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The woman flew like living shadow.
Her legs swept through movements far too elegant for the simple moniker of ‘kick’; each precise flicker of arm and palm brought down guards twice her size, triple her weight. No bullet or knife could so much as graze the gold-edged black of her clothing, just as every retaliatory punch looked cumbersome and weak when she merely swayed to send her opponents crashing to the floor or into one another.
Eek watched it all with wide eyes.
In the span of twenty minutes, stalking from one end of the compound to the other, the shadow woman defeated the entirety of the guards present - a lightning swift mouse victorious over a herd of elephants.
Screams of pain and terror rolled by without consideration; Eek only paid attention to the movement of black and gold, not those left behind or the ones who fled before they could engage. Yet even those cowards were bested, struck down by slim metal that flew from the shadow woman’s hands, curving through the air to strike heads and ankles with extreme prejudice.
It all culminated with the arrival at his office, and Eek shivered, from both fear and anticipation.
The door burst open before the shadow woman could quite reach it, followed by searing flames, white hot and furious. She curved away from the heat, flipping higher, using a thrown line to ripple up towards the building’s roof. He came out then, holding the burning weapon with both hands, lifting it with a dark scowl and no concern for the walls catching fire.
But even so, the shadow woman bested him.
She jumped, dark cape wrapping and shielding as she passed through the outer edges of the inferno, and brought her full weight down directly onto his face. Bone crunched, blood spurted, flames sputtered and died as he dropped the weapon in favor of grasping at his injuries. He staggered backwards and tripped; she arced gracefully to settle on the ground, poised, a dancer finished with her performance. Five steps brought her forward to loom over his collapsed form, and for the first time since her arrival, the shadow woman spoke.
“You lose.” The words held no emotion, no glimmer of gloating or pride. He replied with snarled profanities. Her follow-up involved a step and a sweep, resulting in him pressed flat to the ground, her boot pinning his throat. “You lose,” the woman said again, with a harder edge in her voice. “Files. Now.”
A strangled wheeze managed to escape him, but little else. His eyes darted, frantic, searching, until they landed-
-on Eek.
He glared, trying to impart some order she did not care to decipher. He was beaten - what did it matter that he always found her when no one else could, with the shadow woman keeping him pinned? Eek remained in place, half-hidden behind the wall.
Another wheeze, this one filled with inarticulate rage, as his gaze snapped back up. He attempted to spit on the boot holding him down, but the bloody substance only dribbled across his chin and cheek. The shadow woman didn’t seem to care. She pressed harder, cutting off his air. It didn’t take long for him to pass out completely, eyes rolling back and muscles going lax.
But he wasn’t dead.
None of them were dead.
That, perhaps, meant more than anything else, keeping Eek still, as the shadow woman turned and stepped and looked right at her.
They watched one another for a long moment. Then the shadow woman slowly crouched. Carefully raised her hands. Gently lifted away the mask which covered her face. She looked... like any other woman Eek might see outside the compound. Lines hard and soft at the same time. Eyes calculating, piercing, but curious- in a way that didn’t make Eek’s skin crawl, a rare thing in recent months.
One hand reached out, and crooked a finger. Come.
Eek obeyed.
She stopped just past the woman’s arm, fully aware she could still be grabbed quick as anything.
The shadow woman smiled. “Hello.”
Eek hunched her shoulders, but cautiously smiled back.
Dark eyes studied her up and down, noting her stained smock, the bruises dotting her skin. A considering hum made Eek bite her lip, before the shadow woman leaned forward. One hand splayed against the ground to support her weight; the other lightly tapped the tip of Eek’s nose. “Safe, now.”
For however long it lasted, before he woke up, anyway.
The shadow woman straightened back up, and tilted her head towards the unconscious man. “Files?”
Eek took a deep breath, and nodded. She turned to walk across the compound, feet bare but callused enough not to mind the usual gravel and new concrete shards made by stray bullets. In the shelter beneath the central watchtower, she tapped a spot on the ground.
Humming, the shadow woman knelt and smoothed a hand over the same area. It didn’t take her long to find the hidden catches, or lift the panel concealing a lockbox with all of his documents. Eek smirked. Those papers were important, and losing them would cause even more problems than everyone in the compound getting defeated by one single invader.
Said invader stood back up once the papers were tucked away in a small bag hanging at the back of her belt. She stopped to peer at Eek, head leaning to one side, an expression the girl couldn’t decipher on her face. “Leave? With me?”
Eek stared.
Leave? Leave. She could, couldn’t she? No one would stop her, him especially. Her sight became blurry at the thought - it took a few seconds to realize her eyes were becoming filled with tears. Mortified by the reaction, she ducked her head to hide them... but still nodded.
Fingers gently tapped beneath her chin, encouraging Eek to look up again. The shadow woman smiled at her, eyes crinkling at the corners. “New home, safe. Not like this.” She jerked a hand at the buildings closest to them, the armory and the munitions storage and the target range that Eek hate hate hated. “People, better. Teach, not train. Help, not hurt.”
