Chapter 78: An Alliance of Cats and Bats
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"If you love someone, he could make you sad. He could even make you feel lonely sometimes. But that someone can also make you happier than you'll ever be..."
- Saki Hanajima, (Fruits Basket)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
"What? Of course not. What do you think of me? I was not only fully dressed with the chain all the way up but even had a leather jacket on. In fact, I arrived a little while ago and was trying to change my clothes before I discovered an extremely annoying woman snooping around in my room. Apparently, you brought her here as a guest, which made her think that she could enter MY room without MY permission to 'sightsee' the mansion." Selena said as she looked at me, her eyes filled with barely hidden suspicion.
"I wanted to beat her to a pulp because I thought she was an enemy trying to confuse me by lying but then Alfred arrived and confirmed her words. So, I came straight to see you." Selina completed.
"... Wait, so I have to kill Alfred for seeing you naked?" I muttered to myself with a mock heartbroken face.
"What are you on about? We both know that Alfred had seen almost all of us naked since we were kids. The only thing he feels from that is disappointment at not being able to make us more fat... or 'healthy' as he likes to call it." Selina snickered.
"Yeah, that's true. The man doesn't understand the greatness of having a jacked body despite having one himself." I too chuckled as I remembered how muscular the aging butler now was that I had given him the gene modifier serum to keep him in top shape and slow down his aging.
"Yeah. Anyway, I missed you. It has been too long. I almost thought that you had forgotten about us... about me." Selina muttered weakly as she rubbed her face on my chest, hugging me as tightly as possible. She was even slightly mewling like a little cat as she nudged her head deeper into my chest.
"Never silly. How could I forget about my little kitty? I was just too busy with my training and everything. Turns out the level of skill I wanted for myself wasn't exactly that easy to achieve. But I am back now and I don't plan to leave again." I smiled to reassure her while hugging her back and patting her head.
"I hope so. Just don't leave without me gain... By the way, who was that girl in my room? Don't tell me that you went ahead to do the exact opposite of what I asked and got yourself a whore." Selina looked at me accusingly with a sharp glint in her eyes as her voice suddenly changed from a weak happy voice to a doubt-filled accusatory tone.
"... Umm, well, I am pretty sure she is not a whore, heh heh." I nervously chuckled. "Ahem, I mean, I don't know which girl you saw in your room but the two girls I brought with me today are sisters who are the daughters of the man who taught me most of the skills I wanted to learn. They are just here to drop me home," I explained not wanting to go deeper into detail.
"You have gotten better at lying tiger, much better but I can still tell when you are lying... *Sigh* I guess she really was right. Rich men love to have multiple affairs. I just never thought that I would be the loving wife waiting at home. I would have preferred to be the mistress. By the way, does their father know about this?" Selina asked curiously.
Wait, what? What in the name of bat-themed hell is she talking about? Also, is it just me or is she suddenly not as much adverse to the idea of a third lover as a normal woman should be?
"I killed their father after he tried to take over their body but you don't have to feel bad for them since I am pretty sure that they are much happier with their father permanently dead. And, before you start judging me with those serious absolutely not true bullshit accusations you are coming up with, I should also ask you what you were exactly doing in that latex costume outside the mansion.
Even if you did manage to completely hide that sinful body of yours in that tight suit, that costume is not something one wears in broad daylight. In fact, it looks like something one wears at night in the dark to do stuff that would be considered either 'bad' or really 'naughty'. And, as much as I know you, you are definitely not trying to do the latter. So, tell me kitty..., are you stealing again?" I asked with as much seriousness as I could muster on my face, not bothering to elaborate on why I had killed their father.
"No, never. Even though my kleptomania had acted up occasionally, I had always managed to keep it under control. I'll never steal without your permission. After all, I still remember the promise I made you." Selina quickly explained, almost seeming hurt at the accusation. "Also, I only wore that because latex is surprisingly very useful while doing stuff like spy work. Wearing that suit not only doesn't hinder my body movements much but also increases the so-called 'cool factor' by quite a bit as well." Selina explained with a helpless smile.
