Disclaimer: I just own this AU series: Deep Claws. And the plot(s). And any OC's that are mine are incorporated into this. Horace is mine. So is Red.

This chapter is a recount of what happened with Rachel while she was a Talon.

Tatic is meant to have a half circle above the 'a' but my tablet isn't cool enough to have that sign. So if you get confused, sorry.

Hope this makes sense, I've been sitting on this one for a while, trying to make it work.

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Chapter 9: Her Time Bathed in Blood

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She remembers the way the red and blue blurs fell like leaves fluttering in the breeze. She remembers dismissing the pained, knowing, sad, look Mr Haley had sent her as her great-great-grandfather had shown up. She remembers the way she'd recalled the words her tatic had spoken years before: "Blood; family blood is good. It keeps you alive, if you stay with it and trust your instincts you will live, my baby girl. Follow no one else's hopes or desires. Just your own. Make your own path."

She remembers the way her belly had tingled like something was going to happen, the way it had before mami and tatic had fallen. She remembers the heartaching pain she felt at thinking about her parents and she remembers ignoring the feeling in her belly, ignoring her instincts, going against her tatic's words.

Thinking back on it, she realises she ignored a lot that night.

oOoOoOo

Anca had been a naïve child. She'd recalled only the advice about following and going with family blood, dismissing the tacked on urge to trust her insincts and the last tid-bit of worth-while advice.

She reasons, ten is a young age to fully understand that great tagged onto a title should mean the person behind it should be pretty old, nevermind with two of them. The information flutters in one ear and out the other as a young, looking around 30, man appears on the circus's doorstep and smiles happily at her.

The man's eyes are burdened with the same stress her tatic held in his strong frame, in his hulking, mammoth like gait, the same pain is etched into the man's face when her mami's face scrunched up whenever she talked about her mami, Anca's bunica. Something about the stricking familiarity raises a feeling of calm in her ten year old self and she smiles back: even if there are tear teacks down her cheeks, her smile is dimmer than normal and her eyes are watery.

"William Cobb," he introduces himself as, crouching down on her level and doing a funny little bow that makes her giggle sadly. His smile is the kindest she's seen directed at her from someone she doesn't know. Maybe that makes her like him more too and he's funny. "I'm your great-great-grandfather, Anca. I'm your mami's..." He hesitates here and probably decides that saying something like, I'm your mami's tatic's tatic's tatic, is a bit weird even if she's in a bit too much shock to realise if he's lying, even if it's as clear as day. So he continues with, "Fratele."

"Mami's fratele?" She asks and Cobb nods and smiles. Her mami's brother had came for her, she'd been overjoyed at the time.

"Your mami asked me to take care of you if anything ever happened. Would you like to come live with me, little Anca?"

That was the day she sealed her fate. At least, she thinks later on, at least I sealed it with a smile. "Yes, please!"

When she does the maths nine years later she finds out Cobb is actually her great-great-grandfather and there's no chance that her mami knew the bastard. She's happy about that, not because she's found her mami didn't know him but because that means she can kill him knowing her mami never knew nor loved him.

oOoOoOo

She'd never been the only Talon. Sure, she'd been The Talon but that didn't mean she was a single force. Being The Talon meant she was the head, the leader. She couldn't be a leader if she was alone. (Though, she huffs to herself, she had never been The Talon, it had. Red had been The Talon.)

The other Talon's preffered to roam the corridors of the Maze, fluctuating among the route of the statue, the training room, their tacky make-do living areas and the arena where the Courtiers sat high up in rows of red, silken seats, where they gave them their orders or where challenges for The Talon's mantle took place.

Rachel preferred to stick to the shadows and the high alocloves carved into the Maze's marble walls. She preffered to watch.

So she watched. She watched as the other Talons went about their buisness, not as mindless as they all let the Courtiers think.

They went about jobs: becoming medics, or learning a fellow companions mother tongue (god knew there were many different mother tongues mingling in their nest), or maybe playing games. The Courtiers (and Cobb, who thought much like them - arrogant and snide) believed it was wrong for the Talon's to play together, playing meaningless games like eye spy so the Talon's changed it up, saying they were practicing team building efforts. Going so far to only play tag and other stamina boosting or vision enhancing games when Cobb was around.

