Chapter 5: The Fallen Son

"How much longer, Selina?"Catwoman groaned in frustration. "Do you mind, Bird Boy? I'm trying to focus." She quickly twisted the hairpin, and the padlock sprung off the gate with a satisfying clink. "There! It's off! Happy now?""Finally..." Tim replied with relief. "I felt myself shriveling up and dying over here.""Didn't Bruce ever teach you patience?""That's next week's lesson. Remember, I'm only a level 10 disciple."Selina rolled her eyes and pushed aside the collapsing metal gate to the museum's library section. Red Robin's remote hacking device made the security cameras and alarms a breeze to disarm. They were in the main hall in less than a minute. The only task left was to track down the library annex and pick the lock on the gate, which Selina could practically do in her sleep. At least she normally could without a restless teenage boy whining in her ear. "Where the hell do we even start with this?" Selina asked, looking at the endless rows of bookshelves stacked 30 feet tall."I've done studies on ancient languages," Tim stated thoughtfully. "But the symbol doesn't look like anything I've seen before. It's not Greek or Egyptian...and if it's an early form of Arabic or Sanskrit then I don't know it yet."Tim opened the holographic projector on his electronic wrist guard, revealing the image of the symbol."The writing is definitely logo-syllabic, that much I can tell," Tim stated. "Speak English, little bird," Catwoman chided sarcastically.Tim sighed as he gestured to the writing. "Basically, it's a language in which the symbols can represent sounds or individual words. Egyptian hieroglyphs are the most common example of a dead logo-syllabic language." Robin bit his lip, deep in thought. "The Asian languages are both ancient and logo-syllabic...but aren't extinct. And I doubt the League of Assasins would write their symbols using languages spoken by over a billion people worldwide. So what other dead language uses logograms?"After a long pause, his eyes began to sparkle with an idea. "Cuneiform...that's it!""Sorry, what?" Selina asked, confused."Cuneiform...it's the earliest written language in the world." Tim tapped a few buttons on the keypad and brought up a picture of the Rosetta Stone tablet. "It was developed to record Sumerian writings in Mesopotamia...which was located in modern-day Iraq.""Not exactly something you learn in grade school here in the States, is it?" Selina joked. "So I guess that means we're headed to the C's section to find some books on Cuneiform.""It could also be under Mesopotamia in the M's," Tim replied, gesturing to the far end of the hall. Selina nodded to herself. "Alright, let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way and save ourselves some time. I'll go ahead and take the M's...""Or I could take the M's. You know... so you won't have to walk as far," Time remarked, eyeing her heeled thigh boots with a smirk. Selina put her hands on her hips. "Kid, I've been wearing heels longer than you've been alive. I think I can handle a little walking," she said, starting down the hall.Tim shrugged. "Suit yourself."..."I wonder why Rā's came back to Gotham," Dick asked while scanning the field of shipping crates. "You'd think that after the last time Bruce humiliated him, he'd go back to the League's temple in the desert to lick his wounds.""I don't care why he's back in Gotham," Jason said sternly. "I care more about the person he wants to kill. That symbol is basically a hit. Whoever it's meant for must have pissed off the League, and that's never a good thing.""You were in the League for a while, Jay. Can you think of anyone who might have crossed Rā's?"Jason laughed mockingly. "It would be easier to list people who haven't. Besides, I left several years ago. A lot more could've happened since then.""There it is," Dick said, pointing to the yellow crate. They cautiously approached the symbol and leaned in to examine the writing. "That's some pretty fancy graffiti," Dick chuckled."Look at the detail they put into the letters. This must have taken hours," Jason stated. "Whoever made this symbol is determined to humiliate their target.""I'll get an ink sample and send it to Babs. Check the area for any more evidence."Jason marched out into the open area between the rows of crates. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and activated his detective mode. The scanning ring and black-light sensor appeared in the eye lenses of Jason's mask. He turned back toward the symbol and scanned for fingerprints. 'INSUFFICIENT DATA,' the scanner reported."No fingerprints,'" Jason said to himself. "This person isn't wearing the traditional finger-less gloves like the rest of the League. The person who painted this must have fingerprints on record...and a criminal history."He scanned the pavement for any footprints. "The only recent sets are from the worker's leather boots."Jason moved back to the crate and checked the sides near the doors. Just as he was about to move, he spotted something very small, highlighted in blue. It was a long black hair trapped in the metal handle of the shipping crate door. "Yo, Circus boy!" he shouted. "I found something.""So did I," Dick replied with his forearm computer activated....Barbara tapped the blue holographic keypad and rolled over the footage. Workers at the sight moved forward and backward through time at her command of the film reel. The time-lapse of the sun and moon moved across the cloudy Gotham sky. Days rolled by in seconds, yet no sign of the ninja that painted the symbol. Suddenly, an alert tone sounded activated on the Batcomputer. A digital file containing a chemical form appeared in a tab in the upper corner of the screen."Babs, I need you to look at this," Dick's voice said through the comms link. "It's the ink sample from the crate. See if you can determine the type of ink or manufacturer," "No problem. It'll have it ready in a few."Barbara maximized the window and examined the sample. She pulled up ink molecule samples from the BatComputer's stored database and compared the two side by side."What the heck?!" she asked aloud. The two samples were nothing alike. The ink sample