"And why would you exactly feel the need to do some spy work?" I pressed on the issue trying to get the entire picture.
"... Falcone. I think the gang leader is trying to kill one of my new friends. A couple of days ago she found out something that she wasn't meant to find out and after that, her life had been in constant danger. As you know I have a small history with the Falcone gang and its head, so when I found out about it, I could not stop myself. My friend, Lola told me about some of the details of the stuff she overheard from the Falcons, and it sounded like it was something quite big, something that could be used to possibly to even overthrow the entire gang. So, I made up my mind to you know... investigate." Selina finished her explanation.
She had come clean about her parentage with me a long time ago and had confessed that according to her mother's last words, there was quite a big chance that Carmine Falcone was her biological father.
A lot of people might think that this made her quite lucky since there was a chance that she could have a luxurious life as part of the Falcone family but if one really knew about the inner workings of how the Falcone family worked, they would understand that Falcone had no place for bastards in his home. All of his illegitimate children always ended up disappearing most probably by his own design to make sure that only his legitimate heirs would gain control of the family once he was gone.
So, if he found out about Selina, he would definitely come after her as well. That was one of the reasons why her mother could never muster enough courage to try to ask him for help when she was still alive. She probably didn't know for sure but she must have heard the rumors.
"And, what do you plan to do once you have your hands on this information that could ruin the Falcon familia? Blackmail him, scare him, or... ?"
"I will destroy him and everything he holds dear including the empire he is so proud of. I have not forgiven him for what I and my mother had to go through when I was young. He is the reason for my mother's death. Even though he didn't kill her himself, he was still responsible for it nonetheless." Selina uttered while clenching her fists as tightly as she could while she remembered the powerless face of her dying mother.
"I am truly disappointed in you kitty. I thought you would have become smarter than this after all this time but it seems that I was wrong."
"Why? Because I want to pursue revenge instead of letting this go and forgiving him? Because I am not a generous enough human being to forgive my and my mother's tormentor and move on with my life?" Selina sounded angry, her hatred for Falcone clearly audible in her voice.
"No, it's because you did not take Cortana's help with this. With her drones and information processing capabilities, you could have already had a bullet in Falcone's head by now. Also, I do not practice that vengeance is bad and one should always forgive others bullshit philosophy myself. So, I am in no position to preach it to you. If this had happened to me, I would have probably done much worse to Falcone." I admitted honestly as the image of Jor Chill came to my mind.
If he had not been killed in prison that day, I would have probably given him a very VERY cruel death, consequences be damned. Perhaps his death at the hands of the Court was a way for the universe to give me a chance to keep myself pure, to help the future Batman keep his hands clean of blood but then again I had wasted that opportunity a long time ago, something I wasn't at all ashamed of. I had done what I needed to do and I stand by it. No regrets.
"Oh... I just embarrassed myself, didn't I? I guess staying away from you for so many years had made me forget about how morally grey you can be at times." She chuckled half-heartedly as she relaxed.
"... Anything for family," I said with an exaggerated cool voice as I patted her head in an effort to lighten up the mood.
"I... I love you, tiger despite how cheesy you sounded just now. Even I have seen all the Fast and Furious movies especially since we get free tickets from Lucius due to it being a movie franchisee from Wayne Studios." Selina teased.
"Yeah, I know but I can't help myself and yes, I love you too... Also, I might just have a couple of things that could help you in this little revenge of yours. I had been developing some stuff for myself to... try and minimize crime in Gotham by getting rid of all the criminal organizations slowly, replacing them with something better. I think I can hook you up with some of that cool stuff as well. Tell me, if you were to get a bulletproof catsuit filled to the brim with high-tech weaponry built into it, would you want it with a matte black design or a glossy black design?"
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