62 Chapter 62: A Change of Heart
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"You're speechless, I see. A fine quality in a wife."
― Jafar, (Aladdin)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
There always comes a time in a man's life when he meets someone he wishes he would have never met. It may be a teacher, a girlfriend, a relative, a friend, a boss, or just a toxic gym girl. But no matter who this person one wishes to have never met is, his life is completely changed nonetheless.
The original Bruce Wayne also had one such person in his life. A single person who even though not a direct enemy of his, still caused him immense pain and headache all his life, someone who made his life more complicated than it should have been in the first place in not just one but almost every single mainstream DC universe. And that person was quite unsurprisingly a girl.
Even I despite not having been an avid fan of DC or Batman knew that from all the movies and the few shows I had watched in my previous life about this certain girl. But I had still severely underestimated just how much of an effect it would have on me when I met her myself for the first time.
"Your face looks really weird Bruce. Are you still angry about my father not even apologizing after practically betraying us? Because I know I am. And he had fucking galls to throw a feast at our return pretending like he even cared in the first place... The only good outcome from all this was that at least I got to meet my elder sister after so many years. She is the only real family I have left, at least the only one who cares." Nyssa stated with a low voice filled with sorrow. It seemed that it was painful for her to even talk about her own family.
"No, I knew that your father was heartless from the very start. He himself told me that the League doesn't have any place for failures before we even left for the mission. So, the fact that your father betrayed our trust doesn't even bother me. As for your elder sister, well she did seem really... interesting especially how she was keeping an eye on me the entire time in the feast." I wanted to call her sister nice but no matter how much I tried I could not utter the words in good faith. Even calling her interesting was stretching it.
Her sister was not at all nice, period. But her attitude which was the same as a cold hard killer hating her little sister's crush was not the thing that irked me, nor did the top-level seductive skills that she had employed to test my character by giving me the 'fuck me if you can eyes' every once in a while. What surprised me was how she looked. Because she for some weird reason looked very much like Scarlett Johansson from my previous life and not just her normal version but how the actress looked as the incarnation of Black Widow in the MCU.
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"Yeah, I know right? She was very happy for me especially when I told her that you are now my boyfriend and how amazing you are as a warrior. She seemed really interested in you too especially when I said that you might even be a better warrior than her." Nyssa happily exclaimed. The fact that she genuinely cared for and loved her elder sister was very much evident in her cheery voice.
Nyssa Al Ghul might have been trained to be a cold and calculating killer all her life by her father but that didn't change the fact that she was still a teenage girl in her heart, someone who just wanted to have a fun and fulfilling life, to experience everything that any other girl her age experiences.
'It was only recently that I found out that I had become her boyfriend somehow and that I had accepted her proposal sometime during our mission against the Untitled, probably after the main battle when I was too tired to comprehend anything anyone was saying. I originally wanted to make it clear that I already had a girlfriend, well sort of a girlfriend but, after looking at her excited and happy face, I could not bring myself to do it. So, now I have got myself in a very complicated situation, a situation where even Cortana using her vast processing power failed to find an effective way to bring me out of it without breaking anyone's heart.
Also, the 'interest' in her sister's eyes that she was mentioning was in reality more akin to annoyance and slight curiosity. Talia Al Ghul wasn't at all like Nyssa. She was colder, more calculating, and truthfully even slightly seemed like a bitch. She hadn't directly spoken to me during the feast even once but I could feel her gaze on me the entire time. But even then, when I knew it as a fact that she was most probably plotting against me or thinking about how to carry out her dear daddy's plans in the most efficient way possible, it still seemed like I was somehow attracted to her, like... fate itself wanted to bring us together. It was a weird feeling but strangely it was comforting as well for some weird-ass reason.' I thought to myself as I looked at Nyssa happily lying beside me in the open snow.
We were currently stargazing under the open night sky on top of Mount Nanda Parbat, a sort of date that she had arranged herself to in her own words spend some 'quality alone time' together with me, although I doubted she actually knew what she was doing. She was not even nearly as good as her elder sister in the art of seduction despite having been trained for it. I mean she was definitely hot hands down but she couldn't turn someone on just by giving him a look, something that her elder sister could very easily, believe me, I know.
