The atmosphere around Richard and Lavina was tense even though the latter looked as composed as if she had been cordially invited to a tea party.
Seeing her so calm and unfrazzled was increasing his anger and she was well aware of it as she spoke, "sit down, Richard."
"Stop ordering me about," he fumed and came to the topic without any delay, "what the hell did you say to Tim?"
Her eyes widened in surprise as if she had no idea what he meant, "what are you implying by that?"
"You can't fool me, Lavina," his voice was bitter as he spoke and just like earlier when he said her name without the former respect in it, that sparked something close to anger in her too, "when I asked you to stay out of my life and stop messing with the people I held close, I had meant it. I had also meant it that you would suffer consequences if you didn't leave me be."
She shook her head, the meaningful smile on her face widening, "oh come on, I think you have had a misunderstanding. Or maybe the title of Gotham's protector has gone to your head and messed you up."
He knew she was as always steering the conversation away to a topic where she could manipulate him. But that night, he wasn't going to easily fall in her trap.
His friend Timothy died due to her and he couldn't let her get away with it.
"Did he come to your place in the last few days?"
"Now what does that have to do..."
He interrupted her, eyes threateningly cold, "did he or did he not!"
"He did," her jaw clenched slightly, eyes focusing on his hand that was behind him.
It was almost as if she could sense that he was holding a weapon.
"And you took the perfect opportunity to treat him like shit just so it would drive him to his suicidal thoughts. Isn't that what you did?"
She shrugged, "what would I get from his death? He was just a fourteen year old and the entirety of Drake Corporate as well as his family's fortune isn't worth even half of the profit my company makes. Why would I kill him?"
"Because he was close to me," his voice shook with anger as he laid forward his conclusion regarding what would have happened and honestly, that assumption wasn't far from the truth, "you saw him as a pawn to forfeit, didn't you? If Tim died, I would start believing that it was my fault that I couldn't save him and I would eventually start doubting my own decision. You knew very well how one loss can shape things your way, you used to do it earlier too... All the fucking time! You've controlled me like a puppet but I won't allow it anymore. And especially not if you're going to use my own people against me as targets."
Her eyes sparked in amusement, though she had to admit to herself that he had worked out the actual reason to what she had done very well by then. But she was not going to give in easily either as she shrugged in nonchalance, "I have no idea what you're saying and why you've gotten so against me..."
However, out of nowhere a dagger came straight at her and if she hadn't reacted on time, it would have impaled through her neck. That made her realize that Richard was in no mood for playing around, his patience had evaporated or else he would never have done that.
She also knew that his rage was beyond control and he was quite dangerous when angered as such.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about so you better stop playing innocent."
"I don't want to fight you, Richard," she had caught the dagger he had thrown at her in her bare hand, palm closing around it despite the slice it had made through her skin, "don't make me."
Blood dripped down her clenched palm as she glared back at him, fully prepared to deal with more blades if he threw any.
But he didn't, icy blue eyes looking at the streak of red warily.
"So I suppose the main reason you had wanted to see me was to accuse me of Tim's suicide," despite the pain in her palm, she looked as if nothing had happened just then, "I've given enough time to hear your nonsense, now you listen to me."
"There's nothing left to listen. You killed Tim..."
"So what if I did?" The words escaped her but she quickly diverted it, "I did not kill him per se, nor was I any less hospitable to him than I have ever been to others who visit me."
He had been connecting the dots in his head long enough for him to chalk out all possible reasons for Tim's demise. "You and your fiance had a meeting with him the day before he committed suicide. And I have enough reason to believe that the meeting wasn't pleasant."
She opened her palm that had stopped the dagger from striking her, throwing it up and caught it by the handle as if she hadn't gotten injured at all. Blood red tainted both the blade and the handle but she didn't seem to care.
"I just did my job as an equal partner in a business venture by canceling my side of the deal. Now clearly, you can't blame me for being the reason of the suicide just due to this. That's very unfair of you, definitely not what I would expect from my brilliantly smart pupil."
The possessiveness in those words made him uneasy, "I am no longer anything of value to you. I told you we would be just strangers from that day forth, why was it so hard for you to respect one thing I asked of you?"
She shook her head laughing, the derision in her tone clearly evident, "one thing you asked of me? Just one? Miss Vikander, I can not work with you any longer, I feel like there was a reason I survived that night from the trapeze and I want to find it out and fulfill it. Or that time when you finally found the reason you had been so diligently searching for and came to ask me to keep on looking out for you? One thing... You owe me a lot already, Richard Grayson, and it's about time you accept it."
His eyes flashed, "if I had known your true colors, I would have never respected and trusted you in the first place."
"If I had known your true colors..." It seemed as of she was about to throw his remark back at him by labeling him as ungrateful or something similar but she stopped herself. And it was evidently worse as the smile on her face still lingered, "ah but I already know your true colors. After all, I made you into what you are today. How would I not know?"
Her words were enough to ridicule him as he snapped back, "you did not..."
"Your true colors are no different than mine," she resumed, the meaningful look in her eyes had begun to unnerve him by then, "if only you had taken up my offer earlier without embarking on this useless path of self destruction, none of this would have happened."
"What I choose to do or not shouldn't concern you. It's my life and I shall live it as I want to," his words were clearly a challenge.
The laugh that burst forth from her was so derisive and haunting that was almost convinced she was no longer in her right senses. "Your life? Your life had been chosen the day you were born, dear. You were destined to be one of us."
"One of the Talons? Never."
Her eyes sparked with a mysterious glint as if what she was about to say was a secret about him that even he was unaware of. "Do you seriously think your parents died that night due to some pointless debt?"
He froze, his parents being brought up in that conversation had shocked him. "What?"
"Don't you see, dear, you've been defying your own fate. Had your parents been alive, you might have never turned to the Court. Had Tim been alive you would have continued this charade of your ruination," Lavina resumed in a silken tone, her eyes flickering from him to the dagger in her hand repetitively, "all that is happening and is going to happen is only going to pull you towards your destiny, whether you like it or not. You were born a Talon and a Talon you shall become."
"Over my dead body," he spoke through gritted teeth, the fact that he would rather die than join the Court evident in his eyes.
Her reply took him off guard as she just smiled and remarked, "do you know, I really miss the times I used to train you."
Then without warning, the dagger that she had clasped in her hand came back towards him and though he managed to dodge the attack, he looked up to see the rest of Talon daggers in her hands that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
She always had a flair for drama even during a fight.
"I hadn't wanted to hurt you," she repeated but threw the daggers at him one by one, wrecking the place as he managed to dodge the attacks, "but unfortunately, you leave me no choice."
***