One tear slipped free; Eek swiftly wiped her face on her shoulder, not daring to let it linger. The shadow woman’s smile went softer at the edges, and she smoothed a hand over the faint fuzz Eek’s hair was never allowed to grow past.
“Will see,” she murmured, leading the way out of the compound’s gate. “Wait, and watch, and see.”
Eek followed at her heels.
Cass sent ahead her report well in advance of arriving back in Gotham with both the necessary files and unanticipated second passenger. As she expected, Bruce and Selina were both waiting in the hangar as she settled the smallest of their Batplanes on its landing pad.
Wary eyes peeked up as she opened the cockpit canopy. Cass smiled. “Safe. Family.”
The wariness didn’t abate, but at least the child allowed herself to be scooped up and carried down to ground level. The instant Cass set her back on her own feet, she snapped into a stiff posture that nearly screamed cautious-concerned-must-make-good-impression.
If nothing else, it told the others right away what sort of trauma they were dealing with. “Hello there, little one,” Selina purred, kneeling to put herself in a less intimidating height range. Bruce didn’t follow suit, leaning on his cane, but his face did soften as he looked the child over. “What’s your name?”
A deep breath came back out as a soft, wheezing eee sound, and Cass shook her head even as Selina blinked in confusion. That detail hadn’t made it into her report, as she didn’t realize it until after the transmission was sent midway over the Atlantic Ocean. “She has no tongue. They cut it out.”
Bruce’s softness vanished in a split second, knuckles going white around his cane’s handle. Selina gave no visible reaction, though Cass still heard a flicker of solid steel in her voice when she spoke again. “Well, that’s no trouble, we’ll all just have to dust off our sign language skills. Can I call you E for now, little one?”
The child considered it for a moment, before nodding once.
“E,” Cass agreed, holding out her hand once more. E swiftly grabbed hold, and let herself be led towards the washrooms.
Getting clean for the first time in years put a grin on Eek’s face, and the shadow woman even let her linger for an extra minute to splash in the water. When they finished and exited back into the room lined with tall metal boxes, the older woman had returned with fresh clothing - with choices. Eek looked back and forth between the two shirts, her hand gradually drifting to the shimmery gray that felt so soft to touch rather than the slightly stiffer green fabric. Then she was presented with odd blue trousers or a pale yellow skirt, and she chose the latter. A final choice, between white sandals or a similar pair of footwear that were black and fuzzy.
Fuzzy won.
Simple undergarments were also offered, and once fully dressed, Eek again took the shadow woman’s hand to return to the massive cavern full of all sorts of strange sights. She thought it must be their group’s equivalent of the compound, and while part of her shrank at the idea of being put through the same sorts of lessons he’d given her, a greater part burned to learn how to move like the shadow woman did.
How to fight like she did, swift as lightning, sure as thunder, but without taking a single life even by accident.
Eek wanted to be nothing like he planned.
The older woman and man waited for them, along with another pair of men, closer to the shadow woman’s age. One smiled brightly at Eek, whereas the other frowned sharply, just like the expression on the old man’s face.
“Hello, E,” Bright-Smile greeted her, crouching and moving his hands with odd gestures. “My name is Dick, and it’s very nice to meet you. This is my brother Damian; we’re going to be asking you a few questions before we all go upstairs to meet the others, okay?”
Carefully, Eek nodded. The shadow woman gently tugged her over to a far corner of the cavern, where a nook had been carved out and filled with all manner of soft padding. They both settled on one side, Bright-Smile and Sharp-Frown on the other, the elders remaining outside.
“You clearly understand English,” Sharp-Frown began, “What about any other languages?” Eek considered that, and nodded. He took that as a cue to repeat the same question, can you understand me, in a dozen different tongues. One Eek knew, as it was what he spoke when they were alone, and a few others she recognized from those who would come and go from the compound, but nothing else made the slightest bit of sense.
“Good job, kiddo, that’s very helpful,” Bright-Smile said when his brother finished. “Now- do you have a real name? Something we might be able to figure out?”
She shrugged; ‘child’ and ‘Eek’ weren’t really names, the only things anyone ever used. ‘E’ served just as well.
Bright-Smile looked a little sad at her answer, but he merely smiled and went on. “Okay, E, do you know how old you are?” She nodded firmly, and held up nine fingers. “Nine, awesome! You’re a year older than my daughter. Alright, now, do you know how long you were in that compound?”
Six fingers. The shadow woman leaned over slightly, and ran her hand over Eek’s fuzz again. It felt just as nice as the first time.
Sharp-Frown clicked his tongue, a quick tt sound. “They were training you to be a weapon, weren’t they.” He didn’t ask it like a question, but she nodded anyway. “Have you taken a life before?”
She scowled, and snapped her head from one side to the other in a fierce denial.
“Did the people there ever instruct you to take a life?”
