When Night Comes

Chapter Seventeen

The room was not at all like the one we had stepped out of. Whilst the front could have passed for a disused butcher the storeroom was definitely in use. It was pristine, the surfaces seeming to glint in the artificial light. Hanging from the ceiling was no longer pig carcasses but those of people, people that went missing during Talon's reign of terror and were never found. The only part that seemed out of place were the two figures in the centre of the room, both looking as surprised as the other though one was in worse shape. Jason was bleeding from almost every part of his body, and around his skull was the markings you'd expect to see on a pig that was going to be carved. Which explained the knife in Talon's hand.
"What do you think you're doing here?" He asked the phrase unstructured compared to his usual prose, he really hadn't been expecting us.
"Let's just get this over with the easy way," I said as I palmed my sai and the others prepared to engage, "Just hand yourself over."
"Never." He growled, and so the battle began.
He came at me first and ducked his blow, rolling forward so that he sailed straight into Clark's fist. I heard the impact, whirling to see him stagger back from the impact but instantly straighten himself to go at Kaldur. Water bearers clashing against the steel of his knife, allowing Arthur to whirl in from the side with a flying kick to send him into Diana who caught him by the back of the neck and threw him into the floor. But my senses were tingling, something here wasn't right. He never lost this easily, he never fought with such little skill. But there he was, on the floor at Diana's mercy in less than a minute. But I ignored that feeling as I moved over to Jason and took in his wounds as best I could. To say he was injured before, that would seem like a walk in the park.
"My hero." He grinned weakly as he looked up at me.
That was the moment he earned my respect. After all he had been through, he could still smile and joke. He had a will of iron in him, and that would always earn a cats respect. I removed his bonds and Barry came to lift him to take him straight back to the med bay. When he was gone again I looked at Talon, on the floor and unconscious. But even as I watched I could notice something change, the veins on his neck start to fade back to normal. It was over.

The team left and Talon jumped down from the trapeze to land in front of me. I could see some injuries on him that weren't there before, see a slight limp to his right side. Something had happened whilst we had been trapped in his little world.
"You ready for your final fight?" He asked as we began to circle.
"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied and launched at him.
I knew his moves now, knew that he'd duck and try to gut me from below. So as soon as I saw his knees bend I angled myself down and landed a flying kick at his face instead, sending him staggering backwards. I advanced again with a kick but he caught it and spun it in an attempt to break my ankle. I spun with it and then sprung back into his chest, causing him to let go and fall backwards, his claws scraping down my leg and causing a deep gash. He flipped himself back up and we faced each other again. He leapt at me first this time and I copied, clashing in midair and falling to the floor, slashing at each other best we could and rolling. He ended up on top and pushed down his sharp claws towards my throat, it was all my arm strength to stop the claws from killing me. I threw his arms up and caught a dagger as it fell from the sky. A bonus of fighting inside my mind, I can conjure these things up when I'm strong enough. He leapt at me again and I thrust up the dagger with all my strength, straight into his heart.
"Well played." He smirked, "But you cannot escape from me, my dearest counterpart. I am a part of you and I will never go away."
I didn't have time to do anything but gasp as he thrust his claws into my chest and pierced my heart as well, a smirk playing in his dying eyes. There was no pain, a surprising fact, and as I finally faded from this plane of existence I closed my eyes and saw the face of my saviour. Of a Batman.

I felt a brush of wind and looked over to see Barry enter the medical bay, Jason in his arms. I didn't look at his mutilated body for long, I had seen enough inside of Dicks mind.
"Where's Talon?" Alfred asked as he moved over to Jason to begin patching him up.
"The others are bringing him over." Barry smiled, "We took him down."
"That is the best news I've heard in a while." Roy muttered as he sat himself up in his bed, "How long until they get here do you know?"
"Not long." Barry replied shortly, "But last I left you, you were all inside his mind. How are you?"
"Been better," Wally replied.
"It is hard for him in there." Bruce explained, "He is fighting himself constantly and he was losing. He sent us out to complete in another battle. He may not emerge victorious."
I tried to ignore the hitch in his voice, tried to ignore the Batman breaking, but it was impossible. I felt a hand in mine and looked over to see Wally, tears falling down his face, and I gave him a small smile.
"He'll be just fine." J'onn said, "The Boy Wonder can do anything."
It was another couple of minutes before the others arrived and I noticed something wrong.
"Where's Conner?" I asked and silence greeted me.
A silence that spoke volumes about his fate. He hadn't made it, Talon had done something and I didn't really want to know what. The silence continued as Talon was plugged into a system and panic overtook me. There should at least be the sound of his monitor joining ours, but there was nothing.
"Dick." Bruce breathed and Alfred moved over to him and began CPR, "Dick."
It must have been force of will that had Bruce dragging himself on legs that barely supported him over to Dick as he lay deathly still and pale on his bed. Unresponsive to Alfred's attempts to revive him. It was a tense couple of minutes as everyone waited with bated breath for any sort of response, for him to even come back as the Talon at this rate.
"Let me try." M'gann stepped forward as Alfred stepped away from the corpse, tears shining in his eyes.
Wally's hand tightened in mine as we watched M'gann's eyes glow green and she delved into his mind. And then there was a beat. Another, and then it was a steady beat, he was breathing again. M'gann collapsed to the floor in exhaustion and J'onn rushed to comfort her as Bruce let out a sigh of relief and threw himself at his son, tears running freely down his face.
"Talon is... mostly gone." M'gann breathed.
"What do you mean mostly?" Bruce asked.
"To revive him I had to turn back what had happened mentally to before his mind began to collapse." She explained, "But he died at almost the same time as Talon, a small sliver seemed to remain. But Talon is gone, it should only be memory and maybe a few intrusive thoughts that remain."
"Will this affect him in any other way?" Alfred asked, "Will he be alright?"
"Maybe he could permanently not be so against killing or be paler, but it won't be anything drastic." M'gann said and the answer satisfied us all.
"Well done." J'onn said and lifted her into a bed of her own to recover.
A real, full smile finally split my face. It had been less than twenty-four hours and it was over, it felt like the world had just achieved peace at last.