from Dick wasn't ink at all. The formation of the particles was all wrong. She zoomed in on the structure and analyzed the compounds making up the sample. Tiny clumps of red dots formed together in a long chain. The list of all the compounds it contained was practically endless, but there were a few she recognized immediately. Iron, Oxygen, Water, Cholesterol, Calcium, and Carbon Dioxide. That meant the ink was only made of one thing......The Batmobile screeched to a halt and spit water against the sewer walls. Bruce pulled back the roof and sunk ankle-deep in the sewage. He'd be sure to give Alfred a raise for cleaning the suit. He rounded the corner and continued down the network of tunnels. The Lazarus pit he searched for was built where the pure water source met the sewage plant. Batman activated the black-light sensor on his helmet and set it to scan for Lazarus compounds. Sure enough, small green particles hovered in the air and floated further down the tunnel. After following the trail for nearly ten minutes, Bruce arrived at the opening where the tunnels merged. Facing him about twenty feet away was a small fountain pouring a glowing green liquid into a large ditch. He walked over to it and grabbed a sample vial from his utility belt. As he put the sample back in his belt, his video communicator activated to show Tim and Selina. "What have you found?" he inquired."A lot," Tim said. "We figured out that the message was based in Cuneiform, but when we compared the books we found against the symbol on the crate, they didn't match. We did some more digging, and it turns out that Cuneiform served as the base for a few different ancient languages—""—Including Old Persian," Selina added. "It ended up being a match.""It makes sense if you know the history of the League," Bruce replied. "The Order of Assasins originated in Persia. The founder of the League, a man named Yasser, was a rebel dissenter who split with the order sometime in the 13th century. He and his followers would have communicated in Old Persian. His descendants in the League, the higher members in particular, would have learned it during their training.""So one of the higher members of the League is sending a message to their personal guard to kill a rogue agent?" Tim asked."It seems that way," Bruce replied. Suddenly, his communication panel emitted an alert tone."Barbara must have something for me. Send a digital copy of the letters to Barbara. She can get started on the translations while we head back."Tim and Selina's connection faded and was replaced with Barbara's face cam. "What did you find?" Bruce asked."Enough to answer the riddle. I'm calling everyone back to the cave."...The Batmobile stopped on the landing pad with the rest of the family behind on the motorcycles. They exited their vehicles and made their way to the main computer."What's the damage?" Dick asked, leaning over Barbara's shoulder."I ran the ink and hair samples you sent. Either the League is getting pretty sloppy these days or they intentionally made the evidence easy to find.""Is it someone we know?" Jason asked."Surprisingly, two people we know." Barbara maximized the screen with the alleged ink sample. "The ink is blood...and it belongs to someone in our archives."She clicked the search tool, and the computer drew up a woman's profile picture. Her skin was a soft caramel, her hair was ash brown, and her eyes the color of topaz. She was dressed in a tight-fitting leather suit with golden symbols stitched down the arms. Attached to a belt was a long curved blade with a golden handle in the shape of a jackal."Talia..." Bruce seethed with his fists clenched. "Why did the League paint the symbol in Talia al Ghūl's blood? Did they finally decide to kill her?" Jason asked, unable to hide a smirk."Rā's wouldn't kill Talia, no matter how many times he's threatened to in the past," Bruce replied as he approached the computer. "She's the one keeping the League alive. Her sister Nyssa was disowned and banished, leaving Talia as Rā's only means to secure an heir.""So what did she do? Donate her blood for the symbol?" Dick asked. "I know that was meant to be a joke, but that could very well be true," Bruce said."That would mean the symbol is some type of League ritual," Tim chimed in. "Either that or it's deeply personal.""It could be. Talia wasn't working alone. The hair sample Jason found matched Talia's head guard, a woman named Zafirah," Barbara replied."What about the camera feed? Did it pick up anything?" Bruce questioned."You were right. All of my cameras in the area had a suspicious malfunction a few days ago that caused the feed to stop. Thankfully, we don't need them. We already know Talia drew the symbol, but we need to review one more piece of evidence. While you guys have been grilling me for the past fifteen minutes, the Batcomputer has been analyzing the language books you collected from the museum and is deciphering the message. Here it is..."She pulled up another screen that displayed the message. It was arranged in stanzas, almost like a deadly poem.Trust me when I sayyou shall dearly payfor the mistake you have made.Laugh if you may,but soon comes the daymy sword will pierce your chestfor leaving the League in a mess.You could have ruled our spies,but now you face your inevitable demise.Hiding would not be wise, for I shall search forever... far and wide.Soon dawns the night your heart stops beating.I wait impatiently for our meeting.Only then will the game be done.Come forth, "Fallen Son."The room grew quiet as the weight of the message sunk in. Bruce's fists clenched and unclenched as he read the twisted poem. Barbara adjusted her glasses and gawked at the message in disbelief. As she reached the end of the text, she swiveled in her chair to face the others. "Who is the "Fallen Son"? Could it be Damian?""I don't think so..." Bruce replied, deep in thought. "He and Talia didn't part on bad terms, and she'd know better than to target him with me protecting him. This must have been before his time. Whoever this "Fallen Son" is deeply betrayed Talia, and now she's out for vengeance.""It's not Damian," Jason's voice suddenly spoke. "It's me."