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The emptiness of the rooftop they stand upon grants this veil of privacy Talia knows she does not have. Bruce is before her, her love, her beloved is before her and their tension is high. The air is cold, biting at her exposed skin, but her body is hot , burning her from within. The man she had loved, had chosen to love for eternity, stood opposing her, a scowl on his face, a bitter hatred across his expression. Was this it? Hardly. They were intertwined, their fates crossing over and over again, once again. Whether the parties involved liked it or not, they were forever connected.
Talia may outlive Bruce, but their memories will stand by her everlasting.
“What are you doing in Gotham, Talia?”
She hummed, smiling slightly. Talia stepped forward, slow, noticeable. Her heels clicked against the concrete, resounding in the empty space around them, the sound dissipating.
“That is business of mine own, beloved.”
“Not when you’re in my city.”
She grinned. She stopped walking, only a foot away from him, her hands rested on his chest.
“Truly?”
She chuckles, her eyes squinted as she looks up at him.
“You are incapable of putting a stop to me, beloved. But you do not have to worry, I am not here to spread bloodshed.”
His hand rises, gripping hers and pushing it off of him.
“Talia. You are not welcome in Gotham.”
She does not move, her hands lowered to her sides. A dangerous tilt to her smile, a cold tone to match their surroundings.
“You cannot stop me, Batman. Let that much be clear. Your knowledge of me was a courtesy I do not have to uphold.”
“Talia-”
He warns, or- attempts to at the very least, but she does not listen. This dance one they had done many times before. A tango she had once loved, had once attributed to their relationship as a peculiar bond fitting of them- but now? Now it stood as yet another shackle upon her person, this chain made of rope rather than metal- burning but ever so gentle.
She did not know how long she could handle such tender torture. One where he is both her savior and her demise. One where he holds her firm, grounding, yet suffocating all the same. One where he loves and hurts, where he gives so much but asks the impossible of her, leaving her in a debt that binds her soul. She cannot- she can no longer give in to such confusion, to such back and forth that leaves her dizzy. This man, her love, her husband, her everything . He was the father of her greatest creation, and the thief of her joy.
“Talia.”
He tried once more, but her gaze went through him as if he were glass, his words through her ears as if air. He shifted. His stance lowered. He was on guard, Talia could tell. He was preparing to fight, to best her and then what? Let her go?
They always played this childish game.
Cat and mouse.
Paladin and Assassin.
“What are you to do, Bat? Arrest me? Imprison me in those buildings you call an asylum? They cannot hold me, you are aware.”
She does not move, does not alter her form in any way. Bruce was strong, incredible so, admirably so- but he could not best her, not when his inhibitions shined brighter than his call signal.
She knew he could never take her down, could never be rid of her.
Well, one of those would change.
“You know as much as I that I cannot be contained, not by your methods. I will cease my actions when I am dead , a fate I know you cannot grant.”
“Talia, I won’t kill you. You know I can’t.”
She is brutal, bitter in her words, snapping in her tone.
“I respect your code. I respect your city and your ways of protecting it, but what I cannot stand- is your continued incorrect assumptions of me. Do you take me for a devoted follower of my father? A willing slave to his whims? His desires?”
“Are you not?”
He answers back, voice gruff and scratched, firm in all the ways his resolve isn’t. He continues in her silence.
“Time and time again you put that man on top of everything else. You, yourself, are second to his orders of you. Daughter? You’re a soldier. I understand, going against a parent is difficult-”
“You understand nothing.”
She cuts him off, her voice flat, giving no tells at all to her inner turmoil. Is this how Bruce saw her? A devoted employee of her father? A believer in the core of his cult?
“No, I think I understand enough. You try time and time again to convince me, to convince Damian that you are good, good in the ways no one has seen, yet every single chance of you showing that, proving that, you fall short. Do you take us for fools?”
He does not yell, but he is firm, unwavering in his words. His voice rings in her ears, his words branding themselves on the innermost section of her brain. This was familiar, this was what she was expecting, was what everything turned out to be.
It didn’t have to.
It always did.
“You can’t keep doing this, Talia. You can’t keep asking for a chance you’ll never take. You will always put Ras above us, above Damian. That is a fact.”
“That is unfair and you are aware of it.”
It was a weak response, that much she knew, but he was missing so much .
“How so?”
“Time and time again I have risked myself for you and your kin. Time and time again I have gone against the Demon Head’s wishes, orders , to help you, to protect you , yet it is all for nought.”
Her voice rose, anger in her tone, but underneath it all laid exasperation, exhaustion .
“Till when will you see my struggle for what it is rather than a ploy to fool you? Till when are we going to continue this dance? This circling, slicing at each other until barely a piece is left. I do not wish to do this with you, so leave me be.”
“I cannot just leave you alone when you consistently ruin lives , Talia! How am I supposed to sit here and let you hurt people, when I know well that I can stop it.”
“By doing what you always have.”
She responds, her voice cold, short and clipped, lacking the emotions that roar in the back of her mind, the depths of her heart.
“And what would that be?”
He questions, his wall back up between them, hard and strong.
“By leaving me be, abandoning me for greater causes. Is that not how this always ends? We battle, we tie, I disappear just to come back sometime or another, waiting until you find me once more. Till when do we play this game? For how long will we circle each other in a ring, biting but never ceasing? I fear to admit it but I have grown tired of such forms of entertainment.”
“What are you trying to get at, Talia?”
Ah, there was the concern she so craved- the ounces of affection she searched for, but it was far too late. His care was conditional, his love fleeting.
“This is goodbye, beloved.”
A nickname so meaningful in her heart that's lost its value, its importance. She calls it with no attachment, the love from before vanished in front of him. This was the end. This was a final brick in the wall he kept high, finally their gazes cut, their connection withered.
“Talia-”
He tried, for what, neither of them could know. If he viewed her existence as one of continued strife, she’d simply disappear . Why chase tails, when she could cut herself in two, leaving the parts he wished behind for his memory, for him to cradle. She was not who he wished her to be, and she could never fit the mold he tried to push her into. She was inherently evil in the ways he was inherently good , and that, well, that could not do. Two sides of a coin, never to cross the edge and meet, never to overlap, to touch, to mold together into one.
This was their finale. This was their end.
This was her new beginning.
Never again would she let her presence be known by the batclan, and never again will she let herself fall victim to Bruce Wayne and his ires.
After all, the Demon’s Head was a hidden evil and she couldn’t bear to fill the shoes of her late father if she was still tied to foolish young love.
Perhaps they’ll meet again, but not like this, and not in any way he’d ever imagine.
And just like that, she vanished, the only knowledge of her presence being her name upon his lips, calling out to an open sky, a being no longer there to listen.