Some more caring Talons stood by and offered advice, gave help, smiled reasuringly in the corridors and even occasionally smuggled in alcohol for a few birthdays of the younger ones. But after a while, Cobb caught on, and when Cobb caught onto something you could be assured the Court would know within the hour. Eventually, all these self dubbed helpers vanished to the coffins. They weren't woken up, deemed the worst punishment. When one was frozen to the core it left scars. Rachel knew, she'd been... curious for her first years, constantly toeing the line of rules. She'd stopped after they froze her for a week. Honestly, she didn't know what she would've done had they kept her in there longer.

There reaches a point where there's one helper left. He's Romanian, like her, and he's old, over three centuries, leading him to want to help the young ones. He's kind and everyone likes him, (maybe not Cobb but then he doesn't like many).

His name is Horace Monook and after a while the Court realise he can hold power. And thus, in reaction towards the Talon's more flighty nature's, they name him a supervisor. Still a Talon but he is more like their guardian, where Cobb stands as their trainer.

His reception is grand and every Talon is buzzing (except for Cobb, although he does seem to respect Monook a tad more) to have a Talon up in high command, where Cobb, the Master and his closest Courtiers had stood before. They rejoice at the chance for a stake of power, no matter how much of a slither it really is.

oOoOoOo

She tries to banish the memories of what she had to do when she'd failed a mission. She tries to forget what she'd had to do because she was starving and close to death.

There's a reason she's vegetarian in later years. She'll never forget that poor man.

oOoOoOo

When she was 40, when she'd been with the Court for 30 years and had been under Cobb's careful eye for the entirety of that time, Rachel snapped. The stress came down and her personality split.

It started off as eye twitches everytime she killed. She'd be swinging her beautiful sword (sometimes daggers) down in a glinting arc, aimed to cut her targets head clean off, when she'd involuntarily blink. She had always been enraptured in the way a human's blood spurted when their head vanished and she'd always made it a point to watch but this time she'd blinked without meaning to.

To say she was dissapointed to miss the man's end was a truth, but he was one of many on her hit list. And when the involuntary blinking kept happening she'd went to a medic who'd shrugged and reconmended another few hours of sleep.

It molds into finger twitches next, her blade is aimed for the heart dead center one moment and the next it's a few millimetres off. It annoys her enough that when she misses she rips the target's heart out if only to hide the complete and utter shambles she'd made of the kill. The other Talons give her space during this time, thinking she's just getting annoyed at the lack of targets because for some reason around the start of spring, (when their target schedules are changed and updated), the target number drops and stays like that for a while. She can't say she's pleased at the space but she's not annoyed by it. Her eyes are twitching more and more by the day. She's becoming too paranoid to talk to the others.

One day, she wakes up and she's stiff all over. It puts her in a bad mood and everyone steers clear of her path. She's begun to attract the attention of Cobb and the Courtiers.

When her world dims she begins to panic. It's subtle, a hint of grey lurking in the sides of her vision constantly, so much that she thinks she's being stalked by the Batman even in the dusty confines of the Maze. She'd heard the rumours of how good the man was and she'd learnt the hard way to never underestimate anyone. Cobb had seen to that.

Within three weeks the grey has went from lurking in the sides to giving her headaches from the strain in her eys. Sometimes a black figure stands infront of her a distance away, at the end of the corridor sometimes, and each time she has to blink hard three times to regain focus. Or sometimes the shadows dart out in front of her, when she's alone or walking down the busy corridor. It irritates her beyind words.

Monook makes it clear everyone's concerned about her one bad week when she's had to sit down in the corridors five times, she's fainted twice and she's been told she sways from side to side quite a bit. She's too annoyed by her blurry vision to take his concerns seriously and she pushes him, and anyone else who tries to help, away.

She falls into a coma, one day, suddenly, scaring everyone. When she wakes up she's different. She's a new person.

She's not her anymore, more so, an it. (A monster.)

That is the decade Red is born.

oOoOoOo

They distance around it when it awakens. They claim they don't know the thing with red blood eyes that can change to the usual gold at a moments notice, but it knows, it sees the recognition in the other Talon's eyes when it feels something -an urge, an unsatisfied whisper- and does it, even if out of its character, may it be an action or a figure or phrase of speech. It sees their pain when they realise it is still there.

The helper, Monook, is kind enough. But even it can see the pain in the man's eyes as he looks at it. Cobb is the same but he seems more angry, for taking away his 'niece'. It doesn't understand what he's talking about until something clicks, like a bridge in its head and a woman, broken and scarred, tells it what she thinks has happened. It continues on in the woman's place and decides to fufil the woman's full potential because it seems like it's going to be there for a while.

