BATMAN: Black Mirror Vol. 2

Night 01: Riches of the Father

Ra's walked back to his desk and opened a drawer. Inside were papers and an envelope.

"I have already situated you at the Gotham Regency Hotel. You are to be expected." the old man handed his assassin the documents. "You'll be staying on the thirteenth floor, but take care. The thirteenth has been exclusively resigned for certain...associates of mine. You're to be expected, but not welcomed."

Eli took the papers with innocently hesitant eyes.

     "I...I won't have to talk with him, will I?" he looked to his teacher. The old man's head tilted ever so slightly.

"Dear boy. I can't tell what the future brings." he simply stated.

"Which is one of your ways of saying 'yes'."

Knowing what he had to do, Eli bowed again and turned to leave the room. 

"Why does the thought of speaking to him frighten you?" the question echoed around the chamber. Eli looked back to see his teacher's eyes glued to him. 

"It doesn't. I said all I had to say when I burned down his building. I just don't feel like running into him again."

     "I wouldn't want him to think I'm still thinking about him." 

"Are you?"

A silent battle of the minds took place within the span of a few seconds. The slightest wrong answer could turn the tide of trust. The last thing Eli wanted was for his loyalty to be in question. Again.

"No more than you are. Sir." Eli chose his words carefully. An approving nod told him he chose wisely. Despite having to return to Gotham, Eli didn't complain as much as he could've. It was just a shadow assignment. He didn't have to talk to Bruce, or interact with him in any way. At least there was some good news. Ra's watched the boy's back disappear through his door. He wanted to go with him. Not for moral support. Simply, he wanted to know if what he felt about Eli and Bruce's relationship rang true. The thread of fate was still tied to them.

*    *    *    *

     Bruce stalked the hallways of his father's company. The floor might as well have shattered beneath him. Every step he took his mind reeled further and further in to anger and shame. How could Bruce had been so careless as to not check with his employees? His Board of Directors were already known to be shifty people who moved and skulked through the shadows behind Bruce's back. This sudden attack against the company shouldn't have came as a surprise. 

It did nonetheless.

Wayne Enterprises was the figurehead for all newfound technologies, science, medical advancement and stood at the forefront for wanting to combat and solve all of the free world's leading problems. This was the company Thomas and Martha Wayne wanted to believe in. This was the company their son tried so desperately hard to create for his dead parents. Somewhere in that plan, Bruce failed. He failed to see the snakes circling around his throat and chose to act too late.

     It had already been over a month since Bruce last saw Eli. Things had drastically changed between them. No longer was Eli the small dirtied orphan child who hung around the Waynes' gravestone. He wasn't the same boy who would curl into a ball on Bruce's chest and stare wide eyed at everything the adult did. Eli was a killer. He had been all along. Alfred and Dick tried warning their friend about the repercussions of befriending the enemy. Bruce didn't want to hear it. Something in him still didn't, but he had seen it. The change in the boy's eyes. He was sent to destroy all in his path and with emotionless success, Eli did. So why did he protect Bruce against Deathstroke? The more Bruce thought about it, the more vividly he saw Eli shoving him under the table on purpose. The scene had kept Bruce up most nights. Was there still a chance? How could there be, when his company's current plight was all Eli's fault? News of a victim surviving water poisoning thanks to Wayne Enterprises' eastern Tech Division had spread through the media like a virus. Bruce was now known as just another billionaire who made his money through the sacrifices of human lives. He was no different than the other rich pricks of Gotham.