How did each member react to how a Talon is made and “trained”?
Oh gods, it's gonna be a long post. Here's a lot of headcanons and how it works in my au.
Kids get taken young by the Court and go through a rigorous training their whole childhood, while also being pretty much groomed/brainwashed into becoming perfect obedient soldiers.
Once they're considered good enough, they pass the "exam", which involves being dumped in the Owl Maze without any food. The only water present comes from a fountain in the middle that is poisoned with hallucinogenic and something akin to a fear toxin that increases paranoia. They are being hunted down by one to three Talons that have also been released in the maze.
Future-Talons have to "survive" as long as possible. While being physically hunted and morally destroyed by the absence of exit or safe space. And by the one room in the maze holding the caskets of all the previous Talons, and an empty open one with their name inscribed on it.
Eventually they die, either from suicide, Talons getting them, exhaustion, or starvation.
The ones who did not last long enough or committed suicide get discarded because they're considered useless. The others are brought back as Talons, and by this point they are basically just obedient, brainwashed, empty husks.
2. Dick's training and death
Dick was taken by the Court right after his parents' deaths when he was 8. They promised him with their training he could get revenge against the person who killed his parents, which spurred him to obey and go through everything they threw his way.
Since he was quite the genius and outclassed even previous Talons, they threw him in the Maze at only 15. He realized there was no way out but death pretty fast but couldn't admit he got used and played.
He lasted a week and a half with three Talons hunting him, and died of exhaustion.
3. The Birds and Bats reactions
Tim and Batman were the first ones to figure out how Talons were made, by studying respectively Dick and grandpa Grayson, then by being thrown into the Maze themselves one after the other by the Court. They both managed to leave the Maze.
Tim, already having an emotional attachment to Dick Grayson because he watched the show seven years earlier and started his city-wide surveillance system because of the nightmares it caused him, and also because he is incapable of grieving properly, pretty much forced Damian to invite Dick to stay with them.
He was fiercely supported by Steph, since she knew all about grooming too and refused to let an actual kid stay in stasis forever after all the mess he went through.
Damian didn't fight back against them much, but instead of forcefully keeping Dick around he offered him his freedom and let him decide what he wanted to do now. Dick, barely able to remember his identity and think for himself, only knowing that he's a weapon meant to be used by somebody else, begged to stay with the League of Assassins.
Jason didn't care at all about Dick's training or his age or his death. He secretly related but he refused to show it and kept everything to himself. Only a few days after Dick was taken in, Jason beat the shit out of him out of Pit rage induced jealousy.
The Bat gang didn't agree with either Dick staying or Damian and Tim actively looking for his parents' murderer to give Dick closure from both the Court's brainwashing and the deaths themselves.
Generally speaking, they think the kid went through enough and should be allowed to rest, which Damian refutes since Dick made his own choice by staying.
Then Bruce and Cass think Dick would be better off unlearning about being a living undead weapon, equating Dick's experience to Cass's.
It's one more rift in the Bats and Birds relationship. Dick is a pretty touchy subject, even to the "present day", especially since he became best friends with Duke and progressively let himself be an actual kid/teen again, slowly leaving the undead weapon mentality behind.
He's still fiercely loyal to Damian though, since he unofficially adopted him.
4. The one who was killed over and over and over and over
Dick technically died only once. He doesn't feel pain (or anything but cold and warmth) anymore, and is genuinely the equivalent of a true immortal so even when Tim/Savior shot him in the face, or when Jason punched the shit out of him, he didn't die again.
Jason, on the other hand, was killed over and over and over again.
First by the Joker, and he stayed dead and buried for about a year before Damian unearthed him and dumped him in the Lazarus Pit. Since there was so much to rebuild, he stayed in the Pit for days.
When he woke up, he was still mostly braindead and nothing but a rageful murder machine.
Damian tried to keep him under without killing him, but since he had Steph to protect there were times and times where he had to put Jason down, only to resurrect him again.
The Pit Madness never got better. But on top of it he slowly recovered some mental and emotional capacities.
Savior sent them the mask Jason always wears now, which is a rebreather that shoots him with sedatives and tranquilizers enough that he can actually function like a human being.
He's still prone to destructive rages whenever he's taunted or something triggers him (a very long list sadly), but at least he can mostly be trusted around others. Damian still keeps him around more often than not, since he's the only one who manages to put Jason down efficiently when he loses his mind.
Ok I'm finally done yapping!! There is a lot I left out, but the main points are here.