The other Talons begin to commonly call it Red because everytime it returns from a mission it comes back with claws dripping of red. It found it liked the name, very much so.

oOoOoOo

It challeges The Talon, currently recognised as William Cobb, more notably known as simply Cobb. Red challenges him for his throne, his rule becauae it's annoyed the way the younger ones keep coming back with arm length gashes in their stomachs and are expected to heal from them in preparation for the next days lesson. It's irritated how he demands so much, too much. (Because the Court changed the formula for their blood to someting weaker for the youngsters, so they could truely kill them if they hit them hard enough. So they could instil the true fear of death in them, to control them.

It knows, she knows, the younger ones know too.

Everyone knows.)

The fight is thrilling yet boring. Everyone gathers in the arena, Talon's seperated and forced to sit on one high seated tiered side, under strict commands to not interfere or move, towards the fight, while the Courtiers and the Master sat on the other, grander, side.

It's like a game when the Master whistles for the challenge to begin after his cup-bearer fills his glass with red wine. Red thinks it is fitting for such a momentuous occasion.

It swipes at Cobb, lunging at the man with brutal force and accuracy keeping its strikes aimed at the man's throat. Of course, he dodges easily, using the infamous Talon speed to whip around behind it and deliver a cutting underknee kick. Red topples forward, catching itself in a handspring that it uses to its advantage to kick him away when he lunges. Cobb darts towards it, circling Red as it grins. Red fingers its daggers by its thigh sheaves and traces the man's movements as he circles it, baring its teeth in a silent promise.

It'll kill him.

They all know it.

It holds no sentiment for the weak.

He silently lunges, so quick Red frowns as it strains to keep track and see him. The only thing that keeps the sword from slicing through its neck is its cunning intincts that flare up in warning and force it to raise a blade to block the blur of silver light.

They both parry and block in ruthless attempts to get in hits while simultanesouly trying to outdo to other in terms of skill. Constantly, it finds itself being forced into upping its game whenever the blur of a blade skims too close to its neck for the woman's comfort.

Red's patience vanishes for the short game whenever Cobb hits it so hard it tumbles back and has to somersault to stay standing. Anger and irritation rising, it shoves the blade through the man's throat before anyone can blink.

If the Master likes the loser enough (though extremely rare) he'll freeze them in their coffin for an eternity. Barely a punishment at all compared to their failure. Red thinks the loser should die and it will happily accept death for such a thing, though its not sure the woman inside its head wants to die just yet. Of course, when Cobb falls the Master is quick to announce he is freezing him but Red is too caught up in the alien feeling of glee at having won.

The game is over relatively quick and it finds itself frowning at the lack of fun, glee mixing in with it, it feels weird, but the roar from the Talons behind it and the fast claps from the Courtiers break that thread of thought as it focuses in on its victory. Red can hear the woman thanking it for winning as it preens in the basking glory of being handed the mantle of The Talon.

It rules now.

oOoOoOo

Monook is standing outside its coffin when it returns from being given the copper infused adimantium talons, its true prize. Red's buzzing with the woman's joy but that quickly dulls and vanishes at the sad smile Monook gives it.

"Congratulations, my friend." He says, clapping it kindly on the shoulder in what the woman explains is a non-threatening gesture when its thoughts leap to hypersensitivity, readying a plan to strike the man down the quickest.

"I wish you luck, Red." And then Monook's gone, nothing but a whisp in the ever silent wind. It doesn't see him for a long, long time after that.

Years later, it thinks back on that memory and silently appologises as Red waits for the Bat to find it. The woman's been down here too long and it has a feeling in its gut that spells good bringings should it follow its instincts. There's a snipit of a memory from the woman as it thinks that, it smirks and repeats it aloud:

"Trust your instincts, not others good intentions, for they will keep you alive." Red hums, its talons tapping on its coffin's wooden lid. It's heard good intentions pave the road to hell, but that's false because it's been in hell for a while without any good intentions making a road. It wants -no, needs, it needs- out. Red knows for a fact, she is ready to come back. "That we shall." It says in jeer.

Its inhumane cackle makes the room feel colder than it is.

oOo NOTES oOo

MAMI: Mommy in Romanian. From Google Translate.

TATIC: Daddy in Romanian. Also from GT (Google Translate).

BUNICA: Grandma in Romanian. From GT.

FRATELE: Brother in Romanian. Courtesy of GT.