Chapter 294: Chapter 289: The Calm In The Storm Part 4
After walking away from Kara, Arias returned to his private quarters within the castle. It was a lavish, grand bedroom on the highest floor and provided a large open balcony that overlooked the castle grounds and gardens.
Upon entering these quarters, though, Arias didn't pay any mind to the themes and decorated room, instead walking over to the bed and sitting on its edge. After doing this, he reached into his jacket and took out his phone, which was already connected to the Leviathan network. Through it, he contacted someone.
…
At the same time in Gotham City, within the confines of a bedroom in a suburban neighborhood, Barbara Gordon could be seen seated behind the desk with multiple monitors mounted above it. Itself possessing only miscellaneous decor and a large keyboard and mouse.
On one monitor, the news was playing, talking about what was said in the recently done statement Tara had given. On another monitor, numerous prompt alerts could be seen appearing, each stating some new information. And on the central monitor, Barbara could be seen reading certain files while using her keyboard and mouse to highlight certain points, all while the local police radio comms could be heard through the speaker settled under the desk.
In this moment, she felt a buzz coming from her bed.
She immediately frowned at this and rolled her eyes. "Must be one of dad's checkups again," she muttered to herself as she rotated the chair she was on and quickly hopped off before jumping onto her bed and lifting the phone off her side.
However, when she looked at the screen, she saw that her phone was requesting to connect to the Leviathan network. Knowing what this meant, Barbara immediately showed urgency and stumbled off her bed as she approached her drawer. In it, she removed the board on one side, which showed her a fingerprint spot.
After placing her finger there and getting recognition, she moved away from the drawer and went to her closet where a small pocket emerged on the left top side. Within that pocket was a small, conspicuous square-shaped device, no bigger than a cube of sugar. Using this device, she brought it near her phone, which immediately showed the prompt [connecting, please raise form for facial recognition.]
Only after she did that and her biometrics were taken did the Leviathan network open to her, unlocking her phone and immediately connecting her to the call.
"Hello?" she quickly answered, to which Arias replied, "Busy?"
"No, I just had to get somewhere quiet."
"I see," Arias said, before asking, "Well, I'm just calling to see how your progress is and if there are any more problems over there, aside from the more obvious ones."
Arias feigned that he was checking in on Barbara due to the task that he initially gave her to better train her ways under the league. At many points, though, Barbara had felt a great conflict in who to trust between Batman and Arias. Both held secrets, and both didn't trust her.
Arias was more flexible and didn't even seem to care, rarely ever checking in on her, what she was doing, or even asking her to send him information, which she assumed was his ulterior motive for sending her to the league. However, even now, Arias was simply asking how she was doing and if there were any problems, which didn't exactly raise any suspicions as this was what he had initially done prior.
Without thinking too much on it, she answered, "Yea the training's fine, but yeah…", Barbara, who not too long ago found out about the death of Oliver was still a bit shaken about it, and almost casually mentioned it to Arias. However, she stopped herself, thinking that he may perhaps not know. This was an important point for Arias to take advantage of in manipulating the image of himself. So he asked with a bit of concern, "Did something happen?"
Barbara first shook her head and immediately said, "No, just the attacks on the US is all, and the kidnapped families. It's made people quite restless. No one feels safe at the moment."
Arias could easily tell Barbara had forced the story, which was one he really couldn't refute as that was really likely the case in Gotham as well. This showed Arias that Barbara still didn't really trust him, so he needed to give her reason to, and what better way to do this than display honesty.
"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about that, as it's only temporary. I'm the one responsible for the missing families, and I also arranged the attacks on the US."
Although Barbara had had suspicions that Arias was involved in both cases, she couldn't help but be surprised at him admitting it so easily. "What? Do you have any idea how many people died?" she couldn't help but ask due to how casually he mentioned it. But Arias didn't hesitate to defend his stance by arguing, "Do you have any idea how many people would die if a legitimate world war were to begin?"
After saying this, he didn't let Barbara intervene as he continued, "My attacks caused the death of many military personnel and even some civilians, that I am aware of. However, if the various nations were allowed to wage true war in Markovia, that would likely involve meta-human interventions, then the casualties would have been disastrous."
"Imagine if those same people that performed those attacks on the US were allowed to do so on a larger scale, intending to completely decimate the US. The US government and the league pretend that they know everything and everyone who poses a danger to the world, but the world is evolving at an astonishingly fast rate. And the way I see it, the league is failing to keep up."
"Now, if I attack the other warring nations' military sites, it will force them all to concede the war and to agree to our measures, which will give meta-humans the freedom of choice they need and better allow them to assimilate into the world. Yes, the economy will be affected, but that can be fixed; a world of chaos can't."
Barbara, listening intently, felt like she was getting a lecture. Many of the points Arias was putting across were factual and true, no matter how terrible the means to get there felt. Still not giving her a chance to reply, Arius felt he had said enough to at least get her questioning everything and being more critical with her thoughts instead of depending on her emotions.
"You know, the real reason you and that other protégé of Batman's will never be respected by him is because you lack your own drives. You both just absorb and take whatever stances he feeds you and assume it to be the truth when he himself is a hypocrite. If you don't believe this, the Leviathan archives are open to you, so feel free to check the data on Bruce Wayne and Batman. If you think any of it is a lie, feel free to approach him personally and ask."
"Well, if that's all you had to say, then I'll contact you again at a later date. Hopefully, at that time, you're more freethinking." After Arius said this, he cut the call before Barbara could even say a word, and after the call cut, her screen changed and showed a prompt to proceed to the archives.
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