When Shadows Collide”
Gotham City — Rooftops, Midnight
The League hadn’t been active in Gotham for months. Until now.
Talia gave the order herself: infiltration, silent assassination, retrieval of a prototype WayneTech device. A test for Ash. A proving ground. Gotham was a city of ghosts — the perfect place to unleash one.
Ash moved like wind over the rooftops, silent in all-black armor, face masked, a curved blade on his back.
He didn’t feel nerves. He didn’t feel much of anything. But something about the city felt… familiar.
Like he’d run across these rooftops before. Like he’d stood under this same moon.
He landed near the target building and paused.
Then—
“You don’t belong here.”
A voice behind him. Low. Cold. Controlled.
Ash turned, drawing his blade.
A figure stepped from the shadows — black and blue armor glinting under moonlight. Nightwing.
But that wasn’t who Ash locked eyes with.
Another silhouette landed between them. Smaller. Sharper. Green hood. Katana in hand.
Robin.
Damian Wayne.
Ash’s breath caught — for no reason he could name.
Damian’s eyes narrowed. He couldn’t see the assassin’s face beneath the mask.
But something about the way he stood. The angle of his head. The way he moved.
His fingers clenched. “Who are you?”
Ash said nothing.
“Speak.”
Still silence.
Damian stepped forward, blade raised. “Take one more step toward that building and I will drop you.”
Ash tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing.
And then — they clashed.
Steel met steel. Ash was fast. Faster than anyone Damian had fought in months. Predictive. Calculated. Their blades blurred in the night.
Damian’s heartbeat pounded. His mind was screaming.
He knew this rhythm.
Every block. Every parry. Every step.
It was like looking into a mirror of the past. A fight he had once trained a thousand times before. A fight he lost.
“Who taught you to fight like this?!” Damian shouted, slashing.
Ash didn’t answer — but for the briefest moment, he hesitated.
That hesitation saved Damian’s life.
Nightwing stepped between them, throwing a shock disc that forced Ash to retreat. Smoke filled the air. Ash vanished into the night, slipping into shadow.
But before he disappeared, he looked back. Just once.
Their eyes met.
And in that one second, Damian saw him.
The face he buried. The face he tried to forget. The face he killed.
Peter.
“No…” Damian whispered, frozen on the rooftop. “No. It can’t be.”
But deep in his chest, his soul already knew:
Peter Al Ghul was alive.