In fact, currently, she was even more awkward than me because for the last hour, we were lying here, she had been continuously blushing like a shy young maiden, not at all showing the visage of the trained young assassin that she was supposed to be.
"Thanks." She suddenly mumbled out of nowhere breaking my chain of thoughts.
"For what?"
"For giving me a chance at... at this. I don't think I have ever felt this peaceful ever since my mother died. I had always thought myself to be just a weapon for my father, a tool for the league just like my sister but you changed that thought in just a few days. You made me realize that life was much more than archery skills and a kill count. Thanks for that." She explained.
"Ah. You are welcome. It was my pleasure to corrupt a princess. Maybe I could go after your elder sister next." I tried to joke but immediately realized that the joke might not sound that funny to a woman you were currently 'dating'.
"... You are joking... aren't you?" Nyssa asked while frowning, her voice sounding really serious all of a sudden.
"What do you think genius? Of course, I am. Also, I have strict criteria for dating and stuff. I don't just sleep with anyone. What do you even take for, a man-whore?" I snorted while going back to my Tony Stark persona and pretending to be hurt.
"Uhh, of course not. I didn't mean it like that. You know what, I am already late, so I should go home. I don't want anyone to see us like this. Bye." She quickly stood up, her entire face going red in shame. "Oh, and thanks again for coming on a date with me *Mwah*" She gave me a small kiss on my cheeks before running away like an innocent lass.
"Went on a date with a hot assassin, gained a kiss from her, and even got her to thank me for it. It's good to be young huh?... I wonder what the others are doing right now back at home. *Sigh* I guess I already miss them." I muttered silently as I contently stared at the clear sky.
After a few more minutes of continuing to lie down, I stretched my body and got up after deciding to head back to my room as well. My evolved physique could definitely bear the cold but even I wasn't immune to loneliness and believe me, there is nothing that feels more lonely than staring at the sky while lying down alone on a snowy mountain.
"You are Bruce, right? Bruce Wayne, the supposed prince of Gotham?"A husky female voice interrupted my walk back to my living quarters as I stopped in my tracks and looked behind me.
"And you are Talia Al Ghul, the supposed elder sister of Nyssa. But I fail to see how our identities are of any relevance here unless, of course, you want a bite of my fortune by marrying me in which case you are out of luck because your sister is quite ahead of you in that race."
"... Why are you dating my sister?" Talia asked completely ignoring my joke.
"She is hot, smart, sort of kind, has a good heart, oh and also she really knows how to shoot an arrow." I shrugged as I honestly listed the top qualities I found attractive in her.
"You are speaking the truth... Interesting. I thought you were using her to get closer to my father in which case it would have been useless because he doesn't care much for either of us." She furrowed her eyebrows as she concluded.
"I never lie when it comes to relationships. I find lying complicates them a lot. Also, your father doesn't have a good enough personality for me to want to get close to. I am currently a student of his but that doesn't mean I have to be some loyal minion of his as well. But how can you tell I am not lying, some kind of dark magic trick?"
"No, I can conclude that you are not lying by analyzing the way your pupils are dilating, something I assume that you still haven't been trained in by the League." The femme fatale answered with a straight face, making it really hard for me to conclude if she was speaking the truth or not.
"That's definitely a useful skill," I mumbled to myself believing her words.
"Anyway, you need to run away from here as soon as possible, preferably before your training concludes."
"Run away? And why do you think I will do that?" I chuckled while asking. Was she trying to threaten me here or something because that was a really weak-ass threat?
"Because there is a good possibility that you are going to die soon after your training ends." She answered.
"And who is going to kill me? You?" I dropped the easygoing smile on my lips and asked her seriously. Hot seductress with a rocking body or not, I do not take kindly to threats.
"No, but my father will. He has found you a 'worthy' heir and so he is going to make you go through the 'shade' initiation ritual which basically means that he is going to brainwash you into servitude by forcefully instilling loyalty into you with the help of psychological manipulation and some of the clan's forbidden dark arts. But that's only if you pass the last test and agree to lead the League. However, if you fail in the last test, he will then instead take over your body, forever destroying your soul in the process." She explained.
"..., okay, I have to admit, I definitely didn't expect that," I confessed.
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