Scared of the Dark || Damian Wayne x OC

53: new plans

About a week earlier

Flynn's P.O.V:

Talia's irritating voice jolted me from my thoughts.

"Flynn," her gaze was cold; emotionless. "Attack. Now."

I stood on the far side of the arena, opposite a female assassin I hardly recognized. She was my age with tan skin and dark hair. A midnight student; one I had never cared enough to talk to.

Talia stood in front of a small cluster of students. Again, they were Midnight students. They were all she ever focused on these days. Training us, sparring us, teaching us her rules and traditions. No one ever said anything about it, though. They complied. They complied like the sheep they always had been.

I was the only one who saw what was really happening. She was brainwashing us. She was molding us into League assassins. She was stripping us of all our previous connections, alliances, thoughts, rules and tactics. Soon enough, we'd be just another number in her army. We'd succumb to her will and her will alone.

And so I was standing before this girl, sword in my left hand. I had always been a leftie. My past Midnight trainers had told me that it was a good thing -- it surprised people if utilized properly. They'd focus on disabling my right arm first out of basic instinct, only to realize I was capable on my left.

Talia stood in all her ruthless beauty above us, in the seats of the arena. Her guards surrounded her, and the students stood behind her, watching with dull eyes.

The assassin was waiting for me to attack her first, but something was tugging at my gut, something was growing inside me. Some kind of feeling I was unfamiliar with. An urge to resist.

It had been maybe a couple weeks since I'd (stupidly) tried to kill Talia out of uncontrollable rage. She had stopped me, beaten me, kept me here with the intentions to "erase" those negative thoughts.

Something about that was wrong. Everything about that was wrong. I'd known it then, but it was only now that I truly realized just how fucked this was.

Before I could stop myself, I heard my sword clatter to the ground. I stood stiff and rigid, gaze drifting away from the confused assassin and the surprised Talia.

Her eyes narrowed and instant regret pooled in my gut.

What the hell am I doing.

"I'm giving you five seconds to pick that up," Talia spoke evenly, voice as smooth as velvet.

I'd learnt by now that when Talia was calm, she was truly angry.

And when she smiled? Well, that meant you were utterly fucked.

But for some reason I didn't budge. For some reason I stood my ground, my eyes never wavering from hers, my brows creased into a permanent scowl.

Five seconds passed.

Talia smiled.

"So we're doing this the hard way, are we?"

I'm a fucking idiot. I'm a huge, fucking idiot.

My body remained as still a statue, causing her lips to stretch even wider. She made her way down the steps until she reached where I stood, dismissing the assassin before me.

Talia picked up the katana in one swift movement.

"Well, I suppose it was time we had some action around here, wasn't it?"

She stepped toward me. She was only about two inches taller than me, yet her close proximinity had me twisted with anxiety. I felt my heart beating rapidly with the realization that this ruthless woman could kill me in half a second.