Her scowl faded somewhat, and she gave a short nod, before adjusting the soft material of her new skirt to reveal still-healing marks all up and down the backs of her legs. Bright-Smile sucked in a hard breath, but Sharp-Frown merely looked tired. The shadow woman leaned closer again to get a better look. “Mm. Not whip. Wood?”
Eek grimaced with another nod. She’d been ordered to go get a thin snappy branch down from one of the few trees around the outer walls of the compound, and hold perfectly still while he brought it down again and again, while she laid in the cooling blood of the man she’d refused to execute for him.
The shadow woman hummed, gently grasping Eek’s shoulder and running her thumb back and forth over the material of the soft shirt. “Brave. Good.”
“Cass is right, E,” Bright-Smile agreed, “You must be very brave to have said no. Last question for now: are you hungry?”
She blinked at him, surprised - and her stomach audibly groaned before another answer could be given. Even Sharp-Frown cracked a smile at that, as the others chuckled. “Come, then. We shall adjourn to the kitchen for breakfast.”
Cass let the girl keep going with Selina on one side and Dick on the other, Damian a step behind them, while she hung back to exchange a few murmured words with Bruce. “Wants to learn. Wants to spite him, the one who hurt her.”
Her dad hummed. “We can walk her through some basic tests after you’ve both had a chance to eat and rest. Nothing at all in the files indicated where she came from?” Cass shook her head, and he sighed. “Alright, then. Do you want to keep her?”
An immediate nod; she’d had several hours during the flight back to consider it, to debate adding a potentially dangerous child to the growing number of small people running around the Manor with giggles and sticky fingers, and decided the benefits outweighed the risks. And besides, “She will need to learn Sign, how to speak without words. I know better than all of you.”
“That you do,” Bruce murmured, pausing at the top of the staircase to press a kiss against her forehead. “That you do. She’ll be in good hands, then.”
When Bright-Smile said ‘meet the others’, Eek didn’t anticipate quite so many.
Apparently he and Sharp-Frown and the shadow woman had several siblings who were present, along with quite a few of their children, and even some more children who didn’t belong to any of them but were visiting.
They ended up losing Bright-Smile when a pair of teenagers seized him for help with something, and a baby crawling down another hallway extremely quickly caused Sharp-Frown to jump after him with a muttered curse. Thankfully the shadow woman caught up to them, and her elder - Selina, she’d said - never let go of Eek’s hand the whole way to the kitchen.
At least that room proved to be somewhat less crowded; a young brown haired man whistled as he bustled by the counter, and a child slightly smaller than Eek sat perched on the stool beside him, watching avidly. A child with- wings?
“Shayan, sweetheart, what are you doing in here with Toby?” Selina asked, as she led Eek to a neighboring stool.
“Wanna see,” the winged child said, eyes still intent on the man’s work.
He cast a grin at her, then blinked when he happened to notice Eek as well. “Oh! This is the guest Miss Cass brought back with her?”
“Mine now,” the shadow woman said, resting a hand on top of Eek’s head. The words made her feel very warm inside all of a sudden.
“Hers now,” Selina agreed in an amused voice. “Soft foods for the first few days, okay?” She leaned closer to murmur in his ear, and the man flinched, eyes wide when he glanced at Eek again. She didn’t pay much attention to his reaction, too interested by the downy soft feathers of the wings in front of her. One abruptly extended over, close enough to touch.
“You can feel ‘em if you want,” the other child said, even without looking in her direction. “I don’t mind, ‘long as you don’t tug.”
As gently as she could, Eek stroked down along the outer edge, marveling at the softness. A pleased sound escaped her throat.
“I think you’ve got a fan, birdie-bee,” Selina smiled. The other child finally glanced at Eek, eyebrows raised. “Shayan, this is E. She’s going to be staying here from now on.”
“Oh,” Shayan said. “Cool. What’s the ‘E’ stand for?”
“It’s, just a callsign for now. We need to pick out a new full name for her soon.”
Just like that, the other child’s eyes lit up, and her wings flapped several times. “Can I help? Please?!”
The shadow woman hummed as she came back from another door, an open jar of something tan and creamy in one hand and thin little brown sticks in the other. “Maybe. Ask E.”
Eek very suddenly found herself leaning back as Shayan practically fell over into her space. “Can I please help you pick out a new name?” Warily, she nodded, and the other child fell back onto her own stool with a huge grin. “Awesome! It’s gotta start with the letter ‘e’ so you can keep your callsign, like Miss H and her dad B, and shorter’s probably better so people don’t try to give you a different nickname, right?”
Still wary, Eek slowly nodded again.
Shayan’s wings continued to flap; with excitement or concentration, she couldn’t tell. “We could go wiiith... Emily?” Eek felt her nose scrunch up, and she shook her head. “Okay, what about, Erica?” That, didn’t quite cause the same automatic reaction, but she still dismissed it. “Hmmm- oh! I got it! Erin.”
...that sounded okay. She glanced up at the shadow woman, Cass, who smiled back, and set down her food things to make hand gestures like Bright-Smile had done earlier. “E, R, I, N.”
Well. If she liked it, then 'Erin' it would be.