”
Talia’s lips quirk in the shadows.
“I’m not talking about Batman. I suppose you and my father will find out, soon enough.”
The man leaves, heart beat rising. He tries to remind himself that Ra’s is in control here; that if he thought there was any threat to his plan, they would have been taken out already. There was no one else’s name raised, except Talia’s. The conclusion, the man comes to, is that the heiress is merely bluffing.